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You laid down in the sand as it burned your flesh. You had no idea how you got here and you had every intent to leave. You tried to get up, but the sand kept grasping at you. Eventually, you looked up and could see a palm tree. This palm tree began to lower its trunk and leer at you. Its fruits soon changed to giant heads, all opening their mouths as fangs began to show.
"Exeggutor..." They hummed as one of the heads began to reach closer and closer to you, ready to eat.
"AAAAAAH!" You woke up out of your bed, heart racing. This was the second night you had that monster haunt your dreams. You got out of bed almost instantly and got out of your house via an open window. It had been three days since you moved to the Alola Region. Your dad insisted that you would get used to it, but quite frankly, you thought you'll never love your new home.
You ran to the beach and stood out, feet in the wet sand as the water occasionally touched them. You could see just in the distance a blur of a tall building, though its distinct shape helped you recognize it as Prism Tower, the landmark of your old home region: Kalos. You judged the distance.
It was definitely reachable. You stepped into the water. Despite the heat of the region, the water was surprisingly arctic levels of cold. As soon as you went knee-deep, you ran out and panted. You looked back to the water. You remembered the friends you made.
Trevor.
Tierno.
Shauna.
But most important of all.
You remembered Serena. You remembered the last moment you had with her before you moved. You loved her, but you could never tell her straight up. You gripped your fists. You were not going to let any exterior force separate you from her. You were not going to let some water separate you from Kalos.
You got into the water again. This time you shrugged off the cold as hit washed over your body. After the initial shock, it began to feel like normal, warm temperature water. You knew the basics of swimming, not enough to be an athlete, but just enough to swim competently.
Or so you thought.
As you made a good foot into the swim, waves began to form up and knock you back to the shore. You tried and tried to swim, but the waves kept bringing you back. You'd bring out your Pokemon to help you surf, but then you remembered your dad's' weird insistence to dump them with Professor Sycamore.
Enraged, you made a ball of sand as big as a fist and flung it into the water. You then sank to your knees and began to silently weep. Though something helped break your despair.
A girl's laughter.
"Those waves... They're pretty hard to outmaneuver." You turned to see a girl, about your age, with black hair, blue eyes, a simple yellow floral shirt, green shorts, and wore a red cap that looked almost like a chicken head. Perched on her shoulder was a spherical owl. You recognized this owl as one of the three starters you were offered. You refused to pick a starter, though. Nothing would replace your Greninja. In fact, thinking about that and the girl rubbing in your failures made you look to the waves and cry a bit more.
"Gumshoos..." You then saw a mongoose with a blonde hairdo walk up to you, then you look around you before marking an X just by your leg.
"Ah! Good work, Gumshoos!" The girl went over to the X. "Hey, can you move for a sec?" She asked you. You sighed and got up. As you walked away from the X, she told her Gumshoos to dig into the X. It began to dig until it noticed some chalk white sand. This was weird because most of the sand in this area was more of a grayish white. This sand obviously stood out. What made it stand out more was a red shovel. It didn't even look like it was there for a while.
And then the sand began to shift. It became a pile of white sand with a pail out of it. You only knew it was a Pokemon as eyes and even a mouth formed from it.
"Finally! I found you!" The girl glared at it. She then pointed to it as her Rowlet flew off and clawed at it. Other than disturb the sand, it didn't hurt the monster that much. The monster, however, looked to you.
"Sandygaaaaast..." It then bit into your leg. It didn't hurt so much as it felt more like your blood was being drained.
"Oh no!" The girl cried out. "Gumshoos! Dig!" She said. Gumshoos nodded and dug under ground. As the Sandygast continued to drain you, you could remember the day you moved from Kalos.
"Dad, why do I have to leave?" You asked your dad this when he took you away to Alola.
"Sometimes, we have to keep moving forward in life. To go on new journeys... You'll understand one day, son..." He said.
You never even got a chance to say goodbye to your friends. You let out a few tears as memories of you and your friends play out. Your body began to slip into unconsciousness. Perhaps this was for the best, you thought. As you began to close your eyes, you heard the ground erupt. Gumshoos broke apart the Sandygast with his fist as he erupted through, breaking the ghost into many different pieces. The girl threw her Pokeball right at the shovel that contained a chunk of the sand. It hit and converted the Sandygast into data to be transferred into the Pokeball. It landed and shook several times before settling down.
"I did it!" She ran over and picked up the ball. She then turned to you. You were barely able to keep a straight face and were on the verge of tears. That's when she gave you her hand. "The night's still young. Wanna come with me? I feel like we'll be able to catch more Pokemon together." She asked you. You hesitated, but something about her just... warmed you. Maybe it was her smile or her soft blue eyes. Maybe it was the sheer amount of joy in her voice or even the fact that she is giving a crap for you. You shook her hand as she helped you up. "The name's Luna." She said.
"I'm [y/n]." You said.
You followed her throughout the night. Despite it being dark and full of terrors, you were only able to find and capture one more Pokemon in the span of an hour. A Yungoos. Luna inspected the Pokeball before tossing it to you.
"Here, you can have it. I already have one." She said. You blushed.
"E-erm thanks." You said. Luna stretched her arms.
"Man, it's getting late. You're not a nocturnal person, are you?" She asked you. That's when you yawned. "My thoughts exactly. It's okay. I'm not really one myself. Just thought I could catch a Pokemon before I can catch some z's." She walked over to a palm tree and patted out the sand. "Over here." She said as she laid down on the sand. You went over as she patted on a spot next to her. Hesitating, you eventually laid down next to her. Luna simply looked at the night sky and smiled.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? I'm surprised there's not a lot of people who appreciate it." She said. You looked above and could see various constellations. You never have seen stars this bright in Kalos except when your far away from the city. Here? You can see the stars not only perfectly, but even better than when you saw them in Kalos. You even could see the brightness of the full moon. For a moment, you felt calm. You let your arms sink into the sand, with one of your hands feeling something warm. It gave you a soft grip. You looked over to see that it was Luna's hand.
"Don't worry. It's kinda relaxing if we hold hands. Wouldn't you agree?" She asked you. As she did, you did begin to feel sleepy. You smiled and whispered out 'Yeah...' before you wiped out.
"Luna!" You heard someone shout out her name as you woke up. You sat up as you saw Luna immediately spring up.
"Lillie!" Luna ran over and hugged a girl with long blonde hair, green eyes, and a white dress.
"Ah!" The two fell onto the sand. "G-get off of me! You're gonna get sand on my dress!" She shouted. You sluggishly got up as you saw Luna get up from Lillie. Lillie got up and dusted it off. "You know how much you worried me? I woke up and I didn't see you in the room. I thought you got kidnapped by Team Skull!" Lillie said.
"But I didn't." Luna giggled.
"Uuugh... Just..." Lillie sighed and went over to you. She definitely struck you as a beauty who can strike down anyone who would dare hit on her with a single glare. Almost a meaner version of Serena now that you thought about it. "Sorry about that. Luna can be a little childish sometimes." Lillie said.
"N-no. There's nothing to be sorry about." You said with a smile.
"[y/n]! There you are!" You saw your dad run in with that silly blue and white stripe tank top he wore when you guys first arrived on Alola. "I was so worri-" That's when he saw the girls. "Who are they?" He asked, not in a worried or agitated tone, but almost with a smile on his face.
"I'm Lillie." Lillie did a curtsy before Luna shoved her out of the way.
"And I'm Luna!" She said.
"L-Luna!" Lillie blurted out. Your dad merely smiled.
"Well, I'm glad you girls have taken an interest in my son." That's when you and Lillie blushed and shouted at the same time:
"I-it's not like that!" Your dad, however, merely chuckled and patted you on the shoulder.
"I'm proud of you, son. You made some new friends." He eyed your Pokeball on the side of your waist. "And you even caught yourself a Pokemon! Excellent!" He said. You shook your head.
"N-no... Luna gave it to me." You looked over to Luna. Just seeing her made you smile. It took a moment to get your words together.
"Dad, is it okay if I-" But then your dad spoke up.
"Luna, would you mind if-" And then Luna spoke.
"Hey, can I..." It was there that you three were all thinking of the exact same thing. And Lillie was too.
"Oh no..." Lillie groaned. You turned to Luna and smiled.
"Yeah. I'll come with you." You smiled. Luna held you and for the first time in a long while, you were able to be happy with friends. You hugged her back. After that moment, you, Lillie, and Luna went on a Pokemon journey together. And by Arceus was it one of the best you ever had.
But perhaps that's another story for another time.