Work Text:
Wowzers! It looks so beautiful! All these flowers in the middle of the mountains full of snow! Sunflowers, lavenders, tulips, marigolds, daisies, bluebells, peonies, snapdragons, cosmos, zinnias, foxgloves, poppies, morning glorries and more in different colors. Now that I wonder... Why do they bloom in such a cold and barren place?
When suddenly some lights are surrounding me and a voice from behind starts talking to me.
"Who are you? This is my garden!"
Surprised I'm turning myself around and a little girl, younger than me with green hair cut into a soft chaotic bob, deep purple eyes and a short yellow dress with a bow in he front is standing in front of me.
"I'm sorry", I answer, "But I dunno by myself how I got in here..."
She opens her mouth but nothing comes out of it. I'm confused...
"What did you say?"
She repeats herself but her words don't arrive me. My body feels so heavy... It feels so familiar... That's a... that's a...
I open my eyes shockingly. My breath isn't that deep but I still feel a slight nervousness in my chest. I'm turning around and see Drayton who's still sleeping.
What a weird dream... I'm calming myself a bit down while snuggling onto my boyfriend. But he doesn't move.
"Drayton! Drayton! Wake up!" I'm shaking him softly but there is no response. Maybe he's extra tired today...
I'm just changing my clothes and go down the stairs where usually his mom and his great grandmother should be awake. But no one is there. Not the living room nor in the kitchen. I will not go to their bedrooms and disturb their peace. I don't mind doing breakfast on my own though even though it's just a chocolate bar.
Everyone seems to be sleepy today. I feel lively. But when I go out of the house I feel that something strange is going on. Blackthorn City might be very calm in general but now it's just hauntingly quiet. No one is working or doing stuff around their house. It looks like a ghost town with the soft fog around it. This is so strange and I instantly feel weird again. What's happening here? Is there some kind of cultural stuff going on I'm not aware of? Maybe today is a sleeping day all along. Maybe that's why Drayton brought me here.
But then I saw these lights again which surrounded me like in the dream. Strangely enough one of these lights turns into a Flygon and it's landing in front of me.
"Kieran? Am I hallucinatin'?"
This voice sounds so familiar.
"Drayton? Why are you lookin' like that!?"
"I dunno man! I feel like I'm not really here at all... But... Hehe..."
He looks at me happily. But his emotions aren't as smug or nonchalant as it usually should be.
"I don't mind! I'm so happy! I wanna play!" He goes up, flies some cirrcles while laughing childishly and leaves me like that heading to Route 45.
Was that really this stupid toothpaste hair bozo? He would never show these emotions in that way. I'm following his lead down to this mountain road where Drayton and I usually go when I want to take a walk with him.
As soon as I leave Blackthorn City, the route I feel like something goes deeply wrong. This mountain scenery looks beautiful as it is but suddenly I see something that I just saw literally minutes ago.
This this flower garden I dreamed about! This garden in the middle of the mountain path which is covered in snow. I'm not sure if I'm still dreaming or just hallucinating or something in between. The fog also deepens menacingly.
I feel like I just entered a loop.
I don't know what to do or what I should believe at the moment. Cautiously I set a foot into this colorful flower landscape and I instantly start to. These flowers feel so unnatural I feel uncomfortable about that. Are they even breathing?
As if it doesn't get worse why does the girl also appear again? This hair color, her eyes and that dress, so remarkable! She's like probably 8 years old why does she appear just out of thin air? She seem to look happy and friendly. Maybe I should get along with the dream.
"It's nice to see you again!" She says with an honest looking big smile.
"H-huh? Wh-what? Did you do that?" I ask her carefully.
"This is the Garden of Happiness." Her eyes looking at me trying to protect her place she created. "My precious secret place. Everyone who comes here forgets their bad memories and gets happy. If you come here, it means that your heart wants to be saved. Look. Aren't all the flowers so pretty?"
"Uhm... yeah they are but.. uhm... uh... but... Are you.. s-sure about that?" I'm tingling my hair strand around my finger nervously while I take a look, at all them. "But they f"
Her look is glaring, trying to get a contact. "That's 'cause you're not trying to see. You're trying to be someone you're not. Warm your heart like this person..."
Then she points to a certain flower I know too well.
"Wha-what? This..."
It's a delicate, ethereal white flower with the typical shaped three upright and three arching fall blooms. Each of these blooms are accented with a subtile blue-violet streaks that run along the veins exactly like Drayton's hair! This is him as an Iris Laevigata Snowdrift. Literally! I look at this girl shockingly but she answers me with a bland looking yet inviting smile.
"What have you done to him? Are these other flowers all other people and maybe even Pokémon too?" I grabbed myself on my head. I understand nothing anymore. Where am I? Am I awake or am I dreaming?
"I thought you would understand how good this place is..."
"No! ... No! No! No!"
"Don't you understand?"
"No! I don't! I don't want to! I..."
My body just reflexively starts to shout gestured, including my mouth: "LEAVE ME ALONE!"
But even before I start to acknowledge what happens she suddenly disappears. The flowers slowly diffuse into a mist before they're gone either.
What was that? This was ... Uhh... Why do I feel so heavy again? My sight gets blurry and I try to fall asleep or get awake again.
Something or someone appears in front of me. No I know that's some kind of Pokémon... It's shaped like a... Like a... moon?
My body just doesn't want to be stable anymore. I... Uhhh...
⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇ ⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇
"Is he okay!"
"Yeah, don't worry... He's not hurt."
"That's good I'm glad that I could help."
"Thanks for that! Bye!"
I take a deep breath because I'm still mentally exhausted as fuck but then the dragon skulls voice pierces softly into my brain.
"Kieran? Ya awake?"
I'm just mumbling as an answer.
"Someone found you outside of the city. She said a weird feather was on your chest."
"Mhh?"
"And weirdly enough. Everyone in the whole city had one too."
Thanks to Drayton's chill attitude I instantly feel calmed down.
"n my 'xistince... 's... I dunno wh't h'ppn'd."
This idiot laughs at me and strokes through my hair softly.
"Keep sleepin'. You need to calm down."
"Can't you... Can't you just p-play Elden Ring and I'm just listenin' to you how you play?"
"Mhm..." He keeps stroking me with his warm hand.
"Thank you..." I sigh exhausted and I'm really happy about just listening to stuff and daydream about whatever will go inside my head.