Ch 3: Let me die in my footsteps
She'd said enough dawdling, but it wasn't like she was a Whirlipede. If only all she had to do was curl up in a ball and zoom off over the horizon. That would be the life.
Still, it wasn't bad really, this was the most nature she'd ever seen, and slowly rolling through it was... pleasant, even if the breeze could still be a bit chilly. Traffic had thinned out as she got further along to. While people might go out onto a route to take a stroll, get some exercise or go on a bit of a nature date, further in was firmly the domain of Pokémon.
Every little girl (even her, though mostly from books) was told over and over that you don't causally just walk into the wilderness, to stay out of the tall grass. While it was pretty unthinkable that a wild would do anything real to a kid, pranks that went a bit too far were not unheard of. Plus, you could fall down a ravine or something, a sprained ankle or dehydration were way bigger dangers than any of the superpowered ladies out there.
Once you were 18-19 or so? Whole other story. They always knew and it wasn't entirely clear exactly how. Best guess was it had something to do with bond energy, as so many of the more mysterious things in life did. That it changed its "flavour" or "scent" sometime around then, like a second puberty, and it called out. You go out into the wild, especially as a fresh faced lass? You were ringing the dinner bell for every Pokémon out there.
And wilds were notoriously hungry.
Still, not like Hailey had to worry about that, it was just her and nature, and that's how it would stay.
For having a name like "Ravaged Path", it sure had a unassuming, almost cute entrance. Clean but weathered timbers braced the caves mouth, a light mounted over the entrance, and a little trail sign beside it that explained the history of the cave and the kinds of Pokemon that tended to nest there.
Apparently, the path was formed several decades back when a very grumpy Golem moved into the area, driving everyone else out. Eventually, a trainer by the name of Zahra had eventually challenged the hulking rock lady (later known as Granite, Rock types were... not known for their creativity) and got her to "open her heart" to the trainer, the two eventually bonding.
Well, apparently they were still writing these for grade-schoolers out here, charming.
Time to travel through a tunnel literally fucked into the earth.
It was damper than she expected inside, and colder, though in a more consistent manner than the wind had been. Was this how all caves were? She'd have thought they'd be drier, didn't Rock types hate water? Well, whatever, was kinda nice, little streams of water rolling down the walls, slowly wearing down the rough edges. A solid, compacted path led further into the tunnel with faint lights hanging from the ceiling. Gently rolling all the way to... a set of stairs.
Well, fuck.
There was a good chance this was going to come up before she hit Floroma, but she'd hoped it wouldn't be this soon. They weren't even that high for Arceus' sake! Even sitting she could see over the top, but it may have well have been a mountain in a hospital wheelchair, these stupid things generally took at least two people to handle stairs.
One thing so few people even noticed these days was that disability accommodation went down the drain centuries ago. She, however, had no choice but to notice it. So, what to do?
Turn around? Nah, fuck that. While there were some other locations she'd dreamed about going to, turning back would make it that much more likely she'd be noticed. Plus, no saying she just wouldn't just run into stairs somewhere else to, couldn't all be ramps sadly.
Try to force it? A recipe for disaster. It would have been nice if she'd gotten big buff arms for all the time she'd spent in a chair, but no, her body stubbornly refused to put on any muscle, no matter what physical therapy they tried. Nothing like hearing a nurse comparing you to a living skeleton when you were 12 to really put a permanent knock in in your physical confidence.
Wait for someone to come by and ask them to pull her up the stairs? She might have to but it wasn't appealing. First, who knew how long that would take? It might be five minutes, five hours, or even five days! Who knew even, not like she had a traffic census of this route. Her supplies were another matter too. Second, say they did come along soon, interpersonal relations weren't exactly her forte, and could prove risky. Sure, you might quickly forget about the first girl you'd ever seen in a wheelchair pretty quick if it was from a distance, but if she talked to you? Directly asked you to help her with something she couldn't do herself, and was clearly alone?
Well, that might stick in your mind, and the next time you were in a PokéCenter and saw they'd put out a All Points Bulletin for someone matching that description? Well that might stick in your brain, you might even think sending in a tip was a good idea even if that girl had asked you very nicely not to. After all, she clearly needed help, she clearly couldn't live on her own.
So, that left trying to find another way around.
No way this place was just a straight line right? The Pokemon living here wouldn't just stick with that surely?
Well, apparently not. Backtracking a bit, there was a tunnel off to the side, not nearly as well lit, which is why she'd missed it the first time. Floor not quite as smooth, with bumps and piles of dirt, walls looked sharp in some places, but it was another way forward. Surely she owed it to herself to give it a look before considering other options?
Ok, so maybe waiting for someone else to come by would have been the smarter choice, she could admit that.
In the damp dark with no one else around.
It hadn't started out to bad, really. Sure the ground was rough, but she'd managed to roll over the loose stones, or around the ones she couldn't get over, and the side tunnels were pretty cool! There might not have been many lights strung up along the wall, but there were these cool patches of smooth and jagged bits where crystals poked out. Quartz, maybe? They sparkled in the dim light.
While the main passage had looked fairly straight forward, this one was anything but. It swerved left, right, down, even up with no rhyme or reason she could see, and she had plenty of time to ponder things, what with having to catch her breath after every rise.
No fits yet, fingers crossed.
It was impossible to tell if she was even heading in the same direction as the exit, but eventually the tunnel opened up into what must have been a pretty big cavern. Well, she assumed, wasn't enough light to see across it. Wasn't any lights in it period, actually, they stopped at one end and seemed to pick up again further ahead when it narrowed back to tunnel. Until then, a narrow path ran across a ledge with who knew how steep a fall on the right.
Still, paths had to go somewhere, so all she needed to do was get across this room.
So of course she got stuck halfway.
It was the damn caster wheels on the front of this thing. Not only had they been getting jammed up with grit, they were stymied by even small potholes. Or, in this case, a hidden hole filled with sand. So now she was stuck at an awkward angle, stewing in her own anger.
And she'd be stewing a while it looked like.
Rocking or shuffling wasn't going to get her out of this, the edge was to close to risk it. Who knew how far it dropped down, five feet or five hundred? No, best bet was to crawl out of the damn chair, spin around, probably get scrapped to hell on all the rock, and try to pull the chair a bit forward. The useless things people called her legs might not be totally paralyzed, by textbook definition, but they’d certainly never bore any weight or ever pushed her along. This would be all arm power and she was already pretty wiped out from pushing the wheels down these uneven tunnels.
So, rest it was, but she wasn't ready for sleep. Despite the physical exhaustion her mind was still wired. Yeah, this sucked but on the other hand, it wasn't the hospital. It wasn't the same four walls, the same crappy paperbacks written for kids 15 years younger than her, same nurses that drew the short straw to look after her. Yeah, maybe she'd die in this hole, but at least it was a new hole.
There, in the dark, she started to notice things. A distant rumbling of water, was there a river or waterfall in here? A faint blue light growing in the distance as she looked away from the lamps, across the cavern. Some kind of crystal? Some sort of chattering at the edge of her senses, almost to high to hear. The flapping of wings, rustling? Were there others in here with her? Probably Zubat if so, even hermit like her knew them. Apparently sometimes, on dark nights with no moon, they'd fly into Jubilife looking for fun. Apparently, they'd never visited her so who could say.
They clearly hadn't noticed her here either. Should she try calling out to them? Would probably just cause confusion, a whole group flapping around, wondering who had called out, then wondering why they were wondering, and eventually drifting away. Maybe one could focus long enough to unstick her, stranger things had happened, probably.
Still, the rumble of distant water, the gentle glow in the distance, even the probable gossiping of a hoard of bat girls, it was strangely relaxing. Or maybe that was just the exhaustion talking.
She'd fallen asleep in more uncomfortable positions than this.