New World: Chapter XVII: Samaritan

After three days Dust was out of the mountains. Three days after that and he was well out onto the plains going along the river.

It's water was red and muddy and foul tasting, but it was the only water he had left at this point. What food he had that wasn't destroyed when he fell into the river earlier had run out days ago, and outside a couple of awful tasting Barboach he had managed to catch in the river, there wasn't much to eat. Poochyena caught the occasional Bunearies and one night, an Ekans, but once divided between the two of them they didn't count for much. Poochyena was a much better forest hunter, where she could hide and stalk her prey, and there was no chance of her taking down any large game without the help of a pack.

It was hot too. All the clouds seemed to stop at the mountains behind him, leaving little cover from the sun. Dust doubted that it rained here very often. There didn't seem to any vegetation beyond bits of sagebrush and the occasional scraggly tree.

One day, Dust was fishing using a bit of string tied to a stick with a little Stunfisk he'd managed to find on the end of it. It hadn't taken him long to learn that the flat little fishes could deliver a nasty jolt of electricity when you tried to eat them, but the Barboaches that ate them seemed to be immune to it, making the Stunfisk good bait for catching them.

Dust noticed a small yellow shape behind a rock on the other side of the river. He peered around the rock and saw a small yellow fox looking at him. Well, maybe 'looking' wasn't the right word seeing as how its eyes were closed, but somehow, Dust couldn't shake the feeling that it was watching him intently. It must have been some creature he hadn't seen yet. Dust considered having Poochyena go after it, but then a Barboach suddenly yanked on the line and Dust lost interest in the fox.

The next day he was walking along when he saw it sitting up in the branches of one of the river trees. It was probably a different one, Dust told himself, but it seemed to be looking at him through those tightly shut eyes as well.

Dust stared at it. It stared back. And then it was gone.

Dust had to take a step back. The fox hadn't just simply left; it had actually disappeared, vanishing completely into the air. Dust looked around, wondering if it had reappeared somewhere else, but there was no sign of it.

A couple days later and the fox hadn't shown up again.

One thing that was very different about the plains was that you could see everything in every direction. Dust was used to the world having defined boundaries, a dark forest with tall mountains behind it, but here the only boundary was the horizon. It was freeing in a way, but also disconcerting. Dust felt exposed out here, like if anything dangerous saw him, there was no way to hide and certainly no way to run.

Dust had heard the stories of the Zoroarks that stalked the plains at night, hulking bipedal wolf creatures who hungered for human flesh and could easily outrun even the fastest man.

As tough and mean as Poochyena was, he doubted she could protect him from any Pokémon much bigger than herself, and trying to use Beedrill in defense could possibly result in two dangerous creatures trying to kill him. Beedrill was under orders from Maddie not to harm him, but Dust didn't trust that to keep him safe. Beedrill was strong minded; it might be able to disobey orders if it really wanted to.

So when Dust saw three dark figures in the distance, he was apprehensive. They clearly saw him too, because they began to move in his direction.

It didn't take long for Dust to realize they were humans, not horrific man eating wolf monsters, so he waved to them, and they waved back. He recalled Poochyena to her ball. The last thing he needed during his first encounter with another person in almost two weeks was an overaggressive hyena attacking them. It took a couple hours for them to finally reach him.

The men were not very tall, certainly not bigger than Dust, and they looked like burlap sacks that had been left out in the baking sun, their skin dry and cracked. They wore wide brimmed hats that were beaten up after what appeared to be centuries of hard living.

They regarded him with friendly smiles.

Of them approached with his arms open. "Howdy, stranger. What brings you to these parts?" he said cordially.

"I'm from the mountains." Dust said, "I've been following the river looking for civilization."

"What's your name?" The one on the right said. They had formed a loose triangle around him, appraising him from all sides.

"Dust." He replied.

The one in front hooted in laughter. "Well I'll be! Ain't never heard a name like that before! A man named Dust, walking through a dusty place like this covered in dust. Hell, you even got dust on your head." He said, pointing at Dust's sandy brown hair.

If Dust had been looking, he would have seen a small yellow fox vanish into the air several dozen yards behind him.

"Look," said Dust, "I lost most my food when I got pushed into river back in the mountains. I've been living off those nasty river fish since then. Do you have anything to spare, or maybe directions to the nearest town?"

"Yeah, I think Goldilocks has some food he can give ya."

The man on the left approached. "They call me Goldilocks on account of my hair color, you see."

Whatever Goldilocks's hair had been before, it was a dirty shade of sunbaked brown now. Dust imagined that that any color these men had been before had been sunburned off years ago.

"Just let me look in my bag for a moment. " Goldilocks said, rummaging through his sack. "Ah, here we go."

The knife was jammed into Dust's side so quickly he barely even realized he'd been stabbed before he fell over. Goldilocks and the man who had been on his right immediately started searching him.

"He was right." Goldilocks said, looking through Dust's sack, there isn't anything in here but a water skin."

"Looks like he's got three used pokeballs." said the other one, looking at his belt. "Dark, water, and some kind of poison bug. This knife he's got is a beauty too."

Dust tried to stagger weakly to his feet and was rewarded with a punch to the face. He groaned. His body was on fire. The knife he'd been stabbed with had poison on it, and he was starting to see double now.

"A water type will be useful out here." The leader said, "We don't need the other two."

"This wanker's a waste of our time." Goldilocks said. "Should I just kill him?"

"Don't worry about him." The leader said, "That Swalot poison will have him out for a while and he's not going anywhere with that knife wound. Leave him here. The Zoruas will take care of him."

There was a pop behind them. A thin, lithe girl had come from seemingly nowhere. She had jet black hair under a blue hat topped with white flowers and a fine blue dress that suggested he was of a wealthy disposition. In her arms, the yellow fox lay asleep.

"Leave him alone." She said.

The leader of the bandits rounded on her. "Just what the Sam hell is this?" he demanded.

"Now what kind of language is that to use in front of a lady?" She said, "Leave him alone right now. I won't ask again."

"You won't ask again?" The leader chuckled, and broke into loud whooping laughter. "You won't ask again? A slip of a girl like you?"

She drew herself up to her full height, which was a little bit less than his shoulder. "Women of my family are used to having people listen when we command something."

"Look Missy, you may be someone important back in whatever cushy mansion you live in, but out here you're just a girl in an expensive outfit. This is our desert, and we don't like women telling us what to do."

"It's been a long time since we came by a woman." Goldilocks said. "Remember that last one? She came by almost a year ago in a stagecoach. Rich girl like you, lots of jewels. She was a screamer too. I love it when they scream."

They all took a step toward her. She held out the yellow fox defensively.

"You must be joking." The leader said, "Abras ain't dangerous. Everyone knows that. The only thing that thing can do is disappear. Bloody useless."

He reached out to grab her. The girl shouted something in another language and the Abra's eyes suddenly opened, pink and small and unused to the harsh sunlight. The bandit stared at it in horror, a low whimper escaping his lips. Then, he fell back screaming, writhing in the dust.

"Not entirely useless, I should think." The girl said.

She stepped toward the other two. This time they were the ones who backed away.

"What did that thing just do?" Goldilocks asked, panicked.

"It's called a Psyshock. It creates a feeling of intense pain, eventually leaving you in a completely catatonic state, sometimes leading to incurable insanity or even death. The effect is of course, completely psychosomatic but the results are quite real."

"Uh," the other bandit said, "What exactly does psychosomatic mean?"

The girl looked at him pleasantly. "Would you like to find out?" she said, holding up the Abra.

Both bandits turned and ran.

The girl rushed to Dust's side, kneeling down. "Are you still alive?" She sounded worried.

Dust groaned. "I think so." His head swam. He couldn't think straight.

"You were stabbed with a poisoned blade." She said, "These plains are crawling with bandits. You're lucky Yoko found you." She reached into her handbag and pulled out a vial. "Drink this. It will slow the poison until we can get you an actual antidote. Dust reached for the vial and missed. He could barely control his own arms.

The girl pressed the vial between his lips and poured the fluid in. It tasted bitter, but Dust swallowed without complaint.

"Why are you helping me?" he asked, but the girl placed a satin gloved finger over his mouth.

"No words." She removed her gloves and pulled out a bottle. She dipped her finger inside and came up with a big yellow glob on the end of it. "Tell me if this hurts."

She spread it over his knife wound. Dust cried out. It felt like the wound had been touched by a hot iron!

"I'm sorry." The girl said. "It's a potion meant for Pokémon. They have a higher pain threshold than we do and they heal faster. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to fight the way they do. The potion is meant to close up the wound until the Pokémon can heal naturally. I don't know how long it will last on you."

She put her gloves back on and held him by the shoulders. "You should be able to stand, at least for now."

Dust grunted and rose to his feet with some help from the girl. She pulled his arm over her narrow shoulders and placed a hand on his back. "Yoko, take us back."

The Abra clung to her leg, and suddenly they were somewhere else. A group of men stood around a fancy stagecoach tied to four large horses with manes and tails made of dancing flames. Dust wondered why they didn't set their harnesses on fire.

A barrel chested man in a bright blue uniform with gold trim and a revolver in his holster came forward, an exasperated look on his face.

"Lady Blackmoor, you know we hate it when you disappear like that. Your father appointed me and my men specifically for your protection. It isn't safe out in the wastes for a lady. What am I supposed to tell your father if you go missing?"

"I'm perfectly safe, Mr. Wadsworth." She said. "I have Yoko with me don't I?"

"I hardly think that one Abra is adequate-"

"Wadsworth!" The girl said, suddenly authoritative. "I would love to carry on this conversation, but if you haven't noticed, this boy has been stabbed and needs to see a doctor right now, and he is really quite heavy, so are you going to argue with me or are you going to help me get him into the coach?"

Wadsworth and one of his men took Dust by the shoulders and carried him into the coach. The girl climbed in behind him and shut the door. The coach began to move.

"Don't worry about Wadsworth." She said, "He gets worried every time I'm not in eyeshot. What's your name?"

"Dust."

She looked at him quizzically. "Dust? That's an unusual name."

"So I've been told."

"It's just Dust?" She continued, "Not even a surname?"

"We don't have surnames where I come from." Dust answered, "At least, most of us don't. What's your name?"

"Amelia. Amelia Blackmoor, Baroness. You've been on my father's land for the last three days."

"Oh. A noble." Dust said bitterly.

"You don't like nobles?" Amelia said.

"I've had bad luck with them recently." Dust said.

Amelia took off her hat and placed it on the seat next to her. "I would love to hear about it."

Dust told her his story from the beginning. Amelia listened, intrigued. She gasped when he came to the part about the giant spider, and kept stopping to ask questions about Maddie, not all of them he felt comfortable answering.

When he told her about the two giant birds, her eyes lit up.

"You saw Lugia and Ho-Oh? Together?" She asked excitedly.

"Is that important?" Dust asked.

"It's rare just to see just one of them flying." She said. "But to see them both at the same time? That's almost unheard of!"

"I just assumed those birds were common out here. What's so special about seeing them?"

"What's special? Don't you realize what you witnessed?"

Dust shook his head.

"There's only one of each in the entire world. Lugia is the Storm Rider." Amelia said with wonder, "She brings the wind and the rain wherever she goes. Seeing her is an omen of hard times ahead. Ho-Oh is the Sun Bringer. He is a symbol of hope. If you see him, then you will have good luck."

"And what does it mean to see them at the same time?" Dust asked.

Amelia shrugged. "I don't know, probably nothing. It's really just an old superstition. Still I would give anything just for the chance to see one of those birds. I would have loved to be there with you."

Dust opened his mouth to answer, but found that he couldn't get any words out. He gasped at the air, the stab wound suddenly burning hot, much more painful even than when he had been stabbed in the first place. He convulsed violently and pitched forward, unconscious before he even hit the floor.