My heart pounded in my chest. My senses were dialed to eleven. I could hear everything. My own heavy breaths. The powerful exhales from the titanic dragon in front of me. The low crackle of the torches nearby. The chatter of life outside, from bird calls to the buzzing of bugs.
What to do. What to do. Was I supposed to kneel? Everyone else was. But as an outsider, would it be disrespectful to follow suit? Would that be seen as asserting myself as one of them?
I was a new element. The Gallade knew that. The unconscious Pangoro knew that. Tristan knew that.
And so did the Kommo-o, who was slowly bending its legs to get a better look at me.
I hastily looked towards Tristan, but he remained in place on his knee facing towards the ground.
Okay, so no help there.
The Kommo-o was almost at eye level now. It's head was easily bigger than my entire body. It's chin was menacingly sharp, and hung in front of my head like a reaper of death.
The beast could easily snap me up in one gulp before I could react.
And it's dark brown eyes bored into me. With disapproval? Anger?
I couldn't read it at all.
The Kommo-o snorted, sending a gust of wind as powerful as a Pidgeotto's gust, merely from exhaling.
I got knocked back and landed on my ass. Sitting down, a couple feet away, the Kommo-o somehow looked bigger than before. If that was even possible.
The Kommo-o slowly rose back to its full terrifying height. It's scales rose off of its skin, like they were flaps being lifted.
It's arms rose, and then the scales rattled. Each scale vibrated and clanged together at impossible speeds. The entire area was drowned in the sound of a million wind chimes banging against each other, like a thousand drum sets' crashes bashing together. The scales looked liked blurs as they vibrated.
And then, the scales stilled.
The tree seemed absent of sound. Of life.
But then the Kommo-o lifted its head and roared again. If I thought it had been loud before, this time I was right next to the damn thing.
It felt like my ears were going to burst. My head felt like it was dozens of feet underwater, my ears screaming at me to surface.
And then came the response.
Hundreds of powerful bellows from the fighters. Machoke yelled and pounded their hands to their chest. Hariyama stomped its feet on the ground. Druddigon roared.
All the occupants of the tree were responding to their King.
The tree felt alive. It's roots vibrated with the heart of its occupants. The ground shook from the symphony of powerful synergy.
Then the Kommo-o turned to Tristan.
The Gallade rose to their feet and proceeded to skitter away. Apparently that roar had been a dismissal. Or maybe it had communicated something that served the same as a dismissal?
The other fighters nearby proceeded to pretend we did not exist, going back to whatever they were doing before.
Apparently our lives were in the hands of the titanic Kommo-o.
Gallade and Tristan stood shoulder to shoulder facing the Titan. They didn't even rise to its knees. But still, they looked unafraid. In fact, they looked casual. Tristan's hands were at his sides. His shoulders were loose.
He didn't expect a fight here.
Okay.
So Tristan expected a different response from Kommo-o than Pangoro. Was Kommo-o smarter then? Or just more reasonable?
Then both Kommo-o and Tristan turned to me. Had they communicated somehow? I hadn't seen anything be exchanged, but they somehow seemed on the same page.
Kommo-o flicked its head up at me and grunted. Apparently it could communicate with noises other than ear splitting roars.
Tristan translated. "Release your Pokémon Red."
Two lizards appeared out of their pokeballs. Azula sniffed the air, immediately raising her claws in defense. They began gathering a silvery sheen as she backed up towards me, keeping her eye on the titanic dragon. Zuko on the other hand, did not feel like playing defensive.
His fins on his arms immediately shot out to their full size. I could see him greedily absorbing ambient electricity as fast as he could.
He scurried up the side of one of the large torches, leaping off to slam a thunder punch into Kommo-o's head.
All of that happened in a second.
I hadn't even had time to tell him to stop. Zuko had spotted a potential enemy, and immediately found and executed a plan of attack. He'd been fast enough to actually hit the damn thing in the head.
The Kommo-o was completely unfazed, however, and lazily swatted Zuko out of the air. It also followed through, and caught Zuko in its claw after he bounced off of the ground.
Shit shit shit shit.
Kommo-o raised Zuko to its head. Zuko looked puny in the dragon's massive hand. Zuko was smaller than each individual claw.
"Azula, stand down. We don't stand a chance."
It was too late for me to warn off Zuko. Shit. What should I do?
Right now the Kommo-o is distracted by Zuko. It was eyeing down the yellow lizard with a neutral expression. I couldn't think of an option to make the Kommo-o let go.
The torch was too far for me to knock it over onto it. I'm not sure how I would knock it over to begin with, especially without alerting the Kommo-o to the plan in the process.
Azula's flames are too weak to even distract this titan. It had weathered Zuko's thunder punch without even flinching.
I hastily looked around, searching for options. I stopped as I saw Tristan. Tristan was smiling.
Huh.
I feel like we had formed enough of a bond by now that he would be uncomfortable with seeing one of my pokemon squished like a grape in front of him. So if he was smiling, either he was completely psychotic, or Zuko was not in danger. Or at least mortal peril.
Big benevolent dragon? Or at least not completely homicidal dragon?
Hopefully that wasn't just wishful thinking. I looked back up to the massive figure. Alright fuck it. If I'm dying here, I'm not going down running away.
I walked up to the massive dragon, who turned its head from Zuko to me as I walked up. I casually knocked on the scales on its leg.
"So are these things metal? I feel like they wouldn't be able to create that resonance to chime without being metal. But how would they be metal? Do you eat metal? Or do you just eat steel types?" I glanced at Tristan. "Sorry, alloys. Whatever. Anyway, Zuko there also has scales. Isn't that neat. But they aren't metal. And they don't detach from his skin like yours. Well, he doesn't even really have skin in the first place."
My heart was beating a million miles an hour. Was it working? Kommo-o wasn't making any moves. Zuko remained unsquished in its grip.
"Do you think if Zuko eats enough metal he'll get metal scales too? I don't even know how you develop to the point where you can digest that kind of thing."
Zuko continued to push as hard as he could to try and get out of the grip of the dragon. Kommo-o didn't even notice. For now, it was watching the puny human with amusement. Or anger? Disappointment? Hunger? I couldn't read the thing.
"But uh Tristan is the one who brought me here, so I think that if you want to eat anybody, you should eat him. He's got more meat on his bones than me anyway. Zuko, Azula and I can just head out, and we won't come back to your sacred tree."
The Kommo-o still hadn't moved. Its face remained stoic.
Fuck.
What should I do? Stalling usually gave me enough time to think myself out of something. But my brain returned "does not compute" anytime I tried to think of a solution.
Building sized dragon plus being surrounded by hundreds of other pokemon, all potentially faster than you, without any real movement options, was not something that was feasibly escapable.
Gallade admittedly could teleport us out in time, but he was simply standing off to the side with Tristan.
And what was the deal with that anyway? I thought we were becoming friends. He shared his tragic backstory and everything.
The character with the tragic backstory is the one that's supposed to die, not the one that just started their story.
Okay. Fuck. This didn't feel like betrayal. So what was it then? And then my brain solved the puzzle.
I turned to Tristan. "Goddamn it. You're fucking with me." I pointed to the Kommo-o, the King of the Endless Forest, martial art dragon extraordinaire. "And he's in on it."
I kicked the dragon on the foot lightly. "You ass."
Kommo-o craned its neck down, reminding me that one lazy flick of the jaw was all it took to kill me. I may have pushed it a bit with the kick.
And then Tristan burst out laughing.
Like actual rolling across the ground clenching his stomach kind of laughter.
That asshole.
"How the fuck did you get a giant dragon to fuck with me? You only just met me. There's no way you arranged this beforehand. Besides, you said I was the only other person to ever see the Tree."
So either this Kommo-o already had a penchant for mischief, or Tristan was even better at fucking with people than I thought.
Did living for centuries make you like pranks more or less? I guess things might get boring after the first couple decades.
"Can you at least let Zuko down?" I asked the King of the entire fucking Forest.
Zuko had been gnawing on Kommo-o's scales, but hadn't even scratched them. He dropped to the ground as Kommo-o released him.
Zuko proceeded to headbutt the Kommo-o's leg as hard as he could, but immediately spun around on one leg and collapsed as his head met an immovable object.
I returned him. Zuko would learn someday. Or maybe not. I guess there would just come a point where that arrogance and reckless attacking would stop failing once he got strong enough.
I sighed in exasperation.
"So was this the plan? Get a random Pangoro to try and attack me, and then make me think the fucking massive dragon would also attack me?"
Tristan giggled. Like actual schoolgirl giggle.
I was surrounded by idiots.
Tristan responded after his fits of laughter dulled a bit. "No actually, Pangoro wasn't part of the plan. And there was no plan to begin with. I guess Pangoro just thought you were ugly enough to attack on sight. Definitely not anything to do with visitors being forbidden or anything. But yeah Kommo-o and I go way back. He's the one that took me in. And eventually he gave in to my pranking. He's just a big ole softie."
Tristan nudged Kommo-o with his elbow.
Somehow the dragon with claws bigger than me standing over two stories tall did not look like a big ole softie to me.
Kommo-o rippled its scales in what was probably amusement. They sounded more like a rattlesnake this time, with a higher metallic pitch.
Tristan walked up to me, patting Azula on the head. She just kept looking between me, Tristan and Kommo-o. The poor thing had no idea what was going on.
"Anyway, I guess we'll do some proper introductions. Red, meet Kommo-o, the Guardian of The Tree of Iron Scales, King of the Eternal Forest. Kommo-o, meet this random kid who kind of reminded me of my brother and is not half stupid." Tristan cackled.
Kommo-o dipped its head down, widening its eyes to look at me. It lightly exhaled, blowing my hair back.
"Nice to meet you too?" I skeptically responded. Was I supposed to blow back on it? Would a shout suffice?
Tristan motioned towards Azula.
"Oh right. Uh, Kommo-o, Guardian of The Tree of Iron Scales, King of…"
Tristan interrupted "Stop. You don't have to say his full title. He doesn't really care about it. It's more just letting you know the respect he deserves. But I mean, he just does this because he thinks it's right. He doesn't always agree with the Rangers, hence why they're banned here, but he works with them from time to time with the matters of the Forest. But yeah, just Kommo-o is fine."
"Okay. Cool. Uh, Kommo-o, this is Azula. And the crazy yellow one was Zuko. Both Charmander, but of different subspecies. I don't actually know if these words mean anything to you. I still don't really know how aura works. But uh, Azula say hi I guess?"
Azula spit out some flames, the red heat washing over the Kommo-o's scales harmlessly. She then proceeded to burp.
Kommo-o let out its own small flamethrower. The flames were very light and soft, washing over Azula. It had to have incredible control to bring its heat down to such low danger levels. Kommo-o then tried to mimic the burp. It only succeeded in spitting out enough air to send Azula flying. She wasn't hurt, however, and quickly rushed back to the giant dragon.
Tristan laughed. "She'll be in good hands. Do you want to see where I used to stay?"
I nodded excitedly. I was averse to leaving Azula alone, well, with anyone. But at least I knew she would be safe with the actual fucking King of the Forest.
I was still having trouble wrapping my head around what was happening right now.
Tristan nodded towards Gallade and we teleported. The pink light faded, and we were in a different portion of the tree. I could see Kommo-o's massive head peeking out a couple hundred feet away. There was a tiny red speck sitting on its head.
I turned back to Tristan and found a small mud hut. The walls were sculpted from mud, and had been heated to dry. The roof was made of straw and strung together professionally.
I looked at him with a deadpan expression. "You had all these materials at your disposal. Literally hundreds of pokemon with superpowers. Not to mention your own pokemon, one which has actual physics defying psychic powers, and you lived in a house made of mud." I said dryly.
Tristan sombered up and shrugged. "I wanted to build it myself. Of course I did get ole Betsy over there to help me and Growlithe at the time with heating up the mud to solidify it, but I made all this myself."
I looked around, but couldn't pinpoint where Tristan had pointed to.
"And Betsy is?"
Tristan pointed to one of the Druddigon that was getting coached by Hitmonchan.
"Druddigon. The one with the red over blue scales. Definitely not the blue over red. That's Frank. Make sure not to mix them up."
The two Druddigon looked actually identical. But I was far away. I did think Tristan was just messing with me here though.
I narrowed my eyes at him.
He continued to walk me through the Tree, showing me the different ways that the pokemon lived.
I looked into a small inlet, where the tree had been carved into a cave, with wooden walls and a floor made of dirt. There was a Nidoqueen manipulating the earth to make sculptures of a Tyranitar and Tyrantrum, the two figures locked in time. The Tyrantrum had its jaws wide, biting down, and the Tyranitar held the Tyrantrums mouth open by gripping the teeth on its upper and lower jaw.
It began making new sculptures which were smaller, showing the other pawns of the two brawling factions of the Valley.
A young Tyrogue, Nidoran, and Treeko watched with keen interest as a Garchomp and Aggron sprouted out of the ground behind the Tyrantrum and Tyranitar respectively.
We kept moving along.
Another area had large rock walls that had sprung out of the ground.
In the middle were three large pedestals made of obsidian. On top of the pedestals were three rocks.
Each rock was being bathed in flame. One was green, and the other two were red.
Closest to me was a small blue serpent with a white underbelly. The Dratini held a green dragon breath against the rock, it's eyes tightly shut in focus. The rock became more and more red as the heat slowly turned the rock to slag.
Next to it was a four foot tall Druddigon, much smaller than any of the others I'd seen outside. It held a low flamethrower, and it's rock was still a dull grey, unbothered by the weak flame.
Finally there was a Torchic, smaller than a soccer ball. However, a bright red flame erupted from its maw, far stronger than the others, and even though it's rock had already turned to jelly, it kept the sustained flame up with an intense determination.
The three Pokémon were being trained in controlling their breath and flame by a Dragonite, it's yellow scales glinting in the fire light. It gave a cheery wave to Tristan.
Tristan waved back, but we kept moving.
This place was truly incredible. I wanted to stay here forever.
But, like all good things, it wasn't meant to last. After a couple hours of looking around, and meeting a lot of the dwellers of the Tree of Iron Scales, we were forced to leave.
Azula was quite upset to say goodbye to her newfound two story best friend, who did I forget to mention could likely obliterate any single person I had met ever, even with their entire team out. Who could snap me up in one gulp without a second thought. Who could probably destroy steel structures with a single punch. A dragon centuries old. The Guardian of the Forest. The King of the Tree of Iron Scales.
Like are you kidding me. I didn't see a single other Kommo-o here. Or any Jangmo-o or Hakamo-o either. This tree and community was literally named after him.
And Azula rode on his head like a little girl sitting on her Dad's shoulders at the fair.
Also, I wondered why there was no other Kommo-o or any of that line. I guess the King Kommo-o might physically be too big to breed with anything. And I guess egg groups might still work here, but interspecies breeding might work differently in the real world.
I flinched as my brain pictured something I really didn't want to see.
Either way, I wouldn't think too much into it. That sort of thing I'd rather just get taught at some point, rather than speculate on my own time. Because either I would actually think my way into the right conclusions, or I wouldn't. And either way I'd have to spend way too much time thinking about Pokémon doing the hanky panky.
The sun was starting to set, so we said our goodbyes. There was an unspoken agreement among the King and myself, letting me know we would be welcome anytime.
Or at least Azula would be. I might still be killed on sight.
I still really struggled to read the Kommo-o.
I guess I'd just try my best to avoid that Pangoro and I'd probably be fine. And maybe I should just try to do my best not to let Zuko run rampant if we're ever near here so we don't get guest rights revoked.
We teleported back to camp and went about the dinner and campfire story routine we did last night.
However, my mind was somewhere else entirely. All I could think about was the cooperation between all the different species. Working together to make each other stronger. To protect the Forest.
Hundreds of dragons in the branches and sky above, as well as hundreds down below. Just as many fighters doing standard work, even going so far as to farm for the rest of the Tree. That Nidoqueen was actually teaching those hatchlings for Pete's sake!
In the games it had always been that these creatures were just pixels on a screen. Tools, that obeyed my every command.
They were clearly so much more than that.
But it seemed like the Rangers already knew that. Norton, Tristan, every Ranger I had talked to had spoken about their Pokémon as partners. As equals. They weren't simply there to make their Pokémon smarter. Their Pokémon helped them be smarter too.
As I finally laid my eyes to rest in my small tent, warmed by the fire on Azula's tail, I could only stare at the ceiling in awe.
This was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. This world was amazing.
I smiled as I thought of Zuko and Azula. I would be strong. I would be smart. For them. And they would do the same for me.
We would explore this world together. We would get stronger together.
And goddamnit am I excited for it.