The Harbinger of Life

Chapter One – To Michina Town We Go

-Sequel to Distortion-

-AU Novelization of Arceus and the Jewel of Life-

...

Harbinger

/hahr-bin-jer/

noun

1. A person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another.

2. Anything that foreshadows a future event.

Synonyms: herald, sign, indication, signal, omen, forewarning

...

The air was calm, the sky was blue with no clouds in sight, and the sun was shining down on them without interruption. It was, by all appearances, the perfect day to be traveling. In another time and place, they might have been traversing through a massive field of cornstalks, or something similar, but that wasn't the case now.

Dawn hugged Piplup close to her chest, adding his heat to that of her dark pink winter coat. Her boots crunched along the thin layer of snow and the dead plants beneath, and her breath rose up in front of her in twisting wisps. Her teeth chattered a bit and she asked, "Are we almost there?"

"Yeah," Brock answered, clumsily thumbing through his guide book due to his thick gloves. "Judging from the fact that we're trespassing through this corn field, we should be getting to Michina Town soon." Though he had on a thick green and orange jacket, the cold was still biting.

"Good. I want about ten cups of hot chocolate and five heated blankets," Dawn mumbled into the soft fabric of her thick, white scarf.

"Pip piplup!" Her pokemon agreed. He wasn't nearly as bothered by the cold but even he thought it would be nice to get indoors for a while.

"I don't want to get to Michina Town," a voice grumbled from in front of them, and Dawn's eyes rose from the ground to stare at Ash's back. He was walking ahead of them, hands dug into the pockets of his dark blue and black jacket to keep them warm. Dawn frowned a bit at that, because she told him to buy thicker gloves, but he insisted that the lighter ones his mother sent would be fine. Clearly he had never experienced a Sinnoh winter before. It tended to get a lot colder than Kanto, Johto or Hoenn.

"Speak for yourself, my feet feel numb," Misty replied to him, walking close to him for warmth even though both of their voices were more confrontational than friendly. She had on a thick red jacket, with fake-fur lining and yellow detailing, but Dawn couldn't blame her for just wanting to get out of the cold.

"They're going to start again, aren't they?" Dawn asked Brock warily, holding onto Piplup with one arm as she tugged at her dark pink jacket. The young girl was infinitely glad that her mother had sent her a thick pair of black leggings to wear under her dress.

Brock shrugged as he tucked his guide book away. "Probably."

"You know what I meant!" Ash snapped at her, keeping his eyes forward as far as they could tell. His shoulders tensed up slightly as he yelled, "Be careful guys!" Though the boy's voice was louder, it wasn't nearly as annoyed as when he spoke to the girl beside him.

Pikachu and Ria the Riolu were bounding ahead of them, bouncing through the snow drifts and over the dead, frozen plants. Pikachu waved at him to acknowledge that they heard, but he continued to play whatever silly game it was that they were playing. Dawn had offered for Piplup to go earlier, but he'd rather stay in her arms to keep them both warm.

"Stop being such a baby." Dawn had to hand it to Misty, words aside, her tone was a bit annoyed, but she was also trying to be understanding. "The Sinnoh Conference isn't that far away."

"Mmmhmm." Ash mumbled his acknowledgment.

Dawn looked up at Brock and nodded at them. "What are they arguing about? I thought I knew but what does it have to do with the Lily of the Valley Conference?"

"Misty's catching the shuttle in Michina Town to get to the airport in the next city over. It's out of our way so that's why we didn't just walk there."

"Yeah, I know that." She tilted her head slightly. Ash tended to get a little pouty when the redhead had to leave after her visits, but he usually wasn't this annoyed. That was one thing that Dawn liked about Ash, that he was such a strong advocate of people chasing their own dreams. He understood that his friends couldn't always be with him and cherished the time when they could. As Brock said, he normally got a little sullen when Misty had to leave, but he'd always been thankful that she could visit at all.

"April is an absolutely ridiculous month at home for gym battles. Not only do you have the new trainers coming in, but you have the older ones looking for last minute badges so they can participate in the league. It happens every year until the cut off." He saw Dawn about to ask a question and held up a finger, indicating that she needed to wait a minute. "I know April seems far off, but gyms tend to start getting busy in March. Plus the league usually does annual inspections in February, unless they think there's a problem with one."

"Oh." Dawn's bright blue eyes went wide with realization. "So she won't be able to visit?" Ash's mood suddenly made a little bit of sense. He tried not to be obvious about it, but he confessed to Dawn at one point of time that he did miss the redhead when she wasn't there. She couldn't blame him, Misty wasn't just a friend, she was his girlfriend and it would actually bother Dawn if the older boy claimed that he didn't miss her. He always got so excited for her visits that it really didn't surprise her that he'd be sullen to know that the girl couldn't visit anymore.

"No." Brock shook his head. "I get why, and I know he does too but, well you know." He nodded towards Ash and Misty, who were whispering madly at each other, obviously trying to keep whatever argument they were having on the low-down.

Dawn rolled her eyes, an amused smile appearing on her face. "They're ridiculous."

"That they are," Brock agreed with a genuine laugh.

The blue-haired girl turned back to face the others, tilting her head curiously when she saw that they had both halted their argument and their movements, staring at the ground with confusion.

"It's snow guys," Brock quipped sarcastically. "We've seen a lot of it lately."

"Hardy har har," Misty replied dryly, glaring at him briefly before her eyes turned to the ground. "I can see that. It's what's under the snow that's weird."

To prove her point, Ash squatted down, clearing off the snow by their feet. Dawn's eyebrows rose as she realized exactly what had them so perplexed. In the spot that the brown-eyed boy cleared off was a perfect line of yellow, dead grass that she was accustom to seeing in winter, contrasting sharply against thick, full, bright green grass.

"What the?" She and Brock both hurried forward, looking at the scene with confusion. Brock examined the grass before looking around. "Maybe it just snowed?"

"It's not just the grass though, look." Misty pointed away from them, towards a bush where bright, cheerful flowers were in full bloom. The ones beside it were completely dead. "It's a perfect line."

Dawn realized that she was right. It was like there was some invisible barrier that cut off the living plants from the dead ones, going as far as she could see in either direction. There was still snow on them, and the air was just as cold, but that didn't deter the plants from growing. "Did a pokemon do this?"

"Maybe," Ash spoke up, kneeling on the snowy ground and taking off his gloves. He pressed one hand against the dried grass, the other against its lush counterpart, and closed his eyes. It absolutely fascinated Dawn to see the very faint glow that resulted in him using aura. It was barely noticeable, more just like his skin going pale for a moment, but it was something his friends could easily notice. "Huh." He got up, rubbing his cold hands together and tugging his gloves back on.

"What?" Misty urged him, nudging his side.

"It's weird. There's this...energy here." He pointed at the green grass, his face full of confusion. "I've never felt anything like it before. It actually stops right where the grass does and loops back to wherever it comes from." He pointed out. "I'll bet you my mom's cookies that it goes in a full circle."

He was probably right, and that made Dawn feel a little uneasy. Brock said that they were almost to Michina Town, so it had to be within the limits of this strange barrier.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu's voice rang out to them from across the snow-covered clearing. Ash took off in that direction, stumbling and slipping on the sleek snow and grass. It was a lot harder to walk on than Dawn expected it to be, let alone run.

Pikachu was sitting atop of snowbank, looking alarmed but not at all hurt. Joining him, it was easy to see why he was stunned. There was a river down the hill from them, water flowing freely, except for farther down. It was a ways away, but they could still see a piece of ice randomly start along the top of the water.

"Okay, this place is really weirding me out," Ash admitted, holding out his arm and letting Pikachu jump up onto it.

"Rio ri," Ria agreed, though she seemed pretty content with pushing around a snow ball as if trying to make a snowman. She stumbled, tiny arms waving around wildly as she slipped.

"Ria!" Misty darted out to grab the pokemon, letting out a yelp as she ended up slipping on the snow-covered grass. Holding onto Ria, she ended up skidding down the short hill, crashing into the water.

"Misty!" Ash yelped with alarm and slid down the bank after her. He came to a stop at the edge just as she broke the surface of the water, gasping for breath and shaking.

"Wait up here," Brock told Dawn as he slid down beside Ash, reaching out to help Misty out of the obviously frigid water. Dawn was originally going to argue, but changed her mind. She wouldn't be of any use down there and if she went down, she could slip into the water too.

Ash put Ria back in her pokeball, a smart move since the cold couldn't keep bothering her there. He wrapped an arm around Misty and helped her back up the hill, Brock following them closely to prevent anyone from slipping. The eldest of the group looked up at her with a serious frown. "We need to get inside somewhere so she can dry off and change."

Dawn agreed, seeing how the tips of Misty's bright orange hair were already starting to freeze. She looked around, bright-blue eyes zeroing in on a couple of people walking not far from them. She darted out and yelled, "Hey!"

The boy and the girl stopped, looking at her curiously. Like her, they both had blue hair and eyes, albeit, lighter shades than her own. Dawn came to a stop in front of them, her throat aching from the icy air. "Do you know this place very well? Is there a Pokemon Center nearby? My friend fell into the river."

"Oh," The girl looked behind Dawn with startled eyes. "Yeah, we can show you the way, right Kato?"

"Sure thing Kiko. Follow us!" The boy motioned for them to follow the pair through the field, down towards a small bridge that arched over the water.

"You okay?" Ash asked Misty as they walked as quickly as possibly.

"Yes." Her voice came out sharp and annoyed. She took a deep breath, coughed and said, "Sorry. It just hurts a bit. I'll be fine when I can change."

Dawn let out a sigh of relief that Ash just let her annoyance go. She shook her head as they crossed the bridge and followed the path, coming up the hill to reveal a small but beautiful town. An intricately, hand-crafted sign read 'Welcome to Michina Town', and Dawn took a deep breath, almost choking on the cold, crisp air.

She didn't have any sort of special powers or abilities, she was just a normal 10-year-old trainer, but she had a strong feeling that something strange was going to happen.

Didn't it always?

...

Note

Did you guys really think I was going to just leave the Sinnoh movies without doing this one? I hope not!

Firstly, I really want to thank my beta, CLAVUS! She's awesome enough to take the time to go back over EVERYTHING I've done (it's in the works). She's also been giving me really good tips on how to improve more.

Secondly, I've been a bit busy lately so I can't PROMISE that I'll stick to my schedule of updating once a week, but I'll try my hardest! I know it's Wednesday (where I am) but I'll probably end up sticking to Sunday/Monday as my post dates if I do manage to get them once a week. If not, I'll update as soon as possible!

Reason for the change of scenery: seasons actually change in this universe, not just depending on the location. It's winter now, so it's winter here, for the most part.

Outside of that, I'm not going to give you any warning ahead of time for anything. I've done that in the past where I've hinted something was going to happen, but all bets are off this time around. Why? You'll see!

Though you're definitely going to notice something odd about how I'm writing this story. You might have noticed it in this prologue-type chapter. We'll see.

Hope you guys like this one as much as you liked Distortion! Seriously, thank you to everyone who reviewed that! You're all awesome!

Written by: Skylight Sparkle
Edited by: CLAVUS