Those of you who are regular readers of my works might've seen this and the next chapter at the end of Land & Skye before as "bonus chapters". I'll have deleted those from L&S by now.

This is Call of the Sea. It's an AU of Land & Skye with the same premise but a completely different story. Hopefully, I keep this more than just a little interesting.

My usual disclaimer: My characters are my original ideas but the pokemon they take the form of are property of Nintendo, Gamefreak, and whatever other companies there are that own the Pokemon Franchise. I have no association with any of them and suing me for this bit of fan-work wouldn't be worth squat for them, I'm sure.

Call of the Sea: Living Legend's Life

Chapter 1: Wishful Thinking

Allen was a recently moved-in resident of Sandgem Town in the Sinnoh region. He had brown-blonde hair, a tanned complexion, and eyes that were as blue as the sky. He liked to wear white mostly. A white shirt, with grey or also-white shorts. Perfect for keeping relatively cool under a hot sun.

At 15-years-old, he knew how to take care of himself, more or less. He had all sorts of hobbies, friends, and interests. However, he had left all that behind at Sunyshore City.

As a result, Allen was quite bored.

He had sent and received plenty of messages from his friends at Sunyshore over the past few days and Allen already found himself wishing he could move back to the big city and hang out with them again. Sandgem Town was just too quiet for him. He was used to the hustle and bustle of the solar-powered city.

That was another thing about that city Allen had appreciated. Electrical power was in no short supply there… typically. It was because the city was built so that all its roads were solar panels. So long as there was sun, there was power and lots of it. And as the city's name implied, there was rarely a cloudy day there.

But perhaps what Allen had appreciated most about Sunyshore, was the ocean-view. The city was situated in a corner of the Sinnoh region, where there was ocean along three sides of the city. If Allen wasn't hanging out with friends and running about the market place, he had been sitting at the beach just north of Sunyshore.

He saw plenty of pokemon trainers go through the city, visiting the gym on their way. If they managed to beat the gym's leader and earn the badge that awaited any victor, the trainers would then head north for the beach. Allen had watched many of them hop on their water-type pokemon and ride off for the north, if they didn't just dive right into the water and go swimming north. The Pokemon League called to them.

Not to Allen though. Allen wasn't interested in being a pokemon trainer.

This wasn't to say he was uninterested in pokemon. On the contrary, Allen frequently had watched pokemon on the outskirts of the city and in the ocean with great interest. Sometimes the pokemon were just lazing about, soaking up sunlight and enjoying themselves. Other times, they were playing or battling with each other over territory or other things.

To the 15-year-old human, they looked like they were having fun, no matter what. He frequently envied their seemingly carefree life style.

Allen didn't hold any grudge against trainers for interrupting this life-style. The pokemon they commanded were their friends and they were setting out to make themselves stronger. He did feel a little sorry for a pokemon that was beaten down in the fight, but no one got stronger if they didn't work at it.

Allen couldn't see these events anymore now though. His parents had gotten tired of the noise from living in the city and moved away, taking him with them. They had had good jobs there and they found it easy to pay for the move and supporting the family at Sandgem. They easily found new jobs near Sandgem.

Sandgem Town was not exactly a center of commerce and the pokemon in the local area were not particularly big or powerful. This made travel from place to place safer if you had protection, but it made life quite dull for Allen.

Indeed, Sandgem Town had so few buildings, one could've counted the number of buildings on their hands easily. The same almost could be said of the residents. One building was his house, recently constructed. One was the local PokeMart and another the Pokemon Center. Allen occasionally saw an aspiring trainer walk into the local research lab in the town, which was home to a professor by the name of Rowan. The man was frequently gone on trips around other parts of the world though, so even the lab held little of interest to Allen.

He had met Rowan once… the professor had been too occupied with his own work to do much more than say "hello" before one of his many assistants called his attention to a finding. After that, Allen found the lab held nothing to interest him.

These aside, the rest of the town was residential houses. The other kids were good companions to Allen… but they just weren't the same as back at Sunyshore. He couldn't do the same things he had done back at the city.

-0-

So Allen wiled away his time at the beach to the south of town. It was the only reminder of Sunyshore he had. The ocean was all he had left to remind him of his old life. Sometimes others would join him and they might construct a sandcastle or kick sand about, but they always had to go do other things sooner or later. Then Allen would be left alone again and the boredom would hurry back in to occupy his mind.

The local pokemon were as dull as ever. There were just dim-witted Magikarp in the water, which were simple fish that could do little but flop uselessly outside of the water.

"Borrrring…" Allen groaned as he doodled in the sand, his mind going numb with boredom.

Argh. Even these Magikarp have it better than me. At least they can go swimming out there and maybe see some more. All these pokemon have it so much better.

This wasn't the first evening Allen had spent alone on the beach, bored out of his mind. It wasn't even the fifth.

No, he had been bored near to death for about two weeks now. He wanted to go back home to Sunyshore. He couldn't stand this quiet, uneventful life for much longer. He needed something better to do with his time.

That's when Allen's life took a turn for the interesting.

He looked up as he felt like he was being watched. Looking around, Allen didn't see anything immediately. The ocean before him ebbed in and out in front of him. There weren't any pokemon around that he could see.

Something brushed the back of his neck and Allen automatically reached back to sweep whatever it was off.

His hand brushed something rather soft and furry.

What the-?

Allen looked back and yelped in surprise.

Directly behind him was a very pink creature. It was hovering in the air and looked very much like a cat. It had short arms with small hands and large feet. Its eyes were large and shined with curiosity as it stared into the human's own eyes.

It took Allen only a second to realize he was looking at a pokemon and he froze in place, nervous as the pokemon blinked at him, still with that curious look in its eyes.

Alright Allen… just take it easy and maybe this guy won't hurt you.

He took a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down from the start he had received seeing this thing right behind him. Now that he had seen it, the pokemon was rather cute and it didn't seem to be interested in attacking him.

"Mew?" it chirped at him in a very soft voice, drawing up closer to him, cocking its head as it looked at him some more.

Allen's eyes widened. He had heard of Mew before… he hadn't ever expected to see the pokemon in the flesh. Mew was supposedly very rare; a legend that almost no one really saw. He remained frozen, not out of fear of being attacked but now out of fear that it would leave if he made any sudden movements.

"Um…H-hi…" He managed to get out, giving the small cat a friendly smile.

Mew seemed to lose interest in his face and looked down at Allen's pocket, where Allen had some leftovers of a candy bar. It hovered lower, its hindquarters higher than its own head as it tried getting a better look at the food. It fact, it was hovering nearly on its head.

Allen cautiously reached a hand down and fished out the candy bar.

"You… you want some?" he asked, the pokemon's head rising with the candy until it was up right again. It continued to look at the candy, like it didn't know what to think of the item. Desperate to keep it around longer, Allen carefully broke off a piece of the bar and gingerly held it out to the Mew. This was the first truly interesting thing to happen to Allen in weeks. He didn't want the moment to end too soon.

Mew chirped something in its own name again and gently took the piece of candy from Allen's fingers. It looked at it a moment, before curling into a fetal position in-air and started to nibble away at it, a happy expression on its face.

"Wow…" Allen gasped, awed at just seeing this pokemon with his own eyes. He continued to sit there, staring as Mew ate the small offering. He observed the very fine fur, that he imagined was quite soft. It looked so gentle and the fact it was hovering so effortlessly seemed to add to the mystic air about it.

It wasn't long before the little cat was done and rolled through the air to draw up to Allen again. He didn't hesitate to offer more, which the little pokemon accepted without any issue.

"That's… you're so, so neat… so cool…" Allen murmured as he watched Mew continue to hover off the ground. He was finding it hard to find words for what he was thinking. He found everything about this little pokemon just exciting to see. He wished it would stay around him… follow him so he could show it to the rest of the town. But it would surely fly off when he headed back into town.

"Man… I wish I could live like you. Living free… flying free…" Allen murmured as he continued to watch. I'd never be bored again. I could go anywhere… fly anywhere. I wouldn't have to stay here all the time.

This seemed to get Mew's attention, because it looked up from eating and blinked at him as if to say "Really?"

It finished eating, its eyes remaining on Allen and then uncurled from its position and turned to him, its long tail gently swishing back and forth. Allen leaned back, a little unsettled by its gaze now. He wasn't sure why, but he was suddenly afraid.

Mew drew up closer to him until they were nearly nose-to-nose. Allen opened his mouth to speak but Mew gently raised a little hand and touched Allen's forehead. That touch felt to Allen like he had been shoved hard at the precise point he had been touched. There was a hard whoosh and Allen suddenly found himself alone in the dark.

"What? Where am I?" He yelped, startled by the landscape suddenly vanishing. He was floating in the middle of nowhere and everything was silent for several moments. Then he heard a giggle.

"You might be fun to play with." Someone spoke from around the human. It sounded like a boy who was younger than Allen. Perhaps ten years old from the sound of their voice, maybe younger.

"Who's there?" Allen said, panicking slightly and looking around until his eyes fell on Mew hovering a few feet from him.

"It's me, silly. What? You're already confused?" the voice spoke again, sounding very amused indeed. The pokemon before Allen giggled again and Allen gasped as he quickly realized Mew was actually speaking to him.

"You-you're talking?" He said, incredulous.

"Well, of course I'm talking." Mew giggled again, "I'm linked directly to your mind after all. Of course you can understand me. It's not like I don't know how to talk. Humans just don't understand the spoken language. You really are silly, you know." The cat giggled some more.

Allen blinked, more than a little stunned. He couldn't figure out how he could understand the pokemon, regardless of if their minds were linked or not.

"So you want to be in my shoes, do ya?" Mew said brightly, slowly rolling in air until it was looking at Allen upside-down, its belly facing upwards, "You said you were bored just a minute ago so why not play a game with me? It'll be fun!"

Allen's mind was still lagging behind, trying to figure out what was going on.

"Fun? What-?"

"Yep! Fun! You like having fun like me too, don't you?" Mew interrupted the boy again, sounding excited now, "C'mon, it's been such a long time since I've played a game like this!"

Allen started to speak again. Unfortunately, his mind was working too slowly to watch what he said.

"Well, sure but first-"

"Yay!" Mew reacted ecstatically the moment the word "sure" came out, rolling up-right again and bobbing excitedly in the air, "Okay! The rules are simple. You just have to find me and catch me! Simple, right? I won't make it easy for you though!" Mew said teasingly. It was speaking so fast, Allen was barely keeping up.

"Wait, I need to-"

"The game starts now!" Mew declared brightly and started to fly off but stopped and turned again, "Oh yeah! And one more thing: you'd better make sure you don't get caught or you'll never catch me! Later!"

"Wait!" Allen yelled again but Mew turned and flew off, vanishing into the darkness. Allen clawed at nothing, trying to fly after the pokemon but he wasn't going anywhere. The next moment, Allen felt like he was falling, like Mew had been holding him up that whole time. Now, without the cat to keep him up, gravity took its course on him.

He looked down to see if he was going to hit ground anytime soon… or if there was even ground to hit.

There appeared to be water far below.

Allen was a good swimmer, but at this height, his landing was clearly going to hurt. And who knew how deep the water was?

The boy screamed as he fell what felt like several hundred feet. Then he hit the water with a loud splash! The landing, to his surprise, didn't hurt but when he tried swimming, he found the water oddly heavy and hard to move in. He couldn't effectively swim under these conditions and the water seemed to flood into his mouth with a willful speed. Like it was actively seeking to fill every ounce of his body.

He couldn't breathe. He fought to surface but it seemed he was going to drown. After several long seconds of struggling, Allen lost all strength and he succumbed to the fluid, passing out as he sank into it depths.