Dawn of Pokémon

(Revised on 2018.9.12)

Early morning, Qingyun Mountain.

The mountains are covered with heavy rocks and shrouded in clouds and mist.On the tall green mountains, the cold wind of late autumn blew away the clouds, revealing the slightly red skyline in the distance.

Qingyun Mountain is only more than a thousand meters above sea level, but the terrain is extremely complex.The steep slopes are almost vertical, and cliffs and caves can be seen everywhere.The cliff on the south side drops vertically for hundreds of meters, and below it is the rolling river flowing eastward. Once you lose your footing and fall, there is no chance of survival - therefore, this cliff is also called "The Broken Soul Cliff" by the locals.

There are few people in this mountainous area, and there are only sparse villages on the gentle mountainside.Villagers living in the mountains have little communication with the outside world and have made a living by picking tea for generations.Tea trees mostly grow on steep cliffs. Even if local tea pickers are accustomed to walking among the cliffs, they still inevitably make mistakes.

I don’t know since when, a saying began to spread in the village - when a tea picker accidentally falls off a cliff, if he is lucky enough, he will be picked up by a breeze and brought back to his place safely.Some people swore that they had experienced such incredible things, while others said that they had witnessed their companions being rolled up high by some invisible force.

Many villagers believe that gods live on the top of Qingyun Mountain.

"——What a god!"

The thin bamboo pole in the old man's hand hit the boy's butt mercilessly, and he cursed, "If you continue to read nonsense stories about gods and ghosts, I will beat you up!"

The little boy jumped up after being beaten, and retorted aggrievedly, "It's not a story... Brother Da Zhuang told me. He said that one day his father..."

"Tomorrow he says that his ancestors are gods, don't you believe it!?"

Seeing that the little boy finally stopped talking, the old tea picker snorted and tugged on the tea basket on his back.

Two figures, one tall and one short, walked for a while among the rugged mountains.The mountain road that had just rained was very wet. Even the little boy who had been jumping in the mountains since he was a child felt that the soles of his feet were slippery, so he quickly and carefully slowed down his pace.

When the grandfather and grandson took a rest at a gentle place on the edge of the cliff, the lively child had already forgotten the burning pain on his buttocks a few minutes ago, and couldn't help but ask again, "Grandpa, who did you say saved Uncle Niu?" ?Is he a god?"

The old man said with a straight face, "Uncle Niu, you climbed up by yourself! You are a god, don't listen to that brat Da Zhuang!"

"Oh……"

"Go and pick your wild vegetables! If you can't pick a basket, I won't give you a meal at noon."

The little boy immediately shut his mouth obediently, ran to the grass pit with the smaller bamboo basket in his arms, and started looking for wild vegetables.

"Thinking wildly all day long, gods..." The old tea picker muttered angrily, and the second half of his words gradually became lighter and disappeared in the light humming of the little boy.

He is the oldest tea picker in the village.Since his son left the mountain early to seek a life in a big city, he has not been heard from for a long time, and his body is still strong. Over the years, he has not given up the tea-picking skills passed down from generation to generation.

The old man has lived in the small village for more than 60 years and has seen enough weird things.Although he sneered at "theory of gods" and repeatedly banned the children in the village from talking about related topics, but——

When the old man was still young, he once witnessed the miracle of invisible weather turning into a helping hand.

After he was rescued many years ago, he wanted to tell everyone about it, just like the young people in the village now.However, to the old man who has witnessed decades of ups and downs, this is nothing but a trivial matter.

The old man knows that there are many wonders in the world.There is a well-known family at the foot of Qingyun Mountain. It is said that they have had psychic abilities for generations. They can talk to ghosts, attract spirits to possess people, and have insight into people's destiny and future. Many nearby villages have invited this family. Go see something.Since such strange people exist in a majestic place, what is there to praise about being able to control wind, rain, thunder and lightning?

Except for the famous psychic family in this area, the old man has received many more low-key guests with strange powers in his more than 60 years of life.Most of them just pass by here looking for a place to live, and never show their specialness in a big way.Even the fact that the person who rescued him was not a ghost but a human being was the result of the old man's secret guess after accidentally catching a glimpse of the cyclone spinning in the palm of a careless young man.

The last time he saw a "special guest" visit was a year ago.A young man came to the village with a girl of middle school age. They stayed for two nights and took a short rest before leaving in a hurry.They didn't do anything out of the ordinary, but the girl's long knife that looked like a children's toy exposed their identity - he had seen the pattern engraved on the scabbard, which was "sometimes" many years ago. careless young people".

The old man did not tell them anything frankly. He just treated them as a local landlord and entertained them to live in his empty house for two days.In his opinion, these guys who can control the wind and rain are just ordinary human beings.

The two people were dressed very ordinary.If he hadn't heard the girl call another person master, he would have thought it was a father and daughter going out to play.The young man has an approachable personality and gets along well with the villagers - at least he is much more likable than the famous photographer named Wang who came to collect photos a few days ago.The girl accompanying the young man seemed to be a junior high school student. Her temperament was much quieter than that of the young man. She always held a heavy exercise book and wrote and calculated. She was no different from the children in the town at the foot of the mountain who were oppressed by their homework.

The face of the visitor from a year ago has long been blurred in the old man's mind. He only remembers that there was a dark red burn scar on the girl's cheek, which looked a bit scary at first glance.His heartless grandson Xiaohu has not yet learned to judge people by their appearance. He pesters his eldest sister every day and makes the old man's temples pound. Fortunately, the girl who has been playing with him for two days has a good temper and does not disturb him. The bastard stuff that people learn is kicked out of the door.

The old man always watched these visitors.He was grateful to these strangers who had come to rescue the villagers when they were in danger, but he would never make the secret of the "god" public.The old man did not want the young tea pickers to embark on the dangerous mountain road with the thought "Maybe someone will save me" - the guests with strange powers only visit here occasionally and have no obligation to return and act as human safety ropes.Instead of placing your hopes on others, it is better to walk steadily on the road under your feet. Tea pickers on the mountain must always rely on their own feet to protect themselves.

As for the rumors circulating in the village, let it always remain a myth.

The next second, the boy's scream interrupted the old man's memory.

"Snake, snake, grandpa has a snake..."

The small bamboo basket fell to the ground, and the wild vegetables neatly stacked in it were scattered everywhere.When the old man saw the green snake head protruding from the grass, he breathed a sigh of relief.

It was just the most common grass snake in the mountains, and it could only scare the little kid who had just started going out to pick tea.Just as the old man was about to speak out, he saw the grass snake seemed to be frightened and jumped out of the grass pit in a panic.

The little boy felt a green shadow swipe close to his feet. He screamed in fright, turned around and ran away.After the old man saw the mountain road ahead clearly, the blood all over his body rushed to his head, "Don't run that way -"

Before he finished speaking, the loose soil beneath the little boy's feet collapsed.The old man's hastily stretched out hand was empty, and the little figure had slipped down the cliff.

When the boy was about to fall into the abyss, the old man suddenly heard the wind.

The sound was not harsh, just like the breeze gently blowing through the door curtain on a summer night.The child's figure was visibly frozen in the void - as if an invisible big hand was gently supporting him.

Until the little boy's feet touched the ground again, the old man was still speechless.

The frightened child crawled to the ground and hugged his grandfather's waist, crying loudly.The old man who finally came to his senses suddenly raised his head and looked at the top of the mountain where the clouds and mist were gradually dispersing.

"Boom—"

Dazzling thunder exploded in the sky, but there was clearly no cloud above.

Amidst the deafening sound, a certain idea emerged in the old man's mind very clearly.

"--It's them."

After a few breaths, the sound of wind and thunder drowned out the chirping of insects in the mountains, as if a storm was coming.The old man decisively dragged his grandson and hid in the depression of the cliff, avoiding the sand and gravel falling down from above.

"Grandpa..." The little boy clutched the old man's clothes tightly, sobbing and whispered, "Just now...did a god save me?"

When the old man heard this, he immediately rolled his eyes.

Okay, what I said before is all in vain.

How could this stupid thing be so scared by a grass snake that he jumped off a cliff?This was better, not to mention how to find the savior to thank them - seeing that the child in his arms was sobbing and casting searching eyes upwards, he couldn't even explain the movement on the top of the mountain.

Do you want to tell this kid that there are gods fighting on the top of the mountain?

The old man didn't bother to think anymore and cursed, "Shut up, I've already told you that you dare to mention any gods again..."

"boom!"

The deafening sound of gunfire interrupted the old man's rebuke.The sound full of gunpowder smoke echoed in the empty valley, making the old man's eyes widen.

He saw a man falling from the top of a mountain.

It was a short, less-than-adult figure.The speed brought by gravity made it impossible for the old man to see clearly the face of the person who fell off the cliff. Bright red blood splashed through his clothes and dripped on the ground near the cliff.

The old man instinctively rushed forward, trying to help the victim, but his feet were still too slow after all.When he stopped at the edge of the cliff, the sound of falling water could be heard below.

The thunder gradually weakened, and a man's plaintive cry could be heard faintly from above.The old man saw that the sand and gravel were no longer rolling down from the top of the mountain, and his grandson was staying where he was without moving, so he looked down.

Then, the old man picking tea showed a look of astonishment again.

A bright blue light bloomed from the bottom of the water, reflecting the entire river as transparent as jade.The old man saw a pink shadow appearing vaguely in the river. It had pointed ears and a long tail, like...

cat?

After a few seconds, the light went out.

The sound of the wind has died down and the thunder has stopped.The river flowing eastward has returned to its original state, but Qingyun Mountain is still quiet, with only the low and fine chirping of insects echoing in the forest.

The faint morning light came belatedly, illuminating every corner of the mountain.The blood drops on the edge of the cliff that have not yet faded seem to indicate that everything is not an illusion.

——The story of this world has ended, and the traveler has entered an unknown road.