Connected Rivers (Chapter 1)

Connected Rivers

by Lord PichuPal



Chapter 1



Along the shores of the Amadahy River were two forests. The one downstream was adjacent to place known simply as The Valley, where many different Pokemon lived together in peace and harmony. Likewise for the forest, as most of them living there got along besides the obvious predator-prey relations some had. But really, those mostly existed in the other forest upstream from there. In a much more violent area, where the soft failed to survive. It was a forest where you had to fight for food and shelter or else others would steal it from you. Survival of the fittest shown at its finest.

It was here that a young Floatzel named Kelvin resides, a strong young man aged around 16. He lived alone in the forest, hunting for fish in the river or finding edible berries in bushes. But on rare occasions when he couldn't find his own food, he'd find a Floatzel who did and if all else failed, would fight them for the food. More often than not, it was other Floatzel who go after him for his food or shelter. In those cases, he'd hold his ground and fight them until one was left standing. He lived a sheltered life with no friends despite his friendly attitude and good looks, which helped to attract females and males alike. But none of them were his type, they all just wanted him for how attractive he was. Most of the time, it was just a one night stand. Kelvin wasn't concerned with their gender, being bisexual, although he tried to keep that under-wraps feeling embarrassed if others knew.

Sighing, he walked along feeling sad again as he headed to the river side to sit down and relax. "I hate being so alone..." he muttered to himself. "I just wish there was someone out there for me..." He looked out at the flowing water, watching fish swimming by underwater. He wondered if he'd be alone forever, if it was possible for someone to love him, if he was allowed to be loved. These thoughts, always fresh in his mind, haunted him day in and day out, keeping him awake at night and taking his focus off other things. Looking out over the flowing water, his mind started to drift away on him. He laid back against the ground to look up at the sky.



"Get up, you stupid kid!" a distinct voice shouted, startling Kelvin. "Stop being so lazy already, damnit!" Kelvin quickly climbed to his feet to avoid making the much larger Floatzel angrier. To the side, a female Floatzel the size of the male stood with a distressed look on her face, not wanting to get involved.

"You're SUPPOSED to be getting us dinner, you stupid kid! Do you want us all to starve?!" the Floatzel shouted. Kelvin looked at the ground and muttered softly, "N-no sir..." From nowhere, the male slapped him hard across the face.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you! Show some respect!" Kelvin looked back up to stare into his eyes. Once he made eye contact, he took another hard slap across the face before he could say anything.

"Sorry sir..." he apologized.

"You better be! Now go find us some food before I get even angrier and beat you again, you lousy good-for-nothing!" shouted the Floatzel. Kelvin scrambled off quickly, not bothering to give a response to him. As he took off, he heard the voice shout at him one more time "If I even so much as SEE you coming back here without food, I'm going to have to beat you SO HARD, boy! Remember that before you even think to return!" Kelvin hurried off faster, hoping to find something soon so that he wouldn't face any more severe consequences.

He spotted an area of the river with some fish swimming in it and decided to try and fish there. Looking into the river, he saw the reflection of his young Buizel body starring back at him, seeing red marks on his face from being slapped so hard. Looking a little longer, he got a picture of what he thought he'd look like if he was a Floatzel himself, and smiled slightly at it. After quickly realizing he had to complete his task, he shook his to get the image out of his head and hopped into the water to hunt down some fish. Swimming at his best, he chased down as many fish as he could and tossed them back up on the shore one at a time. After he'd collected enough, he came to the surface and looked at his load.

"I hope that's good enough to please him," he muttered to himself. "It should be, I worked hard to catch all these fish. I'm sure he'll be happy with me." Smiling to himself, Kelvin climbed out of the river and picked up his small pile of fish then carried them back. As he arrived at his destination again, he cheerfully called out to the waiting Floatzel. "I got the fish like you wanted, I hope it's good enough." The male walked over and examined the fish carefully for a minute.

"Hmm..." said the Floatzel as he examined what the Buizel had brought for him. Then in a sudden change of heart, he slapped the fish out of Kelvin's paws and a stern look appeared on his face. "You call yourself a hunter?! This is pathetic! These fish may be good enough for a little girl like you, but I'm a man! These won't fill me up at all!" Kelvin's face turned to shock that at the reaction he received.  "But..."

"No buts, you useless punk! Get over here so I can give you proper punishment!" Before Kelvin could even react, the Floatzel had him by the arm and dragged him against his will to a more secluded area where the female wouldn't see them. Kelvin kicked and struggled to no avail as he couldn't break the strong grip of the male, until he was thrust into a tree by him.

"I'll teach you a lesson you'll never forget!" he shouted as he swung and punched Kelvin across the face. From there, he continued to beat up Kelvin against the tree, while the female stayed where she was trying to ignore the cries of pain coming from him. After one last shot to the stomach, Kelvin slumped down to the ground, in too much pain to move any longer.

"I hope that'll teach you to make me mad again, you stupid kid!" With that, the male left Kelvin lying on the ground, covered with wounds and marks all over his body. As he drifted off into a state of unconsciousness, he heard the male telling the female something else: "God damn, can you believe he's really our son?"



Kelvin woke up quickly, realizing he'd fallen asleep there by the river. He smacked himself a couple times to wake himself up to snap out of it.

"Ugh... I guess I fell asleep here..." he groaned as he sat back up, noticing it was now evening. "Man do I hate when I have that dream... just glad I don't have to deal with that shit anymore..." Kelvin stood back up and stretched real quick as he looked around, looking for something else to take his mind off it. He walked along the river slowly, looking at the water and watching the fish swim by. Then, something caught his eye, flopping helplessly along the shore. He quickly rushed over to see what it was and kneeled down to get a closer look.

"Huh... this looks like a Carvahna... I don't think I've seen one of these around here before..." he said quietly, in awe of seeing something like this up close. Kelvin reached over to touch, and quickly pulled his paw back after feeling a sharp stinging upon contact. "Ow... I guess that's some kind of self-defense mechanism having prickly skin like that. I'll have to keep that in mind next time." Examining it closer, he noticed the large sharp teeth and thought how vicious this fish must be when it's at full strength. Slowly, the Carvahna stopped flopping as much and Kelvin got an idea of what he could do with it. With his new idea in mind, he rushed off leaving the fish alone.

He walked along through the forest, searching high and low for what he needed. As he adventured through the vast and open landscape, a small band of hunters was fleeing after setting up a trap to catch what they wanted. Up above was a cage they had set up to have drop down and catch the victim, if they were slow enough or not smart enough to avoid it. The hunters were patiently waiting off in the distance at their camp, keeping an ear out for the sound of the cage crashing down to the ground. They discussed amongst each other what they hoped would be found when they went to check on it. In the meantime, Kelvin continued along on his way, unaware of the presence of the hunters. He kept going, when suddenly something caught a hold of his foot. He fell forward and landed on his stomach with a thump. As he turned  to look back and find what he tripped on, he noticed something dropping down from the sky.

"What the...?" Kelvin muttered, then quickly dove out of the way just as the cage crashed down. "Whoa... that was close, whatever that thing is..." He got back up to his feet and walked back to check what tripped him, and sees something strung across between the trees. He examines it closer, noticing how strong the thin string is, unaware what it is. "Huh... whatever this thing is, it seems like it'd be good for a necklace..." Quickly he rushed over to one of the trees and untied the string from it, then went to do the same with the other tree. As he picked it up to take back to the Carvahna, he suddenly heard loud footsteps. They didn't sound like anything he'd heard before, which made him uncomfortable and startled him. Without thinking, he fled the area hoping not to be seen. The hunters arrived too late, and were confused why their cage was empty.

"Wait a minute... why is the cage empty? And where's the string that deployed it?" one hunter asked, scratching his head. "Must've been a mouse or something, I guess." Distraught with their failure, they trudged off again to go back where they came from. Meanwhile, Kelvin was a safe distance away and quickly rushed back for the river hoping to see the lifeless Carvahna waiting where he left it still. As he approached the river again where he'd found the fish at, he slowed down not needing to run anymore.

"Oh good, still right where I left it," Kelvin said, breathing a sigh of relief. "Now to try and get some of the teeth out of it. But how...?" He sat down on the ground with the string hanging around his neck on the flotation sac, trying to think of how he could get the teeth without hurting himself again on its rough skin. He looks around quickly, trying to find a solution to his problem. Then just up the way a bit, he spots a small log sitting near the river. He stands up and walks over to it and lifts it up, finding it heavy but not so much that he can't hold it. "Hm, this should work nicely..." he thinks as he holds it, testing the weight. Taking the rock back with him, he sits down to get started chizzling at the teeth with the rock to create holes near the base of each tooth.

"There, all done..." Kelvin declared to himself as he stood up, wiping his brow with an arm. After what seemed like hours, he finally finished working on the teeth and was ready for the next step. "Now to put them together with this string." Kelvin took the string from around his neck and dilligently tried to thread it through the holes in each tooth. Through mounting frustration, he managed to get all three on the string finally.

"About time I got that done..." Kelvin said, sighing in relief about being finished. "Now to try and get this on." He sat down by a tree to think, holding the necklace in one paw as he thought about it. An idea came to his head of putting it around his neck then trying to tie it behind his head. So he attempted to do so, but after countless efforts, was quickly frustrated and decided that wasn't going to work. "Damnit, it's too hard to tie it behind myself like that. I need to be able to see it." He looked at the necklace again and attempted to tie the loose ends in front of himself, then tried putting it over his head.

The idea seemed to work, and after a couple efforts to loosen and tighten it to make it fit right, Kelvin finally had his necklace on. "Ha, there we go," he said proudly as he stood up with the teeth dangling from his neck. He walked over to the river and looked at his reflection to see how it looked and smiled at himself. "I think I did a good job, this looks great. Now people should think twice before trying to mess with me when they see this."



A couple of weeks passed by without trouble, and Kelvin was enjoying the peacefulness. He was swimming along in the river, looking for a good fish to catch. Suddenly a large fish caught his eye and quickly he took off after it, his tails spinning wildly behind him to propel him forward faster. The chase went on for what seemed like a while, until finally Kelvin was able to catch it and went back to the surface.

"Whew, this sure is a big one," he said as he held the fish in his paws while floating in the water to look at it. He swam over to the shore and threw onto the dry land after fighting to keep it restrained, then climbed out of the water himself as well, and took a moment to shake the water out of his fur. Before the fish could manage to flop any further away, Kelvin quickly grabbed it again and slammed it against a nearby rock to kill it. "There we go, now we're ready to eat." As he sat down to eat his meal, a voice startled him from behind.

"I'd say so, runt," said the voice. Kelvin turned around to see another Floatzel standing over him with a menacing grin. "That's a pretty big fish you got for me. Question is, you gonna give it to me or am I gonna have to beat it out of you first?" The Floatzel put his paws together and cracked his knuckles. Kelvin stood up and stared him down, trying to show he wasn't afraid.

"I don't think so, that fish is mine. I caught it and I'm going to eat it. Go get your own fish," Kelvin responded, not about to allow anyone to push him around, especially not when he had his necklace on. It was almost like the necklace was somehow giving him more energy. The Floatzel smiled an evil grin, as if pleased that he was getting a fight out of him.

"You leave me no choice but to leave you as an unconscious, bloody, and mangled mess then," he remarked, confident that he'd have his way within moments. Hoping to catch Kelvin off guard, he threw a fast punch towards his head. Before he could react, Kelvin felt the full impact of the punch on his cheek and stumbled back a little, holding the side of his face.

'Damn, this guy has one helluva punch...' Kelvin thought to himself, rubbing his cheek a little. 'I'll need to watch myself better now that I know how hard he punches.' After regaining his footing, he got himself into a better position and charged forward and quickly threw a punch back at him. He landed the quick strike, making solid contact with the Floatzel's face as well. He stumbled aside a bit as well, surprised by Kelvin's strength as well.

"Well, seems I found myself a scrapper. Makes this a lot more fun, I like a good challenge," he smirked and quickly came back at him again. He threw another punch at him, this time going low and drilling Kelvin hard in the stomach. Kelvin bent over, putting an arm over his stomach as he gasped for air a second, getting the wind knocked out of him from the sudden contact. Backing up a bit, his eyes half-shut and cringing at the pain, and head facing the ground, his opponent took advantage and quickly sent a Sonic Boom attack his way. Kelvin heard the sound of it approaching, and quickly glanced up. But before he could react, the blast of energy caught him in the chest and knocked him back onto the ground, groaning a little from the pain.

"Not so high and mighty now, are you runt?" said the Floatzel slyly as he walked over and looked down at Kelvin with an evil smirk, lifting his foot over Kelvin's head. Kelvin's eyes widened as he realized the enemy's plan, and thinking quickly, rolled to the side just as he saw him prepare to bring his foot down. The Floatzel's foot slammed to the ground, catching nothing but dirt as Kelvin successfully got out of the way, and he growled as he looked up to see where he went. "Argh, you got lucky that time..."

Kelvin smirked as he prepared his next move and fired a Water Pulse at him as fast as he could, hoping to catch him off guard with it as well. Without time to react, the attack drilled the Floatzel and sent him tumbling backwards, losing his balance and holding his head, feeling disoriented. "Now who's the lucky one?" Kelvin taunted.

"Grr... come here, you bastard!" the Floatzel growled and attempted to rush at him. He took a swing at what he thought was Kelvin, but missed completely as his confusion caused him to see double. Watching him swing at the air next to him, Kelvin leaped behind him and delivered a powerful kick square into his back right between the two circular markings. He grunted and groaned from the sudden shot of pain as he flew forward onto his stomach, getting a face full of dirt as he lay still to try and wait for the confusion to wear off. Kelvin took advantage, walking over and giving one last hard shot to the back of his head with his foot, knocking out his opponent easily.

“There, showed you who’s the weak one,” Kelvin said with a smile. He walked back to claim his prize, the fish in which he caught, and carried it off to a more secluded area. Sitting down by a tree, he happily ate the fish and rested himself. The fight had taken a lot out of him, so he enjoyed getting the chance to rest and finally eat. “I’m glad I won, this is a really good fish.”

As Kelvin continued eating, he looked out at the river and wondered if a better life ever would come along. A life of peace where he wouldn’t be alone and always fighting to survive by himself. More so, he wondered if he’d ever find someone who loved him. Raising himself without loving parents, few friends and allies, and plenty of enemies all around always made him wonder if a better life could be had. Letting out a sigh, he finished eating the fish and glanced back down at the ground.

“One of these days, life’s gotta turn around for me…” he thought to himself. Then he glanced up at the river again and another thought come to mind. “I never thought about it before, but… I wonder where that river leads? Maybe I should follow it downstream sometime…” He got an idea and suddenly his gloomy mood disappeared. “Wait, that’s it… I should try moving downstream and see if life’s any better there!” He smiled to himself and for the first time in a long while, he felt excited about something. He walked over to the shore and looked in the direction the water was flowing with curiosity, thinking about what it might have in store for him.