The Entombed Fate of Iris (Patreon)

“Ugh, I know at least this is not a snowy mountain, but this desert sure it jumping high up the list of things I hate!”

“Axew!”

On her quest to become the greatest Dragon Type Master in the world, the trainer Iris found herself battling a sandstorm while walking through a desert in the Johto Region. The tomboy thought she had covered all her basis by bringing as much water as possible to make it to the next town along with her fully healed Pokemon, but the possibility of a sandstorm somehow slipped her mind. If only she had not been so distracted by that shiny Garchomp and its trainer she battled right after leaving the store for water. Her partner Axew hung on for dear life inside her hair as the trainer slowly walked with her eyes half-shut while sand blew against her carried by a strong gust. The walk through the desert was going just fine till the storm came out of nowhere.

“Can't even tell where I'm going.” Iris muttered, unable to use her compass or  map any more. “Even if this storm was to past, I don't know how I'm gonna tell where the heck I am any more. Where's that Kid to blame this on when I need him?”

Just as hope seemed lost, Iris saw what looked like a hole in the desert. She moved faster towards it to see what exactly it was.  

“A stair way?” Iris looked down to see steps leading down to a cave. “This might not be wise, but I could wait in here before the storm dies!”

Iris walked down the steps into the dark cave. Once at the bottom, her partner Pokemon jumped out as she shook her huge hair like crazy to get the sand out of her hair and clothes, creating a cloud of sand around her.   

“Man, it's gonna take weeks to wash out every grain of sand out of my hair!” the Dragon obsessed girl brushed her hair the best she could with her hands before her attention turned to her surroundings. “What is this place?”

A search of her bag brought out a flashlight which Iris switched on. Her dark surrounds lit up to show what looked like a long tunnel to which the light could not even reach the end. Before she wondered what could even be down the tunnel, Iris first looked at the painted walls.  

“Wow, have I stumbled upon an ancient Johto ruin?” Iris looked surprised at the sculptures. The writings written in that Unown language she had heard so much about, depictions of Pokemon she was familiar with like Sigilyph, Yamask, and Cofagrigus, Pokemon she had thought were the most native in her home region, as well as ones she had heard of but never seen like Natu and Xatu. The paintings seemed to depict those Pokemon co-existing with humans in harmony. “This is so interesting, maybe being stuck in this storm hasn't been so bad after....”    

At that moment, Iris suddenly froze in fear as she heard a whisper in her ear, creating a chill down her spine worse than the mention of any Ice type Pokemon. What scared her the most was that it felt like whoever whispered it to who was really close to her ear, even to the breeze of their cold breath. But turning around confirmed that was nobody there, just the empty dark tunnel. As her heart beat faster, she wondered what the heck she just heard. It was hard to make out, but she thought she could hear the words “ come here”.  

“T-There's no way I'm going down that dark tunnel!” Iris started to walk backwards towards the stairs. “If I know my ghost stories well, this is the wise moment I should get ou...”

“AXEW!” Iris' partner began to run off down the dark tunnel.  

“AXEW, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?!?” Iris asked her Pokemon. “GET BACK HERE!”

The Pokemon continued running down the tunnel till he could no long be seen. Conflicted on whether she should go after him or run to get help, Iris' concern for her partner was too great to leave him there alone.  

“Oh jeez.” Iris began walking down the tunnel in fear and quickly.   

The Dragon type trainer walked further and further down the dark tunnel with only her flashlight being the only light source as she had now walked so far to the point where the stairs were just a tiny spec of light behind her. Iris really did not want to be in this tunnel, her heart beating so heart it was hurting her chest. During this long walk, there were no doorways on the walls or any turnings, just a long straight tunnel with no visible end in sight or indeed her Pokemon.

“AXEW!” She kept calling her partner. “WHERE ARE YOU?”  

Her eyes focused forward, Iris did not pay any attention to the other paintings on the wall, depicting how one day, the Pokemon suddenly turned on the ancient people. Some attacking innocent people, with paintings only getting more graphic, more gorey and a lot more red used, but worrying were the people seemingly being mummified alive by Cofagrigus, with depictions of people struggling against their binds, choking and suffocating from the bandages before either being put inside the Pokemon or being buried alive by Pokemon using Sand Attack and Sandtomb. If Iris had looked at these further paintings, she would have run away regardless of her Pokemon.

“C-Calm down Iris!!!” the trainer told herself. “”A-At worse, only a G-Ghost Pokemon will give you a s-scare. They're not known to h-harm people!!!”

At last, Iris came to a doorway at the end of the long tunnel. It was the only one she came across so it had to be where Axew had gone. Entering the doorway and into a room, Iris saw her small Pokemon standing with its back turned to her.  

“Axew!!!” she whispered. Her plan of action was to grab her Pokemon and make a run for it. “Come on, let's get outta here!”

“Ax......ew.......” the Pokemon spoke silently.  

“What is it?” Iris shined her flashlight forward. The room was small but filled with with ancient caskets against the walls. The girl found herself shaking at the thought she was in a room full of dead bodies and in their tomb. Her light revealed a message spelt out in Unown letters. While her Unown-ese was not the best, Iris could certain read the small text that read;

“You are doomed”

With her hand against her mouth in terror, Iris could not even speak. Turning around, she saw a Pokemon stand before her blocking her way out. Not even saying its name, the Pokemon's red eyes lit up as the flashlight went out, leaving the girl in complete darkness.

Iris screamed her lungs out in complete fear for her life. Surrounds by darkness and with a Pokemon blocking her exit, her head ached as a thousands “what will I do”s span like a Rollout attack in her mind. Terrified and sweating, the thought of Emolga finally entered her mind, know justing by its typing it could light up the room as well as battle the Coffin Pokemon. Before she could even reach for a Pokeball however, something wrapped around both her wrists, stopping her arms with making any more movements. Being able able to see a thing, Iris could not tell what was continuing to wrap around her arms as well as starting the wrap her legs together, but it reminded her of an incident that happened of her old journeys with her friends.  

“NO!!!!!!!! NOT AGA....MRRRPH!!!” Her plea silenced by wrapping that gagged her mouth and continued down her neck. Last time this happened, she at least had the hope of Ash and Cilan rescuing her from a slight embarrassing situation. Here, the full terror of such a situation was realized. No one was with her, no one knew where she was, nothing would stop her from being mummified for real this time.  

“NOT THE EYES, NOT THE EYES!” She screamed in her thoughts only to have the bandages cover her eyes. As much as she struggles and wiggled around, it did not stop the rest of her body from being wrapped. Her arms against her sides, her legs sealed together, even her long hair getting an individual wrapping from her body.  Once complete, Iris now looked just like anyone had been fully mummified, only alive with her contend struggling. Blind and deaf to the outside world, her deep scared breaths coming from her nostrils that remained unblocked. Her body soon stopped the struggle even though she was screaming her mind and muffled moans for it to move but a Psychic attack stopped her. To make matters worse she felt her body start to float off the ground and forward. The horror of not seeing what she was floating towards was too much for Iris, her screams had now sucked her strength to even fight anymore. Her guess was this was just like before, being put inside the Cofagrigus, but after that? Just what would it do to her?  

The dragon trainer could feel herself standing against a surface and as well as the vibrations of something shutting. Soon enough, it felt like whatever she was in was now laid down on the ground and thus she was laid down also. After a short while of nothing, she felt something that felt like thudding sounds. Iris wondered what on earth that could be, but when she put everything together, the mummification, the Pokemon, and what usually happens in those times, the reality chilled her spine.  

As much as she screamed again though her binds, nothing would stop Iris being buried alive.  

Screaming and screaming, Iris tried her best to do what she could in this situation but as time when one, the thuds felt softer and softer until they stopped completely, much like her screams for help. If no one knew where she was now, then how the heck would they know she was buried underground, let alone in this hidden tunnel that no one might know of. Laid out in darkness, Iris wonder just what would come first. Would she run out of air first, or would she starve to death? What was just as bad was she had no idea what happened to Axew or if her Pokemon was even alive. From all the panic, confusion and her fate, she could not even see if they spared her Pokemon or if it met a similar or worse fate. She would have to be stuck with that for the entire time Iris would be stuck down there, which her life for all she knew was count down.  

“I couldnt save him....I can't even save myself...” Iris thought to herself. “Just trapped down her.....waiting for death.....”

At that moment, the girl started to feel sleeping from wasting her energy on struggling and screaming for so long. The girl was normally full of energy but it was like her struggle and something else just sucked the life out of her.  

“No....can't....sleep....” she tried to force herself to stay awake out of fear of never waking up again, but each passing moment just got harder and harder till at last, she just gave up all hope. “Farewall.......me......”

Dazed and half asleep, Iris soon opened her eyes to a much different scenery. She was outside, still in a desert but with no sandstorm. Just sand for miles from all directions and bluest most cloud free sky she had ever witnessed.  

“I'm....alive?” spoke Iris. Her eyes still half asleep. No matter how much she tried, her mindstate would not awaken further then having just opened her eyes from a goodnight's rest. Looking down briefly Iris saw she was just in her purest form, even  her hairbands were missing. “Or it this.....”

Before she could have a chance to think of the possibilities of where she was or even still alive, a blurred figure appeared in the distance, seemingly walking towards Iris. Still in a sleepy state, Iris tried watching the figure come closer to her. With every blink of her eyes, it seemed the person jumped ahead closer and closer the more her eyes blinked like something out of Doctor Wooper.  

Before she knew it, the person was standing right in front of her. She was older than Iris, towering her in height wearing gold clothing and accessories all over and hair so long but in a neater more straighter style then her own. She had never seen this person before yet, there was something familiar about her.  

“Enjoying your sleep?” the person spoke.  

“Who....who are you....?” the Dragon Trainer looked confused.  

“I am you silly!” the person replied.  

“You are....me?” Iris found it hard to think. “But that....not.....”

“Anything's possibly in a dream sweetie.” the older Iris replied. “And you've been dreaming for far too long!”

“I just...got here? Or did I....”

“You've been asleep for thousands of years, no, we've been asleep for that long! You've no doubt been dreaming about alternate lives.”

“Can't be.....Ash....Cilan.....they're....”

“All in your head. It's only natural your mind would come up with such dreams to pass the time till you reawaken. However, your true self is a guardian from the time of the pyramids.”

“No.....that's not right.....” Iris continued to think hard. “I am Iris......I'm going to be.....world's great dragon type.......something.....”

“Ssssshhhhh!” the older Iris put a finger over the younger Iris' lips. “We've got all the time in the world to remember.....just you, me, and us!”

And that was how Iris spent her time entombed. Her body in the mortal world kept preserved in her bandages and alive thanks to the Pokemon she was inside of. Kept asleep all that time, shut off and stuck in a never-ending dream. Even her aging had been slowed down thanks the to the psychic abilities of the Pokemon. Aging a day soon turned into a week, then with enough time to a month, then it became a day a year her body, ensuring she would be kept so young, so beautiful when or if she would ever awaken. Her mind however, became a prison of a dream. The person that claimed to be her repeated her supposed “real life” talk of how Iris was actually an ancient guardian that protected the tomb she was in. Her upbringing, her training, her family, it was all repeated in a loop for so so long that it became harder and harder each passing day for Iris to hold onto the memories of the ones she knew was her real life as each memory slowly began to fade away like footprints in the sand. It would be enough to drive anyone insane hearing the same things over and over again, but as her body in the dream started to change its appearance over the years, Iris was even forgetting herself.  

“Once more, who are you?” the older Iris asked.

“I am you, and you are me.” Iris responded, seemingly much more awake and now looking directly at her older self with level eye line. “I am the guardian of this temple and from the age of the pyramids! It is my sworn duty to protect this tomb from any intruders even after my friends and family have long left for the after life! This is my purpose and my duty!”

“You finally remembered!” the figure smiled as she was starting to fade away. “It is finally time for us to awaken. Protect this tomb with your life, like you always have done.....”

“I will do.” Iris replied as the figure vanished and her surroundings started to melt away. Her eyes in the real world awakened as her bandages started to peel off her body.  

The Pokemon finally opened, allowing Iris to sit back up. At long last, her mind started to wake up as the cogs in her head started to work normally. After what seemed like the longest yawn even, Iris looked down at her body, noticing change.  

“My, I have I grown to be such a big girl!” the now seemingly twenty-five year old shake her hips like an erotic dance as her gold jewelry and outfit rang and chimed with her movements. “No longer stubborn girl from my days training to be a guardian! Yes....that's is.....how its always been!”

Finally stopping her out of character attitude and admiring herself, Iris finally noticed the woman standing scared in front of her, dressed in clothing that neither of her lives recognized.  

“W-What are you?” the woman stuttered.  

“Oooh, a tomb robber?” Iris grinned. “Goodie! My local guardian Pokemon could do with a fresh snack to feast on for the next few thousand years!”

As the tunnel of the tomb echoed with the woman's screams of terror from being mummified to near death by the guardian Pokemon, Iris walked down the familiar tunnel, not noticing the mummified Axew sat by the wall as she walked pasted it without a care in a world other than to see the sunlight for the first time in such a long time. Once out, the older guardian Iris stretched her arms to feel the warm hot sun on the skin once again.

“Aaaaahhhhhhh! Its ben too long!” smiled Iris. “Wonder how long its been?”

Once done with her stretch, the guardian noticed something unfamiliar in the distance. It looked like a huge city, but unlike any of her lives had seen before. Huge structures that reached the skies all that was up to the domains of the gods she worshiped, flying  chariots without horses flying all around these structures, and lights all over this strange city, beaming with life.  

“Oh did I oversleep?” the guardian giggled as she returned to the darkness of her tomb, and her eternal duty. No one was left to find her, and no memories remained of the dragon type trainer once known as Iris. Just footprints in the sands that vanished over time.....

The End