by Laura Pinesdottir's true parents are unknown to thee world. She was found as an infant among the Viridian Forest pine trees (hence her given last name of Pinesdottir, which literally translates to 'daughter of the trees'), her first monster companion Bloom hovering around her. She was discovered by a young, well-off couple who had just moved to the area, taking her into their home (albeit without Bloom) in Viridian City as if she was their own daughter. They treated her with love and care, feeding her and experiencing all of the events of her first year.
A week after the first anniversary of her discovery, however, tragedy struck. Laura became terribly ill, with skyrocketing fevers and terrible pains. Her adoptive parents took care of her as best as they could, calling in doctors from around the Kanto Kingdom to look at her and constantly staying by her side, but nothing seemed to work. Her incessant crying was constantly getting on the father's nerves as well; after spending seventy-two hours at her bedside, with her crying haveing prevented either parent from sleeping during that time, the father made a reckless plea to whatever gods that were listening: to have his adoptive daughter stop crying. Within seconds, all sound coming from the young, blue-haired child ceased, and she fell asleep peacefully for the first time in weeks.
The parents rejoiced at their stroke of luck. Laura's fever had completely subsided (although her body would never quite recover, staying frail through to the present), and she and her parents both slept for almost two days straight. When all three awoke, the parents came in to say hello to their daughter, only to realize the bittersweet truth: Whether due to the illness or from the father's wish, Laura had completely lost her ability to make any sort of sound from her mouth, let alone speak. Distraught, the parents went through the cycle of doctors once more, trying to help their daughter regain her voice. Every one told them the same thing: Laura would never speak again. She was helplessly mute.
Laura's childhood was filled with sadness. Her adoptive father, guilty over his plea, stayed away from her as much as he could, going out of his way to remain out of the house as much as possible. Her adoptive mother, as much as she loved Laura, knew that she was the reason that her father had grown distant, and always held a certain bitterness towards her. Despite this distance between parent and child, or perhaps because of the guilt it caused, Laura was given the best upbringing her family could give. She was trained in various instruments and visual arts, demonstrating a talent for both. She especially enjoyed her instruments, knowing that it was the only way she could express her feelings. She also always had the latest in technologies. The parents gave her the silver medallion with her name engraved on it during this time, so strangers would know her name when she wandered out. She still holds the medallion to this day, the only memento from her adoptive parents that she owns.
School and social lives were a nightmare for the young, mute child: Without a voice, she couldn't socialize, and ended up lonely and alone at school as well. Combined with her parents' distance, this created an incredible pit of loneliness that Laura could not escape. As a young child, Laura felt trapped; not only was she constantly feeling sad and lonely, she had no way to express it. Even when she cried, no sobs emerged; tears were the only sign of her sadness.
One day, during recess on a cold December day, an eight-year-old Laura had had enough. She slowly moved further and further from the playground, eventually fading into the trees of the Viridian Forest; nobody noticed that the silent, solitary girl was missing until she was already far into the woods. She sat on a tree stump and cried for hours, causing widespread panic as the city searched for her. Right as she was about to get up and head home, her loneliness having only deepened, she heard a large growl. A large monster burst through the trees, rapidly approaching the frail, exhausted Laura. Laura screamed in fear, desperately trying to make herself heard, but no sound came out; she resigned herself to her fate, tears streaming down her face. The beast soon stopped, however, looking around confusedly.
A vine had wrapped itself around the monster's leg, preventing it from moving any further towards the helpless girl. Searching for the source, Laura saw a small plant spirit pulling with all of it's might, slowly pulling the larger monster away from the girl. It was none other than Bloom, the Phantump that had protected her in the forest as an infant; of course, Laura didn't recognize him at the time, having not seen him in her memory. She got up and began to walk towards him, walking straight towards the large monster in the process. The monster, however, seemed to have calmed; it looked at Laura not with rage any more, but with sorrow. Laura could almost feel the beast offering apologies as she walked by; to acknowledge this, she gave the beast a smile in return - the first time she'd smiled in weeks.
Laura spent the next phase of her life living exclusively in Viridian Forest, letting Bloom and the larger monster teach her how to survive in the wilderness. They showed her which berries and other foods were safe to eat, protected her from other hostile beasts (although all the hostile beasts calmed down after a minute or so of being around her), and the larger monster even allowed her to ride on it's back when she was tired. She had not yet realized it, but she had unlocked her most awesome and unique talent - the ability to befriend and become friends with the various monsters that littered the landscape of the Kanto Kingdom.
The ability evolved as she spent more time with her new friends; after the first month, Laura's previous experience with Bloom and their extremely strong bond worked together and made her empathetic abilities blossom into full-blown telepathy. They could hear each other's thoughts, conversing more easily than anything else in the forest. This was how Laura learned Bloom's name and species, and also the species and name of the larger beast: Vion the Rhyhorn. Laura continued to live with Vion and Bloom for some years; she felt a closer connection to these beings that other humans labeled as 'monsters' than anything she had ever felt for a human being. It was companionship, but it was more than that; Laura, Vion, and Bloom had absolute trust in one another, and would place their lives in each other's hands without hesitation.
The years passed, and Laura progressed from a small, rail-thin child into a taller, still undeveloped teen. Spending years without seeing another human being had convinced her body that she would never reproduce, and as such, only spent the bare minimum of it's energy on puberty. Not that Laura cared; as far as she knew and desired, she would spend the rest of her life in the forest with her friends. Fate, however, had other ideas. An as-of-yet unnamed Monster Trainer paid a visit to the forest; he wasn't the first one that Laura had heard of, but it was the first time that her group encountered one. Seeing the young girl with the fearsome beast next to her, the Monster Trainer believed that Laura was under attack; he sent out one of his domesticated monsters, ordering it to save her. The monster, being one of brute force, decided to go about this by attacking the unsuspecting Vion; it struck the large monster with a flurry of powerful blows, leaving the Rhyhorn crippled. Laura and Bloom watched on in horror as the Trainer ordered his monster to continue attacking, and it obliged with glee. It wasn't even a fight; it was a slaughter. Vion died right there on the ground, in front of his two closest companions.
This was the first time Laura had ever seen death, and it scarred her like nothing else. Her vision swam with a mixture of tears and rage as the Monster Trainer recalled his monster with a strange orb and approached the blue-haired girl with a smile on his face. He said something, but Laura did not listen; to this day, she has no interest of knowing what he said. She lashed out, pounding on the startled and unsuspecting 'savior'. The Trainer reached for his strange machines to fight back, only to grasp at air; Bloom had taken them with his vines, watching with grim approval as Laura beat the man who had murdered their friend to within an inch of his life. She would have killed the man without a second thought had she not noticed the paper within his coat pocket; unable to restrain her curiosity, she took it out and unfolded it. A large picture of her as a child was emblazoned on it, with the text 'MISSING. REPORT IF FOUND.' Laura's eyes widened in shock and fury at the page; after all these years, they were still looking for her. Why hadn't they figured out that she didn't want to be found? With her mind in turmoil from so many shocks in the past fifteen minutes, Laura passed out on top of the Monster Trainer.
--
Another Trainer, the first man's partner, came across Laura and the man within minutes of the whole debacle. She took Laura and her partner back to Viridian City, Bloom following behind from the shadows. He didn't care if he would never come back to this forest, he wasn't going to lose his only other friend. Laura was taken to the Viridian Hospital and her unconscious body was forcibly clothed. The male Monster Trainer awoke before Laura, and the two Trainers tried to convince the nurse that she was the one in the poster; the nurse, however, denied it, and said that even if it was the same girl, the couple that had posted the reward had left Viridian City years ago. The Monster Trainers left in disgust, leaving Laura in the hospital.
Laura spent the next few weeks in the hospital, slowly and grudgingly readjusting to the rules of human society. The nurses were nice enough to her, even though she couldn't speak; they fed her and clothed her, even if the food was terrible compared to the abundant berries of the forest. Bloom watched her the entire time, although he only made his presence known to her at night when all the nurses had turned out the lights and gone home. The two made plans to return to the forest once Laura was released, bury their friend, and hunt down the two Monster Hunters for vengeance.
Three weeks after Laura had entered the hospital, however, things took a turn for the worst. A nurse walked in with a woman in a suit and a large man behind her, explaining that she was from the Celadon City Academy for Disabled Kids, a boarding school, and that she had offered to take Laura there in order to help her reintegrate. Laura tried to make her displeasure known by attacking the woman in the suit, but the large man restrained her. They took her out to a car, where the large man sat her and himself in the back in order to keep her restrained. Bloom hid in the trunk to make the number of occupants 4 as the suited woman drove them from Viridian city to Celadon. From there, they enrolled Laura into the Academy.
Laura hated the academy with all of her heart. Everything was rigidly structured, compared to the total freedom she had in the forest. Being around disabled people served only to remind her of her own disability. And worst of all, monsters of any kind were prohibited on the grounds of the academy (which they were not allowed to leave). Laura was, once again, cut off completely from the rest of the world, unable to make her feelings known. She gained a reputation as the troublemaker in classes, constantly causing trouble for her teachers and the other students; the only things she stayed calm for were music classes and the arts, the subjects she knew of and immensely enjoyed. Bloom watched her surreptitiously and religiously all through the day, moving to create a food stockpile at night so that he could not take breaks from watching and protected her. Their separation was nightmarish for both, leaving Laura wondering if her friend had abandoned her and leaving Bloom feeling frustrated and helpless that he could not help his friend.
In the three years Laura spent at the academy, there was a single good thing that came out of it: She made her first human friend. Jia Fross, a deaf girl who was in most of Laura's classes in their second year, had a similar reputation as a troublemaker; Laura's deafness was no object to their relationship, as Jia could not hear anyway. The two let their actions speak louder than their words, bonding over the trouble they caused and the hatred for the academy that both had. Laura found herself wishing that Jia was a monster, if only because they would actually be able to communicate then. Their antics in their second year caused the heads of the academy to purposefully split them up in the third year, but the two continued to see each other during meals and during 'free time' (which was anything but). Despite all that had happened, the formation of a friendship caused Laura to have hope for the future.
And then, the world died.
It came suddenly, without warning. The earth shook, the skies glowed the dark red of Armageddon, and many of the faculty and students simply dropped dead where they stood. The academy fell down around them as a fire (god knows how it started) blazed through the rubble. While Laura was immensely happy to see the academy dying, she found herself trapped underneath an awning as the fire raced towards her. Laura shut her eyes and prepared for the worst, only to feel herself and the rubble she was on lifting up. Her spirits soared as she looked up to behold Bloom, removing the rubble with one vine and carrying Laura with the other. Bloom carried Laura out of the academy, sharing a tearful reunion and embracing after they had escaped the danger. Bloom revealed to Laura that this truly was the end of their world; these disasters spanned the entirety of Kanto. The two held each other tightly as the ground ruptured beneath them, swallowing them up whole.
--
Laura awoke sleepily beside Bloom in a field of ash. The remains of the Celadon City Academy for Disabled Kids lay before them still, meaning they were still alive, somehow. Laura sat there, pondering their miraculous survival until a familiar face stumbled out of the doorway to the Academy. Laura and Jia had a tremendous embrace, as both celebrated their survival; Bloom awoke as well soon afterwards, only raising Laura's spirits further. Together, the three of them set out to explore their surroundings, discovering that where once had been the ocean now lay a tremendous mountain range. Even if they were alive, this was no longer their Kanto; but then, none of them had truly cared about their world anyway. Spirits high, Laura and Bloom set off with their friend to explore their forever-changed world.
FIN
A week after the first anniversary of her discovery, however, tragedy struck. Laura became terribly ill, with skyrocketing fevers and terrible pains. Her adoptive parents took care of her as best as they could, calling in doctors from around the Kanto Kingdom to look at her and constantly staying by her side, but nothing seemed to work. Her incessant crying was constantly getting on the father's nerves as well; after spending seventy-two hours at her bedside, with her crying haveing prevented either parent from sleeping during that time, the father made a reckless plea to whatever gods that were listening: to have his adoptive daughter stop crying. Within seconds, all sound coming from the young, blue-haired child ceased, and she fell asleep peacefully for the first time in weeks.
The parents rejoiced at their stroke of luck. Laura's fever had completely subsided (although her body would never quite recover, staying frail through to the present), and she and her parents both slept for almost two days straight. When all three awoke, the parents came in to say hello to their daughter, only to realize the bittersweet truth: Whether due to the illness or from the father's wish, Laura had completely lost her ability to make any sort of sound from her mouth, let alone speak. Distraught, the parents went through the cycle of doctors once more, trying to help their daughter regain her voice. Every one told them the same thing: Laura would never speak again. She was helplessly mute.
Laura's childhood was filled with sadness. Her adoptive father, guilty over his plea, stayed away from her as much as he could, going out of his way to remain out of the house as much as possible. Her adoptive mother, as much as she loved Laura, knew that she was the reason that her father had grown distant, and always held a certain bitterness towards her. Despite this distance between parent and child, or perhaps because of the guilt it caused, Laura was given the best upbringing her family could give. She was trained in various instruments and visual arts, demonstrating a talent for both. She especially enjoyed her instruments, knowing that it was the only way she could express her feelings. She also always had the latest in technologies. The parents gave her the silver medallion with her name engraved on it during this time, so strangers would know her name when she wandered out. She still holds the medallion to this day, the only memento from her adoptive parents that she owns.
School and social lives were a nightmare for the young, mute child: Without a voice, she couldn't socialize, and ended up lonely and alone at school as well. Combined with her parents' distance, this created an incredible pit of loneliness that Laura could not escape. As a young child, Laura felt trapped; not only was she constantly feeling sad and lonely, she had no way to express it. Even when she cried, no sobs emerged; tears were the only sign of her sadness.
One day, during recess on a cold December day, an eight-year-old Laura had had enough. She slowly moved further and further from the playground, eventually fading into the trees of the Viridian Forest; nobody noticed that the silent, solitary girl was missing until she was already far into the woods. She sat on a tree stump and cried for hours, causing widespread panic as the city searched for her. Right as she was about to get up and head home, her loneliness having only deepened, she heard a large growl. A large monster burst through the trees, rapidly approaching the frail, exhausted Laura. Laura screamed in fear, desperately trying to make herself heard, but no sound came out; she resigned herself to her fate, tears streaming down her face. The beast soon stopped, however, looking around confusedly.
A vine had wrapped itself around the monster's leg, preventing it from moving any further towards the helpless girl. Searching for the source, Laura saw a small plant spirit pulling with all of it's might, slowly pulling the larger monster away from the girl. It was none other than Bloom, the Phantump that had protected her in the forest as an infant; of course, Laura didn't recognize him at the time, having not seen him in her memory. She got up and began to walk towards him, walking straight towards the large monster in the process. The monster, however, seemed to have calmed; it looked at Laura not with rage any more, but with sorrow. Laura could almost feel the beast offering apologies as she walked by; to acknowledge this, she gave the beast a smile in return - the first time she'd smiled in weeks.
Laura spent the next phase of her life living exclusively in Viridian Forest, letting Bloom and the larger monster teach her how to survive in the wilderness. They showed her which berries and other foods were safe to eat, protected her from other hostile beasts (although all the hostile beasts calmed down after a minute or so of being around her), and the larger monster even allowed her to ride on it's back when she was tired. She had not yet realized it, but she had unlocked her most awesome and unique talent - the ability to befriend and become friends with the various monsters that littered the landscape of the Kanto Kingdom.
The ability evolved as she spent more time with her new friends; after the first month, Laura's previous experience with Bloom and their extremely strong bond worked together and made her empathetic abilities blossom into full-blown telepathy. They could hear each other's thoughts, conversing more easily than anything else in the forest. This was how Laura learned Bloom's name and species, and also the species and name of the larger beast: Vion the Rhyhorn. Laura continued to live with Vion and Bloom for some years; she felt a closer connection to these beings that other humans labeled as 'monsters' than anything she had ever felt for a human being. It was companionship, but it was more than that; Laura, Vion, and Bloom had absolute trust in one another, and would place their lives in each other's hands without hesitation.
The years passed, and Laura progressed from a small, rail-thin child into a taller, still undeveloped teen. Spending years without seeing another human being had convinced her body that she would never reproduce, and as such, only spent the bare minimum of it's energy on puberty. Not that Laura cared; as far as she knew and desired, she would spend the rest of her life in the forest with her friends. Fate, however, had other ideas. An as-of-yet unnamed Monster Trainer paid a visit to the forest; he wasn't the first one that Laura had heard of, but it was the first time that her group encountered one. Seeing the young girl with the fearsome beast next to her, the Monster Trainer believed that Laura was under attack; he sent out one of his domesticated monsters, ordering it to save her. The monster, being one of brute force, decided to go about this by attacking the unsuspecting Vion; it struck the large monster with a flurry of powerful blows, leaving the Rhyhorn crippled. Laura and Bloom watched on in horror as the Trainer ordered his monster to continue attacking, and it obliged with glee. It wasn't even a fight; it was a slaughter. Vion died right there on the ground, in front of his two closest companions.
This was the first time Laura had ever seen death, and it scarred her like nothing else. Her vision swam with a mixture of tears and rage as the Monster Trainer recalled his monster with a strange orb and approached the blue-haired girl with a smile on his face. He said something, but Laura did not listen; to this day, she has no interest of knowing what he said. She lashed out, pounding on the startled and unsuspecting 'savior'. The Trainer reached for his strange machines to fight back, only to grasp at air; Bloom had taken them with his vines, watching with grim approval as Laura beat the man who had murdered their friend to within an inch of his life. She would have killed the man without a second thought had she not noticed the paper within his coat pocket; unable to restrain her curiosity, she took it out and unfolded it. A large picture of her as a child was emblazoned on it, with the text 'MISSING. REPORT IF FOUND.' Laura's eyes widened in shock and fury at the page; after all these years, they were still looking for her. Why hadn't they figured out that she didn't want to be found? With her mind in turmoil from so many shocks in the past fifteen minutes, Laura passed out on top of the Monster Trainer.
--
Another Trainer, the first man's partner, came across Laura and the man within minutes of the whole debacle. She took Laura and her partner back to Viridian City, Bloom following behind from the shadows. He didn't care if he would never come back to this forest, he wasn't going to lose his only other friend. Laura was taken to the Viridian Hospital and her unconscious body was forcibly clothed. The male Monster Trainer awoke before Laura, and the two Trainers tried to convince the nurse that she was the one in the poster; the nurse, however, denied it, and said that even if it was the same girl, the couple that had posted the reward had left Viridian City years ago. The Monster Trainers left in disgust, leaving Laura in the hospital.
Laura spent the next few weeks in the hospital, slowly and grudgingly readjusting to the rules of human society. The nurses were nice enough to her, even though she couldn't speak; they fed her and clothed her, even if the food was terrible compared to the abundant berries of the forest. Bloom watched her the entire time, although he only made his presence known to her at night when all the nurses had turned out the lights and gone home. The two made plans to return to the forest once Laura was released, bury their friend, and hunt down the two Monster Hunters for vengeance.
Three weeks after Laura had entered the hospital, however, things took a turn for the worst. A nurse walked in with a woman in a suit and a large man behind her, explaining that she was from the Celadon City Academy for Disabled Kids, a boarding school, and that she had offered to take Laura there in order to help her reintegrate. Laura tried to make her displeasure known by attacking the woman in the suit, but the large man restrained her. They took her out to a car, where the large man sat her and himself in the back in order to keep her restrained. Bloom hid in the trunk to make the number of occupants 4 as the suited woman drove them from Viridian city to Celadon. From there, they enrolled Laura into the Academy.
Laura hated the academy with all of her heart. Everything was rigidly structured, compared to the total freedom she had in the forest. Being around disabled people served only to remind her of her own disability. And worst of all, monsters of any kind were prohibited on the grounds of the academy (which they were not allowed to leave). Laura was, once again, cut off completely from the rest of the world, unable to make her feelings known. She gained a reputation as the troublemaker in classes, constantly causing trouble for her teachers and the other students; the only things she stayed calm for were music classes and the arts, the subjects she knew of and immensely enjoyed. Bloom watched her surreptitiously and religiously all through the day, moving to create a food stockpile at night so that he could not take breaks from watching and protected her. Their separation was nightmarish for both, leaving Laura wondering if her friend had abandoned her and leaving Bloom feeling frustrated and helpless that he could not help his friend.
In the three years Laura spent at the academy, there was a single good thing that came out of it: She made her first human friend. Jia Fross, a deaf girl who was in most of Laura's classes in their second year, had a similar reputation as a troublemaker; Laura's deafness was no object to their relationship, as Jia could not hear anyway. The two let their actions speak louder than their words, bonding over the trouble they caused and the hatred for the academy that both had. Laura found herself wishing that Jia was a monster, if only because they would actually be able to communicate then. Their antics in their second year caused the heads of the academy to purposefully split them up in the third year, but the two continued to see each other during meals and during 'free time' (which was anything but). Despite all that had happened, the formation of a friendship caused Laura to have hope for the future.
And then, the world died.
It came suddenly, without warning. The earth shook, the skies glowed the dark red of Armageddon, and many of the faculty and students simply dropped dead where they stood. The academy fell down around them as a fire (god knows how it started) blazed through the rubble. While Laura was immensely happy to see the academy dying, she found herself trapped underneath an awning as the fire raced towards her. Laura shut her eyes and prepared for the worst, only to feel herself and the rubble she was on lifting up. Her spirits soared as she looked up to behold Bloom, removing the rubble with one vine and carrying Laura with the other. Bloom carried Laura out of the academy, sharing a tearful reunion and embracing after they had escaped the danger. Bloom revealed to Laura that this truly was the end of their world; these disasters spanned the entirety of Kanto. The two held each other tightly as the ground ruptured beneath them, swallowing them up whole.
--
Laura awoke sleepily beside Bloom in a field of ash. The remains of the Celadon City Academy for Disabled Kids lay before them still, meaning they were still alive, somehow. Laura sat there, pondering their miraculous survival until a familiar face stumbled out of the doorway to the Academy. Laura and Jia had a tremendous embrace, as both celebrated their survival; Bloom awoke as well soon afterwards, only raising Laura's spirits further. Together, the three of them set out to explore their surroundings, discovering that where once had been the ocean now lay a tremendous mountain range. Even if they were alive, this was no longer their Kanto; but then, none of them had truly cared about their world anyway. Spirits high, Laura and Bloom set off with their friend to explore their forever-changed world.
FIN
