A pokemon trainer, struggling with their own identity, finds a magical spring--and soon after, a new life. A wholesome story I did as part of a trade with  Sph9398.

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“There it is,” Sam said, stopping in his tracks as he pushed a fern out of his way to reveal the destination he'd hiked half the world to reach; “I've found it... I've finally found it! The Fountain of True Wishing!”

The twenty-something couldn't help but reflect on the events that had led him to this moment; to begin with, Sam had always hated his own body. It had started early on, with the slow realization that something was wrong with him; at first, he thought he was crazy, messed up in the head. That certainly had seemed to be the opinion of his peers, especially his parents and teachers who frequently chewed him out for drawing pictures of zoroarks during classes at school, or rolling their eyes when he said he couldn't find clothes that “felt right”. But something told him that he wasn't crazy, that the problem lay not in his mind, but in his body. Somehow, he'd been born in the wrong one. Somehow, through some freak whim of Arceus, he had been born a human when his soul had clearly been meant for the body of a pokemon. That much, he'd figured out; there was still a piece missing from the puzzle, but he figured he'd find out what else was wrong once he solved the first issue. To that end, he spent the better half of his college life searching high and low for ways to change one's form; eventually, he learned of a sacred spring deep within the forests of Unova, supposedly blessed with the gift of granting the innermost wish of whoever drank from its waters... provided that wish, and the one wishing it, was worthy. Then, after years of searching, he'd found a lead on the spring; with a desperation born of two entire decades' worth of feeling incorrect, and excitement at the possibility of liberation from that feeling, Sam spent literally every last cent he had and set out on a journey to find the solution to his problems.

And now, as he blinked in wonder and awe, he knew his journey was complete; there, in front of him, in the middle of a clearing deep within an unnamed forest, lay a pool of almost-unnaturally clear water, spilling out from a crack in a moss-covered stone. Sunlight shone down upon the pool through the trees, seeming to illuminate the water almost exclusively, as if by design. The very air felt... ancient, old beyond comprehension, disconnected from the world outside the clearing, and even the grass and trees seemed to radiate an almost imperceptible feeling of power.

Approaching the edge of the water carefully, Sam fell to his knees and stared deeply into the pond; though clear as glass, the water sparkled, and his own image was somehow reflected as perfectly as in a mirror. He took a deep breath, then began to speak—slowly, softly, with reverence—and prayed that his words were heard by the powers that be.

“Fountain... Arceus... All the Divine Pokemon, past and present... hear my wish: I want to change. I want to become who I'm supposed to be. Who I always should have been...” As soon as Sam finished speaking, the wind seemed to shift slightly, sending odd ripples through the water; taking that as a sign of assent, he bent down, cupped some water in his hands, closed his eyes... and drank.

Moments passed in utter silence; finally, Sam opened his eyes, peered down... and felt his heart shatter at the sight of his still-human hands, his ugly, wrong face staring back at him from the surface of the spring. All of it had been for nothing. With a shriek of rage—and no small amount of grief—he splashed the water and stood up, kicking the ground repeatedly. Realizing the inadvisability of lingering in a spot like this when he clearly was not wanted there, Sam took one last look at the waters of the spring, then twisted his gaze sharply away from the reflection before beginning the long walk back to civilization.

He was too busy with his thoughts to notice that, even as he looked away, his reflection had remained static, and slowly vanished like mist as he left the clearing.

“I can't believe I got my hopes up”, Sam said to himself bitterly; “What a joke.” He scratched an odd itch on his right arm before circling that shoulder a bit to get rid of a strange knot that had seemed to briefly form there, but kept walking. As he continued on his way through the forest, he noticed that the sounds of nature around him seemed louder and clearer, with smells he didn't notice before; remembering the itch from earlier, and feeling a hope spark in his chest, he looked down at himself... but nothing had changed. He was still human. Sam growled in frustration; what was wrong with him?! Was he truly so pathetic that he'd have a mental breakdown over something as stupid and childish as a spring not being magic? Damn, that itch again... He scratched at the feeling, making it go away... only for it to pop up elsewhere on his body. I must have brushed up against poison ivy or something. Great. Continuing to scratch himself, Sam became more and more vexed as the itch only seemed to spread; even as he looked down at himself, he saw no rash, no parasite nibbling on him, nothing to indicate what was causing the annoyance. Briefly, he wondered if something were truly wrong with him... and then he felt the earlier muscle knot return, then pop itself away, leaving a sense of relief in its place only for a new knot to form somewhere else. The sounds and scents of the forest only seemed to grow in strength, and suddenly Sam began to feel a twinge of fear; what if there was some disease in the water, or some toxin? What if he'd poisoned himself?

Before Sam could muse on this further, a pressure seemed to build in his feet, his chest, his lower back, his hands, and his face, all accompanied by the constant, infuriating itch that now covered his entire body. And still he looked no different from before. He felt his weight shift forward slightly, and the sudden change in his center of mass combined with the increasingly unpleasant sensations sent him falling onto his hands and knees. Sam tried to call out, but something caught in his throat, and he felt the strange sensations move into his mouth and cause his teeth to ache; this was followed by an even more bizarre, and completely indescribable, sensation of something happening between his legs. Everything felt odd, different, and alien; the itch wouldn't stop, new knots came and went, the pressure built and receded and built again, and all the while the sensory overload of his surroundings only increased.

“Hey! Are you okay?”

A voice from the brush behind Sam called out, filled with concern, but Sam was in too much... not quite pain, but definite distress, to be able to turn to look at them. “I... I drank something! Something's wrong with me!”

“The fountain...” the voice realized; “You drank from it? What in the world did you wish for, lady? Whatever it was, Arceus must not have liked it!”

Sam was about to shout back when a single word stood out, one that seemed strange... but not wrong. In fact, something about it felt oddly right, though it left him utterly confused. “Wait... why did you call me 'lady'?”

The voice stood closer, now filled with confusion as well as concern. “Um... because you're a female. And your disguise sucks.”

“What do you mean, 'dis—'” Sam froze in shock; he had somehow gained enough strength to whip his head around to look at his new companion, only to see a zoroark staring back at him. “You... you're a pokemon...”

The zoroark raised an eyebrow. “My name is Ebon, and you have a really good grasp of the obvious, lady. But when I said your disguise sucks, what I mean is that your acting needs work. If you were human, you wouldn't be able to understand me.”

Sam looked down at himself; as the conversation had continued, the unpleasant sensations had worn off, but he still felt different... and yet, visually, he remained human. And male. “I... I don't get it. That fountain, I must be hallucinating or something...”

At last, Ebon seemed to realize something; placing a paw on Sam's shoulder, the zoroark began to speak in a soft and calm tone of voice, as if trying to comfort him. “Tell me your name, and what you wished for, specifically.”

“My name is Sam. I... I wanted to be who I was supposed to be when I was born. I was born in the wrong body, I know it's crazy, but it's true...”

Ebon smiled. “Well, you got your wish, Sam—you're a female zoroark. But whichever god was in charge of that fountain forgot to teach you how to control your own illusions.”

Once more, Sam looked over himself—herself? Was he a she now? Or had he always been a she on the inside? This was so confusing—but still couldn't see anything different. Even so, Sam knew, somehow, that Ebon was telling the truth. “I... how do I do it? I want to see what I look like...”

“Just calm down,” Ebon said gently, “and listen carefully. Your illusions are based on your imagination... but in the end, that's all it is. Your imagination. It's not real. Just focus on what you can feel and touch; that's what's real.”

Sam nodded, and tried his—her?—best, but even as the air around him shimmered slightly, indicating that there WAS some form of illusion there, something was keeping it there. Sam knew, in that moment, what that something was; it was the feeling that had been a constant issue for Sam's entire life.

“I'm... I'm scared. What if I don't like what I see?”

With a warm smile, Ebon patted her shoulder again and spoke with a tone more genuine and kind than Sam had ever heard. “It's alright. You'll be fine, I promise. Just let it go.”

At that, Sam nodded, and began to focus on the feeling of the grass, the scents and sounds of the forest... the softness of Ebon's fur and the soothing tone of his voice. Slowly, the air shimmered more and more, and before Sam knew it, he—no, SHE, she she she she SHE!—was looking down at herself, a full-on zoroark. “It really did work!...Oh wow,” Sam said, startled by her new voice. It sounded higher, more feminine, more right. For the first time in her life, everything felt right. She felt so free and clear, like she had been carrying a million-ton burden her whole life and it was gone, gloriously gone. “I... I can't believe it! It feels amazing! I could just—” Sam was stopped cold by the look on Ebon's face. “Are... are you blushing?”

Ebon answered with a nervous shake in his voice. “Well... I, uh, didn't expect you to be quite so cute.”

Sam couldn't help but laugh again, the sound of her own voice once again music to her ears as she stood up onto her hindpaws. “It's okay. I'm still getting used to it myself.”

Ebon held out his paw, obviously trying to look her in the eye but too flustered to do it. “Um... w-would you like me to help you figure it out more? Maybe I could show you around the forest a bit, help you adjust... or not... whatever...”

He's kind of adorable, Sam thought. “I guess I can't say no to that, Ebon. Lead the way!”

With no regrets, Sam took Ebon's paw, and allowed him to lead her into a new world, a new life—one that she finally felt eager to explore.