PROLOGUE
The year is 627 A.P.B. (After Poke Ball). The Hoenn Region is embroiled in a deep civil war. The Free Nation of Hoenn, centered in Eastern Hoenn, wants to throw off the shackles of Hoenn's restrictive and oppressive government and create a free society for all. The Nationalists, strongest in Western Hoenn, want to simply end the war and return to the status quo.
At first glance, one would obviously side with the brave and rebellious F.N.H. However, if one were to debate with a Nationalist sympathizer, one would hear the argument that the Hoenn Region did not, in fact, have a restrictive government. In fact, it did not have a government at all. A Nationalist would argue that the Hoenn Region was a loose collection of city-states engaged in an organized collective; an alliance, if you will. Without a solid government to rebel against, surely the goal of the F.N.H. is erroneous, and they are nothing more than a pack of barbarians howling for blood? At which point the Nationalist would start yelling incomprehensibly, and the conversation would cease.
Despite this minor setback of a lack of central government, the F.N.H. continues to fight against their former oppressors and crusade for a free society, usually during very bloody battles with the Nationalists that mostly got absolutely nowhere except downwards, population-wise. Arceus, in His infinite wisdom, has sought not to intervene, stating that "
It's you humans who got yourself into this mess, you have to get yourself out of it. It's not my job to bail you out of every single mess you find yourselves in. I made you to be self-sufficient, so get on with it."
In other news, Arceism is losing its grasp in Hoenn, with many turning instead to Kan-Johto polytheistic practices.
This long and exhausting war has been taking its toll on many inhabitants of the Hoenn Region. Some are escaping persecution and battle in their old homes to move to some unknown place in the wilderness where they might (and will) fall into disease, starvation, and overcrowding. Some are led by "underground railroads", while others use more lone-wolf methods to escape from all the bloodshed.
This is the story of one such refugee.