Chapter One - Left Alone In the Dark
Hannah shivered as a chill wind blew through the air. The forest was eerie. The trees were nearly bare of leaves, and curls of fog swept around her as she drifted just above the ground. The forest was known for having strong pokémon, but she and the rest of her team had run into none so far, and there was not even a sound that might mean one was there. It was almost unnatural, to be so empty and devoid of life. There was something profoundly wrong about the place.
"This place creeping you out too?" Lyla, the growlithe who was leading her, asked.
"Yeah," Hannah admitted. "Doesn't it seem weird to you that we haven't come across any pokémon so far? I mean, the forest is notorious for having them."
Lyla shrugged. "Maybe there's some ritual that the wild pokémon do on this night." When Hannah still didn't look convinced, Lyla said, "We're just lucky. There's nothing to worry about."
"Okay," Hannah said, though she was still wary. "But let's hurry. It's cold out, and we should find Azumarill as soon as possible anyway."
"How far do you think we've gone in?" Chrissy, a skitty, asked, glancing back behind her.
"I don't know," Hannah said. They'd been traveling for a while, starting out a couple hours before sunset, so by now they must have been deep in the forest.
"Pretty far, I'd guess, but the forest is known for being huge, so we could still have a while to go."
Chrissy sighed. "I was hoping we'd almost be done," she said. "But I guess there's a reason that Azurill could only find us to accept the rescue."
"That, and the reason that the higher-leveled teams wouldn't take it either," Jaylee, the fourth member of their team, said darkly, shooting Hannah a glare from her position at the back. Her wings were folded across her chest.
"I know how you feel about this, Jaylee," Hannah said, turning to the piplup. "But the decision's final."
"Just because you're the leader of our team," Jaylee muttered. "They didn't want to come, either."
Hannah glanced at her other teammates. Neither of them said anything to contradict Jaylee's accusation. But they hadn't objected to coming here either.
"Well, we couldn't just leave Azurill without any one to rescue her mother," Hannah snapped. "You saw how desperate she was."
"There's a reason she was desperate," Jaylee replied. "Everyone knows that Azumarill probably isn't going to make it. Even Azurill probably knew."
"That's not why she was desperate!" Hannah protested. "She was desperate because her mother was missing!"
"Yes," Jaylee said. "But that wasn't the only rea... son?" She stopped mid-word, staring into an overgrown bush that lined the path.
"Did anyone see something there?" she asked, gesturing to the bush. Hannah peered into the dark tangle of branches.
"I don't see anything," she said. "What did you think you saw?"
"I didn't think I saw it," Jaylee snapped. "It was actually there. And it was just a pair of eyes."
"Must have been one of the forest pokémon," Lyla commented. "As long as it doesn't attack, we'll be fine."
"Everyone keep an eye out," Hannah said. "In case we see another one."
"Maybe they're coming out now that it's night," Chrissy suggested.
Hannah shook her head. "It's been night for a while now. That one's probably just the first to wander near."
"Or we haven't been paying that much attention," the skitty said. "Cause I know that I haven't."
"Yes, but you never pay attention," Hannah replied. "You're just unobservant."
"So?" Chrissy protested. "It's dark!"
"It wasn't before~" Hannah replied in a sing-song voice.
"Yeah, well, whatever!" Chrissy said. "We we were discussing... why we've only just started to see pokémon."
"I actually think Chrissy is right," Lyla said. "About us not paying attention, I mean. Was anyone paying close attention before now?"
"I was," Hannah said.
"Did you see anything?" Lyla asked. "Anything at all?"
"Well... I thought I might have seen something," Hannah replied. "But it was probably just the wind."
"I thought so," Lyla said, nodding to herself. "It was probably noth-OUCH!" Lyla winced, looking behind her.
"Sorry!" Chrissy said! "I wasn't watching where I was going!"
"Chrissy..." Hannah groaned. "You're supposed to stay by Jaylee!"
"I know, I know," Chrissy said, walking back behind Hannah. "Sorry, Jaylee."
Hannah felt a sudden droplet on her wooden helm.
"Just what we need," Lyla growled. "Rain to wash away Azumarill's scent."
"You can run if you want," Hannah said. "We'll keep up."
"No, I can't keep the scent when I'm running," Lyla said. "But we can only hope that we can find Azumarill before the rain destroys the trail."
"Jaylee?" Chrissy called into the darkness.
"What's wrong, Chrissy?" Hannah asked, turning around to see her skitty friend. But no sign of a piplup... "Where's Jaylee?"
"I'm so sorry guys!" Chrissy said frantically. "I lost her!"
"You couldn't have lost her in the time that you wandered up here," Lyla reasoned. "But she should be able hear us though..."
"Jaylee!" Chrissy called out frantically. "Jaylee, where are you?!"
"Jaylee!"
"Jaylee, can you hear us?!"
"It's no use." Lyla sighed. "She must have wandered off and gotten lost."
"I'm so sorry," Chrissy whispered.
"It's not your fault," Lyla said firmly. "She'd have heard us if she'd lost us then. When was the last time anyone heard her?"
"It must have been..." Hannah frowned. "It must have been when she saw those eyes in the bush."
"Do you think she went back to investigate it?!" Lyla asked, already turning around and heading back. "She can't even see!"
"Maybe we shouldn't have come at night. Then Jaylee would've known where she was going," Chrissy said. "But Azurill was so..." She trailed off, unsure what to say.
"I know," Hannah said. "We couldn't just leave her without any one to rescue her mother."
They walked on in silence for a few moments. Hannah glanced upwards at what little sky she could see through the trees. It was overcast; dense gray clouds covered the sky, hiding the stars and only revealing the moon's position by the glow seen through the clouds. It did little to provide light, and Hannah started to feel a bit hopeless. By then it had started to rain harder. The tracks Hannah's teammates had made blurred as the rain beat down on them. Lyla splashed through a puddle a few feet ahead, spraying her teamates with muddy water.
The trees got thicker as they traveled onward. Their twisted branches seemed more full of leaves, and they shook violently in the wind. The trees formed a canopy above them, cutting off what light they had, yet the rain still managed to find a way through. The aura of the place felt suffocating and hopeless.
"I think we're lost," Hannah said. "I don't recognize this place." She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach.
"There's still no sign of her," Lyla said. "The rain's washed away our scent too."
"Do either of you recognize this place?" Hannah asked. She heard a distant rushing noise, perhaps from a river. But she was sure they had not passed one on the way in.
"We couldn't have made a wrong turn, right?" Lyla asked. "I followed our scent trail all the way here!"
"Mystery dungeons mess with senses," Hannah said.
"I... I'm sorry," Lyla replied softly. "I forgot about that."
"I guess we'll have to turn back," Hannah said. "Come on, you two."
"Wait," Lyla said. "Where's Chrissy?"
Hannah glanced behind her, and, to her distress, found that the skitty was no longer behind her.
Lyla ran to where Chrissy should have been. "There's no scent of her," she said. "That doesn't make any sense. Scent trails don't just vanish." She ran further back, but still she found nothing. "There's no way she would have ran off right after Jaylee went missing, right?"
"Lyla," Hannah said, trying to keep her voice from quaking. "Forget Azumarill. We need to get out of this place right now."
Lyla hesitated. "But the others..."
"I think we both know that they didn't just wander off," Hannah said seriously. "There's something out here that's trying to get us. We need to go."
"Okay," Lyla said. "But I... I don't know which way we came in. We made so many turns..."
"Let's just take all the lefts," Hannah suggested. "It might not be the shortest route, but at least it'll get us out."
"Okay," Lyla agreed. "But let's stick close together. I have a really bad feeling about this."
And so they set off. Hannah drifted close to the ground, keeping an arm on Lyla as they ran. She alone could keep up with Lyla when she ran at her fastest, for moving when you're a ghost takes very little energy.
Lyla stumbled suddenly, and Hannah felt panic surge over her, before Lyla said, "I'm fine."
"Lyla," Hannah said. "Can you keep talking? Just so I know that you're still there."
"Okay," Lyla said, and she started to talk. Hannah wasn't really listening to her words, only making sure her voice didn't disappear and leave Hannah alone in the darkness.
Hannah looked up at the sky. With every step forward, it only seemed to get darker. She couldn't even see the moon's glow now.
There was a sudden snapping sound, and Hannah whipped her head around. "What was that?" she asked. She peered into the bushes where the sound had come from and saw a pair of yellow eyes. "Eeek!"
"I'll go see if I can smell anything," Lyla said. "Just scream if anything grabs you."
Ordinarily Hannah would have taken this as a joke. But now, in these woods, she could tell that Lyla was being completely serious. Her eyes didn't leave the growlithe as she went up to the bushes and inspected it. Lyla sniffed.
"Poochyena," she said. "Wild ones smell very different from the ones in town - much more sinister." She leaned closer to the bush. "It's kind of odd, because on our other-"
A furry head shot out the bush and grabbed Lyla, then pulled back in.
"Lyla!" Hannah shouted, and she threw caution to the winds and bolted in after the growlithe.
When Hannah pushed through the bushes, a great horde of poochyena surrounded her. Three mightyena stood in the center. Lyla struggled in the grasp of one of them.
"Hold on, Lyla!" Hannah said, calling the forgotten spirits of the forest to her aid. She felt the grass-type energy flow through her, and she concentrated it, before sending it at the pack of poochyena. "Forest's Curse!" She spoke the name of her attack for Lyla to know what it was.
Lyla, still struggling in the mightyena's grasp, took that as her cue, and sent a burst of flame at the newly-weakened pack. They did not even flinch as the fire burned them. One of the mightyena let out a snarl, shaking Lyla harshly.
Hannah ran at the pack leader, launching as many moves as she could think of at him. But he didn't react to her attacks at all. He seemed completely unfazed. Hannah met her friend's hopeless eyes.
"Hannah," Lyla choked out. "Run."
Hannah hesitated for a moment, then she fled, gliding forward as fast as she could. When she reached the edge of the trees, she turned for one final look, and saw the mass of poochyena descending on her friend, claws out, ripping and snarling.
Run.
