Incarnate.
The velvet sky was inky black; suffocating, vast. It stretched for miles in every direction, clear, blemished only by blinking stars and wispy clouds lined with yellow. The moon hung like a glorious orb in the silence. It observed the arid plains beneath, its dusty gaze sweeping over every dry brittle blade of grass. Crickets chirruped.
Out of nowhere, lithe shapes began to slip through the grass. Eyes occasionally flashed, claws occasionally glinted, when all at once they stopped. They pressed down to the baked, hard earth, silent.
The crickets stopped.
The Umbreon could feel the depleted grass rasp against the soft skin of his belly as he pressed further still into the compacted earth. This heat-wave could not go on forever, yet, to him, it felt as though it already had. He raised his handsome head in frustration. His pointed ears, ringed with yellow, twitched as his muscles rippled under a short pelt of gleaming black fur. He gazed out across the plains, and his cherry eyes narrowed into slits.
From the ambiguous rocks at the opposite side of the field, dark figures emerged. They trickled out slowly, the moonlight dusting their bodies with silver. They formed a solid, intimidating line, their bodies not quite touching, their eyes staring impassively ahead, hollow inside their skulls.
Waiting.
The Umbreon stirred. Beside him, a short horned creature shifted restlessly. It seemed to be a cross between a small rhinoceros and rabbit, its body adorned with sharp needles. It spoke, and small fangs flashed in its jaws.
"Kyosan," he rasped into the religious silence, "why do we linger so long?"
The Umbreon lowered his powerful head and glared at the Nidorino. His fur prickled as, all around him, the other Pokémon began to show signs of uneasiness and disquiet. Did they all think he was waiting too long? Where they wondering the same thing?
"Because, Boreil," he eventually hissed, the yellow rings across his body suddenly beaming alight as his anger rose, "in chess, pawns make the first move."
The Nidorino flinched at the fox's obvious anger. Around them, the dark figures of the Pokémon looked over warily as the neon markings on Kyosan's body started to shine.
However, they weren't the only ones to notice.
On opposite side of the plains, a Crawdaunt stood firm in his unbreakable line of allies. His blank gaze trickled slowly across the mass of dark vibrancy that was his enemies, and with a small prick of amusement, he saw an unnatural glint of gold.
"Kyosan, Kyosan," he said softly, his crimson claws clicking beside his shelled body. "Your anger betrays you..."
A thud beside him signalled the arrival of Voyuko from the top of the rocks. Hearing the harsh grunts, the crab looked instead to the elephant-like creature next to him. It was breathing heavily, two long and chipped tusks protruding from beneath the dark-grey armour that shielded its solid, stubby body.
"Memphis," the Donphan snorted, still slightly dazed from his jump from the rocks. "When do we move in?"
The Crawdaunt turned his head back to where importance laid, the question already forgotten. Voyuko pawed the ground nervously, his eyes burning with impatience as the dirt churned against his feet.
"Memphis?" he asked again, but the crab raised a huge claw to silence him almost immediately.
"He is waiting for the pawns," he murmured, his small eyes gazing forever across the desolate plains towards his enemies. "However as usual... he forgets that the pawns can move twice."