Amphicosm, a pokémon fanfic

It was a typical night in Ecruteak City. The dimly lit city was illuminated by moonlight alone, so you could find your way round at this hour of night. You could hear the whisper of wind stealing past the buildings, the rustling of autumn leaves on the ground, the nightly chorus of Kricketot emanating from the woods. Everyone was sound asleep - everyone but Andrew the night watchman.

He was sitting on the rooftop of the Brass Tower with Noctowl, his only companion amid the solitude. The Emperor had told him to go to the roof of the Brass Tower every night for the past few weeks, to watch for any unusual sightings in the night sky, something like a shooting star. And it was boring as hell, just sitting there and waiting for something to happen. As if anything was going to happen. Andrew had nothing to do but gaze up at the stars, down at the city, up at the stars.

Andrew's mind wandered. The thing he wanted most right now was for the sun to rise, so he could have a good breakfast and tuck into bed for the day. He remembered the prophecy that the Great Xatu had made four weeks earlier over at the Temple of the Sun. Xatu had prophesied the coming of "sky people" who were supposed to bring great prosperity to the kingdom, and the Emperor was anticipating their arrival. He hoped to welcome the sky people with some sort of ceremony, so he needed to know when they would come. This is why he had Andrew watch for any signs of the sky people.

But the Emperor's enthusiasm about the coming of the sky people didn't carry over to Andrew, who was skeptical that they even existed, much less that they were coming to the kingdom anytime soon. Along with the rest of the population, he generally liked Xatu's advice on societal and spiritual matters; unlike them, he didn't really believe all the old myths.

Then, out of the blue, Noctowl started to hoot and jump. Groggily, Andrew looked around to see what was the matter. Noctowl was facing seaward, to the city's southwest. There was a blinking white light with a pink tinge that seemed to be hovering in the sky, yet descending ever so slightly. It appeared distant as the stars that surrounded it, yet so nearby that, with enough moonlight, one might just be able to make out its silhouette against the blackness of night. It was much too bright to be a star; nor could it be a comet, since it lacked that characteristic tail. Neither Andrew nor Noctowl had seen anything like it before.

With a burst of excitement, Andrew went down to the ninth floor where there stood a large telescope occasionally used by the imperial astronomers. He looked into the telescope and pointed it towards the blinking light. He turned the brazen knob on the side of it ever so slightly, and there it was - the faint outline of a wide cone with its base pointing downward, and some four to six strings extended from its flattened tip, pulled taut. When he pointed the telescope upward by just under one degree, he could see that the strings connected the cone to a large, hemispherical dome-like structure. To Andrew, it appeared that the dome's function was to trap air beneath it and ensure that the contraption would not plummet toward the earth, but drift like a balloon filled with air. And indeed, it was going down.

But what could it be? Where did it come from? Who made it? - for it resembled nothing that could occur naturally. What if it was the work of the sky people, and they would emerge from it once they landed? Andrew's head was bubbling with questions - far too many to count. But there was no time for questions. He had a duty was to tell the Emperor about what he saw on the off-chance that it might be the sky people.

Quickly but carefully so as not to damage the delicate wooden boards of the floor, Andrew scrambled down story after story, ladder after ladder to the base of the tower, his surroundings whirling past him. Noctowl simply plunged the 300 feet along the side of the tower's central pillar. Its enthusiastic hooting echoed throughout the entire building, becoming more and more distant.

Already exasperated and disoriented, Andrew stopped to rest. He wasn't exactly keeping track of floors, but he figured he must have been on the sixth floor because he remembered having climbed down three ladders. He realized something was wrong, but he didn't know what. He looked around and saw that Noctowl was gone! Panicking, he called out, "Noctowl?"

He looked around again, hoping Noctowl would hear him. Then he tiptoed toward the central pillar, looked down, and saw the square hole in the center of floor, allowing him to peer into the floor below. And there was a hole there as well, leading to the fourth floor, and there was a hole in the fourth floor, too! Above him was another square hole in the ceiling, and a hole in the ceiling above, and so on. All of the holes lined up perfectly. Andrew immediately realized that Noctowl must have gone down this way; that was the only way it could have escaped from his sight so quickly. He decided to catch up with Noctowl.

Carefully, he climbed down the ladder from the sixth floor to the fifth floor, then from the fifth to the fourth, fourth to third, third to second, second to first. As he approached the base of the tower, he could hear Noctowl's exasperated hooting getting louder and louder. It was the only sound other than his footsteps, and it kept him focused. He lost track of the floor number again, only to regain sense of place when he felt the grip of Noctowl's talons as it alighted on his right shoulder.

Noctowl trilled. Andrew turned his head towards Noctowl and said, "We're going to see the Emperor."