Contentedly, she snuffled her nose, eyes still closed and her mind upon the boundary between unconsciousness and awakening, where dreams still reigned in the inky black of late night. Had she been awake, Shaymin might have recognised a hint of yellow piercing the gloom as the sunrise beckoning, soon to shine the light of day upon Sinnoh once more. As it was, in her dream, she was happily flying in fields full of gracideas with a multitude of grateful humans and pokémon, all dancing to the rhythm of the wind in the trees, a gentle rustling and she idly noted at the back of her mind that she'd have to thank Cresselia for such a beautifully crafted creation. It made a nice change, and a striking difference to her lonely paradise on the Seabreak Path. Shaymin would happily stay in this realm for a long time, only going back if she were needed-
Until she was rudely awakened by the unpleasant feel of claws circling her body, lifting her small green form higher that she particularly enjoyed going like this. However, complaint wasn't at the forefront of her kind: no, there crept fear, and the need above all to return to her ground. Rarely, the staraptor of the region decided that she might make a tasty morsel, and it was her duty to force them to recognise the consequences of eating her. Namely, bad - not worth any meat on her bones.
"Put me down! Do you not recognise Shaymin of legends past? Eating me will incur the wrath of Arceus, and I would not wish that upon anyone!" she cried as loudly as her minute lungs could manage, and Shaymin prayed her voice carrying over the beating of wings. Her eyes had not yet adjusted to the gloom of night, so she could only see the outline of one wing, flapping to gain height. However, when it caught the glinting of the yet-to-rise sun, she could have sworn it was a shade of icy blue; and much larger than a normal staraptor's wing as well.
"True, that would not be pleasant." The voice that just reached her over the growing wind and down force currents Shaymin was subjected to due to her position seemed familiar somehow, yet she was not able to quite distinguish why, and she was falling before it came to her.
The sensation of no noticeable support hit her suddenly, with her green eyes widening in fear. The Flower Paradise lay beneath her, connected to the rest of Sinnoh by the Seabreak path, and it spiralled rapidly towards her, causing Shaymin to force her eyes shut as she began to simply pray that her life might be spared from this fall; she would even thank Giratina should she appear here and break her fall with a Distortion World portal!
The air rushed sporadically around her ears, she could feel it pulling on her foliage green fur and the scarlet flowers either side of her, and she curled into a ball to protect her organs from the impact, and then-
It stopped.
With a light thump, she alighted upon a much softer surface that anticipated, and she pondered whether Arceus had caught her, or whether this was where she would now go. Perhaps she had even forgotten the surely fatal impact and had skipped to her awakening in the next world over.
But then things returned to her. The wind had not stopped, just subsided, and there was the sound of a wing cutting through air, the motion of flapping jostling her slightly; an icy aura surrounded the feathers on which she lay, and she opened her eyes a small amount. When nothing greeted her but the sight of feathers, clearly blue she now saw, Shaymin unfurled herself and peered at her surroundings. A long blue tail flowed behind her abductor, strong sky blue wings powering them higher and forwards, and she quickly gathered that she was facing the wrong way, and so turned.
"Articuno!" The elegant ice bird turned his head, nodding at her in what she assumed was his version of a smile. Shaymin frowned slightly as he turned back, and went about securing herself by latching her claws into his plumage: if he was uncomfortable with it, he made no sign of it, and besides, she thought - it was a small retribution to the greeting he'd given her.
"Where are you taking me?"
"You'll see!"
She huffed, hoping that he would gather her unimpressed mood, but to no avail. When he did not turn, she narrowed her eyes and latched on more securely, laying low so as little wind passed over her as possible, ensuring she was in the wind-shadow of Articuno's head. Surprisingly, Shaymin found that despite his icy-cold aura, she was close enough to him to feel his natural body heat - he was not quite as warm as Palkia, whose head Shaymin normally sat on during meetings to ensure that she would not get squashed under foot - and it was almost pleasant. While she didn't even dare to venture away from her spot right in the centre of Articuno's back, she could see the edges of Sinnoh gradually rising from the shadows. Mount Coronet loomed ever closer over the bird's shoulder, and Shaymin briefly wondered if it was their destination. She rather hoped not - in neither form was she particularly fond of ice, no matter how eerily beautiful it was.
Her hopes, however, were dashed as the bird banked a little, turning towards the dividing mountain of Sinnoh, and glanced over to the east.
"I hope we're not too late..." Articuno murmured, and Shaymin perked up, even though she wasn't sure if she was the intended recipient.
"Too late for what, exactly?" Articuno made a sound that was suspiciously close to a laugh.
"It won't be too long! Getting impatient?"
Shaymin narrowed her eyes, but lowered her voice so Articuno assuredly would not hear her.
"No, but I am getting a little frustrated, because we are getting awful close to that mountain and I don't fancy meeting a moody Dialga or Palkia and they can be pretty touchy about Spear Pillar, but that's your problem. I stashed a gracidea up there in case, hopefully it hasn't wilted..." No sooner than she'd trailed off from her mumblings than Articuno had begun to descent towards Spear Pillar - which was, Shaymin gladly noted, free of the massive snow drifts adorning the rest of the summit.
Alighting upon its eastern edge, Articuno seemed pleased. A short moment passed while Shaymin wondered whether she was to make her own way off the bird's back, but at last second he held a wing out for her to scamper down, which she did so gladly. If she were on solid ground, mostly she could predict its motions: namely, none.
The moment her front paw hit the ground however, she frowned distastefully at the crisp crunch under it, the crackle of crushed ice crystals and the unpleasant frigid dampness that clung to her paw as she finished stepping from Articuno's wing. While Spear Pillar was never subject to the snow - Palkia's doing she suspected; that or Dialga threatened each flake so much that it decided it was simply not worth the bother and landed elsewhere - the air surrounding it did have moisture which, overnight, froze. They were evidently here early enough for it not to have melted yet, another thing she added to a growing number of irritations of this trip which, as of yet, did not have any positive to balance it: Shaymin still had no idea why in all of Sinnoh he'd brought her here.
She was about to mention this to him, when he excitedly pointed to the eastern horizon, beckoning her to look for some redeeming feature of this endless forced trip.
And there, Shaymin may have found it.
The sky was ablaze with colour, a multitude of small clouds dotted over the vista lit from below with a breath-taking pink glow, with the sky itself graduating from a deep scarlet at the horizon, through orange, yellows and the mildest of greens to an ever-brightening blue which stretched overhead. The world was quiet, few humans having awoken to observe such a sight, and Shaymin forgot about the cold as she gazed upon the vista, sea twinkling in a dull orange as a reflection, with fog over certain parts of Sinnoh becoming washed with yellow. As the two of them watched, the sun itself pierced the horizon, sending streaks of golden yellow light across the atmosphere, casting both them and the weathered pillars surrounding them with an orange glow. Gradually, as the sun continued to rise, its overwhelming light overtook the vibrant colours of dawn to replace the natural look of everything, toning pinks, oranges and reds down to just a merest hint of what they'd been not minutes before. It was over, yet Shaymin did not find herself missing it. It would set tonight, dousing the world in spectra once more, and rise again tomorrow, and as a legendary, she would be forever there to see it. For an instant, she had a dizzying insight into just how long forever was, eternity stretching before her.
Then Shaymin shivered, reverie abruptly broken, and did not stop. She could no longer feel her paws and her underbelly felt as if turning to ice, the flowers adorned each side of her face wilting in the cold, and forgetting that she had company, began to curl up, attempting to keep warm.
Articuno peered at her motion, eyes finally torn away from the residue of sunrise, and had she been watching, Shaymin might have observed recognition and guilt set upon his features.
"Ah, if you wanted Shaymin, you could stand on my feet... I'll try to keep you warm." She had not the effort to refute his inferred claim, padding eagerly to his foot which, while not warm, was not as cold as the ground, and did not take her remaining heat quite so quickly. Shaymin jumped as she felt herself being slightly squashed, until she realised that Articuno had crouched, so that his chest feathers covered her body, leaving her face clear to see. She smiled lightly as the warmth began to circulate again.
"I've done it again, haven't I?" Articuno's morose voice reverberated through her due to the contact.
"Done what?" She looked up the best she could.
"Acted on my own impulse, without consulting those involved." The bird paused momentarily, and when he began to speak once more, his voice sounded far away somehow. "I live alone, and have done all my life. The only humans I see are those about to perish from the cold, and so I've never needed to factor the requirements of anyone else usually. It was acceptable though, because I saw no one. But recently, Moltres came to see me..." Articuno sighed. "She told me that her and Zapdos are... 'together', I suppose is how the humans put it. Romantically involved, if you will. I'm happy for them, I honestly am, but I just felt so lonely, I needed someone to talk to, to just have some company... And unfortunately for you, I chose you Shaymin, because you've always been nice to everyone, and friendly, unlike me. Please forgive me, Shaymin; you must have been scared and angry, and I did not even think about whether you had duties or even wished to come here. I'll return to Oblivia once I've returned you to your home." His tone, completely and utterly resigned to his fate of a solitary life once more, told Shaymin he wouldn't visit again if she let him leave. And for some inexplicable reason, she didn't want him to leave just yet. Whether or not it was due to the fact he was acting quite nicely as a heat source was debatable, but if Shaymin was being honest, it was more than that; the majority of legendaries forgot about her, and deep down, she was lonely as well.
Finding nothing eloquent to say in the face of Articuno's possible departure, she blurted out a sharp, loud 'Stay!' which had the intended effect of causing him to pause preparations to take off.
"I... Well, I was quite annoyed, since you woke me up fairly early, and it was cold, and then you dropped me and I thought you were going to eat me, but it was worth it."
"What?" Articuno's voice betrayed his inherent confusion at her admittance. Perhaps he was used to people getting angry with him.
"It was worth it! The sunrise was beautiful from up here, and it was nice spending time with you, even though it might have been nice receiving some warning first... But that's not necessarily bad - I most likely needed the interest." She looked out over the view, observing idly how the fog covering various parts of Sinnoh was being rapidly burnt off by the sun in the growing warmth of day, the ambient sounds gradually increasing as pokémon and humans set about beginning their days, and she smiled. Despite the cold, and the shocks, she liked it. She liked being here, with Articuno, watching her home region awaken, and it was somewhat heart-warming to think that he'd come to her especially.
"I must say, Articuno, I'm impressed that you flew all the way from Oblivia over to here, just to see me!" Shaymin quickly noted just how presumptuous it sounded, swiftly adding, "And the sunrise." It seemed that the bird chuckled slightly, his chest puffing out slightly, although Shaymin couldn't bring herself to care that she'd been more squashed in the process.
"I can't often see it from Mount Sorbet, what with all the storms. I knew the view of it would be good from here, I've always thought that, but I... never had the right impetus. Ha, I'm exhausted though!" he admitted breezily, clucking apparently at his own impulsiveness. "I flew straight through the night to make it on time. It was worth it though. You make good company, Shaymin. And sorry again for interrupting your duties."
She frowned slightly: she knew Oblivia was very far away, but Articuno was a very quick flier, and if it had taken him all night to reach her, then he really had to be tired.
"You can sleep at my meadow if you want! As in, it's a bit warmer so I'll be more comfortable down there, and I've got some berries I've amassed over time, because I don't really exert myself much, but if you wanted to stay up here, that's fine too-"
"I'd love to." She hadn't even realised the nervousness spurring her speech on or that she was babbling until he'd cut her off, and she felt her face grow warm in embarrassment. "I only really dropped in for a flying visit last time, so it would be nice to see it. I bet it's pretty!"
She grinned, taking his wingtip offer to retake her perch upon his back.
"More flowers than Floaroma Meadow!" He laughed at that, lightly mentioning that she'd have to show him that as well, before taking off into a steady descent towards the floral paradise Shaymin called home.
And she'd never been so glad to return there.
Title has no meaning, I just liked the way it sounded. Ha, I'm just shallow like that!
So, yeah, first Shaymin/Articuno I've seen? Not that I've searched intently. And since I highly doubt anyone will write this, I shan't bother giving it a name either. But I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoyed reading it - a somewhat sequel to All That Is Required, though both are fairly stand-alone.
Thank you for reading!