Gift of the will-o-wisp.
(Also known by the titles 'Harmaa and the flame', 'How the Yamask came to be' and 'The Traveler's friend'.)

A long long time ago, when the twin dragons of truth and ideal were one and dwelled with the dragon of possibility and ruin in the sky above, there was a young man who tried to earn his fortune.

The man, Harmaa, had been born in tiny hamlet by the ocean and had left his homeland for a city far to the north, in order to earn the wealth he needed for his family to escape the poverty in which they lived.

However, for whatever reason the gods did not favour him and his journey was rife with misfortune.

When given grain in replacement for money by a farmer he worked for, the grain he was given turned out to be rotting and full of mould. When he earned a good deal of pay for catching the largest net full of fish the fishermen had seen in years, he was afterwards beaten by solders and had the money stolen. And when, after months of hard work digging in a nearby mine he struck upon a vein of the purest gold, the church claimed the site was holy and the gold he had found was taken in the name of the gods.

The once proud boy that had no intention of returning to his homeland without the money his family now travelled back across the land with that one goal in mind; because for all that his hamlet had been poor and hungry, the people there had been honest and kind, and had never inspired the kind of bitterness in him that he now felt down to his very core.
And so it was, that in his travels back to his hamlet that Harmaa was too wary and bitter to ask the locals about the nearby mountain, and thus was not warned of the marsh-filled woods and the creatures that dwelt there.

Unaware of the danger he was courting; Harmaa quickly made his way up the mountain and entered the forest. Almost immediately a mysterious chill began to climb its way through his body, frightening pokemon calls echoed around him and after ignoring both warnings, his head began to ache with pain. For little did Harmaa know that the forest had been claimed by pokemon since ancient times and humans had long been forbidden from treading such holy ground.

Cold, miserable and confused by what was happening to him; he continued to stagger through the woods, wishing fervently that he would find a lodge or house in which to rest.

His wishes were not granted and as day eventually turned into night, Harmaa could not travel any further and was forced to set up camp. Finding a small, only damp clearing, he tried to pitch his tepee with little success, cursing as he realised he could not see it well enough to do so. As the words left his mouth, a small pale flame suddenly appeared beside him and illuminated the area with a soft blue light.

Frightened by this unnatural occurrence, Harmaa let out a scream of terror and leapt away but the blue flame did not move or waver and instead continued to glow as if undisturbed, as if to tell him it meant no harm.

Harmaa watched the flame wearily for some time but eventually the need to set up a place to sleep and get a meal in his belly began to out weight his fear, and he set up his tepee once more, all the while keeping a careful eye on the flame.

When he had finished and the flame had still not moved an inch, Harmaa began to wonder if the flame was actually a lonely hitodama* that had come to him for some companionship. Now feeling great pity for the flame, for there is no fate more tragic than for a soul than to wander in limbo alone for all eternity, Harmaa sat down next to the flame and prayed, asking the gods to allow its soul to move onto the next life and thanking the flame for generously helping him with its light.
When he finished with the prayer, the flame flickered for a moment before disappearing entirely, and Harmaa went to sleep in his tepee, satisfied he had seemingly aided a lonely soul.

...

The next morning compared to the day before was a bright and cheerful one. With no pain raking his mind and no threatening chills and calls made to scare him away, Harmaa took his time through the marsh, admiring the beauty of the untouched landscape and the majesty of the many pokemon he saw along the way.

Eventually stopping to rest at a small waterhole, Harmaa was leaning towards the water in order to refill his flask when laughter suddenly sounded out behind him. Startled, he lost his balance and fell into the pool with a mighty splash.

However before he could drown, a blue light surrounded him and gently lifted him out of the pool and placed right in front of the hitodama from the day before which then began to glow with a dazzling light and transformed into the shape of a lantern, its golden eyes twinkling brightly with amusement above the pale blue flame in its centre. Seeing the bewilderment in his eyes, the creature giggled in a voice not unlike that of a human woman, and proceeded to light a small fire at his feet and wipe water off his face with its arms.

It was at this moment that Harmaa realised that the hitodama had actually been a pokemon the entire time. As if to further prove her deception, the Lampent then spoke to him with speech of the mind as she continued to wipe him free of water.

"Many apologies for my behaviour, kind hearted human. My kind is naturally mischievous and I did not imagine that you would fall into the spring. Please, sit and warm your body by my fire... And allow me to ask a great boon of you."

Harmaa was mistrustful of the Lampent and talk of him granting anyone favours made him more wary still, but as she was a pokemon and ancient custom demanded that one must listen if a pokemon chose speak, he allowed himself to be seated by her fire and listened to her plea.

"Before when I appeared to you, I was under a curse placed upon me a powerful and wicked demon. The curse sapped me of my strength, my freedom, and even my very form, leaving me helpless and trapped in the appearance of a mere flame. But because of last night when you offered to me such a heartfelt prayer of thanks, the gods intervened on your behalf and set me free. Such a thing I can never fully repay, however... I must plead with you to help me once more.

The demon before it cursed me, slew my father, the ruler of this land, and now wears his form as one would wear a sheet of clothe! As if this was not enough, it holds my father's honoured guest, a mighty pokemon of great wisdom and renown, prisoner within his very own flames.

Please, help me slay the demon and free my father's honoured guest. Only a human may slay a demon, and you are the only human I have ever known with the courage to enter our forest, let alone aid me as you have already done."

The pokemon's voice was one of honesty and tears of hot oil flowed fresh from her cheeks, but Harmaa, the memories of deceit and trickery dealt to him still vivid in his mind, was unsure of her word and asked her a question he was sure would reveal her intentions one way or the other.

"Tell me pokemon of the forest, if I aid you in killing this demon, what will I get in return? Humans can work without rewards but I'm not so generous as to risk my life for no gain. What reward could you possibly give me in return? Money? Jewels?"

The Lampent flickered as if blown by a fierce wind and looked up at the human with earnest eyes.

"Things to be owned, like money and jewels, are of no importance to pokemon and thus I have none. I can lead you to the ripest berries and cleanse the water you drink, I can burn away your foes and illuminate even the darkest night, but I cannot give you what I do not have... Even so, I ask of you, please allow me this one request.

For if we succeed, I, the one known as Faeu, shall stay by your side for all eternity; I shall share your pain and your sorrows, your hopes and your dreams. And should it ever be needed, I will guide you to the next life with my own flames and speak on your behalf to the very gods themselves, for that is the very least I can do for you."

Harmaa, now sure that every word the pokemon spoke was truth and touched by her words, pledged his aid and the two of them travelled to the hidden depths of the woods where the demon dwelled.

As they neared the demon's lair, the land around them became more and more barren. Where trees should have grown, scorched earth covered the ground. Where creatures to slow to escape the demon's wrath had been only the charred remains had been left behind.

Finally the two reached their destination, a great dip in the landscape littered with ash and the bones of pokemon and there, in the very centre of the depression floated the demon.

It's outer form was that of a Chandelure's but instead of the gentle blue or purple flames such pokemon possessed, its flame burned a crimson red like fresh dripping blood, and its eyes which should have been the warm yellow of the setting sun instead glowed orange with mad fury and looked as if they had been lit by the very fires of hell itself.

Spotting them, the creature let out a blood chilling scream and lashed out at them with its flames; the battle as swift to begin as it was deadly.

Faeu struck back at the creature with her own flame as Harmaa rolled underneath the attacks and lunged for the demon's body, knocking it back with a tackle before grabbing it with his bare hands.
Skin sizzled and burned as the demon struggled to free itself but Harmaa refused to release it and instead smashed the demon's glass head against the bone of one of its many victims, instantly shattering it into a million pieces.

And instead of evil miasma, the flames from the demon's head escaped into the air and took the form of a giant rainbow coloured bird that, upon the sight of the demon's remains, burned them with ball of golden fire and flew off into the distant sky. As it did so, the golden flames died out and in place of the demon, a single stone darker and deeper than a night without stars appeared.

Realising it to be a reward from the great rainbow bird, her father's honoured guest, the Lampent ate it and was transformed into a Chandelure herself. She turned to Harmaa and smiled.

"I shall stay by your side for all eternity. I shall share your pain and your sorrows, your hopes and your dreams. And one day, I will guide you to the next life with my own flames and speak on your behalf to the very gods themselves."

Her vow repeated, the two of them left the forest and together set out for the land Harmaa called home.

...

In the months that followed, Harmaa and Faeu had many adventures together, meeting many people both kind and cruel along the way. And with each new encounter, the bonds of trust and kinship between them become stronger and stronger until the two were so inseparable that the gods themselves could not have torn them apart.

And so it was that the two spent so long travelling and having fun on their journey that they did not make it back to Harmaa's homeland for many long years. Eventually they found themselves heading down the last road, and Harmaa exuberantly raced down the hill, looking forward to seeing his home once more... But it was not as he remembered.

There were no huts or fishing nets lined the sea shore, no people or pokemon happily working or playing.
Instead stood the huts' charcoal remains and alone in the centre of where the hamlet once was, a single tomb of simple rock stood. On its side was written the names of his family and old friends; they had all died from illness but the old wise woman who had made the grave in the hopes of appeasing their spirits and had left soon afterwards.

Harmaa dropped to his knees and he could not rise again, for his heart had broken. As a human, he could never recover.

But Faeu did her best to help him. She force fed him using her powers of the mind and made him sleep the same way; at night and even in the rain which stung her flames like needles, she did her best to keep away the cold with her warmth.

But it did little good; he never responded and the Chandelure could feel his existence slipping away more and more each moment. It was if only his body was living and the rest of him had already died.

Finally as the sun of midsummer began to set, his life began to draw to its end, and Faeu desperate, called out in anguish as she summoned her flames.

"Please great gods of old, please lend me your strength! The human who once slew a great demon, who freed the bird of the sun his cage and the one I owe so much is dying right before my eyes and I can do nothing! Please help me repay him for all the good has done! Please... I will one day walk with him to the gates of the next life but now is not the time for that to happen!"

And as she said that, with all her strength the Chandelure sent her searing flames at Harmaa's body, which caught alight and burned as if it was made of straw and not flesh.

In an instant the body was reduced to charred bone and ash, but before Faeu could weep at the realisation she had slain her dearest friend, the bones and ash were swept into the air by a mighty gust of wind and were made to hover right where they caught the last rays of sunlight, before they slowly took the form of a strange pokemon.

The pokemon, his head the same grey-black as the ash and the mask he held with his tail a tan as sunlight-tinted bones, opened his eyes and upon seeing the Chandelure, spoke the very first word his kind would ever speak.

"Faeu? I..."

The Chandelure embraced the Yamask before he could say anymore and holding one of his paws within her own she made a new vow, one she would keep for the rest of their existences.

"I shall stay by your side for all eternity. I shall share your pain and your sorrows, your hopes and your dreams. And one day, perhaps not until the end time, I will journey with you to the next life and when you walk through that gate, I will be there with you, every step of the way.

This I, the one who knows herself as Faeu, pledges to Harmaa, the one I love so very much."

The end.

Cultural notes: The tale 'Gift of the Will-o-wisp' is a cautionary tale told across north west Unova warning those who hear it to be cautious in all their dealings and to not trust appearances, as well as evidence of how people in ancient times regarded the Yamask and Litwick family pokemon of the area.

Surprisingly, despite the many names, the tale rarely alters, though there is said to be a version in Ecruteak, Johto in which Ho-oh becoming trapped by a demon on the other side of the earth prevents the deity from returning to its home in time to protect the Brass Tower against destruction.

Well... That was sappy. *sniff*

Seriously though, normally I'm not that into romance, especially anything Ye-Olde fairytale style or pokemon/human but this time I just couldn't resist.
The whole 'sucks out souls with flame' thing for the Chandelure family and the Yamask all being human once and somehow turning into pokemon thing both worked really well with each other, and since ghost pokemon don't exactly revive people all the beeping time I kind of had to make the reason a bit more obvious than I normally would.

Done mostly as the writing portion of Moonlightart's entry in the first PokeWorldLegends contest (PokeworldLegends is a group I set up on DeviantART for pokemon fans). She signed up for a partner in the Partner Rules section, but since it was the last week and nobody else had signed up I did the writing instead.

The original version of 'Gift of the Will-o-Wisp' as well as MoonlightArt's picture for it by the same name can be found in her gallery at DeviantART.
Please go take a look at it sometime~ X3

Ps: To all my ToaNL fans, know that I'm still writing; I'm just taking a really, really long time. I am now roughly ¾ of the way through the current chapter. Just hang on for a little while longer, ok?

Translation Notes:

Faeu: Short for faeu boulanger which is a lost-soul type of Will o Wisp found in Guernsey.

Harmaa: Finnish for Grey. I wanted the Bulgarian word for grey originally (since Cheren and Bianca mean black and white in that language respectively) but the only translation I could find was fairly loose and didn't sound all that good so I went language hopping.

Blue flame VS Red flame: The reason I used a red Chandelure (the shiny colouration) as the 'demon' in the story despite the fact I love the look and am a mad collector of shinys, is because of a supposed Argentina tradition regarding the Luz Mala (evil light) or Fuego Fatuo (fake fire) I found on Wikipedia:

'If the light is white, it implies a soul in pain and is recommended to say a prayer, but if the light is red, the witness must flee immediately, thus the phenomenon represents the temptation of Satan.'

The concept was simple, but it interested me and much to my surprise later when I was looking over Chandelure's page on Bulbapedia, Chandelure's shiny is red(ish). It was too fun to ignore really.