Chapter 2: Prophesy
Absol walked down the narrow, icy trail, finding sure footing with years of practice, claws gripping the ice. A bitter cold wind whipped up the slope of Mount Freeze, ruffling her thick coat and blowing stinging crystals of snow into her face, but it was only a minor discomfort. Squinting into the glare of the afternoon sun on fields of snow, she could see a herd of Swinub rooting in the snow in the valley below.
In the valley, she could see that a few hardy shoots were already poking up through the snow. She stopped hopefully to check the occasional berry bush along the way, even though she knew it was a wasted effort. The Swinub had cleaned out last year's crop months ago, and it would be another month or more before the first of this year's crop began to ripen. A startled Delibird flapped out of one bush, squawking at her as it rose. Absol leaped up, swatting at it playfully.
"Too slow!" the bird teased, swooping down again, just out of reach. It spread it's wings, catching the wind and gliding up the up the valley. Absol spun and chased after it, Swinub scattering from her path as she charged through the herd.
Soon she lost sight of the bird against the glare of the snow, and she stopped under a bare tree, panting and laughing. "Beautiful day for a run, eh?" The Delibird called down from a branch above. Absol nodded and it flapped down beside her.
"You know, I was flying over Frosty Forest this morning and I saw something interesting..."
"Oh?"Absol prompted.
"The Swinub missed a patch of Ice Berries on the fifth floor."
"Really?" She grinned. "I might have to go pick some. Mother and I are so tired of last year's dried berries."
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Linoone darted from behind a rock, brushing against Absol's back as it bounded over her. "You're it!" Linoone shouted, scurrying away. Absol gave chase. They headed for a group of Pokémon talking in the shade of an old Apple tree; Poochyena and the Furret brothers. The three of them scattered at their approach. Absol knew Poochyena was too fast for her, and the smaller Furret had already been 'it' several times that afternoon, so she turned to pursue the larger Furret. They ran through the bushes along the stream which formed one of the agreed-upon boundaries of the game, and Absol cornered Furret at a bend in the stream.
Poochyena appeared again, charging at her and breaking off before she could hit him. He leapt back and forth, keeping just out of reach. Furret tried to make a run for it while she was distracted, but Absol swatted his tail on the way by.
Poochyena tagged Furret, making himself 'it,' and circled Absol, head low and tail waving in the air, challenging her to run. Absol did, heading back toward the center of the meadow, Poochyena keeping a body-length behind without touching her. Absol swerved around a bush and Poochyena tackled her. They rolled together in the grass, snapping playfully at each others' faces. Sylveon wandered by, stopping to watch them play.
"Which of us is 'it' now?" Poochyena whispered.
"Maybe we're both half 'it'," Absol suggested.
"So if we tag her at the same time…"
"Hey, Sylveon!" Poochyena said as they both stood up, "do you know who's 'it' now?"
Sylveon shrugged, sitting down to scratch her ear. Absol and Poochyena both bumped into her at the same time.
"You are!" Absol shouted as the two of them broke into a run.
Thunder cracked suddenly overhead. Pokémon stopped, looking up in surprise and fear, and began to scatter in all directions. Dark storm clouds whipped toward them on a suddenly chill wind. Absol found herself alone in the middle of the field. A frigid rain began to fall, quickly turning to hail. Absol turned and dashed for the woods at the foot of Mount Freeze.
The hail battered down the flowers around her as she ran, stripped the new leaves from the trees, and pelted painfully on her head and back, and she darted from tree to tree, seeking what shelter she could find. The ground turned to mud beneath her pads, sticking her to her feet with each step.
The hail turned to snow as she ascended Mount Freeze, and the wind whipped it around her in great white sheets, stinging her face and blinding her. There was some sinister presence there, a shadow half-glimpsed through the blowing snow. The mud froze into ice as she ran, sharp ridges of ice that cut into her pads. The snow was up her ankles now, her knees, her chest. It seemed to grab at her, pulling her down; soon Absol was breaking through drifts taller than she.
Exhausted and freezing, Absol reached the cave and collapsed beside Mother. They lay there together, shivering, as the snow continued to fall.
Soon, the snow had piled up over then entrance to the cave, entombing them in absolute darkness.
"Come, little one," Mother said, "we have to keep a way open to the surface through the night. In the morning we'll try to make it down off the mountain."
They took turns digging through the packed snow for what seemed like hours. Eventually Absol broke through to the surface. There was nothing at all above her; no clouds or stars or moon, just an infinite, dark void.
They huddled together in the cave for a day, a week, waiting for a glimmer of sunlight to find it's way down the tunnel, too tired and cold and hungry to move. Morning never came.
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Absol woke, shivering. The morning sun shown into the entrance of the cave where most of the snow had already melted, and the pines outside lifted their green branches to the light. In the dim light inside, her mother's eyes glowed nearby.
"Are you alright, little one?"
"S-s-so c-cold." Absol curled herself more tightly into a ball, burying her face in the fur of her front paws. Her horn ached with a cold more intense than any she had felt in the deepest winters of Mount Freeze, radiating waves of freezing pain throughout her body. "It h-hurts."
"Let's get out into the sun." Mother was beside her, nudging her gently up. "It's a wonderful day out there."
Absol hesitated at the mouth of the cave, remembering the darkness and terror that had waited outside in her dream. The sunlight felt faded and far away; she tried to assure herself that it was only her imagination. The ground was muddy from melting snow, and she climbed onto one of the rocks by the entrance, curling up again in the sun. Mother jumped up beside her, laying against her back.
"Better?"
"St-till c-cold." Absol leaned back, pressing herself against Mother's warm body.
"You had a vision, didn't you? Can you tell me?"
Absol covered her face and horn with her paws again, as if she could block out the cold that seemed to come from within.
"It was sp-pring. I was d-down below the f-forest, playing with some other Pokém-mon. Th-then it was s-snowing. I ran b-b-back to the cave. S-something ch-chased me but I couldn't s-see it through the s-snow."
"It k-kept snowing. We had to d-dig out for air, and it was d-dark. We said in the m-morning we'd-d g-go down the mount-tain, but th-there was no morning. J-just cold and d-dark..."
Mother leaned over her, pushing her paws away from her face, warm tongue brushing against her cheeks. Absol realized that she was crying. A few minutes passed in silence.
"I don't know what to make of it," Mother finally said, "but a vision so powerful must be important."
"Y-you're more s-sensitive than me, M-mother. Why d-didn't you see it t-too?"
"I don't know, little one. We don't get to choose our visions...If you're up to it, I think we'd best consult Ninetails."
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"Is that better?" Ninetails asked as they settled around the fire in his cave.
"Yes." Absol lay as close as she dared without catching her fur. The warmth from the flames drove back the chill from her horn, and for the first time since she'd awakened that morning, she wasn't shivering. "Thank you"
"I am glad that you came." Ninetails told them. "For more than two centuries I have watched the stars. I have seen many omens, for good and ill. Some events I foresaw, and others I understood only after they had passed. These last few nights have left me uneasy...I can identify no particular signs in the stars, but there is a feeling of wrongness when I look at them, as if not just one star, but all of them, had been slightly perturbed from it's proper place. I think that you, though, have seen something I have not."
Absol repeated her story, and Ninetails was silent for a while. Absol was grateful; she would have liked nothing better than to stay just where she was beside the fire for the rest of the day, or the rest of her life. She had begun to nod off when he finally spoke.
"I do not know what to make of your vision, either, but it is obvious that something terrible is afoot. The old legends say that in the past, the First One and his children have fought, and their wrath shook the very stars and planets from their courses. Whatever this is, it is beyond our capability here on Mount Freeze. We must seek aid in unraveling this mystery, and other Pokémon must be warned."
"Far to the south," Ninetails continued," there is a town called Pokémon Square. Years ago, a team of Pokémon from this town climbed Mount Freeze to seek my counsel on another catastrophe. Your mother traveled with them for a time; I'm sure she has told you the stories."
Mother nodded. "Team Go-Getters. They were very resourceful Pokémon."
"The world below our mountain has changed since I sought solitude here, and I no longer know who to turn to for aid, but Team Go-Getters were young and ambitions, and their hearts were good. I think they will be able to help us."
"We will find them, then." Mother rose.
"Wait," said Ninetails, turning to Absol, "while I am reluctant to send you alone, under the circumstances, I could use your mother's help here."
Absol didn't want be alone anywhere, didn't want to face whatever nightmare lurked in her vision by herself, but she nodded. "Yes, I think I can. It will be warmer below. Mother can give me directions."
"It's noon, now," Mother said to Ninetails, "she won't make it through Frosty Forest by nightfall. Let us both stay and watch the stars with you tonight."
"Good," Ninetails agreed, "I will send word to Articuno as well. I think he will be willing to escort you through Frosty Forest, and perhaps he will know someone who can take you further."
Absol quickly gave up on helping with Ninetails' astronomy that night. Every time she looked up at the night sky, an overwhelming, suffocating darkness seemed to descend upon her. She slept fitfully by the fire, which Ninetails and Mother kept burning through the night.
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The first night Absol spent in an old Diggersby burrow below Frosty Forest. She remembered playing hide-and-seek here years ago as a child. It was much warmer at this elevation; the snow already melted and flowers blooming, but her chill persisted. She cut several bushes near the entrance and pulled them in behind her to block any draft, scraped at the loose earth where the back of the burrow had collapsed, making herself a crude nest, and curled into it, shivering. She wondered whether Ninetails could have taught her a Fire-type move before she left, if she'd thought to ask.
The chill kept her awake through most of the night, and when she did sleep, she was tormented by nightmares of an indescribable something stalking her through an endless wasteland of dark and ice.
She crawled out of the burrow at sunrise, cold and still tire, debating whether to admit defeat now and return to Mount Freeze to beg Mother or even Ninetails to accompany her, but the morning light strengthened her resolve which had waned overnight. She was not a cub, she told herself, to be frightened by nightmares and imaginings; what she saw was the future, or a representation of a possible future, not a real and present danger. Many of the Pokémon in the legends had endured far more discomfort than she.
Still, Absol traveled cautiously that day, and when she came upon another burrow by the roadside that afternoon, she decided to stop early rather than continue and risk being caught without shelter that night. This one seemed to have seen long use as a shelter for travelers. The ground around the entrance was littered with berry and apple seeds, and she could identify the scents and footprints of at least a dozen species of Pokémon.
Although she had not traveled a full day, Absol was exhausted. The lack of sleep the previous night, the constant chill in her horn, and the horror of her vision combined to sap her strength. Despite her discomfort, she was asleep within minutes.
A rustle at the burrow entrance woke her from a dream in which she wandered endlessly through a wasteland of ice and howling wind lit only by a glowing pair of eyes which followed her every movement. Absol rose, snarling, her fur bristling. Two small figures stood silhouetted by moonlight in the burrow entrance; with a startled squeak, they withdrew.
Just a pair of Pichu, Absol thought, sniffing the tracks they had left. A shame that she'd frightened them off. Company would have been welcome, tonight. She followed them outside, hoping they might still be nearby, but they were gone.
Absol looked up to the night sky, trying to judge how long she'd been asleep As she watched, the stars seemed to shudder and fade, and she was overcome with vertigo. The sense of being watched returned more strongly than before, and she quickly turned and stumbled back into the burrow. Curled up at the back of the hole she stared out into the moonlight. She drifted miserably between sleep and wakefulness, starting at every sound and movement of the shadows.
The next few days passed in much the same manner. Absol stopped in the afternoon whenever she found cover; a cave, a thick copse of trees, another travelers' burrow. She loathed the loss of time, knowing that every day she stopped early could mean another night alone on the road, but the possibility of being caught outside at night was unbearable
As she traveled south, Absol began to encounter other Pokémon more frequently on the road. Most of them were friendly, though a few timid Pokémon gave her a wide berth. On the sixth day she came to a village, a few log and stone huts around a larger common building which served as both an inn and a warehouse.
Apparently a number of Poké were expected in exchange for spending the night indoors. Absol was familiar with the idea of money only from stories; she had never owned any, or had any use for it. The Pokémon around Mount Freeze traded in berries and favors and stories, and few would have denied a polite traveler a place to spend the night. Eventually the grumpy Gardevoir agreed to let her stay, but Absol found the entire encounter somewhat humiliating, and resolved to avoid any other villages along the way.
Absol was utterly exhausted, not from exertion, but from worry and the unrelenting cold that flowed from her horn into every part of her body. She was halfway down the hill before she lifted her eyes from the road in front of her feet to take in the valley below her. Several dozen buildings clustered around the crossroads at the bottom of the valley, and many more were scattered around the slopes. A river flowed through the valley from a small lake above the town.
This must be Pokémon Square, Absol thought. There were Pokémon along the road, playing, talking, picking berries, working on some of the buildings, and they stopped to stare as she passed, more different kinds of Pokémon than she had ever expected to see, all in the same place.
Stalls lined the main street, full of berries and baked goods, seeds, scarves, orbs, tools, and all manner of items she did not recognize. Pokémon gathered around her, pointing and talking. Absol was dizzy, overwhelmed by the unaccustomed assault of sights and sounds and scents. Her vision blurred and her legs were weak.
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The room was dark, lit only by a faint glow of moonlight from somewhere above. Absol lay curled under a blanket in a thick bed of straw. The bedding, and the air of the room, held a strange but wonderful scent which she could not identify; it was fresh and earthy like spring rain, sharp and invigorating like Sitrus berry juice, comforting like a well-used burrow, but it was none of these things. At first, Absol had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten here. She wriggled deeper into the straw, letting the blanket settle over her face. Pokémon Square, she thought, she had made it to Pokémon Square. There had been so many Pokémon, all talking at once…
"Ah, you're awake," The voice came from across the room, high-pitched and motherly, "you had me worried there, darling. You seemed so uncomfortable, but I couldn't find anything wrong with you."
"Just c-cold." Absol answered from under the blanket.
Team Go-Getters, Absol thought. She had to find them, still, and deliver her message. How would she find them, though? There were dozens of buildings, hundreds of Pokémon, so many kinds of Pokémon she had never seen before. Who could she trust, here? Mother always warned her that other Pokémon, off the mountain, would be afraid of her, blame her for the misfortunes of which she tried to warn them.
"Cold? On such a pleasant night? You must be sick."
Absol heard footsteps approaching, and a feathered hand pulled back the blanket and brushed against her forehead.
"You don't feel like you have a fever. Oh, you must have been so exhausted, collapsing in the square like that! Let Mama Aromatisse get you something warm to drink, and you can tell me all about it."
The footsteps retreated, and returned a few minutes later. The blanket was pulled back again, and Aromatisse placed a steaming bowl in front of her. Absol did not recognize what kind of herbs it contained, but the tea was strong and spicy and wonderfully warm.
"Now," Aromatisse said, removing the bowl once Absol had finished, "tell me what happened."
"Go-Getters," Absol said, "I have to talk to Team Go-Getters."
"Go-Getters? I'm sorry, darling, they haven't been in town for months."
"Where can I find them? Absol asked desperately, "it's important."
"Why, no one knows," Aromatisse said, "what is it you need, a Rescue Team? It's something big, isn't it?"
Absol nodded. Aromatisse seemed like a good Pokémon, someone she could trust, but Absol had no desire to tell her story more than once.
"Well, if it's important, Team A.C.T. is the best there is, but they don't come cheap."
The name was familiar. Mother had mentioned them sometimes, when she told stories about her adventures with Go-Getters. They would listen to her, she thought, and they would probably remember Mother, and Ninetails. That would give her some credibility, at least.
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Absol had never imagined Pokémon living in a place like this. Team A.C.T.'s house wasn't a cave or burrow, or a simple hut of earth or logs like some of the Pokémon who lived around the base of Mount Freeze built. A wall of packed earth enclosed a courtyard a hundred meters across, planted with all manner of berry bushes and herbs, with a single, ancient Apple tree in the center. A stream had been diverted from its path to wander in a loop around the courtyard.
The house itself was built of stone, twenty meters across and two floors tall, each high enough to comfortably accommodate a Tyranitar, with massive logs supporting the roof. Dozens of Pokémon could have lived inside, she thought, and fed themselves in the courtyard garden.
Absol was still cold, but with Aromatisse's blanket tied around her shoulders and a belly full of warm poffins and Aromatisse's tea, at least the shivering had stopped. Absol scratched at door. After several minutes, she heard heavy footsteps approaching. The door opened, and Charizard stared down at her curiously.
"Ninetails and my mother helped you eight years ago," Absol said, "we need to talk."