Chap 3

It was a few days before I saw Mew again. As I approached the Edge of The Universe, a platform-like extension of the floor of the castle where deities jumped between the castle and Earth, I spotted Mew with a large dragon I had never seen before. Sensing me, Mew turned around and greeted me with a smile.

"Giratina! Just in time! What do you think?" she asked, shifting my gaze from her tiny paws to the large, emerald dragon beside her.

He was larger than I, tipping his eyes down to meet mine, his snake-like form so much like me. I figured Mew had used me as a blueprint. His green body was more slender than mine, however, and was decorated with numerous yellow and black designs that seemed to match that of Kyogre and Groudon who still remained feuding below.

"This is Rayquaza, my newest deity. He's going to control the atmosphere and protect the Earth from the great star's harmful rays," Mew explained. In later years, Rayquaza's realm became known as the Ozone layer, for your reference.

"My lady," Rayquaza bowed his head to me. At first, I was shocked – I had never had anyone address me as such. I appreciated it all the same.

Smiling I said, "Perhaps he can also knock some sense into Groudon and Kyogre?"

Rayquaza snickered. Mew answered, "And I was just telling him about it!"

"I will do my best, my lady," Rayquaza bowed again to me. "Perhaps when I return we can talk more?"

With that, the emerald air titan descended to Earth, his thin body arching as he zoomed to the world below us. I watched him as he became smaller and disappeared into the red and auburn clouds of an ancient Earth. Lightening struck across the atmosphere, and thunder rumbled ever so slightly.

Mew interrupted my silence, "He seems to like you."

"Hm?" I inquired.

"He's very fond of you. I told him about you a lot, and meeting you, he seemed to really appreciate you even more," Mew explained.

"I felt that," I answered, distant.

Mew cocked her head, unsure as to what to make of my lackluster response to a suitable dragon's affections for me. However, my thoughts went elsewhere at the notion of feelings of that caliber, though I could not pinpoint where. My mind was blank, and yet I felt the urge to leave on a quest to find someone or something.

"You okay?" Mew asked.

I shook my head. "I probably haven't slept as well as I should. I will see you around the castle. Good work on Rayquaza – he seems very capable of the job you have set forth for him."

Mew gave me a worried, but appreciative smile as I turned and left the room. I was still unsure where my drive was coming from, and so, emerging into the inner halls, I just kept moving forward. The halls were empty and the silence was blaring. It was as if my ears had been completed plugged that not a decibel could penetrate my thoughts. However, that became untrue as the sound of water dripping into a deep pool caught my attention. It echoed throughout the hallway, each ripple of sound strengthening and pushing the one before it across the walls. As I approached closer, I happened across a room I had never seen before.

Phasing through the wall, as was my custom, I explored the room. It was a large expanse, with no inner walls. The pattern that adorned the enclosure matched that of the rest of the castle interior, and was lit with the glow of flames enclosed in their sconces. This chamber, unlike the many wide, open, and empty rooms, had something special. Covering most of the tile was a wide bath implanted into the floor. Oddly shaped, its rim was golden and snaked around the area, never making contact with the walls. In the middle of the large pool sat an elegant fountain that reached to the high ceiling, well above my head. From its gold, tower-like trunk sprouted water spouts. I spotted the one that was leaking small droplets of water following each other over the edge, plummeting down towards the floor together until they hit the water's surface with the familiar "ping".

I was so intrigued and focused on this nozzle that I was startled by the sudden screech of a handle being forced down from across the room, and again when the water crashed into my face. I heard a light-hearted chuckle as I stepped back from the fountain. I shook away the excess water from my face and peered past the fountain. I was shocked to see Dialga standing there, his foot still on the handle.

"I take it you've never been here before?" he asked as he floated towards me.

"No, I haven't. I appreciate the prank, by the way. Really, I do," I sarcastically quipped. He smirked, and stood next to me, his feet submerged in the dark water.

"Palkia comes in here a lot to wash away the dirt and rocks from forming planets," Dialga told me. "This liquid Arceus named "water" is a pure substance. It washes away all forms of grime."

"Does it, now?"

"Yes. I've been here a few times myself. It's almost magical, as if it also cleanses the soul," he explained, and dunked his head under the stream of water. "It also surprisingly tastes good."

I giggled and watched him enjoy the seemingly mystic elixir wash over his sapphire skin, and stream from the grooves in his silver plates like rivers in valleys. He backed up, expecting me to try, and I followed his example, trusting that the experience would be as sensational as he made it out to be.

I had never actually felt anything like it before, the sensitivity of my flesh under my scales. The water was cool, and it seeped between each scale it encountered on its way down my body. The feeling was exhilarating at first, but then became relaxing. I closed my eyes, and just listened to the sound the rushing water made at it crashed onto me and the water below my girth. I opened my mouth guard to let the water completely reach my face.

"You seem to be enjoying it," Dialga said as he joined me under the waterfall. He got very close to me, I could sense. His foreleg brushed past one of my spikes and rested against my body. The slight pressure he exerted against the scales in the vicinity of his leg caused my heart to skip a beat. I had never been touched before this moment, and his closeness made me nervous, yet at ease.

As we stood under the water, my heart and my thoughts began to race. It was then I finally realized that he was the one I wanted to find before. I wondered to myself if he felt the same as I did. If he had done it on purpose. Or if he thought nothing of it. He seemed to be so much more concerned with letting the water droplets snake down his scales. I heard him let out a deep sigh, his dragon voice having the sigh turn into a bit of a grunt. I opened my eyes at this sound, and again I was taken aback by his godly majesty. The water flowing over him animated his otherwise still body, and the orange glow from the sconces all around us seemed to make him radiate with power.

I gulped as another shot of Butterfree fluttered into my chest. At the time, these feelings were not named, and so I stood, baffled at myself and felt very awkward. Dialga backed away from me and opened his eyes, meeting my gaze. I knew I was staring, and quickly shifted my eyes down at the pool of water below us.

"Your gold plates are much shinier, now," Dialga pointed out.

"Oh! Well, that's good. Who knew I was so filthy!" I said, keeping the conversation going.

"Exactly, I had no idea either. After all, of the three of us, I do the least amount of work," Dialga said, shaking his head with a smile.

I giggled, and finally felt myself calming down. However, I swiftly took this opportunity to escape.

"Speaking of work," I caught on to the reminder, "I should probably do mine, right about now."

I turned to leave and floated towards the wall I phased through beforehand.

"Oh, okay," was his response.

It was not as if I wanted to leave, but the fear of awkward silence would have certainly turned the otherwise wonderful experience sour. Dialga was truly the winner of my thoughts for many days to come after that moment. I relished in my newfound feelings, coming to enjoy the excitement they stirred throughout my entire body. Some days I would curl into my room, and enjoy imaginary encounters with him.

I would also ponder them. What was their function, exactly? Were they a byproduct of being alive? Could they possibly be a mistake? I did not want to ask Arceus about it. He was far too busy, far too serious, far too self-absorbed to hear of it. Most of all, I feared he'd take those feelings away from me, if, for whatever reason, they were a mistake. So, I kept them a secret. Whenever I saw Dialga, I tried to act normal, though I had bashfully forgotten how to act around him, and to my displeasure, I attempted to avoid him, for fear that my feelings for him would become public.

Over the next few hundred years, Mew created a great menagerie of deities. The fighting between Kyogre and Groudon had become so great, that Rayquaza had no choice but to put them both to sleep. Mew was saddened by this, but was glad that things could finally continue to progress. With that, she created a diety of the moon, named Cresselia, which would control the ebb and flow of the water that covered the planet. Palkia had added a rocky satellite to the Earth around this time, primarily to brighten the dark side of the world that could not catch the Great Star's rays. Mew and Rayquaza observed that its gravitational pull affected Kyogre's seas, so made it Cresselia's tool to do her duties.

Mew also created Lugia and Ho-oh, two bird-like Pokemon that would help Rayquaza control the weather that had begun to appear within the Earth's atmosphere. The movement of the seas, the magnetic shifts of the core, and the warmth of the Great Star concocted great thunder storms, ice caps at both poles of the Earth, and majestic clouds. However, order was needed, and so Lugia and Ho-oh balanced the amounts of rain and sun different locations received. Arceus ordered that each habitat be different for his plethora of lesser-beings to live, flourish, and change on their own.

As all of this happened, I kept more and more to myself. After all, I was not needed. My duties were not with the Earth, but rather, the great expanse of emptiness that surrounded it. Mew also had little time to give me, though, every time she saw me, she attempted to speak with me, only to be dragged away by her own ideas for new deities and lesser beings she was finally able to begin creating. I did not mind. I was content with my own thoughts and going about a mundane life as everything around me changed. At the time, I did not realize how different everything had become, and how cast into the shadows my existence had become as new, and powerful deities began roaming the halls I no longer wished to float through. Things had become boring, and I began to become detached from reality in my intense boredom. Little did I know that soon I would be begging for my scheduled, insipid life back.