Chapter 6: ...for You...

Remarkably waxy leaves slap across my face on my way past this next passage. The vile coonch of dead plant matter settles after my every move and it truly sets my nerves on end. Stubbornly my teeth click together when I hold my breath. It's a bit of a dank wash of air about us. Just toward the front of me, larger and finer in figure and litheness, Vivi raises one smooth foot after another: it's as if there are no obstacles that don't bow beneath her. She glimmers, sometimes, when I look at her out of the corner of my eye. But that might just be me.

Fingers following steadily behind me clip for my own each turn we take. I glance again back at the cloudy blue figure; Jen, nervous, doffs her head into a blush as Zoey squeaks softly. She just shoves against my best friend in response. She's nervous; she's shy. I don't blame her. Patterns of shadows fall everywhere the light can't quite reach beneath the canopy of leaves. Unsurprisingly the ones up on top contain less holes, less death. It's so bright there...

Boooooooooom—burburburburburburburrrr...

A tumble of rocks will slowly bring us in.

Their crushing gray bodies tremble from another side; Vivi, uttering something beneath her breath, comes to a stop. I nearly run into her and scramble by her side instead. Ulgh... "What was it?" My own gaze slithers up toward hers: bright purple eyes blink.

"Some sort of slide? It reminds me of more avalanche, though, in style: without the cold of course." My friend's even tones settle atop the face of the forest ahead of us; she clicks her tongue like these boulders are naughty little things. "Although they surely caught a breeze from their fall. It fluttered my fur, heh." Her creamy, tentative paw rests place upon a newly-planted stone. When it holds, she gives a firm nod. "Yes, we should be alright. Only some overfed pebbles, yes?" Blinking gently, she sets herself toward the pathway; I scatter up to follow, only stopping when I recall Zoey's... less than stellar climbing skills.

Her small yelp draws my hand down to her when scrabbling, blue feet—slick with water—cannot hold. It takes both Jen and me for the poor thing to manage, herself sniveling with the effort. Dashing back, we go on toward Vivi, who acknowledges our little tumble with a nod.

Murmuring, her amethyst gaze flashes again over us: "I wonder how the others fare. Do you think splitting up into the teams we made was a wise decision?"

"Well... the forest is big." I shake my head. "We cover more ground this way... although I'm not completely sure what we're searching—"

"YEEEET!" cries Jen.

"—for... aaah!" Just on cue I blunder into a great, black, bulky... bulky—bulky—bulky thing and hustle backwards only his mitts are so large. They grind into my shoulders; my hands, smarting, go off and flail against him. Everywhere these fingers of mine sink against him lies a waxy, white mark, foreboding like the color of bones. Only I thrash and it's so strong, so big, it's so—everywhere—until something green smears by my sight and the thing lands in its own little puddle of goo.

Vivi. Oh bless her...

Panting... panting... heart pounding in my head... when did it get there... I don't know...

Whispers like leaves—Vivi's. "Those are so creepy... There's just nothing else to call them. Ghh..." Her nose wrinkles, eyes surveying over my state. "And now that we're this far from Post Town and most other life... the Mystery Dungeons... everything... they populate in bouts of seeming madness," she sighs then, forces her head side to side. The horns upon her wriggle in digression. Her moue is copied by the likes of Zoey.

"Ye-Yeah..." Slowly, wincing, Jen nods. There is a little mark not unlike a hand-print creasing over her other cheek, on her right one. It's black like... like the puddle. I take my steps back from this latter now, bumping against a warm barrier of scales and fur. My heart takes its chances, slows its rate. Sometimes it doesn't feel quite safe when it is.

Blushing, Jen tosses her shoulder over and allows her silvery hair to cover her splotch. "E-Eheh, sorry... I'm sure it'll he-heal or something, yeah?" Her amber orbs dart for the heart of safety in the rocks beneath us.

"Awww, Jeeennn! No need to fret, you poor thing! I'm sure Roland's all stupidly boyishly worried about you right nooww! Hahaaaaa!" Zoey cackles, gently elbowing the dragonet, who splutters and rubs at her cheeks, looking away. Smiling, Vivi's paws split the rest of the silence with greedy steps. She does not mention the word on her mind, although it's obvious knowing her that she's thinking about Kyo. He's with... Quagsire. And Roland, too, I believe.

"Z-Zoey..." Jen blinds. Hard. "You don't have to say sappy things like that... i-it's weird coming from you. Just hearing the word 'boy' makes me all nervous, like something creepy happened if you're actually gonna say it..."

My dear friend's tongue juts out, taking its space personally. "Euhhhh! Boys are pretty weird, but there's some I'm okay with. Still! You're all thinkin' and worryin' bout your Rol-Rol, ain'cha? Ya wanna spill? I solemnly swear I'll keep Vivi from telling anyone!" A rejecting snort. "You know I will! Llana! Tell her about all the secrets I've helped you keep!" In one piercing moment, all eyes fall on me.

"I-I—I don't have any secrets and we all know it Zoey!"

"Hmmmmmm? Ya suuuuuuure?" Lashes flutter, heavy like wings, over her devious little eyes. "No worries? Not one? Nothing special at all you've ever told me? Nothing about your liiiiiiiiiikes?" And then her eyes outright thunder. "Heheheheh?" Her giggles only follow and follow; my eyes catch upon her.

Then, "Well, Zoey. I'm sure whatever you're talking about wouldn't be a secret any longer if you told anyone."

"Oh yeah! Well—well I won't! You're welcome!" She goes back then to pestering Jen until the poor sky-blue girl's gone nigh cherry with all of the teases. Shivering, spluttering, she rubs at her eyes.

Slowly she mumbles, "I know Roland's worried about his little brother... the one he hasn't seen in a long time... back when he was younger and hadn't even met us... ri-right?" Jen nibbles on her lip. "So I guess he thinks with all of the scary things going on... that we'll run into him soon or something... and he really, really wants to see Olive, so..." She sighs in her soft flutter. "He's m-my friend... and he's been worrying about it a lot... so I just... he-hehh... sorry."

"Sorry?" Vivi chuckles tenderly. "My dear, you have no need to be sorry for the stories locked in your heart. There's nothing wrong with passions and feelings... and if they're special to you, then of course we are here to listen. Some of us... more than others." She doesn't look at Zoey but she might as well be painting a bright red circle on her face. "Still. Please don't worry! Heheh..."

We sift off into an ensconcing silence. One where words aren't needed—thoughts aren't needed: for still it is comfortable, and I don't mind the silence. It only means that there are no shadows hissing behind us. There are many of them... an-and they can't help being sca-scary, I guess. It helps... I help... with their methodical finality, their endings and endings: only puddles that wither away remain, and even that shall come to an end.

When I turn around I like to pretend that there are tiny prints, white and glowing, and they coalesce into the dying soil. Perhaps it's a bit on the side of what some call hopeless; there are things that cannot be helped. I like to pretend, even if I'm not, that my power is stronger and much more beautiful than it really is. Flower, not bud. Flame, not flicker. Warmth, not...

How is Tim faring now? His own team included the likes of F, and while I love F, she's more than hands can hold; the look in her eyes always asks you if she's up to something and you've missed it again. She'll drive him senseless; she's worse, I would imagine, than an overly protective Zoey. It's amusing when I see it that way. And isn't that all it is? Perspective. I-I know that... he's not very truly nice... and for all I know he doesn't sleep at night, he searches for victims I have no ties to... but... still. I squeeze Zoey's hand in my own; my body rustles into Vivi's green side. It's warm. It's... safer than the outskirts have been.

Another slams down by our heels. When I turn just that look—a catch of rock-like body, boulder strength as well as weight—it's on my tail—on my tail—I trip and snatch into the earth below. Hissing—it hisses from beneath where I touch, just my tail, my poor bent and trampled tail, sizzling and burning its body from the bottom upward.

Panting, slowly, eyes thick and glistening like soapy suds, I rub myself, splutter. My hands meet each other where they place across my head; the thumbs interlock; the creature twitches, cries, burbling and burbling its throaty screech sounds, until finally it bursts in twisting bits of waterfall about me. I don't hear Zoey's whispers, asking me to take her hand, for some time. I have to release myself, let the rest of the world in, before I can even start to think.

Even thus when our hands do collect I slip and fall and hiss into the conglomeration on the floor in front of me. "Yeeap! Llana! Oh you poor thing Llanaaaaaaa!" Zoey's body struggles, white fur heavy on me, to scoop me out of my latest demise and scrape back rows of black mixture. Try I might, it's stubborn. So stubborn. O-Oh save me...

"Ghhh... What do they want from you? They keep coming after you—you specifically..." In the most domesticated, artistic manner as it can be, Vivi gags. Her bright orbs glisten. "I'm sorry. It's... just..." Air blows through her teeth; I nod, face throbbing. Of course. It's fine. I get it. It's... gross. It is.

Jen's silvery braids shiver across her. Those tiny fingers of hers scab at the mark on her face. I don't think she's noticed, nor the scratches cutting it in pieces and pieces—yet still it lies. A foul odor that follows about the chamber... a piece of paranoia stuck to the back of one's skull... there it lies. "I-I don't blame you, Llana. They... They're creepy. And it's like they're everywhere, ri-right? At least... when they go for you—or... or Vivi—they don't, um, leave anything behind."

"Maybe Ember can burn it off later?"

"E-Ehhhh... Zoeeeyyy... I-I mean. It's a suggestion, tha-thanks... but... It... hnnn... if it works, I guess..."

Vivi wrinkles her nose, she moving herself on, further and further away from the stain. We scuttle after on our little feet. The dark forest all but swallows my pale toes. "Sometimes I wonder how real it all is.. heh. But I know it is. I've been through it; Kyo has walked with these shadows nigh to his death. I'm not sure about F..." Eyeroll. "She burns her own pathway. Some take the narrow road, some the wide and well-trod... F burns hers through whatever obstacle is obstinate enough to be in her way," she mumbles off, then, head full of other creatures who light up in the night.

Other legends like her... She has a brother, too. He never gave himself a name. Cobalion, they called him. He, um, visited. Once. With what he called a "mate for the sister." Then he was provoked; then he attacked. He is not here now. I'm not sure whatever happened to him post-battle, when he was unconscious and we dragged he and his comrade somewhere far away, but Quagsire's words advised us, just as they do now. He lights the lanterns; we follow his path. And I wonder, then, if we walks with us, or if he goes through his own higher road, one we never will quite understand.

I'd rather prefer his company with us. It would be colder without his tenderly floppy voice, his fun grin and funny story.

Did Ember and Cheeka go by his group or another's..? I do know the teams were chosen in particular with the weight of power and balance of such. There's someone like... like Vivi or myself in each. Ember and Cheeka used to wander on their own, before they found us. I'm sure if the need be they could go on and turn their backs to our little group.

But they knew Stella... and they hold such strange interest in me—probably deferring back to the lady who more or less entirely raised me. With Gerald. Dear, late Gerald...

"Zoey?" I whisper.

Her head whips back for me. "Hmmmm?"

"Do you... have any stories?" Jen looks back toward me; Vivi blinks. "Ahh! That is, about... about your family? I was... I was wondering. You're told me little about what frames who you are... and I was wondering if you'd like to..." Oh... I look back away.

Only then her hand squeezes mine and she laughs. It's a very soft laugh, like she's wrapping me up tight in blankets, leaving me someplace warm and safe. "Hmm... well. I have... a mom and a dad and... and a bunch of siblings. My parents're just older oshawotts... uhh... dew—no... sam... sam... samurotts! Yeah, that! They're huuuuuuge, towering blokes that walk on all paws like Vivi, and their furs are seas of blue! Then all my siblings are younger than me."

Jen groans.

"Heeeeyyy! Jennnnn! Just because they're smaller Zoeys doesn't mean they're any more... more energetic and junk than me! And plus, none of them... none of them... well! We have different tastes, I gotta say."

"Mmmmm..? Zoey, what do you mean by that?"

Her great, oceanous orbs flicker toward me. I can see feelings, bright and dark and hiding before me within her shivering irises, reflected past pupils. Feelings that pulsate and press about me, questions like bubbles waiting to be popped, waiting for the answer. Unsure, I glance past her, then back toward her. My dear friend, Zoey. Her long ears, dark and heavy with bluish fur, hang down and down, past her head and past her shoulders, ending just past that. Freckles and a big smile... She's special. Really. I think she is. Maybe no one else cares but I think she's special.

"Nothing, Llana! Heehee! Don't you worry your little head!

She goes on, voice bursting with giddiness. "I have twin little brothers... they're not toddler age—that's my sissy—but they're not this old either... and my sissy is so small and her baby face is so squishhyyyy! It's so fun to squish her faaaaace!"

"E-Eheheheheh..." Jen's amber orbs burn. "That's sweet. I have a, um, biological dad... I'm not really sure who my mom is... and I haven't seen him in awhile... but he... well... he likes, umm... boys. He-Heh..."

What's wrong with... liking boys..? "U-Um... it's okay, Jen. Your father likes who he likes, yes? Boys, girls..." Is that all?

"N-Nooo! But he... but he... I mean... you like girls, right? And you like boys—everyone mostly does. But he... he like... like-likes boys! I-I-If that ma-ma-makes any se-sense...

"L-Like how you... like-liked Elijah..."

Ahhhh...

Zoey's eyes go cold. I splutter."Yes. That... I get that. Umm..." I begin tripping over my words; the stare in her eyes worries me, unnerves me. When I try and squeeze her hand, she doesn't much respond. Her sapphire eyes flick off for another place entirely. "I... that's... there's nothing wrong with that! Ye-Yeah... as... as long a-as he's happy... ri-right..? There's nothing... nothing wrong with... with that..."

Finally her head resurfaces. I struggle to breathe.

Wondering, silently, did I say the right thing..?

It's a funny thought... but Zoey blinks; her blue eyes shadow me, smile back at me, and I think whatever just occurred and the waves of tension behind it have passed. That's good. I want my best friend to stay with me... stay right here.

We trudge on in another spot of silence. When my head raises, leaves brush and smudge up against me, the hand-print of the earth all that leaves its touch evident. Scratches, twigs, bits of matter on one's foot: this manages, but the dark things that tried to... tried to snuff me out were merely burned into waxy pulps. Perhaps they see me, clear as sunlight betwixt the trees, and unlike Tim their feelings aren't so full: they will... they want to hurt me. Maybe. I don't know.

Perhaps they're summoned by him a long time ago... and small, small expenses of power, he could craft them and send them out to toil and take more, more, because he can't take everything so quickly. Perhaps they aren't anything but my imagination turning rancid. Perhaps they're trying to take me... me to him. Perhaps... perhaps it's even Stella, playing a mean little prank on me—no. I'm wishing. I want that one to be true... nn. I shake my head. But quite obviously, they're... drawn to me. To Vivi, less so, and perhaps that going with F and the likes of Kyo too. But mostly they want... they want me.

My dream from prior, with the colors... and the sickening hold in gloppy water... what brought it upon me? Although of course it could only be a dream—only it doesn't... doesn't... feel like it.

What if this was all really a dream? What if one morning I awoke only to find Gerald himself, brought from the dead—younger, fitter—no celestial beings such as Stella, no strange Zoeys to find me on my own, no Vivi, no magic, no bushels summoned from nothing but dirt, no foul rodents that cry "kikiki" or any sort of nightmare?

That would make me sad. It would be an awful dream, if it had to end... I-I know. Pokemon were hurt and still the chance of being said hurt is evident. Elijah was...

but if he was to never exist, alongside his best friend Bay, and Espa and Umbre—and sweet, dear Zoey... it's a confusing thought. What is better..? I don't know, I'm afraid of knowing, I must just embrace today and—

not run into Vivi when she halts and—

try not to fall into yet another monster's filthy grip. Only once again when he holds me, this one lankier, thinner, smaller: he melts nigh immediately. She. It. Gone. No longer.

And after the leaking goo dribbles from my hand comes pink, bright pink, backed in a red foliage of fur. Shuffling, I stuff my fingers into the earth, like it will hold my predicament. Ember surely sees me; he takes his time striding through greenery. Nearly steps on my tail. Just the slightest undertone of red embarrassment takes his face, only for a short moment, so I acknowledge his guilt without his having to say it: then he continues off in front of me. Those quartz orbs of his cut narrow. A thin line treads his lip.

"What the fuck was that?" I blink. "You saw it, didn't you?" I lift a hand, a finger, the pad of it pricked with black. "Holy—Llana, did you land on it or something? Did that thing touch you?" Ink, blood, dust—whatever it is, slowly its essence dissolves from my finger, my hand, my body. The tail Ember nigh stepped on twitches toward full luster—or as full as it gets.

Shock drips, drips, drips down his face, filling the cracks with smooth cusps. "You touched it. You touched a lot of them." Harsh blink. Twitch beneath his maw. "And you... destroyed it? Are you sure about this, Llana? Did you really... manage something like that? We both know that you're weaker than him. So what makes... ghhh..."

His face grips back. "Cheeeeeeeka!"

In follows the slender psychic, just as pink-eyed and twitchy as he. Ember's lighter, sharper voice drops with hers to hide their words: I'm left there somewhat dumbfounded by their presence as it sinks in that they... just... just appeared. Out of the wood. Where did they come from? Oh, very true.. I don't recall whose team they stuck to, if any—I'm sure one—but...

"Oh, hey guys! Hi, Jen! Hello, Zoey! Very nice to see you here! I didn't think we'd run into someone so soon—heh!" Out scampering from the leaves next procures Bay. His yellow presence manages to uplift the radiant shadow of our surroundings. "You've seen the weird jiggly thingies, haven't you? I think there's a whole bunch following us... or, well. There was—there was!" His jolly expression intensifies. "There isn't now! Ember and Cheeka didn't wanna mess with them so... Heh. I swear we're cool. So... what's up?" Smiling, Jen works her way over to the dunsparce, and they develop into idle chitchat.

Vivi turns herself over to the pansear and panpour duo. She angles herself with those luscious, green horns of hers gently shadowing over her wise posture. "What is it you were saying, Ember?"

"I'm saying that Llana can actually defend against something..." he mumbles, tooth over lip now. His fiery personality, doused by care over Cheeka and their strange power, tends to sneak out every now and then in stronger bursts. It's amusing, still... his change, and change, rippling like water, crazed into wakes.

"Hmm? Well. Yes! She's managed quite well, I'd say. The vast majority of these monsters have summoned themselves toward her, and yet she's managed, each time they came close to... would it be disintegrate them? They touch her; they dribble into a pulpy mess that soon disappears as well. Queer but..." Vivi's own whisper lengthens, towering over the duo; her face, flat and angular, smooth and rough, bunches in the middle, nose wrinkling again.

Cheeka gently raises herself; her waves of blue hair shimmer down her spine. "Euhhh... it is weird. She's... not very strong, right? And yet the killers fall to pulps in her hands... it makes me worried! Re-Really worried, right!" Her gaze falls back to Ember, voice lowering into nigh wordless mumbles.

His own furry head fluffs back and forth as he sighs. "I don't know. It's weird here. I don't like it. Makes me feel like we're losing our battles even more... like there's more of them... someone else.. Paradise was just one small place; now we're out here again and... I don't like it."

"Hmmmmmm?"

"Ahh!"

Zoey starts by a side I didn't know I had until her burled against me, head on my shoulder, feet scrabbling over mine. "Quagsire? You're here, too?"

"Well, mmmmost of us are. I had to go on ahead and find the bulk of you. The others should... be around here, errrr, somewhere."

It's nice to recognize the friendly faces over foliage; Vivi stiffens beside me even still. "Pardon my asking," she murmurs, low and swift, "but where may Kyo and Roland be, then?"

"Hmmm? Commmming along shortly, if all goes... well. I'll be checkin' back for them, soon. Llana, y'mmmmight have to commmmme with mmmmme for this."

"But Quagsire!"

His gaze flashes over the fuzzball beside me. "Zoey, apologies, but now is not the time to be proving anything otherwise. We got a... bit of an ordeal. And no—" his head raises in expectation—"it's not Tim, either, hmmmm. I think he'n the rest should be round here shortly. Espa, Umbre... F. Yeah, I think that's everyone. Hup!" He plops himself over the side of a hill up ahead and roams onward.

A pair of quarts gazes flash back to Vivi. "We're following him again?" Ember curls his lip, the teeth beneath smiling maliciously. Cheeka's lips bump together in a wrinkled quiver.

"You both know Quagsire. I only wonder where he'll be leading us toward... I guess we shall see soon." Vivi, shaking her head, leads on. Zoey clasps my fingers and pulls us both up and onward. I suppose Quagsire has... found something of sorts. I wonder what he leads us for now... and what sort of worry proceeds us... Roland and Kyo both...

Sure, he told us they were coming. Yet the button-like gleam in his gaze suggested he knew something else...

Oh, dear... worry knots my stomach... I glance for Zoey who immediately notes my discomfort and pulls at me, hugs at me; still my face drops dizzy with that pallor, for losing more and more makes me further lightheaded... a nervous wreck... fear cold and icy... like Tim's thoughts to the touch. I recall the times when he fully believed in his killing of my dear friends; the way he spoke living beings with thoughts and notions as pawns made me... sick. And it's as I worry now.

Jen was less shy prior to the loss of Mina. She'd finally lost her stutter, eyes clean and glistening, shining with her internal beauty... now she's lost again. She was close, very close with Mina. Best friends. Like Elijah and Bay. Like Zoey and me. And she was only budding in friendship with Roland—which only burst into blooming without Mina—and now he's upon the line as well... I'm scared for them all. They aren't pawns; Tim is at least trying to see that now. They're entire lives and they're falling from my grasp which seems to only shrink with Tim's—or his... things'—growth.

Where are we now? I don't want them gone... not at all...

Zoey's grip tightens on me; her words are snowballs forced down my throat, but it's better than eternal null, so I beg of her to keep going, to keep supporting me.

Poor Llan-Llan ;w; I always feel bad for her xD I kill Elijah, it's not enough... kill Mina, kill Burr (and man I loved Burr so that really messes me up), then Gaurdio (gaurdio! :D ...I like his name xD) , now there's just more and more chances for her friends to die... but they weren't safe in Paradise, and I guess this is Quagsire's only way of seeing more light on their paths...

Elijah: ;_; I don't want more of them to join me... gahhhhhhh Llana um I believe in you

Llana: ;w;

Zoey: I WILL KEEP YOU SAFE LLANAAAAA

Tim: –_– …