A moment's silence passed between us. Then, to my surprise, Evie shook her head.

"Minun," she started. "I appreciate your loyalty, but...I think it would still be better for us all if you would take his offer."

Horrified, I couldn't speak as she continued. "You're getting older, Minun, and I can't care for you forever. In one month you turn twelve. What will you do with your life? Rescuing Pokemon is a satisfying way to live, but only if you know how to battle. Blood can teach you that, but I can't.

"My studies are about finished, Minun. I would stay with you if you required it, but since Blood has given you this offer, I would urge you to take it. Not out of my own selfishness - I would never abandon you, and you know that - but for your own good."

Evie paused for a moment, looking intently at my face. I was trying my hardest not to cry. I'd never imagined that Evie, of all the Pokemon, would want to leave me. Why? For most of the life I could remember, Evie had been my ever-loyal guardian. Yet, now it seemed she was more than eager to get rid of me.

Evie seemed to realize what I was thinking.

"Minun, please don't think I want to leave you. I don't. This will be as painful for me as it is for you. Once you're gone, I won't have any reason to stay here anymore. This place has been my home for four years because I cared so much about you I sacrificed everything I had to take care of you, after your parents, and then Plusle, died.

But after you leave, I'll have to move on. I don't have that many prospects. Just like you, I'll be all alone, only that you will have something to work on, to focus on. But I'll be in the unknown." She paused. "But please don't worry about me. I'll probably join a rescue team, and go from there."

"What kind of rescue team?" I asked, worried. For a second, I managed to think of Evie, alone in the wilderness, and I felt apprehensive. A chill ran down my spine as I pictured her, fighting huge monsters just like the one that had killed Plusle. What if she was hurt? What would happen then?

Then a terrifying thought filled my mind: What if she was killed?

"It'll probably be one of the new expeditionary teams," she continued, oblivious to my silent terror. "They are teams that aren't really based in any town, like most are. Instead, they have their headquarters in frontiers far to the north, or the east, and they mostly explore, since there really aren't too many Pokemon needing to be rescued so far away from civilization."

"But still-" I started. Even if she didn't have to fight huge monsters, horrible images of her falling into hidden ravines and getting trapped in deep, treacherous parts of unknown caves caused me to worry even more than ever.

Evie smiled slightly. "Minun, it's very sweet that you care so much about me, but I ask that you do not worry. I promise I won't get hurt."

Although I didn't believe her, I nodded slightly. I was still getting over the shock that she actually wanted me to go on by myself, without her. To me, it seemed a daunting, terrifying way to spend the next few years, in some secluded mountain far away from everyone else, training with someone I barely knew.

Evie looked upwards at the sky. A slightly dreamy look was on her face as she spoke. "If Blood can teach you how to battle, then...one day, Minun, when you've finished your own training, you can come back here. Your village is constantly terrorized by that monster, and you could help defeat it.

Afterwards, you can move on to rescuing Pokemon - I can tell you from experience that it's a very rewarding lifestyle. Maybe you'll be as famous as Lucario, the best of the best - but only if you're willing to take this chance and learn."

Evie turned away from me and started for the door before I could say anything. "I'll go on a walk," she said. "Please, think about it." I knew she never went on walks at that time, but it didn't matter. There were more important things clouding my mind beside her rather unusual "walk".

My thoughts only scared me more. I was terrified by the notion of not having Evie. Soon, I might not know anything about her anymore, after we'd gone our separate ways. Soon, she wouldn't be my caretaker, my cheerful vaporeon that never failed to make me happy, even when I was gloomy and sad. Soon, she wouldn't be there to comfort me while I grieved for my parents, and for Plusle.

Soon, she wouldn't be there. She'd disappear, just like Plusle did so many months ago, leaving a big, hollow, gaping hole in my mind where he once laughed and danced as we played in the summer meadows.

For the first time in weeks, I cried myself to sleep. It felt strange to do that again; the only times I'd ever fallen asleep crying was when someone had died: my parents, and then Plusle. But in a way, Evie was dying. In fact, it was worse than dying. She was vanishing from my life forever: alive, but unreachable, the two of us separated by vast, unknown lands, never to see each other again.

That night, Evie sat on my bedside as she had done before. But that only made what was coming even more painful than it already was. To feel her softly patting my back, wiping the tears off my face, comforting me in the only way she could was depressing enough, but knowing that it was the last time she would ever do so made me feel crushed and defeated, as if the whole world was coming down on the two of us, separating us forever.

In the end, when she thought I had finally eased into sleep, she quietly left for her own bed. I heard her leave as I lay awake, sniffling. Although I only felt more soul-crushing sorrow, I silently thanked her for not staying any longer. If she had, I would never have been able to bear leaving her.

The next few days were full of packing. Soon, the whole village knew that we were leaving. Pokemon gathered at our hut by the dozens, all tearfully wishing us well. Some tried to beg us not to go. "You are the only happiness left in this village," they would say. "Plusle is dead. If you leave, Minun, there will be no more joy forever."

But I paid no attention to any of them. Nothing they said could comfort me. Nothing they said could make me feel happy. Nothing they said could lift the crushing blanket of sadness, of grief that enveloped me. Only Evie could do that, and in just a few days even she would be gone.

I didn't speak to anyone. Instead, I silently helped her pack all her boxes of specimens, all her journals full of her research. Waves of nostalgia washed over me as I peered at one of the flowers Plusle and I had collected and pressed for her, or that one memorable tale the three of us had heard from Old Kingsley, a genteel, jolly gyrados who lived on the far side of the valley. It was all ending now. Soon, it would be nothing but a fading memory of a time long gone.

The night before the departure arrived. As usual, Evie made supper. We ate silently, and retreated upstairs. I went to my room and fell onto my bed, exhausted from stacking journals and pushing boxes all around the hut.

Evie came in with a quiet shuffling of paws. "Minun?" She asked. "Are you asleep?"

I shifted slightly in reply.

She quietly moved over to my bed. "Minun, I just wanted to say goodbye," she said. Her voice was soft, reassuring, comforting. But there was nothing to reassure. And nothing could comfort me. When Plusle died, I no longer feared anything. Now...I no longer felt anything.

"Minun..." Evie started. I could hear the tremor in her voice, hear her pain. It was almost too much to bear.

Evie was sitting on the bed now, trying to reassure me, to comfort me. But her voice always seemed on the verge of tears, and once or twice she suddenly lost control, unable to speak for minutes at a time. And yet she still carried on bravely, even though I could sense that any second now, she would break down into tears.

But even though she was doing her best to sound reassuring and soothing, I could tell that even she didn't believe all the things she said about how everything was going to be okay, how I would survive, and one day appreciate that I'd made the choice to leave with Blood. Even she knew that I would suffer, that the days and nights of loneliness would leave a mark that would never go away.

"Evie," I wanted to say. "Evie, please. Spare yourself the agony. There is nothing you can do anymore. Just let me go." And it was true - there was nothing she could do anymore. Already I was beginning to feel empty. Already, everything was disappearing, soaring away on fleeting wings, leaving behind a bewildering sense of emptiness. What was the meaning of it all? Of happiness? Of life?

Nothing had any meaning anymore. Not without Plusle. Not without Evie.

But instead of speaking, I stayed silent. I couldn't say anything. It was as if I was a ghost, an invisible spectre silently watching as two grief-stricken Pokemon said their last goodbyes. For a moment, it felt as if I was really drifting away. But it was all too real, and there was no way I could escape it.

Eventually, Evie's reassuring words faded away to sniffles. I felt weary and weak, powerless to stop what was coming the next morning, but I finally mustered the strength to speak:

"Evie, it's okay now. Please stop crying, Evie."

But if I had expected that to calm the gushing tides of emotion that flowed out of her, I was wrong. With a shaky sob, she reached across the bed and embraced me in a crushing, desperate hug. "Oh, Minun...I'm so sorry..." she said between sobs that racked her body. "Minun...I never knew you'd feel so much pain...oh, if I knew, I would have stayed..."

Silently, I listened, tears trickling down my cheek as she cried.

Hours later, when Evie had fallen asleep next to me, was when I finally allowed myself to think. But there was nothing to think about. It was too late to change anything, too late to stop the inevitable. It was simply too late. Everything was done. There was no going back.

I turned to look at Evie's face. The raw pain, the terrible grief was still unmistakable, but her face also had a sort of peaceful quality to it as she slept. I let my eyes linger for a few minutes more, knowing that I would never see her again. A single tear slowly made its way down my cheek, but I didn't wipe it away.

"Goodbye, Evie," I whispered, more to reaffirm myself than to her. Then I slept.