Here I am again! And here is the fluff that was requested! Hope it's good!
IMPORTANT: I need a Betareader! Anyone willing, tell me in a review or PM me, along with instructions on how to send you the documents, because I don't know how.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of the Lake
Chapter 8
Watching Wind and Shadow
"Good," said Dusknoir, "That's decided. Now I'm off to bed. Good night." And so saying, he floated off back toward camp.
Grovyle and I continued on in companionable silence for a while. Now that we were alone, awkwardness, beyond that which was normal, was rising within me, but I suppressed it.
At length, to break the silence I asked, "Do you really think Firestar is the Messiah of Time?"
"Yes," said Grovyle instantly. "I have no doubts."
"Then I guess I believe it too. You've changed, Grovyle," I said softly. "The Grovyle I once knew would never believe something so far-fetched. You're more trusting, funnier, more… well, lively. Do you know what I mean?"
"Yes," he said softly. While he spoke, he—seemingly unconsciously—started petting my head with one hand, rubbing from my forehead along the fuzz which covered my body to the tip of my elongated skull. It would have felt nice from anyone, but from Grovyle, I actually felt my actual grip on reality slipping. The world swam in front of my eyes, and it took a terrible effort just to keep flying. The only real things seemed to be me and Grovyle, and his intoxicating scent filled the air.
"I do," he continued, still softly rubbing, "We've all changed. Dusknoir's less ruthless, I'm less serious, and you're less cold."
"Cold?" I murmured softly, barely able to both keep myself from falling asleep under his treatment and kissing the daylights out of him. "You thought I was cold?"
"You were," he said, with characteristic bluntness, "You always distanced yourself from me. You never came close to me if you could avoid it, except that time when the Convention was destroyed." I remembered. I had thrown myself, weeping, into his arms as I delivered the news. "It hurt," he whispered, "Not to be able to come close to you."
My eyes were watering now. I slowly hovered to his neck, dislodging his hand on my forehead, which slipped down my face, hitting my eyelashes and lips as it fell, and wrapped my small arms about his shoulders. "I'm sorry," I whispered, "I never meant to hurt you. You're right, we've all changed. It's the light of this world. It's healing souls we never knew were damaged."
He didn't reply, but simply hugged me back. I felt so warm and safe in his embrace, it was hard to imagine that anything existed besides the two of us. I could have stood there forever, but my eyelids drooped, and I fell asleep in his arms.
Grovyle's POV
I felt Celebi's arms go limp around me, and, looking down, saw that she'd fallen asleep in my embrace. I chuckled softly, and kissed the top of her forehead. She mumbled something inaudible and wrapped her arms around me in her sleep, as one might a pillow. I smiled, and hugged her back for a moment. Then I began the walk back to the ThunderClan camp, carrying her as though she were something fragile, delicate, and immeasurably valuable.
Some of that I knew was untrue. She was by no means fragile. She had once stood up to Regigigas himself, and almost won, or so I'd been told by the members of the Cresselian Convention who had known her longer than I had. Nor was she delicate. For decades, she'd been the only spy the Convention had inside Temporal Tower. I knew she'd gone through trials and turmoil beyond anything I'd ever experienced while she was there. But she was immeasurably valuable, at least to me. And when she was asleep, she did look fragile, and delicate, and helpless.
I soon reached the ThunderClan camp. I hopped up to the tree we'd slept in the night before, placed her in her niche, and fell asleep.
The next morning dawned, sunlight glittering off the snow. I watched it with my teammates, having gotten up just before the sun rose. We always did, Dusknoir and I both, back in the past, and now Celebi continued the tradition. Only just after it had fully risen did Firestar join us.
"How can you miss the sunrise?" Celebi asked him softly.
"Why do you always watch it?" he countered.
"Because it is among the most wonderful things I've ever seen," I answered for Celebi, still loking toward the Northeastern sunrise. "And because I could not see it at all back where we come from."
"Oh yes," said Firestar, "Your world had no sun. But ours does. There will be many more to watch."
"You can't know that," I said softly, "You may leave this world tonight, or tomorrow, or before this moon is gone."
"Then I will go to StarClan, and see the sunrise from above the clouds," stated Firestar with conviction.
There was a moment of silence, and then Celebi asked him, "Do you really believe that?"
"Yes," he said simply. "It's true. I know it is. I've spoken with the dead in StarClan."
"When we die, Giratina comes and takes us to a land where we never die, or are sad." I said. "We know that from a record of dying left by Charizard the Avenger. He got that title from when he was killed by Gyarados the Black, and was returned to life by Mew to destroy his foe."
"I don't know these names," said Firestar. "What are Giratina, Charizard, and Gyarados?"
"Giratina is the Dragon of Death," whispered Dusknoir, his eye closed, almost chanting the words, as though singing some half-remembered song. "Master of the fallen, Marshal of the dead, Lord of the Undying Lands."
Celebi and I stared at him. He looked at us. "What?" he said defensively, "You can learn a lot as a Ghost-Type Servant of Time up at Temporal Tower."
Celebi shrugged, and, turning back to Firestar, said, "Dusknoir gave a good introduction of Giratina. Gyarados is a great blue snake-like beast. And Charizard is a great dragon. It has bat-like wings, two legs, and arms similar to Grovyle's."
Firestar frowned. "How do you remember all these names and appearances? I assume there are still more types of Pokemon?"
"Yes," I said, "We learn it young, when our minds are most open. The names are whispered to us and we are shown pictures before we can even speak by parents and teachers. It's difficult to learn, but once you learn it, you remember it forever."
There was silence for a time as we watched the Clan getting up for the day. Soon, Brambleclaw came up to them and asked Firestar if he should organize the patrols.
"No, I will in just a heartbeat," Firestar told him. Then he turned to the Pokemon. "Would you like to join a border patrol?"
"Sure!" said Celebi happily. "That's a good idea!"
With a sickly feeling in my stomach at having to remind everyone of what we'd forgotten, I said, "Yes, we should go with the patrol, if only to have the home field advantage."
"The home field advantage?" Celebi asked, "For what?"
Dusknoir, looking just like I felt about reminding everyone, said, "For the battle with Primal Dialga."
Celebi and Firestar's faces fell. "I'd forgotten," Celebi said softly, "Dialga's coming isn't he? Yes, Grovyle, you're right. We need that advantage. Even if we can't return home, we need to make sure he doesn't."
"Right," said Firestar. "Come, I'll organize the patrols for the day now, and you'll be headed off with the dawn patrol."
Some time later, we were all heading along through the forest, talking to Jayfeather, who'd come along to collect herbs. He, it seemed, had not forgotten about Dialga's impending attack.
"I've been trying to come up with something we can do, but I just can't find it," he muttered agitatedly. "Every time I get close to an answer, it slips away! It's maddening!"
"Is there anything the Three can do?" Celebi asked hopefully.
"Probably, but I don't know what it is!" snarled Jayfeather, but he wasn't angry at Celebi.
We walked on in silence for a little while, and eventually, when Jayfeather had collected his herbs, he said good-bye and left for camp, still grumbling.
Soon we reached the ShadowClan border. There was a ShadowClan patrol on the other side at the same time. The ShadowClan cats, when they saw our patrol, started calling out insults at the ThunderClan cats, who hissed back their own, but kept going.
"Fox-hearts!"
"Thieves!"
"Murderer!"
At that last word, the three of us turned. Flametail, the ShadowClan medicine cat, was the one who'd spoken, and he'd called it to Lionblaze, at the head of the patrol. He tensed, but Cinderheart soothed him by touching her tail-tip to his shoulder.
We soon passed by the ShadowClan border, and reached the shore of the lake. The three of us stopped there, suddenly,staring at the water. Lionblaze came back to ask us what was wrong.
"Nothing's wrong," said Celebi, her head tilted so that it rested on my shoulder as she hovered beside me. "They've just rarely seen moving water before, and I've never seen it in my life."
"Never?" Lionblaze asked in shock.
"We live in a world without Time, remember, Lionblaze," said Dusknoir, "But we must be going. This patrol needs to be finished."
We continued on, soon reaching the WindClan border. There we heard a commotion on the moors.
"Get them!"
"Teach them to trespass on WindClan territory!"
"It sounds like WindClan's caught a couple of rogues," commented Lionblaze.
Suddenly I froze. A voice, one that seemed half-remembered, had come from across the border. "We're leaving, we're leaving! We won't be back again, I swear. Come on, Feral."
And then a couple of cats were rushing down the hills to meet our patrol head on.
What is this? Are these rogues? Are they random? No. And No. You will see, oh yes, you will see…
Review, Please!
