Andrea's labored footsteps carried her away from the village and out into the dark wilderness. Deep, feral growling echoed through the thick forest. She looked around as she ran, but saw nothing. She figured that the creature that was making these howls was far off in the distance, but whatever it was was large and certainly angry.
The screams of the panicking villagers faded in the distance as she tried to retrace her steps back to where she originally found the suspicious man that brought her to the village. The growling and roaring continued, sounding as if it was getting closer. Despite her best efforts, she didn't seem to be getting any further from the horrible noises in the distance.
After a few moments, she found herself at the fork in the road, not even taking a moment to guess where the other direction might take her. She ignored the thoughts that she might be going in a large circle just as she ignored the stabbing pains that were coursing through her exhausted legs. All that mattered to her was finding safety and shelter from the creature that continued to make those horrible noises as it stalked through the wilderness. She continued onward, following the road as quickly as she could.
The light from the lantern soon illuminated what looked like several houses. Could she have finally reached Blackwood Grove? Her pace slowed down to inspect the surroundings. The village before her was quite large, but also ruined, shattering her hopes. Nearly every house in it had fallen apart over what appeared to be centuries of time. Most of them were unrecognizable piles of rubble, but a few still stood.
She picked a stable looking house away from the main road, hoping that she might be able to hide until both the sounds of the creature in the forest disappeared and the villagers she met gave up their search for her. The door on it was locked, but a closer inspection revealed a large hole in the wall on the northern side of the house which she climbed through.
The house had seen better days. Some of the walls had crumbled and much of the furniture had fallen apart into piles of wood, covered in moss and dirt. Most of the windows were long destroyed. The chimney in the main room had fallen apart, spilling onto the floor. It wasn't pretty, but it was shelter at least.
The sound of the growling grew closer, then suddenly stopped. Whatever had appeared to send the suspicious villagers into a panic had disappeared into the darkness as quickly as it appeared. Regardless, she wasn't going to take any risks. She pushed an old, broken armoire in front of the hole in the wall, sealing herself inside the ruined cabin and hopefully keeping whatever was in the forest out.
"My dad should know what to do..." she muttered to herself as she continued to inspect the wreckage. She reached into her purse and grabbed her phone, rolling through the numbers and dialing her father. The phone beeped three times. "No... Not now!" she said, starting to panic. "Come on, come on!" she said, waving her phone around in a futile attempt to connect to the regional network. Unfortunately, the thickness of the forest blocked her phone's ability to maintain a stable connection. As soon as she'd connect, her phone would lose connection again. "Damn it!"
She had escaped both the strange villagers and the mysterious beast in the distance, but she felt that her luck was running out. She lamented at the fact that she listened to Larson, choosing to brave the stormy wilderness to beat the storm, but she also lamented that she ignored his advice to find a travel partner. Would it be her undoing? Would anyone ever find her if the worst happened?
On top of all of that, her fears of the darkness were starting to get the best of her. It was as if the very atmosphere of the forest was clawing at her sanity. Was this the darkness of the forest she had heard rumors about? Not a literal darkness, but a symbolic darkness, something that can tear down even the most confident person.
But she vowed to beat the odds and make it through the forest alive, all alone. Curses? She didn't believe in them. She was a woman of science, of logic. Curses are illogical, she thought, so surely they couldn't exist. The only reason she was feeling down on her luck was because of a lot of superstitious rumors she had heard from other people and a few bad choices on her part, nothing more.
Her sudden burst of confidence was poorly timed, however, as she was exhausted. Her many bad experiences and nearly half an hour of running as fast as she could had taken all of the energy out of her. She was afraid to camp for the night, but what choice did she have? She didn't want to risk making a wrong turn, or finding out that the road ahead of her was longer than she thought it would be.
She rummaged through the wreckage of the cabin, looking for anything she might be able to use. Most of the furniture was destroyed beyond use and several of the rooms had caved in over the decades. Nearly every room was exposed to the outside world except for one, which she decided was where she'd try to sleep for the night. In the corner of the room was an old table that she figured would be the best shelter she had available to her. The table was old and covered in dirt, moss and fungal growth, but was surprisingly stable considering the rest of the furniture had withered away.
As she was unrolling her sleeping bag under the table, she heard voices from outside the cabin. She immediately reached over to the lantern to shut it off. A dim light poured in through the hole where the window used to be. She looked outside and saw that the strange villagers were back. "You've gotta be kidding me..." she whispered to herself.
She continued to watch the villagers as they slowly strolled through the town, stopping by many of the ruined cabins on the main road and shining their torches into the broken windows. They passed by the old, crumbled well, continuing their search. Before long, they had passed through the town completely, having failed to search every house.
She was relieved at that fact. She reached down for the lantern again and turned it on so that she could see what she was doing. After she finished unrolling her sleeping bag, she climbed inside of it and closed her eyes, wishing that the darkness would go away. She didn't want to admit it, but she was homesick. She wasn't the best of friends with her oppressive mother, but at the same time, she had stability, safety and a comfortable bed every night.
She swallowed her fear of the dark and shut off the lantern, hoping that the marauding villagers wouldn't return for a second time. However, all of those thoughts quickly faded and became as silent as the forest as she easily fell asleep.
Andrea yawned and opened her eyes. The sight the greeted her wasn't what she was expecting; she could see the sky and the hundreds of stars that dotted it. She sat up and looked around to find herself in a familiar field of exotic flowers of every color. The smells of the forest had disappeared, being replaced by heavenly scents of honey and flowers. She looked around and stood up, brushing her windblown hair away from her face. In front of her was the same pristine pool of water that she had seen before. She knew this time that she was dreaming.
But she didn't know where she really was. Where was this mysterious mountain top? Was it just a figment of her imagination, or was it a real place? Why did she keep returning to this area in her dreams?
She approached the spring with confidence and with a purpose. She knelt down before the water, looking into it as a small orb of light began to glow in the bottom of it. The orb rose out of the water, leaving the glass-like surface undisturbed. The orb morphed in shape, creating a faint outline similar to the one she'd been seeing previously, an enigmatic shape that she couldn't identify.
"Where am I? What is this place?" she asked. "I want an answer."
"A place of true happiness, my child..." echoed the wispy voice.
"What does that mean?"
"You will know in time," the voice replied. "You are on the correct path, but many hardships stand between you and your happiness."
Andrea looked down, trying to think of what it all meant.
"Gaze into the Spring of Eternity, my child."
She did as she was asked. Like before, all she saw was a pool of water, but shapes and images began to form within it. She saw herself in tattered and waterlogged clothing, walking along the shore of a tropical island. The images in the water were not clear of what she saw, but a look of grief and sadness overcame her face before she started to run towards the wreckage of a small boat. Before she reached it, however, the images faded from the pool.
"Now what does this one mean?" she asked. She didn't receive an answer. Instead, the ghostly faint figure began to recede into the water. As her vision began to fade to white, she shouted, "Hey! Get back here and answer me!"
Andrea woke up again, this time back in the forest she remembered falling asleep in. She reached over for the lantern, finding the button on the side and turned it on. The table she took refuge under was still above her and the decaying ruins of the house around her seemed to be undisturbed. If the villagers had returned overnight, they hadn't searched the location where she had taken refuge. She looked at her R-Kit to see what the time was. 3:42 AM. Despite the time and the experiences she had the previous day, she was oddly refreshed.
She reached into her backpack, grabbing one of the granola bars that she had brought from home. It was one of the last ones she had, something that worried her. Her navigation skills weren't the greatest and she wasn't sure of just how large the forest was and how long it would be before she reached Blackwood Grove. Rather than be pessimistic about it, she looked on the bright side of things. She had faced certain doom and escaped it, not once, but twice. Her luck and determination would carry her through to the town where she could think about her next moves and possibly find someone to travel with.
She grabbed Furball's Pokéball from her pocket, pressing the button on it and holding it out in front of her. A bright flash of light occurred and Furball appeared before her. "I probably should have had you out with me the other day... you might have scared off that crazy guy."
Furball eyed his master's granola bar greedily, licking his lips with anticipation.
"I suppose you're hungry, too..." she said, handing the granola bar to him. She grabbed the final granola bar from her backpack and opened it. "Keep an eye out for anything while I try to figure out where we are."
Furball nodded, taking a large bite from the granola bar.
She sighed as she opened up the map on her R-Kit. She wasn't able to pinpoint her exact location, so she had to use her experiences and her foggy memory to find where she might be. The map listed several historical sites, from Murk Row in the east to Wolftree Cemetery to the north. She figured she'd start with Murk Row, clicking on it on the map to bring up information about it.
Murk Row, now abandoned and ruined, was a major center of commerce before the modernization of Storm Island. Once the home of the prestigious Murkov family, a group of nobles allied with the royal family, Murk Row was famous for its exports of apple cider and lumber. It was historically important, as the civil war that lead to the modernization of Storm Island began here when the two rival kings of the Storm Clan met with each other. The meeting ended with the first bloodshed of the war and the founding of the Ambervale Clan, those who were exiled to the eastern portion of the island.
The encyclopedia also stated that Murk Row was also where the jet black raven Murkrow was first discovered, also serving as the inspiration for its name. Murkrow, now common worldwide, was introduced to other regions of the world by travellers and traders from this area. Every member of this species of bird can trace its ancestry to this little town.
Now that she thought about it, she noticed that the sound of ravens was heavy in the air, their grim songs echoing throughout the forest. They had an oddly calming effect on her, as the sounds they made were a welcome change from the dreadfully quiet forest she had experienced the previous day. If birds could make a living in such a spooky and odd forest, then perhaps normal people could, too.
Taking all of these facts into consideration and Murk Row's location on the map, she determined that's where she was. Blackwood Grove was only about an hour's walk away according to the map. "Ok, Furball, I think I found out where we are... It won't be long until we've found civilization."
Furball wasn't listening, instead happily devouring the granola bar she had given to him.
"We should get going, hopefully those crazy psychopaths are asleep," she said as she gathered up her belongings. She motioned for Furball to follow her out of the wreckage of the house. As the two made their way back to the main road of the town, the sound of ravens in the distance began to quiet down. She wondered why, and was worried that some other horrific event that would involve her running away again was about to unfold. She put it out of mind, focusing only on leaving the ruins and arriving at Blackwood Grove.
Before she reached the edge of the ruins, however, a black bird swooped out of the trees down towards her. She didn't even see it until it was right in front of her. The bird easily latched onto the granola bar in her hand, snatching it and flying off. It landed in front of her, pecking at the bar with its frighteningly sharp beak.
"You bastard, that's mine!" she said.
The bird looked up at her and tilted its head to the side mockingly, cawing at her.
"Furball, go get my granola bar back, please."
The bird studied Furball as he bravely approached the large bird. As he reached the bird, it cawed with glee at him before saying, "Mine! Mine!"
"Woah, it can talk?" she asked in amazement. She had heard from her father and Larson that most Pokémon are unable to speak. She raised her R-Kit to gather information on the bird.
"Murkrow, the Darkness Pokémon!" the R-Kit said. "Commonly regarded by superstitious folk as an omen of bad things to come, especially if seen at night, Murkrow often displays an aggressive fondness for shiny objects such as coins and metal buttons. They are fiercely territorial, often forming into large flocks under the leadership of a Honchkrow. Some members of the species display the ability to learn and say words that it hears."
"Maybe I should catch one of these things... it might be useful for defending myself here in the forest." she thought. She felt that she was ready to put what she had learned from Larson at the Silvermist Arboretum to the test. "Furball, what do you say we capture this guy and bring along with us?"
The Murkrow raised its head upon hearing this. "Brawwwwk! Capture, capture!" it echoed back in a mocking tone. It left the granola bar behind as it stomped towards Furball, ready to defend itself and keep its prize.
Andrea analyzed the situation. "You're at a disadvantage, Furball. Just keep your eyes on him and be careful." she said. "Remember that Spearow a few days ago? I think this is going to be similar."
The Murkrow jumped upward, flapping its jet black wings and taking flight. "Disadvantage, disadvantage!" it crowed. The Murkrow remained within the lantern's distance, still visible to Andrea and Furball. It fluttered around in a circle, taunting the two with words it had learned from her.
"It can't stay up there forever..." she said.
The Murkrow hovered above them and its beak began to glow a soft purple. It squawked, letting out a shockwave of fuzzy purple air that radiated outward and downward, slamming into Furball, knocking him backward. The shockwave also knocked Andrea over when it reached her. The Murkrow flew off to the side, ready to strike again. With its beak aglow, it unleashed another pulse of dark energy at the two.
"Uh oh..." Andrea said. "It's just gonna keep doing that, Furball, but I have another plan. C'mere." Furball approached her as she knelt down, listening to her quietly inform him of her strategy. Furball nodded, then returned to his previous position, taunting the Murkrow.
The Murkrow charged up another shadowy pulse, unleashing it in Furball's direction, but missed. Furball ran in circles below the Murkrow, then took up a position behind it.
With the Murkrow distracted by Furball, Andrea was free to attempt a capture. She remembered her days in school when she was on the softball team, hoping that the skills she had learned there would come in useful here as well, and hoping that she even still had them. She grabbed one of the empty Pokéballs from her pocket, cupping it in her hand and analyzing the Murkrow's movements. Like a fine-tuned machine, she calculated the Murkrow's position, direction of travel and speed, took aim, then rocketed the Pokéball towards it with all of her might.
The Pokéball sailed through the air in a curving motion towards the Murkrow, striking it in the back. "Gotcha!" she said with excitement as the Pokéball opened up and sucked the Murkrow inside, surprised she even managed to hit it. The Pokéball fell into the soft mud and wobbled for a bit, before the button on it stopped glowing and it emitted a soft beep. The capture was successful!
She walked over to the Pokéball and picked it up. "I've still got it!"
Furball clapped with glee at his master's excitement, happy to see her attitude change from the sense of grim dread she was feeling previously.
She motioned for Furball to follow. "Come on, let's get going. I want to get to this town before something else happens out here." She picked up the lantern and led Furball westward, putting the ruins of Murk Row behind her as she continued her journey towards Blackwood Grove. Now cautiously vigilant, she kept an eye on as much of the forest as she could, suspicious of what else might be lurking in the darkness.