There's no way I could've apologized enough to Bidoof for ditching him in the caves to run off after Ri. Luckily, he stayed put where he was so we were able to find him easily, and he was incredibly forgiving.

"I'm just glad you two seem to have gotten over whatever's been bothering you both," he had said once we had started moving again. We did our best to try to keep our arguing to ourselves, but has it really been that obvious to everyone else? Nevertheless, we play dumb just in case.

The rest of the trip is easy from then on out, or as easy as it can be. Even I've gotten used to the mountains enough that the climb up Mt. Horn the next day is fairly easy for me so long as we stick to the paths. Bidoof, on the other hand, just isn't built for it. At a moderate pace though, we still manage to arrive at the base camp in good time.

Or so we think: Everyone else apparently arrived ahead of us anyway, but whether it was because of the delay at Craggy Coast or our slow pace over Mt. Horn who can say. Naturally, Chatot rushes us as soon as we get to the camp and we barely have time to do anything before he calls everyone for a strategy meeting.

Due to the dense fog that surrounds the area below, we've planted the base camp at the edge of the highlands—just within Foggy Forest. Even still, a thick veil hangs over the area. Fogbound Lake should be somewhere deeper in, but just like the treasure that is supposedly hidden here the place itself is only of legend and rumor. There's no telling whether or not it even exists. However, whatever speculation there may be over the lake itself, as I help Ri set up our tent and equipment I can't help but have this haunting feeling. Even though all I have to do is arrange the bed from the grass Ri brings in, I find myself gazing out through the tarp to stare into the depths of the woods. It's almost like… like I've been here before. I wouldn't think so—what would've compelled me to come to some place in the middle of nowhere—yet everything seems so familiar to me in some way.

But somehow, I just know it: I've been here before! I can't think of when or why, but I was here. But that doesn't make any sense since… Ri said so himself that humans are practically unheard of within this continent and the ones surrounding it. How could I have been here…?

"Lira, come on out! Chatot will scold us again if we're late to the meeting," Ri exclaims as he tears open the flap to our tent, pausing only to toss aside an armload of grass before he drags me out by the arm and snaps me out of my musings. He's in such a rush to go that I don't even think he notices my shoddy work making the bed.

The meeting starts out as nothing we don't already know though: Just about the elusiveness of the lake and our being given the ok to search for it independently. Really, I'm only half listening to the Guild's second in-command as he rambles and the other apprentices as they bicker over whether or not they even want to know if it's real. It's not because I don't care, but the weird, nostalgic sensation that I get just by being here is enough to drive me crazy. I can't see how I can focus on anything else!

I guess it would have to make some sense, I try to rationalize. Turning into a Pokemon doesn't mean I was just magically teleported from wherever I came from. Surely I would've had to have been somewhere relatively close to the beach before I lost my memories, so it isn't impossible that for whatever reason I was already in the continent despite the fact that I was human.

Of course all that does is beg the question as to how I got here in the first place…

"…while we were travelling, I heard about a certain legend," Chimecho says, and my ears perk up with intrigue as I listen in. What else could there be to what we've already heard? If no one's ever even seen the lake, then its existence should pretty much be legend enough. "Fogbound Lake is the home to an exceedingly rare Pokemon named Uxie," she continues, and I furrow my brow at the name. I feel like I should know it—identifying the various species of Pokemon is one of the few things I'm really good at—but it's not ringing any bells.

"According to legend, she is known to lock eyes with others and wipe their memories clean."

I draw in a terse breath and freeze… No… No way. It can't be that easy! W-why would I ever give anyone a reason to erase my memories—or, on the other hand, turn me into a Pokemon?! I can't imagine having done anything to provoke her, so why…

"Uxie, sworn to protect her home and the treasures within, will use her ability on anyone that nears them. So, even if people were to stumble upon the lake, Uxie would get to them and make certain they never revealed its location to anyone, thereby protecting it. People still say that the legend remains."

Could it all really be true? If it is, then maybe I stumbled upon the lake and Uxie erased my memories. And maybe she turned me into a Pokemon because a human without their memories in this world had no hope of ever leaving or fitting in. Maybe this is where I'll finally have answers... I'm hopeful, but… also a little scared of what I might find out—especially if I learn I can never go home again. One thing is for certain though: If the legend is true, then I have to find her.

No one else is deterred by the legend either, and soon enough we've all split up to begin the search. Diglett and Dugtrio are investigating below to surface to see if it might be an underground lake, Chatot and the Guildmaster are staying at the base camp to gather intel from the various teams, and the rest of us explore the forest itself. Our tasks are simple: Either find a way to Fogbound Lake or try to lift the fog, then come back to make the report.

I never thought I'd be more eager than Ri when it came to an exploration, but I end up pulling him along after me into the depths of the forest until we're some ways away from everyone else. It's too perfect to just be a coincidence. This could be my chance to find out who I really am.

"Lira, this isn't like you!" I feel myself being pulled back as Ri skids to a halt while keeping his grip on me, and I turn back to find him staring at me worriedly. "You've been drifting off a lot today ever since we got here. Can't you at least tell me what's on your mind?" His eyes widen with dawning realization. "Wait a minute… Do you actually believe that legend? You think that Uxie might have erased your memory, don't you?"

"I'm not sure what to believe, but it's a start isn't it?" This is the only lead we've gotten, so of course I'm going to jump on it. I'll do whatever it takes to find out where I belong, even if it means following a rumor.

"Lira, we could spend days chasing after something that doesn't even exist!"

"Isn't that just what this expedition is about though? About finding Fogbound Lake?" I press. "If we find it, then Uxie should be there too. I don't see how it's wasting any time."

"It's not, but—" He takes a deep breath, one of his ears drooping. Then he peers at me intensely, beckoning me to be still a moment and carefully take in his words. "Lira, I promised you I'd help you get your memories back and if Uxie is out there then I'll do everything I can to help you get the truth from her. But if she's not… I just don't want you to be disappointed if we don't find anything."

I pause. Of course: No one else has found Fogbound Lake so far or—if they have—they have no memory of it either. This isn't going to be easy and it may end up being a fruitless quest… "I might be disappointed," I admit, "but I'll get over it." For now, I just have to try.

"Well, where do you want to start searching?" he questions, finally giving in as he looks down the naturally made path through the woods.

"I don't think Uxie would've made such an obvious route to the lake." I move away from the grassy trail and into the wild undergrowth. Dried leaves crunch beneath my feet as I walk. As much as I feel like I'm trudging through an uncharted land, it also feels like I'm only retracing my steps. My feet seem to know where to move before I do. "We have to go even deeper in."

"Just so long as we remember the way back." He jogs alongside me. "I don't want to get lost in this fog. It wouldn't be good is this expedition turned into a search and rescue mission—"

But he doesn't finish his though as he trips over something hidden underneath the fallen leaves. He mouth hung open mid-sentence, his face contorts into an expression of frustrated pain as he bends forward slightly at the waist and raises his left foot a few centimeters off the ground. I wince for him as he hisses through his teeth. He then sinks low to the earth to look for whatever he kicked by accident.

Digging through the leaves, he soon uncovers a red stone that practically glows with a warm light from its center. "What the—? What's this?" Ri picks it up with both hands as I kneel down beside him to take a closer look. It's pretty, but its glasslike surface is more like obsidian would be than a ruby—and it's cut into an odd, almost triangular shape. It's also fairly large and I can see why it would hurt when it struck. "It's warm!" he exclaims and then looks at me, his eyes shining with interest, "Should we keep it?"

I nod, as taken by its allure as he is, "It might be a clue. It's not any rock I've seen before, that's for sure." Not to mention how strange it is finding something like this lying around on the forest floor. Evolutionary stones also tend to be different from normal ones, so it could be that. It's possible that another explorer may have dropped it, but no matter how you look at it, it can't hurt to take it with us.

I open the flap of our bag at my side and Ri drops in the stone as we get back on our feet. He wasn't kidding about it being warm: I can feel a subtle heat radiating through the cloth as it rests against my hip. The stone doesn't add all that much extra weight though, and I'm able to walk fine with it tucked away.

From that point, we continue on in silence—devoting our focus to where we're going and any signs of a trail back. Meanwhile, the fog only grows thicker as we go as if to ward us off. There are times when we feel like we're being watched through the mist, and we keep our guard up the whole while. Nevertheless, the further we go, the less Pokemon there seems to be. Because of that, it's hard to tell what's more unnerving: Being watched or being the only two living things around.

A couple hours pass by—or at least we think so. It even becomes impossible to read the sun and sky through the dense fog. It could be luck or it could be fate; eventually though, we come across a beautiful grove deep within the forest that finally breaks the pattern of the looming trees. Small waterfalls flow blissfully into deep pools scattered here and there throughout it, though we can't tell where they're coming from. The way they seem to pour directly from the shroud of mist hanging over us, it's almost like magic.

"And here I thought we'd seen our last waterfall for a good while," I quip. It's incredible, but I haven't forgotten our little adventure at Waterfall Cave either. I'm not exactly eager to repeat it.

"It's incredible," Ri chuckles at me before turning to face the scenery. "But where are we? I think this is the deepest we can go into the forest and the fog is so thick I can't tell which direction to head towards next."

I'm also at a bit of a loss. There are no signs to hint at where we should go next: Only the pools and the trees encompassing the grove. Everywhere else is blocked off by a shroud of white, and we can hardly see what's right in front of us as it is. But we've come this far in, so I'd really hate to have to turn back now.

As I look around for another way besides the path we came from, Ri abruptly cries out with a start, "What's that?"

I peer forward, squinting through the fog, but I can barely see what he's talking about. Only at the edge of the hazy landscape can I finally make out a hulking figure that also makes me jump at the first sight of it. It looks like some type of gargantuan Pokemon, but it keeps perfectly skill.

Our curiosity getting the better of us, we take off running toward it. It's an old statue resting on a square platform that's slanted into the earth, and the Pokemon it's carved into is a dinosaur-like beast with armored, segmented plates running down its back and spikes jutting along its neck, torso, and tail. I've never seen anything quite like it before. Ri circles around the statue before calling out to me on the other side, "There's an inscription over here in footprint runes!"

He takes a concentrated look at it as I rejoin him. However, while he seems to be able to make sense of the mess of prints, to me it's practically a garbled mess. "You can read that?"

"I dabble," he briefly answers, scrolling a finger across the strange lettering. He then reads aloud, "'Reignite the life that burned within Groudon'… 'Then the sky shall blaze with the sun's heat'… 'The path to treasure shall be revealed.' Incredible…"

"Do you think the treasure could be Fogbound Lake?"

"Maybe, but 'ignite the life within Groudon'… could it mean the statue? Wait a minute… Do you think you could touch it, Lira? Maybe you'll get another vision."

If it's a chance at getting my memories back, I'll try anything. I reach and touch the statue without even considering the pain that hits. Ri's there to steady me as the dizzy spells come, and I lean back into his grasp as the world around me blurs out of focus for darkness to take its place.

I don't see anything, but I do hear a voice—that of a young man's, though they sound older than Ri and myself. He has a somewhat husky baritone, and a controlled way of speaking that makes it seem as if he's experienced plenty of trials in his life. "That's it! It's here!" he shouts excitedly, "I see… Place the Drought Stone in Groudon's Heart and the fog will lift!"

The voice them becomes goes silent for a long moment, and when he continues his tone is almost heartbreaking, "Very well done. Good job, partner…" Those simple words alone are tinged with loss. What did I just pick up on? Is it in the future or the past? I try to grasp hold of the fleeting vision in order to try and make better sense of it, but it's useless. Even the very sound of the voice is soon lost to me, but it keeps bugging me.

I'm sure I haven't heard that voice anywhere before, but at the same time it's so familiar... Who was that?

"What did you see?" Ri asks, his own voice pulling me back to reality. My head throbs as it always does, but at least this time I'm able to shake off the feeling enough to recover faster than I have the other few times I've used my strange ability.

Trying to relax, I think for a minute before turning back around to face him, "Do you still have that stone you found earlier?"

"Yeah, but why?"

"Get it out." He does as I order and hands it to me. Returning to the front of the statue, I look around until I see a hollow place only a fraction bigger than the stone itself—dug into its chest. I climb atop the platform and wriggle the stone inside, then quickly step off and recite from the vision softly, "Place the stone in Groudon's Heart and then…"

A red light sparks in the statue's eyes as though it's possessed and the ground begins to tremble. Ri and I stumble back in shock as we watch the light consume the statue. As it gets painfully brighter, we hurriedly back away. I raise an arm to shield my eyes and we fight to keep our balance on the trembling earth.

But it's impossible to keep steady as a large gust of wind wracks against us. We get down low to avoid being thrown back as it hails from all directions. Then a minute later—just as quickly as it had appeared—it stops. I stay where I am, waiting in case anything else should happen.

Ri is the first to stand up again. I hear him shift beside me before he pats me on the arm with the back of his hand. "Whoa… Lira, you've got to see this…"

I'm unprepared to meet the sun's harsh, stinging rays after being caught in the omnipresent gloom of the fog, and I blink rapidly as my eyes readjust to the new lighting. Miraculously, the sky has cleared: Despite the mist that had earlier hidden everything around us, now there's hardly a cloud in the sky. I don't quite understand it, but I guess just like the winds that had blown it away the fog hadn't been natural. It was just a trick to keep us moving in circles.

Still, I'm surprised to see that a large, rock wall blocks the way ahead of us. Looking up, I follow the path along the face of the cliff. Unlike a mountain or a hill, there is no gradual ascent: Rather the course face of it moves with a near-perfectly vertical incline before tapering inwards then out again, up and up until—

"Um, Ri, I think there's something you need to see…"

We gawk up at what seems to be a floating island in the sky, balanced on the narrow, precarious formation of rocks beneath it and aligned by the series of waterfalls whose origins had been unexplained to us moments ago.

I'm not gonna make any bets this early, but I think we found the lake…