Oliver

"I don't get it," Oliver said, staring hard at the paper on the grass before him. Human letters covered the page, but he could make no more sense out of them than he would have been able to make out of random scribbles.

Dusk—it was still hard to call him that instead of Night—walked up to him and stared down at the writing. He sighed. "You still can't even recognize the letters? You'll need to if you want to read. You do want to read, right, Oliver? All of us Greenpaw eevee should be able to."

With Harmony having permanently moved out of the Box, the children who remained needed new leaders. Dusk had set up the Houses almost as soon as he had arrived home. He said that every eevee could choose one of three houses. Greenpaw was the House in Box Four which Dusk led. There were two others as well: Firelight and Icedrop. Flame and Bolt led Firelight together, and Blizz had been given Icedrop. It was supposed to be Vay's, too, but Vay had left the PC. Nobody knew where he had gone.

Most of the younger eevee had chosen to enter Greenpaw, and most of the older eevee had chosen one of the other Houses. Split was sitting nearby, studying letters and leaving Oliver alone for once. Fred and Pete were laughing about something. The newly hatched twins, Dawn and John, sat closely and worked together. As always, it was a nice day in Box Four.

"Well, I think it's easy," Dawn said proudly, pointing to her own page, which, along with her claw, was smeared with ink.

"Hasn't John been doing most of the work?" Dusk said, and after that Dawn kept quiet. Oliver caught John smiling in a humble sort of way.

A little later, the sky began to change. It didn't instantly change from day to night like it used to; rather, the sun began a slow descent (although it was much faster than the real sun would have gone down), and the blue turned to a bright orange. Blizz had recently taken over Skychanging duties permanently, and apparently he had decided that sunsets and sunrises were important. Oliver appreciated the change.

"I guess now's as good a time to stop as any," Dusk said. "We can't exactly read in the dark."

They all sighed in relief. Dusk had been making them practice the human language for the last several hours. Oliver felt mentally drained. He wished he could blame that on his age, but John was even younger and he seemed to be picking things up more quickly than anyone.

"Where are we going to sleep tonight?" Dawn wanted to know. Greenpaw eevee always spent their nights together.

A short argument began, as nobody could agree on where to go. Fred wanted to go to the Unnamed Forest, and Pete wanted to sleep near the lake in the northeast corner of the Box.

"I think we should climb one of the hills," Split said.

"No, we can't," Dawn said, turning to her twin. "You know John has a weak heart. He can't handle a climb like that. Mother said so."

John looked a little embarrassed, and Dusk said, "Mother says a lot of things, and you believe them too easily. I'm sure John can walk half a mile uphill. If he can't, then he has a rough and short life ahead of him."

But in the end, it was decided that they wouldn't move at all, and that the field they had been studying in would make for a decent enough campsite. Everybody gathered around Dusk as he told them all sorts of scary stories. Oliver wondered where he had heard them from.

When the storytelling was done, the crowd dispersed. Friends joined up with friends to find a nice patch of grass to curl up together on. Before long, the sky turned black, the stars came out, and nearly everyone was snoring.

"Come on, Oliver," Split said. "I found us a nice place to sleep."

Oliver looked around and saw that Dusk was still awake. He had walked off on his own and was now staring up at the sky, just as Oliver himself often did.

"You go on," Oliver said. "Save our spot. I'll meet you there soon."

Dusk didn't look down as Oliver approached him. Whether that was because he didn't notice him or because he was just ignoring him, Oliver didn't know. He sat down next to him and also began to watch the stars. Neither of them said anything for a long time. It felt nice.

Finally, Oliver spoke up. "Dusk? What happened to Sky? I know you said not to ask about it, but…"

He felt Dusk tense up next to him, and finally their eyes met. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Did it have something to do with Mother?"

Dusk didn't answer.

"You hate her, don't you?" Oliver asked.

He nodded.

"I think I hate her too."

Dusk showed him a weak smile. "Well, that's nice of you to say. I guess."

"What about Vay? Do you know what happened to him?"

Dusk looked troubled. "Well…yeah, I think so. I think I know why he left, and why he took Doki with him. And I love him for it, but…I don't want to lose another brother. We've already lost Sky. And Stan, too."

"I don't really mind Stan being gone," Oliver admitted. He hesitated, then launched into the long story of what had happened to him over the last four months. He must have spoken for fifteen minutes before he was done. It felt good to rant about it. He didn't mention that he had killed Caro, though. For all anyone else know, the poochyena was still perfectly healthy, living in the wilderness.

"I didn't realize all that was happening," Dusk said. "You should have told me. I'd have put a stop to it." He eyed Split, who was fast asleep over a hundred feet away. "I wish I could tell you my own story. But…it's too personal. Sorry."

"That's okay. You don't have to talk about it." And so Oliver and Dusk sat where they were in silence until they each fell asleep huddled against one another.

From that day on, they became very good friends. For the next several months, the two spent every night together. Sometimes they would exchange a sentence or two, but mostly they kept quiet. Oliver was happy with the arrangement, and Dusk seemed to be as well. On some nights, other pokémon would come and stay with them. Split still constantly wanted to be around Oliver, so he was there at least twice each week. Even Lem once came to talk to them, which surprised them both.

Late one afternoon, when the season had long since turned to spring, Oliver saw Lem again.

"Tina wants to see you," he explained. "Come on, let's go." But he sounded sad when he spoke. Later, Oliver would realize that he should have taken that as a warning. At the time, it hadn't seemed important.

When they arrived at the control room, Lem told him to go ahead on his own. He did.

The house was dark when Oliver materialized in Tina's bedroom. Harmony sat in the middle of the room with an unfamiliar male eevee at her side.

"Mother?" Oliver asked, shaking his head to get used to the real world's atmosphere. "What are you doing here? I need to go—"

Her paw lashed out and bashed him in the side of the head. Oliver stumbled back, dazed, his head ringing. He tried to right himself but he collapsed hard against the ground. Somehow he was able to think, She hit me harder than Stan was ever able to. Then the male eevee was there with his jaws around his mane. He yanked him up sharply and Oliver cried out in pain.

"Ow! What are you…?"

"You're being too gentle with him, Darren," Harmony said.

The male—apparently named Darren—let go of Oliver, who was too shocked to even consider trying to flee. "He's already in pain, Harmony. I'm not going to torture the boy."

"He deserves it. He's just a little monster."

"He's my nephew," Darren said flatly. "And your son."

"Mother?" Oliver said, gasping, holding back tears. All the things that Scull and Nigel had taught him were out of his mind. "What are you doing? Lem said—"

"Oh, Lem does whatever I tell him to do. He's a good son. Unlike you." She sent him a sneer, but it quickly turned to a fierce grimace. "Why do all of you freaks try to steal him from me?" she demanded.

Steal him? Oliver thought. "What…? Lem?"

"No, not Lem. Don't you know anything? Night! Everyone wants to steal Night from me!"

"But…" Oliver gasped, his head still full of pain, "we just…"

"Take him, Darren. Let him be a lesson to all the others."

"I think you might be going the tiniest bit crazy, my dear sister," Darren said lazily. Then he grabbed Oliver again and hauled him from the room.