The entire world was warm. Abigail nestled her back deeper into the warmth after feeling a bit of a chill hit her face. She rubbed her eyes before she opened them to an uncomfortable, white ceiling.
On a cold, metal chair next to the Furret's bed, a Bellossom was sitting with head head down asleep. There was a door on Furret's right side, leading out to a bright hallway.
Abigail sat up in the bed by pushing her back against the shuffling managed to be enough for the Bellossom to snap awake and look at her.
"Abigail," Helen said, "hi."
"Hi," Abigail said in an awkward voice.
Bellossom sat up stretched, and stood on the chair to be tall enough to see her clearly.
"Do you remember last night?" she asked.
"Yah," Abigail said.
"How do you feel?"
Furret wiggled and shifted around a bit. She felt like her body's energy was weak. She doubted she could use that many moves or fight too well, unlike usually.
"Frail," Abigail answered.
"They said that you would," Bellossom said. "You fell asleep before they brought you into the Nightlight Tower."
"Did I screw something up?" she asked.
"No, no. Of course not. You impressed everyone. And me. I mean, I didn't know any of that." Bellossom paused, staring at Furret for a short moment. "Uhm, everyone, me included, was genuinely amazed."
"There's nothing amazing about any of it anymore," Abigail said, "it's just... What's leftover."
"You continued to use your skills to help others," Helen pushed. "You should be proud, I mean, everyone else it already proud for you."
"Everyone else?"
"Everyone was amazed!" Bellossom said. "They call you a superhero. They nicknamed you the Lodestar."
"Lodestar?" Abigail questioned. She thought about it herself for a short second. "Oh, after the North Star?"
"Yah, you're super popular , girl. I'm starting to believe in the heart of the cards."
Furret looked at her arms and the rest of her body. Her usually dark brown fur was still a strange, dark gold color. It was like that over her whole body. Bellossom sat back down, watching her without staring.
"How'd my fur get likes this?" Abigail asked.
"We're... not sure," Helen said. "It's not bad or anything like that, just, uhm... Weird, a teeny bit."
"So, I'm in the Nightlight Tower's hospital floor?" Abigail asked.
"Yes."
"Could I be cleared to just go home soon?"
"Well, uhm, they want to keep you in a guest room for a few days here. They brought your things over. They said they wanted to let the situation settle some more."
"Can I get something to eat soon?"
"Oh, of course," the Bellossom said, "what would you like me to bring you?"
"Well, I wanted to get something myself."
"Are you sure? We'd have to go downstairs, and there's a decent amount of pokemon in the middle of the day. And, well... Why don't I call one of the royals down? I'm sure they would like to talk."
"You talked with them?" Abigail asked.
"Yah," Helen said, "of course. They were curious. Found me awfully fast after the incident."
"Do I still look alright?"
"Oh, Abigail," Bellossom said, "of course. You look great."
"Are you just saying that?"
"Abigail, you already know I don't lie."
"Well, okay," Abigail said.
The Bellossom took out her small phone off of the ground and made the call. She put it on speaker phone and held it by her face while looking down at the screen as it only took one ring before a older, gruff voice came through
"Hello, miss Helen? Is Abigail awake?" a voice asked.
"Yes, she just woke up," Helen said.
"Alright, we'll be right down."
"Oh, uhm," Helen staggered.
The call shut off before the Bellossom could formulate words. Furret just stared at her a little dumbfounded and panicked.
"I'm sure it'll be okay," Helen said.
Only an awkward minute or so later, a knock sounded on the door. The Belleossom stood up and opened the door slowly.
A Mightyena, Umbreon, and Serperior entered the room in single file. Furret sat up stiffly, trying to match their expressions with her body. They all faced her standing side by side against the other wall of the small room.
"How are you feeling, miss Abigail?" the Mightyena asked.
"I. Well, okay," Furret whimpered.
"She's still feeling a bit run-down, but she's doing well," Helen said.
"That's good to know," Mightyena said, "we were worried after what happened. We've never had an intensely trained pokemon go through this process during our tests, so we were also surprised by that among other things."
"I think we wouldn't mind a bit of a brief explanation for the process," Helen said in a delicate voice.
"I can offer that," Umbreon said. "Our bloodlines have special properties, as most are aware. By combining Acuitan, Veritan, and Valorian blood and using a small energy reading device, we have psychics produce the picture in the water. Defining memories leave small traces in the pattern of a person's body, and that is what we used. And because it was a look at your energy, that is why that 'dream' of yours was unnatural."
"Thank you," Helen said.
"We'll let you have some time to yourself," Mightyena said, "but I also would like to offer you time with my son, Aaron, at your leisure."
"Oh?" Seperior said. "Strange. I was here to offer more time with my son, Zen."
"And I was to also offer time with my grandson, Gawain," Umbreon said.
The three pokemon looked at each other strangely. Abigail shivered at the invisible force behind their eyes while they looked at each other, the Umbreon turning his head to give both of them glances.
"I do believe, my son, as children would say, 'saw her first'," Serperior said.
"Well, we haven't exactly formed a protocol for this," Umbreon said.
"As children might put it, I offered first," Mightyena said. "We could settle this with a humble event with our champions in the arena."
"It's likely that our champions could both fall to the Lodestar in battle," Umbreon replied. "That'd be simply embarrassing."
"Why do I have to be the one to suggest to you two it be settled like gentlemen?" Serperior asked.
The Umbreon and Mightyena stared at each other, seeming to silently understand what the Serperior suggested. They turned towards Abigail in an almost creepy fashion.
"We all offer you more time with our sons, at your leisure," Mightyena said. "The only time when they will be required to leave and take the throne is in the unfortunate incident one of us passes away, so you have as much time as... Well."
The Mightyena and Serperior turned towards the older Umbreon. His face soured, and Abigail could tell he was starting to stand up straighter on purpose.
"Continue speaking. Amateur," Umbreon said.
"Uhm... Yes," Mightyena said. "All the time in the world."
"Thank you, your majesties," Bellossom said. "I will give Abigail that phone we were talking about as soon as it's here."
"Oh," Umbreon blinked, "right. We'll have that sent in just a little while."
"Feel well soon, young lady," Serperior said. "We will be in this building if you need anything, such as an escort. You should be comfortable inside, though."
"Thank you, your majesty," Abigail said. Her tone waived up and down as she just copied what Helen said.
The Umbreon still had a tinge of a sour face on the way out. Bellossom and Furret relaxed as she closed the door behind them, with Furret's ears steadily rising again on her head.
"You alright?" Bellossom asked.
"Yah..." Abigail said. "I don't think work will be normal again, though."
"Oh, actually. About that," Helen said, "the Nightlights offered you, uhm, a job. Since you kind of beat up criminals randomly without me looking, anyway."
"I don't know..."
"Abigail, it pays so much more. And walking around being a vigilante is practically the job, and now everyone knows that was your hobby."
"No, I get where you're coming from," Furret said. "It's just that I don't really like all of this attention. Even before, I had the quietest life plan I could possibly get."
"I just want you happy, and I just... I'm all for independence," Helen said, "but I don't think that moving back to the countryside will be good for you."
"I just wanted to be alone."
"And that's the trap, Abigail," Helen said. "I just want you to listen to me. I know it's a little superficial at your age, but I am your adopted mother. There are three princes from all the royalty on the continent that want to get to know you. There's a job where you literally just show off skills you've already learned and help people. And I want you to do both of those things because I told you to."
Abigail had a hard time taking Helen's words seriously. Helen wasn't as old as her mother would be, and she couldn't help but hear it still from just Helen.
"I'll think about it," Abigail said.
"Well," Helen said. "Okay. When you're ready, we can head up to the guest room they set up."
Furret immediately shifted to the side of the bed and stood up. The floor was cold and uncomfortable on her feet, but the Bellossom was already moving towards the door.
The hallway had a few people that gave gentle smiles and short greetings to Abigail. Helen replied verbally, but Abigail returned their gestures. They followed arrows on the wall pointing towards the elevator.
Abigail had researched about the Nightlight Tower when she originally planned to come here. There was a single, enormous elevator in the heart of the building. It visited certain floors, such as the hospital floor she was on, and then ramps let the Nightlights reach other floors the elevator didn't directly go to. Calling the elevator could occasionally take a while, but it moved quickly.
After a turn down the plain hallways, there were round, huge black doors across from the hallway's wall. Bellossom called it pressing a large, green button that was on the wall just next the doors.
A few minutes later, the doors retreated into the wall. There were a few people on the elevator, but they seemed to act normal still as they got on. The Bellossom selected a button with the number forty-seven on it, close the highest number fifty. All of the others on the ride with them went off at a few different floors, but it still only took a few minutes for them to arrive.
The hallways had a brown carpet, feeling a lot more homely right from the start. The Bellossom went first, and Furret followed her at her side.
There were keypads at the sides of each of the doors. Helen stopped in front of one and entered in a short combination and opened the door.
The room was small and had the same brown carpet underneath. There was a pair of plain lights overhead in the ceiling and a tan beanbag chair facing television and a mattress laid on the floor.
Abigail liked the warm brown colors. It gave her the same feeling as the cottage she use to live in.
"Anything specifically you'd like for a bite to eat?" Helen asked. "I'll bring it back up here."
"Just a sandwich. And, uhm, fruit gummies, if they have them," Furret said.
"Alright, back in a bit."
Bellossom closed the door behind her leaving Furret looking in a circle around the room. Before she could sit on the beanbag after a short minute, a stiff knock came on the door.
Abigail answered, expecting Helen to come back to tell her something.
Furret came face to face with the same Mightyena, his eyes only a foot or so away from her's. She immediately backed up from him slightly.
"Here's your phone, already set with contact information," he said. Mightyena handed Furret a moderately-sized phone in a black phone case.
"Thanks, your majesty," Abigail squeaked.
Mightyena gave an affirming nod and walked down the hallway. Furret closed the door gently, exhaling when she was in her own space again.
Furret went back to the beanbag and sat on it, exhaling at the same time. She took a closer look at the phone in her newly gold hands.
It was completely black with a shining white symbol on the back. It was easy for Abigail to recognize the Compass Rose, but it took a second for it to click in her head that it doubled as the symbol of the North Star. It was a star travelers to know which direction was north. It was also called the Lodestar, which was her new nickname she guessed.
Abigail doubted there was a design like this already for phone cases, and from how it felt it was pretty likely that they had it imprinted over night. At the very least, they picked it specifically for her.
Abigail had used a phone before some, so she knew where to go. Her fingers felt a little clunky on it the surface, but she was able to get by. She clicked on a message notification. in the menu and saw a chat with icons.
Different messages had pictures of a Buizel, shiny Zorua, and Quilava with the names Zen Verity, Aaron Valor, and Gawain Acuity above them respectively. Abigail's chat icon looked look a white Compass Rose on a black background.
"Hello, my name is Zen Verity. It's good to meet you, Abigail." - Zen
"y are we doing this? he knows our names. its right on the thing" - Aaron
"*she" - Aaron
"Hey, she can read this, Aaron." - Zen
"our parents wont read this, right?" - Gawain
"No." -Zen
"why" - Gawain
"She can still read this." - Zen
"why didnt i know i was a whole prince till yesterday" - Gawain
"It's nice to meet you, Gawain." - Zen
"." - Gawain
There was an indicator on the bottom of the screen showing that they were all typing. Looking at the timestamps, it looks like it only started recently.
"wait, u two knew each other?" - Gawain
"knew him too much" - Aaron
"sup with him using grammar?" - Gawain
"It's not all that." - Zen
Abigail wanted to enter the conversation and started thinking of openers. They were typing much faster than she could.
"i cant tell if i think you two are snotty or not" - Gawain
"Hey, we're world leaders. Be nice." - Zen
"world leaders. i didnt even believe him till he showed me a selfie of him in front of a castle" - Gawain
"big yikes" - Aaron
"^" - Abigail
"So you didn't know. It's not that big of a deal, right?" - Zen
The typing paused for a split second before continuing. She started to feel nervous.
"dang, u know how to use that thing?" - Aaron
"Of course you'd text that. Say it to her face. I dare you." - Zen
"youre daring a valorian prince. guess gawain really is the smartest" - Aaron
"i was expecting this group chat to go so differently" - Gawain
"^" - Abigail
"stop scaring her into using one liners" - Aaron
"Sorry, Abigail." - Zen
"hey if u want her to be relaxed about royalty just send those screenshots of your parents texts"- Aaron
"Stop." - Zen
"ok, so what am i supposed to do right now?" - Gawain
"we literally just party now. u don't have classes for months, and theyre ez" - Aaron
"ok" - Gawain
"Abigail, would you like to walk around the building with us to get familiar? It'd only take a few minutes to show you the important stuff." - Zen
"When?" - Abigail
"Anytime. We have all day, right guys?" - Zen
"ur telling me" - Gawain
"my dad is watching a one of those detective shows again so im pretty sure we dont have to do anything for the rest of the day at least" - Aaron
"Not sure, I'm pretty tired." - Abigail
As soon as Abigail finished the text, a knock sounded at the door. The Furret quickly got up and opened it letting the Bellossom inside.
"A few of them knew, so uhm, it was all free," Helen said. "Had to run a bit."
The Bellossom set down a hefty basket while Abigail looked back down and continued reading the chat.
"Of course, just call us when you want for anything." - Zen
"i would also be tired after battling miss destiny" - Aaron
"i overheard that my new grandpa is looking into it pretty extensively. ill update you, abigail" - Gawain
"Thanks." - Abigail
Helen was already looking at Abigail when her eyes went up from her phone.
"They're not as formal as you thought, right?" Helen asked.
"Well," Abigail said, "I guess not."