Mallow stared almost directly into Kaili's eyes across the campfire, her eyebrows slightly furrowed.

"This trial requires you collect things around the forest. It's a lot easier in the day when you can see better." She leaned back, there was a look in her eyes, almost a shadow passing across her as she spoke. The young man had opened his mouth to answer but she simply shook her head. The woman pushed herself to standing with a sigh.

"I'll come get you when it's ready. A kid 'Hau' came by earlier which means your the last trial for this wave." With a small roll of her eyes, she rifled through her tent and retrieved a small torch. 'Accidentally' shining it in his eyes as she turned it on, Mallow headed through the curtain of vines into the darkness. Leaving Kaili alone by the campfire.

He looked down just in time to see Blep, the quilava, sniffing awfully close to the cooked meat. Picking the pokemon up by just under its front legs, Kaili pulled the fire mon back to sitting in his lap. Both sat in silence for a few seconds, staring at the fire. At least, he hoped Blep was staring at the fire and not the meat.

She'd left the meat cooking, which meant she didn't expect to be long. Placing the pokemon on the ground, the young man pushed himself to standing, a metal grating sound piercing his ears as he did.

"Come on, lets get some air." He grumbled down at the quilava as he turned to head to the cliff by the sea. He could hear the soft patter of the pokemon behind him as he walked. At one point he tried looking down to his left, but found his neck unwilling to move at that particular angle.

Leaning against a tree by the cliff side, Kaili pulled part of the coat aside to tap his pokeballs. In a series of rapid flashes of red light, the young man was crowded by a small half shaun sheep, the fall and long beaked bird, a blade stuck in the ground at his feet, and the pink shape of Divey in the water. The quilava's head poked between the young man's feet to sniff and lick the honedge's blade.

The only sign of Mr. Balloon being nearby was the rustling in the branches above him, and the leaves that drifted down past him.

He took a moment to try and relax, breathe in the cool sea air and let his eyes sit closed for a while. When he eventually opened his eyes, he looked around to his group. He couldn't kneel down to pet them how he should. Leaning as much as his weight on the tree as he could, he stretched his left leg out toward Buzz, the Flaaffy. Tapping his hip twice was enough to get the message across to the pokemon.

The pink sheep was very heavy, but managed to climb his braced leg until he could scoop it into his arms to hold. He must have weighed almost thirty pounds. Kaili wasn't strong by any measure, but properly braced, he was able to support the creature enough to let it lick the underside of his chin while he pet its back.

"You lot are doing really well." He could feel the honedge's banner starting to wrap around his upper right thigh. "We have another trial tonight. So far this island had a Water, and a Fire trial. Which means, stereotypically, this should be a Grass trial." He groaned a little bit, letting the sheep down to keep talking. The pink fish had swum to the surface and was staring as intently at him as the rest were.

"But we can't assume. That's a thick looking jungle and I wouldn't be surprised if it's a bug trial just to catch people off guard." He could see the quilava's back half swaying excitedly back and forth as he spoke. It had finally stopped licking his extended leg. "So our best bets are Blep and Bird. And sorry little guy-" He looked down at the quilava. "- It'd be unfair to keep focusing on you. Let's let Bird have some fun?" The Trumbeak fluttered down to a branch above Kaili's head as he spoke, rousing the drifloon to instead floating around above the ocean.

"Oh, the Water trial had two pokemon in abundance. Either that's a twist for that one in particular. Or it's going to become the norm. So everyone needs to be ready for if I call on any of you. Got it?" The young man smiled, tapping the pokeballs at his hip as he heard the sound of more footsteps approaching from behind.

Mallow nodded half tired at him, taking a bite from the skewer of meat in her hands as she did. For a second it looked like she had only intended to eat, but somehow the sensation of the nod was clear within the bite. The only pokemon that had not been withdrawn, the trumbeak 'Bird', flew from his tree to atop the wall of vines.

The young woman lead him through the curtain into the dark woods beyond. Immediately past the vines stood a massive fallen log. It had been hollowed by something he couldn't tell, to create a sheltered hallway that passed into the trial beyond. Passing under the rotting wood had a strange sensation that he was entering a gym like those across the sea.

"Okay!" Mallow chimed as she bounced ahead, seeming to draw energy from some unknown source given her sudden change of mood. She stopped beside a large pot sitting atop another fire. Water was slowly boiling inside.

"Okay, here's the deal! We have to lure the totem pokemon out! To do it, you have to make something that smells really really good for it! There's a recipe that works really well, and for it you have to find three ingredients here in the Jungle. I already called Kiawe, he's bringing the other ingredients that can't be found here so don't worry. All you have to find is a Mago berry, some Honey, and a Big Root!"

She then skipped forward, handing him a small satchel with three pockets, and a glass vial that perfectly fit the smallest pocket.

"Oh and be careful, the ingredients growing here in the Jungle are some of the tastiest in the world. Some pokemon might have claimed them for their own already. Pick the wrong stuff and you're liable to be attacked." She smirked, stepping back and gesturing for him to follow a half-cleared path deeper into the woods.

Kaili nodded. As he turned to looked down the gestured path, it felt like hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and a chill ran down his spine. He could feel shapes, shadows moving in the darkness ahead. He could see moonlight breaking through the canopy ahead, granting only small pools of light on the ground of the otherwise pitch dark forest.

"You asked for night." Mallow snickered slightly, relaxing by the fireplace. Though she stopped quickly when the young man looked over at her. She looked away quickly, seemingly unwilling to meet his semi scolding gaze.

Striding forward, Kaili could hear Bird landing on a branch nearby, keeping close to him as he delved into the darkness. But the young man stopped at the first pool of moonlight. Pulling the trench coat off and placing it on the ground beside the light, his body creaked and grinded as he carefully pulled the singlet off. Though he tucked the singlet into his pants.

Stepping forward into the patch of light, Kaili let his eyes adjust to the glittering flickering of lights suddenly flooding the area ahead of him.

"Could you bring me that please?" He pointed to the trench coat. He could see the moonlight dance across Bird's feathers as the trumbeak picked it up and dropped it on the young man. Draping it over him enough to not have to hold it, Kaili progressed down the path he'd seen in the fleeting dancing lights.

Proceeding, Kaili found himself in a clearing of the major trees. Thick grass covered the ground and several large floweing bushes dominated the landscape. He could see shadows, echoes of himself moving about in the grass. Wind rustled the grass just perfect at the passage of the shadows of himself. Maybe twelve echoes of himself. His head began to pound, and blood raced as for a moment he thought he was attacked, but found himself again alone in the dark forest.

Approaching one of the bushes, the young man pulled the vial out of the small satchel, reaching in to the bush and scraping the thick liquid off the leaves within. It seemed almost like the honey had been spread on the leaves in a hurry. An idea Kaili whole-heartedly believed.

He could hear movement nearby, a rustling of the grass and the leaves of a nearby tree. Bird was standing beside him, not having landed on any trees in this particular area. With a grumble, the young man rifled through his bag, pulling out the small container of pills. Knocking only one back without any water to wash it down, he returned the bottle to his bag and continued on the marked path through the woods.

After wandering for a while, Kaili watched as Bird suddenly took off, circling an area ahead as best it could in the darkness. He recognised the Mago berries that could be seen in the few treetops because of the little moonlight reaching them. Draping the trenchcoat over a rock nearby, the young man stepped into a pool of light once again.

Bird stopped circling, sitting in the branch of a tree as it looked around. Eventually, the trumbeak glided forward, plucking a berry with its beak and drifting down to him. Kaili stuffed the berry in its pocked and scratched the bird's head a couple times before he pulled the trenchcoat back on.

He wandered further into the woods, slowly feeling like he was moving in a circle, closing back in on where he first entered. Eventually he draped the coat over a rock and stepped again into moonlight to see where to go. The moment the light flooded off his scales into the area around him, Kaili near jumped. He was surrounded by what looked like five Sudowoodo. Though none moved. Perhaps these were the trees Sudowoodo pretended to be?

"Rotom?" He asked to thin air, only getting a quick buzz in response. "What types are Sudowoodo in Alola?"

"All known Sudowoodo speciezzz are Rock type." the voice came. Kaili thanked the pokemon in his pocket quietly as he looked around. It was a trap. A perfect ploy. Reaching down, the young man tapped Bird's ball. A flash of red light illuminated the area as the pokemon disappeared.

Rock. This trial could have been either grass or bug, which would mean people would bring flying or fire types. The previous trial had been fire, making it all more tempting. Rock would destroy either easily.

He tapped another pokeball. There was another flash of red light, and the Luvdisc, Ivy's gift 'Divey', appeared in the moonlight with him. There was strange flickering blue and red water-light under the pokemon, hefting it as if on a pillar, supporting it even in the dry forest floor.

No shadows passed over him. No sounds echoed before and after him. With a deep breath, the young man stepped forward, kneeling by the closest tree to the light. Using the small reflections he still emitted to dig up and take the root from beneath the tree. As he stashed the root in the satchel, a creaking sound drew his eyes upward.

A massive branch slammed into his chin and across the left side of his face, knocking him back into the moonlight proper.

A jet of water fired from beside him as he struggled to sit up. For an instant, he thought perhaps the immense blast would knock the rock pokemon back enough for the young man to get up. And it almost did. When the jet finished, the tree sprinted forward, swinging its branch-like arm. The swing passed through a nearby bush. There was an explosion of leaves and bark as it struck the luvdisc hard in the side.

There came another flash of light, as if on its own. When the red light had dissipated, Kaili could see the tree pinned to the ground. A sword embedded deep in its trunk.

"No..." The young man tapped a pokeball on his belt. But there came no flash. Quickly he tapped Kladenets ball and the blade vanished back inside again. Rolling onto his stomach, Kaili crawled as fast as he physically could to the small pink shape that had almost slid under a bush.

Pulling the pokemon out from under the bush, the young man frantically turned it over in his hands. He couldn't feel any movement beside that of his own hands. Each time he tapped the luvdisc's ball was a wasted effort, nothing happening over and over again.

Holding it close, the young man buried his face in the pokemon's side. Not that tears would help heal it, and he knew that.

As much as he didn't want to move, he had a trial to finish. Gently he laid the pokemon back down on the ground so he could get dressed properly. Once the singlet and coat were back on, he scooped up the small mass and continued along the path back to the entrance.

Mallow and Kiawe, the fire trial guy, stood by the boiling broth. Mallow's excited smile disappeared swiftly as Kaili lay the unmoving Divey on a rock near the entrance before approaching.

"Okay so-" Mallow started, though silenced herself fairly quickly when Kaili simply handed over the satchel. He stepped back, watching as she added each ingredient in turn, stirring the pot as the smell grew stronger and stronger.

Suddenly, a mass to Kaili's left moved, he'd thought the silhouette to be a tree at first. When it stepped into the firelight, he could make out the fourteen foot tall pink and white mantis pokemon.

Tapping Bird's pokeball, the small clearing was lit by a more intense red light than the fire. In the flash Kaili thought he saw something else skulking nearby, but it was gone the moment the light settled. Bird acted fast, despite the frightening speed of the larger pokemon, clipping it across the face with his wing.

The totem pokemon ripped open the canopy, flooding the clearing with moonlight. Kaili could see the wound close up quickly, as if stitching it back together. In his focus on the totem, the young man didn't see where the line of stones had originated from. A sudden line of massive spikes of rock burst from the ground, tracing a path and growing ever taller until the spiked Bird from the sky.

The trumbeak spiraled quickly to the ground, landing hard on its head and falling limp.

The young man could feel the rage flood through him. As if a sudden gust of wind rocked the trees nearby. There was a flash of red light as Kladenets formed in midair. He'd not touched the pokeball, but it was as if the sword was answering his internal scream.

For the first time ever, the blade swung through the air with no anchor. It swiped left, cleaving something by a nearby bush in half. As it swung back, it cut through the blade of light the strange totem pokemon had seemingly lashed out with. It sliced deep into the totem, sending the massive pokemon reeling into the darkness of the forest.