Chapter 1- Awakening

"We have to do something… right?"

"Well, of course. We're not going to leave him here, but… what are we supposed to do?"

"I... don't know."

I could barely move. I wanted to, but the weight of my body overpowered what little energy I had left; I tried to locate the speaker, and my eyes opened to a place I'd never seen before.

"Where…?" I could hardly get a single word through my mouth. Whatever happened before I fainted must have been bad, because I barely felt alive.

"Oh! He's up!" The smaller of the two saviors dropped down to face me. "You must've been tired, to get knocked out in a place like this."

The other one stepped up and dropped to her knees. "We were just out here to look for some berries and we saw you sitting here. You were unresponsive, so we fed you some medicine, that seems to have done the trick. Are you okay?"

Well, that explained the bitter taste in my mouth.

"...no."

The taller crouched further down to look me over, her verdantly-helmed head swiveling around my body to get a closer look at what I assume are scars. "You look injured, do you remember what happened before you passed out?"

The static in my senses started to clear and I forced my neck to turn to take in my surroundings. It was just a meadow; my mind found no recollection of the forest around me. "...remember?"

"Let's start with this: what do you remember?"

My mind was empty, the silence in the air started to fill my head, too.

"Ah!" The younger of the two spoke up again, "I've heard of this, isn't it, amn... amnesia?"

"Very good! It seems I'm teaching you well."

"Guys?"

She turned back over to me, "Sorry, can you stand? The tree looks uncomfortable."

"I think we're about to find out. I have some of my strength back, so…"

I tried to help when they worked together to pull me up, but I felt utterly powerless in the attempt. Eventually, however, I was back on my feet, but the effort was almost erased immediately.

"Agh! Sorry, it seems my sense of balance isn't quite back yet."

"Let's just walk back to town." The older one suggested, while seemingly bracing to run over and support me if I collapsed again.

I took a deep breath and steadied myself. "I think… I'm alright. Okay, let's go."

Serenity.

Since I woke up without a past, the last five chaotic days seemed to consist only of questions. I hadn't gotten a single quiet moment, until now. The view overlooking the town was perfect, the cool air of the hill wafting into the building, the calm visage of the open wall, withered by time, overlooking the verdant field surrounding the town, completely still.

"Hey, is this spot taken?" I heard a soft voice call behind me. I didn't turn around. I didn't need to. It's weird that someone was there at all, but the fact that I wasn't faced with yet more questions meant it was almost certainly Kirli. Regardless, I felt it's someone I'd be okay talking to.

"Yeah, come on up."

"You… didn't even ask who it was!" The girl seemed almost annoyed that I didn't check.

"Nah. It doesn't matter to me."

"Oh, do you, uh, remember anything, Buizel?" The other person clearly didn't know how to start the conversation, but I could hardly deal with this question again.

"It's Henry, actually."

"Really? You remembered something? That's a name you don't see around here, but I guess I don't know how the buizel do it."

"Oh, no. I seriously remember nothing. Kirli named me after nothing came back to me, so now I'm Henry."

There was some giggling behind me. "Wow, she really just full-on adopted you, huh? I feel bad for her, though. She takes on so much…"

"Yeah, I've seen how she lives, having to take care of her brother is enough for a kid, I wonder why she took me in at all..."

"Oh, no! I'm sorry! I meant…"

I had hardly been receptive as the conversation marched on. All the while I was trying to consider who that person could even be. It was a feminine voice that isn't Kirli, so it could be Aya, maybe Kris? I do want to know who could be talking to me, but my desire to see just how far this goes is just that bit greater.

"Henry? Are you still with us?" Oh! Did she ask something? Maybe I got too lost in thought, how long had I been silent? Fine, this has gone on long enough. I swallowed my scientific pride and turned around.

"O-oh! Chikorita?" I blushed, seeing who I was speaking to. She wasn't someone I'd considered at all. "I didn't think you were even interested in talking to me."

She looked down somewhat sheepishly at this. "I'm sorry, I kind of close myself off when I'm working on something. Also, please, call me Maple, I can't deal with someone my age being so formal."

"Alright, well, nice to meet you, Maple." I felt more at ease knowing someone could speak to me like a person. "By the way, did you mean to find me for something?"

Her expression changed quite quickly. "Gah! I forgot! I need you to come with me, it's almost time!" Before she even finished the sentence, a vine was already wrapped around my arm and I already felt myself being dragged away from my sanctuary.

"Hold on, wait wait! Where are we going? It's past noontime, what could possibly need to be done so urgently today?"

She hardly even broke stride when moving toward the stairs. "Don't worry about it, it'll be worth it, just come on, we're going back to town!"

So much for a moment of calm.

As I was railroaded closer and closer to our friends' "meetup spot", I noticed a few preparations had been made while I was gone. It seemed to be primarily snacks and drink, but it was clearly set up for some sort of get together. Running around the base of it is a Glameow, Mienfoo, and Cubchoo.

"Ta-da!" Maple proclaimed as she stopped in her tracks to help me revel at the work of the group. I almost fell over.

"Maple, my arm, please." After regaining circulation in my arm, I could finally start asking questions. "What's all this?"

Before anyone else could even dream of speaking, Maple abruptly about-faced to excitedly explain their plans. "So, tonight! There's going to be a beautiful meteor shower that happens every year. I was gonna just make it a regular celebration, but then you came along, so we decided to make it a welcoming party for you!" She was starting to get uncomfortably close as she explained, enough for me to see the proud spark in her eye.

"Maple, down!" Aya called. After a sheepish apology from her friend, the Cubchoo continued. "There is generally a celebration amongst us and Kirli for this event, but Maple suggested we go all out since you'd be joining us for the first time. Well… maybe all out is an overstatement, it's just going to be us hanging out and watching the meteor shower with a little more decoration and food. Actually, maybe this isn't..." Her voice made a somber exit.

"N-no! I'm just honored you guys even thought about me-"

"Hey!" Maylene spoke up. "Don't sell yourself short, you went through the effort to make this, be proud!"

"Mai… I'm sorry! This'll be great!" She clearly tried to match the energy of the Mienfoo, but she seemed very uncomfortable doing so.

"Hey, if I didn't have faith that this was good enough, I wouldn't have used my good designs." Kris tried to encourage her from afar. While the catlike pokemon messed with some decorations on a nearby roof, he continued. "I wish we could get more people to tell you, but looks like the others still aren't back with the food."

"Sheesh, where even are they?" Maylene almost blew up at this. "It should have taken them a few minutes to get here from Kecleon's, at most! But now, they're going to be the last ones here. If they're out slacking off then so help me-"

"Maybe I should be the one to go and look for them?" I interjected, foreseeing someone's death in the near-future.

"Please, no." The bear was back to her general soft spokenness, "This was supposed to be for you."

"And I haven't helped at all. Look, I'll just- I'll be right back. See you!" I dashed away before they could call out for me to stop.

"Yes, they did come by a while ago, they went that way, I believe." The shopkeep replied while pointing, quite predictably, in the direction of the meeting place.

"Got it, thanks, Kecleon!" I waved before setting on the path to find the two stragglers.

The sky was beginning to turn a Cheri color and the celebration was to start without me. Hopefully these guys would show up soon.

Only halfway through the short trail, I noticed a very familiar blue quadruped on the steep hill only a couple minutes' walk from the store, straining with his back at a sack that could hold three of him, but no sign of the other.

"Hey, Trip, where's-?"

"Nothing! Wait, no no no- not again!" I'd never seen someone go from bracing their body to motioning as if they're hiding something to lying flat on the ground so quickly before, but there the Shinx was, digging his claws through the bag, trying to keep it from rolling to the bottom, which would destroy what seemed to be a couple minutes of work. "Help… me…"

The bag was about as densely packed as it looked, my strength was hardly enough to let Trip get back to his feet and push the obstacle with me.

"Alright. What are you doing here? Maple was supposed to stall you."

"She had mostly the opposite effect; she talked to me for a couple minutes before dragging me here."

"She what?"

"She assumed you'd be back by now, but you seem to be struggling to move."

"If I had some help we'd be back. Where the hell is Leif?"

This prompted a small investigation of the surrounding area for me to notice that the second person was completely absent. "Yeah… What happened to him?"

"He just said he had a good idea and Hercules'd me!" He clearly wanted to move his body to amplify his betrayal, but left it at words, lest he rolls the bag down any more. "What? Oh right, memory, basically Hercules was a Heracross, had a couple tasks to become a god, one was to roll a boulder up a mountain forever, or something."

"I didn't even say anything!" Given, I didn't know about the fable, but I still felt slighted. "Alright, so where did he go?"

"I'm back already, you don't need to be like that. Hey Buizel." As I turned around, a Snivy was just there, holding a couple branches.

"Wha… you left me here pushing this thing for so long while you went looking for sticks!?" The betrayal I could sense from Trip's expression increased tenfold.

"Will you relax? I have an idea, if we make a slingshot at the bottom and let it roll, it'll spring up to the top, no more work for us, sound good?"

"Fine, we're running out of time, so I'm going to humor you. Once. If this doesn't work I'm gonna let Mai go after you."

Leif scoffed at him, "As if she won't focus on you again. Let's just do this, the vines are set up. Don't worry, this is going to work!"

"So THAT is why you were gone for so long?" Mai is really tearing into him for this. "How could you possibly think that could work?"

"I'm sorry, it's really not-"

"Stop! Just, stop. You seriously couldn't push that thing up a hill? It wasn't even that steep!"

"I couldn't have done it alone!"

"NO! You needed three people to get that bag of gummis up!"

"Well maybe I could've dealt with Leif abandoning me-"

"Hey, I'm not part of this fight." Leif popped a gummi into his mouth.

"Well, why wasn't Kris there, he's a boy! Isn't that how you split this?"

"He was working on the difficult things because he- unlike you- actually has an eye for beauty!"

"Oh? Well in that case, why weren't YOU helping me?"

This was starting to make me uncomfortable, but everyone else seemed to be watching in interest.

"Well MAYBE I should have! Even if I had gone alone, I could've gotten back before you two!"

"We still have the bag, wanna test that out!?"

"HEY!" Someone, Aya, finally spoke up. " We're here to make friends with Henry, so ruin this party for us and so help me my wish will be that the next batch of meteors fall on you." The monotone voice plus that infinitely deep look in her eyes sent chills down my spine. "Now, fight about something that won't ruin the party."

The petty arguing continued with the rest in relative quiet for the next few minutes, everyone else just seeming to not care.

"You might as well ignore them." Aya appeared behind me, producing some sort of drink for me. "This is pretty normal, we've actually started taking bets on this."

"You're kidding."

"Nope." Maple pitched in, "Leif is set for the closest with 135 times by the end of the year, I went for 65 like a fool, and Kris went way against odds and put 20 poke on them falling madly in love by the end of the year."

As if on queue, Kris's voice sounded out: "Just kiss already!", the two combatants ceasing their arguing for just a moment to scream at him and continuing seamlessly.

"Frankly, it's a miracle we're even friends."

Before we could move on to the next subject, I turned to Aya. "What about you? Do you have a stake in this?"

She looked a bit abashed at the question, "Oh, no. I don't like encouraging this behavior." She hardly even tried to hide her glance at Maple.

"So, what do you two… do?" I questioned, simply needing something to drown out the noises of Trip and Mai. "I've hardly gotten a chance to actually have a conversation so I'm not really sure what you guys do every day."

"Again, sorry about that." Maple blushed a little. "Us and Kris generally spend our time helping out at the Orphanage here in town, although, Aya really blows us out of the water with that. I feel like a slacker most of the time!"

"That makes sense, yeah."

Aya seemed quite embarrassed at the praise. "It's nothing much, truly. As the oldest there, we have certain responsibilities, and I may get carried away when it comes to that." She was looking at the ground, perhaps we pushed her modesty a bit too far.

"Oh yeah, we're here for a meteor shower, yeah? Maybe we should talk about that." I needed to change the subject to spare Aya. "I want to learn more about this event."

"All things considered, the Aether Meteor Shower is really nothing special, compared to other meteor showers, at least." Leif naturally inserted himself into the conversation. "However, some see it as a spiritual celebration, which is why Kirli and Ralts couldn't celebrate with us today, others go by the fable of Jirachi and wishes, while others still use it as an excuse to get together and stay out late with their friends."

"Wait, slow down." I interrupted before the snivy could go even further without me. "Another fable? Jirachi?"

"Ah, I'm sorry." The Snivy scratched the back of his head. "There's an old children's story about a pokemon named Jirachi imbuing his power into the shooting stars so that, if you make a wish, it'll come true by the next meteor shower."

"Oh, and the point of the story is that wishing for it makes you work for that goal yourself?" My mind and mouth moved on their own; I have no idea where that came from.

After a confused glance at the others, Leif continued on. "Yeah, that's right. Have you read it?"

"T'was a lucky guess."

There was a bit of a lull in the conversation, in which time I took a drink from the cup given to me all that time ago. The flavor burst in my mouth, the natural sour of the drink bending in a way I didn't even know was possible. I had never tasted anything like it.

"Pretty good, right?" The Snivy showed that my feelings were shown on my face. "My parents own the place that makes the juice, they gave me a bit to thank me for helping, so please don't feel bad about taking any, I got it for you guys."

"Oh, do we have any Chesto Drink?" I almost jumped at the sound of Trip's calm voice right behind me, looks like everything worked itself out while I wasn't paying attention. At the question, however, Leif simply gestured to the Cubchoo behind him.

"I asked him not to. I love you guys too much to let you keep yourselves up all night with that stuff. I know what happened last time." They both shuddered.

"Y-yeah, you're right, thank you." Nobody said another word as he grabbed a drink.

"What was-"

I was instantaneously interrupted "So! The main show is set to start in a couple minutes, is anyone planning on wishing?" Maple sounded flustered. maybe it's for the best I don't ask.

There were a few mumbles of confirmation and denial through the group. Would I wish for anything? I really don't know what, I remember less than a week about my life, after all. There were very few things I could wish for that wouldn't lead to disappointment. I was able to find some friends, though, so maybe a supernatural wish wouldn't be too far fetched. I was happy. But…

"Hey, heads up!"

As I tilted my head up, it was like a window into the entire cosmos, a view I had never thought to seek until now. Twisting lights sew like an artform into the large picture, something that felt larger than life itself. As a garnish of white streaks, the shooting stars showed something I'd never seen before- something I'd never felt before. I feel… fulfilled.

I want to know what happened to me before I lost my memories. I also want to see this world I was brought to, but, I don't think that will happen. I think…

My wish is to do something that can make my friends proud. Something to prove my worth to them. Please hear me, Wishmaker.