Chapter Five
Twilrich Rise

Back at the guild, most pokémon looked like they had been sleeping and woken up just for this meeting. A bunch of murmuring was happening amongst the pokémon. I didn't see Team Rogue anywhere, which I was rather relieved for. I didn't want any more trouble, but I was grateful for that battle… Kind of. It did help me learn a few moves of my own though. Ice Shard and Icy Wind! I was extremely grateful for that much – even if it did mean I got beat up pretty bad over it. Anything helped with my situation though.

Everyone in the guild fell even more quiet when the large horse pokémon, which I learned was the second in command (or deputy is what they called her), Fae, entered the room. Vex had shared with me that she was a Galarian Rapidash. A Psychic/Fairy type and best friends with Blaziken since before guild-times. She looked serious but she probably was also awoken in her sleep by the emergency notification.

"Snowberry Guild," Her voice was ethereal and captivated everyone's attention, "Please welcome Shaymin home, as he has extremely important news to share with us."

"Shaymin's back?" A small pokémon whispered to her partner a few feet over from us.

"I can't believe Shaymin's back!" Her partner replied.

I heard a gasp from Vex, "Shaymin is here? I can't believe it! He hasn't come home in so long!"

From what Vex and Zorro have shared with me, Shaymin was the creator of the Atlas that they use. Being that most guilds use the Atlas, I could only imagine how busy he was. He was an explorer himself, but only to explore and gain knowledge on other regions besides Winterry. I knew for a fact that he was considered a 'mythical' pokémon, but to know that his home is Snowberry was pretty exciting. I was going to meet a mythical pokémon.

"Shh," Fae spoke softly, bowing her head. "Shaymin is tired. I expect none of you to disturb him after this meeting."

Down the hallway that Fae had emerged from, walked a white and green pokémon standing tall with Blaziken. He looked exhausted, one could easily just tell by the look of his gaze. Shaymin's face lit up with happiness when he noticed all of the guild members here to greet him. The pokémon made his way to the center of the room, sitting down in front of everyone. Blaziken and Fae stood a few feet behind him, letting him speak without any disturbances.

"Snowberry, it's great to see you all again!" He cheered at us, "I am here only for a day before I must leave again. I hope everyone has been doing well. I must speak with you all about something that has happened in a different region, which would be nearly a week and half travel on foot. I'm sure you all felt the earthquake not too long ago," He stated and began to pace back and forth. "That was no ordinary earthquake," He explained to us in a serious tone. A deep breath escaped his breath as he uttered the next words, "It was a Dynamax pokémon."

A ripple of gasps emerged from the guild, even Fae and Blaziken were shocked. Whispers began to sound from different pokémon surrounding us, all shocked that a pokémon had been dynamaxed.

"Due to the destruction of the Dynamaxed pokémon, which was enraged, evacuation orders had been sent out to their area. The pokémon from there will be fine, just a lot of construction will be needed. The pokémon was calmed by some of the SSS Teams from their guild. Being one of the largest guilds in their region, they will be completing construction by themselves. However, we may be having some visitors soon that will be staying with our guild until they are returned to their own area," Shaymin explained to everyone as seriously as he could. "Some of the pokémon will travel by sea, and others by air, but I'm honestly not even sure if anyone would like to travel this far to our guild." He chuckled slightly, rubbing the back of his head. "Since we are already short-handed here, we will not be able to assist their guild in rebuilding, unfortunately."

"I can't believe it, a dynamaxed pokémon!" Zorro whispered to himself. "That's incredible. No one has seen one for such a long time. I wonder what kind of pokémon it was, and how it happened."

Shaymin continued to speak to the guild, "We will need to do the best to avoid any sketchy characters and areas that have not been fully discovered. I'm not entirely sure how this Dynmaxed happened, but I do believe their guild leader had mentioned that after the pokémon had calmed down, it was describing something sort of like, a red portal?" He was questioning his own memory but sighed, and shook his head. "Just don't touch things you don't know." The green and white pokémon smiled kindly to the guild and took a deep breath, "I just want to thank you all for your time and devotion to the Atlas. It means a lot, please keep exploring and see if anyone would like to join us. That is all! Blaziken, do you have anything to add?"

The fire-bird pokémon shook his head, and cleared his throat, "Honestly, no. Just be careful and you see something suspicious, please report to Team Thunder, Fae or I. If we are not available, please reach out to Yuuta or Cloud."

Shaymin smiled as Blaziken mentioned Cloud and Yuuta. The two of those pokémon must be close friends with Shaymin, or even work with him on the Atlas.

"Alright then, you all do a wonderful job in the morning and we'll see you soon!" Shaymin dismissed us with a flick of his front paw. With that, the three of the pokémon turned tail to leave the room and down the hall they had emerged from. More than likely, they were going to discuss what they could do to prevent possible issues such as Dynamxing here in Winterry. The room was still filled with questions, but I was overwhelmed with tiredness. I wanted to be concerned about this dynmaxing thing, since Millie the Milotic told me they hadn't seen it in so long. What a coincidence though, for real!

"We should honestly get some sleep," Vex murmured to Zorro and I. "We've been up almost all day and you both need to get some rest." His voice was genuinely concerned for us. The small blue and black pokémon turned around to the small hallway that was across the stairs and motioned for us to follow.

I nodded in agreement and followed after Zorro and Vex.

Down the hallway to the very last room, we came to a stop. It was a door entryway with lights up and around the frame. When Vex went to open the door, their room was as festive as the rest of the hall and guild building. Their room, obviously layered with stone, was rather comforting. There were two beds on seperate sides of the room in little indentations of the wall. The left indentation was the one most closest to the actual mountain walls and had a tiny window in it. On the right side, a small nook with the other bed on it and a few books lining the shelves of that window nook. Directly across from the entryway was a large stone step that led upwards into an enclosed area that overlooked whatever was below that edge. It was kind of like it's own tiny stone secluded room.

"You can sleep anywhere you'd like," Vex offered me. "We made a bed up on the ledge up there. I didn't like that spot too much because it got too cold sometimes at night," He chuckled, motioning up the two large stone stairs to the ledge.

Zorro shouldered past Vex and I and claimed his bed off to the right of the room with the books. I was actually rather shocked that Zorro was the reader of the two. Never judge a book by it's cover, right? Hah. Hah… Anyway, I nodded in appreciation to Vex, telling him quietly, "Thank you."

Vex nodded, flashing a soft grin and turned to the tiny chest that was sitting near his bed on the floor of the room. He opened it quickly and dropped his satchel in it before locking it again. He patted the chest and went to his bed. "If the Christmas lights are too much, feel free to turn them off," He informed me as he pointed towards the box that controlled the lights. If you are too cold, there are blankets in Zorro's chest, feel free to grab one." He motioned to the other rather larger chest near the window-nook bed area.

I thanked him again and grabbed myself a blanket from Zorro's chest on the ground, gripping it in my sharp teeth. I pulled the blanket up the two large steps and noticed the little bed that was created. There was a small little bag on it and in pen it wrote, "Welcome to Snowberry." It was rather heart-warming that these pokémon went out of their way to give me a welcome gift. Setting the blanket down, I nosed my way into the bag and pulled out something that was soft. I pulled the blue and white fabric out and noticed it was a scarf. I smiled in happiness as I examined the scarf. It was a decent quality scarf, and it was warm. I then grabbed another thing out of the bag and noticed it was a smaller, blue and white shoulder-bag. Similar to what Vex carried, but not quite. I tried the bag on and it surprisingly fit my shoulders well and lay rested on my other side. I was about to call out and say thank you to the two pokémon, but I could hear their soft snoring already sounding. A smile crept across my face and I took a deep breath. It was nice knowing they went out of their way to welcome me. I cozied into the bed with the scarf and bag nearby and closed my eyes.

The next morning, the sun was shining brightly into the little stony-room. It filtered through my eyes and warmed my fur up. A huge yawn escaped me. Nothing crazy happened overnight, thank Arceus. I was worried that I'd have some weird dream or something. But it was peaceful and quiet. I slowly sat up, the blanket that I was laying on fell off my back. I looked out at the window nook above the room that I had chosen as my bed, to come face-to-face with the ocean-view below me. I smiled brightly, watching as the sun flickered off the water. We were in the last room that was along the long stone wall, and all the rooms along the wall were basically crafted over the ocean with support beams built. It was rather incredible that pokémon had come together to pull this off.

Large ice-bergs filled the ocean before us and I could make out a few shadows of pokémon that were in the water. I couldn't imagine living in a world of pokémon that didn't have water types that lived their life undersea. I bet there were even guilds for water types, just in case anything happened in the ocean. I mean, I'm sure there were baby pokémon that would need help and rapids that needed to be fought off. Kind of just like the regular guild from the board I remembered from yesterday. This world was amazing just yesterday. I learned so much yesterday about this world. It still blew my mind that Shaymin, a mythical pokémon, had come into contact with the guild. To top it off, this was his home guild? That's incredible. I wasn't sure that legendries and mythical pokémon showed their faces very often.

I hopped down the two large stairs and landed with a soft thud on the ground. I scanned the room and noticed that Vex and Zorro had already left the room! Where did they go? I noticed the door was slightly ajared and I nosed my way out of the room. Oops, almost forgot! I quickly made my way back in and grabbed the scarf and the bag, only to throw both of them on quickly. I smiled with happiness and then made my way out of the room in hopes that the two pokémon were not far ahead. Reaching the entranceway to the tunnel, I poked my head around the corner and noticed that the room was empty. I flattened my ears, hoping they would've been there but they were not. Perhaps they have already started on missions? I then heard a beeping noise coming from my bag, which caused me to jump because it was so quiet and then all of a sudden was this loud noise. I sat down and rummaged through the bag, feeling something cold hit my nose when I did so. I reached into the bag and grabbed the beeping noise, which was an Atlas. I gently pawed the orb in the middle of the gold and black atlas, which opened the projection screen. On the screen, I saw the face of Vex and heard his voice, "Good morning Aria! Sorry, we tend to wake up early. Anyway, come meet us at the café so we can start our missions!"

Zorro's voice chimed in, "Yeah you heavy-sleeper. Man, we were so loud this morning and you just slept through it all!"

"Zorro, I'm talking!"

"You don't get to hog all the glory!"

"Shhh!" Vex silenced him again. "Anyway, come to the café. We'll be here!"

The lines of the voice message he had sent me stopped moving as it ended. At least they didn't forget me. I threw the bag back on my shoulders and headed out to the café.

The café was rather busy for the day, even pokémon were lined up outside trying to force their way in. I didn't know there were this many pokémon in town. I could hear whispers from each and every one of them and I came to a halt near the back of the group, two little pokémon.

"Didn't someone say he was from a different guild?" The smaller white pokémon asked, her white spikey looking body was nearly translucent, obviously a ghost pokémon.

"Yes yes, Hira," The pokémon partner, almost looked like a bug, with green bulging eyes and black-oval shaped pupils. His mouth had large white teeth on each side, and it's body was skinny and yellow, with four green, rhombus-shaped wings, lined with black, "I think someone said it was a pokémon not from this area," The pokémon replied to the other.

"Do they know what guild they're from?" The pokémon, known as Hira, responded to her partner.

I listened to the two of them, and noticed they were from the guild. I saw them yesterday when Blaziken was addressing the room. Perhaps they didn't hate me? I took a smell step toward them, all my courage trying to boost into steps. I really didn't want any problems. I spoke softly, "Um, excuse me."

The two of them turned quickly and they looked me up and down. Surprisingly, both of them smiled warmly, especially the white one. "Hey! You're Aria, the mystery mon, aren't you?!" She exclaimed.

I forced a small smile in embarrassment, replying, "I am Aria, yes."

"It's nice to meet you," the second pokémon said. "I am Viv, and this is Hira." He motioned to the other one and dipped his head in respect. "Welcome to Snowberry. If you aren't aware, I am a Vibrava and this is a Corsola – an Alolan Corsola. She's got the same region blood as you do, thus why you are both different from the normal forms of pokémon," Viv explained to me.

"Did you come here to meet the Tier SSS pokémon from another team? He said his team had disappeared and he wasn't sure where to find them. He had mentioned that he's from the region with a recent Dynamaxed pokémon!" The translucent corsola explained to me, jumping up and down with excitement. "He doesn't know how he got here, but he said he was fighting with the Dynamax pokémon to calm it down and ended up here."

I listened to the pokémon's story. It was odd that a Tier SSS pokémon was here in Snowberry rather than helping build his own hometown. Perhaps he was injured or maybe he was more interested in finding out what happened to his own team.

Viv nodded in agreement to his partner's story, acknowledging what she was saying, "It's none of our business why he was here to be honest. It would be nice to listen to the story though. I've only heard bits and parts of it from out here, but it looks like some of the pokémon were clearing out."

We watched for a moment as a bunch of the pokémon were beginning to leave the café, and made our way into the crowd. Over to the side was the crowd of pokémon circling another pokémon. I could see a tall white and green figure that was sitting in a chair, kind of leaned back with an arm propped up on the head of the chair. I could see a slight grin on his face as he was holding a drink in the other hand, sipping on it while chit-chatting with the pokémon around him.

"Yeah, it was probably my craziest adventure yet. It was extremely rewarding though," The pokémon said, full of confidence.

I heard Vex's voice speak up, "That's really cool! I hope I can be a Tier SSS Guild Member one day!"

"Keep it up, Kid, you might be as cool as me some day," The green and white pokémon said with a respectful nod, ruffling the little bit of fur on Vex's head.

I approached the group with Team Wisp, listening to this pokémon's arrogant voice at the end of his story. I looked him over, and made a note to myself what kind of pokémon he was. He was slouched over, with an arm on the back of the chair, with a drink in the other. He looked rather… Rude, to be honest. I'm not sure how to explain it, but it made me feel uneasy.

"Oh, Aria! You made it!" Vex squeaked in my direction. "This is Takao, he's a Gallade."

"Ahh…" The gallade took a drink of his drink and then his eyes got wide, "Did you say Aria?"

I tilted my head in response to him, as he seemed suddenly completely different when he said my name. Like, he was surprised. "I am Aria, I just joined Blaziken's Guild… Yesterday, actually," I replied to him, not dropping my gaze for even a second. "It's nice to meet you."

Takao the gallade took a deep breath and stuck his hand out for me to shake it. "The pleasure is all mine," He replied with a nervous grin. "Um, anyway, I've got to go, you younglin's stay safe." He pulled his hand in before I even had a chance to shake it, got up, dropped some pokécoins on the table and left quickly.

"Huh, that was weird," Zorro murmured. "All the other pokémon circling him didn't make him nervous but as soon as the buzz-kill came around…" He rolled his eyes and they landed on me, while all the other pokémon dispersed from around us.

"All I did was greet him," I replied with a roll of my own eyes.

"Eh, I didn't like him anyway. His charm was way too much," Zorro shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

"You don't like any other pokémon who has a better game than you," Vex scoffed under his breath.

I couldn't help but giggle softly at their conversation. They sure were really close friends. But still, that pokémon had some weird vibes to him.

"Hey Vex, Zorro," Viv of Team Wisp greeted them calmly. "So who was this pokémon?"

"Very curious!" Hirayama squealed excitedly.

"Well, his name is Takao. He's not from our area," Vex replied with a soft sigh. "He's from the guild that had the Dynamaxed pokémon and he says he's a Tier SSS pokémon."

I was a bit taken aback, now that I'm hearing that for the second time within a few minutes. He definitely didn't act like a Tier SSS pokémon. The same questions loomed in my head, why was he here? My gaze locked on the door as I saw the gallade dip out of the cafe quickly. He definitely seemed nervous when he greeted me. Perhaps I just give him a chilly presence?

"Hrm," Viv murmured under his breath and shook his head. "Doesn't make sense to me why he's here," He took the words right out of my thoughts.

"He said he needed to speak with Shaymin about something and get information on a specific area in his region that apparently no other pokémon knows of. He said he ran into something weird there," Zorro explained. "He didn't get into much details, but he was sent on a private mission from Garchomp, their guild leader."

I listened to Zorro and Vex as they explained their story to us. I wonder what kind of private mission he was sent on. As Creator of the Atlas though, I'm sure Shaymin could guide his way in hopes of solving this dynamaxed pokémon issue. My thoughts drifted off when I made eye contact with the mural on the building roof again. I took into account a few things that Millie the Milotic had said. Perhaps what she said about waking Eternatus was true? Had there been some strange awaken on this legendary pokémon that allowed dynamaxing to begin again? I didn't want to believe that this almost-as-powerful-as-Arceus-pokémon was awoken. Perhaps there was just a small disturbance in his sleep and it didn't affect much but maybe allow one pokémon to dynamax. It still sounded extremely familiar to me. It was also a huge coincidence that this happened the same day that Millie was speaking to me about this. There is no way that Eternatus was awoken within a day of me being here. I feel like that just wouldn't make sense!

Perhaps Gallade or even Blaziken will have more information regarding Eternatus, but they haven't shared anything with us. Maybe they went on some secret spy mission to check on Eternatus – wherever he may be sleeping. I brought my attention back to my partner pokémon while they were chit-chatting with Team Wisp, who were saying their goodbyes.

"It was nice to meet you, Aria. We got to get on with our missions for the day," Hirayama chipped towards me. "I hope to see you soon! Welcome to the Guild, by the way!"

I smiled at her and replied, "Yes, it was nice to meet both you and Viv. Goodluck with your missions today!"

The two of them left the Cafe, leaving Vex, Zorro and I.

"Alright," Vex murmured, opening his atlas. "We are off on a mission to Twilrich Rise." The projected map opened to an area and he pinched the area to zoom in, ensuring he was getting about an accurate spot to go to. "Mission today was to bring back a couple of the herbs to the guild for Audino, so nothing serious."

"Where are we going today?" I asked Vex, as he began to lead the way.

"We are going to what is called Twilrich Rise," Vex explained, pointing up towards the mountain zone. "It's not too high up the mountain, but it's a good little bit."

"Hopefully there's not some kind of funky snowstorm. The atlas says it will be clear, but who knows what'll happen," Zorro chimed.

"Alright, let's head out!" Vex cheered as he began to take off towards the mountaintop.

I nodded in agreement and chased after the two pokémon.

About a good 30 minutes of walking, we finally made it to the summit of the mountain. It was more chilly here than it was in town. Guess that makes sense since it's literally a mountain. The path was rather clear up the mountain, until closer to the top where it was shrouded with clouds. Hopefully it will be an easy way up the mountain. And so, we began to trudge up the mountain. The mountainside was rather quiet on our trip and the only thing you could really hear was the wind blowing by. It seemed not too many pokémon lived on this side of the mountain. Perhaps no pokémon lived up here, but who knew. It was strange, almost like it was abandoned. Maybe it just got too busy if there was a blizzard or maybe there was another reason why pokémon didn't want to live in the mountain, since they had an entire town they could live in.

Or maybe, the Winterry region was just a tiny area where not many pokémon lived.

"This mountain is the largest mountain here in our region," Explained Vex, breaking the silence. "Winterry Mountain Range is a huge mountain range area, easy to get lost in, but this is the tallest of its peaks. Legend has it, this is basically Articuno's home – being the coldest of all regions and the tallest of mountains. They say other ice legends live here as well, but this mountain range is huge. You could easily get lost in it, being there are so many caves and twists. We call this Peak that overshadows our home, Winter's Reach," He explained confidently.

"Agh, you talk too much," Zorro muttered.

"I'm just helping, I bet you didn't even know any of that," Vex grinned widely at his friend. "And you're the reader of us."

"Tch, I know just as much as you do!" Zorro argued, bumping his friend with his paw.

"You sure haven't been as helpful as I have been," Vex teased him.

Zorro rolled his eyes and shook his head, retorting "You better watch it before I shove you off the mountain top."

Frowning, Vex huffed, "That's not nice."

"So, this tall mountain is called Winter's Reach?" I asked, bringing the two back to the conversation they were having previously.

Before Vex even had a chance to reply, Zorro fell into step beside me and replied, "Yes. There are many different landmarks up here, including Twilrich Rise. In fact, Yuuta and Cloud have made it their mission to mark these different landmarks and give them names, since no one really travels too far. So there are safe zones, and zones to avoid. Twilrich Rise is one of the most popular places up on this mountain. It's actually a hot springs that is open to anyone. It's almost like… A vacation spot."

"Vacation, huh? How far is Twilrich Rise?" I asked him.

"It's about another 30 minutes, heh," Vex cut in, cupping his ear in embarrassment. "Wouldn't be much of a vacation spot if it wasn't a good walk away! But it's on the lower half of the mountain, which is why there are hot springs there."

"There are a few pokémon that live at the springs and cater to the ones who are vacationing, pretty much. But it's also a perfect spot to grab herbs that you don't often see during the winter," Zorro shared. "When the mountain is clear, you can actually see the steam from town."

I listened to the two explain the mountain area to me, happily learning about their world. It was interesting to know more about this pokémon world. I still felt like I didn't belong here, but that's for another day of research. Maybe I can just learn about who I am and what I'm doing here while we're on our missions. If I can get more flashbacks like I did yesterday with Zorro, perhaps I can string together some ideas. Thinking of that weird flashback though, those words that stained my brain made me wonder what it was trying to tell me. It was saying, Aria, Cold, Help, and what stuck to me the most was Articuno's name. What did any of that mean?

My gaze flickered to my partner-pokémon and I frowned a little. They were doing a lot to help me, but also understood what kind of emotions I was going through with all that's been happening. They haven't questioned it, they've respected my memory loss and haven't asked about it. I felt bad about keeping that flashback to myself. It just wasn't time to share with them. Then again, maybe Zorro knew more. He was also found with memory loss on the beach a few years ago. It's wild that Vex and Zorro have known each other for so long. It made me curious about who these two were though. Did Zorro know he was a Galarian Zorua and that pokémon could talk? I wanted to ask both of them, but it just… Something told me it wasn't time yet. Perhaps one day I'll be able to confront them about their history.

"Here we are," Vex exclaimed happily, knocking me back to reality.

My eyes scanned the area, and I gazed upwards. In front of me lay a large wooden sign that read, "Twilrich Rise." There was a rocky bridge that had a fence up on the sides of it, with water running underneath it. Across the bridge led to a stone hut that was built into the mountain. Trees lined the area and surrounded the large hot springs. It was a gorgeous view, stepping stones here and there and several pokémon laying around on these large stones that were placed in the water. It wasn't too busy, but it seemed peaceful.

I followed Vex and Zorro across the bridge, taking in the beautiful surroundings. Snow covered the land, but the springs, I felt warm immediately. It was a perfect combination of hot and cold. Up ahead in front of the stone building was a large red and white pokémon with rather large, flower-like wings.

"Volcarona!" Vex called, waving his hands in the air, approaching the fire-bug pokémon.

"Ah, Team Aster, welcome to Twilrich Rise," The pokémon known as Volcarona, greeted us with a respectful dip of his head. "Elder's Kaki and Kaji will be returning soon. They have gone up the mountain for something, they wouldn't tell me what it was but they said it was important."

"That's too bad, I would've loved to have introduced them to our newest member – Aria!" Vex shimmied in my direction, and put his arms out to motion to me.

I flattened my ears in embarrassment when he did that, but raised a paw and forced a smile to the large floating fire-bug pokémon. "It's nice to meet you," I awkwardly greeted.

Volcarona looked down at me, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. "You're the mountain pokémon, then?"

"Uhm," I coughed and shrugged. "I'm assuming?"

"Hrm. Interesting. Tell me your story," Volcarona demanded, getting closer to me, nearly in my personal space.

I took a quick step back, but tried my best to not be rude or break eye-contact, but everywhere I stepped, this pokémon would continue to stay in my face. I finally closed my eyes and said, "I don't really have a story."

Volcarona hummed in curiosity, giving me a strange look. He circled me and examined me before approaching, once more, to my personal bubble. He came to a soft fluttering hover when he was in front of me, his eyes scanning over my emblem on my chest, gaze flickering back and forth between that and my eyes. "You're different," He said. "You're not from here, at all. This is no emblem of any clan, guild, cult, or anything, that I am aware of."

That sparked my interest in a heartbeat and I suddenly didn't care that this pokémon was in my face. I stared into his cold blue eyes. How did he know I wasn't from here? This pokémon knew something that I didn't know.

"They say you don't have your memory, is that correct?" He demanded, closing in on my gaze.

I nodded, mesmerized now. I didn't even know how to reply, I just listened to this pokémon speak as he came closer to me. I could feel his flame body radiating heat off and hitting my own fur.

"They say you don't think you're a pokémon, correct?"

I nodded again, still in a trance with his bright blue eyes, like they were staring into my soul.

"Interesting," The large fire-bug pokémon suddenly pulled away from me, knocking me out of my trance. "Will need to research this. Feel free to take what you need," Volcarona quickly dismissed us with a single flap of his right wing before turning away and quickly floating into the stone-like building behind us.

"Ehh," Zorro muttered awkwardly, "What was that about? You seemed stunned for a second, Aria."

"How does he know about this?" I asked Vex and Zorro.

"Word spreads quickly in this town," Zorro replied softly, sounding rather upset when he said that. He even avoided my gaze.

"DID YOU SAY SOMETHING?!" Vex exploded on Zorro, turning quickly to him, looming over him.

"WHAT?" Zorro snapped back, turning his body to face Vex. "No! I've been with you every step since we found mountain-vulpix!"

I flattened my ears, a sweat drop of nervousness appeared and I came between the two before they started arguing and disturbing the peace of the hot springs. "Hey, hey," I laughed nervously, "It's ok. I can only imagine word got out fast even without you two. I'm sure pokémon talk about a new pokémon just randomly waking up with no memory!"

"Hrmph," Zorro snorted and turned away from Vex and I. "Don't you remember how pokémon treated me when I woke up, Vex?" The pokémon sighed, looking away from us.

When Zorro said that, Vex instantly froze and stared at his friend. A deep breath escaped him and he sat beside his friend, patting his back and replying softly, "Yeah, I guess you're right. Sorry Zorro! I shouldn't jump to conclusions like that!"

The way these two bicker and then are instantly ok with each other is actually wild. It's like, one second they're jumping at each other's throats and then they're totally calm and collected with each other. They were definitely best friends, one could almost describe them as brothers. They sure fought like it. Still, it was strange how fast word spread around here.

"Let's collect these herbs, and maybe we'll still have time to take a quick dip into the springs," Vex cheered happily.

"Sounds good," Zorro agreed and turned tail with his partner to cross back over the bridge, leaving me there.

I stood there, staring at the building that Volcarona had disappeared into. Perhaps I could ask him more about what was happening. Or, didn't he say there were two elders? Maybe they knew what was happening and I could speak to them. Volcarona seemed genuinely interested in me. I took a deep breath to collect my thoughts and glanced over my shoulder, asking, "You said we might still have time to hang out after we collected the herbs?"

Vex smiled and put his hands together, replying, "Absolutely, it's still early right now. It shouldn't take too long to collect the herbs that Audino requested."

"Alright then," I nodded my head in determination and then turned to follow the two of them.

About a good hour or two of picking different flowers and herbs, we were finally done. We had three bags full of the herbs and flowers that the shaman back at Snowberry Guild had asked for. Exhausted and tired, and a bit sore from biting and clawing the herbs up, I drug my bag back to the front of the stone building that Volcarona had disappeared into earlier. I plopped down on the thin sheet of snow that barely covered the stone path leading into the building. Who knew picking flowers and plants could be so exhausting?! I knew that Vex and Zorro were also tired because they had already jumped into the hot springs. Well, Vex climbed into the hot springs and Zorro went to rest on one of the large heated rocks in the springs, leaving me with the bags of herbs. I tied them together and ensured they weren't going to go anywhere with any slight possible chances of wind. It seemed most pokémon that were enjoying their time at the springs were a bit older and more quiet, doing their own thing. I didn't hear many younger pokémon squeals, just silence and the laughter of Vex while he splashed Zorro, who turned and jumped at him with anger.

I smiled, watching the two pokémon for a few seconds before turning my attention back to the building a few feet in front of me. I caught a strong whiff of something delicious smelling. They must be making food for the guests here. Slowly, I forced myself up onto my paws and pushed the door open slightly, ensuring it closed behind me after I entered.

The stone-building was very homey looking, with a lot of pictures and news-articles lining the room. The lighting was low, and I could hear something soft humming towards the back of the building. There were several shelves of books, and a few bedding-couch like items in the room as if this was a reading area for guests. I made my way through, stopping and looking at a few of the articles up on the wall. The one article that caught my attention was the opening article, "Twilrich Rise Springs Completed," and the picture was of three pokémon. In the middle was a large maroon and yellow pokémon with blue interiors, and bright blue eyes. The caption under the picture read, "Left to right, Kaji, Volcanion, and Kaki, founders of Twilrich Rise."

Volcanion, as my small memory shared to me, was a mythical fire and water pokémon. This picture looked very, very old. I noticed that the pokémon known as 'Kaji' was a turtle pokémon – Torkoal. And the pokémon known as 'Kaki' was a small brown Eevee. I studied their picture for a moment when a voice spoke.

"Nearly 50 years ago, this Hotsprings was finished and created here," The voice was calm and quiet.

I turned my head and came back to lock gazes with the Volcarona I came into contact with earlier.

"That mythical pokémon is known as Volcanion. They describe it as the 'steam' pokémon. Perfect for a hot spring," Volcarona explained. "Volcanion worked very closely with that Torkoal and Eevee you see there. Elders Kaji and Kaki worked since they were young to bring this spring to life with Volcanion. They worked together for nearly 10 years before it finally was completed. This spring was thought of nearly 60 years ago, isn't that impressive?" He asked me.

I smiled warmly, glad that Twilrich Rise had such a lovely story behind it. "That's wonderful!" I happily exclaimed. "It's incredible that Elders Kaji and Kaki worked so close with a mythical pokémon on this hotspring."

Volcarona nodded in agreement. "Are you finished collecting for your mission already?" He asked, turning his body around and motioning for me to follow him.

"That's right," I replied to the fire-bug pokémon, taking a few steps after him into a room that had a fireplace burning. "I… Um," I didn't know how to quite ask him about my history - not that he would know anything. But perhaps this elderly-like pokémon could provide some feedback on a few things.

"I know what you're here for," He said. "I don't really have anything for you," The pokémon's voice sounded rather disappointed when he replied.

I shook my head, and grinned, softly saying, "Well, maybe you can help me, based on what you had said earlier."

"Darling, it's going to take a lot more than a few hours to research your story," Volcarona concluded. "A human… In our world, but transformed into a pokémon?" His voice was now full of confidence and he wasn't afraid to speak. "Kind of silly, if you ask me."

My face turned red with embarrassment when he said that. I was completely baffled when he said that and I began to stutter, taking a few steps back, "I… I don't… I," I couldn't even fathom the reply to this pokémon. I could feel Volcarona's cold gaze resting on the top of my head, since I wasn't looking at this pokémon at all.

"It's not something to be afraid of, or embarrassed," He spoke. "Come, let me share a story," He motioned to a seat beside him.

I hesitated to take a seat with this fire-bug pokémon, but maybe his story was going to be a good one.