Chapter 14 - Wisps of Innocence
The sky had turned to charcoal when my line of sight met the ceiling above. Blinking a few times to ward off the grogginess nipping at my eyelids, I glanced out the window and up at the visible parts of the waning moon. By the looks of it, it was already a little past midnight. Perfect.
I could hear Nuzleaf's snores from the other room, and ruled out leaving through the front due to a door in my way that needed its hinges oiled long ago. This was no big deal though; I had a simple backup plan that would probably require less effort anyway.
I sat up, stretched, and made my way over to the window. The remaining sliver of moon was almost entirely covered by passing clouds, barely leaving me enough light to enact my escape. I could visualize my surroundings just well enough to make my way over to the window and slide my serpentine body through, being careful not to knock into anything in the process and buzzkill the night ahead before it could even begin. The grating present on the opening was spaced out and no match for my lithe frame; as I had come to discover numerous times before, being a nimble snake delivered its benefits.
Once I was sure the coast was clear, I slithered over to the front of the house where Leah was supposed to meet me. When I realized she wasn't there, I thought she might've either overslept or was unable to escape. Before I could begin making my way to her window, I jumped at a muffled voice to my right.
"Sage," a familiar voice whispered, causing me to jump. "Over here."
I whipped my head around and faintly traced the outline of her brightly-colored fur. She was crouched in a bush by the house, the same one she had frequently used to jump me when I walked out the front door some mornings.
"Goodness Leah, you scared me!" I whispered back. As she emerged from the bush and I caught a glimpse of her facial expression, however, I could clearly see that I was not the one who was scared here. She looked absolutely terrified tonight.
"Hey, you alright?" I asked, a pitch of sympathy replacing the mild disdain from a moment ago. "Look, we can still turn back. This isn't something we're obligated to do."
She shook her head vehemently. "No, no I'm fine," she insisted, her face dimmed in the caliginous moonlight. "I'm just a little anxious thinking about what happened to Farfetch'd."
"I can relate. Just don't worry about it, we'll be fine," I reassured her. "Stick by me, we have to go pick up Espurr."
She nodded, and we made our way across the bridge, being extra careful not to make any noise. Even one little slip-up could mean half the village opening their doors and likely ensuing some kind of panic, considering the recent ghost stories.
Leah had explained the other day that Serene Village was too secluded to be near any major trade routes, meaning commodities like glass weren't in enough abundance to provide for paned windows. Most of the villagers apparently preferred the constant flow of fresh air anyway. What that meant for us, however, was that any little bit of noise here in the residential area would reach the sleeping ears of the villagers unhindered by the walls of their homes.
Luckily, Espurr's house wasn't far, and we reached it without uttering a peep. I was about to whisper through her window, but she scared Leah and I senseless when she casually pushed open her front door, eating some kind of berry sandwich.
"Oh, hey," she said nonchalantly, quietly enough to not tip off any sleeping villagers but still much louder than we had been whispering before. She eyed both of us and smiled. "Ready to go?"
"Yeah," I chuckled silently. "Just try not to scare us like that."
"Yeah, w-we're ready..." Leah added with less enthusiasm.
The three of us quietly made our way to the plaza, where we were initially supposed to meet up with the other group. We tip-toed along, our steps making little disturbance in the hardly-moonlit grass. Leah's steps were silent from years of practice sneaking around, whereas Espurr's was more attributed to the way she seemed to glide along on a daily basis with little impact with the earth necessary. My own movement held a similar biological advantage. We would not be heard tonight.
The plaza was devoid of life when we arrived. Espurr said she couldn't detect anyone's signatures nearby, and we determined that the other group must've gone ahead of us. When I suggested they might've just overslept, she said that she would've sensed them in their houses.
Once we got on the school path, we relaxed a little bit realizing that the village residence was well out of earshot.
"So, have either of you ever snuck out before?" I asked them both, wanting to strike up a conversation to break the deafening silence.
"I have," Leah admitted. "I've always been a night owl, so sometimes I'd just be too compelled to go adventuring and squeeze through my window."
"Have you ever been caught?" Espurr asked her.
She coughed before answering. "Once. By my pops. As punishment, he had me harvest the entire year's worth of oran berries that had grown in his fields."
"Sounds like a good time," I joked. Leah had shown me her pops' oran berry field once a couple weeks ago. It was gigantic, with plenty of berries to keep the entire village alive for a noticable period of time. If not for its amazingly well-hidden location, it would've become victim to the pillaging to bandits and ferals long ago. Harvesting the whole thing alone must've taken a couple weeks, at least.
"Oh, it was a great time," she answered with an equal amount of satire, the chuckling response serving as a brief hiatus in the terror she had shown on this night. "I still continued to sneak out every now and then, though. Before we got our badges, I never really had much cause to get good sleep anyway."
We continued to make small talk as we walked down the path to the school. It only took a few minutes of walking for the school entrance to come into view, and we dipped behind the large boulder in front of it to get a better view. We could barely see the outlines of Pancham, Shelmet, Deerling, and Goomy in the minimal lighting, but it was enough to confirm they had made it here before us. We couldn't see any weird-looking flames or ghost-like figures, so we anticipated that it was safe. For now.
"There you guys are!" Pancham barked at us as we passed through the gate. "You're like twenty minutes late!"
"How did you get past the gate? I assumed the school locked it every night." Espurr replied, ignoring his banter.
"We used the tip of Shelmet's helmet to pick the lock," Deerling giggled, making Shelmet blush in embarrassment. "You should've seen the look on his face as we turned him upside-down and lodged the door open!"
"Come on, it wasn't that funny!" Shelmet whimpered, making everyone laugh at his embarrassment.
Although the mood had been lightened a bit by our arrival, it wasted no time darkening again when we each took a seat at our desks. We all fell under the influence of stone-cold silence, and nobody was quite sure what to say or do. It would finally be broken by Deerling, who was shifting in her seat restlessly.
"So... what now?"
Pancham answered her without hesitation. "We wait for the ghosts, that's what."
"Seriously?" Leah complained. "We snuck out of our homes in the middle of the night just to wait?"
"Well, it's not like we know where they're at," Pancham argued.
The unamused Fennekin huffed in discontent, but spoke no further. I was about to try and strike a conversation with her when I heard a sizzling in my brain and felt the familiar sensation of telepathy spanning my consciousness. A conversation with my psychic-type companion was fine too.
"What do you make of all this?" I was asked.
"I don't know," I answered back. "We know the ghosts are real, and they're somehow related to the school, but there doesn't seem to be anything here. Can you sense anything?"
It took a moment for Espurr to reply. "If I concentrate hard enough, I can sense some level of atmospheric charge in the area."
"What do you mean by that?"
"It's difficult to explain, but it's almost like the area is being blanketed by a thin veil of negativity... like something is about to happen. The presence of ghost-type Pokemon on the prowl tend to lead to situations like this. I just can't seem to find the source... perhaps because my abilities still require a bit of development. I'll let you know if I feel something."
After a few moments passed following this mental exchange, I turned to my partner. She was anxiously ducking her head down, unwilling to meet my concerned stare.
"How are you holding up?" I whispered.
"W-well enough," she quietly murmured. "Usually the dark isn't a problem for me, but I swear this ghost stuff just doesn't sit well."
"Yeah, I admit I'm a little on edge too," I said. "Will you be able to fight if some kind of violent encounter happens?"
"Y-yeah," she croaked. "No problem. I got your back if you got mine."
I nodded affirmatively. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that."
"Yeah..." She put her head between her paws and rested it on her desk.
Poor girl... she was so out of her element in this dark place surrounded by rumors of her nightmares. I wanted to comfort her, but there really wasn't much I could do besides what little I'd already said.
I glanced around, and then up at the sky. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to come out here after all...
We sat in relative silence for about ten minutes longer before Deerling had finally run out of patience.
"This is ridiculous," she huffed. "Come on guys, let's go home."
"You can't leave yet!" Pancham exclaimed as the pink deer rose from her desk. "We haven't solved the mystery!"
"I don't even know why we agreed to come out here in the first place. All we're doing is sitting here!" Deerling ranted. "Come on Goomy, let's go."
Goomy slowly nodded and got off his seat to follow her. Pancham stood up too, but made no move to stop them. Evidently defeated, he uttered an irritated grumble before suddenly shouting out obscenities at the supposed ghosts. "Come on you freaks! You stupid ghosts don't scare us! Stop being such wimps and show yourselves!"
Leah sharply gasped, and she began to mumble bits of frightened encouragement to herself. Deerling adopted an expression of bewilderment and Goomy one of unbound terror.
"Stop!" Deerling snarled in a hushed tone. "Are you nuts!?"
"Yeah man, you gotta chill!" Shelmet said with wide eyes. "We don't actually want to fight them, do we?"
Pancham ignored them both. "Hey-y-y! Y'all ain't scary! Show yourselves!"
"Shut up Pancham!" Leah cried. The panda Pokemon stopped his tirade and waited for a few seconds. When nothing happened, his shoulders slumped.
"Alright, fine," he sighed. "I guess this really was a waste of time. Let's get out of he-"
Hot...
Everyone froze.
Was that imagined? Or was it one of us that said that?
So hot...
No, that was definitely not one of us.
"Uhhh..." Pancham stammered. "What's goi-"
His voice cut off at the horrifying sight that materialized before him. A fireball, purplish in color, formed from thin air and snuffed the syllables right out of his throat. The embers that licked the dreadful midnight air almost appeared artificial as they did very little to brighten the surrounding area. He stared at it, muscles ridden with fear, unable to move. Several more fireballs of the same nature fabricated in a rough circle surrounding the desks. The ghostly flames hovered in place, observing us scramble to make sense of the anomaly. The scene was locked in a standoff for several seconds, the class too terrified to react.
Then the fireball closest to Pancham exploded in a sizzling display of fireworks, forcefully knocking him back into his desk.
Then all hell broke loose.
I kicked my chair out from under me, sending myself sprawling backwards as a slew of embers dispatched over my head, missing me by inches. I immediately rolled to the side as another flame burst catapulted into the ground beside me, spreading the flames outward and striking me with some of the entrails. I suppressed the urge to nurse the searing pain that materialized in my left leg and shoulder, and bounced to my feet to orchestrate a retaliation.
I spun myself in a circle using my tail as leverage, collecting bits of grass and leaves in my twirl. A small tornado was formed and thrown at the purple fireball just as another burst of flame was sent my way, impacting my other shoulder this time. The sacrifice was worth it, however; my attack landed squarely and caused the fireball to become discombobulated. I thought I saw a flash of white from where it burned, and I could've sworn I heard an exclamation of pain as the sharpened greenery of the leaf tornado cut through my target. I made the mistake of taking a moment to hesitate, and I was met with an instant retaliation that forced me to hit the dirt in order to avoid the new wave of approaching flames.
"Form a circle! Organize!" I heard a distant voice cry out, probably Espurr's.
I briefly caught a glimpse of the classroom-turned-battlefield, and I could tell that any conception of collective coordination would be of no use. Everyone was scattered around and in complete disarray from the surprise attack. Espurr and Deerling were each grappling with a "ghost", Espurr looking focused and collected and Deerling looking anything but. Goomy had packed himself under his desk, where he resolved to hide for the rest of his life. Pancham and Shelmet were nowhere to be found. And Leah...
I spotted her, and my heart skipped a beat. She was frozen in place, paralyzed by fear, as the fireball nearest her began to expand. I swung a vine behind me to swat away the enemy I was still occupied with, and pivoted in her direction.
Move, Leah! I mentally screamed at her. Move out of the way!
It was no use. Her nerves were lost in another realm and she couldn't have dodged if she tried.
In some ridiculous culmination of courage and stupidity, I lunged at her mortified figure. I couldn't really specify what happened after that, not that I was in a position to try and make comprehensions. I just remembered connecting with her body and distributing the force of my leap into her petrified form, sending her tumbling to the side as the approaching blast erupted where she had just been standing.
Where I was now standing.
I think someone might've called out my name, but at that point the pain had hit me like a missile and my vision instantly went white.
"Get... berry... here... nursery... now..."
A pair of ringing ears trying to relay bits of information to a brain already overwhelmed by an upside-down sleep schedule and a manifold of screaming nerves.
This about summed up my physical state when consciousness half-summoned me. I certainly couldn't open my eyes, God forbid I do that and flood my head with even more stimuli. Maybe if I just laid here and imagined myself a human again, the unpleasantness would all go away. Maybe I could just float on a cloud where I could sleep it all into oblivion.
Something was placed in my jaw, and I was forced to chew it. Even though I could feel this being done, it felt like it was happening light years away. I felt an ice-cold paste in my mouth. Some kind of berry? It... it tasted kind of like rawst... yeah, definitely rawst. What was rawst for? Cough? No... wait, burns! Rawst heals burns! ...But when did I get burned?
I began to piece back together what had happened. We snuck out. Then... then we went to the school. And... Pancham started yelling and...
My eyes shot open, the entire recollection flooding back into my head. I tried to quickly sit up, but a spike of pain shot up my back and I gave up on the motion. I briefly assessed my current predicament. I was laying on the table in Audino's nursery, wrapped up in bandages, surrounded by my worried friends. And everything hurt.
Leah, Deerling, and Goomy were standing over me, all looking absolutely ridden with dread. My vision was still blurry, but I could see the redness in their eyes that indicated they had, at some point, been crying. Well, Leah was actually still crying.
"He's awake!" Deerling exclaimed.
I tried to speak, but all that came out was an anguished grunt.
"S-Sage?" my partner choked.
"Just give him a bit of space," Deerling instructed her worriedly. "He doesn't look too good..."
I tried speaking again, this time having a little more success. "Wh-" I muttered hoarsely. "Where's everyone else?"
"Pancham and Shelmet were, um..." Deerling began before clearing her throat to suppress a sniffle of her own. "They were taken away... by the ghosts. Espurr was right on their tail, chasing after them. The three of us stayed behind to care for you."
"H-how long have I been out for?"
"About an hour," Deerling told me, pointing outside at the still-blackened sky. She put on an even more distraught face, and continued. "We were worried you weren't gonna... you know... wake up."
"Oh..." I replied, the sound coming out barely discernible from a cough. I turned my head to face my partner, who was visibly breaking down. "Leah, did that blast hit you too?"
She hesitated before shaking her head. "N-no," she whimpered. "Y-you jumped in front and... you're a grass-type, and... I'm so sorry!" She was sobbing now.
Then Deerling's words registered. An hour had already passed. I realized that if we wanted to save Pancham and Shelmet, we would probably need to make haste after Espurr to make up for the time we'd already lost. As much as I felt bad for the poor Fennekin right now, this was no time to be breaking down.
"Leah. You've got to relax, alright? It's okay." I comforted her. The feeling in my joints had mostly returned, and my voice was already halfway back to normal, so that at least helped with talking. And it legitimized the assumption that I probably wasn't injured beyond basic repair, most of which was probably already facilitated by the rawst berries and the bandages.
"No it's not okay!" Leah wailed. "I said I would be able to fight the ghosts... that I'd have your-"
"We don't have time to worry about that right now," Goomy, of all Pokemon, interrupted. "We need a solution, not another problem."
"He's right," I coughed. "We've got no choice but to go after Espurr and search the area for any signs of them."
"There's no need for that," a soft voice cut through our disarray. We all turned towards the door and saw Espurr standing there in the dim moonlight.
"Espurr!" Deerling exclaimed. "Did you find them?"
Espurr nodded slowly. "I know where they went, but... you probably won't like it." She then turned her attention to me, her round pupils widening in genuine concern. "Sage, are you alright?"
"Define 'alright'," I grunted as I experimented with sitting up. "For real though, I think I'll be okay..."
"In a few days, perhaps." Espurr said. "Right now you don't look too good..."
"None of us do," I responded. It was true, everyone in the room had looked worse for wear, exhibiting a cruel mixture of fear and injury. Mostly it was just a few scratches and mild burns, but it was enough to call our group raggedy and unkempt. Pancham and Shelmet's kidnapping aside, it would've still been laughable to claim we had won the fight.
I slid off the table, stumbling a bit when I hit the ground. Leah was right there to support me, making sure I didn't completely collapse.
"Sage, you've got to rest!" she cried, trying unsuccessfully to coax me back onto the table.
"Espurr," Deerling said, turning to the feline. "Where is Pancham and Shelmet?"
"They were taken to..." Espurr started, before suddenly hesitating, appearing uncertain whether she should continue. We were all unnerved by this; usually Espurr was so stoic and disregarding of danger. She was so consistently straightforward that it was a little uncanny at times. It was entirely against her nature to hesitate before unveiling something.
"...to the Ancient Barrow."
Uh oh. I'd heard about the Ancient Barrow a few times, from either the villagers gossiping about its backstory or the teachers instructing us to maintain a fair distance. In a village where hardly anything happens, it was apparently an interesting bit of its history that was considered too dreadful to be indulged.
The place in question had snatched my curiosity ever since the first time I took in the view atop the hill with the big tree. By the lake was the purple remains of a tree that was likely once just as grand as the one I had been standing under at the time. I really couldn't have missed it if I tried; the darkened indication of death so contrasted the entire rest of the village. I had wondered why such an ugly corpse wasn't chopped down and removed from the area, if not for the material then for the sake of removing a stain from the wonderful view from the hill.
Then I had seen the door. Two metallic slabs were hinged onto the tree, the dull coloration slightly blending with that of the bark. At first I was confused, and thought that maybe it was some old hermit's house. Hearing the ominous talks about the place, however, would come to disperse the thought.
In summary, it was no place for anyone to even go near, child or adult. The audible gasps that echoed around the room upon Espurr's punctuation conformed to this.
"But how...?" Leah whispered. "The doors..."
"They were swung wide open when I arrived," Espurr said. "I didn't go in. I figured I'd come back and discuss what our next move would be."
"Should we wait until morning and get the adults?" Goomy asked.
"We can't do that," Leah plainly answered. "Remember what happened last time? With Budew?"
"It's true," I concurred, voice still raspy but having now gained a tone of modesty. "Even though I rushed out immediately, I still barely got there in time. Waiting until morning gives those things more than enough time to do their bidding with Pancham and Shelmet."
"Does anyone disagree?" Espurr asked. When she was met with silence, she nodded. "Alright, that's that. We're headed after them."
"I don't... I mean... Are you sure?" Deerling stammered nervously. "Ancient Barrow is forbidden-"
"So is the school, according to Simipour," Leah argued. "And look where we are."
"Yeah, gee! Look where we are!" Deerling snapped at her. "We're beaten up and missing two Pokemon! What if- what if they're..."
"Regardless, I'm afraid we're out of options," Espurr's sigh interrupted what would've been an unproductive tangent. "We should head out now before the ghosts can widen the gap and set up some sort of defense." She turned to walk out the door, and waved for us to follow. "Whoever is coming, follow me... Sage, you should probably-"
"No," I interjected, already knowing what she was going to suggest. "If you guys are going after Pancham and Shelmet, then I'm going too."
"You can't fight in that condition!" Deerling exclaimed, irritated I would suggest such a stupid thing. To be honest, she was probably right. But whether she was or not, I really could have cared less. I wasn't sitting this out with what was at stake.
Since when did I care so much about others? Why is it that I feel so strongly about this even though I should be too caught up with trying to figure out why I'm in this world?
It didn't matter now. Not when time was of the essence.
"Yes, I can!" I snapped. "If I can walk, I can fight!"
"Sage, you can't!" Leah cried. "Please, just take a moment and look at yourself!"
I took her advice with the intention of proving her wrong, and stared down at my body. A fair bit of it was bandaged in a rudimentary fashion, but the parts that weren't, I had to admit, did not look pleasant. I was bruised and burned all over, most of it on my right side where I took the brunt of the force. Although it wasn't anything fatal, it looked considerably worse than anyone else in the room. Regardless, I wasn't going to relent that easily.
"I-I'm not mortally wounded," I tried to assure everyone, the tone of my voice unfortunately doing little to help. "It's just a few burns! It's nothing!"
"Dude, you got hit by an explosion point-blank," Goomy said dryly. "You really should stay here."
"And what if more ghosts come along? Isn't this supposed to be their playground?" I countered. "I'm not staying here, and I'm certainly not going back home where I could get found out... look, we don't have time for this!" I balanced myself and took a couple steps toward Espurr. "If Espurr's description is accurate, we've gotta go right now!"
Leah still didn't buy it. "There's no way I'm letting you-"
I put a vine on her shoulder, silencing her. "I'll be fine. Trust me."
She stared me in the eyes, considering. Finally, she reluctantly consented. "Fine. But if you die, I'll kill you."
"Deal."
"Oh, this is a terrible plan..." Deerling muttered with blatant acquiescence. "But I guess it's the only way forward... Goomy, you at least ought to head home."
"No, Deerling!" he shouted, surprising her. "I'm not sitting out when I can still contribute!"
"Contribute by being a witness then, in case something happens to us!" Deerling snapped back at him. "Know your limits!"
"What makes you think you know my limits!?" Goomy retorted fiercely.
Deerling was about to shoot a cross reply back at him when my commanding voice rang out over their quarrel.
"Shut the hell up!" I ordered them, causing them both to halt and stare at me, mouths hanging open with unfinished retorts. I eyed them both for a moment, took a deep breath, and continued. "We've all already wasted way too much time arguing! I get that we care about each other and don't want anyone else getting hurt, but it's too late for all of that. Either pull yourselves together and follow us, or both of you can go home!"
Goomy went silent, staring at the ground with the shame of being chastised. Deerling, clearly dissatisfied, grumbled to herself under her breath. Fortunately, though, she made no effort to exalt the conflict. The matter was settled for everyone.
"Do we have supplies?" Espurr asked. "We'll probably need them."
Leah chimed in, voice slightly recovered from her previous emotional breakdown. "I threw some in a bag while you were all screaming at each other," she said, holding it up and displaying the contents. Piled inside was a multitude of oran, pecha, and rawst berries, and also a couple of reviver seeds and blast seeds. "I guess I shouldn't be stealing from Nurse Audino's supplies and all, but I think this one time can be overlooked given the circumstances."
Nobody could argue with that. I nodded at her, and then at Espurr, affirming we were ready.
"Let's go," she gestured at us, already out the door. "We've got no more time to waste."
It baffled me that the darkness beyond the metal doors could eclipse the darkness that came naturally with the minimal moonlight. I was glad that Leah had the foresight to grab a large stick conveniently sitting by the roadside to use as a torch, or else we'd have no chance in there. The ghosts had the advantage of being literal sources of light, if they even needed light to see at all. Other than Espurr's natural psychic awareness, we'd have been blind without that torch that we'd have to keep lit in order to see.
With our visibility problem solved, now we just had to muster the courage to enter this forbidden tree stump. Where before it had stood out among the greens and blues of Serene Village at high noon, now it sat in its rightful place as a proprietor of the surrounding darkness. I was beginning to understand why Espurr was so hesitant to lead us here. Considering I hadn't even seen the inside yet, this understanding was dreadfully foreboding.
"A-alright," Leah whispered, mostly to me. "Are we gonna do this right now?"
"I guess we are," I whispered back.
"Let's head in," Espurr said in a monotone voice. "Follow me closely. It is imperative that we don't get split up."
The thought of being left alone at a time like this was enough to propel everyone forward. When we crossed the barrier into the barrow, we discovered that it was more like a cave system that burrowed deep into the earth. It was dark and lengthy, but at least it wasn't cramped together like Gabite's cave was. As we entered, the atmosphere drastically converted from the peaceful outdoors into a blanket of compressed foreboding. This must've been what Espurr had mentioned earlier at the school, only this time it was defined enough for even regular Pokemon to heed its omnipresence.
It didn't take us long to figure out that the place was a mystery dungeon. The weird patterns and the fact that wild Pokemon dwelled in the sealed labyrinth was enough for us to catch on. My usual role taking point for the group was temporarily revoked and replaced with Espurr, with Leah insisting that I couldn't possibly lead the pack in the state I was in. I was a bit humiliated being reduced to simply holding a torch so that everyone else could see and fight, but I decided I'd have to suck it up and do my duty if we were going to get through this forbidden labyrinth unharmed. If Leah had been the one who got hit by that blast, I'd have probably insisted she do the same.
The gravity that already had us on our toes was intensified by the irregular nature of the darkness we treaded. The torch that I held was our lifeline, but it absolutely riddled our perspectives with nightmarish illusion. The embers flickered, extending and receding the circumference of our view distance at incalculable rates, which the darkness utilized to play games with our minds. Every couple dozen seconds, someone would jump or murmur or gasp at something they could've sworn they saw at the very edge of their vision. At first, we would wave the torch in the direction of whatever someone would visualize this heart-stopping movement, only to find that nothing was there.
I hated it. I thoroughly hated it, because it frightened me to no end. Knowing it was an illusion didn't even help, because we all knew we couldn't let our guard down regardless of the darkness's cruel sensual invasion. Even Espurr was starting to expose her misgivings by fidgeting nervously every so often.
With this constantly on our minds, it was hard to appreciate that the wild Pokemon really weren't posing a huge problem for the five of us. Our group was well-rounded enough to deal with any feral aggressors, even with me stanning by and watching. I got a good couple of swats in with my vines on a few occasions, but most of my journey through the barrow would consist of making sure everyone could see with the torch I held.
"I guess it's my turn to ask how you're holding up," Leah whispered to me after a few minutes, low enough that nobody else could hear. "You seem fine, but are you really fine?"
"I'm holding up well enough," I whispered back. "If you ask me, what the Beedrill did was worse." I glanced around briefly, scanning the shadows. "This place is creeping me out, though. I feel like we're constantly being watched..."
"I-I feel it too." She said it with a cracked voice. "I don't think I can take much more of this."
"Neither can I," I quietly confessed. "I hope we can just find Pancham and Shelmet and high-tail it out of here."
"You can say that again..."
When a light appeared in the distance ahead of us, we momentarily wrote if off as a trick of the eyes. When we realized it was actually real, we picked up our speed, pining to reach a conclusion to the screaming darkness that clouded our senses. The dim light revealed to us a large circular room with a high ceiling. The entire thing was lit by little crystals embedded in the walls, giving the space an ominous glow that refracted off the rugged walls. We emerged into the room, looking around and trying to make sense of it.
"There's no tunnel anywhere that leads further in," Deerling observed as we all looked around. "So, does that mean this is the end of the dungeon?"
"I believe it is," Espurr commented. "The culprits must be nearby, hiding in the shadows."
Leah looked at her funny. "But there are no shadows..." she said, confused. "Even though it's really dim, the whole room is lit up, so there's nowhere to hide."
Five hearts stopped beating for half a second from the fright of a voice beckoning us from every direction.
"Don't be so naive. We are hiding right under your noses, hee hee!"
It was unmistakably the same voice that had been calling out 'so very hot' in the schoolyard.
"Circle up, now!" I hissed. The five of us scrambled into a pentagonal formation, leaving little space between us so each could gain a wider angle of view. It was the only formation that could be effectively set up, considering the voice we heard didn't come from any particular spot in the room. It's source seemed like it came from everywhere at once, and none of us had any clue why.
"Give us our friends back!" Deerling ordered. She hurled her demand in no particular direction, swinging her head from side to side trying to locate something to take aim at.
"You fools," the voice called out from every edge of the room. "I am the Dark Land Emissary. You dare trespass on this hallowed land?"
"The Dark Land?" Deerling exclaimed. "What are you even-"
"You have come to a forbidden place. No one has ever returned from these depths before. However... I will allow you misguided children to depart, on one condition..."
Depart on one condition? That meant we could potentially escape without a fight, right? With the mentally, physically, and emotionally fatigued integrity of our group in question, negotiating our way out of this situation was priority one. Avoiding a fight was the way to go if this was going to work out right.
In the center of the room there was suddenly two purple pulsations forming in midair, and we all just barely stopped ourselves from impulsively launching attacks at it. The pair of spherical energy fields were suspended a dozen feet from the ground, each just big enough to hold a small body. The petrified forms of Pancham and Shelmet were trapped inside them, and we all rushed forward at the horrifying sight. Their eyes lit up when they saw us below.
"Guys?" Shelmet squeaked. "Is that you?"
"What is this thing? Some kind of prison?" I frantically asked.
"I-I don't know," Pancham answered. "Just figure out a way to get us out, please!"
"On it," Deerling said before turning her head to the ceiling, directing her next statement at our unseen opponents. "What was that 'one condition' you needed, you stupid ghosts?"
"All I need from you..." the distant voice echoed. "Is to grant me the spirits of these two. If you can do that, you may leave this place unharmed."
So much for avoiding a fight.
"Not on your life!" Leah screamed. "They're our friends! Give them back before we take them back!"
"Have it your way then..."
The voice dissipated into the dank air of the barrow. Replacing its presence was the tangible emergence of a dozen white squishy blobs from the dancing shadows on the ground. Each one sported a familiar purplish flame on its head that burned on a wick. A pair of yellow eyes were positioned on the upper half of each midget candle, providing them further personification.
"I guess these are our ghosts then," Espurr said. "Everyone stay on your toes. The type advantage is not in our collective favor."
I assessed our squad, and gravely conceded that she was correct. From what we had observed, we were clearly dealing with some kind of fire and ghost type, and that particular combination easily exposed our already hampered defense and also held up stoically against our offense. Espurr and Leah could at least do damage with psybeam, but the rest of us lacked the range and coverage to do anything other than chip away at them. Not to mention they outnumbered us, which would make doing so much more tedious.
The negatives just kept stacking up. We would not win this unscathed, that much was obvious. Oh, why did it always have to be a fight?
Almost as soon as they emerged, they began readying ranged attacks. Espurr took the initiative and zapped one of them with a charge beam before it could launch its flame burst. Not all of us had the reaction speed and range that Espurr had, however, and several blasts of fire was sent towards our circle. The formation was shattered instantly for the sake of dodging the incoming attacks, and the battle would begin in a scattered fashion similar to the one that played out at the school.
With our formation broken, I was instantly in a bad position. I was already forced to deal with the wrong end of a bad type matchup, but this time around I would have to get by with a body considerably weakened from the previous fight. With everyone scattering and the ghosts assaulting us with ranged bullets of flame, there was nowhere for me to hide. It was easy for me to let Leah and Espurr and sometimes Deerling cover for me on my way down here, but now we were outnumbered and surrounded. I would have no choice but to fight straight up, battered and bandaged as I was.
When I felt my first vine whip land a direct hit on the closest Litwick, some of my initial worries were lifted when I felt it snap on a solid surface. Residue of the white wax it connected with oozed off onto my swinging vine, causing the candle Pokemon to cry out in pain. I could not relish in the satisfaction of the blow, however, as the wax was incredibly hot and a burning sensation encompassed where the white substance coated the tendril.
"Ahh, hot!" I cried out as I whipped the vine in the air to get the stuff off. There wasn't much on it, but it was hot as hell, and I could feel the cells on the end of the vine reacting violently to it.
As if on cue, Espurr called out to us in the heat of battle. "Be careful! Their flame bodies are hot to the touch!"
I caught a glimpse of her as she fought several Litwick at once. Although she was holding her own well enough, she had evidently discovered how hot the ghosts' bodies were through firsthand experience, just as I unfortunately did.
Then I suddenly remembered my partner's deep-ridden fears about confronting ghosts. I swung my head around in panic to make sure she wasn't petrified again, only to find her focused and engaged in an intense brawl with two of the Litwick. She was finessing them both, striking with power and avoiding most of the returned blows. And she looked absolutely furious, seasoning every attack with red-hot rage. Maybe she was giving herself motivation to face her fears through anger? ...Or perhaps she's just mad that these things knocked me out earlier. The source of her rage honestly didn't matter as long as what she was doing was clearly working.
I heard a sizzling sound to my left, and I realized my mistake. I had stared too long after Leah, and my own Litwick had more than enough time to recover from my previous blow and counterattack. I dropped to the ground to dodge, but not before a shadow ball was sent my way. It clipped me just above my left eyelid before I could duck completely out of range.
It wasn't a fatal blow, and although a trickle of blood temporarily blocked my eye, it wasn't of enough concern to treat right now.
I hopped up off the ground and hobbled straight at the Litwick as it readied the flame on its head for another attack. My balance momentarily hindered by the previous attack hitting my head - where a fair portion of my body weight was situated - I was forced to improvise. I whipped out a blast seed and bit down hard at point-blank range, sending the ghost type flying into a distant wall. The recoil from the seed's explosion out of my mouth snapped my head back awkwardly, and I stumbled for a second to regain my balance.
"Doesn't feel very good getting blown up, does it?" I taunted. Unfortunately for me, my voice came out as little more than a breathy gasp, eliminating the badass effect I was aiming for. It sounded cool in my head, at least.
I popped an oran berry and made my way over to Espurr, who was currently occupied with three of the ghosts. She had already taken out three of them, but the fact that three more still targeted her was likely a result of her defensive disadvantage paired with her supposedly-amazing offensive display at the school following my loss of consciousness. The ghosts seemed to have a strategy, and that strategy was to remove the big threats, starting with Espurr. Maybe that's why only one of them attacked me, because I got knocked out like fifteen seconds into the fight when we were at the school. It wasn't necessarily my fault that it happened the way it did, and it certainly wasn't like I got beaten in a one-on-one fight. But with my current condition considered, there was no room to be insulted when I could now hardly even handle one of them at once.
Despite Espurr's consistency of success thus far, she was in a state of blatant distress as she fought to gain a favorable edge over all three enemies. She was forced to try and discover an opportunity to strike while simultaneously dodging their attacks and suppressing the pain of a nasty burn on her cheek. I swung my tail around in a circle and began generating a tornado of leaves, intending to help her out.
"Heads up!" I called out.
She caught sight of me in her peripheral vision and, after shooting one last psybeam, jumped out of the way as my grass-type attack barreled through the surrounding space. It wasn't very effective, but it subdued the three Litwick just long enough for Espurr to quickly pick two of them off with psybeams.
The one that was still remaining prepared a shadow ball that was aimed at me. I was slightly off balance after using leaf tornado, and I realized I wouldn't be able to sidestep in time. Using the momentum from the spinning I did in my previous attack, I planted a foot in the ground and spun right around the shadow ball as it flew past me. It was such a close call that I could literally feel the air on my back swish as the ball of energy passed by.
I had already extended a vine to meet the Litwick as I finished my rotatation, feeling the satisfaction of its connection and sending it tumbling across the floor. More of the wax oozed onto my vine, which I quickly slung off as its searing heat pinched the surface.
"Not bad for a cripple," Espurr teased as we assessed our handiwork.
"I'm not crippled. I'm just a little... inconvenienced," I joked back.
We looked around and saw that the other handful of Litwick had been taken care of thanks to the handiwork of Leah and an exhausted Deerling. It looked like even Goomy got a few good shots in.
Out of breath as we were, we were not even given a moment to recollect ourselves before the atmosphere abruptly went frigid. A chill was sent up everyone's spine, and the voice from before rang out again.
"Fools!" it bellowed. "I am the Dark Land Emissary! You will not defy me, lest you experience an eternity of pain!"
"Your minions have been defeated," Espurr stated calmly. "You have no premise to make threats unless you reveal yourself."
"It would be my pleasure!"
A bright green light shone from the center of the room, lighting everything up and making us shield our eyes. When the light had died down and we were able to look again, something stood before us that simply didn't make any sense.
It was gigantic. Just... gigantic.
A yellowish-gray quadrupedal monster towered above us, red highlights donning its tall abdomen and a pair of jet black wings extending from its shoulder blades. It's feet were probably the most proportionally massive thing about it, with each claw being just a bit shorter than the length of my entire body.
This monstrosity before our bewildered group effectively explained the tall ceiling. I had never seen a Pokemon this big before. It was ridiculous to even look at, and now we were going to have to fight it?
"I am the Dark Land Emissary!" the monster boomed. "I am Giritina!"
Giritina... I could recall a lecture about him during a lesson in school. This thing was a dragon and ghost type, and it came from a world parallel to ours where gravity is skewed by negativity itself, or something like that. Oh, and it's apparently a legendary Pokemon.
A legendary Pokemon. Right in front of us. Promising us an eternity of pain.
Shit... we really should've just stayed home tonight.
"Cower before me, mortals! Prepare for your judgement!"
It opened its mouth, and we all anticipated an attack. Instead of some fatal beam of darkness raining down on us, however, a pinkish pulse was shot out of its lower midsection. It was a psywave attack, so still worth dodging, but certainly not the life-ending threat we all expected. Didn't legendary Pokemon typically use ground-shaking attacks like hyper beam and earthquake?
We all stared at the beast, much of our terror replaced by confusion before it could completely seep in. I saw Espurr furrowing her eyebrows, thinking intensely about something. "Giritina shouldn't even be able to learn psywave..." she muttered just loud enough for me to hear.
"Fear me!" Giritina shouted, now shooting a shock wave from its chest. Espurr's psybeam met the shock wave midair, and it disintegrated the electric attack effortlessly.
"You're pretty, um, weak for a legendary Pokemon," Goomy said.
"That's because it's not a legendary Pokemon at all," Espurr said, catching our attention. "The Giritina before us is a phoney. An illusion created by a lesser being."
"How dare you!" the monster replied crossly. "I am the Dark Land Emissary! I'll teach you to-"
"Oh, just give it up Solosis!"
We all turned around to find most of the Litwick had reorganized themselves while we were occupied with this "Giritina". But they had not organized into a battle formation, instead approaching us casually and peacefully.
The Litwick that had just interrupted the illusionist's bellowing spoke again. "Solosis, it's over. They figured us out."
The menacing form of Giritina vanished instantly into thin air. Replacing the largest Pokemon I had ever imagined was one of the smallest I had ever seen. Floating a foot off the ground was a green transparent blob that resembled an enlarged cell. Its two black eyes were squeezed shut, and tears were running down them and mixing with the inside of its cytoplasmic body. The "Dark Land Emissary" was just a kid, and he was now crying.
"I'm sorry!" he wailed. "I tried my best! I really did!"
"Hey, no need to cry," one of the Litwick comforted him. "You did great! Sometimes people just don't get fooled by even the greatest of tricks, you know?"
"Y-you think so?" Solosis sniffled.
"Uh, hey," Deerling interrupted. "Would you mind giving us an explanation?"
"Ah, yes," the Litwick said. "I suppose you deserve a full explanation. You see, understand that we Litwick gather energy from scaring other Pokemon. Through harmless pranks and vague tricks of the five senses, we can generate fearful reactions from others that we can gobble up!"
"Gobble up fear? How does that even work?" I asked.
"It's spiritual stuff," he replied dryly. "You probably wouldn't understand any of it."
"Uh huh..."
"Hey, you said 'harmless' pranks!" Deerling exclaimed irritably. "But what part of tonight was 'harmless'? You nearly killed us, like twice!"
"Yeah, we know that now, and we're sorry," he said, all of the Litwick looking quite crestfallen with the critisism of their actions. "You see, Pokemon just haven't been getting scared of us anymore... We'd go hungry at times, and it was getting unbearable. So we began using more forceful methods to scare our targets to combat the hunger. We're really sorry, clearly this wasn't a good decision... We swear we won't do it again. Please forgive us!"
He didn't exactly have knees, but if he did he would probably be kneeling right now. His begging might've come much too late for any damage to be prevented, but it held sincerity that promised it was not a repetitive phrase they utilized when caught.
"What does this Solosis here have to do with it?" Espurr asked.
Another Litwick came forth to speak. "I found Solosis alone in the forest one day, abandoned. We've all been living together ever since, traveling and scaring folks along the way. He's so good at creating illusions that we're able to team up and trick anyone! But... I guess not you guys, huh?"
"Nope!" Espurr cheerfully replied.
"Alright," I said. "I guess we'll forgive you then."
"What?" Leah scoffed in a low voice. "Why should we do that?"
"They're peaceful now," I pointed out. "They apologized and supplied reasoning for their actions. Even if tonight wasn't justified, what else can we do? This isn't worth holding a grudge."
She stared at me, or more specifically my injuries, and wistfully huffed. "Fine. If that's what you think... then I'm with you."
I nodded and smiled. "That's better."
"Can we have Pancham and Shelmet back?" Deerling asked.
"Oh! I completely forgot!" Litwick exclaimed. "Your friends are unharmed." He turned to the floating cell. "Solosis, if you will?"
Solosis nodded and shined with a bright lime-green light, causing the two purple field of energy from before to appear. Just as soon as they materialized were they dissolved into thin air. Pancham and Shelmet fell from where they were once suspended, and hit the ground with a thud.
"Ow, my face!" sounded Pancham's muffled groan.
"Are you guys alright?" Goomy exclaimed.
"Yeah, we-" Pancham's speech was halted when he and Shelmet saw the condition of our group. "Wh-what happened to you guys? You all look terrible!"
"Rough night," Leah vaguely answered. "Let's talk about it tomorrow. Anyone got an escape orb?"
"Allow me," one of the Litwick said, pulling one out. "It's yours. It couldn't possibly make up for all of this, but it's the least we could do."
I took it and nodded thanks. "Gather 'round," I told everyone. We all formed a circle, and I raised the orb into the air and smashed it.
"You! You little scumbags!"
Carracosta and Nuzleaf must've discovered we were out and about at some point, and had waited for our return together by the bridge. We were herded into Leah's house where we were about to get roasted alive by her pops. As if the night could get any more stressful.
"Look at yourselves!" Carracosta roared. "You look like you've been run over by a herd of Bouffalant! And for what? Scamperin' around in the dark without a care in the world!"
"Now, now," Nuzleaf nervously intervened. "I reckon it isn't all that big a deal that they been out explorin'." Then he added with a worried face, "But I do reckon you ought to be more careful. You two do look mightily beat up, especially you Sage."
"You're too lenient on these kids!" Carracosta angrily responded.
Before he could continue with his rant, Leah chimed in. "Hey, pops? Listen, a lot has happened tonight and I'm bushed. So... I'm going to bed now."
"Oh no you don't!" her pops bellowed. "You will sit right here and-"
He paused to witness Leah's next move. When Leah said she was "going to bed now", she literally meant "now". She was curled up on the carpet where she had just been standing at attention as I still was, sound asleep. I guess the stress of the night had really drained her.
Or she was just taking the easy way out of a proper scolding, which meant...
"Alright then!" Carracosta yelled. "She'll get hers tomorrow, tenfold! As for right now, I'll just have to give you a proper chafing instead, young Sage!"
"Uhh..."
The next hour would consist of my ears being dribbled off by the very angry Carracosta. Nuzleaf took a similar route to Leah's and sounded off to leave as soon as the opportunity arose, leaving me to be lectured alone.
By the time Carracosta was done, I was hardly conscious where I stood. When I was finally dismissed outside, I could make out the pink outline of sunrise. I had been up all night, surrounded by a myriad of stimuli, from pain to fear to blood-rushing action. I'm surprised I even made it as far as my bed, where I collapsed into the depths of an early summer hibernation.