Chapter 16 - Last Resort

I might not have had any answers, or any established accommodations. I might not have been in a position to trust anyone, really, given the hand I'd been dealt - that is, a hand that by nature wasn't visible to me at all. But I did have something that gave me pause, something that generated a battleground a emotions inside of me.

Friends.

It felt so strange calling them that with all of the surrounding circumstances, but it couldn't be refuted by any amount of logic or denial. I dared to trust, and my inhibitions yielded. I had developed an unadulterated friendship with the Pokemon of Serene Village; one that had become the cornerstone of the life I had patched together for myself to make up a new set of memories.

...Now I was going to have to tell my closest ones that I was leaving forever.

The next day started off with a slap to the face. I had hoped that maybe I had jumped to conclusions regarding the Beeheyem's aggression. Maybe they were actually moving east the whole time and would continue that way rather than circle around the valley, and all of this could be put to rest without anything needing to change. That was the subject of my waging thoughts as I walked outside and stood lost in the morning drift; a prayer that my superstition would yield nothing but a passing breeze.

This notion didn't even last half an hour, as the first thing Leah and I heard when walking down the road was Roselia complaining to Raticate, another villager, about "these three brown Pokemon in the distance that were flashing multicolored lights at Budew." My heart dropped to the floor, and it took a painful amount of self-control to keep my distress invisible.

"Yikes!" Leah replied, the presence of the three Beeheyem being news to her. No small talk of dangerous Pokemon could keep her confident smile at bay for long, and her energetic mood was not deterred in the slightest. Tapping her badge with her paw twice, she offered words of reassurance to the worried mother. "Don't worry Roselia, we'll be there if they try anything."

Roselia and Raticate gave us nods of understanding before walking together to the plaza. Leah turned to me, a big smile on her face that inversely mirrored the nervous line plastered on mine.

"Now that I've cleaned the whole house twice, we can finally get back to our Society work!" she cheered. "Now, I was thinking we- Sage? What's wrong?"

At this point I had found that there was little I could hide from my best friend. Lying about my predicament wasn't a good idea to begin with, especially since she was willing to believe my story of being a human, so coming clean was the path to choose. I sighed reluctantly, and decided it would be best to begin my explanation. I explained all of the details involving the encounter in Lush Forest, as well as the encounter in Nectar Meadows the day before. Everything I had explained to Nuzleaf the evening before I now poured out to my partner, who listened unwaveringly.

When I was done, she took a moment to analyze the summation of my story.

"And you think the three Pokemon that have been lingering in the woods around the village are the same ones?" she asked, summing it all up.

"Unfortunately, yes," I sighed wistfully. "That's got to be them. The description from Roselia is spot on. Like I said, I fought them and they're no joke." I put my head in my tiny hands in defeat. "I... I don't know what to do. If we try to fight them, someone will get hurt. They already know I'm here, so hiding is useless. The only alternative is..."

Leah stared at me expectantly for a few seconds before her eyes grew wide. "You aren't actually suggesting..."

"I-I have to leave Leah. It's the only way I can be fair to everyone in Serene Village." There was no bother to conceal my despondency toward accepting what I believed what inevitable. Every syllable felt like its own betrayal, and I dreaded her reaction.

I had expected Leah to formulate an argument for why my idea was ridiculous, or resort to pleading me not to leave, or at the very least wish me well and tell me to following my heart and all that fluff that on might expect between two parting friends. But her response was none of the above. Instead, she just stared at me with a blank expression. After a few seconds, a huge grin formed on her face.

"That gives me an idea," she whispered mostly to herself.

I hadn't quite heard her. "What?"

"This is perfect!" she suddenly exclaimed, jumping in place and making me take a half-step backward. She witnessed my astounded reaction and abruptly corrected herself. "Err, I mean, it's obviously not good that you're being hunted by three killer psychos. But what I meant was... I'll just leave with you, and ditch this place like I've always wanted!"

Her elaboration had the opposite effect of its intention, only serving to make me more astonished.

Is she serious? Leave with me? She's got a life here, and...

That thought made me stop in my mental tracks. I asked myself: does she really have a life here? She's got her pops, sure, but it wasn't like she'd be living with him forever. And before I came to the village, she really didn't have any friends who would miss her if she left. She was such a free spirit, so unlawfully eager to explore the entire planet. What would she be if she were stuck here, in the secluded country, trapped by a wall of mountain from almost every angle and further confined by the expectations of those around her? After all, wouldn't they all just go back to ignoring and looking down on her again? It seemed self-indulged to consider myself the catalyst for the respect she'd been getting lately, but the thought did have a window of logic to it.

Wasn't she just going to leave at some point anyway?

With this in mind, who was I to stop her from tagging along? She had become so instantly attached to me in the first place because I had shown her respect, and had promised to help her achieve her dreams. Pretension aside, that's no insignificant covenant to share with someone. It was a bond that was embedded in the scarves that had become a symbol of our team, and it was one that I had come to value all the same. Why should a few overly-persistent thugs change that?

"So... what do you think?"

I hesitated for a moment before finally answering.

"If that's what you feel is right... then I'd be happy to have you along."

She nodded excitedly, her fluffy tail wagging back and forth. "Yeah! Thats what I wanted to hear! Now I just gotta convince my pops!" Before I could open my mouth to respond, she whirled around and sped off to her house.

I blinked.

Okay... well... just like that, and I've suddenly committed to this.

I quirked my lips and ran this through my head, allowing the intimacies of this decision to process.

Was this the right thing to do? Was it really smart to- to trust her so readily?

I immediately shook my head. That was a stupid thought. She had proven herself time and time again. It was good that she had resolved to come. Good for both of us.

On a following note, I couldn't help but wonder if it would be smarter to just leave without telling our respective legal guardians. It would definitely require weighing the pros and the cons. To be honest, it felt cruel to even consider disappearing on Nuzleaf after he provided my basic needs all this time while asking virtually nothing in return. And if I had unspoken misgivings about the principle of a decision like that, it would be absurd to ask Leah to consider it as well. The reason why this might become an obstacle, however, is that I highly doubted Carracosta would submit to any of Leah's pleas to leave. If it wasn't simply her nature being displayed through her excitement to get one step closer to leaving, she would've likely still been standing here as I was, timorously weighing the probabilities.

In the end, there would be no way I'd leave Nuzleaf out to dry like that. Whether he agreed with it or not, I was going to tell him what I was planding. He deserved to know because he had proven himself too.

Plus, this was Nuzleaf of all Pokemon. I was betting he'd just pat me on the head and tell me not to get myself killed.

I walked back down the soft dirt pathway through the residential area intending to weight my conjecture, breathing in deeply the harbingers of the blossoming summer. Despite a few clouds rolling in from the remote eastern skyline, the sun reigned supreme over the valley and coated it with light from every angle imaginable. The humidity was down just enough to glitter under the sun's rays due to a recent lack of rain without weighing everyone down, and the flowers donning the roadside and the trees constructing a wall around the tranquil settlement appeared to flourish in light of the fact. Deerling would soon adopt a greener pelt in a quarterly process roughly outlined to me by the rest of the class, and I briefly wondered if I would be around to witness it. Today was a beautiful day to be outside - too beautiful for such conflict. A sigh must've escaped my lips at how little it mattered now. This was between selfishness and the greater good.

Nuzleaf was still sitting in a chair like he was when I had woken, scanning the paper for weeks-old articles that might've slipped under his nose. He saw me enter from the corner of his vision, and he half-lowered his reading to glance up at me.

"What are you up to kiddo? Aren't you usually off explorin' by this time?"

My answer was flat and straight to the point. "The Beeheyem are on the village outskirts. By the looks of it, they could strike at any time."

Nuzleaf nearly dropped the newspaper he was holding. He was visibly upset by this news, his face contorting to an expression of unhindered irritation.

"Dagnabbit! And here I was thinkin' you had been jumpin' the gun with your prediction yesterday."

"You and me both," I sighed, plooping myself down onto the wooden stump across from him.

"How do you know this for certain?" he groaned.

"Raticate and Roselia described a trio of Pokemon lurking around the village that fit the Beeheyem's description seamlessly. They were apparently eyeing Budew, similar to how they were eyeing the Sewaddle from Nectar Meadows."

He scratched his chin and twirled the leaf on his head a couple times, processing the material. "I reckon we'll have to keep a good eye out then," he finally said. "Maybe I'll head into them woods and give them what for!"

I waved my hands and shook my head in the negative. "Woah, Nuzleaf, calm down. I appreciate your help with all of this, but..."

I trailed off. There was no easy way to word what came next.

Nuzleaf eyed me innocently.

"...But what, kiddo?"

I cleared my throat and sighed again. This wasn't going to be fun. "I thought about our conversation last night about how a violent outcome was inevitable in all of this. And... I think I have an alternative where nobody who shouldn't be involved ends up getting hurt."

"What are you gettin' at?"

It hurt to say, but I had to say it.

"I-I'm leaving the village, Nuzleaf. It's clear that this is no laughing matter, and I'm not letting the villagers get hurt because of my presence."

"You're up and leaving the village?!" Nuzleaf exclaimed, finally dropping his newspaper. His demeanor instantly cooled following this outburst, however, and he bent down to pick it up. "W-well, I reckon I understand you wanting to protect the villagers and keep the peace. It's mighty noble of you to do so, Sage."

I nodded gratefully, assuming this meant he was on board. Unfortunately for me, his follow-up revealed other plans.

"However," he continued. "I reckon I can't let you leave the village."

"What? But-"

"By lettin' you leave, we adults would be doing you a disfavor, when it's our job to protect our minors. You've already hurt yourself off in that dangerous barrow the other day."

...That was true. I could still feel the outline of the remaining burns on my right side. The physical manifestation of my charred scales had all but disappeared after being medically treated, but most of the aching still lingered.

"Plus, how can we really be sure that it is them Beeheyem? Silly rumors could mean anything if they're twisted up enough."

I was following where he was going with this, and I didn't like it one bit. The fact that he proposed a formidable argument against my own plans didn't really help.

"So, in other words..."

"Yep!" he smiled. "I reckon you'll stay put right here, and we'll take care of it. Them Beeheyem didn't seem so tough anyway. Why, I bet we could wrangle up a good ol' country mob and send them back to whatever land they're from."

"But they know I'm a human! They probably had something to do with what happened to me!" I emphatically gestured to my serpentine body as I said this. "Those things are involved one way or another, which is an obvious indication that there are bigger things going on! For all we know, we haven't even scratched the surface!"

Nuzleaf, carefree as ever, patted me on the head and chuckled at my exasperation. "Sage, my boy, don't you reckon that if they had backup, they woulda sent it by now? They surely coulda used it yesterday when they were dealing with the likes of you and your girly-friend. I reckon you're just overthinking all this a wee bit."

My face reddened. "She's not my- wait, did you say 'backup'?"

"Well, chew on this for a moment," Nuzleaf continued. "Clearly somethin' brought you to this world that has the incredible power to do such a thing. It ain't every day you hear a human is standing right in front of you, I'll say. So don't you think that if some force of evil wanted something done to you, they'd have gone and done it already? If there was more to this than the Beeheyem, why haven't we seen 'em yet?"

I stayed silent.

This was what didn't make the slightest bit of sense to me. As foolish as it was to assume the Beeheyem were just a group of freelancers, it was almost equally as ridiculous to assume they wouldn't have already called in their "backup", whatever it could end up being. Almost.

It wasn't enough. Nuzleaf was obviously going to downplay the situation - it's just who he was. He was too easygoing with all of this, and I knew there was no way I could relate to his outlook. He wasn't the one who was trying to figure out some malevolent enemy in the shadows all while having a restarted brain.

Whether there were more individuals involved or more unseen forces involved, or a combination of both, something behind the scenes was obviously going on here. So why couldn't Nuzleaf understand that it was imperative that nobody else get involved? There were lives on the line! The stakes were not as low as risking getting hit by a few psybeams like he seemed to think. The body I now commandeered stood as an animated example of why.

So what could I do? Nuzleaf heard my proposal and gave his response, and it didn't seem like there was anything I could do to change it.

Nuzleaf spoke up after a few moments of awkward silence.

"I have an idea. It might not be the most blameless of ideas, but I reckon it's something you'd be interested in if you wanna figure this mess out."

I looked at him, expectantly tilting my head to the side. Instead of immediately elaborating, Nuzleaf got up from his chair and walked outside, motioning for me to follow along. I hesitated for a moment, a bit taken aback by the fact that this conversation would require being outdoors, before finally rising from my chair and following suit. I was beginning to wonder if whatever this was involved going into the woods and finding the Beeheyem, which certainly was not something I was keen to do.

We didn't go to the woods, however, instead walking all the way to the fork in the road. There Nuzleaf halted his pace, and turned around to face me. After a brief glance around to make sure nobody was looking, he put a hand on my shoulder and pointed toward something in the distance.

Still confused, I questioned his antics. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"That pretty dang big mountain over yonder," he explained. "See it?"

I peered into the distance. Yes, when I looked to the eastern horizon, I could clearly discern one particular mountain towering above the rest. The mountain itself didn't seem very far away, but the distance to the summit was what caught my attention. I estimated it would probably take the better part of a day to climb the whole thing if you knew the quickest way up, and considerably longer if you didn't. From where I stood I could discern a giant collection of trees dotting the mountain's features, producing a stark but altogether beautiful representation of its vertical landscape. I couldn't shake the weirdest feeling when staring at it. It was difficult to comprehend for me, but it was as if the mountain itself was returning my gaze. It wasn't necessarily a creepy sensation; quite the opposite actually. It took my breath away in awe.

"That's Revelation Mountain up there. It's always surrounded by some kinda mystical aura, and nobody's sure why." Nuzleaf paused for a moment and frowned. "Problem is, the village apparently holds some kinda tradition involving the mountain. Ain't nobody allowed to go up there, ever, for any reason."

I had heard this before in school. Ancient Barrow wasn't the only place that anyone was forbidden to explore; Revelation Mountain was always right there in that same context of "don't go there or bad things will happen". But with Revelation Mountain, there has always been an ominous stress applied to the teachers' appeals, one that they never stretched to give the Ancient Barrow. It gave the implication that going to Ancient Barrow would have you worrying about getting harshly reprimanded, whereas going to Revelation Mountain would have you wishing all you had to worry about was getting a lecture. Considering the horrifying content that we found in Ancient Barrow that still sent a shiver down my spine whenever I glanced at the rotten tree, I preferred not to think about whatever could be up that mountain that could hush the entire village.

"But why is that?"

The voice wasn't mine, instead coming from the path behind us. Upon hearing someone enter the conversation uninvited, Nuzleaf gasped and jolted in place. We turned around and saw Leah standing there, twig hanging out of her mouth, staring at Revelation a Mountain as we just were.

She looked at me and smiled widely as she padded over to stand beside us. She tossed away her 'snack' and gave a casual greeting. "Hey, sorry if I snuck up on you guys."

Nuzleaf quickly regained his composure. "Why, I suppose it's just fine," he chuckled in a welcoming manner. "I was just tellin' Sage about Revelation Mountain."

Leah followed my gaze, which by now had returned to the mountain in the foggy morning distance. "Wow, it looks pretty today." She was right. It glimmered in symphony with the morning atmosphere that hadn't yet evaporated in the approaching noon heat.

"Makes you wish you knew what's up there, huh?" Nuzleaf wondered aloud.

Leah's ears perked up. "What's stopping anyone from just sneaking off to go see?" she asked curiously.

"The guards," Nuzleaf replied with an offsetting hint of disappointment that almost entirely masked an underlying tone of mild bitterness. "The adults of the village are commissioned to guard duty day-by-day."

"Wait," I interrupted, looking at him with evident dissatisfaction. "You're telling me that the village puts forth all of this effort to prevent anyone from going up that mountain, and yet nobody knows why?"

"I reckon that about sums it up," Nuzleaf answered with a dissatisfied gesture of his own. "They say it's been a tradition handed down through the generations since this here village was established many, many centuries ago."

"And no one questioned it?" Leah piped. "I mean, I know my pops goes on some kind of 'village duty' every now and then that would take all day, but I didn't know he was just standing around guarding nothing."

"But what does this have to do with my problem?" I asked Nuzleaf, trying to stay on topic.

"Well, I reckon I've heard a few rumors about Revelation Mountain on my trips. More than one source has done confirmed that a human, long ago, was up there. And from what I heard, that human did something mighty significant on the summit. Makes you wonder if we could learn something up there about what happened to Sage here."

Leah and I simultaneously gasped at the word 'human'. We shared a glance, understanding each others' thought processes perfectly. This could mean I finally had a lead! Here I've been, wandering around aimlessly, unsure what happened to my body or what corner of my existence my memories had secluded themselves in. No leads existed before this but the Beeheyem, which I had literally been planning to run away from. But this... this might change everything. Sure it was a long shot, but at this point I had absolutely nothing else left. This human, whoever he or she was, must have done something biblical in order to have the entire mountain declared hallowed ground for so incredibly long: a deposition that would outlast the memory of the very reason it was indicted in the first place. Going through with this might prove to be copious, or perhaps it could end up being disastrous, but it certainly would not be a waste of time.

I didn't need to say it out loud. Nuzleaf's implications were right down the alley I was aiming for, and I knew Leah well enough to be certain she saw see things in a similar way. She'd probably go more for the adventure, less for the human stuff, but I also knew from the look of compassionate determination she gave me that she wanted to help me. It never really hit me until this moment just how important having friends in this world would turn out to be. When someone else truly cares for one's troubles, everything was more bearable.

I didn't want to leave this village, at least not yet. At hours that situation was mostly void of hope, who knew what could transpire in the next couple of days?

We were going to climb that mountain; that much was established. A bit of outdated sacrilege wasn't about to stop us.

"So how are we going to do this? Didn't you say there were guards?"

We had been walking down the path for some time now, and the mountain was now practically looming over us. My question probably should have come a little sooner, but I was too busy scoping the woods for signs of the Beeheyem and getting lost in thought to plan ahead.

"I reckon Hippopotas is on guard duty today, from what I remember."

Nuzleaf didn't elaborate further. Leah spoke up, intending to squeeze his cryptic ideas out. "So... what do we do then? Knock him out?"

Nuzleaf and I looked at her, both of us alarmed at her suggestion. "Woah kiddo!" Nuzleaf exclaimed, nervously chuckling. "We're doin' this to prevent a violent outcome, not cause another one."

Leah put a dismissing paw up in her defense. "Sorry, sorry, I'm just throwing out ideas. We have to do something other than just asking him to let us through."

"She's got a point," I told Nuzleaf. "By the sound of it, we won't just be able to walk through the gate without major consequences from the rest of the village."

"Although, I don't see why we can't just... you know... tell them about the whole situation. I bet Simipour would understand." Leah remarked.

"It ain't just the village that upholds this ancient tradition," Nuzleaf responded. "It falls to the local police to maintain that nobody plants a toe on them hallowed grounds. I reckon they wouldn't be nearly as understanding."

Okay, this was getting weird. The police, as in Sheriff Magnezone and his army of deputies, were contracted with enforcing this bygone law? Clearly something was different about this mountain. Things weren't quite adding up.

It would be one thing if the place really was home to unspeakable child-eating demons like the schoolteachers made it out to be in their lucrative hogwash... but guards? Police oversight? No, there's a bigger reason that nobody is supposed to go up there. This excited me immensely, because this would mean that our climb would ever-so-likely prove to be a fruitful endeavor, one way or another. And if Nuzleaf was right about that legend with a human of long ago, that theoretical fruit could very well be ripe and edible from the moment we find what we're looking for.

"So then what do we do?" I asked.

Nuzleaf grinned. "I have a plan, don't worry- oh, hush! We're here!"

We arrived at an open clearing at the base of the mountain. Standing as a foreboding marker was a well-constructed gate decorated with spikes on both sides. The surrounding dirt was coarse and graveled down, and there were stacks of crates and barrels scattered around the area, resembling an undeveloped construction site. It all stood as a sharp contrast to the lush greenery of the surrounding forest. We had silently agreed to let Nuzleaf do the talking, and that it would be best if nobody knew that two kids were anywhere near this restricted area. Leah and I dipped behind one of the bigger piles of crates for cover, while Nuzleaf strolled up to the gate, as planned. At the gate sitting in a rough-hewn lawn chair was Hippopotas, stuck in a daydream stemming from his distinct boredom.

"Some guard, huh?" I snarkily whispered to Leah, who stifled a laugh.

"Eh, Nuzleaf...?" the ground-type moaned as he was approached. "Vat are you doing here?"

Despite the awkwardness of approaching out of nowhere, Nuzleaf maintained a steady innocence in his tone that did more than enough to convince the hippo. "I reckon there's been a mix-up with the guard duty. See, I'm actually supposed to be posted here today."

The hippo's eyes bulged as he hopped out of the chair giddily. "By all means! Vank you for telling me. I do not care much for guard duty, I must admit. Vat a bore, yas?"

Nuzleaf nodded and fabricated a mildly disappointed expression. "I reckon you're right... I'll be sittin' here for the rest of the day then."

Hippopotas nodded and gleefully skipped away down the path, never even seeing us sitting behind the pile of cargo. I watched him leave, and scoffed at Nuzleaf's tactics. I never would have expected him to lie so easily; it just didn't fit his character. But I certainly wasn't complaining. Was a sin for the greater good really a sin?

Once we were sure Hippopotas was well out of range, Leah and I emerged from our cover and walked over to Nuzleaf, who never even bothered to sit in the crude little lawn chair. He kicked it aside after giving us a confirming nod, and we all walked through the gate.

Revelation Mountain, like most places leading off the main road, was a mystery dungeon. Leah and I had thoroughly charted all of the natural dungeons in the valley except for this one, and we began to notice differences right away. The Pokemon we encountered weren't necessarily much stronger than the ones we usually ran into, but it seemed like they acted differently. Usually, wild Pokemon found in dungeons would fight you simply because their anciently-adapted genetics told them to. It was a stimulated response that could be evaluated and predicted to a fathomable extent. We quickly noticed that the Pokemon here, however, did not adhere to the nature of their expectations so palpably. These ferals fought with vehement determination, sometimes even impetuous desperation. It was as if they had a goal that ran much deeper than the elimination of outsiders. As if nature itself was conspiring against our rag-tag group of three. It's safe to say it set us all on edge right off the bat.

Regardless of our misgivings, this odd characterization of the mountain's resistance couldn't provide what a simple stat boost would have as far as forcing our retreat. The three of us were able to cut down the opposition with a little bit of strain and effort involved. I even whipped out the gadget at one point to chart some of the key landmarks and add to the map of the valley that Leah had been dying to complete.

I could see that Nuzleaf's posture had now drastically changed from the carefree leniency he typically wore. He was suddenly more civil, and more focused on the smallest details. I had never considered him any kind of warrior or analytic, although I suppose he would've needed some kind of combat experience if he really was an explorer. I had always thought of Nuzleaf as a charismatic guy: one who did more talking and less fighting and decision-making. But here, he had morphed himself to be more cunning and reactive to the obstacles that presented themselves. No doubt, he definitely had to be an explorer of some kind. He clearly knew what he was doing.

I bothered myself with these thoughts as we ascended through rock and forest. In the face of the plethora of natural obstacles we encountered and the ominous feeling the mountain gave me, it was actually a pretty boring climb. Leah and I engaged in friendly conversation to pass the time walking up the sloped trails, occasionally dodging a low-hanging branch or stopping to maneuver around a precarious drop. We mostly talked about the things we had found during our exploration work, touching on certain dungeons and tough encounters we'd had, until the topic shifted to the big ghost debacle. When Nuzleaf was a little ways ahead of us scouting out a precarious drop, Leah spoke up about the nighttime battle at the school, something I had honestly been hoping to avoid discussing with her.

"Sage. Hey, I- uh, I'm really am sorry about what happened..."

"Hm?" I looked at her curiously.

She emitted a sigh, one that was markedly downcast. "At the school, I panicked and you got blown up trying to save me."

I remembered the experience in fine detail. Not so much the explosion itself, but more so the aftermath that took place in the infirmary. The worried faces of Deerling and Goomy, and then Leah's emotional collapse. All of this happening simultaneously and in the midst of a crisis. It was not a good time for anyone.

"There's nothing to be sorry about," I comforted her, hoping to dismiss the subject quickly. "Sometimes people get hurt in battle. That's just how it goes."

"But not like that!" she replied, slightly raising her pitch in desperate self-detriment. "I promised you I could handle myself, but when the time came, I froze up!"

It pained me to admit that at that moment, I had no idea how to respond. No amount of comforting could satisfy someone who was tormented by their fears. The fact that I got hurt as a result must be what really drove the nail.

"Why did you jump in front?" she pressed, now staring listlessly at the ground in front of her.

"Because you're my best friend," I said genuinely, resting a hopeful vine on her shoulder. "Look, I may not have been here for very long, but that doesn't mean I can't care. We'll always look out for each other."

She lightly huffed through her nose, unconvinced and still visibly upset with herself. She drew in air to speak, but stopped herself, slowly shaking her head.

I instantly became concerned. "Hey," I continued. "Don't get so down about all that. Remember what you did right afterward?"

"Yeah, I bawled my eyes out," she answered solemnly, rolling her eyes while still not raising her line of sight from the pebbles below.

"No, I mean at the Ancient Barrow, in that open room. You fought the ghosts then, and several of them at once. And you did pretty well from what I saw."

"Much good that does," she scoffed. "It was already too late to prevent anyone from getting hurt because of me. And besides, by then we knew they weren't 'ominous supernatural beings' like we all thought they were. They were just a rogue group of pranksters!"

Suddenly we heard Nuzleaf's voice calling to us as he came into view on the path ahead. "Time to get a move on," he called, evidently finished with his brief scouting embarkment. "I done found a way we can get by this drop-off up here if we're extra careful."

I turned to Leah, who was still looking rather depressed. "Look, it's not worth it beating yourself up over that kind of stuff. You'd have done the same thing for me, and that's all that matters. You don't have to feel like you owe me an apology."

She sighed once more, before nodding and bearing the outline of a smile. "...Thanks. I guess I needed that." I nodded, returning the smile. Together, we met back up with a patiently waiting Nuzleaf and continued our climb.

Getting by the drop-off in question was not a fun time. The already-hazardous path that ran along the edge of the mountainside suddenly thinned out to extend a mere two or three feet from the wall of stone that rose into the heavens. Opposite of the mountain wall was open air.

The menacing drop below would send one falling a good fifty feet down before hitting the rugged slope and tumbling down at least another five hundred feet. It made me wonder which would kill a poor soul who lost their footing first - the initial fall, or getting ripped to ribbons tumbling across the jagged boulders of the mountainside. I made the initial mistake of looking down, which I instantly regretted as my mind tried to calculate the dismal chances of survival. Reviver seeds can keep lungs expanding and a heart beating for a while, but not for a body crushed by an incalculable fall.

"This is the easiest way up?" I questioned Nuzleaf, trying with minimal success not to let my breathing lock up.

"I reckon it is," he replied in an equally apprehensive tone. "I don't want none of us to die today, so I reckon we stick to this wall like glue."

"I don't know about this..." Leah whimpered. "That's a long..."

"...way down." I breathily finished for her.

We moved along the ledge at an anchored pace. The wind wasn't very strong at this altitude, but it still howled enough to make my blood run cold every time I felt the slimmest breeze tickle my tense shoulders. The worst part of this fragment of our climb wasn't actually the risk of a misstep; rather, it was where you would direct your line of sight while moving along. If you looked down at your feet, you couldn't possibly miss the intensity of the drop before you, and your depth perception would valiantly go to work against your mental integrity. The problem was that if I looked anywhere else then I couldn't see the ledge I was inching along, and I'd give myself a very real chance of slipping.

In light of my lack of memories, I had never really considered heights to be an integral fear of mine. Whether I was just havig a bad first impression, or they really were the bane of my existence, I decided I really didn't like them at this particular point in time.

The hopelessness at what happened next is hard to put into words. It would best equate to the same hopelessness I felt when Leah and I were lying poisoned and bleeding in the grass as we were about to be mauled to death by that aggravated Beedrill. If a disaster were to have occurred here, I would've assumed nine times out of ten that it would involve someone placing a foot wrong and inviting calamity. But reality had a funny way of throwing curveballs at the worst possible moments, and the deafening screech that echoed around us was evidently here to represent that.

I recognized the bird as soon as I could get a good look at it. Black wings, curved beak intelligently designed for tearing meat, and a belt of bones strung around its torso. A Mandibuzz, known well for a lack of preference for their prey and for their unrelenting cruelty, was flying by us in an effort to gauge its newest target.

"Crapfire!" an audibly mortified Nuzleaf shouted over one of the bird's declarations. "We're in big trouble, I reckon!"

I took a glance back at Leah, who wore the same terrified face that I probably wore at the time. Then I looked back at Nuzleaf, who had stopped moving along the ledge and was now focusing his attention on the bird. We read the Mandibuzz, and the Mandibuzz read us. All while we were virtually immobilized, still a good thirty feet from wider ground, while the vulture had the entire sky to itself. One way or another, this was looking like it might be the end of the mission.

To hell with being a psychic-type. I would much rather be a bird right now. Then the three of us could take to the skies and not become nature's lunch.

The Mandibuzz completed its scouting report after what only seemed like a few seconds, and opened its beak. A culmination of darkness manifested itself from the energy developed by the vulture's opened jaw. It took aim right at me, and without a moment's hesitation, fired away.

Leah's fireball met the dark pulse before the it could complete two-thirds of its journey. How she was able to launch an attack that would catch the rapidly approaching dark pulse in such a paramount moment while simultaneously keeping herself steady on the ledge was beyond me. It was a hell of an interception, one I would have to get her a nice handful of twigs to chew on as thanks later. That is, if there would be a later.

Our group of three was in the midst of a desperate attempt to collect ourselves when the bird suddenly spoke.

"You clearly aren't dwellers of the mountain," the Mandibulzz, apparently female, cawed accusingly. "How dare you maggots inject the wretched influence of outsiders into the arteries of this sacred place!"

"M-ma'am, please!" Nuzleaf cried. "We come in peace! We're just here to investigate something!"

"Ah," the bird cooed. "I see. You've come to chart these lands, so you can stroll back down to your explorer friends, who will surely misuse the information. All so you can get paid a pretty penny, hmm?"

"No, not at all!" Leah exclaimed. "We don't plan on telling anyone we were here!"

The bird considered this, before nodding her head resoundingly. "Now I understand. Instead of providing for the desecrators, you yourselves must be the desecrators!" She puffed out her chest and screeched her final battle cry. "Prepare for your end!"

"Wait!" I screamed, getting her to impatiently hesitate for a moment. "If you at least tell us why it is that we can't be here, then we'll leave. We swear!"

Leah shot me an alarmed glance. I knew it probably didn't seem very suave that I was willing to give up the mission just like that, but I knew it was by far the best call. I caught a glimpse of Nuzleaf's reaction as well, and it was just a surprised as Leah's. I even picked up a minuscule hint of disappointment in his gaze.

"Fool!" the Mandibuzz screeched, grabbing back my attention. "I would never tell an outsider of the secrets hidden here! You will not be permitted to leave with your lives or your limbs!"

She flapped her wings with extra emphasis before opening her jaw once more and preparing another dark pulse. There was no way we could dodge it, and even though Leah was able to stop the one from before, that kind of defense was way too inconsistent to carry the weight of our lives.

"Sage!" Leah beguiled with rising panic. "If there's an escape orb in your bag, get it now!"

My bag! I only had maybe three of seconds before the attack would be launched and one or all three of us would get blown off the cliffside.

Three. I rummaged around, frantically looking for the escape orb I remembered picking up earlier.

Two. Where the hell was it? It had to be somewhere- shit!

One. For now, this would have to do.

I looked up, and the Mandibuzz was already attacking, again aiming at me since I was in the middle of the group. I chucked the blast seed I had grabbed as plan B, hoping it would burst and save me from an unpleasant end.

After several days packed full of bad luck, it was a damn good feeling watching the perfectly thrown blast seed ignite upon impact with the dark pulse. The force from the explosion was felt by all of us, and it took every bit of balance we had not to bounce off the wall and lose our footing. The Mandibuzz was a bit closer to the explosion, and faltered sightly in her flight as she let out a discombobulated screech.

Without a moment's hesitation, Leah and Nuzleaf began launching embers and razor leafs in its direction. I opened the bag again and resumed my panicked search for that escape orb. It took only a couple seconds to find it, untidily packed under a pair of apples. I whipped it out, looking up to see if we were in any immediate danger. What I saw wasn't exactly what I expected, but nonetheless made my heart freeze.

Now, there were two more birds. In the brief moment I had been rummaging for that escape orb, a Pidgeotto and a Staraptor apparently decided to join the party. I guessed they must've heard the Mandibuzz's distressed call and come to help her out. And it only got worse from there. In the distance, I could see an entire squadron of flying Pokemon honing in on us, with intentions that I rightfully assumed were aligned with the Mandibuzz's.

"Sage!" I heard Nuzleaf's distressed voice call. "I reckon this is the end of the line. Now would be a great time to get us out of here!"

The three already-present birds were approaching at an alarming speed, and I hastily smashed the escape orb. A bright light enveloped all of us, and my vision went completely white as I vaguely felt the sensation of movement.

I fell flat on my long nose as the dungeon rebuked me and my companions. Soft dirt caught the rest of the fall as I opened my eyes and tried to gather myself. After a couple seconds of clearing the foggy aftereffects of the orb from my head, I looked around and noticed we were back at the entrance to the mountain. The lawn chair was lying broken apart on its side, the reason being the befuddled Fennekin that was lying awkwardly on top of its remains. She must've gotten thrown into it.

"Ugh," Leah groaned as she pushed herself off the wooden shards. She looked down at the back of her paw, and put on a weak grimace. "I think I got a splinter."

"Still better than getting eaten by birds," I grunted as I pushed myself to a wobbly stand.

She scowled as she pulled a petite shard of wood from her paw. "You're not wrong," she replied, only half-joking.

Nuzleaf, who had been dropped a few feet to my right, picked himself up and walked over to us. "Well, shoot," he grumbled. "I really reckoned we'd find something up there, and the fact that it's so mightily guarded only supports that reckoning."

Leah coughed for a moment before asking a question we all wanted to know. "Yeah, what was with that? That was a lot of Pokemon willing to kill us just to protect some century-old myth."

"I don't know," Nuzleaf said, utterly crestfallen. He turned and gave me a dispirited look. "I-I'm sorry Sage. I reckon we couldn't find what we needed in order to help you." He then turned to both of us and looked down. "I reckon I put you both in a heaping load of danger for nothin'. I sincerely apologize for that."

I felt a lot of sympathy for the grass-type father figure in front of me. I put a vine on his shoulder and nodded my head reassuringly. "It's okay," I told him. "At least now we know there's something up there. That's progress."

"Yeah, we're really grateful you were willing to help in the first place," Leah chimed in with a smile. "It was a lot of fun, minus the part where we nearly died."

Nuzleaf looked overwhelmingly touched by our compassion, and looked like he was about to tear up. "Why, I reckon I don't deserve y'all bein' so nice to me. I do thank you sincerely."

Leah and I simultaneously embraced him, creating a group hug that lasted several heartwarming seconds. We all let go, and Nuzleaf looked a lot better.

"You two are good kids. Now come on, let's get back to the village before the sun sets."

I looked up at the sky, and promptly realized that it was already well past midday. Although it was our first time climbing, meaning we likely didn't end up taking the quickest path, it should've still been noted that we only made it about halfway up the mountain. And it took the better part of a day! I honestly hoped that whatever it was that I was looking for wasn't up there. Climbing a mountain this large, potentially even having to set up camp for one night and all while dealing with the threat of being attacked by wild Pokemon on steroids, wasn't something I intended to subject myself to.

"Hold on Mr. Nuzleaf," Leah said. "Sure, Sage and I are going back to the village, but you can't."

Nuzleaf looked surprised at her statement. "Why's that?"

I caught on immediately. "Oh yeah! Because now you have guard duty."

Leah and I began snickering uncontrollably when we saw Nuzleaf's expression transform from confusion to horrifying realization, and then to cheerless detainment.

"Oh, son of a... dagnabbit," he moaned. "Y'all don't reckon we could just tell Hippopotas about how we tricked him?"

I wagged a finger at him. "Nope. We could easily get found out if someone knew you lied about the guard post."

"Have fun Mr. Nuzleaf!" Leah teased as she began to walk away. I moved to follow her, and we quickly jogged down the path and out of sight.

"Dang kids..." was the last thing I heard him grumble before the two of us skipped out of earshot.