Unsurprisingly, the woods were rather quiet as Hop and Alira walked for hours, there were the cries of pokemon in the distance but not much else.

So, Alira started to hum, swinging her arms back and forth and swaying side to side while walking. She couldn't stay still even while walking and Hop shared that sentiment.

He himself played with a poketoy ball, tossing it around his hands, from hand to hand, up in the air, over the back of his hands, his hands were not still at all and he often hopped over any obstacle in the way, like an overturned log or knocked down tree if it was small enough. He had a lot of energy as it was so jumping around helped him get some of it out.

This continued for a while, only Alira's humming filling the silence and the occasional fumbling of Hop's hands with his ball until there was a rumbling cry from Alira's bag.

She reached back and from the side pocket pulled out a scuffed friendball without breaking her stride and holding it in front of her with both hands, murmuring. "Hey hey, calm down. I can't let you out right now, there's not enough space and I don't want you to hurt yourself."

The ball shook in her hands and that cry rang out once more, though it didn't seem as needy as before.

"Who's in that?" Hop tilted his head at the ball in her hand, swearing he saw the ball prior to this.

"Eternatus." She shrugged and pocketed the ball in her jacket, looking over and snickering at Hop's expression. "What?"

"Wait, THAT'S the ball you caught him with?!" His eyes were as wide as saucers and eying the pocket the ball was in like it was going to burst any moment. "I thought you used a ultra ball or something!"

"Nope." She shook her head, smiling sheepishly as she scratched at her hair. "Remember how panicked we both were? I could hardly think straight and you had to help me throw it once it went giant I was shaking so bad, I grabbed a ball at random and oops I grabbed a friendball. Didn't plan on it but that's what happened."

"Well, yeah now that you mention it." He hmm'd, scratching at the back of his head. "Yeah, I remember that we weren't exactly thinking straight, and you actually ended up fainting. Scared the crud out of me that's for sure!"

"I did what?" Her head snapped to the side to look at him, almost tripping over a log due to not looking.

"Yeah, you fainted pretty good that day." He tilted his head at her. "You don't remember?"

Hop's heart was racing painfully in his chest, staring up at the form of Eternamax Eternatus up high in the sky, murderous intent radiating from it as Zamazenta stood close to him growling back at it.

Dubwool stood nearby, staring up at the giant pokemon and it was only Widgyt's wagging tail and just her fur in general brushing against his fur due to how close they stood to each other keeping the sheep pokemon from trembling. Widgyt was growling as well, but her ears were flat against her head and like it was with Dubwool, the pokemon next to her was the only thing keeping her from shaking.

Zacian stood close to Alira to Hop's immediate right, the dog legendary was growling up at Eternatus as well and one of those long strands of fur from it's cheeks was loosely wrapped around Alira's middle, probably due to how badly she was shaking. This battle had gone on for so long, Hop was surprised Leon hadn't come to yet.

Zamazenta then shifted, it's shield sticking close to it as it let out a roar before bolting, jumping and ramming into Eternatus like it had done previously in the battle.

Zamazenta upon landing then barked at Zacian who lifted it's sword, light encasing it like before and after letting go of Alira, jumped at Eternatus and slashed it before landing on the ground.

With that, both dog pokemon barked at the two humans as energy arched all over Eternatus and it groaned, clearly weakened enough to-

"This is it Alli!" Hop turned to her as she looked at him, her eyes wide. "Try to catch Eternatus NOW!"

"G-Got it!" She was shaking so much her bag practically fell off her back as she dug her hands through one of the pockets, trying to find a pokeball and eventually grabbed one.

Her dynamax bracelet enlarged the ball like normal, but she almost fell over like it was too heavy in her hands and she cried out. "H-Hop help! I-I can't-"

"I gotcha Alli!" He ran over, skidding on his heels to stop on a dime, and grabbed one side of the ball, helping her lift it before he said. "On the count of three! One, two,

THREE-!"

At three, they threw it in unison at the Gigantic Pokémon, Alira then leaning partially on Hop as they watched the ball try to pull in the pokemon.

They heard it roar and squirm for a moment, making the duo take a step forward in concern and fright, but they about gripped onto each other as they saw it's form flicker with the red light signature of the pokeball working. Then it was suddenly pulled towards the pokeball, becoming so bright they had to cover their eyes until the ball shut with a loud clack and fell to the ground, shaking the ground as it landed.

It shook once, twice, Alira separated from Hop to step towards it, shaking so much but muttering. "

Please please please please stay in there…!" And Hop was desperately praying alongside her that it stayed-

Thrice. Then, it flashed and shrunk back to normal size, a resounding click echoing through the air and Hop about fell over in relief as he cheered while Alira walked over, bending down on shaking legs to pick up the ball from the crater.

She stood up long enough for Hop to see her pocket it, then she promptly tipped over and started to fall.

"Alira!" He rushed to catch her, but surprisingly,

Zacian rushed over and caught her on it's back, form flashing as it returned to that powered down form it had with the rusted sword held in it's mouth.

The dog pokemon whined softly as it lowered itself to the ground, and Hop helped it rest her on the ground. She was out like a light, though after Zacian nosed her neck for a moment, the relieved huff it let out Hop assumed meant she was okay.

Zacian laid the rusted sword next to her and nosed her hand briefly before backing up and Zamazenta came over, form flashing as well and it was suddenly holding the rusted shield in it's mouth when it reverted to it's powered down form.

It carefully laid the shield by Hop and nosed his hand almost insistently, and he petted it gently. "Thank you for helping us."

It almost seemed to hum in response, giving him a strange but warm look as it gave his hand one last nuzzle before it joined Zacian.

The dog duo turned to two humans and howled briefly before jumping off and into the sky where they disappeared from sight.

"Huh. No wonder my memories go blank right after I picked up the ball." She crossed her arms, brow furrowing.

"I had to explain what happened to the paramedics after, they were seriously concerned about you and Leon." He then crossed his arms, giving her a look. "You didn't tell me you nearly broke your ankle during the battle when one of Eternatus' attacks knocked us back, the paramedics had to tell me that."

"I... honestly didn't notice?" That half-smile pulled at her face again. "With what was going on I hardly noticed much if anything not related to Eternatus."

"Well, I really get that, but other than that you need to be more careful of that." He frowned. "You've always not noticed if you're hurt, even when we were younger, I don't want you to get hurt seriously and not notice until it's too late."

"I promise." She held up her left pinky finger to him and he didn't hesitate to link his own right pinky with hers as she smiled.

"Good!" He grinned, even while noticing the deformation of the tip of her pinky, the very tip being very small and slightly tight feeling with a faint tiny scar visible on both sides. "You mind telling me what's up with your pinky now? I never thought to ask before so I'm a bit curious."

"Well, it's probably what gives me that not noticing if I get hurt." She giggled a tad nervously, shifting around to Hop's other side so she could still link her finger with his. "But ah, mishap with a car door. It was a old van with a sliding back door, I was… Five? I'm pretty sure." She bit her lip. "I don't remember everything and practically none of the pain mind you, but I was pulling myself into the car with my left hand gripping the divide between the passenger door and the back door, then suddenly my brother slammed the back door on my hand."

"The more I hear about this mysterious brother of yours, the more I despise him." He scowled, shifting to hold her hand tightly in his own.

"If you dislike my brother, just wait till somehow my father comes up in a topic." She offhandedly remarked and shrugged absently. "Anyhow. Tip of my pinky nearly got cut completely off, mom said my nail was only on by a sliver of skin, parents got me to the hospital soon after, I just remember putting my hand in a bowl of ice, being in a car, the next thing I know I'm in a hospital room."

She then snorted in amusement. "Now, I hardly remember much after that, side from telling my dad to turn off the light so I could sleep and the nurse kept turning it back on, but apparently, I threw one hell of a fit when they were trying to get an x-ray of my pinky. Like, I was apparently thrashing around and I knocked three guys trying to hold me down into the wall, knocked two into a surgical table, AND-" she broke off into a fit of giggles. "I ripped a hole in my dad's tie with my teeth before they managed to sedate me."

"Gosh, you were one crazy child, and you were only FIVE?" Hop's eyes were wide with astonishment and amusement.

"Yep, five and I was one feral little girl when in pain." She laughed. "I had to have a cast on my finger for a good while, a month or more at most I think? Left my pinky looking like this." She held their joined hands up with her pinky sticking out.

"I hope there's no more gruesome stories like this in your past." He gripped her hand a bit tighter and was never more glad she moved to Galar when she did. Sounded like her life in Sinnoh wasn't a nice one.

"Nope, 'side from getting really bad cuts on my right knee that left scars thanks to a bad and ratty desk, none I can remember." She shrugged, then promptly yelped as she nearly tripped on something. "Aiee!"

"Alli-!" He gripped her hand, dug his feet in, and pulled, keeping her from falling on her face. "You alright?"

"Yeah, sheesh, what the heck did I trip on?" She looked down once she got her balance back and about choked. "Holy heck!"

Hop looked down and what seemed to be part of a pillar, a stone one, was embedded in the ground. Following it to the right with his eyes, he saw the rest of it standing crookedly, vines crawling up it at odd angles and moss on it in patchy places. There was another pillar not far from that one in the same state of disrepair.

"Woah." he breathed out, walking over with her to one of the standing pillars and inspecting it. "It looks almost identical to the arch in the shrine, just minus the arch part."

"...Look, there's, uh, walking stones!" Alira pointed to the ground and sure enough, an array of stones were set in the ground, like a path that lead further onward into the mist.

"Where does it lead?" Hop wondered before beginning to tug Alira along with him as they followed the path, soon coming to a surprisingly crystal clear area of the forest.

It was a small clearing that looked to have been a meeting spot in centuries long past, there was a fountain in the middle of the clearing with a statue of Zacian and Zamazenta sitting side by side, heads bowed as if in prayer, in the middle of the fountain itself, with stone benches and tables scattered around the clearing. Some tables and benches were cracked or broken, but the fountain, it was strangely pristine, there were vines creeping up the edges but otherwise, it looked untouched by time or nature.

"Hm… This should be a good place to take a break." Alira mused, slipping her bag off her shoulders and letting go of Hop's hand to place her bag on an unbroken table before approaching the fountain. Peering over, she was shocked to see the water in it was crystal clear.

"Hey Hop!" She called over her shoulder, not taking her eyes off the water. "This is super freaky, the water in the fountain isn't-ACK!"

She suddenly felt something large ram into her back and sent her toppling into the water face first. The water was incredibly shallow so she was able to shove herself up on her arms, coughing and rubbing at her eyes to get the water out of them.

"Alira!" Hop rushed over as he saw her suddenly jolt forward and fall into the water headfirst, thankfully as he reached the edge and leaned forward he saw she was fine, if rather soaked and rubbing water out of her eyes. "You alright?"

"Yeah, did you see what hit me?" She shifted into a sitting position so she could rub at her eyes with both hands.

"Nothing hit you, you just jolted and fell in." He shook his head, then noticing how clear the water was. "Holy heck the water's crystal clear!"

"Yeah, that's what I was-" She was able to open her eyes and gasped, gaze behind and above Hop. "Oh gods!"

"What?" He looked around, but didn't see anything.

"The fog, it's gone, I can't see any of it at the edges of the clearing." Her eyes were wide with disbelief.

Hop furrowed his brows and looked around once more, but the fog was still there. "No it isn't."

"I'm telling you it's-gah!" Alira tried to get up, but her foot slipped on some moss under the water and she fell back into the water with a splash that hit Hop's upper torso and face, making him recoil with a sputter.

"Aaaah I'm so so sorry Hop! I didn't mean to do that!" Alira panicked, afraid she might have upset him and already frazzled from the sudden trip into the water.

"It's fine Alli! It's just some water, no skin off my back." He rubbed his eyes with his hands and then the sleeve of his jacket, blinking his eyes open and then he reached over. "Here, grab on so you don't slip again."

She frowned but nodded, reaching and grabbing his hand. He helped her out of the water fountain and turned around to grab her bag so she could get changed due to being completely soaked, only to jump back and nearly end up taking a trip into the fountain himself. "The heck?!"

The fog was gone now, he could not see a single bit of fog anywhere now and he knew fog couldn't clear up so quickly, not that fast.

"Aha, so it's not just me seeing things!" If she wasn't sopping wet she probably would have jumped in the air, but was more occupied peeling her soaking wet jacket off and thanking the fact she still wore her black shirt today.

"How the heck is this possible?" Hop shook his head, squinting as he looked around before sighing. "This mystery will need to wait for a moment, want me to set up my tent so you can get changed?" He shifted his backpack off his back as he looked over his shoulder at his best friend wringing out her jacket.

"Please, I have a few extra changes of clothes in my bag and I'd... rather not change behind a tree." She flushed red as an embarrassed smile pulled at her expression and her brow furrowed, gaze looking anywhere but at Hop.

"Alright, one moment Alli!" He nodded before quickly getting his tent out, setting it up in enough time for Alira to rummage through her bag and find her changes of clothes, briefly pausing on what she wanted to change into before deciding and setting the clothes and shoes aside in a folded pile.

She draped her jacket on a mostly unbroken bench to dry right before Hop came out of his tent, giving her a thumbs-up as he stood which she nodded at before ducking into the tent quickly with her clothes in hand.

While Hop waited for her to finish getting changed, he went over to the fountain, peering suspiciously at the water before using a spare water bottle he had to fill it with the water. He may not know exactly if the water was the cause of them suddenly not seeing the fog, but he could get it checked out by a professor once they got back after they found the castle of the two heroes.

He shivered as a cold wind brushed by him, tightening the cap on the bottle before looking around warily, on the lookout for anything he couldn't see before a hand on the ball with Dubwool in it. He didn't see anything, so he sighed and let go of the pokeball in time for him to hear Alira leave the tent.

"All changed now Alli?" He looked over his shoulder, only to quickly spin around as he saw what she was wearing.

She was using a small towel she had to dry her hair with one hand as she stood, her other hand carrying her wet clothes, but the fact she was wearing a long-sleeved, white pleated dress with a belt around the middle and wearing black cropped leggings under it was a major switch from what she normally wore. She swapped her trainers for brown loafers with short socks as well.

"Yeah, all done and out of my wet clothes." She placed her soaked clothes on the table her bag was on, looking over at Hop and tilting her head. "What's with the look?"

"Well, you don't usually wear dresses mate." he scratched the back of his head, trying to figure out how to word this. "Guess I'm not used to it is all."

"You're not the only one." She gave a small shrug before beginning to arrange her wet clothes on various parts of the table or nearby benches to dry in the sun. "I don't normally wear them cause I'm not normally comfortable wearing them in public, you know." She shrugged again. "I don't mind if it's just around people I know and trust though, like you."

"I…" He found himself at a mild loss as to what to reply to that with as he watched her move around and place her wet clothing in sunny spots to dry.

It wasn't like she hadn't said something like that before, hardly, as she often trusted him with more than she trusted her mother and said so on more than one occasion, but he explicitly remembered when she was fourteen saying something like "I'll die before I wear anything with a skirt" cause of rumors she had dealt with back in her hometown of sick people using mirrors to look under a girl's skirt, leading to her paranoia regarding them.

So her feeling comfortable enough to wear a dress of all things around him surprised him. Though, she was wearing thick black leggings so that probably aided her in feeling comfortable to wear that dress. Still though...

"Thank you." He finally found himself saying as she fluffed out her black shirt, her face scrunching at the resulting water flicking off it as she set it on a table broken in half as he gave her a warm smile. It honestly touched him deeply.

"Not a problem Hops." She turned and smiled at him. "How 'bout we make camp? It's almost lunch and we were walking for gosh knows how long and it'll give my clothes a chance to dry."

"Sounds like a plan!" He grinned, getting to setting up his firepit as she did the same, not setting her tent up as they weren't going to stay there for the night.

Once Alira's firepit and their pots were set up, they let their pokemon out of their balls and went about making lunch, leaving their pokemon to explore the clearing.

Eve shook her fur once she was out of her ball, the silverite eevee looking around curiously at her surroundings before spotting the fountain. She bounded over to it, hopping up on the edge of it to peer in and letting out an excited "Vee!" when she saw it had water in it.

She wasted no time in jumping in with a large splash, said splash being large enough to hit one too-close-to-the-fountain Nova square on the back as she was kicking her pyro ball around out of habit. The fire type rabbit squawked and kicked the ball out of pure reflex, grazing Lily and actually hitting Rillaboom square on the back.

The roserade and gorilla pokemon shouted out of shock as they jumped, attracting the attention of their trainers, Alira only able to utter out a "Uh oh." as Rillaboom sent one of his drumsticks flying, hitting Shiro square on the forehead. That made the water type sputter and the inteleon's rapid battering it away from his face sent it flying once more.

It smacked Sparky square on the head, leaving the male boltund blinking in complete confusion as the previous four pokemon began shouting at each other. Lily at Nova with a sharp tone in her voice while Nova sounded indignant and defensive, and Shiro the same with Rillaboom.

Calethorne and Widgyt quickly rushed over and placed themselves between the shouting pokemon, Cale pushing Nova and Shiro back and Widgyt doing her best to keep the much larger than her Rillaboom back while Lily was easier to keep back due to being around Widgyt's size.

The six pokemon were all shouting(or barking in Widgyt's case) and at that point, the two trainers snapped out of their stupor, and Hop rushed forward while Alira scanned the ground for something before bending down and picking it up, mind racing. I really hope I remember this correctly!

"Hey, stop fighting!" Hop shouted, and it did seem like a full-on fight was about to break out despite his shouting and Cale and Widgyt's efforts-

Then some sort of gentle, flute-like whistling song rang out, and everyone froze, the pokemon's gazes snapping to look behind Hop.

Hop turned his head, seeing Alira had her eyes closed, but with two fingers she had a leaf pressed against her lips and seemed to be... whistling into it or somehow playing it.

All the pokemon seemed to calm down as she continued to play and Widgyt closed her eyes, swaying with the song whilst seemingly smiling as Eve popped out of the fountain, yipping apologetically and seeming to explain her own part in the mishap.

Nova patted her head and as the pokemon began to converse calmly and seeming to explain what happened to each other, Hop walked back to Alira as she stopped playing that leaf. Her eyes opened and even she seemed surprised by how calm everyone was now.

"Holy heck that actually worked..." She whispered, eyes wide as she lowered the leaf from her mouth.

"What was that?" Hop asked, eyes wide as well as she shook her head to clear it.

"O-Oración." she said, folding her hands over her heart, a warm, nostalgic light glimmering in her eyes. "One of the few happy things I keep from my time in Sinnoh. This girl I was friends with, her grandmother taught me and her how to play the leaf whistle, which can be done just using any old leaf, as well as how to play Oración." She paused, trying to think. "It's...Her grandmother said,"

She closed her eyes and said softly. "Oración can soothe even the fiercest rage in a pokemon and bring peace to those troubled." Her eyes opened and she smiled as she lowered her hands to her sides. "I'm honestly surprised I even remembered it, let alone how to play it enough that it'd work, it's been nearly a decade since I played it or played the leaf whistle at all. Had waay too much running around this noggin of mine in the meantime since then." She rapped her knuckles against her head for emphasis.

"Well, I'm really glad you remembered it, I mean it stopped them from fighting!" He grinned and reached forward, grasping her hands in his own. "Plus it was really, really pretty to listen to, I've never heard anything like it before!"

"A-Aah, um!" Alira stammered, turning red before smiling bashfully. "Thank you, that's really good to hear." She cleared her throat. "Now, we should get back to cooking before the food burns."

"Oh crap!" Hop bolted away from Alira to rush over to his pot, making Alira giggle as she returned to her own whilst ignoring how warm her ears were. She shifted when a brief cold breeze blew by her, making her glance around with narrow eyes before returning to tending her pot. That's strange, it's almost summer and yet there are cold breezes like that… Hm.