Stella awakened to the tickle of a water droplet gently landing on her cheek from above. She lazily swatted at her cheek in response and rolled over onto her back. "Just five more minutes grandma," she yawned.

But something felt unusual to Stella. Her bed was much harder than she expected, and she felt numb all over; a pins-and-needles feeling enveloped her body, making it tough to move.

Stella slowly opened her eyes and was immediately confused. Instead of in her room, she was in a huge dark cavern, with the only source of light coming a hole far above her. She seemed to be on a small island in the middle of the cave, surrounded by a moat of water. As she looked up, another droplet of water dripped down from above and landed on her face between her eyes.

Though she recognized that she was in a cave, Stella's mind fel and the world she saw around her fel t. Almos - l i k e. "Where am I...?" Stella questioned as she wiped the water off her face with her hand. As she pulled her hand away from her face, she had a new question.

There was something wrong with her hand. More specifically, she didn't have one. Her hand was no more and was instead replaced by a furry light brown paw. Stella flipped her brown paw over slowly in bewilderment and was caught off guard by the pink toe pads located on the bottom of it. She again quickly flipped her brown paw over and over, back and forth multiple times in surprise. "What… What's happening?"

She was right by the water's edge, so even though she was laid sideways, she only had to nudge herself towards it slightly to see her reflection. Or rather, the lack of her reflection. She didn't see herself, but rather the reflection of a curious-looking eevee with bright green eyes staring back at her.

Stella wasn't sure what to make of the reflection. Stella blinked. The eevee blinked back. "Am I…?" Stella raised her hand... err rather paw. The eevee raised its paw too. Stella moved her paw onto her head. The eevee did the same. Stella and the eevee both poked at the large ears on top of their heads. Stella recoiled in disbelief when she finally understood her situation. "Am I… an eevee? I… I must be dreaming."

It explained why Stella felt numb, why everything seemed hazy in her mind, and more importantly, why she was a pokémon. So she stuck to that explanation.

"It's not every day you have a dream where you turn into a pokémon. Maybe I should take advantage of it and explore a bit," Stella thought to herself. Her head was getting foggier, so she wasn't certain how much longer the dream would last.

Stella tried to roll over and stand up, but struggled immensely before giving up and falling onto her side. Her legs were still numb and wouldn't obey her properly.

Because Stella couldn't move around too much, she slightly nudged herself even closer towards the water's edge where she could get a somewhat better angle of her reflection.

She couldn't feel them, but she could see her paws on her other limbs, the large tuft of cream-colored fur around her neck, and a large bushy tail with a wavy cream-colored tip. She also noticed something green around her neck, but her mind became too murky and she quite couldn't make sense of it. Her vision wasn't completely clear and the cave around her was starting to fizzle out.

Before the dream could give out, Stella made another attempt at getting up. This time she was able to awkwardly stand on all fours for a second before collapsing and roughly falling onto her side. Her mind finally gave out and took her into darkness as her consciousness faded away.

But just before dropping into a deeper sleep, she swore she could hear a distant voice. "There's someone here!"


After some time, Stella awoke again to the gentle pitter patter of rain and the soft crackling of a campfire. Opening her eyes again, she could see that she was covered by a soft blanket and laid in front of a campfire. But immediately, she could tell that she was still dreaming. She still felt somewhat numb, she found herself in another unfamiliar cave, and looking down at herself, she could easily see that she was still an eevee.

However this time, Stella felt much more lucid with her numbness and stiffness nearly gone. This came with the downside that she could feel her body. Being transformed into something non-human is a surreal experience, and getting used to that new body is not easy. For Stella, she was overloaded by sensory stimuli from the environment around her. The rain and campfire sounded just slightly too loud for her large eevee ears, her legs felt small and awkward to move around with, and her eyes were wide and had different depth perception than her human eyes, making it hard to judge distance. Everything together left her a little dizzy and with a moderate headache.

Despite the bizarre feelings assaulting Stella's senses, she looked around the new cave she found herself in. To her left she could see an opening to a rainy forest with enormous thick-trunked trees. The rain didn't seem too strong and was only a light dizzle at this point. By the cave entrance, she could see a giant quilava who was laid down and wearing a plain green scarf. They were staring out into the rainy forest. Across the campfire, there was a giant sleeping nidorina, who wore an identical green scarf. Just to the nidorina's side, were two bags.

Stella had multiple questions. "Why are they both so big?" They were both just slightly larger than her! But then after glancing at the abnormally huge trees outside the cave, Stella quickly realized something. They weren't big, she was just small! The trees outside seemed much larger than normal and so did both pokémon. Stella would naturally be smaller than most other pokémon as an eevee. If she were a human, she'd tower over both of them.

"Where is their trainer?" With the two bags to the side of the sleeping nidorina, Stella assumed that their trainer was somewhere nearby. Unless the two bags belonged to the two pokémon? Stella dismissed the idea. She'd never known any pokémon to use bags before. Though this was a dream, maybe things could be different than she expected.

"Why am I still dreaming?" Stella heard about people having multiple dreams in the same night, sometimes even leaving a dream for a bit before coming back to it. But this was extremely weird, she was sure she would have woken up when her mind faded out before.

While pondering over all of her questions, Stella's alienation from her body became less severe and her senses weren't as overloaded anymore. She finally decided to get up and stand on her legs. She wanted to explore more of what this dream had to offer.

Stella initially tried standing up on her hind legs before falling over with a certain degree of inelegance. It took her a moment before remembering that she was an eevee now; she'd have to stand on all fours instead of on two feet. Stella struggled slightly, but found it much easier this time to stay standing on all fours.

As she got up though, the quilava heard her, perking his head up and turning around. "Oh, you're awake!" He then got up and started walking towards Stella.

Stella was about to reply when she realized. "Wait, did that quilava just talk?"

As they approached Stella, they asked, "Are you doing okay? We found you passed out in the depths of this cave."

Stella completely ignored the quilava. She was dumbstruck with bewilderment. She knew dreams could get pretty weird, but a talking pokémon? That was new to her.

"Uh… hello?" The quilava's comment brought Stella back to reality, or at least, the reality of the dream. They had their head tilted and a concerned look on their face. "You okay there eevee?"

"Eevee?" Stella questioned in her head. "Right..." Stella was an eevee now. Maybe it explained why she could understand the quilava in front of her. After all, pokémon can understand other pokémon.

Stella considered replying, but before she could, she lost her footing. Her legs buckled and she stumbled to the ground. Luckily, the quilava swiftly caught Stella, diving between her legs and catching her with his head. He then slowly backed up and gently lowered Stella to the floor so that she was laid on her side again.

"Oh man, you must be exhausted!" The quilava ran over to one of the bags on the floor, rummaged through it, and pulled out an apple, carrying it over to Stella in his mouth. The quilava dropped the apple in front of Stella's mouth and held it in place with his paws to make it easier for her to eat. "Try this, you seem like you're starving."

They were right. One sniff of the apple and Stella immediately felt her stomach churn. She started taking little nibbles at first, but quickly started taking in larger and larger bites. As Stella started to eat more, the quilava let go of the apple and Stella started using her paws to hold the apple up to her mouth. Stella was absolutely delighted! Maybe her new tongue and body had a strong preference for apples. Or perhaps dream fruit just hits differently. Either way, it was beyond delicious, Stella had never tasted a better apple, or even fruit for that matter in her entire life.

"Wow, you sure are hungry," the quilava said, watching Stella eat.

"Thank you," Stella said after finishing the apple. Though her voice sounded raspy since she hadn't used it yet. She cleared her throat and spoke again, "That was amazingly delicious."

"Really?" The quilava tilted their head to convey their confusion. "A normal apple like that? Well, I guess everything tastes amazing when you're hungry. I get the same way when I'm hungry. Feeling any better?"

"Yeah... A little." Stella was surprised at how hungry she was considering that this was a dream. Her headache wasn't completely gone, but she immediately felt more clear-minded and more energetic after eating. "Seriously though, thanks."

"Aw, no problem." The quilava sat down next to Stella. "I'm Cress by the way."

"Stella. My name is Stella."

Stella couldn't believe she was talking to a pokémon. Though with a dream she supposed, anything was possible. It might be worth asking this quilava a few questions to help her figure out what was going on and where she was.

"Where am I?" Stella asked.

"Oh. Uh… we're in a small cave just about a few kilometers from Collis Village. My partner and I found you passed out in the deepest chamber of the cave here," Cress responded. He gestured to a passage behind him that led deeper into the cave.

Stella wasn't initially sure what Cress meant. But then she remembered the voice that she heard earlier when she passed out in the chamber with the small moat. "There's someone here!" That was Cress's voice. "So maybe this is a continuation of the same dream," Stella thought.

"I saw you collapse just as I entered the chamber, so I thought you had hurt yourself somehow, but you seem to be doing pretty fine." Cress said. "I also wanted to ask though, what were you doing down there?" he asked. But upon noticing Stella was hesitant to speak, quickly followed up with, "Sorry if it's none of my business. I- I just found it weird how you ended up down there and was just curious."

"Oh… No it's fine." Stella replied. Though she wasn't sure about it at first, Cress seemed trustworthy. He asked a lot of questions, but he offered Stella food and supposedly tried helping her after finding her passed out. Maybe he really was just that curious, though Cress's question left Stella with a puzzled look on her face.

Stella could've easily told Cress that she fell asleep and mysteriously woke up in the cave since it wasn't actually lying. But there was a problem… Stella couldn't remember falling asleep. There was a gap in her memory. She was looking through photo albums with her grandma. Her grandma then left the room… But she couldn't remember anything past that.

Cress interrupted Stella's train of thought. "Something wrong?" Before quickly following up with, "Sorry if I'm being pushy."

"No no it's fine. You aren't being too pushy. It's just that... I'm not exactly sure how I got here." Why couldn't she remember? She could remember the rest of her day perfectly, up until that moment.

"Huh. That's weird. Maybe you bumped your head or something?" Cress offered.

"No, I don't think so." Stella was feeling slightly better so she tried to get up again so that she wasn't lying on the ground. "My head doesn't hurt or anything." That however, wasn't completely true. Despite Stella feeling slightly more acclimated to her senses and feeling less hungry after eating, she still felt a little dizzy.

"Oh that's good. Need any help getting up though?" The quilava offered as he watched Stella struggle.

"No thanks, I'm fine." Stella got up off the ground without issue this time, but discovered that she could simply sit in place on all fours because she was a quadruped. "Huh. That's neat," Stella commented out loud.

"What is?" Cress asked with a tilted head.

"Oh nothing." It would've been pretty awkward for her to explain that she found sitting as an eevee to be interesting because she was actually a human turned into a pokémon. Having four legs was a new experience to her.

"Oh, uh… okay then." Cress replied, unsure what to make of the strange eevee. "Well anyways, once the rain dies out, we're heading out to Collis Village. I don't know if you live by here or anything, but we can take you along with us if you'd like. Though I'm guessing you don't live in Collis Village. I don't recognize the handiwork of your scarf from anyone there."

"Scarf?" Stella asked. Stella looked down at her neck. Sure enough, there was a patterned green scarf wrapped around her neck, with a knot at the front. She lifted the front part of it with her paw so she could see the design better. It was a light and dark green striped scarf with a gradient melding the light and dark green color together at some points. The pattern seemed familiar to Stella, but where has she seen it…

Stella's mind suddenly sparked like fireworks. She could remember her skitty helping her find the mysterious box with the same scarf inside. Then… the scarf attacked her? That couldn't be right. That was real-life. Right? Scarfs don't attack people unless it was maybe moved by a ghost-type or a psychic-type playing a prank on her. But even then, Stella could explicitly remember it enveloping her face and forcing her to fall asleep. From Stella's perspective, it definitely seemed like the scarf did all that on it's own. Maybe she was misremembering things and that was just another part of her dream?

"Uh... Stella?" Cress asked, pulling Stella out of her thoughts again.

"Huh?" Stella replied in a flustered manner.

"You uh... you good there?" Cress asked. "You're just kinda... staring."

"Sorry. I'm just trying to remember how I got here exactly. Though I think it might have something to do with this scarf."

Stella didn't like the idea of a scarf that had attacked her staying on her neck, so she slipped her paw between her neck and the scarf knot, and started pulling on it to take it off. But it was too tight.

While Stella began to tug the scarf, Cress asked, "What do you mean that it has something to do with your scarf? That's pretty weird. But hey, need any help?"

"Yeah, can you help here?" Stella asked, still tugging on the scarf. "I think it's stuck on me.

"Stuck?" Cress asked as he approached Stella. "Doesn't look like it's on too tight," Cress said, commenting on the knot. Cress moved their paw up to Stella's neck to work on the knot, but Stella flinched at the touch of Cress's paw. She was feeling more normal, (at least, as normal as one could be in a different body) but her sense of touch was still sensitive.

"Oh sorry, did I do something wrong?" Cress asked.

"No no no, it was just unexpected. Sorry," Stella replied.

After slipping their hand between Stella's neck and the scarf, Cress started pulling. "Okay, wow. This is really tight." Cress started pulling even harder.

"Hey!" Stella exclaimed, "You're pulling too hard!" She started gasping for air and was seemingly choking.

"Oh sorry Stella," Cress apologized, releasing their grip on the scarf. "I didn't realize I was pulling that hard."

Stella sighed with a deep breath. "That's okay."

"But wow," Cress said. "Your scarf really is on tight. It doesn't even look like it's on tight at all. And you said it had something to do with how you got here?"

A new voice interrupted the two. "Need some help?"

Stella and Cress both turned to the sound of the new voice. It came from the nidorina who was previously sleeping and was now getting up. Stella couldn't help but feel slightly intimidated by the nidorina, mainly because she was not used to seeing such a large nidorina relative to her size.

"Oh, you're awake!" Cress exclaimed. "Talia, this is-"

"Stella," Tailia finished.

"How did you-?" Cress was about to ask.

"You just said her name Cress," Talia interrupted. "I was already awake for a bit and was listening to your conversation."

"Oh… Right. Anyways, Stella meet Talia, and Talia meet Stella!" Cress said, introducing the two.

"Uh... nice to meet you." Stella said, still slightly unsure about the nidorina.

"Likewise. Good to see that you are doing better. When we found you, you were out like a light. Though now, let's see about getting that scarf off of you," Talia said as they approached Stella. "It's hard with paws, but I think I should be able to untie it with my claws."

Stella hesitated at first, unsure of the giant nidorina approaching her, but Talia seemed to be okay with Cress, so Stella decided to trust Talia. After all, it was a dream, what was the worst that could happen? Talia walked up to Stella, and crouched down slightly to Stella's height so she could try and untie the scarf. Talia worked silently for a minute or two, but to no avail. "Strange…" Talia muttered.

"What is?" Stella asked.

Talia stopped working on the scarf. "There's some unnatural force holding the scarf knot together. Even if I dig my claws into the knot, the fabric won't even budge."

"So it's stuck on me?"

Talia shrugged. "I guess so... But you said it had something to do with how you got here?"

Stella explained to Cress and Talia about how she was at home when the scarf apparently attacked and knocked her out, leaving her confused when she woke up in the cave, far away from home. However, she conveniently left out the little detail that she used to be human.

"Hmmm…" Talia hummed with closed eyes and a pensive look.

"Any ideas Talia?" Cress began, "because I have none. Never heard of a scarf attaching itself onto someone before."

"No. Neither have I..." Talia replied as she turned to and stared directly at Stella.

Stella was visibly uncomfortable from Talia's staring, taking a step back in response. "Uhhh..."

Talia's eyes lit up when she saw Stella's discomfort. "Sorry for staring, just thinking here. Though I should ask. The scarf. It isn't causing you any discomfort or anything, right?"

Stella shifted in place. "I don't think so... It actually feels kinda comfortable," Stella replied. As much as she was concerned about it's true nature, it was lightweight, felt comfortable against her fur, and seemed to keep her somewhat warm considering the cold rainy weather.

"I'll tell you what then." Talia replied, "Cress and I were on our way back to Collis Village before we found you. Your scarf seems inert and I don't think any more guessing will help us learn more about it. Since I'm guessing you're pretty far from home, you probably don't have a place to stay either. Want to come with us? It's just a one to two hour trek back, though we have to leave soon. We found you this morning, but you've been unconscious for a while, so it's now late afternoon." Talia took a glance outside, where the rain was only drizzling. "Luckily it seems like it's going to stop raining in a bit, so we can leave now and get there before the sun goes down. How about it?"

Should she? It's true that Stella didn't have anywhere else to go. She had no sense of place in this strange dream world, and a mysterious scarf that was stuck to her. Maybe staying with them might help her answer some of her questions. Plus, she thought, it might be fun to explore more of this dream world.

"Sure, why not." Stella replied.


The trio had been trekking mostly in silence through the forest for some time, though Stella asked Cress and Talia a few questions along the way. Mainly who they were. They explained that they were part of a small mystery dungeon survey team. Their job was to go and scout out the layout of these anomalous structures that were scattered throughout the world, though they spared Stella the details of what went into that exactly. They happened to find Stella on a return from one of their expeditions.

Stella also asked a bit about Collis Village, and from the way it was described to her, Stella gathered that this weird world only had pokémon and no human beings. A civilization of only pokémon? Was her mind really coming up with all of this? She had been walking for only about an hour now, so maybe she was just having a really long, really vivid dream. Though she wasn't certain if it had been that long. Or maybe it was all real. Stella shook the idea off. She would know soon enough if she woke up soon. Or didn't.

But it was hard for Stella to keep track of time because as they continued to trek, Stella lost her mind amongst the trees, becoming enthralled with the environment around her, leaving time as just an afterthought. The setting sun shone a soft orange hue through the towering spruce trees surrounding her, illuminating a few blips of pollen and dust in the air, and the few leaves that flittered down from above. The crunching of mulch and dry leaves under her bare paws was a fun new feeling, as she wasn't used to walking in the woods barefoot, along with the satisfying crunch sound that came with every step she took. It was all very relaxing to Stella's senses. Though she had been camping once before, Stella never spent a lot of time in nature. Now she was the nature. She wanted to explore these woods and get lost in them, but a small voice in the back of her head told her that would probably be a bad idea.

But beyond the small sounds they made while walking, one of the things that surprised Stella the most walking through the woods was the complete lack of sound. She was used to hearing noise constantly in the city. Cars driving outside, the construction site down the block; even little things like the buzzing of the heater in the apartment, or the neighbors shuffling around next door. But in the forest, she could only hear the crunch of leaves under her's, Cress's, and Talia's feet. And that was it. No other ambient noise. Even while they were making noise from walking, the lack of ambient noise was ironically deafening to an urban dweller like Stella. She'd never felt such serenity in a long time.

As they made their way through the woods, the trio passed over a small river. As they passed over, Stella followed the flow of water with her eyes towards her left where, through the trees, there was a large clearing with green grass, and purple and orange flowers. The river passed around the edge of the clearing, leaving it uncut in the middle. It was a sharp contrast from the brown mulch and leaf littered floors the rest of the forest had to offer. It gently inclined upwards to a hill, making it seem like it led directly into the setting sun. There seemed to be no trees beyond the hill, so perhaps...

"Hey, you guys said we're on a mountain, right?" Stella asked.

Cress, who was at the lead, turned around and replied, "Yeah, why do you a-"

But before he could finish, Stella sprinted away from the cover of the trees off into the open clearing. "Hey!" Cress yelled. "Where are you going!?"

Stella sprinted through the flowers until she reached the edge of the clearing, to the top of the hill where she stumbled and fell over; Stella still wasn't completely used to her legs. "Ow..." Stella muttered. But when she got back up and lifted her head, she froze at the awe-inspiring sight.

Before her was a vast mountain valley that stretched out for miles and miles to her left and right. Across the chasm was another mountain range, backed by the descending sun which shined over the mountain tops. She was so high up, the clouds were both above her in the sky, and down in the valley below where they blanketed the landscape. The clouds below looked like thick vanilla ice cream, with the golden hue of the setting sun glazing over the clouds like caramel. The clouds higher up were wispier and looked pink from the sunset sky, like stretched-out cotton candy. She was so close to them, she swore she could reach out and touch the lofty cotton puffs.

The wind shifted through her fur, making her feel light and airy like the clouds, like any troubles or worries she might have had were washed away. This feeling of serenity... She wasn't sure if this was real or not anymore. The sight was too beautiful to be made up by her mind, but it was also too breathtaking to be real. Whatever the case, she was happy that she was there, witnessing it.

After what felt like an eternity of peace, Stella could hear running footsteps rustle through the grass behind her. "Hey Stella! What's this all about?" Cress asked.

As Stella turned, she could see Cress's confused face, with Talia just several meters behind him, slowly making her way through the field of flowers.

Stella just smiled back. And then snorted. And then started giggling. And then she started laughing! Stella let herself fall over and roll down the hill into the field of flowers, picking up dirt, petals and blades of grass in her fur, laughing all the way down with a child-like glee! Stella stopped rolling after a moment, landing on her back next to where Talia was standing.

Talia smirked. "Having fun then?"

"No. It's just..." Stella drifted off with her words for a second, looking over to where a somewhat confused Cress was standing. "This is an awesome place!" Stella exclaimed as she then got up and turned around, looking at all of the flowers around her. "It's just a beautiful view really. Sorry. That was really out of line for me."

"No, it's fine Stella. It really is a nice view. Though I guess when you've seen it several times already, it quickly loses its charm..." Talia looked over to where the sun was setting. Cress had turned around and was taking in the sight too. "Sometimes we take these sorts of simple things for granted, so I'm glad that you appreciate it. You want to stay here for a bit longer, or are you good to go? Collis Village is just around the corner."

Stella thought about it for a moment, looking back towards the sunset. "Yeah, I'm good," Stella replied before standing back up. "Let's go!"

Just then, Cress jogged down the hill, rejoining the two. "I haven't been here in a bit, but I can see what you mean Stella. I guess that's why they call this place Serenity Peak."

"Serenity Peak?" Stella asked as the trio began to walk back across the clearing of flowers.

Cress nodded. "They call it that because there aren't many pokémon who live on this mountain. So it's usually really quiet," Cress replied as the trio made their way back under the cover of the forest trees, towards Collis Village.