THEME SONG: Washu no Komori Uta (Washu's Lullaby) – Tenchi Muyo!


"What does she think she's doing?" growled Todd angrily, as the small girl surrounded by flames sank to the ground.

"ERIN!" coughed Mia, with her hands by her mouth. She was the only one still calling, as the thick, curling smoke had infiltrated everyone else's throats. She sprinted to the side, so that she was immediately parallel to the only gap in the tight semi-circle of flames. Gary and Brock joined her a split second afterwards.

"Erin, it's okay… walk towards my voice!" Mia continued to call. Erin raised her head and looked around – it was obvious she couldn't see her real surroundings. Mia frowned. "We've gotta get closer," she murmured.

"You're crazy," growled Gary. "There's no way you're going near those flames!" The girl completely ignored him, as she cautiously began to walk towards the heart of the fire, wincing as the embers and smoke swept against her in waves.

"Erin!" she called again, now she was closer. "I can't come any further, it's okay! Just walk towards my voice!" Erin slowly got to her feet, and took a couple of equally slow steps forward, fingers outstretched hesitantly. When her fingers came in contact with nothing but the burning flames, Erin whimpered and retreated.

Mia groaned – then a coughing fit overwhelmed her as a sudden malicious breeze blew billows upon billows of smoke into her lungs. From somewhere behind her, Gary growled again, and there was the familiar sound of a Pokéball being maximised. Gary kissed the ball twice, hurriedly.

"Swift! Fetch!" bellowed Gary, pointing in front of him. Mia stared around in puzzlement, and then squeaked and ducked as a huge Pidgeot swooped over her head. With powerful pumping of its wings, the Pidgeot flew above the reach of the hungry blaze, then dived into the inferno, purposefully, its powerful wings sending up clouds of shining embers.

In a split second, Swift appeared again in the orange-choked sky, holding what looked like a limp rag doll in its talons. The figure shone all over with a faint blue hue, and was flickering in and out, resembling a bad television signal.

A ferocious wind tore the sky, knocking Mia straight off her feet, and buffeting the large bird type around, dangerously. Sparks darted from Pikachu's cheeks as her exceptional hearing picked heard the wind's undertone: a sharp and wailing scream of anguish that wasn't coming from Erin. An arm of fire with apparent claws stretched from the tip of the flames and latched on to Swift's left wing, making the Pidgeot squawk in pain and surprise. Its talons visibly seized up, and the blue-shimmering figure of Erin was separated from the bird.

She seemed to hang suspended for a moment, before turning slowly upside down as she started to fall. Swift tried to get underneath to catch her again, but its burnt wing wouldn't flap, and it was taken all its strength to remain still in the air. Grunting, Gary returned it.

"Ash! Call out a Flying Pokémon!" he commanded, and Ash touched one of his Pokéballs lightly.

"I've only got Noctowl, and she won't be able to carry Erin!"

"We just need something to slow her down!"

"Ditto retain their own strength when they transform," Duplica murmured, through gritted teeth. "One of mine transformed wouldn't even be able to slow her!" Ash nodded, and immediately, the evolved form of Hoothoot appeared out of the warm, red light, and headed upwards.

Noctowl grabbed at Erin's clothing with her sharp talons and hoisted the girl upwards a few centimetres, before dropping her again with an exhausted caw a few metres above Mia's head.

Mia's first instinct was to catch her free-falling friend, but before the realisation that Erin wasn't as light as she looked hit her, Erin herself did, with an unsettling cracking sound, snapping awake from her faint with a surprised groan. She stopped flashing in and out, and the unearthly blue tinge was sucked into her pendant, leaving her looking relatively normal once more.

"Erin darling, I'm glad you're alive… but could you GET OFFA ME!" exclaimed Mia, her face paling. Erin groaned, and rolled sideways off her friend.

"Sorry," she winced. "Yeowch I feel bruised all over…"

"I know how you feel," Mia mumbled, as she tried to sit up. "There is something definitely wrong with my shoulder…"

Trish was the first person to reach them, and she helped them to their feet. Erin glanced at Mia's shoulder, which she was clutching protectively. Her face was still very white, and even though she made no noise, it was obvious that whatever it was, it was paining her immensely.

"You've dislocated your shoulder," Erin stated, worriedly, swaying woozily herself as she raised herself up on her knees. Jesse and James wandered over; the rest were all trying to put out the remnants of the fire.

"That'll heal completely in a few days time," Jesse remarked, in a bored fashion. Trish shrugged.

"We ARE in the Pokémon world…"

"Of course," snapped Jesse. "How do you think James and I are still alive?"

Suddenly, they were pummeled by the strange wind again, as the flames were fanned even higher. Erin's eyes grew large and her mouth hung open.

"Ohmigod…" she breathed. "I can see it now… I was in that?" Mia nodded wordlessly, as they watched the fire seemingly collapse in on itself. Within a few seconds, there was nothing left but a large patch of soot and ash. Warily, the Trainers recalled their Pokémon. Tracey tossed Azumarril's Pokéball up, and caught it again, minimising it.

"Whoever we're playing against in this game, is playing for keeps," he said grimly, as he watched Michelle fashion a sling for Mia, whilst Erin as screaming at the top of her lungs as Brock applied something to her numerous burns.

"This is no game Tracey," growled Rachel, startling him out of his reverie. "Erin could have DIED today, and she's burnt all over, Mia is badly injured – AND Team Rocket and Trish are slightly burnt." The blonde shook her head. "This isn't a game. This is… this is…"

"Scary?" Richie supplied, quietly. She looked up and gave him a half-smile.

"Yes…" she said softly, still staring Richie in the eyes. "It's scary."

Less than five metres away, Sarah stood watching the two of them, at a time where the clique 'lost in each-others eyes' would be perfectly suitable. An almost-unnoticeable violet twinge caught her eye as her pendant sparked without warning. An unexplainable lump formed in Sarah's throat – it felt like she were swallowing a slab of ice.

Something was wrong. It wasn't over. She knew; just like she knew that Erin was in danger.

And there seemed something very, very daunting to her about Rachel and Richie, being 'lost-in-each-others-eyes'…

~*~

The blue biro nib etched its way violently down the old wood, as Author screamed to herself, and dragged her pen down her desk in rage.

All that, and nothing to show for it but a buggered-up shoulder and a few burns?

She should be dead, she should be gone and the next stage should be in preparation.

They were in her story. She called the shots. They only existed for her to manipulate, to control and to kill.

Still growling to herself, Author crossed the room, and crawled into her bed, ignoring the blood-red pendant that still hung in place around her neck. She curled up into a ball under the covers, and began to cry softly.

"But when you're under the covers, the monster can't get you…"

~*~

"Sarah, are you sure we don't need a look-out?" Ash asked for the billionth time. And for the billionth time, Sarah impatiently nodded.

"But won't we let our guards down when we sleep?" Rachel asked Sarah, who shrugged.

"I just get this really strong feeling… the phrase 'but when you're under the covers, the monster can't get you' keeps coming into my head. After all," she shrugged, "I think whoever's doing this has to sleep sometimes as well!" There was a murmur from the rest of the group.

"Someone's going to have one of those dreams tonight," Erin warned, from where she was holding an ice-pack someone had magically pulled out of their pockets for her on one of her more severe burns. She looked around nervously. "Don't let them scare you, okay guys?" Everyone nodded.

The campsite was a large circle of tents, with the authors in pairs in their colour-coded abodes; Duplica and Misty sharing; Tracey sharing with Gary (as much as Karlie protested); Todd sharing with Richie, and Ash sharing with Brock. Team Rocket argued they were used to sleeping rough, so disappeared up some tree. Choruses of 'goodnight' filled the small clearing, with it taking almost a full ten minutes for each person to wish goodnight to the others. Finally, Michelle put a stop to it by yelling "GOODNIGHT EVERYBODY!"

"That thing's gonna cut off the blood circulation to your brain," Erin warned, as she and Karlie settled down in the blue and orange tent, lit only with the light of their two torches and the dying embers of the small campfire outside that had cooked their dinner.

Karlie lightly touched her bandana, grinning.

"Just cos you ain't got one!" she quipped as she lay down on the pre-made bed in the orange half of the tent. Erin made a face and rolled her eyes.

"Too late, it already has. Why would I want one again Karlie?" she asked. Karlie shrugged, turning off her torch with a click.

"Dunno. Hmmm… anyway, oyasumi!" Erin switched her torch as well.

"Oyasumi," she yawned, laying down gingerly.

Smiling to herself, Karlie closed her eyes, eagerly awaiting yumes-de-Kenji, when a shuffling sound from the other side of the tent made her eyes snap open.

"What is it?" she whispered to her tossing-and-turning companion. "Is it hard to lie on those burns?"

"No," Erin murmured. "In fact I can barely feel them. They're like carpet burns now."

"Then why on Earth do you keep moving around?" Karlie asked irritably. There was a small silence from the other side. "Rin?"

"I can't get to sleep without… without… um…"

"Without what?"

"Kaz can I borrow the bandana?"

"Wha? NO!" Karlie exclaimed immediately, raising her hands to her head protectively.

"Aw c'mon, I just need to hold it… I need to like, have a bit of... fabric... just in my hand, you know?"

"Um, WHY?!" She was answered by yet more silence. "ERIN?!"

"Please?"

"Not until you tell me why godammit!"

"…"

"That does it," snapped Karlie, as she crawled across the short distance to Erin's side, and grabbed her tinkling-noised teddy-bear. "Tell me why or Lucy-Bear gets it!" Erin gasped.

"You fiend! You wouldn't!"

"I would."

"You wouldn't!"

"Oh yes, I would," smirked Karlie in the darkness. Growling, Erin attempted to reach for Karlie's own bear, but only succeeded in whacking her head against something.

The supporting pole of the tent.

The teddies forgotten, the two girls yelped and clutched each other as the yards of canvas collapsed all around them, with a breezy, flopping motion. The breeze from this alerted Trish, who was alone in the tent immediately parallel. Sleepily, she stuck her dark-haired head out of the flap, and sighed as she saw Karlie's disheveled, bandana-less head appear from underneath the subsided tent opposite, and could hear Erin whimpering about having the torches sticking in her back.

A few minutes later, Trish was trying to get to sleep with her pillow over her head, as Karlie and Erin squabbled in the red half of her tent about who was taking more than their fair share of the red blanket.

But in one of the other tents, someone was dreaming.

They were dreaming, but it wasn't a very strange dream.

They were falling – free-falling through the sky, skimming the side of a rocky cliff, and feeling each and every sharp edged stone dig deeply into their skin.

No, it wasn't a very unusual dream – everyone has dreams when they feel as if they're falling. The kind where they always wake up before they land.

But this person wasn't going to be so lucky.