Chapter 14: Moonlight

She ran.

There was nothing else to do.

Feet pounding, sliding, sticky mud flying behind her. She heard them howling, baying to the moon. The mist had gone from her vision, but somehow…her mind felt hazy. She couldn't think, nothing seemed to compute. There was only the darkness…and terror. Mindless, primal terror, it kept her legs moving and her heart beating.

But not for long, said the eyes in the shadows.

How did mightyenas hunt? she asked herself, dimly. In packs…they selected a pokémon from the herd…the weak, sick, too old, too young…separated them from the others. Hunted them down…went for the neck, crushing the trachea. How had she gotten separated? No, mustn't think, must run.

But not for long.

~*~*~

She skidded to a halt as the half-formed path ended, gray, sloppy mud dripping off her. She panted, sucking air into her abused lungs, the muscles in her legs aching like she'd never felt. She heard their snarls, the growling surrounding her. She whirled; the red eyes glowed from everywhere. In the scabby trees, from under the filthy plants and in front of her, paw deep in the mud that caked their fur. She twitched with terror, her mind locked, frozen. All she could see was monochrome, dotted with the pack's scarlet eyes.

She felt something struggle in her arms as the mightyenas closed in, jaws slavering. The barely recognizable electrike leapt from her and landed with a squelch in the mire. It shook itself and growled at the pack, its alto voice sounding pitiful in contrast with the wolf pokémons' grinding baritone snarls. It tried to perform an electric attack, but the mud all around it prevented anything more dangerous than a few sparks.

The lead mightyena seemed to grin at Nori. " Mi—this—tyeh—best you can—yen—do?" Nori was dimly aware that her translator was not working right—must've been the mud—but she was having trouble focusing on anything other than the wolf pokémon's teeth. He growled at the electrike and cuffed it, hard, sending it sprawling into the mud. It lay there, unmoving.

Something within her seemed to snap. A string, drawn to its limit, breaking at the sight of the abused electrike, and the realization that she was about to die. She pressed the releases on three of the pokéballs on her belt, before pulling out a concealed hunting knife. Agni, Bitey and Behemoth appeared, the former two shrieking or growling a war cry.

"You wanna' fight? This is one stantler who isn't going down easy!"

The pack snarled at her and the pokémon before lunging as one. Nori remembered seizing a handful of gray fur and plunging her knife into it. There was a burst of blue heat, and then…darkness.

~*~*~

She was falling, her hair streaming out behind her as she reached terminal velocity. Tears leaked from her eyes as the air rushed past them. She closed her eyes, twisted her spine like a cat and turned onto her back. All around her was blackness…she had no idea where the ground was, how long she had before she was nothing but a crimson stain on some rocks.

Abruptly she slowed, felt feather-light as she gently touched the ground and lay there. She was aware of surface beneath her back, beneath her spread-eagled limbs, but she knew there was nothing there. Nothing but black in every direction. There was no concept of space, of anything. Simply nothing.

In the distance there was a glow. She watched it, bored, as it came closer.

At first it was like a star, light without a shape. It began to change, then, flicking from form to form so fast as to be barely recognizable.

Then it settled on one.

It glowed with a cold, pale radiance, so white against the darkness that it would have made snow look gray. Its ice-blue eyes and black nose held its only coloring. It settled back on its haunches next to her, tufted tail flicking idly. So like a mightyena, but…not.

"You have been foolish."

Its mouth did not move, but the words were there, in her mind, as if she had just heard them.

"I know," she said, her mind simply accepting the apparition. It seemed to be beyond analysis, now.

"You are not dead. This is most fortunate. You must take care not to risk yourself again."

A flicker of thought. "Why?"

"You are important."

She stared, her dulled mind struggling to determine how this could be so.

"Who are you?"

"I do not have a name. They are a human invention. Meaningless words. A sign of your invented individualism. There are things that are so much more…distinctive."

"I don't understand."

"It is difficult to, in this place."

"Why am I important?"

"Important is the wrong word. Convenient is closer to what is meant. You are alive at the right time and believe in the right things. This makes you useful to us."

"Why me, then?"

"A random selection. You are nothing special. There are others like you. You could be replaced in an instant."

She watched the white animal, trying to make sense of it all, and then she was falling again, gently, as if she was merely floating down a river channel.

"Do not risk yourself again. We have expended far too much energy locating and monitoring you for you to die now…"

As the words died away, she dropped again, falling faster and faster.

~*~*~

Nori awoke—or perhaps 'regained consciousness' was more appropriate—to the sensation of something licking the side of her face. She groaned and rolled over onto her back before sitting up, expecting her entire left side to be sticky with yet more mud. She looked around in disbelief as all the mud she could see had hardened, its dusty surface riddled with cracks. The muck that she had been coated with during her trek through the swamp had dried also, and crumbled with every move she made.

More perplexing were the bloodstains on her clothes from wounds she didn't have. Her tank top was torn in a remarkably jaw-like pattern, and there was blood to support that inference, but no pain, no severe lacerations…

Oh dear. Just scar tissue.

She ran a hand over the left side of her abdomen, where she had apparently been bitten, then her collarbone, which sported a set of scars that felt a lot like a claw raking. There was a similar set high on the outside of her right thigh, judging by the tearing and bloodstains on her shorts.

A whine from her right brought her back to the outside world. She glanced over to see Bitey, who was looking extremely concerned.

"What happened?" they said to each other at the same time.

"Migh! You mean you don't know?" said Bitey.

"All I remember is stabbing something, and…and then…fire?"

"That was me," said Agni, scratching at the hard mud, wings crossed in front of her. "I got really mad, and…I dunno. There was a…burst of flame. I'm sure I killed a couple of them, but…"

They glanced around, the scene conspicuously free of mightyena bodies.

"This situation is extremely perplexing," said Behemoth, hovering delicately. "I recall seeing you all with considerable tissue damage, and myself with a severe drop in energy. I appear to have had a lapse in memory, however, as the next item I can remember is you sitting up, Nori."

"I saw…I remember something. Like I was dreaming…" said Bitey, quietly. "It was…white…and it was saying things…but I don't remember what."

Nori blinked. "Hold on, why does that sound familiar to me…?"

Agni looked at them. "Well, I don't know what you two are talking about. I didn't dream about anything, white or no."

"It is the same with me," said Behemoth.

Nori sighed, massaging her temples. "Well, whatever…I think we'd better try and look for the others…I really don't know how we got separated in the first place." She glanced up at the sky; its vaguely grayish color and the low light suggested it was very early morning.

"Triii…"

Nori jumped slightly at the low, keening cry. She located its source, a lump of mud that, on closer inspection, was revealed to be the electrike from earlier. Whatever mysterious force had healed her and her pokémon had obviously passed over the electric pokémon. It would have been fine, were it not for its optical trauma. When the mightyena had slashed it, he had left three deep grooves in the right side of the electrike's face, one passing over its right eye. The eye in question seemed to be caked with blood and sealed shut.

Nori gently lifted the pup-like pokémon. It didn't protest, but seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness. She was considering her options when the sound of voices and footsteps reached her ears. She started walking, trying to find the source of the noise, her pokémon trailing after her.

"Hello? Who's there?" she called.

"Nori! It's Nori, you guys!"

There was the sound of foliage being trampled violently as five men took a shortcut through a patch of soaking, muddy trees and shrubs.

"Gods, Nori, are we glad we found y—" began Dom.

"Sweet gods, what happened?" said Kale, in apparent horror.

Nori glanced down at her mud-caked, torn and occasionally bloodied clothes, and the beaten electrike in her arms.

"Believe me when I say it's a weird. Effing. Story. In more urgent news, however, this electrike needs serious medical assistance."

"C'mon, then, this way," said Ace, cutting back through the trees.

"Is that the electrike from before? I saw you pick it up," said Dom.

"Yeah, it is."

"Really, what happened? Those mightyenas called the rest of the pack so we recalled the pokémon and ran for it, then all of a sudden we were running from nothing and you were gone."

"I'm serious, I don't know what happened. I was just…really, really scared. I couldn't think properly until the last second. And…I have this weird feeling that I'm supposed to be dead."

The silence that ensued was only broken by Fernando extracting a super potion from his backpack, which he offered to Nori. She shook the spray bottle, hearing the small amount of liquid that was left slosh around inside. Delicately, she squirted the healing potion onto the electrike's wounded face. It whined pitifully—the potions tended to sting—before lapsing into unconsciousness again, not looking much better.

"Damn."

"Yeah, the potions won't work sometimes on serious injuries like that…" Fernando sighed and returned the empty bottle to his bag.

"Where're we going, anyway?"

"While we were looking for you we found this house," said Kale, "there's this scary woman who lives there—ow!"

"Dude, you should really respect your elders," said Bull.

"Right," said Kale, rubbing his side. "Anyway, she's frightening and, like, the epitome of the cynic, but she offered to let us stay and rest up. Of course we kept going, saying we'd come back…we wanted to find you, first."

"It's just up over…here." Ace pointed, an unneeded gesture.

It was a stately house, a château that was violently out of place, and yet, somehow…meant to be there. It appeared to be on an island encircled by greenish water, the isle's banks littered with hanging trees. Willow fronds dipped into the almost imperceptibly flowing water, trailing lazily. A small plank bridge, girded with iron, joined the isle of green with the encircling stagnation of the marshes beyond. The lawns around the manor, hanging baskets of flowers and assorted trees were obviously in a state of neglect, but had somehow achieved a state of almost…wild beauty. The gardens of an abandoned palace, ivy slinking over every surface…

There was a woman in the stone archway of the front door, almost silhouetted by the flickering light beyond; tall, white-haired and dressed sternly in black. At first glance, her white hair gave the impression of an elderly lady, but upon closer examination she was quite young, perhaps in her early twenties. A sense of timelessness radiated from her, however…the eyes saw one thing while the brain insisted she was far older.

An ice sculpture in the dead of winter… you think I'm gone, but I'll be here, waiting… winter cold on summer's day… Nori gave a little shudder.

"Bienvenue à le château d'hiver…I'll be your tour guide this evening, take care not to touch anything, or I will break your fingers." She was smiling slightly as she said it, but it was a smile Nori associated more with predatory cats. She put her hands in her pockets. Her shirt was long-sleeved, a black turtleneck. Her pants resembled pajama bottoms in the way they hung loosely, trailing over her bare feet. Nori stared, wondering how anyone could possibly stand to wear such clothing in humid, sticky heat like this.

"So…I take it you're Nori," she said, fixing her with an intensely green gaze.

"Um…yes."

"You have some good friends, here." That same hard-eyed stare, revealing nothing…her hair seemed to stir as if moved by the breeze, but there was no wind in the swamp…

"Listen, this electrike—"

"All in good time. Come along." She turned on one heel, hair fanning out behind her. Nori noticed that her hair had one bit of color—a streak of crimson, blood red, at the back.

The château was built of stone, its floors worn smooth over time. Paintings covered the walls, the upright portrait canvasses hidden with sheets while the landscapes, gardens or pokémon were left uncovered. Their passage was illuminated by large, flickering black candles. They passed several rooms, furniture covered in similar white sheets to keep off the dust. They eventually reached a hall, dominated by a long dining table with matching chairs, perfectly positioned. They continued on, up a flight of stairs and into a hallway, carpeted with threadbare red velvet.

"Pick a room, any room, unless the furniture has blankets on it. Don't bother with those." As the guys dispersed, she looked at Nori. "You, girl. Come with me."

She turned, descending the stairs at the same, rapid pace, and cutting through the large hall. They emerged in what appeared to be a kitchen, the majority of it looking old and untouched. Only a small corner held the modern conveniences she was accustomed to: refrigerator, stove, sink…

The white-haired woman pulled a box that looked like a first aid kit out of a cupboard before setting it down on the counter. Pulling on a pair of latex gloves, she ordered, "Set him down on the table, there." She pointed, indicating a rickety-looking servant's table. Nori obeyed, setting the electrike down, gently. It lay there, limp and unresisting.

The woman felt the electrike's limbs, checking for breaks and listening attentively for any yelps or moans of pain.

"Hmm. Internal damage, fatigue…and then that eye…" she muttered, as if Nori wasn't even in the room. She gave a low, piercing whistle.

A moment later, a large, yellow spike-furred wolf appeared in the kitchen, trotting. Nori recognized him as a jolteon, a species not native to Hoenn.

"What's up? And who's she?" he asked, black eyes glancing toward her.

"My name's Nori," she said, starting to feel left out of the loop.

The woman glanced at her. "Oh…you've got one of those damn translators." She sighed and stared at the jolteon, silently. A moment later he trotted away, breaking into a run once he reached the hall if the sound of his claws on the stone was anything to go by.

"Am I missing something, here?" Nori asked.

Those hard, green eyes…like emeralds flecked with gold… "In my experience, the average person is missing a lot at any given time."

The jolteon reappeared with a large, fox-like pokémon in tow that Nori was having a hard time recalling the name of. She was brown and gold-colored, with short, drooping mustaches hanging from her snout. The two spoons she held, light purple but twisted like corkscrews…oh, right! Alakazams, they were called. Powerfully psychic…

The woman and the alakazam were having some sort of discussion judging by their locked stares and minute but constant changes in expression. Finally the pokémon raised her hands and a blue glow encircled the electrike, who lay unmoved. Tiny sparkles fell like snow, drifting gently onto the young pokémon, most settling on its injured eye but some traveling to its chest and disappearing. After a few minutes the alakazam stopped, shaking her head.

"There's only so much I can do." The psychic pokémon's voice was a baritone that was somehow feminine. It seemed to echo strangely…

"I know. Thank you for trying, Kamrusepas."

The fox-like pokémon nodded before strolling out of the room.

The woman lifted the electrike gently with the care of long experience.

"He'll be blind in that eye, or…mostly blind." Her eyes seemed to flicker. "But he owes his life to you. You may find no greater ally."

"Th-thank you," said Nori, taking the dog-like pokémon awkwardly. "Was there anything I could have done."

"What is in the past is in the past. It cannot be changed," she paused, oddly, "no matter how hard you try. Don't search for an excuse to beat yourself up."

"I know, but—"

"You need a pokémon center restoration facility to repair eye tissue, and you would never have made it to Mauville in time. Regardless, if you had not been there, he would be a bloody spot on the mud. I would trade my eye for my soul any day. What about you?"

Nori nodded, staring at the floor and idly stroking the electrike. She voiced a question as the woman started to walk away.

"Um…listen, what's your name?"

"My name?" she stopped, halfway out of the kitchen. She pulled off her gloves and flicked them expertly into a wastebin. "I've been called a lot of things. A name is just a word."

Nori blinked. That seemed familiar, somehow… "Names are important to me. Which name do you like best, then?"

She smiled, cynically. "Lady Kuroi, I imagine. What's your full name? Nori is just a nickname, isn't it?"

"It is, actually. My real name is Noirsha…Noirsha Hunter."

Lady Kuroi stiffened, abruptly, staring straight ahead. One of her hands seemed to clench slightly. "I'm going to help you get out of the swamps, but that may take time," she eventually said. "Make yourself comfortable." She then swept out of the room with surprising speed.

~*~*~

The six trainers found Lady Kuroi at the back of the house the next morning, standing beside what was definitely a charizard. The woman and her pokémon had probably been talking before the trainers had appeared. They had the slightly guilty looks of partygoers who had just been trading gossip about people who had left the table but came back faster than expected.

The charizard was bizarre: rather than being a normal color of dark red, orange-yellow or some shade in between, his hide was an extremely dark gray, almost black. The only parts of him not midnight-hued were his dark green eyes and blue-burning tail flame. Slightly less remarkable than his unusual coloring was his large size—the charizard had to have been at least nine feet tall, when the average member of the species was more around six feet. He appeared to shake his head as the trainers approached, before spreading his dark wings and rising into the sky.

"Gods…that's some 'zard," said Ace to Lady Kuroi, when they got close enough.

Kuroi shrugged. "He comes and he goes. Right now he's scouting the paths through the swamp, to see if I can make a map for you."

"What do you mean, 'if'?" asked Dom. "You live here…how could you not know your way around?"

"The wetlands can fool the even most experienced," Kuroi replied, eyes hard. "They are…unnatural, in some ways. Trainers looking for pokémon don't often come into the dead marshes. The ones that do tend not to come out."

"What allows those certain trainers to find a way out, then?" asked Kale, sounding skeptical.

"Some of them find my château. Others…" she smiled slightly, "follow a white light that leads them out, or fall unconscious and wake up at the edge of the marshes."

"White light, eh?" said Kale, glancing at the others with raised eyebrows.

Kuroi shrugged. "An angel, a marsh god, a mew…I personally think it's a different kind of spirit. Or spirits, to be more exact."

The six grinned or smiled sardonically. Most tales of supernatural beings or legendary pokémon were discredited due to the consumption of alcohol by the witnesses.

"Anyway," the Lady continued, "my larder is well-stocked, as they say, so if you people want some breakfast, feel free to help yourselves."

The male trainers didn't need to be told twice; they quickly set off in the direction of the kitchen, leaving Nori alone on the lawn. Her stomach gave a loud growl of disapproval, but she ignored it.

Nori stared at Lady Kuroi, her eyes hardening. The woman stared back, impassively.

"I get the feeling that there's something you're neglecting to tell me, and I've been getting a lot of that, lately. I'd appreciate if there were no mysteries between us."

Kuroi opened her mouth as if to snap a cutting remark, but closed it again without saying a word. She sighed, folding her arms. "What do you want to know?"

"You acted rather…odd when I told you my name. Why?"

"It is a very…singular name."

"I have been told that it means 'blackbird', though in what language I have failed to determine."

"Hii'esh neir a loksr ni'riieb o r'nath," Kuroi breathed, her pitch rising and falling unnaturally.

"…What?" Nori stared, confused.

"In the Old Tongue, which I am foolish to utter here, Noirsha is a word meaning 'a winged creature of midnight hue.' Or, more simply, 'a black bird.'"

"But…it could be referring to anything black with wings…"

"Yes…there is a…legend associated with it, which I cannot tell properly. You will need to visit someone else to get anything out of the story."

"Who?"

"A man from the desert…they call him Vesperus, though his birth name is Gabriel. But you'll need to know his secret name in order to get the full tale out of him."

"I don't suppose you could tell me?"

"I could, actually…it is Lotharquiel. Keep in mind though, he might be in a bad mood and decide to kill you. He's a very grouchy man."

Nori was silent a moment. "Who the hell are you?" she asked, finally.

"I am the darkness, the clouds before the storm, the starlight on a winter frost, the shadows between the trees…"

"Quit screwing around with me! I—"

"Does the alias Ookami no Fuyu mean anything to you?"

"…You can't be…"

"The Wolf of Winter? I am, actually."

"You…could've been a legend…"

"And then I threw it all away to chase Rockets."

"And…and you…"

"Got nothing out of it. The Mercenary escaped."

"A life was lost…"

"…on my account. Several, in reality," Kuroi finished. "That was a long time ago. What happened, I cannot change."

Nori stared helplessly. This woman had been a single match away from being the youngest trainer to beat the Indigo, Orange and Johto leagues, the triple crown of pokémon training at the time, and she had thrown it away, forfeiting her match in the name of vengeance. But that was years before Nori had even been born…

Nori hesitated, remembering something. "In the swamp…something saved my pokémon and I from those mightyenas. I remember a white wolf…"

Something like a wistful look came into the Lady's eyes before disappearing. "One of the E'riisim. Small gods," she clarified, "or spirits. Your rescuer was called Lunucis, once."

"Once?"

"By the marsh tribes. That was a very long time ago, though…before my time, in fact—"

"Just how old are you, anyway?"

Kuroi continued as if she had not heard. "I believe they retreated to Gaiien, or perhaps one of the further regions. There are many that have not even been named."

"I see…" Nori's stomach rumbled angrily. "I'd better be getting some breakfast, then." She turned, went away shaking her head. With every answer came more questions…

~*~*~

Kuroi heard the wolf howl, under the stars, when the six had gone. Sweet Moonlight, doomed to an eternity of solitude…

She stared at the gently wheeling sky, the stars twirling about the earth, the slightly less than full moon casting a pale glow on all below it. She stared out into the trees, where the trainers had gone. If the E'riisim were on the girl's side…she could have been blind and deaf and she would've been able to get out of the swamp. Nothing could stand in her way…

But at the same time…

"Marissa…" she said to the night, "what have you done?"

~*~*~

Bah! Sorry about the wait, everyone. School has been absolutely BRUTAL. Ugh. I'm sorry if this chapter's been weird, I've been writing it over the course of the last week or whatever it's been, and over that long a period of time I tend to get new ideas. I've tried to smooth it all out, but if you guys see any inconsistencies, let me know.

To My Reviewer: Question/Answer Time! ^_^

Dew: Not go to waste at the expense of school, eh? Meep. I'm getting really scared that it's happening. X_x

Koriku: Well yeah, Grimer was kinda stretching it. Meep.

And yeah, Voltorb should totally not be able to breed. I agree, they're just…spherical objects. O_o;;

ERK! I'm sorry…I'm really indifferent to 'spoilers' so I forget that other people might not want to know what's coming…^_^;;

Hehe, he's a cutie, isn't he? Looks like it so far... ^_~

Julie: Hehe, psychic abilities…maybe. Again, we'll see what my muses have to say. ^_~

Crystal Wyvern: Heh, I hope this chapter fulfilled your requirements for a good cliffhanger resolution. ^_^;;

Lady Silver: Albino? Damn, that would've been an awesome idea! No, unfortunately, they're pretty much like regular mightyenas, only completely covered in mud, so they look all gray.

Okay, that's it for Q+A…everyone make sure to review! They keep me going when physics and math want to eat my heart. X_x