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Chapter IX - Foreboding
"You changed my memories…"
I snapped out of what I assumed to be a Mew-induced vision, relaying to me the subject of forgotten memories.
I had no recollection, until now, of those events whatsoever. As I remembered it, I was simply out on a walk the night I met Victor. The Durant was under attack at the time. A stray Heatmor had pursued him for hours in the mountains and finally caught him, ready to eat the metal ant before I intervened.
My mouth dropped… Such an encounter… To have it completely erased was immensely unsettling. Were there other events of my past I simply did not remember?
I felt betrayal, above all else… It was as if the memories had been unlocked. I could feel floodgates opening to display every minute detail within my mind.
Why had Mew shown me this? She must've figured that my respect and trust for her would only wane as a result. Remorse? Guilt? No, she was probably just trying to get me to trust her again.
If she demonstrated she had done me wrong, but could fix the mistakes, I bet she thought it would reinforce my trust for her, after Somin had just shattered it entirely.
Mt Chimney hadn't been the first time I met her… All throughout the few months past the Black City incident, she'd spoken to me, encouraging me to heal…
I sure as hell remembered how depressed I was, but I recalled no specific remedy… All I remembered from that miserable time was… Well, a mysterious, pink figure that kept following me around. I was told by a therapist in Icirrus that it was nothing more than a hallucination on my part representing a sort of unnecessary guilt I felt deep down.
Now that I thought about it, however, that therapist was the only other human on earth that knew what happened that specific January night, when I was still only 13 years old.
"Self preservation," I chuckled spitefully to myself. "You just couldn't wait to make me forget about her entirely, couldn't you? And after, you covered your tracks by fucking with my head even more..."
I knew she was listening, regardless of the fact I had no evidence whatsoever.
"What, was my being depressed getting in the way of your plan to make the perfect trainer?"
No response…
"You know what? Fuck you, Mew… You were absolutely right, all you do is screw everything up… I bet if you did anything else, I'll just end up even worse off…"
My exclamation was a spur-of-the-moment action. I hadn't even realized by sending her away, I was giving up all chances of becoming human again.
Maybe, at that point, I cared more about staying alive than anything else. Being a Zorua was better than being dead, was it not?
I huffed, rose, and stalked over towards the pile of sleeping Pokémon a few yards away. It seemed a considerable amount of time had passed during my vision when taking into account his soft snores and the strain of disuse in my muscles.
On top of that, the sky seemed even darker outside… Midnight, by my approximation, meaning, to the outside perspective, I'd been staring into a fire for two or three hours straight.
I sent a spiteful glare around the room as I squeezed in a spot I found between the sleeping forms of Vita and Axle. My fur was bent uncomfortably in every which way, reminding me how much the fire seemed to do its job in warming me.
I was nothing more than a tiny space-heater, I observed, probably hot to the touch. I was proven correct as Vita shifted uncomfortably in her sleep.
I knew I wouldn't be getting a wink of rest, but this was the best I could manage, in terms of warmth. The fire was dying, slowly, prompting me to seek other sources of comfort.
A rustle near the cave's entrance brought my attention to its source. The first thought was simply a hopeful wish Mew would be floating before me, a manifestation of my desire to let my frustration out on a material object.
A figure precariously walked into the cavern, instantly discernible as Jet. I hadn't suspected him to be back so soon. He gave a glance towards his sleeping comrades, and didn't seem to notice I was awake.
He grabbed a leftover Magikarp, alongside a few Aspear Berries from our stash of food. Before I asked him what he needed the food for, he was gone, having flown back out the entrance.
Odd…
I chose to think nothing of it. He was probably having bad luck while hunting, and was simply hungry. I wasn't about to hold that against him.
Vita shifted further in her sleep, placing a barrier between myself and the outside world. Now I wouldn't be able to leave, even if I had a need to do so.
Sighing, I squirmed, hoping to find a more comfortable position. I only stopped once I'd successfully made enough space between the two behemoths surrounding me to stretch out my legs to the side. The resulting area was simply a tent made out of flesh, encompassing me entirely. Something about it felt oddly protecting and comforting…
At the very least, I was warm… I wouldn't be able to manage that much sleeping alone.
I closed my eyes, praying I would be able to get to sleep soon…
My prayers were certainly left unanswered. For hours I tossed and turned, attempting to focus solely on the breathing of both Axle and Vita in vain efforts of self-inflicted hypnotism.
Needless to say, I failed. No matter how hard I tried, for a solid few hours, my thoughts kept coming back to Mew. A part of me believed she was forcefully keeping me awake, hoping my unremedied exhaustion would break down my mind enough to forgive her.
I discredited myself. Even I doubted she would go to such means. It was simply a crappy night, no one to blame it on but myself.
At one point, I believe I heard Jet return, but in my enclosure, was unable to see him.
I'd been entertaining an option for hours, but after what I estimated to be 3 o'clock, I finally figured I needed the sleep, an end to satisfy the means. I was exhausted, but my body wouldn't let itself rest. So, I would put it to sleep forcefully.
Sighing, I opened an illusionary connection with Vita, hoping I wouldn't wake her in the process. Grunting quietly with the effort of keeping to open long enough to feel fatigue, I gritted my teeth.
Approximately fifteen seconds passed before I was too tired to continue, thankfully with only a slight headache. My eyes felt undeniably heavy now, accompanied by a natural desire to rest. I let a smile grace my face at my own ingenuity as I gratefully slipped into unconsciousness.
Mew looked upon the scene with a special sort of despair… Ray hadn't even considered the possibility she actually cared about him. For whatever reason, he was predisposed to the idea she was a selfish creature.
The fact he believed she only cared about him in self-interest frustrated her to no end. Though, the only thing on earth that may have frustrated her more was the mere fact she'd only proven him right again and again. She'd wanted to demonstrate she thought of the human much more highly than he imagined, but in the hour she'd had a conversation with him, all she'd done was undermine his decision and let him die after her promise of his safety.
She landed outside the cave, taking down her invisibility out of pure carelessness. She got a crick in her neck whenever she kept it up for long periods, anyways.
I… I'm not selfish…
His claims were not unfounded, but largely speculative. Her nature as a legendary placed her in an uncomfortable position. Rarely had she ever been the object of disrespect…
She could hardly be angry with her human, but was furious, however, with the blatant and unfounded lie Somin had told Ray… Never had she spoken to Vita about leaving. She had to commend the Zoroark, however. It may have been an innate part of his nature, but he was an extremely practiced liar.
She would have believed the announcement of the abrupt departure herself, if she were not directly involved. Of course, Ray was simply a human, one with prior ties to the Zoroark. Of course he would be predisposed to believing him over herself…
As much as she cared for Ray, he had to be the most rash human she'd ever encountered… Maybe it was why he survived this long, by comparison to—
She mentally slapped herself. She wouldn't let her thoughts wander to the others. Even if Ray did not want her, she wanted him. She promised herself it was not a desire for self-preservation, as Ray had accused, and instead, a longing to mingle with a creature, however simplistic, she'd been following silently for three years…
I need him, either way. And it's coincidence now, but he needs me.
She would focus everything she had on not letting this one slip through her paws.
Wiping any tears her fur harbored with a forearm, she started floating again… Her attempt to make Ray see reason had failed, but she would not relent. If she gave him time, he would probably heal, enough to go back to pining for his human body. She would be there for him then.
She was discouraged, however, when she remembered all the searches for the Creator she'd initiated thus far ended in failure.
"Where the hell are you Arcy?" she mumbled to herself. Either he was intentionally hiding himself, or some human-made device was concealing his life force. Otherwise, she would have been able to feel it instantly.
Ray was long asleep now. She'd previously accompanied him during his struggle to fall asleep, but did not sedate him. She wanted to give him the pretense she was gone altogether, considering his undying anger.
Jet had entered the cave after his 'hunting session'. She highly doubted he was actually doing as he said, but decided not to follow him. While the Braviary was an enigma, her human was much more important to stand by.
Her thoughts drifted to the Beartic she had killed earlier the same day. The previous day, really, it was most definitely past midnight.
Ray's appreciation for his life being saved was nonexistent. He thought nearly nothing of the protection she provided, instead focusing on the Axew he hardly knew.
She wanted him to be happy, of course, but tried her best to shove artificial involvement from the equation. She wouldn't tamper with his mind any more. She needed his trust, before anything.
Goddamn it…
The dream, again… Why did it have to come back? I was almost absolutely sure it wasn't naturally created by my resting mind.
I'd promised myself the next time I had it, I would tell someone. I'd hoped to never have to experience the gruesome scene again, but fate seemed to be against me. The face of the Zorua as the life left its eyes. The face of the human as he grieved. It was a rough scene to watch, especially multiple times in a row.
I took a glance around the cave to see daylight streaming in from the opening. I lay not where I fell asleep, but next to a calm fire, apparently having been rekindled while I slept. No one accompanied me.
With the lack of companionship, I started thinking. Was the dream Mew-induced each and every night? If so, what did it represent? The legendary was always so frustratingly vague.
Though, that got me thinking about Mew's abilities… Just last night, she had shown to me lost memories, ones she'd erased personally. Who's to say she hadn't done it again? Did this actually happen through my eyes?
If so, then…
"Somin," I said to myself. The Zoroark was alive and well, that much I knew. However, he had just barely dodged death more than a few times…
That Zorua was dead, though. No chance of coming back. It debunked nearly every rational contingency of the theory. While it was still possible for the dreams to be events of my past, I doubted it.
The boy looked to be only nine or ten in addition. If Mew was telling the truth, she'd only started following me a few months before my fourteenth birthday. If Somin had died as a Zorua then, Mew wouldn't have brought him back as she had in Opelucid.
Whether or not the Zoroark died in the Gym Battle was still a subject for debate. I was one to argue he was, though I may have simply been seeing things.
The other possibility, and the one I took as most trustworthy, was the theory that Zorua was, in fact, me.
Was Mew trying to warn me about some event yet to happen? Would I die a terrible death in the near future? That boy, though… He was a trainer, and the Zorua was his Pokémon… I knew, laying there next to the fire, that I would never let myself get captured…
Maybe someone else would know what they signified.
I stood, stretched, and walked silently outside.
"Morning," Victor greeted as I stepped into the sunlight. I nodded my head towards the Durant in return.
"How long did I sleep in this time?"
"Not long… We were all tired. We got up maybe an hour ago…"
"Where's everyone else, then?"
"Oh, they went down next to the training field. Jet thought he saw some straw grass above the snow… Vita thought it would make good bedding if, you know, we warmed it up…"
"That's good," I replied. "I don't like the floor that much."
"They told me to stay here and wait for you to wake up… Just in case, you know… Something big saw you as a snack."
"Way to cheer me up, Victor," I grumbled, narrowing my eyes.
"You're welcome!"
I sighed… The enthusiasm in his voice was spoken in such a manner as to disable me from discerning whether or not is was simple sarcasm. I rolled my eyes.
"Now that you are awake, though," he said contentedly, "we should go help them out… It's gonna take a few trips to get enough."
"Uhh, yeah," I answered, stepping towards him.
We proceeded together towards the river, where we met our first trial… Victor was most definitely too heavy to cross, and I was unsure the ice would still be able to hold my own weight, especially after Axle had broken it up the night before.
Though, Victor had a solution.
"Axle figured out earlier that the ice is thicker by the stepping stones. Even with how heavy he was, the ice was easily able to keep his weight."
"Mhmm," I responded absentmindedly.
We crossed without incident. He'd allowed me to go first, and as I waited for him to follow, I started thinking.
Would Victor be an adequate target for my sharing of the recurring dreams? He wasn't exactly the philosophical type, even if he did find a way to put a positive spin on almost anything.
We started walking into the forest, following the fresh footsteps of our companions. I knew the way to the training grounds quite well, having visited it frequently during our year on the mountain.
Somin had even taken me straight to it when teaching me about illusions two nights before.
After a bit of thought, weighing the pros and cons of Victor as a possible candidate, I decided I would propose a vague question to him, and continue based on the nature of his answer.
I waited until we'd gone a distance from the river before asking.
"Soo… Random question, Victor, but have you ever had repeating dreams?"
The Durant turned back towards me, narrowing his eyes in a tantalizing manner.
"If you wanna ask advice about weird dreams you're having Ray, ask me straight up. Or at least try to be a little more vague about it…"
I muttered some obscenity under my breath. Victor may have not been the best at holding secrets, but was like a Growlithe when it came to identifying others'.
"Well," I responded, "have any experience with them? I don't know what to make of mine."
"Of course," he said, as if his revelation was nothing important. "I used to have nightmares all the time about the night we met."
"Oh, right…" I responded sheepishly. "We don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"Eh, I'm past it. Life is life, you know? I was lower on the food chain, but I was lucky you were there to help me out. Just thinking about that, and knowing it wasn't yet my time to die was enough to get rid of the nightmares entirely. The Heatmor was scary, sure, but I was able to move past it with time… Your dreams about what happened? It's understandable."
"N-no," I responded, shocked at his nonchalance surrounding his explanation. "It's something else, something I don't really understand, but… Victor, you were a mess after we found you. You wouldn't go near fire for months! Hell, you were permanently scarred, physically. How do you just move past that?"
"Call it enlightenment," he said jokingly. "I knew I was safe with you guys, and after my thorax healed, I healed emotionally. The best part is that my thought process came out better as a result of everything. If anything, I should thank that Heatmor…"
I gawked at the Durant, images flashing to the forefront of my mind. Victor, laying down belly-up with an aggressive and feral Heatmor straddling him. With its tongue of flame, it slowly cooked his underside, distorting the metal so it could access its prey's insides. How does one simply get over that?
"It's a joke, Ray. I'm glad Axle ended up killing it, but it was acting on survival instinct, what else was there for it to do?"
Before I could retort, or go on to discuss my lost memories about that night, he spoke up again.
"We're talking about you, though, remember? Your dreams. What are they about?"
"It's uhh… about a boy and a Zorua. The Zorua, it got really hurt and ended up bleeding to death in the boy's arms… He kept wailing about how he only wanted to go on an adventure together, and that's pretty much it…"
"And how long has this been going on?"
"Three, four days? I don't really remember when they started."
"Same dream every time?"
"Yeah… All the same."
"Hmm… I honestly wouldn't worry. More likely than anything it's your fears about your transformation catching up to you. You might not feel them anymore, but they're there, buried in your subconscious."
"Yeah, but why this dream? And why does it keep happening?"
He adopted a thoughtful expression before he went back to walking, explaining as we trudged along.
"Well, I'm guessing the bond between the Zorua and the boy signifies your normal life of training Pokémon being shattered by the transformation, or the accident that killed the Zorua. Maybe rushing it to the Pokémon center represents your desire to make everything normal again? I dunno…"
If loosely constructed, it made sense. Did my mind really function on that complicated a level?
"Thanks, Vic," I said nonetheless, sending a grateful nod in his direction.
"Not a problem," he responded. "We're almost to the rest of the team anyways. You want me to talk to Vita about what's going on? She might be able to help you with any fears you may—"
"Let me stop you right there… Coddling isn't how I imagine I'm going to get over myself… I'd appreciate it if you kept it between us."
"Uhh, sure thing."
Wordlessly, I walked ahead, stepping into the clearing of the training ground. The stump in which I'd first learned illusions was visible just above the surface of the snow. The team was to the far left of the clearing, in a widely unused area. Tall grass, straw, and scrub stalks shot up out of the snow, measuring up to Somin's thighs by comparison.
The Zoroark himself was using his claws as a scythe for a more or less efficient means of slicing the plants as low as possible, leaving what fell for Vita and Axle to pick up. Jet was nowhere to be found.
"Oh, hey!" Axle called as we approached. "Victor, you're probably better suited for Somin's job, so I'm glad you two showed…"
"Why wouldn't we?" I responded, letting a hint of edge touch my voice.
"Oh, well, uh… You were really knocked out… I-"
"I remember how you told us you didn't want to sleep for longer than us," Vita interjected, stopping for a moment from her work. "No matter what we tried, though, you wouldn't wake up."
She chuckled. "Would've thought you were dead if it weren't for the fact you were breathing…"
Some instinct told me I shouldn't reveal to anyone I had intentionally knocked myself out.
It struck me as odd Somin hadn't added anything to the conversation. Surely, he would take advantage of the opportunity to poke fun at my recent excess exhaustion. I'd surely gotten used to his lightheartedness at the misfortune of others, so a lack of it was surprising.
He simply kept hacking away at the grass, as if it were an enemy of his. Lack of a facial expression revealed deep thought. The Zoroark's behavior seemed well off track. Even in the last few days, he'd been cheerful enough to function normally, but it seemed something major was on his mind. Mew's impending disappearance, maybe?
"Whatever," I sighed… "Where's Jet at?"
"He isn't exactly much help here," Axle revealed. "Body shape and all… He decided to go see if he could find something else to contribute. Even with the amount we have here," she gestured towards the field, "it's nowhere near enough to make a bed to fit all of us."
"Right," I replied. "Now… Victor, think you can Vice Grip a pretty big area to cut everything down?"
"Not all at once, but," he said, turning towards an unoccupied and uncut portion of the field. His mandibles took on a gradually brighter silver shine. Once the full metal underneath had disappeared, completely coated in energy, they seemed to enlarge, until they were exponentially larger than they once were. A single chomp successfully sliced an entire swath of grass. The individual shoots fell to the snow, cluttering the pure whiteness with their presence.
"Well, that was a solid five minutes of work at the rate we were going," Somin sighed exasperatedly, finally stopping for a moment to survey the Durant's work.
"You're welcome!" Victor exclaimed, closing his eyes as a soft, tantalizing smile formed.
Somin grumbled something about his claws under his breath before I proposed a question.
"Need me to do anything?"
"Uhh," the Zoroark replied, turning to face me with a nervous glance. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"I've got something," Vita interjected, slithering towards me. She proceeded to take a bundle of grass, held together and suspended above the snow with a vine, and stick it through the fur around my neck. It was long and durable enough to hold the dead stalks in place.
The itchy grass running up against the back of my neck prompted a shiver.
I sent a glare towards Vita, who seemed amused by my appearance.
"You said you wanted to help," she defended herself, all the spite directed towards me the previous night seemingly nonexistent. At least she seemed to be loosening up. Otherwise, I was sure she'd advocate for my doing nothing. Maybe Somin had given her a talk, as she often did to him. They often kept the other in line if a behavior or remark went too far overboard.
"Okay, let's finish up here," Axle spoke, starting to pick up large clumps of grass with his gigantic front paws. "Then we go find Jet and figure out what we're gonna do to stop this stuff from itching."
After gathering all the bedding material we could find, the team carried the portion that couldn't be stuck in my natural scarf. It was able to hold a lot more than I ever imagined, even if it wasn't a quarter of our entire load.
We set off to find the Braviary in the direction he'd left, as dictated by Axle, and after searching for maybe ten minutes, we found him, and in a very fortunate position, at that.
He was scratching at the snow below him with a talon, looking up to us with a smirk when we arrived. When asked about what he was doing, he simply gestured to the ground beneath him.
A small portion of snow was cleared away to reveal soft, cold, and green moss. The fact something was living that far under the snow was surprising enough, but a longer look revealed the fact there was a lot of it.
When we finally cleared the rest of the snow, we were ecstatic to find the entire surface area was more than enough to fit all of us with ease. The next twenty minutes were spent cutting the organism into a large portion we could all collectively carry.
Our bedding problem was solved with relative ease.
It even proved durable enough to fold, in order to be carried across the river by two Pokémon, rather than all of them.
While waiting for the bedding ingredients to warm by the fire, we had a short brunch, most everyone having not eaten when they woke. A few Cheri Berries were enough to satisfy my hunger.
I opted not to share my recurring dreams with the others, fearing a reaction widely different than Victor's. He'd provided me with all the answers I needed, nonetheless. There was no point bringing it up with anyone else. It was simply my mind reeling from the changes, and I simply had to adjust before they went away.
We ended up laying out the strawgrass evenly across a section of the floor to provide a comfortable buffer between the rocky ground and the moss we placed on top. We made sure to place it close enough to the fire to provide warmth without creating a hazard.
The rest of the day passed by uneventfully. Mostly, it was spent with each member of the team going about their separate business. Jet left to do Arceus-knows-what, Axle went foraging for more food, and Victor and Vita remained in the cave.
As for Somin and myself, the Zoroark suggested we go outside for illusionary exercises. Of course, I was reluctant to accept the condition we venture out, but he stated that the cold would be an effective distraction, therefore dulling my concentration and rendering it harder to conjure illusions.
He gave some stupid speech about the positive effect on being able to get past distraction in battle, but by then, I had conceded, knowing there would be no way to change his mind.
Vita suggested she come along, seeing as she had a desire to observe my progress, but Somin, in an oddly over-protective manner, denied her request and instructed her to stay by the fire.
I opted not to ask him about it as we left the cave, dubbing it as a touchy subject.
Nothing particularly eventful happened during our time at the training ground. I performed a few exercises, making sure not to tire myself out, before a spontaneous question festered in my mind.
"Hey Somin?" I asked, deciding it was an opportune time as any to take a break.
"Tired?" he asked, breaking out of a thoughtful silence. "I have Orans if you want them…"
"No, it's about what you were explaining yesterday… The three types of illusions."
"What about it?"
"You never said the third. You were gonna tell me, but you stopped."
"Oh," he responded, scratching his head. "Uhh, I guess I can tell you, but it's all theoretical."
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged his shoulders, staring down towards me.
"No one knows if they're possible… They used to tell me stories as a kit of the legendary Zoroark, founder of our society, who cast a self-sustaining, perpetual illusion to hide our kind in Lostlorn Forest."
"Permanent illusions?"
"Like I said, no one's sure if they're even possible… To make one would require unthinkable amounts of power, alongside the knowledge of how to conjure it… No one's even figured out that much…"
"Huh," I responded, nodding in understanding. "Do you think it's possible?"
Somin chuckled. "I've been trying to figure out how to do it for years. My main drive to get better when I was younger… Truth is, I don't know… I've done something like it before, where I feed an illusion enough power to last for a day and a half, max, and detach it so it can run on its own. That's what I did to close your mouth, by the way."
He stared at me after finishing, the ponderous look on his face diminishing. "Just rambling… Let's get back to it, shall we?"
The rest of the afternoon was filled with training, whether it be physical or illusionary. After practicing opening connections profusely, I suggested to Somin the prospect of physical exercise. He seemed surprised at my knowledge of running, however little. Having been a quadruped himself years earlier, he gave me a few pointers every so often.
By the time we finished, I could proclaim I'd mastered turning while keeping a stride. It was late afternoon when we finally stopped, a result of my being too tired to continue. With the knowledge I had, I wouldn't be able to perform any advanced dodging maneuvers, but I was prepared in the case I needed to escape a rough situation.
I had a quick, early dinner when we returned to the cave, followed by my settling down on the bed we'd crafted, in a spot closest to the fire as possible and falling asleep.
Besides having the dream again, nothing more than a repeat of the ghastly vision of a dying Zorua, the night was uneventful. I slept through the entirety of the rest of the team's eating and falling asleep, not waking once until morning.
When I woke, my entire body, with an exception of my head, was covered by Vita's heavy figure. I found only Axle and Victor were awake, the former roasting a few fish, presumably leftover from the previous night, over the fire. They spoke quietly with one another, and proceeded to greet me when they realized I was awake.
Jet flew in the cave a few minutes later, took a fish and an Aspear Berry for himself to eat, and promptly flew back out.
"Did he even come back last night?" I asked when he was gone.
"No, not as far as I know," Axle responded, turning towards where the Braviary had just left.
"Doesn't he hate Aspear?" Victor spoke, tilting his head up towards Axle.
"Huh… That's weird… When isn't he weird, though?"
That question prompted a light chuckle from myself.
"He grabbed an Aspear two nights ago too and left… Maybe he's just cold at night? They unfreeze you, after all," I suggested, remembering the Braviary's suspicious movements while everyone else was asleep.
Vita woke maybe thirty minutes later, yet didn't announce her consciousness until absolutely necessary, much to my annoyance. Without her moving, I was trapped. I could tell she'd intentionally done it as an excuse to have me lay with her for a little longer.
That was just how Vita worked, though… Deceive others to achieve her own, flimsy goals. She didn't care if it made me uncomfortable, and maybe even reveled in it. Perhaps she found it funny to see me struggle, now that I was powerless? No. She cared. I knew she did, deep down. She'd seen herself as a mother of mine during the latter years of my journey, but now she had the means to exercise her agonizing motherly love.
Somin didn't wake for a full hour after, giving the excuse of 'couldn't sleep' for his sleeping in. He was probably plagued with thoughts of Mew's imminent abandonment, resulting in his staying up late.
Good riddance.
The day passed fairly quickly afterwards. Vita finally let me get up, followed by a quick, talkative breakfast. Afterwards, we tried keeping the normal, daily routine, consisting of Jet's disappearing (I still had no idea what the Braviary was up to), Victor and Axle's fishing and harvesting food, and Somin and my training. As for Vita… Somin still maintained his over-protective attitude towards her, annoying the Serperior greatly. I considered asking him why he was so on-edge about something as trivial and unnoticeable as Mew disappearing, but held my tongue. I doubted I would get a very pleasant response.
While training, and out of pure curiosity, I asked Somin about illusions of pain, clueless as to why my method of inflicting harm on the Axew two days before had been ineffective. He simply gave me an odd look, explaining there existed different methodology for different illusions, and left it at that. When I asked if I could start learning, he sarcastically promised me he would teach me if I got a hold on speaking and conjuring other sounds.
At the rate I was learning and becoming conditioned to using them, which was remarkable in his words, that promise would still take weeks, maybe even months to fulfill.
I couldn't quite feel a noticeable difference the exercises were accomplishing, even if Somin encouraged me by saying my connections were feeling less feeble. I wasn't quite sure how he was able to tell, but took his word as fact and kept going.
If anything, my endurance grew, if only marginally. By the time the day was finished, and after having ingested somewhere close to twenty-five Orans, the effects of keeping a single, five-second connection hardly fatigued me. With this, and granted I was given breaks, I could at least keep up a very primitive conversation using illusions.
I was extremely frustrated at how slow progress was going. When I'd thought about learning illusions during my first few days as a Zorua, I imagined being able to accomplish what Somin did without effort. In my miscalculation, I seemed to have forgotten he'd had practice when I first met him, and even then, he was extremely debilitated.
The first time I'd met the Zoroark was nothing but a prank, an irony quite in line with his nature. A delicious apple sat quite high up in a tree outside of Nimbasa City while Vita the Snivy and I were traveling to the First Gym. Upon grabbing it with a vine, it just disappeared.
He got his just desserts, however. After a few more times, Vita grew frustrated and began waving her vines around, knocking the invisible Zorua out of a tree branch and subsequently breaking his leg in the fall. What an introduction to what would be my strongest team member.
Evolution, it seemed, played a large factor in his ability to maintain illusions. He'd once described evolution to me as nothing more than the process of one's core growing too strong for their body to handle. As such, most of their power was redirected to shaping a new body for them, hence the form change. With a new body comes much more room for power to grow, succeeding in providing a vastly greater store to take from.
Evolution, though, at least for me, was a long ways away. Years, speaking truthfully. By then, I was surely going to be changed back. I would make sure of it, with or without Mew being the catalyst.
A few days passed without anything interesting happening. My proficiency with illusions grew steadily, and Jet had taught me how to maneuver even more adeptly in our private training sessions after everyone else was asleep. I'd almost fully mastered simple dodges.
Feral encounters were few and far between, but not unheard of. There had been two in those few days, the first being a feral Excadrill, probably from the nearby cave systems. It showed up directly at the cave's entrance, apparently smelling the food inside. When Victor noticed it, he dispatched it rather quickly with a superpowered Vice Grip straight to the neck.
The second was a feral Sawsbuck, but no violence was deemed necessary, considering it was out of our cave's territory, and it didn't even seem to notice us. It was only Somin and I, at the training grounds. The Zoroark was ready to kill the creature at any time, nonetheless.
Speaking of the Zoroark…
Somin got increasingly worried as time passed, sometimes taking time at night for personal walks. I imagined he just sat outside the cave, watching the moon. He had a lot on his mind, unwarranted by Mew's abandonment. There were only a few times I'd ever seen him so irritably self-conscious.
I made a decision on First of October, four days later and nine after my transformation, to bring up the question. By then, I'd had quite enough of his antics; he was nothing but a devolving emotional mess. He jumped at every question sent his direction, could hardly form a sentence without jittery thoughts entering his mind, and was, somehow, even more protective of Vita.
My hypothesis was that the Zoroark would grow more and more relaxed and like his old self as time passed and I slowly got more and more used to this body. But, it was quite the opposite. Ever since that night he'd had the private conversation with Vita, it was as if he progressively saw more and more threats in the world around us.
Something beyond what I knew was amiss, and I was determined to get the answer.
At lunch, I brought it up in front of the group, hoping the pressure of multiple pairs of eyes would make him relent.
I was given my opportunity when Vita, whom he was sitting up against, accidentally singed herself on the fire. Somin started going into a fuss about how she should be more careful before slowly silencing himself, realizing the rest of us were present.
"Okay, that's enough," I said. "I want to know what the hell's been going on with you Somin, and I want to know now. You've been nonstop jittery for almost a week, and it's really tiring to deal with."
He got over his shocked look quickly, somehow turning it into a mild glare. He took a bite out of his fish as he responded.
"No I haven't," he defended. "Not on-edge, just a little worried. We're stuck up here, if you haven't noticed."
"We're leaving in three days," I reminded him. "But you've only been getting more and more scared of whatever's bugging you."
"Nothing's bugging me," he defended himself, rolling his eyes. "You're overreacting."
"I'm over—"
A soft glare from Vita towards me, as if telling me gently to stop, cut off my words. 'I'll talk with him later' or some other statement of the sort was conveyed solely through her eyes.
I grumbled something edgewise before puncturing a hole in the extremely sour Nomel Berry before me. Two days before, I seemed to figure out I had claws, if very tiny. It honestly felt extremely unnatural to sheathe and unsheathe them. That, however, only prompted me to do it for hours out of pure curiosity. It still held its ability to be fascinating, and sometimes I even found myself doing it subconsciously in boredom.
While Somin's larger claws were more effective at poking holes in fruit to allow their juices to flow, mine did the job, if inefficiently. I sucked the Berry of its bitter taste before raising my head back up.
Somin was digging through my backpack, and in the process, displaced a few items. They clattered to the ground carelessly.
I huffed. "Sure as hell hope you're going to put everything back," I spitefully spoke, having supervised organization of the contents of the bag two days before.
"Don't worry your little self about it," he responded, not even giving me the pleasure of a head turn. I was about to start yelling some angry retort when he froze.
He took what he was looking for originally, a Sitrus Berry, and stuffed it in his mane. Yet, he stared oddly into the bag, transfixed by what he found.
"What's this for?" he asked, removing it and allowing for us all to see what had so easily caught his attention.
"Oh no," Axle said dreadfully, drawing the eyes in the room. He rested his front paws on top of his head in a gesture of submission.
I got a good look at what Somin was holding. It was nothing more than a sky blue-tinted, disc-like object, a few words scribbled on the front.
"Come on," the Swampert groaned. "Do we have to use it? Can't we just… Throw it away?"
I couldn't believe I'd completely forgotten about it. So much had happened over the last two weeks, making the object's presence completely slip from all of our minds.
"Blizzard," Somin sighed. "Sorry buddy, we gotta."
The TM I'd bought all the way back in Lavaridge. I'd meant to teach Axle the move Blizzard using it, learning from the mistake we'd had from our battle against Drayden in having no Ice Moves in our arsenal, but didn't want to ruin the Lavaridge vacation with its effects.
"Can't we wait at least? Why use it now?"
"Axle," Vita said soothingly, sliding next to the terrified Swampert. "There's going to be a lot of trouble coming up. We could need it in the future…"
I felt quite antagonistic. Being a trainer meant sometimes, for the good of strategy, TM's had to be used. Sadly, that meant the obnoxious side-effects associated with their use would have to be dealt with. Whenever I'd been forced to use one, the Pokémon target would be incapacitated for at least twelve hours, followed by a full day of extreme nausea. With all the advances of science, I was surprised no one had ever fixed them to be more user-friendly. Of course, it was advised to keep Pokémon in their Pokéballs during that time, but we didn't have that luxury.
Axle whimpered, an odd sight for a creature his size. He'd been more or less the recipient of more than half the TM's I bought, considering his type matchup allowed for an extremely wide variety of moves to be learned. As a result, he was the centerpiece of most strategies I'd used as a trainer.
"Hey," Vita continued addressing the reluctant Swampert. "I'll do all the food gathering tomorrow with Victor. You can rest by the fire all you want. We have a lot of Sitrus for you. That sound okay?"
Somin seemed troubled by Vita's offering of labor, but she ignored him. Axle looked into her eyes fearfully. It made me remember the fact that Vita had acted as a parental figure for him after he hatched, no one else present to assume the motherly role.
Her reassuring gaze was enough to placate the Swampert enough for him to nod his head solemnly. Silently, he stood, walked over, and layed down on the bed. He didn't object as Somin attached the item to his forehead with the connected elastic band.
"Ready?" the Zoroark asked. When Axle gave him confirmation, Somin nodded reassuringly, pressing the button on the center of the disc.
Instantly, the Swampert was unresponsive and unconscious, slumping forward, closer to the fire.
I sighed unhappily. At least I wasn't the one to have to do the honors this time around.
Hours passed with light conversation. A blizzard had been progressively forming outside for most of the day, now to the point it would be miserable if we were to step outside. We simply huddled by the fire and shared stories we'd all already heard a million times.
Dinner passed, and without Axle to initiate conversations, as he usually did, it was spent in silence. We decided then and there we'd try to get some sleep, hoping to rid ourselves of the extremely long day.
Jet excused himself, apparently having become nocturnal in the week past. He grabbed his usual fish and Aspear berry, leaving the four of us behind with an unconscious Swampert.
At this point, we'd all gotten used to Jet's antics, and left him to his business. We all piled on around Axle's sleeping form, this night colder than most as a result of the storm. I was eventually submerged fully in the pile, this time between Somin and Vita.
I just tried shutting my eyes, hoping all the turbulent thoughts rushing through my head would disappear with rest…
"Oh, why now?" Mew spoke to herself as she watched Jet fly into the forest. "Oh no… Everything's gonna happen all at once. I…"
She flew around back and forth, counting the seconds to catastrophe.
"Five problems to deal with at once… Why does it all have to happen at the same time? I can't trust Victor to protect Ray all on his own…"
She rubbed her face furiously.
"I promised myself I wouldn't intervene, but I'm gonna have to… I'll see if I can delay the three of them from getting here until everyone can get back together."
With that, she narrowed her eyes and flew off, preparing a scenario to stop one of the three incoming threats. Maybe, if she delayed them long enough from arriving, the team would have enough time to recover from the, as Ray would put it, shitstorm they were about to fly themselves into, all separated from one another.
"Uuuhh… Oh Ar-"
I was woken up with the outburst, muffled as best as possible by the one who'd spoken the words.
Vita was now fully awake, was slithering uncomfortably to and fro. A few seconds passed before she groaned fearfully.
"S-somin, wake up, wake up," she rushed to say.
I shut my eyes tight, hoping to trick the two into thinking I was still asleep. I would want to hear what happened next.
"Yuh… Whut?" the Zoroark mumbled in response.
"I…" Vita said. Lack of visibility prevented me from stealing a peek at her facial expression. Something was obviously wrong.
"Huh? Oh! Oh… Oh holy shit holy shit holy shit… Do you…?"
No words were exchanged as Vita slowly departed the bed. I made sure to keep up the act of unconsciousness. The pair was conversing quietly near the cave entrance when I dared steal a glance. Somin had both of his paws on the Serperior's upper half, staring straight into her eyes fearfully.
He took a glance outside, then back into the cave. I shut my eyes again as his stare passed over me.
"Come on… I know a place," he said hurriedly, ushering the Serperior out of the cave and into the blizzard. They were gone a few seconds later.
Oh no… Is something wrong? There has to be.
I stood up worriedly and trotted to the entrance of the cave. A quick glance outside revealed almost nothing was visible. The snow was coming down hard, reducing the effectiveness of my night-vision.
I growled to myself, turning back into the cave. Worried, I promptly woke Victor, the only responsive creature left with me.
"Huh? What's up Ray?" the Durant asked me when he was aware of his surroundings.
"Something's wrong… Really wrong… Vita and Somin just left like something bad was about to happen."
"What?" he took a look around the cave. "You sure it wasn't just a walk they're taking?"
"In this weather? No, something really, really bad's going on… Somin was worried."
"He's been worried… All the time over the last few days… What do you want us to do? Go out and check?"
"Yeah!" I responded. "Trust me Vic, if you were up, you'd notice it too…"
The Durant sighed, closing his eyes for a moment. "Fine," he said simply, getting up. "You think Axle'll be fine on his own?"
"He's okay… I doubt anything's going to come by this late." I stepped towards the entrance of the cave. "Let's go find them."
"Right," Victor responded lazily. When he caught up with me, we stepped out into the harsh night.
"An hour… That's all I could give them? Seriously? You're losing your touch, Mew…"
The legendary, whispering to herself, stared down at the departing Durant and Zorua worriedly. Her breathing got heavy.
"Who am I kidding? He's a Durant! There's no way, even with the type advantage…"
She bit her lip.
"Somin was stupid to take her out in a blizzard like this… I need to watch over them now."
She sent a longing glance down towards the Durant.
"I'm trusting him with you. Keep him safe, Victor. Please."
"Do you have any idea where we're going?" Victor asked in protest as I crossed the river, the ice covered with a fresh coat of snow.
"Their tracks are here… We'll find them…"
Victor started walking across the river, retracing my steps. We both froze, though, when a loud crack sounded all around us.
Sprouting from Victor were multiple, branching cracks in the ice, breaking even the layer of snow above them. The weight of the blizzard must have weakened the ice.
"Oh jeez," I said to myself, staring dead into the Durant's eyes. We stayed speechless afterwards.
Tentatively, he took a small step forward, then another, attempting to spread his weight as much as possible.
A few tension-filled seconds later, he took the final few baby steps to stand on the riverbank. The ice below him groaned with the lack of weight.
"Ray, I know this is important to you, I really do," Victor spoke, sighing… "But maybe we should just go upriver, cross, and head back to the cave. Somin's the strongest on the team, and Vita's not far behind… I'm sure they'll be fine."
"I…" I responded and trailed off. "If something's wrong, I want to know about it. I'm gonna go find them, you can stay behind if you want… I won't judge you either way…"
With that, I walked away, in the direction the Zoroark's and Serperior's trail dictated they went. I was aware of a sigh from Victor as he followed me. It wasn't as if the Durant could abandon me, anyways.
The gale whipped mercilessly against my face as we continued on, following a trail parallel to the river. While Somin's footprints in the snow were harder to follow, Vita's proved easy, considering her body shape. In her wake was nothing more than a line of matted snow.
At one point, the trail wove into the forest. We'd been walking for maybe a minute and a half by the time it happened. Afterwards, everything started going wrong.
"Feral trails… Damn it," I muttered, looking around. Interwoven with our target's path were the many footsteps of ferals, previously littering the snow. I turned to Victor behind me, staring at me concernedly.
"You know, Ray… You wanted them to talk… They probably wanted some privacy to have a conversation with one another…"
By then, I'd completely lost the trail, having taken a wrong turn into the darkness of the forest. I knew from which way we came, so we would be able to return without issue.
"Let's go back to the fire," Victor encouraged. "It's freezing out here, and I don't much appreciate it… I'm sure they'll be absolutely fine… They can take care of themselves…"
I stopped, turning to give a pleading glance at the Durant. Contradictions started popping up in my mind… I was dragging him through all this against his will, and out of pure paranoia. True, I was worried about what I had overheard, but I was sure, with all we'd been through together, both Somin and Vita would come to me with a problem.
Or would they? Did they no longer see me as the trainer, as someone they could trust to confide their concerns? What could I do to fix them now? Hell, even my own view of myself as the figure of authority was disappearing…
Panicked thoughts passed through my head next. What if they were abandoning us? Was the pressure of seeing me like this too much? Were they running away together?
No… I was just being paranoid. Somin and I had been best friends for years, and Vita was much too sensible to ever do something so radical. I gave a longing glance in the direction I imagined they were, and looked back towards Victor.
I conceded, wordlessly padding back towards him, tail instinctively in between my legs. I muttered some sort of apology, to which he responded with a happy, "That's okay!"
At least he wasn't angry… Yet, I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen him as such. Was he physically capable of conjuring the emotion?
Head hanging low, I marched back the way we came, the cold finally catching up to me. Adrenaline had been my fuel before, allowing me to ignore the snow piling in my fur and the aching cold it brought.
What in the world was wrong with me? Just when I thought I was over the emotional effects of the transformation, I discover my mental state is even worse off… I was frustrated, to say the least, given no ideas whatsoever of how to fix myself.
I was falling apart, and tried desperately to hide it by focusing on trivial matters, such as learning to walk. Just thinking about it was demeaning beyond belief. How pitiful was I? Even before Mew's intervention, I'd been absolutely useless, not to mention a total emotional wreck. All I ever did was dwell on the misfortunes of the past, and as soon as I deemed myself 'over' one, another would simply appear in its place.
My life wasn't the problem, as I'd blamed everything on in the past. Not the team, not Mew, and not my parents. No one configured how I received and comprehended information, and if I wanted to make any real change in my life, I would have to change myself, first.
Nothing was wrong with my life besides myself. I was the catalyst for everything, and not just events as they applied to me, either. No, everyone's misfortune, it was all because of me. Everyone would have been happier if I never became a trainer. Maybe, one day, I would have lived up to my parents' wishes and gotten a 'real' profession. Maybe the team would be living happily with their families or other trainers…
Maybe Sierra wouldn't have died needlessly, at my own fault.
Arceus, damn it… How did I get so deep in that train of thought? I need to stop this, now…
I sniffed back the tears rapidly forming so Victor wouldn't be able to notice them… I was the team leader, and always would be, for as long as I could possibly affirm my stature. I, not unlike conjuring illusions, once more put up my veil of self-confidence.
Only to have it shattered seconds later with one of the biggest surprises I'd ever encountered.
Searing pain shot through my right, hind leg, feeling akin to having the skin peeled off with no warning whatsoever. I screamed, knocked aside by whatever had sliced me. I stayed on the ground where I was, trying to get my bearings in between agonizing bursts of fire from my thigh.
Seconds later, a blunt force careened into my side, knocking me many feet away. Once at rest, I coughed a few times through the pain, and tried to shakily stand, keeping as much weight off of my injured leg as possible.
I opened my eyes long enough to see Victor already deep in combat with a white behemoth, easily ten times his height. Dirty and scruffy snow-colored fur adorned the beast, complemented with a blue icicle, seemingly hanging from the creature's nose.
Beartic…
Jet had described Mew's assault on another of the same species almost a week prior. I never guessed we would encounter another so soon after the last.
A quick look at my harmed leg revealed it to have been dealt considerable thigh was torn open, a large gash running horizontal along it. It gushed steadily with blood.
The second attack, being the one that knocked me away, I presumed was Victor. He seemed to have seen the Beartic coming and acted accordingly to protect me.
Trying to hold back a whimper, I observed the battle with trepidation.
Victor and the Beartic had ceased in their first volley of vicious attacks, and circled around one another, sizing the other up. Victor opened and closed his mandibles in an intimidating manner, while the Beartic let out a feral roar, preparing its claws for the dismemberment of the Durant.
Trainer instinct, for whatever reason, kicked in right then, resulting in a command to Victor.
"Iron Head straight to the leg! Make sure to dodge its claws, and keep going until it's low enough to the ground for the kill."
Victor turned his head for a fraction of a second to stare at me worriedly. He seemed less attentive to my command as he did fear for the fact I was present.
He complied with my commands, though, and rushed forward, ducking under a swipe of the Beartic's claws. Before he could reach his target, however, the monster sidestepped, taking its leg out of the Durant's destructive path. Instead, a blow straight to the face was what met the Durant.
"Shit…" I muttered. The creature, even if feral, was smarter than I'd imagined.
"Okay, uhh…" I called, trying to formulate a plan while Victor recovered. The Beartic, roaring, dashed forwards in a counterattack.
"Dig!" I called out of pure desperation, teetering back and forth between functioning legs. I knew, deep down, I should have been letting Victor handle the fighting while I found some place to hide, but I stopped myself for two reasons. One, my attempted escape would alert the Beartic to my presence, and without a very efficient method of running, it would surely catch me. Second, I couldn't hope to move, frozen in place by fear.
Victor heeded my command a second time, burrowing through the snow and underground as the Beartic rushed overhead. I would congratulate myself in my head for a successful dodge if it weren't for the fact that, without a target, the Beartic's attention turned towards the closest living being.
Me…
Growling, it began charging, just as it had done previously. I tried scooting away, but was nowhere near fast enough to escape.
Victor saved me once again, however, exploding from the dirt in a magnificent show of silver. His head glowed, already charged to attack with Iron Head once more. He hit the Beartic directly in the gut, stopping the behemoth in its tracks.
As the Durant landed however, ready to attack once more, he wasn't fast enough to dodge the Beartic's teetering balance. Before he could jump at the ice-type with another super-effective move, it suddenly lurched forward in a vain attempt at an attack.
Of course, the feeble swipe of the creature's claws missed Victor entirely, but he did not escape unharmed. In a panic, the Beartic grabbed hold of one of Victor's forelegs with its free claw, succeeding in maintaining a successful grip.
In fact, that grip proved beyond beneficial in the Beartic's favor. Without any strategy whatsoever, it lifted the Durant in the air and flung him about, spinning his, by comparison, much smaller body without effort.
It ended up, rather than let the Durant go, slam it straight into the ground. Only then was Victor able to chomp his mandibles around the beast's arm. He made sure to give the attack enough force to puncture the skin entirely. Nothing stopped the metal appendages from touching one another once more, this time embedded into either side of the Beartic's paw.
It howled, both from pain and rage, trying to shake Victor off. His grip was unrelenting, however. By the time he ended up letting go for the sake of self-preservation, blood flowed from either side of the wound profusely. For good reason, too. One could look into one side of the gaping hole and see out the other without issue.
Victor was breathing heavily as he waited for an opportune moment to strike once more. I decided to give a brief glance to gauge his condition.
He wasn't doing too well… By the shape of the leg the Beartic had grabbed hold of, accompanied by the fact no weight was pressed on the limb whatsoever, I was led to the conclusion it was broken, and quite strongly at that.
"A-are you okay to keep going, Vic?" I asked fearfully, raising my voice to rise above the Beartic's agonized screams.
He turned towards me, shocked. That expression quickly developed into one of the first angry faces I'd ever seen the Durant wear. The fact his mandibles were tinted red assisted his intimidation greatly.
"What the are you still doing here!? Go see if Axle can help! Jet, too, if he's back at the cave… Just… Anyone! Go, now!"
He hardly dodged a blind slam from the Beartic. With the Durant out of sight, it turned its attention back towards me.
What did I do, with that bloodthirsty gaze meeting my own? I cowered, and listened to the Durant's instructions out of pure instinct. Of course, nothing but guilt filled my system with the decision, but what else was I to do, act as a distraction? I was nothing but an impediment, and obstacle to the battle at hand.
So, I turned and ran as quickly as I could manage… Back towards the cave. I didn't look back as I heard the Beartic's heavy footfalls chase me, nor did I watch as the sound of Victor's next attack collided with the beast, derailing it from its path towards me.
I simply ran, trying not to use my right hind leg as much as possible, which proved impossible relatively quickly. I grit my teeth and continued, no longer caring about the agony I was feeling. Cowardly fear was my only drive to get back.
The cave was in sight now. I could see the bend in the river approaching… Axle… He would be my first priority… It'd been nearly twelve hours… Maybe, just maybe, even with the nausea I was sure he'd be feeling, he would be able to help.
I rounded the bend, huffing and puffing, running faster than I'd ever ran with this new body. Now, it was just a matter of crossing the river, sprinting up the hill, and waking the Swampert, hopefully accompanied by Jet.
I took a few steps atop where the ice was covered by snow, however, and a single sound shut down my thought process.
'CRREE-SNAP!'
I was only able to let out a yelp as the ice completely broke apart below me, leaving me to nothing but gravity's mercy. I was fully taken by the river in less than a second.
Despite my ability to now run, the second time the river had caught me didn't prove I'd become any more proficient in swimming. The water, exponentially colder as compared to the last time, accepted me into its depths and wouldn't let go.
It grabbed hold of my fur, my legs, anything it could get a hold on to drag me deeper. I flailed, the pain in my hind leg now amounting to absolutely nothing. All I accomplished, perhaps, were a few small splashes…
No one was here to save me this time, however. At least last time, Somin was right by me, and it was by pure luck Vita had been there as well. Regardless, the Zoroark would have rescued me if necessary.
I kicked and turned in the dark depths, but it seemed the added weight of the water in my fur was working to my detriment. The cold was rapidly removing any energy I had left in my limbs as I only grew further and further away from the surface.
I'd heard a saying, years before, that when someone drowns, there's a brief moment of euphoria, seconds before consciousness is lost, in which all is well in the world. This, of course, comes after the excruciatingly painful process of inhaling water, which is what I ended up having to deal with as my oxygen store was slowly depleted completely.
I writhed a final time, feeling no such euphoria as I gave up… My adventure was finally ov—
A hand grabbed the fur on the back of my neck and dragged me upwards. By then, I had no sense as to what was happening, so I simply went limp as the creature continued in its attempts at rescue.
Much to my surprise, I eventually did break the surface of the water, and proceeded to cough and hack, despite my lung's disapproval.
I was slowly dragged back to shore by my unknown savior, seemingly having jumped into the water after me. Whatever it was, it boasted a small size, maybe just as large as I, considering anything larger would just fish me out of the freezing depths.
When we reached the bank and I was safely in the snow, I proceeded to take some personal time in order to retch and puke every bit of water I had within my system onto the ground. This went on for a solid thirty seconds without respite, and when it was over, the cold finally started setting in.
Instantly tired and feeling about the worst I'd ever felt, I curled up into a ball to the best of my ability and whimpered pitifully to myself.
"Y-y-y-you o-kay?" a female voice asked me in between what sounded like shivers. If anything, she was just as cold as I, having been in the water as well, and now faced with the outside world.
I recognized the voice though, and shivering out of pure lack of any warmth in my system, turned, shocked, towards her…
"Wh-what the h-h-hell ar-are you do-do-doing heeee-ere?" I barely forced out between the chattering of my teeth.
Misa, that cursed Axew, sat before me, hugging her legs to retain as much warmth as possible. I'd say, with the type disadvantage to the cold, she was just as cold as I, even without fur to retain the goddamned water still freezing me to the core.
"Y-y-ou're w-w-w-welc-ome," she responded spitefully, sending me the harshest glare she could muster. She softened, however, when reminded of the predicament both of us were in.
We would both die without getting warm, and fast. As much as it was horrible to say, I would have much rather drowned than freeze to death. My mind didn't even comprehend the fact she'd saved me.
I breathed, in and out, hoping to calm how fast my body functioned as a result of the panic.
"W-w-we need to g-go," she spoke out of nowhere. "M-more m-m-monsters comiiiiiiing."
I couldn't muster up the strength to send her a stupid stare. She'd said the exact same thing the last time, and while the Beartic Jet had described surely existed, I wasn't ready to believe her.
No further doubt was required, however, as a strangely familiar-yet-unfamiliar male voice was heard to the left. How many more surprises would there be in the same night?
"Well… What do we have here?"
I turned my head at lightning speeds to see the creature talking, and gawked at what I found… Three figures stood before me. All human, I realized instantly.. Multiple ice-type Pokemon of varying sizes and shapes floated and stood behind them.
"Hatchlings, obviously…" a second figure, female, said as if to spite the first. She realized the state we were in however, and changed her attitude very quickly. "Were they in the water? Oh no… We have towels, right? They'll freeze to death!"
"Need I remind you where we are? Keep your guards up… We've arrived," the third and final figure, a gruff male, spoke, turning to look up towards the cave… "Remember the plan," he said, before handing the second figure a large object. "There's spare clothes in there… After you're done, leave them to Altaria and check out the cave. He's here… I can feel it."
The third figure, seemingly the leader, after finished speaking, grabbed a Pokéball off of his belt and released its contents in a brilliant flash of white. For a second, as I got over the initial shock of seeing these three, familiar humans, here of all places, I forgot about the bitter cold racking my system.
I froze. The moonlight above gave a bright shine to everything in the vicinity, and in that moment, I was in full view of who had arrived.
Brycen, Gym Leader of Icirrus City, was taking a look around the river and forest from where he stood. Drayden, the Gym Leader of Opelucid City, had just finished releasing his Altaria to do Arceus-knows-what, while the feminine figure, Skyla, my aunt and the Gym Leader of Mistralton City, looked at both myself and Misa pitifully.
"It's okay," she said to us in as soothing a tone as she could conjure. "Everything's going to be just fine."
