Chapter 2

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The incessant ringing of an alarm clock jolted Fox from his deep slumber, his head instantly springing up from his pillow as he looked around frantically for the source of the noise, before slamming a paw down on the clock, instantly silencing the god-forsaken sound. One glance at that same, battered clock told him all he needed to know at the moment: it was half-past six, and it was about time he started his day. Wiping his blurry eyes to see the golden rays of light peeking through his window, Fox yawned, dragging himself off the bed and into the bathroom.

Another round of hair-brushing, teeth-cleaning, showering and toilet business commenced, before Fox had a quick change of clothes and left his bathroom. He still had plenty of time to make breakfast afterwards - it was 7:15, and school only started at eight. The Zoroark slung his school bag on his shoulders, and only then noticed the multi-colored crystal sitting on his bedside table. He felt strangely drawn to the gem, like some otherworldly force was moving his legs towards it step by step, beckoning him to take the crystal with him. At the last second he hesitated, recalling the energy pounding through his being when he last touched it - like his head was about to explode.

Fox contemplated for a good minute before he shut his eyes and snatched the crystal off the table, and braced himself for the overwhelming magical energy...which never came. No mysterious force threatened to crack his skull wide open. Breathing a sigh of relief, Fox blinked and tucked the strange crystal into one of his bag's smaller pockets, then opened his room door.

''Good morning, big brother!'' Of course, he never braced himself for the possibility of Luna being right outside his room, and Fox nearly crashed into his work desk from sheer shock. To his surprise, the Lucario was already dressed and ready for the day, and as cheerful as ever. Fox heaved another sigh of relief. "You nearly got me there, sis. Not quite though." He chuckled when Luna pouted in response, looking far too cute to be taken seriously. "Nearly. Did you make breakfast?"

"Not yet, I thought you might still be asleep so I decided to give you a wake-up call."

"Hmm...you wanna make breakfast together, then?"

"Yeah!" The Lucario cheered, elated to have her brother help her out in making breakfast this one time, and dashed down the stairs. Fox followed closely behind with her bag in tow, having noticed his sister completely forgetting about it, and decided to leave the pink school-bag on his sister's chair once he reached the kitchen.

''So what are we gonna make, Chef Luna?'' Fox asked in the best French accent he could muster, and even then he butchered said accent so bad that Luna couldn't help but giggle a bit. "We're making fruit sandwiches, and we'll need five types of berry!"

"And what might those be, madame?"

"Let's see...we need Sitrus, Oran, Cheri, Chesto and Leppa! Get three of each!" With that, Fox headed to the fridge to grab his ingredients while Luna prepared a chopping board and a knife. But even with so much to slice and prepare, the siblings still managed to have their fruit sandwiches on the table within ten minutes, and afterwards ate their breakfast while checking out the morning news (with the only noteworthy event being a train derailment in the mountains).

Once the two siblings had eaten their sandwiches, they grabbed their bags and set out on the winding road to school once more.

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As usual, the hallways of Wisp Academy were packed with students, all either checking out their new lockers, chatting with other students or glancing at their timetables every now and then. Fox and Luna had just entered the main corridor when the resounding gongs of the school bell echoed throughout the building, and students started making their way to their classrooms in droves. The Zoroark bid goodbye to his sister as he walked into his classroom, taking his seat amidst the noisy shuffling of chairs, and with nothing else to do, he dug the multi-colored crystal out of his bag pocket and started inspecting.

The more he turned it around in his claws, the more his eyebrows furrowed. While the crystal wasn't emitting pure magical energy like it did the day before, it still seemed rather otherworldly. Even in his well-lit classroom, the multi-colored star crystal radiated a soft, rainbow glow, and the star symbol engraved on the rock occasionally flashed bright white, for no obvious reason. Fox dumbly attempted to break the crystal with a pair of scissors, out of curiosity more than anything, and ended up leaving a sizable dent in the blade, while the crystal received not even a scratch. Most peculiar indeed, he thought.

Fox looked up from the crystal upon noticing the usual chatter among his classmates having fallen silent, and saw the old Scyther preparing his materials at the teacher's desk. Oddly enough, a Glaceon happened to enter the room at the same time, their trembling bangs and their deep turquoise eyes darting frantically about like agitated Combee only serving to emphasize their petite frame and the cold air of nervousness they gave off. He didn't remember seeing them at all the day before, and judging by how his other classmates stared at them with confusion plastered on their faces, Fox could only conclude that the Glaceon was a new student. Excitement bubbled up in him briefly, and then Mr. Blade spoke.

"Good morning, class!"

Every student in the room, save for the Glaceon, scrambled to their feet and bowed. "Good morning, Mr. Blade!"

The Scyther took one quick glance at all his students and nodded. "Alright. Sit!" Then came the collective screeching of metal chair legs against floor tiles as the students settled down once more, and Mr. Blade made his next statement. "Now, first things first - we have a transfer student here, from Lastern City." He turned to the shivering Glaceon, and said in a much softer tone: "Go on, introduce yourself."

Their voice was barely audible, like mere whispers on the wind. Luckily for them, the class was silent enough for one to hear a pin drop. "H-hi, everyone! M-my name is Aurora Frost! I hope w-we can get along…" The Glaceon smiled a nervous smile as she froze in place, silently waiting for her next instruction.

The Scyther faced the rest of the class once more. "She's from quite a different place than the rest of us, so don't expect her to warm up to our system immediately. I'd like everyone to do their best to help her, if she so asks. Understand?" A loud chorus of "Yes, sir!" echoed throughout the room, and Aurora seemed to flinch backwards ever so slightly.

''And for your seat...you can sit over there, behind the Zoroark." Aurora nodded, whispering a silent "thank you" as she walked in the direction the raised claw was pointing at, and would've passed Fox without a care in the world-

-if he didn't so happen to have a strange, glowing rock in his claws. The Glaceon paused mid-step, craning her neck to get a clearer look at the multi-colored crystal. "That gem…"

Fox whipped his head in her direction. "Uh...can I help you?" Aurora briefly froze up in shock, then trained her eyes to the ground as she hurriedly rushed towards her seat, a blush already forming on her cheeks. And then Fox heard some more whispering in the background.

''Did you see that?''

''Maybe they met each other before?''

''They most probably have...''

"Do you think they like each other? Love at first-"

''Hey, keep it down! He might hear us!''

He sighed, glancing at the gossipers as he mentally rebuked their "conspiracy theories". No, he had never seen her once in his life. No, he quite obviously didn't fall for her in that brief moment (he felt his claws threaten to dig into the table from mild frustration). And yes, he could totally hear them. It took a lot more than near-silent whispering to completely fall under his radar. However, Fox couldn't get over the strange way Aurora looked at him, at the crystal - maybe she knew something about it that he didn't? Fox glanced back at the Glaceon, catching her staring at him before she shyly looked away.

"That's enough, all of you." Instantly, the classroom fell silent, and Mr. Blade turned to the list on his desk. "I will now call you all one by one to collect your books. Ash-" -a Pikachu wearing a red trucker hat perked up upon being called- "-Please take a stack." Said Pokémon walked to the book-laden corner of the class, and nearly dropped all his textbooks and what-not just trying to get them back to his seat. Eventually, Fox was called to pick up his own stack, and fortunately for him, the books were surprisingly lightweight, though he still deemed it impossible to fit them all in one backpack alone (and in that moment, was grateful for the existence of his locker).

Once everyone had taken their books (and made sure that no one was missing a textbook or two from the recent book-spill mishap), Mr. Blade addressed the whole class once more. "Your physics teacher, Ms. Snow, should be here soon, so let's greet. Goodbye, class."

"Goodbye and thank you, Mr. Blade!" And the students quickly sorted out their piles of books as their next teacher, a bespectacled Simipour, entered the class. Fox took a quick glance at his timetable again and let out a dejected sigh.

It was going to be a long day.

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Hours of lectures, note-taking and general, mind-numbing boredom rolled on before that hallowed bell finally tolled, and everyone rushed down to the cafeteria for lunch. Fox sat down at one of the few long, empty tables with his tray of spaghetti and fish sticks, and took the multi-colored crystal out of his pocket once more for investigation. Was Aurora - if that was her name - looking at this? He saw the Glaceon having her lunch all by herself, sitting at a deserted corner of the cafeteria, and turned back to the crystal. But really, how would she know about this crystal? It's not like these rocks are shown in museums or anything-

''What do you mean, no ice?!" Fox whipped his head in the direction of the voice, and saw the distinctive figure of the cafeteria head with a Meowth, some distance away from his table. "I'm tellin' you, boss! There's no ice!"

The Watchog seemed to glare daggers at his colleague. "Didn't you restock yesterday? How is there no ice?!"

"No clue, boss! The ice just all gone an' melted, same fer th' extra ice bags! And they ain't even cold!"

Woah. No ice? All melted? There's gotta be a mistake somewhere- "Hey Fox!" The all-too-familiar voice of Ray snapped the Illusion Pokémon out of his thoughts, and he turned to see Dracon and the aforementioned Pikachu sitting down at his table. "Hey there."

"So I heard there's this new transfer kid in your class," Ray started off, and Fox stared at him with furrowed brows. "Wait, how'd you know-" Dracon pointed him in the direction of a table with a bunch of students crowded around it, whispering something so loudly that it could hardly be considered a whisper at all. "Over there, bucko. Heard some news about her from your classmates."

"Along with some rumors about you and the transfer...is it true that you guys had met before?" Ray added, exchanging a smirk with his Charizard pal.

The Zoroark promptly smacked a palm into his forehead. "No...and we're definitely not in love or anything of the sort. We just met, damnit! And that was just a simple stare!"

"Why the big reaction, lover boy? Of course we know that's totally false," Dracon snickered, somewhat ruining his attempt to reassure his friend. Fox groaned, and Ray decided to raise another question. "Then why was she staring at you?"

Fox hesitated for a brief moment before he uncovered the multi-colored star crystal under his paw. "I found it at the beach. Weird, isn't it?"

Dracon glared at the crystal's aurora-like color flashes and nodded. "You think? Though it reminds me somewhat of my Mega Stone…" The Zoroark nodded, and absent-mindedly slipped the crystal back into his pocket, oblivious to the crystal shining brighter than usual, then decided to change topics. "Hey, have you two heard that…"

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Several hours later, after even more mind-numbingly boring lessons, the hallowed bell tolled once more, and every student immediately rushed out of the classroom after their final greetings for the day, making a Combeeline for the school gates. Fox and Luna decided to head home right after school to finish their Physics and Math assignments respectively (one can imagine their utter disappointment) and once again, walked along the winding route back home.

They would've gotten back home without any delays, had Luna not spotted an ice cream truck at the side of the road, jingling its iconic jangle, and practically tugged Fox all the way to it in order to buy a scoop of ice cream. The Zoroark took a brief moment to regain his balance as his sister began her order, but was interrupted by the Delibird in the truck.

"I'm sorry, girl, but we don't have any ice cream today…" Luna immediately deflated like a burst balloon, and dejectedly gazed at the ground as Fox patted her on the back and raised his question. "Excuse me, why you don't have any ice cream?"

The Delibird scratched his head as he regarded Fox. "The freezer wasn't cold enough for some reason and all the ice cream melted. I think a malfunction occurred, but the machinery looks alright to me…"

"Oh, okay. Luna, I'll get you ice cream tomorrow then, alright?" The Lucario instantly brightened up. "Alright, big bro!" With that, the two continued on their way back home, which actually didn't take too much time to reach (since they didn't pass anymore ice cream trucks and the like).

Along the way, Fox contemplated the ice shortage in school, and the Delibird vendor's words. The cafeteria's freezer just stopped working, same for the ice cream truck's…

...Is this really just some unlucky coincidence?

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What neither sibling expected to see when they opened the door was their older brother Barke, all dressed in his navy-blue police uniform and watching television with their parents. "Hey, Fox! Luna!" The police Lucario turned to his younger siblings, and was instantly met with one hell of a group hug. "Barke! How've you been?" Fox asked, once he and Luna got the message to stop hugging Barke so tightly. "Pretty good, how about you?"

"I'm good. School's been okay so far, though we already have homework on our second day…" Barke laughed a bit at his brother's predicament. "And Luna has some too? Hopefully you two can finish it before dinner."

"Yeah, I hope so! Talk to you later then, big big bro!" Luna said, heading upstairs to her room and prompting Fox to head back to his room as well. "See you at dinner, then!"

Much to the Zoroark's surprise, there actually wasn't much to do for physics, other than one revision worksheet on what he'd learned in middle school. In no time at all, he was done with his work and was talking with Luna and Barke in the older Lucario's bedroom, with several certificates and trophies stacked on shelves nailed into the deep cyan walls. "Big bro, how's working in the force? Is the work there hard?" Luna asked eagerly.

"Yeah, it was real tough the first few days, what with the higher-ups always pushing us and the constant drills, but after that you get used to it all," Barke answered. "You know how you have to run around the racetrack when warming up for PE? In the police force, we have to run around the entire compound every day, and it's really big, about twice the length of the school racetrack-"

"Dinner's ready, kids!" They heard their father shout from downstairs and immediately rushed down to the dining room, only to be astonished by the gigantic feast set on the table - berries and roast beef and even a huge pizza bowl, topped with ham and Tamato and Pinap slices. (Editor's note: no regrets) Barke's jaw was nearly touching the floor. "Woah...that's a lot of food, mom…"

Lenda merely grinned in response. "Since you're here tonight, we figured that we should celebrate your homecoming." The police Lucario couldn't help but break a smile as well. "Thanks, Mom. You're the best."

"Hey, how about me? I helped cook all this too!" Jake half-joked, half-pouted about almost having his efforts forgotten, and everyone else in the room started laughing. "W-well, of course! Thanks as well!" Barke replied, and the whole family promptly decided to sit down and dig in (Luna, who was so close to drooling the entire time, grabbed a berry and shoved it down her throat so quickly that the rest of the family broke a sweat at not having reached their utensils yet).

Dinner went by with lots of chatting and obviously, eating - Barke's very presence single-handedly livened the mood in the small dining room, with questions and jokes flying about like paper planes in a rowdy class. At some point, Jake turned on the television so that the whole family could watch their favorite comedy show together, only to be interrupted by something interesting going on in the 7:30 news.

"Breaking news: all snow and ice seems to have disappeared from the world. You heard me right. Many regions in Kayo, the coldest continent on the planet, are currently facing severe flooding from a tidal wave of snowmelt, with the number of Pokémon missing and injured rising dramatically and the death toll numbering in the thousands, far higher than the worst flood reported in this century. Also," the reporter pointed at a picture of the planet onscreen, "satellite footage shows the disappearance of both polar ice caps, with geographers predicting sea levels to rise exponentially in the coming week. Governments around the world are preparing shelters and urging those living near water bodies to evacuate a soon as possible. In addition to all that, several reports around the globe have come in with the news that all cooling machinery - refrigerators, freezers, the like - have all ceased to function."

Quickly, Lenda opened the fridge to find it strangely lukewarm, while the ice packs in the freezer compartment were all filled with water. "The news isn't lying...nothing in here is cold at all!"

"Scientists are investigating the cause for all this as we speak. Until then, the only thing we all can do is stay safe. I'd now like to hand it over to Lisa…" By now, everyone in the room was staring at the television in sheer disbelief. They all knew they were probably safe from the rising tides - their neighborhood was situated on a large hill - but the fact that such calamity was practically on their doorstep was...humbling, to say the least.

''So that's what happened...'' Fox muttered out after a few minutes of stunned silence.

Barke stared at the Zoroark, confusion evident on his face. ''Wait. What do you mean by that?''

Fox took a deep breath. "In school, I overheard some arguing about how there was no ice in the cafeteria. I think this is the first time that's happened in ages. Later, the ice cream vendor said that all the ice cream melted and the freezer wasn't functioning, even though he thought the thing seemed completely fine. I thought this was all some strange coincidence, until I saw the news…"

Really wish I could do something about this...but really, what can I do? I don't have the power to avert natural disaster. I can't snap my fingers and make ice and snow magically appear again. I'm no superhero, I'm just another witness in the face of catastrophe. But I do wish I knew what happened…Fox was so deep in his thoughts that he never noticed the faint, pink glow in his pants.

"Bro, relax. I think the police department can handle this - if the compound isn't underwater by tomorrow, that is!" Barke joked, earning himself a glare from Luna. "Hey, handling all that isn't your job! It's supposed to be up to the geographers and climate change experts to find out, not the local police force! Besides, do you think the sea is gonna move away when y'all tell it to?"

"Exactly! We're gonna tell the ocean to get off our property, and arrest it when it doesn't follow our instructions!" By now, everyone was laughing at the humorous exchange, even when discussing such a serious matter. Then Fox felt something pulsing through his body, slowly overwhelming his senses, and suddenly the room just started spinning. For the briefest of moments, a flash of pure white obscured his vision entirely, and Fox let out a yelp as he crumpled onto the table.

"Bro, you okay?" Barke immediately stopped joking and patted his brother's back, noting Fox's hyperventilation, and the rest of the family gathered around the Zoroark. "Fox! What happened?" Lenda cried, jostling his shoulder slightly in an attempt to help him remain conscious. But despite the energy coursing through his veins and the pain in his skull growing by the minute, Fox still managed to muster a weak "I'm fine, don't worry" as he pushed himself off the table.

"Are you sure, big brother? What happened?" Luna asked, and Fox hesitated in giving her an answer. How could he tell his family that a strange crystal was giving him a headache without garnering some strange looks first? "I...I wish I knew…really, though. I'm okay…" He gasped. Though Barke was rather unconvinced himself, he decided to let the matter go. "He's okay, everyone. No need to panic." He turned to Fox. "Why don't you go to bed early?"

"Good idea." Even in his weakened state, Fox dismissed Luna's help in getting himself up to his room, and spent some time brushing his teeth and changing into his pajamas before slumping onto his cozy bed, his last thoughts being of the vibrant star crystal on his bedside desk before he drifted off into dreamland.

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When he opened his eyes, he saw the entire planet right in front of him. He closed them in an attempt to remain asleep, but after a brief moment they shot open once more, because how could one ignore the fact that the very planet they lived on itself was right in front of their damned face?!

Upon closer inspection of his surroundings, which mainly comprised of a giant, endless void speckled with a gazillion pinpricks of white, Fox concluded that he was, in fact, in space. Of course, that raised more questions than it answered - how was he lying down on a solid surface? How was he still breathing? Even better, how was he still alive? Fox picked himself off the invisible ground, surprised that he wasn't floating like those astronauts he saw on television, and glanced at the earth at the exact moment it split into pieces.

What in the world is going on? Then, the Zoroark flinched, and started looking around frantically for the source of the otherworldly voice echoing through the void. Who was that!? Only when he realized that the voice spoke at the same time as he thought did he realize where it was coming from, and promptly smacked a palm into his forehead. Hard.

Fox watched as the broken fragments of Earth slowly drifted apart, before the fragments faded to silver and ground to a halt; a broken ball of dull grey suspended in midair, as if by magic. However, Fox was left as confuzzled as ever. What's this supposed to mean? The silvery mist that clouded his surroundings seconds later did absolutely nothing to answer his questions, but rather doubled them entirely when the mist had thinned enough for Fox to realize that he wasn't in deep space anymore, with the only reassuring thing being that the ground under his feet wasn't invisible anymore.

Alright. Where am I? A quick look at his surroundings told him everything he needed to know: he was some hundred feet down underground in a dank, dark cavern with temperatures so low that icicles were growing from both the ceiling and the hard, rocky ground.

"Wh...why are you taking the Snow gemstone?" A voice, pleading and gravelly, echoed from the annals of the cavern, and Fox instinctively ran towards the voice, noting the rapid drop in temperature as he ventured deeper into the cavern, and he was shivering by the time he reached the deepest room in the cavern, freezing and void of all light, save the icy-blue luminescence from a diamond-like gemstone tinted with the same hue.

"To simply prevent something. I have no quarrel with you." Fox entered the room, treading carefully so as to not slip on the frozen ground, and almost gasped when he saw the other two occupants in the cave. The first, pinned to the ground by the second Pokémon, was one he only heard about in myths and fairy tales. Deep blue plumage, long ribbon-like tail feathers, a grand, crown-like crest on their head, and wings made out of cold blue ice; he'd thought he'd never see an Articuno in his lifetime, and now he was proven wrong.

The second was less awe-inspiring, but still noteworthy considering that they were pinning a Legendary down with their bare paws; the figure of the midday-form Lycanroc was unmistakable with their beige-white fur and the sharp, jagged rock knives that stuck out of their mane.

"B-but if you take the gemstone, snow will-" With a swift movement of their paw, the Lycanroc silenced the Articuno with a Brick Break, and Fox couldn't help but wince upon impact, then started sweating and hoping that no one heard him. Luckily for him, the Lycanroc seemed to not take notice as they sauntered up to the icy-blue diamond and snatched it off its frozen pedestal, pocketing the gem in their leather knapsack, and glanced back at the unconscious Articuno once more as they turned to leave.

''Like I said, I have no quarrel with you. I am simply preventing a disaster, forgive me.'' With that, the Lycanroc disappeared into the cavern tunnels, and Fox finally heaved a sigh of relief from somehow being ignored by the two Pokémon, despite being in plain sight the whole time. Then thick fog clouded his vision, and within seconds it cleared again to reveal another cave - but the cavern walls and ceiling were laden with silver and coppery bits of ore where the icicles used to be. In addition, he didn't feel an oppressive coldness in this cave like he did the last one.

Again, there was a finely carved pedestal in the middle of the room, and on it was a silver diamond, similar to the ice gemstone yet slightly different - where a snowflake symbol was engraved on the ice diamond, the symbol of a circle with an arrow sticking out of it was engraved on this silvery gemstone. Like the ice crystal, the silver one also emitted a bright glow, its light illuminating the many ores of copper, silver, gold and iron laden in every nook and cranny of the room, the ores of gold shining like stars when touched by the light.

Fox approached the gemstone of steel, wanting to take a closer look, when thick fog started to cloud both his vision and his thoughts, and he blacked out before he hit the ground.

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A sudden, loud bang jolted him awake once more, and he threw himself into the ceiling, crashing unceremoniously onto the floor shortly afterward. "Big brother! Wake up, we're going to be late!" Luna shouted, snapping the Zoroark out of his daze. "Wait...what time-" he asked, frantically glancing at his alarm clock…

...only realize that he actually had plenty of time to get ready for school. "Ha, fooled you!" Luna teased, and Fox couldn't help but laugh along with her. "Geez, you really had me scared for a moment there!" Fox picked himself off the ground. "I was really hoping to sleep in for longer, though…"

"Well, you're awake now aren't ya? Especially with you throwing yourself off the bed," Luna pointed out. "Let's get ready for school - what do you want for breakfast?" Fox pondered for a short moment. "Maybe just a Mago jam sandwich this time." "Coming right up!" With that, Luna dashed back into her room, closing Fox's door along the way, and the Zoroark took a moment to contemplate. What was all that he saw in his dream? Who even was that strange Lycanroc, going around stealing gems?

And more importantly, what did that last scene in the ore cave mean?

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A blur of beige and white dashed through the thick undergrowth, leaping over fallen logs and running through low-hanging branches. The blur swerved through thickets of trees and bushes, paying no attention to the aching in their legs or the beauty of the forest that flashed by them, rarely pausing for brief moments to catch their breath and check their location on their phone. Only when the sun had long since set did the Lycanroc decide to take a short rest, gradually slowing their pace until they found a small lake in the dense wilderness, and sat down by the shore, gazing at a shimmering reflection of the full moon on the water, silvery and beautiful.

Seth knew he couldn't stay long - he aimed to reach the ore cave he saw in his strange dreams by sunrise - but he figured that a few hours of rest couldn't hurt. The Lycanroc gathered some dry sticks he found from the surrounding trees near the lakeshore and quickly rubbed his flint and steel together to create white-hot sparks, and within a minute he had a campfire going. After spearing a couple of sausages he'd bought from the last supermarket he'd visited and setting them on the flames, Seth took out a vibrantly-colored crystal from his coat pocket and examined the star symbol engraved on it.

"So this was telling me of that ore cave in the last dream...I think it should be close enough, a few more hours of running should get me there." Seth mused, unafraid of anything overhearing him in the depths of the forest. "Think it's the Steel gemstone I'll have to get next, if I'm correct. Wonder what Pokémon's gonna be guarding that this time?"

He saw the sausages on the flames having turned a rather nice shade of brown, and stuck the sticks into the ground while waiting for them to cool off sufficiently - after all, even an expert runner and fighter like him didn't want to burn his tongue from hot food. "I really wonder how those chefs on TV eat their food straight off the pan - but hey, maybe I'll get to find out after preventing certain doom." Seth only started eating once his sausages had cooled enough in the night air, and throughout his meal, still continued to talk to himself about matters on his mind.

"If the other Guardians were here, they'd be having a blast. If arguing over which direction to go in and getting lost constantly counts as a blast, but at least everyone would be stoked about meeting the Pokémon legends themselves. Delphi would be stoked to meet whoever guards the Fire gemstone, wherever that thing is." Wiping the oil off his face, Seth grabbed his canister and scooped some water out from the lake, boiling it before drinking the entire thing, and then boiled some more water to store for later use.

Seth spent a few more minutes staring at the lake, before he got bored and decided to pack up and leave. "Hopefully I'll get a couple more moments like this before I collect all the gemstones and save the world from a never-ending stasis…" Even though his eyelids felt heavy, he brushed his tiredness aside as he warmed up for another few hours of running. "...and hopefully I'll be able to get some shuteye after finding the Steel gemstone." Seth checked his belongings once, sighing in mild relief when all the elemental gemstones he had were still in his knapsack, and extinguished his campfire before leaving the lake.

And once again, the Lycanroc bolted into the forest, with the only remaining traces of him being a couple of footprints in the mud and the soft crunch of grass and fallen leaves.