Location: Home (morning)
Date: June 22nd

Oh, SWEET RELIEF! It feels so, so, SO nice having my journal back.

After I left the house yesterday morning, I overheard Carracosta and Lyra arguing about how good of a job she'd done cleaning. I found a note by the doorway of their home. It was from Lyra, who apologized for not being available to play today. Carracosta was making her clean the whole house from top to bottom as punishment for sneaking out.

I decided to check in with our classmates. It turns out they'd decided to come clean to their parents about what happened instead of sneaking back in. Everyone got chewed out…except Espurr. Apparently, she doesn't have any parents to chew her out. I cracked a joke, saying we could be her parents and scold her if she really wanted. She hastily declined, though I could see her smirking.

With Lyra being unavailable, everyone volunteered to explore with me today. Shelmet and Pancham only offered because they owed me one from last night.

This would've been a great opportunity to get to know Deerling better, or help Goomy get stronger, or better understand Shelmet, or reconcile with Pancham. However, I decided to travel with Espurr. After Carracosta's yelling last night, I could really do with some peace and quiet. Espurr was the most likely to provide that.

Traveling with Espurr was as peaceful as I needed, though it wasn't necessarily quiet. A few times throughout our adventure, she asked me what it was like having someone to look out for me or if I considered Nuzleaf my father.

I told her that...while other kids might see it as a nuisance, I see it as incredibly reassuring. It's nice to have someone to look out for me. It means I always have a home to return to when it feels like the world is too much. It's safe. Warm. Secure. It feels like everything will be okay. I also told her that I do, in fact, consider Nuzleaf to be my father. He's as close to one as it comes, and he admitted he's new to parenting...meaning he admits he's my parent.

Espurr looked...kind of sad when I told her that. I apologized, remembering she doesn't have parents to look after her. I told her that if she wanted, she could join our little family. Looking back on it, that was pretty bold of me. I didn't even check with Nuzleaf before making my offer.

However, she declined, saying she was better off on her own for now. "Family isn't so much about where you belong, but with who. Right now, I think I belong with just myself."

I can't begrudge her that. I know how serene and peaceful it is being by yourself…even if it does leave you helpless in certain situations sometimes.

After we parted ways, my Connection Orb shined and we were connected with the other students as well! Now we could invite them on our adventures if we wanted!

Lyra had finally gotten free from cleaning duty and we met outside Carracosta's place. Nuzleaf was on his way out as well, and the three of us had a chat about exploration. Lyra asked Nuzleaf if there was any place in the village he wanted to explore, and he mentioned Revelation Mountain.

Lyra said it's a sacred mountain that nobody's allowed up, but Nuzleaf made a compelling argument about how that mystery and intrigue just makes us want to go up there even more. Lyra hadn't let rules and regulations stop her from exploring forbidden areas before…but it sounds like Revelation Mountain was the one thing she absolutely could not afford to tarnish lest she suffer the worst of Carracosta's lectures. Nuzleaf said nobody was forcing her to go up the mountain, but she shouldn't let the passion of exploration be snuffed out by restrictions.

"Sometimes it's okay to go a little too far as long as it's just a little," he'd said. I…don't know if I agree with that. The thing about going too far is that it's too far. In my opinion, it's okay to go a little far so long as it's not too far because when you go too far there's no way to turn back. You can't go "just a little too far" off a cliff and end up okay. That's how you get hurt.

Still, he had a point. It's not like we were strangers to invading areas we weren't allowed in. And now he had my curiosity…what is up Revelation Mountain? I get an awful familiar feeling just looking at the mountain, but there's also a sense of dread and urgency. Don't know what for though. Maybe whatever makes the mountain sacred is sending signals to my body to stay away. Maybe there's a Pokémon up there my Chikorita senses are picking up on that my human brain doesn't recognize.

Either way, I have an intense feeling that I should stay away from there.

Anyway, that's all that happened yesterday when I didn't have my journal. This morning, I thanked Nuzleaf for the delicious breakfast and for returning my journal. He's in a jolly mood today and seems to have more energy than usual. I wonder if something splendid happened to put a pep in his step. Whatever it was, I'm happy for him :3

I should get ready for today, so I'll update later. The Evergreens are back in business!

Location: Serene Village Plaza

Lyra and I heard something...unsettling. Pelipper was here a few moments ago, and he dropped off some news about Pokémon being turned into stone. Some Pokémon in the plaza told us it's mostly affecting far away places like Lively Town. Nobody in the village has been affected yet, which was relieving.

However, Lyra also seemed a little…sad. She said news of faraway places facing that kind of trouble hardly reached the village given how remote it was, and she said she wouldn't mind venturing outside of the village someday to explore the wide world we live in. Of course, the plaza Pokémon were shocked to hear her say that, reminding her that she's just a kid and that there's all kinds of dangers out there. She might get turned to stone herself!

I mean…they weren't wrong. There are a lot of dangers outside the village. I was attacked by random Pokémon outside the village a few seconds after regaining consciousness, so I can attest to that. However, they don't realize that Lyra and I have traveled outside of the village already to embark on our expeditions. How do they think we got to Mystery Dungeons? Teleportation?

Not to mention, every kid needs to leave the nest eventually. That's how you grow and learn and mature. You can't hope to mature well if you stay home your entire life. Plus, Lyra has a dream of joining the Expedition Society in Lively Town. We can't exactly do that by staying here forever. We were fortunate Ampharos wandered this way, but there's no guarantee we'll get that lucky again. Finally, there's only so many adventures that can be had in this tiny village. Sure, we can venture outside the village to Mystery Dungeons for our expeditions, but there's only so far we can travel before we have to return home. Living with our parents is shackling us, and if we want to be full-blown explorers someday…

Well, Lyra agreed with them and said she'll have to wait until she's older. Didn't she remember what Nuzleaf told us yesterday? Don't let rules and restrictions kill your love of exploring. Even if Pokémon are being turned to stone, that shouldn't scare us from exploring. It's just another mystery for us to solve!

For now, we're doing our regular expedition work. I'm going to talk to Nuzleaf about the Pokémon being turned to stone and see what he thinks. Maybe he's come across this strangeness in his travels.

Location: Carracosta's place.

Today's expedition turned out incredible! Not only did we successfully complete our two rescue missions, but we recruited both a traveling Pokemon and a fainted Pokemon!

When we got back, Carracosta invited us along to help out with dinner in exchange for enjoying something especially tasty. Before we arrived at his place, Lyra asked what's on Revelation Mountain. She made it clear we had no intentions of going up the mountain, but she wanted to know why we couldn't ascend it and what's up there.

Carracosta didn't know the answer to either of those questions, but he revealed that it's a long-held tradition in the village to guard the mountain. The mountain is a sacred site to the village, and to tarnish whatever sacred grounds are at the peak would be sacrilege. As we were walking towards Carracosta's place, I told Lyra that perhaps someday when I'm older I'll make the trip back here and have my turn at guarding the mountain. I don't know why, but it feels like something I should do. Maybe I feel like I need to repay the villagers for allowing me to stay here. Maybe Serene Village feels so much like home that its treasured mountain feels like a sacred treasure to me too, and I want to keep it safe at all costs.

Suddenly, I'm reminded of Gabite's treasure room and how he and the Drilbur tried to keep thieves from looting it. Surely this is how he felt…

Well, Carracosta was really happy and proud to hear me say so. He said he would talk to some of the other villagers about it. Still, it'd be a long time before I'd be old enough to guard the mountain. For now, he wanted us to focus on dinner.

And what a dinner it was! Carracosta had done some culinary experimenting with…pasta. Yes, pasta. Apparently, that's a thing that exists in this world, though Carracosta admitted that it's rare and expensive. Makes sense. I'd expect Pokémon would have a hard time mass producing pasta in this world. Even so, we had a delightful dinner of elbow macaroni mixed with Carracosta's homemade sauce. And yeah, they called it something else but I wasn't paying enough attention to make a note of it. Also, Nuzleaf came back in time to help us make dessert – Pecha Berry cream puffs!

Lyra and I told Carracosta and Nuzleaf the news we heard this morning about Pokémon being turned to stone. Carracosta was horrified while Nuzleaf looked disheartened. He said he'd heard of the phenomenon in his travels but had dismissed it as baseless gossip. To hear it was becoming a serious problem that nobody really understood or knew the cause of…it was certainly worrisome. He said he wished he'd looked into it more while he was out – maybe he could've discovered a solution. Lyra told him there's no point in that because he might've ended up getting turned to stone as well.

Comforting though she tried to sound, Lyra did nothing to appease Nuzleaf's worries. I could tell from his forced smile that something was wrong. After we thanked them for dinner and returned home, I asked him what's wrong. He tried waving it off, but I told him that I could tell he was upset. His expression quivered before falling into gloom.

He said he was thinking…maybe the Beheeyem are the ones responsible for turning Pokémon into stone. They randomly attacked two Pokémon out in the woods and continued to chase us, but backed off when we entered the village. If he hadn't brought me here, it's possible I could've been turned to stone.

"Just thinkin' about that time I almost walked away from ya," he'd said. "If'n I hadn't changed my mind and decided not t'leave ya out in the middle o' nowhere like that…reckon you might be a cold stone statue right about now."

That was a chilling thought…who knows what might've happened to me had Nuzleaf not taken me in? Maybe I'd be turned to stone. Maybe I'd be dead. Maybe I'd lose my mind and turn into a feral animal to survive. Who knows?

I told him I was grateful for his generosity and that I'm happy he'd decided to take me along. I've had so many adventures and good times here in the village, and I have him to thank for that. He got all bashful and said that "it weren't nothin'", that he wouldn't have forgiven himself if he had left me out there. And if his theory proved correct and the Beheeyem were behind such a terrible thing, that meant we had to change how we did things.

"No more tellin' folks about yer human history," he'd said sternly. He understood why I told Lyra and the other students, but from now on I was to keep that to myself. With the haunting incident in addition to Pokémon being turned to stone, Serene Village wouldn't be too kind about another unnatural phenomenon living under its roof. Now more than ever, we couldn't afford to get kicked out.

Second, if I heard or saw any signs of the Beheeyem during my adventures with Lyra, I am to stop what I'm doing and race back here immediately.

"Don't care if Lyra gets left behind in the dust," he'd said. "Your safety is my top priority."

I didn't like that. I started arguing with him about never leaving Lyra behind, that we're a team and we'd agreed to look out for one another when nobody else would. He said that I wouldn't be able to help Lyra if I got turned to stone with her. That may be true, but I don't…

I apologized and told him I simply couldn't agree to do that. Just like how he couldn't leave me behind in the woods, I couldn't leave Lyra behind if the Beheeyem found us. I just couldn't.

He looked annoyed when I said that, but he let it go. He reckoned it was useless trying to change my mind.

Thirdly, he'd limit his own explorations in favor of staying here in the village to keep an eye on me. No more away-from-home trips, not with things escalating like this. Not until they found a solution to restoring Pokémon who'd been turned to stone or apprehended the culprit behind it. I told him that's fair enough.

I asked if that meant I couldn't venture out with Lyra anymore. He said as much as he wanted me to stay in the village, he also didn't want to discourage us from exploring. Not after the talk we had yesterday about letting our love of exploring flourish despite rules telling us we shouldn't. He only asked that I take extra precautions in case the worst should happen. Pack extra Escape Orbs and things like that.

I agreed and offered for him to explore with us one of these days if he wanted to. He liked the idea and said maybe someday, but for now he wanted to prepare to-go bags in case we had to evacuate the village. Well, tomorrow he'd do that. It was getting late now, and we were both exhausted.

This Pokémon turning to stone stuff is scary. The victims...I wonder what they're feeling. What being turned to stone is like…does it hurt? Are they still alive? Can they feel anything, just not move?

I hope they're okay…