A peaceful atmosphere surrounded Flareon Light. He laid on his back somewhere on a cushy, soft surface. His body felt slow enough that he'd probably get dizzy if he just shot up to his feet.

He moved his right arm over his face as his eyes opened to a light blue sky. He started to realize why he felt so relaxed. He laid soft grass, and beautiful singing reverberated in his ears from somewhere.

It paused, and the bright, female voice singing greeted him.

"Hey," the voice greeted, "How ya doin?"

"Hey, uh… Where am I?" Light asked.

"Right here, right now," the voice said. "Stay a second. You have time right now."

"Uhm, o-kaaaay…"

Light stretched out his back and rolled onto his side. His foot falling revealed he was on a grassy hill.

From on his side, he saw a pair of huge white arms tipped with green patterns. His eyes traced up the white fur.

Green eyes stared back at him. They belong to a Sky-Forme Shaymin looming over him. She tried to turn her head away, but it got tethered to Light's gaze.

"Uhm, welcome. To, ah, here," she said, "Are you relaxed yet?"

Light laughed. It was hard to tell if Shaymin noticed it, but she continued to half-stare at him. She was bigger than him, although he always had a small size ratio compared to other Eevees.

Thinking on it again, this was a big Shaymin. He knew about a good number of Mythical class species. She had to be a behemoth compared to other Shaymin, and her muscles were huge. She seemed somewhere around his age, too.

His heart shivered. He looked away from her and down at his own body. Bandages covered him. The concentration of them were around his leg, the location of a bit of a dull, suppressed sting.

"I think I can keep relaxed and know about what happened," Light said, "I'm alright."

"Well, do you remember what was going on?" she asked.

"Just about everything."

"Well, we just brought you here to keep you from waking up screaming or something," she explained. "After all of that, you're saying you're not scared? Or worried?"

"Not for me," he said. "We're on... Kaigan. Yah?"

"Yeah. We only brought you here after we were sure you were just fine. I mean, we had you in a kind of hospital and all, but…"

"What's around us?" Light asked.

"We're just on a hillside. In a peaceful, tiny town... There are puffy clouds..."

Light looked at the Shaymin again. She stared back and forced out dazzling smile that showed a set of pure white teeth.

"So, they were worried I'd have a panic attack?" Light asked.

"Yeah. Cause of… things…"

"I can talk about it. Any idea of where it is now?"

"We were hoping you'd know cause of reasons I'm not supposed to imply about yet and this is going really badly." Shaymin frowned.

"It's okay," Light said, "I'm just fine. My name is Light."

"Oh, right. I guess I didn't know that... My name is Ariel," she said. "I'm a Valkyrie. We're kind of soldiers, but we just like to think of ourselves as explorers. I was out training when I heard reports about a giant, rocket dragon fighting a lone person on the beach, and I was the only one closeby. Still wondering how that all started..."

"Me too."

"Well, Kaigan appreciates your giant risk you decided to take," Ariel said. "It was really brave. They call you the 'White Star' now."

"Who?" Light asked. "I mean, who's 'they'?"

"Uhm... Just, like. Everyone. Around the, ah, world. They just kind of named you cause they didn't know your name yet, so they just kind of jumped in for it."

"How many people saw the stream?"

"Well, just about every country connected to the internet is talking about it a lot. Word of mouth should cover the rest in a day or two."

That was a lot. It made sense, though. He proved a giant dragon existed. It sort of made sense from them to make a nickname since no one knew at first, but he didn't get why it was "White Star".

"So, what's a Valkyrie?" Light asked.

"Well, we're a group of all female soldiers. We just do random jobs, but we're Kaigan's strongest. I mean, President Dmitri likes us as bodyguards. Pretty awesome luck, right?"

"Lucky. Yah."

"That's something to be happy about, right?" Ariel asked.

"Yah, of course…"

Light didn't especially enjoy being a rescue, even if he was one. At least the plan worked.

"I think it's time for me to get up," Light said.

Flareon Light pushed himself onto his feet. With his new viewpoint, he could see the hill overlooked a tiny cliff-side up ahead. Beyond, a vast ocean led all the way to the horizon. He turned his attention to the other side of the cliff, taking cautious steps up to see over the slope.

A town resided far below, blocked off by a wall of a forest. The streets were made from dark gray and silver bricks, and the buildings were brown and tall. It was too far to see any detail or movement.

"How long have I been sleeping for?" Light asked.

"Just the night," Ariel answered. "Our healers got to you the same minute you got those wounds, so there's only a little lingering pain left."

"I'm guessing someone wants me to talk about stuff?"

"Yeeeaaah. They're patient for now, though. Thanks to your Slowking friend. He told us a lot."

Light tried to get his focus back for what to do next, but couldn't for some reason. He was thinking in random directions. He needed to take this all in one step at a time.

"What's... well, everything I need to know right now?" he asked.

"Uhm... the weather is a nice seventy-three."

Light just nodded. If there was any action being taken with Reshiram, they probably didn't need him for it. Not that he was good for much right now. He took a deep breath of the fresh air, his earned taste of the sea.

"So, you saved me all by yourself?" Light asked.

"I mean, you could put it that way," Ariel said, "or you could say that I had support over years to get strong enough to save you."

"Is there any way I could thank all of you?"

"Well, uhm... Lead a good life." she shrugged. "Pay it forward. All the good stuff."

"Well, I can think of a good place to start for that. Where did Reshiram go?"

"Much further inland, but we completely lost it. Nothing reported anywhere."

Resting wouldn't help Light move forward. He thought of what he could do to try and make some level of progress. Learning whatever he could wouldn't hurt.

"Could I meet those supporters of yours?" Light asked.

"Of course," she said, "would you like me to carry you?"

Flareon Light's gray mane and tail shot up from a sudden burst of heat. His white fur shined as a small spark of energy ran down through his arm. His face felt hot, but his whole body seemed to agree with him tenfold. He couldn't hide his embarrassment.

"You carried me up here…?" he asked.

"I'm sorry," she said, frowning. "I didn't mean to embarrass you."

Light's fur settled back down, with some of the gray fur on his head falling onto his face. He wiped it aside with his paw.

"You already did that when you had to save me," he muttered.

"Oh c'mon... Everyone needs help sometimes."

"I've needed others' help enough."

"Hey, I need you to relax."

Flareon Light stepped back when her voice got deeper. His bad leg gave way under him, but Shaymin Ariel rushed forward a few steps and caught him by his paw before he could fall.

Ariel reeled Light back up onto his feet and stepped back. She fumbled with the green fur on her head and looked down during the tiny silence that followed.

"Look, I know I'm just an outsider in all of this," Ariel said, "but, ever since last night, people have been studying this. Reshiram is known for being very good at psychology in every myth it's in. So yeah, people were worried. You got hurt being a hero. There's no shame. You should be proud.

Light just looked down while she spoke. She leaned down to get into his line of sight. The motion pulled his head back up.

"We can do anything relaxing you want to today while you recover," she offered. "Since it's clear you're fine."

"Well, I guess I'd like to know how Jewel is doing," Light said.

"Jewel and that Slowking are on the cruise ship in the harbor. Some others are heading there too."

"Who?"

"Well, bounty hunters."

"Bounty hunters?" Light asked. "Why?"

"Well, there's a bounty. On Reshiram. A bunch of nations piled on it. Kaigan, Valor, Kyota…"

"How much is it?"

"Well…" Ariel huffed, "I don't really know your currency. So let's say… A few hundred mansions."

Light doubted he could really fathom the number even if he knew. It wasn't even possible to picture that many mansions.

"I'm sure you'll get the run down later," she said, "so, ah. Well. Wanna talk about or do something else?"

Light was a little thrown off by the question. He figured the only thing she would want are details on what happened. Maybe she had another agenda.

"Like what?" he asked quietly.

"Uhm, how are you doing?" she asked. "And, uh, do you want to eat something?"

"I just feel a bit weird. And yah, I could eat something."

"Alright, what do you like?"

"You can pick. I'll try anything."

Ariel nodded and smiled a bit. "Alright. Can you walk fine?"

"Yah."

Light straightened out his stance and followed Ariel over the hill. The other side was a lot steeper, but the soft grass made the trek easy.

When they reached the outside of the forest, it seemed clean. A clear dirt pathway decorated by streamers of light dancing through the green leaves led inside.

On the way in, Light stole a glance at Ariel. His back left foot caught something as soon as he did, but he managed to pull it out from under a brown root before she noticed.

It further dawned on him that Light was far away from home. The trees were like messy spider webs with too many branches and roots to count, all conglomerating on thick, gray tree trunks. Other trees were shaped like hooks in a way that made him wonder how they stayed balanced. He didn't have any clue as to what kind of trees were here, but he probably couldn't pronounce their names.

Light noticed a group of white flowers with yellow centers. They only had three or four perfectly curved petals each. He'd never seen this kind of flower before.

"You like those flowers?" Shaymin Ariel asked.

Flareon Light's head turned to her. He stared down at them for so long he forgot to keep walking.

"Oh, well, yah… I've, uh, never seen them before," he said.

"Well," Ariel said, walking close to his side, "meet the white orchid. Beautiful, right?"

"Yah…"

Light took in the sight for a few more seconds. When he turned his head, Ariel was smiling back at him. His tail swished behind them.

"Gorgeous… right?" she asked.

"Yup!" Light squeaked.

Light turned his head down and away from her.


After trudging through the woods, they came to a harbor. Flareon Light realized earlier that their direction wasn't the city, but he had a feeling the cruise ship next to a steel boardwalk waited for them. Its shadow swallowed up a small fishing boat next to it.

A crowd stuck out from the pure white beach sand below. It gathered underneath a wooden tent that could've been set up only hours ago. Four square poles kept a triangular roof up over the sand.

"This is Kaigan's smallest harbor, but this is the most active I've ever seen it," Shaymin Ariel said. "Looks like some kind of town meeting."

"A town meeting?" Light asked. "What kind of people settle here?"

"Well. I don't live here. But there's a lot of older people who settle in this town. Something like this hasn't happened here for… Well, as far back as history books go."

"Would they recognize me?"

"Probably not," Ariel answered. "Most of them probably don't know what a live-stream is. I'm not around this area that much, either."

"Then why don't we take a look?" Light offered.

"Sure."

Light continued to talk as they walked down the hill to the beach. "So, are you famous where you work?

"Well, I wouldn't say famoooous… I work in the big city most of the time. During summer, I take some trips out here for some peace and quiet. Do you have something like that?"

"Well, not really. I guess I could say a diary."

"Oh, did you lose it?" she asked.

"Well, I didn't really keep it at all," he explained. "I burnt it after I wrote it down."

"Oh… Why?"

"I didn't really think there was a safe place for me to keep it in. Just felt good to rant, I guess."

There was a speech emanating from under the tent. Light stopped with Ariel a few paces away from the back edge of the crowd.

"There are no direct concerns for us. There's no additional action needed other than continuing to follow our standard protocol and keeping updated with what's happening around us."

"I want a closer look," Light whispered.

He stalked closer with the intention to pick out a hole in the crowd to see inside. He stayed behind an Elgyem floating in the air, trying to hop in place to peer over her shoulder. Even though she floated up and down, Light couldn't even get a peek. Even evolved, he was still too tiny.

Light looked to his left and right for another way. When he did, he saw an older Bayleef staring at him. She made a point to stop and walk towards him.

"Pardon me," Bayleef greeted. "Sorry for staring, young man. I was just simply awestruck. Your fur is just gorgeous."

Light curled his gray tail around his body. "Oh, ah. Thank you, miss."

"Wait, of course. Aren't you that White Star?" she asked.

Elygem and a few other people glanced back towards him. Every eye that landed on him latched on.

Ariel got closer to him as they surrounded. His tail got tighter around his body, and he moved it so it covered his arms and legs too. Only his face and paws were showing.

An Ursaring bent down to look at him straight on.

"H-hi," Light murmured.

"Strange…" Ursaring said.

"Elegant," Bayleef added.

"True. I imagine he'd be popular in Lao Shen."

A Ribombee dipped low to the sand, hovering over it like grass in the breeze.

"No one said he was beautiful quite like this," Ribombee said, "I expected someone gruff. And so much older. Are you a teenager?"

"Yes…" Light mumbled.

"How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh my… Bless your heart."

Bayleef tapped Light's shoulder with a vine from her neck to get his attention.

"Do you think you could go up and explain how you found yourself there, young man?" Bayleef asked. "My neighbors are having trouble sleeping, and neither is my household…"

Flareon Light turned to the Sky Shaymin Ariel for quick advice. She had a small, gentle smile on her face as she was looking around, but she glanced down at him to give a quick nod.

"Yah," Light said.

"Thank you."

Bayleef walked with Light and Ariel. An invisible circle closed around them so they could move through the crowd.

From a small wooden stand covered in a maroon tarp, a Samurott spoke with a Maractus below on his right. As Light got closer, his conversation with her ended. Samurott looked up and noticed him.

"Everyone!" Samurott called. His deep voice's base hushed the tiny chatter that was ringing in Light's ears. "I think we have a guest that just has a few words."

The room stayed quiet. The increased awareness and steps out of his way let Light move faster. When he reached the stand, Samurott had stepped down.

"Thank you," Samurott said, "it's an honor."

Samurott shook Light's paw. His hand was probably bigger than Light's head, and his grip didn't let Light's fingers extend out to grip back. When he let go, Samurott lifted his chin to project his voice.

Light hopped up in a single bound. His view increased to include about every face in the crowd. Before whispers broke out, Samurott's voice boomed again.

"Everyone, the White Star is here. Just a few questions, please."

Light hopped up in a single bound. Pokemon were in every direction, but he felt a little better curling his tail around his body. It lent him some security.

"Should we be concerned about an attack?" a Bellossom called out.

Light thought about it, and he couldn't imagine it happening. It only came down because of the flares, logically. A part of Light thought it came down for him, but he didn't want to spout nonsense.

"No," he said.

"Where is it from, and what are Glass Reshiram and you doing here?" a Pansear called.

Light stole a look down at the Samurott. He wrote some of these things down, along with a few in the crowd who looked like reporters, Pansear included. Their hands were like blurs. He had to pick his words carefully.

"It's from Valor," Light said. "So am I. I got strapped to it with fireproof ropes."

There was a short quiet.

"Could you elaborate on that situation?" Pansear asked.

Light didn't want to announce he was a thief making a dirty deal with law enforcement to start a new life. He had to dance around it.

"The Nightlight Association was attacking a gang that had some kind of antique. It was this kind of white stone." Light formed a circle with his paws, guessing for how large it was. "It just kind of… exploded. And shaped into it. I got strapped to it during the attack."

"Just one more clarification," Pansear said, "about the Nightlight Association. They've been silent of this whole ordeal in terms of taking any responsibility. But you are implying that they must've had some level of preparation given the fireproof ropes. Is that correct?"

Light went over the sentence a second time in his head.

"Yah," Light said, "but I don't really know anything else about that."

The room fell quiet again. A couple of pokemon raised their limbs. Light's eyes darted around until he randomly pointed at a Servine.

"Many people are wondering about your appearance," Servine said. "Is it pure happenstance that your appearance is... rather... reminiscent of Reshiram?"

It probably wasn't. Although, Light didn't have a logical reason to think otherwise. It could just be a genetic fluke.

"Yes," Light answered.

"And one last question," Servine said. "What are your plans going forward? Do you plan to return to Valor? Based on what you've told us, you could press charges."

Light wondered why a reporter would be curious about that. He never even thought of the possibility that he could just choose to go home now. Pressing charges would be a waste of time.

He didn't want to go back. It sounded awful. More than anything, he wanted to get to the bottom of this. Ever since he first found that stone, it felt like a responsibility. He didn't know, it just did.

"No," Light said. "I'll try and keep up with it."

"As in bounty hunting?" Servine asked.

"Yah."

The journalists nodded and kept writing for longer this time.

Flareon Light looked down towards Sky Shaymin Ariel. She lent him a bit of confidence with a smile and nod. Samurott approached the side of the stand, gesturing for him to step down. Light hopped down and traded places with him.

"Alright, that's enough questions for now," Samurott announced. "A primary source has just told you that there's no concerns here, so please disperse back to your homes."

The air seemed to loosen. As Samurott stepped down, the crowd broke out into chatter. A lot of them started to walk and leave. The sea breeze reached Light's fur, unblocked.

Samurott stepped towards Light again while Ariel returned to his side.

"Thanks for helping me here, White Star," Samurott said. "I'm something like a mayor here, and it's been hard. Not everyone really understands the situation outside of the possible danger to themselves, but I hope they won't have to."

"Uhm, yah," Light said. "No problem..."

Samurot's head turned towards Ariel. "And my own thanks to the lone explorer who saved the hero's life."

"Just the job, sir," Ariel said, smiling.

"Job well done. I'll be heading back to my safe home and wife myself. Thanks again."

As the Samurott turned around and walked away on the sand, he seemed to blend in with the crowd a lot more all of a sudden. The journalists seemed younger, but they disappeared in the mob going back up towards the woods. Light watched. Relief joined the breeze.

"That was nice of you to help calm the people down here," Ariel said.

"It's a nice thought I guess, but I didn't say something about, uh…"

Ariel walked around in front of Light's gaze.

"What is it?" Ariel asked.

"I ended up in some small ring of islands not too far from here," Light said. "Reshiram landed there first."

"I've never heard about this yet. What happened?"

"Well, nothing that can be changed now…" Light struggled to dodge the question, but he'd answer it. Maybe. "But I guess the point is that Reshiram was already weak by the time it reached Kaigan. Its tail was hurt, so it's constantly burning itself as it was flying. That's the only reason it didn't just crash into the shore and kill me."

"Well, one bridge at a time. Aren't you still hungry?"

When he took in a deep breath, Light could feel how hot his blood ran. It probably wasn't good. When he released it, he remembered the pit in his stomach.

"Yah," Light said. "You're right."

"Speaking of," Ariel continued, "did you evolve recently? I was just wondering."

"Uhm… Yes…?"

"It's alright. I was just going to offer helping you out later if you wanted."

"With what?"

"Lots of people need help after evolving. Especially when they're strong like you, so they don't hurt themselves or anything by accident."

Light felt his face get a little warm, but tried to keep himself together. He knew she spun her offer into a compliment so he'd accept. His body heat skyrocketing up and down couldn't be too great for him, but it kept happening on its own. It'd be nice to try and fix that.

"Okay," Light said.

"Alright, we'll do it later. You read to head to the ship?"

"Yah."

As Light followed Ariel, he wondered what she was hiding from him. He could feel it like a sting of heat in his chest that kept the cool sea breeze at bay. He always preferred to know everything about who talked to him, or at least, more than just a name.