.18
Content Warning: character death, consideration of suicide
~\({O})/~
23.
Void and Shadow
~\({O})/~
Ruined Colony
~Riolu~
The storm was gone the next morning, when the sky turned blood-red again. Shattered pieces of debris littered the sand outside, and as far as the barren landscape could be seen, everything was silent. Empty. Dead.
Riolu slowly rose from his spot inside the little hovel, staring blankly into the red distance and waiting for yesterday's events to come back to him. When they did, he suddenly felt much less peppy. Next to him, Bryony slept, looking as tired as he felt.
"Come on…" Riolu muttered, shaking the sleeping form of Bryony awake. "Get up!"
Bryony stirred, groaning incoherently. She slowly sat up, looking at Riolu wearily.
"Wha… What happened?" she yawned. "I had the worst nightmare last night."
Riolu frowned, then took a deep breath. "I'll bet it was more than just a nightmare."
Exiting the hovel they had fallen asleep in, Riolu and Bryony walked around the debris and back up the dune they'd slept under. Where there had once been a bustling camp, what met them now was a space that had been swept clean. Anything that lay around on the ground still was either too large to be blown away, had caught on something, or was half-embedded in the sand.
If any survivors had remained, none called out to the two of them as they traversed the wreckage Bryony's pigtails flopped down in horror as she gazed around at the ruins of the camp they were walking through.
"They…" she gasped, but couldn't bring herself to say anything further. An uncomfortable silence dragged over them.
"We should scavenge before we go," Riolu said, trying to draw attention off the tragedy before them. "Maybe they left something for us to eat."
Bryony's flippers trembled.
"I just need… five minutes…"
She didn't look at him. Riolu just nodded, then walked off into what remained of the campsite. He'd find something for the journey back in the meantime.
~\({O})/~
Just like Riolu had thought, the camp had a lot of food lying around, ripe for the picking. Unfortunately, little of that food was still in edible condition. Withered roots and the husks of what once could have been fruit lay on the ground, bruised and mashed beyond repair. The portable silo that held the water had collapsed in the storm, and had turned a good portion of the sand to sludge and mud. Riolu picked whatever bits and pieces he could get off the ground in edible condition, and eventually gave up on the prospect of water that wasn't from the blood sea.
He handed a smelly root to Bryony on his way back from the camp.
"…What's this?" she asked after a minute, looking down at it.
"Food," Riolu said. "I ate them for a week, and others must have been eating them too."
"There were fruits on the Air Continent," Bryony said, sniffing the root. "I know because we took some with us."
"Well, not anymore," Riolu said. "They were all smashed to mush."
He took a bite from his own root, grimacing slightly at the bitter, rotten taste before walking forward in the direction of the mountain. Even from here, they could see it.
Reverse Mountain became a beacon for them as they travelled, a final destination that was always visible and ever-present. Riolu walked back through the seas of rust-red sand, passing the tree-tangled hearts without much commotion. At one point, he bent over and began to hack away bits and pieces of the roots with his paws. Bryony watched him in silent horror as he chopped away at the roots, finally picking up two small ones and handing one to Bryony for lunch.
"Did you just…" Riolu heard Bryony mutter in shock behind him, but she was quickly silent after that.
It was half a day's journey back to the ruins of that old village, and Riolu quickly led Bryony towards where he knew the Litwick's clearing was.
"It's just this way," he said to her as they walked. The mountain's large figure loomed above them, much more ominous now than it had been from a distance. It was the kind of thing Riolu tried to avoid looking at for some reason, only daring to glance up at it in short bursts or out of the corner of his eye. Eventually, they entered the clearing where the litwick had been, but found that it was empty. Just like when he had first entered. Maybe they were just hiding because of Bryony.
"I'm back!" he hollered out. "Sorry for leaving!"
Only silence greeted him. Riolu tilted his head. No, that wasn't right. They must have been hiding.
"Anymon there?" he called out again. Silence greeted him. Not even the wind whistled through the rotting branches of the trees.
"C'mon guys!" Riolu yelled. "This isn't funny!"
He couldn't hear any answer. Bryony tilted her head at him.
"Solosis?!" Riolu called out. "Anymon?!"
"There's no-mon here," Bryony said.
"But there was!" Riolu argued, spinning around to look at her. His eyes were wide, the expression on his face worried and desperate. "There were over a hundred litwick here just yesterday! And somemon called 'Solosis' too! Where could they all have gone?"
"You won't like the answer," Bryony said, folding her flippers.
"What does that mean?" Riolu asked loudly in distress.
"It's just like what happened to my pokemon," Bryony said. "There's only one reason over a hundred pokemon disappear in one day: A Shadow got 'em. That, or they all decided to move at once. But that's unlikely. You have to assume the worst."
"They have to have moved somewhere," Riolu said, shaking his head. "I'm not going to believe a Void Shadow got them. Not until I see it with my own eyes."
"You're seeing it now!" Bryony snapped, suddenly raising her voice. This was beginning to get to her. "Did anything you saw last night stick? They carve destruction in their paths, and they leave nothing behind. They're gone, Riolu; you have to assume they're gone." She took a moment to breathe. "Just… keep it together. We both have to keep it together."
Riolu's gaze lowered, and he was silent. He began to trudge off in the direction of the mountain.
"I still want to look for them. We'll find them. I know we will."
But the forests as they went stayed empty.
"Solosis—the leader of that litwick group—she said she would come up to that mountain every day and look for a way out," Riolu said, as they headed up a largish hill on the way to the mountain. Riolu could see a trio of buildings at the very top, and Reverse Mountain loomed over it all in the distance. "But she always came back at the end of the day with nothing."
"Did you ever go there with her?" Bryony asked, inching her way up the hill after him with her flippers.
"No, I've only been here a week," Riolu muttered. They reached the top of the hill, stopping at a fork in the road.
"Around that building," he said, pointing at the ruins of the large house directly in front of him. To both the left and right lay two other buildings, both in similar condition. One was smaller, more A path led around the remains of the middle one and straight down the hill. Riolu braced himself, and then slid down the hill on his rump.
He left Bryony behind. She tried to slide after him, but ended up hitting a rock and tumbled all the way down instead. She crashed into Riolu from behind, and they both tumbled to the ground in a heap.
"Ow..:" Riolu grumbled, rubbing his head and looking down at the ground. He saw large roots, staring him straight in the face. And they smelled putrid. Riolu's eyes followed the roots are far as they could, watching them snake and tangle their way through the ground until they spiraled up and around another beating tree-heart in the distance.
Bryony lifted herself back up, gazing at the same thing Riolu was.
"What are these things…" Riolu found himself mouthing. They were the most consistent thing he'd seen in the landscape, and so far no-mon had explained just what they were.
"It was only a theory," Bryony began, but then paused for a minute. "But I think they're mystery dungeons."
"What's a mystery dungeon?" Riolu picked himself up and began to walk through the mess of roots. Bryony followed, but she had a harder time of navigating the roots than Riolu did.
"Mystery dungeons are… places that don't make sense. They form over completely ordinary spots of land and then they twist them. The insides look like a maze, made out of whatever the dungeon formed over. And at the center, there's an Anchorstone—the original spot of land that the dungeon formed on, hidden deep in its depths. There are land dungeons, water dungeons, sky dungeons… Wartortle was even considering the possibility of a dungeon out beyond the stars."
"Mystery dungeon..." Riolu thought for a moment. "You think that's what's on top of Reverse Mountain?"
"No-mon knows," Bryony said. "I'd like the way back, myself."
There was nothing else to say, and they walked at a steady pace in silence. Soon, they reached the base of Reverse Mountain.
Even from this close, the mountain shone, and Riolu could feel the heat pulsing from it. It vibrated through the air, and all of the sudden Riolu felt like he was standing in a fire. And then he saw what had puzzled Solosis all this time: From the very bottom of the mountain up to a point that Riolu couldn't see was a jagged, insurmountable cliff. It looked like large pieces of the stone had been carved out, leaving a steep arch that spread outward and ended far higher than either Riolu or Bryony could ever hope to reach.
And even if you could fly over, the mountain above was almost too hot to touch. Riolu didn't want to think about how it was higher up.
"How do we climb that?" Bryony asked. Riolu could only give one answer.
"I don't know if we can,"
~\({O})/~
Now
The Ancient Barrow
~Espurr~
Riolu and Espurr ran down the Barrow's narrow halls, splashing in the swamp water as they went. They could still hear the Shadow lurking in the distance behind them.
"Where are you taking us?" Espurr called out as they ran.
"The next floor up!" Riolu called back.
The goo ahead of them sudden began to bubble. Exhausted as she was, Espurr directed a beam of mental energy directly into the water, which flared up and slammed into the wall. The Shadow retreated into the goo just long enough for Espurr and Riolu to pass and round a corner.
"But the floors go down here," Espurr yelled to Riolu as they ran. "Not up!"
"Think again," Riolu replied, not even looking at her. "Look!"
He pointed ahead, and then Espurr saw what he did: just ahead of them was the Staircase. It led up, its perfect steps shining despite being surrounded on all sides by filth.
"Hey, what are you waiting for?" Riolu yelled from ahead, noticing that she had slowed down. "Do you want Nyarlathotep to get you?"
Espurr considered her options. The Stairs weren't supposed to lead up. What if that was the final Staircase, and they both exited the dungeon? That would mean Tricky and the rest of them were still behind her. But at the same time… being caught by Nyarlathotep over indecision wasn't an option either.
"Hey!" Riolu called out. "Creepy cat! Snap out of it!"
"It's Espurr," Espurr said. And then the walls began to shift again, so she ran like the wind. She reached Riolu, who grabbed her arm and pulled them both onto the Stairway. They vanished together, and the next thing Espurr and Riolu knew they were deposited straight onto the swamp water of another dungeon floor. Espurr let out a breath of relief, looking around the cavern in surprise. So the floors did go up here…
They both sat there in the swamp for a moment, catching their breaths. Nyarlathotep didn't follow.
~\({O})/~
Then
The Voidlands
~Riolu~
It had been roughly a week, and both Riolu and Bryony had come to the depressing conclusion: There was no way to scale Reverse Mountain. Not by themselves, anyway. The cliff was made of stone; you couldn't dig into it with paws or flippers. Climbing it the conventional way was out of the question, since the steep, cave-like arch all around the bottom of the mountain required defiance of gravity to scale. And neither Riolu nor Bryony could fly.
Riolu was stumped, as was Bryony; soon they fell into a routine of collecting roots from heart-trees in the area for food and searching for another way out in the meantime. Riolu started exploring the remains of the nearby village during the day. Perhaps there might have been something he could find there.
As the week passed, he found things. Ruined things, but still things he could use to build with. He didn't know what Bryony was up to, but Riolu came up with a nifty plan on his own: If he couldn't pierce the stone of Reverse Mountain with his own digging paws, he'd do it with a grappling hook! Now all he had to do was build one.
The wrecked buildings in what was once the center of town had many more odds and ends to choose from than the ones on the town outskirts. Riolu nicked a few sharp knives from the large building in the center, and some rope from the stall to the left. There was a burnt tent to the southeast side of the square that held nothing useful. Riolu kicked some of the ruined tent remains aside, slinging the rope and knife over his shoulder. It didn't look like there was anything else here. He looked up at the sky; having just finished turning from black to its usual blood red. There was still a while to go.
Riolu suddenly caught sight of movement from behind him. He spun around—had a void shadow snuck up on him unawares?
But what he saw was the fuzzy, faint outline of what looked like a pokemon his size, heading into one of the ruined houses in the square. It spared a look outside, glancing in Riolu's general direction for a second. Riolu quickly hid behind the tent frame with his rope and knife. It was a few moments before he peeked out again.
As the fear wore off, curiosity overtook him. What was that? Slowly, Riolu dropped the supplies he was holding, and crept out of hiding, tiptoeing over to the house. He stepped over what little remained of the wall, heading down the hallway once he realized what was once the parlor was empty. He peeked into the room on the left, and caught sight of the figure—
Startled, Riolu lost his balance for a minute. He stumbled into the dresser on the right, creating a loud 'bang!'. Then, he caught his bearings and quickly darted out of the room. The last he saw of the figure was it quickly sitting up and looking in his direction.
~\({O})/~
"What's that?" Bryony asked, eyeing the rope and knives Riolu had slung over his shoulder. She had a sack that was also collected from the nearby town, filled with more of the gross-smelling roots. The sunless sky was beginning to turn deeper and deeper shades of red, signaling the coming of nightfall. They had been foraging the whole day.
"It's something for the mountain," Riolu said, fiddling with one of the blades. "Maybe we can pierce it this way and climb up."
"What about that big tree?" Bryony asked.
"What about it?"
The big tree could be seen from anywhere in the near vicinity. It was a beating heart-tree just like all the non-blackened trees in this place were, but it stretched far above anything else. At some point it had to have engulfed some island in the large lake out south of town, but its roots slunk out of the water and onto dry land from all sides.
"I passed it a couple of times yesterday, and I was pretty sure I saw some kind of door there," Bryony said. "But I was carrying that sack and the bridge going over there looks rickety, so I didn't take a look. I think it's worth checking out. You think we should do that when…" she looked up at the blackening sky, hesitant to say 'day'. "…When the sky's red again?"
Riolu wasn't sure how well Bryony could see him still now that the light was disappearing, but he nodded. It was worth a try.
~\({O})/~
Slowly coming to. The reddening of the sky came earlier than Riolu thought, but he rose with it anyway. Bryony was still sound asleep, snoring next to him. He didn't try to wake her. There was something he wanted to try… maybe if he took this opportunity now, he could finish and be back here before she woke at all.
He made the trek up to Reverse Mountain with his knife and rope in hand. The mountain glowed bright, lighting his way. Riolu had spent some of last night tying his equipment together together, even though he didn't know the first thing about tying knots and his stubby paws didn't help with that in the least. He just had to hope it held together well.
The base of Reverse Mountain was as hard and volcanic as ever. Riolu felt flustered and started panting just from the heat. He looked up, and saw the stop of that large curved arch above him. Was this really a good idea? The heat was sweltering; how could he expect to climb if it would be like this the whole way up?
But there was nothing to do but try. Riolu let the rope he held go slack until the tip of knife hit the sand below him with a thump. Then he started swinging. Over and over in circles, the knife gaining more momentum as it went—
—Riolu's eyes widened and he quickly ducked just before the knife could clip off a good portion of his ear. The knife flew high over his head and embedded itself deep into stone. There, it quivered in place.
Losing his balance, Riolu fell backwards onto the ground. Hearing the sound of the knife embedding itself into the stone, he looked around and saw the knife's blade sticking out of the rock high above, over the arches and at the very start of where the mountain properly began. Had it… had it been a success?
Riolu quickly jumped to his feet, scurrying over and pulling on the handle. It gave, but not without some resistance. Riolu pulled out the knife, but the momentum sent him falling back and landing on his tail. The knife hit the sand some meters in front of him with another thwump.
Riolu groaned from the pain in his tail. He rubbed his backside as he stood up, the rope still in his paw. His eyes locked onto the knife in the sand; his heart jumped. It had worked. It had really worked! He quickly pulled on the rope, bringing the knife further back through the sand towards him. He reached down to pick it up, but found himself recoiling seconds afterwards—it was hot to the touch.
Still, this was a breakthrough! Hot as it was, they had a way to climb up now. He had to get back to Bryony. Letting the knife drag behind him in the sand, Riolu quickly headed back towards the forest behind him with a fevered excitement.
~\({O})/~
Village Square
By the time that Riolu made it back to the forest clearing, Bryony was already long gone. For a moment, a pit of dread formed in his stomach, one that made him want to vomit— Had she been… taken? Were the Shadows already here?
But if they were here, then Riolu knew this clearing was no longer safe. It was better to go to the ruined village, where there was some kind of shelter to hide behind.
It wasn't until he reached the deserted village square that he caught sight of Bryony sliding herself down the pathway towards the south side of town. He quickly ran to catch up with her.
"Bryony!" he called out, catching up. Bryony looked back at him, her face relaxing into some kind of relief as she saw him.
"Where were you?" Riolu panted out as he caught up. "I saw the camp deserted and I thought…"
"I thought the same thing." Bryony said curtly. She turned her nose up and continued to slide herself along, not even sparing another look at Riolu. "If you were going to leave, you should have said something to me. I had no choice but to assume a Shadow got you."
Riolu folded his arms, puffed out his cheeks, and made a loud 'pfffffff' noise. Touché.
The knife was still dragging behind them. It scraped on cobblestones, making a loud, upsetting grinding sound. Quickly, the rope was coiled up again and slung on Riolu's shoulder.
"So where are we going?" he asked a moment later.
"I'm going to check out that tree I told you about last night," Bryony said. "I just… I have this feeling about it. I want to check."
Riolu was silent after that. Only the knife, swinging idly from the rope slung over Riolu's shoulder, made any noise.
"There it is," Bryony said after a while. They had outwalked nearly all the houses at this point, and the biggest thing ahead of them was a hill with a large dead tree trunk on it. But to their right, out on the island, was the truly massive tree Bryony had talked about. It extended up into the sky, so tall that it was hard to see the top. And sure enough, in the middle of the bottom, the roots looked like they had grown around a small hovel of an entrance. The only path leading to it was a single, rickety bridge that looked like it could collapse at any moment. Riolu stared at it hesitantly.
"…Are you sure?" he asked.
"Why not?" Bryony answered. "What have we got to lose?
"You two are wasting your time."
Both Riolu and Bryony spun around. Bryony's eyes lightened at what she saw.
"Charlotte!" she gasped. Seviper Charlotte slithered up from the path down south, a ragged look upon her face.
"I… have been tailing you guys… for almost a week now…" she gasped out.
Bryony suddenly rushed forward and enveloped Charlotte in a hug.
"I thought you were dead!" she bawled out, burying her face in Charlotte's scales. Charlotte tolerated the hug as well as she could, but Riolu could see undercurrents of annoyance.
"Anyways," Charlotte said, gently shaking Bryony off herself, "There's nothing in that hovel. I camped out in there last night. It's all just swamp water and muck."
"But…" Bryony wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at the house. "There's no hurt in looking, right?"
Riolu's head tilted.
"Yeah," he said. "Why only show up now?"
Charlotte didn't answer that. For a second, she went completely still.
"So where do you guys camp out?" she asked instead. "I haven't had a comfortable place to sleep for over a week."
"We don't exactly sleep in beds…" Bryony said.
"What about my question?" Riolu asked. Charlotte glanced at him.
"I didn't hear you ask any question."
"I asked why you only showed up now if you've been tailing us for a week," Riolu said. He gripped the rope the knife was attached to, just in case. Charlotte's eyes followed his own. "And that's a pretty uncomfortable place to camping out in. Why not in the town?"
"Like I said," Charlotte repeated harshly after a bit. "There's nothing in there but muck."
"Then you won't mind if we go in and look," Riolu said. And with that, he turned around and strode towards the house.
"nO—" Charlotte suddenly screamed, and she shot towards Riolu quicker than Bryony could react.
Riolu acted fast. He grabbed the rope-knife, and threw.
Bryony screamed and then edged herself away from Charlotte, who now had Riolu's knife stuck halfway through her head. The brionne looked at Riolu in horror.
Why would you do that?!" she screeched at him.
"That's not who you think it is," Riolu said.
The knife slid out of Seviper's skull on its own and hit the ground with a thump. 'Seviper'—very much alive—looked up at them both with eyes that weren't right. She grinned at them with a mouth full of too many fangs.
"gOt Me."
And then its face split open sideways. Bryony yelped and scrambled all the way back to where Riolu stood on the bridge. Quills grew out of its back. It grew limbs, and then claws. The last of the dull blue and yellow scales were eaten up by murky black goop, and then Nyarlathotep stood before them in Its full glory.
A silent understanding fell between both Riolu and Bryony—run. And so they did. Riolu ran like the wind; he could outrun a Shadow! But it was only a few seconds before he noticed that Bryony wasn't keeping up with him. She had to slide her way across the ground; that wasn't fast enough! Nyarlathotep took chase, and Riolu turned back. He scooped Bryony up and began to drag her along. What was left of the rope on his shoulder began to unravel.
They were fast, but not fast enough. Nyarlathotep charged. A swipe of its claws, and Bryony was knocked to the side. Riolu was pinned to the ground.
Nyarlathotep leaned over Riolu, and the nightmare goo that dripped from its body stained Riolu's chest. Riolu struggled furiously, but it was all in vain. Nyarlathotep opened its mouth of fangs that took up its whole face, and began to lean in towards Riolu. Riolu closed up his eyes and scrunched up his nose to avoid the putrid smell, turning away. He was going to be eaten…
Water suddenly blasted the two of them, drenching him in wetness—
"Over here!"
Bryony's voice rattled through the sound of Nyarlathotep's breath, and in an instant its head turned towards the other pokemon and its ginormous hand was off Riolu's chest.
Riolu acted fast—he reeled in the rope, until he could grasp the handle of the kitchen knife. Nyarlathotep began to romp towards Bryony, who couldn't get away in time, and that was when Riolu made his move. He took aim, and threw the knife as hard as he could.
It embedded itself in the back of Nyarlathotep's head. Nyarlathotep turned its head to look at Riolu, and Riolu saw the tip of the knife sticking out of its throat. He tugged on the rope.
Another stream of water hit Nyarlathotep, but before the Void Shadow could react Riolu ran up and kicked one of Nyarlathotep's legs out from under it. The Shadow lost its balance, narrowly missing falling on Riolu or Bryony. It collapsed on the ground with a loud thud, and Riolu quickly got to his feet.
Already, the goo was beginning to lose its shape and reform into Nyarlathotep's standing position. Riolu forgot about retrieving the knife and rope, and picked up Bryony instead.
The path would be too easy for it to follow them; Riolu bolted off into the woods instead. He knew where he was going. The distant screech of Nyarlathotep rang out from far behind them.
A hunting call.
~\({O})/~
Riolu could tell he had made it just by the smell. He sped into the clearing where the heart-tree he had slept by the night he had left the litwick camp was, collapsing to the ground and dropping Bryony the second he was out of the trees. He panted in exhaustion, then wrinkled up his nose. This place smelled more awful than he remembered.
Bryony picked herself up from the ground, dusting her flippers off. She said nothing. The two of them sat there for a few seconds, completely silent. Neither commented on the smell.
Bryony sniffled.
"I just really wanted to believe it," she mumbled quietly. It sounded broken. "I really wanted to believe she wasn't dead."
She curled up on the ground and stuck her head in her flippers, and then all was silent.
They slept in the trees that night, using what little branches remained as cover. Every so often a pidgeot would soar over the forest, scouting out below. The instinctive urge to call out for help every time he saw the bird-shaped silhouette fly across the night sky came to his mind often, but Riolu knew better. He knew what it was, and it wasn't a pidgeot.
The sky began to slowly turn red again, but Riolu hadn't slept a wink.
Bryony still wasn't talking in the morning. Even when they both climbed out of the tree they were sleeping in. They ate a silent breakfast of roots and drank some water that Riolu had collected from the riverbank by the ruined village, and then they went their separate ways. It was dangerous, now that they knew what was lurking nearby, but they couldn't just wait around and do nothing. They knew Nyarlathotep wouldn't stop until it had found them.
Riolu went back down to the town to see if he could gather some more knives. He had taken the biggest one yesterday, but surely the others would work. He just needed two, and some more rope. He made his way down to the center of the village just like he had the other day, and entered the large café building to the north.
The knives had been lying around in a pile next to all the other silverware. That was where Riolu had left them yesterday. That was why he tensed up when he entered the kitchen, and saw that all of it was gone. Riolu quickly looked around to make sure nothing else was gone. There was only one reason those knives would be missing. Had It known that Riolu was going to come back here?
All of the sudden he scrambled over and hid under the counter. He could hear something approaching from outside, heavy breathing rasping from beyond a wall. Damnit—It had known. This was a trap! Riolu knew he couldn't stay here; Nyarlathotep would find him at this rate. There had to be a way out.
Riolu's ears pricked up, as above the counter he heard the loud stomping get closer. It had entered the room. It looked around, sniffing. It smelled him. Riolu frantically looked around for a moment, looking for something—anything—to use. His eyes settled on a frying pan.
There was a hole in the wall to his left. From what Riolu remembered, a Void Shadow's true form didn't have any eyes. It navigated from memory, smell, and sound. He slowly crept over to the frying pan and picked it up from the ground, making sure to make as little of a sound at possible. He glanced at the hole, and he heard the Shadow begin to tromp towards his position. It was now or never. Riolu aimed for the hole, and then threw the pan. It clanged against a building in the distance, and Riolu heard the Shadow snarl. It leapt over the wall, heading out in a different direction after where it thought Riolu was going.
Riolu wasted no time. He picked himself up from under the counter and quickly looked around the kitchen once more. Come on—where were the knives?
Not here, it became clear. Riolu decided to leave the building, in the opposite direction the Shadow had gone. He quickly sped out the back door and headed around the left side to the front. But he stopped when his eyes were met with the very sight that he didn't want to see: a Void Shadow prowling around in the middle of the square. Riolu froze. Had Nyarlathotep come back that quickly?
Sniff.
Riolu's head turned towards the alleyway where he had come from, where heavy sniffing sounds were emerging. There was another one! The reality dawned on Riolu: Nyarlathotep had brought company.
How many? And how to get out of this? Riolu silently leapt the next wall, evading sight from both the Shadows in the area.
He found the knives in a pile in the middle of the living room of the next building. A bang from behind him, and he realized he had to keep moving. He snatched up two of the knives and ran down the hallway. He made a left turn into one of the two bedrooms at the end, and took a moment to relax. A sudden screech from one of the Void Shadows outside shocked Riolu and made himself tumble into one of the bookshelf at the very end. It rattled noisily, and Riolu did his best to stop it from rattling.
Then he noticed the ghost had sat up.
Riolu was slightly scared, but he was scared of the Void Shadows more. He set the knives on the floor and then walked out from behind the bookcase. The ghost continued to stare at him. It looked about his height, and it distorted the background around itself a little, but what was it? Riolu took a step closer. The ghost stumbled back until it was leaning against a wall. Or rather, thin air where a wall once was. Riolu walked forward, up until he was face to face with the shadow. He tilted his head when it didn't react. Why wasn't it responding?
Creak. Something moving through the floorboards.
Sniff. Something smelling the air for him.
Riolu knew what it was, and he realized he had no more time to waste on this ghost. He charged straight through it, but he felt nothing. Landing on the ground outside of the house, he quickly got to his feet, picked up the knives, and began to run into the square again. Not a second later a Void Shadow charged through the wall Riolu had just jumped over, setting its sights on him. It was Nyarlathotep.
Nyarlathotep screeched, and all of the other Void Shadows focused on its call. Riolu counted at least three others. He took a right turn for some of the other houses, ducking and dodging through the alleyways, looking for ways to evade them. How he was going to escape. Just… just think. Riolu ducked into an empty house for a minute and collapsed against the wall where no-mon could see him. The Void Shadows… they followed their noses, right? So all Riolu had to do was mask his scent. But the only way he knew how to do that was with water. And…
…And he was near a riverbank. It all clicked. If he could get to the riverbank, then…
Riolu quickly sat up with the knives. He could hear the Void Shadows drawing near. It was time to go. If he had any hope of reaching the water before they caught him, he had to leave now.
Riolu weaved through the town, heading in a loop back to the village square. He could see the riverbank from here, and it was just a few meters away… Riolu fell into a full-on sprint. So close; he focused his eyes on the river and sped up as much as he could. One of the knives nicked his leg. Riolu yipped in pain and hit the ground hard. The knives went flying and landed hilt-up in a nearby ditch.
Pulling himself to his feet, he groaned; the wound hurt and was lightly bleeding. His leg hurt to walk on. A roar sounded from right behind him; he didn't see but knew it was a Shadow. How had they caught up to him already? Riolu looked back, and saw that a Shadow was galloping right for him. No time to think. He forgot all about the knives and dived into the river.
It was dark and silent under the riverbank. Riolu couldn't hear the screeches of the void shadow from under here, but he also couldn't breathe. Speaking of… he needed to get some air. Riolu swam towards the surface, breaking it and gasping for air. He floated along, paddling occasionally with his arms to stay afloat.
~\({O})/~
~Bryony~
Bryony slid herself through the landscape, yawning. She didn't know where she was going, just that she needed to take a stroll. Something to clear her mind of… yesterday. Something to help her forget. She'd been at it for she didn't know how long either, but it had been a while. She didn't even know where she was now. She had abandoned the forest long ago, and instead a long field of half-charred dead bushes lay in front of her.
She trudged on in silence for a while, until the sound of voices caught her ears. Brionne looked towards where they were coming from in confusion. More shadows?
"Look at the sky, Eevee! Does that look normal to you? I'd rather have had a markup over this!"
"Stop lecturing me like it's my fault! Do you think I brought us out here with the intention of getting us stranded wherever this is? Who does that? Not me! Back off!"
"I have every right to lecture you! This was your idea in the first place! If not for you I'd be sleeping in a bed right now, all comfy! Instead I slept on the ground, like an animal!"
If these were Shadows, then this was the most elaborate ruse Bryony had ever come across. She decided to investigate further.
"Hey!" she called out, approaching the arguing 'mon from a distance. A fletchinder and an eevee quit their argument for a second to stare at her.
"Quiet!" they both told her in unison, and then went back to arguing. Bryony slid herself closer to them silently. She was sure they weren't Shadows now.
"We thought we told you to get out of our fur," Eevee hissed at Bryony as she slid herself up to them.
"Do either of you realize where you are right now?" Bryony asked.
"I wish…" Fletchinder grumbled.
"Okay. This is going to sound weird," Bryony said, "but the both of you need to come with me. For your own safety."
Both Eevee and Fletchinder looked at each other. When the word safety was involved… they looked less keen on brushing her off.
~\({O})/~
Riolu slowly floated down the river, bobbing along and paddling himself towards the nearest shore away from town. He pulled himself out onto the riverbank, shaking himself off the best he could. He was soaked and panting for breath, and the wound on his leg stung. He cast a look back towards the village in the distance. He'd lost the Shadows… for now. It was time to get away from here, before he was caught again. Riolu passed a large, destroyed welcome gate on his way out of the town. He'd never been down this way before, and in the distance he could see what looked like a field of charred plains.
He stopped running and limped along for a bit, letting the ambient heat dry his fur off. Soon he was among the field of dead bushes, and he stopped. This looked like a good place to turn around and figure out where he was. He needed to go… north. Yes. Riolu turned towards Reverse Mountain, and began to trudge in that direction.
Then his ear twitched, picking up the faintest of sounds.
In the distance, he heard what sounded like voices. One of them was Bryony's.
Bryony was here? Riolu spun in the direction of the voices, and saw Bryony leading what looked like two other pokemon onwards. And they were heading in the direction of the village. Riolu's tail went flat in horror. They were going the wrong way! They were going to—
Without thinking, he took off after them.
"Hey! Wait!" he called out at the top of his lungs as he loped along. Whether that would attract that Shadows, he didn't care. He just needed to make sure they didn't walk into the trap.
Bryony didn't hear him. Riolu called out again, even louder this time. He was going as fast as he could, but with his limp he just wasn't fast enough. They were already at the end of the fields.
"Stop! You're walking into a trap!" Riolu yelled, loping towards them so fast he nearly twisted his leg. Finally, Bryony turned around to look at Riolu, having heard him yelling but not heard what he said. Copying Bryony, Fletchinder and Eevee turned around.
"Who's that?" Eevee asked.
"That's my friend," Bryony answered. "But what's he doing?"
It was too late. A Shadow romped down the path towards them, and because they were staring at him only Riolu could see it. He pointed behind them and shouted desperately, but he was still too far away. They couldn't hear him.
Bryony didn't realize what was happening until it was too late. She was suddenly snatched up by a large, black hand, and when she turned around the maw of Nyarlathotep stared her in the face. Extra limbs shot straight out of its body like tentacles and snared Eevee and Fletchinder as well. And even though they protested, it was all to no avail. Nyarlathotep's body split open into a gaping maw that took up its torso, and all three pokemon were fed screaming to the Shadow.
Riolu made a hard left and dove behind a bush before Nyarlathotep could see him. He fell on his hurt leg. He was crying, but he did all he could to stay quiet. He couldn't be found. He just couldn't. He had to find a way out of here.
It was a few moments, but eventually he heard Nyarlathotep let out a terrible screech, and then it galloped away from where Riolu was.
Riolu clenched the rust-red dirt under his paws. And clenched it again. And again. It was all he could do, stuck in mind-numbing shock. Clenching and unclenching.
There had to be a way out. There just… there had to. Riolu refused to believe they was trapped here. He refused to believe there was no way out. And if there wasn't, if they were really doomed to stay here until they died, then maybe being devoured by a Void Shadow was a mercy.
And then the full force of reality hit him, lying there in the sand: He was all alone. Forever. Bryony… Solosis… Wartortle, who he had only known for a day but still enjoyed the company of… the litwick… all gone. Only he was left.
Riolu curled up in a ball, and for the rest of the day, he sobbed to himself.
~\({O})/~
Forest Clearing
Two Weeks Later
~Riolu~
The sky boomed, and Reverse Mountain erupted in volcanic flame. Riolu fled through the woods, trying to get out of range from the falling bits of ash and fire.
It had all been so sudden. Previously, not a sound could be heard rattling through the Voidlands. Even the Void Shadows had grown less aggressive after a while, less interested in the prospect of having Riolu for lunch.
Riolu lived near the decaying heart tree in the woods southeast of the ruined village now. It was the only place any signs of his presence were stamped out safely, the only place that the Void Shadows wouldn't eventually follow him. And none of them had. He ate what little roots had still grown from the tree's dead remains, and drank from the lake. The tree had died roughly a week and a half ago. Its heart had stopped beating. Riolu reckoned he'd killed it.
Every so often, he would sneak down to the village when the Shadows weren't looking and look around. The knives were long gone.
He still felt dizzy at the thought that he was all alone here. He would see hallucinations in the woods—maybe Bryony's flipper, or the flame of a litwick—But they'd all be gone at a second glance. Not the tricks of a Shadow, but rather the tricks of a mind.
At some point, a week after it had all occurred, Riolu found a piece of twisted scrap while foraging in the ruined town. It was sharp, not sharp or strong enough to pierce the mountain, but sharp all the same. A thought occurred to him, one that didn't scare him anymore: He could just… end it here. End the misery. End the nightmare. The Void Shadows would find and devour his body, but he wouldn't feel it. For him, the nightmare would be over. Maybe, after he'd… maybe afterwards he'd see everymon else, all the ones that had died and left him here. He'd give anything to see Bryony again, or just one of the litwick…
The scrap was pointed at his throat, just an inch away, held by shaking paws. It didn't move closer, nor farther away. For a few minutes, there it stayed.
Riolu might have done it, if he hadn't seen the ghost.
It stood there, outside the large restaurant building, leaning against a wall that no longer existed. It looked like it was having a conversation with something that he couldn't see, and all the same he guessed he was invisible to it. But whatever it was… it meant he wasn't completely alone in here. He found himself lowering the scrap piece, holding it looser and looser in his paws. It eventually hit the sand beside him, forgotten.
He still had no idea what the ghost was. He could see it, but apparently it couldn't see him. The patrolling Void Shadows from before had meant that he couldn't study the ghost full-time, but Riolu still went down to the ruined village when he could to follow it around. It slept when the sky was red, for some reason, and he could only catch view of it at dusk or dawn.
And then… this. Riolu had been nibbling the last of the roots left on the dead heart-tree, when suddenly everything around him had suddenly exploded into noise. A pillar of flame erupted from the top of Reverse Mountain, and the sky rumbled and boomed with unseen thunder.
hunt.
Find.
Kill.
Riolu heard the words, and they came from the skies. And then he heard a worse sound still: The sound of tens of Void Shadows all screeching in unison. It came from everywhere, and it buffeted Riolu's ears and he couldn't stop hearing it but it was unbearable—
Crouching over, he whined and covered his ears the best he could, trying to block out the sound. The debris from above was beginning to land. A slab of burning rock crushed a couple of trees near him out of nowhere. It was several times bigger than Riolu was. Shaken, Riolu quickly continued onwards, staggering towards the town.
He fled north, away from the where the far-flung debris was landing and up towards that hill where nothing was burning. The decaying forests beyond the town were a place of death and despair, and once the fires burning south started spreading up, they would be unlivable. Riolu was happy to leave it behind.
Eventually, he lost track of where he was going, heading into the woods between the town and the mountain. All he knew was that it would be a while until the fires reached here. He had at least a few hours. Riolu sat down against a dead tree, and gazed up at the erupting mountain in the distance. Every day, it seemed like his hopes of leaving got farther and farther away. His only way out, on top of that mountain, everymon had said. Well, now it was going up in flames.
Riolu didn't cry. He didn't have any left in him. He took a deep breath, and simply watched the mountain erupt for a bit. It was peaceful, in a way, silent even from this close. Looking at the mountain no longer scared him anymore.
Slowly, the figures of several blue flames began to become visible once again. Riolu saw them flicker in the woods, but he ignored them. More hallucinations.
But were his hallucinations ever so clear? Not daring to trust hope, Riolu took a second glance at them. They were faint, but they didn't disappear when he looked. He slowly rose from his sitting position. Was it true?
He watched as slowly, several candle-stems followed the flames in visibility. His heart soared, and the next thing the litwick knew Riolu was running towards them in joy. He hugged the closest one—it didn't matter which one—tightly.
"I thought you guys were gone…" he muttered out, eyes closed.
"We nearly were," one of them said. It sounded angry. Riolu looked up at it in confusion.
"We had a deal," another one of them continued. "Where did you go? Why did you leave us all to die?"
"I- I-" Riolu couldn't come up with a proper response. "There was this thing in the sky, and I was only going to be gone a day, an—"
He stopped, looking down. There was no excuse, he knew.
"I'm sorry."
There was silence between them for a moment. Then Riolu looked up.
"Where are the rest of you? Where's Solosis? How come you guys weren't at the camp when I came back? It's been two weeks."
Tall-Flame came forward.
"This is all of us," he said. "All of us that are left. A monster attacked our camp. Solosis was eaten so we could get away. We…" Tall-Flame shuddered, reliving horrible memories. He was having a hard time continuing. "We had nothing to eat. All those weeks of hunger… most of us disappeared!" he bawled, then broke down entirely into tears.
No-mon else had the will to speak; they just watched Tall-Flame cry, mourning all the dead litwick.
"You guys don't have to forgive me. "
Riolu stepped back, drawing his eyes away from the footprints he left in the sand. "I watched pokemon die too. I'm sorry it happened like this."
He had the litwick's attention. They stared at him, skeptical but waiting for him to go on.
"I think I know where the way out is. Not on top of that mountain. But we have to wait for nightfall."
"You know for sure?" one of the litwick asked skeptically.
"Not for sure." Riolu shook his head. "It's just a hunch somemon had."
He looked back towards the forests in the distance, where smoke could be seen rising over the hill from far away.
"But the fires will reach us before long and then the rest of us will die. We've got nothing left to lose. Why not try?"
The litwick exchanged looks.
"Well…" one of them said. "I guess it's better than trying to go up the Bad Place."
Tall-Flame slowly picked himself up off the ground and began to float again.
"I'm okay now," he said. "I still have breakdowns sometimes."
"So where's this way out you speak of?" another litwick piped up.
"It's down on the south side of town…" Riolu began.
~\({O})/~
"If we're going to get past the Void Shadows and to the tree, then we're going to have to be clever about it. That's why we can use the fires to our advantage."
The fires quickly spread throughout the woods, catching from tree branch to tree branch and burning them all to the ground. Up above them, Reverse Mountain slowly began to return to a fiery simmer, but the damage was done—everything around it was alight.
"It'll reach the village by nightfall, and I'm willing to bet that fire hurts these creatures. We can use the opportunity to slip past them."
The sky turned back, and the village burned. Void Shadows had returned to the village after a brief absence—the arrival of the flames at the town's borders had sent them into hiding. Riolu slowly crept through the forest towards the fire, burning bright orange in the light. He could see the outskirts of the burning buildings, and he silently waved the litwick after him. They followed.
The fires burned the trees all around them, and the flames burned brighter than Reverse Mountain did. Riolu took a step onto the cobblestone streets of the town, nearly recoiling at how hot it was. Then he took another. He'd just have to grit his teeth and bear it.
He didn't see any Void Shadows. Riolu crept forward into the village square, looking around at all the burning buildings that lit the place an eerie orange glow.
"It's to the south," he said. "There's a big tree, and it's on an island. It's there. That's the way out."
The litwick looked at each other.
"That's where the Ancient Barrow used to be," they said.
A board suddenly snapped amongst a burning structure, the restaurant behind them. Riolu turned, and as he turned he saw it—standing amongst the wreckage was a Void Shadow. It leered at him menacingly from behind the wall of flame that separated them. But it didn't move. It couldn't, Riolu realized, without going through that fire first.
Go on, it seemed to taunt anyway with a faceless grin. See how far you get.
Riolu stared back in contempt. The Shadow couldn't see it, but he didn't care anymore. He turned around and began to walk towards the southern entrance. Then he broke into a run, ushering the litwick after him.
The buildings flew by as he ran, burning and bright. Riolu paced himself so that the litwick wouldn't be left behind. He focused his eyes ahead, but then as his ears twitched they opened wide—
He was just in time to see a Void Shadow sprint out of the wreckage from the side, obstructing the path ahead. Riolu hit the ground and rolled under its legs, not skipping a beat. The litwick soared over it. The Void Shadow gave chase, but Riolu took a right turn into a building to throw it off.
"Hide!" he hissed to the litwick. They did. The Void Shadow came barging in through the doorway, but it hit the top of the doorframe. The wall collapsed in on it, covering it in flame. It screeched.
Riolu quickly picked himself up and sprinted for the house's back door.
"Go!" he yelled, and the litwick zoomed out of hiding.
The buildings beyond their location had all been half-destroyed by the fire. Riolu crept through the alleyways, keeping clear of the flames that licked out into the street and keeping his eyes peeled for Shadows. There didn't seem to be any here.
"This has to be the south side of town," Riolu said. They had maneuvered through the village for about a minute, and seen neither hide nor hair of another Void Shadow.
"We're just a few buildings away, one of the litwick said. Riolu nodded, and crept up to the burning building ahead of him. He could see the main path just head. It was empty, but something wasn't right—
—The structure next to him was suddenly bowled over. Riolu barely jumped clear of the wreckage. He stuck the landing, but a Void Shadow swatted him to the ground just a few seconds later. It let out something between a screech and an angry roar. The landing hurt, but Riolu picked himself up and began to run for it.
He made his way onto the main path, but then realized the litwick weren't with him he looked back.
"Hey!" he called out to them. "Over here!"
The Shadow took notice. It glanced at him and snarled, but it was suddenly buffeted over the head with the attacks of the three litwick. They soared back onto the main path to join Riolu, and all four began to run south again.
"I can see it!" one of the litwick exclaimed as they ran. He pointed to the massive tree in the near distance, illuminated by the fierceness of the fire that it was engulfed in. Even though the fires licked over its roots that snaked over the main path, they didn't burn. Was it immune?
For just a second, Riolu stopped in horror. The bridge was on fire too—that was the only way across! He had to get there before it collapsed. Fear overcame Riolu. He began to take off at high speeds, running towards the bridge as fast as he could. He forgot about the litwick, which he had left behind.
Riolu closed his eyes, letting his nose and his feelers do the seeing for him. He was almost there, so close—
Riolu tripped over a rock and hit the ground hard. He groaned, and tried to lift himself up. Over where the island was—he was halfway there—the last of the burning bridge crumbled away into the water below. Riolu looked back at the litwick, then at the house. He could swim across. Freedom was so close…
Riolu looked back at the litwick. They'd catch up. Even now, they were floating right towards him. They'd be fine. He just had to get there himself—
The Void Shadow charged back onto the path, and it was livid. It smelled the litwick, and it heard them. It began to gallop in their direction, and only Riolu could see it. And that was when he made his decision.
Riolu leapt up, running back towards the litwick. He wasn't letting this happen again, no matter the cost—
With that thought, he felt something begin to collect in his paws; a foreign energy. It surged, illuminating his chest with bright blue light, and just before Riolu collided with the Shadow his paws met its chest. The attack sent them both flying backwards from each other. The litwick soared clear of the explosion.
Riolu pulled himself to his feet once more. He was dizzy. He could feel the energy leaving his paws, and smell the burning all around him, and see the brilliant orange flames and his ears were ringing from the blast. He was suddenly punted to the ground.
The Void Shadow picked him up, swung him around in the air, and then pounded him into the ground again. It swatted him into a house, and then slammed into the frame and pinned him to the ground a third time. It leaned in over him menacingly, but Riolu finally caught his bearings enough to fight back. He clasped his paws together again, and managed to produce enough energy to repel the Shadow from his body.
Riolu crawled along the ground, coughing, but he felt the Shadow's gooey claws wrap around his legs again and drag him back violently. It flipped him over, and then pinned his arms to the ground.
The Shadow didn't waste time. Its face split open into jaws and teeth, and they converged around Riolu—
A trio of embers suddenly batted the Shadow's head off of Riolu. Riolu looked where they came from, and he saw the Litwick swooping in from above! The next wave of embers hit a nearby structure, which collapsed on the void shadow. Riolu took the opportunity—he began to crawl away from the Shadow and got up to his feet. The Void Shadow was still struggling under the flaming wooden beam. Riolu struggled onto the path, but then he looked back at the litwick.
"Go!" one of them shouted at him. "We'll catch up!"
Riolu didn't even think; he accepted it without question. He turned and ran. He ran, and he didn't look back. When he reached the water, he jumped into it without thinking and paddled his way across. He clawed his way onto the mud of the island, shaking himself off and pulling himself to his feet. He ached all over, but he was so close and he wasn't stopping now.
Finally, he reached the hovel of the tree. Riolu looked back at the burning village in the distance behind him. He couldn't see the litwick. Riolu scanned the sky, but he didn't see them there either. Had they been killed?
They'd catch up. They said they would. Riolu didn't have it in him to wait any longer. He ducked in through the twisted roots, into an entrance that led to total and complete black. The darkness dissolved after him.
Up above, Reverse Mountain erupted once more, sending fiery chunks up into the sky. Down below, the village continued to burn in eerie, desolate silence.
The screeches of a legion of Void Shadows could be heard.
~\({O})/~
Riolu stumbled into gooey black corridors full of messy swamp water. Behind him was more of the same. Where there had once been a door, there was now nothing but darkness and silence. Then it clicked for Riolu: Was this what a mystery dungeon was?
And if so… he looked up at the ground, realizing he couldn't see the roof. Maybe this was the way out.
In front of him sat a staircase. It was smooth as marble, and shone with a ghostly glow in the darkness. Riolu headed for it, but stopped. He glanced back, looking for any sign or indication that the litwick had followed him there. Clarity was finally beginning to return to him, and he realized what had happened. They'd said to go ahead. They said they'd catch up. And now… there was only him. The silence spoke for itself. If they hadn't come already, they probably never would.
Riolu wanted to go back, just to check. It felt… twisted to leave behind the pokemon who had helped him through this final stretch of the way, hopes high on a promise he'd made to them that he'd never be able to keep.
He tried to move himself back towards the entrance. His foot wouldn't move. The primal will in him to forget about everything else and just escape was stronger than the will in him to go back and risk his life once again. Try as he might, he couldn't will himself to go back into the hellscape. He couldn't. With a shaky breath, he succumbed and turned his sights back onto the staircase. He couldn't.
It was time to escape this awful place once and for all.
~\({O})/~
Now
The Ancient Barrow
"So you abandoned them."
The dungeon was quiet as Espurr and Riolu walked through its hallways. It seemed that Nyarlathotep hadn't figured out where they were yet.
"I… I…" Riolu tried in vain to come up with some kind of excuse. Eventually, he slumped over as he walked, letting his shoulders fall forward. "Yeah. I was… scared."
"I'm also scared."
It sounded so clinical, so matter-of-fact. She needed that. She couldn't let herself break down now.
As they walked, Espurr noticed that Riolu's body was getting less and less real-looking. Soon she could see the wall through him. She was about to say something, but Riolu suddenly broke out into a run. Espurr saw why: There was light ahead! This was the exit to the dungeon! Espurr's heart leapt, and she ran after him through the muck. How she wanted to escape from this place so badly! And yet…
The entrance was up ahead; a single doorway illuminated by morning daylight. All around them was the inside of an old and battered house, covered in black goo.
Riolu approached the doorway without hesitation. And the more of the light that spilled out onto him, the more of his body disappeared. He reached a paw out towards the door, watching it vanish completely. His legs had disappeared, and she could only see his head and half his ghostly torso.
"Come with me." Riolu looked back towards Espurr, holding a translucent paw out. "We can leave together."
"I told you I can't." Espurr stayed where she was, folding her arms. "I'm sorry."
Riolu looked at the door, then at Espurr, like the notion was crazy.
"But why not?" he asked. "You could leave, you could go back to the real world!"
"I can't go back without my friends," Espurr said. "They're down there, I know they still are. I got them in, it's my responsibility to get them out."
She left it there, turning around and beginning to trudge back into the dark hallways beyond.
"I hope you make it through," she said to him, stopping for a brief moment to look back. "Maybe we'll see each other again after."
Then she began walking again.
Riolu looked at the door. Then at Espurr, trudging further and further away. He groaned to himself. It should have been a no-brainer! The door was right there. He was inches away from freedom, inches away from rescue! So… why did the idea of walking out leave him with a pit in his stomach?
If that Espurr wanted to go waste her life trudging back into the monster's den, then why was it his problem? Why did he have to go after her, when he'd already suffered so much just to get here? Why couldn't he just… leave?
Maybe it was because he made it this far at the expense of everymon else. And now, faced with the same chance of getting out, of finally leaving, she was doing what he couldn't.
And something told him that when he left, he'd be dreaming of all the others who hadn't made it with him. If he left, and she didn't follow soon after… did he want to add another to the pile?
He sighed, his shoulders and tail slumping. This was going to get him killed.
"Hey!" he yelled, turning around a few seconds later and dashing back through the halls. He kicked up splashes in the water as he ran. "Wait for me! Wait for me."
Finally, he caught up with Espurr, slowing down and trying not trip forward from the water's added weight. Espurr looked back at him, her eyes arching in confusion.
"Weren't you leaving?" she said.
"I changed my mind," Riolu responded, gasping for breath. "I'm gonna help."
"Great." Espurr began to move forward again, walking with purpose into the hall and then speeding up. "I think I saw another hall back this way!" she called back to him. "That's a good place to start."
Riolu cast one last glance back at the dungeon exit. It called to him, promising freedom and safety behind its doors. He could see light that wasn't red, the prospect of a day that was beautiful rather than harrowing. He hoped this Espurr knew what she was doing.
And with that thought, he forced himself to look away, took off after her before he lost sight. They weren't out of the dungeon yet.
~\({O})/~
Music of the week!
Murder (In Four Parts) - Thomas Newman