Panne jerked awake. She sat up with so much force that it nearly put her right back down. The first waking breath she made her realize how irritated her throat was, and the next minute was consumed by strangled gagging. Curled up in the grass, the Braixen struggled not to heave as an overwhelming prickling sensation surged through her body. Her sinuses burned and her throat swelled and the taste of pus was coughed up from the bottom of her lungs. The best she could do was look up at the morning sky with puffy eyes and orient herself with reality one horrid feeling at a time.

It took an idle finger pulling at the fabric around her neck for Panne to realize just how bad things really were. The events of last night came rushing back, flooding into her aching chest like ice water. She made a second attempt at sitting up and began scanning her surroundings. The Growlithe and Ledyba were still asleep. The remains of the fire were grey and cold. Their bags were closed and untouched. There was nothing else here. There was no one else here.

"Val," her voice was ragged to the point that it didn't sound like her. Panne gathered her breath and struggled to a stand. "Val..! Where are you? Val!" The Braixen shambled towards the treeline, picking up speed once panic started settling in where energy was not. She hoped with all her heart that the Servine had just wandered off. Deep down, she knew he was gone.

Once the clearing ended and the forest began, she just kept going. The dense terrain was immediately far too dangerous to handle while in such a weakened state. She tripped every other step, and everything she grabbed a hold of to balance herself seemed to snap or lean uselessly. There were no trails to follow amd no scents to pick up. Vallion didn't even have an opportunity to leave any evidence after being taken. There was just nothing. She might as well have been screaming at the trees to release her lover.

It wasn't until Panne nearly tumbled off the edge of a forty-foot drop that she considered thinking rationally. Stumbling backwards, she caught her breath and peered over the edge. The valley sprawled for as far as the eye could see. Clouds of mist had gathered in the lowest points while the tops of evergreen trees poked out the top. The clouds in the sky were puffy and dark, surely filled with warm summer showers. He was out there. Somewhere in the endless forest, still within her reach. All was not lost.

After carefully backing away from the ledge, Panne choked down a blob of loose mucus and started back towards camp. There's no way she could search for him like...like this. Doubly so for the fact that she still had two kids to escort back home. And that alone meant that she had to climb down this stupid mountain with two vulnerable targets while at a fraction of her own strength. Could she really rely on the wildlings to be as skittish as last night? Whether the creature that captured Vallion meant it or not, it had put her in a very dangerous situation. When she finally got out of it, however, she would make it pay. Oh, it'll pay alright.

Both the children stirred by the time the Braixen had returned. The half horrified, half exhausted looks of their faces said a lot about the kinds of dreams they had been subjected to. Panne dragged herself all the way over to the fire pit and wordlessly slung both their bags over her shoulders. Not only did she have to carry twice the weight, but her muscles were already burning with effort at the thought of how far they were from civilization. At least they were going downhill from here, right?

"Hey lady," the Growlithe said as he shook himself awake. He didn't exactly sound particularly great, but it was surely better than her. "When are we going to go home? I don't feel so good...And where did the Servine go? Aren't you two supposed to be partners?"

Panne struggled to push out an audible reply. "We're leaving now. Don't...Don't worry about him. We'll meet back up again eventually. Right now, we just have to focus on getting you back home."

While the Growlithe seemed unnerved by her scratchy voice, Ledyba found the space to prove a point. "See? We're all getting colds from sleeping up here! I told you this was a bad idea, Growlithe! This is the worst idea you've ever had! Let's just hurry up and get home already."

She couldn't have argued with that notion even if she had the air in the lungs to. The first few slopes they crawled down knocked the wind out of her, and the next ones punctuated her nauseousness in the worst kinds of ways. The scarf around her neck didn't make it easy to forget how much her throat hurt, either. All the most grueling assignments of her career came to mind. Her body had been made into a machine, forged through years of toil to persist through the worst of conditions. In spite of everything, her legs were never going to stop, and for once she was thankful.

A short drop in altitude and a few bouts of dry heaving later, the mystery dungeon's inhabitants were still nowhere to be seen. That unnatural feeling from last night still lingered on even into the following morning. At least now it was convenient in addition to being unnerving. All it took was one botched skirmish for things to go from worse to lethal. You know, if the dehydration and exposure didn't get to her first.

Past all the mounting discomfort and harrowing descents, Panne was busy plotting. There was no more time to waste. How much longer did Vallion have if this thing really was after his human soul? A few hours? An afternoon, tops? Who the hell even knows how long it takes to rip a soul out of a body? Just the thought alone was enough to make her heart sink. The Braixen pushed ahead and concentrated on the pain that propelled her forward. Once Vallion was back, they were going to get married. That wasn't something that fate was allowed to determine anymore. It was fact, god dammit.

...

The dirt path beneath Panne's feet became wider by the minute. Caravan tracks imprinted themselves in the dust like guidelines for her throbbing feet to follow. She noticed them, but never quite made the connection as to what they meant. Her mind was a haze, and her vision fuzzed over at the edges. She barely even noticed when the two children she was supposed to escort ran ahead of her and towards the village. There was no danger, so she didn't respond. It took hearing Pops' voice for the Braixen to finally break free from her trance.

She looked up and tried to focus her vision at the cluster of pokemon that had gathered before her. The very second her legs stopped moving, all the pain she had suppressed suddenly rushed back into place, and gravity amplified tenfold. Somewhere in the moment of time she had lost to the color black, Carracosta had rushed to her collapsed form and lifted her head with his huge flipper.

"Water! Someone get some water!" Pops boomed to the gawking audience at the village's gate. Their anxious chatter was muffled and distant, almost like Panne's head was submerged in a pool. Maybe she was still in a dream? It was hard to tell at this point. The last few hours had melted together so incomprehensibly that she hardly even remembered them.

Nuzleaf had also knelt down by her side at some point, his expression all furrowed and severe. "Panne? What happened out there? Where'd Vallion go? He-" His eyes trained hard on her neck. "Yer wearing one of the...!"

"He was taken," Panne croaked out in a voice that didn't even sound like her own anymore. "Up on the mountain- Nng!"

Slowly, carefully, she managed to stand back up. Using her father for support, she limped out towards town while the villagers swarmed in. Nuzleaf shouted for them to scatter and give her some air, but she would've had a hard time breathing no matter how close they were. The Braixen made it about a quarter of the way into town when a glass of cool liquid touched her lips. Some sort of primal force took hold of her hands and grabbed onto that glass like it was a precious jewel, inhaling the whole cup of water in the span of seconds. It was probably the most delicious water she'd had in her entire life.

Apparently Simipour was the one who got her the glass, or he just happened to be the one directly in front of her when she looked up again. "Are you alright, Panne? Can you tell us what happened up there last night? Why wasn't Vallion with you?"

"Can't you at least give her a moment's rest before we get into this? At least wait until we get her home!" Pops snapped at the water type, then started to cough uncontrollably into his flipper. That was when Panne finally noticed the cacophony of sniffles and hacks that came from the surrounding crowd. Oh no.

Panne limped her way through into her father's house, after which several other pokemon piled in before the door was finally closed. She was swiftly given a chair and enough room to breath. Her bags were stolen from her shoulders and spirited away into the other room. Before she knew it, there was a wet washcloth over her forehead and a small cup of water in her hands. Even though the Braixen's stomach fervently protested the introduction of anything at all, she downed yet another glass of water and just dealt with the urge to vomit it back up. There was a lot of old faces gathered in the room, and all of which looked like they'd been running on fumes all day. The three empty mugs on the table and the coffee jar's wayward lid more or less confirmed her fears.

"Oh dear," Simipour sighed in exasperation, shaking his head. "I'm glad to see that the kids are back, but seeing you in this state, and without Vallion...I knew something had to have gone wrong. Last night, while you two were gone, the whole village had fallen victim to terrible nightmares and intense allergic reactions. I don't think a single one of us got more than a couple hours of sleep. It was certainly odd, but I didn't think it was something to worry about. Until I saw how sick you were as you entered the village. What happened up on that mountain, Panne? And what...is with that scarf?"

Minute by minute, Panne felt her mind sharpen back to its original state of calculated panic. "I- I don't have any time to waste! Val's still out there, and something got him last night! It's what's been causing all these symptoms, I know it! Let me fix my bags."

When she tried to rise from her seat, Audino quickly urged her back into place. "Easy, easy! I don't know how far you think you can go, but if the way you came into town was any example, you wouldn't be able to leave it." She picked up the Braixen's washcloth from the floor and set it right back on her forehead.

"You don't understand..." Panne replied, already painfully aware of how weak she was. Just attempting to leave the chair had left her winded again. "This isn't something we can wait around on! I don't know how long we've got, but I'm not going to let myself be too late!"

Carracosta raised his voice. "Panne, that is enough! You are in absolutely no shape to be out and about right now! An explorer of your caliber should know to respect their limits!" The whole room seemed to recoil, and a brief silence fell. His nose raised a centimeter higher into the air. "Now, are you going to sit still and adequately prepare for what you need to do, or are you going to walk out that door and collapse again?"

"...No," she said, staring daggers into the floor.

Audino placed a hand on the Braixen's slumped shoulder. "I can only imagine how important it is for you to get back out there, but you're not going to accomplish anything right now. Vallion's one of the strongest pokemon I know. If he saw you like this, he'd tough it out just so that you wouldn't have to push yourself so hard. Build your strength back up and then save him, okay?"

At that point, Panne had no choice but to settle back down into the seat. "Alright, fine! But I won't stay here for long!" After trying and failing to breath through through her nose, she began. "Growlithe and Ledyba apparently had a dream that convinced them to run away and come to Revelation Mountain. At around the same time, Val had gotten sick from a nightmare in the middle of the night, exactly like we were warned. Apparently there's been someone behind these weird symptoms all along. It- It knew Val was a human! It wanted him because of it, too! It used the kids as bait to lure us up the mountain, and when night fell it knocked us out with some kind of poison!"

Upon recounting the story, Panne felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. The room had suddenly dropped ten degrees. That powerlessness she felt as she watched Vallion pass out in her arms resurfaced like an opened wound. Maybe if she was stronger, she could have protected him. "I know everyone's been coughing. You all had a bad dream last night, right? Do you remember what it was about?"

Nuzleaf frowned deeply. "It was all terrible visions the whole way through. Black walls of screaming faces, cramped together like they're all trapped in a shrinking cave. Carracosta tried to call you earlier, but I suppose you had your hands full at that point, huh? Even just lookin' in the direction of that mountain gives me goosebumps. Something's definitely wrong with that place, I can feel it."

"That's why I can't wait." This time when Panne stood up, nobody tried to stop her. They probably didn't expect her to get anywhere. "I know you know about these scarves, Nuzleaf. You of all people understand how important it is that he gave it to me before that thing came and took him away. He knew it was coming for him, and that there was nothing he could do to prevent it. He wanted to leave without regrets."

"I...I know," Nuzleaf barely managed to say. The grass type glanced out the window, as if trying to redirect his anxiousness outside where nobody would notice.

Pops, however, was unbending. "Sit back down, Panne. Get your energy back up. You're going to get both Vallion and yourself killed if you continue on. You know that he'd say the exact same thing."

Dammit, that is something that he'd say. Panne sat down on the edge of her seat while her tail impatiently swished back and forth against her will. She hated waiting. She hated the way her scarf started to itch against her skin the more she thought about what Vallion was going through. She especially hated that she had to go through all this while feeling sicker than a Parasect in the desert. When Pops found a jar of granola and set it in front of her, she angrily took handfuls of the stuff and shoved them into her mouth. The scratchiness going down her throat almost helped soothe the itch. Though it was a bother to be reminded of how hungry she was.

Of course, while the Braixen was busy brooding, little whispers circulated around the room about the reappearance of the legendary Harmony Scarf. Nuzleaf had to handle the dispelling of that mystery since nobody would dare interrupt her while she was eating. Besides, all that was idle chatter anyways. Now was the actual time to plan. Buried somewhere in the adjacent room was a guiding wand, which was for emergency use only. They would have used it last night if it could track people and not just places. While it was still fresh on her mind, Panne slid out of her chair and hurried off into the room, still chewing on a mouthful of granola.

It was immediately much quieter once she passed through the doorway. A soothing light filtered in through the window and bounced freely throughout the room. It would have almost seemed peaceful if Panne wasn't caught in the throes of a slow-burn panic. She flipped open a small trunk and dug her hand through a sea of jagged objects until her claws closed around the wand in question. With nowhere to put it, she just jammed the supernatural stick into her tail fur and shrugged. Who cares what it looks like, anyways?

'That looks real stupid,' a voice echoed in the back of the Braixen's skull and in the deep hollows of her ears, the congestion in her sinuses making it sound like she were underwater. She recognized who it was instantly.

"You look stupid, Meowstic. Shut up, you don't even care." Panne turned towards the window and saw the tops of two white ears peeking into view. She sighed and walked over. "Trying to spy on me, huh? I was gonna come find you after the geezers let me loose, anyways."

"We were worried for you," the psychic pokemon said using her real voice. "You showed back up to town alone and just completely fainted. Nobody even knows what happened."

When Panne leaned out the window, she saw more than just Meowstic. Sawsbuck and Sliggoo were also waiting just outside her house, intently listening with their ears up against the wall. When they finally saw Panne hanging out over them, they flinched away like someone had shocked them. Sliggoo struggling to stifle a yelp. "Oh! I was just- We were- I thought I saw something interesting over here!"

Sawsbuck just cleared her throat and frowned. Her gaze never left Panne's neck. "Something bad happened up there, didn't it?"

"Something took Val," the Braixen repeated herself, impulsively tapping her nails on the windowsill. "Something took him and I'm going to go shove a tree branch down their throat. I swear to god, I will tear that thing apart, whatever it is. I didn't get to see it since it knocked us out cold with this...this dream poison crap. All I know is that Val is somewhere around that mountain."

Meowstic tilted her head. "So it's the reason why everyone's all messed up? Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go smash its head in. I'm sick and tired of feeling sick and tired."

"We can't just leave right now!" Sliggoo said with a cough. "I haven't even had time to pack any bags, and I've just got out of bed! Oh man, it's been so long since I've had to go into a mystery dungeon. What am I even supposed to bring?"

Panne withdrew her upper half from the window, nearly toppling backwards with the motion. "You'll figure it out. We don't have time to waste. Meet me at town square in a few minutes. Find everyone who's able and willing to help right now and gather them up, even if you're not going to come. I'm not forcing anyone to go with me, but I'm not sitting around here while Val is in trouble."

"We'll come," Sawsbuck assured her with a slight nod, but the worry never left her face. "Don't worry, we'll definitely come. It's the least we can do to help you guys out after everything you've done for us." On that note, her friends took off in a hurry in three respective directions. The last thing Panne saw before she turned back from the window were the clusters of dense clouds, blotting out the sun and shedding a gloomy, grey light across the village.

Stepping back into the other room was like moving from night to day. The atmosphere went from peaceful to stuffy in the matter of seconds, mostly due to the handful of tired pokemon all shuffling about trying to figure out what the hell to do. Panne just ignored them and got to repacking her bags in silence. Tools and supplies got swapped out for first aid and weaponry. By the time the Braixen was satisfied, it looked like she was about to storm a fortress. There were hunting knives and ropes and all sorts of seeds to use in a pinch. She didn't bother bringing the Gadget since there was no use in calling anyone. Not even Archeops would be able to make it down here in time.

"I'm leaving now," she said to her father before shoving another handful of granola into her mouth for the road. The backpack slung over her shoulders felt twice as heavy as it was supposed to be and her legs still felt like jelly, but those problems probably weren't going to get better anytime soon.

"Are you, now?" Carracosta glared at her, then sighed. "Yes, I suppose you are. Did you plan on getting any help from your friends? I don't want you going up on that mountain alone."

"Already working on it. Don't even worry about it, I'm not gonna be alone." The crowd parted so that Panne could reach the door. Her fingers closed around the doorknob and lingered for a few moments. "I'll be right back, okay? Seriously this time, we'll both be back."

Everyone wished her luck as she closed the door behind her. Within the matter of five steps, she already wished she was back inside. The air was heavy and humid, almost as if winter had suddenly rolled in and smothered the valley. Even the sweet breeze from yesterday was nowhere to be found, and had instead been replaced by a cold, bitter wind from the north. This time, there were no faces to greet along the way. Everyone was cooped up in their homes, stuck in bed from the mysterious symptoms that had washed over the whole village.

The center of the village was essentially deserted. The only two people she could see standing about were Meowstic, who looked like she was falling asleep standing up, and Kecleon, who faithfully manned his stand with a box of tissues very close by. Panne made a grunt as she approached, then had to make another just to get the psychic type's attention.

"Huh? Oh, finally." Meowstic shook herself awake and turned towards the Braixen. She fished in her book bag before pulling out what looked like a dusty wonder orb. "I had one lying around from a few months ago. Thought it could get some real use from someone who actually, you know, adventures and all that. The new scarf looks good on you, by the way. Vallion must have pulled some strings for that thing."

Upon closer examination, it was the kind that illuminated huge swathes of area for a minute or two. A luminous orb. Definitely useful if they were going to be delving into any stray caves. She slid it into her bag with a half-smile. "That ought to help out, yeah. Thanks. Make sure you have absolutely everything you need, by the way. We're probably not gonna have the chance to turn back once we leave."

Shouting erupted from the other side of town square. "Wait, I'm here! Hold on!" Sawsbuck came galloping forth from beyond a corner, her fresh summer coat of leaves bouncing with each step. Before she made it to them, Sliggoo rounded the corner and let loose a mind-rattling sneeze.

"S-seriously, Sawsbuck! Slow down!" Sliggoo sputtered as he struggled to catch up. "I'm not good with colds, you know that! I can't breathe!"

"If you can't breathe than what are you doing right now?" Panne said once the group was fully gathered. "But seriously, you don't have to come if you don't think you can make it. There's no telling what's going to happen out there. I don't want you to get hurt on my behalf."

For as much as Sliggoo coughed and heaved, he kept his head high. "Ah, don't pay attention to me. I just get whiny when I feel sick. Vallion needs rescuing so that's exactly what I'm gonna help you do, no ifs or buts. I might not be the best fighter, but whatever's got him is gonna have a hard time getting through me!"

Sawsbuck nodded in agreement. "We all owe something to you and Vallion. Not just for all the things you've done for us, but because you're our friends. I'm not gonna let this chance to pay you two forward slip away!"

To be honest, it meant a lot. Way more than she would care to admit. It was almost enough to make her heart stop beating so damn hard. In her newfound clarity, she blinked the weariness from her eyes and gasped. "Heal seeds! Did you guys bring any heal seeds with you?"

"Yeah, I got a few in my bag," Sawsbuck spoke up. "I stocked up in case I ever needed to stay up late to finish working on something. Why?"

"Those things are loaded with caffeine! We'll need the resistance just to stand a chance at defeating whatever it is we're trying to defeat. If it knocks us out from far away like it did to me earlier, that's game over. Is there enough for all of us?"

She looked contemplative for a moment. "...Should be. I kind of just shoved the whole jar into my bag. You told me to pack fast, so I packed fast."

Finally, now they were starting to get somewhere! Panne went to pump her arm in the air, but stopped when she felt how weak her muscles were. "Sweet! Okay, that should help a whole lot. Let's get out of here while we still got time."

For what seemed like the thousandth time since she supposedly went on vacation, Panne started down the road that lead out the village. Everyone shuffled along behind her in a uniform kind of misery, hacking and coughing and sniffling all the while. It sounded like a plague had ran through the valley and they were a caravan of quarantined individuals being shipped off to wherever. Not exactly the kind of day she would have chosen to be all heroic, but whenever Vallion's words from last night played back in her head, a spike of determination shot through her chest and forced her aching muscles to move. She wanted to hold him in her arms and tell him everything was going to be alright. More than anything.

"Guys, wait up!"

A familiar, but somehow deeper voice called out from behind. Turns out the sound was Pangoro lumbering out of the village gate like a tree falling in slow motion. "You guys forgot about me!"

"Yes, because you were too slow," Sawsbuck shouted towards him as he eventually approached. "You told me you might not even come, because you were feeling too unwell. I just figured you didn't want to. I wasn't going to bother waiting for someone who didn't even know if they were going to come."

"I didn't say that! I said that I'd maybe be able to help because I sort of felt too sick to move! And, well, I pretty much had to tear apart my whole house for this." Once Pangoro had caught up and wiped the saliva from his cheek, he lifted his hand and started to swing a slingshot around by the band from the tip of his finger.

"My god, you still have that thing?" Panne said, shaking her head. "Are you expecting to shoot rocks and wadded-up paper at the sleep monster? I don't think that's gonna work out."

Still short of breath, Pangoro raised a finger and reached around to his back, revealing a clinking bag filled with vaguely round objects. "Obviously it's not gonna mind having pebbles thrown at it, but I'm not here to bully the damn thing. I'm gonna unload blast seeds into this guy's mouth and see if he looks smug after that!"

"Oh. Well then that works out." Panne's monotonous voice couldn't possibly express how much gratitude she felt in the moment. Honestly, there wasn't much room to feel gracious to begin with, what with all the worry and misery going around. She was just glad that everyone wanted to help out at all. Maybe she'd have to make it up to them all later. Pops could probably bake a mean pie, right? Maybe she'll have him help her make pies for everyone or something.

Meowstic, struggling not to cough every few moments, still found the verbal room to scoff. "Did you seriously evolve all those muscles just to dig up your slingshot and plink away at it from a distance while we do all the real work? Don't be such a baby, Pangoro."

"Hey! What if it's in the air or high up or something? What am I supposed to do then, huh? Just stand around and look tough?"

"I guess you let Panne handle it," Sliggoo said. "She's the legendary explorer here. If anyone's going to take it down, it's probably going to be her."

As much as the Braixen appreciated the vote of confidence, she wasn't even sure she was going to make it back up to the mountain in one piece. Panne already felt like she was going to pass out from exhaustion and they hadn't even started. The sleep she'd been placed under had offered no rest at all, and the pressure was really starting to mount. Vallion could be dead right now and there's no way she would know...

...No. He was still out there, hanging on with the hope that she would come and save him. He had to be. It was a funny feeling, and it didn't make much logical sense from any feasible standpoint, but Panne was certain of it. Under her breath, she whispered that it wouldn't be much longer. It was a promise.