POKÉMON: INFINITE LEGACIES
THE CIPRYS REGION
CHAPTER 13
ESRUC S'UKONPYH
Selina pushed on. Dressed with the conditions of the wood in mind, she wasn't slowed easily by any branches, nettles, and thorns. Acantha mentioned some sort of shrine. It can't be much further away.
A shrill cry split the air. Selina froze, thinking it sounded faintly human, but she could not tell where it had come from. She turned her head in every direction, then did a doubletake behind her.
"Flame? Where are you?"
There was no response.
Selina crossed her arms. "This is not funny!" she yelled. The words echoed out and dissipated into the distant trees.
"Drifloon," Drifloon said nervously.
"Oh great," Selina huffed. "You better not be scared. You're the one who carries people off to the afterlife."
Drifloon shrugged her thin arms apologetically.
Flame picked up a twig and threw it as far as he could. It clanged off a trunk before ricocheting into a bush. "Stupid, stupid haunted wood!" Flame yelled, fists clenched and shaking. "I'll burn you down with Litten's Ember!"
Threatening nature didn't give him the response he'd hoped for—silence greeted him. There was nothing he could do, he realised. He took a step forward. Nervousness churned his stomach. He'd find the lost children and Selina and Drifloon and everything would be okay. He took another step.
And tripped. He fell face-forward; dirt splattered against his face.
"Ow!" he cried out. He tried to gather himself, but couldn't move his legs. He turned onto his back—vines were wrapped around his ankles. He leaned forward and tugged at them, only to find another two snaking from out of the bushes and swatting his outstretched hands away. Desperation brought further urgency to his movements. With more force this time, he tried to move his legs. He was met with the same result. And now, the other two vines were slithering towards his arms with surprising speed.
"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon," he muttered.
The tips of the two vines reached his hands and began wrapping themselves around his wrists.
"Yes!" he exclaimed, finding Litten's Poké Ball in his pocket. He pressed the release-return button, just before his hand and arm were yanked away. Vines started to crawl onto his face. "Litten!" he screamed. "Scratch on the vines! Be—"
Litten slashed at the nearest vine, long streaks of energy extending from between his forepaws.
"—careful," Flame finished through gritted teeth.
"Lit-ten," Litten apologised as he sliced away the remaining vines, which shrivelled up and faded into the ground.
Pain scorched Flame's wrists. His eyes watery, he blinked.
A ponytail caught his eye. "What the?" he muttered.
Shock banished his pain for a moment—Selina and Drifloon were beside him, lying on the ground as he was.
Wind screeched against the trees, breaking branches and ripping roots free. The unnatural force raced towards Selina.
"Hold on!" she screamed. She grabbed Drifloon's love heart, but the balloon Pokémon couldn't hold on. The force of the wind seized Drifloon's light body with ease.
"Drifloon!" Selina cried as her Pokemon became a purple speck amidst distant trees.
If she wasn't in so much peril, she might have cried. She reached out for the nearest tree, but the ground beneath her feet was replaced with air. Wind picked her off of her feet and whisked her away, just like Drifloon. Her bag slipped off her shoulders. She couldn't do anything to prevent it, and before she could register it, and the loss of her Pokémon, pain sliced up her back.
Selina crumpled to the ground, back hunched against a tree. She looked up, tried to focus, but her vision was unsteady, all over the place. She couldn't focus on anything. My Pokémon . . . inside my bag . . . she realised with a sob. There was no one to help her, she knew. She was alone, unable to comprehend what had happened.
A shadowy hand emerged from the ground as though a Ghost-type. It clamped onto her left ankle. She thought she was imagining it at first, but then another appeared and did the same to her other ankle. If she'd had the strength, she might have forced herself free from their grip, but she could hardly muster the energy to keep her eyes open.
The shadowy hands tugged at her ankles and lowered them into the ground, which rose eagerly to meet her.
The top of her vision turned black.
Despair overwhelmed her.
As she was pulled down into the earth, she sighted silhouettes standing over her, some unfamiliar and some familiar. Dad . . . she thought, her lungs gasping for air, tears streaked across her cheeks. She closed her eyes, awaiting the end.
Seconds passed, and then pain rippled outwards from her arm. She cried out, her eyes opening in the process. She found herself on the ground. She moved her ankles and felt no restriction there. She sat up, slowly; her back was fine. Pain shot up her arm again, and she would have cursed if she hadn't gritted her teeth and shut her mouth. She noticed a thin but deep line of blood trickling out from a slash on her arm.
"Sorry about that," came a familiar voice.
Selina looked up. "Flame?"
Drifloon rose into the air unsteadily, a part of her body blackened.
Litten apologised again.
"I don't know what happened," Flame admitted, "but I'm gonna guess that has something to do with it."
Selina followed his gaze. A pendulum that glowed with purple energy and arcane symbols was rocking from left to right and back again in front of them.
Selina got up quickly and ran her hand across her bag—they were all there. She sighed with relief, then said, "We must be dealing with a Psychic-type. That was probably some kind of hypnosis that caused us to collapse."
Before Flame could respond, a soft sound travelled towards them. Ears twitching, Litten took a step in the direction of the sound.
"Be gone," it warned, whispering through the trees. "Be gone at once."
The vegetation around them quivered before falling still and silent. The pendulum grounded to a halt and then faded into nothingness. Flame looked at Selina, who'd stood up and was dusting herself down. She held her opposite hand against her wound to stem the bleeding.
"You thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.
Selina forced a smile. "Follow the sound." I really, really hope this isn't what I think it is.
It was Litten's turn to lead the way. The small Fire-type had pinpointed the sound and was prowling through the undergrowth towards it. Flame was behind his Pokémon with Selina and her Drifloon bringing up the rear. Their breaths were quick and their eyes narrowed. Apart from the rustling of the leaves overhead, and their movements through thicker undergrowth, the wood was silent. The sky—mostly blocked out by overhanging trees—seemed impossibly dark for this time of the day, and each time Flame checked his phone, the time was stuck at 95:32. He didn't want to know what that meant.
Before they'd entered the wood, he'd been excited to find the rare Pokémon. He thought he might have been able to capture it, but now his confidence was gone, and he truly realised how dangerous Ciprys could be. Situations like these were why it took three years and plenty of hard work to graduate from the Academy and gain his trainer's license.
Flame had lost track of time when Litten suddenly stopped before a thicket. The Fire-type glanced back at his trainer, then flicked his tail forward. Flame stepped forward to peer through a gap in the thicket. A clearing was beyond them—at the centre, a pale shrine, faded in colour; and behind, steps disappeared into darkness.
"Some kind of shrine or tomb," Flame murmured.
Something else caught his eye: a child, down on their knees, facing the shrine.
Flame, taking care to ensure his movements were quiet, withdrew to Selina's side. "One of the lost kids are ahead," he whispered into her ear.
Selina crept forward until she was beside Litten. She had a look for herself before glancing back at Flame. "Follow my lead," she said softly. She paused and took a deep breath, then pushed through the thicket into the clearing.
His heart pounding away in his chest, Flame followed. As did Litten and Drifloon.
Selina approached the child slowly. "Hello. We're here to make sure you're okay."
The child was motionless, as if they hadn't heard Selina at all.
Selina took another step. Flame followed. This isn't right, his instincts screamed at him.
"My name is Selina. What's yours?"
The child was motionless.
"Are you okay?"
The child was—
The clearing darkened.
Selina reached out.
The child turned. "Be gone," they warned quietly.
Then louder, louder, louder: "Be gone. Be gone. Be gone." Tears streaked down their face. "Be gone."
"Drifloon, Focus Energy."
Drifloon floated forward. A dark purple energy shone around her enlarged body.
"Huh?" Flame wondered. "What are you doing?!"
"Be gone!" the child started to scream. Their eyes glowed with a light blue aura. "Be gone! Be gone!"
"Shadow Ball," Selina responded coolly.
A black ball, streaming with purple energy, formed in front of Drifloon. Before Flame could intervene, Drifloon shot the ball past the child and at the steps. There, Shadow Ball exploded in mid-air.
The child dropped to the ground. As he did, a yellow-furred Pokémon—approximately six-foot tall—materialised where Shadow Ball had exploded. Across the entirety of his body were purple inscriptions, unreadable and foreign to Selina and Flame. His eyes made him look tired, small and crescent-shaped. White tufts of fur collared his neck, the tips of his small triangular ears, and his knuckles. A purple-furred pendulum seemed engraved into the fur on his forehead, and somehow was giving off a faint glow. Had Flame and Selina been standing at a different angle, they might have seen the bigger one that was spread across the Pokémon's back.
Selina glanced up as she checked on the unconscious child. "Thought so," she muttered so quietly that Flame could only just about hear. "The pendulum Pokémon . . ."
Flame eyed the Pokémon warily as he dipped a shoulder and fumbled into his backpack to retrieve his Poké Dex.
"Hypnoku, the pendulum Pokémon," the device chimed, "and the evolved form of Hypno. Hypnoku is highly dangerous—inexperienced trainers should avoid this Pokémon at all costs. If Hypnoku's hypnotising pendulum lures you into sleep, you will either face a peaceful dream or battle a dangerous nightmare depending on how Hypnoku is feeling. Ciprys myth claims that Hypnoku are capable of observing, entering, and even controlling the dreams of other beings."
Flame facepalmed himself. "Highly dangerous, now you tell me."
Hypnoku hadn't moved a muscle. His purple-tinged eyes had remained on them, but the pendulum on his forehead had stopped glowing.
"We should be okay now," Selina explained. "Since we broke the earlier nightmares."
Flame grinned. "Litten—"
Litten sprang forward. Hypnoku's gaze fell onto the fire cat Pokémon; there was curiosity and, perhaps, a hint on amusement there. Litten looked unafraid, teeth bared. He was ready to battle.
"—use Em—"
"Don't you dare!" Selina interrupted. "Hypnoku are powerful enough to crush you with just one attack."
"What do we do then if we can't battle it?"
"Hypnoku are territorial. They stay in the same place for years and project their pendulums to hypnotise any trespassers. This one must just be protecting his territory."
Flame leaned towards her. "How do you know all that?"
Selina half-grinned. "My dad's sorta into all this spooky stuff."
Drifloon floated towards Hypnoku. "Drif-loon," Drifloon said. "Drifloon. Loon, loon. Drifloon."
"Hypnoku," Hypnoku responded, his gaze still resting on Flame and Selina.
"Drifloon, Drifloon."
Litten bounded forward. "Litten," Litten added. "Lit-ten!"
Hypnoku paused, then slowly dipped his head. His forehead glowed with a surprisingly bright light. At once the clearing lightened, and behind him, out of the darkness, a group of children marched up the steps and stopped before the shrine.
"There they are," Flame gasped.
Litten returned to Flame's side and Drifloon floated back to Selina, both looking pleased with themselves. "Drifloon," said Drifloon. "Drifloon."
Selina high-fived Drifloon's love-heart hand. "Good work, Drifloon."
Litten mrrowed his name, as if to say I helped too, ya know!
Flame bent down and stroked Litten's back. His Pokémon purred happily.
Hypnoku pointed into the wood. "No-ku," he declared, a quiet but serious warning. "No-ku."
Selina nodded. "I understand. Time to go."
"Someone'll have to put up signs around the wood to stop anyone from entering. Now that Hypnoku lives there, it's too dangerous for anyone to enter," Selina finished her explanation to the old couple.
"Oh, we'll take care of that straightaway," Acantha agreed. "But thank you ever so much, dear. Without your help, I hate to think what would have happened."
"Yes," added the old man. "Thank you from the very bottom of our hearts."
Selina blushed a little. "Happy to help, but it wasn't just me. I honestly couldn't have done it without Flame."
"We shall have to thank him ourselves," the old man said. "Do you know where he is?"
Selina giggled. "That boy can't stay in one place for too long. He left town soon after we got back."
The old lady looked disappointed. "Ah. What a terrible shame. I would have liked to give him this too." She held out the items, hidden under a silky navy-blue cloth.
Selina received the items. Their rounded bulge was unmistakable to her, and she realised straightaway what they were. "Wow!" she exclaimed. "I know these aren't too easy to come by. Thank you. I've got a friend who knows all about them."
"It is the least you deserve for your troubles on our account," acknowledged the old man with a smile.
"Now, if you will excuse us," the old lady grinned, "we do have some signs to put up."
Selina nodded. "Of course."
They got up and padded away, leaving Selina alone in the Pokémon Centre booth.
Selina stared out of the window. She thought of Hypnoku, then of Flame, and then of her past. Her head lowered and her eyes darkened, but only for a moment, until her lips grew into a wide smile. I need to get stronger, she knew. I'm not sure how Flame figured it out, but if it wasn't for him, I might have never been released from Hypnoku's hypnosis. She stood up. We can't stop training.
"Eevee," Eevee chattered away. "Eevee, Eevee."
Flame, Litten, and Eevee were walking up Route 2.
"Yeah," Flame sympathised, "I know you liked her Eevee. I did too."
Litten growled.
"Yeah. 'Course I know you wanted to beat her Rowlet."
Litten mrrowed confidently.
The sun caught Flame's eye. He glanced for a second, then looked away. "Yeah, I think you're right," he said, smiling. "Maybe next time."
Author's Notes:
I hope the chapter title didn't irritate anyone! It might look it, but it's not in some other language. I had a few different titles in mind, but all would have hinted at what was going on, or revealed Hypnoku's name early, which I didn't want to do, so the title is 'Hypnoku's Curse' backwards—somewhat reflecting Hypnoku's hypnotising-pendulum ability. If you were sharp-eyed and figured it out before my explanation, well done!
Hypnoku was one of the first Ciprys-exclusive Pokémon I thought up. Similar to Sinnoh, I might have some more additional evolutions lined up, but you'll have to keep on reading to find out!