Grace

Echoes in my ears, they repeat themselves over and over. A scream. The ripping and tearing of flesh. The slow cracks and snaps of bones. Integral parts of my mind now, all of these. Do I care? Not really. Hell, I have enough fun causing all of these noises to occur in the first place, I can't really complain about them getting trapped in my head. So long as I barely keep up with my work, I get to choose who I bite, who I cut, who I torture, which is just how I like it. I've even adapted just enough to not care about the thick and almost overpowering taste of blood in my mouth as I take apart whomever my current vessel is. I even started to enjoy it! Wow, I'm screwed up. Not that I mind!

I was standing over a large vibrava, easily an adult. He had his mouth sealed shut, courtesy of my vines and some random sharp objects I found laying around. The edges surrounding his mouth were dark, crimson, and swollen. Small droplets of blood trickled down his neck, and muffled cries of agony were barely audible. I wasn't as… sensitive to this kind of thing, like the Boss is. She's really creepy, sometimes more so than me. Don't get me wrong, I love the scent of death! Though, it's no fetish for me, like it is for her.

I slowly put my paw on this vibrava's chest, planting more and more pressure slowly but surely. His cries, like shouting into a pillow, I couldn't make them out beyond someone on the verge of suffocation. His cries grew in intensity as each of his ligaments tore, following by the quiet but brutal snapping of each one of his ribs. His body began to shake intensely, as the pain he felt increased more and more. I couldn't help but let out a burst of laughter, that most other pokemon would describe as 'manihicall,' whatever that means.

Distracted in my own laughter, I didn't notice that the body had stopped moving, the very light beat of a pulse slowly fizzled out, each thump harder and harder to feel, until they vanished completely. I tilted my head, looking at the now silent and motionless vibrava. "I killed him? Oops."

I took my forepaw off of his chest, taking a few steps back. "Aww… I wanted to hear you struggle some more…" I sighed, taking small pawsteps around the body in circles. Repeatedly, my eyes found themselves looking down at the center of his body, the exterior, actually looking relatively unharmed. The interior, likely a fountain of blood within him, with shattered remains of his bones scattered around. My head couldn't resist wondering what it looked like, his destroyed insides. With my curiosity peaked, I cracked my neck, and slowly leaned down to the now corpse, the leaf on my head now with a light glow.

With one quick motion, I swung my head down, thinly slicing the center of his stomach. At first, I only saw a thin line of crimson, hardly even visible. A few seconds passed, and I jammed my paw into that thin line, slipping it right into the body, expanding the fresh wound and covering my foreleg in blood. The strong scent of the thick liquid immediately washed over me, as used to it as I was, I didn't even gag. "Let's see what's insi-"

A sharp noise made me jump and shirek, as I turned my head , dragging my eyes all over the reflective, silver surface surrounding me. One of the walls to my west side had opened, and out came the Assassin, slowly walking closer to me, but not looking in my direction. He never acknowledged me while he was passing through, too focused on his current job. In his arms though, was something small, I couldn't quite make it what at first.

Slowly, taking completely even steps, the Assassin drew closer, and the blurry image of what he had cradled in in his forearms became more and more clear. It was a pokemon, small and yellow, though, I couldn't make out the species. The smell in the room intensified, but I still didn't react, I was far too used to the strong sensation at this point. The Assassin slowly walked by, not paying me any mind. That was usual, after all, he had nothing to speak to me about, so he wouldn't pay me any mind.

As he neared the wall opposite to him, I caught another glance, the pokemon he had resting in his arms. It's tail was long for its size, yellow with a small bit of black on the end. With that detail alone, I was able to decipher the species of the pokemon as a pikachu, which wasn't the most significant thing in the world, but my eyes couldn't help but trace down the stature of the newly arrived pikachu, noticing a thin cut on the front of its narrow throat. It was dead, quite clearly deceased. Another detail I picked up was its size, very small.

It only took a second. A rough shiver ran up my entire body, and my eyes began to water a little. I swiftly turned away from the Assassin, facing nothing but the wall of the torture room we were in.

Without warning, I threw my neck forward, and vomited on the body I was just messing with.

Kuro

My eyelids opened and shut beyond my control, a slowly creeping itch absorbed the two of them. I was more than tempted to bring my paw up and rub them, but in time, it would only increase the irritation. My vision, while I was adapting slowly but surely, was still heavily blurred. Determining what I was looking at could be rather difficult if it wasn't just an icy wall in front of me. That, and the lights tracing the ceiling, those were recognizable. However, unless I really focused, I could easily mistake a rock in the icy cave for a small pokemon. While desperately trying not to slip, my vague eyesight found what looked like a clump of images on the wall, with beige coloring around the perimeter of what seemed like a giant square, the edges having sections missing, almost as if they had been torn off.

Curious, I slipped my paws along the ice, getting into a balanced position, before picking them up off of the floor below, trudging over to the glob I pictured on the wall. Once I was within inches of it, I repeatedly blinked, holding myself still and trying to focus on what I was looking at. It took a few seconds, but I managed to finally calibrate my sight to a point I could read what was placed in front of me, just what I had been searching for in here.

I mentally smiled, gazing upon what seemed to be a large map, or rather, not one large map, but many smaller ones, almost sewn together to create a larger one. Where one map ended, another one began, with completely consistent geometry. One mountainous area that may have ended on the edge of a map, was immediately continued upon, just with a different sheet of paper. There were some environments that I wasn't very familiar with though.

One was a shade of yellow and brown, and seemed like an expansive area with nothing really within it, the color never changed, and almost took up an entire map on its own. Very small dots were scattered around in the center, however, I couldn't make out what they were, or even the color. The area I was observing didn't look like anywhere I had ever been, but it was very close to a large red marking, a drawing of a circle, bright red. Surrounding this shape, were what seemed to be large blue and white jagged shapes, similar to rocks. The color contrast was odd, from the previously mentioned combination of yellow and brown, right to blue and white with no space in between. That map with the large circle, it was at the top left corner, and below that, all the way from left to right, was that light brown and yellow. That circle is so out of place from the rest of the maps, why is it even there?

After standing still and pondering for a few seconds, I came up with a comfortable theory. Is there where this place is? Inside of… whatever that is? My one working eye tried desperately to determine what exactly I was observing, until something clicked about the way each shape was drawn. Inside a cave maybe..? Or a mountain? I glanced around my surroundings once more. A cave would make a lot of sense, but if so, how did I get here? Who could have… I shook my head harshly, creating a dull ache. Stop that, I can't just think about everything I don't know, I need to look for something to analyze, and go from there. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, attempting to settle my thoughts. Once they were reopened, the working half of my vision began to run down the middle of the map, looking for something I recognized, or at the very least, found familiar.

A few of the maps only had one solid color, that would be blue. It was easy for me to guess that these were bodies of water, leaking into all of the maps that surrounded them. I hadn't realized how much land I was in the process of looking at right now, this could be miles upon miles, depending on the scale. They seemed to be a slight bit smaller than the maps we used at the Nest, but I couldn't tell if that meant they covered more area, or they just simply created maps with a different method. I had nothing for reference in order for me to figure out, so I would have to come up with some other way to discover it. It would be really nice to know the amount of land each of these went over, I would have a better idea of how much traveling I may have to do in order to get through one of them…

Tsu, the first pokemon who greeted me here, stated that it was inhabited by nomads, constantly moving around. If this is their 'base' of sorts, and they're the ones gathering all of this location intel, they must have some history with this, what I assume is a cave. It seems as if they've done an unrealistic amount of traveling, all the way out and all the way back. That is, unless they had some way to meet halfway with other nomads, in which case, it wouldn't be quite as much, but still a hefty task. They must have a lot of talent in this freezing cold cave if they've made so much progress.

My eye followed the map, slowly but surely, crossing a combination of what seemed to be mountains, followed by greenlands. Each group of trees representing a forest was illustrated on the map, though, most of the healthy areas seemed to consist of almost exclusively grass, with what looked like a few small civilizations here and there. That is, until I crossed the middle of the map, reaching the right side. Right away, I noticed the increased presence of forest-like areas. One in particular, spanned over two or three maps, the largest one by far.

…

I took a second, suddenly intrigued by this. I wasn't sure why, but I couldn't help but feel something tug at the inside of my brain, which intensified as I stared at the grouping of trees. TIme began to elapse, not accompanied by any movement on my part, I was stuck in a small trance of sorts. That's not… where I lived, is it?

The shape of the trees was way too blurry for me to solidify my thoughts, I didn't want to have any unneeded assumptions. I felt my right foreleg tremble a little, so I took a breath to stabilize myself. If that's where I lived, then the size would make sense… But not only that, close by should be…

My head slowly turned to the right, glancing up and down that side of the map at a much quicker and less careful pace as I did previously. I felt myself start to become more eager than before, wanting more than anything else to find something to grasp onto, something that would tell me where I was going. Sure enough, two maps over, one down, one right, I saw the edge of a town, its buildings made clear as day. Well, as clear as I could see anyway.

My tail slowly swayed behind me, and I felt a small smile grow on my face, feeling a light rush of excitement flow through my body. I recognized this portion of the group of maps, it was clear as day to me, this was both the forest I grew up in, and Myriad. Judging by the scale, it didn't seem that it was too far away, though, it was still quite the distance. Better than wandering blindly at least, by a long shot at that. I took a few steps back, letting my eye relax. I had to strain it a little to get a decent idea of what I was just looking at, but it was worth it for sure. Probably would have been easier with both of them, but I got it done either way.

A decent amount of thoughts began pouring throughout my brain, ranging from the terrain I would have to cross to get there, to where I would find supplies for said trip, which very well could just be scrounging up whatever I find within nature on my way through. I'm experienced with it enough to be confident in my ability to not starve to death, and not get overly dehydrated, the only real problem is my physical condition. In this state, running into an aggressive and above-average strength feral could be bad news. Although, the adrenaline of the situation may carry me through it, that's not exactly something I have any desire to rely on. It should be an emergency function, not my only way of self defense. I'm already barely being kept up by something similar, I need to focus on getting better as I go, not overdoing it to the point I can't move again.

Then again, I need to go through some areas I've never even seen before, could they be dangerous in ways other than feral contention? Perhaps some environmental hazards that I haven't thought of yet? Or maybe a civilization that holds hostile pokemon ready to attack any passersby? Maybe a stray group of travelers who see my condition and assume I'm a feral, or hostile myself? Or a different group, that may see my condition, and then try and take me in somewhere to heal when I need to move? What if I run into a Void member somewhere in the midst, and my body isn't healed enough to contend? Or worse, if I run into an admin of any kind, they would mop the floor with me even at full throttle. They may be looking for me too, since they want information and I just got away from them somehow, so there's a possibility I'll run into them. What if that happens, what do… I do… Then..?

I felt my head spin a little, prompting me to shake it, and give a long, annoyed sigh. One thing at a time Kuro… Come on… I took in a few deep breaths, draping my eyelids over both my working and non-working optical organs. I really am a nervous wreck without someone to keep me in check…

My thoughts drifted back to Naru for a second, but I shook them away. I'll see her soon enough. Her and everyone. Just… focus on getting there for now Kuro. Don't let your mind wander.

My session of calm breathing went on for a few more minutes, before I finally felt calm enough to open my eyes once more. Once I did, I turned away from the map, looking up at the roof of the cave, my vision following the same trail of lights. If I follow these, then I'll reach the exit. I know where I am now, and I know where I need to go. A straight shot Southeast form here. I just need to do it.

Without a moment of hesitation, I took a single step towards the trail once more, before bumping into something in front of me. The unexpected impact made me backpedal a bit, and observe what I could have walked into. Much to my confusion, there wasn't anything in front of me, at least, nothing my half-functional eyesight could see. I shook my skull around a little, and re-focused my vision, only for nothing to be seen. I'm still going crazy, aren't I..?

With an abrupt sigh, I began walking forward again, only to bump into the same invisible mass just like before. This time, I didn't stumble as much, but I still had to take a second and observe. Maybe I'm not insane..? At least, not completely insane.

I slowly reached out with one of my forepaws, watching as it glided through the air effortlessly, not coming into contact with any resistance. I waved it back and forth rapidly, then trying to go slower, still nothing. I put my right forepaw down and tried tracing my exact motions with my left, not any sign of stopping my movement at all. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked like a lunatic while attempting this, and I would be even less surprised if my face did not look very impressed. Maybe… I need more rest? As physically tired as I am, it seems like my head needs a break too…

"Maybe I should go find Tsu and ask her if this is a side-effect..? Or someone else?" I asked aloud, tilting my head a little, causing one of my ears to droop. Then again, am I just being overzealous? I mean, I was pretty close to death not very long ago, and here I am, walking around with nothing but the equivalent of a shot of adrenaline keeping me up. I'm eager to get back to everyone… But maybe a little too eager…

"HEY!"

A very loud voice pierced through me, and I lost my balance, falling onto my side, re-intensifying the previous burning sensation I had. I let out a hiss, and grit my teeth on the ground. Dear Arceus why… My eyes were shut tightly, a reflex from the sudden increase in a pain I thought had subsided for the most part. I was told to be careful… This is what I get for not adhering enough…

I took a moment to regain my composure, before another thought came to mind, probably the one that should have been immediate. Who exactly just screamed at me..?

I slowly lifted my eyelids, and brought back my still distorted vision to my environment. I expected something different than before, but just like last time, nothing. Nothing at all.

Before I went on a mental tangent to myself to stop being so paranoid, my eye caught a glimpse of a blurry shape in the air before me. Gray, almost like a cloud, an indecipherable shape that seemed to be moving at a slow pace and slowly transforming. I keenly stared at it, curious. Once ten or so seconds had passed, the cloud began to form into a shape of some kind, one that wasn't just a natural polygon. A spherical, light blue blob began to form, with a very small spike atop its odd physique. That's… a pokemon, right?

I rattled my head and pushed off of the ground, an ache pulsing through my limbs, one that I was largely able to ignore. The real challenge was pretending like I didn't feel as if I had just been lit on fire. I turned my eye to the shape once more, this time looking much more stable, light blue, a round, spherical head with a small spike eroding from the top. The bottom half of it, very thin at the neck, the lower parts of its body expanding outward. A shuppet I think, I didn't want to put full faith in my one eye quite yet.

I coughed a few times after standing, before clearing my throat.

"S-Sorry for scaring you!" Much to my surprise, I wasn't the first to talk. The pokemon I took as a shuppet floated down to the ground, and put its head down. "I have a hard time remembering when I'm invisible and when I can be seen, I thought you could see me and you just ignored me, sorry about that… heh…" Their voice sounded like a young male, very young, I would say a child. "I-I wanted to talk to you…"

Confusion was likely the best immediate word to describe all of my emotions at the given moment. "Talk to me..?" I replied to their apologetic tone with that of curiosity. "What do you-" I coughed. "What do you want to talk to me a-about?" I continued, my voice still not in the greatest shape. I still sounded my more raspy than ever before, though, it wasn't quite as severe as it was when I first awakened.

The shuppet rose his head and floated upwards, above me now. "I need to introduce myself first, I'm Ethos! An explorer!" He gave a toothy smile with an energetic tone. "Again, um… sorry for scaring you, but you're really interesting, and I wanna learn more about you!"

I was taken aback by the sudden rush from this pokemon, but I attempted to react accordingly. "Interesting? What exactly do you mean?" My confusion warped to intrigue quite quickly. "Also, my name is Kuro, nice to m-meet you Ethos." I bowed my head.

"I like your name!" Ethos flew around me in a quick circle, before settling in the air right in front of me, exactly where he was settling before. "And you say that like you aren't some weird… something! You came out of nowhere all glowy and pink and stuff! And then you just collapsed!" Ethos eagerly spoke, obviously having trouble holding still. Wait, What..? "I found you by the entrance, and then the others came and brought you to safety! And they said they would fix you!"

It was hard to keep up with how quickly Ethos spoke, and further, how he was talking about something I was clueless about. "Hold on a s-second here…" I cleared my throat, ignoring the intense heat. "What did I look like when you saw me here? I was… glowing?" As soon as I asked that question, Ethos' eyes lit up, and I had a brief flashback of another piece of information passed down to me earlier. The child who found me apparently has a very overactive imagination, I had to consider that when listening to whatever Ethos might tell me.

"Okay okay," Ethos took in a deep breath. "So I heard some weird noises while messing around, and they sounded like they were coming from the entrance to our home, so I flew over there as fast as I could! Once I made it, I felt really… weird. Like I started to get scared of something, but I wasn't sure what exactly was scaring me." In an over exaggerated fashion, Ethos flew down to the ground and tucked his head against it, before shooting right back up. "But I faced whatever fear I had! Just like always! I kept on going, until right by the entrance, I saw something, it stuck out in my eyes, because it was a light, and it bounced off of all the floors and walls, it was amazing!" Was he really the only one who found me..? Not that I have any reason to doubt him so far, that is, other than the comment about him earlier…

"I slowly and carefully shifted my vision, until laying my eyes upon…" Ethos paused, and his reflection on the icy walls turned to shadow, before sinking into the ground, jetting towards me. Instinct kicked in and I flinched, but the shadow stopped a foot away. "You! But you didn't look like this! I mean, you had all the burns and bruises and stuff still, but you didn't look like that!" Thank you for pointing out my obvious injuries… "You were all… glowy and stuff! The circles on your body weren't circles! They were stars!" Pardon…?

Here's where my skepticism began to show itself. Parts of one's body don't just spontaneously shift and change, especially not a part that may as well have been a branding that I didn't ask for. There's no way that they could change, it wasn't possible. Nothing that my dad went on about even mentioned the changing of a pokemon's shape or properties aside from evolution, and I'm fairly certain I didn't temporarily evolve.

"The stars you had weren't glowing that color either." Ethos flew really close to me, ever so slightly invading my personal space to the point of me resisting the urge to take a step back. "They had a pink shine instead! That's the color that was reflecting off of all the walls, so it had to have come from you! That's the only possibility!" Ethos seemed to have nothing but an ever increasing giddiness in his voice. "There's something cool about you! Where did you even come from? How did you get here? And… why are you here?" He flew around in quick circles with an excited smile. For some reason… He kind of reminds me of Shine.

I gave the situation some thought, and figured that I may as well answer, though, I wasn't ready to accept everything he said as truth. "I came from somewhere… I don't actually k-know. I know what the place was, but I don't know where it is." Perhaps that can be something to think about. "I have literally no clue how I got here, as far as I knew, I was stuck in a loop I had no chance of escaping from. And I'm here because… I just ended up here. I don't think I had much of a choice in the matter." I don't think…

"So cool!" Ethos had sparkles in his eyes, slightly intimidating me for reasons outside of fear. "You don't even know how you got here, or where exactly you came from. You're covered in injuries, and you don't know why you're here… I want to figure this out!" Good luck with that…

"Is it okay if I ask you a question or two?" I suggested, hopefully taking away a little bit of Ethos' enthusiasm. It was sort of hard to handle, even if it was far from what I would call a negative trait.

"Yes yes! Please! I want to know what you want to know!" Ethos said, hardly able to coherently talk with his speed. I took a step back and sat down, wanting to rest my body a little if the two of us were going to talk.

"I was t-told that the pokemon that live here are nomads, does that mean you're one too?" Ethos nodded his head quickly and happily.

"Yup yup! Just like everyone else! But they've told me that I'm more passionate than all of them out together!" That's not too hard to believe. "Everyone here just does their own thing, but we have to leave in a small group, otherwise, it's too dangerous to travel around so much. We always stick together and if there's ever an unexpected situation, then stay close to your leader and devise a plan!" He sounds like he's reciting a manuel, maybe that's what was taught for him to be eligible to go out with the rest.

"You go out there to explore too, right?" I questioned, wondering how practical it was for nomads to take someone so young out exploring with them. Then again, I've seen stranger things.

"Yep yep! I always do! I've been on almost as many journeys as the person who created this little cove for us all!" Ethos finally seemed to settle down and rest himself on the ground in front of me. "His name is Noland, and he went away a little while ago, but hasn't come back yet. BUt he taught me a lot about being safe and fighting feral and mean pokemon! He's really cool to talk to!" Noland, they have a leader. I wonder where he could be?

"Did your leader leave by himself?" I curiously asked, getting a little bit off topic, but I figured that gathering a bit more information couldn't hurt.

"Nope, he had a group with him! I'm not sure where they were headed though, somewhere to fill out more of the big map, we want to cover the world one day!" Cover the world… that's a lot of traveling. I looked at Ethos inquisitively. He has so much passion for his age, it's a nice contrast to whatever I spent the last… who knows how long listening to. Nothing but laugher and… other things… I shivered.

"D-Do you know your way around this place? It seems pretty large, based on the walking I've done so far." I glanced around, from the wall map to the stalactites.

"Like the back of my paw! Except for one area. There's a really dark part of the cave that nobody has gone deeper into yet, because we aren't sure what's there, and we haven't been able to get everyone together so we can explore it safely. Other than that, I can fly around with my eyes closed and be perfectly okay!" I don't think I need to meddle with that situation too much. "I think you would like it here, you should stay a while! We can be friends!" Ethos put on a blinding smile. I wish I could stick around and be your friend.

"I sort of… have somewhere I need to be, and I might know how to get there, so I don't see myself staying long." I confessed. "I'm not sure how healthy I need to be to make it all the way to my destination, so I might give it some time, but not much at all. Maybe enough so I can confidently walk without this… whatever thing that was given to me." I glanced back at Ethos, and his expression dampened a little, but still had a positive vibe.

"I understand! You probably have friends somewhere to go to, right?" He tilted his head and flew right up to me. "You should go see them! Friends always want to be near each other! Even when they're far away sometimes!"

I paused for a moment. This… Is a child speaking to me. Inspiration could come from the strangest places, can't it?

I let a small smile grow on my face. "You're right, so that's why I'm going to try and go see them again as soon as I can. Hopefully that's not t-too long."

"Good idea! You should tell them about me! Maybe, when I'm exploring, I'll see you!" Ethos' original tone had returned, nothing but glee present. As to not shoot his mood now, I gave him a nod. I suppose… it's not impossible. I just hope doesn't look threatening to the Nest…

My mind re-calibrated to what my goal was before, figure out how much I need to recover before I go. Maybe I can exercise a bit, explore the outside of this area before I make a break for Myriad, that'll warm my muscles up.

As soon as I went back to a standing position, the burning in my back greatly intensified, and I was pushed forward, unable to see the cause.

Hello Readers! (Finally)

It's nice to be able to finally get a full chapter out again, it really is! I apologize for the break, things happened, many things that have left me in a very confusing state of emotions, however, I am stable enough to start pumping out content again! Even though I also just started my first semester in College, so uhm… I'll be more busy, but at least I can get myself to write now!

Some people know what happened, other don't, and that's fine by me. If you're curious, go ahead and ask, but don't expect the topic to last long, and expect a version of that is very blunt. :p But that's besides the point, no need to focus on what's happened recently, only on this chapter, which I'm happy to finally get out!

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through my breaks and whatnot, hopefully you're still with me here. :p I don't plan to give up on this story, not at all! There are many bumps in the road, but I'll still make it to the end! I swear! Just give it time! I love all of you people!

See You Next Chapter!