Perception of reality came back in small increments.
The man, clad in battered, scarred armor tried pushing himself to his knees, suppressing a whine of pain as a he realized the reason for his awakening. Something had been poking him in the side, the side that housed a broken rib.
Slowly looking to his side, he sees a girl in rags. Very young.
Since when was he back in the Hamlet?
"Hey, kid." Konstantin coughed, slowly reaching a hand out.
The child flinched before coming closer, grabbing his hand. And of course, he could take in her appearance then.
At least age 6 or 7, a bit too thin, and most surprisingly, scraggly hair as green as a leaf and wide bright blue eyes.
"Hey, hey now. I'm not going to hurt you..." He said, suppressing a pained groan as he got to his feet, holding his injured side and keeping his voice soothing. Well, as soothing as his gruff, harsh tones could be.
"Too thin, too thin." He mutters to himself, taking her appearance in, looking around and realizing how grey and dead everything was.
The girl tilted her head, humming. She looked confused by him now, actually walking around him now and seeming to be comparing him to herself.
Then she grunted, nodding and looking happy… for some reason.
"Hey, Kid. You know where I can find a safe place to rest?" Konstantin asked.
Idly, he wondered if this odd, new place was some strange offshoot of the Comet's reach. But instead of colors that were maddeningly incomprehensible, there was no color. None at all.
He didn't like how quiet everything was.
She just grunted at him, but grabbing his hand again and started leading him… somewhere. Without the color, almost everything bleed together. It was obvious that they were in some sort of forest but it was like none that Konstantin had never seen in all his life.
She froze up and dragged him behind a tree when the sound of in-human cackling was heard. The girl just gave off a quiet but frustrated grunt.
And out from the trees came a short, almost humanoid looking thing, purple with eyes made with crystals. A grin adorned it's face, revealing all the sharp teeth inside.
There were a lot of things to infer right then.
First, that the girl knew to hide from whatever this thing was.
Second, that he was definitely somewhere new, considering he'd never seen anything like it before.
There was a click, as with practiced ease, he drew his Blunderbuss and cocked back the hammer, ignoring his wounds, for now, though a limp was still quite obvious.
The girl hissed, grabbing him and putting a finger to her lips in a shushing motion.
He froze, in return, looking down at her.
For whatever reason, he felt trusting of her, at least for now, and so slowly lowered his gun.
He still kept a hand on his knife, ready to draw, however, should they be spotted.
"Kek." The purple thing looked around and wandered away.
For a few tense moments, the girl kept holding his arm, listening to the sounds of the dead realm.
Then, she started moving again, faster this time.
"Hurm." Konstantin hummed, closely following the girl.
It was all so... Unnatural. What could have done this?
He wondered if he could kill whatever had done this.
It worked with the Sleeper and the Heart of Darkness, after all.
Soon, the girl stopped at a group of stones shaped into a rough pyramid. She held up her hand, a bracelet unnoticed before glowing pink.
This was... Strange. And getting stranger.
Honestly, he was starting to repeat himself.
He hoped he would get answers soon.
Letting a small groan escape his lips, he shifted so he could ease a bit of the pressure on his broken bones.
"Ah!" And then she suddenly dragged him into a weird haze in the air… and they ended up a different location, where there was a slight color to the trees but it was barely noticeable.
Especially compared to the huts with a few strange animals… all of them staring directly at Konstantin.
"...Hi." He stated to them tonelessly, leaning to one side as he tried not to exacerbate his wound.
Well, wouldn't do to not be polite, would it?
And then the mummering began, as the girl started dragging him towards the center of the tiny village, to a larger hut with a blanket hanging in the doorway.
As the child led him, It was with little surprise that he realized he could recognize how intelligent these... Colorful beings were.
After all, he'd seen, and *killed*, much stranger things.
The girl pushed aside the blanket, humming in a loud, excited manner.
The inside of the hut wasn't anything special. No decorations, some pink, glowing crystals, a hole in the back, and hay scattered about on the floor.
And in the middle was a pink, pixie like thing and a little green lizard.
"Treecko!" Said lizard rushed over, pulling the girl away from Konstantin, hands glowing green like he's ready to fight.
"Hello to you too, greenie." Konstantin huffs.
He reaches forward, before flicking the aforementioned green lizard on the snout.
"You're not even in the top fifty of the scariest things I've fought. Quit trying."
He seemed more amused, than anything.
Before the lizard could retaliate, the pink pixie floated forward, making a sound like soft bells. "Bii, celebi."
The girl also whined, apparently agreeing with the pink pixie.
The lizard just huffed but stayed between the girl and Konstantin.
The pixie shook her head before floating right up to the battered human's head and placing a tiny hand on his forehead. "Sorry about Treecko. He's a bit wound up since someone-" The girl made another whining noise. "-snuck out of the sanctuary."
He froze. That voice... But where...?
"How are you-?"
"Talking to you? It's easy. I'm an ancient psychic pokemon." The voice explained, the pixie giggling. "I am Celebi and I'm pretty sure you have more than a few questions about where you are."
"I would appreciate answers, yes."
He takes a step forward, then something cracks, and he falls to his knees, coughing as he feels his ribs only get worse.
"Some medicine... Would be... Appreciated as well." He heaves.
"Ah, Just lay down. I'll have Mia go fetch Blissey. Just sleep for now."
He agrees, silently. Thinking he could use the rest.
As such, the former brigand lied down on some hay, laying his weapons to his side, in easy reach.
And with that, he closed his eyes, hearing Treecko and the girl talking with Celebi as his consciousness drifted away.
AN: Yeah, we're doing a bit of backstory and a little bit of expansion on the dark future stuff. Also, you guys might not know where this tiny village is or how it's being hidden but feel free to speculate.
zaravan
Hooray, another chapter!