Uh-oh! Blake and Sylvia have found themselves prisoners of these strange creatures! What awaits them at their destination? And at this rate, will they ever make it back alive?

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile!

The votes for the Elimination Round have begun to pick up, that's pretty good! Hope we can start getting them to role in! I've been very surprised by the results of this poll so far, some people are leading that I never would have expected, and some people are trailing behind who I thought would be frontrunners. Just goes to show how much things have changed since last year!

Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Darla, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Lila, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

KedharS: Definitely interesting, that's for sure.

JoshGamerV: Valerie wouldn't have been much older than Blake was back then, Blake clearly saw what looked like an adult. Unless his memories are twisted…

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 633

Blake had found his journey as a prisoner to be surprisingly relaxing. Even though he had a very chilling idea of what would happen when they arrived at their destination, he had reached the point where he understood there was nothing much to be done about it. It was almost soothing to be dragged along through the sand, not having to do anything. He couldn't fall asleep, but he closed his eyes and thought about Aya and his friends back home, and by the time they arrived he was doing much better in terms of his mental load.

Because of the way they were being dragged through the sand, neither Blake nor Sylvia was able to see what their destination looked like when they finally arrived at it. They were released, and two of the taller creatures helped them to their feet, allowing them to finally get a good look at what they had been traveling towards.

If Blake could have rubbed his eyes he would have, but he settled for blinking a few times to make sure he was really seeing clearly and he hadn't gotten sand in his eye or something.

No, it was really there. He wasn't crazy.

For the first time since he'd arrived at this hellscape, Blake saw something that wasn't just endless desert. It was a strange village, made of large silver tarp tents. From a distance, no one would have even been able to tell the difference between the village and the rolling hills of the desert. Just the sight of all these tents was astounding.

But even more astounding was the sight that lay beyond the rows of tents. That was what really took his breath away.

"So it looks like our theory about this being all desert was wrong," Sylvia mused, curiosity dripping into her voice in spite of the solemn circumstances. It was easy to see why. All of her theories about this bizarre place had been blown away by what they saw before them.

Standing at the edge of the village was a forest that stretched as far as the eyes could see on either side. Sylvia traced the treeline off into the horizon. The trees were all leafless and dead, their wood stark white, their twisted branches stretching up towards the black sky and towering over them, casting long shadows deeper into the forest; the forest floor was sandy, but the shadows formed a curtain of darkness that obscured the depths from view.

"Is that a forest?" Blake asked, as stunned as Sylvia was. But unlike Sylvia, his brain was no longer working properly. He had been so blown away by the sight of the village and the forest that he didn't even register the feeling of uneasiness he felt emanating from it for a few seconds. He didn't know why, but he knew he didn't want to get anywhere close to that place.

Blake's forehead began throbbing with pain and his heart stung. He had a horrible feeling like he was being watched, like there was something… there in that darkness, staring out at them, waiting for them to approach.

Blake felt the urge to throw up.

"The Forest of the Doomed…"

Sylvia and Blake glanced down at another child, a little girl. She glanced back up at them, her golden eyes shining as a smile curled across her lips. "You go, too?"

Blake opened his mouth to respond but Sylvia cut him off.

"What's so special about that forest, sweetie?" Sylvia cooed. The girl blinked like she didn't understand what Sylvia was saying.

"Swee… tie?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Blake opened his mouth to explain, but a glance from Sylvia told him to keep his mouth shut. He understood why. Now that they were standing… no one was holding them down. Their captors were all heading to their tents, or standing around talking to each other in hushed voices. The only one paying them any attention was the little girl.

Just as the two of them were thinking about making a break for it, they were stopped by a loud voice interrupting them.

"Humans!" The call shook the two of them, Blake and Sylvia freezing in place and turning their heads back to see who it was. A sea of golden eyes stared back at them. The woman from before, the one who gave the ribbon back to Blake, was standing among the crowd, a harsh glare on her stern face.

Blake gulped. Sylvia was a little more tranquil with her apprehension, but she was still growing a little worried herself, even if she was managing to keep her calm in the moment. It helped that unlike Blake, she wasn't feeling a sense of unease from that creepy forest. She was too busy putting her mind towards figuring out the situation they were in.

Clearly, whatever these things were, they were smart enough to not only speak their language, but form what looked like the rudimentary basics of a society in this twisted place. They weren't just mindless creatures.

That meant it should be possible to reason with them, right?

"My name is Sylvia Driscoll," Sylvia declared. She nodded her head towards Blake. "He's Blake Harker. We're not just 'humans'."

The golden-eyed woman said nothing, staring calmly at the two of them. If she was trying to look intimidating, then she was succeeding. But Sylvia wasn't bothered. A thin smile spread across her face. At least that meant she was listening.

"So it seems like you guys can listen," Sylvia mused. "So, I'm just dying to know, what are you guys, anyway? Because there's no way you guys are human. So if we're going to be eaten here, might as well tell us a few things, right? See, he and I, we aren't exactly from around these parts, if you catch my drift. See, the two of us-"

"You were brought here by clutching shadows that dragged you into our realm after reading from a stone tablet, right?" The woman replied. Sylvia blinked, a little taken aback. But she recovered remarkably quickly.

"I see, so we aren't the first humans you lot have come across, huh?" Sylvia asked. "You had to get that information from someone, after all."

Sylvia scanned the village while she spoke, but all she saw were golden eyes and curly black hair. "So I wonder, why is it that I don't see any humans around here, then? Just you and your lovely little sharp-tooth selves."

The woman stepped forward, keeping her eyes trained on Sylvia, and flipped her hood back. This close, Blake recognized another detail he'd missed. The children's ears were rounded, but the ears of the taller ones were sharp at the tips, like elves.

"Gone now," the woman coldly replied.

"The way you phrased that, it sounds like you guys didn't kill them," Sylvia mused. "Interesting… though, I don't suppose you could, now could you? Considering the way this world seems to work, we can't die, after all. But somehow, I don't think that 'gone' means they went back to earth, either."

The woman tilted her head to the side, staring quizzically at Sylvia. "Die? What is die? I've heard many of your kind use that word."

Sylvia raised her eyebrow. So they didn't have a concept of death? How did one go about explaining death to an immortal? "When they aren't around anymore," she tried. "They've sustained bad enough injuries or gotten so sick that their body just isn't willing to move anymore."

"Oh!" The woman gasped. "You mean the Sleep."

Blake and Sylvia glanced at each other.

"…I mean, I guess it's like sleeping, sure, only unlike when you go to sleep, you don't wake up," she replied.

This elicited another quizzical expression. "What is 'wake up'?"

Sylvia really hated having to explain things to stupid people, and these were definitely among the most stupid she'd encountered. She resisted the urge to scream, putting a professional smile on her face instead while she tried to explain.

"Waking up is when someone who is sleeping stops being asleep," Sylvia explained.

"Liar!" One of the smaller figures, the little boy from earlier, shouted. "When someone sleeps, they never stop sleeping! She's spitting on the words of the Traveler!"

"Sylvia, I think what they call 'Sleep' is their version of death," Blake whispered. "Remember, you can't actually sleep here, after all."

"Yeah, figuring that out, thanks," Sylvia whispered back. "Although I'm much more curious about this 'Traveler' that boy just mentioned."

Sylvia turned back to the woman. "Now then, miss… um… excuse me, you know our names, but we don't know yours. What should I call you?"

The woman blinked, looking a little confused. She turned to the other golden-eyed people, who were also confused. She whispered with a few of them and then turned back to Sylvia, holding a hand over her chest. "I am Valdette." She gestured to the boy. "They are Valetty."

Sylvia raised her eyebrow. Why had this woman said "they" just now when referring to that child? "So… your name is Valdette?"

"You said that before, what is 'name'?" The woman asked. "Many humans say it."

"…A name is how you refer to yourself," Sylvia said. "You know, what other people call you. Your name is Valdette, right?"

The woman nodded, and pointed to herself. "My name is Valdette," she said.

"Yes, exactly," Sylvia nodded back. The woman pointed to her, next.

"Your name is Human."

"…Wait, no, that's wrong. So… you think that name means species? Well, that would mean that your species is called 'Valdette' then…" Sylvia nodded her head at another one of the tall ones, a man. "What's he called?"

The woman blinked, gesturing to her compatriot. When Sylvia nodded in confirmation, the woman replied "he is Valdette."

"Okay, so I was right, they're mistaking their names for their species," Sylvia said thoughtfully. "Okay then, that means they don't have names? That must be confusing. Hey, how do you refer to each other if you don't have names?"

"You ask many odd questions for a human," the woman identifying herself as a Valdette said, narrowing her eyes.

"I'm an odd sort of girl, ask anyone," Sylvia wryly replied, smirking at her pale captor. "You know, if you don't tell me your name I'm gonna have to make one up myself."

The woman didn't respond to that.

"Fine then, Dommy-Mommy, mind telling me a little bit more about this Traveler?" Sylvia asked, narrowing her eyes.

The creatures gasped and began whispering among each other. The Valdette woman glared at Sylvia angrily, storming towards her.

"You do not speak of the Traveler, human. To speak of the great one when not in her presence is to blaspheme," she growled.

"So you do have emotions, that'll make this easy," Sylvia cracked a smile. "Hey! Call out this Traveler of yours! I'd like to have a heart-to-heart! Assuming you black bloods are actually talking about someone who's real, of course."

The woman's face darkened.

"The Traveler… is gone," she replied.

"Ohoho, 'gone' huh?" Sylvia mused. "Gone where? …Well, traveling, I suppose. When's she coming back? I've got nothing but time on my hands after all, so… unless…"

Sylvia smirked.

"Unless she's gone to the same place the humans went."

"NO," the Valdette growled. The tone of her voice implied that the conversation was over. Sylvia considered saying more, but she held her tongue. No point in pissing them off.

…Then again, there was no point in not pissing them off, either.

"She didn't enter the Sleep did she? That'd be a tragedy," Sylvia cackled. "Of course-"

"Sylvia will you shut up?!" Blake hissed, seeing how angry the woman was getting. "Why the hell are you trying to make them more upset with us?"

"Oh, Blake, lighten up," Sylvia scoffed. "Do you really think that me being polite right now is going to help us any? You heard what they said, right? 'Feed'? We're getting eaten either way, might as well see what we can get out of it first. Since we're already at zero, maybe we can find out something we can use to bargain for freedom."

Blake wasn't sure if that was going to work, but he didn't have it in him to argue with Sylvia. Sylvia herself just stared arrogantly at the seething Valdette.

"So, what do you think, Dommy-Mommy, if you're that angry might as well just get it over with and eat us, right?" Sylvia smirked.

The woman blinked, anger leaving her face and being quickly replaced with confusion. She turned to look at the crowd behind her, who also looked rather confused by what Sylvia had just said. Murmurs spread out through the crowd.

The woman Sylvia had dubbed 'Dommy-Mommy' turned back to Sylvia, still looking unsure about the meaning of the blonde's words.

"Why would we… eat you?" She asked, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

Now it was Blake and Sylvia's turn to not know what the heck was going on.

A few minutes later, the two of them had been cut free from their bonds and were taken into one of the tents, which appeared to be empty.

"You must take time to rest," the woman declared. "Then we shall call you for Feed."

With that, she closed the tent flap, leaving Sylvia and Blake alone in the dark tent.

"So, here we are, sitting in the darkness," Sylvia said, grabbing a handful of sand and flinging it at the side of the tent, the cloth rippling. "Well, I must say I'm thoroughly confused, and I'm loving every minute of it. Or at least, I would be, if you weren't here."

"At least they aren't eating us," Blake said, feeling the strength leaving his body now that he knew he didn't have to be so tense and on edge.

"Yet," Sylvia helpfully contributed. "They aren't eating us yet."

Blake turned a glare in her general direction, neither one able to see the other in the darkness of the tent.

"So what's your theory on this one?" Blake asked. "I know you must have some speculation on what exactly these things are. And why they haven't eaten us."

"I have a few working ideas," Sylvia admitted. "Though I must say, this puzzle is quite a delightful one indeed!"

Blake could practically hear the smile stretch across her face.

"They're not planning to eat us, so what do they mean by 'Feed'?" Blake wondered. "And also, they've mentioned that they've run into humans before, but like you said, I don't see any of them around. And apparently they're all 'gone' too? What's THAT mean?"

"Those are all good questions, Blake, I can see you're making quite a bit of progress in terms of brainpower," Sylvia agreed. Blake shot her another unseeable dirty look. "But there's one question in particular that you haven't thought to ask yet. And it's actually the one that's been keeping my brain occupied for the last little while."

Blake was curious. "What question is that?" He asked.

"Why do they use the word 'sleep' when referring to death?" Sylvia asked. "Other words, sure, maybe they got them from other humans that have passed through this place, I'll believe that. Odd as it might be for them to understand us, enough contact with humans might have been enough. But a whole other meaning to a word? That I find a little harder to believe, if you ask me. No, there's gotta be some reason that 'sleep' is different for them, and that's gonna be a real problem."

"What?" Blake asked, confused. "Why?"

"Because that means that there's something that can happen to us," Sylvia replied, sounding a little bit worried. "We aren't immortal. Well, we are, but we can't be reckless about it. For all we know, 'sleep' could mean a very deep hole in the ground that we get pushed into and can never climb back out of, and we just stay down there forever, slowly going crazy."

Well THAT was a pleasant mental image.

"Sylvia!" Blake growled.

"What? It's just a thought," Sylvia complained. She decided not to let him in on the other interesting thought that had raised in her mind after the conversation with the Valdette. Why would a species that lived in this place where there was no need for food or drink know words for 'feed' and 'eat'? It made no sense. Which meant they had to mean something else.

"Think better thoughts," Blake pleaded. "Maybe they really are nice people, maybe we just got off on the wrong foot!"

"Blake, this is because she gave you that ribbon back, isn't it?" Sylvia groaned. "And I suppose you forgot how that kid charged at you in the desert?"

Blake knew she had a point, but still. He wanted to believe, at least, that these were good people, even though the evidence wasn't really bearing it out.

"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," Sylvia said, and he heard the sound of her flumping back into the sand. "They took my backpack, so there's not really anything we can use to fight our way out with. And even if we just tried to escape, there's probably a guard out there. So the only thing left to do is wait and see what happens."

Blake was stunned. Sylvia wanted to just wait? That didn't sound like her at all. She was always doing something. But he couldn't really find the words to argue with her. In the end, that's what they did. They waited in the darkness. When was the last time Blake had been in the dark? Back on earth? It was an oddly comforting sensation.

One that was destroyed when the tent flap was flung open and the strange daylight from beyond the tent flooded inside. The woman stood at the entrance, and the way her face was silhouetted by the sky while her golden eyes glowed sent a chilling sensation down Blake's spine. It was a familiar memory pushing at the edge of his thoughts.

"Come," the woman calmly ordered. "Feeding time." She stepped out of the tent, and Blake could see she was no longer wearing her cloak. Just a black tunic that showed off her pale skin.

Blake and Sylvia glanced at each other, both agreeing that running and fighting wouldn't get them anywhere. The woman led them out of the tent, where they saw, to their surprise, more Valdettes and Valetties were gathered at the sides, forming a tunnel of people for them to walk through. Many more than had captured them in the horde, and all of them were looking their way with expressions of confusion and awe.

"Humans!" One Valdette whispered, while a Valetty reached out to sneak a grab of Sylvia's ass. She slapped his hand away and he cried, not understanding why. The dark-haired people began to chant, more reaching out to brush their hands against the humans.

"Feed. Feed. Feed." The chanting of the crowd was growing louder and more fervent, and Blake was starting to wonder if maybe they would be eaten after all. The look in the eyes of these people was a look of hunger.

They were led to through the crowd to the largest of the tents, bigger than an actual house, standing in the center of the makeshift village.

"Time," the woman declared, and by this point it was clear that she was some figure of authority. She gestured to the tent, and two Valdettes at either side pulled the flaps open. She gestured for Sylvia and Blake to enter. "Feed," she urgently insisted.

Blake and Sylvia glanced at each other. There was no going back if they stepped inside. But then, there was nowhere to go, either. They couldn't exactly run.

"I'll keep you safe," Sylvia whispered to Blake. "No matter what."

With that hollow assurance, Blake followed Sylvia into the tent.

What he saw was surprising. Sitting atop the sand were several large stones, the first natural things he'd seen other than the sand and the forest. They were arranged in a wide ring that took up nearly the entirety of the tent.

And what was in the center of that circle? An altar of stone with a massive basin in the center, standing right before a large grey rock jutting out of the sand. The rock loomed over them in an intimidating manner even though it was barely larger than the tent they'd just stepped out of. And in the center of that pointed rock was a small hole cut in the side just big enough for a person to squeeze through. It led down deep into the ground, sand slowly trickling in down the slope.

"Ah," Sylvia said, nudging Blake in the side. "Very deep hole in the ground."

This time Sylvia saw the dirty look Blake flashed at her.

So, things have only gotten more confusing since they made it to this place! But what does "Feed" mean, or in this case, what are they "eating"? Will Blake and Sylvia be okay? What could these odd creatures want from them?