Sylvia and Blake now head to the cavern, that strange rock cave. But will their Valdette friend be pleased with that? Or have they made a problematic enemy? Hopefully everything will be okay and they won't make her too upset by going against her wishes! We'll have to find out!

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

Venoms Cross 2: Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to display more of them.

Pokemonking0924: Well, we'll have to see, won't we? Interesting guess on the types.

KedharS: Everyone here? Well, Blake is probably Neutral-Good, and Sylvia is Chaotic-Chaotic.

Rowlets and Oshawotts: I'm glad it's starting to turn around.

JoshGamerV: We'll have to find out.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 637

"You can't go into the Sacred Cavern!" The Valdette insisted, stomping her bare foot into the sand. "You can't! It's not allowed!"

Sylvia licked her lips. "When I hear something isn't allowed, that just makes me want to do it even more. Heck, that's probably why those other humans went into that forest, even though you warned them not to. Human nature, see. Tell us not to do something, and we just can't help ourselves!" A wicked smirk spread across Sylvia's lips.

Blake already knew where this was going to go. He slapped his palm against his face and shook his head in disbelief.

"So, are we going to the forest, or to this… 'Sacred Cavern'?" Sylvia purred, relishing in the way the Valdette seemed to sweat. She fidgeted around and averted her eyes, and Sylvia could see that she would give in any moment now.

Blake felt bad for the girl. She almost looked like she was going to cry. He felt kindly towards her, her worry was apparent. The fact that she was so concerned about them made Blake feel kind of warm and fuzzy; his memories of his friends notwithstanding, it was the best that he'd felt for a very long time, since coming to this world.

"But… but! If… If I take you to the Sacred Cavern, then…" Now she definitely looked like she was about to cry. She sniffled a little. "Then you'll want to go to the forest!" She blurted out, and then quickly covered her mouth with her hands, gasping in shock. "I… I mean… I didn't say anything, nothing at all! Please don't go to either!"

Even though she looked like she was their age, if not a few years older, the Valdette clearly still had a childish mindset, Blake noted. He realized that, living in the sort of communal society that this appeared to be, the Valetty and Valdette probably didn't have much need for anything resembling guile. They really were like pokemon.

Sylvia certainly must have picked up on this as well, and took steps to lighten her tone, acting gently towards the strange pokemon.

"Hey, look, sorry," Sylvia said. "But… can you tell me something?"

"Wh-what?" The Valdette asked cautiously.

"What would you have us do?" Sylvia gently asked her. "You said you don't want us to go to the forest, and now you don't want us to go into the cave, either. And neither Blake nor I want to go wandering in that desert forever, I can tell you that for sure. So if it was up to you, what would you want the two of us to do?"

The Valdette switched her gaze between the two of them, her golden eyes shining hopefully. "Is… is it… not possible for the two of you to just stay here?"

Blake had seen older girls look adorable many times. Dating Aya made that a matter of course. But still, it was odd to see the way this Valdette looked at the two of them. It was very difficult to tell her that they in no way wanted to stay here.

Hard for him, anyway.

"We can't stay here," Sylvia coldly stated, crushing the Valdette's hopeful look. She practically crumpled, deflating as she heard Sylvia's words. "Blake has someone he loves waiting for him back on earth, he can't stay here."

"…So you want to go back," the Valdette muttered, looking at the two of them like she'd been betrayed. "Back to your world."

"Of course we do," Sylvia said matter-of-factly. "It's our home, after all. And as interesting as this world might be, I'm the kind of gal who needs her bacon double-cheeseburgers with squid ink and celery or I'm not going to make it."

The Valdette didn't know what most of those words meant, but she could still see that there was no hope in keeping Sylvia. So when she turned her hopeful eyes upon Blake, he couldn't help but look away.

"I'm sorry, but… I have to go," Blake said. That extinguished the rest of the light in the Valdette's golden eyes.

"…So you're just like the rest of them," she bitterly replied. "You're going to leave and go to the forest, too."

Blake's eyes widened in surprise. Wait… what?

"The forest?" Sylvia sharply replied. "What do you mean by the forest? What does that have to do with it? What's in the forest?"

The Valdette let out a long sigh.

"I guess it doesn't matter," she replied, no longer the same ball of energy that she was before. "Since you guys aren't staying around anyway, I might as well show you."

Blake felt bad, hearing how defeated and resigned she sounded. He didn't expect that the Valdette would be so attached to the two of them.

A twinge went through his chest.

Was… was he…

Was he having regrets?

No. No way. There was NO WAY he was actually feeling bad about the fact that he had to LEAVE this place, right?

Blake shook his head, stunned.

"V-Valdette," Blake stammered out, feeling a little awkward about the fact that she didn't have a name. It didn't seem to bother her, though. The pale woman turned and looked back at him, raising her eyebrow.

"Wh-What?" The Valdette asked cautiously.

"Sorry we can't stay," Blake apologized. "We have people we need to get back to, that's all." He really did feel a little bad.

"I don't mind that you can't stay," the Valdette assured him with a smile. "It's okay."

"Oh? Then why are you so sad?" Sylvia asked, confused. "I thought that you were down because you didn't want us to go home."

"I want you to go home, really!" The Valdette assured the two of them. Even Sylvia was confused now. She glanced at Blake, and Blake shrugged his shoulders. Did Sylvia actually think that HE was going to know, if she didn't?

"Then… I'm confused," Sylvia admitted. "What's the matter?"

The Valdette gave a smile that was just as sorrowful as it was mysterious. "It will make more sense when we get to the Sacred Cavern," she said. Sylvia's face brightened with a mischievous gleam, as Blake felt nothing but worry well up in his chest.

"So you'll take us?" Sylvia asked eagerly.

The Valdette paused. She still looked reluctant, but she nodded her head. "I know… I will. I don't like it, but… I will. Just… can you guys promise me something?"

Sylvia narrowed her eyes suspiciously. She wasn't the sort to make half-baked promises. "That depends, what would you like us to promise?" She also glanced at Blake. "And while I'm a more… open-minded person, I can't speak for the stuck-up Mr. 'I Don't Care That I'm Trapped in a Disturbing Desert Hell-Dimension, I'm Still Not Going to Cheat on My Girlfriend' over there." She flashed Blake a coy smirk and Blake rolled his eyes.

"Come on, Sylvia," Blake growled.

"I don't know what that means," the Valdette said, shaking her head. Sylvia stifled her laugh and shook her head.

"Don't worry," she said, patting the Valdette on the shoulder. "Now, what is it that you wanted us to promise?"

"Don't go to the forest!" The Valdette begged. "Please! No matter what happens in the Sacred Cavern, you gotta promise you won't go into the forest!"

"Done," Blake nodded. It was one of the easiest decisions he had ever made. "I promise, I'm not going anywhere near that forest. It's got me feeling nothing but awful." Blake didn't want anything to do with that place. Just thinking about it made him feel sick, and gave him a headache.

His answer seemed to brighten the Valdette's spirits. She perked right up, a smile curling up the corners of her lips. She then turned to Sylvia, looking hopefully towards her. Blake shot Sylvia a look. He didn't want her to go into that forest, either, but more importantly he didn't want this little Valdette to be upset.

Sylvia sighed.

"Fine," she agreed. "I promise that I won't go near that forest, okay?"

"No matter what happens in the Sacred Cavern," the Valdette insisted.

"Yes," Sylvia groaned, rolling her eyes. "No matter what happens in the Sacred Cavern, I promise that I won't go into the forest."

That seemed to set the Valdette at ease. She let out a sigh of relief, and turned to look at the large tent. "Then in that case, we can go!"

Sylvia blinked. "What, that easily?"

The Valdette stared curiously at her. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's a sacred monument to your people, right? I didn't expect that we would just be… well, let in," Sylvia explained.

"The Valdette and Valetty don't care about stuff like that," the Valdette shrugged. "We just let people do whatever they wish. Why wouldn't we?"

Sylvia opened her mouth to rebuke that as the dumbest thing she'd ever heard, and then caught herself. Now that she thought about it, what was the worst that could happen? They were living in a community where everyone could feel the emotions of everybody else, so unified and cohesive in thought and purpose that they didn't even have a use for names. Not quite a hive mind but something certainly very close to one.

So yeah, there wasn't really any reason to have areas off-limits to any specific member.

"So we can go in?" Sylvia asked. The Valdette nodded.

"Only Valetty can't," she explained. "A Valetty can't go inside alone unless they are preparing for Feeding. All other times they need to have a Valdette with them. But… you guys aren't Valetty, so I guess it's okay."

She smiled, and slapped her chest with her hand. "And I'm Valdette now! So I can go with you no problem!"

Sylvia was all smiles. "Sounds like a plan, Startles! Let's get going, I'll lead the way!" She turned and headed towards the large tent, the Valdette looking at her in confusion. She turned to Blake, tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"What did she mean by 'Startles'?" The Valdette asked. Blake sighed. The two began following after Sylvia as the Valdette continued to stare at him for clarification. Not that he had any explanation for Sylvia's behavior that would satisfy a rational mind.

"That's just Sylvia playing one of her games," he explained. "She's giving you that nickname because she teases people like that. It's how she shows she likes you… probably. Or maybe that she wants to eat you, you can't really tell with her."

"Nick… name?" The Valdette blinked in confusion. "Is that like your name? Blake?"

"Sort of. It's a way to refer to somebody. It isn't their actual name, but it's their nickname. Trainers often nickname their pokemon when they catch them," Blake explained. "It's the way we refer to our pokemon to let them know we care about them, that we think they're different from the other pokemon of their species."

"…So Sylvia calls me 'Startles' because she is being affectionate?" The Valdette asked, stroking her chin in a mimicry of Sylvia's actions.

Blake thought it was more likely that Sylvia was calling her 'Startles' because of how easily the Valdette got startled, but decided to keep his mouth shut. "It might be more that she just wants a way to refer to you."

"Oh… I see," the Valdette nodded in understanding. They arrived at the tent, Sylvia poking her head out and gesturing for the two to follow.

"Blake! Startles! Let's go!" Sylvia hissed. She was acting like this was a heist movie or something, which Blake found kind of amusing. But he was more concerned about what they would find in the cavern, should they go in.

"…I don't think I like the nickname 'Startles'," the Valdette confessed quietly to Blake. Blake didn't blame her a bit. The two followed Sylvia into the tent.

While Sylvia waited for them, she was staring up at the large rock in the center of the tent, and at the large gash cut into the side of it. She leaned forward, squinting into the darkness, but couldn't see anything.

"Startles, tell me something," Sylvia called back to the Valdette, not taking her eyes off the pit of blackness in the cave. "What exactly is inside that thing? I can't see for shit."

The Valdette winced at Sylvia's repeated insistence at using that nickname, and glanced at Blake. He sighed in sympathy.

Sylvia turned back to the Valdette, a scowl on her face. She looked at Blake and shook her head. "Well, this is pointless. There's no light down there."

"We can see just fine," Valdette said, shrugging her shoulders. "I've never had any issues." Her golden eyes were sparkling as she said it.

Sylvia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, us humans, our eyes don't let us see in the dark. Unfortunately, we don't have our flashlights, or we could- oh! That's it!" She turned to Blake, smiling eagerly. "My lighter! We can use my lighter!"

"Oh, that's right!" Blake said, brightening in realization. "You had a lighter in your bag! We can use that to light the way."

"Exactly," Sylvia said, point at her nose. She turned to the Valdette. "Startles, do you know where all our stuff was? The stuff they took away from us in the desert. Dommy-Mommy said that she would return our stuff, but we never got it."

The Valdette's eye twitched, but she nodded. "I'll go."

She turned and scuttled out of the tent, through the sand.

When she was gone, Blake turned to Sylvia and scowled. Sylvia took one glance at his face and she sighed in exasperation.

"Oh, what is it now?" She groaned.

"Do you really have to mess with our Valdette friend that much?" Blake asked. "You're being kind of rude and mean to her."

Sylvia blinked.

"What do you mean?" She asked, confused. "I may have teased her a few times, but I'm on my best behavior, I promise."

"She doesn't like the fact that you call her 'Startles'," Blake replied. "She doesn't appreciate the nickname."

Sylvia blinked. "Oh. I thought she wouldn't care."

"Why? Because she's a pokemon?" Blake asked. He sighed, and glanced at the tent flap, relieved to see that the Valdette hadn't returned. He didn't want her listening in on this conversation. "To be honest, this whole thing with the Valetty and the Valdette has really made me take a good, long look at everything we know about pokemon."

"Same," Sylvia mused, though her attention wasn't on Blake. She was circling the stone, running her hand along it and staring up at the top. "In fact, I was wondering myself about why these Valetty and Valdette act so much differently than our pokemon."

Blake blinked. He had been thinking about their similarities, and how it made him question how people treated their pokemon. What did she mean by differences? "You mean how they can talk? I mean, some Psychic type pokemon can certainly-"

"No, that's not what I meant," Sylvia said, shaking her head. "Those are all just superficial things. Same with their appearances, how they look like us. Talking pokemon isn't strange at all, nor is it the fact that they seem to have developed their own culture here."

Now that interested Blake. "Really? Yeah, now that I think about it, I think I have heard stories like that before, of pokemon behaving in cultural rituals and special ceremonies to evolve before, I hadn't given it much thought."

"What I mean is how human they act. They don't act like pokemon at all. I mean, certainly, our pokemon have a very high level of emotional intelligence, so much so that they often behave in ways that would be indistinguishable from humans. But this… these pokemon… if that's what they are… they seem so much more than that."

Sylvia let out a sigh.

"Honestly? My own pokemon are very human-like in how they act," she said. "When I first met them? They were working together to try and scare me, if you can believe that. I managed to interact with them like I would a person, and they became my friends. These Valetty and Valdette, they remind me of that, actually. If not for their slight differences."

Again, Blake wasn't really sure what she was talking about. It sounded like she had a decent amount of experience with pokemon like that herself. "What do you mean?" He asked. "Because it sounds like you're saying that acting like a human is normal for a pokemon."

"To a degree it's normal," Sylvia corrected. "But look at her. Look at them. Those ears, those fangs, if not for those things… you could probably mistake that girl for being just as human as either of us, don't you think?"

Blake nodded, he definitely agreed with that.

"And that's not really something that most pokemon can do," she continued, her tone taking on a distant, contemplative edge. "I wonder… it's almost like these species are a missing link between humans and pokemon. We have countless pokemon that resemble humans, but none moreso than these."

Sylvia turned to Blake, her face wearing a concerned frown.

"It makes me wonder… if more species of pokemon could talk, would they have the same rights as people? If Startles came back with us, would she? And if so, where would the line be drawn? How human does a pokemon have to be, before it becomes truly human, and is endowed with the same rights as humans? That's what's occupying my thoughts right now, if you really must know," she informed him.

Blake didn't know. What he did know, though, was that this was a question that was making him feel more than a little confused and guilty. He heard the sound of approaching footsteps shuffling through the sand, and turned to Sylvia.

"Well, I think we can start with showing our respect for her by not referring to her by a nickname that she doesn't like," Blake dryly replied. "Don't you think you can afford her that much human decency, at least?"

"Fine," Sylvia said, nodding. She turned and greeted the Valdette with a wave as she walked in with Sylvia's backpack, holding it up.

"This?" She asked, handing it to Sylvia.

"Perfect, thank you, Drippy," Sylvia said, digging through the backpack and pulling out her lighter, much to the confusion of the Valdette. Sylvia flicked the lighter and created a small flame, the Valdette gasping in surprise.

"Wha?!" She exclaimed, shocked. "There's… there's fire?! How?"

"It's complicated," Sylvia laughed, dismissing the Valdette's concerns. "Now then! Let's be off!" With Sylvia's lighter leading the way, the three of them headed into the Sacred Cavern, to witness the secrets locked within.

What awaits them in the Sacred Cavern? What will they find their? What are the secrets that have our Valdette friend so startled?