Blake, Sylvia, and their Valdette companion have descended into the cave! What will they discover there? What secrets lay hidden within the darkness? And is one dinky lighter really enough to light the way down?

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: Blake's about to get on Sarah's back and burn the Pokemon Academy to the ground because why not.

JoshGamerV: Interesting theory about Valerie, I'll give you that. Maybe her looks are a coincidence. Maybe not. We'll have to find out.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 638

Blake was surprised. Although the entrance to the Sacred Cavern was tight and cramped, once they actually slipped through the tight gap things took a marked improvement. The first thing he noticed was that he nearly fell. The cave opening led to a very steep staircase, and if it wasn't for Sylvia ahead of him he might have rolled all the way down the stairs.

As the group of three headed deep into the ground, the staircase only got wider and wider. Blake could barely see anything. Sylvia's lighter wasn't useful enough, so she'd had to improvise. Tearing some pages out of her notebook and wrapping her spare clothes around them, she affixed them to some of the pieces of her tent to form an improvised torch. It was better than nothing, certainly, but Sylvia wasn't interested in making a second for Blake.

Her torch made for a good source of light, and as the cave got wider Blake could feel it. The sensation that the path was opening up, and he could even feel a dampness begin to penetrate the air as they descended, which made sense.

The Valetty had come out of the cavern dripping wet, so there would have to be a source of water somewhere at the bottom of the stairs.

Speaking of that Valetty, the Valdette's hand tugged on Blake's sleeve, distracting him. The stairs were wide enough where she could walk at his side, now, and when he looked back at her, he nearly recoiled in shock.

Her eyes were glowing bright gold in the light. The sight of her face, dimly illuminated and her eyes shimmering, sent a throb of pain through his head. He stumbled back, nearly falling down the stairs, and bumped against the wall.

Flashes of… something passed in his mind. A strange feeling passed through him, too frightening to be called nostalgia. He saw… a shadowed face, glowing gold eyes, and suddenly the heat of black flames washed over his face and he cried out.

"Aaaah!" Blake cried, falling to his knees and trembling.

"Blake?! What's the matter?!" Sylvia shouted, whirling around, the glow of her torch flickering across her panicked face.

The Valdette was already moving to help him. She crouched down next to him and placed her hands on his arm, feeling him shaking.

"He's terrified," she said to Sylvia. "It's rolling off of him in waves."

"Yeah, the screaming was what clued me in," Sylvia dryly replied. "Geez Blake, you're like Caelia over here, what's the matter?"

"You're making it worse!" The Valdette snapped. She turned back to Blake, her voice gentle. "It's okay, let me help."

Then, she pulled back the collar of his shirt to expose his neck, opened her mouth wide, and sunk her fangs in.

Sylvia could just barely make out what was happening in the darkness, but as her eyes adjusted she reacted with shock and horror. The Valdette had latched onto Blake like a vampire and was beginning to suck on… something. "Hey! Let go of him!"

The Valdette ignored her and continued sucking. Sylvia tromped up the stairs and tried to pull her off, only to realize that the girl's grip was far tighter than the amount of force she could muster. She began pounding on the Valdette, nearly thinking to set her ablaze with the torch. A moment before she could, the Valdette pulled herself off of Blake, panting, wiping the blood from her lips. The wound on Blake's throat began to close itself.

"What were you doing to him?!" Sylvia demanded, slamming the Valdette against the wall, holding the torch up so close to her face the flames threatened to burn the girl's pale skin. The Valdette simply stared back at her, eyes filled with confusion.

"I just… I… I was helping him!" The Valdette sputtered in confusion, turning to look at Blake. "See?! He's fine now!"

Sylvia turned to see Blake start to stir. The boy rose to his feet, panting, turning in their direction. But as his breath evened out, Sylvia was surprised at the look of calm that crossed his face. Not only wasn't he upset at being bitten, he didn't even show any signs of his prior fear. Sylvia was so confused that she let the Valdette go, approaching Blake suspiciously.

"Okay, what's going on here?" She asked, looking at Blake and then at the Valdette. "Blake, are you okay? How do you feel?"

"Well… I… I remember being really afraid," Blake said, squinting at Sylvia and the Valdette, trying to recall those sensations. "But… I don't feel that way anymore. I don't know why I don't feel that way, I just… don't." He looked at the two of them, just as confused as Sylvia was. But she knew what she could do about it.

Or more specifically, she knew who she could ask to get some answers.

"Okay, talk, Drippy," Sylvia growled. "Why did you bite him?"

"She bit me?" Blake gasped in shock. He didn't remember that part.

"Because I had to!" The Valdette said. She seemed confused, like she didn't understand why the two of them would be mad at her. "Blake was in pain, and I didn't like feeling how scared he was, so I helped him. By eating his pain."

"…You ate his pain?" Sylvia asked. "NO, no, that doesn't make sense, what does that mean?"

Blake, for once, figured it out before Sylvia. "I think I get it," he said. "Remember, they're empaths, right? Which means that they can sense the emotions of others. So maybe she doesn't just… sense emotions, maybe she can eat them?"

Sylvia considered that, and nodded. "That makes a little bit of sense I guess."

"That's exactly it!" The Valdette said. She opened her mouth wide, her sharp teeth glinting in the torchlight. "As Valetty, we can soothe emotions with our mouths, by sucking and kissing we can cause momentary relaxation and bliss."

"Yeah, I remember that," Sylvia agreed, remembering the soothing warmth of the kiss. "But biting? Really?"

"Valdette are stronger," the Valdette explained, gesturing to her mouth. "We can eat things like pain, anger, sadness, and absorb it. Make it a part of ourselves. And that's not all. Torch?" The Valdette held her hand out and looked at Sylvia eagerly.

Sylvia glanced at Blake's throat, absent of any scars. The Valdette had apparently absorbed Blake's pain and fear with those teeth of hers? Not sure what to make of any of this, but certainly intrigued, she passed the torch over to the Valdette.

The Valdette opened her mouth wide, and to Blake and Sylvia's shock, bit down on the flames, and sucked the whole torch into her mouth, the staircase flooding with darkness as the only light remaining was her bright eyes.

"What the hell?!" Sylvia gasped in shock.

"Valdette!" Blake cried out, worried about her. But he didn't need to. Like sucking the remains of a popsicle off the stick, the Valdette swirled the torch around in her mouth and withdrew it, the flame completely extinguished. She passed the torch back to Sylvia, who took it, stunned by what she'd just seen.

"You… ate the flames," Sylvia said, shaking her head in the dark.

"We can eat anything," the Valdette said. She burped, sparks of flame spurting from her mouth and lightning the stairwell for a moment. "Then, once we eat it, for a little while…"

The Valdette held her hand up, and flames burst from her palm, flooding the cavern with bright orange light.

"So you ate fire, and then… now you can create fire?" Sylvia marveled, taking the opportunity to dip her torch back into the flame and ignite it again.

"Our memory fangs," the Valdette explained, the flames in her hand dying out as the torch resumed its duties of lighting the way. "When we bite something, we can absorb it, and it becomes a part of us for a little while. So stuff like that fire, we could make." She turned to the wall. "I could eat this rock, and make rock. Or eat water and make water."

She turned to Blake. "Or eat pain and fear… and then I feel those feelings, instead," she admitted. "But… you're not in pain?"

Blake shook his head, astounded at what the girl had done. "No," he said. "I'm not scare or in pain at all."

Sylvia found herself to be quite impressed. She smirked, and scratched the Valdette on the head. "Way to go, Fang. I guess that old saying 'you are what you eat' is true."

"Ehehehe…" the Valdette giggled. "It's my first time trying it actually, Valette don't know memory fang, we- err, they, can only soothe other emotions, only we Valdette can eat them completely. And now, Blake won't have those problems now!"

Blake did feel a little lighter. But he had to ask. "So… now you just have my pain and fear? That doesn't seem fair…"

"Well, I can't take it away completely," the Valdette said, shaking her head. "Just, you know, what was on the surface. And now I feel it. But don't worry! I'm scared right now, and it definitely hurts… but just like how eventually I won't be able to make fire anymore, eventually it's going to fade away and then I'll just be normal, so don't worry!"

Blake didn't fully understand what she was talking about, but at least she seemed okay with it. He nodded, and turned to Sylvia.

"I'm okay now. We can go," he said, and Sylvia nodded in agreement. She turned to head back down the stairs, but Blake stopped her. "Wait. I'm assuming that whole thing before, when you had her up against the wall, you were threatening her because you thought she was trying to hurt me, right?" Blake confirmed.

Sylvia scowled at him, but reluctantly nodded. "She was biting you, and even though I knew you couldn't actually get hurt or die, I still wanted to know what was happening."

"Well, I'm fine," Blake said. "Thank you. But still, even though I appreciate you were trying to protect me, I still think that was a bit of an overreaction. So if it's not too much trouble, I think you owe her an apology, don't you?"

Sylvia glanced at the cheery Valdette, and sighed. "I'm sorry, Fang," she replied.

"It's okay," the Valdette nodded. "But, um… don't call me Fang. Or Drippy. Or Startles. I don't like those nicknames, they're weird."

"…Okay, sure," Sylvia agreed, nodding. "I'll keep thinking of stuff, sound good?"

"Please don't," the Valdette begged, shaking her head. Sylvia gave a noncommittal grunt, turned, and headed down the stairs.

Blake and the Valdette followed after her, Blake feeling much better now that he was no longer feeling those fearful thoughts. He wasn't even sure what it was that had caused him to react with such fear, the Valdette had sucked it right out of his head.

The Valdette tugged on his sleeve again. He glanced at her glowing eyes, only this time he didn't react with startled fear.

"Blake?" The Valdette whispered, shooting her eyes towards Sylvia before looking back at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Blake said, nodding. "What is it?"

"Um… the way Sylvia keeps trying to give me nicknames…" the girl mumbled, looking down. "I don't… I don't really like it."

Blake sighed, and patted her on the back. "I'm sorry to hear that, and yeah, I agree with you. It's annoying, but that's just the way she is. I'll talk to her, and explain that you don't want to be given a nickname."

The Valdette gasped. "No! That's not what I meant," she clarified, shaking her head. "No, it's… it's not that, I mean…"

She sighed.

"What do you mean?" Blake asked.

"I don't… it's not that I don't want a nickname," the Valdette shyly admitted, which surprised Blake. He hadn't expected that from her.

"Oh? Really? I thought you wouldn't have wanted one?" He asked, curious. "Well, maybe not one from her."

"Blake, um… on your world, this 'earth' place that humans come from… there are a lot of pokemon, right?" She clarified.

Blake nodded.

"And… do you have any pokemon?" She asked, more curiosity seeping into her voice.

"I have a lot of them," Blake said, a nostalgic smile crossing his face as her turned away from the Valdette, staring at the dim light of the torch flickering in front of him. "Rogen, my first pokemon, he's a Boldore… and Tara, my Snivy, she's so sweet… and my Scizor, Weiss, is really cool, and Cory, my Crawdaunt, he likes to fight a lot."

"Wow!" The Valdette gasped. "That's a lot of pokemon!"

"That's not all of them," Blake said, shaking his head and turning back to her, flashing a smile. "Uni, she's an important one for me. My sister's Solosis… I'm looking out for her, now."

The Valdette tilted her head to the side, confused. "Sister? What's a sister?"

Blake blinked. Well, that was another thing that this world didn't have, apparently. He knew that this wasn't the time to focus on the issue, though, and quickly brushed past it. "I also have Sarah. She's really big, a giant Salamence, and she's really scary. But I'm just beginning to get along with her, now. And then there's Ruru, she's really energetic and loyal, she was the first pokemon I caught when I came to the Pokemon Academy. And Maria, I got her from another girl, Marion, and she's really clingy. She's a Mareanie who likes stabbing me with her poisonous needles. And finally, the last of my pokemon is Silver, my Skorupi. He… he's just a baby, but…"

Blake's voice wavered. Thinking of his cute little Skorupi, and what he meant for him and Aya… it sent a wavering feeling echoing through his heart and for a moment he thought he was going to burst into tears.

The Valdette's soothing touch put an end to that worry.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her mouth opening as she moved to bite him again. "You felt very sad. If you want, I can-"

"No, that's fine," Blake assured her, shaking his head. "I'm sad, but… this is a good kind of sadness. Don't worry."

The Valdette blinked, surprised. "What do you mean by a good sadness? Isn't sadness just sadness? Why is it good?"

Blake sighed, shaking his head. How could he explain it? "You see, Valdette, some sadness isn't bad. It's how we know we're alive."

"So you want to keep the sadness?" The Valdette asked, tilting her head.

"You can feel my sadness, can you feel anything else?" Blake asked. The Valdette blinked, and closed her eyes.

"…Oh… Oh! Ooooh…" The Valdette was startled a little, but a warm smile spread across her face, her golden eyes opening wide and shining brightly. "It isn't just sadness, it's also love. Strange. I don't get it. Explain?"

"So you do know what love is!"

Blake and the Valdette gasped, surprised, and turned their attention to Sylvia, who had stopped and looked back at them. Her lips were curled up into a knowing smirk.

"I wasn't sure at first, but now I get it," Sylvia laughed. "I thought that, since you guys were so… off, that you didn't have love. But I'm glad to hear that you do."

"Of course we have love," the Valdette said. "And that's why I can feel the pain you're going through, Blake, because of your love for… someone. It's so powerful, I don't know what it is, or who it's for, but it's definitely soothing."

She leaned next to Blake and took a big whiff, inhaling his scent. Blake felt kind of weirded out by that, for sure, taking a small step back.

"Yes, it definitely feels nice," the Valdette sighed. She stared into Blake's eyes, her gaze hot and wet as her cheeks flushed. She let out another sigh.

"I knew it, I knew it!" Sylvia cackled. "It wasn't with Dommy-Mommy, but I knew it was going to happen at some point!"

"What is it now?" Blake growled, having a pretty good idea what Sylvia was about to say.

"She's got the hots for you, Blake, way to go!" Sylvia said, crutching her torch in the crook of her elbow so she could give him some mocking applause. "You managed to get a cute pokemon girl to fall in love with you! Nicely done!"

"Sylvia…" Blake leered at her, but Sylvia was undaunted.

"No!" The Valdette exclaimed, shaking her head. Her normally pale face was bright red. "I don't love him! It's just the love he's feeling, it's kind of… intoxicating, I can't help it!" She looked at Blake, wiping the dopey smile off her face. "I promise, I could never love you!"

"…Thanks," Blake said. It wasn't a very nice thing to hear, even if he didn't want her to like him in the first place.

"I tasted you," she said, opening her mouth. "And the minute I did, I knew that you already belonged to someone else. I couldn't try and fall in love with you even if I wanted to." She cleared her throat, and closed her mouth. "But… with that in mind, I do have to admit that you really are giving off an intoxicating aroma."

"See? See? This is how it starts," Sylvia smirked, Blake shooting her a dirty look. He was really getting sick of Sylvia's haughty voice.

"…Sorry, what… what are you talking about?" Blake asked.

"It's weird," the Valdette admitted, glancing down and sighing. "It's part of the reason why I feel this weird tug towards you. Like… seeing you really makes me think that you're just the most delicious thing ever, I want to hug and kiss and sink my teeth into you. It's like I want to lean in next to you and give you a great big hug."

Blake blinked, surprised. That… was embarrassing. From where he was standing that sounded like either a love confession or a glowing restaurant review. He wasn't sure which one he would rather it be, honestly.

"Oh! But, when I actually bite you, it's like… bleeegh!" The Valdette stuck her tongue out and scraped at it. "Gross… No thanks."

"Because someone else has already…"

"Made your mark on you, yep," the Valdette gave him a toothy grin. "So don't worry! But, um, there is something I wanted to ask you…"

"Oh?" Blake asked. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Um, like… I said before… I don't like Sylvia's nicknames for me," the Valdette said, glancing at Sylvia, who rolled her eyes. She turned her attention back to Blake. "But, um… if you don't mind… would it be possible… for you to give me a nickname?"

Blake was taken aback by that.

"Really? You… want me to give you a nickname?" Blake asked, surprised. The Valdette nodded reluctantly.

"See… when I bit you, I didn't just taste your pain and fear in the moment… I tasted all of it," she explained with a sigh. "And I saw that you were afraid that you'd never get back to your home, earth. And, well… I know you want to."

Blake nodded. "I have to go back. No matter what."

The Valdette frowned, and she seemed to deflate. "When you guys are gone… I'm going to miss you. So… I wanted you to give me a nickname. So I can remember you when you go back. So even if I eventually forget… it's like part of you is still here."

She blushed shyly. "Thanks to you guys I evolved, after all…"

Blake smiled, feeling a little touched himself. That was a rather sweet thing that she'd just said. "Okay," he relented. "I'll definitely come up with a good nickname for you, Valdette."

The Valdette's face could have lit the whole staircase, and she nodded eagerly.

How nice, our cute little Valdette is going to get a nickname! Anyone want a chance to give her one? I'll leave it up to you guys, see if you can come up with any ideas if you like. If nothing good shows up I'll come up with her name myself.