I heaved heavily as the sound people began to become evident as I ran. The frozen earth at my feet caving in slightly as I slushed passed the tree lining. I hadn't been able to feel my toes for days, but at the moment I was aware of how they slammed into the front of my boots. Sweat poured down my neck, freezing the hairs on end once I finally burst into a town area.

The crescent moon weighed down in the sky, stars reaching as far as the eye could see above the small town.

Or, what was left of one.

Homes were collapsed at the foundations, roofs caving in as people struggled around. A thick pulsing river that the ice couldn't hold back cut through the center of the wreckage. Splintered lumber crumbling into it as if a bridge once stood over. The commoners around were garbed in many thin layers of grey and brown cloths. Mothers tightly pulled their children close to their hearts while men worked in teams to tear apart the broken homes and salvage what they could.

Something struck me when I saw the motionless bodies lied up, young children to elderly women sobbing over each one. I didn't have to be close to see how grotesque the corpses were, they're swollen like balloons from where I could see. Like they could burst at any moment. Pokémon too were joined in the rows of death, other small creatures nuzzling at them.

I also took a short note of the men dressed like knights, but not the Unova guard, providing food and cloaks to those who begged; people and pokemon alike. But it was curious, once they caught sight of me, the few knights would shrink far into the shadows reach before I could see the symbol they bore.

"Minccino," I whispered in puffs. The pokemon who was gifted to me ruffled its head out from my cloak, just beside my ear before shooting me an expectant look, "What could have happened here? This... This is not what Unova is supposed to look like."

A chilly wind hissed across the ruined town, making me shutter as Minccino just stared with exhaustion. My eyes dashed to where she sat, almost bored like. Could she have seen things like the town before?

Hesitantly, I shuffled over to where a woman trembled and quietly began to speak, "Excuse me," she leapt into the air before turning to face me with surprise, "What happened here? If you do not mind me asking."

"You don't know?" the fair woman's eyebrows scrunched together, wrinkling her paper skin as she shook. "I thought... That more would know. You are in Bridge Village; or what's left of it. No matter what season, we always get flooding here. We rebuild our homes just in time for the next flood. We've tried large dams but they always burst. We've also build numerous bridges across the river that tends to flood, but those have all been broken."

"Why is the King not trying to help here?" I followed up with a new question, growing even more confused.

She scoffed with a tighter tug at her cloak as she spat bitterly, "Why would the King help us now? He never has in the past, why start now?"

"But I thought..." Despite how I loathed the castle that lied, I thought it at least would help people and towns like this. Could I have been deceiving myself? No! I do not lie, not even to myself. "The royal family must be of some help," I muttered under my breath. I gained a crooked look from the woman but she seemed to brush my comment off.

"C-Could you be here to help us? Do you have any food to spare? Or a cloak?" her voice suddenly droned off to a desperate rasp as she shuttered. "My children are cold and hungry, anything you can spare for them would be greatly appreciated." She groveled.

You'd think it to be touching or heart-wrenching. But to me, it was disgusting how the black fog seemed to just unfurl like a flying-type's wings around her as she spoke of her children. My feet slowly slipped back, "Why do you begin lying now? You were doing so good..." I hushed to her as I couldn't hide the twisted emotions on my face from her. I told her the truth as I pulled my own worn cloak closer to my heart, "I have nothing to spare for you."

Before she could attempt to trick me any more, I tore away from our conversation without another word. My nose wrinkled at the thought of her, but I couldn't restrain the bewilderment I felt in my heart. I had thought commoners didn't lie. Especially those who are the poorest, they have nothing to lose by telling the truth. So why?

Why was the truth something to be hidden? Why must the truth be seldom told? What was so great about lying to the ones around us? I would never be able to see this as I was.

Soon, a great tiredness weighed down on my eyes. Like all the adrenaline between The Centre to now had finally worn out. But there was no good place to rest. Nothing suitable for me. But I needed to rest, I knew that for sure as I struggled through the ravaged town; lost in my own thoughts.

"Don't worry, everything will be okay." A voice whispered somewhere far off, or it felt like. I angled my head slightly in the direction I heard it echoing from to see a man curiously holding his family as only the fabricated darkness only meant for my eyes to see was like a cloak, "I'll always be here for all of you. Everything will be okay. I'll always be here, don't worry."

His voice sounded so honest as he constantly reassured his starving family with deceit. And instead of disgusting me, his twisted words almost made me want to cry. As if he reached in and twisted my heart.

My eyes continued to watch the family he cradled in his arms against a destroyed cottage; probably theirs. I found a mostly dried piece of lumber that I lucidly lied the ground with. With a light breath that turned into steam into the air, I curled up against the piece of wood. It's stiffness extremely apparent, but I couldn't complain at the time as my eyes were already shutting. I felt as Minccino snuggled out of my cloak, the little creatures fur swooshing around my head with a heavy weight pushing down. The pokemon's light breaths were like a soft kissing wind of warmth as it fell into a dream-filled rhythm on top of my head.

I, on the other hand, had a sleepless night. My eyes fluttering between dreams and reality as if no time passed between the gaping hours. I caught glimpses in the night of the man. The man who promised his family everything would me all right. Through a speckled world, I watched as he gently cradled his wife and set her against the broken backing. He gently kissed her on the forehead. Then his two sons. Before he too joined with the shadows, following them far from the ruined village.

The next thing I saw was the dawn slowly cracking, the woman arousing awake tiredly. The desperate denial crossing her face. She pushed her children to awaken also, telling them something that my ebbing brain couldn't understand before they took off running in different directions. She had given them an errand? Then I saw it. How her legs were awkwardly bent as she rested on the ground. Too awkwardly.

She was crippled. The accident most likely occurred during the flood.

Then sleep fell back to me for a moment. The curled warmth suddenly leaving my head and scurrying off. I had no feeling inside me to continue awake. As if suddenly this search for truth was for naught.

Once my eyes could open again, the children arrived and said something to her. She motioned them away with a vacant smile, and once they were left savaging with the other children; I watched as her body shuttered. Her quiet sobs audible by maybe only I who slept not too far away.

But my drowse won out again, pulling me back into darkness before I could see what was to happen next.

Finally, the one thing that could pull me awake, did. A chilling paw pressed into my face before a head bashed into mine, sending me rolling slightly to totter between wood and mud. I finally awakened to clearly see the grinning face of a pokemon with large curled ears. It's brown eyes glittering in the sun which seemed to actually warm me in the winter. Sitting in front of Minccino was an array of berries and herbs that some I hadn't ever seen before except possibly in seasonal decorative basket arrangements in the castle.

"Did you find all these?" I inquired to her with a fog to my voice as I sat up. I eyed the pile suspiciously, one could possibly be deadly or dirty.

The little creature nodded, snatching up what was probably the largest onion-like plants of the bunch before taking a large bite to show they were good. I laughed slightly at the pokemon as I took a small cluster of red berries. There was one thing I knew for sure, at least pokemon didn't lie.

Once my teeth sunk into them, there was a familiar flavor to them. Like an sauce taste the chefs would add to the sweet deserts. I couldn't help but let out a slight cry of delight at the familiar taste from something so wild. I quickly began to eat the red berries swiftly as their deliciousness filled my stomach.

Suddenly, a giggle shook the air near us. I looked over to where it came from to see the cripple woman. She smiled to me softly just maybe ten feet away, "I'm guessing you found Rose Hip. My children love those berries for how sweet they are." she spoke so casually as if she wasn't crying just a few hours ago. Her swollen eyes blending with her chilled red face, "They are the winter version of Pecha Berries!"

I licked the juices from my teeth delicately as I looked to her, "Really? Could you tell me what else I have here?"

"Sure, just come over to where I am with the food and I can tell you what you have."

I nodded as I saw the truth in her words. I scooped up the scraps of greenery that Minccino hadn't shoved in its mouth as I moved beside the cripple. Her eyes danced across each herb I had and pointed to the ones she knew.

"This here is Watercress, a popular plant here since it grows close to water. But a lot of it got washed away in the floods and overwatered them to the point of drowning." She said as she pointed to a vibrant green plant the resembled moss, "It is actually slightly sweet."

She then moved to what I already knew was to be Skitty Tail, "This is Skitty Tail, if you didn't already know. A plant that commonly grows in water. Not many eat it because of the brown flower it has that resembles a Skitty's tail, though we rarely see that pokemon here in Unova. The stalks themselves are the edible parts that provide a slight starch for you."

Her finger moved on to a green stretching plant with small white flowers poking out that were like tiny snow flakes, "Chickweed! A very hardy plant found almost everywhere. More tart flavored."

"And finally," she laughed slightly as she poked at a small gathering of nuts, "Acorns. Your pokemon found a lot it seems! They are pretty difficult to find here since oak trees don't grow too close. You could have also harvested pine needles to eat since we have more pine trees around. But don't waste the Acorns, they are packed with fats and nutrition to keep you alive out here."

I shared a quick glance with Minccino who almost knew what I was thinking. The little creature nodded in approval before I looked back at the woman. She smiled to me beautifully as her light brown hair tumbled around her loosely, giving her a ghostly ambiance. As if she was just an echo left despite her radiating kindness.

My hand gently took hers as I set the four acorns into her hand, "Take them."

Her dark eyes widened to me, her head shaking back and forth, "no, no! I can't take them, your pokemon found them!" she exclaimed. An odd darkness suddenly engulfing her, "I don't need them!"

I was perplexed by the lie.

"Take them, I am telling you too, ma'am. For your kindness." I ushered as I closed her fingers around the nuts, "You need them more than I do."

She looked to me with a curious look, the same I was giving her as I rose to my feet. Finally, she caved. "Thank you, miss. I will save them for my children." The crippled commoner tucked the tree seeds into her apron pocket before the lies returned. "I don't need them. My boys need them more than me."

"Why are you lying?"

"What?"

"You. You are lying about not needing the food," I said as my voice grew louder. I understood the lies before, but this one made no sense. "There is no reason to lie if you are hungry also! You are losing when you lie! So tell me why you deprive yourself?"

But my bravado was all for show. I asked the questions, not as lies, even though I wanted no answers. Her mouth was crooked open for a few moments, though when she was about to form words- I was already walking away. My feet quickening as Minccino cried out to me. As the creature leapt onto my shoulder with a huff, knowing I wouldn't turn back around.

Before I knew it, I was running out of the town. Not caring when my feet splashed through the arctic-cold river, kicking the shattered bridge pieces in my way. My mind was spinning with the thoughts of everything.

I couldn't understand why a woman as kind as her would have the capacity to lie. She of all people had no reason to! I didn't understand why her husband would say he would stay with his family and then leave that night. They needed him. I couldn't fathom why everything was full of darkness and deception. It was nothing I imagined.

All I could see was that I was the only person in this world that would never utter a lie.

My head shook back and forth with anger and confusion as the forest around me thickened. Pine needles scratching my face as I had to assure myself, There has to be someone who doesn't lie.

That day, my search for the truth changed. I was no longer looking for a perfect world of truth. I was searching for only one other person.

That's all I needed.

But the ideal of a truthful world still hung at my heart as I ran through the white-glazed forest.

Soon, I was lost in the pines, turning to find my own footsteps. I was running again. The crunching sound of snow breaking at my feet the only noise in my head.

But a voice froze all my actions. Their hissing words sending a Druddigon raging within as panic scratched at my throat.

"Well now, it looks as if someone has strayed far from home."