I still remember the day we became friends. I don't think it is possible for me to ever forget.

Morning finally had taken its place as the halcyon sunlight brought just a scrap of warmth to my skin.

Although it was not much compared to the small Minccino wrapped around my neck, her heat radiating against my cheeks. The little creatures was still sound asleep and purred slight snores into my ear as she managed to stay steady. I, on the other hand, had finally risen from my temporary bed permanently and had been scattering the crisp leaves about our broken-down camp. Sawsbuck paced up beside me, letting me run my fingers through his satiny fur absently.

I stole a sheepish glance over to where Sirrah N stomped out the embers left of our fire, making sure not a single, faint glow was left. Draped over the man's wiry frame was a thin hooded cape. It was a basic cottony, beige fabric with time worn into the edges, the bottom already fraying and filled with holes. As old as it seemed, the cloak looked too big for him.

I also recalled that same cloak wrapped over me last night for some time. At first, I tossed it back to Sirrah N during our midnight talk. By the second time I had woken up, it had returned back over my shoulders.

Stupid, stupid man.

Before I was able to realize it, my stare lingered longer than I anticipated and caught the attention of the man. Sirrah N straightened his posture before looking back at me. It didn't take more than a second when our eyes met when a broad grin split across his face. He gave a friendly wave as his shadowed pokemon partner cocked its head towards us.

My mouth dropped slightly, words I didn't know I had prepared escaping me. This just left me as a stuttering mess. Minccino, however, swept to my rescue as her muscles stretched out. The normal type barked out a good-morning as she climbed from my shoulders to atop my head. She pushed her paws down to drag my hood over my eyes and cried out happily, bringing the camp into a moment of laughter. Even I found myself smiling as I reached up to Minccino, "you are messing up my hair!" I exclaimed as I locked my hands around her little sides, pulling Minccino down to my heart, "what a trifling felon."

"She was just giving her morning greetings to us all," N hushed with a gracious serenity to him.

I returned a slight smile in only a polite form. He continued to speak as if he could truly understand pokemon's words. The more he did, the more absurd it seemed! Letting out the smallest breath, a mushroom puff of white steam bloomed in front of my face just to remind me how frigid the winter was. A morning snow dusted in the empty space in delicate flakes. The very thought of it all invited the chilly air into my skin and brought about a longing for a fireplace.

If I had been back at the castle, I would have snuggled beside my chamber's fireplace, swaddled in my finest blankets and sip at a cup of molten chocolate. My brown locks would be far from the state they were in now, cleaned of their crease and cloaking around me like the rest of the blankets instead of tucked under this darned cap.

But... I was not apart of the castle any longer, correct?

I had my arms already thrown over Sawsbuck, readying myself for yet another attempt to climb atop the colossus of a mount when I was halted from trying. "You needn't bother, Lady White," N spoke from behind.

There I turned back to see the tea-haired man prepared to depart, Zoroark close at his side. "And why would that be?" My tongue clicked in discontent, however both my arms were back at hanging to my side.

"Where we are traveling to today is only a short distance away," he replied. Already, the man was twisting on his heel and taking slow strides down the forest path.

I scrunched my eyebrows into one another and gave a momentary glance to Minccino. She simply yawned, little white fangs catching the dawn rays. From beside me, Sawsbuck broke from my arms to trail after the stranger. I dared not be left behind and started after the little party, "I don't recall us ever discussing where we were to travel to."

N kept is stare fixated on the path ahead, his silver eyes dancing from each tree, "Trust me, it happens to be on our path, and once you arrive there, you will want to explore. No one can resist venturing there."

My lips began to part, air drawing in to protest, but I continued to analyze the man's expression. It appeared almost... childlike. A slight smile was curling at the corner of his mouth and his light eyes gave the rest of his face a youthful glow. I bit my tongue the longer I looked at him before I finally caved, "I will trust you then, however it better be as entertaining as you are painting it to be or I shan't forgive you!"

"Oh, you shan't forgive me, Lady White?" for the briefest moment, he slid his eyes towards me with a bemused little laugh from his throat. "Then I must make this location unforgettable. Although I do assure you, the place will speak for itself."

"I'll be the judge of that," I declared stoutly, keeping a small step behind the cloaked man.

Reminiscing about it now, the journey hadn't too long of a travel, however the higher the sun rose, the more it felt like a silent eternity. My already-blistered feet rolled uncomfortably in my boots like they were a stale, overstretched taffy. With each breath of wind, I kept my fingers tightly wrapped at the edges of my thin cape. On the journey we had passed a stream that still seemed to carve its path, despite the stretching sheet of ice kissing at its edges.

A dull roar started to break the day's calm. It only became louder the further our band traveled, like the sound of pounding feet.

Pounding feet. Everything began to pull itself away as the roar filled my head. Pounding feet like hundreds of people dancing around with intent.
Knights racing past as if I were nothing but a ghost.
There was no forest, only endless halls.
Pounding feet.
Fire hissing into the air.
A body lay motionless.
Pounding feet.
A maid screaming in the distance.
A body lie motionless.
Metal slicing into one another with a deadly groan.
Pounding feet.
Pounding feet.
More screams.
A body lie motionless.
Suffocating darkness.

A pair of emerald eyes.

Cobwebs drown my lungs, air refusing to move in or out. They were going to kill me.
I couldn't breath! I couldn't speak!
Pounding feet.
Light joined the embargo, leaving me alone.
A body lie motionless.
Someone, help!

"Lady White?"

The screams continued, calling for the princess to run.
The smoke everywhere.
Was it from the fire?
Or was it from them?
A body lie motionless.
No matter. It still drown me, poured itself into my throat to choke my lungs, as if it had hands to hold me under.
A body lie motionless.
Bile rose into my throat.
Anyone, help!

Something soft brushed my cheek.

Claws.
Silver like steel unsheathed as they met the broken marble.
Sleek royal fur glistening in the amber flame.
Everyone raced by, pounding feet, as if it was a mere shadow, but I could see it clearly.
I knew what it wanted.
My hands flung over my heart as I felt like running.
I started to shaking.

Why isn't anyone helping?

"Can you hear me?"

It sprung forward, fangs catching the passing torch. Everything within me became the fire as I screamed.

My body lie motionless.

"White!"

Silver eyes.
Tousled hair like new spring leaves.
Skin as white as the snow.
Eyebrows pressed up close to each other like two Sewaddles meeting.
Mouth drawn open, trying to form words but all I could make out was an excruciatingly high ringing.
Hands were desperately grasped around my upper arm, my fingers knotting into my hair.

A weight shifted on my knees. I was crouched on the trail. When did I do that? Nevertheless, I finally came to see the small puffball balancing on my legs. Her watery, chocolate eyes the size of coins as she looks up to me. "Mynx," she mewed, starting to ebb away the insentient noise.

From overhead, two shadows cast like walls from the rest of the world. A gentle glance up and I saw Sawsbuck pressed close with is snout nuzzling my shoulder. From behind the man before me was the creature, Zoroark, loomed close with swimming blue eyes reflecting worry.

Carefully, I pulled my arms back from my head and from N's hold, tucking them close. I grudgingly moved my stare away from any face, into the snow-coated grass as if not seeing them would turn me invisible.

"Are you all right?" N asked with a hesitation lingering. "You were screaming..."

"Was I..." My skin crawled with the chill setting into my bones.

The roaring sound was waterfalls. We were near waterfalls. It was just a waterfall.

I took in trembling gulps of air, "I-I am fine. Let us carry on." Without much more to say, I rose back to my feet. Minccino latched her claws into the denim of my draping skirt and used its loosening threads to scale back onto my shoulder. She gave a tepid nuzzle of her nose against my cheek. For empty reassurance, I dragged my fingers airily across her head before dropping my hand back down to my side.

Still they all gawked at me.

"Did I not say for us to keep moving?"

An ice licked within my words, but they seemed to melt against the strange man before me. Not even a flinch as N kept his boots firmly rooted before me. I loathed the fixed gaze he gave. He was pitying me, and it turned my insides around. "Should we not talk about what just happened?"

"I'd prefer never to speak of it."

His mouth opened for a moment before giving up, "okay."

After that, much of the trek was in silence. My hands still rattled together as I dissembled them underneath my cloak. This time, I lead with eyes tracing the narrowing path. Trees began to thicken, crowding closer and closer while reaching out their branches out.

Soon enough, the path had vanished. The world was blanketed in sheets of snow, but undergrowth still broke out in skeletal forms. The forest that had come in place was painted in beautiful white woods that spun up into one another. Continuously the trees spiraled to their distinct branch structures. Clear sunlight broke between their fingers and caught on the droplets that clung to the branches. Millions of beads were frozen in mid-fall, and each of them veiled with frost.

A small pokemon I knew no name for skittered past me, a playmate chasing after. They were small creatures, almost infantile-looking as they seemed to laugh. My heart was graced with a serene rhythm the minute the sweet aroma of the woods filled my nose.

"They call it White Forest. Quite the coincidence, one could say. Beautiful, is it not?"

N's voice set my nerves on edge as I spun around, the end of my cape catching in a slow breeze from behind. I felt a need to fight, to retort what he said. But there was no point when the evidence was irrefutable. The fear balled up in my throat started to untangle itself. I felt a natural pull in my cheeks as I smiled, "It is. It truly is."

The man before me stiffened for a moment, a quiet drifting as a flock of pidove danced from tree to tree. I found myself drifting to watch the ashen pokemon, leaving my group to follow my footsteps in the pristine snow.

That was when a hand intertwined itself with mine, yanking me suddenly back. I recoiled with tense shoulders to the one who grasped me, Zoroark. Beside the inky creature was N who held a smile running into his eyes, "Come, there is something I must show you."

Air caught itself between my words, "I trust you."

If it were possible, N's smile grew even brighter. Carefully I followed as he guided all of us around the trees. We wound between them delicately and precisely, as if he knew the way by heart. "I've known about this ever since I was a young child. It is quite awe inspiring," he spoke quietly with a nostalgic hint trailing his words.

Before long, we stood in the oddest grotto. The forest parted around in ripples from a center trees. Snow and ice crystallized around the barren branches around us, although not this one. As if by some spell, it still held all of its leaves, green and vibrant as if it were summer. The birch-like wood illuminated with an amber warmth that I still find difficult to properly word.

"Walk through it."

"Excuse me?"

N's blissful smile burned into a childish grin as he bent down to look me in the eye, "Just as I have said. Let us walk through the tree."

I made a mistake trusting him. I'm actually traveling with a mad man. I crinkled my nose in the most unattractive of ways, "You do realize we shall just bruise our faces by doing that, correct?"

"Come on," Without any hint of warning, N grasped my arm for the second time that day. He had quite the shocking amount of strength as he pulled me into the tree. I squeezed my eyes tightly, bracing for a swift crash.

Instead, something else came. It felt... light. Air twirled around me as if a dance and took away all anguish for just a sliver of a second. My feet were absent of any ground, just floating, letting me drift away. The very feeling was addictive as I dared open my eyes.

That shattered the illusion. Wind turned harsh as it threw me back, my feet dropping onto stone. The world around me was no longer the same. Strange metallic boxes raced to the sky, glass tinted black. These sky scraping boxes were everywhere, pressed into one another as if they had to conserve, yet take up, as much space they possibly could. The ground beneath me was replaced with a charcoal-resembling stone that continued on. There were also strange yellow dashes down the center, just between my feet. It was quite odd.

Lost in my thoughts, I had barely any time to hear the loud roar. It approached with fascinating speed, like a raging pokemon. I spun in all directions, trying to find the source. It was quick to find, but I had no explanation to what I saw. It was like no pokemon nor carriage I had ever seen in my readings. It was a silver metal and glass constructed beast with two bright flames for eyes as it screamed towards me. Another roar joined in from the other direction. It was much like the other creature, though colored a different shade, red. Was it a shiny form?

I imagined they would stop as they saw me, but neither did. They just continued to shrill their horrible cries as they came closer and closer to me. I was paralyzed. Minccino sunk her ears closer to her head as she couldn't stand the screaming.

Moments before impact, I was saved.

A hand shot out, intertwining with mine, and with a superhuman strength I was torn from the black road. An entire being wrapped around my back as I flew away from the beasts. We both tumbled onto a more grey stone plating the strange world, the other person cushioning my fall.

The monsters zoomed just past my nose with no remorse, powering further to wherever it was they needed to be.

Quickly rolling off, I looked beside me to see N wincing with tightened eyes. Minccino seemed to be the only pokemon with us as she shook around on her perch. The strange, strange man turned slightly to meet my eye and sheepishly smirk.

"Stay out of the street, you damn cosplayers!" a voice cried. Both of us whipped our heads around to see the oddest thing. A man wearing denim as pants, like a farmer would. He sported this overly fluffy cloak that had been cut to wrap around his arms and fall down to his torso. It seemed to be a shiny fabric glistening in the sun. I could only imagine the hours put into making such a thing by hand. My simplest dresses would take the castle maids days to stitch.

N and I turned back with bewildered looks, "What's a cosplayer?" I hushed just for his ears.

"I haven't the slightest clue," he honestly muttered before erupting into laughter. I couldn't fight joining him, for it was just too infectious. N was the first to rise back to his feet, giving a slight dusting to his clothes. I was about to join him when he offered his hand first.

Barely any hesitation, I accepted the offer.

He continued to push his grin with met eyes, "From the visits I have taken here before, I know they call this place Black City. It is in the exact place in space where White Forest used to be. However, we are approximately 500 years further in time according to my formulas. From past lure I have researched, there is a chance that the legendary Sinnohsian pokemon Dialga, creator of time, had torn this area of reality in one of his fights with his adversary, Palkia, creator of space. This resulted in the weakening between these two periods of time in the same location making it easy for beings like us to cross over."

A story like that could easily be fabricated. It could have been a complicated lie just to entertain me. It might have been. But the only thing I knew was that he believed in it.

"Fascinating, " I replied airily, smiling at his child-like excitement, "Let us explore."He returned with a beam I could have sworn radiated. So the two of us took off, dodging between the abnormally clothed people, the foreign looking pokemon, the buildings that N had informed me were "Skyscrapers".

No matter how windy it was, I hadn't felt a bit cold. No matter how far we walked, I hadn't felt a bit tired. All I saw was the waving of his green ponytail as he dashed. At some point, we had made it to an edge of the city and he took my eyes by pointing above a skyline.

It lead to a strange object in the distance, "Do you see that contraption, White?" I did. It was a huge arch breaking through all of the trees and buildings in the far distance. Small glass pods looked as if they dangling from the circular rim. For a minute, we watched as the pods sluggishly rolled around with a sort of spin the wheel was on. "They call it a Ferris Wheel. It is a ride in what they call amusement parks, places where people gather to make merriment. I have never been to one, but I have asked the people in this area about them... I haven't even been on one of those machines, but I know. I know I love Ferris wheels. The circular motion... The mechanics... They're like collections of elegant formulas. They are perfect."

We continued to watch the Ferris Wheel for a time. Our shoulders brushed one another as it carried people in a lulling circle. No matter the journey the riders took, they would always end where they began.

Inevitably, I took the first move. Clasping both my hands around N's, I looked him directly, "Then let us ride the Ferris Wheel, Sir N , it mustn't be too far."

His silver eyes looked as if they caged themselves with those words, "We mustn't."

"Why not? We may do whatever we like!"

"That is not accuate, Lady White." He seemed to sink as he talked himself down, "Time is an extremely fragile thing. If we make too much of an interaction, it could affect our decisions when we return, and change this future we see now. Arceus forbid we meet our descendants, many philosophers have theorized extreme consequences."

The word of returning hitched at my heartstrings, "Must we go back though? Can we not stay here?" What if this was what I was searching for? Perhaps I will find truth in the future, that must be it. The future was where I belonged, not my present nor the world's past. That is what I believed.

"We must, I still have things I must do, and you still have a quest of your own," he said, his voice catching a melancholy, "I can assure you you will not find what you are looking for here. Trust me, we must look into our own time for answers or dare be lost for eternity."

His soft hand interlaced between my fingers, a dull warmth bouncing between us. He quietly lead us back to the city, the way he knew to be our right time. N didn't dare look back at me as we walked briskly.

I sucked my lips in, still keeping pace, "You said our descendants... Do you think your descendants and mine might be friends in this time?"

We began to slow, "That depends, does that make us friends in our time?"

A small smirk tickled at my face, "I suppose so."

N stopped in his walk, letting me nearly run into his shoulders. He peered over with an elegant smile created with a rose-tint, "then I suppose they would be friends too."

After, we were both just two grinning fools, returning back to our time. Two naive fools pacing through the addictive tear in time without a care.

We were two fools who never saw how our fateful meeting would be the ending to this tale.