Chapter Three
Fate's Messenger
Rays of sunlight were already trickling through the leafy canopy by the time Lynn awoke. She stayed still for another minute or two, face upturned, watching the flickering patterns of light made by the leaves above fluttering in the wind. As she did, the lilting song of a Togetic wove through the woods, its melodic strains drifting over to where Lynn lay.
"To-geeiii! To-geeiiiii!" the wild Pokémon trilled. To Lynn, its cries sounded an awful lot like "Today! Todaaay!"
Today was the day, all right. A yawn dissolving her sudden smile, Lynn slid from her hammock, swaying a bit groggily as she planted her feet on the ground. She felt little grief or apprehension about departing from her childhood home. True, she had no idea where she was going to go after she left Verdant Forest. But Lynn was now ten years-old. According to the tradition of the forest children, she was now considered on her own and encouraged, if she so chose, to seek her fortune in the outside world.
That was exactly what Lynn wanted most. She'd been waiting and waiting for her chance to travel the world alone, far before she could remember having any other dreams. Where the journey led made little difference. Lynn was fairly sure she'd manage just fine, as long as she didn't have to struggle out a pained, awkward existence among other people. Traveling by herself, she'd have no companions save for the wind and clouds, who wouldn't snap at what she might say, or snicker if she didn't say anything at all. Being alone was always what Lynn had liked best.
As she slung her pack over her shoulder, however, she paused. Despite her long-held yearning to leave it all behind, Lynn definitely knew things she'd miss about Verdant Forest, the old climbing trees, the familiar noises at night, Alouelle's sharp but affectionate nagging, and Mother Woodwort's wonderful stories among them. Lynn wouldn't have terribly minded sticking around and saying goodbye to Mother Woodwort and Alouelle, at least. But what good would come out of that? Better to start out while the day's still new, Lynn assured herself. She'd forget all about home once she was underneath the open sky.
"Lynn, hey! Wait up! Wait!"
Turning, Lynn saw a stout form struggling through the undergrowth, flaxen braids swinging out with every loping leap. It was Alouelle, hair messily bound and face flushed with exertion.
"Hey," Alouelle panted, bending nearly double. Lynn waited quietly as the younger girl gulped for air. Straightening at last, Alouelle looked Lynn straight in the eye and positioned her hands indignantly on her hips. "Were you really just going to leave without telling anyone?" she demanded, furiously flipping back her straw-colored hair.
Before Lynn could stutter out an answer, Alouelle was pulling a frayed cloth ribbon from one of her braids. "Well, before you go," Alouelle said as she shook out her long hair, "take this, alright?"
Lynn glanced down at the other girl's outstretched palm and at the pale blue ribbon dangling from it. Then, she looked hesitantly up at Alouelle's round face, one side framed by wavy pale tresses, the other sporting her usual thick braid.
"Just take it," Alouelle growled, shoving the ribbon at Lynn. "Your hair's even worse than mine, and you'll need something to keep it out of the way when you're walking."
Shyly, Lynn accepted the ribbon. Then, as Alouelle watched on impatiently, she pulled back her coarse dark hair and tied it in place with fumbling fingers. "Th-thanks, Alouelle," Lynn said once she finished, tentatively shaking her head to make sure the ribbon was secure.
"Don't mention it. Now, you'd better hurry up and go before it gets too late!"
Lynn watched as Alouelle hurried back the way she'd come, disappearing between a cluster of tree trunks. "Bye, Alouelle," Lynn whispered under her breath. And she started walking.
Ancient, gnarled monsters of trees dominated most of the Verdant Forest. To a distant observer, these trees might have looked like giant skeletal toothpicks, shooting so far up that they gave barely a thought to growing out. But upon closer examination, it would become staggeringly apparent that ten stretching and straining Dragonair, linked mouth to tail, could not completely encircle the enormous trunks. Even bulkier than said trunks were the lush green treetops far, far above, shrouded in wispy white clouds.
Little sunlight filtered past the leafy masses and branching limbs; only through the rarest of gaps did shafts of light ever find their way to the forest floor. It was underneath one of these gaps that Lynn found herself that afternoon, sitting cross-legged on smooth patch of dirt and unpacking the day's lunch. She was just finishing off a small cake of ground Apricorn meal when she realized she was not alone.
Something was beating out a soft "pat-pat-pat" against the ground. Looking up from her crumbs, Lynn saw a small furry Pokémon sitting no more than a few feet away, its bushy brown tail slapping the ground with every eager wag.
With long cocked ears and white tufts of fur encircling its neck, the Pokémon was definitely an Eevee. Lynn had seen one of these rather scarce forest Pokémon only once before, and the curiosity of this one intrigued her.
"Hello," she said softly, taking out another cake. "Are you hungry?"
The Eevee hesitantly lifted one paw, as if to take a step towards her. It did look rather thin, with all that fur hanging so loosely on its small frame.
"I've got other food, too," Lynn added quickly as she rummaged through her pack. The Eevee did not react as she waved first a dried green fruit, then a handful of peeled nuts in front of it. Trying her best to recall what an Eevee might normally eat, Lynn reached back into her haversack. This time, her fingers closed around a small cloth package.
She'd nearly forgotten about the ceremony last night, not to mention the gift she had received from Asphodel and Mother Woodwort. Opening the bundle, Lynn carefully tipped out several Gold Berries. Three of the precious fruits glinted in her open palm, their metallic skins reflecting the sunlight in three blinding auras.
"Ah…would you like some of these?"
Slowly, the Pokémon trotted forward, black nose twitching. Then, indecision abandoned, it dashed into the circle of sunlight with its luxuriant tail bobbing behind it.
Lynn smiled reassuringly and held the Gold Berries closer.
The Eevee skidded to a stop in front of her and, bowing its head, delicately took all three of the Berries. To Lynn's amusement, it did not swallow them. Instead, the Eevee simply stored them in its mouth, causing its cheeks to puff out with fruit.
"Saving them for later?" Lynn asked, even though she knew the Pokémon couldn't answer. "Or are you taking them to a friend?"
Cheeks still bulging, the Eevee looked innocently up into Lynn's gaze.
What?
Lynn's cry caught in her throat, leaving her to gape soundlessly at the Pokémon's furry face. She had no idea how she could have ever missed something so glaringly obvious.
The Eevee's gaze was as strikingly golden as the Gold Berries it had just taken. Even now, they were glinting with the same metallic sheen as the Berries' tough shells, pulsing with the same gentle aura as the bark of a Gold Berry tree.
The golden eyes blinked, and before Lynn could react, the Eevee had snatched the entire package of Berries from her hand. With a swish of its tail, it was tumbling back out of the sunlight, racing away from Lynn at top speed.
"Wait!" Lynn shouted, bolting up. "You can't have all of those!"
The Eevee ran faster. Hiking her pack over a shoulder, Lynn dashed after it. Staggering through a clump of bushes and leaping over a maze of naked roots, she caught sight of the golden-eyed Eevee darting between two tree trunks. As she reached the trees and eased through, however, the ground dropped out abruptly from under her right foot.
Yelping in surprise, Lynn half-fell, half-skid down the unexpected slope. Her feet twisted under her body as she hit bottom in a cloud of dust. She gasped as her head spun for one nauseous moment, disoriented by both the sudden fall and ensuring debris. As her mind slid back into focus, she became sharply aware of her bare elbows, scraped raw from the rough pebbles and stinging with pain. Grimacing, Lynn scrambled back onto her feet, gingerly rubbing her arms and peering around.
She had fallen into a deep ditch, one that had been almost entirely concealed by the heavy overgrowth above. The Eevee was nowhere in sight, and her ankle was beginning to throb slightly.
Cautiously, Lynn made her way forward, surprised at the spongy feel of the ground beneath her toes. Turning her gaze downward, she saw that the soil was carpeted not in grass, but a fine layer of emerald moss. Is there water nearby? she mused. It wouldn't be a bad idea to refill her canteen before leaving. Now if she could only find the stream…but then, she could worry about that later.
Listening intently for the soft footfalls of the golden-eyed Eevee, Lynn started across the mossy blanket. Ahead, she spotted an opening carved into one of the steep earthen walls surrounding the ditch. Squinting, Lynn could just glimpse a pinprick of light shining through from the other side.
Seeing as it had to be the only way out, she stepped into the cavernous passage. The heels of her feet clapped against the ground, the sound of each footstep amplified several times over in the dark cave. It was eerie at first, and Lynn did her best to rush straight ahead. A minute later, she was bursting into blinding sunlight, stumbling across the grass at the other end.
As if it had been waiting there all along, the Eevee crouched less than a yard away from the cavern's mouth. Its liquid-bright eyes locked onto Lynn's own. Slowly, and ever so deliberately, the Eevee set down the cloth bundle it had stolen. Then, as if it hadn't a care in the world, it trotted nonchalantly off, tail waving behind it like a jaunty flag.
Heaving a sigh, Lynn knelt by the bundle, taking it in her hands and unwrapping it carefully. A pile of Gold Berries tumbled into her palms. Counting them once, then once again, Lynn was relieved to find all seven remaining Berries still there. Resolving not to let something like that happen again, she shakily rose to her feet.
"Sorry about that."
Head jerking up, Lynn almost dropped her Gold Berries. Sitting cross-legged on a rock, a couple yards in the distance, was a boy only slighter older than Lynn herself. He had positioned himself strategically underneath a gap in the canopy, one of the few places where the streams of light from above came in virtually unrestricted.
Judging by his incredibly pallid complexion, however, Lynn would have guessed that this boy rarely sat out in the sun, preferring instead to skulk about the darker, deeper portions of the forest. But then, his skin wasn't the only thing that was too pale about him. Perhaps it was just an aftereffect of being illuminated in a light too blinding, but everything, from the boy's longish brown hair to his wrinkled old jacket, had an oddly washed-out appearance, as if Lynn was merely viewing his reflection in a too-shallow pool.
"Hey," the boy called out when Lynn didn't respond. "Sorry my friend here took off with your stuff like that. Eon gets funny like that sometimes. Don't you, Eon?"
From behind the boy's back, the Eevee poked out its furry head, golden eyes glittering unreadably.
"Oh, um…it's okay, I-I…." Feeling the eyes of both the boy and Eevee boring into her, Lynn found herself at a loss for further words.
The boy gave a short, glib laugh at this. "Hear that, Eon?" he asked the golden-eyed Eevee with feigned incredulity. "She's decided to let you off easy this time. The least you could do is thank the poor little girl."
The Eevee remained immobile and, judging by its unblinking gaze, apparently unruffled.
"Call me Wreander," the boy said to Lynn, sticking out a gloved hand. To Lynn's unease, the tips of his glove were spiked with long silver claws. Friendly as Wreander's grin looked, Lynn kept her hand firmly at her side. She also kept a fair distance away from the boy's rock.
"Polite, aren't you?" Wreander laughed, taking the point and retracting his hand. "I don't bite, you know. Not usually. Though sometimes I foam at the mouth."
He sighed with exaggerated heaviness when Lynn still hesitated to answer. "Not only polite, but a great conversationalist as well," he commented, mouth curving into what looked unfortunately like a smirk. "Well, Lynnet of the Verdant Forest, I guess you'll be wanting some compensation for those three Berries Eon ate."
He gave the Eevee a teasing nudge, and the Pokémon licked its lips in recollection of its tasty meal.
"H-how…how do you know who I am?" Lynn asked Wreander uneasily.
"Oh, I have my ways. Seriously? Look." He gestured to the cloth-swathed Berries in Lynn's hand. "It says your name right on there. The package Eon swiped."
Squinting anxiously, Lynn brought the cloth to her face and scrutinized it. There were some strange black strains on the cloth, but she'd assumed they'd been inked there by Mother Woodwort for decoration.
Wreander's eyes narrowed as Lynn nervously examined the alien marks. "You can't read, can you?" he asked her. "Or write, then."
"Wh-what?"
"Oh, nothing." Sighing, Wreander ran a hand through his scruffy light brown hair. "It'll probably come back to haunt you later, but that's not my problem. The thing is, Lynn, you gave Eon three of your Gold Berries. Now, we owe you three choices."
Lynn shook her head and hurriedly started to back up. Before she could get very far, however, Wreander spoke again. His voice was filled with mirth. "It's been a while, you know, since a ten year-old starting out a journey has gotten three choices. Consider it an honor, Lynnet of Verdant Forest. A very big honor."
"Ch-choices?" Lynn whispered finally, curiosity carrying the words out from between her trembling lips.
Wreander's dark eyes blinked in surprise, then shone with contained laughter. "First, the legalities," he informed her. "You only get one choice. You choose something, then realize you don't like it, too bad. I could care less, so you'd better have enough caution for two. Good so far?"
Though far from comprehending Wreander's true purpose, Lynn nodded to urge him on.
"First choice. You can live your entire existence in peaceful monotony. You'll never do anything that can be considered great, or be remembered by anyone after you've left this world. But you'll also be guaranteed a long secure life and painless death of natural causes."
"What? But you c-can't…" Lynn started to argue. Her voice wavered as Wreander continued, unperturbed by her outburst.
"Second choice. You can become a blazing star. Your life will be one short, dazzling burst of glory. People will remember you as a hero for generations to come. They'll also remember how tragically you died, your young life snuffed out before you ever had a chance to grow up."
His mouth twitched amusedly at Lynn's widening eyes. "Beginning to get the gist of things now?"
Lynn shook her head dizzily, dark ponytail swishing from side to side. "B-but there's no way for you t-to…to change my life like that," she remonstrated in a faint voice. "Isn't that…impossible?"
Wreander snapped his fingers nonchalantly. Instantly, a translucent ring of pale blue fire sprang up around him. Wisps of sapphire light flickered over the boy's bare feet and forearms, wrapping his body in a shifting ghostly fog. Lynn could hear Eon yipping as Wreander, engulfed by that shimmering shroud, rose slowly into the air.
The boy began to float towards her, his skin no longer white, but tinted an eerie bloodless blue. With a strangled gasp, Lynn took a hurried step back and tripped over a rock in the dirt. Feet twisting underneath her body, she lurched onto the ground with a heavy thud.
"I, for one," Wreander said in a wry voice, dark eyes glimmering in his wraithlike face, "don't usually start off so cynically. I prefer to believe that things are possible, until proven impossible. Still, if you want to challenge me, go right ahead and choose…" His lips curled into what was, this time, an unmistakably malevolent smirk.
Hands shaking as she struggled to sit up, Lynn spoke softly, straining vainly to stifle the trembling in her voice. "B-but then…then what's the third choice?" she asked Wreander slowly, quietly. As rationally as she could possibly manage to sound, which by this point wasn't very much at all. "Didn't you…y-you said there were three of them."
"Oh, so she can count!" The boy closed his eyes for a brief moment, during which Lynn hastily bolted onto her feet. "The third choice, Lynnet of Verdant Forest?" Wreander said, eyes snapping back open as soon as Lynn moved. "You walk away from here of your own volition. Leaving without picking either of the other two choices."
Uneasy silence hung between the two of them. Lynn bit her lip and lowered her eyes, while Wreander watched her brow furrow with unconcealed amusement. "Made up your mind yet?" he prodded, crossing his arms across the front of his faded jacket. "I don't have all century, you know. Not this time." With another snap of the fingers, he was lowering his body onto the ground to face Lynn directly.
Lynn, eyes fixed downward, saw only bare feet sinking into the moss as the boy walked forward. They had become pearly pale once more, a marked contrast to the vibrant, yielding emerald below. "I-I guess what I don't understand," she said at last, still staring closely at the ground, "is why you're giving these choices to me. I just gave some Berries to that Eevee. That…it wasn't very special or important. W-was it?"
"Do you think it was, Lynn?" Wreander challenged. "Whatever you think, now that's what makes the difference. You understand?"
Lynn flinched as a flare of intense blue light rippled across the ground right before her eyes. When the spots cleared from her vision, Wreander's pale face was inches from her own. "When people are talking to you," he informed Lynn sarcastically, "you're supposed to look them in the face."
From its position on the boy's glowing blue shoulder, the golden-eyed Eevee was staring pointedly at her.
Lynn's hand tightened around the Gold Berries she was still clutching, as if seeking reassurance from the glowing forms underneath the cloth. "I guess I've chosen, then," she mumbled.
"Say that again, louder this time."
Taking a deep breath, Lynn scrunched up her eyes and summoned her final reserves of courage. "I-I've chosen!" she managed to screech out.
And the boy could object, she was racing across the moss and towards the tunnel she'd come from, heart palpitating furiously all the while. She half-expected Wreander to stop her, to grab her by the arm or force her to freeze with his strange powers. But as Lynn's feet pounded down the dark passage, all she heard was the sound of his laughter echoing in the clearing behind her.
"Think you'll beat out both of the other two choices, Lynnet of the Verdant Forest?" Wreander jeered after her. "Maybe you'll live a long, prosperous life, and become a legend while you're at it. Then again, you might die young and be forgotten as well. Do you think so, Lynn? Remember, it's what you think that matters in the end!"
Lynn only ran faster. As she burst out of the earthen tunnel to meet the blinding sunlight, the world itself rushed up to meet her. Lynn felt herself lurching forward, feet kicking at the air, hands grasping for something, anything to keep herself from falling. The packet of Gold Berries was slipping out from between her fingers; brilliant metallic sparkles were bursting before her eyes…
The last things Lynn saw were the tendrils of a vaporous blue mist, wrapping themselves over her terrified face. Wreander's mocking words sounded above her, bearing rapidly down as she struggled not to scream, then not to suffocate.
Beginning to get the gist of things now? Remember, it's what you think that matters in the end!
Light was pressing on Lynn's eyelids when she came to at last. Putting a hand to her painfully pounding forehead and struggling into a sitting position, she became aware of hard dirt below pressing into her back. Looking up, she could see a blue patch of sky, shining through a wide gap in the tree branches.
This was the same spot where Lynn had eaten her lunch, before she'd seen the Eevee and gone running off after it. With an unpleasant start, Lynn recalled Wreander's smirking face and unearthly powers. The strange boy and Eevee, and the equally cryptic choices they'd offered her, made as little sense now as ever. Had they been no more than figures from a bad dream, twisted figments of her own tired mind?
The cloth holding the Gold Berries, Lynn noticed suddenly, was resting on the ground beside her. Biting her lip, she took it in her hands and unwrapped it.
Seven sparkling Berries lay heaped there. Lynn anxiously counted them once again just to be completely, utterly sure. A sickening chill creeping up her skin, she folded the cloth back up and tucked the whole thing into her pack with trembling fingers.
Shivering, she got to her feet, her cramped legs groaning as she did. After shaking them to relieve the pins-and-needles sensation, Lynn swiftly set off again. She was determined to put as much distance between herself and this part of the forest as possible.
Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw a wisp of silvery blue haze materializing from the sunlight. Heart jolting in trepidation, Lynn spun about and met face-to-face with…
Absolutely nothing.
Scolding herself for being so paranoid, she turned away and, determined not to let her imagination run out of control, started walking.
Still, despite her efforts to erase it, Wreander's laugh still echoed ever-so-faintly in her mind.