Chapter 5
Bugger
"Ezzy?" the woman called out, a strange muffled but roaring echo resounding on the walls around us. She was wandering in the bright, thick white fog, the wet grass hugging her cold bare feet, the look of worry painted heavily upon her face. The tattered white dress, loosely hanging on her thin frame, was slightly illuminated by the glowing fog and fell to her ankles.
I did not know the woman, or why she called my name. I could not feel my body, unable to to breathe or call out to her, nor motion to her where I am. I could only watch her wander around the grove until the grass darkened. She reacted to something hidden by the fog, and the world darkened as her scream was muffled and died down.
Suddenly, the light returned, a spotlight descending upon a sleeping woman tied to a chair. Unlike the previous woman, who could only be described as 'gray', this woman was 'orange' and 'fire'. Reddish orange hair and crisp, golden eyes wearing a red, orange and yellow dress with black highlights.
The chair she slept in was a folding garden chair, and not long after the spot light turned on, the back right leg collapsed, bending in the middle and causing the woman to fall, and like magic, the fall was slow, but once it hit, the spot light turned off and I could feel myself wake.
I let my eyes slide open, to see that it was still dark outside. The clock on the end table told me it was just past one, but something was tugging at my heart. I moved Baelog off me, then rolled off the bed. Not making a sound, I passed Blake by and left the room, and noticed Darren drinking some water in the kitchen. While I wasn't the one who could say much about being up at one, I wasn't the one who did, and it surprised me when she didn't ask me about it.
"You heading out to the cave without your team?" she asked, and I flinched.
"It... doesn't concern you, or any of them," I told her. "I'm the only one who has business with Josh beside our trainer, who can deal with him on her own time."
"I'm coming with you if that's how you're going to act. You're not going to get in if you leave me behind," Darren said, grabbing a jacket and putting on her shoes.
Outside, she led us away from the town and cave to a secluded section of the pass to a patch of trees, which hid a path up and into the mountain range. Utilizing this, we found a way into the mountain and found that it was illuminated. Further in, we heard someone fighting around one of the many corners, so we pressed against the wall of the corner and listened.
"Damn, how many, haugh, of there, are you? Haurgh!" a gruff yet exhausted man said, while his opponents chattered, using their persistent high pitched echoes to communicate. As much as I thought about getting to Isa before Josh got too far, I couldn't leave this guy to die.
I dashed around the corner, drawing my knives and registered the battle: a gravely injured veteran fighting a large pack of coyote-thin mongrels, who were constantly clicking as the lack of eyes in their otherwise humanoid skull.
Their blindness easily gave me the impression that stealth was their weakness, but for this batch it wasn't really an option, since they were already upon the veteran and nailing him with stones. I dragged them off of him and Darren did the same, and in response to our arrival the veteran got up and pushed the last of them off of him. The mongrels retreated, bumping into the walls and into the other corridors.
"Thanks," the veteran said, and Darren and I helped him get to him against the wall opposite the way the mongrels ran. "My trainer is further in, but I don't know if he's-"
"Don't, we'll get him out of there. You'll see," Darren promised, and the two of us hurried after them.
The feral beings had gone to get reinforcements from the others, though Darren and I took care of them easily enough. The trainer wasn't in sight, so we pressed on, but not much further in was a wide open cavern of them, and they swarmed the place. We stood on an elevated section of the entrance, which was about 3 feet of the ground we could see. There were egg sacs plastered around the walls.
The clicking drowned out the noise we made, so I picked up a stone and tossed it into the fray. Once it landed, all of them fell silent, and stopped moving. I quietly picked another stone up and threw it like the last one, and they all flocked to the source, before they started attacking each other in confusion.
In the clearing of the mass, I saw the trainer weakly crawl away, looking toward us. Darren started down the side of the platform, and I joined her. We moved quickly to the trainer, and before the mongrels realized we were there, Darren and I carried the trainer to the veteran.
"Geogg," the trainer said wearily once we were in sight of him. "I'm glad that you're still-"
"Quiet, John. Save your breath for the way back," Geogg said.
"We can only get one of you back at a time,"Darren noted under her breath.
"Shut up," I told her, before the cries of the mongrels emerged from the den. "Take John, and come back for us." Darren stuttered, trying to tell me that she wasn't going to leave me to the mongrels, but I would have none of it. "Go."
I let her take the trainer and turned to fight off the mongrels. "So, hero, where's your trainer?" Geogg asked.
"Getting drunk with a friend of hers."
"Ha!" the man chuckled. The mongrels appeared at the entrance to the room and I grabbed the handles on my blades, but then the mongrels paused. Reflectively, I stopped and we stood at a standstill, as I noted they weren't clicking, just listening.
We stood silent for several minutes, when another person entered the room, drawing their swords from the sheath on their back. In the dull light of the lanterns hanging from the wall, I couldn't tell whether she was a pokémon or trainer, since she had no partner, and at the same time her presence was both threatening and indifferent.
"Mors," she spoke.
"Bugger."
"Geogg."
The mongrels snarled and resumed their clicking, before charging forward. Mors charged and downed several of them at once and pushed deeper in as I handled the ones that got past her. In moments, Mors disappeared in the thick of the mongrels as they pushed me back and when they all lay on the ground. I checked to see that Geogg was still conscious and hurried after Mors.
All of the mongrels lay dead on the chamber floor, the egg sacs ruined. Mors stood against the back wall looking toward me, waiting for me to speak up, but rocked herself onto her feet when it was apparent that I wasn't going to.
"You should leave," Mors told me, menace in her tone.
"I can't carry Geogg by myself."
"Useless thief," she said, and walked back to where Geogg was and used a healing spell to get him back on his feet. "Now, leave. I don't exist, this place doesn't exist. Out."
"Mighty fine way to dismiss us," I retorted, and she drew one of her swords and pointed toward the exit, giving me a meaningful glare.
I helped Geogg out of the cave and to the pokémon center and found Darren waiting. "Did the girl arrive in time?" Darren asked, once Geogg was out of ear shot.
"Yeah, she did," I told her in an irritated tone. "Let's get some sleep. It's going to be dawn soon."
"Yep!" Darren said, relieved that the night was over with. We didn't get much closer to Cerulean though, which was disappointing.
Volker
I lifted the headset off me and looked around, finding myself in the capsule. My thought returned to me as it lifted and I stared at the face of the person that I knew as Athena. She smiled at me as I reached up and touched the scar between her eyes, recalling the veggie demons that had caused it.
"Don't remember it?" she asked, and I shook my head.
"No, I do. Its just, seeing it there on you when, I don't know. I don't know how to explain it."
"Then don't," Athena commented and pulled me up off the bed. I stood and she led me out of the room. I saw Josh waiting in the other room, and he flinched as we passed by. "Until her game is over, don't talk to him outside of it," Athena warned, and I looked back to see him hanging his head.
Athena led me through the building to the lounge where a girl as old as us in gothic drab was waiting. She stood up when we walked in and looked at me with annoyance. Athena ignored her and walked past her, but she stopped me as I followed.
"Mors," she said.
Mors? The roman god of death? Wait, would the appropriate response be Thanatos?
"Thanatos?" I asked after a moment, and she pushed me back the way I came and grabbed a sword resting against her chair and pointed it at me. "Wait, stop. What do you mean by Mors?"
She hesitated, then looked to see Athena standing at the doorway. "Wasn't he the one-"
"Not yet," Athena answered. "Volk, c'mon. You need to rest up."
The girl lowered her weapon and let me pass, and Athena took me to a dining hall where I saw Saikun talking to Criss over a meal. "Don't talk to anyone," Athena whispered, and sat me down for the moment. The conversation between Saikun and Criss went silent as I did, and it bothered me. It wasn't that I was interested in other people's conversations, it was just that they shut up because I wasn't supposed to hear it yet.
And that, of all things, is going to really get on my nerves.
"Hollis, what do you know, you actually do eat sometimes," a friendly voice said, and I turned to see a cat girl in black looking me over with interest. "So, when we headed out to deal with Ingram?"
I stayed silent, and she looked confused. "You konw, Ingram Harris? The one-" she looked over and made some gestures, and I looked to see Athena pointing at the door.
"Oh, is he not-? Ah damn it. Forget what I said!" she said, hurrying out of the cafeteria.
I looked at Athena, finding she had put some food before me, and she gave me a faked smile. "Not yet, but soon?" I asked.
"Hardly," she confessed, defeated.
After we ate, Athena showed me to the barracks and said she'd pick me up around seven. I walked to the nearest empty bunk and sat down, when Josh entered the bunkhouse.
"We really need to talk," I told him, and he laughed.
"I'll wait up in Cerulean. Brings that Mors chick if you happen to cross paths with her," Josh said, taking the bunk next to mine.
"What do you have with her?"
"I'm a guy cursed to get around a lot, and it tends to get me in trouble."
"I'm not sure that's really a curse to you."
Josh fell silent, and I assumed he was asleep. I decided to follow Athena's instructions and got some sleep.
Bugger
The dream about the woman resumed when I felt sound asleep. The woman that was tied to the chair now standing and wearing a light black gown. She took a seat at the bar which I found her in, and ordered something I couldn't pronounce.
Tired from not controlling the dream, I willed myself into it, and it distorted the scene. The woman noticed and turned to face me, standing as the bar stool vanished under her.
"So, the trouble maker is here at last," the woman joked.
"I thought it might've been a slight tiresome to leave this dance to the lonely night," I flirted, offering my hand.
"Oh, you silly man. You know not the woman you wish to dance with, do you?"
"If the lady offers her name, I will take even the most bloodiest hand in dance, even if it was stained with my own blood."
"Oh, darling. I simply must meet you while awake, deary," she said, softly taking my hand and leaning on my chest. "I can be found on the tip of the Cerulean Cape. Please, hurry, my dear."
"I shall, my dear. Only, the name of the woman that I shall meet evades your lips."
"You will find that your woman has will make a very large impression on you even without one."
She laughed softly, and disappeared into the foggy surroundings. Like before, the scene darkened, but lightened only with the sun's rays. The woman's presence held ground in my mind, yet my heart rejected her, since it was for Isa, yet I felt that was wrong, however right it was.