The day went on, the scenery reeling by endlessly as Lapras pushed himself up the Cornice River.

Around midday, a warm draft from the south touched upon the carrier Pokémon and his rider. As the river wound across the countryside, seeping around the hills and down into the subtle valleys beneath them, the Cornice River veered to the south some dozens of miles. As he followed the stream, Lapras found himself surrounded by a prairie where the harsh winter winds were not as noticeable, and the small critters of the land could still bear to frolic around in the tall grass and the water-weeds.

Though it was only noon, Lapras had put in a long day already. Nearly six hours of straight swimming behind him, the twinges of fatigue began to set in.

"Say, Albert, I'm thinking about taking a rest for a while," Lapras told the bored and blank-faced Snover seated between the knobs on his shell. "What do you think?"

"Uh-huh," Albert muttered back, his eyes somewhere faraway. Staring down at the water for too long had given him funny feelings.

"Indeed, you may photosynthesize until your heart is content, but I still require rest and nourishment once in a while," Lapras chuckled. "Now is as good a time as any, I suppose. We've made good progress. I do not believe the caravan is too far away. And plenty of things to eat around here…"

Lapras forced himself through a sea of dead cattails and brushed against the river's shore. A family of wild Linoone who'd been lapping at the river's water scurried away as Lapras set himself upon the river bank, allowing Albert a safe step onto the land.

"This will not be very long," Lapras assured the child as he set his feet on the ground and wobbled back and forth, trying to find his balance. "A half hour, at most. Don't go too far, or at least out of earshot, if you can. It doesn't look like there are any predators to you around here, but predators have a way of hiding from their prey. You'd never know."

"Hey, I have an idea," Albert said suddenly with a clever grin. "Let's spar."

"What… now?" Lapras chuckled, shaking his head and lifting himself up onto the land.

"Yeah, now," Albert said. "I won't fall asleep this time. Promise."

"I'd rather not, little one," Lapras honestly replied. "I am tired. And my stomach wants to be filled."

"A Pokémon must learn to fight whenever it is necessary, even if they are tired or hungry!" Albert shouted evilly. "I'm one of those intelligent foes taking the advantage to strike!"

"Albert…" Lapras scolded, "Do you really want to attack me? If so, go ahead… Go right on ahead. I'll fight back."

Albert hesitated, feeling his advance already defeated. Of course, Lapras fought reasonably when he was training, at least enough that Albert could manage to hold his own if he focused. But here, Lapras would not be training. He would be defending himself against a bothersome nuisance standing in the way of his meal. Flustered, he sighed. There wouldn't be a point to it.

"Didn't think so," Lapras said with a wry grin. "See? You're learning already. It's not just about standing up to those stronger than you. It's about picking fights you can win. Besides… I'm sure you can find some way to occupy yourself for a half hour. So go. Explore. Have fun. Just sound your cry if you get in trouble."

Albert took a look at his surroundings. There were plants. Most of them were yellow and withering from the winter winds, but there was more vegetation than he was ever used to at his old home. All kinds of tall grass and weeds sprung up around the riverbanks, rising like a jungle around the little one. A few strange chirping sounds rose from them, as if some frogs, or birds, or possibly insects were hiding beneath the tiny canopy and calling for company. He waddled off through the vegetation, wondering if he could find any sights that could interest him.

So, this is what the outside world is like, Albert mused. Eh… this is just like home was, but… messy? And yet… somehow, I don't feel too out-of-place here. I'm a plant.

Albert paused to look over some half-wilting sunflower-like stalks that towered over his head. A flower wobbled as a small Ledyba scaled the crown, peering around the pedals and carefully watching the newcomer.

I wonder… do plants like to be around other plants? Albert asked himself. Seems a little lonely… Plants don't really talk. They just… sit there and absorb sunlight all day. And grow. They can't even think. Yet… Hmm… Maybe… maybe that's me? Maybe that's why I never had very many friends? Because I'm a boring plant?

"Hello… whatever you are," Albert said oddly to the bug. "I bet you don't even talk, do you?"

The ladybug Pokémon stood still and said nothing, only rhythmically waving its antennae in Albert's direction.

Hmmm, Albert considered, disregarding the insect and checking out some dried-up seed bearing plants hanging above his head. I always thought I would just be happier on my own… out in the forest with the trees… The trees that can't talk… Nobody to—

"YEahgh!!"

*Splash*

Barely having time to gasp in surprise, the ground disappeared underneath Albert's feet, dropping him down a muddy slope and into a shallow reservoir of water.

Pausing for a moment to let his mind catch up, Albert found himself up to his eyes in the shore of a large lake, the ripples from his fall still expanding across the surface. He stood, stunned, silently scolding himself for not having watched where he was walking.

The lake was very large, appearing from his low point-of-view that it practically spanned to the horizon. It had been hidden on all sides by the stalks of oversized grass. Looking down, he could see dozens of tiny tadpoles swirling around his feet through the crystal-clear water. He could see the gravel lining the lake bed, but it turned invisible as it dropped off down a deep slope. It faded off as it ramped deeper into the dark abyss, and he couldn't see the bottom. The sunlight started to burn into his eyes as it reflected from the lake's surface.

Wondering if he should yell for Lapras, he began to inch away from the underwater inline. He wasn't scared, just a little startled; he didn't hate water, after all, just as long as it wasn't over his head.

That's when he saw them.

Little, moving silhouettes hovering underneath the water, surrounding him at a distance. They'd just appeared there, as if rushing in for a view of the giant object that had fallen into the lake. Fish Pokémon.

Fascinated, he stood perfectly still, watching to see what the fish would do. He knew that fish didn't usually draw themselves toward a threat. These fish… could they be special?

There were four of them. Four fish Pokémon. They still weren't close enough for Albert to see their shape or color, but he could tell they were watching him. He watched back, his heart pounding in his chest, eager to see if they would approach him further. He figured that the surface of the water was invisible to them, so he appeared just a big awkward stump protruding into their territory.

He waited longer. Two more little shadows appeared. They were communicating with each other. Calling others to witness the anomaly of his presence. They kept their distance, wary that it could strike at any moment. Maybe they thought he was a fishing Pokémon, looking to grab a snack. Even if he was, he knew that he wouldn't be able to catch them if he tried: smart fish, he remembered the Magikarp saying, knew how to stay away from predators.

The fish swam together, passing next to each other, circling around him. Now, there was no mistaking it: they were talking to one another. They had to be intelligent fish. He held his breath in anticipation. He wanted to speak to them. It'd been a fancy of his for a while.

Finally, after the standoff nearly lasted for ten minutes, one of the fish slowly rose to the surface of the water. Albert tensed up.

The fish lifted its head and eyes above the water, treading with its lower fins and keeping its gills submerged. It had splotchy brown scales and blue fins, and wasn't all that visually appealing. But he wasn't going to say that. He tensed up as the fish eyed him.

"Uh… good afternoon, odd creature of… grass… and ice…?" the fish spoke, slurring its words oddly. "Are you… are you well? You have been standing in the lake for many minutes. Do you require help?"

Albert's voice locked up for a moment.

"Or… are you feral? You're feral, aren't you?" the fish said sadly. "In that case, you must have gotten a whack to the head recently…"

"NO! No, no… no… I'm… I'm not feral!" Albert spurted, startling the fish and causing it to jump back, bumping into some of its submerged kin. "I'm… I'm a Snover."

"Oh… well, then… Snover…" the fish gurgled, at a loss for words, "Are you quite alright? You look as though your feet are frozen in place, like some bird perched in wait for a meal. But you're no bird…"

"I'm… I'm fine," Albert said. "I'm just… I like fish. I like talking to fish. I guess."

"Oh… is that all, is it?" the bass laughed, the truly amusing fish-type laugh that he remembered the Magikarp having. "And here, we all thought you'd just fallen in and lost your mind. Well… in that case… I suppose I don't have anywhere to be…"

And with that, the fish rose above the surface of the water, still waving its fins and opening its gills as if it was still submerged.

"AIGUGHHHH!I" Albert yelped, totally unprepared for the sight. "AUGHHH! AIGUHGH!! AUGH!! Y- Y- Y- you're—"

Albert struggled and splashed water everywhere, leaping back from the sight of the fish inexplicably floating in mid-air. He'd been just as surprised when he learned fish could talk, and was prepared for that, but this… this was just too much! This fish could defy reality!

"Hey, hey! It's nothing! It's alright… Snover!" The bass laughed, hanging in the air, spinning around to look at itself. "This is… nothing. Just a waterfall pebble!"

"Waterfall… pebble?" Albert barely said, still reeling from the shock, his back up against the river bank.

"It's an enchanted stone," the fish said. "Surely you've seen enchanted stones before, Snover? They do all sorts of things. Protect you from harm, let you evolve… well, this one lets a Pokémon move with impunity through air or water. We don't use them very much, seeing as though… well… they frighten other Pokémon and make us ridiculously easy targets for birds to just snatch up… but they help when we want to move from one body of water to another, you see? We just hold it in our mouth like this and we can just swim over the land as if it were water, for a limited time, of course."

"O—oh," Albert responded, relaxing himself. "That's… that's weird."

"Yeah. It's a secret among fish," the bass said. "Anyway… I don't believe I've introduced myself. I'm Horatio. I'm a Feebas. Pleased to meet you, Snover. Never seen a Pokémon quite like you before. How'd you chance upon our home? Are you exploring?"

"N-no, just… fell in, I guess," Albert replied. "Heh. Wow. That is weird. Weird. So weird."

"Yes, we know. Land Pokémon tell us all the time when they see us using it," the bass said, rolling his eyes, and darting around in mid-air. "But hey… want to give it a try?"

"Me?" Albert cried.

"Yes, you, who else?" the fish said, darting closer to Albert's head. "You like talking to fish, you say? Come on under the water. I bet my family would like to meet you."

Albert looked beneath the surface of the water, at the gathering of fish that had inched closer to him. Their scales glimmered in the refracted sunlight.

"So… what about it?" the fish asked again. "Care to take a dive into our world?"

Not waiting for an answer, Horatio swam right before Albert's eyes. From its mouth, the fish protruded a little golden rock, its sides rounded and polished like a marble. Albert lifted his stalk-like hands to accept the offering, clutching it tightly.

*Plop!* the Feebas fell into the water. It swam in a circle, then lifted its face above the surface once more.

Albert turned the little nugget-shaped jewel over in his hands. It was warm and slimy, probably from being inside of a fish's mouth for a while. However, as he touched it, the warmth seemed to spread to the rest of his body, surrounding him. That's when he realized he couldn't even feel the water anymore. Though he was standing waist-high in the lake, it felt, impossibly, as though he was high and dry.

"Well, whenever you're ready, come in!" it beckoned. "That's all you need. You can breathe under the water with that! Just don't drop it, or you'll be in some trouble. Come!"

Grasping the little thing with both hands to keep it from falling from his grasp, Albert took a wary step toward the ramp leading deeper into the lake. His instincts all cried in alarm, telling him he'd drown, but he ignored them as he inched himself farther into the water.

After nearly tumbling down a steep drop-off, Albert realized he was fully underwater.

It was the strangest sensation he'd ever felt. The light was distorted, waving and bobbling around, making it difficult to tell where things actually were. The water was mostly empty, save for the collection of muddy pebbles lining the floor underneath. Sound was very muffled, though he could clearly hear some sounds, such as the nearby voices of fish.

And through it all, his lungs rose and fell as normal. He was breathing. Underwater.

Marveling at this odd power, he barely noticed the fish which soon swarmed him, all looking similar to Horatio. He found it hard to believe they could tell one another apart.

"Hello, weird Pokémon!" one yelled. "Welcome underwater! Bet it feels really weird, doesn't it?"

"Yeah…" Albert responded, his mind lost in a million thoughts.

"We don't get very many visitors here," another Feebas said. "Actually, we never get any visitors. We're fish! The only things that visit us are other Pokémon looking to eat us!"

"We thought you were sick, or something," another said. "Maybe you stepped on a Paras and got paralyzed or something? We have some of those around here."

"So… uh… uhm… hi," Albert managed, glancing around and into the invisible depths of the water below. "This is… fun. So… uh… I've always wondered… what's life like down here? Do you have homes?"

"Why wouldn't we? We're Pokémon, aren't we?" Horatio laughed. "Don't believe me? Here, we'll show you around!"

The fish all swarmed forward, moving like deranged birds around his head. He was sure to tread carefully, knowing that one wrong step on the slippery slope would not only send him careening forward, but would make him drop his waterfall pebble and drown. He sidled from rock to rock, staying out of the mudslides, a pleasant shiver shooting through him as the lake's temperature dropped quickly with every inch he descended.

He tried to listen in on the chatter the fish made, trying to understand what kind of life they led.

"Ergo should see this!" one said quietly. "It's been a year since we let a visitor down. Where is he?"

"Ergo's in the other lake," the other answered. "Won't be back in a week."

"What should we show him first? How about the sand pit?"

"Why not ask him about the world up there, first? Quagsire doesn't come around much anymore. We should ask him if he knows any news!"

"Now, now, that can wait until later," Horatio said. "The waterfall pebbles don't last forever, remember. Don't want to waste his time with an interrogation."

"Actually… I can tell you something," Albert spoke up, finishing a shimmy down a slippery rock and planting himself on steady mud. "The Master… took over Frozen Spring. I… I used to live there. And he kicked me out."

There was a pause.

"Wait… Frozen Spring?" Horatio said oddly. "Isn't that… Oracle Lake? Yeah, we received word of that recently… there was some sort of battle, and…"

"Only… that isn't the story we heard," another fish spoke up. "We heard that… it fell."

Albert blinked.

"Fell?" he repeated. "Fell? What do you mean, fell!?"

"Wait… you don't know?" Horatio said. "Your home… is…"

Horatio paused. A realization struck him.

"You don't know…" he said thoughtfully, reeling back in the water. "Your eyes…"

"Wait… what are you saying, Horatio?" Albert demanded. "You heard my home fell?"

Horatio was silent. His companions looked intently at one another.

"Then you heard wrong," Albert told them. "The Master just decided some Pokémon had to leave."

"Hey… uh… I propose we stop talking about this!" a Feebas said. "No use arguing on a day like this. Show the newcomer around a bit. Let's get some culture in him before he has to keep on his way, huh?"

"Hey, yes! As I was saying, let's keep focused," Horatio said quickly. "This isn't a small lake. But while you're here, we can show you some of it, can't we? Huh? So, let's get on with it!"

Mesmorized, and quickly forgetting the inaccurate story the fish had heard, Albert continued his steady climb down into the watery pit and wondered what strange sights awaited him.

---

At last, after a full five minutes of careful climbing while holding the waterfall pebble, Albert planted his feet upon the perfectly-flat pond floor…

…And couldn't believe his eyes.

The bottom of the lake was paved. Colorful cobblestones of every shade of black, white, and grey, lined the bottom, not unlike many of the decorative streets of the Frozen Spring. Only, this was not quite a street, as it was obviously not meant to be walked upon. It was simply a path, meant to guide the fish along the way through their habitat. And, he realized, some of the stones were glowing with a bright blue light, illuminating the dark depths of the lake. The glowing stones themselves were polished and flawless, while the others were covered in dirt and grimy plant matter.

"Glowstone," one of the Feebas pointed out. "They aren't magical or anything. We put them near the top and they soak up all the sunlight, and we have to replace them when they go out. They help us see around down here."

"Yeah, Arceus decided we didn't need to see two inches in front of our faces," another one said, "so he made us live in places where there's practically no light. We had to fix that ourselves."

As he walked, some more structures came into view. They were like mountains, big piles of rock coated with algae, perforated with holes and caves and all kinds of passages which Feebas, Magikarp, and other fish-like Pokémon slithered and darted through, all hanging in the perpetual twilight between the faint sunlight far above and the glowing rocks below.

Albert continued to attract attention in the underwater community. The crowd around him kept growing, murmuring with curiosity at his presence and his every move. They were obviously happy to have him. He, on the other hand, was on the verge of speechlessness.

"It looks nice," Albert said, squinting into the blurry sight before him. "I don't really know what to say. I had no idea fish were so… advanced."

"Well, I wouldn't call us advanced, at least compared to some of you guys up there," Horatio said. "But we do try to make life the best we can down here."

"Yeah, we can't use all that human technology we keep hearing about," another one explained. "Doesn't work underwater. So… we have our ways of keeping track of things. For instance… take a look in here! And watch your step."

Following his lead, Albert glanced at the ground and saw that he was inches away from falling down a long vertical pit. He quickly righted his course and continued forward.

From the blur ahead, there appeared a large, pearl-colored dome, almost like a giant clamshell closed over the lake bed. Following the cobblestone road underfoot, he saw that it lead to an opening in the dome, shaped like the entrance to an igloo. At first it appeared dark inside, but he saw that green and purple glows started to rise from the shadows.

"This… well, you might call it our equivalent of a library," Horatio said, swimming in front of the displaced child. "All I ask, is… please, be polite to our librarian…"

At that, the Feebas darted inside, beckoning Albert to follow.

The dome was more or less what Albert expected it to be. It was very large, almost as though it would cover the top of Oracle Lake. The inside of the dome was dotted with various colors of glowstone, all twinkling like stars from the shadows and casting a miniscule level of light throughout the chamber. There were other things about, like relics hanging from the wall, and something like steel spikes protruding from the floor around the edges.

For being a library, Albert thought to himself, this place is pretty empty…

A loud, powerful voice bellowed from the opposite end of the dome, sending shockwaves through the water.

"EHHHHH, WHAT in the DARK DEPTHS is THAT?" the voice boomed, its source somewhere above Albert's head. "WHAT KIND of weird Pokémon did you DRAG down here THIS TIME? WAIT… I KNOW THIS… Abomasnow. No… no, the younger version… Oh, what was it called…"

From the shadows, there swam a blue, massive-sized fish… rather, at least twice the size of the Feebas and the Magikarp that were following him around. It bobbed and floated through the water as though surfing on invisible currents, trailing long tendrils behind it…

"Snover, that's it," it called. "What's the deal bringing a wild Snover down here? Wait, wait… it's not wild at all, is it? Look at its eyes, look how it focuses on things. No, you found an intelligent one, did you? Giving it a tour, are you?"

"Good afternoon to you, Elder Whiscash," Horatio said respectfully, bowing his form slightly. "Yes, we found him at the surface. He seemed interested in us, so we're showing him the pond. Though, he's a bit on the quiet side, so we're not too sure if he's taking it all in…"

Albert was afraid to respond, as the big blue fish floated down and looked him over.

"This is Whiscash, our town librarian," a Feebas said. "He knows everything."

"That, I do!" the Whiscash replied with pride. "I'm like a swimming encyclopedia! Reading and writing? Bah, useless when you've got me around! I keep all our history and culture all inside of my head, free for the asking!"

"Really," Albert replied. "So you just… remember everything, huh?"

"If my memory serves me well, and I believe that it does, I think that I just told you that, didn't I?" Whiscash said back oddly. "Well, actually, that's a little bit of a lie. I can't really remember everything all at once. That's why I have this place. See all these colored rocks in the walls? I put them there in very specific patterns. They remind me of things I may have forgotten. Don't believe me? Ask me something!"

"Alright… uh…" Albert stuttered. "How… how deep… is the ocean?"

"Just over twenty thousand six hundred aquarings at its deepest levels, as discovered four hundred and two years ago by the fourteenth Manaphy," Whiscash recited. "Elders still argue about the special well at the heart of the northeastern ocean and whether it applies, and if it did, the largest depth would be around forty-five thousand instead. Easy question."

"W—what's an aquaring?" Albert wondered.

"What, huh?" Whiscash spewed condescendingly. "I'm an elder, not a teacher. If you don't know your basic nautical measurements, I'll be of no help to you!"

"Okay, I'm sorry… I didn't mean…" Albert rambled for a moment. "How about this? If… if this is my third day of travel, and I set off from the Frozen Spring… How long will it take me to arrive at Cornice Harbor?"

"Hmm… Hmm… Can't tell you that," Whiscash said. "I don't know that place. Wait… wait a minute… No, this… the Cornice River is a few feet to the west of our banks, right. Alright. I'd say… … … at your current rate of traveling… … … thirty-two days. Or more. Probably more."

"R-really?" Albert sighed. "All this time, Lapras told me we were making good progress…"

"As fast as a convoy of survivors can go," Whiscash said. "That is, I'm assuming, by the question you just asked, that you're one of the survivors, right? You're lucky. The Master didn't go nice on that place, I hear."

Albert froze again, not sure how to respond.

"Hey! Well, glad you could meet the elder, but that pebble won't last forever. Let's continue on!" Horatio shouted. "I know just the place we can look next, right next door? Swim quickly! Or walk, I guess."

Albert was dumbfounded, but he hurried along as instructed. Had all the fish learned the wrong version of the story?

---

"This is the sand pit," Horatio said. "I guess… I don't know. We just like floating around here. For meditation, I guess. There's just some atmosphere to this room, It's hard to explain. I think you'd just need to be a fish to understand. Just… please, don't fall in."

Albert stood at the top of a steep cliff. Down below, a sliding, shifting pit of sand continually seeped down into some unseen drain. It was like a whirlpool, but with sand.

By now, Albert had made his presence known, and a whole colorful school of fish Pokémon revolved around him. There were even stranger fish Pokémon now, such as thin, pink fish with no discernable fins.

He knew he was supposed to say something. But as he watched the sand flow, and the fish who were somehow drawn to the sight of the sand but not really doing much of anything, he felt as quiet as ever.

"It looks… I don't know...." Albert admitted.

But as he looked at the audience he collected, all waiting expectantly for him to express further thoughts, he noticed something very odd.

There was one Feebas staring at him, partially separated from the rest of the group. It had been there since the beginning, yet… as all the other fish yammered and threw in their comments, this one hadn't said a word. It just stared at him, wide-eyed… watching him…

"Hey…" Albert said, eyeing the Feebas. "W-who's that?"

"Oh... that?" Horatio said. "Oh... don't worry about her. That's Lila. She's a bit of a loner. Honestly, don't know why she's around here."

The Feebas known as Lila twitched, saying nothing.

"Honestly, I'm not too sure about her," Horatio continued, speaking lowly into Albert's ear. "She's self-conscious, if you know what I mean. Her ugliness kinda gets to her."

"Ugly?" Albert repeated.

"Well, yes, of course," Horatio said. "Feebas are ugly. Just the way we're born. Nothing we can really do about it."

Albert blinked. His eyes locked with Lila's.

"For some reason, she never really got over that fact," Horatio explained. "So she doesn't talk much. Just swims around, keeps to herself, lets her parents teach her everything..."

"She's not ugly," Albert said oddly.

"Huh?"

"I mean... none of you are really that ugly..." Albert said. "Trust me... I'm an ugly Pokémon. You aren't."

As if startled by a sudden movement, the Feebas known as Lila darted away into the darkness.