My cheeks were wet, damp with the salty tears that I had just shed. I knelt over the body of my mother, one hand rested on her shoulder, the other twisted into a fist, gripping furiously on the blades of grass that surrounded us. She wasn't bleeding, but somehow that made it worse. Her face was set in a blank expression, as if all her muscles had suddenly relaxed, but her eyes had closed, I didn't have to see the lifeless eyes that she had replaced her bright, blue ones. This was how I had found her, in our back garden, late at night. She was not old, how had this happened? Wiping some of the tears from my eyes, I found myself able to drag my gaze away from her to something rustling in the bushes. Had the attacker returned? I stood up, nose still sniffling from my tears. A ninetails stepped out from the bushes that bordered our garden. I meant to run and attack the creature, no matter the consequences, but my mind made me freeze, deciding against my actions.

'Willow? You don't have too long, do you have time to laze around?'

I felt like a fire had been lit inside my head and was spreading, burning my memories and all I knew. Behind the ninetails, two figures appeared, a numel and a boy. Why was there so much that appeared familiar and yet I did not know them. Looking behind me, the body disappeared, but I did not feel anything toward it anymore. I looked back to the ninetails, no longer feeling the burning, but now having nothing. I had no memories. I was just this body. The boy walked towards me, but I felt a new surge of tears flowing, I did not know him and I felt like I desperately should. Like he had changed my life, was he the reason for this confusion? He stared down at me, his face blurred by my misty eyes.

'Who-'

That was as far as I got before he pressed his lips to mine, reawakening my memories with his touch. He rested his hands on my hips and as this moment progressed, I felt the scenery melt away and, with a sneak glance, saw that the background was changing, we were above Hoenn, high enough to get an aerial view of it all.

He moved his hands to my face and pulled it away, still looking deep into my eyes, the tears had dried up and I knew who I was, and felt slightly ashamed by what had just happened.

'You're going to make it home.'

He promised this to me, but I didn't care about that now. He pointed my face downwards, and suddenly I could see where we were. I could see Quiyelle, and Mossdeep, and where we were. We still had time.

'But without me.'

This forced my head to snap up, my face shocked (and a little pained), but he just grinned, as if he had known this the entire time. As if he had already accepted this.

'What? Why? We're in the same situation Aiden. We can-'

He shook his head, not listening to any of my protests.

'Just make sure you get home, Espeon.'

That name, it was becoming less familiar nowadays, but I still accepted that that was me. I smiled at him, grudgingly accepting his words. He smiled back, showing his teeth, before melting away into the air. I was alone again, but I felt the comfort in my memories, and sank back. Back into the breeze that tossed my hair whichever way they wished....

--Espeon Day7

I suppose not much was to be expected of me. It had been a few hours since I had woke and we had started moving before dawn. Aiden was practising using his attacks on Flint, as since Flint was a fire type he didn't get affected by Aiden, in fact half the time Flint didn't even notice. I had been keen to reach Lilycove before the end of the day but I also wanted to talk to Aiden. I was fully aware that it hadn't been him talking in my dream, but could it have had some truth to it? He wasn't in a rush, and he was enjoying being human...

'Hey, Will... I mean Espeon, watch!'

As we were out of range from the city, I demanded he called me my true name; maybe it would help me remember things easier. Either way, he concentrated hard on Flint, who by now wore some scorches by Aiden's earlier attempts but didn't seem bothered by them, not pointing his arm but his whole body at the numel and stared at him intently. Within moments, a blaze of fire appeared around Flint and it span so that he was surrounded, the blaze growing larger as it span. I watched, amazed, before I thought that this could be hurting Flint, these were no more the small embers that Aiden had previously worked on, these were getting larger.

'Um, why don't you call it a break now? I'm sure you both need a rest.'

I asked tactfully, but Aiden stared at me in surprise.

'I am getting better, that fire spin was super strong, stronger than when I was a Pokémon, why should I stop?'

Still, he stopped the flames and there revealed Flint. He was covered in ash, but he did not appear seriously hurt, maybe he was stronger than I gave him credit for. I did not want to tell Aiden about my theory of the loss of memories being affected by the use of attacks but if he kept going at this rate, he would be gone within days.

'I think that the attacks worsen our memories. Remember how I had that bad spell after I used psychic? You're using such strong attacks; can you remember all the things you could before?'

He frowned at me, confused at my idea, however, you could see him checking through his mind and, as he found it in a less than perfect state than of last time, his eyes widened in horror.

'When did you find this out? Did you decide to only just tell me now? There could be so much irreparable damage there! For God's sake, you saw me practising. Did it never occur to you?'

He vented his anger out at me and I took it, realising that this was scarier to him than I had thought. He had lost some of his mind he'd never recover, because of me. We had lost a few days now. I had shortened the time we had left. I didn't want to spend the rest of it being mad at one another. But he wasn't the Aiden from my dream; he was the fiery, vulpix Aiden whose hope was slowly being crushed.

Why was I doing so much wrong?

But now, instead of apologizing and crawling into a small, yet comfortable, hole, I just walked away. Knowing myself, I would delay our journey further by forcing myself into a depressed state, so now pushed myself into getting to our destination, leaving Aiden furious but containing himself enough to realise what I was doing, was right. He could still be angry with me. But I couldn't bring myself to care right now.

Still, the memory of my dream kiss with Aiden was playing through my mind, thinking of how it could have been real. How I would have truly felt. But the repercussions of such an act would be so powerful.

I'd no longer be certain of my path.

--

Yep, after my exams and a truly tiring week, I'd say that this has to be one of my worst chapters, but I hope to improve. I've found my muse building CD and it's already filling me with ideas, some dramatic, some... not. Still, I know people read this as I read the story stats regularly so can one of you, please, leave a review. I feel like I'm writing simply to myself and, as much as that is nice, it's boring to have yourself review your own work. So leave a message, this is me asking you now.

Thank you

MoonLynx