Ray's POV

"So, what do you do on an adventure, exactly?" Ray asked. We emerged from the secret exit at the rear of the castle, the sky pitch black.

"Explore? What else do you think you do?" Emerald asked in response. She had a point I guessed, and adventure implied some sort of exploration. Usually, though, it had some sort of point to it. There was some sort of objective, right? People didn't just adventure for the sake of it? Or did they? Was that the right word for it, or could people adventure with no goal, and the word I was thinking of was journeyed? Who cared? Well, there wasn't much else for me to do to occupy my mind as I was being dragged along by some… immature magicless child.

"Oh, my mistake, how could I ever be confused about something like that?" I asked, sarcasm just about dripping from my mouth.

"Good, I'm glad you understand how silly you sounded just then." Emerald said, winking at me. I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. I didn't dignify it with a response of any sort. As I understood it from her random outbursts, we were going to be exploring the depths of a cave that Emerald had apparently already got to the end of. It was a cave in a series of caves that essentially hollowed out the entire crater and ended outside, in the ocean, or, above it. At least, that was how I understood things.

"The catacombs." She said bouncily, she had a strange manner to her at all times. And, this was a totally different mood for her, weird in a different way, excited, almost too excited. Or perhaps, it was only too excited for me. Or perhaps… it reminded me too much of Mel. She was not Mel, and that upset me more than I could really express in thoughts right now.

"The catacombs." I repeated, deflated once again. She looked back at me and frowned. What, was she about to show a glimmer of empathy or pity or even, I didn't know, some sort of remorse for plucking me out of my life, in my prime?

"You're going to love it, there are… Well, I don't know, really. That's what's so exciting, you know? We aren't supposed to go in there, it's strictly forbidden to go into the catacombs. Dangerous, you know?" Emerald said. Nope, she was not about to have any pity or remorse, she was just going to talk more about adventuring. It figured. But wait, what was this? She was going somewhere she hadn't before, somewhere dangerous?

"I thought we were going to that cave with the ocean on the other end. The one you wouldn't shut up about." I continued to float along the side of the massive lake that the kingdom encircled, quiet so that we would not get caught. I was not doing that as a favor to her. Since we were bonded, we were seen somewhat as a single unit, two bunched together, always together. Why did it have to be with her? Any one of her sisters seemed like a better choice. Well, a lot of them were somewhat wild as well. At least they were more competent, though. With them, I would have something to work with at least. With Emerald, it seemed I had to throw out all of my training as a chosen one. None of it was even a little bit relevant to dealing with Emerald. I would not waste my training on her. I would not waste my quality time on her if I could help it. But of course, I could not help it.

I had to remember to ask Lilly about those exercises to loosen the tether that held us together. If I had to spend all of my time, day and night, this close to this girl… this idiot, immature… I was getting a little carried away.

I would also ask Lilly what I could do in terms of going back home. The oracle said the question wasn't one she could answer, so then, Lilly could, maybe. She seemed more empathetic of a person, anyways. She would have had to be, if she trained Emerald in magic as much as I was sure she would have had to. According to Emerald's ramblings as I was trying to read earlier, she was born with such a small magical potential, it almost couldn't be measured. She had to start from zero and build it up. She was persistent, I gave her that. She worked to get where she was.

"Later. I can't leave home until I've seen what there is to see here, then we can see the rest of the world." She said, definitively.

"Why are you only just now going to the catacombs? You've had plenty of time, haven't you?" She wasn't scared of danger, was she? She didn't seem like the type to even recognize danger when it was right in front of her face. She didn't seem like the type to recognize just about anything that was right in front of her face, unless she wanted to.

"I was always going to wait until I got my legend. Then we would explore whatever was left to see here, and then blow this popsicle stand." She paused awkwardly and scratched her head. "Of course, I thought there was going to be more places than this to explore, but I always left this one last one, since it's forbidden, anyways."

"And you're going to ignore that, now? Even though it would be stupid to leave now, seeing as you magic isn't very strong. You have to remember that means my power is not very great, either. I wouldn't be a whole lot of help to you, even if I wanted to be."

"Heh, you're so passive aggressive towards me. It's starting to get on my nerves, a bit." She said.

"Then send me back home!" I snapped.

"No, I'm not going to do that!"

"Oh, so you know how to do that?!"

"No, I do not!"

We stared at each other for a very long time. I didn't believe her for a second, but she held fast, and eventually walked away like nothing had happened. With a sigh, I followed suit. This was my life now. This… was my life now. I didn't know why I was giving up on this so easily right now? I was just tired. I wasn't giving up for good, though. I would find a way back to Meliae if it killed everyone else. Ok, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration, but I was willing to go pretty far. Emerald, or Lilly, or someone in this world would give me a way out, back to my world, back to my love.

"Just remember your promise." I muttered. She would leave me in peace, I was excited for that. It was a pathetic thing to get excited about. What was this world doing to me?

"Of course." She said, though there was a hint of a mischievous smile I could see on her face in the moonlight. It was not a particularly bright moon. "Good for stealth, under cover of darkness, you know?" She said.

"Did you just… did you just read my mind?" I asked.

"What? No, you were looking up at the moon, so I made a comment about it."

"You don't always have to make a comment, you know." I said. She merely shrugged in response, and kept going. We were nearing the cascades, now. The marble square where she had stood during the ceremony was still there, water flowing around it at a modest pace.

"Yes I do." She said, a grin on her face. She enjoyed annoying me, huh? That was… not a good sign for my future. I felt like she didn't have proper respect for me. Perhaps I would have to teach her sometime, just how bad I could be if I was pushed too far. Although… I couldn't imagine anything good would come to me if I attacked Emerald… a princess in this world. Guards and other such people would be all over me in an instant. I wasn't incredibly confidant I could beat that many people, especially in this weakened state. "We're going back in there." She said, pointing to the mouth of the cave.

"You do realize this means you get to walk through the water, again. Unless you can summon up the winds. I'm not going to carry you." I scoffed.

'Well, I was going to try what I learned to get the winds to carry me. But, if that doesn't work, I'm dressed for it, this time." Emerald gestured to her outfit. She had on a simple tunic and pants with boots. "I didn't have a problem going through the water, it was going through the water barefoot in a silk dress that bothered me." Emerald explained.

And so, once again, I watched her slog through the water. This time, though, I was behind her, so I could really see what was going on. She did seem unusually at home slogging through a river for a princess. Mel had some quirks, too. I wondered for a second if the two of them would get along, if they met. That was useless to think about, though. The two would not be meeting. I would go back to Mel, and Emerald could do whatever in the world she wanted, just in this world, not in my world. The energy she gave off was enough. I didn't know what it was, but she exhausted me, and exhausted my patience, and I had the feeling, from the day I had spent here, that she had a similar effect on others.

Without incident, we came once again to the Oracle's chamber. The Oracle was not there. Nobody was there, it was just an empty cavern. Wow, this was so exciting… I was absolutely blown away. The same thing I saw before, now featuring nobody in it.

"So, where ae the catacombs? Or is this it?"

"Course not, this is just the Oracle's chamber, we've been here. The Oracle is sleeping in her house, though, keep it down, the walls echo." It seemed more like a reminder to herself than anything else, because, as she said it, she suddenly got quieter. "It's beyond." She pointed off into the darkness. If I squinted, I could see the faint outlines of some caves beyond. There were several of them.

"Which one should we go in?" We would be done with this soon enough, and hopefully that would calm her for a good while and I could figure out a way back. Even if nobody told me… the answer had to be in the library, somewhere. It wasn't in the history I read today, but there were hundreds, thousands of other books to check. The knowledge I wanted had to be in one of them, right? I just had to find it.

"Any of them are fine, it's not an adventure if it's dictated, huh? How about you choose one." Emerald smiled at me. At least, I thought she did, I could barely see in this darkness, and her gem light was nowhere near her face, and very dim to not attract a lot of attention.

"Fine, uh… that one." I pointed at one at random. Well, at first I just pointed in some random direction, but then I heard something. "Do you hear that?" I asked.

"Hear what?" She asked.

"There's something in that direction…" I pointed at a different cave. It was incredibly indistinct, I couldn't tell what it was exactly, but I heard something, like talking, like rustling. It was a sound that caves did not make by themselves. That meant we were not alone?

"Probably a dangerous Pokemon. Let's go check it out." Emerald whispered. Quite a strange one, wasn't she, going towards danger like that? Behavior like that was going to get her killed someday. I said I would go along with her, though. Besides, I was pretty curious myself. What was down here that it was forbidden? Sure, there could be dangerous Pokemon, territorial, perhaps, but I saw the prowess of the royal family, or at least caught a glimpse of it. I had no doubt in my mind they could handle any battle they might get themselves into. So, what was in here that even the royal family stayed away?

We started through the tunnel, and the noises started to grow ever so slightly louder, more distinct. It was definitely voices, that became clear. The voices were talking in hushed whispers, and I could not make out what it was they were saying. Why would there be whispering? Who was in here?

The tunnel was also quite a tight fit. We had to go in a single file line, and even then, I had to maneuver a little to make sure my whole body could get around the rocks unscathed. I was able to do it, though, and the voices got clearer and more distinct.

"We don't have all that much more time to prepare. We can fuss over the details of a prophecy." I heard one of them say, and there were whispered agreements, it sounded like. I thought I recognized this voice, but I couldn't place it.

"Have a people been chosen?" This voice I most certainly did not recognize.

"Yes, my lord." Said the first voice. "It will be a group that lives far off on the western shores. Not many around would miss them, or even notice they were gone, perhaps."

What? Not many would miss them? Now my interest was piqued. Whoever these people were, they were planning to send some people away or…something worse than that, make them disappear one way or another. That did not bode well.

"That's my dad." Emerald whispered, her face shocked into expressionlessness.

"Are you sure?" I asked. I had a hard time believing a king would do something like that. Rulers were supposed to care for their people, not make them disappear ominously. At least, that was the way things were in my world. Since Emerald seemed surprised, I had the feeling that this was not supposed to be happening.

"Yes. Shh." Emerald said. I resented being shushed, but obeyed anyways. Only a fool would speak loudly at a time like this, with people around who didn't know you were around who may or may not be planning to make some people disappear. Emerald inched forward, and so did I.

There was a group of about two dozen people. I recognized ten of them. Emerald's eight sisters, and their parents, the king and queen. There were also a lot of people I didn't recognize, and a cloaked figure at the center of the circle. Well, I used circle as a loose term, it was more like a clump. This seemed somewhat… casual? Like maybe this was more of just a meeting than some ceremony? Ceremonies here seemed to have a lot of pomp and circumstance, just like back home. This was not, though. They just sort of sat around, casually talking. They had respect for each other, sure, that much was clear.

"Huh, I think I heard something." The youngest one, Platinum said. I was fairly sure that was who that was, the youngest sister, right? She was the one with the Giratina, and there he was next to her. She alerted them to our presence, and before I knew what was going on, I was shoved onto the floor, in the middle of the circle.

This was bound to be trouble.

Welp, this took a turn, and also a cliffhanger, hope you enjoyed, and have an awesome day!