Chapter Thirty:
Hymn to the Sea

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. The only "ownership" I can claim are the personalities and my interpretation of how Pokémon look in a more realistic light, but other than that...yeah, I don't own anything on them. XD I do, however, own my original characters and writings, unless otherwise stated. In an exceptional case, a few special OCs belong to their respective owners, I'm merely borrowing them for the story that's to unfold. I'll point them out when their time to show up comes. :3

Note: Ahhhh, the thirty-chapter mark! I'm so happy!

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"The sea always filled her with longing, though for what she was never sure."
-Cornelia Funke, "Inkheart"

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Alto Mare was alit like a glittering, golden jewel in the midst of darkness. The sky above it only seemed to reflect it in silver and pearly speckles. Even after night had fallen, the energy in the city simply crackled in the air, giving it an electric life all its own. Pokémon and people alike were milling about everywhere—from the docks to the rooftops, the streets and the watery canals that Alto Mare was so famous for. When the Angelique was moored, Lupin waited for the crowd of passengers to thin out before following.

As they moved deeper into the city, she was only beginning to realize just how vast and complex the city was. It was aptly named 'City of Water' and for good reason. The brochure cover did Alto Mare little justice. It didn't show the absolute level of detail concerning little waterways, channels, and canals that it was simply littered with. From little decorative bridges to the wide and expansively lavish ones; the gondolas carrying pokémon and human passengers alike; the glittering jade waters; the tight and compacted homes that made it look undeniably and surprisingly cozy at the same time…

She could only imagine how it must look in the daylight. The buildings were simple and elegant, yet complex all at once. The thin, winding walkways were crowded with people, busy bustling to get to their destinations. And if they weren't on the walkways, the bridges, or balconies overlooking the waters, they were on it—in gondolas and paddle boats, even a few kayaks, canoes, and motorboats of varying sizes were present. Perched atop the buildings and crawling along the walls, Lupin began to notice that there were wreathes of tangled ivy and plumes of tree foliage. It was certainly a very green-themed city, from the waters below to the rooftops above. Banners and garlands pronouncing the city's Summer Sea Festival were hanging from buildings, accompanied by colourful and cheery lights.

Along the more spacious of walkways, there were vendors beneath canopied tents hawking their wares—some food, others drink, most boasted trinkets such as t-shirts, mugs, hats, keychains, sticks, miniature flags and banners, pokéball engravings, and even handmade wares such as jewelry, pottery, glassware, paintings, leathers, feathers, shells…

There was so much going on, it was difficult to take it in all at once. Bullet certainly didn't seem to suffer from that. He was taking huge whiffs of the air and honed in on the foodstuffs that were fresh from bakeries, stovetops, and fire pits. His stomach gave a gurgle, and he couldn't decide which direction to trot off towards to investigate.

One canal-side bar was simply thriving with people celebrating and creating a joyful racket.

Riptide sniffed pointedly and winced and especially loud cheer that made the air simply vibrate from the sheer volume.

"Where are we supposed to go?"

Lupin glanced down, her mouth open to answer when someone crashed into her. Her hair flew in a tumble and it wasn't the only thing—her hat fell on top of Riptide's. For a very long, breathless moment, neither of them moved. The collider—a boisterously loud woman—tottered with a cackle, a glass beer bottle in hand. She twirled clumsily on her feet, turning back towards Lupin and placed her free hand on the werewolf's shoulder, gripping more for support than anything.

"Oh-oh-oh! I'm so sorry, honey—I didn't see you there, you're so small!" The woman slurred her words and then stopped, squinting at Lupin before she burst into another wide grin and laughed. "Oh, lookit your little Eevee ears, they're so adorable! And those colours—oh look, look, look! Where'd you get them? Did you get them here somewhere? You've got to tell me, they're so cuuuuuute!"

Lupin offered a nervous grin when the woman's hand moved to Lupin's head, groping at one of her ears. She had to consciously still them and keep them from jerking when the woman yanked. She moved away from her, offering a nervous smile as she snatched up her hat from Riptide's head, replacing it on her own.

"Oh, no, I got them elsewhere. Can't remember exactly, sorry!"

She quickly motioned for Riptide and Bullet to start moving and followed after them with a dismissive wave of her hand. The crowd easily swallowed the three of them up as they moved further along. The woman's cries for them to stop and hold on faded quickly enough as they made their impromptu escape. A small corner café that was less crowded then its neighboring vendors was a good place to rest and they did so, taking a patio seat. Lupin gently laid her pack down. Riptide crawled into the other chair opposite his trainer. Bullet laid close by her feet, curling around her boots and faced the passing crowds.

"Geez. I didn't think it'd be this…big of a deal."

"It has to be. This city is sinking." Lupin blinked, staring at Riptide. He placed his bony chin on the iron-wrought table. When she didn't say anything, he continued, "Alto Mare was a lot larger, once upon a time. But over the years, it's been sinking, inch by inch. They predict Alto Mare will have fully sunk back into the ocean in a few decades. Or so I've heard. From Phillip."

"Phillip?" Lupin blinked, surprised. Bullet whined, tilting his head back to stare between his trainer and Riptide.

"He once mentioned he had a distant cousin here, along with a few other facts about this place. For example," he paused, glancing off toward the canals and nodded toward it. "There's a water-type pokémon chariot race of some sort here. Maybe we could watch it, if we didn't miss it already."

He offered his crooked smile to her, tilting his head to view her better. Lupin sighed, a small smile alighting her face.

"We can look into it. But, I think we should try to find out where we're staying first."

With that said, she began digging into her pack and fished out the paperwork Bugsy had given her—an outline of her passage on the Angelique, the hotel reservations, and the brochure outlining only a fraction of key activities and events that were occurring during the festival.

She hesitated, noticing a familiar speckled pattern peeking out from beneath the folds of her extra clothes. She set the papers aside on the table and stooped to scoop up the pokémon egg. It slipped out with ease into her hands. She could feel the warmth and soft stirrings of life within. She examined the egg carefully, ensuring it was still intact and unscathed during her sojourn through the crowded streets of Alto Mare. She tried to sit with it nearly every night, when she could, hoping it would hatch. And every night she was disappointed, her gut instinct telling her it just wasn't time yet.

When she concluded the speckled surface was safe and sound, she carefully replaced it back in her pack and rearranged the extra clothing around it. She sighed at the state of her clothes, picking at a piece of frayed edges before closing her bag. It was quite possibly time to replace her spare clothing.

"Guess we should find out where we're staying, then," she concluded softly, picking up her pack to slide onto her shoulder once more. "And that means directions."

She ended up asking a barista within the café they had taken refuge by where she needed to go. A few minutes later, she was walking out with not only directions, but a cup of coffee sweetened by chocolate. It was foamy and soothing to the taste as they wandered down Alto Mare's streets. At one point they had to gain a ride from a gondola to reach their destination. They passed beneath arching bridges and narrow channels before coming out to a main hub of traffic with other types of little transport boats. Her gondolier was more than happy to rattle off facts about his city, and he was rather proud of it, if his tone of voice was evidence enough.

As they passed through the open area, he made a sweeping motion behind the werewolf and she had to glance back to see where he was gesturing. She followed where he was pointing and stared up at the large obelisks overlooking the water. Atop the pillars were carvings of winged pokémon, the two of them facing one another. She almost believed they were identical until she noticed a few minute differences between the statues.

"That's Latias and Latios, the Guardians of Alto Mare. They protect our city whenever danger arises."

"If they're protecting this city, then why is it still sinking? That's a kind of danger, isn't it?" Riptide muttered, although the gondolier didn't hear.

"Pretty soon there won't be a city left to protect," Bullet agreed, leaning over the edge of the gondola to stare into the waters. Something rippled beneath the surface, startling him. He reeled back, not wanting to risk getting a face full of water gun from some water-type pokémon lurking below.

Lupin nudged Riptide in the side gently with her hiking boots. He grumbled some more, but fell quiet. The gondola ride soon ended and after paying their fee, they were on their way. The hotel wasn't too far off. After visiting the concierge and confirming the reservation changes were indeed legitimate, they were riding the elevator to one of the top most floors. The suite they were given was spacious and much larger than Lupin was used to. Bullet didn't seem to mind and went off exploring as fast as his body would allow him. Riptide stepped past the threshold with care and suspicion, sniffing the air delicately after Lupin had swung the door open to admit them inside.

"Geez. Ritzy, ain't it?"

A king-sized bed with a soft mattress, plush comforters and squishy pillows was hidden in the bedroom. Adjoined to the bedroom was a bathroom that had a stand-in shower with a bench inside. A small kitchenette and living space were the center pieces of the suite, completing the entire room. After dropping her pack off into the bedroom, Lupin moved to open the glass doors that led to an overhanging balcony. It had a beautiful view of Alto Mare in all its glittering glory. She could hear the various uprisings of celebrations and nightly events going on all across the city. Far down below, there was another waterway, thin and winding through the buildings. It was empty of gondolas or any other transport, for now.

Lupin turned back inside, sighing as she took in the lush carpets and aesthetically pleasing complimenting furniture. Spartanly decorated, it was not. It was rather lavish. Bullet was lounging on one of the leather couches, dozing slightly. Riptide had taken a spot on the other end, looking quite content at the reprieve.

"Looks like we have some time on our hands to enjoy this place. After we hit the police station, that is."

"You don't think I came from here?"

Riptide gave an ugly sort of hissing snort before it devolved into croaking laughter.

"Do you?" He remarked sharply.

The werewolf gazed back outside past the open doors to the balcony. She tried to search for a determinate answer to that question by studying Alto Mare's skyline, as though by some miracle it'd be there, telling her yes, maybe, she did belong here. Lupin frowned, unsettled by her lack of feeling for the place. It was a beautiful place, to be sure, but…she didn't feel much of anything for it, much less for any place she's last been in. No stirring of long lost memories, no ounce of recognition. The most she could say she felt anything was….

It was when she was flying on the back of a pokémon. When Ridgeback had first given her a ride, and then later on when the Azalea City Police Department had flown her twice over, she had slowly felt…something. She wasn't sure what to make of it other than perhaps…she had once used flying-type pokémon. And maybe she used to fly with them a lot.

A familiar ache in her chest and the thought of Syd flashed through her mind.

She shook her head at last. As beautiful as the city was, she didn't think she was from here either.

But that didn't mean she was going to simply decide not to try searching for herself in Alto Mare.

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Another dead end.

The police department processed her request to view the missing persons reports, but even after going through the files, there was nothing on her specifically. No records, reports, or files had been put through the department with her name in the listing. Neither were there any for the one name she had now: Alastor.

It left her feeling all kinds of crummy when she stepped out of the building, hours later after she had arrived. She blinked into the afternoon sun, glad for the shade her hat's brim offered her.

"I didn't think you'd find anything, but…I was almost hoping," Riptide commented quietly as they departed. Bullet perked, staring at the Croconaw in surprise.

"Were you really?"

"Partly. It would mean this whole thing wouldn't be so…"

"Hopeless?" Lupin finished. The Croconaw faltered, looking away. Bullet whined, pressing close to her leg for some small amount of comfort. She sighed, stooping long enough to rub his head. "I know you think it's hopeless, Rip. It's…it's okay. It's not like the thought hasn't crossed my mind."

She offered a vague sort of half-smile, but Riptide could tell his trainer wasn't all there at the moment. There was a distant look in her eyes, even when she was looking at him. Bullet nudged him and pressed forward with a slight limp.

"We'll find out who you really are. Don't worry so much. We can't just give up."

The half-smiled turned a little more genuine. Riptide felt himself relax.

"C'mon. I guess we can at least pretend to enjoy ourselves while we're here and not waste this opportunity, right?"

With a nod of her head down the street, she led the way. Soon they hit one of the main avenues of bustling activity, although it was hard not to miss those, they were nearly everywhere. There were more people milling about the vendors, more voices adding to the cacophony arising in the air.

Bullet often disappeared amid the sea of bodies, and a small part of her worried when she couldn't see him for long periods of time. He always came back but after the third time, she told him to stick by her.

"Do you want another Azalea Gym incident?"

He grumbled and muttered, but looked abashed enough as way of answer and stood beside her as they made their way through. Riptide paused at one vendor offering barbequed squid and fried fish. If he could have drooled, he would have, it all smelled absolutely delicious. Lupin bought him three of each, and one of each for herself and Bullet.

Another vendor was offering items that were boosters for all types of pokémon—from tablets, gems, and incense, they seemed to have a little of everything. Lupin purchased a piece of charcoal and a mystic water pendent from the vendor. Bullet was ecstatic at having an item that could boost his fire attacks. Riptide was a little more reserved, but he eyed the pendent Lupin offered him with a pleased gleam in his reptilian eyes. She carefully looped the leather cord around his head and it settled nice and snug around his neck. The clear blue of the little talisman caught light and it practically twinkled.

"Thank you, it's…it's wonderful. This will help me out a lot in the future."

Bullet was a little harder to figure out how to get the piece of charcoal to sit with him. He couldn't exactly carry it. An idea struck her and after nearly an hour of further wandering, she found what she was looking for. It came in the form of a pokémon store that had not only collars fitted with identification tags, but could also carry miscellaneous objects—such as boost items. She found a good collar, fitted a dog tag on it with her information and an extra thong loop that could latch onto the charcoal for Bullet. It was a surprisingly common object that was in popular demand. Pokémon who had no available limbs to carry boost-effect items needed some manner to carry it on their persons and the collars were simply an easier way to do it.

Riptide found he was fondling the little pendent charm as they wandered the streets after the store pit stop. They meandered about mostly aimlessly, sometimes with a destination in hand. It depended on what Lupin heard, and she could hear quite a lot.

Surprisingly, they went unchallenged as they moseyed so freely throughout the city. Others were challenged and many more did the challenging, but so far, they had remained unmolested.

He didn't foresee that remaining the same for much longer.

They paused at an open courtyard, the ground paved with cobblestones and a few benches to relax on. Most were looped around the trunk of a tree. A fountain sat in the same courtyard, close to the shade of the tree. It was already occupied with a woman was bathing her Poliwhirl at it, but she was wrapping it up as soon as Lupin and her team was arriving. Clad in a simple tank top, white skirt and black flats, she was a pretty little thing, perhaps a little younger than Lupin. Patting the Poliwhirl on the head, she turned off the facet. This earned a dissatisfied gurgle but the Poliwhirl trotted after its trainer in the end, up a flight of stairs to a higher level walkway and then they were gone.

Lupin offered to douse Riptide in it, and he quickly took her up on it. It was soothing, having running water rushing over his body. And he swore, the mystic water pendent felt warmer against his scales. As soon as the water stopped, however, it faded away slowly.

"Hey…hey Lupin…that lady's staring at us."

The werewolf looked at Bullet first. He was staring up at a higher walkway above them. Lupin followed his blue gaze and found that they were being watched. The girl in question was young, perhaps in her early twenties. Her dark brown hair was worn short and slightly flared out at the ends. She wore a green blouse and white skirt that accentuated her form quite nicely. A white beret hat sat perched atop her head. She smiled when Lupin noticed her, her sienna brown eyes dancing with mirth. She fiddled with a satchel at her side for a moment, before returning her gaze back on Lupin.

Bullet watched with a curious tilt of the head, blue eyes wide as he assessed the young woman.

"She's pretty." Lupin raised a brow and the Growlithe noticed. He sheepishly amended quickly, "Um...not that you aren't pretty, Lupin…heh."

She snorted. "I'm not one to care about looks, you should know that by now."

"Of course you're not," Riptide rattle-laughed. Lupin scowled back, but it was halfhearted and dropped within a heartbeat. She looked up to see the young girl still watching her, that silly little smile on her face. Lupin gave a cursory glance around, checking to see if there was anyone else, but so far, the foot traffic was waltzing right past the little courtyard with nary a care.

Lupin returned her gaze to meet the girl's. "Is…there something I can help you with?"

The girl perked, standing up a little straighter at being addressed. Her smile was still in place, but it had mellowed a little, as though she was pleased at having been spoken to at last. She canted her head to the side, as though thinking on the answer, before motioning for the werewolf to follow.

Riptide hissed quietly until it grew to a raspy rattle.

"Something's not right."

Lupin narrowed her eyes. Something was off, but she didn't sense danger. She inhaled slowly, carefully analyzing what she could smell and found…nothing. Nothing that would allude to harm or malicious intentions, at the very least. She was beginning to get good at recognizing danger just by the tastes and scents of the very air.

It was like she had a personal lie detector of sorts built into her nose.

"I think we'll be fine. Trust me on this?"

Riptide hesitated. On the one paw, he didn't want to trust her. Following strange girls in a strange city—that had to be asking for trouble, didn't it? On the other paw…

Well, he trusted his trainer was more than capable at handling the situation if things went south. He trusted himself and…he sighed. Yes…he trusted Bullet as well, as painful it was to admit.

Riptide finally conceded with a reluctant dip of his snout.

"If we get mugged and stranded, I'll be sure to assign you with the blame."

"Roger that, I didn't expect any less."

She flashed him a reassuring grin and dammit, fine. He did feel somewhat comforted. Months ago, he wouldn't have felt an ounce of it. There was just something…calming about having someone who wasn't human or pokémon that had your back. He was surprised at having found this to be a now-normal yet unexpected part of his life.

If there was any danger in following strange girls in strange cities, then it was probably better to do it with someone like his trainer at his side.

Bullet was nearly scampering at his usual pace, keeping an almost limp-free bounce to his step as he strode along beside Lupin. The girl ahead had her hands clasped behind her back, her head tilted back to gaze up at the buildings surrounding them. She said nothing to them, although she did glance back at them quite often to ensure they were still following.

Lupin kept her distance, wary above all else, until she began hearing the music. It was soft and lilting and upbeat, but it had a somber melancholy to it as well. They climbed a flight of stairs, took to a slight hill, a few turns here and there, but the music was coming closer.

"Hey," she finally called. "Where're you leading us to?"

Somewhere still in Alto Mare, that much was obvious. But to where? An event? It certainly sounded like it.

The girl didn't respond. She threw another smile over her shoulder, motioning them to continue after her. Lupin ticked a brow upwards questioningly, but an answer was never given. Something didn't smell right. Or rather, something didn't smell human.

"D'you think she can even talk?" Bullet wondered aloud.

"I dunno. Maybe," Lupin replied. She kept a bit of distance between herself and the girl, and positioned herself a little bit further head of Bullet and Riptide. Just in case.

"Perhaps she knows KSL."

"KSL?"

"Kanto Sign Language. KSL for short, obviously," Riptide said. Who knew this place had so many twisting corridors of actual ground, in a place that was primarily famous for its water transport? He was almost missing his rides on Lupin's shoulder from when he was a Totodile.

Almost.

Lupin was looking at him now expectantly, waiting. He hissed out an exasperated sigh.

"I don't know how to speak it. I just know it exists."

"Wow. For once, the smarty-gator doesn't know anything!" Bullet laughed. The Croconaw scowled and snapped his jaws at the Growlithe. He yelped and scampered ahead of them, tail tucked closer to his body. Riptide gave another low warning hiss, allowing it to rumble and linger in his throat, but it quickly dissipated as they rounded another corner. They found themselves in a larger courtyard than the one they had left. A stage had been set up to sit between two towering stone pine trees. They created a rippling canopy of jade, emerald, and even highlights of seafoam. The wind rushed through the branches, making the leaves chitter and rattle against one another. It was all drowned out, though, by the music they had all been following.

A woman was alone on the stage, dressed in white robes trimmed with red along the hem of her sleeves and ends of the robes. Her eyes were closed in concentration, while her long auburn hair was swept back and pushed out of the way while she played…

Lupin squinted, before realizing it looked like a large conch shell. She was playing it like a flute, but at the same time it clearly wasn't one. The word came to her finally after a while. It was an ocarina. Even from near the back, she could see it was beautiful; its very integrity of the shell hadn't been sacrificed much to accommodate its new purpose as a musical instrument. And the young woman wielding it used it to great effect as she continued playing a soft, melancholic and pensive melody. There was a crowd piled up close to the stage, listening with rapt attention on the young woman. A few people and pokémon alike remained close to the back of the gaggle, but that didn't diminish their care to listen. It was a simple tune, but it was mesmerizing—the rising pitches and the slow descent that lent a wave of calm over those listening.

Even the wild pokémon had stopped atop rooftops, bannisters, balconies, and railings to watch, to listen, to be captured by the sound. The peaceful harmony held them all, gripping them tight and refusing to release them. Lupin, momentarily, forgot about the young woman who had led her here. Bullet and Riptide, despite not being able to see well above the crowd that stood between them and the stage, listened more attentively to the sounds that filled the air. It was aching, hauntingly beautiful noise—so modest yet elegant in that same simplicity. It felt almost like a calling of sorts.

The spell broke just as quickly as it had taken hold. The instrument came to a slow, fading halt and the woman pulled it from her mouth and paused purposefully to scan the crowd. She bowed, and the last tattered remains of the music's hold on everyone broke completely. A smattering of polite applause broke out. Someone whistled, a few shouted encouraging words. The woman on the stage smiled, bowed again, still clutching her ocarina.

A few others dressed similarly seemed to emerge from the shadows, crowding the side of the stage. The woman took this as a cue and quickly departed, while someone else with a microphone came to replace her presence. They thanked the woman, who hailed from Shamouti Island of the Orange Archipelago, and quickly rolled into announcing that the next show would be setting up in the next half hour. Most of the crowd lingered, their voices buzzing and rumbling in the air expectantly for the next upcoming act. A good chunk began leaving. They were trickling back through the crooked, narrow streets from whence they came.

Lupin cast a cursory glance around, searching the faces around her for the girl that had led her there, but she was gone. Her scent mark was lingering where she had last been standing, but…

She was gone, like she had simply disappeared.

Bullet trotted over for closer inspection, pushing his nose to the ground and sniffing loudly, carefully.

"She was just here. I just saw her a minute ago, right before the music stopped!" He insisted over his shoulder. Riptide slunk over himself, peering left and right as he went, paws curling and uncurling as he pressed closer.

"I saw her as well, don't worry, furball. It's not like we're denying you saw anything at all."

Lupin glanced back down the way they had come. There wasn't any way their impromptu guide could have snuck past her without Lupin seeing. She practically would have had to brush up against the werewolf to even get into the alleyway. The shaded corridor was empty and still, devoid of any activity.

"Well, wherever she went, I'm sure it's to find more people to bring here," she said at last, glancing back at the stage. It wasn't very big and neither was it in an extravagantly auspicious location. It was tucked away and out of sight, almost like a private venue. A hidden gem, even.

She had to wonder just how many more of these kinds of events were going on, well out of sight of the mainstream crowds. She also wondered just how many people really knew these went on, simultaneously to the bigger venues that were probably better advertised.

Lupin checked her watch, glanced back down the way she had come, and then back at her watch. It was probably time to start heading back, but she could do for some ice cream first. She looked back over her shoulder, the inquiry on her lips, but they died before coming to fruition.

Riptide and Bullet were gone. Just like the young woman.

She swore she felt her heart stop, skip, stop again, skip again. It started up an irregular, painful tempo against her ribcage. She swept her eyes rapidly across the courtyard, raking through empty spaces to try and find them, but they were gone.

"Rip…Riptide! Bullet! Guys, this isn't funny—"

She stopped herself short when she heard a familiar bark—way above her head. She craned her neck back, heard Bullet returning her call with one of his own. She blinked, startled to see Bullet peering over the edge of a rooftop down at her.

"What the hell—how the hell did you get way up there?"

"I don't know!"

Riptide joined Bullet, tilting his head a little to the side to peer down at her.

"Something picked us up and brought us up here." He hesitated. "We didn't get a look at it. I think it was some kind of pokémon that can disguise itself, be careful!"

Lupin scowled. "Just—don't move, I'll be up there soon. And get away from the edge!"

She was already looking for some way to get up to the roof. Perhaps a ladder or fire escape of some sort. No one else seemed to notice her distress, or the fact that something was amiss. She was almost tempted to search for someone, but the thought came to a full, grinding halt. The hairs on the back of Lupin's neck prickled upright when she felt a wisp of warm breath against it.

She whirled, hand outstretching to knock away whatever it was behind her. She didn't even see anything behind her, the short glimpse she caught over her shoulder. But there was something there, she could hear it breathing.

Her attack faltered halfway through, when she heard a surprised chitter, moments before a pair of arms looped under hers and across her chest and lifted her clear off the ground. The sensation of weightlessness struck her briefly, she was thrust upwards so quickly, but everything caught up eventually. Her stomach flip-flopped onto itself, her heart bounced between her throat and chest as she was brought onto the same roof as her pokémon. Bullet was already bolting over toward her, Riptide not that far behind.

The arms carrying her released, but Lupin got the impression of downy soft feathers. She searched in vain, only seeing a flock of Pidgey in the distance.

"You said you didn't see anything?"

"No. But I also said some pokémon can disguise or hide themselves from plain sight completely. They can render themselves invisible."

"Like ghost-types?"

"Perhaps it is one," Riptide conceded, crimson eyes narrowed as he scanned the empty rooftop. This one had another stone ash, growing right out of a large plot of rich, loamy earth. A lone Murkrow sat on one of the lower branches, its head tucked under its wing as it napped.

"Who said I was a ghost-type? I'm not a ghost-type!"

Lupin jumped, a shudder jolting like ice down her spine at the voice. It felt like the words had been spoken aloud, yet at the same time, the voice itself was rattling in her head, a soft echo that unnerved her. Another scan of the rooftop left them with no one else around, except for the sleeping Murkrow. Riptide was watching the black-feathered bird suspiciously. Murkrow were tricky and deceitful dark-types. Some would even say bad luck, if they were so inclined to believe in that kind of nonsense.

He wasn't, but he didn't negate that their kind tended to be rather…devious.

Riptide nearly opened his jaws, ready to spray the darkness pokémon with a water gun if it so much as twitched. His attention was immediately diverted at the surprised cry of his trainer. He whirled, his tail whipping through the air heavily as he did and he too stopped, a strangled noise of surprise burbling up his throat.

He stared, alongside Bullet and Lupin, to find a red-and-white feathered avian-like creature fluttering before them. Golden eyes danced with a familiar merry mirth in their depths. The pokémon gave a soft, bubbly sort of laugh at them.

"Surprise! Not a ghost-type!"

OoOoOoOoOoO

Note: Alto Mare, quite obviously, is modeled after the city of Venice, in Italy. A sad, but eventual truth is that one day Venice will no longer be left on the map. And, just like Venice, I could imagine Alto Mare is slowly sinking.