One day a few months later, all of us heard that a mysterious rescue team had arrived in the village.

My first reaction was to shrug carelessly. What fun were they, anymore? Why should I care? Plusle wasn't around to run with me, all the way to them, to cheer at the newcomers. But Evie insisted we go and greet the travelers - and so off we went, joining the crowd that watched as several Pokemon walked down the road.

There were several new ones I couldn't recognize, and Evie identified them for me: "There's an absol," she said, pointing at the tall, regal, Pokemon with snow-white fur that led the procession. "There's a hitmonlee. Here comes a charizard." On and on she went, until close to a dozen Pokemon had gathered in the middle of the village square.

Albert rushed forward to greet the absol. I could tell they were old friends, although I'd never seen the absol in all the years I'd lived in the village. The two conversed for a while, Albert nodding frequently, while the absol spoke in such a quiet tone that nobody could hear him except the old fearow.

They seemed to reach some sort of agreement, and the absol headed back to his group. In a hushed murmur, he whispered something to them, and they quickly dispersed away from the square, most heading towards Boulder Mountain. The absol himself quickly looked around the crowd, scanning all the Pokemons' faces, before he began to make his way in the opposite direction, straight towards us.

As he neared, we stepped aside to let him pass. The absol passed right by me - and suddenly, he stopped, examining my face, his fiery red eyes unreadable. For a whole minute he held his gaze, and then he broke away. "You are the one," he said simply, and left.

I tried asking Evie what he meant, but she seemed as confused as I was. "That absol - I don't know him," she told me. "I've heard of a legendary absol called Ice who trains Pokemon and helps them form elite rescue teams - but I'm sure that's not him. Ice's eyes are blue."

I shrugged. "Oh well," I concluded. "It's really not that big of a deal, anyway. Besides, you told me absol are mysterious," I said. "Maybe he's just being an absol."

What I didn't know was that it would turn out to be a big deal.

A few days later, we saw the absol again - this time, he was roaming the fields aimlessly, ever so often glancing at Boulder Mountain as he concentrated on thinking. I spied him as soon as Evie and I entered the rolling, hilly fields, and before she could stop me I'd ran all the way up to him and started to ask him questions.

"Why are you here?" I asked. "Do you know Albert?"

"He is my friend." The absol said. "My team - you have seen them yesterday - are guarding your village from the monster. I have reason to believe it may attack."

"Oh. And, what did you mean when you said I was 'the one'?"

The absol stared at me for a long moment. Finally, he spoke. "Albert informed me that the monster had already taken one young life. He mentioned that one among the crowd was the dead child's friend, but would not reveal the identity."

The absol paused for a second. "I have lived a long time, long enough to tell by your expression and mannerisms. A quick scan of the crowd revealed to me only one option: you. You are a minun; it is exceedingly rare to see you without your partner Pokemon, Plusle, who must've died by the hand of the monster. Minun are usually outgoing; yet, you hid slightly behind your vaporeon caretaker, because you were scared - perhaps of strangers like me, since you are still afraid from your friend's death.

"And what final proof did I have?" The absol smiled. "My old friend Albert forgets that I can read his expression. When he spoke to me about the dead child, he unconsciously glanced at the parents in the crowd - a Plusle and a Pichu - as if he wasn't sure he was violating their privacy by revealing such a fact to me. Perhaps this was why he did not give me the friend's identity - but ah, I had already figured it out."

He turned away, staring towards Forbidden Peak.

"They say that this mountain is a popular challenge for rescue teams," he noted. "Is that true?"

"Yes!" I replied. "It's always fun to cheer on the strong Pokemon that come here to try to fight their way up the mountain!" I paused. "Or...well, it was fun, before...before-"

Absol chuckled, ignoring my anguished expression. "I would expect you to do as such. These rescue teams, they are so foolish - again and again they try. However, what they do not know is that Forbidden Peak is a unique dungeon - a survival dungeon. There is no final floor, no escape. You are expected to fight for as long as possible."

He sighed. "If only they would take some time to explore around the base instead of charging straight into the entrance, they would find, hidden at the back, a relatively steep but easily climbable mountain trail that snakes all the way to the top. That is the only possibility of success."

"There's a trail to the top of Boulder Mountain, too," I added.

He nodded. "Of course. I know that trail by heart, although I do not climb it. The Pokemon that lives at the top is a huge and mighty beast - I would rather not challenge it at this time," he said, looking away.

Never before had I seen an embarrassed absol - but here he was, trying to hide the faint blushing visible through his snowy white fur. I was amazed - it seemed to be a once in a lifetime thing to see absol, the most serious Pokemon of them all, blushing red. Still, already I was thinking about what he said. Was the monster really so powerful that not even he could fight it? I shuddered, suppressing the dark memories of the time that I had tried, and failed.

"It's alright," I said soothingly. "At least you didn't end up- didn't get-"

I tried to stop myself before thoughts of Plusle could rush into my mind. Thankfully, the absol immediately looked beyond me, focusing on the Pokemon coming up the hill to us.

"Minun!" Evie called, as she ran to us. "So there you are!" She said to me, smiling.

The absol turned to look at Evie. "So this is the vaporeon," he observed. "Greetings, madam."

Evie dipped her head. "Hello."

The absol didn't respond, merely examining her face. "Although we have never met, you believe I am familiar to you somehow," he finally said.

Evie seemed slightly surprised. "Yes...you do, in a way. Are you, by any chance, related to Ice?"

Smiling, the absol nodded. "Ice is my brother. I am Blood." Seeing Evie's slightly uncomfortable face, Blood added, "I understand if you're repulsed by my name, but it does not mean what I can see you believe it means. My father, Sun, named me Blood because I was related by blood to a noble lineage, unlike my brother Ice, of whom was birthed by a different mother."

Seeming slightly relieved, Evie nodded. "Are you here to visit Albert?"

Blood shook his head. "No. Currently my team defends this village-" He turned towards Boulder Mountain. "-from that beast."

"Oh?" Evie asked, concerned. "It's not going to come down here, is it?"

"Well, we don't know," Blood admitted. "It's going through- well, a 'phase', so to speak. It usually won't leave its mountain, but now it might, since it's more protective. Albert is worried it might even see the village as a threat and destroy it."

Evie did seem very agitated at the word 'destroy'. Blood noticed immediately.

"You don't need to worry," Blood reassured her. "My team is strong enough to hold it off should it approach, if not kill it altogether."

"Why not directly attack it?" Evie asked.

Blood seemed uncomfortable, just as he had when he'd talked about the trail. "Well...we would rather not- you see-"

Evie smiled. "I think I know."

Blood quickly turned away as he flushed a shade of pink. "It's not that we're not strong enough."

"Then why?" Evie asked.

"Right now, the beast is very protective of its home. The closer it is to its home, the stronger it will be. Normally we would be able to defeat it, but now that it's fully into its phase, it's unusually strong. If we tried to confront it at the mountain, I don't think we would make it out alive." Blood paused, and a slight smile came to his face. "Besides, I am not Ice. I don't achieve impossible miracles."

Blood turned to look at the mountain. "If it does decide to come out, we'll act swiftly. If it doesn't, then we wait. With how unpredictable it is, nobody can know. Maybe it will never leave the mountain, and its phase will fade. Your village should be safe then."

For the next few weeks, Blood was a somewhat common sight around the village. Evie and I never saw him walking out in the open - instead, he seemed to prefer to stealthily travel through the tiny alley spaces in between the village homes. Often, we would be strolling down the street when I would spy a bright flash of snow white fur between two huts, only look and find nothing. Evie often talked to him - he seemed to know a lot about the village, including things the valley's elders hadn't told us.

We learned, among other things, that the village had been twice destroyed by the rampaging monster, that there were secret tunnels under the village that helped the villagers survive the attacks, and that Albert wasn't as experienced as he liked to appear - in fact, Blood said, Albert was barely nearing Level 50 (he quickly regretted bringing up the subject when we asked what level he was - he mumbled something about levels and how they didn't really matter anyway, to which Evie smirked).

Sometimes, Blood would sit and tell me stories of his adventures - mostly involving rescuing Pokemon from harrowing places. Still, some of them were interesting - he recalled a time where he discovered Ice trying to cause an avalanche by launching shadow balls at the mountainside they grew up on, and he told me about how he once found fifteen apples in one dungeon room - although from what little Evie had told me about the dungeons, I knew that probably wasn't exactly true.

Soon, the month was coming to an end. One day Blood announced that he was leaving with his team. "The beast's protective phase is ebbing away," he said. "We will return to rescuing Pokemon now."

I was sad to see him go, but the first chance he got, he extended an offer to me. "Minun," he said, "By any chance, would you be interested in coming with me?"

"To do what?" I asked. Already, worry was clouding my mind as I thought of what might happen.

"Well...like my brother Ice, I train Pokemon," he said. "I could train you to be a fighter, so you can defeat the beast that killed Plusle."

I was silent, not expecting him to bring up Plusle. Blood waited a moment, and suggested, "Just...give it a thought. You don't have to say yes. I just want to give you a chance to avenge his death."

Later, when I'd told Evie what he'd said, I was surprised to hear her thoughts. "It's a good idea," she said. "There's not many chances you get to be trained by a master like Blood."

"But I'll have to leave you!" I protested.

Evie sighed, her face regretful. "Yes, I know," she said. "You will have to leave me. I can't go with you; knowing the nature of dedicated trainers, they usually don't allow anybody but trainees."

I thought about it for a moment. Evie was my caretaker, and my only friend after Plusle died. She'd cared for me for four years now, and we'd shared so much - together we went on her trips. Together, we explored the valley, collecting facts and specimens for her studies. Together, we lived life in the two-story hut that I called home, and so did she. Her love was steadfast, even after Plusle died and some still blamed me for it.

I'd made my decision.

"No," I said resolutely. "I'm not leaving you, Evie."