Lucario and I kept training each other afterwards. After four more rounds of deflecting aura spheres and physical combat, I collapsed to the ground. My opponent sat next to me, breathing with his shoulders. I went to pat him on the back but my hands were so frail, I couldn't even hold onto the bow. But I felt good to be tired for once.
"I didn't know you wore a leotard underneath your white cloth."
"Really. Well, now you know." I picked at the 'leotard' (whatever that was, in human terms). The soft, flexible cloth snapped back in place. I did prefer movable clothing. I honestly don't understand how the rest of my swordsmen friends fight in those pants and tight shirts.
"I almost forgot. Stay still. I'm going to temporarily heal you." Lucario said as he placed his palms on my chest. A warm, soothing sensation spread from my chest and down to my legs. I thought it was because his paws were so large and warm, but I saw that he was emitting a sea-green aura that fused into my chest.
Some of the light spilled from his paws and when I caught it with my hands, the pink burn I got when I grabbed onto the boiling hot Roy's phantom evaporated right off like a sticker.
"What do you mean by temporary? Does this wear off?"
"No... I meant temporary as in I cannot heal you fully. I can heal you to a point where you are steps away from full recovery. So the burn on your hands will be gone, but you will still feel somewhat of a sensitivity that a burn was there."
"Oh. It's still cool, though."
"I haven't used this ability in a while. I'll apologize in advance it this hurts anyway or another."
And just as he said that, the burn I received from the lava phantom pulsed. It didn't hurt as much, but my thigh trembled on its own. Creepy was my first thought; but Lucario kept a concentrated expression so I remained still. This is a painful, but small burn. A very small burn. I didn't want to imagine what would happen if I had larger burn than this.
"Do you feel better?"
"Oh. Yeah. Thank you so much, Lucario."
"Are you more confident?"
"Yes, definitely. I'm dead tired now, but I feel better. Inside and outside."
"Good. We should rest for now."
Rest sounded really nice. I found a long desk where I could sleep on (better than the bumpy floor), and a ballistic blanket. How I knew it was a ballistic blanket was because of the wooden boxes labelled "bomb blankets" in large blocky letters. It was hard, but nevertheless it was warm. I told Lucario I'd keep second watch, but he insisted that I sleep well. I wanted to argue, but the second I put my head down, I fell asleep.
I woke up underwater.
The water was lukewarm and oddly light. I thought I was floating in air, but the area around me was a murky, emerald green color. When I moved my hand, fine bubbles escaped between my fingers and ascended to the surface. Aside from that, I didn't see a wall or really anything around me.
"I must be dreaming..." I could hear myself clearly underwater.
At the surface, things were more interesting. I realized I was swimming in a canal when a canoe grazed my wings behind me. The young man operating the boat with one long oar paid no attention to me. I even tried calling out to him, but he didn't respond.
I swam to a small dock where several other canoes were held together by sturdy ropes. An elderly man with a pipe was reading the newspaper in the dim orange light of the hand-held lamp. He didn't say anything to me, but he did steal a quick look. I stood up fast and asked: "Excuse me, sir. Where is this place?"
The old man still stared at his paper. But his eyes stopped scanning left to right. "The city." He said shortly.
"Are we inside a cave?" I pressed.
I had a feeling he was irritated with me. The old man sighed and roughly folded the newspaper. When he stood up, he was quite short but he was still menacing with his gray squinty eyes. "Yes, yes, we're in a cave, you dumb bird. Why do you chickens even bother coming here in a place like this. You'd bonk your head on the ceiling and get eaten by the darkness."
"Um, I'm sorry. But I'm not a bird... or a chicken."
"You have those wings! No matter how human you look, you're still a chicken! Now get out of my sight!" He spat at the ground. I guessed it was my cue to leave.
Despite the mean nature of the old man, he did tell me that this place was a city inside the cave. The buildings almost touched the ceiling. There were voices coming from the apartments and when I listened into one of them, I was glad it sounded animated and happy. A little girl was telling her parents what happened at her school today, and the mother laughed at every other word she said. I wondered if this place is my next destination.
A well dressed middle-aged man strolled by. I bowed and he greeted back. He was holding a candle lamp but there was no fire inside it.
"How do you do?"
"I'm fine, thank you."
"Ah, but you should go on home soon. You wouldn't want the darkness to get you."
The darkness? The old man at the dock said the same thing. But what in the world is the "darkness"? The cave is already dark. I turned back but the middle-aged man was gone. The buildings were built side by side and there were no alleyways that he could duck into. If he went inside a building, I would've heard a door open. I shook my head. "I'm dreaming, remember. I'm dreaming..."
Couple of children bumped into me as they ran out from a house. They apologized briefly as they all ran off to one direction. Some girls were walking down the street, whispering and giggling to one another. Behind them, another little girl with a white dress skipped by them singing a somewhat of a folklore tune. The group of girls seemed to roll their eyes at her.
The little girl skipped by me singing:
"Green bird, green bird.
Where are you.
Are you hiding? Are you hiding?
Where are you.
Come back, come back.
Before the darkness devours you."
She smiled at me so I smiled back. I followed her with my eyes until I couldn't see her anymore. I never recalled meeting a little girl like her, but she seemed familiar.
When I woke up for real, Lucario was sitting next to me. His warmth and fur was comforting.
"Did you sleep well?"
"...Yeah. Aren't you tired?" I yawned. I wonder how long I've slept.
"Not anymore. Besides, I am a little excited to set course on this journey." Lucario smiled.
"Oh, you'll get tired of it soon enough."
As we came back on the bridge and followed the tracks, I told Lucario of my strange dream. The city itself seemed very real. Usually, I'll dream of places but some parts of it will be fuzzy and I can't focus. The city was different; I felt the warmth from the stone bricks and heard conversations inside houses. The middle-aged man disappearing was a bit bizarre but beside that, it seemed very real.
"I'm more interested in the "darkness" the people in your dreams mentioned." Lucario added.
"I don't know what it is. It might just mean like, stay-away-from-the-dark-and-you'll-be-safe things. Like if these people inside the city ever ventured out here, they'd come across that reptilian hellhound, or that humanoid, or even one of the phantoms. I don't know how they'd all survived down here..."
"What is that?"
Lucario pointed at the horizon. I didn't even need to squint to see something.
A white apparition, whatever it was, was standing in our path. It was triangularly shaped and small. As we walked up closer and closer to it, we noticed the triangle shape was a long dress that flared out on the sides. It was a little girl in a white dress. She had her back turned to us.
"Who are you?" I called. I tried keep a steady voice.
Then, suddenly, the fire in the lamps shut off. It didn't even flicker or wave. White flashes danced at my eyes, adjusting to the sudden darkness. Was it the phantom? Has he gained enough power to shut the lights off without warning now? Panicked, I yelled out Lucario's name. He places a wary hand on my shoulder and I jumped.
"I'm sorry."
"No, thank goodness. I thought I separated from my friends again."
"I'm still here."
"Good."
One lamp flickered on, and another, and another. The little girl was still there.
The little girl started singing softly. "...Green bird, green bird. Where are you."
She turned and smiled, just like how she did in my dream. I didn't know if I should smile back or not, but she didn't wait for my response. Lucario was already in pursuit before the girl started running.
"Lucario, that's the girl! Th-The girl in my dream!"
My friend grunted once in reply. I was amazed how the girl could still have so much distance from us running on these train tracks. She could be used to running around in these obstacles while she was playing with her friends. On the other hand, I struggled. When I lose my footing, I had to spread my wings to float myself and keep going. While we were chasing, the little girl kept singing. Her voice was neutral, and wasn't choppy or short even though she was running at a good speed.
The little girl and Lucario turned a gentle corner to the left. I was falling behind, but I saw Lucario was very close behind her. He stretched out his arms.
"Did you catch her?" I called out.
Lucario was about to say something, but a dull crash erased his voice. When I turned the corner, I found a him and two others on the ground and groaning. Lucario shook his head and assisted the two of them. My face lit up.
"Kirby! And... um, Zelda?"
"Sheik, for now." Sheik stood up quickly and adjusted the cloth that concealed half of the face. The first time Zelda showed me her transformation, I was surprised out of my mind. And I didn't know whether to address her as "he" or "she" when she transformed into Sheik. But Zelda told me to address Sheik as a "he", since that was part of the meaning behind the transformation: to become someone that is opposite.
"Ouch ouch." Kirby rolled around holding his head. I picked him up and patted him gently.
"Well," Sheik said as he brushed off some of the dirt. "This is a pleasant surprise. But were you two going after a little girl in a white dress?"
"Indeed. But she disappeared just as we... collided." Lucario scratched his neck.
"It's a ghost!" Kirby gasped, and let out an "oooh" sound to resemble one.
Sheik and Kirby claimed to have seen the same girl Lucario and I saw. But it couldn't have been the "same" girl if Sheik and Kirby chased her from one direction, and we chased her from the other. And just as the four of us met, the girl disappeared. She projected two versions of herself, just so all of us could meet together at this spot?
"If that girl was trying to be nice and meeting us back together, I wished she would've done it in a less painful way..." Sheik sighed behind his mask and rubbed his head.
"Unless if she wanted all of us to meet here." Lucario eyed something on the ground.
There was a small railroad switch point where it separated one trail to another. The trail we were following continued on, but the other point lead off down the slope. A wooden sign hung from the ceiling: "Polis 3". And right next to the word "Polis", written in crude, carved letters, read the prefix: "NECRO".
"Necropolis... a cemetery?" Lucario frowned.
A shiver went down my spine. Did the graffiti mean that this city has reformed into a cemetery, or did it mean that everybody in this city are dead? Or could it mean something more?
What's more horrible than death?
Author's Note: The little girl's identity will be revealed in the next chapter, along with some history.