-Hate-
"Again,"
"Again,"
"Again,"
"Again, you need to be faster than that," screamed powerful voice above me, I had my eyes closed enjoying my time when I could just lie motionless "Don't think about killing, just kill, it's the only one thing that you need to learn, what you need to master."
I did well, I won. I thought but didn't say anything.
"You will do it again, now without any hesitate which you will regret later,"
The game was simple. I needed to win with illusions or Giratina will make me suffer. I was in the center of a forest which is one of the only few places in the Distortion World which, if Giratina was telling the truth, were looking very similar to the main world. This field was to prepare me for my mission in the unknown.
The trees in the distortion world were mostly the same, the red bark and the short and simple leaves in obscure green color. Bushes had deep blue color and were two meters tall. The ground was made of the brown stone. That was enough to imitate the another world. After I did my training well, Giratina found another place where I did a similar training again and after this, another place and even more training, that is my life routine. I never did anything different, I was fighting until I passed out and after I woke up I immediately was set for different training. At this moment it was a cold night with thin fog close to the ground.
I needed to become fast, invisible and deadly. I knew that my superior had a mission for me which is connected with some conflict between her and other similar to her creatures. I know only about some fight between them and I guessed that Giratina lost. This trio who won made the barrier which precludes contact with the another world. I didn't know what help I would be in a fight with something that she couldn't win alone but that wasn't my choice. All that I could do was following her orders.
My mission didn't sound hard. It will be some kind of going through a hole in that barrier and use my last learned ability to gain some energy to destroy the barrier.
I had awhile before the serpentine dragon will be back to tell me where is a new place of my training. My exercises weren't the worst thing which I needed to face, much worse were the changes. Every time when I was forced to make contact with purple clouds which were floating here randomly, something inside me started to change. First thing was that I become much faster than I should be. First days after this were horrible. I completely hadn't control on it and I hurt myself many times bumping into trees, walls, and other things which were on my way. With that I gained my biggest weakness: I become much more vulnerable to any hit and lost a lot of weight.
The second change was that I couldn't eat normal plants anymore. At first, that was annoying but with time I became accustomed to this.
The third was my evolution which was also by contact with that cloud, I gained access to many new forms but I could change only by contact with each element.
My last transmutation changes my eyes and added ability to give some dark energy to my surroundings. That allowed me to eat fruits again but only after they gained a lot of this energy.
Every single alteration was very painful and I always felt that I'm losing some part of real me each time I was changing. The most fearful moment was back then when I get a deep injury and dark smoke appeared from the wound. Then I started thinking.
How much of me is in me and in what am I changing?
Suddenly the world around me turned to white for one second, that mean one thing. New training has started. For my surprise, it wasn't that much different environment than before.
I was in my night form, the best choice to fight because bites of this form were much more dangerous than in others forms. I was already hiding waiting for my opponents to appear. After a minute I saw them. There were four of them.
I never learned, were they just illusions or they were the real ones? This time my opponents were canine four-legged creatures with gray fur and muzzles full of sharp teeth. I hated them, not because how they look or what were they doing, I hated them because they were somehow linked to Giratina. I could feel how the fire of rage starts burning inside me. It won't be easy, they were very good at working as a team. They split into two group, first two runs in opposition direction to me, and other two started walking to my left.
Close to the ground, I changed my position to the bush closer to walking couple. I let the first one pass but when the second was close to me I jumped out of bushes sinking my teeth deeply in his back leg. I was clamping my jaw until my top fangs met lower cutting his skin, muscles and breaking a bone. Without his leg, he fell on his side and before he could do anything I bit his neck making the big gap where his throat should be. He started gasping for the air, I bit again cutting his head completely from rest of his body.
When he was dead I quickly dodged the sharp talons of the second mightyena. I started to blinking my yellow rings randomly to confuse him and I made a step to right. Like I expected he shifted his center of gravity to his left forepaw, lowering his head to the ground. That was his mistake.
I jumped to his left still illuminating lights. He tried to avoid me but I already was tearing meat from his side. I was too fast for him and a moment later he was lying like the first one. My mouth was full of their blood and I still had some of their skin and meat between my teeth. I felt much better now, almost happy, I always imagined that Giratina can feel the pain of my actions. Days when her minions could hurt me already passed but I still hadn't any chance to fight with her, so I stayed silent not showing my satisfaction. Two more to go. I could already feel the first sight of being tired. The second group probably heard the fight and they will be here soon. I needed to take them by surprise and kill first of them fast to make one versus one fight. I run to the north part of the fake forest and climbed on the tree. I changed my form to leafeon to be similar to leaves of the tree.
"Enough," the powerful voice echoed from every direction. The wood disappeared. Typical scenery of the distortion world returned to sight.
I was standing on a one of many floating in the void giant bare rocks in dim brown color. Before me was floating a giant serpentine ghost dragon with wings like dark fumes ended by red claws. Her body was gray with red bands on the front side of the body. From both sides were jutting gold long spikes. Her head had powerful yellow pincers which were now open showing her mouth. On her neck were gold incomplete rings. She was looking at me and her eyes were glowing red from above.
She immediately went to the point "You proved your strength and you are ready to go. Now you will face the 'true world'. "
Suddenly I was in a small but strong tornado which appeared from her mouth. The world around me started to spin faster and faster and I passed out.
When I woke up I immediately jumped on my feet and I looked around. I was on a smooth and flat floor made of something which looked like ice but wasn't cold or slippery. On my left was a gigantic wall, I couldn't see where is the end of that wall, it was long in both directions and tremendously high. I noticed that I returned to my normal eevee form.
I looked again at the wall, Giratina mentioned something about a hole in that wall which could lead me to my destination. I saw the hole, it was almost at front of me and it was in a size that I needed to crawl to fit into that.
Luckily my eyes still could see perfectly in darkness, there were actually very interesting things, it seems that they had every advantage of every of my form, with them I could see very good in darkness and in bright light also I never had problems to see underwater , they could hypnotize someone who looked into them and were very resilient to ash. The tunnel was full of switchbacks, leading mainly upward and after few hours of forcing my way through I became tired. So I just stopped where I was to rest a little. It was completely silent here.
How will the new world be? Will it be a dangerous place full of monsters which will be hating me trying to kill me everywhere I will go? Or I will be this one who is more dangerous?
After a while, I was able to continue my journey and after another hour the tunnel started to change: stone walls became dirtier and the air was now fresher. I passed another corner and I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. New determination filled me when I started to moving faster to the exit.
I have never before been able to see something that beautiful. Above me were millions of small bright points lighting a landscape where plants were growing but that wasn't normal plants, that were trees, bushes, flower and grass of origin. Every single of them was different from the others. I could feel the energy of them so fresh, so powerful, so new. I looked behind me. There wasn't the even sight of the hole from which I exited a second ago.
I didn't know how much time passed while I was staring at the landscape but I noticed that my point of view changed. The world around me became smaller and my view was much further from the ground. I could feel that I was in my night form, but why did I transform into that if it's so bright here? Isn't that supposed to be a day? I decided to investigate this later.
I started walking to a random direction, I needed to find some good place to start my curse to gain enough energy to make a connection between two worlds also when the opportunity arises, to learn more about this world.
I woke up in some kind of a metal cage. The cage had only small holes to provide air. Why am I dreaming about my past again? That was one of my most enjoyable memories. The day when I made the first step to my freedom.
I checked how my healing process ended. All of my legs were fully operational. I could see again and I didn't feel any pain. Then I heard some noises from outside of the cage. Someone was hitting a wall or a door.
"You can't stay inside forever spare my time and open this," yelled a hoarse voice definitely from another side of the door.
"Fuck off!" It's the second time I heard this voice within a minute after waking up. I hope that won't become a routine of my mornings.
"You are still barking, I'm even sad that you will not be allowed to see what will we create from that body in that cage."
I looked via hole to see what is going on there and I saw a hall with many containers and barrels on the clean white floor, the lights were on but it wasn't very bright in there. The two winged door were blocked by a heavy looking pole which was placed across both of door handle. Rea was staying in front of me looking at door's direction.
"Some angry customer?" I asked loud enough to be heard only by Rea. In the same moment, doors get another hit which bent the pole hazardously.
"Wha.." started Rea, turning to my cage, but I interrupt her.
"We can have a talk but it seems that you are in trouble, so maybe we will make a deal. Open the cage and I will defend you from anything is behind this door."
"But you will kill me, it's me who rented Gloim pack an.."- I needed to cut her off again. Why she can't understand that her and probably mine life is in danger.
"I will not, now open this cage or this door, it's your choice."
Rea one more time looked at the now almost opened door and then she unlocked the cage's door. Then the pole sprang, and a big gray humanoid pokemon ran into to the hall. And that was the moment when the time slowed down or just me speed up, The new intruder was a gray two-legged creature, he had a beak-like mouth, a lot of muscles and four arms. His torso was without any protection so I aimed into that. I jumped as fast as I could at him and I exaggerated this a little because I didn't felt any resistance in the moment when I should meet his chest. Rea let short scream after I landed on all fours on another side of the hall. Because of that dream, I forgot that I don't need to use my entire strength for actions like fighting.
"YEEEAAA, FINALLY BLOOD, MEAT, DEATH, KILL" my yellow appearance reminded about its existence. I wasn't usually listening to him but he had a point now, meat. So I turned to four handed creatures which were now lying two meters behind me and started to satisfy my hunger but after few bites, I heard a thud from cage's direction. When I took a look into that direction I saw that Rea passed out and was lying on her side.
Isn't she eating meat too?
I decided that is no time to waste and I made my way to the exit. When I was about to leave the hall I looked one more time into the cage direction. Rea still was lying there unconscious.
"We shouldn't leave her here," protested Myron.
"Why no, she will only slow us down," replied Kilian. " We are the bad one, we don't help others"
Both of them were right: if there were more of her foes she won't stay alive but if I take her with me we both can die.
"Black and white melt into gray," I answered them when I was walking to the lying flareon "...but this gray still seems to be bright."
These were words I heard when I saved ... ah, why I'm thinking about her again. I promised myself that I won't look back into the past again.
I catch Rea by the fur on the tail by my mouth and started dragging her out of the hall. Outside I noticed how big this building is, and more surprising was that it's in the middle of the forest. It was too close to the building to leave Rea here so I dragged her deeper into the forest. She was much heavier than I thought, I started wondering if every eeveelution is heavy like she or only flareons. When I was far enough to lose building from my sight of view I stopped dragging Rea and I looked around. It must have been raining because there were a lot of puddles around. There was springtime so rains were quite often. I drunk water from one of them and washed my head quickly in another one.
"Where, whaa... " mumbled a voice behind me. "What is this place?"
" I don't know, maybe you should tell me, " I said turning to now standing Rea. When she saw me I noticed the fear in her eyes, she started moving fast backward until she bumped into a tree.
"Please, don't eat me, pleease..." she was ...crying? "I didn't want to hunt you they threatened me, I had no choice please spare me, please, please..."
"Stop yelling! I don't want to eat you, why you even think I would?" I asked,
Didn't she notice that she was in the forest and she couldn't just teleport here, there was no sense into saving her only to eat her.
"You, you really don't want to eat me? But, but you ate that machamp, and you are the m-monster from the mountain, you probably ate little Sinar too, why wouldn't you eat me?" she asked in the shaky voice still looking at me horrified.
Sinar? So is she thinking that I ate myself?
"Now are you trying to convince me? Listen, Rea, I said that I will save you if you open the cage, and I kept my promise. I saved you, now I will go in my way, you will go in yours and we probably won't see each other again," When I said this I started moving into random direction just to make some distance between me and Rea.
"I started to like her," informed Myron. " Some company would be nice after so long time of being alone, maybe you would even stop thinking that someone is talking to you."
"Shut up, I'm not thinking like that," I said aloud to my imagination.
"So what you are doing right now," told Zenon. I forgot they aren't real. I remain silent.
I wasn't walking long when I heard sounds of running behind me and second later I saw Rea running toward me.
"Wait! Tell me, what do I need to do to break the curse? What are your requirements?" she asked me breathing heavy and avoiding eye contact. I still could hear that her voice was nervous.
Requirements? Had I any requirements?
"Whats requirements? I don't have any," I answered not sure if I understood her.
"You don't, so isn't it any devil pact? Then curse! What will happen to me? Will I die in suffering or someone other will die in suffering? Or will I suffer after I die or both?" she panicked speaking very quickly.
"No, I think you will.." she cut me with another attack of panic.
"Oh no! So I will change into something, tell me into what I will change. Into a rock? a tree? A monster like you?" I started wondering how good the legends about me must be if she was so afraid only after she just saw me.
"I think you..." I start talking louder than before but she was able again to prevent me from finishing my sentence.
"Noo, that left only one option. I will change into a human, please say what I can do to get this of me," she was about to begin cry again.
Her fantasies are interesting.
"I think you will be fine," I said fast and loudly so she wasn't able to interrupt me.
"What? No curse? No devil pacts? I was just saved because I opened the cage?" She asked, surprised. "But monsters doesn't work like that."
Now she will teach me how to be a good monster.
"Good to know, I will leave you now" I was already walking.
"Wait!" she ran up to me and now we were walking side by side "So if you don't want to eat me and you don't give me any curse then maybe you are not a monster?"
Maybe I just can't give curses, or not that fast
I didn't answer her and I started to think that leaving her in the hall was very good idea.
"Maybe you are some god of eons? Or something like that," her nervous voice disappeared without sight, replaced by the voice of curiosity.
I heard many theories about what I could be but I never even thought that someone will think about me like a god. I even felt some kind of pride.
"Oh, but if you are a god you need to be very weak one if a simple cage can jail you," added Rea after a while and all my pride left me.
"No, I'm not a god but don't you have anything better to do than asking me over and over again? Aren't you a leader of some exploratory pack? You probably have a lot of work. You started being annoying week before you caught me and it started to getting me angry," it was very annoying. For now, I must focus on other important things. Who wanted to catch me, where he got know about me and for what purpose. I knew where I can find these answers. I needed to go back to places where I could leave some tracks and I didn't like this idea.
"'Rising Sun' doesn't exist anymore, but I didn't meet you the week before Gloim caught you, I met ...no, can you change into eevee too?" she seems shocked.
I stopped moving and I looked at Rea.
"Every eeveelution I have tried, but I never tried sylveon," Generally, with what should I make contact with to change into that? She could have some important information for me, "You said someone was threatening you to catch me, who?"
Rea didn't reply immediately, she sat down thinking, after a while, her face expression changed from unsure to determined.
"I never met him, he was always sending someone different but it seems to be someone who has authority, he always knew where I was and what is dear to me." she stopped talking starting at the ground
That left me only one option but where should I go first?
Maybe to the place where I was examined, in this place still could be some information about me which somehow survived. But first I needed to go back to my cave. I wanted to start walking again but I reminded myself that I still didn't know where I was. I looked around. Trees, grass, bushes, nothing that could help me to find the right way, then I saw that Rea was still starting at the ground in some kind of a trance.
"Hey, Rea, do you still want to know something about me?" I asked but I already knew how her answer will be "If you help me get to my mountain I will allow you to give me three, three questions which I will answer" I didn't know why but three seems to be a fair number.
She woke up from her trance and looked at me. She was trying look like she was thinking but her answer wasn't different than I was expecting. "I think it's a fair deal, follow me."
She stood up and started walking in opposite direction then I firstly planned to go. The wood around remain the same as we were walking, shady green spruces were everywhere and the ground under them was overlain by needle-cover. Soon it started to becoming dark when the sun started hiding behind the horizon. Rea spent all the time looking straight ahead, thinking about something. I could always change into espeon because of the bright sun above and read her mind but I thought that isn't any important thing for me. After a while, it became completely dark and Rea turned to me.
"I not sure if you need to sleep but I need to, so if you don't mind we will stay here for the night," she said, curling close to the nearby tree.
"Sure," I replied, I wasn't sleepy yet: the healing process had left me in good shape so I will probably spend this night wandering somewhere around. I felt that I couldn't keep my grass form any longer so I started transforming. Fur become black and more abundant, the tail becomes much shorter and yellow rings appeared giving weak glow around me.
"That looked ...disgusting," commented Rea yawing.
No caring about her words I made my way into the forest leaving her under the tree. Even if I would sleep now I couldn't do that close to her, I needed to remember that I was all the time emitting energy which I had gained from toxic clouds in distortion world. She should be fine if she will have contact with me only during the day. I wasn't hungry yet but the night was still young and I didn't want to hunt in the day, so I started looking for some track of any potential prey. I felt the cold wind blowing from the north, this wind was carrying scents. I sensed odor of spruce's needles, some fruits and scent of flareon, nothing interesting. I decided I will go in opposite to the wind direction but no straight ahead. After few minutes I found a tight stream of water in the low ground depression. I followed the path close to the stream, still nothing, I started to doubt that anything lives in that wood.
What doesn't leave tracks? Birds, but they leave scent and I couldn't sense anything.
I sat down at the small beach of the stream and looked into the water. I didn't know what I'm waiting for but looking at the stream was relaxing, then in the water reflection, I saw a pair of red eyes floating in a corona of a tree. These eyes weren't connected to the body, there were surrounded by nothing.
Ghosts!
I quickly looked around. Is it possible that it's their nest? I was in umbreon form so they shouldn't bother me but this time I wasn't alone. I speed up to the place where Rea had fallen asleep. The short distance and the speed I ran made it almost like teleportation. Then I saw, close under Rea's head was a floating dark mass, with two white eyes, which was outstretching their sharp not connected to the rest of his body tri-claws. I jumped forward but aiming at sleeping Rea moving her in time to make her avoid talons made of shadow. The Haunter wasn't much surprised and let out a loud bloodcurdling scream, almost immediately other similar voices echoed from every direction.
"What is happening?" screamed Rea fully woke up.
"Don't talk, run!" I screamed back, pushing her in the direction where I thought I hadn't heard the roars of ghosts. Rea was running fast but I still needed to slow down to let her keep up with me. I saw that she was stumbling so I increased a glow of the rings. I looked back to see how bad our situation was. It was very bad, behind me weren't only several ghosts, it was the whole horde flying toward us screaming and howling as one big mass of darkness, with many white and red eyes, which was engulfing the forest behind us. That was when Rea looked back. It seems like new energy filled her, screaming she sped up so fast that I started to doubt that my abilities are unique. It also started to be incredibly hot close to her. After a while of running, I noticed that I didn't hear ghosts and trees around disappeared replaced by a large clearing. When I looked back I saw that no one is chasing us.
"Rea, we escaped!" I call to her but she wasn't listening, still running. "You can stop running now!" but it also didn't come to her.
I outran her and blocked her path. That wasn't the good idea, she rammed me like a train sending me flying on the ground not even losing her speed.
"Hey, wait!" I screamed after her but she was too far to hear me. Then I noticed that black fumes started to cover me.
Did I hurt something?
I remained lying on the ground but something was different, I didn't feel the same thing what I usually felt while I'm recovering, I was feeling something inside of me what was expanding.
Oh no, I'm changing again!
Then a horrible pain filled me, it was like being burning and freezing at the same time, someone was screaming but who? The pain focused on my head and then I noticed that that scream was mine. The pain disappeared that fast as it appeared leaving me huddled on the ground. I shakily stood up. I thought that all my abilities were already escalated and I will never feel that pain again.
I looked at my appearance, nothing as always, so it must be something inside. It won't be easy to find out what it was, probably I need to wait for some accident which will reveal what new is inside of me.
I decided to investigate this after I find Rea. I stood up and started walking in the direction where Rea was running. She couldn't be far, she has her limits. Her tracks were very visible in the grass, she probably revealed her claws in the fear.
Rea was much further than I thought she would be. She was lying on the ground trying to catch her breath. I laid on the ground too but in a distance. Then she noticed me.
"Tha-thanks, and sor-sorry," she said panting and she collapsed on her side. I felt that I'm tired too so I did the same.
I was dreaming. Everything was blurry I could see only that I was outside of the hall where I woke up earlier, close to the door of the building were Rea and some creatures at front of her, I couldn't identify them they were looking like colorful fog.
"Did you bring it?" I recognized that voice. It was the machamp that I killed in the hall.
"It's is in the cage inside," answered Rea emotionless.
"Good," said the same humanoid creature and kicked Rea straight in the face sending her inside of the building. "You two, go on the other side of the hall, I don't want to let her escape"
I woke up in the same clearing where me and Rea fell asleep. The sun was high in the sky and the day was warm.
"What will we eat today?"
"This cloud looks awesome. "
"Leave me alone."
"I saw a real sandwich today!"
Unknown voices echoed around causing me a powerful headache. I jumped on my feet looking around but I didn't see anyone in sight.
"Shut up, shut up!" I tried to outshout them but I couldn't.
"Who is screaming?" this was Rea's voice but I didn't hear her, it just appeared in my mind. Then I noticed that my paws were in lavender color, I looked behind and I saw the split tail. I quickly forced my powers to change me to leafeon and luckily I didn't overload this time. Voices immediately disappeared but I still had a headache. I always could read some others thoughts in form of espeon but now it was like hearing the thoughts of everyone on this continent.
Maybe that was my last change?
Gaining powers of other than a jolteon form was actually pretty good but I need to learn how to use them. I looked at Rea, she was still sleeping, I decided to wait until she gets up.
My thoughts drifted. Who can be this mysterious person who wants me? Is it a human or pokemon? What is his motivation? Was it looking for me because he wanted to use me for something, examine me or just to kill me? Any of this option wasn't comfortable for me but I couldn't just wait for him, I could hide, I could be undetected even standing just at front of that someone but what if will he learns more about me in the meantime?
And what I need to learn about myself? I had changed only by contact with violet toxic clouds in the distortion world, was it because I touched Rea? I had contact with creatures from the real world before and nothing like this never happened. Maybe Giratina found another option to destroy the barrier between the two worlds?
I noticed that Rea stood up and yawned. The sun in the sky showed that it was midday.
"Good morning," acknowledged the female flareon. That was rather mid of the day and waking up with a headache made my morning far from being good.
"How far is the mountain?" I asked. I had hoped that we weren't that far but I didn't know how long I was unconscious. It could be a week or a month, I was very lucky that I woke up at the last moment to escape.
"I think we will arrive at the evening."
As we were walking Rea was silently contemplating again and only from time to time she looked at me. Soon I could see the familiar U-shaped mountain surrounded by thick and dark forest. From here I could make the rest of the journey alone.
"I know the terrain from here, ask your three questions fast and we can split up," I said facing her. I could guess what she would ask me. She didn't ask immediately. I thought that she will give me questions faster than I will be able to understand them but she was thinking, looking at me focused on something in her mind.
"I was wondering, can I exchange these questions for something different?" she asked faintly.
"For what?" What could she want more than questions?
"For one favor." What could she want from me? I only hoped that she knew what I can and what I can't do. "But you need to agree, no matter for what I will ask." That was fine for me, to do some task for her and not reveal anything about me.
"What it will be, that 'favor'?" I asked slowly, I didn't want to show her that this option was fine for me.
"You will escort me to my pack." This sounded more like a command than asking for a favor but that was acceptable.
"Yesterday you were afraid that I will eat you and now you want me to keep you safe," I said with faked doubt in my voice. "What makes you think that you will be safe with me?"
"You saved me two times in two days and you can take on easily everyone who will try to kill me." That probably is about what she was thinking during our short trip.
"What is a name of your pack?" I knew only a few of them, and to get to the closest one will take a few days.
"Nysy" I knew where that group was and it was in the same direction of the place which I planned to visit.
"I will take you there."
She only nodded and I continued walking into the mountain direction, I started getting hungry though it's no time for hunting. After our talk, Rea remained silent and was looking at the dark environment. She will be the first one who will leave this wood alive. We arrived at the entrance to my cave at midnight but Rea probably didn't know that because days here was dark like the nights. She probably needed sleep again so I guided her to the mid-sized room where I usually sleep, during the walk she was helping herself to see, using a small flame to light up the tunnel. The room was completely ruined: dry leaves which always were covering cold rock floor were burned to ash, pears, and oranges which had been keeping the cave in pleasure scent were trample down and their scent was far from nice, also some memorabilia which I had been keeping here were gone. Angry, I guided her to the high grotto with the lake.
"It's night now so you probably need to sleep, I will return to you at morning," I informed her. "And don't touch the water," I added while I was walking out of the cave.
I stopped for a while outside, thinking that someone sleeping in my cave was unpleasant. My hunger reminded me of what I went outside for, it was very unlikely to find some prey so I went along side of the mountain until I found a tight road which went along the mountainside to one of the peaks.
I didn't even notice when a yellow light appeared around me, I was changing my appearance so often that I stopped looking at it. The peak was flat and everyone would say that nothing was here but I knew that wasn't true.
The ground here wasn't made from rock but from loose debris. I dug in place close to the edge of the top and quickly found what I was looking for. In the newly made hole were black and red oblong balls. These balls were pears twenty years ago but after they spent some time in the affection of energy from the distortion world they changed into the black round and tasteless things with thick and tough skin. I ate few of them, this should be enough for me for next day or two.
"Back on the track are we?" A new voice surprised me.
"Lasota, I haven't heard from you for...so long." Lasota, the name which I had as espeon, why did my imagination summon that old part of me.
"You wanted to say that you didn't hear me since she left us." I didn't answer and started walking back to the cave but he wasn't done.
"Why are you still running from your memories, she still is somewhere in this world. We know how to track her and now when we gained ability to 'hear' others mind we can find her in a week,"
That was true, I could do that but what then, would I just come up to her and say: Hey, did you remember that leafeon which you met fifty years ago and which supposed to be dead now? Who was talking about the Distortion World and doom of the whole world? Yeah, that was me but now I've also destroyed a whole city, killed so many pokemon that created this legend about me as the "monster from the mountain", and now I'm wanted by some ruthless hunter. I also didn't get older by that whole time.
Genius plan, but Lasota was always following only emotions, Kilian was someone who was looking on facts. I didn't answer him but that didn't stop him from talking.
"Didn't that time which you spent here alone teach you something? The world is waiting for you but it won't be waiting forever, you need not only to find Naert, also our fight with Giratina is still ahead, what if she found another option how to destroy the barrier. We need to kill Giratina, only that will give us serenity, we can't do that from that mountain. Let's make everything at once, now when we are leaving this place," Lasota wasn't following only good emotions, he was following every strong emotion.
I didn't hear any voices for the rest of the walk. When I returned to the cave I checked Rea. She was already asleep but I saw that the end of her tail is burnt, she probably learned what was wrong with the water. Good thing that she only dipped her tail in. I went to my ruined room and curled in the middle, trying to fall asleep. I couldn't, Lasota did his job and now memories tried to remind me of past events. I needed a distraction, something on what I could focus. Best distraction always were my hunting trips but there is no time for that. I started thinking about my new eeveelutions, I needed to learn them but before I will do that espeon form will be locked for me because I couldn't handle all these voices which were making me a headache.
Trying to learn this during my trip with Rea isn't a good idea, the only way to escape a headache is force myself to change to another form but I can always overload my ability and return to a regular eevee. And I couldn't escort Rea as a normal type.
The distraction worked well and I fall asleep but I didn't sleep long. When I woke up I decided that is no sense trying to sleep more. I went outside of the cave to the small clearing. Here I could see the small fragment of the sky between of trees crowns. This night was cloudy, I couldn't see any stars, only the peaceful black sky under me. I was sitting in complete silence which was always the case in this wood. Soon the sky lit up and a new day started. I felt that I started losing my night form, so I hid from the sun to be sure that I will not change into espeon. I returned to the cave in an attempt to wake up Rea but she was already staying in the entrance.
"I said you that you shouldn't touch the water, didn't I?" I commented at her burned fur on the tail. Her response was only a glare at me. " We won't move directly to your pack it is one more place which I want to check but it's in the same direction so think about it as a shortstop."
"Are you know where my home is? But how?"
"I didn't spend my whole life in that mountain," I answered her quickly, not wanting to let the conversation escalate.
We left my mountain far behind walking towards the east. The forest around was much different than my silent and dark wood. This forest looked very old but I knew that it didn't look like that because of its age. Tall trees with huge crowns were overgrown by long green vines and ivy, bushes around were very dense.
We were walking in some kind of clearing where only grass was growing. I was walking first, Rea a few meters behind me. I could clearly see that she wanted to talk but after few hours of ignoring her and after I said 'no question' she gave up in attempts to start a conversation. It was midday, the sixth hour of our trip and our first destination was still far away but I already saw some signs which prove that we were going to the right direction. These signs actually were real road signs which were lying randomly on the edge of the long path covered by ivy. Their round discs were faded but I could remember white curved arrows on the sky blue background. I could see them only because I remember where they were lying before all this ground was covered by plants, Rea probably didn't notice anything. That was when she didn't manage to stay silent any longer.
"Do you also find that clearing is in very unnatural shape?" she asked. "I mean is so long and narrow," what a desperation to start the conversation but it was right, that wasn't natural for clearing to be so long and I knew why this one is like that. I decided that I can tell her that.
"Because it's not a clearing, it's the motorway, or it was a motorway," I answered her. It quickly took her attention she even looked quite surprised that I answered her finally.
"To where is that road leading? I never heard about any roads here," she asked looking around trying to find something that could prove that it was the road.
"It's leading to the city to which we are going," I said. The road which looks like the clearing was slowly turning left to the very high mountain pass but luckily we won't need to climb on them. We needed to go through the tunnel under them which we will arrive tomorrow.
"Shouldn't we avoid cities? It is not a place for wild pokemon," she asked confused.
"This city is dead and ruined, we won't be there for long, I just need to check something,"
The road was slowly turning left and becoming broad, after another hour, the silence of our walk was disturbed by Rea again.
"Will we have any break? I'm starving and my feet hurts," she said in pleading tone. I noticed that she was walking slower than before half hour ago but that wasn't time for a break. Then I reminded that she wasn't eating anything by... I didn't remember if she even ate anything after we escaped from the hall.
"We can stop for a while..." she immediately lied on her side and breathed a sigh of relief."...and I can find for you something to eat," I said not too happy that we need to stop so early but I could understand that she need that. I hope that she didn't need to break every six hours.
"Oh, yeah please," she said relaxed but quickly added, "Or no, I will find something by myself."
"Easy, I can bring you fruit, it's not that I can't touch them," I calmed her and she only nodded with her eyes closed. I guessed right, she thought that I would kill someone to feed her, that would be problematic because I didn't see any living creature today and that wasn't surprising. The soil here was hard, so digging a den or any shelter wasn't an option, and to find food for a group bigger than ours was also problematic.
Even if I would kill someone, why was that problem for her, she killed to feed me in our first meet.
As leafeon, I hadn't many problems with finding fruits and I quickly sensed where were the closest ones. I had very limited amount of normal to every leafeon and other not calculating jolteon and from few days espeon powers, but thankfully I had some connection with plants as leafeon. I went into that direction leaving Rea on the road. I found the fruits on the short bush in less than five minutes of walking and started gathering them on my leaf-like tail. These ones were currants for sure. When I had a small pile of them I went back to Rea which didn't move from the time when I left. I put the pile before her on the fern's leaf and sat down in the distance waiting for the end of her break.
She quickly ate the whole pile still lying down and she looked quite disappointed that I hadn't more but she didn't ask me to gather more fruits and only commented that I found very sweet berries. I started to doubt my botanical knowledge, I need to remember to not use names of fruits in future, who will believe me that I'm real leafeon if don't see any difference between currant and berry. I lost interest in looking at her and looked at the mountain pass far in the distance, I could see black and gray walls with white snow covering the whole mountain ridge.
After a while, Rea got up and we could continue the journey through the road overgrown by grass and ferns. Rea seemed to be in the much better mood with the filled stomach which made her, to my irritation, more talkative.
"So, you said that was a road but I don't remember any roads here, roads are made by humans and I'm not sure if my grandmother saw the last human on this ground," she said looking and me waiting for the answer. I looked ahead, still long way until we get to my destination, there was no chance to ignore her all this way. I decided that I will try to enjoy some conversation to pass the time and to not hearing later Myron's speech how antisocial I am.
"How many years ago did your grandmother see that human?" I asked, not looking back at her. They left these ground at the same time as the city was destroyed, now their civilization was far to the west from here.
"I didn't say that she saw him but she would be now eighty," she answered me quickly, it was very visible that she want to keep some conversation and that was normal, if before me she was traveling with five friends then there was always some to talk.
If her grandmother would be eighty then she needs to be more or less thirty.
"Then I can tell you that she didn't saw him for sure," I said. Maybe I'm giving her too much information but if she is going with me to the place of my past she will learn much more.
"Wait for a second, how can you know that?" she said, a little irritated.
"How old you think I am?" I said calmly.
"Well, you are for sure younger than me, I would say that you started your adulthood few month ago," I only smiled to her guessing but
that is how I look like, from all my abilities being immortal was my favorite, you just need to remember to not grow attached to something that can die.
"I am much older," I said amused.
"I don't believe you," she said seriously after a while.
If I would be in her place I probably wouldn't believe myself.
"You don't need to," that was when our conversation broke off and our walk became silent again. It was warm today, to hot for me so I tried to stay in the shadow on the left side of the path but Rea stayed on the opposite side in the rays of the sun. Soon, the large river appeared on our way, in the past, it was a large bridge here but it collapsed and now only pillars were standing out of the water. I jumped into the water without thinking, it wasn't deep, I could stand on all four and my head was still under the water. The flow wasn't too strong so close to the bank. I waited until my genes will react with the water to change my type. In the meantime I looked at Rea, she was still standing at the bank of the river.
Ah, she is a fire type so she can't swim.
"How you usually manage to cross rivers lakes or any other big basin of water?" I asked. I didn't have an idea how to transport her and I didn't want to think about an option to let her ride on me.
"By bridge or wading, it's not that I completely need to avoid water but I can't swim," she responded calmly but fact how she was looking at the water told me that she really didn't want to touch this. According to this how heavy she was when I was dragging her and how heavy will became all her fur on the tail and collar-like thing after they get wet, she would sink like a rock.
Being only one type sucks, especially this one who don't even have his biome. What are advantages of being flareon? You usually live in a forest so your fire is very dangerous, every river is a nightmare and in the winter everyone will try to touch you.
I saw that Rea looked away from me grimaced.
"Could you warn me when you are doing this? I don't want to see that," she said still looking away.
Doing what?
Then I noticed that my color of my paws changed from yellow-brown to blue which means that I changed my type to water. I remembered that she said that my changing type process looked disgusting, but I guessed she used less offensive words to describe this.
The situation was problematic, how to transport her, she couldn't just fly above the river, or could she? The idea was risky but it was a chance to success.
"Wait here," I said and swam to another bank of the river. Even if the flow was strong in the middle of the river I hadn't any problems and after a short while, I was standing on the opposite bank of the river. Standing on the ground as a vaporeon wasn't comfortable, this tail was too long and too heavy so I dragged it behind me like some kind of heavy bag.
"I will do that again," I shouted to Rea, not forgetting what she told me a minute ago. Waiting for change was much longer than before because I was wet and it was becoming evening so the sun wasn't that warm as before but I finally changed into espeon.
"What a stupid river why it needs to be so deep here?" I heard the voice of Rea in my mind. That wasn't the only one voice which I heard but I try to ignore them, I had some experience into ignoring annoying voices in my head.
Uh, what should I do now?
I never before was using any psychic thing so I didn't know how things worked. I tried to remind myself what other psychic types which I met before did, they were for sure looking at his target so I looked at Rea. I also remember that their taste is much better than every other type especially when they also had the second type, like fire or ice and it was the end of my knowledge. I also guessed that I'm getting hungry. Not sure what I'm doing I tried to imagine that Rea somehow is floating above the water but nothing happened. Rea was just staring at me blankly from opposite side of the river, I needed to look very stupid trying to concentrate lowered to the ground and with my eyes squinted not making any effect. I tried to somehow lift her using telekinesis but she still was standing on the ground.
Maybe she is just too heavy? Or my changes gave my only ability to hear annoying voices.
"Wow, he looks good as an espeon, I could even fal..."
"WHAT!?" I screamed surprised but my surprise only grows more when Rea, on which I was focused second ago, was catapulted by an invisible force high in the air, so fast that she started screaming second before she hit the water close to me.
Success ...almost.
She quickly exited the river and try to drain herself by shaking, she was treating water on her with abhorrence. I felt that my headache was getting worse so I hide in the shadow trying to ignore every sound.
After I changed my type again to the leafeon I felt exhausted. I can't change my type for fun, every change is draining some energy from me and now I felt like a well-wrung cloth.
"Why, what's that supposed to be?!" screamed Rea angry at me, she was almost dry.
"Eh, psychic practice?" I said realizing how stupid my idea was. What could happen if I send her into another direction?
"Psychic practice!? On me!?" she was even angrier than before.
"Do you have a better idea how to make you cross the river? There isn't any bridge by this river, or none which is not destroyed," I calmed her. How it even worked? When I tried to use these powers nothing happened, I made this only by accident.
After another short break, it was getting late and I was still tired. I knew the place where we could stay for the night. I stood up and started walking alongside the road which on this side of the river was much more visible and couldn't be mistaken with clearing. White lines were wiped off on the dark asphalt but I could remember that it was a motorway, the road sights here were still standing but it wasn't possible to read them.
Next to the road was a medium sized building with many cuboid things under the high roof which was standing on four round pillars close to it. The building had glassy open doors. I led Rea to the building, inside there were many empty stillages arranged in a row and table connected with the wall, that was the place where humans were selling fuel to their metal cages with wheels which they called cars.
"Here is where we sleep tonight," I said to the still grumpy Rea. She found a place to sleep under the table. I decided to go outside for the moment, I exited the building in the sunset.
One more change of form today.
"She said this, she said," screaming excited Myron the leafeon.
"What she said, I don't remember anything," I said to my imagination.
"She said that you..."
"Bla blah blah I don't remember anything," I cut him.
"She doesn't matter," interposed Lasota the espeon.
"Shut up, I'm not listeni... AAHH!" I let out a short scream when my form changed once again, too much for one day. I decided to sleep where I was so I lied on my side and almost immediately fell asleep.
I woke up before the sunrise and I went to the building to wake up Rea and simply smacked her forehead with my paw, but she only mumbled something that sounded like 'mmnneoo' and 'gooowayy'. I decided to use a more forceful way to wake her up. I went to the river which was nearby. I took some water in my mouth and quickly ran back. When I was back to Rea I spit the water on her head and effect was immediate, she jumped and because she slept under the table she hit her head in the bottom of the table.
"Ouch, it's still before the sunrise, why you are waking me?" she asked in sleepy voice rubbing her head not even noticed water.
"When we arrive at the city I will let you sleep a whole day but now we need to keep moving," I answered, we were close to the tunnel which will lead us to our or more main destination. Rea exited the building yawing and followed me to along the road.
"So, is the only way?" asked Rea when we arrived at the tunnel entrance.
"We can always try to climb up this mountain but it will take us a month if we even survive, this tunnel isn't that bad it's just dark. And you need to have your eyes closed in the tunnel and don't use any fire," I wasn't sure if closing eyes would be helpful to save her from having visions inside of the tunnel but maybe."And don't react to any voice or touch,"
"What you mean by that, how I will be able to walk with closed eyes, and why no fire?" she asked, still looking at the entrance.
"Just close your eyes and everything will be fine and about your eyes, it will be very dark inside so you won't see anything anyway,"
"What is sense to keep them closed then," she asked again looking puzzled.
Just do it!
"To save you from seeing things in the dark, just keep close to me." I had never investigated what was wrong with this tunnel, I thought that is some kind of gas but it was only a guess.
I entered the tunnel and "Ahh" I felt some pain from my tail. I looked back to see that Rea bit me and was keeping my tail in her muzzle but I get the idea. I started walking ahead and it soon became completely dark.
Almost like in distortion world.
The tunnel was almost empty, from time to time I was passing old burned cars without windows and modern houses.
What are buildings doing in the tunnel?
But I wasn't in the tunnel any longer, that was the one-way street in the center of a city. There were few parked cars and motor scooters on the road. On the sidewalk were a crowd of the humans and their pokemon hurrying in different directions.
Then it started storming, a black bolt appeared in the sky and with the wind appeared small green leaves. The leaves were like razors cutting everything on their way, dancing in the gusts of wind. But it seemed that no one on the street noticed it. People were shredding by small leaves, pieces of leather were falling on the ground exposing red muscles which also were quickly cut off the skeleton. Leaves were dancing, going through the bodies, making small whirls, going up and down, there were no longer green: they were in royal crimson color. The street changed to the red river of blood mixed with water of rain but people didn't scream, they were talking with each other, laughing and still going on their way like nothing was happening. Soon they became only skeletons which were moving their jowl in attempts to speak. I looked down, I was under my knees on the river of the blood and in the reflection of the liquid blood I saw a black colored jolteon. He had yellow zigzag lines going along both of his sides. The rest of his body was still changing, his tail for the moment was the long thin leaf but it quickly changed to bushy tail with the single glowing ring but after a second it changed again. But his eyes were all the time the same, the same as mine.
No, I'm still in the tunnel I just need to walk straight ahead. I blinked several times still looking on the ground and focused only on walking. The environment changed again and now it was a clean and white corridor in some building. I was passing doors made from imitation of brown wood.
On each door was a single plate which read '98 Equipment', '99 Toilets', '100 Coatroom'. '121'...here I stopped. These doors were made of steel and was looking like an entrance to a giant safe. I heard regular sound of scratching from the other side of the door: scratch, moment of silence, scratch another second of silence. I moved closer to the doors and sound of scratching get more intense and become long single squeak. 'UO00" was description below the number. I hesitated but finally, I continued my walk straight ahead.
The scenery changed again. Now I was standing on the dark, almost black stripes of amphibolite, the sky was covered by dark clouds or by one giant homogenous cloud. I was on the high hill, before me I saw the great valley. At the left end of the valley was the high mountain with red lines which were like snakes going down along of the mountain side. From the peak of the mountain was smoke in the same color as clouds.
Suddenly a loud noise echoed through the whole valley, the mountain split in two and giant balls of fire shot from the newly made hole dragging behind lines of black fumes. The narrow paths of lava connected with each other changing color of the whole mountain to red. Then I heard a scream, the scream which I thought will never hear again and a pain, the pain in my tail.
Wait, what is wrong with my tail?
I looked behind and saw an orange flareon with my tail in her mouth. The scenery of the valley disappeared and I was at the exit of the tunnel. Before me was large valley but different from this which I saw before. This one was girded by the high mountain ridge under which we were walking through the tunnel. At the center of the valley the ground was going up making the small hill. The ground here was burned, long ago was here forest, now it was only cinder and coal. Every movement was making fumes of the ash. There was a single asphalt road which led around of the center hill.
Is it real or is this another hallucination?
"Rea, you can open your eyes now," but she didn't react. I ordered her to not react to any voice or touch and now it turned against me. I tried to pull out my tail from her grasp but it only became stronger.
Oh, come on!
I decided to wait until she gets tired enough to let me go. It took an hour until she opened her eyes.
"So, it was you who said that," she said. "It was crazy, at first it seems to be like in a city later at a shore of lake and after it, I saw an eruption of the volcano even if I never before saw things like that. It seems to be so real I even felt heat from it, I didn't even need to open my eyes to see that,"
She saw almost everything that I saw, I thought that only I can see it because of it in my memory. What if everyone who tries walk this tunnel will see fragments from my past? How can a tunnel share memories? That was very unpleasant for me.
"And it was you there, at this lake it, was it your memory?" Rea asked silently. I only looked at her and turned into opposite direction.
"We are close, come," I said not showing any emotion. She didn't follow me immediately. After short while we were at the corner of the hill, in the meantime sun appeared in the sky so I changed myself to but I didn't change yet. Before the city appeared from the corner of the hill I stopped. It was so long when I was here last time. My thought started to drift away but then I felt warmth at my side. I looked there and I saw Rea, both her paws were around my neck.
"What are you doing?" I asked unsurely.
"Um, I'm hugging you," that wasn't a question but sound like that.
"For what?" I could only imagine how bad it must have felt as glaceon, all this warmth.
"I saw what happened to you at this lake and I thought that you need it," she said letting me go. That meant that she didn't see exactly the same things but she mentioned them, what if she saw the full scene what happened at the lake? I felt my heart sink.
"I think that I can find you a place in my pack, if I remember correctly I even promised that in our first encounter." Rea said.
A new feeling filled me, I felt warm but not because Rea was warming all the air around her, it was internal warmth. I quickly calmed myself. I couldn't let my emotions took control on me, I couldn't follow this impulse. But it was always an option after I will deal with my hunter.
"I will remember about that," I said. "But I have few things which I need to do first,"
"So, what did you give to Gloim as a payment?" I asked after a while of silence, I was curious what could be vulnerable for him. I wasn't planning any revenge, just curiosity.
"He is the hunter who is looking for a challenge for him, he already beat most of the strongest pokemon in the area, but he still wants to find stronger and stronger opponents so I gave him information where he can find them," she said. "I thought that he killed you. How it's even possible that you are still alive? I saw you completely burned."
I showed her one of my claws of my right paw and quickly made a small cut on my left one. When she saw that, she grimaced but was still looking. Almost immediately smoke appeared and covered my new made wound. After the second smoke faded away and there was no sign of my cut.
"That, does that work on every kind of injury?" she asked surprised.
"Yes, even if someone cut me in half it will heal me. I mean, I will be temporary dead then but after a year or so I should be fine," I was always wondering if someone cut my head off then rest of my body will make a new head or my head will create whole new body but I didn't want to try it. Rea was looking at me astonished.
"And I thought that type changing is crazy," she said slowly.