March 31st, First Year
Wave after wave of sleet drove into the ground, tossing up water droplets into his face. Ingo thought the scene before looked awfully pretty as he sat hunched over atop a rocky ledge, one of his hands gently patting the smooth but icy cold exterior of Chandelure's crystalline covering.
A quiet hum came from his beloved pokémon who only wrapped a steel arm around him tighter as if fearing that the adverse weather would whisk him away.
He turned back at the encampment behind him, candlelight glowing hidden behind tent flaps and as the storm grew stronger, they flickered out one by one like Volbeat and Illumise. But were those pokémon native to Hisui? And why do I know those creatures? Are they native to the place where I come from?
Ingo had never thought of himself as a night-owl. In his past experiences of when he was adjusting to living in Hisui, staying out past the rising moon was considered a habit befitting of soon-to-be dead men. And now? It was comforting almost, to look toward Deertrack Heights as the moon crested behind him between parting clouds, the fringes of his coat shining silver.
Chandelure pulled forward, its once solemn hum turning inquisitive and soft. It pulled away to the frozen river, one steel bar still wrapped around his arm to get him off of his resting tracks.
Chandelure had been mostly stationary since the two had crossed paths some two weeks ago. Ever possessive of him and ever quiet, he couldn't help but feel that something was amiss between them. He had developed stronger urges to stay awake longer than he'd ever had before. Was it because Chandelure was a ghost-type and was far more active in the dead of night or… perhaps- or was it… could it be…?
Ever since the incident, he'd had trouble sleeping. Warden Calaba had made a scathing guess as to what was ailing his sleep, blaming it on the definite head trauma that he had suffered during his fall there. Some of his concussion symptoms still lingered like the frequent headaches that would bloom at the base of his neck and his frequent bouts of confusion or disassociation.
But he had noticed that his naps were now restful. Too restful. As soon as his head hit his pillows, it was lights out until either one of his pokémon (or Chandelure specifically) woke him. And these restful dreams were odd. They weren't his usual tousled nightmares or distorted memory glimpses. No. It was moreso as though something was trying to talk to him, but the words weren't coming through.
Ingo bit his tongue as his foot sank into ice-cold water. He hissed and recoiled from the riverbank, quickly finding something dry to perch on as he removed his shoe and sock. And it was just like him to disassociate on a quiet walk, too. Am I really becoming an old man like everybody believes me to be?
Snow crunched as something moved along the opposite side of the river. Ingo shot to his feet, his ears ringing as his hands instinctively moved to his belt. Chandelure darted in front of him, her ghostly flames blazing to life as the sleet worsened.
"Careful, careful- adjust your grip under his arms. Keep him steady, Komuro."
Ingo paused and listened as a crowd of quiet voices moved closer, seemingly oblivious to his presence. He tapped a finger against Chandelure's side and his partner immediately dimmed its flames, taking up a position behind his dark black coat.
"Egel, c-c-can you see the bridge from here?"
A grunt followed by a pained gasp. "No ma'am. I c-c-can't see a- c-can't see a-a thing."
"Who's out there?" Ingo barked. "I am Warden Ingo of the Pearl Clan! Show yourselves!"
There was a hushed silence as sleet pounded into the frozen river. Wind howled through the barren branches of a willow tree. Ingo stepped forward and snapped his fingers. A bright violet light enveloped him along with the surface of the river and through the fog of the cold, a group of eyes grew illuminated.
"You!" One of the hidden silhouettes stumbled forward, their face gaunt as they stared at him. It was a Galaxy Team Scout.
Their uniform was in tatters, dusted over with layers upon layers of snow and frost and splashes of what looked to be blood. What little skin around their face that was showing was a ghostly white and their hands, held before them and fingers splayed, were a horrifying shade of black. The man's skin looked waxy as he teetered forward.
The person then roughly shook their head and turned away, their mouth twisted into a disgusted grimace. They mumbled something incoherent to the other silhouettes behind them and at his words, the group collectively recoiled away into the snow.
"Stop where you are! Are you in need of medical attention?" Ingo called.
Chandelure sailed forward across the ice to loom over the illuminated group and upon seeing them distinctly, Ingo felt a little lighter. He recognized Warden Mai as his fellow Warden rubbed at her eyes; it was the missing group that had gone to survey Lord Wyrdeer. He did a quick headcount as he moved closer. There were six of them. Good. All passengers were present.
But as he moved closer, the warm feeling in his gut dropped like a stone into his belly. At the sight of him, the group recoiled again, their faces devoid of all emotion as they huddled closer. All of them were in the same state of disrepair as the Galaxy Team Scout, their pupils blown and their skin frostbitten as they stared him down like wild fearful pokémon.
"I apologize if I may have frightened you," he began as softly as he could, his eyes finding Warden Mai's in the back. There was something about the look in all of their eyes that made him want to cower. As if a part of his subconscious was yelling at him to flee but to on no account take his eyes off of them. And why was that last part so specific? "Are you… are you all unwell? Please, allow for myself and Chandelure to guide you back to the station. I'm sure you will-"
"An illusion," the first scout babbled. He adjusted his grip on another man who was slumped over his shoulder, another Galaxy Scout moving to help bear the weight. "W-we- we should- near the river- W-Warden Mai?"
The woman in question stared fixedly at Chandelure before barging through the group, her arms held stiffly in front of her as she flung herself at Chandelure's crystalline body. "It's warm!" she cried weakly, her voice raw and worn through. "It's warm! It's-" the rest of her speech dropped off as her knees gave out.
Cold sickness. Ingo had only ever heard of Warden Calaba speaking about the subject people getting lost in the Hisuian wilderness and losing their minds as the cold set in. Now, as Chandelure became enveloped within the group of hypothermic, crazed, lost people, he could see why it was seldom ever talked about. He didn't have much recollection about his first hours in Hisui. Warden Calaba had told him that his recovery was bad. Had I been like this all that time ago?
Quietly, carefully, he took up his position as the caboose of the returning party, following dutifully behind as Chandelure led the way back up the hill. He kept his eyes trained on the person in front of him, flinching every time when they would turn their head to glance back at him.
Miss Jaku had been the only person in the party without a trace of hypothermia. Her fire-type pokémon was missing. Her clothes were free of frost. Where there had once been a calm air around her was now a distinct aura of… nothingness. She did not babble mindlessly like the others, but she did not respond to any of Ingo's safety checks. She did not get closer to Chandelure. She did not huddle with the others. She did not blink.
Something about the look in all of his passenger's eyes disturbed him greatly but it was nothing compared to whatever stared back at him from Miss Jaku's eyes. If there was anything behind them at all. It didn't feel predatory in the same way it did when the Zoroarks would try to lure him in with their illusions; it felt far worse than that. Zoroarks never came as far as the Obisidian Fieldlands… did they?
It certainly didn't feel right to let the group go when they reached the encampment walls and the feeling of something watching him didn't disappear when the medical corps scouts enveloped the group and took them away.
April 1st, First Year
Rain continued to fall. Ingo sat and sipped at a bowl of warmed broth, his fingers slightly shaky as he took a minute or two to pull on an extra layer. Beside him, Warden Lian wore a similar pensive expression. He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he was grateful that he shared a tent and that he didn't have to sleep alone. Not after the events of the night before.
Any sense of excitement that was due to arise from the returning party fizzled out once Ingo remembered the context behind their arrival. Now, the news had finally reached the rest of the camp regarding the arrival of the lost party who had been sent to research or possibly find Lord Wyrdeer. Their party had left the same day Ingo's had. The results were anything but conclusive.
Most of the party had yet to wake having been put to sleep so that their severe frostbite and confusion could be treated. One of them had nearly died from hypothermia, the one scout that had been unconscious upon Ingo finding them.
"Ya' think the nurses will let us see 'em soon?" Lian began, twiddling his thumbs underneath his own covering.
"I don't believe they will wake any time soon. Recovering is bound to be painful," Ingo rasped in response, running his thumb down the back of his hand. The eerie look in their eyes would forever be ingrained into his memory, that much he knew, and he shivered despite it.
At that exact moment, Miss Akari poked her head into the tent. "There you are! Did you know? Apparently, Jaku is up! The medics looked freaked out when they told me, but they said that you could come and get info from her."
Warden Lian immediately got to his feet, but Ingo hesitated. The other group had gone in search of Lord Wyrdeer. What had gone so wrong to cause them to get into their current state of disrepair? What had they seen? Why hadn't they sent a letter asking for help?
Regardless, Ingo took a deep breath and joined the two as they made their way through the encampment toward the medical tent.
Hidden by a cliff and sheltered by snow, the medical tent was strangely quiet as they arrived, a Galaxy Scout standing post outside. At their arrival, he stood at attention before quickly sheathing the saber at his hip.
"You all arrived sooner than I'd thought."
"Is that a bad thing?" Lian drawled.
"Not at all." The guard leaned back against the tent's frame again. "None of the medics are inside; out unloading supplies from the storage shelter. The return party is all hopped up on sleeping medicine. All except for one. She might still be awake. I hear they gave her enough sleeping medicine to tranquilize a Rhyhorn."
"Thank you," Ingo rasped, doing his utmost best to ignore that last comment.
The first thing he noticed when he entered the tent was the foul stench within; like rotting carcasses that had sat in the sun for far too long. It stung at his nose and made his eyes water, and to his relief, the others in the group recoiled at the stench as well.
The second thing he noticed was the figure sitting up on a cot against the far wall, only visible via the pale shafts of moonlight filtering in through the tent window flaps. The figure turned to face them and with a voice free of exhaustion or fear, spoke, "Ah. I was wondering when you might arrive."
Ingo froze. That certainly did not sound like Miss Jaku. The closer he approached, the more he noticed that the look of nothingness hadn't left her. Rather, it had gotten worse.
"Jaku, are you okay? You didn't look so good when you came in." Akari didn't seem to notice the woman's odd behavior and eagerly approached her cot, a weak smile on her face. "I thought something might have happened across the river."
"The opposite for me," Warden Lian declared, pulling up a stool on the other side of the cot. He flashed Ingo an uncomfortable look and flinched as Jaku turned to stare at him. "I, uh- I just- I thought it was weird that ya'll didn't say anything. I- well, I've known Warden Mai a long time and I've never known her ta' keep quiet 'bout somethin' like this."
"Nothing happened," Jaku stated plainly. "It is only the cold that made us ill. Nothing else."
"Are you sure? You don't look so good yourself, Jaku. Do you have a fever or something?" She waved a hand in front of Jaku's face and withered once she realized that the older woman wasn't following at all. "Maybe you should take more of that sleeping medicine. I think you're sick. You guys must've been out in the cold for days."
"I am not sick. Just cold," Jaku spoke. Despite her frozen appearance, her voice was low and strong but monotonous. And then she gave a weak smile. "What did you want to ask me?"
Ingo wanted to throw up. In his many, many run-ins with predatory Zoruas and Zoroarks, he had grown accustomed to the feeling of their lurking presence. He had learned how to pick out their illusions and ignore them. Zoroarks were very good at copying movements and appearances, but they could never quite grasp emotions.
He might overlook the way one of their illusions' golden eyes would glow or (if it copied a person), the way its sharp teeth would catch the reflection of the sun or moon. He never missed the way an illusion's face was unable to move and he never missed the fact that they never blinked.
Miss Jaku smiled but it didn't reach her eyes which did not blink once as she- it- continued to speak. Ingo's mind began to race as his hands shook, one of them steadily reaching for the saber at his hip. But her eyes weren't golden…? Were her teeth sharper than usual? Why am I hesitating?
He made up his mind. Just as he rose to stand, Warden Lian rose on his other side, eyes narrowed as his gaze trailed from the hand at Ingo's side to his face. The boy nodded, his features twisted with confusion and evident discomfort.
"My apologies, Ingo began, his voice wavering as he tried to control his growing fear. Could it smell his fear? Was it a Zoroark or- what exactly was he looking at? "Ahem. We- Warden Lian and myself- we have a pressing matter in our lodge that we must discuss."
"That's right," Lian piped up, pointedly avoiding the look Miss Jaku sent him.
"What? But you two have hardly asked her any questions," Akari pouted. She turned to Jaku. "So, did your group find Lord Wyrdeer up in Deertrack Heights?"
"No. There was nothing amiss in the hills," Jaku responded.
"So what happened with that one guy in the Diamond Clan? The guy that was unconscious when you guys brought him in?"
"He fell asleep in the cold. He will awake soon." Then, slowly as if moved by invisible strings, Jaku took a hold of Akari's hand and faced her, her face returning to the emotionless state it was in previously. "Do not be afraid, champion," it rasped, eyes widening until Ingo could clearly see the whites of its black eyes. "All is well."
A chill raced up Ingo's back. Miss Jaku did not talk like that. The stool that Akari had been sitting on fell backwards onto the floor as the young girl rose, having snatched her hand out of the thing's grasp. She pulled away, nearly colliding with the two wardens before making a beeline to the door. Ingo was careful not to take his eyes off of the creature as he retreated out of the medical tent.
Once they were well and truly away and in the safety of the Pearl Clan Wardens' tent did they stop to catch their breath, Ingo firmly shutting the flap behind them.
"Somethin' is wrong with this here picture," Lian began, firmly gripping the edges of his hat as he covered himself with blankets. "I don't- I've never seen- did ya'll feel that?"
"I was sure that something wasn't quite right with my passengers when I first came upon them," Ingo admitted, "but I assumed it was due to the hypothermia."
"She called me 'champion'," Akari whimpered. Unbeknownst to Ingo, the young teen had been huddling behind him, clutching a strange object in her hands. "I- I don't think that was Jaku."
"Could be a Zoroark," Lian suggested. "A nasty trick, but it would make sense."
"They do not migrate this far south," Ingo responded almost immediately. "I was already trying to discern whether that was the case."
"And?"
"And…. I am not quite certain what has happened to our passenger, but I don't believe that hypothermia was what set them upon their current tracks. Hypothermia usually renders people confused and speechless. Not…"
"Whatever that was," Lian finished for him. "You think the others are gonna' be like that when they wake up?"
"I hope not," Akari rasped. "We already have enough to do with figuring out what's going on with Lord Kleavor." She paused and fixed the two of them with a look of sheer terror. "You don't think they actually saw Lord Kleavor, do you?" Akari turned to Lian. "What type is Lord Wyrdeer?"
"How am I supposed to know? I'm not its warden. You'd be better off askin' Warden Mai." Lian then turned to Ingo. "Gramps? Ya' got anything? Any memories of somethin' useful?"
"…If not a Zoroark then perhaps a ghost-type or a psychic-type could be speaking through her. I've yet to see something like that occur but it is certainly not impossible."
"Can ya' tell which is which? Whether it's a ghost or a psychic-type?"\
"I can't. Perhaps-" he looked to where Chandelure's pokéball sat on his hip and noted with a twinge of unease that his beloved partner made no attempt to leave its ball; even they were unsettled. Ingo sighed. "We will have to keep our eyes on the returning party to see whether they are all acting accordingly."
"Then here's what we can do. Gramps, you should stay here and keep an eye on the folks in the medical tent. Miss Akari and I, we can keep gettin' data on Lord Kleavor. That way, we can keep movin' along."
