The sky was unusually cloudy that day. The rolling green fields that I usually stood in to let my family's Wooloo graze rolled even more so as the wind blew through the grass, tickling my ankles as I leaned on the tree at the top of the hill. My brother used to stand up there too. Sent out with the Wooloo by our father, made to watch them graze for hours before rounding them up with his Houndour Blitzkrieg. Father always hated Blitzkrieg. He had said he brought bad luck to our home. Oscar didn't bother arguing with him. There was no point in arguing with Father, since he was always stuck in his ways, and his ways were always the Arceian way. If the Church said to slaughter your youngest child and throw them in to a pit of burning coals, Father would throw Riley in that pit faster than you could say 'filicide'. Mother wasn't any help. Priests said she was touched by Darkrai, and she couldn't speak, move, or do anything for herself. Oscar tried to convince Father that Mother would be better off in a place where they could properly care for her, and Father hold him they don't care for people like Mother, they just kill them. I didn't want Mother to die, so I helped Father take care of her.

She still died.

Father blamed me. He was right. After Mother passed, Father sent me out to take the Wooloo to graze instead of Oscar. I understand why he did it. He couldn't bare to look at me. I couldn't bare to look at myself either. Oscar left soon after Mother did. He said "Jackson, you can't mourn forever. You have to remember the ones you love, and forgive yourself for losing them. You have to keep looking forward." After that he disappeared. I don't know where he went, but he left Blitzkrieg behind. He left me behind too.

I looked out to the path that ran alongside our farm. Our farm was the closest to the forest, so I often saw Arceian Trainers ride out on Rapidash and Zebstrika and sometimes Mudsdale, though not as many. Today I saw a group. A lean one in leathers, a big one in metal, and one who looked like she had forgotten to put on armor at all. Sometimes you could tell what kind of Pokemon a Trainer used by how they looked. The big one probably used Steel types to match his armor, but the other two could have anything. I wondered if the woman didn't need armor because she used Psychic types who protected her, or maybe she used Flying types and didn't go anywhere near the battles. The one in leathers might use Normal types; they were the most common type for Arceian Trainers to use, after all. I wondered where they were going. Maybe they were off to take down a rampaging Aggron, or maybe there was a nest of Beedrills that needed torching. Maybe a noble's Rapidash had run off, and they had been hired to retrieve it. Blitzkrieg barked and brought me out of my daydream. They had stopped and shouted towards us. Blitzkrieg had bolted off towards the gate, Wooloo scattering as the Houndour reached the gate before I even had time to remove myself from my relaxed pose. The three eyed the loud Pokemon with disgust and suspicion, before looking up as I approached, not giving me any better of an expression.

"Morning, son. We're with the Church Of Arceus," the man in leather spoke.

"I know."

He was taken aback by my bluntness. I'm sure he was used to people falling on their face to give him whatever he wanted just by saying those three words, but I was part of the Church Of Arceus too, or at least Father was, so I was by proxy. "Well, we're looking to intercept a package from the Ombrea Region. You wouldn't have happened to get such a package, would you?"

"No sir," I shook my head, "The only packages we get here are from the Church." It was true since the Church constantly sent Father gifts for his contributions. The contents were never more than a few berries or energy powder, other than the one time they sent Father an apricorn. They were very clear he was not allowed to use it unless he became an Arceian Trainer, so he kept it in the safe in his office.

"Well if you do get a package from Ombrea, or have a messenger come through with such a package, make sure you send it or them to the Church Of Arceus immediately. There's reports of a new Ghost type Pokemon that was discovered there being sent back here to Empir, and the last thing we need is another outbreak of Ghost types," the man in the metal said, his voice like he was shouting at me through a wall despite him standing right in front of me. I wondered how thick his helmet was.

"And if they ask on whose authority, tell them it's under the authority of Priestess Emilia Fayeri, Priest Donavan Peters, and Lord Ivory Smithsonian," the woman finally spoke. I had heard of all of them; Father talked about them all the time; but I had never met them personally until now. Father called them The Legendary Trio. They had quite a list of accomplishments, but none of them were bigger than when they stopped The Great Dragon Rage using Priestess Emilia's and Lord Ivory's powerful Fairy and Steel type Pokemon accompanied by Priest Donavan's incredible use of status effects. Not to mention their abilities with weaponry; it's said Lord Ivory can drive an Aggron to the ground with a single swing of his great axe and Emilia can pin down a Joltik with an arrow from a mile away if not farther.

I didn't even realize I had nodded at them until I came back to reality and they were riding off in to the forest. The sun was setting, and for any other Trainer I would have been worried but I didn't waste my time worrying about them. Instead I turned and round up the Wooloo with Blitzkrieg and returned home.

I walked in to the house, leaving Blitzkrieg outside like Father demanded, and went to my room. The sun had set by then, but Riley was wide awake.

"Did you see them?" She bounced excitedly on her heels, eyes glittering with the innocence of hope yet untainted.

"They're just Trainers," I said blandly. I moved to change in to my night things but she kept talking.

"Just Trainers?" She scoffed. "They're The Legendary Trio! They rode right past our farm! What do you think they were doing riding past our farm? I thought all of them had Pokemon who could fly!"

"They're looking for some package coming from Ombrea." I flopped on to my bed, having defeated yet another day. "Some Ghost type Pokemon or something."

"The silence prompted me to look up from the pillow I had buried my face in. Riley's face was a mixture of excitement and resentment. "You talked to them?"

I nodded.

"You talked to them?! You talked to them?! You talked to them and you're acting like this? Have you told Papa yet? He's going to have a breakdown when you tell him you talked to The Legendary Trio!" She bounced around the room with excitement. "It's too bad he went to bed early or I'd tell him right now!"

"You'd tell him I talked to The Legendary Trio?"

"Well you're not gonna!"

She was right, I wasn't. To me it wasn't that important. Nothing much felt important anymore. Maybe Father would be excited to hear I talked to The Legendary Trio. Maybe he would just scold me for not inviting them to stay the night. I could just lie and say I asked if they wanted to spend the night and they declined, but he'd probably scold me for not forcing them to stay. I closed my eyes and let Riley's continued rambling put me to sleep.

I awoke with a start. Someone was shaking me. Blitzkrieg was barking. I rolled over. It was Riley who was shaking me. She whispered softly to me. "Someone's outside." I groaned and sat up.

"He's probably barking at nothing. He does that a lot," I stood and moved to lazily drop myself down the stairs, but decided against it at the last moment. I slowly creaked down the stairs and looked out the window towards where Blitzkrieg was standing. He stood by the front door, and was barking at the door, but I could see there was no one there. I wondered if Blitzkrieg could see something I couldn't. The thought that a Ghost type Pokemon might be standing just outside the door occurred to me. But if that was the case, Blitzkrieg would have dealt with it already. Dark type Pokemon are strong against Ghost type Pokemon, that's why Ghost Hunters use them. I pushed open the door a crack before it bumped something which toppled from the step in to the grass and rolled towards Blitzkrieg, who snuffled it before curling up next to it and putting his head on his paws. I cocked my head at him. Blitzkrieg only did that once before, and it was on the day that Mother died. I walked over and picked up the thing that had been rolled towards the Houndour, and in my hand was a single red and tan apricorn.

I blinked.

An apricorn appeared on our doorstep?

I looked around, spinning in place. Had a Trainer thrown this trying to catch Blitzkrieg? Surely not, it was illegal to catch Pokemon on someone else's property. My attention was drawn from my thoughts as the front of the apricorn popped with soft sparks. Someone had... traded me this Pokemon? For what? From where? I didn't even have any Pokemon to trade for this one!

I blinked.

There was a Pokemon in this thing? Should I see what it was? Should I turn this in to the Church? Could I control a Pokemon without certification from the Church? Was this the Ghost type Pokemon from Ombrea?

I couldn't help myself. I tossed the apricorn out in front of me, and in a flash of light, a flying sword appeared in front of me. The blue cloth that hung from its pommel wrapped around its brown sheath and pulled itself out, the metal glinting in the moonlight as it stood in front of me and introduced itself.

"Honedge," its voice was odd. Metallic, yet dreamy and familiar. I reached out to touch it, but pulled away.

"You're the Ghost type Pokemon from Ombrea, aren't you?" I questioned the Pokemon as though it would respond to me.

"Edge," it replied smoothly, slowly floating over to the door and picking up the letter I had neglected to notice off the step. It held the letter out to me, and I took it.

Dear Jackson,

I hope this letter find you well. My name is Professor Van Hallsworth and I have been working with your brother Oscar for quite some time now. He was a bright young man, and willing to put anything on the line for his research into Ghost type Pokemon. Unfortunately even in the Ombrea Region it is hard to get funding for this kind of research, and we were only able to scrape together enough to get a single apricorn, which you hold in your hands now. It contains a Ghost type Pokemon which calls itself Honedge, which was your brother's first and only caught Pokemon. Unfortunately, before we could acquire more funding for this project your brother was helping me to uncover a ruin in the outskirts of Noira Village and was crushed when a tunnel collapsed on top of him as he was catching the Honedge itself. So I send his Pokemon to you, so you may remember his achievements fondly, and keep him with you always.

Yours,

Professor Van Hallsworth

My arm went slack at my side and I let the paper drift to the ground. I looked up at the Pokemon in front of me. At Honedge. It's single eye stared at me, seemingly unable to show emotion and yet pitying me at the same time. I scowled. I did not need the pity of a Pokemon. I especially did not need the pity of a Ghost type Pokemon who can killed my older brother. I picked up the apricorn that Honedge had came from and I turned towards the pasture and I threw it as hard as I could. "Go away!" Rage ripped my lungs as I screamed. "I don't want the stupid Pokemon who killed my brother and even if I did I couldn't keep you! You're a Ghost type Pokemon! You'll just get me and the rest of my family killed too!"

I slammed the door shut as I stomped back into the house.

"What was the yelling about?" Riley asked softly from under her blankets as I threw myself back in bed. I didn't respond.

The next morning, Blitzkrieg was missing from the front yard. "Good riddance," Father had said. I was sad he had left. I gathered our Wooloo and took them to the pasture and as I climbed the hill to get to the tree I leaned on everyday, it was there. Honedge floated in the spot I was going to stand in, with Blitzkrieg curled up under it. I was happy to see Blitzkrieg, but Honedge being in my spot made me angry. I sat in the grass and ignored it, watching the Wooloo graze until dusk, rounding up the Wooloo with Blitzkrieg, and then watching Blitzkrieg trot off back into the pasture to be with Honedge. This pattern continued for two weeks before a priest came knocking on our door. He informed Father that some of our neighbors had made reports of seeing a strange Pokemon they'd never seen before floating in our pasture, and Father of course gave them express permission to investigate it. The priest told Father he would send a team to deal with it, as it may possibly be the Ghost type Pokemon from Ombrea, and of course I knew it was.

I laid in bed that night and wondered if I could stand by and let them kill Honedge. If Honedge was the only one of its kind, would it be wrong to let them kill it and make it go extinct? Honedge hadn't hurt anyone since it had arrived at the farm, and Blitzkrieg seemed to like it. More importantly, Honedge was Oscar's Pokemon. It was all I had left of Oscar at this point. That was the only thought I needed to get out of bed and head to the pasture.

Honedge was still there, floating in the same spot with Blitzkrieg under it. Blitzkrieg looked up at me as I walked up to them. I looked at Honedge and it looked back at me. I didn't know how to start, but I did anyways.

"I'm sorry I threw your apricorn. I was mad because I blamed you for my brother's death. I still do. But I can't let the Church kill you too. That would be stupid to let them take you away from me. You're the last thing I have of my brother. So... I'd like to be your Trainer... I suppose." I put out my hand towards Honedge like it was going to reach out and shake my hand like a person making a business deal. To my surprise, Honedge did reach out and take my hand. Its blue cloth wrapped up around my palm and I felt something strange inside of me. An odd pulling sensation in my chest which faded as Honedge slowly let go of my arm. In my hand it had left the apricorn, which I reached out and touched to it. In a flash of light it disappeared, and whether I liked it or not, I had just become a Pokemon Trainer.