After some internal deliberation, I decided to give PMD writing another go. This time, I will try to pace myself - I'll have no choice over my break. But without writing, my life can be dull sometimes. Very dull.

I hope you all enjoy this tale I have outlined and will keep working on. Updates may only be weekly, but when I commit to a story, I'm often faster than that. We'll see. I'll definitely update it when I can. Enjoy.

"You're too young."

That's what my parents had always told me when I'd asked them that one simple question. It wasn't unreasonable, at least not in my view. I just wanted adventure, something that had been sorely lacking in my life up to this point.

But they wouldn't let me have it. They'd say I couldn't be trusted, or that I wasn't mature enough. And it ground my gears, though ultimately, there was nothing I could say to resist this.

In the end, my parents had gone on their trek that December. It was hardly peak climbing season, but the summit of the mountain was largely glaciated anyway. What difference would a bit more snow make?

As it would turn out, all the difference in the world. Even after insisting I was too young to trek with them, the trip rendered my parents forever young.

An avalanche, they said. Cascades of snow, ice, and rocks had broken free, sliding down the mountainside and burying both of my parents. That was the narrative the mountain rescue teams went with, and I saw no reason to doubt it.

Speaking of the mountain rescue teams, they said that no one could survive being buried under that much snow for more than thirty minutes. After that, they told us, the mission would go from "rescue" to "recovery." Both words started with the same letter, but meant wildly different things.

When neither of my parents could be found, a funeral was scheduled a few days later.

I dressed in my Sunday best for the service, which, despite the winter's cold, was held outdoors. The tie no longer felt like an honorific symbol of formality, which is what I'd associated it with during happier times. Rather, it was a choker.

Priest Thorn presided over the service. The Ice-type Sandslash wore his usual purple cloak, which might as well have been a shroud, because the poor guy looked like death. As he read from the Book of Arceus, tears filled his beady eyes.

"As it is written in the sacred texts, never forget that Arceus gave us what we have now. And he can take it all away, just like that. This is not a call to be overly restrained; rather, it shows that we must live our lives to the fullest, simply because we aren't promised tomorrow."

The service was made simpler by the fact that there were no bodies to bury. The mountainside had done that for us. My parents were lost forever, perhaps buried so deeply that they'd end up fossilized. Maybe one day, they'd be dug up by archaeologists who sought to understand how Pokémon had once lived.

Nonetheless, honorary plaques were erected in the snowy churchyard, one for each of my parents. Their names had already been etched in the stones, and they would serve as a reminder that once, these two Zoroark had lived, loved, and died in the highlands of Central Sinnoh.

To some people, they were just a number; a statistic. As in, "twenty-two people died on the slopes of Mount Coronet during the December 202X avalanche."

But to me and my brother, Lennox, they were everything. They were my world, and the rest of the universe seemed much dimmer without them.

I sat up in bed, my vision blurred thanks to all the tears. As I glanced around the room, feverishly blinking to get the sleep out of my eyes, I couldn't help but picture the events I'd just been dreaming about.

My parents were somewhere on Mount Coronet in the dream. And then they got buried beneath an avalanche.

Actually, they're still there. Because that wasn't a dream; that was a flashback!

It had been three months since that frightful day when the priest came to our door and gave us the news. As a member of the clergy, he often tried to maintain a measured tone and expression, but the emotion couldn't stay bottled up entirely.

Even though I'd had three months to grow accustomed to my cold new reality, it didn't get any easier. If anything, it got harder and harder to get out of bed every morning. Focusing on mundane tasks, like my studies to get into Central Sinnoh University, became next to impossible.

My bed may have been extremely comfortable under most circumstances, but it didn't feel that way this time. It was almost like a giant stone slab on which I lay, simply too tired to get up and start the day.

No. Tired wasn't the right word. It would be far more appropriate to say that I had no motivation to do anything. No matter how hard I tried, I just didn't want to rise.

It was fairly early in the morning, judging by how the sun had yet to rise. Despite this, the sky outside the window wasn't quite pitch-black. Dawn could not be far off.

My parents wouldn't want me to lie idle in bed all day, would they? They'd want me to do something about my mood. Turn the frown upside down; that's how they put it.

So I climbed out from beneath my covers on all fours, then jumped down from bed.

You might ask the following question: Wait a minute…all fours?

That's a legitimate question. You see, even though I was seventeen years old, I had yet to evolve from being a Zorua. Don't ask me why that is - medical professionals have attempted to solve the puzzle for a long time, yet to no avail.

There was a trace amount of regret there. I hadn't realized just how much I wanted my parents to see me evolve until that was no longer a possibility. Now they would never know if I achieved that goal.

I made my way into the living room, where my brother was already seated in one of the armchairs next to the fireplace.

"Good morning" I said weakly as I came closer, clambering into the other armchair.

Lennox looked up from his knitting needles and made brief eye contact with me. He then went back to his project, not acknowledging me in any other way.

"Uh…come on" I told him. "I'm your brother; shouldn't you at least recognize that I exist?"

My brother sighed deeply. He then put his knitting project down and directed his teal eyes right into my soul.

"Good morning, Bladen. Is there something you need?"

I paused, not knowing how to answer. The truth was, something had been bugging me for some time. And by "some time", I mean since my parents had died.

"Yes" I responded, weighing that word carefully. Then, throwing all caution to the wind: "Don't Zorua evolve when they've reached a certain level of happiness?"

Lennox frowned. "I think that's Riolu. I think you need to be at a certain level to evolve."

I groaned. There were places where you could see what level you'd achieved, but neither of us were experts on that subject. And then, with a rather sharp sound, I noticed the glass of water on the table next to my brother.

Why did I notice it, you might ask?

Well, the liquid inside abruptly froze into a different state of matter. The water had turned into ice, and Lennox held the glass up, raising it with a fist.

"Look what you did, Bladen!" he exclaimed, letting his sharp fangs show. "How am I supposed to drink this now?"

"Uh…you're not" I said sheepishly.

"That's correct!" Lennox mouthed audibly. "I swear to Arceus, bro, you've got to learn how to keep that in check. How ironic is it that a fever gives you the power to make things colder?"

"They don't know that that's why, though" I protested. "It could just be something else."

"Perhaps, but what else would it be, huh? It started around when you stopped w-".

I rolled my eyes. "Enough, Lennox. Please."

"Whatever" my brother snarled, his eyes turning into slits. And then…

"Anyway…" he continued, clearly trying to get a better hold of himself and bring his breathing under control.

"Yes?" I responded, hoping that Lennox was finally calming down. Despite being the type of guy to knit, he really did have a hot streak.

"You mentioned wanting to evolve. I mean, I'd love that too, but how do you suppose that would happen?"

Knitting was a hobby he'd picked up from our mother after her untimely demise. Usually, when Lennox was engaging in that activity, it meant he was deep in thought about what could have been.

Therefore, "popping the question", as it were, was risky. Especially since this question was likely fraught with emotion for him.

And yet…sometimes it was best to rip the bandage off quickly. If I didn't, the metaphorical wound would get infected and eat away at my flesh until I finally relented.

"Well", I piped up eventually, "would you like to climb Mount Coronet to honor our parents?"

The reaction was almost immediate. My brother sprang up from his chair, though this was not out of excitement; if anything, it was from the opposite cause.

Lennox then pointed down at me, gesturing like I were a Zorua pup who had just pissed on the rug. "I'm afraid not!"

"Why not?"

"Because", my elder brother continued, "it's a terrible idea! You haven't evolved yet, and besides -".

"Wouldn't it be a good way to avenge our parents' deaths, though? To conquer the mountain when they could not? And it might help me evolve!"

Lennox rolled his eyes, then filled them with what looked like fire. "You're going to climb Mount Coronet just because it's there? There are many ways to honor your loved ones, but throwing away your life like that isn't one of them!"

"But if it could help me evolve…".

"You'd bet your life that making it to the summit will cause you to evolve? You're a lot more likely to die trying, Bladen. A lot more likely!"

"And what if I don't die? What if I succeed?" Admittedly, that question was more intended to make a point than to voice my actual thoughts.

Lennox sat back down and crossed his legs. He grabbed his knitting needles again and continued working on his project.

I must have been staring pretty hard, because it wasn't long before he put his project down again and gave me another look. He must have seen just how much I wanted this.

"Look", he continued, "I don't know what you're thinking. But if you've got a death wish, it would be pretty disrespectful to go out the same way as our parents. There are other ways to throw your life away."

After another staring contest, my brother seemed to relent, but only a little.

"Here's the deal, Bladen: I'm not going to go with you. I'll advise you not to do it, because I'm your big brother and I want to look out for you.

"But I can't stop you. You may not have evolved, but you're almost an adult now."

My heart skipped a beat. It didn't rise, though; if anything, it felt heavy enough to sink to the bottom of a hypersaline lake. Even maximum buoyancy wouldn't be enough to keep it afloat.

"Really?"

Lennox nodded, maintaining a fairly neutral mouth shape. "It's your decision. I'll even take you into town and help you get some supplies for the hike if you want."

Here's the thing about my brother's offer: As amazing as it would be to achieve my goal of climbing Mount Coronet (at which time I felt certain I'd evolve, or at least feel much happier), I'd rather have Lennox steal the prospect from me. I would have preferred it if he'd put his foot down and said no.

Because if I went on the trek now, it would mean choosing to abandon the only family I had left.