Tanner awoke gently. There was no sun to wake him, no birds calling out in the distance, no alarm clock screaming at him to get ready for school. Just the quiet ambiance of the waterfall bubbling into the warm pool. The warm stream flowed idly by, lazily floating into the idyllic forest. He opened his eyes and stretched, wiping the tiredness from his eyes. He was hungry. Hopefully Landon-
Right.
Tanner sighed and looked to the sky. His friends were up there somewhere in the galaxies and nebulae. Or perhaps they weren't- this was a different dimension after all.
He couldn't help but feel a little lost. Just as lost as when he woke up with Miss Ramona in the clinic that first day. He wished he could talk to Landon or hear one of Tessa's speeches about Aura.
Tanner looked down at his power band. It wasn't much, but at least he had that. He had good memories with it.
A snore broke the quiet. Hoopa grumbled something incoherent and rolled over on his side. Tanner could understand why this was Hoopa's favorite place to relax. The quiet trickle of the waterfall was soothing. The bioluminescent pool was mesmerizing. The floating lights were enchanting. It was almost like he was lost in space, with stars blinking by him.
Tanner continued walking, and glanced up at the fruit in the trees again. His stomach grumbled.
He tried to distract himself by reading his pokemon book. That worked for a while until he got bored. There were so many pokemon to remember, and he wasn't even sure it would be important anymore. The page on Hoopa didn't really have any useful information. There weren't even any stories about him. Tanner wondered if that was because the legendaries had kept stories hidden and spread rumors about the genie. It sounded like something they would do.
He pulled out the Invisify orb he had found and examined it. It was pretty. It was also easier to hold than that first orb he found in the Shadow Grove. Tanner was getting better with his paws.
He almost didn't even want to use the Invisify orb- it was one of the only possessions he had.
Tanner put the orb away and slept. He stood and walked a short distance away. He thought of the lyrics of a song.
"Still the same tempting voice in my mind, losing grip on it all…" Tanner sang through the verses. His music did help him relax a bit. It brought his mind off of… everything.
This wasn't what he expected of being an exemplar. He expected to learn moves and fight pokemon to try to convince them to be nice. That's what the other humans did, according to Tessa and Landon. Helping Hoopa was a good thing though. He was righting a wrong that the Legendary had been put through. He would do what he could to make a difference, even if it was just for Hoopa.
Tanner's stomach growled at him again. It didn't look like Hoopa was getting up anytime soon. He was currently snoring and mumbling about dinosaurs. Tanner eyed the fruit tempting him from the boughs above. He relented. He was too hungry to wait for Hoopa to pull grapes out of a portal. Tanner scampered up the tree, using his claws to hang on to the bark. He clambered onto a branch and carefully balanced until he came to one of the glowing pear shaped fruits. He wiped it off, then took a bite into the soft, ripe flesh. It was incredibly sweet. Some of the juice fell from the tree as he ate. It wasn't cinnamon rolls, but it was about as tasty.
"Trespasser."
Tanner looked back towards Hoopa. Did he say that? It looked like he was still talking in his sleep.
Carrying the fruit in his mouth, Tanner decided to return back to the pool. The bough creaked as he walked carefully along the bough back towards the trunk.
SNAP!
The world rose around Tanner.
The branch beneath him gave way and his fur rose as he fell.
He desperately tried to reach out for something to grab, but found nothing but air rushing around his fur. He cried out in terror as he plunged.
A sharp pain as he struck the ground.
Tumbling across the forest floor.
Silence.
Tanner's eyes fluttered open. He groaned and sat up slowly. His back hurt, but nothing was broken. He rested for a bit to gather his bearings. He tried to get a sense for where he was- it looked like he had fallen down a crevasse in the ground. The starry sky and jungle trees were still above, illuminated by the glowing motes. There wasn't a clear way to get up.
"HOOPA!" Tanner shouted. The Legendary pokemon wasn't that far away. Unfortunately, Hoopa was probably still asleep…
Tanner tried to clamber up the wall, but couldn't find anything to hold on to. The dirt on the walls fell away when he grasped at it. He glanced over at the fruit which had landed next to a rough, brown stone. It was covered in dirt and quickly losing its glow.
Tanner decided to leave it and travel through the chasm. Maybe he would find a branch or a vine to climb up.
"Intruder…"
Tanner took a quick breath. That wasn't Hoopa's voice.
He heard it as if someone was speaking over his shoulder.
Nobody was there.
Unnerved, Tanner continued through the chasm at a quick pace. The walls almost too tight enough for him to squeeze through at places. He tried to think of the lyrics to one of his songs as he clambered over crackly brown rocks, but his breath was too uneven, his heartbeat too loud to think…
Finally, he found a cluster of vines that looked sturdy enough to climb. Tanner dashed over and sunk his claws into the wood, pulling himself up steadily. As he was almost near the top, he felt something wrap around his back paw. Tanner looked down and saw one of the vines constricting his leg, moving slowly. He heard whispers in the back of his head.
"God, come… on!" He reached down to try to pull the vine away.
It moved quicker, trying to wrap around his other paw. He yanked it away, but another vine grew back around another leg.
Tanner hyperventilated. Dread gripped his heart as he struggled with the vines. They were trying to constrict him. The forest was trying to trap him.
One crept forward towards his neck.
No.
Whispers hissed louder in his mind.
"Deciever!"
He channeled his energy, and slashed the vines with his claws. They moved even quicker to try to wrap around him. Tanner slashed again and again, cutting at the main vine-
It snapped, and Tanner fell back into the crevasse.
He scrambled away from the vines as soon as he landed, though they didn't move.
He panted rapidly, just trying to calm down. He stared at the severed vines that still writhed feebly, worming their way into his thoughts, filling him with fear. His lungs constricted as he shivered.
There was something wrong with this place. There was a reason why nobody lived here. They shouldn't be here.
"HOOPA!" Tanner cried out in the night.
He needed to get out of here. There had to be an end to this chasm that didn't require him to climb up vines.
Tanner dashed away, stumbling over rocks, squeezing through cracks, skirting around glowing flowers and vegetation. He could hear whispers if he slowed and listened. He didn't slow. He ran.
As he ran, he came across a curtain of vines hanging from above, blocking his path. At their base, more rough brown stones were clustered together. As he looked closer, he saw what looked like eye skeletal sockets and teeth.
Bones. Bones of creatures like him, trespassers in the forest that had come here unwittingly.
The curtains of vines hanging from above reached up towards Tanner like long, spindly fingers. They defied gravity and twitched, desperate to strangle him.
Tanner quivered in fear.
He slashed through them and ran.
Did Hoopa know? He had only been here for a night and already he knew that there was something wrong with this place. Tanner should have known… it was too perfect to be harmless. The plants were murderous. Plants weren't supposed to have feelings at all!
Except Miss Ramona. And other grass types.
Once he found a place where there wasn't any nearby foliage, Tanner slowed to catch his breath.
He looked around at the towering chasm walls. He was still just as trapped.
"Transgressordistressertrespasser" The whispering continued.
"Stop…" He whispered.
The hissing persisted.
"STOP!" He screamed.
The lights went out. The fruit dimmed, the flowers ceased glowing.
Only the light of the stars spared him from more darkness.
Tanner cowered. Hoopa would wake up soon, right?
He tried to sing a song to distract himself again.
"Darkness consuming my life… Don't want to… alone.."
Hoopa would wake up soon.
Hoopa would find him…