Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Dare To Dream

Chapter 7

Reminiscences, Ruminations

"Sheesh, you sure picked a heck of a time to swing around here, Blue," Petal said.

Warm, pleasant, golden and pink waves of setting light washed over the vast garden of trees harboring fruits, and rows of succulently rich brown dirt that sprout green and orange vegetables. The chill of the autumn air wrapped around Felix like a blanket of frost, nipping at his rounded nose as he let out a breath that became a fine cloud of mist in the air, catching the colorful rays in its haze.

"What can I say, the bird said to come here around this time, and that you'd be here," Felix responded. Pacing over to a tree bearing some modest pairs, he leaned on its cold, grooved bark and watched the small petilil as she placed a woven basket filled with a small number of apples down onto grassy terrain. "Only thing is," he continued, "I thought it'd be mamma Petal I'd be seeing- not her kid."

Leveling the basket on the ground, Petal shot him a small glare with her amber, seed-like eyes. "I ain't a kid, you know. Just haven't evolved yet," she said. "And I thought she'd be the one coming to pay you, too- up until the point where she gave me this stuff and told me to come here. Just more responsibility she wants me to learn how to manage, I guess." Poking her head over the basket, Petal used the three narrow leaves atop her head to move aside a few apples and retrieved a small tan pouch she held aloft in her leaves. "Tell me," she requested, "did you punch that slouch real good?"

Reeling her head back then forward, she tossed Felix the pitiful pouch.

"In a manner of speaking, I guess," he replied as he caught the purse and stowed it away into his satchel. "Got in a few good hits on him, though it went both ways. My partner got the worst of it: she got careless, and got stuck with whatever you call a lance made of hair, right in her shoulder," he relayed with a frown. Digging into his satchel, he retrieved the small bag that held what little food was found to be left untouched by the morgrem.

"Sheesh, tough luck. Oh yeah, you have a partner now. Who's the lucky number, Blue?" Petal asked.

Felix held out the bag towards the petilil, the now indented and scratched silver bead on his arm shimmering a radiant gold in the late sunlight. "A vulpix, by the name of Star. She's pleasant enough to be around, and real handy in a fight, too, but it's obvious she hasn't been in a honest-to-goodness scrap with a thug who'd rather kill her than speak with her. I'm going to catch up with her at this Caelum character's house after this."

Petal stared at him with a blank expression, not moving to grab the bag he held out. Her beady eyes bored into him, the gears of her plump head churning as she stared emptily at him.

Felix gave the bag a small jiggle. "Well? You want the stuff your mom hired us to nearly get impaled over?"

The petilil feverishly shook her head, snapping out her trance. "Wait, wait-wait-wait," she hastily spilled out. "Wait."

He stood idly beside the tree, staring at Petal as she impatiently shuffled to him. "What?"

"Oh, 'what,' he says," she mockingly mimicked in the deepest voice she could strangle out with her high-pitched voice. "You're buddy-buddy with Star? And she got stabbed?!"

"What? You know her?"

"Stop saying 'what,' already!" Petal barked. "Heck yeah, I know her! She's been like the only actual friend I have around here! And you're just going to casually drop saying that she's been stabbed, like it's no different from you saying you took a big ol' huff of flowers on your way back from taking a dip in a creek, with that round little ol' nose of yours!" At her words, Felix's free hand slowly crept up to his face, gently grasping the nose he possessed. Petal's beady eyes narrowed. "And don't get self-conscious about your nose now! You're her teammate! Her partner! Her thing that's supposed to not let her get stabbed!"

Felix shot a glance to his side and released a deep breath, then refocused back on Petal. "Look, it's a pretty thought to think that everything will go well for us good guys, and that we'll always nail the thieves and crooks and the like," he said. "But that ain't the world. Sometimes we get hurt. Bad." Petal's fierce glare softened, her gaze falling away to the wayside.

"Yeah," she responded. "I hear you. And you're right. But try not to get her broken, yeah?" Petal asked. "She breaks easy."

Felix nodded. "Right, I'll… try harder." Re-outstretching his arm with the bag, he held it close to Petal. "So, you want the thing we've been paid to get or not?"

Petal looked up to the bag, eyeing it hesitantly. "How's she now, Blue? Is she alright?"

"Yeah, took her to the clinic. She got a sitrus berry pretty close after getting the wound, before that, too. She's fine. Though, if I'm being honest," Felix trailed off, "it's probably going to leave something of a scar. That Pechi character says she's got a clean bill of health, otherwise."

"Right, well, good, I think," Petal replied. Shifting her sight back to the bag held in front of her, she gave a small self-assured nod. "Keep it, Blue."

Felix shot her his own curious stare. "Really? Keep it? Ain't momma Petal going to want this stuff back?"

Petal sputtered out a half-heartedly contained giggle. "Her? Want to keep it? Nah, that's not how mom works. She's just gonna toss the stuff. No way she wants to put this stuff that dirty crook got his filthy little mitts all over out for sale. And I know this for a fact: she taught me as much, after all. Pretty sure she just wanted you and Star to send a message. Something like, 'come theivin' here again, and you'll regret it,' you know? So yeah, keep it. Better it feed you and her than waste away. Besides, the way I see it," she said with a mischievous look in her eyes, "if mom really wants me to look after this place someday, she's going to have to live with the way I decide to handle business. Especially since, you know, fifty poké is hardly a fair amount for any kind of work."

"Well," he mumbled, "thanks. Appreciate the gesture." Retracting his arm, he stowed away the goods back into his satchel. Giving Petal a firm nod, he took a step away from the luscious, rich tree. "I'll see you later, then."

Before he could get any amount of distance from the tree, the petilil quickly shuffled her way in front of him. "Bup-bup-bup! Woah there, I still need to tell you something. Come back over here a sec." She spun around and moved back to the basket resting near a tree.

Following behind her, Felix came to a stop beside the basket as she had. Mounds of richly brown dirt lined themselves neatly beside them; sprouts of modest pumpkins rested on the green earth beside them. The setting sunlight now faintly illuminated the farmland around him, as night encroached. "Yea? What do you want?"

"So," she started, "you busy being new around here or what?"

"No, not really."

"Good! That's what I figured. So, Blue, I'll be meeting you in the square tomorrow evening to drag you to an event me and my mom are catering. It's not going to be big exactly, but it is going to be rowdy. Here, help me pick this up," she said as she gestured towards the basket.

"I- Where did- Sure," Felix said. Bending down, he heaved up the basket of many apples, and placed it on top of Petal's head, her three leaves splayed out to balance the load. She stumbled a bit, adjusting her head to carry the new weight, finally settling still once she became properly attenuated. "Why does mamma Petal have a little thing like you doing this lifting?"

"I ask myself that a lot, Blue," she responded between grunts. "Literally any other person besides me would be better for this stuff. I don't even have arms, for crying out loud!"

"Well, I'm sorry to hear that." Grabbing the rim of the basket, Felix shifted it slightly so it was centered atop Petal's splayed three leaves. "Where did this come from? The sudden job, I mean."

"Some rich guy. He's holding an auction of sorts at this old human manor place a small ways from the town. Been raising a lot of attention for it, too, if I remember correctly- and I do. Even got some fliers advertising the thing on poles around here. Oh, and see these apples?"

"Yeah, I see them fine enough," Felix said as he gave the apples a once-over. Their brilliant red sheen glowed in the settling light. "What about them? They fermented or something?"

"Righto, Blue! These apples here have been specially ordered by our client, and boy-oh-boy, can they make even the most lead-stomached, teetotaler Pokémon end up blabbering and stumbling something wicked after a few of these babies. Point is: we're going to need you to keep the more mean-spirited guests out of the place. I'm guessing you're not looking to be a broke bloke for much longer, so you in?"

One word sprung to mind.

Opportunity.

"Yeah, consider me in. Should I bring Star with?"

"Uh, no, don't," Petal annoyedly responded. "The girl got stabbed just yesterday, and you're thinking of bringing her to work already? Remember how two seconds ago you said you'd try harder to be a better bud to your bud? Here's an idea: let her take the day off, Blue."

"I-," he stumbled out. Grumbling, he begrudgingly accepted her point. "You're right. I'll let her know."

Petal's eyes, though tiny, seemed to give off an air of gratitude towards him as she heard those words. "Good. You'll be head honcho of the year at this rate."

"Yeah, yeah. Who's this big-spender, anyhow?" Felix asked as he turned to leave.

Petal's head slowly turned to keep up with him as she struggled with the weight of the case she wore. "Oh, that's easy. He's some sylveon named Riley. Real pompous guy."

"Riley, huh…" Felix repeated. Rubbing his chin with his cool, metal oval, he didn't notice as a small grin creeped on his face, nor as the metal became clouded with his breath. "I'll be there, Petal. Just be sure to fetch me at the square."

"That, I sure can do, Blue. Catch ya then." Turning around, Petal began awkwardly stumbling away along the rows of dirt, careful to avoid tagging any nearby trees with her luggage. But as Felix himself had begun to leave, he found himself with some minor words left in his throat, coaxing him to be let free.

"Hey, Petal!" he called out. Petal stopped in her tracks amongst the farmland, but did not turn around to meet his words.

"Yeah, what is it, Blue?"

"It's not 'Blue,'" he called out, "it's 'Felix!'"

Petal's back remained frozen in place to him, but he could see as her head slightly turned to her side towards him. "Felix, is it?" she called back.

"Yeah, that's it."

Petal remained silent for a moment, then she resumed walking forward again towards an open red shed that lay beyond a thicket of trees proudly displaying sweet red and sour green apples ahead. Much of the diminishing daylight had now fleeted away, only light pink rays of the tired sun now hung loosely in the air, enchanting all the land's hanging fruit with a magical glow in the midst of the stagnant cold. A small snicker quietly echoed through the dark, lush land between them.

"Nah, I think I still prefer 'Blue,' Blue."

—-

It was right where Star said it would be.

The old house that rested on the crest of the hill, sat lonely amongst the barren trees that served as its only company. Long and twisting cold shadows were cast down from the naked branches above; the thinly shades of the trees snaked around and over the comfortable building, each contour of the branches finding a dark nook or blades of grass to settle into. Horizontal wooden boards lined each wall of the sturdy, oaken structure, slanting outwards towards the top of the homestead. Atop that pointed roof decorated with pale, rosy tiles, lay a chimney of scarlet and tanned bricks.

And a curious, pink stream of wisps gently rose to the dark, star-laden sky above, from this humble chimney, catching the low gleaming rays of the sun as it lay prone beyond the thicket and horizon. The strands of ethereal mist quickly vanished as gentle, guiding wind carried the fine vapor into nothing, save for the calm, cold air above and around in this early night.

Taking a gander at the home, Felix found no door, but a featureless wooden panel where one should be. No knobs or grooves could be found on its flat surface, yet he could easily picture it being able to slide out of the way to permit entry into the house, should he have been able to get any sort of grip on the panel. Taking a stroll up to the 'door,' he heard small talk between Star and an unknown monster, though the poor transmission of their speech through the wall and panel left it only audible as mere incomprehensible jargon. He rapped the panel with the metal bead on his hand, the distinguishable clink of the iron against the thick wood hushing the conversation beyond.

"Hey, Star!" he called out, "You in there? I'm here!" In an instant, the stark wooden panel ahead of him began to flush in a soft pink, the inconceivable hum of a psychic force accompanying the sight. The sounds of stressed wood churned in the air as the panel slowly rose a few inches off the ground in a deliberate movement, before finally sliding back and to the side, coming to a rest inside the warmly lit house as Felix entered behind it.

His breathing stilled at the sight before him.

The smell of incense was immediate and fierce, hounding his nose with the fragrance of wax and orchid. A single lit lantern hung from a small chain that clung close to the ceiling, illuminating the single-roomed house with its enduring ember.

Below it, he saw Star sitting patiently beside a table that rested mere inches off the ground with its absurdly short legs, a small smile on her face. A shallow ceramic bowl, as well as two glass cups, resided on the table's surface, all filled with pure, clear water. Green herbs, cloves, bottles and vials of indeterminate and colorful content, and dangling roots, hung from the top of the slanted walls. Rolls of large paper that looked to be caked in soot, rested in all four corners. And floating in the center of the room, just opposite of Star, was a pink and purple tapir. Pink mist emanated from its forehead, rising up to the raised ceiling and into a small dark hole that led out into the brick chimney. A musharna was before him: old and wrinkled, she floated stagnantly in the air like a pinkish cloud.

Yet, despite the scents and sights in the small, comfortable abode, Felix's attention was stolen by what rested beneath the herbs on all four walls: items of humanity.

Cloths of cloaks, tableware of silver and carved wood, tools plentiful in variety, rolls of dirty maps, and papers stained in blotches of ink and mad scribblings of a language he could finally understand: written in his language.

His past.

All collected, categorized, and hung on small wooden stakes embedded on the surface of each wall.

"Felix!" Star gleefully exclaimed, finally snagging away his attention from the collection of possessions. "Come! Take a seat over here! I talked Caelum's ears off about you already! I wish to introduce you to her." Felix stiffly made his way to Star's side, sitting on the sanded-down wooden floor beside her. On the front of her chest, he saw how some fur stiffly stuck out where she had been injured.

Still processing his new emotions, he stared at nothing in particular as he reached across the incredibly low table and dragged a glass cup of water towards himself. "Felix," Star began, "this is Caelum! She's been a big influence to me growing up, and a good friend to my family, as well as to New Galar as a whole."

The musharna floated lazily in the air, not focusing on anything as she swiveled gently ahead of them. "So, you're little one Felix, are you?" Caelum asked knowingly.

Felix did not respond. His mind was trapped somewhere else. His idle hands clasped themselves to the glass in front of them, feeling the near-perfect circle that the lip of the glass produced with his blue, fur-lined finger, tracing its rim in contemplation. Appreciating the craft in a way he never could have before.

"Felix? Something on your mind?" Star asked, bringing him back to his surroundings once again.

"I- er, yeah. That's me," the words tumbling out of his mouth.

Caelum's body rolled slowly in place as she hovered in the air. "Charmed," she remarked. "Is this the same Felix you've recounted as decisive and courageous, Star?"

Quickly stopping her lapping of water from the bowl in front of her, Star's head poked up towards the floating mass. "Oh, you can count on him when it comes down to it, Caelum. It's just that…" Her eyes fell back towards Felix, measuring him as he stared with fondness down to the cup he held in his palms. "He's got some quirks, but he's a good spirit. I trust him and his leadership."

The musharna's clamped eyes furrowed at their brows, then settling down again a second later. Her body lowered itself towards the pair, levitating just in front of Felix and Star as a purple and pink bundle of psychic energy, illuminated by the faint glow of ember above her. "Ever stout in what your mother taught you, are we? Very well," she replied. Weightless, she slowly rolled through the air to Felix, gravity a mere suggestion to her. "It is to my understanding that you have come to repossess what is mine."

Staring at her for a moment, Felix's posture shot up when he remembered their job here in the first place. Fishing around in his satchel, he retrieved a separate pouch that housed the human goods they had separated from the foodstuff, and placed the sack on the table. "Yeah, we found your stuff."

Without saying a word, the wisps of pink smoke hazing off of the musharna's head thickened, clouding the ceiling in a rosy fog as her closed gaze twitched. The bag rose off the low table, its twine around its neck becoming animated and untying itself. Dropping the tan pouch to the table, numerous items of glassware, utensils, and a wooden toy carved into the visage of a clefairy, were dragged through the air, began sequentially being rested on a few open stakes along the wall, or laid symmetrically across a the top of a tall shelf.

"Caelum, was it?" Felix asked.

"Most likely," she replied.

"Where did you stumble across all this stuff?"

Another silvery utensil danced across the air, lying perfectly symmetrical to a row of similar silverware across a countertop. "'Stumble' is a crude choice of word for one's lifelong work. 'Source' would be apt." Swiftly, the rest of the floating items flew to their assigned marks along the wall, hanging quietly in stasis once more as they came to a stop. "I have mastered vast plains, surmounted impossible peaks, and tamed rabid seas: all in the name of my research." Floating up, Caelum hovered across the room towards a close wall, turning to face the many cloths laden upon it with her closed vision.

"Research...?" Felix's eyes squinted, closely watching Caelum. "What kind of research?"

A tan beaten and battered cloth was lifted off its stake by an unseen force, then opened, revealing the stains of ash and scarring tatters it bore. "In my time before my retirement, I was a seeker of the past, tasked with sifting through the sands, salt, and ash of time; a historian of sorts, if you will. What you see now is simply my personal collection of items that I and my small team unearthed in our expedition for understanding. After careful examination, the items in this very house were deemed either grossly redundant, or null in their content towards our research. As such, they have come to reside here, in my personal collection."

"Yeah, that's nice to hear," Felix dismissively stated as he stood up from the low table, gesturing out with the glass cup in his hand, "but again, what were you researching? Why take an interest in all this human junk?"

The rag that floated aimlessly in the air folded in on itself in an instant into a perfect square, before being placed silently on its wooden stake once more. "A moot question. We have every reason to glean insight into the bygone lives of humanity. Their tools, cultures, ideas and aspirations: every drop of the past can come to serve us in the here and now."

Felix ears atop his head perked up. "Bygone lives? I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm too sure what plane your research is in right now. Humanity ain't gone," he said. Star's pointed ears twitched, one ear then falling to the side as she cocked her head, her eyes betraying her confusion to him. The musharna floated still in the air, bobbing only slightly in place. Her back illuminated a warm orange hue from the flicker of lamplight, she slowly spun to face him.

"If I may be so direct, Felix: what a foolish statement. After the calamity that was the Darkest Days, all of humankind perished within a mere two years, by my own estimates. Struggling for breath beneath a world of ash, they choked under the weight of their mistakes. The land a casualty of this event, no food could be grown underneath the ceaseless clouds of cinder and soot. Rivers ran black with debris. The world ran cold, brought by an atmosphere of strangling darkness."

Felix stared absently at Caelum. Though her eyes remained closed, he could feel the piercing gaze of her being. He finally spoke. "What kind of sadistic fairy-tale is that? You're acting like the end of the world came and went! Look outside! Where's this 'world of ash' you speak of? Where's the rivers running black? Where's all this stuff you're talking about?"

The musharna hummed. Floating back towards the center of the room, the fine pink mist from her forehead once more thickened. "You appear young, so I suppose it is rather difficult for one to believe of a cataclysm that occurred just decades ago, given the charity of the land today. If you desire weight behind my words, then consider these trinkets the affirmation of my statements." Numerous blackened cloths, a sealed vial containing black and gray particulates, and a ruined paper flying from the drawer of the countertop, all were summoned from the room surrounding them to musharna's side, floating around her in a broad circle.

The vial floated down towards Felix, coming to peaceful rest in front of him. Grabbing it, he saw how thick, granular clumps of soot and debris blocked out the bottom and sides of the worn, thin vial; a disgusting opaque. What could be spied on the inside of the blotted glass from peeks between the caked, crumpling walls of sediment, were fine, floating particulates, looming inside like smoke.

"What am I staring at...?" Felix mumbled.

Star's ears dropped to the sides of her head as she examined the vial beside him, keenly attentive to each detail of the scratched glass. "That is the breath the world shared the Darkest Days…" Star muttered. Leaning in closer, she tilted her head this way and that as she observed the trapped history. "The soot, ash, and apathy that rained from the sky and swallowed the world."

Felix stared curiously at her as she remained focused on the vial, then back to the glass. "Yeah, great stuff," he sneered, "but how does this prove anything?"

"It does not prove anything on its own, but if we were to use our knowledge of this smog and examine these…" Caelum once more turned.

In an instant, the tattered and dirty rags glided down onto the table below, coming to a rest in front of Felix. "See these cloths?" she asked. Scorned by ash and soot, the battered rags laid themselves out in front of Felix, unashamedly brandishing the gaping gashes across their blackened fabric bodies that were once beige. Only one slit of the many appeared intentional. In truth, if those gashes had been closed or sewn, he could easily see these rags as something of a pouch, given the definitive opening they each held at their bottom. "These," Caelum continued, "were masks worn by humans during the Darkest Days, likely to filter particulate debris very similar if not exactly alike from that vial, when traveling the surface during the Darkest Days."

Picking up the sooty cloth, Felix fitted his hand through the bottom opening and splayed his three short fingers inside to better examine it. Sure enough, the cloth spread out to resemble a mask of sorts, which could cover all of the head save for the eyes. Around where one's mouth would be was stained impossibly black like scorned ash. Running his fingers on the area, the caking soot felt cold and grimy, its texture like clay. "These particular masks were located in the eastern region of Paldea, within the assumed borders of the Paldean Empire. The effectiveness of the masks in protecting their bearers was highly suspect. In my own personal opinion, they only served to provide a false sense of security against the suffocating air in those darkest days; a desperate attempt to stave away their gaseous fate."

Cold. The once beige mask was deathly cold; immane tears scarred its blotted and blacked surface. He laid the mask back down on the table. "These prove nothing. You could have got them anywhere. The smudge could be from some fool just smearing the things," Felix coldly uttered.

"Agreed," replied Caelum. "These by themselves can only be summed up to theories or ideas. But permit me to produce one last item." From Caelum's illuminated side sailed down the ruined paper, flittering down to lie in front of him.

The derelict paper must have been crumpled and crushed hundreds of times; it didn't have anything approaching a flat surface, but rather a crude interpretation of mountains and jagged passes with its misshapen form. Crumbs of dirt and blotches of mud and dried mire had pasted themselves across this surface, making the paper more like a crude three-dimensional map of rolling muddy hills days after a rainstorm, the stains of time blotting much of the written text.

"I recognize that this is quite the favor I am asking, but I ask that you believe me when I say that this paper details to some degree the communication of a human to others who might stumble across the note, a location to temporarily shelter. The timeframe of when this was written was loosely estimated to be a mere week to six months after the beginning of the Darkest Days, whilst physical traces of the event can be easily observed on the paper itself. Though I know you can't read this human language, trust in me when I say that my previous team and I had painfully deciphered this text to reveal as much."

But Felix could read the faded and obfuscated text, if only just.

It was the language he had known his entire life, after all.

At the corner of the paper lay the crest he had served faithfully before: a hollow hexagon surrounded by 18 closely-stitched gemstones around it.

THE GREAT EMPIRE OF PALDEA

DECREE FROM MESAGOZA HOUSE OF DEFENSE AFFAIRS

"Seize the turn of a new era"

COPY TO BE DISTIBUTED TO OFFICERS WITH COMPLETE PRIORITY

-To follow the previous letter detailing the disaster of unprecedented proportions at Sector: Zero-

The ambush undertaken His enemies has been confirmed quelled; Sector: Zero remains under His flag, despite major losses: proof of divine favor for His vision.

The northern line has been broken following the strike by a now hostile I.E.; supplies have dwindled rapidly in treatment of wounded and fortification attempts.

I.E remains looming above Sector: Zero, and is to be considered an enemy of the Empire and destroyed.

For concern of further attack by His enemies, and by His Decree, all forces stationed in the lands of: Kalos, Marea, Eastern Unova, Orre, and Alola, are to abandon their ground and begin a full retreat to the ports of Porto Marinada.

Weather conditions are predicted to be dense, black fog across all major bodies of water.

Further instruction will be provided once docked at Port Marinada.

Travel will commence within a day of the receival of this note by the appropriate officer/captain/general.

All personnel, landcrafts aircrafts, and assets not onboard friendly watercrafts within this timeframe are to be abandoned and considered forfeit to His enemy.

Failure to heed any instruction listed will be considered summary treason.

Signed in service of His vision:

Antonio W.

Felix leaned back and away from the paper. His head and neck felt stiff, unwilling to move in any direction. "But that's…" tumbled out of his mouth. He felt his vision crawl along the table, yet unwilling to focus on anything as they wandered. "I would have remembered something like that."

"Of course you would, this event was world-changing in every sense," Caelum continued.

Felix shook his head. "No, that isn't right." Pulling his head up, he sorely looked towards Caelum as she indifferently floated. "You're lying."

An irritated snort hissed out of Caelum's nose as a small pink mist. "Then am I lying about this?" The drawers of the countertop instantly slid open. Caelum's mist thickened as many more items and trinkets flew up to circle the lantern near the ceiling, casting haunting shadows of ruined toys, shards of shattered cups, a shattered handheld mirror with a misshapen handle, torn spines of books, and a broken ball split into its red and tan wooden halves, along the walls around the light of the lantern, showering the floor with specks of ash and soot as they danced. "Is this not evidence of a broken humanity?" A clefairy doll carved from wood let itself down in front of him, its limbs broken and crevices filled with dried mud and bits of decaying blades of grass. "Or is this not, either?" Then the shards of cupware laid themselves out on the table in a straight line. Behind the stains of dirt and gnarly scratches on their once pristine surface, he could make out the faded patterns of the many forms of oricorio, broken across into the dozens of pieces presented in front of him. "Or these?" The remaining tattered spines, broken toys, the decimated ball, and the mirror, flew to Felix and circled around him. He tried to look away from the pieces of disaster, but each way he looked, fragments of torment hovered close. He shot his face down to the floor, shut his eyes, and blocked the peripherals of his view with raised arms.

"Felix?" Star interjected. He couldn't see her, but he heard as she shifted a little beside him. "You are… looking pale. Are you alright?"

Felix stiffly looked up. The objects still circled around him, etching their broken form into his mind. The shattered mirror passed by in front of him. In that lingering moment, between the shards of reflective glass that remained on that small surface, a small figure stared back, its face distraught and shattered along the shards.

A riolu, where he should have been.

"This is reality, Felix," spoke Caelum, "this is cold, unbending truth." The circling objects finally lifted themselves, flying orderly back into the drawer as it firmly shut its hollowed wood.

Felix stood cold in that warmly-lit room. His throat dry, his feelings numb.

A small, wet nudge came at his side. "Felix, are you coming down with something? Come on, talk to me." He couldn't bring his head to turn, nor his eyes to look away from where that mirror had been a mere moment ago.

Swallowing some spit to relieve his parched throat, he spoke a single, shaky word.

"W-Why?"

"You are shaking," Star responded.

His vision lowered itself to the floor. Pulling his blue limbs to his small chest, he saw how his fingers and arms made small involuntary movements, twitching every moment or so.

"Yeah, guess I am shaking," he dryly replied.

No thoughts. His legs moved independently of his order.

Then continued moving. Stepping across the cold wooden floor. Stepping over the border of the floor and out into the frigid night, away from the warm light of the room behind him. His throat felt dry, parched: contrary to his body which had broken into a cold sweat. His head couldn't quite grasp the sounds around it as he moved forward, further into a sense of looming dread.

Muffles beside him. The soft footsteps of a small fox, dull and near mute. Following him.

Trailing beside him as he stumbled through the night, all the way to a hill crested with jagged, looming rocks.

—-

The two sat in silence beneath the open breath of the cold night.

The tranquility of the swaying trees in the biting wind numbed Felix as his mind lingered back to that room. Star only sat next to him, enraptured by the canvas of the cosmos above, her eyes darting between heavenly bodies. Looking at his clammy palms, he took deep breaths to steady himself. But to little success.

He felt lost.

"Felix," she finally spoke.

Felix rolled his head away from the dark, frosted grass to her.

Star had her ears pulled back, and stared at him worryingly. "You have been acting strange ever since entering that room," she observed, "well, stranger than usual, anyway." Star let out a small awkward chuckle, but quickly cleared her throat when she saw he had not mirrored a similar response. "Right, sorry. Come on, talk to me here, Felix. I wish to help you. What has been eating at you?"

"Everything, I guess."

Star opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

Looking back to the starry night, Felix raised his arm to a constellation familiar to him, pointing at it. "See that star formation?" he asked her.

"I see it, yes. The one with the nine stars?"

He dropped his arm to the ground again, staring longfully to the shimmering patchwork in the night sky. "That's home," he said. "I don't know how far, I don't how long it would take, but home's right under there."

Star flicked the six of her tails. "Just over yonder."

"Yeah."

Felix raised his arms once more, looking at how blue fur lined his small arms, how three digits resided where there were once five, and how beads of metal rested on them. He leaned his head this way and that, noting the black tassels that swung freely from the sides of his head. And the tail; something that should never have been his.

He needed someone to talk to about it.

"I-" His words became lodged in throat as he choked back a burning sensation building in his eyes. "I wasn't always this way, you know," he spoke quietly.

"No, I would not know," Star responded. "Were you quieter back then? More timid? Or is it something else?"

"Louder and more hard-headed back then, if you can believe it," he softly chuckled, "but no, I mean something else. Look at me."

At his instruction, Star patiently looked him up and down, prying for any detail she may have missed he might be alluding to. "Alright, I have gotten a fair look at you. Are you still hurting from that morgrem?" she asked sympathetically.

Taking in a deep breath, he leaned forward off the rock they had been sitting by and looked to her intensely, his anxiety worn plainly across his face. "I wasn't always a riolu."

He could hear the wind push past the rock over them, hissing as it did so as Star's ears slowly crept forward; her look of sympathy replaced by one of curiosity.

"Pardon, but are you saying that you're actually a…" she whispered.

Felix looked at her expectantly, wondering if she must have pieced it together by now.

"Are you saying you're actually a ditto?"

A cough sputtered out of Felix. "No! No that's not it!"

"Oh, then a zorua perhaps?" she guessed.

"Neither! I'm a… I was once…" The words he wanted to say choked him. Clenching his palms into little fists, he turned over to Star and placed a hand firmly on her shoulder. "Star, I'm only going to say this once, so listen very carefully."

She looked at his hand, then back up to him.

He spoke slowly, each word deliberate and punctuated. "I am not a riolu. I am a human."

He retracted his hand from her shoulder. Star's mouth was partially agape. He saw how her eyes darted about, quickly dotting around his body. "You… were human in your previous life?"

"I mean… I was." He rested his head back on the frigid, rough surface of the rock, eyes locked back on the beacons that led home. "I don't know how I came to be… this." He randomly waved his arms about his body, gesturing towards the many parts that were only recently his. "The last thing I remember before waking up on that road was heading up a set of stairs. Those… stairs."

Star looked at him, perplexed, her head cocked to the side. "What is wrong with some stairs?"

"Those stairs had never been there before," he responded. Closing his eyes and digging through the pit of his memory, Felix recalled that day. "Me and a unit had been sent to a location a ways southeast of my village, Cascarrafa, to a site that the guys up top wanted us to investigate."

"You were part of a team before?" Star curiously asked, scooting forward a small amount towards him.

"Yeah," Felix chuckled out, "the Toreros. We were Marea's pride and defenders; the first and last line of defense of our homes, fields, and families. I was sent out to that site with a small unit across the border into the Paldean Empire, along with a good friend. But when we got there… we could see it along the horizon, miles before we had arrived. It was like… a big, purple sphere. I'd seen nothing like it before. Much of the team had their reservations about getting close. Myself among them. But by our captain's order, we marched right into that thing to investigate. Grassy plains one minute, then right inside some cave the next as soon as we crossed the barrier. Weird crystals glowed along the walls, lighting our way as we went further in like the bunch of fools we were. It was a beautiful sight, if I'm being honest. But that didn't stop our worry. Those caverns were far too spacious, far too… deliberate. Some went straight, others led to junctions. The tunnels in there led to different clearings. It felt random, chaotic, but they were still connecting rooms. We figured we were in a monster's den of sorts. Definitely didn't help that it felt like everything in there seemed to be gunning for us. We made our way deeper, confident in our gear and supplies. Until…"

He trailed off, clenching his eyes shut as he thought back to that room. That room. "There was this bigger clearing. Real wide, real long. I was at the rear of the line, watching our backs. But then I heard shouting coming from the front. I moved up the line, trying to see what had happened. And I saw how monsters had filled the room. An ambush. Rhyhorns, gligars, golbats, sneasels, more and more. Our guys wouldn't have walked in there if they saw them. They had to have come out of nowhere. I… I ran. There was nothing I could've done. I was scrambling over ledges and knocking down whatever got in my way. And all around me, I heard this hum. It rang low and filled the halls, and it kept getting louder and louder. I had to ignore it. Searching for others and getting out was more important. Then, I found some stairs. Perfectly square, perfectly symmetrical, perfectly smooth. Perfect. They led up into a dark hole in the ceiling. I went in. And the humming stopped." Opening his eyes again, he turned to Star. "And then I met you."

The silence between them hung in the air, occupying the short distance between. Star lowered her head to the ground, her eyes wandering aimlessly across the earth as she sat in quiet contemplation. Her red, curled tails rising and falling in order.

"I want to go home, Star. I do. I want to see my family. I want to know if anyone made it out. I want to hug my mother and throw it all to the wind. But I don't know if that's what's waiting for me. Not after today. And even if they are there," his voice wavered, "they wouldn't even know it was me."

"Well, I…I am sorry to hear that, Felix…" Star said, "...I will be there for you. Human or not, I am more than willing to help you. I promise." She shot Felix a genuine, heartfelt smile.

Looking at it, he felt a small amount of assurance behind her words.

"You said that Marea is overseas, right?"

"Yeah, over the water and that way," he said as he briefly gestured to the constellation.

"Right, so…" Lowering her head, Star's eyes narrowed. Her sight danced along the ground as she thought, an ear flicking as she did so. "If you want to get across the sea, we'll need to post a request through Didja to entice a Pokémon who can ferry you across the water a great distance. Which is pretty obvious, admittedly. I'll be blunt: for a voyage like yours, with no known distance, it's going to take a monstrous amount of poké. I'd wager something in the high hundreds, if not thousands. And to be direct once more: we literally walked out on our payment from Caelum. It is not a big issue, I shall be sure to visit her again soon and collect it, but I just thought I would bring it up to help illustrate that our finances are… less than optimal. And that fifty poké… It will be a sight to see how that little sum could be helpful, that is for certain. I'm not too sure how we'll find the coin we need to see you across the sea soon. No one around here is that frivolous with their money for requests that we could handle."

"Actually…" Felix muttered, "I think I know someone who could give us the money we need."

Star quickly shot him a skeptical look, a brow lowered at him. "Really? Who would give us money like that?"

"A real sly guy. I'll be seeing him tomorrow at some sort of party for a job that Petal threw on me." Felix leaned off to the side, grabbing their satchel and dragging it across the grass to them.

"What kind work could- oh, right. You mean that auction, do you not? I have seen the fliers for it. I will warn you: things can get pretty unpredictable in these kinds of parties, more-so if those fermented apples I heard talk of harvest of get brought out." She nodded to herself in affirmation. "When will we be heading out?"

"We'll need to be at the-" Felix stopped himself. The protruding tuft of fur on Star's chest caught his eye, where he knew the scar was lying. "Actually, you should probably just pick up the money tomorrow from Caelum. Come back here, stay there at her place- just take the day off."

"What, why?" Staring down at her recent injury, she caught on. "I am more than capable of assisting you, Felix. My wound has healed, it is hardly noticeable. Let me help."

He flipped open the satchel and dug out the pouch filled with fruits, releasing a slight sweet and sour aroma that tickled their noses when he opened the small sack. "No, you're not coming. And consider that an order from your team leader."

Star frowned. "I am not going to sit around, you know. It is the whole reason I left Willow to join you. You have to let me do something," she pleaded.

"Alright, well, tell you what. Why don't you go off to Didja tomorrow and work with the bird to get the post out?"

She justled her head in confusion. "That soon? We lack anywhere near that funding yet!"

"I'll get it, don't worry. Can you do that for me, Star?"

"I- well, yes. I shall see it done."

Opening the sack, he dug out a couple somewhat bruised pears, rolling one over to his partner.

Before Star could do anything with the fruit, Felix held out his hand in front of her, letting it linger there in front of her. "Felix?" she asked.

"Like you said before," he reminisced, "it just feels proper this way."

Star looked down at his hand. A small, warm smile growing across her face. Extending out her paw, Felix took hold of it and the two shook. Their eyes meeting, they exchanged assured smiles, before finally ceasing, returning to the food in front of them.

Star prodded at the fruit with the small pad of her foot. Blowing a soft stream of flame, the pear quickly became seared, eliciting a sickly-sweet fragrance that wafted through the air. "Take this one for yourself, I'll take the other," she said.

At her instruction, Felix reached over and dropped the additional pear in front of her, and grabbed the piping hot fruit. Steam and a fruity, sugary scent rose off the simmered body, the skin of the fruit feeling as though it could slide off at any moment. Star performed the action once more, producing another cooked pear that she laid down with between her paws.

Felix sat in silence, thinking back to what he saw in that room, and what he might see if had returned home. It was all too surreal to think about. He could only hold the pear and rotate it in the palms of his hands as he contemplated his situation.

Star looked to him, noticing his distant state. "Hey, do not worry, Felix," she said, "I am not too familiar with humans being reborn into Pokémon as something of an occurrence, but you are a friend, regardless. I will be with you all the way to see you home. And do not ever give up on home. Do not ever give up on home. I know it shall be there waiting for you."

Felix breathed softly out his nose, taking in her words to heart. Believing. "Thanks. And I really mean it, Star. Thank you."

"Any time, partner. I am happy to help- be it Pokémon, human, or other."

Chowing down into the steamy fruits, the pair enjoyed the tangy and rich sweetness from the pears' flesh. The frigid cloak of the night made the treats that much more tantalizing as the two sat peacefully together beneath the brilliant display of space above.

Questions of home still persisted in Felix's head, no matter how hard he tried to focus on the present in front of him: if his family still be there, if the walls of their sanctuary have been enough to keep their peace safe, if he truly was misplaced in time, as he was with space?

And if they would accept how he was now.

What the future held for him remained unclear beneath the frothing waves of apathetic forces beyond him, ever cruel with their passage.

But this night.

If only this very night.

He'd take solace in being able to share a warm meal with a friend.