AN: So I think I did mention somewhere this story wasn't going to be 100% happy go lucky, skipping along under the rainbow, etc... I do intent to keep my word on that. This chapters starts off pretty lighthearted though.
As if the previous night had been some sort of indicator, the fifth day was just one of those days were nothing seemed to go right.
It started in the morning when Tenno had attempted to hop on Reign's back like he had occasionally done before, still thinking he was smaller than he actually was. While it had been a small annoyance for Reign before, with a Pokémon now heavier than him and easily twice his size, this must have been downright painful as he was flattened to the ground when Tenno landed on him.
The bird immediately realized this wouldn't work and made to move off but Reign's reaction was faster. He lashed out instinctively, Yun couldn't really even blame him this time, and struck Tenno with his stinger. This made Tenno shriek and spit out an ember, not -Yun counted her luck- towards his teammate, instead he had the presence of mind to aim for the ground.
Fortunately, that meant she didn't have a roasted bug on her hand. Unfortunately it was still summer.
While she was attempting to mediate between the two now furiously squabbling Pokémon, the air behind her gained a grilled touch. Yun turned around in horror to see a billowing cloud of smoke with a lick of orange rising from the grass. Panicking, she returned all of her Pokémon before taking out her water flask, eyes watering as she approached. When she poured the content over the flames this created only more smoke and she had to shield her face from the fumes. Not sure if that was enough, she blindly reached for her tarp and dropped it over where she assumed the fire was. Then she jumped on top of it for good measure.
She was still frantically hopping on her tarp, tears freely streaming down her cheeks when a ranger, alarmed by the smoke, arrived to the scene with a water Pokémon.
In the end, the fire was already out by the time the ranger looked under the tarp. Yun received a scolding that made her ears burn about using a fire type in such a dense dry environment without proper precautions followed by praise for her quick thinking.
He led her to a camping area to give her an eyewash to rinse out the toxic smoke and allowed her to refill her water bottle. Then with a stern reminder to be more careful, he let her off the hook.
Alone again, she had released both Pokémon to try and smooth things over. The time out had calmed them down, but Tenno looked downright miserable, his head hanging low, and refused to participate in any more training.
It was sort of sad to watch, to the point where Tenno's sulking even inspired Reign to inquiringly poke him with a claw, something that drew no response. Eventually, Yun took pity on him and ended up carrying him around in her arms again while she trained the other two. She only tripped twice, which was a miracle considering her impaired vision and the many roots littering the path.
She hoped he'd be in a better spirit tomorrow, he was supposed to be the star of the battle against Gardenia.
A bug trainer with a team of six challenged her then, and while none of his Pokémon were much of a challenge, it was a mind numbing grind to defeat all of them without help from her bird. What little prize money he had to give her did nothing to soothe her irritation for the time lost.
And as if the universe was out to get her today, she was approached by another trainer after lunch. This one had six Magikarp. They weren't high leveled enough to know tackle but they weren't so low leveled to go down immediately either.
"This has to be some sort of cruel joke!" She snapped when he released his fourth Magikarp.
The guy gave her the most innocent expression she had ever seen, making it undoubtedly fake, before replying. "What is?"
Yun grumbled something unintelligible at him and focused on encouraging her weary Pokémon instead. Even Twinkle, who didn't make a habit of emoting, looked frazzled by the turn the day had taken.
Ultimately they won but not before witnessing splash for about fifty times. Enough was enough, she was done with the forest and started to trek back towards route 205, evading every other trainer she caught sight off. At least, she intended to and she assumed she was going in the right direction but the sun started to go down and she still hadn't found a landmark she recognized.
"Crap." She murmured. Her appointment with Gardenia was tomorrow afternoon and while route 205 was blissfully short, it could take days to travel through Eterna forest. Yun had been conscious about this and hadn't felt as if she had strayed too far but now she was starting to doubt this, every direction looking exactly the same. A psychic would have nice to have at hand right now, she decided, but then she felt rather uncomfortable with keeping something around that could read her mind. She would just have to make do.
Checking her compass every now and then, she continued onward until the light completely disappeared between the dense foliage. Tenno had started to doze off in her arms as soon as the sun set and an idea struck her as she returned him. By morning she would have him fly over the trees so he could point her to the right direction.
Him saving the day might also help to sooth his growing pains. Yes, she thought as she tucked herself in and started to doze off, that was a good idea.
The screaming sounded different that night, this kept Yun from ignoring it despite her best efforts. There was something guttural and urgent about it and while she knew that Misdreavus fed on fear, there was a quality to the noise that unsettled her regardless.
She sighed, put her shoes on and slipped out of her sleeping bag, better to face her fears and calm down than to let the little terrors keep harassing her for the rest of the night. In case this one wouldn't be so easily persuaded to leave her alone she took her Pokébelt along as she crawled out of her tent.
The dark forest greeted her and she blinked a few times to try and adjust her eyes to the darkness. However the foliage was dense enough that the trees blocked out any light the moon had to offer so she couldn't see a thing. Irritated with herself for not thinking of it right away, she reached back in her tent to rummage through her bag and blindly grabbed her flashlight.
It switched on and Yun felt her breath catch in her throat. Dark, torn skirts were floating in a non existent wind, her face mostly obscured by a large pointed hat, a feral growling voice chanted something unearthly in the night air.
While it's unevolved form was mostly harmless, Mismagius was a much bigger threat, with a more aggressive disposition often on display in League battles. They, due to how they evolved, were also almost non existent in the wild. Despite that there was no trainer in sight, not that Yun dared to take her eyes of the ghost before her.
Feeling a headache forming, something -her mind provided- they were known for causing, she took a deep breath to steady herself and allowed her hand to hover near her belt.
"I-I don't suppose you'll just let me get back to sleep?"
The ghost lifted her head, exposing an ominous grin, and her eyes started to glow. In an instant, Yun's belt snapped from her waist towards the Mismagius, all three of her Pokéballs on it. Cold terror washed over her, freezing her on the spot even when the ghost turned around and floated away.
"H-HEY!" The noise that escaped her throat was loud enough to startle even herself. She shot forward chasing the spot where she had seen the thing last, searching frantically for movement with her flashlight. In the distance she saw dark skirts disappearing between the trees and she gave chase, running faster and more desperately than she ever had before.
Branches slapped her face and thorns dug into her pyjama but she barely even noticed, panic clouding her senses. It seemed as if the Pokémon was always barely at the edge of her vision, glancing only just enough of it's presence to keep Yun from giving up despite her burning lungs and aching legs.
She couldn't lose them, she just couldn't, she would never raise another Pokémon again if she...
Relief flooded her when she caught sight of her belt laying at the edge of a tiny clearing. Gasping for breath, she stumbled to her knees while reaching for it and noticed there were only two Pokéballs accounted for. She took them and recognized the heavier one as Twinkle's and the warmer one as Tenno's, that left...
"Reign." She whispered terrified.
The flashlight she was still clutching hard enough to numb her fingers, was raised once again to look for the third one and she noticed it lying a bit further down, near a bush. Scampering to collect her last team member she closed her hands over the red and white ball when she noticed something staining the ground.
Blood.
A shiver ran along her spine, not a moment later another scream tore through the night, high pitched and desperate.
"SOMEBODY HELP!"
For a moment she just stood there, hoping a ranger, anybody else, would come rushing along, but there was nobody, no other sound pierced the night. Yun released all three of her Pokémon at once, all of them looking alert and confused. Having no idea what she was going to run into she just looked at them resigned and likely more than a bit scared.
"Someone needs our help."
Without waiting for a reply, her team too loyal to leave her alone, she took of towards where she thought the noise came from, fully expecting to have to fight the Mismagius from before. Nothing could have prepared her for the sight that greeted her when she reached the next clearing. There were what seemed like hundreds of birds fluttering around in the dark, diving towards a single target. Blood glinting in the moonlight stained the grass.
Murkrow, a lot of them.
Yun lit the scene before her and almost dropped the flashlight out of shock.
In the middle of the murder was Akane, swatting at the black birds with one arm, the other clutching the dead body of a Buneary. Her light blue tracksuit was stained liberally with blood, her face covered in small wounds and tear tracks. Her Buizel was nearby, injured all over, shooting water gun after water gun and -Yun wasn't sure she saw it right- missing an eye. When the other girl caught sight of her she mouthed a single word. Help.
Yun didn't have time to think as she tried to push past her horror, her Pokémon behind her. There was a distant cowardly voice shouting in her head that she needed to turn around and run, keeping her own team safe.
She didn't give orders nor had she decided on a plan. Doing the only thing she could think of, she rushed forward into the middle of the action and started swatting at the Murkrow with her heavy flashlight.
She was immediately swarmed by them as they attempted to target her face, she shielded herself with one arm and kept beating them with her impromptu weapon. That didn't stop them from hitting her, their claws and beaks tearing through her pyjama and easily breaking skin. She fought, kicked and clawed her way to the other girl who was sobbing hysterically while still attempting to hold off the dark birds. They didn't have time to say anything to each other.
Suddenly her Aron was beside her, targeting the Murkrow she managed to hit and making sure they stayed down. Occasionally she would use rock tomb, a move they had practiced specifically for airborne opponents. Twinkle's accuracy when using it was a work in progress but with this many birds, this close together, she practically couldn't miss. They dropped by the dozens but somehow it seemed like they just kept coming. From the corner of her eye, she swore she saw the Mismagius use magical leaf on the swarm but she didn't have time dwell on it as her arms started to hurt and she began feeling overwhelmed.
A loud and fierce battle cry made her turn around just in time to witness Tenno descent on a larger opponent in a blaze of fire. A Honchkrow, Yun realized and figured it was the reason all those Murkrow were swarming together.
Tenno too, had deemed the evolved bird the perpetrator and singled it out for a fight. Feathers went flying as the two great birds clawed and tackled each other, Tenno spitting fire. Yun watched in awe and was rewarded for being distracted by a peck so close to her eye, she feared she might lose it too. Blood came running down her face and she couldn't keep the eye open despite her best efforts. The adrenaline rushing though her veins was the only thing that kept her from worrying about it as she redoubled her efforts to take them down.
It felt like they kept struggling for hours, though realistically Yun knew she would never have lasted that long. Sometime after they started fighting, she lost track of all her Pokémon only being able to focus on the next Murkrow she needed to strike, like tunnel-vision. She fell to her knees at some point, her trembling legs no longer able to support her but she kept swatting around her. Then Twinkle was there again taking a defensive position before her trainer, and redoubling her efforts to keep the murder at bay. Blood coated her silver armor, Yun told herself it wasn't her own, it couldn't be. Her visioned blurred.
A different sort of cry pierced the air and at once everything seemed to come to a halt, like someone had pressed pause on the remote. The murder, at least the members that were conscious, fled to nearby trees. There, in the middle of the clearing stood Tenno, looming over the now unnaturally still body of the larger Honchkrow. He was missing quite a few feathers and he was limping when he made his way over to her, but he was alive.
She released a shaky breath when he cocked his head at her and chirped softly. He sounded... worried. Her adrenaline addled mind wondered why but she simply smiled at him.
"Such a good bird." She whispered as she raised her hand to pet him, only her arm didn't respond to her will and stayed firmly at her side, dragged down by gravity.
Retching sounds made her look over her shoulder to find Akane spilling the contents of her stomach on the ground, still clinging to her dead Buneary. The sight made Yun realize something.
"Reign?" She called out.
Not having seen her starter since the fight began, worry entered her mind. Birds eat bugs...
"Reign." It sounded more like a sob than anything else.
"Skorupi." A clear call reached out to her and she spotted him a bit to her side, next to the Buizel, a pile of Murkrow surrounding them both. He looked mostly unharmed, unlike his companion. The water type was also limping and struggling to keep standing as he dragged himself towards his trainer, leaving a trail of blood in his wake.
"Bui?" His voice was soft when Akane raised her head while wiping her face with her free arm.
A sob wrecked though her body as she looked at him. "I'm s-sorry, I'm sorry, I'-" She repeated it like a mantra and Yun noticed the words started to sound more and more distant as she lost all sense of direction.
The grass rose up to meet her and then everything turned dark. Silence filled the clearing.
One cry from this Pokémon, and a murder of Murkrow come flying. At such times, one would think the curtain of night had fallen, plunging the world into jet-black darkness.
-Pkmn legends: Arceus
AN: Needless to say I was inspired by Honchkrow's many similar Pokédex entries (legends has the most poetic one though).