"Come on! Come on! Do I need to carry you there or can you float?" The hasty Hoothoot called as Espurr shook her head to arrange her fur and then jumped up, joining him in the air.
"I can levitate very well! It's very easy to do, even for me!" She responded. "Where are we going?"
Hoothoot took off through the air, pulling her towards him by the hand. "Follow me!" And they both flew off.
Darkrai just sat there in the shadow, absolutely exasperated at his own carelessness. What had he done? Why had he even allowed himself to frequent the village, still? Why did he take the risk of something like this happening, when deep down he knew that it was a matter of when and not of if?
The sudden realisation that he needed to get out of the vicinity struck him, if there even was any chance of the victim waking up, it would not happen with him being as close to the village as he was.
He checked the tops and overhangs of the houses around him, confirming that there were indeed no Murkrows who could spot the suspicious silhouette moving from the residential quarter to the weald. Right now, they were likely still looking for opportunities to loot at the remains of Druddigon's shop, which was convenient, as usually getting out of the village undetected was the most arduous part of his journey.
But, when he darted through the short meadow and arrived at the entrance of his forest, he was met with a sight which he struggled to even register the gravity of at first: up upon the thicker branches of the tall trees, he saw the twin figures of Espurr and Hoothoot again, conversing about something which he had trouble hearing.
Through the shadows still, he made his way up the tree trunk, in complete incomprehension as to what they were doing there at first, before a dreadful suspicion of what had happened began to form in his mind. A suspicion which was confirmed to be true as soon as he arrived at the top of the tree.
"I don't know about this Hoothoot, the first thing Gothitelle told me is to never go in there. Never!" Espurr said while staring intently at the somber weald, plunged in darkness by the thick canopy and the fog, which lied ahead of them.
"What she told you applied before you became Dream Eater, yes!" The owl answered. "But it doesn't apply to us, we need to help!" Darkrai had no clue who it was that had fallen into a nightmare, or how, or why they were in the Blightwoods in the first place, but whenever this happened, it was essentially a guaranteed death sentence. Very rarely were they found in time, very rarely was anyone brave enough to try and extract them from there.
"I want to help, I really do!" Espurr responded, hesitant to shift her gaze away from the depths of the forest. "But it's not safe to go into there, what if it gets us?" He would never hurt either them. But still... they should not risk going into there, they could fall unconscious... somehow, or get lost. Even Darkrai sometimes got lost in the Blightwoods and had to float above the canopy to find his way, and he had been living there for a century now!
Even if it was for a good cause, they should not go into there, for their own sakes!
...and it went without mention that the story of the two Dream Eaters being 'lured into the woods by the Nightmare Weaver' would absolutely cause a rise of tension between him and the village, if not fully provoke a raid into his forest. This expedition of theirs could prove disastrous, even if they had good intentions.
"You have a job to do and you're already a troublemaker without abandoning your duties!" Hoothoot narrowed his eyes on her and landed down on the same branch, seeing that she needed more convincing. "I've been Dream Eater for ages longer than you've been around and I know how things are done here, so come on and follow me if you don't want to get kicked out!" It might be necessary to save a life, but it was fairly cruel to force her to—
Darkrai gave a second thought to that line, suddenly remembering that, after years of it not being of any relevance, as none dared venture into the forest, Gothitelle's policy for those that wandered into the Blightwoods was to abandon them to their own devices. Was Hoothoot going to go against her will? Generally, when Gothitelle said that something would be done in one way, there was no contesting it. Had this policy changed, and he had simply missed it?
No... it was highly unlikely that he could have missed it, he made sure to monitor both their conversations and dreams for such information.
"Okay, I'll help!" Espurr huffed. "I'm coming along!" Immediately as she jumped off the tree and started to levitate again, her temporary look of determination evaporated and unease filled her expression once again.
As they all advanced deeper and deeper into the depths of the cold forest, passing by what seemed like the same, dull scenery of flat dirt, fog and tall trees on repeat, Darkrai was able to easily keep up, not being bothered by the same obstacles due to being melded into the shadows. This gave him time to reflect on his incomprehension of the situation, he was left with absolutely no clue as to what was going on. He had never seen Hoothoot act as brave as this, how was he suddenly so nonchalant about treading as far into the Blightwoods as he was?
Was it his Insomnia, perhaps? It would certainly make him less worried in this situation, but not enough to merit being so temeritous, of course. And, even if she was more effective than him, he did not have to bring the defenseless Espurr along! Likely counter to Gothitelle's wishes, at that!
Darkrai halted. He had been so focused on trying to understand what was going on without even realising that, once he got to whoever it was that had was suffering, his proximity to him or her would only cause the nightmares to worsen and for their attempts at healing to have next to no effect.
...but he was still curious as to whose pain it was that caused Hoothoot to develop such courage, so, after taking a deep breath to calm down, he began to try and sense any turbulence in the Dream Realm, scanning it for anyone who was asleep, so as to discover who was his latest victim.
It was like being able to partially sense the emotions they were experiencing in their dreams, or, rather, 'inexplicably' know what they were, and sometimes get glimpses of what was playing out within them, if he concentrated upon them long enough. But the only ones he could feel sleeping at this time of day were far outside of his ability's reach: certain colonies of Slakoths past the village, a Torterra and her Turtwigs, a den of Bunnelby...
Those were so far outside of Haven that he wasn't certain that they knew of its existence!
...
There was no disturbance being caused by his ability.
It was generally incredibly easy to sense, his ability would rile up the Dream Realm into a storm. He would not even have needed to concentrate too hard for that wretched feeling to creep up his spine.
Hoothoot was a fool, there was no one suffering from a nightmare in this forest.
Darkrai's worry now turned to anger. He had made sure to stay away from them and to make clear that any trespassing in the Blightwoods from their parts would not end well, and yet here was Hoothoot, evidently confused as to what he had seen, with full intention of bringing a child into there!
It took him next to no effort to catch up to them, but now, for every tree the owl avoided, continuing on his seemingly endless journey with Espurr obediently following along, Darkrai was left to consider whether he should show himself and frighten them away towards their home. It definitely would feel nice to do it to the idiotic bird.
...
No, he would hold off on such a premature judgment, as he realised that not only would they most likely split up and subsequently get lost in the Blightwoods, but there was a chance that the Pokemon Hoothoot wished to have healed was not asleep, but injured, so badly injured that Hoothoot had mistaken it for sleep or a coma, perhaps. In such a case, help was still needed, and they had gone too far for an intervention from his part to be productive. He would wait, see and hopefully find a solution along the way.
"I'm getting pretty tired, Mr. Hoothoot, how much further is it?" Espurr eventually asked. "Are we lost?" It wouldn't be surprising if they were, it almost felt like they had gone in multiple circles, from how similar the surroundings always seemed.
"Tired? You can rest here. Yes, yes!" Hoothoot responded as he stopped his flight and landed in a small hollow in front of him.
"No! I am tired, but we can't stop now, they need our help!" Espurr continued to hover overhead.
"Don't worry Espurr, this is where we need to be," the confused Espurr caved in to his demand and landed as well. His nonsensical response seemed to point towards this all being a cruel, unproductive jest of sorts. A jest at best, that was.
"Huh?" She looked around, totally puzzled. "But there's no one here!"
"Sorry that I had to take you on the long path," Hoothoot ignored her remark. "But those ugly Murkrows keep penetrating into the shallow parts of the forest, and we couldn't risk coming across them, could we?" The owl tilted his head. The Murkrows had dared to enter his woods? And, worse, this was a common enough occurrence? Those bloody—
What was Hoothoot implying with this, exactly?
"Umm... why not? I know they're kinda annoying but—"
"I lied, Espurr, there's none to save here. Nope, nope!" He responded nonchalantly. Darkrai had the suspicion that Espurr would likely end up being the one in need of saving.
"Sorry, Hoothoot, but... but this wasn't funny!" She exclaimed as she turned on herself to check every part of the dark abyss created by the rows of trees which vanished into the distance. "This place is scary! A-And dangerous!" She was now genuinely upset, realising that her guide was far less serious than she had originally thought.
"Ohhh, but it's not a joke! It's very serious actually!" Hoothoot jumped closer to her on his one leg, forcing her to walk backwards. "I can't say that I like you taking my spot as Dream Eater, that's my place and job! So I think that it's pretty fair that I get rid of you first. Yes, yes!" That was the motivation he had expected.
"Awww, you don't like me either, Hoothoot? But I want to help, too! I haven't gotten the chance to do anything yet at all, I can't leave before trying," poor child, she had braved her fear of the woods to help someone in need, seemingly only for her determination and naivety to be exploited.
Hoothoot definitely did not have good intentions towards her and, if his suspicions were confirmed, Darkrai remained on guard and was fully prepared to intervene in her favour, if need be.
"I don't want you to leave, per se," Hoothoot jumped one more time, landing right in front of her now.
"Huh? What does that mean?" Espurr was far too innocent to grasp the threat — or promise — immediately.
And she was left no more time to do so, however, as, just as she uttered her question, Hoothoot pounced onto her and pinned her to the ground with his claws.
"Wha— Please, let go!" She cried out while struggling to break free from his grasp, seemingly still somehow confused as to what was happening.
"I have to be done with this fast," he restrained her head and forced her to look into his eyes, which took on a pink luminescence. This was Hypnosis. He was going to leave her for dead in the woods. "You were right, it's not safe here, so make this quick for me so I can get out fast, okay? Sit still and stare into my eyes," he commanded as he felt her relax and stop her struggle under his grip, the hypnotic trance already setting in.
He intended to keep the promise he had just made to himself. She was the village's future and — no matter what Gothitelle or anyone else said — he did care about them and their little colony in his backyard. Moreover, she was just too sweet for anything so despicable to be done to her.
Before Espurr could tread any further into the realm of sleep, Hoothoot was forced to cut off his use of Hypnosis, as he noticed that the fog was beginning to fully engulf them both now.
Of course, this was Darkrai's doing, with the help of his move, Haze.
He started to circle the two terrified Pokemon, his dark silhouette barely visible due to the thick Haze. Along with his ability to meld into shadows at will, this made him nigh-impossible to detect already, which was proven by Hoothoot frantically turning in every direction to catch even a consistent hint of his being.
He gave a quick glance back towards Espurr: she had snapped out of her trance and had used the distraction to break free from the owl's hold with little effort, shuffling away and disappearing somewhere into the fog opposite to him. Hopefully, if he didn't give her any attention, she would think that he hadn't noticed her and would use the opportunity given to her by his fixation on the owl to fly off into the direction of the town as fast as she could.
Hoothoot's attempt to follow her was blocked by the sudden appearance of a dark form in front of him, though, making him recoil back to the center of the hollow in fear.
It was not Darkrai himself who had intercepted him, but rather a manifestation of the last deceptive trick within his arsenal: using his Double Team, clones of him started to appear and disappear within the gray abyss of the fog, flanking the bird and not giving him any window of escape, for fear of bumping into the Nightmare Weaver.
This spectacle was one he had rehearsed many times now, in wait and with trespassers malicious or lost. He knew how long to keep silent for. He had memorised templates of frightening-sounding lines to reuse and they all came to him rather spontaneously. As much as he hated being seen solely this way, he was fairly adept at acting as a scary forest monster.
The only deviation in this confrontation here was Hoothoot's Insomnia, which meant that he could not simply cast him into a nightmare during battle... and it had certain implications for after his victory which he would rather not ponder right now.
It only took him a short moment to find what the first words he would use would be. "Hoothoot... how impudent you are to think that the Moonshadow would allow such an incursion into its own territory," these were the first words he had uttered in months now.
The owl's expression turned to sheer terror, as his suspicions about what was happening were confirmed. He took to the sky again, attempting to escape above the forest's canopy, but was startled by one of the Double Team clones of Darkrai passing overhead, quickly sending him retreating back down to the ground.
"Please! Please, leave me be! Take her instead!" He pleaded, looking around but not seeing Espurr anywhere.
Darkrai was instantly reminded why it was that he had intervened in the first place. Hoothoot had come here just to dispose of her, but asking him to do the job instead was simply... revolting.
"Remind me, how is trespassing upon the Moonshadow's domain to be punished?" This was a line he had used once already, the village should have remembered the answer well.
The owl did not respond, he knew what the answer was and he knew what would come after he gave it. Instead, he stiffened up and dared only to move his eyes around, desperately searching for any exit out of this situation, yet finding no convenient holes in the wall of the white Haze.
The silence irritated Darkrai, he was sick of this already!
"Death," he said as he stopped his predatory circling around the bird and instead lunged at him at full speed, striking the bird into the ground with a slash from his claws.
He loomed over the ruffled Hoothoot lying on the ground, beginning to charge a Dark Pulse in his hand and planning to end the pest for good. "It was a mistake for you to come here, ugly bird, I cannot even begin to fathom the temerity which lead t—"
The owl suddenly opened its gaping eyes and fired out beams of black and red energy, totally immersing and temporarily blinding Darkrai. An intense sensation of heat inundated him, immediately turning into that of burning and unbearable, debilitating pain.
Upon uncovering his eyes, which had received the brunt of the attack, he began to frantically turned on himself, seeing that the entire Blightwoods, to his utter horror, had been turned into a veritable inferno.
How...?
The fiery lashes which suddenly extended from the ignited trees around him burnt through his skin, forcing him to withdraw in fierce pain and confusion from his attack on Hoothoot while shrieking in agony. Even when retreating, he could still feel his body being slowly consumed from the cloak up by an unending torrent of flames much faster that himself. What was happening to him!?
What move was this? How had such a meager bird torched the entire forest so fast? Darkrai struggled to form coherent thoughts as the sensation of acute pain clouded his mind. How did Hoothoot—
While he continued his retreat, getting closer to the ground in an attempt to meld into the shadows, holding his head between his hands as he was struck with an inexplicable migraine on top of it all, he heard another high-pitched shriek, but this one wasn't his own cry of pain, but from beside him.
"What is happening!?" This voice was one he struggled to locate the source of, but it made him realise that the pain wasn't the only reason he couldn't identify it at all. It was muffled and felt... disconnected, in a way, from what he was experiencing...
He concentrated more on his hearing — something he was having an odd amount of trouble doing — only to realise that there was no sound of carbonised trees collapsing or a cacophony of crackling caused by the burning of the entire forest. In fact, all he heard was a distorted noise which sounded like flapping...
It felt disconnected because what he was experiencing wasn't real!
The realisation that he had been indulging in a delusion created by Hoothoot caused the mirage itself to fall apart, snapping him back to reality and dissipating the pain, or the illusion thereof, caused by it.
That blasted owl! He couldn't manipulate his perception of reality and turn him into a fearful mess like that, that was incredibly backwards!
He pushed himself off of the ground and back into the air, noticing the bird's attempt to use his momentary hallucinations as a window of escape. What a sly creature...
Hoothoot was absolutely not fast enough to be able to leave his predicament, as Darkrai caught up to him and grabbed him by his leg and then, with a firmer grip, clamped down on his skull, blocking his vision in case he through he could get away with using either Hypnosis — or what was likely Night Shade — for another daring escape.
As the owl twisted to get free from his claws, his beak forcefully shut, the Nightmare Weaver composed himself, running his other claw through his white plume to fix it. "What an interesting trick, was that Night Shade?" It felt necessary for him to prove that he was aware of what the move was, it partially alleviated the feeling of embarrassement from having been tricked by it. "Scaring the Nightmare Weaver, that must have felt delightfuly ironic... for the short moment that it lasted. You're going to pay dearly for that."
That Hoothoot would indeed be disposed of was a foregone conclusion, he was not above righteous murder and, not only did the bird have the audacity to humiliate him in such a way, unintentionally using imagery from a nightmare he had himself suffered through the moon prior, he had also just attempted to condemn an innocent child to a torment-ridden demise.
His insomnia shielded him from both Dark Void and Bad Dreams, lucky him, as the Nightmare Weaver was unwilling to torture him through any other means, he would be rid off him in a clean fashion.
Truth be told, ending a life without the aid of his ability, even when necessary, was quite hard to stomach. There was no larger ethical concern to it, it was just... disgusting to him. So much so that he preferred to take a moment and procrastinate doing it, instead looking on as his Haze slowly began to dissipate.
He was quite content with his move set, it had done its job quite well. It was a move he had learned in the stead of one which actually did damage because it would, rather amusingly to him, disrupt the schemes of those who thought they were being clever by using strength-boosting moves right before coming to confront him on his turf, something which would otherwise have become quite troubling.
But, as the Blightwoods returned to their characteristic silence after the momentary battle, only being interrupted by the muffled pleadings of Hoothoot, he also noticed that there was a sad whimpering coming from somewhere close-by. It only took him a slight turn of the head to be met him Espurr, trembling and peeking from behind a tree, still clearly visible to Darkrai, unbeknownst to her.
Why hadn't she left? What was she still doing here? Why not leave at the first sight of him, when she had been given ample opportunity to do so throughout his short kerfuffle with Hoothoot? And more importantly, how was he meant to manage this situation? What would he do with her now?
This called for a change of plan.
"As it seems that I have someone else to deal with," he whispered to the owl caught between his claws. "I now have an enticing offer for you: leave Haven, leave here as quickly as you can and without alerting any others as to what just happened," the bird could not give a verbal response, but the movements of his head made it clear that he was nodding in agreement to the idea, prompting Darkrai to hurl him away and let him disappear past the canopy in one piece.
The knowledge that the poor, terrified child was watching him as he gripped the struggling bird, with the intent to be rid of him, made him begin to shake with unease. He simply couldn't bring himself to do anything to the owl in front of Espurr. It was irrational from his part, but it would probably be quite the traumatising sight for her, and she was but a child!
Hoothoot wasn't that big of an issue, anyhow, he rationalised, his evil was motivated by a situation which was purely local. He would have no reason to attempt to commit such heinous acts outside of Haven. Hopefully.
A part of him already regretted this decision, but the deed had already been done.
Now, onto the new most difficult task: taking care of that Espurr... somehow.
Once he turned his head towards her, the little creature noticed that she had been spotted — and by whom — but for as much as she visibly wanted to run or levitate away, she could not bring herself to move in any capacity. He had no idea of what he would do if he were in her situation either, stranded in the middle of a forest and being chased by a foe he would know to be much faster than himself.
Even if he hid it very well, Darkrai was panicking as well, he had no idea what to do now! How was he to get her out of his forest? Chase her? Leave the area and hope that she would somehow get back to her home before tiring?
He aimlessly loomed closer and closer towards the cowering little Pokemon, hoping that she would know Teleport or some other incredibly convenient psychic-type move which could resolve this entire situation.
Instead of pulling any such stunt, she snapped out of her paralysis after falling over, attempting to scurry away and bury herself into the dirt while sobbing, and he was left there, his conscience being too clouded by the guilt of causing her all of this anxiety to be able to elaborate a decent plan.
One phrase began to suddenly resonate in his mind, as he remembered all of her prior misfortunes: just tell her, if anyone would be indulgent towards you, it would be her. He did want someone to know, to just hear him out.
She managed to haul herself up and tried to take off into the air, only to hit a tree because she was too busy unblinkingly observing Darkrai, whose emotionless expression did not betray just how confused, alarmed and eventually upset he was as well.
The moment he approached her, preparing to utter a greetings at least, he was given no time to react before the realisation that she was cornered caused her to shriek out in fear, exposing the organs under her ears and immediately emitting a powerful deluge of psychic energy all around her.
The sudden bright shine made him instantly retract his head and plume behind the defense provided by his red collar and cross his arms to weather the attack.
After he felt the wave of psychic energy engulf him, he extended out his head again and opened his eyes, realising that the immunity to the type made his reflexive recoil foolish, only to be met with a sight of the Blightwoods which was barely less dreadful that the mirage which had been conjured by Hoothoot: the outburst caused by her quickly mounted in intensity, first dissipating the fog entirely, though the murkiness of the pink and purple luminescent sphere made it no easier to see, beginning to tear leaves and branches off of their trees and coalescing them into a chaotic, swirling cloud overhead, before a second wave started to perforate the ground around them, unearthing stones and beginning to tilt the lesser trees.
He retreated into the shadows after taking several hits from floating rocks and sharp branches, giving a quick consideration as to whether he should act like he had been seriously hurt and to vacate the area, giving her a chance to escape, before deciding against it, as she wouldn't know her way back. Her going back to the village with the story of having somehow bested him would not be ideal either, for a variety of reasons he didn't ponder too long upon.
In his confused and panicking state, the idea resonated in his mind again: just tell her, if anyone would be indulgent towards you, it would be her. It was likely not the most rational route to take to diffuse this situation, but he could feel that it was about much more than that at this point. The damages weren't the issue, he just needed an excuse to explain himself to her, he wanted to explain himself to her.
"Child, calm yourself!" He finally managed to shout while rising from the shadows beside her, his voice muffled from the static sound produced by the wave of energy. It was admittedly rather simple, he hadn't been given much time to think, but it did catch her attention, as he noticed her faintly open her eyes only to give a terrified stare and inaudible gasp, surprised that he was unaffected by her defense mechanism.
"Greetings," it was too monotone of an opening, he realised as he uttered it. A bad start, but if Hoothoot had managed to manipulate her so easily, then so could he who she had seen save her. "Please, calm down! I don't intend to hurt you!" But he had no idea how to convince her of this. What to sa—
He stopped half way through his panicking to notice that the expression of terror on her face became milder, with hints of confusion beginning to surface. He looked to his sides, noticing that the colour of the energy was slowly returning to the dark gray pallet of the Blightwoods, with the largest objects which had been catapulted into the air now beginning to glide back down to the ground. Whether it was because she was considering giving him a chance or due to her tiring herself out, the pandemonium was subsiding.
Alright, alright! He needed to capitalise on this, no matter which of these explanation was correct! He needed to reinforce his amicability, at least to the point of getting her to consider it as a legitimate option. How to do such a thing, and fast?
The static abate and they were back to locking eyes with each other as they had been doing before. Even as Espurr's ears fell back upon the psychic organs beneath them, Darkrai's hopes slowly eroded, realising that he was incapable of breaking off what could only be seen from her perspective as a creepy death glare.
That was, before the fall of the last pieces of debris from the sky produced a rustling sound as it hit a nearby berry bush. Darkrai turned his attention towards it, wanting nothing more right now than to put an end to their mutual, awkward staring, but it ended up giving him an idea.
A gesture of good will! That's what he needed to show!
A gift!
That was exactly what he needed! He floated on over to it, while she was too terrified to do anything other than stiffly turn her head to keep him in her sight. He tore a handful of berries from it, floated over to her and handed them to the paralysed Espurr, who did not turn her stare away from him.
Realising that he would need to be the one to act against another mutual paralysis, nudged her towards starting a conversation again. "Calm yourself, you're injured and need to heal. Take these," he said while holding them even closer to her face and attempting the most comforting tone he could muster. The static had all but disappeared, meaning that he no longer needed to shout as if he were Palkia or Dialga. Doing the opposite of shouting like a Creation Dragon helped his case, actually. "You're under no threat from me," he added, feeling the need to reiterate that point again.
"Well, you accidentally squished them," Darkrai had only just noticed that they had been reduced to a pâté. 'Squished' was not a word he would ever employ under normal circumstances, but he needed to sound friendlier in this occasion, which meant using such words. "But they're Chesto Berries, if you would like," he said after observing them more carefully under the shocked and confused gaze of Espurr. They would keep her from falling asleep, if need be.
After what felt like an eternity, Espurr finally registered that he had no intention of striking her and instead turned her sight towards the gift, reaching her hand out to take the berries from his.
As he watched her nibble away at the berries one by one, still silent and her eyes fixated on him, he noticed that he was actually back at his initial position: he knew not what to say next!
But he had time to think as she ate. He wasn't sure of what she was thinking herself, but not only did he want her to give him a chance at explaining his... position relative to the village, he also needed her to develop some level of trust, so as to get her back to Haven and make sure that she would not divulge anything about this meeting. If that didn't pan out, and he was overestimating how much leeway she would give him, he would simply threaten her into keeping silent.
Not ideal, but it would likely be for her own good: any transcription of these events would make her seem like a delusional lunatic.
But where to start with building trust? Names!
"My name is Darkrai," he gave her a moment to react to it, she did not. "And I think that you noticed that I intervened in your favour, child," considering what he was most pertinently known to her as, this felt oddly similar to a lie, or rather an obfuscation.
And the moment of silence she took to answer made him wince at just how horrible he was at speaking in a non-threatening sounding way. Even the Malamars out there inspired more trust than him!
"Oh... uh... I'm sorry for making a mess, sir!" She stated after eating the last berry and having a look around at the surroundings which she had mutilated. Darkrai narrowed his eyes on her, she had responded! This wasn't hopeless! "I was just really scared and mistook you for the Moonshadow, but you don't even look like it!" What? What did she mean? How did he not look like himself?