"Wait, what does it look like? Can you give me a short description?" The entire day had been rife with confusing situations for him, he couldn't wait for it to all be over with, but her meeting him and then not recognising that he was indeed the Nightmare Weaver was many leagues beyond the rest.
"You don't know about the Moonshadow? How? Everyone knows what it is!" She exclaimed, becoming bewildered herself. "It's this scary monster that lives in this forest and eats Pokemon's spirits when they sleep!" Right, of course. Perhaps she didn't expect him to be friendly? Or did she simply have a different physical description of him in mind?
"Right, but what does it look like?" He restated the question, in case it was the latter.
She thought for a moment before speaking up. "Well, it's pitch-black," One of his defining traits, that was. "Kinda like you!" Espurr added, clueless.
"It has grabby tentacles all over!" She continued. The description prompted him to look down at himself, was she unwittingly talking about his cloak-like lower half? It was far from being an amalgam of appendages, but, quite frankly, he liked this description far more than those who dared to refer to it as a 'dress' or a 'skirt'.
"Oh! And, four hands with very big claws!" Her attention turned towards his claws and then to the plume on each of his shoulders, an account coming from someone who had only seen him while in a state of panic could confuse them for a second pair of arms.
"And a white tongue... and red... teeth..." at those last two, her eyes widened and her fur rose up. It was likely that she had finally realised. "You... you lied, you are it, aren't you?" She mumbled with a blank stare, on the verge of returning to her paralysed state.
Alright, that odd tangent was done with. She had now seen that he was amicable enough at first, he was certain that he could pull this off, hopefully without her having another outburst beforehand. "Calm yourself," she immediately obeyed, doing her best to stop herself from even trembling.
"I did not lie to you, I never denied being your 'Nightmare Weaver' or 'Moonshadow' or whatever else it is that you call me," speaking them out loud made him remember just how much he loathed all of these vilifying exonyms, so much so that he almost forgot to finish the sentence and instead silently seethed for a short moment after pronouncing them. "But my real name is Darkrai," he had already resolved to go through with this approach: he would explain himself to her, gain her trust, get her to leave and then keep silent about this experience.
That he had missed the opportunity to achieve the same results by simply denying that he was indeed the Nightmare Weaver was something which frustrated him further, but that bridge had already been burned and, frankly, perhaps he did prefer this approach.
She took a few steps back, a distressed expression forming on her face as she gave slight glances over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't walking into anything. "Did... you just help me?" She had realised what he had done, at least, that was a good sign. "But why did you help me? Aren't you—"
"Evil?" He interrupted. "No, I'm not evil. Would I have helped you if I was?" There was an innumerable amount of scenarios which he could imagine and would entail him saving her for insidious reasons and personal gain, but that wasn't the case here, and it would be ideal if she took his word for it.
"Please leave me alone! I... I didn't want to come here, I swear!" She cried out.
He struggled to begin his explanation, it only now became apparent to him just how complicated this would be to pull off, it was not a subject he liked talking about, especially not with someone he was not well acquainted with. She was in a similar situation, however, maybe she would be more indulgent than most. Hopefully she would be more indulgent.
He had already told her, there was no going back on this now. He needed do reinforce that she not only could but was required to hear him out. "Child, please, I'm far from being the monstrous entity which you all believe me to be. I saved you, so you owe it to me to listen," in truth, she owed him nothing, but he owed her — and the rest of the village — an explanation, he just had to convince her to listen. "Please, do hear me out."
"Will you attack me if I—"
"If I wanted you dead I would have let the owl go through with his ambitions and then disposed of him next. I don't want to hurt you, I do not want to hurt anyone, if you can believe that," she was seeming even more confused and not to mention unconvinced.
"But you do hurt people!" She cried out, daring to momentarily raise her voice in outrage at the seeming absurdity of the proposition.
"Not on purpose," she tilted her head, probably more so due to him staying calm after she had just screamed at him than because of his response. But she hadn't run yet, she was obviously willing to listen. He had to use this opportunity most effectively.
"You misjudge me. You and I are in similar circumstances," she tilted her head to the other side now. Hers was far less dire, but similar nonetheless. "I do not fully control the nightmares I unleash upon others, just as you are unable to properly control your psychic powers. They affect those who sleep while I am close-by, but I do not make them suffer out of malice... I loathe that I am this way," he explained as he tightened his grip, dreading the next sentence which would come out of her mouth.
"But Miss Gothitelle said that you did that to eat our souls! Or spirits? I don't remember which," she didn't know which because Gothitelle gave no consistent narrative. If his attempts to become more amicable with the villagers ended unsuccessfully, he was certain that it would in no small part be her fault.
Before responding to that categorically false accusation, he considered how to word it: would he tell her that Gothitelle was a malignant liar as well, or simply that she was wrong on that point? "Gothitelle does not understand much of anything," she didn't understand, but more often than not she just blatantly lied, but that seemed like it would be too much for little Espurr to handle right now, he had a point to make and this tangent shouldn't stride too far from it.
"That is the reason I secluded myself to these woods. Even before coming to Haven, I was almost universally feared and despised due to the suffering I caused, but I do wish to avoid causing harm to others... this does not always work, and there are still those that succumb to my powers," he stated his case most plainly and crossed his arms behind his back, watching as Espurr analysed all of this information, looking overwhelmed and still afraid of being in his presence, as her gaze would periodically shift up from the ground she was staring at and towards his face, just to be certain that he wouldn't attack.
After a while, she looked back to him, visibly tensing up a bit when her gaze met his. "So do you really stay far away and alone to not hurt others? That's pretty kind of you to do!" Darkrai simply stared at her in disbelief. She... understood? She was calling him kind? This had just worked? Maybe there was hope for him. "That's not how I imagined you being."
He was so shook that he lost track of what it was that he intended to say, even if he had been planning this whole conversation around her accepting that he wasn't evil. Calling him 'kind' was simply too far!
"I... I do care about you folk at Haven, I have grown attached to this region, to the point where I truly do consider it my home as well, I've lived here for decades... and so I have no intent of leaving it," he saw where she would possibly bring this conversation, so he preempted the response to any demands for him to leave that she could make. He was not leaving. Maybe he should've long ago, it would have avoided them a lot of trouble, but he could not — and he did not want to — do so now. He was not leaving.
Espurr went silent again, putting her paw to her lip and looking at the ground while she pondered. She did this very often, it seemed, waiting so long for her judgement to fall upon him with her every response was nerve-wracking!
"Well..." she spoke up after a long silence again. "Thank you for saving me, then!" He held in a sigh, the gratitude made him feel strangely... warm, he hadn't even been expecting it.
He was so shocked by it that he almost forgot to respond, again. "Oh... well, it was no great issue for me," he made that sound like a boast with no acknowledgement of her gratitude, the response needed amending. "You're quite welcome," was added.
But, again, he saw that she had her hand to her lip and was far too lost in thought to mind his slight discourtesy.
She suddenly looked back up at him. "So, I'm sorry for making this about me, but if what you do to avoid hurting others is to stay far away from everyone," he braced himself for a full inquisition into the specifics of his lifestyle. "Do you think I should stay away from others too? I hurt them on accident as well! I destroyed Druddigon's shop just this morning by accident! And I really hurt someone in the village!" This... wasn't the conclusion he wanted her to draw at all, though it was the obvious one for her to make with hindsight.
He wanted a bit of understanding, of course, he got far more than he had anticipated by being called 'kind', which he wasn't sure he was even deserving of! The parallels he drew between them were not an attempt for him to morally grandstand and make her think that she needed to live the life of a feral forest creature. This child wasn't coming out of the Blightwoods guilt-ridden about something she couldn't control just yet!
"No, you should do no such thing," he answered in a stringent tone, visibly startling her a bit. Alright, she wasn't quite that comfortable with him, he still needed to mind his words, though this point needed to be made clear to her.
"Your plight is temporary, after my... fairly long existence," starting from around the time Groudon and Kyogre still roamed the planet and swam in its seas. "I can pretty confidently say that this isn't the case for mine. This isn't an enviable way to be, but I have no other choice. You, on the other hand, simply need to brave through it while remaining prudent, one day you will evolve and this will all have been a bad memory for you. Do you understand?" The words came rather naturally to him, he was passionate about her not condemning herself to the same life of a nomadic feral as he had.
And back to the deep cavern of her mind she went, slowly considering all of this information, ideally having accepted that following in his extreme steps was a non-option for her.
"Well, Miss Gothitelle told me that you took away her powers," he had a dreadful suspicion as to where this was going. "Can you do that for me too?"
...
Good grief, she had found the only idea which was worse than that of full isolation.
"No!" He exclaimed, startling her to the point of making her fall over. He immediately realised what an idiotic thing to do that was and floated over to her to extend a claw, one which she hesitantly accepted and used to get back up on her feet. Why had he done that? What a fool, scaring her like that put everything he had achieved at peril!
He was lucky that she was so indulgent with him right now... but he needed to get a hold of himself, these emotional reactions were a detriment to his interactions.
He needed to come off firm on the topic in general, but perhaps he would soften the tone, just for a short while. "Child, I will not attempt to take away your powers from you."
"But it would be the easiest way to stop me from being dangerous!"
He took a moment to think about a way to formulate just how awful of an idea this was while it was now she who patiently watched him do so and awaited a response. "Espurr," he started. "Not only can I not do it willingly, but it would also be very dangerous. She lost her powers because she was almost lost in a nightmare herself and I... simply cannot do such a thing to you."
He had grown too attached to the furball already, just imagining such a scenario was legitimately making him uneasy. He had gotten overly fond of certain characters from the village before, but never this fast.
"Gothitelle despises me," he said after having composed himself. "And trust that it is not for no good reason. I don't want for you to endure the same thing she did," she sighed and sat back down on the dirt, curling up her arms and legs.
He didn't intend to make her feel guilty! It made him feel guilty in turn.
"You do not have to take every measure possible for others at your own expense. Even I do not do that, and I cause far more suffering to others than you do," regrettably, he didn't have the willpower to fully isolate himself, which, frankly, made him feel pathetic. "I could just go and live in a desert with nobody for kilometers but I cannot take such a resolution, I'd go mad," that he routinely made visits to the village was something he would not divulge at all, far too much of this conversation would be put at risk by it. "I take certain risks as well, you are not obligated to give up your own life in such a way. Do you understand me?"
That she wasn't responding to him at all was beginning to get frustrating, he was now repeating the same things over now and he did not want to keep on the monologue going for any longer. "Reclusing myself is the only way I can keep others safe, you can still help make up for your slight blunders in other ways," she did admit to wanting to help make up for her own damages, after all. "Why, you already are: you're the new Dream Eater," hopefully, she wouldn't question how he knew that. "You will be fixing everything I break and I'm really grateful for that. Truly, thank you," it felt good to finally say that to one of them. He had seen many Dream Eaters come and go, but he had never gotten the opportunity to do so before, no matter how much he had wanted to.
"But I haven't done anything yet," thank the Lord, she finally spoke up.
When he was thanking her, it felt like he was thanking all those who preceded her as well. But that wasn't a convincing response. It took him a moment of thinking to word a worthwhile response. "That you are willing to stand up for your community like this is quite admirable, I'm thanking you for being willing to devote a lot of your time to a clean up routine due to me."
She sighed. "Well, don't worry, Mr. Darkrai, if you really are nice, I'll fix all of your messes, I promise!"
'If he really was nice', it was understandable that she would still have reservations, but he would be lying to himself if he were to say that the reminder that she was still weary of him did not pain him a little.
"Thank you, thank you dearly," did she even realize how hard doing that would actually be? Poor child, he did appreciate the enthusiasm to do good, though.
"Thank you too for staying away from us. It's very thoughtful, too! I'm the one who's grateful for that!" He felt his heart melt. She was being so unimaginably nice to him! To an undeserved extent, even! "But what do I do then?" She continued. "I promised to be more prudent, but I don't really know how. You stay up here all by yourself, but I'm not doing anything else!"
That was true, he should really give her some advice as to how to act. This was a great opportunity for him to be helpful for once, and Espurr was definitely a Pokemon he felt was worthy of aid from his part.
"Hmm... well, I'll give you some ideas, apply them with moderation, alright?"
"Okie!" She nodded.
"So, to begin with, here's an obvious one : you should try and stay out of heavily populated areas, this does not mean being all alone, but rather that you don't have to go to the marketplace or the Town Square every morning," Haven wasn't exactly a sprawling urban center, it was more than easy to avoid being in the same place as a dozen other Pokemon at the same time, she could just go to the meadow opposite of the Blightwoods, as well. "Go to places that are more open and with less Pokemon in them."
"Good idea! There are a lot of places in the meadow to play in!" They had the same idea! Though she would need to avoid his side of it, lest she be tempted to come and visit him again after this.
...
Perhaps he was overestimating how much she truly appreciated his company, actually, her cheery demeanor towards him was at least half due to her still being afraid that he would tear her to shreds after the first misstep. He already felt embarrassed for thinking that, really.
"Marvelous. Now, for my next idea: since your outbursts won't hurt dark-types, as they are immune to your psychic powers, spend more time with them instead of others, this way, you can frequent Pokemon without the risk of hurting them," there weren't that many of them in the village, their immunity to psychic attacks was also an immunity to Dream Eater. Those who did not wither with their first nightmare, as the former Guardians, Pangoro and Grimmsnarl, had, simply vacated the village soon after arriving, with the Murkrows being the only exception to this rule.
"So I should come here more often!" She chuckled.
"No."
"Okay... there's Morgrem who lives at the shelter with me and Mawile."
"You need to make an effort, explain your situation to him, I'm sure that he'll open up to you quite quickly," Morgrem was quite the coward, but an endearing and kind one, he would come to accept her, that he was certain of. "Mawile is resistant to your outbursts, so that works out well," not quite as good of a choice, but she seemed to be quite strong in general.
It felt as though he was missing an obvious issue with her, but he couldn't quite pin it down. In the mean time, another idea came to him. "You also need to avoid types that are weak to psychic attacks, you know your type chart, right?"
She nodded. "Yep! Leavanny taught it to me already!"
"Excellent."
...
The main issue with her suddenly clicked. Of course! It, indeed, was obvious!
"Espurr, if it's not too much of an inconvenience, may I ask that you give me a demonstration of your telekinesis?" He needed to know just how bad she was at controlling her powers.
"Huh? What does that mean?"
"I want for you to try and lift that small rock there into the air with your psychic powers," he said as he pointed to one of the stones which had been unearthed by her outburst.
"I don't think that's safe to do," she turned towards the rock, seeming almost as scared of that idea as she had been of him a few moments ago. "I was told never to try and use anything other than Dream Eater."
That wasn't exactly conducive to her situation getting better. "My turf. My rules. While in the Blightwoods, you do as I say. Proceed," after years of his act as a forest monster, wording things in such threatening ways came the most naturally to him, even if it was unnecessarily stringent towards her. She didn't seem to take too much offense at it, so it was fine for now. He'd make more of an effort, tough.
She nodded and then flailed her arm up and down multiple times at the rock, producing no success and making it seem like she intended to make it fly by blowing it away like a fan.
She eventually hissed at it and stopped trying. "Sorry, but I can't," she frowned.
Alright, this already gave him a fairly clear idea at how inept she was, but could she at least do it at will with a higher degree of effort? "Don't just flail your arm at it. Take a moment to concentrate on its shape, sense the surroundings from the object's perspective and then shift them in accordance to where you want it to move to," he told her, getting vague recollections of how he did it when he had the move Psychic.
She obeyed, attempting to move it with her arm again, this time with some success, as the rock began to levitate at an incredibly slow rate.
Atleast until it suddenly flew towards Darkrai at the speed of light, which he was only narrowly able to avoid getting struck in the face by due to being fast enough in retracting into his own shadow.
"Sorry!" Espurr exclaimed, only to be confused by his sudden vanishing. "Mr. Darkrai, where did you go?"
Well, he was quick shaken, and rather irked by that. He would compose himself, not her fault. "Worry not, I am still here," he responded as he moved through the shadows to her feet and emerged up to the waist.
"You can turn into a shadow? That's neat! Like a Gengar!" No, the Gengars could meld into their own shadows just as he could, not the other way around. He had been around for millions of years before their kind, this was an ability originally unique to him that Arceus then also granted to an inordinate amount of phantoms, for some reason.
"Yes," he melded back into the ground and shifted his silhouette both in shape and size to become that of an Espurr. "I have a greater control over my form than most of them, however."
Espurr gasped at his sudden change. "That's so cool! Can you do another Pokemon?"
"Oh... alright then," he did not expect for her to take any degree of interest in that, but the request was granted and he enlarged himself into the silhouette of a Drifblim on the ground. Shadows he had recently taken the form of were the easiest to replicate from memory.
"Another!"
The shadow he had inhabited next was that of Gallade, whose form he shifted into, making some attacking gestures and stances with his arm blades under the applauses from Espurr.
But the mention of Gallade reminded him of what it was that he was talking about initially, prompting him to cut the shadow spectacle and return to floating in the air.
"Anyhow, my last observation is that you really should start to train more often," unlike many other species, an Espurr was born with her powers already being at their full potential, but it became more necessary to tame and refine them as the Pokemon aged.
"But I don't want to fight!" She responded. He didn't like fighting either. There was a time when he would find some amount of amusement in it, but it had been a long while since his last friendly spar. Hard to find enjoyment when he knew that every fight was a fight for his life.
And Haven in general was quite averse to conflict. It was how it had gotten its name, actually, from a group of explorers and merchants who were enamoured by the odd pacifism of the area, while the village's policy at the time was to hide any information of what was going on from them, so as to avoid being cut off from all trade due to wariness.
While evolving as fast as possible for self-defense was highly valued, training was less so, being generally avoided except by members of the Dojo. Training lead to injuries, injuries weakened you, being weakened made you a vulnerable target for the Moonshadow.
In truth, of course, what happened was that, even if he was far enough away from the village to avoid it getting nightmares under normal circumstances, this range could extend if someone outside of that vicinity was weakened to the point of not being capable of adequately staving off his ability.
Avoiding training also made them weak to the point of being far less resilient to Bad Dreams, when it finally came to affect them. A double edged sword, it was.
"Well, you have to better master it if you don't want to have to deal with outbursts for the rest of your unevolved life," he wasn't even sure if they would stop once she became a Meowstic, for that matter. Enjoyable or not, battle was essential for the positive growth of any Pokemon, Arceus had made it so.
"Yeah... I wouldn't like that," she rubbed her arm, all sad-looking.
"Also, you should realise that there are many uses for psychic powers beyond just fighting. Namely, your Dream Eater, which is likely to benefit from the refinement of your other psychic capabilities."
"Hmm... I guess you're right. Should I train with Gallade, then? That's what anyone who wants to become stronger does," an excellent idea, Gallade was a physical attacker foremost, but psychic-types were generally also proficient in special attacking either way, and he certainly had enough mastery over his own powers to be able to adequately instruct her.
"Absolutely! He's a psychic-type, he should be able to help you out better than I," the fact that he was a physical attacker would still come to be an issue, but he could still provide a certain level of insight Darkrai lacked. He also had the time to train her and the know-how in instruction, while Darkrai was only left with faint memories of moves he had used perhaps a hundred years ago.
Psychic used to be a part of his arsenal back then, but he never was quite good at using it, likely a drawback from him being a dark-type. He abandoned it later on as he went from a very offense-based moveset to his current, deception-oriented one.
"Plus, he trains at the Dojo, where there aren't many other Pokemon!" She added.
"And the few that are there are the stronger ones, so they would get hurt the least," he added. This worked out wonderfully. "Well, that was all of the ideas I had. I'm quite glad I was given the opportunity to help you navigate this issue. It does make me feel better, when I myself am somewhat stuck out here and unable to do anything about all that happens down there."
"Thank you! It's appreciated!" This all felt unnatural, actually, to the point where he needed to remind himself why he was even doing this in the first place. That was, to gain her trust and to then be able to more effectively tell her to bugger off.
But he didn't want that. Not immediately.
While thinking about his last recommendation, a question started to bug him. One which he knew he risked regretting if he were to ask.
"Espurr, if I may ask," he was far too curious not to ask it at this point, and he had no clue where else this conversation would go. "Why is it that you did not receive any proper training before arriving at Haven?" Her history prior to her arrival intrigued him. How relatively little time she had spent in the village was something he needed to remind himself of, when comparing how lenient towards him she was and how severe in their judgment the rest of the townsfolk were likely to be.
"Well, there was no one to train with!" Espurrs were generally taken care of as only children by pairs of Meowstic, he could only imagine why this wasn't her case.
"What about your parents?"
"Nuh-hu! They got rid of a lot of us when we were born,"
"Could you elaborate on why?" She was such a joy to talk to, who would ever want to stop associating with her?
Well, who other than Darkrai? He would have to leave her forever at the end of this discussion, for her own good. He had to remind himself of this, perhaps he was losing focus of his goal here... but he had already inquired into her past, no use in turning back.
"When Meowstic have babies, they have many babies," she started. For as much as he liked her, the image of a dozen Espurrs running rampant which formed in his mind was terrifying. "But they only keep one in the end to take care of," because anything more would be impossible to manage, with multiple of them causing outbursts and destroying the area... this was a facet of the Meowstic line's way of life which he had been ignorant of, perhaps due to them generally dwelling in the more urbanised areas he was unable to visit.
While not seeming too emotionally bothered by it when in the middle of recounting her story, Espurr's expression soon turned to a dispirited frown, prompting her to cross her arms and return her gaze to the boundless fog around them.
"That's... unenviable," he muttered. What an understatement! How was that all he could respond with? His upbringing wasn't the most desirable one, being regarded as a strange abomination by most of the family for a long time, but at least he could still claim that Arceus appreciated him and his efforts, as He adored all of his spawn.
What else could he say that was more... comforting?
...
She was being taken care of by Leavanny, perhaps he should bring her up as a reminder that she wasn't wholly abandoned?
"Do you at least have someone else to look over you now? Like a guardian, of sorts?" He knew well that the answer was 'yes' already, it was Leavanny, but he wanted for her to try and look on the bright side here.
"Uh-huh! I have Miss Leavanny and she's kinda like my mom now. She actually found me when I was all alone in this really big city," she replied, gently kicking with her little foot. "She didn't want to take me to Haven with her at first, she said that it was dangerous, but I told her that I knew Dream Eater, because that's how I ate back then, so she let me come with her when she didn't find anyone else who wanted to take care of me back there," she responded.
His eyes widened. "Generally, did the Pokemon you used Dream Eater on wake up?" This was entirely unrelated to her story, perhaps to an insensitive degree from his part, but he needed to know.
"A lot of the time they did, and then they weren't too happy that I was feeding on them!" She gasped, likely at the realisation that this was, in fact, a good thing now. "But that's helpful here!"
"Indeed," it was obvious that they would, in hindsight, a certain level of mastery over the move was required for those that Dream Eater hit to not wake up, one which she evidently lacked. "Excuse my interruption, please, do finish your story."
"Well, that's all. It's why I'm kinda scared that I'm going to get kicked out of here if I continue causing problems! Finding another home would be hard," she muttered while rubbing her hand. "Hopefully I won't cause too many, with the advice you gave me."
How was he supposed to respond to this now? He had no idea what to say to that! It was just depressing, and he had no control over whether they did end up keeping her!
He was not meant to have to comfort others this often. It was antithetical to all that he represented!
...
He got an idea. "Espurr, what sort of berry do you like the most?" This was maybe too abrupt of a change of topics, but that's because it was more so a temporary distraction, picking berries would give him the much needed time to elaborate an appropriate response.
"Oh, umm... Mago! I really like how sweet they are," she exclaimed as he was already by a small patch of bushes. These had all progressively crept into the Blightwoods over the years from the village where they were grown in for sustenance, by Morgrem today and by Lilligant before that, so ones with practical purposes, such as Chesto Berries, and ones with almost universally adored tastes, such as the sweet Mago Berries, were abundant.
"But what's yours?" Espurr asked while he was in the middle of tearing off the flattened berries from their branches, being reminded of the damage she had caused only a few minutes prior. But it also reminded him of just how comfortable she had become around him in such a short period, this was going great!
He really could not express just how grateful he was for this little interaction up to now, she showed him a respect and understanding which he had, up until this point, almost never received since aeons ago.
He had almost forgotten to respond again. "Oh... well, I can't eat, as I don't have a mouth."
"Oh, that's true, silly question," she chuckled.
"Not wholly, I do like the scent of Wiki Berries," sadly, few of those grew in the woods and not within this range, as far as he knew.
He floated back over to her with the handful of fruits and, to his absolute surprise, she took them out of his hand and did not appear to flinch or show any other signs of distress or distrust.
"Thank you! You're really nice!" Those were just berries he had picked from a bush, she was too sweet.
But he had now fully elaborated his response to what she had said before. "Your story reminds me of my own, actually," he said while laying down by a leaning tree trunk, prompting her to tilt her head and stare at him with a mouthful of food. "You see, we were quite the large family as well, probably larger than yours, actually, but we couldn't stand each other and were only really... kept together through our shared respect," and fear, in a lot of cases. "Of our eldest siblings and Father," this was likely not the best and most respectful way to refer to Arceus, but it was the easiest for her to grasp the relation he had to Him. "When they disappeared, we were left to fend for ourselves."
"They all vanished?" She struggle to ask.
They hadn't vanished exactly, but he neither wanted to nor found it prudent to get into the details of all that had happened after the Creator's departure. "Yes," Arceus had disappeared, Giratina was banished, Kyurem broken into three, Necrozma shattered into pieces and the rest at the pinnacle of the familial hierarchy were unwilling to get involved in ordering the lower echelons. "I was left to wander around the world, I caused issues in one place and then another, on and on, before I eventually decided that I wanted to limit the misery I inflicted," he sighed. "That was when I landed here, in Haven," this was before it existed, even, but that was but an insignificant detail.
"And, while I have never been an accepted member of the community here, I've watched it from afar for a century now and know how it operates. All this to say that you don't need to worry too much about what they think of you now, it won't be indicative of your treatment in the long term. Give it some time and, even before you evolve and this all stops being a problem for you, they'll accept you, I'm certain of it," the community was always distrustful at first, but quickly warmed up to neophytes, it was why he still thought that perhaps he would have a chance in his own endeavour towards acceptance. "Especially since you're the Dream Eater now, the sole Dream Eater," they were always beloved members of the community, no matter their faults.
"Okay, you seem pretty clever, so I'll trust that you'll be right," for a second, he wanted to confirm that he was, indeed, fairly clever, but that would have come off as rather hubristic. "Pretty soon, I'll get the chance to help you become friends with the village, too!" His eyes widened as he felt like he had just gagged.
"Pardon?"
"They'll all stop saying all of those mean things about how you're evil and scary when they realize that you're trying to protect them too, I'm sure of it! And they'll all stop being as scared!" What an ideal future that would be, sadly, it would probably not go so well if she actually attempted it. "We'll all be friendly, even if you stay up here!"
He was starting to have doubts about this whole thing. Had he misstepped by revealing this to her? Obviously no danger would come to him, only a very uncomfortable situation to manage, but would Espurr tell someone else and put herself in jeopardy by doing so?
This was why he had done all of this, he reminded himself, to make sure that she did not tell of their encounter. Now he needed to assure that all of his work will not have been for nothing.
"You won't be telling them anything," he stated.
Fear surged through her face. "W— What? Why not?"
He realized that maybe he had just made it sound like he was on the verge of killing her. "Look, I appreciate this time you've taken to talk with me," he said while partially melding into his own shadow to be on equal eye-level to her, which made her relax a bit as well.
"It's not often that I get to interact with someone as understanding as you," or anyone for that matter, he knew he'd treasure this moment for a good century, at the minimum. "But I do need you to promise me that you will not speak of me or this encounter to anyone else," he did want ease the longstanding tensions between himself and the village, but if he were to attempt to explain his situation to them, it would have to be planned in advance and well orchestrated. He would want it to succeed, as he wanted to stay.
"I promise..." she was particularly upset now but relented all the same. He had received the promise he needed and he now felt bad.
"I'll explain myself to Haven one day, but please, do not make that be today," he assured. Beyond all of the logistical issues, he just wasn't mentally prepared to face those he had made to suffer by staying there, who had no reason to trust him and who he hoped would allow him to stay in and around their village.
Espurr had a sudden realization. "Aww, I get it now: you're shy!" He just stared in disbelief, she was accusing the apparent monster which had haunted their little commune for longer than a century of being timid. How was he to respond to this? No? Maybe? Did he qualify as being shy? Probably, come to think of it.
He was the one lost in thought now, this conversation needed to end. "Espurr, thank you, you have made my day far better than I could have hoped for it to be," she had made his century a whole lot better, if he were being honest. "But now is the time for you to leave and never return," he looked back towards her, giving him Lillipup eyes.
"But... I thought we became friends," she mumbled.
Wait... they were friends now? They had only met for a fairly short moment, perhaps she meant that they were friendly, which they were, obviously. "Friends?"
"Well, you're helping me and you gave me advice! Do you not want to be friends? You seem pretty lonely out here, so maybe you need just one?" She wanted to be friends with him.
So he had heard well the first time... that was a first for him, from just about anyone.
He was not reneging such an offer! "Uh... well, yes, we can say that we're friends now." But what did that entail? Should he have said yes without asking?
A smile immediately replaced her sorrowful expression, but he needed to clarify something to her. "I am your friend, but a friend who stays far away from you because he cares for your safety and the well-being of those around you, is that an acceptable arrangement?"
"Well... okay, I understand, Mr. Darkrai. If you want to protect everyone by staying here, I won't stop you! We'll still be friends," she was talking about him as if he was doing something heroic by reclusing himself in his forest, it felt very undeserved, quite frankly... but good at the same time, recognition for the sacrifices he made wasn't something he knew he would appreciate so much up until now. "I'll help at the village and hopefully if we're both very careful everyone will be happier!" She smiled.
"Right, but now is the time for you to leave, sadly," he was reminded of the fact that her absence was unannounced, they were bound to begin to worry for her if she was gone for too long. "I have appreciated this conversation with you, however."
"Me too!"
"But the village is quite far away, it would take you essentially until tomorrow to walk back to there, not to mention that it's quite easy to get lost. Do you want me to carry you back?" He was hesitant to ask this, but he extended an arm towards her anyhow.
Counter to the fear-filled refusal a part of him had dread, she grabbed on with her little paws, climbing over onto his shoulder. "Yes, please! Can I sit here?" She pointed down at the space between the back of his head and the red collar which surrounded it, not bothering to wait for a response from him to encroach into his eye space and nestle down next to it.
He appreciated her becoming relaxed around him that fast, but it was quite rude of her not to have waited. "Oh... well, of course you can!" It was the most practical way of carrying her without her falling off, anyhow.
"Let's go!"
He levitated through the Blightwoods and back to Haven, this time outside of the shadows while she held onto his collar spike, which made the trip much less easy, but he arrived at the village's western periphery fairly quickly nonetheless. There, farther away from where she had come to him from, he had her jump off of his shoulder and left her behind one of the houses.
"Wait, what do I do if they ask why I was gone? And Hoothoot? What do I say about him?" Those were questions he had already considered while on his way to the village, actually.
"Quite simply, you will deny knowing anything about his whereabouts and you will say that you were off in the part of the meadow by the river," that part was generally not frequented, he knew, and was far from his weald, so as to not cause any concern.
She nodded in agreement to the plan.
Retreating into his own shadow, he waved at the small, gray Pokemon, who responded by waving back at him and smiling, and, thus, they both parted ways, sadly for good.