With a simple swipe of his sharp sickle arm, Scyther cleanly sliced multiple trees on the edge of the meadow, letting them plummet to the ground around the feet of the group, their branches and leaves abruptly vanishing as they struck the earth, with only the clean trunks being left behind.
Ursaring and Mawile then ran up to the collapsed trees, the first giving it his all in an attempt to hoist at least one of the pieces of wood onto his shoulder, while the latter did her best to try and haul the other bole towards the town using her maw-like appendage. Their mutual toil was in vain, however, as both of the stocks were far too large and heavy to be lifted up or adequately pulled to their destination.
Just as they were ready to give up, Espurr floated down onto the scene and, with her now heightened and refined psychic powers, allowed them to resume their progress, being able to not only raise one of the logs into the air, but all three at once, with minimal difficulty and incredible elegance.
Of course, as she neatly stacked the varying number of cut tree trunks on top of each other, she received a barrage of applause and cheer from the three relieved and very much impressed co-workers.
And Darkrai was left to wonder just how authentic the vision she was showing him was. "Are you certain that this is not all somewhat exaggerated, at the very least?" He asked, making Espurr snap back into a lucid state she had lost while reenacting the episode, causing the dream to pause itself and then slowly dissolve behind her.
"Noooo... it's not exaggerated at all!" She chuckled. "Okay, perhaps a tad," she had started using that word far too much, taking after him. Her vocabulary was rather lackluster originally, now she was speaking in an obnoxiously posh manner... somewhat like himself, but he was far more polished in his elevated ways of speech. "I could only lift one at a time, and upon our attempt to bring it back to the village, Ursaring was required to hold it in place while I was keeping it afloat. But I still think I'm getting a lot better with Gallade's training!" That she was. It was rather impressive, considering she had only started to train since Gallade's full recovery a few days ago. This even if one had to keep in mind that she had started from, essentially, zero, so any progress would necessarily be easily remarkable.
His thinking was cut short when he noticed the imagery of the dream coalesce back into the clear form from before, begin to move anew and prompting him to instinctively pick her up and tightly hug her against his chest, shielding her vision from the coming shift of the recollection into a nightmare.
The Espurr of the memory — which had spontaneously taken the place of the real Espurr he was clutching — began to experience anomalous fluctuations in her power, causing the trunks she was in the middle of levitating to begin to spastically swing through the air until one of them was launched directly at Scyther, giving him no time to react before it came to thrust him into the ground.
As Darkrai left in a hurry, he heard the thud of the tree falling back to the ground, followed by harrowing shrieks of pain from the bug and, finally, a fading whimper. He covered up Espurr's ears and pushed her against his chest, partially to comfort her and partially to comfort himself.
"Ignore the noise, ignore the noise and it'll go away. Focus on my voice and my voice only," he once again repeated the phrase which he had come to use all too commonly during these meetings, vacating the part of the Dream Realm the nightmare was taking place in as fast as possible.
When their surroundings had fully transformed back into the unpleasant but preferable simulacrum of his own Blightwoods, he put the troubled little creature back down on the ground. "That's not what happened, remember, that's not what happened. Breathe and keep calm," he gently caressed her head and smoothed out her ruffled fur with his own shaking claws.
"I... I know, I know. I'm very much fine," her voice quivered and she latched onto his claws with her own stubby hands. "Is that it now?" Espurr asked, afraid that her shock would only come to be replaced by disappointment, as Darkrai generally ended these encounters when he began to lose the modicum of control over the nightmare he possessed at the beginning.
What had just unfolded was not an accurate recounting of her memories either, rather, it was the Dream Realm correcting itself once again, devolving back into a terror after it had been strained for so long by both of them forcing it into a more neutral representation.
They could only keep it up for so long before this eventually happened, Bad Dreams had an unparalleled hold over this world, one which the combined effort of him and Espurr was still far from being enough to undo. No matter how often they met in her subconscious, the degeneration could not be avoided and even a scene which was only mildly frightening — from an objective perspective — would fill her with unimaginable dread and anxiety.
But that would not be the case this night. "No, I'll try my best to keep the Dream Realm subdued for a little while longer, I have some other things to tell you," it was draining to do this and, past a certain point, his ability to keep her lucid would fluctuate, but there were some things he wanted said, still. "I'm happy that your training is producing good results this quickly, Espurr, but, this night, it's your Dream Eater in particular which will be put to the test," this night was, of course, the night of the New Moon, when the excesses of his own powers reached their maximum. One night a month, even Haven wasn't quite far enough away from him to avoid being entirely subsumed by nightmares, and she'd have to be there to respond with Dream Eater if there were any who came to suffer because of him.
"I'm quite ready! Between you, Miss Gothitelle and Gallade, I've gotten a lot of tips and encouragement, and everyone else is quite prepared, too. It'll all go splendidly! We're all ready for the New Moon!" The determined look in her eyes was endearing.
"Well, I can't do much more than wish you best of luck, Espurr," he looked at his little friend smile at him. "Espurr..." he had a thought which he wasn't certain he should express, but he could not hold himself back from doing so, anyway. "If... if you happen to fall asleep tonight, and the worst comes to pass... I'll be there with you. That's all I can promise you in such a situation..."
She suddenly took his hand and held it even tighter. "It'll be fine! Don't worry about it. I was here for the last night of the New Moon, and it was quite fun!" She stated, optimistic to an almost delusional degree... he instantaneously cringed at himself for daring to describe her that way, even if it was only in thought. "Actually, I'm hereby issuing you a challenge to hurry up and explain how you're not evil to everyone before the next one. That way, you'll actually be there with me!"
He sighed, her constant nagging about this issue was the only aspect of their talks which he didn't enjoy. He would normally do his best to avoid thinking about it when alone but, now, after every one of these conversations he had during the night, he could not stop himself from pondering the question without being able to devise an adequate approach to achieving such a dream. "As much as I would want that, I can't promise it," he could almost certainly promise the contrary, even. "I'm sorry."
She let go of his hand and sighed. "It's fine, you can take your time," unexpectedly, she smiled again. "I'm just really excited for when you finally do become friends with everyone in the village! Plus, you promised me that you'd do it this New Moon!" While the rest of that wouldn't be for soon, he did intend to at least go and visit them this night, as promised.
It wouldn't be but a visit, however. He had a mission.
"Well, I'm quite sorry for not being able to keep that promise," he placed his hand on her head. "Another day, perhaps. In the meantime, you'll have to recount your experience during the New Moon Festival to me, next we meet in dream."
"I quite certainly will!" She responded, evidently proud of the 'big word' she had managed to use.
"Anyhow, now is my time to leave," Darkrai shook her little hand with one of his fingers. "Farewell and good luck," he waved and began to meld back into the fabric of the dream, hurried to leave, as he felt himself getting evermore tired and could now sense the nightmare beginning to tear it apart in an effort to be born anew.
"See you the night after this one, Darkrai!" Her cry echoed before he fully dissolved into the depths of her nightmare.
With the end of their discussion within her dream, Darkrai exited the pool of darkness in his cavern through which he had entered, lightly tensing up as he felt his claws palp, yet again, the filthy puddle of cold water beside himself.
He shook the humidity off of his hand and pushed himself up into the air, unsteadily floating out of his cavern while shielding his strained and sensitive eyes from rays of the Sun. As he hovered between the tall trees, he looked down to the endless expanse of dirt around his den: no twigs had been snapped, no traces had been imprinted into ground, he heard no voices or any other noise, simply silence. Sick of scouting, he turned back.
Ever since meeting Espurr, he had forced himself to make an amendment to his usual protocol: he no longer went on to visit the village itself, rather, he would fly over to the small clearing which laid atop a cliff, finally being given the opportunity to rest upon one of the rare patches of grass in the Blightwoods.
They had been meeting and talking in her nightmares for almost a week now, having become close enough acquaintances for her to stop calling him 'sir' or 'mister', which was quite welcomed, but, the ability to meet and talk to her took away the remaining legitimacy of most excuses he had to want to visit Haven and put others at risk there. The short interactions with her that he could afford were more than enough to make him content for an entire day, and, on a more practical note, as the village's Dream Eater, she had a fair bit of proximity to Gothitelle, meaning that she acted as a sort of spy for him, a substitute for his own information gathering in the mornings.
The issue that arose was that they could only speak during the night, and he still was not at ease sleeping during the day, when they were all active, leaving his territory without a monitor and himself vulnerable. This, combined with how draining it was to both keep someone lucid within his nightmares and to even temporarily tame said terrors, so that they could actually talk within them in peace, left him perpetually tired. Beyond all of that, when a small window was offered to him by a favourable alignment of events, when he did have the chance to finally fall asleep, it would not last long, as he would almost immediately wake up from a gut-wrenching nightmare.
These nightmares, which were once almost exclusively about harm coming to him or his home, now always involved her, and these he could not bear. In some, she would turn on him, in others, she would divulge their conversations, she would get into mortal danger, and, worst of all, was when said mortal danger was none other than himself. She would be cast into a nightmare and he would be left to watch on as she withered, powerless to do anything.
Such a horrific scenario was never an impossibility but, during this night in particular, it would become more likely than ever.
He crossed his arms on his chest and looked up to the blue and yellow morning sky overhead, barely distorted by the ugly filter which was the layer of fog circulating through the air of his forest. Darkrai cherished the first beams of sunlight as, once they were gone and dusk reared its head, another cruse upon his existence would begin to agitate.
He would be able to sense the rise of the quantity of dark energy he was radiating all around himself, its invisible range would then extend beyond its typical boundary to reach as far as those dens of Bunnelby in the forests outside of Haven. And it would continue to expand until it peaked during the height of the New Moon, after which it would begin to subside.
But these Bunnelby would be but inconvenienced by this fluctuation. They would simply experience yet another inexplicable wave of particularly frightening nightmares, like every other month, and would then wake up from them without any issues, as they did every other month, him still being too far away from them for his terrors to become death sentences. However, for the townsfolk of Haven, the proximity to Darkrai meant that sleeping at all during this period would be a condemnation to a torment-ridden decay.
Thankfully, they had long since done their best to ingeniously adapt to this event, attempting to weather it all by staying awake throughout, all while using the time to indulge in some communal amusement, the 'New Moon Festival', they called it.
All he could do, as always, was hope that they would be able to take care of themselves and that none would suffer this night. Especially not her.
With Hoothoot, his insomnia ability granted him an impenetrable protection against Darkrai's influence while he scouted the village to attempt to save any of those who could not bear to stay awake. But Espurr had no such guarantee of sleeplessness during this time, she was just as likely to fall prey to Bad Dreams as the others were and, worst of all, she was the sole Dream Eater. None would be able to help her, were she to fall under his spell.
While laying there on the grass and basking in the Sun, he tried to remind himself that this was supposed to be his moment to recuperate. His anxiety would seemingly not allow that.
Later, he would be particularly busy: he was, indeed, going to secretly pay the village a little visit, yes, but it would not be a leisurely one. He was looking to extract something from it, while it was dark and they would all predictably be clustered along the road of Residential Quarters.
He had neglected to tell Espurr this and, to an extent, had lied about it. He didn't feel comfortable telling her that he would be stalking their streets at night. He had decided to also not mention all of his other morning strolls through the shades of the town, feeling both guilty for not telling her while also being paranoid about the effects doing so would have on her positive vision of him.
The item in question which he was interested in was the Life Orb Druddigon had left behind. She hadn't offered an explanation as to how it worked to the villagers, leading to both the initial incident with Gallade. With some aid from him and Espurr, they had deduced how it functioned, though were still far too hesitant to be rid of it. He had already seen hazardous items overstay their welcome through the generations, he would do something about this one.
More selfishly, while still speaking of prudence, Espurr had told him that the trio meant to act as the town's guards, Gallade, Ursaring and Scyther, had intensified in their training routines after what had happened to the first. He still did not believe that they could ever hope to best him and she was likely overdoing it with her continued praise of them — she tended to be easily awed — yet he had been made paranoid by these developments.
He no longer spied on them while they trained and, as such, lacked accurate knowledge. Getting that Life Orb would serve as good back-up and, with the influence of his nightmares already covering the village during the New Moon, his presence there would not pose any heightened risk, even if someone were to fall into a coma.
And, perhaps, he also just wanted an excuse to visit Haven once again. For now, though, he would be sunbathing while trying not to fall asleep.
"Please wake up! Please wake up! PLEASE WAKE UP!" Espurr jumped up being screamed at and violently shaken, causing her to reflexively hiss and spur her psychic powers into a sudden gale, sending the piles of hay her bed was made of flying into her aggressor's face, pushing him through the dormitory of the Haven Shelter.
The wooden planks which formed the walls beginning to rumble and cave inwards made her realise that she was on the verge of causing unnecessary damage. She instantly reached for the Soothe Bell tied to a red ribbon around her ear, the pleasant chimes of which soon calmed her down and released the tension from the structure of the building.
"Darn it, Esp, it's just me!" The apparent fiend turned out to be none other than her friend, Morgrem, now covered in straw while Miss Leavanny and Mawile were stood by at the edge of the room behind him, both heaving a sigh of relief.
The bell was producing its intended effect, making her panic from being brusquely ruffled subside. "Oh? Uh... a very good morning to you too, Morg!" She turned to the others. "Good morning, everyone!" Espurr yawned and rubbed her eyes, the temporary silence giving her the opportunity to notice the loud cawing of the Murkrows outside. "Did I oversleep?" It was probably because she had taken more time to talk with Darkrai this night, but what he had told her was quite important!
Mawile chuckled while Miss Leavanny just rolled her eyes, Morgrem, for his part, was still in the middle of dislodging the straws which had gotten stuck in his hair and mouth.
"Everyone's waiting on us, probably worried sick, hurry up!" Leavanny picked her up — along with a few gold coins sitting on the shelf she walked by — and groomed her fur while marching to the front door.
Once joined by both Morgrem and Mawile, she pushed the doorway open — frightening away a group of Murkrows who had been waiting by the entrance — and revealed a sea of worried faces amassed on the road right outside of the building.
"She's fine, everyone's fine!" Leavanny exclaimed to them and gestured to calm down, pushing Morgrem and Mawile outside with her leg while holding up Espurr for the entire crowd to see.
"Good morning everybody!" Espurr awkwardly waved at what seemed to be almost the entire village. "Sorry to scare you like that, but I'm doing quite well!" The tension from their faces dissipated, they all waved back at their Dream Eater.
"Alright, we're all good for today, folks!" Pumpkaboo, who had taken up Hoothoot's mantle in verifying that everyone was well awake in the morning, flickered her lights on and off, signaling that everyone was, indeed, fine.
Once the other pokemon began vacate the street, the Murkrows perched on the tops of the roofs beforehand all converged to the front of the Shelter's porch, the sudden deluge of shrieking, black birds at their feet making Morgrem retreat behind the others for cover.
"Gold! Gold!" They started chanting, expecting compensation for making noise, just like with every other home.
The bug complied with their demands, throwing the coins she had picked up prior into the air, leading them all to cover their ears and step back inside. They were blasted by an even stronger cacophony of caws and wings flapping from the chaos unleashed as the birds frenzied over the shiny scraps.
Everyone still clearly being able to hear them fighting over the few pieces of gold introduced into the fray outside, Miss Leavanny took out the basket of various berries and slammed the cover shut, making Morgrem jump.
"Espurr, are you sure you didn't have a nightmare? Why didn't you sleep well?" She asked, pouring a mix of fruits into three bowls and then eating a handful herself.
"No nightmare at all, nope! None at all! Slept quite well!" Espurr responded, maybe a bit too enthusiastic for it to sound genuine, but Miss Leavanny didn't question it.
Her caretaker placed the fruit salads on the table and pushed each one over to them. "Well, did you eat more Chesto Berries than usual yesterday?" Miss Leavanny knelt down by the small chair she was sitting on.
"Nope!" Espurr responded with a mouth full of berries, eager to switch topics.
"Huh, the bed must've been uncomfortable then," she patted her on the head and got back up, rubbing her chin and looking over to the mess left in the dormitory. "I'll have to fix it up... not like I have much of a choice now, really. Sorry for that, Espurr."
"It's nothing to worry about, Miss Leavanny," now she felt kinda bad. It wasn't her fault at all! She didn't need to feel guilty!
"Alrighty, seems like they've simmered down," her caretaker suddenly shifted her attention to the door, making them all realise that the noise the Murkrows were making had stopped for good. "I need to run to the hospital and finish preparing some supplies over there for tonight. Remember that training's cancelled today, so jobs as usual, okay?"
"And I was becoming good at aiming!" Mawile moaned. "It would've been so nice to train it one last time for the games tonight!" She crossed her arms and leaned back against the chair, the weight of her maw almost making her fall over.
"Real sorry about that," Miss Leavanny shrugged and opened the door, on the brink of leaving before she gasped with a sudden realisation. "Oh! And, Espurr, Gothi has some final instructions to give you, so go over to the Sanctuary after you're done eating, alright? You know her: always grouchy and doesn't appreciate being made to wait," She left and slammed the door behind her, making Morgrem jump from his chair again.
While they were all on the verge of finishing their respective bowls, he had stopped eating and instead begun attentively rummaging through the fruit salad with his spoon, becoming increasingly distressed the further he did so. "Very few Chesto Berries..." he muttered. "Yeah, I don't trust that."
He hopped down from his seat and crawled over to the window, while Espurr and Mawile looked at him and tilted their heads. He was supposed to know that they ate less sleep berries because they needed them for the New Moon. It meant that they finally got to eat a lot more of the actually good berries, too!
The goblin opened the window at the front of the house and weaved his hair around the flower pot containing a pink bush which was sat on the sill, bringing it inside. When he hovered his hand over the sprout, it emitted a magenta and green-coloured aura, forcing it to mature at a faster pace. Before long, a dozen of blue and white fruits grew from the plant, which he quickly snatched.
"Here's for you both, growing these makes me tired, so don't expect more," he left the handful on the table. Mawile and Espurr thanked him and immediately began to devour the tough and dry berries. "I gotta go and meet up with Scyther for the last harvests for the night, he's already a crank as is, would rather not make him wait," since they had thought that he was the only reason Gallade fainted, Mr. Scyther was barred from training at the Dojo anymore and instead made to work as a farmer and he didn't like that one bit!
Morgrem waved back at them before crawling out of the window like a bug, while Espurr followed Mawile outside, opening the door to see a path of disturbed dirt and black feathers littered everywhere. It was gross and untidy, Skwovet would have to come and mop it up later.
"Welp, I have to go and help out with setting the stalls and game things for tonight, see ya' later, Esp!" Mawile waved and attempted to leave, but was immediately hindered by a returning Murkrow who — along with the rest of the flock which followed him — flanked her and began to form a half circle around the two younglings.
"Espurr! Espurr!" They began chanting, some getting right up into her face. The gray Pokemon immediately began to panic, remembering that the last time this had happened was when Gallade was having a nightmare! Had someone finally not woken up?
"What is it? Does someone need help?!" She asked while reaching to ring her Soothe Bell, afraid of causing another disaster, as she could feel herself getting more and more nervous.
Instead of announcing anything important, they all began to laugh at her in unison, leaving her confused as to what was so funny. "Nah," one of the birds responded. "How much for the shiny bell?" He reached to ring it with his beak, causing his gang behind him to jump with excitement while also prompting Mawile to run over to Espurr and push the bird's bill away.
She heaved a sigh of relief, at least there wasn't any real issue, then! "Sorry, but you know very well that I need it," she hid it with her paws, taking a few steps back towards the door to avoid the encroaching black crows.
But, instead of leaving right then and there, the Murkrow at the forefront hopped right up to her. "Come on, I'll trade it to you for a Star Piece, those are rare, you could look at that to calm down!" He began lightly pecking at her hands, attempting to dislodged it from the ribbon around her ear.
"No, this works fine. Thank you for the offer," she tried being polite one last time before their nagging made her hiss at them... which didn't scare anyone at all and only made them let go for a second to laugh at her!
The cackling of the one in the front soon turned into a scream, however, as he suddenly found himself being clamped down upon by Mawile's jaws. The attempt of the rest of his collective to aid him amounted to nothing, as they were all shoved away with a swipe of her appendage, making them hesitant to approach again.
There was a thud behind the panicking flock of birds. "Mawile, let go of him," Gallade commanded, appearing out of the rising cloud of dust, which he quickly pinned back down to the ground using his psychic powers.
She immediately obeyed, leaving the ruffled Murkrow who had been struggling against her grip to join the rest of his murder in the air, and then straightened up and saluted him.
"Good morning, Mr. Gallade, sir! They started it by pecking at Espurr!" Espurr nodded in agreement.
"That is no way to treat the Dream Eater, Murkrows," Gallade crossed his arms and gave the birds — who had now landed on the overhang of the Shelter — a cold stare Espurr would definitely be intimidated by.
"Almost like we don't care! Insomnia, friend," they all erupted into laughter for the third or fourth time, which made Espurr feel a bit less embarrassed, if even Gallade wasn't able to scare them!
...she wondered how much luck Darkrai would have if he tried to scare them. That would be quite funny.
"Scram," Gallade extended his arm blades in an effort to intimidate the flock.
"Alright, alright, we're scramming," all of the Murkrows there took to the skies and flew off, but not without mocking him one last time before they did so.
Gallade sighed, rolled his eyes, and turned back towards the duo. "You two fine?"
"Oh, yeah! They're just a tad peculiar, that's all," they didn't cause that many problems to her, really, she just didn't understand why they wanted her bell in particular when they had sold it not too long ago.
"A 'tad peculiar', yes," Gallade chuckled. "Well, if you encounter any more issues with them, call me, little hero," the remark made her blush. He was being incredibly nice and protective towards her now, after she had helped him get up from his nightmare. He was protective of everyone, but with her in particular, it was almost like he was her shadow now! The other days, he following her everywhere! "But," Gallade turned his gaze to Mawile. "Never reciprocate, I get that they're annoying, but don't attack them back," he stated while Mawile looked down to ground in shame.
"Sorry, sir, I won't do it ever again," she muttered. "Promise!"
"Just... stay calm when that happens and call for me," it happened pretty often! Pesky birds! "Anyhow, no training today, you remember, right?" They both nodded in agreement. Training just before the New Moon was dangerous and plus they needed to not get themselves tired too early on, otherwise they'd get really sleepy by the end! "Alright then, have a good rest of the day!"
Seeing that everything was now in order, Gallade was the first to leave, thrusting himself to the top of their roof and then proceeding to take long jumps from building to building down the road. Mawile left after him, rather clumsily running off towards Ursaring's Stead.
Espurr then suddenly remembered that she had somewhere to be now, too: Miss Gothitelle had asked her to come to her Sanctuary to give her some of the last information for the New Moon Festival, which was bound to be really important!
She zoomed through the air and flew over the Haven Shelter, arriving at the Town Square, one of the most densely occupied areas of the village at this time of the morning, with everyone being up and about, on their way to the Marketplace from the Residential Quarters, ready to start buying the things they needed and wanted. She couldn't help but get a bit anxious from being there, prompting her to stop and hover in the air, giving herself a second to ring and listen to the pleasant jingle of her Soothe Bell, just in case!
She had done her best to avoid causing any damage since she had met with Darkrai — and always made sure to tell him how well she was doing through dreams — so it would be a real shame to disappoint him now, just before this very important night.
Once she resumed her journey, now well calmed, she began to notice the sheer amount of nervous faces she passed by while on her way to the Sanctuary. Usually, they were able to get through the New Moon just fine, according to Miss Gothitelle, ending up really tired after it, but the townsfolk would then be allowed more time to sleep during the day after its end. Still, though, they got very scared when this time of the month came around. It showed, and it made the rest of the day feel awful, looking at all of those frowning faces!
She wished everyone a good morning, none reciprocated with wishes of their own, she waved at them, and they responded with some of the saddest gestures she had ever seen, going to stare into the ground as they sluggishly ambulated through the place. And so, she began to ignore every along the way and hurried up.
"Make haste, we have to talk to Gothi as well!" She was met by Drifblim and Chatot, who arrived at the entrance at the same time as her, but let her float inside first.
The initial darkness of the foreroom was dissipated by the appearance of oil lamps flanking her on both sides when she entered the main chamber. She looked around the rather creepy place Miss Gothitelle lived in, scouring the crates filled with berries and glass bottles with her gaze, as well as the shelves lined with unique and peculiar items that she had collected and stored there.
Among those odd objects, the one she immediately noticed was the Life Orb, a purple and orange ball which glowed in the dark. The reason Gallade had fainted was because that sucked up his life energy to make his attacks stronger and so, by accident, Gallade had been the one to knock himself out with it! A really creepy item. Luckily, Darkrai — with some help from Espurr — had worked to make sure that they knew that it was too dangerous to use. So it was kept it there with her, just to be safe.
"Why did you take so long? Hurry up next time!" Miss Gothitelle suddenly appearing from behind a book case and shouting made her jump from surprise. She had probably heard her bell ringing and she definitely was mad, as expected!
"Quite sorry, Miss Gothitelle," she muttered and kicked the dirt the tent had been built over with her foot. "I got distracted by Mr. Chatot and Miss Drifblim returning!" Well... she didn't need to talk to them, but it wasn't wholly her fault that they continued to distract her!
"Then simply don't let yourself get distracted, take this more seriously," that remark upset her, she was absolutely taking this really, really seriously! She almost frowned and huffed in anger, but decided that it would be rude to do so, actually. "Anyhow, here's the last thing I wanted to give you before nightfall," she picked an adorable, little brown bag from the table next to her and handed it over to Espurr, making any bitterness towards her from the latter evaporate in an instant.
"Oh! It's so cute!" She exclaimed while cuddling it against her cheeks, letting go once she realised that there was actually something inside.
"It's a sack," Miss Gothitelle dryly commented.
She unbuttoned it, revealing an assortment of fruits within. "With berries!" Espurr triumphantly raised the Chesto Berry she had extracted into the air.
"Yes," Miss Gothitelle huffed. "Chesto Berries. You know what they are, you know what they do," Espurr nodded.
She then walked up to her and snatched the bag from her hands, reaching into it herself and picking out another type of berry. "The red and yellow ones with the green are Leppa Berries, do you know what those do, though?" She asked while showing the handful to her. Luckily, she knew!
"Yep! Miss Leavanny told me that they helped when you can't use a move anymore because you've used it too much!"
"Correct," Miss Gothitelle exclaimed, sounding almost happy, which instantly made Espurr feel very proud for getting it right. "Those are for you, in case you end up not having any more Dream Eater for some reason, Great Dragon forbid," Darkrai had told her that he knew who this 'Great Dragon' they kept mentioning was, which was pretty funny to think about! "That doesn't happen, though," she tossed her the bag back.
Rummaging through the sack one final time, Espurr noticed that there was an even smaller sack inside of it, which she withdrew and held up for Miss Gothitelle to see. "And this? What's in this?" It felt like a bag of sand, actually.
"That's Heal Powder," she began to explain. "It's like Chesto Berries, but for all status conditions, and also works if you inhale it," Miss Gothitelle took it from her hands, opened it, and then lowered it to Espurr's eye level for her to see the green powder inside. "We have a limited supply of it, so use it only on those who don't have a mouth to eat the berry. You still need to use Dream Eater to dissipate the nightmare's hold over the blighted for it to work, so try not to throw it away by using it beforehand. Understood?"
"Understood!" That was very smart of her to think about, too! It made her realise that pokemon like Lampent couldn't eat berries, which was pretty dumb! She was so clever and good at planning things!
"Oh! Also, because you asked about this last time," Miss Gothitelle snapped her fingers after suddenly having realised something. "Same way you're still not allowed to go to the Blightwoods, being Dream Eater doesn't mean that you can leave the Residential Quarter during the New Moon, got it? Don't get any such ideas," Espurr nodded. Darkrai had told her that Hoothoot was probably lying when he said that the Dream Eater was allowed to go into the Blightwoods and this just confirmed it. She'd have to tell him this next time they met in dream.
"There's even more of a risk of that thing actively going after you, as Dream Eater," she continued. "Same way it sent Gallade into a nightmare, since it knew that he was the Village Guardian. You remain a likely target for it until it's still around, remember that," that just wasn't true, and she didn't understand why she acted so certain about it when she didn't know. It was kinda irritating, because she wanted to tell her that wasn't the case, but couldn't!
"Well, it's never come to the village before, has it?" She dared to ask.
"Not yet, it hasn't!" Miss Gothitelle raised her voice with full certitude before turning quiet again. "Why would it? It can just continue picking us off while never facing us, breaking our will through a century long torment," she sighed. "But, with how weak we are right now, you never know."
"I think that we'll be fine," she smiled. That was definitely the case! Soon enough, this would all be fixed by him explaining that he didn't want to eat them or anything like that.
"You're a delusionally optimistic little child. That was all I had for you, now bugger off," Miss Gothitelle ordered, pushing her a bit with her leg, which made her understand that it would be best to leave right now, so as to not upset her any further.
Once they saw Espurr leave the Sanctuary for elsewhere, both Chatot and Drifblim entered in turn. They had something to deliver, certainly, but there was also a vital arrangement to be made with the manager of the place.
They hurried through the somber antechamber — some said that the Nightmare Weaver could hear, see and appear through shadows and the dark, so it was best not to wait around for long in such a place — and arrived in the main room, being met with the sight of Gothitelle arranging some glass bottles on her shelves.
"Ah, you two!" She hollered, striding towards them. "Welcome back. Have you got the books I ordered?"
"Not exactly," Drifblim placed the one book she was carrying down onto the table.
"What do you mean 'not exactly'?" Gothitelle marched up to it, confused, and reached for the sole volume, only to be cut off by Chatot flying in front of her and landing on the tome.
"But first, we must bring up another topic of conversation," he started, making Gothitelle give them an instinctively resentful look.
"We would like for you to grant us the opportunity to be able to leave the village," Drifblim continued, positioning herself between Gothitelle and the books she wanted as well. "Just for this New Moon," she added.
"Absolutely not," her instinctive resentment of the situation had just been vindicated. Who did they think they were? "Do you really wish to leave us all behind to fend for ourselves? Like cowards, to fly away and only come back once all is done with? Like a bunch of parasites?" She would have gone about guilt tripping them into keeping in line more subtly, but they had just really irritated her. "You stay here in solidarity with the rest of Haven or the rest of Haven will help itself with your property and possessions at the Post Office and Residential Quarter," no use in saying anything else, really, this one threat was all she needed. How did they intend to keep this community cohesive and alive when members could leave at any time they got inconvenienced? This village, which had resisted the demon in the forest for a century now, would dissolve from internal tension.
"Well, we believe that we got you something that will be worth your while," Chatot responded, tapping his claws against the tome he was sat on. From the sound it made, she noticed that, not only had she not ordered that particular grimoire, it was not even a book, but rather a wooden case made in simulacrum of one.
"And what did you get me, exactly?" It would be in everyone's interests if they did not take up so much time to make a point clear. "Open it."
Chatot chuckled. "Do tell, what is it that you want most?" Good grief, she had supplies to prepare for the care of those who would potentially get afflicted this night. She was a busy pokemon!
But she humoured him all the same, giving a moment of thought to what it was that she was in need of. "A second Dream Eater would do wonders right now, I can't trust that the fur ball will last long," though she had been effective in the cases she did treat, she couldn't help but feel like Espurr wouldn't last more than a few months. It would have been nice to have Hoothoot around as back-up, yet, after almost a week of everyone lying to themselves and holding onto an unrealistic shred of hope, they had all come to accept that he was now rotting somewhere in the woods.
Unlike her, of course, she had guessed that he was gone for good the day after he vanished. She railed for action on behalf of the fallen, taking the reasonable stance that they were far too vulnerable with just Espurr as Dream Eater, and, again, they did not listen. They let the Nightmare Weaver get away with it, again. This cowardice had almost entirely disinterested her from her ambitions of revenge, frankly.
"Oh, uh," Chatot rearranged the feathers on his head. "No other wishes?"
"Vengeance upon the Moonshadow for turning me useless and defenseless?" She did say 'almost entirely', she would still love for literally anything to be done about it, she'd even be content with them only mildly injuring it, at this rate. Another thing she wished for is that this discussion would get to the crux of the matter. "Stop with the riddles, just tell me what it is that you got for me, already!"
Chatot, seeing her mounting anger, acquiesced and jumped off of the table, leaving it open for Drifblim to grab the green and brown wooden box, who then proceeded to hand it over to Gothitelle.
She struggled to hold the thing, she was fairly atrophied after having relied on her psychic powers to accomplish any action for most of her life, only to have that convenience snatched away from her, but this case was excessively heavy for it to just be due to her physical weakness.
She left it back on the table with a thud and opened it there, revealing that it was, in fact, filled to the brim with stones. No wonder she couldn't carry it!
They were sandstone slabs, to be precise, and each had a unique symbol carved into it. They were all congregations of lines and curves, each punctuated by a dot somewhere along its central axis, giving them a resemblance to eyes, though none seemed to be entirely identical to any other.
She passed her hand over one of them, removing the accumulation of dust from it. They certainly were... alluring, in a peculiar way, but she did not understand their use otherwise. "What are these and where did you get them?" She eventually asked, realising that she had let herself go silent for an oddly long amount of time.
"I flew over Helical Town, down in the deserts, and I remembered hearing about the place being filled with weird folks," the bird began explaining, the pattern of his gesticulations she knew all too well to signify that he was readying himself to talk for a while.
"Speed it up, explain to me their pertinence. I've got preparations to make," the absolute gall on these pokemon!
"Alright, alright. I got around the place, met a few folks," he wasn't obeying, but it would cost far too much effort to make him do anything else. "Saw a Gothitelle living in a tent, but she was doing the fancy stuff with the star projections for a medium business," star projection... the ability to see the far edges of the Cosmos... she knew that it was beautiful, she knew that it was magical, enlightening, even... yet she had been precluded from ever being able to use it, now. "I got reminded of you and decided to ask around if anyone knew of a cure to a condition like yours."
Her eyes widened. "You found something?" She was curious, but cautious about being overly optimistic in this situation, giving a glance back at whatever those sandstone slabs were.
She struggled to stop herself from staring intently into them.
"Apparently, these should help," he gestured his wing towards the tablets.
"These are pieces of a board game I don't know how to play, Chatot," she toiled to say, immediately confused as to why she had such trouble articulating that one sentence.
"No, no, they're runes," he corrected. "Back to my story: They pointed me to a Yamask who luckily had something like that he wanted to get rid of," he had been conned by some desert merchant. "I met him and he said that he had been sold this box here by a Drapion explorer who had gotten it as a reward from some nameless ring ghost thing he had aided break free from a bottle," he had been conned by some desert merchant. "He said that the Drapion explorer had used the power in these runes to somehow convert entire dunes into lakes and rocks into gold, before he mysteriously vanished," he had been conned by some desert merchant.
She sighed at the utter idiocy of this. She knew deception when she saw it — being feeble in every other way had forced her into becoming devious as a defense mechanism — and this wasn't even that enthralling of a fabricated rigmarole! "Right," she could sense a migraine mounting, at this rate. "A nonsensical story made up by a sleazy merchant or a nonsensical story made up by a bored desert nomad who tricked a foolish merchant and then a foolish bird," she didn't know if the Yamask was a deceiver or if he had been deceived, but Chatot was definitely an idiot in this story... or trying to bamboozle her to get to leave... in which case, it wouldn't work, so he was still a fool!
"Are you not giving the runes a chance?" He asked... for some reason continuing to take this seriously.
The letters caught her gaze once again, she wanted to renege on talking about these any further, she wanted to say 'no'. "Well, how do they work?" She couldn't say 'no'.
"I am not sure how they work, but, as I was told about them, I had this indomitable gut feeling that they would work. I know it. But you're smarter than me, I'll let you figure them out," he responded.
...
Her anger overwhelmed whatever temporary delusion it was that she had been possessed by, causing her to slam the wooden box shut on the tablets, which startled Chatot and Drifblim.
"Thank you for the gift, Chatot," Gothitelle took a few steps to end up right in his face. "I'll be sure to repeat your silly story to try and dupe Druddigon into buying it from me the next time she comes to town," she gestured for them to leave, thoroughly disappointed.
Yet, once she turned back to the box, on the verge of shouting at them for leaving it behind, the sight of it made her feel compelled to keep it. It wasn't just her desperation, or their delusions, there was something to those runes. She could sense it. She could no longer bring herself to deny its temptation.
She turned back towards the duo. "Be there for the initial headcount, you can go after that."