I swam in darkness, claws grabbing at nothing. It had been a long time since I'd last dreamt of myself as a human being, and it didn't feel like I'd experience it anytime soon. It didn't matter much to the main slumberland event anyway.

Ah, yes. The dreams. They were the only thing I'd seen in colour since I was teleported into a different world and turned into a Pokémon. Who'd have guessed Absol were colourblind? Not me, especially since all I knew about Pokémon before this was through online friends' fursonas.

Even though they didn't grip me as hard as they had before, they were becoming clearer. Maybe Pokémon skills went up with experience like moves and stats did. I didn't know, and I barely had a concept of how Pokémon levelling worked. I was very much the wrong person to figure this out.

The worst recurring flash would never appear again, and I unfortunately knew why. There was a tall, orange figure, falling to its death despite two wings. One of them was bent at a horrible angle. Just thinking back to the flash sent a ripple of guilt through my guts. Why didn't I know Charizard was orange? Why hadn't I recognized the blurry figure sooner? If I really did predict the future like an Absol was said to do, what kind of responsibility fell on me? How could I stop things if everything I'd seen had happened all according to the script? How could I have known?

Why would you trust me with this?

I shook my head in resignation. Suddenly, shattered glass. A crisscross pattern of white against the black. The cracks in the darkness were all around me. There weren't any walls, but the fissures ran far away from me, solid and immobile.

That was new, and my Absol scythe reacted to it. It started itching like crazy, as if the horn that hung from my face had ants all over. Although I had paws at the ready, my instinct was to swing the scythe around.

Swish, swish, swish.

With no ground around to steady me, that last swing dragged me into a front flip. I wasn't sure I was right side up when the momentum stopped. All I knew was that the cracks in the background had disappeared. The void was… warmer. It was like a buzzing noise I hadn't noticed before just stopped, clearing the air.

Gently, I stretched a front leg forward. Was there a floor now? I felt like I might find one.

I—

I woke up on my side.

While blinking the drowsiness away, I uncurled myself and stood up. I knew when my stomach wanted breakfast. Valérie acknowledged my presence by the front of the cave, nodding at me.

If I were back home, I would be complaining up and down about not getting enough rest. Here, it had been a while since I'd gotten a good night's sleep. A good good night's sleep. My eyes weren't dry and blurred this morning. I'd take what I could get. I bit into an Oran berry and closed the backpack. The berry was sweet but cold due to last night's low temperatures.

"Morning," I heard from the right. It was Gab. "Pass me a Persim?"

I obliged. We didn't talk much after that, chewing that sweet brekkie. Suddenly, I was a bit more grounded. I breathed easier. The cold had less bite. I doubted it was only because of the sun rising. I knew caves had their own temperature balance no matter the time of day, and a tunnel deeper in brought some hotter air into our little camp.

Later, when everyone else had woken up, someone had to be the killjoy. And, on today's episode, it was… Micheal! Give it up fooooor Micheal!

"Sun's up," he started, a half-eaten Cheri berry in front of him. Comin' out with the controversial facts this morning. "Either we're setting out again, or we need a game plan."

Right. Either the boss was at the peak, or we had to head downstairs, because I knew the level wasn't going to make us climb another mountain if it knew what was good for it—

"I want to look further in here," Valérie said. She gestured with her thumb to the deeper part of the cave. "Chloe said something about it this morning."

The Swablu perked up and fluffed up her feathers. "Yeah, I saw some fossils on the walls, I think. Lemme check."

She said she'd check first, but we all looked at where her head had turned to. Sure, there were some engravings on the wall, but they looked kind of fake. It was something about the size, but then again, I hadn't seen a lot of fossil deposits in person as a human, let alone a considerably shorter Absol. They could be as real as they could get here. It piqued Gab's attention.

"Would you look at that," she said. She had her hands on her hips, a position that looked very funny on an Emolga, but she was earnestly studying a shape on the wall.

That wasn't any kind of fossil I'd ever seen. Ugh, they were Pokémon and I was sure of it. Nothing decorative could ever be an trilobite or a fern, no, no— it had to be a Pokémon. A fossil Pokémon. Was Fossil a type? I didn't think it was. Maybe they'd done a bunch of fossils in one of the games. Like the, uh, dinosaur one. They had to have a dinosaur one.

With, like, caveman people walking around—

"Ommanite," Kieran nodded knowingly. Yeah, knowingly wrong!

"Ammonite!" I snarled. Hoo boy, he was not ready for this to be a childhood obsession of mine. If I was sure I knew something leaning towards smarts, I had no excuse whatsoever to back down.

Gab's voice lowered, as if talking down to a child. "Omanyte. Pokémon fossil."

Damn it! The one thing I do know about, and she corrects me—

She laughed. "But yeah, the real-life thing is ammonite. I think."

"One loop around the shell is a whorl," I blurted out, so stupid.

"Ooh, like flowers!" Chloe said, eyes glimmering. Ugh, wrong person!

Kieran cleared his throat, and pointed with a stinger to the tunnel further in. "So we're going in, then? You guys will have a lot more time to share fun facts on the road," the Beedrill said, unimpressed.

Micheal nodded to Gab. "I think that's your cue."

The Emolga nodded back. She rubbed her front paws together and stretched some of the morning grogginess out, leaning her head left and right, left and right. Okay, uh, cute but unnecessary. She was switching on a lightbulb, not lifting weights. The Emolga smiled and closed her eyes in concentration, until… nothing happened. Her eyelids snapped open.

"Oh, God!" She screamed. "I don't remember! I think I must've learned something else, or— or, I—"

Crap. No Flash for the part with dark cave exploring. A low blow if I had ever seen one. Gab's eyes darted around the room, never landing on a person. Valérie held a hand up in front of her, like an annoying stop sign.

"Torches? Do we have torches?" The Meditite shot in.

Gab shook her head. "We threw the sticks at the Phantump. Damn it! There were so many branches everywhere!"

"Hey, man," I intervened, patting her on the back. She only jumped a little. "We'll figure it out. There's gotta be something else we can do."

She nodded but still stared at the floor. I counted heads again. Micheal couldn't make Embers anymore, but he was usually level-headed and I could see him heading into the cave without freaking out. Kieran, no way in hell; he'd chew everyone's ears off about phantom stalactites hitting his wings or stingers the whole way. Then, me, of course. I could see in the dark, but that didn't help everyone else through. Gab? Now that Flash was out, nothing was as effective at dispelling the shadows. At least, without risking a shock. Valérie would punch her way out, so that was a no-go unless we wanted a cave-in. And Chloe… no. Too young and innocent. Not putting her through that. I glanced at the Swablu to make sure she didn't develop mind-reading powers. My brother had always given me a hard time about me being the youngest, so I got why something like that could be touchy. She was fourteen, though! Such a child in the middle of the oh-so-wise fifteen year old elders.

Wait, I got off track.

I summed things up in my brain. To explore the cave, Micheal and I it was. Ugh. Things were going to be awkward.

We'd been going through the tunnel for twenty minutes or so. It was dark, but not much colder than the chamber by the entrance. We hadn't turned anywhere in the narrow tunnel. There were no turns to make. I hung in the back despite my night vision being better than Micheal's. He just walked so much faster! Did he find coffee? Or those Chesti berries— wait, was it Chesto? Chesta? Anyway. I could follow him fine.

Conversation was nonexistent. He was exhausted. I was tired. I didn't want to burn the Litleo on both ends. What was I supposed to begin with? 'Hey, Micheal, I don't like what we're doing, so I'm gonna bring up that you killed a man?'

Jesus! Okay, Lola, back up.

Anything to keep me from thinking about that. We'd talked about the incident long enough for my taste. There was no time for more maybes. I didn't like thinking about things we could've done better anymore. I scanned the walls to see if I could spot more fossils or markings.

I misstepped but caught myself before tripping. Although I could see well, my body was still not my original. Every so often, I'd get little aches or sprains to remind me that I was moving wrong. Those weird backwards claws on my wrists were scratching at my back legs whenever they hit each other. I didn't know what they were. Bonus claws? Spurs? Sure. Let's go with spurs. I could be a cowboy if I wanted—or cowgirl? Whatever. They hurt.

"Oh, hey! Look," Micheal said. We'd suddenly entered an area with a bit of light.

I squinted. Huh. Around the small chamber, little pinpricks of white twinkled on the walls. I closed my eyes and waited for my vision to adjust, but that didn't stop a monster headache from gnawing at my temples.

"Bright," I groaned.

"A bit less dramatic than the last time this happened," he joked. What did he mean by that? I focused my sights on the glowing things on the wall. Had I seen this before?

Oh, yeah! Those were the mushrooms from way back in the first level. I'd been told they glowed a nice teal colour. If I focused on the mushrooms, I could almost see a cute little seafoam hue. Don't ask how that worked.

"Remember how they turn on and off depending on if it's day or night?" Micheal reminded me. "I guess that confirms that they glow during the day, yeah?"

"Mm-hm."

He must've thought I was bored. "We should bring some back," he said, quieter.

"Mm. Good idea."

I didn't mean to sound this snippy! I wished I could be more awake. I rummaged through my brain. What did Micheal even like? Every time I thought of a topic, I could imagine it bouncing off him and falling flat on the floor, sputtering out sadly like a whoopie cushion.

I cocked my head to the side. "Weird that those are plants that don't need sunlight, huh?"

Micheal snorted at that. Mushrooms were completely removed from animal and vegetal; make it fungal. I feigned continued ignorance and studied the Litleo's reaction. Sometimes, all that was needed to make someone feel better was to make them think they helped. Micheal was going to help me remember mushrooms were an entirely separate kingdom, God damn it!

"I mean, uh," he hesitated, "are mushrooms plants? I think they don't have roots or something. Like moss. But moss is a plant, though."

Dear God. We're in trouble.

"I flunked biology," I said. It wasn't true. I just didn't remember anything, and that was easier to say. My kingdom for the willpower to get to the botany module!

"Doesn't leave… mushroom for thought," he mumbled.

"Pretty fly for a fungi," I added.

All right, random mushroom puns it was. He smiled shyly. Then, all tension seemed to escape from that stress balloon. He breathed out, quiet as a butterfly's wing. I knew that sudden change of mood. My college-age brother suffered it every time I'd seen him in the last decade. Sleep deprivation did wonders for relief's effects. Every time he blinked, it was a little longer than the last. He might've been able to get sleep that night.

Anyway, rapport restored! Could things go back to normal, though? Ever? Please?