As I picked up a mushroom bunch with my claws, I was brought back to my first day as a Pokémon, back when I couldn't walk straight, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. A small shudder ran through my shoulders. I dropped the mushrooms in the backpack Gab had placed next to the colony on the wall. My claws flexed. I'd become aware of how much steadier they were, yet fragile. They weren't anything like my hands, but had lost the allure of belonging to a magic dog. I'd felt through them for over a month at this point; both pressure and pain as I'd walked and fought. Although not the original, this body had become my own in a way I couldn't describe.

I blinked away the tangents in my brain. I focused on picking our new flashlight supplies with the rest of the team. It had been a long yet very unproductive day. With Micheal and I going up and down the tunnel three times, our walking quota had been fulfilled for today and tomorrow, at least. However, that didn't stop me from flailing and grabbing at every possible thing I could be doing. Toxic productivity was antithetical to my whole being, but it beat being bored or sad.

"Boosh," I mimicked an explosion as another mushroom fell in the bag. "Poom. Kapow."

The fun little sounds brought a smile to my lips. Kieran pierced daggers through me, sharper than his stingers. Too bad, so sad. I was immune to Psychic attacks. I sent a smirk his way, redoubling my efforts.

"Be-ding, be-DANG!"

"Enough!" Kieran snapped.

"Come on, guys," Micheal sighed. "Knock it off."

Kieran balked at that. He kept pointing back at me, glaring to Micheal. It was entirely possible that he was attempting to use Morse code with his eye muscles, given how much they were twitching. I knew what he was saying. The Beedrill was asking why I was allowed to instigate, but it not being so for him to retaliate. Ah, a youngest child's best friend. Micheal shook his head.

"It's not worth it," he seemed to say, in the same way my mom would cover for me in arguments. Kind of insulting, when I thought about it—

Anyways, I wanted to change the topic for completely sane and not homesick reasons. Hey, I was nothing if not gracious. I could let someone choose the method with which I was annoying them. "We can talk about how this is a Flying level instead. With the, uh… Arc. Arch."

"Do you mean the Archen?" Kieran muttered.

"Sure. Rock bird. That." Nailed it.

"You fought one," he moaned. Call him an overcooked steak, because he was way past well and done. "You don't remember the name?"

"No?" I played innocent, cocking my head to the side. "I don't see why I'd need to."

I didn't know why playing the absurd card was so funny to me in moments of sleep deprivation. I'd take the serotonin where I could harvest it. If anything, I was validated by a few snorts and muffled laughter throughout. Holy moly! I was growing on people!

I'm some really funny mold.

"Ugh," Kieran spat, making me believe for a split second that he could actually read my mind.

Gab tapped his back to get his attention. "Think of another Flying and Rock type," she whispered, as if I couldn't hear her. "That'll ward her off a bit."

"Aerodactyl," Kieran stated.

"Oh, yeah! He's, uh, the purple one," I said. "Big winged pterosaur."

"How do you know that?" Kieran asked, eyebrow raised.

Wait. I was correct?! I knew Pokémon were pretty much all based off puns and mixing words, but… really, they just mixed "aero" and "pterodactyl" for the pterodactyl? Honestly, that was kind of a good one. Made me want to stick it to Nestlé for their inferior chocolate made of wax and air. Clearly I'd found a much better use for "aero." The Pokémon being purple, though, that was complete dumb luck. Unless…

I flipped my hair. "Absol's intuition. You know. From following the Da—"

"Shut the hell up about your Dark Traps!" said the naysayer.

Micheal put another mushroom cluster into the backpack. He moseyed over to me. "You said Absol's intuition, right? How does that work?"

Hm. Didn't feel like getting into that. "You know, I guess it's a feeling? Better anticipation, probably."

I didn't care who bought it, just that the can of worms was staying sealed a bit longer. Look, the last thing I wanted was to start another fight because of something that couldn't be solved at the moment anyway.

Valérie gave me the side eye. "Don't think that'll make me listen to whatever you say."

"Well, I never!" I huffed.

Gab snorted, and looked from person to person. "You guys know she's pulling our chain, right? That's not Absol stuff."

"Are you going to believe the non-Absol?" I pointed her out. Ousted! Ousted by my own trusted Dark Trap priestess! Thrown to the dogs! Er, well, I guessed I was the dog. Thrown to myself was I.

Gab shook her head, chuckling. That was a nice sound. I grinned at her but had to do a doubletake. Was that— was that the slightest hint of yellow—

It vanished as soon as I'd seen it. I could've sworn her cheeks had colour in them for a millisecond. Gab scrunched her brow in concern. Crap! Engage distraction maneuvers. I stuck my tongue out. She stuck hers out back.

Good job, Lola. Probably nothing to be concerned about.

Far up in the sky, Kieran and Chloe yelled observations to each other, unaware we could hear every word from the ground. According to their broadcast, it was going to rain tonight or tomorrow. Chloe knew her clouds and nature stuff, so I believed it.

There was a good amount of daylight left when we exited the tunnel, so we also left the cave itself to continue the climb. When leaving, I focused on the rock pillars supporting the ceiling near the entrance. They were smooth to the touch, but had a bunch of strata marks running through their surface. They had a mix of well-divided grays stacked on top of each other, most of them nowhere near the same brightness levels of the rest of the mountain. If I had my colour cones, I'd bet I could see different hues too. Those pillars hadn't formed like this. They'd been carved or made synthetically. We were definitely meant to find that mushroom cave, what with how much it stood out. Good level design? Here? Unheard of!

Fun facts about minerals bobbed up and down in my brain. 'Remember the difference between an igneous and metamorphic rock?' 'What about rubies and sapphires?' 'Let's ponder the Theia hypothesis.' Man, I was being such a nerd. I looked side to side on instinct, as if to check for eavesdroppers. I couldn't have any mind readers hearing me being mushy about geology, now could I?

Am I thinking about mind readers too much?

While my brain was a-moving with the walk, my body couldn't be more tired. My eyelids were heavier than they'd ever been, fluttering my brain into microsleep every minute or so. I'd catch myself every so often, shaking my head awake and making sure I hadn't been too obvious. Why was I falling asleep while walking?! It just wasn't fair.

Lola, you can grumble all you want. You're not dead.

Enough of that. If I couldn't keep thinking about rocks, I'd enlist someone else to do it. I walked a little faster to catch up with Gab. Valérie and Micheal were nearer to the front, although technically our fliers were further along. 'Cause they could fly.

"This walk is boring," I complained to her. She was observance incarnate, and I needed me someone who could read between the lines.

Gab shrugged. "The sun's starting to set. This high up, the sunsets are so pretty."

I smiled. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about the floor dropping from under us this time."

The Emolga inhaled sharply, stopping in her tracks for a split second. Her ears drooped and her eyes went dim. Her fingers stopped fiddling with the backpack straps and she brought her hands together for… more advanced fidgeting? Even though she'd started walking again, her pace was slower and more hesitant. Obviously, that had been a bad call on my part. If I'd known that level was still this big of a trigger, I would've never brought it up.

"Not cool," she said, folding on herself. "Don't say things like that."

"Sorry," I replied. After a pause, I tried again. "I've been meaning to ask about those Pokémon fossils, actually."

Her reply came slightly later than usual. "What about?"

"Um… names? And what's the deal with them?"

"If you don't count the whole reviving part, they're like… regular fossils. There's, uh, fifteen of them or so."

"Right," I murmured. There wasn't much conversation momentum between us right now, unfortunately.

Just then, Kieran landed on the mountain path, saluting Micheal as he joined the pack. Micheal nodded back, and slowed his walk a little. The Beedrill announced that Chloe has spotted another cave with steady flooring, maybe about a couple more loops around this mountain. I inspected what was left for us to walk. We were still at least an hour away. I would need another conversation partner. Kieran? Micheal? Hellooooo…

They were now caught in my web, and they were going to talk to me. I barrelled past Valérie, staring down the Beedrill. "Yo, so… fossils?"

Kieran squinted, wary and ready for the worst. "Yeah?"

"I didn't give you a chance to finish— you know, earlier. If we're facing some fossil Pokémon, I'd like to get my mind wrapped around it before we fight it. You said, uh… ammonite? The Pokémon equivalent?"

"It's a Helix fossil," he informed me. "It becomes Omanyte, but then it evolves into Omastar."

Micheal nodded. He was listening too, his Litleo ear flicking occasionally because of the wind. "Water/Rock type, right?"

"Oh," I realized. "So, it's like the real ammonite, then. It's a little mollusk buddy!"

Kieran snorted, smiled, and continued with pride in his knowledge. "Old Amber turns into—"

"Bug!" I guessed. If a Helix fossil was indeed a spiral, then amber had to encase a prehistoric insect!

"Aerodactyl. It's a pterodactyl."

"What?! Why?"

Kieran snapped. "Look, the games came out right after Jurassic Park. They won't always make sense." He threw his stingers in the air, and Micheal shook his head.

When we'd settled down in the new cave, I canon-balled into the floor and fell asleep in seconds. No dinner for me! I was hoping— praying— that I'd wake up with no dreams in between then and breakfast.

No such luck, or course.

There I was again. The void was that little bit more welcoming from when I'd left it. I floated in the dark with new steadiness. I couldn't land anywhere, but I could almost swim. My paw pads detected the slightest amount of friction from the air. As for my eyes, they were flooded.

New visions crashed in, crisp, clear, and colourful, but too fast for me to grab. Too many details, sounds, sights.

A snowstorm.

The ring of bells.

Thunderstorms chewing up a ceiling of steel and glass.

A rock?

Fire, thrown at a fr—

I jolted awake. I heaved a full breath and tried to be as quiet as possible. However, my slightly irritated lungs told me that there'd been a balloon twisting contest down there. I was left breathless, a somersaulting balloon dog made out of pulmonary flesh bouncing painfully in my chest; and finally, I just friggin' knew I'd made a lot of noise while unconscious. I suppressed a cough. It didn't work. Just dried up the back of my lungs some more.

Gab was the only one up as far as I was aware. She'd been leaning on the cave entrance, but right now she was staring at me, fur fluffed up in surprise.

"Are those night terrors?" She gasped, keeping her volume at a whispering level against all odds.

"No!" I hissed back. "I mean, not always—"

"What do you mean, not always?"

This was a kind of confrontation I was not prepared for. Last time Gab had yelled at me, it was to (rightfully) knock me down a peg. This time, she was only concerned with me. The fact that it made me feel guilty was almost worse. I scanned the cave, my gaze meeting Pokémon lying limp, and craggy walls. No one else was awake. Hopefully.

I sighed, and leaned in. When I laid down closer, her face was only a few inches away. "Sometimes, this is how the disaster visions show up. They can get intense."

"Oh. I'm sorry," she said, genuinely looking so. "Disaster visions? I thought it was, like, a feeling?"

I looked away. "Yeah, I lied. Most of everything has been through this."

"You should tell the rest of us," the Emolga whispered.

"I know."

I was not ready to get admonished again, but something told me that neither of us had enough energy for a sermon.

Gab's words were quiet, but her voice cut through the silence. "Is it, like, um… scary? Or fuzzy?"

I let out a breath. "Both. But, uh, more fuzzy. They go by real fast."

"Too fast to really see them?"

"Yeah. Not worth getting everyone up in a tizzy."

I looked back toward her. She had her fist against her chin again, thinking. Her face slowly rose until her gaze met mine.

"Look," she murmured, looking back toward the group now and then. "I'm not gonna tell. You would if you knew for sure something was coming, though, right?"

I nodded. "I've been getting more sleep. I think it's helping with that."

"Okay," she yawned. "Just as long as you're doing what you think is best. It's gonna come out sooner or later—"

"I know. I'm just this close to knowing what to do about it. I swear."

I hadn't told a lie this time. Why'd I trust her? I blamed the bags under my eyes.

She nodded back, and propped her head against the backpack lying by the entrance. Within minutes, she was asleep. I figured I should try too.

Guess it's time to do my part.

It was as if the dream had never stopped. As soon as I'd closed my eyes, I was plunged back into the void. I fell through a shower of colourful particles parsing the emptiness. I flipped upside-down, intent on seeing what I was plummeting with.

I realized that the kaleidoscope I was crashing through was what the visions were made of. Viewed from a different angle, it was like a drone light-up show making up the images. Tonight, I was simply under the swirling galaxy of sound and light, as opposed to in front of it. Something in me knew that the dots' movement was due to the constantly changing future, as well as weird space-time gobbledygook. I didn't like that the Absol had more knowledge than me on the topic.

Recalling the fact that I could swim a little in those dreams, I did my best doggy paddle to get back to my usual observing spot. No dice. If anything, I kept falling while the particles… repositioned themselves. They steadied together far above me. Were they making up new visions? I needed to see!

Wait! Come back!

I growled and bared my teeth. Why couldn't I just see things and report them back? What was the point of Absol vision if it was so fickle? I huffed, and tears formed in my eyes. It couldn't ever be easy, now could it?

"Ugh!" I spat. Woe was me.

Suddenly, I was on solid ground again. It startled me, sending a jolt through my extremities. I hadn't crashed into the floor. It was just like I'd always been on it, but forgot I wasn't actually falling. But… but, I had been falling! I steadied myself, glaring at the freaking vision party going on above.

It didn't feel right to be here. Had I done something wrong? A lightbulb went off over my head when I remembered my scythe. If I focused on it, then maybe I'd know what to do.

If the myriad of lights were observed by my eyes and ears, the motion of the darkness was what the scythe was for. I couldn't quite explain it; it was like my sense of touch, but more subtle. Hints of smell and hearing also appeared. I could crank up that new sense if I wanted, as if it were numbered gears on a bike.

The void was what was actually moving the lights. By applying pressure and odd outbursts of gravity, this realm folded on itself to show me neat little pictures. It was like the darkness was rearranging itself now that it wasn't bound.

Maybe what I needed to do wasn't swimming, but telling the ground to send me up. The scythe informed me that the floor I stood on was a thin surface at the edge of my dream world. If I could curve it, or build momentum on it, I could trampoline myself back up. So, what, did I just need to ragdoll my body through the horrible future rainbow every night? It did inspire hope that I'd been lucid for so long, though. Was I getting better?

A shift in my scythe, and I bounced a little. The floor had actually propelled me forward! As I floated up (though very slowly), I got more familiar with the peaks and valleys of this almost breathing landscape. Another shove, and I was actually ascending a bit faster. I was falling in love with this scythe all over again.

The swirling kaleidoscope taunted me, but I was fine not pursuing it just yet. I wanted to fly and rest tonight. I squinted at the massive astral cloud.

You. Me. Tomorrow.

When I came to, Gab was already awake and she started pestering me. Why worry about my sleep? We were dumb fictional animals. Worry about that. Worry about different muscle memory, or instincts, or powers you don't understand, or the possibility my brain chemistry had been altered to give me Absol depression—

"What'd you dream about?" The Emolga said, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Anything Absol-related?"

"Nope," I lied. "Just some weird dream."

"Come on," she insisted. "Tell me what it was."

I pondered my answer for what felt like eons. "You came to my house and told me my bathtub was disgusting."

That was an actual nightmare I'd had sometime else, and it wasn't entirely unfounded. I didn't clean the bathtub— or the bathroom in general— as often as I should. To be honest, my mom usually ended up scrubbing it.

Gab looked me up and down, skeptical. "So, I'm hanging out at your house now? Are we human?"

"Yes."

"Nothing dangerous? We're not there to hide from something?"

"Nah, we're there for a... swim meet."

"At your house."

"Yes."

"Do you have a pool?"

"... no."

She stared at me, ears lowering. "Well, yeah, no wonder I thought the bathtub was disgusting. You insulted dream-me by bringing her to such a small pool!"

"Ha!" I barked, and immediately covered my mouth with a paw. That laugh had cracked my voice but quelled some of the dread. I felt better when we set out that morning.

While we were walking toward the peak, though, it hadn't been ten minutes before a lump formed in my stomach. I felt cold and sad, all of a sudden. Wasn't I tired enough? What was I this upset about? What could— oh. The elephant in the room, of course. I swallowed.

I think we all had off days where no matter what you did, you were mourning the whole time. It hit when you'd least expect it and when you feared it. I hated feeling awful like that. I respected that someone died, but I wanted the grief to be over. Every time I thought back to that Charizard vision, my mind filled in the blanks with Mr. Henry's mannerisms. I remembered his slightly too tired disposition while teaching and the way he dragged his tail on the floor. Every little thing no longer there added a pin through my heart.

He had a kid back home, went the sadness. You could've insisted he not fight, went the regret. It's already happened and can't be changed, said the past.

No! I couldn't keep thinking about it. I sent my eyes to scour the clouds crisscrossing through the mountain peaks. If they were serene while being torn apart, why couldn't I be? I had friends. I had Gab. She'd been there through a hundred of my mental breakdowns, and, likewise, I'd been there when she needed me. Before all of this, I would've never considered, erm… respecting her? Caring about her viewpoint and wellbeing? As much as I did now, anyway. I didn't know who had changed more between the two of us.

That's worth being happy about, right? I thought. A wave of warmth rippled from my head to my claws. The bags under my eyes were heavy, but my lungs were a little bit freer. The knot in my gut started to fade as my stomach remembered I'd had breakfast. Off in the distance, the split clouds slid back together, interlocking and twisting between the mountains. The smell of ozone lifted my spirits some. My heartbeat gently slowed.

All that was good, but the calm would not last long. In fact, it would be obliterated within the next ten seconds.