March 31st, First Year

Wave after wave of sleet drove into the ground, tossing up water droplets into Ingo's face. He had thought that the scene before him had looked particularly stunning as he sat hunched over atop a rocky ledge, one of his hands gently resting on the smooth but icy cold exterior of Chandelure's crystalline covering. A quiet hum thrummed from his beloved pokémon who only wrapped a steel arm around him tighter as if fearing that the adverse weather would whisk him away.

He turned back at the encampment behind him, candlelight glowing hidden behind tent flaps and as the approaching storm grew stronger, they flickered out one-by-one like Volbeat and Illumise fleeing from the sun. But are those pokémon native to Hisui? And why do I know those creatures? Are they native to the station which I came from?

Ingo had never thought of himself as a night-owl. In his past experiences of when he had been adjusting to living in Hisui, staying out past the rising moon had been considered a habit befitting of soon-to-be dead men. And at that point, it had been comforting almost, to look toward Deertrack Heights as the moon crested behind him between parting clouds, the fringes of his coat shining silver.

Chandelure suddenly pulled him forward, its once solemn hum turning inquisitive and soft. It pulled him away toward the frozen river, one steel bar still wrapped around his arm as if to get him off of his resting tracks. Chandelure had been mostly stationary ever since the two had crossed tracks some time ago. Ever possessive of him and ever quiet, Ingo could not help but feel that something had been amiss between the two of them. He had developed stronger urges to stay awake longer than he ever had before. Is it because Chandelure is a ghost-type and is far more active in the dead of night or… perhaps- or is it… could it be…?

Ever since the incident, Ingo had had trouble sleeping. Warden Calaba, an elderly but sharp-tongued Pearl Clan warden that Ingo infrequently came across, had once made a scathing guess as to what had been troubling his sleep. She had blamed it on the definitive head trauma that he had suffered during his fall. He had suffered a concussion, that much Ingo was certain of. It certainly hadn't helped that the two weeks he had been lost, he had consistently been followed and attacked by the Zoroarks of the Alabaster Icelands. Some of his concussion symptoms still lingered such as the frequent headaches that would throb at the base of his neck and his frequent bouts of confusion and disassociation. He would also have explainable night terrors, but they grew less frequent as the months chugged by.

But recently, Ingo had noticed that his naps had become restful- too restful. As soon as his head hit his pillow, he would have an undisturbed restful sleep until either one of his pokémon or Chandelure woke him. And those restful dreams were odd. They were not his usual tousled nightmares or distorted memory glimpses. No. They were moreso as though some unexplainable presence were trying to communicate to him, but the words could not be picked up on.

Ingo bit his tongue as his foot sank into ice-cold water. He swore under his breath and recoiled from the riverbank, quickly finding something dry to perch on as he removed his waterlogged sock and shoe. And it is just like me to disassociate while on a quiet walk, too. Am I really becoming an old man like everybody believes me to be?

Snow crunched as something moved along the opposite side of the river. Ingo shot to his feet, his ears ringing as his hands instinctively moved to his belt. Danger. Chandelure darted out in front of him, her ghostly flames blazing to life as the falling sleet worsened.

"Careful, careful- adjust your grip under his arms. Keep him steady, Komuro."

Ingo paused, listening as a crowd of quiet, fearful voices moved closer, seemingly oblivious to his presence. He tapped a finger against Chandelure's crystalline side. She dimmed her flames, floating to guard his front side.

"Egel, c-c-can you- the bridge- can you see the bridge from here?"

A grunt sounded followed by a pained gasp. "No ma'am. I c-c-can't- I can't see a-a thing."

"Who's out there?" Ingo barked. "I am Warden Ingo of the Pearl Clan! Show yourselves!"

There came a hushed silence as more sleet pounded into the frozen river's surface. Wind howled through the barren branches of the nearby fir trees. The voices quieted, muted by the whirling snow.

People, Ingo supposed. Scouts? Or maybe…? Ingo stepped forward and snapped his fingers, Chandelure responding promptly by illuminating the entire river in a warm violet glow. To Ingo's surprise, light glittered sickly in the eyes of the figures across the river, their gazes immediately snapping to him.

"You!" One of the hidden silhouettes stumbled forward, their face filthy and gaunt as they gaped at him; a Galaxy Team scout. The youth's uniform was in tatters, dusted over with layers upon layers of snow and frost and splashes of what looked to be blood. What little skin around their face that was showing resembled candle wax. Their hands, held before them with their fingers splayed, were horrifying shades of purple. The youth teetered forward, stumbling through the deep snow and nearly onto the thin river ice. The youth- a young man- then roughly shook their head and forcibly turned their face away, their mouth twisted into a disgusted grimace. They mumbled something incoherent to the other silhouettes behind them and at his words, the group collectively recoiled away into the snow.

"Stop where you are! Are you in need of medical attention?" Ingo called. It hadn't been a question. As a man who had spent months in frozen conditions, Ingo knew the signs of frostbite when he saw them and the youth had a terrible case of it. As did the rest of the people shuddering huddled in the group.

Without a prompt, Chandelure sailed forward across the ice to loom over the illuminated group and upon seeing them distinctly, Ingo felt his heart skip a beat. He recognized Warden Mai as his fellow warden rubbed at her eyes; the missing group that had gone to survey Lord Wyrdeer had returned. He performed a quick headcount as he approached; he counted six. Good. All passengers are accounted for. But as Ingo grew closer to the group, the warm feeling in his gut had dropped like a heavy stone into his gut. At the sight of him, the group recoiled once more like frightened animals, their faces devoid of all emotion as they huddled together. All of the scouts and rangers were in the same state of disrepair as the youth.

Shivering and whispering and teetering, the group bunched up around Warden Mai with their pupils blown, their teeth gritted, their skin dotted with alarming spots of blacks and purples, hands frozen in fists and fingers curled around snow-covered garments. They were all filthy. Their clothes, ripped and torn, had formed layers of thin ice speckled with pine needles and tree sap. Some even had blood smeared upon their faces and hands. One of the scouts- one who had been supported under the arms by two others in the group, just barely visible by Chandelure's light- had their face entirely plastered in frozen blood.

"I… I apologize if I may have… frightened you," Ingo began as softly as he could, his eyes finding Warden Mai's wide stare in the middle. There had been something about the look in all of their eyes that made him want to cower; it was as though a part of his subconscious had been yelling at him to flee but to on no account take his eyes off of them. And why is that last part so specific? "Are you… are you all unwell? Please, allow for myself and Chandelure to escort you back to safety. I'm sure you will-"

"An illusion!" the first scout snarled. The young man tottered backward, knocking against the group that had been carrying the unconscious scout. "W-we- we should- near the river- W-Warden Mai! What should we- what can we d-do?"

The woman in question stared fixedly at Chandelure before urgently barging through the group, her frostbitten arms held stiffly in front of her as she flung herself at Chandelure's crystalline body. "It's warm!" she cried weakly, her voice raw and worn through as she wrapped herself around the pokémon. "It's warm! It's-" the rest of her speech dropped off as her knees gave out beneath her.

Cold sickness. Ingo had only ever heard of Warden Calaba speaking about the subject: people getting lost in the Hisuian wilderness and losing their sanity as the inescapable cold set in. About people going to such lengths as to commit unspeakable acts solely to survive or doing the opposite in their last few moments alive. As Chandelure became enveloped within the group of hypothermic, crazed, derailed people, Ingo could see why it was seldom ever talked about. The group moved like animals- the same way Ingo had seen wild Rufflets after being savagely torn out of their nests, left to die in the snow. The group crawled, stumbled, and pulled themselves weakly toward Chandelure, crying weakly as the ice tore at their skin.

Ingo could only remember when Warden Calaba had told him he had once suffered the same affliction. He didn't have much recollection about his first hours in Hisui but he had been told that it had taken three rangers to hold him down and another two to successfully coerce him into following them back to safety and warmth. Warden Calaba had told him that his recovery had been long and terrible. Was I truly this terrible all that time ago? Quietly- carefully- Ingo took up his position as the conductor of the returning party, solemnly leading the party as Chandelure illuminated the way back up the hill.

The group of fearful people following in his tracks had stayed completely silent. Ingo turned and surveyed the group at every turn they came across. At one point, he had turned, halting as a lone figure slowly approached and wordlessly blended in with the frostbitten scouts. Their clothes were torn to shreds, the holes covered in thick ice. Their bare hands and feet were completely black and enshrouded in frost.

"Who goes there?" Ingo called. He moved to part the crowd. He had counted six. Six people all together. Quickly, he performed another headcount, his fingers twitching as he counted the newcomer, still unable to make out their features in the swimming fog. "Six passengers. I could have sworn I counted six before…?" He accounted for the Galaxy Team scouts; three. Then, the Diamond Clan scouts; three.

"...Sorry. I got lost in the snow." The indistinct figure spoke, no hint of exhaustion in their voice as they peered out at him within the mist. Glassy dark eyes met his own.

"Ah… Miss Jaku?" A familiar face. Ingo motioned the scout forward but paused mid-gesture, feeling his skin freeze over with clear apprehension as their form began to take shape.

Jaku had been the only person in the party without a trace of hypothermia, standing stockstill amidst a group that teetered and swayed on their feet.. Her fire-type pokémon was missing and so too were her supply packs and pokéball belt. Her thin, heavily-torn clothes were free of frost. Where there had once been a calm air about her had become a distinct aura of nothingness.

"...Is something the matter, Warden Ingo?"

He peered deeper, staring into the scout's eyes. He saw no glow. No glint of malice nor no shade of yellow or gold. He took a deep breath, acknowledging the rising hairs on the back of his neck. "No… nothing is amiss… Let us depart."

Something about the look in all of his passenger's eyes disturbed him greatly but it had been nothing compared to whatever stared back at him from Jaku's eyes. If there is anything behind them at all. To Ingo, it hadn't felt predatory in the same way it had when the Zoroarks would often try to lure him in with their illusions; it had felt far worse than that. Zoroarks never come as far as the Obsidian Fieldlands… do they?

It certainly didn't feel right to let the group separate when they had all reached the encampment walls and the feeling of something watching him hadn't disappeared even when the medical corps scouts enveloped the group and took them away to be treated.

April 1st, First Year

Rain had continued to fall. Ingo sat and sipped at a bowl of warmed herbal broth, his fingers slightly shaky as he took a minute or two to pull on an extra layer. Beside him, Warden Lian wore a similar pensive expression, his eyes focused on the far wall of the tent. Ingo wouldn't admit it aloud, but he had been grateful that he shared a tent and that he didn't have to sleep alone; not after the events of the night before.

Any sense of excitement that had been due to arise from the returning party had run aground out once Ingo remembered the context behind their arrival. The news had finally reached the rest of the camp regarding the arrival of the lost party who had been sent to research or possibly find Lord Wyrdeer. Their party had left the same day Ingo's had. The results had been anything but conclusive.

Most of the party had yet to wake having been put to sleep so that their severe frostbite and confusion could be treated. Some were littered with bruises. Others had piercing wounds from pine needles and sharpened sticks. Ingo hadn't been able to bear the brunt of all of the various injuries the medics had uncovered but he had gotten the gist of them; a handful had been "unnatural for the territory". Jargon. The wounds had been caused by something that wasn't supposed to have been up in the hills; something that shouldn't have been up in the hills.

"Ya' think the nurses will let us see 'em soon?" Lian began, twiddling his thumbs underneath his own covering.

"I don't believe they will wake up any time soon. Recovering is bound to be painful," Ingo muttered in response, running his thumb down the back of his hand. The eerie look in their eyes would forever be ingrained into his memory, that much he knew, and he shivered despite it.

At that exact moment, Akari poked her head into the tent. "There you are! Did you know? Apparently, Jaku is up! The medics looked freaked out when they told me, but they said that you could go and get info from her if she allows it."

Warden Lian immediately got to his feet, but Ingo hesitated. The other group had gone in search of Lord Wyrdeer and they had evidently failed their task. What had gone so wrong to cause them to get into their current state of disrepair? What had they seen? Why hadn't they sent a letter asking for help? Regardless, Ingo took a deep breath and joined the two as they made their way through the encampment toward the medical tent.

Hidden by a cliff and sheltered by snow, their destination was strangely quiet as they arrived, a Galaxy Scout standing post outside. At their arrival, the man stood at attention before quickly sheathing the saber at his hip.

"You all arrived sooner than I thought you would."

"Is that a bad thing?" Lian drawled.

"Not at all." The guard took a seat on a crate. "None of the medics are inside right now; they're all out unloading supplies from the storage shelter. The return party is all hopped up on sleeping medicine; all except for one. I'm sure you know who. She might still be awake. That reminds me- I hear they gave her enough sleeping medicine to tranquilize a Rhyhorn. I'd be a bit careful of that one. Yell if you need any help."

"Thank you," Ingo answered, doing his utmost best to ignore the implications of the guard's last comment.

The first thing Ingo noticed when he entered the tent was the foul stench within like rotting carcasses that had sat out in the sun for far too long or pokémon eggs that had failed to hatch and had been abandoned outside the nest. It stung at his nose and made his eyes water, and to his relief, the others in the group recoiled at the stench as well. The second thing he had noticed was the figure sitting up on a cot against the far wall, only visible via the pale shafts of sunlight filtering in through the tent window flaps. The figure turned to face them and with a voice free of exhaustion or fear, spoke.

"...Ah. I was wondering when you might arrive."

Ingo froze. That certainly does not sound like Miss Jaku. The closer he approached, the more he noticed that the look of nothingness hadn't left her. Rather, it had worsened

"Jaku, are you okay? You didn't look so good when you came in." Akari hadn't seemed to notice the woman's odd behavior and eagerly approached the cot, a relieved smile on her face and she carefully took one of the woman's hands in her own. "I thought something might have happened across the river."

"The opposite for me," Warden Lian declared, pulling up a stool on the other side of the cot. He flashed Ingo a look and flinched when Jaku turned to stare directly at him. "I, uh- I just- I thought it was weird that ya'll didn't say anything. I- well, I've known Warden Mai a long time and I've never known her ta' keep quiet 'bout somethin' like this."

"Nothing happened," Jaku stated plainly. "It is only the cold that made us ill. Nothing else."

"Are you sure?" Akari asked. "You don't look so good yourself, Jaku. Do you have a fever or something?" She waved a hand in front of Jaku's face and slowed once she realized that the older woman wasn't following at all. "Maybe you should take more of that sleeping medicine." She turned around, her dark eyes flicking toward the flap doors of the tent. "I think you're sick. You guys must've been out in the freezing cold for days."

"I am not sick. Just cold," Jaku spoke. Despite her frozen appearance, the ranger's voice was low and strong but oddly monotonous. And then she gave a weak smile. "What did you want to ask me again?"

Ingo felt as though he were going to vomit. In his many, many run-ins with predatory Zoruas and Zoroarks, he had grown accustomed to the feeling of their fleeting presence. He had needed to, given his many trips to and from the Alabaster Icelands. The creatures were hard to ignore and even harder to pick out amongst a crowd. He had learned how to pick out their illusions and ignore them. Zoroarks were very good at copying movements and appearances, but they could never quite grasp emotions; that had been Ingo's telling characteristic. His 'cheat', so-to-speak. He might overlook the way one of their illusions' golden eyes would glow or- if it copied a person- the way its sharp teeth would catch the reflection of the sun or moon. He never missed the way an illusion's face was unable to move and he never missed the fact that they never blinked.

Jaku smiled but it had not reached her eyes which did not blink once as she- it- continued to speak. Ingo's mind began to race as his hands trembled involuntarily, one of them steadily reaching for the saber at his hip. But her eyes are not golden…? Are her teeth sharper than usual? …Why am I hesitating? Ingo made up his mind. Just as he rose to stand, Warden Lian rose on his other side, the boy's eyes narrowed as his gaze trailed from the hand at Ingo's side to his face; Lian nodded.

"My apologies, Ingo began, his voice wavering as he tried to conduct his growing fear. Can it smell my fear? Is it a Zoroark or- what exactly am I looking at? "Ahem. We- Warden Lian and myself- we have a pressing matter in our lodge that we must discuss. We must unfortunately take our leave now."

"That's right," Lian piped up, pointedly avoiding the peculiar look Jaku sent him as he scooted off of his chair. "Sorry we can't stay a bit longer."

"What? But you two have hardly asked her any questions!" Akari pouted. She then turned to Jaku, amiably reaching for the ranger's hand with one of her own. "So, did your group find Lord Wyrdeer up in Deertrack Heights?"

"No. There was nothing amiss in the hills."

"So what happened with that one guy in the Diamond Clan? The guy that was unconscious when you guys brought him in?"

"He fell asleep in the cold. He will awake soon." Then, slowly as if moved by invisible strings, Jaku snatched Akari's thin wrist in her clenched hands and faced her, a fog of scarlet light washing over the ranger's eyes as they leaned in closer. "Do not be afraid, champion," she rasped, her voice causing the air to vibrate as it deepened to a pitch Ingo knew the real ranger could never match; one deeper than perhaps his own. One that could not even remotely portray a human. "All is well."

A chill raced up Ingo's back. Miss Jaku does not talk like that. The stool that Akari had been sitting on fell backwards onto the floor as the young girl hastily retreated, having snatched her hand out of the imitation's grasp. She pulled away, nearly colliding with the two wardens before making a hasty beeline to the door. Ingo was careful not to take his eyes off of the creature as he retreated out of the medical tent. Once the three of them were well and truly away and in the relative safety of the Pearl Clan Wardens' tent did they stop to catch their breath, Ingo firmly shutting the flap behind them.

"Somethin' is wrong with this here picture," Lian began, firmly gripping the edges of his hat as he covered himself with his blankets once again. "I don't- I've never seen- did ya'll feel that? That did not sound like no person I've ever heard."

Ingo sat down heavily in his own chair, ignoring the straining creak of the weathered wood as he reached for his cup of cold broth, downing what had been left in the cup. "I was sure that something wasn't quite right with my passengers when I first happened upon them by the river," Ingo admitted, "but I assumed it was due to the hypothermia."

"She called me 'champion'," Akari whimpered. She sat hunched in upon herself between two wooden crates, carefully cradling a small metallic item in her shaking hands. "I- I don't think that was Jaku. There's no way it could've been her."

"Could be a Zoroark," Lian suggested. "A nasty trick, but it would make sense."

"They do not migrate this far south," Ingo responded almost immediately. "I was already attempting to discern whether that was the case."

"And?"

"And…. I am not quite certain what has happened to our passenger, but I don't believe that hypothermia was what set them upon their current tracks. Hypothermia usually renders people confused and speechless. Not…"

"Whatever that was," Lian finished for him. "You think the others are gonna' be like that when they wake up?"

"I hope not," Akari rasped. "We already have enough to do with figuring out what's going on with Lord Kleavor." She paused, her eyes widening. "You don't think they actually saw Lord Kleavor, do you?" Akari turned to Lian. "What type is Lord Wyrdeer?"

"How am I supposed to know? I'm not its warden. You'd be better off askin' Warden Mai." Lian then turned to Ingo. "Gramps? Ya' got anything? Any memories of somethin' useful?"

"…If not a Zoroark then perhaps a ghost-type or a psychic-type could be speaking through her. I've yet to see something like that occur but it is certainly not impossible."

"Can ya' tell which is which? Whether it's a ghost or a psychic-type?"

"I can't. Perhaps…?" Ingo looked to where Chandelure's pokéball sat on his hip and noted with a twinge of unease that his beloved partner made no attempt to leave its ball. Even they are unsettled. Ingo sighed. "We will have to keep our eyes on the returning party to see whether they are all acting accordingly."

Lian shed his blankets and stood. "Then here's what we can do. Gramps, you should stay here and keep an eye on the folks in the medical tent. Akari and I- we can keep gettin' data on Lord Kleavor. That way, we can keep movin' along."