Chapter 28: Over the Hump

Every step of the way to Vahle Village, Mathew had gripped onto Cobalion's sides as firmly as his little mitt-hands would let him. It wasn't just because he was worried about falling off in his half-awake, spiraling stupor.

The image of what Jermy described to him still lingered in his mind. OCEAN possessed the power to wipe out a rebel force many times their size — it was incredible fortune that their lives had been spared. At any moment, Mathew thought, one of their members could simply come back and destroy them all. Emily, or David, or Dit…or Mark. Not even Politoed and Breloom could protect them from this anymore. The Swords of Justice had been their only true security tonight.

That's why it was so surreal to see fire-lit streetlamps and realize he didn't have to cling so tightly anymore. After so many hours of Hell, the group was finally in the arms of quaint civilization. A nest to sleep on was mere minutes away. Did they finally find somewhere safe?

Mathew swiveled his head left and right, looking for buildings. He was left a little confused when he saw none. The dirt path the Swords took carved through steep hillsides that walled their flanks. They were similar to that sod fortress, except these hills seemed natural and flush with the ground.

The only proof that this was a village at all were the few civilians walking the paths, attending to whatever strange business happened past midnight. Some gave wide-eyed stares towards the passing Legendary Pokémon, while others verbally greeted them and asked worriedly about the mortal travelers. A seed-shaped pokémon with prickly green spikes rolled up and fangirled at the sight of them, making such a fool of herself that Terrakion had to lecture her.

It was only in this commotion that Mathew made sense of what he was seeing. A round, purple pokémon with yellow-tipped ears emerged from one of the hills, attracted to the scene those two were making. It was somewhat hidden by moss and leaves, but he had clearly come out of a door, affixed to the hill. There was even a window of sorts carved next to it, with sticks for window-frames. Inside, he could see dirt floors, walls, and roofs, filled with furniture and other decoration.

Burrow-homes. These pokémon lived like hobbits.

A few blurry moments later, and the Swords arrived at what seemed to be their destination. The hills cleared out somewhat to make room for a far tinier hill… Er, that was a hill, right? It was shaped like one, but the rocks and tree seemed unnaturally small.

"Mayor Torterra," Virizion said, approaching. "We've returned."

There was a yawn, and suddenly the hill began turning…and opening its eyes. "Aaah, sooorry," the not-really-a-hill slurred with an aged voice. "Yooou caaaught meee in the miiiddle of myyy nap." Now Mathew could see his face — he resembled a green turtle, with a black hooked nose and white tusks on the sides. There was an immediate worry in his eyes. "Oooooh dear. Are theeese the traaaavelers youuu spoke of?"

"Probably," Meowth said wearily from atop Virizion's back.

"Hey…" Joey gave a weak wave. It wasn't clear if Mayor Torterra could even see it past Keldeo's mane.

"I'd bow, but…God, I am tired," Mathew admitted. He and Jermy were the only ones who had skipped the nap opportunity earlier, and the latter was already snoring on Terrakion. Mathew was worried he'd collapse the moment Cobalion's shifting body stopped keeping him at attention.

"We can explain later," Cobalion asserted. "These five need shelter immediately. You should also inform Silvahle of a threat to the south."

"Silvaaaahle is buuuusy right now — Maaaaasquerain's chiiiild snuck ooooff to play near the riiiiver, and heeeee went to looook for him. But Iiiii will tell him when he's baaaaack."

"Lucky kid," Mathew mumbled. He remembered seeing that the river ran along the north of town and went east towards Raidissent Pass. Mathew tried not to picture a world where it went through Bylaide Forest instead.

Mayor Torterra studied the minccino, the robot, and the four riders. "Aaaas for youuuu… I'm afraaaaiiid we don't haaave many plaaaaces for traaavelers. Silvaaaahle's told us to keeeeep some neeests in case of tiiiimes like this. I aaaasked my dauuughter to haaaandle that, but—"

"You don't have to summon me, Dad. I heard you talking."

The door of a hill facing into the clearing creaked open, and another pokémon emerged. It was a blue otter with thick, white whiskers and a black bill tail. Holstered into their dark, pants-like fur were two seashells. Mathew needed no further introduction — he'd seen a dewott before.

"I've got some nests ready in my place," the dewott asserted as she gaving a sweeping look at the group. "It's not perfect, but I can make it work for a few…" Suddenly, she paused, and her gaze squinted. "Oh, you have to be kidding."

A starry-eyed Minichino sucked air like she was a vacuum cleaner. "No. Way." She scurried up to the dewott, filled with excitement. "Sheilott! Dude, you work here?! I totally would've come visited if I knew that!"

Sheilott crossed her arms."Hmph. Didn't I always say I would carry a village on my back, Minichino?"

Her smile wavered, but she seemed pleased nonetheless. "Still as sharp as your scalchops, huh…"

Mayor Torterra's expression brightened at the sight. "Ooooh, do youuu two knoooow each other?"

"Totally!" Minichino answered. "We were friends back in Scolton!"

Sheilott shut her eyes. "We grew up in the same orphanage…attended the same school…trained on the same grounds…"

"We're friends," she repeated.

Well, that was nice, Mathew supposed. Having a connection in Vahle would make it easier… Wait. What did she just say?

"The orphanage…?" Joey repeated.

Meowth blinked. "What?"

So he wasn't going crazy. Mathew's stomach dropped as he replayed the past week or so in his head. Were there ever any parents around this fourteen year-old?

Keldeo looked nervously at the riders. "Oh, did she never tell you guys?"

"Tomorrow," he snapped, crashing that train of thought himself by switching up the tracks. It was his final gambit to get himself to that coveted nest in the dewott's home.

"Oh, yeah, that can wait, I think." Prompted by Mathew, Keldeo galloped Joey towards Sheilott's home, directing the Swords to follow. "Good night, you guys!"

He didn't even remember getting from Cobalion to the nest before blacking out.

Splish. Splash. Splish. Every slow, hobbling step waded Mathew along. Both feet were numb now.

He wasn't sure what was driving him. Perhaps it was the phantom motions of the night's travel, or maybe it was a subconscious curiosity. Regardless, he had begun an unwitting journey through the endless sea of red, looking for something in this empty place.

Mathew's skull mask rattled, and he couldn't see far. A storm of colorful dust had overtaken the black sky. He wasn't sure if he preferred the empty canvas or the noisy spectrum that now painted the air.

There was no time. Nothing to ground himself with. It was an eternity of travel across a wet purgatory.

Until it wasn't.

Mathew found it. He hadn't known what he was looking for, but the moment he laid his eyes upon it, he understood that this was where he was supposed to end up. The black floor inclined, forming an island above the red ocean. And at the island's peak, dug into the ground by the corner, was a lone mirror.

He stepped out of the water onto a black surface devoid of texture and approached the mirror. It had a pale ornate frame — Mathew was pretty sure a matching one hung in his house on Earth.

Mathew stared into the mirror. Mathew stared back at him. Nothing remarkable or special happened as he stood there, frozen in place.

It was just him on the other side.

Him, who killed a man today.

Him, who made thousands laugh.

Him, who condemned hundreds to death.

Him, who makes two-sided sandwiches.

Him, who can't even make his own son like him.

Him, who convinced a company he was worth it.

Him, who LOOKED DOWN

Mathew squirmed in place. His breaths quickened. His heart pounded. What were these thoughts? What were these feelings? They came from everywhere.

The sound of something hurling through the air cut through the noise of the dust storm. He could see it in the reflection.

The club whipped past his head—

SMASH.

Mathew gasped.

The glass fell.

But the reflection was still there.

Mathew gasped awake, throwing himself into a sitting position. He pressed his hand to his mask as he steadied his breathing. Reality slowly set back in.

Another bizarre nightmare… Guess his subconscious wasn't satisfied with the one he got when the dungeon shift knocked him out. Great.

He cast the dream aside to get his bearings. Sunlight pouring from carved windows illuminated Sheilott's home. The copious closets lining the curved walls, paired with hangers to put clothes like scarves and hats and cute little dewott-sized coats on, told Mathew that this was Sheilott's dressing room with five nests hastily laid on its floor. There was a door leading out of the hill in the direction opposite Mayor Torterra. Maybe this was really her front door, and she'd welcomed them in through the back.

He called it a room, but that would imply it was an enclosed space, which it wasn't. In fact, there were no doors beyond the front and back. An open wall led into a lounge, which led into a proper bedroom, which led into a kitchen. It was a remarkably two-dimensional living quarters.

All the nests around him were empty. Was he the last one awake? It hadn't done him much favors — he was still groggy.

He climbed to his feet and made for the door, only to pause. Somebody had taken the courtesy of removing his goggles from him and putting it on one of the hangers. Should he take it with him?

No, he promptly concluded. Vahle Village is our haven. I shouldn't need them here.

When his eyes adjusted to the sunlight beyond the door, he finally saw what he had expected to see when he arrived. The roads between the hill-sides were populated by many more pokémon, moving along at relaxed paces. A rookidee hopped along with a spring in her step; a pink deerling smiled and said hello as he walked by; a drowzee hobbled past with a smug look on his face; and several more went down the path whose species he could not place. Now it felt like a village instead of a hamlet.

"Excuse me, sir!"

Mathew was pulled out of his groggy idling by a nasily, snively voice. Approaching him was a mole pokémon with massive claws and a long, pink-tipped nose. His black body was contrasted with edged blue strips that ran diagonally around his chest and arms.

"You simply must be — sniff — Sheilott's guests, is that right?" he asked.

Mathew shook his head, trying to process what this stranger just said. "Huh? Wha… How'd you hear about that?"

"Oh, she's been in a hurry all morning — sniff — asking for cooks to contribute to her picnic lunch! She — sniff — wants to give you that 'Vahle hospitality', I bet." He grinned, eyes squinting from the sun hanging over their heads.

…Over their heads? Had he really slept in that long?

"Anyway," he rattled on without letting Mathew talk, "I thought you'd like to know that — sniff — me and my family run the local housing business here. We mound the hills up and carve right through them!"

"Ah." That did make sense — a pokémon this adept at digging would be a dominant force here. But why, exactly, was he telling him this?

"Are you staying here for an extended time, sir? We'd be happy to — sniff — arrange a hill-home for you."

Oh. This mole was trying to sell him something. Mathew groaned. "No… I don't think we're staying long."

The mole tapped his claws together like a little, helpless creature. "Oh, but sir, I think my family could whip up a home — sniff — much better than wherever you plan to go! I can picture it now: an absolute dome of a hill, lit by one perfectly-placed — sniff — window. It'd be the size of a little warehouse, guarded by the Giant's Ridges for — sniff — extra privacy, and—"

"The first rule of door-to-door selling: 'when the door closes, the transaction is over'. He's closed the door, so take a hint."

The mole peered upward, then sunk down in sadness. "Aw…sniff." He turned around and hobbled away, dragging his claws along the grass.

"ORB?" Mathew was more concerned with the sudden appearance of the robot's voice than the bad salesmen. Like the mole, he looked up towards the clouds.

"It's cute that you think I can fly."

Mathew whipped around and finally found the source of his voice. There, near the top of Sheilott's house, ORB stood, balancing his wheel to avoid rolling down to the cubone. "Oh! Hey. Where's everyone else?"

"Sheilott is busy preparing a picnic, like the drilbur said," he explained. "Mayor Torterra is on a walk around town with Silvahle, and the Swords of Justice left town to sleep. As for the rest…"

"Heeeeeey!" Minichino's voice echoed beyond the crest of the hill. "Dude, you should totally come up here! Sheilott's roof is a great sunbathing spot."

"Uh, sure!" Mathew ran around the door and climbed up the steep incline on all-fours.

Everyone was accounted for atop the hill. Minichino was splayed out as if she were making a snow-angel in a place with no snow and no angels. Meowth was propping up the back of his head with his paws. Jermy was standing up, reaching for the sky in a big stretch. Joey was sitting on his tail, staring distantly at the village.

Mathew plopped himself down next to Joey. "Sorry for getting up so late," he said.

The totodile snapped out of his fixation at Mathew's words. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "Uh, it ain't a big deal. I tip-toed out so everyone could sleep in."

Mathew couldn't blame Joey for his focus — from the 'rooftops', they could see so much more of the town. Little bumps peeked out between each other, neither towering over any of its peers - except for one large near-mountain of a hill overtaken by trees to the west. With their smaller pokemon bodies, it looked even more towering than it probably would on Earth.

"Well, thanks," he remarked. "What have I missed?"

"Not much!" Jermy said. "Minichino said that she'd spill the whole tea about last night, but she's not yet."

Minichino stood up and pouted. "Hey, I was getting to it! I wanted everyone to be awake for this." She smugly peered at Meowth. "I was kinda expecting you to be last, but I guess Mathew was the bigger sleeper here."

Mathew braced himself for a snappy clap-back from Meowth — but it never came. The cat turned his body on his side, looking away from Minichino. "Go ahead and tell your story."

"Uh…" Minichino seemed a bit stunned by the non-response. "Sure. Yeah. Yeah!" She quickly swept that falter aside, marching to the center of the relaxing group. "So, you guys already know that I'm a priest — and a pretty young one, too." She struck a confident pose, somewhat proud of this fact. "That's because I spent my childhood right in the heart of the action: the Great Church of Arceus in Scolton, the biggest religious hub in the world!"

"Scolton?" Joey asked. "I reckon I've heard that name somewhere before…"

"I totally wouldn't be surprised," she said. "Since the Legendary Court's always visiting to make announcements, carry out ceremonies, and do other stuff, the news is always hounding the place. The church even runs their own newspaper!" Minichino sweeped a paw across the sky, as if sweeping the title into reality. "The Scolton Gateway…"

Mathew vaguely remembered the name from TV news, too. Maybe he should've paid more attention to those broadcasts. "So you lived in an orphanage there, and that's how you got qualified so fast?"

"Yep!" she said. "The Scolton orphanage is run by the head priests, so it's basically the most spiritual living out there. Kids like Sheilott and me got tons of practice quick! Keldeo was super impressed. I guess I had it pretty good!"

Mathew had an objection readied in his throat, but quickly swallowed it down. "Well, that explains why you're such a go-getter," he said instead.

The cubone understood that his perception of orphanages was probably painted by fiction more than anything, but his gut reaction was still to assume that no good child-raising could happen there. How could it, when there were no dedicated mothers or fathers? Considering she was describing what sounded like the social bridge between mortals and gods, he hoped her orphanage was better than that.

Joey seemed more concerned with something else. "I don't really get how you got from 'priest in Scolton' to 'Club co-owner in Kalmwa'er'. What the heck happened there?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess that'd be the confusing part, huh?" Minichino seemed a bit hesitant. "Well, when I turned 13, I decided I was gonna chip in at Kalmwa'er's Church of Arceus. The place sounded super cool, and it's decently sized, so I'd make friends quick! But then OCEAN, through the Resort, found out I was around."

"You have a history." Meowth rolled over, interest piqued. "I remember seeing that they had files on you going back years."

Minichino sat down, paws firmly planted on the slope. "Yeah. It's gotta do with…why I grew up in an orphanage."

A pit formed in Mathew's stomach. Oh, God. She wasn't going to say what obviously followed that, was she?

"I actually first moved into the orphanage when I was six. Before that, I lived with my mom and dad in this tiny town called Fascamile."

"Damn," Mathew mumbled. Exactly what he feared.

Jermy's eyes beaded. "Oh."

"Fascamile…?" Joey straightened his posture, a bit distraught. "That's not the same Fascamile as…?"

"Yep!" she said. "The weird thing is, I swear 'OCEAN' or 'SEAS' never came up when I was little. They were just the Fascamile Town Council back then. I dunno what's up with that." Minichino shrugged and continued on, seeming bolder now that the bandage was peeled off. "Mom and Dad weren't into all that stuff though. Dad worked at a library, and Mom stayed at home to take care of me. Then one day, they just picked me up one afternoon and said we were leaving."

"And then they ambushed you, like today?" Meowth said.

"Right in the middle of a mystery dungeon! Kinda lucky for me - one of the dungeon pokémon, this striped zigzagoon, came in and totally saved my butt. I don't think I would've gotten away from Dit without him. It was double lucky that the Swords found me staking out in a dungeon a couple days later!" Minichino sighed nostalgically. "Anyway, when they found me out again, they totally wanted revenge for me sneaking away. But Emily came in and was like 'We should put her to work instead.' And that's how I got paired up with Mr. Persian!"

Mathew just shook his head. "What a story." If this was Earth and not Solceus, he wasn't sure if he'd believe it. "As if there wasn't enough reason to put him under the ground…"

"Ditto," Jermy said.

Minichino tilted her head. "Why under the ground?"

Mathew just shrugged. What was so weird about that?

The totodile next to him stood up and approached her. "I'm real sorry for your loss. I ain't gonna pretend like I know how that feels." He offered a hand to pat her on the shoulder with.

"Hey, you've been without your mom and dad this whole time, too, right?" She brushed his hand aside. "Seriously, don't worry about it. This happened years ago, and it's super hazy. I've got tons of great people in my life now! The Swords of Justice, Sheilott… I think I'd count Mr. Persian, too. He was super sweet."

Meowth quietly rolled back over, away from the conversation.

"Well, you all look like a merry bunch."

Sheilott's voice echoed up to them from the clearing. She approached her hill carrying a large basket whose strap was wrapped around her arm - Mathew could see food stacked inside.

More importantly, four others were tailing the dewott.

"Gooood morning!" Keldeo called as he sprinted up to the base of the hill.

Minichino peered around Joey and waved. "Heeeeeey! I was just talking about you guys!"

"Cool." Sheilott scaled the hill, then started rummaging through the basket. "This is a gift from Vahle to you. You can consider it a pity meal for what happened last night."

She took a lap around the group, leaving them food spread out on plates and bowls. Mathew was given a steak Sheilott claimed an arcanine cooked with his own flames. Joey got a burger from the same towering dog. Jermy's sandwich was prepared by a trubbish, who apparently was known as one of Vahle's best cooks despite looking and smelling like a trash bag. A primeape prepared them two salads; a basic leafy one for Meowth, and a fancier one flavored with berries for Minichino.

"This is totally something I'd make! Cool!" she exclaimed as she grabbed the bowl.

Mathew focused on getting a taste of the steak. The sharp end of the club doubled as his fork and knife, slashing pieces off and stabbing them to pick them up. It was almost perfectly pink and had a delightful taste. "Wow, this is great." he said between bites.

"Yeah, tell 'em thanks for us." Joey's eyes showed his eagerness to down his own meal.

"Gotta love a good borgar!" Jermy exclaimed, appreciating Joey's choice of food before eyeing his own. "But today, it's sondwich time…"

The group continued to eat away as Sheilott walked down her house's slope and let them be. Mathew was perfectly content to eat in silence, but now that he was still, there was this…weird, dizzy feeling. He promptly distracted himself by looking at the Swords, who were still watching them at the hill's base. "What about you four? Did you already eat?"

"We're Legendary Pokémon!" Virizion called. "We don't need to eat."

Keldeo stared at them in mouth-watering envy. "It does look super tasty though…" Cobalion put a hoof in front of him, and he snapped his muzzle shut.

"While you down all that…" Terrakion's concerned demeanor was unimpeded by the introduction of food. "The lot of you seemed pretty moody when we got here. Something wrong?"

Meowth put down his salad bowl to talk. "Minichino was telling us how she became an orphan."

"Oh, man, that'd do it, huh?" Keldeo nodded in understanding.

"Sorry to bring down the vibe," Minichino said a little sheepishly. "Maybe I should've waited for everyone to be in a better mood?"

"It's not your fault," Mathew tried to console. He rose to his feet, holding his club. Steak juice dripped down into the dirt. "The bad news has just been non-stop recently. They've killed your parents. They've killed Jermy's sister's entire rebellion. They've taken Mark. They've broken us up." He sighed. "OCEAN is ruthless out there. I don't even think they'd have buried us if they had won."

Meowth peered at Mathew strangely. "You guys bury your dead?"

"You don't?" Mathew asked. Now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen a graveyard anywhere on Solceus, had he? "What do you do instead?"

"Oh! Obviously, we don't let it go to waste," Minichino explained. "When you die, your body gets sent to a plant way far out from towns or cities. Your meat and bones get processed and preserved based on what kind of meal you say you wanna be in your will. Then it's sent out to a distributors all over the world!"

"This is Solceus' solution for giving carnivores food without making them hunt living people," ORB added. "Unfortunately, this means I won't get to lower Jermy into a casket when he kicks the bucket."

Joey gagged, then burst into a coughing fit. He looked like he was desperately trying to keep from spewing the burger he just ate all over Sheilott's roof. "W-We've been eating — hack! — dead people…!"

Mathew was perturbed, but not quite as phased. "I mean, the meat on Earth used to come from real animals too."

Joey gasped, which only made him cough again. "It did?!"

Meowth turned his head away again. "I'm not even going to ask."

A small shadow cast over the group. Cobalion had climbed the hill towards them as they bickered. "You are not the one who must apologize, Minichino. We had been distantly studying Fascamile ever since you came into our care, but we didn't realize the threat had grown until you had already fallen into their grasp." He shut his eyes. "We still don't understand the full nature of 'OCEAN' as you've described it. Our lapse in judgment has costed you."

"Inmmf ymmr defmmnse…" Jermy swallowed. "OCEAN isn't exactly putting their plans on neon signs. Just their names!"

Cobalion shook his head. "The thought is appreciated, but no amount of pity absolves me of my responsibilities as a Sword of Justice."

Virizion joined her teammate, looking sympathetically towards Minichino. "It was a mistake on all of our parts."

Terrakion was next. "If there's any way we can make it up to you…"

Mathew sat back down and bit into his steak. Although they were in slightly better spirits, it was still hard to have hope for the future. They may be safe in Vahle Village, but the goal was still Mithlline. All of them would have to make a break for it eventually. Even the Swords seemed down.

Keldeo clopped around the other three Swords, approaching from a different angle. "I dunno, it looks pretty obvious to me," he said, smile unwavering. "If we're the ones who got them into this mess, then we need to teach them how to handle getting out of it!"

"Handle getting out of it…?" Mathew wasn't sure what Keldeo meant.

The colt looked to his peers. "We can stay in this village for a couple days, right? The four of us should totally try training them up!"

That seemed to catch the trio off-guard. "Train them?" Terrakion repeated.

Minichino's eyes were alight with interest. "For real?!"

"Yeah!" Keldeo said. "If Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion can bring me up from scratch, then they can help you guys fight better for sure! Then OCEAN won't be so scary anymore!"

Mathew twirled the steak-topped club in his hands. "That's very kind of you, but…"

"Dude, don't tell me you'd pass up a chance to practice with these guys!" Minichino exclaimed, pointing a paw at the older trio. "They never let me join, but I watched them spar a whole bunch when I was little. They're crazy good."

"Oh, no, I appreciate the help!" Mathew clarified. "I just…don't think it'll help that much."

"It does sound real nice," Joey muttered. "I reckon I could use the help."

Jermy shut his eyes, smiling like an airhead. "There's bookoos of irony in us getting trained by you guys, but I'm not gonna complain!"

"Sure." Meowth's gaze was firmly embedded into the food. "I don't see why not."

The bright-eyed Keldeo looked up to his superiors. "So? What do you guys think?"

"Well, I like the sentiment," Virizion said, nodding, "but keep in mind that we trained you for a hundred years. They don't even live that long. There's only so much we can impose on them in a few weeks."

"We don't even have that!" Terrakion reminded them. "We can't give OCEAN time to set up a trap the moment we step outside of Vahle."

"You guys trained Charles in a year!" Keldeo cried. "And you did it on the go!"

Mathew blinked. Charles?

Keldeo padded up to Cobalion, looking up at him with pleading eyes. "Please," he said softly. "I wanna help them. Just like you guys did."

Cobalion shut his eyes in contemplation. The wind whistled between the bolt-like horns on his head, rustling his bearded mane. "Very well," he finally said.

Keldeo gasped, then jumped for joy. "Yes!"

"But remember that we have a time limit beyond OCEAN," he promptly followed. "We cannot afford to be late for the meeting."

"The meeting?" Joey asked.

"The Legendary Court has been coordinating a meeting at Fogside Volcano," Virizion explained. "Leading figures on both sides of the Great Legendary War are expected to be there."

"Huh." Jermy seemed to retreat a little, before huffing and pacing around, psyching himself up. "We'll just have to make do with the time we have! I'm no stranger to crunch, so-wah!"

The pikachu yelped as his leg clashed against metal. He fell forward, rolling down the hill toward the clearing until he splayed out on the ground. A concerned Sheilott peered out of her door.

ORB was unflinching. "That makes twenty-nine."

As the others checked on him, Mathew looked out toward the hills again. Much of their despair was fleeting. The sting of the night lingered, but there were so many people willing to be their rock. Vahle Village just might be the haven he was hoping for after all. The cubone was thankful for that.

But that didn't change the stakes. OCEAN had probably chased Politoed's group as they slept. Mithlline was so far away, and the one machine that could shorten their journey remained unfinished in the Dwelling Bag. And Mark was still out there.

That strange dream lingered in the back of his mind. Just thinking about it made his head spin. How long would this peaceful moment last…?