Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Keep the Shards

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Pokémon. Like, at all. It and all its respectable characters are © to Game Freak and Satoshi Tajiri. However, all writing contents and semi-plots here are © to me; unless it is stated otherwise. All shows/ books/ video games/ songs that are mentioned in this chapter are all © to their respective owners, I do not own them.

Notes: This was actually a pretty fun chapter and a wholly new concept I'm introducing into the story. It's actually something I'm somewhat familiar with, so I hope that y'all enjoy it! I'm very exited about it.

On another note, I have a tumblr account if you guys want to check it out! I try to post art that I make as often as I can, and some headcanon stuff too! It's under blue-skiesand-silverlinings for anyone interested, so have at it!

Current Team: Keno the Marshtomp, Sela the Mightyena, Ambrose the Kirlia, Faye the Swellow, Nux the Gyarados, Gunner the Aron

Badges Won: Stone Badge, Knuckle Badge, Dynamo Badge


The broken doors are waiting. You are stronger than you've known.
My darling girl, be careful now, and don't go out alone.

The world is out of order. It's been broken since you came.

Certain lines can't be uncrossed,
Certain maps will get you lost,
Once you're past the border, then you'll have to play the game.
Roll the dice but count the cards,
Break the glass but keep the shards.

The world is out of order. It's been broken since you came.

The broken doors are hidden in the blood and in the bone.
My darling child, be careful now, and don't go out alone.
"Don't Go Out Alone" by Simone Kimberley, excerpt of "Parasite" by Mira Grant


"What the hell do you mean the pass to Lavaridge is closed?!"

The lanky man—clad in a khaki button up shirt and dark green pants shook his head—propped a hand on his hip. He waved the other to gesture behind him. The cursive green stitching of his organization—Hoenn Rangers—was over his left breast and caught Shay's attention for a brief second.

"I don't know how else to tell you this. There was a massive rockslide that's blocked the only path into Lavaridge." He sighed, raising his hand up and tugged down his cover more securely on his head. "Right now, we're not allowing anyone except for emergency services through. The last thing we need is to conduct an excavation and stage rescue efforts at the same thing."

Shay hesitated, wracking her brain for the right questions. It finally hit her.

"Was it because of the earthquake this morning?"

The man frowned. "Unfortunately."

"Then…how in the hell am I supposed to challenge Flannery if I can't get to Lavaridge?" Shay paused, then added, "H-how long is all this going to take? I mean…can't I just…fly over everything on my Gyarados?"

She motioned over her shoulder with her thumb toward Nux, who perked with a soft hiss.

The man furrowed his brow, lips drawing into a thin, pursed line.

"Do you have a license for that thing?"

That threw Shay and she shot a glance at her team assembled behind her. Keno shook his head and shrugged at her helplessly. Ambrose tilted his head, face ever imperceivable on the surface but she felt the familiar itch-shiver-scratch at the back of her mind.

'Uh-oh.'

Uh-oh? What the fuck does that mean, 'uh-oh'?!

"...license? What do you mean, license?" Shay asked, her gut sinking lower in her abdomen and at the same time, annoyance flared up inside her, hot and quick. It set her jaw to tightening up so much, her teeth ached.

"You're taking the League Challenge, and you don't even know anything about licenses? Geez, what're they teaching you kids in school these days?"

"What's stopping me from just going right now?" Shay snapped hotly back, taking a half-step back toward Nux. The man narrowed his eyes at Shay, gaze growing steely as the hand on his hip slid to the pokéballs at his waist.

"I would highly recommend you don't test us. Let's just say you really won't like the consequences."

Shay almost responded—sharp, glass-like words primed to go—but another itch-shiver-scratch gave her pause. She glanced back at Ambrose, tentatively reaching back out. She felt his claws graze along her arm, feeling for her before latching onto her fingers. She felt Keno clasp his broad hand onto her other hand, giving her a gentle squeeze.

'Don't give yourself away. Not here, not now.'

Patience wasn't always Shay's strong suit. She wanted results, and she wanted them now. But the quiet seething look that the man was giving her gave her pause. Now wasn't the time to force things. Shay forced her jaw to loosen, muscles twitching as shook her head. "I'm from Kanto and it's been a while. I'm not exactly a kid anymore."

The man—who had yet to identify himself—seemed to frown even deeper at that.

"Sheesh," he emphasized, "must be different over there than it is here. Look, I'll break it down for you: you need a license for a number of travel-by-pokémon transport. Whether it's Surf, Fly, or Dive—you'll need an approved license. We used to have kids running around like maniacs, thinking they could just fly as high as they wanted, or dive as deep as they wanted—and it hardly ever ended as well. Oxygen deprivation, hypothermia, drowning, the bends—you name it. It was a miracle when Champion Steven upped the age for trainers to take on any real responsibility without parental consent, like for the League Challenge and having an institute to help with the training beyond the schools."

Shay could feel her cheeks burning with embarrassment. Of course…she should have known all of this. Perhaps she had skimmed it, months and months ago, back in Professor Birch's lab while perusing the multitude of documentation he'd had on hand. She'd gone and absorbed so much, all at once, she could barely recall every line of text without it undoubtedly being muddled with one detail or another. She could feel the panic scrabbling away within her chest as she tried to recall any details on the spot and predictably—scathingly—she found herself drawing an absolute blank.

"I…I see. Where can I get those approved licenses, then?" Shay asked, her mouth drying up quicker than if she had cotton stuffed in every crevice.

"That's what Shardust is for. They have a survival training camp that can provide all that and a few more things along the way—so long as you complete all their training. You'll have to reference their home office, of course. It's the largest building in town, you can't miss it."

The man's gaze softened, and he rubbed the back his neck. "Look, from what I remember, it should only take only two or three weeks to get through. And honestly? As long as no more rockslides happen—and so long as we don't trigger anything ourselves…it should take about a week or so to clear up the route to Lavaridge. I'd use that time you have to wait around to just go get those licenses. Or else you won't be able to utilize your pokémon for transport."

Shay took all this in, nodding along at the appropriate intervals. She quietly thanked the man and turned on her heel, giving him a final dismissive wave over the shoulder. When she and her team were out of earshot and eyesight of him, Shay called for a short break. They were about two miles outside of Shardust along the route that led to Lavaridge.

"We should just fly over. Forget what those humans said," Sela quickly inserted. Nux perked at the idea, growling approvingly, and leaning in close to his trainer. Shay was tempted to agree with her, almost ready to jump on her impulsiveness. Instead, she swallowed her kneejerk response—both hating and knowing she needed to play devil's advocate—and cleared her throat.

"And what happens if we're caught? Not just by those guys, but by…more authoritative people? Ones who can take you away from me, throw me in a jail cell?" Something inside of her twisted at the thought, making her feel sick. "And between you and me, I'd rather not spend a night or longer in a police station. I'm getting tired of having police rushing down my throat every time something goes on and I'm just the convenient patsy to latch onto."

Sela grumbled, ducking her head and glowering at the ground. She spat out a few errant flames for good measure at the rocks by her paws. Faye shuddered on Shay's shoulder, feathers tickling against her cheek.

"If I were bigger, I'd carry you myself," she said softly. Shay laughed.

"I appreciate the sentiment," she replied, reaching up and scratching the Swellow's head. Nux growled and nudged at Shay's backside.

"What do you think they'd do if I just grabbed you and flew off?"

She snorted and giggled a bit. The idea, as tempting as it was, it also was as ridiculous as it was reckless. "Christ, I don't even want to think about it. Probably straight to jail, same as any other scenario."

She adjusted one of the straps of her hiking pack, gritting her teeth as it dug painfully into her shoulders. Faye grumbled her displeasure at all the commotion, one of her wings cuffing Shay on the ear before she regained her balance. Shay winced and rubbed her head.

"Let's…head back to Shardust and check out this survival training place. See if it's worth our time."


To call Shardust a town was being generous. The town that Shay used to drive through to get to and from base, before all of this madness had begun for her, had been more a town than Shardust. Hell, she'd even say Littleroot was bigger than this. Sure, if all the lights were green all the way, she could have blasted through in her vehicle in roughly five minutes flat. Here, if she drove through Shardust, it'd take thirty seconds.

There were roughly a dozen or so one-story buildings, not including the housing. The Pokémon Center was the second tallest building in Shardust; the largest by far was a four-story building only a block away, positioned nearly smack dab in the center of the town.

Shay made a pitstop at the Pokémon Center, rebooking a room for herself and her team. Luckily, it was in the same room as before. Sweetpea made sure to do so and was very amicable about it. Shay had almost pressed her regarding their interaction earlier that morning, the words lined up at the backs of her teeth, but chose to mind her tongue on the matter. Instead, she thanked Sweetpea for her help. She quickly dropped her hiking pack off in the room, opting for her sling pack in its stead.

Shay let everyone out once she got outside, having topped them all off at the front desk on her way out.

"That ranger dude said it's the largest building in Shardust," she started, and pivoted on her heel, turning her gaze toward said building. It was closest toward the sheer cliff face that loomed over the whole town. It was one of many jutting natural monuments of stone, just before the arduous climb upwards to Mount Chimney began.

There was a modest amount of people milling about outside, going about their day. There was at least two dine-in restaurants (one that looked like a breakfast diner, the other a pizza place); a quaint post office nestled between the dine-in places; a modest-looking bookstore that included a coffee shop; a thrifty clothing store next door to hipper-looking boutique; a clinic and pharmacy specifically for humans; a squat yet neat-looking grocery store; a bar centered on the corner of a block; and several other nondescript businesses that Shay couldn't see what they were for.

It didn't take them long to find themselves standing before the big building that proudly declared itself as "Hoenn's Survival Training Center" above the frosted glass doors that led inside. Several promotional posters were laid out on either side of the entrance, each one advertising the different skills one could learn if they attended. From foraging native plants for food or medicine, to shelter-building using natural resources, to rock-climbing—they seemed to have a sizable bundle of promises plastered across the front of the building.

Shay recalled Nux, Gunner, and Sela and was ready to cross the threshold into the training center but stopped short at a pamphlet dominated mostly by text. She stepped aside and began reading. The title at the top declared that the training center offered courses that resulted in licenses for trainer-centric pokémon transport. She pointed it out, her finger thumping against the glass.

"This is what we need. This is what that ranger dude was talking about. The training courses so we can fly on Nux without getting in trouble!"

"And I'm guessing we need to go inside to learn more?" Faye prompted, nuzzling her trainer's cheek with her beak. "Then we should hop to it."

Shay chuckled and stepped back up to the glass doors. They slid open with an almost noiseless pneumatic hiss. Keno followed behind her, but they all stopped and turned at the sudden sound of a collision.

Ambrose was gingerly rubbing his snout, a half step away from the glass beside the door.

"…ow."

Shay choked back a laugh, but she could feel Ambrose's annoyance in the whisper of the itch-shiver-scratch at the back of her head. She also thought she heard something come from Keno and Faye.

"Laugh it up, all of you. It's easy to make fun of the blind one."

"Sorry," she said reflexively as Keno went to the Kirlia's side and gently guided him in the right direction. Satisfied when everyone was inside, Shay pivoted on her heel toward the reception desk. She was more than sure

I swear, there's a lot more paperwork and bureaucracy to this place than…

'Than the games?'

That sent a painful, sharp jolt that lasted only a second, but it seemed to linger, almost damningly and she hiked her shoulders up, as if to shield herself. …sorry.

'It's strange to think that our world isn't considered 'real' somewhere else. But who's to say something in your world isn't real but is real in another? It's a bit of a mind-bender to consider, isn't it?'

The thought that her world was fictional in someone else's world was uneasy…but she did consider that that was what Ambrose's point was meant to be so.

And she's already accepted that her world was this. At least for the time being it was, anyway.

Shay approached the receptionist desk, but there wasn't anyone there, and the lobby was empty. She patted the desk with her knuckles, frowning. There were a few doors leading further into the center, perhaps into an office space or two.

One of the doors opened up, admitting a woman donning a collared green shirt, worn jeans, and scuffed sneakers. As she approached, she was pulling her tousled auburn hair into a ponytail. She perked upon seeing Shay and hurried to the desk, plopping into the chair. Shay caught a glimpse of a logo on the woman's shirt and saw that the logo matched the one on the building.

She grinned at Shay. "Sorry about that, bathroom break! You know how it goes, when you gotta go, you gotta go! So, how can I help you today?"

"Uh, yeah. I was recently told I needed to come here to get licenses for any pokémon transport I wanted to utilize for myself."

"Oh, right. Yeah, it's a pretty new program, so it's still effectively getting around. But so far, it's been working. We've had fewer reported injuries, deaths, incidents that could have gone worse. You know how it goes."

"So, do…people just come here when they need it from all over or are there other facilities…?" From the corner of her eye, Shay could see Keno moseying toward a poster by the lobby chairs, musing over the images plastered on them. Faye shuffled on her trainer's shoulder, pressing closer to the side of her head. Ambrose remained by her side, wordless but no doubt absorbing the information being given to them.

"This is currently the only facility in Hoenn, yes. But there's going to be another set up near Lilycove in the next year or two. And some do come preemptively, before they go off to challenge the League. Others come to use our programs for other purposes. Then we have some who open up little businesses that offer pokémon rides for people, ferry them around. It really all depends on a person's personal preference. It's like driver's licenses, really."

Shay nodded, mulling over the information. She motioned around them. "Okay, so I'm assuming I need to fill out some paperwork, and…then what?"

Faye adjusted her position on Shay's shoulder again.

"It sounds promising," she allowed and gave Shay's ear a gentle nibble. "But it's up to you."

The woman's face brightened, and she nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! Yes, you'll need to fill out some paperwork, we would need to see your ID, and then when that's done, we'll continue the processing in the back."

Shay's smile dropped and something occurred to her, and a sinking feeling of dread oozed into the pit of her stomach.

"How much is this going to cost me? Like, rough ballpark numbers, if you can."

She doubted it was cheap, but hopefully it wasn't a pretty penny…and half of her winnings she's made so far. Shay had submitted all the money she'd earned from her courier job into a saving's account, and didn't want to touch it, if she can help it. All her winnings from trainer battles, on the other hand, were up for grabs for the time being.

"We'll go over all of that. Let me get you that paperwork so you can get started, okay?"


The entry processing took the better part of an hour. After Shay filled out all the paperwork, and chose the programs she wanted to enlist in (just the transport licenses weren't enough, she decided, after reviewing that she had no idea what to do if she was stuck with low or no rations or broken or missing gear and she was stuck far from a town or help) the woman, who called herself Deanna, brought her back through one of the doors.

She reviewed the paperwork as she walked, leading Shay down a hallway and into a large room with a few benches and a large mat. Sunlight streamed in from large windows, bringing in natural lighting.

"Okay, everything's looking good so far. Now I need to see what your team's made of."

Shay blinked at the woman, at first dumbfounded. She brushed a thumb over the pokéballs at her waist, furrowing her brow. Understanding dawned on her, and she glanced at the mat, finally noticing the bold white lines on it, and took in the size of the room, the way the benches were positioned, and where Deanna was standing in it all. Shay moved to the opposite side of the mat, Keno and Ambrose flanking her. Faye puffed up in anticipation, hissing softly.

"Let's do this."

Deanna grinned and plucked a pokéball from her waist, enlarging it.

"Three-on-three sound good to you?"

"Sounds fine to me. I've got six on-hand, so I'll have the pick of the litter."

Deanna laughed, tossed the pokéball, and out spilled a Minun. The Minun squeaked and rubbed their face, bouncing lightly on the balls of their feet. Bright eyes searched the room and finally landed on her and her team. They began rubbing the markings on their cheeks and little flashes of lightning flew off in random arcs.

Shay peered at Keno from the corner of her eye, her lips curling into a smile. She nodded to him.

"Keno, you're up. Knock 'em dead."

"You got it," he replied whilst punching a hand into his other open fist. Faye clutched her talons tighter onto Shay's shoulder, making the woman jump and the sudden sharpness. The Swellow released and apologized quietly.

"He needs to be careful. One errant shock…" Faye trailed off with a shudder and a ripple of puffed-up feathers that tickled Shay's cheek and neck.

"He's got ground-type immunity. There's a big reason why we cleaned Wattson's clock out with him ending it all."

Faye hesitated before she nibbled the top of Shay's ear and mumbled quietly, "If you say so."

"Okay, Newt, let's start this off with a Thunderbolt attack!" Deanna shouted out to her Minun, who leapt into action without hesitation.

"Keno, dodge it and counterstrike with Mudshot!" Shay bellowed back, but a second too late. The electrical attack flew through the air and struck Keno hard in the shoulder. Keno shouted in surprise, stopping short of releasing his own attack and staggered back a few steps. Sparks rippled at the attack's epicenter. It fizzled out quickly, and Keno wiped at his shoulder, unbothered.

Newt blinked, clearly taken aback by how unaffected Keno was. A dumbfounded look stole across Deanna's face and she swore under her breath. Shay could only guess the other woman was just now recalling that Keno had immunity against the electrical attacks.

"Wha…?"

"Mudshot!" Shay tried again. Keno inhaled deeply and blasted the little Minun a split second later, launching the tiny cheering pokémon into the air with a squeal. Newt tried to stick the landing, but fumbled and smacked their nose into the ground as their mud-covered back paws slid gracelessly on the mat.

"Newt! Newt, are you good?" Deanna raised her voice, taking a half-step closer with a hand raised toward her fallen pokémon. Newt groaned and raised a paw up, wagging it before letting it drop listlessly. Deanna sighed and recalled Newt, but she didn't appear upset. Instead, she smiled at Shay, briefly jutting her hip to reconnect her pokéball. She grabbed another and tossed it in the air with a flourish. It enlarged, and she caught it with ease.

"Ready for the next one?"

Shay nodded and Keno flashed her his toothless smile and a thumbs up. "I'm good. That last attack almost tickled."

He rubbed at his shoulder a few times, turning back to face Deanna. The woman nodded and tossed the pokéball out. It split apart and out came pouring a Chimecho. It wailed, but the noise was more akin to a tinkling bell than an actual voice. It wavered in the air, it's tail fluttering as if by an errant breeze.

"Alright, Izzy! Let's get started—!"

Shay didn't want to waste time. She sharply barked at Keno, "Water Pulse! Don't let them attack first again!"

Keno fell to all fours, back arching before he spat out a shimmering glob of water shaped like a ring. It went hurtling toward Izzy. Deanna was quick on her feet, shouting back at her Chimecho, "Kick it back with Ominous Wind, don't let it get to you!"

A faint glow encompassed the Chimecho, and a foul taste took to the air as the energy they gathered gained form. Izzy quickly let loose their attack, colliding midair inches away from their face.

"And go back!" Izzy crowed with a melodic tinkle to their words as they pushed back on Keno's Water Pulse attack, forcing on a return path toward Keno.

"Dodge, Keno, and try hitting them again," Shay countered, feeling her pulse quickening, the sound of her heart growing louder in her ears. Keno dove out of the way, skidding on the mat as he ducked out of the way just in time to avoid getting hit by his own attack and Izzy's at the same time. Keno dug in his heels and tired another Water Pulse, much closer and striking from Izzy's side. The Chimecho turned as their trainer called for them to use Extrasensory. Keno's attack struck Izzy, knocking them head over tail through the air. Deanna's chipper expression cracked and concern for her pokémon flashed across her face once more.

"Mudshot and Water Gun, hit 'em hard, Keno! Let's finish strong," Shay barked again, noting the tiny nod he gave. Without wasting another moment, he fired off his attacks, one right after another, refusing to let up.

Izzy didn't get a reprieve between the two successive shots striking them, bowling them over in the air with bell-like cries. The final nail in the coffin for the battle seemed to be how graceless Izzy grew as they drifted like a pendulum to the mat. The Chimecho whined from where they lay. Deanna returned Izzy back into their pokéball. She gave Shay an approving nod.

"You've already taken out two of my team and you're still standing strong with just the one. Not bad! Not bad at all, especially for a trainer taking on the League Challenge." She said, her tone appraising and yet, there was also a calculating edge to it as well.

Deanna plucked her last pokéball at her belt and tossed it out onto the mat with an encouraging shout of, "Come on out, Lannis!"

The light that spilled from the pokéball was briefly blinding, but quickly dissipated and took on the form of a Vigoroth.

Lannis the Vigoroth was the epitome of "high-strung energy" perhaps even the poster child. Lannis kept hopping from one paw to the other, slashing those sharp claws at empty air, almost as if striking an unseen enemy.

"You got this, Lannis. Let's win this round!"

"You got it, boss!" Lannis replied, their voice distinctly deep and male, every word spoken with a growling edge.

"You still good, Keno?" Shay asked, trying to ignore the itch-shiver-scratch at the back of her head, her thoughts. Keno flashed her another thumbs-up over his shoulder but didn't take his tiger-orange gaze off of Lannis.

The Vigoroth bared his teeth into a snarling smile.

"Slash it, Lannis! Let's win one for our team!"

The sound of Deanna's voice jumpstarted the Vigoroth into action. He leapt forward with blinding speed and screamed, "C'mere you!"

"Mud Bomb! Blow 'em back Keno," Shay countered, her heart thudding like cannon fire with excitement in her chest. They were so close to victory, she could practically taste it.

Lannis was within reach by the time Keno blasted him. The Vigoroth's momentum, however, was too much and he slammed right through Keno's Mud Bomb and into the Marshtomp.

They tumbled over one another, fighting to grapple the other and to stay on top. Keno yelped when Lannis slashed at him, a spray of red arcing in the air. Shay bit back a cry of concern, shuffling forward half a step, but stopped when Ambrose clutched at her wrist. He gave it a meaningful squeeze, but she understood when she saw him shake his head.

Shay took a deep breath and turned her attention back to the two tussling on the mat.

"Keno, try to get some distance between you two and use Mud Bomb again!"

Keno grunted in reply, allowed Lannis to get on top of him, then shoved a foot into the Vigoroth's abdomen. He gave Lannis a hard shove and kicked him off, pulling himself to his feet and came up firing at the same time. Globs of muddy water fired off from his mouth, hurtling after the dazed Vigoroth. Each shot blasted him backwards, further and further away from Keno.

"Blast it, where are you?!" Lannis bellowed, scrubbing at his eyes furiously with one paw, while slashing away wildly with the other.

"To your left, Lannis! No, your other left! Slash attack again!" Deanna called to her pokémon, eyes darting rapidly between Keno and Lannis.

"Water Pulse!"

Keno obliged, shooting off the watery ring against the still-flailing Vigoroth. The attack struck Lannis hard in the chest and sent him flying. He struck the ground once, twice, and rolled to a stop on the third strike. Mud caked his white fur, water dribbling down and washing some of it away. A dirtied puddle began to pool underneath him. The Vigoroth struggled to sit up, one eye squeezed shut, the other wild and glaring and red as his chest heaved with every breath.

Lannis groaned, swaying unevenly for several moments, and then slowly, he careened backwards. The booming sound he made was a great crash as his back struck the mat. Deanna stood there for a few solid seconds, dumbstruck. Keno grunted as he moved back to Shay's side. Deanna finally gathered her wits and moved, returning Lannis back into his pokéball. She smiled at Shay and Keno and began striding across the mat toward them.

A mixture of concern and elation rippled throughout Shay, both for their victory and for Keno's wounds. She fumbled with her sling pack, yanking the zipper down its track and shakily feeling around for the bottles inside until she found the one she wanted.

Shay dropped down to knee, a Super Potion out in her hand. She sucked in a breath between clenched teeth in sympathy at the jagged gashes that Lannis had left on Keno's chest. Blood dribbled down from the wounds, bright red and coating his front. He winced when Shay probed around the wounds, and she hissed again in sympathy.

"This is gonna sting, but it'll fix things up. Ready?"

Keno nodded and gave her his toothless smile. She could still see the pain in his visage, in spite of him trying to put up a strong front. "Not really but go ahead. It's gotta be done."

Deanna stopped short of them and waited until Keno was healed up. Shay pulled herself back up to her feet to face the other woman.

"You definitely are something, I'll give you that. I think you and your team will be just fine during the survival course."

Deanna pulled something from a small pouch she had clipped to her belt and held out her hand. Shay cautiously stared at the woman, then slowly put her hand out as well. Deanna dropped something into her open palm. From the gentle clinks they made, and the smooth texture, Shay surmised they were made of kind of metal. She pulled back the prize and found she was correct in that assumption.

Three arrowhead-shaped pieces sat in the palm of her hand, roughly three inches long, and almost an inch at its widest.

"What's…this about?"

"Your Shards. You passed your first course. You and your Marshtomp were really in tune with one another, and rarely skipped a beat. Again, I wouldn't expect anything less from a League Challenger. You were a bit heavy on the offense, but everyone has their own battle style." Deanna smiled and motioned back to the pieces of metal in Shay's hand.

"When you pass a unit of the survival course, you receive Shards like these. But if you fail, we take however many that unit is worth back. Does that make sense?"

"Oh. Oh, okay. That's actually kind of cool. And yeah, it makes sense." Shay grinned, picking up one of the Shards and lifting it up to examine in the light. It was elongated, much like an arrowhead was, with faint notches along its edges.

"Yep! You need to keep the Shards with you at all times. I'll get you a pouch, I completely forgot to grab one from the front desk."

"When does the next unit start?" Shay asked curiously, anxious to get started.

Deanna, as if sensing Shay's hesitancy, held up two fingers. "Two days! So, if I were you, I'd get to prepping. We typically provide a lot of the gear you'll use for the duration of the training courses, but there are some things that you'll need to provide for yourself. Let's go back up front and I'll get you the rest of that paperwork so you can go over it in the meantime."

She motioned for them to follow, and Shay obliged.

Faye puffed up on Shay's shoulder, a pleased hum coming from her. "So, we don't have to worry about waiting around for too long. Good. I thought we'd have been stuck here longer than planned."

"Hey, I did all the work today out there. Next time, you can have at it," Keno chuckled, reaching up to poke at the Swellow. Faye batted his hand away with her wing and sniffed pointedly.

"Don't be such a glory hound the next time a battle is taking place."

That set Keno to laughing again and Shay chuckled along with him. A small, clawed hand reached towards hers, wriggling out one of the Shards. Shay opened her palm just enough to let Ambrose take it, recognizing the soft downy of his fur from touch alone. From the corner of her eye, she could see him twisting the piece in his hands, running the pads of his digits along the edges.

"I don't think I'll ever understand humans' obsessions with little trinkets like this."

Shay glanced back at Ambrose, making sure he wouldn't run into a wall or doorjamb, or trip over something in his way. Even if he couldn't see the smile on her face, she knew he could sense her amusement at his remark.

"Humans tend to enjoy the little things. Even if that means collecting a whole lot of little things. It helps make the happy juices in the brainpan."

Ambrose hummed in response as he handed back Shay's Shard piece.

"If you say so."