Icebreakers were always fun! Sure, I'd been in the same history class as this team for a couple months, and in the same grade for five years, but there was always so much new to learn from the people around you. I was a little grateful for the teachers who kept icebreaker games up every year. People were always so closed off since middle school, and even worse in high school! There was always a low groan that passed through other students, yet I was lowkey desperate for some kind of conversation opening. Do you know how hard it is to make new friends with people who used to be a grade above you? That, coupled with the fact that I was afraid being a trans girl in a sea of mostly cis kids wouldn't help? Thankfully, I hadn't run into any problems in that regard.

Anyway! Time to stop staring blankly into space. Icebreakers time!

Micheal and Valérie were still the only ones taking a snooze on the leaf mat. Gab passed around some Chesto berries to those who didn't succumb to sleep. As far as we'd learned, it had a slight amount of caffeine in it, but that might've been from placebo effect.

All icebreaker rounds ended up in the same place if allowed to go on long enough: telling people something you've never told anyone before. I'd only seen this in movies, so I was very excited to participate! That excitement was mingled with some small fear of judgement from the group I might be spending a large chunk of time with. Thrilling!

"I..." I braced myself. If everyone was sharing secrets, so was I. There went my deepest shame. "I stole a seashell from my classroom in kindergarten."

Kieran snorted. "What?"

"I didn't keep it!" I confessed. "I brought it home but the guilt ate at me so much that I put it back the next morning!"

"Oh my goodness," Lola chuckled. "You're too cute. We have to protect you."

She patted my back with her paw, and my body went tense. I might've had my human thoughts, but they were still stuck in a Swablu, and it had quickly become apparent that they didn't like things grounding them. Within seconds, I'd become a puffball of feathers.

"Woah, sorry," the Absol said, retracting her giant paw while I willed my feathers down.

"All good!" I chirped back. Yes, it was slightly embarrassing, but the feathers would go back down on their own.

By that point it was sometime in the early afternoon. The sky was completely blanketed with clouds—it was a white stratus cloud, if I remembered correctly— and the sun shone faintly from behind the cover. It wasn't chilly, yet it seemed overcast and overwhelmingly blue was this level's constant aesthetic. Right! This was a level. I turned to check on the boss Pokémon.

The Tentacool had emerged again! It was in the same spot as last time, looking even more frustrated. It didn't try to attack again and I stuck my tongue out at it. It slowly sank under the water, like it had done a couple of times already. Boss Pokémon really did have only one objective, and that objective was being angry at us!

There were still a few faint red pixels skimming the surface when I heard a yawn. A glance to the left, and I realized Micheal had woken up, though Valérie was still passed out. He looked groggy, and I couldn't blame him. By my estimate, he'd only slept about five hours. Meanwhile, our icebreakers group was still trucking along through the results of the unplanned all-nighter we'd just been through. It was my first, too! I wasn't sleepy, especially since I'd eaten a Chesto berry but I did know I would need a ton of rest tonight. Not only had I wanted to stay awake for a bit, though, but I just couldn't sleep when it was bright out. Micheal stretched, yawned again, and padded over.

"Morning," he greeted.

"Morning," came out our scattered responses.

"As far as I can tell, anyway," Kieran added. The Beedrill was lying on his stomach, stingers parallel on the sand and wings twitching occasionally.

"It's cold," Micheal complained. The Litleo shook himself out instinctively, his fur starting to match my poofy feathers look. Lola snorted— the lucky one with an appropriate amount of insulation and no reflexive fur size changes.

"You might just be hungry," I proposed. "Go ahead and grab a berry!"

"Mm-hmm," he answered, eyes closed. Gab opened the backpack and he rummaged around. The bag was still at least two thirds full, and that was with most of us indulging ourselves a little.

"Guess we could have a little fire too," Gab suggested. She scanned the area for firewood, and so did I. Other than a couple big pieces of dry bark leaning against the side of the rock, and the small leaf pile Valérie was still laying on, the remaining resources were scattered, smaller trees growing out of the cliff opposite the water, jutting out almost horizontally. They looked pretty dry, and their pruned twigs and branches would do nicely in a fire pit.

Kieran groaned, the sound muffled by the sand he'd just shoved his face into. Apparently, he'd noticed those too and saw where I'd be going with this. I said it anyway.

"Kieran, you and I could go up and get some kindle for the fire!"

"Yeah, yeah," he said, getting up. He stretched his back and his arms, though I didn't hear any of those signature cracking sounds. Maybe Beedrill joints were silent because there were no bones under that exoskeleton? What a vaguely unsettling thought.

And so, we were off!

Kieran needed to ramp up at least a little to take off, just like I did, but once he was flying, he had better control of his position. He could hover in place and even fly backwards sometimes! Way to hog what makes dragonflies cool, bee Pokémon. Meanwhile, every moment of my flight was dependent on the winds. I had some amount of control, sure, but the air currents came first. I always had to be moving toward something, and sometimes the choppy winds or lack of updrafts made that infinitely harder. Luckily, the main wind stream right now was coming from the water, toward the wall. It made it easier to take off facing the water and glide to the trees.

I altered the angle of my wings and tail a couple times, just a few minor adjustments against the wind so I could land on a branch I'd chosen. Even through my talons— which were a little numb in general compared to my hands— I could tell the tree was a little dry. Maybe not dead, but definitely worse for wear from the constant exposure to the wind and airborne salt. It would be easier to tear off some twigs. A beak was just the right equipment for it too!

"How are the branches on your side?" I asked Kieran, who'd just landed on a tree maybe a dozen meters above me to the left.

He tentatively poked at one with a stinger. A twig fell off from that very small force. "Breakable."

"Awesome! Hey, look out below!" I warned the others down on the beach.

"Timber!" Kieran cackled, punching a thin branch off the cliff.

I laughed and started crushing the wood in my beak. I had to admit… it was easier said than done. Maybe there was a reason passerine birds picked up things to make their nests rather than tearing them out from somewhere. Nonetheless, there was a snap, and the branch weighed heavier in my beak, a sudden large imbalance brought on by its many branchlets facing away from the cliff.

"Woah!" I yelled, though it was muffled through my closed beak. As the branch started falling, so did I. I quickly let go and spread my wings, using the momentum and headwind as an opportunity to rise higher and land next to Kieran. My feathers were still ruffled up as I'd closed my talons on a branch opposite the Beedrill. I gave myself a shake and felt them start to settle down.

"You good?" Kieran inquired, not looking up. He was busy trying to break a branch by bending it between his two arm stingers. Seems this was proving to be harder without thumbs for him too! My jaw was already aching from how hard I'd pulled on the first branch. "Wish we could carry anyone up here," he grumbled.

"I am good, no problem! Though, yeah, it would be easier if we could get Valérie or Lola to cut stuff down," I shrugged. I grabbed another small twig and tried to snap it off, it breaking much easier than the last one. "However, we can fly. That's pretty cool! Plus, uh, Fury Attack for you! Beedrill's cool."

"Don't lie to me, I know you're a Butterfree person," he grinned. He'd finally broken the branch off and let it fall. "Beedrill comes with built-in poison javelins instead of arms. It's "cool", but not super safe 24/7."

"Yeah," I admitted. "Sorry."

He looked confused. "Nah, I'm not complaining! I've been… working on figuring out how to control it. Don't know how, but I feel there's a way to turn the reservoir on and off? I— I don't know. I'm trying," he sighed.

"Sounds like you're on the right path!" I smiled.

That was interesting! But I had run out of accessible branches on my side, so might as well get to another tree. There was only one above our spot, off in the corner. I flew out, repeating that aforementioned maneuver, and landed on the top tree. It was weird in how different the texture was from the other trees. This high up, it got buffeted by stronger winds, so it was dryer, but not in the same way as the salt-bleached ones nearer to the bottom. Neat!

I was readying myself for another tug of war when light was suddenly in my eye. I squinted through it and realized the sun had been uncovered by the clouds. Pretty! Looking up at the sky, I decided to just breathe it in. I'd gotten this high up by myself, was on a beach with friends, and we'd been camping for two weeks in some beautiful vistas! That breathing-in was… salty. Well, hey, it was the beach. The winds slammed the cliff behind me, and my eye followed it subconsciously. I saw how close the top of the cliff was. What laid beyond? I opened my wings before I knew what I was doing.

"I don't think we're supposed to," Kieran shot out.

I quickly glanced down. He was still below, but now his attention was focused on me.

"Chloe. Not from this height," he stressed.

Ah. So, he was talking about that vision thing in the second level. I folded my wings back to my side.

There wasn't any way the cliffs could be infinite! We hadn't seen anything of the sort anywhere in this universe (multiverse?). In fact, we knew the different worlds just cut off at some point, like with Gab's backpack respawning from the sky after falling past the clouds, or… that one… incident with the Growlithe vision. I almost instantly phased out the thought. I couldn't concern myself with out-of-bounds areas.

… or could I?

It didn't make that much sense, honestly. Few of our many theories about this place had been confirmed, least of all the one we never spoke of. I'd mentioned the concept of out-of-bounds areas a couple times after the incident without any freaky visions popping up. I didn't have any explanation for that initial vision, but I was starting to think that thoughtcrime as a cause was kind of silly. Who'd decided that was what we were going with, Kieran or myself? Whoever it was, the other had fed into it.

I'd been here, trapped with the same five classmates, in the body of a magic blue bird that shouldn't exist, for half a month. Things defied logic here. It was frustrating to have been here this long and not know whether this world would yield answers. I was curious by nature, but there was a limit to the joy of investigating. It was getting tiring.

I focused back on the branches.

"Just don't say it, don't think it!" Kieran called about a minute later, in a far less intense tone.

"Like the Bye-B—"

"Yeah, like the the Bye-Bye Man!" He answered. A pause. "Wait, crap!"

—-

"Timber!" I shouted, as the last of the twigs and branches fell. I was already on the sand, standing still after landing and appreciating being on the ground for a second. Even I had to admit that flying all the time could get stressful! You always needed something to land on.

Kieran came down soon after, a few grains of sand blown away by the beating of his wings. He looked toward the rest of the group, and so did I, but it seemed the topic of kindle was far gone on the beach.

"No, I think it can float!" Micheal insisted. Under his paw, he held a big piece of bark on the very tip of the shore. The edge that was over the water bobbed up and down with the waves.

"Not with four Pokémon on it!" Lola heckled. She was sat on the sand, unmoved from when I'd left. "Also, bring it back here before you lose your grip!"

"I'm not gonna—"

"We don't have thumbs!"

Micheal let out a short huff and pushed the piece of bark back on the dry sand. "That's why we could tie a bunch of these together!"

"Like a raft?" I jumped in, flying and landing close to the bark. It was a meter long and a few feet wide, give or take, and did look thick enough to support weight. Coupled with some more improvised planks, this could be viable!

"Where are we going to get rope?" Gab asked, still next to Lola. Oh! Oh gosh, that had completely slipped my mind! Shoot.

I looked down, as if the grains of ground up rock and seashells could help me. No, there wasn't much we could do about that, was there? Suddenly, there was a rustle from near the cliff. Valérie was up— although dead-eyed and needing more shuteye. She glared at the space near her where the bark used to be, then back towards us.

"Wasn't this supposed to be a day off?" She yawned. "You could've woken me up if you needed help."

"It was," Lola groaned. She flopped her face on the floor before springing back up and coughing out sand.

Kieran barely held back a snort— and he was not the only one to do so. "So, uh, campfire? We've got all the parts for that."

"Sure," Micheal sighed. "Campfire."

—

Before long, the lagoon was flooded with red light by the setting sun. Those who'd stayed up for 36 hours (give or take) were crashing hard, and the ones who'd taken a nap were not much better off. Maybe the shift system had messed up our sleeping schedule anyway.

The Chesto berries' energizing effect had long worn off, and my eyelids were getting droopy. It was the kind of tired that felt cozy in any position, and fluffy wings only added to default comfiness levels, not to mention the warmth of the fire. It's a wonder I didn't fall asleep right there! However…

It was time for an experiment. With the fire blazing and the deliberate decision to take this level slow, the stars aligned to let us execute a long-awaited test: were berries any good roasted? Going off the rare past experiences from when my family had rented a cottage, bonfire roasting results were determined by a very unlucky d20. Or maybe we were just awful at cooking.

Valérie wielded a couple of berry-adorned sticks over the flame, and I'd be one of the eager volunteers. Scared, yes, but I was the one who'd excitedly brought this up when the pit went ablaze. Honestly, I had two motivations in this life: satiating my curiosity and eating new food.

"And… I think that's it!" The Meditite declared. She retrieved the fruit and placed them on a rock, wiping her brow. "Pick your poison!"

"Well, uh…" Micheal began. "It smells like… well, it sure smells. You guys enjoy, I'll just get an Oran if we have some."

Kieran quietly nodded from the side, munching on his usual Persim berry and not interested whatsoever in this project. He wasn't one to work hard on projects anyway. The rest of us assembled around the spread.

"I want to try the Nanab!" I said. With no one raising any objections, I hopped on the rock and heartily bit into what I knew to be a delicious and soft fruit.

Crunch.

Oh, boy. Oh… boy, that wasn't good. Both the sound and the Nanab.

The outside tasted as burnt as it was brittle. I could feel a thousand blackened crumbs disperse in my mouth, outside my beak, and on the floor.

As for the fruit itself, not much better. I'd had baked apples before! Sure, microwaving it and clumsily roasting it over a bonfire were two very different methods of cooking, but… wow, such a difference in quality! Dry as the desert and sickly sweet it was. I made eye contact with Lola, who looked less displeased than I was with her choice, but still nonplussed.

"Is that activated charcoal, or whatever it's called?" She wondered, head tilted to the side. The look on her face told me that this was a legitimate question.

"We wasted a lot of berries," Gab said, slowly wiping her mouth in disgust. She quietly started rolling some survivors back into the backpack.

Couple of negative Nevilles they were today, huh? I shook my head slowly, although… Gab was right. I'd have rather eaten a thoroughly burnt croissant than another one of those berries.

Valérie could only watch the mess she'd participated in making. Her arms were crossed and her stare into the middle distance could make rocks tremble. She still chewed on the tough remainder of her berry, so I thought I'd change the mood a little. Anything to distract from the nightmarish snacks.

"Campfire song, anyone?" I smiled.

Gab and Lola nodded, shared some agreements, and sat back in the circle. As for Valérie, she only stared, mouth agape, a slight grin tugging at the corner of her lips. Slowly, she brought her hand to her forehead, and out slipped a half-sigh, half-resigned chuckle. She didn't even give me a word before sitting down around the fire.

For some reason, I felt like she didn't like me. Perhaps it was the hand-biting last level.

I plopped back down at a nearby spot, feeling the harsh heat of the fire on my face, and the acrid smell of smoke filling the air. It combined somewhat uncomfortably with the sea salt.

"Anyone know campfire songs, then?" Kieran asked flatly. "All I got is SpongeBob."

"Same," Micheal and Gab said at the same time. They briefly locked eyes in confusion, and Kieran snickered behind a stinger.

"Kumbaya?" I suggested.

"Ugh, no!" Lola groaned.

Well, I was out of suggestions. I was not from a camping family. Neither were my friends and camp mates, apparently. Still, there was something nagging at me from the back of my brain. There was a song I knew from somewhere, but I couldn't pinpoint the time and place for the life of me.

"… anyone know this one?" I inquired, then hummed the tune.

There were shrugs all around, except for Kieran. "Sounds a little familiar," he said. "Maybe do a bit more."

"Yeah, me too," Valérie agreed. "It's gonna drive me nuts if we don't figure it out."

Happy to oblige, I wracked my brain for more of the song. No lyrics came up, but there was more to the melody! It was kind of odd, though. I didn't know that much about music theory, but the string of notes that came out didn't seem well put together at all. They were random as far as I could tell. How did I remember the song, then? Lyrics still failed to show up, which added so much more to my confusion, along with a bubbling sense of dread. My eyes were closed as I tried to remember anything more, adding a layer of disconnect between my classmates and I. There was a tingle in my throat and lungs.

Something's off. My voice, it's—

It wasn't prettier. It was just my voice, but contaminated. For a split second the image of sound waves dripping with mold popped and sizzled in my head. Thankfully, I'd reached the last note.

There was a sigh from behind me, suddenly the only sound around from anything alive. My eyes snapped open to see everyone unconscious. Wait! Not just unconscious: sleeping. I noticed slow and comfortable rises and falls from Valérie's torso. I was… so relieved!

Sing. Huh. Never again, please.

But it really was nothing, was it? I could deal. Deep breaths, and everything would be fine. Deep breaths.

There was a rustle from the water. Even with the distance, the bonfire's light coloured the Tentacool with a deep blood orange. We made eye contact for what felt like hours.

Seemingly satisfied with its surface check, it sank under once again, and I decided to keep watch until someone stirred awake.