It was the dead of winter in the old town. It was already months since Tamin wrote her letter and the children set up a secretive tournament with each other.

The entire town was covered in snow, and it wasn't the fun kind either. The snow was dry with the consistency of powder, the kind that blows away in the paws whenever someone scoops some up. The temperature was tolerable with a coat, but not for an extended period of time.

On days like that, Elijah was content on just reading a book or calmly working on a jigsaw puzzle. Pannen and Aika were less happy about the situation, they were eager for more stimuli then the endless white snow on white snow the outdoors offered and what the quiet indoors provided. They could still talk and play board games- of which they did much of- but it was still disappointing for them.

But the one who had it the worst wasn't Aika or Pannen, but Pannen's father. Locke's leg occasionally twitched in anticipation for something- anything to happen. He had endured weather far colder than that before when he was still a shinx, and now here he was stuck inside. He was happy to be a father, but not happy to give up every bit of adventure and action to have this life.

Locke closed his eyes and reflected. He couldn't begin to count the number of missions he had embarked on, either alone or when he worked at the guild. Exhilarating fights and breathtaking sites were every week when he fought alongside Tamin or his best friend Dewott. There were moments of great pain, to be sure, but minds always have a way of smoothing out the bad parts of memories to make them even better.

Locke opened his eyes again. He was in his house, with his wife and children. He didn't want to leave behind a single thing, but he still wanted back the experiences that were once regular to him.

The luxio went over to Tamin. "I'm going to go on a walk, I'll be back soon," he said to her.

"Anywhere you're going?"

"I'm going to head to the guildhouse and check if there's any missions we can do. I need to stretch."

"They typically don't have much in the dead of winter," Tamin responded.

"Can't hurt to check," Locke said.

"Alright, just don't catch a cold," Tamin said.

"Thanks, I won't. See you soon."

"See you."

Not even putting on coat, Locke left his house and began making towards the massive guildhouse structure on the edge of town.

Aika was unbelievably bored. She felt she was on the verge of banging her head against a wall. She rubbed her face with her paw to rub it and get extra stimulation, but that did little to abate how she felt. "So… know anything else we could do?"

"I'm sorry, I got nothing," Pannen rubbed her face as well. "I don't think we have any games left… maybe Elijah has the right idea here and we should do some reading?"

"But I don't like reading," Aika complained.

"Well you don't exactly have many other options, now do you?" Pannen said.

"...Alright you have a point."

"We got some more books recently, so maybe there's something that'll suit your interest."

"Wait, when did that happen?"

"Like two weeks ago. Leah and Silver's family didn't need so many books so they gave a couple to us."

"That happened?"

"Yeah?"

"...I guess I just wasn't paying attention then. Aight, I'll check those out."

"Enjoy yourself, Aika."

She left the room without precisely asking where exactly the books were, so she had to search around for over a minute. At any point she could've just asked where they were, but she was too committed to that search and wanted to find it herself.

Eventually, she did locate a bookshelf containing books that were new to her. She turned her head to the side to begin reading the covers. There were a few history books, a book of maps, a fantasy book with a name she couldn't pronounce- all things that didn't pique Aika's interest. But then, something did catch her eye: an encyclopedia of pokemon moves.

The decision was a no-brainer for Aika. A book that could possibly help her learn to fight better? Of course she'd look into that one.

Taking it from the shelf, Aika noticed just how heavy the book was. She had to use both arms to take it over to a small table, where she opened it up. It was structured to have hundreds of alphabetically sorted species, and a list of moves each could learn. The idea of reading through it all from start to end was absurd, but Aika figured she could check just what minccino or cinccino could learn, and then go on to check species of people she knew like shinx, mienfoo, or espurr.

Locke was inside of the guildhouse, checking the full list of mission requests it had received.

He wasn't very hopeful when he had entered the building, he took the trip mostly to have an excuse to stretch his legs more than anything else. As such, when he did come to check the mission board for that day, he was not prepared for what he found.

There was a massive mission request which came not from his own continent, but from the Air continent to the east of them. Locke checked the reward money, and it promised an absolute wealth of poke with the digits continuing onwards for longer than he'd ever seen before from a mission. He read through the mission request in detail: it spoke of a newly discovered mystery dungeon that was vast beyond measure and sprawled across many biomes, and it requested aid from adventures abroad to help chart the wondrous vista. It was scheduled for next spring once the weather lightened up.

Locke stood there for a few seconds, reading and re-reading the full mission request. It was all he ever could have asked for: a grand adventure on a continent he had never set foot on before, a journey that would take weeks or more to complete and was complete with wholly new experiences. He could explore it all as he took Tamin with him, Dewott and Mienshao too. The entire thing would be so much longer than any mission he had ever done before.

Locke collected himself again. He turned around and began walking back at a hastened pace, he needed to tell others about this.

Aika was far more immersed in the book than she had anticipated, she turned page after page.

Aika figured that the book was incomplete, as according to it Minccino couldn't learn the move Knock Off, which she for sure knew she had for herself. Even with it seemingly incomplete, she still found it utterly fascinating to skim through the many pages.

After all the different species, the book contained another chapter: egg moves. After a while, Aika found herself turning to the first page of that chapter. She had never heard of an "egg move" prior to then, so her curiosity was well captured.

Tamin walked through the house, checking up on each of her three children once again.

Tamin approached the room Aika was within. She walked up to it and raised her paw- but one second before she touched it- Tamin heard a different noise in the house. She spun around in its direction, it was the sound of the house's main door opening.

"I'm home," Locke said.

"Welcome back," Tamin responded. She fully turned her back on the room door to begin walking towards Locke- walking away from Aika.

Locke and Tamin met each other in the house's living room. Locke scrubbed his laws on a mat to get off the snow and mud stuck to it. "How was your trip? Did you find anything?" Tamin asked.

"You wouldn't believe," Locke responded.

Tamin raised her eyebrows at that response. "Do tell."

"Okay listen. It's not available right now, but it will be right at the start of next Spring. Over on the Air continent they found a MASSIVE mystery dungeon, and they're asking for help for explorers all over to scout it out. They shared a request to the guild.

We could take a boat trip over to it and join in the expedition. Dewott, Mienshao and I are all of the best explorers at the guild. You could come along with the three of us and we can do a massive adventure! We'll earn a whole lot of money too. Not to mention it'll be our first time off the continent."

"Okay, slow down," Tamin said. "How long is this mission going to take?"

"Well from the sounds of it, it'll be at least a month out. Travel to there and back alone is going to take a couple of days. But think about how amazing it'll be!"

"Think about the children, Locke," Tamin replied. "We have three kids, we can't just leave them at our house for that long, that's irresponsible."

"My sister will be happy to babysit them when we're gone. And Dewott has siblings that can babysit his kids."

"Locke, we're not talking about hours or days here. This is weeks we'd be gone. I'm sorry, but this isn't going to work."

Hearing that made Locke's ears drop down. He didn't just feel disappointed, he felt tired. "I get what you mean, and I wouldn't trade away this family for anything. But… don't you just want to have one last big adventure?"

Tamin stayed quiet, letting Locke continue speaking.

"We've barely done any missions these past few years. We used to be going out almost every day to explore new places and get new memories, but since we've had our kids, that's come to an end.

I just… thought this would be a perfect finale to that lifestyle. One last big adventure into unknown lands, then we can finish raising our kids, and then we can grow old together."

Tamin had to think. She was never as adventurous as Locke was, but she couldn't deny all the fond memories she'd accumulated on those journeys and how wondrous they could be. Her life had turned monotonous, it's not like she was doing much in that specific winter. "I get what you mean…" she admitted.

"I don't want to die without ever leaving this continent. Even if it's just once, I want to take a ship to someone else."

"I don't want to stay here my whole life either… plus our kids do look up to us. I'm sure they'd be ecstatic to hear our new feats and adventures once we get back."

"Exactly," Locke said. "It's just one more time. And we have months to prepare."

"I think… we'll have to bring this up to Dewott and Mienshao."

Aika continued looking through the book, skimming more than thorough reading. The chapter on egg moves was just a massive table without going into terribly much detail, easy to parse. She checked what it said about minccino, wondering if there was anything interesting she had or that she was missing out on. That was when she noticed something which captured her attention.

Knock Off was there, the move she was convinced wasn't mentioned earlier in the book because of an error. She checked what kinds of parents could pass the move on, and the list did not include luxio. Aika was confused, it was just a list of zorua, zoroark, and some species she didn't even recognize, but Locke's species wasn't included on it.

"Well, unless Locke was secretly a zoroark this whole time, looks like this book is wrong after all," Aika thought as she began to close the book. "Maybe I should tell Leah and Silver about that the next time I see them."

Aika got ready to put the heavy book back on. But as she picked it up again, a nagging thought came to her mind: "Wait a second…"

She knew for a fact Locke wasn't a zoroark, but she did know of one. It was a story she had heard a few times: how the four best pokemon in the guild were Locke, Dewott, Mienshao, and a zoroark named Hunter, but that the zoroark had abruptly left one day- a day before Aika herself had hatched from an egg. Once she remembered that, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

AIka set the book back down and re-opened it to the same page. She looked down on the information again: minccino can learn Knock Off if their father is a zoroark. "No, the book has to be wrong," she thought to herself again. "But… what if it isn't? Was Hunter… is Hunter… my dad? Am I the reason he left?"

She put a paw on her forehead. She wanted to look away from the book, she wanted to un-read the information, yet she couldn't tear her eyes away.

"What if Locke isn't any of our fathers? No, that doesn't make sense, Eli came well after Hunter left. Plus Hunter apparently didn't leave after Pannen came, so that doesn't make sense either. But if that's the case, then that would make us only half-siblings… that's even worse."

Suddenly, so many tiny aspects of her life started coming back to her. Every single way she was different from her siblings came to mind, from their different behaviors to what food they preferred. No siblings are carbon copies, yet Aika couldn't help but feel there were just a bit too much differences between them. Leah and Silver were two sisters who seemed to have far more in common than Aika did with Pannen. Even the completely innocuous things started to feel heinous in a strange way as she recalled them. "Was it just a lie? Is Locke not my dad? Are they not my full siblings?" she questioned herself with an existential dread. To her, it felt like phantom black spots were appearing across her fur.

Eventually, Aika had an epiphany. She finally lifted her head from the book. "I can ask Pannen whether or not she knows the move Knock Off. If she does, then the book is wrong. If she doesn't…"

Aika took the accursed book and placed it back on the shelf she had retrieved it from. She left the room and began wandering around the house to find her sister. In only a minute, she found her.

"Hey Pannen," She said.

"Hey Aika. Did you find any books that you thought were interesting?" Pannen asked.

"Yeah. But anyways, could I talk with you in private for a bit?" Aika asked.

"Umm, for what reason?"

"It'll only be a minute," Aika gestured in the direction of her bedroom.

"Well, alright."

Aika led Pannen into her bedroom, then shut the door behind the both of them. She breathed in and breathed out, preparing herself.

"So, remember that fight we did together last autumn?" Aika asked quietly.

"Yeah, the tournament you won. What for it?" Pannen lowered her volume to match Aika's.

"I was just thinking, want to do another one next Spring? I think it could be fun."

"If we keep it secret, we could," Pannen said.

"Okay, that's good…" Aika paused again, once again mentally preparing herself. "So we'll be older when that happens, so stronger as well. Do you know any more moves that you could use if we did it again?"

"Umm… I don't think I've learned anything more since then, no," Pannen thought.

"Alright. I actually know the move Knock Off, and am thinking about how I could try that out. Do you know that move?"

"I don't."

"Are… you sure?" Aika asked.

"Yes?" Pannen replied, confused.

Aika's heart sank. The back of her head started to feel fuzzy, the world around her seemed to turn gray, and once more it felt like black blotches were appearing across her body. She moved her eyes to look at Pannen's body, looking at her half-sister with newfound insight.

"Is that a move I should know?" Pannen asked.

"...No, it isn't," Aika was able to respond again. "I'm going to be seeing if I can learn some more stuff for if we ever do it again, and I think you should as well. That's all I wanted to say."

"Are you okay?" Pannen asked.

"Huh?"

"You don't seem to be alright," she said. "If there's something wrong you can let me know."

"No… I'm alright," Aika said.

"...Okay," Pannen said.

The two left the bedroom.

Aika spent the rest of her day as normal: in her house, talking with Pannen and Elijah, and having supper. For the rest of the day, she looked around at her house with a different perspective. She looked at Pannen differently, Elijah differently, the town she lived in, and she looked at Locke very differently. She didn't let it show on her face, but her entire understanding of the world was altered. She could put a smile on her face, but she couldn't feel happy. All the while, one question lingered on her mind: "Was my entire childhood built on a lie?"

End of chapter 3