Shiny Phantump
Through Dream, I Travel
Chapter 2: Wayward Spirit
Pneumatics hissed as a glass cover retracted, revealing a tiny Vulpix quivering on the platform beneath. Her pale fur was wet and flattened against her body.
She opened her eyes and looked around, soaking up her surroundings. She was on a soggy metal platform. The platform was half covered by a cylindrical glass case, but the other half was open to the rest of the room. Around her spot on the platform were a number of rubber tubes, each ending in a metal needle. Did they just hang loosely… or had they been connected to her?
She tried to remember… Surely, she must know something about why she was here.
But… her mind was blank. She changed her goal, trying to find something, anything to give her a sense of who she was. And yet she came up with nothing. Absolutely nothing.
She felt like she should’ve had memories. Without them, she felt… lost. She could remember what a “memory” was, and she felt there was a gaping void in her mind. A spot where there should have been… something.
Without memory, she had no identity. She didn’t even have a name to call herself.
She whimpered. As far as her memory was concerned, this moment was the beginning of her life. Her gut told her she had been someone before she woke up here, but she couldn’t know for sure. That thought frightened her.
She curled up into a ball and began to cry. For some time, she remained like that, a miserable ball of wet, shivering Vulpix, alone with the bitter emptiness in her head.
Eventually, though, a painful gnawing in her stomach drew her out of her self-pity. She discovered there was a name for the feeling in her vocabulary. It was hunger. Instinct told her that it wouldn’t go away until she found something to eat.
She stood. Her legs wavered beneath her, struggling to obey her orders. She needed to get down from the platform. She lifted one forepaw, then placed it in front of her. The next followed. Then her hind paws. She repeated the cycle.
Her walk was painfully slow and mechanical. It felt unnatural to her. Handling front and back legs seemed… wrong somehow.
How could she expect to find something to eat when she could barely walk? The thought made her want to curl up and cry again, but she only had so much time left before starvation claimed her. She may have had at least a day or two, but at the truly pathetic rate she was making progress, it felt like a strict timeline to her.
She reached the edge of the platform and looked down. It would be a safe drop, but something about the scale of it felt… off. Looking down at the floor below made her feel incredibly small. The drop was several times her height. Her gut told her that was a safe distance to fall, but it still felt like that scale was wrong somehow. Like she should be… bigger?
She threw herself off the edge. Her legs gave out under her as she landed, so she ended up on her stomach, sending up a large cloud of dust as she landed on the floor. She got back up, and began to walk towards the door, leaving a trail of footprints behind her in the dust.
Noticing her own footprints, she looked around. Hers were the only set. Nobody else had entered the room in a long time.
She reached the door and looked up at the size of the doorframe. It was built for creatures much larger than her.
Fortunately, the door had a smaller window cut into it with a flap allowing a creature of her size to pass through without being able to reach the doorknob. She pushed the flap open with her nose and passed through.
As she crossed over onto the other side, she was shocked to see how much larger this area was compared to the room. If she weren’t worried about finding food, she would’ve retreated back into the familiar dusty room. This new room was frighteningly large. If a single room could have this much space, how terrifyingly vast must the entire world be?
A hallway stretched down in both directions. The hall was lined with doors, but hers was the only one with a flap. Why? Why did only she get a flap? Were there others like her who were just trapped in their rooms?
The floor in the hall was still dusty, but there were other sets of footprints, too. Ones that did not belong to her. One set crossed her going left, then two crossed back going right. Two pairs, the left and one from the right had identical paw prints. Someone making a round trip in both directions.
The third pair was odd in that it only went one way. Could the one who left that one way footprint trail still be in the building? Or could they have awoken here like her and found their way out? Or… had they died, never to leave again?
She swallowed her fear and decided to ignore that third possibility. Hopefully, if she followed in the same direction as the prints, she could either find her way out, or find her way to the one who left the prints, who could probably help her.
She just really, really hoped that her footprint-leaving guide hadn’t died. If so, she would be following them to whatever caused them to meet their end.
Fortunately, though, the footprints did lead her to the building's exit. Unlike all the indoor rooms that lined the halls, the exit door was rusted, knocked off its hinges and left on the floor.
As she stepped outside for the first time, the sun hit her eyes. She hissed and shut her eyes. For a few moments, even the light shining through her shut eyelids hurt her. After a few moments, when the pain had passed, she reopened her eyes, and found the light much more tolerable. Pleasant, even.
She looked around. Green leaves rippled in the wind. A few small flowers poked up from the rich brown earth in whatever spots sunlight reached through the trees. Compared to the dusty greys of the building, the world outside had so many colours in it.
Her heart fluttered. For a moment, her hunger was forgotten. She was caught up in the sights and smells surrounding her. The world was overwhelmingly large, more so than ever, but these woods felt much less oppressive than the empty vastness of the building.
Before she began to search for food, she turned around to take one last look at the building. Though the indoors had looked almost undisturbed for years, the exterior of the building was being taken over by the outside world, mosses and lichens dotting the walls.
Beside the door, there was a sign with runes printed in metal upon it. The colour had mostly worn off, but the runes themselves were embossed in three-dimensions. Stepping further away to get a better look at the runes from her low angle, she was able to read the sign. “Private Property. For access, please contact the Ministry of Research and Development.”
She wandered. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care. It’s not like she could become lost. She didn’t have any idea where she was, and she didn’t mind the idea of losing track of the oppressively grey building and the room full of loneliness.
It wasn’t far before she came across a river. She stared at the rushing water, thinking. Though she’d never before seen any of the things she was encountering since waking up, she still knew words for things like water and trees and flowers. She remembered what they were for, too. She had to drink water to keep herself going, or else she’d get thirsty. It worked the same way as food and hunger. She walked up to the riverside and began to lap up some of the flowing water.
As she did so, she heard a voice cry out from behind her. “Aah! It’s a spirit! Don’t haunt me!”
She whipped around to see a yellow and red furred creature standing behind her, crouching, palms readied at her sides. The vocabulary buried in the depths of her mind stirred, providing her with a name for her new discovery. It was a Mienfoo.
The Mienfoo had called her a spirit? Is that what happened to her? “Do you know what I am? What happened to me?”
Mienfoo was taken aback. “You, uhh, don’t know what happened, huh. I… uhh… I’m sorry to hear that. It looks to me like you’re the spirit of a Vulpix. A dead one.”
Her heart fluttered. “You think I’m… dead?”
“I don’t know! You kinda look all pale and things, so maybe? I’d expected you to know!”
“I don’t remember anything… Nothing at all. Well, I remembered what water was when I saw it, and I remember that you’re a Mienfoo. But… I don’t remember anything about myself or the past. I have no memories.”
“Oh. Well then. That’s… quite the situation.”
“Do you know what I should do? What are spirits supposed to do?”
Mienfoo scratched her head. “I dunno… Listen, I bumped into a guy who might know what’s up. You wanna come with me and go see him?”
She felt a fluttering of hope at the suggestion. “Yes! I do… but I need something to eat first. I’m hungry.”
“Huh? Spirits need to eat?”
She lifted one foreleg into a half-shrug. “Well, I know I’m hungry because my stomach is hurting. That means I need to eat, right?”
Mienfoo shrugged, and pulled a cluster of small blue berries from a satchel worn on her side. “I guess so?” Mienfoo handed the berry over to her.
She took a pensive nibble. It was sweet, but the texture was slimy. Still, she didn’t want to be rude, so she made herself swallow. It felt like she was eating it wrong somehow, but she couldn’t imagine what was off…
Not until an instinct welled up in her, and a breath of icy air forced its way up her throat. The cold air rolled over the berries, freezing them within a second.
Mienfoo was taken aback, but she was too focused on the food to worry about it. She tried nibbling at them again, and found that freezing the berries had gotten rid of all the wet, slimy texture from them. Now, they were quite edible, and she gobbled them up.
Mienfoo started at her with a look of confusion, leaving her to speak up for herself.
“Thank you, I feel much better. Can we go see the person you were talking about now?”
Mienfoo slowly blinked before responding. “Uhh… sure. Yeah. Let’s do that… tomorrow. You can, uhh, stay with me tonight?”
“Okay,” she said, not feeling she had much room to argue with the only lifeline between her and the indifference of nature. Mienfoo began to walk off, and waved for her to follow.
The two walked quietly for some time before the Mienfoo decided to break the silence. “So… Do you have a name? Or, uhh, do you remember one? Mine is Niko.”
A name. When she’d first woken up, it was one of the first things she’d reflexively tried to remember, but she’d failed. “I think I had one. I… don’t remember it. I don’t have one anymore.”
Niko scratched the back of her head again. Did she have an itch, or was it for some other reason? “Oh… That’s not good. Should I just call you “Vulpix” then? Or maybe “Spirit” instead?”
“I like the name Spirit,” she said. “Spirit...” She was Spirit now! Spirit was glad to have a name again, it filled the void in her memory where it felt like a name belonged.
“Okay, then. That… settles that. I… uhh…” Niko seemed to have something else she was thinking, but not saying… Niko had suggested those as something to call her, which Spirit had thought meant a name. Was she not supposed to have picked a name?
She didn’t care. It made her happy.
“Well, uhh, Spirit, let’s get going. I’ve got a room in town until tomorrow. We need to get there, like, today.” Niko resumed walking, and Spirit resumed following.
They arrived at the edge of a village. Niko guided her down the streets, countless others flowing around them. Spirit tried to focus on staying behind Niko, not wanting to get lost in the action.
Were they all like Spirit and Niko, with their own names, personalities and histories? She was once again feeling overwhelmed with the size of the world. How many others could there be? Hundreds? Maybe a thousand? She could hardly imagine all the stories there must be between all the people out there.
Niko led her to a street paved with cobblestones. They felt funny on her paw pads. About halfway down the street, Niko stopped her in front of a wooden building with a sign she couldn’t read. In the doorway, a curtain hung in place of a door. Niko pushed through the curtain, and she followed Niko in. Niko waved to a Florges being the counter. “I’m back.”
Florges perked up. “Hello, dear! Oh, you’re taking someone with you tonight? Do you want to upgrade to a double room?”
Niko shrugged. “Nah. I’m good.” She dropped her voice into a whisper so that only Spirit could hear. “Can’t afford one anyways.”
Florges giggled. “Oh, I see. Enjoy the night, girls!”
Niko grimaced, and departed to her room. Spirit followed in to find a nice room with a single soft, fluffy bed. It was like a cushion, but with a rim to stop someone rolling off the edge.
Spirit hopped straight to the bed and began to roll around. This fluffy fabric felt so nice! She loved it. Without her intending to, her tails started wagging up and down. She stretched out on the bed. “Do we get to sleep here? It’s wonderful!”
Niko nodded. “Yes. It’s a bed. Sleeping on it is kinda the point… If you’re tired, go ahead. I’ll stay up a little longer first.”
About a half hour later, Spirit began to nod off. She was safe and warm. The world, in all of it’s awe-inspiring, frightening vastness, had begun to feel more comprehensible.
—
When she awoke, Niko was lying on the floor, curled up asleep. The bed was large, there was enough room for Niko beside her. She considered asking why Niko didn’t want to share the bed with her, but she just let Niko keep her reasons to herself.
Niko leapt up, as if surprised Spirit had woken up before her.
“I'm awake! I’m awake! I… uhh… good morning Spirit.”
Spirit yawned, stretched and got out of the bed. She followed Niko back down the room where Florges had greeted them yesterday. Today, the desk was empty.
“C’mon, Spirit. Let’s not waste time. We’ll grab something to eat on the way.”
Niko led her out past the edges of town, where there was a tree with bark riddled by claw marks of various sizes. Niko unsheathed her claws and climbed up into the high branches. She returned with two pieces of fruit awkwardly held in one arm as she tried to descend without falling. When she made it to the ground, she passed one to Spirit. “Here, eat this. It’s nice and sweet. Better than the low-hanging fruits, or at least the ones that don’t get eaten right away.”
“Thank you.” As she went to eat, Spirit felt the same bit of instinct she’d felt earlier re-emerge. She allowed the feeling of cold to well up inside her again, then exhaled a freezing breath over the berry before eating it.
Niko stared at her. “I still don’t get how you do that. I guess spirits can chill things? I’ve heard something like that before.” Doubt was audible in her voice.
“I guess.” Both had finished their berries, but nobody had moved. Niko just stood there awkwardly. “Should we get going?” Spirit asked.
Niko scratched her head. “Oh, uhh, yeah. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“There’s someone I met yesterday. Dude asked me for directions, but then then while I was showing him my map, he was telling me his bloody life story or something. Really! Bloody small-talk. But yeah, he said all kinds of stuff about Ho-Oh and spirits and that kind of stuff, so he might be able to help.”
—
Niko led Spirit to a ravine lined with burrows. The first thing Spirit noticed of it was the smells. How was it possible for one place to have so many scents in it?
Niko ducked into one of the burrows, where an Absol was resting. Spirit lingered just outside the entrance, not sure if she should follow.
Niko cleared her throat. “H-Hello?”
Absol looked at her curiously. “Metheu-? Ah. You would be the Mienfoo from yesterday, no? Do you need somethi-”
Spirit took a deep breath and entered. Absol immediately took notice of her. “Oh? Who have we here? Are you… a Vulpix?”
Spirit looked away. “I… I don’t know.”
“We kinda came here to ask you about… things. I dunno, you seemed to know about spirits and things. Could she be a spirit?”
Absol walked up to Spirit and booped her on the nose. She staggered back and sneezed. “No, she’s not a spirit. Spirits are made up of the same energy as ghosts. You can’t touch them.”
Spirit whimpered. “What am I, then?”
“I know you’re not a spirit, but… I don’t have the faintest idea what you are.”
—
Nov 3: Edited out some errors
Nov 14: Dammit one day I will spell Florges correctly
Pneumatics hissed as a glass cover retracted, revealing a tiny Vulpix quivering on the platform beneath. Her pale fur was wet and flattened against her body.
She opened her eyes and looked around, soaking up her surroundings. She was on a soggy metal platform. The platform was half covered by a cylindrical glass case, but the other half was open to the rest of the room. Around her spot on the platform were a number of rubber tubes, each ending in a metal needle. Did they just hang loosely… or had they been connected to her?
She tried to remember… Surely, she must know something about why she was here.
But… her mind was blank. She changed her goal, trying to find something, anything to give her a sense of who she was. And yet she came up with nothing. Absolutely nothing.
She felt like she should’ve had memories. Without them, she felt… lost. She could remember what a “memory” was, and she felt there was a gaping void in her mind. A spot where there should have been… something.
Without memory, she had no identity. She didn’t even have a name to call herself.
She whimpered. As far as her memory was concerned, this moment was the beginning of her life. Her gut told her she had been someone before she woke up here, but she couldn’t know for sure. That thought frightened her.
She curled up into a ball and began to cry. For some time, she remained like that, a miserable ball of wet, shivering Vulpix, alone with the bitter emptiness in her head.
Eventually, though, a painful gnawing in her stomach drew her out of her self-pity. She discovered there was a name for the feeling in her vocabulary. It was hunger. Instinct told her that it wouldn’t go away until she found something to eat.
She stood. Her legs wavered beneath her, struggling to obey her orders. She needed to get down from the platform. She lifted one forepaw, then placed it in front of her. The next followed. Then her hind paws. She repeated the cycle.
Her walk was painfully slow and mechanical. It felt unnatural to her. Handling front and back legs seemed… wrong somehow.
How could she expect to find something to eat when she could barely walk? The thought made her want to curl up and cry again, but she only had so much time left before starvation claimed her. She may have had at least a day or two, but at the truly pathetic rate she was making progress, it felt like a strict timeline to her.
She reached the edge of the platform and looked down. It would be a safe drop, but something about the scale of it felt… off. Looking down at the floor below made her feel incredibly small. The drop was several times her height. Her gut told her that was a safe distance to fall, but it still felt like that scale was wrong somehow. Like she should be… bigger?
She threw herself off the edge. Her legs gave out under her as she landed, so she ended up on her stomach, sending up a large cloud of dust as she landed on the floor. She got back up, and began to walk towards the door, leaving a trail of footprints behind her in the dust.
Noticing her own footprints, she looked around. Hers were the only set. Nobody else had entered the room in a long time.
She reached the door and looked up at the size of the doorframe. It was built for creatures much larger than her.
Fortunately, the door had a smaller window cut into it with a flap allowing a creature of her size to pass through without being able to reach the doorknob. She pushed the flap open with her nose and passed through.
As she crossed over onto the other side, she was shocked to see how much larger this area was compared to the room. If she weren’t worried about finding food, she would’ve retreated back into the familiar dusty room. This new room was frighteningly large. If a single room could have this much space, how terrifyingly vast must the entire world be?
A hallway stretched down in both directions. The hall was lined with doors, but hers was the only one with a flap. Why? Why did only she get a flap? Were there others like her who were just trapped in their rooms?
The floor in the hall was still dusty, but there were other sets of footprints, too. Ones that did not belong to her. One set crossed her going left, then two crossed back going right. Two pairs, the left and one from the right had identical paw prints. Someone making a round trip in both directions.
The third pair was odd in that it only went one way. Could the one who left that one way footprint trail still be in the building? Or could they have awoken here like her and found their way out? Or… had they died, never to leave again?
She swallowed her fear and decided to ignore that third possibility. Hopefully, if she followed in the same direction as the prints, she could either find her way out, or find her way to the one who left the prints, who could probably help her.
She just really, really hoped that her footprint-leaving guide hadn’t died. If so, she would be following them to whatever caused them to meet their end.
Fortunately, though, the footprints did lead her to the building's exit. Unlike all the indoor rooms that lined the halls, the exit door was rusted, knocked off its hinges and left on the floor.
As she stepped outside for the first time, the sun hit her eyes. She hissed and shut her eyes. For a few moments, even the light shining through her shut eyelids hurt her. After a few moments, when the pain had passed, she reopened her eyes, and found the light much more tolerable. Pleasant, even.
She looked around. Green leaves rippled in the wind. A few small flowers poked up from the rich brown earth in whatever spots sunlight reached through the trees. Compared to the dusty greys of the building, the world outside had so many colours in it.
Her heart fluttered. For a moment, her hunger was forgotten. She was caught up in the sights and smells surrounding her. The world was overwhelmingly large, more so than ever, but these woods felt much less oppressive than the empty vastness of the building.
Before she began to search for food, she turned around to take one last look at the building. Though the indoors had looked almost undisturbed for years, the exterior of the building was being taken over by the outside world, mosses and lichens dotting the walls.
Beside the door, there was a sign with runes printed in metal upon it. The colour had mostly worn off, but the runes themselves were embossed in three-dimensions. Stepping further away to get a better look at the runes from her low angle, she was able to read the sign. “Private Property. For access, please contact the Ministry of Research and Development.”
She wandered. She didn’t know where she was going, but she didn’t care. It’s not like she could become lost. She didn’t have any idea where she was, and she didn’t mind the idea of losing track of the oppressively grey building and the room full of loneliness.
It wasn’t far before she came across a river. She stared at the rushing water, thinking. Though she’d never before seen any of the things she was encountering since waking up, she still knew words for things like water and trees and flowers. She remembered what they were for, too. She had to drink water to keep herself going, or else she’d get thirsty. It worked the same way as food and hunger. She walked up to the riverside and began to lap up some of the flowing water.
As she did so, she heard a voice cry out from behind her. “Aah! It’s a spirit! Don’t haunt me!”
She whipped around to see a yellow and red furred creature standing behind her, crouching, palms readied at her sides. The vocabulary buried in the depths of her mind stirred, providing her with a name for her new discovery. It was a Mienfoo.
The Mienfoo had called her a spirit? Is that what happened to her? “Do you know what I am? What happened to me?”
Mienfoo was taken aback. “You, uhh, don’t know what happened, huh. I… uhh… I’m sorry to hear that. It looks to me like you’re the spirit of a Vulpix. A dead one.”
Her heart fluttered. “You think I’m… dead?”
“I don’t know! You kinda look all pale and things, so maybe? I’d expected you to know!”
“I don’t remember anything… Nothing at all. Well, I remembered what water was when I saw it, and I remember that you’re a Mienfoo. But… I don’t remember anything about myself or the past. I have no memories.”
“Oh. Well then. That’s… quite the situation.”
“Do you know what I should do? What are spirits supposed to do?”
Mienfoo scratched her head. “I dunno… Listen, I bumped into a guy who might know what’s up. You wanna come with me and go see him?”
She felt a fluttering of hope at the suggestion. “Yes! I do… but I need something to eat first. I’m hungry.”
“Huh? Spirits need to eat?”
She lifted one foreleg into a half-shrug. “Well, I know I’m hungry because my stomach is hurting. That means I need to eat, right?”
Mienfoo shrugged, and pulled a cluster of small blue berries from a satchel worn on her side. “I guess so?” Mienfoo handed the berry over to her.
She took a pensive nibble. It was sweet, but the texture was slimy. Still, she didn’t want to be rude, so she made herself swallow. It felt like she was eating it wrong somehow, but she couldn’t imagine what was off…
Not until an instinct welled up in her, and a breath of icy air forced its way up her throat. The cold air rolled over the berries, freezing them within a second.
Mienfoo was taken aback, but she was too focused on the food to worry about it. She tried nibbling at them again, and found that freezing the berries had gotten rid of all the wet, slimy texture from them. Now, they were quite edible, and she gobbled them up.
Mienfoo started at her with a look of confusion, leaving her to speak up for herself.
“Thank you, I feel much better. Can we go see the person you were talking about now?”
Mienfoo slowly blinked before responding. “Uhh… sure. Yeah. Let’s do that… tomorrow. You can, uhh, stay with me tonight?”
“Okay,” she said, not feeling she had much room to argue with the only lifeline between her and the indifference of nature. Mienfoo began to walk off, and waved for her to follow.
The two walked quietly for some time before the Mienfoo decided to break the silence. “So… Do you have a name? Or, uhh, do you remember one? Mine is Niko.”
A name. When she’d first woken up, it was one of the first things she’d reflexively tried to remember, but she’d failed. “I think I had one. I… don’t remember it. I don’t have one anymore.”
Niko scratched the back of her head again. Did she have an itch, or was it for some other reason? “Oh… That’s not good. Should I just call you “Vulpix” then? Or maybe “Spirit” instead?”
“I like the name Spirit,” she said. “Spirit...” She was Spirit now! Spirit was glad to have a name again, it filled the void in her memory where it felt like a name belonged.
“Okay, then. That… settles that. I… uhh…” Niko seemed to have something else she was thinking, but not saying… Niko had suggested those as something to call her, which Spirit had thought meant a name. Was she not supposed to have picked a name?
She didn’t care. It made her happy.
“Well, uhh, Spirit, let’s get going. I’ve got a room in town until tomorrow. We need to get there, like, today.” Niko resumed walking, and Spirit resumed following.
They arrived at the edge of a village. Niko guided her down the streets, countless others flowing around them. Spirit tried to focus on staying behind Niko, not wanting to get lost in the action.
Were they all like Spirit and Niko, with their own names, personalities and histories? She was once again feeling overwhelmed with the size of the world. How many others could there be? Hundreds? Maybe a thousand? She could hardly imagine all the stories there must be between all the people out there.
Niko led her to a street paved with cobblestones. They felt funny on her paw pads. About halfway down the street, Niko stopped her in front of a wooden building with a sign she couldn’t read. In the doorway, a curtain hung in place of a door. Niko pushed through the curtain, and she followed Niko in. Niko waved to a Florges being the counter. “I’m back.”
Florges perked up. “Hello, dear! Oh, you’re taking someone with you tonight? Do you want to upgrade to a double room?”
Niko shrugged. “Nah. I’m good.” She dropped her voice into a whisper so that only Spirit could hear. “Can’t afford one anyways.”
Florges giggled. “Oh, I see. Enjoy the night, girls!”
Niko grimaced, and departed to her room. Spirit followed in to find a nice room with a single soft, fluffy bed. It was like a cushion, but with a rim to stop someone rolling off the edge.
Spirit hopped straight to the bed and began to roll around. This fluffy fabric felt so nice! She loved it. Without her intending to, her tails started wagging up and down. She stretched out on the bed. “Do we get to sleep here? It’s wonderful!”
Niko nodded. “Yes. It’s a bed. Sleeping on it is kinda the point… If you’re tired, go ahead. I’ll stay up a little longer first.”
About a half hour later, Spirit began to nod off. She was safe and warm. The world, in all of it’s awe-inspiring, frightening vastness, had begun to feel more comprehensible.
—
When she awoke, Niko was lying on the floor, curled up asleep. The bed was large, there was enough room for Niko beside her. She considered asking why Niko didn’t want to share the bed with her, but she just let Niko keep her reasons to herself.
Niko leapt up, as if surprised Spirit had woken up before her.
“I'm awake! I’m awake! I… uhh… good morning Spirit.”
Spirit yawned, stretched and got out of the bed. She followed Niko back down the room where Florges had greeted them yesterday. Today, the desk was empty.
“C’mon, Spirit. Let’s not waste time. We’ll grab something to eat on the way.”
Niko led her out past the edges of town, where there was a tree with bark riddled by claw marks of various sizes. Niko unsheathed her claws and climbed up into the high branches. She returned with two pieces of fruit awkwardly held in one arm as she tried to descend without falling. When she made it to the ground, she passed one to Spirit. “Here, eat this. It’s nice and sweet. Better than the low-hanging fruits, or at least the ones that don’t get eaten right away.”
“Thank you.” As she went to eat, Spirit felt the same bit of instinct she’d felt earlier re-emerge. She allowed the feeling of cold to well up inside her again, then exhaled a freezing breath over the berry before eating it.
Niko stared at her. “I still don’t get how you do that. I guess spirits can chill things? I’ve heard something like that before.” Doubt was audible in her voice.
“I guess.” Both had finished their berries, but nobody had moved. Niko just stood there awkwardly. “Should we get going?” Spirit asked.
Niko scratched her head. “Oh, uhh, yeah. Let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
“There’s someone I met yesterday. Dude asked me for directions, but then then while I was showing him my map, he was telling me his bloody life story or something. Really! Bloody small-talk. But yeah, he said all kinds of stuff about Ho-Oh and spirits and that kind of stuff, so he might be able to help.”
—
Niko led Spirit to a ravine lined with burrows. The first thing Spirit noticed of it was the smells. How was it possible for one place to have so many scents in it?
Niko ducked into one of the burrows, where an Absol was resting. Spirit lingered just outside the entrance, not sure if she should follow.
Niko cleared her throat. “H-Hello?”
Absol looked at her curiously. “Metheu-? Ah. You would be the Mienfoo from yesterday, no? Do you need somethi-”
Spirit took a deep breath and entered. Absol immediately took notice of her. “Oh? Who have we here? Are you… a Vulpix?”
Spirit looked away. “I… I don’t know.”
“We kinda came here to ask you about… things. I dunno, you seemed to know about spirits and things. Could she be a spirit?”
Absol walked up to Spirit and booped her on the nose. She staggered back and sneezed. “No, she’s not a spirit. Spirits are made up of the same energy as ghosts. You can’t touch them.”
Spirit whimpered. “What am I, then?”
“I know you’re not a spirit, but… I don’t have the faintest idea what you are.”
—
Nov 3: Edited out some errors
Nov 14: Dammit one day I will spell Florges correctly
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