Pokémon Weaversong

[Adamhuarts]

​

Chapter One: A Hiro's Beginning

The human snapped his eyes open with a gasp, quickly sitting up only to be struck back down by a splitting headache. He clutched his temples and tried to raise his body again, more slowly, but quickly collapsed. He groaned and held his eyes shut as he curled up on the ground. It was hard to even focus on just breathing. His whole body ached, as if he'd woken up a morning after swimming the length of the ocean floor.

A few minutes passed without incident. In that time, he regained enough strength to open his eyes again and take in his surroundings. Tall evergreen swayed gently with the winds, their branches spread out and huddling together. The clear blue of a daytime sky filtered sunlight through gaps in the foliage, dotting the ground with bright splotches. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. The earthy smell of the ground helped soothe his mind enough for stray thoughts to start trickling in. Where was he? Why did his face feel damp? Was he crying? Tears had pooled in his eyes, streaming down his face as he laid there motionless.

He raised his hand to wipe his face, but his mind skidded to a halt the moment a white paw slid into view. He jerked back, sending leaves scattering as he tried to crawl away. His heart pounded in fear of the beast about to maul him, but there was nothing but trees and sparse shrubs as far as he could see. Had he imagined things?

He lowered his eyes, but he felt a sinking chill over his heart before he could even sigh in relief. Dark fur covered every inch of his body. The claw he thought belonged to some vicious beast was his. The human clenched and unclenched his paw over and over, his eyes shaking as if the thing would go away if he stared at it hard enough. Yet, it remained. A fresh stream of tears dripped down his face. The human, if he could still call himself that, shook his head slowly and his lips quivered.

He wanted to scream. All of this made absolutely no sense in the slightest. What happened to him? He tried to think back to the last thing he remembered— and then his train of thought collapsed like a house of cards. No matter how hard he tried to peer into his memories, a void so profoundly empty fogged his mind. His fur stood on end and his breathing grew erratic as panic took further hold of him.

The human knelt and beat his head on the ground, clenching a fistful of leaves as his claws dug into dirt. Why couldn't he remember anything? He clasped his head, wincing as his claws prickled into his dense fur. Th-This couldn't be right. There… there had to be something he could remember. He faced the fog in his mind, mentally ripping through the nothingness in desperation. Even as his head burned more fiercely and a dizzying nausea churned his stomach, he refused to relent. A single glimmer appeared at last. It was so faint and distant that he would've easily missed it. He gritted his teeth and reached for it through the fog, as a faded memory crossed his mind.

I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…

We failed, and it's all… it's all…

Yes, you're right. There's still hope.

This might be the only way…

Hiro… when you wake up… you must find me.

The human fell onto his side and gasped for air. His head throbbed more painfully than ever before, and he felt ready to throw up whatever meager contents of his stomach he might have had. What was that memory? He could only hear a voice, but he already yearned for the comforting familiarity it carried. He had no idea what the person was talking about or who they were. Maybe they were a friend of his? A faint smile found its way to his lips at that possibility. It wasn't much, but now he had more than a purely blank slate to work with. Also…

"Hiro… is that my name?" Though hoarse, Hiro's voice still sounded soft and somewhat high pitched. A part of him somehow knew he should've sounded different. Though like everything else about his real identity, he had no real way of knowing. Soon he closed his eyes, and immediately went out cold.

---

Peach clouds, dyed from the late noon sun, drifted across the sky by the time Hiro woke up. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, flinching when fur brushed his face. Right, he'd turned into some kind of creature. His heart quivered and he took steady breaths to quell it.

Hiro decided to get moving before evening approached. His headache had abated a bit during his brief sleep, but now he felt terribly parched. Maybe he could find a vast lake nearby, or a gentle stream. Perhaps even a gushing river snaking through the forest somewhere. Only problem was that he couldn't tell up from down from where he sat. The nearest body of water could be days' worth of travel for all he knew. If fate smiled upon him, he might stumble upon one and sate his thirst before exhaustion wore him down, or a hungry beast picked him off as an easy meal. He gulped at just the thought of such awful scenarios.

Hiro pushed himself to his feet and sighed in relief. He could stand up without problem, but could he walk in his new body? In trying to take a step, his leg kicked forward with far more strength than expected. He yowled and screwed his eyes shut, anticipating to pitch face-first to the ground. Nothing happened. Surprised, He peeked an eye open and found himself crouched forward with his foot planted in the ground. The other one had dug claws halfway into soil to prop him up, leaving Hiro in an awkward half-running pose.

It was then that the fan of feathers glued to his rump introduced themselves. Hiro glanced over his shoulder to get a better look at them as he fixed his posture. Did the feathers aid his balance? It sure felt that way, as they'd tilt and flick each time he looked like he was about to faceplant to the ground. He had another one on his head too for some reason. A swarm of questions flooded his head over how he as a furred creature would have feathers at all, but he silenced his mind after failing to come to any conclusions. He decided not to question how his strange new body worked until later, sometime when he wasn't worried about basic sustenance and his own life and limb.

Hiro took baby steps around the clearing to get himself used to walking. A few minutes passed before he could make it all the way from one end to the other without wobbling like a slinky toy. He smiled at his progress, a tinge of wonder twinkling in his eyes. Now he could get moving along in earnest. His ears skimmed the surrounding sounds to pick a direction to follow when he heard faint sounds of flowing water coming towards his left and walked deeper into the forest.

---

Fate smiled upon Hiro after all. A river happened to be a few minutes' walk away from where he'd woken up. He approached nervously and caught a glimpse of a pair of deer-like creatures-that curiously had pink fur coats-drinking from the river bank. He'd barely taken a step on a patch of dirt when a twig snapped beneath his foot with an audible crack. The deer-like creatures seemed to hear it, as they sprang up in alarm and scurried back into the cover of forest. Hiro pursed his lips in a frown. He wished he'd gotten a better look at them; what in the world were they? Thankfully, his disappointment proved short lived, as he made his way to a calm tributary to quench his thirst.

Hiro dipped his paws in to cup some of the water at first, and it all but drained through his claws. Clearly his paws weren't intended to be used as makeshift bowls. Sighing – and without any brighter ideas – he leaned forward and dipped his muzzle into the water to drink.

Fresh cold water bathed Hiro's throat like rainfall after a long drought, invigorating his very soul. He took gulp after gulp till he had his fill, then pulled his face back with a satisfied sigh. That was the first drink he'd had as far as he could remember. For all he knew, it was the first drink he'd ever had in this body. Hiro lowered his eyes, staring despondently along with the flowing currents for some time.

He looked around and found a calm pool nestled between the rocks along the riverbank downstream. He made his way over, and found that the surface was still enough to reflect objects in it, including his own face. A face looking like a cross between a cat and a weasel stared back at him, adorned with a yellow gem in his forehead. He… he looked kind of cute? The moment he made eye contact with his reflection, the name 'Sneasel' sprung to his mind without prompt as if his mind had picked it out from a glossary list in its deepest recesses. Hiro shook his head with a sigh.

First, he lost all his memories, and now he knew things he couldn't possibly have. Hiro squished his cheeks in his palms and growled in frustration. He wrapped his arms around his legs and tapped his knee frantically. There were silver linings to his situation. Sneasel was a Pokemon…

That word popped into his mind out of nowhere too, and it gave him goosebumps. He clenched a fist and exhaled a huff. The pink deer from earlier must've been Pokemon too. He didn't know their species however. Could he only identify a Pokemon's species if he could see their face? Hiro wondered if the person, or thing, that brought him to this strange world gave him the cognitive ability as a gift. Who knew? Maybe he had other gifts he didn't know about yet to discover too.

Hiro's heart drummed at whatever implications might come of that. He shook away the distracting thoughts and brought his mind back to his current situation. Before anything else, he needed to find some form of shelter. A place to find food as well. If his claws and fuzzy feline frame were anything to go by, it would likely be in the form of meat. Of course, he had no idea how to hunt in his current state either. If there had been a school of fish swimming in the river then perhaps an outdoor roast would've been on the menu… assuming he had some way of starting a fire. However, all he could find in the water were rocks and green algae draping their sides. He… wasn't desperate enough to find out what the latter tasted like. Not yet, at least.

Food would have to wait. A dead leaf snapped off a branch overhead and drifted to the water's surface, waiting for no one as it floated downriver. Hiro squinted his eyes and thought. Where there was a body of water, there were bound to be people living by it at some point. Without further deliberation, Hiro got up and, followed the river's course. With luck, perhaps he'd stumble upon a village or something.

---

Hiro's paw found an easy grip on a mossy boulder, letting him hoist himself over. He hadn't expected the riverbank to leave a carpet of rocks in his path. The draining exercise left a growing hunger to gnaw at his stomach, which made him groan and sit down for a quick break. The river beside him poured tirelessly on its downstream course, though the forest was already quieting down for slumber. Orange streaks dyed the clouds as evening cast a dark shade from the other horizon. He couldn't even sense much life loitering about him anymore. There was just him and the river.

Hiro sighed wearily, and considered camping out for the night when his stomach growled in protest. He sighed again and slid down the rock. A smooth pebble by his foot caught his eye, and he picked it up to feel its surface. Hiro considered tossing it into the water, but he squinted and pinched his brow in annoyance. There were better times to be distracted. He still had some time before the sun dipped behind the horizon, and he wanted to keep moving till then. At least that was the plan until he heard beeps coming from the trees.

Hiro's fur stood on end and he stiffened up. He sprang back to his feet and resumed marching along the river, afraid of even looking back to see what was following him. The beeps only drew closer the longer he walked. Someone, or something, was surely stalking him, and they weren't doing a good job at hiding it. Was it a bandit? A hungry beast? He didn't know which of the two he'd rather try his luck with. Hiro clenched his fists and took a sharp turnaround.

"Hey! I know you're following me! Come out and show yourself! It'll save you the trouble, won't it?" Hiro yelled, swinging his outstretched claws out to look as threatening as he could. Frigid blood rushed through his veins, and he tried his best to hide his trembling as he waited for his stalkers to reveal themselves.

A silent breeze swept leaves off the ground, then three cone headed figures emerged from the shadows of the forest. Hiro cast a careful gaze on his guests, memorizing every detail he could about them. Their appearance struck him as otherworldly, yet familiar. Though like before, nothing concrete reached his mind aside from the word: 'Beheeyem'.

Their ovoid eyes stared him down. He didn't know how he was sensing it, but the chill of malice radiated off them like a rotting stench. A cold shiver went up the full length of Hiro's spine. He took a step back without thinking, only stopping to breathe when a puddle splashed beneath his foot. They absolutely weren't giving him a good first impression! Behind him was the churning river and ahead of him stood the trio. Hiro would have to go through them to reach the forest. They'd backed him against a wall, and he quietly cursed under his breath at that realization.

"Who on earth are you guys?" Hiro asked, a deep growl rumbling in his throat.

His question was answered with twitching and flickering lights from the Beheeyem's colorful fingers. Hiro squinted his eyes. "I really don't understand what you're… saying."

Again, no response. A suffocating silence took hold of the forest floor as the trio of foreign pokemon remained in place, their eyes fixed on Hiro like they'd just discovered a curious specimen. He tightened his left paw around its pebble and returned a sharp glare, not so much as stopping to blink. Time drew to a lull during the brief staring game. The gushing river was all that broke the deafening silence. Everything about them was so unnerving that Hiro just wanted to make a break for it.

As it turned out, he didn't need to wait long for them to break end the stand off. The Beheeyem on the left outstretched its arm with sparks dancing at its fingertips. Hiro swiped his paw with all his might and flung the pebble through the air like a missile to its target. It struck the Beheeyem with a loud thunk right above its eye. The Beheeyem erupted in a loud screech, before a misfired sizzling bolt burst from its hand. Hiro's body reacted before his mind did. His tail fanned to the side and he sprung out of harm's way just in time for the attack to zip past him, lightning bolts snapping at the water's edge when it crashed into the river.

Hiro's shock at the lightshow lasted only a moment. He shot forward at the other two, claws outstretched as he ran with reckless abandon. The Beheeyem zipped out of the way to avoid Hiro's mindless claw swipes.

Another standoff played out. The felled Beheeyem hovered off the ground and snapped its head upright, a motion that made Hiro's stomach squirm. Tension choked the air as the Beheeyem eyed Hiro cautiously, and his feather flicked at every sound from the woods behind him.

Hiro took a sharp turn and bolted for the forest. Just as he reached the shade of tree cover, a bright light lit up the right side of his vision and a searing pain cleaved through his hip. Hiro cringed in pain and clutched tightly at the fresh wound. He bit his lips to force back a scream, eyes narrowing to slits as he gazed back at the Beheeyem. The eyes on that same Beheeyem that got up carried a dimming glow. It wasn't hard to put two and two together. Despite it all, Hiro pushed himself as hard as he could and pressed onward.

Ear piercing beeps resounded from behind, letting him know the Beheeyem were still giving chase, and kept his feet firmly running. Rows upon rows of towering trees whisked past Hiro's vision, seeming to shift out of his path. Were his eyes playing tricks on him? He didn't dwell on it. There was a better time to stop and wonder about it.

After sprinting for some time, Hiro pressed his back against a tree to catch his breath. He glanced at the paw held firmly to his hip and found it red with blood. In the dim twilight, it looked just as dark as the rest of his fur. The pain from the wound hadn't sunk in yet thanks to the adrenaline pumping through his blood. Even so, he had to squeeze his eyes shut as tears threatened to force their way out. A cold feeling slithered into his heart and his whole body wouldn't stop trembling.

Beep

Hiro straightened his back right away. The Beheeyem caught up to him already? He surely thought he'd run far enough to lose them and yet… He peeked off the side of the tree and caught one of them hovering just off in the distance. They casted surveying glances around the forest floor. Maybe they hadn't found him yet. Even so, the Beheeyem was slowly nearing the tree he used as cover. It'd only be a matter of time before it discovered him if he just stayed put.

Hiro looked down and spotted a sturdy fallen branch at his feet, and he quickly picked it up in his claws. He bit his lip and waited, dying the end of the stick in blood as he gripped hard on it. His ears trembled and twitched, keeping surveillant for the beeps. They grew louder, and closer. Then, Hiro leapt out of cover and swung the branch down with all his might. The branch fell like an anvil, but froze in the air inches from the Beheeyem's face.

Hiro widened his eyes. A bluish glow surrounded the branch, and it matched the shimmer in the Beheeyem's eyes. The Sneasel tried to break his weapon free even as his wounded hip burned with agonizing pain. His eyes quivered, but he gnashed his teeth to fight back the foreboding cold spreading to his chest.

The Beheeyem tilted their head, as if curious about their pitifully struggling prey. They flexed a finger and the branch was sent flying, carrying Hiro along with it. The Sneasel yowled as he pinwheeled through the air and crashed into a tree.

Hiro crumpled to the ground. As he frantically tried to push himself to his feet and run. His head suddenly grew dizzy. Though he'd managed to stand back up, he fell like a dropped needle and sent leaves fluttering about. Hiro struggled to move, and he could feel a seeping warmth dampening his waist. Had he lost too much blood? If only he'd come up with something better than the gamble he pulled earlier. He struggled to keep his eyes open, staring blankly at the trees that danced and blurred in his vision.

Just nearby, he could feel someone approaching. The Beheeyem most likely. Who else would still be making those beeps? A low growl rumbled in his throat, but he didn't even have the strength to glare daggers at his pursuers.

Hiro's heart grew heavy and he failed to suppress his whimpers. Just like that, he'd woken up in a bizarre world and already he was about to die without so much as being told why. His consciousness slowly slipped away, he didn't know if he'd ever wake up again. Perhaps fate had never smiled on him to begin with if this was the sort of cruel ending he'd meet. Just before the world faded to black, a bright yellow light lit up his eyes.

"Help has arrived!" a booming voice yelled, followed by another flashing light and the crack of something being struck down by thunder. Hiro couldn't make sense of what was going on. Had someone come to save him? Why? He felt a warm tap on his shoulder.

"Rest…," said a second voice. It was wispy – almost ethereal.

Hiro closed his eyes and moaned. It was all too much, and so very confusing. It didn't concern him anymore though. He drew a long breath, exhaled, and the world grew silent…

Special thanks to @Spiteful Murkrow and @SparklingEspeon for beta reading this chapter.[/respace]

Spoiler: Update Notes

8/14/22: Minor dialogue tweaks in a few areas

 

[Adamhuarts]

Chapter 2: A Hiro's First Steps

Hiro's mind drifted through a murky cloud. He whimpered from the sparks of pain that dug into his flesh, winced at muddled voices surrounding him in all directions, and felt like a suffocating from something being tightly wrapped around him. Each transient pause lasted longer than the last before a deep sleep was permitted to him.

A while later, Hiro began to stir, groaning softly as his mind stitched itself back together. He opened his eyes and blinked slowly at the oak wood ceiling above. A trill escaped through the whirring in his throat, followed by a languid yawn and the popping of his claw joints.

Where was he? Hiro sniffed at the air, noticing a faint cocktail of herbs and berries permeating around him. The smell reminded him of an infirmary. He flicked his ears like a tuning rod. The cacophony of the forest floor was gone, replaced by a cozy silence that helped ease his nerves.

He pawed at his stomach and felt a dull pain beneath the bandages wrapped around his torso. Someone had saved his life, but who? Hiro thought back to his encounter with the Beheeyem, though doing so made his stomach lurch. How powerless he'd felt. That unfortunate event aside, everything else that came after was too foggy for him to make out in much detail.

Hiro cast a surveying glance over the dimly lit room. Light trickled in from a small window, kindling a shimmer over the two empty beds next to him, both tucked in flaps of bedsheets around corners. He turned his eyes to the door standing at the far end of the room, then at the other sitting ajar on the left corner. Their rough woody frames would make for perfect scratching pos— Hiro immediately stomped that thought and shook his head. He squeezed his eyes shut to gather his bearings and opened them again at the doors, wondering which would lead him outside.

A stool sitting between two medical cabinets caught his eye. It was wholly unremarkable, if not for the still and lifeless plush doll hiding quietly beneath its shade. He quirked a brow and studied the doll from a distance; it had a big round head and two-hole cutouts on its chest. Maybe someone kept it around to comfort younger patients? Or It could be that a child forgot it there during a previous visit.

Hiro's stomach growled, and he remembered he hadn't eaten for… He blinked. How long had he been unconscious for exactly?

"Hungry…?" asked a wispy, feminine voice.

The voice made Hiro's ears perk right up. He peered over his bed and found the 'still and lifeless' doll slide out from under the stool and tug slowly towards him. There were few things more bizarre to witness in an infirmary. The doll's large head flopped to each side with every motion as if strings guided her body.

The doll paused in front of his bed with her head drooping forward—long dangly ears draping her face and all—and evoked a faint hiss. She threw her large head back, and Hiro could swear something blinked at him through the holes in her chest. Why were her eyes down there? He pinned his ears back and dug his claws into the straw mattress bit by bit, his mind running in circles just from trying to comprehend what he was even looking at. He didn't even notice the pair of dark velvety tendrils snaking up from below, until they brushed his cheek.

Hiro mewled in fright, clasped his paws over his mouth, and quickly crawled back to the other end of his bed. Half his mind rang with alarm bells and the other remained flushed with embarrassment at the sound that just escaped his throat.

The tendrils flinched and retracted back down the bed. "Loud…" she said with an irritated hiss.

"U-uh, I'm sorry?" Hiro quickly blurted out. He prodded his claws together as he reluctantly inched back near her on the other bedside. Sure, something about her felt off and creepy, but he hadn't met anyone else he could communicate with till now. He clenched his claws and asked, "Um. Hey, can you tell me where we are?"

"Village," she replied in a voice filled with indifference. Then she nonchalantly crawled up his bed, like a magnet sliding up a wall. Hiro remained seated in place, almost tempted to check beneath those rags to see if she had legs, or tentacles instead… and if then, who knew how many she'd have?

Hiro also couldn't help but wonder why she dressed herself up in a mascot costume in the first place, though he figured she likely had her reasons. Even stranger was that he couldn't tell what kind of Pokemon hid beneath the get up. That only affirmed to him that he did actually need to see a Pokémon's actual face to know what they were at a glance.

"What are you?" Hiro asked tensely, hoping the question wouldn't be seen as rude.

"Mimikyu… No. Mebh," She drawled, tapping her wooden paddle-shaped tail against the bed frame.

"N-no… I meant… are you a pokemon?"

"I am Mebh."

"Ummm…" Hiro raised a paw and then lowered it with a sigh. "Never mind." It didn't feel like he could get much more than that out of her.

"My name's Hiro." He rasped his claws together and flicked his ears nervously. "Nice to meet you?"

"Hiro…" Mebh hissed faintly as she withdrew her tendril.

And then she just… stared at him, quietly, without so much as an utter. Hiro twiddled his paws and stared back, waiting to see if she'd say anything. Perhaps something like asking him how he ended up in the infirmary, where he was from, or even tell him a bit about herself. Instead, she slithered a tendril towards him. He couldn't help but tense up slightly when she started prodding at his bandages. She seemed oddly curious about the white fabric, appraising it from every angle on his body.

"Why are you…? Wait a minute." Hiro suddenly leaned towards her, his forehead gem catching some of the light from the window as he asked, "Oh I get it. I remember a voice before I passed out now. Was that you?"

Mebh shook her head, pulling away with a quiet hiss and pushed his face back with the flat side of her tendril. "Atlas."

"Who is—"

"For you," Mebh said, cutting him off with a sphere that felt cold against his chest.

Hiro blinked at her in confusion, and trailed his eyes down to find a fruit of some kind in his claws. Did she want him to eat it? The thought alone caused his stomach to rumble with a growl, and his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. To his relief, Mebh showed no reaction to him. Not that he could tell even if she was smiling smugly under her costume.

"Thanks," Hiro whispered in appreciation.

Orange pearls of liquid seeped from the dark-skinned berry as he grazed a claw against it. A hunch told him he'd seen the fruit somewhere before, but he couldn't remember for sure. It did look harmless enough, so he brought the berry to his mouth and licked the juice off the skin. An explosion of flavor engulfed his taste buds. The overwhelming sweet and sour taste captivating him so much that his feather fluttered like a butterfly.

"What is this fruit?!" Hiro gasped as his mouth drooled. "I've never had something this sweet in my life!"

Any table manners he might have practiced in another life went out the window as he tore fangs into the berry, each bite showering his mouth with a punch of warm flavors.

"You… are strange."

Mebh's voice pulled Hiro back to reality, making him pause in the middle of licking berry juices off his claws. He hurriedly wiped his mouth with flushed cheeks. An awkward moment of silence later, his tail feathers fanned up and down behind him. "You wouldn't happen to have more… right?"

Mebh answered him with a low hiss and shifted herself to the side. A second berry appeared seemingly out of nowhere, which she promptly handed over to him. Hiro blinked twice. He decided not to question what he just saw and quietly gobbled down his berry.

"Atlas. Doctor. Here soon," Mebh said as she straightened her drooped head.

That name again. Just as Hiro cocked his head and opened his mouth to ask her who they were, one of the doors sprung open with a loud creak.

Mebh hissed irritably and vaulted off the bed, landing a few feet away on the ground.

"Huh? Where are you—" Before Hiro could finish his sentence, Mebh zipped her tendrils to the open window, flew out, and made herself scarce from the room.

Hiro stared dumbly at where Mebh had been just a second ago. What was that about? He turned his face when a small click from across the room made the dull orb hanging down the ceiling spark to life. A gentle blue glow illuminated the infirmary, allowing Hiro to glean a better look at the person that just arrived.

A Pokemon he'd never seen before walked in, pinching his long greying whiskers with a wide yawn. The rattle of a strap of tools jostled back and forth with his long sleeves. The figure looked clearly exhausted, if the dark corners in his eyes were anything for Hiro to go by.

The Pokemon cast a wide glance around the room. His eyes fell on Hiro and he smiled. "Sneasel, thank goodness you're finally awake." He raised a brow at the empty spot beneath the stool holding the bowl-filled tray.

"Oh, the other one left on her own?" He turned to the bed and met Hiro staring back at him like a mute. "Call me Mienshao, I'm the one who fixed you up."

"Oh, so you're Atlas!" Hiro said, the mattress sinking beneath his claw as he leaned forward and pointed the other at the Pokemon. Mienshao froze mid step as though pushed back by a sudden gust, then he snickered.

"I'm not Atlas. Could you imagine that?" He shook his head and tugged at a whisker. "He brought you here. To say you were knocking on Yveltal's cocoon would be an understatement. Any later and…" He waved a paw. "Well you're alive now and that's all that matters."

"I see…" Hiro muttered as he lowered his eyes to his bedsheets, tapping idly at his chest gem.

Mienshao walked to the other side of the room and hung his tool strap on a rack. He rummaged through a nearby cabinet next to a colorful assortment of glass bottles to fetch a pair of familiar looking Oran berries. However, he paused when he approached Hiro with them and noticed the hints of orange and blue coating the Sneasel's claws. "So, you've already helped yourself to some Orans while I was away, have you?"

"Ah, that?" Hiro scratched his cheek and chuckled. "I got them from Mebh."

Mienshao scratched his chin and nodded slowly like he'd heard a remarkable tale.

"That… one? How curious. She barely moved an inch since you got here; at this point I thought it was her hibernation at the start of spring. I didn't think she'd do my job for me while I was away" Mienshao chuckled with a wave of his paw and returned the berries to a nearby tray on a cabinet. "So, how are you feeling right now, Sneasel?"

"I feel-" Hiro stared down at his body, and for once he noticed how exceptionally normal he was feeling. His lips parted in amazement when he didn't even feel the slightest ache when he pawed at his bandaged hip. "What was in those berries?"

"You almost sound as if you've never seen an Oran before in your life," said Mienshao as he sorted miscellaneous items on the cabinet. "Surely it's not that rare up north."

"Up north? Well…" Hiro didn't have an inkling of an idea where up north even was or what lived there.

"Let me help you get those off now…" Mienshao insisted. The Fighting-type approached Hiro and untied the knot holding the bandages together. The Sneasel sat still as two rolls of fabric unwound around him.

"There we go. Nice and easy," Mienshao said as he took the lump of fabric and disposed of it in an empty bin.

Hiro brushed his paws against his matted fur and stretched his limbs till they gave a satisfying pop. That felt good. A clap from Mienshao's paws got his attention. "Alright, that will be all now, Sneasel. You're free to go," Mienshao said, returning to a desk where he sat and pulled a quill out of an inkwell.

Hiro slid down the edge of the bed and just looked idly in several random directions. He raised a paw and pressed his ears to his head. "Which way should I go? I don't know this place… at all."

Mienshao sighed and half rolled his eyes. "The Atlas you mentioned earlier is just outside. Ampharos, with a red cape. You can't possibly miss him."

Hiro nodded and made his way to the sturdy wooden door. Standing face to face with it made it hard to keep his eager and itching claws tucked to his side from raking a door he had no money to pay for.

"Is something wrong, Sneasel?" Mienshao asked from his desk.

Hiro frantically shook his head and slapped his cheeks. "N-no, I'm fine. I was just… leaving."

He squeezed his eyes shut, clenched his paws and pushed his way out without looking back.

….

Hiro shielded his eyes and let them adjust to the warm light washing in from the end of the corridor. He made it out of the infirmary where a gentle cold breeze greeted his face. He couldn't help but gasp in awe at the sight around him. To anyone else, it would have been little more than a humble small village, but to him it was the most mesmerizing thing he'd ever seen. There were wooden huts and houses carved into the mossy cliffside, cut in half by a waterfall. He'd counted about twelve houses when a ball zipped past ahead to the other side of a bridge, and chasing it were two small pokemon he identified as a Mienfoo and Mudkip.

"Enjoying the view?" asked a yellow pokemon on a cedar bench. A rouge cape embroidered with a pair of thunderbolts crossed over one another hung around his back, concealing some of the black bands around his neck. The Ampharos' deep black eyes burned with the sagely air of one wise with years of experience, and the strength of one who'd fought a great many battles. His presence alone left Hiro awestruck until he noticed Mebh perched next to him. From the way the Mimikyu stared back, she'd probably noticed him first.

Hiro's eyes brightened up when he saw her, then he furrowed them and took a moment to think. If she was with the other pokemon, then that probably meant… "You're Atlas, right?"

"Yes, indeed! It is none other than I," Atlas replied, his voice firm and resolute. "You must be Hiro then, I assume?"

"Yeah, I am," he answered, straightening his back.

"I'm pleased to see you're in good health. You'd been left quite the worse for wear by the time we arrived." Atlas smiled reassuringly. "Fret not, we made sure those hooligans scampered like a rattled scuttle of Wimpod."

"Wimp… what? O-oh, you mean those Beheeyem." Hiro tensed up as he replayed the encounter in his mind. The empty eyes and loud beeps still made him feel uneasy. "Thank you very much for saving me. If you hadn't showed up when you did…" He huffed a breath. "I'm alive, and that's fine."

"Don't mention it, lad. It's only natural to help a mon in need." Atlas chuckled and leaned his arm over his knee. "Please, have a seat. There are a few things I'd like to ask you."

He flashed a friendly smile when Hiro hesitated to take the offer.

"Don't worry, this won't be an interrogation of any sort," Atlas insisted. "A few details regarding your attackers will suffice."

That seemed fair enough. Hiro approached the two and dug his claws on the edge of the bench to vault himself over, forgetting for a moment how light his new body was. The sudden movement almost toppled him back down as soon as he got onto the bench, but Atlas was quicker to hold him back in place. Hiro muttered a quiet thanks and seated himself properly. Atlas nodded, then flashed a curious glint in his eyes as he dug a notebook and a pen out from under his cape.

"Hey, if you're doing this… are you some kind of constable?" Hiro wondered.

Atlas flicked an ear and cast him a confused glance. "A constable?"

Hiro raised his left paw to answer, but the answer to the question danced across the grooves of his brain like an acrobat, elusive and beyond the edge of realization. He lowered his paw slowly, grimacing at the wooden planks below. "Never mind. What… do you want to know first?"

"Right." Atlas flipped the notebook open and began his questioning. "To start off, can you tell me why you were being attacked by the Beheeyem?"

Hiro fell into deep thought. The more the memory replayed in his mind, the more things just didn't add up. The Beheeyem found him alone in a forest, and he had a hunch they'd stalked him longer than he realized. They hadn't approached him at random; there must have been a motive.

"I don't really… know." Hiro shook his head, holding his arm as he lowered his gaze even further, ear flicking every time Atlas' pen scratched against parchment. "I woke up in the middle of nowhere, walked around for a bit to figure out where I even was, then they showed up out of nowhere trying to kill me." He twiddled his claws anxiously and glanced at Atlas. "You showed up not soon after, I think."

"In the middle of nowhere? Open Pass isn't the middle of nowhere." Atlas said, his pen pausing mid-scribe.

"Open Pass?" Hiro fanned his tail feathers and quirked a brow.

"The Mystery Dungeon we found you in." Atlas clarified, earning a slow nod from Hiro. "Open Pass is a famously low distortion Passage dungeon. Most mon don't even know how deep its history goes." He grinned, reminiscing from knowledge he'd acquired during his more youthful years. "For the most part you'll only encounter harmless and docile wildeners roaming its grounds, and you needn't worry about the dungeon warping as you pass through them, which makes it ideal as a shortcut to Coral Coast."

Atlas flipped a page on his notebook and continued. "Open pass being a low risk dungeon makes it ideal for outlaws to use as a hideout," he explained. "Though of course, prolonged stays in dungeons isn't something I'd recommend anyone do."

"Is that so…" Hiro muttered distantly.

The strange terms mostly flew over his head, much to his annoyance. If only the generosity of the person who flung him to the Pokemon world included giving him all the rudimentary knowledge about the world as well. Hiro leaned forward, rested his chin on his palm and lightly tapped on his cheek. Not knowing what else to say, he voiced the first question on his mind.

"How did you guys know I was in trouble anyway?"

"You can thank her for that." Atlas remarked. He gestured to Mebh with his pen, who had herself occupied watching a flock of starly chirping on a tree up ahead while the Mudkip and Mienfoo from before leapt up and threw pebbles at them from below.

"We were on our way to Coral Coast when Mebh wandered off on her own, as though possessed by Meloetta's call, and led me to the scene."

Hiro glanced at Mebh with surprise. Then suspicion gradually caused him to grimace, because he now wondered how Mebh knew to go and find him. Perhaps she heard him screaming, or she had a good sense for danger.

"Did you leave any belongings in the dungeon?" Atlas asked, tapping the blunt side of the pen on the notebook. "As I mentioned earlier, you were in a bad shape and we had to bring you here quickly. We didn't have time to search." Atlas glanced at Hiro top to bottom and hummed. "From the way we found you, one could've mistaken you for a wildener. If you had anything on you, we could return there now to search for whatever you dropped. Mind you, we can't do anything about your food items, those would've been long eaten by wildeners by now, but everything else should still be mostly intact somewhere in there."

"But I didn't have anything on me when I woke up… I…" Hiro clenched his teeth, a sinking feeling rising in his gut. Try as he might, the thick fog in his mind still remained… "I actually don't remember much of anything from before that."

Atlas widened his eyes and stopped writing midsentence.

"You have amnesia? Hmmm… I'd cite those Beheeyem as the cause, but memory alteration is a delicate process. Would they have gotten the chance…? No, that's unlikely." Atlas propped his back against the wall behind them and frowned slightly. "Besides, a dark type like you should have some resistance to mental tampering of that sort."

"What could those mon possibly have wanted to do with an empty-handed Sneasel?" Atlas brought a fin to his chin and narrowed his eyes. Gears turned in his head as he considered possibilities. "What can you remember? Even the smallest of hints could prove vital for our investigation."

"I…" Hiro pursed his lips. He could spill his secrets to Atlas and tell him all about how he was actually a human from another world. But just as he started thinking that, doubt seeped into Hiro's mind like an inkblot on a white canvas.

What even was a human in the first place? A vaguely bipedal figure formed in his mind, but that did little to ease his worries. From the little that came to him, it could've just been a distorted image of a Sneasel or a different Pokemon. How was he so sure that he hadn't been a Sneasel all his life and he had just now come down with a case of madness on top of memory loss? His mind was so troubled by the possibility that he didn't notice the frost gathering on his claw tips till Atlas patted him on the shoulder.

"Lad, are you alright?" Atlas asked, his voice soft with concern.

Hiro flinched and quickly scraped the gathering ice on his claws off against the bench. He watched the ice melt gradually, though he didn't have the mind to marvel at it.

"I'm sorry. I really don't know… I'm sorry," He said, lowering his gaze again with a deep sigh.

"It's okay. Anyone in your position would feel disoriented as well." Atlas patted him again on the back. He slipped his pen and notebook back under his cape before drawing a deep breath. "I have a colleague in Lively Town. She's a specialist of the mind and may be able to help you restore your lost memories."

Hiro's ears propped up in surprise. "There are people here who can do that?"

“People?” Atlas muttered to himself, finding the word strange and unfamiliar. “Yes… she’s a Hatterene.” He paused to gauge Hiro’s reaction. The fact that he got none piqued his interest, but he continued. “You needn’t worry, though. I assure you, she’s a very friendly mon for her kind. If you come with us, I can get you an appointment with her.”

Hiro’s eyes brightened up, but then he shrank back and looked away. Atlas was still a stranger to him, but he had no one to turn back to, and no leads to follow. Before him stood a village, and even with their strange houses and creatures, he could make a life for himself here… Hiro pursed his lips and shook his head. He’d only give in to complacency if he did that. There was only one thing he could do, but…

“Why are you helping me? I’m just a stranger you happened to save… I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but what’s in it for you?” Hiro asked while scratching at his arm with cold trembling claws.

"I don't mind. To answer you… Call it a whim if you'd like." Atlas beamed a reassuring smile. "Like I said before, it's only natural to help a mon in need," Atlas said, then slid off the bench. "Besides, your memories might tell us more about those Beheeyem, and that'll allow us to capture and prevent them from hurting anyone else like you."

"I see… hearing that is a relief." Hiro flashed a faint smile back at Atlas. "If I remember anything more about them, I'll let you know."

Atlas nodded. He reached into his bag and retrieved a piece of clothing that looked like it had seen a lot of use. "Here, wear this for now until we find something better for you later."

Hiro studied the thing and it came into his claws. It didn't seem to smell bad when he sniffed it, so he wore it around his neck like a scarf.

"Thanks," Hiro said, adjusting the scarf till it nestled comfortably.

"Let's go…" Mebh hissed, already on the path up ahead. She stared upwards after the clouds cleared, affixed by the velvety blue sky.

Hiro walked up beside her, his lips curling in a narrow smile. His mind's worries were surely still there, but the new company he'd made helped ease him through them. He recalled the voice he'd heard before.

'You must find me'

He tugged at his scarf and grimaced. As soon as he got his memories sorted out and found a place to settle, he'd find them alright. And they'd better have answers.

…

Three somber figures climbed up a rocky hill at the edge of the forest, their footsteps leaving no sound–for rather than walking, they hovered. The middle Beheeyem lagged a few steps behind the others, and they often had to wait for them to catch up. A still healing burn scar marked the edge of their shoulder. Soon, they arrived at the mouth of a secluded cave where a dark tunnel welcomed them within.

Not far inside, a Nuzleaf sat at alone with a sleeping guest in the dark cave. He tugged at the leaf growing from his head till it nearly snapped, then he'd release it, and repeat the process. The sting from it helped him stay calm. All the while, he kept glancing at the entrance as he tapped his foot with a scowl. At last the Beheeyem hovered into view, and the sight of them made him slam a fist against the rock he was sitting on.

"What is the meaning of this?! All you had to do was stick to our plan, yet you left me standing out there all evening." Nuzleaf stomped towards them. The Grass-type paused briefly, his eye twitching when he noticed they were missing somemon. The Beheeyem flinched from his gaze, and quickly spoke.

"We failed to procure the human," the leftward Beheeyem said, coming forward.

"An interloper got in the way," the middle one added, reaching for its wound.

"It is not for any incompetence on our part," the rightward one finished, hovering down slightly with a whirr. All three spoke in the same tone of voice down to the pitch.

Nuzleaf furrowed his brows, dark purplish wisps drifting from his fist. His glare made them fear he'd maul them any second. "Tell me everything that happened, and then maybe I can decide if you three are good for anything or not."

The Beheeyem nodded their heads in unison. They told Nuzleaf how they'd watched a Sneasel pop into existence through a storm of light before their very eyes, and how they'd stalked him until they were sure it was the human they'd been tasked to find. Nuzleaf placed his hand on his hip, his face stuck in a scowl while he listened up until they reached the part about why they really failed.

His face blanched when Atlas' name was dropped, biting hard on his lip till it bled. This was bad. He'd hoped to keep his mission under The Expedition Society's radar.

"We only escaped because the Ampharos was too busy tending to the injured human to chase us after our teleport," The Beheeyem said, finishing their tale.

"How could you three-" he waved his hand and grumbled under his breath, "-of all Pokemon on this planet to be involved, it had to be him?!" Nuzleaf raised a hand to the leaf on his head, but stopped short of it. He'd surely snap the already abused stalk, and it'd take days for the leaf to regrow. So, he chose to mutter profanities under his breath instead.

"Should we continue pursuing the human?" middle Beheeyem asked, eyes glowing dimly. "Ampharos is likely to take the human back to Lively Town. If we intercept them on the way—"

"Absolutely not," Nuzleaf said, immediately snuffing the Beheeyem's plan out. "Your faces have already been seen by the head of The Expedition Society himself. Just get any ideas to deceive him out of your minds. You'll be fried to ashes if he so much as catches a glimpse of you again." Nuzleaf bit his thumb in frustration. "If we're lucky, there won't be wanted posters of your faces across half the continent by the weekend."

"Then, we should leave the human be?" The rightward beheeyem asked, hovering back up.

"Is that wise?" the one on the left asked.

Nuzleaf opened his mouth to speak, but clenched his fist and brushed his other hand over his face.

"This will be tough, but…" Nuzleaf looked over his shoulder at the only other mon in the group asleep: A Xatu. He muttered what sounded like gibberish to himself, then a smirk crept to his lips as small bits of a plan began to take shape in his head.

"The future is still on our side, is it not? Xatu here’s been most helpful with seeing to that," Nuzleaf said, flicking the bird’s head.

A crack split down the middle of Xatu’s beak like it was made out of weathered clay. Nuzleaf flinched for a moment and pulled back. He glanced back at the three Beheeyem with a grin.

They exchanged glances with one another. A dull glow ignited in the eyes of the middle one, showing uncertainty. “The human has her protection. Foretelling his future will likely bring Xatu to ruin. This time he may not survive.”

Nuzleaf’s lips pulled in a frown. The Beheeyem pulled back by a pace, anticipating an outburst. Nuzleaf doused the tension in the air with a wave of his hand, and the Beheeyem seemed to relax. Though they seemed confused.

"His life is worth the price,” said Nuzleaf, shooting the wilted Xatu a glance. “It upsets me to waste a puppet so soon, but our hands are tied, in no small thanks to you.” He looked away and raised a palm, which cast a shadow over his face.
The Beheeyems’ eyes glinted with a blue light in unison, all three as attentive as pawns awaiting a patriarch’s decree.

“Have Xatu discover our human’s actions and whereabouts as far out in the future as possible,” Nuzleaf began. He pushed his hand into his cloak and pulled out a card. A yellow sun-like symbol confined in a yellow ring embellished the card on both sides. The Beheeyems’ eyes went from blue to a darkish purple; the color of anxiety.

“Here's what you three must do…"

---

Spoiler: Edit Patchnotes

1) Added the description of Open Pass as a Passage Dungeon, along with a few minor grammar edits.

Update Notes 8/14/22: Reworked a few dialogue lines and added some new ones towards the end of the chapter

 

[Adamhuarts]

Chapter Three: Play and Learn


The Village Pokémon had been kind enough to offer Atlas and the others a few pounds of dried meat, some fruits, and refills of their water canteens. Restocked with enough supplies to last them a few days, they bade the small hamlet farewell and began their journey into the pine forest. During their trek, Hiro kept his idle mind busy by counting pinecones on the treetops, each one looked at least three times the size of his head. Compared to the trees they grew from, they looked like boulders growing on shrubs.

Atlas leaned over to match Hiro's height and made a broad gesture at the trees. "I know what you're worried about, but those aren't Pineco." He singled out a pinecone dangling off a scrawny branch. "Pineco have a darker blue-green shade that's hard to miss, and they only hang by midsection branches."

Hiro nodded along to the Ampharos' explanation, though a grimace remained etched on his face. "I don't get why the pinecones are so huge though."

Atlas grinned and cast Mebh a look, who was perched on his shoulder with her paddle-tail bobbing up and down with every step he took. "It's called mimicry. A hungry Skwovet will think twice before munching on a pinecone that resembles a pineco." Atlas broke into laughter at his own joke.

Hiro smiled awkwardly in response. He clasped his claws tighter around the strap of their traveling bag—even Atlas couldn't decline Hiro's zealous offers to carry some of the load for the duration of their trip—and turned his face towards the trees ahead.

The three exchanged no more than a few words between themselves for the next few minutes. One moment Hiro was watching the pine trees, and the next time he blinked, the scenery had shifted to the familiar evergreen glade of Open Pass. Atlas had mentioned something before they left the hamlet about the lowest distortion dungeons lacking defined gateways. Only now did Hiro understand what that truly meant.

They journeyed on for some time through the forest, passing by trees strangling mossy boulders in their rooted grasps, and after a while they encountered more trees doing the same.

...Or not.

Either Hiro's mind had played a trick on him or they had been walking past the same tree over and over again. To make sure he wasn't going insane, Hiro excused himself and carved a cross-shaped marking into the mossy tree. Minutes later, they passed by the tree with the very same marking on it, just as Hiro had expected. According to Atlas' explanation, Open Pass also lacked enough dungeon distortion to warp their passage in such a manner. He'd been following Atlas this entire time, so what on earth was going on?

Hiro then put two and two together. Even with the sagely air Atlas' presence gave off, he somehow had an atrocious sense of direction. Not even the weird magical slab he called an 'Expedition Gadget', boasting a comprehensive map, helped them much. They found themselves going in much the same circuits, with the whistling of the breeze through the trees almost sounding mocking as they continued on.

The Sneasel had kept count ever since he marked the tree, and he knew he had to do something when they rounded back to it for the tenth time in a row. He picked up the pace till he was walking right next to Atlas. Hiro stole a glance at the expedition gadget that was under the latter's stern gaze.

"Er… Atlas?" Hiro tugged at the Ampharos' red cape, and smiled awkwardly when Atlas threw him a curious glance. "I want to try looking at that Expedition Gadget for a bit, if you don't mind."

Atlas gave a thoughtful hum, and there was a tinge of nostalgia in his eyes for a moment.

"I don't suppose it'd hurt," he said. "Though do you even know how to use an Expedition Gadget, lad?"

Hiro raised a paw and parted his lips to say yes… right. He lowered his paw and smiled sheepishly.

"Well, there's no time like the present to learn, is there?"

Atlas chuckled. "I suppose not."

The Sneasel only needed half an hour to absorb every instruction from Atlas on how it worked. But every second of that had been enlightening. Hiro may have lost his memories, but he had a gut feeling the world he was from didn't have anything with a 'screen' that changed colors and lights with the touch of one's claw tips.

Once Hiro was in charge of navigation, it didn't take long for them to find the dungeon's exit. Just as when they'd entered, the environment shifted in a heartbeat around them as if they were waking from a dream. Now a sea of jade grass stretched ahead of them for miles, the uniform expanse only broken by the trees that sparsely dotted the landscape.

Hiro didn't spend too much time admiring the view. They had to keep moving.

Over the course of a few days of travel, they passed a few small settlements along the way. Eventually, they delved into another mystery dungeon. This one greeted them with cold, snowy winds, and sparse shrubbery. They pressed along, walking the ground studded with rocks and pebbles like they'd rained down from above. Along the way, they harvested mild-tasting fruits growing on bushes on occasion, adding them to their rations.

Hiro's throat quivered in a constant purr, and at times a trill would escape when he spoke. Something about the dungeon made him feel right at home. Was his Sneasel body built for such colder environments? It felt nice. He could probably build himself a den in the cave they just walked out of and live out his life there…

Hiro abruptly caught himself, and a chill went down his back as he dismissed those thoughts. Did he just consider abandoning his journey? Without skipping another beat, he urged Atlas and Mebh that they should leave.

After channeling the best of his navigation skills to lead the way outside, Hiro tucked the gadget under his arm and took a moment to inhale deeply. His mind no longer dragging itself in two directions was something that he relished. After fully regaining his composure, Hiro discovered they'd wound up in a forest valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains. Sunlight rimmed the mountain peaks in a brilliant orange, marking evening's approach.

At Atlas's suggestion, they began to set up camp.

…...

After Hiro gathered and arranged the wood for their campfire, Atlas set it ablaze with a mere spark from his hand. Hiro stood to his left and marveled at the sight, just like he had the first time they camped out days prior. Whenever Atlas channeled his lightning, Hiro often saw light flicker like a candle inside the orbs on his forehead and tail. A particular memory of him a few days ago, frying a wildener fearow that had dove for them, sprung to mind. Just how exactly did it work?

"You should rest up," Atlas instructed, breaking Hiro out of his thoughts. "We have a long climb to Drago's Watch ahead of us tomorrow." He stretched his arms before finding a seat on the opposite log. "Afterwards, a swift ride on dragon's back should get us to Lively Town beyond the mountains."

"A ride on—" Hiro clamped his claws to his log and leaned forward with a glint in his eyes. "We're going to ride on real dragons?!" This, Hiro could remember more clearly. His mind painted pictures of a fire-breathing lizard raining a blazing storm on… some kind of rocky wall.

Atlas chuckled. "Of course, we are. I even saw Charizard and Gyarados in their stations during my last visit."

Neither of those names brought anything to Hiro's mind, but he nodded along as though he understood anyway. It took him a moment to notice his ears had folded down.

The conversation soon simmered to a lull. Hiro's feather flicked this way and that as if it had a mind of its own, catching all the chirps and clicks of bug mon in the background. The Sneasel did his best to tune it out as he stretched his arms forward and spread his claws out till his joints made a satisfying pop. His eyelids felt heavy, the first calls of sleep tugging at them. He grumbled and slapped his cheek, though that did little to stifle another oncoming yawn.

After his third yawn, Hiro huffed and thought to find a tree to climb soon. That was when the sound of snipping and cutting pricked his ears. He glanced to his left and found Mebh there, her costume stirring like it had a thousand little creatures wriggling inside of it. Hiro furrowed his brows, looked away and paid no further mind to her. The last time he'd been curious enough to ask what she was doing, Mebh had hissed irritably at him and simply said "Not ready" in a grating, low-pitched voice that could haunt a person's dreams for a good long while.

He threw a glance back at Atlas as he walked off toward a tree. "Are we going into another one of those Passage Dungeons tomorrow?"

Atlas looked away from his Expedition gadget. "Unfortunately for us, there isn't one," he replied. "There is a dungeon nearby, but it's an old chasm dungeon. Naturally, that makes it useless as a travel shortcut since one can only leave a chasm through the same doorway they went in through."

"Oh, I see. That's a shame." Hiro hadn't the slightest clue what a chasm dungeon was beyond what Atlas had just said, but he chose not to inquire further.

He'd noticed the looks Atlas sometimes gave him during conversations. It was as if a language barrier existed between them. Hiro often felt like he was treading a floor littered with barbs with each conversation. Just how careful did he need to be? How much had Atlas caught on to him? Part of him was thankful for his memory loss, as it gave a perfect excuse for his ignorance and for avoiding awkward questions each time.

Atlas rose from his log and found an empty patch of soil. He unclipped his cape and spread it on the ground. Then he settled down, tucked his arms under his belly and wrapped his tail forward. Curled this way to sleep, Atlas resembled a big yellow loaf of bread, and Hiro had to pinch himself to stifle a laugh.

Hiro had already climbed up a tree by the time the campfire died down, and yet he couldn't sleep. It wasn't because of Mebh's… activities lingering in his mind; rather, his thoughts just wouldn't stop drifting back to the scene of Atlas lighting those campfires with electric sparks. Hiro also recalled the time when frost clung to his claws back at the village. Neither snow nor hail graced them from the skies that afternoon. Nor did any frigid winds caress them like in that cold, cozy and wonderf— like in that passage dungeon earlier. The ice was definitely something he conjured himself. But how did he do it in the first place? Could he do it again? Such thoughts kept plaguing his mind, and soon he found himself abandoning the notion of sleep entirely. However he'd conjured that frost, he needed to know how to do it again.

The Sneasel hoisted himself to his feet, peeked over the edge of his branch, and slunk down without a second thought. His heart fluttered like a hummingbird's wings as the ground rose up to him. He swiped his claw to his right, hooking it into the tree's rough bark and stopping his fall just a few feet from the ground. He hung there a moment longer, his chest still light, and then grabbed the tree with his other claws before making the rest of the way down.

Hiro unhooked himself, and dropped silently to his feet. He checked to make sure the others were asleep. Atlas continued to snore soundly in his loaf-like state, while Mebh was perched on the log he'd last seen her on. Hiro nodded to himself, and marched his way deeper into the forest.

…...

The clicks and chitters of nocturnal bugs filled Hiro's ears as he walked. Even a few birds could be heard cooing from the tree tops. He mostly ignored the sparse audience and kept his eyes on the path littered with leaves ahead, carpets of moonlit ground guiding his path. He stopped to hack cross-shaped mark into every third tree he encountered for no other reason than instinct. It felt… good, and there was no harm in it either. At least it would at least help him find his way back should he get lost.

At last Hiro chanced upon an open glade, with no wildeners in sight or hearing range. He glanced back the way he came, sap oozing from the latest tree trunk he'd carved a mark into… and also smeared all over his claws. Hiro groaned and crouched on his haunches, then slathered his claws on the ground. Once he'd covered most of the sticky sap in dirt, he rasped his claws together, exposing an ivory-white surface as he scraped the dirt off. A white mist escaped his lips as he sighed. His eyes widened in excitement, but no… He quickly put together that it was just the cold night air. He hadn't figured out that ice sorcery yet.

Hiro closed his eyes and turned his thoughts back to the past, back to his encounter with Atlas at the bench. If he wanted any hope of repeating that scenario, he'd need to replicate the circumstances. At the time, he'd been feeling a sense of dread weighing upon him, hadn't he? Hiro grimaced to himself, but pressed on.

What was he? A human? A Sneasel? A disguised abomination thrust into a world without any regard for his will and choice in the matter? How much of his current self was even real? Each colorful thought his mind conjured put him increasingly on edge, as his heart sank lower and grew colder.

Yet when Hiro opened his eyes, his heart rushing, he still found no frost gathering at his claw tips.

So, fear wasn't the catalyst for whatever he'd done before. Or at least, not one he inflicted upon himself. Hiro groaned and clasped his claws against his head, drawing long heavy breaths. He massaged the fluff of his cheeks and gradually pushed those haunting thoughts of what on earth he was to the back of his mind. He was Hiro, and that was all he needed to be for now.

In spite of that, a frustrating thought remained. What did he need to do to use his ice sorcery, then? Atlas' electric prowess lit like a blinding sun in his mind again. After what he'd already experienced, he'd no doubt need to find his own strength if he wanted to survive this world of Pokémon.

Any answers to his dilemma dangled just out of his reach. Except for one. He could wake Atlas up, explain to him how he was a human—or at least he probably was one, anyways—and that he needed the very basics of life as a Pokémon to be explained to him like a newborn. His stomach tied in a knot. Anything but that.

On their journey alone so far, Atlas had taught him the names of wild berries and foods they encountered, introduced him to the hamlets they'd passed through, and exposed him to the bizarre oddities that were Mystery Dungeons. Soon, Atlas would even show him to someone who might be able to restore his memories. To ask for even more now would just make Hiro a burden, or worse, a parasite.

His frustration growing, Hiro stomped to the tree he'd marked earlier and snarled. A quick swipe from his claw left another mark on it, and then another, and another. If this world's sorcery would not open its secrets to him, then he'd force its doors open. And if not… At least he'd have learned to wield his claws against anyone trying to get the jump on him in the future.

"Playing?" The soft, wispy voice made Hiro pin his tail up against his back. He whirled around with his claws—once again sticky with sap—and found Mebh behind him. The moonlight cast her costume to a faded grey as she approached from the middle of the clearing.

"Mebh?" Hiro asked, blinking. How long had she been there? His cheeks flushed at the thought of her having seen him mindlessly swiping at a tree like a wild animal.

"You… playing?" Mebh asked again, unfazed in her approach even as a breeze blew leaves against her.

"Playing?"

Hiro quirked a brow, glanced at his claws, and scrunched his face at their stickiness. He went about cleaning them much the same way he had before, before throwing a glance back at her.

"No. I wasn't playing. I was just"—he paused to think up an excuse—"training," he said as he scraped off the last patch of dirt on his claw.

"Play…" Mebh cooed. Hiro swore he just heard her giggle. "I like play… too."

"I just said that's not what I was doing," Hiro grumbled.

"Then what?" she asked, her eager stare boring holes into him.

Hiro could feel his fur bristling from her gaze. He moaned and relented. "Okay fine, I was trying to learn how to use—"

Hiro pursed his lips and averted his gaze to the trees on his right. He reserved a moment to consider his next words. When he thought about it, he still didn't even know the proper term for the sorcery he'd seen other Pokemon harness. He studied Mebh from the corner of his eye. She didn't strike him as the sort to care about that though, or even judge him for not knowing.

Perhaps it'd be fine to ask her about the matter?

"Uhm, Mebh, do you have sorcery too?"

Mebh tilted her doll-head to the side and stared unblinkingly at him. Hiro squinted his eyes; had he used the wrong term, or did Mebh herself not know what the right one was either?

Hiro reached up to pinch his snout, though the sharp points of his claw promptly discouraged the act. Moonlight rimmed the blades of his claw as he stared in momentary confusion, unable to place in his mind what he was trying to do. He sighed, lowered his claw, and finally spoke up. "I meant… You know how Atlas can use lightning to make our campfires, right? Can you do anything like that too?"

By the time he'd finished speaking, Mebh had big wide sparkles in her eyes. Without warning, she cocked her head all the way back with a soft hiss. Hiro twitched his nose and perked his ears, alert to whatever would come next. Then lights swirled around like a viscous fluid, congealing to form a ghoulish purple orb. Hiro watched as it hovered a pebble's width above Mebh's head, lingering for a moment.

Before Hiro could gawk at it, the orb launched high up and into the air. It tore past the leaves and the branches, shimmering like a second moon in the sky, shrinking slowly as it ascended higher into the heavens. It twinkled among the stars for a moment then vanished from sight, never to be seen again.

"Like… that?" Mebh asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

Hiro's eyes glimmered with the residual light of the shadowy ball, then he snapped his gaze to Mebh.

"That was… amazing!" he cried. "Show me how you did it. Teach me how!" He shut his mouth as soon as he asked that, cheeks burning in shame.

Meanwhile, Mebh trilled in response. "Okay! Let us play."

"Play? You're still going on about that?" Hiro asked. He didn't understand why in the world she wanted to play that badly, and so late at night, too.

The Sneasel sagged his shoulders and drooped his tail feathers. Much to his great relief, she'd at least ignored his little mishap of begging for help. When he reached for his chest, he could feel his heart still pounding from dredging his worst fears earlier… Perhaps humoring Mebh's proposal to play could help reduce some of that. He could always figure out sorcery some other night.

"Fine, I'll do it. Let's play."

Those few words sealed Hiro's fate. Before he could even blink, a dark blur smacked him right on his forehead gem. Hiro yowled and fell back, clutching his head. In front of him was Mebh, a tendril tied around her now detached paddle-tail.

Hiro massaged his forehead with the back of his claw, more confused than upset she'd hit him. "What did you do that for?!"

Mebh hissed as she lowered her weapon, its flat surface brushing against the grass. "Hiro… not…"

"I'm not… wha—" Before he could even finish his sentence, Mebh again vanished before his eyes and re-appeared right in front of him, poised to strike him with her weapon. He squeaked and shielded his face. When no blow came, Hiro opened his eyes and saw that Mebh had halted her blow just an inch away from his nose. He didn't spare another moment before crawling away to put distance between himself and her.

Hiro hissed at her like a frightened cat and pressed his back against a tree. What was Mebh's problem? Whose idea of 'play' involved hitting others out of nowhere?!

"Hmm… Hiro weak," Mebh said, a hint of disappointment in her tone. "Can't play…"

Though Hiro's encounter with the Beheeyem already made it painfully clear, hearing someone outright call him weak left a pang of pain in his heart.

"I don't know if I want to play… whatever this game is anymore," Hiro said, a growl rumbling in his throat, and his back still glued against rough bark. He didn't take his eyes off her for even a second.

"Learn. By play." Mebh tilted her head with a hum. "Hiro not want?"

Hiro parted his lips slightly and fell speechless. Sparring… he'd walked into sparring by agreeing to play with her. It… made sense. One did get stronger by clashing their strength against others. All this time, she hadn't ignored his impulsive request, but rather had been acting according to it. Even if he'd asked for help at the height of his excitement, it did not at all come in the way he expected.

He hardly wanted to continue right here and now, but it would be discourteous to refuse help when he had been the one to ask for it.

"New play," Mebh said, breaking Hiro out of his thoughts.

"Again?" Hiro twiddled his claws… "I mean I guess it wouldn't hurt." He paused for a beat, his gem still numb with the afterglow of her strike. "Well, it might. Tell me what this new play will be about first, okay?"

Mebh trilled, prompting an awkward smile from Hiro. Then she sprinted a couple feet away and turned around. She waited a moment with a patient shuffle of her feet. "Catch me. You win," she cooed.

"That's it? Oh, I guess…" That did sound better than getting his tail handed to him in a fight he didn't stand a chance in. Her new game almost sounded like something a younger version of him would've played with a group of friends out on the bustling streets… Not that he'd know when he couldn't recall any such memories. Hiro dragged his feet off the ground, taking his time to pull away from the tree and walk a few steps in her direction.

"I just have to catch you. No strings attached, right?" A rumbling churned in his… no, was he purring? He shook off the embarrassment and spread his claws out. "Alright, let's do this then. Here I come!"

Hiro dove at her, but he succeeded only in slamming face first into the ground. Hiro flicked his feather as he spat out a clod of dirt and leaves. His eyes trailed after Mebh, who stood a few feet away from where she had been moments ago, giggling and bobbing her doll head left and right in what he was pretty sure was some sort of taunting gesture.

He made another running start for her and dove a second time. Just as before, she avoided him without breaking a sweat, giggling even louder as Hiro caught nothing but empty space.

Mebh ran right up to him. Hiro swiped his claw at her on instinct. She ducked under it and tackled the Sneasel right off his feet with her paddle tail. The world spun for a moment before, once again, he fell flat on his face.

"So slow. Catch me, Hiro! Hurry!"

Hiro plucked his head from the ground, his eyes now brimming with resolve as he cracked a determined grin. "Okay, you're on!"

Hiro tried for… how long had it been? He wasn't sure and didn't care. Time and again, he was swept up by the flow of Mebh's antics. The game went on as he chased her over shrubs, up the treetops, down into burrows and even across a creek. Every time, Hiro would come close to catching her, but then Mebh would slip out of reach, trilling in delight. Then she'd take a moment to lob him taunting, and then the chase would resume. Over and over again.

Eventually, they made it right back to the glade where they'd started. Mebh waited beneath the tree Hiro had marked with several gashes earlier. The Sneasel caught up, panting heavily while he leaned his weight on a tree stump. Fangs peeked through his grin, his blood coursing with adrenaline. He had to admit, the chase had proved more exciting than he expected. A brief lull settled amidst the breeze, the moon casting a soft light over the pair in their final standoff.

Mebh cooed and bobbed her head. Her big head with its squiggly face tempted Hiro like a cat's toy, provoking a low growl from him. He crouched, tensed his claws, and darted forward. Something happened then. A jet of white dust trailed after Hiro as he pushed his legs harder than he ever had earlier. In a fraction of a second, he closed the distance between himself and Mebh.

"Caught me," Mebh whispered right before they collided. Hiro tackled her down, and swept them both rolling and tumbling together along the ground. When they came to a stop, Hiro groaned and wheezed, his claws scraping against Mebh's costume. She hissed in his arms, though much to his relief, it was a soft and gentle sound.

"What… did I… do just now?" Hiro heaved between heavy breaths, his body still coursing with the weakening afterglow of his previous lunge.

"Played. Learned," Mebh answered with a quiet trill, "Had fun, Hiro?"

Hiro offered her a tired chuckle, his strength ebbing away further. After a long exhale, he said, "Yeah… I kind of did."

The full moon hung like a guiding light in the night sky, its glow engulfing the stars around it. Mebh looked up and gaped at the spectacle, staying fixed to her spot until Hiro's grasp weakened and his breathing steadied. He had fallen asleep at last. Mebh hummed a soft melody to herself, one echoing spirits of a distant memory. When the melody reached its final verse, she bundled Hiro up in her tendrils, then carried him back to their camp by following the trail of marks he'd left behind.



…...

A bright glow spilled over Hiro, stirring him from his sleep. He groaned, rubbing his eyes as he sat up. He briefly wondered what was going on as the previous night's events replayed in his mind. Ah right, he'd humored Mebh's game of chase. But just at the end… he'd done something different. It felt new to him. How had he done tha—

A lustrous wheel careened from the heavens. Hiro squeaked and sprang to his feet in time to see the wheel crash into a floating platform in the far distance. He twitched his nose. Floating platforms? He dropped his jaw agape, eyes darting around as he realized his surroundings were totally unfamiliar. He had no idea where he was… Everywhere he looked in the sky, there were floating discs bearing ornate fractal patterns. Most looked at least ten times larger than the ground he laid on. The handful that were no bigger than his claws drifted like snow around him.

One of them hovered atop Hiro's forehead, spinning afloat like a ballerina. He reached out for it, but halted and gasped when he could see the ground through his arm. Why did his body become see-through like a spirit's? Each movement he made left a trail of itty-bitty fractal discs like the ones he saw everywhere. As if his body needed to change again…

Hiro scratched his cheek, but the absence of even the slightest pinprick of pain convinced him that he was having some kind of dream. A vivid one, but a dream nonetheless. The realization brought on a sense of relief. At least he hadn't somehow sleepwalked into the 'Chasm Dungeon' Atlas told him about.

Hiro walked to the edge of the platform, getting on his knees to peek past it. Far below everything else spread a network of light. It resembled roots pulsing like a beating heart, and each tendril stretched far into the horizon and beyond to the pink cotton candy clouds. Just how far down were the roots? He flicked a pebble off the edge and watched it fall and fall before it became too small to be seen. That… looked like a long way down.

He sighed. Could he even find a safe way to reach the other platforms? Perhaps he could jump and hope for the best? The closest one looked at most maybe seven times his body length away. Even if he failed, he didn't have to fear being hurt too much. It was a dream after all.

"How did YOU get in here?"

Hiro whipped around in time to catch the blur of a small and pink wispy creature hovering behind him. And then his foot slipped off the platform.

"Hey, watch out! You'll fall!" the wispy creature called out, but it was already too late.

Hiro flailed his arms around in vain to try and grab onto anything. He even tried to scream, yet his words failed to materialize. The wispy creature watched from above, calling for him. Their voice rang in Hiro's ears like bells, and yet he could only plunge deeper and deeper. Finally—

…...

"Whaa!" Hiro sprang up and smacked his face right into Mebh's head, earning a not-so-thrilled hiss from the Mimikyu. He rolled himself to the other side of the log before blurting out a quick apology.

Mebh huffed and turned the other way, and then things began to wriggle inside her costume. "Wait. Almost ready."

Hiro stared at her for a moment. He felt his tail feathers squirm. It was just Mebh doing her Mebh things as usual. He sat cross-legged and sagged his shoulders. The events of his dream were still fresh on his mind. Who in the world was that?

"You're finally awake, lad?" the Ampharos asked, sitting atop his cape with his legs crossed. Hiro nodded and idly scrapped his claw on the bark log.

"I had this really weird dream. It almost made me thing I got into a dungeon somehow. Everything about it felt so real," Hiro said, tilting his head at Atlas.

"That sounds like a lucid dream. What was it about? It might clue us in on your forgotten memories perhaps," Atlas speculated as he stroked his chin.

"I don't think it was a memory though, but..." Hiro explained the dream to Atlas, and the puzzling way it ended with him falling off a platform. Yet he noticed a slight shift in Atlas' eyes when he mentioned the creature he'd seen in the dream. A cold shudder crept up Hiro's tail feathers and his claw scraped the log nervously. Was telling Atlas a mistake?

"That is an unusual dream. How intriguing. Restoring your memories might help us shed more light on it." Atlas fetched his journal and scratched a few things into it. "For now we should get on the move while there's still sunshine."

Hiro quirked a brow, and that's when he noticed just how bright everywhere was. He shot his eyes towards the treetops, only to flinch when the sun threatened to blind him. "I overslept?! Why didn't you wake me up sooner?"

"For your own sake," Atlas said with a playful grin. "When you snuck off in the night, I asked Mebh to follow you just in case. But for her to challenge you to a joust under your circumstances…"

Mebh paused from her snipping. "Hiro weak," she chimed in.

"Wh-Hey!" Hiro's cheeks flushed and he pinned his ears back. There she went, calling him weak again. Did she have to say it to his face a second time? His pride had enough holes in it already.

"Now… less weak," Mebh added with a soft hiss.

Atlas laughed heartily. "Count yourself lucky. It hasn't been long since I taught her how to hold back in a fight." Atlas pulled his cape off the ground as he stood up and dusted it off. "Before I found her, she had garnered a bit of an… unfriendly reputation. Rumors had been spreading about a ragged specter confronting travelers on the road before beating them half to death."

Hiro's ears sprang up. "Wait what?" He shot Mebh a frightened look and scooted a couple inches away from her. "Why would you do that?"

Mebh hummed. "For cloth."

"Cloth? What for?"

She pointed to her costume. "For cloth."

Hiro raised a brow and tilted his ears leftward. He opened and closed his mouth a number of times, the words failing to form themselves.

"Make pretty cloth. For me," Mebh added with a pleased hiss. Then all at once, her costume stopped wriggling underneath. "Ready now."

Before Hiro could ask what that meant, Mebh wiggled back and forth before spitting out a clump of teal-green fabric at his face. The Sneasel squeaked and snatched it out of the air before it draped over his face and… he squinted at the cloth hanging from his claw. To his surprise, it didn't have slobber dripping from its hem, nor any moisture at all for that matter. And to his relief, it didn't come from her stomach.

"Wow, this is what you've been making all along?" Hiro asked, delicately moving the cloth between his claws, his eyes carrying the excitement of a jewelry appraiser. The fabric was soft to the touch and sturdy enough that it slid off his claw tips without being pierced through. It made the scarf Atlas had lent him earlier look sad in comparison. The poor thing had snagged against Hiro's claws often enough to be riddled with holes and better resembled an old and used frayed rag by now. In spite of that, Hiro couldn't contain his giddiness.

… How did Mebh have enough space in her costume to make something like that anyways? That, he wasn't sure he'd ever know.

Mebh crawled up beside him, and let him finish admiring her work before asking, "You like?"

Hiro nodded, ears bobbing up and down. "Yeah, it's pretty incredible…" Hiro's mind paused, and he glanced between the cloth in his claws and Mebh. His ears folded back slightly, sensing where things were headed. From Mebh's expectant gaze, and her not so much as reaching a tendril to retrieve it… No, he couldn't jump to conclusions. Instead, he asked, "Is it for—?"

"For Hiro!" Mebh finished for him, her voice chiming with a trill.

Oh, so there it was. Another gift to receive, another debt he needed to repay in days and months to come. Just what did he do to deserve all this generosity? Hiro forced a smile and held the fabric to his chest.

"Thanks, Mebh," he said.

He draped the fabric over his shoulders and pulled the drawstrings taut around his neck. The makeshift poncho weighed heavy on him. "Why the sudden gift?" He couldn't help but ask.

Mebh pointed at his tattered scarf and hissed irritably. "Ugly."

He stared blankly at her. That… was it? That was why she'd gone through all this trouble?

Atlas pried Hiro from his thoughts when the glow of the Expedition Gadget spilled over his face.

"Come along young'uns, we should get moving. The best time to catch a dragon is by late noon," Atlas explained as he handed Hiro the gadget. Hiro was more than happy to resume contributing his navigation abilities. He could return their generosity that way, for the time being at least. At Atlas' beckon, Mebh leapt up and perched herself on the Ampharos' shoulder while Hiro walked ahead, trailing the blinking red light on the map.

"Oh right, something happened last night too," Hiro remarked. He turned around and explained to Atlas the events of the previous night.

Atlas nodded after Hiro was done. "What you described sounds like the move Quick Attack," he explained. "Sneasel are well-known for being nimble. Master that move, it'll be a great asset for you in life."

Hiro's ears fluttered at the sound of that. Though he'd failed to tame ice like he planned originally, at least now he had assurance in knowing that even he had a chance at mastering this world's strange sorcery. He twitched his nose. 'Quick Attack' sounded a bit too silly and basic though. He'd have named it Speed Dash or something along those lines if it were up to him.

… On second thought, maybe not. That sounded even sillier.

…...

Far beyond the mountains, all the way in Lively Town, a café had just reached its closing hours. A cactus-like pokemon wiped the tables with a damp cloth, their gourd-sized ear extensions jiggling with every motion. His mangosteen-like coworker splayed languidly on a couch, her apron draped over her calyx that extended like pig-tails. She hummed a quiet tune while swinging her legs.

A third member walked to the counter, an adjustable stool creaking as a slender vine spun a knob on the side. The barkeep stood behind the counter, cleaning a cup with his scaly hands. When a green horn slowly poked into view, he couldn't help but grin. Two others, as sharp and pointy as the first, followed it. Then at last, the rose pokemon appeared in his full diminutive likeness.

Roselia plopped his flowers on the counter and let out a long sigh. "My petals feel like they're are going to wilt."

Sceptile leaned his face on a palm and tapped on the counter. "Struggling to keep up with the new wave of customers?"

Roselia's cheeks flushed at that. He threw his flowers over his head, and shook them as if they were a pair of pompoms.

"If I'd known it'd get this popular, I wouldn't have ever brought up that stupid tea recipe." He sighed, lowering his roses to cushion his face on them. "It's not even that good. I don't get it…"

A glass cup slid over the counter, spurring Roselia to shoot a pair of vines to snag it. Any later and the glass would've slid right off and shattered on the ground. Steenee wouldn't like that. Roselia caught Sceptile grinning back at him, and he pouted in response.

"You shouldn't have, Sceptile," Roselia said with a forced smile, cupping the glassful of fresh water between his roses.

Sceptile chuckled. "It's on the house, by the way."

Roselia shook his head and heaved a weary sigh. If nothing else, the free drink would invigorate him ahead of his walk back home.

"Ever since we added your tea to our menu, this place's seen a lot more life and new faces arrive. You've been pulling your weight as much as everymon else too. So, don't sell your efforts short, Roselia," Sceptile said while replacing the cabinet stock. His voice carried a grim air for his next few words, "It's not a good way to live."

Roselia jerked his head at the other grass type, but Sceptile had his back turned to him, handling bottles of various wine and liquor of all colors and tastes. He hid his face behind his cup as he drank its contents. Even he had heard his fair share of gossip about Sceptile's past before. Something about him traveling with a Dragonair and Charmeleon pair… and things not ending well.

"I'll keep that in mind."

After a beat of silence, Sceptile turned around and flung a cloth under the counter. Then he said, "Did you hear? The ol' Wandering Thunder is coming back to town soon."

Roselia widened his eyes. "Gramps? Huh. It hasn't even been a month though."

"Apparently, he's been seen with a Sneasel and some… thing in rags." Sceptile shrugged. "You know how he is. He probably picked up some prospective recruits for the E.S."

Roselia stared at his drink vacantly. "That does sound like him." After downing the last drop, he kept the cup and drew a satisfied sigh. He stood up and hopped off the stool, landing on the ground with puffed cheeks.

He went for the door and opened it with little effort. Before leaving, Roselia waved at his coworkers. "Be seeing you guys tomorrow!"

"Sure…" Steenee replied in a haggard voice.

"Catch you in the morning, Rosie!" Maractus answered with an enthusiastic wave.

Sceptile too offered a brief wave back. "Likewise, Roselia."

…

Roselia often followed the same routine on every trip to and from work. Even when the sun set, Lively Town hardly grew any less active with Pokémon out and about. Many of them were Delvers leaving on missions or exploring the streets for leisure. Because of course they would. The worst part of it all was having to wade through the crowded areas and constantly look over his shoulder to avoid being stepped on by a Nidoking or some other large Pokémon. They'd be the one to meet the pointy ends of his thorns if they tried, but Roselia would much prefer to avoid such an encounter altogether.

On the cobblestone path—now dull grey under the blanket of night—he ran into a belsprout and spinda pair and overheard a bit of their conversation.

"Did you hear the rumors? An Aberrant Dungeon was spotted just south of Showdown Mountain."

"By Entei's fangs! That close by?"

"Yes, everymon was talking about it in Barking grove. It's the first thing y'hear soon as you walk into any tavern…"

The pair walked past Roselia and before long, he couldn't eavesdrop their exchange anymore. Aberrant dungeons… he prayed to Alma above that he'd never have to see another one again in his life.

Roselia cut through an alleyway, taking a little-known shortcut. When it opened back up the street, he was surprised to find a crowd of pokemon gathered around a perimeter. Cheers and screams sailed about, along with the flash of elements igniting the night air. A public joust. The two mon taking part would keep it up until one or the other got knocked out, and he didn't have the patience for that. He sighed in defeat and turned around to take the long way.

Roselia soon reached a house at the top of a cliff overlooking the town's main river. It had been built to resemble a white rose in full bloom, with the windows and door cut into the outer petal and a chimney sprouting from the center. During full moons, Roselia would always spend at least a whole minute entranced by the way the moonlight gave the white petals an almost ethereal glow.

Roselia walked into the garden overlooking the porch. He plucked a few flowers on the way and cradled them in his own petals with a smile. The front door was at least three times his height, an artifact of how the house had been built with the previous owner in mind. He'd be a fit for it too if he ever evolved to a Roserade. Still, the knob was only a vine's length away. When he opened the door, a soothing, floral incense greeted him, and he stopped to take a deep breath. Lastly, he flicked a switch and the luminous orbs lit up one by one.

With how tired he was, Roselia went straight for his bedroom upstairs. He placed the flowers on the cupboard, then took off his blue-green work apron. The apron found its place in the wardrobe right next to Roselia's colorful bows, sashes and even a dress he'd worn to attend a wedding once.

Roselia returned downstairs, bringing the flowers to a shrine altar cradled in more flowers he'd brought on previous nights. He cleared the older flowers aside and offered the new ones in their place. He sat before the shrine, clutching the old flowers to his chest and lifted his gaze. The altar held not a photograph nor a pot of ashes. Only a worn-out expedition badge, and a looplet with charred black edges.

"Work sure was busy today, Ma," Roselia said, sagging his shoulders as he sighed. "Gramps is coming back soon, according to Sceptile anyway. Maybe this time I'll finally ask if…" He cupped his flowers over his face. It all began with that strange dream, didn't it? In it he had faced against gods, and fought shoulder to shoulder with fierce allies. "It all felt so real. I started to feel that maybe I could do all those things too, but… that was all stupid, wasn't it? Maybe I should just go back to Ma Zahra. That would probably make her happy."

Roselia didn't get a response. Of course, there had been no one but him in the house. He got up with the old flowers and tucked them into one of the several flower pots and vases decorating his home. When he passed by the shrine again on his way upstairs, his eyes lingered on the badge. Its golden sheen called to him… if only he'd reach out and grab it. No. Roselia squirmed and looked away, then promptly went upstairs to his bedroom. Only fools were swept up by dreams.

---

Spoiler: Edit Patchnotes

Added an extra bit of dialogue after the dream sequence scene.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Chapter Four: Church, Caudle, Furlong


Snow crunched beneath their feet with each step they took, the frigid mountain winds threatening to push them back down the slope on their way up. Hiro and his newfound companions prevailed through the tug of war and reached the top. At long last, Drago's Watch revealed itself atop a charred black mountain. Nestled among the snowcapped spires surrounding it, Drago's Watch evoked the ferocity of dragons whose very existence defied nature. There were striking black spires that clawed their way out of stone to form a bony barrier caging the outpost in, and many more jutting out like dragon spines.

Did Hiro's eyes deceive him? He blinked a few times, wiped snow off his muzzle, and yet the largest cliff on that snowless mountain still looked like a dragon's head roaring at the heavens. Did such a mountain always exist like that from the beginning? Someone must've carved it that way, surely.

Atlas broke Hiro out of his enchantment with a tap on his shoulder and offering a remark.

"Rest assured, we will still arrive by sun-down at our current pace," Atlas said as he took a few steps forward, paused a moment, then called Hiro over to lead the way.

Hiro quirked a brow. Aside from the winding path below that snaked its way to the front gates of the outpost, there wasn't anything as far as the eye could see that'd make one lost. The Sneasel wondered what was up with Atlas' sense of direction... Was he always like that? Hiro had a few odd quirks of his own like the incessant purring whenever he got excited, or his ears moving on their own at the slightest of sounds. Perhaps Atlas' condition was just a trait of his kind too.

Curious as Hiro was, he found it intrusive to prod so he took up the Expedition gadget and walked ahead. Having climbed up their way so far, Hiro heaved a relieved sigh that their destination was finally upon them.

They arrived with sore limbs and ice flakes clinging to their fur—or costume in Mebh's case—from hiking up the mountain pass.

Luckily for them, they hardly had trouble finding an inn to rest at for the night, as well as a dragon lift to fly them to Lively Town the following morning. Both the innkeeper and the Salamence carrier seemed almost a little too friendly—when the party approached, they perked up and put on smiles that the other customers didn't get. Hiro thought that was a little strange, but as they made their way to their rooms to lay down their packs, it hit him: any person not living under a rock would recognize Atlas right away. Those who didn't know his face had at least heard about the striking crossed thunderbolts embroidered on the back of his cape.

Especially if the titles of 'Chief of The Expedition Society' or 'Wandering Thunder' carried any power, which they clearly did.

After a quick meal, Atlas allowed Hiro and Mebh to freely explore the small outpost town at their insistence.

…..

The soreness of travel burned freshly in Hiro's limbs, but that hardly deterred the pulsing in his chest from just thinking about exploring what Drago's Watch had to offer. It was the first town they'd been to in days, and the first to have anything more advanced than rocky dens and huts. Hiro wanted to take in as much of it as he could before they leave in the morning.

A pair of large dragon statues sat just at the end of the road leading out of the inn. They were crafted in the likeness of stiff-winged birds. Hiro observed that the dragons had no legs, though they had short clawed arms. Whoever they might have been, did they not need to walk?

Hiro peeked at their faces to learn their names, but nothing sprung to his mind. Maybe he could only recognize Pokemon that were alive... Hiro idly scraped a claw on the statue's base when he caught a Fraxure giving him odd looks. Guards? He looked menacing enough even without sturdy armor or pikes in hand. The statues must've held great importance. He slowly balled his claw and stepped back. The Fraxure shrugged and went about their way. It was only when the dragon turned their back to him that Hiro noticed the sack of potatoes they were carrying.

Hiro moved on from the statues and wandered some more. Each building they came across seemed to be built with bricks forged out of dragon fire and brimstone. They were generally simple in construction with little of the way of adornments. What few lavish ones the town had were painted in muted colors, their bodies molded in the image of mighty dragon heads, claws, tails and everything in between. The whole town made Hiro feel like he was walking atop the body of a dragon slain by forgotten gods a long time ago.

Mebh didn't share Hiro's enthusiasm for exploration, always lagging steps behind while Hiro walked with a spring in his steps. Her gaze wandered about, never settling on anything more than a few seconds before drifting to another, then a spray of snow struck her in the face. She snapped her gaze at Hiro with a hiss only to find him speeding up one of the buildings.

"The race is on, Mebh!" Hiro flashed a grin at her from his perch, and then vanished in a cloud of speckled dust.

A trail of white flowed behind him as he raced ahead on the rooftops. Scaling up the buildings came easy—most of them were so rough and jagged that his claws had no trouble finding a good grip to hoist himself over. Being above the ground below soaked Hiro's heart with a sense of ease, like a bird that learned to fly and could no longer imagine a life on the ground.

Mebh wouldn't let herself lose so easily a second time, shooting over him like a harpoon and landing ahead. Soon he was the one chasing her and not the other way round.

Their race brought them all the way to the top of the tallest dragon spine tower, where a conclusion was met and a winner declared.

"You sure you… didn't go easy on me last night?" asked Hiro, hunched over with all his feathers drooped like withered leaves.

Mebh bobbed her head and cooed triumphantly in response while Hiro dropped to his rump to take a deep breath. He flashed the Mimikyu a thumbs up, leaving their score at one to one.

The two companions then shared a quiet moment watching wispy clouds sailing across the sky ahead, painted a bright peach by the remnant luminance of the setting sun far in the distance.

Mebh snuggled up Hiro's side, her beady eyes trailing after a Dragonair and Drampa pair far down on the ground, loitering about in the evening cold. The Drampa had a hat with a panache of black feathers, while the Dragonair sported a heavy-looking cloak. Could they be hiding something beneath it?

Hiro noticed Mebh's attention remained fixed on the pair and gulped while he drummed his claw on the stony shingles. "You're not going to… you know… are you? Looks a bit far down if you ask me."

Mebh hissed at him like a cat forced to watch a mouse across a window just barely out of reach. She shook her head, and he sighed in relief. Of course she wouldn't have ambushed those two. Though If she did try anything, would he even be able to stop her at all? He harkened back to the previous night when he first agreed to 'play', brushed his forehead gem and grimaced to himself. Him stopping Mebh? Probably not. That scared him even more.

Hiro crossed his legs and rested his head on his palm. A gust swept over the roof, sending a drifting snowflake onto his nose. It almost made him sneeze. As he wiped his face, he spared another glance at the buildings surrounding them, a stray thought wandering to his mind.

"Why do you think they made their houses like that, Mebh?" asked Hiro. "Do you think the lord of the land told them to do it?"

Mebh's head drooped the other way as she shifted around.

"Not matter," she answered, then plucked her paddle tail to sharpen it against the rough shingles.

Hiro chuckled at her response and shook his head. The air felt so nice that night, like a soft blanket against his fur. Just as he was about to lean back and lie flat on the roof, his feathers twitched—he sensed something—and his fur brambled up by the thousands on his back.

Mebh hissed and held her paddle tail till it almost snapped, while Hiro leapt to his feet, claws outstretched. When they'd climbed the tower, there had been no one there. Now there was a ghost-like being standing on the other edge of the roof. Their jade mantis-like claws hooked on the shingles and their beaten wings draped beside them like tattered curtains. Their eyes burned with a crimson glow, their gaze fixed to the sky as if to rain blood on the heavens above.

Hiro widened his eyes, immediately recognizing the flickering green and black fractal disks drifting around the figure. They reminded him of the ones he'd seen in that dream from the other night, but these ones had a sense of foreboding to them.

"Who are y—"

Before the rest of the question could leave his mouth, Mebh shot forward faster than he could blink. She closed in on the ghostly mantis, swung her tail like a blade. Her tail cut through the air, phasing through the apparition as if it wasn't there.

A sudden gust pushed her back, and the ghostly figure was gone. The air settled and the snowflakes fell from the sky. All was normal again.

Hiro heaved a breath and almost dropped to his knees. Just what was that? He pressed the back of his paw to his chest, and felt his heart drumming.

"That was creepy, right, Mebh?" What strength Hiro had left in his legs evaporated like steam, forcing him to sit down with an agitated growl. He couldn't stop thinking about those crimson eyes... Just who was that?

Mebh scooted up beside the trembling Sneasel and began patting him softly on the head. "Silly Scyther gone. Hiro safe now."

"What are you doing that for?" Hiro asked, raising a brow. He grimaced at the gesture, though he didn't quite move his head away either as she kept doing it. It actually made him feel better, though Hiro didn't want to admit that.

"Let's go back. We should tell Atlas what we saw…" Hiro said, casting another disturbed glance at the empty spot where the Scyther had been.

"No," Mebh answered right away, which made Hiro quirk a brow. "Atlas should not know… danger. Hiro safe now."

Mebh's answer gave Hiro pause. He wanted to press her more about what she meant, but decided against it in the end. If even Mebh was telling him to be wary of what he said around Atlas… Perhaps she understood more than she let on.

…..



Atlas meanwhile stayed behind in the inn, resting on one of the two beds of rolled hay as he waited for Hiro and Mebh's return. Though the Innkeeper offered them the best room at a generous discount, Atlas still chose the one that had just a single window letting in a trickle of moonlight, the two beds opposite one another and a small wooden table. For travelers on the move, it provided everything they needed.

He glanced at the steam wafting from the bowl of hot chesto broth atop the side drawer to his left. A drink like that tasted better while still hot. He pulled the bowl closer and helped himself to a sip, savoring the slightly bitter taste that lingered on his tongue.

After a few more, he set the bowl down to retrieve his expedition gadget. A soft blue light washed over his fur as the device flickered to life. It was time to sift through its message logs, and learn what and how much he'd missed during travel.

In those idle moments, his thoughts harkened back to Mebh and Hiro. The former he'd come across while chasing rumors of a 'ragged specter' terrorizing the countryside, and the latter...

Hiro was even more of a mystery to him than Mebh in a few ways. Even if he only considered the gaps in Hiro's memories, Atlas knew more lay hidden below the surface.

Just where had he come from before they found him nearly dead in Open Pass? A few guesses had sprung to mind in the days that passed. Out of everymon in the Expedition Society, there was only one mon Atlas knew that may hold some clue to the mystery.

Atlas swiped a palm across his gadget's screen to summon a list of names. Each one had a small colorful winged icon corresponding to it. With an upward swipe, he found the name he was looking for and gave it a light tap. While waiting for the connection to establish, he took another sip of chesto broth.

In the time it took him to set the bowl back down, the gadget came back to life with a soft ring. A feminine voice spoke from the other end.

"[I wasn't expecting a call today, Chief.]"

The Ampharos grinned. He could clearly picture in his mind those tired but focused eyes. Always eagle eyed over a sea of papers and artifacts strewn across an office on all the walls, desks and shelves. That was Thena, the Mawile archeologist of the Expedition Society.

"[So, what's the occasion? Did you stumble upon something again this time? An old ruin, an undiscovered dungeon?]" Thena paused for a moment. Something clinked from the speaker. She must've been working on a trinket of some sort. "[Perhaps you've snatched an ancient artifact from an outlaw unlucky enough to cross paths with you?]"

"You're so quick to assume I'm calling because of work, Thena. For all you know, I'm calling because I have grown homesick and wish to return home to my loved ones where I belong," Atlas replied, which earned a dry chuckle from the other end.

"Sure you are. But really, what is this about?]"

"For tonight, it's nothing you could possibly guess. I assure you."

"[Is that so? Then tell me what you have to share.]"

Atlas crossed his legs and placed the gadget beside him on the bed.

"The other day, I rescued a mon in Open Pass. I found him cornered by a trio of Beheeyem bandits, the poor lad." He shifted his weight and leaned forward to sit better. "His elemental cloak was so weak that he would have died had we not shown up when we did."

"[Bandits in Open Pass? We get some of those every now and then, it seems,]" Thena replied, sounding uninterested. To her credit, one could fill a scroll stretching into the horizon with the names of all the mon Atlas had saved in the past, directly or not. So what was one more?

Atlas had a knowing smile on his face, eager to hear her reaction to his next words.

"Church, Caudle, Furlong…" Silence hung in the air as he spoke those words. "Do any of those words mean anything to you?"

Hushed mutters came, followed by shuffling of papers and the creaking of a stool pushed hurriedly across the floor. Atlas could hear all of that from his gadget. He quirked a brow in thought. Getting a strong reaction like that out of Thena was nothing short of rare. The last time he succeeded had been when he retrieved the Grass Cornet from a decrepit tomb.

"[Just where did you hear those words from?]" Thena asked, her voice shaking with urgency.

"From that same mon I saved," Atlas replied without delay. "He was a fellow traveler, or at least I assume he is one." He leaned forward, the yellow flicker of his head gem flashing over the room's walls. "He's a Sneasel that goes by the name Hiro."

"[A named mon? Interesting. How so very… interesting,]" Thena said, the grating rumble of her rear jaw sending ripples over Atlas' chesto broth.

Atlas leaned back, his gem catching the blue tint of the moonlit sky. "He uses words like 'people' when talking about others, asked me if I was a 'constable'. While we were crossing Nectar Meadow, I overheard him stare off into the distance, almost in a daze, and he muttered something about 'horses' and 'knights'."

Thena almost gasped. "[Atlas, do you know where those words came from?]"

"I do not."

"[Right. Of course. Most Pokemon wouldn't, so I don't blame you. They're words of human origin.]"

Atlas furrowed his brows, his eyes darkening while he brought a palm to his chin. "You're suggesting he is one?"

"[Of course not,]" Thena immediately said. "[There are likelier explanations we have to consider first. Where is… A moment please.]"

Something thumped lightly from the Expedition Gadget. Atlas sighed and closed his eyes. He could picture Thena reaching for one of her many shelves, pulling out an old book, and blowing off the dust layers from years of non-use. "[The last human said to visit our world left behind a journal. A highly sought-after relic. The only copy of which had ended in my possession.]"

"I see. And what secrets does the journal hold?"

"[More than you'd imagine, and it sheds some light about this human's life. There have also been others like him across the ages.]"

"Yes, that much I know. Even I have heard my fair share of fairy tales."

"[Indeed. Though the time humans spend on our world is ultimately brief, the impacts they leave behind often persist. Even now there are small scattered cultures where the influence of past humans can be felt.]"

"Such as?"

"[The Town With No Name in the Mist continent for example, where everymon has a name.]" Thena paused, perhaps in thought. "[This Sneasel traveler, Hiro, where did he say he was from? Chances are that he's from one of those places.]"

Atlas sighed and brushed his palm over his chin. Did Hiro ever mention anything about a hometown at any point during their travel? Atlas struggled to point to any instance in his mind. The closest thing he had to an answer were places they went to that seemed to remind Hiro of somewhere. Rolling hills, farm fields, carriages, to name a few.

"He does not remember," he said. "In fact, he hardly remembers anything at all."

"[You're sure he's not intentionally being evasive?]"

"That would make it all the stranger that he'd let the words 'knight' and 'horse' slip, right?" Atlas answered with a short laugh.

"[Yeah, that's a good point,]" Thena chuckled in return. "[Or he's a terrible liar.]"

"I'd listen to my gut. And my gut tells me he's genuine," he said.

Atlas then told Thena the full story of how he met Hiro. Beginning from how he'd rescued the Sneasel from a trio of unknown Beheeyem outlaws, and everything that had happened over the course of their journey together during the past few days.

Thena took a moment to assess that tale, only to sigh. "[I see. How curious. I'd very much like to meet him in person.]"

"That can be arranged," replied Atlas with a shrug.

"[Ze'Mer will be handling him, I presume?]"

Atlas nodded to himself. "Once his memories are restored, we'll know who or what he truly is."

"[And based on what you learn, do you plan on adding him to your ever-growing list of eccentric recruits?]"

Atlas chuckled and brushed his palm across his forehead. "That's hard for me to judge right now. At the moment… He does not strike me as being cut out for our work."

He got the impression Thena had a brief glint in her eyes as he said that, and perhaps she was now tapping her cheek in thought.

"[Well, who am I to cast doubt on your intuition?]" Thena remarked, which made Atlas smile. She spoke again, her voice a bit distant like she'd walked to a different part of her work room. Perhaps to return the old journal back to its place. "[So, we should be expecting your return by the turn of summer or so then?]"

"Believe it or not, no." Atlas smirked and finished what remained of the chesto broth, following up with a satisfied hum. "I'm at Dragos Watch as we speak."

"[That's… nearby. I expected you to roam at least another month more before coming back here.]"

"You wound me. It's not as surprising as you make it sound, surely?"

Thena laughed, and he could feel her picking up her expedition gadget from the other end. "[Still, your timing couldn't have been more perfect. Dit would've called you back anyways even if you didn't plan to return.]"

"Hmm, something urgent came up?"

"[Yes,]" Thena replied matter of factly. "[Strange happenings have been spreading across the continent. Trouble might be afoot, or so he thinks.]"

Atlas' eyes dimmed. He reached a palm out and caught a few specks of dust shimmering in the moonlight radiating through the window. Trouble presented challenge. It was not challenge he feared, but the far-reaching effects they could have for those uninvolved too. His bed creaked as he shifted his weight back with a sigh.

"This is a conversation best had in person. I'll have the full briefing when I return."

"[As you say, Chief. Is that everything then?]"

"Yes. Take care, Thena."

"[Likewise.]"

…..

Hiro was beginning to get the feeling that he was not a morning person. Not by a long shot. He and Mebh hadn't returned from their little excursion until well into the night—they'd lost track of time somehow while further exploring Drago's Watch.

Atlas had run into the two just as he was about to leave the lodgings to search for them. Much to his relief, he found that they were alright. He left quietly, trying not to disturb Hiro's sleep.

Strong gales and the steady rocking of a saddle jostled Hiro awake. He opened his eyes, only to flinch at the sun burning brightly among the clouds. Clouds? Hiro soon discovered himself on the back of a mighty dragon with bright crimson wings and sturdy blue scales.

A Salamence. The very same one Atlas hired to take them to Lively Town, judging by the scar just under the dragon's neck. And why was Mebh sitting atop the Salamence's head? She didn't seem at all worried that the winds might carry her off and send her plummeting down to the earth…

"Eyes on the sky, Hiro," Atlas announced, his voice still booming in the turbulent winds. "We'll arrive at Lively Town soon."

Hiro peeked over the saddle, and there was nothing to see but an ocean of white clouds in all directions below.

"How can you tell?" Hiro asked, to which Atlas only grinned in response.

"Buckle up! I'm going for a dive!" Salamence announced.

Hiro gasped in shock and gripped his claws to the saddle, anticipating a sharp and nauseating descent. Yet, he hardly felt any different even as Salamence cut into the clouds. He didn't have to look to know Atlas was smirking his way. He could only try and act casual to hide his brief embarrassment.

It was then that Hiro noticed the strange sphere glimmering near the base of the saddle. He almost mistook it for a Luminous Orb at first. What was it? Did it alter their balance somehow? It must have, otherwise he, Atlas and Mebh would've needed multiple belts and harnesses to stay seated on the back of such an agile dragon.

The pokemon world had even more sorcery Hiro didn't understand. The trembling in his limbs persisted even as he plucked his claws off the saddle.

The ocean of clouds parted beneath them at long last, and a great landscape unveiled itself to them. A small blip appeared on the horizon, looking like a colorful blot of sprinkles in the distance. Hiro had a guess as to what it was in his mind: Lively Town.

…..

Salamence slowed to a glide as they flew over the colorful landscape of Lively Town. Wonder filled Hiro's eyes as he watched from the saddle. Even without his memories, he knew with absolute certainty that he'd never been anywhere like it before.

Their dragon ride swerved to the right and arced towards one of the high cliffs near the edge of town to a sprawling district. Hiro saw many towers dotted around on their way there, and many had bird Pokemon resting on perches built on the spires. Most of them were asleep, but some threw languid glances their way while they readied themselves to start a whole new day.

Hiro caught something up ahead. It looked like a trick of the light at first. Somehow, he could see the bluish waves swimming upwards from behind the cliff. A quick glance at Atlas suggested he could see it too. Just what was it? Could it have been the wind?

Salamence sped into it, flying against the tide of the upward gales. Hiro's feathers fluttered wildly, but he paid no mind. He couldn't help but smile in wonder at the strange experience.

They came to a pocket where the wind wasn't as strong, and Salamence once again came to a steady glide. He aimed for one of the high ledges with a large painted arrow pointing away from the cliff.

"Prepare for landing!" boomed Salamence's voice just as he beat his wings harder and made a swift dive for the landing zone.

Hiro instinctively dug his claws again into the saddle. This time they went in so deeply that when Salamence finally brought them to solid ground, it took a bit of effort to yank his limbs free.

Mebh hopped off Salamence's head first, and Hiro followed soon after. As he leapt down and skidded to a halt, he took a brief pause to absorb everything around him.

The Aery Cliff district welcomed them with several inns in all directions, and many strangely shaped buildings here and there. What caught his eye though were the various statues and shrines he could glimpse on some of the paths and intersections. Did they represent gods of some kind? He liked the peacock looking one with rainbow wings.

Atlas meanwhile exchanged a few words with their Salamence pilot. The two shared a laugh after some back and forth, then Salamence offered a brief salute with his wing then took to the skies again.

Hiro wondered if he was going back to Drago's Watch so soon. Did their trip not exhaust him at all? Dragons like him must've been full of vitality if so.

"We best get going then," Atlas said, walking over to Hiro and Mebh. "You two must be famished. Why don't we go and grab something? I know a place in the main part of town."

"Not eating here?" Mebh asked, scooting up to him.

Atlas chuckled. "Well, their cuisine isn't going to be up our alley… I've never been much fond of birdseed. Come on."

Atlas and the others set off towards one of the roads leading out of the district. Hiro still felt like he was freeloading off Atlas a bit too much… but they were going to get back his memories soon. If he could reclaim whatever experiences he once had, then he'll be able to manage on his own, surely. And then he could pay back all the generosity he'd received so far.

…..

Roselia finished two cups of herbal tea for a pair of customers waiting for their meal. A smile flicked the edge of his lips, satisfied with his work as the pecha and cheri aroma of the tea reached his face. He extended vines around the cups like snakes and placed them atop of the counter on a tray. He then added a chocolate cake with lots of whipped cream. Lastly, a finishing touch. He folded a napkin and tucked it in between the cups.

Roselia cupped his flowers over his face to give his small voice the extra volume he needed.

"23! 23! Your order's ready!" Roselia announced, then he could see a Quilava and Axew pair get up from their table.

Most of Roselia's co-workers would've waited to see the approaching customer's face, their smile or dissatisfied frown. The latter they got much less frequently. Yet Roselia had already dropped his flowers beside him as the Quilava and Axew approached, and turned around to prepare more teas as his cheeks flushed a shade greener.

Bells jingled from the front door, welcoming new customers onto the verdant green carpet at the front door. Roselia didn't so much as peek over his shoulder to steal a glance at who came in. The confidence to talk to strangers hadn't returned to him yet.

"Whoa, ho, ho, if it isn't Atlas!"

Roselia's eyes widened like plates. Did he hear Maractus right? He stood there dazed for so long that he flinched when tea overflowed from the cup in his flower. He turned the nozzle on the water heater and whirled around with a groan.

There Atlas was, Maractus guiding him inside, alongside two Pokemon Roselia had never seen before. A Sneasel and… he didn't know what the other was. The grass-type spread his roses out—determined to act as much like a real plant as he could—and ducked down so only his horns and eyes peeked over the counter to watch them. A jolt went up his head, Sceptile's words from the previous night coming to mind.

"A Sneasel and something in… a costume? It's really them…" he gasped with sparkling eyes. Atlas' new recruits, he assumed. The few customers in the café—usual early morning regulars—all drew their eyes towards Atlas. Some mon waved, others merely throwing knowing glances before returning to their conversations. A few were more intrigued by the Ampharos' companions, watching them with curiosity.

Maractus brought Atlas and his cohorts to their table, even sparing a moment to show them how the shroom stools worked. Twist the knob once or twice, watch the stool go up or down. By the time the cactus left, the Sneasel had to hiss something at the ragged one, who was making her stool go higher and higher…

Roselia stole a few more glances at the three mon from his hiding spot. Atlas left the other two to their antics, his expedition gadget laid out on the table and another small doohickey pressed to his ear while he talked to somemon.

It was strange. Roselia didn't know what to think of the Sneasel—who was eating his strawberry cake like he'd been starved for days—any more than the ragged one. Either his eyes deceived him or the other one was trying to eat the table mat—

Roselia's eyes met Atlas' for a brief moment, and he quickly ducked down. He stiffened and cupped his flowers over his face. He could no longer see their faces, and he shrank further as he accepted that. The tea he'd spilled earlier flowed down in quiet drops onto the carpet, reminding him to find a rag to clean up the mess.

He clenched his teeth and groaned. The last time Atlas had seen him was years ago. He'd been but a small Budew at the time. Would his Gramps even remember him? What would he even say if they spoke? He shook his head and sighed with drooped shoulders, wiping the spilled tea with sluggish melancholy.

Under the chiming hum of bells, stools shifted over the wooden floor, and Atlas and his cohorts departed after finishing their meals. Even to the very end, Roselia still couldn't…

A light jab at his side snapped him out of his thoughts.

"H-hey! What was that for, Steenee?" Roselia said with puffed cheeks.

Steenee responded with a smirk and a shake of her head, one hand hidden behind her back.

"Wow, dude. You really just stood there and watched Atlas leave?" Steenee then asked, taking the rag—sticky with spilled tea—and tossed it aside into a bin. Both grass types locked eyes on one another now, but Roselia only lasted mere moments under her gaze before looking away, ashamed and frustrated.

"That's not it. I was busy working the teas, a-and besides it looked like they were in a hurry," Roselia argued.

"Mhm, I bet they were." Steenee unveiled what hid in her other hand. A ball of silky black thread with a white needle stabbed right down the center. "One of them even forgot this. I think it was the costumed one."

Roselia spared a curious glance at the thread ball, then he looked away again. "Oh… Well I'm sure they'll come back for it later."

A smile flicked on the edge of Steenee's lips, her calyx pigtails wobbling to the side as she tilted her head. Roselia knew where things were headed, and he wanted to stop that carkoal in its tracks.

"N-no," Roselia said with a vigorous shake of his head and a cupping of his roses over his face. "Make Maractus do it, not me. I… I just don't think I'm ready for that yet."

The playfulness of Steenee's smile lightened, and she aired out a sigh. "Atlas asked me about you by the way."

Roselia dropped his flowers so swiftly that Steenee nearly flinched.

"Really? What did he say?"

"Not much really. He thought you were feeling unwell or had something going on. Told him you were fine though."

Oh, she didn't tell Atlas it was him even though she knew their relationship. The anticipation in Roselia's eyes dimmed a bit. Steenee climbed up the stool beside him, nearly double his meager height.

"Point I'm making is that Atlas isn't some scary wildener that'll bite your head off if you look at him wrong or something."

Roselia pouted. "Never said he was..."

"Of course not." Steenee chuckled and pushed the thread ball towards him. "All I'm saying is that even if it seems scary at first, you'll soon find that talking to him is not so bad after all."

Roselia met Steenee's eyes, her smile radiating with confidence. Then he looked at the thread ball, black and smooth… which might as well have been a ball of spikes as he reluctantly held it in between his red and blue roses.

"I'm on duty though. I can't just leave…" Roselia muttered, the haunting gaze of doubt still boring holes into his back.

Steenee quirked a brow, stared him dead in the eyes before rolling her own. She gave him a light nudge, gestured at the door, and said, "Just go. I'll take over your shift."

"B-but—"

"Just… go say hi when you return it, and then you can come back." She gave him a small flick on his head. "Easy as that. I'm sure your gramps will be glad to see you again. Even that alone will make his day I'm sure."

Roselia sighed, drooping his flowers in defeat. "Alright… Fine."

The flower mon hopped off his stool and walked around the counter. Every step he took closer to the door leading outside felt harder than the last, or perhaps easier? He didn't know, but he tried to brave through it.

On his way out, he caught Sceptile and Steenee exchanging a wink. They were in cahoots? He pouted lightly, but couldn't hold it against them. He'd already let his first chance slip by when Atlas came and left. And they helped him find another. He didn't have it in him to waste this one too.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Chapter 5: Within Lively Town


Atlas had taken them to the clothing district bordering the outskirts of Lively Town, ensuring Mebh would be thrilled for days to come. She could indulge herself in all the sheets of cloth, thread, silk, and as many needles as her heart desired. Whatever made her happy, Hiro supposed. It all seemed ridiculous to him.

Days earlier, Atlas mentioned paying for Mebh’s cooperation with a shopping spree, which Hiro had brushed off as little more than hyperbole. Three hours of shopping later and he was disabused of such thoughts.

Perhaps that was his fault. After the time he’d spent around Mebh these past few days, he should’ve known better.

Hiro could see why Mebh wanted all that cloth, at least when thinking from the perspective of thinking from the perspective of a craftsman passionate about their work. Any tailor would’ve been inspired by the district’s wares.

Hiro brushed his claw over the cloak Mebh had given him. The teal green fabric still glistened with the afterglow of his gratitude. The respect Hiro had for the Mimikyu kept him from voicing any complaints to ruin the moment. However, he could do little to hide the twitching of his tail feathers or the ice crystals speckling his fur as Atlas and the others dragged him into shop after shop.

Mebh hissed at the slightest provocation of the shopkeepers, earning nervous looks from them. In each shop, she’d spend a while appraising every sheet of fabric her dark tendrils could stretch towards. The ones that caught her fancy were gobbled in a flash into her costume. Even after gorging on so many sheets of fabric and articles of clothing, she remained small as ever.

Although Hiro had witnessed enough to call the pokemon world magical, did Mebh not push things beyond that? Hiro shot Atlas a glance and could see the shadow of mild concern in his eyes. That was a surprise. Mebh really was abnormal?? Hiro scratched his elbow, scarcely knowing what to make of that.

The faces Mebh made at the shopkeepers was amusing for a time, but her shopping spree showed no end in sight. They’d be in the district till sundown at their pace. At the same time, impatience would get Hiro nowhere, he reminded himself. They were already in Lively Town where the specialist of the mind lived. Even if Mebh spent all day helping herself to various fabrics and garments, he’d still get to meet the Hatterene eventually.

At the same time, there was a part of Hiro that wanted Mebh’s spree to never end. He was so close to gaining answers about who he was and where he came from that his heart couldn’t help but tremble. Did he have brothers and sisters at home waiting for him? If so, how many? What did they look like when even their faces had been robbed from him, let alone the name of his home?

After wandering in the dark for over a week since Atlas first found him, the answers to learning who he was, where he’d come from, the people he once knew… all of them were now within reach of his claw tips.

He was going to remember everyone.

Mebh crawled up and bumped his leg. She hissed softly, and shifted her gaze to the left side of the road before moving past him towards another line of shops. The Sneasel brushed his cheek and lumbered after her. How much shopping was she going to do? They were taking forever. He huffed and let a cloud of mist trail from his mouth. That was it.

“Atlas,” Hiro blurted, tugging a claw on the Ampharos’ red cape.

Atlas cast him a curious glance, his eyes drawn to the frost on Hiro’s claws.

“Worry not lad, you’ll learn to control It with time.”

“No, I… What?” Hiro blinked, glanced down at his arms and saw ice on them. He frantically scraped it off before speaking up again. “Do you mind if I went on ahead to the Hatterene? I can meet back up with you two later.”

Atlas hummed and folded his arms in reply. Hiro waited patiently to hear response. His eyes strayed to the ground, and he was beginning to wonder if going to Ze’Mer was a good idea. The response came at last, snapping him from his thoughts.

“I suppose there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Before addressing Hiro further, Atlas waved Mebh over as the Mimikyu veered too far ahead of them in her excitement.

“You’re new to this town. Are you sure you can find your way around on your own?”

Hiro scoffed and slapped his claw over his chest. He briefly winced as their points struck him, but shook his head back insistently.

“I’m sure I can manage just fine.”

Atlas smiled, amused. “This may sound odd coming from me, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. You should at least take a look at this before going off.”

Atlas fetched the Expedition Gadget from his cloak and drew Hiro’s eyes towards the map. Hiro observed that the layout of the city looked outright labyrinthine with winding paths, dead ends, and branching roads that seemed to all tangle together. That didn’t make him confident about his odds of finding this specialist of the mind. He found himself nodding idly to Atlas’ directions to Ze’Mer’s house as he tried to make sense of the map.

“Follow this path and you’ll find yourself there. You’ll have better luck finding her in her home at this hour,” Atlas explained.

“Thanks,” Hiro said, flicking his crest feather as he pulled away from the map. “I think I get the gist of things now. Do I just tell her that I came on your behalf when I get there?”

Atlas scratched his chin and creased his brow. “Anymon can use my name for all sorts of things. Ze’Mer will turn you away if you try to do that. It might help if you had something a bit more tangible to reassure her.”

The shimmering golden winged badge on Atlas’s chest reflected in Hiro’s eyes as he watched the Ampharos pluck it right off and drop it in his claws. Hiro flicked his feather and gave a wary frown as he met Atlas’ eyes.

“Should you be giving me this? It looks important.” He pulled the hem of his capelet off his arm and prodded his claw on the badge. “And expensive.”

“Show this to Ze’Mer, and she’ll listen to you,” Atlas said simply.

Hiro clenched the badge in his paws, he grabbed his tail feathers in place the moment they started wagging.

“If you insist,” he said with a faked cough. “Thank you. I’ll return it right after this.”

There was still a skeptical glint in Atlas’ eyes. He ultimately relented, pulled the gadget back under his cloak with a sigh.

“Very well then. Meet us at the Expedition Society later. It’s that one over there.”

Atlas led Hiro’s eyes toward a large building in the distance, standing at the highest point of Lively Town. From where Hiro stood, it was little more than a purple and yellow blot.

"And if you get lost, just ask any mon with a badge to help.” Atlas patted him twice on the shoulder and grinned. “Off you go now, lad.”

Hiro rubbed at his shoulder, kicked a foot on the ground and glanced towards the nearest corner. He stopped to wave Mebh goodbye. She hissed at him, though this time, it was a gentle one. She mimicked his waving gesture and Hiro smiled once more before heading off.

…...

He should have listened to Atlas.

The few hours Hiro spent in Aery Cliff district did little to prepare him for what Lively Town had in store with its mind numbing layout. He’d entered the mouth of the beast that was this town, and by the time he realized just what an ordeal he’d blundered into, it had snapped its jaws shut around him.

Lively Town hustled and bustled with the energy of a never-ending carnival. The town had buildings that stretched up high, small houses built atop bigger houses built atop bigger houses still. Roads zigzagged and snaked up and down hills and buildings, sometimes through structures. He even passed what appeared to be a water fountain pouring from thin air into a pool below where a group of water types leisured in. And those were just the things his mind dared try to comprehend. For one so new to Lively Town, the discordance crushed Hiro under its binds. From what vague memories he had, a solid hunch told him nothing in his world looked anything like this.

Pokemon crowded the streets everywhere he looked, chattering amongst themselves, loitering about and flocking to spontaneous street ‘jousts’ that always attracted a small crowd of spectators. The last one he passed by gave him a glimpse of a pink hammer-wielding Pokemon locked in battle against a fiery reptilian with cannons for hands.

Hiro’s tail quivered and he kept his head low, his heart pounding in his chest as if were trying to break free. He kept to the side of the road under the shadows of buildings towering over him. Just as it had been with the map, even the signboards and arrows meant to guide Hiro through the town seemed to make little sense. He’d always find the signboards twisted this way and that. Some would even point right back down the path he’d come through. Most of them presented him with glyphs and symbols he’d never seen in his life nor could he ever hope to understand.

After wandering aimlessly for another half hour, he came by a corner with a few food stalls. A thought sprang to his mind to approach a friendly-looking Lairon he spotted by a berry selling vendor and seek directions to find his way around the tangled streets.

Hiro steeled himself and took a breath. He approached with a nervous smile, ears folded back as he spoke up.

“Hey, excuse me. I’m a bit new here and I think I’m lost,” Hiro said. “I need to go to Hatter’s Focus. Can you tell me the way there?”

The Lairon spared him a glance and boredly waved a forepaw back in reply.

“Oh, the glittery witch’s house? Go up the down there, behind the crunched egg tunnel, hop on over three flakes to the right, cycle back and climb up the hoolaboo. That should get you there.”

The Lairon finished, and shifted his weight to resume the conversation he was having with a smoky shelled Wartortle. They’d already forgotten the Sneasel still standing there.

Hiro tilted his head. “What?”

When the Lairon repeated those same directions again, Hiro turned around and made himself scarce. He did not ask for further directions afterwards.

…..

A growl whirred in Hiro’s throat, followed by a hiss as he pulled his capelet around him. Even if he wanted to crawl back to Atlas and Mebh, he couldn’t. The cacophony of sounds and cocktail of scents in the air muddled his still learning ears and nose. The path back to Aery Cliff was lost to him, and the path ahead would lead him nowhere closer to where he wanted to go. Hiro had no idea where he was. He sighed and marched on, ears drooping all the while. How could he have made such a blunder? He’d spoken so boldly about finding his way to Ze’Mer fine on his own.

Up ahead, a bridge overlooking a steady stream peeked out at the end of an alleyway. A part of Hiro’s soul felt comforted in seeing a mundane bridge made of stone—even in this strange world, there were some things that still felt familiar. He scraped his claw on the bridge parapet while he walked over it, stopping at the point above the river. The city stretched before him in all its fantastical multicolored glory. He lingered and leaned with his back against the bridge, sliding to the ground with the saddest meow he’d ever made so far.

And almost as soon as he did so, Hiro’s ears shot upright at the sound of a suppressed snicker.

He shot a glance at the other side of the bridge to find a small green Pokemon peeking over, black beady eyes meeting his before the Pokemon quickly hid away. A Roselia, his mind announced. Hiro’s eyes narrowed into a squint after Roselia peeked over at him again. Did they need something from him?

Hiro waved his claw in greeting. “Hey.”

Roselia blinked, as though snapped out of a trance. They shot a glance to their left and right, then back at Hiro, before smiling awkwardly and cupping flowers over their chest. From how they acted, Hiro assumed they must’ve been a girl.

“Hello, Sneasel. Are you all by yourself?” she asked in a voice soft and delicate that Hiro’s heart almost fluttered. Something black and smooth hid in the cusps of those vibrant petals, which made Hiro quirk a brow.

An answer didn’t immediately come to Hiro, his mind still fixed on whatever it was Roselia held in her flower. But that short pause proved long enough for the Roselia to squirm and begin to ramble on.

“I hate to be a bother, but I saw you wandering about and thought you seemed a bit lost. I wasn’t really sure whether you were or not, so I followed along and you just sat there looking mopey, so I figured I should just make sure you were okay and…” Roselia kept going and going, his face growing greener with each passing moment. How could anyone say so much in a single breath?

“Calm down, I’m not lost,” Hiro cut in. He sighed and groaned. “This town just makes my head spin from how noisy and err… crowded it is, but I’ll figure my way out.” A few seconds of silence went by, and his expression stranded. “Sounds stupid, right? probably.”

Roselia tilted his head to the side, nearly toppling over before righting himself up.

“It’s not stupid though? At least I don’t think that it is…” she said, her face once again hidden behind flowers.

Hiro flicked an ear and huffed out a breath. He eyed Roselia closer and a glimmer of familiarity crossed his mind. His lips parting slowly as he voiced a thought.

“Hey, you were there at the café when we were having breakfast, weren’t you?”
Roselia leapt on the spot and looked as if she’d shrunk by half her size.

“Err, maybe…?”

Hiro sprang to his feet and walked up to Roselia, his pupils drawn to narrow slits and a claw pointing down.

“You definitely were.” He squinted, his pupils expanding. “I definitely saw that same bow poking out behind the counter before.”

“You did??” Roselia shied away from the very sharp claw pointing at the bow on her middle horn.

Hiro widened his eyes slightly. He didn’t mean to scare her so he lowered his arms, almost hiding them behind his back.

“Yeah I… it caught my eye a little. I think it’s a nice bow.” Hiro’s tail feathers flickered to the side and he shifted his foot on the dirt.

“I’m Hiro by the way.” And in a whisper added, “At least I think I am.”

Roselia stepped closer to Hiro, eyes sparkling in awe. “You have a name…”

Hiro narrowed his eyes back at Roselia, who caught herself and backed away a step then another. An awkward veil hung in the air. Why did everyone react so oddly to him having a name?

Hiro waved his claw dismissively as he spoke.

“Look, Miss, is it really all that strange to have a…” Hiro’s words trailed off when Roselia’s eyes widened like plates, petals curling inward, face flushing greener than her leaves. A rusty shelled Bisharp walked past them on the bridge, and yet Roselia still stood frozen like a statue even after they’d crossed. What had come over her? Hiro pulled his ears back and raised a steady paw forward. Roselia flinched and quickly composed herself.

“N-not everymon has a name. Call me just Roselia! A-and I’m a boy… now,” Roselia blurted, and muttered something else under his breath that Hiro was too stunned to pick up on. He’d been so sure about Roselia that the revelation hit him like a mallet to the face.

The Sneasel drew back his paw over his chest. He mouthed an apology and squirmed inwardly with embarrassment. Right. A Pokemon’s voice told one little at times about who it belonged to, as he’d learned from personal experience. Just a few days ago he’d met a Walrein mother who had the voice of a squeaking rabbit while her Spheal child sounded like a dying old man.

Hiro snapped out of his own stupor, and caught Roselia’s wavering gaze dancing along at the bricks lining the bridge wall. Hiro brushed his cheek with the flat end of his claw, cleared his throat and then spoke up to clear the awkward air, “Right. Uhm… You followed me all the way out here from the café, didn’t you? Did you need something from me?"

Roselia flinched, snapping his gaze at Hiro as though he’d woken up from a horrible dream.

“That’s… that’s not it. Well it is, but err…” Roselia hurried over, virid vines stretching from his roses, presenting a black thread ball to Hiro. “One of your companions forgot this when you came over. I-I’m just here to return it.”

Hiro eyed the vines closely, almost mesmerized by them as they slithered like tiny snakes. He plucked the silk ball like a fruit out of the vines, fiddling with it in his paws as a name came to mind.

“Right. This is Mebh’s.”

Hiro scratched his cheek and shot Roselia a glance. Aery Cliff was nowhere near where they were, and Hiro had been going in circles in the city for what felt like hours further away from the cafe. No, it had been hours. Had Roselia been following him the whole time?

“You didn’t have to come all the way here to return it. I’m pretty sure Mebh has more than enough where these come from.” And that wasn’t even getting into how she was surely still gorging herself on clothing store wares as they spoke.

Roselia’s lips curled in a faint smile, his eyes fixed to Hiro’s. Did he still want something else from him? Before Hiro could wander his mind for a clue, Roselia straightened his arms and backed away again.

“Well err… that’s all then! Sorry for disturbing you. I know you Delvers have very busy lives…”

Delvers? Hiro tilted his head slightly and didn’t recognize the term. Roselia flailed his roses, spilling pollen to the air as he quickened his pace back the way he’d come from.

While Roselia sped off, a sinking feeling spread out from his chest down to his toes. He still didn’t have the slightest idea of where he was or how to get to Ze’Mer. If he just left Roselia to dart off like this, he’d be straight back to being lost and alone without any sense of direction.

He moved without thinking.

Hiro overtook the flower pokemon in a trail of white, his eyes narrowed to slits as he blocked the path forward.

Roselia stiffened and spread his arms wide, acting on the instinct to appear as a harmless shrub. Upon seeing the fright in Roselia’s eyes, Hiro flattened his ears to his head, and paced back a step. He twiddled his claws and tried to explain himself, except his words kept evading him like startled antelopes on a field.

“Listen… I’m sorry about scaring you like that. But there’s something I need your help with. I actually am lost right now. Very lost.” Hiro exhaled a sigh, and barely held back the distressed mewl rising up his throat. “If it’s alright with you, can you help me find the place called ‘Hatter’s Focus’?”

He mewled anyway that time, and a part of his soul died inside from embarrassment. Roselia regarded him with a curious look in his beady black eyes. His arms relaxed as he cupped his roses over his face.

“Hatter’s Focus? Why are you going there? You seem fine...?”

Hiro quirked a brow and the flower mon cupped his roses over his mouth. The Grass-type averted his eyes and gave off a scent of lemons. That earned a raised brow, but before Hiro could even ask Roselia spoke again.

“O-oh, of course that’s none of my business, whatever’s wrong with you that is! The building’s not far from here really. Erm…” Roselia glanced between Hiro and the path behind him, contemplating what to do. Under his breath he grumbled, “I’m sure Steenee won’t mind me taking a while since she put me up to this.”

Hiro blinked twice. “Steenee?”

Roselia breathed a gasp.

“No one! Well not no one no one. Erm…” Roselia scurried off, stopped when he remembered Hiro, whirled around and beckoned the sneasel over with a flower. “Please, just follow me this way. We’ll be there faster than a latias’ message.”

Hiro didn’t have the slightest clue what that meant, but he nonetheless smiled. Roselia struck him as odd, but now he could finally go through the mind bending maze of Lively Town. The best part was that he didn’t have to do it alone.

…..

Around the bends and down cobblestone paths, a blue and pink house stood out, and was shaped like a head wearing a hat whose dome-like head reflected glittering light off its walls. A chimney stretched over the roof and tapered to a point where a long tube snaked out of and whirled down to a lumpy hand-like structure that rested beside the building.

Hiro gasped in awe. They modeled the building after not just any hat, but a witch’s hat, at least based on what vague echoes he could recall of what they were supposed to look like.

The building itself sat snugly in the middle of an intersection where it made the mundane buildings surrounding it look drab by comparison. They all seemed to have an odd and unnatural air—the one on the side looked like a purple coral plucked right out of a reef—but the witch’s building stood out because nothing else looked quite like it.

Instinct whispered in Hiro’s ear like a temptress begging him to run his claws against those smooth walls. How high could he climb? Could he zip across to the coral-like building if he jumped from the tip of the hat?

Hiro forced his eyes shut and shook his head. Not again. To distract his half-feral mind, he filled his head with attempts at deducing whatever complicated processes must’ve been needed to craft such a building. How did it even hold itself together?

“This is the place,” Roselia muttered..

Hiro snapped out of his idle thoughts and paused in his tracks, his eyes following the Roselia’s. There was a teardrop shaped wooden door with a plaque at the top which beckoned them forward. He found more of those strange symbols carved into the plaque on the door as they approached the building.

“Hatter’s Focus,” mouthed Roselia as he read the symbols. A smile flicked the edge of his lips. “Yeah, this is the place.”

Hiro nodded idly to himself; eyes fixed to the name plaque Roselia read. He’d handwaved the runic symbols in the expedition gadget as an odd quirk of the device, dismissed the letters on the town posts as being decorative symbols at most, but now… he couldn’t deny the reality in front of him any longer. Those symbols were writing, and the Sneasel was about as literate as a newborn infant in this world.

Just another problem to add to the pile, like feeding coal to a steadily building fire. He’d solve them all. One thing at a time, before it burned him down to the marrow.

Air rushed to Hiro’s lungs as he took a deep breath, a puff of mist streaming from his mouth as he exhaled. He clenched his claws and stared firmly at the door. With luck, he’d be able to solve his inability to read along with his memories once he went into that workshop.

“H-hey, is something wrong?” Roselia finally found the courage to ask.

Hiro’s gaze drew to him and waved his claw as if that’d cast all worries adrift to the wind. “It’s nothing.”

Roselia didn’t say more afterwards, so Hiro took the lead in walking over to the door, giving a few solid knocks with the back of his claw. First came silence, then a metallic click from the other side.

The door creaked open and a pale white skinned pokemon peeked through. It was a Kirlia whose green pig tails had been dyed black and decorated with glitter. Looking at them reminded Hiro of nights he’d spent stargazing on their journey to Lively Town.

Kirlia cleared his throat and pulled his shawl behind his shoulder.

“Can I help you, Sneasel?” he asked.

Caught staring, Hiro quickly averted his eyes and blushed. Atlas never mentioned anything about a Kirlia and in that moment he’d completely forgotten the golden badge. Said Kirlia’s attention wandered down to the golden badge Hiro had in his left claw.

“That badge, I recognize it. Isn’t that Atlas’?” the Kirlia observed, locked eyes with Hiro. “He sent you?”

Hiro answered with a nod and straightened his back. “I’m looking for Ze’Mer. Is she here?”

Kirlia appraised the Sneasel in front of him. He made a quick judgement and stepped aside for him to enter as the door opened wide on its own. “She’s around. Come inside.”

Atlas’ name clearly carried a lot of power for things to have gone so smoothly. Kirlia didn’t even demand an explanation for who he was, nor probe him with questions he’d struggle to answer.

Hiro paused for a moment, relief seeping into his bones as he exhaled. He cast his flowery companion a glance. “Are you coming with, Roselia?”

Roselia parted his lips as if to answer, looked between the building and the path outside, and decided to follow them in after a sigh.

A velvet blue carpet welcomed them inside Ze’Mer’s abode. Hiro thought the inside would look much like the outside—clad in walls of pink and blue—but instead, he found dark purple walls the moment he stepped in. He looked to the wall to his right and almost jumped in fright. A green creature resembling a fly trap stared back at him. It'd been a sculpture juggling torches, each one hovering still in the air, frozen in time just like the green sculpture.

“Wait here,” Kirlia said, his back facing them as he gestured at the assortment of furniture in the waiting room.

They shuffled inside, Hiro taking a stool for himself while Roselia nestled on a small pillow not much bigger than himself. Hiro wandered his gaze about the room of starry posters, ornate shelves, and a chandelier that hung from above which filled the room with a soft warm glow.

Kirlia drew everyone’s gaze to a door arched with interlaced patterns of blue and purple. Hiro scratched an itch on his neck and idly wondered what waited behind the door. Faint voices whispered from beneath, Hiro’s ears flicking each time they tickled him.

Kirlia’s gaze drifted to the door as well. Everyone went quiet, and the air grew still enough that one could hear a pin drop.

Hiro quirked a brow at the unusual silence until he heard Roselia whisper a question, ‘Telepathy?’

Before Hiro could ask what Roselia meant, Kirlia nodded all by himself, brushed a hand over his shawl and stood perfectly still. A breath’s pause later, the other door creaked open and a pokemon with a body of blue and pink walked out. They towered over them as they approached the living room, a shadow always cast over her features by her witch-like hat and flowy blue hair. With how tall they were, Hiro shifted uncomfortably, pointedly reminded of how small he truly was as a Sneasel.

That aside, he had a hunch that this was who he was looking for: Ze’Mer the Hatterene. Her appearance wasn’t any less striking than Kirlia’s. Her dark eyes seemed to glimmer like a starlit sky. The underside of her hat was dyed in dark paint and glitter, which ran down her face like a waterfall forming a veil.

“Atlas sent somemon to me?” Ze’Mer asked, with a voice so gentle it could calm a stampede of antelopes. Her gaze hovered over the room and found Hiro and Roselia. “So, which one of you is the one he wanted me to see?”

“Pardon me, Master.” Kirlia clapped his hands, vanished and reappeared beside Ze’Mer, earning him curious glances from the others. “It would be the Sneasel.”

Hiro shot to his feet, flicked his tail feathers and clenched the nervous tremor in his claws. He called upon courage like rekindling a dying flame and drew a breath.

“My name is Hiro. Atlas said you could help me,” Hiro said, taking a step towards her.

“‘Hiro’… I see.” Ze’Mer and Kirlia exchanged glances. “So you’re named.”

Hiro’s ear flicked and he came to a pause. Were names really that much of a big deal to them? A part of him began to wonder if he should start hiding that he had one at all, but the cat was out of the bag now.

“Very well. Come with me, I’d like to hear more about your situation and then we can commence with proper treatment,” Ze’Mer said, gesturing her tentacle hand to the door behind her.

Hiro’s heart quickened as he eyed that door. Could he uncover his forgotten life by walking into it? Kirlia stayed by the door as Hiro followed Ze’Mer inside, and the Sneasel spared a moment to glance at Roselia.

“Oh, I dragged you into this, didn’t I?” Hiro mumbled apologetically.

Roselia averted his eyes and chuckled. “It’s alright. I can just wait here. My shift’s already over and how long would a session with Ze’Mer take anyways?”

“You don’t really have to, you know…?”

“But wouldn’t you get lost again if I go…?”

Hiro’s cheeks warmed and his ears drooped, to which Roselia hid his face behind roses and chuckled. Hiro smiled in turn. He supposed there wasn’t much else to say. He shared one last glance with Roselia and Kirlia and followed Ze’Mer into the other room.

---

Updated my fic at long last. A lot of things happened this year and I struggled to keep up with this writing hobby. I'm hoping that I will be able to keep things up more in the future. Thank you for reading this chapter and i will see you again next time.

Special thanks to SpitefulMurkrow and SparklingEspeon for beta reading this chapter.

 

[Adamhuarts]

Chapter Six: Return to Zero

If a mind could trudge through six layers of murky mud, Roselia's was proof it was possible. They recalled, and recalled and continued to recall Hiro's brief mishap from when they'd first met, when the Sneasel called him a girl without meaning to. Each word echoed in their mind, over and over. A river of poisoned sundew was pooling around their feet, tantalizing and yet frightening to venture into.

Roselia brought a vine to their bow and sucked in a breath. Hiro hadn't made a mistake. Not really, right? Roselia wondered… could she once again answer as…? She closed her eyes and saw flames, ashes, a golden badge discarded on the ground.

A sharp gasp wrenched itself free through Roselia's mouth, as if the smoke and soot from those flames clung to his lungs. He pushed those thoughts back deep in his mind, hammered nails on their proverbial door frame and tossed the key down a ditch to be forgotten. Misery loomed above his head like storm clouds.

Approaching footsteps announced Kirlia's return and snapped Roselia out of his reverie. Good timing. Just when he needed a distraction, too. Roselia straightened his back, watching as Kirlia brought a tray holding two ceramic cups and a jug. A faint aroma wafted towards him. Was it tea?

Kirlia smiled and set the tray down. Reddish-brown tea flowed into the cup, which Kirlia floated into Roselia's flowers.

"Apologies. It's not much," he said, "but we hadn't been expecting guests today."

"O-oh it's all fine, really…" Roselia blew his breath over the surface of his cup before taking a sip. A grimace pulled his lips almost right away. Kirlia's tea lacked the rich—yet subtle—tanginess of the blends he'd gotten so used to brewing for himself during breaks on the job. Much to his embarrassment, the café customers sometimes would say his tea tasted like sunshine, but this one tasted like lukewarm disappointment.

Kirlia cast Roselia a glance. Roselia could feel the Psychic-type's question coming before it even arrived.

"I've been wondering. How come Atlas sent somemon to Master personally? It's unusual. Doesn't Dit handle that sort of thing?" Kirlia remarked.

Roselia stared back at him with a slow blink. "He doesn't… do that often?"

"In my five years of being Master's apprentice, this is the first I've seen him do so." Kirlia reached for the jug, filling the second cup with tea for himself. "Did your friend tell you what brought him in?"

Roselia neither knew how to answer that question nor what to answer with. He averted his gaze with flushed cheeks.

"I didn't ask. We're not… friends." Feeling like that statement alone was a grave offense, Roselia quickly clarified. "I mean, I just met him today! So…"

The question of why Kirlia was so bothered by it, and if it was any of his business, naturally sprang to Roselia's mind. Then it hit him. The mind specialist's apprentice would of course be this curious about something this odd… Maybe.

"Your friend's certainly not been exposed to creeping void," Kirlia said.

The mere mention of creeping void nearly sent Roselia into a coughing fit. He forced himself to swallow the tea in his mouth, thankful Kirlia went on without pausing to look his way.

"None of the symptoms of a mon who overstayed his welcome in a dungeon were apparent in him." Kirlia glanced at Roselia and parted his lips like he wanted to say something. Instead he cleared his throat and shook his head. "Ah, excuse me. You're not a delver, are you?"

Roselia shook his head swiftly. "N-no, but I know what you're talking about! I've studied all sorts of things to do with dungeons." His shoulders bounced in a shrug. "In my free time anyway."

A hint of amusement crossed over Kirlia's eyes which instantly made Roselia squirm inside nervously. "So you're a prospective delver, then?"

"Ah, well… No." Roselia glanced off to the side and became mute.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, went the clock on the wall, filling the drawn-out silence.

A sound reached Roselia which he could swear had been a chuckle.

"You don't seem to be enjoying the tea," Kirlia observed.

Roselia recoiled on the spot and nearly spilled his entire cup on the carpet. He wiped away the few drops that managed to spill, all the while managing an awkward smile at Kirlia.

"No, no. The tea's fine, really… I just have a sharper taste for it because of my work," Roselia muttered. He half glanced at Kirlia to find his brow raised.

"You work at a café?"

Roselia nodded his head with vigor and gripped his vines strongly around his cup. "Yes! I… uhm…" His gaze flitted around the room. "I can show you if you let me brew some tea here… if you want."

The look he saw in Kirlia's face showed surprise. "No need to go that far. I was merely curious, mildly so in fact."

That didn't deter Roselia one bit. Entirely driven by the rush of passion—one he could already feel starting to deflate—he was quick to insist and push.

"Please, it's no trouble at all. I'm the one who's offering." He glanced towards the door and stood up. "Hiro and Hatterene might be thirsty when they're done in there. I'll make enough for them too."

Kirlia brushed his palm over his chin, hopefully to consider the good idea Roselia was proposing. Of course, staying in one room for who knows how long would get anymon in the mood for a rejuvenating drink to wash their fatigue away.

The sigh that ensued let Roselia know he'd won him over.

…..

Hiro trailed behind Ze'Mer, watching her drift past the streaks of pink and lavender which decorated the windowless walls of the short corridor. It led them into the room, as each candle Ze'Mer moved past along the way lit up on its own. She was an enchantress rousing the candles awake in her presence until the room was bathed in a gentle warm glow. Why she had candles at all when Luminous Orbs existed remained a mystery to Hiro. It would've been a fascinating sight had the blooming gloom in Hiro's heart not stilled his tongue from making remarks.

"Feel free to take the couch," Ze'Mer prompted.

She pointed Hiro to the odd chair nestled in the corner beside a shuttered window. He found a cushion melded to its sitting surface, which made him flick an ear in a moment of confusion. The cushion looked even softer than the stools in the verdant cafe.

If only Hiro could stop his heart from crashing against the cage of his chest over and over again. It thumped loud enough to reach his ear and whirr along his feather. The anticipation of his memories returning at last proved downright electrifying.

What could he have been like as a human? Hiro wondered. He imagined himself as a brave adventurer visiting new lands untouched by man, or a singer who went from town to town bringing harmony wherever he went. Or maybe he could've led a simple life as a cattle herder… Hiro's mind made an abrupt turn into a dense fog. What's a cattle herder?

He lifted himself onto the 'couch' and his brows shot up, having not expected himself to sink so much into the foam. He leaned his back against it and drew a long breath as Ze'Mer seated herself across the room. She settled in quietly, as her gaze fell upon him.

"So, Hiro. Why don't you tell me what exactly Atlas sent you to me for?" she asked. "I can help you best if I have a clear picture of what ails you."

Words slipped away from Hiro like sand falling between his claws. Ze'mer was waiting, twirling a lock of hair in her short dainty hand, and Hiro didn't really know what to tell her or where to start. He could almost see the well of patience hiding in those deep black eyes of hers.

"Please, you have no reason to be nervous, Hiro," Ze'Mer said, breaking the silence before it solidified into stone. "Again, I want to help you."

Her words succeeded at thawing Hiro out of his frozen state. He flexed his claws, hardly thinking as he raised paws to massage his face. It helped with the nerves, so he kept at it.

"It's hard to know where to even begin. Fixing peo—" he nearly bit his tongue as he hurriedly corrected himself, "—Pokemon. Fixing Pokemon's memories is what you do, right?"

Ze'Mer's eyes widened by a hair's breadth. Her inquisitive stare made the fur on Hiro's neck bramble up like spikes. When his ear began to fold downwards, Ze'Mer unwound her gaze and cleared her throat.

"That's not quite the focus of my occupation, but it is another area I happen to excel at," she said as she reclined on her couch. The look in her eyes told Hiro that she understood the gist of his circumstances already.

With another deep exhale to reign in his nerves, Hiro spoke up.

"A week ago I woke up alone in a forest…"

Hiro recounted much of his story to Ze'Mer, beginning at Open Pass and his meeting with Atlas all the way to their journey to Lively Town. He left out his identity as a human. Even the dream with the pink creature on the night Mebh 'played' with him he kept close to his chest.

"That's all I remember…" Hiro swallowed back the bile rising up his throat as he lied to Ze'Mer. Only after he'd finished speaking did he realize his ears had pressed themselves flat against his head.

Ze'Mer remained quiet during his recounting. Not once did she interrupt or stop him to ask questions, and there were a great many she could've asked. It should've been reassuring, but the guilt of lying swallowed any gratitude he felt from her consideration to him.

"Can you help me get my memories back?" Hiro forced himself to ask, in an almost eager tone.

A gentle smile pulled Ze'Mer's lips, the warm light of the candle flames making her face glitter.

"You have nothing to worry about, Hiro. I will do everything in my power to help you. It is important to know whose dream you carry on with your name."

Hiro held back a frown. Everyone responded oddly to him having a name. Now it had something to do with carrying someone else's dream? He had his own dream to pursue. Maybe he should hide his name when meeting others in the future. No fondness stirred in his heart at the prospect of dealing with the unwanted attention it brought.

A vague figure caught Hiro's eye. He swerved his face to the right. There, set against the middle of the leftmost wall was a small shrine between two incense cabinets. Atop its platform hovered a bluish bronze idol with cutely round features. It had two long slender tails with red gem encrusted frayed ends extending from its rear, and it also wore a yellow brass headpiece that bore another bright red gem. Hiro's gaze lowered to its hands where a tome lay grasped in one of them.

The idea occurred to Hiro that the idol represented wisdom. More curious still, the idol alone lacked even a semblance of the purple prevailing much of the room. Part of him wondered how deliberate that was. A gesture of respect to the god whose eyes remained ever shut, perhaps.

Ze'Mer stood up and approached the idol. She stood before it, hands held together in prayer. Hiro's feather rose like a flag along with his growing curiosity.

"Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment," Ze'Mer invocated.

Hiro's feathers twitched in surprise as a yellow wave of light rippled up the idol. It emerged from its feet all the way up its eyes where they lingered, held by unknown gravity. Finally, it leapt out and vanished into Ze'Mer's chest.

A tense moment of confusion followed. Hiro bit his lip and scrambled his mind to make sense of what he'd just witnessed. When Ze'Mer glanced back at him, seemingly unaffected and healthy, he allowed himself to exhale. He didn't even know he'd been holding his breath.

"Uxie has given her blessing, and so we shall begin with your treatment," Ze'Mer had said.

Hiro was sure he'd never heard the name Uxie before, yet oddly enough the name struck him as familiar.

Ice had gathered on Hiro's paws. He idly scraped his claws together as if he didn't know what better to do with them. By the time Ze'Mer returned to her couch he already had a question for her.

"Is Uxie that who you just prayed to?" he couldn't help himself from asking. "What does she do?"

Ze'mer's lip lifted in a faint smile that held a certain kindness to it, which further eased the apprehension Hiro initially had around her.

"She is the God of Wisdom," Ze'Mer answered. "Through her blessing, I am able to make what I do for you possible without causing great risk to you."

Hiro pursed his lips. "Great risk? Like what"

"Without Uxie's blessing, in the best circumstance your mind would greatly resist me and the process would fail. At worst, I could bring you harm unknowingly." She closed her eyes and shook her head. "I would very much like to avoid doing anything of the sort to you. Not only that, we would be here till midnight before I'm done, otherwise. The mind is a delicate thing."

Some of that went right over Hiro's head, but he salvaged useful bits out of it. A small cloud of smoke drifted over his claw. He dispersed it just as Ze'Mer made a remark.

"Part of my pact with Uxie is such that I must begin by disclosing this with you," she twirled her hair in her fingers and continued. "When we begin, your mind will be laid bare to me. I might see some of the deepest secrets you wish to hide—"

Hiro's heart spiked like a furnace, but Ze'Mer hurriedly added, "—Everything shared between us in this room will remain between just you and me. You can rest assured that I will not be disclosing anything without your explicit knowledge and consent. Consider this as part of Uxie's grace."

Hiro's mind spun like a pinwheel at Ze'Mer's words. His heart thumped in his chest like a rattle. If she was going to keep his secret, and would discover it anyhow… shouldn't he tell her the full truth then?

Hiro flicked his eyes up and met her gaze, watching for any hint in her expression that would tell him she knew he had something to hide. Did she leave it up to him to say it outright? Candle flames danced in the periphery of his vision. If only he could be carefree as they were.

"There's something I… need to tell you as well, Ze'Mer," said Hiro, bringing one paw to the other. "... I'm not from this world."

A slight shift occurred in Ze'Mer's expression, betraying her anticipation.

"I am not like you, or Atlas, or anyone else in this world." Hiro dropped the façade, his eyes becoming pools for Ze'Mer to see through. They were clear as crystal.

"What do you… mean?" asked Zemer.

"I'm a human."

The words left Hiro's lips about as smoothly as an iron pole being wrenched free from solid stone. Once he spoke them, however, his chest grew light as a feather in the wind. He averted his gaze to the ground.

"I don't remember what I was like as one or what my world was truly like or where it even is…" Hiro raised his claws, waving them around before they fell back onto his legs. "Maybe it doesn't sound believable to you, but I swear I'm not lying."

Hiro held his breath; the weight of Ze'Mer's gaze pressed on him like an anvil. He dared to chance a glance at her eyes, he saw them dissecting every inch of his face. Ze'Mer's eyes searched for the threads of falsehood in his plea.

There was a stillness, a moment which stretched thin, where Hiro's heart thundered loud enough to betray his anxiety.

Ze'Mer twitched her tentacle, leaving the hand to hover by her right.

"I see. You are well beyond what I expected."

Hiro's tail feathers stiffened like poles.

"You believe me?" There was a pause. Gears turned in his head and just then it occurred to him. "Wait, you know what a human is?"

"You'd scarcely find anymon who doesn't, Hiro…" said Ze'Mer with a twirl of her hand. "Do you know what this means for you? Many legends paint humans as heroes. They are said to come from foreign realms to defeat evils which threaten the world."

Hiro's tail feathers clipped together in apprehension. What she described didn't sound like him at all. Who would ever want to bear such a burden? One that would suffocate a person beneath the weight of a world on one's shoulder? He drew away from it and walked back a few steps in his mind.

"There's… I left some parts out from what I told you before," started Hiro. The lid was already broken free. He might as well spill the rest of the contents.

Hiro finally told Ze'Mer about the dream he had with the pink creature, the cloaked mantis apparition at Draco's Watch and he even told her about the voice he first heard when he woke up, the one which called for him.

Like before, Ze'Mer listened without interrupting. However, her lips drew to a line and her gaze drew to the side. She looked deep in thought, as if something Hiro had said roused something to the edge of her mind which she couldn't quite recall.

Ze'Mer drew a gesture in the air and Hiro caught the glint of a trinket floating his way. In Ze'Mer's eyes was a flash of the same soft purple light enveloping the object.

Hiro snatched the trinket in his paws, instinctively bringing it to his snout to sniff at it. It wasn't a trinket, but another of those orbs he'd seen many times before, and in many kinds even after coming to Lively Town. The one Ze'Mer gave him came with concentric rings visible in its center, like a dart board nailed to tavern wall for travelers to amuse themselves with. What was he to do with it? His feather flicked as Ze'Mer's voice thrummed into it.

"I want you to hold onto that ring target orb for me," Ze'mer remarked, answering Hiro's question before it even left his throat. "Since you're a dark type, you have a natural resistance to psychic influence. The orb will mitigate that."

Hiro recalled that Atlas made mention of his mind being resistant to tampering. How then did those Beheeyem rip his memories from him? Were they even responsible for that at all? His lips curved in a frown and his mind began to drift along with the currents of his thoughts.

A flash of pink stirred him awake from his reverie. All the remaining candles and incenses in the room lit up in unison as if answering the call of a magician. Now that his face could rise above the currents of gloom, he absorbed himself in the moment, his lips parting in wonder.

Ze'Mer's gaze honed, the shimmer on her face like stars under the purple glow of her eyes. "Shall we begin, Hiro?"

"Yes," Hiro answered right away, pooling every drop of bravery he had to the center of his heart.

In a heartbeat, a faint purple sheen wrapped like film over Ze'Mer's body as she closed her eyes. Hiro glanced at his paw and raised his brows, realizing that his body was beginning to glow in much the same way as Ze'Mer's. A psychic presence brushed against the edges of his mind, making its way in like delicate fingers cradling a delicate flower.

Hiro's eyes grew heavy suddenly like he'd stepped into a pool of drowsiness. He tried to keep them open, but doing so grew harder and harder with each passing moment. Ze'Mer said something, though he didn't see her lips move. Her voice spoke directly to his mind.

'~Don't fret. This is all part of the process. This shall let us delve within and see what we may find, Hiro…~'

The slight bob of his head was all he could manage for a nod before slumping backwards on his couch. His heart slowed its rhythm, his breathing softened to a gradual ebb and flow. When he closed his eyes, sleep claimed him.

…..

A cloud of steam wafted towards Roselia's face as he tipped a kettle over a cup. Tea sloshed into the cup in a gentle stream. With the cup filled, Roselia put it on a saucer and handed it to Kirlia.

Roselia knew his tea would dazzle Kirlia—much like it had dazzled so many others before—and he watched him pick up the cup and bring it to his lips. Sure enough, Kirlia brows shot up along his face the moment he took a sip.

"This tastes… incredible," remarked Kirlia. He took another sip, then another, and by the third Roselia was beginning to smile. "The ingredients aren't any different, yet this tea is certainly richer than what I prepare. How did you do it?"

The smile on Roselia's face hid his growing embarrassment. A small—and very loud—part of him almost didn't want to take pride in his work. It would tell him that it was a fluke that everymon enjoyed his tea, every time. That sooner or later someone would expose him for what he was. Often, Roselia listened to that voice, but not this time.

"You just have to be careful with how you set the flame orbs, make sure the leaves are good and…" Roselia prattled on about the process like he wanted to make sure he hadn't suddenly forgotten how it went.

Roselia finished his ramble, though he couldn't tell from Kirlia's eyes if he understood that or not. Did he?

"Ah, I suppose it's only natural that a professional would have more experience than I with the intricacies of making tea."

Guess not.

"I wouldn't really call myself… a professional," Roselia muttered, hiding his face behind his cup. "But thanks."

A few hours went by while Roselia and Kirlia waited in the room. Awkward attempts at small banter broke the many moments of silence, but never for very long. Roselia wished he knew how to talk to other mon better. He glanced at the window filtering in the amber light of an early evening sun and his mind began to wonder…

"What are they really doing in there?" asked Roselia, shifting his weight on his cushion while sighing.

Kirlia set his third emptied cup aside and his brows pinched together. His eyes turned vacant for a brief moment. Telepathy? Before Roselia had the chance to mull over it further, Kirlia's eyes snapped back to attention.

"It's not unheard of for Master to take this long with a patient, but why does her mind feel faint?"

That didn't sound good at all. A response sat at the bed of Roselia's tongue, but he swallowed it back down. He couldn't allow his thoughts to jump to the worst outcome. In his growing unease, his gaze wandered across the room just in time to catch the shadow of somemon approaching the entrance doorway.

Rat-tat-tat. Knocks came from the door. Roselia huddled up on his cushion while Kirlia got up in prim and proper fashion to welcome the new arrival.

"Ah, Atlas. You personally came?" Kirlia said while opening the door.

Time slowed to a crawl for Roselia. He buried his face so deeply in his flowers that anymon looking would think he was devouring them.

"G-gramps?" Roselia uttered as surprise stilled him in place.

He dropped his eyes to the ground the moment Atlas' yellow frame walked into view. Roselia couldn't raise his face; not even as he felt the Ampharos pause, eyes fixed squarely on him.

Memories of that night returned. The same night when he, a much younger budew, cowered and sniffled behind a couch. In the next room he'd heard Ma Zahra's sobs as she grieved to Atlas after… after… The more colorful images from his past began to flash in his eyes. Fire. Fire all around.

Atlas spoke, pulling Roselia out of his spiral. How long had Atlas been standing right in front of him?

"Budew?" Atlas called in a voice gentle enough to soften Roselia's quivering. "It is you, isn't it? Though, I suppose you're Roselia now. You've grown into a fine mon."

Roselia had to lift his gaze to stare at Atlas even after the Ampharos lowered himself to one knee. He almost took a step to back away, but he stopped himself. Words struggled to form in his mind, and his mouth was as dry as a flower left under the sun in the middle of a drought.

"Shy as ever I see." Atlas said, reaching a palm to pat his head. "Still, it truly is good to see you again after all these years."

"W-wait Gramps! Watch the thorns!" Roselia stammered, this time actually stepping back, roses lifted over his round head and all.

A brief moment of panic came over Roselia as he thought Atlas might've been hurt by that. Except, instead of the cry of pain he was expecting, all Atlas did was laugh, leaving bafflement to color Roselia's features.

"Please, don't mind me," he said, smiling. "Have you been adjusting to Lively Town?"

"Hmm?"

"It was Thena who informed me you'd taken root here while I was away. I almost couldn't believe it," Atlas said with a wistful air around him. "I wish Zahra had come alongside you as well, but I'm glad enough just seeing you again."

The way Atlas said that left Roselia wondering if he'd forgotten what transpired all those years ago.

"Oh. I'm fine. Ma Zahra is too," Roselia muttered, then came a realization. Atlas hadn't forgotten the fact. The fact that he was acting this way only meant… he didn't want Roselia to feel uncomfortable.

"… You know you can just call me Atlas, right?"

Roselia's cheeks flushed and he pulled his arms down from over his head. A lemony scent drifted around him and he remembered his still-steaming teacup on the side.

"You're fine with 'Gramps' anyhow," he muttered in response, lifting the cup.

Atlas boomed with laughter at that remark. "You make me sound like an old mon. I like to think I'm still very much in my prime."

The brief banter did wonders in helping Roselia push back his earlier morbid thoughts. He glanced at his cup to find that it was getting cold. Half a minute on the flame orb should warm it right back up. Atlas pulled on his cloak, his gaze on the carnivine sculpture in the room.

"Say, what brought you here?" he pondered.

What brought him there? Roselia straightened his back as he recalled the reason why.

"I met this Sneasel and… He said you sent him here, actually." Roselia gestured to the other door. "He's in there with the Hatterene lady."

"He means Master," Kirlia cut in.

The leaves on Roselia's shoulders rose and fell with the rhythm of his breaths. He glanced at Atlas, whose gaze piqued with curiosity.

"Is that so?" Atlas rose back to his feet and furrowed his brows. "How long have they been inside?"

Roselia glanced at the clock and pressed his lips. "Three hours, I think?"

That much time had passed already? Brewing different tea with Kirlia captivated him so much he lost track of things. A sudden hiss elsewhere in the room made Roselia's heart leap in his chest. He held his cup from spilling and shot a look at the door.

Atlas' ragged companion stood in front of it, her floppy head pulling back and slick black appendages emerging like little ekans beneath her garbs. Roselia's mouth dried up, and he was relieved to see Atlas take notice of the small yellow mon.

"Mebh, is something the matter?" He'd asked.

Even Kirlia frowned, though his eyes were on the door itself and not Mebh. "Master?"

A loud crash shook Roselia and threw him back onto the cushion. He opened his eyes to find his teacup on the ground, its contents spilled.

"Master!" came Kirlia's voice in panic.

Atlas' hand was already on the knob, pulling it open while Kirlia disappeared from sight, presumably teleporting inside.

What was that? Roselia lifted his cup in trembling vines. Everyone else had already gone inside the other room as a commotion started to form. Were Hiro and Ze'Mer injured?

"Roselia!"

Atlas bursting back out from the room made Roselia jump, and he froze still under the ampharos' urgent gaze. He knelt down again to match his height. Roselia could only wonder what he wanted.

"Do you still know how to heal?" Atlas asked, urgency in his voice, too.

"H-heal. Yes… but I—"

The floor distanced itself from Roselia as Atlas hoisted him up into his arms.

"G-gramps??"

"You'll have to forgive me, but they need your help."

…..

Hiro awoke to a world dancing in a blur within his eyes. Pain seized his mind with the intensity of a ravenous flame, so fierce that an agonized hiss wrung its way through his clenched fangs.

He was lucky. A blurry green figure bathed Hiro in light, his mind's turmoil freeing its hold on him like a serpent banished to a dark crevice.

Hiro blinked a few times and the fog shrouding his vision cleared. The green figure, as it turned out, was none other than a flustered Roselia staring up at him. He groaned from the phantom echo of the pain that still lingered in his head, his lips parting to utter a question.

"Roselia? What's… what happened?" asked Hiro. The Roselia in question fidgeted slightly, at a loss for words.

Hiro found his throat as dry as an icy desert, and his limbs had the same lack of strength of a newly born infant's. Then he saw his surroundings.

Every shelf filled with medicine, every cabinet of tools and equipment lay toppled over. Candles littered the ground wherever he looked and their flames looked like they'd been snuffed out long ago.

Hiro glanced at the walls. He saw the cracks that tore through them. They led his eyes to the air vent; bent and twisted like a corkscrew, maddening as it was. The once clean and proper room had become an absolute and utter mess.

Many disconcerted thoughts bubbled up Hiro's mind. He swung his face down at his seat to find deep gashes ripped into the couch, forming a short trail leading right to his claws.

"What… happened?"

Roselia frantically waved flowers at Hiro's face, spreading a vanilla scent that made him flinch.

"Don't move around too much yet. I err…" Roselia said, backing away, his roses concealing half his face. "Are you feeling better?"

Before Hiro could answer, a tendril wrapped around his arm as he hovered it to the armrest. Mebh had climbed beside him. When? Even beneath her garb, the worry in her black eyes could be felt. Was he forgetting someone?

Hiro lurched forward with a gasp. A wave of dizziness sent him slumping back on his seat and whatever words he had lingered at the back of his throat.

The swirl of emotions in his chest drove him forward, allowing him, though hoarsely, to mutter, "Ze'Mer… Is she…?"

Ze'Mer's raised tendril arm drew Hiro's attention to her like a lighthouse in the stormy dark. Just like him, she looked worse for wear with her hair disheveled. Her once painted face had even lost its glitter and shine. Had it not been for Kirlia supporting her weight from the side, she might've not had the strength to sit upright.

A bit formed at the base of Hiro's stomach.

"I caused this, didn't I?" Hiro muttered joylessly, his ear and head feather dropping like wilted flowers. Frost gathered at the edge of his claws. He lacked the mind to scrape it away.

A palm pressed on Hiro's shoulders and made him twitch. Atlas stood by him, leaning down.

"You didn't cause this, lad," Atlas said to him. His gaze glided over towards Ze'Mer. "I'm sure there's an explanation for… all this."

Hiro clenched his freezing claws, but Mebh's tendril tightened around his wrist and a soft consoling hiss reached his ears.

It helped Hiro to remember she was there. Her care for him still bewildered him in many ways, but he could only accept it wholly at that moment else he might freeze himself over.

Ze'Mer spoke at last. "I am sorry, Hiro… Something went awry during the procedure…"

Hiro's blood ran cold, and not because of his affinity to cold. Something… went wrong? How could that be? After all the assurances about Uxie's blessing, something went wrong? He breathed through his nose and swallowed down his frustration.

"What happened?" Hiro asked. No doubt it was the question on the minds of everyone in that room.

Ze'Mer raised her chin and brought her tentacle to rest over her dress. She drew breath and her voice was suddenly in Hiro's mind, "~Don't panic. I'm speaking to you through my telepathy.~"

Hiro just barely managed to keep his eyes from widening like plates. He glanced to his hip and found the ring target still lodged against him. That was all it took for her connection to get through.

"~Why are we…?~"

"~I cannot speak too freely on what I know as part of the pact. It's up to you what I can disclose in their presence.~"

Hiro suddenly understood and gave Atlas a steady look. Atlas responded with a slight smile. It was as if he could just barely hear the secret whisper Ze'Mer projected to him, even if Hiro knew that he probably couldn't actually hear anything.

Mebh's eyes meanwhile didn't tell him if she cared either way. Only Roselia, slightly trembling on his feet, looked both like he wanted to stay and yet wanted to leave and stay ignorant for whatever might come next.

"~Don't tell them I'm a human. I'm not… ready to tell more people about that yet.~"

"~Understood. Though if it's any solace, I think Atlas can be trusted. However, I respect your choice regardless.~"

A misty sigh drifted from Hiro's lips. He swept his gaze over everyone.

"They can stay. Wouldn't have gotten this far without them," Hiro answered at last. Somehow, it didn't surprise Hiro that only Roselia jumped in place at that answer. He took his eyes away from the living flower, gaze locked with Ze'Mer's again.

Ze'Mer asked, "Do you recall encountering a divine being in your past, Hiro?"

Gasps echoed from everyone in the room, even Atlas. Only Hiro himself and Mebh gave no strong reaction. Hiro had learned the Pokemon world had gods, but the most he knew of any divinity in this world were the statues built of them.

Hiro wiped his nose and shot Uxie's altar a glance; it alone remained standing amidst the fallen shelves and cupboards.

"You have not?" Ze'Mer asked after the prolonged silence. Hiro shook his head. That made her frown, then she widened her eyes and massaged her temples. "Right. Why do I ask? You would have forgotten, just as you have forgotten everything else."

Atlas stepped forward, joining the discussion. "How can this be, Ze'Mer? Which God would do such a thing to Hiro?"

Ze'Mer shook her head solemnly.

"I don't know, but I know one thing for certain…" She shot Hiro a look and he squirmed inside with unease.

"Which is…?"

"Your memories are not lost… but they are beyond my reach," Ze'Mer explained. Almost as if she knew what Hiro was about to blurt out, she quickly continued. "It might not make much sense, but a divine being placed a seal of protection upon your mind, Hiro."

Hiro furrowed his brows. A seal of protection? From what? Did he ask for it? When? How? The questions swirled in his mind like a whirlpool, and the only person he could ask them to did not look like she'd have any of the answers.

"Can you… undo it?" he asked, his voice nearly a begging mewl.

Ze'Mer pursed her lips and lowered her gaze.

"I'm sorry, but I cannot," Ze'Mer replied mournfully. Just like that, the corners of his vision narrowed as despair pooled beneath his feet.

"I believe that you might get answers if you can find out the divine being who created the seal," Ze'Mer said to him. "It could very well be that the seal is not permanent and your memories may return to you on their own, though I can't promise that will happen."

Hiro bit his lip and closed his eyes morosely. Could she be lying to give him a thread of hope to hold onto and keep himself going? No, that didn't seem likely. Why would she choose now to lie? He opened his eyes with a faint smile of gratitude.

Suddenly, Mebh hissed irritably beside him, the rest of her tendrils writhing like a swarm of worms beneath her costume. "I will smash seal..."

Ze'Mer smiled uncomfortably at that, though by that point in the conversation she looked more worn out and tired to Hiro if anything.

Atlas clapped his hands and shared glances with everyone in the room, though his eyes lingered on Ze'Mer.

"I'll let Dit know to send someone down here to help with the clean up…" The vent crashed down noisily into the room, leaving a gaping hole in the ceiling that filtered in the evening sunlight. "And also the repairs."

"You… needn't…" Ze'Mer started, but Atlas quickly shook his head.

"It's alright, Ze'Mer," he told her. "Take it as payment for the procedure."

Ze'Mer relented with a sigh, all the while Kirlia's face remained filled with worry.

"Hiro… You and the others should go and rest," Atlas instructed. "We'll sort this out later."

Hiro's eyes fell even lower and he unknowingly pulled Mebh closer to him. "I have no place to go… or to be."

A deafening silence fell into the room once more. Hiro could feel every fiber of his being oozing with gloom. It made him sick to his gut.

The scent of apples reached Hiro as Roselia walked up to him, somehow the one to break the silence. "U-uhm… My house has a spare room that's open. You can stay there for a while… if you want."

Hiro parted his lips to turn down the offer, but one glance at the hopeful look in Roselia's eyes made him reconsider. He drew in a deep breath.

"Okay," Hiro said. "And thank you."

---

Spoiler: Special Thanks

Special thanks to SparklingEspeon and SpitefulMurkrow for beta reading this chapter!