Starlight Aurate
Ad Jesum per Mariam | pfp by kintsugi
- Location
- Route 123
- Partners
-
Heya, here's a triad of Drabble Bingo, the card courtesy of Negrek! I went with:
New Friend
Into the Unknown
A Fresh Start
Enjoy!
A New Friend
Slivers of moonlight shone through slats in the window. Tod glanced at his alarm clock.
4:43 AM
He sat up. There was no more use in trying to sleep. How many times did he sleep in the last few months?
Tod considered making breakfast, but he wasn’t hungry. He turned on a light, grabbed a book, and began to read:
For my soul is filled with evils
My life is on the brink of the grave
I am reckoned as one in the tomb
I have reached the end of my strength
But his mind quickly wandered. It was impossible to focus on the words. Even reading held no more joy for him. He returned the book to the nightstand. Just as he turned off the light, he noticed a movement from the shadows.
Tod peered into the darkness, and it peered back at him. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a dim red glow—and a deeper darkness beyond the silver streaks of moonlight.
The startling red eye would probably have terrified him in days past. But Tod didn’t often feel terror anymore.
As a child, his mother told him that Duskull would take misbehaving children away, never to be seen again. The fear of being spirited away was enough to make Tod behave properly. But he was an adult now. And after months of sleepless nights, days of forgetting to eat, and fighting just to get through each day, Tod was unbothered.
“Have you come to take me?” he asked the Duskull, which only gazed at him unblinkingly. “Fine. Wherever we’re going can’t be worse than this.”
Duskull floated over to Tod. Now that the Pokemon was fully lit by the moon, Tod saw its wispy body with crossbones on its back. Duskull merely continued to gaze at Tod, its head (or its whole body, as it lacked anything more than a skull) tilted to the side as though it were curious.
Tod smirked. “Not going anywhere? Just going to float and stare, huh? Then why even bother coming in here? You’re not going to eat my emotions, or my soul, or kidnap me and send me to your spirit world. What do you do, then? Just mill about and watch people? What kind of a life is that?”
The smirk faded from Tod’s face as he gazed at the waning moonlight.
“Yeah… what kind of a life is this?”
Duskull floated closer to Tod. He sighed.
“Sorry about that… It must be hard to just float about and not really have anyone to be with.” A wan smile crossed his face as Duskull settled on his knee. “But, hey, you’re not alone.”
Into the Unknown
“What is that?”
“We’ve done it! We’ve finally found it!”
Dreymon’s heart pounded furiously within his chest as he brought his pickaxe down full force. The rock wall crumbled away before him, revealing glints of golden light beneath. His assistant, Quimby, hung back.
“Are—are you sure, Dreymon? Something seems odd about these golden lights…”
But Dreymon ploughed away, the light growing stronger with each strike. Eventually, a large section of rock wall fell away. Dreymon and Quimby gasped.
A corridor of what seemed to be pure gold lay in front of them, opening into several side hallways. Glyphs of an unintelligible language were carved into the ceilings. But even more shocking was the overwhelming presence that filled the minds of Dreymon and Quimby—an inhuman presence, yet vastly intelligent. And, somehow, Dreymon knew that there were hundreds—perhaps thousands—of these psychic beings with them.
As the thought entered Dreymon’s mind, he suddenly realised that the glyphs—which he thought had decorative circles—were blinking. A sense of awe and fear flooded his heart as he saw several glyphs detach from the walls and float before him. His fear abated as he received the mental sensations of these strange creatures. They bore no malevolence, and were just as curious about him as he was about them!
“Quimby… this wasn’t the treasure I was expecting to find… but I’m not disappointed!”
A Fresh Start
The salty wind whipped his face as he stared out over the seaborn cliff.
“Throwing them away, then? For good?”
Rosie placed a hand on Dustin’s shoulder as he stared at the wooden box in his hands. Its contents were light—just bits of clothing, really—but it seemed to grow heavier as he stared at it. It was time to get rid of it, to be done with it, to let it all go. But those thoughts only made it more difficult to stop holding on.
Dustin took a shaky breath.
“Yes, Rosie. I found the owners of that Marowak, and I apologised for what I did. I found the little Cubone and apologised to him, too. They… they forgave me.”
Rosie squeezed his arm. “Forgive yourself, too.”
Dustin nodded.
“I can’t pretend it didn’t happen. But it doesn’t have power over me anymore. I won’t let it destroy me.”
At these words, he cast the box over the cliff. The lid detached as it sailed down, and the contents fluttered in the wind before being lost to the sea. As Dustin and Rosie turned, he glimpsed a bright red R set in the black jumper wave at him, a last farewell of his previous life.
New Friend
Into the Unknown
A Fresh Start
| Waylaid by Thieves | The Winding Road | Sleeping Rough |
| New Friend | Into the Unknown | A Fresh Start |
| Pinnacle | Dark Alleyway | Horizon |
Enjoy!
A New Friend
Slivers of moonlight shone through slats in the window. Tod glanced at his alarm clock.
4:43 AM
He sat up. There was no more use in trying to sleep. How many times did he sleep in the last few months?
Tod considered making breakfast, but he wasn’t hungry. He turned on a light, grabbed a book, and began to read:
For my soul is filled with evils
My life is on the brink of the grave
I am reckoned as one in the tomb
I have reached the end of my strength
But his mind quickly wandered. It was impossible to focus on the words. Even reading held no more joy for him. He returned the book to the nightstand. Just as he turned off the light, he noticed a movement from the shadows.
Tod peered into the darkness, and it peered back at him. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a dim red glow—and a deeper darkness beyond the silver streaks of moonlight.
The startling red eye would probably have terrified him in days past. But Tod didn’t often feel terror anymore.
As a child, his mother told him that Duskull would take misbehaving children away, never to be seen again. The fear of being spirited away was enough to make Tod behave properly. But he was an adult now. And after months of sleepless nights, days of forgetting to eat, and fighting just to get through each day, Tod was unbothered.
“Have you come to take me?” he asked the Duskull, which only gazed at him unblinkingly. “Fine. Wherever we’re going can’t be worse than this.”
Duskull floated over to Tod. Now that the Pokemon was fully lit by the moon, Tod saw its wispy body with crossbones on its back. Duskull merely continued to gaze at Tod, its head (or its whole body, as it lacked anything more than a skull) tilted to the side as though it were curious.
Tod smirked. “Not going anywhere? Just going to float and stare, huh? Then why even bother coming in here? You’re not going to eat my emotions, or my soul, or kidnap me and send me to your spirit world. What do you do, then? Just mill about and watch people? What kind of a life is that?”
The smirk faded from Tod’s face as he gazed at the waning moonlight.
“Yeah… what kind of a life is this?”
Duskull floated closer to Tod. He sighed.
“Sorry about that… It must be hard to just float about and not really have anyone to be with.” A wan smile crossed his face as Duskull settled on his knee. “But, hey, you’re not alone.”
Into the Unknown
“What is that?”
“We’ve done it! We’ve finally found it!”
Dreymon’s heart pounded furiously within his chest as he brought his pickaxe down full force. The rock wall crumbled away before him, revealing glints of golden light beneath. His assistant, Quimby, hung back.
“Are—are you sure, Dreymon? Something seems odd about these golden lights…”
But Dreymon ploughed away, the light growing stronger with each strike. Eventually, a large section of rock wall fell away. Dreymon and Quimby gasped.
A corridor of what seemed to be pure gold lay in front of them, opening into several side hallways. Glyphs of an unintelligible language were carved into the ceilings. But even more shocking was the overwhelming presence that filled the minds of Dreymon and Quimby—an inhuman presence, yet vastly intelligent. And, somehow, Dreymon knew that there were hundreds—perhaps thousands—of these psychic beings with them.
As the thought entered Dreymon’s mind, he suddenly realised that the glyphs—which he thought had decorative circles—were blinking. A sense of awe and fear flooded his heart as he saw several glyphs detach from the walls and float before him. His fear abated as he received the mental sensations of these strange creatures. They bore no malevolence, and were just as curious about him as he was about them!
“Quimby… this wasn’t the treasure I was expecting to find… but I’m not disappointed!”
A Fresh Start
The salty wind whipped his face as he stared out over the seaborn cliff.
“Throwing them away, then? For good?”
Rosie placed a hand on Dustin’s shoulder as he stared at the wooden box in his hands. Its contents were light—just bits of clothing, really—but it seemed to grow heavier as he stared at it. It was time to get rid of it, to be done with it, to let it all go. But those thoughts only made it more difficult to stop holding on.
Dustin took a shaky breath.
“Yes, Rosie. I found the owners of that Marowak, and I apologised for what I did. I found the little Cubone and apologised to him, too. They… they forgave me.”
Rosie squeezed his arm. “Forgive yourself, too.”
Dustin nodded.
“I can’t pretend it didn’t happen. But it doesn’t have power over me anymore. I won’t let it destroy me.”
At these words, he cast the box over the cliff. The lid detached as it sailed down, and the contents fluttered in the wind before being lost to the sea. As Dustin and Rosie turned, he glimpsed a bright red R set in the black jumper wave at him, a last farewell of his previous life.