Fr. Chopin ⧸ arr. Chris Christodoulou's Prelude in D flat major


The wet and cool air, carried by the fast-approaching winds, filled my lungs. My fins trembled, too, as I realized through some primal instinct that the time it had taken me to ascend this hill on the outlands of Capim Town was how long it'd take for the looming storm to arrive.

Time to go back, ďAlin, I told myself.

I opened my eyes as the sound of thunder—delicate from this distance—rolled over the hills. I looked at the scene before me: the City of Trees in its entirety.

I saw the sun shining overhead, in the west, its brilliant light reflecting over the thrashing waters of Capim Bay, no doubt thrown into a frenzy because of the impending storm. I traced a ray of light that flew over the bay, across the bright blue sky and above the mighty trees that Capim Town was built into. The light, which illuminated the various bridges, buildings, and vines before me continued eastwards until it struck an overwhelming black.

It was unable to pierce the thick, heavy clouds of the storm in the east, the one that had reared its head over Checkered Chasm nearly a week ago.

I stood, and all of my fur danced in the wind as it blew over me, ushering the storm to complete its transit across the continent from Shuropak to Capim Bay. I proceeded to make my way back to the Clover Guild; although I had come out here to meditate, to think over everything, the conclusion I had reached was the same I had when I first walked here this morning:

We have to talk.

Still, I couldn't help but go through everything once more, and before I knew it I was standing before the entrance to the Clover Guild. I looked to my left and saw Capim Town, still under the adamant light of the sun. I turned right, towards the path that led into the forest, and it was blotted out by that terrible wall of darkness and rain. It sent a shiver from the base of my head all the way to my tail.

Strange. Normally I love storms. But as for this one... I can feel that it's different, isn't it?

It was practically upon us. My ears picked up the torrent of rainfall closing in, and the rumble of thunder had grown fiercer as the beast finally brandished its claws. I made my way inside, my paws crunching over the gravel and grass below me.

My attempt to outrun the storm was unsuccessful. A rogue raindrop struck my tail. It felt good.



In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

Genesis 7:11 NIV



I walked into the Guildhall, the opening salvo of rain echoing as it struck the thick trunk of the tree the Clover Guild was carved into. While normally there'd be a multitude of pokemon here, either looking at the job board or, more likely, idling about, there were none.

Most must've slept in on account of the storm. Plus those who do usually undertake jobs went on distant missions for the same reason, I think.

I glanced past the job board's postings Team Eevee was yet to undertake and stared ahead at the spiral staircase. Below was our assigned room, where—even in spite of being here only a few days before our first assignment—it felt like my proper space. I looked to the ascending stairs, spiraling above to where Arimis and I were staying for the time being.

I sighed and proceeded forwards, but a wayward glance towards the open doors of the kitchen to my left gave rise to an involuntary smile; I saw the Clover Guild's resident super-leafeon snout-deep in a bowl that Beast had prepared. I approached, careful to not say anything towards Pirth as he chewed and munched, but as I entered through the doorway his ears flicked. I took a few more steps and he raised his head and "looked" directly at me.

"ďAlin?" he said.

I couldn't help but cock my head. "How'd you know it was me?"

He dodged my question with a leap and he hurriedly trotted over to me. "ďAlin!" he exclaimed, lowering his head and practically ramming me.

I nearly had the wind knocked out of me as he put his snout beneath my chest and raised his head, lifting me up by my belly. While my forelegs were in the air, I managed to keep my hind legs and tail grounded. "Woah there, Pirth," I said, "please let me down."

He obliged, lowering his head once more and allowing me to balance myself, though I used the opportunity to remain upright. My paws freed, I caressed them over Pirth's head, petting him. He leaned into it and I laughed, "God, I missed you, Pirth."


Chris Christodoulou's 25 3°N 91 7°E


I used my paws to scratch between his ears and antlers, and he seemed to very much enjoy that. Still, my curiosity wasn't sated, so I repeated, "So, how'd you know it was me? I didn't even speak."

Pirth said, "Well, you walk with a certain... gait."

"Do I?"

He gave a very shallow nod, trying to not break from my "petting" of his head. "Yeah. After being around you for a whole month I got used to it. Like, I can tell Althi's the best since I've known her my whole life and Arimis' is tough since she's very lightpawed but yours... it's sorta clumsy."

"Great..."

"And it became more distinctive when you evolved!"

"Oh? How's that? More sure-footed?"

"Nope! You mostly just drag your tail on the ground."

"Ew," I blurted, lifting my tail off the ground. I was only able to hold it midair for a moment, though, until my muscles became strained and it fell back on the floor.

Not good. The Guild is kinda gross... I'll have to just work it out, I suppose. I thought as I put more vigor into scratching Pirth. I moved a paw right behind Pirth's ear and,when I did so, he raised one of his hind legs and, just like a dog, started to kick the air with it. I was unable to suppress a snicker at this.

"What's so funny?" Pirth asked.

"Oh, well, you just remind me a bit of a dog from back home, Pirth. The similarity is funny."

Pirth, now, cocked his head. "'Dog?"

"Yeah. Uh, it's kinda like what Pochi is."

"Althi said he was black. That's a color."

"Yes but, no, not that. Like, four-legged. A snout and big ears. A tail, too."

"That describes all of us, ďAlin."

I snickered. "I don't think so. I'm like a cat-fox-otter-thing, just like your sister—minus the otter—and Arimis is really just a straight-up fox. And you're a reind—"

I stopped myself before I could say anything else. Pirth slowly backed away under my scratches, forcing me onto my four legs once more. I looked up at him as he towered over me, silent.

I felt a shiver down my spine, and I didn't dare imagine what he was thinking.



HE HAS BETRAYED US. SEND HIM INTO THE STORM OUTSIDE WHILE I DON MY ZAP PLATE. I SHALL ERASE HIM FROM EXISTENCE.

Calm down, Arceus. Obviously I'll kill him if he said it but—

DID YOU NOT HEAR WHAT HE WAS GOING TO SAY? IN THE MIDST OF THOSE MADE-UP WORDS HE WAS GOING TO CALL YOU A RAIN-DEER. AS IN DEERLING.

I know what it sounded like, but ďAlin would never.

YOUR SISTER WAS WRONG. D'ALIN, TOO, CANNOT BE TRUSTED. HUMANS ARE NOT MY CREATIONS, THEY ARE THAT OF GIRATINA.

I hear ďAlin, below me, draw in a breath. A heavy one.

Oh, he might be afraid.

RIGHTFULLY SO.

Wait, wait, let me ask him what he was going to say.

So I do, and, worryingly, he hums before he says, "Well, I was going to say you're a rain... dog. The thing we were just talking about."

"Rain-dog?" I question.

"Yes! Rain since, as a grass-type, you need water to grow and survive."

HE IS NOT CONFIDENT. SOMETHING IS NOT ADDING UP.

There's no denying that. I lower my head towards him, and I hear him take a few steps back, his tail dragging on the ground.

"Explain to me please. Your rain comment makes sense, but how am I a 'dog'?" I whisper.

I can hear the tension in his voice. "Uh, well you know what dog is backwards, right?"

My mind went blank. "ďAlin, I can't read, especially not your stupid human letters."

"Oh, right. Well just sound it out. Dog is..."

Uh, help me out here, Arceus.

DUH-AW-GUH. SO THAT BACKWARDS IS...

He took a moment to think before telling me, GUH-AW-DUH.

I put it together in a record two seconds. God?!

WHAT DOES HE MEAN BY THIS? IS HE CALLING US THE ANTITHESIS OF MYSELF?

Wait a second and think about it. Humans are backwards retards, right? You told me so yourself.

CORRECT. THEY ARE NOT MY CREATION SO THAT MUCH IS CLEAR.

Well, if ďAlin thinks of me as a backwards god but that's a human thing and they're backwards all the time, then the backwardness cancels out, right? He's calling me very god-like, which you know is absolutely true.

I AM NOT SURE IF I WOULD SAY THAT IS HOW IT WORKS.

Shut up and learn when to take a compliment, I command Arceus as I give ďAlin a bow.

"Thank you, ďAlin. I'll be sure to add 'dog' to the list of compliments I have received from humans. And of course it applies to Althi and yourself as well, since eevees are Arceus' favorite creation and you became one."

Right?

YOU KNOW IT.

"Yeah, I guess I'm dog-like too. I'll add that to the list." ďAlin says with a sigh of relief. Clearly, he was just glad that he was able to compliment Arceus despite being a retard. Good thing he has me, Arceus' chosen messenger, to relay the message, or he would've gotten smited.

I grin. It's extremely clear that my mission here—to make sure this guild of handicapped pokemon can know your Truth—is working. Aren't you glad?

YES. THESE SOULS, THOUGH NOT CRAFTED BY ME AND THEREFORE UTTERLY RETARDED, MIGHT YET SEE MY LIGHT.

A sudden realization comes to me, though; I realize I spoke about ďAlin and my sister, but not Arimis.

Arceus, I still don't get what happened. She's not an eevee anymore?

YOUR SISTER TOLD YOU SHE WAS A ZORUA DISGUISED AS AN ESPEON THE ENTIRE TIME. SHE NEVER WAS AN EEVEE.

Is that really it? She's still the same Arimis. Who cares about looks?

YOU KNOW IT'S MORE THAN MERELY THAT. BESIDES, THERE IS THE QUESTION OF HOW TEAM EEVEE CAN BEAR SUCH A HOLY NAME WHILE NOT EVERYONE IS AN EEVEE.

I decide to ignore that and speak to ďAlin instead. "So, how's Arimis been? I haven't heard her since, well, ever, but you know what I mean. Her… um, not psychic—"

“Extrasensory,” ďAlin says, “she ‘talks’ by manipulating senses. Sound for you and me. Sight for your sister.”

“Extrasensory,” I repeat, “ I haven’t heard it since after the debrief. Does... does she miss me?"

"We both miss you, Pirth," ďAlin responds, "and we—she's been fine. We've just been thinking about how to get things back to how they were before all of this."

"I'd like that. A lot. We can't be Team Eevee if we're missing..."

My voice trails off as I revisit Arceus' point. What does being an eevee entail anyways, Arceus?

EEVEES ARE THE POKEMON MOST MADE IN MY IMAGE. LIKE I, THEY CAN CHOOSE THEIR PATH, THEIR ALIGNMENT WITH THE WORLD I CREATED. THEY—

Can't Arimis decide what to look like? She did choose to be the pokemon most in your image, right? And you were totally fine with her before you knew. If she was good enough to trick you then she must be eevee-material at heart.

WELL I MEAN—

I interrupt God. "We can't be Team Eevee if we're missing half the eevees."

ďAlin lets out a small laugh. "Yeah, technically we are missing half the eevees."

"'Technically?'"

"Nevermind," he quickly says before continuing. "But I agree; I hate how we are right now, split up. It's..."

His voice fades, replaced by the hum of rain against the trunk of the Clover Guild. I can hear the unending strikes of rain, and I can hear it keep growing more and more intense. The thunder that bellows is distant since—even though it's loud—I don't feel the ground shake.

But I can hear the pounding of the rain get louder; the roar of thunder strengthens. Despite being given the honorable title of rain-dog, I don't like this storm very much, and I can sense that Arceus doesn't either.

ďAlin finally speaks, "It's not good. Team Eevee can't survive like this. I think we need to speak before it gets any worse."

I speak now, "I agree, ďAlin, but Althi's not ready to talk."

I hear a sharpness in his voice, "What do you mean? It's almost been a week."

"Well," I begin, "she's still thinking about everything. She's been losing sleep over it, you know? Me too. Althi... she gets so cold during her nightmares, plus I hear her whimper, and it wakes me up. Then I wake her up so she doesn't have to deal with those dreams."

ďAlin says nothing for a moment before continuing, "I... understand. Look, Pirth, I think it's time we sit down and talk. Considering we're all stuck here because of that storm, I don't think there's any better time to do it. There's no point in delaying the inevitable."

The pit in my stomach starts to crawl up my throat, "ďAlin, I really don’t think she wants to talk right now."

"We're all tired, Pirth."

"It's not just that. I think... I think she's a little afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

I whisper even though she can't hear. "I think Arimis."

"Of Arimis?" he says with an almost-laugh.

WATCH YOUR TONE, D'ALIN.

I try to correct myself, "Maybe afraid isn't the right word, but I know she doesn't want to confront her."

"Pirth," ďAlin says, and I can hear the annoyance on his tongue. "Do you think I want to talk? No, of course not. But we have to. Do you think she'll be more ready than now in a couple more days? A month, even?"

"No, I don't. But—"

"So then what, Pirth?"

"ďAlin" I try to whisper to him, even though I know she can't hear, "She's not just afraid. She's also angry."

This seems to get ďAlin even more irate. "Angry at who? Me? Arimis? God knows that Althi is the one who screwed up, who's so full of her hate for dark-types that—"

I interrupt him with a sigh. "Not Arimis. Not you either."

"Then who? Sneasel? Booker? I don't like them either but—"

"I think my sister is just angry with the world, ďAlin."

This gets him to stop and draw a breath. He waits a couple of seconds before continuing, most of the sharpness in his voice is gone and replaced with bits of sorrow. "Trust me, Pirth, that's not going to change anytime soon."

"I know," I say, unable to suppress a frown. "I realize now that she's been like this for a while."

Another moment of silence passes and I fill it in, "But she wants to fix that, to make the world a better place! She would've joined a guild earlier if she didn't wait for me. But she waited for me. She loves me."

I try to make sense of it all as I continue, "I think she loves you, too, or she wouldn't have reacted so strongly to thinking she lost you. She thought you died, you know."

"Love..." ďAlin utters under his breath, an exhale that seems almost like disbelief at such a revelation. He smacks his lips, as if tasting the word, and is silent for a second before speaking again. "I think love is too strong a word, Pirth."

"I think it's right, and I know her better than anyone."

I can hear as his tail curls in towards him and I can tell he looks away from me, towards the main hall, as his voice becomes a bit fainter. "And what about Arimis?"

"She thought Arimis tricked us. That she was killed, too. Althi thought she lost half the team."

"But she didn't. We're both still here, and she almost attacked Arimis for it. And Team Brave," he said.

"But she stopped. No one was hurt."

His voice almost becomes a growl. "Physically, no one was hurt. How would you feel if she attacked you?"

"We've sparred," I replied, but I knew as the words left my mouth it wasn't the same.

So did ďAlin. "You know it's different. Fighting and sparring—how you see your opponent—change. That was one lesson Garchomp taught us, remember? So Althi—whether by accident with her bursts of cold or outright seeing us as a threat—was acting dangerously."

"She didn't know, ďAlin. Listen, Arceus only hates deerling and sawsbuck, not dark-types. But Althi didn't lie. I remember the bullies in the orphanage and I definitely remember the absol who she said stole all our belongings. It was just a few months ago. She's just scared."

"Scared or not, we need to talk."

"She's not ready," I warn again, my voice nearly cracking.

"No one ever is," he says, his mind clearly made up. "And if we don't talk now we'll never. Right?"

"Why do you want to talk to her?"

"To get us back together."

But the anger I hear in his voice, the anger that sounds similar to my sister's, makes me think otherwise. He wants to be just like Althi: to be right.

He continues, "I'll go get Arimis, okay? Can you let Althi know we'll be coming down to talk? To resolve everything and get it back to things were?"

"Okay, ďAlin," I say, but after he whispers thank you and starts to leave, I stop him. "Wait! You said 'back to how things were' a couple of times, right?"

"Yeah?" he says.

I trot over to him, ready to head down the stairs. "I-I thought it would've been better if things didn't go back to that?"

"What do you mean?"

Now I feel stupid. "I just meant, well, I thought Arimis would want things to be different. I thought she revealed herself so that she could be her real self, even if just with us. I always knew her, I guess, but physically I mean. Arceus says she can still be part of Team Eevee since she's an eevee at heart."

DON'T PUT WORDS IN MY MOUTH.

I ignore Him and focus on ďAlin, who lets out a slow sigh. I hear his body shift even despite the loud storm outside, I hear the pain in his voice over the growing power of the storm, "No, no, you're right. Not back to normal. Towards something different altogether."

"Do you really think that?" I ask, "Arimis—"

"Arimis can forgive; I can't imagine her not doing so. She's about as adamant on forgiveness as your sister is on holding grudges. That's why I don't know if Althi can, but..."

She loves us all enough to fight through her pain. She can accept Arimis. I know it.

"...I'll do everything I can to make it happen. I really do miss you, Pirth; your sister too. Even in spite of how crazy you two can be, I don't want you guys gone from my life."



Chris Christodoulou's Chanson ďAutomne


I wake up early from my rest, the thunderclap outside stirring me. I let my eyes slowly open to peer outside, and the only light I see is not from the sun but rather from distant flashes of lightning illuminating the dark clouds above. The rain, too, I hear as it falls against the thick wood of the Guild.

I feel tired, the mental battle I was able to escape from during my rest threatening to return, but I put it aside for now. Still wrapped in the soft cotton blanket, I look up from my makeshift bed—no more than a mess of strewn blankets and pillows—to the room's proper one and find it, unsurprisingly, unoccupied. ďAlin would be out even in this weather. He loves storms, after all.

Yet the building shifts under the pressure of the tempest, a slight groan that coincides with a surge in the winds. I cannot help but worry for him, if he'd be able to navigate the tempest safely. That makes it rather difficult to fall back asleep.

Sleep, what an odd thing. For so long I was used to never feeling rested enough, always having to maintain my disguise while I slept. While it was something I've become a master at—my espeon disguise likely unmatched in quality by others of my species, considering how often I wear it—it still drains my energy. With just ďAlin, however, there is no need to maintain the illusion while I sleep.

Even if it means relegating myself to the corner, I think as I stare at the empty bed where I often see his tail-fin peek out the side in an amusing sight. So that, should some straggler enter uninvited though the curtains—something I consider inevitable considering the... unique nature of this guild—they wouldn't be met with a zorua rather than an espeon.

Espeon... I recall the entire affair that transpired upon our early return from Checkered Chasm: the debrief we had, how uncomfortable it was to stand beside Althi as she explained that a dragapult horn went unrecovered, how she carefully skirted around the other events which had transpired.

I can still feel the cold radiating off her as she spoke. I didn't need to enter her mind to feel the biting frost of hatred and regret. I further burrow myself in the blankets to warm back up.

How can she have so much hate within her? It must be so easy, to just let yourself feel that, to be consumed by it; it's so exhausting trying to stave it off. Part of me wishes I could just let go.

My mind floats to how it ended, after we were dismissed and Team Brave was held back when it was clear Althi was missing details.

With a silent bow she led us out the door and down the stairs. Following her was akin to braving a mire of thick and unwavering tension, one that made it difficult to move my legs, but it was her glance that froze me.

Althi had taken one step down the staircase and gave me a quick, momentary glance, but it was enough. Her white pupils flanked by her blue sclera burned through me, seeing what I was beneath my illusion.

Her eyes were white with hatred. With pain. And, unmistakably, disgust; I recognized the same look I give myself.

That's why I must restrain myself, why I must forgive. I couldn't bear to look at anyone with such disdain. Much less a frie—

Teammate. That's all you are to her, I remind myself.

But even that fools no one. Would a teammate simply stare as I remained unstirred, paralyzed? Would a teammate say nothing and instead look away as I said I would not go, that I should find a place elsewhere to be?

Would a teammate—no, a leader—accept so easily that ďAlin, too, would stick by me, and instead go her own way, sundering the team in two?

The only reprieve was Pirth, who—though he followed his sister—did so only after a moment's hesitation where he gave me the thought I'm really sorry, Arimis. I hope you can forgive me.

Another forgiveness to be made, but one I have no choice but to give, for I know if I held hate in my heart, it would rule over me. But retaining control is indeed so exhausting.

And I am so very tired, I admit. Another thunderclap brings me back to the present. Although I am undisguised, having awoken from the midst of my sleep, I turn my attention to my right forepaw.

It has not all been entirely for nothing, I remind myself, clenching my crimson-hued paw open and close. One small step forward, at least.

It was odd, I knew, going about with a small abrasion in my illusion, but others seemed to pay no heed and those that did took my explanation that it was a birthmark—not untrue by any means—at face value. Humans, it seemed, were a rather odd group.

I smile. Team Eevee is a good fit for this guild, it seems. ďAlin seems to feel almost at home among them, at least more so than at the guilds we had stayed at prior. Pirth, from what I recall, is rather happy to interact with others with similar... dispositions. As for myself, well, aside from the gratitude I hold for being so easily forgiven for my failing of the mission, I cannot help but know that here—for all of my own oddities—I am in good company.

Accompanied by a streak of lightning across the sky, a gust of wind enters into the room, the cold burst enticing me under the blankets once more for warmth and reminding me of our leader. All of us save for Althi seem to like it here...

I cannot help but feel unease at both the cold wind and revelation alike. What am I to do?

A third flash of lightning reveals a puddle at the base of the window, so I uncover myself from beneath the blankets and stand, ready to properly close it. Before I can, however, I see the curtains part and I shirk back, ready to rapidly disguise in an exhausting manipulation of light, but realize I have no need to; I am met with the appearance of a familiar teal-furred face adorned with yellow fins. The vaporeon's navy-hued eyes immediately dart left towards me and a small smile appears. "Hi Ari."

ďAlin, I project, trying to regulate myself, I've asked for you to announce yourself before entering.

His fins retract slightly alongside his paw that he raises defensively, his claws held to his chest. "Oh, I'm sorry, you're right. I forgot. Again."

I prepare to raise my illusion now that he's here, although now I can do so carefully and delicately rather than with a great expenditure of energy. Before I can, however, he looks at the window. "Do you want me to get that thing closed?"

I nod and he walks over to the shutter, throwing himself up against the wall. The minor onslaught of rain that gets on him seems to refresh him and he stands in it for a moment longer than necessary before he paws the window shut.

He turns back and walks towards me, moving in front of the bed and lying down before me. He looks at me idly, bits of rain still on his fur, and I hover between disguising or not.

"Ari? Are you alright? You look a little tense."

My heart pounds. Didn't I show this to him when I thought he'd leave? Didn't I want to express to my teammates who the real me is? It's fine to drop it when I sleep, but that's because I'm not awake constantly thinking about the fact.

I meet his eyes and, in the gentle white, I can see in them a faint reflection of myself. I try to settle myself down, deciding to sit back on my pile of assorted cotton items that I call my bed. Were I to speak with him, I would make eye contact. I would see myself anyways.

ďAlin, however, finally realizes the issue and stands up straight, readying to exit once more. "I-I'm sorry. I can leave so you can—"

You're fine ďAlin. I-I can be myself around you.

"Are you sure? Really it's no problem that I—"

It is rather amusing to see him flustered in this manner, I admit to myself, but I try not to take advantage. Please just use your tail to block the entrance so that no one enters. It's more relaxing if I remain as I am and it would assure me that no one else would see me this way.

ďAlin nods and repositions himself closer to me, but with his tail extended out so that the entrance would be blocked; it's protection enough for me to enter a state of tranquility.

I can sense my name ring out in his mind so I enter, but instead of the single cohesive thought I have come to expect I instead sense instead that his mind is filled with a flurry of mixed emotions and thoughts; I realize he is trying to provide some sort of compliment and I hastily exit.

He looks away and blushes but says nothing, evidently unable to choose anything to say. Or so I think, because only a few seconds of silence pass before he speaks. "Arimis?"

Yes?

"How'd you rest?"

Oh.

Well enough, considering it feels like midday.

"You've got a wonderful internal clock, Ari," he states, "that's practically spot-on."

Thank you. Where were you, if you don't mind me asking.

"Not at all, Ari. I went to the hills on the outskirts of town. I was, uh, just meditating on what to do."

Meditating? That seems unlike you.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't meditation exactly. Just sitting alone and thinking over things. I just said meditating for simplicity's sake."

I cannot help but let a small smile grow. Nevertheless, some would call what you described meditating.

He rolls his eyes. "I wouldn't. Anyways, I ran into Pirth."

Did you? Was he—

"No, he was as glad as me. It was nice to see him."

He enters his mind for a moment, his eyes unfocused before they settle on me. "I don't know why we're doing this."

You do, I project, a bit too harshly for my liking.

ďAlin frowns, "Yeah, I know... and that's what I talked to Pirth about."

I take in a deep breath, the air rife with moisture from the storm outside, the monsoon that continuously reminds us of its growing presence with strengthening rain, lightning, and thunder. Yes, I agree. We cannot move on from all of this if there can be no forgiveness.

I know I must, and I am sure you are aware of that.

ďAlin gives a weary glance at the curtain. "I am."

I fear, however—

He cringes at this, and he speaks rapidly, wishing to not hear my finished concern. "Me too."

His voice is quickly drowned out by the storm whose symphony we listen to for several minutes, both our minds racing over what must be done, the potential outcomes.

I dislike this uncertainty.

Will we remain together?

"I'll make sure we do."

Us, I mean. Will you stay beside me?

How do you intend on doing that?

ďAlin lets out a smile, an odd combination of arrogance and hope. "If there's a will, there's a way."

And you will it? I think, unable to restrain the incredulity that seeps into my thoughts.

"Above all else. If you can forgive, then she can accept. She fucked up, and it's only fair she accepts that."

She won't. She's too proud.

But I withhold the thought. The song of the storm resumes, falling over both of us. ďAlin gives me a long, sideways glance, and he hesitates for a moment before I hear my name ring out clearly in his mind. Ari?

Yes, ďAlin?

How can you forgive so easily? Sneasel, Althi...

Sneasel was rather easy to forgive, even despite ďAlin's objections, and although I know he agrees that Althi should be forgiven—by what strange metric he reached the conclusion of forgiveness for one one and not the other I fail to comprehend—I cannot help but recall Althi's actions towards me.

How she lashed out against ďAlin, how she practically attacked me—I can still feel the phantom pinpricks of her freeze-dry upon my fur—and how she abandoned me in the Cave.

I meet her eyes once more as she descends down the stairs and, although I know it is my fault for intruding upon her thoughts, the echoes of her lone thought—disgusting—threaten to shatter what little hope holds out within me.

She doesn't deserve it, does she?

She's like my father, doing what she thinks to be fine in the name of good. And yet, even my father, for everything he's done, I forgive.

I forgive so I can move on without him.

I look at ďAlin and think of Pirth and Team Eevee as a whole, of the hope our mentors had in us and the amount of good we can bring to the world. I shake my head. For them as well as myself, I need to forgive. If they wish to keep her, I can open myself once more, give her a second chance into my life.

I finally look back at ďAlin and try to answer his question, his bewilderment that I have the capacity to forgive. I don't do so because it is easy. I forgive because I don't wish for her to have any power over me. If I hold hate in my heart, then I would lose myself in it.

ďAlin's tail curls towards himself as he continues to look down at his teal paws. I wish I could forgive as easily as you.

I cannot help but feel a twinge of envy as all he needs to overcome, it seems, is his disdain towards Sneasel, and still he cannot. Nevertheless, I try to empathize with him. I raise my paw towards him and let it fall on his back. He is somewhat startled by this but says nothing.

Everyone has the capacity to forgive, ďAlin.

Not me, comes his response, It's just not the kind of person I am.

At this I cannot help but feel disappointment, that this is exactly what I see in Althi, but I leave my paw on his back, trying to magically impart some of my hard-fought clemency into him.

As I said, everyone can forgive. Life is better without hate.

He looks at me and, with genuine curiosity and empathy that makes the dagger no less sharp, he thinks, So why do you hate yourself?

Immediately I recall my paw, take a step back, and turn away. I close my eyes in an effort to hold back tears. Immediately he realizes what he did and begins to try to apologize, saying "I'm sorry, Ari. I didn't mean to—"

Forget it. It was a thought and those comes far more easily than words, I tell both him and myself, but it does little to provide reprieve from the pain. I am turned against the wall and I ask him to look away as I conjure my illusion, and though I don't see him turn around, I trust him enough to do so.

I do not raise it with an immediate burst of energy, but try as I might I do not disguise myself with ease and grace, either. I feel tired once I am back to my espeon disguise save for my paw, which I still holdfast. I cannot let this go. I must hold onto whatever foothold I have.

I take in a deep breath and smell the petrichor the guildhall is doused in. Finally recomposed, I turn back around to see ďAlin turned fully away, his body still blocking the door.

You're fine now, ďAlin.

He slowly turns his head towards me and I cannot help but feel a wave of silent judgement emanate from him. Still, he tries to don a face of empathy as his eyes dart down to my right paw which remains myself. He has his scarf in his paw, and an aspear berry beside him.

"I'm sorry to ask but, can you put my scarf on for me? I'm not dexterous enough."

I oblige as he explains, "I'm gonna put an aspear berry in there. In case she cools herself out, like in Checkered Chasm. Given how stressful the talk might be..."

I merely nod in understanding as I fasten the scarf against his left foreleg and secure the berry. I look up from it and meet his eyes. They seem soft, gentle, like rolling waves, when he says, "I... I like to see the real you, you know. Even what little bit I can."

It is a kind and true sentiment that I am unsure how to respond to, at least now. It is easier to go forth and face the inevitable, to do what must be done. So I instead turn my attention towards the doorway and merely project, Let us go, ďAlin. I'll forgive Althi once more; pray that she can accept me.



Chris Christodoulou's The Raindrop that Fell to the Sky


I lie beside my brother, the white tuft of hair on his chest the only comfort I feel right now. I lift my head and turn it towards him. "Soon?"

He nods and I can see he wishes to say something, but stops himself.

"Just tell me, Pirth."

He frowns. "I told ďAlin you're not ready."

Hmph.

"I am."

Pirth says nothing, but I see him exhale a bit of air. He nuzzles me. I lean into it and feel a purr rise within me. I take the moment to look back down at my scarf on the floor, which I got out when Pirth told me they'd be coming. A leader has to dress the part, of course.

It still has the badge of the Wigglytuff Guild on it. We never got those Clover Badges, not after we failed so miserably. I idly wonder if we should head back, still not sure what the outcome of the battle I've been having in my mind is, even now. Would they take us back?

The most famous Exploration Guild in history, I scoff, and we leave it for this.

I eye my reflection in the badge, my too-sad-a-face for a leader looking back at me.

I can't let them see me like this. I need to be strong for us.

As I put on a strong face, I see my old features in the reflection, the whites of my eyes, my sharp nose and snout. But I see my new features too, my crystal crown, my blue fur and sclera, and the two flaps on either side of my head. I think it fits me perfectly; I like how I look.

That's why I became a glaceon in the first place, right? To be strong enough to lead us through dark times like these.

The words that come to mind, unsurprisingly, make me think of Arimis now. I use my paws to reposition the neckscarf and manage to slide my head into it. I'm on my haunches now and I lift a paw into Pirth's chest, feeling the cold of the Articuno feather beneath. She was there from the beginning, just like ďAlin. She was there when we faced down Weavile in Ruined Roost. She took a hit for ďAlin. Even in Checkered Chasm she stood beside me.

I feel my heart pound. So why do I still despise her? Despite everything she's done, why?

The question is not rhetorical, and I automatically answer. She lied. Just like all the others, from the very beginning she lied. She almost made you attack her, and you were made the villain for that. It's not fair.

I shift my body towards the door. Arimis and ďAlin should be here any moment now. Logically I know that Arimis can be trusted, that she's beyond what I know—she saved our lives, after all—but...

I know how she makes me feel. Emotions I have to put aside for her, the only way I can accept a return to normal. But I've seen too much, I know too much. How can I sweep away what I know protected me and Pirth, what got us this far in life?

But I go back to what I've been telling myself the past few days, trying to dig into my very essence. Like ďAlin, there are exceptions to the rule. He is different from the humans here. So maybe Arimis is, too.

I see out of the corner of my eye Pirth sit up. I turn my focus on the door and see it open. ďAlin pokes his head in. I smile. "Hi ďAlin. Please come in."

He nods and walks in, a red bandana on his arm with a familiar berry tucked into it. Trailing behind him is Arimis. As an espeon. I have a small sigh of relief that Arimis comes here like that instead of the alternative. It makes it so much easier to accept. But I can't help but let my eyes flick down to her red paw, and that feeling of discomfort returns to my gut.

"Arimis," I say, trying to let out a gentle smile. "Come in too."

They both stand opposite Pirth and I as the door closes behind them. An awkward stillness settles on us, though I notice that ďAlin's finned ears perk up.

"What's that, ďAlin?" I ask, trying to break the stalemate.

He looks at me with a hint of surprise flashing across his eyes. "Oh, it's just the storm. I guess I'm just sensitive to hearing it."

That's right, the storm. I doubt it'll be as bad as I saw other guild members saying it was.

"Well, we're safe here, in our room. No windows to worry about leaks, you know," I say.

"Our room?" asks ďAlin.

"Our room" I repeat, looking around the large interior. My eyes gloss over the blanket where Arimis would sleep by herself. Now I know why. "There's no windows here, which I guess is the one good part about living underground. Though that weirdo next door still gives me the creeps."

"When I said 'our room,' Althi, I meant that it's not."

I sigh. "I'm not stupid, you know? I know that."

"So why say it?"

"Because I want it to be true again," I say while I look at Arimis. Her eyes glance away momentarily before returning to me.

"Arimis..." I start to say, trying to focus on her eyes, the soulful things that I knew for so long before they disappeared before me in the Cave of Truth. I try to remember how I felt back then, when she asked me about her soul. "Arimis, I am sorry for what I did back there."

I feel a twinge of anger as Arimis and ďAlin exchange glances, Arimis probably speaking to him psychically, not letting me see what they're saying, but it subsides when Arimis' runes, a wispy pink marking, appear before me.

Thank you, Althi. I forgive you.

I smile, but that's it. I wait. Then wait some more.

No magic relief comes. My dislike of her red paw poking out of her otherwise pristine fur does not dissipate. I can easily see that Arimis' eyes betray her discomfort. ďAlin, also, looks at me expectantly.

A sharp frost shivers through me, as I realize that this isn't enough to move forward, to continue our legacy as an Exploration Team to help others, to prevent what happened to us before from ever happening again.

I have to swallow my pride before freeing my tongue to speak. "I want to explain why I did this. I was misled, you see, in Checkered Chasm. I thought you were in danger. I... I saw—"

Death. Betrayal. Being unable to save him.

"—what I thought was the Truth. I acted on that. I did what I thought would protect us. Avenge him."

ďAlin says, "But Arimis revealed herself to you. Why didn't you believe it was her?"

No one's mouth moves after ďAlin closes his. I feel both pairs of eyes focusing on me.

How much do you care about Team Eevee? I ask myself.

A second thought, intrusive but still striking, appears immediately after. Is it even worth the trouble?

I know my answers. I demonstrate by speaking, a burning frost in my gut as I say, "Arimis, I know how much you mean to everyone here. Everything I said to you in Checkered Chasm, in the Cave of Truth before you revealed yourself... I meant it."

I feel the building shake, the storm outside apparently stronger than I would've guessed. "I know you have a good soul. No, a pure soul, is what I think I said. How could I have not thought that when you did so much for us? How you stood beside me in battle as saved us in Ruined Roost? I meant it then, and I think I mean it now."

I try to push away what I saw in the Cave of Truth. I avert my eyes away from Arimis' paw as I say, looking into her purple eyes that truly are pretty. "I felt close to you. I cared about you, Arimis. I found myself happy to have you by my side I think that's what a friend is, and that's why I called you a good friend then."

'Then?'

"Yes, then," I admit, "do you want me to lie? It's hard for me to think of you like that now. But I do know how good you are, Arimis. I want us to go back to that. I want Team Eevee to be strong, to make the world better. So, to-to answer that first question..."

My throat is cold and it hurts to swallow, but I do so. "I didn't think someone like you could do that. I thought it was impossible."

The words linger in my mouth, a disgusting taste on my tongue, But I spit it out "I was... wrong about you, Arimis. I'm sorry I didn't believe you."

Althi, thank you, come the runes, almost with as much disbelief as myself as I said it. But I'm not one. I need to show that not only is the past over, but that our future exists, too.

"I want us to move forward together. I know, now, Arimis, that you're the exception. You've proved that. I want you and ďAlin to come back down here—"

No.

The runes I see are no longer wispy, and though they seem as exhausted as me, they seem firm and unwavering. Normally they would disappear for a moment if I averted my vision, but they remain still.

"What?" I ask.

Althi, I am not the exception.

No. No no no. Not this.

"Arimis, I need you to understand—"

There is nothing to understand. Do... do you know how exhausting this is? How tiring it is to have to contend with you?

My voice is sharp as I bite at the thought. "Me? What do you mean, me?"

She takes a step back. I realize I took a step forward. ďAlin speaks up since she is apparently unwilling to. His lips are sharp, and between words they form a frown. "Althi, what if we get a rescue job? What if we need to rescue some dark-type?"

I give him a leeward glance. "I don't want us to focus on rescuing. I want us to catch outlaws. Make sure what happened to Garchomp doesn't happen again."

ďAlin sighs, "Yes, okay I agree with that—I think we all do—but that's besides the point. We're not specialized, we're Explorers; we can catch outlaws but what if we can save a life, too?"

"No, ďAlin, you don't get it. Do you know what killed Garchomp? Why Starmie isn't an Explorer anymore? It's because of Weavile."

"They're not all the same..." he responds.

"But they are," I insist, "I know the life I lived. Pirth can vow for me since he was right beside me."

I turn to him, but he looks surprised, frozen in the sudden light. But I have to hold my ground against this, even if I'm the only one able to speak up, so I do. "Don't you know why we're even talking about Garchomp, ďAlin? It's because I let my guard down. I didn't want to make a bad impression with our mentors, so I bit my tongue. Look what happened; the one time I was silent—just once—we suffered. He died. Don't you get that?"

I look at both ďAlin and Arimis, both their angry eyes meeting mine, "Can't you see why I have to protect us this way?"

"You don't get it, Althi."

"No, you don't. I—" I stop as I notice Arimis staring at me, surprised, her eyes looking all over me. Analyzing me.

"What?" I ask.

You're frightened of me.

A wave of cold rolls over me as I reel back. I speak in a whisper, the condensation accompanying every word I utter. "Firstly, Arimis, don't say such things about me."

But it is so.

"Enough! Don't call me that. I'm not scared. I hate, alright? It's a harsh word, and it's a harsh truth, but I have to accept it since it's the world we live in. I don't want to, but what choice do I have? You say you're so tired, Arimis, but don't you know that I am too? How tired I am of being on guard with so many different pokemon because I remember how my brother and I have been hurt before?

"And now? Now the stakes are different; the last time it happened, it wasn't just us getting robbed or bullied. It was almost us losing our lives. My duty as the leader of Team Eevee is to make sure we all come home safe. You proved you're the exception, Arimis. I accept that. But that's just what you are."

Pleading, woeful runes appear. Life is better without hate.

"I agree," I say, "but it's too bad I have to work towards making that happen."

Then do you hate me? In spite of everything you said just moments ago?

"No. Everything I said is true. I don't hate you." I let my eyes fall down to her paw, and I do it slowly enough so that she sees it. "I-I just hate what you are."

She covers her paw up, purple over red, but the purple turns to teal as ďAlin steps between us. "What the fuck is wrong with you, Althi?"

"Nothing. Aside from the fact that I've had to walk on roads upon roads to be here, nothing is wrong. What? Shouldn't I be honest?"

"You don't need to be an ass about it."

"I need to be harsh. I need to protect us," I try to explain.

But Arimis moves aside from ďAlin's stance, appearing before me once more. Her paw is still red. I look at her again as I speak, but her eyes, for the first time in a while, have a hint of anger in them. "I don't hate you, Arimis. I like who you are. In spite of all of this, I think we can move on."

You-you jest. Surely, appear the runes, choking with disbelief. And what of what I am? Can you contend with that, Althi? Why can you not accept me for what I am? Are you scared that I would throw your entire world into disarray?

I step up to her, the cold almost escaping me as frigid anger flows through my blood. "Althi," I say. "Never call me scared again. I'm not. And how could I be scared of you?"

I almost laugh at the preposterousness of what I just said before I continue, the words flowing off my tongue, the easiest thing to say from this whole meaningless conversation. "And what? You want me to accept you for what you are? Don't be stupid, Arimis. Look at your paw!"

I wait for her eyes to glance down at it before I finish. "Is that all you can show of what you are beneath? Don't you see that you want to be an espeon as much as I wish you were one, too? How, just how can I possibly accept you if you can't even accept yourself?"

If it weren't for my excellent eyesight, even under the dim lights of the purple flames that illuminate the room I wouldn't have been able to see the runes since they were so weak, so tired. It's like you said, but I was right to not believe it. You're supposed to accept me because you're supposed to be my friend.



Chris Christodoulou's Cyclogenesis


The screeching thunder drowns out Arceus, or maybe it's because He's like me; neither of us know what to say to the voice that sounds exactly like my sisters, saying words that can't possibly be hers.

The rain rails against the sad words of Arimis that enter my head and everyone else's. Then, silence. Just the sound of the storm far above. I hear ďAlin and Althi both drawing their breaths.

My sister speaks, her voice and her words finally matching. "I'm going to go. Don't follow me."

Her footsteps move past me towards ďAlin and Arimis. I hear her voice crack as she says, "Don't touch me, ďAlin! Leave me alone."

"There's a storm, Althi."

"I can handle a storm."

"Pirth?" he pleads.

I find my own voice. "Althi, I can hear it from down here. It's bad."

"Fitting for me then," is all she says as her footsteps fade away, but when I hear them press against the wood of the staircase, I can't hold myself back any longer. I break into a gallop, ignoring the objections from ďAlin and Arimis as I follow her, not caring that I knock over a shelf or two as I race up the stairs.

I hear the storm as clearly as ever now, a pure chaos that is probably Giratina's doing.

Right Arceus?

The only response is a roar of thunder outside that makes me step back. I feel wetness build up against my fur. The door must be open.

"Althi!" I cry.

"I'm looking at you Pirth."

"You hear how bad it is?"

"Yeah."

"So stay inside with me."

I get no response, so I trot up to where she was and nudge her.

"What?"

"Be with me," I say again.

"I need to breathe. I need to think."

"You can do that here."

"No," she says, "I said I'd go outside. I can handle a storm."

"You're being silly," I say.

"I'm being stupid, Pirth. But if I don't stick with my word then what am I at the end of the day?"

"You're my sister," I say.

The softness of her delicate sigh and the chill that comes with it overpowers the ferocity of the storm. "I'll be back, Pirth. Just give me a bit of time and space. Don't let them follow me."

I hear her footsteps start, then disappear as the rain and wind hits her body. I pray for her to come back, but all I hear is a whine before that also disappears. I'm standing at the door looking like a total idiot when I hear ďAlin's tail and Arimis' gentle steps appear behind me.

"Did she go?" he asks.

"Yes. She… she doesn't want us to follow."

"What a load of it."

The sound of the storm outside is all that exists for a bit.

"No, we need to go get her. It's not fair for her to just walk away."

Huh?

A roar of thunder shakes the building, and ďAlin says, almost screaming over it, "I don't care if it's the right reason or not. She has no right to just run away like that."

"If you guys are talking psychically, can I please be included."

Oh, of course, Pirth, my apologies. I was merely—

"It's over anyways," ďAlin interrupts, "and I decided: I'm going. If you two don't want to come, fine. But she can't just refuse to face the music."

"She told me to make sure you don't follow her."

"And leave her in that tempest outside? She's endangering herself to prove a point; it's a stupid order that I'm not going to follow."

ďAlin, you should let her be! She is capable of taking care of herself.

I don't know if ďAlin thought anything, but he said nothing. He just walked past me, stopped at the door as the thunder above cracked, then continued.

They're both gone now.

"Arimis? Are you still there?"

I am, Pirth. I believe we should go after ďAlin.

"Althi said not to go. But I think she'll be alright. She's very strong."

I believe it. But you know ďAlin. He's new to this world. Clumsy. Even if he is a water-type, even if he enjoys storms, we should go.

"So why don't you go?"

I'll get wet, come the meek echoes that still somehow overcome the storm, maybe because they're already in my head. I want to listen to my sister, but Arimis has a point. Besides, I promised Arimis I would stay by her side no matter what. I broke that once in Checkered Chasm when I left her behind. I won't let that happen again.

"If you go, I'll go too," I say.

But my illusion—

"I don't care about it. I don't know why Althi is being so hurtful, but it's probably because she's hurting, too. But you're still the same Arimis I care about."

The storm overtakes the ensuing silence which lasts an endless number of heartbeats until she talks to my brain again, her voice piercing through the overwhelming sound of the fury outside. Alright. Let's go rescue ďAlin and bring your sister back home.

I ready myself at the door, and I can feel Arimis get below me, trying in vain to shield herself from the rain, but I have no problem obliging. "How can you be so nice to Althi if she's so mean to you?" I ask.

I-I admit I am at my breaking point. She's hurt me, but clearly ďAlin still sees good in her; he thinks she can still be saved. I wouldn't believe it... except that he saw good in me, too.

"My sister is good. She'd do anything for me."

Another pause before I hear Not for me. Let's go, Pirth.

I feel her fur rustle under me, and together we step out into the storm, but not before I wonder if my antlers would attract lightning. Then I remember Arceus would never smite His chosen messenger. Within a second I am completely drenched. Even though I'm supposed to be a rain-dog, I really don't like how it stings against my fur.



Chris Christodoulou's Con Lentitud Poderosa.. (Opening)


The winds were violent, carrying thick moisture and the smell of ozone as they swept across my body, threatening to push me down. I struggled to follow the path Althi left behind, splotches of frozen water that were rapidly melting away under the ferocity of the downpour, the only light that of the unceasing flashes of lightning overhead.

The rain, though, I thought, my own voice barely overcoming the tempest, it doesn't hurt as much as I thought.

Instead, it was refreshing, paradoxically. In spite of the hostile nature of the typhoon, the actual water that fell upon me was soothing. It felt wrong to like it.

How Althi was able to withstand the cataclysm around us I had no clue, but the lightning above was caught on the icy footsteps I followed past the Guild, towards the road we had taken on New Year's towards the guild. I looked back and waited until another bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. I was alone.

So I pressed on. I had to do the rough equivalent of jogging as a quadruped, hoping that I would be able to catch up to Althi. The path entered a thick, forested road flanked by deep ditches. The trees beside me struggled to remain upright, their tropical leaves falling off the branches in droves.

More lightning. I saw that in the distance the trail of icy pawprints stopped. A glaceon stood still against the squall.

"Althi!" I cried, hurrying myself, but it's pointless. She's not looking my way, instead looking at the path before us, a steep hill bound for Treasure Town.

I hurry my way towards her, practically gliding off the flooded road below me, but I slip and fall, hard, onto my left shoulder. I spit out the water from my mouth and, although I don't seem to be bruised, the aspear berry is crushed, the residue all over my scarf.

Shit. Hopefully that'll suffice if it comes down to it. Well, hopefully it won't be necessary at all.

Althi was still standing still, trying to remain upright against the fury of the storm. I walked up to her and—I don't know how—but she turned back to face me.

I heard the strain in her voice as she screamed, but it was hardly enough to overcome the raging storm. "ďAlin! I told you to not follow me!"

"I'm a water type," I screamed back, "I'll be alright! But you, Althi, what're you doing? You shouldn't have left, you know! You can't just walk out on us talking."

"Did you come out here just to lecture me?" she yelled, "What is wrong with you? And what would you rather me do anyways? Keep insulting Arimis? Dig myself into an even deeper hole?"

"I'd rather you stay and talk!" I replied.

"I don't want to stay, ďAlin!" she said, giving the road ahead a glance before looking back at me. We both took a step closer to each other as the increasing wrath of the tempest made visibility all the more difficult, even in spite of the unending flashes above.

Her eyes looked at the frost below where she stood. "I don't want to be here. I hate it here; it's so unbearably hot, it doesn't even snow... Don't you know how much I was looking forward to playing in the snow with Pirth? Finally, I evolved into a glaceon and I thought I would be able to enjoy it with him. And now I can't even do that?"

"I feel like I’m from a whole other world here, ďAlin! Everyone, with their inside jokes and their weird habits. Don't you remember how they treated you? That perv, Cyndaquil, and the awful things he said!"

"But what about the people who helped us?” I retorted. “Alphonse and Bethel, for example? They guided us, welcomed us with open arms!"

"They're not human, idiot."

Fuck.

"Look, my point is Althi that I'm human too! Don't you get that? Garchomp himself said I'd be in danger elsewhere. The Federation—"

"It doesn't matter! I'd protect you! I evolved so I could be strong enough to protect all of us. I-I don't feel like I can do that here. Don't you remember why Weavile was so evil? Because he was a mix of both—"

"Enough with that! Me being human is what? The fact that I come from a different world? Everyone has different lives they've lived, Althi. Arimis, me, you, Pirth; all of us! Don't you get it? What makes me human is superficial—"

"Superficial? What kind of world do you come from where greed like Weavile had is common? What kind of world do you come from where disgusting perverts can say such horrible things and no one gives as much as a second glance? Don't you know, ďAlin, that Arimis herself said human minds are different. That's proof enough."

"That's irrelevant! I can relate to you because you're like a human too, in every mental way but your background! Just like me, you have your hopes and dreams, your own past and troubles. We're more similar than you think. Humans can do incredible things, just like you!"

"So what? Are you saying I can be as terrible as Weavile, too?" Althi's scowl caught the light of the storm above, the look she gave me one I hadn't seen since I told her I was human on the ship back from Grass.

It made my heart drop.

"No, I refuse. I'm not like you, ďAlin. I'm not human. I was born here, which means I know the world better than you do. You're so naive, don't you understand that? You just... come in here with all your ideas of how things work without actually knowing any of it. That's why most of you don't belong here."

"I don't belong here?" I asked.

"You're the exception! You're not like those other people there. I've lived with you. I know you."

"You know Arimis, too."

"Of course I do! That's why I'm okay with her being back. She's the exception!"

"Can't you hear how fucked up you sound?"

"No."

A bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree, causing me to flinch, but Althi stood her ground. The tree was small which prevented the fire from having much kindling; it was too weak to contest the downpour and we both watched it rapidly extinguish.

"ďAlin, I want us to leave this place. We're only here because Pirth overheard you talking with Arimis. You threatened to leave us and I didn't have a choice if I wanted to keep you in my life and to keep Team Eevee together."

The last smoldering bits of the tree faded away alongside Althi’s resolve as her words bore misery. "But right now, ďAlin, I'm not even sure I want to keep us together anymore."

A sickly void filled my stomach. "Don't say that, Althi. Please."

"I know how I feel, ďAlin! If you and Arimis want to stay, then fine. I should've never listened to Pirth."

"Please stop speaking like this, Althi."

"What? Do you just want me to suffer here? Being disgusted by my own teammate? No! I-I think it's best if we split up."

"Do you even know what you're saying?"

"No! I don't know! I just feel so unwelcome, so foreign. I want us to be together. But with Arimis and this Guild... I just need time to think. But it seems like even that bothers you."

"Out in this storm? Come back; you're endangering yourself and the rest of us."

"I'm fine," she responded, "and I told Pirth to stay behind. The only one in danger is you. Besides, if I'm so much trouble then why do you even want me around?"

"Because I care about you. I like you and I consider you a friend. Even after all this shit, even if you'd rather run into a literal storm than talk about your problems which infuriates me to no end, I still care. "

"Just... leave me alone for now. Please," she emphasized, her words being faint against the unceasing cacophony of the storm. If not for my ears being attuned to the sounds of water, the rain would have drowned her out completely.

I tried to speak but she had turned around and sat upright, trying not to get blown over by the gales.

"Althi! Don't be like that! Listen to me!" I pleaded, but her eyes were closed.

"Are you kidding me?" I screamed into the void. "You would rather endure this storm instead of hear me out? What the hell is wrong with you?"

Althi spoke, her voice wavering on tears, but it was clear she said it not in response to me but in a lonesome declaration, "Leave me, ďAlin. I'm begging you."

"No! How can you just turn your back on me, close your eyes? You can't just go and say you want to leave, threaten to disband everything we worked towards, and then just ignore me!"

But my words fell on deaf ears as her eyes remained closed and she held her paws in a wide stance, fighting against the winds. She was breathing heavily, and I saw ice forming at the base of where she stood, in a tight radius around her before the endless waters from above melted it away.

I likewise remained, trying in vain to speak amidst the tempest, each failed attempt making the water feel cooler against my fur as I became increasingly frustrated, the only sounds my ears picking up aside from my own voice being that of the storm.

That is until a single, lone thought pierces through the cacophony, clear within my mind. ďAlin!

I turned back, towards the path I came from, a flash of lightning revealing a sawsbuck twice my height, completely soaked. The rain was falling sideways, which is probably why Arimis' illusion seemed only half working, the other half fading in and out as the rain struck her as she was shivering beneath Pirth.

Are you alright?

She looked past me. I could sense a tone of worry mixed with surprising detachment. Is she alright?

Before I was able to respond, Arimis stepped out from under Pirth, her illusion flickering away almost completely save for rogue flashes of purple that appeared across her body. I started to speak but, I was quickly relayed that she couldn't hear me over the squall, to think to her.

Ari?

I'm here, ďAlin.

I'm fine, and so is Althi.

Arimis glanced at her and saw she was turned away, staring at the ground. Her now-revealed blue eyes darted from her to me as if in disbelief, then back to the glaceon.

Are you not talking to her?

I do not wish to. Please, grab her and let us depart.

I need you to communicate with her.

ďAlin, I—

She's refusing to open her eyes. She won't listen to me. I can't just drag her. Please. I can save her.

Her eyes, seemingly able to see well in the dark due to her heritage, were trained on Althi. She doesn't want saving, ďAlin. Leave her be.

My heartbeat grew heavy, each pump shaking me as much as the rolling thunder. I'll save her, I know I can. Do this for me, please.

Arimis shivered under the might of the storm. Her eyes softened as they swept from Althi to me. I will be your voice, came the thought.

Just get her attention for now.

Arimis looked at Althi, and almost immediately her head lifted up and turned to us. Her eyes widened, the surprise made clear by the lightning above. That rapidly shifted into anger. "What are you doing here? Why-why did you bring my brother out into this storm? I told you all to stay back."

"Althi!" Pirth's voice boomed. "Come back with us! Please. Be with me."

"You-you want to go back? Who put these thoughts into your head?"

"No one! I like it here. We can be Team Eevee again here."

"We can be a team elsewhere. Come stand by your sister."

"No. I told Arimis I wouldn't leave her. You always told me to stick by my promises, and now I need to. Please stay with me."

The glaceon's ears drooped as she looked not at her brother, but Arimis instead. "You... you corrupted him. How could you do such a thing?"

"Althi, no," Pirth plead, "it's just me that's saying this. And I want you here. Please."

But the heavens continued to cry and she, likewise, sobbed, offering no answer to her brother. It was clear I needed to communicate now. I mentally told Arimis to begin relaying my thoughts.

Althi! It's me ďAlin. Please listen to me.

Her eyes looked at me, then shut tightly as she turned away. "No! I'm done talking; leave me! Take your puppet and go!"

Arimis glanced at me, but I insisted she continue. Please, Althi, just let me speak.

She said nothing, and I took a step towards her. I continued, Look, I know this all feels bad right now, but I promise you we'll be alright.

No response as she pretended to ignore me. I didn't know if Arimis was communicating at all, but I persisted. I know this whole situation is unknown to you. But we'll be fine. You don't have to be afraid.

At this, Althi flinched. "I'm not," I heard her mutter, barely, over the downpour. I continued, taking another step towards her. The rain poured even harder.

It's okay that you are!

Her body was shivering, heaving at this. Her eyes were pressed together even harder. I heard her, barely, over the monsoon. "Please stop. Shut up and stop."

It was working. I was getting to her. I promise if you just come with me, with the three of us back, we'll talk it through. We can get past your hate.

She shivered for a few moment under the rain, then coughed up frost. "Then just stop. Get out of my head. I don't want to hear anymore. Leave me before this storm causes one of you to get hurt," she bared her fangs, shivering.

I was right upon her, standing next to her. I could feel the cold radiating off of her as she was obviously panicking, struggling against this truth that maybe the world as she saw it wasn't really true. This was my chance to help her overcome this, the final push towards getting everything right.

I anchored my dominant foreleg to the ground so I wouldn't get blown away by the typhoon, then reached out my remaining paw to give her a reassuring pat on her back. Althi, it's okay to be scared.



"Please stop," I plead with them both, "Shut up and stop."

I close my eyes, impossibly hard, trying to let every possible ounce of darkness in the world cover up the bright pink runes that appear before me, but it only makes them seem brighter. I have to shake my head for the runes to fade away.

But the moment they do, while all I can sense is the stinging rain sticking to me as frost, I get no break.

I promise if you just come with me, with the three of us back, we'll talk it through. We can get past your hate, Arimis' runes appear again.

My hate? I know you're here, Arimis. It'll go away if you give me time, I promise. Take him and my brother and go.

No, came the ensuing runes, this time harsher, a bit more jagged in appearance. I will not. ďAlin refuses to leave and I refuse to leave him.

And me?

I cannot bring myself to care for you right now, Althi. You have hurt me.

I gasp my words, the cold frost tearing up my throat as it escapes. It forms a scowl on my face. "Then just stop. Get out of my head. I don't want to hear anymore. Leave me before I hurt you."

I felt the stress rising within me, the cold being pumped through my heart, every beat sending an icy pricking sensation all over my body.

And out in the storm, with the winds almost throwing me over and the rains drowning me. I feel it, that disgusting emotion rising within me, proving to me that I'm weak, worthless.

I won't be that, I command myself, finding what little resolve I can muster. Anything but that.

And then, her wisps appear again. My heart is fueled with rage, anger that she'd dare call me that.

My temperature drops as my emotions rise as the runes Althi, it's okay to be scared mock me, laughing in my face and refusing to disappear.

"I'm..." I start to say, but I feel the energy rise into a powerful, painful shout. I redirect the flow to my fur, as I've always done before, trying to let it out.

"I'm not scared!" I shout, my heart leaping as my energy is released, flowing out over my whole body, causing the wetness that coats me to freeze over.

But it doesn't.

A paw touches my shoulder for just a moment before it's quickly removed. But it scares me. I can't help it. It's an accident.



Chris Christodoulou's Con Lentitud Poderosa.. (Crescendo)


Everything, from the moment I first drowned in that first, faraway dream to right now, as I pulled back my paw from Althi's shivering body as she flinched and screamed at me, washed over me in a flood of memories, all in an instant that feels like eternity.

The world seems to freeze as I stagger backwards and fall onto my back. A bolt of lightning pierces the sky, remaining there almost as if it were permanent, as I see Althi's face widen in surprise at me. A sensation of nothingness engulfs me. I feel almost disconnected from my body as it runs cold. My fins and neck-frill, both sensitive, seem to freeze over entirely.

I feel the cold seep into my bones as the world seems to breathe out a tired and distant sigh.

"A-Althi?" I try to say, but I stop. I stare at my left paw.

I hold it up, and the storm illuminates it. But I feel it more than I see it, a biting frost, a million little pinpricks digging into my paw as it gets so cold it becomes unbearably, impossibly hot.

A white color forms on my skin, and each inch it burns away the pigment it floods me with pain. I feel it take every inch of my paw and, as if it seeps into my very blood, seems to dart past my paw and curl up my arm, following a vein as it encircles my entire arm before running up to the bandanna tied around it.

It seems to stop there, and I pray that the crushed aspear berry helped. But while the freeze-dry halts its advance, the pain only grows there as the remainder of the energy burns away the very skin beneath my fur. It leaves behind a seared white scar, a bitter, cold agony that causes me to howl.

Fortunately it's the last thing I do, craning my neck towards the deluge above and catching one last glimpse at Althi as I try to let the pain escape my body.

She's scared, bewildered, as frightened as I've ever seen her. But I don't say anything; I can't. It's too much, and as the skies darken once more with the passing of that thunderbolt, so too does all sensation.



ďAlin's misery cuts through the storm, a strident pain that ascends towards the heavens. They give echo, and endless waves of thunder and lightning and winds and rains that thrash about join us, join ďAlin in their fall towards the earth as he lapses into unconsciousness.

I look past his collapsed body, at his attacker.

I learn in that moment that the salt in tears freezes differently than freshwater rain, leaving a dark trail behind. She speaks, but I pay her no heed as I step forward, one red paw into the wet path after the other until I stand between ďAlin and our adversary.

She's shaking, but her breath has no condensation. Arimis, it was an accident. I'm so sorry, you have to believe me.

She takes a step towards us.

STOP, I project, making sure she can't hurt us any longer. She flinches.

Look into my mind! Please, you'll know I didn't mean to hurt him!

The rains fall hard. I fall harder as I let out a sob, looking at my fallen friend, his left paw marked by a stark, snowy white. I feel my blood run cold. My heartbeat is heavy. I've dealt with her hurting me, looking at me as if I were the very one that struck us down in Ruined Roost. It's rather easy to forgive her for hating me; with her I can empathize.

The winds cause a tree to groan and be torn from its roots, falling beside the path. Althi flinches, but I don't. I merely lock with her eyes and see that her blue sclera seems to be a sea of regret and pain, her whites brimming with fear.

But a second look at ďAlin is all I need to no longer care.

I don't do so consciously, but I know when my body dons an illusion; it is the first time it does so without my explicit direction. But I pay it no heed; it shimmers in and out of reality in the rain just as my espeon one did as the emotion I've been all-too familiar with because of Althi rises within me, overflowing the weirs of my very being just as this cataclysm floods the earth.

You, Althi, shall reap what you sow.

Arimis please I—

I ignore her. I let every emotion I've restrained from showing towards Althi rise. If this is how she decides to live her life by, then I shall oblige her. It is so easy, so vindicating, to finally let it all go as I repeat my thoughts.

Leave. I command her, all the more forcefully. She flinches at this rune, trying to blink it away before taking another step towards us, towards ďAlin.

I have no choice but to protect us. I reach into her mind once more and sweep aside the endless wave of thoughts, the and regret, her begging to be forgiven just once more, pleading that it was all an accident, that she's ready to go back with us, and—above all else—that she'd never hurt us.

I need only my recent memory to see another of her deceits. The runes I project are even sharper, brighter, than the last.

LEAVE. I repeat. She scowls as I manipulate her senses to see it, bright and unmistakable runes that dominate her vision, but she steps towards us again.

My brother, please. If I can't help ďAlin at least let me— comes her thought, the most strong one among the endless begging and apologizing. My body shimmers strangely in the rain as I let my every emotion she brings out of me arise, and I push that thought away alongside the others.

I burn the runes into her vision. LEAVE.

She takes a step back and her face becomes even more drenched than before. She lets out a howl, a pale imitation of ďAlin's pain, but she shakes it off, blinking wildly.

Please Arimis. Please stop. Your runes hurt. You're…

She bites her tongue and her inner-conflict becomes clear on her face, something I take a sick, twisted satisfaction towards.

…You’re scaring me.

So, I've become what you thought me to be? I'm just like you, Althi.

She seems almost as startled as the runes, and tries to focus on them as I let the previous ones dissipate. She reads them then looks at me and my body, illusion shifting in the rain. Even still, she focuses more on the illusion instead of who I really am.

I scowl and feel the illusion, somehow overcoming the rain, fall over my face. She steps back in fear of whatever it is she sees, but I, for one, feel an unfamiliar pan of enjoyment in it as the next step she takes is the most hesitant of them all. But it's far too close, and she's almost upon us. She's able to finish off ďAlin if she wishes to do so.

I refuse to let her hurt us anymore.



I've never known what silence was. I was born deaf, never hearing a thing, so it'd be impossible to know there was an absence of something that just didn't exist to me.

It's like with my brother; how could he know what darkness is if he's never seen the light? He was missing as much as I was, which is why I think I helped him when he was just out of his shell.

I think I have it better, though. I can feel the vibration of the earth as lightning strikes the world, the rumble of thunder that shakes my body.

I also know that there are powerful psychics who can imbue their energy into cloth, that can capture the vibrations in the air and beam it directly into the wearer's mind.

I really did become an Explorer to help others. I remember reading about Rescue Teams and their adventures. It wouldn't have been for the pay. But I used to read how Explorers would come across incredible treasures, and I always wondered that, if Team Eevee had everything we ever needed, we could sell it and I could start saving towards buying such a thing.

I was tempted with our Articuno Feather, but it means more to us than me hearing.

Really, I don't need it, but I can't lie and say I never let my mind wander.

I still blush when I remember how Pirth—that night when I first took care of him by the fireplace— told me I had a beautiful voice. I wondered what sounds fire made and if Pirth was lying or not, if I really did have a pretty voice; it'd be pretty ironic if that really was the case.

I wondered also about ďAlin, how his voice sounded, if humans and pokemon sounded different or if he was unique entirely.

But above all, I really wanted to know for the longest time the sound of a deerling's carefree laugh and what snow sounded like as it was crushed beneath dancing hooves.

I used to think that if I was able to get enough money for that sort of item, I'd wait to put it on until that'd be the first thing I could hear.

Even if I would've had to wait for a winter snow and take sawsbuck hooves over deerling ones, it'd still be worth the wait; I've waited 18 years for that, after all.

But that's impossible. That could never be the first thing I hear. She took that away from me.

I pour my heart out. I admitted it, that I'm desperate. I tell her how I'm weak, exhausted, not even worthy of leading Team Eevee. That I'm wrong about the world, how I'm wrong about her. I tell her I was scared of her. If only she could forgive me, I beg, but the runes that appear into my vision burn into my eyes, a blinding pink light that causes me to stagger.

I'm terrified of the pain, but I had to show I could overcome it for the Team, to try to help ďAlin and, at the very least, get back to my brother.

So I take one more step towards them. I glance at ďAlin's broken body, terror filling me that it was me that did this, and I look at my brother. I see he's scared of me, hiding behind Arimis, ears folded back. Even though his whole body is soaked by the rain, I see that there's water flowing from beneath his blindfold, too.

I finally turn to Arimis. She stands above ďAlin, looking at me with her blue eyes that remind me of that zorua from so long ago with how they settle on me.

She's dripping wet, and her illusion stopped flickering to an espeon, exposing her whole body before me as she stares me down, her black fur thoroughly soaked.

A second source of light, not from the lightning above but instead from her eyes, appears. It's a faint blue at first, but as it grows in intensity as she stares me down, unmoving, her body begins to raise an illusion again.

Given my excellent sight, even in the low light of the storm I can see it. First it's a flicker of whitish-blue on her hind, then her chest. A vibrant blue covering a red paw before the rain sweeps it away, and a familiar tassel appearing before disappearing, each wavering piece of her illusion remaining for just an instant longer than the last.

Each flicker's life matches the growing intensity in her eyes, a growing coldness and indifference towards my pleas and sorrow for what I never meant to do. But everything around her eyes change, as if a mirror covers her face and stared me down, mocking me, looking down at me with a disdain that stings to even peek at.

I take one more step, towards salvation, trying to overcome the baneful runes that command me to leave.

But I learn what silence really is in its absence.

It starts as a familiar sensation, one that I immediately recognize; a memory that I shoved away when Arimis first met me and spoke to me, before she used runes. A quiet, soft thing in my head. Just like it did then, the sheer unknownness of it frightens me.

But it doesn't immediately stop, to be replaced with apologetic runes like then.

It echoes. It echoes and increases in its power.

Then again. And more and more, distant first but becoming a sensation that overwhelms every fiber of my being, causing my body to shake.

I yelp, plead for Arimis to stop with both my voice and mind, but I'm just met with those unfeeling eyes burning bright into my vision, brighter than the runes that I knew matched the word that screamed in my mind, coming from every direction all at once.

LEAVE.

That's the first thing I ever hear, every droplet of hate and malice I could ever fathom seeping into that word that screams into my mind, unending in its repetition and only intensifying as I try to take one more step towards ďAlin, towards my brother and my team.

LEAVE. LEAVE. LEAVE. each successive one more immense than the last.

It's too much, and I stagger back.

The screaming lessens.

I take another step back and it lowers more. Not as much, but it still does.

I can't handle this new sensation, this hostility beaming directly into my mind. I find myself running as far as I can, following the command so that it could stop. Running and running though the storm, slipping under the rain and being knocked over by the wind, each moment I fall causing the screams of LEAVE to persist.

I don't know for how long I run, but soon I realize the screams stop.

I'm still on the path out of Capim Town, towards where we made port less than a week ago. Unlike when we first walked this path, a storm rages. And unlike last time, I don't have my brother here. I don't have a gentle, caring espeon or an intriguing, lovely vaporeon either.

All I'm left with in my sight aside from the flashes of lightning is the still-burning image of Arimis' eyes that burned through her own illusion. I look back at the road I came from, but I hear an echo.

I think it's still in my mind since it sounds warped, twisted into something even more malicious than it already is.

But I'll do anything to take that inescapable pain away. So I oblige and continue down the path.



Chris Christodoulou's A Glacier Eventually Farts


The first sensation I feel is that of submergence, completely surrounded by salty waters that immediately tell me that I'm not really underwater.

But... it's different.

The water feels cool, distant from my skin.

I open my eyes, and I fail to see the stormy frenzy that this dream first used to behold, nor am I greeted by calm serene waves gently rocking that bygone ship, my way back if I ever wished.

The only light that breaks through the surface does so as if by magic—dream or pokemon-world, I have no clue—the thick layer of ice guarding the sky above making the ocean don a frosted blue.

It takes a moment for me to register what I'm looking at, and I inhale deeply.

I don't drown, of course; I'm a vaporeon after all. But the cold water gives my body a jolt and wakes me. After a moment I decide to swim up, moving my body and tail in unison as if it's the most natural thing ever as I approach the surface. I scan the sea ice to look for an opening, but there is none, nor do I see the hull of the ship that I was thrown off, the one that started this dream so long ago. But it seems like a distant concern right now; in fact, everything feels comfortably numb as I dreamily ascend.

I stop myself as I approach the surface, slowing down to avoid a collision. I press my paws against the ice, feeling that it's indeed extremely solid, but somehow letting light through.

Before I can wonder if it's just the nonsense of a dream or pokemon magic, I freeze as I look at my forelegs. My right one looks the same, but the left one...

It's the same stark white as the ice above me, the foreign color enveloping my entire paw and twisting upward towards my arm where it abruptly stops below my shoulder, where my armband was.

I recall what exactly happened and realize why the sea is frozen over, my heartbeat rising as the gravity of what has occurred dawns on me.

"No, " I say as I strike the ice, both paws hitting it over and over, focusing my efforts into one spot where I see a single crack form. I move my face closer to the crack, but there's no sight of the surface above.

"Oh my God," I utter as I look at my closeup, able to see my faint reflection on the ice. I look identical save for the sensitive fins on my neck and head; they’ve turned the same white shade of my paw, their color, likewise, swept away by the attack.

“H-how is this even possible? What's become of me?" I ask, the fear of this wracking through me as I descend below and summon energy from within me, feeling it bubble. I focus the scaled acid armor to my left shoulder, enhancing its defensive properties there while leaving my right and back exposed. Then, with as much force as I can muster, I propel myself upwards.

I ram my shoulder against the ice, but the crack only slightly widens, and I'm left reeling in pain.

"Please, please let me escape this. Don't let this be permanent," I say to myself, swimming down once again before repeating this.

The second strike sends another jostling pain into my shoulder, the slightly widening crack not seeming like it's worth it. But the impact seems to cause the entire world to stir, a gentle shaking that seems to be occurring everywhere at once.

I hear a distant voice, and I press my ear against the ice. I breathe a sigh of relief as I realize it still works, if only a little less optimally; it just had the color frozen out of it.

I hear Ari's voice above the ice, a fearful woe accompanied by faint rains.

Pirth, stand still, he's almost on your back.

I feel him squirming. Should we wake him?

No. We have no time to spare having him hobble around on a lame paw. We need to get him back to the infirmary.

And what about my sister? She-she was crying and begging. It scared me to hear her like that. What did you do?

I-I forced her to leave. She hurt ďAlin. You heard his howl.

She would never do that on purpose. Not my sister.

Pirth, please focus. Is he secure?

She'd never leave me without saying goodbye. I'm her little brother.

Pirth! Please, we need to focus on saving ďAlin. Is he on your back?

He's moving too much. He might fall off.

Let me see.

I feel the world stop rumbling and turn still. I feel watched.

He's having a nightmare. I can sense it.

A purple light envelops me. I know what's coming.

"Wait! No! Let me break free! I just need time to break through!" I yell, but it's to no avail. The thought of I'll calm his mind as I've done before rings in my mind as the glow seems to truss me, wrapping me in a delicate embrace. I fight it, trying in vain to break through to the surface, but the last thing that I see is my unfamiliar face looking back at me through the cracked ice.



Chris Christodoulou's Who Can Fathom the Soundless Depths?


I keep walking down the path, the rain falling against me, though instead of freezing against my fur like it did before, it slides off, adding to the flooded road I walk, every step's crest fighting against the endless ones caused by the downpour.

I've been walking for ages, and the storm has held its course in its strength, evident by the winds that made my tassels flap wildly and the constant flashes of lightning above. I stop as I approach a towering tree that stands at the turn of the path, one that would've fit in Eeveelution Forest. Its thick bark held firm against the wind, and even though the winds blew off countless leaves every moment, it seemed to have an endless supply.

This tree was here before I was hatched, I realize, and is probably going to outlive me too.

It stands firm against the tempest, and I decide this is where I will make my stand, too. After a moment's hesitation, look back at the path. LEAVE, echoes the first thing I've ever heard, surging into my mind. I know what lies for me if I go back. But I can't just put one paw in front of the other, leave everything I know and love behind. My eyes water in frustration.

Can I ever get forgiveness? I wonder, but I saw her eyes, how they looked at me. I already know the answer.

But that's from her. Didn't the way she treated an accident prove me right? Was I really wrong?

I feel my body temperature lower once more as I let out a soft puff of condensation. The rain hitting me sticks for a moment longer before falling down.

The deluge is at its height. I brace myself against the winds and the rains and the rumbling of the world and the flashes of lightning and try to see what my brother always said was there. I never believed Pirth with all that, but it made him feel important so I of course obliged, since he is.

I stand against the storm and look up to the sky, where Arceus or some other powerful pokemon would supposedly be. I start to say something, but I stop myself.

The sky seems so distant, so far. The tree, on the other hand, is right here. Its reminiscence of the trees where I evolved draw me towards it, even if it's just an old tree.

"Arceus," I say, "oh whatever god there might be. Please, send me a sign. Tell me if I'm right or not. Tell me to go back, let me return to my family. Tell me what to do."

The gales seem to recede for a moment, stopping and reeling back with my words as my heart and I look up in surprise. Was Pirth right all along? Is there some god that can guide me? One that's up there?

"Send me a sign, please!" I beg. "I'll admit anything. I'll serve you! Just let me know I can go back, that everything will be alright. Just..."

"Just tell me what I need to do!"

Whatever god watches over me gives me a response, a strange sensation overcoming my body. My senses sharpen, and I feel invigorated as energy rises around me.

It's one I felt before, I realize. My memory returns to Eeveelution Forest, but specifically to the jolteon tree. I throw myself onto the ground as I realize what's happening. The entire world shakes as a bolt of lightning rips across the sky and strikes down the venerable tree right in front of me.

In that single flash of light I see ďAlin's face, twisted in surprise and confusion, before it all fades away in a howl.

I yelp as I am forced onto the flooded path, my face getting soaked, tears flowing freely in fear. The air reeks of ozone, a sickly scent that overcomes the smell of the storm. Splinters of wood that fly everywhere pinprick me.

My body remains prostrate, but I lift my head back up to see the scene before me.

The tree is split into two, both sides bearing a raging inferno whose fires are so strong they contend against the rains, refusing to be put out.

ďAlin, he mentioned once something about a burning bush. Is this his god, a human one?

I start to speak, to ask this mysterious god what to do, for guidance, but I see it first.

The branches of the shattered tree lose all their leaves in the fire, the ash getting swept away. The fires burn away the bark, stripping it and leaving it a sickly white.

Two white antlers rise out of the ground, but the fire persists, intensifying in its heat. The red of the fire turns orange, then white. But at the center of the white of both fires I'm greeted by a hateful, evil, disgusting blue center that stares back at me.

The top ends of the tree collapse, fall to the ground, but the blue orbs keep eating away at it. I stare them down, my temperature lowering as its own temperature continues to rise.

No god answers my plea for help, but I do hear her a sound that comes from everywhere all around me, but most prominently in front of me. It's her voice, just as baneful and hungry for more and more as the blues and whites of the fire I stand against.

I look away, hoping to stop it. I turn down, and the fire illuminates my reflection.

I see myself, and I see her, too. I try to see if there is any forgiveness in her fake eyes, but I see none; there's no hope for me to return. She wore me just to mock me, I realize between frozen tears that stream down my face, from the base of my eyes down to my snout, their frozen path leaving a dark scar as it freezes over. She did it so I would hate myself whenever I saw my own reflection.

I focus on how my face is different from the one she used. I see the path my tears leave, a path from the wells of my eyes that don’t immediately flow down my face, the fierce winds instead blowing them in one thick, solid line from the inner edge of my eye to my mouth. I can taste the salt on my lips and tongue.

I won't look like her. Never.

It stings as I let the energy burst from within, scarring the dark path the tears made, the burning sensation a righteous anger. When I open my eyes again, the deed is done; I’m free from her mockery of me.

I look back up at the burning tree, the one that has my answer on what I should do. The only sound I've ever heard echoes in my mind again as I meet the true scene behind it all, causing the tree to collapse into cinders as the blue fires stare at me, not satisfied until the beast that they belong to consume everything that's good and right in the world.

LEAVE.

I oblige. If she wants me to hate, then I'll do just that. I'll never forgive her; not for corrupting my poor, innocent brother, not for masterminding all of this to get me out of the life I built with my paws, blood, sweat and tears.

I continue down the path, the rain falling a little bit less hard, the winds blowing a little less harshly, the flashes of lightning becoming more and more scarce.

But I'm so stupid, so naive, so full of misplaced hope that maybe I can be forgiven, that such a beast could be trusted, that I turn back one last time. My gaze lingers for longer than I'd like to admit.

My little brother is back there. ďAlin too. Team Eevee is there. In spite of how horrible everything else there is, the future I worked my life towards is there.

But her voice, an inferno of hatred, a burning bush that I asked to guide my path, still rings out in my deaf ears. I listen.


<- Ch. 9, Black & White, Act 3HomepageCh. 10, Genesis: An Epilogue ->

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Pub: 27 Nov 2025 03:36 UTC

Edit: 27 Nov 2025 19:49 UTC

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