Melodies of Time

The Gardener's Story - Chapter 6

I woke up at some point in the night – or at least, I thought it was night. Sara had let me out of the PokeBall once she had gotten back to the PokeCenter, saying she didn't want me to be stuck cramped inside it when there was so much room outside of it, but I had still been really tired and had gone right back to sleep. The room we were in was still dark, aside from a soft yellow glow coming from one of the chairs, but that didn't necessarily mean it was nighttime. The sound of distant rain was still the same, and I knew from experience that the storm could make everything look pitch black – no matter what time it actually was – even when I was outside. So the fact that it was dark inside the human building, when they seemed able to summon and banish light with a flick of a switch, didn't necessarily mean anything.

So I guess I really just woke up at some point while everyone was still asleep.

Sara was stretched out in the bed and huddled under a pair of blankets, but even in the faint yellow glow I could tell that she was fast asleep. I glanced at the chair where the glow was coming from and saw Opal curled up in it. The glow seemed to brighten and dim in a slow rhythm that felt like breathing, so I assumed the Umbreon was fast asleep too.

There were a few other chairs and a couch scattered around the room, but they were all empty. The only other major piece of furnishing in the room was a large stand with one of those televisions on it. This one had been dark and quiet, and since it left enough space on the sides for me, I had picked that as my place to settle down and get back to sleep.

I wasn't surprised to be awake before everybody else. I doubted they had felt as worn out as I had felt from even the relatively simple excitement of the battle, so they had probably stayed up for several hours after I had gone back to bed. I shook myself with a quiet rustle of my leaves to clear the last bit of sleep from me, then hopped down from the stand. I started to move towards the far side of the room, but stopped when the shadows in the room all suddenly shifted.

Panic filled me and I scrambled back towards the television stand. The shadows continued to dance on the walls surrounding me, stretching far overhead and waving in jerky, sudden motions. I looked around for somewhere to hide, trying to find somewhere in the strange human room that would be safe from the creepy figures...

"Shh. Follow me."

I focused on the source of the quiet whisper... and suddenly felt very foolish. Opal had slipped down from his chair, and given that he was the only source of light in the room, his movements had caused the shifting of the shadows. I nodded a little shakily and started walking after him.

The Umbreon padded quietly over to the door, then jumped up and pulled down on a handle about halfway up it. The shadows in the room continued to dance and sway with every motion he made, from the slow wag of his tail to the careful motions of his legs, and I had a hard time ignoring them. He landed just as quietly and stopped the motion of the door, which had begun to swing open with his pull on the handle. A bit of light started to creep in from the hallway, but not enough to disturb the sleeping trainer, and Opal motioned me through the gap with a jerk of his head.

I scurried through the gap and breathed a sigh of relief once I was in the hallway. The lights were on, and the faint shadows were all still and unmoving. The way shadows were supposed to be. Even when Opal slipped through the door behind me and tugged the door closed, the lights above us were strong enough that his glow didn't move the shadows.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you, but I didn't want to wake Sara up. She's been a bit irritable lately, and the last thing she needs is to miss out on her sleep." Some of the fear I was still feeling seemed to vanish, as if it had just been drained away from me, and Opal's rings got brighter as he began walking down the hallway.