Melodies of Time

The Faithful's Story - Chapter 1

I watched Clara walk carefully towards the distant mountain. Opal limped on her left, moving just as slowly, as they scouted a path through the eerie landscape. Sonata rested on Sara's head as our trainer walked behind the Espeon and the Umbreon. The Cherubi was using her Sunny Day move to brighten the early morning sun all around us. Phoenix and Constella rested in their PokeBalls, kept safe from stumbling into danger.

And I walked between Clara and Opal to make sure the blind Espeon didn't miss one of Opal's warnings.

The world all around us was... I still don't know how to describe it. It was wrong. It was the middle of summer – there were flowers in bloom all around us, the air held that 'morning freshness' quality to it, and if I glanced up the clear sky had an unbroken view of the sun.

But just a little to my right I could see a pile of snow larger than I was. Right before the snow started the ground was clear of obstruction and had vibrant, healthy grass... and then I was staring into the center of a pile of snow. There was no way snow could have been there. It was far too hot here, and should have melted in seconds. But it was there anyway.

And the snow was dark. It didn't look like how snow would look in the early morning – it didn't glitter and sparkle in the morning light enhanced by Sonata's ability. It didn't reflect harsh light back at us and cause us to squint, like bright snow would do in the middle of winter. It was dull, the way snow usually looked in the middle of night.

Because it was night there, just a few feet away from me. Even though it was early morning where I stood.

The snow stretched on for some distance... and then it ended just as unsettlingly abruptly as it began. But instead of returning back to the summer landscape we were walking through, it changed to a scene of autumn rain – the plants on the ground were beginning to turn brown, and the leaves on the occasional tree had shifted from lively green shades to the oranges and reds that came before the leaves fell to the ground. Tiny droplets of water could be seen clinging to the grass, or the leaves, or the bark of the trees...

And also suspended perfectly immobile in mid-air.

That was the most unsettling part of the walk. When I looked in some directions I could see motion – trees shifting with the breeze, grass moving as a Caterpie or some other small Pokemon crawled through it to get away from us, or of flying-types flapping around in search of food. But that motion would just suddenly stop all at once in other places – a Starly was in the air some distance away, but instead of moving its wings or falling to the ground, it simply hung motionless in midair. I couldn't even see it breathing. It was utterly, completely still.

When we had started out I had been singing, but everything had quickly become far too unsettling. It was impossible to think of a cheerful tune with how wrong everything seemed. Now I just walked silently along and watched Opal for signs of warning.

"There's the robot." We all stopped and looked back at Sara, then followed the direction of her hand. She was pointing towards a spot of heavy rain, where the land was clearly flooded. It was strange to look at, like a piece of glass was holding all the water back, even though I knew there was nothing between us and the water.

What looked like a small toy car was at the bottom of the water, and looked as if it was about to be swept away by the flooding. But it just stayed there, just as motionless and unmoving as the raindrops. A camera and an antenna were taped onto it, but I doubted they would stay attached for very long with how heavy the rain seemed.

"How long ago did they say they sent it through?" Opal leaned a little closer to the rain... then he looked like he was about to be sick. He pulled back and shook his head. "The moon doesn't feel right over there. It's somewhere else."