The Aura is With Us

Chapter 16: Lost in the woods (pt.1)

Goh really needed to stop eating dust, however it seemed as if dirt was determined to become a major part of his daily food intake. The mouthful of the ground he ate once he was done tumbling out of the mail shoot was enough evidence of that.

"Boot?"

The young trainer picked his head up from the ground, finding Raboot standing over him. His partner's expression as concerned as it was going to get. She just was very blank. Like a certain Dark-haired trainer, he met a few weeks ago. Gosh, his Pokémon partner was channeling the innerness of a most likely mentally struggling teenager. Well, that was a horrifying conclusion Goh thought, as he slowly sat up.

A tiny sneeze echoed next to him, and suddenly Goh realized that Pichu had fallen down the same tube he had. Not the one with his trainer. The tiny pale-yellow mouse rubbed his face with his paws, his nose scrunched up. Poor little guy.

A hiss of pain came from Sir Aaron. The adult laid on the soil a few feet away, wincing as he picked himself up. No one else was around them.

"Are you alright?" Goh asked.

Sir Aaron nodded, "Yes. It is merely that I was much smaller last I did that...and I do not remember it hurting that much."

"Well, you were a kid and now...wait how old are you?" Goh said.

"Technically, centuries," Sir Aaron huffed, "but I've only truly seen 36 winters in my life."

Goh hummed and stood up, "Well, good news I think I we lost the skeletons. Bad news is that we also lost the rest of our group."

"If they escaped, we will find them. Despite the out pour of aura on these grounds, users still look different from their surroundings," Sir Aaron said, getting to his own feet and walking towards the woods.

"Right, you can...see them? Sense them? Is there a proper term for that?" Goh spoke, already following the knight.

Pokémon following them at their heels.

"Both words would work, but there was a word in aura tongue for it."

"And that word is...?"

"It would take you all day, and a blessing from Arceus himself for you to pronounce it properly."

"Got it."

They continued to travel by foot. The trees and shrubbery, was thick. And there was no sun because thick cloud cover had rolled in at some point. It was very gloomy atmosphere, as Goh followed Sir Aaron to who knows where.

Arceus, he was so tired. It was probably only around 3 in the afternoon, but Goh felt completely drained. Though, maybe that had to do with running away from possessed skeletons...And waking up at 6 am (because Amanda was very strict when it came to keeping schedules) ...And having not eaten since breakfast...and a number of other annoying things that he couldn't name at the moment, but they bothered him.

He didn't even want to think about how this could get worse.

There was a sudden crack of thunder, and then came a decently harsh down pour.

Goh took a deep frustrated breath and looked up at the sky, "Why?!"

Pichu squeaked from his spot in the ground and began to run towards Sir Aaron. The tiny mouse climbed up the knight's clothing until reaching his head, and Pichu tucked himself underneath Sir Aaron's hat. The aura guardian, made a small noise of amusement, and let the electric type do as he pleased.

"Only Arceus knows his plans," Sir Aaron said, "Come now, it's best we search for shelter. The others will most likely do the same. We can continue searching once the worst of the storm has passed."

Goh nodded, holding back a shiver from the suddenly icy rain. Why was Sinnoh so cold again?

It was a few moments of silence, before Goh couldn't take it anymore. Sure, he was exhausted. However, there was some form of buzzing energy still inside of him, and he need to either talk or listen to someone talk. So, he opened his mouth and...

"Can I ask you a few questions?" Goh said.

"I suppose it will be a good distraction from our current predicament," Sir Aaron said, almost tiredly.

"Well...uhm...I don't mean to get too personal...but what's with the Arceus thing?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, there was a lot of Arceus imagery in the temple and you mention him a lot..."

Sir Aaron took a deep breath, "Arceus is the reason for aura in the first place. It's his own lifeforce that flows through all he's created. As such the Aura Guild are...were devout followers of the Alpha."

Goh, made a quiet not really identifiable sound. He really should have seen it coming. The medieval era was a time were religion sometimes over shadowed science and logic. At least in Goh's opinion. He leaned towards a more agnostic perspective on life, even if most of his ancestors were Mewish.

"It was believed that we were Arceus's chosen people, that we held the Alpha's favor. Clearly, we've lost that now..." Sir Aaron trailed off.

"Are you okay?" Goh said.

"I...I will be," Sir Aaron said.

The rest of the walk was traveled in silence. Only the whispering of rain water spoke to them, along with the squelching of mud beneath their boots.

"Are we lost again?" Goh shouted over the heavy rain and roaring of the river that ran just below where they walked.

"No, I don't believe so," Sir Aaron said back, "The others are just on the other side of the river bank. There should be a bridge just up ahead."

"Wonderf-" Goh tried to say...

But a sudden crack of thunder, and a flash of lighting splitting the dark stormy sky, startled Goh, sending the young trainer stumbling. The steep river bank scraped against the inside of his leg, and suddenly Goh was falling.

Down.

Down.

Down.

Splash.

When Goh hit the water, he thought he was burning. A shock of hot static traveled across his exposed skin, before the cold rushed it. His limbs slowly went numb as he thrashed for air, but the river was a churning bubbling soup that pulled and pushed him. Swallowing his body whole, and shoving him away from the surface.

Darkness slowly began to creep in as his lungs burned.

Then hands looped underneath his armpits and pulled...

"Grab the log!" Far away, yet right next to him, someone screamed.

A/N:

Okay, well, there's kind of this debate in the pokemon universe, about which mythical that the people their worthship. From the way I head-canon it, I'd say that the majority of humanity either believe in Mew (or Mewish) or Acreus (Acrithic), with smaller minorities following other legendries sprinkled throughout the different reagions, like the Alola islands are most likely followers of the Tabos, and I'm pretty sure there's a bunch of dragon worship in Unova.

So, definitely a shorter chapter, but honestly, I needed this break. Finals are coming up in a few weeks, and school is killing me.

Hope ya'll enjoed.