- Vagabond - Male Reader x Pokémon

Chapter 28: Gleaming Eyes

[Within The Small Cave A Short Distance Away From The River...]

"Doesn't look like the rain's lettin' up any time soon..." [Y/N] mumbled to himself, barely staying awake, as he lounged against the cave floor. The downpour danced upon the muddy ground like some unrelenting cacophonous choir, but he was safe inside the small inlet. Perhaps it wasn't the most comfortable hiding spot, but it did grant him a measure of cosiness that was much appreciated. Anything was better than the harsh wails of the storm pounding against the earth outside.

[Y/N] scribbled down a small note in his notebook, which he had fortunately left in his pocket, and it wasn't too badly damaged by the river, besides a few wrinkled pages that had to be torn apart. Chimchar's heat fixed it as well as he could. Fortunately his Pokétch and Pokédex were waterproof, or else he really would've been screwed. It was a good distraction while he waited for the weather to change, doodling stupid little drawings, poor caricatures of his team, who were all sleeping atop one another. At first, they were rather crude, but after nearly an hour or so, the drawing didn't look all that bad. It was the little things, anything that could distract him away from the here and now...

He wondered, maybe it was a smart idea to leave behind a final note, just in case anything did go extraordinarily catastrophic. It was a pessimistic thought, but when the rescuers came and found his body drowned and torn apart by wild Bidoofs, it would've been nice to give his friends a final goodbye. He wondered how Sycamore was doing, if he had escaped the rain before it struck with a wrathful anger. It was unlikely, there weren't many places of safety in the middle of a forest, and they were already too far away from Jubilife. They were in nature's domain now. [Y/N] hoped the researcher hadn't come looking for him, that would've been the worst case scenario, but he knew the man was smart and logical. They would meet back up at some point, it was bound to happen.

A heavy sigh left his lips, but he didn't necessarily feel all that stressed, surprisingly enough.

No, rather, he felt quite calm, and the rain served as a peaceful ambient background noise, lulling him into a tranquil state. His stomach growled but he ignored it, too comfortable to really care. And, strangely enough, the rain seemed to slow down, drop by drop, though at first he didn't really notice the droplets blending into the dark woods.

However, eventually something did get his attention. The pounding patter of rain, it slowed down, or it got more distant, he wasn't entirely sure. He hadn't moved though, and neither had the downpour. Pails fell before him but they were moving at a snail's pace. [Y/N] watched on with confusion, not entirely sure what was going on. The world around him slowly turned a darker shade, and everything took on a greyer tone. Maybe he had fallen asleep, but pinching himself felt like too much effort. Everything felt like too much effort, even simply moving.

All he could do was breath, think and watch, and there was certainly something new that captivated his attention.

Strange, incorporeal glowing shapes appeared, seemingly hundreds of them and they showed up all over the place, some larger, others smaller, thin ones and thick ones, they were of all shapes, sizes and even colours, but they mostly appeared a shade of blue. [Y/N] blinked, expecting it to be some stunt of his overactive imagination, his mind toying with him once again, but they didn't disappear, and some even moved about in the distance.

It was like a bonfire of many tiny blue flames, each of them coalescing into an enormous pyre, but each of them significant in their own way.

Where had the fires come from, and what did they mean? [Y/N] scanned his eyes across the stage of gnarled trees, watching the flames that swayed behind them, as if he were analysing them. His head felt funny, not in a bad way necessarily, but it felt heavy and clouded. He looked at his Pokémon, all piled up in a heap, snoring and limply jostling in their sleep. Each of them seemed to have one of the strange blue shapes too, in the centre of their small bodies, and they each danced like some exotic dancer.