Into The Unown

Unspoken anger

"Why do you look like a rat bit your ass?" Calem asked, leaning against the nearest tree with a disgusting smirk on his face.

Dawn scoffed, eyeing him down with disdain. After an hour of working in silence, this was how he decided to break it? She wanted to say that his behaviour surprised her, but after two years of working, it was actually very typical Calem behaviour.

"I'm not sad," she answered.

"Of course not," he continued, walking around her like a honey bee. "If a rat bit your ass, you'd be angry. So, the real question is: why are you angry?"

Dawn paused, her hand tightening around the strap of her satchel. Was she angry? She wasn't sure. Over the past two years, she and Calem had done most of the ground work—scouting dangerous territories, setting up camp bases, strategizing defences—the dangerous work. She'd went as far as to help Calem in his quest to find out the mole in their own organisations and helped tag the leaders of the Apocalypse. She'd been in the front lines of it, leading the fight against the Apocalypse.

But the thing was, this wasn't the only fight. There was another war brewing—far older and stranger. A war that she was told involved monsters who called themselves Gods, Aura, and a city in the midst of all. A war that she wasn't a part of.

"I'm the only one who wasn't contacted by an ancestor," she mumbled, trying her best not to sound like a petulant child.

Calem raised an eyebrow. "You're upset about that? Mine showed up just to tell me to quit! Imagine how I must have felt."

"I know," she said, only to sigh later. "But at least he came to you. At least he acknowledged you. Mine hasn't. And I can't help but be angry at her... Cosmo."

"You're better off, trust me," Calem said with a shrug, his tone unusually serious. "Come on, it's night. Let's retreat inside."

Dawn clenched her fists, her nails digging their ways into her palms. It wasn't fair, she'd worked as hard as anyone—maybe harder. Yet, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was somehow... lesser.

Calem, who'd already reached halfway to the camp, watched her for a moment, then sighed, walking back to her. "Look, ancestors or not, in the end we're fighting the same war. And towards the end of the day when Apocalypse attacks us and we lose contact, it'll be the safe house you helped set up that we'll retreat too. They might not have shown up, but you've proven yourself more than anyone."

Dawn raised her eyebrow. What Calem just said... that was surprisingly a good advice. "Thanks," she said.

"I'm going in, you finish the rest of the work because you're feeling useless. Don't stay out too long," he said before heading back toward the dim lights of their camp.

Dawn stood there for a moment, angry, not at Cosmo, but at Calem. That pathetic excuse of a man had left her with tons of work and retreated in warmth to jerk off. She let out a sigh as she stared at the horizon as the sun dipped below the trees.

Dawn...

The hair on the back of her neck stood up. She instinctively turned, only to find a dense infiltrate of trees arching up to the heavens.

"Calem?" she called, but he was already out of earshot.

Though they were knee deep in the jungles of Unova, a county with the dominance of the Xaviers, Apocalypse still couldn't be trusted. She quickly packed her bags, retreating towards their base. But just when she'd reached halfway, she heard it again.

Dawn...

The voice was soft and melodic. Her training told her it was either of an angle, or a powerful demon.

Her breath caught. The voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

"Who's there?" she demanded, her hand quickly wrapping around her weapon belt.

No answer. There was nothing around her except trees and darkness.

Dawn quickly retreated inside, preparing to deliver her report. Although she didn't pay heed to what happened that fine afternoon, little did Dawn know that her life would never been the same.