Rigorous Relationships

A Light In The Darkness

It had been a few hours since leaving Crystal Caverns, and the six trainers had made significant leeway on their trek to the next town, when the light of the evening sky began to blink out of existence. In seeing the fading light the group decided it would be best to set up camp before it got so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. Ash and Serena, along with Aura and their Pokemon, began the initial setup of the camp, spiking the tents and digging a hole for a campfire. During the setup of their nightly dwellings Diana, Dena, Cal, and their Pokemon went in search of dry logs to supply themselves with a suitable campfire for the cold night.

The groups worked as quickly as they could but ran out of light before all their tasks were complete, leaving them somewhat lacking in the wood department and Ash without a tent. In the meager light that their campfire provided the group offered to help Ash pitch his tent, but had their offering of assistance shot down by him claiming he prefer to sleep under the stars anyways.

Letting Ash be Ash, the group had their fire types light a stick hut they'd made in the pit, and soon they were all enjoying the warmth of cracklings flames. Practically right after the flames were lit Cal brought out a two bags of jumbo stuffed marshmallows, and some other s'mores supplies, which were passed around at an impressive rate and within seconds they were all dining on the sweet delicacy. 

The small fire felt warmer with everyone indulging themselves in small talk, sweets, and dumb ghost stories that were more comical than frightening; everyone that is except Ash whose mind kept wandering to the gifts Rhyolis had given him before their departure. The gifts he'd received felt more like a burden than a blessing, their very presence seemed to weigh on his mind like an odious force that threatened to turn his entire world upside down.

For the time being though he pretended to share in his friends merriment, but was relieved when it finally ended and they packed it up for the night. He watched with false amenity as his friends shuffled into their tents; knowing that while they could seek shelter from the cold and darkness of night, he had to face the chilling stygian that rested in his jacket pocket. He took some comfort in the fact that he was not entirely alone in his task, for his two partners were sitting next to him waiting with just as much dread to learn the secrets his gifts held.

As soon as everyone else had gone to sleep Ash crept closer to the small flames, they'd left him with, and opened the pouch. Inside was a variety of colorful stones ranging from glassy like multi colored spheres to diamonds of singular colors and odd insignias. Ash wasn't interested in the stones at the moment his attention was fixated on the sheets of folded paper tucked at the bottom of the pouch.

Moving as cautiously as the bomb squad on the job, Ash took out the paper and began reading it.

"To whom it may concern, these papers contains the last wills and testaments of the men known as Rhyolis S. Danpen, and Ferric T. Danpen; and if you are reading this we are dead."

Ash felt himself go numb after reading that one sentence; the odious feeling he'd been having about the farewell he'd witnessed confirmed in just a few words. He drew himself closer to the dying fire and brought his Pokémon into his lap, needing both their warmth and presence to keep on reading.

"This is not news to us though, for we have known about our deaths for some time now. Our demise was seen by Ferric's Lunatone's use of Future Sight. In said move our fate was played out before us: a dark haired trainer and his two Pokémon would leave our shack with Aura; moments after they leave three people in ash grey cloaks jump out from the locked door of my private study and we fight them for nearly half an hour. The fight doesn't go in our favor though and we are forced to take extreme measures to assure the safety of  Aura. In a final act of desperation we have our Pokémon use Self-Destruct and the resulting blasts rupture the shacks propane storage and engulfs us all in an inferno."