Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Arceus's Wish | (Rebooted on Youtube!)

T E N

Calm and silent as the night was, Kyle could by no means fall asleep. He had been being kept awake by the sounds all around him, which had begun to make him question the night's alleged "calm" and "silence."

Sound, however, was not the only thing keeping him up: all sorts of painful and nightmarish memories of his earlier vision of Arceus still haunted him, feeding his insomnia.

"Can't sleep?" Nila whispered. she shuffled on her side, getting closer to Kyle until her nose was directly in front of his.

"No," the umbreon sighed, "I just... can't right now. You?"

"Oh, sometimes I just... wake up for no reason. I'm not too sure, but i think it started after I evolved. Usually my sleep is a little disturbed if I think something's going to happen."

Kyle's eyes widened slightly. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"Oh, I don't know. Sometimes I wake up and realize I left something going, like the fireplace. It's usually because of stuff that can pose some form of threat if I'm not aware of it."

Kyle silently gulped. What did she mean by that?

"O-oh, I'm sorry, I'm just rambling."

"N-no, no, that's totally fine..."

There was a pause. Then Nila looked up to the sky. "We can really see the stars out here, huh?"

"O-oh," Kyle turned to look upward as well. "Yes, you're right."

"Isn't it beautiful? I love to look up at the sky sometimes, too. The stars and clouds can become anything if you use your imagination."

"Yeah..."

Nila stole a glance at Kyle, realizing she'd made him uneasy with her earlier comment. "I look up there for answers sometimes." She attempted to distract him. "It's a silly superstition, I'm sure, but... it does help."

Kyle felt his curiosity bloom. "How do they answer?"

"Well, I'd usually say something like 'if the answer is yes, send a shooting star.'" she said in a child's impression.

"Has it ever worked?"

"I don't know. I always ask about obvious things anyway. It's mostly a strange time killer."

"When I was a kid," Kyle added to the conversation with his own experiences, "I used to sit out in front of the sunset every day, waiting for the first star to come out. As soon as I saw it, I'd make a wish."

"Did any ever come true?" Nila giggled.

"Well, I must confess. I've always been a little spoiled. My dad would just try and get me whatever I'd wished for, then sort of pretend that 'oh man, it came true!' ... but I always knew it was just him. And I knew that he couldn't give me everything I'd wish for."

"What do you mean?"

"Well... I used to have an uncle. Him and my dad were pretty close when I was young, and I really liked him too. But he went missing one day, just vanished. We never saw him again."

Nila gave him a sympathetic look, then turned back to the sky. "I know how it feels to suddenly lose someone. My dad..." she sighed. "he had to take care of me and my brother Hunter all by himself. It was pretty harsh... we weren't exactly the most behaved of kids, you know."

Kyle felt apprehensive about asking, but decided to do it. "What ... what about your mother?"

"Oh, her? She... I'm not sure, actually. They say she was ... gone before we ever even hatched."