A betrayal, a vision, and a shift: the winds of change have come. A human-turned Whismicott joins a mysterious Archen and a runaway Eevee to find the answers to their transformation. A wayward Jolteon, a kind-hearted Buizel, and an Oshawott with the...
It was that night that Rikal knew he had to find something. So, not for the first time, the Alomomola gathered his followers and drifted into the familiar northbound current he called home.
With him tonight were the Gorebyss and Huntail duo he had begun to expect, Jael and Huron. The two attributed their presence to an interest in the unknown, though Rikal suspected their goal was less abstract. The waters they called home were suspected to be the home to a great undiscovered bounty, after all. Still, Rikal appreciated their company: Jael's illuminated feelers made the search for the unfamiliar much easier.
"Are you sure?" Jael swam forward to match Rikal's pace, his eyes wide and searching, "About there being something out here, I mean."
"I've not been wrong before," Rikal said.
"What do you think it is?" Huron took their brother's place beside the Alomomola, their voice hushed, as if not to disturb what lie in wait, "Is it treasure? Or another explorer? Or a new dungeon?"
Rikal didn't respond. He didn't quite know what he was after tonight(he never did), but from the odd tugging in his gut, and the stillness of the waters around him, he felt it was nothing good. This dread that dragged at his soul was unfamiliar to him, and had been enough to jar him from his fitful rest as if he'd been electrocuted. The twins seemed to feel it too: within the hour, Rikal could feel their smooth scales brush his fins, and the inane chatter that always followed them had disappeared.
"Huron," Rikal spoke,"Do you see anything?"
Huron looked outside of the current, their tail rippling as they fought to remain still. After a moment, they turned to look at Rikal, eyes glowing.
"I think I saw...something," the Huntail said, "I don't know what it was, but it's caught in the opening of the gorge."
"I didn't know we were so close..." Rikal murmured. "We must investigate."
"Yes, sir," Jael nodded. The twins followed Rikal as he broke free of the current, and Jael extended their luminescence forward. Rikal began to make out the dam of sticks and boulders that made up the separation between Mirror Cove and the Bounty River, and as he swam forward, the object Huron had announced became clear.
It was small, about the size of the Chinchou that nested in the same reef as him, but was not familiar to these waters. It was caught across a large log, and was bullied this way and that by the current, limp as seaweed. Rikal began to make out either fur or feathers and his heart dropped.
Lifeless and still in the current was the body of a Pokemon.
"Huron, Jael," Rikal's voice was demanding as he turned to face his followers.
"Go now and inform Anais that I need them."
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Miles away, in the peaceful confines of Wisteria Village, a child was jolting awake.
Pearlie awoke with a cry, and fell into the still waters under her bed. She paddled to the surface and clambered back onto her reed-woven nest, breathing heavily as if she had been underwater for hours. To her surprise, it was not water streaming from her eyes, but tears, warm and salty. She had never cried from one of her dreams. Though, she reminded herself, rubbing the tears from her muzzle, her dreams were never just dreams, were they?
She didn't know why this particular one had gotten to her so bad. This one felt like a vision rather than a dream, but she knew the Pokemon she had seen. He wouldn't do something like that, would he?
Or did she know him? As the Oshawott's breathing steadied, and her tears dried, the memory of what she had dreamed was fading. Who was it she had seen? Where had she been?
She closed her eyes to sleep again, but the images she had seen in her slumber seemed to be burned into her mind. The flash of electricity and teeth, the feeling of flight, the roar of violent waters, and most puzzling, the sight of mustard-yellow, sparking quills, and a single vivid green eye. She didn't know anyone who looked like that.
Pearlie grumbled, covering her face with her paws.
Maybe, if she told Cassander about it, she would know something.
