Living in the Shadows

CHAPTER 4 TRAINING

(Jack)

We were all still sleeping when Shiftry woke up. When shaking us didn't work, it did on Melody, however; he jumped down and repeatedly shook the tree we were sleeping in. After that, the rest of us woke with a start.

Cyril glided down the moment he fell out of the tree while Red and I hung onto the branches. When the shaking stopped, I jumped down and caught Red when she let go of her branch.

"Is there a reason we have to be up this early?" Red demanded crossly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes; the sun had barely risen, and like everyone here, save Shiftry, she was a little cranky.

"Yes," Shiftry answered. "We need to get moving before those Sneasel and Sableye, not to mention Chief Drapion find us."

"Speaking of which," Melody added, yawning. "Why are they after you? Did you do something to make them mad?"

"No," Shiftry answered as he walked down a forest path, a rarely used one if not just made. "They are chasing me because I oppose the self-proclaimed King of Dark Castle. And he can't have Pokémon like me and my comrades roaming about, telling everyone we meet he isn't the true king."

"Two questions," Cyril said as he rubbed his sleepy eyes while following Shiftry. "One: Who is the fake king? Two: Who's the real one?"

"The fake king is Malamar. And our true king is Darkrai."

That woke Cyril and the rest of us up. "Malamar?" He exclaimed as his mouth hung ajar.

"And Darkrai?" The rest of us exclaimed, also with open mouths.

Shiftry stopped and turned to face our shocked/stunned faces. "I take it those names have meaning for you?" He asked.

"If we're talking about the same Malamar and Darkrai," Melody began. "Then yes."

"We know Darkrai because he's been on our island for over a week," I added.

"And we've heard about Malamar from our friend Jenna," Red finished.

"What can you tell us about them, Shiftry?" Cyril asked.

After a moment or two of silence, Shiftry answered; "Well, our true king has been traveling between this world and the human one for well over a century now."

"'CENTURY'?" we all exclaimed.

"Would you all calm down?" Shiftry said dryly. "You're acting like a bunch of kids."

"Actually, we're teenagers," Red said.

"Well, my eighteenth birthday was last month, so technically, I'm an adult," I added as I rubbed the back of my head.

"And I'm fifteen, which makes me the youngest one here," Cyril put in.

"Back to the topic at hand," Melody interrupted. "Darkrai has been coming to our world for over a century?!"

"Yes, he has," Shiftry replied. "But regarding your ages-"

"Mel and I are seventeen. Just so you know," Red added.

Shiftry looked annoyed. "Regarding your ages," he enunciated, "here in my world, Pokémon aren't adults until they are at least twenty, regardless of which evolution form they have. And to continue with the original topic, time fluctuates between our two worlds. After they drift apart, time will either pass here more slowly or more quickly."

Then he folded his arms and tapped his chin, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Now that I think about it, there were three times when our worlds came in sync, time passed much more slowly here than it did there. And after the last time they came in sync again and then separated, time moved faster here than there.