Blood and Ink

Prologue

It was a cool day in the Dream Universe. Outside of the Dream Village, a universal portal appeared, and Kate jumped out from it. She landed firmly on her feet when she made it to the village and began to walk to the tree house.

The path to the treehouse was almost empty. She saw that someone was coming up to her, heading in the opposite direction. It was Hadrian, and Kate couldn't help but smile as she saw that Hadrian was pushing a baby stroller in front of him.

"Hello Kate," Hadrian greeted her.

"Hi Hadrian. Taking little Carrie on a walk?" she asked him.

"Sure am. I promised Mevia that today would be her day off. So I'm taking Carrie for a walk. She's been asleep the whole time so far," said Hadrian.

Kate smiled and she peered into the stroller. A baby girl with white hair and pale skin, no more than a few months old, was asleep. Carrie was lightly snoring.

"Oh, before I forget, will you and Knuckles be able to watch Carrie this Saturday, like I asked?" said Hadrian.

"Of course, Hadrian. Knux and I don't mind babysitting our goddaughter, and hey, it'll be good practice for me and Knux," said Kate.

Hadrian smirked at her. "You guys thinking of having your own?" he asked her.

"Looking to adopt, since that's what I've wanted to do. But until I get this new writing project published, can't look into starting a family," said Kate.

"How is your project with Aiden coming along?" asked Hadrian.

"Almost done. I just came back from Ground City. The short stories are almost fully written, and I'm still drafting the coverpage idea. It's a little hard to get the right product of the cover page."

"You'll get there. I'll be ready to read a copy of the collection when you and Aiden publish it."

Carrie started to make a bit of a fuss in her stroller. Hadrian looked down and saw that his daughter woke up. He gently hushed his daughter.

"It's alright, baby girl. We'll continue our stroll," he whispered to her.

Kate smiled. "I'll leave you two to it then," she whispered. "Nice talking with you."

"Bye Kate," Hadrian whispered.

Hadrian pushed the stroller and continued down the path, while Kate headed in the opposite direction.

After a few minutes, Kate walked up to the treehouse. She pulled out her key and unlocked the door. She entered the treehouse. Her Pokémon ran up to her and greeted her. Kate petted them all before heading to the dining table. She set down her laptop bag and pulled out a few things. She set her laptop and a few papers down, scattering the papers across the table.

One of her Pokémon, Pansage, jumped up on the table and gave her a confused look.

"Pan pan sage?" he asked her.

"No. We're almost done. Aiden and I are getting there," said Kate.

"Pan... pan pan sage pansage?" asked Pansage.

"Knuckles will be back tonight. He went to check on the Master Emerald, remember?" said Kate.

"Pan sage..." said Pansage.

Kate smiled at her Pokémon. She gently petted him on the head. She turned her attention back to her work.

But just as she was going to get to work, there was a knock on the door. She formed a confused look and walked up to the door. She opened it, finding Parakary holding a package.

"Hi ma'am! Package for you!" said Parakary.

"Oh. I don't remember ordering anything, and Knuckles hasn't been home for a few days, so he hasn't ordered anything either," said Kate.

"Well, it has your address on it and everything. Must be a gift from a friend then," said Parakary.

Kate picked up the package and looked at the sender's address. It was an address that she wasn't familiar with, but she recognized the sender's name.

"You're right... it is something from a friend," she said.

"Alrighty. Have a good day ma'am!" said Parakary.

"Thank you Parakary. You have a good day yourself," said Kate.

Parakary waved goodbye to her and started to fly away, ready to deliver more letters and packages.

Kate entered the treehouse and shut the door behind her. She walked back to the dining table and put the package down on some free space on the table, away from her laptop and papers. Her Pokémon watched with curiosity as she opened up the package.

Kate opened the package and found that there were two things: an envelope, and something in a picture frame. The picture frame was facing down when she opened the package, and the front side was covered in wrapping.

She carefully tore off the wrapping and saw what was framed inside. There was what appeared to be a drawing in the photo frame. The drawing had three cartoon characters of some sort, and it was in black and white. The three cartoon characters were holding hands and were drawn to be walking in a forest, smiling as they were walking together. The one in the middle was shorter than the other two. The one on the left appeared to be a wolf in white overalls, the one in the middle was an adorable little devil, and the one on the right looked like a girl with an angel halo over her head.

Kate fell silent, staring at the drawing. She smiled sadly, and even teared up a bit.

'After all that we went through, we set them free...' she thought.