To the Next Hour

Prologue

((Written by ))

I looked up at the tall metal buildings surrounding me. The low hum of the machinery in it and all around the town in general. Pushing through the hard metal doors and ducking so I wouldn't hit my head on the top of the doorway, I looked around the hotel room. Half expecting to see my older sister sitting on the chair in front of me. But she wasn't. I walked around the small apartment room until I walked into the small kitchen. I stopped in my tracks as I looked down at the ground.

There on the ground was my sister. Her neck was slit open and there were bruises and cuts all over her. The smell of fresh blood lifted to my nose. I fell to my knees, tears welling up in my eyes. I lift her head and chest off the ground and pull her close to me. Her red and black fur close to mine. I looked closer at her face. Her eyes were open. But I didn't recognize them. They were dark and unmoving. On her face was a deep cut on her right cheek, making her check fur rough with dry blood. I sobbed, my tears running down my furry cheeks onto her fur.

I breathed in her scent one last time before lifting my paws and closing her dead eyes forever. Picking her spiritless body, I set her in a bag and walked out of the apartment, journeying out the forest.

***

I buried her body in the forest. Sobbing my last few tears before turning my sadness into a rage. I stormed off from her new resting spot and out into the darkening woods as the sun started to set. My slow pace turning into a fast one as I started to run, trying to dodge trees and rocks in the dark before it got too dark to see. In the forest it seemed darker then it did in the city, Kungenzeka. The place me and my sister called home. Before I knew it I tripped over a rock and fell face first into the forest floor. I huffed in frustration and slammed my paw onto the earth. I pushed myself up and looked around where I was sitting. All there was grass, trees, and plants.

"What are you doing sitting on the ground like that, kiddo." a rumbly voice spoke. I turned my head around, snarling at the intruder. An old Absol sat there. Her fur was all ruffled and matted. She wore a cylinder red hat with an unfamiliar symbol and a purple bandana wrapped around her neck. Her figure slim. Her eyes burned bright as I lit a fire to see her better.

"Who the f### are you, Shelia? Why is someone so old as you out here all alone?" I hissed at her. Trying to make her go away.

"That's no way to treat an elder, whippersnapper." she stepped forward and slapped my paw with hers. I hissed and pulled it away.

"What was that for?!" I screeched at her, "Are you insane!? I'm twice your size, I could rip your bloody head off!"

"I'm not scared of you. You might be taller but I've lived longer and learned many more things than you," she hissed and turned around, "Come, child, I want to help you with your grief." I was hesitant about following her as she started walking off. She then stopped and turned around to look at me.

"Are you comin' or not short stuff?" she teased and I huffed in reply as I followed her. On the way to where she was taking me, she explained how she wasn't from the Pokemon dimension. That she was just trapped here. She led me deeper into the forest until we came into a clearing.

It there was a little wood house. It was covered in a few vines, giving it an old abandon feel. She walked into the small crooked house fine. I had to bend down to fit into the doorway. When I finally was sitting down on the ground and she was boiling tea.

"What happened?" she asked as she sat down in front of me. She clicked her claws together as she waited for me to answer.

"I don't want to talk about," my sister's dead face flashed in my head, "Especially not you! I don't even know you." I hissed and she just sat there. A few heartbeats of silence passed before she acted on what I said.

The old Absol before me jumped and slapped me on the snout with her paw, "Watch what you say whippersnapper!" she snapped at me. I rubbed where she hit me, "Child, you need to learn a little thing called respect!" anger flared in me.

"Hey! I'm no-" the tea on the stove screamed with steam and the old Absol walked over and turned off the stove. She picked it up to my her claws and poured it into two small tea cups already set ours besides the stove. She then dropped a sugar cube into the two cups before she took one of them on her paw and one on her head she walked smoothly over and handed one to me. She then reached up and grabbed the other one.

"So, if you don't want me to know what happened, then fine. But at least let me help you cat." she took a sip from her tea then set the cup down on the table. This Absol is making me very angry... I thought to myself as I looked at her.

"How are you going to help me?" I mocked and she huffed. She narrowed her eyes before she hopped up onto the table, knocking her tea over and moving her face close to mine. She lifted her paw. She then slapped across the face, again. I hissed and moved my face far away from her. She hopped off the table and walked outside.

"H-hey!" I got up, hitting my head on the ceiling before following her out the small doorway, "What was that for?!" I hissed as she looked at me from the corner of her eye. Her purple eyes narrowing. She didn't answer.

"Fine then! Mystery... Absol!" she turned and looked into my eyes.

"My name is Lucinda." she fluttered her wings, "And you?" she narrowed her eyes more at me, making me feel uncomfortable.

"My name is Ember," I replied and sat down to her level. I lifted my paw to greet her. She put her paw on mine and we shook hands.