Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 88 - New Home, Old Friend

At first, Jerry protested flying over the forest, claiming that the wraiths below would shoot at them. Xypher, undeterred, continued forward, and Hakk shrugged, nonchalant.

"It's fine," Hakk said. "Most of them can't do much harm. The strong ones, we'll avoid. We've got some Illusion fields just in case."

"Illusion what?" Owen looked nervously downward. From above, the trees he had once explored for tree taffy and berry bunches looked more like mangled fingers clawing at the sky.

"Illusion field. It distorts outgoing light to disguise us. Same way Zoroark cast their illusions." Hakk looked back at Owen. "Better than just bending light around us, or we'd be flying blind."

"Zoroark..." Owen squinted. "Have you run into a Zoroark recently? Or Zorua. She might be scared or confused, but she's another friend."

"Nope. We'll ask around our network and see if anybody else has info, though." Hakk looked at his device again.

"Mm." Owen's claws dug into Jerry's shoulder and the Aerodactyl jostled in response. "Oh—sorry."

"What's up with you?" Jerry growled. "No matter what these guys do to us, we're better off than before. If they wanted us for food, we'd be dead already."

"I—I wasn't thinking about that at all!" Owen's flame doubled in size. "I thought they were friends!"

"Well, aren't you trusting," Jerry grumbled. "Just leave the carefulness to me, then. We still don't know what these guys want from us, and I doubt they're going to be charitable when we arrive. Look at this place!" Jerry jerked his head vaguely upward. "You think they have resources to spare? Please. Best case scenario, we're their servants."

"S-servants?" Owen squeaked.

"Yep. But if we're fed, it'll be worth it. Better than dying. So look at it that way."

"But what about Zena? She can't..."

"They probably have something," Jerry said. "And if they don't, I dunno, at least we're alive."

"Um—excuse me!" Owen perked up, shouting toward Hakk.

"Eh?"

"Are we—"

Jerry dove down, making Owen scream, and then he lifted back up. "Ignore him," Jerry said. "He's impatient."

"We're almost there. And don't fly down too low or you'll leave the illusory field." Hakk sighed and looked ahead again. "Okay, this is going to be a little tricky, so you'll need to follow more closely. You see that stone spire ahead?"

Owen leaned to the left, around Jerry's neck. Far ahead, looking like one of the trees, was a great cone tipped with a white, glowing point. It reminded Owen a lot of the central spire in Kilo Village where the Central Waypoint marked the center of the world map, or the Spire of Trials where Manny had once lived. The tip was probably as sharp as Owen's claws.

"Yeah, what about it?" Jerry asked.

"When we start slowing down, stay behind us until the spire dims a little. Then, fly forward with us. When it gets brighter again, keep flying, but when it dims for a second time, slow down."

"...What?"

"Just follow Xypher's lead."

"Forward," Xypher said. "Slow, slow, fast, fast, slow..."

Soon, they slowed down. Zena anxiously swirled around in her aqua bubble, glancing up at Owen, and then at the spire ahead. It dimmed, so they moved forward. When it brightened, Jerry almost stopped, and Owen felt him lurch, so Owen mumbled that he had to keep going. Jerry grumbled something back, probably another curse, and then followed their lead. Once it dimmed again, they stopped.