Fifteen-miles. That's all it took before I had to take a break. The pain in my arm was getting worse and worse, it spread to my shoulder as well. We stopped momentarily so that I could sit myself down and try and use Recover to dull the pain. It went well, although the process was slow. I didn't want to end up messing up and breaking something in my new arm, so I was as careful as possible when I used Recover. After fifteen minutes, I pulled myself back up to my feet and we continued on. As we got further and further away from Ai, the feeling that I was making a mistake grew stronger and stronger. We walked ten more miles before I had to use Recover again.
"Let's just call this good for the night." Carinthia said. "I'm getting tired and I don't want to keep stopping."
"Alright." Sarah said. "We'll camp here for the night, then continue on tomorrow morning."
"I don't think we could have stayed awake long enough to make it all the way to Adom anyways." Kathrin said yawning.
"I'll stay awake." I said. "I'm going to need to if I want to stop the pain in my arm."
"Just don't stay up all night." Lilith said. I didn't respond, I just sat down and started focusing on my arm. Carinthia walked over towards me.
"You'll probably want something to eat." Carinthia said digging through the satchel. She pulled out a small pokénilla bar and handed it to me. "I'm sorry Caius, but when we are done with this, then we can think about what to do with Ayah."
"She won't forgive me." I said calmly.
"Now hush." Carinthia said. "If I know one thing about girls, it's that they always forgive." I gave Carinthia a smile before using my mouth to open up the pokénilla bar.
"You have a good night Carinthia." I said calmly.
"Wake me up when you can't stay awake and I'll take over." Carinthia said. Carinthia walked over a short distance and went off into sleep. I took a bite from the bar and set it down on my lap. I turned my head to see if anything seemed out of the ordinary. When I was certain that nothing was wrong, I closed my eyes and started to focus on my arm. As I concentrated on my arm for a couple of hours, I could feel myself getting more and more tired by the minute. The pain was gone, but I wanted to focus as much as I could to help prepare for when it came back. As I focused, I could feel myself falling in and out of sleep, catching myself before I would fall over. The only thing keeping me awake, was pretty much the cold and how uncomfortable I was. I couldn't handle staying up anymore. I opened up my eyes and looked up at the moon. It had seemed that about six hours had passed. I began to rise, and I stumbled my way over to Carinthia.
"Carinthia." I said quietly while shaking her. "Carinthia, I need you to take over." Carinthia slowly opened her eyes and looked at me.
"Alright, just give me a minute." Carinthia grumbled. "How's the arm doing?"
"Better, but I can barely keep my eyes open." I said drowsily.
"Take it easy. I'll take the shift from here." Carinthia said. As I stumbled back over to where I was, I laid down right next to where I was sitting. As I reached for the bar to finish it off, all I felt was the plastic around it. As I grabbed it and pulled it up to take a bite out of it, I noticed it was completely gone. Was I that hungry that I ate it without even noticing? I crumbled the wrapper and stuffed it inside my cloak. After then, I turned onto my back and looked up at the stars. Even though I had my cloak, I still felt like I was freezing cold. It was a bit difficult trying to sleep, but I shut my eyes and tried my best. It was no use, the cold was too much, and the ice wasn't helping at all. I was about to take the ice out and set it somewhere on my cloak, but then I felt something cover my body. It was warm, and felt extremely light. Immediately I could start to feel my legs again. I set my left arm on my stomach, hoping to let it rest. I woke up the next morning after I had rested. As I raised myself with my one good arm, I saw Kathrin and the others were already up. Carinthia was already packing up and was ready for us to get going.
"Morning Caius." Kathrin called out.
"Morning Kathrin." I replied still a bit drowsy.
"Is the arm doing better?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah, the pain hasn't come back yet, which I'm taking as a good sign." I said looking at my arm.
"Alright, then what's the plan for today Kathrin?" Lilith asked.
"If we keep going the way we did yesterday, we should reach Adom before nightfall." Kathrin said looking at the map.
"Well I can stand a bit more travelling then I did yesterday." Carinthia said fastening the satchel around her.
"And I feel like I can go for a while longer without any trouble." I added.
"Then if that's the case, we should be able to reach there before it gets late." Kathrin declared. "Although, I do know a way we could get there faster." Lilith looked at Kathrin and knew what she was going to say next.
"I don't think it's exactly safe to fly while Caius is like this." Lilith disagreed. Kathrin looked at Lilith, then looked at my arm and nodded her head.
"Now that I think about it, it probably wouldn't be the best." Kathrin said.
"Then let's get going." Carinthia said. "We're burning daylight." We walked down the road for a while. I walked up next to Carinthia after I had woken myself up a little bit better.
"Hey Carinthia, I just wanted to say thanks last night for the blanket." I said. Carinthia looked up at me with a confused look on her face.
"What blanket?" Carinthia questioned.
"The blanket from last night?" I said a bit confused.
"I don't have a blanket in inventory Caius." Carinthia said also confused. We both stared at each other with confusion.
"Well, if it wasn't a blanket, then what was it?" I asked.
"To be honest Caius, I don't have a clue what you could be talking about." Carinthia said. "Maybe you could ask the others, I woke Kathrin up after I couldn't stay awake anymore." I stared at Carinthia in confusion, but decided to take her advice and ask around. Kathrin didn't have a clue either, and she recommended me to Sarah. Sarah was confused as well when I asked her, and Lilith was the exact same way. I'm pretty sure I just inflicted our entire party with Confuse Ray. I just decided to drop it before it got any weirder than it had. The pain started coming back around noon, which I guess was okay, because we had already stopped to eat and take a break. After I had eaten, I had started to focus on the pain in my arm. It went away relatively quickly. We lost the water canteen that Carinthia had and had to look for it. We discovered it near a bush just a few feet from us, which was strange, but we didn't let it hinder our progress. After then, we continued on our way towards Adom. Not much conversation went on between the five of us, mainly because I think I was dropping everyone's mood with me thinking so much on Ayah. I tried to get my mind off of her, but no matter what, I did, I couldn't keep it back for long. I guess it was getting plainly obvious, because the next thing I heard froze me in my tracks.
"Hey Caius, why don't you tell us what happened the night you found Nate?" Sarah suggested.
"W-what is there to really tell?" I questioned. Kathrin, Carinthia, and Lilith all turned in confusion as well.
"And why bring it up when It's already in the past?" Kathrin asked.
"I'm just curious about what you and Nate talked about in the tree." Sarah replied. My nerves calmed down a little bit. She wasn't going where I thought she was, at least, I hoped so.
"Well, he did try to help me remember my past." I said.
"What else?" Sarah pursued. I stared at Sarah for a minute.
"Why are you so interested all of a sudden?" I asked.
"Call it curiosity." Sarah replied. "Plus, it's getting way too quiet here."
"It is getting a bit too quiet, isn't it." I chuckled. "Well, if you really must know, Nate and I were really just trying to piece back our past specifically, and it worked out better than I thought."
"It seems that your memory comes back better when you visit Pokémon that connect to your past." Lilith said.
"I think that's how It's working for me." I replied.
"Well what did you do while he took care of you?" Kathrin asked.
"From what I can remember, we mainly climbed up trees and talked to each other." I replied. "He was always there to help me get things off my chest. He always told stories and legends, like the origins of the world between ours and Arceus, how we are to attain a perfect life, wars casted between rivaling Pokémon like Groudon and Kyogre. I remember from that story that ..." I stopped myself before I said the full sentence.
"You remember what?" Lilith asked.
"Oh it was nothing, I was being a child back then." I said making excuses.
"Caius, you know me." Sarah said. "When I hear something, I want to hear all of it."
"I don't even know if that was what I really thought." I countered.
"I will find out eventually, all it will take is the slip of your mind." Sarah said smiling at me. She had me there.
"Alright." I said grudgingly. "I'll say it." I took a deep breath then let out, "I remember how I had a crush on Latias." Everyone stopped in their tracks, then looked directly at me.
"You what?" Carinthia asked. I facepalmed myself. What was I thinking?
"I had a crush on Latias okay?!" I said trying to keep my voice from yelling. Sarah started to laugh a little bit. As I turned my head to look at her, my face began to blush immediately.
"Oh, this is adding up too well." Sarah chuckled. "I'm sorry Caius, but it's just, I don't understand why you find that so embarrassing."
"Well I ... it's just ... it wouldn't work out!" I exclaimed.
"What makes you so sure about that?" Carinthia asked.
"She's a Legendary! I'm just human." I replied. "I don't see how that could ever work!"
"Funny how love works." Kathrin said facing away. "But there have been some very strange couples, that I will admit."
"Please, can we go to a different subject?" I begged putting my hand to my face again.
"But why? We're having too much fun learning about you." Lilith said chuckling. I groaned loudly.
"Let him be." Kathrin said. "If he doesn't want to talk about it, then that's fine."
"Thank you, Kathrin." I said breathing a sigh of relief.
"Even if some of them are funny." Kathrin added. The four of them started to burst out laughing again.
"Girls! Please! This isn't funny!" I said calmly.
"Oh, relax Caius, we're only teasing you." Carinthia said playfully.
"How much further until we reach Adom?" I asked trying to change the subject. After Kathrin calmed down, she looked back at me.
"We should only be a couple hours until we begin to see Adom." Kathrin replied.
"So, until then, we get to keep talking." Sarah said smiling.
"This is going to be a long two hours." I moaned.
"Then let's change that." A voice called out from above. As we all looked up, we saw a Hoothoot flying above us. The Hoothoot swooped down from the sky and landed on a tree branch not far from us. "I'm glad to see that the five of you are already making progress." That voice was so familiar, then it clicked.
"You're the voice that was in my dreams!" I exclaimed.
"Mordred Warlock, nice to meet you all." The Hoothoot said bowing.
"Wait, what do you mean inside your dreams?" Sarah asked. "And why is Its voice so low and distorted?"
"I'm right here you know." Mordred replied a bit irritated. "But what your friend there is saying is the truth. I had used Nightmare to invade his dreams and deliver my message."
"You think you could have done something that didn't involve impaling me?" I questioned.
"Oh, but where's the fun in that?" Mordred replied in his distorted voice.
"Sarah is right, what's with your voice?" I asked.
"This isn't what I really look like." Mordred said. "This is merely one of the ways I can communicate with others."
"What do you look like?" Kathrin asked confused.
"Oh, you'll all just have to wait until you arrive at Adom, then the real fun can begin!" Mordred said pulling a devious grin.
"That doesn't answer our question." Carinthia said.
"Oh, the answers we could tell." Mordred said dreaming off. "But alas, there isn't such time for something like that."
"Wait, We? Who else is there?" Lilith asked confused.
"Oh, nobody, just me, myself, and I." Mordred said chuckling. Sarah looked at Mordred with confusion and irritation.
"How did you know we were coming?" Sarah asked.
"If you hadn't come today, you would have come tomorrow, it's as simple as that." Mordred said. "But there's no more time for questions, the five *ahem* six of you, need to get to Adom as soon as possible." We all stared at Mordred with confusion.
"Wait, I only count six including you. Are you coming with us?" I asked. Mordred chuckled.
"Oh no, I'll be going away very soon, but you've seemed to carry on an extra passenger." Mordred said looking to a bush. The Hoothoot's eyes started to glow a light pink. Just as this happened, we could hear the screams of panic coming from the bush. Coming from the bush was a silver, red, and white Pokémon. My eyes shot open immediately.
"AYAH!" I shouted out.
"Daddy! Help me!" Ayah screamed out. I turned my head towards Mordred, now with anger.
"Let her go!" I demanded.
"As you wish." Mordred responded. Just then, I could hear the cries getting louder and louder as Ayah was thrown at me. Ayah collided with my chest and sent me crashing down onto the ground, my scythe, knocked out of my hand. As I held Ayah, I wrapped her in my right arm, trying to comfort her, then glared back up at Mordred.
"What have you done to her?!" I barked out.
"Oh, I haven't done a thing to her." Mordred replied. "But I'm afraid time is up, I'll see the six of you at the capitol in two hours." Just like that, the Hoothoot took to the air and flew back from where it came from. My eyes immediately shot back down to Ayah. I didn't care about the pain in my arm or my chest. I was just worried about Ayah.
"Ayah! Are you okay?" I asked concerned.
"I was so scared that I'd never find you!" Ayah said crying.
"Wait, you followed us?!" Carinthia asked.
"Don't leave me Daddy! I don't want you to leave me!" Ayah said uncontrollably.
"Ayah! Did you follow us?" I questioned. Ayah looked up at me, still crying.
"Yes, I told you I'm not leaving your side again!" Ayah said. My face immediately went into horror.
"Well this is just great!" Carinthia said throwing up her arms. "Now we have to take Ayah back to Ai. It's going to take us an extra day just to do that!"
"Two days." Lilith corrected. "One to take her there, another to come back."
"Two days!" Carinthia said angered.
"We don't have time for that." I said holding Ayah. Ayah continued to cry, making it a little hard to hear everyone.
"Well we can't take her to Adom!" Carinthia countered. "What kind of parent would take their child to a battlefield?!"
"Carinthia! Cool it!" Kathrin snapped. "We can't take her back to Ai! Even I won't be able to get her there and back in time." Carinthia looked like she wanted to wring someone's neck out. After she took a deep breath, she calmed down a little bit.
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Carinthia said calming herself down.
"We do what we're supposed to do." Sarah said uneasily. "We just have to worry about another Pokémon now."
"You sound uneasy." Lilith observed. "Is everything okay?"
"I'm not sure." Sarah replied. "I tried reading Mordred's mind, but I couldn't make out what was going through his head, or at least, the Hoothoot he sent."
"This isn't the time for mind games." Kathrin declared.
"I know! I just can't understand him!" Sarah replied harshly.
"Well we aren't going to accomplish anything by standing here and doing nothing!" Lilith said over Sarah.
"Hello!? Are you all forgetting the problem here?! We can't take Ayah with us to Adom! It's too dangerous for someone like her!" Carinthia interjected. The four of them were getting louder and louder by the second, arguing and getting angry at each other. I tried to think of what I could do to stop everyone, but with all the noise going on, I couldn't think at all! I tried shutting my eyes to try and help, but that only seemed to amplify the voices. No matter what I tried to do, I couldn't concentrate at all. What came next even surprised me.
"Oh my dear child, don't let anger carve thy path. Instead, let the beauty of the land, calm your wrath. Don't remain in the dark and in troubles, lights comfort and joys will heal your sorrows. Breath in a new day, and open your eyes. The possibilities are as endless as the skies. You shine like the sun, but are as gentle as the moon. Your trials and tribulations, will end all too soon. Your life is full of wonder and many scenes. So take the chance, spread your wings, and feel the breeze. Take to the skies, my sweet child of Karma, see the world at your feet. Dreams will elapse, and soon they'll become a creed. My wish, my innocent child, is that you may strive. To bear any burden, on your quest for life." As I closed the song, everyone was silent and staring directly at me. I felt very uncomfortable at what just happened. I looked down at Ayah and saw that she too was looking at me. I stared at everyone who was now silent, I mustered up the courage and rose to my feet.
"We'll discuss this later, at Adom." I said plainly. I pushed my foot underneath the scythe and pulled my leg up, catching the scythe in my hand while holding Ayah. It left me with an uncomfortable grip, but I could handle it for two hours. Before I could start to walk off, I was stopped by Sarah.
"Where did you learn that?" Sarah asked.
"A dear friend." I replied. "Named Chayna." I walked by without another word, hoping to put what happened behind us. I had mixed feelings about all of this, but one feeling stuck out above the others. Fear. Fear of what lied ahead in Adom. Fear of what would happen if we failed to complete what we were assigned. But most importantly, fear for the safety of my daughter, Ayah. Lilith tried to ease the tensions.
"You have a beautiful voice." Lilith said.
"Well it's thanks to my caretakers that I'mthat way, now isn't it?" I said smiling. We walked forward towards Adom,unsure of what to really expect. This, I felt, was going to be one difficultbattle.
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Well, this has been one eventful Chapter, I don't think Caius minds too much about Ayah joining back in the group though. (He doesn't.) Well, they can't do much else besides continue on from this point. What is Mordred playing at here? And why the heck is he being cryptic? Also, how does Caius keep knowing these songs, and what the heck was that warm feeling Caius felt? ...... Oh well, that will have to be answered in another chapter.
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