The Corviknight Taxi steadily started to lower down again, the cart rising and falling with the flaps of gigantic wings slowly bringing you back to the ground. As it did, you stared out the window at the gigantic tree towering over the cozy little town below. It was one you'd seen plenty of times before, but never really from this height. You'd always walked here from Hammerlocke, seeing if you could pick up a treat or two from the shops in Stow On Side. You would've enjoyed grabbing a bite and even hiking through Glimwood Tangle, but not with the luggage you carried this time. A little further down now, you could see the gym nestled in the base of the tree, tangled in it's roots that seemed to swallow about half of the town. The sun also seemed to get swallowed in the mess of trees, the cart dipping into darkness for a moment before being illumined with the gentle glow of mushrooms poking out of nearby trees. The ones the pilot was trying to very carefully avoid running into with Corviknight's massive wingspan. You and Bede held your breath for a few moments before finally feeling the cart come to a gentle rest on the ground right next to the pokemon center. You both hopped out, Bede helping you get your suitcase that was nestled in between you two in the seat. You thanked the two of them again, tossed them a generous tip, and headed out on your way again.
The pokemon nestled in the trees and on the buildings nearby watched you as you two passed. Some of them seemed happy seeing Bede again, as they saw him every day anyways. Some of them looked at both of you apprehensively before slinking back into the shadows. The local pokemon reminded you of your little friends back in Unova.
"Hey, Bede? Ever make friends with some of these wild pokemon?" you asked out of curiosity.
"I guess, sometimes," he mused, turning his gaze to a couple of Morelull sitting atop one of the houses' rooftops. "When I can. If I ever have time." He muttered more to himself than you. With that thought in your mind, you looked over past Bede to the gym as you walked. Its pink lights shone though mystical light of the forest, not much different from the pink mushrooms that were already surrounding the town. It sat in the morning mist, big and almost intimidating.
You both wandered over to the houses past the pokemon center, stopping at the second one and watching Bede fumble with his keys for a moment. He had more than you did, as he practically ran this town's gym at the moment. As he searched through them, you looked at the window, having heard the pitter-patter of feet inside. As expected, you saw a nose and a set of bright blue eyes poke through the curtains in the window. They paused and looked at you for a moment before disappearing again, replaced by an excited scratching at the other side of the front door. You grinned, and giggled quietly to yourself. The house suddenly seemed to come alive, little sounds making their way to the door as Bede finally twisted the knob. Usually, Bede held the door for you to go in first, but you were slightly surprised when he quickly shouldered his own way in.
"Hey now," you heard him say, addressing the excited pokemon inside. "Easy. Down. She's a little sore right now."
You blushed just a little at his thoughtfulness. Slowly coming in the door behind him, you slid your suitcase through the door and propped it against the wall. Inside, three excited pokemon greeted you. There was Sylveon, Mawile, and Hatterene. The little ones excitedly came up to you, Sylveon coming to your feet and nuzzling her face into your legs as she always did when you visited. Happiness swelled in your chest as you bent down and let a hand graze over Sylveon's soft fur. You greeted Mawile next. As you were doing so, Bede took off his shoes under the coat rack and walked past the fridge, putting his keys on the counter for a moment. It was a pretty cozy place. Straight in front of the door was the kitchen with a counter that followed the back corner of the wall. To the right was a living room of some sort. It was a weird one, as instead of a couch there was a dining table and a telly up against the wall. It was on and turned to a battle tournament that had happened at Wyndon Stadium last week. Last but not least, in the back corner of the kitchen there was a door that lead upstairs to Bede's room. You'd never been up there yourself but today seemed to be your lucky day.
You stood back up carefully and looked over at Hatterene standing a few paces away. She hadn't moved from her spot next to the telly. Anybody looking in the windows would've thought she was just a lamp sitting in the living room, but this one had its eyes open, using her long arm to wave at you quietly. She never liked much commotion, but you knew she was happy to see you again regardless. To your slight surprise, she came forward a bit to you, bringing up her hand ever so slowly and bringing it to a rest on your arm over your sling. Since she stood at a pretty sizable 6'11" or 2.10 m she was at about eye level with you. She looked at you oddly for a moment before suddenly taking her hand away, slinking back into the corner of the room where she was standing before. You frowned.
"What was that?" you heard a voice from across the room. Bede had been standing at the counter starting to brew some tea and had turned around to look at you. You stood there, bringing up your good hand and half shrugging.
"I uh..?" you looked back at Hatterene. You expected her to look at you with maybe some irritation, like she usually did if you or Bede was getting too rowdy for her taste, but instead she looked a little bewildered. Now that you thought about it, you started to notice Sylveon and Mawile also starting to take notice of something strange. The absence of your other half. The only logical thing you could think of is that when Hatterene had put her hand on you, she had maybe gotten a vision of what had led you to having to stay in Bede's house for a couple months. Maybe she had gotten a glimpse of the same choppy memories of your arm getting broken and wasn't expecting it to be that terrible.
"How much did you tell them?" you looked at Bede, who had come back to see what happened, stopped to study Hatterene as she stood there, just looking at you.
"I just told them I'd explain it to them later." he said, not moving his gaze from Hatterene. "I understand that you were curious, but could you have been more polite and waited for us to tell you ourselves?" Hatterene finally tore her gaze off of you, looking at her trainer. She looked apprehensively back at you one more time before fully shuffling back into the corner again.
"Tch. You? Talking about being polite?" you joked quietly, trying to lighten the mood. He shot a side glance at you, his eyes narrowing into a firmer scowl which you'd half expected to get anyways. "Okay...yeah. Sorry," you muttered.
"Yeah, I'm talking about being polite." he grumbled, irritated. He unzipped his jacket and walked over to hang it above his shoes, wearing just a pink short sleeved t-shirt underneath. "I'd call polite inviting you to stay at my house while you sort your business out. We still need to think about finding Zoroark and figuring out the why and the how. Then, we can talk about me not being polite." He made his way back to the kitchen, opening the cupboard and pulling out a couple mugs and placing them on the counter.
"Arceus, it was just a joke, Bede." You sighed, dropping your eyes to the worried pokemon below you, having heard that Zoroark had to be "found". You didn't honestly want to tell them the whole truth, as you didn't want to scare them as Hatterene had done to herself. You patted their heads carefully before making your way to the kitchen next to Bede, standing next to him as he leaned on the counter, staring at the tea pot and waiting for it to boil. He bit his lip, thinking of what to say to you. You ended up speaking up instead.
"I know you've been trying," you said to him quietly. "I really couldn't thank you enough for taking me in. I'm sorry I tease so much."
"No, don't be." he replied just as quietly, sitting up a little more to ease himself up. "I'm just not in the best of moods, really. I'm happy you're here, but I'm still riled up about all of this. I shouldn't be though. You've been through a lot more than I have the past two days."
"Don't say that," you wandered over to the cabinet by the fridge, taking a tea bag of your preference and putting it in one of the mugs. "Just because I'm in a sling doesn't mean you don't have the right to be a little on edge." You heard him sigh. He continued to stare at the tea pot. You felt for a moment like he didn't even want to look at you. You came back to where you were standing before, this time leaning a little bit into him. You smiled as you saw his face heat up, his gaze finally breaking with the tea pot and turning to look at you.
"E-excuse me." he grumbled.
"Hmm?"
"You're in my space."
"Why are you so tense?"
Bede huffed. "How are you so calm about all this?"
You let yourself melt a little further into him, feeling him almost relax under your movement. He continued.
"You've just been so matter of fact and positive since this morning. Doesn't being attacked by Zoroark bother you?" He asked it quietly, so the little ones wouldn't hear. "Aren't you a little scared that she's still out there?"
"Of course I am." You hushed, looking at the floor. "I've just been trying my best to not think about it too much. I just got out of the hospital, and I'm trying to recover before I go stressing out about it."
You two sat in silence for a moment, both of you moving your gaze to the teapot which was now starting to spit steam.
"I miss her." You found yourself saying in the silence. "I wish she were here...she loves tea,"
Bede said nothing, instead glancing over at the tea-bag you had plopped into your mug a minute ago without thinking. It was a green tea bag. The kind you usually shared with Zoroark, but mostly let her drink as you weren't the biggest fan. Another long exhale left him, the tea pot starting to whistle.
"You sure you want that tea?" he asked, shutting the burner off.
"What? Oh..." the realization hit you slowly, but you nodded your head. "Y-yeah. I like this kind."
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The afternoon sunlight glistened down softly onto the ruins in the Slumbering Weald. It was quiet again, tranquil and almost somber, as if the environment around had taken on from the events of only a day ago. Kicked up dirt and claw marks in the earth still littered the area, and there was still a faint blood trail fading back off into the woods. As the wind kicked up again, a new character found his way up to the ruins. He slowly strolled up the path, looking down at the mess that followed him and vanished into the stream.
"Hmm. Something happened here." He mused, mainly eyeing the blood trail. He came to the temporary conclusion that it had been a fierce pokemon on pokemon battle here in these woods, but upon closer inspection, he could see differently. Clear footprints from a pair of shoes had slid up the side of the stream trying to find their way up and out of the water. But no, that couldn't be right. Pokemon didn't just attack people, did they? Not that he had ever seen.
The man crouched beside the stream, inspecting the claw marks left in the dirt. He couldn't draw a single pokemon from these marks, but they sure looked familiar to him. He just couldn't seem to place it.
From a short distance away, a low howl started to fill the air. It came up and droned on for a long few seconds before dying back down again, being covered by the sounds of the stream in front of him. The man knew it as none other than his traveling companion, maybe getting a little impatient at how long it was taking for him to check out the ruins he had stumbled upon on his journey. He chuckled.
"I know, I know." He called back to the cries. "Surely you've had to wait longer before. I won't be holding you much longer." He stood back up again and trudged his way over to the ruins themselves, taking in the way the sunlight broke through the trees and glistened beautifully off the water.
"I can't believe I've never been here before." he thought out loud. "This place is stunning. So full of life. It's crawling all around me, I can feel it."
And for as great as looking at the ruins made him feel, he could only turn around again to see the mess. A blemish on an otherwise perfect setting. Everything seemed to be at peace, except for whatever had happened there. Something was wrong. And he knew this wasn't a normal attack. Normally, coming across something like this, he would leave it be. But this was the worst he'd ever seen.
He trudged back forward again, his light green hair tossing slightly at his sudden movement and resting on his back. He almost speed walked back into the woods, reaching his companion who was waiting for him right where they had landed some time ago to rest. The white beast growled at seeing him again, standing itself back up again and craning its neck down to see him closer.
"I like it here, Reshiram." he said, bringing up his hands and holding the beast's cheek and neck as it had lowered his head to him. "I think I might stay here a while. You can go if you'd like. You come find me if you need anything."
The white dragon seemed to purr softly, tilting its head. He wondered for a moment why this man that had only merely stopped in this region to stretch his legs suddenly wanted to stay. But Reshiram knew this man had never wronged him before. The green haired man could see the questioning look in Reshiram's eyes and only smiled in response.
"You go have yourself some fun. I'll only be a couple days." he reaffirmed, stepping back. Reshiram sat back up again and lifted its majestic wings to the air. With a whoosh and a warm blast of air, the white beast had soared up and across the sky, vanishing with a rumble off into the distance. The man turned back around again and chucked softly to himself. No pokemon at hand, no map, and no people that he knew in this region, he was more ready than ever to start poking around at this odd occurrence.
It was time for N to go investigate.