ALL NOVEL Chapter 2: Whispers
keep going
keep going
I’m so tired
keep going
it’s so cold
keep going
my legs hurt
I can’t stop now
I can’t turn back
I can’t ever stop
The point of view Aria was forced into was far from a clear one, in a very literal way.
The corners of the human’s vision were blurred beyond all comprehension. Even the center was slightly frosted over, obscuring the scene even further—a scene that was far from clear to begin with. The human was surrounded by almost complete darkness, with only the weak light coming from somewhere below their point of view illuminating the snow-covered path ahead.
After she got over the initial disorientation, Aria made out the T-shaped part of that metal contraption in the lower part of the child’s vision. Judging by how the blurry scenery shifted around her, they were using it for locomotion, somehow. Confounding as the sights were, the sounds she heard painted a much clearer, much bleaker picture.
The rumble of the contraption’s wheels against snow and dirt, night ambiance, strained panting, and the hammering of a racing heart.
how long still
it’s so far
what was that noise
please be just me
I’m so tired
The recollection was murky, even beyond what Aria could see and hear. Their entire thought process appeared to have almost melted into one continuous stream, any specific focus difficult to discern from the mental flood. What wasn’t difficult to make out, though, was the sheer fear saturating their mind.
Fear, exhaustion, and strain at what this child was pushing themselves through. They were only barely pushing through, and every single movement had their body screaming for them to stop, even if just for a moment—
But they couldn’t.
What they were afraid of wouldn’t let them.
I can’t stop now
keep going
I want to go home
keep going
keep going
keep going
can’t turn back now
Despite the growing panic in the child’s thoughts, the view itself scarcely changed at all. The human path they were on cut through the woods in a largely straight path, letting Aria try dissecting the panic filling the human’s head.
No matter how hard she tried to make out what they were afraid of, though, the answer remained out of her reach. The little one was running away from home, that much was clear, but the ‘why’ didn’t cross their mind even once. It made for a confusing, but no less disturbing, spectacle.
A spectacle with a foregone conclusion, no less.
my legs hurt
how much more
need to stop for a moment
need to catch my breath
can’t
can’t
CAN’T
they’re already after me
have to be
or maybe they’re not
The view shifted slightly as the child squinted towards something barely visible in the distance. They soon determined it to be a fallen log cutting the forest path in half, forcing the human to slow down as they approached, their body shaking harder and harder.
need to stop
carry bike over
have to stop
maybe catch a breath
I’m thirsty
just a couple min-
“ANNE!”
To the best of Aria’s ability to tell, the voice was little more than the echo originating from their own mind, not unlike what she experienced while traversing their subconscious. It couldn’t have been anything else—it was much too clear, too directionless to be anything but that.
But it didn’t matter.
CAN’T STOP
GO AROUND
KEEP GOING
CAN’T GO BACK
What mattered was that the girl thought it was real.
That she just heard her name being barked out by a gruff, masculine voice. The thought made the fear’s grip on her body even tighter as she bolted onward, eyes frantically scanning the path ahead.
GO AROUND
THROUGH THE TREES
CAN’T STOP
THERE
With a yanking motion, the view swerved into the tree line, dodging the fallen log. The uneven terrain turned an already barely coherent scene into a blurry patchwork of light and dark, of black trees and white snow around them. Grunts of pain escaped the girl with every rougher spot as she kept giving it her all; her body screamed for a reprieve that wouldn’t come.
hurts
everything hurts
legs hurt
can’t stop
don’t let me stop
The view rattled on as the human made their way through the trees at alarming speeds. Her eyes madly darted from side to side, trying to find a path back to the road without stopping; the density of the surrounding forest rendered that task nigh impossible.
ow ow ow
back to the road
can’t stop
just keep going
ow
there has to be an opening ahead
hurts
head hurts
Despite the nigh-delirious state she was in by that point, the human eventually spotted a way back onto the road. In her focus, however, she failed to notice the ravine quickly closing in on her current path from the other side as she pushed the contraption to its, and her limit.
there
THERE
don’t stop
keep at it
it’s gonna be over soon
I’ll be safe
safe
hurts
Anne let out a strained grunt as she tried pushing on just that bit harder. Giving it her all, she turned the contraption to scale the incline and get back onto the path—
Only for the snow and ground under her to finally give in.
The crumbling edge of the ravine dragged her in along with itself, toppling the contraption and its rider alike. The human’s eyes got the briefest of glimpses at the endless abyss she was falling into before they turned skyward.
For a couple of heartbeats, there was nothing. No more thought, no more movement, not even any screams; the human’s breath stuck in her own throat. Only once she was into freefall, staring at the brilliant moon above, did more thoughts come through, slow and staggered.
I’m gonna die
I don’t want to die
I don’t want to die
please don’t let it hurt
I’m sorry ember—
And then; the vision tore itself apart in an instant.
Aria was ejected from the girl’s mind with enough force to physically stagger her, the violence of it all leaving her stunned. The child in front of her shook and sobbed fearfully in her dreams; the limbs that weren’t paralyzed jostled as if trying to run away from an impossible threat.
“Aria, are you alright!? You were gone for almost an hour, what’s—what’s going on?” the Weavile shouted, only managing to stay awake out of concern for her friend. Her worst fears were confirmed—Aria looked thoroughly spooked; the human was suddenly having a nightmare; and neither could immediately speak up about what had just happened.
The Gardevoir didn’t respond, beelining for the bed once she’d snapped herself out of her daze. Once there, she laid a hand on the child’s forehead again, shaking as she drove away the nightmare with a bit of applied Calm Mind.
At that point, though, she could’ve probably used some as well.
“^They—she—was running for her life.^”
Silence fell over the room as everyone chewed through Aria’s words, including the two scouts that until now have either been examining the once-moving contraption or taking a nap. Thankfully, the psychic’s intervention was effective, letting the girl return to as peaceful a slumber as was possible after a crash like that.
“Running for her life from what in specific?”
“^I’m... uncertain, Ruby. She was too exhausted to think coherently. All I gathered was that she was running away from home, likely because of some other human, but I couldn’t figure out who that was.^” Aria didn’t want to move, didn’t want to let go of this scared, traumatized child. Her innermost nature called for her to protect her as much as she could; to do everything in her power to keep her safe—before being overruled by the eventual realization that she already was. Once she’d calmed down, she finally took her hand away, hoping Anne’s dreams wouldn’t include any more recollections of what she’d been through.
“Can’t you dive into its head again and find that part out?”
“^I’d rather spare her the pain for now. Not like any other human is gonna find her here, anyway—^”
“Are you done with your psychicing, Aria?” a low, feminine voice asked, pulling everyone’s attention over to the room’s entrance. The elderly Blissey looking in might’ve only been about as eager to deal with the human as Lumi was, but her vows took precedence.
“^Yes, Esther. Did you want to administer another treatment?^”
“More so, just double-check everything. I’m sure Maple and others did a great job, but you never know with humans…”
Aria winced internally at their chief healer’s tone as she took a few steps away from the bed. It was easy to dismiss the Luxray as just being abrasive and prejudiced, but the Blissey, with all her lived experience? Much less so.
Esther’s moderate annoyance at having to deal with a human again after all these years wasn’t difficult to sense. Thankfully, it didn’t manifest beyond just a few minor grumbles. In a few quick moments, her check-up around the sleeping human’s body was done, finding nothing amiss.
Before the healer left, though, the Gardevoir had something to ask her. “^Esther, is she really just a child?^”
An immediate, thoughtless nod, the truth plain to see.
“^How old is she?^”
Now that was an interesting question, one that the Blissey had to chew on. She walked back over to the bed and took a much closer look. Her recollection wasn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, leaving her uncomfortably uncertain about the girl’s age. “I’m… unsure. Could be anywhere from seven or eight to maybe eleven.”
The description left most gathered confused, rendered very ambiguous by the lack of a unit. ‘Seasons’ made the most sense considering this being a child, but an elaboration wouldn’t hurt.
“Seven or eight what, moons?” Ruby asked.
“Years.”
…
The Weavile blinked in confusion; the answer taking her aback. To think that this human that wasn’t just a child, but was clearly a child, could’ve been almost her age was… weird to think about.
“^Is there any way you could know with certainty?^”
This wasn’t anything Aria needed to know, but… it still could help in piecing together what could’ve happened to her. Or, at least, that was the Gardevoir’s justification to herself.
“Not without checking her papers, hah, doubt that’s gonna be happening,” the Blissey chuckled to herself. Right as she was about to turn for the exit, doubt crossed her soft, weathered face. “Though… she brought some items with herself, didn’t she?”
“Yes. They are located in the side room.”
Esther didn’t even wait for Ori to finish before heading over there. In her wake, an array of rustling, clicking noises, leaving Aria worried the healer would unintentionally damage some of the girl’s possessions—before finally, a louder “aha!”.
“There we go; I think that’s an ID. Let me try to read this… ‘Student’… ‘Identification’—yep, an ID,” Esther spoke triumphantly, her words going squarely over the heads of everyone gathered. She was much too invested in her little investigation to notice, though. “First name ‘Anne’, last name ‘Martin’. Date of birth—10th of February, 538 AR. Which…”
Esther flicked the card against her other hand as she stepped out of the side room. She grumbled quietly at realizing that even that clue wouldn’t amount to much, not without knowing what year it was in the human calendar. The last date she remembered seeing with confidence before making her escape was 528—or was it 529? It couldn’t have been more than a couple of decades since.
She hoped.
“…I’d guess she’s nine, then.” The number meant little on its own, and the Blissey was well aware. “Around Cadence’s age, relatively.”
Now that was something everyone could work with—and be unnerved by. A stray human child, still far from maturity, ending up with such injuries on her own…
“^Thank you so much for your help, Esther. I hope Anne will be able to clarify it for us herself in not too long.^”
“I don’t,” the Blissey commented acerbically as she departed, leaving the room uneasy. Her tone, Anne’s situation, all the unknowns still surrounding it… it all sent shivers down their backs.
“I suppose with everything said, keeping her here until we know more would be an appropriate course of action, even once she does sufficiently recover enough to be transported. There is no purpose in potentially exposing her to the threats she originally ran away from.” Ori’s proposition was met with an almost unanimous agreement. The peril that Anne had been in, combined with her age, made most everyone see her in a very different light, even if the mystery at the root of it all remained unanswered.
Not a lot they could do about it at the moment, though.
“Guess that’s about it for now, then?”
“^Seems so. Go get some rest Ruby, we can take care of her items on our own.^”
With the question she was actually asking answered in the way she preferred, the Weavile sighed out loud and headed for the exit, sending everyone off with a wave. “Have a good day everyone—and keep Mikiri off all this stuff. I’d rather not find her workshop in pieces when I wake up.”
After Ruby’s sendoff, the rest of the group started preparing to leave as well. Ori hoisted the metal contraption over his shoulder as if it weighed nothing while Aria put all the assorted items back into the human’s bag.
While the Gardevoir clumsily tried to close its metal seam, she noticed the room grow darker for a moment, looking at the small, Safeguard-protected window on its other side. She might’ve only glimpsed the Whimsicott there before they flew off, but knew instantly what their sight implied.
There goes any secrecy they might’ve had about this entire human mess.
Aria sighed, distracting herself from that realization by focusing on grabbing the small pile of clothes in the corner—the ones Anne was probably wearing when she crashed—up together into the air together with the bag. Yep, definitely the ones she was wearing when she crashed; the reek of blood Aria could recognize anywhere. Why did she have to disturb that pile, ugh...
“Can I help with anything?” Lumi asked, catching the other two’s attention. His anatomy didn’t let him easily carry a whole ton—maybe the bag in his mouth, but that was about it. With how little it weighed, though, there was no need for that, especially while he could help them in some other way.
“^No, we’re good, I think. Though—if you could run ahead to Holly’s and get us some breakfast in advance, that’d be very appreciated.^”
Rumbling of her stomach was the only comment Aria needed to motivate the Luxray into action.
As she was about to leave, she looked over her shoulder one last time, wishing she could do more for Anne as she watched the Leavanny check up on her again. With a deep breath, she put that thought aside and followed Ori out. They had their own duties to take care of.
Their village wouldn’t keep itself hidden, after all.
The pair’s walk was uneventful as far as their cargo went. To little surprise and more than a bit of relief, the human items continued to be as inert as metal, cloth, and some other materials could be.
Unfortunately, that didn’t extend to the passersby.
The massive contraption attracted a lot of attention in particular, only feeding further into the rumors already spreading through the village. They could understand some of it; much of what they carried was rather unusual, but in any other circumstances, the items wouldn’t have earned more than a curious look or two.
Alas, these weren’t any other circumstances.
“M-Mrs. Aria?” The quiet, palpably unnerved woofs dragged the Gardevoir’s attention away from tired annoyance. She smiled weakly at the Braixen, extending an arm towards her as she marched on.
“Good morning, Ember. I take you’ve already heard the ‘news’?” Aria spoke with her physical voice, the sound helping soothe the Braixen’s nerves as she scooted over and hugged the Fairy-type’s side. The fox’s shudder answered for her while the icy wind made her eye patch flutter; the Gardevoir sighing inwardly in response.
Thanks, Sol.
“I know a human in our village sounds scary, sweetie, but I promise we’ve got it under control. They’re badly injured, comatose, and don’t have any human items on them. We’re all safe,” the Gardevoir reassured. She meant everything she said, but she knew there was one thing in particular that the lil’ fox needed to hear more than anything else.
“Nobody will hurt you again, sweetie.”
Ember nodded fearfully, her shaky hug tightening for just a moment. Aria came to a stop, giving the Braixen all the time she needed and then some. Saddening as the sight was, it doubled as a dire reminder of how important her duties were, filling her with some well-needed motivation on the cold winter morning.
“Th-th-thank you, Mrs. Aria…” Ember steadied her breath before leaning back and swiping the wetness out of her eyes. Her smile up at the Gardevoir was so weak it only barely qualified as one, but its intent was appreciated all the same.
“Take it easy today, okay? Pearl and Jovan will understand if you can’t help with the little ones today—”
“N-no no, I can! I-it calms me down, and without that m-my mom would keep trying to train moves with me and…”
Ember shuddered, earning herself another pat on the back.
“I know it’s a lot of effort to catch up, but you’ll get there in time,” Aria said, smiling at the fox.
“It’s—it’s not that, it’s… n-nevermind.” Whatever the cause might have been, this seemed to be a topic the Braixen was even less keen to talk about. Enough so that she excused herself soon after, her mix of embarrassment and badly hidden anxiety much easier to sense than she would’ve wanted.
No matter how much Aria wanted to help, her duties took precedence.
As they resumed their march on, the pair of scouts had to constantly answer questions about a scary human in their midst, growing ever more absurd as the rumors evolved and twisted on themselves. They were the guardians of this place, though, and soothing everyone’s fears about this most unusual visitor was a part of their duty.
It sure didn’t help Aria keep herself from eye-rolling at the third question in a row about this half dead child Cadence’s age being a ‘trainer’, though. Especially since even if that was the case, Anne wouldn’t have any of her human tools with her once she woke up. Unless the humans had developed an uncanny ability of kidnapping other living beings just by looking at them, they would all be more than safe.
Thankfully, not everyone was so afraid of their unintentional guest.
“I-is the human okay?” The chirped out words got both scouts looking up at their source, one particular Dartrix that had perched on top of the contraption’s metal handle. Ori was quite literally too strong to care, not even having noticed her landing, while Aria answered shortly after.
“^She’s not doing the best Blossom, but is already much better than when your mom found her thanks to our healers.^”
The owlet nodded somberly at the news—she was glad they were being tended to, even if they still were in a rough state. With how hard they had apparently been injured, guess it only made sense for them to need a long while to feel better. “O-okay. A-are the rumors true?”
“You will have to be more specific than that, Blossom,” Ori said.
“Is she really just a child?”
Blossom’s sleepy expression grew startled at the crazy rumor turning out to be true as both scouts nodded. She had a hard time not empathizing with the stranger in a situation like that, no matter what terrifying species they might’ve been.
“Oh, gosh. Her parents must be so scared...” the Dartrix muttered, afraid for the human. Her mom would’ve scoured every single last inch of the woods if something like this had happened to her. Even if humans couldn’t fly, with all the wild things they supposedly could do, they probably had some other way of accomplishing the same goal.
A fact the pair of scouts underneath her were acutely aware of.
The longer all this took, the higher the odds were that despite their best efforts, humans would eventually stumble upon them while searching for the girl. And if there were enough of them, the risk that at least one human would slip through the cracks and blow their cover grew higher and higher.
A nightmarish situation, no matter how they sliced it.
“^Yes, they likely are. The healers are working on getting her back into shape as fast as they can, though, so hopefully she’ll be back home safe before humans can do too much searching.^”
Blossom nodded firmly, wanting to support their healer as much as she could with that. Even if it just meant avoiding hurting herself in the meantime to not take up any of their attention.
But maybe… she could help in some other way, too. “Mhm! Oh—could I visit her once she feels better? She’s gotta be so lonely in there...” The Dartrix might not have known much about humanity—though still more than others thought she did—but figured that being friendly was universal enough.
Sadly, friendliness wasn’t an option, either.
“^She’s still unconscious, Blossom, so sadly not. Even if she comes to, she’s not supposed to know our village exists and we won’t let her see more of it. Once she’s ready to return to the human town, we’ll have to make her forget everything she saw here before she leaves, anyway.^”
Bleh, this would be a messy job, and Aria wasn’t looking forward to it in the slightest.
“Awwh... b-but, if she’ll forget it all, won’t it end up not mattering what she saw?”
“^I know what you mean, but it doesn’t work like that, sweetie. It’s not as simple as just me snapping my fingers and suddenly she doesn’t remember any of this anymore. It’s slow and messy, and there’s always a risk of me either forgetting to erase something which could have her potentially start recalling it all, or worse—erasing too much by accident. The less there is to remove, the lower the chance something goes wrong.^”
The Dartrix chewed through Aria’s words for a moment before nodding with a slump. It wasn’t fair; she just wanted to help and give the poor human some friendship, but she couldn’t even do that.
“^It’s rough. I know, sweetie. It’s still very nice of you to offer that, though. And, who knows, maybe once you’re older and your mom lets you fly all the way over to the human village, you’ll find her there and become her friend then?^”
It was certainly a Farfetch’d theoretical, but hardly impossible. It lifted Blossom’s spirits up a bit, but also left her nervous in a way that Aria wanted to follow up on—only for the owlet to speak up first. “Yeah! I hope I’ll be able to do that... um, where are you taking her things, anyway?”
“We are moving them to Mikiri’s burrow for storage,” Ori explained.
That made sense—if there was anyone who knew how to handle human things, it was Mikiri.
But if there was anyone who knew how to break human things, it was also Mikiri. And after one too many accidental fires her tinkering had started, Blossom knew better than to get too close to her cobbled deathtrap of a burrow.
“Oh, I hope it goes well! U-um, I have to go now!”
Wasting no more time for politeness, Blossom took off in the exact direction away from their destination. Aria only barely held in a chuckle at overhearing her thought process. She had to admit the owlet’s concern wasn’t baseless though, growing antsy as they neared the burrow.
The structure itself escaped simple description.
It was massive compared to other dwellings in the village, embedded into the side of a large hill, and made of equal parts mud, stone, brick, wood, and several of those weird wavy metal plates that humans occasionally littered the woods with. It was chaos, but—to the best of everyone’s knowledge—it was at least somewhat controlled chaos.
And currently, a very loudly rumbling chaos.
The scouts glanced at each other before Ori knocked on the oversized door—at least relative to the inhabitant’s actual size. The noise ceased shortly afterwards, the silence soon followed by heavy shuffling and quick steps toward the patchwork door. Mikiri stepped out right away, looking up at the unexpected visitors.
Her eyes and a good chunk of her front face were covered by something neither of the two scouts recognized. Black, reflective, and vastly oversized eye coverings, with thin extensions that wrapped around her head, kept in place with some string. Her front mouth might’ve expressed the words ‘what now’ without even needing to speak, but that changed the moment she noticed the contraption on Ori’s shoulder. She wasted no time on greetings, calling out right away, “That! Gimme that!”
“^Mikiri, these aren’t for you to toy with.^”
The Mawile was about to protest, only forcing herself to stop because of not wanting to miss out on the opportunity to at least inspect a non-corroded instance of that particular human contraption. One deep breath later, she spoke more calmly, eye coverings still on her face, “Alrighty. What’s all this then?”
“^I take you’ve already heard of the human ending up in—^”
“Human? What human?” Mikiri’s head and maw alike tilted to the side, both left slightly agape as she waited for an explanation.
“You have not gone out today yet, Mikiri, have you.”
“Nah Ori, not until I get that dumb mess inside to stop getting stuck every few minutes, just can’t get these dumb gears to align right, ugh! But that’s all besides—what human? A useful one?”
“^A young girl that almost died on the outskirts of our village tonight, and is now in the healers’ tent until she recovers,^” Aria answered, chilling the Mawile’s enthusiasm significantly. Both because it was just a messed up situation, and because she doubted someone in that state could explain a few trinkets she had been wondering about. And that was assuming Aria would even facilitate such a conversation in the first place.
Which sure didn’t sound likely with how stern her expression was.
“That’s... rough. What about this thing then? Is it hers?”
“^Yes, it is. But we’re not moving it here for you to take it apart, but because... *sigh*, there isn’t exactly anywhere else where all that’d fit, so we now ask you to keep an eye on it in your workshop.^”
“And trust you not to meddle with it.”
Both scouts thought an unspoken ‘too much’ afterwards.
Getting to inspect a less-broken example of the contraption she’d been curious about for a while for the price of just using up some space in her oversized burrow? A deal she’d take any day, even if it limited her ability to take the device apart and figure out what makes it tick. Hopefully, she’d at least be able to figure out its purpose. “Hmmmmm—deal. What’s all the other stuff and why does it smell of blood?”
“These are her other belongings. A bag of clothes and a couple other items, and the clothes she was wearing at the time of her accident.”
“...why so many clothes?”
“^Why are you wearing this thing on your face?^”
Aria couldn’t wait with the pressing question any longer. Mikiri blinked in confusion before remembering that there, in fact, was something on her front face. She reached behind her head to untie the string that held the object in place before holding it up. “Helps a ton with sun glare. Or when welding metal. Or when stuff messes up and there’s a ton of sparks everywhere. No clue what it actually is—looks cool, at least.”
Mikiri underlined the last point by putting the eye covers back on and re-tying the string behind her front head as she led her guests in. The inside was unusually well lit by her standards; the sunroof opened up all the way.
Most of the space on the inside was taken up by a massive mess of gears, rust-covered metal ones and makeshift-looking wood ones alike, all connected to a grindstone in an arrangement Aria knew better than to even attempt to understand. The only part that she could figure out was a crank at the side of it all, placed high enough that it required a small ladder next to it just for the Mawile to reach it.
“Just drop it off in the back. Though, I gotta ask, what’s up with that bag? Not seeing any openings there.”
Despite the sheer cool factor of her eye coverings, Mikiri couldn’t deny them being rather cumbersome to use in the dimmer parts of her burrow. She blinked a couple times as she took them off, holding them by the side extension in her maw as she inspected the pile of human stuff.
“There is a peculiar mechanism within it. It requires one to grab the loose part and pull it across the metal seam,” Ori explained, intriguing the metal fairy. She did as instructed, eyes going wide at the ease with which the formerly hole-less bag was opened. She experimented a few times by opening and closing it slowly while paying close attention to the lines of metal teeth on the sides of the seam. Her hands and maw itched for more tinkering—
…
She didn’t even have to look up at Aria to know the Gardevoir wouldn’t be approving of any tinkering. With a dejected sigh, she zipped the bag closed once more, half groaning and half asking, “You sure you can’t let that human stay just so that I can take a proper look at their stuff?”
“^Only if you house her here, keep her safe and content, keep her from escaping, and fend off all the dozens of humans that will come in search of her.^”
“You’re driving a hard bargain there Aria, but I might just—”
She might not have been even tangentially related to any Ice types, but Aria’s glare was very good at freezing people in their tracks, especially when backed by a subtle, yet firm expression of ‘this isn’t funny’.
“You’re a killjoy, Aria.”
“^Better to be a killjoy than to even consider letting us all do something we’re more than likely to really regret. I’m already dreading when the first of their ‘search party’ will show up, though Lucere will at least inform us of that when it happens.^”
“Something tells me you and your brother won’t have too much of an issue leading a couple clueless humans astray when that happens,” Mikiri chuckled.
“^Maybe not the first time, no, but that same something tells me they won’t give up after just one search. Sooner or later, they’ll force themselves here no matter what we do. Hopefully, the girl is off our hands long before that can happen.^”
“Then why not just dump her back on their doorstep and not have to worry about any of that? Y’know, return to sender and all that.”
“She is much too badly injured for that,” Ori explained.
“^That and because she almost died while running for her life away from something or someone, and until we can figure out what it is, we’d rather not leave her in certain danger.^”
Well, shoot.
Mikiri rocked in place as her every idea was shot down, finally drained of enough fixated momentum to actually think things through. She sure wasn’t arriving at anything reassuring, whistling to herself before admitting the obvious, “Sounds like you’ve got a big ol’ bloody mess on your hands.”
Both scouts could only sigh and nod in response. This was way too much to think about on an empty stomach this late in the morning.
“Well—don’t let me hold you up then. You gotta do what you gotta do to keep this whole place safe and all, and hopefully it won’t include a humanling kicking the bucket in all this mess.”
But if she does, dibs on all this stuff.
Aria was about to scold Mikiri for that thought, but after the emotional rollercoaster of this morning, she couldn’t help but burst into giggling at just how abruptly morbid it was. All the while, Ori was looking at her with visible concern.
“^Pffft, can’t promise anything, but hopefully it won’t come to that, anyway. Take care, Mikiri.^”
“Ha, and you best don’t go mad over all this—someone’s gotta keep your brother in check from getting too annoying!”
Truly, her most important duty.
With a light stretch of their limbs, the pair of scouts left the spacious burrow, Aria’s mental reach closing the door behind them. Their village was quickly getting to its busiest, the winter sun already close to its zenith.
“Breakfast?” Ori asked.
“^Right away. My stomach is already screaming at me.^”
The Scizor didn’t have to be told twice, his steps as brisk as possible as they took off towards the pantry as Aria levitated beside him. A direct Teleport would’ve gotten her there even faster, but would also leave her exhausted before even noon.
And the little of the future she could intuit told her today’s mess was nowhere near over.
“Do you think humans can eat Holly’s cooking?”
The robotic words took the Gardevoir out of her thoughts; the topic unlike the Scizor. “^Considering she told me a decent chunk of her cooking was inspired by human recipes she’d heard about, I’d guess so.^”
“How does the idea of saving some for the girl once she wakes up sound, then?”
“^Hah, a welcome gift?^”
“It appears to me that it would help her recover sooner. Nobody has ever not felt better after having some of Holly’s food.”
Ain’t that the truth.
“Yeah, good call, Ori.”
The intensifying aroma of freshly baked goods, combined with the rumbling in their stomachs, encouraged the two scouts to keep at their haste. After one last turn, the pantry finally came into view—larger than anything nearby, built with brick upon a stone foundation, extending a floor underground, and doubling as Holly’s dwelling.
Only barely sturdy enough to contain the cook herself.
If not for the morning rush having already passed some time ago, Lumi would likely still have been waiting in the queue for their portions. Then again, with how chatty the Azumarill was, she would have probably offered them a shortcut through the queue in return for a scoop on the topic the entire village was buzzing about.
Not like that hasn’t happened in the past.
To their relief, Lumi had already waited his turn. He was busy going through his own portion as he laid beside the pantry’s counter, keeping guard of his coworkers’ meals. The kitchen’s ambient heat helped keep them warm, but it only did so much.
Even a lukewarm breakfast beat no breakfast, and Aria wasted no time levitating their portions over, catching the Luxray’s attention while he was busy stretching and discharging into the snowy ground. “Got Mikiri under control?”
“^As much as anyone can hope to, yes.^”
“So, not at all?”
Aria rolled her eyes as her and Ori’s portions arrived into her physical reach, letting them finally sate their hunger. After swapping them, of course. A metal scrap reinforced roll would likely... not go along too well with her fairy physiology.
As they bit into their meals, the cook herself noticed their arrival. A drawn out whistle caught their attention as they were waved over; the Azumarill standing on her toe tips on top of a stool to make sure they noticed her.
It was incredibly hard not to notice, and that applied to Holly’s presence in general.
“Oi! Grumpypaws here wouldn’t say anything about the whole affair, but I know you two were there too. Get to spillin’!” Holly commanded as she opened the front counter of the bakery and placed a stool in the snow to sit on and stare at the scouts expectantly from.
“I imagine an appropriate place to start from is to ask how much have you heard already,” Ori responded. As disappointed as her was at being unable to dodge the cook’s gossipy questioning, he figured he could at least skip some of it by not being redundant.
“A whole lot of nonsense is what I’ve heard. Human in the healers’ tent, and then everyone tells the rest of it differently. I need the truth, babes, and only the truth.”
Guess they wouldn’t be skipping anything after all.
“^Well, to be more accurate, a human girl—^”
“Wait wait wait, you mean just a young’un?” Holly cut in, eyes narrowing. A firm nod confirmed her suspicions, genuinely surprising her—something rarely seen from her. “Well, I’ll be damned. So a kid got themselves messed up enough to need our help bad enough to get taken in, eh? That’s... poor thing.”
“^Yes, it’s awful. Especially since it looks like she was running away from something, or someone—^”
“Wait a bloody minute, a kid running for her life? Don’t they literally have a town a couple of hours from here?”
“That is where she came from, to the best of our knowledge,” Ori clarified.
The Azumarill silently mouthed out something that was probably obscenities before shaking her head, eyes wide at the insanity of it all. “So what, did a bloody Tyranitar just stroll in there and level the place!? Why would she be running!?”
“^We just don’t know yet. I’ll have to dig into it deeper, just not today to spare her any more stress.^”
“Can’t y’all send someone over to check up on their town in the meantime? This—this makes no sense!” Holly shouted.
“If something destructive had happened to their town, I would expect to see a lot more than a single child try to flee from there,” Ori said.
“^That, and from what I could make out, it felt like she was running from another human and not a mon or some sort of natural disaster. If it was the latter, we’d probably feel it over here too.^”
“Not like we have the spare manpower to watch their weird settlement, either.”
Lumi’s addition in particular shut down Holly’s idea. This was the one time where they really couldn’t afford to divert anyone from their regular scouting duties, not with the heightened risk of humans sending their own reconnaissance. The Azumarill pondered through it all for an approximate three seconds before groaning in frustration. From the outside, it sounded like an absolute mess, and even her hyperactive brain couldn’t figure any of it out. “Whoever hurt her best sleep lightly—if I ever get my paws on them, I’ll make them fear water alright.”
With the assorted grumbling and smacking of her bulbous tail against the snow, Holly was done venting her anger out. Now that her anger had been dealt with, it was time to switch gears into something actually constructive. “And until then, might as well make her something nice. Now what do humans like...”
“Cruelty?”
Lumi’s badly timed joke was rewarded with his head becoming surrounded in a shimmering aura before being forced down, planting into the snow.
“^She’s unconscious, so preferably something that can be reheated without too much difficulty, and can last a couple of days. And... thanks, Holly. We meant to ask you earlier if you could do something like this, make something for her once she wakes up.^”
Holly scoffed at that, flicking her wrist limply. She couldn’t keep a prideful smile from creeping onto her expression for too long, though. “Babes, babes, thought you knew me better than this—of course I’ll cook for anyone who needs their stomach filled, that’s hardly even a question. I’m already itching with ideas... Salac to give her a kick of energy once she’s back up, Pecha to help fight off any disease, Kasib for flavor... oh oh oh am I loving it already. Now, you three!”
The Azumarill’s sudden call startled the scouts, stopping them in their tracks as the cook picked her stool up and moved it back into the pantry. She almost dove into more cooking there and then, before remembering to follow up, “Enjoy your meals! And good luck with your duties, not like y’all need it, hah! Keep safe.”
With their portions wrapped up, the scouts departed for their duties shortly afterwards.
A couple of Agilities let Aria get to the area she patrolled relatively quickly, and without exerting her too much. ‘Too’ was definitely the load-bearing word in that sentence, but she could keep sensing for nearby humans while catching her breath.
Most of the time, her shifts were uneventful. The forest in which their village was located might’ve been sandwiched in between two human settlements—one of which was very sizable—but very few humans ever ventured close enough to be of any danger. They tended to stick to that neat, straight path of theirs, and even then it saw maybe a couple of humans a day, if that.
Still, they had to remain ever vigilant. If even one human had learned the truth and walked away with it, the rest would inevitably know too before long.
And once that happened, they were doomed.
Aria remembered thinking that humans were some sort of collective organism, back when she first wound up here. Her mentor had to explain to her that wasn’t the case, which only confused her even more. At least, until he offered an alternate explanation—there were just too many humans to handle.
Their village had somewhere around two to three hundred souls the last time they counted. The larger of the nearby human settlements, however, had thousands upon thousands. Even if very few of them enslaved Pokemon for fighting, many others still had access to those terrifying ‘balls’ of theirs. More than enough, taken together, to leave them horribly outmatched—and that’s without taking reinforcements into account.
For as large as that nearby town was, it paled compared to humanity’s largest. The sheer scale of the human world made Aria’s head spin whenever she attempted to comprehend any of it.
To her chagrin, this wouldn’t end up being another day of steadily patrolling between a couple of abandoned human structures without ever spotting anyone. Shivers ran down her spine after spotting a distinctively human aura in the distance, snapping her away from pondering and back to reality.
Sneaking up on people was much easier than she had thought it’d be growing up.
Full invisibility, while possible, was difficult and draining to maintain. Thankfully, it wasn’t necessary most of the time—all she needed to do was to make herself hard to notice and most living beings, mons or humans alike, grew almost completely blind to her presence. Their eyes would just glaze right over where she was whenever she had accidentally made a noise.
Though, just to be sure, she mentally reached over and blocked all stimuli coming from her as well. The goal was to redirect them without them ever consciously noticing, her typing awarding her that leg up above most of the other scouts. Her brother and Cypress could also confuse them in into leaving, but everyone else had to resort to intimidation.
Which—while just as effective in the moment, no doubt—always carried the risk of drawing further attention down the line. Especially when done by a scout whose species didn’t live here natively.
Part of why Ori only handled wildlings that tried to predate on them. That, and he just really wasn’t good at being threatening beyond his sheer size, tried as he might.
The human Aria had snuck up on seemed to be there on their own. Any companions wouldn’t have been much of an issue for her either—unless they were Dark-type, of course. After making sure they weren’t able to see, hear, or otherwise perceive her at all, she dove into their surface thoughts, the human stopping to look around at the sudden sensation of being watched.
The immediate good news was that this human had nothing to do with Anne.
The slightly worse news was that she was a ‘birdwatcher’, and that she was venturing over in the approximate direction of their village in order to get ‘photos’ of the Rowlet family after hearing of them being here. Aria had no idea what some of that meant, but the Rowlet part was clear, at least.
Clear and odd—Sprout was much better than to ever let herself get spotted by whoever she was observing. Sigh, Blossom has been getting out there on her own, hasn’t she? Something to bring up once she was back. And in the meantime—
“^There aren’t any Rowlet in these woods. Whoever told you that made it up.^” Aria spoke telepathically; her mental utterances were much more so commands than words. A light form of Hypnosis let her steer the human’s thoughts without them ever realizing anything was afoul. “^There’s nothing to see here. Also, you... forgot about a ‘stove’ back home.^”
She wasn’t sure whether that suggestion would accomplish much beyond confusing the human further. Most of the concepts she dredged up from their mind were only partial at best.
*GASP!*
Well, it looked like her idea worked almost too well. The human turned around on a dime, breaking into the fastest panicked jog they could manage with such a heavy bag bouncing on their back. That went smoothly, thank gods—
“Aria, Aria!” The bird cries filled the woods, loud enough for Aria to worry about the human doubling back to investigate them. Before she could do anything about it, though, Lucere perched on a nearby branch and continued, “The humans are on their way!”
Aria’s attention narrowed, “^How many, where, how far along are they?^”
“Two with one mon, slowly following the human path! Lumi is keeping an eye on them!”
“^Where’s Marco?^”
“I don’t know, I found you first! Though, between the two of us, I trust you more than your brother to handle this with the delicacy it needs…”
As serious as the atmosphere was, Aria couldn’t help but chuckle weakly, before relaxing her body for another Agility.
“Fair enough. Lead the way, Lucere.”
