Chapter 3: Rainfall

DAWN OF THE SECOND DAY

-48 HOURS REMAIN-

Early in the morning, a rainstorm blew in from the south, shrouding the sky over central Termina with a blanket of thick gray clouds.

The storm was fairly mild, all things considered. More of a light drizzle than a downpour. But it was enough to make most pokemon not want to be outside any longer than they needed to be. And judging by how far the clouds seemed to stretch, it didn’t appear as though the rain would let up any time soon.

While most pokemon in East Clock Town were hurrying to get out of the rain, one lone Eevee stood silently just outside the Stock Pot Inn. He had one front paw raised, ready to push open the door and walk inside… but instead, he simply continued to stand there in the rain, staring intently at the door as the rain continued to soak through his fur.

Kafei had spent all of last night planning out what he was going to say to Anju. He had the entire speech laid out in his head, and the moon’s tear he’d gotten from that Alakazam was waiting in the small cloth saddlebags slung over his back, ready to give to Anju.

All that he had to do was just… go in. So why was that proving so difficult?

The Eevee let out a groan. He and Anju had been planning for the night of the festival for months. He doubted Anju had any easier of a time getting her half of their promise ready. But it was all supposed to be worth it in the end. Trading evolution stones to evolve together on the biggest night of the year, and officially becoming mates… it was supposed to be perfect.

“If only that stupid thief…” Kafei muttered under his breath, before shaking his head. No… his own carelessness was just as much at fault, he supposed. He should have been able to stop that thief from getting away in the first place. He still wasn’t quite sure how the punk had managed to sneak up on him…

While Kafei was still stuck in his thoughts, the door to the inn suddenly started to swing inwards. Kafei jolted in surprise, his eyes going wide. He took a small step to the side, just in time to avoid getting bumped into by a chipper-looking Snowshrew as she emerged from the inn.

“Oh, oops!” The Snowshrew stopped halfway through the door, and turned to smile apologetically at Kafei. “Sorry about that. I really need to watch where I’m going more.”

It took a moment for Kafei’s heart to settle back down enough to respond. He couldn’t decide if he was disappointed or relieved that it hadn’t been Anju. Eventually, he managed a short nod. “It’s… fine. Just be more careful next time.”

“Will do!” the ice-type said. She stopped to adjust an empty satchel she had slung over her shoulder, before glancing off towards the western edge of town. “Anyhow, I’ve got to go pick up some supplies for the inn here, so I’d better get a move on and get out of your way. Hope you have a good day though, mister…”

She paused. Realization seemed to click in the Snowshrew’s eyes, and she stepped forward a bit to take a closer look at Kafei. “Hang on… You wouldn’t happen to be Kafei, would you?”

The Eevee drew in a sharp breath. His eyes darted back to the inn’s door, still hanging half-open. He could have sworn he heard a faint gasp come from inside, even despite the constant drum of the rainfall in his ears.

Without thinking, Kafei hastily shook his head. “Nope, you’ve got the wrong guy.” The Snowshrew opened her mouth to question further, but Kafei hurriedly turned around and trotted off along the rainy streets again, leaving the ice-type behind.

Once he had gotten enough distance, he came to a stop under a small awning attached to one of East Clock Town’s buildings. He briefly turned back to look the way he’d come, only being met with the sight of rain. At least the Snowshrew hadn’t followed him.

Kafei slumped forward against the wall, and let out a frustrated groan. “…Stupid.” His tail drooped onto the wet ground beneath his feet. Once, twice, three times Kafei softly thumped his head against the wall, sending scattered water droplets flying each time.

He knew he should go back again. He hadn’t needed that Buizel to tell him that Anju was worried sick about him by now. And after several days apart like this, he wanted nothing more than to just go see her again.

But the thought of explaining what had happened – how he’d managed to screw up months worth of planning with a moment’s carelessness – and imagining the disappointment on Anju’s face… he just couldn’t muster the courage to face her right now.

Kafei thought back to yesterday. Despite the danger… he really had considered Medli’s request, for a moment. He’d just about been willing to try and help fight off a bunch of pirates in exchange for another water stone to give Anju.

“Can’t just ‘mon up and walk through a stupid door, though,” he muttered, letting out a bitter sigh. “That’s too much, apparently.”

He shook his head, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Sitting here feeling sorry for himself wasn’t going to help anything.

Kafei gazed out into the rain once again. That Snowshrew he’d encountered… she’d mentioned that she was running errands for the inn. And this was the day when Kafei would usually pick up Anju’s supplies for the week. So it seemed Anju had managed to find some help while he was gone, at least. That made Kafei feel just the tiniest bit better.

He stared off in the inn’s direction for a minute, contemplating what to do. Eventually, he made up his mind and nodded to himself. One way or another, Anju still deserved to know what had happened. If he couldn’t bring himself to show his face in person just yet, he supposed he’d simply tell her another way.

After bracing himself for the rain, he dashed out from underneath the shelter of the awning. He made his way to the western side of town as quickly as he could manage. Though he kept an eye out along the way, just in case he crossed paths with that Snowshrew again.

Soon enough, he managed to make his way to the post office. He let out a quiet sigh of relief as he nudged open the door, shaking off what water he could before stepping inside.

Right beside the front desk, the Linoone postmon appeared to be busy sorting through some letters that were waiting to be delivered. After a moment, he noticed Kafei’s approach. “Hm? Oh.” He looked up from his work. “Welcome. You looking to send a letter too? Because you caught me just in time.”

Kafei nodded. “Yeah. Going to need to write it first, though.”

The Linoone gave a brief frown, but he eventually returned the nod. “Alright. Try to be quick, though. My morning rounds are scheduled to start in a few minutes.” He reached down behind his desk, retrieving a sheet of paper and dipping a quill pen in ink.

Kafei spread the paper out on the floor in front of him, grabbing the quill in his mouth and starting to write. It was more than a little cumbersome, especially as he had to use his still damp paw to hold the corner of the paper in place. But the quadruped had practice writing this way out of necessity.

The truly hard part was just knowing what to say.

After a long pause to think, he decided to lead with what Anju probably needed to hear the most right now.

“I’m sorry for disappearing so suddenly. I promise I’m alright.”

From there, he recounted the situation as concisely as he could. How he’d lost the water stone, and how he’d unsuccessfully tried to find the thief and get it back. He couldn’t help but grimace as he scrawled the words down, but he kept going regardless.

“I’m going to give myself one more day to try and find a replacement stone,” Kafei wrote. He wasn’t very confident in his chances, but with so many pokemon from across Termina gathered in town, maybe he could get lucky. He felt the need to at least try and see if he could salvage their plans. “Whether or not I succeed, I will be back tomorrow. That way we can at least spend the festival together like we’d wanted.”

Kafei paused, briefly deliberating how to finish the letter. But after a moment, he shook his head. Just keep it simple and honest.

“I love you, Anju. I’ll see you soon.”

Kafei quickly checked over the letter again, a hint of hesitation still in his chest. There was a part of him that wanted to just throw the letter away, and go back to talk to Anju in person. But he still couldn’t quite bring himself to face her, at the moment.

It also didn’t help that the postmon had finished his preparations, and was now almost looking over Kafei’s shoulder as he waited for him to finish. With a sigh, Kafei pulled the moon’s tear out of his bag, nudging both it and the completed letter towards the impatient Linoone. “Alright, alright. Please take these to Anju. She runs the Stock Pot Inn down in the eastern part of town. And uh…” Kafei reached into his bag again to grab some poké. “For postage. And for delaying your schedule.”

The postmon gave a dutiful nod. He quickly put the coins away behind his desk, and stashed the letter and the gem in with the rest of his deliveries. “I’ll be sure to get them there as fast as I can.”

With that, the two pokemon both exited the post office. The Linoone took a moment to lock the door behind him, before dashing off along the street, seeming almost unbothered by the rain.

As Kafei watched the Linoone go, a thought occurred to him, and he let out a groan. He should still probably let his family know what had happened as well, at some point here. They were no doubt concerned by now too. Though with how much of a hurry the postmon had been in, he supposed he wouldn’t have had time to write up a second letter now anyway.

Kafei made a mental note to come back and write to them a little later. Or just stop in and tell them in person tomorrow, after he’d talked to Anju. He didn’t feel up to dealing with it right this minute. His mother would no doubt give him an earful for having just vanished from town without a word like he did. He probably deserved it, but still.

Besides, like he’d said in his letter to Anju, he still wanted to give one last try at finding a replacement stone. If he was going to have any chance of actually succeeding at that, he should hurry up and get a move on.

After casting one last grimace at the rainclouds overhead, Kafei started on his way.

Medli let out a panicked squawk as she dove to the side, just barely managing to flutter out of the way of a high-speed jet of water. The Hydro Pump barreled over the Swablu’s head and slammed into the dojo wall behind her.

Her heart still pounding in her chest, Medli quickly steadied her flight path a bit and nervously looked down at her Azumarill opponent again.

“Careful, now,” the elderly Lucario dojo master called from the sidelines. “She is still learning. There is no need for so much force.”

The Azumarill gave a small nod. “Gotcha.” Medli flinched slightly as the water-type took in another deep breath and prepared to fire again. But this time, only a dense cluster of bubbles shot forth from his mouth. The Bubblebeam still traveled quite fast, and Medli had a feeling it would still hurt far more than it looked if it hit her. But at least it was significantly easier to dodge than the last attack had been.

A few more streams of bubbles followed, as Medli continued to carefully flutter to and fro to avoid them. She deliberately stayed high up in the air, giving her as much time to react to the attacks as possible while staying comfortably out of melee range. Of course, she couldn’t exactly fight back from this range herself, but for the moment she was only focused on not getting hit.

After a while, the Azumarill stopped firing. He stared up at Medli, his ears cocked slightly in what might have been either confusion or annoyance. Before Medli could open her beak to say anything, though, the water-type seemed to change strategies. He began to hop up and down in place. The first jump barely left the floor, and the second only went a little bit higher than that. But the third time, he Bounced high into the air, cannonballing up towards Medli with surprising speed.

For a brief moment, Medli froze. She managed to snap out of her shock just in time, though, and hastily flew to the side just as the water-type was about to slam into her. Mostly on instinct, she quickly whipped up a small cloud of fluff from her wings and waved it in Azumarill’s direction as he started to fall back down.

A heavy thud rang out throughout the dojo as the Azumarill landed on the ground again. He let out a cough, spitting out a small bit of fluff that had gotten in his mouth. After doing his best to shake off the rest of the Featherdance, he steadied his footing and turned his gaze upward once again. “You’re certainly an evasive little bird, I’ve got to give you that.” He frowned a little. “But I mean… learning to dodge is important and all, but doesn’t it kinda defeat the purpose of training if you don’t try and fight back a bit?”

Medli winced a little at his words. She knew he was right, though. As scary as it was, if she wasn’t going to go down there and actually fight, then what was even the point of her coming back here at all?

“…It’s f-for Great Bay,” she muttered quietly to herself. After taking a deep breath, she angled into a dive, rapidly plummeting down towards her opponent. The water-type gave an approving grin. He stood his ground and threw his arms out, looking as though he was leaving himself open on purpose.

Slowing herself slightly just before impact, Medli swung around behind her target and landed a quick flurry of Pecks on the back of the Azumarill’s head. The water-type flinched in pain, his ears attempting to swat the bird away.

“Ow!” Azumarill spun around and looked around at the air above him, surprise on his face as he tried to find where Medli had gone. “Not bad for a beginner. That actually stings a little. And you didn’t let your guard down just because I looked like I was giving you a clean shot, so props on that too.”

It was only then that Medli noticed the way Azumarill’s tail was cloaked in water, ready to strike. Medli gulped, suddenly thankful that she hadn’t simply gone for a straightforward attack like he’d expected her to.

Once Azumarill found her again, he leapt up into a somersault and swung his tail down at Medli. The Aqua Tail missed, but only just barely. Frantically, Medli fluttered back a short distance. She started circling over the water-type’s head, keeping on the move as she attempted to look for another opening. All the while, Azumarill continued to take swings at her.

Ultimately, Medli managed to sneak in a couple more hits like that, diving in when she spotted an opportunity and then quickly backing off again. But it was only a matter of time before she made a slip up. On one particular approach, she was a little too focused on dodging Azumarill’s tail, only for him to smack her out of the air with a simple Pound from his arms instead.

The Swablu hit the dojo floor hard, the wind knocked out of her instantly. She felt Azumarill gently hold down one of her wings, pinning her to the floor. Not that she had any fight left in her at the moment regardless.

“The match is over,” she heard the dojo master call out from somewhere. “Azumarill wins.” With that, the hold on her wing promptly let up, and she heard a series of footsteps heading out of the arena.

Once the world finally stopped spinning, Medli blinked open her eyes and looked around. Azumarill had moved to the edge of the arena. He looked like he’d still barely broken a sweat. Meanwhile, the Lucario who ran the dojo still sat in his usual little corner, his gaze steady as he kept up his watch. A small smile grew on his face as he noticed her stirring. “An unfortunate loss. But you are improving, little bird. Do not doubt that.”

Azumarill nodded. “Still awfully timid, but your fundamentals actually aren’t half bad.” He grinned. “Just gotta keep training, and you’ll find yourself toughening up before ya know it.”

Medli still had a hard time believing their words herself, but she nodded respectfully anyway. “I-If you say so.” Slowly, she managed to stand up again. She attempted a hesitant flap of her wings, only for a jolt of pain to run through them. Shaking her head, she awkwardly hobbled her way out of the arena and settled on the sidelines to rest off her soreness.

The arena didn’t stay empty for long, as a new pair of pokemon eagerly took their turn to spar against each other. With little else to focus on, Medli guardedly watched the combatants square off for a while. She couldn’t help but wince slightly with each hit that landed, though, and before long she shifted her gaze elsewhere.

“I was pleased to see you come back today,” Lucario suddenly spoke up. Medli turned to look at him. “After how you seemed to feel about yesterday’s training, I was not certain you would be willing to try again.”

Medli silently ruffled her wings a bit. In truth, she herself wasn’t sure how to explain why she’d come back here again. She still struggled to imagine herself becoming a strong fighter, no matter how much training she endured. But… something about the Lucario’s words yesterday had stuck with her, for some reason. Having the strength to protect those you care about… even if such a thing seemed out of reach, she was willing to at least give it a try.

Eventually, the two pokemon who had started sparring in the central arena finished their match. The victor, an Absol, strode stoically out of the arena with his head held high. His opponent limped along behind him, a low growl rumbling in the Mightyena’s throat as the two came to rest not too far from where Medli and the dojo master were sitting.

“One of these days I’m going to beat you,” the Mightyena muttered.

“Perhaps,” Absol replied. “But you are still far too aggressive. Your body language telegraphs nearly your every move, and you constantly overextend and leave yourself open.”

Mighyena bristled at that. “Tch… I still say it’s just your stupid Absol senses telling you where I’m gonna strike ahead of time. I’m at an unfair disadvantage!”

“That is not how our ability works. But I suppose if that helps you feel better about your loss, then so be it.”

Medli tried to tune most of the rivals’ conversation out. It wasn’t much of her business, after all. She simply kept to herself as she continued to rest off her soreness from her earlier bout.

After a short while, though, their conversation seemed to shift to a much different topic.

“…Have you heard what some pokemon are saying about the moon?”

Medli perked up slightly, glancing over in the duo’s direction.

“Pfft. What, that it’s gonna fall?” Mightyena scoffed. “Please. Don’t tell me you believe that nonsense, do you?”

“I do not know,” Absol said. “The moon did appear oddly close last night, however. And my disaster sense… I have never felt it react in quite this way before.”

The Mightyena shrugged. “Probably just an eclipse coming up or something. Who knows.” He smirked. “Or maybe you just hit your head too hard when you lost against that Hitmonchan yesterday.”

Absol gave a scowl. “Do you really think my disaster sense is so vague and imprecise that I could not tell the difference between an eclipse and the moon falling?” He shook his head. “I have seen eclipses. They barely even register to my sense at all. Whatever is happening now, it is unlike anything I have experienced before.”

“If you’re so sure about this, just go tell the guards about it then.”

“I have. But I am not sure what you expect them to do about it, especially when even I cannot tell precisely what is happening. And besides…”

Medli shuddered. She turned her gaze toward the dojo’s open door, tuning out the conversation again as what she thought back to last night. Apparently she and that Alakazam were not the only ones to notice the moon’s change.

The storm clouds made it hard to see at the moment, but… had the moon gotten even closer by now, she wondered?

As absurd as it sounded, if the moon really did fall… that was it. There… there wouldn’t be anywhere you could go to take shelter from something like that. It would be a swift, inescapable end for every pokemon living in Termina. And everywhere else on their planet, for that matter. The thought alone was almost smothering.

“U-Um…” Medli glanced up at the dojo master again. “Do you happen to know where the town library would be, by chance?” She still couldn’t shake that odd silhouette she’d seen last night. She knew she recognized that shape, perhaps if she could find the right book she could make some kind of sense of all of this.

The Lucario cocked his head thoughtfully. “Hm… I believe there should be one in the east part of town. Not too far from the mayor’s residence, I think. I do not know the precise directions, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.”

“T-Thank you, sir,” Medli said. She slowly stood back up, wincing as she tried to stretch her wings. The pain from her crash landing earlier still hadn’t quite subsided fully yet.

“Hm. Are you certain you wish to head out already?” the Lucario asked, picking up on Medli’s discomfort. “It may be best to rest here a bit longer.”

After a brief pause, Medli nodded. She might have been able to fly now, if she tried… but it wouldn’t be pleasant. And besides, she wasn’t in a rush to head back out into the rain either. She settled back down again.

“In the meantime,” Lucario said, “if you truly wish to proceed with this training, I would suggest observing the others.” He nodded out at the arena, where another pair of pokemon had already started to spar. “Watch what they do. Try to see what you can learn.”

Reluctantly, Medli complied. “A-Alright.” She couldn’t say she enjoyed watching other pokemon fight like this, even if it was merely friendly sparring. But she supposed there might be some things she could try to apply to her own fights, if she was observant enough.

A loud smack reverberated through the whole dojo, as the Azumarill from before landed a full-strength Aqua Tail on his current opponent. The injured Granbull stumbled to the ground for only a moment before getting back up, defiance in her eyes as she rushed at the water-type again.

Medli gulped. She… she still didn’t see herself ever being strong enough to hold up in a fight like this, no matter how much encouragement the dojo members offered. But then again… she supposed she had been wrong about plenty of things before.

It took Runia a while to finish the errands Anju had sent her on. Mostly due to the Snowshrew’s poor sense of direction, admittedly, though the weather hadn’t exactly helped either.

Either way, she’d eventually managed to find everything she needed. With the satchel slung over her shoulder now heavy and filled to the brim with supplies, Runia slowly trekked her way back towards the inn.

She glanced around. The gloomy weather definitely made the town feel a bit less lively than it had yesterday. There were still a number of pokemon out and about, though, and their reactions to the falling rain varied wildly. A few of the water-type residents of town were happy to take their time, lingering outside amid the pleasant drizzle. By contrast, other pokemon who didn’t handle water as well hurried to get where they needed to go, some covering vulnerable tail-flames or the like to help keep them dry.

Runia, for her part, fell somewhere in the middle. She couldn’t say the rain felt outright pleasant or anything. And she certainly didn’t appreciate needing to slow down her pace a bit to avoid slipping on the wet ground. But having lived her life up in the snowy mountains of northern Termina, she’d never really gotten to see it simply rain like this. It was yet another new experience for her. So at least for today, the rain seemed alright.

Soon enough, she arrived back at the Stock Pot Inn. She gently nudged open the door and stepped inside, taking a moment to wipe her feet on the welcome mat before closing the door again.

“Hey, Anju!” Runia called out. “I’m back with the supplies you… uh…” Runia trailed off as she took a closer look at the Eevee. Anju was focused squarely on what looked like a letter, which laid flat on the floor in front of her. A small, light blue gem had also been set off to the side.

But what really caught Runia’s attention was Anju’s face. She didn’t look to be crying right now, but from her slightly reddened eyes and the wet streaks running down the fur on her face, she definitely had been. An indecipherable mix of emotions seemed to be warring in the Eevee’s eyes as she continued to stare down at the letter.

After a moment’s hesitation, Runia stepped forward. “Uh… Anju? You alright?”

This time, Anju seemed to hear Runia’s words. She blinked, blushing slightly as she turned to face the Snowshrew. “O-Oh! Runia. I, u-um… sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.” She gently pushed the letter aside, letting out a quiet sniffle as she hastily tried to compose herself. “D-Did you get the supplies alright?”

Runia tentatively nodded as she set the satchel on the floor. “Everything mostly went fine, yeah.”

“T-That’s good.” Anju peeked inside the bag to check on the items inside. After a moment, she nodded. “I hope that… that the rain wasn’t too bad. Like I said earlier, if I’d known it’d rain like this, I’d have made sure this got done yesterday.”

“It’s no trouble,” Runia replied. “It’s not even raining that hard, really.”

The Snowshrew tried her best to pretend not to be curious about the letter. But she couldn’t help but glance over at it a couple of times, and Anju quickly took notice. After a moment’s deliberation, Anju seemed to nod to herself. “I-It’s… from Kafei,” Anju muttered quietly.

Runia’s eyes widened slightly at that. “I thought that Eevee I saw this morning had to be him!” She glanced back and forth between the letter and Anju, a frown slowly settling on her face. “Uh… Is it bad news, then?”

“I-It, um… it’s mixed, I suppose,” Anju said, sniffling quietly as she raised a paw to wipe her eyes. “But Kafei’s alright, at least, which is the important thing. And he’s… going to come back tomorrow, in time for the festival. So it’s… m-mostly good news, overall.”

Runia could tell from the look on Anju’s face that there was more she wasn’t saying. But the Snowshrew decided not to pry into such a private matter for now.

“A-Anyway.” Anju shook her head, straightening up and putting on as composed of a face as she could. “Thank you again for handling that supply run for me.”

“Like I said, it was no trouble,” Runia said with a smile. She picked the satchel back up and turned her gaze toward the hallway next to the stairs. “Just have to set this off in that storage room you showed me earlier, right?”

Anju nodded. “Yeah. I can properly put away everything you got a bit later.” She moved both the letter and the odd blue gem behind her front desk before adding, “Once you’re done with that… I don’t have anything else urgent for you to do, right now, so you can take your break a little early if you’d like.”

Runia perked up a bit. “Sounds like a plan!” Rain or not, she was still hoping to get to look around town a bit more. And Dan had even agreed to come along, when they’d talked yesterday. Runia just hoped that he and his sister were available now.

After the Snowshrew put away the bag of supplies, she headed up to the inn’s second floor. It took her a couple minutes of looking around to find the room Dan and Willow were staying in, but eventually she managed to remember which room it was. At least, she hoped it was the right one, anyway.

Runia knocked on the door. “Heya, Dan! Are you in there?”

She heard someone shuffle about inside for a moment, before a familiar voice called out. “Runia?”

Runia breathed a quiet sigh of relief that she hadn’t gotten the rooms mixed up. “Yep! I was just curious if you were up to go look around town some more, like we talked about yesterday?”

“Uh… Sure, I suppose,” Dan’s voice replied. After a couple seconds, the door slowly swung open, and the Mareep quietly strode out. He gave Runia a smile, though it looked somewhat hollow for some reason. “…Hey.”

Runia’s cheery demeanor faltered just a little at Dan’s lack of enthusiasm, though she did her best not to let it show. “Hi!” As she glanced past Dan into the room beyond, something stood out to her, and she tilted her head in confusion. “Hey, where’s your sister at? Did she already go out somewhere?”

Dan’s ears drooped slightly. “She, uh… she never actually got back yesterday, fer some reason. Ah’m still waitin’ to find out what happened.”

“…O-Oh.” Runia blinked, unsure what to say for a moment. “Should I, er… Is this a bad time, then? Because if you’d rather stay here and wait for her, then by all means…”

“…No.” Dan shook his head and let out a sigh. “No, it’s fine. Somethin’ like this would probably do me some good right now, anyhow.” He straightened up a bit, donning a smile that was a little less forced than his previous one. “Whatever must’a happened, ah’m sure that sis and Epona can handle themselves. Sittin’ around here ain’t gonna make ’em show up any faster, so ah might as well take mah mind off it fer now.”

After a moment’s pause, Runia nodded. “Alrighty then. Follow me!”

New mission: make sure Dan was too busy having fun to focus on his worries for now. And get him to crack a genuine smile, while she was at it. Seemed like a reasonable enough goal to Runia, for now.

With that, the two set out, leaving the inn and starting to stroll around the rest of East Clock Town.

The weather still hadn’t really improved at all, while they’d been inside the inn. Dan didn’t seem to mind it all that much, though. Perhaps he was used to occasionally putting up with rain while out doing farm work, Runia supposed.

“From what Anju’s told me, there’s a few places around East Clock Town here that have some fun little games for pokemon to play,” Runia said. “D’you have any suggestions for where to go first? Or should we just walk around and see what we find?”

The Mareep gave a slight shrug. “…Ah’m fine with whatever.”

“Hm…” Runia looked around at the various buildings for a moment. “How about… this one!” she said, confidently pointing a claw forward. “I’ve got a good feeling about it!” With no objections raised, the duo headed inside.

Runia took a look around. Straight ahead, a short divider separated the back half of the room, with a small raised part of the floor in front of the divider for someone to stand on. Though, from here, Runia couldn’t quite see anything else back there for now. Just off to the side of the room, a fairly tall Decidueye stood, one wing leaning on the counter in front of him.

The Decidueye seemed to be lost in thought for a few seconds as the pair walked in. But soon enough, he noticed the newcomers. “Oh, hello,” he said, straightening his posture out. His eyes narrowed slightly as he noticed the bit of water they’d tracked in, but after a moment he took a deep breath and shook it off. It wasn’t as though they could help it much, given the rain. “Welcome to my target gallery. Care to test your aim? It’s fifty poké for a round.”

After sharing a quick look with Dan, Runia nodded. “Sure. I’ll give it a shot.” She stepped up to place a couple of coins on the counter. “So, what do I do?”

The Decidueye pointed a wing over at the raised pedestal. “Just stand up there, and shoot at the targets that pop up. I can give you something to use for that, or you can just use your own moves for it if you’d rather. Just try not to damage the targets too much.”

“Got it!” Runia carefully stepped up onto the platform. She focused a bit of energy into one of her claws, and a handful of small, sharp little Icicle Spears started to form in her grasp. Projectiles at the ready, she peered over the divider, waiting for the targets to begin popping up.

She heard the Decidueye adjust something behind his counter. With a soft wooden thunk, the first target flipped upright just a short distance in front of Runia. She quickly tossed one of her darts towards it… only for the icicle to miss its mark by several inches. Hastily, she tried again. But while her aim was slightly better this time, the target flipped back down again halfway through her throw, wasting another shot.

Another couple targets appeared, one on the left and one on the right. Runia finally managed to get on the board with a clean hit on the left target, but her next throw didn’t even come close to the other target. Worse, she was already out of icicles. By the time she’d finished preparing a new set of spears, the next wave of targets had already come and gone.

For a while, Runia continued to try her best to quickly line up her shots. But as the targets began to appear more and more rapidly, and in larger groups, she eventually just gave up and threw precision to the wind. She started to hurl her icicles as fast as she could make them, with little regard for aim.

A loud chime signaled the end of the time limit. With a final thunk, the last wave of targets flipped back down once more. Still panting slightly as she caught her breath, Runia turned back to look at the shop owner. “How’d I do? Did I win?”

The Decidueye stared blankly at her for a moment. “Er… By my count, I believe you hit six targets in total.”

Runia blinked. “…I didn’t win, huh?”

“The maximum score is fifty,” the grass-type said bluntly. “So no, you did not.”

As Runia disappointedly stepped down from the platform, she noticed Dan trying and failing to hold in a chuckle. “Sorry,” he muttered. “Just… wasn’t expecting you to give up on aiming like that.”

For a moment, Runia put on a pout, a little embarrassed at how badly she’d done. But hey, at least she’d made Dan laugh. She’d take that, she supposed. “You want to give it a try?”

“May as well,” he replied. “Been a bit since ah’ve practiced mah moves like this, though, so not sure how well ah’ll fare.”

“Hey, you can’t do much worse than I did,” Runia giggled.

After paying the fifty poké, Dan trotted up onto the platform. He took a deep breath, his eyes narrowing a bit as he started to focus. Faint sparks of static started to dance in his wool, and the orb on his tail glowed brightly.

The first target appeared. With a small wave of his head, Dan launched a small jolt of electricity, connecting near the edge of the target and knocking it over.

He missed the second target by just a hair. But a follow-up shot managed to score a clean bullseye, with just enough time left to catch the third target as well before it slipped away.

Dan’s perfect streak unfortunately came to an end with the next wave of targets, as he took a little too long to line up his shots. But he maintained his focus. Even when the targets began to really speed up, he still managed to keep up quite well.

By the time the challenge came to an end, Runia had long since lost count of what Dan’s score was. Both she and Dan turned back to look at the shop owner, who in turn gave an approving nod in the Mareep’s direction. “Not bad. Thirty-eight out of fifty. Not quite enough for a prize, but still a decent score.”

Dan nodded, a tired smile on his face as he stepped down from the platform and made his way towards Runia. “Phew. Not used to usin’ my electricity so much. And it’s harder ‘n it looks, keepin’ up with how many targets there are.”

“Tell me about it!” Runia giggled. “It’s fun at least, though. And you did really good!”

“Thanks.” Dan glanced over at the Decidueye behind the counter for a moment, before turning to Runia again. “Did ya want to try again? Or just move on fer now?”

Runia shook her head. “I’m fine to go somewhere else if you are.”

After bidding goodbye to the shop owner, the pair set out into the rain again, quietly looking around for where to go next.

“You know, I’d forgotten just how bad my aim with that move really is,” Runia said as they started walking through town again. “I just could never get the hang of ranged moves like that. Now if I could have just smashed the targets up close – or heck, even just rolled right through ’em – now that would have been a different story.” She swung her claws exaggeratedly at the empty air in front of her. “Like, bam! Easy perfect score for sure.”

Dan let out a soft chuckle. “Yeah, I’m sure.” He briefly glanced back the way they’d come. “Honestly, ah’m sorta surprised ah did that well. Sis has trained with me every now an’ then, just so ah could defend mahself if needed. But it’s been a while since the last time we practiced like that.”

“Well, she must have trained you well, then,” Runia said with a grin. “You know, back home on Snowhead, my father’s one of the best fighters around. He’s the one who taught me most of my moves.” Without thinking, Runia added, “Say, do you have any other family back home on the ranch? Or is it just…”

She trailed off as she noticed the pensive look forming on Dan’s face. With a wince, she realized she’d brought things right back to the one topic she shouldn’t have. Just when she was finally getting his mind off things, too. “S-Sorry. That was probably thoughtless of me, huh?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Dan shook his head. “…’s alright. It’s a fair question,” he muttered quietly. “An’ no. It’s just me, sis, and Epona back home. Well, and the hired help, ah guess. Hard fer three pokemon to run a whole ranch by ourselves, after all.”

“Is Epona related to you two, then?”

“Not exactly,” Dan said. “She sorta feels like an honorary aunt sometimes, though. She was apparently an old friend of our ma ‘n pa, back when… they were still runnin’ the ranch.”

It took a couple of seconds for the unspoken part of Dan’s words to fully sink in. But when it fully dawned on Runia, she couldn’t help but wince. “O-Oh.” An awkward silence settled over the duo for a moment, as Runia sheepishly scratched the back of her head. “Dang. Now I feel even worse about bringing it up. S-Sorry.”

Dan shook his head again. “Don’t worry about it.” He stared off into the distance for a moment. “Ah… never really knew ma an’ pa much. Pretty much as far back as ah can remember, it’s just been me, sis, and Epona. So, uh… can’t really miss what ya never knew, right?”

The Mareep punctuated the statement with the same, hollow-looking smile he’d given back at the inn. Runia was thoroughly unconvinced. But she didn’t really feel right trying to pry any further than she already had, so she simply smiled back. “Alright. If you say so.”

After another short awkward silence, Runia cleared her throat. “A-Anyways, uh. How about we check out another one of these places?”

Dan gave a stiff nod. “Yeah. Sounds good.”

Runia quickly picked out another nearby building, and the pair headed on inside. This one turned out to have an interesting little maze game set up. The walls had been designed so that the layout could be constantly shuffled between attempts, according to the pokemon who ran the place. Anyone who managed to find their way to the end within the time limit could earn some sort of prize.

Unfortunately, neither Runia nor Dan managed to find their way through in time. Runia had a feeling she’d run into the same dead end about three times as she’d hastily rolled around the labyrinth. And Dan had the opposite problem, being far too slow as he tried to reason his way through. Still, they’d both had fun with it.

As the pair finished up there, Runia considered trying to check out one more game. But looking up to check the time, it was getting to be about time for her to head back to the inn.

“You know, you don’t have to go with me,” Runia said as she and Dan started to walk back. “If you wanna keep looking around on your own, then by all means!”

Dan shrugged. “Ah think ah’m good fer now. ‘Sides, ah wanna see if sis or Epona have turned up yet. Ah know we ain’t been out that long, but… may as well check, ya know?” He paused, glancing up at the sky for a moment. “If they haven’t… then ah guess ah’ll have to go find somethin’ else to do fer a bit. Maybe stop in at the library or somethin’, ah suppose.”

“Sounds good,” Runia said. “And hey, if you wanna talk later, you know where to find me! I’ll be all ears!”

The Mareep let out a soft chuckle. “Alright. Ah’ll keep that in mind.”

Despite the rain still sprinkling down from overhead, and the concerns still lingering in Dan’s mind, a decently cozy, companionable silence settled over the pair as they continued their trek back to the inn.

A little later in the day, once Medli’s wing wasn’t sore anymore, she set out for the library. It took her a few minutes to track down the right building, but she eventually managed to find her destination without getting too wet from the rain, thank goodness.

Inside the library, Medli was met with rows and rows of towering bookshelves, each one filled to the brim with an assortment of books. It was both impressive, and a little bit intimidating.

The librarian’s desk was empty at the moment. Must be off taking care of something at the moment. Medli supposed she’d just have to go searching on her own, in that case. She didn’t know her way around this particular library, but she hoped it wouldn’t be too hard to find what she needed.

Medli started to flutter through the aisles, quietly passing several other pokemon as she went. She wasn’t quite certain whether books about Legendary pokemon would generally be sorted as fiction or nonfiction, given how much tended to be shrouded in myth. But she tentatively decided to search the nonfiction section first. She’d rather get as accurate of information as she could, rather than a simplified version of the story for children or the like.

Eventually, she managed to find a book that looked like it might hold some promise. Unfortunately, she would have to actually get it off the shelf, first.

The Swablu carefully hooked a talon on the book’s top corner, and tried to slowly maneuver the book free from its spot. But the book was fairly bulky, and this setup didn’t exactly allow Medli a very firm grip on it…

“Uh… do ya need some help?”

The sudden voice whispering from below caught Medli off-guard. She almost let out an uncomfortably loud squawk, but thankfully managed to catch herself in time. She glanced down, spotting a Mareep standing just below her.

“Sorry,” the Mareep continued. “Just… couldn’t help but notice ya strugglin’. Want some help?

Medli blushed a little, but nodded. “…Y-Yes. Some help would be n-nice.”

Thankfully, the book she wanted was only on the second shelf. The Mareep quickly pushed a short stepstool over, before jumping up onto it. He cocked his head slightly as he looked at the book. “Huh. Didn’t expect a book about Legendary pokemon.”

“I-I, um… was hoping to r-research something,” Medli timidly said.

The Mareep still looked a little surprised, but he silently shrugged it off. He leaned in to grab the book’s spine in his mouth, and managed to pull the book loose after a couple moments…

…Only for it to noisily tumble down onto the floor as soon as it was free from the shelf. The sudden thump drew the attention of several other nearby pokemon, who all glanced over in the pair’s direction. Medli tried unsuccessfully to hide herself behind the fallen book, flush with embarrassment, as the Mareep awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“Sorry ’bout that,” the Mareep whispered. “Was a little heavier ‘n ah expected.”

“I-It’s… alright,” Medli muttered. “I… wouldn’t have been able to do any better on my own.” At least the book was down now. She’d probably still need someone to help her put it back when she was done, but she’d cross that bridge when she got to it. “Thank you.”

The Mareep nodded. “Yer welcome.” He glanced down the aisle a bit. “Ah’ll, uh… leave you to it, then. Glad ah could help, though.” With that, the Mareep slowly trotted off, probably to return to whatever book he’d been looking for. A few moments later, the other nearby pokemon gradually turned their focus back to their own books as well.

Medli let out a quiet sigh of relief, and slowly cracked open the book she’d picked out. After a quick check of the table of contents, she started to flip through the book’s pages, skipping past sections about various other Legendary pokemon until she arrived at what she was looking for.

“The Light-Devourer, and the Guardians of the Sun and Moon.”

Right away, she was met with a trio of Smeargle-drawn pictures. One showed a massive dragon, whose brightly glowing body carried a jagged, almost crystalline appearance. Another showed a lion, strong and regal, with a bright white metallic mane.

The third, however, was what mostly caught Medli’s eye. This bat-like pokemon with deep blue wings like the night sky… there was no mistaking it. This had to be the silhouette she’d seen last night.

Medli silently continued reading. The general gist of the story was all familiar to her: the Light-Devourer appeared through a tear in the sky, wreaking havoc on Termina until the Sun and Moon Guardians arrived to stop it. This account did provide names for the latter two, however. The sun-lion was apparently called Solgaleo… and the pokemon Medli had seen was known as Lunala.

“Scholars are still uncertain as to whether or not the mysterious visitors were truly Legendary pokemon at all, or merely warriors from some distant world who were chasing after the Light-Devourer. We may never know for certain, unfortunately. Neither of them stuck around to explain much after the beast’s defeat. Some pokemon choose to believe the pair continue to watch over our world to this day, and occasional sightings of one or the other flying high overhead have been claimed. But none of these sightings have ever been verified.”

Medli shuddered a little. She… she was certain she must have seen Lunala last night. Especially considering what seemed to be happening with the moon. But if Lunala really was bringing down the moon… why? Why save their world from that monster, only to come back a century later and doom them anyway? It didn’t make much sense.

She continued reading, starting to focus more on the information about this ‘Light-Devourer’. Not that there was all that much to go off of. The beast seemed to be from an entirely different world, after all.

One detail did stand out to Medli, though. One more image, showing a shower of tiny shards breaking off from the dragon’s body as it plummeted to the ground after its defeat. It gave off the appearance of a meteor shower, scattering all across the landscape of Termina. The scene would likely have been fairly pretty… if not for the knowledge of where those shards were coming from.

“Only a few of the fragments were ever found, and all of those were lost amid the confusion that arose when mystery dungeons began to appear across the land. Some scattered accounts of the crystals still remain, however. Each of the diamond-shaped shards that were found apparently shone with a different color, shimmering particularly brightly when exposed to sunlight.

“The pokemon who owned the crystals all reportedly felt a noticeable amount of latent power flowing through the gems as they held them, in some cases even allowing them to unleash powerful new moves. But prolonged exposure to the crystals seemed to lead to painful headaches, and one pokemon even claimed to have heard faint, unintelligible whispers from the stone late one night. Unfortunately, without uncovering one of the crystals again, it is nearly impossible to tell how much of this is true, and how much is mere exaggeration.”

The more Medli read about these strange crystals, the more an unsettling nervousness started to settle in her chest. But bad feelings aside, it still didn’t shed much light on what was going on now. None of this had really helped as much as Medli had hoped it would.

She continued to read and reread all of the information this section of the book could offer, wracking her brain for any potential lead. But eventually, she had to give up for now.

Before closing the book, Medli took a moment to flip through to a different section. The one focused on the Lord of Time, Dialga. She was quickly greeted by an impressively detailed depiction of the blue and silver dragon, its stance stoic and proud.

“P-Please…” Medli whispered, closing her eyes and wrapping herself with her wings. “P-Please, Dialga… Watch over our land. W-We need more t-time…”