Chapter 6: The Crescent Forest

“Uhh hey, you know which way to go, right?” Eric asks as he & Riley were making their way through the Crescent Forest together, starting their trek proper as they were eager to get through the paths & head toward Balistine City.

“Um, yeah totally! I got this! If nothing else, we just gotta follow the trails that are laid out. Shouldn’t be too hard.” Riley replies, having opted to be the one to take the lead through this leg of their journey. Said leg of the journey would consist of the two of them traversing through a rather dark & almost gloomy forested atmosphere. And yet despite the massively thick overhanging canopy of leaves & hanging moss from the live oaks that line the pathways the duo walk through, there was still a rather subtle mystique about it all. Perhaps it was the small gatherings of bioluminescent mushrooms that clung to some of the thick roots that ran through portions of the ground, or it might have been all of the overhanging moss that Riley & Eric would occasionally have to push past, or the way the entire forest itself seemed to have an almost eerie silence to it. However far the two would go, they hardly experienced any heavy breezes of wind blowing, nor any light peeking out from the thick canopy of leaves.

A few hours would go by as the duo walked onward, Riley seemed to be growing more & more curious about the sights & sounds – or lack thereof that he was surrounded by. Eric on the other hand, was only growing more tense as time went on.

“Hey Riley? This really is the right way, right? I know we’re walking along the paths and whatnot, but I’m just not sure. Is it supposed to be this quiet all the time here?” Eric asks, hoping to get some sort of meaningful answer from his traveling companion, though he also just more or less wanted some noise to occur, regardless if it was from him or not.

“Eh, beats me. This forest is pretty nice though, don’t you think?” Riley replies simply, shrugging his shoulders before he nimbly hops up onto a nearby fallen log & looks around. “I mean, it’s so quiet & mysterious. Can’t imagine there’s anything or anyone actually living here. Kinda makes you think about stuff, you know?” Riley turns to Eric as he speaks, balancing on the moss covered log he was standing upon.

“Honestly Riley, I’m a little more focused on actually getting through here. We’ve been traveling pretty much all day long & I was hoping we could get outta this forest before nightfall. But that’s not looking like a possibility now…” Eric says, squinting his eyes slightly. “I mean seriously, it’s so dark in here. You’d think some sunlight would be able to peek in through the tree leaves, but there’s hardly anything at all. It kinda reminds me of that cave we went down before.”

Riley looks fully at Eric now, noticing the growing nervousness in his new companion’s overall tone and posture. He could see Eric almost shrinking down a bit in his stance, his ears slightly twitching up & down at the slightest sounds he could hear or not. Whether his mind was playing tricks on him or not, Eric couldn’t say for certain. Riley could also spot the Eevee’s tail now low to the ground, in stark contrast to when Eric would normally have his tail upright, indicating he was happier, but this clearly was not the case right now. Riley puts a hand to his chin, his other hand lightly holding his elbow as he thinks hard for half a minute.

Riley then snaps his fingers “Okay! Why don’t we continue on a little further, then we take a break? How does that sound?” Riley offers. He hops off the log and strides toward Eric with a calm gaze. “You’re right, we have been traveling all day, & I think a break would do us good. I know it’s probably not ideal, given our current environment, but if you ask me, I think it’s better that you & I are well rested when making our way through unfamiliar areas than being exhausted while traveling. How does that sound?”

Eric stares up at Riley as he speaks, taking in what was being said. As he deliberated on an answer, Marco decided to chime in. “Ya know he’s got a point kid. The reason you’re probably all tense & crap right now might be because you’re just getting tired. Better you rest so you don’t go & get us killed, alright?” Marco says in a rather matter-of-fact tone.

Eric huffs slightly at the inner voice’s somewhat grim line of logic. “Well, you do make a good point Riley. Maybe I am just getting kinda tired.” He pauses for a moment, glancing around the forest surroundings. “Yeah, let’s keep going for a little longer then take a break. That sounds good to me.”

At that, Riley smiles & gives Eric a friendly pat on the back. “Yeah okay! Well let’s get going then shall we?” He waves a hand forward and begins a cheerful march, to which Eric nods his head to and marches along. He looked much more invigorated after listening to his new traveling companion and was ready to continue.

And with that, the pair continued onward, traversing along the path that was laid before them. A couple more hours would go by before they come to a stop when a sign comes into view. A rather tall sign with some writing on it. Riley steps forward and goes to read it aloud.

“Be wary o’ travelers of this forest. For if you deviate from this path going forward, you risk stepping upon the grounds hallowed by the Maiden of the Moon, and the Maiden of Dreams. Travel under the cover of night to find your path forward. Kind regards, The Lunar Saints & The Dream Wards.” Looking at the sign in a bit more detail, Riley could see that beneath the message, there was a pair of symbols beneath the names of the clans. For the Lunar Saints, there was a silver shining moon, flanked by two golden arcs, softly following the curvature of the moon. And for the Dream Wards, there was a silver crescent moon with a small pink cloud beneath it, as if the crescent moon was resting atop it like a precious gem being displayed on a pillow. “Huh, looks like we gotta be careful where we walk from here on Eric.” Riley states as he glances around. “And I wonder why it says to travel during the night? And why have a sign like this just randomly in the middle of the forest? Or I guess, be somewhere that we think is the middle. You’d think they would place a sign like this at the forest entrance or something.” Riley puts a hand on his hip with a huff, looking slightly irked at what he felt were some logical inconsistencies with such a weirdly placed sign and means of effective traveling through a forest of this particular variety.

Eric couldn’t help but chuckle slightly at Riley’s somewhat annoyed behavior at such a strangely placed sign. Though as he looks around some more, he manages to spot a nearby tree that had a hollowed opening, perfect for some small pokemon to fit into. “Hey Riley, sorry to cut you off, but why don’t we take a break in there? I think it is starting to get a little dark after all.” Eric offers, pointing with his tail toward the tree in question.

Riley tilts his head over, noticing the tree and he nods his head. “Yeah sure, that works for me. Though if we wanna follow the sign’s advice, maybe we ought to just have a short rest & try to take advantage of whatever we can when night does eventually hit.”

Eric looks upward to the thick canopy of trees, then to the hollowed out tree nearby, then nods his head. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. Let’s just stop here for now, okay?”

Riley nods in agreement and makes his way over toward the tree, crouching down a bit and sitting down inside. Eric then follows in shortly after as the two of them get comfortable, with Eric slipping off their bag and setting it down between them. Once fully seated, Eric lets out a sigh as he felt the day’s travel catch up with him all at once. “Heh, you tired buddy?” Riley asks while he pulls off his glasses. He uses the end of his bandana to clean the lenses a bit as Eric nods his head.

“Yeah. I’ve never traveled like this before. I’ve always just stayed at home, you know?” Eric agrees, slumping down onto his side now as he closes his eyes, for a moment. Though he opens them again upon hearing Riley continue to talk.

“Huh, you’ve never traveled outside of your hometown eh? Honestly, I can understand why. It can be kinda scary leaving your home to go to places unknown. But if you ask me, sometimes leaving home can be just what someone needs. Like my momma once said, “You can only find so much of yourself from where you were born & raised…”” Riley trails off, at his last statement, he glances down at the glasses he was holding in his paws, now with a bit of a melancholic look in his eyes.

“Your mom?” Eric tilts his head, looking a little confused at first. “Wait, Riley is your mom…”

“Oh! Uh don’t worry about that.” Riley quickly cuts Eric off as he then hastily slips his glasses back on. “That’s not important right now. We gotta get your team going, right?” Riley dons a smile as he says that, then lets out a hearty chuckle shortly afterwards. Eric gives a bit of a skeptical look at first, but then merely shrugs.

“Alright, if you say so.” Eric replies. “I won’t pry if it’s really personal or anything like that.”

Riley lets out a small sigh of affirmation at that as silence would soon fall over the two of them. A moment passes, then Riley would begin to stand up. “I’m… gonna go take a look around outside, see what more of the path leads into. Be back in a moment.” Riley then shuffles out of their resting spot and takes a few paces out, stretching his arms a bit and looking around, his back currently facing Eric now.

“…I bet his parents are dead or something.” Marco suddenly chimes in Eric’s head, making the Eevee jump up in shock, and then bonk his head on the roof of the duo’s little shared resting place.

“Oww! Ow… Wh-Why would you say that!?” Eric hisses under his breath as Riley didn’t seem to notice Eric’s very brief freakout.

“Hey, don’t start freaking out already kid. I’m just making an observation. Did you see the way he looked at those glasses of his? I bet those are some hand me downs from his parents or something like that. Yeaaah that’s gotta be it. Bet you some poké that I’m right.” Marco says in a bit of a cajoling manner, but Eric lets out an aggravated huff.

“Come on! Don’t joke like that Marco! If his parents really are, well…” Eric hesitates slightly.

“Probably dead.” Marco finishes the sentence in a deadpan tone.

Eric huffs once more. “Yes, that. Look, my point is, I don’t wanna just brazenly say stuff that might make Riley upset. Is that so bad?”

“Probably not. But there’s no sense in trying to tiptoe around it either.” Marco replies. “But let’s put a pin in that for now. You’ve got more important things to think about ya know.”

Eric stares down at the bag on the ground, his gaze a bit low as he starts to feel his eyes get a little heavy. “Man. I’m tired…”

“Then why not sleep, kid?” Marco spoke, but Eric shook his head.

“Remember that sign? It said something about traveling under the cover of night, or whatever. If I sleep, I think I’ll wind up missing it.”

“Bah! Nights are long kid, you’re not gonna miss out on a whole lot if you just take a little nap. I’m sure your Riolu friend wouldn’t mind either.” Marco retorts. “You can sleep, it’s fine. Your explorer team ain’t goin nowhere.”

Eric ponders on that, glancing out the tree to Riley, who looked to have been studying the sign for a little while longer. “Hmm… maybe a small nap wouldn’t hurt. Will you wake me up in like, half an hour?” Eric asks Marco, who gives a grunt of affirmation.

“Yeah sure kid, I gotcha.” Marco replies somewhat dismissively. Eric gives a small smile at that as he then curls up in his spot. He lets out a tired yawn & closes his eyes, drowsiness quickly overtaking him…

Roughly two hours later, Eric suddenly snaps awake with a gasp. “Wh-Huh!? Hello!?” Eric swings his head side to side, looking around. “Huh!? How long have I been out!?”

“Couple hours.” Marco replies flatly.

“Couple HOURS!?” Eric yells, shocked. “I asked you to wake me up in half an hour! Why did you let me sleep for so long!?” He says, now growing angry.

“Because ya needed it kid! And besides, I haven’t seen you sleep that well in awhile. It gave me ample time to work on my little craft.” Marco replies, chuckling smugly to himself, which only made Eric huff out in growing frustration. “Anyway, take a look outside, kid.”

“Why’s that…?” Eric grumbles to himself as he grabs the bag, slinging it back on as he crawls out from the little hole in the tree. After shaking off some dirt that clung to his fur, he looked around as it looked like he was practically in a whole other world. What was once a dark, gloomy forest with an almost unsettling atmosphere has now transformed into a luminous, almost ethereal realm. Moonlight could be seen seamlessly poking through the canopy of trees, casting its lunar radiance down on the ground. The hanging moss was given a beautiful silver sheen from the moonlight & after a moment, Eric could see some of the hanging moss start to bloom. From within the hanging moss there appeared to be beautiful, silver colored flowers that would emerge when the moonlight touched them.

“Oh wow….” Eric trails off as he takes in the sight, utterly enchanted at such a change. “Wait, I can see so much better now that it’s nighttime.” He looks around & indeed, Eric could in fact see far much better into the forest than he could when it was daytime. The paths looked far clearer, & far more beautiful than they were before, giving the Eevee a feeling of ease as he was able to better familiarize himself with his surroundings. “Man, this is so pretty. I wonder what Riley thinks of this…”

There was a small pause of silence, to which Eric’s eyes would widen in sudden realization of one very important question.

“Wait, where’s Riley!?” He quickly looks around & the Riolu in question was in fact nowhere to be seen. His rapidly growing anxiousness would then be interrupted by the sound of foliage crashing as suddenly, Riley would come breaking through some underbrush, looking a bit scratched & out of breath, but otherwise he seemed fine.

“Oh hey! Eric! You’re awake!” Riley says in between breaths.

“Riley! Oh thank goodness, are you okay? Where’d you go!?” Eric looks over Riley as he catches his breath.

Riley takes a moment to pull some lingering petals & leaves from his fur, then lets out a sigh. “Yeah, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to leave you alone, I just saw some things when we were taking our break. But I guess things lasted a lot longer than I would have liked.”

“What exactly happened?” Eric asks, & Riley looks somewhat nervous.

Riley scratches his head briefly, then looks behind him for a moment, then back to Eric. “Well you see…”

Going back two hours, Riley had taken a bit of time for himself after his little chat with Eric. Various thoughts were drifting through his mind as he observed the darkened forest around them. He takes off his glasses from his face, staring down at the lenses as a look of longing was on his face now. “I wonder, is this all going to work out?” He says to himself, looking at his reflection faintly visible in the lenses of his glasses. He then closes his eyes, putting his glasses back on as he goes to tune into his aura sense. The little receptors on the sides of his head slowly rise up as Riley focuses, & through the darkness, he begins to see the ethereal blue flames that would inhabit all of the living entities that he could see normally, though the current amount of living entities, not counting the larger plants was somewhat minimal. ‘Hm… there’s my aura.’ Riley thinks to himself, looking down at his own hands, the ethereal flame was lightly dancing in his palms & traveling through his own body, then he lifts his head up & looks around some more, his aura focused gaze now on Eric. Though something was off the moment he looked. There was the normal blue ethereal flame that was Eric’s aura, albeit it seemed rather small. ‘Huh… that’s odd. Why’s Eric’s aura so small? Is it just because he isn’t that strong?’ Riley wonders in his mind. Though as he peers closer, his eyes squeezing a bit tighter, there appears to be something, a small black hole…? His deep concentration however gets broken as Riley’s ears twitch to a sound, the sound of movement through the foliage. He quickly opens his eyes, swiveling his head forward. “Wait, did someone just…?” He looks back at Eric, then to the direction the sound came from. Putting other thoughts out of his mind for the time being, Riley decides to tune into his aura sense once more. And as he does, there was no mistake. Someone else was there. Their aura was a dead giveaway even through the dark foliage. This particular aura however, would send a small chill down Riley’s spine. A sense of foreboding began to well up in him as this aura gave off the feeling of someone who was strong, dangerous even, but that foreboding feeling would be put to the side as he stood up. “They seem dangerous. Should I warn Eric?” Riley looks back at Eric, who was fast asleep. After pondering a bit, he shakes his head. “No, he’s already been so anxious practically all day. Maybe I can deal with this and put his mind at ease when I tell him after the fact.” He nods his head in determination & at that, Riley would hop up to his feet & follow this potentially dangerous aura, going past the warning sign he had read many times over during his little break.

A good amount of time would pass as Riley had followed this mysterious figure & as he would go through the dense underbrush, being as careful as he could to follow this individual. He kept careful track of them thanks to his aura sense, along with being mindful of any large sticks & loose foliage that would make a lot of noise, using his dancer-like grace to step & weave around. Eventually, the figure would stop, making Riley stop a good several feet away. The figure in question would then remove the hood of the cloak they were wearing, revealing themself as none other than a Bisharp. The Bisharp would then pull out a roll of parchment, looking it over. “Hm… if I’m reading this right, that lake shouldn’t be much longer. Quite a boon that I haven’t encountered any trouble. Suppose that’s one of the benefits of traveling during the day. Though it has been awhile. This damned forest blocks out the sun like it’s nobody’s business.” The Bisharp remarks bitterly, his icy tone sends another shiver down Riley’s spine as he found himself listening in on the Bisharp’s talking.

“Well no matter, once I’m there. Those damned Dream Wards won’t know what to do with themselves without their precious lake.” The Bisharp chuckles darkly as he stows the map away & as he does, he looks around a bit as all of a sudden, the scenery around him, & by extension Riley seemed to change. The hanging moss in the trees would appear to bloom, as streaks of moonlight would begin to peek through the abnormally thick canopy of trees, as if the light of the moon had taken the place of the sun in providing natural light. “Tsk. Perfect, I’ve spent too much time dawdling. The others are probably getting close to their destinations already. I gotta pick up my pace.” The Bisharp spoke disdainfully at the sight around him.

“Oh wow… I can’t believe it…” Riley was mesmerized by the beautiful sight around him, he almost forgot about the Bisharp he was eavesdropping on. ‘W-Wait a second! I gotta focus! This guy wants to do something to the Dream Wards? Or some lake that belongs to the Dream Wards!? Is he a bad guy!?’ Riley thinks to himself, quickly snapping himself out of his moment of amazement at the beautiful forestry. ‘Ah man, I gotta get outta here. What was I thinking trying to deal with this on my own!?’ He then turns around as the realization of the situation he was putting himself in. A lone, young Riolu potentially fighting against a Bisharp & however many comrades he had, it was crazy at best – suicidal at worst. He had to get out of here while he had the chance, & that was what Riley intended to do, that is until a snapping of a branch could be heard under his feet.

“Oi! Who’s there!?” The Bisharp whips his head around to the sound, making Riley’s heart nearly jump out of his throat. Before the Riolu could say anything however, the Bisharp extended one of his arm blades as a small bit of wind would gather, & swinging his arm in a forward arc, he unleashes an air slash. A blade of air shoots out, severing the hanging moss & tall bushes that Riley was using as a hiding spot, but thankfully barely missing the Riolu. Riley yelps in shock as he starts to back away, but the Bisharp was already advancing.

“Uhh w-wait wait a second! I come in peace!” Riley stammers, raising his paws up in defense.

“Peace? And yet you were hiding in those bushes just now?” The Bisharp retorts, his eyes narrowing to near slits as he stares down this Riolu.

“Th-There’s a lotta bushes & stuff ya know?” Riley replies with a nervous chuckle. “You know there are treaded paths, right? Why go all the way out here…?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” The Bisharp bluntly retorts, continuing to advance while Riley continues to retreat. Soon enough though, the Bisharp’s longer strides would have him catching up to Riley & would soon corner him as Riley felt his back bump against a tree. “Tell me,” He brings his extended arm blade up, just barely touching the side of Riley’s neck. “How much did you hear exactly?”

Riley swallowed hard as the situation was hitting him harder than before. He was trapped, trapped by this Bisharp who towered over him, with a blade ready to lop his head off if he gave the wrong answer. As much as he wanted to not show fear, his own tail instinctively betrayed him by tucking between his legs as his eyes, hidden behind his glasses darted around for a potential escape route. “Uh…. I uhhh, didn’t hear a thing.” Riley lied, trying to shy away from the blade to his neck.

The Bisharp would continue to stare at Riley, eyeing him up & down briefly, before he would slowly pull the blade back. “Hmph. You really didn’t hear a thing?” The Bisharp asks, cocking an eyebrow slightly.

Riley very quickly nods his head in affirmation. The Bisharp looks a moment longer, appearing to contemplate something, then he smirks. “Well now, guess this ain’t your lucky night kid. I’m afraid I’ve got no room for exceptions this time.” At that, the Bisharp raises his bladed arm, it becoming enshrouded now with dark energy as he goes to use night slash on Riley, but the Riolu, having half expected such an outcome the moment the smirk appeared, yelps & nimbly rolls to the side, avoiding what was a devastating slash. He spares a second to glance at the tree he was up against, seeing the now several inch deep gash going down its trunk. “You shouldn’t have stuck that little snout of yours in other folks’ business, runt! Time to die!” The Bisharp then dashes forward, but Riley, in an act of desperation, makes his foot ignite with fire as he does a quick spinning blaze kick to the Bisharp’s leg, making him shout in pain as the flames lapped against his steel leg. Before he could retaliate however, he saw that Riley was already running for his life, charging through the underbrush as fast as his nimble legs could carry him.

“…And so, long story short, I went and got myself into trouble because I thought I could prevent some future trouble that I thought was going to cause some unneeded trouble for us later down the line. Sooooo yeah.” Riley summarizes his little tale with a heavy sigh. “I think I managed to lose the freak, but that of course remains to be seen. So, any questions?” Riley asks, clearly now forcing a smile as he wipes some sweat off his brow.

Eric, & Marco were both at a loss for words, having listened to Riley’s little tale. “Wait, so just to make sure I got this right…” Eric takes a moment to clear his throat & look around the area, before settling his gaze on Riley. “You thought you could settle some problem that probably had absolutely nothing to do with us, and in doing so, you wound up bringing said problem right to us and now there’s a scary Bisharp in a cloak that’s trying to kill you for eavesdropping on him?” Eric asks, putting his front paws together & pointing them at Riley.

“…Yes.” Riley says simply, nodding his head only once.

“And this Bisharp is still somewhere around here, now hunting you down?” Eric follows up.

“…Yes.” Riley nods his head a second time.

“And you also kicked him?” Eric adds on further, his voice getting an octave higher.

“…Yes.” Riley nods a third time.

“And now that very same Bisharp is coming up behind you now?” Marco adds, making Eric look confused for a moment.

“And now that very same Bisharp is coming up behind you now?” Eric asks aloud, sounding confused.

“…Yes?” Riley then looks behind him, then his eyes widen in shock. “OH SHIT!” As he shouts that, another air slash goes hurtling at them, making Riley dive tackle & get Eric out of harm’s way. “I’m sorry buddy! We gotta go. NOW!” Riley swiftly grabs the bag & takes off running, with Eric quickly following.

At this, the chase would then resume, much to Riley’s frustration on not wanting it to. But with his quick thinking, he manages to dart off the beaten path, urging Eric to do the same.

“Hey. Hey kid? Ain’t this looking sorta familiar?” Marco says, making Eric jump slightly, but otherwise continue running.

“Familiar? What are you talking about!?” Eric hisses amidst his panting.

“Aww, you haven’t figured it out kid? Dang. Here I thought you were going to. Eh, maybe once we get a little closer…” Marco goes quiet at that, making Eric huff in frustration.

After what felt like ages running, the duo would come to a stop at what looked to be a clearing in the forest. The moonlight above casting its luminous glow over a massive, sprawling lake that appeared to be in the shape of a crescent moon.

“Oh! A lake!? Man, anywhere we can hide?” Riley says aloud, quickly looking for a spot to hide, but the lake was surrounded by the ever expansive canopy of trees, catching his breath at the same time. Eric on the other hand, looks out at the lake, a sense of curiosity that slowly turns to a strange sense of familiarity would start to take hold.

“Woah, that’s a pretty lake.” Riley remarks, taking a few steps forward. Though he stops & looks around some more. “Man… Eric, I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.” Riley turns, giving Eric a rather sullen expression.

“Oh. Umm… it’s okay Riley. I know you didn’t mean to make this whole situation occur. You were just trying to look out for me, right?” Eric spoke, stepping closer to Riley.

Riley nods his head at that, making Eric smile slightly. “Well, okay I guess… look, we can talk more about this later okay?”

Riley nods his head at that as he then watches Eric start to walk toward the lake. The sight of it seemed to calm him down some. “Man, it’s too bad we can’t enjoy the view of this lake.” Riley remarks as he walks up as well. “But yeah, we gotta-” Riley suddenly stops as he feels the fur on the back of his neck stand up. And in that moment, he looks behind them just in time to see yet another air slash flying at them. “LOOK OUT!” Riley dive tackles Eric out of the way again, except this time, Riley cries out as pain shoots across his leg. Though it wasn’t big, a noticeable clean gash that already started to bleed was cut across his right leg as Riley hit the ground hard.

“Riley!” Eric quickly scrambles to his paws & goes to check on Riley, who was holding his now bleeding leg.

“Hmph. Fast for a little runt.” The Bisharp remarks as he strides toward the two smaller pokemon. “Aw what happened? Did I get your leg, Riolu? Maybe now you’ll think twice before pulling shit like that – blaze kicking me and whatnot.” He says, though Riley doesn’t respond as he was trying to just focus on keeping the blood pooling out from his leg entirely. “I dunno if you’re some team trying to hunt me down or whatever, but the fact of the matter is,” The Bisharp then reaches down & as he does, Eric blinks once & a flash of recognition hits him like a boulder to the face. Blinking once, he could see that shadowy distorted figure from his nightmare, then he blinked again & it’s the Bisharp once more as he grabbed Riley, hoisting the injured Riolu off the ground. “You shouldn’t have messed around with my business.” The Bisharp then tightens his hold on Riley, making him yell out in pain again as he tries his hardest to break free, but to no avail.
The revelation of the figure in Eric’s nightmare coming true hits him again as he sees his friend in trouble. He felt his breathing quicken, his heartbeat go on the rise. He was scared, terrified even. But something else inside him, a faintly growing feeling of anger suddenly made the Eevee shout out loud.

“STOP! Let him go!” Eric shouts before he goes to tackle the Bisharp, only to get snatched up in the Bisharp’s other hand.

“Hm? Ohh, so you’re this Riolu’s companion or whatever? You were so pathetic I didn’t even notice you at first.” The Bisharp spoke bluntly as he held Eric up by his scruff. Any of that anger Eric felt mere moments ago was snuffed out instantly, now replaced with pure terror as the Bisharp held the both of them aloft. He appeared to ponder for a moment on what to do, before he got an idea. “Alright, here’s what’s going to happen.” The Bisharp spoke as he walked to the edge of the lake. “Because you meddled in my business,” He says to Riley. “And I just hate little brats like you,” He says to Eric. “I’ll just behead you both here, then get on with the rest of my night.” He says in a somewhat matter of fact tone. At that, he throws Riley to the ground, as his arm blade extends once more. “And guess what Eevee? You get a front row seat, & the splash zone too. Ain’t that fun.” The Bisharp spoke as he got ready to bring his blade down on Riley, who was paralyzed with fear.

“Kid! Come on kid do something! Hurry!” Marco says urgently in Eric’s head, but he got no response as all Eric could do was shiver in fear. “KID! Come on!”

Again, Eric couldn’t even hear Marco as his quickening heartbeat was very quickly drowning out all other sound, even his own thoughts. Fear & panic were rapidly taking over as the Bisharp would make his move. But before the blade would land its mark, there was a sudden rush of wind that blew through the area, causing the Bisharp to stop. “Hm!? What in the…” The Bisharp slowly turns around in the direction the wind blew, then all of a sudden, his eyes widen in shock at what followed. A small volley of blades of air shot out from within the foliage line, aimed straight at the Bisharp, who could not dodge in time. And with the blades of air, came a figure, dashing out of the tree line & beelining straight toward the Bisharp.

The Bisharp gasps before he gets cut up repeatedly by the volley of air slashes though the damage was nothing major for the most part, but still a hinderance nonetheless. “WHAT!? Who the hell!?” He loses his grip on Eric, who flops to the ground like a sack of potatoes, to get into a fighting stance, but he gets knocked off balance by a sucker punch to the gut, making him stumble back further.

“You! Who are you!? This is hallowed ground! Begone at once!” The figure that had struck him leaps back after the sucker punch, & standing proudly, bearing an intense presence, with fur as white as snow, a curved sickle on the side of the head & a bladed tail, glares at the Bisharp.

“Grr… an Absol….?” The Bisharp growls bitterly. The Absol then takes a step forward.

“There’s more of us on the way now. I will not tell you again. BEGONE!” The Absol then swings her head once more & a powerful wind gathers around her, & with a shout, parts of the wind turn to icy crystals as she unleashes an icy wind, bombarding the Bisharp, who held his hands up in defense, but could only withstand so much.

“Dammit! I’m out of time! Damn it all!” The Bisharp curses before he goes to beat a hasty retreat, leaving the Absol alone.

“Umm, wh-who are… you…?” Eric asks, his body still visibly shaking.

“That should be my line! Who are you two!?” The Absol asks as she approaches the two of them. And it is at this moment that Eric’s eyes widen in recognition. As he gazed into the Absol’s eyes, he could see the pale teal color in them, just like in the nightmare.

“Um… I’m sorry…” Eric takes a deep breath, before straightening up a bit. “Umm, m-my name is Eric. And the Riolu is Riley. We were getting chased by that Bisharp.”

“Chased? More like nearly getting finished off it looked like…” The Absol remarks, looking over the two of them with a concerned expression. She lets out a small sigh, before turning her head to what looked to be a pale purplish-pink band on her right upper-arm & embedded onto it, was a white crescent moon. She stares at it, appearing to contemplate something as she does. “Alright then. Well fortunately, that Bisharp won’t be coming back for now. The fact I’m here now is proof of that. My name is Alice, I can help you two if you need it.” The Absol, Alice spoke, her previously stern expression would give way to a more caring, but still focused look as she introduced herself.

“Y-You will…?” Eric asks as he hits his head a bit. “Great. Thank you…” Riley nods & goes to stand up, but then winces sharply as he clutches his leg again.

“Oh no, that wound. Please, allow me. I can take you somewhere safer. Come.” Alice spoke as she would go & shift Riley onto her back, then run off toward a path to the left of the lake. Eric would then waste no time following after her.