17. In Which Dusknoir Nags

Twig was at a degree of sleep deprivation she hadn’t thought possible before now. In all honesty, she thought that she would feel much more exhausted than she did while running on eleven hours of spotty sleep spread across four days total. She didn’t feel that tired, per se. She mostly just felt heavy. Her limbs were slow to move, her head was difficult to keep raised, and yet her mind was just as quick as ever— if not even more so than usual. Or at least, so she thought. 

Dusknoir decided to drop by for a visit while on a job in the area. He had just caught an outlaw outside town and passed him off to the Officer Magnezone and the deputy duo of magnemites when he sent word that he was going to pay them a visit. Twig looked at the note Delibird handed her, blinking slowly as the words sank in. “Them”? Oh. Wait. Right, she had Darkrai staying with her. Duh. Speaking of, he was watching her with a very distinctly worried expression as she stared numbly at the note. She didn’t know why. She was doing fine.

Dusknoir taking one look at her and asking if she’d considered getting a lunar feather recently told her that maybe she wasn’t doing as fine as she thought— at least in terms of appearances.

“Huh?”

“A lunar feather. Have you thought about looking into obtaining one?” Dusknoir dumped the contents of the miniscule mug in his hand into his mouth. Twig frowned at him from across the table. Before, she had thought that it was kind of rude to just finish off the tea he’d be offered whenever he visited her and Kip so quickly. Nowadays, she had to admit that it was a small cup in comparison to the rest of him. Honestly, it seemed like a half-gulp at best. 

She paused to take a moment and register what he’d said. “Where in the world would I even find a lunar feather, Dusknoir?”

“Have you considered asking Cresselia, the Legend who is the source of lunar feathers, and who you are respected by enough that she chose to go into a disadvantageous battle with you and Kip as her handpicked guards?” 

“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.” She rubbed her eyes with the heel of her palm, muttering to herself about how stupid she was to have forgotten something so important. She then jolted up in her seat. “Wait! I don’t even know where she is! How am I supposed to ask Cresselia for a feather when she up and vanished after the fight with—” She choked on the name she almost uttered. Darkrai might be off in the other room and behind a closed door, but she had her suspicions he might be able to hear better than she initially thought. “A-After the fight at Dark Crater?” She amended.

Dusknoir hemmed and hawed for a while, trying to come up with a solution. Twig wracked her weary brain for any ideas as well. It was at this point that Darkrai chose to psychically project his voice from the other room, and Twig felt very relieved she hadn’t said who exactly she and Kip were enlisted by Cresselia to battle. “I don’t mean to intrude, but I wanted to ask if Cresselia would by any chance be the Legend opposite to myself, and whom I am aware of the location of at all times.”

Dusknoir gave Twig a look. 

Twig tried to scowl at him, but only managed an exhausted pout. 

“Am I correct in my assumption?” Darkrai asked. 

“Yeah, pretty much,” Twig grumbled. “Guess it’s time to dust off the expedition gear…”

Darkrai made a small noise in confirmation. Twig wondered why he sounded so excited, but was too distracted by Dusknoir bringing up her decor situation’s pitiful nature to think on it for long.