Chapter 1: The Healer

The skies were overcast that afternoon when Cresselia finally landed to rest her wings. She’d been flying north from her island for a couple of hours against the wind, and the muscles in her shoulders were numbing. Only the ocean had been between her home and the nearest peninsula where she might rest and stock up before continuing her journey. Thankfully, there was a town here, small as it was. Once she was ready, she just had one smaller body of water to cross before she would be on the Air Continent proper. 

Below, a huddle of huts came into view past the encircling forest—round and simple with quaint thatched rooves. Pokémon Square. With a huff of relief, she dove, allowing the pull of gravity and the flow of air against her tucked wings to take over. As she picked up speed, the citizens below took notice of their new guest, courtesy of one pokémon—a Granbull—who had pointed her out. Now several of them gathered close to the Kecleon stall she descended toward. Murmurs and whispers of reverence followed her as she alighted, trying to direct her attention as directly to the merchant there as possible. She couldn’t afford to be held up, as rude as ignoring the other citizens felt. She would have more time coming back to say a more proper hello.

“Oh, Lady Cresselia!” The older of the brothers greeted her at the desk, evidently caught by surprise at her arrival. He straightened out the mat over the stall counter as she approached. She didn’t see the younger brother yet. “Welcome, welcome! It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

“Thank you,” she breathed, straightening her wings as she drew closer. Though she’d been in flight, her legs felt like they may buckle beneath her from disuse and exhaustion. She shrugged a worn side satchel from her shoulder and onto the simple log desk of the stand. “‘Cresselia’ is just fine, Kecleon.”

“What brings you here today?” the other brother’s voice chipped in then, flared green head popping out from the stall’s tent. He hurried to the front, a box of apples in his arms. “Can we offer you anything?”   

“Yes, please.” She pushed her water flask forward first, and the violet-hued brother took it without a word, bowing slightly before whisking it away to the back for a refill. “I have a long journey ahead of me. I must make it to Mountain Crag City to the north by nightfall.” She took another moment to catch her breath before continuing, trying to ignore the concerned glance of the pokémon across from her. Instead, she handed her satchel across the table to him. “Two large apples, please, three chesto berries, and two sitrus. And if you have any, two reviver seeds.”

“Mountain Crag City?” The younger brother frowned as he rolled the requested berries and seeds into leaf packaging for later. “That route takes the Pelipper two days of flight, ma’am. Why are you in such a rush?”

Around them, a soft murmur arose from the towns-pokémon that had gathered—Granbull and Bellsprout—but she didn’t bother to make out any words. In the peripheral of her vision, she noticed Lombre shuffle away in a hurry and hoped no one here was acutely ill. She really couldn’t afford to be delayed too long.

“A severe respiratory illness has broken out there, and apparently its spread has been rapid. I can only heal under the moon’s light, and the new moon is fast approaching, so I must make the best of time that I can,” she explained as he handed the filled satchel back to her. She buckled it as tightly as she could manage before replacing it over her aching shoulders. She adjusted her wings beneath the strap, making sure she had enough mobility.

“Pardon, but did I hear you correctly?” The purple Kecleon pushed back through the tent’s flap with her flask in hand. “You’re traveling north without stopping?” She simply nodded, taking the flask and positioning it back into place as well. The other pressed on, demeanor becoming increasingly uneasy. “Are you sure we can’t offer you a place to stay for the night? As I understand it, there’s a typhoon that has developed that way. It turned even our Pelipper away from delivering mail this afternoon.”

“I have flown through worse,” she quipped back, moderately offended. She was much more aerodynamic and endurant than Pelipper were. Not to mention that healing for suffering people was much more important than timely mail. If she didn’t arrive swiftly, there may even be a chance of the contagion reaching Lake Town. …If it hadn’t already. She could soon be dealing with a larger epidemic than she had bargained for. “The citizens of Mountain Crag need me, and so I must go.”  All the same, she dipped her head in thanks, digging her fingers into the satchel’s side pouch for her poké. “What do I owe you two?”

The older Kecleon simply shook his head, hand up in refusal. “Only your word that you will remain safe, my lady. It is we who still owe you for your assistance this past summer.”

“And please stop for rest regularly!” the younger added. “We will pray the storm passes before you get there.”

Cresselia couldn’t help the relieved smile, nor the breath of gratitude; she didn’t take fees for her healing services, so she always seemed to be running thin on finances. “Thank you both kindly! I shall visit once more upon returning,” she promised.

With that, she turned to go, extending her wings for lift-off. Around her, the other townfolk shuffled back, giving cheerful farewells and wishes. Feeling more than a little overwhelmed, she nodded her head to them all briefly. Just as she was about to spring herself into the air, however, a smudge of purple and grey rushed across the cobblestone road. Just ahead, a Kangaskhan joey was running toward her, skipping every other step in effort to be seen as she waved her paw anxiously through the air.

“Miss Cwesselia! Miss Cwesselia, wait!”

Further behind her, and much more slowly, the mother Kangaskhan lumbered around the corner, followed by a relieved Lombre. Ah, so that was why he had hurried off. Cresselia recognized the two instantly. The joey had been barely two years of age when she had fallen ill with a bacterial ailment the past summer. A frail child at the time, she had given Cresselia a run for her poké, so to speak.

“Ah, hello again. Orchid, wasn’t it?” she asked as the little one approached, huffing for breath. In her free hand, the tiny Kangaskhan clutched folds of something gold and violet. “How are you doing? You had quite the fever when I last visited.”

“Much better!” Orchid grinned, stamina finally returning from her mad dash. Her paws shot up with the bundle of fabric outstretched. “An’ so I wanted to give you this! I held it a really long time!”

“Oh?” Cresselia arched her neck in surprise, glancing briefly up to the nearing mother curiously. “What is it?” she asked, returning her eyes to Orchid. She reached out her wings, and the child pressed the length of silk fabric into her fingers.

“Iss’a Lucky W-Ribbon! It keeps you safe.”

“It prevents critical hits from landing,” Ms. Kangaskhan’s voice clarified then, having finally made her way over. She was beaming down with a warm pride to her young one. “I’m glad we were able to catch you before you left. She has been asking nearly every week when you may come back.”

Cresselia nodded in acknowledgement, finding it difficult to avoid the contagious warmth in spite of her nerves today. …She could spare a few more moments. She’d just fly a bit faster for a stretch to make up for it. And thankfully, Lombre and the other citizens had gone back to their usual business now, so she shouldn’t need too much longer to wrap this up.     

“Wow, that is very special then, isn’t it?” she exclaimed, lowering her neck back to the smaller Kangaskhan. As Orchid bounced on her toes in excitement, she worked to untie the gifted ribbon. “Thank you, Orchid. I’m sure it’ll keep me safe like you say.”

As she took a moment to fashion the ribbon at her neck like a kerchief, however, Ms. Kangaskhan spoke up again. “Speaking of safety: if you do end up stopping for rest, I’d advise you to avoid Howling Forest for now,” she said, bending down to collect Orchid into her pouch once more. “We’ve had reports from Lake Town of strange occurrences filtering back even this far south. A few of our rescue teams have attempted to assist in uncovering the cause—to no avail as of yet.”

“Occurrences?” Cresselia paused adjusting the ribbon to spare the Kangaskhan a more attentive glance. Not another sickness—? “What do you mean?”

“Travelers within the woods seem to experience grim hallucinations, night terrors, and bouts of illness.” At her mother’s words, Orchid visibly shuddered, dipping deeper into her mother’s pouch. Kangaskhan placed a reassuring hand over the little one’s head. “It’s all unfounded hear-say, of course, but it may pay to be cautious. Even the most outlandish of tales I’ve heard tend to carry a grain of truth.” 

“Ah. It sounds to me like a gaggle of hypnotic ghosts are simply having fun with unwitting travelers,” Cresselia said with a wink to the young one before backing up once more to prepare herself for flight. “But thank you for the warning! I will be careful. I may even look into it after Mountain Crag is dealt with.”

“Of course,” Ms. Kangaskhan nodded, stepping back to give her room. Orchid’s tiny paw resumed its cheery wave from her pouch. Cresselia couldn’t help but blush. “May the Original One guide your path, my lady.”        

“And yours as well!”

With that, Cresselia pushed off from the ground and into the air once more until she had left the square and its inhabitants behind. Catching an updraft, she turned her sights north, huffing in anticipation. If only ‘haunted’ forests were the greatest of her concerns…

No, on the horizon, she had bigger problems. Strikes of golden light branched through the thunderheads beyond, cries unheard as of yet but closing in. Once she made it through, however, she’d be in the homestretch. Night would soon descend, and Mountain Crag City would have their healer. That was all that mattered.

******

The howling of wind in her ears threatened to drown all else—if she weren’t already drowning under the pelting torrent. It beat her mercilessly down so that she was always straining to regain air, pushing ever upward, sometimes blindly into the bruising onslaught. She was still against the wind, and this time, it threw her about on its whims far more than she liked.

Cresselia glanced down at the expanse of green leaves below. Some inviting, some shooting up like spikes from the forest floor. One wrong gust of the wind, and… If she just tucked away for a half hour…?  A rumble of thunder jerked her attention up, back to the sky. The looming night sky, one of the few left before her powers would be useless for a full twenty-four hours… Hours lives depended on.

Gasping for breath, Cresselia pulled herself upward again, away from the trees. She shouldn’t have too much further to go. If she could just rally herself for a few more kilometers, she—

A flash of light blinded her before she could take another wingbeat. Her body locked, convulsed, a searing, white hot pain tearing down into her side, her wing—! She couldn’t feel her w—!

An explosion of sound burst through her skull, echoing through her body like a blow to the chest. The winds forsook her, and gravity took her into its spiraling grasp before the darkness of the storm closed in.