There's snow everywhere. I don't recognize where I am, but I know wherever it is, it's cold and lonely in this empty, soulless way.

My breath freezes in my throat and I almost choke on it. I struggle silently to regain it with quick inward and outward gasps.

The snow keeps coming down, harder and thicker, and I look up to see the ghostly silhouettes of dead trees.

Someone is walking towards me.

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

It gets faster, bit by bit, until I'm compelled to run the other way.

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunchcrunchcrunch.

A white haired man, taller than any human I've ever met, is standing over me.

He breathes straight onto my face, but I can't even feel it. It's almost like he's... dead? No. He walks the other way, on to where, I don't know.

My legs are freed from their snowy tomb and I feel some sort of warmth return to them. My mind whispers, run. Not the rational thinking part of me- the part that's still Pokemon, the ancient, bestial part.

I step forwards and see something yellow in front of me.

My hand. It's so tiny- tiny and fingerless.

I'm an Ampharos?

The man continues walking forwards with this odd, lopsided gait, and his dead eyes are fixed on the horizon when I cut in front of him and ask, "Where are we?"

"Between worlds."

It dawns on me I'm dreaming. I slap myself and the whole place lurches somehow, the whole thing a bit distorted. My vision is terrible, the snowflakes are boxy and everything is fake. Numbers, endless ones and zeros, gleam in the man's eyes.

"Not pretty, is it?"

"But what is it?!" I ask. "What are you?"

"A player." he says solemnly. "A player in a game."

I wake up sweating in the middle of the night. Rune is beside me, looking up at the ceiling. His eyes are open and narrowed.

"Why are you awake?" I whisper, half hissing the words in a tone far meaner than what I intended.

"Your boyfriend snores louder than a Chestnaught." He groans.

"You having nightmares?"

"Maybe." he admits. "You too?"

"Maybe." I say. "I'll guard you and you guard me. Let's get back to bed."

"Let's." he parrots the words. He closes his eyes slowly, and soon, he curls up in this little ball that's all too human and all too delicate. He looks like a kid.

I think about what age he would be as a human. Thirteen, maybe? Older than Ashley... well, Ashley was very mature for her age, but Pokemon trainers grow up pretty fast.

You see too much and you can't go back to being an oblivious child again.

I lean against Rune, hoping I'll never lose him too, and fall asleep to the beating of his racing heart.

We wake up together in the morning and Pich is on the windowsill, which has been flung open, and she's chirping to the outside birds. I can make it out, of course, but bird Pokemon chirps have always been a bit hard to comprehend, even when I was a Flaafy. They speak really quickly and their grammar is horrible- like the equivalent of human texting, but you don't understand any of the acronyms.

"Hey Pich." I say drowsily, finishing it off with a loud yawn.

She looks up quickly, turns her head, and ruffles her wings a bit, uncomfortably. "Oh. Hello."

Some bird outside chirps, "But wait! The burritos-"

She shuts the window. "Do you need anything?"

"Lovely conversation you're having out there."

"Oh. Yes..." she says, "Why don't we get going for today?"

"Of course." I say. "You might want to... deal with that."

She opens the window back up and continues chirping for the whole world to hear. I see Bronze at the door already dressed and ready to get on the road (of course). I sigh. "Are we almost ready guys?"

"You're the one still in your pajamas." points out Rune.

I snap my fingers. "You're right."

One painfully short shower and change of clothes (the thing about Pokemon training- you have one outfit or two and that's it) later, we're out on the streets of Geosenge, Bronze and company tagging along.

The arch at the edge of the city towers over us. I pause a second, looking up at the arch and thinking about how far I want to go today.

"Hey Rune, how far away is the next town?" I ask, but it's Gaile who answers.

"There's a huge cave! Pokemon used to dare each other to go in it and it'll take three days to cross- WATCH OUT!"

I turn around like a Deerling in headlights as an Aura Sphere flies towards me at a breakneck speed. Pich flaps her wings hard and it dissipates immediately. "Who's there?"

Chrona has her vines out, Crypt is gnashing his teeth, and Gaile is rippling with voltage. My other Pokemon look bored or just confused instead of hostile.

A Lucario runs at us, stopping only feet away from me to look up into my eyes.

"What?" I say.

He bows and says softly, "My lady. My lord. May I assist you in-"

I look at Bronze, who puts his hands up defensively. I roll my eyes. Clearly, I'm taking charge in this scenario. "Who are you?"

"But a humble servant to-" he says, but is cut off by Pich.

"The hero of legend, who will restore Pokemon and humankind to walk as equals again on this earth." she finishes his sentence with absolute certainty, as if reciting a well-rehearsed play.

"With golden eyes, the hero will save Kalos from the fires of hell, armed only with a sword of the purest ore." They say at once.

"It's not her, sorry." Pich says. "She's a Goldeneye, but there are a lot of them out there now."

"How many?" The Lucario demands.

"At least 10, if not 20. Hey, if you're wild, you should travel with us, we're-"

"I'm not wild. I belong to Master Korrina. See, there she is."

"You again!" yells Korrina from afar. I remember her from right around when we left Lumoise, and this must be that same Lucario. She skates up on her tricked-out roller blades and says, panting slightly, "My Lucario must really like you. He bumped into you already near Lumoise, but he was super shady about it. Not like him at all."

I say nothing. No one's reacted to my odd existence like this yet excepting Pich, but I suppose that's some weird thing about her 'kind' she hasn't told me. Korrina continues, "Well, we should have a Pokemon battle to see what's so great about you! Sound good, Nico?"

The Lucario nods. Nico's paws glitter with aura, and then without warning he's on attack mode. Pich dives into action, launching a Wing Attack from above, but barely grazing him. Unfazed, Nico strikes out with a Bone Rush, missing as Pich soars high above him. She dives down into an Aerial Ace, but I can feel her tugging at my soul.

Wanna really show them something? she asks, practically begs, and I consent.

Together as one, my eyes glittering gold, we fall out of the Aerial Ace, feinting out to the left before flying right past Nico with one decisive Air Slash. He closes his eyes and falls down to his knees, and I see a huge cut across his side.

I flash back. "Oh my god... I'm so sorry."

"It's fine." Korrina says, whipping out a Hyper Potion. "That was incredible fighting. Listen, I... I have to go. Meet me at Shalour City in my gym and I'll show you real scars." she smiles weakly. "Nico, are you okay?"

Nico nods, and they walk off.

"Wow," I mutter, "That was..."

"Interesting?" says Chrona, "Well, I'm bored. The whole mythos thing is great but you have to realize that not all of us are godsent magical superbeings and sometimes we just want to go beat up small animals in large patches of grass."

"I second that." Bronze says, "But sometime tonight, when we're done grinding, you are explaining everything, Pich."

With that, we leave the arches behind.

Pich looks at me with her odd bird smile and lifts her wings to fly. In fact, in the morning sun, they almost glitter.

Could she be close to evolution?

Only one way to find out.

It's back to the grind.

(SORRY FOR INFREQUENT UPDATES! EXPECT ABOUT ONE A WEEK BUT I WILL TRY FOR MORE WHEN SCHOOL CLEARS UP SOME.)