(15806)

Chirin laughed, frisking over to Selden. The two young rams reared 
up, pawing with their front feet. Mindful of the very shy ewe grazing 
not far away, Chirin jumped back, edging backwards and drawing Selden 
away with him. Selden ducked his head and charged Chirin in play. 
Chirin dashed away, dodging him in one sideways jump. Half bleating 
and half giggling, Selden redirected himself and charged again. 
Chirin lowered his own head to meet the smaller ram and they butted 
heads. Chirin pretended to go down, flopping on his side while Selden 
climbed on him.

"I got you! I got Chirin!" said Selden as Chirin kicked his feet in 
the air, fizzing with sparks.

"You gotta love'em," said Azalea, looking like she wanted to join in 
but too awkward and modest to. "My, ah, burns, I'm not up to this 
Rapidash-play myself personally."

Ivy sat alone in the storm, shivering just a bit as the mud was washed away 
from her wool, leaving her soaked to her skin. Maybe she could go after 
them...?

But if they had left without her like this, maybe they didn't want her 
there...?

A stubborn look came onto her face. Well, whether they liked it or not, she 
wasn't about to let herself get left behind!

She trotted out in the direction she had seen Chirin and the others go...

Chirin lay rolling on his back with Selden jumping on him. "Tickle! 
Tickle!" said Selden, giggling into Chirin's belly as Chirin laughed 
insanely. 

Then he saw, upside-down, Ivy's approaching figure parting the wet 
grass. "Ivy," he said in a breath of laughter. He struggled up, 
rolling upright as Selden fell off.



Ivy giggled to herself. Chirin was a silly ram to say the least...


"Sorry Selden," he said, giving himself a shake to rid his coat of 
the water it had soaked up again in the never-tiring rain. Such a 
dark time that had happened must be taking the spirits that much 
longer to wash away. It must have touched the plants, too, and 
Watakko was giving them a gift to grow with.

"Ivy!" He waved his light. "Sorry we left you up there. "I just 
didn't want anyone else left alone. We found Karama, here," he said, 
nudging the ewe's shoulder, "and another mareep here. Now, we are 
six! Come play!" 


"Play..?" 

Ivy tipped her head to a side, water trickling down "How..?"



* * *


Azalea watched the shy ewe graze. She looked bewildered, maybe even 
frightened, by the frisky rams and sudden smell of strangers all 
around, on top of approaching darkness and lousy weather. Here Azalea 
had stood there hating the poor stranger just for looking at Chirin. 
Jealous or not, she was not going to allow pointless flames of 
emotion to interfere with her thought processes, or, especially, 
common decency.

"You get used to our bunch," she said, edging over to the green-eyed 
mareep. "They're harmless, in fact, our rams. Chirin's about the 
sweetest thing that ever grew wool. Ah...that's a purely objective 
statement, of course," she said, glancing over while Chirin and 
Selden began playfully sparring again, chasing and tumbling over each 
other in the cloudy, rainy dusk as the fields took on a bluish 
twilight hue. Trying to avert the sudden yellow-orange blush of her 
tail's light, she stuck her nose in the grass and cropped up some.

Karama sat there, chewing her cud. She heard
something. She spun around and watched as a silver
flaaffy with a goden cresent moon shaped scar on her
forehead. Her eyes were golden too, but they were
darting nervously around. She was battered, brused,
bleeding, muddy, and wet. She turned to speak to
Chirin, but no words came out, and she mouthed
soudlessly like a fish.

"Like this!" Chirin jumped up, and ran in a circle, letting Selden 
chase him. "Oh!" he stopped suddenly, causing Selden to bump into 
him. "Let's play Denrai! Azalea, you can be Dini again if you want."


"A story sounds nice..." Ivy commented with a slight grin.


"Huh?" Azalea lifted her head, grass dangling from her mouth. "Uh--
ahh..." She swallowed. "Denrai? Now? Here? with everybody?"

"Well, it is kind of windy," said Chirin, "but we can pretend that 
we're trying to get through the windstorm to find the island! But, it 
is kind of getting dark. If you want we could have a story instead." 

Ivy was confused "How do you play 'Denrai'? And who is 'Dini'?"

She grinned mareepishly "I'm afraid I don't know much.."

Chirin realized it was the perfect time to tell the story. "Denrai is 
the great Ampharos of the Moon. He lived in our flock once and we all 
come from him. Well--I mean my flock, my--family flock." He 
paused. "Anyway, I can tell you a story about him, if you want!"

"I would much appreciate and enjoy that," said Azalea. "Although I've 
already heard some of your fabulous stories."

"There's more I didn't tell you," said Chirin, who knew that one of 
the best ways to call in the friendly ancestors on a cold, stormy 
night was to tell a good story. They always loved to gather round 
among the living to hear it.

Ivy shivered "I would enjoy it even more if there was somewhere dry 
to tell it.."

She looked embarassed "I'm not quite used to being out in this kind 
of weather.." 

Karama looked around and saw mareep gathering next to
Chirin. She already knew the story, what was the point
of going over there to hear? And, she was a bit shy
about it too...

"Oh, I'm sorry...But the forest is all wet too, and I don't like 
forests--they're not safe. I'm sick of this rain too." Chirin looked 
at the sopping wet Ivy. She easily had the whitest, fluffiest wool of 
all of them, but the storm's pounding had muted it, along with 
everyone's, running their coats into saggy, soggy, heavy burdens. The 
wool on Ivy's head, like Azalea's and Selden's, was plastered down 
around her eyes. Chirin realized that although his own wool was no 
longer, or not much so, than it had been before, everyone else's wool 
had grown considerably. Why? Was it part of their wool 
being 'improved'? It didn't make it easy to see in the rain. 

"Your wool grew," said Chirin.

"It's bred for constant growth," said Azalea. "It requires periodic 
shearing. I suppose we're all overdue by now."

"What's shearing?"

"When the farmer shaves our wool off."

That sounded rather...dangerous. Not to mention, following the vein 
of human ways, strange. Humans, who enchanted plants, also enchanted 
wool. He recalled Karama's silver sheen.



Ivy was a bit bothered by her own wool...usually, she adored how fluffy and 
pretty it was. But at the moment, it was just making her feel cold and 
like it was a large burden. What she wouldn't give to be back at the 
arm...warm and cozy in the barn, her wool fluffy and cropped short...

She shook her head, making her wool send water flying a ways, and the wool 
to shift, even if some was firmly choosing to stick to some parts of her 
flesh. She was where she was. Nothing she could do about that...

Karama was not with them. He looked around. "Karama?"

Out beyond them the ewe stood alone. 

"Azalea, you think you could get everyone over to the little rise? I 
don't want to stay here--it's too puddly. And with this rain it's 
going to get worse. I'll go talk to Karama, she may be shy."

Azalea didn't want to leave him with her--that jealousy bug biting 
again. "Sure thing, we will be awaiting your arrival, hoping you will 
select a suitable story. Then again, any story is a suitable story if 
its intention is to bring about overall unity and comfort. Excepting, 
of course, frightening stories."

Chirin waited for her to finish. With a touch of noses, they parted.

Ivy chuckled to herself mentally. Well, two of their kind of way usually 
clicked together...one not right in the head, one always putting her foot 
in her mouth.

Of course, Chirin wasn't exactly ugly...

A pink tinge threatened her cheeks as she shook her head again. Where 
had THAT thought come from?! She must be coming down with something...that 
was it...

Azalea led them to the hill, feeling like a real part of a flock for the 
first time. It felt strange, comforting...almost too good to trust. 
Wherever Chirin would take them next, she was willing to go. She 
regretted this loss of....

Loss of what? Where had she been before she met Chirin and left the 
farm? All she had to worry about now was how to stop being so 
jealous. All these other ewes weren't out to steal him away! 

*Don't be silly, of course they are. He's the only ram here.* She 
just couldn't buck the feeling that somewhere in this, there was a 
ruse. 

* * *

Chirin went over to Karama, nibbling some grass near her, avoiding 
direct eye contact.

"Karama. Don't you want to join us? I'm not the best storyteller, but 
won't it be nice to all snuggle and rest together? I know I love to 
snuggle after a long day." He yawned and smiled. It had been a long 
time since he'd spoken to someone else familiar with the stories, and 
who was in touch with, well, normal old stuff. He knew it had been a 
long time because talking to Karama felt like flopping onto a 
familiar old cotton bed. Not that Azalea wasn't a great friend too. 
She shared a spirit connection with him after all. He really wanted 
to ask Azalea some things--like about shearing.

"If you want, how about you can pick the story? Do you have a 
favorite?" 

"I hypothesize that if all this precipitation continues into 
tomorrow," said Azalea to the mareep now gathered on the low 
swell, "we're due for rather heavy flooding. Not that I have ever 
experienced more than moderate flooding. I recall one incident back 
on our farm," she said to the quiet green-eyed ewe, "when the lower 
pastures experienced flooding. I imagine they're in similar straits 
right about now. I voice my concerns because this may affect our 
travel plans, or rather Chirin's travel plans. Assuming of course, he 
has any at this point in time. I have yet to question him on it but 
that will be the topic of our next upcoming conversation."

Karama looked at Chirin and shook a bit for no real
reason.
"I-I guess so Chirin. You choose the story..." Karama
said nervously. She was shy.

Ivy sniffed "I was in a small flood once...before I came to the 
farm...but it wasn't big or anything. Just up to our hooves really..." 

Chirin gave her a nuzzle. "Great, then, Come on back and join all of 
us." They would have a big evening snuggle over a story...almost like 
old times.

Chirin led the way, splashing through puddles of half-inundated grass 
to reach the rise.

"I have the story," he said, shaking his legs off as he climbed up, 
his face to the driving rain which had grown heavier again. "The 
story of Denrai's Escape."

"When Denrai was born, the Ampharos sang aloud to Clef, the moon. 
They danced and sang songs. They laid grass, and berries and tree 
bark down as gifts of thanks to the spirits who has sent Denrai to 
live among them.

"But one Ampharos was mad. He was Bua, and he had a plan to take over 
Pharos and cast everyone into darkness. He came in the middle of the 
night." Chirin dimmed his light low and began pacing the outside of 
the circle, also sniffing for enemies, although with all the puddles 
he'd have heard them splashing. Back home all the flock would have 
also dimmed their lights, but they didn't know to. Even so, the 
others' lights had grown a bit dimmer.

"Bua came in with a blast of dark lightning. He attacked the rams of 
Pharos. They fought bravely, but every one of them who fought Bua, 
died. 

Bua stood up on the rock, after he had killed three rams and no more 
rose to fight him.

"'I am Bua, and you shall call me Bua na'Phos!' he said in a booming 
voice." Chirin made a zap of lightning with his tail. "'All of you 
shall see Phos's light no more. Everyone march, now, down into the 
cavern of Pharos.' And Bua forced all of them to march in. But when 
he came to Denrai and his mother, he bent down, and sniffed the 
newborn lamb. She had only given birth to him on the sacred grass by 
Pharos, only the day before. 

'This one must die,' said Bua.  At this, Denrai's mother attacked 
him. But Bua attacked back. They fought in a great clash of thunder! 
And Bua defeated Denrai's poor mother. He made his ram helpers drag 
her down into the caves.

And then, he ran after little Denrai of the silver skin and wool. But 
when Bua seized him, Denrai gave a blinding flash of lightning!" 
Chirin clapped his own *denki*, as a rumble of real thunder growled 
out of the darkening clouds above them. "The lightning knocked Bua 
out, and Denrai escaped.

"Denrai ran and ran through the forest. There were many enemies that 
came, but the forest knew who he was and that he would one day 
disperse the darkness that had come over Pharos. The forest helped 
Denrai escape each enemy that hunted him. A Sneasel pounced, but 
bushes jumped in front of it. An Arcanine blew fire, but rain flooded 
it out. And a Tangela whipped its vines out, but the trees lashed 
their vines to block it. And Denrai ran and ran until Phos woke up 
the next morning.

"Now, Denrai was tired and he fell asleep at the edge of the forest, 
by the foot of a tree qho guarded and watched over him. The trees 
called to a Meganium who munched on leaves nearby. This Meganium had 
lost her Chikorita not long ago. She was very sad.

"But now the trees called to her, they said, "You have been chosen to 
bring up this silver lamb. Here he is, and you must raise him safely, 
for one day he will grow up strong and drive out the dark that has 
come over the land."

And the Meganium took up Denrai with her, and brought him to her 
herd. They healed him with their healing powers and fed him with 
their sweet nectar. And Denrai grew up with them and learned the ways 
of the Meganiums. And so Denrai was safe and happy again.
Denrai lived with the Meganiums for many years, kept far away from 
the dark force of Bua, who looked for him but never found him.

"That's the end of that part!" said Chirin. "There's more stories of 
Denrai, but that's the story of how he was saved." 

Chirin was shining his light brightly again, and was heartened to see 
that the lights of most of the others, including Azalea's, had 
responded in kind. All lights had memories, he thought, they really 
were the home of a denryuu's soul. It brought him to tears right 
then, looking at all of them who had braved this storm with him and 
even though he had failed to take the darkness away, even though he 
had run away from them, they were staying with him here tonight. 

"Ah, ancestors of light, spirits of the grass and lightning, you are 
good."

Chirin knelt and touched his nose to the wet ground, nuzzling the 
grass for a moment.  Then he stood up, and had a few bites, newly 
appreciating all it gave up for mareep to eat.

"That was a most interesting and touching story," said Azalea. "I can 
understand how it touches the heart and psyche."

"It's true, too," he said with glistening eyes. "Denrai founded my 
flock again when he sent Bua away over the sea."

A gust of wind shoved against the small flock, who all braced their 
legs against it. Selden fell over, bleating in fear as he scrambled 
back up, using Chirin as a shield.

"I hate to interrupt the moment and, ah, ruin the mood," said Azalea, 
but...ah..."

Chirin smiled. "The wind already did. But the spirits don't mind, 
they're still with us. But I hate to say I'm too tired to tell 
another story." He yawned. "What is it?"

Azalea expressed to him her earlier stated fears of flooding. "And 
I'm uncertain as to how safe we'll be here in the event of a flood," 
she said. 

Chirin wanted to believe the spirits would keep them from harm, but 
there were as many nasty ones as nice ones out there, plus plenty 
more who didn't care and plenty more who were out for 
mischief. "Well, this is the highest place for a while round here. We 
can't go back to that hill, that's a way away now. Tomorrow morning 
we'll set out first thing and I think it might get a little higher as 
we go. We'll probably find another hill somewhere." Now he knew 
another reason his instincts had not wanted him to stay here: it was 
too low. Any big storm and it would flood out.

Thyme's ears perked up a bit.  She wondered who Denrai was?  Was he or she 
also a mareep?  Was Denrai among this group?  She sat down to listen along 
with the others, her tail-light dimmed.
What was an Ampharos?  She knew what a bellsprout, weepinbell and victreebell 
were, and the occasional spearow and pidgey and gloom.  What kind of pokemon 
was it?
What was a Pharos?  This story created many questions for Thyme.  She oped 
she would remember them all.  Maybe shoe could ask someone later.  Even if 
she did look like a total fool...
Rams?
Ah.  Fighting pokemon.  She couldn't picture them, but she could hear the 
name.
Thyme jumped.  What was attacking them?  She looked around, but no one else 
was running away, so she settled back down again.
Ah, so Denrai was a silver lamb?  By this point she decided that it msut be a 
legend, such as the ones she had grown up with.  It was very different from 
the ones that Mom and Dad told Rooty and her each night, before . .. 

She didn't feel the tears going down her already wet cheeks.  No one else 
would see them, she knew -- not in this rain.  That was good.  How would 
there other mareep feel about one raised by plants anyway?  The thought 
scared her more then a little; she didn't know if they would like her after 
she told them.  

That is, if she could think of anything to say.  This was all so new to her . 
. .  What was a Meganium, anyway?
She thought about the story.  Some day, 
maybe she would understand more of it.


Thyme wasn't sure she could think of anything to say.  By now, she 
knew that "Light-sister" wasn't a proper name, since Chirin had also 
addressed her by that title.  Things happened so fast, why didn't Mom and Dad 
tell her-?  THey didn't know, did they?  Time seemed to stand still among the 
'Bells and move so quickly here among other mareep.  
       At least, she thought these were mareep.  She wasn't quite sure of it, 
though.  She laughed at the antics of the overactive one that seemed to want 
to jump all the time.  Sometimes, things were a bit silly here.
       She missed the quiet nook of the forest that until now she had called 
home.  Could she adjust to life among other mareep?  They were all so noisy, 
so -- full of life.  True, it was a different life then among the 'Bells.  A 
lot noisier, for one thing.  Also very soggy.  She still could not see things 
around her very well.  Her wool still hung in her eyes and over them.  
       The wool of some of the sheep grew too fast for her to understand, at 
least from the conversation she overherad.  But what were humans?
       Some things were very strange, out in the world . . .

Karama smiled. She had heard her mother tell her this
story, but Chirin told it best of all. It was geat.
She smiled at the ram, then blushed.

Ivy found herself glaring at the young Mareep from the corner of her 
eye...not that she CARED she was blushing and smiling in Chirin's 
direction...

What was with her...?


Chirin sat down to rest, winding down for sleep, or the attempt to 
sleep, in the rough rainy air. 

"I must ask you a few questions about your story," said Azalea as she 
sidled up and settled down against Chirin, a little more comfortable 
doing so as she realized that he really wasn't just tolerating her. 
She'd seen him throwing her looks from his black eyes during the 
story. He had told it to everyone, but somehow there was a part of it 
that he had told only her.

she felt Chirin snuggle back against her. He really did like 
snuggling up to her! So if he actually enjoyed that, even in the 
presence of these other more favorable-looking ewes, her poking 
prying questions would be nothing, she reasoned. "Several aspects of 
it sent sparks of interest. Ah, by now you're aware of my rather 
isolated upbringing on the farm--isolated, that is, from the 
wilderness. To the point--What is a Meganium?"

"Yeah," said Selden. Chirin laughed.

"Well, a Meganium is a great big tall green pokemon--beautiful, with 
a flower round its neck that flaps so beautiful, and helps the 
breezes blow in summer. They have great powers to heal you and they 
help the trees and plants grow. That's why the places they live are 
lush and green. In he winter, they leave and go away and it gets 
colder. When my flock went up away from the sea during the summer, we 
went to places where they lived. They like living in forests and 
copses and sometimes I saw them out in the grass too. They eat grass, 
like us. They are not enemies--they are very friendly and gentle. The 
old ones are very wise. They have little baby ones that like to hop 
and play a lot, when it's warm. The babies make little "Chiko, chiko, 
re-re-re" noises. Mother Megga has the head and the neck of a 
Meganium." 

"How intriguing," said Azalea. "I wonder if we'll see any of these 
beings out in this region?"

"Maybe," he said. "I didn't smell any yet but this is probably a 
place they like to go. They love green places." He gave her a long, 
curious look, his ears wiggling slightly, although now and then the 
wind would bat them around. "So in Farm, you stayed in the other side 
of that silver vine thing all the time? Or did you go out sometimes?"

"A couple of instances Annie--the young girl who I believed first 
forcibly corraled you into our barn--occasionally she took me and 
sometimes other lambs out around the house, but apart from that we 
spent the entirety of our lives behind the fence. I always used to 
wander the edges and speculate about what lay beyond, but the fence--
that's what the silver vine thing is referred to as, a fence--served 
to prohibit us from escaping."

"Not all of us did you know.." Ivy muttered. Her tailight flickered as she 
rested her head on the ground.

"That was a great story Chirin-Chirin" Karama said.
She walked around a bit in the rain. It didn't bother
her. She was wet, but not as wet as the other mareep.
She seemed to be absorbing the water! A bolt of
lightining streaked across the sky.
With a 'Meriipu!' of fright, Karama bolted to the gap
in the roots where she had been found, and she lay
under there, shivering.

Ivy kept her eyes closed "There's no reason to fear the lightening 
Karama...we do make it in a way after all.."

Why thank you," said Chirin to Karama. "I'm glad you liked the one I picked. 
It's not my favorite part but the really good part is after that. 
Tomorrow, when I'm not so tired, I'll tell another story." 
Right now his body was telling him to settle in and rest. He watched 
the silvery ewe wander off, apparently for a bit of choice grass, 
although the ground was getting waterlogged out well beyond the 
swell, where the ground sank down. 

"So you never got to just wander out of that little farm?" he 
said. "Did you get bored?"

Azalea gave a dry laugh, realizing only now that she wasn't just 
talking to cover up the fact that her electricity was racing through 
her, along with her heart, all due to being so close to him... She 
was actually just enjoying herself here. 

"You know, funny thing about boredom and me--it was indeed my 
constant companion on the farm more or less, but I wasn't aware of 
it. I just assumed I was hard to please. Perhaps I am. However there 
was also something lacking in my domesticated life. It was this sense 
of--greater awareness--that I and the others seemed to lack. Out here 
I'm much more alert. It's like life, only with the volume turned up."

"Volume turned up?"

"Ah--but then you've missed certain quirks out here, haven't you? 
Well, Annie had this object she called a "boom box..." And Azalea 
proceeded to explain.

"Humans really are very magical creatures," said Chirin. "If they 
really can--make--rocks sing. Not that rocks can't sing..."

"Ah..." She lowered her voice. "That's been another--thing that I've 
been especially...awkward about getting around to ask into. And..." 
She trailed off, looking around. "You know what? I just backed out of 
asking it again."

"No, what is it?" He wanted to say he'd nuzzle her if she told, since 
she really seemed to like it, but he didn't think it was a good thing 
to say or do, so he didn't say it. The nuzzles they shared were 
sacred and not something to be bartered. "Do you want to walk over, 
there, and you can ask me?"

"Well...if you put it that way..." In the back of her head she was 
astonished at herself as she gave him a wink. Then she laughed.

Chirin laughed too and she swatted him on the shoulder.

"I didn't mean--!" he said.

"Ah but you should have seen and heard yourself! Ha!" She 
sighed. "Well hey, it isn't as if I'm turning you down or everything. 
Yes, I'll ask the question. At this point it seems rather frivolous, 
to tell you the truth."

"I still want to hear it," he said. 

A lightning bolt tore down, appearing to meet the ground not far 
beyond the copse. The boom followed a couple heartbeats later.  
Chirin's body released a small, unfocused frisk of sparks on instinct.

"Well if that's not someone telling me to go ahead and ask you I 
don't know what is," said Azalea, getting up.  "Really it's a simple, 
quick question pertaining to--"

They both heard a "Meriipu!" All heads turned at the sound and Chirin 
saw Karama's light flash away towards where Chirin had coaxed her 
from--the big tree at that copse's edge.

"What!" said Azalea, doing a 360. "I don't hear anything--"

The remaining mareep clustered together on the hill, lights flashing, 
coats sparking, ready to attack or flee. But after a few breaths 
nothing more happened.

"I'll go see if she's okay," said Chirin, untangling himself from the 
group. He splashed into the puddled ground. When he didn't see Azalea 
following him, he looked around, to see she was just coming out of 
the flock after him. "Stay here, Selden," he said. "We'll just be a 
moment. Please stay here."

"Chirin!" Selden splashed after him. Chirin really didn't want to 
take him out there.

"I'll go get her," said Azalea. "You've taught me plenty of tricks I 
can use if I have to. It'll be quicker with one than three."

Before Chirin could say anything she was off. He watched after her, 
ears perked for any sounds, nose sifting the rainy wet for smells. He 
felt strange letting anyone else here go off alone like that, which 
he did all the time, he realized. But he trusted Azalea. Her burns 
were mending well, and there was just something about her. She could 
manage. Watching her trot away, he felt his mouth curl in a smile 
again. 

Turning back to the rest of the flock he realized now was a good time 
to learn that green eyed ewe's name. She had listened enraptured to 
his story. She kept looking like she wanted to say something, but 
then something always happened.

"Meripu?" he said, nosing in among the mareep and sniffing her out. 
He tried to be very quiet and gentle. She was to Azalea as a tide 
pool was to the foamy sea waves.



~*~

Cinder and Mooncar had found a nice little burrow with
about ten nidoran in it. After killing them all, (and
saving them for eats) Cinder and Mooncar made
themselves comfortable.
"We will keep following Calima tommorow, Master
Cinder?" Moonscar yawned. 
"No," Cinder asnwered. "We head for the underground."
Moonscar jumped up. 
"Why should we go there?" 
"To find some followers."
"How do we get to the underground?"
"We will find a way... Now go to sleep..."

~*~

Karama spotted Ivy glaring at her. She glared back.
Was she jealus of something? What was up with HER?

"Ow, ow," said Azalea, stepping into the copse and getting--ah, 
bitten, by a clump of brambles, the kind her feet always managed to 
find. She shone her light brighter. "Karama? Ah, there you are." 
Azalea scoped her light into the hollow between the oak tree's giant 
roots (so there can be an oak tree here, some variety & I like oak 
trees). "Is there an enemy? You screamed and ran off pretty quickly, 
the rest of us got a bit spooked." Azalea sniffed around. No enemies, 
no blood. "I don't smell anything--but it is kinda muddy in here. Are 
you all right? What, ah, gotcha?"

He didn't know what it was he felt then...but he felt...a ripple, in 
the air. No, not in the air, inside of him, a ripple of fear and 
sadness. It was that spirit again. But--what? Who was she and what 
was she trying to say? Trying not to show any outward signs that 
anyting was amiss--the last thing his friends needed was to be scared 
again--he dropped his head to graze, and let his eyes fall closed as 
his soul tried to follow the lost ewe. He thought he heard a high, 
faint, young Ampharos voice, gentle and female, fluctuating as if to 
sing, but it formed no words and could have been the rain.

*...I need...I need *denki*...give...* It didn't come to him as 
words, but thoughts, the way that the dead spoke to the living--only 
a step forward from dead. Or a step back--as if almost dead, but 
caged between, and wanting out, but helpless to do anything. She 
spoke not in words, but in feelings. Need, a desperate needing.

*...Who are you?...* Trying to run after her through that place where 
she lurked between worlds, he felt the wet grass and chill dissolving 
around his feet, as if he was slipping into a dream...

*Who are you? Where are you? How can I help you?*


Chirin whipped his head up and snapped his eyes open, breathing 
shallowly, realizing there was no Marowak in front of him. Shaking 
his head and jumping back anyway, he found himself looking into the 
green eyes of the surprised, shy ewe. He had smelled an enemy, 
without breathing in. He smelled again. The enemy was gone. 

"Do you smell Marowaks?" he said, although he smelled nothing 
himself. Only when the others clustered together nervously again did 
he realize he shouldn't have mentioned it. 

"What is Marowak?" said Selden.

"An enemy, there aren't any around, I just thought I smelled 
something. It's late, and we're all getting spooked easily." Chirin 
spoke absently, distracted, fearing something more than any concrete 
enemy in a living body. He had not gone to the dream world to reach 
that spirit. She had come to him, gone right into him, and who knew 
if she would keep coming. Suddenly he wanted Azalea to come back, 
quickly. He couldn't close his eyes because he knew what he would 
see. He couldn't shoot out lightning at something that had come at 
him from the inside.

~

Karama sniffled and looked at Azeala.
"It is something the humans did to me. I used to be a
noraml mareep, only with silver wool, when the humans
caught me, not only did they make my wool shine, but
they made me have the ability to absorb water for
streagth. And, also, I am weak against electricity. I
can use water attacks, but electric attacks are
painful to me... Look..." And she shot a water attack
past Azeala.

Azalea felt bad for having made such swift judgements on this lamb. 
As if she didn't have troubles far worse than even Azalea's--and as 
if Chirin was an object to be won. The nonsense would stop here, she 
thought as pity swept her.

"Ahh...you poor thing," said Azalea. "I apologize but even I lack the 
words to express the horrors that so-called human ingenuity has 
spawned. What they did to you--" She felt even more acutely the truth 
of Chirin's words when he had told her that one's electricity, called 
by the wild denryuu *denki*--was a mareep's soul. "So--I assume--that 
the ordinary exchange of sparks--for bleating out loud, even the 
sparks you get from your neighbor in your sleep!--cause you pain?"

~



Whoever it was, he thought, looking around at the grass and picking 
some to crop up, had drawn him briefly out of his body.  Whoever it 
was had spoken to him with a subtly tingling soul, an electric soul, 
in pain. But the pain had paled beside her desperation...as if it was 
something she were used to. How could anybody be so used to such deep 
pain in their soul? No, he would not cry, he said to himself as he 
began to, out of the deep, silent fear he felt, or affected by the 
soul's sadness, he didn't know. He let it drip into the grass, 
joining the rain. He wouldn't let them see.

When the brief tears passed he looked up, keeping his tail light 
bright. Searching for something to say to break the mood that 
mentioning Marowaks had made, his eyes lit on Ivy. She looked rather 
unhappy. "Ivy, are you okay?"

Ivy looked up, the red tint taking up her cheeks once again. What was 
wrong with her...?

"Umm....no no...nothing Chirin..." she replied in just over a 
whisper, backing away just a bit "I just...want to go for a quick 
walk.."

Backing away a bit more, she froze as she felt something brush 
against her wool. And stuck. Pulling back, her eyes widened as she 
realised it was tough, whatever it was she had walked into...

Struggling to get the one thread off, she nearly screamed as she felt 
herself move directly into what be the main body of whatever this 
was...

Holding her light up, she saw the outline of what it was...a web. 
Like the one the Spinarak had once made in the corner of the ceiling 
to the barn. Then, it woudln't be too big a deal...it had been small. 

She saw something move from the corner of her eye. Straining, she 
looked as far as she could...and her eyes widened in pure horror. 
THAT wasn't a Spinirak! It was bigger...and red. And moving towards 
her...

She really did scream then, struggling to free 
herself "REEEEEEEEEPPPP!!!"

Ivy had walked away too quickly for Chirin to really react...he had 
still been dwelling on the meaning of her stammering, quiet voice and 
the blush in her cheeks. Now he picked up after her, but she'd gone 
too fast, into the trees of the copse down by where he had found the 
green-eyed ewe, but on the closer edge. (remember they're pretty much 
surrounded by ggrass up on the swell, and ariados webs need something 
like a tree or tall bush to string up a web of such size.)


Chirin saw her stop, her tail light swinging around. Then the light 
jerked, pulled with it a scream from her mouth.

Fighting all instinct, he ran after her, circling in. He saw no 
enemies...

...but smelled one. Just as his light found the web and the 
approaching Ariados, or what must be an Ariados, since he'd never 
actually seen one, Ivy gave another scream, pulling against the web.

"Ivy! Don't struggle!" 

Chirin's *denki* came up as his soul summoned it. He let it crack out 
at the approaching Ariados. The bolt hit, and the giant bug screeched 
in pain. Its wriggling legs bounced the web.

"Ivy, don't struggle, you'll only get more tangled! Use your 
*denki*!" he said, charging up for another strike as he kept just 
past the web. The Ariados scrambled up in retreat, regaining its 
coordination. 


* * *

Azalea looked out over the field at the sound of Chirin's 
thundershock. "Chirin? Chirin!"

To Karama she said, "Ah--return to the hill, it's safer there, sorry 
to up and leave you and we'll talk again, but I have to go assist 
someone in dire need of assistance!"

Dashing away, she felt the healing fire-wounded skin on her shoulder 
give pulls of resistance, hampering her movement slightly as she ran. 
She shoved thoughts of skin contracture to the far back of her mind 
as she ran towards the two struggling mareep.

~

Ivy finally stopped her struggling, opting instead to stand there 
shaking and her her breathing come in shallow, frightened 
ones "Use...my denki?"

Her eyes were still wide. Had she ever used it before?! How did she 
use it?!

Her eyes shut tight as she attempted...and got nothing "H-how do I 
use it?!"

How? Her question scared him...but never, ever had a mareep been born 
without a current. She had a tail light, after all. "Call on it! It's 
inside you! It's your soul!"

His eyes darting from Ivy to the Ariados and back, he shot another, 
smaller, warning bolt out at the Ariados for it to keep away. The 
Ariados, however, was scrambling up a tree in its retreat, and his 
lightning always liked to  travel downwards. Still, as he locked eyes 
with the scary creature, it seemed to get the message.

"Chirin! What in a blazing barn's going on!" called Azalea, running 
up to him. "Are you all right?!"

"Yes, we're...okay...An Ariados up there," his flashing light pointed 
as he caught his breath, "I think it's one... Ariados, if that is 
what you are...you're outnumbered. Leave our friend alone, and we 
won't try to hit you with any more bolts," he called up to the thing 
that crouched half-melted in shadow.

"My god...I see it," Azalea whispered in Chirin's ear. "That's got to 
be the biggest Spinarak I've ever seen! ...Fascinating!"  Then, 
seeing Ivy tangled in the threads, she said, "I'm afraid I'm not too 
knowledgeable about unsticking spinarak threads, but I heard 
somewhere that you're not supposed to struggle..."

Ivy tensed, barely restraining herself from struggling. How would she 
call on something in her soul..? Where WAS her soul? Her eyes brimmed 
with tears. How would she...? 

Ivy was at least a bit comforted by the fact it wasn't coming down 
anymore...but how long would it stay at bay...?

Ivy felt herself grow annoyed...why did Azalea ALWAYS run up only 
when she thought Chirin was in trouble? Not that she was saying she 
wanted half the Mareep here coming to save her...she wasn't THAT self-
centered. But what if it hadn't been herself in trouble? Or if it had 
been more serious than this, and another Mareep would scream like she 
had? Would Azalea only come when she thought Chirin was in trouble, 
and be concerned with ONLY him?

The very back of her mind nagged 'Maybe she was hoping you'd be dead 
by the time she got here...and that SHE would be able to come and 
save Chirin...then they could go off into the sunset...' 

Ivy shook this thought from her head. No...she had promised herself 
she would let everyone have a clean slate with her here. Even 
Azalea...

She was learning to like Chirin...so she should be able to do the 
same with Azalea if she tried..right?

Feeling the blush spread across her cheeks again, Ivy wondered for a 
moment what her deal was. All he had done was refer to her as a 
friend...

And he had defended her as well...

"Isn't it just a BIT late for that Azalea?" Ivy nearly snapped in 
reply, barely keeping her voice below a yell. She has called this 
all...fascinating?! Would she say that if she was the one in the web?!

She took a deep breath. No no...none of this...

"I'm sorry Azalea..."

Azalea had been about to spit out a retort...but then Ivy opened her 
mouth first...and apologized. Ivy, who had always looked down her 
nose at Azalea and bullied her, and laughed at her along with the 
rest. Seeing the words 'I'm sorry' come from Ivy's mouth was almost 
surreal. It was like another mareep. Well, all that they had been 
through could make another mareep of you, she thought, heartened at 
the change.

"Why...it's...it's fine. My apology for appearing so unconcerned at 
your plight. As I said...I don't know anything about how to extricate 
oneself or neutralize the stickiness...but let's get the Spinarak or 
whatever it away first, cut you free second...Chirin...watch out it's 
coming up from underneath!"

Azalea leaped up off the ground, so strong was her reaction as the 
bolt slammed out of her towards the exposed belly of the big creeping 
bug. Both of them rushed over to Ivy.

Chirin bit down on one of the strong, sticky threads, trying to gnaw 
it in two. It stuck to his tongue, but the water lessened the effect 
and he eventually sawed it apart.

"I just thought of something," said Azalea, getting up and coming 
around Ivy the other way. "Water seems to weaken the bond! Perhaps 
after allowing it some time they'll just drop off! I'm fairly certain 
that immersion in water may assist with this even more."

"Yeah," said Chirin, taking turns between watching the Ariados, who 
had retreated again, more obviously injured this time, and helping 
Ivy out. "Ariados, I'm sorry we had to hurt you again. But you can't 
eat my friends."

Inwardly he wondered if this attack had anything to do with the 
vision he had had. He was certain it had been a vision like the ones 
Chenja had had. But no, he got the feeling that this enemy had just 
come and spun its web here with no connection to him, just intent on 
finding an easy meal. After what he'd just felt over there on the 
swell, after what he'd come through before now, this Ariados was 
barely a burr in his wool. If it had come in connection with the lost 
ewe calling him, it couldn't hold a flicker of a light to her.

The Ariados still crouched back in the tree. Azalea stopped her 
chewing on the threads to give it a warning spark, then she rejoined 
Chirin hard at work on the very sticky and sensitive job.

Ivy sighed inwardly of relief, and calming down. Azalea hadn't meant 
it...Ivy was right, she was just being paranoid.
Ivy was impressed by the large bolt...and here she couldn't even 
manage a single spark...
Again, the blush made it's way onto her face.

Closing her eyes, Ivy hoped she would be able to pull away soon...the sooner she 
was away from those Spinirak things, the better... 

"There, I think that's the last one," said Chirin, shaking his head 
to get the last broken strand to drop loose. They were stubborn and 
stealthy, born of a stealthy hunter who was master of waiting. He 
then stood there smacking his lips, the sticky stuff had given his 
mouth a gummy feeling. The silk of an Ariados or Spinarak helped give 
one the power of patience, Chirin remembered, one more piece of 
precious advice floating over to him through the tunnel of time 
lengthening between him and the flock he would always be a part of. 
Their flippers had just passed more to him than patience...it was a 
sign from them--this whole attack may have been a sign from the 
spirits telling him they must be patient. But then why would they 
have trapped Ivy? Had they known no harm would come to her? He 
glanced up again at their hunter, who remained in the tree.

"No, this is the last one," said Azalea, pawing with her hoof to get 
the stuff off her lips. 

"Can you run?" said Chirin. Ivy stepped away from the end of the web, 
clearly free. To the Ariados he called, as he led them away at a 
gallop, "Why-ever you came...I might never know!" He finished 
quickly, his running demanding his breath.

"For the rest of the night I propose no more solo expeditions," said 
Azalea, huffing and puffing beside him. They reached the hill again, 
breathless.

"Don't feel bad that you can't call your *denki* yet," he said, 
although she looked easily old enough to. "In some, it awakens later 
than in others. But it always awakens. It is the most alive part of 
you and it lives there in your tail. Give it time...be patient," and 
then he got another hint of why the Ariados might have been called to 
grab them. It had been a message to Ivy, not him. He realized how 
silly he'd always been, to think that everything that happened was 
somehow meant for him. It was selfish. As if he was the only one 
spirits spoke to? He had become so absorbed in his problems, his 
visions...

Still, he didn't know how to tell Ivy that it had been a message. She 
might not understand. So, using his own patience that he had just 
gained, he decided to tell her what he thought later on...when Phos 
was around. 

He saw the green-eyed ewe looking at them but still saying nothing. 
Chirin did not even know her name yet. But at least she seemed 
comfortable enough to graze with them...even though some unsettling 
things had just happened.

"Where's Karama?" said Chirin.


Azalea spoke up. "Ah I believe I left her by that oak when I heard 
the two of you with rather more urgent cries for assistance. I'll go 
see how she's faring. There are--or were--no enemies over there. She 
was informing me of some...ah rather disturbing facets of her past 
when I had to abandon her. I'd better go now."

"Good idea, bring her back here," said Chirin. "But come back if you 
can't find her and we'll both go look."

"Ah, of course, I will make my best attempt at allowing common sense 
to prevail! As if I'll hang around out there alone for a single 
instant, after seeing that--what is it--"

"Ariados. I think so, anyway."

"Yes--that fearsome beast. Farewell, wish me luck, I'll give a holler 
should too much trouble cross my path, and at any rate the copse is 
right over there."

They touched noses, then Azalea was off again.

"Me too, me too, Me go with Chirin!" said Selden.

Chirin turned around and saw Ivy staring at him...with a most curious 
blush filling her face. A blush not unlike the one that often rushed 
to Azalea's cheeks. On Ivy, though, it looked very different.

He fumbled for his apricorn shell.

* * *

"Ah, back to task one!" said Azalea as she ran, almost tumbling, back 
to the oak tree. "If I wasn't already skinny I would be by now," she 
said, almost managing to avoid stepping in the bramble the second 
time. "Huh Karama? Karama? Oh," she said, seeing the mareep lying 
where she'd left her. "Ah, I apologize for leaving you to yourself so 
quickly. The issue's been resolved...as I hope can also happen here. 
I'd hate to see you spend the night out here. Listen... you have no 
need to feel...ah...embarrassed...about the evil humans have 
inflicted on you. Chirin lost his entire flock to humans--oh, I'm not 
sure if he intended to tell you that...but I myself received ghastly 
scars from an Arcanina attack. By all rights i should have been 
toast, but...I pulled through." She didn't want to talk about Chirin 
healing her just yet. She still wasn't sure what she believed, but 
she knew he had saved her. 

Her light turned from yellow-orange white to yellow orange and she 
tucked it away out of habit.

"Anyhow, to make my point, just about every one of us has a peculiar 
quirk or two...making you the norm rather than the exception. And if 
you still think yourself a freak, you should try some of the other ah 
more intriguing and/or dangerous characters we've encountered over 
the past many days. You'd be surprised at what's waiting for you in 
the next bush. But... you must tell me, unless of course you'd rather 
not return to the subject...how and why did the humans manipulate you 
the way they did? And will you be placed in undue pain and/or 
discomfort if you join our nightly snuggle? Just asking so we can 
begin to make any necessary accomodations. You see we're rather prone 
to electrical discharge."

Thyme didn't like spiders much.  She remembered one near home.  It had been 
hard to listen to the cries of that poor caterpie, but she couldn't climb the 
tree to help the poor thing.  She hadn't even known about the -- what had 
Chirin called it?  A -- denki?  She wondered if she would ever be able to 
control it like the rest of them.

She had watched the caterpie over several days.  She remembered when she 
first saw it.  Or rather, it had seen her.  It took her a few turns of the 
sun to get the string that it had shot out of her hair.  She had a hiding 
space she retreated to in order to watch things when she didn't want Mom, Dad 
or Rooty to find her.  She had kept a stack of berries hidden there.  Once in 
a while she had company, but the strange Pokemon left when she returned to 
the place, hidden by leaves and branches.

She didn't mind sharing it, of course.  Sometimes, berries would be gone, but 
more would be there when she returned and she would also leave some that she 
had brought there as well.

Late one evening, after some spearow had taunted her, she retreated there to 
cry and think.  That's when she startled the caterpie.  Not that she ever 
spoke to it -- it used the string shot on her and crawled away -- but when 
she didn't follow it, she supposed it must have known that she would not harm 
it, and that she was willing to share the space.  He didn't bother her.

But the caterpie foraged a little too far.  A few days later and she heard 
its terrified cries.  She ran to find it, and it was too high for her to 
reach.  She did not know if it had been trapped in the lower brushes and 
hauled up or if it had been crawling in the trees.  It was suspended on the 
web of a spinarak.  She watched, unable to help the poor thing, as the 
spinarak bit it and then spun a cocoon from its web to cover the bug Pokemon.

She couldn't watch.  She ran back to Mother and didn't venture away again for 
several cycles. When she returned she found the spinarak gone.  There were 
several spearow feathers in what was left of its web.

She looked back in what amounted to her special place and straightened out 
what was left in it.  Rattata had made a nest there, but when they found out 
she had stockpiled the berries and didn't mind sharing the space they pretty 
much left each other alone.

Yes, he would do a running of lights when they were all together 
again tonight, he thought as he gave the shell a lick, not knowing 
exactly why he had felt the sudden need to. Should he tell the others 
to join in? It would create a more powerful protection if they did, 
but he was aware now that they didn't all believe everything he 
believed--even though it was plain to Chirin that it was all real. It 
confused and troubled him that some--including Azalea--seemed so 
detached from reality. But they were clearly trying and had come a 
long way. Being confined at Farm all their lives must have given them 
a life akin to staring out from a cave at the light outside. They 
wouldn't learn everything right away.

The green-eyed ewe was looking at him again--at least as long as he 
looked at her from the side of his vision only. But as a mareep could 
see almost all the way round this was good enough. He likened her to 
a Jumpluff, blown away by the slightest breeze.

A running of lights... he would bring it up as soon as Azalea 
returned.

The wool still pulled over her eyes, Thyme tried to get a good look 
at everything around her without being too obvious about it.  She had 
never, ever seen another mareep before -- she had never seen any, 
point of fact -- and now she was surrounded by what must have been 
THOUSANDS of them!  

At least to her, it seemed like there were thousands of them around 
her.  She had never even seen so many POKEMON in one place all 
together!  Many of them had what seemed thick, rich, white coats that 
if they weren't hanging so from the soaking rain would probably fluff 
out much like the grass that grew on some patches of well lit and 
well watered ground.

One in particular her eyes kept traveling to, almost of their own 
volition.  This one wore some type of -- thing on some type of a vine 
around his neck,  A green, round object.  What was it? she wondered.  
A seed of some sort, she imagined.  But a seed for what plant?  It 
was very strange, indeed.

Well, she thought, as she lowered her head again.  It had been a long 
day and she was tired.  First Mother and Father telling her that she 
wasn't a plant Pokemon and they weren't her real Father and Mother, 
then the long trek up the hill that she could not see, since the rain 
pulled the wool over her eyes.  

She let her eyelids droop, and she soon fell asleep.

Chirin's feelings sagged a little as he watched her lie down and fall 
asleep without speaking to him or anyone. What made her so quiet and 
afraid? He knew nothing about her, not where she came from or what 
she had been through. At least she was willing to sleep with them, 
that meant she sensed herself a part of their little flock. 

Azalea was taking a while. He made out her light just at the copse's 
edge, though he couldn't see Karama's. For a moment he thought it was 
two mareep, but the lower light was only a smudged reflection of 
Azalea's bulb, a piece of her soul revealed, as it did to them here 
on the rise even. Patches of grass that were not in water were 
getting harder to find. 

If only the spirits would let up a little. He reminded himself that 
they must feel the land needed much water--some sort of cleansing--
but now he was growing worried.

"We are going to run our lights, when Azalea gets back."

While he waited he pawed his apricorn shell open, careful to stand 
over a patch between tufts of grass that wasn't in a puddle. He shook 
the pebble out and it landed in the muddy wet. He touched his nose to 
it and focused his mind. The ewe with the Marowak, or Marowaks, did 
not come to him, but this came almost as a relief. He was searching 
for the answers not to that, but to something a little more immediate 
to everyone--which way to head tomorrow. He closed his eyes.

Every little sensation: every prick of a raindrop on his sodden body, 
every gust of wind, especially the way it played with the wool on his 
head and batted his tail around. Every which way the air swung the 
opened apricorn shell. It was all spirits talking. The cold water on 
the pebble hurt his nose a little but he kept it pressed there, 
feeling his soul root into Mother Megga through his hooves sunken in 
the soft soil.

Southwest. They all still seemed to tell him southwest, even though 
the wind was not blowing from there or towards there. He put the 
pebble away, after whispering a thanks to the spirits for speaking to 
him. Looking back up he saw Ivy looking at him again, still blushing. 
She was always very pretty, but somehow even more so when she 
blushed. "You look very pretty," he said, hoping to cheer her up 
after what had happened with the Ariados. It even made him feel 
better to say it; nice words went a long way.

(He had no idea.)

Her blush deepened as she smiled at him shyly "Thank you Chirin.."

Ivy's tailight flickered "And thank you Chirin for saving me.."

Something about the way she looked at him told him she wasn't just 
being shy, like the green-eyed ewe. She was talking with the same 
strange voice Azalea had talked with after she had awoken from the 
burn. 

"Why, thank you," he said, "but it was Azalea who helped too. And you 
helped you too." He looked down the way at Azalea. "I wanna go see if 
she's okay. I'll be right back."

Selden followed him down towards the copse.


* * *

"...And, well, if you'd like to stay here, I do realize it's more 
sheltered from the wind, but you may also want to consider that it's 
becoming more waterlogged than the swell up there. Now...if you'll 
excuse me, I have to go let Chirin know everything's passed 
inspection here. For the time being. As I stated before, you never 
know what's waiting in the next bush--I wouldn't stay where so many 
enemies could be hiding."

It was then that she heard a voice, someone crying. Azalea backed out 
of the prickly, stickly brambles and brush that made themselves 
especially known to her burnt areas, shaking her head to free her 
wool cap of burrs. The voice came from the same direction that she 
had followed Chirin to.

Azalea traveled cautiously, keeping out in the open where she could 
at least attempt to see in this rain-lashed night. How ever had 
Chirin lived his whole life out in places like this?

Someone familiar was indeed bleating. She called from the dark 
overhanging shadows of tall bushes.

"Chirin...I'm sorry...Please..."

The voice hushed, the light dimmed as Azalea strode into the mareep's 
hiding place. "Who's there?" She got no answer. But the other's light 
came into view past some taller grass and Azalea pushed the blades 
down with her front feet to reveal a ewe. She knew her smell right 
away. And that might have been the only way she could have told who 
it was. 

It was Cleomie.

The stocky ewe stood with one front hoof raised slightly off the 
ground, leaning lopsided. Her face was smudged with purple bruises. 
She smelled of blood, and Azalea's tail light revealed a cut, perhaps 
inflicted by a bite--on her side. "Please...please tell Chirin I'm 
begging him, I got no where else to go. They beat me up, Azalea! They 
beat me up and threw me in the puddles." A sob interrupted her words, 
then she caught hold of speech again. "I think they wanted to kill 
me." Tears ran down her face. "Why, why...oh...Where's Chirin, is he 
here?"

"Who...who did this to you? And for what reason?"

"None of your business. Where's Chirin!"

Azalea wanted to tell her that perhaps Chirin wasn't interested in 
talking to someone so rude, but she couldn't say it to Cleomie now, 
even after all the times Cleomie had helped to beat *her* up and 
throw *her* in puddles, or worse. "I'm still reluctant to inform you 
whether Chirin is even in the area," said Azalea. "He was rather out 
of favor with the masses when he was last in their company. How do I 
know you're not being sent here to draw him into some sort of plot?"

"I'm not plotting! They beat me up! You see my face? It's real!"

"I'm aware of that. But they could have threatened you with death if 
you didn't follow their every command. If they did this to you they 
could easily do it to any of us."

"So Chirin is with you."

"I didn't say that."

"It doesn't matter, I saw your lights over there. I heard his voice. 
Please, Azalea...stop being so suspicious! Please, please...oh..."

Azalea didn't bring up that if Cleomie knew Chirin was there, then 
she could have just sauntered in. She wanted to reason this through 
but looking at Cleomie there, with a black eye and a bloody nose and 
ear, she just sighed.

"Come on." She stepped out of the bush, back into the rain, and waved 
her tail for her to follow. "I'll show you where he is."

Azalea glanced behind her as she traveled back through the beaten 
grass. She had to keep stopping to let Cleomie catch her up. The ewe 
was lame and reeked of blood. Azalea cursed herself inwardly for her 
brash, pity-ruled decision. But she knew she would have been cursing 
herself more for leaving her there. 

At any rate, they had been in worse straits than having an injured 
member. For bleating out loud, *she* was still an injured member. 

As they approached the swell again she saw that Chirin was not there. 
Selden was gone too.  Azalea turned to Cleomie.

"I'd better go first, just so I can prepare them for your arrival," 
she said.

"Azalea?" Chirin shot a bolt from his tail, seeing that the ewe was 
not by the copse where she had been. 

An anzwering bolt responded from the east side, out by those bushes. 
Azalea came trotting out from around those bushes with Karama in 
tow...but no, he saw as he neared her, it was not Karama, but a 
bigger ewe, a limping, injured one.

"Karama seems to prefer the solitude of the copse at the moment," 
said Azalea as Chirin trotted up to rejoin her. Parting from their 
brief nose-meet, he found himself looking at Cleomie's horribly 
bruised face. His mouth fell open, as did his heart, as he looked on 
what had been done to her.

"Cleomie! What--what happened to you?! Who did this?"

"It was terrible," said Cleomie, her voice quivering along with her 
lower lip. Crying too, Chirin fell against her, forgetting every mean 
thing she had ever said or done. 

"You poor thing...Let us get you to the hill where we're staying 
tonight. We can help you get cleaned up and everything and make you 
feel better. Oh, Mother Megga, spirits protect. Yes, a running of 
lights--we should have one for all of us. With all us together we're 
going to drive all the dark away. Are there any more coming who are 
hurt?"

"No," said Cleomie, wincing at Chirin's nuzzle against her bruised 
shoulder. 

The three of them headed back to the hill, as the rain drummed on 
their faces.

Ivy looked at Cleomie, not sure what to make of the ewe. After all, the two 
had never really been on good terms..but of course, would that change? 
Perhaps...

She followed behind, glaring one last time in the direction the web had been 
in.

~~

Karama looked at Azeala and nodded.
"I guess I could give it a try..." She mumbled.
"Should, should I, ya know, tell Chirin of my *denki*
problem?"

"Only if you want to personally," said Azalea, catching her 
breath. "I'll tell you, from personal experience--ah not in any 
manner of course except for meaningful conversation and close 
observance on my part--that old Chirin-chirin is about the easiest 
person to talk to that you could ever meet. He's endlessly patient, 
loving, caring, intelligent, and--pardon me but I must mention this 
for the records--not looking too shabby." She blushed. "He'll easily 
sympathize with you. Like I said, he's been through plenty of trauma 
himself."

"Now come on, disentangle yourself from those roots and accompany me 
back to our little gathering area. Chirin mentioned something about 
running lights--apparently a type of ritual we should perform to 
undermine the workings of those oh-so-tenacious dark spirits he is 
wont to mention."

She turned tail and left the copse for what she hoped would be the 
last time tonight, flicking her light for Karama to follow. She was 
in disbelief at some of the things that had managed to escape from 
her mouth this time.

"Oh, it was terrible, it was terrible," moaned Cleomie as Chirin 
tended her wounds, pressing his nose to her flank and chanting. He 
concentrated on each wound, trying to shine out the darkness in each. 
None of them were too serious, although that bite on her ear and the 
one on her side looked horribly cruel and the one on her ear would 
probably scar.

"How did this occur?" said Azalea, just arriving back. "I mean, who 
beat you up?"

"Always to the point, aren't you Azalea," said Cleomie, looking at 
her with one good eye and the other swollen closed.

"Ah, I apologize if my question wasn't--"

"Just shut up. They beat me up. They thought I was gonna be like 
Coddy. They thought I was trying to--run the flock or something. They 
turned nasty on me!"

"Shh," said Chirin, barely heard against the wind. "Don't let dark 
thoughts enter you like that--those angry feelings are opening a 
tunnel for them to enter. They will only make it harder for you to 
heal. It doesn't matter now how mean they were...what matters is that 
you're safe away from them now. Now you need rest. We all do. "Phos," 
he suddenly sang, "don't let me lose my light, the very light you 
gave me, Keep me in your bright embrace and from the darkness save 
me."

He suddenly realized that he wasn't sure if it went like that. 
Racking his mind to remember if those were the right words, he 
wondered what was happening to him. Then again, he was tired now. 
Reminding himself that it was feeling and not words that counted, he 
lay down with his back against Cleomie's back, so that he could keep 
in contact with her while he rested briefly, helping to finish the 
healing that his light had helped begin. One should never have to 
heal alone.

His thoughts wandered back to the story he had told. He wondered if 
ths spirits had helped him on his own journey east, alone. A young 
lamb would have needed it--yes, they certainly had helped him. Just 
like Denrai. He wondered if some of the same ones had helped him, 
even, all that time ago.

Was he still on that journey? Were the spirits still protecting him, 
even through all the dark that had happened? When, and how, would he 
know when his journey was over? 

Inside he began to prepare himself to run his light round the rise. 
He and Azalea would do it...and anyone else who chose to join. *Phos, 
don't let me lose my light...*

 Karama followed Azeala up to Chirin. She gulped. She
hoped that no electricity was involved...

 Thyme woke up and looked around herself -- or tried ot.  Her wool still 
hung down over her eyes.  She shook her head, trying to get it out of her 
eyes.  ISome of it poked her left eye, which started to warter a bit.  It 
felt as if something had jabbed her in the eye.  

Of course it did!  Her own wool, stiff as it was!  The brambles from the wood 
were still stuck in it, she was sure if it.  More careful now, she lowered 
her head and started trying to shake the wool away from her eyes so that she 
could see around herself a bit better.

Chirin noticed Karama had returned, and touched noses with her, 
giving her a sniff to see all was well. She smelled a little like wet 
oak-bark, which he assumed she'd rubbed against in the copse. He 
watched as the green-eyed ewe struggled to brush the wool out of her 
face. He went over and assisted her, telling her, "I'll help you, 
here," and told her to duck down on her knees while he used his chin 
and nose to sweep it backwards. All throughout she was silent, but he 
gave her a reassuring smile when she could see again.

"A running of lights," he said, once finished, "We are going to make 
our sleeping place a place of light. It's easy. I guess everybody 
doesn't know what it is. But don't worry. If you have a light, you 
can run it. My old flock had one for me on the night after the day 
when my mama borned--" he struggled for the right word, that wasn't 
it--"gave birth to me. I don't remember it really but I was running 
with everyone. That's how easy it is! and fun. It has to be fun 
because you have to feel good when you join a running of lights. but 
i never had to try to feel good cause I always loved it. Cleomie, you 
shouldn't join if you're limping, you need to rest, but don't worry. 
It's fun to watch, too! And if you want, we'll have another one when 
you feel better. Now...Ledians look out!"

Chirin gave a wriggle of excitement. This was just the thing to shake 
off his tiredness! He felt the good beings of light entering him, 
Ledians leaping in. He took off running, shouting, "Ringa ringa round 
the hill, ringa ringa shine shine shine! Ringa runga, jinga junga, 
lights are shining, yours and mine! Ringa..." He gave a leap, landing 
in a puddle with a splash, and took off running round and round the 
swell. 

"Well, what do you know," said Azalea through chirin's chant, "that 
does look like fun..."

She joined him running in circles flashing her lights, easily 
learning the words he kept shouting.

nd of course Selden leaped in right after, gigling and squealing with 
laughter as he caught Chirin up and ran ahead of him, then next to 
him. Chirin slowed down so the lamb could keep up more easily.

He didn't need to concentrate on throughts of light. He got such a 
good feeling from running and capering, touching the strong wind, 
dazzling with his own sparks and delighting in the electricity in the 
air. Even the splashes he made in the water, even the rain dashing 
against him spurned him on harder, jumping higher, shouting louder.

"Betcha can't catch me Chirin!" Azalea tagged him with her hoof, and 
raced ahead of him. Chirin caught her up, noticing that although she 
limped slightly, favoring her burns, she had healed remarkably well 
and was almost free of the fire spirit that had injured and burdened 
her, almost taking her life. 

"Oh...Chirin's light faltered. His running slowed. He was not just 
tired. Something was draining him. He jumped, trying to shake it 
off...but whatever it was had latched on to him inside of him, a 
spirit sweeping in and grabbing him...and it would not let go. It 
begged him...it needed him. Oh, why weren't the spirits leaving him 
alone? Why did they cling to him? 

"Chirin, are you all right?" said Azalea trotting in beside him as he 
slowed down.

Ivy moved closer to Cleomie, curious.

"You know...I would have thought you would think yourself better off alone 
then with a bunch like this.." she commented quietly "Were you that lonely 
without Coddy?"

"Shut up you fancy-nancy priss," said Cleomie, watching with her good 
eye as Chirin and Azalea skipped off. "Why're you always trying to 
start with people?"

"Ea-sy there, I was just wondering." Her tail flicked towards the 
end "I'm not trying to start with anyone." 

"Get off it. You know you're a liar and I could take you out on the 
lawn whenever I want. Just you wait." Then she saw Chirin coming and 
lay back again, pretending to be suffering once more. 


"I'm okay," he said to Azalea aloud, then he leaned in closer to her 
and whispered something more quietly, so no one else could hear. "No 
I'm not actually...if possible I want to talk about it with 
you...sometime when we can be alone, I'm worried."

"Sure thing," said Azalea, nuzzling him.


The running of lights had ended, prematurely, before they had really 
run themselves into their second wind--the exertion always swelled 
one's light. Although it had slowed to a stop mainly because Chirin 
had found himself too weak, he was confident that it had helped them 
protect this little place against evil for the night. Provided they 
kept their eyes and ears open, they would be safe. Especially because 
the storm had driven all fire or ground enemies into shelter. 

He noticed that Karama had left the protection of the circle they had 
made. "Karama? Karama!" he called, shooting a bolt to get her 
attention. She was venturing up the north way, close to where they 
had had an earlier encounter with the Ariados. He shot a series of 
bolts in the air, a crack-crack-crack of alarm. Then he ran after 
her, still fighting the slowness and weakness. What was this being 
who had jumped into him? Was it out to grab his soul from his body, 
to cause illness? He almost felt scared to run out there alone, but 
neither could he let Karama run into that ariados.

"You're not running out there alone in that condition, whatever agent 
is causing it," said Azalea with a smile, running by his side. He 
flashed her a smile back.



Karama looked at the aridos had reatreated to. It
was slowly crawling down the tree, and hungry look on
its ugly face. It silently made its way toward Ivy...
"No!" Karama bleated, running foward and shooting a
water-gun attack at it. The aridos turned and glared
at Karama, then went for her instead! 
Karama gulped, and unleashed a thundershock attack,
crying in pain as she did so. After this blow, the
aridos gave on last frightend look at the mareep, then
darted back to its tree. Karama lay down, crying and
moaning in pain.

"Karama!" called Azalea as she reached Karama ahead of Chirin. "Are 
you okay? Let me help you up--let's all finally return to the little 
hill where we can rest and recuperate. It isn't safe right here, 
which already appears to be in clear evidence."

"Was that water you just shot with?" said Chirin, feeling a little 
dizzy as he reached the two of them. He struggled to maintain his 
balance and concentration, as much to show any enemies possibly 
watching them, that he was healthy, as to assuage himself and the two 
ewes. "Wow...that's a special gift you have there." 

Of course, after all that he had seen it was no big deal to him. Not 
after Calima gaining fire attacks, Moonscar changing color before his 
eyes, a Quilava breathing green flames, and, to top the list, a small 
Nidoran carving out an entire hill full of burrows in one afternoon. 

And he knew now that it was a sure sign. Just like his flock had 
always told the stories. Karama was a Lanturn in disguise! Come to 
him out of the wettest storm he'd ever experienced in his short life, 
yes she had probably swum most of the way! He would not tell her that 
he knew quite yet, as of course he *could* be wrong...but oh, how he 
wanted to hear from her, to learn of life in the deep deep ocean into 
whose surface he had barely gazed and whose foam-fringed waves he had 
barely splashed in.

He gave Karama a warming nuzzle. "Let's get you back to the hill," he 
said, "Then you can tell us all about your gift. If you want to. But 
I would love to hear it." He gave Azalea a warmer nuzzle, then he 
followed her back to the hill, stopping to make sure Karama was 
following.


Karama seemed to be in pain. Chirin sniffed her over but could not 
figure out why. But many times strange things happened to one from 
inside, that must be it--a spirit. "Are you--hurting?" he said, 
shaking his head again to dispel the dizziness. He felt a strong urge 
to just flop down for a nap. Was it the running of lights that had 
brought this strange, cloying spirit crashing into him? He put it 
aside, he would treat himself once everyone else was settled down and 
okay. "What's wrong?"

~

Under her breath, she commented "I'M the liar? You're the one who is 
overexaggrating, wouldn't you say so?"

Ivy turned her head "And I'm not lying..."

"Whatever," said Cleomie, not bothering to lift her head from the wet 
ground and only moving her mouth. 

Chirin came ambling up the gentle slope, pushed up by the wind (ooc: 
we're pretending it isn't midnight yet so we still have the storm 
here).

"Oh, Cleomie, how're you feeling?" he said, bowing his head to sniff 
at her. She looked so sad and weak lying there...yes, all these 
things happening at almost the same time meant that a flock of 
darkness had leaked in. But all of it had happened outside the circle 
they had created. He hoped that now, within it, they could heal and 
take the nightly journey to the spirit world that all souls had to 
take to keep themselves young and full of energy. Staying in the 
body, bringing life to it, was tough work and one's soul needed to 
fly free and regain strength in the other realm. 

Looking around at all the ewes, he sensed they weren't all happy. The 
light-run had not dispersed all dark, but then it rarely purged 
everything. But things were pushing and pulling within the circle and 
he had to figure out where it was coming from. Ivy looked rather 
perturbed at something, Cleomie was injured and Karama seemed to be 
also...and he himself was still being plagued by a weakness, 
something alive in him that was sucking on his energy.

"Karama, what part of you hurts?" he said.

 "All of me hurts when I use electric attacks... The
humans made me able to... absorb water and use them
for water attacks. But in doing so, they made me weak
against electricity..." Karama sniffled. She was
absorbing the storm water, and she didn't seem to be
very wet...
"I hate being freak... I wanna be a normal mareep
again..." Karama bleated.

 "Oh, that's terrible!" So humans had worked their dark again, taking 
their hatred of the Denryuu out on this poor young ewe. "That...your 
own *denki* hurts you..." Tears were running down Chirin's face. To 
make one's own soul, the deepest energies, the very thing that made 
her one of the denryuu...hurt her...No, it couldn't be, he wouldn't 
have it, there had to be something he could do. He could tap into his 
energies, find some way. But before he could begin to concentrate on 
that they had to find a place to settle down and stay safely.

He nuzzled her. Nuzzles and touch always comforted him and made him 
feel better, so he did so with her. She needed it. He sent her a 
warm, fuzzy tingly spark before remembering that it hurt her.

"I'm sorry," he said, pulling away. "And I thought you had a 
Lanturn's soul because of your water powers." He sniffled, trying to 
find some way to turn it all around. "But, who knows, maybe you do 
anyway, and the humans just revealed it. Having the soul of a Lanturn 
is a special thing. I don't know what to do about the...this 
unspeakable thing that they've done to you! How could they!" He 
turned in a circle, pawing the ground and making splashed as he did 
so. "They...they make me so angry that they violated you this way! 
They've defiled our people!" He stopped, noticing that his wool had 
fluffed even against the wind and was buzzing with white-blue 
flecks, "But we can't just get all angry and dark too. Once we are 
settled in a new place where we can live safely, then I will start to 
do all I can to, somehow, ask the spirits to help you clean out this 
dark the humans laid on you. They really deserved every bit of 
punishment that Denrai gave them. And we don't even need to wait till 
then. Every night I will pray for you, we all will, we will 
concentrate on helping you knock down that wall of pain the humans 
put up inside you." He leaned against her shoulder. "Your denki *is* 
you. It should never...ever...be something that hurts you." He 
swallowed, feeling more tears run warm down his cheeks. Feeling the 
initial bolt of anger pass, his strange weakness overtook him again.

Chirin knelt down, sitting there to rest himself. The rain and wind 
was beginning to lose its edge...was the spirit-thing inside him also 
drawing life away from them in the storm? 

"Ah, I myself can offer little additional advice," said 
Azalea, "except to stick with us. Your aquatic abilities are unique 
among mareep-kind and may come in extremely useful at some time or 
other. As for considering yourself a freak, I already told you--to be 
normal would translate to being a freak here, since we're mostly 
freaks in one manner or the other. We're all close companions now and 
quite openly accepting of anyone unusual."

"What would the world be like," said Chirin, "if no one was 
different."

Karama cried harder and louder. She was a freak...
Chirin was wrong... All the other mareep were the
same... She was a freak...

Selden began to cry too.

"Mah...."

"No, no, don't cry," said Chirin, rubbing against her and circling 
her to surround her with good warmth. "There's no such thing as a 
freak. You are more denryuu now than ever, because you've felt the 
touch of Bua's children. But they can't take away what you are. Thay 
can try, but we're going to prove them wrong. You know that your 
ancestors would not just leave you. The dead know, they don't ever 
lose you, and they're right here now. Don't you feel them stroking 
your back with the rain and the breeze?"

As much as Azalea saw Chirin's wool fluff out and a wriggle run over 
him, wiggling his ears as he said those last words, she could tell 
the ram lacked his usual energy. Whatever had brought him to a stop 
during their little light-run hadn't left him alone. Hs tail light 
was dimmer, his ears and eyelids drooping lower, he was ill.

She knelt and lay on his other side, flushing static from his wool as 
hers mingled with it. Why did Chirin always push beyond what was good 
for him? He worried her sometimes. Especially after what he'd told 
her tonight. She waited, eager to get talking with him about whatever 
had gotten under his skin. It had to be pretty serious.

Waiting for Karama to gather her spirits up and speak, he realized 
they had not heard thunder in some time, although he still sensed a 
very minute but strange electricity in the air. Also, he felt his 
energy beginning to creep back, reviving itself, as if something 
heavy that had been sitting on him was getting up. He gave it a 
mental push, sensing that whatever it was would be all right now, and 
had needed him to help it through something. It was no dark spirit, 
although it had left its prints on him in the form of tiredness. He 
needed to get to the spirit world for his energies to truly recover.

"Thunder leaves a space behind
run, thunder, run...
Leaves  a churning in my mind
wander free, tired wind...
And oh, each of us, laying down, one of a kind
Bound free, tired spirits...
run and find, your thunder."

Chirin sighed after singing, enjoying the sudden quiet after the 
storm. He wiggled his ears to feel the air, and he felt the relief of 
his ears at no longer being blown every which way by wind. The 
heaviness and weakness that had invaded him was gone, leaving only a 
tired peace and the good feeling he got when someone or something 
stepped inside him and sang a song to his soul.

"That's a pretty song," said Azalea. "Where'd you learn that?"

"I don't know. I just learned it now."

"You mean you composed it yourself? On the fly?"

He smiled at her almost-incredulous look, Azalea could always make 
him smile. "Songs come to me...I create them, but spirits whisper the 
words. I just finish them up and sing them so they can be born and 
those unseen and unheard ones can be heard. And that one, was sung to 
all of us I think."

He resumed chewing his cud, rolling the wad to the other side of his 
mouth. He smiled at Karama. "Maybe it was for you, Karama. The 
spirits welcome you here too."

Karama looked at Chirin closly. He didn't look too
good. His wool, although a bit fluffy at the moment,
was slightly droopy; his eyes were tired and soleful.
And Karama glimpsed a ting bit of Chirin's skin and
she grimaced. It had turned a nasty yellowish-black
color. Although Chirin tried to make himself look
healthy, he was clearly ill.

"Chirin? Are you okay? You do not look too good, and I
do not want you to be sick..." Karama whisipered into
his ear, very softly.

Chirin looked at where she was looking, which was his front foot. The 
skin looked bumpy, with a dark blackish-brown color. His wool fluffed 
mildly before he realized it was just mud on his foot. He rubbed it 
on the wet grass. "I'm okay," he said, smiling back. 


Karama looked at the sky and sat down. The sky looked
like a gray and blue mist. Karama sighed as she looked
at it.

Then the next instant she was on the mist. She was
dancing on the mist and on the shooting stars, making
a star twinkle, and plaing with the water of the mist.
She was laughing and it souded strangly like an echo.
It was beautiful, this echo voice of hers. 

~Halo, ma kaso.. Sema lo so..
Kima, meekaso, lalo, so..
Malono, oonoa, klia meeko..
Seema.. Sama so...~

Karama sang this song over and over. This one
beautiful song... The world was full of her song. She
was singing of the ancient language, that was said to
bring good fortune to those the singer truely loved...
Chirin... Chirin, this was the one the singer Karama
loved... Chirin... Chirin...

Karama then felt herself on solid ground... She was
laying down in a strange position. She slowly got up
and looked at the sky. Was it all a dream? But even in
dreams... the song still brought good fortune... Would
it work on her friend, Chirin?

Chirin listened with rapt attention. His ears wiggled with delight, 
for he loved songs and she had a pretty voice. He exchanged glances 
with Azalea, who smiled back and, then, did something no one had ever 
done to him before. She winked. 


"A beautiful song," said Chirin. 

"I'm quite interested in learning what language that happens to be," 
said Azalea. "In the near future, when we're better rested, I would 
be much interested in learning the background and culture attached to 
it."

"Me too," said Chirin-chirin. "Well, we're all one flock now, and the 
ancestors have been good. With spirits singing to us so pretty, I 
know now that our run of lights brought everything round. And it's 
safe to all go to sleep. A good dream-journey to everyone."

Chirin shone his light bright one last time. Then he relaxed it, 
letting it dim down on its own. He snuggled up with his flank against 
Azalea's unburned side, and closed his eyes. 

* * *

Cleomie wasn't dumb. They might think she was dumb, or worse. She 
knew Ivy sure did--that snotty wuss. And now there was this Karama 
who seemed as bonkers as Chirin, if not more, and she wasn't even a 
halfway handsome ram like he was. Yeah, she admitted it--Chirin 
wasn't so bad-looking. And he could sing. Karama's voice was 
prettier, but his was...well, Cleomie just liked it, especially on 
lower notes. 

She noticed he hadn't ever whispered things in her ear like he did 
Azalea's. And she'd seen Karama whispering to him and giving him The 
Look when she'd sung her mysterious little riff. Trying to charm him, 
was she?

Well Cleomie had done some charming in her day.

He knew what the spirit who had given him the song had done--she (he 
felt it was a she somehow) had helped lift the weakness out of him. 
He pushed back all that pressed on his mind and took deep slow 
breaths, his ears and nose and skin taking over for his closed eyes 
in the neverending vigil the Denryuu kept.

Karama blushed when she saw that there was only mud on
his skin. And she blushed even harder when Chirin and
Azeala said how beautiful her song was.

"Oh, its easy enough to learn Azeala," Karama said.
"It was the song of my ancesters. Although that
language is rarely used these days, except in songs,
my flock all knew it practicly from birth! I could
teach you both if you would like me to."

Chirin slitted his eyes open. "Thank you, that would be very nice," 
he said, yawning. "How about let's do it tomorrow, though...When 
we're all awake." He drifted off again, thinking to himself...that 
same blush again. And he thought he understood what it was...it was 
the same sort of blush he had often seen on the faces of his parents 
when they nuzzled or licked each other's faces...and he had also seen 
it on other pharamps particularly in the fall. 

Was it only him, or did most of these ewes seem to be blushing at, 
well, *him*? 

* * *

Azalea observed the entire interaction. It did not trouble her. There 
was a difference between the smiles and nuzzles he gave Karama and 
those he gave her. How or why she had earned his closeness in that 
way, perhaps only certain of Chirin's spirits would ever know. She 
snuggled up closer to Chirin, feeling him breathe. 


* * *

The caw of a Murkrow peeled out from somewhere in the nearby copse 
where Karama had gone, and the shrill scold sent Chirin back into his 
body. He recalled a dream of grazing in fields that were half those 
of home and half those around here, all in the rain. Mixed in there 
was a blur of friends. Azalea had been there. He remembered something 
about them repeatedly trying to sneak away to talk about something 
that no one else could hear, but everywhere they had gone, others had 
followed.

 He turned his head and licked the good, unscarred ear of the still-
sleeping ewe. Somewhere in the night he had turned fully onto his 
side, and the wind had dried the wool facing upwards.

He sniffed the air as he slowly worked open his eyes. The storm had 
left a residue of wet and rain in the air, despite Phos rising 
unveiled just above the distant trees. He shivered all over and gave 
his wool a pleasant static buzz. He flisked his tail. Where were the 
others?

Some were awake and grazing nearby, poking their noses around the 
still-wet grass. Looking out over the fields around them, he found 
blue morning sky where grass should be. 

He sprung up, shaking off some of the mud caked on his belly and 
flank, and trotted cautiously over to the glossy second sky, certain 
that some spirit was playing tricks--making illusions. But his hooves 
stepped into water. The whole field was flooded--although, getting a 
better look past Watakko's soul-image, he saw it was all shallow, 
shown by the grass gently lilting just beneath the surface.

"Azalea," he said softly, remembering not to jolt her awake. Doing so 
could be dangerous unless her soul had time to get back to her body. 
So he sat there, watching her twitch and flicker with her dreams. 
Where in the other world was she now, and what was she doing? He 
regretted having woken up already...or could she be running with him 
in some field somewhere? He knew that could happen, that you could 
meet someone in the other world even while that person was awake and 
in this world. The soul could be that way.

Azalea breathed in, curling her spine and squinting. Then she 
stretched the other way, her tail tip meeting the back of her head 
briefly. Chirin licked her cheek once as she opened her eyes, and 
when she blushed he knew he was too.

She yawned, lifting her head. "Come on, give me another one."

"Uh...no."

"Ah, come on."

Chirin giggled.

"Okay, okay. My apologies. I'm still hooking my brain back up." She 
stood up, also muddy on the side she'd slept on. "Whoa. I knew it was 
flooded last night but as they say, I have now seen the light. Or 
rather, seen the area illuminated in sunlight. Rather picturesque, 
isn't it," she said, standing next to him. "Doesn't appear perilously 
deep, so I suppose we can resume our travels. I for one would not 
mind a bath and it appears you mirror me."

She nodded to his muddy side, which was his left, while hers was the 
right.

"Mirror?" he said, even though he knew what she was referring to. 

"Ah, forgive my usage of concepts and terms unfamiliar to one raised 
in the wilderness. Observe, the appearance of sky as reflected by the 
water. That's mirroring."

"Oh, I see. So...that's why it happened."

"Why what happened?"

"Why we really got mud on our reflecting sides. Like the water shows 
you the soul of things, we..." he motioned for her to move her ear 
closer, and said the reat low, "we have our souls still together."

"You really believe so?" 

"I know so." 

"For someone who can create songs off the top of his head, I trust 
your judgement," said Azalea. "I would make a request that you show 
me how to do that, but I suspect it's innate."

"Everyone can listen to the things singing," said Chirin. "You just 
have to learn to open yourself up. It's not like hearing with your 
ears."

He and Azalea grazed close by the water. Chirin for one planned to 
slip in and wash himself once he had satisfied his morning hunger. As 
he grazed he heard Karama speak to him.



Karama looked up at the sky again. It had lost most of
its gray color and was now mostly a blue and silver
misty color. It was beautiful...

"You know Chirin, that song is used to bring good
fortune to those that the singer loves," Karama said.
"And I sang it for you." Karama blushed harder than
ever after she realized what she had just said. Then,
trying to brush that aside, she said, "Wow, the sky
looks kinda pretty after the storm huh? It is a
tradition among the flock that I came from, to never
take shelter when even the most fearce storm comes. We
wait in out, right in the middle of it. It is said,
that waiting out the worst of storms, in the storm,
will not only make yourself more powerful, but the
concern for the others will prove that it makes your
heart stronger too."

"You sang it for me?" said Chirin, realizing she wasn't just making a 
statement, and that there was something special, something more about 
her saying she had sung it for him. "That's very nice. My flock never 
took shelter unless it was really cold...but staying out in storms, 
it wasn't a tradition for me...it's just something you do. I think." 
He didn't understand all she had said about storms. "Storms are your 
ancestors speaking to you. They are things being born and they are 
gifts." He suddenly remembered that because of what the humans had 
done to her she could not receive those gifts, and decided to graze 
some more.

Karama yawned and grazed for a bit. She eyed a bush of
blue berries by Chirin.

She walked over to him and nuzzled him.

Chirin was a little startled by the nuzzle, but returned it with a 
perfunctory nudge as he swallowed the grass he'd just cropped up. 
Thoughts of traveling on were beginning to enter him now that he was 
walking around, grazing, browsing and stretching his legs. Soon he 
would bring it up, but not until they had all had enough to eat. 
After all, there was no emergency. 

"Wanna berry Chirin?" Karama asked, picking one with
her teeth, setting down on the ground and poking at it
with her hoof to see if it was safe. It suddenly burst
in half, and water gushed out. Karama doubled over
with laughter.

"W-we should take these Chirin, they might be useful
when there is no w-water around," Karama managed to
say, still catching her breath from all the laughing.


What an odd berry, he thought to himself as it burst. Or perhaps it 
had been the water energies inside her transferring to the berry. But 
berries and other fruits often drank more than they could hold during 
a big storm. What was odder was her laughter. Trying to smile, he 
gave a laugh back, although not sure why it was funny. The berry 
certainly wouldn't think so. He ate the burst berry and felt a little 
better about it. Yes, it still tasted delicious and sweet. "Thank 
you," he said. "Very good."

Sniffing around, looking around, seeing all appeared safe and smeling 
many appetizing things, he nosed his way over to the bush it had come 
from.

"Ah appears to be a rather minute victim of the hurricane," said 
Azalea from Chirin's other side, nibbling some more berries off the 
same bush, which sat right at the edge of the flooded grass. "I'm not 
certain it was a hurricane that we faced but I'm fairly sure. It is 
hurricane season and the storm held many of the classic 
charcteristics of hurricanes. I have only experienced one other 
hurricane in my lifetime, and most of that one was spent secured 
inside the barn."

"I want to talk to you," said Chirin in Azalea's ear. "But..."

"No reason why we can't just skip off a moment while the rest graze 
here," said Azalea. "They don't require our constant presence to look 
after themselves for a mere moment or two. Ah, Chirin and I are going 
to have a stroll....that way," she said, pointing with her blinking 
tail to the west, which was where they would be heading soon 
anyway. "Nothing serious, only a quiet personal discussion--although 
nothing that one would consider the least bit 'juicy.'" She smiled, 
knowing she had convinced no one.

 Except maybe Selden. "I come!" said the little lamb, leaping up 
against Chirin and butting him in the flank.

"Selden," said Chirin, "if you stay right here with the others I'll 
play with you when I get back."

Selden seemed mollified, and Chirin and Azalea strolled into the 
water, leaving twin V-shaped ripples behind them in the still surface.
 
"I'm glad you liked it. Maybe I should try one,"
Karama said, picking another berry. It burst in her
mouth with a loud, 'pop'. Karama fell back and looked
at Chirin and Azeala, slightly dizzy from shock.
"You have lovely wife... They both, very pretty,"
Karama mumbled.

Both Chirin and Azalea gave her an identical clueless/confused look, 
before they excused themselves and waded into the flooded field.

"That one's a different breed," said Azalea, chuckling as they 
sauntered in. Chirin reveled in the cool clean rush of the water that 
had come to live briefly where no water had before. Fallen leaves, 
twigs and other debris floated in the vast puddle or rested on the 
bottom in a cold, heavy, swaying stupor. Sloshing in up to his back, 
which was about as deep as it got, he bent his legs and let himself 
sink under. The cold felt him all over, almost painfully. Shivering 
he broke the surface and gave his head a lusty shake. 

"Cold!"

Azalea laughed with him. 

* * *

"Look at them out there," said Cleomie to Karama as the injured ewe 
limped over to the berry bush, to see if they had left any. She hoped 
Azalea froze to death in that water.

 Karama looked at Cleomie and smiled.

"Wanna berry? They are sweet, and have water in them,
and they pop in your mouth! It's fun," Karama said,
eating another berry that burst in her mouth. She
looked at Cleomie.

"Why are there three of you?" Karama asked, dazed,

Cleomie looked at her, then the berries, then her again. "What are 
you talking about?"

Karama shook her head and looked at Cleomie.

"I just got dizzy for a second... Heh-heh," Karama
said, blushing.

Chirin had a sudden itch of a cunning idea. He duckec under and 
opened his eyes, swimming towards Azalea's legs. 

"Oof!" Azalea jumped up as she got poked in the belly. "Chirin I see 
you plain as daylight! The water's transparent, you know! Your tail's 
even poking up--Ahh!" she cried out as Chirin grabbed her round the 
neck and pulled her down. Kicking and laughing, Azalea broke free.

"Two can participate in the enjoyment of this game!" She bowled into 
him from the side. They both landed in the water, and after a ruckus 
of splashing and squealing, sat there looking at each other dripping 
wet. 

Azalea brought her tail up in front of her and pointed it at him, 
laughing. "You look ridiculous when you're wet."

"You too!" 

He butted her playfully in the chest and they stood there laughing 
and butting each other, till finally Chirin separated himself from 
her with a sudden look of gravity. He sniffed around for enemies--
they had been paying no attention--and smelled nothing threatening, 
but many things enticing--the ghost of the rain, and the water it had 
birthed; Tauros and Miltank, a sniff of Stantler from somewhere or 
other. And Ursarings from somewhere far away to the northwest; an 
enemy he had never seen, but smelled before. They were big and 
lumbering, powerful but easily seen and avoided if one kept watch. He 
waded out further from the hill, curving southwest; Azalea followed 
the lead of his head, back and tail, which were all that poked above 
the water.

Chirin checked to make sure his apricorn shell was still there. It 
was, and he ducked briefly underwater to touch it with his tongue. 
Azalea was half-walking, half-paddling next to him, and, able to swim 
faster than wading, she pulled just ahead of him. "Higher ground 
would come in handy at this moment in time," she said. "Fortunately 
there appears to be some further that way, unless those Tauros have 
especially long legs."

Chirin followed her gaze out to a small herd grazing in the distance. 
Grass poked up above the surface, and as they went, the water pulled 
away from Chirin's body, sinking down, tugging his wool before he 
gave a shake.

"Hey," said Azalea, splashed by his shake. She shook back, then 
followed up with a zap of her *denki*. Through the water he felt its 
friendly snap more sharply. 

"I'm sorry that I wanted to talk to you about...well, strange things, 
and they're a little scary too. At least they are scaring me a 
little."

"You needn't apologize! It was myself who seconded the notion last 
night, I believe. Last night, you were not yourself. You appear 
better now...or is this only skin deep?"

"No, I do feel back to balance again. But last night there were 
things that happened..." He looked down at his reflection, not sure 
where to begin. 

He had rather long ears, he noticed. 

"When all else fails," said Azalea, "start at the beginning."

"One can never know the true beginning."

"Ah, ever the philosopher."

"What?"

"Never mind, another member of the big, useless section of my 
vocabulary--where most of my words are filed." She winked 
again. "What was the first thing that happened to you last night, 
that worried you."

~*~

Cleomie gave her a second weird look, but nodded as if to accept it, 
chomping down on the grass again. "Ivy? Or you, Karama, is that your 
name. Who's for following them two?"

Ivy didn't want to admit it...but... "I suppose I am..." She smiled. 

Chirin watched the blue sky and trees ruffle in the water as a slight 
breeze riffed the surface. "There was a ewe...a grownup...she was 
singing to me, or calling to me...Then I saw a Marowak--or...I think 
I did." He was no longer sure if he'd seen it, smelled it, or 
both. "And I saw her when I dreamed too! I heard her another time! 
It's like she's trying to reach me. I remember, she was telling me to 
help her. She was saying she needed my *denki*. And then I was coming 
out of my body...but I snapped back in. But I know she's still... 
there. I want to help her but I don't know who she is or why she 
needs help, or what she needs help with. I try to reach her but I 
never can. Only when she comes to me. And I'm scared." 

"Don't cry...it's okay."

He fell against her nuzzle, having been unaware he was crying.

Azalea let him sob against her, sending him fuzzy sparks and waiting 
till he calmed down. At first she had thought this was another of his 
intricate system of unconventional beliefs...unconventional to her, 
at least. But he wouldn't cry like this over a plain fear, not in 
broad daylight..and it wouldn't still be scaring him so much. 

And it couldn't have made him visibly weak. 

At last he was quiet and still.

"What happened then," she said softly.

"Then the weakness. It wasn't just me being tired. Something was 
inside me grabbing me and sort of...taking my energy. It...she..."

"A she again?"

"I think so. But I don't know what. It was like somethng was in pain 
or dying and was holding onto me and if she stopped...she would 
starve. Or something. Azalea I don't know why I told you. Because I 
don't know what to do. I couldn't even control it. I couldn't stop it 
and I couldn't help them. Just...you know it's real, right?"

"Of course I do," and she meant it far more than she'd thought she 
would.

Chirin rest assured that whatever you're in, I'm in with you."

"Thanks."

They both looked at the water.

"I imagine the two incidents could be correlated," said Azalea, "or 
at least we can assume for the time being that they have some type of 
correlation even if it is an indirect one."

Chirin-chirin turned the words over in his mind, sorting them 
out. "Everything is related," he finally said.

"How true, how true. However, regardless of the degree of 
correlation, each incident in and of itself is threat enough, and 
Chirin, I'm tempted to say that you simply had a mild hallucination, 
except that hallucinations are not accompanied by physical weaknesses 
of the type you described. We are discussing incidents of unknown 
power and entity here. Once upon a time I frankly would never have 
believe it. However our journey, particularly the bit with...my own 
healing...and Cinder-slash-Moonscar, have opened my eyes. It could 
even be connected to *that* entire horror. If it continues I'm 
betting that it will be beyond your power or mine to control it."

"Then what do I do? We have other mareep here--and you. These spirits 
could start troubling everyone!"

"Oh, Chirin." She leaned against him in the water. "I always pride 
myself in knowing big words, it's the one thing I do well. But I 
regret to inform you that...I can think of nothing except to say that 
perhaps some hope may lie in your frequent spiritual exercises. In 
other words, keep on doing what you have been doing and it may 
eventually shed some light on all of this. For everything there lies 
a cause, and for every problem a solution."

"Thanks." He felt a little better. "I just hope that I can learn what 
it is and how to help, before it gets worse."

"I hope so too... and you have my every iota of support throughout 
the process." She paused. "I would also begin attempting to 
strengthen the, ah, electric current, which you refer to as the 
*denki*? Body and mind are interrelated after all."

Karama looked at a bush of yellow berries. She picked
one and poked at it. It burst and a yellow gas
streamed out and Karama was stunned for a moment. She
shook her head and looked over at Chirin and Azeala.
Wanting to swim, but not wanting to bother them, she
walked over to Cleomie and informed her that she was
gonna swim for a while.

"Well hey! Wait for me will you!" Cleomie bounded into the shallow 
floodpond of the field after the younger ewe.

The flood waters were quite large. Karama walked some
distance from Chirin and Azeala and swam around for a
while. She shot a water attack in the air, making a
fountain.

Azalea stepped away from Chirin, her ears perking at the sounds of 
others nearby. Water easily gave people away like 
that. "Ahh...apparently the idea of a swim in icy floodwaters is too 
enticing for the others to pass up," she said with a small grin. "Not 
that we didn't advertise its perks."

Chirin gave her a last nuzzle and looked around. Cleomie and Karama 
were walking, well Cleomie was walking, Karama was swimming.

"Let's get back to Selden," said Chirin, realizing the lamb might 
have some difficulty traveling through this. But they couldn't stay 
here. The area was no good for grazing if it was underwater. And if 
there were Ursarings to the north--Chirin still smelled them  
faintly, tossed to him by errant breezes--they were very vulnerable 
here, even though the water was a friend to the *denki*. At least, he 
thought, no marowaks or growlithes would be a threat right now.

"We're going to move on soon," he called to the other two out 
further. "So no one has to go back to the hill. We're going to bring 
everybody out here and keep going southwest."

"How about this arrangement," said Azalea. "You're a stronger swimmer 
than myself, so while you tend to Selden--all he has to do to get 
going is see you call to him! I'll stay and keep watch here. Both of 
us needn't go."

"Yeah, that's right. Good idea." With a parting touch of noses, 
Chirin swam off for the hill, facing sunwards. Phos's tail bulb 
danced in a stream of light-chips over the water. The winds were very 
calm, tired after yesterday and content to have a lazy day.

Coming into their view, he realized he could just call them in from 
here, across the field, but Selden might have trouble. "Meriipu!" he 
bleated with a spark of his tail. He recalled a thing to say to bless 
the beginning of a day of travel, for back home the flock had often 
been on the move. "Phos be our guide, like Watakko we glide...Lights 
of the ancients guard our steps. Come on, everybody come, we're going 
to leave here and keep moving!"

Selden splashed in, but as he neared Chirin he began to swim, 
paddling with his head just over the water. Chirin swam to meet him.

"Chirin--can't--"

"I got you." Chirin let Selden grab hold of his neck, but he couldn't 
swim like this. He had to think of something. 

"I got it." He swam in front of Selden. "Can you hold on my tail? Try 
to keep your front feet around it." Feeling Selden follow his 
instructions, he perked his tail up at the end to give him a better 
grip. "Now just keep a good hold, we'll be in shallower water really 
soon. You're doing great!"

* * *

"Hey Azalea," said Cleomie.

"Hey." Azalea gave the limpest wave of her tail in greeting as the 
bigger mareep waded towards her. 

"Getting chummy with Chirin huh."

"As a matter of fact I would consider us 'chummy', yes." She looked 
around in the water, swearing she'd seen something little flit 
beneath the surface, among the grass. "Quite favorable weather we're 
having this fine morning. I imagine we'll make sufficient progress to 
get clear of flooded areas at least by nightfall. Assuming we find a 
region of higher elevation. That's what it's dependent on, elevation."

Cleomie's face screwed up. "Huh?"

"Never mind--was only doing a little geological-slash-meteorological 
small talk--based almost entirely on pure speculation, moreover. How 
are your injuries? You're up and about this morning, that's a 
positive thing to see."

"I feel better," she said, after a pause.

* * *

Chirin swam along with Selden hanging on his tail, until his paddling 
feet brushed deeper into the grass. "Can you reach the bottom?" He 
felt Selden let go.

"Yes! I can walk."

Chirin stopped to give his tail a wag, because it still felt like 
Selden was clinging on. Sometimes the body was that way, it took a 
moment or two to convince his tail that it was free now. Standing up 
almost to his back in water (Selden had to lift his head to keep it 
over the surface) he gave his tail another few wags, getting a look 
at it. It was long and thick with a good-sized bulb. Mother Megga's 
bounty of grasses had nourished it.

Just as a song was coming to him, about wagging tails and cold water, 
something latched on to the apricorn shell round his neck and yanked. 

"Ahh!"

Chirin almost got pulled under and he braced up by instinct. Just 
beneath the water he got a glimpse of a small, light-blue body with a 
big face and his special apricorn shell in its mouth. As he opened 
his mouth and lunged under to grab it back, the string snapped.

"No!" Chirin's back legs launched after the Wooper. "Please, come 
back!" A part of his soul--his being--was in there!

 Karama dived underwater. She could stay under for a
long time. She saw a wooper snatch Chirin's apricorn.
Full of anger all of a sudden, Karama swam quickly to
shore and darted after the wooper.

"Come back here you little *beep*!" Karama yelled,
trying to catch it.

 He thought that was mean, even thought the Wooper clearly seemed to 
have been sent after his soul. 'Cursing the one sent to curse you is 
like trying to smoke out smoke--it only blocks the light more.' That 
had been one of Mama's favorite things to say.

Chirin's legs pumped, his feet reached for more water, more speed as 
he swam after the wooper, hearing the laboring of his own lungs 
against the sounds of water. The wooper quickly and easily outpaced 
him. It must know--but why would it be after his soul?

"Azalea--anybody! The wooper has my apricorn!"

He felt faint *denki* through the water as Azalea, still a way away 
as she waited with the others, responded with an electric start. 

"I see it! I'll try to head it off from over here--you swim the other 
way and try to corral it! Don't bother trying to shock it--Woopers do 
not respond to electricity!"

He knew that, but followed what she had said to do, understanding her 
plan. But, even with Karama helping now, it was likely to fail. 

He saw faint rifts of disturbance, creases in the water surface as 
the small blue fish-pokemon made off in a southwest direction, closer 
to Azalea.

"Ah, easy now...it's coming closer," said Azalea. "Cleomie, you cover 
over there I'll handle this sector--m'reep!"

She bleated as Cleomie saw the Wooper swimming over there and shoved 
in front of her.

"I got it! I got it!"

The Wooper poked its head up, smiling, and, briefly letting go of the 
apricorn, squirted water in Cleomie's face, as Azalea floundered back 
up to the surface. By the time anyone saw it had let go, it snatched 
up the Apricorn again and dove back under.

Chirin swam headlong after it. Woopers were faster underwater but 
very slow in general. If he could not persuade it to give it back, 
maybe could somehow coax it out of the water...

"Woopa, woopa!"

The Wooper leaped out of the water, airborne before smacking back 
down on its side. Beneath the water it looked all around, seeing 
mareep closing in from all sides.

Azalea was swimming away from the others, towards the copse, which 
she was close to--it was now just south of her. Her nose pointed 
ahead of her, pointing to the apricorn tree. She poked around in the 
water, scrounging for fallen apricorns as fast as she could.

* * *

Chirin could have sworn by his ancestors that whis Wooper meant no 
actual harm--it was *playing*. Could it be that it didn't know the 
apricorn was of him? Or was it simply enjoying the game of playing 
with his soul, giving his heart a reason to beat harder? A water-Pia, 
definitely!

He lunged for the Wooper and his feet brushed down over smooth, slick 
skin that slipped easily out of his grasp.

"I'm coming to help!" called Cleomie, darting towards the Wooper from 
the other side.

"Don't count me out!" Ivy exclaimed, darting after the small water type 
herself.

Azalea kicked forward back out of the copse, herding a whole bunch of 
apricorns in her front legs, plus two in her mouth. She sent strong 
pulses of electricity through the willing water out towards Chirin, 
Cleomie and the Wooper.

All three of them turned to look at Azalea. "That ewe is really 
weird," said Cleomie. 

The wooper leaped up and gave a squeal. "Wooo!" Its feet splashed 
water in Chirin's face as it wriggled away straight towards Azalea's 
bounty.

"They have an affinity for spherical objects!" said 
Azalea. "Everybody, take some and maybe we can persuade it into 
giving Chirin's up!"

"Spheres...?" Ivy looked around for some...then sweatdropped. As that was 
nearby her was what ALMOST looked like a ball at the end of her tail...but it 
did flicker and such...maybe...

She grinned, then turned around and moved her tail so it was low to the 
ground and twitching and the end, flickering as well "Here little Wooper! 
Right over here!"

The Wooper swam over and butted against Ivy's lit tail, attracted by 
its light as much as its roundness. It had been following these 
things under the water for some time, and knew that they were 
beautiful baubles but just didn't come off. That didn't mean it 
didn't try again, though, enticed as it was. Perhaps this mareep was 
going to unattach hers and let it have it! But with a few kicks and 
smacks, she realized that wasn't the case. She gave up and swam off 
for something it could carry away, quite glad she hadn't let go of 
the one in her mouth.  Wiggling it, she could tell something was 
inside it!

Hm...looked like that mareep down that way had a whole bunch more 
apricorns. It was worth a look!

Cleomie shoved in front of Azalea, gathering up some of the apricorns 
and splashing them out towards the Wooper. "Where is it? I don't see 
it!"

Azalea was blinking her light on and off, sending waves of her 
current out at the general direction of the Wooper. Against the 
reflection of the sky it was hard to see. 

Chirin dived underwater, swimming closer to the Wooper from behind. 
Opening his eyes, he saw the blue creature turn around, sensing the 
turbulence. She shook her head--which had the apricorn shell in it--
and kicked away. Chirin surfaced, took another breath and dived under 
again.

Ivy grumbled a bit at her tail not having worked...with a deep breath, she 
jumped into the water herself, going after the Wooper. Maybe if she cut it 
off...

"Here! Here!" Cleomie dove under the water with an apricorn in HER 
mouth. 

"Round the other way! It's going between both of you!" cried Azalea 
as the Wooper swam into the midst of her apricorn horde, most of 
which were floating or drifting underwater in all directions.

Chirin and Cleomie both swam at the Wooper from either direction as 
it paused, hanging in the water, looking at all the other tempting 
apricorns. Chirin hung there too, blinking his tail, waving it, 
anything to make it let go of that special piece of him...

In a sudden spurt it darted upwards, just ahead of the oncoming ewe. 
Cleomie's head came crashing into Chirin's an instant later. 

"Woopa! Woopaaa!" The wooper squealed around the apricorn as she 
jumped above the surface, seeming to take delight in all the mareep 
playing with her.

Selden saw the wooper and smiled. Bleating with similar playfulness, 
he surged after the blue thing in his own clumsy way.

Ivy surfaced for a lungful or air before diving under again. The problem was, 
she wasn't as good a swimmer as she'd like to be...but tried. Maybe if she 
chased it towards shore it would slow down...?

As the Wooper swam backwards, paddling with her little feet in 
mockery of the slower sheep, Selden jumped from behind.

"Got you!"

The Wooper uttered a cry of surprise, dropping down among the bunch 
Azalea had collected. Quickly she paddled away underwater, startled 
that someone had actually almost caught her.

"Are you okay Selden?" called Chirin.

"Okay!" Selden laughed. "Woopa!"

Chirin, who had just surfaced again, dove down again, seeing that the 
Wooper still held his apricorn shell firmly in her mouth. He came 
back up. The Wooper was swimming into shallower water.

Ivy sighed...now she was sopping wet and had nothing to show for it. Oh 
well...it wasn't as if she hadn't been soaked earlier...

She got out of the water and shook off "Well, that was...cold."

Azalea had run out of the water, trying to tell where the wooper 
would go next. 

Chirin ran at the wooper from behind. The wooper ran up onto the 
grass mostly out of the water, squishing and splashing in the soggy 
ground. Azalea darted after it as Chirin came charging out of the 
water.

"Hey!" Cleomie ran after them all.

"Hey!" Selden struggled out after them. 

Running fast, Chirin leaped, and landed sound on the Wooper. Just as 
it was about to wriggle out, Azalea pinned it down, planting her 
hooves against the creature's head. With its body pinned under 
Chirin's chest, the wooper gave up the struggle.

"We're not going to hurt you," said Chirin as he held the poor thing 
down. "It's just that's my apricorn you have and I need it, it's a 
part of me."

Azalea wrenched the apricorn shell out of the Wooper's mouth and 
Chirin got up off the frazzled little blue amphibian. The Wooper 
scrambled beyond their reach, its eyes searching for a way back to 
the water, but coming to rest on the cluster of mareep.

"Woopa?" it asked, cocking its head.

"I'm really sorry," said Chirin, saddened by its hurt look. "But--
hey! I have an idea. Since we found a lot of other apricorns, how 
about you can have ALL of those apricorns! And if you want to keep 
playing with us you can. I think it would be fun."

The wooper cocked her head the other way. Then she jumped up and 
down. "Woopa, woopa! You're nice. I wanna play all day wif you. I--
I'm sorry bout me grabbing that Round Thingy off you." Her beady 
little eyes glistened at the words 'round thingy'.

Chirin's mouth broke out in a grin as Azalea dropped the apricorn 
shell by his feet. "Great," he said. "It'll be so fun having a wooper 
stay with us for a while! It..."

He sniffed the apricorn shell. It smelled wrong. He pushed it with 
his nose. It felt wrong. He gave it a good, close look. It looked 
wrong.

"This isn't my apricorn shell," he said in a scared, small little 
voice.

"You mean...?" Azalea's eyes traveled over to the area where a rather 
large bunch of other green apricorn shells of similar appearance had 
been floating and drifting around.

Ivy SWEATDROPPED "It's...in THERE?

She gulped "But...how will we be able to tell which it is...?"

"Oh, Chirin, I'm so sorry," said Azalea.

"Good going Azalea!" Cleomie yelled, shouldering ahead of the burn-
scarred ewe as they both sloshed back into the water. "You and your 
genius ideas. You just wanted to look like the smart one, like 
always."

Azalea had nothing to say. She only blinked back tears as they both 
reached the apricorns, and started searching.

Something like a boiling cloud rose up in Chirin. He ran around 
Cleomie, and as the sturdy ewe came up with another apricorn in her 
mouth, she found herself looking into his black eyes, with one 
bruised eye herself. 

"You don't talk to Azalea like that in this flock."

Cleomie looked like she was about to say something but she just 
ducked for another apricorn.

"Ah, honestly, Chirin, I'm quite accustomed to her abuse and have 
developed a strong shell," said Azalea. "Defense is, ah, 
unnecessary." She cast Cleomie a wary glance.

Chirin looked from Azalea to Cleomie and back, almost able to see the 
dark darting from Cleomie onto Azalea. Was Cleomie thinking bad, 
harmful things about Azalea? The thought scared him. Dark thoughts 
could be very powerful.

"I don't care," he said to Azalea. "She won't talk to you like that. 
If she wants to...she can leave."

He was surprised at such harsh, mean-sounding words spouting from his 
own mouth, about a companion, an injured one. Was this really 
him? "Anyway, we'll be getting going as soon as I find my apricorn."

Ivy, hoping to cheer up Chirin, blushed a bit as she nuzzled him, hopefully 
comfortingly "We'll find it, don't worry...it has to be here somewhere..."

Ivy blinked, a bit surprised at hearing Chirin say something such as 
this...but it didn't matter to her either way. It wasn't as if Ivy cared much 
for her...


Karama knew the wooper's normal language... She could
use it so it would understand her a little better...

"Kyu! Wooper! Sla yo catalsoma wheso yo ki flisa
riloma yo goet? Ima kikla wik yo loso yo toall muoa,
Wooper! (Hey! Wooper! Do you remember where you put
the first apricorn you got? I'll play with you if you
tell me, Wooper!)" Karama said. The wooper turned to
her.

"Seeloka ina riloma middlea Ia tinka. Ia sla noto
catalsoma... Willa yo skilako kikla wik mo? (Somewhere
in the middle I think. I do not remember... Will you
still play with me?)" the wooper responded.

Ivy's nuzzle felt a little funny, but he returned it, glad to bring 
light feelings back around as he started looking. He was quite amazed 
at Karama's ability to talk in such strange words. 

"That's one I hadn't heard before," said Azalea, dropping another 
incorrect apricorn back into the water. "I'm digging my teeth into 
any apricorn that isn't the proper one, quite easy to tell in fact 
because of differing weight, size, scent, and the fact that only 
yours has a pebble inside it. Any apricorn now ridged with tooth 
marks has already been inspected."

"Great idea. Oh here look, there are some more over here..."

The wooper swam over with another apricorn in her mouth. She butted 
against Chirin's leg.

"Oh, thanks," he said, taking it as she dropped it. It was the wrong 
one. 

"I'm so sorry...I got bumped into and I thought I picked up the same 
one!" said the wooper.

Chirin smiled. "That's okay. We'll find it. This is kind of fun, 
even," he said, trying to quell his fears that anything else lurking 
under water could snatch that piece of his essence.

Cleomie grumbled as she hunted for his stupid apricorn. Why didn't he 
just pick another one? And *Azalea* would probably find it, or if she 
didn't he'd find a way to glorify her anyway, even though it was her 
fault they were still looking in this stupid water.

So she would have to play nice to get Chirin to look at her...She 
sighed.

"I'm sorry I talked to you like that before," said the ram and 
Cleomie looked up at him. "It just--I don't know. From now on we'll 
all be nice. I mean, there's no reason to churn up dark, now that 
Phos shines bright down on us and we're all together." He gave her a 
smile.

Cleomie gave him one back, at least until Chirin turned back around, 
ducking into the water beside Azalea.

Ivy sighed as she watched Chirin go off with Azalea...he had nuzzled her. But 
of course, he still seemed to like Azalea better...was there any way she 
could...?

Cleomie hung back with Ivy. She glanced at her...yeah, she was 
thinking the same things she was thinking. Cleomie got close to her 
and mumbled really low. 

"Don't you just hate Azalea? Don't you like, just wonder what he even 
sees in her? I mean if I were him she woulda had MY hoof in her mouth 
a long time ago."

Ivy's tailight flickered "W-well..."

She had hoped to make peace with Azalea...did she want that gone...? 

But...she hated her for what Chirin saw in the ugly ewe. She hated the looks 
Chirin gave her and not herself..

She whispered back in reply "I despise her..."

* * *


"We found it!" said Azalea, her ugly head surfacing with yet another 
apricorn shell in her mouth. She gave it a shake, and spit it out in 
front of her; it floated. "Or, ah, I think we found it. Chirin I need 
you to verify."

Chirin gave it a sniff and a heft in his mouth. "You did!" Crying he 
rubbed his head under her chin, almost sticking his snout underwater.

"Ah, don't thank me," said Azalea. "Thank Selden. He brought this one 
up and hooved it over to me. Aren't you the best apricorn-finder of 
them all!" she said as she and Chirin gave a smiley Selden a very wet 
hug. Selden's wool gave weak sparks as he sat there sopping up his 
moment of glory.

Karama paled when she heared what wooper said, but
then sighed in relief as Seldon found the correct
apricorn.

"Dendomanoa yo, Wooper (Thank you, Wooper)" Karama
said.

"Seeoma cescom! (Your welcpme!)" the wooper replied.

"She's even worse than back at the farm," said Cleomie. "I mean look, 
Selden found the apricorn but did you just hear how she almost tried 
to take credit?"

* * *

Holding his apricorn safely in his mouth, he waded out of the 
floodwater, pushing forward, feeling even more energetic and springy. 
Having this part of him back sure made a difference--he felt light 
flooding him like the water in the field. 

He frisked up out of the water; droplets skidded out around his feet. 
He dropped the apricorn and licked it all over, uniting it with him 
again, reassuring it. He opened it up; the pebble was still safely 
inside. He licked that too. "Tree-spirit, you were good to me. I  
won't forget your gift."

"We need a new string or similar apparatus to secure that item for 
travel again," said Azalea. "If I'm not mistaken, a few strands from 
that Ariados web should do the trick."

"Yes," said Chirin, closing it up again. "I want to get back to the 
hill one more time anyway. The shy ewe--green-eyes--is still there I 
think. I have to make sure she's okay. She might not know we're 
leaving soon."

Selden grabbed on to Chirin's tail as the two of them paddled their 
way back towards the hill. "We gong' gack ah' hill!" he said, around 
the apricorn in his mouth. "Gee, gack, goon!"

"Translation: we shall be returning shortly," said Azalea, "and feel 
free to accompany us!"

"Like I need *her* permission," mumbled Cleomie, sloshing over 
towards them.

Ivy felt her eyes narrowed for a brief moment in Azalea's 
direction "S-she did..the little..."

Ivy snorted before trotting after them. She wasn't about to give up 
on Chirin this easily... 

Chirin breathed through his nose, feeling himself drooling a little 
around the apricorn shell by the time he made it to "shore." He 
worried for the grass, which didn't like being submerged. 

He climbed out of the water and gave his wool a shake, looking over 
at Green-eyes. She was peacefully browsing a small bush on the low 
hill. Scanning the area with a routine sniff, Chirin bounded out 
towards where the web had been. The place now sat in leg-high water 
and the web was apparently abandoned, although he still smelled the 
Ariados and its droppings.  

He plucked a few of the threads from underwater, which had lost most 
of their stickiness. These threads were a lot stronger than the oes 
from the small Spinarak he'd had before. Azalea helped him bind the 
apricorn and weave a new string. "Ariados left behind a little help 
for us, after all," he said as they wound the strings around each 
other.

They're coming, they're coming.

Chirin ducked his head as Azalea held the apricorn newly strung on 
the tough threads. Together they pawed it over his head, although it 
stuck on his ears.

Someone was coming.

He started, sniffing the air and looking all around. The forest and 
glistening field seemed suddenly smaller, the spaces empty and spaces 
filled, all of them had substance, like a cave of trees and air. 

Chirin inhaled slow and deep. The air was friendly and not one 
Jumpluff spirit spoke of a threat... not one spirit except the 
visiting spirit in him. Only the feeling, hanging over him like a 
dark eave of stone, told him someone was here with him that he didn't 
see. He gave his apricorn a lick, finding it hanging down slightly 
lower than he was used to. They'd had to make it that long to get it 
over his ears.

"Ah...they're coming," he said, looking out at Ivy and Cleomie, as 
the frightened feeling flitted away. Selden head-butted Chirin's 
flank and jumped backwards, wagging his tail. Chirin ducked his head 
and made a false start. Selden giggled and butted heads with him 
anyway. He noticed Selden had grown a bit. "You're getting big and 
strong!"

"I know," said Selden.

Ivy blinked, but shrugged mentally. She smiled at Chirin "So...your acorn is 
secure then Chirin...?"

"Yes. Thank you for helping. Thanks everybody who helped." Up to now 
he hadn't been sure if they were staying with him because they did 
want to be his friend and be a part of the same flock, or because 
they were just staying here because of the deep need to be in a 
flock, and there was no other flock around, even if they couldn't 
stand him. They really cared about him. It was enough to make him 
want to cry. 

"Me too!" said the wooper. "I heard you saying you're going 
southwest. Well...me too!"

"That's great," said Chirin.

The wooper gave a satisfied smile. Chirin leaned forward and sniffed 
her nose, meeting her. He had seen woopers before but never met one 
up close. The wooper, still not staying entirely still, gave a 
wriggle and hopped back. 

"Nice to meet you. I'm Chirin. What's your name?"

"Roxy!" The Wooperwagged her tail, causing her whole bottom to wag 
too. "And I can't wait to go southwest!"

Chrin giggled. "Really. How come?"

"Uh-uh-uh. You'll know when we get there!" And Roxie did a little 
jig, before jumping back into the water again.

Chirin wanted to ask Roxie what exactly lay in store for them...but 
he had a feeling that whatever it was it wasn't threatening. If there 
were Quagsires, those didn't eat his kind and they were very friendly.

chuckling to himself, he decided to let her keep her little 
secret. "She's cute isn't she," he said to Azalea.

"Adorable. Pleasure to have her with us. I say, she appears familiar 
with the local terrain, from her little tempting teaser there. I 
imagine her knowledge, however limited, may assist us now and then. 
Not to mention she'll be plenty of fun to play with!"

Azalea looked out over the water-field, which looked like a lake, 
fringed with grass poking up around the edges. Behind them, too, the 
area was waterlogged, and only the half-submerged bushes surrounding 
the place where Selden had gotten caught in the mud, showed where 
that sink was. 

She watched with slightly wary eyes as Cleomie and Ivy swam along 
through the deepest part of the floodwater,two V's of gentle ripples 
spreading and converging behind them. She knew they still didn't like 
her--but that what they felt for her now was a different brand of 
dislike than it had been at the barn. Backing up fully out of the 
water she fell to grazing. Out in the shallows Roxie, Selden and 
Chirin splashed and played.

Chirin climbed out of the water again, shaking himself off and 
heading over to Green-eyes. 

"We're going to start moving soon," he said softly. "I want you to 
come with us--it's no good leaving you all alone here--not safe."

He found a small patch of thinner grass and scuffed his hooves in it, 
then cropped up a bunch of good grass and lay it over the small 
place. He plucked some berries from the bush and lay them down on the 
grass. 

"My ancestors, please bless our journey and grow strong on this very 
little gift I put here for you." Then, he whispered, "Mama, I love 
you and I know you're here."

He took out his pebble and pressed his nose to it. He then sensed 
Azalea had come to stand next to him. After a very long time, he put 
the pebble back away, licked his apricorn shell again, blinked his 
tail, and gave a loud spark.

"Let's go!" he said. "Roxie, you know this area?"

"Yup I do!" Roxie wagged her tail. "There are some naughty-naughty 
enemies waaaay north of here--Or so they say. Ursa Rings!" She 
shuddered, although she still sort of smiled. "Dens of'em. Lot of'em 
winter there too. But we're not going *that* way. Not unless we're 
crazy!" She ranin a little circle. "Like me. Just kidding! Anyway the 
southwest's clear as the sky."

"Great," said Chirin, wading into the water. He gave another spark in 
the air. It arced downward and struck the water, alerting anyone 
within it. "*Meriipu!*"

He headed back through the water with Azalea by his side and Selden 
at his tail. Green-eyes followed, and he checked the hill one last 
time to make sure it was empty of his kind. It looked deserted now, 
lonely. He whispered a last goodbye and thanks to it; they had done a 
run of lights there and it would always remember.
This time when they all reached the copse, they continued on past it, 
faced away from Phos's great Light as they swam through the water 
with the considerably more comfortable Roxie literally swimming 
circles around them. 

Chirin's nose kept aware of the air spirits, and told him the same 
thing his eyes did--the Tauros herd in the distance. When they got 
there they could all have a good graze, and perhaps a good drying off.

"I insist on taking a turn hitching Selden to my tail," said Azalea 
as they swam along. Her burns had either blistered or scabbed over, 
leaving a swath of gore over her left side that, despite its 
ugliness, protected her from outside elements and was now being 
partly covered by regrowing wool around it. The remaining skin had 
begun to pull taut as it closed in around the injury, leaving a 
tightness on her shoulder and flank that Azalea feared was permanent. 
She tried her best to stretch it and keep her body limber as she 
swam. 

"I like Chirin's tail more," said Selden. Azalea had to chuckle.

"Selden, that's not nice," said Chirin. "Azalea has a good strong 
tail too and mine's going to get tired soon."

"Ohh, ohhkay." Selden switched, latching on to Azalea's smaller and 
slimmer tail. They were almost through the deep part of the water, 
anyway.

Azalea cast a glance behind her, at Cleomie and Ivy. She wasn't 
exactly sure why she had a feeling of foreboding and slight fear, but 
quite possibly it was rooted in the fact that they both hated her.

Chirin looked around them, making sure everyone was here and keeping 
up. Curious, he counted them--seven. 

"Seven, and one wooper," said Azalea. At his surprised look she 
said, "I saw you mouthing the numbers. It's the same number we had 
before. I would love to lay claim to the sixth sense but instead I 
simply used my eyes."

She looked around as they calmly paddled along. "Gee, you know, I 
ponder the possibility of more of the flock finding us. It's only 
logical, considering the sheer numbers of them spread out over the 
same area. I'm guessing many headed back farmwards, though--falling 
back on familiarity."

"I wonder where they went. I hope they're okay," said 
Chirin. "Everyone's soul has a direction it wants to go, like a beam 
of light shining. And it changes. And other beings come along to 
block the path of your light, they come close to you and make you 
afraid. Your feelings of fear and anger will warn you that dark is 
close, and then you know you have to fight for your light-path, and 
shine the shadows away before they hurt you. The great dark that tore 
the flock all apart also made...everyone fight to find their light-
path, I think. Everyone had a different way they had to go." Lararu 
had once said something like that once to Mama, while he had been 
nursing. He hadn't understood it at the time but now he thought he 
might be starting to.

"That's definitely a valid way of thinking about it," said Azalea.

Karama walked close to the water where Chirin was,
carrying three bags made of leaves and held together
with aridos thread. Inside, were stun berries
(yellow), and water berries (blue), and a few purple
ones that she had yet to test.

"Wow, how'd you make those bags?" said Chirin. Up to now he had 
wanted some way to carry the herbs, berries and other special plants 
they found but couldn't construct one with his hooves. It had taken 
him and Azalea together to weave those strings for his necklace and 
even they were mostly stuck together rather than woven. "Can you tell 
me how you did it? I can help us carry things we can use if anyone 
gets hurt and needs to be healed."

"An ingenius idea," said Azalea, "and an ingeniusly crafted set of 
pouches. It appears to be held together with ariados thread too? 
Where'd you come by these materials? Or is that from the web back by 
the hill. Why didn't I think of that. Anyhow, that's quite a 
construct!"


Chirin looked into her bags and saw the three kinds of berries. She 
seemed to know something about their properties, more than he did 
anyway. He had not had much chance to learn anything about the 
healing plants from Lararu before they had all been taken away. The 
life he had led since then had given him precious little time to 
learn about anything besides attacking and traveling. For all that 
she said she had been taken from her flock as a newborn, she must 
have stayed with them longer than that or returned to the later...or 
something. And how did she know these Woopers' language?

"Ah, pardon me if I prod," said Azalea, "but where did you learn how 
to make bags out of leaves and silk? Quite a complex and useful 
skill."

Karama blushed.
"I got some big leaves," Karama said, getting a few
leaves, "layed them out flat like this... and then I
got some aridos thread," here she layed the leaves
flat and got some aridos thread, "and I use the aridos
thread to make the leaves stick together... like
this... Then, I have to make it into a bag shape. I
kind of fold in here and there... And I use a little
more aridos thread at the top to make it stay like
this, and at the tippy top, there it a hole to take
things out and put things in! Thats all!"


***

The wooper bounded into view. It splashed in the
water, circling Chirin happily. It chanted, 'woopa
woopa woopa!' continuasly.
"Yo Chirin theso klimasomoreepa yeso? Meoa Fin! (You
Chirin the mareep yes? Me Fin!)" the wooper said.

Chirin giggled at the new Wooper. "Hi! Do you know Roxie?"

"Yup-yup-yup he knows me!" Roxie gave Fin a hug with her tail (as 
woopers had no arms). "This's Fin. We go waaaay back. He'n me are 
headed southwest with all you fluffy guys! Oh and Fin! Not everybody 
knows that OTHER language, so let's just talk common Poke for here!"  
She lightly smacked his ear with her ear, then whacked him on the 
back with her tail and dove back into the water. "Woopa woopa!"

"I love woopers," said Chirin.

Fin looked downrotten.
"Boota, Ioa doont klima thesa oder luagua. Yo speaka
thena, Ioa understandaoko thena, buta Ioa canota
speaka themsa! Yo shoueld knowi stlat! (But, I don't
know the other language. You speak them, I understand
them, but I cannot speak them! You should know that!)"
Fin protested.

***

"Ah, Chirin. Fin says that she understands the other
language, but can only speak the wooper one. Fin, isa
theeees theona wyay yo woosa muade? (Fin, is this the
way you was made?)" Karama said.

***

"Yesa. Measoa wasa boroana slata wyay. Mya tounguea
onya worka fora theees luanua! (Yes. Me was born that
way. My toungue only works for this language)" Fin
said.

***
"Fin says that her toungue makes her speak only that
one language. No others. That is the way she was
born," Karama said.

"That's okay," said Chirin, in rapt fascination listening to Fin's 
words. He could sort of understand her now! "I think you don't need 
to translate. I can hear the words making sense in my mind."

They had since come out of the floodwaters (remember they can't 
construct leaf bags while swimming) and arrived by some bushes above 
the level of the ever-encompassing puddle. Following her 
instructions, Chirin and Azalea got some leaves. They laid them out 
on the ground.

"Okay," said Azalea, returning to their little crafting area on the 
grass, by the bushes. "Here's some Spinarak thread I managed to 
procure, it should be more than durable enough to accomplish the 
task."

"Now...to make the bags," said Chirin. He began laying the leaves out 
flat, one by one with his mouth and also by doubling up his fromt 
foot. Someday this foot would be a sort of flipper, he thought, much 
more flexible and able to handle jobs like this. He wondered when he 
would evolve...it had always felt like a distant future event, 
something that would happen far from now when his *denki* said the 
time was right to enter the time of Blue Light.

""*Reep*, this is easy so far," said Azalea laying out 
leaves. "Tedious but nothing too challenging. Now...for the thread."

She and Chirin each took some and began trying to weave the leaves 
together. Chirin found that if he held the leaves down with one foot 
and spread the thread with the other it started to work, gripping the 
leaves and melding them into one big mat. As long as he didn't try to 
fight the thread it didn't tangle and get too stuck to him. Patience, 
he remembered patience. The thread was of the most patient of pokemon 
so he must treat it that way.

Back home they had made things like this out of cotton, which was 
always in ready supply. Chirin had always been one of the young 
mareep watching the older people make them. "I remember a long time 
ago, back at home, I always wanted to make these things but I 
couldn't, I was too young. Now I get to try."

"Where did you learn this process?" said Azalea. "Quite useful--
if..quite...frustrating, at times..." she said, her left front foot 
getting tangled up in threads which were also stuck to her snout. 
Leaves flapped and flopped, caught up in the mess as she attempted to 
extricate herself.

"Ha, look," said Cleomie to Ivy as Chirin attempted to work Azalea 
loose.

"I think I got it, I--"

"Hold still," said Chirin, threads sticking in his mouth as he licked 
them off Azalea's cheek. Working with his own hoof to free hers, she 
joined him and together they wadded the mess into a globule of leaves 
and thread. They shook their hooves free and there it sat in the 
grass.

"Well, there's my bag," said Azalea, bursting into laughter. Chirin 
did too. 

"You know, I was thinking grass may be an even more suitable building 
material," she said.

"Oh, I just like to make things, so I made this one up
a while back... Sometimes in the lab, they would let
me out for exercise in a little field surrounded with
a fence. I made my first bag there..." Karama said.
She walked over to Azeala and helped Chirin untangle
her. "It takes some practice to make bags Azeala, you
will get the hang of it..." then she heard Cleomie and
Ivy laughing at Azeala. Karama rounded on them.
"Alright you two, why don't YOU try making these bags
eh?"

"Hey don't mess with me," said Cleomie. 

"Please," said Chirin. Nobody has to make bags if they don't want. 
But please, we're all going to be nice. At least we're going to try 
very hard," he said, looking at Cleomie. "Come on Cleomie, Ivy, 
Karama, everyone. It's a beautiful day! And we're having fun."

"At least they allowed you to see the light of day and experience the 
joys of grass and wind," said Azalea. "I imagine you had time to 
practice on these. I would be careful not to overburden yourself with 
bags of berries, however, as we travel," said Azalea. "These places 
are infested with enemies. Which is why we'd all do well to construct 
a small bag and hold a small quantity of healing plants."

Fin walked up to Cleomie and Ivy and glared at them.
"Baaod mariipua! Vuuory baaod! (Bad mareep! Very
bad!)" Fin said irritably.

"You talk funny," said Cleomie, glancing at Ivy to see if she could 
make any sense of Fin. "Why you yelling at me anyway? What'd I do to 
you?"

"IOA TLKAO FUUNIE? YO STOOPA BEAINGA MYENA TUO MARIIPU
KARAMA ANDO MARIIPU AZEALA! YO MUCHA STUPIDOUA!" Fin
screamed.

***

"You tell them Fin!" Karama said.

Chirin stood up straight, puffing up his wool. His tail sparked. 

"STOP IT!"

Even Azalea looked at him in surprise. She, like the others, stared 
at him. 

Out in the distance, a Miltank lowed to her calf, as they grazed, 
tails swishing flies away as their mouths moved over the ground.

"I'm sorry I yelled," said Chirin. "But...Karama...Fin...everybody. I 
won't have the yelling here or the fighting. If you're traveling with 
me, we won't be fighting. I didn't mean to yell, but we had problems 
with this before. It brings dark in. It's what drove the other flock 
apart. If you want to fight each other, I can't stop you...but I can 
go a separate way." He blinked back tears. "Come on. Think about it. 
Don't let such little things get to you," he said, looking at Karama, 
who suddenly reminded him strongly of Calima. "Just words, all of it. 
Don't let dark spirits swoop in and ruin your light. It's a beautiful 
day. They can't take that away from us."

Selden, who had been over by Chirin, opened his mouth and began to 
cry, revealing dark green cud inside. Chirin went over to him and 
nuzzled him, sending him sparks. As Selden calmed down Chirin licked 
the little lamb's ear.

"Now how about we all get back to making some bags," he said, "if you 
want to. I know it's a great morning to just have a rest and chew 
some."

~

The young, brown onix watched the pokemon yell at
eachother. It was awful to see. Koko clearly didn't
realize that he could be seen at his current position.

As Chirin gazed back out beyond the bushes at the rolling hills, he 
saw a rock outcropping not too far off.

"Funny, I don't recall seeing a feature of stone there before," said 
Azalea. 

"Rocks are more alive than even we are," said Chirin, who had always 
known the rock outcroppings back home moved, they just did it very 
slowly most of the time, and also when no one was looking, said 
others. Leaving the bag project behind he trotted out towards the 
stone, slowing down to a cautious walk. He glanced behind him, 
wagging his tail for Azalea to come, but didn't see her. Lookng back 
around he saw she'd slipped ahead of him and followed her over 
towards the rock.

 Karama stared, open mouthed at Chirin. She sat down,
closed her mouth, and looked at her hooves, sulking.

***

Fin looked at Chirin.
"Mea moochoa soorrrya mariipu Chirin. Mea trie notas
tooa doo itoa agina..." she said.

 "It's fine," said Chirin, stepped a bit away from the rock and 
nuzzling the wooper but coming away with a strange, faint tingling 
where his cheek had brushed Fin's. The wooper had been out of water 
for a bit now and had some sort of slime on its skin. "I'm not angry 
at all. I was just getting scared. Karama, it's okay," he 
said. "Don't feel badly. We're all one flock here and I just want it 
to stay that way. When a flock fights it breaks up. I'm going over 
there down that way, Azalea's calling me."

He trotted through the grass and around the big rock.

Chirin stood before the rock, which he could have sworn by the Lights 
of the first ancestors, moved, slightly. He trembled with 
anticipation...with nervousness, wondering, because he knew what it 
might mean, and why this rock was here.

"Kin of Pharos far away," he said, "have you come to tell me 
something?"

"Ahh...I could be wrong," Azalea whispered, "but I'm not altogether 
certain that the rock is going to answer you...in an intelligible 
form anyhow."

Nevertheless, she stood there waiting with him. 

"I'll have a look around the other side," she said after a moment, 
trotting full circle round the big brown boulder.

"Hmm," she said, sniffing what appeared to be an ordinary boulder, 
albeit of an unusual shape. "I'm unfamiliar with this rock strata. In 
addition, judging by the grass crushed beneath it round the edges, it 
was indeed deposited here extremely recently! Moreover..." She 
trailed off, staring at a large muddy track in teh grass, leading 
right to the boulder. "Chirin...ah...come have a look at this!"

Koko stirred, he rose up to full hight, his eyes still
closed, and he yawned. He was tired, he curled back up
and was soon asleep again.

"Reeeeep!" Azalea reared up, twisting away, and shot down the field 
at a hard gallop before remembering that Chirin was on the other 
side. She didn't hear him! Had he been crushed? She braced herself up 
and ran back in a very wide circle towards him. 

"Chirin! Chirin!"

* * *

Chirin lay kneeling before the rock, bowing to it with his nose 
pressed into the cool wet grass. "Oh, rock-kin of Pharos' flock! Have 
you come to--see me? OR--tell me something?"  He tried to remember if 
he'd seen this rock before back home, but couldn't remember. It 
didn't look like Pharos or any of the rest of the rock flock standing 
along the mountains and by the sea, among whom the Ampharos flocks 
lived. 

"Chirin!" Azalea reached him. "This is no time to fall down in 
worship! Or--if it is--after all you're the expert there--how about 
we do it from a slightly greater distance?"

Chirin looked up at Azalea and smiled. "Calm down, look at you," he 
giggled, "your wool's standing straight up on your head." He stood up 
and smoothed it down with his chin, feeling her current fully awake 
inside her. "I think this rock might be one from the flocks back 
home. I've just--never seen one move before." He stared at it in 
fascination. "Oh great rock, is there anything I can do for you? Have 
you come for help? Are the humans after you too?"

"A living, moving, fully animated boulder," said Azalea, barely 
breathing as she stared in amazement. "Still, Chirin, I think it'd be 
best if we gave it a slightly wider berth. It could easily crush us 
all."

"Where are the others?" said Chirin, looking down the way at the 
clump of bushes. They didn't seem to have noticed.

Koko opened one eye, then the other. He stared at the
small mareep (well, small to him).
"I do not know of Pharos or of your flock... I'm just
a normal onix that wants his rest..." Koko said,
yawning.

Rest! How could he have not thought of that! When a rock went to 
sleep, so they said, it could sleep a year for every star in the sky. 
Or more years than all the Nidorans in all the warrens. Or all the...

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I didn't know...Good sleep-journey, Phos's 
light to you."

Chirin picked up quickly and quietly back to the flock. Azalea went 
beside him, also quietly.

"It referred to itself as a normal onix," she whispered. "Onix--could 
that perhaps be a type of living rock that we as yet have no 
knowledge of?"

"All rocks are alive--but not all of them move around like that one 
did! Yes, I think you're right," he whispered back.

Roxie was standing in the grass when they got back. "Let's go back to 
making bags out of leaves and string!" she shouted.

"Shhh," said Chirin. "There's a--boulder down there who's trying to 
sleep, we all have to be a little more quiet."

Cleomie snickered.

Karama blinked and looked at the 'boulder'.
"Chirin, that is no boulder. It is onix, the rock
snake pokemon... Quite strong too might I add..."
Karama said.

***

"Oonix cana beeo quiteeo duangeroussa. Weea mustaa
geeta riidda of ita. Mariipu Karama, woopa Roxie and
mea canna drivea itta offa withoa oura watera guna!"
Fin said boldly.

Roxie looked at Fin like she was nuts. "ME? Fight an ONIX?"

"Ah, a rock snake," said Azalea. "That explains the track!"

"Onix," said Chirin, "that is what the boulder called itself. I 
didn't know it was a pokemon. That's amazing! But...it just wants to 
sleep right now, so what we're going to do is change our direction so 
we can go around it without bothering it."

"And just in case it moves a lot in its sleep," said Azalea.

"But no attacking it," said Chirin. "It isn't hurting anything, it's 
just trying to sleep. We'll all go around it. But, uh..." he asked 
Karama, "what does it do that's dangerous?"

"Besides crush objects inadvertantly," said Azalea, "which is pretty 
much a given."

"Myo mamao tolda meoa thata oonixa werea someatimeas
useda fora killin othear pokemons! Wea musta geeta
ridda of ita!" Fin said.

"Used?" said Azalea. "That indicates another force in operation. And 
you are indicating that you were told by, ah, your mother that a 
force exists that is powerful enough to use THAT for... anything?"

"There are many forces out thre much stronger than us," said Chirin-
chirin. "Stronger than the wind and the rivers and even the rocks. 
They could use us, or anything, for anything they want to. But if we 
go around everywhere thinking we have to destroy everything because 
we fear it'll hurt us...I don't think there would be much of anything 
left."

"It is rather on the large size, okay, ah make that humungous, side," 
said Azalea. "We shall circumvent it. Like so. I will await you all 
down near those peacefully grazing Tauros." She winked at Chirin.

Azalea started walking to the south, heading out in a wide arc around 
the sleeping monolith.

"Come on, let's all follow Azalea," said Chirin, taking care to keep 
Selden by his side. "The rock--I mean Onix--is in the other world 
right now and won't hurt you. We'll go way way out around it just in 
case."

Fin followed Chirin, as did Karama.

Koko woke up, and rose up to full hight.
"I don't eat meat ya know. I eat rocks..." Koko said,
picking up a rock and eating it.
"I eat the minerals inside..."

Chirin had been smelling rain back on the way again, further shown by 
young clouds fluffing like mareep wool, coalescing as they swelled. 
As they ran down towards the Tauros and Miltank-dotted field he felt 
the first drizzle touch down on his face. Oh, well...you never could 
tell what Watakko would bring! Perhaps the ancestors would dance 
again...now that he was well rested he would love a dose of *denki*. 
There was no feeling quite like being struck by lightning.

All the mareep grazed in the gentle rain, occasionally looking out at 
the cattle pokemon, who would glance back, but neither species was 
bothered sharing the abundant grass. With Haru, the unseen one who 
brought autumn, just waking up, thundering over the hills, beginning 
to usher in the cool nights as Phos took longer and longer naps, now 
was the time to fatten up and eat all they could for winter. Some 
said Haru was the color of autumn leaves and fire, some said, others 
said he was brown like a Stantler. Most said he was a mix of the 
leaves' last blaze of life in this world, and the brown--*mure*--of 
their death. Everyone knew he had a magnificent rack of antlers, a 
smell both of autumn leaves and virile ram's musk, and a tail bulb 
blazing with all the fall colors. Where he ran, calling out in a deep 
male voice, leaves flared out from green into yellows, oranges and 
reds. Haru made males clash heads and the grasslands burn.

Azalea's head was close to Chirin's as they grazed. She, like he, 
kept glancing back at the Onix. Chirin tried to suppress his 
disappointment that the rock had not come to him to tell him what had 
happened. His yearning for an answer was still this hole inside him.

Chirin had not even thought of what an Onix ate. Hearing the rock 
creature's deep rumble of a voice, he looked at Azalea, who gave a 
nod and a tail-blink, and both of them trotted up to the great 
pokemon, taking care to still give it plenty of personal space. 

"Why hello, Pharos...kin," he said in greeting, unable to determine 
whether it was male or female. "You eat rocks? Well, you are a rock 
so I guess that helps you grow."

"Quite interesting," said Azalea. "I've never met an Onix before 
myself. It is a pleasure to make your aquaintance. I'm Azalea, and 
this is Chirin-chirin. Might you tell us your name?"

"Mea nooa trustousa oonix!" said Fin. "Mea thinkau yo
tryang tooa tricka uosa ando eata ussa!"
Fin glared up at the onix.
"Mea couldio beatua yo! Mea woater aanda groound
tyyyeop, ande yo weeek agaistma booth! Woopa Roxie
couldio beatua yo toooau! Weea thue suame tyyyeops!"
There came a strange feeling in Fin's mouth.
"And don't you forget it!" Fin said. 

***

Karama stared at Fin.
"Y-you spoke... Whoa..." was all she could say.

"I feel obliged to state my perspective on this," said Azalea. "If 
the Onix wanted to eat any of us it already would have by now, 
especially since we're standing quite near it. There's no need to 
make pointless threats. As you can see we are trying to make a 
peaceful aquaintance."

"Wow, Fin talked normal talking!" said Roxie. "Kinda thought the 
other way sounded kinda funny, though!" She laughed, running up to 
the others. "So who are ya, Boulder Boy? Or girl! please excuse me."


"Chirin, chirin!" Selden was coming too. Seeing the others so at ease 
near the Onix, he too came forward, but stayed hiding behind 
Chirin. "Who's mister Big Rock?" he said, peeking out around the 
bigger ram.

Chirin giggled. "Well, Onix...this is our flock."


"I'm Koko. Pleasure to meet you Chirin and Azeala, and
might I add, those a wonderful names. And I knew you
were going to say something other than 'kin' Chirin,
you were trying to determine whether I was male or
female. I am a male," Koko said, picking up another
rock and eating it.

"Where do you come from?" said Chirin. "And...does that taste good?"
"And...oh yeah, I'm sorry if I woke you up."

 "You didn't wake me up Chirin. I woke myself up. And,
I come from the underground. And, yes, the rock taste
quite good," Koko said.

 Wow. He came from underground. Chirin had never thought much about 
the place under Mother Megga. Later on he would ask what it was like--
and if he had had any brushes with the sleeping Bangaa.

"I come from far away, on the high hills and mountains where the 
rocks flock, all the way to the sea. Pharos stands on the edge of the 
sea. I'm from there. I eat grass. And it tastes good too."

He gave his coat a shake, as it had begun to rain a little harder.

"We're simply on the move to find a suitable home area, the seven of 
us," said Azalea. "What brings you up from underground?"

~

So soon?  Thyme looked back toward where she had come from, toward 
the only family she had ever know.  Would they be gonig very far 
away?  

She turned her head to hide the tear that ran down her muzzle.  No 
time for that, she scolded herself.  

This was the only way . . .

Thyme walked behind the herd of Mareep, lingering only long enough to 
say her silent goodbyes to the only family she had ever known.  Maybe 
some day, she would see them again.

~

"What's it like down there?" said Chirin, one of his cheeks bulging 
slightly with cud.

Selden leaned against Chirin-chirin, chewing his cud too. He smiled 
up at Koko.

TChirin looked up and opened his mouth to catch raindrops, which were 
coming down harder.

There it was. That...weakness again, the intruding, begging spirit-
thing planting its mouth on his energy and sucking like a lamb at its 
mother's teat...milking him of his energy, but much more slowly and 
mildly this time. He closed his eyes and focused on it, trying to 
figure out how to cut it off, but it was like tearing that begging 
baby away. He just couldn't do it. He let his electricity inside him 
sort of curl around it, stroking it, but at the same time begging it 
now not to take too much.

Azalea looked over at Chirin. She nudged him. "You feeling under the 
weather again--that nagging soul?" she whispered. 

"I'm okay." He gave her a reassuring smile.

"Yeah right," she said, giving him a little smile back.

Karama sat down and looked up at the sky. It was
raining. She didn't even blink when a raindrop hit her
eye. She closed her eyes, and was absorbing the water.
It was a wonderful feeling. It felt like... swimming I
guess you could say. She felt like she was swimming in
the deep water... getting deeper and deeper and
deeper... She fell over, shaking a bit. Her eyes were
closed and refused to open. She had stopped absorbing
water. She would stop, and start again, stop, and
start again.

She was in a cave with no exit. The floor had ankle
high water that kept rising. Soon Karama was up to her
chin in water. It rose and Karama had to kick her legs
hard to stay afloat. The water kept rising. It was to
the ceiling now! There was no air! Water... only
water! She was swirling... swirling and fading in a
black cloud...

Then she woke up, breathing heavily. She threw up and
staggered under a tree. She lay back down. She wasn't
feeling good, not good at all...

***

Fin was splashing around in the water, having a great
time with her friend, Roxie. They splashed eachother
and played tag under the water. It was great fun!


Ivy found herself glaring a bit "Azalea's as clumsy as ever..."

"You're it!" Roxie tagged Fin. They took turns being "it" since only 
two of them were playing. 

As Fin darted with a "plop" sound into the big puddle and wriggled 
away, Roxie surfaced and caught a glimpse of Karama a distance off, 
under the lone pine tree that stood in the field. 

She didn't look so good.

"Uh...I better go see."

Roxie waddled over and took a peek at Karama, her tail quivering.

* * *

"...And possibly, although I'm as yet uncertain, since we only have a 
record since yesterday to evaluate, but it appears that there may be 
some degree of correlation between your bouts of weakness in 
constitution and the degree of precipitation...Chirin?"

"Karama." Chirin was looking down over the field, where Roxie was 
circling the young mareep ewe who lay in a heap under the care and 
watch of the lone pine tree. "Something's wrong. Koko--we'll be back, 
I have to go help my friend."

*Ancestors, guard us, ancestors, guard us, Chenja, Lararu, Mama...* 
he said inside of him as he galloped off over the soggy grass through 
the rain, towards the tree. He barely kept pace with Azalea--he was 
clearly not free of whatever entity was riding his back, weighing him 
down. A being of stone or ground, perhaps? Today, he must set up a 
place where he could safely go to speak to it, today he must learn 
who it was. The urge to draw a form again danced a dangerous edge on 
his mind; it was still something he was afraid to do. He felt deep 
down that he still could not control the powers that forms could 
invoke.

"Karama!" he cried, reaching the ewe. He nudged her. "*Reep?*" Had 
the same being beneath his own skin also gotten to her? What was 
coming to them, through air and rain, seeping into their wool? 

More than one spirit was at work here. Chirin had run far and away 
from the dark dark hill of holes but he was not free yet. None of 
them were. Would they ever be? He lay down beside Karama, bent over 
like the tharn grass blades, his tears falling into the rain-sobbing, 
cold crying grass. 

Standing in the scant grass just under the spread of the pine, Azalea 
sniffed the ewe's face. She didn't smell of sickness, but there was 
always a watery, raindrop-scent about her--Azalea supposed it was her 
strong relation with water. "Karama," she said. "We're quite 
concerned. Are you ill? What exactly happened here?"

Chirin still lay facing towards her, his face down, pleading for the 
ancestors not to leave them open to attack by *burakos*. He pleaded 
to the pine tree, "Watch over Karama, lend her your power."

Roxie and Fin both stood at the puddle's edge, watching with worry on 
their little blue faces.

Ivy snorted, eyes narrowing. Why did it seem that Azalea and Chirin were 
always side by side...?

She then took the glare off her face. She couldn't let Chirin catch her doing 
that...or anyone else. Except Cleomie...at least she felt the same way Ivy 
did about Azalea. Despite that they didn't get along in the past, now they 
had formed what seemed to be a truce. She looked in Cleomie's direction, 
saying under her breath "Even now, she's right by him..you'd think their wool 
was glued together."

 Karama slowly opened her eyes to look at Chirin and
Azeala. She saw Ivy and Cleomie talking in the
distance... Most likely saying more awful things about
Azeala and Chirin...
"I-I was absorbing water, as I might need my water
attacks.... and.... I just got all dizzy.... And then
I couldn't breathe.... And then.... Ugh.... My head
hurts...." Karama muttered.

 "Too many water spirits crowding into you at once," said Chirin, 
leaning against her to make contact with her. "Water spirits..." he 
said quietly, "please let Karama rest. Too many of you in there. Flow 
out through the rain and the water in the ground, go to Mother 
Megga's grass children, and feed this tree..." *and, just one of you, 
land on my mama's tongue.* 

With his front foot, he scratched a patch of the dirt near the tree 
trunk, and also close to Karama, for the water spirits to enter, 
seeping into the soil. "The spirits may come out through your mouth, 
I'm not sure. Keep your mouth a little open just in case."

Azalea was sniffing at Karama's bags, and Chirin remembered they had 
healing berries with them. He picked the bags up in his mouth and 
shook the berries out through the hole. He nudged them over to 
her. "Here, these should help you. Eat these and just lay back and 
rest."

"So," said Azalea, "you gain water abilities by absorbing existing 
water? How fascinating. I didn't know exactly how it worked."

Ivy looked at Chirin with a mental sigh. If only it wasn't for Azalea...

Karama picked up one of the purple berries (they were
healing berries) and ate it. She started to feel a bit
better. She curled up, and went to sleep.

Chirin sniffed one of the purple berries that remained, picked the 
smallest one and ate it himself, to teach it to his senses as well as 
to help with his own weakness. Its color was only subtly darker than 
the milder healing berries he had fed Selden, but its flavor was much 
stronger--a little more tart. He felt only a momentary near-return of 
his natural energy, before it slumped back down to the stupor the 
unown being had left it in. So these berries would not help him. Yet 
they had helped Karama with her water-spirit troubles. 

He rested against Karama still while she slept, keeping his tail 
bright as he chewed cud. Azalea did the same, if for no reason other 
than instinct often told her to when she was standing around apart 
from most or part of the flock.

He saw Cleomie and Ivy wandering over towards them, apparently 
feeling the pull of flock togetherness and also drawn to their beacon 
lights, and felt some relief. He didn't like everybody getting too 
spread out. The ursaring scent still reached him from the north and 
the pull of the begging baby spirit still made him prefer rest and 
rumination to frolicking in the grass and rain. 

"I'm going to have to do something about this spirit in me," he said 
to Azalea. "I can't push it out like we all helped you get the fire 
spirit out of you."

"That fire spirit still may be there for all I know," said 
Azalea. "At least this wound doesn't stink so badly like it did, and 
seems clear now of necrotic tissue. I had to do an awful lot of ugly 
work on myself to terminate any possible infection, or it would have 
meant my life. Healing berries were probably what saved me, though."

Chirin shuddered. "You shouldn't have had to do any of that alone," 
he said. "That why you were bleeding?"

"That and my repeated abuse of my body as I ran amok with you guys."
She laughed. "I've learned to tolerate pain and become a whole lot 
less squeamish as a result of this bodily trauma. There's no wound as 
nasty as a burn."

Chirin nodded in agreement, still repulsed by powerful images her 
words had brought to life in his head.

Ivy didn't much care for the topic of coversation...she was a bit squeemish 
herself. With a soft smile, she settled down near Chirin, hoping to herself 
that Cleomie would do the same "So, Chirin, is there anything we can do to 
help you to rid yourself of this spirit?"

"Why...thank you for your help," he said, now turning the other way 
as Cleomie also settled down resting near him, leaving no room for 
Azalea, who just sighed and watched from where she was. "We'll have 
to hold a running of lights tonight. It worked wonderfully last time. 
And...I think I would just need you to keep watch over me while I 
journey to the other realm and speak to the spirits of the ground. I 
get the feeling that's where this spirit is coming from. It traveled 
up through my feet which became roots for it, I think. I feel it in 
me now...like mushrooms on the back of a Paras, kept alive by it. I 
feel the spirit needs me somehow. It needs me in the rain. It needs 
to come into me and...rest warm and dry, or something." 

"Maybe Koko would also be able to lend some assistance. He claims to 
have come from underground," said Azalea.

"Yes...right..." said Chirin, looking back out at the brown landmark 
of the Onix just up the field.

"Ah, what you need is a good bit of rest," said Cleomie. "This 
weather, it can drag anyone down. The rain gets a lot of people down. 
I don't really like it either."

Chirin wanted Azalea to rest against him but there was so little room 
with everyone else here. He scooched over to one side, creating a 
space between himself and Ivy. He looked up at Azalea, his ears 
wiggling inadvertantly as he blinked his tail for her to join him.

Azalea blinked hers back and lay down against him.

She saw Ivy and Cleomie both glance at her, throwing her the Green-
eyed Look. Azalea looked down at the ground.  She chewed worriedly, 
her enjoyment of a peaceful moment of rest ruined. Beyond the 
umbrella of the pine the rain waved over the field, flagging in the 
wind. In her mind the kernel of concern sprouted, taking one step 
closer to fear. She fluffed her wool against the cool breeze.


Koko yawned. Then he started digging the LARGEST
burrow he ever made! It was as big as the field! It
was also EXTREAMLY deep! If Koko rose up on the tip of
his tail, the burrow would be a little deeper that
that. He had made a sort of a slide so the other
pokemon could slide down. Koko poked his head through
the exit/entrance.

"C'mon down here guys.. and girls! It is nicer down
here! Besides, I don't think we should risk Karama
absorbing too much water agian!" Koko said.

Chirin's stomach leapt at the sight of the dark hole. A big burrow, 
dug suddenly. The memories rose up in his head like the gray monolith 
of the bone-headed ampharos from a long-ago dream. "No...no thank 
you, Koko. Your offer is very kind...but we're used to the rain. It 
doesn't bother us, really."

He didn't think he could ever enter a burrow again. 

But...if the spirit cane from the ground, that might be just the 
place he needed to go to speak to it. 

Chirin stood up. He took cautious steps towards the hulking hole. 
Strings of dirt and roots dangled down. With a shudder he stepped 
back away. The bulb of his tail pressed against his belly. Yes, bad 
thngs lurked in burrows. A thing more powerful than the fear pulling 
him taut inside, waited in the black. It had followed him.

"Ah, due to a rather harsh experience involving burrows in our recent 
past I'm afraid we're all a little claustrophobic--at least most of 
us," said Azalea, nuzzling the puffed-out, frightened Chirin. "Please 
pardon our reactions. However, Karama might well benefit from the 
shelter. Karama?"

 Karama opened her eyes and watched as Koko dug a large
burrow. He asked for them to come down.
"Lets go to the burrow guys... If I cannot absorb
anymore water then I will get better, faster..."
Karama mumbled.

 Chirin wanted to help her, but he could not go into that hole. All 
the spirits were pulling backwards at his body and holding his feet 
down. "I'm going to stay here," he said in a small voice as Selden 
leaned against him, eyes also fixed on the black maw. "You can 
go...but please be careful."

"I'll escort you over there," said Azalea, easily smelling Chirin's 
fear, "then I'm afraid I'll have to go back out. Come on."

Azalea walked over and peered down the rim of the hole. "Ah, that 
looks awfully steep..."

"Not to mention extremely large," she added. "Especially judging by 
the copious amounts of loose soil extracted. Don't worry, Chirin, I'm 
not going to enter," she said. "Karama, the choice is ultimately up 
to you although I vote strongly against it. No offense to Koko, but 
his body size is rather larger than yours and you may have some 
difficulty climbing back out, assuming you reach the bottom in one 
piece."

She kicked a pebble into the burrow. "That I would not quite classify 
as a burrow. I would class it as a large cavernous cavity."

Fighting all instinct, Chirin ran over to Azalea, afraid she would 
decide to enter anyway, or fall in--be yanked in by the dark spirits 
from underground. As he nosed against Azalea's good shoulder, as much 
to block out other smells as to reassure her, his nostrils filled 
with the smells of rainy, just-turned soil and the burrows in the 
hill, Calima and Cinder, all entered his head, tormenting him.  As if 
his weakness was not already too much for him to shine against! He 
glanced back at his tail to make sure it shone bright as he could 
make it, although he could feel that it already was.

Cleomie grazed halfway over to the hole. Just when Chirin was 
starting to look good, he would go all weird again. Maybe he'd grow 
out of it. She hoped so. Yeah, the hole looked dark and scary, and it 
did kind of remind of of that crazy nido's burrows...but did he 
really have to go throwing himself all over the place and praying 
over it?

A waste of energy. No wonder he was feeling all weak and tired out.

Karama shined her tail light and saw that Koko had mad
a sort of a way down...
"Look, Koko made it where we can get up and down as we
please," Karama said. She turned to Chirin. "If you do
not want to come, I understand, but I am going down
there." And she got onto the hill-like thing, keeping
her tail light shining bright, she made her way down.
It was amazing inside. There was a small stream of
water running into a smaller hole for water. It was
almost full too! If the woopers came in they would
like this... 
"Chirin! Azeala! It's okay! Nothing wrong down here!
There is even a pool for drinks and the woopers if
they come!" Karama called to the two mareep. Her voice
echoed up to them.

***

Fin bounded over to Chirin and Azeala.
"Me gonna go too! Karama said pool! C'mon Roxie! and
don't worry about us, we see very good in the dark, we
are docturnal most of the time!" Fin said, going down
into the burrow and looking up to see if Roxie and the
other mareep would follow.
"C'mon! It is safe with Koko! Only things that hurt
him are plants and water! We are safe with an onix
here!" Fin said joyfully.

~

Thyme walked over to the water for a drink.  She almost smiled at 
that; imagine, thirst after all that rain!  She bent over to drink 
from the lake and noted her own green eyes which matched the grass 
and leaves so well.

No one else here seemed to have them.  She msut have at least some 
plant in her then, as a reminder of the family she left back in the 
forest.

She looked around herself, wondering what colors the eyes of the 
other mareep were, but she could not see their eyes clearly.  They 
were apart from her, two across the grass there, and others some 
distance who seemed to glare at the two who were together.  She saw 
nothing wrong, but it wasn't her place to say.  She didn't really 
know anyone in this herd.

She turned back toward the water for a drink.  It must be the air, 
she thought.  The wetter the air, the thirstier you became.

~

A Pool? Cool!" said Roxie, bounding in after Fin. "Betcha I get in 
first! Nah nah!" 

* * *

The burrow distorted Karama's voice and Chirin feared the dark would 
enter her. But he could not risk going down there himself. At least 
she seemed happy. Karama was a strange one--a brave one, full of 
fearlessness. Maybe it was the Lanturn in her that longed for deep 
dark places. As Roxie brushed past him he licked his apricorn shell.

"Thank you, I'll just stay out here," called Chirin, who wanted to 
get moving again soon. "When you feel better, come back up and let me 
know...I want us to get moving again soon." As for the prospect of a 
drink, they had plenty more water out here. Karama's assurances that 
it was fine down there did not change his decision. He listened to 
the spirits and his own electric soul and they told him forcefully 
not to go in. He worried for her and the others who had gone down 
there. From what they said, water was already collecting in the 
space...

"I am astounded that this burrow did not flood out instantly," Azalea 
was saying. "We are on a low plain full of standing water--in fact 
this perilous lack of sufficient elevation is the very reason we are 
still on the move. I myself would much appreciate some hills to 
utilize for a vantage point. I believe it would make me feel safer." 

She peered down into the hole. "Karama mentioned water streaming into 
the interior. For some reason or other that causes me to feel 
somewhat fearful. However, being as Koko was kind enough to dig this 
burrow, I'm sure he would help Karama out if her well-being became 
threatened down there."

First the feeling of a ground-spirit inside him...then another big 
burrow. What did it mean? Chirin paced in a circle, started to graze 
then just stood there shining his light and chewing his cud, waiting 
for her to come back out.

"It's going to be all right," said Azalea, leaning against him. As a 
strange excitement hopped into her she twined her tail around his, 
after a couple of tries. She felt his tail give a squeeze. Unsure 
what to do and afraid to look at his face, she ducked down to graze, 
unsure where to put her feet and hardly even feeling them. She 
experienced a levitating sensation but knew mareep did not possess 
powers of levitation. 

Well, inside, she did!

"Ow." She had tried to step towards a patch of grass alongside him 
but had not stepped in the proper place and caused their tails to 
pull. She unwound it, inadvertently whacking Chirin in the rear with 
it.

Chirin gave a leap and darted forward, grinning over his shoulder at 
her. 

"That was ah unintentional," she said, turning red as a Hoppip.

"But I liked it."

"Ah--you did? I mean, you did."

Chirin giggled and continued grazing, going back over the great 
feeling he had felt, but also wanting time to wash the moment behind 
him. Something was there that he was not ready for yet. Still--he 
breathed in the rainy air with new vigor and depth, swearing he had 
smelled the leafy-musky scent of Haru.

The green-eyed ewe grazed not far away from himself and Azalea. "Hi 
light-sister," he called, trying for her name this time--or at least 
something. He waited to see if she would even look at them. All 
along, ever since he'd met her, she had felt to him like more of a 
spirit, a thing of light and vapor, more than a mareep of skin and 
wool.

Karama yawned and curled up in a corner for some rest.
"I do wish Chirin had come down here. There is nothing
wrong... he is a fine young ram, but tis a strange
one, yep, tis a strange ram..." Karama said.

***

Fin almost cursed as Roxie beat her to the water. She
splashed in too and swam under.

Roxie splashed over and tagged her. "You're it!" 

Cleomie grazed near Ivy, watching Azalea frisk around with 
Chirin. "She thinks she's the top of the world now, just cause he 
puts up with her," she said with her mouth full. "Look at her flirt. 
Thinks she's something else."

 ...A few hours later...

Karama woke up and found that the two wooper had left.
"I'm going back up. You coming Koko?" Karama asked
Koko, walking back out of the burrow.
Once out, she walked up to Chirin and Azeala.
"Hi! I'm better now!" she said.

Chirin ran to Karama. He sniffed her nose. "Oh, so happy to see you--
see you better!" He was going to say, "out of there," but thought 
that might hurt Koko's feelings. The onix couldn't have known about 
what had happened to them in the other big burrow or that dark 
spirits were still on their trail. But the important thing right now 
was that Karama had purged herself of the overenthusiastic water 
things. "Are you sure you'll be okay if we get walking again?"

"Ah, are you certain you won't be prone to future incidents of 
overabsorption?" said Azalea. "It's still coming down."

"I know.." Ivy took a dainty mouthful, chewing on it carefully "The 
way she acts now, you'd think she was one of those Mareep they 
bring to those farm festivals..." 

"Yeah. You know, without her Chirin might actually pay us some 
attention. It's all a trick of hers, she's putting on a smart show to 
impress him."

Ivy nodded "If it had been anyone else burned there in her place, he would be 
fawning over them I bet...because of that spirit sharing thing he believes 
in."

Cleomie spat a bit of cud on the ground. "She's an object of pity--
and he's a sucker for'em."

* * *

"We're going to be moving on!" said Chirin, flinging a long branch of 
a bolt up at the rain. Selden frisked at his heels. Chirin was 
learning how to cope with the weight of his weak feeling--getting 
used to it, which he had to for the continued journey.

"You're telling me.."

Pawing the ground in annoyance, Ivy added "If WE were pitiful like she is, he 
wouldn't be sitting there with every fraction of his attention on her. Or if 
she wasn't here.."

 "If she wasn't here," said Cleomie in her low voice.

 "I have received the advice of Roxie and her friend Fin," said 
Azalea, coming up to Chirin with two Wooers in tow. "They have just 
informed me that a large lake exists not far west of here and that 
hills accompany it. In fact, if you look through the rain you may be 
able to make out the vagues outline of rolling hills in the 
distance." She smiled. "That's where I believe we shall feel at home 
at last. And, if it isn't, we'd be no worse there than here."

Chirin smiled. "Thanks woopers! Yes, we'll head west as soon as 
everyone's had a bit more grazing time and everyone is ready."

Karama got a bit of aridos thread, and squited water
lightly on it, washing away the sticky substance. She
then tore them (with difficulty as aridos thread is
nealy unbreakable) into three seperate strings, and
looped them around the bags. A bit like Chirin and his
apricorn... Karama put on the bag with the blue
berries and then walked up to Azeala.
"I have made these bags a bit like Chirin's apricorn,
we can put them round our necks like this... Could you
slip one on by any chance? Chirin has his apricorn, I
am not sure a bag would fit, and I won't ask Cleomie
or Ivy, they are kinda mean... Anyways, Azeala? Which
bag, if you want to put one on that is, would you
like? Yellow berried are stun berries that can be
useful when there is a predator chasing us, and the
purple ones are healing berries, the blue ones that I
have on are water pop berries. They have water in them
and they also pop in mouths!" Karama said.

Chirin went over to Koko, bowing his head to the great rock, who like 
all rocks had great wisdom and powers that his kind would only ever 
be able to guess at.

"Thank you so much for your kindness," he said, nuzzling the side of 
the giant rock. It felt cool and hard, just like any other 
stone. "You're free to come with us to the hills if you like. I'd 
love to have you there with us, friend rock."

"Why thank you for your gracious offer," said Azalea. "I'll take the 
stun berries. Although, I believe everyone ought to have one or two 
of each...Eh, this arrangement is perfectly suitable. How, though, 
are they useful when a predator is chasing us? You mean they are 
useful afterwards, correct?"

"Look, see that spinarak over there?" Karama said,
pointing to a spinarak. "Watch..." And Karama threw a
stun berry at the spinarak and the berry burst and
yellow gas streamed out. The spinarak became stunned.
"It only lasts for a little while. See how useful they
are?" Karama said.

"Sure, I would like to come with you, if you do not
mind, lord knows I could do with an adventure," Koko
said. "And, please do not call me a rock, either call
me Koko or onix please. Rock doesn't sound right to
me..."

"Oh, I'm sorry...Koko it is!" said Chirin. "I'm glad you're coming."

"Me too!" said Selden. "I go where Chirin goes."

Chirin settled down for a few last nibbles himself. With Koko coming 
along, he felt better in many ways. One of the rock--ah, Onix folk 
was bringing his wisdom and great spirit-power. It was not Chirin's 
place to burden Koko with his owns soul-troubles, but Koko could 
easily know already, and be waiting until the time was right to 
intervene. Such was the power of stone. Perhaps Koko had even been 
sent to deal with the great shadow-children of Burakuru--his own 
ancestors realizing that he needed BIG help!

Azalea looked down at her front feet. "Ah, throwing isn't exactly in 
my repertoire of physical abilities...I can hardly tamp a leaf down 
while sticking silk to it," she said. "Here, Chirin, healing berries 
are in this bag here."

She held the string in her mouth. Chirin pushed his nose against it, 
finally parting the loop after several tries. He shook it down over 
his face and Azalea helped him around the ear area while he held them 
pinned as flat back as he could. He now had two things around his 
neck. 

"I don't like this," he said, trying it on for size by walking, then 
jumping. The bag flapped against his face. The apricorn had often 
smacked his chin, but it was smaller. "It's too much stuff. I'm 
sorry," he said to Azalea, ducking down, pointing his ears forward 
and shaking it part of the way off. Azalea helped him the rest of the 
way. 

"I'll take this one myself," said Azalea. "Healing berries are the 
most useful ones we have. Perhaps if we could fill the other two bags 
with healers, if there are enough of them? We should only carry what 
is absolutely neccessary. In fact, Chirin, while you help round up 
everyone I'll assist Karama in doing just that."

Azalea rejoined Karama, and trotted about, tail perked high, as she 
scanned the area, utilizing her keen senses. They led her to a clump 
of bushes. "Ah, I see where you apparently discovered the healing 
berries. The leaves of the shrub producing them carry a distinct 
aroma." She ate a few herself, to help speed the healing of her 
burns. It did help the itching subside slightly, although the cool 
rain had been a blessing in that respect.

Karama looked around. She was itching to travel.

After eating several of the purple heal-berries, she ceased to eat 
more--eating too many of these things could make her sick to her 
stomachs. "I will admit that what I am about to attempt is something 
I have never heretofore attempted. Wish me luck." Azalea plucked a 
berry off in her mouth, holding it gently between the pad on her 
upper jaw and the front teeth on her lower jaw, taking extra care not 
to puncture it. She used her front feet to prop the bag up with the 
opening at the top, and dropped the berry in. Somehow it missed and 
rolled down the side.

Azalea picked the berry up in her mouth and squished it.

After a long laboring minute or two she had filled the other two 
bags. "Let's bring these back to the others," she said. "Here, you 
stick this one around your neck. I'll give this one to one of the 
others."

She trotted back to Chirin with the other bag in her mouth. 

"Me! Me!" cried Selden. "I want a bag on my neck!"

Chirin giggled. "Sure! Here, hold still."

Azalea tried to stick the bag on but Selden turned his head away. 
Sighing, she dropped it so Chirin could pick it up. Chirin held the 
string and eventually got it over the lamb's head. 

"Mareepu, mareepu!" Selden ran around with the bag bouncing against 
his chest. He was small and its bottom hung only a couple inches off 
the ground.

Chirin made a final, limp trot through the wet grass, his tail 
blinking with a buzzy sound as tufts of static, like tinsel, crackled 
over it. He stood in the place where he would be traveling, pointing 
more or less straight west now. Looking into the light wind, he 
smelled it carefully...and smelled Woopers, or Quagsires, some way 
away. He smiled--he had a feeling he knew why Roxie and Fin wanted to 
head this way, and shook his head to himself. He should've known that 
was what it was.

"You smell it too?" he said to Azalea, who nodded. 

"So the little blue buggers were just out of their way coming out 
east," she said. "I assume the hurricane and its resultant flood 
expanded their range somewhat. Woopers can live for a considerable 
time out of water but not an indefinite time. They require a water 
source somewhere in the vicinity or else they eventually become 
dehydrated."

"Interesting," said Chirin, who had always known that woopers and 
quagsires needed water close around--too far from water they grew 
weak because part of their soul was always in the water and could 
never leave it. "Some say that every Wooper has a piece of its soul 
in something round--I heard that something could be a Lanturn's 
light. So they have to stay near water or they go too far from their 
soul. And they also love round things--especially Clef."

"Yup we do!" 

Chirin jumped, startled. It was Roxie, behind him. "Why, you 
surprised me!"

"Soorr--rry. But yup Round Things are Moon Things. Every Round Thing 
is a Moon-Thing--Egg-of-the-Moon! Yup, yup! Trees make'em, Rocks 
make'em, Mareep make'em!" She pointed to his tail, which Chirin waves 
and flashed. "And now, now, the Moon is Round again! Tonight--you'll 
see again! She likes to change shape, the Moon does. And yeah we Come 
from a Round Thing! When we hatch! It all goes back to Moon, you 
know!"

Chirin giggled. "I didn't know woopers hatched from eggs."

"Indeedy, indeedy! An egg in the water! We woopers come from Moon-
things! Oh, moon!"

Chirin giggled as Roxie danced around. Something in the air had sure 
turned up her *denki*! It must be the energy of her own ancestors, 
because she was getting closer to her kind. "So are we going to meet 
other woopers and Quagsires? Are we going to your home?"

"Awww...now I can't tell you THAT...It's a surprise!"

She whacked the back of his legs with her tail, laughing. 

"Okay," said Chirin, playing along.

Chirin and Azalea started walking west, side by side, heading out 
towards where the Tauros and Miltank were grazing. There was no 
reason to hang around here any longer, and he knew that those who 
wanted to follow them, would. He waited for Selden to run up to him, 
then continued on. And the wind cuffed rain in their faces, and 
clouds shifted swiftly overhead.

Karama choked back laughter as Roxie danced around
Chirin. Fin was too. She seemed really excited.
Possibly, more excited than Roxie was! Karama noticed
an odd shape on Fin's belly. Instead of the usual
stripes, there was only one circle.

(16561)