Chirin felt the ground gently sloping upwards, like Mother Megga 
breathing in as they walked on in the rain. Hills rose up through the 
rain-mist alongside his right flank, although he could see a swelling 
of land just ahead. 

Miltank and Tauros smells heralded the much larger grazers as the 
seven Mareep walked into their midst. Chirin hoped Koko's presence 
didn't cause them to stampede away in fright. He hadn't thought of 
that.

The spirit leeching from his life-force dragged on him like the rain 
in his wool. He forced his legs on up the grassy slope.

Azalea stopped, realizing she was out ahead of the others. She 
cropped up some grass as she waited for Chirin. 

"The sooner we reach a more-or-less permanent stopping point the 
better," she said. "You can finally achieve the state of restedness 
you obviously need, and we can then begin on rooting out the source 
of your, ah, illness. In case you haven't notice I'm rather 
concerned."

"It'll be fine," he said, not wanting the others to hear. The last 
thing they needed was to learn the one leading them was not up to 
strength.

Chirin saw a strung-out stand of trees ahead, standing sentinel over 
saplings and brush, like a traveling herd of plants that had stopped. 
He didn't fancy entering among them--who knew what was hiding in them-
-but they continued on a while either waay. There must be a river or 
stream, or something. He licked his apricorn shell and said a silent 
prayer, and re-opened his eyes.

"Roxie," he said. "Do you know what's in there?"

"Yup, yup," she said. "That's the Longwater. Long, long way--some say 
it goes on forever! There's Longwater and Roundwater. To get to 
Roundwater from here, you have to cross Longwater."

"Okay." He edged closer to the spirit-tossed plumes of leafy 
branches, pawing in the sudden wind. He felt its strength and chill 
tear over the field and braced himself, shielding Selden till it 
passed. No fire-kind or ground-kind would be out here--but who knew 
what could have sheltered in there? 

Sniffing, he crept closer towards the hidden dangers of the long 
copse, trying to discern what everything around him was saying to 
him. He glanced back at Azalea, and found her on the other side of 
him. Together they walked slowly towards the first of the trees, 
scenting the ground and stopping now and again. Roxie, who had been 
running circles and tumbling round with Fin just before, also fell 
quiet as she walked just behind them.

"Roxie, did you or Fin or anyone you know, ever find enemies in 
there?" said Chirin.

"No. Well, almost never. I'm sure it's safe."

Chirin grinned. "Almost never? Well, I guess there are *always* 
enemies *somewhere.*" He had a thought. "The Quagsires wouldn't--hurt 
us or anything, would they?"

"Hurt a mareep?" said Roxie, as Chirin felt the ground shiver 
slightly, or something. "No, don't be silly! We don't eat you light-
shining folks. Fish are much more tasty!"

"What was that?" said Azalea. Chirin turned around to see her looking 
straight out at the trees further down. "That odd sensation of 
geological instability. Its source appears to have originated from 
yonder in that direction."

Chirin felt it again.

"Earthquake," said Roxie with a shrug. Azalea's eyes bugged out. "My 
mommy and daddy and all the other grownups know how to make those!"

"They...Quagsires...produce minor earthquakes?"

Roxie nodded. "Aren't we neat?"

"Uh...why did they just do it now?"

"Well, sometimes they make a small one to call people. I think maybe 
they're calling me and Fin." She looked down that way, and now Chirin 
suddenly smelled Quagsire much more powerfully. "Well, we're just 
over the river!" said Roxie. "Come with us!"

If the adults were right in that copse, and by the smell they sure 
were, then it was as safe for them as anything. Chirin had never 
known Quagsires to hurt his own kind--he remembered vaguely that they 
were friendly, and not considered enemies at all. Still, it hadn't 
hurt to make sure, as time was pushing away the memories of old days 
that would nevertheless always live inside him.

As Roxie and Fin ran their slow waddling way towards the trees and 
disappeared with waves of their pale tails, Chirin motioned the flock 
forward, eager to meet these pokemon.

"*Nuuu.*" A rather large (to a mareep, anyway) pale blue glistening 
figure stepped out of the brush, accompanied by two others coming 
from behind it. They all had similar plump, mostly featureless bodies 
with fingered flippers. 

"Roxie!" called another one in a breathy voice and Roxie popped back 
out of the trees. "Mommy!" she cried, jumping into the Quagsire's 
arms. Both of them retreated back behind the trees. Chirin nearly 
followed, but his *denki* caused his tail to flash unwittingly in 
alarm. The Quagsire's voice, however foreign, had carried an 
unmistakable air of emergency.

As he stood back, the copse admitted several more Quagsire. One of 
them pointed at the cluster of wet mareep.

"There they are! Quag, quag!"

The Quagsires' blubbery bodies jiggled as they ran forward and to 
either side of the mareep. Fear shot into Chirin 

"*Reepu!*" With a crack shot bolt from his tail he reared up, turned 
around and bolted. His tail flashed white, a flag to the rest.

The ground reared up and bucked beneath him, knocking him from chin 
to hind feet. His legs, electrified with fear, scrambled up under 
him. As he got his head off the ground the next shock wave hit, 
rolling him on his side. Kicking out, he heard, barely fluting above 
the earthquake attack, Azalea shouting.

"Azalea!" Chirin tasted blood on his lip as his legs swiped the air, 
unable to right himself on the shaking ground as the Quagsires 
stirred Mother Megga. Past the tumble of grass, trees and sky a blue 
figure loomed over him, under him, around him. "Azalea where are 
you!"  

Through his legs he saw the light of his own tail. He shot blindly 
forward at the Quagsire, aiming one way, thrown another way. Out the 
corner of his eye as the ground pounded him, he saw his stroke of 
*denki* strike, grappling over the smooth blue body. Unaffected, the 
Quagsire bent forward over him, lurching in front of the sky. "Why?" 
he said, barely hearing his own voice. "Why--what did we do? 
Please..." 

Rolling away in a haze of stars and rain he felt slimy hands grab at 
him. Only a well-placed rear hoof fended off the flippers. He skidded 
back as an icy mist swirled over him, turning the world a pallid 
gray. Where were the others? Where was Selden? Where was Azalea?

"AZALEA!"

* * *

"May I ask--Oh!" Azalea tumbled in a roll of wool. The combined 
earthquake attack threw her bodily in the air, to land on her side. 
She grabbed at a tuft of grass, biting into it. The ground butted her 
in the side of the head, bruising her ear. Her teeth bit her own 
cheek and blood salted her tongue. A Quagsire before her and a 
Quagsire behind--Azalea attempted to direct her gyrating self away. 
Grabbing ground for an instant, she leaped away with her legs barely 
under her, landing again in a wide white mist.

Slippery hands groped his hind foot. Chirin kicked away, lashing out 
with his *denki* on instinct. He managed to slip his foot free. 
Drifting briefly through the thick mist, the Quagsire's image 
staggered in front of him, jolted by the shaking earth. Turning over 
onto his stomach and shaking his head to free his vision from the 
clutch of black glimmering spirits, he felt that same flipper hand 
slide around the end of his tail. He fought to keep his soul in his 
body as chunks of earth thrown up by the quagsires' attack beat down 
on him, the ground spirits turned against him. Dark jumped up at him, 
in front of him, tugging him away from his own eyes. Why? Why? 

Forcing himself to stay conscious, he yanked uselessly at the soft 
but strong hand holding him by the tail. He would not die. The 
Quagsire held fast, and he tugged again. And again, crying and full 
of pain. Chirin's prayers bleated out of him. "Mama--Mah--Mother 
Megga!" He kicked weakly at the mist-filled air...his soul fighting 
for its home in his body and senses. "Reeeeeep!"

Chirin's body broke into running motions even as he was lifted from 
the ground. He struggled weakly. He would not give up as long as he 
could still move. A thought reached him dimly--They weren't killing 
him, not yet. Why?

"Yaaaahhh!" Azalea squealed, her feet a frenzy of kicking as a 
Quagsire picked her up. Discharging all the electricity she had in 
one stroke aimed through the Quagsire's system, the blue pokemon 
didn't even flinch. "Electricity--Not working. I suppose you're 
taking me to your leader? What--Is the meaning of this! Wait a minute-
-yes! You sent two of your youth to luree us in! Well! What ever you 
do to me you had better not perform on my--my best friend Chirin! Or 
I'll...I'll..."

Suddenly she couldn't remember what she had been about to say next. 
That was not a natural falter. These pokemon could--mess with your 
brain! She squirmed to free herself from the Quagsire's firm but 
rather slippery grasp, which created a tingly numb sensation where it 
touched her skin. The Quagsire helf her tighter round her midsection. 
Bewildered and unable to see a yard ahead through the mist, she 
called out Chirin's name. 
Her voice joined with the screams of other mareep and the shouts of 
Quagsires. 

"Chirin! Chirin! Answer me, oh, please, answer me! CHIRIN!"

Helpless in the arms of his captor, Chirin gave up, hanging limply. 
Concentrating on keeping aware he heard, slightly, over the screams 
of his own flock, that the Quagsires had been trying to say 
something. An attack was an attempt to kill--that was what Chirin had 
always known. He had never been attacked by anyone intending anything 
else. Yet he thought he heard at least one of them saying,

"We won't kill you! We won't kill you!"

"If you aren't eating us...what do you want us for?" Chirin gasped, 
struggling to expand his lungs while being held under the gut by the 
Quagsire. His eyes darted back to glance at his holder's face and the 
whites of his eyes showed. Another kick or two spasmed out of him as 
he regained some strength. "What is this?"

* * *

"Maaahhh!" Selden wailed as a Quagsire easily plucked him from the 
ground where he lay weakened by the ground attacks. "Chirin! Chirin, 
ahhh!"

"Ivy?!" shouted Cleomie, surrounded by Quagsires and unable to see 
anyone in the mist. "Ivy! Chirin! Where are you!"

Karama bleated in fear as Quagsire surrounded her.
"Reeeep!" Karama said, spraying the Quagsire with
water. A few of them fell over, moaning in pain. But
they got back up soon. Each one grabbed Karama with
their slimy fins and trotted off, holding her above
their heads. Karama bleated and kicked, trying to get
free. But, although slimy, they had a firm grip.
"Cleomie?! Azeala?! Seldon?! Ivy?! Chirin?! Koko?!"
Karama screamed as the fish Pokemon carried her off.

***

Fin was over where Chirin was, dancing around him and
the Quagsires that held him.

Koko growled at the quagsire that were surrounding
him. Seeing that he wasn't about to go quietly, they
sprayed some water on the onix. Koko roared in pain,
and was soon slithering weakly and reluctantly with
them.

Ivy cringed back, afraid and thought herself to be alone in the mist. 

"...Chirin...? Cleomie?! ANYONE!!" she yelled, shivering. 

A Quagsire made it's way out, followed by another...and one more at that. As 
they made their way closer, Ivy shut her eyes, tears streaming. If only she 
could shock them...or something! Why couldn't she use that *denki* thing?!

As one moved closer yet, Ivy eyes snapped open as she attempted to kick 
it...and ended up with a sprained leg. She limped back, glaring. That thing 
felt as hard as a rock!...wait...

A ground attack or two later, Ivy was easily scooped up by the nearest 
Quagsire, half concious. Her eyes stayed half open "Chirin...where are 
you...?"

Azalea, realizing they were all easily overwhelmed and this was not a 
situation she could talk her way out of, kept quiet and let her 
captor carry her along. She kept her eyes and ears open, giving a few 
good sniffs too, although pretty much the only thing she could smell 
right now was Quagsire.

"Chirin," she called, "Chirin, where are you?"

Azalea's calling was a beacon. So were the calls of the others--but 
not quite like her voice. "I'm here," he called from the arms of the 
Quagsire holding him. 

"Nobody will be hurt, moon-light-mareep," said the Quagsire holding 
Chirin. "But we need you to help us."

"Help you?" Chirin couldn't help but give a wiggle. "Help you--how? 
If you need my help I'd be glad to do all I can. There's no need to--
knock me down and force all of us."

"We're sorry," said the Quagsire. "But you started to run. We had to 
stop you. We can't let you run away twice!"

"Twice?" said Azalea as the Quagsires all approached a river. Not far 
from them Cleomie was still struggling, and swearing her head 
off. "Ah, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the first 
encounter between ourselves and yourselves. Again, it's been some 
time since I used my addition skills so correct me if I'm wrong."

"You're wrong," said the Quagsire. "But we will let you down if you 
promise to come with us peacefully."

"I give you my word," said Azalea, knowing full well that trying to 
escape these upright pisceans was futile. "Assuming, of course, that 
our "helping" you doesn't involve anything approaching bodily 
dismemberment, extreme psychological harm, and/or extended periods of 
time in solitary confinement."

The Quagsire gave her a quizzical look.

"We just don't want you to hurt us," said Chirin as the Quagsire set 
him down also. "We promise."

"You light-people hurt us already," said the Quagsire in a most un-
Quagly manner. "Moon-light-one, you and your...flock will learn what 
you must do when we get to Moonhome."

"You...have my word that I'll do all I can to help you," said 
Chirin. "I swear by my ancestors' First Lights. But first...we need 
to know more. Cleomie, calm down, it's going to be all right. They're 
not going to hurt us," he said, trying to reassure the frantic ewe.  

"But you know," said Azalea, "that was a rather wily and backhanded 
move you made by luring us in with a couple of your progeny."

"We did not," said the Quagsire. "Fin and Roxie wandered off after 
the storm to enjoy the flood. We were quite worried to find them with 
you. We'll have to make sure you're all right, Fin," said the 
Quagsire. 

"All right?" said Chirin. "We--we didn't do anything to hurt them. My 
kind eats only grass and leaves and other gifts from Mother Megga."

"You eat nothing that harms another Pokemon, moon-light-one," said 
the Quagsire, whom Chirin noticed was a bit bigger than the 
others. "But it isn't what you eat. Pokemon have other ways of 
hurting."

"I don't understand," said Chirin. 

"You will. First let's cross the river," he said, pointing out across 
a rather narrow, but swiftly-flowing river. The storm, with today's 
rain piled on, had fed it well, and it had gorged into fat, brown 
sinews of racing water.

"We will not let Long-water take anyone here," said the Quagsire, who 
stepped in first. 

Tucked in the arms of the quagsire that stepped up next to Chirin, 
Selden looked out at the river and gave a little whimper. 

"It's going to be all right," said Chirin, trying to reassure his 
shaken flock. "We should all just do what they tell us. They don't 
want to hurt us, Selden, they just want a little bit of help from us, 
it might even be fun--"

"Into the water," said another quagsire, "Talk is for later. Talk is 
for Round-Moon-Mother."

"Round-moon-mother..." said Azalea, "ah, would that be the name of 
your mother, or your leader, or...Ah, okay, all right, I'm shutting 
up, rest assured."

Chirin stepped into the swift water and whispered to it to please be 
gentle and not..."Well, not greedy, just...please, let me cross you."

He licked his apricorn, bounced it on his chest once to jiggle the 
pebble inside, and placed his other foot in. Both feet skidded down 
on the muddy bed and he got a mouthful.

"Reep!" He came up splashing, paddling against the current as two 
Quagsires slipped deftly past him on either side, one swimming 
downstream.

"It's a narrow stream! Swim towards the other side, don't concern 
yourself with battling the current!"

Chirin knew this but her words gave him a good ground to start from 
(and ground was something he desperately wanted under him again). 
Glancing downstream at the Quagsire safety net, he swam for the 
opposite bank as Azalea stepped in after him.

Once Ivy was placed on the ground, she stood unsteadily on her own hoofs, one 
pressed up against herself due to the sprain. She looked dazed, eyes still 
half closed as she glared at the nearest Quagsire, looking about to say 
something but instead simply shook her head.

She then blinked, looking "Into...the water..?"

About to jump in, Azalea looked over her shoulder. "Ivy, is something 
the matter with your leg? It appears to be injured...oh, geez. Do you 
need help? I don't know how much assistance I would be, but it's me 
or our Quagsire friends. Ah--Not that I have anything against your 
presence or assistance!" she quickly added, glancing quickly up at 
the Quagsire behind Ivy.

Ivy sighed "I just sprained it.." She moved it with a wince "These things 
feel like they're made of rock..or something. I don't usually hang around 
Quagsires myself..no offense." she added, hoping not to offend them. That 
would be ALL she needed...

"Don't let me hold you up though. I think I can manage.."

"They've never been my choice company either, not that we were given 
much of an array of options back at the farm. Grab on my tail if you 
have to," said Azalea, and she staggered forward, taking care not to 
try to wade in--she had seen Chirin--and plunged. The water seeped 
through her already-saturated wool and chilled her as she pumped her 
legs, struggling across. In the water, with its greater freedom of 
movement, she felt the healing skin of her burned area tugging her 
front left leg short of full range of motion. She had to compromise 
with her other side to swim straight. The current swept her 
downstream but she had no doubt that these maurauders would prevent 
her escape, intentional or not. In addition, she could tell by sight 
alone that the river grew swifter downstream. Who knew how long it 
would carry her. 

"Let me carry you," said a Quagsire to Ivy as the rest of the 
Quagsires, bringing up the rear, arrived at the river with Cleomie, 
Karama and the green-eyed ewe, who looked stupefied with terror, 
hanging limp in the blubbery grip of one of the water fish pokemon.

Ivy shuddered...getting carried by a Quagsire the first time hadn't been all 
too pleasent...but nodded "If you insist."

 Karama bleated and kicked franticly as the Quagsire
carried her across the water. Karama, no matter what
anyone said, still was desperate to escape. One of the
Quagsire picked up a large, sort of cage made of
rather strong looking sticks and sewn together with a
strong, sticky substance... They were smart creatures,
these Quagsire...
"Put her in, no doubt, she won't stop struggling,"
said a male Quagsire. And soon, Karama was curled up
in the cage, sniffling and crying softly as the
Quagsite carried her in the cage.

The quagsire scooped Ivy up and slipped into the rushes with barely a 
splash, unintentionally submerging her before seeming to remember he 
was carrying someone less aquatically inclined, and surfacing to swim 
at the surface. 

Chirin was still paddling, dizzy with exhaustion, when he saw Azalea 
reach the muddy bank just downstream from him. She climbed out, a 
mareep made of mud, and ran to assist him. 

"You're almost there!" She almost fell back in but regained her 
footing, sparking in surprise. Chirin floundered up on the bank, 
heaving with his breath, glad to feel the soft mud under him and glad 
to be alive. Whatever he had to soon face, though, he wasn't so sure 
he would be so lucky. *Please, Mah-mah, help me. Help me because I'm 
still weak. I can't shake this spirit off of me.*

Azalea licked his face as he clambered up, plastered with mud. Her 
look told him she could easily tell that his mysterious thief-spirit 
was still treading on him.

Several Quagsires surrounded the two of them as a third one easily 
flopped up and out of the river with a coughing Selden. The quagsire 
stepped up onto the bank and set Selden down. The lamb's feet touched 
the ground running. 

"Chirin, why are these blue things with us?" He managed a small 
smile. "You're all brown."

"I know. You are too, *maripu.*" Somehow the Quagsires seemed to have 
come out of the water with barely a muddy streak between them. He 
absently licked Selden's cold ear. "It's going to be okay. The 
spirits are with us and they will make us strong."

"I want to go home," said Selden, even though the little lamb was no 
longer sure where he meant when he said home.

"Me too," said Chirin, not sure either. "I promise you we'll get 
there."

* * *

"Is this--Moon-home region you spoke of earlier a very long distance 
to travel?" said Azalea, querying a Quagsire, the big one who had 
carried Chirin. 

"It's not far," he said.

"I, ah, noticed you referred to my friend Chirin here as moon-light-
one. Ah...may I ask what this signifies or whether this implies he 
has any significance?"

Chirin had noticed that too, he realized, but had been too 
preoccupied to do aught but gloss over it, more worried about making 
it across the river. He turned towards the talk.

"He has a Moon-thing. Moon-thing-Light-One was meant to come help us. 
It's a sign. Isn't it, Moon-light-One?"

"Uh..." said Chirin, remembering Roxie's smiling mouth latched onto 
his apricorn, snapping the string. How her eyes had bugged out at the 
round things. His old flock must have been right about quagsire-kind 
having a round-shaped soul in a round-shaped thing somewhere...like a 
Lanturn's light.

Had the apricorn gift ringing his neck really led him here? The 
thought fluffed his wool. 

"Uh..." he continued.

A part of him, of his denki, his soul, was this apricorn...part of it 
was him. PArt of him was in the wind and in the chirin-chirin chingle 
of abalone shells he had not heard in such a long time. Could a 
quagsire also be sharing this apricorn with him? Roxie? Fin?

Sounds of struggle and a young ewe's bleats distracted him. He looked 
out at the river.

"Karama! Calm down...It's going to be all right! Don't struggle!"

Her panic within the clumsily constructed thing of sticks--he had 
never seen the likes of such a thing--crept from her to him, like a 
swallow of the wrong kind of grass. He fought to stay calm even as he 
felt that all the lights that had shone for them before were going 
out.

Like Karama had made Bag from Leaves, the Quagsire holding her had 
made Bag from Sticks. A sign, definitely. But of what? Karama was 
magic--she shaped new forms from what they had been before, and she 
had brought towards her a Quagsire who did the same. Spirit energy 
was that way. Chirin reassured himself that even now it was alive.

"To Moonhome now," said the big Quagsire as the last of the party 
hauled themselves ashore.

Bag from leaves, bag from sticks...*death on rocks and berry 
tricks...*

The song unfolded its petals in his mind as the Quagsires marched the 
mareep on through the rain...the song fell into him with each little 
drum the raindrops patted on him, falling into him as they washed the 
mud from his coat. He remembered the unowns in the air on that long 
ago day-within-night. And he knew they were swirling around him now. 
He felt them more vividly than he had ever seen them. And for every 
unown, a form still unmade hovered, waiting for birth. Who would make 
them?

He kept his questions to himself as he followed the big Quagsire in 
the lead out through the other side of the copse. The answers, he 
sensed, would come to him soon enough. They waited for him like the 
seed-heads of the long grass nodded in the wind to the approaching 
group on either side of the trail. They nodded to him, agreeing with 
his decision to remain quiet. When the grass nodded, was it the 
grass, or the wind spirits that spoke louder?

Selden whined and whimpered by Chirin's side and when Chirin stopped 
to give him a reassuring lick, the Quagsires stopped too. At least 
they seemed patient enough. If they wanted their help, they couldn't 
possibly want to kill them, he tried to reason. But he knew all too 
well that in many ways the dead could help the living even more than 
others living. But he had never heard of anyone killing someone--just 
to summon the powers of suddenly homeless souls, which would surely 
rebel and destroy things in anger. The ancestors frowned on such 
horrible actions, for they were not of Mother Megga or the First 
Light. The unseen ones, and one's own *denki* in part,
decided when death came. Those who took lives out of step, like the 
*burakos* Humans cast out over the sea, were punished to live forever 
in darkness.

He shook his head and continued, too nervous to stop to graze even 
when they passed by some red clover.  Out ahead of them, blue figures 
seemed to step out of the rain.

Ivy was scared...there was NOTHING wrong with that! Not to mention 
she had been dunked, bashed, and was soaking wet again...AND it was 
still drizzling!

Squinting, she tried to make out what was coming towards them...and 
sighed. She'd find out soon enough... 

Chirin shrank back against Azalea and Selden as the misting rain 
droplets slowly unveiled pale blue figures walking, or running 
towards them. He heard more woopers and quagsires. some of the 
quagsires wore apricorns or other round things around their necks.

"Chirin, Chirin!"

It was Roxie. Chirin stood in a daze as she ran up, crying. 

"I didn't know...I didn't know!"

"Roxie! Get back over here!" called a female Quagsire further off, 
the same one who had scooped her up on the other side of the river. 
Roxie turned and ran to the one who seemed to be her mah-mah.

"Runie," called the big quagsire in the lead to another Quagsire 
approaching. She had a yellow apricorn on her neck like Chirin did 
his green one. "How is Big Moon? Is he...still..."

Runie clutched her apricorn and nodded. She looked sternly at the 
mareep, or sas sternly as a Quagsire could look....sort of a sad, 
cold gaze.  Chirin opened his mouth, but instead of words coming from 
his throat, sparks issued from his wool, his *denki* shivering out of 
control. 

"Lights help me!"

Putting his own nose to his own apricorn shell, he threw himself to 
the ground. 

"Get up," said the big Quagsire, nudging the young ram with his foot. 
Chirin forced himself to his feet, sobbing, feeling his weakness more 
than ever. He noticed the cut in his lip had sprung open again, but 
it paled beside his hurting back legs, where he'd been knocked down, 
his hip, and his pulsing head. 

"What did you have to do to get them?" said Runie in a softer, more 
breathy voice.

"Two or three Earth-Shakes brought them all down quickly. These are 
young land-light-makers." He paused. "We are taking them to In-Ground-
Water."

Runie nodded. "Big-Moon-Mother's been in there all day waiting. Ever 
since we told her about... them coming." She briefly holding the big 
one's flippers in her own and touching noses to him, she waddled off, 
calling to others that Chirin supposed were among the masses quickly 
arriving around them. How many of them were there?

"I just want to know--are you going to kill us?" Chirin could not 
separate his voice from his crying and all his words wept 
out. "Please..."

"No," said the Quagsire. "We would never hurt you. We were sorry that 
we had to do what we did to catch you. But we do what we have to for 
Big-Moon-Father Gonga."

"Who's...that?"

"You will see."

"Big-Moon, Big-Moon!" wailed a few of the woopers. "Oh, big-moon 
Gonga!"

"Please," said Chirin, "please, water-friend, you have to hear my 
words. We--we're very small and scared here. We were just running 
from burrows that wanted to eat us...and forests that wanted to catch 
us...away from bad places and bad spirits. I--I don't know what it is 
you want from us. I don't know what we've done that's so bad. 
Please...all we want to know is why you are forcing us to be here. 
I''ve already promised to help you and I will. But--everyone here 
with me, why do you want everyone here? And, you talk like we've done 
something awful. What is it? I just want to know..."

He ducked down and closed his raining eyes.

"You will find out in In-ground-water," said the big Quagsire. "It is 
not something you did, but of your kind. All kinds flow together like 
water and each is in its own Moon. You are here to undo what those of 
your same making-light-blood did."

"But...what if we can't help you like you--"

"I said, you will learn all you need to learn in In-ground-water. 
Let's all go there now."

He led Chirin on, and, bouyed by the frightened presence of Azalea, 
Selden and the others he followed. They needed to see a strong ram, 
not a weeping, weak lamb.

"And that means everybody," said the big Quagsire. "We are all going 
to In-ground-water."

As Chirin and the others were marched, bruised and wet-wooled, along 
the muddy trail cutting through the grass, they passed by a lake. It 
was a small lake, nothing compared to Eerie, and misty water and 
cloud-spirits rolled like slow flames off its surface in the light 
rain. Many of the quag-folk headed for this lake at the big 
quagsire's words, and slipped in with flips of their paddle-shaped 
tails.

"There must be an alternate route to this 'in-ground-water' via 
underwater passageways," said Azalea to Chirin. "Why do I have a 
feeling we've only begun to get wet."

The quagsires marched them on, slowly but steadily. Ahead of them 
loomed a high hill spiked with rock outcroppings. So there was a 
great rock guarding over these people too, he thought, a Pharos to 
the quagsires. He nabbed a bite of clover from alongside the trail, 
just for something to chew on while he walked. Many of the blue water-
folk had joined them taking the same trail they were to this place, 
and Chirin saw more than one of them cast the same sad little eyes at 
him and the others. Chirin kept his own gaze on the places ahead, 
already connected to these water-folk, pulled into whatever they had 
planned by the flooded trail under their feet, which led out to the 
rocky beacon-hill.

*Pharos and your flock, Chenja and our flock, Watakko raining down on 
me, please don't let me down now.*

Karama sniffled and sobbed. What was going to happen?
She was scared. She curled up in a tighter ball of
wool and tucked away her tail light.

Koko stopped. He curled up and shook at the sound of
more water.
"No..." he moaned, "Not more water... no..."

The ground rose up, sporting more and more boulders and rocks as they 
walked on. The rock-spiked hill seemed to grow in size, darkening as 
they strode towards it. It was further away than it had first 
appeared, further away and larger. Rocks were deceptive like that. 
Chirin studied the shapes and features of the rocks that protruded 
from the grassy mammoth hill like giant warts, trying to discern what 
was on their minds. They were approaching a small pond at the hill's 
base, even smaller than the Chompera one by the nido warren had been. 
There was no rock in the middle of this one.

"They said we will not die," said Chrin quietly to Azalea. 

"Oh," she rasped, "and did they show you their credentials? I for one 
can't be so quick to trust. Have you forgotten Moonscar? Yes," she 
whispered on, "I know this seems very different, but still...people 
lie."

"But why would they want us to die?" 

Did there have to be a reason that he could discern? Who was to say 
all these were not possessed by spirits like the ones in Cinder and 
Calima? There were a great many dark beings in this world. He uttered 
an incantation under his breath, "Phos don't let me lose my light..." 
while blinking his light and holding his head up. Had something in 
his apricorn, again, tied him to here? 
He tried to shut out all the wild thoughts racing through him but 
they were out of control.

Those quag-folk on the hill itself were climbing down and diving into 
the pond. They did not resurface, and neither did those woopers and 
quagsires slipping into the water from around them down here. "This 
little pond is In-Ground-Water?" he asked.

The big quagsire shook his head. "No. This little pond is the way to 
In-Ground-Water."

"I--we can't breathe underwater," said Chirin, backing from the pond 
as his wool bristled up his back. "We'll die..." Or did they have 
some kind of spell, something magic...

"You go into the water and swim with us. You come out into the air. I 
say again, you won't die."

Chirin began a silent prayer, lifting his head and catching raindrops 
in his mouth to empower him with water power. He began to open his 
apricorn shell, knowing he must use his pond-pebble now too, for his 
whole flock.

"Dive in with me," said the big quagsire. 

"Please!" he cried, fumbling out the pebble. "You must let me perform 
this first."

"The Denryuu are as superstitious as everyone says," said the quag as 
Chirin knelt and pressed his nose to the pebble, forging a connection 
to the water, careful not to get any water up his nostrils.

Chirin waited until he was sure he had received the ground-water 
powers from this place through the pebble, before giving it a lick 
for reassurance and to make the parting good, putting it into the 
apricorn shell and giving that a lick as well. He shot a small spark 
from his tail to cement it. He watched as the Quagsire carrying 
Karama in the stick-bag clambered down the steep rock bank (it was 
more of a water hole, than a pond) and dived in. Chirin reminded 
himself that she, with a Lanturn soul and water in her *denki*, had 
the best chance of anyone here. 

"Come, moon-light-one," said the big Quagsire, waiting for him. He 
realized the others in the flock were waiting for him too, watching 
him hesitate. He began to climb down the rocks to the water, an easy 
enough task had it not been for his feet not wanting to go.

"Ah...Let's nickname diving into that pond, Option A," said 
Azalea. "Is there an option 'B'?"

"No," said the Quagsire.

"Well, that does form a basis for my decision rather quickly. 
Ah...will someone be assisting our swim?" 

Another quagsire stepped in next to her. "Everyone will have help. 
Dive in, and open your eyes."

Only her trembling legs and sweat-scent betrayed her fear as she 
hopped down, rock by rock, past Chirin, and gave his ear a lick--he 
heard her taking a breath--before diving in ahead of him.  That made 
Chirin's own mind up faster than anything else. He filled his lungs 
with air from stomach to neck, and splashed in after her. 

Opening his eyes underwater, Chirin saw flamelike sways of blue light-
ripples, caressing a stretch of rocks, like a great cave or bowl 
carved out far below him where the light faded. He heard noises. 
Quagsire and Wooper underwater noises, almost melodic squeals and 
notes riding the burbly, bubbly sounds of swooshing water. The big 
Quagsire swam in beside him, grabbed him round the stomach and swam 
him along quickly. He felt the fish pokemon's powerful undulations 
speeding them on. A rush of turbulence behind Chirin caused him to 
look round the quagsire carrying him, and he saw Selden, kicking 
frantically with his eyes tightly shut. A quagsire quickly scooped 
him up and carried him quickly along. Chirin worried for him.

Chirin's lungs wanted air, but he held on through the first wave of 
discomfort, praying the water spirits to speed their swimming. All 
around them other quags and woopers were swimming with decidedly 
greater ease and comfort. Up ahead of him was the quagsire carrying 
Azalea and his carrier followed them, through a wide hole in the 
underwater cavern.

Karama couldn't hold her breath for much longer. She
paled, and beat against the cage...

Azalea streamlined her body against the Quagsire carrying her, to cut 
down on resistance as much as possible. She held still, her muscles 
as loose as she could make them, trying to conserve all her oxygen. 
Steering her mind off the growing waves of discomfort, she turned her 
attention to the strange beauty beneath the water. Up above them a 
strange light played in dim shards on the surface, the only hint that 
there was one. Down below there were lights, too--yellow lights 
sprouted like baubles on the heads of strange fish that she glimpsed 
darting among the stone columns and formations out around them in 
this vast chamber. Her ears sensed electric currents emanating from 
those fish, more powerful than those of the Quagsires, herself or 
even Chirin.

She let out the last of her air, feeling a squeeze in her stomach. 

*Chirin could do this. He wouldn't let go of his breath. Chirin 
wouldn't give up--and neither will you.* 

Poisoned air seared through her veins, washing her in tingles and 
clenching her gut with waves of nausea. Clinging to her lungs, 
bracing down against a wind inside her, she stared up at the 
approaching surface, till the golden-black swirls unfurled in front 
of her eyes. Blindly, deafly, full of blood and fire, she fought to 
stay conscious. If Azalea's face hadn't already been blue...

She broke the surface and screamed in a breath.

A shoal of hungry remoraid have been atracted by the noise, and close 
in to investigate. 

A sudden jet of water shot Chirin and the Quagsire to the surface. 
Chirin heard nothing else but the loud gasp of his own inhalation, 
then, as the Quagsire let him go, he looked down to see it batting 
away at a smaller blue fish, which swam away to dodge. A weaker 
stream propelled from its mouth, tickling Chirin in the side as the 
remoraid shot backwards and then turned tail.

Still catching his breath, Chirin looked around for the others. He 
had come up inside a huge, dark cavern, lit by a few strange balls of 
whitish light on stone walls. The light glinted off the surface and 
off the slick bodies of woopers and Quagsires who had already 
surfaced and sat on rocks and ledges near the water. Up above them 
hung huge caverns, a community of air spirits bouncing the sounds of 
many voices, and clouding them with their own voices--countless 
echoes. 

It was a--warren of quagsires!

Something poked him between the shoulder blades. He turned around to 
see Azalea. 

"My--good to see you."

"You too."

"You're the only one who's surfaced so far. But I suspect the others 
are not far behind. You realize that to get out of here alive, we 
would require the same brand of assistance in propulsion that just 
carried us here?"

"That's right," said Chirin. "Come on, let's get out of the water and 
get--dry."

"Dry--A concept I'm beginning to lose my grasp on," said Azalea, 
paddling her own path up to the nearest rocks, already occupied by a 
few quag-folk.

Karama, when she thought that she could take no more,
found the cage had not more water in it! Karama burst
through the door as soon as it was open, kissing the
ground, murmuring, "Land...land...at last..."

Ivy emerged soon enough after, doing nothing more but greedily 
gulping up air for a moment. This was NOT her day!

Chirin's front feet found solid rock just under the surface, and he 
used it as a step to ascend to the next rock, barely finding purchase 
on the slippery-smooth surface. He fell back into the water, and only 
with help from Azalea's head pushing him from behind did he at last 
scrabble up, emerging with heavy, water-laden wool. Far from helping 
them, the few quags and woopers on the rocks near him vacated it when 
Chirin clambered up, assisting Azalea who came up next. His eyes 
scanned the water for Selden and the others, easy enough to spot by 
their tail bulbs, lighting up the bluish water in the dark. The 
yellow-orange mareep lights striped Chirin, Azalea, all the quagfolk 
and all the rocks in ripples of undulating blue, the water's soul 
casting its reflection in air, as if they were still underwater. They 
were still all at the water-cave's mercy, within it like the grass 
within Chirin's gut.

"Not long now," said the big quagsire, swimming over to them. He gave 
a curl and thrust his body upwards. His flippers slapped on the rock, 
splashing Chirin as his feet followed up. He slipped out of the water 
like he had slipped in--rather, Chirin thought back to the old 
saying, like water off a wooper's back.

"May I ask," said Azalea, "how long we are going to be within this 
chamber?"

"You already did ask. "Not long--until you do what you've been 
brought here to do."

"And what--"

"You will soon find out."

"Selden!" cried Chirin as a Quagsire surfaced with the limp body of 
the lamb in his arms. He deposited Selden next to Chirin. Selden lay 
in a sodden heap, his mouth lolling open. Chirin's knees bent down, 
bringing his face close to the young ram. He shook him. "Selden!"

"Ah--oh--I know what to do! I overheard Louise talking about this 
technique once! This requires artificial respiration!"

"What?" said Chirin, turning Selden over to try to empty his body of 
too much water. 

"Quickly! Get out of the way."

Crying, Chirin let Azalea take over. Azalea turned selden back over 
and butted him in the back, trying to dislodge water. Selden slumped 
unresponsive. Azalea turned him on his back and put her mouth to his. 
She breathed into his mouth.

"Breath life-force into him," said Chirin as tears ran down his face, 
thinking he understood what she was doing. "Oh, please, great In-
Ground-Water, please have mercy." Jumpluff cotton--that was what 
Selden needed now, for the lightness of air. Not enough air in him, 
too much water--an imbalance killing him. But there was nothing, only 
a wet cavern full of cold water, cold woopers and cold 
quagsires. "Somebody help!" said Chirin. "We need help!"

The quagsires who had brought them up stood apart from them as Azalea 
took another breath and pressed her mouth to Selden's again. "Come 
on! Come on!"

Helpless, Chirin took deep breaths, breathing towards Selden, shining 
his light on Selden as Azalea lightly pounded the lifeless lamb on 
the chest and dealt him a third breath, trying to pump air back into 
him. Blinking away tears, Chirin stared as if he could will Selden's 
soul back...

"Oh, Selden, come on!" cried Azalea, trying again.

Chirin whirled on the Quagsires. "You said no one would die!"

Before they could answer Chirin tore away in a lopsided whirl, 
flinging himself at Selden's tail, its limpness contrasting all the 
more with Azalea's own violently flashing tail, reflecting the ewe's 
desperation as she tried to resuscitate him.  Chirin bleated at the 
top of his lungs.

Selden's little tail bulb, always small even for his size, flickered 
intermittently, a flame in the wind, barely holding the light that 
was his life. Chirin clutched it between his front feet, and pressed 
his cheek against it.

"Please."

Azalea gave Selden one last huff of air from her own lungs and 
stepped back, shaking her head. Selden had always shied from her in 
fear and general distaste. She had hoped one day he'd open up to her. 
He had been so brave and come so far, only to die so young. All he 
had wanted was a home again.

"Oh, Selden," she said, "I can't tell you how sorry I am."

She stroked his bedraggled chest with her front foot.

Selden's body gave a twitch, his tail bauble tapping on the wet rock. 
Light crept back into it as he began to cough.

"Selden!" Azalea screamed as she and Chirin rushed back to 
him. "Right him--he has to purge that water out of his lungs!"

Suddenly the place they were prisoner in did not matter to Chirin, 
the staring quag-folk, the froggish smell of their kind almost acrid 
in the air, did not matter. Azalea had called Selden's soul back and 
he had seen it with his own eyes. 

Coughing again, chips of Selden's voice sounded, giving way to  
struggling bleats and finally a full-throated cry. Chirin nuzzled him 
forcefully, softly bleating mah, mah, mah, so glad again to have back 
the one who always hovered uncertainly within his body. Selden's soul 
seemed to lack a firm grip in there and threads of worry streaked his 
happiness even as he hugged the lamb with relief, crying against his 
neck. This was only the beginning. There was still the journey out...

* * *

"If you go in In-Ground-Water, you will sink," said one of the 
Quagsires to Koko at the edge of the pond. "A long way down for an  
Onix to go. You are free. We never wanted to cause you trouble. The 
little light-makers, they are what we need."

Koko roared and started digging at top speed into the
wall. He at last reached the room/cavern where the
quagsire, wooper, and mareep were. He got in and was
careful not to get on any quagsire by mistake. In
suprise, three of the quagsire sprayed water on Koko.
He roared in pain and toppled over. The pokemon in the
way scatteres so they would not get squished. He
weakly opened one eye and found the quagsire staring
at Koko in shock. Some were whispering to eachother.
"...I say we all try to push him in the water...",
"No! He did nothing to us!" The quagsire were deciding
what to do with him.


~*~

Three pint sized wooper darted about the river bed. As 
they froliced a thunder like noise similar to a sonic boom exploded 
through the sky. They all looked up in playful wonder to see a small 
pokémon surrounded by a spherical barrier shoot past them. Quickly 
moving again they jumped in the water, following it till it's huge 
splashdown 30 yards away. Ignoring the unconscious abra within all 
three wooper begin jumping for joy of the new 'ball.'

"Round-Moon-Thing!" said one wooper, dancing around the sphere that 
was not much larger than itself. "From the sky!"

"I think it IS the Moon!" said the second. "It fell! We have to get 
Moon home! Big-Round-Moon-Mother will know how to put it back up!"

The third wooper eyed the thing suspiciously. "The Moon isn't this 
big."

~*~

Karama curled up and shook. She wished Koko was
here... She sniffled and shook harder and curled up
tighter, hiding her tail light from view.

Selden's cries had dwindled to whimpers and he leaned weakly against 
a stone, his eyes glazed and dazed. Cleomie and Ivy were struggling 
up onto the rock, both wearing faces of disgust and dulled fear. 
their hooves scraped on the wet stone. Chirin nuzzled each one of 
them and they all huddled close, a mound of rapidly breathing 
bodies. "We are beacons, we are denryuu," he whispered to them, less 
convinced than ever of the power of Light. 

More and more woopers and quagsires were surfacing and spilling up 
onto the stone ledges, waddling further into the caverns and alcoves 
above the water or in the shallows. Fewer and fewer began to arrive 
as Chirin watched, trickling to a slower and slower flow. Whatever 
was going to happen, wherever they would go or do from here, it would 
happen soon. Chirin took a moment to rise up from the flock and slow 
his breathing. He edged out along the nearby rocks, sniffing and 
feeling them. He brushed his upper lip gently along the exquisitely 
smooth stone, taking a small pleasure in it, hoping that maybe the 
small caress they had just chared would influence the spirit of In-
Ground-Water, who was so dominating and unlit by feeling. He lifted 
his head back, letting his gaze jump out into the distant ceilings.

"There is no other way out," said the big quag. "You are in here 
until you have completed your task."

Chirin just looked elsewhere, shining his tail. 

Azalea waited until he was somewhat out of earshot before leaning in 
close to chirin's ear.

"He may talk big but he's lying through his slimy teeth," she 
whispered. "Whether or not we can see it or reach it, there's another 
opening in this place or we wouldn't have any damn air."

Chirin braced his feet and crouched, as In-Ground-Water gave a sudden 
grating roar of agony, shaking violently. Quagsires and woopers 
screamed and jumped off the rocks into the pool. Flames of water 
leaped up, slapping on the rocks and throwing curls of waves over 
them. The rock he and the rest of the flock were on threw them off. 
Chirin fell backwards into the water and Azalea landed on him, also 
backwards. Breaking the surface he called out, "Selden? Selden!"

"It's Koko!" Azalea's waving, blinking tail pointed at the Onix half 
in and half out of In-Ground-Water's wall, like a worm in an apple.

"Eep!" Karama yelped. falling back into the water. She
crawled back out looking miserable. She darted in
front of Koko.
"Leave him alone!" Karama yelled. "He is out friend,
Koko!"
She noticed some of the quagisire filling the hole
that Koko had made back up.

"Karama watch out!" cried Chirin over his shoulder, swimming over to 
Selden as the Quagsires cut through the water all around them towards 
Koko. One sliced in between them, then Chirin gave another stroke of 
his legs and reached the floundering, gaspng Selden. Selden clung to 
Chirin's neck, wailing in his ear. Over his young cries the cavern 
hill shuddered loudly, further admitting the Onix as stone fought 
stone. 

"In-Ground-Water is being hurt!" called a Quagsire Chirin did not 
see, beyond the chaos. "Get that Onix out of here! Use your Water--
the rain's weakened it as it is!"

Someone's fin slapped Azalea's face in a hurry to join comrades 
fighting the Onix. 

"No! Don't hurt him, please! Koko run, they'll hurt you!" Chirin 
couldn't believe what was happening. Koko had come here for them, but 
why? Whatever made him and the other mareep worthy of notice, and 
even risk of life, by one of the great monoliths, only Pharos knew.

"Well, if we were worried about getting out before, he's made things 
a *hole* lot easier," said Azalea. "So to speak!"

"You'll take Selden and get him out if you can when you see an 
opening," said Chirin. "I have to stay."

"Stay?! Here?! What are you crazy?" she yelled as water-gun shots 
arched over their heads as woopers and quagsires attacked from behind 
them. "Assuming we even gt out of this alive!"

Someone poked him on the back. It was the big Quagsire. 

"This way," he said, grabbing Chirin forcibly and whipping off 
through the water. Chirin squirmed against him but his strength was 
no match. Selden screamed as he found himself alone.

"Please--Selden's--"

"Hey! You come back with him!" cried Azalea as she swam to Selden's 
rescue. Selden fussed against her grip as she hauled him back up onto 
a rock well to the side of the unfolding battle. "Hey!"

"Watch Selden!" Chirin called, his neck constricted by the male 
quagsire's strong arm. "Watch him--"

They dived briefly under, skimming back up to the surface, his captor 
putting speed over concern for Chirin's breathing. Even if Azalea had 
been free to follow him she wouldn't have had a chance keeping up. 

"Again, I am so sorry to do this," he said, "but we need at least one 
mareep and you are marked by Moon."

Azalea tried to keep a lid on her panic. Chirin had just been plucked 
away by one of that menace of a Quagsire and she might never see him 
again. As there was no way she could have kept up with him anyway, 
she had to keep the flock together and safe. Somebody had to look 
after Selden and Chirin's last desperate look as the quag hauled him 
away had told her he was counting on her. She called to the others, 
screaming at the top of her lungs to be heard over the grinding of 
rock and the Quagsires' battle cries.

"Everybody stay close, come up on this rock, we're waiting till 
nobody's by that hole Koko made, then we're dashing for it!"

"Chirin!" Selden bawled, his mouth a crying maw and his eyes squinted 
shut. "Chiriiihhhn!"

Azalea just licked his ear. 

Once the others were all out and beyond the Quagsires' jurisdiction, 
she was going back in. She had a hunch they weren't going to kill him 
right away, assuming they had that in store for him. She would figure 
a way to get him out alive if she had to think herself to death. 

"Ah, it's no good," said Azalea, shaking her head at the violent 
scene, clearly seeing the Quagsires guarding the new hole. Some of 
them had begun to patch it up but were stopped by others, of which 
Azalea was glad, anyway. "The Onix is going back out there there! He 
can't go through the main entrance and he wouldn't fit through any 
others without destroying more of In-Ground-Water!"  the ewe heard 
one of them holler.

"All right," she said to the rest of the flock, "it appears we're 
going to be situated here for some time further. Which suits my plans 
because I'm not exactly leaving Chirin here. However if we don't get 
Selden out of here I'm not altogether certain he will survive. Koko 
isn't going to defeat these Quagsires. We are still going to be in 
here at the conclusion of this fray." She looked at the darkened 
passage behind them and edged down it, flashing her light for the 
rest to follow. She had to herd Selden in front of her forcibly, 
nudging him in the side. "Please--Selden--Chirin's simply on a little 
excursion and will be returning to us before you know--"'Reep!"

She staggered back as Selden headbutted her. "Please, Selden, please 
just stay here with us, we'll get Chirin back! I promise!"

A row of Quagsires hemmed in across the open alcove's entrance (and 
exit) way, facing out towards the Onix and the foamy, battle-churned 
pool. Selden cowered against the wall crying. When Azalea tried to 
nuzzle him he shouldered her away and glared. Was it just the 
circumstances, or did Selden truly *hate* her? 

"I am honestly doing all I can to retrieve Chirin for you, Selden, 
honestly I am!"

Selden only burst into tears again, against the wall as if it was his 
only friend. Beyond their guard of Quagsires, battle screams and 
splashes plowed on through the air. Azalea felt near tears herself.

Cleomie and Ivy had gone over to Selden now, and brought him away 
from the wall, prying him out of the despair that Azalea seemed 
locked outside of. Watching the other mareep huddle together without 
her she realized Selden wasn't the only one who didn't like her. 
Without Chirin, she was...well...

The slip-slop of little wooper feet distracted her from her bout of 
self-pity. Azalea whirled on the Wooper with a fiendish flash of her 
black eyes. 

"Well if it isn't our companion Roxie."

"Yup." Roxie nodded, decidedly less sprightly than she had been back 
on the field. "Uh..."

"I'll pretend I never suspected for a moment that you had any 
involvement in this scheme. Where are they taking Chirin."

"Oh...uh...No, no! I didn't--I didn't know anything! You gotta 
believe me!" Roxie burst into tears as Azalea leaned towards her. 

Azalea considered. Roxie was younger than herself, maybe not much 
older than Karama. It was unlikely she had in fact been used to bait 
them in. And at this point it mattered not.

"Don't sweat it, I believe you. Now if you're still our friend, 
please inform me on all you know about what's going to happen to us 
in here and where is that big fellow taking Chirin."

Roxie stepped backwards. "But--I'm not suppoed to tell till Big Round 
Mother Moon tells at the Moon-Meeting!"

"My goodness you're a moonstruck bunch." Azalea sauntered towards 
Roxie, re-bridging the gap. "Listen, I don't exactly have leisure 
time to wait for this meeting especially since it appears we're being 
more than a little held up. If you're an honest little wooper who 
wants to assist us in any way you can, please tell me at least the 
outline of events to come."

"I...I'm not allowed to do that."

"Ah," Azalea laughed bitterly, "as if I ever paused to take into 
consideration rules of secrecy made by people who blithely trampled 
us with the ground we were walking on and then proceeded to almost 
drown us. Come on, just tell me and I won't inform your mother."

Roxie shook her head. "I can't tell." 

Azalea pounced at Roxie. Roxie turned and got her little feet 
scrambling away, but was too slow. Azalea's stomach landed on the 
wriggling wooper and Roxie gave a squeal.

"You leave me no choice, squirt. If you promise to tell me 
everything, including the nearest *unguarded* exit out of here, I'll 
let you up gently and respectfully like the friend you are to me. Do 
you promise now?"

"Uh...yeah...Can you get up now? You're squooshing me."

Azalea got up. "A deal's a deal. Now please, do tell."

Roxie pouted. "I never said 'I promise.' I just said 'yeah.' It's 
different," she said. 

"Well, then I'm afraid I'm going to have to inform your mother about 
this infraction. You see, where I come from those evasive techniques 
are often referred to as lying."

Azalea walked back towards the body of chaotic noise and the wet 
huddle of the flock, who probably couldn't even hear her from where 
they were.  

"Wait!" called Roxie. "Don't!"

Azalea turned around. "That's more like it! All we desire to do, you 
see, is to make sure nobody will get hurt. Now where are they taking 
Chirin?"

"To Moon-Home-Middle."

 Karama glared at the quagsire. She bleated her battle
cry, and then charged at one of the quagsires that was
preparing to finish Koko off with a water-gun in the
face. 
"LEAVE KOKO ALONE! HE IS MY FRIEND!" Karama screamed,
running in front of Koko. Then she burst into tears.
"Please! Leave him alone..."

The barrage of water gun attacks by the quagsire front lines hurtled 
through the air towards Koko and Karama at dangerous speeds. They had 
not forseen her breaking through the ranks.

"DUCK!" cried Cleomie.

"DUCK!" cried Selden.

 The quagsire stared at Karama, then to the quagsire
that had tried to kill Koko, to see what would happen.
"Stand aside, Moon-light-one," said the quagsire,
"Stand aside now. He had hurt the in-gound water! He
deserves to die, by what he has done. MOVE!"
"No!" Karama said sobbing. "No! I won't let you hurt
Koko anymore!"

"She is not Moon-Light-One," said another quagsire, dodging the 
forceful darts of water. "Moon-light-one's been taken into safety." 
To Karama the Quagsire said, "We will not kill the Onix. We only want 
him out of In-Ground-Water and all will be well. Then you will all 
finally learn why we brought you here."


* * *

"Ah, and where is the passage to Moon-Water-Middle?" said 
Azalea. "Is it the route you took up from that rather dark and damp 
corridor going up beyond us?"

"No," said Roxie. "That goes to a lot of places. The water from here 
goes out there into River-Deep. That's not where they took Chirin."

"Where is?"

Roxie took a shaking breath, bordering on breaking down. "Calm down, 
I won't hurt you. You're doing a great job."

"No I'm not!" Roxie burst into tears. "I'm not supposed to be saying 
this stuff! Only Big-Round-Moon-Mother!" 

"Oh...it's going to be all right..." 

But Roxie only bawled on through Azalea's scant reassurance. Why did 
Azalea always end up feeling like the heel? 

"...And now I made two promises! And they both go against each other! 
I don't know if I should say it or not! But I think not!"

Azalea didn't have the heart to threaten her again. "Listen...please, 
I apologize for any moral discomfort I've caused you. You've done the 
best you could. I just need to know if I'm going to see Chirin in the 
near...or distant...future."

"Yes," said Roxie with a sigh, apparently relieved that they were 
treading onto safe ground for discussion again. "He was only tooken 
away cause they don't want him getting hurt."

Azalea's own tongue was being tugged more than two different ways, 
due to conflicting pressures, making a reply difficult. She would 
have gone after Chirin now if not for Selden and the rest of the 
flock, whom she had told Chirin she would look after in his absence. 
Now, to place all these pressing priorities in order. She stepped 
back towards the flock, then back towards Roxie, wishing she 
instantly knew where all the exits were--concern number one.

"Can you at least give me directions for one and, if you can manage, 
more of the exits?"

Karama sniffled and looked hard at the quagsires.
"Good... He is my good friend. I hate my friends
getting hurt!" Karama said.

"We do too," said another Quagsire, stepping in, "which is why you 
are here now."

The quagsire, who had a red apricorn round her neck, waved her 
flipper at the ones shooting water from their mouths. The last few 
arcs of water spritzed the walls and the Onix, then the air was 
empty.

In-Ground-Water's inner caverns had cast the sense of night over 
Chirin, and a strong vibration of dark. "Where are we going?" he 
asked the big quagsire for the hundredth time. "What about my friends 
out there? Selden needs me. He could fall in the water again--you 
have to bring me back!"

"You friends will be fine," said the Quagsire, swimming on.

"You don't know that! I don't know that!" Suddenly he couldn't stand 
the pokemon's slimy hold one more heartbeat. His body pushed itself 
into a strain of muscles, like a spring trying to stretch. Forgetting 
that the Quagsire could kill him with a squeeze of his flippers, he 
yanked and jerked against him. Buzz zaps erupted beneath the water as 
his *denki* had its own fit.

"We're almost there." The quag's hold around Chirin tightened.

"Let go of me!"

~*~

Rudy blinked his left eye. Something weird was goin 
on. All around him was a bright, nearly blinding for him, light glowing 
purble. Rubbing his eye he felt the cold band on his left arm.

                        " What in the name of.....?" He thought shocked. That 
wasn't a part of his annatomy. Searching for other forign things he felt the 
necklace upon his neck. On the bottom was a small stone disk. On it were some 
weird small writings.

                        " What?!" was the only thing he could think loudly."

"Hey..." said the littlest of the three Woopers. "Let's bring it back 
to Moon-home! They'll be sooo proud that we got the Moon!"

"It's not the moon," said the biggest Wooper. "I already told you, 
it's too big to be the moon. And I think, although I don't know, but 
I think it's too bright too."

"Maybe the Moon gave it to us to help Big-Moon Gonga!" said the 
middle-sized wooper, middle-sized as woopers went. 

All of them hefted the big glowing globe up on their slimy little 
shoulders and began the long walk home.

The young abra sighed, his exhalation flowing out of his 
sperical prison with but a small ripple on it's edge.
          
          By now Rudy had noticed the small wooper who were carring  
the orb of energy he was in. Until Rudy could figure out what had 
happened to himself he would try to ignore them. He seemed to be 
unable to remember how he had gotten to the lake or who he was. He 
remembered his name but not much else. Were these wooper trying to 
help him or had they done this to him he wondered.

          One of the wooper tripped, causing the others to drop 
the 'ball.' Rudy was startled but the he seemed to have been 
protected by the orb.


~

Karama sniffled and walked over to the water, looking
in. It was crystal clear. She found it hard to see her
reflection. She sniffled again, tears flowing down her
cheeks.

"Chirin... I want him back here... I wanna leave... It
is scary here... I wanna be with Chirin..." Karama
sniffled. Some of the quagsire patted her shoulder
with their flippers, in attempts to make her feel
better.

 Karama sniffled and stared in the water, as if
expecting to see Chirin swim out of the water and back
to land. Karama bleated, unable to take in any longer,
dived into the water in hopes of finding Chirin.

"Karama?" Azalea called, running back out of the cavern from where 
she'd spoken with Roxie. The poor little wooper had told her all she 
could--which was scant in detail but valuable nonetheless. And now, 
returning to the flock, she found one missing. "Karama!"

"She's in the water," said Cleomie, standing next to a too-cried-out-
to-cry Selden. "Dunno what she's doing but I'm not going in after 
her."

"Oiy."

Azalea trotted to the stones' edge, and seeing no telltale mareep 
lights, peered down into the water. Nothing there either. She stuck 
her tail in and gave off a series of loud electric pops, a signal the 
ewe would hear and feel easily if she was anywhere in the vicinity. 
That was all she could do for now.

~

The big quagsire dragged Chirin further along, seeming oblivious to 
his screams and squirms, even his *denki*, which Chirin had foolishly 
exhausted. Far behind them the large form of voices and shouts had 
funneled away, though the stone of In-Ground-Water's innards carried 
the echoes and vibrations to him in its own, almost imperceptibly 
deep, quiet voice. The quiver in the air set his ears wiggling.

"We are going under, just for a moment."

That was what he'd said outside by the pond. Chirin took the deepest 
breath he could, almost too late as the Quagsire's body dipped, 
dunking him under with it. He swam Chirin under a submerged stone 
eave; Chirin opened his eyes and saw a wedge of black above them, his 
own shadow cast by his tail rippling over it. True to his word, the 
Quagsire surfaced again only heartbeats later.

"Just beyond here," he said, "is Moon-Home-Middle. I won't pretend 
that I chose you at random or that I only brought you here to keep 
you safe from the battle. We rounded up all of you because we wanted 
to pick one to use, and we've made our choice. It wasn't mine alone."

"Oh, Mother Megga," he bleated, "please, if I can't see Phos again, I 
want to know why I was picked."

"You will know very soon."

"Tell me!"

But Chirin was vaguely sure he already knew. The dark humans taking 
his flock...Calima's *burakos* spirits swooping out of big 
burrows...Moonscar, Willy, Coddy, Lilac. All of them hurt, changed, 
or destroyed along where their light-paths had crossed his own and 
that of the dark things all around him. "Did the spirits--of my 
people--did they send you to bring me here and keep me here?"

"So," he said, "you know more about this than I thought you did."

"What?"

"Only Big-Moon-Mother Lourdes knows the full story, and what she has 
decided to do. That's why we're waiting until she gathers everyone 
and speaks to you. But you already know, don't you."

"No!" Chirin's high voice clanged in clashing echoes through the 
quiet cavern. 

"Please tell me--you don't have to be afraid--"

Chirin headbutted the Quagsire's side. His flippers released and they 
bounced apart.

The water embraced him and his legs flailed free. It took him a few 
strokes to slip into his own paddling patterns again, ruffling the 
still surface. He hadn't expected to escape, but then he knew the 
Quagsire had let him go.

"We're here, you know."

Treading water, Chirin took a good look around the room, a smaller 
cavern than the others, large but not big enough to fit all the quag-
folk outside. One wall in particular caught his eye first, because of 
the lights. He swam steadily towards the ledges in front of it.

Little shards of glowing rock lifted the contents of the rocks near 
it up into dim greenish shapes. Chirin's own light, illuminating the 
bowl of the deep pool, made the wall harder to see. He toned it down, 
and as he paddled closer, he began to make out the shapes of many 
small, round things.

The pocks and recesses in the wall each held one or more round things-
-apricorns, rocks, and a few that he couuldn't tell; they had strange, 
unnatural colors and patterns. And each had a home on the wall that 
had become like a giant face freckled with round things. Most of them 
were within standing reach of the bottom ledges, but some sat very 
high. How the Quagsires had gotten those up there must have been a 
feat helped by the many spirits that Chirin could feel who lived 
here. Chirin reached the ledge and put his front feet up on it, 
gazing at the wall with his mouth open. The sight drew tears from him 
and he let them run down his lifted head. This room was one of the 
oldest, most vividly and deeply living beings he had ever met. 

Clef lived here. And it was Clef who must have told the Quagsires to 
get him, even those who did not know it, had felt the call. Hadn't 
the first thing Roxie done was grab him by his apricorn?

Humbled, he closed his eyes and whispered to Clef, the one who had 
made Denrai. 

"I don't know why you brought me here...but please...I'll do anything 
if you help me with these dark beings who have followed me so long 
now. If you give me answers. Anything." He let out a shuddering sigh. 
He could do this. He was Denrai.

He knew what he had to do. Chirin climbed up onto the ledge, 
scrabbling up with his front feet and rolling up onto his side. He 
went to the nearby ledges within reach, looking and sniffing at all 
the spheres, now better lit by his bulb. He found a place that held 
enough room, and lowered his head. He shook his neck and shoulders.

The apricorn shell fell down around his ears and he pawed it off. He 
looked down at it a little sadly, and gave it a last lick. Tears 
blurred his eyes as he opened it and licked the little pink pebble 
inside. He closed it back up, took it in his mouth and placed the 
little piece of his soul on the ledge. 

He lay down at the foot of the rock and let himself sob.

"So, you're the one who came to help us."

Chirin snapped his head off his feet. He was looking up at two 
Quagsires, the big one he already knew well by sight and scent, and a 
smaller, older female. The female wore a necklace of small apricorns 
of all colors, plus one in her hands. Chirin thought of Chenja.

She placed the green apricorn in her hands next to his own.

"I..." Chirin's crying did not let him continue.

"I am Big-Moon-Mother of Moonhome," said the old one, who smelled 
like rain, Quagsire slime and wet apricorn shells. "Moon-Mother 
Lourdes. It is my mate I need you to help. The Moon marked you," she 
gestured to the apricorn, "and I see you have answered."

So it was Clef, all along, who'd been trying to tell him something? 
Clef, who so seldom spoke or lent a twitch of *denki* from her great 
pillar of rock in the night sky? 

"But...I..."

She smiled at Chirin. "You are very brave."
 
He wasn't brave. "I had to get swum here because I didn't want to 
go," he said. "I'm scared. What about my flock. They're all out 
there, they don't know where I am right now."

"The battle is over," said Lourdes. "Your flock will come to no harm. 
They do not have to stay any longer. Yes, I'm aware one almost 
drowned. But it won't happen again."

"How--how..."

"Those who have drowned are not ever dead and those who border on 
drowning, I and my mate can call back. Like the Moon sways the sea, 
we are the tides of Moonhome. Until our own souls descend into the 
deep."

Chirin lowered his head to her. "I need someone to tell them where I 
am...and they need to see me soon."

"They will see you, very soon. They have been brave too. And they 
should know you are all right. Burble," she said to the big male, "go 
to them, gather everyone in the meeting there and tell them 
everything."

"Yes, Moon-Mother," and Burble broke into the water. His big, 
powerful squat body undulated away out of the illumination of 
Chirin's light.

Chirin turned back to Lourdes.

"I know you and the moon called me to help you. But I'm also asking 
for help--terrible *burakos* is all around me and inside me too. 
There are spirits who won't leave me alone. And...just too much for 
me to remember right now. Every time I breathe, another thought of 
them gets born. Every time I breathe I give them air too. I think 
they're following my light."

"The light-folk are a beacon, and a beacon draws both bad and good. 
Beacons themselves can be of more colors than all the Round-Moon-
Things you see here in the Moonwall of Moon-Home-Middle. My mate was 
called by one such beacon and never quite came back."

"You want me...to help him?"

Lourdes nodded her head, blinking beady eyes from which hung drapes 
of baggy flesh. Chirin glanced behind him at the water, feeling like 
it had dragged him in again, over his head.

~

She spotted the big Quagsire leaping and falling in bounds across the 
water's surface, towards her and the others. Her stomach filled with 
Butterfree and her legs filled with Dittos. Chirin was not with him.

Her face was there in his face when he surfaced, right where she'd 
expected. "Where's Chirin!" 

"Now--before you get angry--"

"Too late for that! I repeat, where is he!"

"I came to tell you, and everyone, that Chirin is fine! He is waiting 
in Moon-Home-Middle. Everyone," he said more loudly, and the idle 
conversations among waiting blue crowd dwindled and died. "I call a 
meeting on behalf of Round-Moon-Mother Lourdes!"

Azalea ran right up the highest rock she could find. "In which Chirin 
will make an appearance?"

"No," said Burble, "not yet. But he is fine."

"I'm the type who requires direct visuals for reassurance, somehow."
 
~*~

The littlest wooper was the last one to get to her feet. "Get the 
Moon! Get the Moon!" she cried as the other two woopers retrieved it. 
Unable to see into the strange glowing globe beyond its moonlike 
light, they hoisted it back up onto their shoulders with the Abra 
upside down inside it.

Rudy sighed again. Either these creatures were really 
stupid or they had no idea he was inside.

                   " I guess I can cross out the ' they're here to help me' 
idea." he muttered sarcasticaly to himself.

                   Bending his thoughts bacvk upon himself, he tryed to 
remember what he knew about wooper. Fortunanetly he he hadn't forgotten that 
part of information. " Let's see, wooper are the unevolved form of.......quag 
something. They are rather obssessed with round objects for some reason. Or 
was that quagsire?" he pondered.

"Do you hear somebody talking?" said the bigger-sized wooper.

"You," said the little wooper.

"No, I mean someone else."

"It's the Moon talking!" said the middle wooper. "I heard it."

"I heard it too!" said the littlest wooper.

"It's the Moon talking!" said the middle wooper. "I heard it."

"I heard it too!" said the littlest wooper.

              They had noticed him Rudy gasped! Now what the psychic pokemon 
pondered. He couldn't just shut up. Figuring fate went to the bold he 
responded,

             " Where arst thine pokemon taking me." Rudy said trying to sound 
grand.

"Me?" said the littlest Wooper. "I don't know."

"He said 'our,' said the bigger wooper. "That means he was talking to 
me because I'm the biggest and you're my charges. We're taking you to 
Moonhom, Moon." 

"I thought you said this can't be the moon," said the middle wooper.


~*~

 Karama ahd givin up all hopes of finding Chirin this
way. She swam to shore, her eyes brimming with tears.

"Ah! There you are, thank goodness," said Azalea, pausing in her 
little debate to speak to the surfacing ewe. "Fret not...I'm going to 
get Chirin out if I have to jam the tail of each and every one of 
these Quagsires down their throats," she said sweetly.

She re-ascended the rock and resumed locking her stare with 
Burble's. "All right. Ahead with this little meeting of yours, and by 
the time it had rolled to its conclusion Chirin had better be right 
back here with us or I had better be in there with him."

She gave him, too, a sweet smile, trying to cover up her true 
feelings. "Either way. I'm flexible."

Burble gave her a nod and turned to address the whole crowd.

"One of the mareep has given himself over to the service of the Moon 
and to the healing of Big-Moon-Father Gonga."

Murmurs and nods of approval, well, burbled, up from the audience. A 
few of the woopers cheered and a couple Quagsires cried out something 
involving the Round Moon, Azalea couldn't quite make it out through 
the blood that rushed ringing to her ears.

"What?" she said, falling to her belly on the stone. "Ahh....what did 
you say?"

Burble looked straight at her. "Chirin the mareep has offered himself 
for deepest service to Big-Moon Gonga. The rest of you are free to 
go...and we are sorry to have brought you in here against your will."

"Against my will, my @$$! I'm not going anywhere till Chirin comes 
out with me! And I DON'T believe a word you've just said! I don't 
believe it!" 

She dived off the rock and landed with a cannonball splash. Her legs 
fought the water back upwards, hating the water, hating these lying  
Quagsires. "Chirin, ohh..."

Cleomie, Ivy and Selden just looked, dumbfounded and slack-jawed, at 
Burble.

Karama glared over at Burble. She marched up to him,
looking straight into his small, black eyes.
"If a word you say is true, I'll eat Koko," she
whispered to him. "I don't belive a word you say, I
bet you and... what ever you called her, have FORCED
him to do it!"
Karama gave one last glare at the quagsire before
turning round and walking over to the water, diving in
and darting under. She HAD to find Chirin...
somehow...

One of the quagsire dived in after Karama, pulling
her up to land.
"If you go down there alone, you shall drown!" he
said, worridly. He looked at the other quagsire. "This
one is stubborn, what do we do?"
Karama growled.

"It will not be easy for them to accept that their leader has made 
this decision," said Burble. "Some are bound to snap. Let them be for 
now, unless they attempt to harm us or themselves." He looked at 
Karama with worry.

"Chirin! Chirin!"

Azalea swam around crazily, half thinking Karama's apparent attempt 
to drown herself wasn't half bad. Just when she had begun to think he 
really thought she was special...

She hauled herself up onto the rocks again, spent, and cried before 
pulling herself together. She wouldn't get any closer to Chirin by 
losing all self-control.

"I demand to see him this instant!" she said, climbing up on her rock 
again. "By the Big Round Moon I demand to see him!"

"We cannot take you to where he will be going," said Burble, "but 
before he goes, he can visit you."

"VISIT?!" Azalea's body shook out a ream of sparks. "How long is he 
staying here?"

"A day, maybe, a year. However long it takes to heal poor Big-Moon 
Gonga. That is what he was chosen for. It is what he chose, himself, 
to do."

"Well...then...ah...two couldn't hurt, could it?" said Azalea. "Take 
me to him. I'll live here with him, I don't care. I've got nowhere to 
go from here! And I'm not the only one in need of our ram's company--
Look at him!" Her tail pointed to Selden. "I humbly and desperately 
beg you--please! I thirst to see him! Until I see him I'm going to 
imagine all manner of horrific fates that could have befallen him!" 

"He will need quiet and solitude alone with Big-Moon Gonga to heal 
him," said Burble, "but perhaps provisions can be made. Are you his 
mate?"

"Yes!"

"She is not!" said Cleomie, coming forward for the first time. Next 
to her, Ivy wore a similar look of disgust.

~

"I want the others to be able to visit me while I--try to heal him," 
said Chirin, wondering why this great, powerful Quagsire wanted a 
little mareep's help for anything. "They're my dear, dear friends, 
I'm a part of them like they're a part of me. And..." His stomach 
growled. "I'm kind of hungry."

"Food will be brought to you," said Lourdes. "And of cource you can 
see your friends." She smiled.

"Oh...thank you so much," he said. "I should see them now, they'll be 
so worried. I have to see that they're okay."

"When Burble is done with the meeting, he will bring you out to see 
them again," said Lourdes. "You may go out to eat, then when you are 
all reated and reassured, you will come back here alone to see Big-
Moon-Gonga. It is time you met the one you will heal."

Chirin's gaze wandered up and out over the multitude of spheres 
looking back at him like a thousand eyes. "What if I can't heal him?"

"We will worry about that when it comes. That won't be for a long 
time."

"Uh...okay." Chirin figured he would worry about that when the time 
came too. There would always be a way to escape if he failed in the 
end... But it was bad luck to think about that now, before he had 
even begun. He had helped to heal Azalea, hadn't he? Selden too. He 
wished Azalea could be here right now.

"I wish Azalea was here with me now," he said as they waited. "If I 
have to stay here at night can I sleep with her?"

"You may. You may stay with your whole little flock, provided they 
also choose to stay."

"Thank you. I like to sleep much more with someone to cuddle with. 
And it's so much safer to go on your dream-journies with other lights 
around." He looked out at the dark, unmarred water surface, and 
ducked down to lick his apricorn before remembering he had given it 
to Clef in the hopes that she would help him. 

"What--what happened to Big Moon Gonga?"

"Somewhere down River-deep there are many more water-places within 
the ground. Down one of these places, something took his soul and 
will not give it back."

"No," Chirin breathed, shining his light without thinking. His wool, 
beginning to dry after so long being wet, itched as he broke a minor 
sweat. He nipped at his shoulder. "Then I'll need to start preparing 
to call it back."

Lourdes gave a satisfied nod, as if realizing he knew more about this 
than she had assumed. She had made a good choice.

"I regret that we could not find an adult pharamp to do this," she 
said, "but there weren't any around, and adults would get away from 
us too easily."

"There...are denryuu flocks around here?" A pang of hope swelled in 
his chest.

"In winter they sometimes come down here, yes," she said, "but not 
now. They're probably still up in the mountains, far southwest of 
here."

Chirin realized she was talking about the mountains where his own 
flock had ranged. The dark still waters were poked by a single tear 
falling off his nose.


~

Burble had to smile at the antics of the mareep. "The word of Round-
Moon-Mother will be the final word on when you and Chirin can all 
meet again." He turned back to the audience, who had witnessed the 
talk between him and Azalea. Late-day, clouded light streamed in 
through the hole Koko had made up on the wall.

"I am going now to see Round-Moon Lourdes and then, we will begin the 
healing of Big-Moon!"

The quag-folk cheered, slapping and splashing in the water. Azalea 
watched with twitching ears and shaking legs as Burble swam away. 

Then she jumped in and swam after him. Why wait? He could take all 
day and all night. But Burble quickly outpaced her, and she 
hopelessly headed back to the ledge with the others, having reached, 
belatedly, a conclusion similar to Karama's.

~

"Are you from a flock near here?" said Lourdes. Chirin realized that 
he and his flock must look like a bunch of lost lamb-lights to her.

"Well...no," he said finally. Home--the home where he had been born-- 
was much further away than he had onve thought. But hadn't it taken 
him only a few days to get to Lake Eerie? Yes, the spirits of the 
flock must have swept him along very fast indeed, hurrying him away 
to safety, to avert the shadows that had caught them in a last gift 
to him. 

"My flock...well, we come from all different places, and each place 
has picked up many stories. Our light-paths crossed and that's why 
we're together now. We're trying to find a new home to stay in and 
get to know. We were traveling to get out of floody places when you--
your own flock found us."

"I see. Only forgive me for bringing you in like I did. I ordered it 
done when Burble and a few others told me there were mareep nearby. I 
was frightened and desperate. And when you meet what is left of my 
mate you will know why. It is not Gonga now in Gonga's body. Gonga is 
lost, and you must find him."

"I forgive you," he said, looking up into her sad old eyes. "And you 
know I'll help find him. It must be terrible to lose a mate. I know 
that if anything ever happened to Azalea, that I..."

He stopped. 

"You have a mate yourself?" said Lourdes.

"No...no, Azalea's a very close soul-friend. We each have a part of 
the other's soul." He said it softly, feeling funny discussing it. 

"You will see her again in no time. I would never want to cause any 
of you the pain I have been feeling. I am sorry that I ever thought 
evil of the light-folk. For there is...is..."

"Is a little spot of dark in every light, and in every shadow a 
twinkle." Chirin smiled.  "My mah-mah sang that to me once."

From behind them came splashing, sloshing sounds as Burble leaped in 
arcs through the water, entering the cavern's midst.

"They all await you," he called to Lourdes. "Lourdes, you take him."

"Yes," she said, scooping Chirin up with a strength he hadn't 
expected from her age. Unbeknownst to Chirin he was in the arms of a 
pokemon who, had they known about the level system used by human 
trainers, might have been considered over 150 (hey, it can happen in 
remote wilderness!). "It is time to get everyone together, assuage 
any doubts your flock may have, and make it all round-good. Into the 
water we go now," she said, and leaped into the water.

~

Helplessness, helplessness. It gnawed at her bones like weevils in 
her wool. Waiting here on this rock like Chirin would be served up, 
carried on the shoulders of Quagsires. 

"I swear I cannot withstand much more of this horrendous waiting."

"I want Chiriiiin," whined Selden's refrain, voicing Azalea's 
desperation for her.

Then...through the water on the opposite side of the vast pool from 
Koko's hole, from the mysterious place where Chirin had been carried 
off to...came a single Quagsire. She paddled calmly and gently, 
keeping steadily level on the surface.

And on her shoulders, clinging with his front feet, rode Chirin.

"Chirin!" screamed Azalea, leaping off her rock again in a dramatic 
dive that broke the surface with a leaping ring of splash. 

"Azalea," he called, slipping off of the elderly Quagsire and 
splashing his way over to her.

"La-de-da-de-da," Cleomie drawled from the ledge she and Ivy stood 
on, shelved apart from Karama, Selden and Green-eyes. The stocky 
ewe's eyes were on Chirin and Azalea, clumsily flapping their legs 
towards each other in wet-wooled ecstasy. "You know Ivy, I've been 
thinking," she said in a low voice as breathy squeals of 'Moon-light-
one!' erupted from the slimy blue masses. "I've been thinking I 
really, really, really hate that burned up piece of $#%&. It's way 
past time someone wiped the floor with her again," she said as Chirin 
and Azalea collided in a soggy hug.

"Chirin, I made a complete and utter idiot of myself groveling at the 
slime-coated feet of your captor for your release," she whispered as 
they clung to each other in the water, their tail lights illuminating 
the water around them and casting their bodies in shadow. She looked 
him in the eyes and smiled, "Don't ever do this again."

Chirin smiled back, a more beatific smile free of the dark of wryness 
and worry. "I think I made a bigger fool of myself, only to the 
ancient spirits instead."

"You and your spirits."

Chirin hugged her harder.

"Ow. So, ah...well, for goodness' sake, whilst I was tying my tail in 
knots out here what were you suffering at the flippers of these 
aquatic marauders?"

"They're not marauders. They just need a denryuu's help, and I think 
they didn't go about it right at first. Now they want to fix it. 
We're all free to go...I can only think our own guardian spirits 
would spark their anger if we were kept here out of Phos's light."

"We're all free? Well, then, let us hastily remove ourselves from  
containment within this, ah, geological oddity. Wait a moment."

She turned back around and clung to him again. "If I recall 
correctly, the large Quagsire stated that you have chosen, of your 
own volition, to undertake some sort of healing task which would 
require a continued stay. Please debunk this for us now."

"It's not what you think," he said as Azalea's eyes rolled 
crazily. "All I have to do is go with them to try to heal Big-Moon-
Gonga. And I can go outside to eat..."

"And what, pray tell, will occur if and when you fail to cure this 
Quagsire of his ailments?" said Azalea. 

"I don't know," said Chirin, feeling more than a little foolish. 

Azalea looked him over. "Where's your apricorn shell?"

Karama nearly screamed for joy at the sight of Chirin.
Karama fought the urge to leap onto him and nuzzle him
all over. Her limbs were quivering, begging Karama to
let them help her leap onto her little secret crush.
Tears of happiness quickly turned to a glare of anger
in Cleomie and Ivy's direction. She marched up to
them, and said in a whisper, "If you do not stop
saying all those mean things about Azeala, (for she is
really nice) then I will tell Chirin all about it (for
I cannot stand another moment of hearing you two
plotting awful things for Azeala)." Once finished
talking, she hardened her gaze and fought the urge to
give em' a good wetting and shocking (although the
electricity would harm her as well).

Cleomie glared across the ridge of rock separating them and spoke in 
the same low tone that she had not thought Karama could hear. "You 
want we can talk this over outside on the grass, later. Just you and 
me kid. I know you want to be Chirin's favorite ewe. But guess what--
with Azalea there it isn't going to happen and you don't know the 
half of what a spaz and a jerk Azalea is and how she is just walking 
Chirin through her little plans. You didn't get lucky enough to grow 
up with her. Right, Ivy?"

"Right."

* * *

"You're crazy," said Azalea. "You mean you simply--gave it to them?"

"The ancients spoke to me," he said. "Clef entered all around me and 
spoke to me, in the air, I knew the unowns were there, all the 
apricorns were there...It was what I had to do. They talked to me as 
clearly as you're talking to me now."

"I believe you," said Azalea. "There exist in this world things that 
my ears will never be open to regardless of how many words I learn 
and how sharply my ears perceive."

"I didn't hear them with my ears," said Chirin. "I felt them."

She licked his ear and it jolted her with a thrill. She separated 
from him. "I only wish I could feel them."

"You can. You just have to know how to listen. And you will."

Azalea was still licking his ear after they had climbed up onto the 
rock. Chirin mingled with all other 6 mareep, nuzzling them and 
needing no more than his movements and his shining light to reassure 
them that he was alive, happy, and they were all together again. 
Selden was bleating softly, rubbing against Chirin's woolly side. 

Lourdes's voice turned Chirin's gaze back out towards the cavern, 
where quak-folk watched from both in the water and on the 
rocks. "That's my new friend, Round-Moon-Mother Lourdes," said Chirin.

"...and all mareep, you are indeed free to leave this cavern, right 
out that hole made by the Onix, and graze outside--these are good 
lands for grazing--or go wherever you want. But know what one of you 
has chosen to do. Chirin the mareep ram, the Moon-Light-One, will be 
the one to heal our Big-Moon, which he has promised he will do," 
Lourdes was saying. "Tomorrow he will purge the evil ampharos who has 
taken his soul away and bring Big-Moon back! Praise Moon-light-one!" 
She gestured straight to Chirin.

"Moon-light-one! Moon-light-one!" said the quag-folk, swimming 
through the water like little undulating spears all towards Chirin, 
who gulped, shone his light, and rubbed one back foot against the 
other, remembering a way to avoid bringing on a jinx.

"My, what an undertaking," said Azalea in Chirin's ear, "but if 
there's anyone who was all but cut-and-dried for a job with such a 
description...it's you, my most, ah, apricorn-less friend. You have a 
way with the supernatural."

A cool breeze funneled through the Onix-made hole with the scent of 
late-season pollen, wet grass and the last breaths of the rainstorm. 
Chirin sucked it up in his nose and it filled his legs with desires 
to run between sky and ground. 

"I'll be going to eat now, but in the morninng I'll come back to this 
hole," he said to Lourdes. "Is the morning time good?"

"Yes," said Lourdes, and Chirin realized she trusted him to return on 
his word alone. He blinked his eyes free of tears and motioned to the 
others that he was going out.

Unable to contain himself, he ascended the rock in bounds, slipping a 
few times as loose stones rolled and shifted. He kicked clear of the 
last rocks and ran out into autumn's sigh. Bleating, bucking, jumping 
in the wet grass, he doubled back on his path and pranced about as 
Azalea came out to meet him.

"I suppose you're not going to make a run for it," said Azalea once 
they were out by the foot of the hill. 

"No...I know they were rough with what they did, but they want to 
make amends. They were wrong and have decided to ask rather than 
order. Lourdes--she's so full of pain. Clef called me here to do this 
and I'm going to do everything to try."

"I'm just concerned that, well, your efforts will prove 
insufficient," said Azalea.

"I'm scared too. But I want to try first. I gave Clef and my own 
ancestors my word on my light." He nibbled some grass, gave his coat 
a shake of gusto and stared up at the sky. The moon shifted in and 
out behind sheets of clouds that the wind pushed along, in a hurry 
heralding Haru's coming. Far away out beyond the pink-tinted 
southwest horizon, the great ram who brought fall was tossing his 
head, scraping the velvet from his antlers.

~*~

As the sun lowered under the horizon a brisk cool breeze  began blowing 
through. Off in the distence a murkow cawed.

               "We should probably get to "moonhome" quickly then. I'm 
probably fine but you never know what predetors could be after young ones 
like you." Inside of the buble Rudy shivered. And if a murkow realised there 
was a psychic pokemon inside he would be the one in trouble.

                " And perhaps it would be safer if we went under the water."

"No water to go under yet," said the oldest wooper. "And we're almost 
there. There's a river to cross, though."

"But he's right!" said the littlest wooper. "What if a Murkrow eats 
the Moon! That wouldn't be good."

"Look up," said the biggest wooper. Little Wooper looked up and saw 
the full moon.

"Oh! So you're the Moon's big brother?" said the little wooper as 
they reached the river.

~*~

"My, you're chipper tonight," said Azalea as Chirin capered around 
her, rearing up and pawing the air, his eye on the mottled, round 
yellow moon shining between the curtain clouds--Haru's moon. "You're 
obviously feeling better. A little fall air refreshes one I suppose, 
regardless of circumstances."

"My...weakness. It's not there anymore!" In fact, he now realized it 
had been gone already when he'd come out of Moon-home-middle. That 
proved even more that he had been right to give of his soul and place 
that apricorn to join the others in Clef's flock. "Clef helped return 
my strength. My soul is fully back inside me and I feel...so alive." 
Yes, he was nervous about tomorrow, but tonight he felt liberated and 
in touch with the crisp air riffling under his wool. He had made the 
right decision. Dropping down he had a roll in the wet grass, giving 
a growl of contentment. 

Azalea shook her smiling head at him. Chirin kept his eyes almost 
shut as he wriggled closer to her, then poked her up under her front 
leg. 

"Oh--!" She jumped, in a staccato attack of ticklishness. "My 
goodness, Chirin, didn't your mother teach you to behave?"

"My mama taught me to spread laughter like my light." Still lying on 
his back, Chirin tried to poke her again but she dodged him this 
time. 

"No-no-no. I LEARN from my mistakes!" She laughed, circling him for a 
chance to return the deed. 

A sudden faint scent of Ursarings sent him rolling back onto his feet.
"What?" said Azalea. Chirin's sniffing nose pointed him northward, 
towards Lake Eerie where the wayward wind had blown from. He realized 
he had bounded out of Moonhome without a single cautionary sniff. The 
Ursarings were likely too distant to reach around here...and if they 
were at the lake they might have that same magic that had seemed to 
make all Pokemon friends there, but all that he had been through had 
taught him to never trust an enemy.

"Well, luckily we have the Quagsires on our side," said Azalea, "and 
a refuge we can bolt to at the slightest possibility of trouble. It 
seems you were smart to make an ally of them after all."

One quagsire, old but younger than Lourdes, stood watching the other 
mareep while Chirin and Azalea had a playful wrestle and then broke 
apart, returning to the cautions that life in the open demanded of 
those whom others ate.

She made her way in particular to Karama. 

"Good evening," she said to the mareep who did not spark like the 
others.

Karama growled at Cleomie as she led her outside. Ivy
had walked off somewhere and it was now just she and
Cleomie. Karama rounded on the older mareep.
"Now, what the hell is so wrong with Azeala? She seems
quite nice, really. And Chirin likes her anyway,
Chirin would never trust anyone that he did not trust.
And to tell you, I was there before the flock split
up, I was hiding, biding my time until I knew I could
come in the flock. You can call me a freak for all I
care, and that sweet little Calima, guess what? She is
not something to mess with NOW! Even that stupid Willy
would not mess with her now! She is no longer a puny
nidoran! I saw this a while before I went along to see
if I could join the flock. Calima EVOLVED into a
nidorina! She was never evil, please tell Chirin
that... Or should I?" then remembering that she was to
snap at Cleomie, continued. "And, Chirin is a nice
ram. But I am not trying to be his favorite ewe. If he
likes Azeala, that is fine and dandy with me! Oi!
Dandy!" Karama, when finished, ran over to a sunflora
coming out of a bush. "Dandy! Remember me! Wow, you
was only a little sunkern when I saw you last!"
Dandy hugged Karama carefully, as she had thorns close
to her leaves. And her leaves were sharp!
"Oh... Karama, how great to see you!" Dandy said
happily. Her voice made it sound like she was singing
when she wasn't. It was pretty.

Karama turned away from Dandy and smiled at the
quagsire.
"Hi. I'm Karama, and this is Dandy. What might your
name be?" Karama asked.

"My name is Lolly," said the Quagsire. "I am the daughter of Big-Moon 
and Round-Moon. I came over to see you to make sure you were okay. I 
noticed you weren't sparking like the others and I was worried, 
maybe, that you were weakened by what we put you all through in 
Moonhome."

Cleomi waited until the quagsire was gone before lashing out.

"Who ever said anything about Calima? Who really cares about Calima--
who isn't exactly very sweet from what I remember? Who EVER said I 
was calling you a freak?" said Cleomie. "Why're you starting things 
out of nowhere? You know, I just want you to turn your @$$ around and 
graze. That's all. Graze. If I want to talk about Azalea, I will. 
Because maybe you were there to see all this other $#%& I don't know 
how you were zipping around to see, but you weren't there to see us 
growing up with her."

"That's enough!" Azalea was galloping over with Chirin coming up 
behind her. "What is this ruckus? Cleomie, I understand how difficult 
it must be for you to be going through the adjustment period to 
circumstances in which you must state all your insults directed at me 
behind my tail, rather than to my face as was once the case, and 
withhold all physical and emotional assault upon my being. However we 
all must travel down the path Chirin likes to call the light-path--
it's called the path of GROWING UP. I understand that forcing you to 
grow up is far beyond my means and I'm far out of my league even 
attempting to talk logical sense to you. So I'll close with a 
statement to the effect of, Please don't spark on dry grass. That's 
another saying, it translates to: don't create tension where the 
potential for tension is pre-existing. In other words--"

"In other words preach Chirin talk to me!" said Cleomie. "Why don't 
you just let him say it."

Chirin stood with his mouth open and his light flashing.

"Great Mother Megga, not again," he said, kneeling to the ground and 
wishing he had a place to go to like the mossy glade back home where 
they had laid berries, grass, roots as gifts to the spirits of trees, 
Mother Megga's oldest living children. "Please...we cannot fight. I 
hear dark clanging in your words when you bleat angry. We have to all 
be together as one light right now. Tomorrow I will be taking an 
important soul-journey and I need the flock to all be together so all 
our power can help together. I care for all of you... and I know it's 
been a hard day, but I'm so proud of all of you. Now is a time to eat 
and rest and enjoy the clearing air."

He nuzzled Azalea, wiping a tear off on her shoulder, then he nuzzled 
Karama, then Cleomie. 

He stood looking now at the Sunflora. He had never seen one out past 
sunset, which was when they closed their petals to sleep. They lived 
and breathed by Phos's light.

"Why hi." He waved his blinking tail and his ears wiggled. "You're a 
pretty flower. Staying up to watch Clef rise?" he said, indicating 
the harvest moon which had risen well above the horizon now. "She is 
blushing. That means Haru is running through the fields somewhere 
nearby. I'm Chirin. What's your name?"

Knowing sunfloras quickly weakened without Phos, as their souls had 
no defense against darkness except to flee their bodies, Chirin shone 
his light brighter, holding his tail high. He knew it wasn't Phos, 
but it might help, and it probably already had if she was still up 
and about now.

"I'm Dandy!" Dandy said happily, trying to hide her
thorns from view, as they made her different.

"Dandy, I like that name," said Chirin. "You have a beautiful voice, 
too." He sighed. "Isn't it...a very lively night? It's definitely a 
night with unseen lights shining and beings playing, I know I feel 
tham anyway, I feel Ledian stardust." After a sniff around, and 
smelling no enemies or anything, he flopped on his side and enjoyed 
another roll in the grass. With the apricorn off his neck, he felt 
freer and the string didn't pull tight on his skin when he rolled 
around... "mereepu..."

He stopped and perked his head up. "Are you okay?" he said to Dandy, 
who seemed tense and nervous. Perhaps the darkness was beginning to 
weaken her.

***

Karama glared at Cleomie and walked to the quagsire.
"I was not sparking, because, although I am a
mareep... I am weak against electricity. I mostly use
water attacks..." Karama said.

"Water attacks? How interesting. Then you are a mareep of the water?"

~*~

" I'm er...... ethreal like the moon." Rudy begun, now that he felt safer 
around the wooper he began to lie easier. " I seem to have lost some of my 
memory upon my landing so perhaps you could explain a little more to me about 
'moonhome.' I only wish to learn the things that I really should know Oh and 
are there any psychic pokemon around?" Inside the bubble Rudy smiled.

"Moonhome is where the Moon was born," said the biggest Wooper. "No--
I'm telling it, I'm the oldest. The Moon was born in Moonhome and 
stayed there when she was a baby. Then she flew up there in the sky, 
see, there she is up there. She left us woopers and quagsires to keep 
her home nice and neat, so when she gets old or tired or just gets 
homesick, she can come home and have company--"

"Ethereal! Ethereal!" shouted the littlest Wooper. "Is you and the 
Moon, psychic?"

~*~

"She's probably only feeling a little under the weather, or should I 
say, under the night," said Azalea. "Plant pokemon are not a subject 
on which I am particularly learned, but I do recall that some of them 
are particularly dependent upon solar energy."

"Yes." Chirin blinked in agreement, and walked his separate way from 
them, grazing his way over puddly ground to a small, closely knit 
stand of alders. It was time he began gathering up those things who 
would help him tomorrow. And, as he thought some more, maybe some 
other things too.

"I'm just going to start preparing for tomorrow," he said to 
Azalea. "I, uh...I need a little time alone. Just a little time. I'll 
be done soon and when I am, I'll come back out here."

"Ah, okay Chirin, I'll keep the nighttime vigil until your return," 
she said, and gave a wink. "I'll even leave some grass for you." 

Giggling, Chirin set off towards the grove, keeping outside of it. 
There were always beings within tree-shadows that the breezes failed 
to tell your nose of. 

"I will never stride into the darkness...My nose will follow the 
sky," he said to himself. It was just one of the things that the 
denryuu said before taking the first real step of a journey or other 
thing clouded by uncertainty. And if this was not a journey, he did 
not know what one was.

They had lost the berry-bags somewhere along the wet ordeal in 
Moonhome. The only berries growing around here were ordinary green 
ones, but that kind had helped to heal Selden once. He made a note of 
where the tree was so he could return straight away tomorrow and get 
some. He wondered if Lourdes and the others would bring this Gonga 
out to Phos's light, or Clef's as they seemed quite fond of her, or 
if he would have to go into Moonhome, down those tunnels or wherever. 
As the feelings about this healing ripened inside him, questions were 
sprouting all over the place.

A bit of Ootachi scat made him jump, but it was obviously several 
days old and after a careful check, he went into the edge of the 
alder grove.

Leaves crunched behind him.

"Reep!"

It was Lourdes. "I'm sorry to frighten you," she said. "I only came 
to see how you were."

"Very well," he said, nuzzling the wool on his shoulder down 
again. "It's a healthy night and the spirits are dancing."

"You are preparing?" 

"Yes," he said. "This won't be easy to do. Is...Where is Gonga?"

"He is staying in a cave deep in Moonhome. I would have brought him 
out, but he refuses to come out." Her voice cracked.

"Spirits of light preserve him," said Chirin. "So it's the shadows in 
him that want to keep him out of the light, is my guess. I can't know 
until I meet him."

"The moon is full tonight," said Lourdes, "and colored with fall 
leaves. Moonhome has greater powers tonight than most nights and 
tomorrow will be a good day for Gonga to recover, because the full 
moon strengthens us too."

"Moon...moonhome...Why's it called that?"

"Because in the first days, the Moon was born here on the world. She 
grew up deep in the very caverns we live in now before growing old 
enough to take flight on the wings of a great bird, who flew her up 
to the sky. She still rides upon that bird today. And we were brought 
here to keep her home a special and sacred place. And so we do, 
because one day the Moon will tire and have to come back here to rest 
and get her strength back. Legend says she will also come here to 
die."

"Wow. I never knew that." He couldn't remember any stories that had 
told of Clef and where she came from. "So you have an important job."

"That we do."

Chirin dug at the soggy ground thoughtfully, as he unearthed the 
healing roots of an herb. "So if this is the Moon's home...where did 
Gonga...go, where his soul got lost? Maybe Clef would know?"

"We don't know where," said Lourdes, "and neither does Clef, because 
I know, I already spoke to her. Gonga returned in body alone with a 
strange spirit inside him, burbling with odd songs and words. When 
you meet Gonga you will not meet the real Gonga. You will meet the 
one you must help us to drive out of him."

Chirin swallowed his cud.

"All we know is that my Gonga always loved to explore. He swam 
further than anyone else at Moonhome, exploring the Lanturn-lit 
caverns past River-deep. I know very little of them, as my place is 
here. But somewhere down one of them he met a pharamp, or the essence 
of one, and it clutched him and ripped out his soul."

Chirin shuddered and put his hooves to the nearest tree, trying to 
plead the powerful plant to placate any of his ancestors who might 
anger at such an accusation pointed at their kind. "How do you know 
it's a pharamp?" he said, feeling like he was treading into deeper 
water. "What--what are the signs? You say there were Lanturns there 
too, and our souls are almost the same as Lanturns."

Haru's cool-wind breath shook the half-naked alders; branches rubbed 
like bones. "It was a Denryuu. Because he was still clinging to his 
body when he first came back and told me these words in a struggling 
voice: 'The ampharos, the ampharos, he is raising cotton in my head.' 
Then nothing--I cold not get a word out of him. For one whole day and 
night, he was silent. Then the songs began. You will hear plenty of 
that tomorrow."

What if this soul...took him?

"I'm scared," he said.

"I feel terrible to have burdened you with this. I acted before I 
thought it through."

"I'm going to try," he said. He had survived so much already, so many 
living flesh-hunters, so many *burakos*. He tried to reassure himself 
that this was just one more. Suddenly he wanted strongly to make a 
form again. "I'll be okay."

Lourdes bent and stroked his woolly head and left the alders. Chirin 
watched her waddle away in the moonlight, back towards the dark hump 
of Moonhome. 

*Planted cotton in my head.* Chirin suddenly wished he hadn't made 
this promise. All the signs he'd felt tonight that had so far told 
him he had made a wise choice, seemed false and slight, not holding 
the weakest light to Lourdes' words. Why look for these berries, why 
dig up these roots? What could they do to fight a thing that had 
stolen the soul of someone of Lourdes' strength? He glared down at 
his dirty front feet, lowered his head and butted a nearby sapling. 
Shaking himself off, too scrambled inside to piece an apology 
together, he ran out past the alders. Somehow he had to make 
something shine out of this mess. Everything inside him and outside, 
even the swishing grass, seemed to remind him of all the power he 
lacked, but what power did he have? There must be something. Standing 
in a patch of wildflowers, he tried to sniff something out of the 
air, something to tell him where to begin.

Dandy yawned, and closed her petals and went to sleep,
no longer hiding her thorns from view.

***

"Yeah... I can still use electric attacks, but I only
use them when there is no other choice," Karama explained.

"When you have no other choice...why would that be?" said the 
quagsire.

* * *

Standing under a young pink apricorn tree, Chirin wondered why he had 
not thought of this before. Finding none in reach, he leaned on the 
slender trunk and wiggled it, but none fell.

That thing he had done the last time...why not try it again? He found 
one of the lowest apricorns, silhouetted black along with the leaves 
in the moonlight, and began to focus on the free *denki* floating in 
the air, of which a little always was. He focused on its flow and 
direction, caressing this essence of the unseen spirits. All 
invisibly, he "saw" the electricity take minute shapes with his ears 
and some strange instinct he had not known he had. Focusing further 
on that right around the berry, he gathered the electricity until a 
few sparks crackled over it. It danced against the dark, but the 
apricorn did not fall. He focused further, on the stem of the 
apricorn. His ears wiggled. Stepping from spot to spot of *denki*, he 
reached to where he could sense the electricity on the stem itself.

 Quickly learning the hang of it, he again gathered electricity. 
Smaller sparks erupted, barely a twitch of light. They were less 
powerful but better focused. Chirin again concentrated. A part of him 
had leaped out to stand on the stem high above him. It must be his 
soul. And now that part of him dived into the stem itself, and felt 
the latent electricity flowing in the frail, thin tube of plant-
flesh. The flesh was dried out, dying, preparing to drop its fruit as 
autumn struck it hard. Chirin felt bad for the thing. But the tree 
was alive and well, just getting ready to sleep. He was doing nothing 
more than he would have done by picking it with his mouth. 

"Electric thunder...electric thunder...shine on you, Crazy-Lights," 
he sang softly. He brought electricity into the stem's end where it 
connected with the apricorn. Losing his hold once, he tried again, 
creating a bundle of energy too small to see, scrambling it messily 
around and through that place where it would let go. When a tiny bit 
didn't work, he gathered a slightly larger amount. The apricorn fell.

Looking down at it, he paused, trying to remember why he had wanted 
it in the first place. Then he remembered. He split it open with a 
hard clench of his jaws and ate the fruit, taking care not to crack 
its shell. Stepping forward again in his mind he tried to gather up  
his thoughts on what lay before him tomorrow...how he would do 
it...where he would begin. But, even as he searched for a Spinarak or 
Caterpie's string, he could not shake the sensory feelings of what he 
had just done.

"That was an interesting thing you did," said Crazy Lights, sitting 
upon a wad of old string shot that clung to one of the alders' trunks 
and part of a limb, the site of where the animal had attacked 
something. "I've never seen anyone work so hard just to get an 
apricorn. Isn't the grass good enough?"

"No," said Chirin. "This is for Azalea. It's worth all the energy I 
must use. You know the more energy you give something the more alive 
it will become. Oh. Could you mind, uh...standing up? I need to get 
this thread."

"Why of course."

"Thank you, friend of my light."  Chirin began the awkward and sticky 
task of winding it into a compound string. He wouldn't get this 
finished tonight--he had to hide it away and work some more on it 
tomorrow...assuming he came through the healing all right. After 
securing the apricorn in the threads he hid it away among the alders, 
throwing a light cover of leaves over it. He rubbed his cheek and 
side against the trunks and branches nearby so he could find it 
better by scent.

He crept back out towards the edge of the tightly woven grove, 
looking out at the flock, in the company of some woopers and 
quagsires. Among the small spindly trees crickets chirped. But their 
song was thin and tired, a skeleton of the lush chorus of summer.

*For you, Azalea,* he whispered, just to hear how it sounded, but as 
he said it aloud he felt like he had just made something large, like 
a form...

A form. Yes, that was what he had to do. As he doubled back into the 
trees he knew it was a risk, but if he did it right that might help 
him immensely tomorrow. Forms had proven to him they had a power 
nothing else did. 

He began to seek out ingredients to use. Around here he didn't have 
to worry about finding a suitable rock!

* * *

"My how time flies, or so they say in the civilized world," said 
Azalea as she rested near the foot of Moonhome, made safe by the 
Quagsires' presence. She swallowed another wad of yesterday's grass. 
Many quag-folk stood up on Moonhome's steep rocky slopes, pointing to 
the moon, talking about the moon. It appeared that some sort of 
ceremony was taking place or soon would. "I am inclined to think that 
Chirin would not want to miss whatever rituals they have planned." 
She sauntered back over to Karama and the Quagsire talking to her.

"Good evening again. It appears that some manner of ceremony or 
celebration is imminent?"

"Yes. It is Moonwatch. The moon is full tonight. Tonight we each take 
a Round Thing, bring it down to the pond and throw it up for the Moon 
to catch its soul. The pond is just down the other side of Moonhome. 
We will not be doing it until the Moon rises higher."

"I see. How interesting."

~*~

As it was latter in the evning Rudy found that he could 
alter some of the bubble. He made is whitter and glowing, a magestic sight 
for the young wooper.

                      " I hope this makes it easier for you to see. Now where 
was I? Oh yes, the moon is sorta psychic......." With another adjustment the 
orb floated out off the little pokemon's hands, seeming more like the real 
moon. " Just lead the way."

"We're walking to the Moonwatch, the Moonwatch, the Moonwatch, we're 
walking to the Moonwatch..." sang the littlest wooper. 


* * *

Quiet, cold wind brushing on the back of his head whispered memories 
to him of last autumn and winter. The wind remembered. 

Chirin brought green berries to the rock he had chosen, situated some 
way away from Moonhome but close enough to be a part of its flock, 
and laid them down. He placed beside them small red ones which, 
although poisonous, made a deep purple-red color. He added to this 
some mud and a rock to scratch with, and he was ready to begin. 

The sky was sunk into deepest night's dark when he finished, and Clef 
had climbed higher, shining brighter. His front foot was sore from 
holding the rock so long. Stretching it out and wiggling it loose, he 
looked at what he had brought to life, and put a part of his essence 
in.

He and the Quagsire that stood for Gonga were in the middle and the 
evil spirit was coming out of his mouth. None of them had any dark 
spots inside them. Chirin had learned how dangerous that was to do. 
Again, over the top of them he had drawn Crazy Lights, and also a 
green apricorn. All around them were round lights. Those lights would 
surround the dark one. But in the circle of lights was a hole and 
that was so that the dark one would see a way out and dash away. 
Otherwise it might stay within Gonga, afraid to leave. 

He needed to ask Lourdes what Gonga looked like so he could make the 
likeness even better. Laying down his materials he strode out towards 
the flock, where something was definitely going on. Woopers and 
quagsires were congregating around Moonhome, many of them running in 
carrying apricorns or round rocks. "Azalea?" He flashed his tail as 
he cantered over to her.

"Ahh, Chirin, I was just on the precipice of slight concern over your 
whereabouts." Azalea nuzzled his nose. "Ah. Your nose is warm."

"Yours is cold," he said. He gave it a lick. 

"Ahh. Your tongue is even warmer." She flushed and suddenly her nose 
was plenty warm. "Ah, it appears that we have happened upon an 
extremely significant monthly occurrance, dictated by the lunar 
calendar. The Quagsires call it the Moonwatch."

"Really? What do they do?"

Azalea explained.

"We must all get something round," he said. "I know where apricorns 
are." 

* * *

"Woop! Woopa!" All three Woopers darted away as the orb floated up of 
its own volition. They re-clustered further away, then the biggest 
wooper crept back over.

"How...what..."

" Don't worry little one... What the???!" Rudy exclaimed as 
they passed out  of the trees and had a clear view of the Moonwatch 
gathering. All around the water pokemon were carring balls, aprikorns and 
spheres,  one must have gone on a long travel as it was carring  someones 
pokeball." This is moon watch I assume..." Rudy said scared by the creepyness 
of it all.

"Yeah... when I have to..." Karama said, curling up
and going to sleep. "G'night," she said to the
Quagsire.

"You mean you DON'T KNOW what the Moonwatch is?" said the littles 
wooper, no longer afraid. "I know. You were asleep, right?"

"No, he was too far away to see," said the middle wooper. "Yup, this 
is the Moonwatch. Come on, let's go! You can be our Round Thing!"

* * *

"Pink apricorns," said Azalea as she and Chirin pawed away the leaf 
litter. It would take to long for him to use his *denki* to make two 
fall like he had before. He picked the cleanest one he could and gave 
it to Azalea.

"Why thank you." She paused, looking it over. 

"Pink apricorns...pink apricorns..." He almost told her what giving 
one meant, and decided to save that for when he gave her hers 
tomorrow, along with several others for them to eat together. He knew 
she didn't know just by her lack of blushing. Was it fair, to give 
one to her now without telling her that it was a gift from one soul 
to the other, in a...well...love sort of way? He decided it wasn't 
really giving it to her, as long as he kept his thoughts along the 
beam of just helping her find one. Besides, these were destined for 
Clef so they didn't quite count. Still, he knew that he had led her 
here to these pink ones, rather than green ones that also grew on a 
tree among these same alders.

"Ah, Chirin, your cheeks have been overcome by an extremely charming 
facial flush," said Azalea. "Is this something to do with a 
significance behind pink-colored apricorns that I am heretofore 
unaware of?"

"Uh no," he said around an uncontrollable smile. He tucked his tail, 
which had begun to make that rich rich glow again, under him. "I 
mean, you'll find out."

"Ah...well, I'm certainly not the type who likes to spoil 
surprises..."

They broke eye contact, took up their apricorns in their mouths, and 
trotted, side by side, back out to Moonhome. 

"C'mon, tell me," she whispered around the apricorn, even though she 
was already rather certain that she knew. As they joined the woopers 
and Quagsires ascending the hill, her head began playing out the 
scenes of what he would do tomorrow.

"Look!" his young voice bleated and Azalea turned around on the rocky 
little trail to see a glowing globe moving of its own accord, 
following three proud woopers. "Oh Clef in the sky... what is it?"

Woopers jumped up and down, "Quag, quag, quag!" breathed the 
Quagsires. They cried out, pointing down from the ledges, several of 
them throwing their Round Things up at the Moon at the appearance of 
the great glowing globe. Chirin himself leaped in the air and 
said, "Oh Clef! You who made Denrai...who made Denrai...I see you, I 
feel you!"

He raced down the hillside, stubbing his feet on several rocks before 
running into the swishing wet grass towards the globe. He outpaced 
the crowd of quag-folk gathering around it, and only stopped to wait 
for Azalea, who stumbled and staggered her own desperate and clumsy 
way down.

"Ah..." Lourdes broke into the crowd. "Moon-thing, moon thing, 
blessed Moon!"

The three woopers clamored around it, shouting. "We found it! We 
found Moon's brother!"

It was a sign, a messenger of sorts, someone come tonight, converging 
on all the strange energies whizzing through Chirin and through 
evreyone here, riding on the altered rhythms and pulses of *denki*. 
Not knowing what his flock would have done, but feeling what his own 
soul pulled him to do, Chirin blared his light out from his tail in a 
strobe, a quick strobe that he'd never had the coordination and 
*denki* command to make before. He felt his flock near. Part of them 
was in this ball of Light. They said Clef had sent it and maybe she 
had, but maybe Phos had...or someone else. His mind sprinted back to 
the form he had just finished, still drying on the rock.

"Oh Light! Oh Beautiful Light!" He threw himself down sobbing.

"What an amazing phenomenon!" said Azalea. "I wonder what it's 
constructed of...or even if it is indeed a naturally occurance! Ball 
lightning--I recall something about ball lightning..."


              As the unknowing Quagsire threw objects at him the sphere begun 
to shrink. The vast ammounts of hits were obiously causing it's shields to 
fail. Rudy poured his energy into it combatinging the e blows of the objects. 
By the time the Quagsire were done Rudy was panting for breath silently 
hoping despretly that he wouldn't run out of power. " Thank you water 
children for your gifts...." Rudy spyed two mareep in the audience, one of 
whom was acting histaricly. They must be visitors. He guessed that wasn't 
that suprising. Rudy continued. " I am one of the things simalier to the 
moon, sent down by him to learn with you."

              Rudy became short of breath. He needed to rest. Hoping that 
this manuver would prove easier for mhim then just standing there he sped 
over to the Quag who seemed to be incharge.
" If you would not mind may I rest?"

Chirin stared, shaking violently, as the globe of light shrank and 
revealed a yellow and brown creature who walked on two legs, no 
larger than himself.

The light had become him, he was of Clef's Light like Denrai. "Denrai-
brother...Denrai-brother..."

Azalea huddled against the ram. "It's okay Chirin...or are you crying 
from joy?

He didn't know why he was crying. 

"Rest...of course!" said Lourdes. "You must forgive us, we did not 
know that the Moon would send some one to live among us! Come with 
us, you must mean to rest in Moonhome! An Onix came and created a 
hole just for you to enter! And Chirin...are you all right?"

The Onix had led him here...the hole...and now the light..."Yes, 
yes!" he said, standing up on jelly legs that wanted to both buckle 
and run. "It is beautiful, wonderful...I..." He stopped, his mouth 
still peeled open by ecstatic sobs, and he looked at the pokemon, 
which, unbeknownst to him, was a young Abra. "I am Chirin-chirin of 
the flock of Pharos, light-brother," he said. Questions tumbled over 
and over in his mind but he held them in for now, not wanting to 
displease him, or Clef or the spirits of Moonhome. One came out.

"What do you want us, to call you?"


" Rudy" he spoke clearly and calmly, not revealing the inner 
turmoil within.

Rudy. Rudy. Chirin let the word enter his head and take root. Out in 
the sudden wind that toyed with the wool on his head, he felt a 
*denki* like the sky had suddenly strung him up by ancient lightning. 

Well of course, he could only have been. He looked at the grass 
bowing at his feet, then back up at Rudy, just trying to figure out 
what it all meant. 

"Did you come--" he cleared his throat--"did you come to help 
me...us...with Gonga?"

He knelt down.

Lourdes and the other quag-folk watched. She smiled at the mareep 
who'd just spoken what she had hesitated to ask...she had seen abras 
before and was not altogether sure this one was what he said he was. 

Still, all the more interesting to hear what he had to say...

Azalea was eyeing Rudy too, waiting with a tad less ecstasy than 
Chirin.

Rudy looked around. So many of them seemed so full of hope. 
Only a few didn't seem totaly into his act. Those that did were stareing at 
him with bright eyes glowing.

                " If thee wish it to be done I shall do my highest, though it 
may take some time to prepare."

                " He'll do it, he'll do it!" The smallest wooper that had 
brought him there began shouting gleefully."

                A few of them held up aprikorns for him. " Er.. thank you but 
 In this form I believe some yams would be more.... er edible then balls. You 
wouldn't have any would you?"

Azalea blushed. "Ah...er."

"Yam...What is a yam?" said Lourdes. "I'm afraid we don't know what 
that is...but we have plenty of food here. Do you like fish? We have 
lots of fish. Burble, Toddle, Lolly, Frostine! Can you go fetch some 
berries?"

Four quagsires nodded and waddled their blubbery way off towards a 
group of bushes. 

"Then you'll help me? Oh, Denrai's bolt sent you!" He felt his own 
electricity connect invisibly with the air's, the swooping souls of 
light-folk gone raining their music through his wool. "Thank you..." 
Suddenly he knew what to do. "You say you're hungry? I gathered roots 
and berries earlier tonight, I will bring you a few of them! They 
were for Gonga when I help to heal him tomorrow, but there is easily 
enough for you too."

He dashed off with Pikachus in each of his four feet and sparks in 
his wake.

"So...ah, pardon me, but the yam--AH! I mean the Ram! Chirin's our 
close associate who often ah, gets the inclination, to, ah, being as 
circumstances of late have been extremely...ah...Be right back."

She took off after him. "Chirin, wait up!"

"Oh, glad you came!" said Chirin. "If you like you can help me bring 
some of these back."

"I only came to express my concern that Rudy may be possessed of 
unique talents, but I highly doubt that he was wired to us directly 
from a lunar source."

"Why...why not? Did you feel something--something not right about 
him?"

"Well, suffice it to say he uses the 'Thou' caste improperly and 
inconsistently. Then again, he claims to have been delivered here for 
the purpose of learning. Although archaic speech does not appear to 
be these Quagsires' area of expertise. I seriously doubt he intends 
any significant amount of harm, ah of course any harm would be 
significant... Just try not to worship him too obviously. It's 
extremely easy for anyone to take advantage of one in such a 
situation. Not to mention it may make him uncomfortable."

"Yes," said Chirin. "But...he came in a ball of light. A ball of 
light like Clef, like Phos, like our own tails."

* * *

"Mareep...they come and go so quickly," said Lourdes, and no sooner 
had she stopped to wait were they both rushing back with roots and 
berries in their mouths. 


"Wonderful," said Lourdes. "Come now, we have all changed our plans! 
The Moon has already given us a most strange and unique gift to help 
us. All of us shall take our Round Things into Moonhome. Each one of 
them will be given over to Gona and placed with him to help him heal."

"The others," said Azalea as the current of quagsires swept them 
gently along like the water they lived in. "Where are they? We've 
been separated."

"Oh, Mother Megga," Chirin felt horrible for having forgotten them. 
He backed his way loose from the crowd and bleated for them, sparking 
his tail while Azalea ran the other way and did the same. Chirin 
returned with Selden, who had reddened eyes and dried tears on his 
face again, while Azalea came with more or less all the ewes in tow--
if some more reluctantly than others.

"Oh well, if everyone else is going back in there," Cleomie mumbled 
to Ivy as she trailed the flock.

"Chirin," said Selden, "Where we go now?"

"Into Moonhome again, don't worry it'll be fine this time," said 
Chirin. Selden brushed against his right flank, Azalea his left as he 
followed meekly behind Rudy. Selden seemed much better--it appeared 
that as long as he was with Chirin, he was less afraid. 

Like a flock of stars following the moon, they all followed Lourdes 
in through the Onix hole. Chirin wondered where Koko had gone to. Was 
he watching among all these rocks? Was he one of them now? Perhaps he 
had found his home on this great hill. Light from tails glinted off 
the shiny bodies of nearby Quagsires and his nose filled with their 
smell, a slime like sweat. A chant rose from them now: "Praise the 
Moon, Praise the Moon!"  Chirin jumped in with his own bleating voice 
and Azalea did the same, if slightly less enthusiastically. She 
seemed happy, if worry still traced around her mouth. He realized 
watching her from the side of his vision as they all streamed through 
the main cavern along the rock ledges, that the worry must be mostly 
for him. 

Even with this Rudy sent by Light to aid them, would it really be 
enough?

Chirin could not help but notice the nervous glances on his left as 
they walked, from the Woopers and even a few Quagsires as they 
glanced at the red scars, still healing, that splattered along 
Azalea's left side. One of the little woopers even ducked away among 
its elders after one look at them, as if the scars were going to leap 
off Azalea and onto it. When they reached a room adjacent to the main 
cavern, swimming through the shallow water that flowed between big 
rock columns, they all began placing their apricorns down on rock 
ledges, similar to Moonhome. This place, like the others, smelled 
strongly of quag-folk and also, faintly, of Zubat. The nearly 
darkened room was kept lit only by a few more of those strange 
glowing stones, which cast their greeny glow through the water, into 
which several had been tossed. Chirin looked up at the high ceiling 
but saw nothing up there. Some Zubats had often roosted in the small 
outer cave under Pharos. 

A wooper stepped up to place his round stone on the same rock Azalea 
had chosen to, but backed away and chose another rock after glimpsing 
her scars. Chirin waited until she'd placed hers and stuck his down 
beside it. He wished he could heal her, but he already had, and how 
her body had survived such trauma, the spirits only knew. Why had 
they chosen to scar her with those bad times they had gone through, 
and leave him so far unscathed? Chirin rubbed one back foot against 
the other for safety. 

"Don't let it bother you," Azalea whispered to him. "I'm accustomed 
to it, and anyhow they *are* pretty ugly." She smiled.

"My moonfolk," said Lourdes from the far end of the room as she 
ascended a high rock. "The Moon is big, the Moon is round, the Moon 
is great. I would have Gonga come out to thank everyone, but Big-Moon 
is...he has not changed for the better since a few days ago." She 
paused. "But the Moon has sent new hope to us, with Chirin and Rudy 
who will be healing him tomorrow. Praise the Moon."

"Praise the Moon," they repeated, but it was lackluster compared to 
before. Had they been expecting Big-Moon to come out? They must miss 
their leader. Chirin remembered how the flock had not played any 
games or done much more than graze and sleep, for days after Chenja 
had gone to the other world. 

Silence followed as Lourdes stepped down from the rock, and he could 
tell she was near tears herself. Moonhome and the Quagsires felt 
bigger than ever to Chirin, and himself ever smaller.

Chirin parted company with Lourdes as the crowd dispersed. Most of 
the woopers and quagsires were swimming off all different ways, to 
their homes within the underwater caves, Chirin presumed. He told 
Lourdes that when he awoke tomorrow he would come running to Koko's 
hole, and Lourdes said, "I will be waiting."

"Phos's Light to you," he said giving her side a parting nuzzle. He 
and Azalea left out the hole, with Selden trailing behind. Often the 
lamb would pop in between them as they wandered out over the grass to 
have a last graze. Chirin also knew that after he had made sure 
everyone else was sleeping peacefully, he himself would have to 
prepare for the healing, both before and while he slept. He should 
probably talk to rudy about it too, now, he thought.

"Hullo," came a familiar voice near his ear. Chirin turned with a 
grass-fringed smile. 

"Hi Roxie," he said, bolting the mouthful down.  "Enjoying the night?"

"Yup I am. Are you really going to heal Big-Moon tomorrow? Wow."

"I will do my best," said Chirin. "And I will have help. All the 
spirits of Moonhome and a sending from Clef herself."

"Who's Clef?"

"She's the moon. That's the moon's name, Clef." He smiled at her 
expression.

"Really? I thought the Moon was called, Moon."

"Heh heh," said Azalea, climbing slowly up the hill as she 
grazed. "Chirin's had a colorful past and learned some things even 
*I* didn't know. Not that I'm a know-it-all, I have simply always 
considered myself a knowledgeable person in comparison with the bulk 
of my peers. Of course the greatest feat of knowledge I can possibly 
aspire to is learning a mere fraction of all the world has to offer. 
An excellent analogy would be a blade of grass in a field," said 
Azalea as Chirin followed her up the hill. "Because that's what we 
are, really--mere leaves in a forest. Grains of sand on a beach. Not 
that I myself have ever had the opportunity to experience firsthand 
what a beach is actually like. Nevertheless, I have included it in my 
rather exhaustive list of aspirations."

Azalea ascended the hillside and stopped at a fairly level area 
sporting a healthy patch of grass. She grazed some and then lay down 
to rest, waving her tail, "Come on up," and Chirin ran up to join 
her. As she lay down and he settled down against her, enjoying the 
touch for the moment, Selden followed and lay by his other side. 
Chirin briefly closed his eyes, letting his tail glow and his head 
spin with a warm wind.

"I was wondering, in fact," said Azalea, "where that yellow fellow 
went to. You and I might want to have a word with him, so as to 
discuss your plans to cure this Gonga of what sound like serious 
mental afflictions. I fervently hope he has some expertise in the 
area of psychotherapy, although he appears a little young to have a 
degree."

"What's a degree?"

"Something humans get when they're smart. I don't even think I'm 
supposed to know about it, having been raised on a farm and all." 

Chirin nodded. "You do know a lot of stuff."

"Thank you, although most of it's superfluous and holds little 
survival value. I keep my ears open, when my mouth isn't, and when 
you're around humans that does plenty. If you think I talk a lot you 
should hang around human beings for a time. There's a reason for the 
saying, easier said than done."

Chirin closed his eyes again, letting his mind drift as he chewed cud 
& enjoyed the warmth and closeness of his friends. He enjoyed it now 
because he wasn't sure what would happen tomorrow, what he would be 
up against. Soon he would get up, find Rudy and begin further 
preparing...but not yet. He took his mind off Gonga and let it drift 
freely.

Azalea stood up, leaving his side suddenly exposed to the cool 
air.  "You remain right there and rest, it's imperative that you 
receive plenty of sleep and time to prepare inwardly and meditate. 
I'll find Rudy for you. No, no, you stay right there. After all," she 
gently tapped the sleeping Selden's rising and falling side with her 
tail bulb, "we have to consider whom he's attached to."

"Right," said Chirin.

She climbed down the hill in search of the Abra. "Rudy? Ah, Rudy? 
Chirin and I believe it would be wise to discuss your plans for 
tackling this case tomorrow..."

Roxie watched that ewe's mouth rattle off huge words, as her own 
mouth hung wide. She didn't even try to keep up, and walked in her 
swaying gait up to the nook of grass. She sat on a rock and smiled at 
Chirin.

"So...she's your mate?"

"No, not yet."

"You are blushing. That means you want her to be your mate."

"Yes, it does."

Roxie blinked. Then she giggled. "Bye-bye Chirin."

"Bye, Phos's...light...to..."

But Roxie's feet touched from rock to rock down the hill, like 
bounding on stepping stnes, already out of the range of conversation. 
Chirin imagined Ledians, Clef's children, sprinking their stardust on 
her as her white tail flagged behind her.

"Azalea, Azalea," Roxie called when she reached the bottom. "Chirin 
loves you, Chirin loves you Azalea. Azalea? Oh...I'm sorry. You're 
not Azalea," she said as Cleomie turned around.

"Don't worry," said Cleomie. "I'll give her the message."

"Thank you." Roxie beamed. She was about to leave when Cleomie turned 
back around again.

"Hey, Roxie."

"Yes...?" She cocked one bony ear, her mouth small. 

"I got a question for you."

"Umm...okay." Roxie glanced around, wishing Fin was here.

"You know that river we crossed?"

"Oh," and she nodded, "The river! Yes! I know that river really good. 
It's River-High."

"Why's it called that?"

"Because it's high up, over the ground. It's fast and white. River-
Deep is way way way down underground. It's dark and black." Roxie 
shivered. Riverhigh, Riverdeep. Those are the twooo rivers!" She 
jumped up and down.

"Someone said something about River-high getting really quick as you 
go down. Where does that happen?"

"Oh, a way down. It's fast here too. But it gets even faster. I 
guess...I think it goes to the forest after a while, then it gets 
real fast there. It turns loud and white. I heard it once but I never 
went in it. It's too dangerous! I like to swim in the pond. I love 
the little fish in the pond too. Yummy!"

Cleomie's nose wrinkled slightly. "That river...where does it go to? 
Does it go far?"

"It goes way way away," said Roxie, straining to remember what scant 
information she knew of the Lands Beyond. "Those are the Lands 
Beyond. I never went there! Big-Moon went...but he's sick."

"If you fell into the quick part, would it carry you a way?"

"Oh, yes! It would carry you away forever. I don't know where. But 
it's bad! Cause...Tuku fell in! Tuku was a wooper bigger than me. He 
fell in and went way way away and he...and he never came back. Other 
woopers fell in too but not too many. The grownups keep us safe."

"Yeah. Thanks," said Cleomie.

"Now you know not to go in Right?" said Roxie. "I wouldn't want you 
mareep to fall in!"

"No, wouldn't want that," said Cleomie, nibbling on a bit of 
grass. "Anyway thanks."

Cleomie looked around for Ivy.

 Fin marched up to Roxie and slapped her with her tail.
"Why did you tell her that?" Fin hissed. "She might
get ideas... She hates Azeala, remember? And I think
Karama too... I hope you didn't mention the waterfall
that I saw, did you?"

Karama tossed and turned, still asleep, trying to get comfortable.

Roxie fell forward into the grass. She rolled, kicking, back onto her 
feet. She looked at Fin with her lip quivering. 

"What ideas...what are you TALKING about?! I was telling her about 
Riverhigh! You know how dangerous Riverhigh is! It's FULL of 
waterfalls! And you, And you, And you, HIT me!" She slapped Fin 
back. "You're not my best friend anymore!"

Roxie ran off crying. "Mommy! Mommeeee!"

Azalea, who had given up on her search for Rudy, found herself 
conveniently in the vicinity of the two quarreling woopers, just in 
time to see Roxie slap Fin and run off. Azalea reconsidered her 
initial plan to question them on Rudy's whereabouts.

"Ah...nevermind, I won't ask. Actually, scratch that. Is there 
trouble or are you simply in the throes of childhood angst?"

Chirin awoke from his brief nap, carefully nudging Selden awake. The 
lamb followed him without question to the form Chirin had made on the 
rock.

He carried the berries to the form and lay them down. Selden followed 
suit until all that he had gathered up was at the foot of the rock 
that now had a part of him on it. To the small pile of offerings he 
added a single sprig of the sweet-leaved pokenip. He had only seen 
one small plant and taking more than this would hurt it too much.

Chirin arrayed the offerings around and on the rock, then lay down, 
Selden laying down beside him. He closed his eyes and pulled the 
tangled webstrings of his mind loose, one by one.

Fin snarled at Roxie as she ran off, and then she
cursed. She was in a very bad mood. She marched under
a tree and watched Cleomie carfully. She would tell
Chirin if she was bad. She glared at her. She didn't
trust her. But... what if Azeala did something bad...?
Who could she trust! She sniffled and looked around at
the mareep. Was there a fiend somewhere in the flock?
Fin was so confused. Who could she trust, and who
could she not trust?

"All right then, don't answer me and use your freedom of choice and 
movement to instead vacate the premises," said Azalea. "Look at me, 
I'm talking to myself now. Well, along that vein, I often feel as if 
I'm talking to myself even in the company of some other people. It of 
course depends on whom they might be and the degree to which their 
eyes glaze over as I converse. Now, where is Rudy." She looked up the 
hill. "Come to think of it, where's Chirin? And Selden? I can assume 
they're within a few feet of each other as is usually the case."

She trotted off towards Karama, who grazed near a couple of the other 
mareep. Perhaps they would have seen a) Rudy, b) Chirin, and/or c) 
Selden.

"Of course, if I find a) I must subsequently hunt down b)...Ah, 
Karama. Good evening."

Pulsing, twitching, dull light...A warm orange glow within a thick 
veil. He explored the image in his mind, wondering who had sent it, 
what it was. It hearkened back to nights at home when he had woken in 
the deep of dark, that time of furthest sleep-journey when lights had 
all but dimmed to death. Young Chirin would nurse, or just lift his 
head and look around him. One early spring night, just before Phos 
had driven dark's haunt from the eastern peaks, he had seen the 
faint, faint, hide-and-seek glow of someone unborn and awake inside 
his aunt's body. It had been Neenu, born not long after, and killed 
not long after that by houndours, attracted to the lambing place as 
they always were in the spring. Houndours were crafty. They had 
separated them, dashing round the hill. Chirin had bleated, 
screaming, for Mah-mah...on the wrong side of the hill, until he 
finally had heard her scream back.

He kicked out and fell, landing awake.

"Chirin?" Selden yawned.

"I'm okay," he said, stretching his way up. The wrong side of the 
hill. 

"I'm going for a walk," he said. "On my dream-journey someone was 
telling me to explore the other side of the hill. Do you want to 
come?"

"Yes. If you come I come."

"Okay. But we have to watch out for enemies. Houndours will be out 
now, although I don't smell any."

The thought drew the hairs up on his spine as he sauntered around the 
hill, bit by bit, smelling leaves and stones and things as he passed, 
and absently rubbing his cheek against the rocks and bushes for 
another mareep somewhere to pick up and know he had been here.
 
Reaching the far side of the hill took longer than he had thought, 
but sniffing and casting his light about, he found the walk halfway 
there well worth it. He smelled the spicy herb that called back to 
mind the small strings of it hung and draped round the borders of the 
places his old flock had slept in. He didn't remember what it was 
called but it kept Houndooms away. 


His mah-mah must be telling him that a Houndoom was somehow involved--
with Gonga! He ate a bit of the grass, which emitted a mild fire in 
the mouth, to protect himself, then as Selden tried some he ripped 
off a few more blades with a twist of his head. Twinkling his tail he 
trotted back to the rock with the form. He spread the grass around 
and over it, tamping it gently on the soil to keep the breezes from 
playing their games with it.

"Mahh..." Selden whined as Chirin set back off around the hill, 
retracing his steps easily through the moonlit scrub. "My mouth is 
burny."

"Oh Selden," Chirin licked his ear. "You want to go back inside 
Moonhome? I know it's a long way..."

"No...Mahhhhh...."

"Oh, Phos and Watakko." Chirin looked desperately around. Something 
was catching in the moonlight beyond the shadows of trees standing 
sentry on the slope and around the base, shards of cold light 
shivering in the fall air. "Water. Come on," he said, "only let's be 
quick. We can get you a drink right down there." 

Contrary to his advice to be quick, Chirin crept very carefully, 
stopping and starting, towards the small floodpool laid out in the 
light of Clef. The shadows of the trees dappled them black and blue 
as they traveled along the trail. He felt ever smaller back here, 
away from the noises of the quagsires and his mareep friends, away 
from Azalea's sprightly chatter. 

Chirin reached the water first and circled it, sniffing and 
listening. All his senses sharpened, the spirits aiding him in the 
night. He swept his light over the water, throwing the beam through 
the surface, revealing only bobbing grass and shifting leaves 
underneath, drown victims of the storm. He wondered if it was even 
safe for Selden to drink in this place of the seething dead, but the 
lamb stuck his snout in before he could warn him.

He heard a noise. Or had that been the wind? It came from across the 
pool out in a swath of long grass. Something had splashed out there. 
Apparently there was another pool he could not see. He smelled 
around, but only caught the usual: nidoran, diglett, various plants, 
and of course Quagsire.

"This place is scary," he said as his ears twitched. But he had to 
reach the other side of the hill and he was almost there...

No. Mama would never tell him to go out in the dark, with a little 
lamb, to a place like this. The journey here had been to find the 
Houndoom-keep-away grass, and they had done so. Chirin licked the 
excess water off Selden's snout when the lamb finally came up, 
sniffing him over and glad he was okay.  "Feel better?" he 
said. "Let's go back." 

He gave the pale shivering grass past the pool a last glance, and the 
ghostlike stuff still swayed inside his head as they tramped back 
around towards the friendlier side of the hill. The dead were singing 
back there and he would not disturb them. 

The snare of sticky threads flecked with yellow leaves leaped around 
him, bundling his limbs and gagging him before he could scream. 
Selden shrieked and bounded away.

Chirin kicked at the ariados bag. He fought it. He shot his loudest 
spark, as the ground began to move under him, twigs and roots 
abrading his body as he was dragged away on his back. But it was not 
the ground moving. It was him, being dragged. Trees and rocks whizzed 
by, a receding audience as the threads pulled. He struggled to 
breathe through the knot of tacky filaments clinging to his snout in 
a messy spray. Painfully he turned his head to look in front of him. 
The fibers dug into his neck.

Nothing was there. No Ariados, no enemy...no threads.

Nothing was dragging him but air spirits. Hauling the yanking mareep 
out into the light of the harvest moon.

"Reep!" he tried to scream as his bound body approached the gentle 
waving ghost-grass. His tail flailed in front of him, tied to one of 
his restrained hind legs. The unseen enemy dragged him in as he 
flopped like a fish on a hook.

The rubbing of the dry grass blades formed words, issuing from a 
voice box of wind. *I'm sorry.*

Rudy yawned. He had been able to get away from all of those 
water pokemon and found a small cave in the cavern to rest in. The entrence 
was two feet high so he fit in easily, though other pokemon would have a 
problem. It was big inside yet it made an abra feel mcomfy. From a far a drop 
of water felol. Rudy listened to it relaxed.

                  " Hello?" came the quick nervous voice of a small wooper. " 
I brought you a yam.... Are you really going to heal Gonga!?"

                  " Thank you!" said Rudy as he ran over to eat it. It tasted 
so delicous in his mouth.." Yes, but it would help if you told me what his 
problem was."

"An ampharos from somewhere took him away and put a crazy thing in 
his place," said the wooper. "It's oh, so, baaad."

* * *

Up above him the moon glared down, trees passed on the sides of his 
vision. Cold penetrated to the skin on Chirin's raw back as the air 
spirit thing tugged him into the mud, rubbing his wool the wrong way. 
Chirin tried to slash it away with his lightning. His *denki* met 
only air. Beyond the "Mmmm, Mmmm!" squeezing out of his gagged mouth 
his lightning was the only noise he could make.

The threads pulled him with a splash into the water. Chirin sucked in 
a breath, unable to gulp air fast enough through the threads. The 
unseen hands dragged him in, further scraping his back and rump. His 
body screamed pain at the abuse. Who was this and why was it hurting 
him?

His back and bum slid up onto slithery, wet grass as it yanked him up 
on the other side of the shallow pool. The dragging abraded the 
threads and they began to snap. Pushing out with his back feet, 
driven by adrenaline, he snapped mostly free. His front feet sprawled 
in front of his face as tried to turn over, grab ground with his feet 
and break away...

It didn't matter. It was not the threads dragging him anymore. It was 
something else.

The bushes rustled, the grass shivered, a moving, observant audience 
watching the spirits drag Chirin in a line dead straight with known 
purpose. A cold, wet, misty muscle clamped around his jaws, locking 
them shut.

"Mmm!...Mmm!..."

* * *

"He's Where?" Azalea tucked her head down, trying to regain 
eyecontact with the terrified lamb. 

"Back...in the bad place..." Selden seemed to be pointing with his 
tail, but she couldn't tell for sure.

"Well, if he's in trouble, there's no time to waste! Please lead me 
to him in the bad place, immediately, there's a good buddy! Oh--wait, 
I imagine we could use the assistance of some quagsires! 
Ah...Quagsires!" she called. "Chirin's in some sort of dire straits!"

Most of the Quagsires and woopers were gone now, but some remained. 
It seemed they had slightly more nocturnal habits than mareep. 

"What? Chirin?" Through the grass came the bounding blubbery form of 
Burble. "Where is he? What happened to him?"

Azalea saw the panic over his face as he approached and wondered if 
it was genuine care or just concern that the Moon-light-one wouldn't 
be around to do his job tomorrow. Motives didn't matter now. 

* * *

"Mmm! Mmm!" Chirin lay kicking on a patch of ground, bald except for 
a thin carpet of debris. A pebble dug into his abraded back. *Who are 
you? Who are you?* he asked in his mind as he kicked. Around him the 
air shivered with unseen electricity.

Above his head, alder branches moved in the wind, still dressed in 
leaves but soon to be blown bare by the air. Two branches moved 
differently fromthe rest. As the wind stilled, they kept moving, 
motioning stiffly back and forth, rubbing against each other. 
Something wove the sound they made into words as Chirin tossed his 
thread-wrapped head. 

*I'm sorry.*

Chirin tried to get a hold of himself, to stop sobbing and stop 
struggling. Gravity multiplied a hundredfold held him down like a 
Snorlax on top of him. *Who are you?*

The thing did not answer. Around him the air lay still and peaceful. 
The crickets still chirped. Somewhere far away a Murkrow cawed. 
Chirin lay beneath the tree in a half-tied heap, a thing of wool and 
threads and dead leaves, breathing fast and hearing his heart in his 
head.

*Please...if you won't tell me who you are, please let me go. I don't 
want to die.* "I don't want to die!" He screamed the muffled words 
through the clinging white bonds. 

The branched twitched, almost like living hands as his ears again 
sensed quietly flowing rivers of electricity. 

*I'm sorry,* rubbed the rustling leaves and scraping twigs.

Hot tears oozed out his eyes like sap. He kicked again, barely able 
to move, so hard did the thing have him pinned. Laid out prone to the 
sky and trees' ministrations, pressed so hard even the grass in his 
belly hung like stone, he knew he was where it wanted him to be. 

The finger of his electric sense, the thing he had used to get the 
apricorn only earlier in the evening, fumbled blindly for the strange 
current, riddled by the shaking of fear.

His body jumped, smacking down as if on the end of a whipping willow 
switch. A jolt ran through the force holding him. The back of 
Chirin's head hit the ground hard, and only his tough skull prevented 
more than a quick ding of pain. When another did not follow he 
realized that the shudder had been involuntary. He again fumbled for 
a grip, *denki* grabbing *denki* in the air above him. He missed 
again as moonlight played a ghastly peekaboo through the scissoring 
branches. 

*I'm sorry,* said the trembling leaves as Chirin's strange electric 
sense struggled. It was like trying to grasp a diglett between his 
hooves.

One of his grasps snagged on it, and he rode the thread-thin current 
with his own *denki*, invisible to his eyes but dancing before his 
ears and his mind. 

It flipped on him, twisting. It went from him grabbing it, to it 
grabbing him. chirin tried to yank out and break the connection but 
it had him by yet another string.

Karama stopped grazing and looked at Azeala.
"Hello Azeala. Wassup?" Karama asked.

***

Fin fell asleep.

"Chirin's in trouble!" said Azalea. Looking around, she gave an 
exasperated sigh. "Confound it! Selden, stay here, I'm going back 
there and taking whoever'll come with me. We'll find Chirin and bring 
him right back here. Burble?"

"I already made it clear I'm coming," said Burble as Azalea took off 
at a trot, "although I don't know that enemies usually go back there--
not big enemies. Sneasels do come around there at night though." 

"Time's a-wasting!" said Azalea, picking up speed. She'd run down 
every Sneasel she saw that got in her way.

* * *

"MMMMM!" Worms of darkness poked and wriggled through Chirin's wool. 
He squirmed and tried to shake out the crawling fingers. Invisible, 
they nonetheless lifted up his wool and felt his skin, occasionally 
stinging. What realm was he in? Was he beyond? 

The being was trying to get inside him. "Mm! Mm! Mm!"

Chirin tried to pull his own *denki* free but the thing had him by 
that strange electric sense that was rooted inside of his soul. It 
was like something controlled his own eyes and ears, only worse. 
Chirin tried to rip it free but only made the burrs that held him 
burrow deeper in.

Something like a thorn or quill pricked him on the head. He yelped. 
As the thing pressed inwards, the headache began to mount.

*Relax...* said the branches. *Relax and it will be over soon. It 
will not hurt...*

*No! No!* Chirin screamed harder, his own voice still barely escaping 
his gag as theheadache mounted and the hair-thin spike pushed deeper. 
It thrust, then paused, thrust deeper, then paused, as if resting. 
Tears swam down the sides of his face as he tried to yank away. His 
tail flashed, his legs kicked, but the enemy was inside him now. 
There was nothing to strike out at. 

His stomach heaved as the pin of electricity drove itself deeper, 
picking its way into the structure of his skull.

As the pin paused again he swallowed back a wad of cud. He used his 
strang electric sense. Whatever it was was using the same thing to 
get him, so he had to use it back. He let the connection it has 
grabbed from him break and drift off, and began edging out on a new 
one, straight into where it had invaded his own head. Swimming above 
the surface of his pain, he latched onto its manipulating antenna, 
attacking where it poked at the bone towards his brain. 

*Phos don't let me lost my light. Crazy Light...oh Crazy Lights...*

The invader locked down and he lashed out around it, running a spark 
of energy through both his connection and the attacker's. As a strong 
whiff of urine and droppings flushed up his nose he used his own 
electric probe like a tiny, tiny *denki*. Holding the other one tight 
within the vast living network of his own scalp, he channeled a 
slightly stronger spark through both connections.

The air rushed at him from four directions. Chirin's body propelled 
upwards and smacked a tree trunk. Pain slammed along his spine and he 
realized his head pain was gone. Nothing was there; it was as if he 
had never been attacked.

The strong smell of waste told him he'd messed himself. He kicked and 
lay on his side, breathing hard. The threads had come loose and hung 
from his snout. Chirin lay still another moment and with a sudden 
*denki* boom he whipped his tail back, and ran up onto his feet, 
kicking and bucking and screaming. He dashed from the spot, tearing 
headlong towards Moonhome. On and on he ran, his leg and belly wet 
with urine and his wool drenched with sweat. 

"Azalea! Selden!"

"Chirin!"

Azalea's distant call told him how far he had been dragged.
"I'm coming! I'm coming! Oh, Azalea!"

"CHIRIN!" Karama yelled, running over to him, trying
to think of something to do, quickly! "Oh, oh, oh..."
Karama mumbled, picking up one foot, putting in down,
and picking up the other one, rapidly, as she normally
did when nerveous.

Chirin splashed through the floodpuddles, legs pumping towards Azalea 
and, he saw, Selden running behind her along with others. He and 
Azalea collided fluffily and he buried his muzzle in her woolly neck.

"Chirin...oh don't cry...oh Chirin." She rocked against him as they 
nuzzled. "Oh you're alive."

Chirin sobbed for an answer.

"You--your face, it's all sweaty..." He reeked with sweat and worse 
things. "I heard your lightning strokes. What the hell happened to 
you? I was scared half to death."

"I...guess the same thing happened to me."

"What?"

"Oh Azalea..." He pulled away from her at last. "This place is 
cursed. There's a dark being here. Let's get back to Moonhome quick, 
come on."

He trotted ahead, feeling the scrapes and bruises on his back and a 
lingering squeezy sensation around his snout, perhaps a last residue 
of the dark spirit. His head was free of pain, but his body sharply 
remembered the piercing and the violations. The thing was not dead or 
gone. 

Azalea raced up abreast of him, tripping lightly on a root but 
catching herself. She shook him off when he tried to help her get 
steady again.

"I'm fine. What happened."

"A dark spirit tried to possess me."

"In what way? What exactly happened?" He had told her these kinds of 
things before and they ran the gamut. "Selden said a forest thing 
grabbed you."

"It--was Ariados thread, it was possessed too. It came around me and 
wrapped me in a shell and dragged me...Let's get back to Moonhome 
first, I don't want it to hear me talking about it."

"Agreed. And let's get you cleaned up, buddy. Oh, no...don't cry 
again, it's going to be all right..."

Selden whimpered and whined as he ran along on Chirin's other side, 
struggling to keep up.

Chirin nuzzled Karama as she fell into pace with them. "I'm okay 
now," he said, about as un-okay as he could be. He withheld saying 
more, it would only get him crying again and he was still numb. No 
words were coming to him, no songs. The dark on had frightened out 
all the good singing wind spirits that had always lived all around 
him.

"Let's take shelter within the safety of that large lobby area of 
Moonhome, where you can also tend to your hygiene as you inform me 
fully of what occurred in the forest," said Azalea as they neared the 
fields by the great hill. Few quag-folk were still out, but Burble 
was one of them. As he ran towards them Chirin could tell right away 
he was already aware that something had happened.

"Chirin," he said, panting as Quagsires weren't good for running 
quickly or for a very long time. "Are you all right?"

Chirin started to blink his tail yes.

"Chirin appears to have suffered an uncanny trauma out yonder," said 
Azalea. 

"It--a dark thing's out there, you have to warn Lourdes and 
everyone," Chirin gulped, gaining his voice again. "It tried to--poke 
into my brain."

Cleomie, attracted by the commotion, neared the edge of the group. 
Unfortunately both Azalea and Karama were there. She wasn't sure 
which one she hated more at this point. Poke his brains out? Cleomie 
rolled her eyes. What next.

Ew...he smelled like he'd soiled himself. Well, it sure wouldn't be 
the first time he'd gone into spasms because of some little spooky 
noise in the woods or something.

"What happened?" she dared to ask.

"We're all going to review the incident inside," said Azalea, 
following Chirin into Moonhome. "I believe it would be in everyone's 
best interest to join the discussion."

The first thing Chirin did inside Moonhome was dive into the quiet 
cavern, escaping the smells of the forest, the mud, his urine and his 
sweat. He dove under and thrust his head up, shaking it. There was 
something about a sudden dive into cold water to jolt your soul back 
into your senses.

~

Roxie sat on a rock outside her camily's cave in Moonhome, crying. 
Her feet dangled in the still water. Why had Fin turned on her? Why 
had she hit her? Roxie felt like all the good things that had 
happened all day and night were all washed away, the moment Fin had 
hit her and yelled at her.

 Fin got up and went over to Roxie and sat down,
staring at her feet.
"Roxie... I... uh... Mea moocho sorrya... Whata???!!!
Mea no canna useeea noormalla luaguage no mora!!!
Eeek!" Fin said, jumping up.

"Hmph," said Roxie. "Okay, so it's back to the weirdo ancient 
language. Maybe the Moon punished you because you were mean to me. 
You hit me." She sighed. "But it's okay. I forgive you. You know, you 
sound a little bit like a Cubone. It's kinda funny." She 
giggled. "Friends?"

~

Azalea helped him back up onto the ledge, ignoring his protests that 
he was fine to do it himself. "Ah, you smell a hundred percent better 
and look a hundred percent wetter." She winked. "Apology. Only trying 
to lighten the atmosphere."

Chirin nestled against her and licked her ear, feeling like the 
ancestors had indeed kissed him with their generosity, that he was 
back here, safe and surrounded by his friends. 

"Now, I am fairly certain an enemy pokemon was involved in this 
attack," said Azalea, "although I am certainly not venturing back 
there tonight to inspect the area."

"No living enemy," said Chirin, shivering and showering sparks 
against her warmth. "It was a spirit. I think it was a spirit... 
under the ground. It held me down like it was trying to pull me right 
through the dirt..." He spasmed in a wriggle of chills. "Through the 
dirt...and the branches rubbed 'I'm sorry.' They kept saying that, 
they kept saying they were sorry."

Azalea considered this. "You know... I'm tempted to believe that a 
mareep's innate fears of darkness and close forest combined to 
compound and exaggerate your horrendous experience. But not after 
Calima and her little friends put us through the wringer. As I've 
stated before I've been converted to a firm believer in supernatural 
phenomena--not without a cap on probability, of course. And you 
escaped this, how?"

Chirin explained about the thing he had done, the battle he had 
fought in a hair's breadth of space. "It was the same thing I did 
with the berries with you that day...only it was...littler, this 
time. More focused. It--tried to bore into my head. It hurt so 
terribly I lost all control of myself." He looked down.

Azalea's tail patted his. "Trust me, if it had happened to myself I 
would have been no different, probably worse. Perhaps what you and 
this thing were using was a form of the natural ability of many 
Pokemon, often referred to as 'Focus Energy'?" Azalea nudged 
him. "Although I'm doubtful of its cranial probing capabilities."

Chirin shook his head. "I don't know. The Denryuu do not learn that, 
and i don't even really know what it is. And my *denki* was not tired 
afterwards."

"Quite a good point there," said Azalea. "I'm afraid I have no 
explanation. Burble? You've inhabited this region for some time more 
than we have. Perhaps you could, ah, lend us any knowledge or advice 
on this?"

Burble had listened to Chirin's fearful recounting of the apparent 
fight for his life with his beady eyes fixed on the sheep, clinging 
on his every word. "I have never heard of anything like this 
happening anywhere at all, much less so close to Moonhome. The 
forests all around us are Moon-blessed. Lourdes must hear of this. 
You, all stay here and I will go tell her at once."

Burble dived and swam out of sight.

Chirin watched him go, certain that even now he still had one hoof in 
the other realm. The trip back here from the forest felt the same--
Chirin must have run through a dream to get back here. He was not 
awake now--he was in the other world and so were all of them. 

Was he dead? 

"Chirin, you're sparking up the wazoo...are you being accosted by 
anything at the moment? I'm serious."

"No...no."

It didn't seem quite like a dream, somehow. Maybe he was half here, 
half there. Inwardly, all was confusion and chaos. The dark thing had 
stirred murky mud up to cloud the calm waters inside him. Nothing was 
as clear. He yawned; he wanted to go to sleep, but feared it. He knew 
he could not. And what of healing Gonga tomorrow?

"Chirin," said Azalea in a low voice, "where do you stand on the 
issue of re-embarking on our journey tomorrow morning? Just between 
you and me, I think these Quagsires are concealing something rather, 
ah, potentially hazardous to both our mental and physical health."

Chirin shifted his head back to look at her straight on. "They didn't 
do that...back there. That was a something...it may have even been 
Burakuru. I don't--I don't know who else it could be. It--maybe a 
strong one of her dark flock. When Phos is away, they come out." 

Azalea nearly questioned him on who Burakuru was, but looking at his 
weary face and still smelling the sweaty fear-scent all through his 
bedraggled wool, she just gave him a warm close cuddle, which he 
returned.

"Anyway...I promised to try to heal Gonga." He remembered Lourdes' 
sad eyes. "I want to at least try."

"I'm simply extremely concerned that you may not survive the 
encounter."

He wished she hadn't said it even though he felt the same way. His 
mind, reawakening, was beginning to churn with all that he must do--
run his light around the rock he had place the form on, make another 
offering, hang more houndsbane grass over the stones. Sing the songs 
keeping Burakuru at bay. But what would it do? All his precautions 
had not shut out the dark that had grabbed him the moment he had 
stepped into where they had been waiting. He was sure it had been 
waiting for him. 

Chirin cried into Azalea's wool for yet another time, but his sobs 
were limp, tired. He feared what the dream world had waiting for him.

Burble came swimming back, with Lourdes. Her eyes were already on 
Chirin as she surfaced right before the mareep. 

Chirin heard a barely audible growl grinding deep in Azalea's throat, 
but the ewe betrayed no other sign of distrust other than a couple of 
sparks kicking out around her legs.

"Burble has told me what happened to you," said Lourdes. "You must 
describe for me where you were...held down."

Chirin told her what he could remember, seeing a fearful look flick 
over her time-worn face.

"That's the place Gonga would be underneath, within his cave," she 
said in a small voice.

Chirin's face locked in a stare. "Oh, Azalea..."

Azalea licked his ear again. "It's going to be okay. We're gettig out 
of here."

She stood up. "I'm afraid our little raw deal had just been annulled. 
We will be leaving NOW. Come on, Chirin, everyone else?" She raised 
her scant brows.

"You misunderstand," said Lourdes sadly. "Gonga is sick, but never 
did I know that he was capable of this. Nor do I even know why he 
would lash out. It may be the anger he has for the Denryuu folk 
now...but at the least it was a response from him."

"A RESPONSE?" Azalea's hooved clicked on the rock as she literally 
jumped in the air. "Chirin almost DIED!"

Chirin let his breath shiver in and shiver out in the silence that 
followed. A wad of cud was there in his mouth so he chewed it. 

"All apologies," said Lourdes. "I had no idea how serious this is or 
what Gonga is now capable of. I only wish you had got to know him 
before...he was the happiest, kindest leader with me here at 
Moonhome. How he even knew you were up there in the forest above 
him...I must go see him. And no, if Gonga indeed harmed you, and I am 
certain he did after what you said, then you are no longer charged to 
heal him. It may be he is shutting out all the Denryuu now. I will 
not risk bringing you into his chamber. You are young, and already 
what we have done to you is not right. My humblest apologies." A tear 
rolled down her slime-slicked face.

"It...it's okay, don't cry," said Chirin, still a little dizzy with 
his shock. "Spirits of trouble, spirits of shadow, make us step off 
our light-path sometimes. Azalea, you're right, thank you for helping 
out while I was...recovering. My soul is still tired."

"The rest of you is probably exhausted too," said Azalea. "We ought 
to abandon this area now, much as I'm reluctant to travel at night 
when we are already below full strength due to lack of rest."

"Only, one more thing," said Chirin, finally getting up. The raw skin 
on his back hurt to flex it; it had been mildly burned by the 
friction. "If I ever find anyone who might be able to help Gonga, 
then I'll tell them and maybe they can come here to Moonhome. Someone 
with great power against evil spirits, someone the dark flinches 
from. I would tell my flock...but they are beyond now."

"I'm so sorry," said Lourdes. "Only...if you are going to leave, and 
I think it may be best if you were assaulted in the woods--it 
certainly appears as if you were," she nodded to his well-rubbed 
back, where the wool was still mussed and broken. "Know we are always 
your friends, and that you can always come back here if you ever need 
help. Please allow Burble to accompany you to a safe place for the 
night."

"That would be wonderful," said Chirin. 

"And..." Lourdes held up her hand. Only now did he see it held his 
apricorn. "Please take this. I couldn't bear for you to let something 
that is so obviously a part of you to stay away from you."

His old apricorn shell! It longed to be worn and licked by him. But a 
gift to the spirits...He watched the little green shell swing back 
and forth, wanting it around his neck again. It wanted to be back 
there too, he could tell. He could almost hear the pebble peeping for 
him.

Chirin's tail drooped to the floor. "I can't take it back. I gave it 
to Clef. Who knows, it may have been Clef who helped me escape back 
there. And I think it helped Moonhome to get to know me. If I can't 
heal Gonga like I promised, that should at least stay here. For now," 
he added, for Lourdes looked about to insist again. "When I come back 
someday, maybe I can heal Gonga when I'm stronger. Then I will take 
the apricorn back," he said, a little smile brightening his face 
again.

Lourdes returned the smile. "Agreed. Your gift will be cherished by 
the Moon and by us. And we'll wait for you to return. Hopefully when 
you do return it will only be a day to be happy, because hopefully 
gonga will have gotten better."

"I hope so too."

Deep inside he wanted to meet Gonga, just to put a face on all of 
this, but he knew he might be attacked again, even if he had won the 
last time. It was a memory surrounded in shadow and he might never 
cast enough light on it to see.

~*~

"Friends. Mea do sound a bit... likea... huh... Ama I
using normalo ora not... The heck isa goina ona??!!"
Fin said.

***

Karama sniffled and curled up. She was a bit upset,
although she did not know why.

Chirin felt a seed of guilt sinking a taproot in him. But spirits 
hostile to the Denryuu lurked here, too powerful for him to shock 
away. He knew it was not Gonga who had tried to hurt him but the 
spirit possessing him. And to think it was aiming only for him was 
selfish and thoughtless. They were all in danger and he must care for 
this flock before all else. 

"Phos's light to you, Lourdes." He came forward as Lourdes knelt down 
and they hugged. "I'll miss you. And I'm so sorry."

"We ought to be apologizing to you, not the other way around," said 
Lourdes. "Your leaving would be best for all of us. It may be the 
very presense of the light-ones now that is arousing and empowering 
the evil that Gonga is now host to."

Chirin nodded and left her hug. She gave him a last stroke on the 
head and on his back, smoothing the worried wool. 

He stepped over to the sniffling young silver-wooled Karama. "Karama, 
are you okay?"

Ivy, Green-eyes and Cleomie were already waiting outside the hole, 
with Burble. Azalea paced impatiently just inside, waiting for Chirin.

 Karama looked up at Chirin.
"I... I just felt a bit sad for some unknown reason...
Even I don't understand it..." Karama said.

"A lot of unfriendly and powerful spirits are around us now," said 
Chirin, frightened by her words. Spirits affected one's feelings 
maybe more than anything else. "If you want to stay...being a mareep 
of the water," or a Lanturn in a mareep body, which he thought was 
quite likely, "that's fine, but I'm leaving now, to escape the bad 
things. I think you should too, they could be affecting you and I 
think they are." He shone his tail at her and just for good measures, 
circled quickly around her while blinking his light, to shoo away any 
dark things trying to creep into her. "A light in the dark, we will 
not run underground, we will seek the sky. 'Ryuu." He stepped to the 
hole, tasting the outside air, sensing what the breezes had to say. 
It was safe.

"*Meripu*," he bleated, perching on the onix-hole's jagged edge. With 
a blink of his raised tail he bounded through, calling again. He took 
one last look inside, wishing he could have lived up to what he had 
promised. He had let down not only the Quagsires, but the ancestors 
on whose lights he had made that promise. He would come back when he 
was stronger. The ancients would hold him to it.

"I would highly recommend departing," said Azalea, glancing around at 
the empty Quagsire quarters. The blue fish-creatures had gone to 
sleep or hunting or any number of places or activities she could only 
guess at. Her paranoid streak suggested that perhaps they were 
actively avoiding them, since hearing about Chirin's ghost out back.

"Meripu," came Chirin's anxious bleat from outside. Azlea jumped 
through and ran down to him. 

"Don't have to tell me twice," she said with a nuzzle, "Although you 
already did. Shall we depart?"

Chirin smiled. "Lead the way. I...I have to go..." he glanced back 
out at the alder grove, "I must...eat some good-luck berries." He 
tore down the field like a Nidoran. Selden, too tired and dazed to 
follow fast enough, stood there staring down the track the ram had 
mowed through the grass.

"He isn't a very good liar," said Azalea, turning to nip an itch on 
her scarred shoulder. "I wonder what he's concocting in there."

Chirin realized belatedly that anything could have pounced on him as 
he entered the thicketlike closeness of the alders. Some of the gaps 
were too small for him to fit through. But his nose and memory led 
him quickly to the bush where he had buried the pink apricorn.

He nosed through the freshly woven string, flexing his ears 
backwards. He tossed his head till it landed on his shoulders. Apart 
from its new smell it felt like his old one, complete with the 
comforting bounce on his chest.

He would make this apricorn a close part of him, he thought as he 
sprinted back up the field. Every breath from his puffing chest 
pumped a spark of his life-force into it. 

"Ah!" said Azalea. Chirin's blush splashed across his face but cooled 
back to blue when he realized she didn't know. "Acquired a 
replacement apricorn, and of a more interesting and rare hue, I 
observe. A good investment for the future."

Chirin knew that he could never replace the other apricorn any more 
than he could replace a friend, but he smelled her meaning.

Karama slowly got up, peering around nervously, as if
expecting some evil monster to come tearing out of the
bush. She allowed a whimper to escape her throat. She
slipped away, further from this place of evil. 
"I’m not afraid of the evil" Nope. Not afraid of the
evil," Karama said to out loud while backing away.
There came a screech of a nearby Murkrow. "Okay I
lied!" Karama bleated, darting off at full speed. She
stopped at last, in the spot where the moon shone
brightest, and she shined her taillight for good
measure. She curled up and shook violently. Another
screech told her that the Murkrow was coming towards
her. It landed in front of her, cocking it’s head to
one side.
"I am evil, you are not, you have seen me at night,
little Mareep. That means you will have bad luck.
Ooooh, much bad luck, forever! I close my eyes, and
see your future fate. You shall meet a sticky end,
after evolution. And, the reason of your death will be
caused by a friend!" Murkrow said happily. It’s eyes
shone excitedly. It hopped back a little, then it flew
off. Karama was white as a sheet of paper. She was on
the verge of screaming at the top of her lungs. And
scream she did. 

"Reep! Reepu!" At the scream the other mareep jumbled together on the 
thin trail, staring out into the night at the lone light of Karama. 
The bundle of mareep brimmed with sparks. Burble had left them now 
and they were on their own on the thin trail that led away from 
Moonhome.

Seeing she was not being attacked, Chirin stepped out from the 
group.  He had seen a Murkrow very close to her, and where there was 
one Murkrow others often came. The wind carried no scent of carrion, 
but all the same he placed his steps carefully. He knew all too well 
that the worst enemies were those you didn't see.

Murkrows. He remembered something about them bringing bad luck, 
shadows shaking off their wings. They had been created at the 
beginning of time and, some said, had helped to guard the dark 
caverns where Bangaa had hidden the Great Light. After Phos defeated 
Bangaa, they had hidden in the dark so long they became living 
shadows, and Burakuru had taken them in as her flock and given them 
strange powers.

His off-trail tramping flushed out a foraging oddish. At the rustle 
Chirin reared up, throwing out a swipe of lightning before realizing 
what it was. The oddish skipped off and away, only its leaves showing 
above the grass blades. He felt badly even though he had not hit it.

Grass swished behind him. He spun around on his own approaching flock.

"It's only us," said Azalea, in the lead, as he caught his heart in 
his throat and gulped it down. She let her tail bulb run from his 
haunch to his front leg as she brushed past him. "Karama? Karama! Are 
you okay!"

As Chirin dashed down to Karama he remembered what she had said about 
feeling sad for no reason. There was always a reason for everything. 
He prayed to Phos it wasn't that thing he had fought. 

"Karama, Karama, Phos and Watakko keep our light from shadow," he 
said as he reached the ewe. Freshly out of breath he sniffed her 
ear. "What did the Murkrow do."

Chirin felt awful, seeing the ewe's blood-drained face. How could he 
have let her wander away from the flock, in the middle of the night, 
when they were already tired and in danger at every turn?


~*~

Rudy angerly threw a rock against the edge of his cave. He 
had been with out sleep for about 6 hrs by his count. Definitely weird. His 
insomniac rageing was put to a halt by the sobbing of a passing wooper 
outside. He went to investigate.


                 " What's the matter little moonchild," he asked tenderly.

                " The mareep are leaving....sniff....., Sossa yousa willa 
curea Gonga righta?" The wooper brightened up

                 " Uh, er...." This could be a problem. Rudy's plan for 
curing Gonga was shocking him. Pretty much that was the only plan. " Er..... 
I'll try."  As the wooper left Rudy began to sweat. Now he would need to 
think of a plan to cure Gonga fast.

 Shuffling flipper-footsteps slapped towards Rudy's cave. "Rudy?" said 
Lourdes. "Rudy, are you awake?"

Down the hallway, wading carefully though shallow water, Roxie 
followed her great leader, trying not to make any water noises that 
would be heard over the background drip-drop of the Moonhome caverns.

 
~*~

"I thought I overheard that Murkrow verbally assaulting you," said 
Azalea. "It was probably only frustrated that you were too large a 
quarry for it to tackle alone. Murkrows have food to catch, nests to 
build and little mouths to feed. It's highly unlikely they exist for 
the sole purpose of terrorizing innocents. I wouldn't take its words 
too seriously..." but she trailed off, feeling a shadow of 
superstition swoop over her.

"There are ways to ward off curses," said Chirin, blinking his light 
as he circled Karama, dashing and wagging his tail in a strange dance 
to disperse all shadows. He re-arrived at her front and sidled 
against her. "If you feel comfortable, try to tell us everything you 
remember of what it said. This way we can begin to fight it." If it 
was a curse at all--but what else could have so blanched her and 
spiced her with her fear scent?

"Pfft." Standing out on the edge of the flock, Cleomie blew a sigh 
out the side of her mouth. "Who died and made Azalea expert on 
Murkrows." She yawned, then spoke up louder. "You know I'll settle 
for sleeping right here, why not? Murkrows won't attack us if we're 
all in a group. And it kind of looks like this trail goes into that 
forest, down there," she said, nodding to the dark herd of trees 
standing in the light of the shrinking moon. "So like, it seems like 
here, or the forest. Cause I'm tired."

Selden bleated, his head rubbing Chirin's side. The lamb wouldn't 
walk much further, he thought, noting Selden's droopy eyelids and 
yawning face. But he would not let him stop to rest on cursed ground. 
The last thing they needed was to absorb Murkrow dark while they 
slept, letting it seep into their bodies like rainwater into moss.

"Selden, get up, we can't go to sleep here," he said when the lamb 
began to kneel. When Selden didn't respond right away Chirin nudged 
him back up, a little more roughly than he had meant to, out of fear. 
The thought of that electric ghost thing screaming into Selden's head 
and body put its force behind the movement.

"I'm sorry, Selden," he said. "But it's too dangerous. We're going to 
find a safe place very, very soon, just you see." Behind the smile he 
gave Selden, Chirin thought to himself that if he didn't find a nice 
safe place soon, everyone would likely abandon him, and probably for 
the best. He sighed, thinking how staying with him hadn't brought 
them much comfort or safety so far.

He kept a lookout while Karama seemed to be preparing to tell him, 
preparing to rush everyone away if anyone, big or small, enemy or 
not, approached them. He didn't trust strangers anymore.

Karama sniffled and looked at Chirin and Azeala.
"It... Landed in front of me, and it said that since I
had seen it at night, I would have bad luck for the
rest of my life! And he said I would meet a sticky end
after evolution... Sniff... Hic..." Karama said,
shining her tail light brighter.

"It's going to be okay. Yes it is a bad sign but we'll fix it. It is 
only one and we're a whole flock. You're going to be fine." He gave 
her a short hug, consisting of his leaninghis head against her neck 
and shoulders. 

Chirin noted her tail shining and immediately followed 
suit. "Everyone...no time to waste...Shine our tails over her now. We 
are beacones, we are beacons..." He walked a tight circle around 
Karama with his tail high, shining it down. Azalea immediately copied 
and within a few revolutions the whole flock was going. "...we are 
Denryuu."

Chirin let his own wiggling ear rub against Karama's as he came to a 
slow stop beside her. He didn't know how he knew when a run of 
lights, or a walk of lights in this case, was coming to a close, he 
just knew. It was something Chenja must be whispering to him. "My 
ancestors are here too. I feel them. They have welcomed you as my 
friend and are watching out for you now, and some of them are nothing 
that any Murkrow would spark at," he said with a smile. "Light 
defeats dark. And the next step is getting out of here, because the 
Murkrow cursed you--or tried to--on this field and if you stay here, 
even though we chased the dark away it's still rooted on this field 
for a time. If we go now it will have nothing to grab onto. Shine 
shine Ledian light, Haru lust and stardust," he turned in a 
circle, "sharp wind, spin, spin, in you I trust."

His slow turning halted with the song that had flown through the wind 
into his ears and out his mouth. He was looking straight ahead of 
them, just slightly off the trail. 

"Meripu! Air has spoken! Watakko has sung! This way to a safe sleep-
place!"

He took off at a trot, then stopped to wait for the rest.

"A unique method of decision-making," said Azalea, trotting off after 
him, "but, circumstances being as they are, as effective as anything 
else."

Chirin smiled back at her. "You just have to know how to listen to 
the spirits. They always help me make choices when I'm not sure. 
There are a lot of things they see and smell that we don't." 

Out of the halfhearted autumn insects' songs, through the whispering 
grass and the rustle of the dreaming winds in the bushes, a new song 
arose. It was the song of a stream far ahead. "I want to sleep in the 
first place we find that's away from the cursed place," he said. "Out 
here seems good. Down by that water the ground might get wet again." 
The land did dip down out there, although he could barely see it. 
Clef herself, tired after being out full all night, was inching 
towards the west horizon and Chirin was keeping her on his right ear 
as he walked.

He stopped on the slope, wanting to stay as high as possible. He 
waited for the others to catch up, and as he did so he smelled a 
slight stain of distant Ringuma, somewhere to the north. The big, 
bumbling beasts were beginning to eat for the winter now and would be 
even more dangerous as they followed their bodies' hibernation-
hunger. Also coming soon was the time when they would brawl and 
battle for mates. He thought of turning south, but they were so tired 
it was probably best to wait it out. They would have no chance 
against any enemy if they walked themselves to sleep. The smell was 
from far away and it would wake them up if it got the least bit 
stronger. He rubbed one hind foot against the other ankle as he 
reassured himself that they could smell the enemy but the enemy could 
not smell them. The wind was on their side.

Karama followed Chirin, shining her tail-light
brighter than ever. She believed Chirin about those
spirits now... The other Mareep followed, and Karama
stayed in the middle. It was Azeala's place to be with
Chirin.

Chirin knew Ursarings could smell things buried beneath Mother Megga 
herself. It was said they could smell Bengaa in her belly. But if the 
winds blew the right way they could conceal your smell from even 
Ursarings. Chirin took refuge in this help that the air spirits were 
bringing them now. Maybe his flock was telling them to, maybe they 
had just taken pity on them after they'd been through so much. 

He knelt down in the place that seemed safest. He did not smell the 
ursarings now, although the winds were the same as before. settling 
down in a sleeping position, he realized just how tired he was. The 
droopy peace of sleep turned him floppy.

"Ahh." Yawning, he looked around, smiling as Azalea snuggled against 
him. That always brought good luck *and* brightened his light. "May 
our lights be a beacon in our sleep. Brighten this place safe for our 
spirit-journies. 'Reepu."

*Pharos, beacon rock, pharos, beacon flock,* said the ancestors in 
his memory, which they had often said after someone, usually Chenja 
and towards the end Lararu, had said something for good luck before 
going to sleep. He still missed them. 

Just as Chirin lay his head down on Azalea's back and closed his 
eyes, he felt the ewe give a start.

"Chirin, look."

Her tail blinked out towards another, blue light of a Flaaffy way 
down the field. Right then the breezes said to him that there were 
several more denryuu-folk--all young ones--where this one had come 
from. 

The Flaaffy gave a bleating call and Azalea stood straight up. "It's 
Petunia."

"Petunia." Chirin's legs stood him up to run to her. He and Azalea 
just stood stock still, staring down the grass at the flaaffy. 

"Azalea?" called Petunia, and Chirin saw her light bob, peeking in 
and out from beind her as she ran, rustling the grass. 

"The one and only," said Azalea, striding out towards her. "Are you 
alone? How--how have you been faring? Petunia, what an intresting 
time for us to meet again!"

Seeing Azalea's lack of fear, Chirin followed her, ashamed to have 
been afraid at first. Petunia had been and still must be his friend, 
now matter what had happened way back when. His legs kicked into 
greater speed and height.

"Chirin!" Petunia rqn straight for him and Chirin's face connected 
with her stomach. "Oh, my, look at you, you've grown!"

"So have you," he said as she knelt down. They embraced. Once again 
Chirin wasn't sure why he was crying. He wiped his face on her wool 
ruff. "I was scared at first, I didn't know... if you were still 
mad..."

"Mad? At you? Oh, Chirin I would have done the same thing in your 
hooves. I was so worried about you, and then Selden disappeared..."

"Selden's here!" said Chirin, turning to the group back 
there. "Selden! It's Petunia!"

Karama bleated in suprise as the Flaaffy
approached. Chirin seemed to know them. Karama curled
up in a tight ball of wool, tucking her tail light out
of view. She was just a wee bit shy.

***

Fluffy watched from behind a tree. She looked (and
felt) miserable. She was beaton, bruised, and
bleeding. She gasped and stumbled into view. She was
comepletly silver now.

"Oh, Petunia," said Chirin, awash in her wool and the familiar smell 
of her skin. She was a plump and healthy Flaaffy. The spirits had 
been good.

Selden was toddling sleepily forward, smiling around a yawn. He 
looked up at Petunia, not recognizing her by sight although her scent 
was familiar. But if she was Chirin's friend, she was his friend too.

"Oh, I see others," said Petunia looking beyond the backs of the 
three mareep. "Is that Cleomie? And Ivy?"

"Yes," said Chirin, stull hugging Petunia, who stood up, making the 
motions saying he could let go now. Chirin stepped back, resisting 
the urge to dash out prancing only because he was so tired. "Where 
have you gone following your light-path? I'm curious. Are you with a 
flock too?"

"Yes," said Petunia. "Ivy--Snapdragon's with me, she's safe. Bushy, 
Tippy and Sticker are here too," she said, talking mostly to Azalea 
now. Chirin saw her glancing morbidly at her scars. "We'd love for 
you to join us!"

"How generous, we'll consider the offer thoughtfully and carefully. 
Who else is with you?" said Azalea. 

"Oh...not many more, we lost track of almost everybody when we headed 
out here. After...you know. Anyway Marigold's here too."

"Ah," said Azalea. "You know on quiet, boring days--which have been 
especially scarce lately--I almost miss her screaming
vulgarities in my face and following up with a good spit of cud."

"Marigold's changed," said Petunia. "She wouldn't do that now."

"I'm sure she wouldn't," said Azalea in a tone that Chirin saw 
satisfied Petunia, but still concealed a dark truth. Traveling so 
long with her had shown him the many shades of Azalea's words.

"That reminds me," said Chirin. "We came a long way too, and the 
forest almost got me once, but we met some friends on the way. That's 
Karama," he said, "and way down there is Green-eyes." He waved his 
tail with a friendly blink, motioning for them to join the reunion. 
Definitely a sure sign that the balance of light and dark was being 
righted once more!

Azalea tried her best to wear a smile as they all hugged, sniffed, 
circled and otherwise enmeshed themselves together, cementing the 
reunion as more or less permanent. That was all she needed--to have 
things like they had been before. She knew what happened when too 
many mareep came together--especially too many of the wrong mareep. 
If it all got to be too much to take, if she woke Chirin up one 
morning and told him she was leaving, would he follow? She looked out 
at the moon sinking into the west like a setting sun. 

Chirin thought he saw a blue light blink from within the forest's 
edge. It flung light onto the trees behind it, casting the trunk in 
front of it into a pillar of shadow. His own light flashed in kind. 

"Is that one of your flock?" he said, his tail pointing over his head 
towards the blue ambience.

He took a single step towards it. It was a Flaffy, whose flicker 
betrayed a pained state. "Oh, I have to go see, they look hurt, or 
troubled," he said, all his fear and suspicion melting under his 
pity. 

"It's quite possible that whoever it is is verging on becoming a 
midnight snack at the claws of whatever could be inhabiting that 
forest, and there's a wide range of possibilities," said Azalea. They 
watched a moment more. Chirin's ears wiggled, straining to hear a 
squeal, a dying gurgle, anything, but the light continued its 
surreptitious peeks from behind the tree and Chirin realized the 
flaffy was probably watching them, a friendly clump of pale blue and 
yellow lights. 

He trotted out towards it, waiting to see if anyone was coming. 
Trusty old Azalea arrived at a lope to catch him up, and he noticed 
that she still limped like she had ever since her fire wound, 
although she was almost back up to what must have been her former 
speed. Tomorrow he would look over her wound, if tomorrow gave them 
peace.

Selden tackled the tall clumps of grass with tired steps, struggling 
to keep up. "Chirin, I come with you." 

Chirin glanced back to see he had fallen in with Petunia. Better 
there than up here, he thought; if there was trouble, the poor 
exhausted lamb, with a *denki* still dormant and his eyes barely 
propped open, would be, well, easy meat for an enemy. He stopped a 
run-and-a-hop's distance from the light behind the tree, trying to 
read it for a response from across the grass standing still in the 
sleeping air. He smelled a ewe clearly now, a vaguely familiar one.

The connection snapped inside of him--and created sparks. They flew 
up from him carrying a stream of memories, of rainy air tossing his 
wool and a search through stickly bushes. 

"Fluffy?" he called. Smelling her again, he smiled. "It is you, 
Fluffy! I remember you." He now remembered something violent 
regarding her, but whatever it was was over now, time for a new 
morning on everything.

"FLUFFY?" said Cleomie, running up beside him. "That &%+@$ killed 
Coddy!"

Now he remembered, and felt very dumb. The very bolt that had snapped 
him on that dark day. "Wait--no--" Chirin moved to stop Cleomie from 
cutting ahead of him.

She shoved him aside with a full-body lean. As Chirin regained his 
footing she marched ahead to the edge of the woods. She stopped a 
leap away and glared into the understory. 

"Come out now or I'll head right in there and stomp you to a pulp! 
Killer!"

"Cleomie, no, please..." said Chirin, lifting his front legs as 
Azalea held him back. "Let's just all get along! Light! Remember, 
light!" 

Cleomie whirled on him. "How can you say that? You were there! Coddy 
was like my SISTER! And you saw Fluffy crack her open like an egg!" 
Tears leaked down Cleomie's face as sparks rocketed up off her back. 
She leaned her head in a butting position, aimed straight at the tree 
Fluffy his behind. "Come out now or I'm coming in!"

Selden ran up to Chirin, bleating absently. Chirin herded him 
backwards away from the two ewes. He would never forgive himself if 
anything happened to the lamb. "It's going to be okay, just stay back 
here Selden," he said, licking the lamb's ear as he watched the 
confrontation. He had thought Selden would cling less as he grew, but 
all that they had been through had only made him stick to his side 
more fiercely. What could he do to stop the fighting now that 
wouldn't put Selden in danger?

"Please...Nobody hurts or kills anybody, not in this flock!" he 
shouted from where he was. 

Azalea seemed to see the situation he was in, for she came forward to 
Cleomie herself, still keeping out of the sight-path, and shoving 
range, of the larger ewe. 
"There may be no simple way to settle this matter but making a fresh 
kill won't help anyone reconcile or recover from the trauma we 
suffered that--"

"Will you shut up! Just stuff your tail in it! Go over and lick 
Chirin's little #@%%$, I'm in no mood and this isn't your business!" 

"Don't talk to her like that, she's trying to help." Chirin's *denki* 
rose inside him like a fire, as Azalea rejoined him, shaking her head 
in resignation. "Fluffy's never going to come out if you--"

"It doesn't matter!" Cleomie's foot pawed the dirt, readying to 
charge into the dark. "I know the little murderer's right there. 
She's not getting away this time."

"Chirin, I fear there is no course of action we can take to avert 
potential disaster this time," said Azalea, joining him and Selden in 
a fearful huddle. The whole flock watched.

~*~

"Rudy," said Lourdes, standing just outside his cave. "I have 
important news for you. The mareep had to leave, because of--strange 
threats to their lives. They are unfit for the task of healing Gonga. 
Gonga seems to have rejected anything Ampharan, and Chirin was nearly 
killed, by what he told us. I know you are young, but you may be our 
only hope left."

~*~

Chirin tried to suck in his tears. For an instant he almost ran in 
after Fluffy, on the grounds that maybe Cleomie wouldn't attack her 
if he was there. But the red and pink soup of guts on the grass in 
the rain spread before him again in his mind. How did he know that 
Fluffy herself would be friendly? She had seemed so nice, until 
something dark had twisted inside and all of a sudden exploded. It 
could explode again. 

"You are *not* going in there," said Azalea.

Fluffy stared frightfully at Cleomie, as she advanced
towards her. She gulped and shut her eyes tight,
clenching her teeth.

***

Karama sniffled and ran over to Chirin. She said only
one thing to him. 
"I need to do something..." And she darted off. She
stopped in front of Cleomie, glaring at her. Fluffy
opened her eyes and peeked up at Karama, before
closing them again.

"That's right," said Cleomie, "shut yer eyes cause this is gonna 
hurt."

Chirin watched as Karama edged out towards them. He couldn't let his 
whole flock dash in there, into a potentially deadly fray...


Lights of others, blue-white and orange-white, twinkled over the 
grass from the place Petunia had come. Faces and bodies appeared, 
flaffy and mareep. "Mo? Mo? Koko?" called the flaaffy in the lead, 
stirring up a chorus of questioning calls. The first flaaffy running 
down towards them was Rye, a ram who'd been a friend of Willy. 

"We've got trouble!" called Petunia, turning to them. "Cleomie and 
Fluffy!"

Just then Cleomie charged into the brush, followed by a squealing and 
a loud zap. Behind the trees a blue-white aura flashed, illuminating 
the higher limbs. 

"No!" Chirin shook Azalea off and ran in.

Azalea ran after him. He wasn't going in there alone!

Chirin reached the two sheep, or Cleomie at least; Fluffy kept 
dodging behind the tree, keeping it between them. 

"Cleomie...stop! Please stop! We can talk about this!" 

Ignoring him completely she lunged for Fluffy again. 
Chirin dived between them, lowering his head to Cleomie. Cleomie ran 
around him.

Chirin jumped on Cleomie and they both fell over. Chirin got a hoof 
in the chin.

"Ow! Cleomie--!"

"Get off of me!" Cleomie's gold-brown eyes blazed bloodshot. "Get off 
of me!"

She flipped them over, pinning Chirin briefly on his side before 
leaping off him and dashing after Fluffy again, like a predator. 
Chirin grabbed her by the back leg. She fell, cursing and throwing up 
dead leaves.

"Please don't hurt her! Please!" 

"Chirin let go of her!" screamed Azalea. "You cannot prevent violence 
in this situation!"

*I can too*. This flock was all he had left and by Phos he would have 
no more hurting people in it. It was his fault they were out here at 
all. 
He once again ran in between them, bleating forcefully. This time he 
kept his tail to Fluffy. "Stay close behind me," he said as Cleomie 
pawed the earth. But Cleomie did not charge. Not far away he heard 
the rushing river and his ears fled to it for a moment. 

Azalea stepped in. "Selden's crying, Petunia's with him," she said in 
his ear. Then she spoke for all. "I suggest we all attempt to settle 
this in a civil manner. Those bent upon revenge have no place in our 
flock, nor do those who take others' lives."

"Now you jump in too, huh?" said Cleomie. "Tell me, who made you 
flock leader? Who is it anyway--you or Chirin?"

"Maybe we can both be leader," said Chirin, finding his voice again 
through scraggly, ragged breaths. A dull pain throbbed on his chin. 
It would be a bruise. "We can work this out. No one has to die, no 
one has to leave."

"That's where you're wrong," said Cleomie. "Cause no flock Fluffy's 
in is a flock I'm in." Then, to the surprise of even Chirin, she 
turned and walked into the woods, out towards the sound of swift 
water.

"Cleomie, no." Chirin's hooves lightly tamped on the forest litter as 
he ran after her. She turned to him and Growled, making the Growl 
that instilled fear and threw self-defense asunder. Chirin tried not 
to turn and run. "It's dangerous, I smelled Ringuma out there 
tonight."

"Fine. Here it is plain. You tell Fluffy to scram, as nicely as you 
want but the effect is the same...she leaves, for good. Then I'll 
come back all nicey-poo like before. Till then...Phos's light to 
you." The saying sounded awkward and dark in her voice.

"Don't go farther, please...That river could be dangerous, it sounds 
fast. You could fall in."

Cleomie stared at him. Then, slowly, her expression morphed away from 
anguish, to a more accepting, peaceful sigh. "Look. I'll come back 
with you, I'll even tolerate Fluffy. But I can't just start being 
nice to her all of a sudden. You know?"

"Yes, I understand," said Chirin, feeling like he should be happier 
at hearing her words, but she had just changed too quickly for it to 
be natural. "I understand if you'll never be able to be nice to 
her...it was a day full of shadows, that day." He said no more on it. 
The dead were always listening, including Coddy, whom he felt in the 
air around Cleomie. She had never really left her closest light-
friend. "If you want, we can come back now? Or do you need some more 
time here?"

"No, I can come back."

He felt this little voice of doubt like a thing in his gut as he 
nuzzled Cleomie, running the air in her wool through his nostrils, 
trying to divine anything he could from the scent of the oils. That 
little spirit was nagging him again after they separated, when 
Cleomie gave him a little smile. Chirin forced the voice down. Now 
would begin a time of light.

He and Cleomie walked back to the others side by side. Selden, 
bleating by Azalea and Petunia, broke towards Chirin the moment their 
eyes met.

"Hi, Selden, calm down, yes, I'm fine, I'm doing great," he said, 
smiling as the lamb put his head in Chirin's side, almost tickling 
him. 

Azalea gave Cleomie a smile-that-was-not-quite-a-smile. "What 
happened? Reached reconciliation and compromise this quickly?"

"Well...yes," said Chirin. Cleomie just nodded.

"I see." Her gaze flitted from one to the other. "I imagine there 
will be a longer period of adjustment ahead, but it's good to have 
pushed past the initial confrontation phase this soon. Ah, speaking 
of initial confrontations, we are now in the company of several more 
of the resident flock, just outside. Shall we go?"

Only now, in the lights of the others and standing in full view, did 
Fluffy make herself so visible to Chirin. He could see she was badly 
hurt.

"What happened?" he said, saddened almost to tears to see that anyone 
could have inflicted harm on another living creature like 
this...forgetting for the moment that she had done worse, once.

Fluffy slowly walked a little closer to Chirin. She
sat down, her eyes peering around nervously. 
"When... When I ran away. I... was chased by this...
Strange black and white thing with green and black
flames, and he had this small black Rattata with him,
that had a strange crecent moon shaped scar on his
left eye. The black and white fire thing jumped on me
and bit and scratched me all over. The Rattata stayed
still and watched. This purple and black light came
out of the fire thing (after he got off me. I was too
weak to move much), and before it touched me, I
shocked him and the Rattata, and they ran off. Then I
heared you running away from the little white thing
with a horn called Calima or something simaler. Then
the flock split up, and I just went on my way. I had
run into a Bellsprout watching Calima crying. The fire
thing came back so I ran away. Then I ran into the
water Mareep. I got away fast and she did not see me.
Then these little blue things that did ground and
water attacks tried to get me, and I ran away. They
made the ground shake and it hurt and I got lots of
bruises. Then these big bear things that shot out
white lights (hyper beam I believe it is called), and
they chased me. They were Ursaring I think. One bit me
and I almost got hit by a hyper beam. It kinda got me
on the shoulder, and some wool is missing here from
another hyper beam. And I found my way here," Fluffy
said.

***

"I DID wonder what hit me. I guess it was you," Karama
said, her eyes wide from the scary story. This poor
Flaaffy had been through a lot, so it seemed.

"Oh, you poor thing." Chirin repressed a shudder, wiping tears away. 
The story had left him in a sweat, filling his head with the dark 
journey all over again, and bringing to horrible life the Ursarings 
he had smelled. He wondered where they were now.

"Here." He opened his new pink apricorn shell. Out tumbled a single, 
deep purple berry. "It's the only healing berry I could find, but 
it's a powerful one. Sit down, breathe, relax," he said, pressing his 
side against hers to soothe her. That nasty wound on her shoulder 
made his shoulder feel funny--because he was so close to her her hurt 
was traveling between them. "We've been through a lot of dark dangers 
too. Most of what you said, we survived too. I know that you did a 
bad thing too. But that was a very dark day, and many evil things 
happened and even I feel as though I wasn't all full of light as I 
could have been that day. But it's over now. Soon we'll all get to 
sleep."

Sitting at the woods' edge Chirin saw the other flock now gathering 
around them, still keeping their distance, leaving the gap of air 
that uncertainty seemed to demand. Chirin saw four Flaffies and the 
tallest one, one of two rams, stepped forward.

"Petunia told me that...you just came here looking for a place to 
stay," he said. "You are welcome to stay here, if you like. The grass 
is excellent, and there are some nice hills to look down from. The 
river runs faster once it gets into the woods, but before that it's a 
peaceful stream. You'll be happy staying here, if that's what you 
want."

Chirin realized that if the land was good, and there were other sheep 
here to join them, then their journey could be over. Some part of 
that feeling hadn't tapped all the way into him yet. Could their 
journey really be over? Could they have found a place that could grow 
to be a home? Right here, right now? It just seemed so sudden, like 
he couldn't trust it. Like something was going to come along tomorrow 
to snatch it all away. 

Light, remember, light. "I--I would love to stay here," he said, 
looking out at the other strange sheep, who in fact he recognized 
partly. These were ones he had been with once, and their light-paths 
had crossed again. "I'll stay--if you all would like to too?" He 
looked out at the others.

Azalea, next to him, was looking the newcomers over. They were no 
strangers to her. 

"I'll be only too delighted to lay down my load and settle down 
here," she said, "but only under certain conditions, which I shall 
now stipulate. There is to be no bullying, tormenting, practical 
jokes, physical/psychological/emotional abuse, insults to dignity, 
implied or directly stated, or even the slightest shades and/or 
implications hinting towards name-calling or other defamation of 
character. My past experiences have left me paranoid and suspicious. 
That said and agreed upon, I shall gladly take up residence on these 
territories. Are we all agreed on this?" 

"Agreed," said the ram, smiling with perhaps a slight shade or 
implication towards insulting of character, but not one that Azalea 
could call attention to without appearing overly suspicious and 
paranoid. The others also nodded.

"Magnificent," said Azalea. "I'm rather inclined to think that myself 
and Chirin will be spending time on our own rather than in the 
company...of...Ah, I didn't intend to imply that--ah--that we would 
be...Oh, confound it!" she said as a flurry of titters floated from 
the new flock. 

Chirin smiled at her and licked her ear.

"That's a great agreement Azalea proposed," he said. "It's a way of 
saying that nobody will give dark to others. Only light. Give dark 
and you get dark back, but give off light and it reflects back to you 
and shines on anyone else near."

"How very factual," said Azalea. 

"I'm Chirin, I don't know if you remember my name." He approached the 
ram.

"I remember your name all right. You're the one who led us out of the 
farm. How could I forget?"

Chirin sniffed the ram's nose as the other bent on all fours, as if 
to graze. Chirin kept his eyes averted and his tail low as they 
circled in  first meeting. He showed all submission. Now that he and 
Azalea had joined his flock, this ram was leader of them too.

"What's your name?" said Chirin when they parted, now knowing their 
places. 

"Rye."

Azalea kept a smile on her face, and her ears and tail high. Chirin 
might accept this ram as leader but she'd never submit to him. She 
remembered all too well his days of helping Willy carry out various 
tasks related to rubbing her face n the dirt, literally or 
metaphorically. 

"Does everyone else want to stay also?" said Chirin, looking at 
Selden and knowing that wherever Chirin stayed, he would. Right in 
tune with his thoughts Selden spoke up.

"ME!"

"I'm glad you decided to stay," said the ram. "We're only nine of us 
and more would make us even stronger. We stick close together out 
here, just in case enemies come and they did come a couple of times. 
But we were able to keep them away with a joint attack. The same kind 
of joint attack you showed us back at that pond place."

"I remember," said Chirin. "My old flock always did that. I'm glad 
it's helped you."

"You helped us," said the ram. "I owe you an apology. If it weren't 
for you we would still be back at that farm, or worse."

"It's--You don't have to say sorry," said Chirin. "We've all been 
brave and all survived and been through a lot. I feel like we've been 
caught up in a war of spirits that's been going on a long time." Ever 
since he had been cast out to wander alone on a summer night.

"I hope you don't mind," said Chirin, "but we have some of us hurt. 
Well, one of us." He led them back to Fluffy.

Azalea just shook her head to herself as she went back too, slightly 
sick to her stomach at Rye's nice act. She wished she could believe 
that it would last.

 Fluffy curled up in fright at the sight of advancing
Flaaffy. She bleated in fear. She had ate the berry,
and she felt a bit better. But she was still scared.
Flashes of the flame thing with is Rattata (who is
Cinder and Moonscar incase you didn't know(, the
Ursaring and the blue fish things haunted her on the
spot. Tears were flowing down her silver cheeks.

***

Karama walked up to Chirin.
"Is Fluffy gonna be alright, Chirin? I AM a bit
worried about her, the poor dear," Karama said in a
whisper.

 "Oh, oh don't be scared." Chirin melted over her in an embrace. On 
Fluffy's other side, Azalea offered nudges of comfort. "Just think--
Clef is full and round tonight! You're silver just like Clef. I know 
there has been trouble in the past, but i think everyone here is 
willing to forgive you. But I understand if you're scared...I know 
how you feel because I felt scared too. But we have to believe the 
darkness will end now, because if we don't believe it inside, then 
light can't get in, like we're shutting our eyes. Do you want to go 
off alone and we can talk about whatever you're scared about? Just 
you and me and Azalea?"

"I may not be much for looks, but I'm big on words," said Azalea, 
trying to cheer her up. "Is it that you would rather not assimilate 
into this flock?"

Selden had curled up next to Chirin, and had begun to doze off.

Ivy smiled at this turn of events...THIS would put Azalea back into 
her place...and if she was lucky, maybe she could get some time with 
him at least. Yes...if that happened...or better yet, if they managed 
to ditch her all together. She threw a quick grin in Cleomie's 
direction.

She then looked back to the sobbing Fluffy and mentally rolled her 
eyes. Whatever...

"I do hope she'll be alright." Ivy said, placing worry into her voice. 
She was good at that.. 

"Oh me too," said Cleomie in a fakey high little voice. "Ivy, there's 
something I want your help with. Come here," she mumbled. They walked 
off a ways from the others.

Cleomie glanced behind her one last time.

"Just double checking. That Karama's one big snoop. Listen, uh, I 
told them I'm okay with Fluffy staying. But you know I'm not. I want 
your help. I'm going to talk to Jasmine and Tearose now that we're 
with'em again," she said, nodding back towards the new flock. "The 
four of us'll be able to take care of her. And maybe some others too, 
cause I'm tired of this. You in?"

she looked around one more time, checking fow anyone's light.

"I'm in.." Ivy looked over her shoulder, checking as well "Besides, 
the way she goes on, I doubt she'd last long anyway. Blubbering at the 
sight of those like her...maybe she thinks she's better than them 
because she's silver." With a stamp of her foot, Ivy nearly thought
for a moment that she could have sparked...but of course, none 
showed. "Just like that damn Azalea...thinking that she's so high 
and mighty. All she is is a leech..."

As if on a thought note, she wondered why herself and Cleomie had 
ever fought in the first place...of course, the reason was obvious. It 
had been Cleomie and Coddy against her before...but they had all 
had the same grounding in a way. Yes...

Looking around again, Ivy made sure that Karama wasn't stalking from 
the bushes to rattata them out. 

"Fluffy won't be getting away with murder," said Cleomie in a low, 
eery tone. "Chirin might be soft on killers but I'm going to make 
sure she gets what she deserves. I'm thinking we could haul her off 
and throw her down that river, but I want her to suffer more that 
that."

* * *

As Chirin cuddled with Fluffy, Selden and Azalea, the other flafies 
and mareep in both flocks had begun to mingle. At first they had 
stood in two groups, uncertain, but slowly approached each other in a 
break of tension, the same gentle swarming and sniffing that had 
happened on meeting Karama and Green-eyes. After the gradual morphing 
from strangers to acquaintances many of them began grazing in the 
area. Bit by bit they settled down, apparently deciding to bed down 
right here. 

"They're so nice," he whispered to Azalea, for Fluffy to hear 
too. "They want to makre sure we're okay here, and they know you're 
hurt, Fluffy, that's why they're all staying with us here. I'm sure 
that once we all get to sleep, things will be great tomorrow."

"For certain!" said Azalea, yawning. "My but that berry seems to have 
improved both cosmetic and underlying wounds you sustained at various 
times and locales, Fluffy. Think of it from my perspective." She 
nodded at the swaths of welty, scarred flesh beaded all along her 
left side. "It could have been worse."

Chirin sang a brief, sweet song to the night, concluding with, "And 
Crazy Lights sleep on the tip tree top, tucking your lights in the 
stars."

He made a small little mark on the ground, a circle that he then 
placed a small pebble inside of, that was within reach. He nudged the 
pale little pebble onto the circle, touched his tail light to it, 
flashed it, then let himself lie back against Azalea and Fluffy and 
Selden. The comfy heap of mareep was soon joined by others.

At long last Chirin allowed his soul to bound free on its nightly 
journey, a journey unique to all others, that he had never been on 
before nor would he ever again travel the same spirit-path again, on 
any night in the future.

He licked Azalea's ear and rested his head on her shoulder, their 
ears touching.

* * *

"Jasmine! Tearose! Great to see you," said Cleomie as the flaaffy ran 
over to them, looking all around. "I have a plan I want to talk to 
you about. It's about taking care of that Fluffy and getting her back 
for killing Coddy, I was mentioning it before." Cleomie filled them 
in.

"I'm with you," said Jasmine softly. "I hated her back on the farm 
and I hate her heaps more now." Next to her Tearose nodded.

"Great," said Cleomie. "Now we just have to figure out where to 
start, and when. She's all scared right now, I'm not sure why, a 
little bit of shock, so it's no good now, she's got her guard up."

* * *

Azalea counted the group before she fell asleep, taking note of at 
least three absences. The most notable ones being Cleomie and Ivy. 
Wherever they were, she would be able to find them, and whatever they 
were talking about probably involved potential harm to others. Fully 
aware that she was allowing her paranoia and superstition to 
ovverride her normally logical thought processes, she gently 
untangled herself from Chirin, carefully and slowly, inch by inch. 
Chirin stirred a few times, then settled back down against Selden and 
Fluffy.

She picked her way out through the grass, sniffing her way through a 
narrow trail in the woods.

Ivy nodded "But as soon as she's out of this shock phase of hers.."

Her ears flickered at what sounded like a twig snapping "Shhh....did you hear 
that?"

Cleomie, faced away from the twig-snap and towards Ivy, gave a shady 
little nod, so slight it might have been a trick played by the 
flickering of their lights, which darkness often made falter a little.

Cleomie moved her mouth in silent words.

*We pretend we don't notice. Quiet. Listen, and smell. You are facing 
it...smell.*

* * *

Azalea cursed inwardly, cursed the twig that the leaves had cleverly 
concealed as she hunkered lower in the bushes watching the four of 
them and getting quite an earful. Just as she had suspected they were 
planning something...but whether it involved Fluffy alone or more 
than her, she didn't know. Also up in the air was the methods and 
schemes they would employ.

As soon as she had a little more vital information, was turning tail 
and becoming chirin's Informer. 

That vital information being, whether or not they had made any 
special arrangements for her. Judging by their frequent solo grazes 
and hushed conversations, Ivy and Cleomie must have been talking 
about this, or related plans or, at the least, considerations, for so 
long. If only she had caved in to paranoia sooner!

She stood stock still, her tail hidden under her crouched body. They 
had quieted down but still seemed to be talking. They did not appear 
to have seen her.

Azalea began to wonder whether she had used her best judgement 
wandering out this far, as essential as it was to spy successfully. 
If they spotted her now they could even try something on the spot, 
and she might not be able to escape at a sprint.

But she could holler, and spark up a storm. She kept these in 
consideration, readying her mind for self-defense. That was when an 
unexpected breeze swept in behind her, towards the huddled foursome. 
Azalea began to wonder whether Chirin's belief that all things felt 
and thought really did have some basis. Why did everything seem 
stacked against her?

She stood up to back away. It was too dangerous and her little 
instinct of Fear wasn't there inside her brain just to annoy her. 
There was a reason it was the most primitive and powerful emotion, 
she thought as she found her hind legs sinking into rather foul-
smelling mud. She tensed the muscles and lurched forward. She leaned, 
tugging one and then the other foot. She was stuck.

*First rule in a Crisis Situation: DO NOT PANIC.* 

Azalea hunkered down again and prepared to shoot the loudest bolt she 
could if they so much as took a single step near her.

Inch by inch, she began to work her way out of the mud that sucked on 
her feet whenever she pulled. Unless she got out of it soon she might 
as well spark for help here and now.

"Azalea," whispered Cleomie, getting the ewe's scent. "She'll tell 
everyone. We got to make it like we're running off that way." Cleomie 
nodded to a copse down the way. "Come on."

As they trotted off Azalea worked herself an inch or so looser, 
dragging herself over the ground and supposing she must look pretty 
good to any enemies lurking around. It was the only reason she had 
decided against cryiing out for help just yet. This far out, they 
might not even hear her if they were asleep, and if they did, they 
might not get to her before something else did.

Azalea made a little vow to herself to use her brains a little more 
in the future, and not do things like venture out alone on the trail 
of people who didn't like you, in the middle of the night, and on top 
of that, not watch closely enough where you stepped.

She was all alone. Nothing appeared to exist right now but trees, 
grass, wind, and a mareep with one back foot still stuck in the mud. 
She appeared to have frightened off the conspirators, but at least 
they had decided not to pursue her. They might have supposed that she 
was not alone, or that she had grazed her way into the area but had 
not heard anything. 

A final yank birthed her leg from the earth at last. Azalea got to 
her four feet and looked about, smelling mareep, but she'd smelled 
them before too. She wanted to believe Cleomie and her gang wasn't 
intelligent enough to know to sneak up on her and put her out of 
commission. But she knew not to underestimate the cleverness of a 
mareep.

She listened for them one last time, and hearing nothing, crept back 
the way she'd come. She wanted to avoid high grass, bushes, forest 
and anywhere else they could be hiding--they'd had more than enough 
time to get back to the flock themselves by now--but tall grass, 
bushes and forest was pretty much all this place was.

How sad and ironic that she had gone tonight fron fearing furrets and 
ringuma, to fearing her own kind. She hurried her steps as she passed 
between two bushes.

The bushes bristled to life. Azalea didn't have time to scream before 
a balled-up Flaaffy fist collided with the back of her skull.

"Is she out?"

Azalea, with three hooves across the bridge to unconsciousness, lay 
with her eyes closed and listening through a thick wall of head pain 
and the ringing of her ears. She struggled to gather her electricity. 
She must warn Chirin! The effort proved too much and the electricity 
collapsed into a weak fizz.

A hoof kicked her in the rump.

"Yeah," said Cleomie. "She's done."

"What do we do with her?" said Jasmine, the Flaaffy. 

"You and Tea gotta carry her. We gotta dump her in the river and hope 
it just takes her away. Is is strong enough?" said Cleomie as Azalea 
flt herself sloppily hauled up from the ground. She fought the urge 
to faint, clinging with invisible teeth to the last of her brain. A 
concussion victim must NEVER go to sleep! NEVER! Especially not if 
they were about to be dumped in a body of water...She realized, as 
she felt herself being carried by two Flaaffies, that if she did 
manage to regain full consciousness now they would probably kill her. 
Did they think she was already dead? God above, how could she have 
become something not worth living to these monsters?

When she got out of that river, ohhh, she'd hike ALL the way back and 
tell everyone! She'd show them she was no quitter, or a die-er!

"Just drop her in."

"Drop her--from here?"

"She's dead anyway Jasmine! Don't look if you don't want to."

The arms let go, and the sensations of their breathing, the tenseness 
of their muscles and their scent left Azalea, left her with nothing 
but the feeling of falling. 

*Feeling* of falling? I *AM* falling!*

Her stomach sucked up into her lungs and then the water dealt her an 
icy smack on the side.

She closed her mouth, trying not to breathe in. The sudden cold 
jerked her back to life, just enough to paddle to the surface, up 
through the cold and the rocketing pain in her head.

She glimpsed the small little cluster of sheep on the stony bank 
above and then the current rushed her away. Around and above her, an 
arch of shadowy spruce trees waved dark branches against the clearing 
starry sky. Dipping in and out of dizziness, she gave herself to the 
river's will, just trying to stay afloat and alive. Her vision kept 
swirling with those beautiful stars...She rose up coughing a mouthful 
of water, realizing she was sliding in and out of consciousness even 
now. 

*When* she got back...*If* she got back...Coughing the last of the 
water from her lungs, she said a little prayer to an apricorn shell 
with a pebble inside it somewhere in Moonhome.

Azalea let her head tilt back, letting the chilly water numb some of 
that painful pounding. It was like that Flaaffy fist kept hitting her 
again and again. The river had grown wider and wilder and she had to 
cncentrate now to avoid collisions with rocks. An arch of white 
water, bumping up above the rest of the flow, meant rocks right 
below. Using what little control she had, she tried to channel her 
body through the calmest parts. Water surged around her and often 
leaped over her head as the river bounced her this way and that in 
the dark. At least the fainting spells had passed and a little pre-
dawn light was making it easier to see. 

How far had she traveled now? She barely paid attention to the trees 
watching her ride by on either side. Azalea had tried repeatedly to 
reach the side, but the banks were steep and slippery, and the rocks 
likewise, coated in this slimy green stuff that made gaining a 
foothold impossible. It was almost as if this river had been designed 
specifically to carry helpless passengers miles from home.

"Chirin," she said, just to hear his name. She had to shout it over 
the crashing rapids. "Chirin, oh..."

Crashing rapids. That was somethng else that gained her notice--
another, louder and larger water sound, a roar steadily growing 
nearer.

Up ahead, the river ended. River, then air and trees and things 
further away.

She was headed for a waterfall. Azalea paddled desperately torwards 
the nearest bank, bleating and crying. She wondered as her hooves 
slipped and slid, fondling over the smooth slimy rocks as the water 
dragged her towards the end, if Chirin could somehow hear her brain 
waves in his dreams.

A stoic rock slammed her in the right side and flipped her over it in 
a foamy gout of river water, flinging her over the edge. Azalea 
screamed and gyrated crazily in freefall, pounded by water and thrown 
in a fit, churned within the guts of the rapids, landing and sliding 
over rocks, submerged, grabbing air whenever she thought she could. 
She tried to shield her still-hurting skull from any more impact. She 
knew she had brain cells in reasonable supply, but as the water 
knocked her in a tumble down the rocks, she remembered acutely that 
brain cells could not regenerate.

"Yaaaahh!" 

The waterfall dumped her, bruised and scratched up, into yet another 
stretch of rushing river. Traveling with her back to the dangers 
ahead, she could see now that the whole ordeal had been not one 
waterfall, but a series of smaller ones cascading over stones, so 
picturesque now that she wasn't in it. 

Bobbing limply along in the new stretch of equally treacherous river, 
she felt like she had been chewed up and spit out. 

"First the Arcanine blowtorch, then the hurricane, now a whitewater 
adventure WITHOUT the raft. Haven't I suffered enough already?!"

{17201)

~*~

Chirin moved his head in his sleep, filled with the fresh young smell 
of Selden's side, where it lay. He felt for Azalea and thought he 
found her back by his hoof, but it was really Selden's tail. He slept 
on, dreaming, something about Quagsires running amok over the grassy 
slopes of Pharos.

(17201)