Phos's first yawning light poked at Chirin's closed eyes, filming 
through with a dull shine just before dawn. Chirin responded, 
spreading his body in a lovely arc of a stretch that swept tingles of 
pleasure over him. His eyelids gave a tired push, pulling his eyes 
open for a new day. Scooching towards the circle with the pebble, he 
got the pebble into the new apricorn shell. It had helped to protect 
him and the whole flock last night, just like he had asked it to help 
calm the spirits that slithered restlessly in the ground. He had a 
new pebble friend.

"Good morning Chirin," said Selden, already staring at him wide 
awake, his faces inches from the older ram's. Chirin gave him a good 
morning touch of his nose. Around them many others still dozed, 
though a Flaaffy and a mareep stood out in the grass, nibbling on 
breakfast. 

Chirin didn't see Azalea anywhere. Well, she usually did get up 
before him. He got up and stretched each leg out, shaking off the 
last of sleep and waving his tail. "Did you see Azalea anywhere?" 

"No," said Selden. Chirin decided to go look for her down in that 
grass, which was tall enough to swallow a mareep from view. He 
bounded down there with Selden behind him.

"Azalea?"

No one answered.

Fluffy woke up and peeked around. Chirin was calling
for Azeala. She heard a Rattata sqeak as it ran by,
"Reep in water!" Fluffy got up and walked over to
Chirin. 
"Chirin, did you here that Rattata?" Fluffy asked.

***

Yuoa got up and made her way to Cleomie and the
others.
"Hi Cleomie. I havn't seen that freak Azeala. Did you
do something to her? And, I wanna take care of that
silver freakshow Fluffy. She is a freak, and the flock
needs no freaks. I think it should be normal. You
know, normal Flaaffy and Mareep. And that Karama...
She is the freakiest of the lot. I mean, a WATER
mareep? That is HURT by electricity? And she is a
snoop, so I hear... Hey, what will Chirin do if, you
know, he finds out that Azeala is gone? Is she dead? I
do hope so..."

Cleomie raised a brow at the chatty mareep, whom she sort of knew, 
like she sort of knew everyone back at the farm. She waited until 
Yuoa was done. "Eh...sure. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful." She looked at 
Tearose and winked; Tearose just turned away and giggled. "Yep, oh, 
yeah, FREAK mareep. Listen. Fluffy, uh, KILLED Coddy."

The smile wiped off her face.

* * *

"Azalea?" Chirin poked through a tuft of grass shooting over his 
head. He breathed small spurts of frost, white flashes that barely 
lived past his lips as he made his way to the grazing mareep and 
mokoko, an orange light and a blue light side by side. The mareep 
turned around, and the mokoko stood up on her two legs as he came 
over. 

"Good morning," he said although it was still before sunrise. "The 
wind sings for Haru again today. Have you seen Azalea?"

They shook their heads, "Sorry," and continued chewing. Chirin grazed 
some himself, still pushing down the worry budding inside him. His 
thoughts wandered back to where he had gone last night--Pharos. His 
old home was still frozen in time, back in the heat of the year, with 
the days spent high on the inland slopes where it was cooler, from 
which the distant sea could be seen. Summer berries shriveled at the 
feet of heated rocks, laid there to placate the many beasts that 
wanted pharamp blood.


***

Karama got up and walked around a bit. Where was
Azeala? She didn't normally leave Chirin...
"Reep? Reepuu?" Karama said nervously.


"Maa, reep." He brushed against her side in half a hug. Her being 
there comforted him, as if Azalea couldn't be far off. "Did you see 
Azalea," he said, although he somehow already knew she had not.

What were the spirits trying to say to him? They were rising up from 
his stomach like cud, building on a voice that had uttered its first 
whisper when he had awoken just before, to find Azalea already gone. 
He wandered back towards where he had slept and sniffed around, 
finding only the comforting cloak of mareep-smells, of wool and sweat 
and everything else they were made of. Where would she have gone? He 
recalled that morning when he had followed her track through the 
misty rain to find her staring intently at the busy Spinarak. He 
headed out towards the woods. Would she have gone this way?

"Wait for me!" said Selden.

Chirin came back out when he smelled no trace of her beyond where 
they had wandered last night. She wouldn't have gone far in any way 
unless there was something wrong. But--wouldn't he smell blood? 
Wouldn't he have heard her scream? Of course he would have, of course.

He tried not to think about some evil being hoisting her up in sticky 
silk and dragging her away, bound in silence. The spirits had powers 
and they had beaten her down before...

He had only just awoken. They needed to give it some more time and 
give the search a chance.

Most of the sheep had risen to graze, munching along in a loosely 
shoaling group over the grass. Chirin filled his mouth with the tasty 
grass but it slid down his throat without much enjoyment. What he had 
imagined would be a beautiful day of playing was not beautiful until 
Azalea came back. He cropped up more grass, trying to enjoy it, but 
with Azalea not here and all sorts of fears haunting him now, he 
wasn't even hungry anymore. Draw a form? Plead the spirits? Not yet. 
He was sure she'd been sleeping right against him last night. How 
could an enemy just snatch her away without alerting a single nose or 
ear of the whole flock? How could any *fleah* enemy do it...

He looked around at the flock, seeing how peaceful and content they 
seemed for the most part--they were already blended together after 
having only met last night. This should be making him happy. He 
should want to fill his mouth with grass and run and skip beneath 
Watakko brightening--and play Denrai...

The little voice inside him grew into a scream that said it had been 
too long.

"I'm going to look for Azalea down that way," he said to Karama and 
Selden, pointing with his tail towards the grasses up north. "Maybe 
she went up there...do you want to come help me look?"

~

Fluffy curled up and went back to sleep. 

***

Karama walked up to Chirin and said, "I'm sure that we
will find Azeala."

"I'm sure too," said Chirin, tears rivering down his cheeks. "Thank 
you so much...I know I shouldn't be crying but I'm so worried. We 
have to look for her. We...Let's look up that way."

He headed north through the grass, still yet to sweat with morning 
dew. He licked his apricorn for a little more luck and suddenly 
wondered if he would ever be able to give it to her. Enemies all over 
the place, of every kind...

"Just between us, I'm scared," he said, picking his way around some 
plants gone to seed, sporting nasty little burrs. "I'm afraid 
something got her like what got me that night by the Quagsires."

He glanced around, as if the dark ghost was watching and growing 
angry at words whispered about it.


***

Yuoa looked at Cleomie.
"So, what happened to Azeala? Something bad, I do
hope...!" Yuoa said savagely.


Ivy snorted, turning away from Yuoa..but smiled broadly once she had done so. Azalea was GONE! That would mean at the least that she wouldn't be hanging off of him every second! 

"Yeah. Well, lotsa enemies round these parts you know. And she always 
had some bad habits, like wandering all over the place alone...they 
were bound to do her in, poor thing. You know I always hated her 
before, but now that she's gone...it's really sad." Cleomie plopped 
down in the grass chewing cud, looking thoughtfully at the 
ground. "Kinda scary when you think about it. A mareep's gotta be 
careful."

Ivy looked back, the grin wiped from her face "Poor thing...she should have been more careful really. I liked her about as much as the rest of us, but..."

Cleomie got up, munched her way over to Ivy, blinked her tail and 
rolled her eyes. 

"Yeah..." Cleomie sighed wistfully, looking up at the sky as if she 
were thinking deep thoughts.

She winked at Ivy and leaned in real close.

"Fluffy next," she whispered. "Now we know how to do it."

Yuoa nodded.
"Yeah, shame though, you must admit, that those
Ursaring didn't even manage to fry Fluffy to a crisp.
Tsk-tsk," she said, chewing her cud and glaring at the
sleeping figure that was Fluffy. "Argh... I hate her,
she killed Coddy, and I say we do away with her... How
though...?" Yuoa said quietly so only Cleomie could
hear her.
Fluffy was still curled up, sleeping.
Karama followed Chirin, keeping her eyes peeled for
any sign of Azeala.

"Well, you could start by not breathing on me while I'm trying to 
eat," said Cleomie sweetly, lifting her head from the grass.

* * *

Chirin knelt where he was, whispering he was sorry, then got up, 
searching for something he could give to make peace with the dark 
thing of Gonga. There had to be something.

"Selden?" he called, seeing the lamb was not with them. "Selden!"

Just when Chirin had thought that Selden had gone the way of Azalea, 
he heard the lamb give a whimpering bleat. Without another thought he 
raced towards the cry. Was Selden okay? Had he found Azalea?

At the edge of the forest Chirin found Selden laying on the ground. 
He had somehow gotten tangled in a bit of Caterpie silk and his front 
leg was stuck to his chin. At his feet lay the shell of a pink 
apricorn, cut in half and carved hollow, bearing several toothmarks.

"I want one like you," he sniffled. "But I got stuck."

"Oh, Selden." Chirin licked the salty tears off the lamb's 
cheek. "Here, let me help you get out of that and we can make it just 
as good as mine!"

The task distracted him momentarily from Azalea's disappearance...but 
once, while he was tugging the necklace over Selden's head, he looked 
around his shoulder, thinking she was right there.

"Azalea!" Chirin ran hard, galloping without a care for enemies. He 
ran wide circles, flushing Pidgeys and Natu from the tall 
grass. "AZALEA!"

A spearow shrieked from high in the sky, followed by the distant, 
distant caterwaul of a Nyuura, on the edge of his hearing. The scream 
of his own voice echoed inside him, never dead. He flopped down, 
sobbing, all the while knowing he had to pull himself together. Would 
Azalea want to see him this way? Would he get any closer to finding 
her?

"Maybe we should split up...maybe...and search faster like that." He 
looked at Karama and hoped he hadn't frightened her. "I'm sorry. I 
just...I know I'm getting too worried too fast. Azalea's got to be 
somewhere close."

Chirin came back from the run up in the north fields, out of breath 
but still running hard. It seemed his legs could not stop moving till 
they brought him to Azalea. "Azalea's missing!" he bleated to the 
flock. He went through all the motions of an alarm, sparking from 
head to toe, driving a bolt into the sky as Phos breathed pink light 
up from the east. A morning was not a morning without her.

Cleomie looked up with a mouth full of grass. She waited to answer 
before swallowing. 

"It's just morning. Give it time, and stop making like you've seen an 
enemy, you'll scare everyone."

"I'm sorry," he said. "Very sorry. But Azalea would never just leave 
this way. I'm so worried. I think we should do a run of lights for 
her."

He looked at the tree they had falled asleep under, an aspen standing 
just past the forest's edge. That tree must have seen what had 
happened. 

Energy filled his chest, spreading to his legs and he burst off in a 
run for the tree. He knelt down before its root feet and began to 
speak to it.

"Quiver-tree with the Denryuu-yellow leaves, quiver-tree who feels 
morning through her smooth bark and shedding branches, please give me 
a sign. Did you see, did you hear, did you smell Azalea last night. 
Do you know what happened?"

He rubbed his cheek against the slim, straight trunk, and tuned all 
his senses to the air, sky and ground, watching the patterns of the 
aspen's falling leaves. Now was when the tree would speak to him.

He watched the patterns played by the falling leaves as they slid 
past his vision in their first and last flight. Each leaf only got 
one chance to dance.

A strange shimmer shone in him from inside, like a chaos trying to 
coalesce but failing. Chirin thought that he was moving; he shook his 
head and looked at himself. He was not. The feeling passed as quickly 
as it had come, as quickly as the leaves fell and landed. The tree 
had spoken. 

But he still didn't know where Azalea was. He let his hoof stroke the 
tree once, slipping down to land back beside his other one. "It's 
okay that you don't know," he said. "Trees must sleep too."

Selden was nibbling some grass nearby. Everyone else had calmly 
continued feeding. This was a new day for them, the start of a 
calmer, surer life, the life they had traveled so long and hard for. 
Chirin looked at them a long time, but he still couldn't eat.

"I have to go look for her," he said to Selden. "Because I know she's 
not dead." Was THAT what the tree had tried to say? For in the 
shimmering instant he had felt very alive, muscles hard like bone and 
all awash with an inner light. "Yes. She is not dead, her light 
shines in this realm still and I'm going to find her."

"But where?" said Selden.

"I don't know. Maybe the Quagsires--but they're so far away now. 
We're out of reach of them from here, even Burble said. And I get the 
feeling it is separate from them. That thing was after me once and if 
it came so close again, I would have felt it. We had a connection and 
I think we still do."

"So...where?"

Chirin searched his memory for a place that would give him answers. 
Back before the Quagsires, before the hill in the storm, before the 
farm, before... The lake.

But what about Selden? The lamb clearly expected to accompany him and 
he would not be safe. This was not Selden's search, or anyone's but 
his. The others were just glad that the spirits had spared them to 
live and grow here. That they had lost only Azalea must seem a 
blessing. Chirin should not feel angry or frustrated that they did 
not seem to care all that much. 

"Wherever I go to look for her, you have to stay here Selden. But 
don't cry...no...you'll only make me cry..." Chirin licked the single 
tear from Selden's face. "I'll be coming right back! I will! With 
Azalea. And then I can be here with you and everyone forever."

Selden sniffled, then hiccupped. "Forever?"

"Forever."

The lake. When he reached the lake he must find those many magical 
beasts who knew far more than he did. At least one of them would 
know. Calima had accompanied him from the lake, it semed to be her 
home, and look at all the magic she had picked up, even if it had 
been the wrong kind. As he thought about he rolled around warmer and 
warmer on the idea. 

"I don't want you to go," said Selden. "I'll be sad."

"I'm sorry, Selden. I'll be sad too, I don't want to leave you 
either, you're my dear dear friend in light." He hugged Selden with 
head and neck. "But I'm going to have to go to dangerous places to 
find Azalea. I wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"But--you could get hurt." Selden's face curled into crying.

"I won't get hurt, I promise," he said, wondering when he was going 
to stop making unkeepable promises. "I'm big now." And this was his 
search. "You have to promise to stay here while I'm gone. I'll only 
be gone a little bit. And look--you have an apricorn shell just like 
mine. That means that a little piece of me is in there, and that part 
of me will always be right against you, right next to where your 
heart beats. So..." he said in Selden's round little ear, "you 
promise?"

"I promise," said Selden, giving Chirin what he hoped was a sincere 
little smile.

As Chirin walked in among the others, feeling a little better to eat, 
he wondered if he was being too hasty. But could he really stand here 
nibbling grass while Azalea was so obviously gone? Grass grew where 
he was going and he realized that he would never feel at home here, 
unless he came back with her.

Looking around at the mareep he had led here brought a pain up inside 
of him. How would he tell them?

Maybe he would give it a little more time. What if Azalea had only 
wandered way far afield, pursuing some curiosity that had captivated 
her amazing mind? Azalea really was amazing.

So far away that she had not heard his loudest bleats and his loudest 
bolts? Or, if she had heard them, been unable to give an answer?

Chirin fired another one up. "AZALEA!"

The other sheep whipped up their heads, a row of sparks doing the 
wave through the flock. Two or three bolted a few paces down the 
field before realizing it had only been him. "I'm sorry," he said, 
his voice cracking, as they circled back into the flock.

"Chirin, Chirin," said an older ram's voice, one beginning to deepen. 
Rye the Flaaffy ram was coming over to him through the grass. "I know 
it's a shame she hasn't turned up yet, but...well... try not to 
panic. There's still time yet."

"I know," he said, feeling more foolish and yet more desperate. A 
string inside his *denki* was pulling tighter with every heartbeat 
and no bolt he threw up seemed to squelch the storm.

~

Karama rolled around a bit. She curled in a ball
and rolled around a bit, like a rollout attack. She
was practicing it, as she might need it and it was her
strongest attack. She rolled around a bit more,
quicker and quicker. She stopped after a while and
shook her head. She had gotten a bit dizzy, and the
world was spinning before her. She got up a, wobbling
a bit. She made her way towards Chirin. She shook her
head again and the dizzines went away.
"Are you going somewhere Chirin? If you are, may I
accompany you please?" Karama asked. She looked up at
the sky, and then straight ahead. She watched a
Bellsprout that was nearby, she watched its graceful
movements, like it was dancing. Karama sat down,
watching the plant Pokemon put on a graceful ballet,
or so it seemed. Karama sighed dreamily, wishing that
she knew such graceful movements.

~

Chirin had grazed apart from the other mareep, feeling set apart from 
them and their newfound contentness. Their group was a circle 
closing, sealing up into a whole again, but he stood outside of it 
now. 

He sniffed about, looked about--but everything seemed to lack luster. 
The clouds grazing by in the sky did not show him shapes. The waving 
grass did not beckon him to roll with it. Phos did not comfort him.

He stood and watched Karama with curiosity. She seemed to be playing, 
rolling in the grass, but in a different way than he often did. There 
was more intent and purpose to her movements, as if a goal lay behind 
the rolling. It made him realize how often he did things on the flick 
of an ear. 

He realized that the longer he waited the more danger Azalea might be 
in. Once the *burakos* got their thorns in you, they could torture 
you in this world and beyond. Stopping under the aspen tree, he 
looked up at the myriad yellow leaves, casting a fiery golden hue on 
him and the ground the tree shaded. A pair of Pidgeys, colored happy 
in the branches, cooed to each other. Fall was when leaves made light.

How could the leaves be so happy, when he was so sad. Not wanting to 
hear or see the Pidgeys he left the tree and stepped out towards 
Karama, who was making her way over to him. 

"I am leaving," he said. "Now. Only--I'm not sure if you want to 
come." He cocked his head, wiggled his ears and gave Karama a good 
look, walking over to her side and sniffing her neck. She was young, 
but to young for him to make stay, as Selden was. She was at the 
place in her life when her light-path became her own to follow. 
But... "I would never forgive myself if you fell in danger. I--" He 
looked around in a shivery lift of his wool. "I'm going to a faraway 
place, and it's going to be very dangerous. If you want to come, I 
can't stop you. But I don't want you to get hurt. I don't know what 
I'd do." 

He took a deep breath. "I think I'm cursed. The *burakos* won't leave 
me alone--they've been out to get me ever since I lost my flock. I 
fear that they won't give up until they finally get me--by my soul." 
He looked straight at her, showing his tear-wet cheeks. "I'm so 
frightened--that the dark got Azalea too. I'm going to a place where 
I might get answers. It's all I can think of."  He was afraid to make 
a form, afraid to even do a runnng of lights, with the flock around. 
Leaving them might be good for everyone, now that he thought of it. 
Why hadn't he realized before that he must be cursed?

"I really think I'm cursed," he sobbed. "I can't stop you from 
following me. But this isn't something you need to do--it's something 
I need to, because Azalea is a part of me. She is in my heart."

He dug at a stone in the dirt, tapping it gently and enjoying the 
little sound and feeling it made on his foot. "So I guess I'm going 
to find Azalea and get help for taking away the curse. I've tried 
everything myself, but it just isn't enough."

Karama nuzzled Chirin, and said softly, "I do not care
if you are cursed or not, I will go with you, as I
want to help you find Azeala, I liked her too."
Karama smiled at him, her blue eyes shining with
excitment. "And if we do get in trouble, I could use
my rollout attack. The more I roll, the stronger the
attack becomes. Watch," Karama said, using rollout for
a while in a cirle, being careful to avoid the other
Pokemon. She stopped and walked over to Chirin.

The sight of Karama rolling in a silver ball made him laugh. It felt 
good. He wasn't sure how effective it would be as a defense, but... 
At any rate his *denki* was nothing to laugh at anymore. Like his 
mama had said would happen, he was receiving the power of his 
ancestors jolt by jolt as he grew. 

For a moment he ran towards Karama, intending to play, but he stopped 
before taking two steps. Now was time to prepare to go on a great 
journey. There were things he had to do before they left. 

"Thank you so much, I'm glad you still want to help. Azalea would 
want it too. But now... We have to say goodbye, and then prepare," he 
said. "Rye is leader now, so I don't have to worry about that. I 
just...need to say good bye to everyone, first."

Several hugs and nuzzles later he felt a little better; they all 
seemed to know he would come back eventually. "You have lived through 
so much that I know nothing can strike you down," said Petunia. "I'll 
be here waiting for you...as fall comes. This fall or next fall."

Chirin pondered the look in her still-brown eyes and realized what 
she meant, and it was something he had never really thought about 
much. But he knew like she did that he was going to evolve 
soon. "Haru whispers to the mareep," his father had once said, "he 
speaks to the flaaffy and roars to the ampharos."

"I will be back," he said.

He felt much sadder coming over to give Selden a last hug. Strangely, 
Selden wasn't crying anymore and his small smile and fond rub of his 
cheek against Chirin's, said that he had begun to accept it.

"Have a safe journey," said the young mareep.

Chirin's tail flowered with sparks and he leaped and ran a sudden run 
of lights, or light, until Selden took up running by his side.
"Beacons...Denryuu..." He gasped the words out as his hooves 
thundered on the ground.

Karama ran after Chirin as he broke into a run. She
ran after him, staying at his side. She was just as
fast.

Chirin let himself slow to a trot them stop. "Now..the flock is 
protected..." he panted. He shook his head, feeling alive. "I 
feel...I feel...the lightning inside." He smiled at the staring 
flock. "It is time to sing, and then we'll be going.

"*Deep in the dark there comes a light

Phos, Phos, Light of Sight.

He gave the oldest ones this might

Phos, your gift, breaks the Night.

Crack the clouds with the spirits' song 

And dance through my *denki*, make me strong

On our journey wide and long,

We shine our light, it will come out right.*

Chirin faced north. "I will not fall in the shadows, I will race to 
the sky blessed by the First Light! Karama, come! Goodbye, everyone," 
he said, as a jump escaped his body, "Meriiiipu!"

He took off at a run but quickly slowed, so he wouldn't lose Karama. 
Judging by her running her light, though, her legs were strong and 
quick and her feet kissed by Pikachus.

Karama sang along with Chirin, then followed him as
they headed north. 
"Chirin, do you think we will see any of your old
friends on the way?" Karama asked. "What about... the
Nidoran Calima?"
Karama stopped in her tracks. She looked furious with
herself. As if Chirin needed reminding of that!
"Sorry Chirin, I do not think you need reminding of
that..."

Chirin, heading over where the land bowed down and then up again to a 
small cluster of boulders, looked at Karama and spoke softly.

"How did you know Calima was my friend?" 

He recalled vaguely that Karama had said she'd known Calima...but 
how? And when? Something told him that those unseen ones who stroked 
Calima's spiny back had touched Karama too. "I...now I remember, you 
said you met her. I hope she's doing okay, but be careful near her. 
She carried a great shadow that was more than she or I could hold 
away. But, it's fine you mentioned her, you don't have to say sorry. 
I wonder too if I'll meet her."

He picked up to a trot again, just for the feeling of covering a lot 
of land, of stretching his legs and feeling his body's rhythms soar. 
Chirin arrived by the rocks, which were much larger than they'd 
looked. 

He sniffed around, checking to make sure it wa safe. He circled the 
rocks. 

"For my journey I need to make a form. I will make a form and try to 
look into the future. And since I can't do it, my ancestors must 
help. If you want to, you can help me look for things to make colors 
with. Red and purple berries, green leaves or grass..." He 
giggled. "Brown's easy," he said, picking his foot out of soft mud he 
had just stepped in. 

Chirin smelled urine scents on the stones, old but still unsettling, 
left by enemies in their endless struggles to guard hunting places. 
Ah, by Phos he was sure glad to be one of the Denryuu, who got their 
nourishment through grass and leaves and never had to eat the flesh 
of others to live. He at last found a face on one of the large rocks 
that was free of hunt marks. He gave it a rub with the side of his 
body. Now he sought out a sharp stone, along with the other things.

"When we get to the lake...what are you going to do? Are you going to 
stay with me and come back when I find Azalea..." if he found 
her, "or will you stay there? Lake Eerie is a very strange place. 
That's where I'm heading. It is a lot like the spirit realm, very 
full of strange and odd things. I remember how it felt almost...not 
real."

Karama bowed her head and her ears and tail drooped
slightly. She felt guilty for metioning Calima in
front of Chirin. She would not mention her again. She
sniffed and looked around for any signs of something
colorful. She had trouble with some colors, as she was
not very smart in that department.

Chirin waited for Karama's answer, but none came. Seeing her sadness 
and not knowing why, he sidled over her, giving her a nudge. She was 
probably just worried about the trip...Seeing that she was looking 
for things to use, he decided to wait to see if she cheered up a 
little. He wished he could reassure her that everything would be 
okay, but he had already given her every warning he could. It was 
dangerous. Only his need to smell Azalea again and see her beautiful 
tail light glow that special way, kept him going. 

He collected a few precious dark berries to use. They were all he 
could find. He sat before the rock and wondered whether he should 
make the fabled line of Pokemon following Phos's Light when he had 
carried it back above ground. Back home they had had a giant form 
that lined the twisting passage inside and outside of Pharos, leading 
all the way to the sheltered peak where lights were beamed at night 
over the sea.

He decided against it. He did not want to encourage anyone, good or 
bad, to follow him, and if he drew Phos, he might project too much of 
himself into it and cause himself to be a beacon that picked up more 
followers. Chirin had enough things following him.

Leaning up on the rock with one front foot, he clutched the sharp-
edged rock in the other and labored to scratch a white line on the 
gray rock. He realized he was starting a little high and that this 
was going to be a big one. He had to get down, walk a pace and lean 
up on the rock again to complete the wavy line that was the long 
trail they would be going.

He began a picture of himself, but at this point he dropped the rock 
three times. A sign. He drew Karama instead, becoming increasingly 
worried that the spirits were trying to tell him something, that the 
very rock was causing the pebble to slip from his front foot. 

Chirin wanted to draw the two of them spreading light ahead of them, 
radiating light...and above and around them, good genies and other 
beings who would protect them. He danced his way back into the great 
big form, using the movement of his body as he spread lines around, 
creating. As he was scribbling white into the rock, leaving a space 
for himself, he dropped the rock again. It was probably a lot to do 
with the shape of the pebble, which was too wide and round but had 
been the only good one he could find. He cropped some grass in his 
mouth, dropped it by the rock where he worked, took it in his front 
foot doubled up, and began rubbing it in to make the hills green.

Just when he thought his arm was going to fall off, something 
suspended it, a power lifting from the ground and raining from the 
cloudy sky, converging on himself. He realized he was in the company 
of many spirits and seized up, wondering what they were trying to say 
to him. Chirin wandered away from the rock and faced the silent field.

"Mama. Chenja. Lararu," he whispered. Or, "Crazy-Lights, is that you?"

That was when he looked back at the rock, and the rock began to fade 
to white. Chirin dropped the rock and tried to run to it, but his 
front feet struck his knees. He tumbled backwards, staring at a sky 
of gray clouds that showered him with light. Instantly he remembered 
the electric ghost binding and dragging him, but this was another 
electric ghost, one of Light.

"Karama..." he said, struggling to get up and realizing something was 
definitely different. His voice sounded a little different. Toddling 
forward he took his first upright steps into a pure white haze. 

A ghost hand wiped the light away. Chirin stood looking around at the 
same rock, the same field, and the same sky. Watakko, Phos and Mother 
Megga had not changed. But he had. He ran bleating to the rock and 
put two pink flipper-like hands on it. He looked at them, sniffed, 
and moved them. They were his. 

Evolved? Now? He looked at himself, down at his feet (which seemed a 
little big) which now planted both hooves and heels on the ground. A 
gentle breeze felt over him, fondling him like it never had. He felt 
exposed and realized that he had lost most of his wool. With his new 
hands he felt his face. It didn't seem all that different, besides 
being pink. It now matched the apricorn that still hung around his 
neck.

His belly was all white and he felt a little strange standing way up 
high like this, exposing it to the elements. He bent down on all 
fours, just to see if he could, and found it still quite comfortable--
perfect for grazing along, although not for walking or running or 
anything. He walked in a circle, suddenly sad. If he had still been a 
part of his flock, they would have begun the ritual of his standing- 
up tonight, and sung the Song of Blue Light for him.

He shook off the sadness. The spirits had definitely spoken to him! 
They had evolved him now so he could complete this form. Looking back 
at the rock he realized he could now reach high enough.

But...he took a good look at that full expanse of grass. One little 
thing first.

"Karama, look at me!"

He dived and rolled in a patch of short, thick grass, close to 
swooning as the sensations of the soft blades touched his now bare 
skin. He squirmed and writhed in sheer enjoyment. "*Mokoko! Mokoko!* 
Ahhhh," and he rolled in clover, over and over and over.

Karama turned around to look at Chirin. She stared
at him, open mouthed. She closed her mouth quickly.
"Y-you evolved into Flaaffy! Congratulations!" Karama
said happily.

Chirin, lying with his legs kicking in the air for the sheer pleasure 
of it, laughed and blushed. He reached up and hugged her. 

Suddenly sobering, he let her go and smoothed the silver wool on her 
back, wool he no longer had on his own back. He only wished Azalea 
could be here to see him. And as great a gift as this was from his 
ancestors he would have been even happier to one, just one, tiny sign 
from them that she was okay. 

He smiled. "Thank you." He would make up his own song of Blue Light 
tonight, and maybe Karama could sing it for him. He wanted to go 
through the ritual properly, but that would take a few days of time 
that he did not have. When he got Azalea back, then there would be 
time. Until then a song sung by two denryuu out here alone would do. 
The ancestors had kissed him with blue light today. So they had to 
know he could not afford to do the full rites of passage.

Thinking of getting Azalea back roused his new blue light to a 
deeper, richer tint, visible even in the daylight. The sudden 
feelings inside of him told him his new body needed no ritual to know 
that it had indeed gone through a rite of passage.

He broke off to graze, getting used to the new position and 
musculature. He bolted down some grass and returned to working on the 
form, singing a song to himself as he worked. "Karama," he said, "You 
can help if you like." He was glad to see that, at any rate, whatever 
sadness she had been feeling before was vanished now, wiped away like 
poison by his evolution.

"Sure, I guess I could help, if you want me too that
is," Karama said timidly.

Chirin smiled and stroked her back again, hoping to help her shake 
off the sudden uneasiness she seemed to be feeling. Was it because he 
was suddenly so much bigger than her? Or was it something else?

"It's both of our journey, so you could have a part too in the form," 
he said, "to put a part of you in it. Here, you can help smoosh some 
grass on here and make it green. Like this." He rubbed some grass on 
with both hands, relishing how much easier it was to do in this new 
form. "Spirits of the grass quicken our steps. Light, shine," he drew 
white lines again with the pebble, "light our path and scare away the 
dark. Ancestors of mine, who spoke to my blood today...please help 
keep me safe from what lies ahead."  He stepped aorun Karama back to 
the southward edge of the rock and drew a bunch of small mareep and 
flaaffy figures. He encircled them with light. "Keep the flock safe 
while we're gone."

With berries and grass and mud he embellished it, growing excited and 
full of energy, the rustled-up feeling he always got when he made 
these. How he had missed it, while he had been afraid. By the bushes 
not far off grew some of that spicy grass called houndsbane and he 
ate some. He spread some around the form and lay it at the foot of 
the big rock. 

He stood back and looked at what he had made. Tears welled up, and 
Watakko and Mother Megga all seemed to sing, growing more vivid in 
color and smell. Chirin sat down and looked at the rock. He realized 
this was the first time he was, in fact, sitting down, properly 
anyhow. It felt nice and secure, his legs in front of him and his 
tail back behind him, keeping a light out for sneaky enemies. He 
examined one of his feet close up, running the end of one flipper 
along it, seeing and feeling how it had changed.

He wished he knew how to read the future. He had not been taught any 
of the higher magic powers that Chenja and Lararu had known and what 
they had done to see the future had always been to him a mystery of 
thrown stones and seashells. Chirin also wanted to learn how to 
contact the soul of someone lost. Perhaps at the lake someone would 
be able to teach him these things. Until then he must use what he did 
know, and what had worked so far for him. 

He took the new pebble out of his new apricorn and, saying, "Be a 
beacon," threw it down. When it bounced and rolled to land right 
against the stone he'd drawn the form with, he knew that it must mean 
something about his journey. Something...He looked up at the numerous 
clouds, huddled up there in the sky. A flock...? 

"A flock...the form I made...Something about the flock I left?"

He had been looking more for a message about Azalea, but...

"Maybe Azalea returned to the flock while I was gone??"

He turned and ran down the field, but as he ran down, someone was 
running up.

Selden gave a frightful bleat as he collided with Chirin's front. The 
lamb darted up and danced away. They stood staring at each other. 

"Selden! What--are you doing here?"

The lamb's little brows knotted. "Chirin?"

Chirin remembered. "I evolved, it's me. Selden, it's so nice to see 
you, but shouldn't you be back with the flock?" He couldn't 
resist. "Did Azalea come back?"

"No," said Selden. "And--I'm coming with you."

"But Selden, it's going to be so dangerous," he said. He wanted to 
take Selden back, but he had already cemented the beginning of this 
journey. Doubling back might even anger the spirits that he had 
called on the help of. But if Karama was coming, why not Selden? The 
lamb had grown and was not too much smaller than her. Together, they 
would make a little flock. And, most of all, looking into the little 
sheep's eyes he knew he could not make him go back.

"You are with me now," said Chirin. He gave Selden a long tight hug. 

"Come with me, I'm going to add you to the image I made on the rock," 
he said, leading him over to Karama and the rock with its sweeping 
big picture. He turned the shape of Selden with the flock, into just 
another mareep, by adding some size. He redrew Selden next to himself.

"See, there you are now. This light is your path too now."

"Who's that next to me?"

"That's Karama."

"Oh. Who's that other one next to me?"

"That's me."

"That's you little," said Selden. "You got big and pink now like 
Petunia."

Chirin had rarely felt so dumb. "Mother Megga, you're right!" He 
snatched up the stone and began redoing himself. It was a little 
messy, but in the end he ended up drawing himself as a Mokoko 
silhouetted in light. He realized now why the spirits had pulled the 
rock from his hand all those times. And he knew now that, when he had 
cast that pebble and looked at the clouds, he had seen Selden coming--
he had seen the future.

Karama curled up in a tight ball and started to use
rollout again. She aimed for a rock, one that Chirin
had not drawn on, and she hit it, and it crumbled
away. Karama stopped rolling, and inspecting the
remains of the rock. She spied another one, this one
had drawings on it, of Ampharos, Flaaffy, and
Mareep... And one of them had silver wool. 
Her flock had been here.

"Fla-a-a-aff!"

Still a little awkward on two legs, Chirin ran towards the crack of 
crumbling stone. Karama had already started walking away and he 
almost called her back. But it wouldn't have done any good. The stone 
had already been hurt. 

He remembered that Koko had smashed much more stone, but he had been 
of stone himself. So...did it make a difference? Chirin had never 
thought about it before, all he knew was that he was looking at a 
damaged thing hurt for no reason. He said a prayer to Pharos and his 
great flock of stones ranging over the mountains back home. He knelt 
over the wounded rock and pleaded for it not to call upon the giant 
powers of its brethren to have revenge. "Please...do not be angry. We 
didn't mean to hurt any of you. Please don't hurt us, great stones." 

He backed away and hoped that Karama hadn't seen him. He had a 
feeling she might get angry and he did not want them to fight. But 
Karama was already looking at something else. Chirin ran over to her.

"What are you looking..." He then saw the faded drawing, a form 
scratched out sometime shortly before the storm, judging by the berry 
juice and clay that had run in the rain but still stained the stone. 
It had not been done by anyone he knew. The style was foreign to him. 
But it was a flock of Denryuu, that much was certain. One of the 
mareep figures had lines of light drawn on it, as if its wool shone. 
He ran a pink hand lightly over the rock, in awe. He sniffed it, 
trying to discern any scents the denryuu might have left behind.

"Wow. There was a flock here?"

He had found no droppings around here that were denryuu, not Azalea's 
not anyone's. But then he hadn't started looking around these rocks 
for that yet. Azalea herself had only been gone since last night and 
could not have drawn this.  If a flock had passed by here, which way 
had they gone? He noticed Karama was looking at the rock with much 
concentration, and only then did he realize the connection between 
the silver mareep here and the shining one on the rock. 

"Oh, Karama...do you..."

Karama ignored Chirin, she stared, open-mouthed at
the picture. It had to be one made by her flock.
Although it was hard to remember, Karama seemed to
recall seeing this picture as a lamb. Her mama had
said that it was made when she was born. That was all
Karama remembered of her past. And next to her picture
self, was an Ampharos, with a red light and red
stripes all along her body, and a few blue ones...
Her mother.

Chirin sniffed at the picture of the Ampharos. This part of the form 
had been drawn in a shallow recess, protecting the pigments from the 
weather. He had never seen an ampharos with stripes in his life, but 
anything could exist out there. Crazy Lights himself had a really 
long tail banded with many black stripes...although, Crazy Lights 
wasn't real. 

He wasn't real.

"This is a sign," said Chirin, beginning again. "I wonder who drew 
it. I've never been here before. This part of the form could be years 
and years old. I'm going to look around, maybe Denryuu were here 
recently. If we can find them, maybe they'll know something about 
Azalea."

He poked around the rocks and bushes, sniffing and searching for 
scat, and body scents on twigs and such. He found signs of Rapidash, 
Ringuma, and of course the usual Pikachu-rattata-pidgey and other 
small common pokemon. But no Denryuu. 

Chirin wandered further around the rocks, beginning to look for a way 
to ascend them. Up on top of some of these he might be able to see 
for a while around. Seeing a possible path up, he clambered on a 
scant foothold. His surefootedness took him up the rock, hooves 
gripping cracks and ledges on its rough face. His flipper hands 
helped him grab and reach higher.

It felt almost like he was way back home, for a moment.

"Mama..." Karama said softly, staring at the faded
picture of her mother. Karama sniffled, tears flowing
down her sky-blue cheeks. "Mama... Reep, reepu..."

Chirin climbed up onto the top of the tallest rock. It was cooler and 
breezier up here, and the wool on his head and shoulders waved with 
the tops of the few sapling trees. They were all that stood to block 
his view, and he could see nearly all around. He looked immediately 
back to where the flock grazed, but the hill rose up between them, 
hiding part of the view, and the distant forest hid more from him, 
although he could see further out. They must be in that little niche 
just over the hill, or in the fields past those woods, from where 
Petunia and the others had run to him that night. Chirin scanned all 
the hills and lands he could for Azalea, but he didn't see her. He 
did, however, see other Pokemon. Way out to the northwest, a large, 
brown, furry pokemon lumbered at the edge of a wood, browsing berry 
bushes. A Ringuma. Chirin ran to the other side of the rock and bent 
over it, trying to see Karama down there.

"Ursaring," he called down to her, trying not to call any louder than 
he had to. He wondered if he could defend himself from an Ursaring. 
They hunted alone, with the exception of a mother with cubs, but one 
adult was generally enough. 

What if the Ursaring had got Azalea? No, he would have smelled an 
Ursaring in the area, presuming it had somehow managed to get that 
close to the flock and snatch her away without him *hearing* it. They 
slept by night, and were about the noisiest and strongest-smelling 
enemies there were. Ursarings did not ambush their prey. They did not 
need to.

Chirin's legs shook as he watched it from far, far away. It didn't 
seem to be headed anywhre, and it was far enough away that even if it 
started towards here it wouldn't get there till evening. He and 
Karama had time. Chirin looked around some more, and seeing only a 
few Rapidash and Ponytas, and a Tauros and Miltank herd, he climbed 
back down. Probably the same cattle he had seen coming here a few 
days ago. 

He ran over to Karama to find her crying by the picture. He hugged 
her, as if trying to nuzzle away the tears. This form was clearly 
affecting her. "What's wrong? Has it told you something?" Would 
Karama be all right to travel this journey? he wondered.

Karama looked at Chirin, then back at the picture.
"That...is mama...Mama...reep...mareepu..." Karama
sniffled.

Chirin sat down next to her, rubbing her back. The implications of 
what she had said ran a current through him like electricity. "That 
is your mother?" he said. "Your flock lights these fields?" 

Why hadn't she ever told anyone?

"You--you must miss your flock a lot, I know how that feels," he 
said. "I get sad sometimes when I think of my flock. But--do you know 
where your flock might be? Do you think that you want to go home to 
them?" 

He didn't want to put off his own journey, but if the flock was 
somewhere close he would definitely take a little time to escort her 
to them. How could he not? He burned with questions about her flock 
now that they might be close by...almost as if finding them would 
bring him closer to his own. 

He looked more closely at the picture, realizing something. "Your mah-
mah was painted with fire-stripes there. And blue too! Fire and 
water. This form--must have helped to give her power of those 
spirits." Chirin remembered now the many ways his flock had once 
decorated themselves, bringing into their beings the powers held by 
other pokemon, plants, or the many other beings brought into the 
world by Mother Megga.

Suddenly inspired and thinking of a way to cheer Karama up, maybe to 
bring her more openly out on the subject, he ran to the rock where he 
had left the pigments and things to make his form with. He was now a 
mokoko and much easier to decorate. 

When he returned to Karama he had two reddish-brown dots--reddish-
brown being the closest he could get to red, using clay-streaked soil-
-on his cheeks, like a Pikachu. It wouldd help make them more happy 
and playful. Not to mention quick, which would be good with a Ringuma 
around. They were in danger if it headed this way. Ringuna didn't 
attack a flock of Denryuu but they had been known to attack even 
adults traveling alone.

"Don't be sad," he said. "If you think your mah-mah is close to here, 
maybe we could go find her?"

Karama shook her head.
"If they were close, then I would be able to pick up
their scent... They have long left this place... What
is THAT?" Karama's attention was suddenly focused on a
strange red and white ball. She walked up to it. It
had many scratches and looked like it had been here
for a long time. There was a button on the ball. She
pushed it and, in a beam of white light, an Ampharos
appeared. It was dead. Karama bleated in fear. She
stopped herself from running and she had a closer look
at it. It was a strange silver-white color... It was a
shiny Pokemon!...It was her father.
"P-papa?...Papa dead..." Karama sobbed.

Chirin bleated as the apricorn spouted light. He jumped backwards, 
stretching his spine as if to rear up on an already upright position. 
He shot a bolt backwards on instinct and was surprised at the loud, 
deep boom it made. His evolution had changed not only his body but 
his *denki*.

He stared at the corpse after the light faded, smelling the dead. He 
let Karama run ahead of him. Chirin could not move. He stared at the 
dead form of what had to be Denrai. 

Denrai, dead. But hadn't Denrai lived his life so long ago? Yes, 
stories and rumors scampered about now and then that the ram of the 
moon still wandered the far fields searching for his lost mate, but 
many other stories said he had died on that search, fading into 
moonlight on rippling stems of tall grass.  

And Karama--she was calling this one by a name? Pop-ah? Perhaps this 
was a son of Denrai...

It did not matter how he had appeared, dead, out of an apricorn. He 
had come into their midst for a reason. Chirin wiped the mud circles 
off his cheeks to show respect for the dead. He knelt down before it, 
whispering pleas of forgiveness and songs of sympathy. They had to 
bury him and give him his rites. Chirin desperately tried to remember 
what to do to free a soul from its body. He knew you had to wait, 
just in case his soul was still partly there. A body would move 
sometimes, and performing the rites too soon would tear the soul 
viciously out and make it feel pain. It might even grow angry. If 
Chirin and Karama did anything wrong in the rites for this one, a 
lamb of Denrai...

Chirin-chirin stopped beside Karama, his nose filling with the 
metallic rot-smell. "Do...do you know this ram, and why he has come?"

The body was not smelling really bad yet, the face still looked 
fresh. Chirin had never known the ram, but as he looked at it, he was 
soon crying beside Karama. 

He should not cry for the dead. They were free now and the dead never 
died. But he and his flock had always, always cried for the dead. 

Blinking away the running tears, he saw right near the ram's flipper, 
the apricorn that had bloomed with death. It was white and red...and 
smelled odd. His ears detected electricity within it and he could not 
tell what tree it had come from. there were no apricorn trees around 
these rocks. Clef slept under Mother Megga during the day while she 
was at her fullest, so she had not dropped it. It had come from a 
tree, though, some plant.

Chirin picked the apricorn up and it clicked closed. He held it as he 
nuzzled against Karama, still silently crying. And he remembered--
crying was a way to show that you would never forget the dead, who 
feared being forgotten most of all.

 "Papa...daddy...reeepuu..." Karama sobbed. Her fater
had died, now she worried for her mother, and the rest
of the flock.

Pop-ah, daddee...Were these words or names of others she knew or was 
it this ram's name? She was grieving as if she had known him. How 
could she have known him if he had just been born? Or had he been 
trapped inside somehow and only now released?

Chirin had to pull himself together. They were the only ones here to 
perform the rites that must be done. Chirin looked around nearby for 
a place to bury him. By the rocks--where the old form and his new 
form lived side by side, seemed the place. The tree this apricorn had 
come from, had birthed a dead one, like lambs came out, once in a 
while, dead right from their mothers. But he was a fully grown 
ram...but never mind that. Chirin would probably never understand how 
this had happened and it did not matter. 

He had to make sure this place was pure; he shone his light bright, 
and it lit the area around him even in the overcast day.

"Watakko! Watakko! Rain for us! Rain to keep the children of Bangaa 
away!"

Chirin burst to his feet and, still crying, began to dance. the 
movements came to his body from the spirits, whom he tristed. He did 
not remember anything about hos a rain dance went, but he must do his 
best right now. As he danced he even momentarily forgot the distant 
ringuma, a few miles to the northwest. All he knew we that it must 
rain or Bangaa's children might come, cursing and harming the spirit 
of this ram.

As Chirin hopped, dashed and stooped, waving his tail and bleating 
his tears, a tiny sprinkle of drizzle tapped on the grass and poked 
coolly on his sweating skin. It did not matter that he had been 
smelling imminent rain all day. Chirin knew he was doing the dance 
right, and as he continued, heightening his frenzy, he committed the 
steps and the song, down to the last bleat and shuffle, to memory.

Now that it was raining, Chirin felt safer. He remembered the 
ringuma, though; rain would not inhibit it from traveling towards 
them. Exhausted, he ended the dance with a last bolt towards Watakko, 
thanking the spirits. He could not afford to dance more. He needed 
his strength to begin digging a grave, which would take all day. It 
would postpone his journey to the lake, but he could not leave a dead 
denryuu lying there. Its restless soul might come after him and 
Karama and cause them harm in return for their neglecting him.
They were all he had. 

"Karama, do you know who this is?" he said in the gentle rain, 
kneeling next to the crying ewe again.

Selden had watched Chirin's dance with confusion and wonder, and now 
he sat beside his friend, staring at the ram as if expecting him to 
sit up. Chirin was still Chirin when he sang and smiled, but he 
looked very different, and smelling a tiny little bit different too. 

The big, strange pokemon lying prone on his back did not respond to 
them being here. He did not speak or twitch his ears. And he smelled 
of a smell that Selden didn't like.

"It's going to be okay," said Chirin, sitting behind Selden and 
stroking the lamb's back. Selden liked the feeling. 

He looked up at Chirin's pink face with a serious expression that 
Chirin had never seen on him. Even before Selden spoke Chirin knew, 
just from that look, that he was going to ask something important, 
something encompassing his young mind.

"Can you hear things when you're dead?"

"Of course you can." Chirin hugged Selden. "You never go away, not 
even when you're dead. The dead never die. They live on. They're all 
around us. And this ram is no different. He is leaving his body but 
he is still with us, and he needs our help now. His spirit is out 
here all alone, and no denryuu should ever have to be all alone." It 
was true that many rams often wandered alone for a time, but they 
always came back to a flock. 

Suddenly he remembered that Karama had called this ram "daddee." Was 
that like Dah-dah...father? This ram was silver; she was silver. 

Was Karama the daughter of this ram, the son of Denrai? He looked at 
the ewe, who still cried over the body. He would respect her mourning 
and wait until she was ready to speak. There was work to be done, 
anyhow, if they were to use this rain that had blessed them, to begin 
the rites. 

Chirin walked over to the rock which Karama had said was her flock. 
If this was her father--and what other ram's death would bring such 
heaving sobs from her--then he ought to be buried right near where 
his flock's soul still lived, on this rock. Chirin walked over the 
ground with his tail very low, brushing the grass. "Beacon, I am a 
beacon," he said in a low voice as he shone hiw blue light, making 
sure that it touched every part of the ground where he would work. He 
made sure to touch it twice or thrice, even, for good measure.

Selden ran over and started imitating him. "Hold your tail very low 
and shine it," said Chirin, and Selden did so. Chirin only wished 
there was a live adult here to lend red light, but this would have to 
do. 

In this rain, paint would not stay on and there was no red plume-
grass around to wear on one's head and back, to imitate the form of 
the Feraligatr, whom Marowaks, the children of Bangaa, feared. It was 
not necessary anyway right now, because the rain he had made would 
keep them away for now.

Chirin, satisfied that this ground had been made as pure as they 
alone could make it, knelt and set his flippers to the ground. But 
where his hooves had been somewhat usable for digging, his new 
appendages were completely useless. He got back up and sought out a 
stick, hurrying. When he finally found a couple of them and brought 
them back, it had been too long, and he had forgotten to tell Selden 
to stay on the piece of ground. Dark spirits could have crept in 
while they were gone and it had to be purified again.

At last, making it good again, he began digging with the stick, 
scratching away the grass and hitting soil. The soil was still a bit 
soft from the storm days ago, but he had a long way to go before 
Mother Megga would accept this ram back into her being. His shoulders 
grew sore and he began to sweat. "Selden," he said, a little 
winded, "can you help?"

Selden dug beside Chirin, not sure why they were digging but knowing 
that Chirin needed help. Whatever it was it must be important. 

The ringuma ambled back into his thoughts as he deepened the hole, 
wishing for a brief moment that Calima was here. If that ringuma came 
their way everything would be ruined. They would probably get him 
buried before it came, if it did, but what of the light-vigil that 
must be kept for at least three nights? Who would remain to do it? 
The thought of an enemy's claws blundering all over the place--and 
digging up the body--make him almost sick to his stomach as he 
worked. He must dig it very, very deep, and even that, he feared, 
might not be enough to hide it from a Ringuma. Back home they had 
buried most bodies right near Pharos in the sleeping places, and 
buried them with charms and things to keep an enemy from digging them 
up. Chirin did not remember what they had used or how they had done 
it, to invoke this power. Would Karama know?

The rain, a welcome cool on his heated skin, languished as he dug. He 
took repeated breaks, where he would get up, pace and have a graze, 
but never far from the hole. Because he could not shine his tail in 
the hole and dig it at the same time he had Selden shine his tail. 

"Stay there," he said, going over to Karama again. He scented the air 
and looked out over the green, and then up at the pale mottled sky, 
nervous now that enemies would smell, or see, the body.

This thought led his mind onto a stepping stone to another concern. 
They were not far from the flock, still able to hike back pretty 
quickly. If the Ursaring was coming this way it might head towards 
them. But his concern passed for the most part; Rye was older and 
stronger than Chirin was, and so was Petunia; they were a large group 
that had been living there some time now. Banding together they could 
fend off an ursaring. Chirin, Selden and Karama probably could not. 

"Fee-aaaahh! Feeaaaah!" The raucaus screech of a large bird high 
overhead turned Chirin's face to Watakko. Against the dying drizzle 
wheeled the dark silhouette of a Fearow. 

Chirin looked around for a place to hide the body. But it was no use. 
Fearows could see for miles and this one was circling over them for 
good reason. As the Fearow descended, he stood over Selden and 
Karama, sparking a warning at the large bird. Chirin saw its 
fingerlike flight feathers ruffle individually as it neared them, and 
a whack of its vaguely rank smell filled his nose. 

It lit on the edge of the highest boulder and leered down at them.

"Roooowww!" it scolded.

Chirin stood between it and the dead body. A scavenger could not lay 
its beak on a lamb of Denrai! "Please. I understand we all need 
food...but...this is one of our loved ones. He needs a clear light-
path to the place of spirits."

"Pinfeathers!" said the Fearow. "Aaaaall day, all Niiight I fly! A 
dead body's no use to yooooo! Feaaaaah! I will taaaake the best 
paaaarts only! Then, you can do waaaaat you waaaant!"

Chirin shot another bolt up, another, sterner warning. The Fearow 
rustled its wings as several feathers stood upright on its head. "I 
will fight if i have to. But please, please...I don't want to have to 
fight. I don't want to hurt you. Is there anything else that I can 
do?"

"Yeeeees. Give me the laaaaahhmb instead!"

It flapped several times, lifting off the rock and swinging its feet 
up. With a shrill cry it dived for Selden.

"No!" Chirin dove on top of Selden, sparking upwards. The sparks came 
mostly all from his tail now, with his back denuded by his evolution. 
It gave him greater control.

Feathers rustled just over his head with a ripple of wing's wind, but 
no pain came. But he heard another shriek from the Fearow. Looking up 
he saw it land back on the rock looking much more flustered than 
before. Its feathers stood on end. 

"I'm sorry!" cried Chirin, realizing he had shocked the bird. He said 
it out of genuine guilt along with fear. "But I can't let you hurt 
him!"

"Feaaaah! You cannot take a joke! I'm only trying to get a bite, from 
thaaaat dead meat!"

"He's more than meat! He's sacred!"

"Nooooo meat is sacred! I am hungry! And sooo is my family!"

The brown bird stretched his wide wings and ascended, flapping until 
he caught an updraft. Once well aloft, he began a series of calls. 
Chirin was in deeper dark than he had realized. Whether or not the 
bird's family came to drive them away--and regardless of type 
advantage, the three sheep would be outnumbered--the Ringuma must 
have heard the scavenger's meal cry by now. "Come with me, quick!"

Selden ran after Chirin and took after him too, when he scrambled up 
the rock, forced to go slow even in his hurry. Unable to follow 
Selden waited, bleating fearfully, at the bottom.

"I'll be right down!"

Rock by rock, haul by haul, step by step, at last he crawled up on 
top. Chirin ran over the smooth, now wet rock to the very top and 
looked out. The Ringuma was out of sight, whether gone into those 
southwestern forests, over the hill or in among those bushes he 
couldn't tell. He climbed backwards down the rock again as the Fearow 
continued to cry.

Its spearing voice, crying food, and its wheeling over the spot had 
attracted other birds. Two Fearow circled overhead, and some other 
smaller ones he wasn't sure of. 

Two smaller, black birds--Murkrow--landed a distance from the body. 
They did not attack or move in, only stood there...waiting. Chirin 
stood by the body and hugged Selden and Karama tight, as it dawned on 
him that he would have to flee and leave this body to be picked apart 
and desecrated. It was more than he could bear to think about.

The original Fearow landed on the boulder's top again, where Chirin 
had stood just before. Another Fearow followed, as big as the first, 
followed further by three Spearow. All five birds gazed with 
glittering eyes at the feast to come. 

Chirin felt his inner instinct shifting, from saving this ram's soul 
to saving his own life and that of his friends. Was there any small 
possibility, some way to spare this poor ampharos who had never known 
him in life? He looked at the pharamp's dead tail bulb and knew that 
he must do something he wasn't looking forward to, but he would have 
had to do it anyway. The tail bulb should never be buried. 

He ran over and picked up the somewhat-sharp stone he had used to 
scratch the form on the rock. Behind him the birds closed in on the 
body. Through a flurry of Fearow flaps he ran back, shocking his way 
through. The scavengers cleared out again, waiting for the mokoko to 
leave. 

Knowing that Selden was in the most danger of all, Chirin called him 
to his side again and dove in, keeping the lamb close. Seeing the 
birds settling nearer than before he threw out a spray of sparks, 
which scattered the birds behind him, all of them backing up several 
steps. His hungry avian audience watched with wings occasionally 
flapping, tail feathers rustling, beacks occasionally pecking at 
another who got in front of the direct path to their meal.

He sawed at the end of the tail, trying to hack off the bulb. The cud 
lurched up in his gut as the stone cut the thick, rubbery flesh. 
Chirin closed his eyes and turned his head away as he worked.

"I just need the light, only the light! Then we will go!" he shouted 
to the birds as the stone ground against bone. Chirin was going to be 
sick. Bracing himself, he yanked and twisted at it, knowing that this 
was not the proper way to do it at all. But better that he find this 
light a sacred place to rest and be a house to the soul that had lit 
it in life, rather than be rolled and scratched, secured as some nest 
trinket by any of these birds, who did not understand what it was.

Beyond his ever-sparking tail, sawing stone and the muttering Fearow 
and Murkrow, Chirin now heard Selden bleating.

"I wanna go home...I don't like this!"

To the frantic rhythm of his sawing hand and the discordant melody of 
impatient birds of prey, Chirin whispered a song to any spirits who 
still heard him over this chaos.

*Give me the light
Free it, free it
give me light
free it, feel it
Cut us free
Tear us loose
Take the screams away*

Chirin closed his eyes and shut the sounds from his ears as he 
worked, trying to use his own will to push away the hungry ones. 
Trying, it seemed, to funnel a feeling of light to them. What he 
managed to grasp onto inside of himself, felt like a light that might 
have come from the soft, vulnerable lamb who trembled against him. A 
light that had flickered weak in the cold wind of the many, many 
things he should have not had to see.

Weeping as he hacked at the tail's end and cut it loose at last, 
swallowing back bile, he felt Selden bowl over backwards, somewhere 
behind him. A wing batted his side. Chirin opened his eyes and found 
nothing beside him, but a glance behind him showed a Fearow beating 
upwards with a ball of fluff dangling from her talons. 

Sailing above him, the ball of fluff seemed to sprout a bulbed tail. 
Selden was screaming and kicking. "Chirin! Chirin!"

Chirin did not even think. He flung the light-ball away into the 
bushes. His *denki* rippled like a whip down his spine. He turned 
tail and ducked. He aimed the blue bulb at the rising bird and fired.

His ears jolted at the sound and he felt the impact himself, through 
the ground and in his stomach. Watching over his shoulder, he saw his 
own lightning branch out and connect with the Fearow in a shower of 
sparklings. Over the boom he did not hear the bird scream, but the 
rest of the birds on the ground took wing. Their cries filled the 
quiet that followed the Fearow's drop to the ground.

Smelling charred feathers, Chirin ran to Selden, scooped him up and 
fled the fallen Fearow, who lay being jerked by the strings of 
electrocution. It managed to aim its beak at Chirin's legs, drawing 
blood before the mokoko ran out of range.

Sobbing, he clutched Selden against him, watchin from a distance as 
the Fearow lay recovering, under the guard of the other fearow, who 
must be its mate. Before long both Fearows took to the air, but now, 
with no more electric sheep guarding the corpse, the birds quickly 
reclaimed their ground. Chirin knew he had to go back there and 
retrieve the ram's light before it was too late. And he knew that if 
he had left the area at first fear Selden would not have been hurt. 
Chirin lay the lamb on the ground. He shone his light on him.

"Selden...Selden..." he called. Selden's eyes were still open, but 
when he did so much as turn his head Chirin hugged him with relief, 
crying all over again. 

"Oh Selden I thought I lost you."

"No...You saved me."

Chirin licked Selden's face, smoothing the shock of wool on his head. 
He had to get that light, the birds might poke around in the bushes 
and find it...but was it worth leaving Selden here, injured, even 
more open to another attack? He sniffed over the lamb's little 
body. "Can you get up?"

Selden winced and whimpered as he rose to his feet, favoring his left 
front leg. Chirin felt the leg, trying to pinpoint what was 
injured. "Tell me where it hurts."

"Ow!"

"Can you move the leg?"

"I can move it but it hurts to." Selden buried his head against 
Chirin's rubbery white belly. Just down the field, fearows and 
murkrows squabbled over the corpse, kicking and scolding at each 
other as they fought for dominance in the feast.

Chirin held Selden and rocked back and forth, swayed by a rhythm 
welling up from deep inside him. It hearkened back to those days back 
with Mama, and how she would sit there and stroke his head while he 
nursed from her. So far away he felt from that place now, where 
nothing had been wrong and all had been light. 

"Phos don't let me lose my light
The very light you gave me
Hunger runs strong 
The winds claw and fight
I cry for you to save me."

He tucked the bridge of his nose against Selden's head and sobbed.

The birds' feeding frenzy continued, calming down as the carcass was 
stripped and bellies filled. A few times Chirin wondered what would 
happen if he ran in their face and scared them away with a good bolt. 
He knew that those whom the air spirits lifted were also very 
vulnerable to lightning, although he didn't know why. It was just one 
of those things about the world. But he was clearly outnumbered, 
despite the advantage of a lightning *denki*. It would have done 
nothing but hold them off for a few more moments, and probably get 
Selden or even Karama killed. So while they ate Chirin wandered a 
safe distance away, doubly cautious for enemies--the fracas must have 
been heard for a long way around. He would wait until the scavengers 
were gone and then see if they had had the mercy to leave them the 
ram's light. 

What would he do about find it a sacred place to rest? He had no safe 
cave like within Pharos, made sacred by so many years and so many 
blessings. And he couldn't go back to Pharos. Phos only knew how far 
away it was. He had used to think it was much closer then it seemed 
to be turning out to be.

A couple of Vulpix had joined the group, eager for the free meal. 
Little bursts of flame flashed from their mouths as they shouldered 
in among the more or less satisfied birds to partake of the last 
scraps. The rain had stopped now and Chirin realized he had better 
stay clear until the two foxes were gone. He herded his two charges 
back further away. All they needed to do was see the two mareep and 
get ideas.

Gradually the meat-eaters wandered away, tugging over scraps and 
trotting off with bits and bones. Chirin's fear slowly faded away as 
they did, leaving a hollow inside him that began to fill with 
something else: a calmly burning ember of a rage, dampered with 
sadness and a feeling of helplessness, swmming in a growing nausea. 
He began to shake as he watched two spearows squawk in a tug-of-war 
over a scrap of the denryuu's flesh. They flapped and jerked at it, 
spitting in his ancestor's faces. How many of his kind had ended up 
this way--picked and torn apart like they meant nothing? How could 
the ancestors allow it to happen? Were their souls still prey for the 
souls of the hunters who had killed them? Chirin had had enough scary 
dreams to know that there was danger there just like here--maybe even 
more so. 

Looking on at the feast as it wound down to odds and ends, he 
wondered if his own flock had felt these feelings when enemies had 
driven them from their sacred grounds and committed horrible acts 
right on Pharos itself, spilling their blood on the grass. He 
remembered the old days as all light with no shadow, but maybe it 
hadn't really been like that.

the vulpix had scampered off and the birds had flown. Chirin crept 
back towards the blood-smeared bones of the stripped carcass. Before 
he got there, his stomach rebelled, and he ran off into the bushes, 
vomiting till he felt as empty as the dead ram's ribcage.

"Chirin? CHIRIN?" said Selden, running into the bushes after the 
mokoko just in time to see him bend over and spill out a pile of 
blackish green stuff. Chirin retched a few more times, unable to 
answer as his gag reflex took over. He staggered away and fell to all 
fours, panting and nibbling some fresh grass to clear his mouth out.

"Chirin, are you sick?"

"No, I'm fine, I just...got a little sick. Where's Karama?" He still 
felt weak as he got up. His limbs were limp and trembly. The darkness 
of hunting and the spirits of their enemies had reached him and 
plucked away his strength.

"I don't know," said Selden. 

"Stay right by me, everything's going to be okay. We're going to get 
away from this place." Chirin checked around and walked back out to 
the body, trying to keep in mind that the ram's soul was free now. He 
saw Karama not far off, shaking with sobs. He had to get back to her. 
Chirin rummaged through the bushes where he had flung the severed 
light-jewel. Fear rose up, that one of the birds had found it first, 
but the sweating heat left him cool again when at last his 
flipperlike hands picked up the silvery orb. 

A few small pieces of the ram's flesh, including a chip of bone, were 
still attached to the orb; he ushered Selden quickly away from the 
body, gagging at the smell again, and once they were away he found a 
small stone and began carving out the last of the residue that had 
once been a living, swishing tail. 

He thought of the form he had made here and how the place he had 
thought sacred had now been desecrated. Maybe they could still bury 
the ram's bones and few other remains still lying here, in another 
place. But another, bigger, louder part of him told him to let the 
bones lie.

"Come on...let's just get away from here."

He held the ball close to him, feeling its slight weight, as he ran 
along with the two mareep, and realizing that at least Karama could 
now outrun him. He headed southeast, remembering the ringuma, but no 
matter where he stopped and what he blundered into, he did not feel 
safe. The grasses had become hostile, oppressed by the same beings 
who had taken the place by the rock and the body of the ram for 
themselves.

Azalea, he had to find Azalea. Chirin kept up a trot into the forest, 
his blue tail light casting coolness like water into the dark places 
they ran through. He did not know where this trail would take them, 
but it was away from badness. What if the same spirits who had taken 
her away were after them now--him?

"Chirin...Chir..." Selden limped lamely up to the flaaffy as he 
stopped for a moment, by the river. It was River-High, the same one 
they had crossed once before, but at a diffrent point. And here it 
was much, much stronger. 

Selden stood next to Chirin as all three sheep watched the white 
tossing of the current. The river was angry. "No one go in yet...I 
think it's too dangerous," said Chirin. Neither mareep looked too 
eager for a swim. The young ram took this moment to rest and sniff 
around. He smelled Quagsires, and wondered if he should travel up to 
Moonhome. He decided no--that big and evil dark thing could still be 
waiting for him. Besides, today was the first day in a long time when 
he had been dry. He smelled the plants growing around them; the few 
berry bushes and trees that had fruit were gone dry or rotten, well 
past their best (even though he'd always liked them a little overripe-
-at their juiciest). He enjoyed some leaaves instead, and Selden 
joined him.

"I don't want to go in that river," said Selden. "I can't swim so 
good."

"Oh, I'm sure you've gotten a lot stronger than you were before." 
Chirin tussled the hair on his head. "But none of us can swim that 
good. I'm going to try to find a way we can walk across." He 
sighed. "When I'm done eating. These leaves are just delicious. 
Mmmm..." he lost himself in munching more leaves off the willows 
growing near the stream. Indulging some more, he got a grip on the 
smooth yellowish bark on one of the slim branches and stripped it 
off, chewing the tough bendy stuff. "Mmmmm." He moved on to another 
branch, ripping into the bark to get at the sweet lighter stuff 
inside. "Here Selden, try this, it's soooo wonderful and delicious." 
He ripped off a piece and tossed it down to the lamb before downing 
more leaves and twigs, nipping off the still-soft ends, which were 
the best part. Oh, Phos and Watakko! Rapture, rapture!

A faint but bad smell snapped his reveling off short. Standing on the 
root feet of the willow tree as he ate, he inhaled slowly and 
carefully and caught the scent of Ringuma. He swallowed the last of 
the leaves in his mouth. They were being followed.

"We have to get across the river. Come on, stay with me, we're going 
to be okay."

"What's wrong?" said Selden as he tackled the rocks one by one, 
clambering over after Chirin and Karama. "What happened? I thought 
you said that the tree was good?"

"I smelled an enemy. We just have to get across the river, then we 
can get away and be safe and well." He wanted to say a spirits 
summons of some sort but the songs melted and mixed in his head.

Seeing a possible stepping-stone path, Chirin hopped down onto one of 
the dark boulders at the river's edge, stumbling when it rocked 
slightly. From here lay a path with pieces missing. But they 
themselves might have pieces missing soon if he didn't get them all 
across!

He thought of traveling along the bank, but decided not to. The 
Ringuma would surely hear them no matter what, even with the river's 
voice roaring so loud, but if they got quickly across they had a 
chance. The Ringuma might be on their scent and it might not. If it 
had reached the site of the body it was probably picking over that 
for a bit first. But not much was left and it wouldn't be long before 
it picked up their own trail, which was fresh, and led down a well-
traveled path to water.

Chirin gauged the distance to the first stone. He could have jumped 
farther on four legs. Backing up, he gave himself a couple of 
starting paces before he took the leap over crashing water.

"Maa!" shrieked Selden as he landed just short. He easily scrambled 
up but wondered how Selden would fare. And there was a worse gap 
coming up.

He faced the other two and squatted, holding his flippers out. "Here 
Selden. Jump right over to me. You can do it. You're big and strong."

"I don't know," said Selden, staring at the water instead of Chirin. 
Through the spray of the river's spittle Chirin again smelled the 
Ringuma.

"come on, Selden. Just back up, run and take a biiiig jump. When we 
get across, I'm going to tell everyone a story! Mmm, I think I see 
more willow trees over here! Yummy!"

He thought of striking a bolt up into a tree to throw a limb down, 
which they could then use to help them cross, but he wouldn't be able 
to knock down anything substantial enough to make a bridge, and even 
then, he was the only one able to grip things that way. The river 
would probably sweep it away anyhow. He held out his arms 
again. "Come on, Selden, please!"

"I can't," said the lamb. "Can you come back and carry me?"

"I don't know if I could jump far enough while holding you. You've 
gotten really big and heavy." Oh where was Jumpluff power when you 
needed it. Chirin looked around for any things that could endow him 
with other pokemons' powers, but again, he was kind of in the middle 
of a whitewater river.

"Watakko make us light as fluff!" he shouted, forgetting the Ringuma 
and any other enemies who might easily hear him. "Make our wool puff! 
Make us fly and stuff! I promise, that will be enough! Come one 
Selden, now we have the power of Watakko! You can do it! Jump!"

"Oh...okay..." Selden ran to the edge of the rock...and skidded to a 
stop, still looking out at the water. He began to cry.

Dropping to all fours, chirin sought a place just below the water 
where he might be able to step closer and help Selden across. He 
found only the place where he had first landed. He stepped one foot 
there. Leaning his weight down he managed to hold, but he could feel 
the water's muscles driving against his ankle. "Come on, Selden. 
Quick! Pretend there's a big giant Ringuma behind you!" he said, 
which might not be far from the truth. 

Still crying, Selden took a breath and jumped. He landed just close 
enough for Chirin to reach out and pluck the spluttering lamb from 
the water. He almost fell forward but jerked back, landing with a 
plop on his bum on the dry portion of the rock. He held Selden and 
rocked him, petting his back till he calmed down.

"That was great! Now we only have a little bit more to go." Studying 
the rest of the stepping stones he knew he would have to hold Selden 
and hope his legs didn't let him down. Karama followed with relative 
ease, clearing the leap to the first rock without wetting her hooves.

Chirin's own two hooves kept him steady over the bunch of rocks that 
followed, leading up to the other, larger gap. He watched the water 
arc up and drag white runnels down the rocks, and wished on the tail 
bulb of the ram, which was secured by silk threads around his waist. 
He licked his apricorn and said a whisper to the pebble inside, to 
help calm the waters for the heartbeats he would be in it.

 Waiting further would only make their situation work. Chirin fixed 
his eyes on the large tree ahead of them, backed up and jumped with 
Selden in his arms. As he fell far short, barely holding onto the 
lamb as he forged ahead towards the rock, fighting the enemy water, 
he noticed something on that tree. The claw marks of Rimguma raked 
pale scars down through the bark of the trunk, from about two pharamp-
heights up.

The current tripped his feet out from under him. A rushing face of 
white jumped up at his face. It engulfed him. His hands found nothing 
but water and then his head struck the stone.

He came up coughing and fumbled for the rock, staring into Selden's 
open mouth...was Selden screaming? The rapids drowned out all his 
bleats, leaving only an open mouth and squinted eyes. The alarms of 
tail-lights flashed against the trees. Deep inside Chirin cried out 
for help, his soul and *denki* falling at the feet of whatever could 
hear him.

His flippers grabbed at the stone, but they were nearly as useless as 
his mareep front feet had been. Flailing against the current, somehow 
he called up the power to haul himself higher. He didn't hear himself 
screaming but he did hear the release of his terrified *denki*, 
zapping against the stronger, deeper river's roar.

"Mama-Lararu-Chenja!" he bleated aloud in abandon of the taboo 
against anyone else learning your ancestors' names. He felt his voice 
reverberate in his pounding chest as he kicked and fought the beast 
of the water. Selden, unable to help him, stood there screaming, his 
rising and falling chest and the movements of his head the only 
indication of his cries. Every sound drowned in the river's rage as 
the current battered against his ears.

Karama had joined Selden on the boulder by the time Chirin hauled 
himself up, thinking he was glad he had managed to thrust Selden up 
close enough for him to make it. Otherwise one of them would have 
been lost forever. As he caught his breath and let the feeling return 
to his poor beat-up ears and face, his gae wandered downstream. He 
doubted anyone who fell in would survive for long. 

Selden climbed into his lap and lay there, despite the other side 
being only a few short stone-hops away. Chirin made himself get up 
with a few thoughts of a Ringuma arriving at the other bank. He 
hurried the other two ahead of him before he finally stepped across. 

Before they left he had a good look and sniff along the ursaring-
marked tree. Some dung lay near the foot of the tree, but it was old 
and moldy. Likewise, scents on and around the tree were a few days 
cold. But it was a sure sign that the big wrestling pokemon often 
poked around in this place. He found where a trail picked up on the 
other side and followed it, keeping close to the two mareep and 
glimpsing Phos-lit fields on the other side. This trail would take 
them out of the forest.

The forest did not seem so scary and dark as it had when he had 
traveled through them as a small mareep. Nevertheless the closeness 
of the trees and the many smells they whispered up his nose, made him 
hurry along a little faster. Chirin preferred an open space where 
things couldn't sneak up on him so easily!

He smelled ringuma again. Stopping, he thought he heard something way 
back by the river, but he didn't wait for it to come into view. He 
hurried the mareep ahead of him, knowing that ringuma pursued their 
prey with the persistence of a Nidorino and the patience of a 
Spinarak.

* * *

The ursaring, bearing a few deep gashes on its thick, loose hide from 
a brawl that he had lost, leaped along the same stones that the sheep 
had used. His nose led him down the trail and he stopped to claw the 
tree up before continuing. 

* * *

"I smell an enemy! I smell an enemy!" said Selden, proud that he had 
been the first to smell it, or so he thought.

"Yes," said Chirin, "good smeller. Now let's Run to get away from 
that enemy! Come on!"

They broke from the woods, and Chirin spotted a copse in the 
distance. He ran headlong after Karama, who was in the lead. What 
would he do if an ursaring really was coming after them? He only knew 
that they looked slow, but could easily outrun him; and that they 
seemed to see badly, but in face saw very well; and that the early 
fall was when they were especially hungry and the most aggressive. 
Haru called to them too. Soon they would grow groggy, but not before 
this one had overtaken them.

Chirin knew his only chance was his *denki*. "Run to the copse," he 
said. Neither lamb moved.

The ursaring emerged from the forest and his eyes met Chirin's. "Run 
to the copse, please, oh, please!" he said to the mareep. Selden hid 
behind Chirin's quivering legs as the ursaring approached them. 
*Don't run...don't run...don't run...*

Chirin pictured Lararu, Chenja, Mama and the rest of his flock 
dancing about in the sky around the head of the Ursaring as it reared 
up and towered over Chirin, waving its nose. Those whose blood and 
light ran in him could not have abandoned him now, they couldn't, he 
thought as Phos stepped out from behind the clouds. The First 
Ampharos of all shone above them and cast a puddle of shadow around 
the feet of the Ursaring. Chirin stood his ground, knowing he was not 
brave. He simply knew he would be mauled to death the minute he 
turned and ran.

Selden bleating behind him was not making things easier. "Oh ringuma, 
ringuma," he said as his eyes spilled two tears. "I have a quest 
that's long and hard. I've come far already and can't stop now. 
My...my dear friend, she wouldn't want me to die right now on my 
search for her. I'm looking to the light, Ringuma."

"At least you have a mate," said the Ringuma in a deep rumble. Chirin 
caught a blast of its breath, getting wind of what it had eaten 
recently: some kind of berries and some kind of meat.  "As for me I 
lost my mate for this year to another. I will have no cubs this year. 
But I will have my meals. I am sorry, mokoko. Think of her and close 
your eyes. I will be quick."

"CRAZY LIGHTS!" Chirin dropped down, pointed his tail and clenched in 
electric discharge, aiming for the bear's head just as the Ursaring 
lurched over him. The ground flinched as Chirin unleashed it.

The bolt capsuled around the ringuma, unable to miss a target so 
near. Taking it in the gut, the ursaring roared and lunged into it, 
towards Chirin. Its big clawed paws swiped aside the last flings of 
current. Chirin kicked Selden out of harm's way, then he jumped and 
rolled out of the bear's path. 

The ursaring dived for Chirin, preparing to thrash him to death in 
seconds. He missed the mokoko by a claw's width. 

Chirin thrust another lightning-bolt at the big brown brawler. It 
missed. The ursaring blundered towards him. Chirin balled himself up, 
sparks running over his skin. The ursaring dealt a heavy paw like 
stone across his back. Chirin went rolling, feeling something wet 
trickle down over his flank. He again began to summon up his *denki*, 
praying to his ancestors, those dead who lived on in the very grass 
that he lay on now, bleeding and fighting for his life. He had no 
other choice.

*Crazy Lights, oh Crazy Lights...come...come...*

A smack on his side partly knocked the wind out of him. Only the 
sparks he emitted kept the ringuma from grabbing him and shaking him 
dead. He made himself a stinging plant, hurting to touch. But he 
could not go for much longer. Eventually he would exhaust himself, 
and the claw wounds the ringuma was hitting him with would pile up.

*Mama...Dada...Crazy Lights...Chenja...*

He heard a giant roar and looked up to see the Ringuma clutching his 
eye. "I got him, I got him!" shouted Selden. "I shot my *denki*! Are 
you okay?"

"Yes!" Chirin got up, "come on!"

"You're bleeding--"

"Just run! Oh, for the love of clover, run!"

Chirin, Selden and Karama dashed headlong for the copse as the 
Ringuma thrashed its big brown head. It had been speared in the eye 
by a very lucky, if weak, shot of thundershock.

Had it been the ram's soul thanking him for rescuing his light? Had 
it been his ancestors, rushing to his aid from the grass and air and 
clouds where they breathed and grazed? Or had it been Crazy Lights, 
whose song he had sung from inside? 

Was Crazy Lights real?

He looked about him to make sure Selden was keeping up with him and 
Karama as he ran. Chirin was aware that he had broken the "don't run" 
rule his flock had always preached--he wasn't sure how he remembered 
it--but not running hadn't worked so well. The pokemon was after 
food, and Ringuma hunted the Denryuu, hearkening back to the first 
days of all when they had succumbed to the anger and desires of 
Bangaa.

Chirin reached the copse with blood trickling down his legs. Wounds 
on his back were beginning to sting. 
*Ancestors keep my feet on the ground and my soul in this body,* he 
said, for losing too much of the life blood weakened the soul's hold 
on the body. It was when other spirits dived in to drive it out. 
Always they tried, but usually one was able to easily hold them at 
bay. But to weaken and hurt the body was also to break down the house 
for the soul. He needed to stop the bleeding.

"You're bleeding! It's all red back there!" said Selden in a 
hysterical voice as Chirin peeked out from behind the trees and 
bushes, watching to see what the ringuma would do. The bear had 
turned back towards the west woods, shaking its head as it ran. 
Chirin felt bad that they had inflicted pain on it but what could he 
do? Hurting--it always seemed to come down to who could hurt whom 
worse, and more quickly. Why?

"I need to stop this bleeding," he said, trying to glance behind him 
so he could see the damage. He checked himself all over and all he 
could make out were the edges of parallel gashes on his right side. 
The real wounds were on his back. If he had been fully evolved he 
could have turned his neck all the way round. "Oh, Phos above. How do 
I stop the bleeding?"

He found a spot and lay on his stomach, hoping that would help stem 
the flow of blood. Its smell blared strong in his sinuses. Until he 
had stopped bleeding they had to stay here or leave a blood trail 
wherever they wandered. He lay there trying to calm down and think of 
a solution. It might stop on his own if he waited long enough. 

"Am I still bleeding?" 

"Yes," Selden sobbed. "I don't want to look at it, oh... Chirin I'm 
scared."

"I am too," said Chirin, reaching over to hug the lamb. Could there 
be enemies right in this copse? Watakko's cotton, was there no end to 
the enemies? He sat up carefully and removed the light-ball from the 
makeshift belt. Lying back down he clasped it with hisnose against 
its smooth surface and began to pray. *Lamb of Denrai...please see us 
safe. Help me stop bleeding...Help my ancestors to help me...Please. 
I know I've been asking a lot of favors from you and everyone today 
but I'm young and I don't want to die.*

"It's bleeding," bleated Selden, "what do we do?"

Chirin tried to get up and felt a little dizzy. He must have lost 
more blood than he thought. He lay back down, trying to stay 
calm. "Leaves," he said, "take come of these leaves here." He 
gathered up a few of the broad yellow aspen leaves that had recently 
fallen. "Try pressing them on my back where the blood's coming out 
and pressing it down to stop me losing more. I can't think of 
anything else." 

"Okay..." Chirin felt Selden's weak efforts as leaves were laid and 
pressed on his back. He too was clearly trying to keep a hold of 
himself. Chirin turned partly around in an attempt to help, wishing 
the lamb had not been burdened with this. Selden looked at him as he 
looked at Selden and Chirin suddenly felt foolish. His mind had 
blazed a path through all the possibilities of what had saved him out 
there--all but one possibility. The ram's light might have 
strengthened that weak little bolt, the air spirits might have nudged 
that bolt at the ringuma's eye, Crazy Lights may have called it to 
connect. But only one spirit had grabbed its own courage, awakened 
its denki and fired that bolt, and that spirit was looking into 
Chirin, through Selden's eyes. 

"Thank you," said Chirin, "for saving my life."

"My denki woke up," said Selden. "Just like you said. It woke up."

Chirin didn't know--did he ever really know? why all of a sudden both 
of them began to cry.

"I think the bleeding's getting better," said Karama. "But it's hard 
to see under the leaves."

Releasing Selden from their teary hug, Chirin got up slowly, 
dizzy but no worse than he had been. Blood had spilled out all over 
the ground and all over him. "Every enemy on Mother Megga's big back 
must know we're here. If I'm not bleeding anymore I still have to get 
clean."

Some of the leaves still stuck to him, but for now he wouldn't worry. 
Using more leaves, careful not to bend too much and stretch the 
wounds back open, he tried to rub off some of the blood. He longed to 
slip into a pond or something for a long bath. But he knew he was 
lucky to be alive. Chirin secured the ball of light back into his 
belt, which had also gotten stained partly red in the back. He smiled 
at his charges, trying to lighten things. "Oh Phos, I must look a 
sight!"

He managed to rub off most of the blood, though a lot of it just 
smeared. At least there was none in his wool. Making sure that they 
would leave no trail, he led them on quickly, eager to get clear of 
the copse that smelled of blood and eager to get clean. He not only 
smelled like blood, he looked it too, and that added up to appearing 
quite easy to kill. He realized, in retrospect, as they walked along 
through the grass that the trail they had been following through the 
forest had probably been a Ringuma one, one not used for a time. At 
first he was just happy to breathe air that didn't stink so badly of 
that metallic blood smell, and only after a long time was their 
silence broken.

"Why do enemies always try to get us?" said Selden, walking alongside 
Chirin. 

"That's a good question, actually," said Chirin. "It all started," he 
stopped to nibble a patch of clover and the others joined, "back in 
the first days. Bangaa was blinded painfully by Phos when he took the 
Light away. And so he decided he would have revenge one day. The 
children of Bangaa, the marowaks, also seek revenge with the same 
dark persistence. 

Bangaa knew that he could only come out at night, because the 
daylight would burn him away. So he came out and stalked around, 
finding not Phos and Watakko, who had retired to the sky to live in 
light and love. He found their children, the first Denryuu, who were 
many and happy, eating grass and making lambs. And he knew that they 
were too many for him to kill, and that if he got too close to them 
their lights would harm him. 

"It does not matter," he said, "I will have my way yet. I will see 
the blood of these creatures color the grass dark!" And so he created 
his own children, wrought from the rocks and soil and bones 
underground. His children ran up into the world, able to go about in 
daylight where he could not. He made them immune to the lightning 
power of the Denryuu, strongest lightning that any Pokemon can make. 
And he filled them with the desire to kill our kind.

He did not stop there. Once he had instilled this instinct in his 
children he realized what he could do with it. He ran around by 
night, using the dark for safety and cover, and he would reach out 
and touch other pokemon. One by one pokemon were overcome by rage and 
the lust for Denryuu blood. Out into the land they went, on the hunt.

And Phos and Watakko did not know what to do. But they knew that they 
must bestow special gifts on their children or the hunters would kill 
them all. "We give you enhanced sight, better hearing and a nose that 
can smell from the sea to the top of Hanemos! Hanemos is the mountain 
that is very, very far into the land, it is farther than my flock 
ever went, we only knew about it because it was in the story, and 
another flock ranged there that we saw in the summer sometimes," 
Chirin informed his listeners. "But you know, after this I think I'll 
change it to Lake Eerie, because that's even farther.

"Where was I? Oh, yes, The beautiful gifts helped the Denryuu to know 
their enemies were coming, but it was not enough to stop the terrible 
spawn of Bangaa. But Watakko thought of something. "I give my 
children cotton," she said. "It was born within you but only now will 
it wake. The cotton you can use to mire your enemy in fluff and make 
your escape!" And it was done, and from that day on, anytime marowaks 
attack us, we use our cotton to slow them down, and run away. So 
these gifts our ancestors pass on to us, and we will pass on to our 
own lambs."

"Ryuu, ryuu," he said, imitating the sound that they always had used 
to close a story, a reminder of the bleats of ancestors. He ensed 
that the audience of his forebears and the many other spirits had not 
gathered in the numbers and closeness that they often had before. He 
had not told this story with the lustre that normally sparked his 
tales. But his back thrummed with pain and even the luscious taste of 
the clover couldn't distract him fully from it. He got up and made 
his way over to nearby bushes. "I need to find berries or something 
to heal this." Passing droppings, he then moved through the bushes, 
sniffing and searching. His mouth traveled over the branches, 
browsing as it went. He found a few ovveripe berries and ate them. It 
wasn't much, but it eased the pain.

Chirin sat down for another rest, afraid too mush movement would 
break the skin open again. He was surprised that he had taken what 
seemed to be only superficial wounds, even though they'd been long 
and had bled a lot. His evolution had thickened his skin. Selden sat 
in his lap. 

"Can you tell me another story?"

Chirin petted him, then carefully lay on his back, letting the rays 
of Phos warm him up. At last Watakko had moved her cotton puffs out 
of the way of his light. "Oh, Selden, I'd love to lie here all day in 
this soft soft delightful grass, and tell stories and sing songs all 
day, but i have to keep moving. But as we go I'll see if I can think 
of some songs we can sing. How about that?"

"Okay," he said as Chirin sat up. It was time to get moving again, 
especially with the need to clean himself off. Selden had wandered 
around behind him and then Chirin felt the lamb's tiny tongue licking 
his back, cleaning the wounds.

"You don't have to do that," said chirin even as he felt his resolve 
to get up and continue immediately, dissolve in Selden's 
administrations. The berries had helped his body mend much of the way 
and now when he closed his eyes, he imagined Azalea was back there 
not Selden. It sprinkled a strange twist of Ledian stardust through 
him, flashing up in his veins like a dance of autumn leaves, and in 
his mind's eye a yellow-orange orb of light glowed a rich rich color, 
like dandelions. He let himself drift into the pleasure and wondered 
if this was a way he could reach Azalea and find something out about 
where she was. "Keep going," he said when Selden paused. 

*Azalea...where are you? It's me, Chirin. I feel you but i can't see 
you anywhere.*

His hands fondled their way around the Clef-silver tail ball of the 
ram and held it, feeling its smoothness as he sat there. "Thank you, 
Selden. Thank you."

"You're welcome. I cleaned it twice." Selden finished and sat in 
Chirin's lap again. Chirin supposed he would not reach Azalea right 
now, but in a way he knew that he still had. 

"You'll be a great healer someday," said Chirin, ruffling his hair 
and then getting to his feet. "Selden, Karama, everybody? Are we all 
ready to keep on going?"

"Yes," said Selden. "But are we almost there, or almost almost there?"

Chirin-chirin smiled down at him. "We still have a long way to go to 
get to the lake. Right now I'm just trying to get away from this 
place here, because that ringuma could still come back." He realized 
that he might be able to also perform the rites for the ram somewhere 
by the lake. It seemed hopeful. He gave the light orb a last stroke 
and began walking on.

"I have an idea," said Chirin as they walked steadily eastward, 
approaching another, bigger copse than the last one. The area seemed 
to be reaching into forest the further east they went. He was pretty 
sure it was the forest surrounding the lake. "Let's play a game while 
we walk."

He looked around for something to paint himself with. That was fun. 
Already the ringuma attack earlier in the day was padding off behind 
him, leaving his mind to bounce back to its former fluff. He found a 
feather. It was very long and brownish, the flight feather of a 
Pidgeotto or a Pidgeot. He sniffed it and ran it under his nose, 
feeling its softness. This could not have been better luck. To get a 
feather from the fastest, greatest bird of all (he's never seen/heard 
of the legendary birds) was an omen that meant they were going the 
right way. It would give them even more lightness and speed! 

Using a bit of sap from a pine cone he stuck it to his right ear. He 
grinned at Selden and Karama. "I'm a Pidgeot!"

He spread his arms out as if to fly and ran around in a circle, 
having some fun and knowing that he really had taken on some of the 
powers of the Pidgeot. "We are all Pidgeots flying to the lake. We 
have to get there because...because...there's going to be a great 
meeting of all the Pidgeots and we don't want to be late."

"Really?" said Selden.

"I just made that up," said Chirin, feeling to make sure the feather 
was staying in place. "But the Pidgeot gave us a feather, to bless us 
all with greater speed. If we pretend we're Pidgeots too it will work 
even more. And be more fun. I have something better we can pretend. 
There is a Pidgeot in trouble by the lake and we have to get there to 
save her." In a way it was true, and now he felt more than ever that 
Azalea would turn up at the lake somewhere. He had this feeling that 
the many things that had happened to him had their lightsource at the 
lake. 

He spread his arms out. "Pijooooo!"

Shrieking, Selden ran after him, and they "flew" around, laughing. 

"I'm the Pidgey!" said Selden. 

"And I'm the father Pidgeot!" said Chirin. 

As his two feet landed at once, Chirin saw the grass ahead and around 
them twitch with the movement of something within. A Pidgey(!) flew 
up, a Rattata scuttled away and yet other things unseen got out of 
their path. Just small creatures living their lives, not dreaming 
that a big giant mokoko was about to step on their home. Chirin 
slowed down and tried to be more careful. Something bigger could be 
following them in turn. He caught his breath, wiped the sweat off his 
head and collected the two mareep. "This time we're Pidgeots on a 
calmer fly," he said.

He led them around the wood, seeing that it ended not far to the 
south, and unsure of going around northwise. The Ringuma was still on 
his mind. He had not left it long ago, and it could hide easily in 
the forest. Out here he could see if it was coming.

To their north, he passed by a wide sort of grass-path that led up 
between two copses. He considered taking them through this, but 
again, it seemed like a place where enemies could jump out at them 
from either sides. He sniffed up that way, and didn't smell much--
maybe a whiff of Growlithe or other canine, far away, that sort of 
smell that the air spirits liked to play catch with, like an old old 
apricorn. Still, it was one more reason not to head up that way.

Chirin's instincts told him he was still going the right way, even if 
it would mean that he'd have to take a little longer to get there. 
They soon rounded the copse. and Chirin smelled some new smells--of 
aspault and car fumes. He remembered something about a black river of 
rock, and a dead Meowth. 

He proceeded ahead more slowly, taking in all that his wide vision 
was showing him. Chirin heard no cars, and smelled no humans, but 
evidence of both things striped thickly through the field...a black 
hard strip of ground knifing it in two. Chirin stopped by the road's 
edge. A chill overtook him. From deep down welled up a memory, of a 
night of unowns, and Mama's face. Her voice. Her arms reaching for 
him. How his lungs had burned hot and red as he had run after her, 
through a night full of spirits fading fast. Was this the same road? 

"Chirin," said Selden, his feet crunching to a stop in the dirt by 
the road's edge. He looked up at his friend. "What's wrong?"

"I'm okay," he said without thinking. It seemed like as soon as all 
the souls who clung to him had quieted down, he would happen on 
something to get the rock rolling again. But, it was never himself 
who made these spirits sway one way or the other. They swayed him. He 
stared at his shadow, cast long across the road in the sun, not able 
to shake the feeling like he had been let down somewhere. His mind 
picked backwards along the part of his light-path that had already 
been cast, trying to figure out what was wrong, what he should have 
done differently. 

Done differently to achieve what? 

Selden looked at him with worry. Here was his great friend standing 
here with tears rolling down his face! Something was wrong, he knew 
it.

As soon as Chirin thought again of Azalea's face and her smell, and 
remembered her voice, he stepped toward the road. Ears perked, he saw 
either direction down the road, and herd nothing coming. Apart from 
the sing-song peeps of a natu somewhere in the forest ahead of them, 
the world was silent. He placed his foot, hoof first, on the 
asphault. He could feel through the pad on the sole of his foot that 
it was rough and unlike any other rock. Before he crossed he held his 
arms out, rubbed one foot against the other ankle (which required 
standing on one foot now; he stumbled)licked his apricorn shell, and 
sang a fragment of fresh song, something the wind had just handed 
him. 

"Far away your red light beams
bouncing down the grass at night
Soaring feathers fall to me
Makes my feet run-jump in flight
Far away the unowns gleam
Discord, swooping, red lights beam
I will see you when I dream
Falling feathers, and red light."

Chirin herded the two mareep ahead of him across the road, energy 
giving him a springy, hoppy gait, as if the magic and safety the song 
had given them would run out if they took too long.