Forest, and more forest loomed out in front of them. To both the 
north and east were woods. But Chirin had known all along that he 
would have to face the forest again, hadn't he? 

*Actually, I didn't give this journey so much as a flicker of thought 
before I left, so maybe not. But I should have known.* 

He had faced forests before, as a much younger and weaker animal. He 
was more than up to it now. What he knew he wasn't up to was humans, 
and he smelled them up north. The map inside his head told him, too. 
It was the same human colony that he had skirted as a lamb and 
brushed the edge of at Farm. Had humans taken Azalea? Chirin's nose 
hadn't told him anything of the sort on that morning. But he also 
recalled, more dimly now, that the scent of humans had been quite 
faint when his flock had been taken away, more like it had been sent 
on a breeze than showered over them.

It smelled that way now, and this was as close as he was getting. He 
would have to go around the humans even if it meant not getting to 
the lake as fast. 

He kept his eye on the lamb as they walked. Selden showed no sign of 
eagerness or recognition at the faint human scents. Could Selden, 
too, sense that they were nearer to Farm than they had been for a 
long time? Chirin kept going east, flaring his tail and entering the 
forest's edge with pause in his footsteps. Inside lurked many quiet 
and dangerous things. His ears wiggled as he stood at the mouth of a 
forest trail.

Deep within he heard a river. It had a very different voice than the 
one that had almost claimed him and Selden before. Its gurgling chant 
was deep and calm, a big snorlax at rest, compared to the Feraligatr 
frenzy of the other one. Sparked by curiosity, Chirin crept into the 
woods. He felt warm wool brush his side as the sun's heat left his 
back. Selden walked next to his right leg.

The trees here were a different community than the ones he'd seen in 
the other places. Right away he knew he was in the embrace of a much 
older forest. He felt a little timid gazing up and up and up at the 
tall, calm trees, some whose big wide trunks sported scent-marks of 
enemies. Chirin kept close to the two mareep. He licked his apricorn 
and felt the light-ball. Their varied tail bulbs made the branches of 
the evergreens and beech trees shift from warm flamelike yellow to 
cool blue and back, different color faces looking in at them as the 
moving lights felt over the contours.

Chirin felt a little scared, but more thrilled, and careful to show 
respect. He was in a spirit abode. More than even he realized that he 
had made the right choice to head to the lake. He should really trust 
his instincts more often.

His back and shoulder itched from the rapidly healing gashes, and he 
brought the ball of his tail to strike sparks against them and 
satiate the flesh. Out of curiosity he reached a flipper back to rub 
over them, and feel how the wounds were mending. It was something 
he'd never been able to do with his front legs before--touch his 
back.  He felt bumpy, solid scabs and his hand came away with a dry 
blood smell.

Chirin walked on with his senses sharp. His ears caught ever tiny 
noise, every scamper in the leaves. Here and there, Phos poked 
dappled dots of light onto the floor, but as they crept further in, 
the breaks of sunlight became scanter. Chirin kept his tail high, 
bright and wagging. He looked down at the other two and smiled 
encouragement, or at least he tried to. The forest itself stole more 
and more of his attention. It seemed friendly enough, but aloof. 
Forests were unpredictable, though--one moment they were warm and 
full of cozy light, next moment they snapped with hostility, and you 
were lucky to get out alive. With every step he made he took care not 
to tread too hard on the interwoven roots forming a hard web on the 
forest floor. He smiled at the trees and tried very hard not to think 
any bad thoughts about them, though some creeped in anyway. Giving up 
on trying to project good thoughts about the forest and trees, he 
turned to the thoughts he had had of Azalea when Selden had cleaned 
his back. Those were good happy thoughts. And they made him feel good 
and happy in a way that thinking about trees couldn't.

The river's deep burbling flow gradually took over the air and 
dominated other noise. Phos lit the trees on the other side, who were 
now shadowed by the dark cast by the trees on this side. Overhead, 
fragments of cotton had been colored grayish-purplish in the last 
rays of day. Chirin stepped out onto the bank of the river's wide 
body. He sniffed carefully, and smelled...Azumarills.

"Azu-azu!" 

In the warning strobe of Chirin's tail bounded an Azumarill, made 
bluer by his blue light. The round water rabbit waddled along 
cheerfully, making her way towards the river like they had. 

"Maruuu..." came an answering call on the opposite bank, and now 
Chirin saw more blue bodies, two marills and another azumarill, as 
cheery and relaxed as the first. The place must be safe right now.

"Hi, azumarill," said Chirin, blinking his tail. "We're going to 
cross this river; is it safe?"

"Why yes! I'll show you how! Azu!" she called out to her friends on 
the other side. She rolled up her long perky ears and stepped in. 
Chirin watched her swim; she was clearly fighting a current that 
looked much gentler than it was, apparently, but it was nothing 
compared to the rapid river. What concerned Chirin here was the 
width. He was pretty sure Karama would be okay, but again Selden 
would need help.

The Azumarill swam much faster than one would have thought possible 
with such a round plump shape. Chirin checked the water anyway, 
looking for anything big beneath. What wouldn't attack an Azumarill 
might easily go for Selden.

Chirin wished on his apricorn, blinked his ight and made sure the 
ram's silver orb was secure in his little belt, then waded in. "Come 
on, Selden." He herded the lamb in, planning to keep him right next 
to him the entire swim. Standing waist-deep he felt the current's 
pull, and it tugged him off the shelf of the bank into its steep 
dropoff.

Suddenly swimming, he grabbed onto Selden's tail and secured one arm 
over the lamb's back. "Come on, kick, you can do it." His own legs, 
much bigger and stronger since evolution, powered him into the thick 
of the river. *River, let us across, please, we are at your mercy.*

He should have made an offering to the river, he thought as he 
paddled on, getting nudged downstream slowly. The river might think 
him inconsiderate and decide to have some wicked fun. Cold water bit 
through the wool on his neck and shoulders, but his rubbery skin and 
layer of blubber kept him warm, more so than he would have been as a 
mareep. Next to him Selden made no sound other than the puffing of 
his little lungs. His struggle just to stay afloat showed on his 
straining face. The opposite bank loomed ahead and the three sheep 
were an island out here, slowly and clumsily paddling their way over.

More buoyant than he had been pre-evolution, and without much wool 
weighing him down, Chirin was not exhausted by the swim at all, 
although he washed up further southeast than he had expected to. 
Karama came ashore nearby. Chirin stopped on the other bank, not far 
from where the marill-folk were foraging and apparently playing in 
the water, to let Selden rest for a moment. The lamb stood soggy and 
dripping, then weakly shook himself off. His wool hung limp and clung 
to him, showing the smallness of his body. Selden was older than he 
looked, Chirin realized; he would never be a large ram.

"Thank you, Chirin," said Selden. "I know I'm not too strong, I'm 
sorry that you had to help me across."

Chirin hugged him. "Never be sorry. We help each other. You've been 
helping me by keeping us company and don't forget, you saved my life."
It was true that he had probably taken the edge off the bear's power 
with his own *denki*, but Selden's had driven it off and Chirin would 
always, always look out for him for as long as Selden chose to stay 
with him. Was this what it felt like to have a little brother?

Chirin gathered some choice leaves and a few tasty seeds, and made a 
small pile on a rock in the river's edge. "River, I'm giving this to 
you. Thank you for letting us cross. Please let us cross back over if 
we come this way again."

He swept the offering over the edge and the bits of grass spread out 
in the water, then the current swept it away. 

Feeling better, he looked around at the forest this side of the 
river. Humans were still not far, but he felt safer from them on this 
side. He decided to stick close to the water and head up near the 
bank. This way enemies could hide on one side of them only...assuming 
there was nothing really bad waiting in the river itself. From the 
happy look of the Marills, their dark eyes a-twinkle and their tails 
a-bob, there was little to fear right here, right now. Smelling 
nothing worse than the distant humans, Chirin headed up the bank, 
passing the blue water mice and rabbits as he went. 

Somethng brushed down against his shoulder. It was the pidgeot 
feather, falling off! Not wanting to lose it, Chirin took a bit of 
the silk from his belt, and tied it soundly to the side of the belt 
itself. It waved lightly against his waist as he walked on, looking 
and listening all around him for more such signs. In a strange 
forest, anything and everything was a message. Every branch waving in 
the wind was speaking.

He heard humans long before he saw them. Across the river, strange 
stuctures like big squarish rocks stood, accompanied by burning 
smells and odd other smells that might have been food. The collective 
results were not pleasing. How and why did they get the powers to 
create all that? Chirin wondered for a moment if his flock was in 
there somewhere, but even if they were, if they had not come out by 
now it was probably better that he not go in after them. He shrank 
back into the forest's safe shade, passing by the human place in 
concealment. He moved slowly, sniffing everything he passed, lest a 
stray human be hiding among the foliage somewhere. When he did smell 
human scent on a trail, he turned off it and headed further away from 
the river.

Something had planted a seed inside his head. It was the little islet 
that stood at the junction of river and lake that only when he 
emerged at the lakeshore, did he see up close--or as up close as he 
could get without swimming there. The mound of grass and rock stood 
like a giant crown on the lake, where the current was fast and parted 
two ways, caressing it along two sides. Or was it connected to land 
on the other side? He couldn't tell. 

"I'm going there," he said under his breath. He could make the swim. 
He had the feeling that whatever he had come to the lake looking for, 
he could find there. But something had to be done about Selden. Just 
by stepping in and getting to know the water's temperament, he could 
tell Selden would not make this swim, and neither would he if he swam 
across with Selden. The lamb would be dead weight before he reached 
the other side, especially since he was so weary already. Selden's 
round ears drooped a little and he had taken advantage of their stop 
to lie down on the beach. He needed to graze up and rest up.

Chirin could wait until tomorrow. But Selden still wouldn't make it. 
He might drown for a cause that wasn't even his...and Chirin was 
unwilling to wait. If the answers to Azalea's whereabouts lay on that 
island he needed them now. Not to mention he was sure to find a place 
there to let this ram's light lie. Waiting a day would be waiting for 
something worse to befall his Azalea.

He waded a little further in, unsure whether even he would make the 
swim. He knew that as a mareep he might not have made it. It was not 
the length but the force of the current that worried him. It was 
worse than the river had been further back, and Selden could very 
easily be ripped from his arms if he did carry him across. And, he 
thought now, there was the return trip to consider as well if this 
was in fact an island.

"Karama," he said, "I'm going to swim to that island. I'll be back. 
Can you watch Selden for me while I'm gone? He can't swim this and 
I'm afraid to leave him alone."

"No, Chirin, please," said Selden, "I can make it."

"Selden." Chirin hugged him. "This swim would be hard for even a 
really big mareep. I'm not even sure if I--" He stopped, realizing 
that might get Selden even more worried. "This is going to be tough 
for even me to do. I'll be back before you know it, and things will 
be much more certain and much better...I hope."

He parted from the two mareep to prepare himself spiritually for the 
task. He made an offering to the river, choosing a nearby rock and 
making a form in the soily sand near it with a stick. It was a crude 
but clear picture of himself swimming easily through the water. He 
laid some leaves and grass in a pile by the form to make a peace 
offering. Chirin ran around it flashing his light. He cast a bolt 
upwards and it arced down, going to ground on the rock itself. Good 
luck, that was. He made a final run of his lights and made a plea of 
peace to the river. If he had done everything right, the water would 
let him reach the island in safety.

When Chirin got up, Karama darted over to him and
nuzzled him.
"Reeep...reepuu," she said softly.

Chirin gave a nuzzle to each of his friends and turned to the water 
before he started getting teary or anything. It was time, and if he 
took too long saying a goodbye, it might cause events to change and 
for him to take longer on the island...or worse. Whatever happened, 
this should not take till nightfall.

Knowing deep inside that maybe it would have been better to wait till 
morning, Chirin splashed into the water and spread himself wide, 
throwing his limbs into the beginning of a long and hard swim.

Selden watched from the bank, worried about his dear friend. He had 
believed Chirin when he'd said Selden was not a burden. But then, why 
had Chirin insisted on leaving him here? Selden doubted that he had 
really saved Chirin's life anyway. His little lucky swipe had been 
nothing in the wake of Chirin's mighty lightning. 

He watched with sparks running along his tense flanks. Chirin looked 
like he was having some trouble.

* * *

Chirin flailed against the current that wanted to pull him to the 
side of the island. He felt the water's will trying to push him away, 
keep him from the one place he wanted to reach. It made him double 
his efforts. The lake was trying to hide something from him. Chirin 
had strength left to last him much further, but he was still 
beginning to feel like he was in over his head.

He swam with the resolve of a fish toward its breeding grounds, 
pushed by an instinct older than the logic that told him he should 
not be doing this. The more he forced his aching muscles to paddle 
harder, the harder and hotter his lungs puffed, the more he just knew 
Azalea was on that island, in spirit or in body. The current made him 
angry. He wanted to head-butt it into submission. His arms beat at 
the water and his legs bucked at it. The energy that his feelings 
drove down his limbs must have been the only thing that got him 
across.

His feet brushed bottom and he grabbed onto a rock of the island's 
bank, resting a moment. He pulled his exhausted body up onto the 
shore. He had made it.

"Thank you, river...thank you..."

Selden and Karama needed to know he was okay. They shouldn't see him 
lying as if dead here. Chirin forced himself up, caught in a dizzy 
spell before it released his vision again. He stood and waved at the 
two mareep whom Phos's late-afternoon rays cast in tarnished light.

He was grateful that the denryuu-kind had their lights. He would be 
able to keep in contact with them via their lights even if he had to 
stay here overnight. He picked his way up into the grass, still 
rubbery-limbed and dizzy. He dropped to all fours to graze before 
continuing on.

~

Selden watched Chirin wave to them from way out across the forbidding 
waters. He turned to Karama. "I'm worried."

"It's okay..." Karama said, although fear for Chirin
flared inside her. "Maybe, I will go with you?"

"Go where?" said Selden, wagging his tail. He turned back to watching 
Chirin way across the water.

Karama sniffled and drew a picture of herself leaving
Chirin in the dirt. If she wanted to find her flock,
she had to go her own way. A few tears splashed onto
her picutre. Karama ran away, crying.

Selden watched with blank, wondering eyes as Karama ran off into the 
forest. He looked at the picture scratched in the ground without 
comprehending it. Karama must want to be like Chirin too, scratching 
up the ground and stuff. He smiled, then returned to sitting on the 
bank, waiting for Chirin to come back.

~

He felt a strong wave of tiredness pushing him toward the ground as 
he nibbled the grass. This was not just tiredness. Someone wanted him 
to speak to...her. 

Azalea?

Chirin sat down on his bum with his tail out behind him. He let his 
flipper arms sag at his side and he straighted his spine. He sniffed 
halfheartedly for enemies as he turned and dived into his mind, 
swimming into it against the current of his waking thoughts. He 
pictured...a light. And then he didn't have to picture anything, she 
was there. Not Azalea, the other she, the ewe who had called to him. 
She called to him still, from marowak shoulders and from stony 
darkness.

*...Chirin...*

*Who are you?*

*You would not know me...I am Mure.* Over her thought-voice, spoken 
in words tapped out soundlessly to his mind, floated a sylphy voice, 
a sad bleating voice that beamed from a light barely glinting. *...my 
light is not my own.*

*Mure? Do you know where--* He paused to bring up a minds-eye view of 
Azalea*--where Azalea is? I came here to find her.*

Mure, if he had "heard" her right, seemed to lose touch with him. She 
was drifting away. It seemed that as soon as he tried to delve 
deeper, she scattered all ways. *Who are you?* he asked again, 
wondering why, because she had told him her name already. Mure was a 
word for the color of fertile soil, in the language of his people. 

And right now, in his mind, a ground came up to the surface, soil 
coming clear in his inner vision. It floated there featureless but 
for some grass and pebbles. And then, something pale rippled in over 
the ground. 

The late-day breeze had picked up, ruffling Chirin's wool. He felt it 
only from a distance, looking in on that world from this one. He was 
now on the other side, and the world where his body sat was now the 
place that he could only strain to look at, and strain to read for 
meaning.

A dim light solidified in bone. Chirin was looking at the skull of an 
ampharos in a dark place, only stray flicks of light reflecting on a 
head jewel gone dead.

The ground met his head and back with a rude slam. Chirin got up and 
looked around him, seeing only grass and Phos's tail sinking down 
behind the trees, across the water.

"Mure," he said, but he knew that there was no way to speak to her 
from here. He sat back down and tried to catch the trance again. It 
all eluded him, like the way sleep eluded you sometimes: closing your 
eyes didn't make you sleep. 

Chirin reminded himself that he must be patient and wait. At least he 
had a name now: Mure. He had never known an ampharos by that name, 
not in the ancestor names he had been taught, not in the stories, not 
anywhere. He circled the place where he had lain in the trance. He 
sniffed it, then resigned to eating the grass that grew on and around 
it, trying to perhaps ingest the fragile connection.

~

The chill wind blew and blemished the water. Selden huddled into his 
wool.

~

The Unown swirled around Goldie's head.
                   
                  "We have visitors coming from the north," came their eerie, 
                  multiple voices.  "Strangers seeking news on their kin.  Go to 
                  them, young shaman."
                   
                  Goldie shook.  The idea of meeting with new pokemon both 
                  intriqued her and frightened her.  Her mother had loved making 
                  new friends - but the little luri-luri was not quite so 
                  courageous.
                   
                  "It is time."  They said.  "We will not let them harm you."
                   
                  Goldie stood up, shaking convulsively with nervousness.  "I 
                  don't want to," she whispered.
                   
                  One of the Unown came towards her, flashing a vivd violet.  A 
                  spasm of pain passed through her body - minor pain, but none 
                  too pleasant.
                   
                  "You will," the voices intoned.  "You must."
                   
                  Biting her lip in nervousness, Goldie walked across the hall, 
                  three Unown spinning around her head as though they were in 
                  orbit, guiding her.

~

Satisfied in the stomach, Chirin rose up onto two feet and waddled 
his way uphill. He didn't know what he would find, but maybe there 
were some other pokemon here, that he could talk to.

Chirin perked his ears on the inside, trying to discern songs coming 
to him, but that space between his ears hung silent. Watakko wanted 
him not to speak, perhaps, but listen. Here, maybe he would miss 
something if he stopped to sing for as long as a single moment.

He dropped to the ground, took his pebble out and pressed his nose to 
it, trying to make contact with the root of the island. *Azalea...if 
you are here, if you can hear me, send me a sign.*

He stood there stooped, hanging on a long, long thread of quiet and 
patience. Signs sometimes took a long time to come. But the wind 
batted his tail and nothing more. He picked up the pebble, gave it a 
loving stroke against his cheek (it was so nice and smooth) and put 
it away. He straightened his belt and let his hand roam over the 
light-ball, knowing that somewhere here he would find a place it 
could rest.

The problem must be that he was simply not in the right place. 
Stooping often to graze and to watch the changing of the late-day 
sky. It gave him warm goosebumps, even here and now. Those nice 
chills were a favor from stronger beings, showing that at this 
moment, they had liked him enough to reach out and stroke him. It was 
a reassurance that he needed right now, because he sensed something 
dark about this island. He found little trace of any other pokemon. 
The signs of other living beings forging ahead along their light-
paths--spoor, tracks, scents, sounds--were all but absent here.

~

Karama kept running, still in awe about what she had
done. But she had to... didn't she?

Karama sniffled and sobbed. She stopped running
and she collapsed, gasping for air.
"Chirin...Chirin..." Karama bleated, before getting up
and running on again.
"I had to...I had to...I have to find my flock...I
will see Chirin again, one day..." Karama thought
sadly. "Goodbye Chirin..." 

~

Until he hiked up higher. The rocks puckered up from the soil, 
changing the way he traveled. Walking gave way to clambering. But 
soon he climbed up onto more level land. Looking back behind him he 
noticed something farther northeast on the island that he had passed 
without seeing. It was a long jutting jetti of wood, whose squared-
off shape and form made from the wood of dead trees told him that a 
human had shaped it.

He would avoid it when he swam back.

Other human signs soon showed up on the island. Here and there he 
smelled them, and only when he had walked a long way along this 
particular trail, did he realize it might be a HUMAN trail. He 
quickly skipped off of it into the grass, taking brief shelter from 
it among some bushes. That humans had left their territory marks here 
did not surprise him, it fit right in with everything else that had 
happened. And it only made him even more sure that he had come to the 
right place looking for answers. 

Blue berries grew on some of these bushes and Chirin took a sniff, 
recognizing them as tasty and safe. He ate his fill of them and of 
the foliage, letting himself unwind from his encounter with Mure. Who 
was Mure? Was she someone who had died? Was that her skull he kept 
seeing? Why was she showing it to him? Why, actually, did she keep 
trying to reach him and evade him at the same time? Was she really 
evading him or just having some trouble keeping in sharp enough 
contact? 

He was too worried to enjoy the berries and leaves. He swallowed them 
and stood there, until his body tossed his mouth some cud. Once again 
he was alone up here, at least, he was without the company of anyone 
who knew him. The world taught you that you were never truly alone.

On the periphery of his vision as he faced southeast, almost out of 
his vision, stood a rocky spire, the top of the island. It reminded 
him of Pharos, in fact the resemblance alone fluffed what was left of 
his wool, shedding sparks. For, eerily like Pharos, it rose to a 
point--even more so than Pharos did. Chirin chucked what ideas he had 
had of looking southwest first, and started north. Every feathery 
wave of the bushes and small trees pointed him that way. Every spirit 
told him the same thing.

To find a place where he could perform the rites for the ram and 
leave his light ball, he would have to avoid any human-tainted 
places. But even though he was still a long way away from that rock 
he knew that he would find a place somewhere around there.

~

Selden's wool was still damp on the inside from the swim across the 
river. It set his teeth chattering whenever the wind blew. He kept 
his eyes on the island, watching for Chirin who had hiked out of 
sight. 

"Karama?" he called. It had been a long time since she had drawn on 
the ground and then gone into the woods. Afraid to leave his spot on 
the shore, he turned and faced the woods, giving a weak little bleat. 
He waited but no answer came. As the gap of quiet widened up, 
admitting the first chirps of autumn-tired crickets, Selden realized 
he was all alone.

"Chirin..."

 Karama kept running. Why did she leave. She stopped,
and turned around to go back. She had gone a few paces
when she stopped herself and ran back the other way,
away from Chirin. She had to find her flock...She
didn't think she would find her flock, when Chirin is
trying to do the same. She would either Go alone, or
find someone that will go with her.

~

The hike on rough rock scratched up his feet a little, but his hooves 
stood him in good stead. Stone by stone he climbed closer to the 
spire. 

Steping over some loose rocks, he reached the general base of the 
peak and placed his hands on it, then leaned against it, feeling that 
it had something to say to him. "Mure," he said, trying the name on 
his tongue. His voice sounded young and loud against the quiet dusk. 

Here was where he could place the ram's light ball. But for that 
there was no shelter for it. He needed a cave. But where on this 
island would there be one? Well, it didn't need to be a deep cave. It 
just needed to be a place where loving spirits would harbor it and 
keep it safe. He could not cheat here and just leave it in the second 
best place. Spirits knew.

And it was time to ask them. Chirin took out the pebble from his 
apricorn...and accidentally dropped it.

"No!" He dived for it, hoping to catch it before it tumbled down the 
rocks. He was too late. The pebble bounced, a hard little drop of 
milk on the dark granite. It fell with a plink, plink down the west 
side. 

"Stop!" Chirin scrambled up and scrambled down, but it was no use. 
Long before he got halfway down the side of the peak's base, the 
pebble made a suicide dive for the lake.

"That was my pebble for Azalea." 

He sat on a rock and cried.

Lifting his head from his lap, he realized that he couldn't let such 
a sign stop him. It was this island again, trying to push him back. 
He would find Azalea regardless of the pebble's loss. Still, he 
replayed the fall of the tiny bead of white into the lake and 
swallowed a swell in his throat.

What of Mure, though? Was she also a part of this island? Where was 
she? He might have thought she was part of this dark force, except 
that she had so clearly cried for help. If there was one part of Mure 
that shone out in a broad shaft of light, it was her pleas for help.

The actions of a mysterious, mischievous and perhaps *burakos* being 
had landed him right here on this rock. Chirin got up and shone his 
light, sparking over his skin to shoo off the dark. He took one last 
look down the long drop off the northwest side of the island. 

And saw the edge of a cave. It might have been an alcove, but he had 
to get a better look.

Chirin swung himself over a boulder and eased himself down rock by 
rock. The drop petered out to ledges of stone that he could climb on 
safely to reach the cavern entrance. As he arrived down on the 
northwest edge, he saw that off the north side it was not so. The 
rock knifed straight into the lake.

"Mother Megga and cotton children," he said under his breath. 

Overhead a Pidgeot (or was it a Pidgeotto?) flew overhead. Chirin 
crammed himself in under a jutting stone and put one hand over his 
apricorn. As the bird soared on and away towards the east, his mouth 
whispered, "Mecha." He thought of his friend. Where was he now?

He edged back out, and continued his slow and rather precarious 
descent.

He reached where the stones leveled out onto a wider ledge that led 
into what was indeed a cave. Again, Chirin remembered windthrown rain 
drowning his face, splashing slaps in mud all around him...and the 
mouth of a burrow, where a deeper, quieter storm had raged. Looking 
into the silent mouth of dark, he saw the white crust of zubat guano 
and caught its accompanying scent. Yet there was almost none (a 
little went a long way). And when he curled his tail around and shone 
it in, beyond the entrance he saw that the cave was 
strangely...clean. He smelled nothing but Zubat, not the ampharan 
aroma that had always run strong along the inner lining of Pharos. 
But he'd known he wouldn't find any one here, right? Not a dropping 
or smear of body scent to be found. Even the grass, good as it was, 
had hardly been nibbled.

He looked back at the opposite bank of the river. From here he could 
see where Selden and Karama must be. He could make out Selden's light 
now in the rising dark, and he blinked his own tail brightly. Selden, 
without even having been told about this signalling system (Chirin 
realized he had neglected to tell him much of anything before just 
jumping in) returned the series of blinks.

His absent wondering of where Karama was wiped away as he faced the 
cave again. His fear of burrows kept him standing there at the edge, 
even though he knew he would have to go in. No matter how he sniffed 
the place and checked it for enemy signs, he found no evidence that 
anything at all lived here that would give him a good reason not to 
go in. The stunted bushes and trees that spent their light-paths 
clinging with clawlike roots to these rocks, all waved their branches 
at him to enter. In there he would find answers...and, also, a place 
for this light to rest at last, after all the desecration it had 
suffered.

Chirin reviewed the rites in his head before heading inside. He 
couldn't just march in there, unprepared and unprotected. That was a 
spirit place and he must align himself right.

Sitting on a rock by the side of the cave hole, Chirin watched the 
sky darken. He suddenly felt, as he fingered the pidgeot feather and 
tried to clear his mind, like he might not be heading back to the 
lakeshore tonight. He looked out at the lone lamb's light, waiting 
for him in the twilight, and guilt bit him inside his chest.

Chirin watched the waning moon rise. Of course there was hope that he 
could get back before tomorrow. Could he actually sleep here anyway, 
knowing Selden was there and Karama was not giving her signal? He 
thought of bleating, but he was clearly okay right now. That might 
start him making noise and attracting enemies. It was either stay 
here or swim back.

*Falling feathers and red light.*

Chirin's song echoed in his head. He needed to make an offering to 
this island. He climbed up above the cave entrance again, trying not 
to intrude. He plucked leaves from the bushes and made a small pile, 
easily found a sharp stone and drew a very small form on the facet of 
stone just above the little green clump of leaves he'd laid down. It 
was three circles, the senter one filled in white. It was at once 
many things: A denryuu's light, Clef at her fullest, and a ripple in 
water.

With a pebble in it.

He scrounged around and found another pebble. Holding it he flashed 
his tail brightly as he could and looked out over the water, feeling 
a sense of vertigo.

"Lift your lapping waves tonight
And take my offering of light."

He threw the pebble down towards the water. It bounced on something 
before it got there.

He had to go in now. It was time. But before Chirin could get up he 
felt another sob coming. Why did he cry so much?

~

Goldie came out of the tunnel on the side of the rock face.  
                  The bright light, even in the evening as it was, made her 
                  blink.  She had been inside for so many days...  The Unown 
                  that floated around her head appeared confused.
                   
                  "This was not the one we were tracing," said one, a "G" Unown.
                   
                  "It is alive, and it is on out island," the "U" Unown replied.
                   
                  Suddenly something bounced off Goldie's head, hitting her 
                  right between the ears.  She let out a little whimper-scream 
                  of alarm, and jumped in the air.  "Who drop things on me?"  
                  She shrieked, "nasty!"  Her gaze turned to the object, now 
                  lying on the narrow ledge at her feet.

"Huh?" Chirin had hit someone with it? Oh, Mother Megga! He would 
have to do it all over again, now that he had in his careless aim 
insulted a living thing. "I'm sorry! Forgive me!"

She was somewhere back down by the cave, judging by her voice. Was 
she in it? If only he had not climbed so far up again! "Hold on--I'm 
coming!"

                   
                  It was a shiny pebble, the light caught it, flickering 
                  prettily.
                   
                  "Oooh," she whispered, "sparkly!"
                   
                  "We must return to the correct tunnel," the "G" replied, "we 
                  must have misjudged our route.  It is your fault, young Seer - 
                  your warm, living presence detracts from that of the invaders. 
                   You have led us wrong."
                   
                  Goldie stuck her chin out.  "I don't care!"  She said, "I 
                  don't care what you say!  You're nasty!  You were guide, yet 
                  you lead wrong - you bad, no me!"
                   
                  Her sensitive ears twitched.  She could hear something, a 
                  sound that tore at her heart.
                   
                  The sound her mother had made those days before they had 
                  parted.
                   
                  Sobbing.
                   
                  "I no care what you want!  I am me and I do what I want!  
                  Yes?"  She looked at the Unown, orbiting her in a faster 
                  fashion then was standard.  "I no care!"  And she started 
                  leaping up the cliff face.  Without arms this was no mean 
                  feat, but there were plentiful ledges and her aim was 
                  unerringly good.
                   
                  Until she got near the top - and then she misjudged - the sun, 
                  as it was setting, was in her eyes.  Her feet flailed madly 
                  and she tumbled backwards with a little shriek of fear, her 
                  tail waving to try and regain her balance.

Chirin scrambled about, trying to see who it was and who was in 
trouble. It appeared the cave was indeed full of inhabitants. He just 
could not climb fast enough.
                   
                  "The little Seer has fallen!"  The "U" said, sounding almost 
                  too calm.  "We must stop her from falling, for her weak, 
                  mortal form will be torn apart by the rocks!"
                   
                  ~How nice of them to care,~ Goldie thought, and then suddenly 
                  felt herself floating.  A delicate purple haze surrounded her 
                  spherical form.  
                   
                  "I'm, I'm flying!"
                   
                  The three Unown turned erratically in confusion.  "We are not 
                  doing it," the "U" said, "are we?"
                   
                  "Not us," the "G" replied.
                   
                  The "Y" which til now had remained silent, flickered a little, 
                  "err, maybe I, I mean we, are doing it.  We certainly intended 
                  to, but had as yet to start.  We think..."
                   
                  "Well, she certainly cannot be doing it!"  The "U" snapped.
                   
                  Goldie was ignoring them.  Her feet had touched ground again 
                  and she found herself at a not-very-scary fluffy looking 
                  pink-skinned Pokemon.  He/it was staring glumly at the ground 
                  beneath his front hooves, his shoulders shaking.
                   
                  There was a lot of Blueberry in the little luri-luri.  She 
                  bounced boldly over, ignoring her guardians, who still argued 
                  about who of the "We"s had actually helped her.
                   
                  "Hello mister, er or madam," she said, rather boldly, she 
                  felt.  "Why you sad?"
                   
"Sad? I...hi." A smile broke across his face at the sight of one of 
the Ruriri, or baby Marril. It was one of those pokemon that you 
couldn't help smiling at. She had a body like the blueberries he'd 
eaten, only more blue, a tail with a blue ball almost as big as her 
body, no arms and round little blue feet, and red ears. He wiped the 
tears off his face. Where had she come from? He had seem marill folk 
by the river but hadn't even caught a stale smell of them 
here. "I'm...not said, well I am sad but it comes from many things. 
I've come here to try to find my friend, and... sometimes the spirits 
affect me in strange ways. But I'm okay. Do you live in the cave? I--
I was going to go in there to find a place I need to find, but if 
that's your family's home I won't intrude. There are many places on 
this island I could also use." He realized he was still smiling. He 
sniffed the air right in front of her, getting to know her 
scent. "I'm Chirin-chirin of the beacon flock of Pharos, water-
friend. What's your name?"

"Hi Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Pharos," she replied, grinning a
little.  He seemed nice, real-nice, not like the Unown who only were
pretend-nice and didn't really know how to be nice in the way real Pokemon
could.  "I'm Goldie, babe of Hanekko Haunter and Blueberry Marril," she
repeated the phrase much as her papa had taught her, all those days ago.  It
spurred a sudden memory in her, and she hiccuped lightly, trying to hide the
sob.  She wondered how her parents were.  When would they next come to visit
with her? Maybe Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Pharos knew them?

"Goldie not have family here," she said glumly, "Goldie live with..." She
felt a sudden stab of pain in her head.

"Speak not of us," the Unown chimed in unison, in her head.

"Goldie live with herself," she finished.  "Goldie sad too, sometimes, she
not have many friends.  No friends here."  She paused, her gaze brightening,
"maybe Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Pharos will be her friend?"

Right then he thought he spotted something just behind the Ruriri, 
but it hovered away beyond the rocks where he couldn't see. If he 
hadn't known better he would have thought that it was... But wasn't 
he on a sacred spirit island? Could it be...?

He couldn't help himself. He stood up to peek over the rocks, but 
didn't see anything. "Phos and Watakko, I thought I saw one of the 
unown," he said quietly.

* * *

The monsters and bad evil things that Chirin had always reassured him 
about were coming awake without him there to wave them away with his 
light. Selden cowered towards the water. He didn't just think that he 
saw them back there, he knew that he smelled them. A big band of 
beasts was waiting to step from the shadowed woods and they had their 
eyes on him. 

"Chirin..."

His bleat crawled small and naked into the air. A blue light shone 
like a spark on the spire out over the lake, and Selden stepped 
towards it. As the waters climbed over his walking legs, he whispered 
Chirin's name. His legs kicked him into the lake. He was safer 
swimming than waiting here for something to get him. Selden paddled 
steadily towards the light that seemed so close next to the stars.

* * *

As he spoke to the little Luri, wondering where the rest of her 
family was--one this young couldn't be alone on this island, 
regardless of how well she could swim--a light twinkled on the side 
of his vision. He looked out beyond the rocks and beyond the water. 
For a little while his eyes followed the flickery progress of the 
yellow-white light, towards him. He watched it like a dream or a 
vision, because it didn't seem quite real. 

"Selden...SELDEN! No!"

Chirin leaped up, his feet stammering around on the rock as they 
sought a way down to the water. "Turn around! Oh, mother megga! turn 
around!" But for Selden to turn around would have meant going back 
over half the length of the lake. Selden was halfway across. But now 
the lamb's bleats reached him. His tail light bobbed above and below 
the water. He was no longer swimming, but drowning. At once he 
realized that he had never known how deeply and blindly Selden 
followed him.

Slipping on the rock, he gripped the stones and his foot landed on a 
rock one step down. He watched Selden, able to see the mareep in 
front of the light, floundering in the water. The current had grabbed 
him and though he faced towards Chirin, he was moving sideways. 

"Oh, this is all my fault!" Chirin slid carelessly down to a lower 
rock, one with a clear path through air to the lake. "I'm coming!"

Without so much as a prayer he flung himself off the rock, catching 
his gut in his throat as he fell freely. For a moment all was rushing 
wind and a wall of water zooming up towards him. His feet hit the 
surface first, his belly following. It slammed the air out of him. He 
thrashed like mad up towards the surface, chasing a flurry of 
bubbles.  His head broke through and wheezed for air. 
Still recovering from the blow he kicked out into the lake, not even 
knowing that he could have struck his head on a rock and died. 

"Help! Chirin! Help!"

Chirin swam out to Selden with a speed he had not swum for himself. 
The current powered him southwestward, driving him towards the 
drowning lamb. *Lanturns, lanturns...lend me your light now!*

Where was Karama in all of this? Had something got her? Doubly his 
fault...His arms stroked harder. Leaving two young lambs alone while 
he chatted with marrils on an island! He felt the ancestors spitting 
cud on him. The water drew him towards Selden, and only by imagining 
into existance a connection, a thread, between him and his little 
friend was he able to keep going at this speed.

All that reached his ears was the gurgle of water and the panting of 
his lungs. Air and water struggling and hurting. Just ahead of him, 
Selden watched him. He watched from beyond his flailing front legs 
until he went under. Chirin dived for him. Like his dive way way back 
in a little pond full of strange fish and surrounded by nidoran, he 
came up empty handed.

He dived again, seeking Selden's light. He sw it easily and swam 
down, fighting his body's own urge to float back up. Through waves of 
pain from his burning lungs, he stroked the final stroke. His 
flippers latched around Selden's beacon tail.

He kicked upwards, dragging the weight of Selden with him. He cried 
high with an inward breath, a cry to the moon. Dizzy with sudden 
oxygen he hoisted Selden's head up. The lamb began to respond and 
show life, moving against him. "Hold on my neck, just like a long 
time ago," said Chirin as Selden began to cough. "Oh Selden I 
thought...I thought I lost you."

He held the little mareep tight for a moment, then with his legs and 
one arm he began pumping his way towards the island again, the 
closest piece of land to where they were. Selden clung to him without 
a word, and Chirin both heard and felt his little lungs breathe. This 
was a living breathing pokemon whose life he had risked with his 
whimsy.

Chirin saw the island's eastern shoreline through the haze of dark 
both inside and outside his eyes. He dragged them both up and then 
just lay there a moment. "Thank you...that we are both alive. The 
ancestors are good and full of light."

A warm small tongue was licking his cheek. "Chirin, are you all 
right?" said a weak Selden, kneeling and dripping wet next to his 
face.

"Yes," Chirin puffed out with a tired breath. He forced himself up. 
This has sure been an eventful day, but he knew it wasn't over yet. 

After another long long minute, he got up again, feeling like 
something had beaten all the air out of him and left him deflated. 
Watakko's children were not with him at the moment. Unaided by 
jumpluff spirits he made his way back up towards the little Luri. 
Selden kept up, having recovered okay, or at least as good as he had. 
He had little to say. He was with Chirin again and thus happy.

"Selden," he said, "I'm sure glad you're okay and with me. I'm sorry 
I left you there."

"It's okay. You had to come here. I...I just did't want to be alone. 
I got afraid. I'm very sorry."

"You? You don't have to be sorry. If I was left like I left you, I'd 
probably do the same...But...where's Karama?"

"She went away in the woods. She didn't come back."

"You mean..." Chirin paused to push aside some bushes for them both 
to hike up through, "Karama left you? Or did an enemy come?"

"I don't know," he said, sounding scared. "She just walked away."

Chirin's deflated feeling dissipated, filling up again 
with...something. More guilt. Karama was younger than he had thought 
she was...she, too, only a little lamb frightened and alone. He 
couldn't blame her for what she had done, or for having expected more 
of her when he had set out. "I'll never leave you alone again Selden. 
That's a promise I make on my mah-mah's light."

"I'm glad, Chirin, I don't want you to go away."

Chirin stroked Selden's damp back, gave him a nose-to-nose touch and 
got up and continued on back up the island. So if Karama was that 
young, it meant he would have to go look for her too, tomorrow when 
it got lighter. But as he thought it over he realized he wouldn't do 
it. He didn't know why but he trusted the spirits knew. Yes, he would 
consult the spirits on whether to look for Karama. 

"I met someone on this island," he said, "and I'm looking for her 
again. She's a baby Marill. I think we could all be good friends."

As he made his way back up to where he and the Ruriri had met, he 
felt something was missing. Feeling for his belt, the realization 
that it was gone flashed over him in a wave of heat and electricity. 
The lake had taken it while he had rescued Selden, taking the ram's 
light with it. One soul he had pulled from the water, one who would 
not have been there but for him...and another soul had drowned.

Chirin stopped and looked out at the water, half expecting to see the 
flick of a lanturn's light. He had lead a spirit to eternity in water 
and what this meant for his swim back, and all the swims he ever made 
on this lake, the lake itself only knew. A lamb of Denrai was down 
there now, one he had failed from the start. He watched the elongated 
reflection of Clef cast in chips of white, staring back at him like a 
big slit pupil in the giant eye of the lake. It watched. It knew.

*In water, I took, a soul for a soul
Out of the shadows I climbed
To rest on the bank of my island goal
But held in the lake's dark bind.*

*Please don't let me lose my light!
Phos I beg, though out of your sight
Water tells wind, and wind tells night
I fear the wrath of my kind.*

Chirin knew they heard thoughts too. He feared the lake now and its 
calm lapping on the rocks not far below spoke to him. It watched. It 
waited. Was there anywhere on this place he could go to get help? 

Were there really unowns? 

Tha Ruriri must know, if she lived here. Suddenly he had another 
reason to head back up to her. He quickened his step, making sure 
that Selden could keep up. He hoped she would still be there.

"You're all alone here?" Chirin couldn't believe that. Beside him, 
Selden was shaking his fur off. "Of...of course I'll be your friend. 
Hi, Goldie. I don't want you to be sad."

All thoughts of the questions he was going to ask melted away .

And new ones formed. Chirin didn't want to scare her away. He had 
never met the parents she spoke of but he wondered what had happened 
to them, that they were not with her now. Had they been killed here? 
Had they been possessed by whatever spirits lurked on this place? All 
he knew was that he could not leave this island till she came with 
him, or some way or other he found pokemon who would look after her 
and make her happy.

He smiled as he squatted down by her, closer to her eye level. She 
was probably the cutest pokemon he'd ever seen and he smiled at her 
using the full title he had given her, hoping it would cheer up her 
sad face. "You don't have to call me by the long long name. 'Chirin' 
is just fine. It means the sound the shells make in the summer wind." 
He took a breath. "Goldie's a beautiful name. Where are your parents, 
Goldie?"

"Chirin!"  She chirped, "pretty name for a pretty fluffy Pokemon!  I 
named Goldie after my mother's-very-bestest-friend-ever!  Mama told 
me lotsa stuff about her... before..."  She let her voice trail 
off.  "Before she and Papa left me all alone here forever and ever..."

She shook, slightly, "but it's fair they left me here yes - Goldie 
has to help the island-folk, cos of the Pact."  She paused.  "At 
least that's what the 'We' say..."

"The 'we'?" And the pack? What pack? There was some kind of enemy on 
the island? And island folk? Chirin hadn't seen anyone ...

"Why did they leave you all alone here for that?" What kind of 
parents were they?

A spasm of pain shot through her.  "You have said to much," the 
voices in her head said, "you must come with us.  Come away from the 
Outsider."

"No," Goldie whimpered, "he's nice an' I wanna stay here!  You can't 
do this to me, you can't!"

"Yes we can."  The pain made her vision blur and she staggered 
forward, staring up at Chirin with frightened eyes.

"I gotta go now, mista Chirin-Chirin-of-the-protector-flock-of-Phos" 
(or whatever it was - too lazy to return and check...).  "But I think 
ou nice and hope to see you again, yes?"

And then, as suddenly as she had appeared, she darted off, hoping 
through the long grass and into a small opening in the rock face.  
There was a flicker as something moving very fast - too fast to be 
seen clearly, followed her into the darkness.

Goldie ran, and ran, and didn't stop running until the gloom 
surrounded her entirely - then she broke down and cried...

"No!" Chirin shot up. "Come back!" Glancing to see that Selden was 
near, he ran after Goldie, swiping grass aside as the little Ruriri  
disappeared into it. It was like trying to grab his pebble falling 
down the rocks. He fought the long grass, trying to listen for her, 
anything...but things kept rustling in front of him, between them, 
like little twitching shadows. 

In a scrambling rush he broke through the other side of the grass. 
Little tracks led into a hole in the spire, too small for him or 
Selden to follow her in. He sniffed at the hole anyway, further 
verifying that she'd gone in.

"Goldie...don't worry! I'm coming in there by another way!"

He knew he was on the trail of someone caught in a wicked *burakos* 
spell. She had spoken to spirits right in front of him, that he could 
not see or hear. Why they would do this to a little baby, he didn't 
know. The darkness hated the sting of light and life, and that was 
all they needed. Or was it? he thought as he made his way down rocks 
he was beginning to get to know. If there was a pack of lightless 
pokemon here...or spirits of them...

Humans. They had been here and they must still be here. But why would 
her parents send here here alone to fight them? So many questions and 
all that mattered was getting her out of this place and free from the 
evil. 

He made sure Selden was keeping up with him as he swung himself down 
over the rocks towards the cave. He shivered in the night air as he 
stood before the entrance. His wool was still damp and it was much 
cooler with Phos gone. "I'm going in there," he said as Selden hopped 
off the last rock and trotted over to him.

"I'll go with you."

Chirin murmured an incantation, rubbed one foot gainst the other 
ankle, licked his apricorn shell, and chased the darkness away with a 
soft but strong blue light, accompanied by a weaker yellow light, as 
he stepped towards his own shadow, into the cave. He did his best to 
step around the zubat guano.

"Goldie?" Chirin waited for an answer, anything, but heard only the 
echoes born of his call chasing each other down into the dark.

Feeling the coldness of the floor through the soles of his feet, 
Chirin realized that Goldie could not be the first victim of this 
thing's appetite. Chirin was onto it now. Every step he took tugged 
at the roots of what had taken Azalea. 

One last glance out over his shoulder,  then it was forward, pushing 
deeper into the jaws of the island. He would stay here till it spoke 
to him--even if it killed his body his spirit would stay. If he had 
to he would get up its windpipe and make it cough up all it had 
inside. 

The corridor sloped down. A calm cool draft breathed out against him. 
Selden huddled at his fet. They were deep in the body of a very 
living stone, a beast that the lake must have rained down around when 
Watakko first got wet. It spire saw, its mouths ate and its innards 
felt. Now, he too had given himself to it, and with himself, Selden. 
Suddenly he didn't feel so sure he could really get up its throat and 
suffocate it so easily.

Shadows hid behind rocks when they approached but crept back out 
behind them, reclaiming the path. Calima's burrow was a diglett-hole 
next to this. Gonga's ghost had been a mere thorn prick. He thought 
he had fought the heart of dark, but he'd only been kicking in the 
womb.

At least, he was pretty sure that the spirits had led him right where 
he had asked them to. If this island stone had taken her away and 
eaten her, this was where he had set out to be. And no one else was 
going to tramp down into this being's bowels to drag her out. 

"We're...going to be all right in here, right?" came Selden's flicker 
of a voice. "We're going to be okay, and go back out, and sleep 
outside, right?"

Chirin bent down and clutched him up tight. "I won't let anything 
happen to us in here." Selden's warmth alone reassured him a little. 

"You'll, you'll stay with me, right?"

"I won't leave you ever again. I told you, I swore on my mah-mah's 
light. I'll never leave you ever." He smiled to coax a smile from 
Selden, and partly succeeded. His hand ran a gentle path from 
Selden's head down his jawline, then he got up and continued on, 
slower now. 

"Goldie?" he called again. "Azalea?" The cave reflected his voice all 
around him like a sudden flight of butterfree, multiplying it down 
corridors that their lights had yet to reveal. He waited until the 
monster that his call had created, had gone away. He waited for those 
echoes to turn to an answer, or for a familiar voice to call his 
name. At the least the stone could speak to him. It could do more 
than just cast its cold breathing and snore out echoes. But if it was 
asleep, was it better to let it wake gently on its own--or not wake 
it at all? If he was going to find Azalea and Goldie he'd better do 
it while the rock was asleep. 

Or was it just pretending? If its soul was away how could it have 
called Goldie back to it?

A fury of leathery wings flapping yanked a yelp of a bleat from his 
mouth. Chirin covered Selden, sparking with surprise as a flock of 
zubats beat the air over their heads, flapping towards the exit. 
Their day had just begun.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Chirin licked Selden's cheek, feeling the 
lamb tremble.

"Oh, Chirin," said Selden, "I want to go home."

"Me too."

One zubat, flagging behind the rest, flapped a quiet solo after the 
rest. Then it was silent. Chirin unwound from Selden and panned his 
tail light around. "I think it's okay," he said. The cave had no 
answer for him, and so he continued on, beginning to feel foolhardy. 
There was nowhere he wanted to be more than on a nice grassy hill, 
bedding down among other sheep. If he had stayed back with the flock 
he'd be having a last cud chew before laying down his head. But it 
would have been without Azalea. And what about Goldie?

"Goldie!" he shouted. *Fight the mountain spirit, fight it!* But he 
didn't say it, out of fear that he would arouse the anger of the 
being whose belly he was inside. And he was pretty sure that the 
spire's soul was stronger than Goldie's and theirs put together. 
Stronger than their light. He just needed more light. 

"All right," said Chirin. "Dark Spire...I don't want to fight you, 
and I fear you too. Did you take Azalea? And did you take Goldie? 
Why? Is there something I can do to get them both back?"

He took another breath and knelt down with his hands upon the nub of 
a stalagmite. "Great mountain spirit. "I've come a long way. I know 
that you're hiding something and I know Azalea's here."

~

Goldie, being lead away by the Unown, heard his dispairing cry.  She 
stamped her little foot in anger.

"You can't do this to me!"  She shouted at the three Unoun.  "You 
can't - I pupil, not slave!  You not tp make me do anything I don't 
wanna do!"

Her head whirled with the pain, and she stumbled slightly.  But her 
stubbornness was winning out.

"What hurt would it do you if I make new friend?  My mama and papa 
leave me here to help you - you should be nice to me!"

And she sat down and began sobbing, covering her face with her tail.

Chirin thought he heard a young Ruri voice, from very far down the 
caverns. An answer...

"Goldie?" 

She was alive. Or was she? He nearly tripped over his own feet as he 
stumbled up from kneeling. He waited just a moment for Selden, and 
took off down the hall. He sniffed around but did not smell her. She 
had not come this way.

"Goldie I'm coming!"

Chirin's foot struck a stalagmite and he fell forward. Through a wave 
of pain he got up and continued, slowing down again as he arrived at 
a fork in the cave. Two tunnels and only one Goldie. 

"Goldie, it's me, Chirin!" He shone his light down both of them, 
revealing nothing but shadows, maybe a Zubat in there. 

No. That flicker of dark had been no Zubat. It was small, though...

Chirin had to fight every instinct that screamed up his veins as he 
took a step down the passage, following his fear.

~

"He comes," the Unoun said, and Goldie could not tell which 
                  one it was - they were all the same to her.  All of them as 
                  unfeeling as a rock!  "Little Seer, go ahead - we must stop 
                  him.  He cannot enter without undertaking the challenges."
                   
                  "What challenges?"  Goldie asked, curious and worried.
                   
                  The Unown did not reply, but suddenly the walls started 
                  shaking, first with a little tremour not unlike a shiver, then 
                  harder and harder.
                   
                  Small pebbles fell from the ceiling, raining down, pelting her 
                  painfully.  She squeaked in fear.  "Why you do this to him?  
                  He seem real nice!"
                   
                  "Nice is not necessarily the answer," the Unown replied, "we 
                  offer great gifts, and before one can collect them, they must 
                  prove themselves worthy of our attention."
                   
                  "But that's not fair!  I mean, he don't want gifts!  He just 
                  want to know if I save - cos he think I'm small and weak and 
                  all alone.  He not know you here to look after me!  And you 
                  not look after me good at all - you treat me like a slave and 
                  be mean to by friends!  That's not how parents should be."
                   
                  And suddenly she darted off through the raining rocks, towards 
                  Chirin's voice.
                   
                  "Little does she know," one of the Unoun said, "that this is 
                  her test as much as his."

Chirin dropped to all fours as the cavern shuddered. Knocked onto his 
back, he grabbed at his apricorn and began praying on it. "Please, 
please! Let us live! I only want Goldie and Azalea to be safe! Oh, 
please!" he cried as his tail above him illuminated the falling 
pebbles that pelted him. If the cave thought this was going to make 
him give up his search for Azalea, it was wrong. He shut his eyes 
over his tears and bleated against the rock-grating roar. "I have a 
soul connection to Azalea! You can't break it even if you killed me!" 

*Chenja, Lararu...where are you? I'm here in the isldn spire and I'm 
going to die.*

The stones pelting down on Goldie hurt - they hurt bad and she was 
frightened, very frightened indeed... She wanted to run and hide away 
from the nasty-bad falling stones but she couldn't leave Chirin-
Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Phos all alone in these scary-scary 
caverns.

She pushed through, boldly and bravely, and then realised with horror 
that she could hardly go any further - the tunnel afore her was 
blocked by piles and piles of pebbles...

Oh, how she wished she had hands!  She ran up, scrambling agily up it 
and pushed at the rocks with her feet and tail, sending them tumbling 
earthwards with much clattering and clunking.

"The little Seer is certainly stubborn," the Unoun said to each 
other, or maybe to her, it was hard to tell.  "Once she has set her 
mind to something, she certainly follows through with it."

Goldie's head ached, and a large bruise was forming, mottling her 
short blue fur with a dark stain.  She did not stop, kicking and 
pushing at the rocks.

Eventually she saw a feeble glow of light.  Chirin's tail, perhaps?

"Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Phos!"  She cried, her voice 
rising into a crsecendo, "are you hurt bad?"

Her voice threaded through the pebbles to Chirin, who lay hunched 
over on his stomach, shielding Selden from the rocks. He smelled his 
own blood and felt many aches on his back, where bruises were 
beginning. It was Goldie's voice.

"No...I'm not hurt bad...Goldie, I'm coming!"

Chirin stood up, wincing where his muscles and bones on his back told 
him they would rather he didn't move. Apart from a few kicks of 
pebbles coming from the other side, it was quiet. Chirin faced the 
wall of pebbles and began to dig. Selden, uninjured for the most 
part, fell in next to Chirin and together they dug, sifting the 
pebbles aside. The cave had tried to block Goldie away, that much was 
obvious. He was up against a determined and frightened spirit.

Frightened...yes. For why would it try so hard to shield her away 
from him? Why was it trying to hide things from Chirin and Selden, 
two ordinary denryuu-folk? And what, besides Goldie, was it trying to 
hide? Chirin and Selden were not just petty intruders. For the first 
time he considered that maybe the cave considered them a threat.

"I come to hurt no one," said Chirin, "all I ever came to find was 
Azalea. She's my dear friend and someone took her away. Spire, I 
think you have something to do with it. Maybe...maybe we can talk 
this through. I don't want you taking Goldie into this place and 
hurting her, just to get rid of me. Goldie needs to be with her 
parents, if they are alive." Despite what Goldie had said, he did not 
believe her parents would just abandon her here. They must have been 
killed...of Goldie had been spirited away just like Azalea. 

There was no reply but the distant "thunk" of stones.  The shaking 
had stopped - but the last of the pebbles fell to the floor.

The breaking down of the pebble blockage turned his focus back on 
Goldie. He strained to hold his head up, though it hurt his bruised 
shoulders. He held his tail in front of him and cast the light down 
the tunnel. Out at the edge of the beam he saw the Ruri dimly 
illuminated, picking a path for her little feet over the fallen 
pebbles. 

"Goldie!" He ran to her, slipping on pebbles a few times. More 
pebbles skittered behind him, shifting under Selden's running hooves. 
He knelt by her and sniffed her over, looking at her in his light. 
Apart from a nasty bruise the baby was okay. "Thank my mah-mah's 
lights! I'm so glad you're okay," he said, hugging her. "Let's get 
out of these caves...I'm afraid of this island, very much. Once we 
have you nice and safe...well, let's get you nice and safe first."

"I gotta stay here," Goldie replied, with a little sob.  "This my 
home, now.  I work for the err..." she paused, "they teach me stuff, 
and I have to stay with them cos without them I wouldn't be born at 
all.  But maybe you come, stay little while?  Be my friend?  My, err, 
teachers are ... different, they no think like life thing, think 
like, well, other thing..."  

She was not explaining herself well, and she knew it.  What the Unoun 
had also told her was that if she tried to leave the island she would 
experience intense pain beyond anything she had ever known before.  
The idea of leaving terrified her - but the idea of staying was none-
to-pleasant either - especially not if she were to remain here alone, 
with only the Unoun for company.

They just did not understand her.

But maybe Chirin-Chirin would.

"Please," she begged, "I make them let you stay and then you keep 
Goldie happy for a while!"

"Please," she whispered.

Chirin held Goldie in his arms and listened to the last pebbles chink 
down as she spoke. He heard the last one shift. It was like they all 
were listening too and he knew that they were not alone.

"What 'teachers'?" The only "teachers" Chirin had ever known of was 
Chenja, and she had assumed that role to teach Lararu her gift of 
shining her light to places no one could normally go or see. Chenja 
had been teaching her that since long before Chirin was born. She had 
known there were places farther away than even the end of the ocean. 
But she had never said anything about Lightless islands who ate up 
little baby marills, pelted them with stones and called themselves 
teachers. Chirin felt the rock silently shuddering under his feet. 
Goldie was shuddering in his arms, then he realized it was all him 
shaking. 

Little flashes of cold light chipped out from his body, casting 
themselves against the stone room. He sniffled. It echoed.

"I'm not leaving you any more than Selden," he said. "Who are 
these 'teachers'? What kind of things are they?" Tears were peeling 
out from his eyes, he was crying all over again. "How could your 
teachers make you stay on this awful island, all alone and sad? Down 
here, without the light of Clef or Phos?" He swallowed, trying to get 
a hold of himself so he could talk and think. But the sobs kept 
coming and they rippled his speech apart.

"They won't let me say," Goldie replied, "I get bad stingy pain in 
head when I even think of saying.  But you come with me, meet them 
for yourself, yes?  They say I important, and name themself 'Guardian 
of lake'.  They not too bad to me - only when they don't like what I 
want do - like they no like me come to you.  They say I am important 
and fate of lake in my hands.  It scary thought."  That, for the 
little ruriri was something of a speech.

"Pain--in your head?" So the evil spirits were entering this baby's 
body and violating it. Up above ground, in the twilight, he had 
thought the child's winces of pain were from loneliness, indecision--
He swallowed back cud pushed up by revulsion. Giving another swallow 
to clear his mouth, he pressed on with his questions.

"What do you mean...you wouldn't be born? Who would tell you 
something like that? Once we are born, we all have a light-path. And 
one may die but they can not be unborn. Nothing that
we do in our light-path can be changed after the beam is in the past. 
They can't take away your being born, Goldie."

"The change stuff to make me born, my papa, he not able to be papa 
without help.  They help - make me special."

Chirin did not know what to make of this. The union of souls and 
blood and electricity, was what brought about new beings. Seeds in 
soil, seed into a womb, all he could glean from what she had said was 
a feeling that these dark things had twisted and misshaped something 
sacred.

Chirin broke into uncontrolled sobbing, trying to keep quiet for 
Goldie's sake. That they would hurl pebbles over them was bad enough, 
but that they would teach a little baby these things and plant these 
shadow beliefs in her mind and twirl their thorns into her very thoughts
 somehow brought him to tears. No one had somehow brought him to tears. No one had 
the right to trap a little baby in here. "May the four winds blow 
this spire down," he whispered, barly understandable through his 
sobbing, "may my own ancestors strike it with their thunder." He felt 
Selden's wool against his tail and back as he sat there hugging the 
little Luri. He felt her little lungs breathing and he smelled her 
terror. He gave her forehead a little kiss. "I won't leave you here 
in a Lightless place. This is not a home for anything but shadows and 
dark." He remembered the marills and azus playing in the water on his 
way across the river. So far removed was she from their happy faces 
and each other's company. There was a light that came from company, 
that only a flock could bring.

At this blasphemy the Unoun became most unsettled.

At last he gave a last sniffle and wiped his face on his wool ruff. 
He let go of Goldie and placed her down right next to him. He was 
still afraid that something in here would make her run away. "This 
island is no place to learn anything but dark. I've never encountered 
anything like it. I'm frightened by it very much. But that must be 
othing to what you feel if you're here alone all the time..." He 
stopped, feeling more crying coming. "Who are these 'teachers'. You 
say they don't think like the living." Everything was living, so he 
wasn't sure what she meant. They were the flock of the spire, no 
doubt. 

"They are Guardians," she said, her voice soft, little more then a 
whisper.  He was beig so nice to her, and he was so warm.  She hadn't 
felt the warmth of another living being for so long...  She curled up 
against his chest, her ear pressed against it, listening to the 
comforting "thrumb" of his heart.  And the little one, Selden, was so 
like her - so young.  "They be here forever and forever more, but all 
cold and unfeeling, like rock."

"Where are they right now?"

She shuddered slightly.  "They wait for me in tunnel.  They want me 
to go back to them.  But I so lonely, even when they try be nice I 
get so lonely!"

"Ohhh...Chirin..." bleated Selden, pressed tight against Chirin's 
side. When he got to his feet, Selden shifted himself so he was 
against the side of his leg. 

"It's going to be okay Selden. "All three of us are leaving this 
place soon. But first...I have to talk to these things that say they 
are teachers. They may have Azalea. If they would do these things 
to..." he swallowed, "Goldie here, I can't think of anything they 
wouldn't do."

Goldie had said something about a pack. Humans seemed to move in 
packs sometimes...they had attacked his flock in a pack and stories 
said they were rarely alone for long. Humans were Lightless. They had 
powers no other creature had. Could Goldie's teachers...be humans? It 
made perfect sense! A place like this was perfect for *burakos* like 
them. But sniffing Goldie over again he smelled no sign of humans.

The Unoun listened to his blasphemy.  It was time, they decided, for 
the Flaafy to have understanding.  "You are not welcome here," the 
voice came in his head, as though from a multitude of mouths.  "Your 
presence will disrupt the delicate balance of the lake.  You must be 
gone, or we must destroy you.  Goldie is our child, our charge, our 
little seer, and if you lure her away, you will be cursing the lake 
into the farthest reaches of the dark abyss.  Begone, leave the child 
here, and forget what you have seen, else the blood of the lake will 
be on your hands."

Chirin clutched his head, hearing the breathing voices. Long ago, 
someone else had spoken to him this way before, on the lakeshore. He 
remembered splashing in the hot summer sunlight, in a gathering of 
many animals. But this was another force, a group of voices. They 
were the ones he had wanted to speak to.

He clutched up Goldie again. "How..." He began to sob all over 
again. "How can you hurt her. She's a little baby..." He had to stop 
shaking. He had to get himself together. But it was no use. He could 
not let her go. How could he leave her here in darkness and walk 
away? "There must be something I can do." But what? The voices spoke 
like stone. They did not care. They would not change their minds. 
They would not compromise.

*It's a trap,* said an imaginary Azalea in his head. Or was it really 
her? Was she right here next to him? All he felt was the shiver of 
Goldie's racing heart. All he heard was his own. 

Curse the lake? How would his being here curse the lake? If the lake 
was in trouble how could darkness save it? They lied. Chirin tried to 
keep his calm.

"You say she's a seer. But if you keep her down here, you're hurting 
her. Seers don't learn to read future light-paths if they're--trapped 
in dark cold caves like this. How can they learn to hear the spirits 
if they never get to see Phos's light and run over Mother Megga's 
back?" He burst into tears. "It's all wrong. Goldie needs to be 
outside with a family, who loves her and won't hurt her. A spirit has 
to be free to follow its light path. She...she doesn't even have any 
friends here."

"She has everything she requires," the voices replied.  "But your 
compassion is noted, and marks you as worthy.  Come further, come 
into the darkness, and we will show you what she has here, what we 
have created for her."

He shuddered at the listless chorus in his head. Were these the 
voices Goldie heard every day--in place of a loving mother and 
father? Whatever it was they had created for her had not made Goldie 
happy.

He closed his eyes and breathed deeply, sighing his way towards 
composure. He stroked Goldie's forehead, trying to calm her 
down. "I've come here to find my dear friend Azalea. If you...if you 
know where she is...or what has happened to her...please, just tell 
me. Even if she is dead now. I won't stop until I find her. I'm sorry 
that you think I'm here to hurt you, or hurt the lake. I don't want 
to hurt anybody. But I'm sorry. I can't leave Goldie here."

Selden was staring at Chirin, who appeard to be speaking to the 
spirits again but it seemed somehow more real this time. But he said 
nothing, too afraid even to bleat by now.

"Your friend is not here, but come with us, come into our realm, and 
we can try to find her for you.  We can see all, and we train the 
little Seer to see all too.  So come with us, do not be afraid, we 
will not hurt you."

An Unoun flickered into view, and then another, all three in total -
 "G", "Y" and "U", the three that had escorted Goldie to the upside 
of the world.

"If you come, you may understand."

Chirin's mouth locked open, as if afraid to eat grass held in front 
of it. Unowns were here...But they loked nothing like the ones who 
had swirled in color around the face of his mama, escorting her 
thorugh the spirit realm to speak to him. Unowns were only seen in 
the spirit world. He had been brought over to the other place, 
unawares. 

Who was he to try to challenge words of stone and spirits, so much 
stronger than he was? There was so much he didn't know, so much he 
had come to learn. They were offering to help him find Azalea. Could 
he really turn around and refuse them now? 

Chirin stepped towards the floating runes. He saw their different 
shapes, not knowing that they represented letters. He had no concept 
of letters, but he had a concept of knowledge. 

"Yes, I'll come," he said, trying to remember the way out of here and 
hoping they didn't throw rocks down behind him. Would he too be 
trapped forever here, a prisoner to spines of pain inside him if he 
thought things they didn't like? 

*Are you already?* All of the flock had always known that spirits 
influenced every move your mind made. They wrapped about you like 
vines, helping or hindering you. Often it was impossible to tell the 
vines from the trees they twined. "I would like very much to see what 
you made for Goldie. I'm sure you...you try very hard...to help her."

*To use her*, was what reared up in the back of his head. He wiped it 
clean. "Show me," he said, and began following them.

"Good.  It is usual that we offer a gift to you, and in repayment, 
you must gift us with a favour.  So, first we offer you your wish - 
do you wish to see Azalea again?"

"Yes," he said, without even thinking twice.

"Good - then we will help you find her.  Follow us."  And they 
                  spun around Goldie's head and down into the darkness.  Goldie 
                  grinned at Chirin.
                   
                  "Come on!"  She cried, seemingly to have forgotten her earlier 
                  upset.  She was excited that maybe - if only for a short 
                  while, she would have two new friends!  She skipped after the 
                  Unoun and into the darkness.
                   
                  * * *
                   
                  The tunnels were not as dark as one might expect - the walls 
                  glowed faintly with a pale purple hue that grew in intensity 
                  the deeper the group travelled.  Goldie chatted with Selden 
                  and Chirin, talking about anything and nothing, just glad to 
                  finally have someone who could hold a conversation.  The Unoun 
                  were kind enough, in their own way, but they lacked in 
                  imagination and humanity (err - pokemanity?).  The tunnels 
                  were fairly interesected with one another - making it 
                  complicated after a time for anyone unfamiliar with them to 
                  find a way back out again.
                   
                  Suddenly the tunnels opened into the huge chamber where Goldie 
                  had sat beneath the Unown.  Her little sun still glowed in the 
                  corner, shedding its brilliant luminance on the cold, hard 
                  rock walls.

Chirin had never thought that a light so bright could look so cold 
and dark. It was a light that must have come from the spirits here. 
From what Goldie had said, this was her sun. It was not Phos. It was 
not close to Phos. 
                   
                  Many Unown floated here, some turning endless, continuous 
                  circles in the air, others lying on the ground like little 
                  more then shed tiles.  

Chirin was struck not by the lack of light or movement, but by the 
lack of sound. The unown moved as if they did not think or care what 
they did, as if there was nothing driving them to do it--no light 
path. He almost spoke, but waited instead. Anything he said or did 
now might make them change their minds and cast him out of the 
cave...and leave Goldie here alone. But surely there had to be more? 
Living here all day and night was not living. He stared out through a 
sort of turning spell inside his own mind, feeling more than ever 
that he had left the living world behind. The spirit world was much 
wilder than the non-spirit world. Some had called it the waking world 
but Lararu and Chenja never had. That place was where you were truly 
awake, they had said.

But what was this, then?

As Goldie and the others entered, they 
                  all animated and started forming words in time with their 
                  speech.
                   
                  "Greetings Little Seer,"  they set, in unison.  "Are you ready 
                  to learn the reading of the waters?  To find 
                  Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Pharos's friend Azalea?"

Chirin's heart leaped. To think he would soon see her! Reading water 
and wind and mud, feeling the rocks and trees and grass for what they 
had to say was something Chirin knew little about beyond the casual 
conversations he had with them each day. He had never had a chance to 
coax far-seeing messages from them. Few had the gift. If Goldie had 
it she was special indeed, and even less should she be kept down 
here. A soul so vibrant was a soul that much more sensitive. Down 
here, she would wither away, body and soul alike becoming a husk. The 
plants were not the only things that died without Phos.
                   
                  There was no communication between them - they all knew 
                  instantaneously why Chirin was here.  There were no 
                  individuals amongst the Unoun.
                   
                  Except for little Mysterious, who hovered below them, worried 
                  about her friend.
                   
                  "Not yet," Goldie replied, knowing that the moment they helped 
                  Chirin find his friend he would leave her all alone in this 
                  dark, lonely place, "first show him my den, yes?"
                   
                  "Indeed.  Which one's of us will be the guide?"
                   
                  "I will," Mysterious replied.  If the other Unoun could have 
                  frowned, they would have.  For an Unoun to show individuality 
                  was unusual, to say the least.  Even they referred to her as 
                  Mysterious - if they must refer to her as anything at all.
                   
                  "Very well.  Escort the Seer and her companions to her 
                  quaters."
                   
                  Mysterious zipped out of the masses and hovered over Goldie, 
                  leading the three towards her den, a small alcove off the main 
                  one.

Chirin sensed that they were deep in the spire now, and heading 
further down. Soon they would encounter the lakewaters.
                   
                  It was homelier now then it had been - Goldie and Mysterious 
                  had helped it become friendlier.  Mysterious was nice, but she 
                  still had that cold non-real behaviour.  And Goldie could 
                  hardly curl up with her, after all.  As far as her new life 
                  went, Mysterious had been her only possible friend, and even 
                  she was not capable of holding a conversation or of truly 
                  understanding what it was like to be alive and to cry, or 
                  laugh, or smile.
                   
                  The alcove was still pretty bare (OOP: I realise this desc has 
                  changed a bit...sry), with an opening in the back that lead 
                  into a water-filled cave.  The opening was, naturally, above 
                  the water level - although if the lake were to flood the cave 
                  probably would too.  In the cave itself was a bed made of 
                  dried water weeds, bird feathers and grass, showing that 
                  Goldie must go above ground at least once in while.
                   
                  Sticking in a crack in the wall was a flower.  It's petals, 
                  once a vivid blue, had turned a sickly pale colour, and its 
                  stem, once green, was yellowed from lack of sunlight.  Some of 
                  the petals lay on the floor.

Horrified at the sight of the flower, Chirin sniffed at the withered 
thing. A couple more petals fell at the brush of his nose. "Mother 
Megga," he whispered, feeling for the poor thing that had been 
plucked from the world and stuffed down here to die. And yes, he felt 
its lost soul wandering the space here, forever searching. 
                   
                  Goldie looked hopefully at Selden and Chirin.  "Your fur is so 
                  silky-soft," she said, "can I have some for my bed, so I can 
                  think of you when you go away?"

That feeling that had been filling him up, like waters rising inside 
of him, now strained at the tops of his ears and bulged inside his 
head. Chirin opened his mouth but only tears came out. Selden, 
meanwhile, nuzzled the side of Chirin's leg, afraid but only wanting 
to leave here, and be outside safe again. He was tired and beyond 
bewildered.

"No, no, no," Chirin's mouth opened and closed around the only word 
he could find. He looked up and out at the unown.

"You call this...giving her all she needs? How...what..." He tried to 
keep himself calm this time. Getting upset would only upset Goldie. 
Chirin ran to her and swept her up. "Goldie I would never leave you 
even if Pharos fell in the ocean," he said, using a term he hadn't 
heard in a while. "Never. This is not a home for you."

His head wheeled up at the spinning letters. "Unowns...please...she 
can't stay living here, with no friends...no sunlight." He was 
already crying uncontrollably so he just let his words flow out. "No 
running jumping friends to play with, no mother or father to hug her 
and keep her warm and tell her stories. No flowers, no trees, no 
grass to roll in. She needs those things. I need them. Everyone needs 
them! She has a light-path like everyone. I'm sor..." No. He wasn't 
sorry. Imagine if he had not come here. Goldie would have gone on 
existing here, the light inside her slowly going out. "I can't leave 
her here. Don't you see..." He hugged her tight. "She'll die."

"They need these things?"  The Unown seemed surprised, albeit that 
they showed little enough emotion.  "She has food to eat - we find 
good food for her - the best food grows on our island, berries so 
succulent that the Pidgey fly from miles around to guzzle them down.  
She has water to play in - for she is a water creature, and we give 
her companionship.  Her place is warm, we see to that, and we gave 
her the sun, as she asked for it.  We teach her, teach her things 
beyond what any mere mortal Pokemon could ever actually know.  Do you 
not see that?  Or, are we perhaps doing something wrong?"  Here the 
multitude of Unoun seemed genuinely confused - their view on living 
beings was a more physical one - living beings ate, and slept and 
their fragile bodies could be hurt.  The Unoun, for all their 
longevity, and for all their dealings in fate, could not, had not, 
ever understood the deeper, the spiritual, the emotional, side of 
being alive.

They simply were.

Chirin's oversized ears drooped down in despair. "I don't know if I 
can make you understand. You are trying hard. But... there is a story 
I know, or at least I remember it a little. Long ago a horrible dark 
ampharos made himself leader of the ancestors of my flock. He drove 
them all down to live underground and they could only come up to see 
the sun once in a while. He said this was to make them safe. They 
were allowed to eat, to drink and talk to each other. Lambs were born 
and lives were lived. But they were souls trapped from their light 
paths, the path that every spirit needs to be free to follow. I 
followed my own light-path here to this island, and I follow it 
still. The dead are with the living always, but living need to be 
among other living things. Down here she is trapped away from the 
living and the dead. They spark and flutter and bleat out their joy 
and their pain. All up there. Goldie needs to be a part of that." 

Then suddenly the ring of Unoun brightened - literally.  "We know the 
answer!  You can stay here and be her friend, Chirin-Chirin-of-the-
beacon-flock-of-Pharos. Or maybe your little friend could stay 
behind."


"My little friend--" 

Chirin, dazzled by the sudden light the unown displayed from their 
*denki*, was caught with an open mouth and no words. But he quickly 
knelt by Selden. "No, no...We cannot live down here either. I swore 
by my mah-mah's light that I will never leave Selden ever." He looked 
up and around at the ring of hopeful unown. "And I know I could never 
live down here. Maybe...maybe you are happy living here, but me and 
Selden and Goldie are different. We have to live up there, and run 
free. When the soul is denied its light path for too long...it gives 
up. It curls into itself and fades away. These, I think, are souls 
that make shadows and possess living beings...they are hungry to get 
another chance, but they never really do."

He wondered if saying this would make them change their minds about 
Azalea. But was he really willing to exchange her for themselves? For 
Goldie? Looking at the two of them, he knew it was a decision he 
could not make for them. He might as well kill them now, with his own 
powers, and spare them the strung-out, light-starved stem of a life 
they would have breathed out down here. This, also, he knew he could 
never do. The very thought of it made the flesh crawl uncomfortably 
on the backs of his legs. A wad of cud made its way up and he chewed 
it, waiting for their answer.

He swallowed it. "Maybe if you let us go, Goldie could stay by the 
shore and you could teach her there. She would still be right close 
to the lake. And sometimes she could come to the island and you could 
teach her here too." Only, if he was allowed to take her ashore he 
would have to find her a safe home. He would not take her on his 
quest, which was proving to be rather dangerous. He 
remembered. "Goldie, maybe we could find your parents and they could 
take care of you again."

"The little Seer must remain with us - the outside world is full of 
dangers, and outside our island we cannot protect her.  But perhaps, 
at your suggestion, we will let her outside, more often, to play, or 
whatever you mortals do, in the grass.  But you say she needs 
friends?  Well, here is your task."

"In repayment for us finding the whereabouts of your Azalea-friend, 
you must find a friend for the little Seer.  Someone who can cope 
with the isolation and be her dedicated friend.  Know you of such a 
Pokemon?"

"If you do not say 'yes'then we cannot help you."

"Yes," said Chirin, right away, keeping all his other thoughts to 
himself. While he spoke the word he kept his heels touching and his 
tail light pressed down against both. 

As the ripples of silence fanned out around his answer, he wondered 
what he had just done. He felt afraid. Could they read his thoughts?


*Never mind,* he thought. *You'll find more help for her than just a 
friend once you leave here and get Azalea.* That they were still 
unwilling to let Goldie go even after all he had said to them told 
him a lot. They were bargaining, using him, just like they used 
Goldie. And he had played into it--at least partway. Living beings 
were not for bargaining and swapping! 

How sad it was, that they thought he would only help Goldie if they 
helped him in return. He would have helped her even if they had flung 
him off the island by his wool right now and said never come back.

A faint purple glow surrounded the Flaafy for a moment, and then 
settled into his wool.  He was bound to the promise.  If they kept 
their part - he must keep his.

Chirin startled at the light, not sure what it was and afraid. He 
stroked his wool ruff with his hand but felt nothing there. Had it 
been a spirit enterig him? They hd said nothing about a spirit 
entering him! Suddenly his skin felt hot and his knees shaky. The 
soles of his feet felt wet and sticky against the floor. They could 
not have possessed him? He felt the same. But, somehow, he felt a 
sudden need to be cleansed. The sooner he was off the island the 
better.


"But... Danger is part of living," he said, "I know you care for her. 
but I beg you one last time, maybe if I found her a family strong 
enough to protect her from danger--such as her parents--you may 
reconsider when I come back? she wouldn't have to be away from here 
all the time, she would just get to...visit back and forth?"

"Her parents are dead," The Unoun said to him, carefully shielding 
Goldie from the message. "Her father died long, long before she was 
conceived and her mother passed into the rainbow lands some weeks ago 
now, and he followed her.  We have not told her.  We cannot tell her -
 we realise that living beings are rather delicate about hearing such 
things."

"Oh, no," he said quietly, knowing that it would indeed be too much 
for Goldie to bear if she heard the news. So they had taken in Goldie 
when she had had no family left--if not for them she really might 
have died. 

"Danger is a part of living, yes, but you must understand that Goldie 
is very, very special.  If we were to allow badness to come to her, 
and destroy her, then even we cannot predict what would happen.  
Chaos perhaps.  The happiness of one individual seems little enough 
sacrifice for the survival of the entire lake.  She must learn about 
danger, for she will face it - but she is as yet not strong enough to 
cope with it, and we have much to teach her.  Much to teach her 
indeed."

A family would protect her from such danger...but why did they think 
one individual would save the lake? Why did the lake need her? He 
opened his mouth to ask the question, but stopped when they spoke 
again.

They paused, forming more words.  "You wish for us to find your 
friend, Goldie, reveal the waters of truth!"

Goldie, lacking in hands, had to push away the rock cover with her 
feet.  The Unoun, lacking any appendage would have had even great 
difficulty.  Beneath the plate was a small pool of clear blue water.

"Watch."

Goldie beamed up at him, for once her roud little face radiant and 
alive.  She stood close to the edge, dipping her tail in and swirling 
it around thrice widdershins.  And she began to chant.

"Spirits of the water, spirits of the rock
Please come to my aid
My friend he seeks
one lost so dear, 
pray tell where Azalea can be found."

The waters clouded over, and then Goldie's reflection took on a new 
form, hazy.

It was obviously beneath the ground, for the environment was not 
unlike this one.  The dim shape of a Flaafy , except that her head 
was marred by what appeared to be a bone helmet.  She lay on the 
ground, and over her, watching her, stood a Marowak.

At first he had simply been fascinated by the powers Goldie had. He 
had not expected to truly see Azalea in the waters. "Wow, Goldie, I 
didn't know you could do that. That's amazing. You really are 
special." Then the image rippled into focus. "Azalea? AZALEA?" His 
voice was magnified by the cavern space and he felt a faint vibration 
pinged by his yell. Was that mud-caked, bone-capped body really her? 
She looked dead! "No...No...That can't be her," he said even though 
he knew it was.

For an instance the image was clear, and then suddenly, without any 
physical contact whatsoever, the waters rippled and whirled and it 
was gone.

"No," he said, kneeling with his hands at the water's edge. "Bring 
her back. Can I speak to her?" He groveled at the little pool, 
praying and swaying, trying to conjure it up himself, but nothing 
happened. All his concentration drained away
into tears. "No, Noo."

"There is a force blocking us," the Unoun said, sounding possibly 
concerned.  "We can see exactly where she is - but not where that 
place is.  It is a long way, Chirin-Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-
Pharos, a long way beyond the lake."

Still on all fours he whirled on them. "I must go there. Do you know 
what direction?" But by how they looked at him he knew they knew 
nothing. Marowaks. If she was taken by marowaks, why had he not 
smelled or seen them? Their scent could wake a denryuu four miles 
away. Maybe something else had taken her, and then she had fallen 
into Marowak hands. What he wondered, and marveled at, was that she 
was still alive at all. But why the bone on her head...?

A bone head. An ampharos made of stone. Marowaks haunting his 
daydreams, Mure calling to him from a marowak place. It was related 
but how? "Mure...do you know who Mure is?" He realized he could not 
leave yet, he had so many more questions to ask them. "There's a ewe 
whose spirit calls to me but I don't know why. I think she might be 
with marowaks too but I'm not sure. Do you know...if Azalea's going 
to die?"

"Going to die?" said Selden. "Where is she, Chirin?"

"I don't know. But she's in terrible trouble." He pleaded to the 
unowns and to Goldie. "Please, I need to know more."

Goldie stared into his face, and saw the desperation and the 
                  longing.  And she knew.  Knew that he would go away if she 
                  told him more.  He would go away and leave her in this dark 
                  world forever - despite what he had promised the Unoun.
                   
                  She liked him, and she wanted him to stay.
                   
                  She broke down and cried, her ears flat against her head with 
                  her grief.  "I dunno," she sobbed, "I, I can't see any 
                  further, I want to help you, I do, but I can't, I can't 
oh...."
                   
                  She felt the Unoun's reaction to her grief, as they tensed.  
                  "She is young, and lacks in experience," the Unoun said, "she, 
                  among us all, is the only one to stir the waters of truth.  Do 
                  not over-stress her.  I sense your friend is alive and 
                  although we cannot tell you the exact location of her 
                  presence, we can tell you that it is beyond the realms of the 
                  lake - beyond our reaches.  We cannot touch her, for our range 
                  is limited, but you, mortal-son, have the ability to go where 
                  you wish.    Of course, you are still faced with the task of 
                  finding a companion for Goldie - unless your little friend 
                  would choose to do so himself?"

"I'm sorry, Goldie," he said, wiping off his cheek and giving her a 
stroke on her head, giving one of her ears a gentle touch to help it 
perk back up. "Thank you so much for doing your best and showing her 
to me. It means more to me than I could ever say. My ancestors were 
good and loving to lead me to you. Thank you."

He wanted to start searching right away. But he knew what he had to 
do. He turned to Selden. "It's up to you," he said. "You can stay 
here, or come with me. If you stay, I will come back as soon as I 
can."

"I," Selden hugged against Chirin, "want to go, with you."

Chirin looked back at Goldie and the unown. "I guess both us will go, 
then," he said. "I'll find a friend for Goldie...and I will come back 
to visit Goldie, maybe even stay for a while once I find Azalea." *And 
get her away from here,* he thought to himself. All that the unown 
had said ran in runnels, but Goldie's sad face he would remember 
clearly forever. What she had told him of pain, and of loneliness and 
sadness...The dried-up flower crushed in on itself, hanging in a 
crack in the wall. 

"So...what now."

"Now it is up to you," the Unoun said, "you are free to go, as you 
wish, but until your promise is fulfilled, then you will experience 
slight pain, emotional, not physical, if your quest dwindles.  We are 
really not that harsh.  We see you want the best for Goldie - and 
therefore trust you will keep your promise.

The bond is not one of our making, but of yours."

Things began popping, little fizzy cracks and chinks. They were 
sparks and they danced out from his skin. Chirin saw the fur on his 
chest rise up, brushing under his chin. He tried to smooth it down. 
Emotional pain? He felt that already, ever since Azalea had gone away 
he had felt it. Something about the way they had stated what he would 
feel in the future, though, made him a little afraid. Then again they 
had always made him afraid. He had been tensed for flight since the 
moment he had stepped in the cave.

Chirin knew he had made a bond, he had made one with Goldie as soon 
as he had met her. "Of course we have a bond," he said, smiling a 
little at Goldie. "We have a spirit bond and nothing can break it. I 
feel bad to have to say goodbye. But you must trust me, I will be 
back--with a friend." That much was true, he thought. He knelt by 
Goldie. "And I care for you very much, I wish I could take you with 
me. But I'm going to maybe dangerous places now." He was crying again 
as he hugged her a long time. Pharos was a spire and this was a 
spire, two rock brothers, so different from each other. One had come 
to stand on the edge of the sea where Mother Megga slept. He stood 
guardian over all the shore and the mountains and they had kept him 
lit.

This spire had migrated to this lake, where it had become mired in 
dark. Along with the lake. Chirin felt a great dark here and although 
he had come to the right place to find Azalea, he had entered an 
abode of the *burakos*--the Lightless--and once he was out of here he 
had to spend a day to purify himself, wash off the dark and be beacon 
bright. Both him and Selden. Otherwise these evil spirits might cling 
to them and tunnel down their throats, stranding their souls and 
sickening their bodies when they got lost. 

"I don't know what direction I'll head," said Chirin, "to look for 
her. Or, I guess, wherever there are Marowaks, and they're 
everywhere. Somewhere along there I'll find a friend for you, 
Goldie." That was the least of what he planned to do. He was lying, 
but he knew he had to if he was going to get her off this island, 
away from this lake of dark. He needed the help of lights much 
brighter than his own. It was all one thing. The epiphany swept over 
him in a bath of sparks. Burakuru lived very near the lake and she 
had poisoned it. Or Bangaa, he might live under it! Or both! But no 
matter what, the lake itself had been the source of what had taken 
his flock. These unowns were its flock, its lambs, telling him its 
messages. "I made you a promise and I will keep it," he said. He 
would not leave this Luri in the hands of dark ones, to use to 
perpetuate their evil. The enormity of all that had to be done made 
him sigh a long sigh out of shaking lungs. 

"Unowns...I guess we have to go now. Me and Selden have a lot to do."

He put Goldie gently down and kissed her head between her round red 
ears. "Phos's light to you," he said, and with Selden beside him, he 
turned away and headed out the way they had come, afraid to look back 
at Goldie. He knew that if he did he might just snatch her up and run 
with her.

He kept his head up and pretended he was not crying as he climbed 
back up, barely able to see the trail through his tears. So much 
shadow and so little shine.

Pit-a-pat-a-pit-a-pat came the running of a small set of feet, 
littler and quicker than even Selden's hooves. Something soft and 
warm wound around Chirin's leg. 

"Please, mister Chirin-of-the-beacon-flock-of-Pharos," said Goldie, 
her tail tight around his ankle. Her beady eyes glistened. "Please 
stay a little longer."

"Oh, Goldie." Chirin swept her up and nuzzled her. "I'm sorry I have 
to leave you in... this place. I'm going to find you help, much more 
help than I could get for you here. To help you, I have to leave. But 
oh...Don't cry, you're making me cry." He tried to smile for her.

"I have a lot to do," he said, setting her back down. "But I promise, 
we'll see each other again.  Sometime soon, I hope. And the next time 
we meet I can't wait to show you some games to play. I know I miss 
playing games. But someday, we will. Phos's light be with you 
Goldie." He stepped back from her. Goldie stood there framed by the 
rock, such a small little creature to be in so big a space, alone. "I 
have an idea. While I'm gone, you can hold this." He took the 
apricorn off his head and gave it to her. Then, remembering what she 
had said about his wool, he felt for some that was loose. His wool 
was the wild kind, coarser on the outside with soft down only on the 
inside, but it was still nice to feel. He ran his flippers through 
the ruff and gently pulled out all the loose bits. Knowing it would 
be hard but feeling he had to, he headed back to Goldie's little den, 
and placed his apricorn and the little tuft of wool on the barren bed.

"Now remember," he said, "I have to give that apricorn to Azalea 
someday. But I know you'll do a great job watching it for me while 
I'm on this dangerous quest for you, right?" He rubbed the top of her 
head. "If you ever miss me, give the apricorn a lick, or just a rub. 
It's what I do for good luck. And it works. Now I have to go, but 
remember, and again may Phos shine on you and illuminate your light-
path. You are very pretty and very special."

Chirin was already walking away again when he heard her sobbing. He 
quickened his pace and stumbled up the rocks and out of there. He 
didn't know where he would go from here but he was full of many 
things that he would have to do.