Chirin was at once standing on the bank at night and lying beneath the 
tree, surrounded by his dozing friends, in the light of morning. 
Selden was sleeping against him with his head pillowed on Chirin's 
chest, his nose whistling. Far off the fire still drummed its 
burning. 

The dead. Violated and roused to anger, they were rising up from 
places long buried. They would seek out those who angered them 
and hurl havoc.

~ 

Calima looked around. Chirin was asleep, as was Snake.
She slipped away. She walked over to a bush and went
inside it. It was wonderfully warm. She poked her head
out and, with one of her claws, scratched a very crude
picture of a nidorina, and an arrow in front of it so
they would know where she was...if they wanted to know. She
did not know that her 'picture' was nothing but a mess of
crude marks in the dirt. Satisfied that she had left enough
knowledge for her friends to find her, she withdrew back into
the bush.

Swarber watched the white nidorina leave, his golden gaze caressing
her young yet evolved figure. He watched the youthful flex of her 
body as she strode into the bush. It had been a while 
since he had interacted with someone of his kind that wasn't connected to 
tragedy, scandal or some sacred place. Trying to forget the lustful
thoughts prodding at his veins, he got up and walked over to 
the bush Calima had wandered into. Swarber nudged the bush with his 
horn. 

"Hello in there...." 


With a cry of surprise, Calima tumbled out of the
bush. She sat up quickly and looked up at the
ootachi-nidoking.
"Er....hello there." Calima forced a weak smile.

~

Chirin sat up, chewing his cud. Selden stirred and slid down towards 
his lap before sitting up too. "Good morning," said Chirin, nuzzling 
him. 

He tried to think of what to do. He must speak to the great tree like 
it had spoken to him. He must prepare and sleep at its feet. But 
first, he would check on all his friends. He saw Snake lying 
coiled around no one. Calima was gone.

He got up and looked around, careful not to wake anyone else. He saw 
her tracks leading into some bushes. Swarber was over there, looking 
in. 


Swarber stepped back, allowing Calima all the room she needed to 
recover. From the looks of things , the white nidorina was in poor 
shape. Swarber snapped off a branch of a nearby berry bush and placed 
it in front of Calima. "Here, you look like you've been through a pack 
of hungry ootachi, " Swarber laughed, as his statement called to mind 
the voracity with which he'd seen his brother and father eat.

The sun was coming up over the eastern horizon. Swarber's shiny 
colors dulled as though coated by dust. He yawned 
wide and long, hoping what sleep he had gotten would be enough to 
keep him going for the day. Especially since now, faced with the tempting
presence of this pretty white blossom of a nidorina, when he was tired, he
was more prone to making certain kinds of foolish mistakes. "When you're 
done with those berries, perhaps you'll tell me your name?" 


Calima nibbled on the berries. Once finished, she looked up at 
Swarber. "It was not Ootachi that hurt me and my friends, Chirin, 
Seldon and Mecha and Snake. They were demons...Houndour...and one 
that looked like a...eclipseon..." Calima said, her eyes darting 
around nervously. She was worried...what if the demons showed up here?

"Don't worry about them. If they come by, they'll have me, my dad 
and my bro to deal with." Swarber assured the nidorina. 

Chirin heard Calima and smiled as he watched their greetings unfold. 
Calima was meeting someone partly of her own kind, to judge by what 
Swarber had told him last night, that he had had a nidorina mother. 
Calima seemed to have been deprived of the company of her own species 
for a while, every since leaving her warren by the pond, although he 
didn't know where she'd been while they had been apart. 


He stayed back from them, knowing he had to find Celesteon and speak 
to him about what the tree and the dead had told 
him. Ideas of what power markings to use, what pokemons' abilities to 
invoke, flashed through his head, but this was Bangaa. Bangaa had 
been defeated by the first Ampharos. He was best as himself, with a 
tail shining bright.

"What are we going to do today?" Selden squeezed his flipper in 
his. "Are we going to leave south away from the fire?"

"I can't yet," Chirin felt bad. He knelt down and brushed Selden's 
hair into a part. It was getting long. "But I promise I'll stick 
by you and I would never leave you alone here, or anywhere, ever." He 
threw some cud up into his mouth, chewed and swallowed it. "Let's get 
some greens in our bellies, then we'll both feel much better." He 
poked Selden's stomach and Selden giggled. Satisfied to have put a 
smile on his friend's face, Chirin poked around in the bushes that had
concealed Calima. He sniffed the leaves and nipped the best ones up 
into his mouth. 


~

ChiChi fell over when Mel darting away. He chased after her and 
attempted to drag her out of the bush. "I...I do not think he is 
gonna hurt us, he didn't hurt the flaaffy...He is just so...big!" 
ChiChi plucked up his courage and walked up to the ootachi-nidoking. 
"Hello there," he said weakly, his courage fading. "I am...ChiChi..." 

 Calima looked at ChiChi. She remembered him, but wasn't gonna talk 
to him right yet. She was too buesy looking up at Swarber, who 
scared her a bit. 

Mel sighed, and curled up into a ball. She was still very tired. Out 
on the hard ground seemed very peaceful to Mel. Her dot sparkled a 
bit and she rolled over onto her back(no longer in a white ball). 
The only thing Mel didn't know, was that she had left her hiding 
spot from the bush. The roll had caused the Pikachu to leave the bush, 
and onto plain view. But for all Mel knew, she didn't care. She was 
tired. 

Swarber looked at the little otachi and forced a laugh, "Hello there, Chi- Chi, 
you remind me of one of my siblings." he grunted and poked Chi- Chi 
in the center of his 'O'. "I'm Swarber... and I don't eat little 
otachis ...." Swarber looked out to where the white pikachu had gone, 
"Nor do I eat Pikachu." 

Chirin smiled at Swarber. His first impression of him, seen as a 
towering beast on the bank, had been wrong. Swarber was kind and 
welcoming! And it gave him hope...that this little group could pull 
together a light that would send Bangaa scurrying away again, this 
time with all his dark powers broken, so that he could never again 
threaten the world. 

So what was that nagging feeling he got in the back of his head whenever
he smelled the nido-hybrid's musk? Chirin had smelled much stronger
scents from both furrets and nidorinos, but as he inhaled the scent
again from Swarber's direction there came the sense that it smelled
a little off...a little suspect. 

Chirin looked at Chichi, not far from where he and Selden grazed. "Hi 
Chichi." Selden, surrounded by virtual strangers, browsed the bush ever 
closer to Chirin. "It's okay, Selden, don't have to be afraid, 
everyone's friends here," he said, thinking again of the Vaporeon and 
hoping it was true. Could they placate the dead?

Evin still slept, like most of the pokemon. Chirin looked round but 
there was no sign of Spirit or Celesteon. 


Spook nodded, still somewhat dumbfounded by the events. "Norra know'a 
whatta es... Much'a streng'a-strenge thing." He floated away a bit as 
the two sheep lay down, still rather uncomfortable around the tail 
lights. Perhaps they were brothers, they looked somewhat alike. He 
rambled aimlessly, wandering along the byways of the sky in whatever 
direction the mood seized him to go. 

"Muss'a beh crezz'a-crezz'a in'na head...." He mumbled to himself, 
suddenly recalling Onna's mental troubles the night before, and 
wondering if this were much the same, if any. If he kept this up, 
he'd wear himself out. Too late, he realized that dawn had crept over 
the horizon, and shuddered at the sudden increase of light. His form 
shimmered and flickered uncertainly, as he was finding it more and 
more difficult to keep a defined form. This confounded daylight sapped 
him of his strength, rendering him as weak and helpless as a newborn 
babe, a mere shadow of a being. 

Chirin gazed up and out at the sky. It was a clear day and Phos was 
bursting with energy. He should be happier. But how could he, knowing 
what he knew now, what the tree had shown him? The ground he stood 
on, seethed with anguish.

"What's wrong?" said Selden, swallowing leaves. 

Chirin's ears drooped. "The great big tree spoke to me last 
night. It showed me things. We're all in great danger. Bangaa's 
tousing up the evil spirits. He possessed a marowak..." He wondered, 
seeing Selden's eyes widen, if he should go on. "I know there's a way 
that we can stop the evil, if we all stick together. I'll be with you 
every step and every blink of my light."

"I'll be with you too," said Selden, who returned to eating. Chirin 
figured now was as good a time as any to enjoy breakfast. His 
questing lips found their way onto a few ripe berries still on the 
bush and he ate them, and enjoyed the squirt of juice in his mouth, 
flavoring the leaves, which were small and tough but tasty. Soon 
Phos's rays would poke deeper into where they all slept and wake them 
up. He would wait until then to tell Celesteon. Celesteon had to know 
what they should do, how to begin fighting this dark.

Swarber seemed to know some too, from what he'd said last night. He 
knew about the poor marowak that Bangaa had made into a tool for his 
deeds. But although he stepped up close to Swarber, he just couldn't 
let it out. He turned back to the bushes, nibbling in his sudden 
shyness. 

He was beginning to feel guilty from always running to 
strangers and begging their advice. But this wasn't even for his own 
good--it was for the good of all. "The tree spoke to me on my dream-
journey last night," said Chirin. "The spirits are angry at the dark 
rising, the tree said. I heard the tree's voice over the lake as it 
shook all angry. There's going to be some kind of huge struggle and 
I'm afraid that Mother Megga herself may be killed, stomped under the 
wrath of the dead. I... I just don't know what to do to stop Bangaa 
and calm down the spirits so that they don't wreck everything in 
their paths. I--this is beyond me. I'm scared."

He wiped his face but new tears replaced the ones he cleaned off. He 
was looking at Swarber, but heard a gasp at his side. Selden didn't 
know what to say. He could only hope his dear Chirin would save him 
and make it all nice, just like he had saved Selden from the island 
and from the demon hound and brought them all safe here.



~
Tod'd woke up with the sun shining on his face. His wound on his leg 
had stopped bleeding. He felt a little better, but still very weak. 

Luckily Tod'd hadn't drifted to far from shore. So after a short swim, 
he made it to shore. He limped toward what looked like a grouping of 
Pokemon. He felt his head still swimming from the loss of blood, 
along with the effort it took him to get to shore. He was about to 
say something to the pokemon, but for a second time he fainted. 


*** 

ChiChi looked up at Swarber and smiled. He swished his golden tail. 
His normally burnt orange colored fur was becoming more of a 
brownish-orange because of the fading light. "...I do not have 
parents..." ChiChi said sadly. "You are lucky to have a mother...Mine 
was killed when I was a little Otachi, barely old enough to walk, 
much less talk...My father was killed to, so I was raised by a 
Nidorina. She died though, and I found my way here." 

"My mother was a nidorina... the most beautiful nidorina that ever 
lived. She shined like the moon and the sun off the lake. Mur'ada 
took her from me, and my family, a season ago. I was too small to 
do anything about it then." Swarber shook his head, his beard swayed 
gently. 

"Wow..." ChiChi said, wide-eyed. "She must have been
pretty..."

"Mur'ada...Maybe...D'ya think he might have been the
leader of that eclipseon...?" Calima asked worridly.
"Who is your brother?"

"My brother, and my father, are both ootachi of great strength." 
Swarber grinned proudly, then looked over at Spirit's tree, wondering 
when his family would emerge. "I have a couple of sisters too. 
Eva, " He pointed to the odd colored nidoran-f, " Is one of them. My 
other sister kind of looks like you," he pointed to Chi-Chi, " But 
she's shiny and pink. Her name's Demi. I haven't seen her in a long 
time , though."

~

Snake had awoken at last. The pink ekans slithered over to Calima, 
and looked up at Swarber. "Er..." she said weakly. 

Swarber sighed, wishing there was a way to make it known who he was 
to every new creature without speaking. "Hello, little ekans. If you are 
hungry , you'll have to look somewhere else for food." 

"Oh," said Chirin, "good morning Snake. Snake's my friend and 
Calima's friend," he said to Swarber, partly glad that Snake's waking 
up had distracted Swarber from all the dark he had just told him of. 
He didn't know why but he had begun to regret voicing it, as if 
Swarber would give him an answer something like what Spirit had 
always done to him...even though Swarber seemed so much nicer and 
more personable than Spirit. Chirin just couldn't help feeling small 
and unintelligent standing before the giant pokemon with the noble 
horn and wise waving beard.

"I...was not looking for food, Calima here is my
friend. I knew her when she was a nidoran, but I left,
and soon we found each other again," Snake said,
plucking up some courage. She was less afraid as
Calima wasn't scared.

"Ah, well I'll leave you two to catch up then." Swarber smiled 
gently and turned to see what other pokemon were doing in the camp.

Chirin still stood before him with Selden browsing the bush on his 
other side. He spoke in a low voice. "Flailer, I have to tell you 
again...what the tree told me in my dream. It voice boomed out like 
reverberating up its trunk and shaking in its leaves...and the lake, 
the ground, the grass, they all shook rage and smelled of anger. 
Bangaa below has possessed the marowak to do his bidding...Or i 
think, that's who it must be. I can't think of anyone else. It was 
horrible. The dark and the fires and the killing, has offended the 
dead. I don't know what we should do."

He closed his mouth. He was afraid to say more. Talking about it 
alone could be dangerous. He licked his apricorn shell and clutched 
his flippers on it.

Swarber shook his head, trying to absorb all that Chirin had 
said. It was hard for him to think with all the lust pouring out of him.
He would not hurt Calima...could not hurt Calima...but in his mind he 
saw a white flower opening to red. "I'm not sure 
how to protect everyone here, but as soon as my 
dad gets some information from Spirit, we're going back into the 
underground.... we're going to save my adopted brother from the demon 
inside if we can ... or destroy them both."

Chirin shuddered...and nodded. "You'll have my help, Swarber, if 
there's anything I can do." He supposed they must already know about 
Bangaa and all that he had witnessed in his dream last night. He 
would leave the others to talk to Spirit, though...he didn't know why 
but Spirit had never shone a very warm light on him and if there were 
others that he was more inclined to listen to, that would be the best 
thing. 

He hadn't seen Mecha around; he should find him. "I'll be staying 
close around here," he said, figuring Swarber wanted to keep track of 
the whole...flock. "I'm just going to see that my friends I came here 
with, are all okay and everything."

Mecha woke up with surprise...he had fallen asleep...? And here he thought he 
didn't need it... He was perched in the branches the the great stone tree, 
the lower branches that is. It was morning...and a cloud of smoke was visable 
in the distance. With a sigh, Mecha turned his gaze away...it was horrible to 
look at. 

Maybe now he could talk to Chirin...? No...he was talking to Swarber. Maybe 
later...

chirin turned and kept his tail high and shiny as he poked round the 
tree. "*Mokoko?* Mecha?"

~

Eva's eyes slid open...and she couldn't help but wonder when she had nodded 
off. The faint scent of smoke made her shudder...and the familiar by now pang 
of slight nervousness at what was to come. Maybe she could train with 
someone...? It would give her some battle experince, wouldn't it? But who to 
ask...? There were so many powerful looking Pokemon here...which one would be 
the best for her to practice with..? Her brothers and father she was almost 
sure were too strong...the same with Evin, although she was tempted to ask...

Maybe Garnet..? But she didn't spot him after a quick glance...he must still 
be inside sleeping...

Moving closer to the bush, she glanced at the group of Pokemon near 
Swarber...and the white one caught her eye. Eva noted the white Pokemon 
looked like her...only bigger. ...Would she look like that if she evolved...? 
She gulped...wouldn't her evolved form be stronger than herself? But then 
again...

No. Maybe it would be better to spar with... Eva's eyes fell on another pink 
thing with fluff, near the bigger one....maybe he would help her...?

Moving closer to them, once close enough, she asked quietly "Excuse me...? 
May I ask a favor?" It seemed a bit outright...but... "Would you mind 
sparring with me? To prepare for the big battle I mean...I've never really 
fought before..." After a pause, she added with a slight smile "Oh, and my 
name's Eva. What's yours?"

Selden, too shy to say anything, poked Chirin in the lower back as 
the other ram was bent over munching on some lakeside sedge. Chirin 
turned around and looked at Eva with grass hanging out his mouth. 

"Hi...rainbow sister, and friend in the fields." He had to smile at 
the array of her colors. "Wow, the rainbow path of Phos, shines on 
your fur. I've never seen a nidoran like you." He stopped, thinking 
she might get uncomfortable. "I'm Chirin-chirin of the beacon flock 
of Pharos. Selden," he bent and licked Selden's ear 
encouragingly, "it's okay, they're all friendly here."

Selden nodded. "I'm, sorry I didn't say anything just now. I'm 
Selden." He smiled, but only a little. "Hi...Hi Eva."

Selden's tail curled shyly round his ankle, as far as it would reach 
anyway.

"Eva's a pretty name," said Chirin. "You know that sounds a little 
bit like Evin, who I also met here. Evin's my dear light-friend 
now." 'Light-friend' had never been used by the flock to mean any 
special friend, someone that your light shone brighter and warmer 
when you saw them. "Do you know him?"

* * *

" Excuse me for a moment." Swarber stood up and turned his tail on the 
group, the last thing he showed them was a nervous smile. " Have to go do my 
business." 

Chichi opened his mouth to repond, but the big hybrid was already shuffling 
off into the woods. " When you gotta go, you gotta go," said the otachi with 
a shrug.

Swarber shambled down the trail away from the lakeshore. Sticks and other 
debris caught in his shaggy fur but he kept a proud stride, though the lust made 
it hurt to walk. It felt heavy, like the blood in his loins had turned to hot 
lead. 

A vine entangled his front legs. He tried to untangle himself, then in his
 frustration he yanked at and snapped it. He staggered to catch his balance, 
then blundered on, faster than before. Leaves whipped his face. His beard 
undulated with his awkward stride.

Swarber stopped when he was certain he was far enough away from the group 
that they would not find him doing this, nor smell it. He walked around a large 
oak tree and sat down with his back against the trunk. He grasped his already 
erect knife and massaged the rather poorly endowed organ, which begged for 
release with every pounding pulse. 

Fluid the colour of Calima's beautiful fur pelted the leaves in front of 
him, a string of it dribbled down. Swarber stood up shaking, catching his breath. 
He cleaned himself up as best he could, though as he was turning around 
checking himself he managed to step in it. He wiped his back paw on the leaf litter 
and kicked some of it over his seed. He returned to the group with what he 
hoped was a casual smile. His eyes instantly lit on Calima, and from the calmed depths 
of his body, the currents of desire began to stir again. ~Good Farit, will it 
ever leave me alone?~