Chirin saw the lights up top, at the same place where he had seen 
Ira's. They were still a way off, and it made him realize how close 
he still was to the flock. It felt farther away than it was...he had 
seen his sense of space distorted by his time with the tree. Hanekonë 
had changed space and time for him, and maybe it had shrunk or 
something again. Everything was ever-changing. Why not?

"They are on their way," said Chirin. At least both ewes seemed 
settled. There would be no further mating or fighting. Not till the 
fall anyway...and that was another issue. Right now it wasn't one at 
all. No one really thought much of the autumn at the beginning of 
spring. 

His lambs were being born up there, probably. He was down here, he 
would miss it. He'd always told himself he wouldn't be like other 
rams, but here he was, running off with ewes every chance he got, far 
from his own progeny, seeking more all the time. And having no 
regrets. 

He knew Ysgard had been that way too. Ysgard had given him more than 
Chirin would probably ever know or fully understand. He had given him 
things that ran so deep in him that he might never separate what they 
were from all that made him who and what he was.

Ira just broke off his stare with Chirin. Why stare anyway? He went 
to graze. He could at least do something productive in this mess. 

"Azalea!" Chirin bleated for her. He blared his light. "Selenity!"

"We're coming!" called Azalea, blaring her light back as she made her 
way through the bushes, down the ovegrown path. "Goodness, Chirin did 
you take this path down here?" 

Chirin rushed over through the dark grass to help her. "No...I took 
the more roundabout and adventurous way. Here." Chirin held the 
bushes aside to help her through, and Lightswirl,seeing the 
difficulty, joined in to help.

"Ahh," said Azalea when she finally arrived on the same field. "No 
one's fighting? No one's beat up?"

"A relief, isn't it?" said Chirin, hugging her. "But I say there was 
blessing in this field. It is the spirits of the old ones, come to 
life in the new growing grass, reborn and telling us that there are 
better ways than fighting. It is the old ones coming alive in what is 
called, also, our common sense."

Azalea laughed. "You got that right!"

Chirin had begun to cry, only at the corners of his eyes where tears 
edged down. "The ancestors gave us many gifts, many talents; and much 
sense. What we do with them, is our gift back, I say." He hugged her 
tight then pulled back and looked at her. "How are you?"

He blinked, while waiting for her. 

"Me? Oh, positivly dandy. About as good as you can get for a friend 
who got worried sick! When I realized Ira had run off--"

"I'm right here," said Ira, wiping his mouth as he got up from 
grazing. The rain had all but stopped. "I hurt no one here. I arrived 
and grazed."

Chirin said nothing. He knew that Ira had obviously not come here to 
graze. His ancestors had, on the other hand, given hi a feeling, and 
it had driven him,Haru had driven him here but had given him no 
answer to what he had found. This was a situation that Haru's ancient 
rituals and ways could not answer. Ira had been left stranded and 
without the sense Chirin had spoken of before. His ancient desires 
had gotten him here...but other ones had told him, a fresher and 
newer voice with a direction had told him, there was no point in 
fighting here.

Kimana had followed Azeala and Selenity, being sure to keep out of 
            sight, something easy to do when one doesn’t have a taillight.
            What were they doing? Why was Chirin away from the flock? Ira had 
            sure looked upset...

"Kimana's going!" Wham screamed as Ray held him back. "Look! If she's 
going I can go too!"


"No! Kimana, come back here! It's too dangerous! They're just going 
on their own, come back!" Ray took off after Kimana, which of course 
left Wham to come along too. Wham picked up and ran after Ray down 
the path.

~

"What are you doing here?" Azalea looked at Kimana with shock. "Oh 
well, if you're here with us now, I'm not going back to dropyou off. 
Just stay close. Hmph, I was foolish to think the flock could really 
be broken up this way. One goes, the rest follow. In this case it 
wasn't even me. It was Chirin."

~

"Kimana, hi!" said Chirin, brightening his lights. Shadows nodded 
back and forth with his wagging tail. "Ohhh, but I am glad to see 
everyone coming together again. I love to get way sometimes but I 
also love to come home to a flock. Or have home come to me. Oh," and 
a shiver swept up from feet to flippers, "I met the golden tree, and 
the golden tree was host to my ancestor. She came and warned me that 
there will be great danger on Pharos. I don't know what kind of 
danger but the tree then gave me this." Chirin held out his apricorn 
charm's string where he had affixed the golden leaf. "And I found 
something else, while me Taina and Lightswirl were here."

Chirin went over to the human backpack, sogged through from the rain, 
that he had put up onto the low rock.

"Chirin!" Selenity trotted towards him, tail high and light bright. 
She was just glad to see him alive, for some reason...she was glad he 
was alive, glad she was alive, glad everyone and everything was 
alive. Alive!

She would have swept him into a hug, if she had had the ability to. 
She could only look foward more to when she evolved.

Chirin picked her up off her feet and hugged her, twirling before he 
set ehr down again. "I am very glad to see everyone back, or almost 
everyone," said Chirin, glancing around. "Where's Ray, and Wham?"

"Right here!" Wham burst over, galloping in after Kimana. He was 
followed by Ray, and then by a much slower skippy.

"Tht's all of us!" said Chirin. 


~~~

Selenity sniffed and moved cautiously toward the item that he held, 
ears laid back. Her light shivered.

"My trainer used to wear one of those," she said, her voice gone 
low. "A lot do."

Chirin let it fall from his flippers. He stepped back from it. He 
hadbeen in such good spirits that he had not even considered what he 
was really doing. He had Been poking at one of the tools of a trainer-
-one of the worst kinds of humns there wwere. But what kind of human 
had taken away his flock? they had used pokéballs They must haev been 
trainers too. 

"I'm sorry." He stepped away from it. He stared at it, where he'd 
droped the thing. He saw it in a new light now. So it was a thing 
humans wore? What for? Maybe...if he was finding it so close to his 
flock, did it have something to do with them? Chirin's lights flared 
up and down with the thoughts. How long had it been sitting there, 
though?

He still wanted to know about it. He needed to learn about humans, 
the worst creatures of all, before he could learn truly what had 
happened. Perhaps it was best to go to Pharos first and worry about 
this later, though. 

Lightswirl looked at the backpack, then back at Chirin and 
selenity. "It's not hurting anyone," she said with a flick of 
light. "I wouldn't feel bad or anything."

Chirin put his flippers around her and hugged her bsently. "Human 
thing are dangerous. I shoud never have touched it. I just keep 
wanting to findout what happened to my flock, and humans are the ones 
that took them away."

Selenity hugged herself and turned away from it with a swish of her 
tail. Lightswirl was right, but it still only brought a sinking 
feeling into her, the feeling she despised above all. The...whatever 
it was called...back-back, was one thing that she could only think of 
and remember trainers. And that was the last thing she wanted on her 
mind. What was it doing abandoned here anyway?

She turned her head back around but refused to step towards it, her 
morbid curiosity getting the best of her. "I wonder if there's 
anything inside it."


"I wonder too, in fact I know there is," said Chirin. "but if I break 
its skin, something evil may leak out." Chirin imagined a demon 
trapped in there, just waiting to unleash itself. "Horrible evils 
took my flock," he said. "It could have been precipitated by the 
opening of one of these things." He imagined the human shapes 
emerging from a wound in the strange red cocoon. He flashed his 
lights on it, as it turned from a more or less harmless vessel into a 
holder of evil magic, before his mind's eye. 

He god up and stepped away, near Selenity. Azalea shook her head. 

"It's not going to do anything like that. Look." Azalea headed over 
and poked it. She siggled it. Chirin, suddenly very afraid, sparked 
when she picked it up. It was like a bomb to him, something that 
could lash out and destroy them all at any minute. He had held and 
examined it, too. It did not matter. His fear was crowdinginto him 
and it made the wind seem harsher, like the wind had been possessed 
by thehumans. It made his breath come harder, almost like he was 
mating again, but this time his throat was tight with fear, the 
antthesis of the pleasure he had felt only a little while before. and 
yet it held an element of the same feelings. 

If they were going to poke at it Chiri wouldn't let them get hurt. He 
moved forward again but stopped. Fear distnced him from the odd thing 
and came on even stronger than it had when he had first seen it. 

"I want to know, very much...but I fear it is too dangerous. I feel 
the ancestors warning me--and I have already had a warning from one 
of the old ones. I was told that bad things are waiting at Pharos! 
What if this--is connected to it?"

"Maybe," Selenity said, and she had to clear her throat. "But I'm 
sure it won't do anything to us by itself. It's just an inanimate 
object made by the humans...and even then they get all their 
materials from nature. I know, ironic." She stepped foward, ears 
still laid back and light still dim. "They carry these on their backs 
and hold a bunch of different things they need inside of them, 
instead of having to try and carry them all in their arms."

She stepped to Chirin's side for a moment, to try and regain her 
breath and not let this thing get to her. It simply reeked of trainer 
and memories whenever she looked at it, things that brought a few 
tears to the corners of her eyes. Gathering enough courage, she 
stepped towards it again.

"I think I remember how to open these." She was still curious, if not 
a bit frightened. "Who knows--it may help us understand more about 
what might be going on at Pharos. It may tell us something."

Chirin glanced behind him and checked the air for predators in the 
waning rain. He was tired, even though he had gotten some rest. Not 
enough to support him in the coming day. But this was too dangerous 
and exciting at once, to abandon for some sleep. He would never be 
able to go to sleep. 

"They carry them on their backs? Like..." Recognition made his eyes 
and the area around him bright. "Like this silken bag I uesd to carry 
special pebbles and other things in, when I was younger. I abandoned 
that practice because it stifled movement. Movement is very important 
to me."

He felt Taina take hold of his arm and remembered, with his body he 
remembered. It remembered i better detail everything that the three 
of them had done. It made him wish he could do some of that every 
single day. Chirin remembered Selden, and missed him. He and Selden 
might have had fun like that if he had only tried it some more. 

He let Selenity open it...although he couldn't let her do it alone. 
He was too afraid now, if this was a trainer's tool. He knew that 
objects that seemed to be inanimate could actually move, especially 
if they had been bewitched. He had seen things move, he had seen 
trees and rocks do it, although it was rare because they weer so 
careful to move when no one looked. He remembered out of the blue a 
story about a great rock that moved, he had not heard that story for 
a long time. 

Chirin had felt at the shapes of objects underneath the skin, but had 
not known what they were. He tried to remember if there had been any 
apricorn shaped ones..."if there are any apricorns in there, we 
should run. Those things can eat pokemon."

Selenity just nodded, not really knowing what he was talking about 
and walked over to it. Her light was flickering terribly. She was 
embarrassed, trying not to look so freaked over it; but it reeked, 
simply reeked of everything she wanted to forget. They didn't 
understand, anyway. They didn't understand how once she thought she 
had been loved, by a human. And one day that human came to love 
someone else...and left her alone.

With a trembling flipper, she reached out and touched it. It was 
soggy and limp and brought a shooting sensation through her arm. She 
shut her eyes for a moment, to block out all the images, all the 
strange flashing images of a boy's smile and the heat of battle. 
Carefully, she fumbled through the dim red material until she found 
the line, the cold hard line that was nearly hidden, that looked like 
shining teeth. Tracing downward across its side, she found the small 
dangling thing that she could barely grasp with her flipper. After a 
few attempts at trying to take hold of it, she clenched it in her 
palm and tugged. It gave away and began to inch along the shining 
teeth, and the teeth began to separate as she moved it, and the thing 
groaned a high-pitched gritting groan that gave her tingles down her 
spine. It began to move across the top whole of it, around and down 
its other side. Once it refused to budge, she let the small dangly 
thing drop and wedged her flippers in between the two flaps and into 
the black open space, into its open mouth.

"It's okay," she murmured, trying not to let anything show through 
her light. She began to lift it open, and the black grew wider. The 
things were hard to see inside. 

"It's open."

Chirin watched her explore, ashamed that he was so afraid himself. 
She knew how to handle this because she had done it before. He told 
himself she wouldn't get hurt. He was used to knowing what to do and 
being able to handle things himself and for the flock; this made him 
nervous. Yet he had to trust her. 

Azalea thought this was good for him to see, Selenity handling the 
situation. She didn't intervene. She was proud of how the young ewe 
had handled things all night. She would be sure to let Chirin know 
when Selenity was out of earshot, too.

Chirin saw its row of teeth and the line of its outh, going fro one 
end around to the other. So it was a big mouth that you opened? What 
if it bit her? She said it was inanimate--but Chirin still didn' 
trust it. He remained on guard, lights bright and quivery as his 
*denki* prepared toattack it in case its jaws clamped down on her.

"Mother Megga..." Chirin watched Selenity move right to it, trying to 
do something on the thing's cheek.

She pulled something along its teeth that opened its mouth, but not 
without a strange growl of protest. Sparking on reflex,Chirin jumped 
back. Lightswirl hooked her arm in his. Chirin felt stronger with the 
two ewes, one on either side of him. they weren't with him just 
because he was a strong ram, they were his friends and were helping 
him calm his fears.

He watched its black mouth open, to reveal strange things inside. 
Chirin smelled musty smells that gave him more fear. His eyes  showed 
their whites, froth had formed at the corners of his mouth as Chirin 
paced backwards. The ram watched, and then screwed up his courage and 
rejoined them, encouraged by the unafraid ewes. Lightswirl and Taina 
and Azalea never left him. Azalea peered into the backpack first. 

Chirin couldn't help it. He stuck his head in too, amid the smell of 
wet paper. He had never smelled it before, but it was like rotting 
leaves--only less pleasant. Less like a spring thing and more a 
foreign, human things. Ths was of the *phukos*, all right--the 
*phukos na kuros.*

He saw something glint silver and his eyes flew wide. Before anyone 
could stop him Chirin had thrust his flipper into it and pulled out a 
stainless steel teaspoon.

"Ohh...Phaahh..." He gaped at the thing he now held in both flippers. 

"What?" said Azalea. "Ah, a utensil. Humans use those to eat food 
with. Being as they're too clumsy to use their mouths alone like we 
do, equipped with highly mobile lips and tongue. humans are far more 
primitive."

"No," Chirin shook his head as he stared. "i know what this is, I 
remember...it is Spirit's!"

Out here in the forest he had discovered a connection to the old one. 
Why here, why now? Sometimes there was just no answer.

"It is am omen from him!" Chirin bleated. "He has sent me his, his, 
thing that he held..." Chirin paced on the wet grass, holding the 
spoon likehe had grabbed Spirit's face and demanded to know just what 
was going on.

Selenity went over to him, hating to see him so upset, and grabbed 
his tail with hers. It was the best she could do to stop him herself. 
She was still trembling a bit, sparks falling down onto the grass 
near her feet.

"It's okay..." she said, wishing she could take his flipper, or put 
her arm around him, or something. She had been wanting to do more 
things like that a lot lately. Gestures sometimes made a difference 
in what you were trying to communicate, and in her position it was 
rather had to communicate. 

So Spirit had been a kadabra then, or was it an alakazam? She was 
glad she was beginning to forget.

"Are you positive it's his? I have never heard of humans taking a 
tool of a pokemon's power. They usually don't do something like that. 
And Azalea's right, they have things that look exactly like what 
Spirit held. It could be one of theirs."

"They use them to...eat?" Chirin turned the spoon over and over, 
looking at the way the metal was shaped along the handle into minute 
designs. He had never had a close look at the kadabra's spoon, but he 
would never forget it. "Maybe not his then," said Chirin. "But he 
held one, he used one. This is an omen! This whole thing, all of it!" 
Holding the spoon, he spread his flippers and indicated the backpack 
and the field. "Things have come together!"

Chirin paced himself dizzy, almost. Or was the dizziness coming from 
another unpleasant epiphany? If Spirit had used one of these things, 
that meant he had a human thing he used, a human tool. Spirit had 
harnessed the powers of the *burakos*, himself. The guardian of 
thelake. 

Well, Chirin had known for a long time that the lake was far from a 
good force. It was many powers strung together that held a connection 
he had yet to fully understand. There was so much Celesteon had 
failed to tell him. 

"Spirit had one of these," he finally said to Selenity. "He would use 
it, wield it. If...if he did this, then that means he had use of at 
least some human related magic powers."

So what did this mean for them? Should Chirin keep this? He already 
knew he was. It had been given to him. Spirit and the guardian tree 
hda been with him this whole time. The leaves would be growing onto 
the spirit tree again at this time; with its awakening it was 
sendinghim new messages. All of it coincided with his journey towards 
home. 

The spoon turned warm as he held it.

Selenity perked her ears. "You have a point." Where did kadabras get 
their spoons, anyway? Did they just magically appear when they 
evolved? "But I thought kadabras just transmitted their own natural 
psychic powers through them; and humans aren't psychic. Yet, I see 
how you mean."

She looked down at the grass and scuffed it with one hoof, then 
looked back at the back-back, wondering if there was more inside. It 
didn't seem so, at least from here.

"Spirit, he was the guardian of the lake, or so he said." This 
exposed a darker side to Spirit. If Kadabras were mixed up with 
humans..."Spirit was never really happy, poor thing...he had seen a 
lot of darkness and that darkness finally took his life. I remember 
the last time I talked with him. We'd been guarding the treehouse 
against the evil coming--and yeah I ran off a few times...but, Spirit 
was never there at all. He came back and accused all of us including 
me of being negligent. He and I got into a terrible argument. Spirit 
was mourning the death of a friend at the time, who had been my 
friend too...and I was such a lamb then...worried sick about 
everything and just, not sure of what to do at all. It's over now, 
but Spirit died after that. I never got to tell him I was sorry."

Chirin looked down at thespoon he held. He paid no attention to his 
tears. He was turning it over, continuing to study its reflection. He 
held the spoon vertically up, its cup facing him, and when he looked 
hard at his distorted reflection he realized it was him--his face--
upside down. The psychic powers of the spoon..to show you your soul, 
reversed?!

Selenity noticed his tears and stayed by his side, giving him some 
static for comfort and studying the spoon herself as he examined it. 
It was a very odd thing, but it did seem quite familiar. She was sure 
her trainer had used one to eat, at some point; and probably in a 
battle with a kadabra. She had never seen one this close before.

"Do you see your reflection?" she asked. She could see some of it as 
the spoon glinted against the night, twisted strings of gold and red 
and streaks of other color from his marks.

Spirit had been another friend lost too soon, like Striper. Poor 
Chirin. In two years of life he had experienced things it would take 
others a whole life to experience. She let static buzz from her tail 
and her back onto him. Actions like that had all always been 
expressed better from her than words. One day she would learn to use 
her words well too. There were a lot of things now she wanted to 
improve on, rather than whine over.

"I see it...but I am upside down. My head jewel is down at the 
bottom." Chirin's flippers were held out and up. They awkwardly 
grasped the spoon's shaft while he gazed into its scoop, head angled 
down on his long neck. It was a clumsy position for an amp to be in, 
due to their porportions not suiting it well.

"Spirit is telling me something. He is speaking to me through this 
spoon. He sent it to me! He wanted me to have it. But...it is a human 
power...I guess that is why his kind is so strong. They can speak to 
your mind, like Xeon did. I...that was the first time anyone ever 
spoke to me like that, when Spirit came out of teh guardian tree, it 
was his home then...and he spoke to everybody to be quiet." Chirin 
remembered it almost fondly now, even though he knew he'd thrown a 
tantrum that day, and in that spot. He'd grown so weary and so 
despairing of ever seeing Mama again. He'd snapped and thrown himself 
onto the ground, kicking and screaming for his mother.

He kept looking into the spoon and trying to decipher what was there. 
Why upside down? Was it showing him the darkness that was in him? Was 
this what Pandemonium looked like, with his mask off? It was him. 
Chirin flipped the spoon over, looking at the convex side. "I'm 
rightside up on this side!" he gasped, flipped it over again and 
checked. Now he turned it all ways. No matter which way he looked, in 
fact it was clearer if he turned the handle on top, he was upside 
down on the concave side. The other side was always rightside up. 

"It shows you...the two sides of your soul." He looked into it, 
fascinated and afraid. 

"Wow," said Lightswirl. "Can I see?" 

Chirin handed it to her. Taina looked over Lighswirl's arm as the 
taller ewe held it out to see. 

"Wow, yeah, both sides show you different! I'm really funny looking 
in here though..not like in the water."

"So you see it too--upside down and rightside up?" Chirin looked at 
the spoon from the other side, while Lightswirl held it. On the other 
side of the spoon she smiled at him. Chirin foundhimself smiling back 
and they reflected each other.

"Yeah," said Lightswirl as he looked simultaneously at her and at his 
rightside up reflection.

Selenity was straining to look up into it and see what they were 
seeing, but soon gave up on trying. Now she stood and just listened 
to the others talking about it, gazing round at the rest of the flock.

"It's all very strange...how you found something like this just 
abandoned out here." She was still wondering about why a human would 
leave their back-back with a spoon inside. Had they been attacked, or 
maybe accidently left it? She looked up at the spoon again. "May I 
see it too?"

Chirin showed her the magic spoon. She had had the bravery to open it 
and find out what was inside. So maybe it was meant for her? Who 
knew? 

"Yes...it ws lying out here. It must have been sent by a human or 
maybe Spirit's spirit, took it from a human and loaded it up with 
things I might need, that we all might need if we face danger down 
south?"

He felt hopeful. Maybe Spirit didn't hate him after all. He watched 
her as he handed her the spoon. He didn't want anything to happen to 
it. 

While she took the spoon, he did glance over at the backpack, whose 
opened upper jaw quivered in the wind. Chirin lifted it up and peered 
cautiously inside.

Selenity felt over it, savoring its cool smoothness and the warmth 
given off from the others' holding it. She tilted her head at her 
distorted reflection, gazing with her eyes at her own eyes staring 
back at her.

"It's lovely," she said, and joined him in looking back into the 
backpack. She was still curious to see what else could be in there, 
holding carefully onto the spoon in one flipper and clutching her 
charm in the other.

Chirin took the spoon back. He rubbed its convex side against his 
split upper lip. He moved his lip along it, feeling the metal. He 
licked it. It tasted a lot like one of the things that Selenity had 
opened the backpack with. He held a magic spoon in his hand, just 
like Spirit's. He would find  way towear it along with his other 
charms...he would need it when he went south. 

His flipper, trembling, landed on the surface of a strange squared 
off object, again, nothing he had ever seen before. It had a c 
olorful surface, at least on one facet, its wide rectangular top. The 
rest was light brownish. Chirin tapped his toughened palm on it and 
then felt it. It was a bit soft, not made of the same stuff. It felt 
faintly like wood but softer. It was the source of the funny 
smell...or one of the most prominent funny smells.

He flashed his light at it, just to disperse any shadows while he did 
this. Part of him could not believe what he was doing. He had never 
been so scared and excited at the same time. He pulled it out, seeing 
that it would not hurt him...not yet. It was smallish, a bit smaller 
than his foot, and lightweight, and had a strange skin on it. The 
skin was peeling. As he turned it over
it nearly came off, and he realized that it did not hold together 
well. Along one seam it separated, although it remained in one piece. 
Dozens, no hundreds, of skins like an onion came away, still sticking 
together where they had gotten wet.

"Whoa," said Azalea, watching as he opened and closed one cover of 
the book. 

> Kimana, in spite of herself, cautiously walked up to Chirin and 
looked inside the book. Her mother had told her of such things, and 
she had longed to see one.
> 
> "I know what this is…" Kimana murmured, staring at the page. 
> 
> Kimana smiled. "It's a book…my mother told me…erm…now…what else?…Oh 
yeah! Trainers, did you call them?…Anyway, they are indeed dangerous. 
But…my mother said that most of them are kind." Kimana laughed 
hollowly. "I'm still unsure if I believe her."

"A book?" said Chirin. He looked at it. He remembered the word. "I 
recall..Azalea, you told me that word once? you said it or something?"

"I heard it from beind around humans," said Azalea. "I was unaware of 
what it was." Azalea looked at Kimana with strange suspicioun now. 
Wasn't Kimana a wild mareep with no human experience? How could she 
tell a book by seeing it, if she had never seen one?

Chirin looked at Kimana. "You haveseen these before? what are they? 
They..." He sniffed it, fumbled over the pages. There were nothing 
but rows and rows of tiny squiggles and dots. All of them different, 
or most of them, but strangely ordered. He turned it over and around, 
looking at it from all angles.

Selenity watched curiously for a while, then gathered enough courage 
to root inside the backpack herself. From the depths she retreived a 
heavy, hard and cool-feeling thing. It was slightly long and 
cylindrical, and she held it up, pressing it to her cheek. At the end 
of the cylinder was a wider part, with an indented opening that held 
a clear and smooth surface. It felt almost like a tail bulb.

On the side was a strange dark thing that protruded from its surface, 
inserted inside a slit. Carefully, she put her flipper to it and slid 
it up the slit.

From the wide part came a great beam of golden light that made 
Selenity gasp and drop the flashlight to the ground with a thud, 
stumbling backwards. At the same time the light flickered and died, 
making the grass grow dark again that had been lit in its glow for 
one brief moment. She was left sitting there in the grass, trying to 
catch her breath, and staring at the thing as if it were staring 
right back at her.

Kimana, her position now revealed, stepped out of the shadows and 
            confronted Azeala, an accusing look on her cute face.
            "Why does Chirin want to break up the flock?" she said coldly, 
            narrowing her eyes. "Is it because he wants to abandon us and start 
            a new flock? Was I foolish to trust him?"

Azalea looked at Kimana like she'd grown two heads. "What are you 
talking about? Chirin left for a little while, he has a right to 
leave! Good gracious me! Listen to the pretentious nonsense tumbling 
from that littlemouth of yours. He's offered younothing but kindness 
and you talk about him like that the moment he leaves? what do you 
know abot flocks anyway?"

            Kimana was starting to feel like a complete idiot. Was Chirin a 
            traitor? Did he, perhaps, do things like this all the time?
            …Would Kimana have to run away? Would she be on her own once more? 
            Well…if it came to that, she would try to make Wham come with her.

"Azalea...please, she's just a lamb, let me talk to her." Chirin 
knelt by Kimana. "Certainly I was just leaving for a little while so 
Taina, Lightswirl and me could mate. We were concerned there would be 
trouble from other rams, so we just left. I certainly wasn't going 
to  leave you all for good!" Chirin's face was sad. What had he done 
to make her think that was true? How could she think that of 
him? "Just because some sheep leave for a little while doesn't mean 
they're...traitors, or whatever...and just because I leave for a 
while doesn't mean everyone's doomed! All us amps are quite capable. 
Why would I start a new flock when I have all of you? I...I don't 
understand why you say these things, but rest assured they are 
unfounded suspiciouns. You have nothing to fear. I'm not leaving you, 
if that's what you are worried about, I told you you're welcome." He 
smiled and stroked her fur, wet from the rain. If she hadn't been a 
cute little lamb, he would have sure been scared.

Now Kimana felt even more foolish. She turned away from the book and 
            looked sadly at Chirin.
            "I…I'm sorry…I just…am a bit…err…nervous about being in a flock…When 
            my older flock found out that I had no taillight, they tried to kill 
            me and my mother…she told me…that they…banished us and said we were 
            traitors…just because of the way I looked!…Sorry for…acting all…I'm 
            just so sorry…" Kimana sniffed, a few tears tricking down her 
            cheeks, impossible to see in the rain.

"It's okay, it's okay..." Chirin huged her close. She must have been 
through so much, poor little thing. "What a wicked flock...no one 
deserves to be thrown out without even being given a chance! You must 
believe that I would never do that to you. You have kept up fine and 
been wonderful. sure, you haven't been perfect, but none of us have. 
We've all had our tiffs but they make us stronger in the end. So it 
will be with you. You'll grow out of your past and become a strong 
ampharos. I know you will, I have confidence in you." 

He hugged Kimana, remembering how he had seen her lightless tail and 
shuddered. hehad grown used to it now, almost like she were just a 
different kind of sheep.


Chirin dropped what hehad been holding. It stung his foot when it 
landed. Sparks bristled over his body. He recoiled from the 
flashlight as its beam shot over the grass. "Light! They 
have....They..." Chirin watched it die and his lashing tail dimmed. 
His ears laid back, ...his heart was pounding and his jaws, stiff and 
tense, grew sore as he watched.

He watched with her. It didn't light again. There was a sadness about 
its going out. The fall had hurt it. It lay there, looking helpless, 
wounded. Chirin's own living lights, together with the ewes',  lit 
the black flashlight up on the grass. Its yellow, oddly faceted eye 
of a face glistened at him, seeming to wink a lightsong that mirrored 
his own, the flickers of his fear. It had gone dark. Had it died? 

He knelt by it, nudged it. He lent a bit of *denki* to it. Perhaps he 
could shock it back to life. He suddenly didn't care that it was of 
the *burakos*, that it was of the same persuasion that cars' lights 
were of; it had been a light, a life; now it was fallen dark. 
Chirin's tiny bit of electricity didn't do anything. He picked it up, 
turned it gently. It was weighty and cold. Its surface was smooth 
like the spoon, but it was made of different stuff, like seashells or 
tail ball stuff. Chirin knew that if he was going to save it he had 
to act fast. 

"Come on, I call your soul! I call it back. come. You can do it." 
Chirin's flippers dealt *denki* to the flashlight. Its light went 
back on. But the moment he ceased to give his current it flickered 
and died. He started its light again immediately. The light came on, 
a little unsteady; he turned the bulb to face him and began to smile 
gently into the mareep-like shine. "You can do it; you can. You can 
shine, good, you are doing great..." The more electricity he gave it, 
the brighter it shone--

It gave a loud pop. Sparks shot out. "*Amp!*" something stung 
Chirin's cheek and he dropped the thing. It rolled dark and sparking 
over the grass. Chirin was clutching his cheek. "It bit me!"

He smelled smoke.

what had he done? He had....

"You all right?" Azalea was looking up at his face. "You got nicked 
there." 

Chirin put his flipper to his stinging cheek. He pulled it back, red-
tipped. He was bleeding... "I..." He watched the flashlight spark on 
the grass and die in a wisp of smoke. 

"Don't worry about it Chirin. It's not alive."

"I killed it." Chirin knelt by the flashlight. He reached out to 
stroke the steaming black shaft, still now, and dark. "I didn't mean 
to...what did I do? I must've given it too much *denki*...no..."

He didn't care that it was *burakos*. He had killed a light, he had 
made something bright go dark.  He didn't realize he was crying until 
he heard his breath comingin and out all ragged. The more he had 
given it the brighter it had shone.Wasn't that the way it was 
supposed to be....but it was so small. He must've given it more than 
it could handle. Poor thing, what it must've felt like to die of too 
much *denki*. 

"I will hold a light-vigil for it. Right here."

Lightswirl and Taina just stood near it and stared, as Chirin picked 
it up again. It was very warm, but not too warm. Chirin knew it would 
not attack him again, that it had died now. 

Its light-face had shattered. Tears began to flow down Chirin's face 
again as he looked at it. Why did he always end up killing things? He 
had seen it shine, he had pulsed life back into it, he had called its 
soul. Then he had been unable to stop, the power flowing into it, he 
hadn't thought at all, he'd just given it, more and more. 

He stroked it and hugged it. 

"It's not alive, Chirin! Don't worry about it." Azalea tried to take 
it from him. "You just gaev it a little too much juice, like they sy. 
I don't fully understand the nature of their contraptions, but they 
harness electricity a lot like we do, but they're not really alive." 
Azalea shook her head. This was going to be hard forhim to understand.

Chirin didn't let her take it. "You may think so. I felt its soul. I 
was holding its soul in my hands. I cupped it in my palms and felt it 
glow."

Had it attacked, in that last moment? Chirin had thought for a oment 
that it had attacked. He had felt a small jolt, nothing that hurt, 
just a jump in current, and the bite on his cheek. He put his hand to 
it again. The bleeding had stoped. The rain had stoppped. This whole 
human package had been the last gift tfrom the storm,the last stop 
before his trip to Pharos. And he had killed this light. The storm 
had delivered, spirit had delivered a soul into his care...

He hugged the flashlight and wept. 

~

The first rays of morning light brushed the pine boughs with licks of 
warm light, orange on blue, like paint had touched them. Chirin 
watched it rise. He still held the light, he shone his own light for 
it. He stroked its handle. He was sorry. 

"i cannot stay here forever, but I want to give you your rites," he 
said to the thing that he had killed. He laid it down. "I will give 
them to you. You will go shine free in the spirit world. You will 
never know how sorry I am that I did this to you. I never knew your 
name...or even what you are." Sure, Selenity had dropped it, but 
Chirin had then revived it...it had been clinging to life, clasping 
it as surely as anyone.

"Chirin," Azalea, who had been grazing as she wasn't going to get any 
more sleep at this point anyway, wentback over to him and touched his 
arm. "I know this seems sad, that because it has a light that -seems- 
living, it isn't. You didn't kill anything. I--I--Let me try to 
explain. The humans hold these in their hands because they don't have 
any lights on their heads like we do. I've seen them use these things 
in the pastures. They're called flashlights."

"Flashlight." It was beautiful, a beautiful name. Chirin swallowed as 
two more tears oozed down, slowly. The rain had dried mostly on his 
skin, except where his legs sat in the wet grass. "Flashlight, I am 
sorry...but I know your name now. You are a light who came to the 
*burakos* and helped the dark ones, tried to throw light into their 
lives. You came to me...you..." He closed his eyes again. 

"Chirin..." Azalea stroked his back and crouched next to him. Chirin 
continued to weep.

It was the dawn of a beautiful day. Phos was coming breathing through 
the foret, putting his fingers of light through the trees, stroking 
them on the boughs and making  swthc of orange on the grass, earliest 
light. He could feel the air warming up already. It would be a 
beautiful day. He held Flashlight and thought, ~Flashlight will not 
be here to see it.~

Kimana cautiously sniffed the book. Weird thing…looked pretty 
            strange. How did they make them? Kimana cautiously poked at it. She 
            chuckled. She wondered where they got those weird little white 
            things…It looked like dead skin with symbols and pictures on it. 
            Maybe they put pictures on the shed skin on an Arbok or something?
            …Nah…that was stupid…

            Kimana felt the warm rays of the sun wash over her wet body. She 
            closed her eyes, enjoying the moment, when she heard Chirin weeping. 
            Her eyes snapped open and she walked up to the sobbing ram.
            "Wassamatter?" Kimana asked curiously, looking at the broken 
            flashlight then at Chirin again. He glanced at Azeala and mouthed, 
            "What's up with him?"

"He's upset,"s aid Azalea, not knowing how to explain it to her. She 
could hardly explain it to herself. She hadn't known he would fly off 
the handle like this over a broken flashlight. 

Chirin hugged it close, rocking, he loosened his arms and looked down 
at the black Flashlight. He cradled it, like a stillborn lamb. Chirin 
had stopped a light this morning, just before sunrise. 

Azalea knew there would be no way around this. She'd just trot it 
through with him. Whatever he chose to do about it. Knowing him it 
might be pretty involved.

Chirin stood up, still holding Flashlight carefully. He pawed at the 
ground, with his foot, smoothing out the grass. He waved his left 
arm, his spare one, while he held Flashlight against his beating 
heart. cotton flew out into the dawning day. Chirin did what he could 
to grab tufts from the air and lay them down. 

"Here," Azalea helped, joined by Lightswirl and Taina. Together they 
made a little bed, under Chirin's direction.

"I lay you down," said chiirn to Flashlight. "You do not know how 
sorry I am. I will help your light spirit fly free. You will be born 
again." Chirin laid Flashlight down on the cotton, and there it sat, 
a little black shaft lying on white. Its broken yellow face seemedto 
stare at chirin.

Selenity came up next to him and stroked his lower back with her 
tail. Azalea had brought the memories back. Trainers used these to 
see in  the dark, and hers had used one several times, in different 
predicaments. Yet she wasn't sure if it had been alive or not.

And if it had been alive...she was responsible for killing it. Chirin 
may have broken it, but she had rid of its light in the first place

She knelt down and gently touched the cool hard surface with one 
flipper. Even if it wasn't alive, even if it was inanimate, she had 
killed a light. A song came and she hummed it for it, and shone her 
light with a beam full of uncertainties and shame.

~Not you too,~ thought Azalea as Selenity joined Chirin, mourning the 
flashlight as if it had been a living thing. There they were, both 
crouched over it like their lamb had died. There on the little white 
cotton-spore bed was a FLASHLIGHT. 

Chirin's flipper joined Selenity's, stroking the cold still body. So 
little, it looked so young and small and broken. Its beautiful face 
of yellow light had been killed. Yellow light was young baby light--
this was a child of light that had never had a chance. 

"Out of darkness, into shining, gold tree warning, high winds 
whining. *Rrrruuu, rrrruuuu,*" Chirin softly crooned, his deeper 
voice flowing under Selenity's high. His lights twinkled and pulsed 
brightly. He shone to keep the evil away from this human-born 
creature, who was nevertheless a pokemon of light. Chirin would give 
it all that he could. He remembered holding it, feeling the hum of 
his *denki* passing into it. His eyes filling with its yellow gleam. 
He had shone into it until the poor thing had fractured, snapping out 
in one last movement, one last spark as it felt its body breaking on 
the inside. Something was wrong now, irrepairable. Chirin moaned as 
he rocked back and forth. Oh Chenja and Lararu, oh Calima, oh Selden, 
oh shame!

Chirin  reached out as he wept, stroking the still black Flashlight, 
lying there on the bed. Lightswirl stood next to him, and finally 
knelt beside him, on the other side from Selenity. Taina joined her, 
sitting by the flashlight's handle end. Lightswirl watched the 
flippers on Flashlight and burst into tears. 

"We pour our light and our tears," Chrin sniffled, rocking forward 
and back. "We wave our souls in the orange striped morning. We hold 
hands to you in the new-cotton day."

Fresh, afterstorm breeze wended through the small clearing. It sent a 
shower of raindrops down, that still had been hanging to the boughs 
above them. chirin's ears hung low, he closed his eyes and felt the 
cold little drops, trickle and fall. He opened his eyes again and the 
sparkling points of daylight, dew and rainwater caught in the sun, 
sparkle into a teary blur. 

"Oh light and newness never given a chance, may you have your chance 
in the spirit realm, Flashlight. Shine your beaming yellow face."

Taina's lip was quivering and tears showed on her cheeks. Ira had 
come up behind them now, and he stepped to the side, watching, not 
sure what to think.

Selenity wasn't crying. She was sure it hadn't technically been 
alive, ever, since she had seen a human handle it as an inanimate 
object. She still felt a pit of true sadness though, the type of sad 
that was just said, that light, alive or dead, was gone from its 
shining. That was enough to make her kneel by this thing and honestly 
mourn over it, stroke its smooth body. She put her flipper over 
Chirin's for a brief moment and continued humming in tune with his 
words, moving back and forth across it again.

She looked over at Azalea and smiled a weak smile, to show she wasn't 
so into this as Chirin was. Or perhaps she was, just in a different 
way.

"Another light has gone," she sang, "and in the mists that shroud our 
vision, trail up into eternity, like wisps of memories forgotten, to 
shine its own, to shine its own." Did all lights, living or not, end 
up into some type of eternity?

Azalea nodded, stroking Chirin's back reassuringly. She hadn't 
realized that, far from outgrowing this inability to distinguish 
between alive and not alive, Chirin had not only persisted with his 
beliefs, but they may have gotten even worse. Well, so long as he got 
it all out of his system. She knew better than to try to argue with 
him. she felt his body shaking, through her palm. There would be no 
changing his mind and no proving to him that he was wrong.


selenity's tail sparked and she breathed in the scents of the new day. It 
was a beautiful morning.

chirin remembered Flashlight's first light-song to them, a flash and 
flicker of terror as it fell, then died. Then its second and last 
beaming as Chirin pulsed his own essence into it and gave it too 
much. He sniffed at Flashlight, movig his nose along the smooth 
plastic. He would remember Flashlight, some kind of messenger to 
them. To him. He had found this human bag and first felt the spark of 
curiosity. What if he had never opened it? The spoon lay up safe on 
the rock, the book lay with its pages opened facing the ground. 
Chirin got up, flashed his lights to Flashlight, and took up the 
spoon. He returned, and held the spoon towards Flashlight. "This came 
with you...I must keep it because Spirit sent it to me, but he may 
have also sent you. I do not think so. You seemed to come of your own 
volition." He knew that even things that did not seem able to move, 
could do this. Chirin breathed in and then sighed as he placed his 
yellow palm over Flashlight's long thin body again. 

"I tell a story, a story about Flashlight. One moment in the last ebb 
of night, when the dew was yet to set and the rainfall still spat on 
the grass, a messenger came. Mysterious, through air or ground or 
grass, or through the rainstorm that was dying, i will never know. 
The sender left a mysterious bag. and the bag lay red and roundish on 
the new spring grass. forlorn, it lay alone, waiting. and Flashlight 
waited inside. Dark with its light-eye closed, it curled inside warm 
and wondering. I will never know what Flashlight was thinking. I will 
only ever look to hear a wisp of what its spirit might say, through 
the wind or the storm, to me.

"and the rain kept falling. It soaked the forlorn bag that carried 
Flashlight, still Flashlight waited. Flashlight held its breath and 
its light and held still inside the bag. Until at the end of a night 
of running, of escape and pleasure and pain, a ram found the bag, 
along with two ewes. The sheep brought the bag to a stone as the 
flock gathered round. They wondered at where the bag had come rom and 
what it was, what were its secrets?

"Flashlight," Chirin swallowed and sniffled, pausing as a wave of 
sobs passed close, but never broke. He waited till it was past and 
continued. "Flashlight waited, held still, Flashlight heard the sheep 
around it. It may have been scared, might have been curious. When the 
bag was opened and Flashlight felt the spitting air of the ending 
storm and teh ending night...Flashlight was grasped by the sheep. And 
Flashlight's young yellow face of beaming gleamed out into the dark, 
it cut the dark with a shaft of yellow. Yellow like Phos and mareep 
and ampharos skin. The yellow was Flashlight's fear at the srtangers 
discovering it, at the strangers picking it up and holding it, 
turning it in new ways. flashlight hit the ground and lay dark. 
Injured but not gone...

"The ram held Flashlight, Flashlight lay dark and drifting. 
Flashlight might have known that thing were not going for the 
beginning of its life, the way they were meant to. A start too rough 
for it, the ram's *denki* flooded Flashlight's little body. 
Flashlight let out a scream and a burst of light, then it became too 
much. a spark as its face shattered..."

Chirin paused to cry again. This time he let himself sob aloud, his 
lights flickery, before he resumed. Azalea blinked her eyes and tried 
to concentrate on something else.

"And flashlight's body was filled with the agony of its *denki* 
breaking. It fell dark and silent, a last spark of fight and of life. 
It lay there dark forever. Flashlight's life ended, a light and life 
ended in shadow and pain. But we are now helping Flashlight to not 
end only in dark. Flashlight was innocent, and so were we. Innocents 
killing innocents, neither one wanting to hurt the other...I lay 
Flashlight on the cotton bed and remember it. Short was your light 
and I never knew you in life, but Flashlight, I will look out for 
your spirit when I walk in this world. Flashlight, I will shine my 
light for you."

Selenity, seeing Azalea stroking his back, joined in the comfort and 
linked tails with him so he had touch from either side. He was really 
taking this hard, and through his story she saw how he saw it now. It 
almost brought tears to her own eyes. No wonder he was mourning as if 
one of his own had just passed away. Through his eyes she had now 
caught a glimpse of how everything, to him, was a shining soul. It 
was a beautiful way to look at the world.

"And I the same," she added softly, sending a small buzzing current 
through her tail. "That was lovely, Chirin."

Chirin;s eyes were both hung with tears again. "Thank you, but...Not 
as lovely as the yellow light that shot out and died...and that 
beamed bright; I never learned its light language. I hope that this 
light will forgive me for not understanding its calls of pain and 
distress."

Azalea wanted to say, ~you're fine, you didn't kill anything, it's 
just a flashlight.~ Chirin was getting himself all worked up over 
nothing and he was hurting himself. She kept stroking his back, she 
wouldn't say anything. 

The emotion of the pentup night was flying from Chirin-chirin, 
drifting from him like the clouds. Chirin knew the time was right for 
the next step. He stood up, flippers coming up and out like a flower 
blooming. Cotton burst up out from aroundhis shoulders and his arms, 
like a milkweed pod had opened up to the morning blue. Sunlight and 
sparkling dew, rainwater hanging on pine needles all watched, a 
million new lights watched as he created cotton to mourn a fallen 
light. He began to gather it up. 

"i'll help, here," said Lightswirl, already holding several tufts. 
She reached out to grab another. They were hard to catch with two 
flippers, much less one.

"thank you," said Chirin, "thank you."

Selenity glanced over at Azalea, unsure of what to do. So, she began 
catching a few of the falling tufts they had already created, wishing 
she could create her own again, and holding them until she saw what 
they were to do next. She would do this with him all the way, let him 
mourn and let him believe that this thing had been living and 
breathing, because, who knew, it very well could have, just not in 
the same sense. The world was so mysterious that somehow she wondered 
if it was right for anyone to assume they knew the answers to 
anything.

She sighed and gazed round at the rest of the flock. She was growing 
hungry. After this she would certainly take a graze and try to cheer 
Chirin up and be there as a friend for him. How she didn't know; 
through all the things she had been through she had learned that 
maybe all that was needed was to be there next to him and not always 
have the right words to say.

Chirin didn't need that much cotton. Little Flashlight's shroud would 
be small, like flashlight itself. He packed the cotton together and 
laid it in a fragile mat over flashlight, covering its broken face 
that had once been of Phos. "flashlight, I will hold the vigil for 
you, three days," he said, realizing as he said it that he was 
mourning Flashlight like he had known it much longer and as a living 
breathing lamb. Why? Was it because Flashlight's soul had touched him 
there in that last spark? 

The answer came over him in a shuddering epiphany, blinking through 
his mind like clef through the waving branches. It was because a 
piece of Flashlight's soul had embedded itself in him during their 
exchange...and in turn, Chirin's soul had been chipped at, a chip was 
in Flashlight and had died with it. They had made a soul bond through 
electricity. That must be why, it had to be why. 

He stroked the shroud and sang. "When dew dapples grass and flowers, 
after storms, after showers, When the cotton glare gleams free, 
Flashlight shine bright, there you'll be." He paused again. "I will 
hold thelight vigil for you for all my days, not only the three. so 
it is with everyone that I remember...when I remember them and give a 
little twinkle there is my light vigil. You shone long enough to 
reach me forever."

Chirin went where it moved him, he followed the feeling of what 
seemed right. He got up again, "I am searching for a vine."

Three days? Selenity could only follow through. She wouldn't try to 
stop any of this, and it wasn't because she was afraid of 
confrontation. She just didn't want to, this time.

"A vine?" she said, and sniffed around, looking for where one might 
possibly be, and wondering what he might possibly do with one.

"Yes." Chirin was looking first on the ground around himself, then he 
moved towards teh pines. He spotted one growing at the base of one of 
the trunks. It was just beginning to sprout for spring. Chirin broke 
off a small length, nibbled off the leaves himself and set it aside. 
It was roughly the length of his flippers extended, tip to tip. 

"What's the vine for?" said Wham, who'd been watching with some 
boredom and some curiosity.

"It will be the spirit link, the cord that Flashlight's spirit will 
use to climb into and out of teh grave," said Chirin. He didn't have 
a light to keep above the ground, but he did remember something. 
Chirin crouched in the grass where Flashlight had fallen, and began 
to comb his flippers through the rain-wet blades.

Selenity stood near him and watched, not having to crouch. She 
secretly wished he would explain more of what he was doing as he went 
along, instead of spontaneously going from one thing to the next, 
leaving everyone a little left in the dust. But maybe something was 
speaking to him personally, guiding him along, and he had no time for 
words.

"Are you looking for something?" she asked, her tail swishing back 
and forth a bit behind her. She wished to help more, somehow.

"Yes," said Chirin. "When i looked at flashlight's face, I saw that 
it had part...missing. I would like that piece. It can be the ight 
for it to hold up above. you see, Flashlight may want a place for its 
spirit to live and visit above the ground. and that should be of 
one's light. Since Flashlight does not have a tail light like we do, 
I will use this piece in its place." 

He realized that no one here might know what these rites meant and 
what they were each for. He might want to do more explaining, unless 
he just didn't care if everyone was confused. And this should be a 
time to bring light in, not shut people out of it. Pokemon like 
Taina, Lightswirl and Skippy had spent enough time in the dark.

Selenity nodded in understanding and began to help him look. She had 
been the one who caused the fall, so maybe she would have an easier 
time finding it. She went over to the spot where she had been 
standing, replaying in her mind the time from when the great beam 
shot out and the time he had landed on the hard ground. Her flippers 
combed through. A blade spoke to her, a blade darker than the rest 
that glinted at the tip, begging to be picked and held and stroked. 
She was about to ignore, but couldn't help to at least touch it; she 
ruffled it and the blades surrounding it, separating them, and there 
something else glinted.

Carefully she peeked through and saw the clear shard, poking out 
dangerously at some places. She avoided and cautiously slid her 
flipper under one smooth edge, lifting it.

"I think I found it," she said, examining it as it lay in her palm.

Chirin leaned in and looked at it. So did the others nearby, namely 
Dodë and Wham. Azalea looked, but she knew what this was all about. 
They were ~having a funeral for a flashlight.~ She wished she could 
understand better what made a grown ram, or adolescent ram at least, 
especially a rather bright one like Chirin, treat this broken 
appliance like a living thing. Or rather, a living thing that was now 
a dead thing. 

Chirin's flipper went to the nick on his cheekbone. He realized this 
shard must've made the mark. It had been the piece to switch parts of 
their souls. It had made the exchange. Chirin reached out, felt it 
lightly. The edges were sharp, like a broken stone or bone was sharp. 
Like he imagined a shattered tail light might feel. Chirin looked at 
it. 

"Flashlight, your face gazed at mine, full of pain and you reached 
out to me, thrust your essence towards me...and we met and we will 
never again be separate." Chirin had begun to cry again, the silent 
stream. What had the pain been like for Flashlight when Chirin had 
overfilled it, overloaded its current?

He opened his apricorn shell. He knew where the shard would go, for 
now. "Selenity...because you and I were the ones to hold and handle 
Flashlight...and destroy it too..." he gulped, "do you feel that you 
should be the one to hold this piece with you? Does it speak to you, 
does it cry out? Do you sense that Flashlight does not want this?"

What a terrible thing to share ith someone, and yet it brought them 
closer, him and Selenity.

Selenity's gaze softened as she looked at him and the piece he felt 
in his flipper. She searched, searched for an honest answer. Did she 
sense anything? Well, she knew she didn't hear it crying out, but she 
looked at him and the shard, again and again. To be one more thing 
contained in that apricorn shell. To be held against one of the 
purest beating hearts the earth probably ever knew. It should be an 
honor to it, a blessing, and yet, she still wasn't sure.

"All I can say," she said, swallowing, "is that I do feel a 
connection to it from the reasons you've stated, a connection you 
might have with it too. Perhaps we could break it in half, again, and 
keep two pieces with both of us."

"No more breaking," Chirin was shaking his head, "no more shattering. 
Flashlight felt the pain already and has been broken enough. I will 
not break what it still has left. For now the piece will remain with 
me. Flashlight has spoken to me--and i have this apricorn charm that 
can hold Flashlight." Flashlight would be put beside Selden, the 
cotton still stained brown with his blood. Chirin opened up his charm 
and an old small wafted out. Chirin inhaled it even though it was an 
unpleasant. It was what was left of Selden. Chirin let his fpper touh 
thebrown clump of cotton, felt it like the lump similar to it that 
had formed in his throat.. Then he was placing the little twinkle 
ofyellow plastic in with it. H held so many spirits round his neck, 
it was no wonder he felt weary sometimes. But at other times, it was 
no wonder wh he had a tireless energy. They kept him up, and he was 
almost there. At Pharos they would both find a final resting place.

Chirin closed the charm. "when you feel flashlight call to you do not 
hesitate to come to me and touch the piece of it in here." Chirin 
patted the shell as it rested against his chest again, closed.

Selenity nodded. "That's fine, and I will." She was absentmindedly 
holding onto her own charm, wishing it opened up like his did so she 
could keep things inside. Maybe if the bone could have opened they 
could switch who held it from time to time, and share it like that. 
If only there was some other way they could share it, without 
breaking it; he was right in what he said. After she had suggested 
breaking it she felt a sting of protest. It would only bring about 
more of what had caused the light to die in the first place. But this 
was fine. She looked at the closed apricorn charm and fumbled with 
her own.

The smells of spring were in the air and made her feel new in a 
strange way, as everything else was new. It could be because spring 
was supposedly her dominant season, the season that made up what she 
was. It was a lovely season, and this would be her third one, but it 
would be the first time she would experience it in this way.

Chirin found a stick and set it aside, right next to where he 
crouched on the grass, where they had found he shard and where 
Flashlight had died. Chirin nibbled up all the grass right in that 
area, then he took the stick and began digging. It would not take 
long to create a grave large enough. 

Azalea picked up the book kimana had been poking at, and set it up on 
the stone. The little lambs couldn't be expected to care what ws 
going or really pay attention. This sort of thing bored them, 
especially because no one had really died.

"Flashlight was born of the *burakos* but shone for them; Flashlight 
left the place where it originated, heading out for who knew why. Who 
knew why Flashlight ran away, maybe because it thought that it could 
shine better with others...Flashlight shone and Flashlight went dark; 
I will help you shine again." chirin spoke while he dug.

Lightswirl had stopped crying, so had Taina. She felt a little silly, 
actually, having cried over the thing. Even though Chirin was right, 
it was kind of sad. 

Chirin moved with his work, digging the grave in a slow awkward way. 
Digging brought back more memories of Selden. He realized that he had 
never dug a grave without Selden helping him. Chirin cried more as he 
worked.

Selenity solemnly began to help him dig. Even though it wouldn't take 
much to make a grave for the flashlight, she might as well make 
herself useful. It reminded her of the time they had found the ewe 
skull.

Whenever she saw his tears she wanted to cry. It didn't even matter 
what he was crying about. She blinked back the strange feeling that 
came into her. It didn't really mean anything, it was just an awkward 
moment, and delving too much into a situation like this always made 
her eyes start to gather tears. She scooped through the dirt, bone 
charm dangling and brushing across the ground as she kept bent over. 
No one seemed to be with him in this anymore, not even Azalea, it 
seemed, just because it all seemed nonsense. How did anyone know what 
nonsense was? Just because a flashlight wasn't alive didn't mean you 
couldn't recognize it, appreciate it and shine to it for the light it 
gave and lost. Just because a grass blade was a grass blade to be 
eaten didn't mean you couldn't see its different soul and appreciate 
its individual beauty. The world was something to make the most of, 
to have corners to peek into and shine into, to explore something 
that usually wasn't to be explored, to shine into a newness that 
someone else might be holding.

Selenity stopped to look at and feel the velvety soil in her palm as 
she milled about in thought, and then resumed digging.

"thanks," said Chirin. Azalea was helping him from the other end. The 
others were nearby, but only so many sheep could get in there to dig.

The flock was so quiet. Everyone had becoem pressed under the weight 
of Flashlight's death, thought Chirin. He dug faster until his 
shoulders got a little sore. Sticking the stick in and dragging it 
out again to throw soil aside, he created a hole big enough. 

He set the stick aside and created cotton again. Chirin piled it 
carefully into the grave, "everyone who wants to help here can do a 
little. Don't have to make your own cotton...just give a little 
here." who knew, flashlight might begin to forgive them. chirin kept 
going back inside his mind to Flashlight's pop. It was s sickening 
sound to him now and he could never forget it.

"I'm sorry," said Lightswirl, patting the cotton down inside the 
grave. Chirin licked her ear.

"It's all right...flashlight knoews you were there, its spirit will 
be helped by you, it already has been." Chirin lifted the bundle of 
Flashlight, and put the shrouded shaft down into the little cotton 
lined grave. Everything was in miniature here. 

"flashlight wondered while the storm drummed teh bag. Flashlight 
thought and hid its light until it was released. flashlight was 
killed by ignorance" said Chirin. "I will take this as not only a 
chance for flashlight to see freedom, but to seek the light more for 
myself...seek knowledge, so that no one will ever die by my 
negligence again."

Selenity was growing tired of him blaming himself. It wasn't just 
him. Why did he always take everything upon himself? She wondered 
this as she made her own contribution of cotton. It upset her only 
because...it reminded her of herself.

"It wasn't only you," she said looking straight into his black 
eyes. "If I hadn't dropped it, if I hadn't killed the light you 
wouldn't have tried to revive it. You said it yourself that it was 
innocents killing innocent, that is was no one's fault. You only did 
what seemed to be the sensible thing to do. Don't blame yourself for 
it. I'm sure it's forgiven the both of us." She hated seeing him make 
himself feel bad, put shame upon himself. It was all so familiar and 
all so frustrating.


"that is true," said Chirin, giving her a hug. "But by what I just 
said, I am saying that if I had known more I would have not let 
flashlight die. i will do my best in the future to be more careful, 
gain more knowledge while using what I have. I just still feel so 
bad, i feel like i want to go back and undo it, but of course there 
will be no undoing it. But yes, we are both in this together, like i 
said. And being innocent...not knowing better, that does make us free 
of darkness in a way, but i wold rather know how not to harm others 
than do it while not knowing what I do. There are endless reasons to 
learn in this world. And we are doing it all the time. This was a 
lesson...a painful one, about the harm that *denki* can do...and yet 
we may never be sure that there was not an evil spirit trapped in 
that bag with Flashlight. That might have made this whole thing 
happen, and again we would be the innocents blundering into hell with 
our good intentions."

~IT. IS. A. FLASHLIGHT!~ Azalea wanted to scream.Instead she just 
flung her arms around Chirin. 

"You've done all you can here Chirin...If Flashligh can see this 
he'll appreciate this I know it cause anyone would." She squeezed 
him, as he was already hugging Selenity Azalea had to hug him from 
the side. 

Chirin squeezed her back. "The spirit journey is so important," said 
Chirin. "And when something like this happens, I do my best to help 
that soul...if that person was good and didn't do me wrong of course. 
flashlight came to us innocent and it will leave innocent, shining. a 
creature made to shine, only to shine, even more than we are."

Chirin placed the vine into the bundle, touching Flashlight, and then 
led the vineup out of the grave to let its other end lie out of the 
hole.

Selenity nuzzled him in return of his hug and watched him at 
work. "You and Azalea are right. If Flashlight was good, he would 
know to forgive us, he would know that we made a mistake." She 
watched for a paused moment. It came on a whim.

"May I see the piece?" she asked, feeling a bit stupid for making him 
take it out when he had pretty much just put it in. She wanted to see 
it though, for some reason, feel it and sense it and take it in. She 
hadn't really had much of a chance to look at it more and now, she 
supposed, it was speaking to her, in a very strange way.

Chirin opened up the shell without question. It hd weighed on him and 
still did, because of how Flashlight had died. Chirin still had not 
gotten any special gifts for flashlight to take into the spirits 
world. What did Flashlight eat, or was it one of those things that 
didnot need to eat, like a rock or metapod? 

"Ow." Chirin's flipper got a small cut when he handled the shard. It 
didn't bleed, but he knew not to touch it except by letting it fallon 
one's skin. Or was Flashlight angry? No--chirin had felt the touch of 
a glowing soul. 

"Careful--the shard's got a sharp edge." He swallowed, he was nervous 
now. Was there malice involved here?


Kimana resisted the strong urge to roll her eyes at Chirin. Whatever 
            that flashlight thingyjiggy was, it most definitely hadn't been 
            alive from the start. Kimana had smelled no life coming from it - 
            hadn't seed it gasp for precious air, or move even the slightest. 
            Instead, Kimana walked up to Chirin and sat down, looking sadly up 
            at him. 
            "Erm…Chirin? I'm sorry about that thing…err…Flashlight…" Kimana said 
            softly, trying to keep her words under control, so something like, 
            "That stupid thing had never been alive" didn't slip out of her 
            mouth.

"Oh, you don't need to be sorry," said Chirin, kneeling down to rub 
the fur on her head. "We have done what we can now to make up for 
what we did. If I'd known better  would have never given it *denki* 
like that." Thinking on it now, Flashlight had nt been lit inside the 
bag, so, perhaps there was another way to restore it? Was Flashlight 
really dead even now?

Chirin stare at the grave. Was this the right thing he was doing? If 
he was incorrect--he could be burying Flashlight alive.

            Kimana walked over to Wham and sat down. She glanced at him and 
            whispered in his ear (so only he could hear), "I wonder why Chirin 
            is so upset? And…how is it possible that he killed something that 
            was never alive?" 
            

"I don't know," said Wham. He didn't have much opinion one way or the 
other. Chirin orunded on her. 

"It is very much alive, or it was," said Chirin. "i am upset, because 
its light went out when I gave it too much *denki*." How did she know 
it was not alive? What was this nonsense with things being 'not 
alive' ? How could something exist in such a state?

Question's raced through Kimana's mind. Maybe Chirin had powers 
            beyond those of mortal Ampharos.
            Maybe he was a true Denryuu after all…

"Flashlight was not lit inside of the bag," said chirin, deciding to 
voice it aloud. "If it is not lit now, perhaps there is a way to heal 
Flashlight?" Chirin had not even tried his gift! Could that be a 
solution? He had nt thought this through at all!

"I'm pretty sure it's broken for good," said Azalea, squeezing his 
flipper, the one that hadn't gotten cut. 

"Do we knw that for sure, though? Might putting it into the bag thing 
again help preserve it until i can find a way to help it to shine?" 
He waited for Selenity to finish doing what she would do with that 
shard. If there was a way to bring Flashlight back, then he was going 
to try it! He knew that he wouldn't want to be buried alive even if 
he was a sliver from death.

Kimana turned away, rolled her eyes, then quickly turned back around 
            to watch the older sheep. Oy…taking out a piece of something already 
            dead and burried…
            That was wrong…her mother had said so. So it was wrong.
            Then again…
            The flashlight thing had never really been a living, breathing 
            creature…
            Did that make it right? Kimana wasn't sure…

Was it dead? Chirin crouched by Flashlight's grave and leaned in o 
stroke the shroud. Just because he had performed the ceremony, meant 
nothing. He could be wrong. He had been wrong about treatment, maybe 
he was wrong in saying that Flashlight was dead now. He knew nothing 
about Flashlight's kind. 

Flashlight had radiated such a strong presence in Chirin--such strong 
vibrations coming from a being of pure light and meant only to shine 
for others. Maybe Flashlight had wanted to shine for itself. 

"Chirin." Azalea crouched down next to him. "i think you're troubling 
yourself over this too much. I think you're a little nervous about 
heading down to Pharos and it's comingout here. No offense, but don't 
you want to go to your homeland? You'll have me and everyone here 
with you, we're on your side here. Whatever omen you got, you can't 
let it rule your mind."

Chirin put his arm on her back. His tail clinked against hers. Mure 
coming to him, the omen. He khew azalea was right, but his 
nervousness had given him greater acuity to the spirit world. That 
was why Flashlight had called out to him so strongly on this 
moutning. 

"I still do not want to bury something not dead." He wiped a tear off 
his cheek.

"Just bury it--just let it go."

Selenity sniffed at the shard carefully held in her cupped palms. It 
felt smooth against her snout. She looked at it, watched how it 
glistened. Memories of walking through dark forests, wool crackling 
and nerves alert, of the golden beam penetrating the darkened bark of 
trees. Whether it was on a whim, or out of pure nothing, she pressed 
one edge into her palm and gritted her teeth at the small pain. She 
made sure no one saw. This was different from the other times, when 
she bit at herself, or dug into her skin with her bone charm. This 
wasn't to feel content at giving herself pain. It just felt right to 
feel it from this, to experience what it felt like at all.

"Here," she said, clenching the cut flipper and handing it back to 
him. "I just wanted to see it one more time."

"It's okay," said Chirin. He had been cut twice by this piece. Did it 
not want him to hold it? Or ~was it tellinghim that Flashlight was 
not dead,~ and thus did not want a piece of it to be carried as if it 
were so? "Thank you." 

chirin put it back away anyway. Until he kne for sure the state that 
Flashlight was in, he didn't want to do anything. "I do not think 
Flashlight is definitely dead. That is why I want to hold a vigil for 
a while. This is why, actually they say to hold the vigil for three 
days. But in this case, this is a special case. Because flashlight is 
not a sheep. I will try to use my gift to heal it...but that does 
remind me, Kimana, how is your foot doing? Better, yes?"

She was glad he was crouching. She touched noses with him, leaning 
against him on the other side from Azalea. "Yes, Chirin," she said, 
in response to the ewe's suggestion. "She's right. Let it fly free 
now. Don't let it press on you. We're all here with you." She sighed, 
wishing she could put her arms about him again. Maybe it was lucky, 
though, that when he was with her now she was only a flaaffy. If she 
were an ampharos he would never hear her talking, ever again--she'd 
be too busy hugging him every moment of every day.

Chirin looked sad now. They were in agreement that he had gone to the 
far side of things. That he was letting this consume him,but he would 
not bury Flashlight if it was not dead. "I need to see what I can do 
with my gift. I will not bury something if it is not dead andI won't 
take chances either. I would not want to be buried alive."

"a flashlight--Chirin, let me see if I can explain. humans use those, 
in the dark, they hold them in their hand and point them around. They 
have a million of them. All pretty much the same. Light coming out, 
they switch on and off."

Chirin had unbound Flashlight from the shroud. The cotton lay opened 
like a present as Chirin turned it over in his flippers.

"i didn't intend to make you unbury it," said Azalea as Chirin 
carefully handled Flashlight again. It did not smell dead, but that 
meant nothing. 

"i know," said Chirin. 

"There are a million of those or more and humans, they just make 
them."

"Thre are a million or more sheep, and their ancestors make them, the 
rain spirits and the sky and Phos make them. They are all having many 
things alike. So is true with Flashlight's kind."

"It's not the same. Chirin..." Azalea sighed. What to do to get him 
to just drop the thing back in the hole and bury it???


            Oy…with you just BURY THE STUPID THING!? Kimana thought irritably. 
            Chirin was acting like a nut-job! He was crying about killing 
            something that had never even been alive!!
            It was man-made. That was that. And if humans could make living 
            things, then Piloswine could fly…Ugh…
            Flashlight…that thing…was made for humans so they could see in the 
            dark, just like Azeala said. That was it. Nothing more. It was a 
            hard little…er…something…that humans made. 
            NOT A LIVING CREATURE!!!!!!!!! Why couldn't Chirin understand that?!
            Oy…



Chirin noticed Kimana looking very impatient. She must be upset with 
all that had happened. He nuzzled her gently, still not willing to 
bury something that had not died. He could tell Azale was more than a 
little worried about him, though.

"Are you all right?" said Chirin, to Kimana. wham was looking from 
Kimana to chirin and back again. then the ram lamb started to graze. 
Why not. They were, after all, stnding in themiddle of a big patch of 
grass. "i know this is a tough moment and our journey's been very 
hard on us. and now Flashlight, but he may not be dead. I am going to 
find out for sure," sid Chirin to Azalea. There were ways to find out.

Selenity hoped Azalea wouldn't start losing her patience. Right now 
he couldn't be forced out of his beliefs...she didn't want him to be. 
For all they knew he could be right, or they could be right, or no 
one could be right. She nuzzled him again and reached to stroke the 
flashlight he held.

"I'm beginning to remember now," she said quietly to him, as if it 
were a secret, "of my trainer holding one of these to see in the dark 
as we traveled. I would see its light, and I would wonder, if it were 
alive, because it had a shining golden light like I did. Eventually 
it would die out like this one did." And boy, would Darren use the 
colorful side of his human language in those moments. It was all 
coming back now. "It didn't take as long as a life usually does for 
it to die out. I think the light has to come for it to be alive--I 
don't think there's a way to bring it back for this one. The light is 
gone, and like a sheep with its light gone, its soul has gone away."

Tears came to Chirin's already sore eyes as he listened to her. She 
told a story that gave more insight as to what Flashlight was. Yes, 
humans used them, but they also used sheep. They used things until 
they died, then threw them away and got more. "So, they do not live 
very long?" Chirin looked down at Flashlight, still and black i n his 
own palms. "Doesn't matter. Living long or living short, it is 
relative...Flashlight deserved a full life. but Flashlight burst into 
ight when you picked it up." Chirin sighed, loudly, and hugged 
Flashlight close again. "Shining gold light, where are you now, where 
are you now." He shivered, the morning still held an element of chill 
to it. It was still warming p. Chirin crouched in the shade, but on 
the other side of the clearing a patch of sunlight was slowly 
growing. 

"You're probably right." Chirin tried to move in there wit his gift 
anyway. He would be careful.

What he found was other electricity, but nothing much. What was 
inside Flashlight was so different from anything else he'd ever 
encountered. There were organs and things, yes, but of different 
stuff. A vastly different kind of creature. 

"I am sorry, Flashlight."Chirin rewrapped it in the shroud and began 
gently pushing soil over it. It was time to leave Flashlight here, 
and continue on to Pharos. 

"That's right," said Azalea. "Flashlight will thank you for letting 
him go."

Chirin sobbed aain as he hugged Azalea. She huggedhim back as he 
nearly buried her. Next to them was a little pile, a little tiny 
grave.

Selenity sighed and joined in the two's huddle, trying her best, 
though it was pretty much physically impossible, to hug the both of 
them. To no avail. She supposed that, in a matter of hugs, that until 
she evolved she would simply have to wait for them to come to her. 
And, she also supposed, they would be rare; for with all these other 
ampharos around, what did it matter that there was a flaaffy down 
there for him to hug? Oh well, she would keep her services available, 
if ever needed.

"Yes," she added. "He forgives you and he thanks you." She stroked 
his back with her tail again. Now this was starting to get out-of-
hand, and she was glad he was finally letting it go.

Chirin crouched so he could give Selenity a hug too. "Thank you...I 
am ready to go on to Pharos, although I will hold the special light-
vigil for you for three more nights or as many nights as you need, 
flashlight." Chirin separated from Selentiy nd stroked the freshly 
piled mound. He would remember this clearing. Flashlight would always 
have a opresence here. 

"Phos's light to you Flashlight." Chirin got up and went back over to 
the bag. He picked up the book, and put it inside. the spoon he 
wanted to keep with him. He wanted to keep the book too, but he 
couldn't carry all these things and he didn't want to try wearing the 
bag like a human did either. Practical or not (which it was) he was 
no human and he would not do what they did. He would not start to get 
into the habits they had, because then he'd be losing his own light 
for sure. Humanity was very dangerous.

Chirin abandoned the spoon on the rock fornow while he began to graze 
at last. He stepped away from Flashlight's grave, then strolled into 
that patch of sunlight. He dropped down to graze the dew-decorated 
grass and felt Phos warming his side.

"An excellent idea," said Azalea, taking up grazing too. the rest of 
the flock followed, and soon all the sheep were grazing. Chirin 
looked back a few times at Flashlight's grave pile, but he did so 
less and less. Finding a lone red clover flower, he stood right in 
place to nibble it, and then began to eat it little bit by little 
bit, concentrating on its texture and taste. He only had this one, so 
he was going to savor it. While he are the apricorn shell swung idly 
on his neck in the light wind.

Selenity grazed beside him, glad to finally get some food in her 
stomach. Even in this solemn mood she figured his spirits could be 
brightened, somehow. She looked back at the little grave once while 
she chewed. This morning had certainly been eventful.

She glanced at him sideways from one eye, ready to approach him 
carefully. So many moods, so many things, that reminded her of 
herself. This was the fragile mood she sometimes put herself in, 
where any attempted touch from a close one could shatter you into 
pieces.

"Later, or after we're done eating," she said. "how about I do your 
back?" She made a gesture with her flippers to show what type of 
massage she meant. She was feeling confident and in a cheering-up 
mood. "I still owe you one, you know."

Chirin grinned as the last of the flower went down his throat. His 
grin was directed at Lightswirl and Taina too, as he remembered last 
night. He'd like that every night, thank you, two ewes to get busy 
with. What it had left him as, a brainless, placid mass, was nice to 
be some of the time. But like with all things the best part of 
getting to that state was the journey itself. Mmm...

Definitely that had beena night to remember, and Chirin could always 
turn to it if he wanted a feel-good thought of the day. He was 
breathing a little faster just thinking about it.

"Mmm...yeah, thanks Selenity that would be positively delightful. you 
know how I love that stuff..." He trailed off not wanting to upset 
her, or scare her. A big lusting ram wasn't the kind of friend to put 
her at ease. "I think what I love is just touch itself. There is 
something about it that reaches further and increases my awareness 
that nothing else does."

It went farther, much deeper than sight, which was ironic, 
considering your eyes took you to the stars, and touch had no range. 
It took you no farther than what you were touching.

 "Chirin…why can’t you accept the fact that the thi…Err…I mean…Yes, 
            I'm fine…hehheh!…" Kimana said with a forced smile. A very forced 
            smile.
         


Kimana sighed, walked up and sat down next to Azeala, looked up at 
            her and mouthed, "I agree with you…but I dun think that Chirin 
            does…I smell no life in that thingy…"
            No life. It was a lifeless, man-made pathetic excuse of a taillight…
            Erm…handlight? That was a bit more accurate…

Azalea patted the lambon the head. "Correct," she said. "Have you had 
any experience with humans? You sound like you have."

She did, thought Chirin, and she clearly thought little of his 
decision to give Flashight the rrites of a denryuu passing into the 
next realm. Why id it bother her so much? What was wrong, why did 
this little lamb stand here fuming? 

Why did Kimana dislike him? Chirin knew it was nothing he had done. 
He was doing his best to see she stayed with the flock and was happy, 
and didn't haul off and shriek anymore. But she cleearly wanted to. 
Kimana was far from a happy lamb. Poor thing...

 Kimana stared at the tiny grave. They had to be kidding her. C'mon, 
            really. There was no way that Chirin was dumb enough to have a 
            funeral for something that had never been alive!!
            Chirin was acting like the flashlight had been a best friend that 
            had suddenly been struck down.
            Like someone he dearly loved had just died on the spot.
            Chirin was a lunatic. No way was he a true Denryuu…
            Just a crazed Ampharos who enjoyed making mountains out of Dugtrio 
            hills…
            Oy…
            Kimana couldn't remember the last time she had said (or thought) the 
            word "oy" so many times.
            Was she loosing it too??

"Are you okay?" said wham, looking at her with a worried little 
face. "You sad about Flashlight? He's buried now, he'd gone, let's 
play something!"

~

Chirin just grazed some more. The little lamb wasn't happy and maybe 
Wham was the one to cheer her up. He was hopeful. After all, she and 
Wham were peers and could reach each other in ways that Chirin could 
not. She clearly didn't like Chirn much, Chirin figured that maybe he 
couldn't change her opinion. He did want to get to the root of why 
the attitude, though. It was almost certainly a lack of understanding 
and he doubted that he could bridge the gap between them. He wanted 
to though...surely there was a way?

Selenity smiled, her own heart fluttering a bit at the point that his 
voice had gone lusty. Yes, it was rather frightening; but all the 
more exciting. But even that wasn't really what excited her; it was 
the fact that her feelings went so much deeper than that, love mixed 
with whatever it was that made her light glow so rich.

"I agree. I have always loved feeling things, like fuzzy leaves and 
smooth pebbles. And you know, if I could reach you, you would be 
receiving a lot more daily hugs than you are currently." She grinned 
and flicked one ear. "Touch is something very important to me. It 
helps communicates different things to me...sometimes better than 
words could."

She yawned and swallowed the bite of grass she had taken. "I'll be 
glad to do one for you later, then, and maybe you can try me again 
too. I promise you I'll stay calm this time, as I know now what type 
of massage you are planning to do." She blushed a bit at what she 
just said, more out of embarrassment than anything.

Chirin grinned andnuzzled her. "I don't want to scare you away, if 
youdon't like something I'm doing just tell me.As i have grown, my 
taste for touch has grown with me. I feel that my experiences have 
expanded my horizones. Touch is the way to get in touch, hence the 
saying I guess, with you and what you are. And what you are capable 
of feeling. There are incredible secrets locked away that, well, 
let's just say I have had some of them unlocked. It is like traveling 
to another realm inside myself, like everything becomes that feeling 
and you are aware of nothing else. It is the intricate dance of soul 
and current and body and mind. After all, in many ways they are one."

"Oh dear," said Azalea, smiling over at Selenity. "I've got 
competition. One word of advice: As Chirin's current regular masseuse 
I feel I can dish out this advice: when he says go harder, don't 
worry about going too hard. And when he screams don't worry either, 
it's a good sign." She giggled as Chirin's head leaned down and 
pushed her in the side. Azalea landed on her bum and Chirin landed on 
top of her. He grabbed her and held her tight. the morning was 
laughing at last.

   As Chirin turned to talk to Azeala, Kimana muttered under her 
            breath, "Still alive my lightless tail…it was never freakin' 
            alive…Sheesh…"
            Kimana dearly hoped that noone had heard that…

If Chirin could see through many of Kimana's forced smiles, this 
one was definitely a wide open door. He could tell it was more than 
that. She was not only forcingit, but making a deliberately poor job 
of concealing herself, on purpose. she wanted to butst out and scream 
at him like she had tht other time, but rather than just come out and 
scream, she was pretending to hide it, thus telling him in a passive 
way.

"I don't understand it," said Chirin. "Who told you that there are 
some things not alive? How do you know tht Flashlight felt no pain, 
that it was never alive or aware in any way? How do you know? Until 
you are Flashlight, you will never know for sure. You might want to 
take deep breaths and think. Think about things, and try to imagine 
how someone else feels. Like, for instance, me. I know I don't often 
use myself as an example this way...but Flashlight is buried now. Why 
does it bother you so much that I went to the pains of giving 
Flashlight its rituals? You might want to think a little bit abot how 
others feel."

Kimana turned around and sweatdropped…
            Okaaayy…So Chirin had heard…
            Kimana muttered indistinctly under her breath.

Kimana stared at the grave, as though trying to see right through. 
            She wasn't blinking. 
            She did, however, blink several times and look up from the grave 
            when her eyes started to sting and water.
            "I…dun know if my mother was with humans…maybe she was…she never 
            told me. I always assumed that she was a wild Pokemon…Maybe I was 
            wrong…" Kimana said with a shrug, turning away from Chirin and 
            Azeala and walking off to be on her own for a while.


"It's all right," said Chirin. "Either way, you're not with them now, 
right? Hey...where are you going?" Chirin didn't like her going over 
there. She wa a prime candidate for getting eaten over there, as a 
mareep lamb who didn't even have *denki* yet! If she ever would. 

            Once she was a small distance from the small flock, Kimana started 
            to graze, getting quite a drink as she did so. The grass was 
            extremely wet.
            Dur…


Chirin's eyes widened. There came a very old feeling, something he 
hadn't felt in a long time, a very long time, and it brought him 
right back to the lakeside, at the end of last summer. When he had 
looked around at Fluffy, Snake, Karama and seen that strange 
connection. Kimana was acting a lot like Karama herself. "Do you know 
a Karama>" he said. "Does the name strike you as familiar in any way?"

He paused. 

"And by the way, if you are trying to respond to what I said before, 
I cannot hear you when you mutter." He wuld get to the bottom of 
this, all right. something was very rwong, very dark, and he would 
face it here.

Kimana shrugged. 
            "Never heard of Karama," Kimana said, shaking her head. "Was she 
            someone you knew?" She suddenly eyed the trees behind Chirin, as 
            though she thought that Karama might be hiding behind one of them.

"She was," said Chirin, realizing he spoke of her in the past tense. 
He considered her dead, then, in the recessesof hismind. Then had 
Kimana taken in her soul? A sheep who wandered off and was never 
heard from again generally met a bad end somewhere. Chirin couldn't 
let go of her yet, though. He would not think of her as dead until he 
knew. He hoped, somewhere out there she was okay.

"Kimana, come backover towards the flock. It's not safe out here." 
Chirin kept his voice down. "Wham's over there, you might want to 
stay with him, keep him company?  I just don't think it's a good idea 
for you to stay wayout here."

It reminded him, again, of when Karama had escaped, but tht was just 
because he was thinking of them both together now. Out here an enemy 
would pick her out immediately and target her.