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Safety is comforting, quiet, still. It stays out of the way of the world as it crashes against itself.
It's why you keep so many things close to your heart…
[ ID: A grayscale drawing of Lief running on his fours through the Fae Wood, during a rainstorm. He's shown from his left side and has a look of clear concern on his face. Lief's appearance is as described here. End ID ]
Heroes don't get paid for the risks they submit themselves to.
Why should you involve yourself now? Why risk that safety that you craved so much?
A few hours prior…
Hazel: “Hey! Stop!”
Hazel was starting to get winded in her sprint. In comparison, Fenninkou looked more dead set on outrunning her.
Hazel: “Wait up, dammit! How are you not tired by now?!”
Fenninkou: “I’m not going back!”
The Fennlin finally yelled back in response.
Fenninkou: “I-I want to do something! All the adults ever talk about is how bad things are!”
Her eyes shut in frustration, and she went on to declare:
Fenninkou: “I hate it! I hate being small! I HATE–”
Only to stumble. Her right hind foot got caught on something.
Her eyes snapped open to look back with a glare. Annoyance became confusion as she saw some sort of black goop latched to her ankle, from a tiny puddle on the ground.
She was about to try and free herself when the puddle grew. Her foot became submerged. She felt herself being dragged in.
She clawed at the ground and pulled, trying to put up resistance. Her strength didn’t even compare.
Confusion became shock. Shock became panic.
Hazel: “Shit, shit, shit!”
By the time Hazel caught up and intervened, her underside was close to becoming stuck. She watched as the larger Pokemon wasted no time in grabbing her front legs to pull her out, making significant progress.
She was clearly exhausted. Her face was reddened, and she was breathing heavily–yet she was strong enough to put up resistance.
Hazel: “H-hang in there! I gotcha!”
The goop stretched, refusing to let go–until something else did.
The Fennlin yelled out in pain. Many patches of fur were now missing from where it had stuck to her.
Fenninkou: “OWW…!!”
Hazel, holding the Fennlin close in her arms, quickly scampered well away.
Fenninkou, shaken, her leg stinging with pain, but alive, stared unnerved at what she almost drowned in.
The puddle was now a pond. Big enough to block off the path.
Fenninkou: “Wh… what is…?”
Hazel: “E-even here… this stuff is appearing even here…?”
Fenninkou looked up at Hazel upon hearing her speak, looking more alarmed once she saw and heard how shaken up she was.
Hazel: “I-I gotta get you back to town. If void-matter is appearing even here… uhh, which way, which way–”
Fenninkou: “Void-matter? Hey, do you hear me?”
Hazel: “We came from that way, and then… shit, where did we turn?”
Fenninkou: “Hey!! Hello?”
Any further attempts by Fenninkou to ground Hazel back in reality went on ignored at first. The fat ‘mon quickly became panicked–she literally spun in place.
Hazel: “It happened again. We’re lost. I-I don’t know where we came from, where that pit trap was or–”
Fenninkou used Scratch!
Hazel: “Ow, hey…!”
Fenninkou: “Snap out of it! What is void-matter?”
With a grunt, Hazel held onto Fenninkou more tightly with both paws, staring her down with a gaze that made the other stop squirming upon meeting it.
Hazel: “Really cheap shot, hitting me in the belly like that. But void-matter is…”
She trailed off. Her serious expression softened once she saw the state of Fenninkou’s leg. Specks of blood in the shape of tiny claw marks were all over the bald patches.
She only looked more uneasy when her ear somewhat perked up, hearing something in the distance.
Hazel: “W-we’d better get away from this puddle first. And out of sight. You’re lucky that the fur on your leg is the only thing you’ve lost.”
Hazel: “But void-matter is, well. No one really knows what it is. It just started appearing one day, and anything caught inside it just vanishes.”
As Hazel rushed off with Fenninkou, Pikavee and Rue were catching up.
Rue in particular clung for dear life atop Pikavee’s head. Meanwhile, the giant in question did her best to mind where she stepped as she speed-walked forth.
Rue: “Shouldn’t be much further!”
Pikavee: “I-I’m not seeing them, Rue… do you think they’re alright?”
Rue: “They have to be. Please, Hecate, they have to be…”
Hazel: “And if a Pokemon happened to get caught…? S-something else crawls out, looking for more to eat.”
Rue: “Oh no.”
Upon spotting the void-matter in their path, Rue immediately grew tense.
Rue: “Stop. Pikavee, stop!”
Pikavee: “Huh–?”
Rue: “Don’t touch it!”
Rue’s urgent order came out before Pikavee could ask about it. Startled, she skidded to a stop, her paws nearly making contact with the void-matter’s edge.
She took some hasty steps back to make distance. Her movements were so sudden that she felt Rue slide forward from the inertia.
She looked with wide eyes at the pond of void-matter right at her feet, big enough for even her to be submerged in. She initially assumed it to be a shallow puddle of some liquid–maybe oil or tar.
Hazel: “Sometimes they look just like the Pokemon that was… y-you know. Don’t make me say it.”
Fenninkou: “Th-they?”
But the more Pikavee stared at the blackness, the more her hairs stood on end. She was getting a feeling of dread looking at it–she even took a couple more steps back.
Pikavee: “Wh… what’s wrong with it? What is it?”
She feared for a moment that she may have flung Rue off, but she still felt the familiar weight of the Vuling on her head.
But Rue still wasn’t saying anything. Her breathing had gotten shakier. Her grip on Pikavee’s hairs remained tense.
Pikavee: “R-Rue?”
It was another moment of confusion and concern before Pikavee noticed what Rue must have.
The lone paw clinging to the ground. The rest of the body, submerged.
The Pokemon pulling free and rising from the void-matter, the goop in question peeling off the body like oobleck.
Pikavee: “R-Rue! That’s…!”
She would learn quickly it wasn’t who she thought. Both of them did.
For it resembled Fenninkou in all but face.
Flesh bubbled as if it were slime, and a single, bulbous eye formed in the center.
[ ID: A grayscale drawing of a void shadow taking the form of Fenninkou and staring up at the viewer, but where Fenninkou's actual face would be, there's nothing but a giant eye. Its entire right side and its tail are drooping, as if melting. Fenninkou's appearance is as described here. End ID ]
Hazel: “Void Shadows.”
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