How we meet

Chapter 20

To be fair you hadn't been told not to leave. You hadn't truly been told the rules or your assignments. As far as you knew they wanted you to study and observe the fauna. You had your own personal jornal of notes that you started filling out when you found a portable lab. You spent hours comparing the structure of the plants and how the cell walls looked more hexagonal than usual.

You tested reactions with different lights, fluids, and substances. You took notes religiously every small reaction you scribbled down until the sun started to rise. N and other workers had to track you down while you collected samples without anyone's knowledge. Someone compares you to a cat. Showing up for food and then never being seen again until you wanted to see N.

Very few people even knew that you had been meeting up with N between your explorations. You snuck him a few wild fruits and he pulled out of the lens of a microscope as sunset. He let you quietly ramble your head off as you explained some of the comparisons and theories about the plant's evolution. You explained that you had yet to fully understand how the bioluminescence was working in the samples you had. You were assuming that it had to do with the cave itself.

But when it was announced that the cave-in would still take another few days to clear out, you collected your things and left with no one except N's knowledge. Not that you told him about it. Venipede had woken him up and explained that you wanted to look for another entrance without anyone else interfering.

You had a rough idea of where to go, the math was hard to remember, you had stopped doing complicated equations for a while so there was a large margin for error. You're going to go far, simply a few miles to the east. It was a steep walk that would only take a few hours, it would also lead to a very steep cave and a arguably more dangerous way in than the cave-in happy entrance that they were trying to clear out.

N had scrambled to collect his things and follow you as soon as he realized you left earlier than Venipede had predicted. He sprinted away from the camp following your path through the woods. He found you half way down a 15 foot drop. You waved when you saw him. You had been climbing down between large chunks or rock and stepping on strong thick vines that crawled up the cave's walls.

"Hi there," you looked up at N, venipede poking his head out from your bag to say hello.

He looked down at you, observing the rocks and vines.

"Over there," you pointed to his right foot. "Start there."

You worked your way down slowly. You moved slowly, the rocks and vines digging into your hands. The rocks shifted and a few pebbles fell echoing as they hit the bottom. You tightened your hold on the vines and adjusted the bag strap and venipede shuffled out of the backpack and onto the vines. He climbed down clinging to the vines. It was fine and was going well until it wasn't. Your shoe slipped mid-movement and you fell into the dark caves below. N screamed rushing to climb down faster.

Your mind froze and time seemed to halt. You looked at N's panicked face as you fell into the emptiness. You didn't feel scared all things considered, there were much scarier things that you had experienced you reasoned. It was more like time had frozen mid jump. It was a feeling of weightlessness, as if you could physically feel the lack of responsibilities on a day off.

You never hit the hard ground, you were caught by smooth gentle leaves, they grasped you before you plummeted to your death. Your breath filled your lungs and you melted the traces of stress vanishing from your veins. Liquid fear had leaked from your eyes. You gasped trying to flush the fear from your body as you slipped down to the ground.

"I'm okay!" you called up, "i'm fine." you sunk to the ground whispering it to yourself.

N slowed down, he slipped but didn't fall. He panicked as vines grew around him. They created something to easily hold onto and to climb down. He descended, wrapping his arms around you when he saw that you were okay.

He held you tightly as if you would slip through his hold and fall to your death. His nails dug into your skin and you never said a word about it. You ran your hand up and down his back and cradled his face in your hands.

"It's alright, I promise it's alright." The truth was you were not only comforting him but yourself. Nearly falling to your death was horrifying even if it hadn't fully set in, and your mind was still numb with shock.

You didn't venture in. You held each other on the cave floor until the next morning rose and awoke the forest. You didn't mind sleeping in each other's arms and venipede curled up in between the two of you. You all needed to sleep after that incident, you needed the time to process and calm down.

The worst part was the lack of a lecture. N never said a word about how scared he was. He didn't say that you were stupid that you should have been more careful. He only held your hand as you walked through the stone labyrinth. He never let you out of his sight and he refused to let you go unless necessary. You did care; his hand prevented you from panicking again; you didn't feel nearly as scared when you were beside him.

You walked through the caves quietly. Neither one of you wanted to bring it up. No one wanted to risk it again and you each became too aware of your own mortality. Instead, you observed the caves. The carvings were detailed and seemed to depict a story of sorts not that you knew anything about ancient carvings or languages.

It was when you stopped in a large underground city that you froze. Your eyes were wide and you stared in pure confusion and awe. Plants glowed and illuminated the broken cracked streets and buildings. The farms looked like they were perfectly tamed, with no weeds, no overgrown vines. It almost looked like someone was taking care of it all.

You walked side by side as you explored the streets and glanced at the insides of the buildings. They seemed mostly empty and abandoned. You hardly could imagine anyone living here. You were so overwhelmed even though you were underground the plants glowed as bright as a small sun. You were so confused and so excited that you didn't even know what to look at first you didn't even want to risk messing something up.

You followed N, he seemed to be looking around the buildings and together you walked up large steps to an open room with glowing lanterns. On top of it all was a large carving of a deer. The same deer depicted in the carving sitting in front of it. They were green and they were tall and thin. They wanted you and N not moving from their spot but their eyes stayed fixed on the two of you as you approached.

"Who are you?" N asked, standing a few feet in front of the pokemon. You stood behind him unable to move closer.

"Virizion," they stood up.

You sucked in a breath, they were intimidating, not to mention they could talk. You dug your nails into your palms once again and Venipede greeted the pokemon.

"How long have you been here?" N asked.

"Since they left." Virizion walked away from the two of you straight out of the room, vanishing into the empty city.

You looked back at N scared and incredibly confused. N didn't know what to say.