My (Twisted) Pokémon Journey: PMD Different Futures

Chapter Sixteen - ✿ Discovering the Ancient Trials ✿

A sentry from each group took a turn on watch for the night. That did mean, however, that one of Team Skull's members would be the only one to watch for any threats at one point in the night – or, at least, that was what Wigglytuff had intended when he announced the watches. However, when Zubat was awake, the rest of the Guild quietly agreed that a secondary member of their team would take the same watch – subtly, but keep watch all the same. For PokéClan, Ev took the team's assigned watch, and Hex took the one she shared with the rest of the Guild.

Sunflora and Chimecho walked over to see us before the morning roll call. "Hey Sunflora, Chimecho!" Hex greeted cheerily.

They both greeted her, and Chimecho added in a hushed voice, "How was the watch?"

"Zubat didn't do anything," Hex said quietly.

Sunflora looked down. "I think I fell asleep, so I wasn't sure..."

Hex smiled kindly to Sunflora. "No harm done. That's why we had extra Pokémon on watch."

"Apprentices!" Chatot called to us. "We're going to venture further into Foggy Forest today. Somewhere, the lake might be in the heart of it – or it might not exist. Maybe there is a cave, since we are near the highlands, and it is hidden there. Search diligently!"

Everyone fanned out, hurrying in one direction or another. Team Skull lagged behind as we headed into the forest – even Hex glanced back every so often, but no one could see far into the fog.

"Hm?" Pika stopped and peered at the ground, reaching for something. He pulled out some kind of palm-sized rock covered in dirt. "I think I found something" he said to us, scraping off the dirt.

"Oh?" Ev hopped over, curiously and intensely watching. "Oh, wow! That has to be worth something!"

"I'd rather learn its history," Pika said. "It's warm."

"What is it?" Hex asked, walking over.

We all crowded around as Pika scraped the rest of the dirt off.

The rock, some kind of gem, had a faint red glow to it, as Pika showed it to us. "It was just in the dirt, I saw a glint of red as I passed by."

"We're lucky Team Skull didn't notice it," I said. "That looks – well, that's the most valuable thing we've found so far, isn't it?"

"It'd be right up there with my relic," Pika agreed.

Hex peered at it, touching it lightly with her paw. "It is warm," she said. "That's not just me, is it?"

Pika nodded. "It's warm. Somehow, the earth warmed it, I guess?"

Kip and Ev reached out, and also confirmed that it was warm – warmer than it should have been.

I reached out tentatively. "Can I...?"

"Of course!" Pika said, holding it out for me to take. "Maybe you can tell us something about it!"

I hesitated. "I didn't think of that. I can try, especially with Grovyle popping up into my dreams, lately." I took the stone – I really was warmer than it had any right being – and stared into it. The warmth reached through my skin, into my bones.

The ground began to dip and spin a little beneath me. I reached out to Pika to steady myself, and I felt his paw grip my arm, and then my shoulder. The world, mainly fog, vanished in favor of a vision.

I couldn't hear anything, but I could see – A Treecko, a human, and a pink Celebi stood in front of a stone statue of a Pokémon – I recognized it as the legendary Groudon – that had partially tipped and sunk into the ground. The world was a colorless grey, except for those three. I noticed that the human held the same stone that I did, and the Treecko got visibly excited; he jumped and pointed to a spot on Groudon's chest.