Forum Thread

All was at peace in the Arian safe houses. The only sound was Adele playing the piano, while Phantump dozed on top. Lily sat outside on the porch step with her pokemon partner Kirlia, gazing out at the moon while lost in thought. “I always loved you phantump, since you're so cute.” Adele giggled as she watched the small tree pokemon from her piano stool. Phantump, of course, could not reply because he was asleep.

The one and only thing that struck Lily as worth discussing was the leader candidate roll. This made her extremely nervous and excited in equal measure. “Can you believe it?” Lily asked hushed to Kirlia, “I might be nominated for leader tomorrow.” Kirlia chirped in agreement, sharing her feeling with her trainer.

“Finally peaceful for once, huh.” The voice came from the pokeball maker Wesley. He was talking to his pokemon partner Type-Null. Of course, his pokemon partner agreed.

I was out in the yard, meditating and practicing my psychic. This was a time when the others learned to leave me alone. If I was disturbed, I usually became very upset. My espeon partner Stella, or La for short, slept beside me. I abruptly frowned as my sensitive ears picked up on Lily and Kirlia. This was another thing. If I was meditating, my senses would heighten, so I was able to hear things farther away in sharper quality. Stella suddenly woke up when her stomach growled, causing her to blush.

“I’ll bet Lily has something to eat.” I chuckled. Stella dashed off to find Lily, running as fast as her dainty legs would allow. She instantly spotted Phantump munching away on macarons, and jumped up beside him, snatching two in her mouth. Phantump let out a startled yelp seeing the Sun Pokemon suddenly appear, but he soon relaxed. Other pokemon descended on the feast as well. She eventually came back with one for me as well.

Later on, we had the leader elections. I didn’t bother entering, even though Stella put in a ballot for me. I just waited for the feast afterwards. Lily and Wes were outside picking berries.


Soren Adamus was standing in the yard, “Hey we’re heading to Vespiqueen for the honey. Anybody else wanna come?”
Upon seeing Lily getting up, I immediately got up with her. The journey to Queen Vespiqueen’s castle wasn’t far. Even though few dangers lurked here, I sent out two astral forest sentries to scout. I didn’t want my vision coming true. I nodded to the others, “I’m waiting outside.” I began to walk aimlessly, when my scouts returned. The report was unnerving. Two shadow troopers in the area. Unfortunately, the scout didn’t manage to get a clear visual on what they looked like. They disappeared into thin air, and I fluffed a hand through my hair.

Finally, the negotiations settled, and Adele, Wes and Lily came outside. They headed into the forest, and suddenly, there was a blur of black. Lily barely had time to scream before she was grabbed in a headlock.

“Such pretty prey I have here.” The girl’s voice was a croon, and this made me instantly angry. I rushed forward, and promptly skidded to a halt as a barrier of ice flared up.

“It’s you!” Everything slid into place, “I’ve seen you before!”

To my credit, both of them were highly confused. Evidently, that was enough of a distraction for Type-Null to yank the fan out of her hand with Confusion. Another icy blast, and I was up against a tree, my left and right hand frozen to the bark. I heard Lily whimpering in pain, and anger blazed through my veins.

“Aaron! We got what we came for. To the rest of you kids, Chao!” The mysterious girl teleported Lily away and the boy, Aaron followed shortly with the fan, wreathing a sheet of mist.

“No. NO! Come back here!” I smashed my bonds and darted forward, but I was too late. In my rage and frustration, I shouted, “You..you children of a she arcanine!” The curse escaped my mouth, but it didn’t do any good. Adele was crying hard on the ground, while Wes looked shocked at my curse. Adele eventually passed out from her grief, although even in her sleep she looked tormented.

Thunder boomed overhead, shaking the kingdom.

It was dark. The streetlamps were off as the power had gone out hours ago. The darkness was anything but silent, however. Rain pelted the roofs of the village and the thunder roared every few minutes, not long after a flash of lightning.

This didn’t stop a boy from running, however.

His black hair hung limply on his head, soaking wet from the rain that constantly hit him. His footsteps stomped the wet, muddy ground, sending splashes of murky water onto his pants. His face was soaked, though the rain was only partly to blame for that. Otherwise, he clutched his soggy jacket to his arms in a desperate attempt to stay warm, and continued to bolt.

He glanced behind him, expecting to see the glow of a flashlight. Yet all he saw was lightning. Not long after, the crash of thunder. His tears intensified and he desperately picked up the pace, shoes slipping on the mud.

Eventually the lightning was in perfect sync with the thunder and it crashed down not too far away from the boy. Startled, he tripped and faceplanted into the mud. Sniffling, he pushed himself up slightly only to see a hand a few inches from his face.

He followed the arm up to see another boy around his age, maybe a little older than him. He saw his face only for a moment as the lightning lit up the sky. “Come on. It’s not safe out here.”

The first boy stared, bewildered, but gladly accepted the help and pulled himself to his feet. He let out a squeal as the lightning struck again, but found himself pulled by the newcomer into an ally. Suddenly, the rain stopped. They were under some sort of tarp.

The newcomer let go of the first boy’s hand. “There. You alright?”

“F-Fine,” The boy finally murmured, albeit quietly. “Th-Thanks.”

“It’s no problem. I hate these storms…” The newcomer whispered. A flame lit and the newcomer’s face was revealed once more, but the boy hardly noticed. He was much more interested by the origin of the flame--the newcomer’s finger.

“Y-You know magic?”

“Yeah,” The newcomer nodded. The flame lit a lantern, which illuminated the little space below the tarp. “But uh… Don’t tell, please? I don’t want to join the magical army. I’m Robbie.”

The boy nodded. “I, uh… I won’t tell,” He whispered, hesitant to say his name. “...Andor.”

Robbie’s head whipped over. Andor winced, but was finally able to get a good look at his face. He had curly, shaggy brown hair and bright blue eyes. Though he could detect some natural hues of red in his hair. “Andor? Prince Andor?”

“Shh!” Andor slapped his hands over Robbie’s mouth. “I can’t go back to the castle. Not tonight. I won’t tell if you don’t tell.”

Robbie nodded and Andor slowly removed his hands from his mouth. He rubbed the back of his neck. “...Just call me Andor, alright?”

“Yeah,” Robbie nodded slowly. “That’s weird.”

“What?”

“Never thought I’d see a prince covered in mud.”

Andor looked down at his shirt and found it caked in mud. He let out a small giggle. “Me neither.”

Robbie smiled. “How’d you sneak out?”


“The window,” Andor’s gaze shifted to his feet. “Dad’s yelling again.”

Robbie raised his eyebrows. “When are you going to go back?”

Andor shrugged. He wiped his eyes again with a muddy sleeve and cleared his throat. “Do you live here?”

“Under a tarp? Yeah,” Robbie admitted quietly. “Just because I’m still working on making my house.”

“You’re making your own house?”

“Underground. It’s cool, y’know? Like my own little secret lair,” He smiled softly.

“Your parents let you?” Andor’s eyes lit up with interest as Robbie’s dulled.

“I think they would have,” Was all he said in reply. Andor’s cheerful expression faded as he realized and he nodded.

“...Can I help?”

Robbie looked up, surprised. He nodded slowly after a moment or two. “Yeah. Sure.”