//------------------------------// // 309. Mangled Morale. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Equus, Therapy Beach, Celestia- “So I think something is really wrong with my wife and she was only making small talk…” It was nice of Tianhuo to be here for therapy. “Her eyes were so hollow. The only clue I have as to what might be wrong is that Ocellus mentioned Dazzle saying that it revolved around the word ‘Chrysomallus’.” I couldn’t hold back my twitching ears or slightly flinching body. “You know something?” Jaded noticed something that small, the rogue sun priestess was as mentally sharp as ever. Of course Jade drew attention to it and now everyone was looking at me. “Queen Novo would know the most about them.” This was kind of unusual to me, usually Jaded was an odd fountain of esoteric knowledge. Then again she survived thousands of years as nothing more than an incorporeal astral ghost, being the major reason why we even had this therapy group in the first place. She probably spent most of that time not looking anywhere close to the Lambkin and waiting for someone to save her. Still… I needed to ask. “Wait, why don’t you know anything about it Jade?” “Pony Poseidon Nova Novo… ah, I’ve been meaning to look into the Marmalade Conspiracy! Never had the time what with my recent plot to flood Saddle Arabia going off in the next five minutes.” There was a long pause and now everyone was staring at the cat with the back length green mane. “What? The flooding is going to be a very exceedingly slow gradual thing, exactly like watching paint dry, people will be able to get to high ground quite easily before it becomes too big a problem over the next week. Plus it’ll quench the thirst of a lot of people… provided they sift the sand and salt out of the water correctly. Also it’ll destroy the country without hurting its people.” “Jaded, where would you even have the time to set up something like... Ah right, you can make clones of yourself and they can get away with a lot of things.” Fizzlepop ‘Storm Queen’ Berrytwist didn’t even seem surprised, just mildly disappointed in the adorable Abyssinian known to be the ‘Evil Sorceress Mirage’ to the Saddle Arabians. Pulling out a water bottled she sprayed Jaded with it. “Bad wife, bad kitty, no destroying a part of a continent by somehow turning it into an ocean!” “Meroaw!” Jaded whined under the assault of water spritzing her and the disappointment of her favorite unicorn. Ah a thousand and one Saddle Arabian tales, Jaded’s historical exploits during that time period make for a fun read, the Rogue Ballad Din the first and Princess Jasmine Tea were exceptionally lucky to have Jaded teach them important lessons that led to them being happily married and having a lasting peace in Saddle Arabia. Well, at least for as long as they were alive… and provided Jaded wasn’t around. Jade never did forgive the people of Saddle Arabia for waking her up from her enchanted nap early, quite understandable that the ancestors of those thieves are especially terrified of her. Still, it did give me the opportunity to avoid becoming a full blown goddess… for a few reincarnations at least. I miss being a queen bee with a hummingbird mafia boyfriend. I really couldn’t stop or help myself from becoming a pony goddess. At least Luna was in the same boat as I was in, so I wasn’t as lonely in that respect. “What’s a Chrysomallus, Celestia, also what is the Marmalade Conspiracy?” Twilight was scrutinizing me now and it wasn’t like this was going to stay hidden for much longer. “As annoying as Jade is, if it’s something she was going to look into, then I’m liable to believe that such a thing actually exists.” “Well a Chryomallus is basically golden fleeced lambkin with wings and incredible mystical capabilities. From what I know, eventually becoming a master level fluffmancer is a given what with them having magical wool and I know they have a power of ‘Vitakinesis’. It kind of comes with the strong fluff manipulating abilities.” There had to be downsides to being a Chrysomallus, but I didn’t know the exact specifications. We would need to contact Novo for that information. “I think Pom knows what being one means and that is why she might have gone a bit… hollow as you say Tianhuo, especially if she knows something we are currently not privy to. We will need Queen Novo’s aid for a full idea of why Pom’s spirit might be broken to the point of acting hollow.” “We’ll explain Vitakinesis first and then we’ll go into the Marmalade Conspiracy.” Anubis was now interested in the topic of discussion. “Celestia, if you will.” “Okay, quick question Tianhuo… have you ever noticed people never getting sick when in Pom’s presence or that sickness quickly clears up if she’s particular friendly with someone? That or Pom having a close or deep connection with anything that always seem unusually full of vim and vigor?” It didn’t take long for me to receive an answer and Tianhuo’s answer spoke a lot about how much Pom puts into those she cares about. Also in hindsight, it was pretty obvious given Pom was the world record holder for most familiars connected to a single individual. “Yes, if the ‘Vita’ part of Vitakinesis means what I think it does… then all of Pom’s canines have never been sick unless they ate something wrong and then the sickness lasts for as long as it take them to throw up what made them sick in the first place. They are always so strong even in Pom’s absence and like her puppies here, they wait.” Okay, that confirms something very particular about her Tianhuo, considering the absurd number of familiars she’s able to maintain. Several barks of acknowledgement that they were being talked about was heard, said four puppies soon went back to playing once we were silent for too long and didn’t need them for something. Those Canis Minor must be a hoof full of trouble, but they were quite adorable and sweet natured. “Canines have always had an unusual vitality around Pom, even what is a usually slow moving stone guardian Fu-Dog that connected to Pom in Huoshan is far more lively and brimming with energy than would ever be natural. Fu-Dogs only tend to be highly active when defending a territory they deem worthy of their protection, the one still back home in Huoshan was slightly unusual in the fact that it actively wanders about helping lead people around the city when lost. We had to put a sign on it reading ‘Huoshan Guide’. He does this when he thinks our home safe and only returns swiftly when he feels someone is threatening its sanctity. He actually considers all of Huoshan his territory, but he protects and covets the place we live most of all as one of Pom’s familiars.” … “So wait, if Vita means ‘life’, does that mean Pom can heal herself?!” Twilight looked vaguely upset as if she was cottoning onto something bad. “How has she gotten so badly injured over the course of traveling through various worlds if she could always do that?” “It can only be done if trained to do it actively and most importantly, properly, especially with someone to guide her in the knowledge of how to do so as there are quite a lot of limitations to it. The main one being energy intensive. Otherwise the consequences are quite dire. Far, FAR, worse than dying in many cases.” The muscular handsome jackal Anubis answered with crossed arms knowing something of the subject, given most gods and goddess do know of and can use Vitakinesis at least. Tianhuo looked worried and Anubis sat down next to her and calmly placed a gentle hand upon her back to caress and ease Tianhuo’s fears. “The passive form of Vitakinesis acts on its own, it’s always going when there is a loving connection. A weaker version temporarily works on those she is just a friend or friendly to, friendship absolutely requires her presence to work. Love, it almost knows no distance as long as she is in within the same realm as a loved one. A friendship connection only prevents Pom’s friends from dying of disease, sickness or lesser forms of poisoning. The passive form of Vitakiness will only heal the injuries of those who are closest to her heart, even seemingly permanent injuries will fade away, so a familiar or truly loved one can regrow new eyes, limbs or organs over time after a severe injury that is not an immediately killing mortal blow. Anything that causes instant death cannot be reversed through Vitakinesis and the ability can only bend the natural order of life and death ever so slightly, if death occurs Vitakinesis cannot return life once gone. A truly loved will always heal faster than a familiar, but both will only heal while she is awake and even faintly aware something is even wrong. Her life force might even be incidentally increasing the longevity of canines she likes that are not even connected to her. While the ability could heal Pom personally, again she has to actively know how to use it in such a manner and have intensely cautious training in it to do so safely… or she could accidentally kill herself if such an ability is misused in the wrong manner.” “What’s the damage for misusing said ability?” A slightly wet Jaded was suddenly alert and her ears stood straight up, the look on her face was forlorn as if she was predicting something horrible. “Gods and goddesses could lose or weaken their mortal shell immensely healing one mortal, otherwise we don’t have as nasty drawbacks or penalties. Gods are told to never upset the natural order if the being in question is bound to die regardless of whether or not Vitakinesis can extend their life by but a single day, we would not wish to extend the suffering of another unnecessarily.” As Anubis would know, given him being a well-known death god who’s actually good at therapy and capable of Vitakinesis himself, he can stop someone on the edge of death from dying and judge them. I might actually get over my terror of chickens… within the next ten thousand years if this therapy group holds up. I’ve already informed Twilight that if she dies she’d eventually be able to come back because she ascended, but the time she’d have to wait before being capable of coming back depends on how badly her mortal shell was destroyed, she needed to learn lessons in how to use it too. It may save her friends one day. “Anything else that actively uses Vitakinesis could tear or shred their very souls, a similar but not quite the same example is the existence of necromancers who tear their souls on purpose to live cursed half-lives. Ah, I sense your worry… do not worry about Skeletal Noria, she will live a full life she wasn’t allowed to live previously due to the natural order being upset, I have seen to that personally. Though her shifting to bones curse will remain with her throughout and her sense of smell will only return in her next life, she has earned that much. I believe it is quite humorous that she’s dating the world’s smelliest yak yes?” “I am Fortitude the fantastically fragrant!” A voice in the distance to the west yelled, spooking us all. That was probably all the way from Airship Mauled if I had my guess. Loved what was done with the place, didn’t appreciate the airships landing on gods thing though. “Back to the subject… A Chrsyomallus, being closer to mortals in nature, could shred their very existence if they are not careful. Some of us gods will say souls are sacred for numerous reasons, but in the case of Vitakinetic related soul destruction… the wielder’s soul is actually salvageable given the incidental tearing instead of purposeful, even when their body ceases to be. We can actually try to put them back together or, if it proves to be impossible, give them the mercy of reform after going through ‘The Endless Silence’ and hope they come out the other side better than going in.” Nobody asked Anubis what he meant by that. Even Twilight understood what ‘The Endless Silence’ was and Jaded shuddered as it was another word for ‘Limbo’ and Anubis was avoiding the word for Jaded’s sake. “As otherwise they’d be living a constant painful existence if their soul could never be restored properly in full.” “Pom…” Tianhuo quickly looked away from us and off the eastern shore of Equestria out to sea at the flowing waters, the flames along her body barely flickering with anything approaching strength. “Now as to what the Marmalade Conspiracy is, it kind of starts with two dragon gods named Bahamut and Tiamat and of course Queen Novo…” I started off and then told a strange tale and why marmalade had caused an incredibly large incident Novo would rather not be brought up ever again. I still had to wonder if Bahamut ‘the volatile tester of heroes’ and Tiamat ‘the primordial waters of chaos’ actually need those taco and noodle carts to keep their scheme going. -Pokémon World, the next day, Aurora Kingdom, castle throne room, King Evan- “I know we don’t have any forces that can stop an invasion… also that we’d be doom if an invasion were to happen now.” I did, I truly did, but I wanted to help Pom with whatever was wrong with her. “We can’t sit by and watch her waste away!” “I’m not asking you to sit by and watch her waste away Evan. She’s not wasting away either, but how she is going through the motions of living… it’s… disturbing to say the very least.” Maiden Jig was still running talks with Greenleaf about what we would do with Hideyoshi, he had made his preparations and was waiting to be judged for the trouble he had helped to start and I was required to be there in Greenleaf. “Even Arceus would be disturbed to see how lifeless she is. We Pokémon are always so colorful, vibrant and full of life… even Darkrai is colorful in his own way. There are no words for what is currently going on with Pom being even close to the ideal of living and Ocellus agreed.” “Yes, she’s eating, drinking water and getting exercise, but she’s not talking to anyone… except maybe Dolly and that’s only because Dolly is attempting to do something positive through her connection.” I wilted entirely. “It’s… clearly not enough.” “And you think forcing Pom to go to Pugilis under false pretenses is, we don’t have anyone to escort her or even keeping her safe.” You wanted to help her Maiden Jig, I know you do. Things are a bit busy around here, but I always wanted to make time for friends. Much like how Motochika was busy rebuilding Fontaine and he still sent me a unit of backup. A unit that was decimated by a Rapidash that we had prisoner. “The injuries from fighting against Ignis left our forces decimated and we can barely hold onto any of our borders. Pom’s outsiders are currently down Dolly and Ocellus who aren’t hurt, Ocellus wasn’t injured because she couldn’t even go near the threat that nearly wiped out the bridge and our medical camp to the south at the time. Chan is also overworked and we really don’t have much to spare… in the way of good will…” “We could hire Team Harmony members!” I tried, because Team Harmony wasn’t just Pom’s group. It consisted of most of the Pokémon that went to start living around Helper’s Hamlet, Pom unintentionally drew in so many friends that would work for very little pay if it meant Pom could have any emotion at all restored to her. In fact some of the friends she drew in were basically feeding off the appreciation of their skills like an Indeedee. “With what, we’re barely making ends meet as it is with keeping our military units alive. Every military unit is severely injured and, again, Chan is overworked!” Maiden Jig… we could just ask them for help. “What Pokémon would literally do a commission for one Poké? Because that’s about as much as we can safely give, we’re a logistics nightmare Evan and you’re currently too busy working on making sure Hideyoshi isn’t outright executed by Greenleaf in the name of peace!” “Any of them… would do it for Pom.” I was serious and I believed they would. “Just find someone willing to go and ask them. Pristi the Swablu, Eriflamb the Fennekin, Picochi the Minccino, Mr. Schlurp, that Torchic, the honedge, the Flabebe, we are not completely out of options here Jig!” “If they get hurt trying to get her to Pugilis Castle and it ends poorly?” Maiden Jig sighed, her complaints were readily understandable. We were stretched too thin, too far and most of our friends were hurting for one reason or another. “How can you still have even the slightest of a positive attitude with all of this stuff happening and the world breaking down around us?” “That’s easy, because you’re here as my administrator and my advisor Maiden Jig…” I said softly with a smile. “Maybe Fiffi and Foffo can assist Chan with the medical issues… Pom’s group have that wagon in Helper’s Hamlet and that strange steel type Dodo could pull it…” Maiden Jig, I know you can stop looking at all the bad stuff happening and look beyond. “Dodo has healed quickly enough to be mobile and strong enough to pull the weight.” “You kept this kingdom running without a king or a queen for quite a while. You were practically queen in all but name, yet you never wanted the title personally for yourself.” The looked I received from Maiden Jig was quite focused on me and there was a slightly angry pout she had going. “I’m here to hold that title for you and make sure you don’t lose hope, like you didn’t when the kingdom was being run on a really small budget without a king. Jig, you’re an amazing Pokémon.” “I am aren’t I… okay fine, we’ll see if there are any spiritual healers in Pugilis that could help Pom, we’ll even give those going a letter to deliver to King Yoshihiro. If it goes poorly, I blame you. Pom’s team will have to be with her on that wagon injured or not. They need at least three healthy Pokémon outside the travelers that can be spared.” Of course Jig, but I already know one Pokémon that would volunteer in an instant… Pom probably wouldn’t like it if she were in her right mind, but I doubt even Geoff would think it an appropriate time to make a pass at Pom while she is in her current state. Geoff was healthy… enough. Of course Wooloo were generally tough and tend to enjoy pain, he’ll be find to go on mission. Chan doesn’t actively care about his chances of living a very long life, but I believed in him! Also that Torchic was living in Helper’s Hamlet the last day or so, she was training to fight and she can become a fighting type… there’s also that Cyndaquil guy who was with the rebel army needing a change of scenery. The Litleo militia group could help them pass through Ignis, they stayed neutral the entire time. Maybe even those Kecleon Brother Merchants Kec-red and Kec-Blue might be interested in escorting them. Those guys were strong enough beat up anyone dumb enough to rob them and I could sell them on the idea by telling them Pugilis could make use of their strength training wares! “Maiden Jig… I have an idea of three Pokémon that can fight, five if you think we can rely on the Kecleons to sniff around for a profit once they arrive at Pugilis Castle.” Which I certainly believed they would, they were nice… enough. Sure some of their business practices were a little… eh… but I believed them to be good, ‘enough’, Pokémon. “The Rockruff Brothers will remain as supplementary militia for the time being. They were helpful with carrying the injured to safety and they have good hearts. They can escort Pom’s group to the bridge to Ignis.” -Shanty- I be waking up to a strangely zombie like Pom, I almost felt like throwing salt into her mouth anyway even if I did be knowing she wasn’t being controlled by voodoo magic. Dodo be quickly hitched up to the wagon, his injuries still bothering him somewhat, but he is being my big strong bird! Ocellus was talking over things with the two Kecleon who were always money hungry, sure some of things they did were suspect… but when they sell something they always tell you exactly what you were paying for. Also they were paying use for providing transportation and helping them get a merchant contract in Pugilis. I did not be knowing if going to Pugilis could be fixing Pom’s spirit, but it couldn’t be hurting to see Pugilis as visitors. Smolder still hadn’t woken up yet, her injury was quite bad and Ocellus was taking care of her personally. We were beaten. Pom was broke, hopefully not forever. We were all being emotional blasted by wind that not be filling the sails. Even so, we were being nowhere near out. Even if everything still be hurting and I feel I be needing a massive intake of rum. Our traveling companions were a Grubbin… “I will help you bring the nice fluffy Wooloo lady back to her senses!” Said Grubbin announced with a cheerful positivity that he was practically glowing… in fact he was glowing. “Huh?! Oh neat, I’m evolving! And-… I’m a Charjabug now, woohoo!” The long pincers shrunk to move to both side of his face and become stumpy yellow prongs, he became green and his body now looked like a loaf of bread… that was an evolution? It didn’t be looking any more impressive than his initial form. At least someone around here be being in good spirits. My spirit is bent out of shape, but it is not broken and Dodo’s isn’t either, we almost be shouting death to a standstill and even basically spit in its eye by surviving our assured deaths! -Cave somewhere, Yvetl- I was a wyvern Pokémon shaped like a giant red and black ‘Y’ and I was the personification of death. This was not my day as I kept being annoyed by false alarms in Viperia recently. Currently I was reading my novelty size comic books for legendary Pokémon. I looked up and thought someone was talking about me, but no they were talking about death in general. Eh, not my concern, maybe it might be later considering what’s happening there. Maybe Xerneas could fix that before I had to actually do anything. “Can you turn to the next page please?” Looking at Eternatus dully, the eternal violet and red skeletal dragon was looking over my shoulder. Domain of Dynamic Maximizing and giant fights, he literally calls himself ‘The Boss’. “Yeah, what happens next?!” Stated Zygarde excitedly, they were a collective green and black combining cell cultures who acted as an ecosystem avenger. Smaller than me at the moment since they were currently in their ten percent dog shaped form. Someone was stirring up trouble with an ecosystem somewhere, for if said ecosystem destruction continued Zygarde would certainly move out at fifty percent strength mode to avenge a given ecosystem in an over the top heroic manner. “… can’t you guys go get your own comic books?” I asked flatly. “But you always read it in such a fascinating manner/ you’re so good at acting out the parts!” They both replied much to my disdain, at least they were my friends. -A hour later, passing through Ignis, Ocellus- Okay a mission might get Pom’s head back in the game… now if only she’d stop having that already dead look in her eyes. I didn’t know if this was a result from her inexistent will to live or something else, but everyone agreed this state was disturbing… at least she wasn’t physically dying darn near constantly. Still her being emotionally and feasibly mentally dead inside, possibly with barely a color of thought in her head... a horrific state for someone I could call a close friend. Pom was awake but no one was home and her emotions… the aura she was emitting was no longer being held back for my sake. It hurt… It hurt a lot to just even be near Pom right now, but I was making an effort to tough it out. Aside from Shanty, Dodo, Lit and Dolly we need all the spirit we could muster. Lucky I knew some of the strongest morale boosters around. Not that they knew how to boost Pom’s morale. Dolly has been at Pom’s side near constantly and was watching her with a constant eye. Never once being out of more than ten feet away since whatever hurt Pom this badly happened. Hurt wasn’t always Lit wouldn’t leave Dolly’s back, he was a curious little Pokémon, but apparently Dolly had cause him some mental trauma by ordering him to hit her with a lightning bolt. He was quite upset that he hurt both Pom and Dolly, but apparently Dolly thought there was some sort of necessity to taking on some pain like that. I could feel Lit clutching to Dolly like a life preserver. Shanty was recovering from her badly battering battle with a near immortal bird that had raw power incarnate, the damage his last attack did would have been enough to carve a path of destruction through more than halfway across Aurora if it had kept going. If that was my estimate then I’m glad the attack was stopped before it could finish us all off. Things with Lu Bu had gotten to the point that Shanty’s hit and run tactics did little to help. Combining forces with Dodo helped Shanty make up some of the difference, but she was still brutalized. Dodo was quiet and reserved, sometimes sending looks back to Pom and warbling softly in a tune that was something like an attempt to cheer her up. As mechanical as he looked, Dodo was still all heart inside. Our traveling Pokémon companions were all weary, except for the newly evolved Charjabug who was a little green train car of positivity, he was here to spite everything negative we were currently feeling. Given he’s an electric type Pokémon, it made sense that he was positively charged. He was such a little trooper of friendship! Shine was tending to Quetal’s wounds and had used Pain Split once on Pom to test something. The end result was a lot screaming, crying and becoming a shivering mess of terror and agony, which occurred seconds after trying to split whatever was Pom’s problem. It lasted a solid five minutes where Shine was positively tortured by the pain she tried to take in. There was no way Shine wanted to do that again and said as such that nobody could make her, the kind of pain she received from such a split was unreal. She didn’t even know what form the pain was taking, but Pom couldn’t be helped by splitting mental, spiritual, metaphysical or otherwise pain and sharing it. However Shine’s comment on it being all kinds of suffering was extremely worrying. If she had helped Pom even a little, then Shine thought it was worth the attempt at least and she would always at least make the one attempt with anyone like Pom currently was. Even if she had to go through what she just had again. Quetal would still see his companionship with us through, no matter his injuries. The claw weasel was staring at Pom with a frown. Shine was trying to keep a smile on her face and after eating a Citrus Berry, she pain split with Quetal much more easily and didn’t even flinch despite sharing his physical trauma. Pom’s ‘pain’ was apparently so bad that Shine was numb to splitting Quetal’s trauma into herself. Quetal tried to cheer Shine up afterward whenever she looked at Pom and frowned. He said things like ‘such a cute gourd should never be so sad’ or ‘come on Shine, smile, you’ll bring a little light into everyone’s lives and we need it’. Dazzle was quietly talking to the device at her hip, apparently creatures made of pure information were a thing Pom ran into and they could live and build homes inside devices like Dormarch did. Speaking of informational beings, the people Pom brought with her from that other realm were staying in Aurora for various personal reasons. One of which was to act as peaceful delegates by talking to King Evan. Favela was trying to not to stare at Pom and was trying to get into a singing mood with Shanty, but nobody wanted to sing at the moment. We’re so bad off, we couldn’t even do a sad ‘heart song’… it would feel wrong forcing Pom to join in on a chorus like she currently is anyway. As for the auxiliary help currently surrounding all of us in the wagon, the clumsy Torchic, a once enemy Cyndaquil who wanted to do right by us, Geoff who eerily hasn’t said a single word since seeing Pom’s state and the Kecleon merchants Red and Blue. Red and Blue seeing Pom like she was had some eerie reactions, no smiles and not even a single mention of profit. They said they’d help escort us to Pugilis and even look for help for Pom and this is the important part of it… ‘For Free’. Which was quite something to hear from the profit mongering pair of striped chameleons. Smolder still hasn’t woken up… her injury was quite severe and I know Pom said that there were beings in this world that could hurt her, but… Well Smolder’s always seemed so invincible, capable and strong to me. Now I was the one taking care of her and… I would make sure to carry her like she did me. How can we keep going forward, when one of the strongest of our group and the one who gave us hope that things could keep moving forward, ultimately had checked out on us. “Bits… for your thoughts?” Shanty asked and took a sip of Pecha Berry Rum, not going to ask where she got the bottle from or how she acquired it, she just had it and wasn’t guzzling it down. We’re getting kind of morose and the mood was getting any better. “Sure.” We rolled along the Ignis countryside, there was something of a ‘devastated beauty’ look to everything. We were just doing this to hopefully find some way of returning Pom to being here… with us… she wouldn’t leave us entirely alone. She survived the Saint Canard Crisis, barely and when she healed she kept moving forward. Now… Her body still responded, everything else… the Pom we knew cared about us. Well I know we wouldn’t give up on her. As I talked to Shanty, I made a comment that the landscape looked exactly like how we felt. -Ignis to Pugilis bridge, Lit- So much sad. Food taste. Salty water. -Pugilis proper, a minute later, Dolly- We were adventuring, but I wanted Pom to check back in. Even if it seemed like she was blinking and looking, the dullness and lack of light in her eyes was telling a different story that she wasn’t even aware of us. I knew what was going on in her mind, but it was so hard to describe. “Pom, talk to me.” My ordering yip got a response. “Okay, I will.” She didn’t say that out loud with her mouth. “I mean out loud.” I barked. “I am talking out loud. To you specifically. In your head.” Okay, so even messed up Pom could still be vaguely smart as she spoke in a blank tone. The dull sounding voice was pain to hear and I kind of felt what Shine had when she used Pain Split. The experience wasn’t pleasant, but I toughed it out far better than she did. I knew what loss was, what dying actually felt like and I still wasn’t afraid to live or keep living! I could easily puppeteer Pom’s body, but I seriously didn’t want to go to that extreme. It just wouldn’t be Pom and I’m only supposed to do that in an emergency to save her life or use her body to save mine. I could pay attention to other things, like all those dojos around here, wow… fighting is definitely a national pastime in this kingdom given all the combat rings they had set up all over the place as we traveled through the grasslands and towards a distant mountain where a castle sat waiting for our arrival. On the way I stared in wonder at what was probably an entire kingdoms load of kung fu movie action stars, ones that could actually do all the stunts that you’d see on screen and weren’t just special effects. Two in particular approached us on the way to the castle and had stopped sparring entirely. One was a biped weasel with long sleeves of fur hanging from their arm and the other was a dinosaur with large round metal plates all over their body and the two looked like they had been going at it quite roughly before we showed up. “Excuse me, but I sense a disturbance among your number and… ah… a very dangerous condition indeed. I am a Mienshao.” The triangular head weasel crossed his arms and let his fur sleeves dangle. “I shall accompany you to Pugilis’s Castle.” “I as well, for I feel there is something gravely ill with your friend’s current haunting mood. It is almost as if she were possessed by a ghost type. For those of you who are outsiders, I am a Hakamo-o and my name is Jeanne d’Arc.” The metal plated raptor stated while giving a glance of concern for Pom. “Let us lead you safely to your destination, those on the road looking for fight will not bother you if we are around. My business here was to train my skills so that I can better protect my home of Valora from dangers. I can put a halt to my training for the one who feels so dire that even those with but a hint of Aura can feel the wrongness within the air about her.” “It even almost feels oddly… contagious…” The ‘Meow Shroud’ guy stated that last word with widening eyes while shivering, I bet my brother Deepak would get along with this guy so well. “Can we get on much cheerier topics, what is Pugilis generally like and do you have anyone who can help what’s wrong with Pom around here. We know for certain it’s not a physical injury.” Don’t know about you Ocellus, but I truly will believe any mystical mumbo jumbo that actually helps Pom out right about now. “If it’s truly a spiritual issue, then there may be someone who can help her here. For there are as many meditators as there are Meditites the meditation Pokémon to be found and plenty of fighting spirit in every single Pokémon around here.” Great if we needed you to fight someone, then we’d call you Meow Wow. “Your thoughts are born of great turmoil, I forgive you.” “Did you just read my… yeah I’m not going to think about that too hard.” My brother Deepak did stuff like that sometimes too, he was at least good at reading what would relax his brothers and sisters. “Good choice little companion, the one who is closest to the heart of the one currently direly troubled. Your connection remains true even in such a circumstance speaks of your character.” Meow Wow stated with a nod. “I do not know of healing minds or spirits personally, I train bodies and help with fitness. I do however know of a hot spring that will heal broken bodies within the castle town of Pugilis. It will aid with physical injuries among your number, but it will sadly not fix your broken friends current state.” “We’ll take whatever we can get and if you’re offering a healing spa, then I’m definitely open to the suggestion!” Yeah, wasn’t too keen on spas here Ocellus, but if you thought it would help some of us… then I’ll bite my tongue and won’t bark about it too loudly. “Both wild and wise, an odd combination for a partner in life.” The mustached Meow Wow stated as he glanced at me with a slight grin. “The tournament might still be on since Ignis has calmed down…” The Jean D’ Pants girl was probably trying to distract us from thinking too many grim thoughts. “Can we sell our wares here?” Kec-Red asked. “We need place to make a profit and we have plenty of training aids for a decent pricing.” Kec-Blue followed with a starry eyed advertisement. "I'm sure you Fighting Types would find our offerings quite enticing.” “If your wares are unique enough, then I believe you will see Poké in your pouches.” Uh, Meow Wow, dude, they had some really weird and unique stuff like you wouldn’t believe.