Night had fallen.

Impossibly, we hadn't been harassed by wild pokemon yet.

With the tension dying down, our group had risked making dinner and setting up our bedrolls, still staying cramped up in the den that my Dunsparce had dug out for us. We needed the night and the rest for everyone to recover. Half of our Pokemon were nursing their wounds, and while potion was enough to disinfect and stop the bleeding, this was nothing of a full recovery – not to mention Hau and his Torracat's injuries, who would probably need help to walk.

At least, Loa had agreed to return to her pokeball for as long as she could risk reopening her scars.

Lilliane and her Cleffa's pulse-assisted care had been a miracle.

As the whispers of our group died down and the sun set, the sounds of the jungle nightscape began to emerge. Some of the nocturnal life were starting to prowl, shapes shifting out in the gloom as little light escaped the canopy.

We had closed off the entrance to a little window and decided that we would need to keep a night watch. I think in any other circumstance I would have found the thought a little silly, like I was a character in a roleplay rolling dice to see if my party would be jumped – but here I was, laying against the wall of our den looking out the window with Lilliane at my side. We were the second group to take watch; the Tuari twins had been the first.

Petal the Oddish wiggled in my lap to find the most comfortable spot. They were fully awake, now, but there would be no wandering and exploring in the jungle until we were back on-route. Lilliane scratched a splayed out Oran Juice the Dunsparce on the belly, him thoroughly enjoying the attention as her own Pokemon continued to sleep in a snuggly pile.

"It's a shame we can't see the stars," Lilliane whispered. "You have so little light pollution, here."

"...You have light pollution?" Now that seemed a little silly to ask. I couldn't imagine a sky without stars. I was aware that other regions had it tough, I had seen pictures, but I felt like it wouldn't do the real thing justice. "Huh."

"We certainly do. They call Lumiose City the 'City of Lights'– but it does miss out on the night sky." She wrung her hands, smoothing over her dirtied and ripped up clothes. "The sidewalks are practically glowing from the shopfronts and the streetlights. But the sky is just– big, black and empty."

I tried to picture it in my head. A city at night, a massive expanse of dark above, the buildings around lighting up like trees during Winter's Eve.

"...Hm. The streets must be pretty, though."

"They really are. I'm not one to go out late, but there's a lot of shops and cafés that close way after the sun goes down, so there's still a lot of traffic until late at night. The city is very active." She spoke of it with a certain fondness that couldn't help but draw out a smile. "The Pidoves go to bed and Zubats take over– others would disagree, but I think the Zubats are really cute."

We had been whispering to one another for a while. Keeping an eye out on the gloom outside, my eyes drifting on the moonlit silhouettes of the jungle. For a moment, my gaze fell to Lilliane's face – golden hair almost silver in the gloom, the faint outline of her jawline, her brows furrowed as her brilliant green eyes that looked at me– focus, Selene!

"Selene." Lilliane swallowed, and for a moment her own anxiety seemed to betray her composure. Softly, she asked: "When we ran after Loa, earlier today… did you really think we would make it safely?"

"I wasn't exactly thinking, when everything went down, you know." I would be the least prepared for an adventure like this– this had been the first time in my life I had gotten myself voluntarily in such danger. "Hau was already going, and we'd all been really worried about Loa for a while– I couldn't leave any of them alone in that jungle. I think I– I shared a look with Petal, and I knew that we had to go."

Lilliane looked away, pensive.

For a minute, she had nothing else to say. The faint sounds of the jungle resonated beyond our window.

"I don't think I was thinking either." Lilliane's voice broke me out of my reverie. She looked at her hands, and I wondered for a moment if I had said something wrong.

We locked eyes and she looked suddenly embarrassed. "I'm just– I worry, you know. It's stupid. I think… I think that in my head, I really thought the Island Challenge would be all roses. We'd breeze through the Trials and everything would be fine. Like Stella and I could return to something normal."

Oh. Oh! Lilliane's whole deal!

It was a bit of a scary reminder – I still felt like I understood so little of what had happened to Lilliane's family. Her father had disappeared, her brother had gone rogue, her mother was involved in shady deals and Lilliane had backed out on going against her mom at the last second – it would make sense that she had wanted a return to normalcy.

It's hard to describe our Challenge as anything but abnormal. Our Trial attempts had either been a total failure or on the edge of disaster, and now we had just rushed off-route into what I could only assume was tier four territory right after clearing tier one. My shoulder had only just stopped feeling sore from the fall during that first Trial attempt, even.

"I'm so sorry Lilliane, uh– I'd like that too."

She sniffed and blinked, glimmering at the corners of her eyes. She drew her legs to her chest and hugged them.

"Don't be," she sighed. "I just have a lot on my mind."

With one thumb of her hand she wiped the beginning of tears off of her cheeks, brow furrowing.

I wanted to help her. She was hurting– her mind was spinning, I could tell, thoughts spiraling as she wrestled with something she tried to understand and that kept hurting her. How could I help?

"...What are you thinking about, Lilliane?"

Our eyes locked again. Brilliant green matched my gaze and held it again. She drew in a breath.

"We're okay. I… I didn't think we would." She hugged her legs tighter. "We healed them."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It's not, of course. It's just… My Pokemon and I, we were there. We actually made a difference. If we weren't, things could have been so much worse off."

She spoke of it like she couldn't believe it, and she was there. Toku's Barriers had been instrumental in keeping heat off of the other battlers all day – and I couldn't imagine how we would be doing if we hadn't had Stella to treat Hau and Loa's wounds.

Still, she was distraught about it– I felt like we were walking in circles. How could I phrase this?

"You seem so upset." I shimmied my butt a little closer, my thigh touching hers. "What's wrong?"

She sighed once more. The warmth of her leg against mine, she leaned into me and I almost jumped, her head and shoulder against mine, warmth radiating out like a bonfire. Her hands fidgeted in her lap.

"We helped. We made a difference. We did." I felt her shuddering breath not far from mine. "I never thought I could help, before. I thought– I thought that I just had to do what I was told and take care of my own. And here we are, deep in a jungle off-route, and everyone is okay."

It tore me inside to see her like this.

"There's a tightrope in front of me that wasn't there before," she continued. "It stretches out into the darkness. If I walk the rope and I fall, my Pokemon and I are hurt in ways we can't recover from. If I stay in place, someone else would be hurt in their stead."

It flashed into my mind, this mental image of something she had once told us– of finding a strange unknown Pokemon in a metal container, of suddenly worrying about what would happen to her own Pokemon if she were to release it, risk it all to make it free–

"I convinced myself that I had no choice in the matter– that I should do nothing and let it pass but now I'm feeling like a fool. Like a monster."

A part of me agreed.

It had been a rough confluence of emotions when she had told us the story, that first time. I could understand putting your Pokemon and yourself first. I couldn't understand not helping a distressed soul when you saw one – but if you had no one to rely on, if your Pokemon or one you didn't know were your only two choices, then…

"Y-you were all alone then," I assured her. "You couldn't exactly do it all on your own."

"I know, but still–"

My body reacted before my brain did.

My fingers felt hers and I gently grabbed her slender hand. She stopped.

"L–Listen. It's unfair, I know. I can understand freezing up when things get too scary. But, uh–" I tilted my head towards the sleeping people behind us. "Look how many people went after us. Look how many people followed after Hau and Loa – whatever you got going on, we can't let you do it alone. Your Pokemon won't let you do it alone."

She looked back at her sleeping Cleffa and Ledyba, for a moment. Her hand squeezed mine.

"But… but I'm doing it for them. I want them to be safe." Her voice was so quiet, I almost couldn't hear it.

I put my other hand over hers and squeezed her hand back.

"Me too," I whispered. "But they should also have a say in it. Stella is the most dedicated Pokemon I've seen, and Toku chose you as a trainer. When everything went down with your mom, and you found that caged Pokemon– if you had asked your starter what to do then, what would she have said?"

Lilliane's eyes went wide. I could see the events replaying in her head, and she knew her starter better than anyone, I'm sure she could come to her own conclusion–

Her arms drew me in and I found myself squeezed tight. Her shuddering, warm torso breathed oxygen in spurts, and as she buried her head on my shoulder I wondered if I had said exactly the wrong thing.

"Selene, I made such, such a huge mistake," she sobbed out. I could feel her tears start to wet my shoulder. "I never should have left that Pokemon there– I should have freed it and hidden it in a bag or something– "

She fell into blubbering and mumbling then, and I felt her torn between bursting into tears and keeping quiet for our sleeping friends. Hugging her head, I laid my hand against her hair and gently rubbed..

Tears came to the corner of my eyes then, caught up in the storm of emotions.

From the corner of my eye, I saw the sleeping form of her Cleffa.

Our eyes met.

She gave me a smile, a faint nod, then returned to sleep.

----------------------------------------

"Oh, Tapus above, we're actually out," Hau moaned.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding in. I practically scuffed my knees collapsing on the grass then, now that the canopy didn't loom over us like a trap waiting to be triggered.

Another day of travel through the jungle. We hadn't been able to get out the way we had gotten in, so we'd elected what would be the shortest path out: trusting in our compasses and trekking south-east. With Hau needing help to walk and a desire to avoid combat at all costs, we'd taken our sweet time navigating through the jungle and its denizens.

We'd teased Hau about the way to the elusive Incineroar colonies – and he did know the way, he said, but he wasn't exactly allowed to tell anybody. Still, he knew the jungle best and we had to trust him.

A few miles south and we had stumbled upon a low river. Following it east, we would eventually find a ravine going under route 3 and reach Kala'e Bay, then we would have to double back south and around the coast to Iki Town. Instead, Hau had directed us west following the river, heading at a slight incline uphill. Despite how hard it would be for the boy, he insisted on taking the path that he thought would be fastest for us. He owed us, he told us then, and would rather take the shortcut than the longer path.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Lilliane had called him stupid and I almost did, while the other team trio eagerly accepted. I don't think I could blame them.

A few hours later, we were finally out of that jungle.

What greeted us had been a snaking mountain pathway, clearly maintained. Travel markers hugged the trail from both sides every hundred feet, stacks of stones painted in colorful colors and decorated with fluttering ornaments. We had seen these markers back in Route 3 every half a mile, so clearly this path was treated with more reverence than the route was. Weaker pokemon now roamed around, Weedle and Bounsweet in the bushes as Spearows cawed from the skies – we couldn't help but give the Flying types a wide berth.

"So, uh, that's Mahalo Trail," Hau began. One arm rose to point at the southern end, leaning against Rui for support. "In an hour or two this way we'll be at my family's ranch– I, uh, we gotta stop at the center beforehand but y'all can stay home for the night for sure!" A pause, then he added, "If y'all are cool with it, yanno."

Sighs of relief all around. After a week and a half of travel through the route - a month since we had set out on our Island Challenge - we were finally back to civilization.

"Hey, Hau…" Sawney began, typing in numbers on his phone. He looked back into the jungle like he'd seen a Ghastly, then turned back to Hau, shoulders limp. "I'll, uh, take you up on the offer some other time. I'm gonna get my parents to pick me up in town and crash at my place."

Rui shrugged, the motion jostling Hau. "Whatever– as long as I can get a shower and sleep til noon, I'm game. You sure your folks are gonna be alright with that?" He looked back at the teen that he was helping walk, his sister coming over the other shoulder. Hau gave an eager nod.

"Cool," Rui continued. "You and your cat heal up, and we fight again when you're good, got it?" Hau only grinned and gave another nod.

Lilliane fumbled with her phone and gave a heavy sigh, as Stella the Cleffa patted her on the thigh where she peeked out of her trainer's bag. Lilliane had changed clothes to another pristine white dress; we now understood that her mother was strict on the matter. She looked at her phone intently, brows furrowing.

There was something I didn't know…

"Where do you sleep, Lilliane?"

She blinked in surprise, looked at me then at everyone else, suddenly unsure. She gathered her wits and gave her response. "My parents live– erm. I suppose we have a home in Ula'ula, but I figure you're asking where I want to sleep tonight." She clenched her phone once more, then turned to Hau with a faint smile. "I suppose I'll be in your care, then."

Hau's attention turned to me and I gave him a tentative nod as well. I think mom or dad could have picked me up or I could have taken the bus back to Hau'oli – but at this point I was exhausted, and if Hau was going to offer it would be rude to refuse.

My only hope was that Hau's family wasn't one of those enormous families where you would meet all the siblings and cousins at once. I only had so much energy for social stuff at this point.

Still, my gaze went southward.

Soon, we would finally be home.

----------------------------------------

Within half an hour of walking down the trail, the first few roofs of Iki Town had come into view and we'd all let out a huge sigh of relief. We had passed by large, fenced off grazing fields where Miltank and Tauros herds grazed, and eventually Hau had pointed out a set of farmhouses.

Hell broke loose when we knocked at their door and Hau greeted them with a limp and bloody bandages at his side. We weren't even given time to say hello before all of us were herded into a truck and someone – Hau's older sister? His aunt? – drove us into town and at the pokecenter, her partner Trumbeak flying after the truck.

So here we were. We all had given our own Pokemon to get checked and now we just kicked our feet, waiting for Hau and our 'Mons to get discharged – Hau and his aunt had been ushered into care by a nurse and floating Comfey while Hau's relative's Trumbeak had settled onto a nearby shelf.

Sawney had left almost as quickly as we'd arrived, his Pokemon needing little to no care. Sure enough, out the door he went.

Looking after his departing shadow, I couldn't help but feel a sour taste in my mouth.

Five minutes into our wait, and Lilliane had been called in by the nurse. She gave us all a grimace then was ushered in.

For now, I had gotten on the free use PCs of the center – portable two-way video calls were expensive or clunky technology, only available to those that could invest their money in the very expensive, very new rotomtech – nothing that was available at Alola quite yet. Everyone still made their calls at pokemon center PCs or by renting one at a call shop. I typed in my home PC number hoping my mom was home, pressed the call button, waited until–

"Congratulations on your Trial, my precious flower! I'm so proud of you!"

There on the PC screen, my mom exclaimed proudly while holding out Meowy the Meowth and her voice played out loudly from the headphones. I winced with an embarrassed smile.

"Ah– thanks, mom. Yeah, it's great." Honestly, in the rush of everything that had happened, I had completely forgotten about our success with the first Trial. The Island Amulet dangled from my bag still, the first Trial bead attached to it. It would probably need a little bit of dusting and polishing, but it was otherwise brand as new.

"I can't wait to meet your little new pokemon, Selene. He looks adorable from the pictures! And naming him Oran Juice, ah! What does he eat? You think the mammal berry mix that Meowy eats is going to be okay?"

"No problem, mom, berry mix is fine." I waved her off with a hand. For a second, my eyes flitted to the deep tears in my clothes, wondering how I was going to explain that.

Mom looked at the clock in the wall and tutted. "Your dad's going to pick you up around 8 PM, he should finish work sometime soon; are you good to hold on until then?"

"Oh, uh, it's fine mom, we'll be staying at Hau's house tonight." Her eyes and mouth widened in surprise– I wasn't one to stay at someone else's house most of the time. "We're at the center right now. We're waiting for him to be discharged and then we'll be going."

For a second there, I saw her stuck between surprise and worry, her eyes scanning over my clothes. "Oh…? Everything alright, baby? Did you get yourself hurt?"

I couldn't exactly tell my mom that we'd gone into the Melemele jungle– that we had fended off a newly-evolved Noivern, that I had done a grass dance until I tranced and vomited all over my shoes, that we had fought a pack of thieving Mankeys and a predatory Spearow to rescue Hau's Torracat, that we had skulked through the woods until we had reached an exit on the other side–

"Not me! It's– all good, everything good, just doing a checkup!" I looked down at the rips in my clothes. "Hau got– uh, some scratches, but he should be fine."

"I'm talking about you, dear. Are you okay?"

Was I?

My mom was doing the eyes at me, gaze intense and piercing as I scrambled for an answer.

Physically, I was okay. There had been some panic in the scuffle of the last few days that had caused me to scuff my knees and elbows a few times – but it was nothing out of the ordinary. The soreness from the fall I suffered during the first trial attempt had practically faded at this point.

Emotionally, though…

Well, there had been two– no, maybe three near-death experiences. That wasn't too good.

It's– strange, though. I had been so scared at the moment but also so focused, like my body had gone on autopilot with the adrenaline– and then poof. All gone. I remember being worried about my friends and myself afterwards, but that's kind of my default state of being here. Was that okay?

My mind flashed to the view of the separate conversation that I had seen on Sawney's phone before Hau and Rui had fought and Loa had run away. I had forgotten about it with everything happening, but now the thought was free to spin around in my head and I could feel my mood coming down about it. So maybe he wasn't my friend! Maybe he'd lied this whole time! I couldn't help the sour expression from coming onto my face, then.

"...It's nothing to worry about, mom. Just some dumb stuff."

"None of that stuff is dumb. Don't you wanna talk about it?"

I did– but also I didn't, I didn't want mom to send dad to pick me up when Hau was inviting me to his place and I didn't want to leave Lilliane all alone–

"The amulet– show it to me."

I felt the Island Challenge amulet against my bag– tracing my fingers against its wooden side, I could feel something new. Three small grooves had been embedded on the side, the size and shape of, say, Mankey claws, and now I wondered…

"See, I told you that Meowy would protect you in spirit!" The cat in her hold gave a proud meow, grinning at me through the screen. "The magic should be almost depleted, now, so how about tomorrow we weave a little bit more of Meowy's fur in it? You can tell me all about your troubles then."

Gosh. I couldn't help but smile. "Sure, mom, that sounds nice."

"I'll see you tomorrow, then. And love; if you ever need me to pick you up because the mood is a little sour, don't be afraid to send me a call."

"Hmm hmm, okay mom, I gotta go, now–" I looked back at the center counter and– sure enough, here was Hau's relative coming up to talk to the rest of the group– "I love you, bye–"

I saw her waving back at me a split second before the screen closed and I rushed over to the other group. The Tuari twins stood up from their seats and looked mareepishly at the tall, imposing woman that had brought us here tapping her feet, her arms crossed, her Trumbeak on her shoulder. Lilliane was trailing behind her, arms at her side. Her feet dragged on the ground as she walked. Had something happened?

"...Where's Hau?" I couldn't help but state the obvious. The taller woman looked down at me and I couldn't help but feel like I was being stared down by a Pyroar.

"My nephew and his 'mon will need to stay at the center for a few more hours." She stated, and my blood ran cold for a second as the twins balked. She sighed. "Y'all chill. He'll be okay. But he was scratched up real bad there, and then you bunch had to walk for a while still, and he's good at fakin' being fine. Little miss did a– eh, an okay job on the healing, but she ain't exactly Saint Joy yet."

Lilliane looked away trying to hide her blush, stuck between deep embarrassment and mortification. Ouch.

"There's some other legislation business that little miss got in trouble for– I don't care about it too much. You got Hau outta the woods and that's what matters." She patted Lilliane on the shoulder at that. "You'll be doing that class before you take on the next minor Trial, alright? Practicing healing arts is real good and all, but don't be makin' mistakes again, ya hear?"

Meekly Lilliane nodded, then she tiptoed over to our side.

"Alright." She looked back at the door to the clinic; Hau was taken care of deeper inside. Hopefully he'll be back soon.

Hau's aunt looked down at her watch and tutted. "Well, if we're just wasting breaths – might as well get a move on." She gave us all a friendly smile – and there I recognized where Hau had gotten some of his charisma from.

"How about I gave y'all a little tour of the family home?"