Another strange thing that wasn't adding up was that this whole region was barren of wild pokemon. Using an attack that hollowed out the region before restoring it to a degree was one thing but I still couldn't figure out what was stopping pokemon from taking over this region like everywhere else in the world. It should be pointed out that pokemon aren't negatively effected by being in this region even if they didn't have a bond with a human so it had to be some mystical reason that I lacked context for.-

It certainly wasn't aura though as my own aura senses couldn't see a whiff of the stuff anywhere in the ground at all. 'Lets hope that this guardian can shed some light on this situation' I thought as I mounted Runes back again and continued our trip to Agate village. It was rather disorienting to see actual trees and grass everywhere as we flew when for pretty much the entire time I've been in this region it was sand and stone for as far as the eye could see. It wasn't a forest though but more like a large flat plains that had trees occasionally dotting the land.-

Agate village was built near the western foot of Mt. Battle and at the edge of the relic forest. The snow from the side of the volcano flowed down into a river that formed a water fall at one side of the village and many smaller streams throughout it. The aesthetic of the village when we landed could easily be stated as "old". Whether it was the moss covered stone buildings with metal doors or the residents of the village it all had this air of age about it that demanded a certain level of respect.-

When I meant the residents were old I meant it too as this village was the designated retirement spot in Orre and as a result few of the residents were below the age of sixty. Not to say none weren't but they were the minority and either taking care of the elderly in the village or family to them. I recalled Rune and walked across the wooden bridge that served as the entrance to the village with Tank casually flying behind me in the air looking around curiously. From the back edge of the village you could see what looked like a thick layer of clouds but was in fact a perpetual fog that hung just above the trees of the forest.-

This gave the village an illusion of sitting high up even though it was only a bit above sea level. "Oho? Now theres a sight for sore eyes, a variant pokemon in Orre! Never thought I'd see the day!" an old man with a cane and fishing hat said cheerfully from the spot next to the villages entrance as we entered. "This might seem like an odd question to ask right off the rip but do you happen to know anything about a guardian of the forest and a shrine dedicated to it by chance?" I asked and the old man looked startled.-

"Now what would a youngster like you want to know about that for?" he asked sternly. "I came to this region to investigate why no wild pokemon make this place their home and the psychic in Pyrite, Madam Fateen, told me that the guardian may be able to shed some light on the subject." I explained honestly since there was no point in hiding it. "Fateen did? Well if she was willing to share something like that with you she must think you worth trusting."-

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"Yes I do indeed know about the guardian of the forest though I must warn you that it's a fickle creature and may not be willing to give you an audience in any short amount of time." the old man said seriously. "It's the Celebi that was rumored to have been spotted here right?" I asked and the old man nodded. "The things been here for as long as anyone can remember but rarely shows up for more than a few fleeting moments every decade. Supposedly theres a few items that can call it to the relic stone but I've never seen one myself so I am unsure about that." he said honestly.-

"Relic stone? Is that the shrine to it that I was told about?" I asked but to my surprise the old man shook his head. "An easy mistake to make but the truth is that the relic stone is merely something the guardian blessed to purify the darkness from the hearts of those that visit it. In the forests center there is a true shrine dedicated to worshiping the guardian supposedly but no one has braved the forest in nearly a century so I only know about it from my grandfather who told me of it as a young man myself." he said honestly.-

This was not the best news I could have gotten since from what I knew of Celebi inhabited forests time moved in weird ways within them. A result of the legendries pension for time travel professor Oak once theorized. According to his theory the species lived in places that were "nexuses of time" that made it easier for the species to travel up and down the current of time. -

The result of these frequent trips caused the time of the environment to become distorted as a result of the species bringing the aura of different times to the present when they shouldn't exist. It was an extremely high concept topic that gave me a headache even thinking about because time was always an annoying subject to firmly grasp. Anyways to summarize I had no idea whether I would walk out of the forest before or after I entered it originally and even how long the gap between these times would be. There was even a known case where someone entered a forest like this and walked out thirty years later when for them it was only a single day.-

I thanked the old man for the help before leaving to scout out the rest of the village since I still needed to do that as well as get a reliable contact for the place. I was not surprised to find that the village didn't really have anything interesting worth noting beyond perhaps the stone house built under the roots of a huge tree stump. The residents of the house were an old couple like many others however the old man of the pair was apparently an old champion level trainer back in his heyday that was the strongest trainer in Orre.-

Obviously I couldn't resist the urge to meet such an individual and I was not disappointed. Eagun had long grey hair and thick eyebrows and facial hair that was well kept. He was polite and kind when he spoke but there was no way I could miss the sharpness in his eyes that told me even at his age that champion level trainer was still in there. I even met his starter pokemon, a Pikachu surprisingly that was an astonishing level one hundred a eighty six but due to it's old age infirming it had a lowered level of merely seventy.