I was thrashing and squirming within Braviary’s talons, screaming at the sight of the distant earth below me and shivering at the intensely cold air so high in the sky.

I don’t remember if I was freaking out because I was so high up, or because I thought Braviary would let me drop down to the earth in some twisted execution. But I do remember the fear and the cold. Emotions I had associated with Irida.

My shoulders had burned. In fact, they were the only thing that didn’t feel utterly numb in the wind. A muted fear that they would end up dislocated flashed in the back of my mind, but I was too busy panicking to think much.

I saw the mountainside of Mount Coronet whirl past underneath me. We seemed to be climbing higher and higher until the only thing that surrounded me was a snow-covered rock. I think I had tried to bargain with Braviary. To beg it to let me go, but it simply ignored me and soldiered on through the cold.

It was around fifteen minutes before Braviary landed. I was carefully dropped onto soft snow and the giant grey-white feathered Pokémon regarded me with soft grey eyes. I immediately felt onto my back and scrambled away from it. I was convinced it was going to hurt me in some way.

But Braviary kept staring. It was shockingly similar to the Unovan variant, but had a large mane-like tuft of feathers around its face where a smouldering blue energy wafted from above its eyes like fire. Some supplies had been scattered around a medium-sized campfire and a large wall of ice had been erected nearby to shelter the area from the wind.

I grabbed my Poké Balls and released my two able members; Bibi and Ralts. I knew they wouldn’t be able to stand up to Braviary, but they would at least help me feel safer.

It was too much. All the fear and anxiety I’d been put through these past few days. But I tried to comfort myself. With Bibi and Ralts with me? I at least wasn’t alone.

I was okay. I was okay…

Braviary snorted in amusement when my two partners emerged in a flash of red light. For their part, Ralts simply held onto my sleeve whilst Bibi stood next to me with his signature dead stare. I had flinched back hard when Braviary extended its wings outwards and paused. It looked like some fancy totem pole in its position. This was it; I remember thinking, this is where the thing kills me.

But Braviary didn’t move. Instead, its wing feathers began vibrating and shuddering until I started to feel a slight sense of warmth caress my blueing skin. As it kept going, that warmth evolved- growing hotter and hotter until the air around its wings was shimmering. I shivered at the soothing sensation of warmth massaging the ice from my bones. The rock-ice around my hand even melted off, though it still didn’t feel cold around my appendage even then.

Eventually, a series of fireballs starting to encircle the campfire, wafting upwards like a tornado until the wood caught alight. It was then that Braviary stopped whatever move it was performing and regarded me with one last side-eye before it launched itself into the air.

I watched it go with a hopeful expression. The second it was out of eyesight, I launched to my feet and started searching for a way to escape. I looked and looked, with only the looming space-time rift and my Pokémon as witness, but I soon found I was stuck.

A sheer rock wall prevented climbing up, and a jagged and ice-slicked cliff rose up high towards the little plateau I had been deposited on. I checked behind the ice-wall but found nothing, either. There were loads of supplies strewn around, but nothing that could help me escape. No rope. No nothing. Unless a wooden spoon could rescue me, somehow…?

I sighed and hugged Bibi for warmth. His oil-coated fur felt smooth and icky against my skin, but his fat reserves were excellent at retaining heat. The campfire was going strong and the low roaring flames and crackling wood just about managed to eclipse the occasional wind howls.

Ralts was huddled by the fire and he looked absolutely miserable. Like me, he was both tired and cold. I patted Bibi on the back and asked him to cheer Ralts up for me while I went through our supplies.

Apparently, however, Bibi’s interpretation of ‘cheering up’ Ralts meant barfing all over the snow next to it. I had immediately started retching at the horrible sight and Ralts had leapt back so far I worried he’d throw himself off the cliff, but Bibi sat proud and started a lackadaisical stare at the fire.

Now, it took me asking Professor Rowan why on earth Bibi had done that, but I do now know the answer. Apparently, Bibarel feed their young Bidoof by throwing up part of their stomach contents onto the floor for them to feast on. Absolutely gross, but Pokémon are always whacky like that. I suppose Bibarel cheer up their young by providing food. So… it kind of boiled down to a misinterpretation.

Needless to say I have never asked Bibi to cheer someone up again.

But back to my predicament, where I had absolutely zero clue why Bibi had just vomited all over the snow next to Ralts and was still reeling from the horrible smell. For his part, Ralts simply used Teleport to appear on my left shoulder and placed his arm into my hair for support.

Food items, a boiling pot atop a hollow metal support, two pots of water that had turned to ice, some frozen berries, and a fluffy white snow hat for my head.

First and foremost was the hat. My Galaxy Team-issued cap had flown off during the flight with Braviary, so the hat was much appreciated for my frost-burned ears. I placed the water pots next to the fire to melt and the berries atop the boiling pot to defrost. I then kind of painfully scooped up snow in my bare hands and used it to cover Bibi’s… ‘gift’. After warming myself by the fire, I released Golett to recover.

The clay-Pokémon lifelessly fell onto its stomach upon being released and I watched it with a grimace. Mercifully, there was just a hint of light within its internal furnace and I knew from experience Golett could replenish its own energy when given time to rest. I just had to hope it actually could recover from such exertion. I wanted to move it closer to the fire in case that’d speed up his recovery, but there was no hope of that. Golett was almost my height, now, and was starting to mould harder and smoother clay around itself- filling out its arms and torso predominantly. I reckoned it must have weighed close to a tonne at that stage.

Next up was Edith. She had performed admirably against Lilligant but had inhaled a pretty rough number of spores in the final few minutes. Considering the state of Adaman’s Leafeon, I expected my recently evolved Staravia to emerge completely unconscious, like Leafeon.

And I was right. Edith emerged from the Poké Ball flattened against the snow and she looked completely out of it. I clicked my tongue but was glad she was simply sleeping. Lilligant’s mind-control spores must have been a variant of Sleep Powder or something. I had to tell Bibi off when he tried waking Edith up by slapping her lightly with his tail, but I appreciated the effort.

I waited by the fire. The berries had defrosted fast and I bided my time by feeding Ralts whilst Bibi had apparently decided it was a good time to sleep. Truthfully, it was probably the best idea he’d ever had. Conserving energy in case of a brawl would be optimal. I was thinking of Edith between handing Ralts his berries. The Ralts-almost-turned-Kirlia was using his slowly elongating arms to hold the berry while he nibbled off pieces with his small mouth.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Would sending Edith off be a good idea? I’d be a Pokémon down, but at least she could reunite with the others in the Mirelands. But that was assuming she’d be able to find the Mirelands and wouldn’t get lost among the cold. And also assuming she wouldn’t succumb to hypothermia along the way. Or wouldn’t get attacked by wild Pokémon…

Yeah… maybe it was best she stayed with me.

Another option was to snap her Poké Ball in half and release her into the wild. But I have to admit that idea hadn’t even occured to me. Maybe it was the best thing to do at the time. If I had truly been left up there to die, then at least Staravia would have a fighting chance out of us all. Maybe Golett could survive tumbling himself down the mountain, thinking about it…

I also had my spare empty Poké Ball, but what could I do with it? Try and catch Braviary and have it maul me in a fit of rage when it broke out? Still, I deigned to keep it in mind. Maybe an opportunity would arise in the future…

The ice within the two pots were well on their way to melting and I had poured the slush into the boiling pot and placed it over the fire. I added a couple of small logs of wood to keep the flames going and laid a third by Bibi for him to chew on when he awoke. Once the ice had completely melted, I poured some of the tepid water into my mouth and greedily drank around half of the pot to wash away the sticky coat of honeydew that had gathered in my mouth from Lilligant’s brawl. I held the rest to Ralts who stuck his face in and lapped up what he could.

I had considered the fire like it could tell me the answers to all of my problems. I was wondering where Braviary went, but figured it would eventually return. After all, why leave me here to die but supply me with food and water instead of letting me simply wither away? A thousand scenarios ran through my mind. Why would Irida take me here? What did she want? Did Braviary take me here out of its own volition? Or was this part of some master plan Irida had cooked up? If so, why me?

That train of thought was getting me nowhere, so I busied myself with cooking myself up something to eat. It helped get my mind away from the fear-laced thoughts over what Irida did to the others after Braviary took me. Were they alright? I didn’t really care much for Adaman, but I had grown fond of Mai and Arezu. Not to mention Laventon and his almost fatherly companionship. I swear if Irida did something to them… I’d… I’d…

I really hoped Akari was okay…

Vegetable stew, vegetable stew. My stomach growled. I hadn’t eaten before setting out for Lilligant. I was still cold, but the fire was working wonders and the never-melting ice wall was pretty good at blocking out the wind. I needed to distract myself. To keep moving so I wouldn’t lose myself to my own fears. I had water, some sort of milk, a strange sand-coloured radish, a leek, salt, and other herbs I didn’t recognise. I poured most of the water out of the second pot and into the first Ralts and I had drunk in and added all of the milk into the cooking pot. While waiting for it to boil, I broke apart some salt and added that to the mix along with the herbs I sprinkled in.

But I still had the radish and leek. “Ralts?” I held up the vegetables. “Can you psychic-power cut them or something?”

Ralts’s eyes narrowed. Yeah, dumb question. Psychic moves could only affect minds, after all. My sole conscious companion had an idea of his own, however. He trotted over to Bibi and reared his arm back.

My mouth fell when Ralts slapped Bibi across the cheek, but Bibarel simply blinked awake and stood as though nothing happened. An idea formed when Ralts jutted an arm at Bibi’s buck teeth. “Ahhh,” I nodded my understanding. “Bibi, come here!”

I held up a leek to Bibi’s mouth. “Open wide.”

“Now chomp.”

“Alright, spit.”

I was rewarded with a poorly cut and saliva-coated leek, but it was something. I washed the cut leek in the spare pot of water and threw it into the cooking pot. “Right, repeat.”

By the time I Bibi had cut up all of the vegetables, my other team members were recovering. Golett was slowly standing up and his internal furnace was weakly ablaze whilst Edith kept intermittently stirring in her sleep. At least something was going right for me now. I smiled when Golett started to trudge his way over to me, but that was wiped away when he barged through the fire instead of circumventing it. It offered me a hand and I took it. Toasty.

I marvelled at how small my fingers looked compared to Golett. What once was rocky and inconsistent clay mounds was now uniform and smooth. Small circular bands wrapped around its wrists and its fingers were longer and thicker. The spiral-like carvings that led directly to its core had begun to widen and splinter- now looking more like a crack than a pattern. Its deeper blue inner-clay around its torso was almost entirely covered up by its lighter blue clay armour whilst a spartan-skirt was forming around his lower waist where smoother and blockier legs supported its vast weight.

Golett was first to break the handshake and bent down to draw a singular word in the snow…

SORRY.

“Don’t be,” I gave it my most genuine smile, trying to remain strong for it. “You did wonderfully.”

Golett stared for a moment, then picked up Edith’s unconscious body and offered her to me.

“Uh… thanks…” I took Edith into my arms.

The vegetable stew was well on its way, so I cradled Edith in my forearm while I used my spare hand to stir. Both Ralts and Bibi were taking a key interest in my meal and I couldn’t conceal my smile when Bibi’s button nose twitched at the smell. They were really good at helping me through this. When it was ready, I offered Ralts and Bibi a try before tasting it myself.

A bit watery and kind of tasteless, but it was warm and the vegetables tasted… alright. The radish was a little too spicy for my taste, though. My sipping was interrupted when Golett stuck its pinkie finger into the pot and shoved it under its armpit again. I… didn’t really know at the time whether it liked the meal or not. I still don’t to this day.

Edith finally woke just in time to partake in a few cut leeks before I finished up. I wasn’t entirely sure whether human food was safe for Pokémon to consume, but figured the small amount they had wouldn’t kill them.

I had to admit… I had found an almost zen-like peace in my isolated nook so high up in the mountains. Everything had happened to quickly and I was so fraught with worry that I ended up really needing the time alone to let my mind catch up. I was still wrought with worry over the fate of my friends in the Mirelands. Maybe they escaped Irida, or maybe were able to fend her off… I had no idea. What I did know was that I had my Pokémon and that I was okay. I needed to focus on the positive.

But, as always, that peace wouldn’t last. All too soon, I heard the textbook flapping signalling Braviary’s approach to my borrowed camp, and this time, it wasn’t alone.

Utterly unafraid of the alert and defensive postures of my team, Irida landed Braviary and hopped off. Her Glaceon sat atop her shoulder in its usual place and stared daggers at me. The feeling was completely mutual.

“What did you do to them?!” I snarled the second Irida looked my way, even as a spike of fear laced its way through my heart.

Those same cold eyes… “Nothing,” she answered innocently with a slight tilt of her head. “I fled a little after Braviary took you and retreated up the hills until I was out of Diamond Clan territory. In fact, I even promised them I’d return you safe and sound.”

“Yeah, right!” I scoffed with a false bravado. “Stop playing games! Why did it take you so long if you just chatted to them?!”

“I had other errands to run,” Irida waved me off. “Nothing to concern yourself with.”

I gritted my teeth and clenched my fists. The initial fear I had felt was replaced with anger. How could she act so dismissive?! How?! Did she not know what she’d done to me?!

I had my entire team. Golett was still weak, but functioning. I could fight.

Irida noticed my shift to determination. “I wouldn’t try that if I were you.”

“And why is that?!”

A smirk. “Because I’ll have Glaceon create a blizzard so powerful it’d blow you all off of the cliffside. And as strong as that… clay Pokémon is, it won’t stand up to Braviary in that state.”

Honestly, she was right. I knew Adaman’s Leafeon was powerful, but truthfully, I had felt I could take him in a fight. Irida, however? She was like a force of nature. An absurdly strong Glaceon and a Braviary? Compared to what I had; it was like… it was like I was facing down Cynthia.

I closed my eyes and reigned in my emotions. I had to be logical, here. “Why did you take me here?”

Irida smiled as if I had finally struck upon the question she was waiting for. She slowly, predatorially, stalked towards me and I instinctively took a step back. Her ice-cold hand wrapped around the back of my neck and for a split-second I actually thought she was going for a kiss, but she instead gently pulled my ear to her lips. “Isn’t it obvious, why you’re here?” her whispered breath was like a glacial wind on my cheek. “It’s because… I kidnapped you.”