Human lands meant death.
The supposed truism echoed in the Gardevoir’s mind as she woke up from the haze of unconsciousness, one discarded dream and half-formed thought at a time. She wasn’t sure how much she’d slept—or how restful the sleep she had clawed out had been—but it mattered little now.
She was awake now, before anyone else, and it was her time to shine.
Trying to keep her emotions under control to not wake anyone else up, she carefully crawled out from underneath the massive, aged quilt her den used as a shared blanket. The cold air sent shivers down her spine and horns. The sun wouldn’t even think about rising for a couple more hours, giving her all the time in the world to head out without anyone else noticing. Still, each moment she hesitated was yet another opportunity for her excitement to shine just brightly enough for someone else to notice. Or, worse yet, interrogate her about what she was doing.
As far as her denmates were concerned, her plans amounted to little more than an elaborate suicide and providing an unneeded piece of evidence for the Elders’ words. She sought the opposite, to prove them all wrong, to witness the truth, the real truth for herself, and return to tell the tale. And, who knew—if what awaited her was as wonderful as she often dreamed, maybe her defiance would bring them prosperity, too.
Who and what are Humans, really?
The Gardevoir exhaled sharply at the question she’d asked herself and others hundreds of times. For as simple as it was, the patchwork of her people’s combined answers was so at odds with itself that someone had to be wrong. Everyone had their own interpretation, none of them backed by any personal experience more recent than two generations ago, and most so vacuous and vague, she might as well have been asking the wind for directions. However absurd or contradictory the individual answers were, though, most of them shared a through-line that only built on itself with every iteration. And it was that through-line that she refused to accept.
She refused to believe Humans were evil. A single person could certainly be evil, and she saw no reason for that to be any less true of Humans than of her own kin, or Swellow, or Clefable, or anyone else. Her people’s assertions went beyond that obvious truth, however, and straight into describing Humans as bestial and driven by malice, as demons whose mere presence was cause for utmost concern. And, simultaneously, as masters of stone and metal, as builders of settlements so vast she could barely imagine them.
As rulers of the world.
Despite the almost total darkness of the burrow, her psychics easily let her find her way around to the entrance. The invisible tendrils of her telekinesis pulled a small chest away from the hole in the den’s wall it covered up, and grabbed the items stashed inside. All the supplies she would need for her journey. A large hollowed gourd filled with drinking water, a wrapped block of dried paste made of nuts and berries, two handfuls of kindling, and a tiny, makeshift knife, its blade secured with felt.
How could anyone consider Humans savages when their resources were so vast they freely tossed away pure metal? Many of her people’s tools were crafted from such tossed away pieces, giving new lives to what were once tubular containers and their deceptively sharp-edged lids.
It’s been years since she first remembered being frustrated with that contradiction, made even worse by her people’s non-answers. She was but a Kirlia when she promised, to herself and her home alike, that she would find out the truth one day.
Much had changed in the years that followed, but never her resolve. However, even despite many moons of training self-defensive techniques and healing arts alike, she knew full well she wasn’t the best suited person for such a task. Telepathy had always been a struggle for her, and if it would ever come down to exchanging blows, she was as good as dead. She dodged well enough, though—could count all the snowballs that had struck her this entire winter on her fingers.
The memories of playful fights, made rarer and rarer by the passage of time, warmed her body up as she put the clothes on. Mom’s thick, felt shoes, secured to her slender legs with well-practiced knots. A thin bandana lined with Fire-type fur, pulled over the mouth and warming the air passing through it. Aunt’s hooded poncho, made from the shed hair and feathers of the many non-psychic creatures that called this place their home, and equipped with more than enough internal pockets to store all her supplies. Soft, woolen guards, tailored for her, held in place with twine and protecting her horns from cold and chafing alike.
And last, her resolve, at this very final moment.
With a quiet prayer, she recounted her people’s blessings and pulled the poncho’s hood over her unkempt blue hair, supposedly a rarity among her kin. She was a child no longer; she had earned her tattoos, her evolution, and her name—Pale Moon Swaddled in Midday Sky, a mental image of many stimuli that could only be very crudely approximated with words.
Or, as her non-psychic friends called her, Palemoon. Or Moon Moon, when they felt particularly cheeky—
“^Pale Moon Swaddled in Midday Sky, is that you?^” a telepathic voice asked, snapping her out of her reverie.
Palemoon cursed herself for taking too long as she faced her uncle, his dimly glowing eyes piercing the den’s darkness. She kept her emotions quashed and bent the knee, worried about what he might do. “^O, uncle, shining Ten Blooming Hills, it is me. I beg you to not wake others up,^” she responded in kind, hoping an overt display of deference would soothe his reaction.
She wanted to run; to Teleport just a stone’s throw away and not turn back until she was done with her mission. Her family had always pleaded with her to abandon her fantasies, first playfully and then seriously, as they reminded her of the dangers involved. Again and again she insisted, and just as many times she received the same fearful reasoning in return.
Eventually, their words were no longer being aimed at her, once her family finally understood trying to argue her out of it would be about as effective as trying to stop a charging Rhyhorn with a stern look. Instead, they aimed their pleas towards the spirits of wind and sun, begging for a divine intervention to sway their daughter, sister, niece, friend, denmate, crush from mortal danger.
Whether she was about to receive all that once more, she didn’t know.
For once, however, fate had mercy on her. “^Be at rest, Palemoon. I know full well your curiosity cannot be helped,^” her uncle chuckled, levitating towards her. “^It would be foolish of me to attempt to stop you now.^”
As Palemoon processed his words, his light green glow grasped a wrapped bundle stashed beside the den’s entrance, its rich scent overlooked in her focus. He brought it between himself and her, illuminating his weathered face just enough to let her make out a soft, understanding smile. “^Instead, I only ask you to eat before your journey, and to remain as safe as you can.^”
With trembling legs and damp eyes, Palemoon stood up straight, taking the bundle into her own telekinesis and unwrapping it. Inside, a rolled-up, fried flatbread with Oran jam, a treat lil’ Moon Moon would ask for every feast without fail. She grasped the gift in her hand and turned to her uncle, thanking him with a curt nod,
And pulling him into the closest side embrace she could manage without their horns poking one another.
“^U-uncle Ten Hills... th-thank you so much. I’m sorry for causing all this worry,^” Palemoon whispered, keeping her sniffling quiet.
“^Such is youth, Little Moon!^” the older Gardevoir chuckled in a whisper. “^Hesitate not to return when—if you encounter trouble. We will all be praying and waiting for you.^”
Palemoon nodded, wiping off tears with her free hand. “^I won’t disappoint you all, I promise.^”
“^And I believe you! Now, off you go, oh great adventurer in the making!^”
----------------------------------------
Despite her excitement just minutes earlier, Palemoon had a hard time taking that final step out of the stretch of woodland that comprised her village. She was familiar with much of the surrounding forest, and had even hiked to the northeastern mountains with her friends when she was younger, but never had she set out on such a perilous journey. To her annoyance, her family’s warnings had left more hooks in her than she had assumed, sprouting further uncertainty.
Finishing her breakfast would help—as would taking her home in one more time, for reassurance.
A small clearing, surrounded by wigwams, huts, nests and burrows, each different from one another. Cloth and pine and twigs and clay and dirt, decorated with crystals and glass and carvings and reliefs and stars. In the middle, a firepit as big as she was, surrounded with chiseled stones and reduced to cinders in the middle of winter night. In the neighboring woods, patches of crops, berry bushes, fruit trees, and as many flax plants as they could fit without damaging the soil and upsetting their neighbors.
Inside, dozens of souls of several kin, where once just two families of Gardevoir lived, each new arrival welcomed and cherished.
With pride—and enough flatbread to fill her stomach—warming her insides, Palemoon turned towards the dark woods once more. To the east, the sky warmed up from its frozen darkness, shifting through colors like a piece of metal held over a fire. It was time to go.
After checking in with the sentry keeping watch for the night, of course.
“Aspen?” Palemoon spoke out loud, having a hard time finding either of the Swellow with any of her senses. Her voice carried far despite its twinkling softness, and soon after, the quiet flaps of wings filled the air, approaching by the moment.
“Moon Moon!? Why—ohhh. Not bluffing, were you?” the Aspen sister asked, sitting on a nearby low branch.
Of the three of them, she had always been the least serious, but Palemoon didn’t think that would extend to presuming she was merely pretending with her curiosity. “^Nope, I told you, Aspen. I’ll find Humans, I’ll find out how they’re really like, and maybe even get back today! And if not today, then tomorrow.^”
“And if not tomorrow? Should we have the funerary rites on standby?” the Swellow smugly asked.
Palemoon smirked. “^Then you’ll have to ask Watchful Aspen and Sunful Aspen to help yourself and my family search for me~.^”
She barely kept herself from giggling as she felt Aspen’s emotion bloom from smugness to annoyance at someone confusing their names yet again—only for it to fade into an unamused glare as she realized it was intentional. “Fine, then,” the Swellow grumbled before flying off to her previous spot. Palemoon giggled, took one more deep breath—and began her march.
It was a bit mean of her, sure, but the siblings brought it upon themselves. Three Swellow, all named “Aspen”, at least as far as their similar-but-slightly-different names in birdsong could be translated. All of them were too proud to relent and let themselves be called anything else but “Aspen” by others. It was only annoyance at being confused for one another one too many times that forced them to concede any ground. And so, Aspen, Aspen, and Aspen became Watchful Aspen, Sunful Aspen, and Windful Aspen, names they loathed and only tolerated as disambiguation.
Which only made their annoyance at being deliberately confused for one another even more amusing.
----------------------------------------
Out of all the reluctant admissions by her family and Elders over the years, that of Humanity living mere hours away at a determined marching pace away surprised Palemoon the most.
She couldn’t complain about that, though—not with this winter being so fierce. The sparkling sheen of Safeguard enveloping her body absorbed most of the surrounding coldness, and when combined with her thick clothing, it left her just warm enough to not freeze out there. Her legs still got numb before long, but ‘numb’ vastly beat frostbite.
Of course, levitation was an option, but one that didn’t pan out at all over long distances. Her psychics could accomplish many grand and neat feats alike, but were incredibly energy inefficient for locomotion. They had legs for a reason, after all.
If not for her big orange eyes and a lock of blue hair still being visible from underneath the hood of her poncho, she might have fully blended in with her surroundings.
As Palemoon marched on, the deep silence surrounding her drilled into her mind more and more. She was deeply unused to it—during the summer; the woods were brimming with life even at night, and she rarely ventured far from her home during the winter. Knowledge that many wildlings hibernated through the winter was one thing; actually feeling their shared, comatose slumber was another sensation entirely.
She just didn’t expect it to be so utterly quiet.
On that note—did Humans hibernate? It would be a rather disappointing end for her journey, but it couldn’t be fully discounted. Now that she thought about it, Palemoon realized she didn’t know all that much about how to even spot a Human. She had the rough outline memorized—a bipedal, upright body structure with skin anywhere from pink to brown, and hair only on the top of their heads. That didn’t mean it was the only way Humans could look like, or that there weren’t any other creatures whom that description could match, however.
Guess she’d just have to take it slow. Observe, blend in, apply just enough of her psychics to make herself harder to notice. Humans not being psychics was another of the few commonalities in everyone’s description of them, one that Palemoon was much more willing to take at face value. Unless they were Dark-types, they would have a hard time noticing her unless she wanted to be noticed.
Hopefully, all that precaution would prove to have been unnecessary to begin with.
In her idle thinking underneath the morning sun, only interrupted by occasional breaks to eat and drink, Palemoon hadn’t noticed the woods growing even quieter with every step—until now. She paused mid-step at the realization, probing her surroundings with her sixth sense and realizing that she couldn’t even sense any hibernating creatures anymore. And, to add to the dread, she just barely made out a break in the treeline in the distance before her, the sight sending a shiver through her horns.
Am I finally here? Only one way to find out.
Palemoon’s steps grew even slower as she made it through the last stretch of woodland, eyes squinting harder and harder until going wide once she realized just what she was approaching.
A massive, black stone path, chilling in its sheer scale.
Easily ten if not twenty times the width of the dirt paths in and around her home, stretching from horizon to horizon, lightly dusted with snow. Despite looking like it was made of black pebbles, a brief tap from her foot determined it to be rock-solid, the individual pieces of gravel bound with an unknown substance or mechanism. A white checkered line ran along its center.
It felt profoundly unnatural. Wrong, almost. It was obviously crafted by someone, maybe even Humans, and yet it just laid here, unused. Why would anyone have bothered with the no doubt titanic effort involved in creating this vastly oversized path, only for it to sit abandoned like this?
Palemoon couldn’t even begin to think of an answer to that question, shuddering at the most terrifying of possibilities—that whoever had built it was long gone. She tried not to let that terrifying possibility get a hold of her, though. Even if nobody was using it right now, it had to have been built to lead somewhere, right? Just had to follow it, and she’d hopefully find out who’d built it.
A part of her was tempted to use the path itself for that purpose, but it was soon overruled. Beyond just looking off, the path had a dark, unnerving aura, and was rather painful to walk on. Useful as it was as guidance, Palemoon decided to stay off it, marching briskly beside the adjacent treeline.
Was this a Human creation? It would certainly fit the claims of their supposed mastery of stone, considering it was a solid surface made of gravel, but... why? Even if all this had somehow been easy for them, that didn’t explain why they would undertake this exercise in futility to begin with.
Why make a path so grand if it’s just sitting unu—
*vvvvrrrrrRRRRROOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMM!*
Palemoon was too distracted to notice the noise building up in the distance behind her. Once it was too loud to be ignored, she finally looked over her shoulder, only to see a massive gray something rocket past her, its roar piercing through the forest’s silence. By the time she’d come to again, catching her breath after a subconscious Teleport further into the treeline, the metal beast was gone, its roar fading into the distance.
Terrifying as it was, its presence at least answered one unknown. This road wasn’t Human, instead made by... whatever that creature was. It sure looked much scarier than any Human descriptions she’d heard.
With that experience in her satchel, Palemoon decided to play it safe, following along the stone path from firmly within the treeline. Seeing the roaring beast as opposed to any Humans was demoralizing, but she held onto hope. Even if the path wasn’t Human-made, that didn’t mean that whatever laid on its end couldn’t have been. Either way, it was yet another unknown, the sheer amount of mysteries piling up in her mind—and she hasn’t even seen a Human yet!
Maybe if they turned out to be friendly, she could ask them about this path? Hopefully, they knew more about it than she didn’t.
There was something more to these sprinting metal creatures, but they always passed by too fast for Palemoon to investigate them deeper. They were alive; she clearly sensed life and thoughts inside them, but... not a consistent amount of them. Sometimes it was a single consciousness, gone before she could glimpse even a fragment of a thought, and sometimes what felt like three, even four separate minds, huddled close but thinking independently.
Utterly unlike any other creature she’d ever seen.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Thankfully, she would eventually be spared further confusion.
----------------------------------------
The sun had already crept past noon by the time Palemoon spotted anything new on her journey, something that wasn’t just more of the endless path or the beasts racing along it.
Shortly ahead of her laid, the dark path split off into a smaller offshoot, less than half its width. Her numb legs complained as she dashed over, her interest piqued after many hours of monotony—only to leave her gasping as she saw what this side path led to.
The structure had some similarity to the simple huts in her home—a permanent, standing, angular structure. Everything beyond that, however, was so different, so much more extensive, that Palemoon had no idea where to even begin. The building was enormous, with a whole separate floor on top of the ground one. Probing inside with her psychics left her light-headed at the sheer amount of individual, rectangular chambers the building contained.
After making her way over, Palemoon touched and knocked on the outer wall, eyes going wide at it being made of painted stone. She doubted it was the same material as used for the dark road with its vastly different texture, but if anything else, it was even further proof of the control over stone its creators must’ve had. Each wall bore many wide daylights, most of them at the right height for her to see through them. Though, they didn’t appear to be Safeguarded in any way, leaving the inside woefully exposed to the elements—
*tap tap*
No, there was something inside the daylights! An invisible material that felt just like... wait, could this have been glass? That’s how it felt to the touch, but—how would one even produce glass this clear? Using glass in daylights had never crossed her mind before because of how incredibly wasteful it sounded. And yet, here it was, shaped into flat panes, pure enough to be perfectly transparent, and abundant enough for every daylight to have one.
She couldn’t be sure this was a Human structure yet, especially with the massive metal creature earlier. Her heart was sure keen to race to conclusions, leaving her giddy as she examined one of the building’s chambers. The perfectly rectangular room looked like some sort of communal space, with very plush, horizontally stretched chairs around an oddly tall table. A confusing choice, using so much more material than sitting on a comfortable floor with a much shorter table would, but what did she know?
The many small decorations along the walls cemented her hunch about it being a communal space, even if she couldn’t make out much of most of them. There was one she could see clearly, though—a massive black, glossy rectangle hanging on the wall opposite of the wide chairs. It looked significant, but Palemoon could only speculate about its purpose. Maybe it was a shrine of some sort?
A very simple one, if that’s the case...
As she made her way around the structure, Palemoon felt little surprise in not seeing anyone out and about. With a dwelling like that, there wasn’t much reason to spend time out in the cold. Not when one could stay in and weave, or tell stories, or make art, or even just meditate. It even looked large enough to have room for light sparring!
What was significantly more surprising, however, was how few minds she could sense inside the structure. The burrow she and her wider family lived in—alongside a few friends—was only about half the size of this massive structure, and housed almost twenty heads. And yet, she could only feel a single mind inside this building, and a second nearby, behind it.
And there were no other structures like it as far as the eye could see.
This was even weirder than the massive, dark path. That was just unusual, but living essentially by oneself like this, so far from any others of your kind... this sounded dangerous. Not to mention really, really lonely. Why would these beings even have a communal space if they had nobody to share it with?
Now, she could’ve just been jumping to conclusions; she was well aware. Sure, the building was almost empty now, but there were other explanations for that. Maybe others had left to tend to their land, or to help with constructing a shelter for another family, or—or as a hunting party.
That last possibility filled Palemoon with dread, leaving her cursing herself for not considering that obvious possibility. What if the creatures living here—or Humans for that matter, regardless of if those two groups were the same or not—were carnivores? What if they were at the risk of succumbing to The Hunger? What if they would try to hunt her?
Deep breaths, deep breaths.
It was a possibility, Palemoon couldn’t deny it, but what she could do was take precautions just in case. Looking behind herself, she focused on the spot where the offshoot sprouted from the dark road, committing it to her memory. In the worst-case scenario, she’d Teleport there, and either run, incapacitate her pursuers, or both. She dearly hoped it would not come down to it, but felt much more at peace with an emergency plan on hand.
With that checked off, she walked around the building, towards the creature walking around behind it. Before anything else, she had to know what she was dealing with, and whether this den belonged to the fabled, mysterious Humans. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and peeked from behind the corner.
...
...
And here they were.
Bipedal body structure, a single pair of arms, a bit of dark hair and pink skin visible from underneath the many layers of clothing. In any other circumstances, she would’ve chuckled about her already wearing a lot—but not now. She’d done it! She’d found a Human! This had to have been a Human!
It took her all the willpower she could muster to not break into joyful cries and dance at the realization, remaining mindful of not startling them. She had expected them to be... taller, though. For better or worse, she was already used to being the tallest person in the room, and this was just more of that trend. They were clearly enjoying themselves, but what exactly they were doing was a mystery. There were several stacks of large snow balls around them, decorated with pebbles and sticks, the Human already busy with rolling another one.
The scene looked almost sacral, leaving Palemoon worried she’d intruded upon a ceremony of sorts. With how carefree their mood and movements were, it couldn’t have been too serious. So confusing. Ideally, she’d just ask them, but that presented its own issues. Establishing a link strong enough for her to communicate freely with a stranger would be very energy intensive—not to mention possibly scary for them if it was their first time interacting with a psychic. That didn’t mean she was out of options. Merely that she’d have to get creative and rely more so on communicating with feelings and images.
Which left the biggest question of all—was she ready for this?
The Human looked frankly harmless, though she had no shortage of personal experiences of looks being very deceiving. Mostly in the positive way, but there was always a chance that this would be one of those rare negative occurrences. It didn’t feel unlikely, but if the worst came to it, she had her emergency plan, and years of self-defense practice to fall back on.
Now—how would she actually go about all this? After having spent her entire life ignoring all the talk about Humans being monstrous and horrifying, Palemoon wouldn’t have ever imagined the now all-too-real possibility that she would be the intimidating one here. She was almost twice their height, and—assuming her stealth was working—would appear out of nowhere for them! She’d need a more tactful approach, some way of announcing her presence first if she wanted to avoid immediately scaring them.
Think, Palemoon, think.
Well... if they heard her approaching from a distance, it’d give them the time to prepare mentally. Or, in the worst-case scenario, to run away. Little she could do about the latter outcome except making herself as non-threatening as possible—walking as slowly as she could, limiting sudden movements, and so on.
She had this.
As Palemoon made her way around the wooden fence behind the building, she took notice of what looked like several dolls scattered in the snow around the Human. The Clefable one even looked like someone she knew, heh. Aside from that one, there was a Machoke, and a Riolu, and... huh. This one reminded her of something, but she couldn’t place what it was exactly. One more thing to ask about!
The rest of the fenced-off area was rendered mostly nondescript by all the snow blanketing it. A couple of trees, a few bundles of something underneath the snow, a... large, peculiar round object with metal legs and a mostly snow-free black surface off in the corner.
Once she’d made it a decent length into the treeline to have somewhere to approach from, Palemoon stopped and took a deep breath. She counted to six, then twelve, steadying her racing mind to avoid appearing too forward. Steady heart, a moment of Calm Mind, a touch of Charm—there.
She was finally ready to meet a hu—right, had to take the Safeguard off, too. They had to hear her walk over, after all.
...
Good Stars, is it freezing out here. Hopefully, I’ll be able to reapply Safeguard soon, this is a lot.
Focus, focus.
As Palemoon wrapped herself tighter in her poncho, about to begin her approach to the Human, she noticed... something in the distance. Someone feeling deeply unwell. It was too far away to tell the specifics, but unnerving enough to make her shudder. Hopefully, whoever it was, they were just having a bad day.
Discarding the worry from her mind, she took one thumping step after another towards the Human, each of them slow and loud enough for them to hear her. A jolt of excitement went through her once she felt the Human’s attention shift to her, focusing on their ongoing reaction.
Surprised, curious—not a bad start.
They walked up to the fence, their interest growing with her every step. She bundled up tighter and tighter as she drew closer, letting the warmth of their shared emotion keep her going for that bit longer. Before long, the Human was leaning over the fence towards her, mere interest turning into outright fascination, their focus entirely on her.
By Moon and Stars, this was actually happening.
Once she was within reach of the fence, the Human called out to her. The exact meaning of their words was obviously lost on her, but she filled the gaps in her understanding with their emotions. It was clearly a greeting, making her pause before returning it with the most dignified bow she could manage in her freezing excitement.
She definitely didn’t expect them to respond with what sounded like giggling. She couldn’t feel any sort of ill intent accompanying it, though. It seemed they just... found it funny? Yet more questions onto the pile.
Once they were done laughing, they spoke some more towards her, clearly expecting a response. It was very endearing, bringing a smile to her face—one that was undercut with worry immediately after. The last thing she wanted to happen was for them to think she was a Human like them, only to become inevitably terrified upon realizing that she most assuredly was not.
Without even waiting for her to respond, the Human ran over to a small gate and opened it, looking up at her with an expectant, smiling look. They were happy; they were excited, there was not a shred of ill intent or fear in their thoughts—which was why she had to do what she was about to do.
Better to scare them now than horrify them later.
Palemoon took a deep breath and reapplied her Safeguard before psychicing her poncho and horn guards off of her, exposing her white body, blue arms, and orange horns. She reached into their mind, communicating in as clear a way as she could manage right now. A sensation of being greeted, a warm touch, redirection of attention towards her—and finally, her name, Pale Moon Swaddled in Midday Sky.
For just a few moments, they perceived the full extent of her name, the serene scene of a half-Moon visible during the day—what she looked like when she first hatched, according to her family. The demonstration only lasted a few seconds before the freezing cold forced her to slip back into her outfit, shivering as she awaited their reaction—
...
...
They gasped, and... got even more excited at it all?
Out of every response, this was the one Palemoon expected the least, her concern getting immediately replaced with sheer confusion at just what was going on. Before she could even respond, the Human ran up to her and lightly grabbed the edge of her poncho, guiding her into the fenced area. She didn’t resist, following along while trying to make sense of it all. All the while, the Human continued to talk, voice and thoughts downright ecstatic.
They let go of her hand and took off soon after, dashing towards their scattered dolls. She stood in place, processing having somehow won their adoration without even trying. She hoped their trust would extend to willingness to let her form a link to enable clearer communication, but that could come later. Right now, she was sure curious what it was they were going on about right now.
Some more of that distant, unnerving sensation snagged her attention as she watched the Human talk their mouth off while grabbing their dolls. Before she could focus on it too much, though, a realization built up in her mind, one quite obvious in hindsight. This Human was small, not just compared to her, but even to their own dwelling, doors included. They kept babbling on without even waiting for her to respond, each word, thought, and even movement dripping with youthful excitement.
This is a child, and not an older one either.
Which, considering their parents were presumably around and unaware of her being here... wasn’t a good thing.
Before Palemoon could either step forward to announce her presence as soon as possible or back out to avoid a confrontation, the little Human was back with their toy. They presented it to her with a smile, letting her grab it with her shimmer and take a closer look.
Figures she couldn’t immediately make this one out. She’d heard about those... siblings of her kin, of a different form Kirlia could evolve into, but never seen how they look like for herself—until now. Making out just those similarities wouldn’t have been hard by itself, but when combined with a big, black cape, a blindfold, and hair as blue as her own, it became just different enough to need a closer look.
Some fine craftsmanship went into this doll, no doubt. Stiff, but with many movable joints. The material was rather difficult to make out—not wood, definitely not stone, something lighter and smoother. Curious, curious, curious. Even as it raised further questions, the doll did answer at least one. With the way they handled it, it was clear the little Human was attached to it a great deal, and—
...
Oh, the Stars.
This wasn’t just her first time seeing a Human. In all likelihood, this was the first time this little one had ever seen one of her kin in person, too. Yet more motivation for her to be on her best behavior here.
With a quiet giggle, Palemoon lowered the doll back into the little Human’s reach and crouched to be on eye level with them. The child took their toy back without stopping their verbal stream at any point, babbling about something as they glanced between it and her for a while. Eventually, they gently placed the doll down in the snow, taking her aback—before carefully wrapping their short arms around her, and pulling her into a gentle hug.
Awwwwwww!
She wrapped a poncho-clad arm around the little one, beaming at them with a large, goofy smile as she savored their warmth. Only the emotional sort, though—they weren't too cold underneath all their clothes, but she still could help there, just like she herself had been helped many times as a Ralts. With a moment of focus, she formed a second Safeguard bubble, protecting the lil' Human from the cold even after they let go. Which they did soon after, whispering something to her before excitedly running in a circle and waving their hands.
Her kin may have been known to turn emotions infectious, but she couldn’t help but suspect that’s not what was responsible here.
With their embrace over, the lil’ Human gestured for Palemoon to follow to the unfinished snowball arrangement. They then pointed at the other arrangements of balls around them, their words clearly a question of some sort—but what for?
...
Oh.
As opaque as the little Human’s request was, their subsequent struggle in rolling another ball of snow conveyed it without words. Even just piling it on top of the one already there took a lot out of them. With a bit of focus, Palemoon grasped a clump of snow next to herself, compressing it into a solid ball before rolling it around the fenced area, making sure to grow it evenly.
As much as she tried to help, her intervention left the overall productivity unchanged. The little one soon grew completely enraptured at the sight of a snowball much bigger than what they could manage, moving around on its own. They took a while to connect the light purple shimmer around the ball to the glow coming from their new friend’s eyes, but once they did, they cheered her on, sparking a light blush on her cheeks.
Once she was done, her ball nearly as big as the child was tall, the little one tried to roll their own ball onto it right away... only to finally meet their match. They lost the grip halfway though, letting their contribution fall down and break apart. They weren’t injured, but it hurt them enough to sting her by proxy.
Palemoon crouched beside the little one as they stared at their mishap, holding back tears. She knew her spoken words wouldn’t be understood—but her tone might, especially when paired with an emotion or two. “Hey, it’s alright sweetie. Wanna try again?” she asked, accentuating her words with the sensation of a warm blanket’s reassuring embrace.
Her words caught them off guard, and the comforting feeling left them confusedly looking around. Once they’d gotten over their surprise, though, they turned towards her and asked something quietly in return. She didn’t know what was said, but it didn’t matter—not with her hands reaching out from under her poncho to roll a whole new snowball to get the lil’ one rolling again, offering it towards them with a small smile.
They thanked her with another hug, leaving her cooing as she returned the affection and reinforced their Safeguard. Once they let go of her, they mumbled out a couple words that couldn’t have meant anything but ‘thank you’ and took the ball from her, getting into their fun once more. The sight was too sweet for Palemoon to pay much attention to a creeping sensation on the back of her mind, even as it kept slowly building up. She looked towards where it was coming from, but only saw the treeline, with not even her psychic senses clearing the situation either.
Odd.
As the little one rolled their ball, she looked around the other snow structures, trying to figure out their purpose. Between the lil’ one’s enjoyment and the carefree nature of it all, any sort of ceremonial purpose was much less likely—especially with them not complaining or interfering with her help. Though, if not that, what then? Palemoon wasn’t a stranger to building snow and ice sculptures of herself and her friends in the winter, but with how... abstract these looked, she didn’t think that would be it, especially since they looked nothing like...
...
Or maybe they did?
Palemoon examined the nearest sculpture, paying close attention to its decorations. A couple of pebbles arranged like eyes on the topmost ball, sticks pointing from sides and the back of the middle one, a pair of tiny twigs sticking out diagonally from the top ball. She scanned the dolls laying in the snow, gaze jumping between them and the snow statues—and, at least, it finally came together.
This must be the most abstract depiction of a Clefable I’d ever seen, dear Stars.
Guess they really were trying to build sculptures, but just... didn’t know how to do it? Or had a hard time getting the snow under control, especially with their limited reach. Now that she thought about it, crafting any decently looking sculpture would be significantly harder without telekinesis—or flight. Just trying to imagine how she’d add any real detail without the whole thing falling apart, or psychics to assist her, made her head spin a bit.
The little one was doing their best with the tools and reach they had, and was admirable in its own right. Speaking of—they had just wrapped up another ball. The result was slightly smaller and more squished than the previous attempt, their movements having become noticeably slower and clumsier in the meantime.
Someone was growing quite tired, hehe.
After eying out the snowballs for a while, the child looked up at her before asking a question. Considering the circumstances, there weren’t many possibilities for what they could be asking, making Palemoon eagerly respond, “Of course I’ll help you, little one.” She smiled, pairing her soft voice with a feeling of approval.
With a bit of shimmering concentration, the smaller ball shuddered as it rose into the air—at least for a moment, before the little one reached in and began pushing on it as well. The unexpected motion made Palemoon freeze it in midair before she realized they were trying to help, giggling to herself as she continued.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/dpdI5Am.jpeg]
By the wonderful ~rrronald on FurAffinity!
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After making sure the little one’s efforts wouldn’t inadvertently topple the whole sculpture over and securing the smaller ball in place, Palemoon got to forming and rolling the third ball to match the other sculptures. The lil’ Human caught onto that, commenting on it with what was presumably a ‘thanks’... and running out of the fenced area into the woods, probably to gather sticks and stones to decorate this one with.
The slight, persistent dread made her want to stop them, but before she knew it, they were already off into the treeline, flinching but not stopping even as their Safeguard dissipated. She hoped that the feeling had just been her anxiety playing tricks on her. Besides, they knew this place better than she did, and it was the middle of the winter. She could count all the conscious creatures she’d run into on her way here on the knuckles of one finger—massive metallic beasts aside.
Her mind refused to move on from that pesky sensation. Still, in the absence of its cooperation, she could at least divert her attention back to this adorable play she accidentally got tangled in, loving every moment. The third ball was finished soon after, joining the first two to form yet another sculpture, blank for now. What it would end up depicting, only the little Human knew. And, before they got back, she could take a moment to just… take all the events of today in.
She had not only found a Human, but befriended them too, even if they were just a child. She’d been playing with them for long enough for the sun to be creeping towards sunset, and with how tired they were getting, she guessed they’d call it for their play session soon. And once that happened, she’d finally have a chance to sit down and talk to them, maybe ask all the questions she’d accumulated over the day. At least, assuming their parents wouldn’t interfere—or worse, freak out.
The thought made Palemoon mentally probe into the building to make sure she hadn’t overlooked anything while playing with the little one. Nope, good; the other Human was still unaware. Content, focused on something else entirely, and mostly calm. All was good, stone off her head for sure.
Back to the sculptures.
So, if these were inspired by the lil’ one’s dolls and that one was meant to be a Clefable, then... hmm. The sticks on the sides of this one’s ‘head’ meant it was probably supposed to be the Riolu, the one with the thick branches for arms was Machoke, and the one with a stick pointing straight on top of its head and a second one going straight through its ‘torso’ represented her masked kinmate.
Trying to imagine her uncle looking like that almost made her break into roaring laughter.
She was figuring it all out—but the question of what would this latest sculpture be remained unanswered. Unless they took a fifth doll with themselves, there weren’t any more of them lying around, and the only other possibility she could think of was—
...
Her.
Now, now, she had to stop herself from jumping to conclusions right away. But, if that really was the case, then... good Stars, the mere idea felt so incredibly sweet. Just thinking about it made her feel so much warmer, the winter’s cold suddenly losing much of its bite.
Now, she just had to wait until they were back, and hopefully she would figure out how to coax it out of—
Something’s wrong, something’s very wrong, Moonblast it!
“AAaaaaaaaa-AAAAAA!!!”