Chapter 26: Knowledge, part II

Sada hadn't realized how liberating it was to have someone other than Turo that knew their secret. Being able to not have to carefully ponder every word, every expression, to have someone else that she could talk to about her time... it felt like an enormous weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

Was this how Turo had felt when he had confided his own secret in her? No wonder they had grown so close after he had done so.

The three of them however decided that it was better if no one else knew.

« It's better if we try to act like we always lived here as much as possible.» Turo had said.

That was so much easier said than done however. There were days were she still felt amazed at the way this time had solved problems that she would have to work so hard for back in her time... But there were also days like this one where she found herself missing the simplest things.

There were days where just having lunch at the Academy's cafeteria made her wonder how much food it wasted every day, and how much her tribe could have eaten with everything they had in stock. All of that without the danger of leaving the village to hunt or gather food. It made her feel almost ashamed to be sitting comfortably at a table, eating perfectly cooked food.

Now she understood why Turo had looked guilty every time she had urged him to eat something when he was visiting.

In those days, she usually tried to fight the homesickness by leaving the city and travelling around Paldea. She had bought some camping equipment with her job at the library that she was still doing part time; some sleeping bags, a little tent and an enormous, bright yellow backpack to pack anything else she could need inside.

But camping even in the most remote corners of Paldea wasn't enough: civilization always felt too close. There was always a sign, or a trail, or a picnic area visible. Either the lights of a Pokémon Center, or a lighthouse , or from some city or small village were always shining from far away somewhere. For modern people, it was probably reassuring, but to her, it felt almost suffocating, how it seemed like she could never get away from the city.

And of course, every time she raised her head to the sky, she could never see the stars like she used to.

With this matter, neither Clavell nor Turo could truly understand her: they had both lived in worlds where this was the norm. That was where Kim came in: the Pokémon was obviously more at home in the wild, away from people, just like her. The Litleo would follow her in long, aimless excursions around southern Paldea, not caring or complaining if they simply walked for hours and hours, sometimes chasing wild Pokémon around. She was growing bigger and stronger: the Cortondo Gym had posed no problem for either her or Turo's Murkrow (Turo himself, on the other hand, had struggled quite a bit with the Gym challenge before the battle itself. Watching him push the giant inflatable olive around, gasping and cursing outloud as his Murkrow flapped around his head trying to help had been quite funny, even if she had tried not too laugh at him.

Well... Not too much.), and Artazon's Grass type gym would go similarly smoothly.

She would usually travel alone, but sometimes, like today, Raifort would tag along. She quite liked the woman: she reminded her of Chalo a bit.

« Do you remember that weird painting of the woman who looked like you?» Raifort asked as they trekked through Area Six of the South Province. The sun was high, and it was beating down mercilessly on both of them as they made their way through the rocky plateau near Alfornada.

Sada didn't mind: they would be out of the sun soon enough as soon as they found one of the many entrances to the Alfornada caverns. They were apparently massive, and she was excited to see them. A sprawling cave system that spanned an enormous area: there had to be so many unexplored caves and corridors under there! Exactly what she needed.

« Of course... What about it?» Sada asked. How could she even forget about that painting? Turo was absolutely convinced it had to be her.

Raifort's Gastly stuck his tongue out at Kim, and she batted at him playfully only to meow in frustration when her paw passed straight through him.

Sada watched as the ghost Pokémon started cackling while Raifort took a heavy-looking book out of her bag.

« I was curious, so I looked her up. Professor Albora Olim, she studied how variations in climate and migratory patterns influenced Paldea's fauna during the ages... And she took part in an expedition to Area Zero.»

That made Sada almost trip over her own feet; she managed to avoid falling flat on her face and turned to Raifort.

« Well, not exactly an expedition to the depths of the Crater, but she was definitely inside it for a little while. One of the few expeditions after Heath's, she mostly supervised building the first Research Stations... Look, there's a picture.» Raifort said, turning the page over. Sada got closer to examine the picture, resisting the urge to grab the tome out of the other woman's hands.

The picture was nothing like the one she had already seen. A woman was standing at the very edge of what was undeniably the Great Crater. A massive humanoid Pokémon towered behind her, so big it couldn't fit into the frame. It was crouching on one knee and casting a shadow over the woman's face, making her expression difficult to read.

Sada shook her head, pushing the book back towards Raifort.

« I've never heard of her before. If she's an ancestor of mine, I had no idea.» she replied after a moment, biting her lip. Better to stick with the "ancestor" story for now with Raifort and everyone else.

« Yeah, I figured so. But it's interesting, isn't it? Sometimes you'll look through history and find out that some random guy in Hisui was an ancestor to some other guy in a completely different region... It must be cool to be able to trace your history through the past like that. It makes you wonder what everyone's family history is. » Raifort said, carefully closing the book (probably borrowed from the school library) and putting it back into her bag.

Sada smiled a little bit at that. Yeah, it must be nice... But her "history" was so far back there would be no trace left.

« What about your family?» she asked, only in part to change the subject away from her. She pointed out the entrance of the cavern to Raifort, and they slowly descended through it. Normally, she would have stopped right before the entrance to carefully lit a torch.

Now they simply had one flashlight each and plenty of spare batteries with them.

Sada wasn't quite sure she liked it. It was convenient, sure, but ... she preferred the way fire illuminated things compared to cold artificial light. When the only example of it she had seen was Turo's glowing bodysuit, it had looked fascinating and otherworldly to her.

Now it was just... Always there. A real fire had actually become a rarer sight.

« Me? Oh, nothing much. My parents have an antique store, so I grew up surrounded by old trinkets... It's amazing what stuff people sometimes sell or stash away in their attic... » Raifort was saying in the meantime.

The tunnel opened up on the first major cave, and Sada couldn't hide a little smile when she saw that there were actually torches erected at regular intervals to light up the area.

« Fire!» she said, as Kim happily lept towards it.

« A lot of trainers and researchers pass through here and use their fire Pokémon to keep the torches lit... It doesn't disturb wild Pokémon as much as artificial light would.» Raifort explained. Many of them still didn't seem to quite like the light, scurrying quickly out of the way and observing them with shining eyes from the very edge of the ring of light provided by the fire, half-hidden in the dark. Raifort kept her hand on the Poké Balls on her belt, ready to use one if a wild Pokémon proved to be too much only for her Gastly. They made their way towards one of the many dark tunnels that opened up from the main cave, and disappeared into complete darkness.

« The ruins that have been discovered should be around... Here.» Raifort said, motioning for her Gastly to lead the way, the ghost Pokémon conjuring a ring of small azure will-o'-the-wisp around himself to light the path.

Sada found herself unconsciously trying to make her steps lighter, wary of Pokémon that could jump out from the dark. Paldea was littered with ancient ruins, remnants of old castles or villages from the era of the Paldean empire... to find one underground however was still unusual. Maybe it had been a tomb, or a cave used as some kind of storage or deposit, or a mine even. Her eyes widened when she realized that the walls of the cave were not just simple rock anymore. Suddenly her hand touched polished stone, with clear man made incisions on it. She waited for Gastly to shine a little flame over it. A mural seemed to depict people and Pokémon she had never seen, the human's hands raised towards the sky as the Pokémon seemed to emit some kind of wave... Or maybe it was light?

« What Pokémon are these? What are they doing?» she asked Raifort, not recognising the strange bell shaped creatures. Raifort hummed thoughtfully for a moment.

« Bronzong... They feature in a lot of ancient art. They were worshipped because of their ability to bring rain.»

Rain... Her chest ached painfully as she looked at the mural; it was beautiful, how this little piece of life from people from long ago had survived until today, to the point that they could know what they thought and how they had lived... But it was still obviously much more recent than her time, if they had been worried about rain for growing crops.

Her time felt so impossibly far away: Sada had been excited during the first couple of history lessons, as she had learned about the origin of life, and Pokémon, and how humans had probably slowly appeared alongside them, excitedly waiting for the moment where they would talk about her period... But they knew so little about it. So little in fact that the entire moment in time when her people had lived had been named "Prehistory"... Relegated to before "history " had even "started".

That had disappointed her quite a bit.

They had brushed over thousands and thousands of years in barely a couple hours, to get to the part of history that was closer, that had more traces left.

The one about kings, and dynasties, and uncountable wars, and who invaded who. And she still found that extremely interesting, in its own way... But it wasn't what she was looking for.

She wanted... to find traces of people that had lived in her time. Something she could recognize.

She walked past the mural, keeping the cone of light from her flashlight low: the cave wall opened up in a room with a low ceiling, primitive scaffolding carved directly from the rock.

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On the shelves, what probably had once been jugs and jars were lined up. Most of them were broken, leaving nothing but a pile of clay shards, but some of the bigger pieces still showed some traces of golden paint on them.

So this really had probably been a deposit... Maybe a cellar dug into the side of the mountain to store wine or other precious beverages away from the sun and let them mature, or simply to keep them cool.

« If this was a cellar, maybe there's other rooms connected to it.» She whispered to Raifort, carefully leaning down to examine one shard. She was afraid of actually stepping into the room and accidentally move or destroy something; she raised one hand to hold Kim back, not wanting her to do the same. Now she understood why Raifort had chosen to let her Gastly out: an incorporeal Pokémon like that was perfect for not disturbing the scene.

« Probably. Maybe it was a kitchen-» the woman took a single step over the threshold of the room, then stopped as something in front of them suddenly moved, turning to shine the flashlight forward.

Sada expected a wild Pokémon; maybe a Gimmighoul. She had seen some all around Paldea, hiding their precious coins away. It was easier to see them near ruins like these, especially old buildings.

What Raifort's flashlight illuminated instead... Was more clay, piled on the ground in a roughly spherical mound.

Sada wondered what it was supposed to be - a really big vase? A jug? - , and then the clay moved, shifting and standing up with a slight rattling sound as bright yellow lines lit up all over its body. Two vertical, rectangular-shaped eyes blinked up at them, and the Pokémon -it had to be a Pokémon - let out a low droning sound.

« It's alive!» Sada gasped. Beside her, Raifort did the same.

« That's... That's a Golett. It must have been put here to guard this place... who knows how many are still buried in ruins somewhere.» the woman said as they hurriedly backed away from it.

The small clay golem took some heavy steps forward, raising its arms over its head with a clattering sound, clay shifting and creaking slightly as it moved limbs that had probably been still for centuries... or even longer.

Kim hissed, jumping in front of Sada as the golem kicked up a wave of mud, before yowling in pain when it splattered against her side.

« Use Night Shade!» Raifort's order made her Gastly suddenly appear in front of the Litleo; in the dark cave, the ghost Pokémon was all but invisible. Shadows cast by the flashlights moved to grab at the Golett. It didn't make any sound of pain, but the spirit that seemed to animate it must have been affected in some way, because the golem staggered back, the yellow light burning inside him glowing brighter. It couldn't change expression, but some of its energy billowed out from cracks in the armor with a sharp whistling sound that reminded Sada of water in the kettle Clavell used to make tea.

This was getting dangerous.

« We can't have it trash around here ... It could provoke a cave-in. Let's just back off and leave it alone. » Sada pulled Raifort back by one arm; she recalled Kim in her Poké Ball and the two women kept backing away from the rampaging golem, away from the buried cellar and back into the tunnel they had been following, now at a full run. The Pokémon however kept following, stomping after them with heavy steps... until she heard it suddenly stop.

Sada turned around, to find the little golem standing completely still. All the energy it had showed in protecting the place it had been assigned to was completely gone: its arms were hanging limp by its side, and it seemed to be looking around.

Even if it couldn't show any trace of emotion on its face, there was something in the way it was slowly rotating its head to observe the walls of the cave they were in that made Sada's heart ache.

« They're gone.» the golem turned to look in her direction when she spoke up. Could it even understand her? Maybe not. The people that gave it orders must have spoken a different language.

« I... I know what you're thinking. "Where is everyone?" They're all gone... a long time ago. You're all alone. » she said, lowering her eyes.

The Golett kept looking around, walking with a clattering sound towards the piece of mural that was still visible. It raised its head and stared at the carved figures for a long time, unmoving. Its shoulders sagged, and it looked to the ground.

« Why don't you come with me? » she found herself asking as she took a Poké Ball out of her bag. The thought of leaving this Pokémon all alone in this dark tunnel, after its whole purpose had long since crumbled... It saddened her.

« Maybe you can't protect them anymore, but can look for what's left of your people... Together. I know what it's like... To be all alone in a new, scary place. » she still had no idea if the Pokémon could even understand her, so she waited for any sign of understanding from the clay golem.

It didn't move, neither did it answer... In fact, it seemed completely unresponsive. They clay armor suddenly collapsed on itself, almost as if the energy inside it had ran out, clattering to the ground in a chipped pile, but without shattering into pieces.

Sada's eyes widened, and she hurried towards the Pokémon.

« Are you okay?!» she had no idea what to do. Had it just... Gone to sleep, like it had been before? Or had it really just ran out of energy? Was that something that could happen?

« Just catch it. Ghost Pokémon can be complicated to treat, but a Pokémon Center should be able to help.» Raifort was suddenly beside her, her own Gastly hovering nearby. It cackled as it passed through the armour, phasing through it.

« Gastly doesn't look worried, at least... Then again he's not exactly the altruistic type-» the woman muttered.

Sada hurriedly pressed a Poké Ball over one of the clay shoulder pads, watching the broken shape of the Golett get pulled inside.

« All right... let's go to the nearest Pokémon Center.» she said, clipping the new Poké Ball to her belt.

It wasn't until they were out of the Alfornada caverns and well on their way towards the omonymous city that Raifort spoke again.

« So... Did you want to catch that Golett because of your ancestor?»

Sada turned to stare at her, confused.

« What do you mean?»

Raifort's eyes widened, and she took her massive book out of her bag again.

« The picture...? Golett is the pre-evolution of Golurk. See?» she explained, pointing to the black and white photograph again. This time, Sada noticed the little description printed underneath.

"Professor Albora Olim the day construction of the Zero Gate started, along with her Golurk."

---

« Daddy, what's "timettavel"?» Romero asked his dad, who blinked and flicked the screen with the book he had been reading out of the way to stare at him.

« What?» he asked from the couch he was sitting on, little Miraidon draped on his lap.

Romero Turo, age four, pointed to where another floating monitor was showing the news. Miraidon's eyes flickered on and the Pokémon followed his movements, before looking at his little owner with a quizzical chirp.

« Gwaaoh? »

« The man in the tv keeps talking about it. "Timettavel" »

His father's eyes lit up with recognition as soon as he looked at the screen, and Romero smiled brightly. Dad always knew everything!

« Oh, you mean "time travel"! It's a new thing that's just been invented, back on Earth.»

For Romero, Earth was just the place he saw out of the window. Or where cartoons and movies were set. So people actually did stuff over there?

« What is it?» he asked, jumping and floating over to the couch in a single movement. Dad caught him with both arms and held him down until he was sitting beside him. Miraidon chirped again and pushed his snout under the kid's hand, demanding pets.

« It's... A different way to go somewhere. You know how we go watch the shuttles leaving sometimes?» Dad asked, and Romero nodded eagerly. Yeah, he liked spaceships. They were cool, and he liked looking at all the different Pokémon and people that would step out of them.

He wanted to have a big spaceship of his own when he grew up, and then he could go on adventures with Mirai, and fight space pirates who stole from faraway planets!

« So instead of going somewhere else... Like on Earth, or Mars... They found a way to go in some other time.» Dad opened up the calendar on a screen in front of him, and pointed to a little square.

« This is today. Saturday. »

Romero nodded. He had just been learning the days of the week.

« So you could step inside a time machine, and go back... To Friday. » his finger moved to the other square.

Wide eyed dreams of flying in space were interrupted as his little, four year old brain tried to comprehend what that meant.

« ... And then it would be Saturday again? »

« Exactly!» Dad smiled, but Romero's mind was already racing to much more important things.

« And... And they can t-time-travel to any day? Any any day?? Even my birthday?»

Dad frowned, as he always did when he was not sure what he was talking about.

« I... I guess so...?»

« So with a time machine I can go back and have another birthday party??» Romero asked, eyes wide and breathless just thinking of the possibilities. He could have all the birthday parties he wanted!!

He got up from the couch and jumped up, the Moon's gravity effortlessly making him float lazily towards the ground.

« Daddy! I want to also do "time travel"!» he cheered as Dad laughed and hugged him again. Miraidon was jumping up and down, yapping as it tried to understand what all the excitement was about. The little dragon's mouth opened and closed, letting out little cawing sounds-

... Cawing...?

« -krow!»

Turo woke up with a start: something hard was pecking at his cheek. It took him a long moment to realize where he was: the room was dark, complete silence, a bare wall in front of his eyes instead of a glowing screen. His back hurt: he was slouching forward after he had fallen asleep in a chair.

That was normal for him.

He raised his head, and felt paper sticking to his face.

... Definitely less normal. He blinked, one hand fumbling for a light switch of any kind.

Something was still pecking at his cheek.

Finally managing to turn the light on, he turned and stared at the Murkrow on the desk, his small red eyes shining in the dark.

A Murkrow. Miguel.

... Not Miraidon.

Right.

It had been all a dream... more like a memory of long ago.

« What is it?» He groggily asked the small Pokémon. Turo usually slept with his window cracked open, so the Pokémon could come and go and night. He usually stayed up until late, so they kept each other company until he went to sleep.

Sometimes he would wake up the next morning to find his desk littered with random junk the Pokemon had gathered during the night.

Useless shiny baubles, the occasional crystal shard, gimmighoul coins, keys, an entire wallet in one memorable occasion which he had to spend the entire afternoon asking around the school to find its owner...

Miguel flew up to peck at the door, cawing again. Turo looked at the alarm clock next to his bed. 3: 50 AM.

« What, are you hungry?»

He was suddenly reminded of Miraidon waking him up in the middle of the night for a walk, and he felt his chest squeeze painfully. Murkrow cawed, gliding down to perch on his shoulder.

He couldn't help but smile a little as the soft feathers pressed against his cheek. It felt completely different from Miraidon's smooth plates.

... Maybe it was better that way, but he still missed the feeling.

« All right, let's get you something to eat. »

The cafeteria was actually open the entire night, as he had discovered the first time he had to work night shifts. They didn't offer complete meals like during the day, but there were always at least a couple of sandwiches or warm beverages available for the night owls like him that needed a late night snack. Or a very early breakfast, depending on your point of view.

He grabbed a couple a piece of toast, some jam and a mug of coffee and took a seat near one of the windows. The room was pretty much empty, and he sat down munching on his toast in silence for a couple of minutes, Miguel pecking at his own slice.

Why had he had that dream all of a sudden? He hadn't thought about his childhood in ages... Especially not that particular memory. His birthday was way back in June and now it was... ah.

Of course.

Turo suddenly shied away from the window, not wanting to see the moon just barely visible through it.

It hadn't been about his birthday at all.

He took a sip of coffee, wincing as the mug was still way too hot. He hastily put it down, huffing in pain. In that moment, the door to the cafeteria opened again. He looked up, expecting to see another sleepy looking student of the Academy, and blinked when he recognised Sada's figure slipping inside. She looked exhausted, wearing a heavy parka over her school uniform, and was carrying a truly enormous yellow backpack that probably weighted more than him. She smiled when she saw him and approached his seat.

« Hi... Me and Raifort just came back, I didn't think there would be anyone here... why are you awake so early?» she asked, sitting down in front of him. He mumbled an answer, looking at his coffee.

« Couldn't sleep... How was your trip?»

She had been away for a couple of days, off exploring Paldea with Raifort.

And that was ... fine, of course. He had been more than happy for her. And definitely happy he didn't have to go trekking around old ruins. Knowing himself, he would have tripped and broken his leg or something similar.

« Oh, the Alfornada caverns are amazing! A quake apparently opened up this tunnel that had been closed off before and now there's this entire unexplored cave system full of old-» she suddenly stopped, and after a moment leaned forward to peer at him, eyes filled with concern.

« Are you ... are you okay?» she asked.

It took him a long moment to answer.

« ... not really.» he said in a low voice, hesitating a couple of moments before continuing.

« I... I just dreamt about... Home. My family. It still doesn't feel real at times. I keep thinking that I can just... Call them anytime if I want, get on a shuttle and go visit them, but... then it's like I suddenly remember that... they are not... here. » he tried to explain, ending with a sigh.

« This must sound so stupid» he shook his head. There was a second of silence, followed by the sound of Sada's chair scooting backwards as she stood up. She walked around the table to sit by his side, taking his hand. She started to trace little circles on the back of his hand with his thumb.

« It's not stupid. You miss them, it's normal. I also do.» she whispered, and he took a deep breath.

Right. Of course she also missed them.

« My tribe is probably thinking... probably thought-» she corrected herself with a little hiccup in her voice.

« That we ran off together.»

That got a sad little laugh out of him. He could quite picture it, the whole tribe coming together in one of the bigger tents to wonder where Sada had run off to as they worked.

« I don't think your mother would be happy with me as your... companion. "He can't even hunt a blind creature!"» he tried to mimic the woman's stern tone.

« I'm not sure... She really liked the little Pokémon I gave her... The one from the egg that makes clothes out of leaves you talked to her about. And she really liked your drawings... » he heard Sada take a deep breath, as she gave his hand a light squeeze.

« Tell me about your family. I want to hear about it. Are they all on the Moon?» she asked in a low voice, and Turo swallowed, realizing that even if thinking about them hurt, a part of him actually wanted to tell Sada all about them.

Just... have someone other than him that knew about them, about his life. Sada and now maybe Clavell were the only ones he could reasonably open up with.

They existed as nothing more than memories in his head now, and he was afraid of forgetting even the smallest detail about them. He couldn't share anything about his life with Sada before, but... now... there was nothing stopping him.

« Ahah... » he laughed softly as he found himself relaxing slightly in his chair.

« ... No, actually only my mother and father lived on the Moon for a bit. Most of my family is from Paldea... I have a cousin that went to Mars though-» he started to explain, only for Sada to furrow her eyebrows.

« Mars is that... Other "world", right? And what's a "cousin"?» she asked immediately after, and he laughed.

With her by his side... It didn't hurt so much to think about.