It was early enough in the day that there were still streaks of purple and dark blue in the sky, the sun barely peeking over the far horizon. The early morning air was less crisp and more razor-like, the sheer cold of the winter mountain air not something to be underestimated. I looked to the side, where the peaks stretched far above our heads. The sun had already begun to touch them, snow reflecting the light in pure white as the first rays of sunlight scattered across their surface. The pass below was still mostly dark, the forest wreathed in deeper shadow still as it shielded the ground beneath the trees from the encroaching dawn. For the Pokemon that remained in the trees below, what few were left, morning light was still a little farther off.

The camp had stirred awake in these early hours of the morning. The eager, excited sort of tension that had slowly intensified over the camp the previous night had further solidified into much more directed anticipation. Everyone here knew more or less what they were doing and where they were going to go, it only remained to go out and get in position.

I stepped out, then to the side as Ajax slipped past me, stretching himself once free of the slightly more cramped interior of the tent. He let out a huge yawn and shook himself, giving me a happy, if slightly bleary from lingering sleep, look, and I responded with a small smile and a pat of his head. He wagged his tail, bumping his shoulder against my hip and nearly knocking me over, then walking out into the camp towards Arcanine and Devi. The two Pokemon were looking out over the pass, positioned on a slight rise at the edge of camp before the land dipped back down towards the Route below.

Drake was next out, his stretching already done inside of the tent thanks to his much smaller stature. He turned his head to one side, then the other, producing a series of small cricks from his neck as he worked the rest of the nightly stiffness out.

“Good morning.” He gave me a small nod, and I found myself wishing for a mug of hot chocolate. Something warm to drink- that wasn’t coffee, at least, deities forbid. “How’d you sleep?”

He shrugged, but he seemed somewhat pleased and didn’t seem faded at the edges at all, so I assumed that meant that he’d found sleep alright. He cast a measuring eye over the Pokemon, locating where Blake was having a discussion with Jive over a mug of something that steamed in the early morning air, and where Kevan was having some quick words with Pidgeotto. After a few moments, he nodded to her, and the Flying type stretched out her wings and was off. One last run over the entire range of the snow shelf, I figured, before we went out and started the day’s work.

“If the absol isn’t up by the time we start getting ready to leave, do you think you could get her up? I think it would be a good idea if she was there to warn us if she thought anything was going to happen.”

Drake nodded, glancing back into the tent, where the exhausted absol was still curled up in the bed that she’d made for herself. I hummed, then closed the flap of the tent again, keeping in the warmth that had built up from Ajax over the night as a gesture to her. Wouldn’t do for her to freeze because I let all the heat out, that would just be rude, even if I thought she could handle it. With the tent sealed, I tapped the toes of my trainers against the stoney ground, ensuring they were properly affixed to my feet and well-fitted, before walking towards Blake.

Before I’d even reached him, my nose wrinkled in displeasure as I recognized the terrible scent that was coffee, or whatever version of it existed in this world. Whatever it was, it still carried the same aroma, much to my misfortune and chagrin. An entire other world with completely different fauna and flora, and coffee was still a thing that existed. Blake noted my expression and smiled slightly in amusement.

“Not a fan of coffee, then?”

Huh. Same name, too. Then again, the Pokemon world was basically just an alternate version of our own, so I supposed that it just made sense.

“No. Never been a fan. I’ve tried it a couple of times, but I’ve always wanted to scrub my tongue afterwards. If I want a mug of something warm and tasty, I’ll make hot chocolate.”

He hummed and took a sip of his drink, using the mug to warm his hands as he did so. His breath misted a little bit more in the cool air than it had before, the heat from the drink heating the air coming out just a little more.

“Shame. You could probably use the caffeine.”

“That’s what caffeinated beverages are for.” I said dismissively, then shook my head. “Morning drinks aside, how close are we to being ready to leave?”

“Kevan just sent Pidgeotto for a swing about the mountain, we’ll see what she says when she gets back. If nothing’s shifted overnight, which it shouldn’t have without any kind of snow or windstorm or even a real change in conditions, then we’ll gather the Fire types. Your lot sticks here, and we wait for a signal from Mika and Noble, then we’ll start working on the first section of snow. Work our way down the pass until there’s no large patches of snow left.”

“We’ll probably have to stick around for one more night.” I said, contemplatively, and Blake nodded.

“We can get this done in a day, I think, as long as the weather holds like it has the last few days and we don’t have any issues with the local Pokemon.” He shrugged again. “Unlikely as that is, it’s not impossible that one of them will make an issue of it. Could also be things that we didn’t predict in the first place. You never know, with these sorts of things, but that’s what you and your team are here for.”

“Makes me wish we had radios, honestly. I dunno how reliable our Navs are going to be for calling, this high in the mountains, and the only other way we’ve got to communicate are… what, smoke signals?”

“Yeah. Nothing to be done about it, though.” He rubbed his chin, setting down his mug of coffee, only for Jive to immediately steal it the moment he wasn’t looking and pour it into his maw with a mischievous look. “I suppose we can set up a bonfire? I’m sure I’ve got an emergency box of matches just in case Devi wasn’t up for fire lighting somewhere, I can hand those to you. An especially smoky fire would tell us something was wrong and that we needed to hurry back if you couldn’t get ahold of us.”

He thought on this for a minute more, then nodded to himself and went to say something else, his hand going back for his coffee mug. When he didn’t encounter it, however, he cut off whatever he was going to say in favour of looking for the missing mug. It only took him a moment of peering around the ground underneath the small table, looking for it, before he glanced up and saw it in Jive’s paws. And the fact that the Pokemon was licking his lips and looking inordinately pleased with himself.

I smiled as I stepped away, leaving Blake to go chasing after the entirely unrepentant Jive, swearing at him for both stealing his coffee and drinking the whole damn thing, meaning that he’d have to brew more. I moved over to where Kevan had been scanning the skies, and was now glancing at the exchange out of the corner of his eye, the edge of his mouth curled upwards.

“Morning!” I said cheerfully.

“Good morning. Slept alright?” He glanced back towards my tent, which still contained the absol. “I know the absol slept in there last night. So, tell me, does the predictor of natural disasters snore?”

I snorted, my hand jerking towards my face in surprise at the response. Still, that didn’t prevent a small laugh from escaping me, and I slid my fingers up to rub my eyes, lifting up my glasses, a smile affixed on my expression.

“No, I should have you know, she did not snore. And I doubt she would be pleased to hear you implying that she did.”

“I’m sure that her majesty would be scandalized at the idea that someone would say such a thing! But you won’t tell her that I did, because we’re such good friends, riiiiiight?”

He leaned towards me, giving me the closest thing he could manage to puppy dog eyes. With a pout and everything, putting real effort into it. I made an exasperated noise, shaking my head and putting my hands on Kevan’s shoulders, looking into his eyes.

“Because we’re such wonderful friends, I will give you a five minute warning before I use you to divert her if she ever gets mad at me.”

“Nooooo, a betrayal of the highest order!” Kevan swung away from my hands, taking up a dramatic pose with one hand over his heart, the other raised towards the sky. “All the things that I’ve done for you, and at the drop of the hat, you will sacrifice me to the angry absol just to save yourself!” He shook his head slowly. “And to think, I-”

“Oh, knock it off.” I said, though I couldn’t help the smile that had settled across my face. “We’ve got more important things happening right now.”

“Why can’t you just let me have my fun?” I raised an eyebrow at him, and he relented, dropping the stance. “Oh, fine, fun police.”

I rolled my eyes. “Well, whatever. How soon do you think Pidgeotto will make it back?”

He glanced upwards and down the pass. Following his gaze, I thought I could just make out a tiny dot circling high above the snowy mountainside. A flash of brown reflected the early morning sunlight, the feathers of the Flying type’s wings. It occurred to me that flying up here was most likely quite difficult for Pidgeotto, given the distinct lack of thermals provided by rising warm air, but I wasn’t sure how much that would even affect a decently strong Flying type like her. Not really a relevant question for my team, at least as they were, but an interesting thought.

“Maybe another half an hour, to get a good picture of everything and make her way back. I’m just glad that we’re doing this in relatively clear conditions, it’d be hell to try and carry this out in a blizzard, not to mention straight out hazardous to all involved.”

I nodded in agreement. This was hard and time consuming enough to do without the involvement of cantankerous weather, and I shuddered to imagine how bad it would be with it. I doubted that we would have found a fraction of the Pokemon that we’d warned into evacuating or bunkering down in whiteout conditions.

“Plenty of time to brief the fireteam on the plan to bring down the avalanche itself as it stands.” I said, the edge of my mouth twitching upwards at the small pun. Kevan, appearing not to notice, simply hummed his agreement.

“Probably a good idea to get them together and get started on that.” He glanced at me. “You and the team that’ll be with you need to know what’s going on as well, if you’re going to serve as proper search and rescue… or whatever we need, really, in a quick response team.”

I nodded to him, and he nodded back before turning in the direction of Blake and flagging the other trainer down. Blake, from what I could see from here, had just finished with a fresh batch of coffee and had been watching Jive intently. The badger Pokemon, of course, immediately took advantage of Blake’s momentary distraction with Kevan to swipe another mug of the stuff, which immediately brought his partner’s ire back to the fore. I really couldn’t understand why Jive found the dark brown liquid so enticing, though I had a guess that it was more out of getting a reaction out of Blake than actually liking it.

I stomped off some of the snow that had clung to my trainers, wishing for a moment that I had thought to invest in some really weatherproof footwear. Something to consider for when I arrived in Oreburgh, provided that I had enough money after restocking all the other things that I needed. Though, come to think of it, I wouldn’t really need them, would I? Well, maybe hiking boots, it was still a ways to Sandgem after that. Though I honestly might just take a train.

Drake had settled by the exit flap for the tent, clearly waiting for the absol to wake up, and gave me a nod as I glanced his way. Ajax was having a quiet discussion with Arcanine, periodically swapping to the both of them creating small flames in midair, at which point Arcanine would compare them and give my Fire-typed partner some pointers. They appeared to be taking care of themselves well enough, so I found myself at something of a loss as to what to do. No doubt Blake and Kevan would eventually corral all the Pokemon in camp into a rough group and start outlining the specifics of the plan that they’d laid out last night, but we had at least another half an hour before Pidgeotto even came back, so I doubted that they were in that much of a hurry.

I wandered over the edge of camp, brushing the snow off of a large flat rock before settling down and drawing my coat a little tighter around me. The stone was cold underneath my rear, but properly thick and insulated fabric meant that I didn’t care about it that much.

From here, I could see the entire view that I’d appreciated on and off since I’d arrived here. The sun had risen farther in the time that I’d spent speaking with Blake and Kevan, and was now high enough that the expanse of Sinnoh that stretched out before me was cast in the warm sunlight as well. A couple of thousand meters below me, the forested landscape patched with wide grasslands extended off into the distance. If I really focused on the horizon, I thought I could make out just the faintest glimmer- the far ocean, maybe a hundred kilometers distant. Hearthome was blocked from here behind the outcropping of the mountain range that the 208 crossed to get here.

I felt the itch in my fingers to make… something. I hadn’t expressed myself in any real way in the past month or so, the longest I’d gone without any kind of artistic outlet, and it made me want to pick up something. I felt a bit hollow, thinking about my tools, my various projects, my… friends, family.

I couldn’t, wouldn’t, turn down the adventure that was promised to me being here. Exploring the world of Pokemon is something that every kid since the 90’s has dreamed of, in some shape or form, and with the opportunity presented to me I couldn’t say that I was eager to go back home anytime soon. Still, I couldn’t help that guilt, the longing; I missed home. I did miss familiar surroundings, the capacity and materials to form expressions however I wanted. My family, my friends… something in me ached about the thought of leaving them behind without a word of where I’d gone, what happened to me. Hell, I missed my fish, and I really wondered how they were doing.

I wondered if I’d just vanished one day, out of the blue, everyone suddenly unable to find me. My memory was a little fuzzy towards the joining point between this world and my own, and I couldn’t quite remember what I’d been doing or why when I’d come through. I wasn’t sure if vanishing right in front of my family or my friends was more or less distressing: at least if I had popped into thin air in front of them, they knew that I probably wasn’t dead, and I hadn’t just disappeared mysteriously. I had been fully clothed, carrying a lot of my stuff, so it wasn’t impossible. I wasn’t sure if I hoped that was what happened or not.

This world was incredible and amazing, and I wanted to explore it as much as I could, but that didn’t mean that I didn’t want to call home. If I could just tell everyone that I was alright, just happened to be on this side of the barrier, call home every once in a while… it would stop gnawing at me. The idea that I’d left people behind to panic over my sudden evaporation. Maybe, one of these days, I’d climb Coronet and make a proposal to Pokemon God and see what they had to say about it. If any of them could help me, Arceus could. It was better than my parents burying an empty casket, something inside me clenching at the thought.

It was moments like this that drove home that I wasn’t of this world. I was farther from home than perhaps any human from that world had ever been, alpha wormholes notwithstanding. I had some vague understanding that Sinnoh as a region was based on the Hokkaido prefecture of Japan, as Galar was based on the UK, but I doubted that the landmass was more than vaguely shaped the same. Not that I’d memorized the layout of the island, but I had doubts about it.

It was a weird sense of loneliness, the idea that you were alone in an entire world of people. A familiar one, I guess, from the days before I’d found like minded friends that shared my interests and some of my proclivities. Here, though, it was intensified: I could make a movie reference, or talk about a book or a philosopher, and everyone would just look at me strangely. There was something of a sense of being unmoored about that, like I’d been at anchor far out at sea and the chain had suddenly been cut, leaving me to realize that I was too far from land to see it. A lack of understanding of the shorthand only developed by decades of cultural exposure and osmosis, almost like speaking a different language.

I sighed, the exhalation creating a flurry of delicate mist, and placed a gloved hand over my face to warm it a little. Privately, I noted that I should get a scarf as well as, potentially, some hiking boots in Oreburgh. The rest of the country wasn’t quite so snowed in as it was here despite it being winter, mostly green more than anything else, but I figured that was a result of it being late in the season. Mild summers and harsh winters, I figured, that would make sense. Still, scarves were cool, and I really wanted one, so that was decided. Maybe a good quality journal that I could write things down in, though I had no doubt my wrist would pretty rapidly hate me for that. Maybe I’d see how much a laptop was so that I could stare at them longingly through windows like Tiny Tim. Hey, who knew? Maybe somebody would magically give me a laptop if I just desired it enough, for being the millionth customer or something. Happened enough in the games, didn’t it?

I was in the midst of swapping back and forth between trying to hammer out a description of the view and mourning the loss of my fic archives. Specifically, how I would describe exactly how the light glittered on the surface of the river that cut through the glacial valley far below, like torchlight off the back of a silver snake? Something like that. Well, I’d been in the middle of those thoughts when a big, black claw tapped me on the shoulder. I turned to see Jive hanging over me, licking a bit of brown liquid from his muzzle and looking incredibly smug. The badger Pokemon gestured me back in the direction of camp, and, turning, I saw that I’d been sitting here wrapped up in my thoughts long enough for Pidgeotto to show back up. Blake and Kevan had done an admirable job of herding all the resident Pokemon into something that looked vaguely like a briefing, and had used some spare tent poles to hang the largest map they had so that it displayed itself.

I gave Jive a nod and pushed myself to my feet, absently brushing off my legs as I did so, dislodging some errant snow that I hadn’t managed to clean from the rock. I turned and followed Jive back towards the camp and into the group of Pokemon, shuffling through them until I found a spot to sit between Drake and Ajax, who had been speaking with each other before I decided to shove myself in between them. Immediately, I leaned against the large Fire-type, leeching some of the warmth that radiated from his fur in practical sheets. Drake made an amused expression, hopping up into my lap and settling there before continuing the conversation he’d been having with his teammate.

“Alright!”

Kevan clapped his hands, drawing the attention of all present. He rubbed them together, glancing over the small crowd to make sure that all the Pokemon, and me, were paying attention, before nodding to Blake and stepping closer to the suspended map. The paper had a silhouette of the snow shelf sketched out onto it, outlined in red to make it clearly visible, with a number of blue numbered segments split along specific lines.

“Pidgeotto made one last run over the entirety of the pass, thank you Pidgeotto-” the Flying type inclined her head. “And there’s nothing that needs modifying the plan that Blake and I spent so much time carefully constructing, thank Arceus. So, we’ll be proceeding as planned.” He pointed to the numbered segments. “We’ve figured that it would be best to start with the eastern end of the snow deposit, then work our way west, collapsing the snow in segments as we move forwards. Each of these segments has been plotted out based on a number of weaknesses that Pidgeotto and I scouted out over our time in the air.”

He traced the divide between the segments, tapping marks on them that I assumed correlated to specific weaknesses within the mass of snow itself.

“We’ll be striking these points. The Fire-type team will hit those at the top in order to weaken the snow’s hold on the terrain, and then Pidgeotto and I will move in and hit the mass from a distance, decoupling it entirely and forcing it to slide. Blake and I will be in constant contact, and if I see anything even remotely suspicious about the way the snow is behaving, I’ll be pulling you all back and we’ll be testing to see what the state of it is. Is everyone clear on that?”

There was a collection of nods from all present, and a murmuring of what I took to be affirmatives.

“Good. You know what you’re doing, find your groups and get to it. And, for the love of Arceus, be safe out there, you don’t want to have to be dug out of a pile of snow and we don’t want to have to dig you out, so let’s keep ourselves unburied. Good luck.”

With that, the collective split off into smaller groups, collecting around their various goals. Mika and Noble immediately winged and dashed their way out of camp, respectively, headed down the mountain and into the pass so they could cross the Route and get in position. Ajax pushed himself to his feet and nuzzled the side of my leg, then went to join Arcanine and Devi. The three Fire types proceeded to collect around Blake, listening as he took down the map and started to walk them through the finer points of what they were doing.

“You good for your part in this?” Kevan asked, stepping over to me as Pidgeotto got in place.

“Yeah, I think I am.” I gave a small smile, with just a little bit of uncertainty behind it. “Can’t quite shake the little bit of nervousness, of course, but that’s just normal.”

“You’ll do fine. All you have to do is keep watch- oh, and light the signal fire if something goes wrong and you can’t raise us. You’ve got that.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Kevan held out a small box to me, dropping it into my hand as I held it out. I felt the rough texture of sandpaper along one side of the cardboard: matches, a small package of them. With that, he stepped away towards his Pokemon, giving me an encouraging smile as he did so. He climbed onto Pidgeotto, having a discussion with her as he did, though it was mostly nods and shakes of the head on the side of the Flying type.

I nodded to Jive as he approached and settled down next to me, Drake pushing himself back up onto his paws and giving himself a quick stretch and shake before leaping down to the ground. I gave Jive a small nod, then stood and stretched a bit before glancing in the direction of my tent. The zipper was still in place, so I assumed that the exhausted absol still hadn’t woken up, which wasn’t so much of a surprise. I’d figured that they’d be out for a little while more, and it didn’t matter all that much because we weren’t moving very far from camp.

The plan called for us to climb the rise at the edge of camp and provide a trailing overwatch, following behind Blake and Kevan and keeping an eye on the sections that we passed in case there were complications. I didn’t really expect any, Kevan really knew his stuff and Blake was more than experienced enough to properly guide our efforts, but it never hurt to be careful. I wasn’t particularly willing to just sit around camp, doing nothing and waiting for them to come back, either. I might as well be doing something, even if it might just end up being so much busywork.

Pidgeotto raised her wings, and, with a burst of disturbed snow flurrying briefly, took off into the morning sky, rapidly fading to no more than a dot hanging above our heads. Blake, taking that as his cue, gave me a wave before taking the Fire team and clambering up the rise, then down towards the first section of the snow shelf. I spent a moment checking over Drake, more out of something to do than anything else as the hyena wasn’t wearing his harness, then patted him on the head and pushed myself to my feet. Immediately, of course, Jive sent me a pleading look, so I rolled my eyes and gave him headpats as well.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Spoiled.” I said simply. He simply purred happily at the contact.

I double checked the fire, making sure that the coals were properly smothered, before tromping out of camp and following in Blake’s footsteps up the side of the rise and to the top, giving me a good overlook on the entire pass.

From my perch on high, I swept my gaze over the pass before me. To my left, there was a rough path that led from roughly where we’d settled our camp over the ridge and into the distance, disappearing as it wound its way through the various spikes and outcroppings from the larger mountains behind us. Looking forwards, I could see Blake and the Fire types, settling in around the first large buildup of snow. It was lower than we were, though closer to our level than to the pass far below. More than enough space to build up a completely undesirable amount of kinetic energy, should the entire thing go at once. Looking far off into the distance, I thought I could almost see the clearing that the sneasel colony was located in, maybe a bit of their fortress of stone poking up above the level of the trees.

I hummed as I surveyed the area. I couldn’t see any cracks or strain in the deposits of snow that carried on in an uninterrupted river of white down this side of the pass, but I wasn’t sure that I’d even be able to identify them if I could. I wasn’t precisely trained in this sort of thing, we were here for when something went wrong.

“Oh.” I uttered, a thought crossing my mind.

This was going to be a large mass of snow moving, all at once, with a lot of energy behind it. Certainly, this wasn’t going to be anywhere near as bad as the entire thing going at once, but it was still a lot of material moving very quickly before slamming into the bottom of the pass. That meant a whole lot of noise, maybe enough to hurt our ears from here, maybe not, but we should definitely have some sort of hearing protection.

“Hang on, stay right here and watch for Blake and Kevan’s signals if they make any.”

I briefly considered giving one of them the matches, and then thought for a second about how in the hell Jive was supposed to get the box open, let alone light one of the matches. Which didn’t even account for the fact that Drake, with his paws, wasn’t even going to get anywhere near the box… though he could probably pick it up in his muzzle. My mouth twitched at the image of him holding it in his muzzle as he attempted to use his tongue to push the box open, working a match out of the container, then hand it to Jive while he held the match in his muzzle like a cigarette and tried to draw it across the sandpaper. Yeah, as funny as the image was, I didn’t think that even Drake had the dexterity to pull that one off. I’d just have to be fast.

I didn’t quite run back to camp, unwilling to move so fast that I slipped on some of the detritus that littered the rocky mountainsides and broke something. It would be the height of embarrassment to have to be carried back to Hearthome on Pidgeotto’s back to have a bone set when we’d traveled more than halfway to Oreburgh already. I’d never live it down.

I unzipped the entrance to my tent, stepping inside. There was a shifting noise at the back, and a silver furred head poked itself up from a nest of blankets, the absol blinking at me groggily. I gave her an apologetic smile and a wave.

“Hey. Good morning. Uh, we’re doing the avalanche thing… Do you think you’re together enough that you can be out in the field with us? You don’t have to, I understand if you feel too battered to participate just yet.”

She blinked, immediately more awake than she had been before. She pushed herself to her feet with a slightly pained grimace, shaking her fur about in an attempt to drag herself just a little more out of sleepiness and into the more wakeful world. It seemed to work well enough, because she only wavered a little bit as she stepped out of her nest and into the wider tent with me.

“Don’t push yourself too much, alright?” I said, a note of concern underlining my voice.

The absol simply huffed at me, as if to say that my input was unneeded. I stepped out of the way as she trotted up to the exit of the tent, hopping over the little fabric barrier that formed the bottom part of the zippered door and walking out towards the ridge. I shrugged to myself, glancing after her with a little bit of concern, before going to my bag.

Earplugs weren’t something that I’d purchased among all the other supplies I’d picked up in Oreburgh, yet another thing to note down for the future if I ever had the chance to secure them. However, you didn’t need perfectly shaped foam pellets to kill a lot of noise: pieces of tissue or bits of wax could serve just as well, even better if the tissue was wet. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any wax with me, but I did have tissue.

I took a small package of the material out of my bag, palming it and slipping it into a pocket. After a moment’s deliberation, I picked up my water bottle as well, shaking it a bit to confirm that it still had contents. I nodded at the light swishing sound that it produced, clipping it to my belt: later, I’d have to boil some snow and refill it, but that was enough for now. A bit of water over a number of balled tissue plugs, and we’d have more than enough ear protection to satisfy me. More than enough to take the edge off the almighty rumble that I was sure would be occurring shortly.

I mounted the ridge to find that the absol had joined Jive and Drake, settling in between the two. The three Dark types were gazing over the snow shelf, sitting next to the pile of relatively green wood that made the signal fire, with Jive and Drake giving the absol the occasional glance that had just a hint of concern about it. I had to admit, it was rather obvious that she hadn’t fully recovered yet, from her bedraggled fur to the obvious exhaustion that still clung to the edges of her muzzle. I could even see it from here, and I wasn’t close enough to make out the intricacies.

I carefully made my way down to where they were. I’d had dreams about sliding down a mountainside like this uncontrollably, and it had always made me wary of slopes like this, covered in stuff that might start me sliding right down them. Sliding down right into the bank of snow that would turn into an avalanche in a few minutes was a recipe for disaster. The three Pokemon turned their attention to me, the absol noting my presence before immediately turning back to the snow below us. Jive gave me a sharp toothed grin and turned his attention back to the distant blob that I realized was Blake, while Drake focused on the pack of tissues in my hands, before giving me a questioning look.

“I’ll warn you, this’ll be a little uncomfortable.” I said quietly, a little more worried about sound getting down and setting something off without the ridge to deflect it away. “But I think you’ll agree that a bit of material stuck in your ear is vastly preferable to being deafened when all that snow goes tumbling down the mountain, yeah?”

Drake growled softly, lips peeling back from his teeth, but I could see the reluctant acceptance in his eyes. Clearly, he knew exactly where I was going with this, and even though he really didn’t like it, he understood the necessity. With his hearing being a lot more sensitive than mine, he’d suffer a lack of hearing protection far more than I would, and I suspect that it would be outright painful on my part.

I popped open the water bottle, coaxing out just a bit of the water inside and wetting a tissue, before rolling it between my fingers to form a kind of pellet out of it. The tissue would form the main volume, and the water it was dampened with would provide a kind of seal, greatly deadening any sound. I’d have to rely on the vibration of my Nav to pick it up, but I wasn’t too worried about it.

Drake turned his head to the side, showing me his ear, though he was clearly reluctant about it. I couldn’t help but chuckle a little, which just got a pout out of the Dark type, before gently sliding the plug into his ear canal. He winced, eyes narrowing to slits as he shuddered: I couldn’t imagine feeling that was all that pleasant.

“One more, and that’ll be it, you big baby.” I said quietly.

Drake huffed, clearly trying not to shake his head and risk dislodging the little plug. Clearly, he knew that it would bring him immediate relief from the unpleasant sensation, and would mean that I would have to put another one in. That one done, I slid the other one in, making him shudder and growl in displeasure.

“You big baby. It wasn’t that bad.”

I stood up, prepping another for Jive, who easily accepted it. Though I had to do it for both him and the absol, owing to the fact that Jive’s clawed digits weren’t especially capable of fine work like this, each of them accepted it easily. Jive gave Drake a smug look as He stood up and stretched, the plugs firmly in his ears. The little hyena simply tried to ignore him as best he could.

The absol tried not to pay attention to the play by play as best she could, but I could still see the eyeroll that she couldn’t help. Still, there was a bit of amusement about her at the antics of the other Pokemon, so at least she wasn’t trying to be entirely stoic about everything. A good thing, I thought: keeping up that facade had to be exhausting, and I doubted that she was anywhere near recovered.

With the sound properly deadened for all of us, we gathered in a rough sort of line, looking out towards the pass and the snow below. Far in the distance, I could make out the coloured dots that were Ajax, Devi, and Arcanine, all positioning themselves around the snowbank and preparing to start weakening its grip on the mountainside. Their colouration stood out plainly against the white of the snow, though I found myself having to squint some from the reflection off the white surface.

As we watched, tracking the dots of flame among all the white frost, they began to flare. One after the other, fire billowed around them, orange and red and perfectly visible from our position high above them. It might have been my imagination, but I thought I could feel just a tiny bit of the heat they were giving off, a slight warming of the air around me.

Their flare lasted for several extended seconds, eating bites out of the snow around them and revealing some of the gray rocky surface of the mountainside underneath it. The gray then turned into a much darker colour as the melting snow soaked it, three patches of wet mountainside splashed over the large area, holes bored straight through the blanket that coated the mountainside. With that, their flames winked out, and I could see them retreating to the side and farther up the mountain, making sure that they didn’t get caught if more than the section they’d weakened began to go.

I could just see them spreading themselves out a bit above and a little to the side of the next section, the black dot that must be Blake in the center, when another movement drew my attention. There, hanging far above the snow, was the tiny winged figure that was Pidgeotto. It was a testament to her size that she looked like a particularly big bird from here, even though she was circling high enough over the soon to be avalanche to avoid the downdraft from that much mass moving downwards at high speed. She banked, coming around for one last inspection of the snowpack, before twisting in midair and raising her wings high.

Her form flashed with a light blue that glowed bright enough to be seen against even the clear morning sky. I could almost see the air itself bent as she brought her wings down, using that Flying type energy to manipulate the air currents to form a blade of wind that sped towards the ground. And, after a moment, I realized that I wasn’t imagining it: there was something passing through the air that looked almost like a ripple on a lake. It carried with it just a hint of that same light blue that had flared around the Flying type, allowing me to more easily locate it as it sliced through the intervening space. I managed to follow it until it smashed into the snow, where it immediately created a flurry of white like a cold explosion.

We hung there for a few breathless moments, watching that snow as the disturbed powder forming a cloud began to settle back to the ground. One breath, two, I could feel my heart beating a slightly higher rhythm in my chest, waiting for the moment that it all went sliding into the abyss.

As the seconds wore on, I realized that it wasn’t letting go, not yet. Glancing upwards, I could see that Pidgeotto and Kevan hadn’t waited, and were repositioning for another go at it. My mind flickered back, and I recalled the number of stress points that had been painstakingly marked out on the map of the pass, and it occurred to me what their goal must be. The Fire team had weakened the top anchor to the rock and soil of the mountain, at least the part that had been safe enough for them to get close enough to, and now they were slowly carving away at the linkages to the rest of the snow until a tipping point was reached. I’d stared at the map and listened to the basic briefing with the rest of them, but I hadn’t really put together the exact process they were intending to use until now.

I glanced around, finding another relatively large stone with a surface that was mostly flat and didn’t look especially uncomfortable. If this was any example for how today was going to go, this was going to be a long day of very careful movement and actions, with moments of excitement as each section of the snow shelf gave way. Might as well make myself semi comfortable while I waited.

Jive glanced my way, one of his eyes taking me in contemplatively, before turning his attention back to the mountainside. Following his gaze, I realized that he wasn’t watching Pidgeotto high above us, or the snow shelf below: no, he was tracking the small black dot in the distance that was Blake. There was something of worry behind that look, and it occurred to me how hard it had to be, being separated from his trainer when he was involved with something that was as dangerous as this. Even if we were taking every precaution that we possibly could, it was still a risk, and one that he clearly didn’t like despite understanding the necessity of it.

I shared a glance with Drake, who had clearly seen the same emotions behind Jive’s expression, though the little hyena wasn’t commenting on it. With the moment of playfulness passed and the seriousness of the situation setting in, he’d settled back into something a lot more like his normal stoic self, keeping a close and careful eye on the biggest visible threat while occasionally keeping tabs on me. I opened my mouth, intending to tell him to just come on over if he wanted to keep checking on me, before remembering the earplugs that I’d just put in both our ears.

Instead, I waited until the next time he looked in my direction, then waved him over. He seemed to debate a moment, before shrugging and dismissing whatever he was thinking about, padding over and leaping up onto the rock next to me and settling against my side. It hadn’t been my aim, but I couldn’t say that I didn’t appreciate the sudden warmth of the ball of fur against me.

I nearly jumped to my feet, however, when a deep bass rumble started shaking me to my core. The attention of all four of us snapped to the snowbank down the mountain from us, and the sudden clouds of powdered ice crystals that it was throwing into the air.

It was a strange experience, watching all that snow suddenly begin shifting downhill like that. I could see the moment that it cleaved itself from the thinner surrounding snow, the razor-straight lines that defined the snow that was sliding from the snow that wasn’t. As I watched, the rumble vibrating in my bones, it reminded me a bit of a tidal wave in how it seemed to flow over the surface. It almost precisely resembled the almost cloudlike foam of a large amount of water enveloping the land in front of it, flowing like angry rapids down the mountainside and leaving a huge dip in its wake.

It was almost as if a large chunk of the mountain itself had dissolved into a white liquid, and began pouring down towards the pass far below. It was almost disorientating, realizing how much of the land that had been there was just a large buildup of snow deposited in layer after layer. As I watched, feeling more than hearing the rumble it was making, it slammed with all the speed and energy of a train into the base of the pass.

In an odd bit of geography, there wasn’t a gentle slope as the steep face that defined this side of the pass turned into the flatter forested floor. While it wasn’t quite a right angle between the wall and the floor, the angle was too oblique for that, it was somewhat sharp. This meant that the snow didn’t just flow right into the bottom of the pass and lose energy: no, it slammed into the rocky dirt and trees, sending up another huge cloud of snow particles that showered the entire pass. Thankfully, the mass of snow didn’t make it far before its energy was sapped by the trees that stood in its way, but as far as I could see, it had made it over the Route.

That had been just one segment, and not even one of the thicker or larger deposits, but the first that had formed from the mouth of the pass. The energy and weight behind all that snow had been awe inspiring, and a little bit terrifying, to watch in action. I supposed that, despite the fact that I was now accompanied by quite a bit of firepower in literal and figurative terms, the terrible power of nature hadn’t actually changed all that much. Just something that held true, from one world to another.

We waited, hanging in suspense, to see if the next segment would follow the first down, disturbed by the sheer vibration that had conducted itself through the stone. Five minutes passed, then ten, before I relaxed and my shoulders fell a little bit: it wouldn’t be going on its own, then. I shared a look with Drake, and in his eyes, I saw a little bit of that same awe and wariness that I was feeling. In that moment, I felt a mix of relief that I wasn’t down there in the way, and a little more worry for Ajax, who was.

With the first section gotten out of the way, and the second not showing any new cracks or fatigue that seemed to be worrying them, the teams got to work figuring out their placement to begin weakening it. As before, the fireteam each chose their place on the mountainside, arranging themselves in a rough sort of line based on something that Pidgeotto and Kevan had picked out from the air. They flared again, evaporating the snow from the stone, and then retreated up and back as they did before, with Pidgeotto swooping in to gently carve away until it gave.

Section by section, that was how it went, with the two teams slowly working their way down the snowpack. We were making excellent enough time, each section following the last into the pass, some making it deeper than others into the trees. My little group picked ourselves up and moved farther down a number of times, keeping a close eye on things from afar, but I relaxed a little more with each section we tackled as it started to look less and less likely that they would need us to interfere.

I could see it in Jive as well, as the badge slowly relaxed. He went from standing constantly with his arms crossed, practically glaring down the mountain, to standing more casually, to finally settling down next to me whenever I found a new seat wherever we eventually moved to. I was glad for it, because the lack of movement meant that I wasn’t precisely making much heat, and the badger Pokemon was just a head shorter than me. That was a lot of warmblooded Pokemon with thick fur to make heat, and I found the three of us pressing together in a little arrangement to share heat each time we settled down.

The absol, however, forewent the practice. She was content to sit and stare out over the snow, or pace back and forth, concentrating on the various coloured dots that made up the humans and Pokemon working their way across the side of the pass. As the sun crept up overhead, I began watching her more than the activities of the teams working the snow, though I couldn’t help but stare in awe every time they set off a new section.

That was how I noticed that, as the day went on, her focus seemed to narrow and she seemed to get more agitated. I could make out her expression from here, whenever she turned her head in the direction of Blake and the fire team. Worry, yes, but mostly… confusion, concentration. Something seemed to be bothering her, setting her off just a little, but she didn’t seem sure what it was. And that, in turn, began to bother me.

I patted Jive’s arm, the badger obliging by shifting enough that I could push myself to my feet and knock some of the snow and dirt that clung to my pants in the aftermath. I glanced down the mountain, where they’d just finished waiting to see if the collapse of the previous section was going to cause the next to go as well. The fire team was repositioning itself, trying to figure out the right placing for each of them. That meant that I had a little time before they actually set off the next section, unless we got unlucky and this one went the moment that the fire team started melting it. That meant that there wouldn’t be any especially loud sounds until then, though, from the earlier segments, I was beginning to think that I’d been a little paranoid with the earplugs. Didn’t feel quite loud enough to hurt us any… but better to be careful than to regret, I supposed. Could never be too careful about these sorts of things.

Still, I walked over to the absol, raising a hand to my ear and gently teasing out the slightly dampened tissue that I’d stuck in there. I’d put up the hood of my jacket, meaning that my ears were warm to the touch of my colder fingers instead of freezing. I winced as it slid free, leaving the slightly damp interior of my ear exposed to the cold air. I tapped her on the shoulder, then took a step back in surprise as she practically jumped.

She almost immediately realized that it was just me, some of the tension and surprise leaching out of her shoulders and face, but she still sent searching glances down the mountainside. Searching for something, maybe? I turned, making a careful inspection, but I couldn’t… see anything out of the ordinary.

The work was still proceeding apace. The Fire types had apparently identified the places that they should be hitting, and had arranged themselves in their typical order, carefully turning up the heat as the snow turned to steam and water around them. I scrutinized the sections that they’d left behind, but there wasn’t much of interest there. A much thinner layer of snow covered the ground, frost covered boulders scattered across the surface, barren and rocky. For a moment, I thought that she might be worried about a rockslide to follow the avalanche, but… I wasn’t sure.

I turned back to her, and she looked at me, a somewhat helpless look stealing across her expression. Whatever was bothering her, it didn’t seem clear in the slightest, even to her. I drew her attention with a wave, then gestured to her ear: after a moment, she realised what I was after, and turned her head towards me so that I could take out one of her makeshift earplugs as well.

“Hey. Is something happening?” I said, low and serious. If the absol was picking up on it, then it had to be major, whatever it was. She hesitated, then nodded, once, sharp and sure. “Do you have a lock on it? Any idea what it is, when it’ll happen?”

She frowned. Her gaze slid through me, as if she was staring far into the distance, squinting as something at the range of her vision that only she could see. The concentration that occupied her expression was quickly eroded by frustration, until she finally gave up, shaking her head.

“So, is that a no, you don’t know what it is?” She nodded. “Do you have a feeling for how soon whatever is happening will happen?”

Another long look of concentration, and then more frustration. She dragged her claws against the ground, pacing back and forth, then set down with a huff and shook her head again. I grimaced, opened my mouth, but before I could say anything, she stood a little straighter and focused again.

I closed my mouth, watching her closely as she focused on whatever her mysterious abilities were telling her. I could feel the sudden focus from the other two Pokemon behind my back, Jive and Drake quickly picking up that something was going on, something that they might need to be worried about. I heard shuffling and looked back, finding Jive had pushed himself into a standing position and was surveying the mountainside like I had. There was an intense look in his eyes as he carefully scanned every inch of land, looking for what had attracted our attention, what had been going on. Drake, on the other hand, was looking at me instead, and he gave me a small nod as we made eye contact. I gave him a small smile in return, then turned back to the absol.

She had gone back to pacing, but her head snapped to me when I looked at her, the expression on her face somewhat grave. Something heavy and dense settled in the pit of my stomach, and I flexed my fingers.

“Is it happening soon?”

She nodded.

“Damn.” I muttered.

I slid my Nav out of my pocket, palming it and turning it on. The service had been severely spotty here in the pass, and down at the surface level, there wasn’t any reception at all. Up here, however, there were at least a couple bars, though I wasn’t sure what the reception of Blake and Kevan was. I quickly navigated through the menus, tapping Blake’s Nav number first. I put my Nav up to my ear, only for it to not ring at all.

I swore under my breath. Clearly, I had reception because I was closer to the entrance of the pass and had a better line of sight to whatever tower was giving signal to me, but Blake was deeper down the pass’ gullet. The stones and dirt that made up the mountain around him might’ve been blocking the signal, or maybe he just didn’t have as good a line of sight; whatever it was, he was out of direct contact. That didn’t mean, however, that Kevan was.

The Ranger in question picked up on the second ring.

“Cam, report.”

I could hear the seriousness in his voice, none of the typical energetic playfulness that he usually spoke of.

“Bad news, Absol’s spooked about something. I’m not sure if it’s the rest of the avalanche going or what, she can’t figure out what’s got her in a twist, but something’s going to happen. Soon. Might already be happening, I’m not sure.”

“Shit. Alright, did you raise Blake?”

I shook my head, then winced as I realized that he probably couldn’t make the gesture out even if he was staring in my direction.

“No, I can’t get through, I think he’s in a deadzone created by the mountains. His Nav doesn’t even ring, so I can’t get ahold of him.”

“Mm. I’ve got my radio, but he doesn’t have one.”

There was an extended moment of silence, punctuated only by the wind rushing over the microphone. I watched as Pidgeotto banked in a wide circle above us, and, if I really squinted and focused, I could just make out Kevan on her back, his head swiveling back and forth as he took in as much of the pass as possible, doing his level best to try and locate whatever had set Absol off from his higher position. Finally, he let out a sound of frustration into the headset.

“Damn, alright, we’re going to have to abort. Urgh, and we were making good time… alright. I’m going to sweep down and grab Blake, send him back towards the camp. You stay there, keep a watch; if anything happens, anything moves that’s not us, if you hear even the slightest strange noise? Light that bonfire, then bunker down with the Pokemon and hold out. Don’t leave the camp unless you absolutely have to, our tents might get wrecked and that’ll suck, but better the tent than you.”

“I have the Pokemon with me. I’ll be alright.”

I wanted to inject a bit of confidence into my voice, but, to my surprise, I found that I… didn’t need to. And, when I thought about it, that made sense. Jive, Drake, and Absol: between the three of them and myself, I’d be okay. Kevan and Blake were in more trouble than I was, down there and most likely much closer to the ground zero of whatever was going to happen.

“Alright. Take care of yourself. Don’t do anything risky.”

I smiled. “I’ll have you know that I’m very risk averse.”

“Tauros shit. See you back at camp.”

The Nav in my hand clicked, the call closed. I looked upwards, watching as Pidgeotto and Kevan spiraled down. The Fire types and Blake, obviously having noticed that Kevan was coming down to them, gathered together, a number of dots on the slope framed by the-

My head twitched. I stared out at the mountainside, sure that I’d seen… something. Something that had ticked some kind of box in that part of your brain that handles visual movement in your peripheral vision, a bit of evolutionary hardware that let you see the tiger shifting slightly in a bush to your side. My gaze roamed the blank, empty areas that had been left empty of snow, trying to figure out what I’d so briefly seen, what had set me off. But there wasn’t anything to see, just the rocks, the dirt, the covered trees, the snow, the-

The boulders. The boulders were in a slightly different arrangement. And, instantly, that heavy thing in my stomach got a whole lot heavier.