Chapter 2: Whispers

The experience of traversing through an unconscious mind was just similar enough to the usual, awake existence to prompt those who had done it to attempt to describe it with regular, commonplace terms, but also just different enough for these same terms to fall far short. The analogy Aria opted for most of the time was a walk through a sparse forest or an orchard, with each tree its own memory, and related memories bundled together.

Of course, this analogy too was woefully flawed. Trees- most trees at least- didn't move or change shape in real time, had reasonable minimum and maximum sizes, and couldn't conjoin themselves with other trees in a way that sounded gruesome to imagine with literal trees, but only made sense in the quasi-dreamscape Aria was now walking through. A dreamscape that even knowing the underlying truth of what she'd have to do, stripped of the layers of abstraction inherent in an analogy, couldn't have prepared Aria for.

It was far from her first time diving into an unconscious mind like that, and even if their owners weren't awake to help guide her towards what she needed to see, she usually had no issue with finding her way towards the specific events or knowledge she was interested in. This one was different. It was... darker, murkier, the usual fog that shrouds asleep minds so thick in here she could barely see even a few feet in front of herself.

This must've been what a comatose mind was like.

With a bit more focus, Aria attempted to at least clear the way in front of herself, pushing the fog back just back enough to have some breathing room before delving in deeper into the murky realm, examining every "tree" she passed by, looking around rather blindly for the child's recent memories. In most circumstances, they'd be the first thing she saw in here, but it was very clear by now that these were not most circumstances she was dealing with.

Her own unease at what she would end up finding in here wasn't helping one bit, fueled steadily by the scattered noises, bits of human speech, and especially distant screams she could heard echoing through this dark, cold place. And from the best of her ability to make out, the screams were coming from multiple voices.

Fortunately for Aria's resolve they weren't too common, lest the whole thing devolved into a haunted cacophony, but when they did reach her, different each time, sometimes sounding painful, sometimes wrathful, Aria couldn't help but feel a shiver after a shiver run down her back and fin.

The sooner she finds her answer and gets out of there the better.

As dark and foggy as this place might've been, it was only a temporary setback- her dislike of empty flattery aside, Aria was good at this, following along the whatever traces of awareness she could sense, bringing her closer and closer to where the child's consciousness faded last. Or more realistically, was abruptly cut off in some way. Unnervingly enough, the closer she got, the louder and more frequent the shrieks around her became, and at times she could just barely glimpse shadowy outlines just at the edges of her vision.

She knew she had nothing to fear- they weren't real, merely a reflection of how the beings that had cast them haunted the poor mind she was wading through, herself only caught in the crossfire of the child's subconscious torturing itself- but hell if it provide an even better motivation to up her pace and get through it all sooner. And considering the hour of the day and the relative emptiness of her stomach, get some breakfast afterwards.

It was hard to estimate just how long it took for her to find what she was looking for, could've been anywhere from minutes to hours- all that Aria knew was that she was becoming desensitized to the unnerving stimuli around her at a pace her aware mind would've found disturbing, before taking one more step and finally seeing it. The sapling of a memory looked almost paradoxical, dead and alive in equal measure, most of the trunk wilting away as the branches and leaves continued to grow. Traumatic start, with an indeterminate conclusion.

She would do everything in her power to make that conclusion a good one, but first, she needed to see how it had began...

__________________________________________

keep going keep going

i'm so tired

keep going

it's so cold

keep going

my legs hurt

i can't stop now

i can't turn back

i can't ever stop

The point of view Aria was forced into was far from a clear one, in a very literal way. The corners of the human's vision were blurred beyond all comprehension, and even the center looked slightly frosted over, obscuring the scene even further. A scene that was far from clear to begin with, the human surrounded in almost complete darkness with the exception of a weak light source located below her point of view, illuminating the snow covered path immediately ahead.

Past the initial disorientation, she could make out the T-shaped part of that massive metal contraption in the lower part of the child's vision, and judging by the view was shifting around her, they were using it for locomotion of some sort, bolting forward at a decent speed, but the point of view she was forced into did not clarify a whole ton as to how it worked. Confounding as the visual stimuli might've been, the sounds she heard were much clearer, if painting a rather bleak picture in themselves- rumble of the contraption's wheels against snow and dirt, the forest ambiance that surrounded them, the human's increasingly strained panting and whining, and their own racing heart.

how long still

it's so far

what was that noise

please be just me

i'm so tired

The memory was murky in more than just audiovisual sense, with the human's entire thought process appearing to have almost melted into one continuous stream, any specific focus or idea difficult to make out from the mental flood. What wasn't difficult to make out though, was the sheer amount of fear that underlined the entire stream of consciousness, fear and strain at what this little one was pushing themselves through, together with steadily growing exhaustion that made each motion on this contraption increasingly painful, the little one wanting nothing more than to be able to stop, even if just for a moment-

But they couldn't. Whatever they were afraid of wouldn't let them.

i can't stop now

keep going

i want to go home

keep going

keep going

keep going

can't turn back now

Despite the growing panic in the child's thoughts, the view itself scarcely changed at all, the human path they were following cutting through the woods in a perfectly straight path for the most part, letting Aria try to dissect the panic filling the human's head, and hopefully make out what it was they were so afraid of. No matter how hard she tried to do that though, she couldn't figure that specific part out- the little one was running away from home, that much was clear, but the underlying reason why didn't cross the child's mind even once, making for a confusing, but no less disturbing spectacle.

A spectacle with a foregone conclusion no less.

my legs hurt

how much more

need to stop for a moment

need to catch my breath

can't

can't

CAN'T

they're already after me

have to be

or maybe they're not

The view changed slightly as the child squinted towards something barely visible in the distance, soon determined to be a fallen log cutting the forest path in half, forcing the the human to slow down a bit as they approached, whole body shaking harder and harder.

need to stop

carry bike over

have to stop

maybe catch a breath

i'm thirsty

just a couple min-

"ANNE!"

To the best of Aria's ability to tell, the sound the child heard was little more than the echo originating from their own mind, not unlike what she had heard while making her way through their subconscious. It couldn't not have been that- it was much too clear, too directionless to be anything but that- but it didn't matter.

CAN'T STOP

GO AROUND

KEEP GOING

CAN'T GO BACK

What mattered, was that the girl thought it was real, that she did just hear her own name being barked out by a gruff, masculine voice, whole body becoming gripped with fear even tighter as she bolted onwards, eyes frantically scanning the path ahead.

GO AROUND

THROUGH THE TREES

CAN'T STOP

THERE

With a yanking motion, the view swerved into the tree line, making its way around the fallen tree, uneven terrain turning an already barely coherent scene into even more of a blurry mess, light grunts of pain escaping the girl with every rougher spot as she kept giving it her all, body screaming for a reprieve that wouldn't come.

hurts

everything hurts

legs hurt

can't stop

don't let me stop

The view continued to rattle on as the human made their way through the trees at scary speeds, view madly glancing from side to side, trying to find a way to make it back up onto the road without stopping, the density of the woods around her turning that task nearly impossible.

ow ow ow

back to the road

can't stop

just keep going

ow

there has to be an opening ahead

hurts

head hurts

Despite the by now nearly delirious state she was in, Anne eventually spotted a way back onto the road, focusing on it enough to not notice the ravine that was quickly closing in on her current path from the other side as she pushed the contraption she rode on to its, and her limit.

there

THERE

don't stop

keep at it

it's gonna be over soon

i'll be safe

safe

hurts

Anne let out a strained grunt as she pushed on just that bit harder, body turning even slower and more wobbly as she exerted as much of herself as she could, turning the contraption to scale the incline and get back onto the path-

Only for the snow and ground under her to finally give in, the crumbling edge of ravine dragging her in along with itself, toppling the contraption and the human that rode it, Anne's eyes getting the barest of glances at the utter darkness she was now falling into before turning skyward.

For a couple of heartbeats there was nothing, no more thought, no more action, Anne's breath stuck in her own throat. Only after she was already firmly into freefall, staring down the brilliant moon above, did more thoughts come through, slow and staggered.

i'm gonna die

i don't want to die

i don't want to die

i'm sorry ember

please don't let it hurt-

__________________________________________

And then, the vision tore itself apart in an instant, Aria getting violently ejected from underneath the girl's skull cap with enough force to physically stagger her, the violence of it all stunning her for a couple moments. Once she came back to, she found herself watching the child in front of her shake fearfully in her own dreams, the limbs that weren't paralyzed jostling as if trying to run away from an impossible threat, her expression twisted in fear.

"Aria, are you alright!? You were gone or almost an hour, what's- what's going on?"

The Weavile might have been actively struggling to stay awake at this point, only managing so because of wanting to keep a watch on her friend, but at this point everything was looking rather worrisome- Aria looked thoroughly spooked, the human was suddenly having some sort of a nightmare, and neither could immediately speak up about what had just happened.

The psychic did not immediately respond, snapping herself out of her daze before walking back up to the bed and laying a hand on the child's forehead, a short moment of focus driving away the nightmare with a bit of applied Calm Mind- though at this point, she could've probably used some as well.

"They- she- was running for her life."

Silence fell over the room as everyone processed her words, including the two other scouts that until now just sat off to the side, examining the formerly moving contraption or just taking a nap, all eyes in the room now firmly on Aria and the human as the psychic continued to hold her hand on the girl's head. Soon enough, the little one started to calm back down, gradually returning to as peaceful of a slumber as was possible after a crash like that as Aria began lightly stroking her hair.

"Running for her life from what in specific?"

"I'm... uncertain, she was too exhausted to think coherently. All I gathered is that she was running away from home and couldn't turn back, and was probably running away from someone in particular, some other human, though I don't know who that was."

She didn't want to move, didn't want to let go of this scared, traumatized child, her innermost nature calling for her to protect her as much as she could, only eventually being overruled by the realization that she already was. Belatedly, Aria finally took her hand away, hoping Anne's dreams wouldn't include any more recollections of what she'd been through.

"Can't you dive in its head again and find that part out?"

"I'd rather spare her the pain for now- not like any other human is gonna find her here anyway."

Her tone made it clear that she wouldn't be budging from that position, having felt more than enough second hand trauma for a good while.

"I suppose with that in mind keeping her here until we know more would be the reasonable thing to do, even once she does sufficiently recovers enough to be transported. Little point in potentially exposing her to much the same danger she nearly died running away from."

There was nearly unanimous agreement in the room with that notion, the peril the human in question had been in making most everyone see her in a very different light, even if the mystery at the root of it all remained unanswered.

Not a whole lot they could do about it all at the moment though.

"Guess that's about it for now then?"

"Pretty much, yeah. Go get some rest Ruby, we can take care of her stuff on our own."

With the question she was actually asking answered in the way she preferred, the Weavile could sigh out loud with a nod and turn in the direction of the exit, sending everyone off with a wave.

"Have a good day everyone- and keep Mikiri off of all this stuff, I'd rather not find her workshop in pieces when I wake up."

After a sendoff like that, the rest of the group wasted no time in preparing to leave as well, Ori hoisting the metal contraption over his shoulder as if it didn't weigh anything at all as Aria put all the assorted items back into the human's sack, closing the metal seam once more before Psychicing it and the other clothes- the ones the girl was probably wearing when she crashed- up together into the air.

Yep, definitely the ones she was wearing when she crashed, the reek of blood Aria could recognize anywhere, why did she had to disturb that pile, ugh...

"Can I help with anything?"

Lumi wasn't exactly in the position to carry a whole ton, maybe the bag in his mouth- but with how little it weighed, there was no immediate need for that, especially not while he could be otherwise useful.

"No, we're good I think. Though- if you could run ahead to Holly's and get us some breakfast in advance that'd be very appreciated."

Rumbling of her stomach was the only comment she needed to motivate the Luxray into action, the hound nodding eagerly before charging out, leaving the two remaining scouts to begin their morning trek over to the other side of their village. Aria looked over her shoulder one last time, watching one of the medics check up on the girl as she wished she could do more for her in the moment, before taking a deep breath and following Ori out- they had their own duties to take care of, and fulfilling them was the best way they had of keeping this little one safe.

__________________________________________

The walk was fortunately uneventful when it came to the cargo they were carrying with themselves, the human items continuing to be as inert as chunks of metal, cloth and other materials could be. Unfortunately, that didn't extend to the passersby, the massive contraption and the large bundle of cloth alike attracting a lot of attention, only feeding further into all the rumors that were surrounding them from before they had even left the medics' tent.

At times, the news spread downright annoyingly fast here.

As they marched on, the pair had to answer questions about a scary human in their midst what felt like every other minute or so, some of the queries in particular becoming rather absurd as the rumors evolved and twisted on themselves- they were the guardians of this place though, and a part of their duty was assuaging the fears about this most definitely unusual visitor.

That didn't make the third question in a row about the half dead child recovering from a traumatic incident actually being a ""trainer"" or a poacher that was trying to eye out easy prey any less eyeroll worthy. Especially since even if that was the case, Anne wouldn't have any of her toys with her once she woke back up, so unless the humans had developed an uncanny ability of kidnapping other living beings just by looking at them in the meantime, they would all be more than safe.

Much to Aria's relief, not everyone seemed to be so thoroughly, downright unreasonably afraid of their unintentional guest.

"I-is the human okay?"

The chirped out words got both scouts looking up at their source, determining it to be one particular Dartrix that had decided to perch on top of the contraption's metal handle. Ori was quite literally too strong to care, not even having noticed her landing there while Aria rolled her eyes just a bit before responding-

"She's not doing the best Blossom, but is already much better than when your mom found her thanks to our medics."

The owlet nodded somberly at the news- guess it was good that they were being tended to, even if they still were in a rough state. With how hard they had apparently been injured, guess it only made sense for them to need a long while to feel better.

"O-okay. A-are the r-rumors true?"

"You will have to be more specific than that Blossom."

"U-um- i-is she r-really just a ch-child?"

Blossom's ordinarily sleepy expression grew much more startled at the crazy rumor turning out to be true as both scouts nodded firmly in response, the owlet having a hard time not inadvertently empathizing with the stranger in a situation like that.

"Oh g-gosh. H-her parents m-must be s-so scared..."

Her own mom would likely scour every single last inch of the woods were something like this to happen to her- and even if humans couldn't fly, with all the wild things they were purported to be able to do they probably had some other way of accomplishing the same goal. It was a fact that the pair below her was also acutely aware of- the longer all this took, the higher the odds were that humans would eventually stumble upon them while searching for the girl, possibly even not in any way that they could themselves detect before it was too late.

A nightmarish situation no matter the way they sliced it.

"Yeah, they likely are. The medics will do what they can to get her back into shape as fast as they can though, so hopefully she'll be back home safe before they can get to searching too much, we gotta believe in them."

Blossom nodded firmly at that, wanting to support their medics as much as she could with that- even if it meant not getting any ouchies on herself in the meantime to not take up any of their attention. She also wanted to help the human directly in some way- she might not have known much about humanity in general, nowhere near as much as her mom, but being friendly was universal enough.

"Mhm! O-oh- could I v-visit her once she feels b-better? She's g-gotta be so lonely i-in here..."

"She's still unconscious Blossom, so sadly no. Even once she comes to we won't let her see much more of our village though, she's not supposed to know it exists. Once she feels good enough, we'll have to make her forget she saw any of this before she goes back home anyway."

Bleh, that was gonna be a messy job and Aria wasn't looking forward to it in the slightest, especially with the danger the girl had been in still being so uncertain.

"Awwh... b-but, if she'll f-forget it all, w-w-won't it e-end up n-not mattering wh-what she sees?"

"I know what you mean, but it doesn't work like that sweetie. It's not as simple as was just snapping my fingers and bam, she doesn't remember any of this anymore, it's slow and messy, and there's always a risk of me either forgetting to erase something which could have her potentially remembering it all bit by bit, or worse- erasing too much on accident. The less there's to erase, the lower the chance something goes wrong like that."

The Dartrix thought through Aria's words for a moment before slumping a bit with a nod- it wasn't fair, she just wanted to help and offer the poor human some friendship, but she couldn't even do that.

"It sucks, I know sweetie. It's still very nice of you to offer that though- and who knows, maybe once you're older and your mom lets you fly all the way over to the human village you'll find her there and be able to become her friend then?"

It was certainly a Farfetch'd theoretical to be sure, but one that managed to lift Blossom's spirits up a bit, the owlet fantasizing about that possibility.

"Yeah! I hope I'll be able to do that... u-um, wh-where are you taking her things anyway?"

"We are taking them to Mikiri's burrow for storage."

That made sense, if there's anyone who knew how to handle human things it was Mikiri- but if there was anyone who knew how to break human things, it was also Mikiri, and after one too many accidental fire her tinkering had started, Blossom knew better than to get too close to her cobbled deathtrap of a burrow.

"O-oh, I hope it goes w-well! U-um, I have to go now!"

Without wasting any more time for politeness, Blossom took her leave, flying up high in the cold air in the exact direction away from their destination, Aria barely able to hold in a chuckle at overhearing her thought process. She had to admit though- it's not like it was baseless, herself growing a little antsy as they neared the burrow.

The structure itself escaped easy description- it was massive compared to the other dwellings in the village, embedded into the the side of a large hill, and made of equal parts mud, stone, brick, wood, and several of those weird wavy metal plates that humans kept occasionally littering the woods with.

It was chaos, but to best of everyone's knowledge, it was at least somewhat controlled chaos.

Chaos from the inside of which was coming some loud rumbling at the moment, the scouts glancing at each other before Ori knocked on the oversized door- at least relative to the inhabitant's actual size.

The rumbling ceased shortly afterwards, the newfound silence soon followed by heavy shuffling and quick steps in the direction of the door, before the lower of the two door handles turned to open the patchwork door. Mikiri herself wasted no time before stepping out and looking up at the unexpected visitors, eyes and a good chunk of her face covered by something neither of the two scouts knew how to exactly describe- black, reflective, vastly oversized eye coverings, with thin extensions that wrapped around her head, tied with some string at the back and over on top.

Her front mouth conveyed the expression of 'what now' without the need of any words, though that changed the moment she noticed the metal mess on Ori's shoulder, pointing at it right away, not wasting any time for greetings-

"That! Gimme that!"

"Mikiri, these aren't for you to toy around with."

The Mawile was about to protest loudly, though considering the fact that she really didn't want to miss out on the opportunity to at least inspect a non-corroded instance of that particular human contraption in closer detail, she just took in a deep breath, eye coverings still on her face, before asking more calmly-

"Alrighty. What's all this then?"

"I take you've already heard of the human ending up in-"

"Human? What human?"

Her head and maw alike tilted to the side, both left slightly agape as she waited for an explanation.

"We take you have not gone out today yet."

"Not until I get that dumb mess inside to stop getting stuck every few minutes, just can't get these dumb gears to align right, ugh- but that's all besides, what human? A useful one?"

"A young girl that almost died on the outskirts of the village tonight, and is now in the medics' tent until she recovers."

That kind of response was enough to chill the Mawile's enthusiasm significantly- both because it was just a messed up situation, and because she was very doubtful someone in that state could provide much of an explanation of a few trinkets she had been wondering about. And that was assuming Aria would facilitate such an exchange anyway to begin with, which sure didn't sound likely either, not with how stern her expression was at the moment.

"That's... rough. What about this thing then, is it hers?"

"Yes, it is. But we're not moving it here for you to take it apart, but because... sigh, there isn't exactly anywhere else where all that'd fit, so we now ask you to keep an eye on it in your workshop."

"And trust you not to meddle with it."

With both scouts thinking an unspoken "too much" afterwards.

Using up some of the space in her spacious burrow in exchange for getting to take a closer look about one of these things in not as bad of a condition as the others she'd stumbled on while searching through the woods? Deal she'd take any day, even if it implied her not being allowed to really inspect the thing and make out what makes it tick- or what its purpose even is.

"Hmmmmm- deal. What's all the rest of that and why does it smell of blood?"

"These are her other belongings, a bag of clothes and a couple other items, and the clothes she was wearing at the time of her accident."

"...why so many clothes?"

"Why are you wearing this thing on your face?"

Aria couldn't wait with the pressing question any longer, Mikiri just blinking somewhat dumbfoundedly in response before realizing that she, in fact, was wearing something on her front face. She proceeded to reach behind her head to untie the string that held the object on her face, holding it up afterwards for the scouts to gawk at.

"Helps a ton with sun glare. Or when Fire Fanging metal together. Or when stuff messes up and there's a ton of sparks everywhere all of a sudden. No clue what it actually is though- looks cool at least."

The final point was accentuated by the Mawile putting the thingie back on her front face once more, re-tying the string behind her head as she led her guests in, the inside unusually well lit for her standards, sunroof opened up all the way.

Most of the actual space on the inside was taken up by a large mess of gears, both rust covered metal ones and very makeshift looking stone and wood ones, all connected to a grindstone in an arrangement that the scouts knew better than to even attempt to understand. The only part that was reasonably easy to make sense of was a crank at the side of it all, placed high enough that it required a small ladder next to it just for the Mawile to be able to reach it.

"Just drop it off in the back- though I gotta ask, what's up with that bag? Not seeing any openings there."

Despite the intensity of the cool factor of her recently acquired eye coverings, Mikiri couldn't deny them being slightly cumbersome to use in the dimmer parts of her burrow, blinking a couple times as she took them off all the way, maw holding onto one of the side things as she inspected the pile of humanstuff in her house.

"There is a peculiar mechanism within it. It requires one grabs the loose bit and pulls it across the metal seam."

Intrigued, the Mawile did as instructed, eyes going wide with the ease that the formerly hole-less bag was opened, the fairy experimenting a few times just opening and closing it repeatedly, inspecting the weird lines of metal teeth on the sides of the seam, hands and maw already itching for more tinkering- But then, on a second thought, she didn't even have to look up at Aria to know that she wouldn't exactly be the most approving of that, just zipping the bag closed once more and sighing loudly before half groaning, and half asking-

"You sure you can't let that human stay just so that I can take a real look at their stuff?"

"Only if you house her here, keep her safe and content, keep her from escaping, *and* fend off all the dozens of humans that will come in search of her."

"You're driving a hard bargain there, but I might just-"

She might not have been even tangentially related to any Ice types, but Aria's glare was very good at freezing people in their tracks, her expression subtly but firmly conveying the intent of "this isn't funny".

"You're a killjoy at times Aria."

"Better killjoy than even consider letting us all do something we're more than likely to really regret. I'm already dreading when the first of their 'search party' will show up, though Lucere will at least inform us of that when it happens."

"Something tells me that you and your brother won't have too much of an issue in leading a couple clueless humans astray when that happens."

"Maybe not the first time, no, but that same something tells me they won't give up after just one search, and sooner or later they'll force themselves here- hopefully the girl is off of our hands long before that can happen."

"Then why not just dump her back on their doorstep and not have to worry about any of that? Y'know, return to sender and all that."

"She is much too badly injured for that."

"That and because she almost died while running for her life away from something or someone, and until we can figure out what it is, we'd rather not leave her in certain danger."

Well, shoot.

Mikiri slowly nodded as her every idea was shot down, finally drained of enough momentum to think things through, briefly whistling to herself afterwards before admitting the obvious-

"Sounds like you've got a big ol' bloody mess on your hands."

Both scouts could only sigh and nod in response, this was way too much to think about on an empty stomach this late in the morning.

"Well- don't let me hold you up then, you gotta do what you gotta do to keep this whole place safe, and hopefully it won't include a humanling kicking the bucket in all this mess."

But if she does, dibs on all this stuff.

Aria was about to scold her for that thought, but considering all the emotional rollercoaster she'd already been through this morning, she couldn't help but burst giggling instead at just how abruptly grim and morbid the joke was, all the while making Ori look at her with visible concern.

"P-pffft, c-can't promise dibs on anything, and hopefully it won't come to that to begin with, yeah. Take care Mikiri."

"Ha, and you best don't go mad over all this- someone's gotta keep your brother in check from getting too annoying after all."

Truly, her most important duty.

With a light stretch of their limbs, the pair of scouts left the spacious burrow, Aria's mental reach closing the door behind them as they faced the village quickly getting to its busiest, the winter sun not too far from its zenith already.

"Breakfast?"

"Right frickin' away, my stomach is already beginning to scream at me."

Ori didn't have to be told twice, his step as brisk as possible as they both departed towards the pantry, metal-enhanced exoskeleton and psychic levitation alike helping in getting there as fast as possible short of direct Teleport.

Which certainly was an option, but one that'd also leave Aria even more exhausted this early in the day, and the little of the future she could intuit told her there would be a lot more of this mess left to deal with first before any rest could be considered.

"Do you think humans can eat Holly's cooking?"

"Considering she told me a decent chunk of her cooking was inspired by human recipes she'd heard about, I'd guess so."

"How does the idea of saving some for the girl once she wakes up sound then?"

"Hah, a welcome gift?"

"It feels to me like she could use one after all that. In addition- nobody has ever not felt better after having some of Holly's food."

Ain't that the truth.

"Yeah, good call Ori."

The increasingly less distant scent of freshly baked goods only encouraged the two scouts to keep at their haste, rumbling in their stomachs making them keep up tempo until the pantry was finally in sight- a somewhat towering structure of brick and stone, partially underground, doubling as Holly's dwelling, and smelling absolutely delicious.

If not for the morning rush having already passed some time ago, Lumi might likely still have been waiting in the queue for their portions. On the other hand, knowing the Azumarill cook and how chatty she was, she would have probably offered them a shortcut through the queue in return for some info right from the source about the one topic that everyone was chatting about today anyway.

Not like that hasn't happened in the past.

To their stomach's joy, Lumi had already waited his time, biting into a piece of pastry as he lied down next to the pantry's counter, on top of which a couple puff pastries were waiting for the other scouts, kitchen's ambient heat keeping them warm. The approaching steps got the Luxray to look up at his coworkers, a light stretch that followed discharging all the builtup static into the snowy ground around them.

"Got Mikiri under control?"

"As much as anyone can hope to, yeah."

"So, not at all?"

Aria just rolled her eyes in response as a shimmering aura surrounded both her eyes and the freshly baked foodstuffs, levitating them over for the two weary scouts to grab and feast upon. After swapping them of course, since roll fortified with metal shavings would likely... not go along too well with her fairy physiology.

As they were about to bite into their meals, the cook herself noticed their arrival, a drawn out whistle catching their attention as they were waved over, the Azumarill on her toetips on top of a stool to make sure they noticed her. It was incredibly hard not to notice, and that applied for Holly's presence in general.

"Oi! Grumpypaws there wouldn't say anything about the whole affair, but I know you two were there too, get to spillin'!"

The front counter of the bakery was unceremoniously opened before the fairy walked out of it, placing a stool for herself in the snow to sit on and stare at the scouts expectantly from.

"I imagine an appropriate place to start from is to ask how much have you heard already." - Much as Ori was disappointed at being unable to avoid the gossipy questioning from the cook, he figured he could at least skip some of it by not being redundant.

"A whole lot of nonsense is what I've heard. Human in a medical tent, and then everyone tells the rest of it differently- I need the truth babes, and only the truth."

Guess they wouldn't be skipping anything after all.

"Well, to be more accurate, a human girl-"

"Wait wait wait, you mean just a young'un?"

A firm nod confirmed Holly's suspicions, fairy appearing to be genuinely surprised at that turn of events, something rarely seen from her.

"Well I'll be damned. So a kid got themselves messed up enough to need our help bad enough to get taken in eh? That's... poor thing."

"Yeah, it's awful. Especially since it looks like she was running away from something, or someone-"

"Wait wait wait a bloody minute, a kid running for her life? Don't they literally have a town a couple hours from here?"

"That is where she came from to the best of our knowledge."

The Azumarill silently mouthed out something that was probably obscenities before shaking her head, eyes wide at the insanity of it all.

"So what, did a bloody Tyranitar just stroll in there and level the place? Why would she be running?"

"Well, we- we just don't know yet. I'll have to dig into it deeper, just not today to spare her any more stress."

"Can't y'all send someone over to check up on their town in the meantime? This- this makes no sense!"

"If something that big had happened to their town I would imagine we would see a lot more than a single child try to flee from there."

"That and from what I could make out, it felt like she was running from another human and not a mon or some sort of natural disaster- if it was the latter we'd probably feel it over here too."

"Not like we have the spare manpower to keep an eye on their weird settlement either."

Lumi's addition in particular shut down Holly's idea- this was the one time where they really couldn't afford to divert anyone from their regular scouting duties to report how the nearby humans were doing, not with the heightened risk of them sending their own reconnaissance at the same time.

Holly pondered through it all for an approximate three seconds before groaning in frustration- from the outside it sounded like an absolute mess and even her hyperactive brain couldn't figure out any of it.

"Whoever it was that hurt her best sleep lightly, if I ever get my hands on them I'll make them fear water alright."

With the associated grumbling and smacking of the bulbous tail against the snow, Holly was done her anger out, switching gears into trying to be more constructive-

"And until then, might as well make her something nice. Now what do humans like..."

"Cruelty?"

Lumi's badly timed joke was rewarded with his head becoming surrounded in a bright, shimmering aura before being forced down, faceplanting into the snow.

"She's unconscious, so probably something that can be reheated without too much difficulty and can last a couple days. And... thanks Holly, we actually meant to ask you earlier if you could do something like this, make something for her once she wakes up."

Holly scoffed at that, flicking her wrist limply, a prideful smile creeping onto her expression soon afterwards.

"Babes, babes, thought you knew me better than this- of course I'll cook for anyone who needs their stomach filled, that's hardly even a question. I'm already itching with ideas... Salac to give her a kick of energy once she's back up, Pecha to help fight off any disease, Kasib for flavor... oh oh oh am I loving it already. Now, you three!"

The Azumarill's sudden call startled the scouts to a greater or lesser extent as she picked her stool up and moved it back into the pantry, almost diving into cooking there and then before remembering to follow up-

"Enjoy your meals! And good luck with your duties, not like y'all need it, hah! Keep safe."

__________________________________________

With their portions wrapped up, the scouts departed for their duties shortly afterwards, an couple Agilities letting Aria get to the area of the forest she patrolled in a relatively short amount of time without exerting her too much in the process. "Too" was definitely the key word in that sequence, but thankfully the Gardevoir could perform her role even during the downtime of catching her breath and slowing down to a relaxed walk, focusing inward to sense as many other living beings as she could in the vicinity, trying to sense any possible humans.

Most of the time, her shifts were very uneventful- the forest in which their village might have been located might've been sandwiched in between two human settlements, one of which being very sizable, but very few humans ever ventured far enough in to be of any real danger, even their neat path that cut through the woods seeing maybe a couple people a day if even that. Still, they had to remain ever vigilant, because if even one human knew the truth and walked away with it, the rest would inevitably know too in not too long, and once that happened, they were doomed.

That aspect of the beings they were so diligently hiding from always made Aria think they were some sort of a hive mind collective organism- but apparently that wasn't the case, which only confused her more growing up. For the longest time, she didn't really get why humanity learning of their village would inevitably result in a catastrophe until one elder explained it to her like this.

There were just too many humans to handle. Their village had a few hundreds the last time they counted, the larger of the two nearby human settlements had thousands upon thousands. Even if only a tenth of the humans therein wished them harm, that still meant thousands that wanted them gone, each with access to their devices, and more disconcertingly, mons they enslaved to do their fighting for them. They would be pathetically outmatched, and that's not even counting reinforcements coming from other, much more distant, much larger settlements, which apparently was also a real possibility.

The sheer scale of the human world made her head spin whenever she even attempted to comprehend any of it.

For once, it seemed that she wouldn't spend all day walking along her route between a couple abandoned human structures without ever spotting anyone, her mind spotting a distinctively human aura in the distance, snapping her away from pondering and back to reality.

Sneaking up on them was much easier than she had thought growing up. Full invisibility, while possible, was difficult and draining to maintain, but it wasn't nearly necessary much of the time- all she needed to do was to make herself hard to notice and most other living beings, mons or humans alike, suddenly grew almost completely blind to her presence, their eyes glazing right over the place she stood and into the rest of the forest whenever she had accidentally made a noise.

Though just to be sure, she mentally reached over and blocked all of the stimuli coming from her from registering for them whenever she got close enough to see them as a precaution. Ideally she'd be able to redirect them without them ever noticing, her typing awarding her that leg up above most other scouts that had to resort to intimidation much of the time. Which was just as effective no doubt, but always carried the potential risk to result in more attention down the line, especially if it was being done by a scout whose species didn't live here natively.

Part of why Ori handled other mons that would think to predate on them instead. That and he just really wasn't good at being particularly intimidating beyond his appearance, tried as he might.

Fortunately for Aria, the human she was sneaking up on seemed to be there on her own, though it's not like a companion would've been much of an issue for her either, unless it happened to be a Dark type of course. After making sure he wasn't able to see, hear, or otherwise perceive her at all, she dove into his surface thoughts, the human stopping to look around at the sudden sensation of being watched.

Well, the immediate good news was that the human had nothing to do with Anne. The slightly worse news was that she was a "birdwatcher", and that she was venturing over in the approximate direction of their village in order to get "photos" of the Rowlet family after hearing about them being here. Aria had no idea what some of that meant, but the Rowlet part was clear at least- and also odd, Sprout was much better than to ever let herself get spotted by whoever she was observing... sigh, Blossom has been getting out there on her own hasn't she? Something to bring up once she's back.

And in the meantime-

"There aren't any Rowlet in these woods. Whoever told you that made it up."

Her mental utterances were much less words and more so commands, a light form of Hypnosis letting her steer the human's thoughts without ever making them realize anything was afoul.

"There's nothing to see here. Also you... uh... forgot about a "stove" back at home."

She wasn't sure whether that particular suggestion would accomplish much beyond confusing the human further, most of the concepts she dredged up from within their mind only partial at best- but this one seemed like it worked almost too well, the human letting out a startled gasp before turning around on a dime, upping their pace heavily as they started to retread their steps, a heavy bag bouncing on their back.

That went smoothly, thank gods-

"Aria, Aria!"

The bird cries were loud enough that the Gardevoir worried for a hot moment about the human doubling back to investigate them further- but even that worry slipped from her mind as she watched Lucere perch down on a low branch, the Altaria only taking a quick breath before continuing-

"The humans are on their way! They're looking for the girl!"

Aria's attention narrowed in an instant, a firm nod acknowledging the other scout's words before prying in further-

"How many, where, how far along are they?"

"Two with one mon, following the trail at the human path, rather slowly, Lumi is keeping an eye on them."

"Where's Marco?"

"I don't know, I found you first- though between us, I trust you more than your brother to handle this with the delicacy it needs..."

As serious as the atmosphere was, Aria couldn't help but chuckle weakly, shaking it off as she relaxed her body for another Agility.

"Fair enough. Lead the way Lucere."