Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands Of Creation

(With dinner finished and plates cleaned, Rhys dismissed the trio to their rooms.)

(Gahi wobbled into the left, deeper room.)

(Demitri and Mispy head into the left room closer to the kitchen.)

(Owen noticed that Mispy was being quite pushy with Demitri, playfully prodding at his back with her vines.)

(Demitri, meanwhile, meekly bumped against her with his tusks, flicking his tiny tail against her front legs, which earned a giggle in response.)

Gahi: "Bah, get a room."

(Gahi muttered.)

Mispy: "We are."

(Mispy countered.)

(Owen chuckled nostalgically at the three.)

(He decided, for now, to ignore why he had felt like reminiscing on memories he did not have.)

(Seeing the three head into two bedrooms answered the use of part of the house.)

(Figuring one of the remaining two was Rhys' quarters, which left one unaccounted for.)

Owen: "Uh, Rhys?"

(Owen pointed down the hall.)

Owen: "What's that room supposed to be? The one there?"

Rhys: "The furthest, right room? That is for storage of our supplies."

(Rhys said.)

Rhys: "Extra items that aren't supported as easily in the official Heart storage facilities. Spare furniture, and the like."

Owen: "Oh, so the glowy room is yours?"

(Owen asked, leaving no question unasked.)

Rhys: "Yes."

(Rhys said.)

Owen: "So."

(Owen said slowly.)

Owen: "why's it glow?"

Rhys: "I have a few items in my room that glow."

(he said.)

Rhys: "It is nothing else, really."

Owen: "Oh, okay."

(He wasn't convinced.)

Owen: "Nothing about any ghosts, maybe? Spirits, little."

(Owen paused.)

Owen: "pink clouds?"

Rhys: "Pink."

(Rhys repeated.)

Rhys: "Are you sure it was pink?"

(The right side of Owen's lips twitched upward.)

(He got him this time.)

Owen: "Yeah, definitely pink."

Rhys: "Hrmm."

(Rhys' ears twitched, the aura sensors accompanying them rising just slightly.)

Rhys: "What was this pink cloud doing?"

Owen: "Kinda, well, bobbing around when I looked at it. And then it went into your room."

Rhys: "I see."

(He spoke analytically, but it felt forced.)

Rhys: "Thank you, Owen. I will investigate this later, but it's far too late tonight. I will take you home."

(Owen relented. It was late, and he was tired, and Alex was going to blow up with worry.)

(A fresh day could help him think straight.)

(A Few Minutes later...)

Owen: "So, this is Hot Spot Road."

(Owen said, walking down the road he'd taken to get to Kilo Village that morning.)

(To the left was a rocky hill with boulders the size of Rhys.)

(To the right was a great field of light green grass that went up to Owen's chest.)

(With the sun already down, it was hard to see much more than a sea of wavy blackness in the fields and jagged darkness in the mountains, though the tops still stood out against the barely-lit sky.)

(The walk felt so leisurely and casual despite Rhys being an Elite.)

Owen [in mind]: "Should he say anything? No. He'd look like a complete lunatic. But if he didn't ask, it'd bother him all night, and then the next night. He had to ask."

(So, he stopped walking.)

(Rhys stopped, too.)

(Owen wondered if he'd expected that.)

Owen: "Rhys..."

(Owen turned to face him.)

Owen: "Do I know you?"

(For just a second, it was as if the very wind had stopped between them.)

(For that instant, nothing else mattered but the two of them.)

(The rustling, tall grass quieted.)

(The sunset and twilight ruled the world, save the flame that lit Owen's back.)

(The Lucario's eyes, which glowed just barely in the darkness, held no expression; that, in itself, was abnormal to Owen.)

(Why would someone not react to such an outlandish statement unless they were prepared for it?)

(But after that silence, Rhys replied.)

Rhys: "Well, I imagine you would."

(He shrugged noncommittally, though his evasion of eye contact said more.)

Rhys: "As an Elite Heart, I'm known by many."

Owen [in mind]: "Not good enough."

Owen: "No, but... know you, know you."

(Owen pressed.)

Owen: "Like I used to chat with you and stuff. Do you ever get the feeling that you know somebody for a lot longer than you actually do? That there's more to it?"

(Rhys blinked a few times.)

(Owen's heartbeat picked up in both frequency and intensity.)

(He tried to get a read for Rhys and his tension, but it was too hard.)

(He was too controlled this time.)

(Owen had a knack for being aware of these bodily cues, but he couldn't get anything from Rhys.)

(Finally, Rhys answered.)

Rhys: "I do not believe in love at first sight."

(Simultaneously, Owen's tail burned white and his heart skipped a beat.)

Owen: "N-not in that way!"

(He turned around and walked again.)

(He puffed into his hands, letting the flames escape between his fingers.)

Owen [in mind]: "How could he have said it in that way? As if he was trying to propose to Rhys some sort of courting."

(Owen shook his head fiercely, imagining a scenario where Rhys would have blushed and said yes.)

(He'd've had to let Rhys down nicely, say that wasn't what he meant.)

(And then, for all eternity, any interaction he'd ever have with his idol would be awkward.)

(Slowly, his flame returned to normal.)

Owen: "Sorry."

(he finally said.)

Owen: "I guess I'm just a little tired after the day. I didn't expect to get pelted by rocks in that forest, is all. And I'm pretty sure he broke the quick-call limit on his techniques. Maybe I'm just delirious."

Rhys: "Mm, that could be it. I'm glad that I can give off such a friendly aura, though. Thank you, Owen."

(Rhys chuckled.)

(At least one of them got to be happy...)

Owen: "Ha! Totally."

(Owen agreed.)

(He was screaming inside.)

(He didn't know what to make of it, so he just smiled and laughed.)

(He saw no other opening to probing Rhys for those odd feelings of familiarity.)

(He'd have to deal with tossing and turning at night anyway.)

(Rhys went on.)

Rhys: "Being able to use many elemental techniques quickly, in rapid succession... Most Pokémon are limited to four at once. Anything else takes time and focus to summon forth. They say that rare Pokémon do not have this limit. It's called Mew's Blessing. Of course, Mew has not shown her face for a very long time."

(Owen held his skeptical tongue.)

Owen: "But that could be an explanation if Aerodactyl inherited such a blessing from his ancestry."

(They walked for a while longer, the conversations transitioning to small talk again.)

(Owen huffed a small sigh, a few sparks of irritability leaving his nostrils.)

(He was home.)

Owen: "So, don't tell anybody about this, okay? We're going to Hot Spot Village it's a secret, underground town. That's where I live. And, um, you can only get in if you say the passcode, and do the pose."

(Owen said the last part in such a soft tone that Rhys only heard it thanks to his keen hearing.)

Rhys: "...Pose."

Owen: "Yeah. Okay, so, I'll do it, but you have to turn away!"

(Rhys squinted but humored him.)

(Owen, after verifying that Rhys wasn't watching, turned toward what looked like an innocuous boulder next to the road.)

(A motion accompanied each syllable.)

(He whispered, albeit loudly, the words.)

Owen: "Hot! Spot! Hot! Spot! Open up, Hotspot Cave!"

(Owen had raised his left arm, then his right arm, and then brought his left arm down, and then his right arm.)

(This was followed by swaying to the left, and then the right, and then the left and right again; next, he stepped backward, and finally advanced.)

(Rhys was rubbing the top of his muzzle, cringing.)

(He wasn't the only one.)

(Every time Owen did this dance, a tiny part of his Char heart withered away.)

(The wind carried its remnants.)

Owen: "There."

(Owen said.)

(He looked back and saw Rhys trying to hide from the world with his paw.)

Owen: "What? It's not too bad. And nobody would dare do it, so it's the perfect disguise!"

(After a delay, the boulder rolled to the right, revealing a hidden passageway into the ground.)

(It was dimly lit by blue mushrooms that gave off a soft, cyan glow.)

Owen: "Thanks, Rhys!"

(Owen said.)

Owen: "That was a safe trip. You should get home now, huh?"

Rhys: "Yes. Thank you for letting me guard you, Owen."

(he said.)

Rhys: "Stay safe. Be sure to keep up your meditation."

Owen: "Oh, sure!"

(Owen pumped a fist.)

Owen: "Yeah, you make Team Alloy do the same thing, right?"

Rhys: "Yes, I do, that's right."

(Rhys said.)

Rhys: "It's very important for everyone."

Owen: "Yeah. Okay! See you, Rhys!"

(Owen watched Rhys leave for a bit longer.)

Owen [in mind]: "No, it wasn't just some delusion. Unless he completely lost it, Rhys was hiding something. And perhaps Nevren, too. But then again, he probably just heard and saw them a lot. Both of them. They were Elite Hearts, after all."

(There was no use focusing on the negative.)

(Every night ended like this, wondering if he'd done something, or everything, of that day before.)

(A lot of this felt new, yet he still had that lingering doubt.)

(Maybe he was just getting paranoid.)

(At some point, it got tiring. He just wanted this perceived monotony to end.)

(But hey, he didn't have another mental crisis, panicking because he couldn't remember how old he was. Oh, no. The thoughts were coming back.)

(He refocused on the positive.)

Owen: "Oh, wow."

(he said.)

Owen: "I met two Elites in one day! That's so... cool!"

(He bounced slightly but then remembered the timer on the boulder.)

(He ran into the cave; a few seconds later, the boulder rolled back onto the passageway.)

(He ran past a few other inhabitants in the cavern.)

(There was Auntie Arcanine.)

(She waved at Owen as he passed.)

(There was also a Fennekin, Chimchar, and Flareon trio that often played near the entrance at night before their parents would tell them to pack it in for the night.)

(If anything, he knew he had the townsfolk to see, even if he wasn't particularly close to any of them.)

(They were all good friends, the village as a whole, no matter the age.)

(Owen's house was near the back of the village, where it was even hotter.)

(The home itself was like a cave within a cave; it was a circular entrance—big enough for his father's bulky, Magmortar frame to fit through—that led into larger, dome-like rooms.)

(Owen then realized the parallel it had with Rhys' home.)

Owen: "I'm home, Mom! Dad!"

(Owen called, stepping into the first, largest room.)

Amia: "Ohh, Owen!"

(Amia called back.)

(The Gardevoir adjusted her blue hair; there was a bit of ash remnant on the right side, perhaps from one of the kids' pranks.)

(She greeted Owen with a scratch under his chin—something Owen always enjoyed.)

Amia: "How did your little exploration go? We heard about what happened. You got in a bit of a scare, didn't you?"

Owen: "Just a little."

(Owen said.)

Owen [in mind]: "Should he ask? He was going to ask."

Owen: "Hey, how'd you find out, anyway? Nobody knows how to deliver letters here!"

Alex: "We checked the, er, the bulletin board at the crossroads."

(Alex said, stepping inside from the bedroom to Owen's left.)

Alex: "Someone in town must have put it there."

(He tapped his cannon-arms together.)

Alex: "Y...you... you did fine, right? You aren't hurt?"

Owen: "No!"

(Owen said.)

Owen: "And I already had dinner, too! Lucario Rhys treated me with his Entry Hearts. They were all nice. Sorry that I was a little late."

(Both his parents' eyes widened with alarm when he mentioned them, but Owen was so mentally exhausted that he decided that this was one battle he'd also ignore.)

(He didn't even want to bring up his dream of Alex literally exploding.)

(Too much. Later. Another day.)

Amia: "Oh, I heard of them."

(Amia said.)

Amia: "It's nice that you made some new friends, Owen! But you know what we also heard?"

(She rapidly clapped her hands together.)

Amia: "Tomorrow is another big day for you."

Owen: "Oh, yeah!"

(Owen said.)

Owen: "I might become an Entry Heart, too!"

Amia: "Exactly! So, get some sleep, Owen!"

Owen: "Totally!"

(Owen nodded.)

(He ran right to bed.)

(And lingered near the entryway, knowing they'd whisper.)

Amia: "I trust Rhys."

(Amia said quietly.)

Amia: "His students can interact with Owen. It... I don't think it'll result in... I mean..."

Alex: "It won't happen all at once."

(Alex said.)

Alex: "Let's just be very careful. I'll come up with some chores that will keep him here when we need him close."

(The cold anxiety that flowed through his body dimmed his flame.)

(But he was so tired.)

(And if he confronted them now... What would they do?)

(Later. Another day.)

(Owen wondered how many times he'd told himself that.)

[To Be Continued...]