Chapter 8

The grounds of Shaymin House were vast, almost a city unto themselves. The terrain was mountainous, and so the house was encircled by various trails and paths, leading to terraced gardens and springs. Some arrangements were less graceful than others, such as the entire field of felled trees with a huge metal mast for mooring airships. Hayden's “waterfall” trail took him past this, past an overgrown hedge maze, then finally out into the forest proper.

"A little better than the park pier, isn't it?" Liz asked. The further from the building they got, the more energetic she became, zipping from one new kind of tree to the next, constantly in motion. She was more overwhelmed by all the nature than she was by the press of strange minds inside Shaymin Mansion.

He nodded. Hayden had a basket tucked under one arm, which still radiated warmth from whatever lunch the kitchens had thrown together for him. "Yeah! You think this is one of those wild areas people aren't allowed to build, and only visit? Except Shaymin House builds wherever they want…"

The light jacket he'd taken from the walk-in closet kept him much warmer than anything he owned, as though its threads had been enchanted. More likely it was made from the fur of some rare creature, that kept warm in ways that plant fabrics couldn't. 

"I smell… things out here," Liz whispered. She settled onto his forehead briefly, then zipped around him again, her body always in motion. "I dunno what they are. Pokémon I've never seen—not even from the sailors who came from far away! Do you think they'd teach us any new moves if we asked nicely?"

He shrugged, skipping along after her. Liz kept moving along the trail at the very edge of the speed Hayden could reach. She was obviously trying to keep him moving as quickly as she could. But it wasn't fair she could move so fast now, he still had to walk! "You think you'd be able to learn?"

Liz stopped at his eye-level, sticking her tongue out. "Remember what Hunter said? We can learn any move we want. Anything I can't figure out, I just have to change into something else. Still… working out how to do that." She drifted lower, and Hayden caught her in his free hand without prompting, giving her somewhere safe to struggle. She did, her focus so intense that he felt his own muscles start to ache in sympathy. 

"Stop, you're hurting us," Hayden said. "It's okay, Liz. We'll figure it out. Don't blow us both up trying so hard after three days."

She sprawled out over his arm, defeated. "I wouldn't push so hard if I didn't feel so stuck."

Hayden let her lay there for another few seconds, but when she didn't recover right away, he unzipped his jacket, and tucked her in against his chest, leaving it unzipped in the front just enough for her forelegs to hang out. Then he started walking again, swinging his lunch-basket with each step.

They said nothing for some time, just taking in the lifetime of new experiences that they never could've found living in Sunyshore. He watched the sun trace slowly lower through the trees, which lifted in the frequent mountain breeze. His jacket was warm, and the kitten tucked in his shirt was warmer, but the cold wormed its way through his clothes whenever he stopped, making him start to shiver.

"You think there's a move to become warmer?" he asked. "You still remember 'Ember'?"

She mewled in annoyance. "Sure, Hayden. But Ember burns things. What are we gonna burn here?"

There was fuel everywhere—leaves and brush and wood. But how would they put it out when they finished? "What did Hunter say about living out in the wild?"

"You have to make a fire circle," Liz said. "How about we find somewhere to eat before lunch gets cold. We can walk back to the warmth when we want to."

"You mean I can walk back," he said. "You're warm now."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "If you're cold, I'm cold," she argued. She slipped out of his jacket anyway, shaking herself out in the air. A ripple passed through her soft pink fur, her own little half-suppressed shiver. Then she started flying again. She sniffed at the air after a few seconds, before drifting past the edge of the gravel path, and out over the shrubs. "Smell it? There's water close by. Maybe we don’t have to walk all the way to the waterfall. There's a shortcut!"

Hayden followed her off the path. There was plenty of underbrush here, but most of it was soft and inviting. It was all gently swaying tall grass, broken occasionally with patches of wildflowers or herbs he couldn't identify. Some of those flowers were the red kind that grew all over Shaymin House, but there was plenty of variety. Most weren't even in bloom. 

Berry bushes grew here too, in all kinds of diverse species. All were safe for daemons to eat—but not all were good for humans. He resisted the urge to pick one and try it for himself. 

"Watch the ground here, it's—"

Hayden slipped. The ground tumbled out from under him, and he fell down a sudden, steep incline. He screamed, letting go of the basket he'd been carrying, scrambling for something to grab with both hands. He sunk deep into the mud, sliding past rocks and thorns and worse. "Liz, help!"

Seconds later, the ground vanished from beneath him. Hayden was still falling—he'd tumbled right off a cliff.

Rocky walls blurred past him on one side, and open blue sky on the other. He wasn't sure how long he fell—much longer than the jump off Sunyshore pier, even at low tide. Long enough for him to realize beyond any doubt that he was about to die.

Then he jerked to a stop. Liz appeared in front of him, her whole body glowing brilliantly blue. She shook with effort, groaning in such pain that no real words left her lips. He could do nothing to help—didn't even dare speak, for fear of breaking her concentration. Even with all her attention on flying, they were still sinking. Just not quite fast enough to kill him instantly when he hit the bottom.

He dared to look down, at the dark surface slowly approaching from beneath. As it turned out, Liz had found a shortcut to the waterfall. They'd gone right over the same cliff, towards a lake of deep blue water. It extended for some distance in all directions. 

Hayden might have landed safely without the mew to guide him down. But the water near the cliffs was broken with many large rocks. If he hit one of those, that would be the last thing he ever did.

"A little to the left…" he muttered. "Please. We're gonna…"

"I see it," Liz mewed. "Shut up."

He didn't need convincing. With her concentration broken even a little, his descent accelerated. 

Hayden closed his eyes, curled up as small as he could, and focused all his energy on Liz. Whatever strength he had, he gave her. He could help, even if he didn't understand how pokémon moves worked. That was what Unity was all about, right?

If anything happened, he didn't notice. Next thing he knew, they hit the water. The cold shocked him far more than the impact, turning his limbs almost instantly numb. But it wasn't himself he was most worried about. Somewhere in the dark water was his daemon, her body stretched to exhaustion by the fall.

He couldn't see a thing, but he didn't have to. Hayden still felt where to go. He snatched her in one hand, then kicked for the surface with all his might.

The surface beckoned him, shimmering with secondhand sunshine. 

If he had grown up anywhere else, he might not have made it. Fortunately Hayden had spent his entire childhood swimming. He'd been jumping off the piers all over town since he was a kid!

He broke the surface, coughing up a mouthful of cold water. He twisted to the side, hefting Liz completely out of the water so she could breathe too. She didn't. 

Hayden felt the distant touch of suffocation that pressed on her. The pain wasn't in his own body, but he still felt it as acutely as she did. She'd pushed herself so hard she was barely even awake.

He kicked his way over to one of the many rocky obstructions, the same ones that would've spelled instant death for him if he landed there. He settled Liz on her back, then pressed against her chest with two fingers. He never would've known where or how hard, not with any random pokémon. But Liz was his daemon. He knew her body as well as he knew his own.

Water sprayed out her mouth, and she started coughing. Hayden rolled her onto her front, and patted gently with one hand, until she stopped.

There wasn't quite enough room on the large rock for him to climb to dry ground, so his legs dangled freely into open water. He kicked occasionally to keep his legs moving, feeling the heat drain from his body with every passing second. "Liz?"

"I'm alive," she said, turning slightly to look up at him. "Forgot how hard that is… when I'm not a fish…"

He grinned stupidly back at her, hot tears streaking his eyes. They'd both made it. Hayden heaved his chest up onto the rock, where he could catch his breath and let his body calm from the shock. The stress and confusion did pass, with more cold to take its place. His teeth started chattering, and his fingers started losing grip on the rock.

Something nudged past his leg, suddenly enough that Hayden recoiled. He would've jumped, but the numbness slowed his motions to something more like a twitch.

Of course he wasn't alone—they were in the wilderness. Wild pokémon were everywhere, pokémon who weren't daemons. Dangerous, territorial, man-eating pokémon. Hayden didn't have the strength left to fight. He just closed his eyes, preparing for the gigantic bite that would swallow him whole.

Nothing did. After a few seconds, something warm and furry nudged up against him. He opened one eye, and found a familiar pokémon there, one he'd seen in the waters around Sunyshore many times. Floatzel were among the most common daemons of the fishermen and sailors in town.

This one had no fisherman or sailor nearby, though. Hayden saw nothing at all around the orange-furred creature, other than more water.

Then it spoke. He couldn't understand a word, but apparently Liz could. "Please!" she replied. "We're freezing! I'm not sure we could make the swim on our own!"

The pokémon turned to Hayden. The bright yellow raft around its body began to inflate, apparently of its own accord. It lifted higher in the water, increasingly buoyant. It spoke again, and still Hayden couldn't understand. Wild pokémon without people spoke their own strange language, if it was a language at all.

"Grab on to me," Liz said. "Floatzel says he knows somewhere we can warm up. Unless you think you can make it on your own."

Hayden took his daemon carefully in one hand, and deposited her atop his head. That way she'd be the last to go under, and the last to freeze, so long as she could hold on. When she didn't slip off, he dared push off from the rock, towards this strange pokémon.

"Are you sure?"

The pokémon barked back at him. Maybe it was Liz, but he caught his annoyance as clearly as any human. 

"Yes," Liz said. "He says that no one would let a kitten drown. Grab on."

He did. The pokémon was smaller than he was, but not by much. With its raft inflated, Hayden's weight barely seemed to affect it. The pokémon sped forward, its tail spinning rapidly in the water to get them moving. Strangely, they weren't headed straight for the nearest shore, but along the cliffside.  

"I thought wild pokémon were supposed to be hostile, like the ones in Sunyshore," he thought. "Why is he saving us?"

Liz's tail curled around Hayden's neck. She sprawled out atop his head, little claws digging into his skin. Not hard enough to draw blood—only enough to hold on. "He's not the only one. Look around us."

He did. Hayden hadn't noticed through the cold and panic—but now he did. Fish circled around him, birds passed overhead, and half a dozen buizel swam alongside this floatzel, like a little honor-guard.

"Why are you all here?" Hayden asked, without thinking. He felt stupid as he did it—these weren't daemons. They had no people, and couldn't speak his language.

A huge bug flew alongside him, just above the water. Its huge clear wings vibrated so fast the water rippled at its passing. He didn't understand of course, but Liz did.

"You were… afraid. In danger. Came to help," she translated. "We were screaming pretty loud. I hoped someone would come help, I guess they did!"

Hayden focused on keeping his grip, watching his pokémon escort. There were more of them here than he'd ever seen in one place before. "Why is everyone afraid of wild pokémon, if they're this helpful?" he asked.

Liz shrugged. He couldn't see, but he felt the movement through his head. "Who cares? Better than freezing or drowning."

They rode for some time along the back of the helpful floatzel. Once it warned them to hold their breath, and pass under a low dam of wood. They emerged into a thicket of trees and still, shallow water. So thick that Hayden couldn't see the mountains anymore, or any sign of where they were.

The floatzel stopped beside a muddy shore, and its back deflated. Hayden slipped off into the shallow water. "Thanks for saving us," he told it, grateful. He stood up, cradling Liz close to his chest. A large number of pokémon had followed him into this secret grove. Birds landed on nearby trees, buizel in the water around him. Several other pokémon emerged from the trees along the shore to stare. 

Grass types mostly, though he recognized a lopunny from among their number by her height.

"Hold me up," Liz ordered. Still too weak to do it herself, then.

He obeyed, lifting her high enough that the pokémon could all see. "Thank you for helping us!" she repeated. "We are very cold, and very hungry. What should we do?"

The pokémon answered. What followed was an energetic… conversation? Hayden couldn't make sense of any of it. He didn't panic, because Liz still felt confident. Anything that she thought was safe was good enough for him.

Finally, they finished. Many Pokémon flew or swam away, returning to whatever it was that pokémon who did not have humans did with their time.

A few remained, urging Hayden up towards the shore. He might've been afraid of their close contact, if Liz wasn't there to speak for them.

"See those big branches there, Hayden? Take your stuff off and hang it up to dry. Quilava will dry us out, while those cherrim go bring us something to eat."

"We're just supposed to go along with this?" he thought to her. "Are you sure this is safe? Wild pokémon are supposed to be dangerous."

She replied instantly, radiating confidence. "Not to us. Trust me, they want to help. Just do what they say."

He had no choice but to obey.