Chapter 22

Hayden couldn't fly yet, not really. She could imagine what it would be like, soaring over the treetops, holding tight to Cody's warm fingers while their daemons danced through the air ahead of them. But just because her imagination could conjure it didn't mean she was actually able to do it.

Liz got them airborne, releasing them from gravity's downward drag. But that was all she could offer for that moment. With Liz's focus, they floated in place, hovering. Cody still scrambled for something to hold on to, eventually wrapping himself around her. He gasped and kicked, only occasionally peeking down at the ground underneath them.

"We're not… we're not moving, Cody," she said, loosening his arms from around her torso. "We're like three feet up!"

He opened one eye, then looked down. "We're… really? Oh." His grip loosened, but not by much. He didn't seem to want to be away from her. "We'd usually be halfway to the valley by now. You're always eager to go see your friends there."

Her face was still red, and would probably stay that way if he nested so close. You tell me I'm not supposed to know things about the future, but you keep telling me. As usual, much of what Cody said didn't make sense to her. But maybe it would, eventually. 

"We don't know how," Liz said, frustrated. "I can kinda nudge you, but if I try to push, you might go too fast. Your weight is different than ours. Would be easier if you were a kitten too…"

Cody stuck out his tongue. Sierra did too, hovering nearby. She remained close, much closer than someone else's daemon would usually stay. The risk of accidentally brushing against her would normally be too great. But of course, Sierra didn't mind being held. 

"That's what you do. We can't copy, just move. Forward, backward—but this is a good time. No one knows about us back here." The daemon gestured through the trees, near what was clearly another slope. Not too different from the one that had led Hayden to that spot the last time.

But now, Liz wasn't straining to hold her up. She could keep floating this way for a good long while, based on how subtle the pressure was against their minds. "You're a lot stronger than last time," Hayden thought.

"You too," Liz replied. "I'm borrowing your brain. We'll have to practice this a little more. Then I'll carry Sierra, and you can carry Cody."

"I can already fly," another voice spoke, as easily as theirs. Hayden gasped, but Liz was less surprised. Sierra was psychic too—the only real shock was that she could be in such close contact. She didn't have to force her way in. "Better than any cat, if you look in four dimensions. You can't even see that direction."

* * *

The valley was waiting for them. They couldn't rush there in a few seconds, despite Cody's insistence about how amazing and powerful Hayden was. But even if she couldn't fly that fast, Liz could still make them weightless. One little push off a rock or a tree, and they were moving. A few more, and it felt a little like they started falling sideways. They fell through the forest, until there was nothing beneath them but another rocky cliff.

There was no trail to take them here. To Hayden's eyes, it looked deliberate, a place where the path abruptly ended and a sharp descent opened into the air. She peered down the cliffside, noticing several promising patches of mild grade where someone could've built a trail. The trees around these were particularly thick, like deliberate walls barring exploration in this direction.

Cody clung to her again, eyes squeezed firmly shut. But Hayden didn't mind, really—she could use the extra warmth. If celebi didn't feel the cold as sharply as mew did, then she'd happily borrow a little heat.

"We should both be embarrassed," she thought, as quietly as she could. There was no way to know for sure if Sierra would overhear, but she trusted her not to. No trust went deeper than exchanging daemons. "He's a boy. I'm not supposed to have a boyfriend."

The specifics of what that meant were still fuzzy. Once kids got old enough to be interested in those things, their parents usually pulled them out of the world of Sunyshore fights and territorial conflicts. Then it was time for work, trade, and plenty of school. Kinda like they'd done to Hayden.

Liz didn't react, still floating around beside Hayden like her watchful protector. Mentally, she projected something like a shrug. "Would we be embarrassed if the other Cody had held us like this?"

Hayden could only glare in response. Last time, she'd overflowed with embarrassment at her crush. That Cody radiated a wild beauty that Hayden herself didn't even understand. She was a fire, drawing her in closer. But she'd also been so much older that Hayden knew she never had a chance. This Cody, though—he was different.

"There it is!" Cody pointed down with one arm, before snapping it back into place just a few seconds later. "Can you bring us lower, Hadie? Something's moving in the berries down there. You think the shaymin are happy to see us?"

The height should've terrified her. She felt nothing, only a profound frustration that she was up in the air instead of pointed in the direction she wanted to go. Somehow, that was enough.

She started to descend, guided by no hands. Hayden couldn't exactly say who was guiding them down, whether Liz or herself. But it didn't matter, since they both wanted the same thing.

Her hair whipped through the air behind her, leaving a fluttering pink trail. As it did, she imagined what it might be like to really fly, so fast her eyes watered, so fast the world below her was nothing more than a trail of distant color. Of course the wind would probably freeze her solid when that happened. She would have to work out a way to keep herself warm, too. Maybe the family tailor could make special clothes for flying.

"Ahuiliztli…" she whispered, a twinge of panic in her voice. "Liz, the ground is… coming in a little fast! Maybe help! It's…"

They touched down, onto a sloping valley covered with tall grass and berries. They tumbled together through it, in ways that probably should've hurt. But Hayden only grunted with the initial impact, then let herself bump and roll. She realized why when she came to a stop—she was still floating, and Cody still clung to her arm.

"You really don't know how to fly yet!" he exclaimed. "Are you trying to squish us?"

Liz dropped them into the grass. Hayden landed on Cody, collapsing with a wave of sudden exhaustion from their flight. For a few seconds she just lay there, breathing heavily. "I… told you," she finally said. "We just learned. I was a boy yesterday. But I still let you take me out here—ran off with a stranger to another time, so far north humans aren't even allowed to be here. I'm really not that smart when you think about it."

He sat up slowly, careful not to dislodge her from his chest. Instead he tugged her up with him, balanced in his lap. "Maybe if I was anyone else. But not me, Hadie. We're—different. From everyone else. We're the same as each other. We're the anomalies. The holes in their system. We're where the current couldn't be stopped, and it poured out. Together, we'll break it into little pieces!"

She nodded along, though she had no idea what he was talking about. At this rate, she might be able to coax her entire future out of this younger Cody. The hard part would be decoding his pronouncements into something she could understand before it happened. "That makes this safe?"

"No." He reached up, running his fingers through her hair. Cody's touch was different than Eleanor's. Somehow, even though he was doing the same thing. "It's safe because we look out for each other, always. Like right now. I can tell you're too afraid to kiss me. That's okay. I'm too scared too. The shaymin watching us might see."

She finally looked away from him, and noticed what Liz already had. They had an audience. A pair of little green eyes, on a tiny, furred body with a bright pink flower. She was small enough that her body was barely visible through the tall grass. Except that they could sense her power the same way Lady Gracidea radiated it.

"Kitten is small this time," she said. "Smaller than last time. You shouldn't keep flying her backward, Celebi. You leave too many footprints."

She blushed, rolling out of Cody's lap and onto the dirt beside him. Liz floated down to the little pokémon, touching noses with her in the grass, then floating back. 

"We didn't fly her back!" Cody argued. "Well—okay, we did. But not that far! Not years this time, we were careful!"

"Better be." The shaymin hopped up onto a large rock nearby, eyeing him. "She's in our house. Don't think we won't look out for her. You will not forget her again."

Then she turned on Hayden, and hopped right into her lap.

It didn't have any of the same intimacy as when Sierra did it. At the same time, there was even more power here, like holding a live wire against her bare skin. "Did you bring any chocolate this time, kitten? You know the trade has to be fair—you want training, we want sweets. It's an even exchange."

"I…" She shook her head. She was talking to a pokémon. But this wasn't like having Liz facilitate communication with some animals out in the woods. This pokémon could speak to her, and knew human things. She knows me. "I'm so sorry, Shaymin. We haven't met you before. I've been locked up in my house since your family… adopted me. Can I owe you? I'll bring some chocolate out here next time."

The pokémon looked down, as though seriously considering her offer. Finally she nodded. "You bring enough for everyone. Truffles, real ones. I don't want to taste wax."

"I miss chocolate…" said another voice, from Cody's other side. A little figure appeared there. She was scruffier than the first shaymin, with little patches of missing leaves. But still she came, clambering up onto Cody's leg. "You promise, kitten? Real truffles?"

Liz flew over to greet that one the way she had the first. Soon there were more—another pair of green eyes appeared through the leaves, then another.

Hayden had no idea what they were talking about, of course. But the request wouldn't be hard to manage. Getting some chocolate would be easy, there were sweets available whenever she wanted them. Getting out of the house when Lady Gracidea wanted to micromanage her life… that was the hard part.

"I come here often?" she asked, tentative. Maybe Cody would try to stop the shaymin from answering. But he didn't.

"No," the first one said. "Not as often as you should. I guess you aren't here yet. But when you do come, you're nice to have around. Not like Constantine. She almost never visits."

"And her child's blood is weak," said the third. "She could never make it here on her own. Doesn't belong here."

"But you should come often. Once the house adopts you for real, kitten. We have to share our wisdom with someone."

She looked sidelong at Cody, grinning sheepishly. "This is what usually happens?"

He nodded. "You've always preferred training with your own kind. But there are so few of us in the world, and most of them are really awful. You know how immortals get, out of touch, better than everyone else. Probably think we're usurpers who should've been killed when we were weak. They're right about that part."

Hayden shivered, expecting the pokémon around them to react somehow. They did, but only with vague, sarcastic sounds. The one on her lap finally spoke. "I see what you're thinking, kitten. Deep breaths. Quit being scared, or you'll make it hard to train you. We don't care about human things anymore. Politics and land. Boring."

"Boring," the others agreed, speaking in unison. "Family is the most important thing. We adopted you, or we will adopt you. Your mate-friend makes it hard to keep track. Doesn't matter. Just want to help. Make you strong, so when you go out into the world, it doesn't eat you."

"It will try," said the shaymin watching them from the rock. "Lots of things think they can eat the ones smaller than them. It's true about the rest of the world. Big things always step on little things. Not us, though."

"We are cactus," said the third. "The trunk that will not splinter. The crystal that does not shatter. Memory of earth."

"Now change," the first one said. "Can't teach you cat things. Be like your mate-friend and we'll grow together for a while."

"While the sun is up," said the second one. "Then we fly somewhere else, where apart-ones don't follow."

"Until they're older," agreed the third.

Hayden looked to Cody again, pleading. Maybe if he was going to listen to her thoughts anyway, she could use that part of her powers. "What do they want me to do?"

"Be a shaymin," he replied, just as naturally. "Why do you think they accept you? You're perfect to adopt. They're desperate for a flower of their own to nurture, but Lady Gracidea refuses to plant any more. I won't take advantage, but no promises about Sierra. You're not as dangerous when you're grounded."

Hayden flushed bright red again—then caught Liz, holding her close to her chest the way that Lady Gracidea often did. That put her in the mindset to try and recreate such a difficult transformation so soon. She felt Liz's weariness to change before they even started, and knew her poor daemon would be much weaker after they were done. They might not even be able to change back for a while. 

Eleanor might think she was trying to show off, but the more she changed, the more Hayden realized that her powers just didn't work the same. Changing was harder for her, but once she did…

Her daemon shrank, even as her own body grew. The desperately needed warmth of her jacket suddenly felt superfluous, constraining her arms and trapping her. The sun was only just rising, and she longed to let it bathe her. So she did, unzipping the jacket, and hanging it from a large patch of sturdy grass.

Cody stared as she changed, his eyes lingering on her chest. Mew Hayden would've turned bright red, maybe covered herself up with the jacket again. But the shaymin was above all that. She just thought about things differently. She would act with decorum. Cody's place in her shaymin mindset didn't come clear to her at first.

"Put her down!" protested the one in her lap. "You too, time traveler. Don't think you get to watch. You're studying too."

The other shaymin scampered over, joining Liz on the ground. They circled around her in a little mob. Each one was substantially larger than she was. Her nervousness at being confined between them became Hayden's in almost the same moment, even though she was free to move around.

"What can we teach her? She's only a sapling."

"So make sure she grows straight. We don't have to make her forget anything for her to learn."