Chapter 7: Reenie - A Strange Prophesy
By Saya

~Reenie~
I stared dumbly after the rapidly retreating form of Talia as she crashed deep into the dark interior of the forest away from our sunny little clearing. Well that was certainly unexpected. But then again, most of the things Talia had done lately were very irrational and unlike her. She had been touchy about everything, especially Pokemon. Deri and I had gone to a great measure to avoid the subject in the last three days we had been together. It had to be from the shock of loosing her mother that she acted this way. I'm not exactly sure I would have blown up like that if one of my parents had died but then again, Mrs. O'Connel was the only one Talia had left in the world. Loosing her was like the deathblow to her rationality.

But you did have to admit Talia was kind of overreacting.

Deri heaved a long, wavering sigh. "She's mad at the world. Mad at herself for letting her mother die."

I glanced quickly over at him. He sat, staring straight in front of him, back pressed against the sturdy tree, knees drawn up to his chest. His short black hair fluttered softly in the faint breeze and he barely blinked at all.

"I never really thought of it that way," I murmured softly.

Deri inclined his head slightly. "She has to find someone to take her grief-fueled anger out on. Pokemon just happened to be the unfortunates she chose."

"Where do you think she'll go?" I asked uncertainly.

Deri shook his head. "You can't really say. In her state she could end up anywhere. I don't believe she herself even has any idea where she's going."

"D'you think we did the right thing? Following her I mean?" I was full to bursting with questions and doubts. Deri was always a good source for the hard to answer questions I always seemed to have. Plus, he was my friend and I trusted him to help me and give me the correct answers to the best of his ability.

"Definitely," Deri answered my question confidently; "She was in one heck of a mess when we found her, with her leg and all. And," He gestured in the vague direction Talia had taken only a few minutes before, a slow grin spreading across his sharp features, "She leaves a pretty good trail."

I gave him a half-hearted grin in return and nodded, hope growing deep inside of me. "We should follow her y'know. She may need our help."

"We'll follow her soon enough. Just give her some time to cool off. About an hour or two. Like I said before, her trail is more than easy to follow. We'll be able to find her in no time."

"Whatever you say, Deri."

* * *

It was around noon by the time we had packed up camp, shouldered our all too heavy packs and begun our journey. Deri was the self-appointed leader since I knew absolutely nothing about tracking. Deri had taken a tracking (or trail following) class the summer before at a summer camp and knew enough to follow Talia's plain trail. I had to admit, the times he had gone to camp I always thought they were useless, but now I was glad he had attended. Her path of destruction was even plain enough for me to vaguely guess where she had gone, me, Reenie Amier the Amateur Tracker.

We traveled on through the rough forest for the next couple of hours, only communicating when we absolutely had to; and even then it was only in short grunts and nods. The way seemed to be getting harder and harder as we traveled, my pack seeming to grow heavier and heavier as we went.

Sweat began to break out in tiny beads on my forehead and I stumbled more than once or twice over a log or root jutting out of the earth. But you did have to admit the scenery was beautiful. The trees were flashes of brilliant color as they swayed gently in the soft breeze, reaching their giant limbs up towards the sapphire sky, as if in a race to see who could receive the most attention from the glowing orange sun. Pokemon called out from the trees, adding a chaotic yet harmonic atmosphere of the forest. I cracked a small smile which immediately turned into a grimace as my knee sharply scraped against a thorny vine hanging out across my path.

Directly in front of me Deri was walking with a plodding gait, casting his dark brown eyes everywhere, studying a broken branch here, stooping to stare at a deep foot print in the soft mud there. I welcomed these brief pauses whole-heartedly as I dropped my pack quickly to the soft earth beneath my feet so that I could flex my painfully cramped shoulders for a slight couple of seconds before Deri would straighten up, nod to me to do the same and plod continually on, I with him.

Finding Talia quick and easy? Yah, right. Other than these brief pauses that couldn't really be called a rest, we didn't stop at all. Apparently Deri was very insistent on finding Talia within the space of twenty-four hours. So we just walked and walked and walked and walked until I could've sworn my legs were just about to drop off my body if I moved one step further!

But I didn't complain. After all it was for Talia's sake that I was putting myself through all this. She was my friend. We had known each other so long that she was like the sister I had never had. I had always been glad of Talia in the years past whenever I was desperately in need of female attention or I just wanted to get away from my brothers (I had four). I could always go to her if I was in need of anything. And Mrs. O'Connel was like a second mother to me as well. It pained me almost as much as Talia to see her die. It was just that I didn't take it the same way Talia did.

Deri came to a complete stand still so suddenly that I almost barged straight into him. If I hadn't looked up from my reverie in time I would have done so and we both would probably have ended up sprawled on the ground.

"What?" I asked Deri, quickly recovering myself from the near collision. "What are you stopping for?"

"Shhh. I hear something," He answered, barely moving a muscle as he spoke softly.

I promptly shut my mouth and tuned my ears in for...well, anything unusual that could have caused Deri to stop so suddenly. Lets see... I heard Pokemon calling, wind swishing among the trees and grasses, I heard my heart beating if I listened really hard, I heard cars rushing by on the highway, I heard water rushing down a small stream, I heard...

"Cars!" Deri exclaimed, his voice booming loudly in my ears.

Cars? What was unusual about cars? A highway, sure, people too. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"What about them?" I asked, thoroughly baffled.

"Oh, Reenie. Cars!" He repeated.

"And..."

"People are in cars so that means there is a road or highway up ahead! It means civilization!"

I blinked, the information taking a moment to register in my mind. If there was civilization Talia might be there!

"So, if we go to this road we can follow it and get to civilization!" I grinned. A good hot meal and a nice long shower seemed like the greatest thing in the world right now...

"Not exactly," Deri said, shattering my daydream about one big hamburger with cheese and ketchup dripping off the sides... I shook my head. Thinking like this was not good for me. It made my stomach grumble and realize for the first time that I was starving!

"So, what was your point on the road?" I asked, quizzically.

"It can help us figure out where we are. Once I know the approximate location I can figure out which direction Talia's headed and which cities we'll come upon."

"You know the exact locations of Hoenn's cities?" I asked incredulously. I was not one for maps but I could read them if I had to, I just didn't like too.

"Yah, to a certain extent. But for now we just have to follow Talia's trail." Deri turned back around and continued on.

"Oh," Was the only thing I said. My head was beginning to ache a little and I hoped it would soon go away. A headache was the last thing I needed right now.

We plodded along at what seemed like an unbearably slow rate for the next few minutes, my headache increasing rapidly every single second as every bone in my body began to ache with every single step I made. But I kept moving, one painful step after another, unendingly.

Only a few minutes more (though it seemed like hours to my roaring brain) and we had reached the source of the noise we had been hearing. Deri had been right, I thought fleetingly. It was a road, a rural highway actually (Sandar-Rustboro Highway a informative road sign told us), with fields extending out as far as the eye could see on the opposite side of the road from us where a threatening black cloud was rolling up on us, full to bursting with water. It was a gigantic storm.

But I didn't notice any of this as the pain in my body was growing almost unbearable and I began to get a sick feeling right at the very pit of my stomach, as if I was going to throw up. Every joint in my body ached, almost unbearably, making it exceedingly hard to keep on moving. But the pain was the worst in my roaring head as if something was trying to burst its way through into my brain.

Deri kept to the forest as we began to follow the road north, according to him. By now I could barely keep my eyes open and my legs moving. My fingers hurt, my arms hurt and my legs, my head, my feet, my back, everything felt as if I was being torn up from the inside into tiny pieces. I was woozy and could barely stand straight, let alone think, and every tiny little movement made me feel as if a thousand needles were darting into my flesh. I felt horrible.

Finally, after what seemed like a prolonged age, Deri stopped and glanced around, a confused look crossing his face. I stood, staring dumbly at nothing, my hazel eyes glazing over as random spots of color began to dance before them.

Suddenly a terrible apparition of a huge transparent monster appeared before my delirious, unseeing eyes and rushed straight toward me. I barely had time to become frightened let alone comprehend what I was seeing. Right before it collided with my defenseless form, crushing me with its immense weight, I let out one ear-splitting shriek... and was swallowed by a void of seething darkness.

* * * *

~Deri~
A sharp scream tore through the air behind me, causing me to jump, whacking my head painfully up into the leafy branches of the large sycamore tree above me. As soon as I'd regained my composure, getting my head untangled from the trees, I turned my eyes over to where the shout had come from...and almost fell over backwards.

Reenie lay crumpled out on the mucky black earth of the forest floor in what looked to be a very uncomfortable position. Her eyes were tightly shut but I could see by the steady rise and fall of her chest that she was still breathing. Her chestnut brown hair fell lazily across her face, masking any expression she had held when she fell that could have betrayed any emotion she had felt while going unconscious. A stab of fear tore through my heart as I took in the horrible scene. My first reaction was panic.

What had caused Reenie to collapse like that? She looked to be unconscious but was she hurt even worse than she appeared? Were there any broken bones? Should I move her?

I rushed quickly over to her side, dropping my heavy pack to the ground as I did. Was she okay? If she wasn't...that was something I couldn't bring myself to think about. She just had to be all right! Just had too!

I reached out a tentative finger and touched her hand lightly. My head began to swim with fear and shock as my hand met her flesh. It was freezing cold. Far too cold to be natural! I stared at my best friends pitiful form lying sprawled out on the ground, my hand barely resting on hers. She didn't seem to be doing very well. Fear washed through me, settling at the very pit of my stomach, making me feel as if I needed to throw up. Reenie was hurt! And there was no way, nothing at all, to help her.

Suddenly her eyes snapped wide open. The movement was so fast and sudden that I almost missed it.

Reenie!

I felt relief spreading through me like wildfire and I was quite sure it was showing on my sharp, strained features as well. I grinned. At least she wasn't unconscious anymore.

Then, suddenly, Reenie sprang to her feet with unnatural agility, even for her, causing me to loose my balance. My flailing foot caught on a tangle of upraised roots and I was down, my lower back landing on a pile of sharp rocks. I winced, stifling a sharp shout of pain that was threatening to force its way out of my mouth so that it only emitted as a pitifully strangled squeak. I pulled myself quickly to my feet, rubbing my lower back vigorously as a futile attempt to ease the pain, and the rapidly growing bruise that was spreading steadily up my back.

"Reenie!" I complained, turning my gaze back to where my friend stood, "What was that for? You could have..." I broke off as I noticed that something was utterly and completely wrong with Reenie. She stood rigidly, staring directly at me, but not at me, staring straight through me, as if I didn't exist. But the thing that totally freaked me out the most was her eyes. Instead of their normal, soft hazel color, hers were a luminous icy blue. They seemed to cast off a pale, liquid blue glow. Her strange blue eyes were hard, devoid of all emotion and I could tell immediately that this was not Reenie who stood before me now. It may have been her body but it was not my best friend.

Then she spoke, and when she did her voice was her own, yet not her own. It had an icy metallic ring to it and it caused small shivers to course down my spine. And the words that she spoke were utterly horrible yet wonderful but terrifying.

"The one you are searching for is heading for the great western city. But, heed my warning! For with her a great evil is rising, following in her path, and steadily growing in power.

"If it succeeds in it's rising, the Fire Dragon shall come again, wakening from its long rest beneath the ocean, held at bay all this time, pouring out all its anger, hate, all its malice and cruelty onto the unprotected world beneath it. And nothing shall stand in its path. Nothing shall be able to stop it.

For nine years it shall lie in wait once it has risen, growing in power and getting everything ready. But then, when the time is right it shall strike and kill.

"The earth will be destroyed, all its people dead, and the good in the hearts of the Pokemon twisted into something of pure evil. Mutants, destroying everything in their foul paths, will rule the world. Explosions shall erupt everywhere on the planet and all those left living shall suffer to the greatest of extremes.

"And ruling above them all shall be the Fire Dragon, reigning in all of its power and malice, destroying the world in the most painful way possible.

"But, if the Fire dragon does not succeed in it's rising; if somehow its pawn is stopped from nearing the place where the Dragon sleeps, there will still be hope left. Hope that somehow the Fire Dragon can be held at bay for another thousand years, nursing its wounds, before it shall try to rise again.

"But now it is rising, gaining its power until it is so powerful it knows that nothing can stand in its path.

"This warning I am giving to you, so heed my words and listen with all sincerity. Go after this girl who heads for the western city, stop her from doing any more evil than she has already done, unknowingly, in the name of the Fire Dragon. Take her back to where she came from. And get the red stone from her. Then bring it to Mount Pyre. Not one of you must bear it, for it is evil. Take it to the mount and set it in its rightful place beside the blue stone, the one that contains its wrath.

"But if these two are set together in any other place but Mount Pyre, they shall fuse, becoming one, and following shall be an even greater evil than the Fire Dragon alone could ever produce.

"Listen to me and heed my warning for this is my wish, the wish of the Water Monster, who sends you on this task. Go now and do what I ask and the world shall rest in peace for another thousand years. This is my wish. The wish of the Water Monster. Kyogre..."

Suddenly, the luminescence left Reenie's eyes, the familiar hazel returning into them. Her eyes rolled back and she collapsed once more. I jumped forward and caught her in my arms, then gently lay her down on the forest floor and waited.