Night of the Mists

Night lay heavy on the hill which edged the town of Rainfront. Dark clouds covered the sky, blocking out any light the stars and moon might have shed upon the hill. Not only that, but a weighty mist settled around the hill, making visibility down to nhil.

Still, despite these obstacles, a spirit made its way up the hill, dragging along behind it an odd stone of some sort, with strange symbols covering the stone. The 108 spirits that made up the odd manifestation were dark, evil spirits. But the worst of all the spirits was the one that led them, a female named Ko.

Ko had designs for the pokemon world; dark ones. She wanted to spread chaos and darkness all across the pokemon world. She would revel in the evil that she wrought.

But such a thing was not possible... yet. She was but a weak pokemon as of yet... The spiritomb had yet to even master her latent psychic abilities, so that she could lift and move things. After all, the spirit's manifested "body" lacked any hands to speak of. Even if she had hands... her body was insubstantial, and passed through most things easily.

This night, the spiritomb was wandering the hill dungeon, practicing said psychic skill. She was sure that she'd get it down soon; but she was unsure how she'd carry things even once she mastered psychic. She had to find a bag from somewhere... but where? Perhaps she'd fashion one from a cloth... at least until she went to town and bought herself a proper bag.

As usual mist covered Pricklemist Hill. Ket had been walking all day and was dead tired, the scarf clad Zangoose had skipped lunch that day and was famished by the time he saw the lights of Rainfront. The town looked like a welcome retreat from the dark night. Ket gave it one last looked sighed and turned for the mist covered hill.

"What I would do for a warm meal." Ket said to himself as he trudged over to the hill and scouted it out. The hill was dead silent, not a sound could be heard emanating from the hill as Ket approached. He soon found himself deep within the confines of Pricklemist searching for a place to rest. Ket eventually found himself a suitable resting spot for the night in a small area covered by bushes. He dropped his bag on the soft ground as he laid back against a tree. Ket scanned his temporary home for the night before deciding it was good enough, enough foliage cover to stop all but those purposely searching for someone and far enough off the beaten path but not too far. He was a tad too close to a dungeon for his liking but who would be out here at this time and place.

Ket was about to grab something to eat until he remembered how much food he had left, "I guess I'll wait until morning then." he muttered against the protest of his stomach. Ket thought to himself before realizing he wasn't even followed by anyone and yet he took such lengths to keep himself hidden. Chuckling he thought it never hurts to be safe, before closing his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Visibility was next to nil, the spiritomb noted with annoyance. The mist was curling around her, making the already dark night near impossible to navigate. Therefore, it wasn't hard to see why she stumbled -literally- over a pokemon in the night. Her insubstantial body phased through the pokemon laying on the ground, but the keystone that bound the spirits to this plane rolled into the other pokemon.

Ko hissed in annoyance, backing away from the figure on the ground. It was barely visible in the dark mist, but she could see the outline of a furred, four-legged pokemon. She was sure to have awoken the pokemon; her body phasing through the pokemon's body was sure to cause cold discomfort to the sleeping 'mon.

Ket woke up with a gasp, he didn't know what had happened or how to describe how he was feeling but he just felt wrong. The zangoose was heavily hyperventilating and leaned against the tree he had, just moments ago been sleeping against. Quickly however the zangoose shook off this feeling of dread and took in his surroundings. He couldn't see anything more than two feet in front of him as the mist clung to his fur.

He began to walk when suddenly his front paw hit something. Ket picked up the object which turned out to be a weird stone. The stone was one Ket had never seen, covered in cryptic symbols. Ket would of investigated this rock further had the sense of being watched not come over him. Ditching the stone the zangoose turned around and was barely able to make out an odd figure far off in the mist.

The adrenaline pumping through his blood Ket jumped up on two legs and dashed behind a nearby tree. "This was the last thing I needed." Ket said as he peered around the tree to determine the intruder who interrupted his sleep.

Ko felt a sense of rage as the pokemon touched the odd keystone that made up her and other's prison. She hissed her displeasure to the air, the dangerous sound echoing in the mists. The keystone might be their prison, but it was theirs to touch, theirs to destroy! No one else was meant to handle the object! It felt like an intrusion upon their very soul!

"Get yoooour naaaassssty claaaaaaws offfffff the ssssstone!" Ko shrieked into the night. Her sense of propriety was lost in her rage. It was an all-consuming rage, that left no room for rational thought.

"Hooooow wooooould yooooou liiiiiike it iffffff yooooour booooody wasssssss manhandled?!" Ko continued, her voice echoing with the other 107 spirits making up their spiritual manifestation.

A harsh screech pierced through the otherwise tranquil night. Ket winced as the noise entered his ears and he quickly covered them with his paws. He attempted to find the source of the eerie voice to no avail before responding.

"Whoever you are, look I'm sorry for ... whatever I did to you." The zangoose slowly extended his claws just in case he needed them. Although he hoped to avoid conflict as he knew he was at a disadvantage being on the ambushed end of the fight, as well as admittedly being slightly scared by the unidentified pokemon.

Deciding to back off Ket started to quietly move away from the mystery pokemon still cloaked by the mist. Unfortunately, still groggy from his sleep and due to the heavy mist shrouding the hill the other wise aware zangoose did not notice the tree root in the path before he managed to make a fool of himself and trip over it.

Letting out a shout of surprise Ket fell violently into a nearby thorn bush. Managing to comical entangle himself in said bush, Ket struggled to escape the bush grumbling the whole way.

((OOC: SO SORRY this took so long; I've been without wifi for a long time. Finally got my phone to work as a modem so I should be back for good now.))

Ko felt slightly mollified as the claws touching the stone retreated. She could see a shape in the fog, as it stumbled backward, apologizing. "Weeeellll.... youuuuu ssssshould be sssssorrrry..." she said, the other spirits agreeing with her.

"But.... I ssssssuppossssse I can forrrrrgive youuuuu..." she went on, pausing as the other pokemon let out a small yelp and the sound of a bush being crushed rang through the air. "Diiiiiid.... you jussssst..." Ko paused, humour filling their tone. The other spirits all rang with laughter as they imagined what had just occurred. The pain of the pokemon only made the moment sweeter.

"I'd offerrrrr youuuu a hand.... but I donnnn't havvvve one," Ko chuckled as the pokemon attempted to extract itself from the bush. "Asssss I havvvee yettttt to masssster the latent psychic aaaaaabilities myyyyy ssssspeciessss is capable of, I cannot helpppppp," the echo in their voice grew stronger as the other spirits crowded around her, all interested in the conversation.

"We arrrrre Ko. Whooooo mighttttt youuuuu be?" she continued -it would not do to make enemies whilst still so weak and vulnerable.

How did he alway seem to find himself in these situations. No really, was he trying subconsciously or something? Being awake entangled in a bush in the middle of the night having been ambushed by, something was not part of Ket’s plan for the night. Or any other night or day for that matter. He was pretty sure whatever had woken him was also laughing at him to which wasn’t helping. At least he thought it was laughter, the noise was quite distorted. What surprised him was when they offered to help although it was hard to tell the sincerity of it since not much came of it. As Ket struggled in the bush he managed to pull out one arm from the grasps of the thorns. Using his now free arm he managed to eventually free himself the bush.

As he stood up he inspected his body which was now laced with minor scratches from his scuffle. Before he could worry about that however the figure who was now next to them spoke up giving him a name. He looked up at pokémon now identified as Ko. What he was greeted with gave him mixed emotions of both confusion and fear. The pokémon was essentially a large mass, for lack of a better word, of purple and green with a green face in the middle. It seemed to be emanating from one stone as well which helped to answer some of his questions but it did lead to more. Ket had never seen a pokemon like this before just what were they? He could guess the typing though, probably ghost.

He realized whatever pokémon they were was still waiting for an answer. Ket was debating just running again before throwing that idea out the window with the current conditions. His best option was really to just stick around and see what happens. Well maybe he’d get some of his questions answered. “I’m Ket, what kind of pokémon are you?”

Ko watched in amusement as the pokemon finally extracted itself from the bush and came to stand next to her. The pokemon's shape became clearer as it came closer. Peering through the mist, Ko identified the pokemon as a weasel-like pokemon with long claws -that must have been what had touched her stone. The other pokemon was taller than her, maybe by a foot or so, and had mostly white fur, though there was another color slashing through its body, dark and indistinguishable in the mist and darkness of the night.

Still, she didn't think it was a linoone, so that left zangoose. The other pokemon spoke then, introducing himself as 'Ket'. Then he enquired after her own species. Ko couldn't help but raise a nonexistent eyebrow at the question. While her species was not the most common of ghost pokemon, there was still much documented about her species -most pokemon she'd met before had recognized what she was.

Her species' notoriety was well-known -to those who knew about them, at least. She'd faced judgement before based just on her species, and it never failed to annoy her -no matter how true those assumptions were. But this was a pokemon who would have no expectations of her, if it was true he knew nothing of her species. That was a new experience for her.

"We arrrrrre spirrrrritommmmb," she said simply. "And yourself?" it was always a good idea to check your information, even if you were sure you were right. It stopped you from looking like a fool.

A spiritomb? Ket had never heard of a pokemon like that before, regardless he let his brain store the information on the new species for later as he responded to the spiritomb.

“I’m a Zangoose.” After his response the calm silence once again reigned over the night almost as suffocating as the mist around them. Ket was still wary of Ko as he kept watch over any signs of potential danger from them, this task was hardened by the lack of limbs on a spiritomb but he tried nonetheless. While this was happening Ket was trying to think of something to say but it was hard to given the circumstances of this unforeseen meeting. Wanting to break the awkwardness that had grown Ket threw out the first thought that wandered into his mouth.

“So uh, why you here this late? You live around here or just passing through?” Really not the best response Ket could of come up with but he was tired and his mind was still muddy as his flight or fight response began to die down from his rude awakening. Hoping Ko would not notice he began to subtly scratch himself slightly as his eyelids began to slump again while standing with the spiritomb.

Ko was mollified as the zangoose revealed himself to, indeed, be a zangoose. It was always nice to know you were right about something. An awkward silence descended over them, but Ko didn't mind. Silence was golden, after all. Awkwardness didn't really matter to the spiritomb -she was immune to its effects, honestly.

The zangoose eventually broke the silence, asking her why she was here so late. "I enjooooy theeee darknesssss," she explained. She wondered if the zangoose was the same. "How aaaaabout youuuuu?" she asked. "Whaaaaat bringssssss you herrrrre so laaaate?"

The other spirits were losing interest in the conversation now that no-one was in pain. Ko relaxed a little, not having to fight as hard for control. She allowed their smile to widen as she gazed through their eyes to watch the zangoose closely. If the zangoose liked the dark, perhaps he'd be interested in forming an alliance with her -she was still looking for a team to join the guild with, after all.

Ket was alerted when the spiritomb began to speak. Forcing himself back to a state of semi-consciousness as he listened to Ko. Ket thought the answer given by Ko was strange, considering that one didn’t have to be in Pricklemist to actually enjoy the darkness. After all in the wild darkness is pretty universal. He might of asked further on the topic if he had the energy but he didn’t so he just took it at face value. He was stumped when Ko asked him what he was doing here. He honestly didn’t have an answer, sure he was walking around to look for a place to sleep the night away but Pricklemist was an odd choice for that purpose. It might of been an impulse decision but if so he should stop listening to his impulses.

He was going to say the truth to the spiritomb but it sounded well pretty stupid. Rummaging through his mind for an excuse he settled on one. A house layed on the top of the hill, why not check it out. He had nothing to lose, well except sleep but that didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon. If he could drag along the spiritomb to help him explore this house it would bring him nothing but profit. Win-win for him really, he either got assistance with his unexpected journey of curiosity or he got back to sleep. He was fine with either.

“I came here to explore the house that’s on this hill. Guess I fell asleep by accident huh. Hey if you have nothing else to do would you mind coming along?” Well time to see what would happen next.