Intermission: ''A Demain''

    First thing after snack time, Rudy tossed his oranberry peel in the compost pot and left the medical tent flap rippling behind him. The hot sand was a welcome excitement beneath his sore feet. Oh, he knew wandering out into the scorching desert was “dangerous” and “stupid” and “a probable death sentence for even the most experienced of thermosighted persons”, of which Autumn would imply with her tone that he wasn’t. He wasn’t sure why people liked to wave those fancy warning labels around; it wasn’t like they mattered. Rudy wouldn’t believe in death for another thirty-four hours. If he ever slipped into a tight spot, then someone up there would watch out for him. Someone always was, so long as he could convince them he was relatively interesting. Rudy’s life revolved around being interesting.

    Still, the day after this one he would glance back with a shiver as it dawned on him just how fortunate it was that the nurses ran after him and they got him a drink and they sent him to bed. “I’m not a child!” Rudy-of-yesterday reminded them loudly, waving his arm above his head. “I’m a big kid now!”

    “Rest,” said the Persian. She ran her claws through his bangs, which so did not make him feel better. Grumbling the nicest curse words he could think of, Rudy took her offered crackers and dragged himself back across the sand. He wished Marissa were here. No one ever said no to Marissa.

    Lena, the big Jynx who ruled the medical tent - quite literally - with an iron thumb, had finished rotating everyone’s bandages; by the time he returned, she had moved on to story time. Five children and it were clustered around her knees, sporting various burns and bruises. A scrawny - what was she, a Quilava? - rested on a bed nearby. She appeared to be stuck in a loop of lifting her head and slamming it against her pillow. Poor baby. Listening to fairy tales must be downright awful if someone with a neck brace were trying to beat the words from her brain like that. Rudy snorted. Some people would do anything for a little attention.

    Maybe he looked silly with sand stuck to his lips and dotted in his hair. When Lena heard his footsteps crunch on the tarp, she glanced up and chuckled in a dry way. A dryer-than-desert way that made him curl his toes.

    “Well, look who made it back in one piece this time! We’re reading Go Pups Go. Care to join us?”

    There was an Umbreon in her group, made obvious by the shape of its amber ears. Not so sneaky in the heat, now was it? Untrustworthy nonetheless. Rudy didn’t take his eyes from it as he shook his head. “Thanks, but I don’t read.”

    Lena shrugged and flipped the page. “Have a good nap, then.”

    The Persian gave him sitrus juice and a soft Girafarig toy stuffed with grass and old scraps of cotton. “When will your legal guardian be coming to get you?” she asked as she tucked him in, and Rudy’s thoughts flashed back to Rory with several pangs of irritation.

    “Soon,” he promised. He thought about Marissa next, but decided not to bring up her name. He’d met a lot of people who didn’t think the Wailord made the best of mothers. And she couldn’t make it to Geoda on her own, anyway.

    That thought made him purse his lips. Not really his most brilliant move, befriending someone who could never come to his rescue without his assistance. As soon as Cassidy allowed it, he would definitely recruit a ‘mon who could rectify that. How much did mercenaries cost these days? Autumn would be the ideal choice, if she didn’t have that whole I-have-a-pack-of-murderers-after-me thing going for her. Hmm.

    The next hour found the Gothita sprawled across his cot. The air tasted sticky. Sweat bled down his cheeks. For awhile Rudy entertained himself by shifting the folds of the tent walls around with his Telekinesis. But the tent actually collapsed after awhile, and everyone was pretty upset about that. He polished off the crackers and there weren’t any more, which was fine because they made him very thirsty. Then he tried to sleep, except his arm didn’t make the softest pillow. Sand crunched between the thin sheets. A warm wind billowed from one flapping corner of the tent.

    He missed Marissa, for a little while. Even though sleeping inside her mouth or beneath her great fin would never stop being creepy, at least he hadn’t had to worry about stranger danger. That Patrat in the bed next to his had been staring him down for as long as he could remember.

    And it was nice to talk to her, Marissa. Sometimes she answered. If she were here now, she could provide him with all the shade and water that he wanted, and then they could keep working on their next song. It was going to be about dinosaurs.

    Morning had just swirled into afternoon when Rudy felt a telltale prickling on the back of his neck, frosty as one of those northern winds from the cliffs back home. Frowning, he pushed himself up on his forearms - “Ow” - and gazed across a sea of yellow warmth towards the front flap of the tent. A blob of orange with four long ears shimmered into view half a second later.

    “Surely ... It can’t be. Lena,” Rudy whisper-called, sitting up in his cot, “that’s her! That’s my legal guardian!”

    The Jynx turned away from the Wooper she had been treating. A note of annoyance crept into her tone when she said, “I’ve never seen a Pokémon like that before.”

    “She’s an Ice-Type. They’re a thing, you know.” Rudy waved, but the Persian had intercepted the Glaceon at the entrance and neither noticed him.

    “No,” the Glaceon was saying, “that was my sister. She’s fine. Out doing some window shopping. Actually I came here to see” - the Glaceon tilted her head down towards her paw - “Marley (Wait, I checked up with him yesterday), a Sunkern, Jared Jay, and/or - Oh! Ohh …” She looked up again. “Rudy. The Gothita? I don’t suppose- Never mind, I see him. Howdy, Rudy. I see you’re awake. Long time no talk, bud.”

    A few faces turned accusingly around when they heard Ridlay call his name.

    “Heh heh.” Pain tingled across his sore stomach when he smiled, but Rudy did it anyway. “The Vaporeon said she had a sister. I thought it was probably you.”

    “Oh you did, did you?” Amused, Ridlay wandered over and leaned against the cot. “She told me you were still here, and since I had a minute I thought I’d drop in. You look well, actually. We wrote you this get-well-soon card, but it doesn’t look like you’ll be needing it. I guess I’ll leave it over here.”

    Rudy glanced at his left elbow as it faded from orange to red. “I feel different. Is different okay?”

    “Huh? Hm. Your hair’s grown out since I last saw you. When was that?”

    “A year and a half ago. Just over. Almost more like two.”

    She scratched her chin, then nodded hard just once. “It’s been about two months, I’d guess. Hey, I hope you’re keeping hydrated. That dark skin’s going to roast you when you get out in the sun.”

    “I am excellent at finding water,” he said with a shake of his head.

    Ridlay suddenly pulled away. Her voice dropped an octive. “Uh, where exactly did you leave Marissa?”

    “Home sick.”

    A sigh. “I’m so glad. One more nugget off my plate.” She looked him over… Sadly, critically, with the utmost respect… there was no way to know. They stayed like that for several long seconds, with Rudy rubbing his elbow beneath his blanket and Ridlay just … peering at him like that.

    “Do you know how long you were out before you woke up here in the city?” Ridlay asked him at last, pointing to her own head.

    “No, I didn’t.”

    “Fourteen hours… That’s worse than you’ve ever been, if I was informed correctly?”

    Pssh. Yeah, by a long shot. As he stared at the hot sand swirling over the floor tarp, Rudy was torn between two responses here: “Who’s your informant?” and “Your sister runs fast.” He chose the latter.

    Ridlay snorted. “She cheated, if that’s what you mean. She brought Kit, and he got you up here a lost faster than she would have been able to alone.”

    “Eh? But Kit’s a bitty Duskull. He’s like, this shrimpy. Hey Ridlay, that means you.” Rudy took his right hand from beneath his blanket and held his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. “All he ever does is cry about how he’s not supposed to be possessing people, even though he does that all the time. He took my Wailord. He’s mean. And a wimp. How could he possibly get me to… Oh.”

    “Yep. Sorry - it was an emergency. Stardust was praying you wouldn’t mind. Kudos, by the way, for tackling your Dungeon solo and making it almost all the way out.”

    Both Rudy’s hands began to tremble. He kept the left arm hidden because he didn’t want Ridlay to be mad at him, but he upturned his right palm and stared deep into the shifting reds and oranges. Bile rose in his throat. “Oh.”

    That was all he managed before he really did throw up. He leaned over the edge of the cot, away from Ridlay so that she wouldn’t have to watch unless she wanted to, which he knew she would because that was just the kind of thing she did. Ridlay grabbed his arm and tried to keep him from falling into his own sick, but that just sent a flash of lightning through his head, so he launched her back with a blast of Telekinesis. She landed somewhere that was out of his line of sight and therefore he didn’t care about. He threw up a little more, and when he was done he curled up in a ball beneath his blanket, shivering and sniffling and hugging his Girafarig and trying to pretend that he wasn’t.

    “Rudy. Rudy.” Ridlay came back around his cot and knelt down (carefully away from the mess) so that her face was level with his. It was yellow. “We didn’t know what else to do. You were just on the lip of consciousness, poisoned, and fading fast. We needed some way to fly you to medical attention, so-”

    Rudy couldn’t help it. He broke out into small, gasping sobs beneath his sheets and clutched his left arm close against his chest. “Don’t let Kit make me go crazy like Adrian. I don’t want to be put to sleep. I don’t want to be put to sleep. Please don’t let me go crazy like my mom.”

    “I won’t, I won’t. Trust me, you’re the last person in the world who needs a boost in the neuroticism department. We’d take you out first. It’s my fault, it was my crazy idea, and if I would’ve realized possession would hurt your feelings this badly, I … still would’ve done it. Honestly, I don’t think we would have gotten you up here so fast if Kit didn’t figure out how to use your Telekinesis.”

    He said nothing. Telekinesis was his thing. No Ghost was supposed to take that from him.

    Ridlay’s tail flicked to the left, then the right. She rubbed her shoulder. “Hey… I know we’ve had our rough times in the past, but I know we can find some middle ground. Let us make it up to you. I have an idea.”

    “I don’t think I like your ideas.”

    She waved vaguely towards the front flap of the tent. “Most of your Andalusst friends are still trekking in the sand out there. They stopped for the night, and tomorrow they’re going to have a barbecue. Stardust is taking the Sunflares down. You know, Miles. He works with your pal Andrew Rich. Have you ever met him? You should meet him. You’d probably like him. Anyway… He and Ches have a Sunkern friend now.” Her eyes flicked past his shoulder. “Yeah, she’s oodles of fun, to say the least.”

    “Heh. I met a Sunkern once. Maybe they’re relate-”

    Ridlay lowered her voice in a conspiratorial whisper as she got back to her feet. “She’s totally Stormy.”

    The blood washed out from his face. Of all the-! Rudy sat up then, blankets rustling, and Ridlay winced. “Eeh. Your arm, it’s-”

    “Um… S-snap, crackle, pop. I think I fell on it when the Barboach I took the bucket from hit me.” Grateful for the distraction, Rudy put on his best smile. “I am not left-handed either. Lena fixed it. She hammers and she saws and her toolbox is filled.”

    Ridlay stood in hot silence, her paws flat against her chest. A Treecko whined for water in the background. Then she said, “Um, do you want me to sign your cast?”

    “Floor it?”

    “Sign it. You know, write my name on it. It’s … it’s like a get-well-soon card that you can always keep with you. I guess sometimes it can make you feel better, knowing that your friends care about you and are thinking about you all the time.”

    Rudy wrinkled his nose. “Who’s got the power? The power to read?”

    “What? Oh. No, you can read. I’ve seen you.”

    That made him snort. “I can’t play the piano. I can’t do a standing backflip.”

    “Here.” Ridlay tugged a red-hot feather from behind her ear. “I’ll just sign it anyway.” She scrawled something across his arm. For a brief instant, Rudy saw the swirling letters of her name. Their heat faded as she drew her quill away.

    He sighed. “Okay. Can I just say something crazy?”

    “Sure, shoot me.”

    “You’re an Ice-Type ... But you glow like your blood is made of fire. The Fraxure girl does the same thing. Beware the forest mushrooms.”

    She hesitated, tucking her feather away again. “How do you mean?”

    Second sigh. “I’m thermosighted. I can only see in body heat.”

    “Ah ... Yes, I should have guessed. That’s not unheard of in your species.” Ridlay lifted her arms and turned a full circle as she examined her hips, apparently looking for warm splotches that her eyes couldn’t make out. “It’s probably this desert sunshine. My fur retains it like a metal pan. I’ve never been the iciest Glaceon, anyway.”

    “Is that because you’re an avatar?” the Gothita asked, tapping his thumb along his cast.

    Ridlay lowered her arms. “What’s an avatar?”

    “They’re, um … My friend Sourdough believed in them. He lives here in Geoda.” Rudy shook his head. “You do have a soul, don’t you, Ridlay? Avatars talk to people in the other world.”

    “Oh.” Ridlay gave a sagely nod. Her colors very briefly paled to green. “You’re thinking of a Dusknoir. They’re said to guide the spirits from the world of the living to their final resting place. Hm. You know, if there’s someone there you want to talk to, you could probably find a medium floating around the city somewhere. Those sorts of people are drawn to crowded places like Andalusst. Trick Kit into evolving, maybe. But I’m not a Ghost, see? You can touch my paw, if you like.”

    Rudy shook his head again, more angrily this time. “But there was another bean. I meant the other world. The one where all the gods live. It’s on the other side of the Fourth Wall. That one.”

    She squished her brow-colors together. “The … Fourth Wall? What’s the Fourth Wall?”

    “It was important. The thing that was lost.” Rudy crossed his arms, tucking his Girafarig close. “And guilt turns a ‘mon black and white and red all over.”

    “I’m sorry, you’re going to have to be more specific. I don’t really understa-”

    “I know! You know.”

    Ridlay’s two high ears twitched down to join her lower ones. Her face turned towards the cloth ceiling, then down again. She spread her paws and put her foot up on the cot. “Hokay, okay. Fair enough. Let’s play ball. I got ten minutes ‘til I have to catch up with my sister. What do you want to hear?”

    Rudy laced his hands beneath his chin as best he could and stared at her long and hard. He would have to choose his questions carefully so as not to scare her off.

    “Are you a Fourther too? Like me?”

    Her colors cooled to sky-dark blue. “No.”

    He tilted his head. “Well, everybody knows that the bird is the word.”

    “Of course I know of your religion.”

    “Oh yeah. Your sister mentioned it. So you know about the Hundred Gods of Stone and Sky.” Rudy ducked his mouth behind his fingers. “Have you ever seen them? You know, in like a dream. Or a vision.”

    Ridlay shrugged. Hmm. Interesting.

    “Did the gods tell you to watch over me?” he asked, snuggling back into his pillows.

    “Watch over you?”

    “Yeah. You know, hang out with me and talk with me and act like you’re my friend, even though I know you’re really just spying because you’re an avatar for them.” Rudy raised his eyebrows. It was time to test his hypothesis. “Or, you know. One god, right? There’s one for every avatar, the tall and the small. Oh, that’s what makes you beautiful.”

    “An avatar. Right. Sure. Because that makes much more sense.” The Glaceon stretched out her arms, stubby fingers interlaced. “Do you know what a political machine is, Rudy?”

    He scratched behind his left bow. His hair hung in sweaty clumps against his neck. For a moment he watched Lena and the Persian and an Audino wander around, feeling foreheads and testing injured limbs. Then, “Last time I went out for Iaponese, I had this huge bowl of pad thai ... I think I ordered that at the Iaponese place, too.”

    Ridlay made like she was rolling her eyes. “Close. It’s something they do up in Sandgold. Certain people are chosen to look out for other people. It’s a coastal town, so when the immigrants come in, my grandpa sends someone to meet them at the docks. They find out if the newcomers speak Common or what and if they have family in town and a place to stay. Sometimes they help them find jobs and, once they’re settled in, they might bring them gifts. Give them someone to trust, someone who cares. These people who help them may be assigned to certain sections of the city or certain Types of immigrants. Being an” - she made air quotes with her paws - “avatar, as you put it, is pretty much like that.”

    “So why me?”

    “Why you, what?”

    Rudy made a humming sound as he hesitated. “The touch of your hand says you’ll catch me if ever I fall.”

    After a moment, the Glaceon tipped her head. “You shut up way too easily right then. That’s not like you at all. What are you thinking about?”

    “It’s just … I’ve always felt that I was special. And saved for great things. Didn’t you choose me to look after?”

    “I didn’t exactly choose you,” she corrected, resting her chin on one palm. “These things just happen. For starters, I inherited watch over the Shiver Pass quadrant in Andalusst from my mentor, Ivy, about seven years ago. That’s all.”

    He blinked at the serendipity. “Shiver Pass is where the Puddings live.”

    “Among other people. Right after their house was built, I noticed that you started getting mixed up with them. And you didn’t have a real home.” She shrugged. “I got curious. One of us had to take you into our jurisdiction boundaries. May as well be me. At least that Wailord makes you easy to track down. From there it was Jaime, because when she showed up she was so close with the Sunflares that at first we didn’t realize they weren’t living together, and then he got involved with the Riches and then Mari disappeared and Miriam retired and Cuffin’s been his usual pain-in-the-tail self for weeks, always trying to get into our business, and now the whole system is tangled up. I’ve got random guys halfway across Andalusst on my plate. And don’t even make me start on ol’ Alex or I’ll never shut my mouth.”

    Rudy glanced away, slipping the Girafarig doll beneath his arm. “Her name’s Marissa. My Wailord.”

    Ridlay shrugged a second time without taking her cheek from her palm. “Anyway.”

    He watched her colors shift from gold to red to orange to gold again. Only her tail and the tips of her ears retained their typical purple Ice-Type body heat. He didn’t like Ridlay, he decided. No, not at all.

    “Good talk,” she said then, getting to her paws. “I hope your arm gets better. Perhaps someday we’ll meet agai-”

    “Do you have special powers from the gods?”

    Ridlay snorted and clapped her paws down on the end of his cot. “I wish. Quite the opposite. I was never born to be a fighter. I can’t even use any Ice moves. Never learned.”

    “Hmm.” Rudy narrowed his eyes. “She’s a witch.”

    Her ears twitched. “Not anymore.”

    “So you were.”

    “Almost. Sort of. In a way. Okay, not really, no. But I always wanted to be. I may not have any particularly ‘magical’ abilities, but word gets around and I’m awfully good at meddling in affairs that don’t concern me.”

    “No,” Rudy stated in the most manner-of-fact voice he could muster, “you’re leaving Andalusst because it’s time for your secret identity to become your only identity. I found you out and now you’re trying to hide so no one else can find out about your powers.”

    “Look.” She sat down on the cot’s end, drawing one knee up to her chest. “My dad’s been suffering with a broken leg for weeks. Doesn’t help that he’s terrified of ketchup. And my mom - she’s a Grass-Type - just caught pneumonia and her birthday’s rolling around. I’m going home to care for them, and I’m prepared to do it for the rest of my life if I need to. I was-”

    She broke off. The Treecko behind her finished off his water and asked for more. Rudy shifted the thin blanket. Then, “Well, it was always expected that I would, you know. That’s what happens when you’re the oldest child. I came to Geoda because they have a two-hop connection to Sandgold Town here. As much as I want to go back to Andalusst - and I think I will when I’m older - there’s no real reason for me to, because I already gave my ‘powers’ (says you) up to my apprentice.”

    “Who’s that?”

    Ridlay looked down at her toes. “I shouldn’t really say. She isn’t supposed to get involved and I don’t want you to tempt her.”

    Thoroughly offended, Rudy sat up and plastered his injured hand to his chest. “So you’re calling me heartless?”

    The Glaceon studied him in curious silence for several long seconds, then sniffed in a laughing way and shook her head. “Oh geez, I wish I could devote my life to fixing your guys’ problems. With you around, I’d never get bored for a second. But it’s not like it does much good to, er, to carry an Egg from one side of the city to the other, or something. Hmm. Actually, that could be the answer here. Uh, well, it’s, um, only when the Pokémon hatches and begins to wander around on its own that it starts to understand danger. How to navigate, how to fight, that sort of stuff …  You aren’t a baby, Rudyard, so I won’t treat you like one. It was my sister who carried you out of that Dungeon, not me. She isn’t responsible for you, so her ties are easy to cut. That was a one-time deal. A little favor, not an obligation. Next time you ask she’ll be allowed to say no.”

    Rudy rubbed the space between his Girafarig’s ears. “Okay … but say an emergency comes up. What if someone needs to find her? The Fourth apprentice?”

    “Hm. That is a puzzle, isn’t it now? Well … I suppose I could make up a riddle.” She chuckled a dry chuckle and drew her thumb across her cheek. It left a trail of boiling red. “I’ll have to think of one that can last you the rest of your life. It will take awhile.”

    “Why don’t you just come out and say you don’t trust me?”

    “Several good reasons, Rudy. I know you’ve heard it a thousand times” - he flopped back on his pillows with a huff, arms awkwardly crossed - “but this is just one of those things you’ll understand when you’re older. Like … like … like the curl in the Tepig’s tail. Or the ‘stache on a Mienshao. Or the mane on an Eevee.”

    He drew in his brows. “You what?”

    “Um. Well.” She started picking at the fluff on her chest. “See, some god, somewhere, put that tail curl there. We don’t know why. It doesn’t seem to serve any purpose, like the Spoink’s. But that god probably had their reasons. And even if you don’t understand, sometimes you should just … listen to the adults in your life. I know you hate to feel inferior. Trust me - of anyone, I know. But there are a lot of people out there who are older than you, and have more experience dealing with the world. You need to be humble and listen to them sometimes instead of trying to do everything your way. Or you’re going to get yourself or somebody else killed.”

    “Mmph …”

    She stood, wrung her paws. Hesitated. And then bent down to kiss him on the forehead. A jolt raced over Rudy’s skin where her tongue brushed his scalp. There was a burst like ruptured starlight, and the Glaceon drew away.

    “Thank you for painting eggs with me that one time. It was fun. Take care of yourself, okay, pip?”

    “Ridlay,” Rudy said as she started off, “do you know when I’m going to ‘die’?”

    She froze, tail twitching, and after a heartbeat or two glanced back over her shoulder. “Why would you think I’d know a thing like that?”

    He stared at the place he thought her eyes would be, and must have hit his mark because at last she had to duck her head and look away. “My mom claimed she did. The last thing she ever told me before she left us was that she knew when I was going to ‘die’, and that it was way too soon and she was afraid I’d end up as just another disappointment, and wasn’t worth her resources and care. So I was wondering, if you can talk to people in the other world, do you know when guys like me will get pied? Buy the farm? Be staked? Kick the bucket? Go high and dry? Stop faking it, apparently?”

    A sigh through her nose. Her claws pulled the tent flap to the side. And she looked at him again.

    “That’s between you and the gods, Rudy. It’s really not my place to get involved.”

    She disappeared. Her body heat flickered on the other side of the tent, melding with the hot sand in an instant.

    “Wait,” he called, throwing back the sheets. Stupid sheets - who put sheets on a desert bed anyway? They tangled up his feet and he had to kick as he scrambled up. “When I’m dead I’ll take that as a maybe! Did you know…? Won’t you please come get your baby, maybe?”

    Lena placed a hand beneath his plaster cast and helped him to the entrance of the tent. Rudy scanned the desert, but everything was so hot and orange that it hurt his eyes. Even the buildings of the little clay city all around him. The occasional Water- or Ice-Type glowed with splashes of green, but that wasn’t helpful. Ridlay’s blood was much too warm to be your typical Ice-Type.

    “Take a canteen,” insisted Lena, pressing a small one into his good hand. “You be careful with that arm now.”

    He tucked the cast against his chest so it wouldn’t be so heavy and partially ran, partially limped off across the sand.

    It took over an hour of searching to locate Ridlay again. He checked shops. The sewer. Private homes. In the end, he finally realized that he’d walked past her half a dozen times without her ever calling out to him, the jerk.

    She sat on some low wall, probably around a fountain because he could hear running water and see spurts of blue flashing intermittently against the warm yellow stream. Her sister, that Vaporeon girl, sat alongside her, and she was red too. Some sort of shape in Ridlay’s lap left a cold black patch in her colors. Rudy looked it over with a frown.

    “Is that a riddle? About your apprentice?”

    “I did promise you one,” the Glaceon agreed unhappily. Her tail swept across the sand, stirring dust. “It’s only been an hour. I didn’t came up with any kind of puzzle, but … I did decide that what I want to do with you is, well … I have this.”

    She pulled a cloth away from the shape to reveal … something. A pen? A monkey? Rudy sniffed carefully at the air.

    “Why is it so warm in the middle?”

    Ridlay looked at him in seeming surprise, her colors sparking with cool green. “Oh, right. I forgot you were thermosighted. It’s an Egg in a basket. Come see.”

    “Hey, I would prefer not to.”

    “Come over here, Rudyard.”

    Rudy frowned. People didn’t talk to him that way. Especially the people who knew his full name. Dragging his feet in the sand, he joined Ridlay and Stardust on the fountain wall. But he made sure there was space between his hand and Ridlay’s yellow paw.

    Ridlay set the basket on his knees. “You know what this is, don’t you?”

    “Wool? Block? Omelets?”

    That made Stardust jolt, and Ridlay sighed through her teeth. “Not quite. It’s an Egg that was given to my sister and I - me and my sister - by a friend. But now that I’m leaving for Sandgold, we agreed that it’s probably best if we gave it to someone we can ... um, trust to take care of it. And I’ve chosen to put my faith in you. The thing is, this Egg is sort of … special.”

    “Uh, special power?”

    “Very. It’s my answer to your problem.” The Glaceon spread her paws. “See, if you always take care of her, and treat her with love and respect, then someday she’ll be able to help you find my apprentice. Although I can’t imagine what’s peaked your interest. ST2 aren’t people a lot of ‘mon try to search out. Or even know about, honestly…”

    Warmth bubbled up Rudy’s neck. His knuckles turned orange, even beneath his cast. “This is cheating!”

    “What is?”

    “Just … just … all of it! You said someone could help me bypass the Fourth Wall. I need to know where, and I need to know who. And I need to know now.”

    Ridlay turned to glance at Stardust. Rudy wished, more than almost anything, that he could see whatever look it was that passed between them. “You can’t bypass the Fourth Wall,” Ridlay said. “No one can. It’s a metaphor. It’s not a thing.”

    “Is too.” Rudy looked around and pointed to a splash of red that hovered above a nearby building. “There’s a breach right there, look. See it? I’ve climbed through them before, but I always just fall out the other side.”

    “What are you talking about?”

    “That tear in the fabric of space and time over there.” The Gothita held up one finger. “Just wait for it…”

    Stardust and Ridlay followed his gaze. After a few more seconds, the breach blipped away in a ripple of warmth. Rudy saw it reappear over on his left.

    “I only see one right now,” he said, pulling his knees up on the fountain wall. The basket crunched softly against his plaster cast. “But sometimes there are hundreds of those things around. I haven’t figured out why. There will be more coming really soon. Maybe tomorrow.”

    “I don’t see anything,” Stardust announced.

    “Shh.” Ridlay leaned forward, resting one paw on the basket’s woven edge. “Well, whatever they are, Rudy, I hope you get to find out someday.”

    All his hopes of Ridlay and her apprentice vanished into smoke. “Even you can’t see them? But you’re one of the … Oh, I am not crazy. Those gaps are real!”

    “Of course they are,” soothed the Glaceon, rubbing the Egg with a scrap of fabric. Was she bluffing? She had to be bluffing. She couldn’t not know- she was an avatar. Wasn’t she? Rudy watched her for a second or two, then shoved the basket into her lap.

    “I don’t need it. I don’t want it. I can’t afford it. Find your fortunes elsewhere. Shoo.”

    “Rudy,” Stardust said, watching as he hopped to his feet, “we’d really like you to take care of this Egg for us.”

    “It’s not going to help me find her apprentice anyway, is it? It never was. Why did you lie to me? Do you even have an apprentice? Or was this all a joke on me?” The Gothita stamped his foot in the sand. “I should’ve known that you’d be first in line on ‘Make a Fool of Rudy Day’. Am I just one part of some big … plan?”

    Neither Glaceon nor Vaporeon answered, and after a few heartbeats Rudy turned around.

    “Please take it.” Ridlay held up the basket. “I really think it’ll be good for you. Wouldn’t you like to have another friend?”

    Rudy shook his head. “It won’t help. I need friends on the other side.”

    Stardust placed her paw on her sister’s shoulder. “Let him alone. If he doesn’t think he’s responsible, then it’s probably for the best. At least he’s honest. Let’s go find that Garbodor girl.”

    She was trying to taunt him with that. Trick him, Buneary-season style. Egg him on in the most legit sense of the word. He knew it. Everyone knew it. It was so, so obvious. They must think he was awfully stupid.

    “Excuse me?” Rudy held up his hands, his uninjured fingers twitching. “A Garbodor? You would replace me, Rudyard Kendall-Renyolds McLean, already the most powerful Pokémon in Andalusst, with a Garbodor?”

    “Oh,” said Ridlay, feigning surprise. She placed one paw against her chest. “I’m so sorry; it was nothing. We didn’t mean it like that. Just forget it - I’m sorry if we offended you.”

    Rudy leveled his finger at her nose. “Take. It. Back.”

    “Would you like it?” she asked, lifting the basket again. But she was leaning away from his finger.

    “No! I just don’t want you to give it to a- a-  to trash! I’m worth an Espeon, at least. Ridlay, are you nuts? Ain’t nobody got time for that. I have one hundred really dumb things I have to do while playing this game. I don’t want an Egg. Eggs are stupid. Me, I hate Eggs. Where would I even put it- In my pocket?”

    The Glaceon’s ears drooped. “I’m sorry you feel that way.” She patted the Egg and stood, with Stardust following likewise. “Well, let’s go. Perhaps we can give it to that Herdier from the Researchers Guild instead. Good luck in your adventures, Rudy. Tell Marissa I said hello.”

    He watched as they padded away on their hind paws, clinging to one another for support. Their colors flickered warm against the crunchy sand until he could hardly see them anymore.

    “Hmph. Well ridded, I should say. Who does that, truthfully? Just tries to make you think that you’re… Oh my snap! Wait- Ridlay, wait! Does that basket have my scent on it? Who are you giving it to?” Spitting sand, he scampered after them. “Please don’t hand it over to anyone in Geoda! I’ll get in super big trouble if the Guild uses it to find me. I’m not supposed to be here. Ridlay, wait!”

    She did wait, and Rudy skidded to a halt between her and her sister, coughing as grit and dust billowed into the air. He licked his lips and looked up. For the first time, he realized that they weren’t much taller than he was, even standing upright.

    “I, uh, I want my song to become love, and love to become the Egg.”

    “What, and you expect me to hand it over now, after all that stuff you just said about how much you hated it and how bad a parent you would be?” She placed one paw on her hip and sighed. “I don’t think so. Eggs are a big responsibility, Rudy. I’m sorry I asked. I shouldn’t have interfered. I’ve really done it this time.”

    “No, please!” Rudy put both wrists on the basket’s rim. “You were right about the friend thing. I really need a loyal minion.”

    Ridlay let him take the basket by its handle. “Well, do you think you can keep her safe? Always look out for her, even around Marissa? If she’s queen of the water and you’re lord of the sky, can you take care of a creature that lives on the ground?”

    “Um.” Rudy looked down at the Egg, wondering what colors it was in Ridlay’s world. “I can try.”

    “Trying isn’t enough.” She lay her palm on the basket again.

    “All right, then I will.” The Gothita pulled the basket back. “I’m going to need an heir anyway. This way I don’t have to buy an eight-Miltank wife too.”

    Ridlay put her paws away behind her back and shared a glance with Stardust. “My job is done, then. Good-bye, Rudy. I hope you enjoy the barbecue tomorrow. May the gods bless you whether you walk on stone or skim the sky.”

    Rudy’s head snapped up. Prickles dabbed across his spine. The Egg actually slipped from his fingers, and for a moment he fumbled until the basket was dangling at his waist. “You … you said you didn’t believe in the Hundred.”

    “I never said that. Only that I wasn’t a Fourther.”

    He slit his eyes, glancing between her and Stardust, who squirmed in the background. “So what do you believe in?”

    Ridlay stood there, silent, for a very long time. Rudy fidgeted with his bows. At last she raised her head.

    “Rudy,” she said.

    “Yah-huh?” he said.

    “Who do you think your gods pray to, Rudy? Who breathed life into them? If you believe you came from them, then where did they come from?”

    The world dropped beneath his feet. His left knee started to shake. Rudy put his cast on it, staring into Ridlay’s swirling, fiery colors without daring to breathe. He opened his mouth, but his tongue was Wailord-heavy. He swallowed. Stardust and Ridlay waited patiently while he ran his fingers through his bangs and forced himself to try again.

    “I … I don’t know.”

    The Glaceon leaned forward. Peering at him, maybe. Rudy found that for once he couldn’t meet the place he thought her eyes must be.

    “Are there bigger gods than the Hundred, Ridlay? Are there … are there a Thousand?”

    “Hmm.” She pulled back. “I’ve always thought there might be. And bigger ones, and bigger ones. Brother gods and sister gods. Fathers and mothers and aunts and cousins and uncles. They have to come from somewhere, and maybe someday we’ll find out. Or maybe we won’t. Not in my lifetime, at least.” She tapped her sister on the shoulder and, with a yellow wave of farewell to Rudy, began to walk away. “Until the Fog entwines our paths again,” she said, and in another tongue he vaguely recognized - a very old tongue, Rudy thought, although he had no Marissa around to tell him which one it was - she added with a twinge of disappointment, “little king.”

    He stood with the Egg an hour more, feeling cold.