The Journey of 1000 Miles- Ch.2 Jirachi's Recovery~

Mei looked at the gaping whole, holding her stance strong to avoid accidentally slipping. However, as the vibrations occurred, she looked over to Tsume in terror. It was like everything was in slow motion and her heart stopped. Acting before thinking, she dove forward to try catching him. Unfortunately, she too slid right across the ground and through the pit with a scream. Terrified, she closed her eyes, ears ringing. Could this really be the end? Not to mention...where had Absolom suddenly disappeared to? She could have sworn she saw him there, but thinking back, he had disappeared when they noticed that pit!

Thud. That was all that was heard as Natsume hit the lower ice field. He had fallen from a height, yet he didn't even break a limb. He got to his feet more quickly than before this time. In front of him is what looks like a giant statue of a pokémon, towering far over his own height, made of ice. He walked up to it slowly and quietly. The Pokémon looked nearly real, it looked like a dragon pokémon. He was close wanting to touch it. He looked back, seeing if Mei was there. He noticed how incredibly large the room was. He was very silent at the time. He noticed the statue had been cracked in several spots.

Mei hit a little harder than Natsume, having practically dove down the cavern herself. She hit with an audible CRACK, leaving a small mark in the ice, along with a trickle of blood. She was definitely out of it as she lay there, fighting off the darkness that was overtaking her. Fighting off the wave of unconsciousness. She heard footsteps, but was having troubles moving, let alone seeing. Her obvious instinct though was that it was Natsume. It seemed he'd gotten out of the mess unscathed, making Mei feel especially idiotic for jumping now.

She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Instead, a wispy whimper escaped as she clenched her ribs. Her entire body was throbbing, especially her head which was swirling. She managed to roll onto her stomach, from which position she was able to bring her knees forward, and lift herself onto all fours. Certainly not the most dignified thing, but she was banged up pretty badly. However she found the strength to stand, and woozily made her way to where she heard the footsteps. As her vision was a bit impaired, looking at the 'statue' she could see swirling colors as the small traces of light danced through the cave. It seemed the bang to the head made her more sensitive to it. "Ts..Tsume?" she stuttered in a hushed voice, trying to find him.

Natsume looked at Mei, noticing her terrible condition. "Huh..? Mei... are you alright?" Natsume asked, trying to get to her. The roar of the pokémon came again, and a very large sickle had struck its way straight into the ground only a few paces away from Mei. The roar came from the statue itself. The whole thing shattered ice, revealing what was actually a live dragon! It had been awakened from a deep slumber. It used ice beam straight over Natsume's ear, freezing every hair that was near it. Natsume cringed and shrank back. He looked for Absolom.

Mei lifted her head when she heard Tsume's voice, but then the loud CRACK resonated through the halls, shattering the ice. The sickle slammed into the ground just in front of Mei, close enough that she even felt the breeze. She froze, staring at it. Slowly her head rose to the great dragon, the colors dancing as she heard it. She heard it shifting in its icy tomb, only to break free! The roar shook the cavern, causing Mei to collapse to the ground again. She watched almost in slow motion, Natsume running toward her, the concentrated beam of ice barely missing him as it shot straight over. She followed the beam, turning her head to watch it crash into a wall. Had that been Absolom she just saw? No...Absolom wasn't that quick, was he? She shook her head with her eyes closed for a moment. She was still too dazed to react overly quickly to anything right now, let alone see straight. It seemed he was still hiding, wherever he was...

Mei lifted back to her feet, and took a few staggering steps toward the dragon. Though it was no longer encased in ice, its body still seemed to be made like a glacier. As her eyes scanned the beast, rising to look at its face, she recognized it. A faint memory, but she was sure she'd seen it somewhere. Perhaps in one of her fantasy books, she wasn't sure. "K...Kyurem..." she stuttered, staring at it.

Indeed, it was Kyurem, the pokémon that was known to have frozen itself in its own love of ice. It seemed odd the way it only stared Natsume and Mei down. It then rose its two mighty wings. It flew straight past them, even the slight brush of its wing against Natsume's cheek had been strong enough to cause him to be thrown straight into a wall of the cave, and Natsume lay there in complete shock. It completely shattered the sickle that had fallen into the ice floor, causing many spears of ice to shower at every end of the cave. It left through the hole where Natsume and Mei had fallen through. Then the sound of a crash signaled the hole cave that the boulder had been pushed away ot thrown covering the entrance.

Natsume's head hurt, being thrown so hard against the wall, and then the shards had hit him as well, it was a lot, but he was more worried about Mei, since she had been in worse condition than him. He stepped himself up quickly, and tried running to Mei, but the ice had been way too slick. He only fell back again. "Mei, are you alright?" He asked, not being able to get back up this time. He is still inexperienced at being on ice. He was freezing to the bone at this point, having been in the cave for so long.

Mei watched the large dragon swoop over her head still in a trance, the gust of wind whipping her hair around. She herself was a bit of a spectacle now, standing alone in the middle of this room while wind and ice flew around, bouncing the light in all directions. Her arms were outstretched, the light making her entire being look like she was sparkling, shining in the room. Finally, the wind stopped as Kyurem obviously escaped, changing the path at the entrance. As everything fell, so did Mei to her knees.

The soft padding of paws could be heard from the darkness as a black and white figure stepped into the room. It was Absolom, it seemed he had watched the whole ordeal from the shadows of the cave! He walked over to Mei, who looked weakened but was otherwise fine. He nudged her cheek with his nose, helping her return to reality. She turned her head to him and smiled softly.

"Absolom...there you are..." she said in a quiet, but still somewhat happy voice. Absolom nodded, then glanced over to Natsume. Mei followed his sight over to her collapsed companion, and scurried to her feet. She slowly walked over to him, and knelt down. "Tsume...are you okay?" she asked. Odd how she could have been through so much, yet still be more worried about those around her to the point of even disregarding her own injuries completely.

Natsume looked up at Mei. He felt like a fool, not being able to get up in his condition, yet, Mei was having such an easier time at standing and she was in even worse condition than him. "Yeah... I'm fine..." He said to Mei, "So how do you suppose we get out of this cave?" He asked, trying again to get to his feet.

Mei reached her arm out, helping lift Natsume to his feet once again. "Don't worry, I'll help you," she said, being a sort of brace for him to lean on. She then looked around them. The room was now much darker without Kyurem in there. Very little light made its way to them, and the cave was now eerie and nearly silent save for the dripping of a few icicles echoing throughout. Mei glanced up to the hole tey had fallen through before. It was icy, and at such a steep angle that there was no way they could possibly climb back out that way even if they wanted.

"I'm not sure, Tsume..." Mei said, for once not sounding nearly as optimistic as he may have hoped. Truly their current situation seemed cold and bleak at best. "But...what I do know is that...where there is a will, there is a way..." she then said, staring at the ground. "And so...I know that even though things seem hopeless now...we will find a way..." Absolom joined at their sides, then looked over into the dark shadows. Perhaps he'd found another path through that way.

Natsume was okay with help this time, which would probably be rather surprising from all the times he had evaded help. He grabbed Mei's hand and was thankful to be helped up. "Thanks..." He says to her. He looked toward Absolom, since he seemed to be going in one direction. He walked over to where Absolom was, and saw there was a passageway. The thing was, it was really low, and they'd need to crawl through, and thice would be very cold for their knees. "I guess this'll do..." Natsume says to Mei. He gets ready to go through on his hands and knees. The ice was leaking its cold temperature into Natsume's body as he was losing his own body heat. He waited for Absolom to go first.

Absolom glanced back to the boy, knowing a secret he didn't it seemed. The cold would kill him far faster than it would Absolom or Mei if they didn't escape quickly. He padded on, his lowered height from being on all fours helpful in such a situation, as it was easier for him to go through. Mei was close to follow, standing just behind Natsume.

"Crawling, eh? Well...if that's the only way..." she said, reaching to the bottom of her thin jacket. With a rip, she tore off some long strips of fabric. She wrapped two of them around her hands, then handed a few more to Natsume. "Try not to burn through them, okay? They'll help your hands not get frost bitten so quickly...let's hope this path is short," she said as she squatted down to look through the 'tunnel'. However, with such dim light already, the low path seemed nearly pitch black. Mei's heart reached her throat looking down it, one of the few things she was genuinely afraid of was the darkness.

Natsume took them and wrapped his own hands. "I'll try not to... thanks." He says to Mei, trying to get through the cave fast as he could, since the cool air, he could feel, did effect him quite a bit. He found it a bit hard to move, but he only tried harder to get through. He thought he was going to be frozen before he was able to exit, and then a gust of warm air had gone through, meaning they had reached the end. The ice had a slight feel of melting on it. He felt dirt under his hands at one point. It was no longer ice ahead... just dirt. And now, when he looked up, he realized that he had already been out of the cave. It was then that he got to his feet, horribly unbalanced. He had a bad headache and put a hand to his forehead. "Nngh... well we're out." He says to her. He felt himself collapse from weakness. He still managed to stay conscious, but his ability to move seemed to be failing at the moment. It seemed the only thing that had gotten him far was adrenaline, for he had been exhausted after exiting.

Mei followed closely behind Yoite, well knowing his energy was fading fast. It seemed that since they had entered the icy realm he'd been far weaker than usual. It was one of the reasons she'd felt the need to protect him before. He was almost helpless in such a place. However, now Mei had to fight her own fears, and travel through the darkness. Absolom made it through first, and was already lying on the warm ground far before even Natsume made it out.

Mei could feel the icy cold forcing its way through the wraps on her hands, and burning at her knees until they were numb. She had her eyes closed, surrounded in the darkness. The could feel her heart pounding in her chest, and a ringing in her ear. However, she too felt as the ground slowly changed from ice, to permafrost, and eventually the cool earthy feel she was used to. Opening her eyes, she was at the end of the tunnel, ad could see Tsume collapsed on the ground.

She scurried out from the end of the cave, and rose to her feet before hurrying over to Natsume. "Tsume...Tsume, are you okay?" she asked, kneeling next to him.

"I... am..." was all he was able to say. His hands were completely cold. It would take a while for heat to return naturally back to his body. His face had become very pale. He had dropped the wraps before collapsing. He couldn't even start a small fire in his hand, only minor heat came, but it left very quickly. Adding the fact that the moon was now in the sky, the sunlight would be no option. At the moment, he couldn't even move. His whole body had become paralyzed. "...how...?" He says, not sure what had happened to him.

Mei glanced over Tsume momentarily. It was almost as though his very spirit had been torn from his body, then poorly thrown back on. She glanced back to the cave, then to Tsume once more. "Tsume...have you ever been anywhere extraordinarily cold before, like that cave was?" she asked, gently sitting on the ground next to him. She was worried for him, but there wasn't much she could do.

Absolom slowly walked over to the pair, and eyed over both of them. Deciding on the situation, he went to Natsume's side. Very carefully, he lowered his body across Natsume's torso, his thick fur warm and soft like a plush blanket. Mei stroked Absolom's head gently and looked around. "Looks like we're camping out tonight..." she said gazing up to the stars.

Natsume hadn't been to cold places, he usually had always avoided them. Though, he never knew it could drain him so badly. Even having difficulty to talk. He wondered if he was actually worse in there than he actually noticed. He let out a small sigh. If he would have known this, he would have packed a jacket long ago.

The feeling of warm fur had told Natsume that Absolom had been right beside him. He really did trust Absolom's judgement. Was Natsume really in such danger that he felt the need to help Natsume? He felt himself slowly doze off in his thoughts, into a silent sleep. He would have maybe said something, but he couldn't even move.

Mei sighed, tilting her head as she watched Tsume drift off quickly. It was more than clear he was beyond exhausted. "He'll be alright...wont he, Absolom?" Mei asked her trusted companion, who merely glanced up at her and gave a slight nod of his head. Absolom knew that he just needed to restore the heat to Natsume's body for his strength to return. Mei smiled a bit, "I believe you," she said as she flopped back into the grass.

A familiar scent filled her nose, and a faint glow was lighting the area. At first, Mei thought the light was from the pale moon, but then she turned her head. All around, the white flowers from before were growing and blossoming in the moonlight. Their luminescence flooding the area with a soft, warm glow. For some reason, this put Mei at ease and forced her to quickly drift to sleep as well.

Natsume woke up when he could feel the sunlight lick at his face, the warm feeling very refreshing. He opened his eyes very slowly, letting his own eyes focus as the light came to greet them. He saw the blue sky with few clouds there to populate it. He lifted himself with a hand, and looked around. He saw the handwraps that Mei had let him use a couple feet away from where he was. 'So that wasn't all a dream...' He thought. Natsume looked for Mei and Absolom, wanting to be sure that they were okay, though he knew Absolom knew better.

The flowers had long since folded their petals to the daylight, and were practically invisible now. Mei was nowhere to be seen, neither was Absolom. It seemed they'd wandered off while Natsume slept in and recovered. In fact, that's exactly what happened! Absolom and Mei had wandered off to find berries to bring back for breakfast. It wasn't long before a familiar, if scuffed up face appeared to Tsume.

Mei and Absolom were walking back, enjoying the sunlight beating down on them. Mei seemed to have used the over shirt from before as a satchel to carry berries in, tying it up like a little bag in her hands. Absolom, on the other hand merely took an entire branch, berries and all, and was dragging it behind him with his teeth. Mei looked happy, even with the torn up clothing and scratches covering her body. Hard to believe someone with such bad luck could have such a good disposition truthfully.

"Tsume!" Mei called, noticing he had woken. She quickly ran over to him, and held out the make-shift pouch. "Look, we found all sorts of berries for breakfast," she said as she untied it. A few berries spilled out, landing on the ground. "Woops..." she said, leaning down to pick them up, which only caused the rest to spill from the pouch onto the soft grass. "Dang it all..." he grumbled, squatting down as she started to pick the berries back up and put them on the shirt once more. Absolom was quick behind her, leaving the branch only a few paces away.

Natsume was happy to see Mei cheerful, in his mind, he could kind of imagine that even Absolom was cheerful. "Hello," Natsume said, before Mei had pretty much spilled nearly every berry in the bag. He got to his feet and stretched a bit, but keeping his arms to himself still. "Do you need any help with that?" Natsume asked, but he had already knelt down and started to help picking up the berries.

He looked back at the cave and the handwraps that were laying on the ground. "What happened to me in there?" He started, not very specific. "I mean, in the icy cave place, I only remember so much," He continued. "The most I remember is getting back out and everything's a blur..."

Mei slowed down a bit as Natsume asked his question, then finished piling the last few berries onto the shirt. "Well...you aren't the most coordinated being on ice, if that's what you mean," she joked, smiling up at him. In all honesty, she wasn't sure exactly what happened beyond him losing his energy quickly. It truly was a mystery, as were the dancing colors she saw from the lights in the cave.

Absolom sat down next to the branch, and nibbled a few berries off of it. "Anyway, we really should go wash these...Oh right!" Mei said in sudden realization. "I just remembered why we were up here in the first place! The river!" she shouted, standing up rather quickly. "We're supposed to be finding a way to clear the river pass!"

Natsume stood back up, brushing the dirt off his knees. "Oh right. So where do you think we should go now? We've really been going at such spots that nature seemed to be leading us... do you think we should look for something else like that again?" He asked, going to pick up the handwraps from the ground, seeing if they were at least clean enough to use. "What do you suppose I should do with these? Who knows when I will need them again."

"Hmm..." Mei said, glancing around their immediate area. They really had been going where the 'current' was taking them so far. That was how Mei usually tried to go through life, after all. She knelt down, and wrapped up the berries again, tucking them away in her bag. "Perhaps we should..." she said quietly as she stood again.

She glanced down to Natsume holding the wraps she'd given him from her shirt. "Maybe you should put them in your pocket for now, then?" she said slightly inquisitive, but more meant as a suggestion. "After all, you can always wash them later if they get too dirty. They were once a shirt you know," she said with a bit of a chuckle. "Now...which way should we go?" she wondered aloud as she looked around some more.

Natsume must have forgotten that it was from her shirt, for when she stated it was, he let it unfold completely down, confirming that, indeed, it was part of a shirt. That did feel odd, holding a piece of her shirt in his hand, but as she told, he put them in his pocket. He coughed to forget about the topic, and started walking in any direction that he wanted to inspect, which was really straight ahead from the icy room where the mighty dragon had once stood frozen. "I'm going to try over here." He said to her. He moved a few weeds out of the way as he walked through. Suddenly, Natsume's hair started raising abnormally. As if there was no gravity where he was. He felt a shiver across his body and had to step away quickly.

Mei was still in her thought process when Natsume walked away. Absolom glanced over at him, and made a subtle noise, only loud enough to catch Mei's attention. She broked from her concentration and glanced down at him. "Huh? What is it?" she asked, then followed his gaze to Natsume just in time to see the odd spectacle unfold. "Ts..Tsume?" she asked, before quickly rushing to his side.

"Tsume, are you alright?" she asked just as she reached him. "What's wrong? What happened?" she asked, then looked toward where he'd been walking. She was curious, more than scared, and wanted to know what she had just witnessed. Absolom walked over at a slower pace, and joined at their sides as Mei finished speaking.