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

Natsume was confused at this. "I'm not sure what it was, I was walking over there-" He started, showing with his hand toward the spot, when a white spark had ran from somewhere in the spot, straight to his finger creating a loud crack sound and Natsume had to quickly pull his hand back, shaking the finger to cool it. "Ow... what was that?" He said, trying to take a step forward, but he didn't have the feeling to do that again. "Well, that's what happened..." Natsume says, "Though, I still don't get why..."

Mei stared at Tsume for a moment, then to the spot. "Maybe it's static electricity?" she suggested. However, something inside her told her that was ridiculous. What was there to cause such a build up of static to create such a shock, after all? "Hmm..." she started, deciding against her initial theory. "Or maybe there's a group of Pikachu or something nearby..." she suggested a second time, though not far of from her initial suggestion.

"I'm really not all that sure either, to tell you the truth..."Mei said, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as sh tapped her chin with her forefinger. "It's strange, that's for sure..." Mei couldn't get off the 'static' idea, as she didn't know what else would have caused the shock.

"If it is static, "Natsume started, putting a hand toward the spot again, there was a second spark, but not nearly as strong. "Seems true... but what I wonder is the cause, when the ice cave is right behind us." He continues. "It's odd for them both to be close like this." He studied the whole area. He hadn't noticed the trench that he had passed by. He was too busy looking at the ground instead, only looking up a few times.

Abslom, however did notice the trench, and brought it to Mei's attention. She walked over examining it, then looking back toward the cave. "It's a trench...like the one the river left behind...but what's it doing all the way over here?" she wondered aloud. "Did the river used to run all the way over here? Or...did something else create it?" she continued, squatting down next to it.

"What do you think, Tsume?" she asked, looking over to Natsume who seemed to be completely oblivious to the hole in the ground. She laughed a bit, as he practically stared at the ground but managed to miss the thing cracking the landscape.

Natsume looked up at Mei. When he saw what she was looking at, he was rather surprised to have passed it up. "Oh..." he said, studying it now. When he looked hard, he could swe there was a path of some kind leading back to where he had came. He followed it until. He met the cave. "Mei... do you think this is it? How would an explanation that the river had been frozen solid sound?" He asked, though he thought there was more to it than this.

Mei watched Natsume follow it to the cave, but the pieces didn't seem to fit into place. They were upstream of the cave, so even if the water did freeze in the cave and cause the lack of flow downstream, why wasn't there water here? "I don't think so, Tsume..." ei said, climbing to her feet and dusting herself off.

She walked over to Natsume, and placed her hand against the cave. It didn't feel as cold as it had before. "Do you think Kyurem had something to do with this?" she asked, then looked over to Tsume. Absolom laid down in the grass, allowing the children to figure it out for themselves. After all, he was only there to protect, not ruin the fun.

"Hmm..." Natsume started, feeling the ice for himself. Of course, it was still cold, but not as cold as before. "O guess that could be best logical." He says. "Still doesn't explain everything... the trench doesn't make any sense at all to be up here and trail to here." He continues.

Going back to the trench, he looks through and sees nothing but static charge all over. "Sheesh... what do you suppose this to be reason?" Natsume asked, slightly intimidated from all the electricity bouncing around.

Mei stepped over to Natsume, looking down into the trench. "I don't really know...it doesn't make any sense to me. In every scientific aspect, the electric charge should be harmlessly absorbed into the ground, but it's lingering for some reason..." she said, absolutely baffled by the mystery. "The best I can figure...Maybe when Kyurem flew in initially, it crashed through the land and caused a build up of static. However...that still doesn't explain why it's lingering.."

Natsume sighed as he looked down. "Well, only one thing for me to do to find out... it's only static, don't worry for me... you don't have to follow if you don't wamt." He says, going directly through, all the static being now only directed to him, going away once it had finished the zapping on him, then started building again, and visibly obvious it was.

"Tsume...I don't think it's working!" Mei said, before sliding down after him. Something had to be causing this for it to build when it should be discharging. Absolom waited a few moments, staring down from the ledge before sliding down as well. He couldn't well look after Mei when she wasn't in a clear line of sight, after all. "Tsume?!" she called, feeling the static crackling in the air around them.

Natsume had hit the ground, half paralyzed for two seconds from all the static that had gotten him, though he recovered quickly. He looked around, looking at the walls. This was no trench, it was actually an underground pit. Only seeing the light that barely trickled through from above, he looked around seeing nothing but darkness in every direction. He had no idea where he was, now.

Mei, who had tried sliding down the edge of the wall rather than simply jumping down the pit landed much softer. She was able to land on her feet, though a bit off balance for a moment or two. Absolom with his cat like reflexes had no troubles doing the same. Mei used the palms of her hands to brush down her body, discharging most of the static that she'd gathered on her way down. With a few sparks of her glowing, she finally ended in simply darkness.

"Ts..Tsume?" she whispered a little worried. "Are you okay Tsume?" she asked, frozen in place. Sh could feel her skin crawling as her muscles quivered a bit. She was tense from head to toe as her eyes desperately scanned the room, trying to catch even the slightest bit of movement or light.

Natsume was right in front of Mei, and he whirled around after hearing her voice. "I'm right here, Mei, I'm fine." He says to her. He steps a small distance away from her, enough distance to create a small fire in his hand, not letting it touch her. It created a bit of light for them to see by. Natsume looked behind him to see there was a second hole in the ground. If he would have stepped back anymore, he would have fallen down there next, and who knows how deep it is.

Mei's eyes dilated to the sudden light created by Natsume. "It's a lot deeper than it looked...it's so dark down here..." she said, glancing around to the dirt and rock walls. She glanced down at the ground, eyes falling on the second pitfall. Her heart jumped in her throat and she took a step back. "That was close, Tsume...you should b careful..." she whispered, staring at the hole.

Absolom joined at Mei's side, nudging her with his nose. This provided her with some comfort as she set a hand on his fur coat. "At least you're here with me..." she said with a smile down to her Pokemon. Looking back up, Mei couldn't even see the daylight anymore as the rather odd shape of the inner walls seemed to swallow it up. "How are we supposed to get out this time?"

"Er... guess I wasn't thinking..." Natsume says, "I didn't think it'd be this deep, either." The little light that he had was not enough to light up much of the darkness that dwelled to see very far. It was just enough to see that there seemed to be two different paths leading opposite directions, not certain if one was a dead end. "Which way do you suppose we go?" He asked Mei.

Mei looked from one direction, then the other. "Umm..." she said, thinking and trying to feel which way to go. She quickly turned to face Absolom. "Which way do you think?" she asked, to which the Absol merely sat down and yawned. "Absolom...well you're no help..." Mei groaned. He obviously didn't think she was in immediate danger, and so refused to give her help this time.

"I don't really know...I mean I'd say we could split up to check both ways, except...I can't make fire like you can," Mei explained, looking back to Natsume. "I guess...maybe we should just flip a coin or something?"

Natsume tried to think logically. "I think that way leads toward the cave we had just come out of," Natsume says to Mei, pointing behind her with the hand not occupied with the fire, "So I think I'm going to try this way." He finishes, starting to walk, and had almost forgotten about the second pit, but he managed to remember before actually falling in. "Watch your step right there." He says to her, making sure she doesn't fall in before continuing.

Mei glanced back momentarily to the other cave. If that was true, she wondered where in the other cave that path led. However, Natsume's flame was walking away, and with it the light. So, she quickly turned to follow him, making sure to avoid the second pit. "Come on Absolom," she whispered, to which Absolom yawned with a stretch, and began trotting after them. Mei made sure to stay close to Natsume, as he was currently their only source of light, and Mei had an inexplicable fear of the dark.

Natsume noticed that the light was rather dim. He wanted a bit more light. 'Maybe if I...' he thinks, then the fire in his hand blazes straight for the ceiling, and bounced across the walls, and as quickly as it came, it had been replaced with the small flame once again before any harm was done. "Sorry..." He says to Mei, "I don't have the best control over it."

Mei jumped back a bit when Natsume's candle flame turned into a flare momentarily before dissipating again. "Uh...yeah..." she responded, "You should probably work on that..." she muttered as she glanced around some more. "So, where do you think this is gonna take us?" she asked as she watched the walls as they entered the new cave door. Absolom followed behind a few paces, just close enough to keep an eye on Mei.

"Er... I'm not really sure where..." Natsume says, "though, I hope I can find what was causing that odd static." He continues walking, but not very fast paced. He wanted to make sure he didn't fall into a different hole that might be somewhere in their path. It seemed to go slowly upward. Though the top of the cave was becoming lower at some points.

Mei watched around them as they walked. She could see the walls closing in, getting tighter and tighter as they went. At first she was panicked, but reassured herself that it was all in her head, the darkness playing tricks on her. However, she soon realized this simply wasn't the truth. The walls really WERE closing in! It reminded her of an oubliette, the long narrow passage that got smaller and smaller towards the end. A dungeon where you threw people...to forget about them. "I'm not so sure of this, Tsume..." Mei said in a rather worried voice. It was quite clear that the dark seemed to sap away all her courage that she normally had.

Natsume felt he needed to stop. "...is there something here?" He asked. "What's happened? Are you alright?" He kept asking. Natsume's fire started pulsing larger and it had now managed to stay the shape of a compressed ball. It looked like it was very hot to the touch still, but was a bit bigger, and apparently a lot brighter than before. He looked ahead of the ball, which quivered as if to want to explode, and he saw that right after the most narrow spot, it broke into a large dome, which had a bit of its own light of some kind.

Mei stared at Natsme for a moment still cringing in the darkness though it was now more dimly lit than dark. However, the light was only causing the shadows to dance which nearly put her more on edge than the pitch black had. She then followed his gaze to the source of strange light. It seemed to entrance her, as she completely ignored Natsume and began to walk toward it.

"Mei... are you alri-" He started, then the ball of light seemed to puff out, and in the darkness, something had dropped to the ground. Natsume had been using his fire ability for too long, and had exhausted them. "...sorry... Mei... I can't give any more lighting." He said, his voice sounding like it came from the ground.