Chapter 1 - A Temple in the Sky

"Hmm...," Iris mused from above the caves. Through Light's eyes, she could see pieces that looked like they could be shards, and for a brief moment, Iris's eyes lit up with excitement. Shards! Not just something familiar, but something she was driven to gather and study. Iris was just about to try and clamber down the rope herself, since stealth was no longer needed, when that light in her eyes dulled. <That's right,> she remembered as she tapped into that void of knowledge once again, notes and information that were once there but were no longer, <It's all gone... and I haven't had any time to relearn any of it.>

However, that didn't mean there was nothing she could do about the shards. Along with remembering that she had lost that knowledge, Iris also recalled that Layl had shown an interest in shards when they talked about it. It really was too bad that she, Iris, had been unable to talk more. Anyways, that was that. If Layl was interested, then maybe she would know something? At the very least, if Iris was Layl, then she would definitely want to be informed of the possibility that there might be shards. Calt was busy so Iris couldn't ask him to deliver a message. Light couldn't climb the rope so it would just be cruel to rely on her. Iris crossed over to Yoko's and Layl's rope and... hesitated. The two large Pokemon were caught, but what if she was so noisy climbing down that she woke up the rest. Lying down on her belly and leaning as far below the edge as she could without experiencing vertigo, Iris whispered as loudly-quietly as she could, "PSSSST. Hey, Layl. The other cave looks like it may have shards in it, or at least a bunch of colorful knick knacks."

Yoko looks a little uneasy at the prospect of going for more. "I don't know," she replied, and she turned to face where the dragon creature was resting mere seconds ago. "Call me crazy, but this feels staged to me, like it was meant to happen." She then turns back to face Layl, concern crossing her face. "I think AL made it easier to catch on purpose, since we needed a flying mount to progress further. I'm not saying we shouldn't go for more, but now that we have one, I don't think he'll make it so easy for the others." 

"Okay," Yoko replied in acknowledgement, and then turned to investigate the cave for anything useful. Before she does, however, she swings her backpack around to be in front of her and digs through it until she finds the familiar shape of her flashlight and pulls it out. She hadn't tested to see if it still works even after being submerged in the lake water, but she had left it out to dry earlier, so hopefully it would still work. With those hopes in mind, she switches her flashlight on.

Layl finally makes it to the top, climbing back on top of the ledge. She turned to look around the area to see if Iris was still around and wanting to talk.

The piece is about a foot long, as Yoko picks it up to examine it she notices the rectangular protrusions move in and out of their slots, stopping at certain intervals. Despite this, they are unable to be slid out of the slots they are in. When examined in more detail Yoko sees that the carvings depict the cat-like creatures locked in battle with some sort of insect, possibly a bee or wasp as they are depicted with stingers.

Layl looked at the weird items he had, not entirely sure what they were. The gem reminded her of a Water Gem though, but...was it used for the same purpose? She would let Iris handle that, she seems to understand that way more than the rest of them do. She gave her attention back to Shossk. "I think we could continue to catch more, the more members we have, the better, at least in my opinion, Yoko also said she felt like this was a set-up, and to be truthful, I believe the only way to prove that...is to trip it" Layl wouldn't admit it, but it was just like collecting pet metals back home. She had plenty, but she could only ever take one with her back home, she kind of wanted to catch as many as she could.

<Ah,> Iris was about to tell Layl about the possibility of shards within the caverns, but it appeared Shossk had already finished gathering anything that looked valuable. With the inclusion of the water gem, an item that he professed to not knowing what to do with, she could only assume it was thorough and included anything that looked marginally interesting. <Still,> Iris held some hope, <He didn't have a dowsing rod, did he?>.

While Calt and Layl discussed strategy, Iris listened in while she fell into the role of pokemon world tutorial that she had gotten accustomed to. "Well this is just a really shiny potion," she muttered, mostly to herself, as she picked up the reflective restorative, "And these two... don't suppose they would know it, and I don't want risk them finding out the hard way what the difference between a pester and pokeball are."

"Personally, I like the way Layl thinks. Trigger all the instances. We don't know what's going to be around the corner until we get to it," Iris rejoined the conversation, standing up with the pester ball in one hand and the water gem in the other, "Though, personally, I don't see much need in catching more Pokemon right now, but that's just me. Variety is always great, but I always worry that it's not quite fair to just catch a Pokemon only to never give it more than a fleeting fraction of your attention." That was her two cents given on the topic. Notably, Iris had not taken a side quite yet, or maybe, that was her side? She wanted to trip a trigger, if it was like what Layl said, but at the moment, she didn't feel like she needed to.

Regarding the items, Iris followed up her opinion with an item description of the two tools she held in her hand, "Oh, and it looks like this is a pester ball and this a water gem," each was raised slightly as they were named, "I'm... not actually sure what exactly this pester ball does, but I know they're nasty little buggers that can disorient or otherwise negatively affect the condition of anyone who's hit by one. As for the water gem, if held, it can be used up to give a one-time power-up to a Water-type attack. After that, the gem is gone. All in all, I think Bang should get the water gem, and the pester ball... Well..." In the universal show of indecision, Iris just shrugged. Anyone could use it, and she didn't know if anyone in the group was secretly a super awesome ball thrower.

Shossk blinks at the mention of 'dragon'. When he had reviewed the elemental types of this realm in his head earlier, the Dragon-type did appear. Shossk's interest was only tangential, though, as it was Veska that was truly intrigued by dragons. "I hold nno interest, nor disinterest," Shossk states indecisively again.

Meanwhile, Shossk had Calt scout out the two dens below the ones the trainers had cleared. The perfect little night-time scout does his work again, silently peeking into the two caves.

Calt finds that the two dens below those that have been cleared out both contain more of those softly buzzing hives.


When Iris picks up the phone she hears a highly static-filled version of AL's voice emerging from it. "Alright, make sure you listen carefully now. I'm not going to repeat this. You know how each room is instanced to each of you? I've set the game up to work like that with your Pokemon. It knows which ones are yours and which ones are someone else's. So, you have to verbally say that you are trading then exchange your Pokeballs and finally you've got to do some sort of non-verbal contract. Shaking hands should work but it doesn't matter as long as you both know what it means. Now if you don't have any more questions, get on with the action."

(This does cost one of Iris's divinations for the day)