When she wasn't performing daring boat chases or climbing up mountains with Priam, they were crawling through chasms in search of space rocks. Maybe that was why Chryssa enjoyed hanging out with him so much-- he kept things exciting. She'd never gotten an invitation from Priam to just get fast food or hang out on street corners smoking cigarettes. Speaking of which--

"Want to go to McNumel's after this?"

She gripped the hilt of her cane with both hands as she felt her way down through the darkness, tapping carefully to find ridges in the rock for her to wedge the tip in. She lowered herself each time, seeming to have little difficulty traversing the steep slope.

Going down wasn't a problem. Going back up, however, might require some assistance. 

"I could really go for a Volcano Burger," Chryssa continued, looking for space rocks. She shone her flashlight around, pointing it at random pebbles on the ground "How do we spot these things, by the way? I assume they'll have a mysterious aura... or perhaps an otherworldly luster!" She relished the idea.

But she didn't know much about Meteor Falls or its history, and astronomy wasn't exactly her subject either. "I yield to your treasure-hunting expertise," she declared, using the beam of her flashlight to annoy a slumbering Geodude instead. 

“We’ll know it when we see it,” Chryssa said to Priam. There was a strange, sudden confidence to her words. “Because unlike all other rocks, this rock will have a story.”

She decided to demonstrate. She scooped up an ordinary rock, hefting it in her palm. “This one, for example,” she said. “It saw something it shouldn’t have—maybe two forbidden lovers!— who met below Meteor Falls in secret. They had been betrothed to lords from distant lands,” she continued, warming to her improvised tale, “But deals writ in paper cannot seal the heart, and so these two defied the words of their kin.”

Chryssa tossed the rock into the air, catching it again neatly. “They met night after night before this rock, doing all sorts of things. Sexual things,” she added in case that hadn’t been clear, “Until their families caught them in the act. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, they laid a curse upon the pair—one by day, the other by night. Connected by place, but never by sight. Evermore, evermore.”

The girl’s voice lowered, touching each syllable with reverence.

“But did the rock do anything? No.” Abruptly, Chryssa dropped the plain stone, letting it roll away beyond the reach of Shiinotic’s light. “No,  it didn’t. It certainly didn’t travel through space and survive the upper atmosphere. Our search continues, brave Priam!”

The sixteen-year-old flounced on deeper into the cave system, pressing on towards the distant sounds of running water. “It’s your turn next!” she called cheerfully behind her. 

If the Lewd Couple of Meteor Falls wasn’t already a local legend, Chryssa resolved to make it one.

“And what do you wish for, Mr. Priam?”

Her eyes glinted, reflecting Shiinotic’s light. Bathed in the green phosphorescence of the walking mushroom, she seemed like a predator who’d strayed beneath a street lamp.

Chryssa sat down on the boulder Priam had been mightily almost-hefting, crossing her legs. “If what you said about this rock is true, it’s not much of a wishing star, is it? Its fate was unfortunate, to say the least.” She tilted her head to the side, contemplating. “Unless a wish can only be gained from someone else’s loss. That,” she said, tone quieter, “May be closer to the truth.”

But she didn’t hang out with Priam to have talks about death and destiny and imminent destruction— she hung out with him to find epic treasure, solve mysteries, and defeat storybook villains.

“Find me another wishing stone!” the girl decreed, deciding that lacking an evil queen to overthrow, she would take it on herself. “Honestly, if something’s really from space, wouldn’t your Arcanine or something be able to smell it?”

Chryssa sniffed the rocks. Their scent was was indistinguishable from the rest of the smells around them in Meteor Falls—water, earth, and the forbidden trysts of cave-dwelling lovers.

"They smell exceedingly normal," she declared, pulling back, "And there's a bug on that one. You should probably put it back." The tiny Paras clinging to the back side of one of the stones clicked its mandibles at her unhappily.

"You would think it'd smell like space," Chryssa said, breaking from Priam to spin around in Shiinotic's light. Her dress flared as she twirled like a second, less luminous mushroom. "But in actuality, I was told... long ago..." She'd just googled it on her phone, "...that meteorites smell like sulfur. When they're freshly fallen, anyway."

The chances of random meteorites striking single place more than once seemed unlikely, but then again, they said once you were hit by lightning it exponentially increased your chances of getting hit a second time. The world was filled with strange, impossible odds.

Some people called it coincidence. Chryssa called it destiny.