"The name's Jack and this here's Watts," Jack replies to Xiura, gesturing at the boltund who wags his tail in greeting. "We're happy to be working with you."

As the two trainers talk, the ranger approaches with a map in hand. She points out a small quadrant of the route that is depicted as thickly wooded with tropical trees, upslope from the stream. Breathing a sigh of relief, Jack nods to Xiura, "Good thing we can avoid the water." He turns and begins to head up the route toward the direction indicated on their map.

Before long, he is breathing heavily as the trail switchbacks steeply upslope. Ahead, foliage appears with a heavy tree canopy looming to one side of the route. "Oof, mind if we take a break?" he asks Xiura as they reach the top of the incline, "My legs feel like they are on fire."

Xiura Balfaltin

Flopping down unceremoniously on a nearby rock, Jack immediately feels the chill dampness soak into his trousers even though they were now shielded from the rain. Stretching his legs out in front of him, he breathes deeply as his muscles stretch. Watts sits politely next to the rock, his tongue lolling out as he continues to pant from the exertion of the climb.

Rustling in his bag, Jack retrieves his canteen and pours water into his cupped palm for Watts to drink. Taking a swig himself, he turns his attention back to Xiura and her bento box. Jack smiles gratefully in response to her offer of rolled protein balls, but as he opens his mouth to politely decline a low growl from the boltund diverts his attention. As he glances at Watts, the canine pokemon kicks Jack's backpack and gives the man a reproachful glare.

"Thank you for your generosity, we'd love some," Jack laughs as he leans forward and plucks a few of the balls to share with his pokemon. "Clearly Watts has already decided these will taste better than the biscuits we usually pack for our hikes."

Jack eats silently, his mind filled with anxious thoughts that suppressed his usual joviality. "Arin's tough," Jack replies to Xiura as he glances at the map again, "Watts and I have been following his career since we were kids. Even after he retired from the competitive leagues, he still kept his skills sharp. I'm sure he probably just decided to extend a camping trip, or something..." Still, a knot of anxiety tightens in his stomach as he looks between the map and the darkening sky.

"We'd better get moving," he says, his eyes and voice now tense. Standing up, he gives both legs one final stretch before heading toward the trees. Beneath the thick canopy, the dim daylight fades into a deep twilight and the light rain disappears. Jack slips a knife from his pocket and slashes a marking into the trunk of a nearby tree. "So we don't end up lost, too," he says to Xiura with grim determination.

Xiura Balfaltin

Jack looks around the empty wilderness, listening to the silence filling the air after Xiura's shout. "Arin is known for some of his extreme hikes. I don't know why anyone would be out this way, but it is a possibility for him," Jack answers as he continues further into the woods. "Any signs of a human being out here are probably him. Maybe he left behind evidence of a camp fire or something," Jack said, half-hoping they would find something and half-hoping that Arin had never entered this remote stretch of dense, tropical wilderness. "Maybe by the time we get back one of the other teams will have found him leisurely relaxing in some cave," he says reassuringly.

Watts sniffs through the thick undergrowth as Jack scans their surroundings. With Hatterene marking their path, he could focus his entire attention on the search. After hours of walking, he checked his watch anxiously; only about an hour left before twilight. They would need to abandon the search soon to make it back to the meeting point before nightfall. Scanning the forest in earnest, Jack strained his eye for even some hint of human activity but found nothing. Before long, a sheer cliff looms up out of the darkness of the wooded wilderness, cutting off their path forward. Wordlessly, he nods to Xiura as they turn and continue their search along the base of the rock face.

With the light quickly fading and just as Jack is ready to signal to return to the meeting point, an abnormal lump comes into view ahead. His feet suddenly feeling like lead, Jack takes one step forward, and then another, until he is running across the loose gravel at the base of the cliff. Watts lopes along behind him, his body tense with anxiety. Even in the dim light, there was no mistaking it.

"It's him," Jack whispers to Xiura. Arin's face was pale causing his dark blue lips to stand out. His eyes stared sightlessly ahead; he was clearly already dead. One leg of his hiking pants had been torn away, revealing a deep purple wound with crusted puss surrounding two holes: fang marks. Jack stands there, frozen, as Watts lets loose a mournful howl.

Xiura Balfaltin

As if from far away, Jack can hear the race commentator excitedly describe Arin's growing lead in the Kalos Cross Country Championship. Watts sits in his lap, the Yamper barking excitedly at the television. Of course, mom and dad are working late again but at least that meant they wouldn't notice the fresh bruises a kid at school had given him today. Even with the fight, he had still made it home from school in time to watch the start of this last leg of the race. Watts pawed at Jack's folded legs, doing a passable impression of running as the camera zoomed in on Arin's lithe form cresting a hilltop in the Kalosian countryside.

Xirua's light touch shakes him back to the present, the events of the last few minutes catching up to him like a movie played in double time. He opens his mouth but lacking anything to say, he closes it again. He avoids making eye contact, knowing that looking into her eyes would make him lose his composure. Finally he manages to take a few fumbling steps and slides down to sit against the wall of the cliffside while croaking out, "Thank you, Xiura."

Quietly, Watts clambers into Jack's lap. Though the Boltund is much too large, Jack wraps his arms around the pokemon and presses his face into the canine's fur.

Xiura Balfaltin