[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Nomi's point about Moltres' "cousins" being Zapdos and Articuno, rather than there existing a second Moltres out there, caused Aurelie's single eye to widen in gradually dawning comprehension. "Ohhh! That makes a lot of sense. We do always think of Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres together, so I could see them being referred to as 'cousins'."

It certainly seemed much more logical than instantly concluding there were two Moltres running around out there. Aurelie nodded and listened attentively as Nomi mused about the whereabouts of the other two Legendary flying Pokemon from Kanto, especially as the information about Zapdos was new to her. "I like that intepretation! After all, Moltres wouldn't be very Legendary if there were more than one of them at a time!"

And yet—just as Nomi remembered an orange Zapdos from the mysterious memories of medieval Galar from the clash before the Ancient Tomb—a memory suddenly flashed unbidden in Aurelie's mind: the purple Articuno that attacked medieval Motostoke, where she'd been transported. The red-haired smith's brow wrinkled in confusion. Surely, those memories weren't real, though...

Right?

But then, as Nomi noted, things began changing around them. The air began to shimmer as if caught in a haze of heat, and the ground crumbled beneath their feet. While Nomi remained calm and composed, a veritable veteran of these digital simulations, Aurelie yelped and jumped backwards awkwardly toward safer ground.

"That was a hell of a bomb! Or whatever defenses they set up," she exclaimed, shaking her head and trying to regain her composure.

Her shaky laugh turned into a breathless, astonished gasp as their surroundings swiftly and thoroughly reconfigured themselves into yet another completely different setting. Night fell overhead in what felt like the blink of an eye, stormy dark clouds heavy with the promise of rain scudding across the heavens. The mountainside on which they were standing disintegrated entirely to reveal the decks of a small ship, swaying and rolling violently across a furiously churning, storm-tossed sea.

As if someone had turned down a world-sized thermostat, the dry heat around them abruptly turned damp and frigid. A splash of chilly salt spray caught Aurelie full in the face, causing her to curse loudly and scrub the saltwater frantically off her eyepatch. "Damn it! Ugh, this better dry out!"

Then, looking up, the red-haired smith scrubbed hurriedly at her uncovered eye, as if disbelieving what she was seeing. "Speaking of Legendaries..." she breathed out, pointing upward.

An enormous dragon-like Pokemon with blue skin, a purple horn, and large purple scales across its body loomed ahead of them above the roiling waves. Its hands and hair ended in trailing white clouds, while its tail was a long, knotted tail tipped with wicked spikes. Aurelie sucked in her breath nervously, seeing the decidedly unfriendly expression on its face.

"Uh, I think it wants to talk to us? Maybe?" Aurelie guessed. "I, um, I don't know about you, but I'm okay with listening to what it has to say and giving it what it wants from us, if anything.

"I don't know about you, but I'm not feeling too safe in this storm on this dinky little ship...and I'm honestly pretty weak at battling, even against normal Pokemon."

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT