“Saphire! Saphire wake up!” A male voice shouted next to her in a panicked tone.
“She’s alive Johnny just someone get some water!” A calmer female voice told him.
“Is she going to be alright?” A younger boy’s voice rose up.”
"That's why I'm taking her to the infirmary," Johnny told everyone as he picked up Saphire's body. She was hardly aware of what was going on around her. Even after hearing what Johnny was saying she couldn't feel his arms or the ground that she lied upon.
“Nurse Karen? Where’s Nurse Karen?” Johnny asked suddenly seemingly to no one in particular.
“Nurse Karen? She’s resting. Why? What’s wrong with her?” Said a soft, young, girl voice.
"I don't know what's wrong with her! She's not responding to anything we did and won't wake up!" Johnny shouted though it was easy to tell he was trying to fight off tears as his voice sounded choked up.
“Oh no! Nurse Karen!” The young girl shouted as she ran away from Johnny.
“Huh? What? What do you want, Leila?” Asked a groggy, female voice. Age showing itself in her tone and leading to believe she was at least forty years old. "What?" She asked again, much more awake this time and the sound of two sets of paws running towards Johnny. "When did this happen?" Johnny was silent for an unknown reason, and she asked him her question again much more urgently.
"Oh uh. Less than an hour ago maybe." He paused again as he tried to find words to explain what happened. Now it was obvious that he was crying as near silent sobs of fear came from the Pikachu. "I don't know what happened. "I sensed her aura not far away from the house. She stopped, and I think she was talking to someone else and then suddenly she fell to the ground. When I went out to check on her, she was on the ground and unconscious."
There was a long stretch of silence as Karen and Leila did something that Saphire did not know of. “I think I know what’s going on.” Karen finally said after what seemed like an eternity. “This is Saphire Starlight isn’t it?”
Johnny wasn’t speaking again until she posed the question once more. “Yes. She is a Starlight.”
Karen responded with her own analysis of the situation. "Whoever they were, they knew a phrase that unlocked all of her forgotten memories of her past."
“Wait they unlocked all of them?” Johnny asked quickly, his panic rising again.
"Yes, all of them." Saphire heard paw steps moving around to where Johnny's voice came from. "Because they unlocked her memories all at once her brain doesn't know what to do, and it shut down her body in order to get everything straightened out."
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Now Saphire could hear the fear in his voice.
“She’s gone into a coma-like state. Until her brain can sort everything out, she won't wake up.” Karen explained to him.
There was a prolonged silence between everyone before Johnny spoke up. “Karen if I may. What was this phrase that was said to unlock her memories?”
Karen let out a shaky sigh before speaking. "I believe it was ‘Starlight rising.' I wonder what it's supposed to represent."
"Whatever it means I know one thing for sure." Johnny started. "Yani has something planned, and it's coming soon." He paused a moment before his voice turned to a whisper, but it was loud enough that he was probably speaking directly into her ear. "I hope you make it through this alright, Saphire. Just know that mean and Chanler love you, and we will support what you choose to do when you come back."
* * * * *
A weight crashed down on top of her side; knocking the wind out of her lungs and waking her up with a start. The Eevee's eyes flew wide open as she coughed and gasped for air that wasn't there anymore. "Sister Saphire! Sister Saphire! Wake up! Wake up!" Came a happy and very excited boy shout in her ear.
Saphire struggled to breathe and squirmed around underneath the weight of her brother before finding herself on her back. With a quick kick of her hind legs, she tossed the Eevee off of her and took a long drawn gulp of air before exhaling. She panted hard as she twisted onto her stomach quickly and crouching over her bedding. "Sam. Why did you jump on me?" Saphire asked the Eevee, her words coming between large breaths of air.
The Eevee she threw off of her rolled onto his stomach as well before standing up and running over to her. “Mother just gave birth! It’s a baby girl!”
Her ears shot straight into the air and instantly her breathing was revitalized. With her tail beginning to wag rapidly behind her she faced her brother. "Really, big brother?" Saphire's own excitement matched her elder brothers to a tee after that.
“Yes! Come on! She’s still awake!” Sam told her with unfaltering energy as he turned tail and ran for the door.
With that said Saphire dashed after her brother with the same boundless energy. The two small Eevees raced out of the bedroom and into the hall; immediately turning left as they left the room behind. They entered a hallway with soft wooden boards lining from wall to wall. The walls themselves had holes in some places but were pretty sturdy for how old they appeared.
Together the two siblings ran down the corridor; racing at their fastest as they rounded a corner on the far side of the hallway. As they made it into the next stretch, they practically ran headlong into a low wooden door. Sam stopped just short of the door while Saphire slammed her head into the wood. A loud thud came from the door, but nothing from Saphire except for a softer noise as her rear hit the floor below her.
When Saphire shook her head to try and get the annoying ringing out of her ear, Sam spoke up. "Wow. You have the hardest head of anyone I know. Did that even hurt?"
“Did what hurt?” An older man asked as the door was opened fully. Standing in the threshold of the previously closed door, but now open, was an Umbreon who stared down at Saphire.
"Saphire hit the door with her head, father," Sam explained as he looked up at the Umbreon and then to Saphire whom he licked her forehead a few times.
The Umbreon looked down at Saphire and let out a few short chuckles in amusement. “Saphire, honey. I know you have a thick skull, but I don't think you should be using it to knock on doors."
“But I wasn’t, father! Sam came into my room and jumped on me! Then he told me that mother had Esmeralda!” Saphire was still trying to shake her head clear of the ringing when she spoke which made her words come out a bit slurred.
“Dear, her name is Esmerelda. Not Esmeralda.” He told her as he too gave a few licks to her forehead with his much larger tongue that practically took up the space between her ears completely. “You two should be in bed anyways. Don’t you know it’s just about midnight?”
Saphire was now completely confused by this new revelation and looked out one of the windows showing the outside world. Her father was correct in saying that it was night time as it was pitch black outside. In fact, now that she thought about it she could only just barely see her brother in the darkness that shadowed the inside of their house. If it weren't for the fact that the Umbreon's rings were glowing yellow she wouldn't even be able to see him.
"Sorry, Father. It was my fault." Sam apologized with a bow of his head and continued. "I heard you shouting that the baby was coming' and I woke up."
Their father began to laugh for a short while and let it die gradually. “Fair enough I guess. I take it that Ruby didn’t wake up even though you jumped on them both?” He asked Sam.
“Yeah, she was still asleep even though I kept shaking her," Sam told him, eventually sitting down as his legs grew tired from standing in place. Saphire stayed sitting down instead of standing up like her brother had been.
“We can let her sleep. The world knows she needs it since she has insomnia.” He mumbled and sighed as he looked up at the ceiling only a few feet above his head; then down at his children. “Well come on inside and meet your baby sister.” He turned around and walked back into the room while Sam and Saphire stood up and followed him in slowly. “Yani, we got some company.”
Saphire entered the room, and at the far side of it, she could see an Espeon lying in a large hay bed. There was a tightly woven, blue silk blanket sitting on top of it so that she didn't have to get poked by the ends of the hay. Yani looked at Sam and Saphire as they walked in and smiled warmly at them. “Greetings, my children.” She told them as she lifted her head up.
Sam was the first one to walk up to the edge of the bed and placed his front paws on it to look over the edge. Saphire came up just after him and looked into the bed although she had a bit more trouble seeing since she was smaller than her brother. Yani lay at the very back of the bed, on her side as to leave a large area between her underbelly and where Saphire had her paws. Then she noticed the small collection of fur that was sitting right next to her mother’s belly.
"Meet your new sister," Yani told them with a soft voice, "Esmerelda."
Both of them leaned in closer to look at the tiny Eevee lying at their mother's stomach. Her fur looked ragged and still wet in some places, but the thing that caught both of their attention was the fact that her eyes were already open. "Mom!" Sam exclaimed in a semi-hushed voice. "Her eyes! They're open!"
Yani nodded her head with a small smile. “They sure are. She’s a smart little one.” The Espeon moved her head to touch her nose to the Eevee’s tiny one and purred softly. “I can tell that she’ll be a leader someday just by looking at her eyes.”
Saphire hopped up into the bed and looked at her baby sister’s eyes that also looked back at Saphire. Yani pulled her head back a little bit and nosed Saphire’s body towards Esmerelda. She tried to fight it a little bit before giving in and crouching down in front of her. It was odd to her that her younger sister’s eyes would follow where she went move for move. The Eevee then reached forward with her head slowly and touched her nose to her sister’s.
Suddenly her vision was filled with darkness, all of her senses gone from the world. "Karsel do it!" She heard a mysterious voice say. Then her sense of smell was filled with the smell of gas. She could taste it as well, the air tasted foul to her because of the smell of gas. A moment later she could feel the fur along her spine raise up, and all around her, she could sense danger.
Saphire’s vision returned along with the rest of her senses. A look of dread spread across her face like a water’s ripple. Yani noticed this and looked at Saphire in concern. “Saphire dear are you alright?”
The Eevee shook her head and looked at her mother. Her body was trembling as she turned and said only one word. “Fire.”
That one weak, solitary word instantly registered in Yani’s mind and her face turned from one of worry to one of anger. Suddenly the Espeon stood up and carried all three of the kids into the center of the room. A moment later two more Eevee’s suddenly appeared in a pink flash of light on either side of Saphire. She recognized them both as her siblings the one being on her right was her sister Ruby, and the one on her left was Zachary. “Yani, what’s wrong?” The Umbreon asked her.
"Those damn guild rats that's what, Zander!" She shouted before she screamed into the air. A pink psychic shield formed around them in a half sphere. Just a moment later the area around them went up in flames, and everything was disintegrated into ash. Smoke the area around them, leaving them blind with nowhere to see what just happened. When the smoke finally cleared the place that Saphire had called her home for her entire life was now gone and nowhere to be seen. Even the bed that they had been in just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.
* * * * *
Saphire woke with a start, screaming out in fear as she shot up in the bed. The Eevee couldn’t see, she couldn’t hear, taste, smell or feel anything. Then as quickly as she woke up all of Saphire’s senses rushed back to her and she found herself in an unfamiliar room.To her left was a wall composed of wooden logs reaching up to the ceiling. Then along her right side were a series of five beds lined up with their backs up against the wall with the far wall having three sets of windows for fresh air and sunlight. Each window reached all the way up to the ceiling allowing for the most sunlight to come through. Then the wall directly in front of her some meters away was an almost exact replica of the wall behind her except for a desk across from her which replaced one of the beds and then an open doorway to the right of it.
That is when she noticed the figure standing in the threshold she spotted. In front of her was another Eevee watching from the doorway. Yet there wasn’t something different about this Eevee like it was almost as if she knew who this was. “You’re awake.” The Eevee mumbled, quite easily told to be a young girl by her voice. “N-Nurse Karen, she’s awake already!” Came to her voice again only much louder this time.
“Are you for real?” Came an older sounding voice; yet again it was a female voice. “The last time you said that she had only turned over in-” the voice cut off as a weird looking Pokémon came into view floating above the Eevee- “her bed.”
Saphire vision focused on the new Pokémon who was hovering above the first and holding onto the left side of the door to them. It was small, about as big as she was while this Pokémon didn't appear to have any fur whatsoever. Its main skin color was green, so it was a safe bet that whatever this Nurse Karen was it was a grass type. She also believed it to be a psychic type just because this wingless creature was merely floating in the air like it was no big deal."Leila, grab the examination kit," Karen told the Eevee as she quickly floated over to Saphire and was next to her side in moments. The Eevee ran back into the room beyond the door before coming back out only about ten seconds later with a tan bag clenched in the little pup's teeth.
This new Pokémon opened the bag just by waving her hand over to it and made it roll out over the foot of the bed. Getting a good look at the Nurse's hand proved of little use to identify what she was as it was leafy, but that at least narrowed her search. Though what came next took her completely by surprise as she felt her back get forced up until she was sitting on top of her hind end. It was a bit of an awkward position to be sitting like that since her legs weren't built to stay at a ninety-degree angle. "Breathe."
“What?” Saphire asked aloud while looking between Karen and- “wait where did Leila go?" She would suddenly feel a long ear pressed to side. When Saphire looked down to her right, she would see the Eevee's head pressed up against her chest while her ear wrapped around to be cupped around her torso, and more centered explicitly over her lung.
“I said I need you to take a deep breath. Then I need you to keep doing it each time my apprentice moves her ear.” Came Karen’s voice which drew Saphire’s attention back to the mysterious Pokémon.
"Oh. Sure." Saphire answered with a slight stutter. The Eevee would draw air in rather loudly to make sure it could be heard, and then after a moment, she exhales. She would do this a few times, about six according to Saphire's math. Each time she would Leila's ear would move to a new position on her chest to listen to her lungs.
After the sixth breath was gone Leila pulled her head away and nodded to Karen. “Her lungs sound healthy, Ms. Karen. Should I go and prepare the Oran berry sauce?”
“Yes, Leila, go and do that.” The Nurse would tell Leila before turning her attention back to Saphire. “It’s rather miraculous that you’re awake right now, young one. I didn’t expect you to wake up for at least another half day.” She had said with a small smile and looked at Saphire while sitting on the bed next to her.
Saphire didn't even really care about that right now as all she could think about was one single thing. "Just what Pokémon are you?" It may have sounded blunt, but she couldn't think of any other way to word it. "I've never seen a Pokémon like you, Ma'am."
Nurse Karen let out a short chuckle of amusement when the question was asked and answered it in turn. “My species is known as a Celebi. There aren’t many of us around anymore.”
"Not many of you around? Are you an endangered species?" Saphire asked curiously. All critical questions she thought to herself.
"I guess you could say that," Karen answered once more with a wider smile. "I'm a legendary Pokémon. Or at least I'm one of them."
Saphire cocked her head to the side. “You must be like 40 years old then or something right? You sound really old!”
That there caused Karen to lose her calm facade and break out in laughter. The sudden outburst of laughing caught Saphire off-guard and only when the Celebi calmed down did she get an answer to it. “No no, dear. I’m actually more about two hundred and twenty years old by now.”
The Eevee’s ears shot up in surprise and then immediately fell back down. “I think I should just stop guessing ages.” She stuttered in shame as she looked at the ground.
Nurse Karen let out a roar of laughter at Saphire’s response and gently hugged the Eevee with a single arm. “You’re quite alright dear! I don’t mind others prying about my age!” The Celebi told her with an extended chuckle and floated up off of the bed to hover in front of her. “Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions. Even if they are dumb ones like someone’s age!”
Saphire looked at Karen and nodded slowly with a small smile on her face. “I guess you are right, nurse.”As if she had the perfect timing, Leila came back into the room with the bowl of Oran berry sauce. "Miss Karen I got it all prepped and ready to be eaten," Leila said aloud as she walked over to the bed. The bowl was being carried on top of the Eevee's head and was wobbling ever so slightly, but she managed to keep it on her head until the Celebi picked it up with her psychic powers.
"Thank you, Leila. You're free to go and study once more." Karen said and got a respectful nod from the Eevee in return. Saphire watched her go back into the single room behind the wall in front of her while the nurse set the bowl down on the low table near the bed. "Go ahead and eat it at your own pace. I'll get word to Johnny so that he can come and pick you up."
It was her turn to nod in thanks as the Celebi left her alone with her bowl of Oran sauce. The pulp was blue in color and smelled exactly of Oran berries. Assuming it was safe to eat then she bent her head down and began to lap at and suck up the juices when a thought occurred to her. Since when did she become so aware of when something was safe or not?
When the intriguing thought finally left her mind, a small flash of blue light appeared next to her. She looked up from her bowl of sauce to find herself staring at Johnny standing next to her bed and then sitting on the edge of it to look at her. “Hey, Saph. How are ya doing?” The Pikachu asked her as he stroked his claws down her back to scratch below the fur.
In doing so, Saphire felt the need to purr out in delight at the pleasurable feeling. It had been a while since she had received a good scratching from anyone, and Johnny could clearly tell as he scratched all along her back now. Saphire would move her body around slowly, letting him scratch all over her until he finally decided to stop. She would sigh in contempt and smile back at him and in a much friendlier mood than she had been a few moments ago. “Thank you, Johnny.”
"Anytime, Saphire," Johnny told her as he pulled her shoulder against his chest and shook her lightly in a one arm hug. “Now tell me what you can remember about what happened last night.” He looked over at her with a look of curiosity; quickly adding in. “Oh but finish your food first. You need to get your strength back up!”
Saphire quickly nodded to him and turned back to her Oran berry sauce. It only took a minute or two for the Eevee to finish it all up; licking up the remainder from the bowl and her face. “Johnny could we possibly talk and head back home? I want to sleep in my bed tonight.”
"Sure. We can get going. Just explain to me along the way." Johnny told her as he hopped out of bed and onto the floor only a few short inches away. Saphire came down after him and landed with a little bit louder thud due to her slightly heavier weight. One after the other they walked out of the infirmary of the guild; entering into the gathering hall. She made sure to take note that they walked out of the wall that was bordering the very back of the guild in the gap between the southwest tower and the south most wall. “Alright. Now tell me what happened. What you remember up until you woke up this afternoon.”
