Into the Unown

The 3 of them weren’t exactly in the best mood coming back from the police station. May was angry that they were refused help, Dawn was trying to plan their next move and Chloe was wondering how they were going to rescue their friend at all.

“Can’t believe we were refused by that no-good-” grumbled May.

“No use complaining now,” Dawn answered. It’s true they are stretched thin here. Have you seen the news about how many people have gone missing? It's reasonable to be too busy,”

“We’re still going after her, aren’t we?” Chloe asked.

“Definitely,” Dawn answered. “Based on what the officer said, the weird stuff happens at 6pm to 6am, so we’ll try to search within that time. Chloe, do you know the exact path that Lyra usually takes?”

“Not exactly. Lyra tends to just make up a route going in and out of familiar places. I went with her once, we mostly went around the city, though she told me sometimes she goes through the forest,”

“Did she leave any note?” suggested May.

“No, at this point she does this morning walk thing every day so I don’t really register it and she doesn't write a note. Our only way to is to go look,”

“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll head back and prepare, and then we search at 4. Don’t forget to bring your Pokemon with you, we’ll need their help,”

The 3 of them headed back, and soon they were at the entrance to the forest. Even from here, with the sun above her, something about the forest bothered her.

“We’re here. Chloe, does Lyra stray from the path often?”

“I… I don’t know,”

“Then we’ll have to search the forest,” Dawn replied “The best way to cover this much ground would be to split up,”

“But that never works in the movies!” May protested.

“Well there’s a reason it’s done in the first place. It covers a lot of ground with multiple people than it does with a single cohesive group,”

“I’ve got a better idea,” May answered. “I’ve seen documentaries on missing people, and the rescue teams move in a coordinated group. Splitting up is dangerous, especially what with the recent goings-on,”

“Alright, we’ll go with your idea,”

And with that, the group entered the forest.

As Dawn took another step deeper into the forest, she started having second thoughts. They only had 2 hours of sunlight left, and an enormous forest to cover. While the sun still shone bright above her head, the forest branches blocked it out, casting long, creepy black shadows that disturbingly resembled hands.

The leaves beneath her feet crunched beneath her like bones. It was already autumn, and the trees had already shed their leaves, leaving only wooden skeletons in their place. But occasionally she would find something strange: some of the trees had turned gray.

“Hey guys, what’s this?” Dawn asked.

“What?” May responded.

“It’s… the tree. It’s gray. And…” Dawn tapped on the tree, finding it “hard as rock. I’ve heard of hardwood trees, but this… it’s almost as if made of stone,”

“We can’t get distracted by strange trees. We have a friend to find. Let’s try to call Lyra’s name. Maybe she’s in a hole somewhere,”

The word hole brought back some bad memories, but Dawn shook it off. They started calling out to Lyra, but calling out names reminded her of something in a documentary about the deep ocean. In the deep dark, a Pokemon using bioluminescence to call out to others. But it wouldn’t help them see others, but would help predators see them. She wondered if they were getting unwanted attention this way.