Sari stood alone, fog and mist swirled around her. She shuddered in the damp atmosphere, the fog lent a bone-deep chill to... wherever she was. She looked down to her paws, the fog was so thick her own body was a faint dark grey silhouette against the lighter grey mist. She hugged herself in a vain attempt to warm herself, each breath caused the fog in her face to churn and swirl in untraceable patterns.

Nothing distinguishable could be seen as far as Sari could tell. Unmarked land spanned around her in all directions, no plants, no sounds, just a swirling grey void.

"Sari!"

She couldn't help but jump in surprise as the whisper cut through the silence. "Hello?" She asked reflexively, the voice came from behind her, or was it to her left? There was an echo to the whisper and even to her own voice that made it hard to track which way it came from.

"Sari!"

This time she spun around to face the voice but she still couldn't see anything, she couldn't smell anything either. "Who's there?"

"Yggdrasill."

"Sari!"

Another voice joined the first, though it seemed smoother than the first. The first voice had a slight sense of urgency like when you'd speak in a hushed tone just barely above a whisper to get someone's attention without being to loud.

Sari gasped in surprise when she heard what sounded like the flapping wings of a startled bird. That's when she saw it, or them as the case would be. She turned to face the noise and saw them, two, red orbs. Almost luminous floating red embers. The realization brought a warm feeling to Sari's body. She welcomed the sensation but wasn't sure if she should.

"Sari!"

"Come home Sari."

More whispers, now they were slowly growing in number. They all repeated the same things. "Sari!"

"Come home Sari."

"Its safe here Sari!"

"Yggdrasill."

"The safest place on Earth Sari."

"Come home."

"Sari!"

The longer she listened the more detail came to the orbs. First was that they were in fact eyes, black pupils parting the warm red glow. The the surrounding face came, sharp and canine though not entirely canine, feline elements were also noticible. A large crest erect at the crown of it's head, a billowing, cloud-like mane waving in a nonexistent wind. And finally twin ribbon-like tails, wavering like the beasts mane.

"Yggdrasill."

"Come home Sari."

"Its the safest place on Earth Sari."

"Sari!"

"Yggdrasill."

The beast roared. The sound echoed throughout the mist. The fog surrounding the legend parted as the sound faded, bare soil revealed at it's feet. After a moment a sprout emerged between it's front paws, a single sprout and in that moment the beast vanished and the sprout grew.

It grew and grew so fast it consumed Sari. Leaves extended out to form massive, thick and strong boughs, leaves doubled, even tripled in size and multiplied by the hundreds to cover the new limbs on the now megalithic sized tree. Roots extended across the land rending the soil, branches fell and new trees grew. Just as fast as the sprout grew a vast forest expanded around the Lucario as she watched in awe as the sprout continued to grow to massive size.

Compared to it Sari felt tiny, puny even. When the growth stopped Sari stood at the center of the tree where the boughs and limbed branched out to form the canopy. The thick, cold fog was now replaced with pleasantly warm steam. The fully grown tree now rivaled the size of most human structures, it was truly breath taking as clouds blended with and hid the highest reaches of the lone tree. Sari was easily at least a mile off the ground and before spread a vast, seemingly endless forest.

"It's Yggdrasill Sari!"

"It's our home Sari!"

"The safest place on Earth Sari!"

"Yggdrasill."

Sari didn't have long to ponder though as she heard something snap behind her. She wheeled around and saw that the core of the tree was actually brimming with water, the tree forming a natural basin that resulted in the lake that spanned before her. Drifts of steam wafted off the surface adding to the now warm atmosphere, maybe it was a spring? She looked for a moment before blinking in surprise.

In that split second when she opened her eyes she found herself standing face to face with... something. It stood as tall as any human and one of it's arms was equally resembling. It's face also bore the rounded shape humans possessed but something was less than normal about this creatures countenance. It's eyes were slightly sunk in, the venomous purple pupils clashed with her red as it stared at her. It's dark skin made the eyes more obtrusive which lent them a more sinister feel.

It's left arm only added to it's abnormal appearance, looking to be a cross between a roselia's bloom and a scizor's pincer the individual segments had serrated edges resembling teeth while they wrapped around each other in a radial pattern. though it had no clothing it had no other distinguishing marks on it.

Sari was snapped out of her awe as it snarled before lunging, she didn't even have time to react as it clamped down hard on her throat. It's unnatural limb grasping tightly at her neck, the individual segments undulating as the serated edges dug into her flesh. She was driven to the ground as a wetness tinged her fur. Just as her vision started to flicker it's voice boomed in her head like an echo in a hollow cave.

"SUBMIT!!!"


Sari woke with a start, her chest heaving trying to draw in breath. She looked around the room frantically. Malcolm was slumped over a couch set against the far wall of the room. One arm supporting his head over the arm of the chair, the other arm draped over the side and hanging limply. His breathe came slow and steady as opposed to her light panting.

Several days had passed since they had come to this city, several days had passed since Leon and his Bisharp saved them from a pair of the infected and shared their living space with the two wanderers. He had insisted she take the bed, for some reason he was apprehensive about sharing it but wasn't quite willing to sleep in a different room so he took up shop on the couch.

The voices still echoed in Sari's head bit one word stuck to her mind more than anything. Yggdrasill. Something about that word instilled a sense of... almost like a longing, like a forgotten memory that wasn't quite her own. In the back of her head there was a slight itch that wouldn't go away. She turned her head and found the feeling actually moved with her. She couldn't shake the feeling, feeling the urge to get to her feet she quietly slid off the bed.

Trying not to wake Malcolm Sari walked to the door, though the door knob was difficult for her to grip she managed to open it without making much noise. Once in the corridor she followed the feeling in her head toward the crashed helicopter. To her surprise she found Bisharp standing in the same place she was drawn. Images of the tree still bounced around inside her head as she came to stand beside Bisharp.

Looking out over the city Sari let out a quiet sigh, at this altitude the air was clean and fresh and free of the reek of rot and decay that clung to the streets below. It was a little disconcerting though, the entire city was dark, no lights were on at all and the sky was overcast lending no star or moonlight for illumination. The bought this place used to be full of humans and Pokemon was a little depressing, now all that remained were the mutilated, monstrous forms of those that used to call this place home.

"Thought you'd be asleep." Bisharp said plainly, his gaze fixated over the city as hers was.

"Had a bad dream." Sari answered equally as plain, the visions still playing through her thoughts, the more she thought about it the more she found she couldn't avert her gaze. Something was calling her, pulling her in that direction. "What about you?"

"Bad dream." He replied before turning away and leaving. As the silence between the two grew Sari started to giggle to herself which got a confused glance from Bisharp. "What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry" She said thinking she upset him. "I was just thinking that I'm being kept up at night by some weird dream about a tree while the past five years of my life have been a living nightmare."

"You have an odd sense of humor." Bisharp noted before turning disappearing down the corridor leaving Sari alone. She sighed again before she finally found the will to turn and walk away. Following in Bisharp's wake she soon found a light at the end of the hall, one of the doors was ajar and flickering candle light poured out.Chapter End Notes:End of chapter three and I'm a little concerned about the amount of reviews I'm getting. The Read Count only tells me how many people looked at my story, reviews show me you actually read it. Your opinions mean the world to me, whatever you have to say, whether it's positive or negative, please say it. It makes menfeel better. :