I was obviously unable to see the person who had just entered the room, but given the empty seat to my right, I assumed that Cassandra must be who we had been waiting on. However, I was a bit confused about why Simon was acting so strangely at hearing our story, which was somehow connected to this person, especially because of how little there was to the tale in the first place. Since I was seated opposite Mayumi I figured she must have been able to see who had entered the door, but one look at her face told me more than I needed to know. Her white face was locked in a jaw-dropped, wide-eyed expression of surprise. She was apparently stunned by the appearance of this person, whoever she was.

"Yeah, that is a bit weird." A light, girlish voice replied, then giggled a little.

I was still unable to turn around and thus unable to see the owner of this playful voice, but I was no dolt; I had a pretty good idea what (or who, rather) I was about see when she sat down next to me. As I expected, I saw a girl who looked about my age, perhaps a year younger than me at most, walk up to the chair beside me and sit down. Without a doubt, she was... well... She most certainly fit the vague profile I had established- that was certain. She was a good head or two shorter than me, and you did indeed see a lot of light and dark brown on her person. The thing was... Well... The thing was why the color was so predominant...

I... still have a hard time up and saying it, but... you see... One look at her and you could easily tell why I had gotten the impression I did, considering the distance from which I had seen her. Her pants actually were a style of cargo pants similar to my own, and I suppose that they weren't entirely unflattering, but they seemed rather... odd to me somehow. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt, and her flowing brown hair fell down just past her shoulders. The thing that instantly set her apart though was the look of her skin, or rather, that you couldn't see it. See, from head to foot she was covered in a light brown coat of fur. And to top it off, she had a large pair of almost elven-looking pointed, elongated ears which had a velveteen covering of fur that faded from brown to a bright viridian at the tips. The final thing that was starkly odd was... well I don't know of many girls my age (or at all, for that matter) who have a two-foot-long, brown and green tail that closely resembles a the foliage of a large, lush, broad-leafed plant.

I had a hard time not staring, considering the fact that her appearance answered what had been the biggest question on my mind all day but at the same time raised a hundred more. "I, uh... Hello." I said, unsure of how to react to this, and falling back on a simple greeting.

She giggled a little, and her brown eyes sparkled a little. "Hello there." She held out a brown-furred paw... err.. hand... and continued, "Dad over there insists on calling me 'Cassandra' all the time, but you can call me Cassandra."

I shook her hand, and was surprised at how strong her grip was, and how soft her fur felt. "Uhh... Nice to meet you, Cass. I'm Will," I indicated the gardevior sitting opposite me, "And this is Mayumi." Mayumi returned Cass' polite smile and nod, still seemingly too astounded to really respond. I broke off the handshake, and everyone returned to sitting in their chairs forwards, and an awkward silence passed over the table.

Simon was the one who broke the silence, as he cleared his throat. "Well, it seems that Cassandra has introduced herself as fully as she plans to, so perhaps I can introduce her to you a might more properly?"

I nodded, indicating that I would indeed be interested to know more about the clearly strange girl sitting next to me who had, until now, been entertaining herself by sprouting flowers in her palm and watching them grow at an absurdly fast rate, then blooming beautifully. She stopped her botanical amusement to whine at him, "Aww, why do you always do this whenever someone comes over?" The flower seemed to shrink back in on itself until it simply retracted in on itself into a tiny seed in her hand.

"Well, if you would offer a bit of explanation yourself, perhaps I wouldn't have to do this, Cassandra." Simon took the tone of the patiently explaining parent as he chided Cass which, despite being a totally different attitude for him, seemed as natural as his carefree and bouncy persona from before.

Cass pouted and folded her arms across her chest, and remarked "Fine, I guess if I do this it'll be faster than the three-hour story of my life that you give everyone else..." Simon shook his head and smiled, apparently this was an ongoing debate between them. Cass took this to mean that she was free to tell her story, and so she looked to Mayumi and I to make sure we were paying attention before she continued. "Alright, well here's my story, since I guess you're probably wondering what's up with... well just what's up with me in general... right?"

Mayumi sat quietly, letting her silence be affirmation enough, and I again nodded my head.

"Well basically Dad found a man who was trying to sell me, back when I was a baby, saying I was a rare pokémon. He saw what I was, and so he paid the creep what he wanted, then reported him to the authorities. From then on he raised me as his daughter, and we've lived out here ever since I can remember." She waited for a moment to let what she had said sink in before she went on. "I've seen more doctors and scientists than I want to think about, but none of them can really tell why I am like I am, but they all seem to say that it's just like it looks: I'm about one half human, one half pokémon." She paused for a moment before she smiled at me and cheekily said, "And if you haven't figured out what pokémon that is by now, you're not as smart as I gave you credit for earlier, Mr. Psychic." She winked as she intoned the last words, then waited for a reaction.

I froze on the spot- if she meant what I thought she meant... No way, she couldn't have been able to tell... could she? I shot a quick glance to Mayumi, who looked just as shocked as I felt. I mentally asked her <What's going on here Mayumi? How could->

I was cut off by an unfamiliar voice responding to me telepathically. <Uh-huh. I knew it. You two can communicate telepathically!> Another quick look across the table showed that Mayumi had apparently not heard any of this. What was going on? I looked to my left and to my right, and saw Cass was giving me a mischievous smirk.

She continued speaking out loud, now that she had my attention. "So basically from the time most kids are learning to walk and talk, I was already doing both, and was learning how to utilize some of the more..." She unfolded her palm and revealed the seed I had seen before, which spontaneously sprouted into a boquet of flowers. "Unique... Aspects of who and what I am."

<And a few more than just that, too.> the strange voice in my mind added.

Cass then went on with her autobiographical monologue, "And so I've lived here with Dad for seventeen years, and he still won't let me leave." She shot a pouting glance past me, to where Simon sat. Before he could raise an objection, she continued. "But I've gotten to see all kinds of pokémon and people because of the people that come through this area and stay with us."

<You two are a first though, I will admit, Mr. Psychic>

I once again chanced a look across the table to see if Mayumi was hearing this voice too, but she apparently wasn't, as she was listening to Cass' story intently, and had apparently dismissed her earlier remark about me.

She then looked to Mayumi and back to me, and offered, "Hey, after dinner, why don't the two of you come down to the pool rooms, I bet I can beat you in a game of nine-ball, Will."

There was no accompanying witty remark this time, just silence. I was a little stunned at the bombardment my mind had been under with the rapid-fire telepathic and audible-speech I had just been subject to. After a beat, I shook my head clear and replied, "Uh, sure. That sounds fun." I began to regain my senses, and realized what she had just invited me to, and gave her a smirk of my own, "But I'll have you know that I'm no slouch. You'll have to be pretty good if you think you're gonna beat me!" I laughed to myself a bit, nearly forgetting the telepathic fiasco that had just gone down while thinking of the time Axl thought he'd try to hustle me at eight-ball and lost about a hundred dollars for it; I grinned to myself, this was going to be a fun night, wasn't it?

Simon then spoke, snapping my mind back to the present. "Well, I think that's a nice idea, and you did a passable job introducing yourself- you ought to try it more often, Cassandra. And unless I'm much mistaken, this is perfect timing too, as I believe dinner is ready now." He looked down the table to the double doors at the end of the room, and within a few seconds they opened, letting in four people all dressed in the black and white outfits of a house servant- two men and two women. They carried covered dishes with them, and each of them appeared to have an entire meal for one of us, and they set it down in front of us, removing the covers as they left: T-bone steaks with mashed potatoes and fresh string beans! This was a feast, especially considering our diet for the previous week or so had consisted of either dry trail mix or whatever rehydrated food I could warm up above of a can of sterno.

"This looks delicious!" I marveled. As I spoke, a glass was set in front of me filled with ice and water, and a glass of red wine was soon to follow as everyone was served by our dedicated waitstaff.

"Yes, it certainly does!" Cass echoed.

<You look like you could inhale your whole plate in a second right now. Hehe.> The same mysterious voice commented, and if I had been suspicious about it's identity before, that giggle all but gave it away.

"Well dig in then," Simon offered, and we all were more than happy to oblige.

I however, was eating a bit slower that I usually would, as I had other things on my mind. I tried speaking to Mayumi again, just to confirm my suspicions. In a nonchalant tone, I asked <Mayumi, what do you think of this meal? It's a lot better than the junk I've been making, huh?>

As I expected, or perhaps feared, she didn't so much as blink, but kept right on eating as if she hadn't heard me. <You know, it isn't nice to ignore someone when they talk to you, but you haven't spoken to me at all.>

I went back to my eating, and pretended not to hear the voice as I cut my steak- I had a pretty good idea who it was, but I didn't really feel like playing this sort of game right now. I had a bite halfway into my mouth when I nearly jumped as a voice seemed to explode in my head. <HEY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!>

Simon and Mayumi looked at me with puzzled expressions, but a quick "It's nothing, just had a chill run down my back" evaded their curiosity. I stole a quick glance to my right and saw Cass snickering a little.

I decided that another startled jum wouldn't be so easilt explained, so I replied. <That was rather uneccesary, wasn't it?>

The voice replied in a mock-innocent tone <But you weren't replying, so I thought maybe I needed to shout for you to hear me.>

<Uh-huh. Right, and I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, champion of the Indigo Conference.> I replied sarcastically.

The voice replied in a tone that was absolutely dripping with a playful superiority <No, you're Nona Suomi from Eterna City, and you don't even have three badges in that trainer case of yours.>

I physically did a double take, looking over at Cass, who was smiling slightly as she sipped at her wine. <I don't know how you know any of that, but my name is->

<I don't care what you call yourself okay "Will"? Your name is Nona, and we both know it.>

I decided I had just about had enough of this game, and countered <Well I suppose you won't mind me calling you "Cassandra" then?>

I heard a choking sound to my right, and when I looked, Cass had spilled her wine down her front and was giving me an incredulous, almost angry look.

<How did you-?> She began, but I cut her off.

<You may have surprised me at first, but you aren't very good at hiding things in your voice.> I grinned while sipping on my own glass of red so she could see. <Perhaps it's a good thing we're playing pool tonight, and not poker...>

She immediately laughed mentally and fired right back, <Oh really? Let's play poker too, then. You might be surprised...> A short pause, then <Where's that moody lucario though? I don't see him anywhere...>

The color drained from my face, and I stopped eating. <That... You...>

I pushed out my chair from the table, and heard Cass again <What? What did I say?>

I stood up and announced to the others there, "I... don't feel so well. I think I'll head up to our room for a while and lie down." Simon looked surprised, as did everyone present, but they acknowledged what I had said as I began to leave.

While I walked away from the table, both Cass and Mayumi were looking at me questioningly. I shot a hurt look back at Cass, <I... I don't know or care how you know this, but... Nobody makes comments about him like that... Nobody!>

Once I reached the door, I looked back to the group and saw that Cass had an apologetic, almost hurt look on her fact, and Mayumi looked positively bewildered, no doubt because she wasn't able to speak to me for whatever reason.

<I- I'm... I'm sorry, Will. I didn't know that-> Cass apologized as I left the room, heading for the stairwell that would take me up to our room.

<Just... stop.> I replied, more desperate than angry. <Nothing you can say will be able to fix this, so just stop. And stop blocking my connection with Mayumi. I don't know or care how you're doing it, but stop it, alright?> I was in tears as I dragged myself up the stairs to the third-floor hallway. I had finally pushed that incident to the back of my mind over the course of our trip, and here this stranger comes along and drags it right back out.

I didn't hear any reply from her, but I thought I could mentally hear someone weeping. I guessed that was Cass, for some reason or another, but I couldn't hardly care, as I was too busy shedding my own tears as I ran down the hallway to close myself in the room and allow the solitude to embrace me. I opened the door to the room, and got inside, trying my best to stifle the sobs that were coming because of the memories I had tried to forget. I curled up, my back against the wall and my knees held against my chest as a montage of my past flashed before my mind's eye.

I remembered when I first met him, how he was so alone and afraid, clinging to his own pokéball. I remembered the joy he showed when I asked him to stay with us. I remembered the times we had gone through just after that, facing off against Galactic yet again, and how he saved me more than once, despite his age. I remembered him running after me through the fields outside Floaroma when all of us went there to play and train. Then I remembered how that same day he had evolved, becoming even stronger, but not hardly changing inside. He had always been distant to almost everyone but me, and that was the one thing that never would change... Or so I thought...

My thoughts began to take a depressing turn, but before I could recall any of the associated memories, there was a light *snap* and a flash of soft white light, and Mayumi appeared in front of me. When she saw the state I was in, she immediately moved to my side, kneeling by me as she asked <Will, what is it? What's the matter?>

I looked up at her with my eyes clouded from tears and choked out a reply, "I- It's... It's nothing..."

It an obvious lie, and a weak one too, but I really couldn't bring myself to say anything. So with a little cajoling, I opened my mind to her and she saw what I was feeling. She quickly changed her tone from inquisitive to consoling, and sat down next to me, wrapping her arm against me as she offered me comforting words. <It's alright, Will. It... There was nothing you could have done to change what happened; he chose to go his own way.>

I sobbed again, and nodded as Mayumi began to take on almost a motherly tone as she stroked my hair and rocked my body in her arms. She continued her consolation as she did so. <You really need to just deal with these feelings, Will. You know I can help you with this, just like you helped me before.> A flash of memory showed me the shady patch of grass where Mayumi first made friends with my second pokémon, a poochyena. <If you just hide your feelings they only fester and get worse as time goes on. I know it's hard for you to think about it right now, but let's try, okay?>

I weakly shook my head, not wanting to bring up any more painful memories. What I wanted more than anything right now was to simply fall asleep and forget all of it. Or to wake up and forget all of it. I didn't care, it was just too painful to bear right now. Mayumi could tell I was in an unreasonable state to do any such thing as she had been planning, and that I was far from ready to interact with anyone else, so she helped me up to the bed and we both got on top of the mattress and lay down. I was still lost in my own thoughts, sadly remembering the last time I saw him, the look he gave me was... I couldn't take it.

Mayumi decided at this point that it would be best for me to simply sleep and let my mind work some of this out for itself, so with a slight effort, she used her psychic power to cast hypnosis over me, and I slept a dreamless sleep.