Seeing the archway in front of me again is interesting, mainly because I'm interested because I passed through the one in Chargestone Cave without harm so I take a step of faith here.
I enter into the archway through the brick wall, this sends me back to a tunnel of fog and mist, remembering the deal I walk the path but unlike previously it only takes a few steps before the mist is pulled away to reveal a new sight.
I step out from a Stone archway onto what seems to be a Plaza.
In the centre of the plaza is the Spiralling tree I saw before the last fog tunnel, but this time it's smaller and less vibrant.
With nothing else to do I look around and notice some more distinct things, first of all, visible in all directions is a pink Ocean of Fog with the plaza acting as a sole Island of land. Secondly, to the north of the plaza, there's a Thicket of trees which when looked upon seems to block sight by an overlapping layers of trees, making it so the pink ocean isn't visible to the north.
I do notice from the plaza though that due to the gradient I assume the island is spherical but the area that would contain the Thicket isn't meant to be big enough to contain enough trees to block vision to the other side.
Aka, Space is being funky over there and I suspect there is something interesting over there, but I feel I'm not ready for what's over there.
So, the only thing I can focus on right now is the spiral tree in the centre of the plaza, I approach it to get a better look, but when I do I notice something at the roots of the tree which currently only reaches knee high.
I sigh as I get close enough that I'm able to simply grab it, when I do it seems to be some kind of Pink Watch.
I tap it trying to turn it on, but it doesn't respond, I go to place it in my fanny pack since why not but when I do I realize there's a pair of nubs on the inside of the watch, When I press both of them at the same time, I feel a light shock run between my fingers.
The screen of the watch lights up but only displays a red cross, with a small chain of text which reads [Please wear Xtransceiver correctly.].
I sigh before putting the watch which I'll call an Xtransceiver on my wrist, when I do the screen lights up activating.
Its face acts like a touch screen but on it, I see a trio of applications already installed on the device, the icons for the applications are a piece of mail, An open book and a stone archway.
It turns out the Mail app has a message already on it, so with nothing else to do I open it and direct to the message.
[From: The_Nightmare
C.C. My compensation and your obligations.
Message: I don't like this situation, but we had to fix something, I know Cresselia gave you a head start but she didn't have enough time to explain some things.
First of all, you're bound to the dream world whether we like it or not.
This means you're the first Human to have access to the Entralink in over 500 years which acts as the nexus point of the Dreamworld.
You can't do much with it but from now on you can summon a gateway to it in various locations including to return to locations you've been to, also while here damage is temporary so if you return to the real world at worst you'll have a headache, consider this my Compensation.
Now since you're now connected to the Entralink it means you are now going to encounter Living Nightmares, Living Nightmares are Entities formed from the coalescence of pent-up emotions be they either good or bad in nature.
They can form from both Humans and Pokémon but are usually invisible to the naked eye, their effect on reality is subtle but they latch onto others and act to exasperate certain emotions of others, they also act like mental parasites draining the targets of mental energy, with the endpoint resulting in a coma where it would next drain their lifespan until they expire.
Some Humans and Pokémon already help us with this task but with your new situation it creates an easier-to-access tool to solve these cases where our involvement would be detrimental or hazardous to one of us being caught.
Sincerely your new boss.]
Reading and re-reading the message that was most likely sent by the Pokémon who killed my Pokémon version of me, fills me with annoyance, but the idea of being essentially a Pokémon demon exorcist kind of interests me.
It would be funny to wave around a cross at a possessed person and then a ghost-type Pokémon just pops out and my simple response would be 'Sorry wrong thing possessing him, you can go back in.'
I re-re-read the message and realise something about this place, I reach for my pack and take out Himiko's pokéball and release her.
She appears normal with nothing different about her, she's mainly confused and curious about the location we are in.
She looks at me and asks [Where are we now? It doesn't look like the city from the cliff.]
I Smile and answer. "Well, if you can believe it we're in the dream world, I'm not like normal trainers, so I just wanted to see if I could send you out in here or not, as it turns out I can."
Hearing this just caused her to tilt her head in confusion. so, I continued. "it's because since I can get you out and this isn't the real world this means this place is a perfect training ground and campsite since I also have access to it at any time."
Hearing this she doesn't fully understand the meaning of this but just nods and accepts it's a good thing.
"Having access to this place, makes sleeping in a hotel a luxury which I currently can't afford so we have to go back so sorry for the sudden release, but I need to return you to your ball."
Hearing this she simply nods before the Pokéball in my hand contains her again and I make my way towards the archway. I walk through it without fear now and in a few steps, I find myself back in the ally I left from.
I make my way back to the Pokémon centre and the mart, their face at seeing me again is questionable but when I say I want to buy more they return to their business-centred persona.
Now with a quality Camping kit and food for myself with a lot of money spent slung under my arms, I make my way back into the alleyway and re-enter the Entralink nexus. There I start setting up camp.
Before I set up camp, I release Himiko, so she's not stuck in her ball, so while I set up the tent by following the instructions she's my little cheerleader, she does get her own fun out of it when one of the tent supports whips me in the face.
Once the tent and camp burner are set up, I look up and notice that the sun is nearing dusk I check the time using the Xtransceiver which displays the time in the top section of it to find it's around 5, at this I make a decision that since I'm now in the Pokémon world I need to set a schedule for Himiko's training but then I remember I never got her opinion on battling so I ask.
"Himiko, I know we met today but I forgot to ask, do you want to be a friend who just accompanies me to view the world, or do you want to fight with me by my side as well?"
At my question the floating silverfish pauses for a second before speaking, [What are you talking about, I know Pokémon trainers, train us to be the very best we can be, I want to fight and prove that to the world.]
Hearing my question was redundant I just smiled and laughed but after, I do explain. "it's more I at least wanted to give you the option to battle or not I didn't want to force you if you didn't want to."
At this, Himiko simply floats over to me and lands on my head in a weird form of affection.
"Well, if you want to battle it means I'm gonna train you to be the very best so, for the next hour I want you to simply swim the arc of the island turn around and do the reverse then turn around to do it again for as long as you can to improve your stamina, you need to build that first regardless of anything else." I point from one side of the island to the other while indicating the side away from the trees.
Hearing this Himiko swims off to do her training, while she does that, I start cooking some food for myself while watching her to make sure she's not getting too tired.
Once my food is done, I put hers on the stove to be cooked so when I feel she's about to tire out the food would be done, when she reaches her limit, I call out to her to come here.
When she approaches, she smells the electric type of Pokémon food with a glaze of my own blood, her eyes sparkle like stars before she gains a burst of energy tackling into the food.
I just eat my own food while watching her enjoy her first full meal in a while.
I look up at the sky and the pink clouds above me and smile.