Sevear and Hiroki were nearly there. As they rounded the bend, Sevear was shocked at what he saw. His house was in shambles; his belongings strewn about on the floor, his bed cut with a knife, his chair on its side.

What happened? he thought.

"Hiroki, stay here," he said drawing his sword.

"Ahhh... I recognize my soul when I see it," said Pan as he looked at the transparent-smoking form of a Growlithe.

"A gift you say? Well then I'll save this for later." He took the box and closed it again, the fog of his whispy soul vanishing. He knew that someone simply giving him a gift such as this would want something in return, but he'd let the gift-giver ask that question. "If you are done here you may go now." He made a shooing motion, mostly to get Tom to say what was in his head.

Aseren awoke to the sound of a doduo. Annoying sounds... but effective. He got dressed and pushed Thrin out of bed. He looked like he didn't get much sleep last night for some reason.

"Come now. We have much ground to cover. We are heading to the Iron Desert. Pack plenty of water and if you have any extra room, pack more water." He was getting thirsty just thinking about where they were going.

We are going to take a flight to the borders of the desert. I had already arranged a ride last night. There should be 2 Salamence waiting for us at the entrance once we are ready to go. Wait!" He shuffled through Thrin's bag. "You packed all this!?" He turned the bag upside-down, shaking out all of its contents. "No no no. Pack light. No extra weapons. We have a desert to cross!" He trudged to the door and called out for a servant to ready a trough of water and several flasks to carry it in.

Yotoshi thought for a moment.
In a month, it will be time for war. I somehow need to recruit faster... but how? He stood thers thinking a bit, but no answer came to him.

"Not yet, I wissh to know what happened to Groowlithe."

Thrin rubbed his eyes and watched as Xel dumped his stuff on the floor, barly catching the bottle of rare acid and the painting, he secretly stowed it in his cloak. Then he took the rest of the stuff that he would not apperently need and looked to Shlath, who was also awake. He said "Take this stuff home, then come back here" he knew that if they were to cross a desert then packing light would indeed be a good idea. Shlath dissapeared and quickly reapeared with telaport. To answer the question that was sure to come Thrin said "Shlath can only focus his teleport to a place were he knows the detail completely, otherwise were he or anyone he takes with him will go somewere complely random." Thrin then walked towarwards the kitchens to go and pack more water.

"What happened to Growlithe is that he could not understand my power, and so feared it. He ran with his tail between his legs." Pan hated bringing up Growlithe. He wondered where the pokemon was now.

I nodded to Sevear, and stood outside, waiting for him to invite me into the now trashed house with signs of safety. Kinar walked up by me, and Growlithe looked at me, tired. I picked him up, and let him go to sleep.

((Haha....I have Growlithe, and he likes me...
Oh, and I WILL TYPE!! Give me a break, will you? The person who this message is to knows who they are, so don't ask if it isn't for you. ))

Sevear quickly looked around. Someone was looking for something. He found his books all over the floor, pages ripped out. Well whoever they were, they're gone.

"Alright. You can come in now Hiroki."

I walked in, holding Growlithe. "What happened?" I asked, looking around.

"I'm not exactly sure. Someone was looking for something; I don't know who they are or what they were looking for though." He began picking up the books that were still in one piece.

"Make yourself at home," he said.

What's left of it anyways.

I sat down on a bed. "Did you live alone?" I asked.

"Yes. Why do you ask?"

He continued straightening up, tossing what was unrecoverable, keeping what he could salvage.

"Because I am curious. Who did you live with?" I asked him, now looking at him. I then and looked at the bedspread.

"Noone, just me and Duke."

"Oh." I said, avoiding any further questions. I had never lived normally with anyone. I never lived in a house that was my own. I lived in my father's house, and then in a military camp, as a student, and a leader. studied there as well.

"So did you live with anyone over the last ten years?" asked Sevear, trying to avoid silence. It seemed to make the clean-up go faster when they were talking.

"Other than my pokemon, no. Why do you ask?" I answered, smiling at the same question that he had asked.
"Oh." I added. "I'm sure that someone else was on the island, but I don't know who. Other than Kinar and Growlithe, I was alone."

((Kawaii, Tom's about to preach that you stole Pan's soul in escence. YAY! ALL HAIL KAWAII!))

"Pan, I got 5 lives in a wonderus way, a spirit of the oldest Emporer took pity on me when his own race tried to kill me, at the age of 15. But one little problem, each and every pokemon that I met, hated me. He said I needed to find a soul pokemon, one who will be able to fuse with me, share my feelings, in escense, my soul. And I saw how close you and growlithe used to be, and I knew you were soul pokemon. So, here brings my second gift, the Transformation Ruby, though cracked, the thing that gave me the power to turn into a pokemon. And, as a reward..." Tom's eyes twinkled, "I wish to be able to battle General Pion, once the war that is inetivible comes, then have a try at you, if succsesful in beating him."

((OMG. Tom's giving Pan MORE power?!?!))

((I'm gonna be gone most of today so please don't get to far without me .))

"Because talking makes the pickup seem less like work," Sevear replied with a smile.

"Hmmm...Sounds like a good enough reason." I said, looking away.

"Is something bothering you?" asked Sevear when Hiroki turned her head.

"No." I looked at him surprised. I wondered why he thought that.

((Are we the only group posting other than Tom and Pan? ))

Sevear was putting the last of what could be salvaged on it's shelf.

"Done," he said. "At least we can stay here tonight. I'll take the chair, you can take the bed."