Author: Ai no Kitsune Rating: G
Finding the Heart Stone Chapter-2
This is the second time I've tried to send this, so that's why it took so long. Our mail has been acting up. I think I should probably apologize to all the die-hard Team Rocket fans out there for making Jessie and James so totally out of character. I know they are, but I don't seem to be able to do anything aobut it. The only thing I seem to be able to write is weird melodrama like this, so that's what you're gonna get. Oh well.
Part Two-SERENITY
Breakfast was nightmarishly bad, and afterwards Misty beat up Ash and sat on him until he repented and promised never to cook again. Out of pity, Jessie offered to clean up the dishes. She found herself back on the hillside where James had been, idly scrubbing the pots and staring into the blue sky. It really was a beautiful day.
But that was the problem, wasn't it? The days were always beautiful, and serene, and peaceful. Even the bickering that went on in their little group was good-natured and never resulted in anything worse than a black eye, usually for Ash. The sky was always blue, the wind was always gentle, and the seasons never seemed to change.
And somehow Jessie had never noticed it before. Somehow, her whole like, she had never noticed the absence of things like rain, or clouds, or gusting winds that would blow Ash's hat from his head and shake the trees to their roots. She'd never noticed until now.
Everything in the world was perfect.She looked up. The sky was blue, terrifyingly blue. Everything was stripped away and naked and open, as though the skin of the world had been peeled back.
The sun was a hot coin burning in the sky, an unblinking relentless eye, a terrible brightness beating down on her shoulders. She stood suddenly, knocking over the dishes, her head craned back so far her neck hurt, staring into the sun.
"Run, Jessie," she whispered hoarsely. And she ran. Her long legs drove her over the landscape, back into the darkness of the forest, tearing through the thick undergrowth. Dark tree trunks sped past, streaming into a black river on either side. Branches tore at her, whipped her in the face, tangled in her flying hair and beat against her legs.
She ran but the sun was still overhead, the sky still showed blue between the leaves, and she didn't even know what she was running from.
It was the dream. Everything came back to that. The awful feeling that things were not as they seemed drove her forward, deep into the forest, far from familiar paths.Suddenly a sharp pain stabbed her in the ankle, and the sickening feeling that she'd put a foot down wrong came an instant too late to save her. She pitched forward into the mud and dead leaves with enough force to drive the breath from her body. She lay on the ground panting.
Everything was wrong. This wasn't a normal world. She closed her eyes and listened to her heart's rapid, frantic beating. Everything was wrong.
*****
Far away, Ash looked up from the first-aid kit and said, "What happened to Jessie?" James said,
"I thought she was doing the dishes," reached out, and moved a pawn on the chessobard. "Check."
"That's not check!" shouted an outraged Brock.
"She sure is taking her sweet time," muttered Ash, to no-one in particular.
*****
Jessie pushed herself upright. Her shoulder hurt, and was probably bruised. She massaged it gently and winced. She had gone pretty deep into uncharted territory. She sighed and stood up. She knew she was filthy. She brushed of her shirt and looked around.
She didn't believe for a second that she was crazy. She felt frightened and disoriented because something was wrong, somewhere. The world was wrong. It had to be. Things could not naturally be as perfect and serene as they always seemed to be. She was terrified because she didn't understand.
Vague flashes of memory assailed her, images of a world she'd never been to, yet which refused to be ignored.
She saw herself and James in uniforms, she saw herself battling Ash and Misty and Brock, she saw weird, unnatural animals with strange powers. She heard voices of people she'd never met, saw a talking cat....
"Enough!" she shouted into the forest, startling a flock of birds into flight. She stamped her foot in fury. "I've had it with this! This is where I am, I'm not going to see anymore pictures of a world that never existed!"
She turned on her heel to walk back the way she'd come, but her ankle was twisted and when she tried to step forward she fell, straight to the ground, flat on her face.
She opened her mouth to cuss violently, and never got the chance, beacues at that moment somehting caught her eye, glittering in the underbrush.
She pushe dherself up on her elbows and reached out, slowly, fully aware that she might be reaching fo rsome kind of deadly animal ("no deadly animals in these woods" she muttered) and grasped ahold of something cool and solid.
It was a stone.She sat up and drew the object towards her, eyes wide with awe. It was a shining stone, glowing fromt he inside with its own radiance. It didn't cast any light, it didn't illuminate the surroundings, but the light was warm and somehow Jessie felt her heart grow calm, just gazing at its light.
*****
In the camp clearing a mile away, James' hand jerked suddenly, sending peices flying from the board. They thudded onto the green grass and lay there, like white bone glittering in the sunlight.
To Part-3
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