“Saphire! Saphire wake up!” A male voice shouted next to her in a panicked tone.
    “She’s alive Johnny just someone get some water!” A calmer female voice told him.
    “Is she going to be alright?” A younger boy’s voice rose up.”
    “That’s why I’m taking her to the infirmary.” Johnny told everyone as he picked up Saphire’s body. She was dully aware of what was going on around her. Even after hearing what Johnny was saying she couldn’t feel his arms or the ground when she was on it.
    “Nurse Karen? Where’s Nurse Karen?” Johnny asked suddenly seemingly to no one in particular.
    “Nurse Karen? She’s resting. Why? What’s wrong with her?” Said a young girl's soft voice.
    “I don’t know what’s wrong with her! She’s not responding to anything we did and won’t wake up!” Johnny shouted, though it was easy to tell he was trying to fight off tears as his voice sounded choked up.
    “Oh no! Nurse Karen!” The young girl shouted as she ran away from Johnny.
    “Huh? What? What do you want, Leila?” Asked a groggy female voice. Age showed itself in her tone and leading to believe she was at least forty years old. “What?” Came her voice again, much more awake this time and the sound of two sets of paws running towards Johnny. “When did this happen?” Johnny was silent for an unknown reason and she asked him her question again much more urgently.
    “Oh uh. Less than an hour ago maybe.” He paused again as he tried to find words to explain what happened. Now it was obvious that he was crying as near silent sobs of fear came from the Pikachu. “I don’t know what happened. “I sensed her aura not far away from the house. She stopped and I think she was taking to someone else and then suddenly she fell to the ground. When I went out to check on her she was on the ground and unconscious.”
    There was a long stretch of silence as Karen and Leila did something that Saphire did not know of. “I think I know what’s going on.” Karen finally said after what seemed like an eternity. “This is Saphire Starlight isn’t it?”
    Johnny wasn’t speaking again until she posed the question once more. “Yes. She is a Starlight.”
    Karen responded with her own analysis of the situation. Whoever that stranger was knew a phrase that unlocked all of her forgotten memories of her past.”
    “Wait they unlocked all of them?” Johnny asked quickly, his panic rising again.
    “Yes. All of them.” Saphire heard paw steps moving around to where Johnny’s voice came from. “Because they unlocked her memories all at once her brain doesn’t know what to do and it shut down her body in order to get everything straightened out.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Now Saphire could hear the fear in his voice.
    “She’s gone into a coma-like state. Until her brain sort everything out she won’t wake back up.” Karen explained to him.
    There was a prolonged silence between everyone before Johnny spoke up. “Karen if I may. What was this phrase that was said to unlock her memories?”
    Karen let out a shaky sigh before speaking. “I believe it was ‘Starlight rising’. I wonder what it’s supposed to represent.”
    “Whatever it means I know one thing for sure.” Johnny started. “Yani has something planned, and it’s coming soon.” He paused a moment before his voice turned to a whisper, but it was loud enough that he was probably speaking directly into her ear. “I hope you make it through this alright, Saphire. Just know that mean and Chanler love you and we will support what you choose to do when you come back.”

*   *   *   *   *

    A weight crashed down on top of her side; knocking the wind out of her lungs and waking her up with a start. The Eevee’s eyes flew wide open as she coughed and gasped for air that wasn’t there anymore. “Sister Saphire! Sister Saphire! Wake up! Wake up!” Came a carefree and very excited boy shout in her ear.
    Saphire struggled to breath and squirmed around underneath the weight of her brother before finding herself on her back. With a quick kick of her hind legs she tossed the Eevee off of her and took a long drawn gulp of air before exhaling. She panted hard as she twisted onto her stomach quickly and crouching over her bedding. “Sam. Why did you jump on me?” Saphire asked the Eevee, her words coming between large breaths of air.
    The Eevee she threw off of her rolled onto his stomach as well before standing up and running over to her. “Mother just gave birth! It’s a baby girl!”
    Her ears shot straight into the air and instantly her breathing was revitalized. With her tail beginning to wag rapidly behind her she faced her brother. “Really big brother?” Saphire’s own excitement matched her elder brothers to a tee after that.
    “Yes! Come on! She’s still awake!” Sam told her with unfaltering energy as he turned tail and ran for the door.
    With that said Saphire dashed after her brother with the same boundless energy. The two small Eevees raced out of the bedroom and into the hall; immediately turning left as they left the room behind. They entered a hallway with soft wood boards lining from wall to wall. The walls themselves had holes in some places but were pretty sturdy for how old they appeared.
    Together the two siblings ran down the corridor; racing at their fastest as they rounded a corner on the far side of the hallway. As they made it into the next stretch they practically ran headlong into a short wooden door. Sam stopped just short of the door while Saphire slammed her head into the wood. A loud thud came from the door, but nothing from Saphire except for a softer thud as her rear hit the floor below her.
    When Saphire shook her head to try and get the annoying ringing out of her ear Sam spoke up. “Wow. You have the hardest head of anyone I know. Did that even hurt?”
    “Did what hurt?” An older man asked as the door was opened fully. Standing in the threshold of the previously close but now open door was an Umbreon who stared down at Saphire.
    “Saphire hit the door with her head, father.” Sam explained as he looked up at the Umbreon and then to Saphire whom he licked her forehead a few times.
    The Umbreon looked down at Saphire and let out a few short chuckles in amusement. “Saphire, honey. I know you have thick skull but I don’t think you should be using it to knock on doors.”
    “But I wasn’t, father! Sam came into my room and jumped on me! Then he told me that mother had Essmeralda!” Saphire was still trying to shake her head clear of the ringing when she spoke which made her words come out a bit slurred.
    “Dear, her name is Esmerelda. Not Essmeralda.” He told her as he too gave a few licks to her forehead with his much larger tongue that practically took up the space between her ears completely. “You two should be in bed anyways. Don’t you know it’s just about midnight?”
    Saphire was now completely confused by this new revelation and looked out one of the windows showing the outside world. Her father was correct in saying that it was night time as it was pitch black outside. In fact now that she thought about it she could only just barely see her brother in the darkness that shadowed the inside of their house. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Umbreon’s rings were glowing yellow she wouldn’t even be able to see him.
    “Sorry Father. It was my fault.” Sam apologized with a bow of his head and continued. “I heard you shouting that the baby was coming’ and I woke up.”
    Their father began to laugh for a short while and let it die gradually. “Fair enough I guess. I take it that Ruby didn’t wake up even though you jumped on them both?” He asked Sam.
    “Yeah, she was still sound asleep even though I kept shaking her.” Sam told him, eventually sitting down as his legs grew tired from standing in place. Saphire stayed sitting down instead of standing up like her brother had been.
    “We can let her sleep. The world knows she needs it since she has insomnia.” He mumbled and sighed as he looked up at the ceiling only a few feet above his head; then down at his children. “Well come on inside and meet your baby sister.” He turned around and walked back into the room while Sam and Saphire stood up and followed him in slowly. “Yani, we got some company.”
    Saphire entered the room and at the far side of it she could see an Espeon lying in a large hay bed. There was a tightly woven, blue silk blanket sitting on top of it so that she didn’t have to get poked by the ends of the hay. Yani looked at Sam and Saphire as they walked in and smiled warmly at them. “Greetings, my children.” She told them as she lifted her head up.
    Sam was the first one to walk up to the edge of the bed and placed his front paws on it to look over the edge. Saphire came up just after him and looked into the bed although she had a bit more trouble seeing since she was smaller than her brother. Yani was lying at the very back of the bed on her side as to leave a large area of bed between her underbelly and where Saphire had her paws. Then she noticed the small collection of fur that was sitting right next to her mother’s belly.
    “Meet your new sister.” Yani told them with a soft voice. “Esmerelda.”
    Both of them leaned in closer to look at the tiny Eevee lying at their mother’s stomach. Her fur looked ragged and still wet in some places but the thing that caught both of their attention was the fact that her eyes were already open. “Mom!” Sam exclaimed in a semi hushed voice. “Her eyes! They’re open!”
    Yani nodded her head with a small smile. “They sure are. She’s a smart little one.” The Espeon moved her head to touch her nose to the Eevee’s tiny one and purred softly. “I can tell that she’ll be a leader someday just by looking at her eyes.”
    Saphire hopped up into the bed and looked at her baby sister’s eyes that also looked back at Saphire. Yani pulled her head back a little bit and nosed Saphire’s body towards Esmerelda. She tried to fight it a little bit before giving in and crouching down in front of her. It was odd to her that her younger sister’s eyes would follow where she went move for move. The Eevee then reached forward with her head slowly and touched her nose to her sister’s.
    Suddenly her vision was filled with darkness, all of her senses gone from the world. “Karsel do it!” She heard a mysterious voice say. Then her sense of smell was filled with the smell of gas. She could taste it as well, the air tasted foul to her because of the smell of gas. A moment later she could feel the fur along her spine raise up, and all around her she could sense danger.
    Saphire’s vision returned along with the rest of her senses. A look of dread spread across her face like a water’s ripple. Yani noticed this and looked at Saphire in concern. “Saphire dear are you alright?”
    The Eevee shook her head and looked at her mother. Her body was trembling as she turned and said only one word. “Fire.”
    That one weak, solitary word instantly registered in Yani’s mind and her face turned from one of worry to one of anger. Suddenly the Espeon stood up and carried all three of the kids into the center of the room. A moment later two more Eevee’s suddenly appeared in a pink flash of light on either side of Saphire. She recognized them both as her siblings the one being on her right was her sister Ruby, and the one on her left was Zachary. “Yani, what’s wrong?” The Umbreon asked her.
    “Those damn guild rats that’s what, Zander!” She shouted before she screamed into the air. A pink psychic shield formed around them in a half sphere. Just a moment later the area around them went up in flames and everything was disintegrated into ash. Smoke the area around them, leaving them blind with nowhere to see what just happened. When the smoke finally cleared the place that Saphire had called her home for her entire life was now gone and nowhere to be seen. Even the bed that they had been in just moments ago was nowhere to be seen.