By now… The valley was beginning to regrow, despite what the others had thought…

Was it because of some outside influence? Had the fire not damaged as much as it seemed to?

...perhaps the Fairy who used to live there didn’t know as much as they seemed to think…

From the ashen remains, scoured down to the dust by the wrathful flames, sprouted a field of flowers… They were still short, and swayed softly in the constantly blowing breeze… But they would soon cover nearly all of this place, where once there were huts… Laughter…

...life…

Crescent took a soft step. She had her scythe over one shoulder, occasionally having to lower it to use it as a crutch for her exhausted, injured body. 

In her other arm, a baby clung… Wide eyes peered out from under a small, crudely drawn mask…

“...here we are, Olivia…”

Crescent finally stopped at a certain place in the valley. Here was a small, gently carved stone that she’d placed, to ensure she always remembered… But it wasn’t necessary. The flowers were spreading virulently from this very spot…

She knelt down and placed her hand on the marker’s cold surface. The breeze slipping among the leaves almost sounded like merry laughter for how they shifted above…

“...This is your papa… his name is… Pan. I wanted to make sure you… You met him, at least once… Heh… Probably shouldn’t be out of bed, nor this far from… my new home, hm? But…”

Olivia clung tighter, staring with silent confusion at the stone… But something about it, and this place, made her eyes sparkle with awe…

“...papa...”
Crescent smiled and patted her. Then she leaned forward where she knelt, and set her forehead against the stone…

“...I still love you… Pan… And I will never forget...”
...”HAAAAAAAAH!!!”

Twosa bolted up and gasped softly… She gripped at her head and then snapped it from side to side…

...ah… Just her hut… And the nightmares, as usual…

...she slumped back against the pillows, sniffling gently… Would they ever fade from her mind? All she wanted was to…

...to… set her hand on her swollen midsection… To gently massage over its surface, and feel the soft bliss that seemed to be everything she dreamed it would be… and yet her mind’s eye was still staring through the fire so long ago...

“Twosa?”

Shuffle emerged from the small hallway that lead into the cave. She pushed her goggles up and looked concernedly at the pregnant Tinkaton on the bed. Twosa blushed and looked away…

“Is… Is she coming...?”

“No…” Twosa quickly answered, shaking her head firmly… “No, ahah, no no… I just… Another nightmare…”

Shuffle nodded sympathetically. Without another word, she walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed. She pulled Twosa close, supporting her and placing her own calloused hand on the waifish Fairy’s belly. The baby inside kicked in response…

“O-Ouh…” Twosa blushed, and winced… The pregnancy had been harder on her than she expected, but once the pain of her aching muscles faded, she always found herself staring with admiration down at the wonderful processes overtaking her body...

...it must have been what Fuelli felt… 

Guilt picked at Twosa like a bad aftertaste. She shook her head and looked up at Shuffle…

As usual, the Tinkaton was like the stones and metals she worked with: She was rough, quiet, and preferred the dark of her cave to being here in the sun… Yet with a little polish, the value below the surface shined…

Twosa wondered how she could have ignored Shuffle for so long… In her time anchored to a bed by a heavy belly, she had reflected deeply on it, and was attempting some satisfying understanding of how a kind and gentle Fae like her could have seemed like such a pest before...

Perhaps, if she’d had a little more time, she might have come to a good conclusion…

Her thoughts were interrupted when her baby kicked again, and she turned a very light shade of green…

“Oh… N-No…”

“Shh, shh…” Shuffle cooed. She gently set the smaller fairy down and exited the room only briefly, returning with a small herbal tea, hot and steaming… “I thought you might need one of these…”

“Shuffle, you’re a saint…” sighed Twosa, who took the cup and let the gentle aroma soothe away the queasy sensations in her belly… “I dunno what I would have done without you...”

“Mm, I do.” Shuffle answered the rhetorical question with a grin… “Suffice to say, I wouldn’t be able to meet our cute daughter some day soon…”

“Ahahaheh… Ouuuhhh… I’m really not looking forward to that part…”

Shuffle’s expression evened a bit, and she glanced away briefly…

“...mm, you DO have somewhat narrow hips… We’ve already talked about all that though… I have a hot spring nearby, medicines… Even if it’s difficult, you’re with me, Twosa. You’ll be okay… And so will she…”

Shuffle’s hand returned to Twosa’s middle. The expecting mama sipped her tea and sighed once more…

“Better be… I don’t think either of us can take much more setbacks, huh?”

Their time in this hut had gone by slowly, and yet whenever Twosa glanced at their calender, she was surprised to see how many days passed since the last time she looked. Being a pregnant female was more exhausting than she realized; she must have slept for most of the weeks it took to gestate her baby…

...She really was a bit frail… A bit unsuited for anything… Even ‘useless’ little Fuelli had a good body for birthing children… but Twosa herself…?

She set the teacup down half empty and glanced away. Shuffle noted her fallen expression, and placed a finger on her chin to meet her eye again…

“...Twosa… my sweet little queen…”

Twosa perked, and her hands curled to fists in excitement. Shuffle so rarely used pet names, and it made every time she did all the more thrilling…

“You are too distract by everything even now. Even when you’re on the brink of birthing your baby and starting a new chapter of your life. If you stress yourself too much, it might be the last. It wasn’t too long ago that you were so injured that you could barely walk without collapsing into a faint. Now you’re heavy with a Steel type child, and…”

Twosa nodded softly, and then glanced away in frustration…

“I know, I know… I just… I want her to be here so I can stop wishing and… and start being a mommy!”

Shuffle chuckled and stroked down her back… She was perhaps a bit surprised at how much the boisterous little waif in her arms had changed in so short a time… Yet it was a welcome change indeed...

“...Twosa… Fool… You already ARE… This is part of it… Hm?”

Twosa huffed and shook her head, before laying it softly against Shuffle. She said nothing more, but the dreamy smile on her face spoke volumes… The nightmare had been forgotten… The future was brighter than ever...
Shuffle glanced back one more time at her mate’s sleeping form…

She had lulled her back to rest, and carefully set her down before standing and gathering up a bag of scrap. She slung it over her back, meaning she was now carrying her mane full of tools and another hefty weight at the same time. It barely seemed to affect her…

“...perhaps I SHOULD have been the one to carry… It would have been easier on me, and… Hm.”

She mused quietly to herself for a few moments, staring blankly at Twosa as her mind wandered… Then she quickly pushed aside the worries and focused instead on the practical needs of the day…

She exited the hut and began to move along the game trails, humming a soft tune to herself. Her eyes were drawn up to the yellowing leaves and shuddered pleasantly at the hint of chill in the air. Soon it would be Fall… The Fairy type looked forward to a cosy cuddle with her new family by the fire...

...she paused her steps, and looked up at the clear skies through the trees…

“...family… Heh… Yeah… Never thought I’d...”

...she continued on. Her humming became all the more pleasant as she eventually emerged from the treeline and looked down at the small Pokemon village. She’d frequented this place recently to trade her wares and extra crafting materials for things Twosa needed. Medicine, clothing… Chocolates…

She smirked as she stepped up to a stall and began to unpack. She conducted business with an infectuous grin that seemed to spread…

“...you’re in such a mood, eh, stranger?”

She turned on hearing a voice, and saw a familiar Tinkaton standing there… Someone from their former village, having moved here.

“Mmm, good to see you’re doing well out here…” Shuffle answered politely. For once, she wasn’t just trying to get someone who was bothering her to go away… She genuinely felt good about seeing a familiar face...
“Same to you, although you definitely don’t live here… Still making your nest in the valley?”

“Nah. The valley was blighted by the lightning strike… So we had to move West.”

“Oooo… Well aren’t you brave? I’ve heard that some nasty Pokemon make their territory to the West…”

Shuffle shrugged…

“We haven’t come across anything but peace out there… And moving back to the village’s former site, much as it would be nice, isn’t an option…”

“Isn’t it? Last time I travelled by there, it was carpeted in flowers… Only last week!”

Shuffle’s cheery expression turned to one of surprise…

“...really?”

“Yeah!” The other Tinkaton said, clapping once… “Makes me almost wish we could return and make a new village there. But I suppose we’re a little scattered, hm?”

She turned to leave, lifting her hand…

“But… I must be off! It was nice seeing you again, Shuffle… Don’t be a stranger any more~”

“Yeah… Thanks.” Shuffle said, lifting her own hand to wave goodbye. She concluded her business and then returned with a spirited spring in her step, almost running the last stretch to her hut, and her mate…

She pushed open the door and let the bag of supplies fall from her shoulder and onto the ground. Twosa looked up from where she sat on the bed, eyes bleary as she brushed out her hair…

“...What are YOU so excited about? Did they have some rare metal or something at the market…?”

“...Twosa, dear… Get dressed. I want to take a walk...”
They walked along the trail they usually did… Twosa waddled until she dramatically proclaimed she would faint, and Shuffle picked her up and placed her on her fluffy ‘throne’…

“Riding up here on your back… Heh, if I had known before, it was the only way I would have travelled around the village, Shuffa~”

“If you had known before, I wouldn’t have let you, with how much of a brat you were.”

Shuffle grinned as Twosa giggled… The waifish Fairy sighed heavily and draped her arm on her swollen middle, wincing at its firm and eager movement…

“...Mirisa… Mirisa~”

“You’ve settled on that name, huh? Just in time, I thought you never would…”

“I liked Joka and Jackie too, but… She’s my lil miracle~ I had to give her a special name…”

Shuffle nodded pleasantly. Twosa lifted herself a bit to look around curiously…

“...Ah, we’re going a little further than we usually do…”

“Not a little. We’re heading back to the village…”

Twosa’s face crumpled into a soft pout…

“Why would we ever want to go back to that ugly place? I thought we were leaving it all behind…”

“We are.” Shuffle said, firmly… “I’ll make sure we do, dear. I thought perhaps you could put your old thoughts to rest if we walked back one last time, before this new chapter of our life starts…”

“How is that going to happen when I’m staring at the burnt out husk of what that wench of a Fairy did to all of us…?”

Shuffle glanced up at her... A smile spread across her face, as she pushed aside a curtain of leaves to reveal the valley spread below. Twosa looked down and gasped...

The valley was indeed spread with beautiful flowers now… Where there was still scorched patches of ground, they were slowly being overtaken once more by lush green grass… And the floral scent that wafted up and hit them…

...Twosa felt tears in her eyes, as Shuffle continued down the path and into the valley…

“...you see, Twosa? It wasn’t as hopeless as we thought. Even this place is regrowing… And we can too…”

“W-Wow… I… did you do this?”

Shuffle shook her head as she began to wade through the flowers, letting Twosa take it all in. She plucked a particularly fragrant lily and handed it up to her mate, to the waifish fae’s delight…

“It’s simply nature taking its course… And you’re not exempt from it. You can see all around you that it’s renewed… And whatever is holding you back, you can be too. So take faith. Perhaps one day, our descendents will live here again… I bet your daughters will be fine village leaders for years to come…”

Twosa was teary eyed, clutching her flower like it was the most precious of gifts. Shuffle finally lifted her and set her gingerly down in the field, letting her waddle about in the beauty. The Blacksmith put her hands on her hips and nodded contentedly…

...this had been a good idea… She could see the vibrant spark in Twosa’s expression, brighter than ever before. Finally, she seemed to be recapturing all the good memories, instead of the trauma that had been seared into her flesh that horrible night…

Twosa waddled here and there, adding various flowers to make a bouquet. She frolicked into and out of the treeline, her soft laughter soon infecting the area with mirth…

“...my goodness… Mirisa… Do you see it all~? This will be your home… Your home...~!”

‘...I will never forget…’

...Twosa froze…

Her heart began to pound harder in her chest… Her eyes widened…

She was far enough away by now that Shuffle had been lost around a corner, doubtless sitting in the field of flowers and waiting for her mate to waddle back and complain about her legs hurting until she was carried back to her grand little nest…

...but the voice hadn’t been Shuffle’s…

Twosa gingerly moved forward in the tall, swaying flowers, half hidden in the shade of the trees…

She crested a hill… The sight at the bottom of it… It took every bit of her willpower to restrain a scream…

Crescent was there… She was knelt at a stone that was drowned in flowers… She…

...she had an Ogerpon child in one arm…

“...no…” Twosa’s weak, trembling voice came. Her eyes were filling with tears, though she didn’t realize it…

She stared, still as a corpse, as the minutes stretched on. She was fixated, just as she had been the night of the inferno… Eventually, Crescent stood… She turned and walked away… It was only once she was out of sight that Twosa finally was able to react… She dropped the bouquet and quickly waddled forward, not noticing she had crushed the lily under her heel… 

When she got to the stone, she collapsed… Her eyes became wider as she realized what it was, palm pressed against its cold surface… The tears fell in giant, heavy drops…

“...I thought… I thought she… She was with him… And…” 

...nothing answered her but the rustle of the flowers in the breeze…

Shuffle glanced up as Twosa waddled back into view. She scooped up her mate and cuddled her firmly, before her expression fell…

“...Twosa? Have you been crying?”

“...ouh, hm… erm… allergies. I’m very tired and my stomach feels all squeezy again… Can we go home???”

Shuffle raised an eyebrow… But she lifted the smaller Fairy and set her on her cushy little throne…

“Of course, dear… You sure you’re okay?”

Twosa didn’t answer. She turned her head softly away and stared off into the distance once more… Shuffle really hated that she recognized that look…

...it wasn’t Twosa’s… it was QUEENIE’S…

“...So, I got some nice things for dinner…”

No response from Twosa…

“And… A surprise. I found something interesting at the village…”

Again, silence…

Shuffle fell into it, letting the noises of the forest fill the void as she walked along. Twosa’s gaze never wavered from the horizon, and yet she didn’t seem like she was shocked or dazed…

She was PLOTTING…

When they emerged into the clearing and opened the gate to their yard, Shuffle stepped inside, and then placed Twosa on the ground a bit more roughly than she intended. The smaller Fairy winced and held her belly to try and calm the irritated baby inside…

“Hey…!”

“Don’t ‘hey’ me… SPEAK. What is going on…?”

Twosa very obviously didn’t know how to answer that question. She began chewing her cheek anxiously and pacing a small circle. Shuffle’s eyes darted from her belly to her face, and then away…

...Not this again… Not that gleam in her eye… That hateful, smug, preening glance…

“Twosa…”

“I saw her.”

Both fairies fell silent. Twosa stood with her back to Shuffle, as the Blacksmith’s expression slowly melted to one of frustration and fury…

“And?!”

Twosa spun around, glaring…

“I SAW her. She’s still nearby…! She… She had a baby…”

“She was pregnant before she left. If you’d paid closer attention instead of trying to avoid her like she was a pariah, you might have known that…”

Twosa cringed and shook her head hard. The flash of her rival Fae through the flames did indeed have a belly that was rounder than normal, now that she recalled…

“...Well… Pan is dead.”

“Pan… was… was very sick. He came down with-…”

Twosa flicked her hand and ignored it, turning and pacing again… until Shuffle gripped her shoulder and yanked her around…

“What are you thinking, Twosa? Look at you… You’re incredibly pregnant, you barely have recovered anyway… And now you’re…”

Shuffle released her… Twosa wasn’t frowning or even crying… Instead, she had on a grin of excitement…

“I’m… I’m finally going to have a chance, aren’t I? After this baby is born… After I recovered, we ca-…”

“No.”

Twosa jerked her head up in surprise. Shuffle crossed her arms firmly…

“No, Twosa. We aren’t doing anything of the sort. We leave the damn female to her own devices, and continue raising our family…”

“W-What? You’re just going to LET her… After what she did to our village…!?”

“How many times do we have to have this SHOUTING MATCH, Twosa?!” Shuffle stomped hard, until she was looming over the smaller Fairy. Twosa had never seen her this angry before…

“...I know what you THINK happened… I know that you hated that foundling for… For reasons I couldn’t even begin to guess, given how much she tried to keep to herself… But Twosa… Crescent didn’t destroy our village…!”

“...yes she did… Yes she did! She was walking away, before anything even hap-…”

“You…”

Twosa’s jaw snapped closed. Her eyes widened, as Shuffle glared down at her…

“YOU…” Shuffle growled… “Are the one who destroyed the damn village… Do you not remember what I said… The promise I made?! YOU ARE THE ONE WHO CAUSED ALL THIS MISERY, TWOSA… NOT HER… YOU!!!”

Shuffle jammed her finger forward to poke into Twosa’s chest. The smaller Fairy stumbled backwards and gasped, as she fell to a sit… Shuffle flinched subtly, and looked a bit guilty as she took a step back… But her angry expression didn’t fade…
“Maybe if you had been nicer to her, she might have been more open about Pan’s condition… Maybe we could have saved him. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten sick in the first place, if you weren’t constantly screwing everything between them up… STRESSING THEM OUT… until…”

Shuffle took a deep breath… She sighed out heavily, as the fury died like a drowned forge-fire… She felt the burning of her bile-driven words, and finally looked back to Twosa…

She winced as she saw what she dearly hoped she wouldn’t:

Twosa was glaring through heavy tears. Her scarred face was one of hatred… One of a cruel queen, instead of a mother to be…

“...Look… Twosa, I didn’t mean to say…”

Twosa struggled to her feet and shoved Shuffle suddenly. Though the larger Fairy was of course much stronger, she was taken off guard and stumbled back…

“TWOSA… Stop… We… We need to talk about all this… I got angry… But I’m not…”

She watched her pregnant mate waddle past and into the hut. She followed her as she went past the living quarters and towards the workshop. Shuffle quickly followed…

“What are you doing… Don’t go in here…!”

“Yeah… Yeah, don’t go in here, Twosa… Just… Just sit on your bed. Gestate your stupid little ‘miracle’. Your second-place prize…”

Shuffle stopped as if she had been slapped in the face. Twosa was obviously spiting their baby at this point... Yet Shuffle took a far crueller meaning from the hissed hate...

“...I’m not… I’m not a second place pr-...”
“Just… Just entertain everyone, Twosa… Be a showy little ‘mayor’ and… And tell us where to plant the damn foundations and… AND… No… No, damn you all, I’m a WARRIOR TOO… I am… u-useful… I...”

She stared down at the blade in her hand… Her reflection dimly stared back… At least until it was marred by her dripping tears…

“...A knife… Heh… of course… Small… Lightweight, deadly…”

Shuffle grabbed her wife’s shoulder and spun her around. Twosa clung tightly with both hands to the knife that she’d picked up, and Shuffle pulled back, knowing the sharpness of those blades better than anyone...

“...What are you thinking, Twosa? Don’t do anything stupid with our baby… And don’t harm yourself…!”

“M-Myself?!” Twosa barked a sharp, spiteful laugh… “I’m going to go find that… That BITCH of a Fae, and do what I should have done a long TIME AGO… And then? Heh… Then I can raise Mirisa… A-And the Ogerpon baby will need a mommy too at that point…”

Shuffle shook her firmly by the shoulders. Twosa gasped and gripped her middle at the protests the baby instantly gave…

“Are you hearing yourself, you daft little Fairy?! You’re talking about chasing after her and putting a knife in her back… While you’re this heavy with our spawn?!”

“MY spawn! I demanded it! You would have sat in here and… And wasted the days trying to make a perfect hammer or something!”

Shuffle pulled away. Twosa spun back to the workbench, shoving things aside until she found a second blade. She tapped them together, testing their weight and sharpness, before she turned back to Shuffle…

The Blacksmith was staring now… Her eyes looked nearly grey with sorrow… But the sting of emotion was swiftly being buried by practised apathy, like a corpse under a rockslide...

“...it. It, again… Not ‘her’… It.”

Twosa frowned… For a moment, her expression resembled something like guilt at her words, before she was waving it away, and walking past Shuffle to the entrance of the blacksmith’s workshop…

“Twosa.”

She paused and looked over her shoulder. Shuffle hadn’t turned to look at her. She’d remained staring distantly at the wall…

“...If you go after her… Don’t come back. I told you I’d entertain all this so long as you could be a mother… Not a vengeful queen.”

Twosa sneered and looked down at the blades in her trembling hands…

“...Come with me, Shuffle. We can beat her. Both of us together? And then we can be a family…”

“We already WERE a family Twosa…” Shuffle growled, putting her palm to her face, to hide her growing tears… “...but that’s clearly not what you want…”

“S-Shuffle, I…”

“GO.”

Shuffle flung her arm out, gesturing sharply for the entrance. Twosa stared at it…

...she knew precisely what the hand outstretched to her meant… And yet still...

She turned… She waddled back into their hut, and quickly took a cloak from the closet… She slipped it on…

...the front door opened… Shuffle heard its slam echo down the stone hall that lead to her workshop...

She collapsed there on the floor, curled up tightly, and let the tears flow silently for hours...
“I’ll show her… I’ll show that… That stupid, dull, lack-wit of a Blacksmith… Wrong deeds must be punished in this world. There’s no escaping the reaper’s scythe after all… And… Well…”

She looked down at the knives she gripped so firmly that her knuckles turned white… She set her jaw and stomped forward along the trail…

“...it’s not a scythe… But it’ll do… Just the same, it’ll do…!!!”

She made her way to the nearby village, where she bartered and threatened for information. For a few hours, she was as tense as she’d ever been… Her belly ached… Her thighs burned and her feet were blistered, surely… But she ignored it all…

The image of Crescent, split open and dead, was all she saw… Was all she’d ever wanted… Even the belly couldn’t distract her now… No matter how much it hurt… No matter how much it weighed down on her…!!!

“KYAH…” she snarled, swiping at a tree as she walked quickly down a trail, or as fast as her pregnant body would allow. She had finally wrenched an answer out of a nervous looking Mismagius. Miserable as the creature was, a knife put to the Ghost’s own swollen middle pointed Twosa towards Crescent’s home…

A day or so later, she was stood atop a hill… Her cloak fluttered softly about her feet as she stared down at the manor garden sprawled before her. There were fences and gates, of course… But she was small enough to slip through a gap. From a stealthy perch, she rested, and watched who came and went...

A cat… A Meowscarada. She harvested plants and hissed at some floating red Pokemon that Twosa couldn’t recognize. Something rarer, and more vicious. Even from her far distance, Twosa could spy the female’s jagged teeth…

Perhaps she’d made a mistake… She’d come all the way out here to find an ugly HUMAN home, by the looks of it. Crescent would never become a Pokemon subservient to one of those lowly things, would she…?

But indeed… After hours of being sat there, back against a tree, legs crossed against the pain of a mounting knot of her midsection’s muscles...
“...There you are…”

Her voice was little more than a whispered hiss... Her pupils narrowed as she saw the face of her tormentor…

Crescent… Oh so soft and relaxed, as always... Carrying her baby around the garden…

“...poor child… You should have known your daddy… His… His kindness was wasted on her...”

She perked and stood up as Crescent set the baby down to frolic amongst the plants. Now was the moment to make her move…

...take the baby from the unfit mother, of course. When she comes looking… Make her surrender. She’d never hurt the baby really, of course, of course…

...not unless she had to, anyway… But she’d understand… It would all work out in the end…!

Olivia, the young Ogerpon, was none the wiser… She wandered happily among the plants and pathways of the little garden. Her mother tiredly followed her at a distance, content with spotting her through the leaves every now and again…

...at least until she stopped spotting her…

“...Olivia…?” Crescent called… She picked up the pace of her footsteps… “Olivia! Olivia…!? Where did you…”

She froze and looked down…

...Olivia’s crude, self-made little mask had fallen to the ground… She never would have dropped it on purpose, and if it was an accident, the little mythic daughter would have noticed immediately…

“...OLIVIA!!!”
Twosa struggled with Olivia’s weight and squirming. The Ogerpon whimpered into the burned arm of whatever horrid, hooded monster had suddenly grabbed her up, squirming until she noticed the blade in her captor’s hand…

“Hush…” the cloaked figure growled… “It will be over soon. Your mama is going to pay for her crimes…”

Olivia couldn’t speak, and now she didn’t want to move. Even young as she was, she averted her eyes nervously down, trying not to arouse the anger of whatever her scarred kidnapper truly was…

Twosa moved as quickly as her injured form would allow. Her heart was pounding, and her stomach was twisting in knots. She wanted to stop and vomit into the grass, and her dry eyes burned with tears that had long ago dried up. She focused them anyway, looking for any kind of haven for her mad plot...

It didn’t take long for her to spot the odd spiral of stone jutting out from above the canopy. A tower of some bizarre construction… As Twosa walked towards it cautiously, the sky above became overcast… Everything here had a feeling of gloom and decay, and yet… It wasn’t dead…

“...this place is haunted…” muttered Twosa. Olivia whimpered nervously at the idea of being in such a spooky place... “...hmph. Of course only Ghosts would cavort so happily with such wicked creatures… That Mismagius at the market… She was probably their servant too…”

She peered into the darkness…

“...but perhaps… Perhaps they are spies…? Allies… It doesn’t matter. It’s better than fleeing in the forest... That… That insipid Fairy Huntress was always so good at finding prey’s trails through the grass…”

She glanced behind quickly, as if she would already see Crescent barrelling down on her. Without another word, she entered into the gloom with her captive…

...just outside, a pair of eyes watched from the shadows. Once Twosa had disappeared into the tower, the ghostly presence floated up and straight towards the devilish Manor...
Twosa wasn’t sure where exactly she’d ended up… Obviously this creaking structure had seen better days, but… At one point it seemed to be the home of a wizard… A Witch, perhaps?

But those days had long passed. Now it was just the shadows, the leftover alchemic equipment, and an eerie presence that seemed to whisper all around Twosa’s ears…

“...Ghhh… Well if there are Ghosts… I can fight them off… J-Just like I can fight off Crescent when she comes here…”

Olivia lifted her head… By now, she was whimpering louder, and struggling fruitlessly… She glared softly at the idea that any foolish Fairy could defeat her powerful mama…

Twosa wasn’t paying attention… A new problem had forced itself on her attention; her breath was short, and her legs were starting to feel a bit numb...

“...the air in this place… S-So stagnant… Is that what… this is? I can’t… I c-can’t get enough…”

She began to take deep, heaving breaths as she stumbled down a hallway. Eventually, she shouldered open a dented old wooden door to fall into a room that seemed empty, save for a few old crates… A storage room of some kind? It didn’t matter. Twosa took a few more steps before she dropped Olivia, and one of her blades… She fell to her knee and put her hand on her middle…

“...N-Now… Now…!? Mirisa… No… Why… WHY!?”

Olivia landed gracefully and stared up at her kidnapper with confusion, and perhaps a hint of innocent concern… Yet she turned, however much she might have wanted to help, and fled down the hall. Her toddling steps got her only a few rooms away before a Ghostly tassel snapped from the shadows and pulled her screaming into the darkness...
Twosa groaned and settled heavily to a sit, legs apart. She backed up until she was pressed against the wall…

“K-KYYAHH! Ouh… Ouh by… By Lunala’s wings… HAH! Ohh…”

She huffed sharply and arched with a squeal as a sharp splatter of rusty-coloured fluids stained the stone floor between her legs. She covered her mouth in an attempt to stop her shouts from echoing down every hall…

...but it was too late for that. The doorway grew shadowed by a silhouette, save for the gleam of the brandished scythe that it held…

“...You…”

Crescent’s voice was a terrifying snarl. She stepped forward, as Twosa gasped and quickly forced herself to her feet…

Everything was agony… But adrenaline guided her movements… She snatched up her blades and dashed forward without hesitation… Crescent was surprised, and at any other moment, might have ended the fight then and there…

But she had travelled far, and faced her own trials. Her eyes were sunken with fatigue, and her mind was reeling with the idea that this psychopathic so-called rival had harmed her child…!

Their blades threw sparks as they clashed… Twosa wasn’t much of a fighter, but the worst Tinkaton fighter is still a force to be reckoned with. She gained confidence as she held her own… and started aiming for Crescent’s vitals…

“Why… WHY!? What have you done… With my daughter?!” Crescent snarled, shifting from side to side, looking for an opening to swing her powerful weapon. It was difficult, given its size… The knives Twosa wielded could be brought to bear in an instant, and Crescent was forced to spend her movements blocking…

“Your daughter… YOUR daughter…?! PAN’S daughter…!”
Crescent’s eyes flared furiously... She spun, slamming an elbow into Twosa’s face. The burned Fae shrieked and stumbled back. Her expression turned to agony, as the activity made her insides shift ominously…

“...A-Ah… Miri… NO…! Just a moment longer… NNHHH!”

She nearly fell to her knees, but braced herself just in time for Crescent’s scythe to hit her crossed blades…

“Pan… Was someone… I LOVED…”

“H-He didn’t… LOVE YOU BACK… He couldn’t have… N-Not a monster like YOU…”

Crescent screeched in fury and reared her scythe up before swinging it hard enough to slice one of the crates clean in two. Twosa just barely managed to dance out of the way…

“Do you think everything he did for me was fake…!?” Crescent snarled, swiping again. Though she wasn’t close enough to hit Twosa, the broad swing prevented the waifish Fairy from advancing… Crescent slowly stepped forward, swinging again and again, slowly beginning to back the panicking Twosa into a corner…

“Do you think everything he FELT for me was fake?! Do you think he was as FAKE as you ARE?!”

She swiped again and again, until Twosa was shoved up against a wall with no where to go. She could dive forward, perhaps even put her blades into Crescent’s chest… But she would die instantly afterwards, and she wasn’t even sure she could make it that far before the stronger Huntress overpowered her…

“He loved me, Twosa… He LOVED me… Do you even know what that means…!?”

Crescent loomed over the smaller Fairy. Twosa slowly slid to a sit, knees apart. The cornered Fairy cringed and arched as her baby slipped lower, forced forward by her muscles clenching, and gravity’s pull. Her lips stretched and the head of her child peeked into the world…

Crescent didn’t seem to care. She was so furiously locked on the twisted, burnt face of someone she had long ago set aside. But obsession only needs one partner, as was damningly clear…

“...You don’t, do you? You don’t know how much you hurt us… How much you hurt HIM…”

“H-Hah… HAH! Crescent… Crescent please, I’m g-giving birth…”

The blade was firmly set against Twosa’s throat…

“Do you think I can’t SEE that, Twosa?! Do you think… It will save you, at this point? You took my mate… You wanted to take my daughter. I turned and walked away the night Pan died instead of following my instinct to hunt you and GUT you…”

Twosa squealed sharply in fear and agony as her baby slipped just a bit further…

“Please Crescent… PLEASE… PLEASE!!!”

Crescent’s eyes flashed… She pulled back briefly, the blade lifted as if for a killing blow… Twosa lifted her gaze in pleading desperation…

Her mad eyes were only confused and terrified now… Pan… Crescent… They were fading away… At the moment, she could see only Mirisa’s shining face… And Shuffle’s piteous stare of disappointment…

Crescent’s arm trembled with fury... She took in a sharp breath…

“...No… NO. It’s monsters like you that killed Pan… I might be a demon… But you… You don’t DESERVE this baby…”

“W-What?!” Screamed Twosa, who threw up her hands in desperation. The baby’s head was making its way out further and further from her trembling thighs. It would be especially dangerous to stop pushing now…

“...Twosa… What you did… I will NEVER forget…”

The blade came down, almost faster than the eye could see… Twosa’s screech of desperation was cut off abruptly… And the tower went silent as a grave...
Shuffle had remained on the floor of her workshop for nearly an entire day straight...

It was only hunger that compelled her to stand, proving she at least had that much will to live inside her. She went to the kitchen and took some of her supplies haphazardly. After all, they were abundant now that she was alone… She’d stocked for two adults and a newborn, and now…

She ate a bland meal in silence. After that, she set herself down on her bed and went to sleep…

Some part of her desperately clung to the hope that Twosa would return… She’d set aside all this foolishness, come back with tears in her eyes, and beg to be cuddled…

She was working in the yard one day… She was busily cutting back weeds… Had to keep everything clean and ready for when Twosa arrived once more… It was all so well tended that there was nothing to do any more...

Shuffle dropped her tool and paced… Everything felt wrong… And there was no longer anyone to hold her and make it better…

...right?

“Shuffle…!”

Shuffle spun, and her eyes widened…

Twosa emerged from the treeline… She looked exhausted, but… She clutched a bundle to her chest, and ran up to leap into Shuffle’s arms…

“Shuffle… oh Shuffle! You were right… I was such a fool, wasn’t I? Hah… Chasing after hate like that… When I have someone to love me right here…!”

Shuffle was stunned… She tripped over her words, stammering and attempting to say anything in return… But in the end, she merely clutched her wife tighter and let the tears welling under her eyes speak for her…

“...I thought… I thought you were dead… I thought…”

“I might have been… But no… I’m safe. I’m safe and here with little Mirisa… We can be a family, Shuffle… just like we should have been all along…”

Shuffle sniffled and looked down at Twosa’s serene face. She couldn’t remember feeling this much joy… She turned and carried her mate back into the hut…

“We’ll raise her here…” Shuffle said, in a voice of hushed excitement… “I’ll teach her to smith… You, her, and all her siblings… Hah, we’ll have so many that maybe we really will make a new village… Do you see, Twosa? Do you see… This is what you threw away when you left…”

“Well I’m here now, aren’t I? And I never want to leave again… All I want is to spend my days here, being a mama over and over again…!”

Shuffle’s wide grin…

...slowly faded…

She blinked softly and set Twosa carefully on the bed… She stared down at the female, as if suddenly realizing she had a second head where she shouldn’t…

“...Twosa? Where are your burn scars…?”

Twosa tilted her head… Her smile didn’t fade… Shuffle waited for an answer… But the silence grew deafening…

The sun was covered by clouds outside… It grew darker… Darker…

“Twosa. Why…”

“Shuffle… You haven’t held little Mirisa…!”

Twosa lifted her bundle. Shuffle took a step back…

“...no, dammit… No… NO…”

The cloth over the baby’s face fell away… Shuffle’s heart went into her throat at the sight…

She awoke with a scream… Then she swung her fist hard enough to smash a hole in the wall beside her…

She panted sharply, like she had just run a marathon. She gripped her head and screamed again… A much more primal howl of fury and rage and sorrow…

...no one answered back.

She was alone…

When next she entered her workshop, Shuffle couldn’t focus on anything precise… She wiled away her day refining ore into useable bars… It was rote work, mindless and usually allowing for the imagination to wander to more enjoyable things…

...but in the soft clattering of the forge, Shuffle’s eyes remained fixed. She didn’t let her thoughts do anything but focus on the task at hand again and again…

When night fell, she ate and went back to bed.

When she awoke, she was still alone.

She stood up and repeated the routine…
Weeks passed.

The hut had fallen to some disrepair by now. Shuffle saw no reason to maintain it. Soon she’d just move into her workshop entirely… Live in a cave, away from the sun and the noisome greenery...

...but the bed was too big to fit down the tunnel. The comfy thing had been sized for two…

She lost track of time. She rarely went into town to sell some of the overstock of metal bars she’d made, just to get a little more food…

...but she forgot why she even bothered. If she had stopped to think about it, she would have seen that she was still alive purely because putting a blade to one’s own throat seemed cowardly…

So she didn’t let herself stop to think. Always something else to do. Always keep busy, to stave off the quiet… The loneliness...

She was splitting logs in her yard one day. The grass was overgrown, the fence had fallen nearly entirely to pieces from wild Pokemon and weather. Shuffle paid it no attention, and instead just cut more wood for the fireplace…

She barely registered the soft rustling in the trees that indicated a visitor had come…

“...Fae Shuffle.”

The Blacksmith sunk her axe into the stump she was using and wiped her brow with a dusty arm. She turned to look…

Floating there in front of her was a Mismagius, though unlike any that Shuffle had seen before. She wore a tight scarf around the lower half of her face, making her seem even more mysterious. From her dress hung a myriad of pouches, with a belt of yet more was fastened around her subtly swollen belly…

She held a bundle in one tassel preciously. Shuffle would have assumed it was her baby, but… Something told her otherwise, and she wasn’t sure why…

“...Yes?” she asked, her voice having returned to its flat, even tone, lacking all hints of merriness that it once might have had, however briefly...

“My condolences. I come from a vale off to the sunset’s way…”

Shuffle looked confused for a moment before she realized…

“Ah. West. Off towards where… Crescent lives, if I had to guess?”

“...Yes, miss.” the Witch nodded, though she seemed hesitant all of a sudden. Shuffle shook her head and picked up her axe again to go back to her wood chopping…

“If you’re here to tell me Twosa is dead, don’t bother. I know. The fool walked off with a vendetta and two skinning knives. She wasn’t going to get far…”

“Yes… I… I am here to tell you that. But I am a Witch. I give more than that when it is due to the dead…”

Shuffle brought the axe down a bit harder than she needed to. She tried to ignore the well-wishing of some strange fanatic. She didn’t care what dark god the Ghost worshipped, or what offerings of apology she was being given… None of it would bring things back to the way they were now…

“...She seemed a bit ill. But in the end, she begged for her life, wanting to be with you and her child… In a moment of hazy clarity, she seemed to see her mistake, and…”

“Is any of this supposed to be helping me…?” asked Shuffle, as she chopped another log with enough force to make the pieces fling off to either side…

“I know she had problems.” CHOP…

“I know she was ILL…” CHOP…

“I tried to SAVE her from herself… And instead… I just…” 

She paused… Then she swung the axe hard enough to split the stump below, and shatter the metal head of her tool. She flung the haft away and fell to a sit in the grass, covering her face with her hands...
“I… I can’t have done much more. Except maybe take back what I said to her. I’m trying not to blame myself, or become obsessed like SHE did… But…”

She lifted her head to look into the peaceful treeline. She could almost hear her mate laughing in the breeze…

A tassel set very gently on her shoulder. She turned tiredly to look, and was surprised to see the Ghost’s gaze seemed sympathetic…

“...Yes… I… I know it was likely a difficult task… It’s why I come here. This tragedy shouldn’t define a certain destiny to despair... So… I try to make amends, at the behest of greater forces…”

Before Shuffle could say anything to protest, the Mismagius produced a glimmering pink diamond from one of her pouches. Shuffle blinked, and reached up to take it as it was offered…

“...your mate’s remains… The last bits of her tattered essence. My master took them and placed them into this form. Within, perhaps she is in pain or… Perhaps she is finally at peace. But either way, I feel she would be happier in your presence…”

Shuffle turned it over a couple times… She stared at it quietly, and then settled it against her chest…

...for some reason, it soothed some of the deeper aches in her heart… She wasn’t a Fairy that was greedy, or desperate for beauty… Yet this… This little gem was beautiful in ways she could not quite describe…

“...Is that all?” Shuffle asked, her voice a bit more firm. The Witch smiled softly, and then extended the bundle wordlessly to Shuffle…

Shuffle took the baby without a thought. She gently pressed the swaddling back from her face…

...to realize, with shock, that it was a Tinka-tot… A baby…

...not simply any baby either. The features were… too familiar to be mistaken…

“...Mirisa…???”
The baby squirmed gently and rubbed her eyes, then nuzzled up to Shuffle’s chest and went back to sleep…

“...she managed, just before she died, to give her life... It was only right that she be returned to her family to live it happily…”

Shuffle’s mouth hung open in surprise. She looked up at the Ghost, but she had turned to begin floating away…

“...wait… Who are you? What is this…? Why would you…”

“...No mother should be without their child. And no child should grow up without a mother. These are the tenants I live by…”

The Mismagius looked back and smiled gently…

“...besides. Crescent insisted on it. Farewell, Shuffle. Take good care of her.”

And with that, she disappeared back down the trail, leaving Shuffle to stand there in the silent ambience of her isolated home… She looked down at the form of her daughter, resting in her arm…

For a few long moments… The gentle peace around her was unbroken… And then;

“...I… I should repair this fence…” she muttered… The Fae turned to retrieve her tools from within her workshop.

She passed by the empty bed as she did. She paused…

...then she set Mirisa very gently in the crib she’d made for her. The baby turned over and returned to sleep… Shuffle quickly moved into the workshop...

“...I’m not raising our daughter alone… At the very least…”

She set the gemstone on her workbench…

“...she’ll always have you at her side, Twosa...”
Shuffle sighed, and crouched to search her supplies. She eventually produced a twisted hunk of half melted metal, and set it on the workbench next to the gemstone...

...it was Twosa’s scythe. Shuffle had intended to repair it and offer it to her mate… Instead, it would be passed to her daughter…

Shuffle took her hammer in hand and stared down at the thing she’d made so long ago, so twisted and broken…

...perhaps she wasn’t able to save the waifish Fae… But…

“...I’ll make it a weapon fit for a queen…”

The workshop was once again filled with the sound of tools ringing against metal. Mirisa’s little head turned, and lifted just a little…

...then, as she would many more times in her life, she set her head back down and fell into a peaceful slumber once more, lulled by the rhythmic ringing echo from her mother’s workshop…

“Ahuhuhuhuhuhuuuuuuuuh~ So that’s the last part I didn’t get to see, eh?!”

Velvet flitted back and forth in excitement. The dusty old journal she’d passed to Crescent revealed much… But the Huntress already had known most of it…

Velvet fluttered behind her, peering at the writing she’d scrawled so long ago when she was little more than a captive broodmother…

“...Well… Tell me! Why DID you return Mirisa…?”

Crescent closed the journal, but she didn’t return it. She tucked it softly under an arm… Velvet was a little disappointed she wouldn’t get to add more to it, but she let her fellow Fairy type keep it. It seemed more appropriate in her arms anyway…

...but still, her excited curiosity wouldn’t let up…

She fluttered around to Crescent’s front, putting on her cutest and most eager face…

“Tell me? Pleeeease? It’s like the ending to the story I didn’t know I wanted! Wouldn’t most of the time, you just leave her to the Ghosts...~?”

Crescent turned her head away to avoid Velvet’s look. After all, even she wasn’t entirely certain if she WOULD have done the kindness of sending Mirisa back… If it weren’t for the Witch who still lived in the tower…

In that dark moment, Twosa had managed to do what no one thought she could…

...Mirisa lay on the cold tile, whimpering for comfort… In the haunted place she’d been born into, such cries rarely went unanswered for long…

Crescent knew who it was now… but back then it had been her first meeting… A tiny, ghostly creature… Even half hidden in the shadows, her presence was immense, and her pregnancy couldn’t be hidden…

Wordlessly, she had taken Mirisa up in a soft arm. She cooed softly to her, in gentle tones that soothed even Crescent… It reminded her of being cuddled up to mother she never had...
Those deep, orange eyes locked on Crescent again… Around her, the Witches emerged from their hiding places, showing they had been watching all along…

“...m-mama…”

Oliva was brought forward by one of the Ghost types. Crescent had snatched her up, and quickly held her close to comfort her…

With that, the spirits had turned to leave… But something about their leader’s eerie gaze felt almost… disappointed.

...not for the corpse that lay, seemingly forgotten, in the corner… but for the whimpering Tinkatink in her arms, nearly abandoned, just for being born from an ‘enemy’...

Crescent looked down at Olivia… The young Grass Pokemon stared back with concern...

...like her papa, her eyes were innocent, and seemingly wanted everyone to be okay… Even Twosa’s distress had caused the little baby to hesitate…

“...Wait.”

The Ghosts stopped moving. Their leader turned to look behind, one of her broad sleeves draped on her middle…

...Crescent sighed at the memory and shook her head. She turned to leave…

“Y-You’re not gonna tell me… Crescent…?!”

Crescent got the doorway and paused. She rubbed a thumb on the journal she held…

“...it’s what Pan would have wanted…” she muttered. Velvet’s antennae twitched, as Crescent left the workshop and disappeared down the hallway.

“...Hm~ Ahuhuh… Ah well~”

She fluttered up and idly out of the open window, into the vast greenery that was her freedom, now that her eyes shimmered with starry power...