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The night was dark as pitch, nighttime clouds blotting out the sky's otherwise brilliantly sparkling attire, aided by the shroud of dense evergreens. While it made the travel-weary sableye all the more nervous in this unknown territory, longing for the familiarity of stone underfoot, she couldn't help but recognize that the suffocating darkness was still within her domain; not everyone could find their way under such a blind hood so effortlessly. This didn't release her from her feeling that, just maybe, she had made some irreversibly daft decision to wander out here purely on the grounds of nagging curiosity.

It was only perhaps an hour prior that she had glanced into the sky between the bars of a storm drain, waiting for the hustle-and-bustle of street activity to cease. A bright but pinpoint-small twinkle sparkled against the haze of a dim sky. The sableye's crystalline gaze widened in surprise, but before she could clamber up out of the man-made hole, the scuffle of boots reached her ears. Reluctantly, she sank deeper in the darkness of her walls, though the movement was purely reactionary -- there was no visible moon to illuminate her beneath the humans' feet.

Their goal was the nearby inn -- a couple of wayfarers like herself, hmm? -- which ended up being close to her current location. If she had the foresight, she could have prevented being in such close proximity to one of the most active places on the darker half of the day. Alas, she had to play the waiting game as the two men loitered before the door, finishing a conversation they had started before entering the building.

"No way, out in the woods? These un's right here?" the first man asked of the second, turning to jab in the direction of the sableye's next destination. Her interest was piqued at the indication as she neared the surface, trying to figure out what they were talking about.

The second laughed, the sound coming just short of mocking but more amused than anything, "Yeah, that's what I said. He came home crying about it and everything. I mean, why would something like that be in there anyway? S'mostly just grass and... what, birds in there. Probably saw something like that instead and got spooked."

The first snorted an unconvincingly mild laugh, "Yeah, but whaddya gonna do? Kids'll be kids. Shadow's gonna play tricks on 'em; they can see anything, even flaming skulls, or whatever."

The young sableye bristled, annoyed with the conversation already. Oh well, it was nothing she should worry about; she had heard plenty of stories of this so-called "haunted forest" that she paid it little heed anymore. She snuck out of the drain, the bolts that should have held the grate steadfast long since rusted and crumbled. Even if the rumors those two men spouted turned out to be true, she could handle it. The darkness did tend to give others the willies, but she would have laughed at the naïveté. She was practically invincible!

At least, that's what she had believed that hour earlier. On her search for the spot where she had seen the sky inexplicably sparkle under a blanket of clouds, where no star should have shone, she found that she had been gradually losing her confidence without realizing it. Before she knew it, she reverted to hiding where the shadows would have been darkest had the moon not been playing its cruel game of hide-and-seek. She clung to the bark of tree to nearest tree, creeping closer and closer to the place she was sure it was. She wasn't sure what she would find -- if anything -- nor if it would even be worth the trip, but her stubborn nature wasn't going to give up. She had come so far already!

It wasn't until she was practically on top of the area that she realized that she had reached her personal finish line. She stopped abruptly, frozen in place despite her urge to flee back into the cradle of darkness. It didn't make a lick of sense, and she soon found herself wondering if her own mind decided to play tricks on her just as easily as it had that human child, running home crying at a bizarre sight in the shadows of the night.

Such a thought made her swallow instinct, and pushing logistics to the back of her mind in favor of stubborn vanity, she inched closer to the twinkling light of the fallen star, claw over claw. It couldn't have come from space in this condition; the area was still so pristine! What was going on..?

Her whole body violently twitched, and the sableye realized she had passed out. How long had she been asleep? When did she fall asleep?

She sat bold-upright, quickly assessing her current situation. She was still in the forest clearing that she was aiming for, and it still appeared to be dark out. Judging from the purpling of the sky, it was nearing sun-up. She needed to find a dark place in town before the blazing star in the sky decided to show itself, or she might as well stay in this strange outcropping of trees until the sun completed its trek once more. But where did that strange star go? It would have been nice to take it with her, as a bit of a souvenir... as well as a good piece of boasting material.

Reaching out to dig through the bush she had last seen it in, her muscles suddenly locked. Extending into the shrub were two long, unfamiliar limbs... but she had recognized the claws, the specific shade of violet. Inhaling sharply with a pale shriek, she flung herself backward, shaking in terror. What was going on, what was going on, this didn't make sense! Was this what the villagers meant by the place being haunted? Would she go back to normal if she fled the confines of the trees? It was her best bet, and her only solution at the moment...

As she turned around she was struck by a secondary grip of panic, her original source of anxiety, as a grinning, gaseous ball of flames took notice of her. It giggled and stuck its tongue out, finding this strange being quite a peculiar sight. Ghosts, ghosts, there really are ghosts in here! She screamed at the sight of the apparition, and once she regained mobility of her appendages again, she bolted as fast as she could scramble on the four long human limbs.

The ghastly turned to watch her leave, befuddled as well as disappointed. Never had he seen any pokémon -- or half-pokémon, for that matter -- run from another who was just short of family. How was a ghost afraid of another ghost?

The smell of hearth smoke was the first thing that broke through to the girl's scrambling mind, signaling how close she was to nearing town. She wheezed, hands and feet battered and bruised; luckily she still retained some of her tougher sableye skin, so nothing broke through past the layers. The sun was already climbing up over the horizon, and she knew that she had missed her opportunity to sneak back into town undetected. She shot a glare skyward, ruing that the clouds had not stuck around long enough to aid her return, allowing sunlight's safe and unfiltered passage. It couldn't have stuck around just a little longer?

Sighing in defeat, she fell onto her backside, permitting herself to take a much-deserved rest. She hadn't noticed, but she had been aching all over. In fact, once she was lying fully on the grass, it seemed to hurt that much more. What was that all about?

Eyes sparkling at the discovery, she gently reached behind herself to pinch at the end of a familiar-looking insect wing. How did she... she felt that! It was... her's? These wings? She brushed back the insistent ruby locks, and it was at that moment that she realized that she also recognized the color. But this was impossible... how could something like this happen?

She fluttered the gossamer wings, snickering at how they tickled her bare back. They felt so strange! But it was an effort she had little energy for anymore, and she found herself back on the grass, leaning on her side. Tonight... she would sneak back into town tonight. For now, she felt safer at the edge of the haunted forest, between but out of reach of both the ghosts of the inner forest and the superstitious humans within the nearby civilization.

"You see that..? Kid must be homeless..."

The sableye-turned-hybrid human winced inwardly at the conversation, huddling closer under the tarp she borrowed from a cart that was all but abandoned. Well... it was abandoned long enough, at least. She could understand the language that was resonating about her, but she hadn't yet gotten ahold of speech herself. So many tonal and inflection variations, what a foreign concept... one that she would have to get used to if she were to survive. Her spined ears pulled back and slightly outward, holding the fabric around her head so as not to unmask her. She didn't want to become some lab rat... she just wanted to observe how the regular populace worked, get her bearings. Then, she would move on and begin anew. Everyone here would know her as the "homeless girl," anyway. Perhaps it was best to leave them with such an impression.

"Poor dear. You know what? I'm going to go and get her some soup. Child must be starved. Keep an eye on her." An older woman retreated from the streets and into a nearby cafe while a man stayed behind, pretending that he wasn't keeping his eye on her. The child smirked; it was so obvious, but the sound of some nourishment was enough to hold her. As long as she could keep it down, any kind of sustenance was good enough for her, even though they never brought her the minerals she truly craved.

He kicked at the ground, turning every so often as he waited for his wife to return. The streets were quieter at this time of day, and she was able to pick up a couple of dropped phrases every now and then, "...always sticks to the shade... in the light, people might see her... might help..."

They might help more, yes, but it'd make it that much harder to hide who I am, she countered to herself. She was drawing enough attention where she was at; it might be best to move elsewhere down the street after this. And later on, learn to use these wings better. It might even help her escape trouble, if it were persistent enough to tail her. A blessing had come with the curse, and she was grateful for that. In time, she was hoping to embrace the whole package as more of a gift, but the abruptness without warning was currently too much for her to handle. Her world was turned topsy-turvy in a single evening.

Scooting her feet closer to her body, tightening her human-ball, she smiled weakly at another thought. While she liked the sound of it, the meaning of the word held higher definition for the child. Perhaps she could assimilate it closer in relation to her, make it a part of her being, her own... "Shade."