Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was several more hours before they finally reached the base of the cliffs that Kyrie had referred to, and they set up the tents for the night. After about a week of traveling, they were getting pretty good at setting up quickly and efficiently, and, as usual, while others worked on getting the tents ready, Lancaeriel set about preparing dinner while Kyrie scouted around to make sure that they were indeed alone.

Once things were more or less ready, Andarien tapped Miyuki on the shoulder.

"Hey," he greeted her, "do you want to come with me to ask about those crystals now?"

Eon was nosing the baby Eevees, but his ears perked up a bit when he heard Andarien ask Miyuki about the crystals. After all, he had been there too.

Andarien smiled and continued on his way to where Shiro and Kaito were sitting, and Eon, also curious, followed his master. One of the baby Eevees followed after Eon, bounding to keep up with his long-legged sire.

Shiro had pulled his tablet and his solar charger out of his bag and was looking at them both in frustration.

"I'm going to have to find a way to keep this in the sun while we're traveling," he was muttering to himself as Andarien and Miyuki approached. "Stupid ..."

"I'll figure something out," Shiro sighed, putting the items on the ground. "I'll have to if I want to use this thing anymore."

He glared at the tablet as if it were all its fault.

Then he looked up at his cousins. "Anyways, you didn't come over here to talk about that. What's up?"

"Oh, those," Shiro smiled, his irritation dissipating immediately. "Yeah, I've found out quite a bit about them, actually."

He turned and reached into his bag again and pulled out one of the crystals, this one about as long as his hand, twice as thick and half as wide. "They're like the crystals in Gaia, and can probably be used pretty much the same way."

Suddenly he blinked, and then he stared at the crystal, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"That might be the answer," he murmured softly, stroking the crystal slowly.

Andarien frowned at his cousin. "What?" he asked him. "I don't know what crystals in Gaia are used for, I was still a kid when we were there!"

Shiro grinned widely, his red eyes gleaming in the firelight.

"I'll keep it simple," he replied. His smile widened. "Electricity. These crystals, they collect energy from the sun and become electrically charged! Here, I'll show you."

He put the crystal down in his lap and picked up his solar charger.

"I hope there's ... yes, there's a bit of charge," he grinned. He started fiddling with the charger and the crystal, and Andarien watched him curiously.

He wasn't the only curious one, either: Eon and the Eevee that had followed him were both eying the items with interest. The Eevee was small enough that no one was paying attention to it, and suddenly there was a snap of electricity and a yelp from the Eevee.

"Careful!" Shiro cried, pulling the crystal and the charger away from it.

The Eevee shrank back from Shiro and shuddered violently - and then suddenly, there was a flash of light. The Eevee was gone - and in its place was a shining golden creature. Its build was similar to Eon, but smaller and without the tail, and all around it electricity sparked and crackled.

Andarien blinked and stared at it. "What ..."

Shiro's eyes grew wide and he grinned at the creature. "Jolteon," he murmured. "The lightning evolution of Eevee."

Shiro nodded slowly, his eyes on the newly evolved pokemon. "Eevees are genetically unstable, so it doesn't take much for them to evolve," he explained. Eon and Ai only evolved into Umbreon and Espeon because of the collars you got for them. There are supposed to be special stones to help Eevees evolve into other types of their evolutions, and I admit, I had been a bit curious as to what would happen to the babies ... but it seems that the stones aren't quite necessary."

Andarien knelt next to the Jolteon and held out one hand to it. The Pokemon reached forward and tentatively sniffed at Andarien's hand, then gave it a bit of a lick.

Shiro thought about that for a moment, and a worried expression crossed his face.

"Maybe we should let it discharge first," he suggested softly.

"Discharge?" Andarien repeated, glancing up at his cousin.

Shiro nodded. "Let it get rid of its excess electricity. Like ... into the crystal or something." His red eyes gleamed. "Maybe then I can find a way to harness the energy and use it to charge my tablet. The solar charger will never work while we're in the forest."

Andarien looked back at the Jolteon. "What do you think, buddy?" he asked it. "Do you know how to do that?"

The Jolteon blinked up at Andarien and blinked its small black eyes, staring as if waiting for Andarien to say something in particular.

Andarien fidgeted uncomfortably. "Uh ... Shiro ... is there something I should be telling it to do?" he asked slowly.