Velitus had hardly even landed on the ground before somehow he found himself on his feet again, an implausible display of agility that he'd have never managed in the real world.

There were, perhaps, dozens of arguments that could have been made for one side or the other. In reality, Akari had been wild before he'd befriended her, and she could easily survive out in the wild on her own again without him. And equally, Pokemon were far stronger than humans, and even the Unfezant might not have been able to kill her in a single blow, and they both might have had the chance to escape so long as he left Akari to defend herself.

But fundamentally, none of that mattered.

The boy sat, crouched, looking into the bush, a few pieces of berry he'd scrounged from the Clan's detritus held out in his hands. "These are for you."

A thin line of silk whipped out and snatched one of the pieces, retreating with its prize back into the bush. The boy managed to avoid jumping at the sudden movement.

The first couple of days the Pokemon in the bush had refused to take the food from his hand directly, and would only snag it with a silk thread once he put it down. This was a definite improvement.

The bush rustled, and a little yellow head peered curiously through the leaves at him. The boy beamed. "Hello, there!"

A curious Growlithe padded closer, snuffling at the bush and drooling a little. The boy reached out and pushed its snout away. "No, this isn't your dinner. Here, have this instead." It licked the offered berry piece out of his hand, but gave something of a disappointed look to the bush before obeying him and padding away.

The boy looked back to the bush to see the yellow head had vanished again. "It's okay, he's gone now. You don't need to worry."

"I'll protect you."

Somehow Velitus was between Akari and the Unfezant without actually crossing the space between, in the strange way of dreams. "GET AWAY!" he yelled at her - and then the yell became a scream as the Unfezant's claws sank into him instead of the Swadloon, the powerful Flying-type lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing as it arced back into the air from its swoop before dropping him, and Akari was suddenly nowhere to be seen -

And then he was awake, in the clearing by the stone circle, jolting upright, crying.