For a moment, I felt weightless. The land stretched endlessly far below and in that brief, infinite moment, I was entirely free, soaring through the sky.

Sadly, I was lacking those all-important appendages when it came to that particular freedom, so gravity quickly reminded me that it had a say in everything and in this case, it was dragging me down.

With a sudden tug, the rope dug into my side, altering my trajectory and I instinctively stretched out one arm, as the other protected my head. All breath was forced from me, as I smacked into the mountain, burning pain spreading through my body as stones ripped into my flesh. The rope was still holding me, constricting my body as I was gasping for breath, the pain choking me just as much as the rope.

“Shit, are you alright?” Wera cursed and I felt a few smaller rocks striking me and heard her close in.

“They might be coming,” I managed to gasp out, trying to get my body to listen to me, to do anything but flop about like a landed fish.

“Donna, I need you,” Wera called out, the red light managing to pierce through my closed eyes. I managed to push myself halfway up, my whole body protesting in pain and slid down the mountain a little before Wera stopped my descent with the rope, sending more lances of pain through me.

“I’ve got you,” she assured me, dragging me onto Donna’s back and forcing a gasping shriek of pain from my lungs. If I had more air, I’d probably have managed a proper scream, but I just couldn’t breathe.

“Go, Donna,” Wera ordered and through semi-closed eyes, I could see the ground slide past me, one of my legs dragging against the ground, as Donna somehow managed to carry me down the mountain, while Wera held onto her, probably moving on her own. One particular nasty shock ran through Donna, violently tossing me and for a moment, the pain was too much, causing stars to shine in the blackness behind my closed eyes.

“I’ve got you,” Wera promised again, gently shifting my body. More pain jolted me back into awareness and I let out a moan of pain, my face wet with tears. Every breath I took caused a stinging pain to shoot out from my ribs to the point that I had to force myself to breathe.

I managed to blink open my eyes, the gentle light of the setting sun turning the heaven above into a spectacle of orange fire and for a moment, I simply stayed like that, unwilling to take more pain. But I couldn’t just remain like I was, half leaning on Wera, half lying on Donna, I had to get myself moving. My mission was to protect Wera and I would keep doing so, even if I was injured.

With a gasp of pain, I managed to push myself into a somewhat upright position, to the point that I could take stock of the situation. Wera and Donna had somehow managed to get us down the slope without additional injuries, to the point that the opening we had used was merely a blurry shape far above.

I somehow managed to take a glance at my arm, blood running down both of them from countless cuts, the flesh looking quite similar to what one would expect after applying a cheese grater and my left leg was in a similar state. Similarly, the left side of my torso was sending out waves of pure agony, making me think it was a single bruise, stretching from my ankle to my neck. Out of curiosity, I tried wiggling my toes and had to adjust my assessment, the pain made me think even my toes were bruised.

“Help me,” I asked Wera, letting out a hiss of pain when I tried to pull myself up. I was pretty sure no major bones were broken, but I wasn’t certain.

“No,” she refused, her hands gently, but very firmly, shifting my position so my back was resting against Donna’s facial shield and my legs were stretched out.

“Donna, lower your head if you can,” she asked, her voice careful but confident and I felt my breathing ease a little as the support behind me reclined and I was more stretched out.

Wera never gave me a chance to refuse and with the pain I was in I couldn’t force the issue. Instead, I simply lay on Donna, letting her carry me, even as I tried to remain vigilant, just in case some Pokémon was looking for trouble. From the looks of it, the Bronzor and Bronzong didn’t leave the complex we had discovered, so I only had to worry about the Pokémon outside, most of which had already challenged me and lost.

We may have been lucky but we managed to get back to the site we had used to camp and, again, Wera never gave me a chance. She simply moved me onto the mat we used for sleeping and stripped off my clothes, a small med-kit in hand. I felt myself blush from her actions, especially when she simply cut off my shirt, but there was nothing that could be done to salvage it. She barely needed to cut, my previous fall had ripped some major holes into it, leaving it in tatters.

“I look a mess,” I joked, trying to make light of the pain. Even now, every breath was agony and while most of the bleeding had stopped, my whole body felt as if I was on fire.

“You do,” she agreed, choking back a sob, “This’ll hurt,” she warned me, pulling out a bottle of disinfectant.

And by Arceus, she was right, it did hurt. If not for my laboured breathing, I would have let out a scream loud enough to be heard in Twinleaf Town, but with my torso as it was, I merely managed to whimper in pain. There was little Wera could do to make the procedure less painful and yet, it had to be done. Her work was meticulous but also slow, the sting of the disinfectant turning into a spreading burn. As she worked, my entire left side became an ocean of fire and I sort of floated on the ocean, my mind drifting in an attempt to escape the pain.

“I’m done,” Wera’s voice finally woke me from my stupor and when I looked up, I noticed her already bustling about the camp, preparing some food. It took some help, but I managed to get some of it into me and soon after, the exhaustion and pain proved too much for me, sending me into a deep slumber. Or maybe, Wera mixed some pain medication into my food, I wasn’t certain.

Either way, when my eyes opened back up, it was already a new day, something I was feeling grateful for. We had been lucky and nothing had tried to attack us during the night, or we might have been in trouble. With how deep I had been sleeping, a Golem could have rolled through our camp and I may have slept through it. Realising that a Golem might actually have rolled through our camp, I briefly glimpsed around, just to make sure it hadn’t.

When I spotted nothing that indicated such, I calmed down a little and began to worry about our trip back. And, in a small corner of my mind, about the task, did getting injured mean I had failed or did it mean I had successfully prevented Wera from getting injured? Before my mind could delve into those questions and the questions that logically followed from them, about responsibility and such, I pushed them away. It was useless to worry and there were bigger things to handle. Namely, getting back to town.

Walking wasn’t fun but the real pain came when a Geodude started moving nearby, looking quite interested in barring our path. There was no way to even try outrunning, so my immediate move was to send out Vio.

She appeared in a flash of red light and, as always, took a glance at me before looking for the threat. Only today, she didn’t just glance at me, her gaze was fixated on me for a long second before she turned towards the Geodude. Before I could even give her any orders, her horns were shrouded in the hot-pink energy of the fairy-type and her voice rang out in a gentle, almost soothing song. The Geodude never had a chance to react before the energy imbued in that voice started to mess with its mind. Seeing her actions, I wasn’t sure what she was planning and simply opted to watch as she continued to sing.

When Vio’s horns began to emit an additional glow, violet psychic energy shrouding them, and transmitting to the Geodude, I began to worry that she was overdoing it. We had used such combination moves in the past and I knew they were arduous.

“Just knock it out,” I ordered Vio, not wanting her to overexert herself but for the first time, Vio didn’t listen, instead she simply ignored me. The Geodude, obviously not in its right mind, started to float forward, enthralled by Vio’s voice, and the two of them came towards me. For a moment, I was worried but looking at Vio, some of my worries dispersed and I decided to trust her. Next to me, Wera had tugged on my clothes, but when I didn’t budge, she didn’t try to force the issue.

Once Vio stood next to me, she tugged on my arm, getting me to lower myself a little, pain flaring in my torso from the movement. I felt my face twist in agony and Vio flinched back, as if struck. She instantly pirouetted around, looking at the Geodude and suddenly, the glow around her horns vanished, instead her fingers started to shine with intense pink light, far stronger than before. The Geodude started to twitch as Vio kissed her glowing fingertips and pressed them to its face, the Draining Kiss strong enough to knock the weakened Geodude for a loop but for once, Vio didn’t bring her fingers back to her lips, instead, she turned back to me and pressed the still-glowing fingers to mind.

And suddenly, the world lit up in colours I had never tasted before.