(Leo POV)
By the third morning in the Wild Lands, Leo had learned one important lesson. The region did not believe in consistency.
The first day had been dominated by grasslands and streams, while the second shifted between dry hills, charged forests, and stretches of earth so rich with Ground-type energy that even Princess had complained about the taste of the air.
Now, on the third morning, mist covered the land. It rolled low across the ground in pale sheets, hiding roots, rocks, and the occasional curious Pokémon beneath a blanket of white.
Leo stood at the edge of their temporary camp and stared into it. "I don't trust that."
Princess stood beside him and gave a short, agreeing cry. "Snivy."
"Exactly."
Saphira floated upside down nearby and gave an innocent, "Mew."
Leo glanced at her. "No, you don't count. You trust everything until it explodes."
Saphira rotated upright and protested again. "Mew."
"Yesterday's tree."
Saphira immediately looked away while Princess laughed quietly beside him.
A few steps behind them, Bertha crouched beside a broad patch of disturbed soil. She had been studying it for several minutes while Claire stood nearby with her arms folded.
Cynthia remained farther back, checking the surrounding ridgeline. Leo eventually turned toward Bertha and asked, "Anything?"
Bertha did not answer immediately. Instead, she pressed two fingers into the soil and rubbed the dirt between them before a small smile appeared.
"They passed through here," she said.
Claire's expression sharpened. "How long ago?"
"Several hours."
Leo's mood immediately worsened.
The trackers.
They had first noticed signs of pursuit during the previous afternoon. Nothing obvious had happened at first, only a disturbed patch of stone, a distant silhouette disappearing behind a ridge, and one Dragon-type cry that had repeated too many times to be coincidence.
By nightfall, nobody had any doubts. At least one of the rival Dragon tribes had sent trackers beyond Dragon Fall, and possibly several.
None of them knew exactly how many. That was the problem.
Cynthia walked over and looked down at the tracks. "They're moving carefully."
Bertha nodded. "Very carefully."
Leo frowned. "So they know we're watching for them?"
"Or they know we aren't alone."
That made him glance around.
The Wild Lands had become steadily more populated the farther they traveled. Normal-types, Grass-types, Ground-types, Flying-types, Bug-types, and increasingly, species Leo hadn't expected to find in the same region all appeared around them.
That variety helped.
It also made tracking more complicated.
Bertha stood and brushed the dirt from her hands. "Fortunately, we're not the only ones who know this land."
Leo looked toward her curiously.
She smiled. "Give me a few minutes." The Sandshrew did not trust them, that much was obvious.
Three of them stood halfway inside a narrow burrow beneath a crooked tree, staring at Bertha with expressions that ranged from suspicious to openly offended.
Bertha didn't seem bothered.
She sat several meters away and spoke in a low, patient voice. Leo couldn't understand most of what passed between them, but he caught the tone, gestures, and occasional sharp cries exchanged between the group.
Princess watched with interest.
Saphira attempted to move closer before one Sandshrew immediately hissed at her. Saphira froze while Leo grabbed her tail and pulled her back.
"Personal space," Leo warned.
"Mew."
"You were absolutely about to poke it."
"Mew."
"You poke everything."
Bertha glanced over her shoulder. "Could you two be quiet?"
Leo pointed at Saphira. "She started it."
Bertha stared at him long enough that Leo wisely decided to stop talking.
A few minutes later, one of the Sandshrew emerged fully from the burrow and began scratching several lines into the dirt.
Bertha leaned closer.
Then another Sandshrew added something.
The third followed.
Leo watched as a crude map slowly began taking shape. It showed hills, a stream, several rock formations, and, most importantly, a thin winding line that seemed to cut beneath the terrain.
Bertha smiled. "There."
Claire stepped closer and studied the markings. "What is it?"
"Old Ground-type paths," Bertha explained. "Not roads exactly. More like natural passages, dried tunnels, migration cuts, and places where the earth collapsed in ways that created hidden routes."
Leo looked over the map. "And they connect?"
"Enough."
Cynthia studied it more carefully. "What about the Dragon trackers?"
Bertha's smile sharpened. "They won't like them."
One of the Sandshrew made a pleased noise.
Bertha nodded. "Exactly."
Leo looked between them. "What did it say?"
Bertha stood and brushed off her clothes. "That Dragons are loud."
Claire laughed. "That sounds accurate." The first path did not look like a path. It looked like a crack in the ground.
Leo stared into it, then at Bertha, then back into it again. "You're serious?"
"Completely."
The opening was narrow, not impossible just highly unpleasant. A steep slope descended between layers of packed earth and stone before disappearing into darkness.
Princess looked down.
Then up at Leo.
"Snivy."
"I agree."
Saphira floated past both of them with an amused "Mew."
Leo sighed. "Of course you're fine with it."
Kitsfrost entered next, while Bertha followed and that settled the matter.
Leo climbed down.
The route turned out to be much larger beneath the surface.
What appeared to be a crack above widened into an old underground channel. The walls were smooth in places and jagged in others, while occasional holes opened toward the surface and allowed thin shafts of daylight to cut through the darkness.
The air smelled heavily of earth.
Ground-type energy saturated everything.
Leo could feel it beneath his feet. Dense, slow, stable. It felt completely different from the constantly shifting elemental currents above.
They traveled through the channel for almost two hours.
At several points, Bertha stopped to speak with local Pokémon. A Diglett colony redirected them away from a collapsed section, while a pair of Drilbur warned them about something large sleeping farther ahead.
Nobody asked what, they simply changed direction. By the time the group returned to the surface, Dragon Fall was even farther behind them.
More importantly, there was no sign of pursuit. Claire smiled as she looked back toward the opening they had emerged from. "I like this route."
Cynthia glanced toward the distant terrain behind them. "They'll eventually realize what we're doing."
"Yes," Bertha said while dusting dirt from her sleeves. "But by then, they'll have to start guessing."
The next two days followed much the same pattern. Travel, hide, move underground. Return to the surface somewhere completely different.
The Wild Lands changed around them constantly. They crossed a narrow valley filled with Rock-types, then moved through a wooded region where Grass and Bug energy overlapped so heavily that vines covered entire cliffs.
Later, they crossed a marsh where Water-types watched them from beneath the surface. After that came a dry canyon filled with Ground-types that seemed to know Bertha by reputation before she even introduced herself.
Leo noticed that.
"You've done this before."
Bertha looked innocent. "Done what?"
"Talked your way through an entire region using Ground-types."
"That sounds very specific."
"It also sounds true."
Bertha smiled. "Maybe."
Claire snorted quietly while Cynthia didn't look surprised in the slightest.
Leo decided not to ask.
The routes worked.
Not perfectly.
But well enough.
Twice, Cynthia spotted distant Dragon-types circling high above the terrain. Once, Claire found claw marks on a stone ridge that were too fresh to ignore.
Another time, Saphira stopped in the middle of a path and stared toward an empty hillside for nearly a full minute.
Nothing appeared.
That worried Leo more than if something had.
Still, the trackers never caught them.
Every time the pursuit seemed close, Bertha found another hidden route. A Rhyhorn herd showed them a path between two ridges, while a Trapinch colony led them through a sandy basin where footprints vanished within minutes.
Several Hippopotas later guided them around a section of land where Dragon-type scent lingered heavily.
By the end of the fourth day, the pursuit had become distant.
Not gone, but distant. Leo liked distant. Distant meant nobody was trying to kill them immediately.
That counted as progress. The change started around midday. Saphira noticed first.
She stopped floating so suddenly that Leo nearly walked into her.
"What?"
"Mew."
She pointed ahead. Leo saw nothing unusual just trees, tall grass, and several rocks. A narrow stream. Princess walked forward.
Then froze while her leaves twitched.
"Snivy?"
Kitsfrost lifted its head.
Bertha stopped.
Cynthia looked around.
Claire frowned.
Then Leo felt it.
Electric-type energy.
Not the scattered charge they had encountered before.
Not a temporary current moving through the Wild Lands.
This was stronger.
Deeper.
Stable.
Leo looked ahead. "That's not normal."
Bertha nodded slowly. "No."
Cynthia's expression sharpened. "This energy isn't shifting."
That was the important part.
Everything in the Wild Lands shifted.
Type Energy flowed.
Gathered.
Separated.
Moved.
Sometimes slowly.
Sometimes overnight.
But this felt rooted.
Like something had anchored it.
They continued forward.
The signs became impossible to ignore.
Small sparks danced across leaves while the stream occasionally flashed with faint blue-white light. Static gathered in Leo's hair as the surrounding Electric Energy steadily increased.
Saphira looked delighted.
Leo pointed at her. "Do not touch anything."
"Mew."
"I mean it."
Princess gave Saphira a warning look.
That somehow worked better.
A few minutes later, they saw the first Electric-type.
A Pichu stood beside a tree root and silently watched them.
Then it ran.
Not away exactly.
Deeper.
Leo followed it with his eyes.
Another shape moved above.
An Emolga.
Then another.
A Pachirisu disappeared behind a nearby trunk.
Claire slowly smiled. "There are a lot of them."
There were.
The deeper they moved, the more appeared.
Pikachu.
Dedenne.
Togedemaru.
Electrike.
Blitzle.
Helioptile resting on warm stones.
Several Magnemite hovered near metallic deposits exposed along a distant cliff.
None attacked.
That alone was strange.
Wild Pokémon usually had clear reactions to strangers.
Curiosity.
Fear.
Territorial aggression.
These Pokémon simply watched.
Leo lowered his voice. "They're used to visitors?"
Bertha shook her head. "I don't think so."
Cynthia glanced around. "They're watching for something."
Leo didn't particularly like that answer.
The trees began to thin.
Light appeared ahead.
Then the path opened.
Everyone stopped.
The grove stretched far beyond what Leo had expected.
It sat within a natural basin surrounded by tall ridges, hidden from almost every direction. Bright grass covered the ground while strange crystal formations rose near several clear pools of water.
Some of the crystals glowed faintly.
Others sparked.
Massive trees grew along the basin's edges, their branches filled with Electric-types.
The air itself hummed.
Not violently.
Almost peacefully.
Leo stared. "This is…"
Bertha finished the thought for him. "A sanctuary."
At the center of the basin stood an enormous tree.
Its bark was dark.
Its leaves were pale yellow.
Thin lines of electricity moved across the branches like glowing veins.
Hundreds of Pokémon rested beneath it.
Some slept.
Some played.
Others silently watched the newcomers.
Leo slowly looked around.
There were species from completely different environments all gathered here.
Some he recognized immediately.
Others he didn't.
But every single one carried Electric-type energy.
Saphira floated forward.
Leo immediately grabbed her tail.
"Mew?"
"Absolutely not."
She pointed toward the grove. "Mew!"
"You are not charging into the mysterious electric paradise."
Princess nodded firmly beside him.
"Mew!"
Leo pulled Saphira back while Kitsfrost watched the grove quietly.
Cynthia stepped forward and scanned the surrounding terrain. "No battle marks."
Claire looked around as well. "No territorial lines either."
Bertha crouched and touched the ground.
Her expression changed.
Leo moved closer. "What?"
Bertha looked toward the enormous central tree. "This place is old."
"How old?"
She shook her head. "I don't know."
The ground beneath the basin was layered with generations of tunnels, nests, burrows, and pathways.
Some had collapsed.
Others were still in use.
Ground-types had clearly been near this place for a very long time.
But they did not live inside it.
Leo noticed that too.
"Ground-types stay outside."
Bertha nodded. "That seems deliberate."
Claire looked amused. "Well, I suppose that makes sense."
Leo continued studying the grove.
Electric Energy moved through everything.
The water.
The plants.
The stone.
Even the air.
But unlike the unstable regions they had crossed earlier, the energy here moved in patterns.
Circles.
Channels.
Almost like a living system.
Princess moved closer to Leo.
"Snivy."
"I feel it too."
Something about the place was different.
Not dangerous.
At least not obviously.
Just controlled.
A small Pikachu approached.
The entire group went still.
It stopped several meters away.
Looked at Leo.
Then Saphira.
Then Princess.
Then Kitsfrost.
Its ears twitched.
It turned and walked several steps before looking back at them.
Leo blinked. "Is it…"
Bertha smiled. "Inviting us."
Claire raised an eyebrow. "That's convenient."
Cynthia watched the Pikachu carefully. "Or intentional."
Leo looked around the sanctuary again.
Dozens of Electric-types were watching them now.
Not aggressively.
Expectantly.
Leo exhaled. "Of course."
Princess looked up.
"Snivy?"
"We spend days avoiding Dragon trackers, then accidentally discover a secret Electric-type sanctuary."
Saphira raised both paws excitedly.
"Mew!"
"Yes," Leo said with a sigh. "That sounds about right for us."
The Pikachu waited.
Leo looked toward Cynthia.
Then Claire.
Then Bertha.
Nobody objected.
That was probably a bad sign.
Leo adjusted his bag. "Fine. But nobody touches anything strange."
Saphira immediately looked offended.
Princess stared at her.
Kitsfrost started walking.
Leo followed the Pikachu into the grove.
Behind them, the hidden paths of the Wild Lands disappeared beneath the trees.
Far away, somewhere beyond several ridges, the Dragon trackers continued searching.
For the moment, they had lost the trail.
And for the first time in days, Leo's group had found somewhere they might actually be able to rest.
Unfortunately...
Leo had already learned that places this peaceful usually had a reason for staying hidden.