The Abandoned Church

Kyrie wrinkled their nose as they walked into the old building. "Ugh, I don't like that."

The shiny eevee at their feet sniffed the air and gave their trainer an incredulous look. Kyrie looked down with one eyebrow raised. "What? I don't like scented candles. They're too strong for me. Honestly, I don't like smells in general."

Sweet Potato snorted and walked ahead of their trainer. Kyrie sighed and let them go. The abandoned church was small, and looked pretty stable, so they weren't worried about their pokémon getting hurt or lost. The only danger was if Potato themself tried to get into trouble, but Kyrie trusted they wouldn't. Besides, there was a reason they hadn't brought Loop de Loop with them.

The stained glass window had long since shattered, the shards swept up into the corners of the room, but the sunlight shining through the forest leaves left a pattern of shadows on the church floor that gave a similar appearance. Sweet Potato stood in the center and stretched. They glanced back at Kyrie, who was sitting in one of the pews and writing in their journal. Potato figured they didn't need permission to explore and set off to the pulpit.

The pulpit was boring. Everything was covered in dust. Sweet Potato clawed their way to the top and looked around, but with how small the church was, there wasn't much else to explore. The whole building was a single room. They sighed and jumped back down.

Wait. Potato stopped and looked back up. The shattered glass was swept up, there was the smell of scented candles… how abandoned *was* this church? And where were the candles?

Now they were on a mission. Potato sniffed around the room, only pausing to sneeze every few minutes. Kyrie was absorbed in their journal, so they didn't notice their pokémon darting from corner to corner, searching furiously.

The smell was strongest near one of the piles of glass. Sweet Potato looked closely and spotted what looked like a white book mixed in with the shards. It glimmered faintly in the sunlight–until Potato realized with a jolt that this corner of the church was in shadow.

Carefully, Potato reached into the pile and brushed aside the pieces. The book had a golden symbol on the front, which appeared to be the source of the glow. Potato leaned forward and grabbed the book in their teeth, dragging it out onto the floor.

Kyrie looked up when Sweet Potato yelped in pain. "What was that?" they called out, getting to their feet. "Are you alright?"

While taking out the book, Potato had stepped on a piece of glass that was now embedded in their paw. They put their ears back and whined as Kyrie crouched down next to them. "It's just a small cut," they told their pokémon. "Here, I've got some disinfectant. You ready to go home after this?"

Kyrie plucked out the shard of glass, and a drop of blood fell onto the white tome.

Sweet Potato yelped again as the book began to shine. "Whoops," was all Kyrie had time to say before they had to shield their eyes from the overwhelming brightness.

When the light faded, another eevee lay on the floor, sleeping peacefully.

Kyrie and Potato looked at the eevee, then at each other. "Well," Kyrie said, "I guess we can't just leave them here. Let's say hello to our new friend."