Thunk. Tobias hammered the nail into the wood. Thunk. Thunk.

It was a sweltering hot day. The sun hung overhead, beating down on him. He could practically feel the weight of it. It had been weeks since it had rained last, and it was getting near planting time for the watmels.

Thunk. Thunk.

The shed was nearly complete apart from the roof. Tobias took another nail and began to hammer in the shingle. It was like working in an oven, and there wasn't even the promise of a breeze to cool him, but Tobias worked on.

"Dust, get me some water, would you?" The farmhand nodded and rushed off to go fill his canteen up from the water tank. Tobias wiped his brow and watched him go. Dust didn't talk much. He was a strong and steady farmhand, and he did his work well, but he wasn't much for conversation. Truth be told, it seemed like he was lost in his own head most of the time.

Dust was a man with a past, that much was clear to Tobias. He sometimes wondered what it was Dust was thinking about, but he never pried.

"A man's thoughts are his own." His father had said once. "If he don't want to share them, that's his business."

Tobias had been just nineteen when his father died, and before then he'd wanted nothing more back then than to leave this farm behind him for good and go see the world. His father's death put an end to that dream. His mother needed him here, and now he was almost forty and she was gone, but he was still was here. He was happy though. Had he left, he'd have never met Marianna, never had his son Brannon or his daughter Melina. Life was funny like that. He'd dreaded growing old on this farm when he was young, and now he couldn't bear the thought of leaving it.

Dust came back with the water, and Tobias reached down to take it from his outstretched hand. He swallowed a mouthful of it. It was lukewarm and dirty, but it tasted sweet on tongue regardless. He poured some into his dirty hair and let it run down the back of his neck.

"Here, have the rest." He handed the canteen to Dust. "This roof's almost done." He said after the boy had drained the canteen. "Not sure if we'll be needing it the way the weather's been." He looked up. There wasn't a single wisp of cloud in the sky.

"Do you think it will rain?" Dust asked. It was the first bit of conversation the boy had offered all day.

"I hope it does." Tobias answered. "We'll be planting soon, and we need a good harvest with the baby on the way. Do you have much experience with watmel plants, Dust?"

Dust shook his head. "We grew rabutas where I come from."

"Well I don't know much about rabuta farming, but watmels need lots of water. Does it rain much where you come from?"

"It rains all the time."

"It used to rain here too, if you can believe it. This drought though. It doesn't seem to have an end to it."

Tobias's farm had been lush and fertile once, but these days it looked like a desert. The only grass that grew came up in sparse clumps, and the blades were brown and dry. He could still get water from the well, but if it didn't rain soon, even that was in danger of running dry. If that happened, he didn't know what he was going to do.

Dust climbed up the ladder and onto the roof. "I can take over for you if you want to be in the shade for a bit."

Tobias shook his head. "I'll be fine. Go get the tools from the other shed and start moving them here. When you're done you can have that Boldore of yours tear it down. It's no good as a shed anymore, and we could use the firewood."

Before Dust could go, Marianna's voice called out. "Lunch is ready!"

"On second thought, you don't want to keep Marianna waiting." Tobias said. "Tell her I'll be there in a bit. I just want to finish these last few shingles."

He fitted in another nail and raised his hammer.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

The door finally opened and Tom was greeted Mrs. Lowell's wrinkled old face looking at him through the doorway.

"What are you doing making noise at this hour?" the old landlady complained.

"Late night at the office, I'm afraid." Tom said. "I must have left my keys there." He smiled sheepishly.

"Is that where you got that box?" Mrs. Lowell was a rather conspicuous box, Tom had to admit, white with a big red ribbon tied around it.

"Why yes it is." Tom answered.

"And I suppose it's not for that girl you've been hiding in your apartment?" the old woman said with more than a tiny hint of accusation.

"As I've told you before, she is my cousin." Tom lied. Unmarried couples staying together under her roof was a thing Mrs. Lowell disapproved of, along with a veritable host of other things.

The landlady snorted. Tom knew she didn't believe for a moment the story about his cousin staying over, but she had no proof to levy against him, so she had to content herself with quiet disapproval rather than making him turn the girl out.

"Goodnight, Mrs. Lowell." he said as she shuffled off down the hall.

The apartment was a good one. Tom did not come from an important family, but his uncle had left him a good deal of money, and he made a steady income as a lawyer here in Rutlidge, so he could afford to stay in the nicer part of town.

Tom went up the stairs and found his apartment. He fumbled with the keys and opened the door. The apartment had electric lights, and Tom turned them on by pulling the chain that hung near the door. He took off his jacket and slipped off his shoes so as not to make any undue noise. Moving quietly, he crept to the bedroom door and opened it.

"Tom, is that you?" her voice sounded groggy. He must have woken her when he came through the door.

Maddie rubbed her eyes and sat up in the bed. "What's in the box?" she asked.

"It's for you." He said, feeling slightly ridiculous. "I was going to wait until the morning to show you it, but since you're awake I suppose there's no harm in opening it now."

He handed Maddie the box. She pushed the covers off herself and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She was wearing some of his pajamas, and they fit loosely over her smaller body. Tom had not owned any women's clothes before he'd met her, and he'd gotten her a dress so she wouldn't have to wear the torn and bloody thing he'd met her in, but getting her a nightgown seemed a bit forward. So she wore his clothes instead. Tom didn't feel that that was much of a solution, but Maddie never complained and he'd just tried not to think too hard about the soft, pretty girl sleeping in his bed and wearing his pants. He'd spent more than a few long nights on the couch trying not to think about it.

Maddie tore off the ribbon and opened the white package. "Oh Tom, it's lovely."

The dress was dark forest green and made of satin, with lace that covered the area from the neckline down to the top of the breasts so that the skin underneath could still be seen. Maddie stood up and held it up to her body. She spun in a circle to let the skirts swirl around her.

"Th-there is going to be a party at the firm." Tom stammered on, feeling quite the fool. "My boss is turning fifty and he's invited everyone to come. I didn't have anyone to take, so I thought I'd ask you to come along with me, just so you wouldn't be stuck here alone. I mean, if you want to that is."

Maddie smiled, something she didn't do near often enough. "I'd love to, Tom." she said.

"There's shoes that go with it, and gloves." Tom said.

"I saw them." Maddie said. "Can I try it on?"

"Of course." Tom stood there dumbly for a moment. "Oh, I'll go wait in the other room."

He hoped Maddie didn't see his face redden as he left the bedroom. He must have seemed such a twit to her. It was strange to him, living with a woman. She'd been half crazed when he'd met her on the street, covered in blood and going back and forth between laughing and crying at seemingly random intervals. Tom hadn't known what to do with her. Should he take her to the police, the hospital? For all he knew, she may have killed someone. She wasn't injured so the blood probably wasn't hers. He had decided to take her back to his apartment and give her a place to wash and sleep for the night. Well, it had been a few weeks, and she was still there.

Tom didn't know what situation Maddie had come from, and she never talked about it. In fact, she never said anything about herself. The first few days she had done little more than cry. She had looked horrible when he first brought her in. Her hair was lank, her skin was pale and pallid, and her eyes were full of so much sadness. The color had returned to her face, and the flesh was returning to her features. Maddie was pretty now, but her eyes were still sad. Even Maddie's smiles were sad. Tom wanted to make that sadness go away, but he didn't know how.

The door opened and there she was. Her hair was unkempt and she had no makeup on, but it didn't matter. Maddie was resplendent in her new dress. She seemed almost to glide into the living room, a swirl of green satin as she spun to give him a look from all sides.

"How do I look?" Maddie asked.

Like a goddess. "Lovely." he said. "You look lovely." He tried not to look at her breasts, but the dress was cut in way that naturally brought the eyes there.

"Will I be expected to dance?" Maddie asked.

"I suppose so." Tom said. "Do you know how?" She shook her head. "Do you mind if I show you?"

Maddie nodded.

Tom stood up and moved to a place where there was space on the floor. "Come here."

Maddie came over. "This is called a waltz." Tom told her. "You put your hand on my shoulder, like that. Okay, so we join our other hands, and since I'm the man that means I lead the dance."

He slipped his arm his arm around the small of her back. It was the first time he'd had his arm around her since the night he'd met her. She was sticky and filthy and half mad then, but now… now she felt soft and smooth and those sad green eyes were the same color as her gown. Tom tried to keep his voice steady as he gave her instructions. "So a waltz has three steps. You step here, here and here. One two three. One two three. Don't go too fast. I'm the leader, let me do the work. You just follow what I do."

Maddie was right. She really didn't know how to dance. It took a long time to get things right, and her body felt so sweet in his arms.

When they were done, Maddie went back to the bedroom. She opened the door and turned around. "Have a good night, Tom." she said.

"You too." Tom said. Maddie closed the door behind her. Tom turned off the light and flopped down on the couch. He was hard and flustered and his the blood was rushing to his cheeks. He spent a while staring at the ceiling. Finally, he got up and went to the bedroom door. He raised his hand to knock on it, and held it in the air. He took a deep breath and turned away. The moment was gone. He went back to the couch and lay down.

"Damn it." He muttered. It was going to be a long night.

When Dust had first arrived, Tobias didn't know what to make of him. Most people were lucky to have just one Pokemon, and this lad had three pokeballs on his belt. When asked about his past, Dust gave only vague answers. Marianna had warned him against hiring the boy.

"He's a criminal. Those balls are probably stolen. If he could afford three pokeballs he wouldn't need to work on a farm."

But Tobias needed a farmhand and Dust was the only one he could find, so he'd taken him on. Dust worked with him, ate with him, slept under his roof. If he was a criminal sort, Tobias had yet to see any proof. After a while, Marianna warmed to him as well.

The boy was strong, and a hard worker. Tobias could see that he was no stranger to a farm. Those Pokemon of his were useful too. When it came time to plant the watmels, his Boldore glided through the dirt with a kind of grace you wouldn't expect from looking at it. It could till the soil better than any plow and it could dig three rows at once. The Poochyena was useful for finding and killing the Digletts that liked to burrow under the soil and eat the crops. The children liked her too, so Tobias permitted Dust to leave the hyena out all the time. It slept curled at the foot of Dust's bed.

With the Boldore's help, the planting went by quickly, and when the two of them stumbled back to the farmhouse, filthy and exhausted, the job was done.

"Look at the two of you." Marianna said, "Leaving tracks all over my clean floor. You stink, Toby! Go wash yourself or you won't be sleeping in any bed of mine. That goes for you too, Dust."

Tobias obeyed. It may have been his farm, but inside the house, Marianna was the supreme monarch. It was perilous to incur her wrath.

Tobias stripped off his filthy shirt and filled a bucket up from the well. He poured the water over himself, scrubbing at his skin with a clean rag. Dust did the same.

"Nothing better than washing the dirt off after a good day's work." Tobias said. "I couldn't have done it without you, Dust."

Dust took the bucket and splashed water on his face. "We used to bathe in the river where I grew up. It was easier than doing it out of a well."

Tobias sighed. "It would be nice to have a river just about now. If we don't get some water and soon, I don't think the crop is going to make it."

Marianna had a big dinner of roast pork and mashed potatoes waiting for them when they came back to the house. "For my hard working boys. I've been saving this pork for a special day." She kissed Tobias on the cheek patted Dust on the shoulder. Her belly was big and swollen. It wouldn't be long now until the baby.

"It's going to be a girl." she said when Dust asked her. The food had nearly all been eaten, and Poochyena was licking at her hand. "Begone, you rascal!"

Brannon groaned. "I want a brother, not a sister!"

"Tough titty for you then." Marianna said with a smile. "This is a girl. I've had both and this one feels the way your sister did."

"Maybe the next one will be a little brother." Tobias said. Truth be told, he had been hoping for a boy as well. He doubted his wife could know which sex the baby inside of her was, but he wasn't about to contradict her at the dinner table.

"We've got to have a name for her." Tobias said. "Any ideas?"

"Stinky." Brannon said.

Marianna smacked him. "I wasn't asking you." Tobias had to stifle a laugh.

"We named Melina after my mother." He said. "Why not name the baby after your mother?"

"Gertrude?" Marianna scowled. "I'd sooner name her Frank than give her a name as horrible as that. My name is Marianna, her sister's name is Melina. Why not give her one that goes with those two? Mona. That's a nice name."

Dust's fork suddenly fell out of his hand with a loud clatter as it landed on the plate. He pushed his food away. "Excuse me." he said, and stood up and went outside.

Marianna watched him as he left. "He's a nice boy, but a strange one."

Theyy rode together in a horse-drawn cab Tom had hired, she in her gorgeous green dress and him in a suit with a boutonniere fastened to the lapel. Maddie wore her hair up, with a flower above her left ear. When Tom asked her where she'd gotten it, she said she found it in a garden.

"You stole it?"

She shrugged. "It's just a flower. I used to wear them in my hair during the harvest festival. All the girls did. We'd pick them from the meadows.

"Harvest festival? Did you live on a farm?"

"No." She said. "My dad owns a tavern in the village and me and my sisters helped him work in it. But there are farms all over the place there, and everyone celebrates the harvest."

She told him about her father and her sisters. He laughed when she told him about old Gavin Firthing and made her voice sound like the kindly old drunkard, and when he laughed, she laughed too, though tears welled up in her eyes as she did.

"I don't think I'll ever see any of them again." She said when the laughter had stopped. She didn't say another word after that, and Tom decided it was best not to ask her why she'd said that.

They arrived at the party fashionably late. The building was the same one Tom worked in, but the furniture had all been moved away to make plenty of room. A table with food had been set up, and in the corner of the room there was a raised platform where a band played for the dancing party-goers.

"Tom!" Victor Wootton was a red haired man in his thirties with a love of coffee Tom had never seen in another human being and a mustache that would have put a Walrein's to shame. He clapped a massive hand on Tom's back. "I thought you weren't going to make it." His smile grew even larger when he saw Maddie. "And who might this fair beauty be?"

"Maddie." Tom said. "Maddie, this Victor Wootton.

"Charmed." Maddie said.

"You never told me you had this little damsel hidden away." Victor boomed. "What's wrong? Afraid I'd steal her away from you? Har!"

"He's really quite nice." Tom said after Victor had gone off to accost the next guest to arrive.

"I've met far worse than him." Maddie said.

The next person to greet them was Tom's employer, Mr. MacClelland and his wife. Mr. MacClelland was a portly man with thinning brown hair and a bald spot that the wisps of hair he combed over it did absolutely nothing to conceal. Tom shook his hand and exchanged kisses on the cheek with his wife.

"This is Maddie, my…" To be honest, Tom didn't know what Maddie was to him. Somehow he didn't think it would be appropriate to introduce her as the strange girl who lived in his apartment and slept in his bed.

"Friend." Maddie finished for him. "Our fathers are business partners."

"Yes." Tom said, going along with it. "They run a grocery together." Tom's father actually was a grocer, though he didn't have a partner in business. He'd saved every cent he could to send Tom to law school. At the apartment the story was that he and Maddie were cousins, but he was glad she hadn't said that here.

"Is that all?" Mrs. MacClelland said. "You would make such a lovely couple." Tom forced his mouth to smile and tried not to let the blood rush to his cheeks.

Before this conversation could go any further, the front door swung open and a man wearing a black robe and a mask like a skull came in with a scythe in hand. "Does anyone know an Edwyn MacClelland? I'm here to see him."

Mr. MacClelland laughed along with the other guests, the loudest of which was of course Victor, whose booming howls of mirth threatened to bring the whole building town on everyone's heads.

The night went on, alcohol was drunk, food was eaten, speeches were made, and music was played.

Tom danced with Mrs. MacClelland and Rose the secretary and LorettaKirby the doorman's wife and other women whose names he didn't know. When the dance brought him to Maddie there was a glimmer of gaiety in her eyes he had never seen there before.

"How are you enjoying the party?" he said, having to raise his voice over the music.

"It's wonderful." she said. "I haven't had fun like this in a very long time."

"I see you've gotten better at dancing."

Maddie laughed. "It's not so hard when everybody's drunk." Tom laughed at that too. He wasn't completely sober himself, and she was so beautiful…

It must have been the alcohol that did it. Standing there with her, a whole room full of onlookers, and the music swelling around them… a madness took him, and he took Maddie by the shoulders and kissed her right there on the dance floor.

It was the most romantic moment of his life, right up until the point where Maddie shoved him away. The smack she gave him in the face nearly knocked him over, it was so strong.

"Don't touch me!" She shrieked at him. The music stopped. Tom was about to apologize, but the look on her face stopped him cold. Maddie wasn't angry at him. She was terrified. Maddie lifted her skirts and ran out of the room.

Tom brought his hand up to his stinging face. He gradually became aware that every person in the room was staring at him.

When Tobias went to kiss his children goodnight, Melina wasn't in bed.

"Where's your sister?" he asked Brannon.

"She's with Dust." his son answered.

"What's she doing with him?" Tobias asked. As far as he knew, Melina had never spent much time with Dust.

Brannon shrugged.

Tobias stood up. "I'll be back in a minute."

Dust's room was across the hall from the childrens', so Tobias didn't have to go far to find him. The farmhand was sitting with his daughter on the edge of the bed, reading one of the childrens' books out loud.

"But the mermaid said 'I have never been to the human world. What am I going to find there?'"

Melina was too young to read, but she loved to be read to. Dust had chosen her favorite story, but only Tobias knew how to do the voices that made her giggle.

"Melina, what are you doing out of bed?" Both Dust and Melina looked up.

"Dust is reading the mermaid book." Melina said.

"Well it's late and Dust has a hard day of work in the morning. Let's let him sleep."

He took Melina by the hand and took her back to her room. After he'd kissed her good night, he blew out the candles and left the room. Dust was waiting in the hall. "Let's go outside." Tobias said.

It was a bright night. The moon was waxing and nearly full, and its light made everything easy to see.

Tobias took a deep breath, then said,"Are we going to need to have a talk?" Dust had given him no reason to distrust him, but that didn't mean Tobias liked the idea of Melina being in the farmhand's room without his knowledge.

"No sir." Dust said. He sighed heavily. "She's the same age as my sister, is all."

"Ah. And you miss her, I take it?"

"Yes. A lot."

"What's her name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Mona."

Well that explained why he'd left the dinner table. Tobias had a sister as well, though she was older than him. She'd married a traveling salesman and moved into the city after he'd struck rich with some toy made of metal that could stretch and go down stairs and such. He'd given Brannon one as a gift, but Tobias couldn't see what was so great about it.

"Look, I'm going to need you here until the harvest comes." Tobias said warmly. "But after that, why don't you take some time off to see your folks?" A cold wind blew over them, colder than it been for some time.

Dust looked very uncomfortable. "That's not possible."

"Why is that?"

Dust didn't say anything. There was nothing for it. Tobias had to ask the question he'd been avoiding for weeks.

"Dust, I like you. You're a nice boy and a good worker. But you're living under the same roof as my wife and children, and so I have to know now. Are you a criminal?"

Dust hesitated. "I've done things I'm not proud of. Not out of malice but because I didn't have a choice."

"Have you killed anyone?"

Dust shook his head. "No. Never."

"Do I have reason not to trust you around my family?"

"No."

Something wet landed on Tobias's head. He felt it with a finger. "Is that…?"

More raindrops spattered on his head and shoulders. Tobias turned around. Up in the sky a dark cloud moved, visible in the moonlight. "It's raining." Dust said.

"It's raining!" Tobias's heart soared. Had his prayers finally been answered?

Dust didn't look quite so happy. "That cloud came out of nowhere. Like it was brought here."

The rain was falling heavy now. "Brought here by a good wind."

"There was nothing." Dust said, "Nothing at all. Why would there suddenly be a storm?" He's afraid. "You don't understand. It wasn't the wind that brought this storm."

A shriek suddenly cut through the air, high and horrible and inhuman. Tobias looked up. Blue light lit up inside the storm cloud, and a sound like thunder, but there wasn't any lightning. The shriek came again, like the painful roars of some beast. A beam of white light blasted through the clouds, and a blossom of fire erupted. An orange streak of fire fell from the sky and landed in a far field with a crash. The roar sounded again, farther off.

Marianna came rushing out of the house, one hand over her pregnant belly. "What is that awful racket?" she shouted.

"It's Lugia." Dust said. "The Storm Rider."

"Lugia? That's insane!" Marianna said. "Lugia's not real."

"I've seen it with my own eyes." Dust said. "I know what it sounds like, and that was Lugia up there. It's what brought the storm cloud."

"Whatever it was, we've got bigger problems." Tobias pointed at the conflagration erupting from the site where the falling thing had crashed. "That fire's getting bigger, and the wind's blowing this way."

Dust looked out at the flames. "I think I can help with that. Just let me get my pokeballs."

"Thanks, Victor." Tom had paid his cab driver to take Maddie home without him, so Victor offered to have his cab stop at Tom's apartment on the way home.

The cab pulled away and Tom went inside. Mrs. Lowell was waiting in the hall. "Your cousin made quite the ruckus coming in here." She complained, "Why weren't you with her?"

"Maddie was feeling ill and so I let her go home early." Tom said.

"She didn't look ill to me."

Tom went past the landlady and up the stairs. He entered his apartment and didn't see Maddie in the living room, so he went to the bedroom door and knocked on it.

"Maddie? Are you in here?" There wasn't any answer.

Tom cursed himself and gingerly opened the door. She wasn't inside, but he could see light coming from the bathroom. He went to the door and leaned against it.

"Maddie?"

"Don't talk to me." The voice came through the door, sullen and miserable.

"Maddie, I just wanted to say I was sorry. It was wrong of me to… to do that. I didn't mean to frighten you. I was a little drunk, and I wasn't thinking, but that's no excuse for my actions."

There was a long moment of silence. "Come in here." She finally said.

"I'm sorry?" Tom wasn't expecting that.

"Come in here."

Tom opened the door and walked through. Maddie was in the bathtub, her body concealed by a foam of bubbles save for her head and shoulders. "I wanted to get clean. But I can't." She said.

"You look clean to me." Tom said like an idiot. This wasn't a situation he had ever prepared himself for.

"I'm not. I am never ever going to be clean! Don't you understand?"

Tom was taken aback by the outburst. "Maddie…"

"I want to show you something." Maddie said. "Then you'll understand." Without warning, she stood up, stark naked in front of him. Tom averted his eyes.

"Look at me." Maddie said forcefully.

Tom hesitated, then looked. Maddie's bare shoulders and breasts were normal, but below that, all the way down to her sex, a criss crossing lattice of white scars covered her body, as if she had been slashed over and over again with a knife. She turned in a circle to show him the same was true on her back side as well.

"Oh god." That was all Tom could say. "Who did that?"

Maddie told him. She told him everything that had happened to her, with every hideous detail. Tears were streaming down her face when she was done, and Tom draped a towel around her to cover herself.

"When you kissed me, all I could think about was the way he kissed me. He ruined me, Tom. I'm never going to be free of him. I dream about him every night, and when I hear you come through the front door I have to remind myself that it isn't him who is coming in here. Whenever I dress or bathe I have to look at this." She ran her hands over her scars. "Every time he used me, he left one of his marks. I can't wash them off."

Tom pulled her close and put his arms around her. She laid her head against his shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"I'm not good enough for you."

"Bullshit." Tom said. "I don't believe that for a second. You've been hurt, but I'm not going to let anyone hurt you anymore."

"I know you won't, Tom. You're a good man."

"Let's get you some clothes." Tom let go of her, but she grabbed him by the arm.

"No. Don't let go." She slid her hands up to his chest and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. "I want to feel your touch, Tom. It doesn't hurt when you touch me. I want someone in me who doesn't hurt. I want to be with someone I can love again."

Maddie undid his shirt while Tom kicked off his shoes and slid off his trousers and this time when he kissed her her mouth opened under his and she didn't push away.

"I suppose this means I can sleep in the bed again."

Maddie answered him with a smile. "I suppose it does."