Previously on Oranges to Grapes...

After losing Jessica in Icerend Shrine and being cornered by a Diademon (though they don't know that's what it's called), Conner tells Rosita the true power of the Sealing Ball, and she becomes Cure Grudge for the first time. After successfully destroying her opponent, Rosita chooses to wait outside the shrine for her new friend, hoping she'll be okay...

-

Inside the shrine, Jessica was starting to stir... but she was laid down on a slope of rocks in pitch-black darkness. "What the...?" Even with her feline vision, she couldn't make much of anything out... and on top of all that, wherever she was, it was freezing cold!

"H-h-h-h-hoo," she shivered as she rubbed her arms together. "Where.. am I? And why am I so ch-ch-ch-chilly?"

"You're in the Icerend Shrine," a boyish voice said.

"Wha- Who said that!?" Jessica asked. Suddenly, she remembered something and reached into one of her pockets... pulling out a small flashlight she'd use in case one of her jobs ran into the night hours. She turned it on and saw nothing but rocks... with puffs of her breath caught in the ray. "I can hear you, but I can't see you... but I CAN see my own breath in here because it's that cold!"

"Sorry," the voice said. "but I wasn't expecting any company... ever. But, maybe if you could tell me who you are, I could help you out and get you warmed back up again." Jessica followed the voice and tried to point the light that way, but nothing was caught in the beam... almost as if they were dodging it every time.

"I'm Jessica," she said, hoping whoever was there would let themself be found if she played along. "And you are?"

"My name's Leopold," the voice replied.

"Well, Leopold," the snow leopard said as she was starting to get used to the cold, "how exactly did I get into the shrine in the first place? ...Huh. Come to think of it, how did you?"

"Oh, I've lived here for the past few," Leopold said before pausing, "thousand years or so after I had a little too much fun. But you? You got trapped here after acting out in anger and touching the door afterwards."

"Anger?" Jessica retorted. "I wasn't angry! Maybe frustrated, but only because I was in pain!"

"Pain from what?" Leopold asked curiously.

"...I cramped up."

"Oh, I see," Leopold said. "The spell of the shrine must've mistook your pain for anger. You'd be surprised how often that mistake gets made."

"Yeah, yeah," Jessica said, dulled down from the cold. "Now, could you step into the light before my pulse comes to a halt, please?"

"I can do you one better!" Leopold replied, and there was a light rumbling before a thin crescent of light appeared behind Jessica, waxing wider and wider until it became an image of outside, with Rosita standing there with a smile of relief.

"Jessica!" the caracal said as she saw her friend was still in one piece.

"Rosita!" the snow leopard said back as she got up to hug her friend, both nuzzling each other and purring. "Are you okay, though? Did that thing hurt you?"

"No, I'm fine," Rosita said. "Are you okay, though? You sounded like you were in pain earlier."

"Oh, that?" Jessica replied. "That was just me... 'bearing our cross,' if you know what I mean."

"Well, the important thing right now is that I'm not hurt, the monster is gone... and that you were kept nice and fresh, judging by how cold you felt," Rosita said.

"Hello? What about me?"

Rosita and Jessica turned around back to the opened shrine... and there among the rocks was a long puff of frost in the shape of a cute, little weasel, adorned with tiny ice crystals.

"Leopold?" Jessica asked. "That's what you really look like?"

"Well," Leopold said, running one of his little paws along the floor, "yes and no. But anyway, thanks for letting me out by socializing with me, and in return... I've got a present for you!"

Rosita was excited to see this part again, while Jessica didn't know what to expect. But the door of Icerend Shrine started shining brighter with golden energy and hovering in midair. Suddenly, eight lines of golden light appeared and stuck themselves into the sides of the door, and the whole thing started spinning around, kicking up wind that was so cold, frost was starting to mix in.

The spinning disc then hovered over Jessica and concentrated into itself, shrinking down to the size and shape of a Poke Ball, until finally, it lowered itself in front of the snow leopard in its new form: a metallic black ball.

"Forged from the door of Icerend Shrine and the stakes that kept it sealed," Leopold explained, "I give you the mark of our new bond as partners. This is your Sealing Ball, my new bearer, Jessica... uh, what's your last name?"

"Winters," Jessica said as she accepted her present.

"My new bearer, Jessica Winters!"

"And that makes us Sealing Ball buddies," Rosita said as she produced her own, "because I have one, too!"

"Thanks to me," Conner chimed in. "Hello, old friend. Long time no see."

"Well," Jessica said as she let the new information wash over her, "all this is a lot to take here. I don't know what to say, except..."

"Except?" Rosita pressed.

"Now that I'm out, and we're all back together," Jessica said as she looked over the ledge they were standing on, "how are we going to get down?"

-

To be continued.