Chapter
Thirteen
Clash,
crash and conflict
<Sam’s Point of View>
<9th of
Sharmishira>
Lightning cracked the air, making a
large booming sound that made nearby Pokemon squeak and flee for their homes.
They
dashed from one tree to another to avoid the rain.
Looking up at the brooding sky, I
scowled at it. It seemed to reflect my mood, but the thunderstorm was what was
causing my mood. Since yesterday morning, we, that is, me, Ashlee, Kat, Nick
and Brendan, had been caught in one place. One of Dictioy’s famous thunderstorms
had rolled on top of us, and then seemed to stop. The longest a thunderstorm in
Dictioy had lasted was three weeks in one place, and I didn’t wanted to spend that long here.
When the storm had started yesterday, Nick and the others had seen no use in taking the tents down at that time. Since it had been raining non-stop since then, Nick and me had strung up a canvas between them.
Ashlee and I were about to put up a lightning
shield at that point, when Zeus decided to escape from his Pokeball, and began
hovering high over the little encampment we were in. He had drawn all the
lightning strikes, absorbing them as only a cloud could. When he had come down
during one of the small breaks between the lightning,
I had seen he had also grown large enough to barely fit under the canvas.
Lightning snapped the air again,
while the normal thunder rumbled in its stead. Shaking my head, I
bent over to pick up a piece of wood. I had gotten fire-wood duty, with one of
our daily job-rotations. It was Brendan’s turn to cook again, and Ashlee and
Nick got to fee the Pokemon. Kat was meant
to be taking down tents, but that hadn’t happened with the rain going on.
Spying another likely piece of wood,
I hopped over a large, hollow log to scoop it off the ground. Lightning boomed
right overhead. Wincing, I looked up warily to make sure one of the trees
around me hadn’t been struck, and also to make sure that I wouldn’t need to
make a psychic shield to prevent myself from getting a braining. Luckily, the
lightning was starting to get reduced to sheet-lightning, staying in the clouds
and away from the ground. The rain was as torrential as ever though.
Half-an-hour later, I started
heading back to camp, using one of my mind-links with the others to make sure I
didn’t get lost. By the time I got back to the small camp, I was cold,
shivering and sniffling.
I dumped the wood beside the fire so that it
could dry out for later, then went into my tent to get changed. I came out with
my Poke-Nav. Brendan was bustling around the fire, cutting up things and
throwing other things into the food that was simmering in the pot over the fire.
Seeing that I was now changed, Hera the Polienix fluttered from my chair to my shoulder, shaking slightly. She had stayed by my side ever since she had hatched, sticking to me like stench sticks to a Muk.
Except for when I had gone out in the rain. For
some reason, I couldn’t get her even remotely near water. With Artemis and Zeus
she was fine, unless they were raining in the case of Zeus, or drooling a steady stream of water in their sleep, in the
case of Artemis.
Stroking her breast feathers with
one finger, I sat down slowly on my seat, trying not to bump or knock Hera off
my shoulder in the process. Despite my care, she swayed and nearly fell off
once.
Sighing when I was finally sitting,
I rubbed my thighs, determined to get feeling back into them. Finding wood in
the middle of ice-cold rain wasn’t advisable in my opinion.
Flipping open my Poke-Nav, I
accessed the Phone part of it and selected Ani’s phone number. The phone rang a
few times, which gave me time to get my shoulder out of Ani’s view.
“Hello?” Ani’s voice rolled down the
telephone link, sounding groggy. My mind blank, I suddenly remembered the time
difference between Dictioy and Tintia and blushed slightly.
“Hey Ani.”
“Sam? Why are you calling me this
early?” Ani’s face appeared as she activated the option. The small hologram of
her head appeared above the face of the Poke-Nav, and I saw her face looked as
tired as her voice had sounded.
“Because of this.” I brought my shoulder into view of
Ani’s head, revealing Hera, who whistled sleepily. Ani’s eyebrow rose as she
considered the small blue bird before she appeared to get up and move. A few
seconds later, the holographic screen retreated onto the face of the Poke-Nav,
enabling me to see more.
Anticairon’s face appeared on the
screen, beside Ani’s. I guessed that Anticairon had been a little bit away from
Ani, because she can’t have been in her Pokeball. Pokeballs were virtually
illegal in Tintia and Werntio.
Hera, on my shoulder, gave a small
peep. Hopping along my arm, she jumped onto my lap to look closely at the
Poke-Nav’s screen. On the other end, Anticairon gave out a sequence of trills
and chirps that I knew was one of her songs of happiness. Ignoring the humans,
the two blue bird Pokemon talked in their own
language, leaving me and Ani to stare at each other in confusion. I tapped my
ear-stud with one finger, trying to see if there was something wrong with it.
The Pokemon conversation suddenly
snapped back into English, as Anticairon said, “And keep an eye on your
Trainer. He’s still young, and not as mature as he’d like to think he is.”
“Hey!”
Anticairon looked past her daughter and at me,
a smirk emerging from a face that couldn’t really stretch. “Oh, you heard that.
I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean it.” Sarcasm almost dripped from Anticairon’s
tongue as she spoke.
Rolling my eyes, I made eye contact
with Ani and nodded. Pressing a button on the side of my Poke-nav, I ended the
call, and put the Poke-Nav in my pocket. Leaning back into my chair, I looked
out at the torrential rain-pour gloomily.
“You know, looking at it isn’t gonna make it go away.” Katrina pulled up her chair beside mine. Dirden waddled after her on his small stout legs unable to fly under the canopy. The look on his face showed that he felt the same way about the rain as me.
He had been
forbidden to go out in the rain since earlier today, when he had returned with
numerous icicles stuck to his wings. It had taken two hours of effort between
me and Ashlee to get them off, because simply tearing them off would have
ripped the thin membrane that made of most of Dirden’s wings, and fire would
have caused a lot of pain to Dirden. In the end, I had to completely freeze
Dirden with my powers while Ashlee ‘sliced’ off the icicles.
“Says who? I’m just gonna glare at
it until it goes away. Hopefully it won’t be as stubborn as you kids.” I said,
resting my chin on my hand. My ‘kids’, I was referring to the three others who
were younger than me. Namely; Katrina, Nick and Brendan.
Jumping up on Katrina’s lap, Dirden
threw me at glare for the slight at his Mistress. His ice-blue, stubby horn
glinted ominously in the camp-fire’s light, so I decided to keep quiet. I was
still tired from Dirden earlier.
Stretching out my legs, I focused my
eyes on something closer, which was basically Brendan’s stew. I gazed at it, my
brow furrowed, as I thought about several things at once.
We were still a day or two away from
Romanc. We had passed the fork in the path that lead to either Romanc or Rorroh
two days ago. We hadn’t gotten much further along, since then, but we were
definitely on the way to Romanc.
My mind suddenly flashed to the Gym of Romanc City.
It was a Light Gym, which would probably contain rare Pokemon
like Heleon, the Light Evolution of Eevee, and Holiopus, the small Angel Cat
Pokemon, which were said to go around, giving small treats to people who did
kind deeds. Light Pokemon would be tricky to beat; they only had two
weaknesses, one of which was also weak to light. Dark was weak against Light
attacks, while it was strong against the actual Pokemon. The whole thing gave
me a headache, unless I thought of the thing as a whole. The other weakness
that Light had was
Groaning in frustration, I stood up
and walked into my tent, and walked out with a box of tissues and a book. The
book was the last one I hadn’t read, I had managed to go through all 25 of the
other books that we had all brought with us.
Sitting down again, a faint nagging at the back of my mind began, like a small itch. My eyes focused on my book, I threw up a Psychic shield around Artemis as he bounded under the canopy and shook himself like a Growlithe. After reading two pages, I lowered the shield and released Artemis. He tucked himself into a ball and hurtled forward, stopping just short of my chair, before turning slightly and rolling into my tent. Looking up from my book, my eyes followed him as I watched him zip out of my tent and around the camp.
Brendan had stopped cooking to watch,
a carefully blank look on his face. Katrina was just looking at wherever Artemis
was going, a smirk covering her face.
I covered my eyes and shook my head
as Artemis stopped just before he rolled into the fire and changed direction
again.
Rain, I had discovered, made Artemis
act like a 5 year-old on sugar, steroids and Coke. I hadn’t been able to make
him sit still for ten seconds since the rain had started. I hadn’t seen him
since last night, actually. I presumed that he had been running around the
woods, disturbing other Pokemon.
He finally stopped at my feet, and
started bouncing on his own. Looking up at me, he chattered at a rate I could
understand. Holding up a hand, I motioned for him to stop and slow down.
Taking a deep breath, he said,
“There’sanothercampaboutfiveminutesawayfromhere.Thereisonlyonetrainerandhelooksabitlonely.Sowhydon’tweinvitehimover? I’llinvitehimover!I’llbebackinthetimeittakesforDirdenandKattodrinktheircoffee.”
With that, he was gone before I could even answer. I was left with my mouth
hanging open.
It took a little longer than 20
seconds for Artemis to get back, but when he did, he
was accompanied by a boy who looked a little younger than me. He was drenched
with water, and didn’t look overly happy, in contrast to Artemis, who was
proceeding to dash around the campsite again.
A purple sheet appearing above the
boy’s head announced Ashlee’s presence as she emerged form her tent, looking
like she had just woken up. Looking at the size of the area she was protecting,
I whistled slightly. I couldn’t managed half that distance and be able to
maintain it while half-asleep. I couldn’t really do it at all, even with my TWT
turned all the way up to its highest level.
The boy nodded his thanks to Ashlee, blue eyes meeting with her hazel. Behind the boy, a cape dripped with water. I raised my eyebrow at it. Wouldn’t it get stuck on things, and be incredibly heavy right now? Shaking my head, I looked at his belt. Three full Pokeballs rested there, sheltering the Pokemon inside. His hair; black with golden streaks through it, was almost as wet as his cape.
Standing up, I placed the book on my
chair carefully and walked over to the boy. He seemed unsure about what I was
going to do, as he watched me carefully. Extending my hand, I said, “Hi, I’m
Sam.”
“I’m Jason.” He grabbed my hand and
shook it briskly.
Motioning to the rain shield above
our heads, I asked him, “Why don’t you set up your tent? The food is nearly
ready, and should be done by the time you are.”
Jason shrugged and slung his pack to
the ground. Grabbing a white Premier Ball from his belt, he pressed the release
button on it. Red energy sizzled from the button, hitting the ground and a
Pokemon materialised there. When it was done, I was left looking at an
Alakazam.
I blinked. This kid looked younger
than me, but I was almost certain he wasn’t a beginner. I’d need to see his
other Pokemon first though, to finish my ‘analysis’.
“Ok Houdini, can you set up my
tent?” Jason asked, stepping under the canopy that sheltered the campfire and
chairs. Looking over my shoulder at him, I wondered why he was letting his
Pokemon do it. That became obvious when his tent appeared a few seconds later,
fully assembled. The canopy stretched out a bit, until Jason’s tent sheltered
with our own.
I looked at the Alakazam blankly.
“Well, I guess that’s one way to do it.”
The Alakazam
nodded gravely in response.
Thirty minutes later, and we
gathered around the fire, eating the stew that Brendan had made. The lightning
had finished its break as Sheet Lightning, and had resumed come closer to the
earth.
Not that Zeus minded, in fact, I
think he was having fun!
“So, Jason, where are you from?” I
asked, before spooning a mouthful of stew into my mouth.
Jason looked startled at being
addressed, but a crooked grin covered his face a few seconds later. “I’m from
I spent the next few seconds cursing
Janera. Because of it, the rain in Dictioy lasted ages. “Lesre, that’s a
Mega-City, isn’t it?”
Jason nodded. On the ground next to
him, a Pichu was eating some Pokefood, occasionally having some stolen from him
by Sparx, Nick’s Pichu. In revenge, Jason’s Pichu zapped Sparx a few times, his
control over electricity better than Sparx’s.
I chewed thoughtfully. I wasn’t
planning to go to Lesre at all, but the others might. It was famous for its
economy, because it was right at the border of three countries, Dictioy, Janera
and Poligem.
Lightning snapping right above us
drew me out of my thoughts as I winced. I really hated loud noises. Putting up
a small rain shield, I peaked out from under the canvas to look at Zeus. He was
instantly visible, being the only cloud that stayed in one place, and was
repeatedly struck with lightning.
Although he was absorbing the
lightning, Zeus was doing as the other clouds in the storm were, and raining
heavily. Bad moods were running rampant in our camp, which would also account
for his raining on us.
Rolling my eyes at the cloud
Pokemon, I withdrew my head out of the rain and under the cover of the canopy,
shaking the water out of my hair and spraying the others with it. From their
mutters and scowls, I could tell they didn’t like it. Flashing them a grin, I
took another huge mouthful of the stew.
Artemis suddenly raced back into the
campsite, still acting hyperactive. Dashing around my chair, he darted between
my feet every time he made a circuit.
“Samsamsamsamsamsamsamsam.IfoundHopeintheforestnearbyandsherecognisedmeandsheactuallywantedtotalktoyouandshesaidshepromisesnottoactallmeanandgrouchywhileyougoseeherokokokokokokokokokokbyebye!” Artemis raced out of the campsite,
faster than he had come in. Relaying what he had said through my mind, at a
slower pace, I groaned.
“Hope wants to see you?” Katrina’s
eyebrows snapped together in an almost audible click. “That can’t be good.”
“Who’s Hope?” Brendan and Ashlee
asked at the same time. They exchanged a glare, obviously horrified that they
had had the same thought.
“A girl I met in
I frowned at Nick. “You aren’t
coming?”
“Well, she wanted you, not us.” Nick
replied, his mouth curved into a small, sarcastic
grin.
“I’ll go.” Ashlee piped up. “Just in case.”
“You sure? Hope can get pretty, uh, cranky, to
put it politely, sometimes.” Standing up, Katrina began to gather the dirty
plates, cups and cutlery. “But if you want to go, we won’t stop you.”
“Ok.” Ashlee
shrugged. “Anyway, I doubt we’ll find anyone for a ten-mile radius who could
beat me and Sam combined.”
“You know, if you come back beaten,
you won’t have anyone to blame but yourself after that statement. Nick said,
nodding his head wisely.
Five minutes later found me and
Ashlee trudging through the wet forest, dodging logs, Pokemon, and on the rare
occasion, Artemis. After nearly breaking my neck when I almost tripped over
him, I resolved to put Artemis in his Pokeball the next time I saw him. After
another ten minutes of wandering, I realised something: We didn’t know where
Hope was. Shaking my head at my own stupidity, I sought out my mental link with
Artemis and opened it.
Artemis, just where IS Hope?
Didn’t I tell you? Artemis’s mental voice sounded surprised. I thought I did. Oh well, I’ll lead the way since it’s gonna be hard to
find her.
And just how are you gonna find-! I cut off my mental connection when Artemis burst out of
the bush to my left, startling a small scream from Ashlee and causing me to
jump. Glaring at Artemis, I raised my eyebrow.
“Follow me, follow me, don’t get
lost, don’t get lost.” Artemis called, slowing his
voice down to an understandable tempo. Rolling my eyes, I chased after Artemis
as he ran this way and that. I seriously though he was
leading us in circles, when the flicker of a camp-fire caught my eye through
the trees. Stopping so suddenly that Ashlee rammed into the back of me,
my mind flashed through what I was going to do. Looking over my shoulder, I
looked at Ashlee and told her,
“Stay here, unless I call for you.”
Ashlee nodded, looking grateful for the chance to rest, and walked over to a
tree, sitting down on the dry ground under it. With Ashlee went her
rain-shield. Glaring up at the stormy skies, I walked towards the campfire and
Hope.
As I entered the clearing, Hope
looked up. She was under a small pavilion-like tent, her fire burning on the
ground under the pavilion. When she saw me, she visibly stiffened, before
relaxing slightly. “Hi Sam.”
I raised an eyebrow at her friendly
tone. Walking forward slowly, I put my hands behind my back, making it look
like I was taking a leisurely walk forward. In reality, I was taking advantage
of her not being able to see my hands, by turning up my Telepathic Wave Translator on my wristband.
Energy flooded my body, before I became used to it. I shook my head to clear
some of the fuzzy feeling, and then noticed that Hope was looking at my eyes.
“What?”
“Uh, your eyes, they’re glowi–
actually, never mind.” Hope cut herself off, looking down at her shoes. When
she looked up again, she looked slightly worried. “You must be wondering why I
asked your Mudkip to bring you here.”
“Seeing as I’m not one for asking
long questions, yes. Why did you ask Artemis to bring me here?” I said shortly.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I stood barely inside Hope’s pavilion, looking
at her, trying my best not to glare.
Shutting her eyes and inhaling, Hope
definitely looked nervous. When she opened her eyes, she gave me a small smile.
“I asked him to bring you here, so that I could apologise.”
Whatever she was going to say, that
hadn’t been what I had been expecting. I blinked in confusion and opened my
mouth to answer, when she continued.
“You see, I don’t really travel that
well. Well, travel on an aeroplane, ships, cars,
whatever. And I didn’t really want to leave my family and friends. I only
entered the contest because all my friends were going in it. “Hope suddenly
smiled crookedly. “They knew I didn’t take the contest seriously, but you
should have seen their faces when they heard that I had won.” Shaking her head
in amusement, Hope suddenly remembered herself and looked up at me again.
“Anyway, I didn’t really want to leave my friends, and that made me cranky. And
the day before I left for
I raised my eyebrow again. It
sounded unlikely that she could be mad that long, before getting over it. “And
what stopped you from being so angry?”
“Maroon did, my Yoryu. Actually, he
isn’t a Yoryu anymore.” Taking her hand down to her belt, she grabbed a Pokeball.
Pressing the release button, a Yoryak appeared in front of me. Unlike the
crimson Yoryu, the Yoryak was a cerulean blue. Frowning, I grabbed my Pokedex
and pointed it at ‘Maroon’ the blue Yoryak.
“Yoryak, the water buffalo Pokemon. This Pokemon family is unique in that every time it evolves, it changes
to a completely different element. The Yoryak is a water-type, unlike its Fiery pre-evolution, Yoryu. This Pokemon is also smarter
than Yoryu, it’s blood being more evenly circulated
around the body, but is centred around its tail.”
Looking down at the Pokedex, I
wondered at the load of useless information before I looked up at Hope again.
Biting my lip, I thought on what she had said. “Well,” I began. “I forgive you.
But, just remember, this had better not be a trick.”
Hope’s eyes widened. “Oh, it isn’t!
I mean it, I truly am sorry!”
“Ok, ok, calm down. Well, seeing as
we aren’t on bad terms anymore, I guess I should invite you to come and stay
with my group, until the storm passes.” I finished reluctantly, before nodding.
If she meant to do anything, I preferred she did it with my friends nearby.
Hope looked surprised at the offer,
but her face softened. “Sure. It has been a little lonely here. Just let me get
packed up.”
“Oh, there’s no need to do that.” I
finished with a grin. Sending my mental waves towards my camp, they centred in
on the brain of Jason’s Alakazam. Hey, Houdini. Can you
do me a favour?
The red-furred human speaks. What would you have of me, human boy? Houdini’s voice sounded in my mind,
sounding deep-chested with a slight accent that I couldn’t place.
Can you teleport me, the brown-haired girl and everything in this
campsite, including the green-haired girl back to the campsite? I crossed my fingers. Alakazams could be temperamental if they weren’t approached the right
way. With I.Qs of 5000, they had good reason to be.
The boy has asked a favour. I shall oblige, as thanks that you have put
up my master and myself.
A golden glow filled my eyes, and an
instant later, I was looking at my campsite again. Ashlee was right beside me,
looking surprised. Hope was on my other side, looking around curiously. Hope’s
camp-gear was closer to the actual camp, and from the looks of it, Houdini had
even stretched the canvas to the entrance of her tent. Seven tents were now
around a single campfire.
Nick, Kat, Brendan and Jason looked
at me, Ashlee and Hope, plainly wondering where we had come from. I grinned,
and set off to get under the canopy. I was already too wet for my tastes.
That night, all seven of us gathered
around a larger campfire. We had had to enlarge it, unless we wanted to get
really close physically. Katrina and me had gone out
on firewood duty again, seeing as there probably wouldn’t be enough wood. By
the time we had gotten back with enough firewood, Brendan was starting on
dinner, and Nick was teaching the Pokemon some English. Katrina had been
teaching them to read and write, but had given up when the Pokemon had started
reading faster than she could. Nick was teaching them some of the finer points
of the language, such as grammar and spelling.
“You wanna
know the one good thing about all this rain?” Jason said, breaking the silence.
We were all bored, and had discussed, and worn out, several topics earlier. It
left us with little to say and little to do.
“What?” I asked wearily, wondering
if I was going to like the answer or not.
“If lightning hits a tree, we won’t
need to worry about a forest fire.” Jason said, looking out at the forest.
Lightning flashed in the distance, the thunder muffled by all the rain.
“Yeah, we just need to worry about
falling branches crushing us.” Nick said dryly. Most of the Pokemon were
asleep, apart from Artemis, who had seen since he had led me to Hope’s camp.
Holding in a yawn, I stood up and stretched.
“Well, I dunno about you, but I’m
gonna go to bed.” I told everyone. “You know, we have a big day of sitting
around, and doing nothing!” Giving a small wave, I escaped into my tent, wondering
what tomorrow would bring. On my pillow, Hera gave a small, sleepy chirp. Her
long tail feathers hung down along the back of my pillow. Getting changed
quickly because of the cold, I got into my sleeping bag carefully, trying not
to disturb Hera. In my wake, Pokemon started to file into the tent. Dirden,
Drogan, Electra, Sparx, Jason’s Pichu, all the Pokemon came into my tent,
excluding Houdini and Maroon. Smiling softly, I rolled onto my stomach and
stroked Hera with one hand. In response, she began to coo gently, a sound that
seemed to clam my nerves. My eyes jerked down, and sleep took me.