The Long and Winding Road
By: BetterButterBuddha
Chapter 12: A Friend In The Bay

July 9th, 2000 Trovita Bay

I decided to head to Trovita Island because of a radio program I had heard yesterday. It was getting kind of boring in the catamaran, so I had turned the radio to Mary Cambridge’s radio talk show. They frequently get shows of particular interest to pokemon trainers, and I thought that I might be able to find some useful information. What I found was just the lead I needed.

“So, what exactly is this new exhibit about?” asked the always cheerful Mary.

“Well, we’ve managed to acquire a very rare find indeed. The Trovita Museum of Anthropology is always on the lookout for new artifacts, and I must say we were stunned when we found these particular ones. They have been named the ‘Falsewall’ artifacts because of their unusual origin. We found them in an unexplored area of Kanto, directly above Indigo Plateau.”

“What was so unusual about that?”

“You see, we found them in what looked to be a shrine to the pokemon, Mew. The outer surface was originally written in the same language of the find at the Alph ruins. We had just begun the arduous process of translating all of the inscriptions when something went terribly awry. A young pokemon trainer had been found just north of the excavation area. He had a very high-level golem with him, and they were practicing against wild pokemon near the site. Apparently, he had gotten in a fight with a wild golbat, which confused his golem with a very powerful supersonic wave. The result was both disastrous, and also incredible. The confused golem began a rollout attack, and hit right into the north side of the ruins. The wall was destroyed. Having heard the noise, my team and I packed up and ran to see what had happened. When we arrived, the trainer explained what happened, and we were about to call the police for destruction of public property, when we noticed something interesting about the wall which the golem had demolished,” said the scientist being interviewed.

“So then what happened?” pried Mary.

“The Golem’s collision had indeed destroyed a wall, but what we found out was: it was a hollow wall. We later discovered that that wall was put there by a totally different culture to keep grave robbers out. But anyway, where the wall once stood, there was a giant cavity leading about one-hundred and fifty feet into the earth’s crust. Our team of archeologists began a totally new excavation, and thus found the Falsewall artifacts.”

“So who made these important artifacts? Why are they so important to the anthropological world?” asked Mary.

“We can’t be positive which culture made the artifacts, but we think that their origin was done by the same unknown source which put the tablets depicting Lugia in Stillwater Island (in the Orange Archipelago) 16,400 years ago. The writing is very ancient, and quite different from the inscriptions on the outside of the shrine. This leads us to believe that the writings on the wall were done by a different source than the ones who made the Falsewall artifacts.

The artifacts themselves are very interesting. Some of them have depictions of Lugia, similar to the ones in Stillwater Island. One of particular interest shows Lugia erupting into flame. Several other artifacts show pictures of certain places in the Orange Islands. You can find out more about the Falsewall artifacts by visiting the Trovita Island Anthropological Museum. Thank you for having me, Mary,” said the long winded pokemon researcher.

“Well, thank you, Professor. But for now, we’ve got to go. This is Mary Cambridge signing off, for Pokemon World Today. Tune in next time for…” I turned the radio off.

That was the best lead I had gotten yet. Maybe I could learn something about Lugia’s location from the artifacts. It’s quite a stretch, but even a 16,400 year old culture may be able to give me some information. Even myth is rooted in fact. I began a course for Trovita Island.

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So there I sat, in my catamaran, speeding towards Trovita Island. I could see some of the skyscrapers off in the distance, and several other boats (a rare sight for me) were off in the harbor, mostly fishing. Trovita is one of the largest of the Islands, so I would probably stay a while.

My hands gripped the steering wheel, and I moved the catamaran’s sail against the wind in order to keep the speed up. I guessed the direction of the wind wrong, and we were shoved back again by the wind. I began to adjust the catamaran accordingly, however, just as I did so, something hit against the left side of the cockpit. “What the hell was that?” I exclaimed. Determined to defend the boat at any cost, I grabbed Mareep’s pokeball and crawled out of the cockpit.

A large pokemon had been coasting off the excess wind from my sail. It had a blue dorsal side, and a grey underside. A small, ribbon-like tail came out from its back end. Beady eyes looked into mine, and I nodded. A mantine had been following us. It must have bumped into the boat when I guessed the direction of the wind incorrectly, and thus slowed down suddenly.

“What do you want?” I asked gently, curious of the angelic, ethereal sea kite. It gave a pokemon smile, and started to glide around the boat, just above the surface of the water. Ripples, similar to those of a speedboat, began to form on the surface of the calm bay waters as Mantine glided around the catamaran, circling it with grace.

I interpreted this as a kind of sign language. The main reason that it had followed me in the first place, I thought, was so it could glide without any effort on the excess draft from my sails. Dolphins do a similar act, gliding on the currents of large ocean liners. I had some time to spare, so I quickly went into the cockpit, put it on autopilot, and climbed back onto the surface again.

Unsurprisingly, Mantine was following along in the breeze from my sails. As its arms picked up to catch more of the draft, it was easy to see why Mantine was commonly called the Kite pokemon. Its tail even drifted in the breeze in the same fashion as a kite’s tail.

So there we were, just drifting like fools in Trovita Bay. After about an hour of this meandering, I felt a visible rumbling in my stomach. Thus, I grabbed a sandwich in the cockpit and began to eat it. I suppose the scent from my shoddily made peanut butter and jelly had somehow been picked up by whatever nose a mantine has, and it glided over to me almost the same instant that I had finished unwrapping the plastic wrap.

“What?” I asked questioningly. Mantine cocked its head to one side, and let out a kind of pathetic sigh.

“No way. It’s just not going to happen,” I exclaimed.

That comment brought out an even more pitiful sigh. Unfortunately, I’ve got a soft spot for cute pokemon who make soft, begging noises. I rolled my eyes as I wondered why I was handing my only lunch to a water pokemon that wasn’t even mine.

After a little while, even this odd display of me feeding a wild pokemon became boring. “Okay, mantine, I’ve got to go now. It’s been really lovely having you with me, but I’ve got places to go, people to see. You know. Maybe I’ll see you sometime later, but if I don’t, well, have a good life,” I said. The pokemon suddenly became disappointed and thus floated a little closer to the surface of the water. “Sorry,” I said as I climbed back into the cockpit.

Less than half an hour later, the catamaran, with me inside it, drifted into the Harbor of Trovita. In an attempt to get a better look at the way I was going to dock the boat, I stuck my head out the cockpit.

I shouldn’t have been surprised, but it was still here. The Mantine I had befriended earlier showed no intentions of leaving the boat, so I crawled out of the boat and began a conversation (one-sided, of course) with it.

“You know, I’ve got no food left. So if that’s what you’re looking for, I’m afraid you’ll get none of it,” I informed the sea creature. It smiled. Apparently, that wasn’t the reason that it was still following me.

“What do you want, a diamond? Scram!” I shouted. The Mantine looked disappointed, and began to drift off. When I saw it turn around remorsefully, I guess I couldn’t help myself.

“Wait!” I shouted, “Did you… want to follow me?” The mantine sharply turned around smiled furiously at me. Presumably, because Mantine do not have necks, and therefore no way to nod, that meant yes.

“I don’t think you know what you’re getting into. You don’t even know my name, which is, by the way, Vincent. I expect a lot of effort out of all the pokemon I train. I give a lot back, but I don’t think that every pokemon in the world would appreciate being trained. If you came with me, you’d most likely never see this bay again. True, you’d be able to travel around all of the orange islands, but would it be worth the sacrifice you’d be making? Think before you answer,” I said. Mantine stopped dead in its tracks, and so began to sink into the water.

After this brief hiatus, mantine sighed, and picked itself up from the sea. It smiled at me, and began to circle around the boat once again. I nodded.

“Alright, I’ll take you in. Welcome to the team!” I said joyfully. I got out a pokeball, and threw the red and white ball at Mantine. It was immediately enveloped by the red light, and drawn into the ball. The ball shot back into the air with the same force it had been thrown with, and I caught the ball in my arms. The red light on the front had already dimmed, and so I caught my newest pokemon. I put her ball back into my pocket, and continued to find a parking space for the catamaran amongst all the other boats in the harbor. I finally found an adequate space, and proceeded to crawl out of the cockpit. I tied the boat around a post, and walked out onto the dock. A zephyr blew past me, and my hair got tossed out into the wind. A smile escaped my face, and I walked off into the city.