CHAPTER 17
THE JOURNEY SOUTH


We traveled south, to Cinnabar Island.  Apparently, the Orange Islands were pretty far south from Cinnabar.  We had to Surf down to Cinnabar, and then Surf down to the Orange Islands.
This was not an easy task; the distance between Cinnabar Island and the Orange Islands was a great one.  The ocean was also very choppy, since it was a windy day.
'We should wait a day,' I suggested.
'No,' Kamon refused. 'We'll be a day behind, and I do not want to get behind in our journey.  Time is of the essence.'
'It's not that important,' I objected.
'If we want to get back to Gehta and beat Crystal as soon as we can, it is,' Kamon responded.
'We don't have to rush ourselves,' I said.
Kamon paused for a minute before replying.  'This is unlike you, Drew.'
'How?' I questioned.
'I would think that you, of all people, would want to get back at Crystal.'
I nodded.  'Yeah,' I said.  'But I think I have taken a small lesson from you-to savor the journey.  For the journey is the most important part of our quest, right?'
Kamon smiled.  'Yeah...'
Kamon hopped on his Corsola, and I climbed on top of Feraligatr.  We Surfed as far as we could, until we came to a small island.
'We should stop here,' Kamon said, 'and switch our Pokémon.'
'All right.'  I recalled the exhausted Feraligatr, and sent out Lugia.  Kamon sent out Delibird.
Lugia skimmed the surface of the water as he flew off toward the Orange Islands.  Kamon and I stopped off at another island on our way down.  It was growing close to evening.
'It's too late to continue,' said Kamon.  'We can stop here for the night.'
We recalled our Pokémon, and put down some sleeping bags.  We went to sleep almost immediately.  However, we were awoken in the middle of the night by a strange noise.
'The hell was that?' Kamon cursed.  He stood up and picked up his Pokéballs.  I did the same.
'I dunno,' I replied.  'I sounded like it came from over there.'  I pointed to woods behind us.  'We need to go see what it is.'
'We don't need to, but we should,' Kamon said.  'Just to see what it is.'  We walked into the woods, in search of whatever it was that made the sound.  I almost found it completely pointless.  Almost.
The forest was quite dark (aside from the fact the it was night), and it made it hard to see.  I was forced to call out my Ampharos and have him use Flash.  After an hour or two of searching, we came up empty handed.
'I think we should call it a night,' I said.  'This is stupid.'
'True.  But...' Kamon replied.
'But what?' I asked.
'Which way is the way back?'  We stood around, trying to think of which way to go; neither of us knew.
'Why don't we use our Flying Pokémon to Fly us out of here?' I proposed.  Kamon pointed up.  The trees blocked out the sky.  There was a think canopy over our heads, preventing any way out.  'Ah, that's a good reason.'  Suddenly, Ampharos turned around, and started running away from us.  'Ampharos, where'ya going?' I shouted.  Ampharos motioned for us to follow him.
We chased my Pokémon through the woods, until he finally stopped, in front of a stone temple-type of thing.  What it was exactly, I wasn't sure.  Ampharos motioned for us to follow him inside.
We walked inside the dark temple.  Ampharos's Flash was not enough to illuminate the temple, so Kamon sent out his Typhlosion.  We traveled to the center of the relatively small temple, where a statue of a Pokémon was.
'What Pokémon is it?' I asked Kamon.  He shrugged.
'Maybe if I use Max,' Kamon said, pulling out his Pokédex.
'Unidentifiable,' Max said.
'Ah, thanks Max.  That was a lot of help,' Kamon commented sarcastically.
The statue was of two Pokémon-one was a small bird, and the other looked exactly like the other, but larger, and with arms.
Kamon looked down, toward my belt.  'Hey, Drew,' he said, 'your Pokéballs are glowing.'
I also looked down.  The Pokéballs containing Lugia and Ho-oh were glowing.  I released the two Pokémon.  Lugia and Ho-oh were, to say the least, in a state of shock when they saw the statue.  They stepped back, in awe and then let out a cry.  Lugia fired an Aeroblast into one side of the statue, illuminating the larger bird.  It glowed blue.  Ho-oh fired a Sacred Fire into the other side, making the smaller bird glow red.  Lugia and Ho-oh then turned to me and nudged at my back pack.  I searched through it, not knowing what to take out.
'I don't know what you want!' I told my Pokémon.  I started to take things out of my back pack, and when I passed Lugia's Silver Feather and Ho-oh's Rainbow Feather, my Pokémon stopped me.  I took the two feathers out, and placed them in two slots in the statue.  The entire temple lit up, but still nothing big was happening.  'Now what?' I asked, turning to Kamon.
'Maybe there's something else that you need to put in there.  Something sacred,' he responded.  I thought for a moment, and then came up with the perfect item.
Sacred Fire, the Feathers, and now something else sacred, I thought.  Sacred Ash!
I took a small container out of my back pack.  There was grey dust in it.  I walked over to the statue again, and looked around.  In between the two birds was a small hole.  I placed the Sacred Ash in the hole.  Suddenly, the entire temple started to shake and crumble.  Kamon, the Pokémon, and I ran out of the temple.  We turned around, just to watch the green temple collapse onto itself.  However, two glowing birds flew out of it rubble.
'We unleashed two Pokémon,' I said.  'They must be legendary or something...'  The red and the blue bird Pokémon screeched, and then flew away.  I called Ho-oh to my side, and hopped on.  'Come on, Ho-oh, we're chasing after them.'  Ho-oh refused.  'What!?  You're supposed to obey me!  Now let's go!'
'Drew,' Kamon intervened, 'I don't think that they want to chase after them.  Nor are they supposed to.'
I sighed.  'I know, but I just wanted to...catch them...or something...'  Kamon beckoned me to follow him back to the campsite.  I recalled my Pokémon and followed Kamon back onto the beach.  The sun was about to rise, and the sky was growing brighter.  We gathered our stuff, and prepared to leave again.
We left the island, and then Surfed to the next island, where we found a Pokécenter.  Kamon decided to call Professor Elm.
After the Professor picked up the phone, Kamon spoke.  'Hey, Professor Elm,' Kamon said.  'I wanted to tell you about two Pokémon we saw.'  Kamon slipped his Pokédex into the slot under the computer screen.
'Hm...,' Elm said thoughtfully.  'I may have something useful for you, if you encounter any other Pokémon like this.  It's a new Pokédex.'  A slightly different looking Pokédex came out of the slot underneath the computer screen.
'Thanks, Professor,' Kamon said.  He took out the Pokédex and put it in his back pack.  Elm and Kamon talked for a little while.  While they did, I healed both Kamon's Pokémon and my Pokémon.
'Ready to go?' I asked, after Kamon ended the call.
'I think,' Kamon said, 'since we're down south and all-and it's hot-that I should cut my hair.'
I was taken aback.  'Oh?'
'Yeah.  Back to the way it was when I first started.  C'mon, let's go.'  I followed Kamon out of the Pokécenter, and to a barber shop.  Kamon cut his hair short, except for a single clump of hair in front.  He put on a hat, letting the clump of hair stick out.
'So,' I started, 'what are you going to name this Pokédex?'
Kamon thought for a minute, and then answered.  'Bob,' he said.  'I'll name it Bob.'
We laughed about it.
We then traveled off to the next island, and our first Orange Island battle.