CHAPTER 21
THE WHIRLPOOL
'So,' Kamon said to me as we were preparing to leave, 'how'd you do it?'
I grinned. 'My boyish charm, of course,' I replied, sarcastically. Kamon smiled and shook his head. Carly walked from the counter at the Pokécenter and over to us.
'Are you two ready to go?' she asked.
'Ready when you are,' I said.
'All right, then. Our next stop is an island called Mandarin Island. It doesn't have a gym, but we should Surf out to there, and then to Tangerine Island the next day,' said Carly.
'Sounds good to me,' I said.
We left the Pokécenter, and sent out our Pokémon: Kamon with his Corsola, me with my Feraligatr, and Carly with her Vaporeon. We hopped into the water, and continued our journey.
Kamon turned to me and said, 'You hired her as a navigator?'
'Well...' I started. 'Yeah.' I turned to Carly. 'Your brother can take care of the gym while you're gone, right?'
'Of course,' Carly responded. 'I was planning on leaving, anyway. This just gives me a chance to see the world earlier.' She thought for a moment, and then continued. 'Where are you guys planning on heading anyway? I mean, after the Orange League?'
'You ever hear of Gehta?' Kamon asked.
'Hmm...' Carly thought aloud. 'I think so. Isn't it some land north of Kanto?'
'Yeah,' I answered.
'Then what are you doing here?'
'Well...er, you see...' I stuttered.
'We lost in the Prime League,' Kamon took over, 'and we have come here to train.'
'Ah.'
We continued to Surf across the ocean. Day shifted to evening, and then into night. However, there was an unnatural darkness to the sky.
'A storm's brewing,' Carly said. 'We should find an island to land on, but the closest one is Mandarin Island. It's too far away, though...'
'Then we must make haste, and get there as soon as possible,' said Kamon. 'Corsola, we need to move faster. Let's go!' Carly and I also told our Pokémon to move faster.
Half-way there, according to Carly, we came across a small problem: there was a giant whirlpool blocking our path.
'We cannot go around it,' Carly said. 'It's too wide. We could try, but who knows what else is on the side of it?'
'It's our only choice,' I replied. 'Lest we go through it.'
'We'll have to,' Kamon said. Rain splattered up against his head. 'We need all of our Pokémon to use Whirlpool at the same time. Ready, go!' All of us charged into the giant whirlpool, and all of our Pokémon used Whirlpool at the same time. However, it wasn't working. We got about half-way across, and failed. We got sucked down, swirling, swirling, until the darkness overwhelmed us.
* * *
When I woke up, Kamon, Carly, and I were on an island. Laying on the beach, in the sun. 'Where are we?' I asked. I turned to my left. Carly was unconscious. I turned to my right, where Kamon was sitting on a rock. I walked over to Carly and shook her. She slowly opened her eyes.
'Hey,' I said, 'you okay?'
'Hm, what?' Carly said. She looked up and saw me. 'Get off of me, you creep!' she yelled, pushing me.
'Hey, I was just trying to wake you up!' I retorted.
'He wasn't doing anything wrong,' Kamon added.
Carly sighed. 'All right, and thanks anyway,' she said. 'Now, where are we?'
'We're not sure, yet,' Kamon said. He hopped off of the boulder and then walked over to us. He helped me up, and I helped Carly up. 'Regardless, we're going to have to get off of here and get to the next island.'
'But how are we supposed to do that,' Carly interrupted, 'if we don't know where we are?'
'Well, we can always just use Fly and try to see where we are,' I remarked.
'We could,' Carly said, 'but it would be difficult.'
'Better than staying around here and doing nothing.'
'Tell you what,' Kamon said, 'why don't we set up a camp or something, get something to eat, and then go from there?'
'Sounds good to me,' I said, turning to Carly.
'All right,' she said.
I was responsible for finding sticks for the fire, while Kamon prepared the food. Carly found a waterfall. Her part was done. She opted to take a shower while there.
I continued on my little quest for wood. I hadn't found many, but I stumbled across a large area of trees-good for wood. As I was picking up sticks, I came across the clearing with the waterfall. Carly was standing there, in the nude, bathing. I dropped the sticks and ducked behind a log.
'Hello?' Carly called out.
I cleared my voice. 'Yeah, it was just me. I didn't know you were back here...'
'Oh...no, that's okay,' Carly replied. I raised an eyebrow. 'I was getting out anyway.' I crept out from behind the log, and picked up the branches I dropped. I glanced up again; Carly was wrapped in a towel. Where she got it, I hadn't a clue. 'If you want to take a bath,' she continued, 'you may do so. I'm going back to the camp.'
'That's all right,' I said, 'I just need to gather wood for the fire.'
Carly slipped on some clothes. 'I'll help you, if you want. I mean, I'm not doing anything else, so I figure I could help,' she offered.
'Thanks,' I said. The two of us continued to pick up twigs. After we decided that we had enough branches, we went back to the camp.
'Where have you two been?' Kamon exclaimed. He took the twigs from us, and lit the fire with his Typhlosion. We ate dinner (soup), and then laid our sleeping bags down.
In the morning, we put our sleeping bags away and got our stuff together. Kamon sent out his Delibird and flew off, trying to find another island. Meanwhile, Carly and I stayed behind.
'It seems,' Carly said, 'like you two know where you are going. Kamon is trying to find the next island by himself.'
'Yeah...' I replied.
Carly paused for a moment, and then continued. 'Which means that you aren't in need of a guide, are you?'
'Well, um...' I started. Should I tell her the truth, or just make up something? I thought. 'Honestly, no, we didn't need a guide. I just wanted you to come with us because...well, I like you.'
'Wow. Um, I'm...I'm not exactly sure what to say,' Carly stuttered.
'You don't have to say anything,' I replied. I couldn't even look her in the eyes.
'Okay,' she said. She leaned over to me and kissed me. I was taken aback.
Kamon came back. 'Well, I saw another island, about fifteen miles to the south. We should be able to reach it before evening if we leave now.'
'All right,' I said. I helped Carly up. We left the mysterious island, and onto the next one. Which one it was, we didn't know, but it would put us one step closer to our goal.