Prologue

The night was absolutely and completely calm. The rippling of the waters against the riverbank was the only sound. A Houndour crept silently through the grass, its eyes glinting in the moonlight, but no other dogs of the night followed it.

Then, softly, the waters stirred. Three shapes began to emerge from downstream. They moved as gracefully as a falling leaf, with majesty that could only belong to a Gyarados.

“Yash Gya-yash?” asked one of the Gyarados to the side. Lord Gya-yash?

“Gy?” replied the middle Gyarados. What is it?

“Yasha.” Our enemy.

“Gy... gy?” What about him?

“Asha yash. Gya-yash yash.” The Pokemon around us stir. Be on the lookout.

“Gya.” Yes, I will.

Gya-yash paused and the two Gyarados alongside him halted as well. Gya-yash lowered his head and felt the little Magikarp against his whiskers. “Gyasha-yash,” he said softly.

“Gya-yash!” called the Gyarados that hadn’t spoken yet. His tone was in alarm. Gya-yash looked up. The ground was shaking.

“Asha-asha ahsh!” Asha-asha is here!

Gya-yash didn’t need to be told. As Yash of the Lake Gyarados, he
knew that Asha-asha, as the Lake Gyarados called him, was their natural enemy. But it was too late to do anything right now.

The Sea Gyarados slithered like Arbok over the land. Their eyes burned with a hateful fire. Their hearts were hard as the stones by the river. They were the monsters of the ancient legends, of how great sea beasts came to land and destroyed an entire city before they fell. And leading them was their Yash, Asha-asha. A rather dirty name. It wasn’t his real name, and it wasn’t what the Sea Gyarados called him, but to the less ferocious Lake Gyarados, it was his only name.

Asha-asha smelled the three and looked in their direction. Gya-yash and he exchanged a hateful glance. “Asha-asha yasha yasha?” You’re going to kill the humans?

“Gya. Yash.” Yes. Keep out of my way.

“Gya-yash yasha Asha-asha yash.” I’m not in your way.

Asha-asha growled to himself, showing his set of tremendous, razor-sharp Gyarados teeth. “Yasha yash.” Weaklings.

Asha-asha turned to move on, but Gya-yash caught his eye and, annoyed by Asha-asha’s dark personality, did something rebelliously dangerous. He tilted his head and, as he did so, the moonlight touched the crest on his head, setting off the gold.

For a moment, Asha-asha stared at Gya-yash. Then, his eyes showing terrible fury, he was by the riverbank in an instant, his teeth bared. Gya-yash appeared completely calm.

“Yasha Gya-yash, Gyasha-gyasha yasha Asha-asha.” Fight me, and the Great Guardian Lugia will seek vengeance on you.

Asha-asha knew it was true. He knew because of the shimmering crest on Gya-yash’s head, he knew that the Lake Gyarados were the ones the Lugia truly did favor. And it didn’t in the least soften his rage.

Asha-asha glanced down and saw something shining in the water. A Magikarp. How stupid of them to take a Magikarp with them. What were they planning to do, eat it? thought Asha-asha.

But this was no ordinary Magikarp. No, it was glistening, glistening like Gya-yash’s crest, except... all over it’s body. A pure golden Magikarp.

Asha-asha narrowed his eyes. “Sha, Asha-asha yasha Gya-yash, yasha Gyasha-gyasha.” Someday, I’ll kill you, no matter what Lugia thinks.

Disloyalty to Lugia made even Gya-yash angry. “Yasha.” Fool.

The Gyarados behind him had their teeth bared too. “Yashayasha,”
snarled one. Magikarp-eater.

Asha-asha looked poisonously at him and suddenly thrust a heavy Dragon Rage in the Lake Gyarados’s direction. “Yasha yasha yash. Sha.” Know where your weaknesses are. You might need it in the future.

“Gyasha-gyasha yasha Asha-asha,” Gya-yash said. Lugia will bring you to justice.

“Sha Gyasha-gyasha.” Where is Lugia.

With little warning, Gya-yash moved abruptly out of the water and snapped his jaws down on Asha-asha’s scales. But the Sea Gyarados were born both larger and stronger than those of the lake. Asha-asha, in no time, had Gya-yash on the ground. And Gya-yash didn’t put it past Asha-asha to disobey Lugia and kill him. The air filled with the splashing of the water, the flying of the Dragon Rage, Hydro Pump and Hyper Beams, the battle cries of the two Gyarados. The fight was in Asha-asha’s favor.

But then a strange light appeared from the sea. A golden light that the Gyarados had to look away from to keep from being blinded. When it disappeared, there was, shining like the stars above, a golden Gyarados.

And upon being in his presence, Asha-asha could only retreat. The golden Gyarados’s growl was low and thunderous and struck fear in Asha-asha’s cold heart as he moved away. Away from the Lake Gyarados, but on to his second enemy.

The golden Gyarados, his teeth bared, his eyes glowing with hatred,
stayed staring at the Sea Gyarados for some time. The river was tinted red with the spilled blood of Gya-yash, but though severely wounded, rose with all the strength he could muster out of the water.

“Yash Gyasha-yash.”


The golden Gyarados looked towards him, from the blood running
on his scales to the pride in his eyes as he looked upon Gyasha-yash.

“Gyasha-yash yasha Asha-asha yashayasha.” I will have revenge on that Magikarp-eater.

“Gyasha-gyasha gya Gyasha-yash.” Lugia be with you.

The Sea Gyarados had all but moved on. Perhaps Asha-asha had not meant to kill Gya-yash, but the wounds he inflicted were fatal. Yash Gya-yash sunk into the river, while the Gyarados who were his followers chanted to Lugia to bear him safely in the next life. And when Yash Gyasha-yash, the new leader of the Gyarados of the Lake, bowed his head, he said, “Gyasha-yash yasha, Gyasha-gyasha.” In Lugia’s name, I will avenge.

Then the Gyarados followed Yash Gyasha-yash back to the Lake of Rage.