Nehehehe! I always wanted to do one of these

 

Disclaimer: Don’t own pokemon, ask Nintendo. I do own the triple guardianship n’ other stuff.

Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics for a pokemon talking.

 

Chapter 1: Thirty years later…

 

            The ice guardian still slumbered, one with the element she controlled. The fire guardian had tried, sealing all of the wild pokemon and her in the dream realm to watch over the earth, and wait.

            Waiting for the light.

            Waiting for the hope.

            Waiting….

           

            Time passed slowly on earth, as the men slowly adapted, and finally, after three decades, a child was born.

            Nobody really celebrated his birth; after all, it was just another mouth to feed. Plus, it was hard enough eking out a life in the harsh climate for just two parents.

            They grew potatoes and other tubers in an area where the soil was quite fertile, and thus survived. Wild musk oxen also roamed that area, providing meat and other essentials of life.

            Pokemon training was a thing of the past.

           

            Delilah Violet bounced the child up and down on her hip as her husband, Cyprus, was out hunting.

            He was a good man, although almost fifteen years older.

            And their child, ah, perhaps he would be the key to peace.

            She knew it was wishful thinking, but she couldn’t help it. Without hope, they would not have colonized the ice plains.

            She rubbed little Ash’s head and sighed.

            They could only hope.

 

            Little Ash grew up, but even though all the other children shunned him for some reason, he was never alone.

            He had an imaginary friend.

            At least, that was what Delilah said. She was always nervous though. Flames would follow him around, and once, when he fell off a cliff, the fire formed a platform and flew him back up. He wasn’t even burned, just slightly warm.

            It was very strange.

 

            At first, Delilah had thought it was some rare fire type that had colonized the area. But then, there had come that fateful day with the mirror.

            That day, Ash had been playing at home alone with his little carved wooden horse, and a mirror.

            She had come home to find him talking to himself. For a child it wasn’t that strange, since he had no company, but she froze when she heard a voice answer back.

            That darned mirror was glowing red.

            When she peeked in, horrified, she had seen what looked like a little girl, only with wings of fire, talking to him.

            Perhaps it had scarred her for life.

 

            Since then, she knew the flames would protect him, but she was still worried.

            Ash was eleven when the incident occurred.

            Of course, the flames had followed him everywhere, like they always did, but this time, two older boys, sick of seeing him alive, for no other reason, tried to drown him.

            They very nearly succeeded.

            Underwater, submerged for almost an hour before he was discovered, the flames had faltered and tried to keep burning, but had finally vanished. That was when she saw what was really protecting him.

            The ice.

            The ice had formed an air pocket, frozen around him, so he would be able to breathe until he was rescued.

 

            Of course, those two had been severely castigated, but afterwards, Ash didn’t seem to trust again.

            Once burned, never again you would touch the stove.

            Once betrayed, trusting was hard.

 

            He stayed by himself all the time, talking, talking, to the girl with the fire and then, also, to the ice. He would talk to the snow, and sometimes, she would shudder, as if it were answering him back.

            But that was outrageous.

            Snow was inanimate!

            Still, she couldn’t deny the evidence her eyes presented.

            And then, on his twelfth birthday, to her horror she discovered that he was wearing a necklace on a gold chain, with a little key on it. He wouldn’t tell her where it was from.

            The only way to find gold now was to dig deep beneath the earth, and find the remains of civilization.

            Frozen deeply in chunks of ice, sometimes old things resurfaced.

            But there was never any guarantee…

 

            True, the area they lived in had once been part of a city, and yes, they had discovered stores of canned food, but jewelry? Never.

            Unless Ash had robbed a grave…

 

            Delilah shuddered at that thought.

            He wouldn’t do that! Would he?

            When she questioned him again, he said that it was a present from aneki and he wanted it.

            Ash didn’t have any sisters!

 

            So, for his good, that night, she tried to lift the key.

            But she couldn’t. Every time her hand came near, a golden glow would surround him. Impossible.

            It got even worse after that.

 

            Matthew, one of the two boys who had tried to drown him, set his half-wild Smoochum on Ash in the middle of the village circle.

            It rushed him, but Ash moved out of the way, before he started to speak.

            “It’s time, Aneki. I’m leaving to find my true destiny. Key that hides the power of the stars, reveal your true form before me. Your master under the seal of contract Ashura commandeth you, Release.”

            The key glowed, and suddenly, Ash had a staff in his hands. He whacked Smoochum away with it, sending it flying into Matthew.

            Then, Ash pulled a card out of his pocket and touched it with the staff.

            “Articuno…. Blizzard.”

            He left another monument to the ice guardian behind him.

 

End Chapter!

12/28/03 to 2/10/04