Happy Friday the 13th everyone! This is just something quick I wrote up for a contest on a friend of mine's website. Hopefully it's good, though nothing will really come of it. Who knows? Have all the good luck today everyone!
It was early spring when Jericho decided to go on his long awaited journey to the top of Mount Silver. He was not going like many others so that he could face off against the rumored trainer that lived at the very top. No, Jericho knew well enough that he didn't have the skills as a trainer to do that, especially with his zero badges or ribbons in hand. Instead he wished to complete the dream of his father by being the first to make it to the top of the mountain without any Pokemon to aid him in the process. He knew it was a crazy task to try, especially with so many high level wild Pokemon around, but he just had to try for his father. His father had been the one to teach him to climb and to work with the Pokemon that lived in the wild terrains around Pewter City. Jericho remembered ever lesson his father had taught him until the day that he died when Jericho was a young boy.
The weather the day he started his journey was crisp without a cloud in the sky and a slight nip in the breeze that kept the sunny day cool, almost promising an easy journey for Jericho as he made is way from where he had been staying in Veridian City to the base of the mountain. He stood at the foot of the rocky mountain path and stared up at the top of the mountain, which was almost too far away to see even on a cloudless day like that day. With a small grunt, Jericho hoisted his travel gear higher onto his back and headed up the path less traveled, ready to start his journey and complete his father's dream.
On the first evening of his journey, he stopped to make camp on the ledge of a small cliff just outside of the mouth of a tunnel into the mountain that had a thin tree growing up from the mountain alongside it. It was a strange looking, gnarled tree that seemed about ready to just whither away into dust and Jericho wondered just how long it had stood on the side of the mountain's cliff. It wasn't until later that night, after he had already gone to sleep and his small fire had gone out, that Jericho got to see just how much more important that small, gnarled branch of a tree was to the mountain than he had originally thought. He awoke to the cries of Natu sitting in the tree, each of the three small birds looking up at the sky full of stars as if they were expecting something. Jericho slowly sat up as he watched them cry out to the stars above almost like they were singing a song to the sky with a small flap of their wings with each note they sang. Jericho's breath caught when the three small Natu began to glow softly under the moonlight, each growing bigger as they glowed brighter before they finished as newly evolved Xatu. The three Xatu continued their song for a little while longer before they one by one began to take flight and flew off into the night sky, only illuminated by the light from the crescent moon.
After his first night on the mountain, Jericho believed that he would not be lucky enough to see anything else more amazing than the Natu's evolution song, but it had given him a new skip in his step as he traveled further and further up the mountain. His second day into his journey was filled with Zubat trying to cling onto him and get any food off of him they could while he traveled through a tunnel that had been built through the mountain in order to connect paths upwards. On his third day, he almost ran into a group of Donphan as they rolled down the mountain side in a pack, their baby Phanpy rolling along in the center of the protective pack. The next day, he accidentally disturbed a baby Teddiursa from its nap and had to coax it back to sleep before it had time to notify its mother of its distress.
Though his run ins with the Pokemon had not been all too pleasant like his first night, Jericho had never known that an area could have so many Pokemon to just stumble across without even trying and could now see why trainers had a difficult time climbing to the top, even with their own Pokemon to assist them whenever needed. During a break on his sixth day, Jericho sat to calculate how much time he had left in his journey if he continued at the pace he had been going the entire trip. As he was staring up at the last part of the mountain, he saw a strange Pokemon he had never seen before. It was clearly something not from the Johto or Kanto regions like himself or any of the Pokemon he had seen so far. Its lithe white body almost seemed to shimmer in the harsh sunlight coming down onto the near top of the mountain as it jumped easily from rock to rock on its way down the mountain. Its muzzle was black and it seemed to have a black horn on one side of its face with matching black claws that looked sharp enough to tear through anything that stood in its way. Jericho immediately hid behind a rock in hopes of avoiding the beautiful, but clearly strong and wild Pokemon so as to not disturb it in its journey. He wondered what it could be as it jumped further and further away from him, making travel through the mountain seem easy.
His thoughts on that strange Pokemon, Jericho climbed further up the mountain in hopes of coming across more and more Pokemon he had never seen before because it was clear at this point that Mount Silver was a place like no other to see wild Pokemon. It was during his fervent climb that he failed to see a storm on the way until it was too late for him to get any proper protection in order. He hunkered down the best that he could in a small nook between two rocks as ice and rain began to pour down with an intensity like he had never seen before. It was as if the god of Pokemon himself wished for Jericho to be blown off of the mountain with the hail and rain, drenching the young man and freezing him to the bone even with multiple layers of clothing on and a thick plastic tarp wrapped around his body. The wind howled like a pack of Houndoom on the hunt as it seemed to blow constantly around the peak and bring fresh ice to throw in Jericho's face. At some point during the storm, Jericho slowly slipped away into darkness, his last thoughts on the chattering of his teeth and the numbness of his legs and the apology to his father for not finishing the journey they had dreamed about.
Jericho felt warm and could not place why since the last thing he knew was the freezing hail from the storm that had blown over the top of Mount Silver. He slowly began to stir and was amazed that he could actually feel his entire body again, making him open his eyes wide before having to shield them again from the harsh sunlight reflecting off of the layer of ice that seemed to coat everything around him. He hesitantly opened his eyes once more and was surprised to see himself covered in a large white blanket, not of ice, but of feathers. He looked around and saw that a large Delibird was sitting with its back to him on the rock beside him. The red bird jumped up once it noticed that he was awake and immediately began to rummage through the white bag like thing that was his tail and had been Jericho's blanket. Jericho could only watch as the helpful Pokemon pulled out random items from his tail before producing what looked to be a large egg. Jericho looked at the egg closer and could see that it could have been an egg that Chansey and Blissey carry around in their pouch. The Delibird held out the egg for Jericho to take, almost shoving the small item into his hands before gathering up its things back into its tail, saluting him, and waddling off across the ice without another care. Jericho looked down at the egg for a moment before he began to slowly peel away the shell to reveal the hard boiled substance underneath. Hesitating a bit at the strange look and smell of the egg that he just could no place, Jericho took a small bite of the egg and could feel the almost immediate effects of the Chansey egg. His body no longer felt like it had no energy and his mind cleared itself of any fatigue as he ate more of the egg, even a small feeling of joy and eagerness filled him as he stared up at the last bit of the mountain he still had to face.
Jericho stood after he finished off the egg, wiping his mouth as it settled into a large and excited grin before he took the next step that would lead himself to the last of his journey and thanked his lucky stars that that Delibird had come along and saved his life.