Chapter 2
As it turned out, I knew nothing. But, luckily, Ruben was kind enough to explain to me.
"Giratina," he told me, "is the master of dimensional pathways, at least according to legend. He's worshiped as a deity in my world. It's said that Giratina travels between every world, so, assuming he does exist, there's at least a… a slight possibility, anyway… that we should be able to find him in this one. You sure you haven't heard of him before?"
I shook my head. "Never." Dimensional pathways? The hell were those?
He frowned. "Huh… Well, I haven't ever actually met the guy, and I know it sounds like a long shot, but… I think he might be my best bet for getting home." He paused. "…You know, with the dimensional pathways and… all that."
I stared at him in disbelief. "…Wait, so, you're saying the only way for you to get home… is to find some legendary figure that you aren't even sure exists?"
He shrugged. "Well, it's a suggestion, anyway… You got anything better?"
"…No…" I admitted. "But, even if we did decide to go find this 'Giria'-"
"Giratina," he corrected.
"-Giratina, I wouldn't even know where to start. I told you, I've never heard of him before," I argued. "There has to be some other way."
He shook his head, and he seemed to deflate a bit, giving a heavy sigh. "Nope, not that I know of… Is there somewhere we can go to find out about this kind of stuff, maybe?"
I paused, thinking. "…Well, there are… a few places, yes. But none of them would be around here, and anyway most of them are owned by humans. I think the nearest place would probably be, um… the library in Nacrene City, but that's still… pretty far away…"
He considered that, perking up a bit. "'Nacrene City', huh? You really think that place would know something?" he asked, hopefully.
I hesitated, but then nodded. "Yeah, I think so… I've never been there myself, but I've heard that the library there has information on just about anything you can think of, so it might have what the information we're looking for. Is that where you want to go?" I wasn't looking forward to the trip, but I honestly did think the library in Nacrene City might have what we needed. And besides, I still felt guilty about ripping Ruben away from his home in the first place.
He mulled over the idea. "Just about anything you can think of, eh…? Well, it's worth a try, I guess. At the least, even if it doesn't have anything on Giratina, it might know another way for me to get home." After a moment of further thought, he finally nodded. "Okay, yeah, let's do it. To Nacrene City, just you and me, cute thing!" he said, smirking and winking at me.
I blinked, my face reddening again, and quickly backed away from him. "H-hey, I just said I'd help you find your way home, don't get any ideas," I protested, stuttering a little despite myself. Darn it.
He just winked again, drifting lazily past me to the stairs that led back down into the tower. "That doesn't change the fact that you're cute," he replied, all too cheerfully.
Internally, I groaned. This was going to be a pain.
~.~
We made it to the bottom of the tower without any further incident, which came as a relief to me, what with how my luck had been so far today. As soon as we emerged back into the sunlight, I looked around to get my bearings.
"…Let's see, the best way to get to Nacrene is… Well, first we've gotta go south a bit," I mused, glancing up at the sun to try and figure out my directions. It was morning, and the sun was over to my left, so…
"What's 'south'?" Ruben asked, watching me with a puzzled expression.
I sighed. "'South' is one of the four directions. The others are North, East, and West. North is opposite of South, and East and West are both perpendicular to the two," I explained.
"…So, which way is south?" he asked, his face telling me that he hadn't understood a word I'd just said.
With another sigh, I pointed straight ahead. "That way."
He grinned, and then, grabbing my hand, began to pull me off in that direction. "Alright then, let's get going!" he sang.
I blinked in surprise, my levitation faltering for a second before I quickly reasserted myself, hurrying along behind him. I tried briefly to pull my hand out of his grip, but was unable to and decided grudgingly to let him keep it. Damn, he was stronger than he looked.
"So, what'll we find when we get to 'south'?" he asked, glancing back at me with a wide smile.
I paused to think for a second, calling up a map of the area in my mind, before answering, "…Well… There's a human city just to the south of here, but we can probably go around it… We'll probably have to go through Chargestone Cave after that, though, otherwise we'll have to go over some really bad mountain terrain. After that, we'll go east to Driftveil City, where there's a bridge we'll need to cross over. That part might be tricky…"
"'Human'?" he asked, confused. "What's that?"
Here we go again… He really was clueless, wasn't he?
As I explained to him what humans were and why they should be avoided, I noted absently that the terrain was becoming more rocky, with mountains looming closer ahead of us and to the east. I guessed that in our current direction of travel, we should barely miss Mistralton City, and we would be coming on Chargestone Cave before long. I wasn't really looking forward to that part. I hated caves; they were all dark, and I preferred to be able to see where I was going, thank you very much.
My suspicions were confirmed when I began to hear faint city noises to my right, and when I looked there I could barely see the shine of buildings in the distance, partially hidden by trees. I pulled on Ruben's hand to get his attention. "Chargestone Cave should be coming up soon," I told him.
He nodded. "Alright, just let me know when you see it, babe," he replied, smiling easily.
I had no idea how to respond to that, so I just nodded, hoping my face wasn't too red.
As we continued, Ruben fell silent, seeming to be thinking about something. This was a bit unlike him, so I watched him, wondering why he had stopped talking. Maybe he was trying to process everything he'd seen in the past hour or so? He had, after all, just been thrown into an entirely different world. That had to be a little disorienting.
After a while, I finally broke the silence. "…Are you okay?" I asked, a little concerned.
He blinked, seeming to snap out of his reverie. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, I'm fine," he said, giving me another smile to prove it. "Why?"
"You seemed kind of quiet there for a bit," I noted.
He chuckled. "What, you like hearing me talk?" he teased.
"No, it was just… a little weird." I decided to ignore the flirty tone in his voice, though my face may have heated up a little. The truth was, I kind of did like hearing him talk.
He paused thoughtfully. "…Well… I was thinking about all the stuff that's happened today. You know, what with suddenly showing up in another world… It's a little hard to get used to," he admitted.
I smiled faintly despite myself, giving his hand a slight squeeze for comfort. "Yeah… I can only imagine what that's like," I said, my voice so soft it surprised even me.
He looked back at me with a smile, and for a brief moment, our gazes met. Then, blushing faintly, I tore my eyes away, and he did so at the same time, quickly turning back around to look at the road ahead.
After a long pause, he finally muttered, without looking at me, "…Thanks."
I just nodded in reply, not trusting myself to speak.
It wasn't long after that that I finally stopped, noticing something in a rocky hillside up ahead of us. "There it is," I identified, pointing to a dark opening in the hillside. "That should be it."
Ruben nodded, going over to it and pulling me after him. "…So, this is the famous Chargestone Cave, huh?" he asked, sticking his head inside and peering around. "Hm… Well, we should try and stick close, it looks easy to get lost in there. And we wouldn't want that, would we, cutie?" He winked back at me.
I was starting to get used to his constant flirting, so I didn't get quite as flustered this time, though I did blush a little. Luckily, he didn't seem to notice. At least, I hope. "I guess not," I said at last, sighing. "…Alright, we'll try and stay close. I think I remember the way through, so it shouldn't be too much trouble… Though, I guess it can't hurt to be careful." Not that I had much of a choice, considering he was still holding my hand in his, and somehow I doubted I could convince him to release it anytime soon.
He nodded, then turned back to the cave. "Okay, then… shall we go?" he asked with a smile.
I nodded. "Ready."
Together, we floated into the cave.
