Well hi again everyone, if you're reading this then yes, I finally decided to upload Chapter 2 of A Legend's Journey.
I wasn't confident about the first chapter, but I have to say I'm overwhelmed with the support and reception I received. So, if you favourited/followed the story or me, the author, or even just took the time to review it; thank you so much.
Well I won't keep you waiting any longer, enjoy Chapter 2 (if you can)
"At the time Lance was considered the strongest Trainer in the world, let alone the strongest Dragon Master. People just couldn't comprehend how he had been defeated so easily by an unknown Trainer. It's not completely unknown though, there have been extremely powerful Trainers before that have preferred to live outside the limelight, Professor Oak of Kanto is a prime example."
"Wow... and they never saw him again? Did he beat you the same way?" Iris asked in amazement. She couldn't believe a Trainer could be THAT strong, and she had met some pretty strong Trainers in her adventures!
"Oh they saw him alright. He turned up in Johto 3 months later and did the same thing to Clair in the Johto League, then to Steven in Hoenn, to me in Sinnoh and then to Alder here in Unova. That was 3 years ago now." The beauty turned to look at Iris and smiled at the look of pure shock and disbelief on the purple-haired teen's face. She knew what question was coming next, and answered before it was asked. "Yes, he left in the same style after beating each of the Champions. It was decided that his refusal to be registered as a new Champion meant that he had technically forfeited the title, and that the best course of action would be to reinstate the previous Champion."
"Wow, how strange... hmph! That's something a little kid would do!" Iris said in a matter-of-fact tone as she folded her arms. "So Cynthia, um, now that I'm Champion and all, what exactly do I uh... do?" It was funny, Iris had always been occupied with fulfilling her dream of becoming a powerful Dragon Master, and now that she was Unova Champion at the age of 15 she was arguably already there, but she had never thought about what she would do after that.
"Well Iris, you are Champion now. You will be afforded your own recreation centre here at the Pokémon League where you can train, swim, chill out and whatever else you want to fill your time with. Apart from that though Iris, you can pretty much do what you want! As for me Iris, it's about time for me to get going, you would be surprised at how much not being Champion frees up your schedule!"
And with that the former Champion walked back out of the Hall of Fame and waved goodbye to Iris, before going her separate way through the exit. Iris wouldn't see her again for a good while.
Iris too left the Hall of Fame and walked towards to sliding doors at the side of the arena. One was metallic black and the other a brilliant white, they slid apart when Iris approached to reveal a large carpeted room, complete with sofas, tables, magazines and the biggest flat-screen TV Iris had ever seen!
"Wow..." The young Champion's mouth formed an o-shape as she looked around the centre, which was complete with a gym for training, a swimming pool complete with a waterfall and extra deep section for diving practice, as well a large kitchen area stocked with fresh ingredients and a bedroom fitted out with a walk-in wardrobe and four-poster bed.
Iris stood in front of the mirror. She still wore the same white and pink outfit she had for years, she had never seen any reason to change it because it made her happy, and she had never really cared what people thought of her anyway. Axew evolving into his larger forms had allowed her to have a bit more creative freedom with her hair. She was still sporting a large pigtail of hair down her back, with a yellow hair tie at the end, although the pigtail was thinner than before. On top of her head she had four locks of her beautiful purple hair held together with a single yellow band, which swayed as she moved. She had let her fringe grow out a bit more and the two triangles of hair now reached down just slightly past her eyebrows. At the far corners of her fringe she had two strands of her hair looping down along the side of her face and tucked into her pigtail at the back. Sure, her new hair took more time to get right than before, if that was even possible, but she thought it made her look more mature or, in Iris's case, less like a little kid.
"Oh! I better go and see Cilan and fill him in!" Iris had almost forgot about her Connoisseur friend, they had travelled together with Ash five years ago in Unova, following Ash's quest to become a Pokémon Master and also Iris's quest to become a Dragon Master.
The purple-haired teen often thought about her raven-haired friend. Ash had become one of her closest and only friends, even if he was such a little kid, during the time they spent travelling together. Ash's relentless optimism whether he won or lost was so appealing to Iris and was one of the reasons she had become such good friends with him, not to mention the fact that Ash had helped her to become a better Trainer herself at a time when she was unsure about her quest to be a Dragon Master, heck, she had even beaten him at one point! That wasn't the real reason Iris was so attached to the big goofball though, over the time they spent together in Unova Iris had became more and more attracted to Ash. When Iris had told Ash about how before they met she had never really had any friends, and how nobody wanted to be her friend at the Opelucid Academy Ash couldn't understand how anybody couldn't like her! "Wow Iris, how could nobody be friends with you? I think you're great!" was what he had said to her that night. Iris thought about how he had started blushing furiously after saying it, and ever since then she had thought that maybe Ash felt the same way about her...? She doubted it, she always doubted herself when it came to love, who could ever love a weirdo like her? What made it worse for her was Ash's disappearance.
It was the morning they were due to set sail for Kanto. Ash had decided to hang back a little and pick up a few souvenirs for his mother because, in typical Ash fashion, he had forgotten until the last minute. "Oh Ash, you're such a little kid!" She had said to him. The plan was that Ash would meet her and Cilan down at the port in 30 minutes. He turned and sprinted off towards the market, as she stood and watched him disappear into the crowds. At that moment in time, Iris had no idea that that would be the last time she would see her raven-haired friend for a long while. An hour later she was standing on the main deck watching their cruiseliner depart from Unova, she and Cilan had decided that Ash probably forgot about his arrangement and got on the cruiseliner without them. The two teens spent the next hour searching the ship top to bottom for their friend, but found no trace of him. The ships manager had no record of him boarding, and when the two finally arrived in Kanto, sick with worry, Delia Ketchum and Professor Oak were just as surprised at his absence. They tried calling everyone to try and locate him, Prof. Juniper hadn't seen him, nor any of his friends, not even Brock. It seemed unlikely that Ash could have made his way to another region, let alone tie his own shoelaces, on his own but nonetheless a search mission was issued. After four months of region wide searching including brief spells in Hoenn, Johto and Sinnoh, Ash Ketchum was declared still officially missing, with no leads.
It hit everyone extremely hard. Ash, Delia's son, close friends to so many people, especially Brock and Misty, was now no longer around, the worst part being nobody actually knew what had happened. Nobody knew if he had been kidnapped, whether he had left of his own accord, or if he was even still alive.
Iris felt like her heart had been ripped out and stamped on. She had finally started to become close to someone, a boy... a boy that seemed to care about her just as much as she did him. Well, maybe that was an overstatement, in recent weeks Iris knew that she was deeply in love with her raven-haired friend. She had cursed herself for falling in love with such a little kid, but those eyes... those big amber orbs that made her heart skip a beat every time she made eye contact with him. More than anything though, she had felt secure around him, like he would never leave her, not like all the other kids had. Ash was, well, he was her first real friend.
What was more was that Iris had started to develop the impression that her love for Ash wasn't just one-way. Ash had let things slip more than once, just little things though, nothing massive. She thought back to a night when the trio were camping just outside Nimbasa City, when Iris had been toying with her hair all day, trying to come up with a new way to wear it. Ash and Cilan were sitting at a table enjoying their supper when Iris approached, scissors in hand, and asked if they thought she should get rid of her fringe.
"NO IRIS YOUR FRINGE IS PERFE-"Ash had blurted out, spitting half chewed toast everywhere. Iris had just stared at him, he had stood up. He was standing there, with his hands over his mouth and Iris was pretty sure she could see his cheeks turn the same shade of red hers were right now, even in the dim light of the evening.
After a few seconds of awkward silence, Cilan laughed. "Well, that certainly seems to have left a savoury aftertaste with both of you. I believe you have your answer, Iris, thanks to an interesting injection of flavour from Ash."
"Eh, thanks guys...I guess I'll go to bed now then..." she had said. She scaled the tree she had picked to sleep in that night, not too many leaves, it was warm out that night. Climbing into her sleeping bag beside Axew, she lay for hours pondering what had happened during supper. Ash thought her fringe was perfect? She felt warm inside when she replayed it over in her head.
She looked over the edge of her branch bed, there was Ash lying in his usual spot, at the bottom of whatever tree Iris was sleeping in, almost like a protector. She blushed at this, but something was different, Ash wasn't snoring as he usually did, it was silent.
"Ash? Are you okay down there?" she questioned. Her question was met with rustling, and for a moment she thought she saw two amber orbs flash her a look before they were replaced with darkness again and she heard the familiar light snoring she was used to.
Iris snapped back into reality, where she was still standing in front of the mirror. Something was different though. Iris looked at her reflection, or rather, the tears that had formed in her eyes and how they were slowly rolling down her cheeks and falling onto the floor below.
She wiped her eyes, now was not the time for being a little kid. Why was she getting so upset over a little kid anyway...? 'Because you love him' said a voice inside her head. She did love him...
She walked back through the League entrance and taking a Pokeball out of her belt she released Dragonite.
"Dragonite, come on out!" and in a flash of white light the skin-coloured dragon appeared. "I need you to take me to Striaton City to see Cilan, quickly before the Striaton Cafe closes!" With that the dragon bent down allowing his master to climb onto his back. When she was seated safely he kicked off with a powerful thrust and took off towards Striaton.
So, that's Chapter 2 finished with. What did you think?
Personally I didn't like this Chapter as much, I found it much harder to write and hopefully it isn't too bad.
AGAIN, please leave reviews no matter how brief. If you are going to review, please try to be as brutally honest as possible, it helps to receive criticism, obviously...
Sorry, this isn't a chapter update, just a little note to say that Chapter 3 might be a bit delayed, busy with life etc etc. but it won't be months at a time so you won't have to wait that long really.