"Don't touch my!" A voice suddenly said, then it lowered into a mumble. "food..."
Falx got up while rubbing his eyes from his recent nap, he looked to the direction of the noise, it was Ralph.
He was still sleeping, snore bubble present again, half of his body was falling off of the bed. Most of the weight of his small frame was on top of the bed had kept him from falling off, though.
The gallade got up from his bed, taking a moment to yawn and stretch. He opened the door to leave and trekked silently out of the door. He didn't want to wake up the sneasel from his sleepy state so he left quietly. Falx made his way through the castle halls, everything being as fancy as ever. He quietly thought to himself if this is what everything would have looked like if there was no humans at all in his life. He finally arrived at the lobby of the kingdom.
Before he could try to open the huge door that led outside a voice in his mind made itself present. "You can't open it?" The voice sounded bored and uninterested. Falx didn't bother to look anywhere besides the door that blocked him from freedom.
"How do I open it then, Whitney?" Falx spoke back using telepathy, he stole a peak in the direction of one of the stairs that were in the room, waiting for an answer.
"You need to be a member of this kingdom to gain access to the entrances and exits here." Whitney stated explicitly. "I cannot be giving you membership since you were only here for a night, even if you gave us our shard back I can't let you run free without a care in the world."
Falx thought to himself for less than a minute until he said. "Does this have anything to do with your red accessories?" He turned around to completely face the stairs.
"Listen, why don't you go ask the princess yourself for these kind of things, she is in her throne room right now." She seemed a little annoyed with all of the questions she received from the shiny gallade. "I'm sure you know the way there, you made it here from Ralph's room that's pretty much on the opposite side of the castle from here anyways." Her communications ceased immediately, leaving no room for argument. Falx shrugged to himself.
He walked up the stairs and through one of the doors on the second level, walking each step based on memory. Teleporting would be rude, the meowstic still suspects me and I don't want to make it worse. He thought.
Falx made his way through the hallways like the day before, it was simple so that guests of the kingdom could make their way to the throne room easier. He eventually made it to the aforementioned room where Felicia was currently resided in and entered quietly.
Right when he entered the room he noticed that there was someone there other than the princess, the two appeared to be talking by the throne until they noticed him standing by the doors. Felicia waved for Falx to come over. He walked up the steps to where the other two were standing, that being Felicia and a sandy colored tyranitar, a shiny pokemon.
The tyranitar was a bit bigger than normal when you compare it to its relative species, he had a striped colored badge on his chest that was pure blood red and dark red in color for each stripe, there was also other badges that sat on the other side of his chest. He smirked upon seeing Falx.
"You must be the Radiant Hero! I've heard rumors about you from my colleagues saying that you displayed a huge amount of strength to right what was wrong and returned the red shard to this kingdom!" The tyranitar spoke with a loud yet pleasant voice that demanded authority, unlike arceus' natural voice- the tyranitar's was clearly done intentionally. Falx was taken aback by his description of himself. A huge amount of strength, to right what was wronged? Well then. Falx thought to himself, amused.
Felicia decided to chip in. "We were just talking about you, among other things too, but he wanted to meet you right away and here you are! Go ahead, general of the army." She ushered for his introduction.
"I forgot to introduce myself and I got carried away! Hahah! My name is Paean Reliquiae! Pronounced Pee-uhn Ri-lik-wee-ee! Status, general of the army!" He earnestly held out his claws straight towards Falx in signs of a handshake, Falx accepted the handshake readily.
"Falx Gale. Wanderer." He quickly said, they stopped shaking hands.
Paean grew curious. "Wanderer? How many places have you been to? Might I ask?" He moved his arms behind his back, concentrating his attention towards the fellow shiny.
"I've only recently began travelling. This is my first, but I don't know my way around here." Falx simply stated
The tyranitar spoke up. "Well, this kingdom is a nice and peaceful one, there are no enemies here who would hurt us because of our protection!" He puffed up his chest to show off his badges. "I earned these here are for my great efforts in protecting this nation!"
Falx smiled. "Then that makes you a hero to this country as well." Paean smiled as well, revealing his sharp canine teeth.
"I have to leave for now." Paean shuffled his body to face the door, eyes still on Falx. "How about a drink at the bar later tonight at sunset? The place will be Grumpy's pub! It's straight down the road inside Red Castle Town, you can't miss it!" He bowed his head once while looking at Felicia whom also bowed for his departure. He was a big pokemon, but his steps were as silent as a mouse. He left the room, leaving Falx and Felicia alone.
Felicia spoke up quickly. "Sorry about that, he always invites pokemon he likes to drink with him." She lowered her head in sorry for the crude way her own general had been acting, Falx just waved his hand off from the subject, the zoroark held up her head again. "Is there a reason why you're here this early in the morning?"
Falx nodded slightly. "I have a couple of questions I wanted to ask you." Felicia smiled lightly, letting him know that she is ready. "Okay, how do I open the doors of this kingdom?"
"It takes the power of the red crystal to gain the ability to go through the kingdoms walls, to be accepted as a member of the kingdom you must inhabit at least a small part of its power, which Is easily gained by having the stones' favor." She looked towards the throne. "It's like the crystal is alive somehow, letting only those who it deems worthy of protecting this kingdom."
She continued. "Once you have a bit of its power inside of you, just try to fill up the door with that same power and it's open." She gestured with her hand signaling that the question was fully answered, Falx nodded.
Felicia waited a bit, waiting for Falx's second question. "How is it like living here for you?"
Felicia smiled. "It's like a dream, there is a lot of pokemon to talk to so it almost never gets boring. There is also a place I go to when I want to be free of the princess' duty for a while. You know where it is since you slept in it." Felicia giggled, Falx sheepishly scratched his neck and began smiling. "Now, your next question please."
Falx continued smiling. "Are you single?"
Felicia took a bit to process the question, then immediately started blushing red and avoided eye contact for a bit. "W-w-what d-do you m-mean by that?" She spurted out nearly incoherently.
Falx was confused, he tried to explain for himself. "I wanted to know if there was a prince of the Red Kingdom, I find it hard to believe for someone like you to not have one by now." Felicia just deepened her blushing, believing that he was complimenting her.
Falx just thought to himself. I mean, I heard that princess' are married when they are teens. She looks around my age, 21. Just a thought I guess. If I were to say that out loud she would probably get offended, or maybe just think that I'm weird because I don't know their traditions, oh well.
"I-I got to do s-something, bye!" She said, abruptly ending their conversation and quickly made her way to a hard to see door on the side of the throne room. She opened the door revealing what looked like a balcony, she shut the door.
"Wonder what that was about?" Falx said quietly to himself.
Falx left the throne room satisfied with the answers he got, he casually made his way to the lobby of the foundation. Deciding to put the information he got to the test he held out his hand towards the huge door, it was cool to the touch. The door suddenly opened a tiny crack, enough for him to walk through with some difficulty.
Falx could hear a subtle laughter in his head. "You can barely open up the door?" Falx ignored her distracting laughing, then attempted at opening the door again, it inched open a little bit more and stopped again. The laughing in his head started to get more louder. He attempted once more and it finally opened all the way for him, eventually and slowly. The laughing started slowing as well. "Geez! The crystal must've given you so little of its power that it's pathetic!" Whitney sounded more alive than her usual self.
Falx chuckled a bit and sweatdropped at her sudden show of emotions. "I'll get it down sooner or later... Anyways, see you later tonight." His mind went empty of any pokemon but himself.
Falx hopped down the steps and into the walkway with the fountains, he made his way to the gate where he spotted Charles who was currently working at the station. Charles was standing up despite there being a chair. "Hi Charly! Good morning!" Falx said happily, having Charles to turn around to greet the eager fighting psychic type.
"Good morning there, Mr. Gale." Charles croaked out, smiling. "Such brilliant weather we're having today." He folded his arms behind his currently arching back.
Falx looked skyward, shielding his eyes with his arms so he doesn't get blinded by the bright sun. It was steadily rising from between two of the castles' towers on the right side. It made the place look enchanting, reminding him that this was not the world he was used to, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
Charles was busy studying the gallade while Falx was looking at the castles image, he was a strange pokemon that suddenly appeared and serviced their Red Kingdom with no discrimination at all. It's not unheard of for pokemon to help each other, but if any greedy 'mon got their hands on the red shard or any other shard there would be dire consequences, near infinite power kind of consequences.
Charles adjusted his gaze to see his face and froze, his eyes were glowing pure red despite not looking directly at the sun, in a cool-smooth-diamond sort of way. This 'Gale' was frighteningly mysterious, just who exactly is he?
"It really is beautiful today." Falx breathed in slowly and then out, he paused for a bit. "Anyways, is it your turn to watch the gate?" Charles snapped himself out of it before Falx turned to face him.
"Ralph is a really heavy sleeper, boy doesn't even get up at lunchtime. His dark typing it makes it hard for me to do anything about it." The kadabra sighed. "I didn't get to learn miracle eye during my younger years so I've been saving up for a move tutor lesson."
Falx seemed deep in thought. "I knew of a guy who was a move tutor. I watched him every now and then, even if I couldn't use the move. One of his lessons was about miracle eye, he taught me a lot of moves just in case if I wanted to become a move tutor myself someday." He held up a finger. "I could teach you if you want, I remember how it goes as light as day."
Charles eyes widened. "You knew a professional move tutor? They are expensive and are hard to come by! Who is this tutor?" The old psychic type was definitely surprised by this, Falx stepped back to avoid crashing into Charles when he moved forward.
"Yeah, he's not around anymore though. He wanted to stay secretive 'till his death so I can't tell you his name. He was a very surreptitous 'mon, sorry." Falx explained to the older pokemon as much as he could give.
"Sorry to hear that." Charles calmed down a bit and stepped back up to give Falx some room. "So how much are you willing to teach me the move, Mr. Gale?" He decided to change the subject.
"If you could teach me how to use a bit of the crystals power, I will teach you miracle eye." Falx negotiated. "I want to be able to learn the ins and outs of this power so I could control it better."
Charles looked surprised yet again. "That's it?" He grew a bit suspicious. "There's no fine print or anything like that right?" The gallade shook his head. "Are you sure? This isn't a fair trade at all on your side, controlling the crystals' power is way easier than learning a new move." Charles was hesitant on this deal.
"It's fine." Falx assured the old psychic. "Miracle eye is a necessity for pure psychic types, just knowing that you went without it for all these years shows me how strong you are." Falx smiled happily. "Especially when protecting the royal family as their close Butler."
The kadabra smiled as well. "Then it's a deal."
Falx turned his body to look at the gate. "I can start teaching you tomorrow, I want to explore this area first before doing anything else." Charles nodded, then lifted his spoon towards the gate and it opened inwards towards them. Falx waved goodbye to Charles when the gate was fully open and left the castle courtyard. The gate immediately closed behind him, but he continued down the road to Red Castle Town.
The road was a dry and brown dirt road that led to the stony smooth tiles of Red Castle Town, the sight was extraordinary, there was houses on top of houses that bird pokemon seemed to be living in. They were swooping around the whole town, many were carrying bags of all sizes with them. The lower houses were of all kinds of sizes to fit the many kinds of pokemon who lived here. Every street of this town was bustling with all kinds of activities from locals and guests of all kinds. Merchants, citizens and visitors were walking, flying or crawling around trying to sell goods to make a living.
Falx made his way around by walking in the crowd of pokemon, going with the flow like a wave, switching crowds when he got to a dead end. The town was huge, it took him all morning to explore half of the town, he took a break on a bench in a not so busy road.
Falx recalled a few things from his recent journey. "They sell and trade a lot of things here. Evolutionary stones, Items, herbs, tm's, knickknacks, charms, liquor, berries, medical supplies, and food in the form of either merchants selling them or restaurants." He talked under his breath. "Although the pokemon were friendly, there was some underground activity that was going on in the city that no one knows about, like that scraggy's conversation."
He recalled the recent events of a scraggy, the scraggy was speaking to another pokemon that was hooded in black, Falx noticed them when he was learning about the town, they were partway into an alley by some merch stands who put all their attention towards selling their goods.
The scraggy was obviously talking about something he shouldn't be, he would frequently look at his surroundings as if he was trying to spot something that would threaten him. Falx drew in closer without raising any suspicion by pretending to buy something from that stand closest to the suspicious duo, he concentrated on both masking himself and eavesdropping on the pokemon.
He could hear the scraggy talk in a near whispering voice. "He didn't arrive at the appointed time, he must have been caught." Falx didn't try to look at them since he would risk being found out, the scraggy looked around once and then continued. "He was our fastest runner, there was no way he could have been captured. Unless it was the work of an unknown mercenary, the plan was perfect."
He heard the hooded pokemon speak with a feminine voice. "Obviously not perfect enough, we don't accept failures, but you have one more shot to pull this off. We will lend you some of our strongest pokemon. Don't mess up this time, unless you want to be erased from existence." The voice was dripping with venom, like it could perform the threat itself right now.
The scraggy gulped. "We'll get it this time, for sure." The scraggy looked around another time, then they both split ways into the crowd of pokemon, immediately blending into their surroundings.
He stopped his memories there and started to talk to himself. "They were planning something bad, I know it." He spoke near silently. "They were obviously talking about that fast 'mon I stopped before, that scrafty. Their main goal is clear to me, but is that all they want?"
Then something occurred to him. "How does Whitney not know who stole the crystal? She would have been able to see and stop the scrafty from stealing it." His head was swarming with solutions and theories, but they all had holes in them, something wasn't right.
Falx sighed, he would just have to wait and see. He settled with protecting the kingdom at all costs, he could tell from the way they talked that it would not happen today, they would have to regroup and come up with a plan, not a job they could do overnight. Falx still kept his guard up nonetheless, anything could happen. "Nothing's impossible. Judging by experience." He said out loud this time.
It was a little after noon when Falx started to explore the other parts of the town. He didn't have any of their currency, this world's money was different from his own. Falx's world used pokedollars while this one has 'dollars' on its own. Falx thought it would be weird if they did have 'pokedollars' here, it'd be the same as 'humandollars' in a world with only humans.
From what he could tell, items like a single pecha or cheri berry are sold for twenty dollars each, exactly like his own worlds' pokedollars, which seem to be worth the same thing. He assumed that they were completely similar in all besides name and look.
Its appearance was small sized circled coins with holes in the middle of them by half their size, the colors separated each coins' worth.
He asked a passerby who informed him of the coins, albeit the pokemon was surprised by his lack of common knowledge, unsurprisingly. He got out that Bronze was ten dollars, silver was twenty, gold was fifty, platinum was one hundred, and an bar of platinum was one thousand, which was hard to come by even for a successful merchant. This world had an abundance of the minerals so they weren't worth as much as they are in Falx's world.
Falx mapped out the entire town by the time the sun was right in the middle of the sky, it was three hours past noon when he accomplished this. He was thinking about a weird building that intrigued him earlier, he was on his way there now when a yellow and orange carriage pulled by two rapidash's made its way towards the castle. With his curiosity piqued he decided to hold off going to the building until he found out who was in that carriage, it looked like it was made for royalty by its intricate and showy design.
He knew where the carriage was going so he took detours around the general area while following it, deciding to look at all the merchandise around him so he wouldn't get bored from stalking the transportation. The truth is that he grew suspicious of everything that seemed secretive, he went window shopping to prevent his paranoia from growing.
The rapidash drawn carriage eventually made it to the gate, Ralph opened the gate to let them in. Falx had to stop at an alleyway and peek around the corner, nobody aware of his own suspicious activity. "Guess I have to go ethereal then." Falx said, he vanished almost instantly.
The world changed drastically in his eyes, everything was giving off shades of blue that defined the features of every surface or thing that was around him. The pokemon continued their day as if nothing happened, at least to them. They were unaffected by the change having the same colors as their normal species, only now they looked see-through. He couldn't hear a thing though, not a single voice or footstep could be heard besides his own.
He walked out of the alley and into the crowd of pokemon, he walks right through each one. They disappear before he touches them as if they didn't exist, maybe even vise-versa. They reappeared when he is not in their space anymore.
He made it to the gate and swiftly jumped over it and gracefully landed on the other side in one swift motion. He continued to walk past Ralph who didn't seem to notice him at all, Falx was walking beside the carriage until it reached before the huge doors of the kingdom.
The doors of the carriage opened, revealing a mawile that stepped down the vehicles steps, she had a yellow and orange crown that sat on top of her head. Falx could tell her gender a little bit by natural instinct, but mainly from the look of the crown and its feminine looks. He recalls that Felicia has the same kind of crown that's pure red instead of yellow and orange, she never uses it from what Falx could remember.
The carriage spawned one more pokemon that seemed to be the mawile's bodyguard, it was a strong looking espeon. This espeon was female, she wore a pure yellow bowtie around her neck. They all made their way to the castles double-doors. The doors appeared to open on their own, he guessed it was courtesy of Whitney and the company went inside, Falx was close behind them.
They were all met with Felicia, Charles, and Paean who were standing in the middle of the room, Felicia was finally wearing her crown.
Falx couldn't hear them but he could see that they're talking to each other. They talked for a bit until Felicia gestured for everyone to follow, probably to a place more private, they all walked to the throne room, all of them not knowing that they have one more pokemon with them.
Everyone followed Felicia to the throne room. Once they reached their destination they all settled down on comfortable looking chairs that were definitely prepared beforehand, all the chairs fitting each pokemon who were present.
Falx was standing right in front of the closed doors. Before they started talking again Falx began concentrating hard. It took him no time at all to begin hearing everything around him again, he was still in the strange realm, yet was able to hear everything around him in detail, more so than normal hearing is able to do. It put a bit of strain on him doing this, as he still needed to concentrate on hearing past the realm without being detected.
Felicia was the first to begin talking. "We are all present to discuss some important matters that I'm sure we are all aware of." She sounded warped, it's as if Falx was listening through a thin layer of water, yet its sound is audible and mysteriously clear.
The mawile spoke with impatience. "I'm tired of beating around the bush, just explain why we're here." She leaned her head on her arm stemming from her chair, she sounded elegant despite her actions.
Charles piped up. "Relax Princess Maria, patience is a virtue." He coaxed. "This is very well important for a coming-to-be ruler such as yourself."
The mawile just sighed as if she had to deal with this everyday and she was sick of it. Her bodyguard just sat there completely silent, observing what was going on around her as if she was disconnected from the world while wearing a completely expressionless look.
Everyone was silent for a moment until Paean spoke up in his loud voice. "Well! Let's get down to the matter at hand shall we!" His voice filled the room completely, Falx had to tone it down so he wouldn't go deaf.
Felicia seemed incredibly patient despite what was going on, she talked with confidence."Anyways, there is a problem with our ties to the other kingdoms, they are not giving us as much information as they used to. They have since been uncooperative because of our quarrelling nations, they have lost respect for us because of the little fights that would occur in each kingdom. To me, it is not anyone's fault that it happens, it is the prejudice of some bad pokemon that caused bigger problems for everyone because they were influenced by their own pride towards their own kingdoms." She stopped herself to see if everyone's following. "I fear that we may not be seeing eye-to-eye with each other. It has since been that way for a long time, but it's getting worse with each day now more than before. The worst case scenario is possibly being a potential war on the rise."
Everyone had sunk in the words that Felicia was giving them, they all had faces of horror on each of them minus the espeon who was hard to read, no one wanted a war, final. Falx knew that this was not false, he wore a solemn look on his face.
Maria was the first to react. "But, there can't be a war! War is terrible beyond imaginable! Nobody wants a war to happen!" She talked with more emotion, her words were obviously true to herself.
Felicia spoke again. "I said war is possible, there is a low chance of it even happening." Her voice was calming.
Felicia's calm voice relieved the tension of those in the room besides Falx, he knew about it more than they did. He really does feel bad that he has to hide the truth from everyone, so he spoke out loud even though nobody can hear him, to himself. "This is my curse, my burden to bear with alone."
Suddenly, a voice interrupted their discussion, it was shouting from behind the door where Falx was. "Sorry I'm late guys! I accidentally went back to sleep and now I'm here!" The doors behind Falx popped open and threw him into the air from the pure force of it. He landed on his feet using quick cat-like-agility and stood in a straight up position in front of the throne, which was pretty far away.
Falx got a quick look at the door, but since he can't recognize anyone because of the sound difference in this reality he had to see who it was, it was Ralph of course.
Falx sighed in disappointment. "That's the drawback of ethereal mode. Objects around you are like unstoppable and immovable forces, they could crush me easily if I don't watch out. No matter how strong you are you can't move anything at all, even a small leaf is impossible to move while in here." He continued to talk out his frustrations. "I have to stand close to somebody because once they touch the object it is considered to be 'them', which means I could go through it as long as it's small." He weirdly explained the gimmicks of his ability to no one in particular.
Charles grew irritated at the sneasel. "Calm down boy! You could have hurt somebody with that kind of force!" Falx sweatdropped at the irony.
Felicia kindly informed Ralph. "The meeting is over anyways, there is no need to accompany us any further."
Ralph was instantly sad. "I missed the meeting?" He looked like he would be in tears any moment now. "But I woke up early so I could go, then fell asleep because it was so early." He was saying this mostly to himself, but everyone heard him anyways. Nobody wanted to intervene with the downtrodden pokemon.
Felicia waved the other party off. "I hope we can come together again like this in the future with better news, Maria Mellowstone, Violet Glaive, thank you for coming here today." Felicia bowed to the two pokemon as they left wordlessly, as to not stay any longer with the awkward sneasel.
Now it was only the three of them that are currently present if you don't include Falx, Paean piped up loudly. "Don't be so down sport! If you were any older you could drink with me and the Radiant Hero!" He talked to the miserable Ralph with the respect as if he was a kid.
Ralph didn't like the treatment one bit. "I'm not a kid! I'm eighteen! I'm legal drinking age you old man!" He shouted angrily, completely forgetting that he was supposed to be sad. Paean laughed heartily while Charles just facepalmed.
Paean turned to Felicia. "You could come with us too if you wanted! Your highness is already twenty! Oh does the time fly right by! I remember when you were but a wee zorua this big!" He held up his claw to measure from the floor to the middle of the calf of his leg.
Felicia was thinking for a small while, ignoring Paean. She spoke up. "I guess I don't have any urgent business or duties in a while, I don't know if I should though."
Ralph pitched in. "Why not join? We could learn more about Falx Gale- The Radiant Hero!"
Felicia was suddenly suspicious. "Were you the one who spread around that rumor?" She kind of knew what his reaction would be.
"Yup! I told everyone about it!" Ralph puffed out his chest in pride. "Falx is the hero that everyone should know about!"
Charles immediately croaked out. "But you were the one who suspected Falx from the beginning, remember?" Ralph deflated instantly and went red.
A flash of white non-blinding light filled the room, a meowstic appeared beside Felicia when the light subsided as fast as it came. She didn't say anything, but everyone else seemingly heard her telepathy besides Falx of course, he wasn't supposed to be there in the first place during the meeting.
Felicia responded to the 'silent' psychic type. "Good, we don't want to deal with any leaks of this information any time soon." Felicia nodded her head once to Whitney. "You are hereby allowed a dozen free berries as thanks for your assistance today." Whitney put on a tiny smile as she was given some tickets from Felicia.
Ralph's mood dramatically changed again into excitement. "What do I get princess? A kiss for my assistance?" He began making smooching faces while inching closer to Felicia, she just pushed him away by the forehead to get some of her personal space back.
Felicia began walking out of the throne room. "It's almost time to meet up with Falx, there's only a couple of hours until sunset arrives." She left the door open as she walked through the exit.
Paean perked up. "I'm glad you are also tagging along with us princess! It will no doubt ease your tension!" Paean started walking behind her, leaving right after.
Ralph hurried along with them. "I'm coming along with you too!"
Charles just wisely ignored the sneasel. "I will see you later Whitney." He said as he patiently left the area and then gently closed the door with his psychic power.
Whitney flashed out with her coupons in hand and a smile on her face, obviously happy from the free food she just earned. Falx decided to leave as well and teleported outside of the gate before anyone else could make it there. He made his way to a random empty alley before shifting back from ethereal mode, having everything gain color like how it's supposed to be, naturally.
"I still got time to kill." Falx leaned against the alley wall. "Guess I could go check out that building-" he was cut off by a loud shriek of a pokemon followed by fast footsteps. Falx stretched out his limbs and bounced lightly off the wall.
"Never a dull moment here, huh?" He said, then began walking slowly while still stretching towards the direction of the hurried footsteps, going to that weird place would have to wait for a bit. Seems like things are getting a little bit interesting. He thought to himself.
