Chapter Four

I had stayed the night with my family before heading out early in the morning. I decided to go to Slateport since it was the closest town with strange climates. I chose to walk there, it wasn't too far away, but wasn't close either. I knew it would take me a while, probably most the day. I walked along regardless. I passed through Oldale and used my Tentacruel to swim across the small lake. After that I could feel the heat from Slateport. It was almost instant blistering heat. I was afraid that I would melt before I got there. I entered the city to see the streets were empty. Most people were in their houses with fans and air conditioning keeping them cool. I thought ahead and made sure to wear cool clothes. Even then, though, it was almost unbearable. I went into the Pokemart hoping to gather some information. When I entered the store clerk looked at me.

"Welcome, may I help you?" he asked. The store was air conditioned but even then it was hot. I walked over to the clerk.

"I was wondering if there are any places in this town that are having very strange occurrences," I responded. The clerk nodded.

"Yeah, one. It's an old work shop where they build a Ferry. It has been shut down since it is so hot it's actually dangerous. They tried to put air conditioning in it but it just broke. Some say the place is haunted, but that's just a rumor," she replied. I nodded.

"Thank you," I concluded leaving. I thought that this work shop would be the best place to start. I walked around until I found it. The pathway was blocked by a wooden barricade. I couldn't climb it, it was too tall. I released Light.

"Light, use cut!" I ordered. Light obeyed and cut down the barricade. I smiled and continued forward. I could feel the intense heat emitting from the building. I pressed onward though, entering the work shop. It was painfully hot and I could almost instantly feel it getting to my head. I went over to a set of stairs I saw. I had a feeling I'd have to go up. I began climbing them. It was a slow process since the heat was draining my energy. Eventually I made it to the top. I looked around, beginning to doubt if there was a Legendary in here or not. I scanned the area. I couldn't go up any further and I didn't see him on the main floor. Not that I looked. I sighed and went back down. He wasn't on the top floor so he was rather on the bottom floor or not in here at all.

I explored the bottom floor a bit. I noticed there was an area behind a wall. I entered the area and smiled. There I found the legendary heating this area. It was another legendary dog; Entei, the Fire dog. Entei looked at me and growled.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Suicune sent me," I explained. Entei leapt at me and I held out my arm defensively. He latched onto it, just like Suicune had. In fact the bite was just above where Suicune had bitten. I bit my lip to fight of the pain. When Entei retracted I grabbed my arm to notice he had closed the wound by heating the skin around it and sealing it.

"I'm sorry to have to do that, but since we are not in our native land we must injure you to speak to you," Entei apologised. I nodded in understanding. "So Suicune has in trusted our lives in the hands of you? What does he see in you?"

"I don't know. Maybe because I scaled a mountain in a blizzard just to find out what was going on. All he did say is that I had a good relationship with my pokemon," I replied honestly. Entei sat down.

"I can tell you are brave, too. I feel as though we can rely on you to send us home," Entei agreed. He walked over to me and nudged my arm. "But can you take on the pains of being attacked by every legendary?"

"Yeah, I can do that. I will do anything to help all the legendaries get home. I want to save all of you, and help the people from this Region too," I agreed. Entei looked at me.

"You won't just be saving this Region, but all the other regions too. You will be saving the world by helping us," he explained. I stumbled backwards, partial from the thought of saving the world and partially from the heat draining my strength. Entei stalked over to the corner of the room. "Now leave before this place does any permanent harm to you." I nodded in agreement and began heading for the door. I could barely gather the energy to stand and walking felt nearly impossible. I luckily had Light by my side still to catch me if I fell. But I really hoped I wouldn't.

When I got outside I fumble onto my knees. I tried to push myself to my feet but it wasn't working. I was tired and dehydrated. I heard the sound of someone running to me and looked towards it. It was the store clerk. She ran over to my side.

"I had a feeling you were going to be here," she sighed. She handed me a water bottle which I happily took. I drank it quickly, almost choking on it a couple times. It helped with my dehydration but I was still exhausted. "My name is Clarice, you can call me Clare though," the store clerk smiled. I placed the bottle down.

"I'm Ben, and you can call me just that," I responded with a smiled. Clare chuckled and offered a hand. I took it and she pulled me to my feet.

"You must be exhausted. Why don't you come to my place and rest a bit?" she offered. I was hesitant but took the offer. I wouldn't stay long but I needed some rest before heading back home. I followed Clare to her house. It wasn't that far from the work shop and it was small but air conditioned. I was relieved to be in a cooler environment. Clare looked at me.

"If you want you can take a shower. I can lend you some of my brother's old clothes. He isn't using them anymore and I've been meaning to get rid of them so you can have some," she explained. It felt weird, being told to shower in a stranger's house, but I felt gross and sweaty.

"Yeah, that would be great," I agreed. Clare smiled and went down the short hall to a room. She dug around in some drawers and handed me a change of clothes.

"The bathroom is just over there, call me if you need anything," she explained. I nodded and went into the bathroom. I took a quick shower to get cleaned up before changing into the new clothes she gave me. I left the bathroom and found her reading on the couch. The book had no title on its cover. She looked up at me and closed it.

"Feeling better?" she asked.

"Yeah, thanks for all the help," I replied. She scotched over to one side of the couch and patted the spot beside her, inviting me to sit with her. I sat down and looked at her book. "What is that?" I asked. She looked at the book.

"A collection of letter's from my brother. He's so far away that I only get letters from him once and a while," Clare muttered. I shifted slightly.

"What does he do for a living?" I asked. Clare smiled.

"He's part of the Elite Four," she chuckled. I almost fell over when I heard that. This meant that I would eventually fight Clare's brother. I was nervous about that. "His name is Gerald, he's really strong!" I spend the rest of the afternoon listening to her talk about her brother. Apparently they were twins, both had short brown hair but her brother had Hazel eyes while Clare had copper. She talked about what they did when they were kids and I did my best to not doze off. I seemed to have this special ability to make people tell me their life stories when I didn't care.

I stayed with her for dinner and then left. She told me I was to visit her sometimes and if I got to fight her brother to tell her how he is doing. With that I began heading back to my house. I was still tired from a long day. Even at night Slateport was still unbearably hot. My adventure was only beginning; I had a long way to go.