Merry Christmas, from 122 Generation.
Chapter four: The Cold and Dark: Route 216
Route 216: night
It was impossible to tell if it was twilight or nightfall. Nevertheless, there was not a hint of daylight now, to Mars' worst fears. The skies, only a slate gray and hinting a midnight blue, littered the entire area with snow. But despite being able to see their distinct colour, Mars found it difficult to see the path ahead. Why, she didn't even need her flashlight anymore since the snow was so thick (in short, she turned it off). Still, Mars was aware what she was wearing didn't even suit the weather! Before she walked out of Mount Coronet, Mars pulled up the zipper of her shell-like jacket to seal in her body heat. Truth be told she was cold, and indeed she was!
Taking her first steps out of Mount Coronet, she heard the familiar crunching of crisp snow being broken beneath her feet. Interestingly enough, while the surface of the snow was very brittle, the snow beneath the crust was surprisingly compact, soft, and compressed. It was enough to walk on top.
The Pokémon Trainer then felt fluffy snow clusters land and stick on her hair. Mars knew enough about the cold that if her head wasn't protected whilst being in the cold, it would be – for lack of better word – bad for her health. Her head would freeze, beginning with a headache.
In short, it – was – so – cold! Mars had reason to be thankful to the Hearthome shop employee for his suggestions on the right kind of outwear. Indeed, Mars looked at her sleeves to see the flakes of snow repeatedly 'bounce off' or 'stick on' the jacket. The same went for her snowpants.
Feeling warmer already, despite the boots and jacket, Mars walked on and bypassed a road sign reading 'Route 216'. The sign wasn't wedged deep in the snow, which probably meant the snow wasn't deep either. Or perhaps the sign was buried in the snow! Either way, in Mars' opinion, there was a lot of snow. The sky was depressingly dark, and snow appeared and fell like it came from out of nowhere.
As Mars walked on she noticed that where the Mount Coronet exit was, it was at the ground level between two mountainous cliffs (presumably Mount Coronet, still). Despite being able to see the high cliffs, it was hard to see at all due to the darkness and snow.
With each step Mars took forward, she began to feel a lot colder than before. Did the heat draining from her thighs and teeth chattering do enough harm to her already? It got worse.
"If only I had brought my scarf," she grumbled, thinking of the scarf she had bought the previous Christmas that was still in her home.
Unable to see much, Mars resorted to using her flashlight once again as her guide. Ahead, she saw Route 216 was a straight slowly descending slope of blanketed snow road. Walking on the snow meant Mars had to endure the cold while walking through the gap of two towering edges of Mount Coronet. Sure, the two cliffs gave Mars some protection from the cold, but there was still a hollow wind blowing into her face. Ugh.
There was no need to talk much, for after pacing for only two minutes, Mars wanted to turn around already.
"It's so cold!" she kicked the snow. "And it's dark!"
Frustrated, Mars took cover underneath a thick evergreen tree to take a break. Why, even breathing was having a cold impact on her nose, also. Mars rubbed it and opened her bag to take out a biscuit stick. At least she could have something savoury to eat and sustain her.
Mars realised the snowfall had slowed down. It's not snowing that hard either, she thought.
It was a nice sight to see the snow fall from a non-clear sky, given she had shelter now, as the wind blew the clouds away, and it left a clear sky of magenta-and-midnight blue. So it was only twilight now. Wonderful.
It was a relief to see that there wasn't a lot of snowfall here, but it was still night, nonetheless.
Her hands were freezing, her nose was freezing… Mars couldn't stay here forever. Oh, come on, she's only on a break anyway. She finished the rest of her biscuit stick, put the wrapper in her bag, drank a bit of ice-cold, refreshing, fresh water.
Mars had forgotten how thirsty she was.
She got up to begin trudging in the snow once more.
At least there wasn't a lot of wild Pokémon to either run into or engage in combat here. No Pokémon, or at least most of them, in their right sense of mind would try to live in these parts of the Sinnoh region.
Even though Mars felt really cold, all that moving around and eating snacks made her realise that in her current state she was a lot warmer than she thought, or knew. The jacket and the pants were doing their job at repelling the snow, and extra clothes beneath the snow gear enhanced the heat insulation's effectiveness.
Still, as Mars walked down a flight of stairs (stairs in the route? It is a public road, after all), she wished for a warm place to stay… for a few minutes, if nothing else. Wait, hadn't she made the same wish before when she was in Mount Coronet?
Ten minutes later, it became a deathly silent trip, only broken by the sound of her footsteps crunching on the snow. She slowly passed another evergreen tree, descended down more stairs, and bypassed another bridge above her head. Supposedly there were rumours of valuable treasures near the top of the cliff, where the bridges were suspended, like nuggets of gold or rare red Star Pieces. Unfortunately, for someone like Mars, she would never expend the time to do so. Going up there meant travelling to high ground. Higher ground meant higher altitude, and that meant colder temperatures.
By the time Mars had walked down the third flight of stairs, she began to feel her head getting numb. The pain pulsed in her temple once in a while, but Mars wished it would go away altogether. No! It was just as she feared: she was getting a headache!
As a result, chills would ripple down from her head to her spine and finally to her toes. She wondered just how regular Trainers endure such a tedious, and treacherous, journey. Of course, there existed some sort of bias because, after all, she had a major distaste for anywhere that was cold.
Cold was annoying. It drained her heat, but at least not in the way that rain would. Sure, she could handle cool-and-cold climates where the air was easier to breathe, but a climate that was too cold was out of the question. She felt cold back at home, and that was enough for her.
But to the blistering cold's credit: it spared her the danger of heat loss in the way that rain would, in contrast to dry snow. This gave Mars the luxury of crisp air rather than damp air, despite Sinnoh never having a damp climate much in the first place.
Her boots crunched sounds on the snow over and over as she walked and bypassed another evergreen tree, and walking down what felt like the last set of stairs, because after cautiously setting foot on the darkened white ground she felt was surprisingly level.
"It's probably the ground," she declared.
Looking ahead once more into the dark, she could see the powder-snow-covered route stretch on, but there had to be an end! Nevertheless, the nigh and snow seemed to have made the journey endless. It was a horrible feeling!
