I don't own Pokémon or the games. I just am lucky to be able to write Fanfiction about them. :)
Chapter Six - Puzzle
Shiloh was rushing to get back to Treasure Town, so we made it quickly up the ladders and down the Guild's stone steps. A Spinarak was scuttling out of town and I recognized him as Doctor. It was easy to spot him since he was the only Spinarak in town.
"Doctor!" I called, and he stopped abruptly and turned. "It's been a while," I said as I approached him. He tipped his head back to look up at me. Shiloh approached from behind and I looked at her; she had a bright smile on her face.
"It's so good to see you," she said happily. "I feel like it's been ages."
"Things were strange for a while, not having you here," Doctor said, sounding relieved. "Fermant missed you as well, and the Marill brothers were very worried."
"Have they been by today?" Shiloh asked.
"Not that I've seen," Doctor replied. "It's late, so they have probably gone back home. I hear their mother is getting better, so they will probably be able to visit Treasure Town more often."
"That's great!" I said, and grinned. "We'll be able to explore together again." Shiloh glanced at me and nodded, her expression suddenly no-nonsense. She glanced down at Doctor.
"Doctor, have you heard of a place called the Hidden Land?" She asked steadily, and Doctor was quiet as he thought for a moment.
"No, I haven't," he finally responded with a shake of his head. "Do you need to go there?"
"Yes, we do," Shiloh answered gravely. "It's important. Everyone in the Guild is trying to find out more about it."
"We need to get there, but we can't without qualification," I explained, scuffing at the ground. "That's what we're trying to find out."
"I wish I could help," Doctor murmured sympathetically. "I'll go and ask Fermant. You two keep going with your search. Good luck." He turned and scuttled quickly away, towards the café, leaving us alone.
"Thank you!" Shiloh called after him. Then she sighed and turned to me. "Everyone must be in Treasure Town about now. They've probably got things covered." She lifted her shoulders and frowned. "Maybe we should leave town and ask Pokémon in the wild."
"Shiloh!" Shiloh and I whirled rapidly as we heard a familiar voice. "And Gale!" Torobi, Sarah and Sakura were standing at the entrance to Treasure Town, and as we watched they eagerly jogged over towards us. Sarah and Torobi had twin blue bandanas tied around their necks, while Sakura had a soft yellow bandana around hers.
"You're back!" Torobi exclaimed, his eyes wide as he looked us up and down. "Are you alright?"
"We're fine," Shiloh assured the Charmander. "Dusknoir took us away, but we managed to get back."
"Grovyle helped us," I put in quickly. "He was—"
"He's not bad, right?" Sarah interrupted calmly, her dark eyes meeting mine. "We know."
"But how?" Shiloh asked in disbelief, and she stared at me in puzzled awe before looking back at Sarah. "I mean, did you hear about it in Treasure Town?"
"No," Sarah replied distantly, looking almost sad. "Right when you got taken away, we had just come back from talking to Xatu."
"It was a long way," Torobi spoke up, throwing the Pikachu a cautionary glance, "and we were too late to stop Dusknoir."
"Xatu?" I asked, frowning in confusion. "You mean the Xatu in Treasure Town?"
"This is a different Xatu," Sarah explained. "One we met a long time ago."
"Xatu is a Pokémon that can see the future," Sakura explained gently. "He stares into the sun all day long and gets visions of things that will happen."
"Visions?" I repeated sharply, stepping closer to the Gardevoir. "Can he use the Dimensional Scream, too?" I blurted.
"I don't think so, Gale," Shiloh interjected, putting a hand on my shoulder. "He's a Psychic Pokémon, so that's probably why he can see the future."
"That's right," Sakura agreed with a smile. She held up her slender arms in a shrug. "I don't know what the Dimensional Scream is."
"It's an…ability that I have," I explained awkwardly, shuffling my feet. "What did Xatu tell you? How'd you know about Dusknoir?"
"He saw that Dusknoir was going to take you into the future," Torobi explained, "and Xatu also told us that the future was a place of darkness, and that time was frozen." The Charmander growled to himself and crossed his arms tightly. "He didn't say more than that, but we tried to come back in time to tell you."
"You did all that?" Shiloh asked, her eyes wide and bewildered. "Thank you, but…why?" Sarah looked up at Torobi and Sakura, her expression questioning. Her friends nodded and she gazed back at Shiloh and me.
"Xatu told us one more thing." The Pikachu spoke steadily, now looking at me. "He saw something else from the future." She clenched her paws. "He saw you turning from a human into a Treecko. He described the scar on your arm and over your eye."
"He saw that?" I asked, shaking my head in confusion. "He's right. I am human...or used to be." A hint of a smile appeared on Sarah's face, though her eyes looked a little sad.
"Only Sakura and Torobi know this," she murmured, "but you should know too."
"What is it?" Shiloh asked curiously, and I nodded in agreement.
"I wasn't born a Pikachu," Sarah explained with a faraway look in her eyes. "I was a human once, too." I drew in a breath as my heart thudded heavily.
"You too?" Shiloh burst out, sounding incredulous. "Are there any more of you?"
"Not that I know of." Sarah smiled a bit, then flicked her ears. A thoughtful expression came over her face. "It happened four years ago."
"Do you know why you became a Pokémon?" Shiloh asked after hesitating a moment.
"The world was in danger, and I was called to help," Sarah explained softly. "A meteor was going to hit the earth." She looked at Torobi with a faintly relieved grin. "Torobi and I were able to stop it." She paused, looking up at the sky with a thoughtful expression.
"I remember that," Shiloh murmured suddenly. "I was little, but I remember seeing it." She gazed at Torobi and Sarah. "You're the ones who got rid of it?"
"Well, Rayquaza destroyed it," Torobi clarified. "We went to ask for his help. Xatu helped make a Teleport Gem to send us up into the clouds where he lived." I vaguely knew about Rayquaza.
"Rayquaza's a legendary Pokémon," I recalled. "Hardly anyone's seen him. But you really talked to him?"
"Yes, we really did," Sarah answered. "He's really big." She shivered a little. "I still remember seeing him for the first time and realizing I was smaller than his teeth."
"But you did it," Shiloh breathed in awe. "You saved everyone."
"You said that was four years ago," I said nervously, recalling Sarah's words. "You've been living as a Pokémon all this time?"
"That's right," Sarah replied with a frown, her ears drooping. "I was about to be sent back home, but suddenly I was brought back. Maybe I still have something to do…or maybe it was because of you, Gale." She looked worried suddenly. "You and Shiloh also have something to do, right? Maybe after you do it, we'll both be able to go home." Torobi glanced quickly at Sarah, then looked away, his expression uneasy.
"Really?" I asked eagerly. "You think so?"
"Maybe," Sarah answered, and I thought about going back home with Grovyle.
"You really must miss your home," Shiloh murmured. I turned towards her, suddenly feeling guilty.
"It's nice here," I told her uneasily, "but...I guess I do."
"It's okay, Gale," Shiloh said, smiling tightly. I bit my lip hard. I really did want to go back home, but would I be homesick for Treasure Town and all the Pokémon I'd met once I left? Another problem was that if I did go back home, my parents might want to get rid of Grovyle again.
"Say, you three," Shiloh said briskly, "we're looking for the Hidden Land. Did…did Xatu say anything about that place?"
"He didn't mention it, no," Sakura responded. "If you need help finding information out, then we'll go ask around."
"Most everyone in the Guild went out to see if they could find out about it," Shiloh explained. "We need proof so we can go to the Hidden Land, but we don't know what the proof is."
"Proof, huh?" Torobi questioned. "You need to jump through some hoops." Shiloh nodded.
"Yeah…seems like it." She scratched her head. "We asked the town elder Torkoal about the Hidden Land and that's all he was able to tell us."
"Hopefully he'll remember something else." Sarah smiled and flicked her tail. "We might stay in Treasure Town for a few days so we can help you if you need it."
"There is something, actually," I said, thinking of Grovyle out in the wild somewhere, looking for the Time Gears. Sakura, Torobi and Sarah turned their gazes towards me. "Grovyle is looking for the Time Gears again. We need to take them to Temporal Tower." The three Pokémon nodded once. "Grovyle needs help, because if he tries to take the Gears again, he could be stopped. The Guild members started spreading the word, but we should tell anyone we can about it."
"Gotcha," Torobi declared confidently, then sighed a bit. "More running around, huh...? But we can do it."
"Yeah," Shiloh said. "We're going to rest after we finish asking around for today." We parted ways at the Wish Café; we still had Fermant to talk to. Heading down into the cool underground café, I saw Doctor talking with the Spinda, Fermant, who owned the place. Fermant saw us and waved, teetering dangerously to one side as he did so.
"Shiloh? And Gale, too?" Fermant gasped, veering over towards us. "It's good to see you both," he said with a smile.
"Well, we're back, but not for long," Shiloh told him as she took a seat at the counter. I joined her. "We've got to go to the Hidden Land soon." Fermant nodded seriously and looked at Doctor.
"We were just talking about that," he said. "You need proof in order to go there, is that correct?"
"That's right," Shiloh told him, "but we don't know what the proof is."
"I'm afraid I don't either," Fermant stated apologetically.
"We've just started looking," Shiloh stated, smiling. "We're not going to give up." She leaned away from the counter suddenly and stretched her arms. "We do need to take a little break, though." She left the counter and looked at me. "Should we go back to the Guild now and see if anyone else found something out?"
"Sounds good," I told her, nodding, then looked at Fermant and Doctor. "Thank you."
"Good luck with your search," Fermant called as we left the café. Back at the Guild, we talked with everyone and discovered that they hadn't found out anything new. Shiloh and I trudged back to her home at Sharpedo Bluff to try and get some rest. Something caught my eye when I approached the straw beds: it was a sheet of bark paper. I snatched it up quickly and scanned it, seeing that it was written in footprint runes. I knew it would take too long trying to decipher it, so I offered it to Shiloh.
"Look at this," I said, and she took the paper. "Can you read it?" She nodded and began scanning the paper. A few moments later she looked up, her brown eyes bright with excitement.
"It's from Grovyle," she announced, and I crowded closer so I could look at the letter, then remembered I couldn't read the runes very well. "He says his search for the Time Gears is going well. He's collected all three Gears from the lakes." She beamed happily and clapped her paws. "He says that Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf had been told about the situation and didn't give him any trouble. Swellow from Team Tasty was the one who told Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, it says." Shiloh pointed to the last part of the note. "Grovyle will be back in a day or two." She set the paper carefully on the ground next to her bed. "Finally a bit of good news!"
"Yeah!" I agreed eagerly. "Hopefully we'll have figured something out by the time he gets back." I sat down on my straw bed and stretched out on my back, yawning tiredly.
"We need all the rest we can get," Shiloh said, also curling up in her bed. "Good thing we're going to bed early." I nodded and closed my eyes, trying to process everything that had happened. I dozed off and woke again feeling groggy, but I managed to get up and sit on the stairs as I ate an Oran berry for breakfast. Shiloh, Jasper and I had stockpiled a fair-sized pile of food in Shiloh's hideout. We'd also piled up some food from Auntie's storage and probably had enough to get us to the Hidden Land and back. I was just finishing the Oran berry when a yawn from behind me caught my attention; Shiloh was withdrawing from her shell and stretching her arms. I rose and headed towards her, taking another Oran berry from the pile of food she had nearby. Shiloh took it with a smile and ate it quickly.
"Sleep well?" I asked her, and she rubbed her eyes and nodded.
"Yeah," she yawned sleepily. "Ready to go to the Guild?"
"Uh-huh," I replied, though was secretly not looking forward to it; I didn't know if Torkoal would be there with any new information, and I was getting nervous at the thought of having nothing to tell Grovyle when he came back. When we got to the Guild, I saw Jasper waiting outside the main entrance with Kit.
"Hey!" He called. "Elder Torkoal's waiting for you!"
"Did he remember something?" Shiloh gasped excitedly, and Jasper gestured for us to follow him inside. The four of us rushed to the main meeting room of the Guild and I saw the fire Pokémon surrounded by the Guild members as well as Team Poochy and Team Tasty. Torkoal seemed to be slightly out of breath, and as Shiloh and I approached, he lifted his head.
"Shiloh, Gale," he panted, then took a deep breath. "I've remembered something about the Hidden Land."
"Take a rest," Shiloh urged him. "We'll wait. Do you need anything, like food or water?"
"I'd appreciate some water, thank you," Torkoal sighed, giving Shiloh a grateful look. I turned to leave but saw Simeon approaching with a hollow rock in his paws. He set it down in front of Torkoal, and I saw the rock was filled with water. Torkoal smiled gratefully and began drinking slowly. Torkoal never got into the hot spring, but I knew that fire Pokémon still needed drinking water. I remembered that the organ that held their fire was a different one than their stomach, so drinking water didn't hurt them. "Thank you." Torkoal smiled and raised his head. "I thought on it almost all night, and finally remembered something about the proof." Shiloh nodded. "To reach the Hidden Land, you need to have something to prove your qualification, like I stated earlier. But the proof has a certain inscription." He paused to take a breath. "This inscription is unusual. A Pokémon could go through their whole life and never see anything like it." He paused. "I've only seen the pattern once." I heard a sigh from behind me and turned to see Lysa standing there with a deep frown.
"How are we going to find it?" She asked dejectedly, her golden petals drooping. "I've never seen any inscriptions anywhere."
"It's something that's unusual and hard to find," Callo put in unhappily. "What should we do?"
"Maybe we should explore some of the places we've been before," Yabi suggested, "or maybe Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf would know something."
"Without a specific visual aid," Chatot sighed, "it's going to be difficult."
"We should go now," I spoke up quickly. "The pattern is unusual, so when we find it, we'll probably know." A thought tickled my mind, and I closed my eyes, thinking hard.
"Well, not necessarily," Shiloh disagreed, her arms crossed and a frown on her face. "It could be anything, and we'd probably just walk by it. If you're looking for something, it's sometimes harder to find. You might need to just stumble across it. That's how I found my relic fragment."
"Relic fragment?" Ran asked curiously. "What's that?" Shiloh reached inside her satchel and pulled out the relic fragment, then showed it to the Loudred.
"Here it is," she announced. "I don't even remember where I found it. It was a long time ago."
"This is it!" Torkoal looked at Shiloh in amazement. "Wherever did you find this?" Shiloh stared at the relic fragment.
"This is it?" She laughed. "I don't believe it! Now we can go to the Hidden Land!"
"Oh my gosh!" Lysa cried. "I'm so glad you found it!"
"We wouldn't have figured it out if you hadn't come back, Torkoal!" Rin said happily. "Thank you!"
"Oh, it was nothing," Torkoal said quickly, smiling faintly. "I'm afraid I must go now. I hope you'll all visit the hot spring soon." Ran helped Torkoal up the ladder and everyone called farewells to him as he left the Guild. When he came back he jumped down the ladder, his eyes wide with excitement."
"Now we just have to wait for Grovyle to come back," I said, and just then Duthie's yell sounded throughout the Guild.
"Everyone, listen! Grovyle's back! I'm letting him in!"