Learning to Heal the Hurt – Book I: Fire Red
Chapter 7: A Strange Prophesy

Reenie stared dumbly after the rapidly retreating form of Talia as she crashed deep into the dark interior of the forest, away from their sunny little clearing. Well that was certainly unexpected. Then again, most of the things Talia had done lately were very irrational, and much unlike her. She had been touchy about everything, especially Pokemon. Reenie and Deri had gone to great measures to avoid the subject in the last three days they had been together. It had to be from the shock of loosing her mother that she acted this way. Reenie was not exactly sure she would have blown up like that if one of her parents had died, but then again, Mrs. O'Connel was the only one Talia had left in the world. Losing her was like the deathblow to her rationality.

She did have to admit though, Talia was kind of overreacting

Deri heaved a long, wavering sigh. "She's mad at the world. Mad at herself for letting her mother die."

She glanced quickly over at him. He sat, staring straight in front of him, back pressed against the sturdy tree, knees drawn up to his chest. His short black hair fluttered softly in the faint breeze, and he barely blinked at all.

"I never really thought of it that way," She murmured softly.

Deri inclined his head slightly, "She has to find someone to take her grief-fueled anger out on. Pokemon just happened to be the unfortunates she chose."

"Where do you think she'll go?" She asked uncertainly.

Deri shook his head. "You can't really say. In her state she could end up anywhere. I don't believe she herself even has any idea where she's going."

"D'you think we did the right thing? Following her I mean?" Reenie was full to bursting with questions and doubts. Deri was always a good source for the hard to answer questions she always seemed to have. Plus, he was her friend and she trusted him to help and give her the correct answers to the best of his ability.

"Definitely," Deri answered her question confidently; "She was in one heck of a mess when we found her, with her leg and all. And," He gestured in the vague direction Talia had taken only a few minutes before, a slow grin spreading across his sharp features, "She leaves a pretty good trail."

Reenie gave him a half-hearted grin in return and nodded, hope growing deep inside of her. "We should follow her y'know. She may need our help."

"We'll follow her soon enough. Just give her some time to cool off; maybe an hour or two. Like I said before, her trail is more than easy to follow. We'll be able to find her in no time."

"Whatever you say, Deri."

----------

It was around noon by the time they had packed up camp, shouldered their all too heavy packs and began the journey. Deri was the self-appointed leader since Reenie knew absolutely nothing about tracking. Deri had taken a tracking class the summer before at a summer camp, and knew enough to follow Talia's plain trail. She had to admit, the times he had gone to camp she always thought they were useless, but now she was glad he had attended. Talia's path of destruction was even plain enough for her to vaguely guess where she had gone.

They traveled on through the rough forest for the next couple of hours, only communicating when they absolutely had to; and even then it was only in short grunts and nods. The way seemed to be getting harder and harder as the pair traveled, her pack seeming to grow heavier and heavier as they went.

Sweat began to break out in tiny beads on her forehead, and she stumbled more than once over a log or root jutting out of the earth. She did have to admit, though, that the scenery was beautiful. The trees were flashes of brilliant color as they swayed gently in the soft breeze, reaching their giant limbs up towards the sapphire sky, as if in a race to see who could receive the most attention from the glowing orange sun. Pokemon called out from the trees, adding a chaotic yet harmonic atmosphere of the forest. She cracked a small smile which immediately turned into a grimace as her knee sharply scraped against a thorny vine hanging out across the path.

Directly in front of her, Deri was walking with a plodding gait, casting his dark brown eyes everywhere, studying a broken branch here, stooping to stare at a deep foot print in the soft mud there. Reenie welcomed these brief pauses whole-heartedly as she dropped her pack gratefully to the soft earth beneath her feet so that she could flex her painfully cramped shoulders for a slight couple of seconds before Deri would straighten up, nod to her to do the same and plod continually on, she with him.

Finding Talia quick and easy? Yah, right, Reenie thought sarcastically. Other than these brief pauses that couldn't really be called a rest, they didn't stop at all. Apparently Deri was very insistent on finding Talia within the space of twenty-four hours. So they just walked and walked and walked and walked until she could've sworn her legs were just about to drop off her body if she moved one step further!

She didn't complain. After all it was for Talia's sake that she was putting herself through all this. She was her friend. They had known each other so long that Talia was like the sister she'd never had. Reenie had always been glad of Talia in the years past whenever she was desperately in need of female attention, or just wanted to get away from her brothers (she had four). She could always go to her friend if she was in need of anything. Mrs. O'Connel had been like a second mother to her as well. It pained her almost as much as Talia to see her die. It was just that she didn't take it the same way Talia did.

Deri came to a complete stand still so suddenly that she almost barged straight into him. If she hadn't looked up from her reverie in time she would have done so, and they both would probably have ended up sprawled on the ground.

"What?" Reenie asked Deri, quickly recovering herself from the near collision. "What are you stopping for?"

"Shhh. I hear something," He answered, barely moving a muscle as he spoke softly.

She promptly shut her mouth, and tuned her ears in for…well, anything unusual that could have caused Deri to stop so suddenly. She heard Pokemon calling, wind swishing among the trees and grasses; she could hear her heart beating if she listened really hard, and cars rushing by on the highway; she heard water rushing down a small stream and she heard…

"Cars!" Deri exclaimed, his voice booming loudly in her ears.

Cars? What was unusual about cars? A highway, sure, people too; nothing out of the ordinary.

"What about them?" Reenie asked, thoroughly baffled.

"Oh, Reenie, cars!" He repeated.

"And…"

"People are in cars so that means there is a road or highway up ahead! It means civilization!"

She blinked, the information taking a moment to register in her mind. If there was civilization Talia might be there!

"So, if we go to this road we can follow it, and get to civilization!" She grinned. A good hot meal and a nice long shower seemed like the greatest thing in the world right then…

"Not exactly," Deri said, shattering her daydream about one big hamburger with cheese and ketchup dripping off the sides… She shook her head. Thinking like this was not good for her. It made her stomach grumble, and realize for the first time that she was starving!

"So, what was your point on the road?" She asked, quizzically.

"It can help us figure out where we are. Once I know the approximate location I can figure out which direction Talia's headed, and which cities we'll come upon."

"You know the exact locations of Hoenn's cities?" Reenie asked incredulously. She was not one for maps, but she could read them if she had to; she just didn't like too.

"Yah, to a certain extent, but for now we just have to follow Talia's trail," Deri turned back around, and continued on.

"Oh," Was the only thing she said. Her head was beginning to ache a little, and she hoped it would soon go away. A headache was the last thing she needed right now.

They plodded along at what seemed like an unbearably slow rate for the next few minutes, Reenie's headache increasing rapidly every single second as every bone in her body began to ache with every single step she took. She kept moving, though, one painful step after another.

Only a few minute's more (though it seemed like hours to her roaring brain), and they had reached the source of the noise they had been hearing. Deri had been right, she thought fleetingly. It was a road, a rural highway actually (Sandar-Rustboro Highway an informative road sign told them), with fields extending out as far as the eye could see on the opposite side of the road from them. A threatening black cloud was rolling up on them, full to bursting with water. It was a gigantic storm.

She didn't notice any of this as the pain in her body was growing almost unbearable, and she began to get a sick feeling right at the very pit of her stomach, as if I was going to throw up. Every joint in my body ached, almost unbearably, making it exceedingly hard to keep on moving. The pain was the worst in her roaring head, as if something was trying to burst its way through into her brain.

Deri kept to the forest as they began to follow the road north, according to him. By now she could barely keep my eyes open, and her legs moving. Her fingers hurt, her arms hurt and legs, her head, her feet, her back, everything felt as if they were being torn up from the inside. She was woozy, and could barely stand straight, let alone think, and every tiny movement made her feel as if a thousand needles were darting into her flesh. She felt horrible.

Finally, after what seemed like a prolonged age, Deri stopped and glanced around, a confused look crossing his face. She stood, staring dumbly at nothing, her green eyes glazing over as random spots of color began to dance before them.

Suddenly a terrible apparition of a huge transparent monster appeared before her delirious, unseeing eyes and rushed straight toward her. She barely had time to become frightened let alone comprehend what she was seeing. Right before it collided with her defenseless form, crushing her with its immense weight, she let out one ear-splitting shriek… and was swallowed by a void of seething darkness.

A sharp scream tore through the air behind him, causing Deri to jump. He whacked his head painfully up into the leafy branches of the large sycamore tree above him. As soon as he'd regained his composure, getting his head untangled from the trees, he turned his eyes over to where the shout had come from…and almost fell over backwards.

Reenie lay crumpled out on the mucky black earth of the forest floor in what looked to be a very uncomfortable position. Her eyes were tightly shut, but he could see by the steady rise and fall of her chest that she was still breathing. Her chestnut brown hair fell lazily across her face, masking any expression she had held when she fell that could have betrayed any emotion she had felt while going unconscious. A stab of fear tore through his heart as he took in the horrible scene. His first reaction was panic.

What had caused Reenie to collapse like that? She looked to be unconscious, but was she hurt even worse than she appeared? Were there any broken bones? Should he move her?

Deri rushed quickly over to her side, dropping his heavy pack to the ground as he did. Was she okay? If she wasn't…that was something he couldn't bring himself to think about. She just had to be all right! She just had too!

He reached out a tentative finger, and touched her hand lightly. His head began to swim with fear and shock as his hand met her flesh. It was freezing cold; far too cold to be natural! He stared at his best friend's pitiful form lying sprawled out on the ground, his hand barely resting on hers. She didn't seem to be doing very well. Fear washed through him, settling at the very pit of his stomach, making him feel as if he needed to throw up. Reenie was hurt, and there was no way, nothing at all, to help her.

Suddenly her eyes snapped wide open. The movement was so fast and sudden that Deri almost missed it.

Reenie!

He felt relief spreading through him like wildfire, and he was quite sure it was showing on his sharp, strained features as well. He grinned. At least she wasn't unconscious anymore.

Then, suddenly, Reenie sprang to her feet with unnatural agility, even for her, causing him to loose his balance. His flailing foot caught on a tangle of upraised roots, and he was down, his lower back landing on a pile of sharp rocks. He winced, stifling a sharp shout of pain that was threatening to force its way out of his mouth so that it only emitted as a pitifully strangled squeak. He pulled himself quickly to his feet, rubbing his lower back vigorously as a futile attempt to ease the pain, and the rapidly growing bruise that he was sure was spreading steadily up his back.

"Reenie!" Deri complained, turning his gaze back to where his friend stood, "What was that for? You could have…" He broke off as he noticed that something was utterly and completely wrong with Reenie. She stood rigidly, staring directly at him, but at the same time not at him, staring straight through him, as if he didn't exist. The thing that threw him off the most was her eyes. Instead of their normal, soft green color, hers were a luminous icy blue. They seemed to cast off a pale, liquid blue glow. Her strange blue eyes were hard, devoid of all emotion, and he could tell immediately that this was not Reenie who stood before him now. It may have been her body, but it was not his best friend.

Then she spoke, and when she did her voice was her own, yet not her own. It had an icy metallic ring to it, and it caused small shivers to course down his spine. The words that she spoke were utterly horrible yet wonderful, but terrifying.

"The one you are searching for is heading for the great western city. But, heed my warning! For with her an ancient evil is rising, following in her path, and steadily growing in power.

"If it succeeds in it's rising, the Fire Dragon shall come again, wakening from its long rest beneath the ocean, held at bay all this time, pouring out all its anger, hate, all its malice and cruelty onto the unprotected world beneath it. Nothing shall stand in its path. Nothing shall be able to stop it.

"The earth will be destroyed, all its people dead, and the good in the hearts of the Pokemon twisted into something of pure evil. Mutants, destroying everything in their foul paths, will rule the world. Explosions shall erupt everywhere on the planet, and all those left living shall suffer to the greatest of extremes.

"Ruling above them all shall be the Fire Dragon, reigning in all of its power and malice, destroying the world in the most painful way possible.

"But, if the Fire dragon does not succeed in it's rising; if somehow its pawn is stopped from nearing the place where the Dragon sleeps, there will still be hope left. Hope that somehow the Fire Dragon can be sustained for another thousand years, nursing its wounds, before it shall try to rise again.

"But now it is rising, gaining its power until it is so powerful it knows that nothing can stand in its path.

"This warning I am giving to you, so heed my words and listen with all sincerity. Go after this girl who heads for the western city, stop her from doing any more evil than she has already done, unknowingly, in the name of the Fire Dragon. Take her back to where she came from, and get the red stone from her! Bring it to Mount Pyre, not one of you must bear it, for it is evil. Take it to the mount and set it in its rightful place beside the blue stone, the one that contains its wrath.

"But if these two are set together in any other place but Mount Pyre, they shall fuse, becoming one, and following shall be an even greater evil than the Fire Dragon alone could ever produce.

"Listen to me and heed my warning for this is my wish, the wish of the Water Monster, who sends you on this task. Go now and do what I ask, and the world shall rest in peace for another thousand years. This is my wish. The wish of the Water Monster: Kyogre…"

Suddenly, the luminescence left Reenie's eyes, the familiar hazel returning into them. Her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed once more. Deri jumped forward and caught her in his arms, then gently lay her down on the forest floor, and waited.