We walked until sundown. I fell into pace with Georgia because the journey seemed to be the hardest for her. Being talkative was something I could be if I felt like it, but throughout most of the journey I just felt like staying quiet. I needed all my energy to keep moving and there wasn't much to talk about anyway.
Time passed in a haze of forest and plains and the soft murmur of the wind was the only sound that intruded upon our small group. Every now and then someone would say something in a vain attempt to start a conversation but they only received a short response then silence. After a while there were no more attempts because we were all too exhausted to speak.
The pain in my leg was present only for the very beginning of the journey. After that it seemed to give up and reduced itself to a dull throb of weary protest. I ignored it and focused all my energies on walking. Dawn had woken up shortly before we left but I had to carry her for a while due to the fact that she was still very groggy. I wanted very much to talk to her about the things that had happened but I didn't. It could wait until we were both feeling better.
Darkness fell without warning and we were forced to camp in the middle of a dry stretch of plains. Not having any shelter was unnerving and the lack of materials to build a fire was irritating. The little bit of food that we had wasn't enough to fully fill two people, let alone five. Still, we divided the rations between us equally and the food helped.
Night was growing thicker and thicker as time went on. Everyone had fallen asleep but I couldn't. Dawn stayed awake with me. She seemed to know what was wrong.
'You didn't go camping much as a kid. You can't be expected to feel at home in the outdoors like they do.'
I sighed and shifted in an attempt to find a more comfortable position. "But I do feel at home outside. I just…never slept on the ground before. Not without something under me. Even though I don't think there are bugs in the grass I can't help feeling them and it's cold."
'That's because of the clouds.'
"Clouds?" I rolled onto my back and stared up at the sky. No stars were visible and only a dim glimmer proved that the moon existed tonight. "Oh man, I hope it doesn't rain."
'It won't make a difference if it does. It might actually help. Your leg needs tending.'
I turned to scowl at the little Rattata. Why did she have to remind me about it? When I wasn't thinking about my leg it didn't bother me. Now I was thinking about it and it bothered me again. "Why did you have to bring that up?"
'Because it's important. If we don't reach Chinchu by tomorrow your leg will undoubtedly become infected. That bandage should be changed every day.'
I shook my head and ran a hand over the tender area on my thigh. "Don't worry about it, Dawn. I think it's healing. It feels better than it did before, anyway. Right now I just want to sleep."
There was a silence, then a raindrop landed on my face. "Oh fu…why? Couldn't the rain have waited until daylight, at least? Now I'll never get to sleep."
"And I'll never stay asleep."
I sat up quickly and turned to see Robert looking over at me. A few more raindrops fell from the sky then stopped. "I don't think it's going to rain much yet," I said sleepily. "You can't really smell the rain. There's never going to be much rain unless you can smell it…usually."
"True." He smiled and stretched his arms over his head. "So, what are your plans after getting to Chinchu? Going to head back to Hoenn?"
I wondered briefly how he knew I was from Hoenn, or at least supposed to be, but then I realized that Soren had probably informed all of them of where we were from. "No, we, I still have stuff to do in Johto."
"Ah," he paused, eying me for a moment. "How long have you known Soren?"
I shrugged. "I dunno. A week at most. Actually, I don't think it's even been that long. I-" I stopped, realizing I had been about to give away far more information than was wise. I hesitated a moment then continued quickly, "I met him on my way to Johto and we decided to start traveling together."
"I see. So, he's like your boyfriend? Or are you his bodyguard?"
I had to laugh. "No. My boyfriend's name is Jake and…and he's back in…Hoenn. Me and Soren are just friends and I guess he's kind of more of the battler because he has more Pokemon than me." I looked away, thinking of Jake and then of Jessica and Hope. What were they doing and feeling right now?
"Well, whatever your relation, you two are an odd sight. I'm glad there are still trainers who travel the region. I just have one more question, if that's all right."
"Shoot," I said absently.
"Why are you traveling? Just the experience or is there something more? I know you're not going after badges or looking to compete in contests because the gyms were closed to encourage those thinking of becoming trainers to stay home. And the contests are nothing like they used to be. They're just beauty pageants, really."
I looked at him, seeing something gleaming in his violet eyes that disturbed me. I couldn't place what it was but I didn't like it. I had seen it before somewhere. Where? When? The hair on the back of my neck prickled and I had to work to keep my voice pleasant. "This war won't last forever. When it's over and things go back to normal I want to know the country I'm traveling in. Soren's just here for…well, I'm not sure, really. He just said it's safety or something."
Robert stared at me as if trying to see if I was telling the truth or not. At last he shrugged and said, "I suppose that's understandable." With that he stood up and walked away without another word.
A raindrop fell and suddenly I shivered. That look…"Greed?"
----
It didn't rain the next day but it was incredibly humid. I was out of energy before we started off and I could see that everyone was feeling the same effects. The walk was almost unbearable and it was made worse by the constantly rising temperature. The ever thickening clouds helped a little but it felt more like the heat and humidity were being trapped around us.
Finally, after what felt like hours of walking, Chinchu came into view. It was a regular town, not too dissimilar to the one I lived in, and the best part was there was no sign of the military. The brief encounter we had had with them made me want to never see a white uniform again.
Voicing that thought to myself jinxed us as I should have known it would. No sooner had we reached the center of town than we saw a group of people on a platform, some wearing white camouflage.
Though it was highly unlikely that any of these guys would have heard about us, we hid ourselves in the thickest part of the crowd gathered around the platform and did our best not to look suspicious.
"The dogs in green are being driven further back every day and their numbers are beginning to dwindle!"
There was a cheer from the crowd. The man speaking looked like a higher ranking officer than the ones who had tried to escort us to Hietus. Medals gleamed on his chest and his uniform was darker in color.
"People of Chinchu! Though our victory seems assured, we cannot let down our guard and was cannot show any mercy to our enemies! We must continue to fight, harder than ever, if we are to truly prevail! We must fight until there is nothing left of those dogs! We must increase our forces, increase our courage, and shower our wrath on the Greens! The Defenders will prevail!"
The crowd cheered and clapped more ferociously than before as the White speaker took a moment to breathe. Before he could continue his rant, I tugged on Soren's arm and began to inch my way out of the crowd. He grabbed my wrist and shook his head. "We need to know. We need to hear this," he said quietly.
There was no doubt that he was right. I knew nothing about this war and nothing about the two sides fighting it. Still, listening to this guy go on and on about the "green dogs" was making me feel sick. I never did like war propaganda but I'd never been this close to it and none I had ever seen was like this.
"All those who are able should join us and fight for this land! Do not let it fall into the hands of the dogs!"
At least we had come near the end, it seemed. The officer stepped aside to allow another man to step up and speak. He talked about how people could join the Defenders and added more on how their cause, whatever that was, was the greatest and that they should fight for it.
Finally Soren agreed we could leave. I felt rather bitter towards him, though I knew he had been right to stay. Still, we were supposed to be a team and…no, that wasn't right. We weren't a team, were we? He was my escort and I was the Chosen One. Then, which one of us was supposed to be in charge?
Katherine, Georgia, and Robert departed shortly after that. Each of them had their own place to be just like me and Soren. The place we needed to be at the moment was somewhere to rest and wash up. My clothes were so dirty that the blood wasn't all that noticeable which was a good thing, but I had never wanted a shower more in my life.
We booked two rooms at a cheap motel. I asked Soren why we couldn't stay at a Pokemon Center as they were supposed to be free, but he said they had been closed long ago.
The shower felt wonderful. I was so grateful for it that all other thoughts were washed from my mind. Dawn, who wasn't quite as dirty as I was, decided to be cute and jumped at the shower curtain a couple of times, trying to make me think Soren was outside.
"Quit being annoying," I snapped at her after she had done this about ten times.
'I am not being annoying. You're taking forever!'
"I've been traveling through forest and sleeping on the ground and I haven't had a shower in a week! I'm allowed to take as long as I bloody want!"
'You're going to use up all the hot water in the motel!'
I rolled my eyes and looked down at the stitched cut in my leg. It looked like it was almost healed, oddly enough. It didn't hurt when I touched it, either. I was very glad of this.
I turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. After drying myself off and wrapping a towel around myself I poked my head out of the bathroom and saw that the maid I had asked earlier to have my clothes cleaned was just returning. I smiled.
"Perfect timing. Could you bring them over here?"
"Of course, Madam. Nasty cut you had on your leg. That's why it took so long to get your clothes clean."
I smiled again, more sheepishly this time. "Yeah. I took a nasty fall. There's a nice bump on my head, too." I pointed to the smaller wound on my head which had healed very nicely as well.
The maid smiled and handed me my clothes. "You are lucky, Madam. I wish you good fortune later on."
After she had left I put my clothes back on and gave myself a look over in the mirror. I was surprised to find that I didn't look too different from the girl I had been before coming to Johto. Same skin, same hair, same eyes…only with a slightly harder, more mature look about them.
'You look absolutely dazzling and beautiful. Now stop contemplating your reflection and do something useful.'
I scowled and decided that it was time Dawn took her shower. She didn't seem to appreciate the warm water as much as I had and attempted to bite me in the hand again. I laughed and let her go before turning off the water again.
'Wet, wet, wet,' Dawn said irritably, shaking herself but failing to get more than a few drops of water on me.
The hole in my jeans had been clumsily sewn and I was pretty sure they would tear again eventually, but I ignored it. There was no point in worrying about something trivial like that. At the moment I needed to do some thinking and decide what to do next.
There was a knock on the door and Soren came in. His clothes had been cleaned as well and his hair was as wet as mine. Apparently he had just gotten out of the shower, too.
"So, where are we going to go, now?" My question was voiced out of courtesy only. I already knew where we needed to go but I felt it would be easier if Soren wanted to go there too.
"I don't know. To a battle, I suppose," he said, sitting down on the edge of the bed. "Surely that's the place where you can start your mission."
I stared at him. This was not what I had expected. Running straight into a battle seemed like a very, very bad idea to me. "I, err, well, I don't know if that's the best idea. I was thinking more along the lines of Goldenrod…"
Soren gave me a long look before saying in an oddly cold tone, "You need to stop messing around. You can go sightseeing any time but this region is in trouble. You need to help it before there's nothing left to help."
"Hey, I'm not sightseeing. I just know Goldenrod is the place to go."
"Just like you did in Azalea? I was under the impression that you just wanted to get to know the region better. You certainly didn't put up a fight when we changed our destination to Chinchu."
I couldn't believe he was saying this. "I was exhausted, and so were you. The destination was never changed, it was just temporarily diverted."
He scowled. "Listen, I know that this is all new and hard to you, but you have to stop acting like a child and start acting like the Chosen One. Trevor and the others didn't call you over here so you could take a vacation."
"They didn't call me over at all!" I snapped, flaring up. "They dragged me over here and refused to let me go!"
"That was smart of them. You can't expect them to let their only hope for survival just walk out and never come back."
"How can you say that? Look at what we've already been through! I'm not from this world; I have no obligation to it. It's your damn fault for not being able to stop this by yourself! You're relying on me to do it for you and frankly I'm not sure if I want to."
"You don't have a choice!" Soren's voice rose and he got to his feet. "You are the only one who can do something. Don't say it's our fault. We didn't cause the war! We've been trying much harder than you to stop it and we haven't succeeded."
"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean you should stop trying! All wars end eventually and as far as I know none of the wars in my world have been ended by relying on one person from an unknown world to help!"
"Just stop. You're acting like a spoiled child. You agreed to this, regardless of why or how. You have to stop this war because you are the only one who can. We'll head out tomorrow. I know where a battle is being fought. Goodnight."
With that he turned and left. I stared after him, unable to believe it. I had thought for a while that we were starting to become friends, but it turned out that he was just like the other members of the Interregional Alliance. I should have expected it, but I didn't.
I did know, however, that I was not going to let him drag me into a battle. I was going to go to Goldenrod because that was where I needed to be. I didn't know why, but I knew it was true.
----
Night fell quickly but I didn't go to bed. Instead I sat on my bed staring at the door. I had made up my mind even though I knew it was crazy. Dawn had stayed up with me, offering comfort and agreeing with me about most of the things I said. She knew well that Soren was no longer going to help us. We both agreed that the cause was probably that odd show we had put on when we were attacked by those White soldiers.
'Normal people can't create a blast of energy like that,' she said simply, shrugging.
That was certainly true, but I was the one who had that power so I was the one who was going to use it, whatever it was.
The clock by the bed read 12:34. The time was now.
Carefully I slipped off the bed and walked silently across the room towards the door. I pushed it open slowly and looked out. The hallway was dark and nothing moved. Soren's room was parallel to mine and, luckily, unlocked. I used great caution when opening the door then stood, looking at the sleeping boy. How much I had misjudged him. I wouldn't do that again.
I looked around, using Dawn's keen eyes to help my own, then hurried over to the backpack by his bed. Quickly I rummaged through it and removed his map, a small flashlight, and, on a whim, his I.D. card. It might come in handy and it might also help to teach him that he was not better than I was.
With these supplies in hand I left his room, closing the door behind me, then looked down at Dawn and turned on the flashlight. "To Goldenrod," I whispered.
'For better or for worse, yes. To Goldenrod.'
She walked beside me, whispering into my mind more words of comfort as I walked down the hallway. I reached the exit and turned to look back down the hallway. Then I shook my head and left, moving quickly down the road until the motel was no longer in sight.
