Sorry for the delay, I had a really bad case of writer's block on this one.
Chapter 10 – Torkoal
"Hey, Sparky, wake up." Riolu shook Sparky awake.
"Ugh…" He groaned as he struggled to sit up, his muscles were aching. He found that this morning was particularly more difficult to get up from. It's probably that impact from the Ditto I took yesterday, he thought. "Good morning."
"Good morning! Take a look at this!" He pointed to Grovyle's bed, which was empty except for a note. Riolu went over to pick it up and started reading it aloud.
"Good morning, you two," it read, "As you two have already noticed, I am away from town. I have gone ahead to Treeshroud Forest."
"Wh-what?! Why has he gone without us?!" Riolu asked.
"There is no guardian at Treeshroud Forest," the note continued, "so the Time Gear shouldn't be too difficult to take. And since you two have taken quite the beating yesterday, I've decided to go without you. That doesn't mean you two won't have to do anything though. I still want us to be efficient with our time. And, I wish I could have told you this directly, but… Riolu… You are the key to the Hidden Land."
"Wh-what?!" Riolu gasped in astonishment. "M-me?!"
"This is a mystery I'm sure you have been wondering about for a lot of time, but… Your Relic Fragment… Is the physical key to the Hidden Land."
"What?! My Relic Fragment?!"
"Before he was corrupted by the paradoxes, Dialga looked into every Pokemons' timestreams and looked for the Pokemon that would be the best individual to take the fragment. Someone who is pure of heart, and would never abuse power. And Riolu, he chose you for that role. He found that in your future, you have endured many struggles, but will have pulled through every single one of them courageously and fearlessly. With the help of other friends, you will have done things that other Pokemon can only dream of doing. That is why Dialga chose you."
Sparky looked at Riolu, who paused his reading and seemed to be holding back tears. But, he pulled through and continued.
"You have the key to the Hidden Land. The only problem is, we don't know where the door is. The way to the Hidden Land is still unknown, even for me. What I want for you to do today, is to research the way to get to the Hidden Land, by any means possible. But, you are NOT to talk to ANYONE you have seen in the past. No one in the guild, and ESPECIALLY not your past selves. Find someone you have never met, or VERY rarely speak to to help you. Good luck."
"Wh-what?! That's it?!" Riolu looked at Sparky. "Wow… That's a lot of information to dump on us in just one letter… So… We have to find a way to get to the Hidden Land! Except, we can't talk to anyone we know! We don't have any leads… Well, let's go try to find one." They stood up and walked out of the cave.
()()()()()
At the crossroads, the duo still tried thinking of Pokemon to start asking, until they saw their past selves walking down the hill.
"Ah! It's ourselves!" Riolu swiftly pulled Sparky into a nearby bush.
"C'mon Sparky, to the mysterious waterfall!" The past Riolu exclaimed. They started running down the path.
"It's that time when we were investigating the waterfall! Wow, it seems like it was just yesterday, doesn't it? Wait…" He paused, seeming to have gotten an idea. "At the Hot Spring! Torkoal, the town elder! He's gotta know something about the Hidden Land!... I wonder if it'll be ok to talk with him though…"
Well, Sparky thought, we haven't talked to Torkoal since we went to the Hot Spring, so… It should be fine… Right? "We should go." Sparky said, "It IS our only lead right now, right?"
"Yeah, ok! Let's go, to the Hot Spring!"
()()()()()
It was incredibly humid and steamy at the Hot Spring, sweat already started to form on Sparky. They hid behind a rock, being concealed from everyone's sights. "Ok, we should wait until our past selves left to talk to Torkoal." They waited for a couple of hours until the sun was directly overhead. "I think it's about the right time for-" he was cut off to see a nearby geyser shoot up a column of steaming water, along with a couple of figures. "Hey, that's us!" Riolu stared as the two figures splashed down on the spring with a gigantic splash, drenching every Pokemon in the hot water.
"Woah!" Torkoal exclaimed in surprise. After a couple minutes, and a few mutters between the worried Pokemon, the two of them seemed to be waking up. "My goodness! Are you alright?!" Torkoal exclaimed.
"Wh-where are we?" The flustered Riolu looked at his surroundings, his vision seemed to still be blurry.
"Well, you're in the Hot Spring! You just shot of the geyser! Are you ok?"
"Y-yeah. Who are you?" He still seemed to be clearing from his dizziness.
"I'm Torkoal, Treasure Town's elder. You must be extremely exhausted, please, relax with us in the Hot Spring."
"Huh, the Hot Spring." He looked around. "I always wanted to visit here. I guess there's no time like the present! Thanks everyone!" Everyone started to calm down, knowing that their two visitors turned out to be ok.
"Wow," Riolu whispered, "it seems so long ago, yet so recent… Well, let's wait until they leave."
()()()()()
After a while, the past Riolu spoke up. "Well, it's about time we head back to the guild… I wouldn't imagine Chatot will be too happy to find we didn't bring anything back… But let's go!" They started to walk out of the spring. "Thanks everybody!" Everyone waved at them. They continued walking, and the past Riolu turned around to see the present Riolu, but they were luckily in the shadow of the rock, and the past Riolu didn't think much of it.
They both sighed in relief. "That was close! Ok… Let's wait a few more minutes." After a while, they started walking out behind the rock.
"Ah, it's you two again! Back so soon?"
"Um, yes, we have some questions to ask you." Riolu found it hard to hide the fact that he was a future version of himself.
"Well, what is it?"
"Um, well we want to know whether you know how to get to a place called the Hidden Land."
"The Hidden Land?"
"Do you know it?" Riolu asked, getting excited by his response to that name.
"Yes, that place is a subject of quite a legend… Well… let's see…" He started rubbing his chin. "I apologize, I can't seem to remember the story myself."
"Wh-what? You can't remember?!"
"I'm afraid my old mind is getting a little rusty in its memory, it can't remember everything at once."
Riolu started thinking until he had an idea. "Well… Maybe this could help jog your memory!" He handed his Relic Fragment over to him.
"My goodness! Th-this is…" The memories seemed to flood its way back into the elderly Pokemon's mind ."It's the key to the Hidden Land! How did you- no… You're the chosen one?!"
"Y-yes…" He found it was grew more difficult to keep the lie up, and decided to tell him. "Well… How do I explain this?..." So, in a mildly complicated way, as he didn't fully understand it himself, he tried explaining their adventures in the future, and their recent companionship with Grovyle. "I know this is hard to believe, especially since everyone doesn't know who the Time Gear thief is yet, but please, you have to believe us!"
"Well… what point do you have in lying to me anyway? You DO have this, so I doubt you're a particularly bad Pokemon…." He handed the Relic Fragment back to Riolu. "Alright I'll tell you what I know. And I must warn you it's not much, especially with my faulty memory."
"It's alright! Any bit of knowledge will help!"
"Well, all I know is that the Hidden Land is located in the middle of the ocean, and that you need a special Pokemon to bring you there. And that fragment of yours is the key to summoning that Pokemon. Unfortunately, I don't know where you should summon the Pokemon… or which Pokemon it is…"
"Wow, that's a ton of information, thanks Torkoal! Oh, and can you PLEASE not mention this to ANYONE?"
"Of course! I wish you two luck in saving the world."
"Thank you for the help!" They started walking back to their base.
"Glad to be of service!" He exclaimed back.
()()()()()
Back at the cave, the two of them found Grovyle setting up the fireplace. "Hey, Grovyle!"
"Ah, it's you two. Did you find any information on the Hidden Land?"
"Well…" He explained what he was told.
"Well, it's not much more than I already know, but at least I now know that it's in the middle of the ocean."
"Did you get the Time Gear?"
"Yep. It was a piece of cake. Well, we had a full day today, so tomorrow, we're going to… Fogbound Lake. For now, let's just get some rest."
"Right." They started to get comfortable on their beds, satisfied with their full day of work.
Well… It's not much, but I suppose it… Works? Right?... Ok, it's crap, but hey, I had Writer's Block, so that's what you'd expect. I guess that's what reviews are for, so if you have criticism, be sure to write it in the reviews! So, this Doctor Who quote was in the Time of the Doctor, in the poem in the Christmas cracker. This one just makes me tear up every time I hear it. I miss Matt Smith. :'(
"And now it's time for one last bow
Like all your other selves
Eleven's hour is over now
The clock is striking twelve's."
- Eric Ritchie Jr.