Finally finished a new chapter. Sorry I haven't been updating. Life's in the way.
I'll try to keep new chapters coming... but don't expect them too often.
Still... enjoy.
Land & Skye: Living a Legend
Chapter 14: A Shock and a Scare
Alright, I don't have forever once I've got that flying form again. Time to go find that flower again and get going to the Chateau.
Kendel started to head out of the grove, but then glanced back at the flowers all around and had an idea.
I wonder…
He started looking through the flowers. It had just occurred to him that the flower that allowed him to fly was possibly in this grove, just waiting to found. Much to his pleasure, he did find the flower he was searching for, growing in the midst of the innumerable flora. A human likely would've overlooked it, but being about level with the flowers allowed Kendel to notice what he was searching for with greater ease.
He brushed up against the flower gently and after a second, he felt the change. He shook himself down and grinned as he felt that sense of loose freedom once more. Gravity wouldn't hold him down so long as he had this flower handy.
He considered doing something else, hoping it would help him with his search, but he decided against it.
I could pick the flower and take it with me… however I doubt it would last longer than a day or two, then it would probably wither and it wouldn't be any more use to me.
So Kendel left the flower where it was in the grove, satisfied with the fact that he had his flying form without drawing human attention.
He left the grove for the stream to the north. Once there, he took off into the air and flew downstream, and going over the trees, towards the path going up to Eterna Forest. Like his previous flight, the encounter with the Staraptor was still fresh on his mind so Kendel kept fairly low to the ground. High enough to soar over any land-bound trouble, but low enough to avoid drawing attention from territorial birds defending their air-space.
He flew high over the landscape, noticing humans below that he wouldn't have to deal with as he soared over their heads.
I don't know how I'd really get around without this flying form… I'd run into far too many people and have to deal with too many trainers wanting to capture me.
He couldn't see Enzo in the tall grass anywhere, but he was so high up and the Shinx was probably in-hiding to ambush him, so it didn't particularly surprise Kendel that he couldn't spot the aggressive feline. He wouldn't have to worry about him anymore anyways. Enzo could wait there to ambush him for the rest of the year for all Kendel cared. He had other things to do, more than waste his time trying to fight off the Shinx.
Kendel gently dived as he neared what he knew to be Eterna Forest. He could see his old hometown to the north-east from high in the air.
He tried to steer around so as to avoid being spotted by any humans in the area just outside the forest and landed near the trees.
"Alright… need to go find the Chateau in here." He murmured to himself and headed into the forest.
The forest was as the boy had always remembered it. He could smell the plant-life, the extreme fresh air, and the entire forest was a vibrant green everywhere he looked. Any other day, Kendel might've relaxed a little under these conditions and enjoyed the atmosphere of the forest.
Right now though, he was focused on finding the Chateau to search it for Mew.
He headed in, keeping to tall grass and clusters of trees, avoiding trainers out in the forest, looking to catch bugs or train their loyal pokemon.
At one point, he accidentally headed the wrong way and found himself at a rock that he almost mistook for a mound of grass. It was absolutely covered in moss.
"I don't think I've seen a pokemon like you in this forest before…"
Kendel jumped slightly, thinking for an instant that a trainer had spotted him. When he turned to see who had spoken, he found himself looking at a pokemon.
This one would've blended in with the plant-life quite nicely as much of the pokemon was green and its body featured a lot of leaf-like appendages, such as its tail, its ears, and a somewhat quirky curl of fur on its head. Its eyes were a solid, honey-like color and looked quite soft.
Kendel relaxed just slightly, relieved that he at least wouldn't be fighting a trainer's team.
"Er, I've been around, just hiding a lot…" Kendel half-lied, "Could you tell me where a… structure built by the humans is around here?" Kendel asked, not sure if pokemon knew the name of the building was the "Chateau". He wanted to get his bearings again so he was asking for directions. The Leafeon blinked in mild surprise at this question.
"Are you talking about that one place humans haven't lived in for years?" Kendel nodded and the pokemon tilted its head wonderingly at him "Why would you want to go to that place? There's nothing but unpleasant ghost-types there. They only want to try and scare the wits out of anyone who wanders in there."
"A-er, friend of mine apparently wandered in there and I heard he got lost. So I want to go looking for him." Kendel said, thinking fast and half-lying again.
"Hm… must be a good friend if you care that much about them. The old human building is off that way." The Leafeon said with a kind smile as he pointed off, deeper into the forest.
Kendel nodded, politely thanked the pokemon and headed in that direction, though he paused as he was proceeding away to glance back at the Leafeon.
I've never seen a pokemon like that… even in all my time in this forest. I don't even know what it exactly is, though judging from the appearance, it's a safe bet it's a grass-type.
He tore his eyes away though and refocused on headed for the Chateau.
About an hour of careful movement through the forest later, avoiding humans, running from most fights (mostly bug-types wanting to nibble on the grass growing out of Kendel), and navigating the maze of trees, Kendel finally arrived at the other entrance to the forest that he had always taken as a human.
The Chateau should be somewhere around here if memory serves…
And sure enough, Kendel spotted the run-down fence that he had always climbed over as a human to get to the Chateau. There were small saplings growing in the fence, tearing it up and speeding up the decay of the old fence.
Kendel squeezed through a gap in the fence and headed through the darkening grass, the dark building looming ahead.
The front door was, as always, left ajar. In all his excursions into the old house, he never bothered to close it completely. Who would really care? He had always been sure the ghost-type pokemon inside didn't. They cared more about giving him goosebumps and terrifying him.
Kendel gently nudged the door open a little further and headed inside.
Unlike the forest outside, the Chateau always made Kendel considerably more wary. He knew what was in here and wasn't about to let the presence of ghosts disturb him or frighten him.
"Alright Mew… where are you…?" Kendel murmured, looking around the foyer of the Chateau for any immediate signs. He then headed into the house, beginning his search.
As he searched, Kendel heard a voice or two, which he assumed to be the local ghosts, curious about a grass-type coming into their dwelling. They seemed to find his courage in coming in here amusing as he could hear the occasional chuckle mixed in with the other background voices. However, so long as the ghosts didn't show up, Kendel ignored all this and focused on his search.
He looked in the dining room, the store cupboards, the janitorial locker… he searched everywhere for his quarry.
In fact, Kendel cursed when his form suddenly shifted and he found himself in his grounded-state again.
Drat! I must have lost track of time… it's getting late.
This was bad news for Kendel for two reasons: one was his loss of flight that had just occurred. Unless he came across the flower again somehow, he wouldn't be flying anywhere from here on out. The second was the fact that dusk was coming… and when night fell, Kendel was quite sure the ghost-types of the Chateau would become considerably more active. He was expecting they'd begin to pester him when it was fully dark out, trying to get a fright out of him.
I need to hurry up and find Mew, then get the heck out of this place!
Kendel's search came to a close as he ended in a small room. There had been no sign of Mew in the building whatsoever.
Ergh… blast! Was he never here to begin with!?
The Shaymin groaned as he realized he had just wasted the entire day in a fruitless search.
Then things just got worse.
It was quite dark out now and Kendel was aware he would have charge past several ghosts on his way out… he was just contemplating how to best accomplish this task as quickly as possible, when the old television set in the building suddenly came to life.
This actually startled Kendel, as in his previous expeditions into this house, he had tried to turn on the TV, just experimenting with it, only to find the old set didn't work. After a hard mashing of the power switch, the TV would turn on, but even then, the thing displayed nothing but static and white noise.
Kendel hadn't touched the TV and he hadn't been hearing any ghosts at that moment, so the fact that it came to life like this took him completely off-guard.
Wait! I thought the ghosts around here couldn't really manipulate anything around here. They just make noise and try to jump out at me.
Kendel was looking around for the culprit Gastly that was around the room trying to scare him when he heard a chuckle nothing like any that he had ever heard here. It sent a chill running down his spine.
"Eheh… heh heh heh… heh…"
The soft, gentle laugh was weirdly distorted and sounded like the laugh from someone who had gone insane…
"Friends? Friends here? Play?"
Kendel focused on where the voice was coming from and realized the voice was issuing from the speakers of the TV set. The screen still displayed nothing but static.
…I don't think that voice was from a television program…
Then something showed up on the screen.
"Friends? Are you friends? Will you play? I so lonely… come play."
The former human backed away from this strange face on the TV… it was a pure orange with disturbing eyes that seemed to glow a neon-green.
"Er… no thanks… I'll pass on playing today." Kendel said, unable to hide a note of fear in his voice. This thing was seriously disturbing to him.
"Come… I bored… I PLAY!" the voice said, now demanding and quite suddenly, electricity arced out of the television set and Kendel, reacting on reflexes, dove to the side to avoid getting electrocuted. He couldn't avoid it entirely though and the electricity tagged him on the back.
It was an intense shock and Kendel found himself grateful that he was rather grounded as he was so the electricity didn't hurt as bad as it would've otherwise.
"I'm not interested in playing with the likes of you!" Kendel yelled at the TV and attempted to escape the room.
"No! Don't leave! I want friend! STAY!"
Electricity arced from the TV once more and Kendel hopped back as it struck the area between him and the door.
"Ergh… fine… you wanna play?" Kendel rounded on the talking TV "Then play with this!" he then charged at the TV, which he jumped at and slammed himself into the screen, eyes shut tight.
This jarred the entire set and, to Kendel's surprise, something actually fell out of the TV set.
The thing was scarcely bigger than Kendel himself. A simple orange ball with those same eyes from the TV and an odd aura of electricity around it that seemed to shape into a pair of lightning bolts before it, like a set of hands. The simple smile on the pokemon's face gave Kendel the impression that this thing was of a disturbed state of mind. It wasn't a rational thinker.
"Eheh heh heh. Play. Play! Play!" it said and unleashed another burst of electricity at Kendel. Kendel recovered from his surprise at seeing the thing's true form and reacted.
"Leave me alone! You-you freak!" Kendel yelled, diving out of the way again, and launching a barrage of homing leaves at the pokemon.
The leaves slammed, unerringly into their target and Kendel's opponent, much to his surprise and discomfort, actually laughed some more.
"Fun! Play more! Play!" It demanded again, sending more electricity at Kendel and he was forced to run around the room to avoid getting shocked again.
What the hell is this thing and why does keep demanding I play, then tries shocking me!?
Kendel unleashed more leaves at the pokemon and it actually frowned, its face put on a pout as its attacks continued to miss and Kendel battered it some more.
"Stay! I play! Have fun!" it said, sounding more like a spoiled 3-year-old than ever. Its last words were accompanied by a sudden charge at Kendel which made his heart jump and he froze, instinctively bracing himself for the hit. Instead though, his opponent stopped short and gave him a severe shock of electricity, causing him to scream from the pain.
The orange ball darted away, laughing like it had just pulled a hilarious prank on Kendel. Kendel got back to his feet, weakened somewhat from pain but still steady on his feet.
It… I can't believe this! This thing finds it funny to hurt me?!
All the ghosts around the Chateau had never hurt Kendel… not like this. They'd scared him once or twice… they'd even leave him wondering in a state of paranoia… but they had never harmed him.
Alright… I'm gonna teach this thing a lesson!
Angry now, Kendel acted on instinct and a ball of energy gathered in front of him.
"You wanna play? Play with THIS then, bully!" Kendel yelled and violently launched the orb of natural energies at his opponent.
The attack caught the orange ball off-guard.
"Hey! No fair!" it whined. Kendel didn't care though and as it turned to complain at him, Kendel immediately followed up with another violent barrage of leaves.
It let out a distorted cry of pain as it dropped to the ground, the electrical aura around it fizzling.
Kendel marched up to the orb and glowered down at it.
"If you're gonna play with others, you shouldn't be playing rough like that. That hurt!" Kendel said, quite harshly.
"Rotom… just… want play… lonely… so lonely… nothing to do…" it moaned softly, almost as if it were dreaming "Rotom… eheh heh… heh…fun…"
The ball then seemed to pass out.
"Nothing to do, huh?"
Kendel blinked as he heard this and he found himself wondering about this pokemon… apparently named Rotom…
It said it's bored? It seems so child-like, I doubt it was lying. It really was just looking for something to do?
Kendel shook his head though. He had already wasted enough time in this room
Mew's not here… I need to get a move-on… maybe Mew's in the cave to the east of Eterna…
So, Kendel turned and headed out of the room. He moved warily through the Chateau, going for the exit. He managed to evade the other local ghosts as they drifted about the house, looking for victims to terrify and he finally reached the front doors, which he crept out of and back out into the forest.
He couldn't help thinking on Rotom though…
I wonder if I might've been like that at some point in my boredom? Or I could've been…
Kendel shook his head again though, discarding these thoughts… he needed to get back to searching for Mew…
So he headed for Eterna City.