Chapter 20: Snowstorm
Priscilla suddenly realized she was cold. Very cold. Very, very, very cold.
With that realization came the shock of another - the swirling white she saw all around her wasn't just her imagination. It wasn't another part of that weird, dark, twisted world she'd just ran away from.
It was a blizzard, and it was very much part of the real world.
And she was caught in it wearing cargo pants, hiking boots, a cotton t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and normal underwear. No coat. No hat. No snow pants. No long underwear. She wore enough to keep her warm in the cave, the climate of which equated to a pleasant evening in early fall.
It did nothing to protect her from the ferocity of a blizzard taken from the middle of the winter.
If she wasn't already freezing from the snow and wind, Priscilla's heart would have gone cold with that realization. She hadn't planned on more than a light snow cover and spontaneous flurries at the worst - full-on blizzards were unheard of during the middle of summer, even in the high northern altitudes.
Not only that, but all her stuff was in her bag, and she didn't even have it. She figured it, along with everything she owned and her two pokemon, were still probably back in the tunnels of Mount Coronet.
It was Darcy. She did this. Priscilla made her angry, and she must have conjured up a snowstorm and thrown Priscilla into it. It was revenge. She was going to kill Priscilla.
Or, at least, that was what Priscilla thought as she stumbled through the snow, trying to move forward and avoid falling into a snowdrift. Her mind had already started spinning out of control - she was so cold. She figured she had a few minutes before she'd collapse and freeze to death, although she seemed to forget how long a minute actually was.
Please, she thought, squinting against the rush of the oncoming wind-blown snow. Please, God, save me. She screwed up her eyes, trying to think about who "God" was. She'd spent her whole life as a part of the Church of Legends, like most people in Sinnoh, but all the origin stories and deities seemed to be eluding her at the moment.
Great. If I can't even remember who God is, then how is God going to help me?
She plodded forward, unable to feel her feet but able to hear when they hit the snow.
It was...an Arrrr pokemon. Arrrrrrrr-something. Arrr says me. Arrrr says us? Arr-say-us? Maybe. Help me, please, Arr-say-us!
Nothing happened. Priscilla would have started to cry, but it was so cold. And she was going to die out there, anyway, so why bother? Plus, she didn't really want to spent her last few minutes of life crying because she couldn't seem to get God's name right.
Maybe it was a sign. Maybe it was a sign that God didn't -
She stopped. She saw something red in the snow right next to her. Reaching out and keeping her jacket sleeve wrapped around her hand, she picked it up and examined it. It was a small ball, one she could roll around in her palm with ease. A thick, inset black line split it into two halves, a white one and a black-and-yellow one, and in the middle of the black band was a white button.
It also felt pretty light - light and empty.
It was a minimized empty ultra ball.
Priscilla glanced around. A few paces ahead was another one. She shoved her way through the snow, grasping at the second one like it would save her life. And a third just next to it! She snatched it up as well, holding the three empty ultra balls up.
I could catch three new pokemon, she thought with glee, shaking as she tried to pull her cold mouth into a smile. I could catch three new ones and then go somewhere and not die.
It could have been the next second or the next hour - Priscilla couldn't really feel time anymore, it seemed, since it was too cold - but a small brown lump started to shuffle through the snow. She maximized one of the ultra balls and threw it.
The ball captured the lump, landed in the snow, wriggled a few times, and then stopped. Priscilla picked it up and opened it.
The lump reappeared, sniffing her and looking as confused as a fuzzy brown lump could.
Priscilla put a hand on it. Beneath its snow-covered fur, it was warm. Really, really, really warm. It was like a furry brown furnace with feet.
"Y-y-y-you're m-my p-po-pok-kemon-n," Priscilla tried to tell it, though her chattering teeth sort of hindered her.
The lump seemed to get the idea, or, at the very least, it didn't protest when Priscilla picked it up and hugged it to her chest. Its warmth helped a lot, and Priscilla figured that by simply hugging it, she could add a whole quarter-hour to her lifespan.
Never mind that she forgot what a "quarter-hour" actually was. The fact of the matter was that the lump was warm, and that was better than being cold because being cold could kill her.
"Swii," the lump said, wriggling forward and out of her grasp. Priscilla opened her mouth to say something in protest, but stopped when she saw the little thing that it was wriggling towards.
It looked like a small blue-and-white child, one with a large, pointy white head. It shivered but stayed in its meditative position as if its thoughts could keep the blizzard at bay.
The child still looked pretty cold, though, so Priscilla wasn't sure if meditating was such a good idea.
The brown lump she caught didn't seem to care or sympathize with the child. Instead, it ran forward and rammed into the child with all its might.
The child kicked it, but the swinub was too fast - it spat out some snow and froze the child's foot.
Priscilla thought her brown lump of a pokemon (because it had to be some sort of pokemon - she'd caught it with a ultra ball, after all) was being rather mean about the whole thing. Here this little kid was, just trying to meditate through a storm, and it was getting beaten up by a strange-looking brown lump with feet.
Or, at least, Priscilla assumed the lump had feet. She couldn't actually see them because it had too much fur.
The lump turned to her when it deemed the small child beaten up enough. "Swii! Nub! Nub nub!"
"W-w-what-t?"
The thing kept yelling at her, and finally Priscilla caught on. The little child was a pokemon, too! And the lump wanted her to catch it!
"Ok-kay."
She threw one of the ultra balls, but missed. It sank into a snow drift, rendering it invisible and, therefore, useless.
"Swii!"
Priscilla shivered a bit, maximizing the one ultra ball she had left. One shot at catching the strange little blue-and-white kid. No problem, no problem.
She staggered over to the child and dropped the ball on its head. No chance of missing then, right?
The ball wiggled a few times, then was still.
Priscilla wanted to smile and pick it up, but she couldn't - it was too cold. She was getting sleepy, too. Really, really, really sleepy.
I think I'll just take a nap, she thought, sinking down onto her knees and into the snowdrift. I did a good job today, catching two pokemon. The brown lump and the little kid...little kid...I didn't kick this one, that's good...
Her eyes were closing, but she saw the brown lump quickly open the other ultra ball and yell something at the dazed blue-and-white child. The child then said something, and Priscilla suddenly realized there was something other than white all around her.
There was a brown, wood floor, some carpets, a table of some sort, green wallpaper, and a tall woman saying something like, "what is - oh my goodness! I'll call the -"
But Priscilla couldn't hear what else the woman had to say, because then everything went away and all she had was a world of calm, quiet, relaxing blackness.