-Chapter 29: Crossing to the Hidden Land-

-Connor's POV-

While we were crossing the sea, I laid on Lapras' back, alongside Grovyle and Vulcan, looking at the stars glowing in the night sky. Lapras was explaining how she had met Wigglytuff. Back when Wigglytuff and Chatot were first exploring Brine Cave, Lapras had been lingering nearby, protecting the pattern on the wall.

"That Kabutops and his gang attacked them without warning. Chatot reacted first, shielding Wigglytuff, but was knocked out in the process. Wigglytuff easily overpowered them after that. But with his partner knocked out, Wigglytuff began to panic because he didn't know what to do. I stepped in and helped heal the worst of Chatot's wounds."

I nodded, "So that's what happened, huh?"

"Yes. I didn't intend to reveal myself at all, but then I saw who it was, and what was going on. I saw Chatot lying on the ground, and I changed my mind that instant. I simply had to help. Afterwards, I made him promise me something…"

Vulcan stared at her, "What was it?"

"I recognized that Wigglytuff and Chatot were explorers. I couldn't tell what their true intentions were, but I asked them, for the sake of the world's peace, that they not investigate the pattern that was inscribed on the wall. Wigglytuff promised to honor my request, most agreeably. He said he owed me thanks for coming to Chatot's aid, and that he would stop all investigations into the matter."

I raised an eyebrow, "But why didn't you want anybody investigating the pattern?"

"The Hidden Land… Is home to Temporal Tower, where Dialga reigns… Dialga feared that intruders could wreak havoc upon the tower that regulates time itself. Dialga decided to protect Temporal Tower. He hid it in a gap in time."

I tilted my head, "What does that mean?"

"It is hard to explain, but… It is a gap in time itself… It's the space between parts of a split second."

Grovyle nodded, "That explains a lot… A gap in time… No one could ever hope to go to such a place."

Lapras nodded, "As an extra measure, he gathered eleven of the most worthy pokemon from throughout the Temporal Web, granting them a form of immortality, and the ability to traverse time itself. They are known as the Temporal Guardians. I am one of them."

Vulcan sat bolt upright, "Wait, you're immortal?!"

Lapras smiled, "I am immune to the passing of time. I am ageless. But I am able to die by other means. That is why I emphasize 'a form of' immortality."

Vulcan tilted his head, "But… One of eleven? Why such a strange number? Why not make it twelve?"

Lapras laughed almost inaudibly, "I do not know… Perhaps he is waiting for another worthy pokemon…"

I spoke up, "Who are the others?"

Lapras shook her head, "I am not allowed to speak of it to you…"

Vulcan whined, "Why not…?"

"I am forbidden by Dialga."

I shrugged, "Whatever. It doesn't matter that much."

Grovyle leaned forward, "But… How would anyone besides a Temporal Guardian ever hope to find the Hidden Land?"

Lapras turned her head to us, "Dialga left one key for entering the Hidden Land. A special stone fragment with a mysterious pattern etched into it."

Vulcan grasped his relic fragment, "This…?"

"Correct. The night before the guild arrived, Wigglytuff came to Brine Cave, explaining to me the temporal crises, and that the world was in grave peril. He explained that the Time Gears needed to be taken to Temporal Tower in order to stop it. He asked me to reveal how you could could get to the Hidden Land. I already knew of all of this, so I readily explained that the Relic Fragment chooses who goes to the Hidden Land."

Vulcan clutched onto the stone tighter, "But it was a gift from my father… How can I use it?"

"Because it was given to you willingly. Had it been stolen from the original carrier, then the stone would have been rendered useless."

Vulcan stared at the stone like it was the first time he'd laid eyes on it, "It chooses… It chose… me?"

Lapras nodded again, "Yes. You play just as important of a role as your friends in this."

Vulcan sighed, "That's so cool… I never thought that we'd be saving the entire world… Not like this, at least."

Grovyle smiled, "I felt the same way…"

We moved in relative silence for the rest of the night. I don't remember falling asleep, but I awoke to a wave of water crashing over us. Grovyle grabbed both of us, apparently already awake.

"The Wailord breached the water a few meters away…"

Lapras steadied herself, "Are you alright?"

Vulcan nodded, "Yeah. We're fine." I squinted in the sunlight, and saw the sun directly overhead.

How long was I asleep…? Half a day?

"Lapras?"

"Yes?"

"You've been swimming for a long time. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Connor. There is no need for concern. Because we're almost there. See? It's coming into view."

I looked forward, and Lapras continued, On the far horizon. Do you see where the sea looks a little different?"

Grovyle looked ahead as well, "I see it… It's true! The waves… The waves are all twisted up!"

"What is that, Lapras?" Vulcan looked a little worried.

"The edge of the gap in time. That is the portal through which we will go to the Hidden Land. Okay! Here we go!" Lapras began speeding up, and Grovyle rooted himself down with ingrain on Lapras' shell. I held on to the stone growth, and Vulcan held on to her neck as she began gradually lifting out of the water, now swimming as fast as Rose did in water, which was really fast.

I looked beneath us at the Wailord breaching the water again, and my jaw dropped, "Lapras! You're flying?!"

Grovyle shook his head while shouldering his wonder bag, "No. That's not it… This… This isn't flying… We're crossing the sea of time!"

Everything flashed white, and purple lightning flashed around us for a moment before a huge landmass appeared beneath us like a page turned in a book, seeming to float on top of the clouds.

Grovyle stared, wide-eyed, "Is that… The Hidden Land?"

"Yes. Although it is probably different than you recall." Lapras glided through the clouds, and descended to the edge of the Hidden Land and turned sideways, allowing us to jump off of her back.

We all looked around, and I stared, awestruck at the land around me, "Th-the Hidden Land…"

Grovyle was equally awestruck, "We finally made it…"

Vulcan just stared in silence. Lapras tilted her head up, "Please… Look ahead."

We followed her gaze and saw a massive, deep blue tower sitting on a hunk of rocks the size of a mountain. The only problem? It was about a mile in the air. Grovyle seemed perplexed, "Is that… Is that perhaps…"

"Yes." Lapras answered. "That is Temporal Tower."

"That's where Dialga is… That's where we have to go. The Time Gears have to be taken there."

Vulcan and I both stared at the massive hunks of rock floating way above the mountains, and Vulcan pointed out something obvious, "Um… How are we supposed to get there? We can't exactly fly."

"You must take the Rainbow Stoneship," Lapras said.

"The Rainbow Stoneship?" Grovyle crossed his arms, "First I've heard of it."

Lapras answered, ignoring the latter comment, "Far ahead you will find the old ruins. There you will find an ancient mystical vessel, the Rainbow Stoneship. It will take you to Temporal Tower."

Vulcan bowed slightly, "Thank you, Lapras."

Grovyle and I followed suit, and Lapras nodded, "This is the extent of what I can do for you. From here, you're on your own. Good luck."

She stayed floating there, and Vulcan tilted his head, "So… Are you going to leave, or…?"

She seemed confused, "Why would I leave?"

He shrugged, "I dunno… It's kinda weird that you'd just... Never mind..."

Lapras smiled, "I will await your return, Vulcan…"

Vulcan nodded, "We'll succeed, Lapras! You can count on us!"

Grovyle seemed bothered by Lapras' statement, but I didn't bother asking about it. Instead, we resupplied at the Kangaskhan storage, making sure to grab all of our reviver seeds, and Vulcan wrote down in our adventure log before we ventured into the forest of the Hidden Land.

I'll tell you what, the enemies there were tough. Leagues ahead of any outlaws we'd faced so far. Vulcan, Grovyle and I had to apply all of our skills, and work as a team. And the weather was killer here. One minute, an Abomasnow would whip up a hailstorm, then after Vulcan lit it up, a Magmortar would use Sunny Day, rendering my water-type moves useless.

And the Manectric. Oh my gosh… I used two reviver seeds by myself because of the 100% accurate Thunder attack thing during rainstorms. I thought having a boost in my attacks would be cool, but not while facing an electric type. Vulcan and Grovyle had to protect me while the reviver seed restarted my heart.

Grovyle didn't have a ton of trouble with most of the pokemon, but the Magmortar and Dragonite, namely, did prove troublesome for him. I took them down with several water gun attacks and Ice beams, respectively.

The Dragonite and Garchomp throughout the dungeon were relatively easy with my Ice Beam and Ice Ball. Their typing was not ideal. We ran into a bit of a wall, both literally and figuratively when three Bastiodon cornered us. They even shrugged off Grovyle's leaf blades like it was no big deal. Grovyle's control of plants was what really saved the day then. He willed the grass to ensnare them, giving us time to flank them and escape.

Vulcan stepped on an invisible trap at some point, which sprayed some purple ooze all over us. I washed us off, but it still stunk for a long while. Then another one dropped giant chestnuts on us from out of nowhere, making a good sized welt on my head.

When we reached the halfway point, we all sat down, exhausted. Vulcan heaved a massive sigh, "Well… Quite a step up from Brine Cave, huh?"

I chuckled, "Too bad we can't bring the team here. This'd toughen them up real quick."

We pulled out the apples we packed, and Vulcan gasped, "What the-?! They're all gunked up!"

I sighed, realizing that the trap from earlier had made them like that, "Well… Crap."

He tossed them into a hole in the ground that opened up into the clouds below, and pulled out three Gummies. A red, green, and blue. He gave one to each of us, and Grovyle was visibly pleased as he popped the green one in his mouth. "Oh, my… What are these?"

Vulcan smiled, "Gummies! Have you never tried one before?"

He shook his head, "I… No. I haven't. They are delicious."

Suddenly, a thought popped into my head, "Hey! Why can't we just use those invisibility cloaks to sneak our way through?"

Grovyle shook his head, "They dissolve upon contact with mass quantities of water. When that wave washed over us while we were sailing across the sea, it dissolved them."

Vulcan sighed, "Well, that sucks."

I shrugged, and opened my backpack, clearing out the plain seeds to make room for more stuff we might find.

Vulcan frowned, "I'd hate to think about the enemies in Temporal Tower… If the enemies here are this tough…"

I shook my head, "Don't think like that. We'll make it through. The world is literally depending on us."

Vulcan pulled himself off of the grass and wrote in the adventure log. He put the book back, and Grovyle and I both followed. We pressed on, moving through the second half of the Hidden Land's forest, which seemed to slope further and further uphill the deeper we went.

After what felt like centuries, we came to the entrance of the Old Ruins Lapras described. We walked into the ruins, and Vulcan ran around, admiring the paintings of the legendary pokemon. "Oh my gosh, there are so many!"

Then he stopped, "But… It stops at Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina. Where are the rest? Kyurem, Yveltal, Xerneas…?"

"This temple must have been built to honor the first sons." Grovyle said. "Xerneas, Yveltal and Kyurem were birthed long after the original sons of Arceus, which were the ones that created the world as we know it."

Vulcan nodded, "You sure know a lot, Grovyle."

"I had a lot of time to learn. But now that we're here, there's no time to lose. We need to move ahead. The Rainbow Stoneship should be further up."

We followed him through the temple, and came to a massive staircase with intricate carvings etched right into the stone. I was speechless, but Vulcan stammered, "What is this place…?"

Grovyle began walking up the stairs, "I'm not sure… But… I'm guessing that it's the temple of the old ruins."

We followed him up the stairs, and we came to a flat platform with a complex pattern etched into it.

Vulcan glanced at his relic fragment, and held it to the stone. "It's got the same marking as my relic fragment…"

I eyed a stone tablet on the end, and I pointed it out to Grovyle, who quickly walked over to it.

"What's it say, Grovyle?"

"It's inscribed in Unown runes… An ancient language."

Vulcan nodded, "Yeah, but can you read it?"

"I studied this language extensively. I can read it."

Vulcan jumped up, "Awesome! What's it say?"

Grovyle shushed him, "Give me a minute." He stared intently at the markings for a long while before he nodded, "Got it."

He looked at Vulcan's relic fragment, then towards the middle of the platform. I followed his gaze, and saw a hole in the center of the stone, like a chunk of stone was carved out. Grovyle nodded, "It seems that this whole place is the Rainbow Stoneship."

Vulcan gasped, "Huh? This whole place?!"

"That's right. It goes in this indentation…" He ran his hand over the stone, "Put the relic fragment in there. That will activate the Rainbow Stoneship. We can ride it to Temporal Tower. That's what the tablet said."

Vulcan nodded while removing the fragment from around his neck, "Got it… Here goes nothing!"

Before he could step forward, a new voice called out, "That is quite enough."


Well... Great. You guys probably know what's up next, so I decided to cut it off here. I am sad to say that the story is coming to a close, with only a few chapters left... I'm not going to do all that 'it's been fun' stuff until the last chapter. As always, I hope that you all enjoyed! Feel free to leave a quick review or PM if you did, and I will see you in the next update! Much Love!
-PL