Chapter Thirty-Five: Old Ambitions
Jinx pushed off from the window ledge, soaring into the night beyond. The cold air outside the temple washed over him as though he had dived into deep, dark waters, its touch invigorating. His wings caught the frigid night breeze and sent him floating through the air, his lungs burning with each freezing breath and his exhalations streaming out behind him as wispy clouds of vapor. It was one of those nights when humans burrowed deeper beneath their stifling warm blankets and when murkrow were glad to be alive.
Already scanning the ground for something of interest, Jinx caught sight of a glimmer of reflected silver in one of the fountains far below and swooped down, landing neatly on its wide stone brim and peering intently at the ripply rendition of the moon floating across the surface of the water.
He threw his head back and looked up at the real thing. The moon was a lot more lonely here, without all of those other sparkly lights—stars, he thought they were called—to accompany it. Jinx could make out faint dots in the night sky, slight discolorations in the uniform black sheet that cloaked the world, but these were the only sign that any such wonders actually existed, their true light screened out by the shield. You would never know they were there unless you were looking for them already.
Jinx considered this to be a good thing. The stars had always maddened him; they were so beautiful, and yet so cruelly out of reach. Where they lived the air was colder even than in the dead of winter and your lungs seemed hard-pressed to drag sustenance from it. It made your head go a little woozy. Jinx had tried to reach them, and no matter how high he had flown, the stars had never seemed any closer.
But there was something ugly about the night sky here, he thought. The moon was pale and weak, even on nights like tonight, where it was nothing more than a slitted eye watching from on high. Even if the shiny was unobtainable, he decided, it made the world seem more complete.
Jinx took off again in a whir of wings, feeling agitated and unable to pinpoint why. He couldn't even say why he had come out here tonight, except that he had felt the need to get away. Surely it couldn't have been because of the boy's story. Of course the tale had been mildly unpleasant, but Jinx had never taken much interest in the troubles of others. He didn't really care.
He didn't care that he was home, either. It was an odd word that the humans seemed fond of, Jinx thought as he winged across the city. But like everything else that they were fond of, it had all those funny emotions attached to it. Peace and comfort and memories and—what was it again?—love. He understood that it often had something to do with "family" as well, whatever that was.
Still, he couldn't totally deny that he was somewhat glad to be back. Johto was all right for a little while, and it certainly had more shiny things than any other place he'd ever visited, but you started to get tired of all the people and pokémon. Jinx preferred somewhere much less crowded. And there was no reason other than that.
Yes, the cities in Johto were certainly interesting, with their lights gleaming at all hours of the night and all the shiny stuff lying discarded carelessly on the street and free for the taking (though Jinx had found Tobias to have poor taste when it came to this, usually confiscating it and tossing it in the trash), not to mention all the other murkrow that stalked the streets. Jinx thought that it was more interesting to have to go out of your way to find adventure rather than to have it handed to you. And in Johto, adventure seemed too often to lead right into being chased away by one of those not-fun humans, the ones that showed up just whenever you had liberated something particularly shiny or played an especially good prank on someone. And while he'd heard that the not-fun humans took humans away and put them in big human-sized cages, which he'd dearly love to see, he hadn't fancied being caught by one all that much.
Salt Bay was far from dead, of course. Even at this hour, the bars and taverns were loud and boisterous, and the occasional mysterious figure slipped by on the street below. And it certainly wasn't lonely (another silly human word), with a few other murkrow out and about. Jinx had just gotten tired of all the hustle and bustle of Johto, that was all. Of course he mildly appreciated being back in Waytar.
Any further philosophical musings were cut short when Jinx saw a gleam in a gutter and dove to investigate, which led inevitably to a sojourn in a blacksmith's shop (Jinx had never before realized how convenient it was that so many homes in Waytar lacked glass in their windows) and from there on to a romp down a deserted alley in the company of some rather rude guard-growlithe. The murkrow's worries fell away with the ragged feathers that he shed while fluttering back and forth across the city, mind distracted from his feelings by the ever-present glimmer of adventure and his eyes turned away from inner conflicts and once again to the eternally exciting world, just as Jinx had planned—though of course he would never admit to himself the real purpose of his late-night jaunt.
It was several hours later that Jinx, burdened with a particularly fine silver butter knife, caught sight of it. He was shooting gaily down a small side street, on the watch for a suitable place to stash his new find and flying a bit laboriously due to the weight of the knife, when the glint of light off metal caught his eye. Deciding that he could probably carry another piece of booty, and could always leave the knife behind if he found something more interesting, Jinx slowed, banking over to inspect this latest distraction.
Landing on the cobbled street with a clatter of silver on stone, Jinx transferred the butter knife from his claws to his beak and sidled cautiously towards the source of the glimmer. An errant moonbeam stabbed down into a shadowy alcove, illuminating the silver locket strung around the neck of a slumbering girl. Moving as silently as possible, Jinx went closer, eyes lighting up as he inspected the piece of jewelry up close. He couldn't see much of it, as the girl was clutching the locket as if for comfort, though her hand had relaxed a bit in slumber and now lay half-open, exposing a bit of the piece to the light.
Jinx almost unconsciously set the butter knife on the ground, already having forgotten about it in the face of this much more interesting find. It would be difficult, he thought, getting the locket without the girl awakening, and excitement stirred in his chest at the thought of such a challenge. Extending a wing, he carefully directed a small tendril of dark power towards the locket, the caustic energy eating neatly through the grubby bit of string holding it around the girl's neck. Jinx kept careful control of the minimized pursuit attack, using it to pull the prize back towards him. It slipped easily through the girl's nerveless fingers and floated quietly back to the awaiting murkrow. Once it was within striking distance, Jinx eagerly released the pursuit, allowing the piece of jewelry to drop to the street before him. After a few minutes of struggling with his talons, which were really not designed for such purposes, he managed to prise the locket open.
Unfortunately, the inside was not nearly as interesting as the outside. Just some picture of a human guy, Jinx thought with disappointment. It wasn't even one of the real-pictures, like they had in Johto, but the old scribble-scratch kind that humans did by hand. A little disappointed, but nevertheless feeling pleased with himself, Jinx closed the locket again and reached down, gathering up both ends of the string in his beak and preparing to take to flight.
For some reason, though, he just couldn't convince his wings to open. Turning around, Jinx glared at the human girl. Was she somehow trying to keep him from rescuing the locket from her? Because obviously it was unhappy to be with her—surely it deserved better than to hang next to those old, raggedy clothes she had on. Even for Waytar, Jinx thought disapprovingly, they looked a bit scruffy. He would take it off to someplace safe where it could stay with all the other shiny treasures he had found; it would be in good company.
And it was so irresponsible of her, Jinx thought, to be holding on to something as nice as this right out in the open. Most humans had the sense to sleep inside where they wouldn't have to worry about nighttime prowlers (not that Jinx had any difficulty entering their dwellings, anyway), and it was, after all, a fairly cold night. Jinx knew that humans didn't like the cold much.
Come to think of it, what would she be doing with something this nice in the first place? Usually when humans looked that careworn, they would trade in a bit of their shiny stuff for some new clothes. Terrible waste of good shiny stuff though it was, and though the locket hanging from his beak wasn't normally what humans exchanged between themselves, it was still a treasure and certainly would get the girl some nice clothes, and maybe something else besides.
Why had she been clutching it close like that? Surely it could mean nothing to her. But it was so like humans to give meaning to the strangest things…
But why did he even care? Jinx contemptuously spread his wings. It was no different than always. He was feeling irritable, as though he had remembered something he'd tried to forget. That was ridiculous, of course—memories were nothing but records of the past, so why would one bother to destroy them?
But still his wings refused to carry him into the air, and he remained frozen in place, watching the gentle rise of steam from the girl's mouth as she slept on, shuddering slightly with the cold. It was no different than always!
There was no reason he should be reluctant to take the locket—not that he was, of course, he just thought he'd like to rest a bit longer after his long flight and after carrying the knife. Home was no different than anywhere else. But it wasn't home, really, just another place. He didn't care; places were places, and one was as good as another, mostly.
It was no different, no different than always. He was no different than always. Tired, yes, he was just tired, should be going back to the temple now… but still his wings refused to carry him away.
No reason to give the locket back, it was just another treasure. It belonged to him now, didn't it? She wouldn't care—why should he care if she cared? He didn't care, didn't care what had happened, what had almost happened. He didn't care about the boy, didn't care about what the boy felt, didn't care what had happened—now why had he thought that?
Jinx remained there, just watching, trying to shake the disturbing thoughts until the sun began to drag itself reluctantly over the horizon. As the first light crawled grey-pink over the horizon and reflected off Jinx's red eyes, the murkrow at last stirred. With a contemptuous flick of his head, he tossed the locket carelessly into the girl's lap and took off in a flurry of wingbeats, flying slowly and casually back to the Temple.
He was so flustered that he forgot the knife entirely, leaving it lying on the cobblestones, the bloodred light of sunrise reflected along its mirrored blade.
Sunrise came to the temple, too, and though the light of the Waytaran dawn was not as bright as that of Johto, it was nevertheless irritating and insistent. Tobias tried to turn over to bury his head in the pillow and shut out the light so he could sleep a little longer, but the heavy bulk of Chevron lying partially atop his stomach prevented him from doing so. Frowning and keeping his eyes tightly shut, Tobias tried to sink back to sleep, but to no avail. His mind was slowly awakening, already wearily gathering up what he would have to do today. He needed to give Chevron another bath, that was for sure—being this close to the linoone reinforced that observation quite eloquently. Come to think of it, he could probably use a bath, too. And he'd have to try to find out what Jinx had been up to, and there was the temple battle to consider.
Tobias groaned aloud. The temple battle! He'd probably better get out of bed, then; there was no telling when he'd have to go do that, and he didn't want to get caught still asleep when the acolyte came to get him. What time was it, anyway? How much sleep had he gotten in the end?
Not much, he decided as he reluctantly opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He felt groggy and cranky. Every part of his body seemed to be imploring him to go back to sleep right then and there, but he knew it was futile. He was too awake already, however reluctantly.
Chevron yawned and stretched, leaping over Tobias and off the bed entirely, looking quite cheerful, Tobias noticed resentfully. And Jinx was back on the bedpost, slumbering on as innocently as ever. Tobias frowned, but decided he'd deal with that problem later. For the moment, his best bet was probably to stagger down to the mess hall and see if he could get something to eat.
He reluctantly slid out of bed, wincing when his bare feet met the chill stone tiles, and stretched a bit before digging something to wear out of his pack and throwing it on. Feeling only mildly warmer, he scooped up the plates left over from Igneous' dinner the previous night and, beckoning Chevron to follow, left for the mess hall. Jinx and Accemenla would probably not appreciate being disturbed, and he'd be bringing back more food for Igneous anyway, which they could undoubtedly share if they got hungry before lunchtime.
Fortunately, the breakfast served was warm and substantial, and Tobias returned to his room later feeling a great deal better. Letting Jinx sleep on, he released Igneous and gave him his breakfast before promptly wandering out into the hallway again, Chevron trotting after him, in search of the head acolyte so he could ask about scheduling a challenge.
After stopping a few blue-clad teens in the hall and asking for directions, he at last found himself back in the temple's reception area. The bored-looking young woman behind the desk flipped open a heavy book at his request for a challenge, leafing through until she found the correct date.
"We're pretty open," she said dryly, a brief glance up at the silent ranks of unoccupied tables and benches that filled the empty foyer underscoring her words. "Master Shatterglass starts taking challenges at one in the afternoon and stops at five-thirty, just before dinner. Pick any time you want."
"How about one thirty?" Tobias asked. There wouldn't be any point in taking one of the later challenges if he didn't have to, as it wasn't like he was going to get any training in between now and his battle, but he would have felt odd asking for the first available time, for some reason. "I'd like to stay here another night, if that's possible."
The acolyte nodded and waved her quill pen dismissively in response to his second request, already focused on her appointment book. "Name?" she asked mechanically.
"Thomas Goldspur," Tobias replied without pause. It had gotten much easier to say the name by now; sometimes he almost forgot that it wasn't his real one.
Pen darting across the page before her, the acolyte continued, "Any medals?"
"One from the Fire Temple," Tobias replied, hoping that she wasn't going to make him produce it for confirmation. He'd left it back in his room and didn't relish another long trip through the temple's confusing corridors just to retrieve it. The receptionist glanced up briefly, squinting at him with slight suspicion. Tobias felt himself blushing slightly; for someone his who was still traveling around as a general guide, it would be expected for him to have earned at least a couple more medals by this point. After a moment, the acolyte shrugged and made a mark next to his name, and Tobias could almost see her mentally stamping him a mediocre talent.
"Room number?"
"Err, twenty-one," Tobias said, hoping he'd remembered correctly.
"Right, then," the receptionist said briskly, slamming her appointment book shut again with a boom that echoed satisfyingly in the empty entry hall. "An acolyte'll be along to get you at about one. Make sure your pokémon are ready to go by then. Good luck."
After that, there was really nothing else for it but to head back and find something to wile away the hours. Jinx was still asleep when he got back, and Tobias gave the murkrow an irritated glance before flopping onto his bed. Apparently, whatever late-night adventures Jinx had managed to get into had taken quite a toll on him. Tobias could only hope that he would be sufficiently awake to battle later on in the day.
Time seemed to pass in a restless blur. Chevron slipped out into the hallway again and set off to roam around, making no indication that he had heard Tobias's request that he be back in time for the battle. Tobias shouldn't have worried, however; Chevron showed up just in time to accompany his guide to lunch, after which the pair returned to find Jinx miraculously awake.
"Had a busy night, have you?" Tobias asked by way of greeting as the murkrow turned at the sound of his entry, looking away from the window. The dark-type was perched on the sill, and had apparently been staring out at the chilly cityscape beyond. Jinx's eyes were more bloodshot than normal, and he seemed to exude an aura of foul temper, his feathers fluffed out a bit against the slightly cold air of the room and his posture hunched and resentful. Ordinarily, Tobias would have had the sense to leave Jinx alone and let him stew by himself for a while until he felt better, but today he was feeling grumpy himself and a little hurt by Jinx's apparent reluctance to tell him what he had been up to.
The murkrow had already turned back to the window, refusing to accept the premise of Tobias's question and feigning disinterest. Catching the mood, Chevron appeared to shrink a bit, slinking as quietly as he could across the floor and under the bed, where he apparently hoped that he wouldn't be noticed. Guilt nagged at Tobias's consciousness—it wasn't fair that he should be making Chevron anxious like this—but something compelled him to continue, unwilling to let Jinx off so easily.
Throwing himself down on the bed, Tobias glared up at Jinx's silhouette before the windowpane and said bitterly, "You know, if there's some reason you feel like you don't want to hang around with me, just say so and you can be on your way. Goodness knows you've got me into enough trouble as it is. If you want to go out and be by yourself, at least tell me or something."
Jinx muttered something and ruffled his feathers, not turning to face his guide.
Tobias didn't know why he was getting so worked up over this, really. He knew that Accemenla was always out roaming around during the night, and Jinx undoubtedly had his own little errands that he attended to. For some reason, though, the situation felt wrong. It was not an easy feeling to pinpoint, and at the moment it was not something he felt like going to the trouble to do. For the moment, he merely plunged ahead uncaringly, fuelled by his ill humor. "Where did you go?" he asked.
Jinx made a small shrugging motion, but still did not face Tobias. "What, it's some kind of secret? You're being real strange about this, Jinx. What are you trying to hide? Just tell me!"
Now Jinx turned around, and Tobias could see that he wore an expression at least as irritable as his guide's. Some part of his mind warned him to turn back and not push the issue any further, but he ignored it. He was going to finish this, get to the bottom of it. "Well?" he snarled, not understanding why he was suddenly angry.
Jinx hissed and snapped his beak at him, his crest starting to rise and his body language warning Tobias against pushing him any further. Tobias was worked up by this point, however. "What is it that you can't tell me? I'm your guide, remember? We're supposed to be close, or something. What are you hiding?" He was almost yelling now, but Jinx didn't even flinch.
Instead, he snapped his wings open in an expression of exasperation, screeching "Krow murkrow!" and looking positively livid. You wouldn't understand!
"Of course I would!" Tobias yelled back, glaring at Jinx for half a second before his expression turned to one of shock and confusion. The murkrow himself fell silent as well, staring back at Tobias with wide eyes. Chevron, still huddled beneath the bed, took his paws away from his face and raised his head hopefully, wondering if the argument was over.
Tobias sat back on the bed a bit, his gaze moving blankly to an empty section of wall as his mind whirled with confusion. He thought he was pretty good at understanding his pokémon. Usually, he got the gist of what they were trying to say, at least, though there were frustrating times when he just couldn't seem to pick up on what they were getting at. He could never piece together their messages word-for-word, though, even when they were taking pains to be as obvious as possible, to the point of clumsy charades. That time, though, it was as though Jinx had screamed at him in English. You wouldn't understand! Too right; he certainly didn't.
Jinx had turned back to the window, his figure even more hunched than before. After a while, Tobias rooted his new guidebook out of his pack and lay back on the bed, looking up information on ottical, the kind of pokémon that Ottie was. Chevron slipped out from under the bed and rested his head on top of the covers next to Tobias, making soothing noises as Tobias absently stroked him.
It was in this manner that the acolyte found them when he came to retrieve Tobias for his battle. He waited patiently as Tobias let out Accemenla, who gave him less grief than usual for disturbing her rest, and recall Jinx, who made it clear that he wouldn't be budged any other way, then quietly led the way through the twisting corridors of the water temple, taking them to a section of the place to which Tobias hadn't been before. The sameness of the hallways was frustrating, each distinguishable only by the occasional painting or tapestry on the wall and the small numbers carved into the doors of each room. Tobias got the feeling that he'd have to live here for months before being able to find his way around without aid.
His bitterness was cut short when the acolyte stopped abruptly, presenting him with a blank, nondescript door, and ushered him inside.
Tobias found himself alone at one end of a small, shallow pool, marked off like an arena and with a couple of floating wooden platforms drifting slowly across its surface as the acolyte closed the door behind him. There was another door on the opposite side of the room, but for the moment it remained closed, his opponent not yet present. Apprehensive and yet strangely bored, Tobias let his eyes wander around the humble battle room. It was the first that he's seen in the temple that didn't have any windows. The flickering light of the lamps affixed to the walls was reflected in the rippling surface of the water.
All was silent, save the perpetual sound of running water that filled every room of the temple, though even that seemed hushed here, as though it, too, waited with bated breath for what would happen next.
The door opened.
A young acolyte stepped in, rather gangly in too-large blue robes that ballooned out around his skinny legs. He was accompanied by an ottical, just as sprightly as Ottie, Tobias thought with a smile. The little water-type yipped excitedly and almost got tangled in her guide's legs before he managed to shoo her into the pool. She dove in smoothly, leaving hardly a ripple, but then burst back up to the surface and started splashing her guide with obvious enthusiasm. Despite his awkward appearance and the antics of his pokémon, though, the boy didn't appear overly afraid as he took up a spot at the other end of the pool. "I will be your first challenge," he intoned, the words ringing in Tobias's memory. It seemed so long ago that he'd heard them before in the Fire Temple. "Choose your pokémon," the boy continued, and Tobias did so.
"You remember how this works, don't you, Chevron?" he asked the linoone, who nodded and eagerly started forward, leaping from the pool deck to the nearest floating platform, which temporarily submerged beneath his weight before stabilizing. "All right, Chevron, I think we're going to have to get a little wet, here. Dive in there and use fury swipes."
Chevron didn't hesitate to slip off the platform and into the water. The linoone could swim, albeit not terribly well. He dogpaddled awkwardly towards the ottical, giving its guide plenty of time to respond.
"Charm, Ottical." The little water-type pokémon actual swam towards Chevron, making little churring noises as she went and putting on the most forlorn expression possible. Chevron hesitated, looking into his opponent's large, dark eyes, which seemed to implore him not to hurt her.
"Come on, Chevron, fury swipes," Tobias said irritably. His linoone didn't listen, though, allowing the ottical to draw closer, still keeping up her sweet and innocent routine. She was within half a foot of him before giving a quick, mischievous smile and letting loose a water gun straight in his face. Then, with a flick of her tail, she dived underwater, leaving Chevron to splutter and gag for a few moments, his stroke faltering, before he, too, dived, murder in his eyes as he sought out his tricksy opponent.
Both Tobias and his opponent stepped up to the very edge of the pool, craning their necks to try and get a look at what was happening underwater. Just at that moment, however, both pokémon exploded back to the surface, the water roiling furiously around them as they exchanged blows.
Chevron hissed and lashed out with his claws, awkwardly trying to strike while still keeping himself afloat. The ottical slapped him in the face with her tail, then lunged forward and attacked with her own small claws while her larger opponent was stunned. Chevron thrashed around wildly, trying to shake the clinging water-type from his face and reaching vainly with his claws. Despite his best efforts, however, the ottical always seemed one step ahead of him, ready to slip away at the last moment and leave him to strike at nothing but empty water.
Tobias was rapidly growing anxious. The ottical was an aquatic creature by nature, and small and quick enough to literally swim circles around Chevron. His pokémon was getting more tired by the minute, and unless Tobias did something soon, he might just lose when Chevron gave in to pure exhaustion.
"Come on, Chevron, you have to get it out of the water," he said urgently. "Just grab it or something."
Summoning up still more of his fading strength, the linoone redoubled his efforts to catch hold of the darting ottical. The slippery creature seemed to delight in this, staying carefully out of reach of Chevron's slashing claws and teeth, occasionally blasting him with a water gun to keep him riled.
Finally, a frantic lunge took the creature by surprise and its dodge wasn't fast enough. Chevron's teeth sank into its long, sinuous tail, and no matter how the ottical writhed, it couldn't break free. Grimly, Chevron started to paddle towards the nearest floating platform, towing the struggling ottical behind him. The going was tough as the water-type tried with all its might to swim in the opposite direction, but Chevron was relentless, pouring all his strength into just creeping forward through the water.
At last he managed to catch the floating platform with his paws, hauling himself gratefully onto the solid refuge and seeming unperturbed by the way it sank beneath his weight. With a flick of his neck, he tugged the ottical out of the water and slammed her onto the wooden platform.
Almost immediately she started to struggle to get back in the water, but now Chevron had the advantage. Pinning her with one paw and letting his weight do most of the work of keeping her in place, he started slashing away at the helpless water-type with his other forepaw, so quick with his fury swipes that the appendage seemed hardly more than a blur.
The ottical's trainer, beginning to become desperate, started shrieking whatever command came to mind, hands clenched into fists and his whole body seeming to vibrate with anxiety. His pokémon squirmed and twisted, managing to free her tail from Chevron's teeth and then starting to beat the linoone over the head with it. Tobias, meanwhile, simply cheered Chevron on, knowing that, with the ottical out of its element, the battle should be over quickly. Already, blood mingled with the water sloshing over the edge of the overburdened platform, and the ottical's thrashing was starting to weaken.
Chevron grimly leaned on the ottical as she writhed, enduring water guns to the face and scratches at all of his body that was in reach, calmly dealing slash after slash to his diminutive opponent. He knew that he would win, too.
At last, Chevron's grasp on the ottical finally weakened, the bloodied water-type dissolving away into a cloud of grey mist that was sucked back into the acolyte's chime. The boy somehow managed to look livid and dejected at the same time, and said in a strangled voice, "Very well, then. Victory is yours. Wait here while I go and fetch your next challenge."
Flouncing around, he vanished back the way he had come in a whirl of blue robes. Chevron turned and grinned at Tobias, clearly very proud of himself, if obviously unhappy with his drenched state. He then jumped from the platform to the side of the pool and came around to his guide's side again, leaving a trail of water behind. "Great work, Chevron," Tobias said, stifling a laugh as the linoone stopped and shook himself mightily, flinging water in all directions. "Why don't you sit the next one out, all right? You don't seem to like the water much."
Grateful for an excuse to rest, Chevron nodded and trotted over to the corner where his teammates were waiting, flopping himself down with a sigh, content to simply watch and drip in peace.
The next acolyte wasn't long in coming, and for some reason, Tobias got the strange feeling that he'd seen the boy before. He was tall and quite friendly-looking, sporting a large grin even as he looked across the pool at his opponent, a few curly strands of red hair falling in front of his sparkling green eyes. For just a moment, though, his smile faltered, and Tobias knew that something had struck the other boy as well. Well, this fight would give him a lot of time to ponder where he might have seen the boy before, at least, if it was in the same style as the second he'd fought at the Fire Temple.
"I am your second challenge," the boy announced, stepping up to the far side of the pool. "As you know, the purpose of guiding is not to earn personal glory, but to let your pokémon grow until their full potential is realized. For this battle, our pokémon will fight without direction from their guides, so that their personal strength can be realized. This will be a two-on-two match."
With that, he reached to the belt strapped loosely around his blue robes and pulled off a chime. Ringing it confidently, he watched as the mist that it released drifted down into the pool and formed up into another aquatic pokémon. Tobias had the brief impression of massive, almost translucent red eyes before the creature slipped beneath the water and out of his sight.
"Accemenla?" he called, without turning around.
It would be a pleasure, the tarsix replied, bounding out from behind him, a sneer in her telepathic voice. Tobias wished he could see the pokémon better so he could at least tell what it was, but Accemenla seemed quite confident. She sprang lightly from the edge of the pool onto the floating platform in front of her guide, crouching on all fours. She was light enough that the wooden plank remained floating gently on the surface of the water, rather than wallowing as it had when Chevron got on. Tobias had the distinct impression that Accemenla was going to try to show off by going the whole battle without even getting wet.
Seeing both pokémon in position, the acolyte announced, "Let the match commence."
The last syllable had barely passed his lips before Accemenla's eyes flared blue with psychic energy, and a bolt of distortion rushed through the air, water shooting in all directions as the attack struck the surface of the pool. Almost immediately Accemenla followed it up with another psybeam, and then another. Tobias couldn't tell if they hit the other pokémon, but was puzzled all the same. Accemenla wasn't normally one to just blast her way through with the same attack over and over again.
As the tarsix kept hammering away with the psychic assault, the surface of the water roiled and a madly thrashing pokémon burst up out of the depths, flailing wildly with two long, spindly arms. Wait, not arms, Tobias realized: tentacles. And what he had thought were eyes earlier were actually just two fluid-filled sacs in what he now recognized as the bulbous head of a tentacool.
Well, that explained it. Accemenla was just trying to get rid of the thing as quickly as she could. She probably didn't expect that she would need any tricky moves to get past it. It was a poison-type, after all, and quite weak to her psychic assaults.
The tentacool was clearly flagging already, though it continued to make halfhearted and generally unsuccessful attempts to dodge the psybeam barrage. Its guide looked extremely frustrated; his pokémon wasn't even getting a chance to slip an attack in edgewise. Accemenla seemed to be enjoying herself and apparently had the situation well in hand, so Tobias took a moment to study his opponent. How could he possibly know someone who was an apprentice at the Water Temple? Maybe some trainer he'd met on the road before leaving Waytar? But that didn't seem to be it, and much as he tried to dismiss his gut feeling as ridiculous, familiarity continued to nag at him whenever he looked at the other boy's face.
His eyes were brought back to the battle as the tentacool suddenly stopped moving. Tobias wondered if it might have given up at last, but Accemenla didn't even pause in her assault. The tentacool took another psybeam to the face with obvious difficulty. It was in terrible shape. Though the psybeams didn't really rip up the creature's thin, membranous skin, they did leave ugly welts, some of which oozed a clear, pus-like fluid that glistened stickily in the flickering lamplight. Nevertheless, it appeared to still be in the game. Tobias had no idea what it was doing, but the great gel-filled sacs on its head seemed to ripple, vibrating with some sort of pulse. Accemenla paused for the first time, not following up with an immediate psybeam as usual. A second later she hissed, pressing her ears back against her head and covering them with her paws.
Tobias still had no clue what was going on. Accemenla's fur bristled and she snarled, face contorting with pain and body curling into a half-crouch as she clutched at her sensitive ears. Behind him, there was a low whimper and Tobias glanced back to see Chevron covering his ears as well. After a moment, it came to him. Of course—supersonic. The attack was too high-pitched for him to hear, but now that he had identified it, he could swear he felt his eardrums tingling a bit.
The attack ceased as quickly as it began, with Accemenla relaxing gratefully. By now the psychic light had ebbed from her eyes, and Tobias could see that they looked blurry and unfocused. Accemenla swayed slightly and kept shaking her head back and forth, as though her ears were still bothering her. While she faltered, the battered tentacool advanced, and Tobias watched it nervously.
Accemenla seemed oblivious to the tentacool's slender tentacles as they reached for her, but then jerked back to attention as it suddenly whipped them around one leg in a crushing grip. The tentacool dived again, pulling Accemenla's leg out from under her and causing her to overbalance and take a hard fall. She sunk her fingernails into the wood beneath her and let out a screech of indignation. She clawed at the tentacool's slender tentacles with he free foot, slicing them open wickedly and causing more of that clear goo to ooze all over her foot while simultaneously starting another psybeam barrage. Unfortunately, her current position didn't allow her to aim the attacks down into the water very well, and her confusion was clearly affecting her aim. One psybeam caused the opposing acolyte to hastily step aside as the rippling distortion in the air whizzed right past him. On second thought, Tobias decided, maybe that wasn't an accident, after all.
Whatever the case, Accemenla changed tactics quickly. Though her eyes continued to glow blue, she didn't let off any more psybeams, instead using a confusion attack to pull the tentacool up from the water. It struggled weakly in her grasp, but though Accemenla faltered several times, her confused state making it hard for her to concentrate, Tobias could tell it was probably too far gone to escape. And indeed, after Accemenla clumsily banged the creature against the platform next to her a couple times, its tentacles fell limply from her leg and its eyes rolled back.
The opposing acolyte recalled his pokémon with a frown on his face, but the smoke of its passing had barely cleared before another note rang out and his next pokémon appeared to replace its fallen comrade.
Tobias knew instantly what lineage this pokémon belonged to. Everything about it seemed to be just a transition between blubble and slipstri, from the end-to-end diamond pattern that ran down its spine and would someday become the ragged, scaly ridge of a slipstri, to the impressive, swept-back plumes that adorned its head, still as feathery as blubble's but clearly growing into the wicked horns of its fiercer final form.
"Accemenla, why don't you take a break?" Tobias called. "Jinx can take care of this one, and then you can get back in there if you need to."
No, Accemenla said. I'm…fine…She swayed rather precariously on her feet, eyes still out of focus, but Tobias supposed that this was her fight. He wished he was allowed to command her at least a little bit; normally, guides could try to snap their pokémon out of confusion by calling their names or shouting other encouragement or directions, but here that wasn't allowed. It was up to Accemenla to recover on her own.
Seeing that Tobias was making no move to recall his pokémon, the acolyte cried out, "Let the match begin."
This time, it was the opposing pokemon that was on the ball and got in the first attack. Opening its long jaws wide, it unleashed a blast of concentrated bubbles that struck Accemenla with surprising force, clinging to her fur and actually causing her to stagger a bit with the power of the strike. Or perhaps that was just the confusion again.
As Accemenla began another blind psybeam assault, Tobias reached for his guidebook and found blubble's entry. Flipping the page, he discovered that he was right; the pokémon he was facing was the transitional stage between the water-type starter and the fearsome slipstri. Glancing up at the battle and observing that the serpent had slipped underwater and Accemenla was now firing at random into the pool, Tobias confirmed that nothing much had changed and went on to read the pokémon's entry.
Sesstra, the Sea Serpent Pokémon. Type: Water
Sesstra is renown as a carefree and jovial spirit, a lover of practical jokes and mischief of all kinds. An amicable companion, it is nevertheless a great irritant to fishermen, whose efforts it will often thwart in ways that are, while amusing to the pokémon itself, less to the human. Sesstra evolves into slipstri, but many guides advise their pokémon not to complete the evolution to their final form. Most prefer the fun-loving sesstra to the fierce and foul-tempered slipstri; however, sesstra tend to evolve against their guides' wishes, if only as a joke.
Indeed, the sesstra did seem to be enjoying itself. Coming up beneath Accemenla's platform, it succeeded in tipping the tarsix into the pool. She yowled and thrashed around in the water, much to the sesstra's amusement, although the cold shock seemed to rid her of most of her confusion. When the sesstra swam up in front of her, grinning broadly, she promptly smacked it across the face, leaving a nasty set of scratch marks on its snout. Unfazed, it simply blasted her with a water gun in response, and she barely managed to keep herself afloat.
Keeping her opponent away with a few hasty psybeams thrown over her shoulder, Accemenla paddled back to her platform and dragged herself on, draggled and embittered as she reached relatively sound ground once more. For his part, the sesstra slipped beneath the surface again, but as Accemenla was leaning out, peering down in order to line up another psybeam shot, she was surprised as the creature's fluked tail, rather than following the rest of its sinuous body beneath the waves, jerked forward and dealt her a powerful slam to the back of the head. Toppling forward into the water again, Accemenla fought increasing fatigue in another bid to reach the surface.
The sesstra was really starting to bug Tobias, and not just because it was giving Accemenla some serious trouble. There was something about the pokémon being here, at the water temple, and about the way he thought its owner looked familiar. He frowned. He didn't like this at all. Something was strange here.
No sooner had Accemenla reached the safety of somewhat dry wood again than the sesstra's head popped up just off the other side of the platform, serving up a bubblebeam and sending her back into the waves. It was playing to her weariness, Tobias realized. If it could keep her focused on staying afloat, it could just wait for her to tire of battle and not have to worry too much about retaliation. It didn't help that Accemenla had spent so much energy on those psybeams in the last round, Tobias thought grimly. She was flagging.
Once more Accemenla scrambled aboard the float, claws sunk into the wood as she hauled herself, panting, out of the water. The sesstra's head came up, and it blasted a vicious water gun at the tarsix—only to have it shoved right back down its throat by Accemenla's confusion attack.
Gagging and writhing, the sesstra tried to clear its lungs of fluid, an instinctive response despite the fact that its gills would provide it with adequate oxygen underwater even if its lungs weren't functional. Water dribbling messily over its chin instead of shooting out to smack Accemenla back again. The tarsix's eyes glowed a vibrant blue, and she lunged while the sesstra was temporarily put out of action. Leaping through the air, she landed, claws splayed, right across the beast's face and immediately began clawing it up with considerable vigor.
The sesstra gave a gurgling bellow and began to thrash about, still coughing and spitting up the remains of its water gun as dark blood started to mix with the water dripping off its face. Accemenla rode out the serpent's desperate attempts to dislodge her with surprising ease, her taloned digits, made for clinging to rough tree bark, digging into its slick skin and only being forced deeper by its struggles.
Twisting awkwardly, the sesstra fired a point-blank water gun straight into Accemenla's stomach, trying to pry her off with the force of the attack. The tarsix grimaced, shut her eyes, but hung on. Slowly her fingers were dragged out, leaving deep, freely bleeding gashes in their wake, until at last the pressure overcame her grip and she came free of the sesstra's head, tumbling back through the air to land on her back on the float again. She merely lay there, panting and staring up at the ceiling, her gory claws still curled as though sunk into flesh. Wasting no time, the sesstra brought his tail around, slamming it down on her with all his might and knocking her out.
Tobias couldn't help but be impressed by Accemenla's performance as he recalled the tarsix to the safety of her chime. It was time to send out Jinx and hope for the best, but he was quite confident that the murkrow wouldn't have a problem finishing the sesstra off. The sea serpent was bleeding profusely, and though obviously enraged, was steadily weakening from blood loss.
"All right, Jinx, it's your turn," Tobias said, ringing the bird's chime commandingly. A cloud of white smoke drifted lazily, almost reluctantly, out of the instrument's end and slowly congealed into the familiar disheveled form of Jinx. The murkrow immediately put his beak in the air, looking extremely disdainful, and pointedly looked away from his guide. "Oh, don't worry," Tobias said venomously, "you won't have to take any orders from me."
He looked up at his opponent, and was very disconcerted to find the boy staring at him penetratingly. Uneasy, Tobias flashed him a confused grin. "Uh, start?"
"Yes," the acolyte said slowly, "let the battle begin."
Jinx gave the sesstra a lazy glance and turned away as though it wasn't worth his time. The sea serpent, after briefly dipping its head underwater to clear the blood out of its eyes, proceeded to soak him with a fine bubblebeam attack. Jinx screeched with extreme indignation and took to the air, flapping slowly around over the pool while the sesstra fired water guns after him, not quite managing to strike the murkrow but coming dangerously close to hitting home even so.
"I know you," the acolyte pronounced as Jinx gracefully tipped a wing and slipped out of the way of another water gun.
"What?" Tobias asked, truly confused. "No, I'm sure you don't."
"Yeah I do," the other boy protested. "You haven't been by here before, have you?"
"No," Tobias said with growing discomfort. Both boys suddenly snapped their attention back to the battle as Jinx took a hit, the sesstra's carefully aimed water gun blasting him full in the chest. Loose feathers, now drenched, flew everywhere and Jinx temporarily lost control, plummeting through the air and screeching what Tobias could only assume was something unrepeatable. With a wild flurry of wingbeats, the murkrow succeeded in regaining control, but the sesstra was quick to hit him with another watery projectile. Muttering a constant stream of curses to himself, Jinx gave up and settled back onto one of the floating platforms to think a moment. It appeared he was actually going to have to fight this one, rather than just hang out until his opponent gave in to his current wounds.
Unfortunately, his thinking moment was one instant he couldn't afford to waste. His opponent surged out of the water before him, face contorted into an expression of pure malice accented by the trails of blood that streaked it with garish warpaint. The sesstra leaped onto the platform and, in a single fluid, slithering motion, encircled Jinx and began to constrict.
His wings pinned uncomfortably against his sides, Jinx twisted and squirmed, trying desperately to escape his captor's coils. His neck wasn't long enough for him to reach much of the sesstra's body, but that which he could he attacked viciously with his beak, tearing out large chunks of flesh and seeking out the muscle beneath with desperate ferocity. The water-type hissed and, with an awkward swish of the portion of its tail not devoted to the wrap attack, sent itself rolling off the platform and into the water. For a moment bird and snake floated at the top of the water, the churning liquid reddened by Jinx's bid for escape, then the pair sank from view, save a sheen of blood on the water and a few lonely-looking feathers.
"So I've seen you somewhere else, then," the acolyte said suddenly, picking up the conversation right where it had left off and momentarily disorienting his opponent.
"I… no, no, I don't know you." Tobias was starting to get irritated now. Almost angrily, he went back through all the places he could possibly have seen the boy. He hadn't been out in the greater world of Waytar that long, which made it relatively easy. No, not in Rareview. He hadn't been amongst the Sea Pidgeot's passengers, either. Maybe they'd seen each other earlier, then…
Tobias's breath froze in his lungs as his mind froze on a single moment one sunny morning what seemed lifetimes ago…
The tall boy, probably the ringleader, was talking to one of the girls, swinging his new chime almost idly from one hand.
"Where're you going, Marcus?"
"Oh, to Salt Bay. That's where the Water Temple is, after all, and I've always wanted to visit it. And my blubble should feel right at home there."
"You do remember, don't you?" Marcus's voice was excited now, his eyes shining with anticipation as he looked across the arena at Tobias. The boy jerked slightly, guiltily, startled out of his reverie. His expression must have given away his revelation; no doubt he'd looked like he's suddenly been afflicted by a bad stomachache.
"Err, well…" He couldn't let anything on. The boy had known him from beginning, knew where he came from, knew his real name, and almost undoubtedly knew about the reward put out for his capture.
Beneath the water, Jinx was growing increasingly desperate. The sesstra was pulling itself ever tighter around him, forcing the air from his lungs. Precious bubbles of sustenance floating past Jinx's eyes and back to the surface as he thrashed in the serpent's powerful grip. He'd flayed the thing almost down to the bone, but it seemed immune to the pain, battle-crazed and determined to see Jinx give in before it did. His mind slowly going cloudy from oxygen deprivation, he cast about with all his senses, pouring out his last reserves of strength, searching desperately for a way out, any way out of the sesstra's grasp. His conscious mind retreated before a rising tide of unconsciousness as his body started to shut down, leaving the way clear for his deepest instincts to take over. Power surged up from the dark, untapped recesses of his mind.
The acolyte was growing increasingly annoyed by Tobais's reticence. The boy was evading the question for all he was worth, sweating bullets and clearly at a loss for what to do. If he hadn't been suspicious before, Marcus certainly was now. "Come on, why don't you tell me?" he asked in exasperation. "It's not that big a deal!"
Sesstra's body suddenly collapsed in upon itself, the loops that had been holding Jinx firmly in their grasp suddenly surrounding nothing but water. They came together in a confused jumble, the portion of them that had actually been touching the murkrow oddly blackened, as if by fire. The sesstra, its long body now thoroughly tangled up, struggled to unknot itself, its movements growing more sluggish as its numerous wounds continued to dump its blood into the pool.
Jinx appeared above the arena, outlined in a blaze of reverse light. Black energy hissed and crackled as it danced across his feathers, seeming to eat away at the air around it and at the very fabric of existence. Marcus's eyes went to the bird, then to Tobias. Murkrow. Boy. Boy-murkrow. Murkrow-boy. Boy he knew from somewhere. Knew the bird, too. Knew them from where…?
He gasped. "You're Tobias!"
Jinx, too weary and waterlogged to fly, tumbled from the air and landed heavily on a floating platform, where he promptly began to gag up an impressive quantity of water.
"My name's Thomas," Tobias said hastily. "I think you're just a little confused."
The sesstra had succeeded in getting himself unwound and, with a snarl, he rallied the last of his strength to rise back to the surface. The murkrow was on the end of his rope, too. One more good attack would finish him off.
"No, I remember. You started off in the same town as me, and you got that murkrow there as your starter. You were that kid who hardly ever came to class, the farm boy, right?"
Jinx had cleared his lungs and now sat huddled on the platform, eyes closed as he tried to regain his senses and his composure. The sesstra's head broke the surface a foot or so to his right.
Tobias wasn't seeing an easy way out of this one.
Jinx's eyes snapped open. The water snake was gathering its strength for one last attack, he could tell. It wouldn't be able to muster another. To the murkrow, time seemed to pass in slow motion as he watched the sesstra's cheeks distend with pent-up water, its jaws starting to open to let it out.
"I'd hardly gotten to Salt Bay before I started hearing rumors about you. They say you stole some poor kid's pokémon, beat them up, then escaped from jail after they convicted you. The officer that arrested you came back from the pursuit was so badly beaten up they could hardly tell who he was!" Marcus was staring at Tobias with wide eyes, as though looking for some hint in the boy's manner to confirm the exciting and yet horrible tale.
Jinx snapped a wing toward the slipstri's face, flicking a thin trail of dark energy from the tip of his coal-black and currently very wet wing. The pursuit attack whipped through the air and wrapped its sticky tendrils around one of the plumes growing from the sesstra's head. Tugging his wing down and to the side, Jinx wrenched the sea serpent's head around so its water gun sprayed harmlessly out into open air.
Tobias could only shake his head, eyes downcast. Marcus's excitement died, his expression hardening into a grim, dutiful expression. "You're not getting away," he hissed, spinning around in a whirl of robes and ringing his chime. There was a moment of confusion as Jinx's pursuit attack pulled even more tenaciously on the sesstra, and the serpent cried out in pain, half-dematerialized but getting yanked back from his chime by the rope of dark energy. The pursuit gave out, however, and the sesstra was pulled back to safety at last. Marcus was out the door he had come through in a flash, and Tobias could hear him yelling for help as he pelted down the hall beyond.
Probably would have come at me himself if he wasn't out of pokémon, Tobias thought grimly. "Jinx, return," he said, not noticing the look of excited elation that the murkrow had turned on him as soon as he had realized that he'd won. "Come on, Chevron. Let's go."
Not fully understanding but eager to comply, Chevron sprang up and dashed after Tobias as the boy ran back into the hallway from which he had come.
As the door swung shut behind him, Tobias was gripped by a moment of blind, utter panic. A nondescript hallway of the Water Temple confronted him, and his flight, hardly begun, was stopped short. Which way?
He looked left and right. There wasn't any clue as to which way he should go, and he had been too nervous to pay attention to where he was being taken when brought up to this room in the first place. He had no idea how to get back to his room.
Well, maybe he could just leave and not worry about the stuff in his room. An exit would almost certainly be easier to find than one of any number of identical guestrooms. Tobias ditched that idea quickly, however. Just go off and leave all his food? His warm coat? Igneous?
There was only one choice, then. Quickly exchanging Jinx's chime, still clutched in his hand, for Accemenla's, Tobias called up the tarsix. She appeared, still dripping, on the floor in front of him. What? she asked wearily, clearly not appreciating being released so soon after her battle. Undoubtedly, she thought that some praise and a good rest and healing were in order, not some further request.
"I need you to show me the way back to our room," he said. "Fast. We have to get out of here."
Why don't you just get one of the robed flunkies to show you the way back? They're always on call.
"Can't. They're after me. Please, Accemenla."
The tarsix's eyes widened slightly, then narrowed. She took what Tobias thought was an altogether-too-long moment to decide, then snarled, Follow me.
Tobias hustled after the bounding tarsix, chevron keeping pace with him and looking extremely nervous. Accemenla left a trail of blood and water on the stone floor of the hallway, and though Tobias occasionally worried he'd lose sight of the quick psychic-type, he could always, in a pinch, just follow the dampness.
It wasn't long before they reached his room. Tobias fumbled for the key and practically fell into the room when the door sprang open, then hurriedly started gathering up his things. He threw his new coat on and recalled Accemenla and Chevron, then frantically tried to stuff his guidebook into his pack. It wouldn't fit, and after a moment's struggle, he gave up and decided to just carry it. Grabbing his heavy bag, he dashed back out his room's door, tossing the key over his shoulder as an afterthought.
He remembered the way to the front lobby, which was fortunate. He could hear shouting and uproar building behind him, feet running on stone. They'd see Accemenla's trail, he knew.
As he ran for the lobby, an acolyte seemed to come out of nowhere, stepping around a corner to confront him. Tobias just blew on past, shouldering the boy out of the way and not even slowing his mad rush. Then he was in the lobby, ignoring the receptionist's yell of "Hey!" Out the doors, he once again was unable to enjoy the magnificent gardens as he stumbled down the cobbled path to the temple's gate.
Here again he hesitated. He couldn't head back into Salt Bay, that was for sure. Soon enough pretty much everyone would be on the lookout for him. So far he hadn't studied where he wanted to go next or planned out a route to take or anything. He didn't even know what the closest city was, much less where it lay.
But ultimately, out was better than in. Turning his back on the huddled buildings of Salt Bay, Tobias struck out into the unknown, once more with the law at his heels and an uncertain future laid out before him.