Chapter Thirty-four: Snowpoint

Fighting For Everything

"Lost?" I echoed.

"Yeah."

"This is just great! Just a basket full of fun!" I threw my hands into the air.

"Miss Cynthia, calm down."

"I know where we're going, duh we're going the right way!" I tried to imitate Volkner's voice.

"I don't talk like that."

"I don't care, Volkner! We are lost in the middle of a mountain in a snowstorm!"

"If we get back up in the air I'm sure I can figure it out."

"No, you're not the official map holder anymore." I snatched the map from his hand. It ripped a little when I did it.

"See what you did!" Volkner snatched the map back. "I know what I'm doing."

"Really? Because it doesn't seem like it!" The snow picked up. "Fabulous! It's a blizzard! Thumper isn't ready to fly again, either."

"Well it's partially your fault for insisting we land! Your so-called Flying Type can't even fly!"

"He flies greatly! He just got tired! At least he didn't get us lost! We should have gone to Celestic, like I wanted."

"Miss Cynthia, you really need to calm down." Volkner looked behind me.

"I'm perfectly calm!" I snapped. Then, something roared behind me. I slowly turned around. A huge Pokémon stood there. It roared again and hail started to plummet down.

"Raichu, go!" Volkner released his Pokémon.

I reached into my bag and pulled out Gabite. "Gabite, let's go."

"Thunderbolt!" Raichu focused and electricity exploded out of its body. It zapped the opponent, it roared and shot ice at Raichu.

"Dragon Rage!" Gabite spewed the blue power at the huge Pokémon. It growled and turned away. It ran off, shaking the ground as it did. "What in Sinnoh was that?!"

"Mamoswine. Only some of them roam out here."

"Lovely. Now we're around giant Pokémon who does not like company." We returned our Pokémon.

"How long does it take your Pokémon to get ready?"

I looked up at the fog-filled sky. It was getting very dark rapidly. "We should probably make camp and start out in the morning."

"The fog will only get worse, Miss Cynthia."

I rolled my eyes. "It's too dark to fly. Let's just make camp."

"How? We don't have camp gear."

"Look for a tree."

"…There are no trees around here."

"Then we should…" I bit my lip. I had no idea what to do. The only camp thing I had was my canteen, which I left back at home. I didn't even have blankets or tents or anything. "Make a fire." That was the only camp-thought that popped into my head.

"Yeah, with what? It's snowing, there's no wood around, and we don't even have a Fire Type to help."

"I don't know." I wrapped my arms around myself. My shivering multiplied.

Volkner put on a thinking face. "I have an idea. Stay here." He started walking away. The last time I heard 'Stay here' I ended up killing four men…I started following Volkner.

"There's no way I'm staying back there alone."

"Miss Cynthia, please cooperate, I just want to look for firewood. There has to be something around here. Start making a camp…Somehow."

I listened and stayed back. I started 'making camp' by letting out Gabite. She used Dragon Claw and gave me a little light. I searched through my bag for anything. I found my scarf, I wrapped it around my neck. I found a flashlight that somehow appeared in my bag, and another one of my sweaters. I pulled it over my head for extra warmth. I doubled up on socks and used some for makeshift gloves.

That's the only thing I did for our 'camp.' Volkner came back, both him and Raichu with handfuls of wood. He looked around. I grinned sheepishly. "…Where's camp?"

I fake laughed. "I…Uh…"

"Right." He plopped the stuff down. He had a small travel bag with him. He opened it up and pulled out an old, green blanket. "Raichu, clear out a spot." Raichu used his tail and cleared the snow from a large area. Volkner spread out the blanket. He took off his blue jacket and put a sweater over his shirt. He began adding layers to his apparel as well. It was cold. "Raich, put together a fire." At the bottom of our snowless spot, Raichu put some twigs together then lit it with electricity. I sat next to the fire and tried to warm my frozen body.

Gabite came up with me and Volkner soon joined. "We should probably get to sleep while the fire's still burning."

"What if a Mamoswine comes back?" I asked.

"One of our Pokémon will have to keep watch. Raichu and Gabite can take shifts. We, however, need to sleep so we can get up and get to Snowpoint."

I agreed. I was pretty tired, flying was not only nerve-racking but tiring. The fire gave a lot of light. Volkner gave me a weird look.

"What?" He was staring at me.

"Your scarf."

"…Yeah?" I looked down. My scarf was still wrapped around my neck and shoulders.

"It's pink." He made a face.

My silk scarf was indeed pink. "My friend Jamie made it for me…Do you have something against pink?"

"Not really, but don't you?"

"What?" I wasn't following.

"You wear nothing but black, and now you're wearing a pink scarf…It just doesn't make sense."

I rolled my eyes. "It's warmth, right now I don't care about fashion. Only staying warm."

"I really wish we had a tent. That would make tonight a whole lot easier."

"Agreed, but we don't."

We sat next to the fire a bit longer. Soon Volkner laid down on the blanket to sleep. I thought that was a good idea and started to lie down…Until I realized how small the blanket was. I would be sleeping right next to him. And that wouldn't only be awkward but pretty miserable.

I moved to the other side of the fire, and to the snow side, and laid down. The ice and snow wasn't comfortable bedding.

"Miss Cynthia, why are you sleeping over there?"

"Because."

Volkner sighed. "Just come over here."

"No, I don't want to."

"Now who's being immature?"

"What?" I scoffed.

"The mature decision here would be for you to come and sleep on the blanket."

"Maybe the mature decision is for us to sleep separately." I snapped.

"Can you at least pretend to like me?!" He yelled.

"It would be hard." I muttered.

"Apparently." He sat up. "You're going to freeze to death. Just come here."

"No!"

"Just do it!" He yelled.

I scoffed and stood up. I stomped over to the blanket, threw my bag down and used it as a pillow. I turned away from him and crossed my arms over my chest. My anger towards him rose. Why did I ever let him come along?! He's nothing but aggravating. I should have sent him on the boat with Oliver! I shivered and curled up into a ball. It was miserably cold. Without him, I wouldn't have been in this mess. Right now I could be in Celestic, in the warmth. Then in the morning I would have a nice smooth ride to Snowpoint. But no, I have to be lost with Volkner! He's just…So…So…Stupid! And arrogant. So arrogant. Gabite came and sat next to me. She leaned her back on me, that warmed me up a bit. Dragon Type's, much like Fire Type's, are naturally warm all the time.

I couldn't help but shiver more though. Secretly I hoped Volkner was this cold. I know that was me being mean, but I wasn't a happy camper at that time. I was aggravated, cold, sad, and frankly blazing mad. Aggravated that we were lost, mad at Volkner for being…Himself, and sad that Ember left. But at the same time, I was relieved. I knew I would never feel that way for him. And he understood that. He would go to Eterna and have a great time with Oliver. He'll probably see Oliver's family and miss his own and go home.

Of course, that's me hoping too much.

I felt myself start to drift off. I was still terribly cold, but not as much thanks to Gabite. Something wrapped around me, my eyes fluttered open. Volkner had wrapped his jacket around my shoulders. As nice as the gesture was, I was still mad at him. Just a bit less.

My anger started to cool and sleep soon found me.

The sensation of snow falling on my face woke me up. I was still tired and groggy, and it was still dark. I presumed it was only a few hours later. Gabite was asleep next to me, and radiating heat. I inched closer to her. I looked towards the fire, it wasn't burning anymore. I sat up to get Raichu to light it, but he wasn't around. Neither was Volkner. "Great." I muttered.

I stood up. My bones felt frozen and stiff. I didn't have a good night's sleep last night. "Volkner?" I yelled. I saw light in the distance. I quickly reached in my bag and pulled out my flashlight. I clicked it on and went towards the light.

Volkner stood there with Raichu. The Pokémon had a ball of electricity in his hand, creating light. That was pretty interesting.

"Good morning." Volkner said bluntly. He had a few sticks in his arms. "I went to collect more firewood. Why are you up?"

"Because you left and I got worried." I was very relieved that he was okay.

"I thought you hated my guts?"

"Hate…Is a strong word." I murmured.

"Right. Sunrise has to be soon, do you want to start flying?"

I nodded. "That's probably best." We walked back to camp. I returned Gabite and gathered my things, Volkner did the same. I released Togekiss. He jumped up and down happily. "Ready to fly?" He chirped and nodded.

We got on Thumper and took off into the sky.

It was snowing lightly and was pretty foggy, but Thumper did good dodging parts of the mountain that stuck out. Volkner was right, the sun started rising soon after we started flying.

"Miss Cynthia?"

"Yes?" I asked.

"Why do you hate me so much?"

I sighed. "I don't hate you."

"Well you don't like me."

"I don't like you a lot, no. But I don't hate you."

I couldn't see his face, but I was afraid that I had hurt him. That was something I didn't really like doing to two people at once.

"I don't know why you like that flame-head more than me." Volkner said, anger laced his tone.

I scoffed. "Because he's not so aggravating and is easier to live with!"

"Not aggravating?! Please, he even looks aggravating."

"That's not true, he's much better than you!" I yelled. Thumper dipped down quickly and turned to the side. I slipped off and started falling. Volkner grabbed my hands and pulled me up. I re-situated on the Pokémon and got Thumper to rise up again.

"You're welcome." Volkner snapped.

"Thank you." I muttered.

"What happened to us needing to get along to make this work?"

"I don't know!" I yelled.

"It's all your fault, Miss Cynthia."

"My fault?!" I wanted to yell at him more, but something snapped in my head that that would be such an immature thing to do. I closed my eyes for a moment and let my anger douse. "You're so right, I apologize."

Volkner sighed. "No I'm not, that was the anger and lack of sleep talking. I'm sorry."

"I think we're both wrong here. We're both sleep-deprived and have a lot on our shoulders." I said.

"Yeah. Besides, I know you like me." I could just picture Volkner smirking.

I couldn't help but laugh. Now that was so funny, because I knew I didn't like him anymore then a friend. But he was a friend, at least. "You're dreaming." I teased.

"Am I?" He chuckled. We laughed and continued to our destination.

A few hours later, Volkner spotted what he said was Route 217. We landed and I returned Togekiss. It was snowing heavily, and it was still quite dark even though the sun came up a while ago. "Looks like it will take an hour of walking to get there." Volkner estimated.

"Alright, I'm hungry, let's get walking." We started trekking through the ankle-deep snow. It wasn't fun, but it wasn't miserable.

Soon, we came across a giant wall. There was the Golden City logo painted of it. "What is that?" I wondered.

"It's blocking Lake Acuity. Lea doesn't want anyone going there because it messes with your mind. Apparently, Lake Acuity can give you such a bad headache your head explodes."

"That's not good."

"Nope."

"Don't you ever wonder that there's more behind it?"

"Oh, I know there's more behind it."

I looked at him. "You do? Than what's the secret?"

"I'm not sure what the secret is, but I do know Lea is so superstitious that the lakes scare him. Same with Snowpoint, it is said to be on sacred ground. So Lea has only been there once. To beat the gym. There's a temple there that he's scared sick of."

"Then maybe we'll have to check that temple out." I smirked.

Volkner looked at me. "You're not a rebel anymore, Miss Cynthia. You shouldn't put yourself in danger."

I sighed. We started walking. "You're right…I'll just wait to defeat Lea after I'm done with the Elites."

"You have to beat me first." Volkner smirked.

"I'll beat you, don't worry."

"I'm not going to let you win."

"Same to you." I grinned. "But I'll still win."

After a while we came across boating docks. "Snowpoint Docks, we made it." Volkner said.

I smiled. I was so thankful that trip was over. We quickly walked forward until we came to building. We were officially in Snowpoint.

Snowpoint seemed like a small city. It currently wasn't snowing, but snow covered the ground. The houses and buildings looked old-fashioned. Lanterns hung outside every house. The light reflected off the snow and sparkled beautifully, giving the city an enchanted feel.

"This place is beautiful." I commented.

"Yeah, it's nice out here. C'mon, let's get to the Center."

We walked towards the big orange building, which stuck out like a sore thumb, and found the Mart. We bought soup and quickly ate it. It warmed us up nicely. We went to the Center, got our rooms, and happily went to bed.

Authors Note: Oh geez, I'm extremely sorry for the huge delay. Busy doesn't even begin to describe my life. It's more like ultra-busy, or something like that. I know you all waited so long and I gave you this crap chapter. I apologize. I could have done so much better, but I promise next chapter will be better. I don't know when the next update will be, but I hope to get the rest of the next chapter written today. (My day off, thankfully.) My 'system' is that I have to write the next chapter before I post the chapter ready to be posted. Does that make sense? Didn't think so. Example: before I posted chapter thirty, I had to fully write chapter thirty-one. Before I posted chapter thirty-one, I had to write chapter thirty-two. That way, I have a push to write the chapter, because I have a chapter sitting in my documents, waiting to be read. It also helps me with the story-line and all kinds of stuff. But since I made you wait, I'm posting this chapter even when chapter thirty-five isn't complete.

And now I just wasted your life with that long paragraph. Heh. I'm a long talker. Anyway, check out my profile for a new poll, I really am curious as to what yall like the best, so vote. I updated my blog today with (What I think is) a funny story...So yeah. And maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to update again this weekend. Updates WILL start being regular again. So never fear!

On another note, I was actually kind of disappointed that no one commented on The Callousen at all, or how Ember was a part of it. That's something I've been planning since day one, so I was SO EXCITED to write it! Also, TCB is now over 10,000 hits! And the winning chapter for most reviews is chapter one, with eighteen! Hurrah! And the runner up is the last chapter with six reviews! I thank you all for your awesome support/advice/everything else. Much love to you all.

Thanks for reading! *Whoops, at first I forgot to add the blue line thingies, but now they're added. I hope I caught it in time and no one had to go through without them.