Pokémon: 21 Deaths: 3
"Hello? Is someone there?"
"Someone's down there?" Lucy said, sitting down on the edge of an icy ledge and peering over it. "There's a way around here, but it takes about an hour and we've already been walking for half the day, so… padded trousers, do your thing!" She pushed off and slid down the slope. Sasha and Emilie slipped after her.
"Looks like fun!" Siren said, hopping off the edge. "C'mon!" She slid down after Lucy. Mag floated out over the ledge, looking expectantly back at Silver.
"You ready to go?" Saylee asked Silver as he sat down on the ledge.
"Hmph. Just making sure you don't wuss out," Silver said, pushing himself off the edge. Mag followed close behind. Saylee rolled her eyes and followed with Chip and Mary.
At the bottom, Lucy was crouching next to a woman and peering at her shoes. "Your sandals froze on," she said. "Seriously, do you people have to wear these outfits everywhere?"
"For the love of…" Saylee rubbed her forehead in exasperation as she recognized the elaborate dress and makeup of a geisha. "What are you doing here? Are you people stalking me again?"
"Not on this occasion, I assure you," the woman said, as if that was supposed to reassure Saylee. "I have urgent business with Master Ryujin."
"How on earth did you get through this cave on your own?" Lucy asked, dumbfounded.
"With great difficulty," the geisha said, clutching her skirt while she tugged at her feet.
"Chip, can you defrost her a little?" Saylee asked. Chip nodded and leaned down, huffing hot breath over the geisha's frozen feet. "Lucy mentioned Master Ryujin before… the head of the Dragon Clan, right?"
"Indeed," the geisha said, smiling as her sandals slipped free. She straightened her skirt and yellow sash. "My business with him is confidential. If you will excuse me… you have my gratitude." She bowed gracefully and then slid off with surprising speed, moving as if she were dancing.
"What the hell was that?" Silver wanted to know.
"What the hell is a geisha doing here?" Lucy asked, dumbfounded. "I've never seen them outside of Ecruteak…"
"They sideline as well-dressed stalkers," Saylee informed. "And I think they must be pretty powerful trainers, too. This isn't the first out-of-the-way place I've met one…" she frowned. "Although for all I know, it's always the same one following me. I know there are a bunch of them, but under all of that heavy makeup and tutored accent, how do you tell two of them apart?"
"Who cares?" Silver asked.
"All you humans look the same anyway," Siren complained.
"How 'bout we move?" Mary suggested. "It's proper Sinnish in here!"
"We're not far from Blackthorn now," Lucy promised. "This way…"
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After two more days of cold and dark, the cave exited onto a thin, flat path up the mountainside.
"Everybody bigger than Emilie and not flying, away," Lucy said. Sasha, Tyra, Chip and Mary were all returned and replaced with Zeb, Gareth and Tobias. "There's snow and ice on the path, and the air here's… really thin…" she was panting by the end of the sentence. Saylee breathed deep, trying to suck in all the oxygen she could. Zeb and Tobias clearly had to work hard to keep flapping their wings.
Lucy and Emilie led the way up the narrow slope. Saylee had climbed in the hills around Cerulean before, but none of them were this high. It didn't take a lot of strain to leave them all gasping for breath, and there was plenty of strain to be had. The path was so thin in some places that they had to creep along sideways, pressed tight against the rock wall with Mag, Zeb and Tobias fluttering at people's backs to support them. Saylee had initially tried walking along with her back to the cliff face, but the view over the path's edge had made her change her mind. There were clouds below her. She couldn't even see the base of the mountain.
Darkness descended quickly. When it did, blue flames suddenly flickered to life in sconces carved into the cliff wall. Saylee hadn't even noticed them; they all looked like natural indentations in the cliff face.
"Pretty…" Tobias said in awe.
"Showy," Silver complained. "I can't see my… damn feet. How'm I… supposed to move… like this?" Saylee was clinging a lot tighter to the rock herself.
"Move slowly… and… feel out… every step…" Saylee told him, testing every step with her foot before moving. Silver yelped in surprise as Gareth suddenly picked him up, floating along by the cliff. "Could you… have done that… any time?" she demanded.
"Yeah," Gareth said with a grin.
"Why… didn't you?" Silver demanded.
"You didn't ask," Gareth said simply. "Whee!" he flew off with Silver, who initially yelled in anger and descended into a breathless noise that he would probably deny to his dying day was giggling.
"I… think we're… nearly there…" Lucy huffed. "Nicole's house… is near the foot… of the village…" she took a couple of deep breaths. "Friend of mine… trained here… with her… before…"
By "the foot of the village" she meant a relatively flat plateau halfway up the side of the mountain. Saylee could just about see the peak of the mountain, but it was so distant that she had to wonder if there'd be any air left at all at the peak. Dozens of ancient-looking stone houses were clustered on the plateau, each with blue fire blazing around the edge of its roof.
Lucy walked past a couple and knocked on one with a door painted deep blue. "Nicole!" she called. "It's me, Lucy Pryce!"
The heavy door slowly swung open. The girl in the hut was a couple of years older than Lucy and Saylee, with dark blue hair piled high on her head and a dark red cloak wrapped around her. She grinned brightly at them.
"Welcome, Lucy!" she said. "Hey there, Emilie! You've come by early this year." She raised her right hand, twirling it in a little circle and then placing it over her heart. Lucy repeated the gesture, glancing at Saylee, who did the same. Silver pointedly ignored them when Gareth swooped down and set him down safely. "I see you've got some new travelling companions. Finally given up on those useless brothers of yours?"
"Gave up on them years ago," Lucy said, rolling her eyes. "These are my cousins, Saylee and Silver."
"Didn't know you had cousins called Saylee and Silver," Nicole said, stepping back to clear the doorway. "Welcome to Blackthorn. My home is yours, weary traveller, for the length of my hospitality." She bowed them in. Despite how ancient and worn the house looked from the outside, the inside was as comfortable and high-tech as any apartment in Goldenrod, and a good deal larger. Most of the décor tended towards midnight blue and wine red.
"Nice to meet you," Saylee said to Nicole.
"Spirits bless this house," Tobias said, flitting inside. "Ooooh, it's warm!"
"Urgh, it's warm," Siren complained, loping reluctantly after Silver as he slouched into the house.
"Cold as a Sneasel's tear though this land be, it doth make us strong."
"Sneasel don't cry, you overgrown Ekans," Siren said, walking over to the Dratini that was lounging by the fireplace, watching TV. "We're too badass for that."
"Siren, be polite, we're guests," Saylee said, looking at Silver. "Are you going to be polite?"
"If you train dragons, you're strong, right?" Silver said to Nicole. "If I prove I'm strong, can I train a dragon?"
"If a dragon chooses you," Nicole said, sitting down next to her Dratini. "I was older than you, and had to master many forms of strength, before Draci here chose me. I'm still learning."
"Together we learn, together we grow, and from the wisdom of humans and Pokémon both we become our best," Draci said, looking at Saylee. "Upon you I scent a dragon, cousin of Lucy."
"I… used to train a Dragonair." Saylee reached into her bag and pulled out Diana's horn and cracked blue sphere. "I failed her. She was killed in a Team Rocket trap."
"A Dragonair?" Nicole breathed in awe. "Draci and I have trained here for three years and she hasn't evolved yet!"
"Well, she evolved when I met her," Saylee explained. "She was already very strong. I saved her when she was poisoned, and she said she owed me a life debt."
"Then she did pass, no doubt, satisfied by a debt repaid," Draci said solemnly. "You do her a great service by returning her to this mountain her mother. Know you her name?"
"Diana," Saylee said. Draci nodded.
"Blood sister was she to Daenerys and Delline, those who have sworn themselves unto the Lady Clair, but never did Diana care for the Lady," Draci said. "Said she that the Lady lacks in strength of the will and does allow herself to become mired by the ghosts that haunt her. To speak true, oft do our kind set out to the lands beyond Blackthorn, seeking strengths not grown in this land. So did Diana leave, and strength she must have found in you."
"…Thank you," Saylee said, bowing her head to Draci and holding out the horn and pearl. "Where do I inter these?"
"One of the Dragonlords or Dragonladies will take them into the shrine for you," Nicole offered. "Only they really have the right to go in there."
"How do I get the right?" Saylee asked. "I promised Diana that I'd bring her back here. I promised." She gripped the horn and orb tightly. "I intend to lay her to rest with my own two hands."
"Mum says it's sinful to break a vow to the dead," Tobias added. "They won't be able to rest until the vow is fulfilled."
"Can't you let her in, just this once?" Lucy asked. Nicole shook her head.
"I haven't even earned the right to enter the shrine yet," she said. "Draci can… she's a dragon. But I can't. I might be granted the right in a few years, if I become a Dragonlady… but for outsiders, only knights may enter."
"Our grandfather's a knight," Silver pointed out. Saylee was surprised to hear him back her up… and call Pryce "grandfather", which he'd never yet done to the man's face. "What? He is. Stop giving me that look."
Nicole shook her head. "Knighthood is not hereditary. You cannot ride on the coattails of your ancestors' accomplishments, or be punished for their sins. That's what we believe." She got up again and went through to the kitchen. "I offered you hospitality, so that means dinner. Eat up. Tomorrow, you can negotiate with Lady Clair if you really want to. I have to warn you, she's notoriously stubborn and prickly."
"The Lady has been ever such since her lover did desert her, years ago," Draci sighed, turning her attention back to the television.
"Hey, I love this show!" Gareth said, floating over next to her. "You got to the bit where Lord whatisface gets beheaded?"
"What?" Draci gasped. "I have yet seen no beheadings… tell me not whom dies!"
"Everyone," Gareth said simply.
"Calm down and ignore him. He's a Gengar, they just like to mess with people," Saylee said, unwilling to mention that she'd seen the episode herself with how heartbroken Draci looked. She and Lucy had cried together over it. "So who's Lady Clair?"
"She's Master Ryujin's granddaughter, and his heir since her cousin ran off," Lucy said. "He was her fiancée too. She's been a right bitch ever since. I mean, I've been told she used to be pretty cool, but the only times I've seen her, she's been pretty bitchy."
"The oldest lineage of the humans here does well to keep its line pure," Draci said. "It is said that in times long past, they wed brother to sister to ensure purity."
"Apparently, if you're ancient and respectable enough, incest becomes kind of okay," Lucy said with a shrug, making a face. Silver looked from her to Saylee and gagged.
"Ew, ew, ew," he grumbled. "I'm not marrying either of you."
"Agreed," Saylee said with a shudder. "I think our family's messed up enough as it is."
{}
Silver dropped straight off to sleep after stuffing himself at dinner. Everyone's Pokémon went into their pokéballs for the night due to the small size of Nicole's house. Nicole, Lucy and Saylee sat up late, watching the news.
"…intervention of Lt Surge in Vermillion City, the Power Plant is nearing completion and should coincide with the completion of the magnet train line. The repair of this line will connect Kanto and Johto for the first time since before…"
"Funny thing, isn't it," Nicole commented absentmindedly. "Someone says before—not before when, just before—and immediately everyone knows when you mean."
"I was just a baby at the time, and I know what you mean," Lucy agreed. "It's an even bigger deal for everyone older than us. I mean, I wasn't old enough to forget much more than a couple of months of crying and crapping myself, but some people lost some pretty significant chunks of their lives." She glanced at Saylee. "Nobody even knew that you existed. Uncle Gio never said anything…"
"He didn't really know we existed," Saylee said quietly. "Or care, much."
"Well, he didn't visit much anyway," Lucy said with a shrug, "and really, he was kinda mean and creepy, so we were always glad to see the back of him." She laughed. "When I was little, apparently, I asked dad if he and Uncle Gio were really brothers. He just said 'probably… maybe'."
"The Masters of the clan keep very detailed records of lineage, both human and dragon," Nicole said, "so there was never any confusion for us on that front. We have very detailed accounts of our histories and traditions, too, so it wasn't that hard to get everything more or less back to what it was before. We think."
"Back to the way it was before…" Saylee stared at the TV, which was now reporting the grand opening of Trainer Tower. "Wouldn't it have been interesting to have had a fresh start, though? I mean…" she thought of the last letter she'd received from her mother, two days before they'd left for Blackthorn.
"Knowing what I know now, I'm glad of it. I wonder if I knew what he was back then, and if so what possessed me to think he would be a fit father for my children. I wonder, sometimes, if living with that shadow in your lives would have been better than the poverty of your childhoods… but wondering about that now doesn't really make a difference, does it? I'm proud now of what I have, of the loving young woman that you've become, and the good man that I know Red is, wherever he is…"
"Most of our parents aren't criminal psychopaths, though," Lucy pointed out lightly.
"Yeah… never mind, I'm just being silly," Saylee said, shaking her head. "Nicole… you've never heard of a trainer named Red, have you? He'd be about… bloody hell, nearly twenty now. Black hair, red eyes. Do you know him?"
"I don't know if a trainer like that's ever passed through here," Nicole said, "but you can ask Lady Clair tomorrow. She knows every outsider that comes through here, though to be fair there's not a lot. I heard rumours that some guy from the outside's been holed up in the main household since the fall. Might be why she's even more prickly than ever…"
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"Dragons, eh?" Georgia said as they gathered in one of the boulder-strewn training fields near Blackthorn City. "'Ow d'you foight them, then?"
"With ice, preferably," Saylee said, looking at Nider and Gabriel. "If it comes to a fight—and it probably will, these types always want you to 'prove yourself'—I'll be counting on you two for Ice Beam and Ice Fang."
"Ice Fang!" Gabriel gnashed his teeth, shards of ice falling from his jaws.
"I take it you're on board with that," Saylee laughed. "I'll need you too, Mary."
"Whit? Me?" Mary said in surprise. "I'm no' an ice fighter, get that Emilie or that cheeky wee bint Siren…"
"They also train the lesser dragons here," Saylee explained. "As in Horsea and Seadra. As in Gyarados. I trust I can count on you to handle them?"
"Them? Oh, aye, nae probs," Mary said with an evil grin, her fists crackling with electricity. Gabriel shuffled away nervously. "Calm doon, big yin, this isnae fae you."
"We're fighting dragons? That is so many kinds of badass!" Nider said excitedly. "Let's do this! RAAAH!"
"Saylee," Draci said, appearing around a rock. "My Lady wishes that you know that you are to have an audience at the hall of Lady Clair upon the fall of night. There shalt be decided your right to enter unto the Dragon Shrine."
"Brilliant," Saylee said, clapping her hands together. "We're going to get a bit of training in, so can you come back then to lead the way?"
"Of course. Good fortune to you." Draci nodded to Saylee and disappeared. Saylee turned back to her Pokémon.
"You heard her, guys," she said. "Now, who got a chance to spar with Diana?"
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TWO DAYS UNTIL XY. I'm going to wake up at 5am like it's Christmas and stand outside of Game, probably vibrating slightly with excitement, until X is in my hands. IT'S FINALLY COMING *_*
