A/N: This chapter is going to be very different from the regular chapter format. Italics will be used when Manny is "speaking," and underline will be used when our special guest is "speaking," and both italics and underline are when both Manny and the guest are "speaking." Why am I making air quotes of speaking?
You're just going to have to read to find out.
Chapter 14: Winter Wonderland
1/2/20
6:05 pm
Beach
I was hitting the sand out of frustration…
That's how low I got.
My mind was still taking in the fact that Abby was either stuck in Charred Chambers or off somewhere with this kidnapper. To make matters worse, Cord got possessed by the Darkness, attacked Chris—which he survived somehow—and teleported off to who knows where.
'Maybe I could have done better with Abby, but I can't change that now.' I got tired of kicking sand, so I decided to sit down and listen to the waves. 'Breath in… Breath out… Breath in…'
"Hi there, Manny."
I turned to my right to glance at a female Riolu. But her appearance was different from other Riolu since her feminine parts showed—for example, she had hair drooping all the way to her middle back.
Anyway, after glancing at the Riolu, I faced back into the beach. "Hi Lira," I said doing a faint simile.
After reading the last sentence a few times, you probably ask this question to me: how do I know who Lira is?
The answer is… Complicated. To put it simply, our team needed a place to stay until we had enough credits to make our own house. We asked along the guild, and Cord eventually found Team Crusade—Lira's team. And as it turned out, her teammate used to live in Sharpedo Bluff before he met Lira. After a few minutes of debating, stupidity, and whatnot, we ended up agreeing on them letting us stay at the Bluff as long as we don't touch anything, and—because we felt generous—we paid the team a fair amount of coins.
"I saw you pretty frustrated a few moments ago. Is something wrong?"
"Um…" I hesitated slightly. "Two of my teammates have gone missing. One I had no absolute control over, but if I had done one thing differently, I could had saved her…"
"Sounds like you need a little cheering up." Lira sat down right next to me. "I might know the perfect song for it."
She started to hum a few notes that sounded very familiar to me.
(This is when the italics and underline will start make sense.)
"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?
"In the lane, snow is glistening."
'No... Way. It's this song.'
"A beautiful sight,
"We're happy tonight,
"Walking in a winter wonderland.
"Gone away is the Swablu
"Here to stay is a Pidgey.
"It sings a great song,
"As we go along,
"Walking in a winter wonderland.
"In the meadow, we can build a snowman.
"We'll pretend that he is someone you know.
"He'll say, 'Are you ready?'
"We'll say, 'No man!
"'But we can do the job when you're in town.'"
For some reason, I decided to sing along.
"Later on, we'll conspire…
"As we dream by the fire.
"To face unafraid,
"The plans that we've made,
"Walking in a winter wonderland."
Lira stopped singing after realizing I "somehow" knew the lyrics of the song. "How did you know that? I though I would be the only Pokémon in this town that would know it."
Oh, boy. I was in for it now. "Well…" I stood up and wiped all the sand off me.
"Let's just say," I say for some reason singing again, "that I'm new here.
"And I'm not…" I point to myself. "familiar like this."
"But I can't believe they're gone,
"And we're talking about them,
"While I'm singing this song."
I started chuckling after. This was ridiculous!
But it seems like Lira's getting into it…
"You don't know…" She stood up. "if that's true.
"And I don't mean to be rude.
"But you're acting like a wimp,
"And you can't handle it.
"So, get a grip."
'I got to stop this before it gets weird.'
"Thanks." I said sigh after. "But how am I supposed to do that?"
She thought for only a second and responded quickly. "I believe you still have a teammate still with you, right?"
"Yeah, I do. But what's the point—."
"Then what's the problem then? You still have hope! Stop worrying about the mistakes everyone's made and move on."
After a few moments of thinking, I start smiling. "Can we finish the song?"
"Absolutely…
"In the meadow we can build a snowman.
"And pretend that he's a circus clown."
"We'll have lots of fun with mister snowman!
"Until the other kids knock him down…
"When it snows, it ain't thrilling.
"Though your nose gets a chilling."
"We'll frolic and play,
"The Eskimo way,
"Walking in a winter wonderland…"
"Walking in a winter wonderland…"
"Walking in a winter wonderland!"
I spent the last few seconds humming the final notes of the song.
"That was… fun!"
"Glad you liked it," Lira responded.
"Well… I gotta go." I started walking past Lira. After a few moments, I ultimately stop to look back her. "Oh, and the next time you sing that human song to anyone, sing it like the version you were going for. It's pretty neat!"
I started running toward Treasure Town.
All Lira could do was smile, knowing she did well.
6:15 pm
Sharpedo Bluff
Maybe it was a coincidence that Lira showed up.
I beg to differ.
Chris meanwhile was confused with what happened. "So, she sang a human song with you? That's impossible!"
"Hey, at the very least, we know that we're not the only humans in this world… Anyway, when we finished the song, I realize what we had to do."
Chris looked at me confused. "What?"
"We're going to get Abby and Chris back."
*Game File Saved*
A/N: This chapter was-from the beginning-always going to be apart of the story. I just needed another character for the singing part. I turned to one of my inspirations: SilyaBeeodess for help. And I caught a lucky break; I was able to use her main character Lira from Guardians of Light and it made this chapter a whole lot easier.
So I would like to say thank you SilyaBeeodess for the hard work you do, and for letting me use her character.
If you haven't done so, check her out because she's an amazing author!