Epilogue
A bell tingled as Dolly stepped into the room, and the floorboards creaked beneath her shoes as she glanced around. She supposed it hadn't been too long since she was here last. The same antler-themed lanterns hung from the ceiling, the same hearth calmly flickered, the same couch slumped against the wall. Dolly could feel her posture suffer just by looking at it.
"I'll be down in a moment!" a voice called from upstairs.
Footsteps plodded along above Dolly's head, then down the wooden staircase.
"Well, if it isn't Champion Dolly, all spiffy in her Champion get-up. Love the leggings and shorts look," a woman laughed, slinging her tall graying ponytail behind her head. "What a pleasure to see you again."
Dolly smiled, staring into the bright blue eyes of the hostel owner as she made her way downstairs.
"I can say the same to you, Champion Hilda."
The woman froze on the last step, and her eyes grew wide as the corner of Dolly's mouth twitched up. Then, the woman breathed out a laugh.
"Well, I've been called a lot of things in my years here in Galar," she said. "But that has never been one of them."
Dolly reached into her pocket, then set a yellowed strip of paper into Hilda's hand. She stared at the article Sonia had given her in the Hammerlocke Vault so long ago.
"I figured it out a while ago after my friend showed me this article," Dolly explained. "It was the day after I met you, actually."
Hilda looked up at Dolly, and an odd ferocity burned in her gaze.
"What'd you bring this to me for? You want me to congratulate you on figuring me out? I haven't been called that in a long time, and there's a reason for it. There's a reason I'm in the middle of nowhere in a country I wasn't born in. I haven't been back there in years, decades, nor do I plan to."
"What if I told you your old Pokémon are still alive?" Dolly said, her blazing gaze matching Hilda's.
After a moment, Hilda's eyebrows furrowed.
"I'd say that you'd better have a pretty good explanation for me to believe that."
"How about I show you?" Dolly said. "You even told me back in my Gym Challenge, 'When you break the Curse, you can teach others. Learn what you can, teach others what you know,' and that's what I'm doing. They're alive, Champion Hilda. I've already got you a plane ticket. Mum's waiting with a cab outside."
Hilda's eyes squinted, and half a breath escaped her lips. Dolly held out her hand.
"Come on, let's go back, just for a bit. I've got a feeling we've both got unfinished business."
The plane landed only moments ago, and Dolly tore through the town. She sprinted across the blacktop, pushed past the employees loading cargo onto the other planes on the drive, rushed past the fencing, and onto the main street. The town wasn't huge, but it was large enough for a dozen houses to be dappled throughout it, separated just enough by shrubs, gardens, and trees.
Dolly reached the threshold of the forest and stopped. The breeze was cool, slight, not strong enough to sway her hair, not enough to ruffle her clothes, but just enough to rustle the sparse blades of grass around her shoes. The Pidoves were chirping to one another, wondering who this strange girl was - the girl that exuded power, but such timidity at the same time.
With a cautious breath, Dolly took a step.
And another step.
And another step.
Dolly walked through the forest, and every memory was engraved in her mind like it was only yesterday that she had lived through them. That was where she had tripped into the river. That was where she chucked a rock and it nailed a Palpitoad on the head. She smiled as she saw the Pecha berries in the bushes.
She made it to the clearing. And there, in the center, with the specks of light still fluttering around it, was the haphazard rock she placed there so many years ago.
Time didn't exist, space didn't exist, and Dolly wasn't sure of anything except how her heart pounded in her ears.
She wasn't sure what to expect. She wasn't sure what would happen.
She heard the rustling of branches, the rustling of leaves.
A shadow emerged from behind the gravestone, and tears began to fall from Dolly's eyes.
"Is that you, Dolly? My… you've grown. How long has it been?"
Dolly couldn't hold back her sobs as they cracked in the air.
"Eleven years."
"My, well… I've missed you so much," she said, delicately placing hoof after hoof as she stepped toward Dolly.
That familiar smile was so gentle on her face, as if not a single second had passed.
"I can't believe it's really you," Dolly cried as she fell to her knees.
The small Pokémon curled herself into Dolly's arms. She sounded the same. She looked the same. She felt the same.
"I always knew you would come back. I've loved you throughout everything Dolly, every single second."
"I love you too…" Dolly whimpered.
Dolly's voice cracked as she tried again and again to say the name that had been on her heart for years. After another sob, she finally managed it out.
"...Faline."
A/N: What a journey. Thank you all, dear readers, for accompanying me through Galar alongside Dolly and her Pokémon team. I can't even express what it feels like to have finally clicked 'submit' on the final chapter of this story, but I would say the word is close to bittersweet. This is the longest thing I have ever written, and probably will be for a while. These characters all have such a special place in my heart, and just like Hop said in chapter 29, 'the characters write themselves.' I can't believe this story has come to a close after so many months (almos r) of writing and rewriting and editing and revising… and you have all been here through it too. Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for joining me in this journey! I hope you laughed, I hope you cried, and I hope you may have taken away at least one little lesson. Take care of yourselves, my friends, you are all so, so worthy of love! - missusk
