Path of the Chosen 3: Doorway to Darkness

Beneath the Volcano

My eyes followed him back and forth, as he dashed between the bushes, kicking up a grey cloud of dust with each step. The sack that trailed behind him was puffed open and filtering the fine soft ash that thickly coated the leaves.

He started running in our direction and skidded to a halt directly in front of me.

"Cara, it's full," Hari announced very loudly, despite the fact that he was just a foot away from me.

"I can see that," I replied, eying the bulging sack he was holding out.

"Do we have any more?" he asked, glancing around for something else he could fill with ash.

"I think you've used them all up," I said.

"No, I have one left," said Ben, handing Hari his own partially filled sack.

"Cool!" Hari took the bag and dashed off again.

"He never ceases to amaze me," Ben said, watching as Hari ran through the ash-coated shrubs that grew at the base of Mount Chimney, his overly-long, tangled dark hair fanning out behind him. He was dressed in shorts, and his t-shirt that was far too big for his scrawny nine-year-old body. As often as I'd tried to get him clothes that fit, he continued to wear mine and Ben's shirts, saying that he liked his clothes to be baggy. On such a simple matter, I decided not to argue. It's hard to argue with someone who constantly has so much energy, so I needed to save it for the stuff that really mattered.

I turned to look at the small mountain of ash-filled bags. Hari's Grovyle was reclining on top, looking as though he'd done all the work himself. Although Hari had done most of it, a few of them were results of mine and Ben's work.

"I can't wait to see the guy's face when we bring him all of this," I said, half laughing. "I doubt anyone's collected so much ash so quickly before. I wonder what he can make with it."

"Probably an entire glass house," Ben snorted. Ben and I were both about 15 years old, but Ben was taller than me by a good several inches. He had light brown hair that was cut relatively short, at least compared to Hari's. Although I shouldn't be talking, because my dark gold hair can be as wild as the kid's unless I keep it tied back in a bushy ponytail.

None of us are related to each other. Ben's been my friend forever. Hari is a newer addition to the group. Long story.

Hari skidded back to us a minute later. "Done!" he shouted.

"Should we bring it to the glass-worker guy?" I asked, again eying the pile of sacks. How on earth were we going to transport them all?

"Yes!" Hari said, beaming.

"You can carry the ones you filled," Ben said wryly. I smirked at him.

"But there's so many," Hari said, blinking at the products of his day's work.

"Are there?" Ben asked.

I punched him in the arm.

"Ow, he muttered, rubbing the injured spot.

"Oh, hush, you big baby. That didn't hurt. I have an idea. Sage can teleport them there for us. How does that sound?"

"All right."

I tossed out my Pokéball to release Sage, my Gardevoir. I'd raised her from a Ralts during out trip through Hoenn. Her back and breast plates were a slightly paler color than most other Gardevoir.

"Can you bring these back to the house of the glass worker?" I asked.

Sage nodded and went to stand by the bags.

"I'm gonna ride!" Hari shouted, diving onto the pile just as Sage used Teleport Hari, Grovyle, Sage, and the ash vanished.

"Let's go find them before Hari does anything crazy," I said to Ben.

A minute later, Ben, Sage and I made it to the house of the glassworker. As we opened the front door, Hari bounded into view.

"Guess what!" he exclaimed. "He says he can make us a big glass table!"

"A table?" I gasped, exasperated. "Hari, we're traveling Hoenn! What are we going to do with a huge glass table?"

"Take it back home!"

I clapped my hand to my forehead. Ben gave me a pitying look. Honestly, sometimes Hari was just…

"Uh," said the glass worker as he peeked out from behind the mountain of sacks, "It will take a while to make a table out of all this, so I can call you when I'm done." He looked understandably flustered by the abrupt arrival of so much ash. Especially since he'd only sent us to collect it just a few hours before.

"Yes, thank you," I said, suppressing a groan. "That would be great." I wondered vaguely if Sage would be able to teleport the table all the way back home. "Come on, Hari. We should get to Lavaridge town before it gets dark."

As usual, I rode Polaris, my Ponyta, and Ben rode his Arcanine, with Hari sitting behind him.

We were nearly to Lavaridge when something caught my eye. I looked off to the side. Steam was rising up from somewhere off-road.

"Hey, guys," I called, "I think that's a hot spring over there!"

"Really?" Ben asked as Arcanine came to a halt.

"Ohhh!" Hari exclaimed. "Let's go!"

I glanced up at the sky. It was almost nighttime, but we weren't too far from Lavaridge. It wouldn't be a problem to get there now.

I grinned. "Okay!"

"All right!" Hari shouted!

"Let's go, Polaris," I said, tapping her with my heels. She snorted and bounded off the path, lightly prancing over the craggy volcanic rocks. Arcanine came loping after us. A minute later, we came within sight of a steaming pool of water.

"Awesome!" Ben shouted. Hari leapt off of Arcanine, threw off his shirt, and dove straight in. Ben quickly followed suit.

Girls don't have that luxury. I ducked behind a rock to put on shirts and a t-shirt that I didn't mind getting wet before I joined them.

I walked up to the pool where Hari was paddling around and Ben was reclining against one of the rocks. Hari's Grovyle was stretched out on his back on one of the rocks. I grinned and then leapt into the air, tucking into a ball just before I hit the water. I sent out a tidal wave of water over Ben and Gro. I surfaced to see Hari laughing and Ben grinning. Gro glared at me, annoyed at getting wet.

Polaris and Arcanine eyed the water. Being fire Pokémon, they understandably weren't thrilled about getting wet.

"Hey, Polaris," I called. "Do you want to stand over there where it's really shallow? That way you can get your legs warm."

She tossed her head and stomped a hoof. Oh, I suppose that wouldn't be so bad.

She walked over and stepped carefully into the shallowest area of the spring. She closed her eyes in contentment.

"Do you want to come too, Arcanine?" Ben asked. Arcanine shook his head.

"Let's let out the other Pokemon, huh?" I asked.

"Good idea."

I tossed out my Pokéballs. Out came Plusle, Swampert, Blaziken, Gardevoir, and Flygon.

Ben sent out Tauros, Pidgeot, Blastoise, Nidoking, and Kangaskhan.

Addie, my Plusle, jumped in with us. Swampert (Swamp) and Gardevoir (Sage) followed. Arcanine and Nidoking settled down with Blaziken (Embyr) and Flygon (Tahoe) away from the water.

Tahoe was actually a shiny Flygon. I'd run into her while crossing the desert. At first I thought I was seeing things when a blue Trapinch walked past. When I realized what she was, I wasted no time in catching her.

For a few minutes, we relaxed in the hot water. But inevitably, a water fight broke out. Polaris snorted in annoyance as water hit her mane, sending up a cloud of steam. She walked away to join the fire and ground Pokemon at a safe distance.

When night fell, all of us packed up and headed the rest of the way to Lavaridge Town.

…

"Look out, Addie!"

Addie hopped up out of the way as Torkoal whirled past, spouting flames. She landed away from Torkoal and waited for her to slow down. Then Addie dashed forwards, charging for an electric shock which hit Torkoal just as he emerged from his shell.

"Torrrr!" Torkoal cried, quickly backing away.

"Use Heat Wave!" Flannery shouted.

"Get away, Addie!" I cried.

"Kaaooollll" Torkoal shouted, releasing a plume of magma from the top of her shell. Addie sprang skywards to try to avoid the attack, but the fire spread too quickly and it struck her, making her crash to the ground. She scrambled to her feet, panting. Then Torkoal withdrew into her shell and spun towards Addie again.

"Get down," I said under my breath.

Addie turned away from Torkoal and flattened herself to the ground at the last second. She lowered her tail, making a sort of ramp. When Torkoal slid up the tail-ramp, she suddenly found herself soaring through the air. Addie spun around, kicking the airborne Torkoal so that she flipped upside-down and landed on her back, completely helpless.

"Now!" I shouted.

"Pulaaaaa!" Addie shouted, releasing a Thunder attack. It struck the stranded Torkoal, who finally went down in defeat.

"Torkoal is unable to battle," The referee called. "Cara is the winner!"

Ben high-fived me and I went to collect my badge from Flannery.

"One more down, huh?" Ben asked as we left the gym with my shiny new badge. Plusle and Blaziken walked at our side – the pair I'd used to beat Flannery.

"I still think you should challenge the gyms too," I told him. "You're a pretty good trainer."

Ben shrugged. "Nah. I'm not much of a battler. I prefer…"

"Yeah, I know. You like to work on computers. It was hard enough to get you out of the house to come to Hoenn with me."

"Well, I can't bring a lot of my work," Ben said. "But it is nice to get out sometimes. And I do like Hoenn. But Avalon usually has at least one human around to look after things."

"The Pokémon are there to take care of things,," I assured him. "Especially with our special guardian, huh?"

Ben snorted. "Yeah. Any bad guys who go snooping around Avalon will definitely regret it if he finds out."

"Hey! Hey, stop him!" a voice shouted.

We looked up to see a boy running in our direction. He was gasping, out of breath, and he was holding something in his arms. Then two men sprinted into sight and came after him.

The boy, about a year older than Hari, caught sight of Blaziken standing with us. He made for our group and jumped behind Ben and I, panting and holding the thing tight to his chest.

"Help!" he gasped. "Don't let them take it away!"