Chapter 4

We crossed the empty fields of snow. The snow pads strapped to my paws, though unwieldy, allowed me to walk without sinking into the powder. This was a great help when pulling a mountain of cargo across frozen fields. Although I may have been able to pull the sled, I was no Mudsdale. I was struggling to keep the sled moving. A look to my left confirmed that Flake was sharing my difficulty. My body didn't feel warm, but it didn't feel cold either. A delicate balance between the freezing air stripping away my body heat and the cloth wrappings trying to hold onto it. The air was still bone dry. The small scarf covering my mouth helped a bit, but I couldn't seem to slake my thirst no matter how much I drank.

"Conserve your water," she said as I took another swig, "That's all we have."

Flake seemed to be handling the environment better than I was. She was unphased by the freezing weather and her bare paws seemed to dance across the snow without sinking. Once again, I felt like a burden.

"This is a lot of supplies just for you," I mumbled through the scarf, "and where are we taking this stuff anyway?"

"You see those mountains over there," Flake said nodding ahead of us.

Just above the horizon I could see grey spikes that jotted out of the ground, "Barely."

"We're going beyond those."

I stumbled in shock as two questions vied for priority in my head, "W…What?" the survival instinct won the debate for first question, "What about those huge storms? They'll engulf us?"

"We call them the White Death," We? "and no need to worry. I've been tackling those storms for years."

Her answer did nothing to calm my nerves, and I was still trying to wrap my mind around the "we," but we could discuss that later as my next question felt far more pressing. "Okay, then why are we going over the mountains? I thought we were saving Pokémon here?"

"We will in time. First, I must deliver these supplies," she gestured behind her, "I have to do this once a month."

"Deliver to who?" I asked.

"You'll have to wait and see."

The silence returned. What did she mean "I'd have to wait and see?" Are we delivering supplies to bandits?! No, no bandits would live out here and Flake isn't that kind of Pokémon. Are we delivering supplies to a village? What kind of village could survive in this icy death trap? A howling wind tore through the silence and my thoughts. I looked to my left where a large section of the Snow Flats was engulfed in a viciously swirling wall of white.

I saw Flake fluff up her tails. "It's not going to hit us." She said before turning back to pulling her cargo.

"You called that the White Death. What do you know about it?" I inquired.

"As I'm sure you're aware, it's a deadly snowstorm." I recalled the bone chilling experience, "The violence of the wind strips away all your energy and the snow will bury you if you stop for but a moment. It's impossible to see or hear anything when you're caught in it. It brings death to any who venture into it unknowing, unprepared, or unlucky."

I couldn't help but make the connection to wild Pokémon. "But you know how to traverse it?" I asked.

"Yes, I always encounter at least two White Death's every time I make this journey. I've been taught how to combat these storms."

"Taught?" I asked.

"My master taught me how to travel these lands. I haven't seen her in quite a while, but I hope I get to see her again soon."

"Does she live here? Is that what these supplies are for?" I tried again to get an answer on where we were going.

"You'll see," is all she answered with.

I was getting a little frustrated and concerned. What if she thinks I'm trying to collect the bounty on her? What if she's trying to dispose of me? What if… I felt the wind shift. I looked up to see the storm in the distance, no longer moving parallel to us.

My heart sank as I heard the resignation in Flake's voice, "It's coming our way."

The cold wind picked up and bit through my wrappings. I began to shiver for the first time since we started our journey.

Flake stopped pulling the cart and attached a bright red rope to the harness spanning my chest. "Keep pulling and follow my lead," she said as she attached the other end of the rope to a harness that was barely visible under her ruffling fur.

"Why? What are you doing?" I shouted over the winds that grew ever more ravenous.

"Remember what I said? We don't have time to argue." She moved ahead of me, taking the brunt of the winds. To my dismay, she leaned forward and pushed straight into the gale. I had a second to wonder if she'd lost her mind, but the rope between us went taught and the moment for indecision passed. What choice did I have?

In the blink of an eye, we were encased in the storm. Voracious winds whipped me left and right while threatening to devour me with snow. It was impossible to gauge if our struggle resulted in any progress. I tilted my head to shield my eyes from the blasting snow and strained to catch a glimpse of Flake. Her white coat made it almost impossible to see her silhouette against the storm. From what I could tell, it looked like she was preparing a move. With a deep breath she blew out a Blizzard, one that matched the ferocity of the storm. It beat back the winds around us, making a protective bubble. I felt the violent storm ease and began to walk faster than a Slugma. The storm still lashed at me from time to time and my legs still felt like moving icebergs, but I could at least manage this.

Flake continued to use her mighty Blizzard for what felt like hours, stopping occasionally to catch her breath. Even though the cart felt like I was pushing the weight of a Tyranitar, her unflinching resolve galvanized me to go beyond what I thought I could handle.

As the white world around us began to fade and we reached the edge of the storm, Flake fell to her knees.

I dropped the cart rails and stumbled toward her, worried that she might be hurt. "Are you okay," I said, dropping to her side.

She was gasping for air, "N…No, just give me a minute." Exhaustion clearly etched across her face as she sprawled in the snow.

We sat in silence as the winds died down and the storm moved on. Eventually, her panting was the only sound and the sudden stillness was deafening.

As she began to catch her breath, I asked again, "Is everything alright."

"Yeah," she took in a deep breath, "Yeah, I'm fine. It's just hard to use Blizzard for so long."

I could only imagine. I could never hope to reach that level.

"Is it always this hard for you?" I couldn't help but feel guilty if part of the reason she was too exhausted to stand was because she had to protect me.

"Most of the time, yes. It's treacherous to travel here even for me." We sat in silence for a moment before she stood, "But, I still have a job to do." She moved to the sled and started pulling it.

I quickly darted to my position and, together, we pulled the sled across the empty snow.

Days passed as we fought our way through more blizzards, finally arriving at the snowy mountains. From far away they had seemed like a mirage, but now they seemed very real as their snowy silhouettes towered over us. They formed a seemingly impenetrable line from horizon to horizon. The Flats rose to meet the mountains as the snow gave way to ice and rock. One mountain was obscured by a storm. "Hey, is that going to hit us?"

Flake examined the mountains, seemingly searching for something and only gave the briefest of glances to what I was pointing at. "No. That's the blind mountain. It's a mountain peak in a perpetual storm."

"Why is it like that?"

"I don't know. It's always been like that."

I stared at the mountain, my inner explorer enticing me to find out it's secrets.

"Don't bother," Flake said seeming to read my thoughts, "That blizzard is more dangerous than anything you have experienced thus far. This way," Flake said as she started moving the sled towards a fracture in the mountain wall.

When I stepped inside, the chill air was stagnant. Stone mixed with ice across the walls as we traversed what I could only identify as a dungeon. Flake had frozen the skates of the sled so it would cross more easily on the rocky surface.

"So, um…" Flake tried to say, "What's the guild town like?"

"Wait, you've never been to the guild town?"

"Well…" Flake turned away from me as if embarrassed by the words, "I haven't actually left the north."

I stopped in my tracks and stared at her with incredulity, "Every Pokémon lives in or near the guild town." I noticed her head droop lower and recovered my poise, stumbling forward, "Well…" I tried to think of the best way to explain the massive city to her, "It's a really large city that's subdivided into different guilds. There's all sorts of shops and exploration teams." I stopped talking when I heard footsteps ahead in the dungeon. "Sorry," I whispered, "I shouldn't have been talking. Wild Pokémon might have heard us."

"You usually don't have to worry about wild Pokémon here," Flake said. "There are more wild Pokémon in here than outside, but they're still so scattered that I often don't meet a single one."

As she said that, a single Cubchoo rounded a corner and faced us. It's eyes only saw prey.

"Though when you do meet wild Pokémon around here, they're starved and desperate."

Just as Flake said that, the Cubchoo rushed us with more savagery than I expected from the little Pokémon.

This murderous intent from a wild Pokémon was so intense that I felt a primal urge to run. In an effort to dodge the incoming attack, I darted away from the cart. The cloth around my body made my movements stiff and I doubted I could dodge something that fast.

Flake however, held her ground and fired an expertly aimed ice beam right at the Cubchoo's feet, nailing it to the ground.

The Cubchoo faceplanted. It clawed and scraped towards us as if not even recognizing that it's feet were stuck.

I blew a crackling flamethrower. The flames were far hotter than I expected in this frigid environment.

When my flames ebbed, I saw that the Cubchoo wasn't moving. Whether it fainted or was faking, I wasn't about to check. I moved back towards Flake and we continued carrying the shipment.

"Are all the wild Pokémon around here like that?" I asked, still taken aback by the viciousness of the little Cubchoo.

"Simply put, the only food source around here is wild Pokémon and they're extremely few in number. You might not see another for months. The ones who survive are the most bloodthirsty."

We continued to pull the cart in silence. I couldn't get the frothing intensity of the Cubchoo's face out of my mind. The thought of having to live like one of these Pokemon was chilling.

"We're almost to our destination," Flake said as we both pulled the cart across the snowy landscape. We had long since crossed the mountains and the Snow Flats on the other side. According to Flake, the deadly storms happen on both sides of the mountain and we had to endure several of them just to get here. Even though I was protected from the storms, they still stole a lot of my energy. Shear exhaustion had me panting. So, when Flake said we were nearing our destination, my relief was overwhelming.

I heard the wind start to pick up and my heart sank. "Another storm?" My voice cracked and faded as exhaustion tried to steal the sound from me.

Flake chuckled at my dismay, which confused me. "Yes, another storm, but not one of the white death. We're no longer in the Snow Flats now so we don't have to worry about any more super storms."

"Where are we then?" I pushed through my stiff lips.

"We're in the Snow Plains."

"What's the difference?" I croaked while searching the horizon for any notable landmarks. The only one I could find was a lone mountain straight ahead of us.

"Well, the difference is that the Snow Plains don't get deadly storms like the Snow Flats and well…that's about it."

I'm not sure how Flake could tell the difference. The desolate land was still covered in the same white snow that went on for as far as the eye could see. The similarity to a desert I had once traversed with my old group was not lost on me.

We continued our journey, heading straight for the mountain and only stopped once we reached its base.

The sky-scraping pillar of stone and snow loomed over us in eerie silence. Flake started examining the sloping ground for some reason, but I was long passed caring as my exhaustion threatened to take over. My weary body felt like a raging furnace, but my legs were still numb.

I blew a little flame in an effort to warm up my paws. I noticed something, or perhaps, a lack of something. I didn't hear anything. All was peacefully quiet, like the snow choked out all the noise. The storm that I was worried about had never come to pass. I was entranced at the beauty and silence of the endless plane of snow.

*CRACK*

The sudden noise lifted me to my paws faster than my brain could stabilize me and I ended up having half my body sink into snow. I picked myself up and looked over to Flake to see her standing by a block of ice three times her size. I also noticed that a passage in the ground had opened up.

"HEY!" She yelled at me, "Bring the cart over!"

I did as she asked and came up to the new entrance. There, I was surprised to come face to face with a Lucario.

"He with you?" The Lucario asked.

Flake nodded her head.

"Alright, let's get inside. It's freezing out here." Lucario gestured me further into the tunnel.

I was a little apprehensive, but I didn't faulter at the order and traveled down into the mountain with Flake. I heard another loud thud and looked behind me to find that the exit was plugged by that enormous block of ice. How Lucario was able to carry that thing, I had no idea.

Only a few steps in and I had already reached the base. The first room I gazed at from the short hallway was about as big as a large hut, built out of rock and littered with supplies. Various tools and equipment were strewn across the walls like streamers. In the center of the little room was a beacon, perfectly sized for the room. The fire in the beacon did not contain the average red but radiated a beautiful gold. As I drew closer, it became warmer and more radiant. I was beginning to feel like my wrapping was unnecessary here. As we entered the room, I became aware of two doorways on either side that led to other rooms

"Master!" My attention was drawn away as Flake rushed passed us into the room on the left. "Master Glacier, it's so good to see you again." My view was obstructed by Flake.

I walked into the room to get a better picture of this master. "It's nice to see you again, too, Flake." The voice rang with feminine maturity.

I gazed upon Glacier, her coat was the deep blue of thick ice. The Glaceon returned my stare, the aged wisdom of her white pupils seemed to dance with an adventurous spirit. "And who might this be?" I couldn't help but catch the caution in her words.

I tried to introduce myself, but the cloth covering my face muffled the sounds. I pawed at the mask in an effort to remove the wrapping but the bulky pads made things difficult. Meanwhile, Flake introduced me. "This is Valixalyle. He's a Ninetales who wants to help me rescue Pokémon."

As I tried to work off the bandages covering my face, I began to overheat in the very cloth that had protected me. I was more desperate than ever to get it off.

"Hold still, you're going to ruin the cloth." Flake's forceful voice had me stopping. Using her teeth and paws simultaneously, she slowly unwrapped my body. I felt another pair of hands start to unwrap me as well, but I couldn't swivel my head to identify who it was. The heat became unbearable and I started panting. To my surprise, I was panting fire.

"Looks like the suit is doing its job and keeping you warm." Glacier commented, "So while they're getting you out of that, why don't you tell me who you are."

My bandages were removed just enough for me to speak unimpeded, "I'm Valixalyle, and just as Flake said, I want to help her rescue Pokémon."

"Why?" Her simple question was laced with skepticism.

I took a moment to collect my thoughts. Why was it that I wanted to rescue Pokémon? "I want to help those who are trapped. I don't want anyone to be left alone to die. I have a chance to save Pokémon here, where they need it most, and I don't want to leave them dying in the snow." I felt my answer was flimsy and didn't adequately express what drove me to this decision, but it was the best one I could come up with under her piercing gaze.

Glacier looked at me, seemingly as unsatisfied with my answer as I was, "The snow is beautiful, and uncaring. You'd better be able to stand your ground against it."

As Flake removed the last bandages around my face, I took in my surroundings. The room I found myself in had only one thing in it, a giant dining table with many chairs. Torches with golden flame lined the walls. We were not, in fact, alone in this room. Along with Glacier and Flake, there was a hulking Magmortar and an ice-type I couldn't identify. The ice-type belonged to the other pair of hands unwrapping me.

Glacier, seeing me eyeing the other Pokémon, proceeded to introduce them. "This is Magnitar," she gestured towards the quiet Magmortar, "and this is Lass, the Froslass," she gestured to the mysterious ice-type who was helping remove the wrappings. "They're my exploration team."

I looked at Lass in awe, "I've never heard of a Froslass before."

Lass spoke for herself, "We Froslass do not live beyond the land of perpetual storm you call Snow Flats. Crossing it is impossible for us."

Finally, free from the prison of warmth, my body filled with relief as my burning hot skin came into contact with the cold air of the cave. Even with the torches burning their heavenly glow, it still wasn't able to keep the air at what I'd call a warm temperature.

"What is this place?" I finally asked, the mystery of the cave consuming my thoughts.

"We often do explorations up here, so we built this safehouse in case anything went wrong. Though it's kind of turned into our headquarters."

"Are you going to be staying for a while?" Flake asked eagerly.

"Not that long unfortunately," Glacier replied a little solemnly. "We came back for a resupply but we're heading back out soon. Sorry that we can't stay longer."

I could see Flake deflate. It seemed that being with her master was something she looked forward to. I stepped up to hopefully rescue the situation, "Surely you can spare one day?"

To my surprise, it was Flake who stopped me, "No, we should get going as well."

Her words shocked me, I thought she wanted to see her master more. She talked about how much she wanted to see her on the way here.

"You two should stay and rest up," Lucario, who was standing behind us in the entry way, spoke up. "Your journey's a tough one." I couldn't help but agree with that, "I'll show you to your beds."

I started to follow Lucario before I looked back at Flake, "You coming?"

"I'll catch up with you," is all she said in response.