Author's Note: Here comes the exam arc! This will actually be the last arc to part 1 of Holding On so the chapters may be a little longer and take more time to write out but I hope you'll enjoy it all the same.
Gentle flickers and dancing lights; under the silent moon's glow, Crystal added her own little stars to the midnight stage. One by one, they made their entrance into the spotlight, multiplying by their puppeteer's side and hovering at the ready. Pale blues and subtle lavenders colored her fur with their lively radiance, illuminating soft patches of sun amidst the shadows of night.
She felt them tugging at the edge of her mind, tickling the reaches of her control before directing them along down to their targets. She had several cans lined up along the wall, sitting at varying heights. She led a couple to a can sitting on an empty box. Another few went to the can sat high on an old wooden crate. And several more were sent to the cans sitting on the crooked stones and standing boulders. The motions felt easier on her brain—more focused and clear without the muck gunking up their paths.
They merged into their targets, seeping their burning touch into unfeeling aluminum until Crystal was left with only the light of the full moon and the shining stars above her head. She let out a relieved sigh, "Now all I have to do is not choke and they should be fine," she muttered with a soft nod of her head.
"Getting a good night's sleep might help with that," a voice trickled into her ears.
Crystal yelped with a short jump, turning her body towards the source and seeing a pair of crimson eyes reflecting the light of the night outward from her gaze. "Emi…" she breathed out her name past her racing heart, "You startled me… What are you doing up so late?"
"I can ask you the same thing," she responded with a stern cross of her arms.
"Oh! Well," Crystal began to mutter, a flustered hue taking up the white of her cheeks, "I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd get a bit of last-minute practice in before the big day. You know, make sure they're all in line before I use them for real."
Emizella stared at her for a moment before letting a sigh soften the scolding look in her brows. She took a few steps closer, closing the distance between them and pressing a gentle pet to her head. "It's all well and good to make sure you're ready, but you need your sleep more than you need the practice."
Crystal's ears laid down her head, a pout tracing her lips while her eyes found interest in the deep shadows in the corner of the alleyway. Eventually, she relented, "I know… It's just…" her eyes flickered back up to meet Emizella's, "Aren't you nervous too? About the exam?"
Emizella watched her and chuckled at the question, "Well, no duh. Of course I'm nervous. I don't think there's a single pokémon out there that wouldn't be at least a little bit nervous. But you remember what Zeke said, right? We just gotta stay true to ourselves and we'll be just fine." she quoted him, mimicking his hardened, piercing glare and angling the ends of her brows down with the fingers to replicate the luxray's furrowed frown. Her imitation melted away when she got Crystal to crack a smile, breaking the tight line of her lips. "If he says it, then it's gotta be true. And I don't plan on those nerves changing my mind any time soon."
"You sound so sure of yourself," Crystal giggled, a soft pang of jealousy playing at the back of her mind—wishing she could be as self-assured as Emizella seemed at this moment.
"Well, there is that… But remembering that I have you by my side helps out a lot more. Knowing I have someone so dependable that I can rely on makes me feel like we can make it. Every step we make together is a step towards victory," she said, a hand rubbing at the back of her head to ease the bashful shade out of her face.
Crystal stared at her for a moment, watching the sheepish grin cover her lips. Yeah, she thought on it, I guess it really doesn't feel so bad going in with a friend. She giggled softly at her own nerves, feeling them ease off her mind just in time for exhaustion to take their place. A yawn slipped past her and she heard Emizella chuckling to herself at the soft-pitched sound.
"Alright, that's enough chatting for one night. C'mon, let's head back to bed." Emizella said with a slight gesture of her head.
Crystal eyed the decorative rings that clung around the riolu's feelers, spotting the gem embedded in their surface flashing under the moonlight. She felt her own gift gently tugging at her ear, drawing her mind to recall the exchange. To recall their first adventure. To recall the vow she made that night.
Walking up into the loft Jasmine had lent to them during their stay, she gave a second yawn, memories pulling her closer to dreams. Dreams for the future, dreams of her ideal self—their ideal selves pulling through thrilling conquests and glorious expeditions. Amazing discoveries were waiting for them just around the corner, past the dreams and into a reality they would forge together.
Together, she yawned a third time as they crawled back into bed. We'll be fine…we can make it if we… Her thoughts faded into slumber, peace finally overtaking her mind and sending her off into Lady Cresselia's domain.
~uwu~
What could Crystal say as she and Emizella stood at the edge of the crowd of busybodies blocking the doorway to their future? That she expected this kind hustle and bustle to be going down on test day? That they should have woken up even earlier to avoid this kind of traffic? They'd all be a total lie and completely useless in the face of their first obstacle of the day.
"Don't they know pokémon have to get through?" Emizella muttered, surveying the situation and crouching to look between the grove of legs blocking her sight. "Perhaps we could squeeze through…"
Crystal crouched by her, examining what they had to work with through squinted eyes. "We might be small enough to fit through that machoke and maybe push past the mudsdale." she pointed to the gap.
"Yeah, but it's going to hurt really badly if either of them steps on us," she responded with a soft hum, pitched with a soft whine at the idea of such hardened hooves finding their soft bodies.
"But pushing past the smaller bodies are going to feel tighter."
"Well, yeah, but it's not like we-"
"Back! Back, you beasts!" Crystal heard a familiar voice edging closer into deadly irritation, the bubbly exteriors ready to fade away at any second. "This is way too early for this kind of nonsense. If you ain't with the exam then step back! Step back, I said!"
Violet sparks began to crackle above the peak of the crowding bodies, a wary air slowly consuming them at the bristling sensation working its way under their skins. Some eyes glanced at the side of the building where a wooden board was used to temporarily patch up the hole. Some had witnessed the fury of Malorie's temper. Some had heard horrendous stories and rumors of her merciless terror. But all of them knew well enough to not test her.
They parted from the doors carefully, backing away slowly like she was some unpredictable, ravenous animal. Separating figures gave way to Malorie's golden visage, a long stick in hand to make sure she was getting the radius of space she wanted.
"Yes, yes, that's it. You can watch without being a hazard," she told them with a huff before spotting the two candidates waiting for her to finish working her magic. "Oh! Um… I'm blanking on your names but you were here last week, right?" she pointed towards the two of them, "C'mon, I'm holding them off so get inside."
Well, that solves that problem, Crystal thought while Emizella shrugged her shoulders beside her. She walked in first, trotting with a bit of a skip and Crystal followed closely at her side.
Malorie gave a few more narrowed glares at the bystanders as they made their way past her, swaying her stick so no one would get any funny ideas while she was holding the door for the couple of pokémon who had approval to come inside. She jabbed it forward once, making some poor cacnea flinch behind the leafy skirt of a lilligant he clung to with his prickly arms. Malorie looked quite satisfied at the show of meek submission to her show of domination over the crowd, breathing out a soft huff before letting the door close behind their tails.
"It's been all morning with this…" she muttered as she walked them further inside, tossing the stick onto the floor.
"Is it like this every year?" Crystal asked despite the risk of riling the morpeko up.
"Oh yeah. You'd think they'd learn but nope! Their nosy curiosity always triumphs in the end. Anyway, the orientation is being held in the main guildhall past this door," Malorie explained, stopping in front of the door way and digging into her pouch, "Just follow the signs and you'll find the right room."
She pulled out a badge that matched the guild's emblem plastered on their sign. She scaled up the wall and held its face to the scanner that hung by the sealed entrance. The device glowed a soft green color, registering the identification shoved into its space and giving a soft beep. A heavy click sounded from the door, a latch releasing and making the sturdy, unyielding slab susceptible to guests. It slid open slowly with a soft creak and Malorie slid down from her positioning beside the scanner pad.
"There we go. Alright, I trust you girls know how to read signs so I'll leave you to it. I gotta get back to bouncer duty." she said, shoving the badge back into her pouch and giving a short wave to the two as she stepped back to the entryway. "Good lu- Hey! Hey, don't think I don't see you there! You ain't slick!" she shouted, picking up the pace back to her post.
Emizella glanced back towards the charging morpeko, "Looks like she's got her hands full," she noted with the soft clack of the stick being taken up into arms once more. She looked back to Crystal, "Well, why don't we get ourselves inside then?" she suggested with an eager smile.
Crystal gave a hearty nod of her head, her tail wagging in her anticipation although she felt the weight of her anxieties holding back on its momentum. She swallowed it down, fixed her eyes forward and took her first step towards the life-changing event.
They walked past the opened door, pushing it shut behind them and hearing the latch snap back into place. Crystal's ears shifted back at the sound, peeking over her shoulder at the slab held tightly into place by mechanics she couldn't see. It had to be new, or, at least, relatively new compared to this ancient city.
There was a finality about its sturdy face, about its unmoving, locked position that made it impossible for Crystal to even imagine leaving out the same way they came in. It whispered to her in a way, telling her that there was no turning back now. Whatever happens past this point will happen—good, bad or anywhere in between.
Crystal scanned the rest of the main guildhall, her eyes opening wide to take in the secrets that lied on the other side of the door. The early morning sun shined through the high windows and illuminated the world she only knew in her daydreams. Two boards were posted side by side, one for jobs that asked for various different requests to be completed and the other was for bounties, outlaws that have persisted in evading capture from local law and security officers. Across from a doorway that led deeper into the guildhall was a large map of their nation. Pins were stuck into it, all across its surface with ribbons dangling from their stem.
Emizella couldn't resist taking a closer look, eyes completely mesmerized by each little pin and its identifying mark. Her head moved from side to side, skimming over its surface. Was she looking for something, possibly? Well, there was no finding it when a large garchomp stepped behind her, her shadow draping over the riolu's body while her golden eyes stared down at her tiny form.
"You're in the way, kid," she said in a deep voice that bordered on a subtle growl.
Emizella's eyes looked back at her, lips pressing into a tight line under the sheer weight of her presence. Before it could get too heavy, a flygon poked her head out from behind her body, giving a friendly wave and a kind smile. Emizella couldn't return the gesture, her muscles clasped too tightly into position but she didn't block their way for long either. Stiffly, her body began to scooch away with her arms held to her sides. Wide steps moved her closer to Crystal's side until their furs were mingling together in a mixture of blue and gold.
She leaned closer to Crystal's ear, "Do you have any idea who they are?" she whispered, fighting hard to keep it at a soft tone.
Crystal gave a short shake of her head.
Emizella's head snapped over to stare deep into Crystal's eyes, disbelief playing on crimson with a soft hint of offense for the fennekin's ignorance. "How can you not know who they are?" she said, completely foregoing her whisper while a strong, excitable grip clenched onto Crystal's shoulders.
Pretty sure that would fall under "fan" knowledge rather than basic, Crystal thought with a shrug.
"They're the Desert Duo! How have you not heard of them?"
Crystal raised a brow at the riolu, wondering where she could have possibly heard about them outside of Emizella's own ravings. Besides, she could hardly call this the best time to be getting excited and fangirling about professionals when they were supposed to be taking the exam to become professionals themselves.
"Alright, fine," Emizella raised her hands to stop herself and this conversation from going any further, "But this isn't over."
I'm sure, Crystal thought with a roll of her eyes.
"Hey," her attention shifted to the flygon stepping closer to the two of them, "You're here for the internship exam, right? Do you know the way to the meeting room?" she asked with a soft tilt of her head.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, guess I got a little sidetracked," Emizella answered, her embarrassment adding a soft glow to her cheeks.
"It's alright," she smiled, "I get it. It can be a bit overwhelming the first time you step back here. But you're early so you can afford the distraction."
"If you're early, then you ought to get to where you need to be so you won't end up being late," the garchomp commented behind her, pulling a pin out from the large map and placing it and its ribbon into a basket off to the side. How does she do that with a single claw?
"They're fine," she waved away her concern with a slight whip of her tail, "Anyway, we'll be going the same way as you so why don't you walk with us?"
"Are you sure?" Crystal asked between Emizella's deep, excitable gasps, "We wouldn't want to bother you if you have somewhere you need to be."
"It's no trouble at all," the flygon laughed, already starting to lead them away down the halls, "Like I said, we're all heading in the same direction. Might as well enjoy the company."
The generous gesture was well underway before any snippet of humble thought could think to put up more of a polite front. With a scaly tail tapping at the back of Crystal's hind legs, the flygon nudged them along gently with her partner walking on the other side. Their small bodies sandwiched between two large dragons, was this meant to be their life now? Emizella was into it. With beaming eyes and a strong grin, Emizella was so into it.
"Oh, I guess I should properly introduce myself since at least one of you hasn't heard of me," the flygon leaned just a little closer to gesture towards Crystal, pulling a soft, embarrassed pang from her chest as she avoided the mirthful smirk. The flygon chuckled, "Don't worry, I'm only teasing. Anyway, my name is Elmira, but everyone just calls me Emma. Feel free to call me that too. And my partner over there is Cynthia." she said, pointing a wing to the garchomp, "We're actually one of the folks accepting interns this year so you might just end up with us."
"I doubt it," Cynthia was quick to shoot down the idea before it had a chance to root any hope into the young pokémon's heads, "We're going to need someone that can keep up with us in our own terrain, and something tells me neither off you would be too go dealing with the sand," she said
"Well, I can't say she's really wrong." Crystal smiled. Admittedly, a bit more forced than she intended but how could she be insulted by the blatant fact?
"She still could have been a bit gentler about it," Elmira stated with a pointed glare.
"You know gentle isn't my style," Cynthia shrugged her shoulders before getting a swift whack at the back of her head by the flygon's tail. She gave a soft yelp and grumbled, a claw soothing the light sting.
"Anyway, even if it isn't us, there's still plenty of others just as cool that you can work with. They'll be watching the exam with the overseers." she took a short pause, a realization sparking in her voice and shifting her tone, "Oh! But no pressure, of course."
Right, no pressure, Crystal swallowed down her nerves, lips pressing into a tight line to keep them from bursting out. But it was never exactly easy to hide them away in this kind of body. Even if she ignored the chills rising on the back of her neck, it didn't lay her fur down any flatter along her spine. She wanted to scratch away the tingling sensation but this convoy wasn't slowing down or stopping until they reached their destination.
…No pressure. She tried bearing it, soft twitches jolting to get it out but it only made her itch more. She could feel the anxieties bubbling up and sitting at a simmering boil in her body, steam fogging up her brain and blocking out her ears. The pressure was definitely starting to get to her. Were they still talking? She couldn't tell past the humming drone ringing in her ears. It was almost impressive how she still managed to walk in a straight line.
But then, there was a switch, a light tap that flickered through the fog and eased away the itch. Actually, she felt it scratching at it gently, subtly shaping down the flaring fur and rubbing away the goosebumps.
She turned towards that arm that extended out to her, looking at the riolu who kept her eager conversation still going. Emizella gave a short glance to Crystal, a reassuring glimmer that reminded her of what they talked about before looking back up to the flygon. Her hand never left her backside and her calming air remained strong and steady up to their designated meeting room.
"Whelp, this is your stop," Elmira said, escorting the two to the sign greeting the guild's potential new recruits with fresh ink and a warm drawing of their mascot waving a hearty hello. "We've got to head off now to get ready but don't go wandering off, okay?" she gave a teasing wink towards Emizella, a giggle tickling the back of her voice.
"I-I just let my guard down a little bit! I swear I'm not that much of an airhead!" Emizella tried to defend herself before she was seen in any more of an unsavory light as she was now, but her declaration only served to humor her idols even more.
"If you say so," she said past her chuckles, "Well then, good luck to you two. We'll see you out on the field." She gave a short wave and joined Cynthia's side down the hall, the garchomp already drifting off on her own.
"See you, and thanks for showing us the way," Emizella waved back before letting a heavy sigh leave her lips and relax her shoulders.
In Crystal's own little wave, watching their backs grow further away before turning into one of the rooms by the corner, she didn't pay much mind to Emizella's looming figure. That is, not until she was combing through her fur and pushing it back against the grain and tickling her with every backwards stroke.
"Um… what are you doing?" she asked, turning her attention to the inspective riolu.
"Checking your prickle-back. I'm trying to see if you're still holding onto anymore of that nervous energy of yours," she answered through pursed lips, her eyes flicking back to Crystal's when the fennekin chose to move out of the range of her hands.
"It was only just a little bit, you don't need to search me," Crystal stated with a shake of her body. She felt her fur ruffling along her nape before settling back into position, finally relaxing after so much physical turmoil. She marched inside, her tail flared up high in her stride, "I don't think it's so unusual to be a little bit nervous knowing there's that kind of audience watching us. I mean, you'd be nervous too, wouldn't you?"
She turned back to look at Emizella only to find her inches away from her face with a smile pressed to her lips. She gave a laugh and patted Crystal's shoulder, "Come on, it's just the pokémon I've been idolizing since I was a little kid watching my every move and looking out for every decision I make. Of course I'd be nervous. In fact…" a second hand gripped onto her opposite shoulder, digits digging into her soft flesh and clenching desperately for support, "I think I might throw up right here and now from all the butterflies in my stomach."
Crystal's ears lowered over her head. From the sinking colors in her eyes to the trembling in her limbs, there was no doubt that her breakfast was knocking right at the back of her throat, ready to spill out at any second. There was no room left in her stomach and something had to go.
"Please don't…" she practically begged, voice trembling under the impending threat. "Why don't we… talk about something else."
"…yeah." Emizella agreed, relief bringing a cold sweat to her brow.
They found themselves a spot on the floor, sitting and leaning against one another while the storms in their stomachs calmed to a gentle rain shower. It still wasn't the best weather but it was something they could hold down.
Emizella found what really got her back into her chipper mood was just talking and repeating the stories she read over and over and over again as a child. It used to bug her mother and father back when she was a kid chasing after their heels and shoving the papers into their faces but Crystal was a more appreciative audience. She never heard the stories before and so her ears were fresh and ready to take the dump of knowledge Emizella had accumulated in her years of knowing about the Adventurers Guild and the legends behind it.
"So they helped map out the way to the Sinking Oasis so now that unbearable desert isn't so unbearable anymore," Emizella explained, wrapping up her third story for Crystal.
"Woah… And all that from a rescue mission?" Crystal asked, leaning in a bit closer with turned ears and an unblinking gaze.
"I know, right?! It's like, you never know what you're going to find out there. And there's still untouched land waiting to be explored." She began kicking her legs against the floor, the excitement bubbling up with uncontrollable zeal. Boundless energy jumped her to her feet, hands clenching into fists and fists pressing to her chest. She gave one final stamp to the ground and turned her beaming expression onto Crystal, tail wagging in messy circles behind her. "Crystal! I'm going to die if we can't pass! I'll die if we fail!"
A soft laughed brushed past Crystal's lips, "Isn't it a bit much to say you'd die for your dream?"
"Not at all!" Emizella responded quickly, "I can feel it in my chest, my heart is going to explode if I can't realize my dream. Here, feel it."
She reached a hand out to Crystal's paws, taking them up and pressing them to her chest. Her hands were much larger than the little nubs that made up her paws, large enough to take up the pair under one palm, but Emizella felt the need to use both to emphasize her point, creating an unbreakable force that kept Crystal's paw pads pressed to her fur. But Crystal couldn't find the gesture overbearing. Not even a little bit. It was warmer than it was crushing, a persistent reminder of the strength and dedication put into the riolu's petite body.
"See? You can feel it, right? It's about to burst," she said quietly, letting her heart do most of the talking.
Crystal felt a lot of things: her beating heart, her pulse lightly tapping against the back of her paws, sleek, silky fur tickling between her toes, a tender warmth radiating from every breath. It all felt like way too much just to confirm a bursting heart. A bursting heart that her ears could pick up well enough on their own. But that was Emizella's heart she was hearing, right? With every knock against her rib cage, Crystal was starting to doubt the sensitive radars propped up on her head.
"Don't go bursting on me," she pushed out a soft chuckle, "Here, I'll do a little spell. When I get to the count of ten, you'll be a good beating heart."
Emizella listened closely to every count spilling from her lips to rest between them. Soft little numbers marked every breath, labeling every exhale with a name. Racing hearts began to sink back into gentle thumps, serenity filling their lungs and the ripples clearing from their minds. When Crystal reached ten, even Emizella's tornado of a tail died back into gentle sways, a manageable level of happiness strolling up and down her spine.
"Better?" Crystal asked with a slight tilt of her head.
"I think I'll manage to live," Emizella admitted, grinning amidst the tinted flush now taking hold of her cheeks.
"Good. Let's keep the hype at a mild level, at least until we've got the results, alright?"
"Yeah. That might be for the best."
"Oooh, I thought I heard fresh meat in here." A voice, new and almost gravelly, entered into the room. Large, jeweled eyes sparkled with glimmering colors reflected from the light and a razor-sharp grin split her head open from cheek to dimpled cheek. It seemed rude to not expect a sableye back here so Crystal kept the impression from developing any further past a glinting thought. "Right? I don't know you. I didn't see you here last year, right?" her hoarse voice continued to speak, feeling like a rake cutting through leaves in Crystal's ears.
"Right. This is our first time here," Emizella answered and Crystal realized that she still had her paws pressed to her chest.
She slipped them free, letting them fall back to the floor.
"I thought so," the gems shined more brilliantly, "You know what that makes me, right? That makes me your senior. Senior Sabrina. Senior Sableye Sabrina. No, too much. Just Sabrina is fine. Nice to meet some fresh faces." She reached her clawed hands to them, shaking each one of their hands with an eagerness that rocked Crystal's body.
"Uh… nice to meet you, Sabrina," Emizella shook off the jitters and stars floating in her eyes. "I'm Emizella, but just call me Emi. And this is Crystal."
"Nice to-" Crystal tried to greet her next but was instantly cut from saying anything else as Sabrina pressed her face closer to the fennekin's.
"Really? Crystal? Your actual name is Crystal?" she asked, multiples of Crystal's visage playing over every facet of Sabrina's eyes.
"Y-Yeah… That's what my parents named me…"
The sableye let out an excited squeal, "I love it! I absolutely love it! Lovely! Perfect! I wish I had such a name, but no. Mama and Papa go with 'Sabrina'. What even is a 'Sabrina'?"
"I think… Sabrina is a pretty name," Crystal's voice came out cautiously, joining the air with Sabrina's ramblings.
"Yeah, I guess. But it's no precious rock or gem. Not yet, at least."
"Not yet?" Emizella asked.
This pulled a proud chuckle from Sabrina's chest, calming her down enough to release the fennekin to press her hand against her chest and present her body before the newbies. "Right! You may not know this, but here and now, you are looking at the number one gem hunter and stone collector in all of Xernia!"
"Really?" Curiosity pulled Emizella closer to the sableye.
"Well, I'm getting there," she admitted, her grin faltering at the corners before shaking it off, "Once I've become a professional adventurer, I'll explore the deepest caverns and caves, find the shiniest treasures and discover new gemstones yet to be discovered. And I'll name one 'Sabrina' and then I shall also be a gem!"
Every word she spoke worked up her zeal, stretching it to the ceiling and covering the room with an unignorable presence that was Sabrina and her ambitions. Despite the rough scratch that coated her voice, Crystal couldn't help but be drawn into that familiarly passionate spell. She couldn't turn a deaf ear to this fervent sableye so willing to share her dream with the pair of strangers. There was a bit of Emizella in her crystalline eyes, a bit of her zealous fire roaring bright past their clear surface.
"That's the plan, at least, but there was a bit of a minor setback. Unfortunately, I didn't quite make the cut last year," she said, her admission dampening her mood and moving her hand to rub at the back of her neck.
"You failed?" Crystal asked with a gentle droop in her eyes.
"I mean, I got pretty close but was just a bit too slow. It happens to the best of us but it's all good. The real losers are the ones that don't come back so I haven't failed just yet!"
"That's… quite the way to look at it," Crystal mused.
"There isn't really any other way to look at it. You'll see what I mean when the time comes."
Crystal gave a soft nod of her head. She could appreciate the advice, knowing that it wasn't quite the end of the world even if they didn't make it. They could always be like Sabrina and live on to try again next year in the worst-case scenario. After all, Emizella did wait this long to have her first chance at this. But the thing about waiting so long to take the first steps towards a dream is that the setbacks felt much more devastating. The line of patience was stretched much thinner after a couple of years compared to just a couple of months.
Her eyes went up to Emizella's when Sabrina busied herself with greeting the fresh batch of new candidates walking in through the door. She stared at her, wondering what thoughts went through her mind at the idea of failing and being forced to wait another year to try again. Just a moment ago, her heart was racing at the idea of failure but did it feel any better knowing that it didn't have to mark the end for her ambitions?
Emizella's gaze just stared into the distance, not revealing anything to the fennekin even when they realized that she had been staring at them for a good number of seconds. Their clarity turned to Crystal and a curious smile went to her face. "What is it? Did you think I started getting nervous again?" she asked, pointing a digit towards herself.
Crystal's body jumped slightly, "How did- I mean, that wasn't what I was thinking about at all."
She just breathed out a short laugh and reached a hand between her ears, "I'm fine. Stomach's still doing okay and my heart is still at a steady beat."
Well, she wasn't wrong, Crystal considered with the lacking surge of bodily sounds coming from the riolu. "You sure?"
"Positive! Need to feel again?"
She giggled at the offered and shook her head, "No, I'm good."
~uwu~
Fifty candidates.
After sending off the pokémon that could fly and the pokémon that could swim to their own specially designed exams, fifty were left that depended on the land to move from point A to point B. Fifty were being shipped to the island that would serve as the test site. Fifty would arrive to take the exam to become professional adventures. Only fifteen would make it to the finish line.
Crystal ran the math in her head, eyes shifting and looking at imaginary numbers floating over her pupils before the answer flashed in her head. That made for less than a third—a one in every three shot in making it to the end. And, as she looked around at the truck of pokémon much bigger and stronger looking than her, she felt her stomach sink into the possibility that she might not be the one in three.
She shook her head of the idea and pressed her nose to the window. She let the open ocean wash over those pessimistic thoughts, let the stretch of endless blue muck up the words that formed the strand. If Emizella was here, she wouldn't let those kinds of things bubble up. They'd only hold her back, make her sloppy and dilute everything she worked so hard to achieve. If it wasn't good enough for Emizella, it wasn't good enough for Crystal.
What would she do? What would she say? Crystal pondered for a moment before stretching her gaze up to look towards her forehead. She knew exactly what she'd do.
A paw reached up towards the space on her head between her ears, bowing down slightly to reach up as high as she could. She closed her eyes and gave herself a gentle pat, imagining it was Emizella's hand pressing to her head. Imagining that it was Emizella's voice telling her that she'd do just fine. It didn't look nearly as natural as it would have been with a separate set of hands but it did help her just a little bit. Enough to get the organs in her chest under control to work on her deep breathing until they finally touched down.
The island was shaped like a dome, a forest and open meadow sunken into the earth with high raised cliffs surrounding a great deal of its perimeter. Crystal tried to paint the image into her mind as they began their descent into the open space just outside the woodland area. Even the roughest outline of the landscape would help if she could just hold onto it.
Everything began to get bigger and the cliffs turned into towering walls blocking the candidates inside. A heavy thump rocked their carriage as they touched down on the terrain, their pilot trying to land on the flattest surface he could find but the jolt still sent a startled yelp to some of his passengers.
"Alright! Everybody, out of the box! No need to be shy! Out, out, out!"
A voice bellowed from overhead, not quite from the speakers but outside of their windows. One of them opened the doors and the rest of them flowed out onto the field, getting the kinks out of their cramped joints and popping out the stiff shape in their muscles. Crystal gave herself a bit of a stretch as well, sinking her chest deep into the grass and feeling the fur on her tail prickle and stand. She squeezed in a shake before hearing Emizella jogging closer to her group's landing spot, her own box landing not too far from theirs.
"They really packed us in there, didn't they? I kind of feel bad for the loudred that was next to me. Poor guy didn't have much legroom to work with." she said, rubbing out the sores in her neck with a small, uneasy smile.
"Yeah. Were you alright?" Crystal asked, turning her attention to her companion.
"Oh yeah. The good thing about being a riolu is that I'm still tiny so I squeezed in just fine. What about you? You didn't get queasy on the way over did you?"
Crystal shook her head, "Nah, I got a window seat so I mostly just looked outside for the whole trip."
"Lucky," Emizella drawled, "First time flying over the ocean and I get the middle." she pouted with a cross of her arms.
Crystal laughed softly, "Maybe you'll luck out on the way back to the mainland."
She scoffed, "Heh, yeah. If I'm 'lucky'."
"C'mon, don't be like that. I'll tell you what, if we're in the same box on the way back, I'll let you have the window seat and I can sit in the middle. I've already had a turn so it's only fair."
Emizella chuckled, a brow raising with the smirk on her lips, "Really? You sure you want to give up such a prize so easily?"
"Why not?" Crystal asked, a chipper skip in her voice dotting her tone with innocent bliss, "If I'm sitting in the middle, I get to watch Emi and the ocean. I think that's way more of a win than a lonely ol' window seat."
The smirk on her face flickered away, lips pursing into a tight line that held back something welling up in her throat. It filled her cheeks and puffed out the pout that settled into its place. "Hey! If you're going to convince me to take the raw end of the deal, don't tell me it's raw."
"I'll keep that in mind next time," Crystal said with a light giggle.
"Alright! Everybody listen up!" a voice bellowed over the field of candidates.
Crystal's gaze followed the sound to its source, finding a mawile shouting with her arms crossed over her chest. A chatot flapped away by her side while a murder of murkrow stood right behind.
"I'm only going to say this once so if any of you forces me to repeat myself, you'll be disqualified on the spot! If you can't pay attention when it counts, then you're not suited for the job in the first place."
Crystal didn't remember reading such a thing in the contract they signed, and by the looks on everyone's faces, neither did they. But their chatterings and murmurs died down all the same.
"You'll have three days to reach the highest summit on the opposite side of the island. The first fifteen candidates to reach the peak will be offered a spot in ALG's yearly internship program. We'll be monitoring everyone's progress throughout the entire examination process and all updates during the course of the exam will be announced by Miss Harriet here. Any and all disqualified candidates will be escorted back here and flown back to Harmonia City. Any questions?"
A trick question and an obvious one at that. Her glaring eyes weren't taking any form of backtalk and no one was brave enough to try challenging their intimidating aura. As the silence continued, a smirk replaced her frowning lips.
"Good, then your seventy-two hours starts… Now!"