During part of writing this chapter, I listened to the main theme of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. More specifically, the helicopter part. You're going to see why I thought it was fitting, and why I recommend you listen to that song as you read this chapter. If you're on a device that allows you to, that is.

I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy reading it just as much. It's on the short side for sure, and I apologize for that. This really is kind of a transition chapter.


LUCAS ENFIELD

The Last Supper.

Okay, so it wasn't a supper, it was actually lunch. Even so, that didn't serve to change much. No matter what, I was still feeling plenty of heartbreak over the fact that I'd be leaving my parents within an hour or two.

As myself, my parents, and Angelina feasted on the sausages and steak my father had grilled for us, we didn't talk too much. Really, what was there to say? I felt horrible about what I was doing.

But it's for the best, I told myself. It's for the best, and, what's more, you know it's for the best. You'll only put your parents in more danger if you stay here, so put a sock in it.

The longer I spent at my house, the less I wanted to leave. Every time I looked at one of the pictures of me when I was younger, or the beautiful vase on our granite counter, I thought, This might be the last time I ever see it.

"So, Angelina," my father said, "when did you turn into a Lucario? If you don't want to talk about it, that's all right with me".

"It was about this time yesterday" Angelina replied. "I remember feeling really hungry for a day or two prior, and then, day of, just flat-out pain. Right in my chest and legs; felt like my bones were restructuring themselves".

"Well, clearly they were restructuring themselves" my mother said, clearly trying to sound witty, but failing miserably at it.

"Yeah" Angelina said, right before taking another bite of sausage.

"Have you seen any more of the cameras where you live, Angelina?" That was my father speaking.

My friend nodded. "I don't know why, but none of them have asked for an interview. But really, there's not too much to ask, is there?"

"What do you mean by that?" my father replied. "Don't we all have plenty of questions?"

"Yeah, but we don't have plenty of answers. That's the problem here. Hopefully we can actually figure out some of the answers when we get to Thomas Kemp's estate".

I thought of how I hadn't noticed too many cameras over the last day or so. Clearly, the news media had gotten the message that they'd gotten as much out of me as they were likely ever to, and they were going to move on to other stories. Needless to say, I was highly relieved.

"May I please be excused?" I asked my father. It was very hard to say that, not just because I was still slightly hungry in this new form with an extremely fast metabolism. I genuinely loved my parents and couldn't stand the thought of leaving them, even if it was necessary for all of our safety.

My father nodded, but he didn't look happy about it. I could tell that he was trying not to cry as well, but I could see a few tears coming out of his eyes.

I got up from my chair and went out into my backyard. I walked over to my hammock and lay down in it, holding my left arm out to the side and allowed myself to be warmed by the sun, whose rays were filtered through a group of tree branches.

I saw a butterfly Pokemon, a Beautifly, flying through the grass in my yard, heading to some of the flowers my mother had been growing to suck on some nectar. I saw the group of pine trees on one end, standing a good ten or twelve feet tall apiece. I saw the area where the swing set had once been, since taken away due to the fact that it was rotting and no longer considered safe.

I saw my house, in all of its glory. For the last time today, and maybe the last time ever. My vision started to become blurry with the tears that were forming in my eyes.

And, as I looked up at the windows to my bedroom, I cried.


Fortunately, when I went inside, nobody mentioned the fact that I'd been crying. Clearly, they either hadn't noticed or didn't want to mention it to me. Either way, I wasn't going to complain, although I very much hoped it was the former.

My father was going to drive us to the laboratory. He knew the way, having been there on business a couple of times. He was also, as I found out, friends with Andrew Dexter.

No wonder my mother didn't seem to think it was risky to go with him, I thought. She knew the guy was legit.

"So where do you know this guy from?" I asked my dad as we were driving to the lab.

"We went to the same college together" he replied. "I was three years behind him, so we were only there together for a year, but it was a great year. We were pretty good friends. Unfortunately, I haven't talked to him for some time".

"Nice" I replied. "It'll be nice for you to see him again, won't it?"

He nodded. "And we're almost there" he said.

Unlike Dr. Dexter, who had obliged to my requests to drive only on suburban roads in order to get to the lab, my father hadn't been told that. And, unfortunately, I had forgotten to tell him that we really should be avoiding the city.

I didn't see any cameras as we drove through downtown Pastoria City, but I still felt more than a little uncomfortable. I hadn't seen the news in a while, so I didn't know how much they knew about my case, but I was afraid to find out.

I looked to the back seat, and Angelina was looking just as nervous as I was. Two Lucario, one with white fur and one with mint green fur, were sure to attract a lot of attention. Fortunately, traffic was fairly heavy, so I don't think too many people noticed us in between all of the other cars.

Eventually, we left the city, and I could breathe a little more easily. We were almost to the laboratory.

"This is the place" my father said a few minutes later. Even though we'd left the city limits not ten minutes before, it already looked like we were in the country.

"All right, Dad" I said. "Just know this one thing: I love you so much, and I'm really sorry that I'm leaving. I hope you understand why".

My father nodded. "Believe me, Lucas, I do understand. We'll see each other again, though. Will you make sure of that?"

"I'll do my best" I replied. Turning to Angelina, I said, "Okay, Angelina. Let's get our bags out of the car".

After we did so, I gave my father one last big hug. I wanted to wrap him in my arms and never let go, but, unfortunately, that just wasn't going to happen.

"All right" he said eventually. "Have a nice trip north".

"We will" Angelina replied.

"Gavin! Long time, no see!" exclaimed a voice coming from nearby.

I looked in the voice's general direction and saw that Dr. Andrew Dexter was coming towards my father. Given what the latter had told me about them being good friends in college, I wasn't surprised by this.

"Yeah, Andrew. It's nice to see you again" my father replied.

I'm hoping that they get through this quickly. Because the longer I see my father here, the harder it's going to be to get in that helicopter.

Fortunately, even though I didn't say that out loud, both men seemed to get the message. "We should probably go now" Andrew said. "It takes about three hours to fly up to the Kemp estate, and we should be starting as soon as possible".

"Okay" my father said. Turning to me, he told me, "Lucas, you'll always have a home with us. Just know that, okay?"

I determined myself that, no matter what, I would not break down in front of my father. It was only going to make him sadder about the prospect of my departure, and that wasn't something I wanted to do.

"Bye, Dad. I love you".

After we exchanged our good-byes, my father got back in his car and started driving away.

"Okay" Dr. Dexter said as soon as he was gone. "I've talked to the pilot. He'll be ready to go in twenty minutes or so. Do not enter the laboratory, you're not authorized to do so right now".

I nodded. Honestly, it wasn't like I'd wanted to give Angelina a tour around the lab. She'd probably be appalled at all the comatose Lucario in the tanks, because I'd always known her to be a major Pokemon rights activist. I was perfectly fine staying outside in the summer afternoon sun.

Angelina and I sat down by the entrance to the lab. We didn't speak to each other, because neither of us could think of anything good to say. And you know what they say: If you can't say anything good, don't say anything at all.

"Okay, the chopper is ready" Dr. Dexter said, coming out of the lab. "I'll show you the way over to the helipad. It's behind the lab".

The scientist led both of us along a path right next to the lab to a large gray helipad. It had a large red circle in the middle of it, with an enormous letter H in the middle, in the exact same color.

Outside of the helicopter, a small red one, there was a man who appeared to be in his late twenties, with brown hair and sunglasses. He looked kind of like a surfer dude, and, if I didn't know that he was a helicopter pilot, I would have assumed that he was in fact a surfer dude.

Maybe he does that on the side.

"All right" he said. "You are Lucas Enfield and Angelina Hawley?" he asked us.

Both of us nodded. "I'm Lucas" I said.

"And I'm Angelina" she said.

"Very well, then. This is an absolutely beautiful flight, and I hope that both of you enjoy it. Are both of you ready?"

We both nodded again.

"Okay then" the pilot responded. "My name is Mr. Granby, and I'm the pilot of this helicopter. I don't know if Andrew, my boss, told you this, but it's about three hours to get to the Kemp manor. We should be there at 4:34 PM, by my estimation.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's do this!"


I had never been in a helicopter before, and neither had Angelina. I was already filled with wonder at the prospect.

I thought of the dream I'd had last night, the one in which I'd floated over the treetops and towards Cameran Palace. This might not be exactly the same, but it would still be pretty cool.

After both of us put on the headsets and buckled ourselves in, Mr. Granby started the engine, and soon we were rising over the laboratory, towards the unknown.

Almost immediately, I was amazed at how the laboratory looked as small as a structure a kid might have built out of blocks. I had been in airplanes before, of course, but this was far more amazing.

Even though the sounds of the engine were quite loud, it wasn't so loud that Angelina and myself couldn't hold a conversation together. As we climbed higher and higher, we eventually reached a point where we were maybe two thousand feet above the mountains.

"This is pretty incredible, isn't it?" I asked her.

She nodded, and, for what I could have sworn was the first time since yesterday, actually smiled. "Yeah. And just think, if we hadn't turned into Lucario, this would never have happened".

Angelina was of course right, but I'm not going to lie; that did come across as a little rude, at least from my perspective. It might have been kind of cool to have a different physical appearance, and to be a Pokemon, but until I learned how to defend myself, I was going to be a sitting duck.

Also, the crying earlier hadn't been for nothing. I already missed my parents greatly, and nothing about being so high up, high above the mountains and forests and rivers, was going to change that.

It was then that I wished I'd gone to summer camp when I was younger, much like many of the other students at my middle and high schools. If I had done that, maybe I wouldn't be feeling so homesick now.

Dude, you were going to go to college anyway next year, I told myself. Grow the fuck up.

I tried to take a look back at the laboratory, just one last look, but it was difficult to see much behind the helicopter. It was also just too far away already.

"I hope this was the right decision" Angelina said quietly, so quietly that I figured the pilot couldn't hear us.

"It is. It is the right decision" I replied, but it was more to convince myself, and to soothe her, than because I actually believed that.

"Why are the trees down there so bare?" I asked Mr. Granby to try and get my mind off my doubts about leaving. "They look like they're dead".

I was pointing to a cluster of trees on the side of a hill, next to a small lake. They looked black and charred.

"That's because they've been burned to a crisp. There was a forest fire there a couple weeks back, lightning struck a tree and it just started burning. Fortunately it was largely contained within that area. No human fatalities".

I hope there weren't any Pokemon fatalities, I thought grimly.

Even with the burned trees, I still found the sight quite beautiful. We ascended higher and kept going further along.

As we kept flying northwest towards the Hearthome City area, Mr. Granby kept pointing out various natural wonders.

"There's a Zoroark camp there, Zora Valley" the pilot said at one point, and I looked out the window of the copter.

Sure enough, I saw what looked like a small village, with virtually all of the buildings being log cabins. I saw Zoruas running around playing tag or something else; that species never seemed to run out of energy. I saw older Zoroarks lounging by the side of a river.

"That's beautiful" Angelina said, gasping at the sight. "I'd love to live there".

"Yeah" Mr. Granby responded. "It's really quite spectacular. They live fairly simple lives there, but they take care of each other. If you ask me, that's one of the best ways to live there is".

We passed a group of limestone cliffs, as well as some hot springs up in the mountains.

"There's quite a bit of snow in the Coronet Range right now, but we're not going over too much of it on today's flight" said Mr. Granby. "That said, you'll see a few patches. There are even a few glaciers there, covered with snow all year round".

All my homesickness had dissipated by this point, to be replaced with wonder at all the various terrain that my home region of Sinnoh held. It felt so amazing to be flying over it all in a helicopter, something I'd never done before and might never do again.

I felt myself becoming slightly unfocused. Every time we passed by a certain landmark, Mr. Granby would recite some information about it, like he'd done this route dozens of times. Which, of course, he most likely had. I wasn't paying attention too much, and I started to feel slightly lethargic, although not in a bad way.

"And this is Coventry Falls" the pilot told us, pointing to the right. It was there that I saw one of the most amazing sights that I've ever seen in my life.

Against a majestic limestone cliff rising five hundred feet tall, there was a massive waterfall that I could see one or two brave souls rappelling down. The afternoon sun, mixed with the cascading water, actually created a rainbow.

"Wow! It's a rainbow!" exclaimed Angelina. "Not something you see every day, is it?"

I was quite amazed as well. I had, of course, seen rainbows before, but never one up this close. We were flying less than a hundred yards from the cliff at one point, fortunately a large enough distance that the rotors did not get clipped against the rock.

I was really enjoying this. The natural wonders of southeastern Sinnoh were quite spectacular, and I soon became filled with euphoria. It was just like Christmas morning for me at this point.

Eventually, I started feeling somewhat drowsy. You'd think that looking at such amazing things would keep me wide awake, but it was making me feel tired instead. Plus, there was something calming about the sounds of the helicopter that was almost like a lullaby.

Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.


ANGELINA HAWLEY

I don't know how one falls asleep on a helicopter, but Lucas somehow managed to do it.

At one point, probably about two hours into the ride, he simply keeled over and closed his eyes. The fact that his breathing became much slower made me know that he was asleep.

Should I wake him up?, I wondered eventually. Mr. Granby had told me that the most amazing sights were yet to come on the ride, and I didn't want Lucas to miss them. However, I wondered if maybe he hadn't gotten enough sleep the previous night, and that was why he seemed to be so tired now.

Eventually, I decided against it. Plus, there was a good chance he might wake on his own, since the helicopter was so loud and the pilot and I were occasionally exchanging a word or two.

"We're entering the Coronet Range" said Mr. Granby at one point. "We're about twenty minutes from the mansion. Look down, and you'll see some pretty amazing things".

Despite my fear of heights, I looked down. However, it didn't make me scared at all.

I saw mountains, capped with snow even in late July. There were high winds on some of them, blowing snow and ice crystals all over the place. They were rising majestically above a lake, much like turrets on a castle.

The lake was the most beautiful one I'd ever seen in my life. Deerling and Sawsbuck were grazing on the grass nearby, as well as drinking from the lake's crystalline waters. The sun was shining against the lake, creating something that would be any photographer's dream.

We passed more of these lakes over the next fifteen minutes, and each of them had deer Pokemon next to them. It was quite incredible, seeing nature from this high up.

Pine forests, lime mountains, rivers, and lakes...it truly looked like a paradise.

"We're about to land" said Mr. Granby eventually.

Even though I'd been sitting on the same seat in the helicopter for three hours, I didn't feel restless. Indeed, I wished that the ride could have lasted longer.

Lucas woke up abruptly. "We're about to land?"

I nodded. "Lucas, you missed the best part! We were going over mountains and lakes".

He looked at me angrily. "Why didn't you wake me up, then?"

I had no answer to that, and he appeared to have nothing else to say to me, so we spent the last few minutes of the ride in silence.

And then the house came into view.

Okay, it wasn't actually a house. It was more of a castle.

The manor appeared to have three floors, but there was surely a basement as well. It was so large that it would have taken up a third of a block back in Gardenia, and that wasn't even accounting for the yard.

The yard was forested, with pine trees, spruce trees, and deciduous trees. A narrow stream wound its way through the grounds of the mansion. There was even a balcony overlooking the woods that appeared to have a Jacuzzi on it.

In other words, if you're a ridiculously rich person who loves being near nature, there's a home somewhere in central Sinnoh with your name on it. Just cough up fifty million dollars, or however much it cost this Thomas Kemp guy to purchase, and it's yours.

It had been a difficult choice, to leave my parents. But if I hadn't made it, I would not have gotten to have this adventure.

Somehow, it was going to be all worth it.


And there you have it. That's Chapter 10 of Snowbound: Volume 1.

Now that we're in the double digits in terms of chapters released, I'll take a moment to share my stats with you. I'm pleased with what I have so far:

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I'll see you guys next time!