Chapter 3: The Field of Volcanic Glass
"I see you've got pokemon," Dawn looked at Akari's stachel, where four pokeballs were hanging off the strap. After Akari calmed down, the two got to talking. Dawn learned what little Akari knew about Husui, while Akari learned about what kind of person she was before she was flung back in time.
"Yeah," Akari smiled softly as she turned to look at her pokeballs. "I have a cyndaquil, a bidoof, a starly, and a shinx."
"I see," Dawn smiled nostalgically.
I wonder how they're doing, Dawn thought. Luxray and Staraptor were both in Dawn's original team when she first defeated Cynthia and became the champion. Meanwhile, Bibarel volunteers to help out lumber companies across Sinnoh.
"Do you want to see them?" Akari asked. She obviously seemed prideful about her pokemon.
"Why not?" Dawn replied. She was curious to see how Akari raised her pokemon. Dawn knew more than most how much four days can deepen a bond between people and pokemon.
Akari took a pokeball from her satchel and tossed it gently to the floor. With a soft pop, a cyndaquil appeared between the two girls.
"—u need — i?" A small girl's voice appeared in Dawn's head. If Dawn had to associate the voice with an age, Cyndaquial would have to be about eight to ten years old.
"Hi, Cyndaquil! Do you remember how I told you about my sister?" Akari asked excitedly, her eyes fixated on the small pokemon. "Well she's here! Cyndaquil, meet Dawn, my older sister."
"—meet y-yo—" Cyndaquil turned to Dawn. From what little Dawn could hear from her, Cyndaquil seemed to be rather timid. "—lks a lo — ut you."
"It's nice to meet you too, Cyndaquil," Dawn tried her best to reassure her sister's pokemon with her tone and her body language. "Please take care of my sister from now on."
"You can understand her?" Akari asked with a slightly shocked look on her face. "Well, if your pokemon can talk, I guess it makes sense…"
"Lucario's a special case," Dawn explained as she offered her open palm to Cyndaquil. The small pokemon sniffed her hand before giving it a small nod. Dawn then used three fingers to rub Cyndaquil's head softly. "I'm still learning how to understand pokemon. I think I understood about four or five words, but I could make out the general gist of what she's saying."
"That's so cool!" Akari had stars in her eyes. "Do you think you can teach me how?!"
"Well, Lucario is the one who's teaching me. Maybe you can join in on our lessons when we deal with this whole noble thing," Dawn replied. She was happy that Akari was enthusiastic, but aura can be dangerous if you didn't know what you were doing. "For now, it's getting late. We should go to bed. We have a big day, after all."
"I guess you're right," Akari laid down on her futon. "Cyndaquil, do you want to go in your pokeball?"
"—nk you" Cyndaquil replied with a shake of her head,
"Okay, goodnight," Akari replied with a smile before turning over and closing her eyes. "Dawn, the lamp is next to you. Can you please turn it off?"
Dawn wordlessly smiled and turned off the light. She then laid next to Akari and wrapped her arm around her younger sister before drifting off into a dreamless sleep.
When Dawn awoke, it was still dark outside. Akari was sound asleep beside her, comfortably cuddling with her cyndaquil.
I'm happy they're getting along, Dawn thought to herself. She and Piplup had a bit of a rough start, but they eventually warmed up to each other.
"Good morning, Akari," Dawn flinched when she heard Lucario's voice in her head.
"Jeez, Lucario, don't scare me like that," Dawn whispered. She quietly stood up and stepped over Akari to get to the other room. There Lucario was, standing as still as a statue beside the door. "What are you doing outside your pokeball?"
"Scouting the town. The people were hesitant at the prospect of a talking pokemon, but were nice to me nonetheless," Lucario nodded to himself. "There are a couple hours until sunrise. Would you like to continue your training?"
Dawn nodded. If she wanted to protect Akari, she needed to be as strong as possible.
Akari awoke to a gentle hand rubbing her shoulder. "Akari, it's time to wake up," Akari's eyes fluttered open at her sister's words.
"Dawn…?" Akari sat up to look at her sister. She hesitantly reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, as if confirming she was actually there. "I thought… I thought I was dreaming."
"I'm really here," Dawn said with a reassuring tone as she placed a gentle hand on Akari's arm. "Now get up, sleepyhead. We have a big day ahead of us."
As Akari rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she noticed that Dawn was wearing different clothing. It was similar to Akari's own clothing, but it was pink and she was still wearing her modern hat.
"Where did you get the new clothes?" Akari asked as she stood up.
"The townsfolk are very nice," Dawn replied. "After talking to the clothier for a bit about clothing back home, she offered to get me something to wear. Oh, I hope you don't mind me borrowing your partner."
"Huh?" Akari's question was answered as she looked up to see Cyndaquil resting upon Dawn's head. "Oh. Are you two getting along?"
"Yeah. I'm getting better at understanding her," Dawn said, looking up at Cyndaquil. "Yeah, yeah, here you go."
Dawn gently grabbed Cyndaquil from her head and handed her to Akari. "She wants back in her pokeball. She's pretty talkative when you get to know her."
"I can't wait to learn," Akari grabbed Cyndaquil's pokeball and with a flash of bright light, Cyndaquil was gone.
"Alright, let's go meet up with Rei," Dawn said. Akari nodded, and the two left the small building.
"Akari! Dawn!" Dawn saw Rei waving them over by the gate with Laventon. "Over here!"
Arceus, he looks just like Lucas, Akari thought. When Dawn left for Hisui, Professor Rowan was looking to retire and Lucas was preparing to take his place as Sinnoh's pokemon professor. He had decided on Sequoia as his professor name and was really excited to get started.
"Morning Rei, Professor" Dawn said as the two stopped walking in front of him.
"Good morning," Laventon nodded to the sisters. "Are you ready to get going?"
"Ready as I'll ever be," Akari nodded. Laventon turned to Dawn.
"Yeah," Dawn nodded as well.
"Alright. You'll be heading to the new outpost camp at the Obsidian Fields," Rei explained. "Akari's already been there, so just stay close, Dawn. You'll be fine."
"Thanks, Rei," Dawn said.
"Alright, let's get going. We don't know how much time we have, so we should get things done as soon as possible," Laventon said. The sisters nodded, and the three were off.
"Woah," Dawn looked at the view from the top of the mountain. "It's beautiful."
"Right?" Laventon stood next to Dawn. "So much undiscovered land to study and research. It's quite dangerous out there. You sure you want to do this? I know you have that weird aura power of yours, but I understand if you want to back out."
"And leave my sister? I'd rather die," Dawn scowled. "I've gone through my fair share of danger. There was a reason why I was picked for this quest, after all."
"You seem to know a bit more than you're putting out," Leventon's eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, I do," Dawn admitted. "As much as I want to share what I know, gods can be fickle, and we must follow their rules."
"Gods?" Laventon's eyes widened. "I see. I'm sure we'll learn everything eventually then."
"Thanks, Laventon," Dawn turned and smiled at the man. "When we find a spare moment, I'd love to discuss some things with you. I've met several men of science, and I'd be more than willing to impart some of their wisdom."
"I'd love to," Laventon said.
"Dawn!" Akari called, calling the two to turn. "I found where we have to go!"
"Oh? Enlighten me," Dawn jogged over to Akari, who took out her Arc Phone. Dawn looked at the screen to see the map of the area with several landmarks and a yellow mark farther off.
"The yellow mark is where we need to go," Akari explained. "Well, it hasn't led me wrong yet."
"I doubt it will," Dawn scowled. "At least it's good for something."
"Dawn?" Akari looked at her with a worried expression.
"It's nothing," Dawn shook her head and smiled at Akari. "Why don't you lead the way?"
"Ah!" Akari dove out of the way from a rock a geodude threw at the sisters, but Dawn shattered the stone with a single punch.
"Damn, this is a bad matchup for you," Dawn said as she dodged another rock. "Here, I'll lower its HP. Do you want to try catching it?"
"Sure!" Akari grabbed one of the makeshift pokeballs from her pouch.
"—ay!" A female voice shouted as it rushed towards her. Aura shrouded around Dawn's left arm as she threw a punch at the geodude, stopping her Tackle in its tracks. Dawn's Arc Phone buzzed twice as the geodude stumbled backwards. When Dawn checked the phone, it showed a health bar in the red.
"Do—rt me…" The geodude whined as Dawn put the phone back in her pocket.
Man… being able to understand them makes it a lot harder to battle, Dawn thought. She walked over to the geodude and knelt down.
"I'm sorry," Dawn went to rub the geodude's head, but it flinched. "I won't hurt you, promise."
"I—you" The geodude's voice rang in her head.
"Sorry, I'm not too good at understanding pokemon yet. Just know you're safe now," Akari gently rubbed the geodude's head. "I promise not to hurt you any longer."
"Hu—on't—me?" Dawn's smile widened, half to comfort the pokemon, but half of it was because she was improving with understanding pokemon.
"I won't hurt you. I promise," Dawn nodded as she removed her hand from the geodude. "We're going on an adventure right now. Do you want to join us?"
"I'll—a try," The geodude slowly nodded.
"Thank you," Dawn nodded before turning to Akari. "Go ahead."
"Alright," Akari tossed a pokeball and geodude closed its eyes as the light consumed it. It shook once and became still. She walked over and grabbed the pokeball before looking at Dawn.
"That was so cool!" Akari squealed. She looked like she wanted to jump up and down. "I can't wait to learn how to do that."
"And you will," Dawn rubbed Akari's head. "Let's finish this first, though. Okay?"
"Alright," Akari said before pointing at a forest across a river. "The noble is that way."
Dawn stretched her arms and steeled her expression. "Let's go."
The trek down the river was rather uneventful. Akari got to train a bit with the Buizels and she showed Dawn how to craft a pokeball. Dawn wasn't sure if she wanted to catch any pokemon, but if something she hadn't seen before, she would try to catch it.
"We're almost there," Dawn reassured Akari, who was panting behind her.
"How are you able to run for so long?" Akari groaned. They had ran through most of the forest, but Akari had tired herself out before they could make their destination.
"Practice," Dawn answered vaguely. As Champion, she was responsible for issues that the police weren't equipped to deal with. She and the Elite Four both went on very perilous tasks. This one time, a horde of Garchomp had gone feral. Both Iris and Cynthia were called in to help out, but Dawn had to dodge more than one Hyper Beam.
"Look, we're here!" Dawn pointed at the hill in front of them. At the top of the hill was a pathway and large broken stones with a boy standing in front of the entrance.
"Thank god," Akari grumbled as the two trekked up. As the two approached, they stopped when the boy took a step forward and puffed his chest, putting his closed fists on his hips.
"I am Liam of the Pearl Clan! The warden to Kleavor, Lord of the Woods," The boy announced loudly. "And you—I've already deduced that you've come here to meet Kleavor."
"Yeah, that's our goal," Dawn stated. Akari was still catching her breath, so Dawn decided to be the one to speak.
"Of course you are! I can see it so clearly," Liam nodded to himself. "After all, the powerfully awesome Kleavor has become even more awesomely powerful!"
"Perhaps that strange lightning the other day was Almighty Sinnoh's divine power…" Liam pondered as he lowered his arms to carry a more relaxed position. "But whatever it was, it struck my lord and left him imbued with awesome might!"
What's your game, Arceus? Akari wondered. She wasn't sure if it was actually Arceus, but if it wasn't, then Arceus definitely set everything up for the noble to be struck. She then focused back on Liam as he started to speak again.
"Unfortunately, I must turn you away," Liam said. "No matter how much it pains me, it's too dangerous for you two to meet Kleavor right now."
"No!" Akari finally spoke up, walking up next to Dawn. "We need to meet him! It's important!"
"Such an earnest desire to meet Kleavor!" Liam's eyes widened as a smile spread across his lips. "I have to admit that I'm struck by your passion…"
"So will you let us see him?" Dawn asked.
"Well… I'm afraid your passion is not the issue here…" Liam's smile faded and he looked Akari dead in the eyes. "I have been told by Irida that in no uncertain terms that I am to let no one see Kleavor!"
"But—" Akari was cut off as Liam continued.
"I will fight myself off if you insist," Liam entered a defensive stance with steely determination in his eyes. "If you wish to avoid battle, withdraw now, while you still can! Or face the wrath of my Goomy!"
Thank you all for reading! Uploads might be a bit slower because of school, but I'll be trying to update at least once every other week. Please do leave reviews! I love reading and responding to them.
