Chapter 3: Freedom Is Not Without a Price
She sat on the crater's edge, leaning against one of the temple's columns. The sun, half immersed in the calm sea, cast its dying glow over her and the island. The breeze gusted slightly, and a tendril of sweet smoke from the incense wound around her. She sighed. Lavender, as always…
Nori stood up, walked under the temple's protecting roof. The tablet here was different stone, more brown than the one in Jirachi's temple…and undeniably older. The two gods were set on it with very worn material, stone, or glass, perhaps. One was bluish, the other red-hued, bearing the forms of what appeared to be griffins; winged, bird-headed and possessing forelegs, but what seemed to be extra pairs of wings where the hind legs should have been. They were the brother-and-sister gods of wanderers: Latias and Latios.
The carving must have been very ancient. People tended to catch glimpses of the legendary pokémon, sometimes even blurry, overexposed photographs. The general consensus as to what the wandering gods looked like was far more dragonlike than the figures on this block of stone…but that did not particularly matter.
There were deep, thin holes set into the top of the tablet. Three were now occupied by sticks of incense, burning away slowly, segments glowing orange, then graying and scattering to the wind.
Nori was an atheist, along with the majority of the population of the world. A period of enlightenment had been the final downfall of the hypocritical, enslaving, anti-thought, patriarchal old religions. People helped one another not because of the fear of an eternity of suffering, but because it was the right thing to do. Phrases with religious connotations under the old religions were now merely a part of the language. In the wake of the fall, an ancient, near-forgotten religion returned, to exist in secret: the worship of the legendary pokémon.
Ancient temples like the ones on the crater edge, here, were carefully, silently restored. People left offerings of berries, of brightly-colored scarves and ribbons, of pretty shells or stones. There were no priests, no clergy. Only the people and the gods.
Who needed a priest when the gods walked, swam, flew outside the very cities?
Few people openly admitted to being pokémon-worshippers. It always seemed immature, a child's game. One appreciated the gods' powers of balance, praying for rain, for sun, for safety, for intercession. One left small gifts, tokens; large sacrifices or tithes were unneeded because there was no greedy clergy making a living from the hopes of the people. The majority only made requests occasionally, with the admittance that although it was all a load of tripe, it couldn't hurt, really.
Her father had asked her to burn the incense. He wanted to pray for her safety.
…Did you ever, truly know someone?
She sat back down, gazing at the dying sun. She remained there even as it disappeared and the sky was covered in a gown of velvet midnight blue and starlight.
Owen sat in the darkness on his front porch, swinging idly in the hanging bench, a large basket of berries at his side. He had gone to pick them from Nori's yard while she was gone, at her request.
It had been a while since then, and he was beginning to feel the first twinges of apprehension. What a terrible irony that would be, to crawl out of one hole, only to fall into a greater chasm…
As he heard footsteps coming up the street, he breathed a sigh of relief. Nori appeared, coming up the walk with her head bowed and her hands in her pockets. Wordlessly, she sat down beside him.
"So…"
"Mm."
"You're leaving in the morning?"
"First ferry to Slateport, from Mossdeep."
"I got the berries you wanted."
"Great. Did you talk to Levi?"
"Yup. He was really excited. He said he'd meet you by the docks at dawn."
"Wonderful."
"I wish I could come with you…"
"You…what? You're not coming?" Nori blinked. Of course he's not, she chided herself. It was so obvious. But still…having Owen with her had become habit, natural. He was always there. She didn't need to think about it anymore. And now, suddenly…
"Yeah…I really want to, you know, but…" He averted his gaze. "I'm going to be an engineer. My parents are paying my way through university. I can't…you know, just throw that away."
"Of, of course, but…I just…expected…" she trailed off.
"I'm sorry…" Owen hugged her, held her close. "You'll have to go it alone."
Nori said nothing, simply returned her friend's embrace.
She rose before the sun did, dressing and doing some last-minute packing in the ghostly predawn light. She had the majority of her supplies in a standard digital storage device that worked with a similar concept as a poké ball, but it could store multiple types of objects. She had a second device for storing berries: it was gentler, took longer to convert the fruits into data, but the berries stayed in better condition. A number of other items she wanted close to hand were not stored, simply stuffed inside her military surplus backpack. It was a drab, grayish green color, but it would take a lot to damage it.
Nori stood in front of a full-length mirror, looking over her white tank top, khaki cargo shorts and black combat boots. She had put on a pair of spiked black leather wristbands, felt they contributed to the overall effect quite nicely.
In the corner of the guest room, the five skitty kittens slept, piled on top of one another and nestled in a pad of wool blankets. She hadn't arranged to sell them yet, but Owen's mother had fallen in love with the cute kittens, so it looked like they'd be sticking around. Their parents were probably roaming the house somewhere, approving of the fastidious cleanliness. Her fingers strayed down to the one poké ball already attached to her belt. She had owned a license for a long time, since she was eleven. She had never been able to travel and take the league challenge until now.
One pokémon she had with her, the other would be waiting for her soon. They were both of a modest level, so she would work on training a starter pokémon, if she could get one, in Slateport. There was a researcher living in the hills near there, a woman by the name of Professor Willow. Being able to store one's pokémon at a laboratory where they'd get regular meals and exercise was vastly preferable to letting them rot in a dreamlike stasis on a digital storage network.
Nori sighed, rubbing her tired green eyes, before turning and heading out the door, and quietly making her way down the stairs. She noticed, not without a measure of surprise, that Owen had been waiting for her in the foyer.
"Owen? Wha?"
"I just…wanted to see you before you left," Owen said, a bit awkwardly.
"Oh…"
"And, well…I wanted to give you this." Owen took a very worn great ball out of a pocket.
"Bitey? No…I couldn't…"
"Come on. You're not going to have me to protect you—" he chuckled a bit at Nori's amused glare "—but at least you'll have this guy."
Nori sighed, taking the great ball. "Fine." She attached it to her belt, the clips coming into effect with a dull click.
Owen turned, opening the door for her. "Well…good luck."
Nori put a hand up to his cheek, her fingers brushing up against dark stubble. "Thanks, Owen."
Owen watched her disappear into the early morning mist, and for a sudden, jarring second wondered if he'd ever see her again. He shook his head, dismissing it as folly…but glanced involuntarily back into the fog before he closed the door.
Nori pulled her watch, chipped and missing straps, out of her pocket. It was five-thirty in the morning. Gods…she planned to have breakfast in Mossdeep. The ferry didn't leave until ten. She had time. Hopefully.
She reached the docks, looked out onto the crystal-smooth water. It seemed to be dawn, technically, so where was Levi?
Her question was abruptly answered with a screaming roar as a massive dark-blue form erupted from the water, sending droplets flying everywhere.
Nori looked up at the gyarados, massive fangs, catlike eyes, bony three-pointed crest and all. Levi, short for Leviathan, gazed at her, purring.
"Hey Levi," she said. "Did Owen explain everything to you?"
The dark blue gyarados growled and inclined his head, indicating the affirmative.
"Great! Listen," she began, removing a bluish poké ball from her pocket, "I need to put you in one of these so I can take you with me when I have to go on land. That alright?"
Leviathan looked doubtful, but showed agreement.
Nori threw the dive ball, which closed on the gyarados, its center turning white immediately to show capture. The ball returned to her hand, which she then threw again, back out into the water. Levi appeared again in a burst of blue light, shaking his head a bit.
"Didn't like that, eh? Sorry, you're probably going to have to get used to it." Nori shrugged apologetically. "So, all ready to go to Mossdeep?" Levi growled, pleased, and lowered his head so she could clamber on, and seat herself in between two points of his crest. "Alright, let's go."
The gyarados lowered his head into the water and set off at a considerable pace, toward the exit of the crater.
Levi had a cruising speed of about thirty-five knots, making their passage across routes 128 and 127 reasonably quick but windy. Nori dozed as the sun emerged from its trip underneath the world, rising fiery and terrible to crawl across the sky. Tentacool bobbed on the waves in clusters, the sun reflecting off the red crystals embedded in them. A pod of wailmer passed, giving the lone gyarados a wide berth.
About two hours later, Levi let Nori off on the shallows surrounding Mossdeep. She recalled him into his dive ball, and made her way toward the island.
The short walk took longer than Nori had hoped. The sand, with a coating of water in most cases, had sucked and pulled at her boots, slowing her pace. She tried to stay on dry sand as much as she could, but it was difficult. When she finally reached the good, hard earth of the island, she had time for a hurried breakfast before she'd have to board the ferry. Kicking the sand off her boots with resignation, she started off toward the pokémon center.
Mossdeep seemed somewhat less sleepy than Sootpolis had been. The attendant in the pokécenter healed her pokémon with a cheery efficiency, not yet worn out and irritable from a day's worth of haughty trainers. It reminded Nori of herself when she spoke to Leviathan. She needed to talk to him completely as a bright, happy friend. She feared that if she was more, well, like herself, Levi would turn on her, and the last thing she needed was an angry gyarados.
She bought a couple of sandwiches in the cafeteria of the pokécenter, and wolfed them down while walking to the harbor. It was admittedly still early for a day when all the kids were out of school, but she expected a few more children to be playing outside. She dismissed the idea and concentrated on finding the place where the ferry she would be taking was docked.
Nori found the ferry not long after, a medium-sized craft that made the rounds from Mossdeep to Rustboro and all stops in between. It transported trainers, tourists and mail for the most part, but there was always worry of an attack by pirates. Most were fended off successfully, but every ship's captain had a horror story…
She noticed that people seemed to be boarding already and extracted her ticket from a pocket. She held it up as she passed the sailor at the gate, who nodded, bored. As she boarded the ship, another sailor took her ticket and examined it.
"You're in room 107. Up the stairs and to your right."
"How long does it take to get to Slateport?"
"Depends, but even if we're lucky, it'll still be a good eight hours. Hope you brought a book," he added, chuckling.
Nori grimaced slightly and went to find her room. At this rate, she'd be lucky if there was a pirate attack…
So there ya go! I'd say that's about the end of the prologue, now the real trouble begins. So, what'd you think of the chapter? Like? No like? Tell me! Review! ^_^