Chapter Two-The Apricorn Tree and the Very Important Quest
It was almost half an hour before Alexi's parents returned, but Alexi had hardly moved. She still couldn't comprehend the meaning behind the photo in the chest. She hadn't dared to open it again, preferring to pretend it didn't exist; she had locked it again and replaced the key in her father's bedside drawer. She sat on the bed, thinking, unaware of time until the door to the bedroom swung open again.
Her father was carrying a backpack, ready to burst, full to the zips. Her mother was holding the handle to a rather heavy looking suitcase that she had placed on the ground next to her. They both looked nervous, and kept exchanging glances at each other, neither wanting to talk. Alexi looked at them expectantly.
"Are we going somewhere?" she said. "Off the island?" She rather fancied a trip off the island; she had never been, and her curious mind had always wondered.
"No, Alexi." Her mother spoke first. "We can't come with you. You're going alone."
"What? Why not? How long will I be gone for?" Alexi's mind was racing.
It was her father who spoke next. "We don't know, Alexi. You're going to become a Pokemon Trainer."
Alexi's heart skipped a beat. A pokemon trainer! Her father had told her about trainers before- Alexi had been learning from him how to care for and train pokemon since she was six. Life as a pokemon trainer sounded exciting, full of adventure. But she was still apprehensive. Why was she leaving so suddenly? Why didn't her parents tell her about this before, so she could have prepared?
"Why?" she said simply to her worried parents.
"Well, every boy or girl gets to become a pokemon trainer when they're thirteen. Their parents send them out into the world, and they travel around, finding pokemon and looking after them."
"And battling them," Xander added.
"Yes, and…battling them, yes." Sandrine
was obviously unsure about letting Alexia battle pokemon, and Alexia
was not surprised. All her life, her parents had told her that
pokemon were wonderful, beautiful creatures to be cared for and
looked after,
and to suddenly turn around and say to Alexia to
make her pokemon battle each other
seemed very out of the blue.
Indeed, the whole concept of 'owning' pokemon seemed very strange
and almost unheard of in Alexia's protected island. But her father
had told her that this was how things were done on the big island, on
the mainland, in the real world. This was what pokemon were used for,
and if Alexia was ever going to go out and discover what the world
was like, she would need to be able to battle pokemon like everyone
else.
"But why do I need to leave right now?" she said, still confused.
"Because we think it's the right time," her mother said, dodging the question.
"Because of your dream," her father added, ignoring the dirty look Sandrine had just shot her. Her continued.
"Your dream has made us very worried, Alexi, and we want you to be safe. We want you to be able to protect yourself against anything that might want to harm you, and we think that learning to become a pokemon trainer is a good way of defending yourself against dangerous things."
"Against what? What kind of pokemon was that monster I saw? What does it mean?" Alexi snapped back, realizing the chance she had to get some straight answers.
"Now, Alexi, I think that's enough questions for now," her mother cut in. "The point is that your father and I have realized it's time for you to leave the island and go and…learn about the world. We want you to become a pokemon trainer, which means that you need to leave here and learn to live by yourself. And that makes us very sad, so we'd like to say goodbye properly, and make sure we give you all the help we can before you go."
"Come with me, Alexi," Xander said, and he put his hand out for Alexi to hold. She waited, still unsure and very taken aback by how fast all this was happening.
"Go with your father, Alexi. You'll be fine, I'm sure. You'll make a wonderful trainer."
Alexi looked at her mother, searching for answers. She had so many questions. Why did she have to go so soon? Why couldn't she stay in the sanctuary? She began to ask her mother for guidance, and saw that her eyes were full of tears.
"You can come back home whenever you need to, possum," she said, her voice cracking.
And with that, Alexi smiled, wiped a tear away from her mother's cheek and said in a very soft, but very assuring voice "Goodbye, Mum. I'll see you soon."
Her mother smiled and hugged her, for almost twenty minutes. Alexi could feel her mother's heartbeat, and her breath get heavier as her sobbing continued. Her grasp was tight and protective, and she seemed unable to let go. She swayed her daughter slowly from side to side as she cried, and then took a deep breath and ruffled Alexi's hair playfully.
"You'll be fine," she said, and let go.
Alexi took her father's hand and he opened the bedroom door. Father and daughter walked out together, into the clear sunny day, onto the wooden walkway.
Alexi was too nervous to speak. What her father was about to show her seemed to be very important, she was anxious to take all of it in. They walked across the wooden walkway, Celebi floating up to greet them and somersaulting in the air, obviously aware of the grim atmosphere and wanting to cheer her friends up a little. Alexi wondered if she knew what was going on, if Celebi had been the pokemon her father had rushed off to talk to. She wished she had the skill her father had, she had always wanted to know what pokemon were thinking, but to her, they never said anything more interesting than their name.
Her father reached the long ladder, nailed to a tree trunk, which led to the forest floor. "This way, Alexi. We're going to the clearing."
Alexi watched her father make his way down, and then stepped onto the ladder herself, carefully lowering herself down, aware that Celebi was flitting around, making sure she could catch them if they fell.
Ah, Alexi thought. They were going to the clearing. She had always wondered what the point of that place was.
The clearing lay in roughly the center of the forest, and, apart from grass, the only thing that grew there was a large, round apricorn tree. Alexi could tell the apricorns that grew there were special, but she had never understood why. You couldn't eat them- so what was the point of them? Perhaps they held some magical power.
When they got to the clearing, unsurprisingly, her father walked up to the apricorn tree and picked one of the round, hard fruits. "This tree is special, Alexi," he said, as he walked back to her. "All apricorn trees are special, but this one is more so."
"An apricorn holds one, very special use. It can be picked, and fashioned, into a pokeball. This apricorn tree, however, is unique in that its apricorns grow with the ability to catch pokemon without human intervention. It was grown from a seed of the only other apricorn tree known to have had this gift. That tree, it is said, is where humans learned the art of making pokeballs from- it is where the idea stems from, and hence, where the tradition of pokemon training first began. That tree is dead- its ashes lie scattered across the Big Island. The only reason this tree still exists today is because nobody except for us knows of its existence. Do you understand?"
Alexi looked at her father blankly. She was trying with all her might to understand, but none of it was sinking in. What was a pokeball? What did catching pokemon have to do with training them? Her father continued nonetheless.
"I will now demonstrate how to use a pokeball. If a pokemon is unwilling to be captured, you must first weaken it in a battle. Celebi, however, agreed to this demonstration earlier when I told her about the events of thismorning."
Xander turned to Celebi and raised the apricorn. He threw it, and it hit her on the head, and bounced off onto the ground. As it bounced, a familiar white light engulfed the pokemon it had touched, and Celebi disappeared, trapped inside. Alexi now realized what the shell she had been ensnared in was. She had dreamt about being a pokemon, about being caught. She wondered if it meant anything, but a more important question was tugging at her brain.
"Why do you need to catch pokemon to be a trainer?" she asked.
"Because then the pokemon is yours, and you are free to command it however you wish. This is how millions of humans, some inadept at caring for and raising pokemon, have become trainers. They enslave pokemon against their will. And now you, too, must become a pokemon trainer, for enslavement seems to be the only language this world knows. The people this world worships and aspires to, the ones they adore so much; are not trainers, they are slavedrivers."
"What? Hang on, I don't understand. If pokemon trainers are so terrible, why do you want me to become one? You're not making any sense!" Alexi shouted, taken aback by the weight of what her father had told her.
"You need to become a pokemon trainer, Alexi. It is not my choice, but it's what needs to happen. People don't…they don't understand how to treat pokemon properly, they don't understand how to care for them. If you go and become a really great pokemon trainer by caring for and looking after your pokemon, you can show them the right way of doing things. But they will not listen if you are not great, which is why I have spent so much time preparing you for this."
Alexi didn't know how to respond. She certainly didn't feel prepared for this- she felt like she had just had a huge responsibility thrown onto her, and she wasn't sure how to deal with it. Luckily, her father seemed not to need a response in order to continue. He took Alexi's hand, and placed the apricorn pokeball with Celebi inside in it.
"Now Celebi is yours. You can command her as you wish. She will be your first pokemon, and your guardian on this journey. However, if any trainer finds out what pokemon you have possession of, they will lie and cheat their way to your heart, and they will take her from you. Do you understand?"
Alexi nodded. It seemed the only sensible thing to do.
"I'm glad. I'm sorry, Alexi, this must be a lot to take in for someone so young. Your mother and I never dreamed that we would need to tell you this when you were only thirteen, but we have no other choice. We're going to the pinnacle now. Suicune will carry us."
As Xander said this, Suicune appeared from the trees and walked to Alexi's side. She took hold of Suicune, and pulled herself onto her back. Her father did the same and, protecting her daughter, he took hold of the pokemon's neck. Suicune crouched low.
"Hold on," Xander said with a smile.
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The pinnacle was the name for the top of the huge volcano which sat in the middle of the island, bubbling and alive, but never active. When Suicune had dropped her and her father there, her mother was already waiting, Alexi's suitcase in hand, eyes still red and puffy. Alexi's father thanked Suicune graciously and walked up to the edge of the volcano. Alexi hugged her mother, took her suitcase, and followed him.
There was a rumbling sound from deep within the mountain, and the lava bubbled and plopped threateningly. Alexi realized she had no idea how anyone got away from the island- she had never been anywhere else, and nobody had ever come there. She knew it was stupidly hard to reach, even if you were aware it existed, but once you were there, how did you get off it again?
She was busy contemplating this when, from within the volcano, there was an almighty crash and the surface of the lava exploded. A sudden surge of heat hit Alexi's face painfully and she stood back as a gush of lava erupted from the mountain, so her eyebrows weren't charred off.
As suddenly as it had risen, the lava sunk back into the mountain, and in its wake was a giant, beautiful rainbow bird with golden feathers. Ho-oh landed gracefully on the volcano's edge, and nuzzled its beak up against Alexi.
"Hop on, Alexi. Ho-oh will take you to the Big Island." Alexi's father said behind her.
He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her the backpack he had been carrying. "There is money inside. Once you get to the mainland, find a PokeMart and buy some pokeballs; the apricorn balls will attract too much attention. Remember, don't show Celebi to anyone; and there's one other thing. Don't tell anyone about us or the island. We want you to stay safe."
Alexi found this last request odd, although she realized there must be a reason why they lived away from the rest of the world, she had never thought to ask it. "Why not?" she said tentatively.
"We're in hiding, Alexi," her mother answered. "We have been all your life. But there's no need for you to hide any more. Go, learn what you need to, teach what they need to learn. The world is waiting for you, Alexi, although they don't know it yet. If ever you need to return to the Sanctuary, Celebi will show you how."
"Who are you hiding from?" Alexi continued, although she thought she could guess the answer.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, young girl. You'll find out for yourself, soon enough. You don't always need to be asking questions to answer them."
Alexi knew she wouldn't get her answer just yet. She turned to them each, painfully, and said her goodbyes.
"Goodbye Alexi. Look after yourself," her mother said, on the verge of tears again.
"You will be brilliant," her father said positively, beaming at her.
Alexi turned her back on her parents, the only two people she had ever known, and faced Ho-oh. He lowered his head, and Alexi hoisted herself among his beautiful feathers. With her suitcase in one hand and her backpack in the other, she braced herself and took one last look at her parents. They smiled and waved, and Ho-oh took flight.
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Behind him, a rainbow gleamed in the light and shot across the sky. Alexi turned to watch her home, her Sanctuary, get smaller and smaller, until she disappeared into a blanket of clouds.
When they reappeared, they were flying above a vast ocean, the waves like blades of grass below them. Alexi was in the air for what seemed like hours. Her grip on her suitcase got looser and looser as she felt herself slipping asleep. Every time she felt herself losing grip, Ho-oh would flap his wings to wake her again, but when Alexi first sighted land, there was no need to keep her on her toes any longer. She was more awake than she had ever been.
The land was green, though not nearly as green as the Sanctuary, and the forest was dark and more….menacing. The ocean hit the shore on a ragged coastline, which jutted out as steep, chalky cliffs for what seemed like miles. Alexi spotted a glimmer of light somewhere beyond the forest, which could be a town, but as she wondered, Ho-oh began his descent.
He landed above a rocky cliff-face, similar to the shoreline that stretched as far as the eye could see. Alexi slid off Ho-oh's back, and she nuzzled his neck gratefully. Then, he took off again, in a spray of rainbow light. Alexi was left alone, the forest in front of her. She stared at it for a minute and then sighed.
"Well, here goes," she said to herself.
And with that, she took off towards the trees.
