Melli took a moment to tie back his hair as he assessed the cliff face. The salt deposit was about three quarters up. And, at least from the ground, it looked big enough to justify the difficulty of the climb.
He glanced back at his Golbat and asked, "Well, sweet girl. Are you ready?"
Skuntank and Skorupi pouted about being left behind as Golbat cheerfully called that it was time to start.
"I'll be down soon," Melli told them in a sing-song tone as he gave his other two companions a quick goodbye scratch. He then stood, steeled himself, and began to climb.
The apprenticeship to become a warden, at least when done properly, took years of training. You needed to be completely self-reliant for the plentiful times where the nearest settlement was too far. An unending list of issues people within your territory could face had to be addressed. And you absolutely had to know everything about your charge and the pokemon that surrounded them. In this role, a single misstep could mean death.
It wasn't a position to throw at just anyone like the Pearl Clan loved to do. The Diamond Clan took their roles seriously, and invested the time and energy.
Melli took a moment to breathe as the next handhold proved to be slightly too far away. He reached higher for the next foothold instead. And, with a helpful counterweight to the back from Golbat, he continued on.
The most important lesson the training taught was that there was a proper time of day to handle every type of duty. And, Melli had decided quite early on, there was in fact a perfect time of day.
About an hour before sunrise, nocturnal pokemon were sluggish and more focused on heading to their hiding spots than tracking. The diurnal pokemon mostly hadn't yet woken up, either, which made it the right time to forage. This was especially true when what you had to get that day involved scaling cliffs. Without backup, you were just a target on the wall for anything mad or hungry enough to be looking for one. Even with it, sometimes…
But if one were skilled (which Melli was) and diligent (which he often was), all of the day's gathering could be finished before sunrise. There were also the days where the Almighty Sinnoh saw fit to make him lucky, and today seemed to be one of those days.
"Oh~ oh look!" He exclaimed with a look back to Golbat. "This one is huge!"
Golbat called back happily, flew over to again act as a counterweight. With his hands free to work, Melli readied his chisel and satchel and began to harvest the salt.
Through the sounds of the wind, he could hear the final cries of the ghosts as they disappeared for the day. There was the rumbling of rock Pokemon shaking off any debris they may have collected in the night. And, tragically, the sound of hammers. That was becoming far too common.
Melli scowled at it as he finished collecting what he could. After putting the chisel back in its place, he edged his way along the rock wall to a wider cliff. He sat down gratefully and gave his tired limbs a break.
Golbat landed next to him and nudged at the satchel. And then again and again until Melli finally reached in and rewarded it with a plump bean.
Melli pulled out his own breakfast, and the two settled in to watch the sun begin to rise over the mountains.
When Melli had first begun his training, the Coronet Highlands were left uninhabited but anyone other than the pair of wardens. There wasn't much food to be gathered that wasn't easier to get elsewhere, and stone was only collected so often once a settlement was finished. It was beautiful, and full to bursting with pokemon who made their homes amongst the dry cliffs.
Now in the current day, Galaxy Team was hard at work on yet another camp. They'd come with their balls, as they always did, to collect and categorize the pokemon who lived there as if they had the right to.
"You hate those balls, too, don't you?" He asked when he heard a familiar snuffling.
Lady Sneasler didn't have the decency to look sheepish while he shooed her away from his satchel. "Your warden will get grouchy again if he finds out you're coming to me to sneak treats."
With the easy route blocked, Sneasler moved her basket around to show him inside. She'd also been collecting salt that morning, it seemed, and she'd been quite successful at it.
Melli made a show of thinking it over. "I suppose I can't not pay you for such hard work."
The pokemon chirped in victory as it took a seat on the cliff and exchanged the salt for a mushroom cake that Melli had oh-so-coincidentally packed.
The three ate in the comfortable silence that came from routine.
It was Adaman who'd agreed to the second Galaxy camp. To make matters worse, he'd done so without telling either of the wardens that it was coming.
It was only two camps, he'd insisted when Melli had objected. Just some tents and a small fire. What harm was there in letting them not have to scale the cliffs every night?
But it wasn't going to be just two. Melli could feel it in his bones. There would "just be three" someday, and another someday those camps would become more like settlements. And who even knew past that.
There has been more and more ships full of people coming to their shores. More mouths to feed needed more land, more game, more of their plowed fields and fences. And every day, construction echoed around the mountains.
Everything was changing for his homeland, and soon enough it would be for him as well. He was almost of age to be betrothed, which meant moving a wife and eventual children into the hut where he happily lived with just his pokemon. Soon enough he'd be expected to start an apprentice, for insurance if nothing else. And from there…
Who even knew what his beloved Highlands would look like by then.
He'd spoken about this while tending to Lord Electrode. It had buzzed understandingly at his concerns, and more at the fear that there might be nothing to do about it. There was simply not enough strength to slow the encroachment. The sounds of hammers, the collectors and surveyors who scoured over the land, and what he swore was a drop in pokemon population.
Melli looked over when Sneasler pulled at his arm. It chattered in alarm and gestured towards the Moonview Arena.
A rift had begun to open above it.
Melli's face paled, and in almost breathless panic he said, "Get me down."
Lady Sneasler helped him descend, then raced after him along with his other companions.
As they ran, they couldn't do anything but watch as the rift opened, glowed, and launched a beam of light down into the Arena.
When they arrived, the Lord glowed and cracked with energy. It turned to them and, without time for recognition, buzzed like it was ready to attack.
The group stood dumbfounded for a long moment. Then Melli clapped his hands together.
"This is wonderful!"
Lady Sneasler chattered at him in confusion.
"No, don't you see?" Melli asked enthusiastically, as he dodged a strike as he had so many other times. "Almighty Sinnoh has personally blessed the Lord! He has all the power he needs now!"
Melli didn't notice the Lady hurry off, or the concerned look she gave him. He was too transfixed by the chance to do something.
And always finding how to do something about your current situation, even when it seemed hopeless, was specifically what he'd been trained to do.
