Chapter Twenty-six: Flying

Running From Myself

I shut one of the top drawers of my dresser and faced my bed. It was currently covered in clothes among clothes and toiletries galore. The joys of packing, it could bring tears to your eyes. Either out of happiness, sorrow or frustration. Mine was the latter.

I had added warmer clothes to the mix because I knew it wouldn't be long until I was in Snowpoint. So a scarf, thick socks, long-sleeves and such sprinkled my black bag. In one swift motion it was zipped up. Lastly, I grabbed my Pokémon and stuffed them in the handy side pocket next to my wrinkled map. I looked around the room; leaving again. I turned around and looked at my desk.

My parents picture faced me, they smiled happily at me. I smiled back. I grabbed the silver frame and popped open the back, the old photo fell out into my palm. I situated it in the pocket, in the psychic energy book, and sighed. It wasn't a sigh out of aggravation, it was a content sigh. For once I had no bad emotions surging through me, it was great feeling at peace by yourself.

Speaking of my peace-giver, it decided that it didn't want to hang around me recently. And frankly I didn't want it around. It gave confusion more than peace, and that's not what I needed nor wanted.

A knock at the door startled me out of my thoughts. I reached over and opened the door, Jamie walked in. Sadness covered her face. She tried a smile, I saw through it. I gave her a hug. "I'll be back soon." I said.

She stepped back. "I hope so." She murmured. "Now I don't have any best friends around. Embers out, you're out, who do I have left? Clarice? I would rather be stuck with a duck then her!"

I laughed. "She's not that bad, Jamie."

"I know." She sighed and sat on my bed. "I'm going to miss you so much! You have to become the champion."

"Why do I have to become the champion? Then you'll never see me."

"Because then I can say 'Hey, you know Champion Cynthia? Yeah, I had something to do with that.' And I would feel better."

We both laughed then hugged again. I did sympathize with her, her and her mother didn't get along and she wasn't close with her grandparents like I was with mine. Still, I actually felt like I was doing the best thing. I couldn't lose that.

With my bag slung over my shoulder, I walked out into the living room. Rowan and Grandmother sat at the table talking. "Are you ready?" Rowan asked.

I nodded but stayed silent. I gave Grandmother a hug, no words were exchanged. I knew she loved me, she knew I loved her, and it hurt too much to say goodbye again. This time I felt a tear on my shoulder. I knew it was harder for her. I patted her back and pulled away. She met my eyes, they were wet but she held the tears back well.

Jamie hugged me again. "Bye Cyn, be the best."

"I will." I said.

With that, Rowan and I left the house. It was hard. A part of my wanted to turn around and stay forever, but I knew what I had to do.

"Alright Miss Cynthia, let's go." He let out Champ, I let out Togekiss. "Get on the Pokémon like this," he demonstrated by swinging his leg over Champ and sitting on his back. The Staraptor situated himself then readied to glide into the air. "Your turn."

I faced my Pokémon. "Okay." Togekiss gave me a weird look. I inched towards him. I quickly flung my leg into the air and over his body. He screeched and knocked me to the ground with his great wing. He cocked his head and looked down at me. I knew he was saying 'Hey, what are you? Stupid?' to me.

Rowan pulled me up off the ground. "Try to do it without falling this time."

I rolled my eyes. "He knocked me."

"Right."

I scoffed and turned to Thumper again. "Come on now, this isn't supposed to be hard. Just stand still for me." I reached out and grabbed his lose neck skin. I stroked his back. "Stay still." I cooed. I swung my leg over his body and planted my haunches on his back.

Thankfully, I was holding on to his neck because then he shot into the air. I gripped tighter and leaned forward. "Stop! Stop! Stop!" I screamed. Togekiss dashed straight up, I started slipping off his back. Then he flew upside-down and my hands slipped right off his neck.

I started falling down, no screams came from my throat. Then, I landed harshly on something. Champ had swooped to my rescue. He glided down to the ground and Rowan helped me off. Togekiss landed beside me and started angrily cawing at me. His features showed anger.

Rowan laughed. "I think someone's upset." He walked to the Flying Type and held his head. "Cynthia, get on."

I was hesitant but listened. Once again I planted myself on his back and grabbed his neck.

"Okay, loosen your grip. I can tell by Togekiss you're too tight." He instructed. I did as he said. "Only tighten your grip when you want him to go faster, and steer him that way. If you want, simple commands can work too. When you want him to land, pull back gently. If you yank backwards most likely he'll just come to a complete stop and you'll lose balance and fall."

"How do I keep my balance?" I asked.

"Simple, let your Pokémon worry about that. They know what they're doing, you just stay seated. It will take some practice to master flying, but it's not impossible."

I nodded. He let go of Togekiss' head. Luckily he didn't take off. "Remember, simple commands is just as good as anything else." I nodded.

"Togekiss," I said calmly, "let's fly." He shot into the sky. I grasped his neck, he cawed and reminded me to loosen up. As soon as I did, he evened out and started flying slowly. Rowan and Champ flew up next to me.

"Best feeling in the world, isn't it?" Rowan said. I looked at him, he had Champ's feathers in his hands and sat on the Pokémon back. He looked completely balanced and safe, yet how was that possible?

I looked at my hands. They were shaking. I was hardly supported. "N—No." I muttered.

He laughed. "You'll get used to it. Whenever you're ready to increase the speed, just give Togekiss a little kick with your heel. But we can't go this speed the whole way, we'll never make it."

I nodded and focused ahead of me. Fog filled the skies. I sure hoped Rowan knew where he was going. I looked to my right, I could see Cornet poke out of the white sheets. It really was a wonderful sight to see, even though it was scary, it also was invigorating. It was awesome.

Togekiss jerked quickly. I refocused ahead. We started flying over parts of Cornet.

"He'll learn to fly smoothly, don't worry." Rowan reassured. I nodded and hoped he was right...Again.

We continued on towards our destination, and my life.

Flying over the Golden Cities was amazing, the tall buildings and all the people was really something to see. We stopped in at Sandgem so Rowan could grab a few things. I waited on the beach, soaking up the sun and laying in the sand, watching Togekiss and Champ fly around the heavens. I swear I saw Champ teaching Togekiss, it was wonderful.

Once we started flying over the see towards Canalave, I became nervous for more reasons than one. First of all, I still wasn't a fan of flying and neither was Togekiss, (Well, someone using him as a seat was what he didn't like.) I also was still hesitant about battling again, and the fact the raid was going on wasn't making it easier. If I was in Canalave would the rebels expect me to do something? Were they already there? Were the rebels nonexistent? Was Lea in Canalave? Were my presence's visions correct? What did they mean?

So many questions.

When I would get there I would start training. I needed to get my Pokémon back in shape and ready to fight. They needed to be one-hundred-and-ten percent perfect for this battle. I couldn't come out and lose, then I would, as Blake said, crawl back under my rock.

I shivered. Not only because of the cold air but because of Blake's conversation. I wonder what he would think once I start battling again. I thought. I only stayed on the subject for a second before thinking about Lea. According to my vision, he wants something pretty bad. Whether that's correct or not is the question. I wished my sprit friend, or foe, would have told me more, but it wasn't a fan of communication.

Thinking back to the statue and the poem, 'Whispers in the wind' was accurate to my… Issue. At least at first, now it's not afraid to talk and half-manifest in front of me. And even control my emotions and, like that one time at the dinner, take control of my body. It forced me to eat Pokémon meat… Did that mean it wasn't Pokémon?

Everything was becoming confusing. Thankfully I brought the psychic book with me, it started to scare me. It was probably best I try to get rid of the thing once and for all. Maybe even brush up on psychic's in the Canalave library.

I briefly thought about asking Rowan, but decided against it. Not only did I not trust him enough for that, I also thought he would think I was crazy and possessed, which was probably true, I thought that since he was hardly a professor in my mind I shouldn't waste my time.

It was probably bad that I felt that way towards him, but I had him pictured differently and I couldn't accept that he wasn't who I thought.

In the distance I saw land. "Is that it?" I asked Rowan, who was still right beside me.

"Yes that's it, we should probably start getting close to the ground. We don't want mean people to see us flying in." I knew what he meant, the attackers. Oh, how much the so-called professor didn't know.

Togekiss followed Champ's lead by getting down close the sea's surface. Sometimes water would splash up and hit us. It was another awesome thing.

We landed almost perfectly on the dry land. I got off my Pokémon and returned him. I turned around, a wall of trees stood in front of us.

"We have to go through this before we reach the city." Rowan explained.

"Great, a secluded area where attackers and attacking." Sarcasm dripped in my voice.

"Don't worry, it's not that far of a walk." He patted my shoulder and started to lead me forward.

We reached the city shortly. It was odd. The ground was covered in gray and white bricks, not pavement like over cities. I saw the Mart and Center placed in front of me, houses off to the left, and to the right were building that looked like shops and the lighthouse and research center which were under construction. I saw water off to the distance, but this wasn't a beach town.

If you walked towards the water, you would be stopped by a fence. The land stopped and it was a rocky road down to the bottom. Fish scent filled the air and I heard yelling in the distance. "Do you hear that?" I asked Rowan.

"Yes, it's coming from the docks." He pointed. Passed the building in front of us and on the far side of the water was more land and a large set of boating docks.

"Well how do we get there?" I asked.

"We cross the bridge." He pointed to the huge wooden bridge that connected the city together. We walked to the bridge and crossed it.

Getting a closer look at the docks, I noticed that there used to be another set next to the existing one. One of the things blown off by a bomb. The yelling was of sailor unloading crates. People gathered around one of the sailor, he was yelling at them.

"No! We aren't making a trip out to the island! Leave us alone!" He bellowed.

"Why do they want to go to an island?"

"There's a rumor going around that the reason the attackers are raiding here is because one of the islands has a lot of gold."

"Is it just a rumor?" I asked.

"That's what I'm here to figure out."

"How are you getting to the island?"

"I know a guy." He looked at me. "Want to get settled in the Center?"

I nodded. We walked back to the Center.

We healed our Flying Types and put our stuff in out rooms, then I set out to the forest, unfortunately accompanied by Professor Quacks-Too-Much, to train. I was ready to get back into the game, I was ready to face my fears.

Authors Note: I must admit, I'm not happy with how this chapter came out. I'm in a rush to post this so there was hardly any editing, my apologies for that, the next chapter isn't written yet, but later today I'll get to writing. Writers block is not fun, especially when there's inner turmoil with your story. So, I'll see you soon... Thanks for reading.