Chapter Forty-six: Hopelessness
The Next Step
Wind and snow whipped past me. The snow wasn't coming down hard, but it was still annoying. I looked beside me, Annie and Oliver were flying on Annie's Vespiquen, and past them Ember sat on his Staraptor. We were on our way to Lake Acuity.
The sun had just set, letting darkness embrace everything. That made me slightly nervous as a flyer. But, it wasn't too much later when we landed. I steered Thumper down to the ground and we landed almost without a flaw.
The snow was knee-deep; we were trekking as fast as we could to the giant wall. There was a sense of hopelessness in the air. We didn't know how much time we had left—or if we were already out of time—and we didn't know how we would get into the restricted lake.
"There it is." Ember said. We were approaching the wall. The Golden City logo was placed right in the middle of it.
"Where are the guards?" Oliver wondered. He was shivering intensely. Even though he had a t-shirt, sweater, and coat on, he wasn't used to this ridden cold.
"They're probably around front, or waiting inside." Volkner muttered. "There's zero chance we're getting in."
"Don't say that. There's a fair chance we can get in. Let's move to the front." Annie suggested. We moved to the front of the wall. We could see the large gate, and four guards. Two standing inside, two standing out.
"How are we supposed to get in? The wall's too high to climb, we'd be seen if we fly over, and those guards don't look happy, so approaching them isn't a smart option." I whispered.
"They need to be distracted, then maybe we can get inside, and when it's time to go we can fly out. It's so snowy they won't be able to recognize us, and we can escape to Snowpoint."
"Who's going to distract them?" Volkner asked. We all looked at Ember.
"What?! Why me?!" He frowned.
"Dude, you've been in The Callousen, you're suited for the job." Oliver said through his chattering teeth. "Plus, Cynthia, Annie and me kind of need to be in there."
"What about him?" Ember pointed at Volkner. "He doesn't need to be anywhere, either."
Volkner squinted at him. "You're able to do it alone, I'm sure."
"He can help." I said. Volkner shot me a look and I smirked.
"Fine." Volkner murmured.
Ember frowned then sighed. "One human distraction, coming up. I'll meet you all in the Center…Hopefully."
"Thank you, Ember." Annie said. We constructed a plan. Ember would attract the first two guards away, then Volkner would go in the other direction, towards Snowpoint, and get the other guards away. Then Ember will make a hasty flying escape and pick up Volkner on the way, then they'll go to the Center, and when we're done we'll fly away. It seemed good enough.
Ember walked out to where he was seen, and the two front guards looked confused, but when Ember pretended to notice them then run off, they took off after him. Then Volkner lingered out front a bit, until the two guards came out of the gate, then he took off running, the guards quickly left their post. The three of us ran to the entrance and shot through with no hesitation. We had to get this done.
The lake was frozen on most places. The sunlight barely poked through the clouds, but what little did sparkle on the ice. The snow wasn't as deep, and the blizzard turned into a light flurry. The place was definitely sacred. I rubbed my head, I could feel the pressure. The 'bind' that was to protect the lake.
"Whoa…Do you guys feel that?" Oliver grabbed his head.
"Only slightly." Annie said. Mine wasn't slight, but it wasn't awful. "We should hurry." I nodded.
"So where is what we need?" Oliver asked, hand still placed on his head.
I looked out towards the lake. "I have no idea." I saw something sticking out in the middle of the lake, it looked like a rock, but I got a weird feeling. "Do you see that?" I pointed out towards it. Oliver and Annie looked.
"It looks like a rock sticking up." Oliver said. "So?" He rubbed his head. He was getting grumpy.
"I think that's where we need to go." I found Milotic and released her. The three of us got on the giant Pokémon and we rode out to the rock. We circled around it, and my hunch was correct. There was an opening in the rock. "In there."
"Are you sure?" Annie asked.
"Positive." That was a lie, I wasn't sure, but there was a…fifty percent chance that was the place we needed to be. I poked my head into the hole. I could see the bottom below. The room grew into an underwater cave of sorts. I pushed myself in and ended up falling a few feet. I landed in a puddle.
"Are you alright?!" Annie called down.
"Yeah." I got up. My back ached. Oliver was the next down, and then Annie. "Are you okay up there, Milotic?" She poked her head in and nodded. "Okay, wait for my call." I heard her splash away.
I looked around. It looked like an average underwater cave…But I felt chills running through my body, but I couldn't feel my presence.
"What are we doing here, again?" Oliver asked. I looked at him, his eyes were droopy. The cave was having an effect on him. I rubbed my head, my headache was there slightly. It thumped a little bit harder.
"We're trying to figure out the next step." I answered.
"Here looks intriguing." Annie walked up to the far wall, where a cluster of Unknown Writing was. Oliver and I walked up next to her. "I'm not an Unknown Writing expert, but…" She squinted. "I think this says 'Awaken to a new form, where we can guard The Sacredness from harm, but when The Three is put to one, chaos has just begun.' Oliver, write this down." She said. Oliver got his notebook and began scrawling. "The temple which is full of cold, is the place the darkness will unfold. Only one can stop it all, with The Three there to help stop the fall." She studied it. "I can't make out the rest. It doesn't even look like Unknown Writing. But, that's pretty informative."
"Yeah, Cyn is the person it's talking about." Oliver said. "Obviously."
"Possibly, but we can safely assume." Annie nodded. "Now…Uxie is the Being of Knowledge, so I we can also safely assume that if someone knows about where everything is going to go down, it's him."
"So, the temple which is full of cold, is the place the darkness will unfold. We can safely assume that's the whole Lea thing?" Oliver asked.
"I would say so." She looked at the writing. Cocked her head at the wall. "Of course, how did I not see this before!" She took a few paces back. She stepped through a puddle and bent over, looking at the water.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The writing on the bottom is written upside-down, and it reflects off the water perfectly." She started to read. "The Being is not to be unleashed, he is only the beginning, then all trio's will cease. When the sunlight falls in the sky, the holy hour will be most high. The Tinker is frozen for good reason, if he is brought out, then will start the Dark Season. These words you read are too strong, once they are read, they can bring harm, this is to be destroyed at once and for all…Otherwise, you will face the repetition of the fall."
We looked at each other. Oliver looked like he would faint. "You guys, I don't feel so…" He fell on his haunches in a puddle. I rushed over and helped him up.
"The effects of the lake must be hurting him." She rubbed her temples. "I have a killer migraine."
"Me, too." I said. "We should go."
"But we have to destroy the words, somehow." Annie looked back at the wall. She got out a Pokéball. "Chatot, scratch up the wall." We watched as the bird took his claws and scraped them across the writing, deleting in almost completely. Oliver made an unpleasant noise, and the three of us, with the help of Milotic, got out of the cave and flew towards Snowpoint. We needed to figure this out desperately.
We arrived in Snowpoint and met Volkner and Ember in the Center. We went ahead and got a room, just so we had a safe place to be. Once we left the lake Oliver felt better, Annie thought it was just the 'bindings' on the lake. By the time we left my migraine was becoming almost unlivable, but again, once we left it went away instantly.
"So…" Oliver tapped his notebook with his pencil. "The person being talked about here is Cynthia."
"Right." Ember and Volkner glared at each other.
"And everything else we know." Oliver shrugged. "This is a circle. It's all telling us the same thing. Over, and over, and over, and over, and over again."
Annie and I looked at each other. We couldn't disagree. "Maybe we need to go to the other lakes." Volkner suggested. "Maybe there'll be three caves with helpful writing."
"Possibly." Annie muttered.
"So? It'll just lead us down another path of hopelessness. Do you want to go on another No Hope Journey? Be my guest, but I don't." Oliver sighed.
"I agree." Ember piped in. "Might as well get back to Eterna."
"You can't get discouraged." I said. "This is serious stuff." I turned on the television, nothing important was on. "The one time the news isn't on." I mused.
"Let's look again." Annie took Oliver's notebook. "Well, there's a lot of new things here…It talks about The Three being put together would be the beginning of something totally new. And it speaks about the holy hour, which was seen on the statues. It says that when the sunlight goes down is when it's the holy hour, that's something new. And it talks about the temple of cold, and The Tinker being frozen."
"Sunlight going down, that's the sunset, obviously." Volkner muttered.
My heart rate increased. "Temple of cold must be Ice Temple!" I jumped up off of the couch.
"Probably, but why are you jumping?" Annie gave me a look.
"Because we know, we need to get there!"
"We don't know everything, Cynthia. We need to have a well thought of plan before we get hasty." She patted the spot beside her and I sat down again. Annie flipped through the notebook and read through the other findings. "We should break for dinner."
We agreed and Ember and Oliver went out to get the stuff. The three of us left just watched the television, nothing interesting or helpful happening. "At least we know it hasn't happened yet." Volkner said.
"It's not as if we would know right away. He could have them and be trying to get the others." I shook my head. "It makes me sick to think about." That was true.
"Me, too." Annie agreed.
Soon, they brought food back and we ate. It was extremely late, so we all camped out in our one room, all thinking the same thoughts as we went to bed. This is hopeless, we're out of time, there's just no way we'll figure this out…
Or, my thoughts, which were a tad worse. It's my fault. I should have never sent them away. I lost my chance. I'm putting so many people in danger. I don't have the answers, and it is causing everyone else to suffer.
Presence, if you can hear me, please come back. We need you; I need you. I need these answers.
I need to be at Snow Temple, I need to go stop this…What do I have to lose? I sat up on my bundle of blankets on the floor. I stood up. Everyone else was fast asleep, and I slipped out the door.
Authors Note: I looked through all my old documents and ended up surprising myself. Some of you my have followed my first fanfic, which sucked, Indigo: Journey Begins. It was an OC trainer story with a Legendary Pokémon twist. So original, I know. Well, I had five of the Indigo stories planned, and then an ending Master Trilogy. But the thing is, they're really good ideas. In the Master Trilogy, the first one would've been called Secret of The Dragonite. The point is, I may pursue these ideas, but in different ways. I may create a whole new OC, or use a cannon character, or not...But I have four Fanfiction's planned, so I'll be busy for a while. Although I won't take as long to upload other stories, I solemnly promise. Ehem.
Anyway, that concludes my babbles for this chapter. Twoish chapters are left! I'm so excited!
Thanks for reading!