(Well, I'm sorry this is so late. Now that Easter vacation is over, I won't be submitting chapters as often anymore. More like two a week instead of five. Anyways, here's Chapter seven!)
Over the next seven days, the trio has been on the move. Elvina was the one who insisted that they go back to Jade City to earn the second badge first. She had led the way through Forest Path to it, a journey that lasted four days. The fifth day consisted of a one-sided battle at the Jade City Gym, in which Drake and Sara pulverized the Gym leaders' two Pokemon.
They earned the Jade badge, a tiny iron four pointed star with a cheap polished green stone embedded in its center. One the sixth and seventh day, the trio hung around Jade City for a while, a well deserved rest for them. Jade City was like a tropical get-a-way, complete with palm trees and a strip of beach. The dock was stationed on that beach, very few trainers moved onto the boats going out though, because they needed all ten badges to get onto it. Fact is, the boats there are ferrying trainers to the Jewel Islands, to fight the big four and earn recognition as Pokemon Masters. The sailors didn't let Drake or Sara on either. ("Wha'? Only t'ree badges?" A sailor barks.)
So, giving the time they'd goofed off, the trio has set off now to the Sun Desert and Inferno Town. None of them wanted to leave the beach behind, except Star who wants to get a move-on, but they did anyway partly because of the Swellow's nagging.
The lush grasses and beautiful smells behind them now, the trio is fit to thank Star. ("It was nothing really, just a little pressure." Star cheeps proudly.) Sun Desert has clear skies right now, with no wind blowing to stop their progress. By Elvina's calculations, they'd get to Inferno Town by nightfall.
Star, who is now flying bored circles around Sara, chirps, "How much longer?"
"A lot longer." Elvina responds for Sara when her nose buried in a map, "We should be getting there, OUCH!" A boy about Sara's age, with white-blonde hair and large grey eyes had just collided with her. He looked panicked as Elvina gets up and approaches him.
"I-I-I'm sorry m-ma'am, I didn't m-m-mean to." He whimpers, backing up so quickly that sand was flying everywhere. There was a neigh, and a Ponyta appeared in the middle of the gap between the boy and Elvina, fiery mane ablaze. "Don't be a hero Alkie!" The boy cries, rushing over to hug the Ponyta around her neck.
Star lets out a string of raucous laughs, "Alkie! A ha ha!" She attempts to land on the Ponyta's back, but screeches instead as she was repelled by Alkie's heat.
"Darn. I was hoping she'd get burned." Elvina says with a grin as Star chirrups angrily at her. She turns from Star to the boy and continues, "It's alright kid. My goodness, do you think I'd breathe fire on you for just bumping into you?"
She must have said something really bad, because the boy went white as a sheet and began to tremble, even if he was holding onto his hot Ponyta. "T-the last g-guy did! W-w-we were looking for r-ruins, Alkie and I… and then t-this guy in a t-top hat came and… and…" His last words were cut off by sobs. Sara approaches the boy cautiously because of Alkie, and gently pats the boy on his back.
"It's alright kid, the only ones of us that can breathe fire are safe in their Pokeballs. Now, did you say a guy in a top hat?" She says and the boy nods slowly.
"Y-yeah, a b-b-black top hat." Sara, upon hearing this, exchanges glances with her friends before swallowing.
"And did he happen to tell you his name?" She asks slowly.
"Uh… yes, h-he said he's… the Lord of the red-eyes." The boy's words were met by gasps.
"Oh this is just wonderful! That nut is still out there!" Sara exclaims, taking a couple of steps away from the boy and pacing. "What are we going to do now?"
"Look for ruins?" The boy suggests mildly, earning glares all around.
"What do ruins have to do with anything?" Drake asks him, and the boy shrugs.
"That's how I found him, looking for ruins."
"And why are you looking for ru-ahhhh!" Sara had walked on the wrong spot, the sand beneath her feet gave way, and she fell.
"Sara!" Drake exclaims as he jumps down the hole, which was about ten feet in circumference, and falls after her. Elvina, rolling her eyes, follows him, leaving Star with the boy and his Ponyta.
"Ready Alkie?" He asks timidly, Alkie nods and jumps into the hole, followed by him. Star snorts and lands at the edge.
"What's it like down there?" She calls from her perch, laughing loudly. Star was laughing so hard that she didn't even notice the sand beneath her talons was slipping, and that she was slipping along with it. She only noticed when she tumbled head-first down into the hole, slipping along and down.
Star landed with a plop in a circular room, only lit by Alkie's mane and tail. The moldy, grey stone walls had etchings on them that appeared to by letters with eyes, Unown. Directly in the center, a portion of the stone floor had been raised, level with two holes in the walls.
"We found it Alkie! We found it!" The boy exclaims happily.
"Correction, Sara found it… more like fell in it." Star snaps.
"Jacob, that's Star. Star, Jacob. We were just introducing each other before you fell in." Elvina says.
"So, now what?" Sara asks, looking around.
"So now we follow the instructions on the walls… give me a second and I'll translate them… Alkie come here! That's better." Jacob was saying as he approaches the start of the runes and read, circling the ruin twice before he was finished. "'Only when the two stones of fire meet may the victorious one rise to power. Only when one star alight, will the Goddess rise.' See? We've just go to place these two stones here and then the Goddess will rise!" He points to the two holes and digs two identical red-orange stones out of his bag.
"Hold on a second! What makes you so sure that this is going to work?" Sara asks pointedly, with a chirp of agreement from Star.
"Because," Jacob replies as he set the first stone, which was a perfect fit, into its hole. "Alkie's the victorious one the wall's talking about. She told me herself."
"What?" Drake asks, confused, "But how could she be this so called 'victorious one' when this ruin in general is thousands of years old?"
"Alkie told me. She's the victorious one, Alkernos, the Desert Goddess." Jacob says, and looks around to see that nobody but Alkie knew what he was talking about. "Okay, a long long time ago, Pokemon trainers of old used to use their Ponyta here, in Sun Desert, in tournament style battles. The Ponyta who won was proclaimed Alkernos, or the Desert Goddess, and came here for her evolution. There really is a Desert Goddess here, right here in front of us: Alkie."
"Okay then." Sara mumbles, backing up a bit, "That's a nice story and all, but…"
"IT'S NOT A STORY!" Jacob yells, "It's the truth! But Alkie never became a goddess, because on her victory day she was… she was…" He paused to sniffle, "She was killed." Jacob mumbles faintly.
"But if she was killed, would she not be here?" Sara asks, trying to think logically.
"You'd think that, wouldn't you?" Another voice came from the entrance to the ruins. Everyone whirled to see that the so called 'Lord of the red-eyes' was standing there, smirking at Jacob. "But maybe she's just a figment of everybody's imagination." He continues, walking slowly towards Jacob with an evil grin across his face.
"Go away." Jacob growls, anger contorting his face. "I've gotten to this ruin before you did, now go away."
"Why should I? When you yourself have a right to know that your Ponyta doesn't exist!" He continues, still grinning evilly at Jacob.
"She does too! Alkie does exist!" Jacob cries. Star, not able to take any more of this, dives onto the Lord of the red-eyes and begins to peck at his head.
Crying franticly, and making a complete fool out of himself, he runs in circles screaming and shaking his head, trying to get Star off of him. Jacob used this time to lock the other stone into its hole. There seemed to be a mini-earthquake going on then, because the whole place was shaking hard. Star finally let go of the Lord of the red-eyes and takes flight were the air wasn't shaking.
When the shaking had finished, an eerie beam red-orange light was glowing out of the stones. Jacob looked ecstatic, he gave Alkie a push forward, and she trotted slowing onto the raised portion of the floor. Both beams hit the Ponyta at the same time, as Alkie stood there, the light collected around the side of her body, growing brighter and brighter every moment.
BANG! In a fiery explosion, the light from the stones, and Alkie disappeared. There were many exclamations as all the light in the ruin went out completely. "Alkie!" Jacob cries out, the sound of sobbing coming from his side of the ruin.
The Lord of the red-eyes, now scratched up badly, lets out a loud and high pitched laugh. "What were you expecting little boy, hmmm? For your Ponyta to actually evolve? Ha! You don't understand, your little made-up Alkernos Pokemon doesn't exist-"
He was cut off by Jacob, who now sounded infuriated, "First you say that Alkie doesn't exist; now you're telling me that Alkernos doesn't exist! Make up your mind half-wit!"
Another cold laugh from the Lord of the red-eyes, "Neither exist, dear boy." There was a pause, before he adds, "And now I've got to go kiddies! Have fun in your little ruin!" There was the sound of a Pokeball being thrown, followed by a brief flash of light in which a large bird Pokemon that couldn't quite be seen out of the darkness appeared. It let the 'Lord' onto its back, and soared out of the hole that leads into the sunshine.
"Now what?" Sara heard Elvina grumble, before getting a bright idea.
"Elvina! What about our fire Pokemon!" She exclaims before letting Vulpix out of her Pokeball, cursing herself for not thinking of her sooner. Elvina must have caught on, because she sent out Blaze.
"Ember!" They both ordered at the same time, and the fire types let out a belch of flames that instantly lit up the darkness of the ruin. Jacob was huddled off to the side, sobbing uncontrollably. Star, who had found Drake in the darkness, instantly flew over to comfort him, even if her words had a bit of an edge. ("You didn't need that Ponyta anyways!")
"How are we going to get out of here?" Elvina asks, noticeably giving Star a death glare.
"Burrowing." Star responds in an annoyed tone. Elvina glower even more at her.
"Well cheeky one, why don't you go follow mister Lord out into the desert? Who knows, you might actually find a way to help us." But at that very moment, a round bomb with two leering red eyes fell down the hole into the ruin and exploded, causing half the ruin to collapse instantly. Jacob, Sara, Drake, Elvina, Star, Vulpix, and Blaze all huddled into a corner; all looking extremely panicked.
"Oh man! We're doomed, we're doomed!" Jacob cries, tears still spilling out of his eyes. He rocked back and forth, repeating this until Elvina slaps him hard across the face.
An echo of a voice, very familiar to Sara, sounded faintly from the side of the wall that hadn't been destroyed that she was leaning on. If ever you are in danger, just whistle…
Sara jumps, "Did you just hear that?" She looked around at the puzzled faces of her friends.
"Uh, if you're talking about our conversation about getting out of here then, well… yes." Drake responds, looking at her funny. Elvina was shaking her head, murmuring about insanity.
Sara sighs as she takes the necklace with the whistle off her neck. It hummed slightly in her hand, giving it a pleasant feeling. Sara slowly put the whistle to her lips and blew out a couple of notes, expecting the same horrible sound to come out but was very surprised at what did come out instead. A haunting melody piped out of the whistle, flowing into a song that seemed to be sung by a chorus of ghostly figures. Startled by the sound, Sara stopped playing the whistle.
A rumbling issued itself from the wall, a sound that apparently everyone heard, because they all whirled and backed away from it really quickly. The more time passed, the louder the rumbling got, until it filled the ruined ruin fully and shook the walls. The walls soon started to crack and buckle, until they fell apart to reveal a cluster of Pokemon standing at the mouth of a large, funnel like cave.
A dozen or so Trapinch stood at the back of the cluster, behind a couple of Baltoy and five Cacnea. At the head of the line stood a proud looking Vibrava, with a miniature version of the light bird perched on her back.
"You whistled?" The smooth melody was back, and it seemed that all could hear it, because Drake, Elvina, and Jacob were staring at the light bird like she was a freak of nature.
"Wow." Drake found his voice first, and splutters that out. The light bird chuckles happily.
"Follow us." She sings, and the escort of Pokemon turn and head into the cave. After exchanging wary glances, recalling Vulpix and Blaze because the tunnel was being lighted by the light bird, the rest of them followed close behind.
"I don't like that Lord guy." Star says after a while of following the pretty slow procession of Pokemon.
"Not many Pokemon do." The light bird responds, talking directly to Star and Sara, "I shall only tell this to you and your… partner, Lady-" Sara looks around to see that nobody else seemed to be listening. "But I would fear for the mental health of any Pokemon that would like that man. He's nothing but trouble, Lady, but you mustn't pay too much attention on the… ah, servant and more onto his master."
"What do you mean… err… bird?" Sara whispers, looking into the amused emerald eyes of the light bird.
"Ah ha, something you should chew on for yourself. It wouldn't be right to tell you what to do, when fate must play a role in this as well." She still wasn't talking to anyone by Sara and Star. The light bird seemed to be thinking quickly, because she added for everyone to hear, "And you may also call me Sundav."
"Nice name." Star says with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Sundav ignores her, a wise thing for something that looked like she could disappear any second with a gust of wind.
They passed the rest of the time in the cave in silence. It didn't seem very long to Sara, she had been mulling over the clue Sundav had just given her. But it just didn't make sense to her…
Finally, Sundav addressed everyone again as the cave swerved upward and the sun's light spilled through the exit. "You all may leave for the desert now. One more thing," She turned her head to look at Jacob with piercing emerald eyes. He quickly adjusted his gaze away from hers. "The one that appears to be lost is not. She, along with two very pretty stones I might add, is waiting for you right above our heads. Good luck to all of you," And her gaze turned to Sara in particular, "And may destiny be on your side."
With that, Sundav faded away, leaving the Vibrava without a passenger. She and her troupe of Pokemon raced out of the entrance, followed closely by Jacob. After a long pause, in which Jacob had scrambled up the exit, there was a gleeful cry. Sara couldn't help but smile as she and Star followed after him into the still sunny day on the desert.
Jacob was standing a short way off, exclaiming happily to a Pokemon Sara had never seen before. She stood far taller then Jacob, more then six feet tall, and had to bend her long, graceful neck down to get eye lever with him. Her legs were long and elegant, the skin all around being a pale milky white color. Her broad head was framed by two sharply pointed ears that looked like they'd naturally point backwards and a horn about a foot long that glistened like a diamond and curled like a unicorn's horn.
Upon seeing Sara and Star approach, the large horse tossed her head back and kicked up sand with her glistening golden hoofs framed by tufts of flame. A billowing, fire mane that grew far longer then her body looked to be growing hotter as she eyes them with nervous gold eyes.
Turning to see what had gotten his beloved Pokemon upset, Jacob smiles at Sara and pats his Pokemon's head again. "Alkie evolved!" He said with a proud smile, still patting Alkie's head. Alkie snorts and settles down as Drake and Elvina crawl out of the cave exit and stare at Jacob and Alkie.
"She's beautiful Jacob!" Elvina finally says firmly, and Jacob's proud smile widens. Alkie mutters something to Jacob, who nods sadly and jumps onto her back as she stooped to let him on.
"I hope to see you all again someday." Jacob says as Alkie begins to prance in the opposite direction, "Take care!" He yells as his Pokemon fell into full gallop, disappearing from view in a minute.
There was silence for a long while as they stared after him. Finally, Sara mumbles, "So that was an Alkernos."
Star, who had shifted to sit on Sara's shoulder, huffs. "Viiii!" A shrill voice exclaims before she could comment. The same Vibrava sat a little bit off, twitching and jerking her head at Sara. Suddenly, she shot forward, her wings making a high pitched buzzing sound as she half jumped and half flew into Sara's arms.
"Vi, vi, vi!" The Vibrava cried shrilly as she slumped back down to the ground, Sara was so surprised at her actions that she hadn't caught her. But that didn't stop the overexcited Vibrava from jumping back up and looking up at Sara with wide eyes. "Vib-vi!"
"That's interesting." Elvina murmurs to herself. "Sara, this Vibrava is asking to go with you!"
Star ruffles her feathers irritably, "I could have told you that!"
"Is that right?" Sara asks the Vibrava, smiling down at her, "You want to come with me?"
"Vi, vi!" The Vibrava nods franticly.
Sara digs a Pokeball out of her pocket and grinning, tosses it at the Vibrava. She disappeared in a flash of light, and soon was captured.
"Well that was easy." Star comments as the Pokeball returns to Sara's hand. Sara fits the Pokemon Translator around Vibrava's Pokeball.
Careful to press the green button this time, the gizmo went to work on Vibrava for a while before falling silent. Elvina was pacing impatiently as Sara tossed the Pokeball again.
Vibrava appeared again, took one look at Sara, and exclaims with the same shrill voice, "Trainer!" She tackles Sara, who falls over with the Vibrava on top of her, "Trainer, trainer! I'm-Sandsinger-and-you're-my-trainer-Sara-we're-going-to-have-so-much-fun!" All this came out as one big blur to Sara, and to Elvina too, she was looking puzzled.
"That's… nice. Could you please get off of me, please Sandsinger?" Sara says, and the Vibrava quickly gets off of her.
"Are we done now?" Elvina snaps impatiently, and Sara nods sheepishly. With a nod, Elvina turns on her heel and head in the direction of Inferno Town, which was now visible under the setting sun. Sandsinger bounced merrily behind her, urging Sara and Star to go faster. Star looked quite annoyed as she flicked sand grains out of her feathers.
"I have the strangest feeling that we've not going to get along well." Star comments as she watches Sandsinger bounce.
Sandsinger ignored her with a, "No-silly! We're-going-to-get-along-great-with-each-other!" Her shrill, fast speech still hard to follow.
Drake trudged behind Sara, whispering the fact that he was happy that Sandsinger was Sara's Pokemon and that he didn't have to hear her. By the time they all got to Inferno Town, Elvina was fuming, Star snapping, and Sara plugging her ears. Sandsinger didn't seem to care, she just kept on talking… and talking… and talking. It was a relief to enter the Pokemon Center. ("Now Sandsinger, you should be quiet for the sick little Pokemon!" Sara exclaims tiredly.)
Sandsinger finally did be quite, Sara half expected she had talked herself hoarse. After dinner, she fell asleep in a corner with Vulpix next to her. Taking their lead, Sara, Elvina, and Drake with all the rest of their Pokemon fell asleep soon afterwards.