Chapter 3: Realm of Frost
It has been quite a while since I have updated this story. Do not fret though, for I do intend on finishing this story, since I've got a soft spot for Kyurem ahaha. Of course, in the wake of the Black/White sequels, one will probably consider this story an "AU" now. The story does possess elements from the sequels, but not enough to make it fit into the Black/White 2 storyline.
. . .It's really confusing.
Whoops.
She found herself curled up in the middle of a cold floor in a cave, groggy and her head ringing. She didn't remember walking here, so she surmised that something put her here. But what? The last thing she remembered was something monstrous heading in her direction, with glowing eyes, and a voice yammering in her head.
She uncurled herself, her entire body now throbbing with the movement. She sat upright, pausing when she felt too dizzy. The first thing she noticed was how bitterly cold it was. It felt like an ice chest. She shivered and hugged her knees, hoping to gain some warmth back in her. The second was how dark it was, an inky darkness that obscured everything within arm's reach. She reached for her pack and pulled out a flashlight, trying to banish away the dark.
"What are you doing?" the voice asked.
"I just want to see," Olivia replied, frightened. "It's so dark."
"You cannot see?"
"Not very well."Olivia admitted. "Who are you?"
"I am the Frost King of legend, and you are my prisoner." The voice answered, sending a shudder down Olivia's spine. So it was Kyurem that she heard then.
And in the glare of the flashlight, Olivia saw her captor for the first time. She gasped at the sight. The beast was bipedal, towering at least fifteen feet over her if she stood up. His head was bulky, squarish, with horns branching from his lower jaw and the top of his head,which was a pale blue color, like ice; Kyurem's head looked to be encased in it. One of the horns looked broken off at the middle. He had a gray body, with small, almost stumpy forearms, with short mutated wings sprouting from his back, also the same color of his face. At the tips of the Legendary's wings were two large horns, translucent, reminding Olivia of icicles. His tail was thick and short like that of Reshiram and Zekrom's, with pale blue horns and ridges. He looked misshapen and angry in his appearance, yet in his golden eyes, there was something, something she couldn't place. An emotion, she guessed. Pity? Sadness? She could not tell.
"Kyurem," she whispered.
The dragon inclined his head. "Yes, I am Kyurem."
"Why am I your prisoner?" she asked suddenly.
"Because, you carry the taint of the Beast of Truth. He has come to taunt me, to mock my horrible and shriveled appearance. You brought him here."
"The Beast of Truth? You mean Reshiram?"
"Yes. You have the taint of Reshiram."
"But I don't have Reshiram with me."
"But you carry his taint."
"You don't understand. I don't have Reshiram anymore. I set Reshiram free."
"I don't understand!" Kyurem sneered. "You don't understand! You carry the taint, therefore you're my prisoner!"
Olivia clapped her hands over her ears. "Please don't yell. It hurts me." she whimpered.
"I hurt you? You hurt me." Kyurem sounded wounded.
I didn't mean to hurt you. I didn't know, honest. Please, let me go." Olivia pleaded.
"I'm afraid I cannot do that. You know too much about me, where I live. Therefore, I must keep you prisoner. To keep Reshiram from following me." Kyurem watched as the human girl curled up upon herself and started to leak water from her eyes. A memory was triggered, that of the King's oldest son crying as a small child.
"What is the matter?" he had asked the weeping child. He was sitting on the ground, holding his knee.
"I hurted my knee," he boy said, pointing to his knee, revealing a large scrape, blood leaking from the wound. "It hurts really bad."
Kyurem was at a loss for what to do. He bent his head down to inspect the wound. It looked worse than it actually did "Please don't cry," Kyurem said. "Crying makes me sad too."
"But, my knee," the boy protested. "It really hurts. Can you fix it?"
Kyurem gently touched the knee with his snout, focusing his energies into the knee, imagining it mending and stitching itself back together, whole and new. When he finished, he pulled away, he saw the knee was as Kyurem imagined it in his head, repaired and whole. The boy studied the healed injury solemnly, tilting his head to one side and another. "It doesn't hurt anymore!" he proclaimed. "It's kind of cold too. Thank you!" He reached out and hugged the dragon around his head and Kyurem felt a surge of happiness, the warmth of the boy leeching into his skin.
"You are very welcome, your highness."
"Will you be around when I'm king?" the boy blurted out.
"I expect to. It is my duty to protect the king."
"Good. I like you."
"I like you too, your highness."
The memory faded as quickly as it came and Kyurem found himself sad, yet angry all at once. It was the fault of the boy and his brother that made him this way. But, when he thought about how sad the boy had been, he felt sad, just as he felt sad when he saw the human girl crying in front of him. "Please don't cry." Kyurem crept closer to the human girl, feeling awkward and uncomfortable. "It makes me sad when you cry."
"I just want to go home," the human said, now making a strange hiccupy sound in between sobs.
"But you can't go home," Kyurem explained. Then, he had an idea. "Can this be your home?"
"I don't see how."
"This place is my home, it can be your home too."
"It's cold."
"I like the cold, it makes me feel alive." Kyurem paused. "But I know where it's warmer. Here," he reached around and gently picked Olivia up by the back of her shirt, as a mother cat would do with kittens. She protested heartily at this. "I can take you there."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
The back of the cave was slightly warmer than the entrance, much to Oliva's relief, but the stone floor was still bare. Kyurem placed her down gently and watched her curiously. "What is the matter?"
"It's awfully chilly," Olivia admitted. "but it is warmer than the other place."
"Good."
"Am I allowed to make a fire?"
Kyurem snorted. "I do not like fire. It hurts me."
"But I'll freeze to death if I don't have one." Olivia argued.
Kyurem seemed to mull it over, his stony, almost chiseled face impassive. "If you keep it away from me, then I will allow it."
"Thank you!" Oliva almost got up to hug the Legendary, but thought better of it, sitting back down. "I'll have to get wood for the fire though."
"I will accompany you, to make sure you don't escape," Kyurem told her, eliciting a scowl from Olivia.
"I'm not going to escape," she protested.
"I'm still going. I need sustenance."
That had Olivia thinking. "What do you eat?"
"I am a hunter," Kyurem explained. "I hunt the local pokemon for food. Arceus has placed them on a planet for a reason and I hunt them, grateful for the meat they provide."
"You don't eat humans?"
"Why would I want to?" Kyurem scoffed. "Humans are weak and petty, with no consideration for their home and they are easy prey. They provide no sport."
"Not all humans are weak," Olivia countered.
"The ones I have met were."
"Then you met the wrong kinds of humans."
"Humans are humans."
"Then what am I?"
Kyurem paused. "A human."
"I mean, am I weak?" Olivia pressed.
"I don't know. You don't appear weak." Kyurem admitted., turning his face away from her angry expression.
"Good. I'm going out and getting wood. See you later." Olivia stormed out, leaving the ice dragon behind, wondering.
"How much later?"
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Stupid dragon and his stupid assumptions," Oliva grumbled, picking up pieces of wood that had fallen to the ground. The air was crisp and cold, with an almost chemical scent in the air, evidence of Kyurem's presence and Olivia pondered if Kyurem's mood affected the weather surrounding the Giant Chasm. "Not all humans are weak. Some are strong, like Cynthia and Lance, and Alder and. . ." she trailed off, thinking of the many gym leaders she encountered and heard of, and inevitably, the image of her brother popped in her head.
"Stupid brother and his idea of "training" out here. Did he even know there was a freakin' ice dragon out here? Knowing him, probably. . ." she picked up another piece of wood for her fire, placing it with the others tucked under her arm. "Why, oh why did I even think of this? I bet they're wondering what happened to me. . ." she sighed. Between she and her brother, she was the one who always called home, lest her mother worry about "her baby" being cold and alone in the wilderness. Her mother could have worried less about Hil, the much more "capable" one. She snorted. Hil couldn't cook or make a fire to save his life. She was the more capable one in the wilds of Unova. She stomped back to the cave she was to call "home", in hopes to get warmth.
When she entered the cave, she found it to be empty. Apparently, Kyurem had decided to leave to hunt without her. She would show him; she hadn't even thought of escaping at all, in all honesty. Anyone else in her position would have the entire time, sending all consequences flying out the window, but she hadn't.
Why?
She pondered it, arranging her kindling in a pile. She was afraid of Kyurem and the idea of the Legendary bringing his wrath down upon her for escaping was horrifying, to say the least. But there was something else as well. Kyurem didn't seem like that much of a monster. If anything, the dragon seemed, almost awkward to be around, like the Legendary was unsure how to deal with humans, his only contact with them in the tiny town of Lacunosa. That was where Kyurem got his rather narrow opinion of humans from, humans who were terrified of the Legendary's presence and in turn, corrupting Kyurem's vision of them. It was quite ironic, Oliva thought, satisfied with her tiny pile of kindling.
She reached for Caesar's pokeball, summoning the infernape. "Caesar, can you light this fire, without completely destroying it?" she asked, referring to the ape pokemon's fighting prowess and his tendency for overkill. Caesar shot her a glowering look and crouched in front of the fire. He blew on it softly, sending glowing embers off his breath and onto the pile of wood. The sparks lit the pile up and soon, there was a cheerily burning fire in Olivia's corner of her cave. She had originally thought of returning her pokemon to their pokeball, but decided not to. Instead, she would let all of her pokemon out. After all, if she was to be staying in Kyurem's cave for a while, then why not have the Legendary meet her pokemon?
She fumbled for the other pokeballs and one by one, she released each and everyone of them from their confining homes. "Well guys. . .and girls," she amended, referring to her samurott, Joan, Hoplon the bastiodon, and Oakley the krookodile. "We're going to be stuck here for a while." Joan shot her a questioning look, as if asking why. "Because I somehow managed to get myself captured by a freakin' Legendary. How's that for irony?"
"What is irony? Kyurem asked, entering her area of the cave, carrying something, or things, between his vice like jaws.
"Irony is. . .it is. .humor, in sort of a ironic way. . ." Oliva fumbled for an explanation. The blank expression on Kyurem's face wasn't helping either. "It's hard to explain," she finished weakly. "What's that in your mouth?"
"Fur," he replied, almost cheerfully. He knelt down and spat out the pile of furs, Olivia realized to her horror. "I didn't want you to "freeze to death", as you humans would say. That wouldn't be good for my prisoner."
Olivia's face seemed to turn a pale shade. "Fur? Like fur from pokemon?"
Kyurem pondered her question for a heartbeat. "Yes, it is fur from pokemon. Do you get your fur from other places I do not know about?
"You killed pokemon, for the fur?"
"As I have said, Arceus has placed pokemon on the planet for a reason. We must be grateful for the fact. It is something that you humans have lost sight of."
"We don't kill pokemon," Olivia explained. "For food or fur. Well, not any more. Only bad people kill pokemon, usually for sport or poaching."
Kyurem mulled Olivia's words over. The human was growing ever more fascinating by the heartbeat. She was, he had to admit, giving him an ever wider opinion of humans. "So. . ." he began. "If I kill pokemon, does that make me a bad pokemon also?"
"You aren't bad, you kill because you need to," Olivia argued slowly, trying to determine what Kyurem was getting at. "If you killed, because you wanted to, not using the pokemon for food or fur, then that makes you a bad pokemon."
". . .I see." Kyurem replied, stretching out across the cavern's floor, his golden eyes watching her constantly. "You are not like most humans I have seen or met."
"And you're not like most Legendaries I've met either," Olivia said right back.
"Do not mention Reshiam or Zekrom in front of me!" Kyurem growled, nostrils flaring in agitation.
"I didn't mean it like that," Olivia amended hurriedly, hands out in front of her defensively. "I promise!"
"You say this word quite frequently, this 'promise'. I have heard of such 'promises', but they broke theirs. This word is not as strong as you would believe." his eyes seemed to bore into her blue ones. "Will you break yours?"
Olivia was surprised by Kyurem's choice of words. Clearly, the Legendary was hurt by something before. What, she did not know. If she could, she would go and do research, but she was imprisoned, under the will of the Frost King. She shook her head. "No, I do not break my promises."
Kyurem accepted this. "Good." They settled down, both of them watching the small fire burn. Kyurem kept a safe distance back, The fires seemed to dance across his skin, those slick, sharp surfaces, like the edges of diamonds. The way the campfire cast shadows, it was like Kyurem was melting before her eyes. Kyurem seemed entranced by the flames and Olivia wondered what the pokemon was thinking. She inched closer to the fire, in hopes of regaining some warmth in her limbs.
She caught Kyurem's gaze. "Kyurem?"
"What is it, human?"
Olivia scowled at the dragon. "I have a name, you know, and I would appreciate it if you called me by it, since I'm going to be staying here for a while."
"A name."
"Yes, just how you're called Kyurem. Names, well, names are important in our world."
"I might seal myself away from your world, but I know full well what a 'name' is. Names are powerful things. To know someone's name is to lord over them. You hold a part of them in yourself. To know a name is to create a connection between them and yourself."
"I never thought of it that way before," Olivia admitted.
Kyurem nodded. "Names are powerful things." he paused. "So, what is yours, human, since you know mine?"
"Olivia."
"Like the tree?"
"Yes, like the tree."
"It is a powerful name."
"Thank you. . .Kyurem?"
"What is it, huma-Olivia." he corrected himself.
"I know this sounds like a silly question, but...may I, may I touch you?"
Kyurem reared back, nostrils flared and eyes wide. "Why would you wish to do such a thing?"
Olivia pondered that question herself for a moment. She shrugged. "I don't know, actually. But you look like you could use some affection, Mr. Grumpy Face."
Kyurem looked confused at her choice of words. Once, he had been loved, been touched. Many adored him, revered him for his words of wisdom, for leading the king through tumultuous times. He closed his eyes, a memory flickering across his mind's eyes like a flash of light:
"Kyurem?"
Kyurem had spent the day at his king's side, offering him advice as he dealt with the petty bickerings of his lords and nobles. It was a constant struggle, to deal with these people. Kyurem disliked the petty battles and dealings, of back room deals and the constant back-stabbing. It would make any sane man wish to put a dagger through his head. But, the king was a wise man, forcing the nobles to accept all the compromises. As he once told Kyurem, a good compromise was one that made nobody happy.
Kyurem looked down to find the king's younger son peering up at him. "Your Highness."
"Hello Kyurem." the boy greeted shyly.
"Do you desire something?" Kyurem asked.
The boy giggled. "You talk kind of funny. Like one of my dad's knights. They're kind of sticks in the mud."
"Oh." Kyurem mulled this revelation over. "Am I a 'stick in the mud'?"
The young boy giggled again. "Of course not! You're my favorite. You're nice." he stopped. "May I have a ride, please?"
"A ride?"
The boy pointed to the gap between Kyurem's wings. "On your shoulders."
"Very well then, Your Highness." Kyurem knelt, allowing the boy to clamber on. The boy laughed the whole time, seating himself comfortably on Kyurem's shoulders.
"This is fun!" the boy laughed, his voice clear and sharp, like a horn call, music to the dragon's ears. "Let's go for a ride!"
Kyurem's eyes crinkled in mirth as he stomped around the king's great hall, carefree and joyful, soaking in the moment.
"Kyurem?" Olivia said, shaking the dragon from his reverie. "Was it a yes?"
Kyurem stopped, trying to hold onto the memory, but is slipped out of his grasp and of his mind's eye. It was tragic, to recall all these beautiful memories, to know full what what happened in the future. "If you see a need to." he said, almost reluctantly.
Olivia said nothing, crawling around the fire's edge, to find herself inches away from Kyurem's fearsome visage. She took a steadying breath, reaching out slowly with a single hand, to touch his snout. Her fingertips brushed against the smooth, cold skin, sending a shiver up her spine, but she fought through it, resting her entire hand on him. Kyurem nearly went cross-eyed, watching her do this. With her other hand, she reached underneath his jaw, to touch the cold spikes that jutted out. Her finger traced the lines of his lower jaw, before settling back at just near his chin. She slowly began to stroke the dragon under the muzzle, enjoying the cool smooth feeling of his skin. They sat in silence as she stroked him. Kyurem's golden eyes were transfixed to her, probably too stunned to say anything. They reminded Olivia of liquid pools of molten gold, when he was not angry or rude with her. It was nice, to sit like this. Maybe, Olivia thought, maybe Kyurem would let her go.
Someday.
They sat in silence for a little longer, Kyurem's eyes growing half-lidded. Then, he jerked away from her touch, eyes wide and awake once more. He snorted, shaking his head, like he was trying to be rid of the moment. As Olivia knelt there, he watched her cautiously. He snorted once again, blowing streams of bitter cold air.
"I will be resting. You should get some sleep."
The dragon stormed off to unknown depths of the cafe. Oliava looked down at her hands, feeling how cold they were. Truly, he was the Frost King, for even the mere touch would summon shivers down one's spine. But still, it was a nice feeling. Different, that slick, smooth surface was, but nice, nonetheless.
The dragon was hiding something though, Olivia thought to herself. It was the only thing she could think of, taking his behavior into account. But what? What could have upset the dragon so greatly, that even a mere touch could send him storming off with the fury of a miniature blizzard.
Only time, it would seem, would bring her the answers she wanted.