Chapter Sixteen

Friends

Struggling not to trip over herself again, Lynn scurried after Lark. Without missing a step, the agile older girl expertly ducked and wove her way through a flurry of back alleys and side streets, before emerging in the middle of the crowded town square. There, she made her way through a continuous stream of pedestrians and vendor carts, with Lynn struggling to keep closely in tow.

As the two girls broke away from the bulk of the masses, Lynn noticed they had entered a rather different kind of neighborhood. Marble fountains encircled by lush verdant courtyards dotted the horizon, while perfectly identical trees decorated both sides of the neatly paved streets. Only a block away, a slender spire of a clock tower was chiming to mark the hour. Even a forest girl like Lynn, who had little idea as to what most of these things were, could sense that a place like this was meant to be set apart from the rest of the city.

"One o' clock," Lark said at last, pulling Lynn behind an orderly row of lilac bushes, "means little Princess Himeka has just finished her lunch at that café. She always sits alone, at the table farthest from the door." She indicated the building across the street, which opened into a small sunlit courtyard containing several heart-shaped tables, above each of which was stationed a pastel pink parasol. "And she always ends with a strawberry sundae," Lark added, not even bothering to look. "It's her favorite dessert."

Curious, Lynn peered through the bushes. Pressing her cheek close to Lynn's, Lark twisted her chin in the direction of a young Eevee with a red velvet ribbon around her neck, sitting alone at a nearby table. Sure enough, there was a slender-stemmed glass of sundae in front of her. However, it was still completely full – apparently untouched by its owner.

Himeka, for her part, was holding a strange pink object to her ear and chattering away at the air. "Who's she talking to?" Lynn asked, completely perplexed.

In an almost lazy motion, Lark's eyes swept from Lynn to the young Eevee at the table. "She's on the phone and forgot to eat her sundae," Lark said. "That means she's probably talking to her father again."

Blinking in even more confusion, Lynn strained to catch the several snippets of conversation that were drifting her way.

"You have to come tonight!" Himeka was saying, her high-pitched voice filled with excitement. "Everybody else is going! It's going to be so, so, so cool!"

After a moment's pause, the Eevee's voice suddenly grew petulant. "That's what you said last year and the year before!" she cried, bolting up in her chair and beating her fluffy tail against her chair. "Then come to the End of Festival Tournament at least! I won all my matches this year, you know! I'll definitely win, win, win this year! Please come this time! Please, please, please!"

Another pause, and the Eevee's small furry forehead furrowed. "Call me back?" she said. "Hello, hello, hello! Papa, don't go, I still…" She abruptly fell silent and slumped back down in her seat, then, body quivering, flung the object she'd been holding onto the ground. It hit the pavement below with a clatter.

"See?" Lark's lips curled into a satisfied smile. "You can read her like a book."

Slowly, Lynn nodded in presumed agreement. Inwardly, she was somewhat relieved. Based on the accounts of the Ringed she'd met the previous night, Himeka had sounded like a scary larger-than-life monster, someone to be feared and even despised. But watching the young Eevee halfheartedly pick into her dessert at last, getting globs of syrup all over her nose, Lynn thought Himeka looked like any other child.

"Here's your chance," Lark hissed, giving Lynn an unexpected shove in the back. With a yelp, Lynn wobbled and nearly plunged face-first the bushes in front of her. "Himeka always forgets to bring enough money to pay for her food," Lark went on, eyes still fixed on the café table where the young Eevee sat. "She always makes a big scene about it, too. Why don't you help her out this time?"

"R-right now?" Lynn squeaked out, shaking fallen lilac blossoms from her hair. "B-but I've just started being a Master! I don't know if I can…"

Lark shoved her in the back a second time, then shot Lynn another one of her dazzling smiles. "Hey, I didn't have you pawn off that Gold Berry as your first test for nothing!" she laughed. "Talking to Himeka is your second test."

"B-but…"

It was impossible arguing with a dynamo like Lark, who obviously didn't have the faintest inkling of what it was like to be hopelessly shy, easily tongue-tied, and completely, utterly, scared out of your mind. In only a few fleeting minutes, Lynn inevitably found herself heading towards the front of the dessert café, swallowing hard and trying not to glance nervously back over her shoulder. From the corner of her field of view, she could glimpse Lark waving jauntily at her from behind the row of lilac bushes.

Trying to stand up straighter so as to make a good impression, Lynn walked stiffly into the café courtyard. As she neared the still-eating Himeka, she tripped over the overly-long hem of her dress and, with a surprised squeak, grabbed frantically at the nearest available support.

Said support, an impeccably-dressed Machamp maître d', phlegmatically inclined his head towards Lynn. "Is there something the matter, Mademoiselle?" he asked in a gravely polite voice.

"A-ah no!" Releasing the Machamp's muscular arm, Lynn backed away and promptly bumped into an empty chair, knocking it to the floor with a jarring clang. "Sorry for the tr-trouble!" she managed awkwardly, bending down and trying to pull the chair back up, only to have it slide out of her clumsy hands with a second clatter.

Expression wholly unperturbed, the Machamp expertly reshifted his grip on the platters of crepes and cheesecake in his bottom two arms to his top two arms. "Perhaps I might assist Mademoiselle to her seat?" he offered somberly.

"A-ah, that's alright! Thank you!" Bowing her head, Lynn quickly darted to the side to let the waiter pass. Turning around to look for Himeka, she gave a small gasp of dismay. The Eevee's table had been completely vacated, leaving only a half-empty glass behind. As she swerved back towards the exit, she thought she could just catch a glimpse of a bushy Eevee tail whisking around the corner.

Hiking her dress to her knees, Lynn made to dash after Himeka's retreating form. A smart tap on the back of her shoulder, however, forced her to look back once more.

Clearing his throat, the Machamp waiter Lynn had spoken to before bowed his head and extended one of his four white-gloved hands. The small pink object Himeka had been talking to earlier –a "phone," Lark had called it– was nestled in his large palm. "Excuse me, Mademoiselle," he said to Lynn, "but do I believe Mademoiselle's friend has forgotten something."

"Oh!" Surprised, Lynn could only take Himeka's phone, shove it into her apron pocket, and respond with a small bow of her own. "Th-thank you, sir!"

The Machamp coughed politely. "And there is also the matter of Mademoiselle's friend's bill…" he murmured deferentially.

By the time Lynn had settled Himeka's financial deficits and left the café at last, Himeka herself was nowhere in sight.

"Lark!" Lynn panted as she rushed back to the lilac bushes. "Himeka's gone! I-I..!"

"She went that way," the older girl informed her, promptly pointing down a nearby street. "Better hurry up if you want to catch her."

"St-still…?"

"Go."

With one pert wink from Lark, Lynn knew there would be little good in belaboring the point. Still panting, she set off in the direction Lark had indicated. However, she regretted it as soon as she had done so. As Lynn swerved around the corner, her ears were nearly deafened by a ringing voice booming out overhead: "Let the Festival Parade begin!"

Immediately after, a discordant clap tore through the air, followed by a writhing flurry of thin, brightly-colored snakes. Lynn yelped and instinctively fell to the ground. The apparent snakes fluttered down around her, weaving weightlessly through the air as they descended. They were followed by a glittering rain of flat star-shaped fragments. As cheers and laughter resounded around her, however, Lynn staggered to her feet and took a wide-eyed look about.

She barely had time to register her surroundings before a loud surge of music began. The next thing Lynn knew, she was being shoved backwards against the swelling flow of the crowd.

"Ah! Excuse me! S-sorry!" Lynn squeaked out, limbs flailing. Ducking her head, she tried squirming her way to the side but tripped over the hem of her dress, almost taking out a Politoed trumpet player as she windmilled about. Without warning, the Politoed's long sticky tongue shot out and wound around her waist, pulling her back onto her feet before she could fall flat on her face.

"S-sorry, sir!" Lynn gulped, feeling her face flush. The Politoed gave her a small wink before lifting her over the crowd and depositing her on the side of the street. Lynn could only bow respectfully as the frog Pokémon's tongue snapped back to its owner, who proceeded to march dutifully onward with the rest of the players.

Wiping dirt and slime from the front of her dress, though that only seemed to further smear the whole mess, Lynn hurriedly made her way through the throngs of people and Pokémon that had gathered to watch the ongoing spectacle. After the trumpet players, she saw in bits and pieces through the crowd, came lithe dancers with feathered headdresses and iridescent ribbons, weaving back and forth in time with the tune. A shadow fell overhead moments later, forcing Lynn to glance up and drop her jaw in amazement. A larger-than-life replica of Jigglypuff was floating above the procession, bobbing merrily up and down as a team of Wigglytuff below pulled it along on silver strings. An equally enormous Charizard followed on a clanking wheeled contraption, its mechanical mouth unhinging every now and then to release a burst of actual flame.

Entranced, Lynn could have watched these strange sights all evening if not for mission Lark had entrusted her with before. A pang of panic issuing up from her stomach, she scanned across the crowd yet again for Himeka Madison's small form. Finding nothing, she scrambled the rest of the way down the road, gaze darting about in all directions.

There! Spotting a patch of brown and white fur, Lynn made a beeline for a small pastry shop in the distance, from which pleasant aromas of wild strawberries and fresh melon were wafting out onto the streetside. A small Eevee, she saw quickly, was standing there with several other young Pokémon, her face pressed against the storefront glass as she eyed an assortment of elaborately decorated cakes.

"Ah, excuse m-me!" Lynn choked out as she rushed up behind them, huffing and puffing. In an instant, the eyes of several Pokémon in the group had turned to her, silencing previous streams of chatter. As the stares of the other children fell upon her flushed, panicking face, Lynn froze, reeling as her mind went numbingly blank. She had never, ever been remotely good at facing crowds. "Uh…I-I…"

"Do you want something?" one of the group, a delicate-looking Buneary with a pink bow around each ear, demanded.

"Who's that, Lottie?" her friend, a plump Torchic, broke in.

The Buneary gave a dismissive shrug. "I don't know."

As the group members began to turn away, Lynn stumbled forward again. "S-sorry!" she gulped out, ducking her head and staring fixedly at the ground so as not to lose the remnants of her nerve. "I-I want to talk to Hi-Himeka, p-please."

"Huh? You mean Himeka Madison?" There was a blank-eyed stared, followed by a decidedly not so delicate snort of realization from the Buneary. "Hey, Ami!" she hooted, twirling about and waving a slender paw. "Someone got you mixed up with Himeka!"

The Eevee in front of the window turned towards them and, in an instant, Lynn realized she had made a mistake. Instead of Himeka's red ribbon, this Eevee wore a golden collar studded with large yellow stones. Her eyes, larger than Himeka's and almost doe-like, narrowed upon registering what the Buneary had just said. "Gawd!" this Eevee exclaimed with a high-pitched squeal. "Not again!"

Before the abashed Lynn could even try to stammer out an apology, she was cut short by a chorus of laughter from the Eevee's friends.

"That's, like, the third time someone's mixed you up this week!" snickered the Buneary. "Since when did that loser get so popular?"

"You're one to talk, Lottie!" the Eevee with the golden collar retorted. "Didn't you invite Her Highness Snotnose to your party last weekend just so you could suck up to her for free final tournament tickets?"

The Buneary upturned her pert little nose with a "hmph!" of disdain. "Well, it worked, didn't it?" she said as she shook back her long well-groomed ears. "Himeka's a royal pain, but at least she's filthy rich."

"You're gonna have to sit with that prissy little daddy's princess at the tournament," the Torchic butted in with a giggle. "I wouldn't trade places with you for anything."

"As if!" the Buneary shot back, lip curling disgustedly. "I'll just tell her I can't make it when she calls, and go in later."

Lynn stood there awkwardly as the young Pokémon continued to banter, nervously trying to work up enough courage to interrupt. "A-ah, sorry then!" she managed at last, bobbing her head up in a rather strained attempt at eye contact. "M-mistake…my mistake!" Not daring to linger for any replies, she hurried past the group and didn't slow down until she could no longer glimpse them through the crowd and growing dusk.

As an unexpectedly cold breeze swept past, Lynn hugged her bare arms and slowed to an even more leisurely pace. Himeka Madison, or any other Eevee for that matter, was nowhere in sight at this point. Glancing up at the evening sky, which had deepened to a velvety blue with thin streaks of pale violet clouds, she squinted hard for several moments, trying to make out even one star. Even the lights of blinking shop signs, as well as the more muted glow of the many red lanterns strung across the alleyway, seemed to outshine the sky.

Lark, wherever she was, would probably be disappointed in Lynn's failure. Lynn shook her head slightly, resigning herself to this. It would be alright, she supposed. She could just try again – Lark herself would probably say that as well. Had she even really even expected Lynn to succeed in the first place? And if she had…well, then what would she and the others think of Lynn now? Lynn signed heavily as a sinking feeling surged through her stomach.

"What are you, some kind of stalker?"

The voice knocked Lynn out of her momentary daze of self-pity. Jumping a bit in surprise, she swerved around and let out a small squeak.

Himeka Madison was standing in front of her, head raised, ears pointed back, and eyes narrowed in an unambiguously unfriendly glare. The Eevee's velvet ribbon flailed about in the evening wind, before coming undone at the base and whipping through air in two long red streams.

"Don't act dumb!" Himeka snapped as Lynn gaped speechlessly on. "You've been following me since the café! You even asked to talk to me! What a creep! I don't even know you!"

Gulping hard, Lynn forced apart the hands she wringing together in stiff jerky motions. "S-sorry…" she managed finally. "I d-didn't mean…"

"Stay away from me, stalker!" With a final huff, Himeka fluffed out her tail and swerved around before marching back up the street. Without thinking, Lynn staggered after her small form.

"Wait!" she called, reaching out an arm before she could stop herself. "Y-you heard it?"

Himeka paused in mid-stride but didn't turn around. "What?"

"What they w-were saying about you?" Lynn ventured softly. She swayed on the spot for several moments, head bowed, staring down at Himeka's back and the tails of her undone ribbon writhing in the wind.

After several beats of silence, Himeka gave another huff. Twisting about, she glared directly into Lynn's frightened eyes. "Lottie's gang is stupid, stupid, stupid!" the Eevee yelled with an irritated twitch of her tail. "I don't care about those dummies! I'll show them all tomorrow, anyway! They can come and watch me sweep the tournament floor! I'll show them all!"

Lynn bowed her head again, not wanting to look the angry Himeka in the eye. "Even if you try to show them," she whispered at last, swallowing hard, "people like that…they won't see it. They don't…ever…want to."

"They WILL!" Himeka shot back hotly. "I'll make, make, MAKE them!"

Slowly, Lynn lifted her head, and, for a moment, girl and Eevee found themselves locked in a mutual stare. Lynn's own eyes widened slightly as they were caught in Himeka's defiant gaze, hateful and haughty and, most of all, so very unafraid. Himeka Madison was not the least bit scared of what other people thought of her. Angry, yes. But not scared. Himeka Madison was not the kind of person who would ever, ever, ever run away.

"What's your problem?" Himeka said, breaking the silence at last. She narrowed her eyes distrustfully at Lynn and stamped a front paw. "You want to make something out of that?"

Slowly, Lynn shook her head, still holding onto Himeka's gaze. "I-I want…I want to be your friend," she said honestly. As soon as the words had left her lips, she could feel her face flushing sheepishly. "S-sorry for saying this so suddenly, but…"

"What, what, what?" Himeka scoffed. She let out a barking laugh. "You want something from me, don't you? That's it, isn't it? Well, forget it! I don't, don't, don't want to be friends with some weird smelly stalker!"

Lynn watched wordlessly as Himeka turned around and started stalking off. A sudden vibration against her stomach jolted her into a jump. With a burst of recollection, Lynn reached a hand into her apron pocket and pulled out the small pink phone that Himeka had left behind at the café, which was now shaking incessantly in her hand. "Ah, s-sorry!" she called after Himeka's retreating form. "You forgot this from before!"

"Leave me alone!" came Himeka's testy reply from down the street. Horrified, Lynn dashed after the Eevee, juggling the phone from hand to hand as it continued to buzz like an angry Beedril. She prayed fervently that it wouldn't decide to explode in her face and gave a second start of surprise when it started blaring out a musical tune.

Himeka's long ears twitched as the music reached them. Instantly, she was upon Lynn, leaping into the air, snatching the phone away, and landing back on her feet in one fluid motion. As Lynn watched on in confusion, the Eevee cracked open the phone with one paw and pressed an ear excitedly against its surface. "Papa?" she said, eyes lighting up in an expression markedly different from the petulant snarl she had worn just minutes before. Another pause, and the Eevee's small furry face lit up in patent delight. "Yay, yay, yay!" she exclaimed, smiling from ear to ear. "Thanks, Papa! I promise you won't be disappointed! I'll definitely win, win, win!"

With another snap, the phone was closed and Himeka was back to glaring at Lynn. Lynn, for her part, could only shift uncomfortably in place. The sky had almost completely darkened into dusk by now, and it seemed so very cold.

"You got my phone dirty," Himeka said accusingly, indicating the stains of dirt and slime that had come from Lynn's hands with a jab of her small black nose.

"S-sorry."

A shadow in the streetlights fell over the patch of ground that Lynn had been staring so intently. Lynn's eyes traveled slightly upwards to find Himeka standing directly in front of her, head raised and loose red ribbon rippling in the breeze. With an unexpected pang, it reminded her at last of the ribbons that Alouelle always wore in her braids, which would often come undone and fly against her face as well.

"Why are you always saying sorry, sorry, sorry?" Himeka demanded, shaking her ribbon behind her head. "What do you have to apologize for all the time?"

"S-sorry! Ah, I mean…!"

To Lynn's surprise, the Eevee began to giggle. When Himeka laughed, Lynn thought, she looked very different. Before, she had been almost scary in her aggressive ferocity and single-minded convictions. Now...it was as if gazing upon a completely different Pokémon.

A sudden blaze of golden light illuminated the sky above the two of them, accompanied by a deafening boom. Lynn yelped and stumbled backwards, falling on her rear in the middle of the sidewalk. The boom sounded again and again, causing Lynn to crouch forward and cover her ears.

The brush of a small paw against her bare arm startled her even more. "It's just fireworks," Himeka said to the frightened girl. "Man, are you a scaredy cat! Silly, silly, silly!" She giggled again, then turned her gaze skyward. "Oooh oooh, look at that one!"

Lynn followed Himeka's animated pointing just in time to glimpse a tail of light rising from behind the rooftops. It soared into the heavens, bursting apart at the peak of its summit and shedding scintillating streaks in every direction. More lines of light followed the first in dizzying succession, shattering into glimmering fragments that rained across the night sky before dissipating into the all-engulfing darkness. Lynn found herself holding her breath as this otherworldly parade of blooming sparks shot across the abyss above. Unthinkingly, she found herself extending an upturned palm, as if she could catch a handful of these strange falling stars for herself.

"You're really weird," came Himeka's voice from below. The little Eevee broke into a cheeky grin as a startled Lynn looked down. "But I guess that's okay." Tossing her messy undone ribbon over her small shoulder yet again, she marched up to Lynn and extended a paw. "You should come and sit with me in the Festival Tournament tomorrow," she said matter-of-factly. "I'm going to win for sure!"

As more of the so-called fireworks cascaded down in the distance, casting the sky in hues of red, blue, and all the colors in between, Lynn found herself smiling as well. Bending down, she reached out her own hand to take Himeka's small paw.

"I'm Lynn."

The practice yard was empty by the time Eppie returned. "Hello?" the girl called, ambling forward to the courtyard's center. Her own voice provided the only response as it echoed off the high stone walls.

Sighing disappointedly, Eppie sat down in the thick moss at her feet. Her mood quickly shifted as she caught sight of several blue flowers bobbing in the wind. A sunny smile spreading across her face, she flopped onto her stomach and inched eagerly towards them. Her finger was halfway to the outermost petal when a metallic glint caught her eye.

Glancing at the courtyard steps, Eppie spotted a heap of mud-stained cloth: Lynn's old clothes. They looked plain enough, lacking any kind of decoration or metal ornaments. They couldn't have produced the glint that had attracted Eppie's attention before. But then, what else was there? Unable to dismiss what she'd seen, Eppie curiously rose to her feet and walked over. Squinting hard, she bent far, far over…

And there it was! Something shiny just poking out from a shirt pocket. Entranced, Eppie found herself reaching forward with a strange and sudden fervor. The hidden object seemed to grow brighter and brighter the closer Eppie's fingers approached. With a gasp of delight, she closed her hand around the object and eased it out. Her arm trembled with awe as she raised it into the open air.

A metal carving of a fierce bird glittered there, breathtaking with its intricate lines and proud beauty. And dancing in the wind behind the carving were feathers. Big, beautiful rainbow-colored feathers! Eppie stared, transfixed by the play of light against the jewel-like colors. Her index finger descended, reverently stroking the glossy surface.

Then, without warning, the finger tensed. Eppie gasped as her hands began to change, right before her very eyes. The fingernails elongated, forming curved claws. And from the tips of these claws, a darker flush was materializing just underneath her pale skin. It surged up her arms, prickling her flesh as millions of tiny needles sprang up all over her body.

Eppie's jaw opened, but it was not of her own accord. She no longer had any control as her clawed fingers tightened around the Rainbow Wing. Suddenly, the metal surface no longer felt cool and smooth. Now, it was glowing hot orange and sending waves of unbearably hot pain shooting through Eppie's skin.

An unearthly snarl tore through the air, and it was to her immense shock that Eppie realized it had come from her own throat. Wind lashed across her face, twisting tendrils of her hair in all directions, as she took one step, than another, in the direction of the courtyard wall.

Stop! she willed her body, trying desperately to wrench herself back. Please stop! I don't want to jump! I can't!

Another snarl ripped through the air. Eppie felt her muscles burning as they struggled against some fierce unseen force. Then, all of a sudden, her knees were giving way. The last thing she saw before she collapsed was that her hands were shrinking, that the rainbow feathers were slipping out of her grasp.

As she hit the ground, Eppie's eyes slipped out of focus, rolling into the back of her head. The Rainbow Wing landed with a metallic clink in the moss beside her, its feathers rustling in a sudden, bone-chilling wind.

Immediately after this clink, the nearby plants began to stir. First blades of grass, then petite leaves turned in the direction of the Wing and the unconscious girl. There was a combined swish as all the flowers in the courtyard swerved about at the same time. Petals fluttering, they bent their colorful heads not towards the sky, but instead to the ground.

By the time the others returned, an enormous green carpet engulfed the center of the courtyard. And at its middle, shielded beneath a pair of sunflowers, Eppie's face could just be seen. It was wreathed in sleeping bliss, as if nothing whatsoever was out of the ordinary. Even despite her tinged blue skin.