The mystery of the crown of Arceus
Chapter 7
The legendary laundry
Darkrai flew so fast, that Cresselia saw herself in trouble to catch up with him; through she flew as fast as possible. So fast, in effect, that when Darkrai stopped for a while in the stairs to the basement, Cresselia crashed from behind Darkrai and fell in her back.
-Uf!- Cresselia exclaimed
-Hey, look where you fly!- Darkrai yelled at her at the time he threw at her a poisonous glare before continuing his flight to the southern hall where the laundry was.
Cresselia followed him and yelled at him from behind:
-Well, at least Heatran didn't melt the crown!-
-Correct! - Darkrai barked from over his shoulder –he didn't melt it. We don't have so much luck-
Cresselia couldn't believe it and shook her head n middle of her flight to the laundry room. To the end of the stairs, they took the hall that led to the kitchen. There, avoiding the Pokémon that cooked, baked and washed the dishes, they crossed the kitchen and continued their flight for another hall. At the bottom there was a door with a small round window.
Pushing the door, Darkrai and Cresselia found themselves in the middle of the laundry room of the Hall of Legends. It was a large room with high roofs of almost fifty centimeters of height. The white walls painted with cal and the lights turned on in the high made the room shine as if were the cleanest place of the world. Many Water- type Pokémon were there. Some carried baskets with dirty clothes to the rows of tubes where the clothes were washed, others rubbed that it was a pleasure. Others pushed carts full of heavy wet clothes. Others, standing in front of large tables, bent the clean clothes. Hundred of special hoppers that descended from all floors and from each workshop and room, headed finally hear, to the laundry. The dirty clothes fell in some baskets. The mouth of each hopper was marked with the number and hall from the room it came from.
Darkrai and Cresselia searched the hopper NG, the one that came from Heatran's workshop. A female Swampert stood under the hopper, and examined the clothes that were in the right basket. Cresselia asked her if she had worked there the day before. When Swampert answered that she did, Darkrai rushed with his interrogatory:
-tell me, yesterday. Did you find something say that… unusual between Heatran's clothes? - Darkrai asked
-What do you mean by "unusual"? - Swampert replied, looking ay Darkrai with not little distrust. Like Arceus' bedroom aids, Swampert didn't trust Darkrai, and talked to Cresselia-: hey, Cresselia, what's going on?-
-We're following the trail of the lost crown- Cresselia explained, and then told her the tale that they knew in that moment and had happened. She told Swampert all the matter of how Ariados had left the crown in Aggron's workshop and this had been accidently picked up by Heatran. And, last, how heatran had thrown it to the dirty laundry not knowing what it contained.
-Now, tell me- Cresselia asked Swampert- are you sure you didn't find a black velvet bag in Heatran's yesterday dirty clothes?-
Hearing this, Swampert had a shock:
-Oh!- She exclaimed- yes, I found something like velvet, I don't know well what it was. But, what does it have to do with anything?-
Darkrai gave a deep sigh
-Sweetheart, that the crown was inside the bag- he said and sounded seriously irritated- frankly, if someone had bothered to look inside the stupid bag, I would not be stuck in this damn mess!-
Swampert, looking at the sky, again preferred to talk to Cresselia.
-look, yesterday, while I separated Heatran's dirty clothes in light and dark colors, I found the patch of velvet and placed it aside because, obviously, it couldn't be washed with the rest, it needs to be washed in a special way-
Cresselia nodded. The thing had a lot of sense, and asked her?
-Very well, then, where did you put it?-
Swampert did a long pause
-you know… I'm not sure-
Darkrai made an adequacy laugh
-good thing- he said with a false tone –tomorrow, during the audience in which I must explain myself, I will simply say that we tracked the crown to the laundry room. But there, we arrived at a blind alley, for the simply reason that Swampert couldn't tell where she had left the Pokémon world's most appreciated thing-
Saying this, he turned, not before adding:
-This is a terrible waste of time!-
Swampert was trembling slightly
-No, wait! - Swampert yelled
Darkrai stopped and turned
-let me remember each one of my steps- Swampert said, now directing at Cresselia- maybe I can remember what happened with the velvet bag that way-
Then, Darkrai and Cresselia followed Swampert to the cart deposit.
-yesterday in the evening, after organizing Heatran's dirty clothes, I picked up a cart and threw it there- Swampert said as she picked out a cart to show them- I placed the white clothes in a basket and the black or colored in another; I placed the velvet bag in the bottom of the cart-
Now the two legendaries, Darkrai and Cresselia, followed Swampert, who pushed the cart in direction to the washing tubs.
-Then- Swampert continued- I placed Heatran's light clothes in the water and left the basket next to the tubs-
They followed him to the sinks.
-I rubbed some spots in a dark cloth here-
Back at the tubs Swampert added:
-Then I placed the dark clothes in the water and left the basket in front of the tub while washed-
They followed her again to the area of the cart deposit and, while she tied the one she had taken, added:
-And, for last, I brought back the cart and took a rest while I left the clothes in the water-
At that point, she placed her hand in her forehead.
-I suppose I forgot to take the velvet bag out of the cart before giving it back in place- Swampert confessed ashamed.