A Journey to the End
Chapter 2:
An hour later, after leaving the territory of the Zubat infested cave, we began to head up a mountain trail. I watched as boulders and large stones fell down the side of the mountain, crashing to the ground below.
I turned to look at Skye.
"That sure does look dangerous," Skye said, a worried look on his face, "What if we got hit by one of them? None of our moves could destroy even the 'small' ones."
"Well, there's no other paths leading from here and the closest one if we go back is five miles away, so I guess we just need to face it head on." I said, a determined look in my sparkling eyes.
Skye nodded his head in agreement, though he had a scared look on his face.
I took one step and cringed as I heard another boulder slam to the ground.
I thought to myself, "Come on, you've got to be strong! This journey was so that you could become a stronger pokemon." The thought faded away as the ring of the other Eevee's voices rang in my head," Loser!" they would call out as I fell to the ground.
"What's wrong, Clover?" Skye said, concerned.
"Huh? Oh, nothing," I said, snapping out of my trance.
I continued to take another step, hearing another boulder crash to the ground, I cringed then forced myself to take another step onto the cracked, rocky ground.
"You sure you're okay?" Skye said again.
"Yes!" I snapped, turning around to head up the trail. I had a strange feeling, I felt angry, but I wasn't, I was so confused.
I shook my head and continued to walk again, this time with no cringing or thoughts.
I peered out of the corner of my eye; Skye was giving me a confused and concerned look, but continued on with no comment.
Thirty minutes later, I still had the same angry feeling, and then I felt sad.
I began crying. "Ok, what's wrong with you? You never act this…emotional." Skye said.
"I don't know," I said, "I just seem to have a strange feeling that I'm being controlled mentally. It may just be the excitement, I just feel so confused."
Skye gave a worried stare as he continued to jump from stone to stone, heading upward to the top of the mountain.
I looked away to avoid eye contact, and then continued, following the same path.
An hour later, the mountain path began to get steep, so before going any farther, we decided to stop and take a rest on large, flat stone extruding off the side.
I pulled a few apples from the small knapsack I carried around my shoulder. We filled our hungry tummies with the fresh fruit, rested, then headed up the steep trail.
Twenty minutes after leaving the comfort of the rock, Skye was dragging along, huffing and puffing his way with each and every small step he made.
"Skye," I said, shaking my head in disappointment, "Do I just need to not feed you? After you eat, you always drag along."
"I'm. Fine." He said, in a not so reassuring tone.
"Yea, you sound like it." I sarcastically said.
Skye cut his dark green eyes at me, and I smiled.
I looked around for an easier path up the mountain, no luck, there was one way, and one way only, unless you could fly, and that wasn't happening for us.
Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard far away. We saw the dark smoke begin to cover the mountain in its mystifying haze.
I turned to look at Skye and saw a blur run past me; he was already speeding up the mountain, running at full force. Quickly, I followed, calling out for Skye to wait up, but the smashing sounds of the boulders drowned out my voice from catching up to the quickly ascending Skye.
Skye stopped at the top of the mountain, about a mile up, I following behind.
"Whoa." Skye said in amazement.
As I reached the top of the mountain, I took a deep breathe and looked out into the horizon.
It was horrid. The sky was dark with smoke; we continued to see explosions in the far away distance. We could see the contrast in the mountains to the distance. The closest mountain's clouds were white as fresh snow, the trees and vegetation a bright green. The farthest mountain we could see that was closest to the explosions, its clouds were black and the trees and vegetation there were brown and rotting.
Suddenly, we heard a voice behind us.
"Hey, wait up! "The pokemon said running up to us," What was the rush? I heard the explosion and was going to come up here with you all, but you were too fast for me, and sorry, but I was kind of snooping into ya'lls conversation. Oh, I'm being rude, I'm Raezor and I'm a Quilava."
Skye stayed silent on the first question.
"Oh, that's ok, and nice to meet you Raezor." I said smiling.
"Hello." Skye said softly; Skye's not much on meeting new pokemon.
I looked at Skye for a moment, then continued on. "So, where are we exactly?"
"This mountain is named Rolling Mountain One, but the pokemon that live here call it Death Hollow." Raezor said, looking into the distance as he finished speaking.
"What!" I said, alarmed, "Why do they call it that?"
"Because anything and anybody that comes through here wanting to pass through the rugged terrain only makes it to where you see that blast coming from, pokemon say they are being controlled so to speak."
I was in amazement. "I, I know how they feel. On the way up here I was an emotional mess. Actually, I'm still having feelings that I don't know why I have them. Have you had them?" I said, glowing.
"No, I did when I was first born and also when I was a young Cyndaquil, but I've lived here my whole life and have gotten used to it."
"What's that blast anyway, you said all the pokemon that have tried to come through this only made it that far?" I asked.
"Yes, all the pokemon are at the center of that blast or blasts as I should say. There is a massive war going on between all of them pokemon. At the very end, right before you get there, there is a fork in the road, so depending on which one you take determines which team you are on."
"How many pokemon do you think there are total?"
"Over three thousand." Raezor said, glaring at us, "Enough power to destroy the world."
"What? We've got to stop them!"
"You two? Not to ruin your party, but you wouldn't make it."
"Maybe you could-" I was saying as Skye jerked my ear pulling me back.
"What are you doing? You barely know that pokemon and you want him to come with us?" Skye whispered sternly.
"I'm not going to let the world end because of some pokemon war, and we can't do it alone. Raezor knows about this place, he could help us greatly."
Skye sat there, looking back and forth between me and Raezor. "Let's go." He finally said.
As soon as I heard Skye's agreement, I ran back over to Raezor. "Would you like to come along and help us stop the madness that has become of this place?"
Raezor turned to look at the blast, as a tear rolled down his cheek.
"What's wrong?" I asked, worried.
He wiped the tears from his face. "I'm definitely going," he said, looking away, "My mother and best friend are in that war and I WILL be the one to save them, or die trying."
"That's horrible." I said, rubbing his shoulder with my paw.
"Are we going or not?" Skye said angrily.
I gave him a confused and stern look.
"Well, are we!" he growled.
"Yes." I finally said, still glaring at the newly angered Skye.
Raezor rubbed the tears from his eyes and cheeks and turned to us. "Do either of you happen to have a map?"
"Yes, right here." I said, pulling the map from my back pouch.
I opened the map and pointed. "Right there we are."
"This won't help us," Raezor said, "I guess the only worth while maps of over there are made by the elders of the area."
"So, where is an elder that could help us?"
"Lives in a cave, about four miles away." Raezor said.
"Do you know the way?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then let's go." I said excitedly.
"That four miles is the longest you'll ever travel," Raezor said, staring deeply into my eyes.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"First, you'll pass a few territories of some of the strongest pokemon here, such as Absol, Onyx, Arbok,maybe Luxray if they haven't moved on to the next area. After that you'll have to climb over a 1,873 feet tall mountain that comes up right in the gulley. At the very end you will be lucky enough to get to swim through Tentacruel infested waters, about as big as a small sea." Raezor explained.
My jaw dropped.
"But if you're willing to go through all that, I'll come with you and after we get there and get the map, a bird pokemon, more than likely a flock of Swellow, will bring us back here. Plus, the maps that the elderly Zangoose , Zaide, there makes are the best and most trustworthy." He continued to explain.
"Well, let's go!" I said, putting my fist in the air, Raezor doing the same.
Author Note: Yay!A new milestone for the team to achieve and looks like Clover has found a new friend, while Skye isn't much into it jealousy or Skye's shyness? We'll have to find out! Thanks for reading!