Something was nudging the side of my head, urging me to open my eyes. Not feeling as though I had enough sleep, I groaned in protest. Instead of going away, the force kept on poking my head. Wearily, I moaned again, a sliver of pale light appearing in my vision as I let an eye peek. Nothing of interest; I closed my eye again, and tried my best to resume sleeping.
"That's funny," I heard a young voice somewhere off in space, "he's not moving."
"Let him sleep a bit more," I heard another voice, this time belonging to a female, "you tend to wake people too early." Aurora did sound a little tired as well. I heard Mandite's feet scuffle on the ground.
"Aurora," he gasped, "I think he's dying!" There was a exasperated sigh from the female lucario.
"Don't leave me, Lucario!" Mandite cried out in a mock, heartbroken tone, "I won't have anyone to play chess with!" And, to my great surprise and displeasure, I felt Mandite grab the scruff of my neck and began to shake me vigorously. My eyes flung open, my brain feeling rather bruised.
"Mandite, let go!" I barked, "I'm fine!" Unfortunately, Mandite continued to shake me, despite my terse response.
"No Lucario don't do this to me!" Mandite bawled, "Don't die now!"
"If you continue to make my head discombobulated, then I will die!" I cried in dismay, my head pounding, "Now, if you please, let go!" Mandite snickered, and let go of me, causing me to fall back. My back hit the ground hard, and I grimaced. The little warrior skipped around to the other side of the tree to put on his armor, humming cheerfully.
"Why must you go and make a fool of yourself all the time?" I muttered, sitting back up again, rubbing my head. Aurora smiled sympathetically as Mandite called,
"Me? Oh ho ho, nonsense! It is you making a fool of yourself, laying there like a dead body."
"Why couldn't you just let him sleep?" Aurora complained for me. Mandite peeked around the tree, putting on a shoulder plate, his jade eyes flashing.
"Early birds get the worms," he said matter of factly, "or, early Mandite gets the donut." He added afterwards, a smug smile on his face. Aurora rolled her eyes, sighing. I loved it when she did that – it reminded me of the times when she was bothering me, except this time she was the one being bothered.
"You're always thinking of eating, aren't you?" I muttered to myself before saying, "But, what if you were the one who wanted to sleep and I was the one shaking you like a leaf?" Mandite only laughed, slipping on his mask.
"As if that's ever going to happen," he chuckled, "I want my donut, thank you very much." I snorted in response, rising to my feet. As I stood, my head hit one of the lower branches of the tree with a hard "thud!". I winced, paw over the inflicted area, and sat right back down. Aurora giggled, watching me. Feeling rather clumsy and embarrassed, my face became hot.
"That's not funny!" Mandite said in a disapproving manner, "Hitting your head on a branch hurts a lot, you know." Instead of watching Aurora feel guilty, I supported her.
"It's not as if you were ever tall enough to hit yours on a branch, anyways." Aurora smiled at me, and I winked back, grinning. Meanwhile, Mandite was in utmost distress.
"That's not nice!" he wailed. Apparently, I found one of Mandite's weak points – it seems to me he hated being picked on for his height.
"You deserved it," I called back to him.
"Since when?" he spat, "I was thinking about giving this fortune cookie to you, but I guess I'm going to eat it myself." He dangled the wrapped treat with his hand. I haven't ate a fortune cookie for a while, and his taunt sparked some longing in me.
"All right, I'm sorry," I apologized, "may I have the cookie, please?" I could tell Mandite was smirking under that mask of his with the mere pleasure of getting me to shut up. He tossed me the fortune cookie, which I caught and examined it. It was broken – again. There was some, new, cookie-message for me from Giratina, I presume.
"That's one of the last ones left," Mandite said, as he zipped up his backpack before hoisting it up on his head, "so enjoy it while it lasts!" This comment made me stop and think for a moment. Meanwhile, Mandite walked past us, his backpack bouncing on the top of his head as he hummed happily.
"I thought you bought a lot more fortune cookies from the Chinese restaurant back at the city." I pointed out, "What happened to them?" Mandite stopped in mid step, and let loose a laugh.
"You're not the only one who eats those cookies, Lucario," the little warrior laughed, "my tummy gets hungry for fortune cookies, too!"
"Yes I know, but that much?" I said with disbelief. To this, Mandite only shrugged casually, not really caring too much, as he continued to walk.
"I didn't eat dinner yesterday, so what do you expect?" I sighed, shaking my head, silently offering the two pieces of fortune cookie to Aurora. Surprised, Aurora shook her head.
"No, Lucario,"
"Take them," I said, my other paw closed around the slip of paper, "go on." Hesitantly, Aurora reached out and took a piece, leaving me with the other. Carefully nibbling her half of the cookie, I read the tiny slip of paper.
Be cautious. Someone may be following.
I felt cold chills run up and down my spine. What could Giratina mean this time? Thinking back to last night's events, I felt I had a guess, and it was not good for us. Knowing Aurora knew nothing about Bruno, I didn't say anything about the slip of paper. I crumbled it in my paw, planning to add it to the rest of the slips of paper that Mandite had collected over the course of this journey. Even though I planned to keep the dream a secret from Aurora until I felt that she needed to know, I obviously wasn't covering that terrible fact with my expression.
"Lucario," Aurora asked, sounding worried, "are you okay?"
"Yeah – just tired," I said, nodding. Aurora's gaze softened a bit.
"Don't crash into any trees then, all right?" she said, giving me a pat on the shoulder. I smiled at her, feeling the warmth of my emotions flooding my body.
"I'll try my best," I answered.
"HEY! IS ANYONE COMING?!!"
~*~
By the time the sun had rolled to a high point in the sky, my mind was sharp and keen as if it did have a good night's rest. The forest floor here was made of stray needles from the low lying coniferous trees along with what the trees grew on – white stone. There were dried shrubs that grew in splits within the rock, but otherwise, the only vegetation were those trees. I had a vague memory about this place – it was bright and hot, like some alien world. This time, as I passed through here nine years older, it wasn't quite as hot, due to the fact autumn was beginning to pass into winter. It still looked the same, nonetheless. For a while, none of our voices had spoken as we traveled. We had nothing to say of importance. Filling in the silence was the wind rushing through the large ravines that split each rock island from each other, the echoes of a distant pokemon magnified by a canyon, and the sound of our feet marching across this deserted land. All this time, I was scanning around, looking for some ominous shadow skirting in the distance. Mandite seemed as though he was keeping watch, too.
"Ah crap," Mandite complained, finally adding voice to our silence, "I can't see beyond that big boulder." I could see what was beyond it, but I was not as low to the ground as Mandite was.
"Maybe if you walked on stilts, then you could see," I joked, the silence tiring me. Mandite looked back and glared at me as Aurora suppressed a laugh with a paw.
"Think you can be funny for your -" I gritted my teeth and used my paw to gesture to not say anything at all. I could feel Aurora eyes on my back.
"- buddy?" Mandite, quickly switching his words around, and I sighed with relief. Sometimes, I wished Mandite did not say anything at all. As Mandite turned right from the boulder, I felt an instinct that was pulling my insides to the left. It reminded me of when I was young, when I had a home to go to. No matter how far I swam out to sea, I found my way back, through strong currents and storms. There was this one time, in which my tiny riolu body was swallowed by a gyrados. Frightened, but remaining calm, due to my strength in the water, I swam out of the mouth at the right time. I gasped for breath at the surface in unknown water territory. However, I could find home – I swam for a day before collapsing on the shoreline before the beach cave where my parents were waiting for me. I always wondered how come I had this gut instinct that could find home when I needed to, and now that question may have an answer. When I asked mother about this feeling, she said that she had experienced it, too. Father didn't.
I guess this trait was passed down from my famous ancestor, Sir Aaron's lucario. He certainly had a knack of finding anyone without even knowing them, but what about his home? We would never know. I only suppose that he did, but never followed that strong feeling.
There was a question I had, though, in my mind. How come I just experienced this pull now? What about when I decided we would go to the western coast, where my home was located? How come I didn't feel anything at all? This part worried me – was my senses becoming dull from all these years of nomadic life? I am very certain I wish to keep this special homing instinct, but after this whole affair is over, where is home?
The pull was becoming more sharp, signaling my old memories of this experience – we were getting closer. And, so far, we have found only one sealed portal.
"This way, Mandite," I said, walking to the right. Mandite looked back at me with a puzzled expression that could be obviously seen through his mask.
"I thought west was that way," Mandite said, pointing the direction in which he was walking.
"You're going to hit a dead end that way," I said simply, "let's go this way."
"Since when did you become a walking GPS?" Mandite exclaimed to particularly no one, "Soon you're gonna be spouting off things like, 'make a legal right turn,' or something else crazy." Not knowing what a GPS was, I made no sense out of Mandite's comment. I left it be. Instead, my mind turned to more anxious matters as the other two followed my direction.
"Mandite?" I asked, feeling queasy from the thought of it.
"Yeah?"
"What if we don't find a portal in the end?" I asked.
"Well," Mandite said in a tone that was didn't sound concerned at all, "then we have to scour the land north to south – before Giratina comes and eats us." Although I doubted Giratina would actually eat us for his dinner, I still had a feeling that Giratina would punish us in some, painful, crude way. The only problem with that fact is that I am protected by Mew, so the possibility of the Lord of the Dead pummeling me is not as likely. But what about Aurora and Mandite?
"Have you ever wondered why this place is really whacked up?" Mandite asked, glancing around. I've never known what this area was called, but I had some answer that seemed to match this place.
"Well, there is a legend that the deities of death and time, Giratina and Dialga, got into a really big fight that could have taken place here while the Sinnoh region was young." I said, "At one point, Giratina created a really powerful attack that sent Dialga crashing into the ground, creating a great crater in the shape of that deity. Fissures split the rock from that impact, all branching out from the massive crater. Eventually, a jungle grew over, sealing that spot."
"That would explain all these rock islands," Mandite said, "they are definitely not worn down by water – you could plainly see that." I wasn't sure I could see what Mandite was seeing, but he tended to talk in his perspective.
"Do you think we would see Dialga's Canyon here?" Aurora asked. Even though the crater made by Dialga's impact was possibly mythical, many myths are stories basing from fact. Maybe we could find that canyon.
"Maybe," I answered her, glancing around the scenery again. In my mind, I was plotting out a course that will wind us through these maze of rocks. Soon, I spotted a place where we could cross to another rocky platform. Most of the time, we could jump from rock island to rock island over the cracks that separated them, but there were some that were too wide to cross by jumping. There was a wide vein of empty space where the two islands were spit that lay before us fifty yards away, one that we couldn't avoid. Luckily for us, there was a boulder just wide enough to wedge itself in the thinner opening in the ravine, creating a wobbling bridge. I stared at it, slowly approaching as our group trudged forth, wondering if it was safe enough to cross.
"That looks... Convenient," Mandite said, eying the rock. I was very sure that he could see that it was only loosely wedged in place.
"You want to cross on that?" Aurora asked, disbelieving, "It doesn't look safe, Lucario." Glancing back at her, I replied,
"How are we supposed to know if there are any other ways across this divide?" Aurora seemed to hold her tongue, and thought for a moment. Meanwhile, it was Mandite's turn to talk.
"Well, Mr. GPS, I thought you were the one who said we couldn't go that way because you knew it was a dead end." he said, "Surely, you know whether or not there are paths crossing this ravine." Mandite had gotten me trapped in a corner. Defeated, I closed my eyes and sought out my instinct, urging it to tell me answers. In response, I had a confident feeling that there was only one other path – but that was miles away.
"There is one other," I said, "but that one is miles and miles away in the wrong direction – and I am not sure if it is just as dangerous." Mandite nodded, and so did Aurora. Taking a deep breath, the little warrior said,
"I suppose we got to take our chances," We continued to walk on until we were just at the edge of the wide gap that separated us from point B from point A. In between was the boulder, the wind threatening to push it out from its delicate position. After staring at it for some time, we all glanced at each other nervously.
"So," Mandite quipped, "who wants to go first?" The question was answered by a long pause. None of us were willing to go – even Mandite with his pair of small wings. But the job has to get done some time.
"I guess I'll go first," I volunteered, and the others seemed to be relieved, but afraid as well. Mandite surveyed the rock, before nodding.
"You'll be fine," he said, "now let's get going!" I smiled nervously at the other two, and turned away to face this new challenge. It may seem like a small task, going from point A to point B, but this was the longest stretch of wobbling bridge I have ever seen.
"Be careful, Lucario," Aurora called out from behind me. Giving her one last glance over my shoulder, I stepped onto the boulder. Immediately, the shift in weight caused it to rock from side to side. If I took a running start and jumped off this bridge, the force of my feet pushing off from the rock with push it out of place, and then I would leave myself stranded from the others. Instead, I crouched low, so that I could control my balance at ease, and slowly stepped forward, careful when I shifted my weight, each slight movement rocking me back and forth along with the bridge.
It seemed to me that the end of the hazardous path was so far away, even though I was inching towards the middle. No turning back now.
I urged my feet one step at a time. Left foot. Right foot. Breathe. Left foot again. Right foot forward. Breathe. Look up. What I found extremely annoying as I slowly tiptoed across, was that my mind had to be forced into choppy thinking in order to perform these steps correctly. What was extremely nerving was the constant rocking of the precarious bridge over what seemed to be a bottomless ravine. The pads of my paws were wet from perspiration, from fear. Carefully, oh so carefully, each paw step was placed one after another, so meticulously. Even every breath must be at the exact moment.
After what seemed like forever, I daintily lifted my weight from the bridge and onto the other side, at last. Free to breathe, I took several cleansing breaths before looking back to the others. Judging by the motions and rather loud tones, I could tell they were arguing who should go next without even knowing what they were saying. I waited, patiently, as Aurora finally was submitted to go next. For the next several moments – who knew how long that last – I watched her carefully as she, too, inched across the delicate bridge, making sure that she was safe.
The first thing that caught my eye as abnormal was that the bridge was slipping lower and lower down the ravine, edging itself quite near where the inside widened out. The delicate balance between friction and gravity was slowly tipping.
"Keep moving!" I heard Mandite yell to Aurora, and she started to nervously scramble across. Suddenly, there was a loud grinding sound as the rock noticeably slipped farther down the ravine. We all stopped moving, and the bridge, just at the tipping point, wobbled to a stand still. Aurora was as stiff as a statue, and my heart had skipped several beats. Recovering quickly, I decided to offer some comfort for the frightened female.
"Aurora," I knelt down and held out my paw, "I'm here – keep coming," Poor Aurora – she was scared stiff, too afraid to move. Knowing that I couldn't move out onto the bridge to help her, I offered an arm for her to grasp when she reached far enough. With edgy hastiness, Aurora's trembling paw reached out towards mine once she came close enough. There were still some inches in between us, and knowing that Aurora needed the support, I leaned farther and my paw grasped hers firmly. In return, she squeezed it tight, as I helped to pull her in. Once her feet touched solid, stable ground, she flung her arms around me, shaking violently. She must have been really scared – I patted her shoulder gently. I was scared for her, too.
"You're all right, now," I whispered comfortingly, watching as Mandite started to make his way across.
Somehow, the rock didn't seem like it could stick to the walls much longer. Just as Mandite took his fifth step, the rock ground against the wall again, and shook violently as it was rocked from its position. Air escaped from my lungs, and Aurora's grip on paw tightened as we watched the little warrior fall. As gravity caused the boulder to tumble, Mandite sprung from the rock, and managed to grab the edge – right back where he started. It was a saving grace, and I was ever so grateful for that, knowing perfectly well what else could have happened. However, there was a problem, all three pairs of eyes glancing down the ravine – now, the trio had been separated by miles from a single divide. But, new options flooded my mind, from the desperation of thinking we would be separated.
"Mandite," I called to him, "use your wings!" I saw Mandite, brushing the dust from his cape, gaze back with expressionless yellow ovals. The little warrior began to shout back loud enough so I could hear.
"Can't!" What?
"Why?" I hollered back, "Can't you fly? You told us you could fly!" I couldn't hide the panic in my voice.
"I could soar, not fly!" Mandite replied, "There aren't any thermals to carry me across!"
"But you have wings!" Aurora cried out from behind me.
"Just because I have wings doesn't mean I can fly!" Mandite yelled, "My wings are too small and weak to support flight right now! They still have to grow!" Bitterly disappointed, I tried thinking of another option. I looked back soberly at the blue puffball, his cape waving in the light breeze. Then, a new idea struck me.
"Transport yourself over here with that cape!" I shouted, but Mandite remained where he was, backpack on top of his head. Please don't tell me...
"That's too risky!" I heard him holler back, "The cape can't transport me that far!" With no more things to say, I felt my knees weaken. I was so used to having Mandite nearby, so used to watching his back, and him watching mine. Not only he could protect Aurora and I from pokeballs and practically anything else, he was a great friend. And he was a small child – how could I leave him? How could we part from him while this mission is still under way? This insecurity got the best of my voice, and had silenced me. Meanwhile, Mandite remained cool and calm – as usual.
"There's another crossing down east several miles, right?!" His voice traveling just far enough to reach my ears. I nodded, knowing he could see me.
"All right – I'll go there and catch up to you guys!" Mandite said, starting to trot off towards the east, "I'll find you guys, no worries! Don't starve yourselves, and keep moving west!" It amazed me how Mandite could easily pass this as everyday event. Watching the retreating figure, I called out,
"Take care, Mandite!"
"See you later!" I heard the distant voice answer. Closing my paw around Aurora's for my own comfort, I watched by her side as the warrior gradually disappeared from view, still calling out promises to find us soon.
I certainly hope so Mandite.
Again, this is not the greatest chapter. Actually, I think this is my worst. Man... I need to make my writing more interesting. And I need to pick up the pace.
Two things to improve: one - quality, two - pace. I have two weeks to finish this or I don't accomplish my goal, and I'm getting nervous. ^^;