"So this is what was over these things." Aludra said, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. "Boy, we've got a long way to go."
As Aludra spoke, Rigel stopped staring out into the distance and turned to his friends. It wasn't until now that he realized just how long this journey would take, and how hard it might become. For a second, he contemplated turning around and going back to his forest, but he didn't come this far just to turn back now, so he turned and looked out over the world one more time before taking the first step down off the rise, following the winding path down into the shallow valley below.
"Well guys," Meissa said as she followed. "Looks like we have a few places we could go, so where are we headed? I'd personally like to see that forest."
"That's fine with me." Tarazed said as he walked, struggling to keep up with the others. "I'd actually have somewhere to rest besides on the ground. Could you guys slow down?"
"Couldn't you just fly?" Aludra asked. "You're a Staravia, you have wings, use them."
"Hey, if I were to fly then none of you would be able to keep up, and I don't want to keep circling back or stopping and waiting for you." Tarazed said. He then looked at Gauss floating ahead of him and got an idea. "Hey screwloose, how much weight do you think you can carry?"
"This unit is designated as Gauss, not screwloose." Gauss said in it's usual monotone voice. "This unit can carry approximately twenty-three kilograms of weight before movement speed is affected."
"What in the world is a kilogram? Whatever, how many of these kilogram things do I weigh? Do you know?"
Gauss's eye turned blue as it paused for a few seconds. "Searching memory... average weight of Staravia is approximately fifteen point five kilograms, well below this unit's weight limit."
"Ok then, would you mind if I ride around on your head a little while then, since you could easily carry me?"
"Proccessing request... accepted."
Tarazed then took of from the ground and landed on top of Gauss, sitting where one of it's side units met the main body. "Ah, much better. Thanks Gauss. Might take a little nap while I'm up here."
"Taking the lazy way Tarazed?" Aludra said, as she crossed her arms. "I guess I should have expected that."
"It's not laziness." said Tarazed. "I just see no reason to put in that extra effort when I don't have to. Don't be jealous because you can't do this.""
As his friends continued talking, Rigel began slowing down, letting them pass him and moving a little closer to Sapphire, who was walking slowly behind all the others. Her blue fur and gemstones glistened in the sunlight, and Rigel just couldn't keep himself away. "Come on Rigel, say something." he thought as he looked at her. All he wanted to do was talk to her, but it was like his mind just wouldn't let him. "I just don't understand it. I can easily face down an angry Rhydon to help her, but I can't even get some clear words out when I want to talk? What is wrong with me." "Uh, S-Sapphire." He said without thinking.
"What is it Rigel?" Sapphire said quietly as she looked at him.
Rigel tried to think of something, anything. He was so desperate to speak to Sapphire that he hadn't even thought of what he was going to say before. "Oh man, what do I talk about?" he thought. "Should I tell her about my dream? Apologise for not being able to talk to her? Come on, think." "Uh, Sapphire I, um, I'm r-really glad y-you could come w-with us."
"Thank you." Sapphire said, with what looked like a blush appearing on her face. "But I was wondering, why would you want me to come with you? You only just met me yesterday."
"Well, the truth is I, um, it's because I..." He wanted to tell her about how he had seen her in his dreams, that they were destined to meet, but he was afraid of her thinking he was crazy, so he decided to just try and tell her the other reason. "I-it's because I wanted to, um, talk t-to you a bit more, and I th-think that you're very, um..." He froze up before he could get out that last word, the one word he wanted to say. "B-beau-b-b, uh..."
"Very what?" Sapphire said, looking straight into Rigel's eyes.
"Uh, v-very nice." Rigel just couldn't force out the word beautiful, and he dropped his gaze to the ground with a sigh, kicking himself for being too cowardly to say what he felt. "You're very nice."
"Oh." Sapphire said, sounding disappointed as she looked away. "Thank you, you're nice too."
Rigel and Sapphire continued on in silence, occasionally looking at each other, then quickly turning away. Hours passed as the group walked through the shallow valley, with Meissa at the head of the group talking with Aludra, and Tarazed asleep while still perching on Gauss. The mountain path they had been walking on was slowly beginning to twist and turn more frequently while climbing higher, and Rigel soon found himself wondering as to where the path woud lead them as the smoke from the large mountain got thicker overhead. As the sun began to sink below the highest peaks, the group began searching for a place to rest for the night, but there was not much shelter in these mountains, and they made the decision to keep going through the darkness rather than sleep out in the open. While these mountains had been so beautiful in the daytime, they took on an eerie and frightening aspect under the faint moonlight that made it through the clouds of ash. The silence of the night made Rigel uneasy, and he jumped when the howl of Houndour occasionally broke that silence. He looked over at Sapphire and saw that she was visibly scared too, while Aludra seemed calm as she walked, and Meissa skipped ahead joyfully, as if she couldn't be happier. Tarazed was still sleeping while perched on Gauss, and Rigel frowned as he looked at him.
"Of course, Tarazed gets some sleep while we all have to stay up. Maybe if I tell Gauss to turn upside-down..." The thought of waking Tarazed like this caused a smile to form on Rigel's face, but he quickly shook his head and decided against it. "No, I shouldn't do that to Tarazed. He's my friend, even though he can be a jerk every now and again. I guess since he's getting rest, it'll be his job to find us some food in the morning." His smile reappeared as he thought of eating. The last thing he had to eat were a few Charti berries that morning, and his stomach was grumbling loudly.
As the group came around a bend, they saw something far ahead on the path. It was one of those strange creatures, it's upper body being white in color, it's lower body blue, with glass coverings over it's eyes and multiple red and white balls around it's waist. As it noticed them it began talking loudly in a high, nasally voice, seemingly unable to contain it's excitement. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, are those what I think they are? A shiny Lucario, a Magnezone, and some pokemon I don't think anyone has even seen before! I've got to have them!"
"What in the world is this thing talking about?" Aludra said. "Hey you, explain yourself!"
The creature didn't seem to notice that Aludra said anything, and it pulled one of the red and white balls off of it's waist and threw it towards the group while shouting. "Go, Ludicolo! Make these pokemon mine!"
After travelling a few feet through the air, the red and white ball opened as a red beam of light emerged from it and formed into a yellow and green creature with a wide mouth that seemed to be dancing and swaying for no apparent reason. As the blue and white creature yelled out the words "Razor Leaf" the Ludicolo began to spin quickly as several sharp leaves fired from it's body.
"Where did that come from?" Rigel said as he dived out of the way of the leaves. "Hey, what's your problem?"
"Sorry pal." the Ludicolo said in a cheerful voice. "Human's orders."
"So that's a human." said Aludra. "Humans don't look like I imagined they would. And they're dumber than I imagined too if they think one pokemon can beat us all." She then ran toward the Ludicolo and jumped into the air, aiming her knee at it's face.
Seeing Aludra's knee coming straight towards it, the Ludicolo quickly stepped to the side as she passed right by and landed hard on the ground. Using the opening given, the Ludicolo formed an orb of energy on it's head just like Rigel had done when fighting the Rhydon, and ran straight for Aludra, but was stopped as a shadowy fist emerged from below and hit it in the stomach and a wave of malevolent energy struck it in the back. Before the Ludicolo could turn to face it's new attackers, it was also hit with a bolt of electricity and shards of stone. Unable to withstand so many attacks at once, the Ludicolo collapsed as the human threw the red and white ball again, which opened up and released it's red light, which brought the Ludicolo back inside.
"Oh shoot, that didn't work." the human said as it took the other balls off it's waist. "I guess I'll use all of you!" It then threw the balls forward, which opened up to release a Seviper, a Volbeat, a Plusle, a Banette, and a Sableye.
Rigel shivered at the sight of the Volbeat, but his fear turned to anger when he saw the Sableye, and he fired another burst of energy as he ran forward with teeth bared and jumped on top of it. But before he could bite the Sableye, his ears were assaulted by an extremely loud buzzing coming from the Volbeat, distracting him enough for the Sableye to kick him off. Rigel layed writhing on the ground, tormented by the buzzing, until Tarazed flew by and struck the Volbeat with his wing before doing the same to the Seviper.
"Thanks Tarazed." Rigel said as he got back up and aimed a Psycho Cut at the Volbeat. "Take this you stupid bug!" Suddenly he was hit from the side by a Sucker Punch from the Banette, who quickly floated away before Rigel could retaliate, only to be hit by one of Gauss's Flash Cannons. Looking back to the Volbeat, he fired the energy blade, but was only able to land a glancing hit, with Tarazed coming around to hit it again.
Aludra and Sapphire were facing the Seviper and Plusle, dodging electrified tackles and poison while throwing Aura Spheres and large rocks. After ducking under a swing from the Seviper's tail, Sapphire began pulling rock and earth from the ground around her and covering her body with it, before turning it into hard, crystalline armor that stopped another tail swipe without even being scratched. As the Seviper repeatedly struck with bites and tail swipes, trying to get through Sapphire's armor, Aludra came up behind it and grabbed it by the tail, swinging it around and using it like a bludgeon to knock the Plusle out before slamming it on the ground and throwing it away.
Rigel kept fighting the Sableye, which was much tougher than the ones back in the cave, biting it with his energy infused fangs while it slashed him with Shadow Claws. Suddenly Rigel heard the human say to use Flash, and the Sableye released a blinding burst of light from it's eye crystals that caused him to stagger backward before hearing the human order the Sableye to use Rock Tomb. Rigel could barely see because of the Flash, but he heard the sound of a large rock being pulled from the ground, and was thrown back as he was struck by a boulder. Before he could get back up, he heard another rock being pulled up and tried rolling out of the way, but he was too slow, and he cried out in pain as the rock landed on his leg. His vision darkening, he saw the human reach into it's pocket and pull out another red and white ball, before cocking it's arm back to throw it. But before it could, Rigel saw the large rock on his leg get picked up and thrown at it by Aludra, causing it to fall backward as Meissa's shadow rose in front of it. The shadow, menacing the human with arms outstretched, was the last thing Rigel saw before he blacked out from pain and exhaustion.
