Chapter Three
"Travelers, the Nighthawk will be docking for Portsburg in a matter of minutes," A voice boomed over the intercom.
Colby and Ellis went there separate ways to get their stuff. This was the moment Colby had been waiting for from the start of this three-week journey. The moment that she would arrive in the bustling dock city, Portsburg. Truthfully, she hadn't planned anything past getting off the ship. As she stood there with her knapsack, waiting for Ellis, two things, panic and loneliness struck her… Where was she going to go? What was she going to do? At the time of the run away…it seemed like a good idea. Or the leaving Hecate part did. Her mind wandered back to little Eddie and how she longed to have a Pokémon of her own to care for. The depressed part of her mind was screaming at how much of a sap she was being. But it didn't hurt to dream…did it?
"Hey," Ellis said from beside her.
Colby was startled, not hearing him come up. His messed up green hair was sticking out in all directions and his bottomless blue eyes gleamed with excitement. Over his shoulder, he was carrying his old grey knapsack with all the buttons on it.
"Ready to step foot off this boat and into Aurora? They are docking and letting people off now," Ellis announced happily.
Colby, for the first time in what seemed like forever, smiled the slightest bit. She was ready; ready to be brave, and ready to face whatever this region threw at her.
"Lets go," She said succinctly, but merrily.
Ellis led the way, past the eager passengers to the docking area. The ship let out a whistle that signaled that they had docked successfully. But that sound was more than just a docking signal to Colby. It was more of a symbol of her new life, like flipping a switch from old to new, from bad to good.
They navigated around all of the people and came to the check out area. As they came to the bridge, that leads them across to the dock, someone handed Colby a paper sheet of some sort.
"Everyone have one? Maps! Maps here!" The guy hollered, passing out maps to everyone.
"That's nice of them to give out maps for Aurora…these cost a good buck in the Poke Marts," Ellis explained, looking at his map.
Colby studied the map furiously, while walking and trying not to run onto Ellis. The big red dots were labeled as cities and the smaller green dots, towns or villages.
"Wow…look at the shape…"Colby said aloud, awed by Aurora's interesting shape.
They finally got out of the crowd and crossed the bridge to the road. Colby's foot hit hard ground and she breathed a sigh of relief. She had made it. Ellis fell in step beside her as they walked around the huge city that was called…Portsburg, according to her new map.
"Oh yeah, the shape," Ellis laughed. "Looks kind of like a Staru on steroids doesn't it? Except this interesting shape has a story that goes along with it…more like, a legend actually."
Colby's interest sparked…a legend with Aurora? No one had ever told her anything about something like that. Boy, this place was getting better and better. She had always been interested in fairy tales, the impossible, and legends.
"A legend?" She echoed quizzically.
Ellis smiled his signature peppy smile, "Oh, are you interested in hearing about it?"
Colby rolled her eyes, "If you ever tell me, you carrot."
Ellis looked puzzled by that obviously newly earned nickname, "Um…Carrot?"
"Yeah…carrots have green tops don't they?" Colby retorted with a smile.
"Ah, clever aren't you? But did you notice that I happen to be wearing no orange! If you want to hear the legend of Aurora you better start being a bit nicer to me," Ellis fired back with a returning smile of silliness.
Colby rolled her eyes again, "Oh, just tell the story."
"Before I get started, there is a little café here on the right. You hungry?" Ellis asked, pointing toward the end of the cobblestone street.
On the corner stood a little brick building, obviously standing out from the other shiny buildings. It had a homey look about it and had an original sign out front that said CAFÉ in curly letters. Just as she was about to say that she was fine, Colby's stomach grumbled towards the other answer.
Ellis laughed, "I'll take that as a yes."
They hopped up onto the curb and entered the small café. Inside was just how Colby's mind had pictured it. Along the walls, pictures of beautiful scenery from Aurora lit up the room. The tables were simple square tables and chairs, all wooden. Booth's lined the walls along with some more wall decorations of all sorts and shapes. Ellis led them over to one of the open booths and Colby sat opposite him, sinking into the seat.
"Ok…so about that legend?" Colby prompted, eager to hear.
Ellis rolled his eyes, "Your very impatient! Shouldn't we at least get our food first?"
Colby sighed and grabbed a menu to study. The menu was fairly generic and had all the normal things. Hamburger and fries, onion rings, chicken fried steak, hotdog, steak, and a whole bunch of other things. Colby scanned over the items quickly and decided to go old school, chicken fingers with fries. A perky looking waitress with light auburn hair took their orders quickly, and then ran off again almost as quickly as she had come.
"We have ordered Ellis, you can spit it out now," Colby practically begged.
"Oh all right, alright, don't have a hernia," Ellis stopped and grabbed his map out of his grey knapsack.
He pointed to the middle shape that looked a bit like a Staru. Around the big island, five hook like, claw islands surrounded the middle one. Each of the claws was connected to the middle one by two bridges on each side of the claw.
"Now, after looking at the map a bit, what do those claws look like to you?" Ellis asked.
Colby studied the claws curiously…it almost looked like…but, how was that possible?
"You may call me crazy…but to me it looks like that at one time the claws were part of the center island…?" Colby suggested.
Ellis's eyes lit up, "Yes! Well, the legend of Aurora has lots to do with these claws. In the legend, there once was a time before humans had settled this land, in which all the claws were joined with the middle. But then something catastrophic happened that ripped them apart. Most say that there once was a great trainer in the sky named…well, no one knows his real name so we call him Scar. Scar was once one of the best trainers of the sky known to all of the regions, but as he slowly turned dark, he formed an enemy. Her name was Faye and she was the only one who stood up to Scar's malice. So, one day came when Scar's anger boiled over and he went after Faye. The battle was fierce, his red malice against her white purity. In the end, Scar was victorious, but in the process of the battle, Aurora was ripped apart. Thus, the five claw islands," Ellis finished, taking a drink of his water.
Colby was stunned by the legend. This great Region had a dark history. You sure couldn't find anything like that in Hecate! The waitress interrupted her thoughts by setting a steaming plate of chicken and fries in front of her. "And I'm assuming the hamburger goes to you?" The waitress asked, giving Ellis a secret little smile.
Ellis smiled back, but not flirtatiously like she was.
"Yes ma'am that would be mine thanks."
She giggled and sat the plate down, "Can I get you anything else?" She asked, ignoring Colby's presence and existence across from Ellis.
"No, I think we are fine," Ellis replied. She smiled another smile and nodded, "Let me know if there is anything at all you need, my name is Natasha."
Ellis gave her a thumbs up and she gave one final giggle before she disappeared again.
Colby sighed, "Are you immune to her?"
Ellis looked confused as he took a bite of his burger, "What do you mean?" Colby rolled her eyes, "She was flirting with you, you dinguss! Did you not even notice the bug eyes she was giving you and the smiles?"
Ellis shrugged, "Yeah…so what?"
"Oh, never mind, just forget I ever said anything. Back to the legend…I have a few questions."
Ellis munched on a fry, "Shoot."
"What happened to Faye? I mean after the battle. If Scar was victorious…does that mean Faye just…?"
Ellis shrugged, "No one knows what happened to Faye. Some say she just disappeared, but others think she wasn't completely defeated and that she will return some day to re-duel Scar. I personally think that she wasn't and will rise again to finish the battle."
Colby thought about it…she always was one who doubted the truth and always reached for the impossible. She decided that was the theory that she would choose to believe also.
"I agree with you Ellis…but what did you mean by 'trainers in the sky'?" Colby asked, munching on her crispy chicken fingers.
"This is how my father told me the story…so I'm not exactly sure. But I did do some research on the legend... Most say that Scar and Faye were Stellar Spirits."
Colby was really interested now, "What are Stellar Spirits…?"
Ellis took another bite of his burger and chewed slowly.
"Well, the concept is kind of difficult to understand…though I will try my best to explain it to you. The belief is that once a great trainer dies, and this works for Pokémon too by the way, they become kind of a spirit. I'm not talking about your ordinary spooks, but more like a spirit with real body and power."
Colby was confused, how could you be a spirit and have a real body at the same time?
"Wait…you just said Scar and Faye were spirits. How can a spirit have a real body and power if they are dead?"
Ellis took a drink of his water and sighed, "I told you it was difficult to understand. Um…well, they aren't really dead. Their body is physically dead, but their soul still is present. Legend goes that their actual bodies were killed in The Great Battle, but their souls kept fighting. The powers that they had as live beings, stayed with their soul and fought if that makes a bit more sense. The soul underwent a separation from the body at physical death because of the intensity. I know, it's extremely confusing."
For some reason this explanation of the Stellar Spirits and The Great Battle was ringing a bell for Colby. It was as if the Battle was familiar in some way or another…but she couldn't put her finger on the reason.
"Okay, I sort of understand now…though it's a bit strange." Colby said, with the story running through her mind at hyper speed.
"Any more questions?"
Colby shook her head and finished off her chicken, "Not the moment, but I'm almost positive that I will have some later."
Ellis smiled and put away his map of Aurora. Natasha returned with a receipt and sat it on the table.
"That will be 4.75," She said in her girly voice.
She gave Ellis another one of her puppy eyes looks and he just ignored her again. Colby shuffled around in her bag, and grabbed some money. By the time she got it out, Ellis had already given Natasha a 5.
"Just keep the change, thanks." He said to her plainly.
Colby put away her money and resisted the urge to knock Natasha in the head. She seemed like a real dimwit. She smiled one last smile at Ellis an ran off, "Have a nice day!" She called over her shoulder.
Ellis rolled his eyes, "She's desperate."
Both of them bust out laughing, and for Colby it felt good. She hadn't laughed in a while.
"Ready to hit the road?" Ellis asked.
Colby nodded, grabbed her stuff and hauled herself out of the booth. They exited the café and continued down the cobblestone street, passing people and Pokémon of all types. The buildings of Portsburg seemed to reach to the sky. They gleamed in the sunlight, reflecting back a brilliant silver sheen.
"Why are those buildings so…shiny?" Colby asked Ellis, who was looking out over the water.
"The invention of some new type of metal alloy I think. They found it to keep in heat or cold easier and still be strong at the same time. I forget the name, but its used in most of the buildings in Portsburg," Ellis explained. Colby nodded and watched all the people pass by her with Pokémon…it sort of mad her sad that she wasn't one of those content city folks out for a stroll with their Houndour.
Ellis steered to the right and went down an alley between two streets. It was fairly clean and well lit, except for a few scraps of trash by the big blue dumpster on the right.
"We have got to go through these back alleys to get to the main road. It's just faster and we can avoid the crowds. When ships dock, there is usually-" Ellis got cut off by Colby shushing him.
She did a three sixty and listened intently for the sound again. "What was that?" She whispered.
Ellis looked confused, "What? I didn't hear anything-"
He was cut off by the sound again. They both fell into silence and heard something like whining coming from somewhere in the alley. It sounded like whimpers of distress or pain.
"Where is that coming from?" Colby whispered.
Ellis stayed quiet and listened intently. It sounded like it was coming from, surprisingly, the dumpster. Colby started toward the dumpster, but Ellis stopped her.
"Wait…you don't know what is making that sound…you have to be careful."
"I know…but something tells me it's not dangerous. I'll be okay," She assured him.
She padded forward and attentively lifted the heavy, metal lid of the dumpster. What she saw made her gasp with horror. It was a Pokémon.
A/N: Review and let me know what you think! :)
