Wendy had just finished up healing her team at the pokemon center, and she couldn't wait to head to the house that Donny told her to go to. After seeing just how strong Donny and his magnemite were in battle filled her with a determination like no other. She happily skipped her way through the old fashioned town of Berry Grove. She ignored the small wooden shops, and the pebbles along the river. She ignored the children running by and the water pokemon splashing about in the puddles.
When she had made her way to the hill, there was a soft breeze blowing through her hair. The gentle scent of fruit from the town was filling up the air. Dragging her feet through the grass, she noticed that it was extra soft, and it was clearly well taken care of. Reaching the top of the hill was a quaint wooden hut. The windows were slightly tinted, and the roof's tiles hadn't been changed for ages. There was a small gravel path leading up to the front door, and beside the path was a small rock that read 'welcome'. Looking around the house and in the back was a big battlefield, and near the battlefield was a small flower garden.
Wendy walked up to the front door and gave it a good knock. She waited a bit and the door had slowly opened. Standing in the door frame was an elderly woman. She was about half the height of Wendy, with wrinkles covering the majority of her skin. Her grey hair was tightly woven into a bun, and to hold it in place was two wooden sticks. She wore a purple robe, and held a twisted cane in her hand.
"Are you Miss Blossom by any chance?" Wendy asked.
The old lady nodded and let out a loud yawn before saying. "Let me guess, Donny right?"
"How'd you know?" Wendy asked.
Miss Blossom licked her dry chapped lips and let out tiny cough. "That boy, is always sending people who lose to his gym here. So I'm assuming you wish to be trained?"
Wendy scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, more or less you get the gist of it,".
"Just to let you know, many people don't survive my intense training. In fact the only person who's made it more than a day is Donny. Are you sure you're up for it?" Miss Blossom responded.
Wendy clenched her fist and looked Miss Blossom in the eye. She clenched her fist and her eyes were filled with determination. "Whatever it takes to get stronger!".
"Hmmmm very good. Now follow me," Miss Blossom said. She reached into her home and grabbed a well worn wooden cane. She walked out of her home taking in the fresh air, taking the lead in walking Wendy around town.
Walking back into the town Wendy took notice at the many different water channels. The channels were just filled and clogged up with garbage and debris from the flash flood upstream. Many of the drains were blocked and many townsfolk were helping to clear them out. Miss Blossom seemed to be following the the troughs finally leading Wendy to a large man made lake. The lake had horribly murky water, large pieces of wood, metal and a thick layer of scum floating on top.
Miss Blossom let out a craggily cough. "For today's training and probably your training for the following week. You're going to be cleaning out the lake, just you, no help from your pokemon, but I can't help it if some of the townsfolk or fellow pokemon in the area decide to help you."
Wendy looked at the task before her, and instantly lost that determination she had earlier in the day. "Wait are you serious? My pokemon aren't supposed to help, but some of the things in here I won't be able to lift. "
Miss Blossom let out a soft chuckle. "A pokemon is only as strong as its trainer."
Wendy thought about it, and knowing how strong Donny was she wanted to see if she could do it. Lucky she had brought some spare clothes she didn't really care about and changed into those. It really only consisted of some jogging pants and a black t-shirt that she had to tuck in. She was also provided with boots and gloves from Miss Blossom.
"Alright Wendy, go ahead and start cleaning the lake, I have to go and run som errands, but I will be back to check up on your progress," Miss Blossom said.
(-0-)
The first few hours of Wendy's day consisted of her trying to lug big logs out of the lake. Luckily for her the lake was just a place to pull water from, and as a result it was only waist deep. Her arms were aching and her legs were burning from just trying pull a single log out of the water. It wasn't exactly the easiest thing in the world, she wanted to obey Miss Blossom and not use her pokemon.
It was about two hours in when Wendy had given up on trying to move anything heavy and settled for starting to remove the scum on top of the lake. It was much easier, although she did get a few odd looks from people who thought she was some girl who liked playing with the scum. She was starting to get bored of cleaning the lake, it was long and tedious work. There was nothing to mix it up until like an angel from above someone had come to help her out.
A sharp craggily voice came from the shore line, when Wendy's head had turned to see who was calling her, she recognized that it was the same person from last night. Jackal cupped his hands over where his mouth would be. "I never got your name, what is it?"
Wendy walked over to Jackal in a wet, stinky sweaty mess. She wiped her forehead and tried to look someone what decent while doing it. "My name is Wendy, you know... you look a lot less sketchy during the day."
Jackal let out a soft chuckle. "So what's a cute girl like you doing cleaning this lake? Oh wait let me guess... was it Miss Blossom?"
Jackal's chuckle made Wendy crack a smile. "Wow, you told me she was your old mentor, you must have known her well. She's been gone for a good while is she ever planning on coming back?"
Jackal reached out his hand and pulled Wendy out of that disgusting lake. "Here why don't you get dressed up, and I can tell you about Miss Blossom and how she likes to train people."
Wendy let out a soft chuckle. "Normally I'd think I'm being kidnapped, but anything beats this." Wendy had to go to the public showers in the town, she was given some soap to use from Jackal, and she quickly freshened up before heading to a small shopping area with him.
The shopping area was mostly outside filled with food vendors and self made salesmen. It was unbelievably busy with little kids running around, adults having a good time, and many different couples enjoying the community. Wendy's eye lit up at the sight of caramel apples being sold, she quickly fell in line and Jackal walked up to join her.
While standing in line a thought came across Wendy's mind. "Jackal... with that mask of yours, how do you eat?"
Jackal sort of stared at Wendy for a bit. "Uh... I take off my mask."
Wendy let out a soft giggle poking Jackal in the shoulder. "I thought you'd say something stupid like." Wendy fixed her voice to sound a lot deeper. 'Oh I don't eat at all.'
Jackal paid for the caramel apples and the two of them decided to continue walking in the shopping district. In the end Jackal ended up giving Wendy his apple once she had finished hers. As the walked by multiple shop vendors Wendy brought up the question of.
"So you said that Miss Blossom was your mentor, so since I plan on training under her, what does she do in terms of training," Wendy asked.
Jackal scratched the back of his head and let out a loud sigh. "So let me assume that Donny the Berry Grove Gym Leader sent you to her place to train right?" When Jackal saw Wendy nod in response he continued on. "That woman is a demon, it's not good to get involved with her or anyone who follows her. Once I learned the truth of what she's really after, I cast myself away from her. Uh... here hold on follow me."
Jackal held onto Wendy's hand and begun to pull her through crowds of people. It wasn't like a heavily packed crowd as Berry Grove Town was still a relatively small town, but being pressed up against multiple people was still slightly uncomfortable. Eventually being pulled through all the crowds Wendy found herself being pulled down a forest trail. The forest had dense canopy with little to no sun poking through the leaves. The sounds of different bug type pokemon could be heard in the distance, but none of that mattered when Jackal had finally pulled her to a shrine she recognized well.
The shrine was the Bridge Shrine, it was the major shrine built all over Yava. The Bridge Shrine represented how Yava is supposed to be a bridge between words. The actual shrine itself was in amazing condition. The cyan tinted roof fit perfectly well with the dark oak logs that supported it. Beneath the roof was a pedestal, the pedestal itself was the interconnection of Three Bridges blocked off by Three Gates, and by legend could only be unlocked by Three Keys. Off to the side of the pedestal were multiple offerings towards the three beings who the shrine was dedicated to. These beings in the Yava region where known as Mind, Body and Soul, but to other regions some might call them Time, Space and Rift.
Jackal bowed before the shrine and so did Wendy. It was right in the minds of people native to Yava to bow before this one shrine. Jackal let out a soft prayer to the three beings before standing back up. Wendy said her thanks to the three beings before standing up as well.
"The Bridge Shrine is quite beautiful isn't it? All three depend on each other, but are yet part of the same system. But you're probably asking why I brought you here," Jackal said.
"Yeah sure, but what does all this have to do with Miss Blossom?" Wendy wondered.
"Wendy, Miss Blossom is not who she seems to be. Have you perhaps heard of a group called 'Perfection'?" Jackal asked.
Wendy let out a long exasperated sigh. "Geez... you're seriously gonna talk about them. That stupid sacrificial cult that has caused more than enough problems around the region. Oh my god... you're edgy as fuck... you're gonna try and make me join aren't you."
Jackal took a step back in shock. "What no oh god no! I'm not going to make you join them. I hate that cult as much as the next guy. All I'm trying to say is that you shouldn't train under
Miss Blossom... uh how do I get you to trust me." Jackal thought on this for a moment, he knew he'd have to show Wendy who he was. "Alright Wendy, I will show you who I am, we've never met in the past before, but please keep my identity a secret."
Wendy took a step back but nodded in response.
"Alright, I won't show you my face, but I will show you the pokemon I trust with my life. He should be proof enough of who I am," Jackal said. He reached into his cloak pulling out a rusted pokeball. He tossed the pokeball up into the air, and out of the pokeball shot out a bright white light. Forming in front of Jackal was the clear shape of dragon type pokemon. It's big beefy arm, thick legs and tail, but tiny wings was a clear sign of what it was going to be.
In front of Wendy stood a dragonite with a cloth slinked over its right arm. The cloth was black and covered with what appeared to be black dragon scales. On where the cloth met dragonite's shoulder was the official Yava Elite Four Emblem. Then it suddenly just clicked with Wendy who exactly Jackal was.
Wendy couldn't believe the person who stood before her. "No way... y-you're Dragon Master Jason Malfous, the second strongest elite four member."
"Yes that's me. Now onto the subject at hand. Do not train under Miss Blossom, she is a powerful member within the cult 'Perfection.' I understand that you need to beat Donny, he's oblivious to who Miss Blossom is, but either way he's a strong trainer. How about I train you instead. I think we should start off by picking flowers, oh also please keep calling me Jackal all right." Jackal said.
"Yeah sure anything you say sir!" Wendy excitedly said.
Off in a back room of the Berry Grove Gym Donny was doing some of his basic paper work for the town. The office itself was incredibly messy, there were crumpled balls of paper everywhere, and a thick layer of dust on the file cabinet off in the corner. His paper work mostly consisted of league updates, and a few complaints that the gym was brining hostile people to the community.
Right in the middle of his work he received a knock on his door. When he opened up the door standing there was someone he knew quite well.
Donny rubbed the back of his head. "Miss Blossom, I thought we were meeting a week from now. So what's going on in your life... oh wait uh... how about ya just come on in. It's a real grumpig sty in here, but I'll get ya some tea."
Miss Blossom cleared her throat. "I know we were supposed to meet a week from now, but I must talk about the vision, Perfection may have gotten to her. Jackal and his blasted Zoroark might have gotten her."
Author Notes: Ok so I know this chapter is really short, but this is where the story had to diverge. The next chapter should be longer I promise! Anyway just let me know your thoughts, that'd be awesome!
Just remember that OC Submissions are still open! It's more than ok to submit more than 1 character!