Ray's POV

I didn't wanna get up, I really did not want to get up. Maybe if I slept here, just lay all coiled up on the ground like this for a long time… maybe then I could sleep through this whole disaster of an adventure. Last night had been a lot. My head was pounding, every single one of my joints ached, and I had a lot of them. Oh man, Mel, if you could see me now… you would probably be ashamed, but I wasn't having a good time, and last night had been an escape for a while. The captain told us to eat, drink, and be merry. Well, I may have overdone it with following her advice. James and I got into a drinking contest. I won because he passed out. I passed out shortly afterward.

Either I had gotten myself up in the middle of the night and back to the cabin, or someone brought me back, because I woke up in our room. Everyone was fast asleep. I guessed they had a bit too much fun last night, too. I really wasn't up to, well, getting up right now. So I sat on the floor, coiled up. Ugh. Why this, why all of this, why did I have such a horrible uh, what was the word, judgement, I guess. What was wrong with me, doing something stupid like that. Oh well, what was done was done. Now all there was to do was keep on going, you know? Just keep on going, all there was to do. Or else, you stop, and then what becomes of you? Ugh, I wasn't making sense again. I had to break that habit, it wasn't healthy for my mind.

Was I in control? Was my will in control of the things I did? What was free will, anyways. It could all just be a part of the illusion… the mass illusion i was slowly being trapped in. I could feel it happening, a sort of sinking, constricting feeling. A sort of anxious hum. I didn't know how to describe it super accurately. This was all nonsense, anyways. None of it actually mattered. None of it actually meant anything. So why was I even thinking.

Thinking… I remembered something. An old friend, back in my world, in my hometown, my childhood… I had an old friend who once explained to me that the fact that we have the ability to think means that we have free will. I forgot exactly what he said, how exactly he came to that conclusion, but he was a pretty smart guy, and I trusted his logic. I had joked before that I would appoint him to be my adviser when I was king. That was… a lot less likely to happen, now. I hoped to be able to take the throne when all of this was through, but there was also something in the back of my mind that told me that might not happen. I didn't know why, just… something.

Well, I probably needed to get up. My stomach was telling me it was time to get up and have something, anything, to eat. The feast last night really had been nice. I wondered what kind of this we would have today. Probably more of the same, leftovers. I had to wonder why they were holding a feast when they also needed to pick up more supplies. Maybe it was to make sure the food didn't go bad? Eh, it wasn't like I really cared, as long as I had something to eat and it didn't make me absolutely sick, that was fine with me... I used to have higher standards than that, didn't I? I knew I did… oh, this adventure. I wasn't myself anymore, was I?

No use thinking about it. I slowly, ever so slowly uncoiled myself and slinked, very low to the ground, out the door. I closed it carefully. I didn't want any of my companions to wake up. They had a long day and night as well, I imagined. They deserved some rest.

I snaked along, alone, low to the ground. Seemed most of the crew was still asleep. I wondered if anyone stayed sober last night, if anyone didn't partake of drink. I didn't blame them, it was good drink. I didn't know exactly what it was, but it had a good taste, a good sort of zing to it. I would have to ask the chef or whoever was in charge of the food. Maybe when I was back at the palace, I could have the chef make dishes with it. Oh, but what if it was made from something found only in this world. That would be a shame, truly. I wasn't about to drink that much of it again, though.

Off I went to the dining hall I went. There were a whole bunch of pirates passed out on the benches. I guessed some of them didn't make it to their beds. I sympathized with them but I also had to stifle my laughter a little. They were in just… just the weirdest positions. Many of them had their butts stuck up in the air. Ah yes, fear the powerful sky pirates!

Well, last night I did fear them, at least a bit. Some of those guys were dangerous drunks. Fights broke out, it was a huge… hazard. I may have gotten into a fight or two, myself. I wasn't entirely sure. My memory of the whole thing was just a little bit fuzzy, you know? I had never had drink like that before. I still felt a little woozy from it, but in a sort of good way. This headache, though… that was not as fun. Everything had a consequence. My memory was all foggy.

When a large portion of the crew had passed out, and most everyone was partied out, I got to hear some interesting stories. I didn't remember them super well… There was something about a lost society underground where they never saw the light of the sun and spoke in strange tounges. There was something about… humans and Pokemon working as one… body? There was… uh… what else? Living water, like water but with a will or something? And it kidnapped people and then sent them back a week later with no memory. They also told about others who had the same affliction I did. It was nice to know at least that I wasn't alone in this. This wasn't my thing alone to bear. Maybe that was why they tied me up so fast. They knew the signs, they knew what this sickness could do to a person, and that was why they tied me up.

Weird stories. There might have been more. Something about… nope. It was gone. If it was ever there to begin with, it was gone now. There was still food on the tables. I found something that looked appetizing , and gobbled it down. Oh man, I was thirsty. Where was the water? I went into the kitchen and found a big tank of water. Oh, good. Goood, good, good. I thought I would have a harder time finding this. I opened it up and guzzled down. Not too much, I couldn't just drink everyone's water supply. We still a few hours yet before we reached the trade center to get more water and more, um, everything.

Once I had something to eat, and something to drink, I went up on the deck to get some fresh air. The sun hurt my eyes, so I closed them enough to shut out some of the light, but not so much that I couldn't see. There was nobody else up here, just me, myself, and my headache. Weren't we supposed to have someone on deck to keep a lookout. It wasn't like last night with James. I couldn't see a single solitary soul up here. So… nobody was watching to make sure we were safe and undiscovered? Was that just… what was the word, pride… arrogance… were they just so confident they wouldn't get caught that they didn't bother to have someone on guard lookout duty? Or was the person who was supposed to be out here just irresponsible?

Or… was I the one who was supposed to watch? I might have agreed to something like that last night. I didn't remember. Probably someone who didn't drink should have taken watch. That ruled out James. He joined the party halfway through the night. Nobody asked him who he left to keep guard. Not sure why. That seemed like a really obvious question to ask, but nobody did. I was too busy with everything going on, and I guess maybe everyone else expected it to happen? I didn't know. Whatever, it was, well, we hadn't been boarded, and we weren't crashing or dying or anything. So, I guess I had nothing legitimate to complain about. Nothing really happened. Something could have happened, but nothing really happened.

I stretched out, feeling the breeze and the sunlight on my back. I twisted my spine, vertebrae by vertebrae to relieve the pain, the soreness. It felt really nice. I took a few deep breaths. This was… this was nice, especially after such a loud, crazy night. And I thought the humans were wild… the Pokemon last night. Most of them were small, they had to be to be on the ship. I was probably one of the biggest Pokemon on the ship. There were a lot of birds. That made sense, sky pirates having an affinity for the sky, connected to Pokemon who could fly.

Who made the rules of the bonds between humans and Pokemon, I wondered. Did anyone make that sort of decision? Well, for royals in the capital, it was decided by the counsel of legendaries, back in my world. That was special, though. Here… with everyone who wasn't royalty, was it something that someone planned out, something ordained? Perhaps by this Arceus she talked about sometimes? There were statues and things of him in the capital, but in my world… Well, there was a species with that name, like my species was Rayquaza… but they were just a normal bunch in my world. Maybe here it was different and there was one particular Arceus that had some sort of say in how this world was run. Did it really matter at this point? We had a world to save.

Speaking of a world to save… I wanted Emerald to get up and the old coot so we could start with the actual training… so Emerald could disguise herself so we could go into town because she was a wanted person. So much was happening it was a little hard to remember the reason we were doing things in the first place. I was just along for the ride, it felt like. It really felt like that. I'd been so in charge of my life before, and now I felt like I was drifting along, being pulled by some sort of undercurrent. I did things for Mel, yeah, but it was because I wanted to do things for her. This was… different.

Anyways… We needed to train, and couldn't do that if nobody was awake. I had no way of knowing what time it was, but the sun was up in the sky, and so it had been long enough. I went back down to the rooms. I was surrounded by some very loud snoring. It felt like I was taking physical blows to the head. Hey, maybe this could be part of the training. It felt like forever but I made it back to our rooms and nudged the old coot, trying to wake him up. I was greeted with upset grunting and a hit on the head. I had no idea what hit me for a second.

"What the-"

"Ya dun wake me up, ya idjit! I'll teach you what." I got another knock on the head, and again. I moved away from him, then. Fine, fine, I got it, he didn't want to get up. I really wished he didn't have that walking stick and also a habit of using it to hit us. I was going to snap that thing in half, the walking stick, not the old coot. We needed him. Although, it occured to me he would probably just take something else and hit us with it, or maybe just use his bare fists. Well, if he did that, I had claws. I would have loved to see him try to fight me.

He was pretty strong, though. If he wasn't, Emerald wouldn't have agreed to learn from him. Neither would I, for that matter. It just… why did this guy have to be the guy to train us? Why did this guy who was so off-kilter have to be so stupid powerful?

"The sun is high in the sky. I thought you said we'd be training." I growled.

"Shaddap!" He threw his pillow at me.

"Ugh… what?" Emerald's eyes fluttered open. Well, looks like we woke her up. "What… what time is it?"

"The sun is high in the sky, and everyone is asleep. We should train." I said.

"That sounds like exactly the reason we should go back to sleep, Ray." Emerald muttered. She rolled over and soon started snoring again. Well, that was great. Somehow, Strider hadn't woken up through any of this. How, I did not know. That boy was a heavy sleeper, or maybe he was still sleeping off the effects of the Anesthetic. It must have affected him so much more than it affected me. He was a lot smaller.

I wondered if this place had a library. Somehow, I sort of doubted it. These pirates didn't seem like the sort of people who wanted to sit down and read. They could tell each other stories and that would be it, huh? That would be just about it for them.

The old coot had rolled over, too. Um, well, if nobody was going to be awake… there was nothing to do, nothing at all. I guessed I would just… go back to sleep? Yeah. That seemed to be the only option that made any sense. Besides, my eyes were getting heavy. Well, alright then. I coiled myself up again and closed my eyes to go to sleep.

"Ray!" I woke up with a start. Emerald was yelling for me. I looked around quickly and realized from the room's lighting that several hours had passed since I fell asleep. Oh, that was great, that was just great. And now Emerald was the one yelling at me to get up, when I wanted to be up hours ago. This was just my luck. But, fine, whatever, better late than never. I uncoiled myself once again. It took a second or two to get myself up and out of the room, but I had a lot more energy this time around, and the headache was mostly gone. That was a relief. So maybe it was for the best that I had gotten more sleep. I could probably train better this way. I could probably, well, actually retain whatever it was I would learn.

Emerald looked pretty chipper today. She was just as excited as I was to finally be learning some new skills. We would finally be better than we already were, increase our strength. It was about time we did that. It was about time. If we were to face the enemies ahead, we had to get a lot stronger. As it was, we couldn't hold our own against the guy with the Rattatta, not to mention any of Emerald's sisters or the dark lord himself, whoever he was. The guy in the big dark robe… Before this was through, we would probably have to take him down. We still had quite a way to go.

Well, now was as good a time to start as any. I followed Emerald up onto the deck. It had a lot more sailors now, but not nearly as many as I thought there would be. And there was the old coot. It was finally time to train.

Have a great day!