"Secret Waterfall...I don't get it. It's supposed to be a secret location, so how come we found it so easily?" Riolu stares straight ahead, his arms folded. He and Mana have been standing at the edge for quite some time, but both pokemon are deep in their own thoughts. Mumbling to himself, Riolu becomes more confused and feels hopeless. Not that I don't mind standing around here all day, but now what do we do? Should we head back and tell Chatot that it was a waste... Or maybe he made a mistake?
"What do you think, Mana?" Riolu peers down at Mana, who has also been quiet since their arrival. The pressure of the water pushes her to the ground. She stares at it, her thoughts jumping around erratically. I can't get past it at all and there doesn't seem to be another way around it either... And while it is true that this 'secret waterfall' was found so easily, there must be something else about this place. A secret that is not a secret is only a public place. "And no matter how many times we look at it, it's still a waterfall." Mana gets back up again, talking more to herself than to Riolu. "There is no secret at all about it-"
"So then, what are we supposed to do? There's no way we can swim through it! The water is too rough and you felt how it pushed you away. I'm sure we'd be squashed if we even attempted to go through again." Riolu gulps, his eyes watching the water cascade down and the harsh pounding of the fluid as it hits the rocks below them. If they were to fall, that'd be the end of Team Future and Riolu is not ready to give that up yet.
"Well, I'm not ready to fall down either. But I'm also not ready to give up, so we have to..." Mana's sight becomes blurry and her head begins to throb. No...no way, not now. Not in a place like this! "W-we have...to find some...some other-" Mana grits her teeth, trying to bear the pain heating up inside her head. Closing her eyes and taking deep breaths, she tries to shove the oncoming vision away. Riolu's mouth starts moving, but Mana cannot hear it. It is only when she feels paws catch her as she falls that she allows herself to see.
A figure reaches the waterfall. Night has fallen, but the water has not stopped flowing. The figure looks upon the sight, a small smile playing across their lips. A sound rustles from behind and the figure quickly turns around, only to find nothing. Wind blows again and the noise comes from the ground. Narrowing their eyes, the figure watches as a small pebble cringes against the power of the wind and finally, it is dragged from the ground and into the air. The figure watches as the pebble falls from the ground and disappears into the water. The figure shakes their head slowly, thinking that could have been them had they not been careful.
Growing more cautious as the night sky becomes darker, the figure listens to the sounds of nature, listening to any unease or disturbances that may or may not have appeared. When it feels right, the figure looks straight at the waterfall in front of them. The pokemon takes a step forward, making sure to apply just enough pressure. They jump, letting the wind brush against their skin and the water to tickle past them as the figure lands on the hard, cold ground. Looking back to make sure no one has followed, the figure hurries straight on and enters through a much darker cave, one that does not hide its unwelcome.
"Mana. Hey, you okay? Wake up. MANA!" "Ow, you don't have to shout. I'm fine, just had a headache." Mana stumbles away from Riolu's arms and rests her head on the ground to stop the pain. Her friend repositions himself so he's sitting with his legs stretched out. Glancing over at her, he asks nonchalantly, "Did you have some sort of vision?"
"Y-yeah. It was kinda weird though." Thanks to the cold ground, Mana's headache disappears. She walks over to Riolu and plops right next to him. She explains her vision, describing the figure and what the pokemon did. At one point, Riolu jumps up and focuses his eyes on the waterfall, as if watching it will divide up the water. Mana gets up too.
"You know, staring at it isn't going to make the water cower. We need to jump through it if we want to get past." The cyndaquil points past Riolu, but he shakes his head in confusion. "I know what you're saying, but don't you hear the water crashing down? There's no way anyone could get past unless they were really strong or really fast. And even so, what makes you so sure we can even jump through there without being harmed?"
"My vision," Mana replies simply. She sighs. I guess it's to be expected that he would be doubtful. But what I saw was the answer we've been looking for and all we have been doing so far is staring in front of us. Now that we have an answer, Riolu is still unsure? Mana sighs again and this time, Riolu's ears pick up on it.
"Look Mana, it's not like I don't believe you or anything. I do, but even with that vision, we still don't know if there is anything behind that wall. I know there's solid ground in the vision, but we're in the present so what if there is no solid ground when we jump through? I don't think I can imagine what would happen to us if-"
"Riolu, relax. This is part of the mystery. That," She glances at the waterfall, emphasizing her point. "That is the secret right there. Behind that wall of water is a cave, but no one can see it from this location because its hidden, hence the name 'Secret Waterfall'." Mana smiles, feeling the excitement rush through her like it did right as they were leaving this morning. This is the adventure she was hoping for and she thought that that was what Riolu wanted.
"I know you still have doubts, but trust me on this one. We've been waiting to go on an exciting adventure since we joined and this mission is that adventure. Come on, it'll be fun."
Riolu looks away, already feeling the effects of Mana's excitement. To be honest, he is also feeling a bit giddy. Finding out that there was no dead end made him feel relieved, but to think there was a secret entrance beyond the water? I guess it really is a secret waterfall...like Mana said.
"Okay, then. What do we have to do?"
"Uhhhgggg... You should've told me it was gonna hurt," Riolu rolls over, rubbing his back. Mana shakes off the water, ignoring her friend's complaints. He sounds like an old pokemon. Jeez, of course the landing is going to be a bit rough since we didn't know when exactly we would hit the ground. Riolu groans a bit more, but stands up anyway. He looks around, his mouth open wide.
"Wooaahhh, this really is a cave. They should've called it the 'Secret Cave' instead of 'Secret Waterfall'. What do you think, Mana?" "Hmm, I think we should move on. I see the cave entrance straight ahead." Riolu chokes back a comment and follows Mana, muttering something about his partner.
"Tsk, of course you would think about exploring the cave. It's not like the name of a waterfall is not important or anything, but at least enlighten me here..." Mana hides her chuckle as she focuses on their mission at hand. Sure, whoever did make up the name is a little lost on creativity, but it should definitely be a secret waterfall.
Mana realizes that she said her thoughts out loud when Riolu replies, "Creativity? It would've been creative if they named it 'Secret Cave'. Now that is a wonderful name."
"What so wonderful about it? It's a secret waterfall because the secret itself is inside. When anyone looks at it like we did, they'll only be focusing on the waterfall. If they called it a secret cave, then we wouldn't be the only ones checking out the cave." Riolu looks at Mana, confused. She sighs and tries to explain it in a different way.
"The map says 'Secret Waterfall' so when we arrived, we were expecting a waterfall-" "And that's why it's not a secret!" "It is a secret because we were only focused on the waterfall, not what was beyond it. If we called it a secret cave, then we'll be expecting a cave behind the waterfall. Only then, would it not be considered a secret," Mana huffs, picking up her pace.
"All this secret stuff is so confusing, my head's hurting." "Then stop talking about it." "Gahh, but all of this is so complicated and you're not making any sense about the secret behind the waterfall or the mystery behind the name." Mana stops and Riolu pauses mid step. She turns around, her smirk widening.
"That's a secret." The cyndaquil leaves her friend behind as he sputters after her. The atmosphere around the cave lessens as the two finally make their way up. What they see are crystals and light reflecting off of them. The water surrounding the strip of land glows in many different colors, the liquid giving off a very calm aura. As Mana stands at the entrance entranced, Riolu walks around, his eyes travelling from crystal to crystal. Both his eyes and his smile widen as he turns back to Mana, who is still mesmerized by the scenery in front of her.
"Do you see these crystals? I've never seen so many in one place before, they're all so pretty!" Riolu points to a very large crystal up ahead. "And look at that one, Mana! These little crystals don't even compare to that really big one." Finally finding the ability to move, Mana follows Riolu as he edges closer to the bright pink crystal resting in the ground. Riolu's right, those small ones don't even compare to this one. Even though the bottom is buried, it's still much bigger. Could this be the-
"Let's take this one back and show everyone what we found," RIolu says, stretching his arms and legs. He walks towards the crystal, its massive size towering over him. He grabs the bottom of the crystal, right above the dirt. Mana watches as he tries to lift it and she looks around, her eyes narrowing slightly. Could this place really be the secret behind the waterfall? This crystal is the treasure behind the cave? Then does this mean that we haven't really found anything on the time gear, but only hidden treasure? And what about the vision I had earlier? Someone is bound to come after us eventually, but who?
Riolu's legs give way and he slumps to the ground, his body numb. He gasps for air, trying and failing to get back up. Was this crystal buried deep enough where Riolu would never be able to move it? He looks over at Mana, his smile a little lopsided.
"Hehe, it seems like it's really in tight. Maybe you could-" "Nope. Impossible," Mana interrupts. She knows exactly what he was going to ask and while she could try to lift the crystal, she knows that if Riolu was unable to, then it would be impossible for her to as well.
"B-b-b-but you didn't even try!" "Well, if you can't lift it up, then there's no way I could," Mana says, touching the giant crystal. "B-but haven't ever heard of 'you won't know until you try'?" "Okay, so say I do try. I could end up like you and be exhausted for attempting to move something that's been stuck in the ground for a long time. I could also be strong enough to actually lift that gem, but then what do we really gain from showing it to the guild members? We were asked to investigate and we've already reached the top, so taking this crystal isn't really part of our investigating." Unless there's a reason why this crystal is buried here...
"Hold on. Maybe...maybe moving the crystal would be a good idea," Mana mumbles, thinking out loud.
"Wait, what? But you just said-" "Riolu, do you notice anything different about this floor aside from the crystals? Like, the layout and such." Riolu looks around, not understanding. Before he can ask, Mana stumbles. Her head begins to pound and this overly familiar sensation comes over her.
Wigglytuff stumbles forward, looking exhausted. Reaching the final floor, it heads straight for the giant crystal and turns the switch. A small click echoes the walls, bouncing around the pink pokemon. Suddenly, another click sounds and Wigglytuff turns just in time to see a huge wave crashing into him.
Ignoring Riolu's worried tone, she tells him her vision. He looks at the crystal more carefully and finds the switch. Happily, Riolu presses it and looks over at a horrified Mana.
"What did I just tell you?" "Don't worry, we just have to avoid the water and-" "Avoid?! Do you really think it's that simple?" Mana stops, listening to the rumbles over to her right. Riolu merely glances in that direction before preparing himself. He reaches over to grab Mana just as a large wave races towards them. Before Riolu can jump, Mana cries out, slipping from Riolu's hold and falling into the water.
"R-Riolu! H-help me! Riol...u," Her body tumbles in circles underwater. She is carried through a small hole and what feels like hours, she is finally hurled into the air. Riolu follows shortly after her and the two splash into a spring.