Author's Note: In this chapter, I tried using present tenses in narrating instead of past tenses like in the earlier chapters. Please tell me if this is better or should I go back to using past tenses and blahblahblah you don't care so here's the chapter. Enjoy~
Before we went to sleep last night, I told my friends about me and my brother, and how he ended up in the hospital. I was really planning to have a long and sad tale to share with them, but after countless of questions about what a car was, why a door would slide by itself and why it was made out of glass, what were traffic lights, why do humans need jobs, what was money, currency, rent, tax, and some other simple yet annoying questions, I shouted for them to stop, and I then restarted and ended the story with, "we went to the city to find a job together, we got hit by a car, I was lucky, he wasn't, he was sent to the hospital, now in a coma. The freaking end!"
I quickly turned my back on them and lied down. I even ignored Vixie who was trying to calm me down by nuzzling on my neck.
...and then Fay suddenly asked, "...so what's a hospital?"
I think I woke everyone in the city from that frustrated scream that I did. Whatever. At least I had a good night's rest.
We went inside the cave where many ice-types considered the dark dungeon as their home. Dragons are weak against ice, right? I wonder why they didn't just seal the cave up and just build another route for trainers to get to the city from Mahogany.
Eh, whatever.
Anyway, the cave is dark, but not too dark. There are ice crystals that are sticking out from the walls and ceiling of the cave. Saur's bulb is letting out a faint glow, and with the ice crystals around, well, the dark ice cave isn't so dark anymore. But it still is freaking cold in here.
There are a few ice-type Pokémon around. None of them seem to take any interest in us, which I am quite thankful for. Aside from the cold, battling and scaring any of them off would be annoying as heck.
...and I'm quite thankful that the Jynx here are now Smoochums. They are more bearable to look at than their evolved forms. For me, at least...
"Why are you guys shaking like that?"
Fay, Shock, Saur and I glare at our beloved fire-type companion, who is currently leading our little group. She chuckles lightly and continues walking. I can already guess that she is enjoying herself by watching us suffer in this goddamn freezer.
...or maybe she's waiting for me to ask for a cuddle?
"Hardi-har-har," Shock shakes himself to get rid of the small ice particles that had formed on his fur. "Laugh it up, why don'cha?"
"This was your idea," Saur sighs with a slow shake of his head. He then stops walking to shiver for a bit.
Fay is walking beside our Bulbasaur friend. She is also leaning on him, to share her body heat to him or something. I dunno.
Shock and I walk side by side as well, but we aren't leaning against each other. That would be awkward, and weird, and a hell lot of awkward. And awkward.
"Can't we just t-turn back and climb instead?" I ask for the hundredth time.
Shock shakes his head with a frown as he rubs his two paws together. "N-no. We asked a few Pokémon we met outside about i-it before you two showed up. They said that this was the quickest way to reach our dest-tination."
"...which is...where?"
"T-that..." Saur stops and points with a foot, his bulb's light slowly fading.
...Bulbasaur's feet are called...feet, right? They're not paws, or hooves, or claws...
Even without the light from his bulb, the area around us is still illuminated enough for us to look around. I stop and take a look at where he is pointing. There was a ... big and frozen lake just a few meters ahead of us, and it is illuminated by light that was coming from above the ceiling. Only, there was no ceiling above the frozen lake.
"...how long have we been walking in this cave again?" I ask to no one in particular.
Vixie turns to us with a frown. "A better question is... How are we going to get up all the way there?"
"We fly there, of course!" Fay chirps, quickly turning to me, and unknowingly pushing Saur aside with her bum. "Jay can evolve into a flying thingy! A Flyeon!"
...
...the silence is deafening...
I quietly decide to help Saur up. "Oh, if only I could," I roll my eyes, "then we wouldn't have traveled on the ground for all this time!"
...huh, that makes me recall the Sylveon speculation. I really believed the little cutie was going to be a flying-type. Thinking back, Sylveon would be silly to be a flying-type. I mean, how would she even fly? Turn her feelers into propellers? Then again, Dodrio being able to learn Fly made no sense at all.
Fay frowns at me. "You mean you can but you decided not to?!" Either she feigned ignorance or she really doesn't know. I sometimes can't tell.
Shock sighs and walks ahead. "What Jay meant to say was he couldn't evolve into a flying-type because there's no flying-type evolution in the Eevee line. And that was a mouthful, so I'm not repeating that again."
I chuckle. "Care to repeat that?" I receive a groan as a response. I chuckle again.
We continue our walk until we reach the edge of the frozen lake. I have never seen snow before, let alone a frozen lake, but according to my cartoon slash movie encyclopedia, it looks like the lake's frozen surface is thick and an ordinary adult human can walk on it without fearing for it to crack and give in.
"Whoa—oof!"
...if they don't fall on their faces more often.
Fay tries to stand back up again, only to slip and slide a little further away from us.
With a sigh, Saur extends a vine and reels Fay in.
"You caught a big one, Saur!" I said.
He just rolls his eyes with a small smile as he sets Fay down beside him.
Vixie and Shock are already looking around, looking for a way to get up.
I look up and squint my eyes. The light is definitely from the sun, but either the cold atmosphere made the light not so warm, or there is no open hole up there.
"I don't see a way for us to get up there," Vixie said.
Shock nods.
We continue to wonder how to get up there, until Fay suggests that we should ask the Pokémon around. Fay, Saur and Shock head that way, while Vixie and I head this way.
She is visibly happy for finally having a few precious minutes with me alone.
I roll my eyes and shake my head. "Focus, Vixie."
She giggles. "I know." She leans on me with a contented sigh, and I struggle not to slip. "I just still couldn't believe it."
I groan. Even though I confessed, I still am standing true to what I have told them, that I still want to return home. Vixie knows, but she just doesn't care at the moment, I bet. "You know that I'm still leaving to get back home, right?"
"I don't care. The future sucks—" that made me blink. Blunt much? "—so I'm gonna cherish every minute of the present with you."
"Oh, for the love of corny..."
"Hush, you!"
Well, at least she's warm.
She finally returns my personal space after we see a Swinub, who is lazily resting on a rock with its furry back on it. The Swinub keeps on mumbling about how much it misses doing what it was doing and says something about never evolving into a Piloswine ever again, with an emphasis on the 'ever.'
I let Vixie do the talking as I take a few steps away from them. She's a fire-type, so the Swinub might feel the need to talk. Then again, Swinub is part-ground type, and I don't wanna know what a Magnitude or an Earthquake will be like inside an ice cave.
Anyway, the cave is beautiful, but the coldness ruins it for me, unfortunately. The ice shards and crystals are often times glittering in the darkness, like stars during night time.
It isn't really that dark in here. We aren't really that far from the frozen lake anyway.
My ears twitch when I hear a whistle. I turn and see my friends by the lake, Shock and Saur waving a paw at us while Fay jumped and jumped on the spot. Behind the three of them is a tall red-and-white bird.
"They found someone?" Vixie asks as she walks beside me.
I nod and start to walk towards them, Vixie following close behind...beside me...and annoyingly leans on me again. "I can easily push you away, you know."
"Mmm...I'm glad you didn't."
My eye starts to twitch. "I hate you."
"Finally," Shock rolls his eyes. "The love birds have arrived."
Saur and the Delibird chuckles. I roll my eyes.
"They look even sweeter than love birds, and they're not even birds!" says the Delibird.
I'm not sure if there are Pokémon that is based on love birds. I don't even know where Skarmory was based from...
"Is this everyone?" the Delibird asks, looking at all of us.
Saur nodded with his signature neutral smile.
"Yep! Yep!" Fay hops in place.
I look at Shock. "Um..." well, the Delibird sounded like a female, so... "she'll fly us up there one by one?"
Shock turns to me with a confused blink. "What? No! That'll take a long time!"
I blink. "Then how with just one Delibird?"
Fay chuckles and pokes Shock on his side. "See? Told ya it's a Delibird! You owe me a shocked berry!"
Shock groans and rolls his eyes. "Eh, no. She'll carry all of us up there."
I blink again. I still do not know how.
"I'm with Jay here, Shock," Vixie pipes in, looking confused at our Pikachu friend. "Even if she can manage to carry all of us in one go, wouldn't that be tiring for her?"
Shock simply shrugs. "Hey, she volunteered."
I deadpan.
The Delibird chuckles, catching our attention. "No need to worry, kiddies. It's a simple task that I'm used to do!" And she then magically pulls out a red santa-like bag from behind her feathers.
I take a step back. I'm starting to think that this is a bad idea. "Um... Is this kidnapping?"
Shock, Vixie and Saur quickly turn their heads to me.
Fay hops happily. "Oh! Oh! We're being kidnapped! Sounds like fun!" She stands up and turns to me. "What does that mean?"
The Delibird, wearing a big smile, swoops her bag on Fay, and the said rodent disappears. She then swoops a startled Saur into her bag. The said bag didn't seem like it is gaining any weight at all.
The three of us take a step back as the Delibird happily takes a step towards us, still with a happy smile. "Now, now, kiddies. No need to worry."
...I don't think the three of us are fast enough to escape. At least our scream did.