A Dragon's Tail
Tail 4: Claura's Tail - Stagnation
Tail 4-6: The One Who Fears the Waves
-Somewhere near Riverbrine-Fireview Border
"Onii-chan!" Rachael called her brother, who's now reading the Chronicle of Daybreak. "Let's continue the bedtime story! The last part you read to me was the part when the queen held a luxurious banquet at her castle and sent her troops to subdue the rebellion, right? I want to know what happens next! Please!"
"Not today, Rachael." Richard answered without moving his eyes from the Chronicle of Daybreak.
"Wah! Why?!" Rachael said and looked at her brother.
"Keep your voice low, Rachael." Richard said. "Did you remember the last time I read you the story? You spoke too loud about how's the story going on that Diego woke up and scolded us so hard."
"I promise to keep quiet this time!" Rachael said.
"But let's take a break for a day." Richard said.
"Wah! Boo!" Rachael pouted at her brother.
"Don't make a face like that." Richard said. "Instead of reading you a story, let me fulfill my promise to you by telling you about something you asked me when we were in Civilight."
"Hm?" Rachael thought back to when she and Richard were in Civilight. "Oh! About the Twilight Crisis and the Daybreak Crisis, right?"
"Right." Richard said. "Both crises were occurred so long in the past that no one could remember about them anymore… Maybe except someone who had lived that long… Because the Twilight Crisis, according to my chronicle, happened 1,150 years before the present year, followed by the Daybreak Crisis that happened 3 years after the Twilight Crisis, which equals to 1,147 years before the present year."
"That's such a long time ago!" Rachael said. "And what happened during those crisis?"
"First, about the Twilight Crisis…" Richard started explaining. "It started with a demon from 'Another World' who appeared and tried to steal the power from the god Arceus in order for them to become the ruler of Pokemon World. However, his process was hampered by a group of Hero/ine of Legend."
"Hero/ine of Legend?!" Rachael said.
"Yes." Richard nodded. "At that time, there were only 8 Hero/ine of Legend, but they all fought valiantly to defeat the demon from another world. However, they failed…"
"What?!" Rachael said. "How could the Hero/ine of Legend fail?! That's unbelievable!"
"With their failure, the demon from another world gained control over the world of Pokemon, and they then turned the World of Pokemon into a realm covered in the eternal twilight, dubbed the name of that event the Twilight Crisis."
"Then, what happened next?" Rachael asked.
"Despite being defeated, the Hero/ine of Legend didn't give up. They still tried to atone their mistake by opposing the demon from another world once again, and in the end, they were able to defeat and seal the demon from another world, thus ended the Twilight Crisis!"
"Wow! That's such a cool story…" Rachael said. "But I still don't understand how could they fail to defeat the demon in the first time…"
"Because all of them were pathetic."
A voice echoed from Richard's Luster Pendant. That was Holmer's voice.
"Holmer? How could you say something like that?!" Rachael asked and looked at her brother's Luster Pendant.
"I just speak the truth, Rachael." Holmer answered. "If you saw them, you will know how pathetic they were."
"This means that you have seen them, right?" Rachael asked.
"Precisely." Holmer said. "And not only saw them, Ilia and I also accompanied them in their quest to defeat that demon too."
"Right." A voice came from Rachael's Mist Pendant. It was Ilia's voice.
"Wow! That's so wonderful!" Rachael said.
"I still remember it, like it was happening yesterday…" Ilia continued speaking. "In the final battle between the Hero/ine of Legend and the demon from another world, the demon tried to stand up one last time by extracting the 'darkside' from a Hero of Legend."
"What?!" Rachael said.
"It was because among 8 Hero/ine of Legend at that time, there's one Hero of Legend who had a 'darkside' that always haunted him by turning him into a mindless creature who wants to destroy the world." Ilia said. "However, after the demon from another world extracted the 'darkside' from him, the Hero/ine of Legend were able to defeat both 'darkside' and the demon from another world, thus they sealed the demon from another world away, and the 'darkside' of that Hero of Legend disappeared, freeing him from his darkside at last."
"I bet that Hero of Legend who was freed from his darkside was very happy, right?" Rachael said.
"No." Holmer spoke up. "Despite being freed from his darkside at last, that Hero/ine of Legend was still in a deep grief. And in the end, he turned into another demon who which to see nothing more than the destruction of the world."
"What?!" Rachael was shocked by Holmer's words. "How could that be?!"
"But it's true." Richard spoke up. "So, once again, 8 Hero/ine of Legend, some old and some new, set out onto another quest to stop their friend from destroying the world. This event was known as the 'Daybreak Crisis' because everyone thought that event would be the 'beginning' of the end of the world."
"Holmer, Ilia…" Rachael said. "Did you also accompany the Hero/ine of Legend in the Daybreak Crisis too?"
"No." Homer answered. "Both of us had something more important to do at that time, so we didn't accompany them."
"Then…" Rachael turned her attention back to her brother. "How'd the Daybreak Crisis end?"
"According to the record in the Chronicle, one of the demon-turned Hero of Legend's minion betrayed his master because he wanted to create a new world out of the destroyed world, not leaving the world destroyed like what the demon-turned Hero of Legend tended to do. So, the Hero/ine of Legend, along with the demon-turned Hero of Legend, cooperated together and finally defeated the true villain of the Daybreak Crisis. And the demon-turned Hero of Legend sacrificed himself to revert the destroyed world back to normal, thus ended the Daybreak Crisis." Richard said.
"Wow… What a story…" Rachael said. "However, I feel really bad for that one Hero of Legend. I mean, he was plagued by the darkside of his life, and when his darkside was removed, he fell into a deep grief and became a demon who wanted to destroy the world. And in the end, while he once again became the hero again, he died. I feel so sorry for him… I feel so bad that he had to die…"
"…For me, I feel quite opposite of you, Rachael." Richard spoke up. "I mean, I think that maybe… Death is the thing that that Hero of Legend really wants… He wants to escape from the grief, so he chose to destroy the world… However… In the end, while the world wasn't destroyed, he finally got the thing he wants, the eternal repose…"
"… So… That's both of your perspectives… Interesting…" Holmer mumbled.
"Well… This is the end of the story about Twilight Crisis and Daybreak Crisis…" Richard said. "However, there're several more interesting events in the world of Pokemon that happened in the past such as the Fallen Crisis 30 years ago…"
"I already know about the Fallen Crisis, Onii-chan." Rachael said.
"Then, what about the Wars of the God?" Richard spoke up. And, while Richard and Rachael didn't notice, Holmer and Ilia were greatly disturbed when they heard what Richard spoke.
"Wars of the God?" Rachael said. "What is it?"
"They were the biggest wars that had happened in the world of Pokemon." Richard explained. "There were 3 Wars of the God happened in the past. The last War of the God occurred 1,000 years after the Daybreak Crisis and 117 years before the Fallen Crisis, which means it occurred 147 years before the present year. And for the other two Wars of the God, they occurred in a very long distant past."
"The biggest wars of the world of Pokemon…" Rachael mumbled. "Tell me about it, Onii-chan."
"Not today, Rachael." Richard said. "Right now, let's continue our bedtime story."
"What? How come?!" Rachael said.
"Well, if you don't want to listen to this bedtime story anymore, I will stop reading it for good." Richard said.
"Hm! You big meanie!" Rachael pouted at her brother again while Richard continued reading the bedtime story.
"Despite the queen sending her troops to subdue the rebellion, the rebellion continued to live on, and it even grew stronger, and the battle becomes even fiercer as the days go by. Eventually, it led to the civil war… And then… Hm?"
Richard looked beside him and realized that his younger sister had already fallen asleep.
"…" Rachael slept peacefully beside the Latios.
"Well then…" Richard closed the book. "Let's continue our story tomorrow…"
-At Solitude Island
After a long journey, the ship of Bismarck, Jasper, Zenpai, Viola, Grimlock, Claura and Xavier finally reached the seventh island in the Riverbrine Archipelago, the Solitude Island. Because it was located far to the east of other islands, Solitude Island became the easternmost place on the Continent of Symmetria. It was also famous for being the best place to watch the sunrise. But other than that, Solitude Island was quite lonely as there were only few Pokemon who lived on this island.
"Land ahoy!" Bismarck said as everyone stepped out of his ship onto Solitude Island.
"So… This is Solitude Island…" Viola said as she looked around and saw that there were only few Pokemon on this island. "The atmosphere of this island is much different than that on Riverbrine Island…"
"Only few Pokemon choose to live on this faraway island." Bismarck said.
"But I like this place." Zenpai said. "This place reminds me a lot of the village of ninjas where I came from…"
"Oh, you came from a village of ninjas?" Bismarck turned his attention to Zenpai. "Then I think you would get along with the Pokemon we are going to meet."
"Do you mean the only survivor from that incident?" Zenpai asked.
"Yes. Well, actually, he's also my father's cousin." Bismarck said.
"Really?" Jasper spoke up. "Then he must know something about your father's disappearance for sure."
"I think so." Bismarck said. However, before he could say anything else, he saw a Pokemon flying up to them. That Pokemon was a Pelipper with a postman hat on his head.
"Greeting, everyone." The Pelipper spoke up as he stopped in front of Bismarck and his friends. Then he turned his attention to Jasper and Viola. "Are you Jasper Floratree the Sceptile and Viola Sparkvolt the Heliolisk?"
"Yes." Jasper and Viola answered.
"Then, I have two letters, one for each of you…" The Pelipper said as he took out two letters from his bag. "One is from Julia Floratree the Serperior to Jasper Floratree the Sceptile, and the other one is from Lumiere Sparkvolt the Ampharos to Viola Sparkvolt the Heliolisk."
The Pelipper handed over both letters to Jasper and Viola. "Now, I must be going. Have a nice day, everyone."
After he finished speaking, the Pelipper spread his wings again and flew away from everyone.
"A letter from Julia and Lumiere?" Zenpai said.
"I think this is the reply they wrote for us." Jasper said before he and Viola opened the letter they had just received from the Pelipper.
"…" Jasper and Viola carefully read the letter.
"Well… What did Julia write to you, Jasper?" Zenpai asked.
"…As I thought…" Jasper said after he finished reading the letter. "Most of her letter is about her life at the orphanage with other orphans and Jasmine… But she also said that she is worried about me because I left Leafburg without telling her… This is just like her…"
"…So, they are safe, right?" Zenpai asked.
"If she could write a letter like this, she mustn't be in any danger for sure." Jasper said before he put away his letter.
"What about you, Viola?" Zenpai spoke up to the Heliolisk after he saw that Viola had just finished reading her letter.
"…Uncle Lumiere said that he was shocked by my father's death. However, he knew that his life would be in great danger after we rescued him from the Civilight Laboratory, so he decided to leave Gamma City. At the time he was writing this letter, he was already in Leafburg. He said that he was heading to Venturnome to start a new life there." Viola said and put away her letter.
"…So, both Julia and Lumiere are safe… That's good to hear…" Zenpai said before he noticed that Grimlock seemed to be upset after the Pelipper delivered the letters to Jasper and Viola, but not to him…
"…Don't worry too much, Grimlock." Zenpai said. "I am sure that your family would get the letter from you for sure. It's just that they live in Venturnome, which is much further from here than Leafburg, so it may be a while before they receive your letter and wrote back."
"…You are right." Grimlock said. "And right now, I am so glad that both Uncle Lumiere and Jasper's aunt are both safe."
"Same goes for me." Bismarck said. "But right now, we have a thing to do. Let's go and meet the sole survivor of that incident. He lives in a small wood in the middle of this island."
"Wait a minute…" Grimlock spoke up and looked around.. "Where're that Kingdra and Dragonite?"
"Usual." Jasper said. "They left us as soon as we reach this island."
"Let them be." Bismarck said. "Now let's go."
Bismarck led Jasper, Zenpai, Viola and Grimlock to a lonely house in the middle of a small wood in the middle of the island. This house was small and simple.
"Here we are." Bismarck said. "This is his house."
"This place reminds me even more of my home village." Zenpai said. "It's so serene and tranquil…"
"And why does he have a house in the middle of a wood in the middle of the island?" Grimlock asked.
"Because this is the only place on Solitude Island where you can't hear the sound of the waves." Bismarck answered.
"Sound of the wave?" Viola said, and then everyone closed their eyes and realized that Bismarck was right. They couldn't hear the sound of the waves in this place.
"But why must he live in the place where you can't hear the sound of the wave?" Grimlock asked.
"You will see soon…" Bismarck said and walked up to the door of the house, and then he knocked the door.
"Knock! Knock!"
"Who's there?" A voice came from inside the house.
"It's me, Bismarck!" Bismarck said. "Can I come in?"
"Bismarck? Okay, you can come in." The voice said.
"Let's go." Bismarck said and opened the door of the house.
This house was decorated in a simple and exotic tradition. The style of this house's decoration reminds Jasper and Zenpai a lot of Leafburg.
"It reminds me a lot of my house…" Zenpai mumbled.
"Welcome, everyone."
A voice came from a Pokemon who stood on the opposite side of the house. That Pokemon was a male Greninja.
"Good morning, Uncle Riftblade." Bismarck greeted the Greninja.
"It has been a very long time since the last time you visited me, Bismarck." The Greninja said. "And it seems like you also brought some friends here too."
"Right, and let me introduce them." Bismarck said. "They are Viola Sparkvolt the Heliolisk, Grimlock Rusteel the Aggron, Jasper Floratree the Sceptile and Zenpai Bugslash the Scyther."
"Oh, three of you are Ellisk's daughter, Kamui's son and Joshua's son, right?" The Greninja said. "My name is Riftblade Shuriken the Greninja. While Bismarck may call me 'uncle', I am actually the cousin of his father, not the brother of his father."
"You know our fathers?" Viola, Grimlock and Jasper asked.
"Right. I became a friend of them during the Fallen Crisis." Riftblade gave an answer to Jasper, Viola and Grimlock before he turned his attention to Zenpai. "Judging by your cloth, I assume that you are my fellow ninja, right?"
"…I come from the hidden hamlet of ninjas in the middle of Leafburg Forest." Zenpai answered. "I am the son of now-deceased Hokage of this village."
"I see…" Riftblade said before he turned his attention to Bismarck. "Tell me, Bismarck… What brings you and your friends here today?"
"Well…" Bismarck said. "We come here to talk about… that incident…"
Bismarck's words had a great impact on the Greninja, as upon hearing his nephew's words, Riftblade's eyes widened in fear, and his face showed a sight of panic.
"P…P…Please do not talk about that!" Riftblade's voice was shaking as he spoke.
"Uncle, please…" Bismarck said. "We need your help in order to find my father. Please… If you happen to know anything about that incident, please let us know…"
"I…I think I…" Riftblade's body started shaking. "I am sorry, but please give me some time… Please, take your time here…"
After he finished speaking, Riftblade slowly walked up to a door that led to his private room and entered it, leaving Bismarck and his friends in the living room.
"…So… That's what's going on with him…" Viola spoke up.
"He seems to have a trauma from that incident…" Jasper said.
"The action of him that you all had seen is just a tiny part of the whole…" Bismarck said. "After that incident, every time he hears the sound of the wave, Uncle Riftblade will be enveloped in a great dread, even greater than what you all have just saw…"
"He feared the sound of the wave?!" Everyone said.
"Right." Bismarck said. "That's why he lives in a place where you can't hear the sound of the wave. He also refuses to get anywhere near the sea after that incident."
"That means he always lived on this island since that incident?!" Grimlock said.
"Yes…" Bismarck said. "The next morning after that incident, the Pokemon who live on this island found Riftblade washed ashore, and then they took care of him until he got better. However, because of his trauma with the wave, he refuses to get near the sea, which means he couldn't leave this island, so he decides to live on this island from that incident until now…"
"Poor guy…" Grimlock mumbled.
"…Being washed ashore to the easternmost place on the continent of Symmetria…" Jasper mumbled. "Bismarck, do you know the spot where the ship capsized?"
"It was the spot southeast of the Solitude Island—" Bismarck answered before he stopped speaking, as if he had just realized something.
"What's wrong, Bismarck?" Viola asked.
"Strange…" Bismarck spoke up again. "At the day of that incident, the wind was blowing to the southeast. This would result in the waves carrying Uncle Riftblade southeast of the spot where the ship capsized, which would be the vast ocean east of Symmetria… But… How could he end up on the Solitude Island that was located northwest of the spot where the ship capsizes?"
"It was because of the tempest."
A voice came from inside the room where Riftblade went in, and then the door opened, and Riftblade slowly stepped out of his room.
"Uncle Riftblade?" Bismarck said.
"I could remember the horror of that night clearly…" Riftblade slowly spoke up. "There was a tempest occurring in the sea of Riverbrine that night. The tempest made the wind blow in the opposite direction of what it should be, resulting in the waves heading to the northwest instead of southeast. However, the ship was heading to the southeast, but the waves carried it to the northwest…"
"…" Everyone carefully listened to Riftblade's story.
"And in the end, we couldn't triumph over the force of nature…" Riftblade said. "I still remember the picture I saw… The picture of Pokemon being blown by the tempest, which immediately tore their bodies apart… The sound of the tempest… The sound of everyone's screams… And the sound… of the crashing waves…"
"…Uncle Riftblade…" Bismarck mumbled.
"…And I would surely share the fate with everyone in that night if it wasn't for… Magnus." Riftblade continued speaking.
"Father?" Bismarck said.
"Magnus tried to save everyone from that incident. However, he couldn't. And in the end, the only one he could save was me…" Riftblade said. "He rescued me from the ship as it was about to capsize, and then we both tried to escape from the tempest by swimming away together. However, the fierce waves separated us from each other, and I shortly fell unconscious after I was separated from Magnus. The next thing I remember was waking up in the room in a clinic on the Solitude Island… With the dreadful sound of the waves still lingering in my head…"
"…" Everyone was shocked after hearing the story from the Greninja. The story about the dreadful night…
"Sorry for not telling you about this sooner, Bismarck…" Riftblade said.
"…Do not worry about it, Uncle Riftblade." Bismarck said. "I understand how you feel about this…"
"So, this is the reason why you ended up on the Solitude Island instead of being washed away in the ocean…" Jasper spoke up. "The cause of this was the reversed wind caused by the tempest…"
"Usually, the reversed wind like this would still blow for a few days after the time it was reversed..." Bismarck said.
"This means that, while the search parties from Riverbrine Island tried to search for the survivor from that incident, the wind must still blow to the northeast instead of southeast, resulting in the Pokemon who would have survived the tempest would surely be washed from the spot where the ship capsized to the Riverbrine Sea…" Viola said.
"And it was right." Bismarck said. "The search parties could find the dead bodies of everyone on that ship. Their bodies were mostly found on Solitude Island and the Isles of Spice. Some of them were found on Riverbrine Island and Twinwave Island while a very few could be found as far as Sparkling Island and Seaside Town."
"What about Back Island and Triangle Island?" Grimlock asked.
"You meathead!" Viola suddenly became angry. "Don't you remember that Back Island is surrounded by a strong current that repelled anyone who tries to get close to it! This means that the dead bodies of those Pokemon would be washed away from Back Island when it got close to the island."
"Right." Bismarck said. "And for the Triangle Island… This place was surrounded by a range of reef. So, not only the dead bodies, but a ship also couldn't get near this island. The only way to get from the reef to Triangle Island is swimming—"
Bismarck suddenly stopped speaking, as if he had just realized something. The same thing went for everyone in this room.
"How couldn't I realize this sooner?!" Bismarck said. "Because Triangle Island was surrounded by the reef, and the ship couldn't reach this island, I bet the search parties wouldn't waste their time by going to search at Triangle Island. In other words… They haven't searched the Triangle Island for my father yet… I am quite sure of this."
"And if Magnus is still alive… But he couldn't be found anywhere in the six islands of Riverbrine Archipelago… It would be quite possible that he is on that island for the whole time…" Riftblade said.
"But if he is truly on that island, then why didn't he come back to his home?" Viola said. "And how could there be no one on the Triangle Island who has seen him there?"
"…The answer of the latter question is that there's no one who live on Triangle Island." Riftblade spoke up. "The only Pokemon who go to the Triangle Island are the travelers and the archeologists. However, this still couldn't explain why none of the travelers and the archeologists who went to the Triangle Island have seen Magnus…"
"…The answer of those questions lies within the Triangle Island…" Zenpai said. "Everyone, let's head to Triangle Island next."
"Okay." Bismarck said before he turned his attention to Riftblade. "Uncle Riftblade, thank you for your help. We really appreciate your help."
Riftblade said nothing. He just nodded and gave a patient smile at his nephew as Bismarck and his friends walked up to the door of the house before they left his house.
-Meanwhile…
"…They are not on this island too." Claura said to her cousin. Right now, both of them were standing on the beach where Bismarck's ship was docked.
"This leaves us only Triangle Island…" Xavier said.
"But I heard that this island was surrounded by a range of reef… How could we go to this island?" Claura asked
"First, we must know where Bismarck's next destination is." Xavier said. "If he and others go to somewhere near the Triangle Island, such as Sparkling Island and Twinwave Island, we could tag along with them and then all we must do is swim and fly to the Triangle Island. However, if he and others go to the Isles of Spice, Riverbrine Island or Seaside Town, we could just grab a ship and go to Sparkling Island to continue our journey. But if they decide to go back to Back Island… Well… The only thing we could do is take a ship to Sparkling Island while they stopped at the Isles of Spice."
"Good." Claura said before she turned her attention to the sea of Riverbrine. "Now all we must do is wait for them to come ba—"
Claura suddenly stopped speaking as she saw something in the distant sea. It was…
"Smoke of fire?" Claura said as she saw a black smoke of fire coming from somewhere far away in the sea. "Hey! Isn't this kind of smoke a sight of emergency?"
"…The smoke…" Xavier spoke up as he looked at the smoke. "… It's coming from the direction of Back Island!"
"Back Island?" Claura said. "It means that something must have happened there, and the pirates must have made the smoke in order to call for help."
"Well…" Xavier said before he yawned again. "What should we do, Claura? Should we go back and help them?"
"Let's leave them be." Claura said. "The Pokemon from other islands, such as Riverbrine Island, would also notice the smoke and send some help to those pirates by now."
"Don't you forget something, Claura?" Xavier asked. "Back Island is surrounded by a strong current, making it very hard to get near the island. Only the pirates know how to navigate pass through those current."
"So, you would say that no one could help them… Except their fellow pirate… Such as Bismarck, right?" Claura said.
Xavier gave a yawn as the answer to his cousin. And then…
"There you are! Claura! Xavier!"
A voice came from not too far from them. It was from Bismarck. He was running up to them, followed by Jasper, Zenpai, Viola and Grimlock.
"Bismarck?" Claura said. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah." Bismarck said. "That's the sight of emergency, such as when there's another pirate group that tries to attack our base."
"And what should we do?" Claura asked.
"Well, at first, we were going to head to Triangle Island…" Bismarck said. "But… For now, we must go back to Back Island as fast as we can. Claura, Xavier, let's go."
Claura gave a nod to Bismarck, and Xavier gave another yawn to him. And then everyone got into Bismarck's ship. And when everyone had already gotten into the ship, it then started moving from the Solitude Island into the sea of Riverbrine once again.
"Wait for me, everyone…" Bismarck mumbled as he took the control of the ship. The only thing he had in his mind right now was that he must head back to Back Island as fast as he can… Before something terrible happens there…
To Be Continued…
Dragon of Vale: We met Riftblade, who knows something about that incident. And everyone decided to go to the Triangle Island… However… It seems like something bad is happening at Back Island!
A special thanks to Ridin Valon, as well as everybody else, for helping me with the error correction.