Chapter 20: Except The Rolling Ocean
"Two evolutions in two weeks. That's amazing, Bruno."
Bruno grinned as Pinch picked up two massive rocks in his claws and crushed them, sending fragments of stone tumbling to the ground. "Now all I need is a leaf stone."
"Are you going to catch anything else?"
"I don't know yet." Bruno glanced towards where Tally was instructing her team. "How long do you think it'll be before Flutter evolves?"
"It won't be long if she keeps training like this."
Nearby, Auna was shooting erratic jets of water at Tess, who was running around to act as a moving target. Bruno winced as a particularly wild jet hit a rock. "She's...I think she's getting better."
"It has only been two days." When Auna was ready, Carla would have her practise accuracy with Nixie.
"What's your plan with those exercises?"
Carla folded her arms. "If she concentrates on aiming at Tess, she won't be thinking about how to use Water-type moves. It should become instinct for her eventually."
"Fighting without thinking. That's clever. You know, you've become pretty invested in the whole training business, Carla."
"It wouldn't be fair to my team if I didn't."
"It won't be fair if you just quit after you get the money either."
Carla closed her eyes. "I know. I'll think of something."
Bruno glanced over to where Mount Coronet loomed into the sky. "I wonder how far you can see from up there."
Carla wasn't sure they would be able to see very much at all. The summit was hidden by low-hanging clouds; because of that, only the hardiest trainers were encouraged to climb the mountain.
She glanced over to where Zoe was practising her Ice Fang attack on some boulders. As with Pinch's attack, chips of stone were scattered all around the place. Actually...some of the boulders had almost been completely bitten in half, with ice crystals melting on the ground.
As Zoe opened her mouth to attack another, blue energy suddenly started to form between her jaws. As she chomped down, there was a sound like glass breaking and pieces of ice flew everywhere.
"Whoa!" Bruno cried. "Was that Ice Shard?"
"It was." Carla went over to her Snorunt and said: "Keep doing that. That's a new move. I'm so proud of you."
Zoe grinned, blew a tiny cloud of ice crystals towards her trainer's face and turned back to the boulders. Carla stepped away, feeling as though her pokémon had just blown her a kiss.
"Welcome to the Mount Coronet Pokémon Centre! Are you just here to heal your pokémon or are you here to do some climbing?"
"Both, but not too much climbing," said Bruno as he put his capsules on the desk.
The nurse nodded. "All right." She reached under the desk and held out three flares. "Take these just in case of emergencies. We've got tours every two hours; if you don't want to take part in those, there's a path marked with red flags. Keep going up that path until you see the large red sign - any further than that is for the experienced climbers."
Her eyes held a note of warning.
"If it's the cave path you're after, follow the blue flags."
After getting their teams back, the trio left the Centre and headed towards the base of the mountain.
"There's the path." Tally pointed towards where a single red flag fluttered wildly in the wind.
"Anyone want to take the cave path?" Bruno looked from Carla to Tally. "Me neither. Let's go before the first tour starts."
The path was gentle at first. It wove up small hills and above clumps of woodland; the flags were placed so as to be clearly visible. Sweet, clean air filled Carla's lungs and played with her hair. She took several deep breaths, savouring the difference between the cold atmosphere and the tropical, sometimes humid air of Hoenn.
"It's beautiful here," she murmured.
"I know!" cried Tally. "And you can already see for miles. Can you imagine the sunrises and sunsets from here?"
Since she lived by the sea, Carla could well imagine how breathtaking they were.
"The Sevii Islands have got some cool mountains too," said Bruno. "If you're ever there, we can go hiking sometime."
Tally looked at him and smiled. "That sounds great."
Later, the path grew steeper and rockier. It made their calves and lungs burn more and more the higher they got. To her surprise, Carla found she was starting to enjoy the cold. It felt like a challenge.
"I wonder what we'd find at the summit," Tally mused aloud.
"Hold on, I've read about this," Bruno said as he kicked aside a stone. "There's some kind of ancient ruin at the top - it's meant to be sacred."
"Sacred to what?"
"I don't know. The book didn't say."
Carla stopped walking. In front of them was a rock platform that allowed them to gaze out at the view, and a sheer rock cliff reaching towards the clouds. The path went on up the mountain, past a large and forbidding red sign.
"Guess this is as far as we go." Bruno dumped his rucksack onto the ground and sat next to it. "But look at that!"
He gestured towards the spread of land and ocean before them.
"Isn't it amazing?" Tally sat beside him. "I'm so glad we came here. Hey, maybe some of our pokémon might want to see this!"
"Yeah, but not for too long. Someone else might be coming this way."
With a grin, Tally released Glossie and Treble and Carla did the same with Zoe. Bruno let out Vern and Hazel. The Noctowl shook herself, sending fluff over the ground and onto Bruno's jacket.
"Hey!" He laughed and brushed it off. Hazel crooned and leaned her head against his shoulder.
Carla sat down with a sigh. The rock platform was hard and cold against her hands and legs, but she didn't care. Zoe came to sit beside her.
Suddenly, she looked towards the path.
"Zoe? What...hey!"
The Snorunt was moving towards the upper path. Just as Carla was scrambling to her feet, Zoe was already past the red sign and was making her way up the mountain.
"Zoe!" Bag dangling from one hand, Carla ran after her.
Immediately, the path became steeper. Zoe already had a head start on Carla and she was moving quickly.
"Where are you going?" Carla called. "Zoe! Come back!"
The Snorunt looked behind her and waved at her trainer. She was beckoning her on.
Now, Carla was curious as well as worried. Zoe had never done anything like this before; none of her pokémon had. What was going on?
After a certain amount of time - Carla wasn't sure how long it was - Zoe stopped right in front of a cliff face and looked up.
"What are you doing?" Carla demanded. "You can't just go wandering off like that!"
Zoe pointed up the cliff, her blue eyes bright. Carla frowned and looked up - and saw a flash of turquoise halfway up, glittering in the light.
She was aware of Bruno and Tally rushing up beside them, but didn't look at them.
"Carla, what happened? Why'd Zoe just..." Bruno's voice trailed away before saying: "Is that what I think it is?"
"Would Hazel mind lifting me up there?"
"Have you ever flown before?"
"No."
"That's OK; Glossie can lift you!" said Tally.
Next moment, Glossie's eyes were glowing green and Carla was being slowly lifted off the ground, floating towards the turquoise glint.
It wasn't just one dawn stone; it was a cluster of them, slowly growing from the rock face. The largest one looked like a beautiful, glowing eye that gazed right into Carla's soul. Slowly, Carla reached out and grasped it in one hand. It was cool and smooth, but she had to wiggle it about to get it free from the cluster.
She turned it back and forth in her hands, a smile growing on her face. This was wonderful. She had never, ever imagined getting a dawn stone. If she sold it, it would be a great deal of money and Glennis would be so relieved to...
"Look, I'm not trying to tell you what to do or anything, but if you don't want a Glalie now's a good time to start looking for a dawn stone - or at least start saving up for one."
What if Zoe wanted to become a Froslass? Even if she didn't, there was a good chance Tally's Ralts would be a boy.
Keeping a tight grip on the stone, Carla looked down and waved as a signal to Glossie. Her stomach lurched as the Grumpig began to lower her down to the ground. She supposed she should get used to flying, especially after Tess evolved.
"Thanks, Glossie," she said as her feet touched rock again.
Zoe was gazing up at her.
Carla knelt beside the Snorunt. "Which would you prefer?" she asked. "Do you want to evolve into a Glalie naturally, or become a Froslass with the dawn stone?"
If she chose the latter, Carla would evolve her on the spot.
Zoe stared at the ground for a few seconds. Then she looked towards the stone and nodded, but then shook her head.
"You want to wait a while."
Another nod.
"OK, but don't wait too long - I think you're close to evolving."
"All right, can we go back down now before someone finds us?" Tally asked, glancing around nervously. "We're not serious climbers!"
The nurse smiled brightly as the trio trudged towards the desk. "How was your climb?"
"Amazing," Tally told her. "The views are stunning; I've never seen anything like it before!"
"I think I'm going to call my sister," Carla said as they handed their teams (except for Rakel) over for healing. "I haven't called her for a while."
There was a phone on the wall nearby; Carla went over to it, entered a small amount of change and dialled her home number.
Nobody answered.
Of course. It would show up as a Sinnoh number. Rolling her eyes, she tried again.
A furious face filled the screen. "Go away! We're not interested...Carly?"
Carla smiled. "Hi, Glen." A secret voice whispered that maybe she should keep quiet about the dawn stone - she had given Zoe the choice, and she couldn't go back on that.
"What are you doing in Sinnoh?"
"It's a long story. Are you OK?"
Glennis shook her head, dark hair dancing on her shoulders. "No, I'm not OK. That thug came round the day before yesterday; I gave him what I had, but he threatened me again. The debt's halfway paid, but they're getting impatient and I don't know what to do, Carly!"
The world seemed to have gone still.
"What do you mean, it's halfway paid? It should be more than halfway by now." In fact, it should be closer to two-thirds.
Carla took out her notebook, opened it to the right page and held it to the screen. "This is the amount I've sent so far. How much have you actually received?"
Silence.
"Glen?"
"I'm going to kill her."
"No, wait, don't hang up! Gl-"
But the phone was dead. With a shaking hand, Carla hung up as well.
She should have known things were going too well.
"Carly?" Tally was standing next to her. "Are you all right?"
"Some of the money has gone missing. Glennis hasn't been getting all the packages." Carla was starting to feel sick. "I need to go home."
"We won't be able to get a teleporter to send us to Hoenn," said Bruno, "but we could go back to Pastoria. And...things have died down now, right? About that hotel?"
Carla nodded. She went over to the desk and asked: "Can we get a teleporter to take us to Pastoria? We need to get a boat back to Hoenn."
"If I may, you'd be better off going to Canalave. There'll be a lot more boats going to Hoenn from there."
"Can we get one that goes to Mossdeep?"
The nurse frowned. "I don't see why you shouldn't. Your teams are all healed now."
Carla clenched her fists. Hold on, Glen. I'm coming.
Carla gripped the railings, watching as Mossdeep City drew closer and closer.
"You OK?"
She hadn't even heard Bruno approach. "I guess I'm just worried about my sister. And my dad."
"Hey." Bruno put a hand on her shoulder. "It'll be OK. You know that, right?"
"How do you know that?"
"I have to, 'cos if I don't..." Bruno shrugged.
They'd managed to catch a passenger boat from Canalave. The cabins were comfortable enough, and there were even training and battle rooms, but Carla was unable to relax. She wanted to find out what was going on in person, not over the phone, and she had another large package of money to give her sister.
"Do you want us to go with you?"
Carla was caught off guard by Bruno's question. "No thanks. I don't even know what's going to happen."
"Hey guys!" Tally joined them, black hair blowing everywhere in the wind. "I just spoke to someone and you can hire divers to take you to Sootopolis. Have you ever done that, Carla?"
"A couple of times. Everyone I know in Mossdeep has gone at least once; it's practically a rite of passage. Sootopolis is...it's something. So is the trip underwater."
Tally's eyes lit up.
"The divers for Sootopolis always leave from the west pier. I'll go to the house and then there's someone else I've got to see; if you reserve the trips, I'll meet you as soon as I can."
After disembarking, Carla meandered down the streets with the other visiting people as if she belonged there. She avoided making eye contact with anyone in case someone recognised her.
Mossdeep felt...different, and she wasn't sure 't coming home supposed to bring a feeling of safety and relief?
Before long, she found herself outside her house. Nerves wound around her chest and she suddenly found it hard to breathe. She walked right up the path and knocked on the door.
"Go away!" someone shouted from behind it.
"It's me."
Then the door was thrown open and the sisters were hugging each other. Glennis' face was hidden in Carla's shoulder, and Carla squeezed her sister as tightly as she could.
"What are you doing here?" cried Glennis.
"Are you OK? What happened?"
The sisters walked inside the house; Glennis shut the door and said: "I thought Sandra was stealing the packages."
"Was she?"
Glennis shook her head. "It was postal workers; they've been doing it for months now and they've only just been caught. But I didn't know that. I didn't believe her, so I...I punched her in the face and said if she ever did it again I'd kill her. I was so angry, Carla."
She wrapped her arms around herself. "Later, the police showed up. Dad paid bail and Sandra's not pressing charges, but I've never seen Dad so angry." Her brown eyes filled with tears.
Carla had to ask. "Does he know about the threats?"
"I had to tell him, Carly. I'm so sorry. He wanted to know why you were sending money."
Carla could feel her heart sinking. She'd been naive enough to think they were going to get away with it, and this was what had happened. "What happens now?"
"Dad's taken my phone and I'm not allowed to leave the house. He says...he says he's going to pay the rest with his savings."
"What?" Carla shouted. "But he can't do..."
"That's what I said, but he's gonna do it."
Carla almost leaned against the wall. She wasn't sure just how much that was going to be out of their father's savings, but if Glennis said the debt wasn't halfway paid...
"What are you going to do?" Glennis asked softly.
Carla knelt, unzipped her bag and pulled out a package and a slip of paper. "This should help towards Dad's savings. And…I don't know if this is going to help, but I'm going to give you someone's number. Her name's Ronnie; when Dad does give you your phone back, call her and ask her to give me any messages."
"Does this mean you're not staying? I haven't met your team yet. How many have you got now?"
"A full team."
"That's amazing! You…" Glennis looked sharply over her shoulder. Carla did so as well and saw their dad walking up towards the house, Nadine by his side. Someone else was behind them.
Adrenaline rushed through Carla's body.
"Out the back! Quickly!"
Carla snatched up her bag and raced through the kitchen; she fumbled with the handle on the back door, opening it and closing it quietly behind her. She slunk around the side of the house and waited until she was sure it was safe before creeping away down the street.
Her face was flushed with shame. She couldn't believe she'd just done that. That was her home and her family she had run from - like she'd done something wrong. But she hadn't...had she?
She quickly pushed aside her emotions. There was one person she still needed to see.
The graveyard was as quiet as ever. Carla knew exactly where to find the headstone she was looking for; carefully, she knelt in front of it and reached out to gently brush the name with her fingertips.
"Hi, Mum. Sorry I didn't say goodbye to you before I left the last time." She smiled. "I've made some good friends on my journey, and I've got a great team. I wish you were here to see them. I know they'd love you."
Carla swallowed. "If you knew what I was doing, why I left...would you be proud of me?"
The only answer she had was the wind in the trees.
"You said you'd always be proud of me," Carla murmured, "no matter what. Love you, Mum."
She got up - and froze.
A girl stood, watching her. The wind blew her long brown hair back, whipping it behind her head. She walked forward until she was right in front of Carla.
Topaz-yellow eyes looked right into Carla's grey.
"He can make all the mistakes he wants. You just have to make one."
"What are you..."
"You'll know," the girl said, gently putting a hand on the side of Carla's neck. "When it's time, you'll know."
She smiled and disappeared.
Only one chapter to go!
This chapter's title comes from Ready For The Storm by Dougie MacLean.
Hope you're enjoying the story so far! Please leave a review if you liked it.