Canalave library, Oreburgh City and, most importantly, buying warm clothes – Magnus realised that he had a lot to do. Upon waking up, he forced himself out of the cosy bed into the chill morning air which felt even a bit colder than yesterday. The sun had barely risen as he left the hostel to find the nearest clothing shop, where he grabbed the thickest pants and hoodies he could find. After he returned to the hostel and changed into his new clothes, he finally no longer felt like he was about to catch a cold. When he left the building once again, the sunlight had become strong enough that he could feel a pleasantly warm feeling tickling on his cheeks where the sun rays caressed his skin.
On his walk to the library, he realised that the city had also started to wake up. The first container ships had already arrived at the port and blue-collar workers were busy unloading them. He passed by a group of children who were complaining about the fact that they still had to go to school. "Once I turn 10", he overheard one of them, "I'll grab myself a Piplup and tell our teachers to smell me later!" He chuckled at the thought that while he could live their dreams and travel alongside his Pokémon to Oreburgh, he instead wanted to delve into the library of all places and finally learn more about Sinnoh. The children would probably mock him for wasting this opportunity in favour of learning about his home region. Though was it really? After all, yesterday's cold welcoming hardly made him feel like a lost son finally returning home.
He brushed these thoughts aside when he entered the library. Its walls were built out of the same grey stone that characterised the other houses of the city centre, but with three storeys and some mighty statues at its entrance, it certainly overshadowed them. Luckily, the librarian immediately approached him and asked how she could help.
"I have just arrived here in Sinnoh and would like to learn more about this region."
"My, that is quite a general request", she replied with a smile, "With a request like this, you might have to read through half of our books here! But I think we can narrow it down a bit... Let me see..."
She looked through her files for a minute and made some notes on a sheet of paper, which she eventually gave to Magnus. Written on it were ten combinations of letters and three-digit-numbers.
"These books might be good introductory texts for you. The first one is about the natural history of Sinnoh", she pointed with her pen on the first line of the list, "the second and third are about the history of Sinnoh starting with the first settlers from abroad. And the other seven are about our mythology."
"Mythology?"
"Yes, I think you will especially love number five on this list. That's a classic!"
He expected to read through some books about history, but not about mythology – much less seven of them. But the librarian's compelling smile made it impossible to argue with her and hence, Magnus started to collect the recommended books in two heavy piles from all over the library. He found a nice place at the top floor: hidden behind a particularly large bookshelf stood two armchairs at a small desk. Just from carrying all those books to the desks, his arms told him he had a lot of research to do. This cushioned seat seemed to be perfect for immersing himself into his work.
At first, he skimmed through "The Natural History of Sinnoh – 3rd Edition with a Foreword by Prof. Rowan". After all, Byron's Bastiodon made him wonder what other fossil Pokémon once inhabited this region, and apparently, there were quite many in a diverse ecosystem. "Plenty of fossilised remnants of these Pokémon are found every year in the Sinnoh underground by amateurs and miners alike alongside the fascinating spheres, which were once used as currency by the indigenous people." He could have spent the entire day looking at the beautifully detailed hand-drawn sketches of the first fossils found in Sinnoh, but that would not really help him understand the region better. He put the book aside, determined to buy a copy for himself later, and turned to "The Great Settlement of Sinnoh": The first chapter was all about the ancient beliefs of the indigenous people before the first settlers arrived from the other regions and the second chapter about how they had merged into two competing confessions of the same overarching religion just around when the settlement started in Jubilife. Then some chapters about early exploration attempts and their often fatal results. Then another chapter on Sinnoh's mythology and how it started to influence the newly arrived settlers. "Some historians hypothesised that it was precisely the fact that the settlers came from all over the world with different religious beliefs, different canons of legends and different oral traditions that made them adopt the old Sinnohian mythological beliefs: Precisely because the settlers lacked a unifying set of traditions, they sought to find such a common ground in the indigenous people's stories." Magnus briefly glanced over to the pile of mythology books on his table. "Others speculated that the stark contrast between their relatively developed countries of origin and their exploration of the hostile and wild landscapes of early Sinnoh made the settlers start to believe in the old myths, which tried to explain the wilderness and dangers of life, especially around the highlands of Mt. Coronet." Fine. If even the history books can't seem to do without mythology, it might make sense to confront it head-on.
A young man, callow and foolish in innocence, came to own a sword.
With it, he smote Pokémon which gave sustenance, with carefree abandon.
Those not taken as food, he discarded, with no afterthought. The following year, no Pokémon appeared. Larders grew bare.
The young man, seeking the missing Pokémon, journeyed afar.
Long did he search. And far and wide, too, until one he did find.
Asked he, "Why do you hide?" To which the Pokémon replied...
"If you bear your sword to bring harm upon us, with claws and fangs, we will exact a toll."
"From your kind we will take our toll, for it must be done."
"Done it must be to guard ourselves and for it, I apologize."
To the skies, the young man shouted his dismay.
"In having found the sword, I have lost so much."
"Gorged with power, I grew blind to Pokémon being alive." "I will never fall savage again. This sword I denounce and forsake."
"I plead for forgiveness, for I was but a fool."
So saying, the young man hurled the sword to the ground, snapping it.
Seeing this, the Pokémon disappeared to a place beyond seeing...
He did not expect to get sucked into these books as much as he was, but there was something mesmerising about them. Time passed by and he skimmed over all of them, sometimes just looking at short snippets of poems or stories, sometimes reading through entire essays on how to interpret the texts, jumping back and forth between the different books. He did not notice that autumn sun had already passed its peak, not least because his mind did its best to suppress the growing feeling of hunger to his subconsciousness. Nor did he notice the librarian, accompanied by another woman, standing just a few steps away from him.
"Oh indeed", she told her newest visitor. Magnus seemed not to hear anything. "He is actually still busy with them, I would not have thought so. My apologies, it's - "
"That's fine", the other woman said with a calm smile, "It's always good to see someone else engage with our old stories."
"If you don't mind, I will go downstairs again to welcome our next visitors."
"Oh sure, I can -", she answered and the librarian hurried down the staircase before she even managed to finish her sentence. Somewhat dumbfounded, she looked at where the librarian had just been standing a moment ago, before shifting her eyes to the young man in the armchair. His stern face was just inches away from the book, silently focusing on a sketch of old ruins. Suddenly, his torso bolted up and he grabbed another book with his right hand, while the left hand was firmly pointing at some details on the sketch. His fingers hastily flipped through some pages of the second book, until he finally seemed to have found what he was looking for, after which he leaned over the book in his right hand for almost half a minute, his eyes glued to another illustration. Finally, his eyes started to jolt between the two books, back and forth, back and forth, until he was startled by a chuckle. Across the table, a woman had set down on the other armchair. How could he not have noticed her moving in? After all this text, his eyes had to adjust to seeing other people. He closed his eyes for a second and opened them again and indeed, they now seemed to be able to focus on his guest.
"Yes, I am really here", she chuckled and after his face must have revealed that he did not understand what she meant, she added: "The way you blinked – it looked like you thought your eyes were playing tricks on you."
"Well", he said, trying to think about something. His eyes studied her silently for a split second. She must have been a couple of years older than him, but not too many. Long blonde hair covered one of her eyes almost completely and her black coat emanated an aura of... elegance? He failed to think of a better word.
"You seem to like these books."
"Yes, yes", he replied more shyly than he intended to, "I have just started reading through them, though."
"Couldn't decide which one to choose and took them all instead?", she asked with a smile and pointed at the pile of books on the table.
"Sort of", he answered, "I asked the librarian for recommendations and, well, you can see the result in front of you."
"Why are you reading about our myths?"
That question seemed odd to him. But if he had thought about the situation a little longer, he would have realised that it was already odd to be approached by a stranger in the library out of all places. Nevertheless, he felt a sincerity in her question that would not be adequately answer by just saying that mythology sounded interesting or that he wanted to learn something.
"Yesterday, I returned to this region", he finally said after thinking about the question for a while. But now, it felt as if the words kept coming out of his mouth, with his mind being merely a bystander.
"I arrived as a stranger in my own home", he continued, surprised by his own words, "And I suppose that learning about my home's origin and roots may help me to understand myself better."
That's it, Magnus. The most intellectual thing you will ever have said and the only witnesses are a complete stranger and some old books. But the stranger's eyes had lit up as if she was more than satisfied by his answer.
"Interesting", she finally mumbled after an uncomfortable minute of silence, "very interesting..."
She did not seem to mind the awkward silence that followed afterwards, but Magnus felt increasingly uneasy. Finally, she seemed to have had thought enough about his answer and pointed at one of the books on the table.
"Do you mind if I have a look at this book?", she asked, "The librarian told me that she gave you the only copy of it."
"Sure, I can't finish all of them anyway."
With a "Thank you", she took the book from underneath the pile of other books and quickly skimmed through its pages. Her face lit up with a smile and Magnus assumed the must have found the page she was looking for. She read through it once, then twice and then another time. With the book resting on her lap, she eventually tilted her head and looked through the nearest window. Puzzled, Magnus followed her gaze, but failed to see anything but an empty street. He looked outside, then to her as if he wanted to ask what was going on.
"Oh, I was just thinking", she said after noticing his confusion, "thinking about the text. It's called The Original Story and describes how a Pokémon hatched from an egg in the midst of chaos and created the world as we know it."
"A Pokémon creating the entire world?"
"Yes, indeed. That's at least what the text tells us. Could you imagine", she suddenly leaned over to him and lowered her voice as if she was whispering a secret to him, "how powerful such a Pokémon would have to be?"
At first, he was stunned by how close she leaned towards him. He could have sworn that her endlessly long blonde hair had the scent of herbs, but mixed with something more... invigorating? But that was not the point of her question. What did she ask again? Oh yes, how powerful such a Pokémon might be.
"I have encountered a couple of strong Pokémon", he answered after collecting his thoughts, "not just strong Pokémon used by other trainers, but really strong ones. I can imagine that they inspired legends."
"So you are a Pokémon trainer?", the woman asked and leaned back into her seat again, "Have you already tested your skill against the local Gym Leader?"
He swiftly pulled the Mine Badge out of his backpack.
"My Pokémon were made out of tougher steel!", he said with a wide grin and suddenly, the woman jumped up from her seat. He only now noticed how tall she was. Even without her high heels, she must be at least as tall as him. And even more surprisingly, her hair was long enough to reach well beyond her knees.
"If you want to", she said with a sly smile, "we can have a match outside. The winner is allowed to take The Original Story home!"
He did not plan to take any of those books to his hostel room, but he could not resist her challenge. Just a few blocks away was a large open area that looks like it had once been used to store goods for some industrial company. It had the perfect size for a quick one-vs-one battle.
Simultaneously, they sent out their Pokémon. Magnus chose his Magneton – after all, he had not yet managed to see the Flash Cannon move in action after teaching it from the TM. It had to face off against the woman's Togekiss. He could have barely asked for a better match, as a Fairy/Flying type was weak to both Electric and Steel. That should be over quickly. The only thing he had to worry about was the nasty Serence Grace ability.
"Magneton, Thunder Wave!"
If he paralysed the Togekiss, it would not have many chances to abuse its ability by spamming Air Slash. But to his great surprise, it swiftly dodged the attack without any command from the woman and charged directly at his Magneton.
"Protect! Left!"
Better not risk anything. Magneton shielded itself from whatever kind of attack would be thrown at it and floated a couple of meters to the left to get into a better position. But Magnus nervously looked at his opponent's Pokémon. That thing moved fast. Faster than he expected it to.
"Thunderbolt!"
"Aura Sphere!"
A ball of electricity hit Togekiss on the right wing, but by then, it had already fired a sphere of blue energy right at Magneton. The sound of Magneton hitting the ground was painfully similar to an empty can being kicked down the street. Togekiss, seemingly unscathed by the Thunderbolt, happily floated above it. One-hit knockout.
"Don't feel embarrassed", the woman told Magnus as he withdrew his Magneton. His thoughts were written all over his face.
"Your Magneton did well. It must be a strong Pokémon."
"Apparently, not strong enough", he replied after regaining his posture, "I seem to have more to learn than I thought."
"Are you staying here in Canalave?"
"No. I think I will leave tomorrow and head to Oreburgh. Got family to visit over there."
"Oreburgh is right next to Mount Coronet. If you train your Magneton there, you will have a pleasant little surprise", the woman said and gave him a wink, "Trust me and thank me later."
"I will keep it in mind", he replied, but was utterly clueless as to what she could have meant.
"And after you have trained there, you can take the Cycling Road to Eterna City. Maybe we will meet there again. I would like to see how your Magneton will have grown until then."
She reached out her hand to say goodbye to him. The very second their hands touched for a handshake, Magnus realised something: "By the way", he said, still holding her hand, "I think we have never introduced ourselves. My name is Magnus."
"Nice to meet you, Magnus. I am Cynthia."