Man, it's been hot. And this is the final, and longest, chapter in the story. At the bottom of this page, you will have finished reading Zoroark's Pendant. There will be more information there.
I initially uploaded this chapter on June 14, but I realized that this was probably too fast of an upload time. If I were to write a sequel, I would probably limit the amount of words I would write per day.
And I had a pretty good birthday. Plenty of well-wishers, which I'm grateful for. And I've no longer got the Trace. Still no driver's license, but I don't feel the need to drive anywhere at the moment. I got my buffs, too.
In addition, if you still want to join my Discord, but have not yet, just PM me and I'll give you the code. I hope that you guys will enjoy this chapter. For any mistakes I make regarding dates, I wish that you will not lynch me.
Let's get this show on the road!
LUCAS'S POV
We ended up taking the boat all the way back to Seward. It was a shorter trip than I had remembered, but maybe it only felt shorter now that we had not been hanging on to every single second. I knew that adrenaline could make many moments feel longer than they really had been, since you're so focused on living in the moment.
Nobody in the group really talked that much. I was still feeling grief about Kieran's death, and a slight amount of guilt, even though I knew, deep down, that it wasn't my fault in the least. It had just been his time to go, and maybe Arceus had even made it so that his aura sensing abilities were a compromise for giving him such a short lifespan.
Personally, I didn't see exactly why that could make up for only living to be 24 years old, but it's been said that God works in mysterious ways. Perhaps Arceus's ways were even more mysterious.
But we'd saved the world. I had expected to be walking on sunshine, feeling complete and unadulterated joy at completing this quest. There was to be no more worrying about Team Jewel, or Team Rocket for that matter. Everything was wonderful now, or so it seemed.
Of course, that Everclear song wasn't about things actually being wonderful. It was about a kid's parents getting divorced, and he's telling his parents not to pretend that everything is wonderful now. My parents had, by all accounts, loved each other, and they had been separated by death rather than divorce. Now that my mother's killer was also dead, I no longer sought revenge. It wasn't like I hadn't had conflicted feelings about my mother dying, after all.
Even if I didn't care too much about my mother, partly because she was largely apathetic about me, it was never a good thing when someone close to you died.
For the most part, I tried to enjoy the ocean breeze. It felt a lot more severe now that I no longer had a thick layer of black fur to protect me against it. I could feel my teeth chattering, in fact. There was a certain level of satisfaction that this brought, even if I was freezing.
By the time we got back to Seward, my hair, which was frequently unruly in the best of circumstances, had been blown into an even crazier style. It was the same with Samuel and Michelle, who were now holding hands, as though they were a couple.
Were they a couple? I had never really considered the possibility that seriously, but, the more I thought about it, the more possible it seemed.
"Let's get this boat back to where we got it from" Eric said. "I don't want to be guilty of stealing something. We've already dealt with Team Rocket and Team Jewel, we don't need to deal with the police".
"Indeed" replied Garfield.
After we had gotten the boat back to the harbor, we walked into town for some lunch. There was nothing like a fight to the death, even if it wasn't that intense, to stimulate your appetite.
As we sat down in a booth in the diner, I thought even more about the quest. We had done what we had set out to do, but lost some things in the process. I knew, for instance, that I was going to have to make up a great deal of schoolwork, which was going to be a pain in the neck for sure.
One other thing I was wondering was where I was going to live. My house had been destroyed by Kieran, and there was now no way we were going to live there. Most likely, my father had rented an apartment or something, and that was the way it was going to go. If so, it was going to be tough to face him after my mother had died. That was one thing I wasn't looking forward to.
While I was on the quest, I had always figured that it would be amazing once things were all completed, once everything went back to normal, once I was no longer going through all manner of life-threatening situations. However, I was quickly realizing that that was not to be.
The grass is always greener on the other side.
"We're going to stay the night in Seward before heading to Anchorage. Then, we're going to fly to Montreal, drop off Malcolm, and you guys are going to head down to New Hampshire".
That was the plan Eric told us. As we sat on our beds in a hotel room, this was what I thought about. Normally, I'm one of those people who loves to get home after a really long trip. However, I was well aware that things would not be normal. They would never be normal again, at least not in the sense I was used to. I was going to have to adjust to a new normal, one I wasn't sure that I would like.
"I wish that we could have just stopped Kieran from dying" Michelle replied. "I kind of feel guilty about that".
"Don't feel guilty about it, Michelle" Garfield replied. "The way it was going, he had no chance of surviving. You know that full well".
That's my sister for you. She cares a lot about other people, more than I can say about myself. Of course she cared that Kieran had died, because that was just the way she was.
I, of course, did not really feel the same way. I had grown to trust, maybe even respect, the man a little more, but it had been a long, winding road in order to get there that had involved him attempting to kill me and actually killing my mother? No doubt, it would be hard to get along with my father now, even more so than it had been before.
My feelings about Kieran dying were even more conflicted than they had been about my mother dying. I had an angel on my right shoulder that was telling me, "Of course you should care, Lucas! He's dead, and he helped save your life!", and a devil on my left shoulder that was telling me, "Good riddance! That was only after he tried to take it, and took your mother's!"
Sometimes, I just wanted both sides to shut up. I wanted to be able to think about this objectively and rationally, without having two figurative supernatural forces fighting over which direction I was going to incline my soul, if that makes any sense.
We continued to eat our room-service cheeseburgers with fries, making only occasional conversation. The mood was pretty subdued, much like Ender probably felt after figuring out he had destroyed the actualbuggers rather than the simulations of them.
What I mean is, I had never thought that shutting down the base would involve killing all of the other people inside of it. I wondered how many Mesprits, Kirlias, or other Psychic types had been present in that building, but the number was likely not very high. If you hadn't been able to teleport out of that place, you were done for dinner.
Was I a murderer? I couldn't be, because the word murder implied that you had intentionally been killing those people, just for fun. Well, maybe not for fun, but not for a cause such as saving the world. Were the members of Team Jewel just pawns, made to do the leader's bidding, or were they fully complicit?
I had a feeling I knew the answer to that question. The odds were that they were at least partly complicit, and had done what they had done out of their own free will. Even so, the answer to this question, or perhaps not having an answer, whichever was more painful, would haunt me for the rest of my life.
The next day, we paid a local man to drive us up to Ted Stevens International Airport, about an hour and a half. Getting picked up for hitchhiking was probably the least of our worries at this point. Definitely, I was in a place beyond caring about that. I had gone through so much, including two and a half weeks spent as a Zoroark, that I honestly didn't think that police could faze me.
The entire drive was spent in silence. We didn't want to let the man driving us know anything he didn't need to about the quest we had just been on. We didn't want to parade the fact that two members of our party had once been Pokemon, and were now humans again. That just wasn't something you tossed out so casually.
Once we were at the airport, we went through security just like normal, Eric making sure that all five of his Pokeballs were present, and then we got to the gate. Soon, we were thirty thousand feet in the air, on a seven-hour flight from Anchorage to Montreal, from one uncertainty towards another.
During the flight, I had my head in my hands for most of the time. To an outsider, it might appear that I was fighting not to be sick from the turbulence; however, that wasn't it at all. It wasn't my stomach that was feeling sick; it was my heart.
Not my literal heart, my figurative one. Sometimes, however, the latter was worse.
Much worse.
SAMUEL'S POV
The sun had already gone down by the time we touched down in Montreal. This wasn't surprising, since we had moved four time zones eastward. Even so, I was shocked at just how dark it had gotten. There weren't too many stars visible, since we hadn't hit astronomical dusk yet, and because we were close to a city.
Eric, it transpired, always had a car that he kept near the airport, in a special reserved section of the multi-level parking garage. "I'm always prepared for anything" he said. "That includes things like this. They always assume that someone's on a really long trip, but that's not always the case".
Indeed, this whole quest had felt interminable at times. It seemed that it would never end, especially when Lucas had been captured by Team Rocket and we were searching desperately for him, or when we had waited for him to recover in the hospital afterwards.
The flight, in addition, felt like it took forever. Even if it was only seven hours, it hadn't been fun. At least we were both humans now, so that we wouldn't be as uncomfortable as we could have been. Even so, I couldn't wait for it to be over.
The plan was to drop Malcolm off at his parents' house, where we expected to be lauded very much for helping to keep the now-Zoroark safe. Then, we were going to be driven to the apartment building that Lucas's father had rented an apartment in. Eric had talked with Caleb London over the phone during the drive, making sure that it was okay. Evidently, it was fine for me to continue living with Lucas and Michelle, something I was very much looking forward to, even if it would be with his apathetic father.
As for Eric, he lived in the village, but he was willing to drive the three of us through the night. According to the oldest member of our group, it would probably be about three in the morning by the time we reached Hanover. He didn't want me, a relatively new driver, to be the one driving us through the dark White Mountains, so I understood that.
Just like the drive from Seward to Anchorage, the drive from Montreal to the village in which Eric and Malcolm lived was spent in silence. All of us were exhausted from the flight. Indeed, Malcolm, normally so boisterous and energetic, had actually fallen asleep in the backseat. His ponytail was getting in my face, but I didn't care too much, since my glasses were protecting my eyes. I was okay with letting him sleep.
By the time we had arrived in the village, the stars had all come out. Myself, Lucas, Michelle, and Eric all escorted Malcolm to his house, which we were all able to recognize just the same as always. I wasn't sure exactly why that was, since it didn't look too different from any of the others, particularly since it was so dark out.
Garfield stayed in the car, saying that he didn't want to introduce himself to the Greenlakes. Something about being antisocial, which might have had something to do with the fact that he had never met the Greenlakes. Personally, I kind of agreed with him. After all, since he was a very large man, he might be intimidating, and he didn't want that.
It was getting pretty late, but Carla was to the door almost immediately. As soon as she saw her son, the blue-haired Zoroark exclaimed, "Malcolm! You made it! I'm so proud of you!"
Jason stepped in at just that moment as well. "And you evolved as well! Nice job, son", patting his son on the back. Both of the Greenlake parents were clearly very happy to see that their son had survived his quest.
"Where's Kieran? The man with gray hair?" Carla asked, noticing that he wasn't there.
Eric and myself stared at each other. Both of us, in that moment, seemed to understand each other. Perhaps it was from questing together, but I knew what I was going to say.
"He died. Earlier today, in fact" I said. "I'm Samuel Cranmore, by the way. Both myself and Lucas transformed back in the middle of the factory".
"And so you are Lucas" Jason said, staring at my companion. "Taller than I expected. Longer hair than I expected. I want to thank you very much for helping to keep Malcolm safe. It's a shame that it had to come at the expense of another member of your party".
Malcolm waved his claws in a dismissive gesture. "The way it was going, he was going to die anyways. Hyp...hyper-tro...what was it?"
"Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy" said Eric. "Kieran had that, and he wasn't going to live much longer regardless. Don't feel bad about it".
"Hard not to" Jason said. "But, trust me, I am eternally grateful for my son being safe. And, while I doubt he'll be going on any other quests anytime soon, I do think that he is destined for great things. And you made that all possible".
The sleepy Malcolm walked over to his parents, and the three Zoroarks all embraced in a hug that seemed to go on forever. It almost made me cry, I'll admit, looking at how much the three of them loved each other. It was true parent-child love at its finest. Sometimes, this type of love was underrepresented, I felt, in fiction. They always seemed to emphasize romantic love instead of this, which I somehow felt was purer.
And, suddenly, I felt a stab of emotion. Although I was no longer a Lucario, I could still read auras to a much more limited degree. I supposed that there were still going to be some residual effects from the necklace, in order for it to be a proper curse. If removing it had been as easy as heading to the clothing factory in Alaska, there had to be some sort of a catch.
Anyway...the emotion I had felt seemed to be emanating from Michelle. Was she...attracted to me at all? Was there any way for me to tell?
Impossible. I was always a social outcast, perhaps even more so than Lucas London was. Michelle was, by comparison, a social butterfly, one of the popular girls from her school, and this would no doubt increase after having been gone on her quest. People would be clamoring in order to be able to know where she had been, what she had done, and why she had done it.
I leaned over to Michelle and hugged her. She reciprocated it, and I was starting to think that there might be something brewing between the two of us. Whether it was an actual romance or just a closer friendship, I was very much looking forward to seeing where this was going to go, if we might become more than just friends.
"Also" Eric said, trying to take everyone's eyes off of our hug, "There is a young man who has announced his intention to move into the village. His name is Garfield O'Shannon. He's a very large man, but he means nobody in this village any harm. Can he still be allowed to move in?"
"That's not my place to decide" Carla said. "I think you're an authority on that, and, if he wants to move in, you can decide, or your colleagues can. You are on the village's board of directors, right?"
"That is correct" Eric replied. "I will allow Garfield to live in the village. Are there any empty houses in which to place him?"
"Yes" Jason said. "In fact, there's one five houses over from us. That's where he'll live, if he so chooses".
"I have little doubt he will".
After the two shook hands, the rest of us were escorted back to the car, in which Eric was going to drive us all the way back down to Hanover. I really did feel bad for him, since he'd likely be spending the next eleven or twelve hours driving. However, I was also glad that he was doing that. I definitely felt far too tired to drive Lucas and Michelle home.
I only hoped that things would go well once we were there.
LUCAS'S POV
By the time we reached the apartment building in which my father had rented living space, it was about three in the morning. Samuel, Michelle, and myself had all fallen asleep in the back, and we were awoken by Eric announcing, "Okay, guys. We're here".
I looked at the building. It wasn't a high-rise; it had four stories, including the first floor, which I assumed was the lobby. I might have passed by this building once or twice on the way to school. To my father's credit, this building was only half a mile from the school. At least he'd found a place that was convenient.
"I'm liking this place" I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. The only problem was that I was exhausted and feeling kind of cranky, not to mention anxious about the amount of schoolwork I was going to make up, in addition to the way my father was going to speak to me about the death of my mother.
"He lives in Apartment 433, on the fourth floor" said Eric. "Just ring the doorbell, and he'll come if he's already awake. If not, ring it until he wakes up. He is expecting you".
As soon as he had said that, he got back inside the car and drove off into the night, leaving my friend and sister with me.
"Let's get in there and see what Dad has to say to me" I said. "I bet he's going to be pissed".
"I really doubt it, Lucas" Samuel told me. "He knows it wasn't your fault. It was that asshat Kieran's fault, and I have no problems speaking ill of the dead, unlike some people".
As soon as the doorbell had been rung, my father came to the door. He looked the same as always, but he didn't have his glasses on. He was also wearing only his underwear, since that was what he slept in. Evidently, he'd gotten out of bed in order to answer the door, because he looked bleary-eyed and exhausted.
"Lucas!" he spat. "Into the kitchen! Now!"
He showed Michelle and Samuel to the bedroom, which had three twin beds all set up. Since the Londons are a tall family, it was inadequate, and I figured that it was not going to get any better anytime soon.
After that, my father led me into the kitchen, which was a simple table built for four people next to a cooking alcove.
I did not know what to expect. I assumed that I was going to be yelled at, maybe even spanked, although he had never done that to me before. No matter what, I knew that my father was not going to be happy with me. "So" my father said. "What happened when the house was burned down?"
I saw no reason to lie to him. After all, the truth completely vindicated me and incriminated a dead man. I wasn't afraid of it, but maybe my father would be.
Whatever. Real fathers wouldn't accuse me like this when they knew I wasn't at fault in the least. I decided, at least for the moment, not to think of him as my father. I didn't know how much he had ever cared about me, but there was no love in those steel blue eyes. Only fear, and anger.
"It's simple. Kieran came with his Poison army-".
"Who's Kieran?"
"He was a man who attacked us, but later joined up with us" I said, trying not to let exasperation creep into my voice.
"You say he was...did he die?"
"Yes, he did" I said. "He had a heart condition that he told all of us about before he died. I wasn't responsible for him dying".
"Why did you join up with a man who had attacked you?" my dad all but roared. "I thought I had raised you better than that!"
I paused. How could I explain to this man everything that had happened? He'd think that I was absolutely insane, and probably commit me to a mental institution or something. I definitely didn't want that to happen, but I saw no solution to this problem that wouldn't make him think me a lunatic.
"I can't tell you that" I finally said. "I'll just say that we trusted him. He told us things that made us trust him, and he wasn't deceiving us. In the end, he died a hero".
"In what way was he a hero, Lucas? What was this quest of yours for?"
"To save the world" I said blunty. Immediately, I realized that I had made a mistake. To someone like my father, who is a self-professed "realist", when someone says that they went on a quest to save the world, it sounds like something out of a fictional universe, sounding much more Maximum Ride than Lucas London.
"I can't believe you let him destroy our home, Lucas. This apartment cost me a lot of money, and it's hard for me to keep two of you. Plus this guy, Samuel...I just don't know how it's going to work. I know that we'll have to make ends meet somehow, but we are no longer an upper middle class family".
At first, I didn't get what he was saying. Then, I knew what he meant. He was alone, left to care for three teenagers rather than only two; three teenagers, moreover, whom had gotten back home at three in the morning, claiming to have been on a quest to save the world. His wife of twenty years had also been killed right before his son had left. This had probably served to make him even less emotionally stable than he had already been.
Based on that, I could understand that he was upset and skeptical. I got that. That didn't mean that I liked it, but I at least understood where he was coming from.
But that didn't excuse treating me this way.
"Go to bed, Lucas" my father said, sighing. He put his glasses back on, rubbing his forehead. "You've gotta get up in three hours to go to school, anyway. You don't want to fall too far behind in your education".
I knew that he was right. Given that my mother was now dead, it was likely that my high school would have allowed me to take a couple of bereavement days, but we hadn't announced that to them. The way it was going, I probably would have been assumed to be a truant. I didn't want to miss any more school than I already had.
As soon as I had taken my shoes off, I climbed into my bed, which was far too short for my legs. My feet hung off of the other end. That wasn't the least of my problems, however.
It would have been bad enough if it was just the bed, or just my dad being mad at me. Indeed, he was probably so livid that he would have disowned me if it had not been illegal to do so until my eighteenth birthday, which would be June 29 of the following year.
But it wasn't just that.
More annoying was the fact that I had literally gone from hero to zero, in a day. I had gone from being one of the main heroes of the quest, one of the people who had helped to save the world from a criminal organization, to...just me. Just Lucas London, a socially awkward young man who had trouble connecting with his fellow humans.
As soon as my head touched the pillow, I was confused as to why I wasn't able to fall asleep. I needed what little I could get desperately, because I only had three hours until I would absolutely have to get up. Even in spite of that, however, it just wasn't possible for me to drift off.
At a certain point, I simply had to accept that this would be a sleepless night.
SAMUEL'S POV
I don't know how much sleep Lucas or Michelle got, but I only managed to get an hour. I still had so many memories of the quest that it was just ridiculous to even try. And, at a certain point, I hardly even cared. Unlike Lucas, I was pretty happy with the way things were going.
Even so, it pained me the way Lucas's father treated his own son. He was speaking pretty harshly to him about something that was very clearly not his fault.
Tomorrow, I would be starting school up once again. However, since today was some Jewish holiday that my school commemorated, even though the schools Lucas and Michelle went to did not, I had the day off. I decided to use it to get some much-needed sleep.
However, I wasn't able to sleep as much as I had thought. After a few hours, I had slept as much as I could. The way it was going, it was as though the extra aura that had remained in my system even after my detransformation into a human was keeping me awake.
And so I was forced to stay awake, looking outside my bedroom window. I didn't particularly want to talk to Lucas's father, because I had always seen him as kind of a jerk. I wasn't a fan of him. Even if Lucas was not a target of abuse, I was still pissed off at Caleb London for not treating his son better after coming back from such a huge quest.
And I knew that I was going to have to do even more catch-up work than Lucas and Michelle. After all, I had missed school while I was in the hospital after stabbing myself (something that I was now glad had not killed me, because life was worth living, and the outcome of this quest had proven it), and during the time I was with Lucas.
All throughout the quest I had been missing school. Hopefully, I would not have to completely redo junior year, but, given my luck, it was going to happen. I never got this lucky.
As I occasionally watched cars pass our apartment by, I pondered how Lucas was holding up. It was no secret to me that he wasn't exactly binge-eating fruit from the Super Happy Tree. Indeed, he seemed to be hanging his head low, seeming completely and totally down-and-out.
Maybe that was just because of being tired and hungry. Maybe, once he got some food in his stomach, and let his brain rest, he'd feel good as new again. He'd be like his old self, the cheerful Lucas that I had become good friends with. Maybe, one he was back to normal in terms of physical strength, his emotional strength would also be up.
I could hope. But that might not be the case. And, the more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that it likely was not the case.
Once Lucas and Michelle got home from school, I felt more attracted to her than I ever had before. And, based on her facial expressions, the feelings were reciprocated.
And so the two of us started dating. We weren't getting too intimate yet, not since we were both under Caleb London's roof. Considering the way he was treating Lucas, it was quite something that he was even willing to house Michelle and myself. As long as things didn't get NSFW (an acronym for "not safe for work"), I was sure that the man would be okay with it.
I hadn't been sure when I had noticed that Michelle was my unspoken girlfriend. I supposed that our romance had just popped up out of nowhere. I wasn't sure why that was, but I wasn't going to question it.
The long-suffering Lucas, to his credit, was content to be our third wheel. Of course, he wasn't going to date either of us, but it must have been awkward to, on one occasion about two weeks after returning from Alaska, witness the two of us having our first kiss. And, to his credit, he had only blushed a little bit.
Since we went to different schools, we didn't have too much time to be together. Only in the evenings could we truly show that we loved each other. However, that was more than fine with me, not least because it also conferred an advantage, which was that we did not need to go to all the work with hiding it from the other students.
Honestly, I was happy with this. I liked both of my relationships that I was in, even if only one was romantic, that one being with Michelle. The relationship with Lucas might have only been platonic, but we understood each other in a way that only two teenage boys that had turned into Pokemon could.
And now I was looking at the flower. Somehow, it had reappeared in a jar next to Lucas's bed. Now that I had met the Flower Queen herself, I knew the secret of the flower. It was enchanted to follow its master everywhere. Had Lucas become the Flower King?
I mean, Lucas was clearly its master. That flower had followed him into Team Rocket's lair, into a hospital room, and into Alaska. If Lucas wasn't the flower's master, then everything the Flower Queen had been telling us had to have been a lie. There was just no other way that everything would have checked out so well.
So why was Lucas still so unhappy?
LUCAS'S POV
As the weeks passed, the leaves continued to change color and fall to the ground. The weather began to grow chillier and chillier, and the wind was becoming harsher.
These were all normal changes, things that you would expect to be happening with the changes in season. However, there was one thing going on that was not normal for me.
My favorite season was typically the fall. I liked things getting gradually crisper, as well as the brightly-colored leaves on the trees and the ground. However, not this year. This year, I was feeling pretty down.
You would have thought that, the way things had been going on the quest, I would have been overjoyed that it was over. That I was safe at home in New Hampshire, not having to worry too much about ever going anywhere that would be likely to be dangerous. You really would think that I'd be happy about this.
However, you would be wrong. As the weeks had gone by, I had realized that I had never felt more alive than those days that I had spent travelling the continent with Samuel, Michelle, Kieran, Malcolm, Eric, and Garfield. Knowing that I might never see four of those people again was tough to handle. Of course, there was one of those people that I would never see again, and that was Kieran. Even with all of the jumbled feelings I had always had about him, I knew that it would be tough for me to get over his death.
And that was the problem. For me, nothing could equal that joy I had felt. That adrenaline coursing through my veins. Truth be told, being a Zoroark had been a pretty awesome experience. Shocking Zach with my illusion as being an Eevee had also been pretty enjoyable. And I would never get that joy again.
My life, from here on out, was likely to be fairly boring and disappointing. At first, I had thought that a boring life would be exactly enough for me. Nothing more, nothing less would be needed for my satisfaction. I had never thought that I would need to keep going on adventures in order to fulfill some sort of addiction.
The extra work I had to do in order to catch up with the rest of the class was also pretty painful. Having saved the world had been the highest of highs, like standing at the top of Mount Everest and seeing everything below you. In terms of moods, that was a pretty good analogy for the way I had felt.
However, if my mood then had been the top of Mount Everest, my mood right now was at the bottom of the Dead Sea. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but, for someone who had been going through something that had been so stressful at times, I really would have thought that I'd be happier once it was over.
Was I suicidal? No, but I certainly felt as though I was going to not be able to go on at a certain point. I didn't have much post-traumatic stress, even though I would occasionally wake up and check my left arm for an IV tube, until realizing that my blood wasn't being drained, or that I wasn't in a burning train car on the Alaskan Railroad.
I might have been depressed. Maybe even to the point that I had some sort of disorder, but I didn't want to go and get it checked out. I might get diagnosed with PTSD, even though, like I said above, that would not be accurate at all. If there was something like post-quest depression disorder, PQDD, that might be a lot more similar to the way I was feeling.
One evening in early November, I was kneeling in front of the window, fighting back tears. All I could think about was how it was all over. The quest was all over, and it was never coming back. No longer did I have anything to distract me from day-to-day life.
I might have shed a tear or two, because I had opened my mouth enough for a drop of something to slip in, and it tasted pretty salty. Indeed, that was what must have happened.
"Are you okay, Lucas?" said the voice of Samuel Cranmore.
I looked, somewhat embarrassed, behind me at the bespectacled boy who had just entered the room. He didn't look much happier than me, but I knew why he was there. Maybe he had heard me whimper, or seen some reason to think that I was depressed. Perhaps he was uncomfortable with me being close to the window.
"Yeah, I'm fine" I said, trying to hide the tears from my voice. I didn't want to look like a wimp in front of my friend.
"I'm sorry, Lucas, but you're a really bad liar" the former Lucario said, clearly trying not to laugh. "I mean, look at you. You look pathetic".
"In what way?" I asked him. "I never thought that you would be one to find a problem with my appearance".
"Lucas, you're losing weight. Your hair is more unkempt than it was before. And, from what little aura I still have, I know that you're depressed".
I saw no reason to lie to someone who knew whether or not I was lying. To someone I trusted, and who trusted me.
"Yes, Samuel, I haven't been in the best mood lately" I replied. "There are just so many things that make me not very happy. For instance, there's the fact that we're not questing anymore".
"And that depresses you? Lucas, there were times we almost died!" Samuel all but bellowed. "You're not happy to be back at home? Seriously, Lucas, what are you thinking?"
This wasn't going the way I had wanted it to go. I had hoped that Samuel was going to see my side, and would agree with me that there was reason for me to be sad. However, the way this conversation was going, I didn't think that the former Lucario was going to have that much sympathy for me.
"I just...feel like I want to go on an adventure again" I finally admitted. "It's like there's something within me that wants to go out and do something risky again. Where would the fun be without a little risk? That's what I want to know".
"Now I see what you mean" Samuel said to me. "And, I have to say, there are a lot of things I might say to you in order to try and cheer you up. First off, do you have a lot of good memories from our quest?"
"I do" I replied. "There were plenty of bad things, but you have to take the bad with the good, you know?"
"I understand. Still, though, it's not like we'll never see Malcolm or Garfield again. Or Eric; I'm sure that you're a fan of that guy, right?"
"Of course I am!" I exclaimed. "The guy taught me illusions, are you kidding? There's no way I wouldn't be a fan of him!"
"Well, I'm sure that we could convince your father to let us visit them over the Christmas vacation. He doesn't seem to be a helicopter parent, for having known him for the last two months or so".
"In that sense, he's really not that bad" I said. "Indeed, he's sometimes apathetic, which is almost worse, you know? That night we got back…" I almost cried.
"It's okay, man, let them fall" Samuel said, noticing that I was starting to sob. For someone of my age and height, it should not have been possible to be witnessed crying, but Samuel was being great about it, handing me a box of tissues.
I was glad that my father was still at work; it was one of those nights that his job required him to work late. Had he been at home, I worried that he would have snapped at me, since I was complaining about him.
Caleb London could be a good guy at times, but he was also a world-class jerk at times. It was something I had had to accept, growing up.
"Samuel...I don't know where I'd be without you" I said, using a tissue the former Lucario had given me in order to wipe the tears off of my face. "You saved me...you saved me. All those times in the last few weeks, you being there has made things more tolerable. I'm telling you, I don't care if you marry Michelle, I'm moving away from here the second I graduate high school. Could Eric help get me a visa to live near him?"
"You'd live near Malcolm's village?"
"I'd live in Malcolm's village, Samuel. I feel that that's the life I want to have. A lot of things have happened to me that have kind of sucked, but my life wouldn't be what it is today without the village".
"You mean, it wouldn't suck?" Samuel asked, nudging me lightly in the ribs.
"I guess" I said. "But there were plenty of good things that came from that, too. For instance, I found out that you're one of the best friends I could ever have".
"Maybe even future brother-in-law" the former Lucario said, winking behind his glasses.
"You mean you're going to marry Michelle?" I asked him. I wasn't sure that I was even being serious, or if he was, but I found the prospect pretty crazy. I was glad that the decision probably hadn't been made yet.
"Well, we're getting more and more comfortable with each other" Samuel replied. "We haven't made any concrete decisions yet, but you know that it's a possibility. Of course, Michelle's not old enough to be married, and I doubt that your dad would give his consent".
"You're probably right" I said, sighing.
In spite of all of that, when I went to bed that night, I felt a little better. I knew that, no matter what was happening, I did have one reliable friend to count on.
ERIC'S POV
Winter in the valley that contained the village that Malcolm, Garfield, and myself lived in was serious business.
It started early, with gale-force winds slamming the village's houses. Luckily, they rarely collapsed. Even though they were rustic, the homes that families such as the Greenlakes lived in were built extremely well, to withstand nearly anything.
Most Zoroark families holed up inside when the blizzards came, but not the Greenlakes. Malcolm, getting used to his new body as a Zoroark, was ambling about the village, walking into a lot of stores, and buying food for his family. And, since I lived fairly close to him, Malcolm and I became quite good friends despite the difference in age.
During the same month that I celebrated my 35th birthday, Malcolm celebrated his eleventh. Since they were within a week of each other, we decided to have a party together. Carla baked a large red velvet cake with black frosting, the same color scheme as a Zoroark.
That was back in November. Now, it was late December; indeed, it was Christmas Eve, and I was in charge of some of the grunt work, delivering decorations to the various homes with Zoroarks that weren't able to leave their homes.
Even though the early blizzards had stopped a few days ago, there was one heading in tonight. Those who were able bought groceries for some other families, and that was the way the whole village ran. Every family probably knew most of the others, and they helped each other out when hard times came upon them. Using that fundamental societal rule, helping those who could not help themselves, the village had managed to sustain itself for over a century.
I walked along the avenue. I never thought I'd meet Malcolm Greenlake, standing just outside of the Lucario Lounge. Even though there were hundreds of Zoroarks in the village, there was just something about Malcolm that made him very recognizable. It wasn't something I could place to a specific thing, but it was there, and I could still sense a certain youthfulness within Malcolm.
"Hello" I said. "You are Malcolm Greenlake, correct?"
"That's right" the young Zoroark said. "And I'm just going on a walk".
Was there an ulterior motive behind those words? It was my job to protect this village, and I knew that I could trust Malcolm; after all, he was still only a child. Even so, I couldn't help but throw up some mental defenses against him.
"Do you want anything from me?" I asked him.
"Yes" Malcolm said.
I got the feeling that I knew what that was going to be. The same thing I had helped a young man with, three months ago, when he had only temporarily been a Zoroark. Malcolm was going to be in this body permanently, as far as I knew.
"Do you want me to teach you illusions?" I asked him.
"What do you think? That I want to have Zorua kids and not know how to do illusions? Of course I want to learn illusions!"
"Sounds good. Your parents have given you permission to be out here at this time, is that correct?"
"It is" Malcolm said, in a tone of voice that said to me that he was probably telling the truth.
"Very well, then" I said. "Let's do this".
Forty minutes later, we were at the top of the hill on which I had taught Lucas the same skill that I was about to teach Malcolm. It was really quite a beautiful place. The small lake in the distance was frozen from the winter's cold, but anyone who stepped out on it would most likely be dancing on thin ice.
"All right, Malcolm. You want to know how to become another Pokemon, is that correct?"
"Oh, yeah!" the rambunctious Zoroark exclaimed. Almost immediately after he said that, I felt a little bit like I was regretting making this decision. This guy might just be a little too energetic for this. Malcolm was shaking, and I got the feeling that it wasn't from the cold. He had a pretty good coat of fur there.
"First things first", I said, "you need to remember that you are not going to simply transform into another Pokemon. You're going to keep your current body, but you are not going to be an Eevee, for instance. Maybe you should start small, picture yourself as that".
"Okay" Malcolm said. He lowered his body closer to the ground, as if he really was an Eevee.
"Now picture yourself as one. Be as descriptive as possible. What color is your fur, and how much will you change in size? In short, what are you going to look like as an Eevee?"
Malcolm seemed to be focusing very hard, to the point that he began wobbling. Eventually, he literally fainted against the ground, causing a miniature ground blizzard equivalent to a skier doing a hockey stop in a large amount of powder.
I chuckled. This was going to take a while, I thought, as I stared at the unconscious Zoroark on the ground.
After Malcolm came to, I made sure that he ate some snow for water, as I hadn't brought any. Normally, in a survival situation, eating snow would dehydrate you, but since Malcolm was a Zoroark, it would have the opposite effect. It was something about their anatomy that I had never been bothered to learn the specifics of.
"All right" I said. "You focused too hard. Do you want to try again?"
"No" he said. "I'm feeling pretty tired".
I tried to persuade Malcolm to give it another go, but I eventually decided to let it go. There really was no reason to push him, I realized on our way back down the hill.
Much like the snow on the hills was shining in the morning sun, I realized that the same was true of the young Zoroark. Much like Malcolm, the sun was only going to come out when it was ready to, when the storm clouds that had caused the blizzard were ready to finally move out, allowing the sun to come in and warm everything up again.
He'd learn when he was ready. Besides, it wasn't as though there was an evil organization after him.
Looking south, past all of the pine trees, I saw the one field that Lucas had once unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate, with embarrassing results. I saw a tiny purple glow that was localized to one specific area of that field, one very small area.
And I knew, with absolute certainty, that this was where the flower had been. We'd gone through so much, both causes and effects of this flower, and things would be so different otherwise. And yet, now that I had had that proper taste of adventure, and met so many great people, I knew that I wouldn't have it any other way.
Beyond all that, looking past all of the snowy hills, at the coming storm clouds that would be hitting the village tonight, one thought penetrated my consciousness like no other.
Where was Lucas London now?
And that is curtains on Zoroark's Pendant. I may not have reached my exact goal of an average of five thousand words per chapter, but I got pretty close. Pretty damn close.
It has been an incredible journey, as this has become my most successful story on this site, with, as of Wednesday, June 14, 2017 at 1:20 PM EDT, almost forty favorites and more than fifty followers. This would not have been the same story without people like Insomniac98338 and Zaravan, who gave me Kieran and Garfield, respectively. Since I killed two of Zaravan's OCs in the Wing And A Scare trilogy, I figured that it would be rather a good idea to keep this one alive.
With that, SnowLucario is out of here!