Epilogue
"And it really will come to an end somewhere?"
Koharu had already asked the question twice. It was his habit when he was nervous. In training it had earned him shock after shock, until he'd learned that it was best not to ask anything at all.
But Melo just rumbled in gentle amusement. "It really will."
Before them, the sea lapped in and out like the slow breaths of a sleeping giant. Not for the first time, Koharu marveled at its blueness, the same rich shade that the sky turned just before sunset. A few wingull surfed the breeze, keeping a wary eye on the two charizard below.
"Is this the big day?"
Koharu jumped. He hadn't noticed the pikachu approaching.
"Sure is," Melo said warmly. "Wind is good. Blowing strong, but I don't scent a storm. You remember what to do, if you get caught in a storm?"
Koharu nodded. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, until a thin blue light kindled around his tail-flame. Koharu had not been able to replicate the full-body protection that Melo conjured easily as blinking, but Melo had assured him that would come with time. As long as he could protect his tail-flame, he could survive any storm.
"Very nice," said Katsu, with all the graciousness of a prince. "I came to see you off. Red's making soup right now, which is so terribly exciting that I could hardly bear to tear myself away, but I did."
"Thank you," Koharu said solemnly.
Melo cuffed the pikachu. "Don't ever thank this one. It goes to his head."
"The fledgling's so polite, Melo. Clearly he hasn't spent enough time with you."
Melo went for another cuff, but this time the pikachu was faster. He ducked Melo's claw, dove under his legs, and scurried up his back until he sat perched between Melo's horns, looking smug. The two of them were so easy together. Koharu wondered how it felt, to be able to cuff and tease and never be afraid.
"I wonder where the others are right now," he said quietly. "It—it wasn't wrong of me to leave, was it?"
Melo's tone turned irritated. "Of course it wasn't wrong. That monster stole you from your flock, Koharu. She had no right to anything from you, least of all your loyalty."
"Salamence stayed loyal," Koharu replied, his tail twitching.
"Salamence." Melo snorted and scratched his belly with a single claw. He'd made it clear to Koharu just what he thought about Salamence.
On Melo's head, Katsu licked his paws contemplatively. "We all want love, Koharu. We all want a place we belong to. But what that place is—that's a choice everyone makes for themselves, and they don't always choose well. The only choice you can control is your own."
Koharu looked out at the ocean again.
"I'm ready?" he asked, except that as he spoke it stopped feeling like a question. "I'm ready now, I think."
"Then what are you waiting for?" Melo grunted. He swung his tail around and offered the tip. Hardly daring to breathe, Koharu held out his own tail-flame, so small and weak in comparison. The flames touched. When they drew their tails apart, his own flame seemed a little larger, a little brighter.
"Thank you," he said unsteadily. "For everything. Without you, I don't know what—"
"Enough of that. It's time to fly. Go well, Koharu."
Blinking rapidly, Koharu lifted off. Melo had been right; the wind was good today. It pushed him up, so that he hardly had to flap his wings in order to gain altitude. The wingull scattered as he soared towards them. Their wings were so much smaller, but they traversed this blue vastness every day without fear.
One wingbeat, then the next. He'd been afraid, oh, he'd been afraid of so many things! That his wings would disappear mid-flight, that he would tumble down through the sky, a wretched orange firebeast, drowning in the blue. But with each wingbeat, his strength seemed to grow, not lessen.
Anywhere! I can go anywhere!
Even . . . home.
The word summoned up half-remembered images: red-ringed rocks and heavily packed dirt. Sumptuous heat that rose from many tail-flames, burning bright and unafraid. Evenings that were never dark, because their fire chased the night away. And never cold. That place had never once been cold.
Koharu didn't know where that place was. But if he could imagine it, he could find it. Yes, he would find it. And it occurred to him that for the first time, he was flying somewhere he wanted to go.
The thought lent new power to his wingbeats. He cut higher, savoring the taste of salt in the air.
He didn't know that back on the shore, Melo and Katsu watched as his silhouette receded, and even after he vanished entirely from sight, they lingered there in silence, caught up in the currents of old memories. He didn't know that in the small, cramped kitchen of Viridian Gym, Red was chopping fresh scallions and humming to himself, as sounds of battle filtered in from the stadium. He didn't know that miles and miles away, a woman slept fitfully beneath the wings of a salamence. She woke with a start, cursing, but the salamence blew gently on her face until sleep took her again.
All Koharu knew was that somewhere, the ocean would come to an end. But his life—
His life had finally begun.