First of all, I want to say that I own the cover for this story. It's a photo I took on my most recent ski trip, this past January. And yes, this story involves my favorite sport, so I hope you like it. Please let me know in a review, and I can't wait to see what my readers think of this first chapter.
And don't worry: I intend to continue Servant of the Pokémon as well. I just couldn't resist this plot bunny. Enjoy!
Current music: What's Up - 4 Non Blondes
From the base of Coronet Mountain Resort, the snow report blared at a high volume. Had Donatello's ears been just a little more sensitive, he'd likely have fainted. As it was, he had to cover them, wishing he'd thought to bring ear plugs.
It was so loud that he could barely focus on the content of the announcement - he was too preoccupied with staying calm.
"It's just the snow report, Donatello" a gruff male voice told the Combusken in a slightly condescending manner. What was that Lucario's name again?
Yes, that's right. He's Kaz. And we all agreed to go on this trip.
Nonetheless, Donatello couldn't help but shiver semi-violently. He wasn't used to the weather either. You might think that a Fire-type would have an advantage in staying warm when the air temperature was anything but; in fact, the opposite was true.
"Okay," Donatello said softly. "I'll stay calm."
"It's not that loud, Don," the Absol in front of him muttered. "I think your ears are just sensitive."
She knows, the Combusken thought desperately. She has to know.
But it doesn't matter if she knows or not. What does matter is the task at hand.
This early in the day, the lift line was almost non-existent. The quartet all showed their tickets to the ticket person (or whatever his job title was) and then filed into the line.
"You know what you'll do with these backpacks, right, everyone?" Kaz asked the group at large.
"Yes" Alicia Zoroark crooned.
"That's right," Raine Absol asserted.
Kaz nodded, then turned to the Combusken. "Donatello, do you know the drill?"
"Yes" Donatello insisted, though in reality he wasn't that confident. "Don't I swing the backpack to the side as I get on the lift?"
"Indeed," Kaz replied, smiling and nodding. "You're going to put the bag to the side, but still allow plenty of room for the others. You can't let it get caught on anything - if you do, you're gonna have a bad time."
I'm already having a bad time. Okay, I wouldn't go that far, but this isn't the relaxing vacation most would envision. But then, shouldn't we all be willing to try new things?
Once they were at the front of the lift line, Donatello was somehow able to sit on the chair without anything going awry. The ride to the top of the lift (but still only about halfway up the mountain) was similarly uneventful, apart from the wind feeling like a series of tiny needles against the Combusken's face.
At the top of the lift, Kaz gestured for the other three to follow him towards the trail map. Said map was a giant wooden sign covered in a fine layer of snow, making it hard to read.
"What trail are we going on, Kaz?" Donatello asked the Lucario.
Kaz shifted his backpack around, then smiled. The Lucario gestured with his right pole at a part of the map that wasn't marked as belonging to a particular trail. In fact, it seemed to be a forest.
"That's where we're going?"
"Well, yeah" Kaz responded with a shrug. "Unless you want to ski in the resort like a normie, but…".
"No, I can ski," Donatello insisted. It was partly true; he'd been on one of the smaller mountains in Kanto, but only once or twice in his life. So it wasn't a lie, just not the whole truth.
"That's good. Now, it's time to check that we all have the required gear. There's an airbag in each of your backpacks - you all know what that's for, right?"
"It's for avalanches, isn't it?" Raine blurted out.
"That is correct," Kaz told the group at large. "If you're caught in the path of a slide, and you can't escape it by skiing diagonally out of it, you pull the cord right away. It'll inflate the bag, and that'll help keep you above the snow. You'll have an easier time surviving that way."
Wow. This shit's real.
Donatello looked down at the metallic object strapped to his chest via a harness. It was pretty simple - it only had a switch and a tiny LED screen displaying a number. Right now, that number was 99, which Kaz had told them indicated the device's battery percentage.
It might have been a rather primitive object, but if something went wrong today, Donatello would be relying on the beacon to keep him alive, or to save someone else. There was a lot riding on him having the presence of mind to use it properly.
"Uh, Kaz?" the Combusken piped up.
The Lucario swiveled to face Donatello. "Yes?"
"What about the avalanche beacon? Why is it so primitive?"
Kaz snorted. "Well, what do you want it to do? Make you a cup of hot chocolate?"
Actually, that sounds perfect right about now. I could go for a hot drink.
"Uh, what?"
Alicia gave Donatello a rather odd look. "What he means, Don, is that the beacon hasn't been updated in so long because it doesn't have to be. It's used to locate Pokémon buried beneath snow, it doesn't need to do anything else."
"Exactly" the Lucario stated. "Now, I will warn you all that according to the snow report, there was a massive dump of powder yesterday. And by massive dump, I mean several feet. We had enough trouble taking the train in, remember? And all the flights were grounded!"
"Yeah, I remember," Raine muttered.
"All of that is to say that there's an elevated risk of avalanches today. We'd be wise to ski within our abilities - well, it's smart to know your own ability every day, but especially when we're in avalanche country. The last thing I want is for anyone to get hurt."
I need to remember this conversation for the rest of the trip, Donatello told himself. Anything that might save my life is something I must recall in a split-second. Because if I don't, the chances of my survival are very slim.
"In addition to the airbag, each of you also carries a beacon, probe, and shovel. Kind of sounds like a detective trio, doesn't it? Beacon, probe, and shovel!"
"Uh…okay" Raine said skeptically. "Why are jokes relevant?"
"Just trying to lighten the mood a little," Kaz told the Absol. Clearing his throat, the Lucario continued as follows: "In all seriousness, all of the beacons are set to 'transmit' mode right now. If someone is buried in the snow, the other beacons must be set to 'search' mode so that we can find the victim in time. Time is valuable - there isn't a lot of it when you're trapped beneath hundreds of tons of the white stuff.
"Once the victim has been located, the probe must be extended so that those on top of the snow can pinpoint the other Pokémon's position. And then you'll use the shovel to dig - dig out, not down, because you don't want to knock more snow into the hole!"
As he said this, Kaz mimed holding a shovel and pretended to show off the proper digging technique. The others followed along with their own arm motions.
"Okay then" Kaz said. "I think we're ready to go. Follow me!"
Donatello had been skiing before, yes, but this was an entirely different beast from the bunny slope. Even when the incline was shallow, the snow was much deeper than the Combusken was used to.
"These are special skis, Don!" Alicia shouted. "They're meant for powder!"
Don't call me Don! Rather, that's what the Combusken wanted to yell, but couldn't, since he was so fixated on turning properly. The proper stance was more akin to that used for water skiing than for skiing on snow.
More than once, Donatello had to move his skis into the snowplow formation, better known as "pizza." This did a number on his knees, but that was nothing compared to what was to come.
"Okay, here we are!" Kaz announced eventually once they'd come to a fork in the path.
To the right was a nice blue groomer, a run that was well-maintained and somewhat crowded. Despite the early time of day, many tracks had already been made in the powder, weaving back and forth across a third to a half of the piste's width.
To the far left was a thick glade, evergreen trees struggling to make themselves noticed above the giant piles of white stuff. Each tree somewhat resembled an iced layer cake, though the wind blew bits of snow off each branch in turn.
"Are we going left?" Donatello asked, hanging on to any hope that they might not be.
"Well, yes," Kaz clarified. "That's the backcountry for you. If you all follow my tracks, you should be fine."
Without offering any further explanation, the Lucario skated towards the forest and then started coasting downhill, turning every so often to create a path for the others.
"Are you sure you want to go last, Don?" Alicia enquired, raising an eyebrow. "You'll probably feel safest in the middle."
"I want to see you two do it" Donatello insisted weakly. "Just so I know how it's done."
Raine shrugged. She might not have understood the Combusken's reasoning, but she wasn't going to complain about it either. The Absol turned around and followed Kaz into the woods.
"Are you sure about this, Donatello?" Alicia asked again. "I mean, 100 percent sure? There won't be anyone to spot you if you go last."
"Yes, I'm sure!"
"Very well" Alicia said softly, skating into the glade in the same fashion as Raine and Kaz.
Okay, I guess it's my turn now.
Donatello clutched his poles like they were the last life rafts leaving a sinking ocean liner, then skated forward. He picked up speed at a rather alarming rate, the mountain's incline doing some of the job for him.
Before long, he was (figuratively) flying.
Right away, Donatello understood why extreme sports like this appealed to some Pokémon. Particularly Kaz - then again, Lucario were known for being adrenaline junkies.
There was something blissful about coasting through the powder on a bluebird day, no clouds in sight, just snow, sun, and wind. So long as he was careful to follow Kaz's tracks, nothing bad would happen either. Nothing could be allowed to ruin it…
RUMBLE.
Donatello's heart stopped. He'd strayed just a few inches from the tracks, but sometimes, that was all it took.
Had the Combusken possessed faster reflexes, he would have known to yell "AVALANCHE!" so that the others would know what was coming. (Of course, they were all further downhill, so it was far from guaranteed they'd hear him.)
Within seconds, a wave of hard snow surrounded his ski boots. The rumbling intensified, sounding rather like a giant ape pounding on a drum set. Neither of those things were good.
Donatello did remember one of Kaz's instructions. Instinctively, his left hand flailed about, eventually coming to rest on a cord. He pulled it.
Rapidly, the airbag inflated, just as Donatello was knocked off his feet by the tide of snow. Frantically, the Combusken made a motion akin to a butterfly stroke, but swimming in snow (if you could call it that) was very different from swimming in water. Really, it was more of a "Lillipup paddle."
The airbag kept his face above the surface of the snow, but before long, the Combusken's right leg caught on something hard, and he heard something snap in two. Had it been a branch?
For what felt like hours, Donatello tumbled down the slope, his arms and legs thrashing feverishly in an effort to grab onto something, anything that would help him stop. He liked being in control, and right now he had no control.
After spinning about like clothes in a washing machine, Donatello came to a stop eventually, having landed hard enough on his back to knock the air out of his lungs. He was staring right up at the morning sun, which was stronger than he'd expected it to be. It reflects off the snow due to its high albedo, plus the atmosphere is thinner here.
"I didn't…warn…the others" he croaked weakly. Then he lost consciousness, overwhelmed by guilt and shame for not doing the bare minimum to protect his comrades.
When Donatello came to, his face felt warm and wet. He opened his eyes, shocked by the smiling face that stared back at him.
"Wake up, sleepyhead" Alicia murmured, retracting her tongue back into her giant maw. Evidently, she'd licked the Combusken's face in order to revive him, something he didn't really want to think about.
"Ugh…" Donatello moaned, trying to recall what had just happened. "Was I…in an avalanche?"
"You were," the Zoroark grunted. Despite Alicia's initial playfulness, it was plain that she was still deeply concerned. And why wouldn't she have been?
"How long was…I…out?"
"Not very long," Alicia replied. "Didn't even need to use the beacon, you pulled the cord just in time!"
Donatello shivered. Had he been a second too late, he would have gone to a premature, snowy grave. That was another thing he'd rather not ponder.
"I forgot to yell," Donatello groaned softly.
"Uh-huh" Alicia nodded. "You were too focused on saving your own skin, weren't you?"
"Well, it's not that - ".
"I know you didn't mean to abandon us," the Zoroark replied. "Nobody will judge you, least of all me. But you can't just lie there feeling sorry for yourself. We've got a job to do, and we have to do it quickly."
"What…what's that?" Donatello asked, still somewhat groggily.
"Remember the two others with us? Raine and Kaz?"
"Yes?" Those names rang a bell, and he could picture them right away; he was still in shock at what had just transpired in that glade. And his shock wasn't going to go down anytime soon, because…
"They're still buried under all that snow. We have probably fifteen minutes at best to switch our beacons to 'search' and dig them out. Or they'll suffocate. And die."