Chapter 21 - Chores
The frosty wind roared down from the hills that surrounded Four Island, whipping through the surprisingly bustling streets below. It was not even five in the morning yet and the roads to the town's main square were choked with large trucks and people lugging construction materials for the upcoming festival. Celeste and Delia, however, moved against the flow of people. Long before the first glimmers of dawn offered relief from the cold, they arrived at their destination: an old warehouse on the outskirts of town.
"Are we in the right place?" Celeste asked through clenched teeth and a stifled yawn. Her arms, folded in front of her body, were desperately trying to produce warmth. Her brain, fogged by sleepiness, struggled to comprehend how could it be so much colder in the south.
Well, October was almost over… perhaps the other island had been the anomaly.
Delia nodded as she studied the PokéNav in her hands. Luan had kindly lent it to her so they could find the address Olga had provided. "Looks like we are."
"Well, she isn't here," Celeste grumbled in frustration, wondering if she should have listened to the voice in her head that warned her against training with Olga. Would Powder be upset if they left? "I guess we tried."
"Giving up already?" a voice as cold as the wind spoke, making the trainer shiver even more.
Delia's gaze shifted from Celeste's pained expression to Olga and her vanilite, who seemed almost amused. The girl greeted her boss and started to chat about the upcoming festival right away. It was clear that she was genuinely looking forward to working on it.
Olga said nothing, however. She simply unlocked the door and gestured for them to enter.
The inside of the building was bright and tidy, but much colder than the outside. There were boxes and crates neatly stacked together under different labels, indicating the type of product they held. At the back, a door led to some cosy office space with a window overlooking the rest of the facility.
"Why haven't you released your pokémon yet?" Olga asked unenthusiastically, which made Celeste grumble in response.
Hi girls, how are you? Did you get to explore the city yesterday? It is cold today, isn't it? Want some coffee?
Just a little small talk wasn't a big ask, but alas, Olga was looking at them with an eyebrow up and not a word of sympathy. There was no arguing, so the girl released her pokémon, who at least seemed to be right in her element.
"Lesson one, discipline and endurance," the older woman said, wasting no time as she walked towards a rack where several coats hung. She picked one and handed it over to Celeste. "This place is where I keep some of my supply for the shops on the islands. The temperature here needs to be -18 degrees Celsius or below," she pointed to a thermostat. Its display showed the current temperature and some numbers that indicated energy consumption. "The lower the temperature, the more energy we need, but if an ice pokémon cools the place down, we won't need as much. Your job today is to maintain the energy consumption close to zero for as long as you can."
Celeste hesitantly took the coat and looked around. "You said ice pokémon should do more than your freezer."
"They need to do at least as much first," Olga looked over at Delia and gestured to the door on the back. "We will be inside running inventory and planning for the festival."
—*—*—
Celeste paced around for a while. This did not feel like training. It felt like Olga was using her to save on the energy bill.
The trainer huffed in frustration. Bet she's gonna go around bragging that her ice cream is sustainable, the girl thought to herself before turning to Powder, fully prepared to talk her pokémon out of this training idea. But as she turned, she saw the vulpix wagging her tail with eyes filled with pure joy.
Leaving was not an option.
"Okay," the girl said, bouncing in place, trying to both warm and pump herself up. She needed ideas, but her brain was refusing to come up with anything. Maybe she was overthinking it? Her pokémon knew only one move, after all. "Use Powder Snow."
On cue, Powder let out a shrill cry and unleashed her snowy power. The wind barely moved the boxes around and the meter refused to acknowledge anything had been done.
"Keep it up," Celeste encouraged her pokémon.
Powder could freeze things. She had seen it… at least on a small scale. Freezing, however, happened at 0C, at least for water, which was leagues away from -18C. And this place was enormous… dropping the temperature even a little would require a lot of energy. Insisting on Powder Snow was not the solution.
The vulpix pushed herself for a little less than a minute before she got breathless and puffed and stomped on the floor in frustration.
"Hey, it okay," Celeste said, placing a hand on her pokémon's snout. "There is no rush. We can take as long as you need to figure this out. And if we don't, it's fine, too."
Powder looked right into Celeste's eyes and snorted some ice before standing up and starting another Powder Snow. This time, the wind was a little stronger, but it only lasted half a minute.
This was taking too much out of her. If only she could save a bit of energy herself…
That was it!
"Can you use Powder Snow without the wind?" Celeste said, gaining a tilt of head in response. Her adorable vulpix would crush in the beauty competition. Why weren't they doing that again?
Focus.
Celeste had the inkling of an idea. All she needed to do was put it into words.
The girl sat down by the pokémon, crossed her legs, and took a deep breath. "When I think of ice, I imagine stillness," she explained, making her body as still as she could. "Heat is energy and movement. Cold is the lack of that. A while ago, I was jumping and pacing around because I was cold and wanted to get warm, but now that I'm sitting, my body is getting cool again."
Powder blinked at Celeste for a moment, but, understanding, she sat down and took a deep breath.
"I know that at some point you will be running around spitting ice and wind and all of that. But for now, let's get rid of the excess movements. Strip back to the core of the problem: how to make things colder."
The vulpix closed her eyes and kept breathing steadily.
"Think of Powder Snow," Celeste continued. "You blow out the snow, but have you ever stopped to think how you make it? I think this is something you know instinctively."
She smiled. A distant memory came to her. Back when she first met Aria, she had asked the same questions. What would it be like to manipulate energy to create fire, ice, electricity?
"I'm not a pokémon, so I don't really know what that is like," Celeste told her vulpix. It made sense, however, to reach out to what her pokémon already knew and build her skills from there. "But you do. I want you to concentrate, pick the move apart. Find out how to make the world around you freeze."
Powder remained quiet for a moment. She was thinking, searching for something.
Celeste looked at her own breath, made visible by the increasing cold, and smiled. Her baby didn't even realise she was doing it. It was still not enough, but the numbers dropping on the meter in the wall were a clear victory.
—*—*—
"… aaand five minutes!" Celeste celebrated, pointing to the wall. The energy consumption had dropped by a third and her pokémon kept it steady for five whole minutes. This was a new record, and she was proud.
Powder, however, was not so much. Between pants, she let out a cry that Celeste could consistently translate to 'again'.
"I can see you are tired," the trainer said. "Come on, you can practise more after we have some lunch."
Hopefully Olga would offer them some actual non-ice cream food.
As Celeste stood up, feeling like her body itself was ice at this point, Delia, who was mercifully carrying a steaming mug, showed up. Behind her, Olga was glaring at the trainer.
Her friend stretched her arms and handed some tea over. "So, how did it go?"
"We made lots of progress," Celeste said, while grimacing and putting her tongue out.
Delia laughed. "It's hot."
As both girls giggled, Olga inspected the energy meter. Powder carefully walked beside her and looked at the woman with an expectant look.
"I think she wants you to tell her she is doing great," Celeste said with a grin while she took another sip of the tea. "She figured out a lot today. I bet her ice moves are stronger already!"
The scowling woman raised her eyebrow. "Are you… serious…?"
"Of course I am," the girl said, moving to the exit door. If they were having a conversation, it would not be inside that freezer. "We started at nothing, now we are saving one third of the energy… And we can keep it up for five minutes."
Powder was still staring at Olga, who, after complaining about leaving the door open, followed Delia and Celeste outside.
"And all that progress in only a few hours," the trainer continued, relieved by the sunlight. "Imagine how powerful she will be after a few days."
"She will be average," Olga said, crossing her arms. "I told you to reach zero in the meter for as long as possible. Why are you patting yourself on the back for not getting even close?"
Delia brought her hand to her forehead in helplessness as Celeste opened her mouth with indignation stamped on her face. Powder interjected with a shrill bark.
"Powder, not now," the girl said, turning to Olga. "Sorry we didn't save you as much money as you wanted on our first try. But we made real breakthroughs today."
The woman's frown deepened. "Good for you. But showering your pokémon with empty compliments will just drag her down. At this rate, you won't be ready to even get through the preliminaries of the tournament."
Powder barked again, and Celeste shivered with a frosty breeze coming down from… somewhere.
"We don't care about any stupid tournament. We are doing things in our time."
"You are doing things in your time," Olga tapped foot and placed her arms on her hips. "Do you really think no one can see how much time you keep wasting jumping around, talking… Taking lunch breaks?"
As Powder's cries grew louder, the sun disappeared behind a cloud and Celeste noticed Delia shifting uncomfortably beside her.
"How the hell do you want us to have energy to train if we don't eat?" the trainer raised her voice and felt her body shiver. "Taking care of my pokémon is part of training."
Olga snorted. "Takes a lot of energy to sit down and talk to your pokémon, I bet." The woman pulled her coat up to protect herself from a frozen droplet. "And let's be clear here, you wanted to eat. Your pokémon evidently wants to keep training and get some actual results."
Olga gestured to the vulpix, who barked again. Celeste, slightly distracted by the hail falling around them, turned to Powder.
"You are upsetting her," the trainer said, both concerned about her pokémon and annoyed with the ice hitting her with increasing force. They needed to get shelter from whatever this was. "Powder… I think that was enough for today."
The pokémon barked again, this time at Celeste specifically.
"Of course you are giving up," Olga moved back closer to the door, somehow trying to use the building to shield herself from the hail. Delia tried to tell both her boss and her friend they should continue this inside, but no one seemed to listen. "From the day I saw you ignoring all my rules, I knew you had absolutely no discipline. Terrible trait for an employee, even worse for a trainer. But I guess Celeste is going to do whatever the hell she wants and the rest of the world be damned. I feel sorry for your pokémon."
The girl groaned. "At least I'm not the one exploiting everyone around me. No wonder your son turned out like he did."
Celeste regretted the words as soon as they left her mouth. Olga didn't have her look of righteous fury. Instead, she looked… hurt?
The hail was hitting her back mercilessly. Powder's cries sounded angry, and Celeste knew she should apologise right away.
She knew… yet…
"We are out of here," she said, her nerves still too high.
Powder, in response, barked again. Her body was tense and still, just like… well, ice. This combination somehow affected the hail falling around them. Some frozen droplets lingered in the air, ignoring gravity, and, as more of it fell, they combined, until sharp ice shards circled the vulpix.
Despite the situation, Celeste couldn't help but be impressed. Just like before, Powder was doing something without even realising. This had to be a new move. Ice Shard, perhaps?
The new achievements of her pokémon brought Celeste out of her angry daze. She gently touched the vulpix' head, wanting to calm her down. Her touch startled Powder, however. With another cry, a shard flew into Celeste's direction, making a nasty cut in her cheek.
Their eyes met, widened by surprise.
"You learned a new move!" Celeste said, unintentionally wincing as her face moved. A drop of blood fell on the ground, and, as if an invisible trigger had been pulled, the clouds above them dispersed.
Powder shook her head and slowly stepped away. The sounds from her mouth were low and disjointed.
"Powder, it was just an accid—."
Celeste reached out for her pokémon again, but the vulpix stepped away, still shaking her head. Before the trainer could do anything, she ran.
"Powder!" In an instant, Celeste was on her feet, ready to follow her vulpix. But Delia held her back, gesturing to the bleeding cut in her face.
"You need to take care of this and she needs her space," Delia said, the usual patience gone from her voice.
Celeste tried protesting, but settled on calling Aria out. The eevee's chill smile turned into a gasp as soon as she saw her trainer's blood.
"I'm fine…" she said, not wanting to elaborate. "Can you go after Powder and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble?"
The eevee nodded. Celeste pointed to the general direction her pokémon had gone. Surely Aria would find her easily… right?
—*—*—
Olga, who had a first aid kit in her office, rolled her eyes as Celeste winced with the disinfectant stings. No one said a word, and Delia stood impatiently blocking the door. Neither of them were leaving before they talked. "You two are being ridiculous."
Celeste pouted. "I just want to make sure Powder is okay."
"Aria is doing that," Delia insisted. "If you were her, after what happened, would you want your mother to smother you or give you some space to breathe and process her feelings?"
The trainer pressed her lips together. She would want space, of course…
"I'm really sorry for what I said, Olga," the girl said in a low voice, focusing her eyes on Delia rather than the shop-owner. "It was uncalled for. I… I was angry."
"We both said what we believe. That's that," the older woman shrugged and turned back to her desk. She opened a drawer with a tad too much force and threw her first aid kit inside.
Delia huffed. "You both need to actually talk in order for this to work, Olga." No one said a word, so she continued, impatiently. "Maybe tell Cee you wanted to be her sponsor in the festival tournament."
"I wanted to sponsor someone who had a chance of giving me visibility," Olga said unenthusiastically as she sat down and pretended to rummage through some papers. "Look, there is no bad blood here. I just don't think we can do business together. Now Delia, I think you have more important things to do than meddle."
Delia shook her head. "This is important. I'm sure you two can work things out if you just have a proper conversation."
Celeste turned to her friend, both with exasperation and worry, but before anyone said anything, they heard a low knock coming from the door outside.
Delia moved aside, and soon the trainer got out to see it was Aria.
The eevee's expression was worried and urgent. Her ears were down, her fur was wet and her feet muddy. What truly made Celeste worry, however, was another thing.
Aria was alone.
A/N: Soo training didn't really go smoothly, but Powder is getting stronger. :D
NEXT CHAPTER: Mother and Daughter