This took longer than usual. I had some college related business to deal with.
Two weeks had passed since the battle in Lavaridge. The current state of affairs was calm for the moment, at least when there weren't any construction workers around. Jackhammers, machamps, and bulldozers polluted the normally quiet town with extremely loud noise during the early hours of the morning, and all throughout the afternoon. Quite a few older residents complained about the sound, saying it hurt their sensitive ears, it was to be expected though, there were a lot of old people. Luckily, the hot springs remained open, which was good news for both the residents and newer trainers. They were unusually crowded, more so than normal, due to the amount of stress and nerves people had developed due to the entire dilemma two weeks prior.
Will and Riven decided to wait in Lavaridge until the latter's ribs healed and his pokemon were sufficiently battle ready, there was no benefit to going out in the wild with two injured pokemon and a trainer that couldn't breathe heavily without flinching in pain. He discovered how far he could run when White Queen stole his shoe while sleeping in the grass. Hint? Not that far. Wheezing on the floor and having everyone in the immediate vicinity circle around him was slightly uncomfortable too. He also had to go out and buy another change of clothes since he couldn't run around with a white blood splattered hoodie. That wouldn't make people nervous at all.
The springs were a nice change of pace though, Will had a fun time going there every day to relax after some battles on route 112. Riven had even let White Queen and Mischief join in on the fun. Of course, he and Aine had to sit out, casts went bad when wet. Both of them were absolute devils, splashing other people with water and pulling towels down from unsuspecting girls. Riven had to stop letting them out in there because he kept getting blamed for his pokemons' shenanigans, which unfortunately was too late because his face had probably already molded the shape of a handprint onto his right cheek already. Slaps hurt, and girls slapped hard.
However, he got to see White Queen embarrassed for the very first time, and what a wondrous sight it was. A mightyena used attract on her and she practically swooned. It made Riven collapse, holding his sides in laughter, crying with a mix of laughter and pain. His reaction must have been effective because she snapped out of it, ice beamed the mightyena and stubbornly demanded to be returned. She made it a point to stay in her pokeball for the entire day after that, biting her trainer's leg whenever he summoned her. Apparently her pride took a hit and needed some time to return to its former glory and status.
The next few days, Aine and the rest of Will's team spent large amounts of time talking to other pokemon in the center. On what? Nobody really knew.
Nurse Joy made it her personal duty to keep a watchful eye on Will and told him to control his quilava or he was getting kicked, again. That torched room was quite a scare, she held up an accusing finger at him to make sure he understood. Nodding furiously, he accepted and scurried off to a group of trainers, eagerly exchanging battle tips and showing off badges.
The center was rather lively again and the town was getting rebuilt, very unlike the gloom of last week. Everything seemed fine, at least for most people. Riven remained in the corner, staring at the floor, looking completely indifferent. He looked far away and in dream land for most of the time, it took a couple of snaps of the fingers to actually get him to notice something(hitting him was a bad idea, Will learned that punching a jumpy guy that's good at fighting might just result in a very powerful punch to the face). Will tried to have him make friends, but it only made things worse, his attempts at friendly banter usually came across as perceived death threats. Instead, Riven decided to stay back and hang out alone, that way nobody thought he was out to kill them, and quite frankly, that was good enough for him. He didn't like associating with people much, they gave him headaches. Some of the younger trainers never wanted to shut up.
Will honestly didn't know what to do. Riven felt so distant since Steven talked to him, smiling less and laughing a lot less too. Truth be told, it wasn't really much different than normal, he never really did it much to begin with. But it was noticeable, and annoying. He thought he should find out the conventional way.
"You ok?" He asked, sitting down across from Riven in the lobby. Even his pokemon had accompanied him(insurance purposes, obviously). Rika made an effort to nudge him, which was a good sign considering she didn't do much other than stand there and occasionally chime in. Quil sat down on the floor next to the trapinch, asking the same question with a quick "lav".
"I'm fine," Riven replied, patting Rika's jaws, fighting his body's impulse to keep his hand as far away from those jaws as possible. His expression didn't change though. No smile, just that serious face that seemed more like a carving than a real human face.
Will was going crazy. "Alright, that's it." Riven looked up, confused. "We're going to the ice cream shop, you look terrible and you need to cheer up, right now. Ok? I know you have a sweet tooth, so don't give me a lame excuse." His friend blinked a few times, before nodding once in confirmation. However, the pokemon seemed more excited about the ice cream than Riven was. Quil's fire flared in happiness, singing a table and startling some nearby trainers. Will dragged the older boy outside before Nurse Joy hunted him down for burning something again.
The ice cream shop was much less crowded than the center but the store was still chock full of trainers, since old people couldn't eat ice cream. Bad for their health and all. Will started up random conversations with Riven, but quickly found out that he had no idea what most of anything was. He didn't even know what video games were. He spent thirty minutes explaining to him the basics of gaming. An older male, teenager, needed to be lectured on gaming 101, it was like, IMPOSSIBLE.
"Let me get this straight. These RPG games are basically just you going around and killing things?" Riven held his hands outward, then scratched his head. Video games were confusing. There were so many genres and types, his brain felt like falling off.
"Yeah! Then you level up and stuff and craft your own armor. You can even fight other players." Will excitedly listed all of the things a player could do on the actual game and even started talking about how good some games were and such. His eyes brightened as he went off on his tangent, oblivious to the complete disinterest in the older trainer's face.
"Sounds pointless," Riven said, licking the ice cream again. The little boy's video game jargon was completely lost on him, not that he cared much about it anyway. "I didn't play much games really. Never got the chance, times were…different then."
Colossal understatement there.
Will took a bite out of rainbow flavored ice cream, making Riven cringe. "Whatever, it's because you grew up in a cave."
Riven frowned. "I did not." Was it just him or did his pokemon just snicker at him? Yes, they did. Mischief was trying to hide it, but his smug little smirk betrayed him.
Will rolled his eyes, giving some ice cream to Quil. He had been at his feet, tugging on his shorts with eyes that said, please feed me. "Wild, jungle, forest, space. What's the difference?" He shrugged and tapped his foot impatiently.
Riven grumbled something under his breath before part of his ice cream chipped off, floated in the air and descended into the mouth of his kirlia, who was enjoying his own ice cream while snagging some of his trainer's in the process. "Thief. Eat your own ice cream, leave mine alone. You and White Queen forced me to spend money on your own bowls. And the largest size! Keep this up and my money will be gone before we even leave Lavaridge. We can't exactly battle with two thirds of the team out of commission." White Queen huffed and stuck her tongue out at him. Her blue face was covered in smidges of her ice cream. Quil grinned mischievously, went over and licked them off. The absol was completely stunned before puffing her cheeks in anger and forming a blue ball of energy that refroze the melting ice cream in her bowl.
"Ab…sooool," she growled, charging up the beam. Quil simply blew out a light ember that was so weak it only tickled her face, mostly as a teasing sign of affection. This only served to get the absol progressively angrier. Will's quilava spent the next five minutes dodging angry ice beams and razor winds outside while blowing her embers. At least it made Riven crack a smile, which was an improvement.
Will saw the display and laughed to himself before going back on topic. "I used to play games all the time. Up until Quil blew my console up, at least. It was the fourth one he fried so my mom decided that she wasn't going to buy me anymore. It sucked but I got to play with him and the other kids more," Will remembered, watching his quilava stick his tongue out at the absol just to spite her.
"Playing with other kids must have been nice…" A bittersweet smile came across Riven's lips, but was gone as soon as it had appeared. "He was a cyndaquil then, right?"
"Yeah."
"Why do you have another region's starter? Johto was it?" He was a Hoenn trainer, a different region's starter was weird.
"Well, my brother Connor is a breeder. He works in Johto, near Goldenrod City. Before I was able to become a trainer, he sent over an egg to my mom in Slateport. It was for my ninth birthday. It was Quil's egg. The first thing he did when he hatched was hiccup flames. He lit my sleeves on fire," Will explained, rubbing his forearms, he remembered the scene like it had happened yesterday.
"Even as a baby, he was still causing trouble?" He was glad Aine wasn't a pyromaniac, despite setting that table in the Slateport bazaar on fire.
"Oh yeah, he set a dying oak tree on fire three weeks after that. Rolled around in the ashes and came home covered in soot. It was pretty funny until mom made me scrub the floors after he ran all over the place." The quilava was still being chased outside, having a blast. "Oh, speaking of which, do you know what day it is?"
"Tuesday."
Will rolled his eyes. "I know what day of the week it is."
"Then why did you ask me?" Stupid questions were always welcome, really.
The kid's face met the desk. Riven held back a chuckle. "Tomorrow is an important day!" Will exclaimed, red mark on his forehead. "For tomorrow it's my birthday!" He held his hands out, waiting for Riven to give him congratulations or something of the sort.
"Great. Death welcomes you sooner," he deadpanned.
"You're so negative."
"Really? And here I thought I was made of sunshine and rainbows. Didn't see that one coming," Riven replied sarcastically, frowning after realizing Aine had devoured his ice cream too. He sighed heavily, he wanted that too. The chicken only stared back at him and gave a happy cry, cream still on her beak. "What are you planning to do then? We can't leave Lavaridge yet, not until next Wednesday, when they take Aine's cast off."
Will flipped out his phone, and read a text message he had received. "Well, I need to call my brother tomorrow, he said he had something for me. Going to use the video phones in the center and see what he's got." White Queen and Quil returned to the store. The fire type had a paw print of dust on his face and a dazed expression, she must have nailed him a good one. She gave an irritated hmph and went back to her bowl of ice cream. "Did you learn your lesson Quil?"
The quilava stared at him briefly before grinning widely again. His trainer sighed and shook his head. "It's your funeral." Quil went back over to the absol and licked her again, and the chase resumed. This time though, Riven paid no attention and just stared at his empty bowl in a deeply thoughtful state. "Ugh, what are you thinking about now?"
"The desert," he responded curtly.
"What about it? It's just a bunch of sand, heat, and freaky cactus pokemon." If he saw a cacturne again, he'd make sure to burn it. Those things were creepy. To think that such a cute pokemon like cacnea would involve turn into that. Damn, evolution was scary sometimes.
"Not that. It's how we got out that bothers me," Riven added. It certainly had been bugging him but the strangeness of their escape hadn't fully sunken in until recently.
Will finished his ice cream and slouched into the chair. "Umm, it was that machine thing right? The one you put that one blue crystal thing into?"
"Yes."
"Hmmm, that was weird. But who cares, we're out." It wasn't important anymore, they were out of the desert and didn't have to drink pee either. Will would never take the taste of clean water for granted anymore. He'd been drinking a lot of water since then, he guessed it was because by losing something is how someone finds out just how important it really is.
"It was really peculiar though, I can't help but wonder why it conveniently placed us out on the Lavaridge side of the desert. It was very unlikely, and it didn't look like a teleport. There's usually a pink flash but there was none of that there." There was also the fact that after he placed the sphere in the slot to use the machine, it stopped glowing. That must be important somehow. Maybe Steven would find out. "Also, you should be a pile of ash. Why aren't you?"
Will stayed slouched in his chair and thought hard about what happened. But he couldn't think of anything spectacularly sensible to explain why that fire pillar didn't incinerate him. He shrugged. "I don't know. What I do know is that it hurt. Like I was actually getting burned alive. Then it stopped all of a sudden and I felt better. It was a really good feeling too, my skin was tingly and everything, pretty cool."
Riven stared at him sourly. "Pretty cool? I damn near got a heart attack because of you. I thought I just watched a little kid get incinerated by a room. You're lucky you're alive-" Will was about to say something snappy, the readily forming grin on his face said it all. Riven didn't let him. "-because if I wasted all that time, effort, and water saving you just so you could kick the bucket like that, I'd find you when I'm dead and kill you again."
"And here I thought you were going to say something heartfelt about how you finally learned to care about anyone other than yourself," the younger trainer muttered, obviously disappointed.
"I think I'd rather stab myself and save some dignity," Riven said flatly.
"Jerk," Will bit out, depressed or not, his traveling partner's snippy attitude certainly didn't go away. He wasn't going to try and cheer him up again, he can stay gloomy. As if he cared anyway.
"Right," he replied, pointing outside the store window. "By the way, I think Quil might need some help." White Queen was currently smashing the quilava's face into the ground with seething fury. He would think about the desert later, right now his brain hurt and wanted to take his mind off of it.
"Oh crap!" Will quickly recalled the unconscious fire type before the absol stuffed his face into the ground anymore and accidentally killed him. He laughed nervously as a rather pissed, horned pokemon approached him, radiating a killing feeling. Then a red beam hit her in the face and sucked her into a pokeball.
"She's going to hurt me for that later. It won't be pretty."
Riven was standing at the door of the shop holding out a pokeball, minimizing it and placing it on his belt. He called the other pokemon out from inside the store and their entire party was outside now. "Tell Quil to watch himself, she's going to be supremely peeved when I let her out again. Might want to watch your behind too, that ice beam is terrible and I'm sure having a frostbitten ass must be the most delightful feeling in the world." Having Quil defrost it might be a bit of a bad idea too, it was best to avoid such a situation. Second degree burns on the backside must not do one good in the toilet.
Will gripped his chest in relief. "Your absol is crazy!" It seemed like she was going to bisect him with her megahorn. Looked pissed enough to do it too.
"Tell me something I don't know," Riven smirked and clapped the kid on the back. "Come on, let's look around the town for a bit, find something interesting to do, then go back to the center."
Oh, they found something interesting all right.
When they were walking around the town thirty minutes earlier, they had come across a rather 'sketchy' individual (the term was courtesy of Will), that handed them a magazine of sorts after seeing Riven's kirlia. See, this man looked at the pokemon in a really creepy way while handing them the thing, it rubbed both trainers the wrong way on more ways than one. Then the guy just took off.
Riven looked at it curiously. The title read, "A Gardevoir's Touch". Didn't sound all that bad. He flipped open the book, which resembled a comic rather than a book in the conventional sense. It had pictures and writing in bubbles. Reading the first few lines of dialogue, he noticed that the pokemon in the pictures was called a gardevoir and looked like Mischief but evolved. It had a very human figure and spoke to the man in the pictures in a strangely provocative way.
Flipping another page over, he looked confused as the pokemon sat on the man's lap. Riven's face went from confused to extremely disturbed as he turned to the next page. What was that pokemon…doing? Horrified, he dared flip open a few more pages. Glancing at Mischief, who looked utterly clueless, Riven fought the urge to empty the contents of his stomach into the nearest bathroom stall. He handed the magazine to Will, struggling to keep his dessert from coming up through his mouth. "Will, have Quil burn this. Now. It must never see the light of day again. Kill it with fire, for the love of everything sacred and holy, just do it."
Will held the magazine, examining it with close scrutiny. It was a rather unassuming cover. "Why?"
"I-I just… I don't want to see that abomination ever again." Riven shivered, turned on his heel and went over to a water fountain.
Will was intrigued, what was bad enough to make Riven cringe like that? He was currently rubbing his face with water from a water fountain, really, really hard. Couldn't be that bad right? He flipped open a page towards the middle, stared at it for a full minute, flipped through some more pages and closed it slowly. Turning to his starter, he said, "Quil. I want you to make the biggest fireball you can make just to be sure that not even a single bit of this makes it out. I might need to use acid just to clean out what I just saw." He handed the wretched thing to his quilava, who gleefully bounded off to go burn it to a crisp.
Both trainers stormed into the pokemon center, scaring Joy. Riven went up to the desk, eyes red from extensive scrubbing. "I need all the rubbing alcohol you have, as well as all the hand sanitizer, aroma perfume, scented aerosol cans, and bleach. Especially the bleach."
One night of no sleep thanks to a certain magazine, Riven and Will zombied their way into the dining area and nearly fell asleep on their pancakes. The younger trainer was too tired to even remember that it was his birthday today and went back to the room to get some more sleep. He returned in the afternoon to find Riven curled up on a couch in the center's main room, out like a light. He obviously didn't care that those weren't meant for sleeping.
Throwing Rika's pokeball at his head, Will woke up the older guy, who groaned and held his head. "Did you have to do that?" He complained, stretching lightly to avoid abusing his ribs. They were still tender but healing fairly quickly, he'd be fine in a couple days at this rate. Then maybe he could run more than twenty feet without having to stop.
"Yeah, I did. If I nudged you awake, you'd punch me."
"Point taken." He yawned loudly, staring lazily at the little boy. "Weren't you going use the video phones or whatever?"
Will's eyes widened. Riven was right."Shit!"
Nurse Joy scowled. "Watch your language, young man." She was already in a sour mood after having to clean up the ashy mess his quilava dragged into the center.
"Sorry, Nurse Joy!" He pulled on Riven's arm while checking his phone. "Gah! Five missed messages! Let's go!"
"Alright, alright. I'm coming, hold your rapidashes."
Will dragged Riven to the video phone room and excitedly dialed the number of his brother's store. Riven noticed that the other trainers were calling home or speaking with their parents about their adventures, smiling and laughing. A pit formed in his stomach, but quickly smashed it with mental steel. He focused his attention back on Will's video phone screen.
The ring was heard several times before the other person picked up and an image appeared on screen. It was a man in his twenties, with the same characteristic red eyes but shorter dark brown hair spiked up towards the tip. He was definitely Will's brother.
"Hey, squirt!" He welcomed, smiling widely.
Will reddened. "Don't call me that! I got taller!"
"Really? Prove it to me." The younger boy pouted, still red. "Haha, you're still a squirt to me , Will. Always going to be one, doesn't matter how big you get." He gave a thumbs up and laughed, not unlike Wattson's jolly laugh. "I tried calling you five times. Why didn't you pick up?"
"I, uh- fell asleep."
"Still asleep at ten in the morning?" Bad little trainer. They were supposed to be early birds.
"Couldn't sleep, I saw something disgusting last night." His brother raised an eyebrow. "Some creepy dude gave me a magazine. It was-"
"One of those magazines?"
"Ugh…yeah."
"You poor bastard. What was it about?"
"Don't remind me." He held up his hand to his mouth. "Erk… I think I want to throw up again."
His brother let out another laugh. As it died down, his face became concerned. "Hey, I heard that you got into a bad situation a while back. Is that true?"
"You didn't see the TV?" He did come out on TV, he should have seen it.
"Johto, remember? We don't see Hoenn news coverage, usually. Not small stuff like that at least."
"Small?! I nearly died!"
"That you did."
"Argh. Did mom tell you?" It only made sense, she was quite the worrier.
"Yeah, she went nuts over the phone. She said she saw you on TV-nice job with that by the way. Might give you some publicity!" His brother was very cheerful, much more so than Will, who was quickly becoming a bit more cynical. Riven had convinced himself some time ago that he had nothing to do with the little boy's growing cynicism. Mostly.
"Bad publicity you mean."
"Publicity nonetheless." He examined Will's face. "You did get darker though. That desert must have been rough. How did my little squirt of a brother make it through without a water pokemon? Either you got lucky or…I don't know. You're never prepared."
"Someone else was," he replied, shoving Riven's side lightly. He groaned, Will had just shoved an elbow near his ribs.
"Ah, is that your traveling partner?" Will's brother asked, observing the taller trainer with a squint. "Kind of tall."
Will nodded. "Yup, that's him. His name is Gr-" Riven nudged him, silently telling him that he wanted to introduce himself.
"Riven," he said, waving lightly. He had to duck just to come into view, Will was pretty short. He stood up to full height again after a second, giving Will's brother very little time to analyze him. Then sat down a few chairs away, a quick retreat.
"Riven. Hmm, that's an odd name." Connor looked at Will. "He's an older guy right? I thought they didn't travel with little kids. Find them annoying or something." That was usually why older trainers didn't like to hang out with the more inexperienced ones.
Will smiled smugly. "Yeah, that's usually true. Buuuuut, he's actually the same level as me. Even though he's eighteen. " Maybe that's why they were traveling together, same level and all. Actually, Will didn't know why Riven started out so late in the first place. He never asked. Now he was starting to wonder too.
"Same level? I thought he'd be more experienced, you know, since most trainers usually start when they're ten." He shrugged. "Well, I guess everyone has their reasons. I guess he was the one that helped you through the desert?" More or less stuck in the desert with his little brother, because knowing Will, he didn't have a clue about the wilderness most trainers had to face at some point. This guy must have known something about it.
"Yeah, he was really prepared. I think if it wasn't for him, I'd be dead." Will wouldn't ever admit it in front of Riven though, who was currently stroking Rika's jaws a few feet away. "To be honest, he's too paranoid, thinks everything is trying to kill him." Wasn't too far off from the truth, actually.
"I'd say that paranoia saved my baby brother. Tell him I said thanks." He paused to remove a togepi that had jumped in front of the screen. "Ah, that was Jean. Crazy little guy. That reminds me, you coming over here? Mom is coming in three weeks, and Lucia just got back from her little adventure in Unova, you haven't seen her in three years; I think she deserves to see how much her baby brother has taken after her."
Lucia was back! Will's awesome trainer sister. She started off in Hoenn but went to Unova three years ago after wanting to try "something new". He wanted to see her again, not only because she had been gone for a while, but because she was an amazing trainer. "Yeah, sure!"
"Alright! Meet up with mom in Slateport, Lucia is going to be there. Dad is going to be here with me, so don't sweat it." He was about to click when he paused and smashed his palm against his head. "I almost forgot about your present! You must be so excited for it!"
Will nearly thought his brother would forget."Yeah! What is it?" Will was seriously expecting some badass pokemon, or cool gadget of sorts. His eyes flashed in excitement and eagerness to see his totally awesome gift. He was picturing a tyranitar, or a dragonair, or maybe a gengar! Perhaps a hitmonlee or something cool like that?
"It's an egg!" Will's face fell. "Oh, but don't you worry. It's a special pokemon that's rare in Hoenn, and a really prized one at that. I'll send it now." He smiled and typed on a computer below him.
"Wait, Connor I don't-"
"OK! It's waiting for you in the lobby, with Nurse Joy. Raise it well, William! See ya here in three weeks, hee!" He gave another grin and the screen shut off, leaving Will in silence and disbelief.
Riven and Rika walked over to the surprise stricken boy and both wondered why he looked so out of it. "What did he give you?" Will silently dragged him to the main lobby.
The older trainer stared at his little friend's "gift". A brown egg. That's what his brother gave him. "Carrying that around in the wild might be problematic," he assumed, figuring that it would be far too convenient to have a pokeball suck it in. He'd have to carry it, and running from wild pokemon while holding an egg would be pretty difficult.
Will swallowed nervously. "About that…"
He sounded unsure about heading into the wild, after the desert fiasco, Riven could understand any second doubts. He raised a curious brow. "About what?"
"…Going with you to Forina," he replied, a look of guilt coming across his face. He hadn't thought about Riven when he told his brother he was coming. It was such an asshole move to back out of something like that.
"You're not going?"
"I-I can't. My sister just got back from another region and my family is meeting with my brother in Johto. I already promised them I'd go, I'm sorry." He looked down at the ground, refusing to look the older trainer in the eye. Instead, he got his hat pulled down all the way, an annoying habit of Riven's whenever he teased him.
The older trainer huffed lightly. "Silly kid, it's fine. I don't dictate your life. You should be with your family, they care about you, I'd say that's more important than being with a grump like me. Plus, you're growing cynical, that isn't good for a kid like you. Stay happy, it will keep you sane. That way you won't become me."
Hopefully never like me.
Will readjusted his hat. "But you'll die, knowing your luck with wild pokemon."
Riven scoffed. "Please, I'll be fine. I'm used to things trying to murder me. And, it will be good practice for Aine and Mischief. They've been falling behind on it lately." He let out his pokemon out of their pokeballs. They looked around, slightly confused. "Will's leaving, say good bye to him. And be nice, that means you White Queen."
"Sol," she grumbled, still unhappy about Quil.
"Kir-lia," Mischief saluted.
"COMBUSKEN!" Aine cried and ursaring hugged the little boy, letting him go before he turned blue in the face.
Will recovered and fumbled for his pokeballs, letting out all of his pokemon. "Gah, she hugs hard… Guys, say bye to Riven and his pokemon, we're going back to Slateport and we have to leave today. We've been through a lot but it's time to go." His pokemon understood and gladly exchanged good byes, even Quil was respectful. He managed to have a civil interaction with White Queen, for once. "Maybe, we'll see each other in a couple months. Or in a couple years, I don't know."
Riven gave a small smile. "Maybe, but honestly, I didn't think you'd stick with me for this long."
"Why is that?"
"You saw what I did." He looked down at his hands, not wanting to explicitly say it, with trainers and Nurse Joy in the background. Few sane people would stick around after watching someone else drive a knife through a skull.
Will was silent for a moment. "I know you don't think you're a good guy, but I still do. And sometimes, good people have to do bad things. I can understand that, even if I don't like it." Wise words for a kid.
But, it wasn't as if the guys he killed were innocent anyway. That didn't make it any better though, it was killing nonetheless. Steven's words rang in his mind, as heavy as boulders. "You sure you're not older than thirteen?"
"Nope, I'm thirteen. And I still haven't grown an inch since I was eleven." He held a hand behind his head sheepishly. "Anyway, good luck in Forina. I hope I see Mischief as a gallade next time. If I see a gardevoir, I think I'll puke." That made Riven snort loudly. "See you later, weird eyes. I hope you learned how to use that holo caster, you're pretty retarded with it. Stay in touch," he said, pointing to his phone.
Riven crossed his hands and smirked."Likewise, walking disaster area. Have fun."
The boy waved and exited the doors, pokemon shuffling along with him. Quil managed a good bye ember to White Queen, which landed on her nose. She sneezed.
And just like that, Riven was on his own again. Will's goodbye wasn't as much of a kick to the gut as Amy's had been, but it felt slightly depressing anyway. He sighed, another one gone.
He ruffled Aine's head feathers."I guess that's just the way life here goes…" She held up a paw and cried loudly in agreement. He stared at her and shook his head. "You know what? I'm not going to talk to myself on this journey. I'm getting a translator after we beat some more trainers into the dust . Soon as those wounds heal and these casts come off, we're going to hang out at route 112 for a while. You guys need the training, you've been slacking for two weeks."
He grinned and bribed Mischief with a candy bar to levitate him up to the roof by standing on a box. Returning his pokemon and letting them back out on the roof, they remained on top, staring at the darkening sky above.
Riven had a long journey ahead of him, and a week to kill. Sleeping outside wouldn't be so bad, he missed the night air. Breathing in deeply, he relaxed his body and cleared his mind. He knew there wouldn't be another rest like this, and wanted to make sure to enjoy it while it lasted, in case fate had more surprises in store.
It never let him down before.