Chapter Eight
Unexpected
When Cole had said he had a cabin, AJ wasn't quite sure what she'd been expecting.
People who owned cabins in the mountains were usually the rich, snooty types, and their cabins were usually rustic vacation retreats, set on the fringes of the wilderness but still with all of the trappings of modern convenience.
This was Mt. Silver, however; about as much in the wilderness as a person could get in either Kanto or Johto. There was no electricity here, no way for construction crews to climb up this mountain to build a respectable structure that could withstand decades of heavy snows and wild pokemon. Plus, Cole was just one man. He didn't need much space, and even then, how much space could he even have?
She expected to find a ramshackle lean-to. Some shoddy structure barely held together that would feel cramped with even just the three of them inside.
What they found, after maybe an hour or so of travel thanks to the slow pace Arcanine had set, was honestly much nicer than she had expected.
Cole's cabin was certainly rustic and looked like it belonged to an older, simpler age, not to mention small, compared to modern buildings, but it looked cozy and well kept. It was a log cabin, two-stories tall, situated in a clearing in a sparse patch of woods. Mountains rose up around them on all sides, hiding this cozy little valley from view, and according to Cole, a stream snaked its way down from the top of Mt Silver, running along the opposite side of the cabin just past the thicket of spindly pines. The towering central spire of Mt. Silver rose above them, omnipresent, swallowing the northern horizon.
When they had arrived, well past noon, AJ had done her best to dismount on her own - whether because she was trying to appear tough or because she'd underestimated just how weak she was, she honestly couldn't say - but had nearly fallen flat on her face. Thankfully, Jade was there to catch her.
AJ's relief at being reunited with her best friend had been overwhelming. She'd popped up seemingly out of nowhere not long after AJ and Cole had begun their trek to his cabin, careening wildly toward them atop the back of her Metagross, shouting and laughing and crying all at once.
Her story of what had happened to her had been short - mostly just her and Metagross searching through the night - but the discovery that Sammy hadn't been with her, that he'd fallen off of her Metagross, that he didn't even have most of his team with him, had hit her like a punch to the gut. She refused to believe he was dead. She couldn't. The pain of it - the guilt - would have consumed her. So instead, she stubbornly maintained that he was alive and they would find him in due course.
Cole had waited until Jade had steadied AJ on her feet and both girls had recalled their pokemon before inviting them inside.
"It's not much," he said, social niceties sounding odd coming from his rough, gravely voice, "but it's warm and I can put something hot in your bellies."
"It's perfect," Jade said gratefully, one arm around AJ as they followed behind. "Thank you again for all of your help."
AJ wanted to push away from Jade and insist that she could walk on her own, only… Well, from the way her legs were shaking, she doubted that was actually true. Plus, Jade was warm. Not as warm as Arcanine, but the whole world felt like ice, so any warmth would do.
Instead, she let her eyes sweep the front of the building, taking it all in. There was a porch, complete with a bench and two rocking chairs, sitting beneath a covered awning. Various buckets or mismatched tools sat around or leaned against the outer walls - axes, hoes, scythes, saws, etc.
The walls themselves were made of stacked logs, obviously, but she could see that, while old, the wood had clearly been sanded and lacquered at the time of construction. The logs had been fitted together at the corners with notches to keep the building stable and minimize gaps in the wood, though what spaces there were had been filled in with what appeared to be mud or plaster.
The roof was thatched with a thick layer of pine straw to stave off the cold, but that had been buried beneath a good foot of snow. The fact that it hadn't caved in under the weight spoke of it's solid construction. She counted at least three chimneys. There were windows in the walls - actual glass, surprisingly - though there weren't many, and what few there were were covered so AJ couldn't see inside of them.
Another thing that caught her eye almost immediately were the pokemon. A Chimecho dangled from beneath the corner of the awning, it's tail gently stirring in the breeze. It let out one of it's pleasant, echoing chimes when it noticed AJ watching it. From around a pile of chopped firewood near the far-side of the cabin, she could see a pair of Snorunt peeking out at them shyly. A shadow passed overhead and she glanced up and spotted what she thought was a Skarmory streaking across the sky - though it was hard to tell against the gray, cloudy canvas.
AJ glanced at Jade but said nothing. First Absol and Abamasnow, now Chimecho and Snorunt? It wasn't all that uncommon to run across a pokemon that was out of its natural environment - people broke the law all the time, especially out in the wilderness where no one could see them - but this was Mt. Silver. Nobody was supposed to come here, so how…?
Ultimately, as Jade helped AJ up the porch steps and into the cabin, she decided it didn't matter. The warmth hit her like a slap in the face almost as soon as she walked in, and she let out an involuntary sigh.
Much like with the outside of the cabin, the inside caught her by surprise with how well kept it was. She'd expected dirt flooring, or maybe wood, and was surprised to find that it was stone layered with thick rugs or mats to fight off the cold. The interior was lit, albeit dimly, by the warm crackle of fire in a thick stone hearth and what little light pierced the gloom through the handful of windows. The mantle over the fireplace was decorated by hand-carved wooden figures of various local pokemon.
The cabin appeared to be comprised primarily of one main room, which contained the central space that surrounded the hearth, a cooking area, and a single table presumably used for dining. There were more rocking chairs and a makeshift couch situated in front of the heart, all made from wood, though covered in quilts and thin cushions for padding. A lone bookshelf sat in the corner with a few dog-earned tomes on its shelves. The space looked sparse, but comfortably lived in.
The kitchen area was small, with only a few short cupboards beneath and above polished countertops, a spice rack, and a large pot-bellied stove - the really old-fashioned kind that you actually had to burn wood in to use.
Beside it was what AJ presumed was the dining area, though it was really just a small table with two chairs. Most of the table was covered in various odds and ends; a sewing kit, a whetstone, small slabs of wood that were partially carved, a bundle of herbs, etc.
Up above the kitchen and dining area was a loft, though it was dark and she couldn't tell what was up there. A lone ladder led up, though beside it on the ground floor was a door that led into a back room from where Cole was now exiting.
"Well don't just stand there," he said, tone blunt yet not unkind. He was carrying blankets in his arms which he quickly thrust at Jade. "You and your friend look like death. Especially your friend. Bundle up in these, go sit yourselves in front of the fire, and I'll find you something hot to put in your bellies, hm?"
"Thank you," Jade said again, letting go of AJ so she could fumble with the heavy quilts in her arms. Pichu took the opportunity to leap out of AJ's arms and rush over to the fireplace, curling up on the rug in front of it. Within seconds, he was asleep.
AJ took a moment to brace herself against the back of the wooden couch before turning to Cole and saying, "What about our friend Sammy? Didn't you say you knew some pokemon who could help us find him?"
"Ah - that's right." The old man paused for a second, making a face. "I nearly forgot. Give me a second."
He walked over to the bookshelf, grabbing a small wooden flute off of one of the shelves before stomping back off outside.
While Jade threw one of the quilts around AJ's shoulders and all but pushed her onto the couch in front of the fire, she could hear a short five-note trill call out from outside. After a few moments, Cole played it again, then, after another pause, again.
"Whoa," said Jade, catching AJ's attention. She was holding out the quilt that Cole had given her to admire it. It was thick and large, made up of checkered strips of cloth, though what stood out to Jade and now to AJ were the patterns that had been stitched into the front of the quilt. Every square of cloth appeared to have a different Unown sewn into it, with Xatu, Natu, and Sigilyph soaring around the edges.
AJ took a moment to look at her own. She had the legendary dogs of Johto, arranged in a triangle. The work was somewhat crude, but it was still impressive. Cole had clearly sewn these himself. She let her eyes scan the cabin again, taking everything in. He must have made all of this - except for a few things like the stove. She supposed that, if you were going to live off the grid, you had to be good at working with your hands, and he had been here for forty years… but still. How long had this taken him?
A noise caught her attention, and she glanced up at the loft where she was surprised to find a pair of eyes gazing down at them curiously out of the shadow. A moment later, the creature jumped down in a yellow flash, landing atop the bookshelf, then the mantle, then down onto the floor where it examined AJ and her friends curiously. It was a Pikachu.
Something clicked in the back of AJ's head, and she let out a half-hearted snort.
Jade, who had just cocooned herself within her quilt and curled up beside AJ on the couch, shot her a concerned look.
"You're not dying on me, are you?"
AJ shook her head, extracting an arm from her own quilt just long enough to point at the Pikachu.
"Remember Ethan's story? Looks like we found our culprit."
Jade stared for a moment, not understanding at first. When it clicked for her, too, she let out a loud 'Pffft!' noise through her lips.
"He thought this old man was your dad? He's way too old!"
"He didn't," AJ corrected softly. "Sammy was the one who made the connection, not Ethan."
At the mention of Sammy's name, a heavy silence fell over them. On the rug in front of them, the Pikachu had apparently decided to ignore the strange humans on its couch and was now sniffing cautiously around her sleeping Pichu, a look of obvious concern on its face.
"He'll be just fine," AJ said softly, hoping to ease its concern a bit, but a moment later, the Pikachu had dashed off, vanishing into one of the back rooms before returning a moment later with another, albeit much smaller, blanket that it struggled to drape over her Pichu's sleeping form.
A moment later, a large shadow swooped over the doorway and the sound of beating wings reached into the cabin from the porch outside.
Whatever it was, Cole appeared to be speaking with it. She thought she heard the words "lost boy" and "north" and "gets too far", but she couldn't be certain. A moment later, the shadow took off again into the sky and Cole returned back into the cabin, shutting the door firmly behind him.
"What was that?" Jade asked as he returned the flute to the bookshelf and headed into the kitchen. "Sounded pretty big."
"I saw a Skarmory earlier," AJ supplied. "Maybe one of those?"
"That didn't sound anything like a Skarmory-" Jade began, when Cole answered, making his way back to the kitchen.
"Just an old friend of mine. A Braviary. It's lived up in these mountains for years now, and I've helped him out of a spot of trouble or two. I asked him to go find those Froslass and set them to searching for your friend, and he's going to scan from the skies a bit too and let us know when they've found him. Don't you girls worry; we'll find your friend soon."
AJ felt a wave of relief wash over her now that she knew that there was an active search party looking for Sammy. Jade, however, frowned.
"A Braviary? Why are there so many non-native pokemon hanging out around this mountain?"
Cole chuckled, pouring something from a pitcher into what appeared to be a tea kettle and setting it on the stove. The fire inside was already lit. How had he done that so fast?
"You new to pokemon training?" he asked. "Fool trainers release their pokemon in the wrong environments all the time. It's a shame, but it's not all that uncommon."
"Sure," Jade said, in a tone that seemed to imply that she was the last person who needed a lecture on introduced species, "but we're in the middle of nowhere where normal trainers aren't supposed to be. I can buy that they may have migrated here over time, but… so many? You can't tell me that's not unusual."
Cole shrugged, taking a moment to lean back against the cabinet beside the stove and scratch at his beard.
"Look, I ain't no pokemon expert or nothin'," he said, "but I've lived here for a long time, and I have my theories. I figure, most pokemon who get released by incompetent trainers are lookin' to stay away from humans. They're hurt, they're scared, they don't want to be used again. So, if they survive long enough, they probably try to head to areas where there aren't many humans around.
"The pokemon here didn't all show up yesterday. Many of 'em have lived here for years. They stay on the move, keeping away from the routes humans usually use to travel, and the ones who can survive the climate usually make their way here. Assuming they aren't killed or caught by another trainer along the way. It ain't something mysterious. It's just hurt, rejected souls lookin' for somewhere safe to call home."
AJ found herself nodding slowly. That made sense. It also explained why those Snover and Abomasnow last night had been so violent. If any of them had been hurt or abused by their trainers before they were released, then they likely had a natural distrust for humans, or at least passed that down to their offspring. And trainers were a rare sight on Mt. Silver. Pokemon here weren't accustomed to seeing people around. Ethan had said the pokemon here were stronger and more territorial than normal, but she hadn't considered the role that bad trainers may have had on their temperament. To hear Cole say it, it almost sounded like Mt. Silver had become a home for the abandoned and betrayed.
The kettle on the stove began to whistle, and Cole quickly grabbed an oven mitt and lifted it off of the burner to begin pouring into a couple of tin cups he'd removed from one of the cabinets.
When he stepped aside, AJ got her first good look into the metal wood-burning stove and felt surprise wash over her when she realized that what she was seeing inside was not a lit fire, but a Slugma.
"Is that safe?" she asked as Cole carried the two steaming drinks over to them. At his confused glance, she gestured to the stove and tried not to stare around and the wooden walls around them.
Cole laughed.
"Oh, Sluggy? She's fine. She don't like goin' outside much when it's in the snowy season - water and Slugma don't mix much. But she's a bit attached to me, so she doesn't like returning the caves. Had a nasty run-in with a Pupitar, and those things have long memories and bear grudges. So, we struck a deal - if she helps us with cooking, we'll keep her nice and fed and safe. She's much better at keeping the temperature nice and consistent than an actual open flame."
That was actually kind of ingenious. She knew that professional chefs sometimes used fire pokemon like Simisear or Torkoal for certain kinds of cooking, but she hadn't expected a hermit to have taken up the practice. She absently took a sip of the steaming drink and blinked in surprise. She had no idea what it was - some kind of cider made from berries? It was extremely tart, but not unpleasant. The warmth in her belly seemed to sink all the way to her toes.
"You said 'we'," Jade said, taking a sip and pulling a face. She didn't like sour things. "I thought you lived here alone."
"Ah, no. Actually, I live here with my son. He's out and about right now, but he should be back by supper. If we don't have word of your friend by then, I can send him out to help search, but with Braviary and Froslass on the case, I think we have a good chance of finding him first."
He lived with his son? Well that explained a few things, like why his cabin was this large.
"Did he help you build all this?" she asked, gesturing around. "I'm actually surprised by how nice this is."
"No, no. Most of this was built before he came to live with me - that was about twenty or so years ago. I forget. We did put in some add-ons when he came along. But no, most of this was built when I first came here."
"All by yourself?" Jade asked, looking flabbergasted, and Cole let out a full belly laugh as he opened the door to the stove and passed some wood along to his Slugma, who let out a grateful slurping noise.
"You think I built all this alone? I'm flattered that you think so highly of me. No, I had some help. I lived in tents and a cave for a bit, but after I befriended some of the locals, they helped me out. It's a wonder what you can do with a few friendly Machoke and a Gravler or two. An Onix to fell and haul trees. Donphan to level the ground. I've made a lot of friends in my time here, and they help me out like I help them out. It's not all that surprising."
He made it sound like a simple matter of course, but AJ had already experienced first-hand how violent and mistrustful the pokemon here could be. Just who was this strange old man? How had he come to be here, and why?
"I hope you'll indulge me," he said, messing about in his tiny kitchen, pulling out baskets of dried mushrooms and berries, preparing to chop what appeared to be a bushel full of an odd, root-like vegetable, "but I like to talk. It's not often I get company. Why don't you girls tell me a bit about yourselves, eh? Indulge an old man for a bit. Where are you from? What brings you all the way out here to the back-end of nowhere?"
Jade glanced at AJ as though to see if she was going to answer, but when she didn't, Jade took up the explanation instead.
Her name was Jade, she said, and she and her friends AJ and Sammy had come up for a bit of sight-seeing. AJ was grateful that she left out the bits about AJ being Kanto's newest Champion - sure, Cole probably wouldn't care about that and it's not like the opinions of some sheltered hermit mattered in the long run, but the thought of someone else knowing that she, the Champion, had screwed up so badly and hadn't been able to defend herself against a wild pokemon attack had her insides knotting up painfully. She didn't want to think about that - not now or ever. She just wanted to find Sammy and go home.
But they couldn't do that now, so she continued to sit in front of the fireplace, wrapped up in a warm quilt, slowly sipping Cole's oddly-flavored cider while Jade filled the silence with mindless smalltalk. On the rug in front of her, Pichu was curled up, sleeping, while the old man's Pikachu stood watch.
The three of them were childhood friends and had traveled here from Kanto, Jade explained. The trip was supposed to be one last adventure before they hung up their hats as trainers and moved on to their boring adult lives.
Cole had chuckled at that, as though he saw something funny.
"Growing up isn't so bad, lass," he said, shooting them an indulging smile. "And it doesn't have to be boring, either."
"Is this the part where you tell us that life is what we make of it, oh wise hermit of the mountain?" Jade joked, flashing one of her dozen charming smiles to show she was kidding and displaying once again just how much better she was at socializing than AJ. The old man let out a bark of laughter.
"Well, you got me there," he conceded, now fiddling with a few different tins on his spice rack. "But if a strange old man can't drop sage wisdom every now and then, what's the point in livin' to be this old?"
They chatted on for a bit about nothing until AJ had drained the last of her cider and the flames on the hearth had died down somewhat. She was feeling a lot better now, she could admit, but her head still felt off and her body was still sore and fatigued. She needed to sleep, she knew, but her anxiety over Sammy was keeping her up, at least for now.
Jade didn't seem to have this same concern, however. She seemed completely at ease as she chatted with Cole, talking about the pokemon in the area, where Larvitar were more frequently spotten, which introduced species he'd been accustomed to seeing, what areas of the mountain they should avoid on their trek back down. If anything, it almost sounded like Cole was a favorite uncle of hers that she hadn't seen in a while. Not for the first time, AJ found herself jealous at how easily Jade seemed to be able to make friends.
Eventually, after setting up a large cauldron so he could begin piling in the ingredients he'd been preparing, Cole turned to his guests and asked, "Now - you don't have to answer me if you don't want to, and I don't mean anything by it - you don't have the look of poachers about you, though… Well, anyway. If you don't mind, can you tell me why you're here? Here specifically, that is - Mt. Silver ain't exactly a normal vacation destination. Not that you can't be here, mind, it's just… Well, it's unusual is all."
Jade sent AJ a covert look out of the corner of her eye as though asking for permission to tell the truth. She shook her head. Cole seemed nice enough, but that didn't mean he deserved her whole life story.
"It's… our friend," Jade said instead, clearly making this up as she went. AJ wondered if it was as obvious to Cole as it was to her. "Sammy, the one who… the one we're looking for. He's actually an Oak. You know, like Professor Oak - inventor of the Pokedex, yadda yadda. He's his great-grandson. He wanted to come up here to survey the mountain, y'know for… research or whatever. Anyway, we heard no one ever comes up here, so we decided to tag along. Figured I could use this as an opportunity to catch a Tyranitar, but mostly we just wanted to get the old team back together for one last hurrah."
Cole was nodding along even as he shaved a garlic clove over the cauldron. From his expression, he looked like he was concentrating more on his task than listening to Jade. To her credit, at least, her story wasn't a complete lie. AJ was actually kind of impressed. For being on the spot, that wasn't bad. For Jade, at least.
"Oak…" he said slowly. "Yes, that name sounds familiar… I'm guessing his great-grandfather is the one who got you clearance from the League to come up here?"
"Yup," said Jade, latching onto the convenient excuse he'd provided to her. "Him and… Um, I called in a favor to my dad, too. He donates a lot of money to a wildlife conservation fund so the Rangers are kinda indebted to him."
"Your father?" Cole asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you're some spoiled rich girl."
There was a teasing note to his voice to indicate he meant no offense. Jade laughed.
"Ha, I wish. No, not really - I mean my dad is a Gym Leader, but…" She shrugged. "My dad is Brock, by the way. Brock Harrison, the Gym Leader of Pewter City."
Cole's hands stilled.
"Brock Harrison?" he asked, not looking at them. "Gym Leader of… Pewter City?"
"That's right," Jade said proudly.
"That name sounds… familiar," he murmured, frowning at the garlic in his hands as if he suddenly didn't know what he was holding. After a moment, he shook his head and continued shaving the garlic. How much was he planning on adding?
"Must have been fun, growing up as a Gym Leader's kid," Cole continued after a moment, finally setting the garlic aside and reaching for his heavy wooden spoon to stir the contents of his would-be stew.
Jade shrugged.
"Eh. I guess so. It's the only life I've lived so I don't really know how to compare it."
Cole nodded, but didn't really seem to be listening. He pulled his clay crock forward and ladled some more water into the pot, frowning at the contents.
"I bet you got to meet a lot of famous people growing up. That must have been fun. Elite 4 members, other Gym Leaders… It's true that your father is close friends with the Gym Leader of Cerulean City, isn't it? Misty Waterflower? Do you know her? How is she doing these days?"
AJ slowly turned her head to stare at the old man.
How did he know that her mom and Brock were friends? How did he even know who they were? Hadn't he told her he'd been living on this mountain for the last forty years?
"You mean Elite 4 member Misty Waterflower?" Jade corrected, leaning back into the makeshift couch and letting her shoulder thump into AJ's. She sent her friend a playful wink. "Yeah, I'd say she's doing alright. Don't you think, AJ? Tell him how your mom is doing."
Cole, who had just lifted the pot off of the counter so he could carry it to the stove, suddenly stumbled. He managed to keep his grip on the pot, thankfully, but not without sloshing a good bit of the uncooked stew onto the floor.
Jade leaped to her feet, dropping her quilt and rushing to his side.
"Oh! Are you ok? Let me help!"
"I'm fine, lass, I'm fine - just stubbed my toe, that's all. No need to fuss."
But his expression betrayed his words. His face was pale and his eyes kept darting away from Jade and the ruined food on the floor over toward the couch where AJ was sitting.
Suddenly, guilt flooded through AJ. Here she was, content to let this stranger take care of her, but she'd never paused to consider how he was doing. He was getting on in years, living alone on a mountain for decades… What if he had health issues of his own? What if he was hurt in some way and was just trying to hide it?
Jade must have had a similar thought as she was insisting on helping him out, but Cole was having none of it.
"Settle down, lass, settle down… I'm fine, I promise - I have more than enough here to replace what I spilled, it won't take me but a second-"
"Then at least let me get this cleaned up for you!"
"Nah, don't bother yourself. Sluggy! You feelin' up for some stew?"
He pulled the door of the stove back open, gesturing for Jade to step back and his Slugma slowly oozed its way out of the door, plopping down on the stone kitchen floor with a wet thud and immediately began excitedly slurping up the spilled stew. Steam filled the kitchen, the smell of burned food filled the air, but within seconds the mess was clean and Slugma was sliding its way back into the stove, a contented look on its face.
Well now, that was convenient. She'd never heard of a Slugma being used like an all-purpose vacuum cleaner, but it worked.
"See?" Cole said, shutting the door of the stove once again and returning to the pot on the stove. "Good as new. Now, you let me take care of this, and you go take care of your friend over there. Take her some more cider, too. She looks like she needs it."
Truth be told, AJ had warmed up a good bit, but it was also true that she still felt a bit shaky. More cider sounded really good. So did a nap.
When Jade returned and refulled her cup, AJ downed it in record time despite the heat. Then, her eyes on her still sleeping Pichu, she let herself lean onto Jade's shoulder as her friend and Cole continued their endless conversation about nothing. All thoughts of how or why he had known her mother's name had fled from her head as the warmth of the cider and quilt and fire and Jade all melded together and she felt her heavy eyelids slide shut.
Her last thoughts before passing out were of Sammy, lost somewhere out in the cold, all alone.
Sammy's foot struck a rock hidden in the snow, and he cursed as jagged, lancing stabs of pain shot their way straight up his leg and into his brain.
His Gallade shifted, looking concerned, but Sammy waved him off irritably. There wasn't anything either of them could do about it, and Gallade was already more than half carrying him as it was.
They'd been walking for hours now. Or shuffling, more like. It was slow going - and painful - what with the piles of snow they had to contend with, the bitter cold, the fact that they had no idea where they were or where they were going…
Oh, and the fact that his leg was broken. Couldn't forget that.
The avalanche last night had been… Well, to say it was the stuff of nightmares would be the understatement of the century. An attack in the dark while they were asleep, razor-sharp ice shards raining down on them, him and Jade fighting over which belt belonged to who…
If either one of them had been able to call their pokemon out on time, things might have been different. It was such an embarrassing mistake - such a rookie move. He'd been so cocky before, so sure that nothing on this mountain could surprise them. Figures that his biggest obstacle would end up being himself. Jade had tried to rip the belts from his hands because he was taking too long, and they'd fallen to the ground. They'd both reached for them, but…
Gallade and Leafeon. They were all he had now. Well, them and Gengar - though he didn't actually have Gengar's ball, as it was still on the belt that was presumably - hopefully - in Jade's possession. They'd fought over the belts, and Jade had won, tearing them both away and leaving only two of Sammy's balls in his possession.
She'd summoned her Metagross then and he'd tried to climb on behind her. But he'd fallen. Fallen back down to the ground and the approaching avalanche, landing rather awkwardly and full on breaking his leg in the process. That was it then. He was doomed.
Except that was when Gengar had swooped in and saved him.
Gengar couldn't fly - well, it could fly on it's own, just not with a passenger - but it had managed to seize him by the shoulders and drag him off as the avalanche raced down after them, Gengar weaving deftly through the trees and boulders as it soared downhill, Sammy's limp body bouncing along behind it like a broken sled. Those few seconds - minutes? - had been harrowing, and he could only remember them now as fleeting flashes of terror and pain before Gengar had managed to pull him far enough away that they were out of the path of the wave of snowy death.
And now, here he was. Makeshift crutch under one arm, the other slung around Gallade's shoulders. Hobbling like a cripple through the frozen wilderness. No food, no shelter, no idea where he was or what they were doing.
He should have had Gallade teleport him back down the mountain. True, his psychic powers weren't as well developed as the female-half of his species, meaning it would take them several teleports - perhaps dozens - as well as the better part of the day before they reached civilization and could go for help. But the problem was, he knew Jade and AJ were around here somewhere. They wouldn't leave until they found him. If he just stuck it out - waited for them to find him first - they could all leave together.
He refused to believe that either one of them had abandoned him. Not them. They were his friends.
Not for the first time that day, he found himself cursing his own stupidity for suggesting this trip in the first place. It had seemed like such a good idea at the time - he'd rehearsed a dozen different ways to present the idea to AJ before he'd arrived at her party in Cerulean. But then Jade had dragged him out of her room after he'd suggested it, and…
Well, there was the start of the problem. Jade had it in her head that the only reason Sammy had proposed the idea was because of some dumb childhood crush he'd had on AJ. Like he was planning some ridiculous confession here on this ridiculous mountain of all places for no good reason.
She'd been completely wrong about that, of course. Not the crush thing - he could admit now that he'd been rather obvious about his infatuation for AJ when they were younger, even if AJ herself was the most oblivious person on the planet and had never noticed.
He'd always paid special attention to AJ, even back when they were kids. It was hard not to, what with her long, dark hair and sparkling blue eyes, freckled cheeks and sun-kissed skin from years spent running around the rivers and capes of Cerulean. Not to mention her boundless confidence, her sheer enthusiasm for adventure, the wild freedom that danced in her eyes. After growing up in and around his family's lab, feeling the weight of his surname shackling him, meeting AJ had been life-changing. She was magnetic. She pulled you to her.
When they'd started their journey at the same time, he'd been secretly ecstatic. He'd thought it had been his chance, that they could journey together, spend time together. He hadn't wanted to date her or anything - he was ten, girls made him feel flustered and clumsy. He just wanted to be her friend. And then she'd decided - all on her own - that they would be rivals. Sort of blew his dreams up right in his face, but honestly, he hadn't minded that much. It still gave him an excuse to talk to her, which he was more than happy to do - even if she had really seemed to hate him at the time.
No, what Jade had been wrong about was this whole fantasy she'd cooked up in her head that Sammy was planning on doing anything at all about those feelings. He'd buried them away long ago, perfectly content with just being friends. Sure, they tried to poke through every now and then, but he was always firm about pushing them back down. AJ didn't see him that way - she never had. She hadn't ever expressed romantic interest in anyone. Her whole life was about pokemon, and he was happy enough just being a part of it.
But Jade wouldn't let it go. She kept making snide comments or giving him knowing looks, and doing so in ways that were completely open and obvious to anyone else who might be around - especially AJ. True, she apparently hadn't caught on yet, but still. AJ may be oblivious, but she wasn't dumb. Well… she wasn't dumb about most things. She would catch on eventually. And then where would he be?
Wherever it was, he had to concede now that it would be better than being lost and alone with a broken leg on a frozen mountain. His injured foot struck another hidden rock buried beneath the snow and he hissed through his teeth.
They'd been traveling uphill for what seemed like hours - or at least it felt that way. With the sky overhead so cloudy, it was tough to say what time of day it really was. Gengar was scouting ahead, keeping an eye out for any wild pokemon as well as any signs of AJ or Jade. Gallade, who had made him a makeshift splint of sticks tied together with Sammy's shoelaces, was doing most of the work, Sammy's arm thrown over his shoulder as he half-supported, half-dragged Sammy up the mountainside.
Leafeon ambled on beside him, her plant-like ears and tail sensing the air while she sniffed the ground, searching for clues. Truth be told, he doubted she'd find anything; they were heading uphill, across ground that had just been devastated by the avalanche. It probably wasn't the safest route - nor the easiest, especially with his injured leg - but if AJ and Jade were looking for him, this would be the most obvious place he'd be.
Really, he ought to just call her back to her ball. Gallade needed to stay out to help Sammy walk, and he didn't even have Gengar's ball anymore, but there was no reason for Leafeon to stay out here and freeze alongside him.
The problem was, she wouldn't go back in. Or rather, she wouldn't stay in. Pokeballs had various settings that trainers could choose to customize how they wanted. One of the more contentious was the ability to choose whether your pokemon could let itself out of its ball at its own volition or not.
It was generally considered the morally correct choice to let pokemon release themselves from their pokeballs of their own accord. At least, assuming they could behave themselves and had been trained. For instance, while all of AJ's pokemon could let themselves out of their pokeballs whenever they wanted, her Hydreigon could not. AJ hadn't made that change yet to her pokeball's settings.
There were typically two arguments to be had about this particular feature. On the one hand, you had those who believed that letting pokemon pop out willy-nilly could lead to potential disasters - and sometimes it did. Poorly-trained pokemon sometimes popped out on busy streets, or else to pick fights with other pokemon who happened to be nearby. Zangoose and Seviper were notorious for displaying this kind of behavior. But on the other hand, if the pokeball was lost or stolen, if the setting was turned off, the pokemon would be trapped inside, possibly indefinitely unless someone were to find the ball or it were to be broken.
Sammy, who often considered himself to be more open-minded, had all of his pokeballs set so that pokemon could let themselves out at will. They were all well-trained enough to know not to pop out when it was dangerous, or indoors if they were too large, etc. Usually, it was fine.
But sometimes, like now, his pokemon abused the privilege. Leafeon refused to stay inside her ball. He had no idea what good she thought she was going to do him, tiring herself out and getting frostbite on her toes, but he'd given up on trying to convince her to stay in. His fingers were too numb to change the settings on her pokeball right now anyway.
He watched her as they walked, trying to see if she was letting out any tell-tale signs of giving in and letting him recall her, when something caught his attention.
There was a noise. A sort of… ringing sound. Like someone was tapping a good-sized bell with a small mallet. The sound was quiet and muffled, but it stood out against the wind, the only other sound to be heard for miles aside from their footsteps and his labored breathing.
At first, Sammy thought he was hallucinating. Why would there be a bell up here in the mountains? Surely there wouldn't be any shrines up here, or any ski resorts. Mmm, a resort… Resorts had foot, and hot tubs… No, Sammy, focus. Keep moving. This was no time to daydream.
But as they kept walking, the sound grew steadily louder and louder. No, not louder - closer. Whatever was causing it had to be just up ahead on the mountainside.
But what? He couldn't see anything unusual. Granted, after seeing nothing but snow and rocks for the last several hours, his eyes had sort of glazed over, but if there had been any sort of building or man-made structure up ahead, he would have seen it by now.
Was it a pokemon? Chimecho usually lived in cold, snowy mountains like these, but they weren't native to Johto. Then again, neither were Absol or Abomasnow, so that didn't really mean anything. There could be a whole host of introduced species up here. Jade would have a fit.
But no… as the sound rang out again, now about as loud as the ringing of a pokegear might have been, he could tell it wasn't the cry of any pokemon he'd ever heard of. And it wasn't a pokegear either - the frequency and volume of the ringing was too inconsistent to be from a machine. But something was making that ringing noise. Something close by.
He wasn't the only one who had noticed, of course. Gallade didn't look all that interested, focusing instead on supporting Sammy, but Leafeon had perked her large ears up, her luminescent hazelnut eyes scanning their surroundings curiously.
The ringing struck again and she was off, hopping through the snow because it was too deep for her to walk through normally. She was angling up and to the left a bit. Trusting her ears over his, he motioned for Gengar to go with her, and the specter floated on ahead, easily outpacing her as she struggled to move through the snow.
He nudged Gallade to follow them, and his pokemon shot him a flat look. His eyes seemed to imply that now was not the time to go investigating strange noises, but Sammy rolled his eyes and tried to forge his way ahead anyway, forcing Gallade to follow him or else allow Sammy to fall on his face.
Ahead of him, Gengar stopped, twisting around behind an oddly-curved rock formation that vaguely resembled a Ryhorn's face, one lone boulder curving up toward the sky at least five spans high. He made a noise, like a rasping gurgle. Leafeon hastened to his side, hopping through the snow to get a closer look.
Sammy tried to hurry - he really did - but trying to hop faster on his one good leg up a mountainside through three feet of snow was not exactly a recipe for speed. He nearly pitched forward, forcing Gallade to catch him before he crashed into the ground.
He shot his partner a thankful smile, but the look of stern reprimand on his face had Sammy looking away, abashed. Fine then. They'd take it slow.
It probably took another minute or two to make their way to the boulder - an absurdly long amount of time. Eventually, however, after far too much effort, they joined Gengar and Leafeon in staring at what was honestly the last thing Sammy had expected.
There, behind the rock formation, partially smashed and almost completely empty, was a nest.
A nest made of pure ice.
Sammy glanced around, examining the surrounding area again. He couldn't think of any reason for why a pokemon would choose to build a nest here. It was at ground-level, open to exposure, where any scavenger could just walk up and make off with the eggs. In fact, there was only one egg left in the nest. This was a terrible location.
Which could only mean this spot wasn't chosen intentionally. He examined the area again, paying special attention to the damage the nest had apparently sustained. It can't have been built here. It must have been caught up in the avalanche and swept away, coming to a stop here when it collided with the rock formation. The other eggs - assuming there had been others - had likely been lost or destroyed.
And that was tragic, in a way, but it was also life. Admittedly, he was a half step away from freezing to death and his leg was in excruciating pain, so he didn't have a lot of space left in him for sympathy. Still, he wasn't able to completely stop his inner researcher from cataloging evidence and drawing conclusions.
First of all, what kind of nest was this? His first thought was a bird pokemon just from the general shape of the nest, but the only ones who made their home in the region were Noctowl or Murkrow, and both were known to build their nests in trees. Sure, the nest could have been in a tree originally, but their nests were never so large, and certainly not made of ice. There may have been the odd Skarmory in the area, but they nested in caves - and again, no ice.
The size of the nest had him focusing on the egg again. It was pretty large too - maybe about the size of his head, maybe a little bigger. The shell was a pure, crystal blue that glittered like sapphires. Whatever it was, somehow - call it trainer's intuition or his Oak genes - Sammy could tell that it was something special.
But what? An ice type pokemon, surely. What else but that would build a nest of ice? But while there were certainly ice type pokemon living in and around Mt. Silver, this egg didn't seem to be a match for any of them.
Piloswine buried their eggs to keep them safe from predators. Sneasel hid their eggs beneath the roots and in the hollows of trees. Neither had nests, at least not like these. Delibird had nests - and were even known to layer their nests with soft paddings of snow - but their eggs were never so large, and Sammy had seen Delibird eggs before. They were usually red and white, not blue.
The thought came to him that this could be an Articuno nest, and he actually chuckled. Right, sure. Lost on a mountain, possibly hours away from death, and he just happens to wander across the discovery of a lifetime. That would truly be the irony of ironies. He was more likely to wander across Ash Ketchum. At least people had actually seen Ash when he was alive. No one had ever seen an Articuno nest, much less an egg.
Whatever the egg was, that high-pitched ringing sounded out again, and this time, it was obvious that it was coming from the egg. Was it close to hatching? Could the mystery actually be about to solve itself?
Sammy glanced around again, examining the landscape critically. He had no idea how long it would be until the egg hatched. Could be minutes, could be hours - but he didn't have either to waste. He needed to find AJ and Jade, or at least find warmth and shelter before nightfall. As much as he may want to, he couldn't stay and watch. He needed to press on.
But then, considering how the nest had clearly been swept away in last night's avalanche, could he in good conscience leave the egg alone? It was likely to become lunch for a Sneasel if he left it where it was. Out here alone, exposed to the elements and predators, without its mother nearby to protect it… Maybe he could take it with him?
He couldn't carry it, though, and neither could Gallade - not with him needing to carry Sammy. Gengar could do it, but the idea of an egg being in such close proximity to a poisonous ghost seemed like an objectively bad one.
He ultimately decided on letting Leafeon be the one to carry it. Her tail was strong, yet flexible, and she was able to wrap it securely around the egg and lift it out of the nest. The egg pinged again when she did, as though whatever was inside had been startled by the sudden movement.
Silently wondering if this had been a good idea or not, Sammy instructed his troupe to continue on. It was barely noon and he'd hardly slept. It had been hours since he'd had anything to eat or drink. Hobbling his way up this steep, snowy mountainside was draining him like he'd never been drained before. Exhaustion was soon to get the better of him.
But AJ and Jade were up here somewhere, and so was the rest of his team. He had to keep believing that. If he stopped, if he doubted for even a moment… he didn't think he'd have the strength to press on.
And so, weird new egg in tow, they pressed on. The wind seemed to rise on the mountainside, rushing down towards them in a powerful rush as though the mountain itself was sighing.
Perhaps this was just another sign that he was beginning to lose it, but for a moment there, the breeze had almost felt… warm.
I'm really looking forward to next week's chapter.
That's all I wanted to say. K byeeee