"Snow, snow, snover-snow!"

The Snover chanted as they followed Hassel and Abomasnow. Baxcalibur walked at his trainer's side. The sun was shining, the snow was sparkling, the air was bright and clean, and Hassel had bought him a special Nanab berry crepe from the café before they left Montenevera; he was in too good a mood to let the Snover annoy him today.

With each step Abomasnow took, fine snow fell from her fir. It was a sign that she was regaining her health. Hassel looked up her bandaged arm, wrapped in medicinal cotton from the Galar region. The fabric was made from specially treated fluff of Eldegoss. It was said to promote swift healing and, when it fell off the Pokémon, would naturally degrade into the soil. Nurse Joy and her Blissey had certainly given Abomasnow the best chance for recovery that she could have hoped for. Now out of gratitude, she was leading them to where she had been injured in the fight.

They trekked on and until the Snover suddenly grew silent. Abomasnow stretch out her arm, motioning for everyone to stop. Her large lavender eyes scanned the trees and her ears twitched at the slightest sound. She was on high alert. Baxcalibur followed her lead, scanning the surrounding area himself. The only thing to be seen were a pair of Cryogonal drifting silently through the branches.

"Snooowerr," Abomasnow growled low.

The Snover nodded in response to her request and remained silent as she began to move again. Her steps were slower, more cautious now. Minutes later they emerged from the trees into a wide, downward sloping ravine. Time had passed since the battle, but the marks it made on the landscape remained.

"This is where you fought?" Hassel asked.

"Abom," Abomasnow nodded.

The first thing Hassel noticed was the ice on the side of the ravine. It was like a thin, petrified waterfall that draped from the top of the ledge all the way down to the snow. But the snow above had not melted evenly. Only portion of the ravine's wall had this long melt, with stretches on either side of it showing only the normal amount of dripping from the melting and freezing that came with day and night. He followed the frozen stretch upwards. There was no snow piled up along the ledge there. All of it had been melted away by a passing fire-type attack.

He continued to follow the path of the melted snow and saw the top of one of the trees had been singed. The other trees around it had not fared much better. Several had limbs snapped off them and one was completely topped over. Claw marks on its bark matched the injuries on Abomasnow. They had cut right through the outer bark of the tree with ease.

Behind him he heard the rumbling tones of the Abomasnow and he looked over to her. Baxcalibur was standing before her, looking intently up, as she seemed to be recounting the battle, gesturing about the scene with her less injured arm as she spoke. He wished he could understand all that she was saying, but by watching the familiar body language of his partner, he could get the idea. It wasn't good.

Baxcalibur looked tense. His golden eyes moved carefully, studying the places Abomasnow pointed out. Hassel saw his eyes narrow in concern. When Abomasnow finished her tale, Baxcalibur snorted, a puff of chilled air spiraling up from his nostrils, and gave a low troubled growl. He then approached a mound of ice that Abomasnow had pointed to and scrutinized it closer. Another low growl came from the Pokémon and he looked back at his trainer and swung his head in a "you need to come see this" sort of motion.

Hassel made his way to Baxcalibur's side to see what had caught the Pokémon's attention. A glance was all it took for Hassel to know that this ice had not formed naturally but from a Pokémon's attack. The coloration on such ice was always a shade bluer. Knowing the Pokémon responsible for the attack and the thickness and size of the ice (it was well up to his shoulders in one spot) Hassel could confidently guess that this was made by Abomasnow's Blizzard. An attack of that power from a Pokémon as formidable appearing as her would have been a force to endure, but not only had her opponent endured it, but broke out of it!

Cracked at just below his chest's height, Hassel could see that the ice had once been frozen around a limb. The ice still showed the cylindrical shape of a limb growing wider the further up it went. He bent low. Crushed shards of ice were scattered, partially buried in the snow, but no footprint was visible. Mountain winds and fresh snowfall had erased if there ever was one. But something else caught his eye; something blue frozen in the ice.

"Baxcalibur, look. Can you claw it out carefully?"

Baxcalibur leaned in as close as he could and looked for what Hassel was pointing too. He saw the blue sliver and nodded. Like ice saws, his claws cut into the chunk. A few deft slashes later and he was pulling back the piece that held what Hassel had been looking at. Baxcalibur placed it down in the snow and continued the slice away, slowly freeing the clue. When he had cut away as much as he could, he stepped back. As though he were handling a delicate work of art, Hassel lifted the freed feather and beheld what it was they had found. Abomasnow bristled her fir at the sight.

A feather as long as his forearm was encased in the ice. The size and cerulean color that brought to mind the legends from Kanto of the freezing Articuno who was said to appear to those lost on snowy mountains. This feather couldn't belong to the legendary bird, could it? Hassel held the feather up to the light and saw how the barbs curled in the ice. They looked shaggy, almost fur-like in texture. No, this could not have belonged to an Articuno. Rare as the Pokémon may be, its feathers had been found before and none of them, not even the elegantly long plumes that made the Pokémon's tail, looked anything like this. No Pokémon that Hassel knew of that lived in Paldea had feathers like this.

"Rotom, take a picture of this and send it to Larry along with a text saying, 'do you recognize this feather,' please."

The device flew from his pocket and took the photo as requested. Though Larry's preference was for the humble normal-type Pokémon, he was also quite knowledgeable about the flying-type, perhaps because there was often overlap between the two as was the case with his beloved Staraptor. The rotom-phone beeped to signal that the message was sent and returned to his pocket.

"This is a good place to start but I wish I had more."

"Abomasnow?" The large Pokémon spoke.

She looked down at Hassel and the feather in his hand. Her expression seemed to be asking, "even after seeing all this, do you still want to find it?"

"Ma-bomasnooow?"

"I do." He answered. "Someone needs to. I would rather it be me and my team. I trust them."

"Baxcalibur." Came a nod of affirmation from the Pokémon.

"Snooowww." She nodded back.

She pointed down the ravine, away from the forest and towards rockier cliffs.

"Abo-ma-masnow." She explained.

"Then that is the direction we shall go."

Hassel pulled Dragonite's pokéball from his belt.

"Dragonite, assistance please."

There was a snap and flash as Dragonite appeared before him.

"Dragooone?" he asked with a tilt of his head.

"We're heading to a place where I will need your wings, friend."

Dragonite nodded and leaned down so his trainer could easily climb on his back. Hassel gave Baxcalibur a pat on his side.

"Thank you. Baxcalibur, return."

The red glow of a pokéball outlined the dragon. He gave a final snort and nod to the Abomasnow and then was safely back inside his ball.

"Keep safe and heal well." Hassel said to Abomasnow as he placed the feather securely in his bag and took his place on Dragonite. "Thank you."

Abomasnow bowed her head to be eye level with him as if to say "no, thank you" and exhaled a small stream of snow. It chilled his face but he did not flinch away. The dusting settled on him and for a moment, he glittered like a diamond. Then with a powerful leap, Dragonite took to the air. Dragonite circled once around the clearing so that Hassel had a moment to wave farewell to the Snover as they came tumbling out into the opening, paws waving in the air, to watch him go. As he a Dragonite flew off, he could hear them squeaking and knew they were saying "good luck!"

They flew for close to an hour before the terrain began to turn steep. That's when they found their next clue. Near a stream they found a circle of stone devoid of snow. Dragonite glided lower and they saw that the stone was charred.

"Do you think it's a place where it nested?"

Dragonite barked and nodded in agreement. Heating the stone below them before laying down was something many dragon-types did to make their nests more comfortable, especially when in cooler climates.

"Let's follow the stream and see if we can spot anything else."

A few beats of his wings and Dragonite flew up again. They followed the stream until it grew into a river before tumbling down as a long waterfall. There another flash of blue against the grey pebbles along the stream caught Hassel's eye.

"Down there."

Swooping low, Dragonite grabbed another fur-like feather from the river's bank and flew over the edge of the waterfall. Water droplets slid right off the feather as he passed it back to Hassel. It was smaller than the last feather, only as long as his index finger this time, but was just as vivid shade of blue.

"It looks like a match. I think we're on the right trail. What do you think?"

No response.

"Dragonite?"

"OoooOOOnne," Dragonite whined and pointed towards the cliffside.

Hassel's golden eyes grew wide.

Claw marks were dragged across the stone. Dragonite pointed from one cluster of marks to the next. Hassel could envision the path the Pokémon had taken, leaping from outcropping to outcropping, slowing its descent with incredible claws that tore through ice, and making the perilous descent from Glaseado Mountain. Down from the snow, down towards the foothills, down towards Casseroya, down towards more traveled roads.

Hassel crouched lower to Dragonite's body and held on tighter.

"We need to move quickly."