Chapter 5

Treasure

Rose had calmed down after almost an hour, Flint by her side trying his best to comfort her, but at the same time still blaming himself. Kindle and Aurora had woken up and Tesla offered them oran berries. Aurora had asked what happened to Frostbite, which Tesla explained to her what had happened after she fainted.

"Great," Aurora muttered to herself, "so he's still out there. Flint, why didn't you kill him? You had him right there in front of you, he was open and vulnerable."

"I just couldn't bring myself to kill him...I've killed pokemon in the past and...I-I just can't handle the feeling afterward."

"Look, it's either you kill them, or they will kill you. Especially Frostbite, he's one of the last pokemon you'd expect to show you mercy."

"I'm sorry," Flint said shamefully while looking at the ground.

Tesla was still inspecting Rose's injured leg, "Is it feeling any better?" He asked, knowing it was a dumb question.

She nodded, "No, it still hurts really bad." Though it still hurt, she didn't have the energy to express her pain anymore, all she could do was try her best not to move her leg.

Aurora approached Rose while removing the flower she gave her, "You know, it's a good thing I picked these flowers out. The sun's eye just so happens to be a medicinal plant."

"Will it fix my foreleg?" Rose asked hopefully.

"No, sorry, it'll only relieve your pain and fight against infections."

Rose frowned, "I guess it's better than nothing."

Aurora set her backpack on the ground and started looking for a specific item. She came across her mortar and took it out, placing it on the ground. She then put the sun's eye inside the stone bowl while using its utensil to grind the flower into a moist paste-looking substance. There also seemed to be a liquid that dripped out of the plant as it was being ground down. Aurora then approached Rose with the bowl.

"Alright, this will sting for a little bit," Aurora told Rose.

Rose clenched her eyes shut as Aurora scooped some of the paste onto her paw. She proceeded to rub it on Rose's wounds, mainly her leg. Rose let out a couple of sounds of discomfort, but it wasn't too bad for her. Aurora decided to grind the flower attached to herself as well, deciding to tend to everyone else's wounds as well.

She applied some in the area Kindle had been kicked, Flint's wounds, as well as herself. Aurora was now observing Rose's broken foreleg, she was going to need to align the bones and use something as a splint.

"We need to fix this leg or else it won't heal properly," Aurora stated.

"How are we going to do that?" Flint asked.

"You see how the lower bone is shoved way behind her upper bone?" Flint nodded, "We're going to have to realign it first. To do that, we need to pull the bone."

Rose looked scared, "Isn't that only going to make it hurt more?"

"It will hurt, but this is what needs to be done to fix your leg, if it doesn't get realigned, your leg won't heal properly."

"You should at least give her a rag or something to bite on," Tesla spoke up, "to muffle the sounds of pain." Flint glared at Tesla after that comment.

"She won't be awake while we do this."

"What do you mean by that?" Rose asked uncertainly.

Aurora walked behind Rose and said, "Nothing personal kid," she then hit Rose on her temple, causing her to blackout on the floor.

Flint was angry and pounced at Aurora pinning her to the ground, "Are you fucking crazy? You can't just hit her when she's already badly injured. Hell, you shouldn't even hit her, period!"

"Flint," Kindle said, getting his attention, "she's doing it for the good of Rose. Would you rather her be conscious while we do this?"

"No... but, there had to of been an easier way to do that than hitting her."

"Well, not down here there's not," Aurora said while shoving Flint off of her and walking back over to Rose. Flint dusted himself off while glaring at Aurora. "First things first, we need to realign her leg. To do that, we'll need to pull the two bones away from each other."

Flint walked over to Rose's body, the only sign of life being her rhythmic breathing. He was still beating himself up for allowing this to happen. There was nothing he could do now though, but try and help her get better. Flint firmly put his forelegs in front of Rose to keep her there, while Aurora grabbed her by the paw and started pulling on the bone. Flint then pulled back a little to help. There was a light pop, and her bone was placed back in its joint, still broken though. Next, Aurora grabbed a thin rope and looked around through all of the rubble until she found what she was looking for. She managed to find two short and thin planks. She carried them in her mouth while walking back to where Rose was, once there, she set them on the ground. She instructed Tesla and Kindle to help her and for Flint to lift Rose's leg, which they all did. As Flint held her leg up, Kindle had positioned a plank underneath it while Tesla positioned one above it. Then Aurora took the rope and tied it firmly around the two planks and somehow managed to make a knot, which she struggled for minutes to achieve.

"And, done," she stated.

"This just looks stupid," Flint said as he looked at the planks tied around her leg. "How is she going to walk with that on her?"

"She's not, you're going to have to carry her."

"How long will she need to wear it?"

"Until we get to Whitestone, once we get there, we can get her proper medical treatment."

"It still looks stupid," Flint admitted.

"It's not that bad Flint," Kindle said. "Just paint some colors on it, draw a flower or something, I'm sure she'll like it."

Flint just ignored her, "So what do we do now?"

"Now we need to open up that final door," Aurora said while pointing at the door they saw Frostbite in front of.

"How do you suppose we do that?" Tesla asked.

"I would assume it has something to do with this stuff I found in the previous room," she said while pulling out the golden staff with the black glass sphere on top.

"What do we do with that?" Kindle asked.

"Look at the center of the room." In the center was a slab with a hole carved into it, Aurora began walking over to it while carrying the staff with her, "This hole just so happens to match the size of the staff."

She shoved the bottom of the staff in the hole, it made a click sound and the black sphere began to glow white. Soon after, a beam of light shot out and hit the pillar at the northeast side of the room, but did nothing more. Flint began observing the pillar and noticed there was a hole located higher on the pillar. He curiously observed another pulsar, this one located at the south end of the room. It also had a hole in it, it appeared to be lower than the previous one. Maybe even perfect enough for the light to fit inside.

"Aurora," Flint called, "try aiming the light over here."

"How would I do that?"

"I don't know, try turning the staff."

She gripped the staff with her teeth and began turning the staff clockwise, as she did, the innermost ring started moving, as did the pillar placed on it. Aurora immediately stopped seeing that the pillar was moving, but not the light. Flint noticed the southern pillar was on the middle ring while the southeastern pillar was on the outer ring.

"Try pushing the staff down a little more."

Aurora pushed it down, another click was heard, the light also lowered. She caught on to what he was thinking. She rotated the staff counterclockwise until the pillar was located in front of the beam. This time, the hole was barely higher than the beam of light. Aurora then got on her hind legs and pushed upwards on the staff until another click was heard. The light was raised along with the staff, it then shot into the pillar. The pillar then began glowing with bizarre calligraphy all around it, another beam of light then shot out of the pillar and was hitting the western wall. Aurora stood mouth agape looking at the pillar.

"These markings, they seem so familiar..."

Flint looked closer and also somehow recognized the makings, "They...do seem familiar."

"That's Avarian letters," Tesla spoke up.

"Avarian? I studied the language a bit, they never taught us what the letters looked like, just the sounds and pronunciation."

"It is Avarian, but, not the type of Avarian I remember. It's like it's been altered or something."

"Western Avarian," Flint remembered from talking to Idwon.

"Western Avarian?" Tesla asked.

"I was talking with someone, they told me that the pokemon of Mardol use an alternate version of Avarian, I remember a couple of the letters were removed and some spelling or something was changed."

"I wonder what it says?" Kindle mused.

"Whatever, let's just finish up what you guys were doing," Tesla said.

"No," Aurora said.

"What?" The three said in unison.

"Do you not see how important this is? Finding any type of writing in a cave is important. There's even superstition about this kind of stuff. Whenever you find writing, an important message is trying to be sent."

"Well, there's not much we can do, no one seems to know how to read it," Tesla stated.

"Yeah, no one right here, but Someone somewhere knows what it says. Flint, you seem to know how this puzzle works. Kindle and Tesla, you two help Flint if he needs anything. I'm going to write this message down."

Aurora reached in her bag and grabbed a light cloth and some ink. She dipped a claw in the ink and began writing the symbols before her. Some looked more bizarre than others. The letters either had random sharp angles, we're nonsymmetric, and some had random dots that accompanied them. Flint began working on the puzzle while Tesla and Kindle observed the pillars. Kindle pointed out that the pillar on the outer ring was in line with the beam of light. Flint used his paws to push down on the staff until he heard it click, he did it again until he heard it click a second time. He also noticed the beam of light still shined and was no longer entering the pillar, which also meant the symbols disappeared. Aurora looked annoyed, but she knew he had to do it to solve the puzzle. He began rotating the staff until the pillar was positioned near the western wall. Flint then lifted the staff two levels to check the light beam. Just as expected, it hit the hole on the second pillar and shot a new one out towards the southern wall. This pulsar also decorated itself with mysterious symbols.

"Great, there's more," Aurora complained.

"You can't possibly write down all of this can you?" Tesla asked.

"No, I don't have enough cloth to write it all down."

"Then just finish as much as you can."

"This could be really important, I need to write all of it."

"What if you had a psychic type read your mind so it could write this all down for you?"

"That's actually not a bad idea," Aurora said. "I'll finish this pillar, then we can all leave. I should be done by the time you have the last pillar positioned."

Flint pushed the staff down one last time and rotated it until the pillar was in the right spot. He then lifted the staff and the light had traveled to the final pillar. The last pillar lit up with more mysterious symbols and shot out one final beam towards the door. It went through the bars and out the other side hitting something out of view. Suddenly, they heard the door open. Aurora was finishing up the message while Flint went to grab Rose. He sat her on top of his backpack. He struggled a bit to carry both her and the backpack, but he managed. As Aurora finished, she put the cloth in her backpack and flung it onto her back.

"Alright, let's go," she said.

The group then headed towards the exit. The new area they had been led to was a tunnel that winded wildly through the mountain. Kindle was ahead of the group, skipping happily while humming a tune. Tesla and Aurora walked side by side silently. Flint was at the back, still mad at himself for what had happened to Rose. He looked back at her broken leg and winced. He could only hope the splint would do its job.

"Arceus, how long is this path?" Tesla complained.

Aurora shrugged, "Could be miles for all I know. It'll be worth it once we get out of here, we saved a few days of traveling."

"Saved a few days or not, the fact is that going in here put us all at risk just a moment ago. Food and water are scarce in this cave as well. We haven't even come across a new chamber or anything while taking this path. It could be a dead-end for all we know."

"I don't think this is a dead end since the mountain caves have often been used as shortcuts. We've been on every possible path so far, and an exit is guaranteed. As for food and water, I would have expected each of you to have packed your own food."

"I did, but not water."

"Well, then that's your fault."

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

"Guys!" Kindle yelled while running back to the group. "Follow me, I found something," she then turned to run back from where she came from.

"What is it?" Tesla curiously asked.

"Just follow me," she said excitedly while running off.

The group did so, wondering what it was she was talking about. They followed through the windy path within the mountain cave. The cave was dark, for the most part, but Aurora's necklace and Tesla's tail orb were able to produce enough light for them to see their surroundings. They had finally reached a new room, it was oval. Along the walls were four torches that lit the room up. Inside the center of the room was what they realized Kindle was speaking about. There was a chest sitting in the center, dark brown wood for the body while its edges were iron.

"It's a chest," Flint said, pointing out the obvious.

"C'mon," Kindle excitedly said, "let's open it."

"It seems kinda pointless," says Tesla. "It's the only chest in this linear path, I'm sure some other travelers have extracted any contents that have been in there."

"Tesla," Aurora began, "I don't think you're aware on how dungeon and cave loot works." Tesla raised an eyebrow, waiting for a further explanation. Aurora took a breath as she prepared to explain herself, "Dungeons, caves, and any other location where you can explore with puzzles and dangerous foe are works of Palkia."

"Oh please," Tesla started uninterested, "I don't believe in Palkia nor Dialga."

"But you believe in Mew," Kindle argued.

"Yes, I know, I don't have to believe in every legendary or mythical god. The existence of Mew seems more reasonable than magical space dragons who created all existence."

"Contrary to your beliefs," Aurora continued, "we believe Palkia created these places. Puzzles are always new, and there are always new treasures and rewards. This chest is from Palkia rewarding us for our efforts."

"I still think that's outlandish."

Aurora ignored him and walked to the chest, Kindle had followed her. Flint took this moment to set Rose and his backpack down so he could rest, Tesla seemed to have a similar idea. Aurora and Kindle were examining the chest. Aurora approached the box and began lifting its lid. Her eyes widened as she looked inside and saw the chest was not empty.

"Tesla, Flint, come here," she called.

The two walked over and saw the chest was full of various items. The was a handful of bronzin, silvin, and pentra, there was also a couple of necklaces and a ring. Tesla didn't want to believe there was a treasure, but he couldn't deny what was obviously in front of him.

"Look at all this stuff," Kindle said.

"I say we split the coins between everyone," Flint suggested.

"Yeah, with everyone except Tesla," Aurora replied.

"Excuse me?" Tesla said with disbelief.

"You heard me, why should you get any of this? After all, you don't believe in 'magical space dragons' and this is all 'outlandish' as you put it."

"I didn't think Mardol would accept a child as a royal guard, but hey, I learn something new every day."

"Guys," Kindle interrupted, "this is no time for arguing."

"Stay out of this you cinnamon-scented fox!"

"I can't believe you're really going to start acting like this right now," Tesla continued. "You hired us to protect you, we've been doing our job for the most part, especially with the battle we had with Frostbite. Come to think of it, you were little to no help at all during the fight, one blow and you were out cold. I think you should get less of the share since you're the reason Frostbite attacked us."

"Wait wait wait. Frostbite attacking us is my fault? Oh Arceus, this is gold. Do elaborate, I'm dying to hear your excuses."

"Because you're carrying something he wants, all we know is that this item you have is important to the princess. You never informed us the dangers of protecting you. Yeah, we knew it would be dangerous, but we were never aware that you were being hunted down by a royal leader from Zerith."

"You have no idea how important this item is, and if I told anyone how dangerous a person chasing me was, no one would take the bounty. This is why I was looking for skilled pokemon, and this is why I didn't want that little kid," she pointed at Rose, "around in such a dangerous predicament."

The room was silent. Flint wanted nothing to do with the conversation. He agreed that Aurora was going a little far cutting Tesla out of the share, but he disagreed with Tesla blaming her for Frostbite attacking them. The attacks were nothing personal, just for war and greed. He also felt uneasy because they entered this cave as a team but now we're in blind anger over the treasure.

Flint let out a sigh, "Let's all just try to look past each other's differences. We're all really angry because it's late, we've had no sleep, little to eat, and we're sore and exhausted from this long day. How about we all get some sleep and calm down a little?"

No one said anything, but they all seemed to agree. Everyone found their places to rest for the night, Flint laying next to Rose. Chills ran through his bones as he looked at her leg once more. There wasn't anything he could do now except hope it heals properly. Flint then curled into a ball and fell asleep. The next morning inside the cave, Rose was the first to wake up. She stirred a bit before slowly opening her eyes. She had a headache and felt dizzy. She turned towards her leg and saw the planks wrapped around it, which she thought looked kind of stupid. There was a stinging pain, but it didn't feel too bad at the moment because of the paste that was applied to her wound.

She noticed her leg bones were realigned but wouldn't dare walk on it yet. She looked around and saw she was in a completely new area within the cave. What she had mostly noticed was the large chest in the center of the room. Curious, she wanted to get a better look at it. She tried pushing herself up to her feet but fell. She felt out of breath but gave it another go. Still no success. Her next idea was to crawl to it. She reached out her left foreleg and then used her hind legs to push herself forward. She found this quite easy and continued the pattern until she reached the chest in the center. Using the chest for support, she attempted to get to her feet once more, this time successfully. Now all she needed to do was open it.

She got on her hind legs and pushed herself upwards so her foreleg would open it. Inside she saw a bunch of coins, two necklaces, and a single ring. Rose stared at the treasure in awe, however, she felt a strong attraction to one of the necklaces. Her paw grabbed onto a necklace with a golden chain, at the bottom was a heart-shaped gem, possibly ruby. She didn't know why, but she felt she needed to have this necklace. She got back on her three good paws and tried the necklace on. Once it was on, she felt a strange filing in her broken leg. It was a similar filing to when a foot or hand 'falls asleep.' Not only that, but she no longer felt tired or sore.

Flint began waking up, he looked to his side and noticed Rose wasn't next to him. Alert, he looked quickly around the room until he spotted Rose. He then got up and rushed over to her.

"What are you doing up?" He said in a whisper so the others wouldn't wake up.

"I couldn't sleep," she simply replied.

"How's your leg feeling?"

Rose looked down at it then back at Flint, "It's getting better."

"What do you think of the splint?"

She gave an unsure look at Flint, "It's kinda stupid."

Flint chuckled to himself. He then noticed the necklace Rose was wearing, "Where'd you get that?" He asked pointing to the necklace. He knew the answer but wanted to hear it from her.

"It was in this box, thing," she said awkwardly not knowing what to call it exactly.

"The chest?" Rose shook her head acknowledging it by its proper name. "What compelled you to wear it? Not that there's anything wrong, I mean, it looks nice on you."

"I don't know," Rose admitted, "I just felt the need to wear it. Once I put it on, my leg started feeling weird."

"What do you mean?"

"It feels...I don't know how to explain it, it's like I don't feel anything at all."

"That's strange," Flint replied, not too sure how to respond.

One by one the rest of the pokemon started waking up. Kindle being the first, followed by Tesla. They all started going through their bags preparing for breakfast. Flint and Rose enjoyed some fruits while Kindle and Tesla ate various berries. Now Aurora began waking up, she noticed everyone eating and began getting her meal. While doing so she then noticed the necklace Rose was wearing. She quickly made her way over to Flint and Rose.

"What is that?" She asked with an obvious attitude.

Flint looked down at the fruit he was eating, "It's an apple."

Not in any mood for his sarcasm, she smacked Flint's apple away, "Don't be an ass, where did you get that damn necklace?" She asked Rose.

"Hey!" Flint stood up, "Number one, don't ever disrespect my food, and number two, don't use profanity in front of Rose."

"Oh, all of the sudden profanity is an issue?"

"And all of the sudden you have many issues? You didn't seem rude when we first met, but as soon as we got in this cave your true colors started showing."

"Stop distracting me. Rose, answer my question!"

"She doesn't have to tell you anything," Rose was starting to get nervous and hid behind Flint.

"It's a simple question."

"Why does it matter? Isn't the answer pretty obvious? I don't see any mystical necklace trees around here, how about you?"

Before anything else could be said, Tesla steeped up, "For the love of Mew, both of you shut up. We've had enough arguing and fighting the whole duration of our time in this cave. Look, Aurora, Rose obviously got the necklace from the chest, but why does it matter?"

"Because she just took it, we haven't even split the treasure yet and she greedily took the necklace. Why did you take the necklace, Rose?"

She didn't answer, she was scared and hid behind Flint. Flint decided to talk, "Aurora, you need to realize that this is a child, not an adult like you. Yelling isn't helping at all. Believe it or not, but I've known Rose longer than you and I can guarantee she does not like yelling. I asked her this stuff when I woke up. She said she felt the need to wear it. I wouldn't get mad at her for that, she also said that she isn't feeling any pain in her leg now. So maybe this necklace is helping her?"

"So be it," Aurora replied. "For now though, we need to split the treasure inside the chest. Now, I don't know for sure what the other necklace and ring do, but maybe Kindle can help us with that."

"How do you suppose I do that?" Kindle asked with a tilt of her head.

"I'm not too sure how it works, but pokemon with psychic abilities can tell the magical properties of items."

"I don't have psychic abilities yet."

"That's wrong," Aurora corrected. "Fennekin can learn psychic attacks and abilities before they evolve. Just try it, we'll see what happens."

"I'm not sure, but I can try."

"Test it on Rose's necklace," Flint suggested.

Kindle walked over to Rose and placed her paw on the heart-shaped jewel. Suddenly her vision was replaced with a scene. She saw a deep would cut into flesh, in the background she heard a heartbeat pumping and saw the wound healing itself. She clenched her head after the scene ended and her vision went back to normal.

"What happened?" Tesla asked trying to hide his concern.

"I saw...a vision," Kindle replied not believing her own words.

"What did you see?" Aurora asked. Kindle repeated to her what she had seen in the vision, "Well, if that's the case then what Rose has is a necklace of healing. Those are quite valuable."

"Wow!" Kindle said with stars in her eyes, "I love this ability. Let's see what the ring and other necklace do!"

Kindle then rushed over to the chest and open it. She was interested in the other necklace first. The chain was silver and the jewel was flat but had an interesting design. There was a circle, inside the circle was an upside-down triangle, all three of its angles touching the circle. From the center of the triangle's sides were straight lines that met up in the center all connecting to a single dot. The design was all a blue that glistened white. The jewel itself was probably made of sapphire. Once she touched it, her vision began. It was pitch black, the ground was all water. A droplet fell into the water and echoed throughout the void. Suddenly, a huge burst of water came out of the location the droplet had fallen.

"Well?" Aurora asked.

Kindle explained what she had seen in the vision. They were unsure what it could mean so they assumed it was for a water-type pokemon. Next, Kindle reached for the ring. It was a glossy black color. When Kindle touched it she didn't have a vision. She touched it once more but nothing happened.

"Nothings happening," Kindle explained.

"Maybe it's just a regular ring?" Flint suggested.

"Possibly, that means it can be enchanted at a later point in time," Aurora explained.

"I'll take it if no one wants it," Tesla stated.

"Go ahead." Kindle then tossed the ring to Tesla, he then put it in his bag. "Now, we share the wealth. Since Flint takes care of Rose, we'll split it into fours."

Aurora pretended the argument from the night before never happened. She started by counting the bronzin, there were twenty-four coins, meaning everyone was given six. The twelve silvin was spread into three for each pokemon. That left them with the decision of five pentra, but surprisingly everyone agreed to give it to Flint since he had a dependent. In total, Flint now had sixteen bronzin, eight silvin, and five pentra.

"Wait, what about the necklace?" Kindle asked.

"I don't know," Aurora replied not caring, "give it to Flint."

"Why me?" Flint asked.

"Well, we think it's for a water type. If Rose decides to be a vaporeon it could become useful for her."

"I guess," Flint replied while taking the necklace and putting it in his bag.

"Alright, let's go."

The group spent the next few hours traveling through more windy tunnels. They stopped to eat some lunch and then continued walking. They didn't travel as fast as they would have liked due to Rose only being able to walk on three legs. No one complained though. They still were making progress. Throughout the day they also took a few rests and on one occasion found a source of fresh flowing water within the cave. They headed out again for a couple more hours before deciding on eating what would be their dinner.

Afterward, they made one final stretch until they could faintly see an exit. Overjoyed, their pace quickened. After one last push they were finally done, the group was outside the cave standing beneath the stars. Everyone took a long breath of fresh air, Rose enjoyed the grass beneath her feet while Flint enjoyed the breeze brushing against his fur.

"Hey, guys, look over there," Aurora said. The group followed her gaze and saw some lights in the distance. It was a town for sure.

"What is that?" Kindle asked

"That's a town called Bark Leaf, that's where we're heading for the night."

The group finished enjoying their freedom from the cave and continued walking to their next destination. Hopefully, for them, the worst of the journey was done...

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