Chapter Seven – Frontier Life
"Brock sure seemed to be in an all fire hurry to get us out of his gym," Ash smirked at Misty across their rented room at the Pokémon Center. "It was almost like he didn't enjoy our company."
Misty shook her head and continued packing her meager pile of belongings into her backpack. "You really shouldn't let beating your first gym leader today make you cocky," she said.
"I know, I know," said Ash with a self-satisfied grin. "I wouldn't have been able to do it without your help. Loaning me Blastoise was a huge bonus, and I'm not even sure how you knew which Pokémon Brock would throw at me, but I still appreciate the coaching-"
"That's not what I'm saying," said Misty, ostensibly struggling to avoid becoming angry as the evening sunlight illuminated the room. "I think we both know that luck played a huge role today, and you can't keep relying on that because one of these days you're going to run out of that luck."
Ash blinked, not sure what to make of Misty's mood. She'd been some odd combination of sourly congratulatory and happy for the victory. "Ok," he said without any particular emotion coloring his words, "I'll admit that the Flash attack was a little off the cuff, but it worked, and if we ever find ourselves in a similar situation, now we know it will work in our favor. Other than that though, the fight went pretty much as we planned, right?"
Misty shook her head. "You don't get it," she muttered.
"Don't get what?" asked Ash. "I thought you'd be happy that we've taken a big step forward."
"I'm not denying that," said Misty. "It's just," she sighed, usual fieriness fizzling. "You get lucky, real lucky, and you rely too much on it."
"You're right," said Ash. "I don't get it. How do I rely too much on luck? We planned this out today and for the most part it worked really well. We had to improvise there at the end, but that's just the way the world works."
Again Misty shook her head. She set her finished pack by the bed and sat on the edge, facing Ash. "It's not just today," she said. "For as long as we've been traveling you've just pulled things out of the blue and they've worked. Things that should go horribly wrong work out perfectly when you're around."
Ash cocked his head off to one side, not unlike a curious Growlithe. Going on Misty took a breath. "Blastoise shouldn't have obeyed you today. It's taken me more than half my life to gain that stubborn Pokémon's obedience, raising him and constantly training him, and you master him in a few minutes of practice."
"We were in a fight," Ash pointed out. "It's not like Blastoise had much of a choice in the matter."
"There's more than that," said Misty. "Blastoise is not a clever Pokémon. He's always been the type to stand and take a hit and then counterattack if he's still conscious. But today he actually used some strategy when you told him to, and moreover, you didn't even have to explain it or train him, he just did what you wanted. And before you interrupt again," she preempted, raising a finger, "it's more than Blastoise. Your Fearow, a Pokémon with a very dominant personality, obeys you without hesitation. And Growlithe, they're by nature loyal to a fault, but they never latch on to someone so quickly. And Pikachu," she went on, "it's like he can read your mind even before you know what you're thinking."
Taking a moment to mull her words over, Ash glanced between Misty and the floor to ceiling windows of the Center's corner apartment. The daylight was creeping towards night and Ash was beginning to feel the fatigue of the day catching up with him. "I don't know what to tell you," he said. "Growlithe lost his pack, Fearow got the crap kicked out of her, and Pikachu has been working with me forever. It's obvious you've done a great job training Blastoise, and it's not like either of us are novice trainers…" he paused for a moment. "Is this an argument?" he asked.
Misty sat up a little straighter and looked away from him. The look on his face was just too innocent. She had no idea where it came from and it instantly defused her agitation. Shaking her head she sighed again. "I don't get it. Things just seem to turn out the way you need them to."
Ash grinned and put his hand behind his head. "Well, you won't catch me complaining about that sort of thing. Though let me tell you that not everything is going exactly the way I want it to."
"That's – not what I said at all," said Misty, shrugging as Ash closed his mouth. "I just don't want you to do anything rash. That's all. This little crusade of ours only has two people right now so if one of us ends up dead, that's it."
"No promises," Ash smirked. "But you don't need to worry about that. You'll be safe as long as I'm around."
Misty paused and crossed her legs on the bed, tapping her knees on the mattress. "Well, we've got each other's back then. We should be ready for anything." She tried to smile. "I'm thinking we should turn in now though so we can leave early." Misty turned and looked out the window. "If we leave by seven we should be able to make it halfway to Mt. Moon before dark. We can camp for the night, get up and make it to Mt. Moon by the day after tomorrow. Then we'll need to decide whether we go over or under the mountain and on to Cerulean…" Misty trailed off.
"Cerulean City," said Ash. "I'm actually looking forward to that. I've heard it's a great place." Misty didn't answer. "But before we get there," Ash went on, "there's the mountain to cross."
"Weather permitting," said Misty, getting up and walking to the window to look out, "I'd like to try going over. It would take longer and the slopes would be dangerous, but that beats trying to navigate the tunnels."
Nodding, Ash pulled his pack up to his level on the bed. "We'll just have to see what nature throws at us."
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That next morning tested both Ash's and Misty's resolve to simply walk out of the Pokémon Center and back to Brock's gym. The weather had taken a turn for the ghastly, pummeling both trainers with torrential rain and blasting them with what felt like gale-force winds. Coupled with the rain and the wind, the predawn gloom was downright miserable.
"What was that about seeing what nature can throw at us?" asked Misty, once they were inside the gym and could hear again.
Ash shrugged and tried to grin, though his near frozen lips refused to allow for more than one corner of his mouth curling up. "Sorry," he said. "It might help if there was some kind of regional weather announcement service … or something."
"Like that will ever happen," muttered Misty, shivering. The body armor she wore over her less than winter ready outfit did nothing to stave off the cold.
"You two are really going to travel in this?" asked Brock, stepping up the stairs to the landing of the dimly lit gym, making both his visitors twitch. All throughout the building the scream of the storm outside created a constant din in the background. "Exposure isn't a pretty way to go," he added, holding a small manila envelope out to Ash.
Taking the envelope, Ash broke the seal and dumped its contents into his hand. "Time isn't our friend here," said the young trainer, not impolitely. He looked at his palm and saw the small metal badge glimmering back up at him.
Clearing his throat, Brock crossed his arms. "I've made three copies of the letter of recommendation," he said. "One will stay here for my records, one I've already sent off to Indigo Plateau, and here," he produced an unassuming white envelope from the confines of his green vest, "is one for you. That badge, however, is proof that you've earned the support of Pewter City's Gym and I'll-" he sighed quietly, "back you in any action you take against Team Rocket."
Ash raised an eyebrow. "That's a lot more than what we asked for," he said.
"Yes, well," said Brock. "So is this." He turned around and started walking down the steps. "Let's get you two some heavier clothes so you don't die out there."
Ash and Misty followed him after a wary lance between them. "What brings this on?" asked Ash.
Shrugging Brock lead them back to his office, a comfortable, if small, room with lockers lining two walls and a desk made of oak with a granite surface. "Yesterday, just after you left I received a letter from Indigo Plateau. It was a missive Lance himself had sent out to a select few Gym Leaders in the frontier telling us to be on the lookout for 'highly organized raiders and bandits.' Towards the end of the letter he mentioned that the Mt. Moon tunnels seemed to have become especially dangerous in the past weeks."
"Well, we'd definitely appreciate any help you could offer," said Ash as Brock pulled out two heavy cloaks with a texture like snow mixed with charcoal. The gym leader handed Ash and Misty the cloaks, then went to another locker and produced two sets of padded clothes and handed them those also.
"There's also the small matter of Team Rocket," Brock glanced around at Misty directly, then looked back at Ash. "A month ago, Kasumi, the current head of Cerulean Gym sent a letter to the Elite Four informing them that a community organizing group known as Team Rocket had set up a mining operation outside of Cerulean Cave without the town's permission. She also said that people had started to go missing as soon as Team Rocket was in place. The Elite Four sent her letter on to me and I dispatched two trainers to help Kasumi look into it."
"Why are you telling us this?" asked Ash, not missing that Misty was strangely silent.
Brock's face hardened. "Too many coincidences," he said. "Team Rocket shows up outside Cerulean Cave at the same time that people from Cerulean start to disappear at the same time that a food shortage hits the Viridian area. To top that off, now the Elite Four is sending out letters to only a few of the gyms warning about bandits, and now I have two people show up at my gym wanting my help to investigate Team Rocket." He grinned just a little. "I see no reason not to give you two all the help you need."
Ash smiled and inclined his head some. "Thanks very much," he said. "So you're leery of Team Rocket too?"
Brock nodded and his eyes darted between Misty and Ash. "Very much so," he said. "But right now I can't do much too even investigate."
"You can leave that to us," said Ash, giving Brock a small thumbs up. "We'll figure out what's going on and we'll put a stop to it."
"I hope you're up to it," said Brock.
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"Remind me again," Ash shouted over the wind, holding his arm in front of his face for protection from the rain, "how we go from sunshine and clear skies to this!"
Ash, Misty, and Pikachu had spent the better part of the morning traversing less than five miles. When they weren't fighting the headwind and the tall grass of Route 3, which slapped against them like the waves of a stormy ocean, they were ducking for cover as a lightning bolt struck nearby trees and threatened to reduce the struggling party to cinders.
Misty could barely hear him over the roaring wind, but shouted back that the weather between Mt. Moon and Pewter had always been unpredictable.
"Ya' think?!" Ash shouted back as Pikachu, clinging to the top of the trainer's head, did everything in his power to scout the surrounding terrain. "At least this storm should keep any bandits huddled for cover," Ash said. "Only an idiot would try to travel in this after all." He glanced over at Misty and grinned. She smiled back just a little and shook her head.
By noon the trainers had travelled far enough that Pewter that any sign of civilization had disappeared into the wall of water that surrounded them like a curtain, and by four in the afternoon Ash, stopping to take a look at the map Brock had given them, guessed that they were only a few hours behind their projected plans. When they stopped for a brief dinner under the shelter of an outcropping of rock jutting up out of the grass, the storm had shifted, replacing the western wind with a freezing northern one that brought with it freezing rain and even hail.
Sitting against the rock which formed something of a one walled shelter with a partial roof, Ash finished off a seed cake. "Are you sure you want to try and scale Mt. Moon in this?" he asked, turning to Misty.
Looking out over what she could see of the grassland, Misty nodded. "Freak storms aren't unusual for this part of the region," she answered. "With any luck this will have let up by the time we get to the mountain."
"If you say so," said Ash.
"Mt. Moon," Misty said, almost too quietly to be heard over the gale, "is not a forgiving place. To get through we'd have to have to navigate the tunnels and we might get lost and wander into the deep roads. There would be no coming back from that."
Ash nodded. "I gotcha," he said.
The party traveled until the last vestiges of sunlight were vanishing, at which point, having no natural shelter to speak of, Ash and Misty dug a small burrow which they lined and covered with one of Brock's spare cloaks. It was wet, tedious, and extremity-numbing work that took nearly an hour, but the result was a relatively dry bed that was nominally sheltered from the wind and flying bits of brush and sharp grass.
Sleep never truly came. Even wrapped up and huddled together, the constant dripping of cold water and the buffeting of their makeshift tent flapping in the wind ensured that neither trainer could do much more than doze. Even Pikachu made no effort to get out to keep watch and the trainers passed most of the first part of the night making small talk or refining their plans for a course of action in Cerulean. Once the night rolled over into the early morning however, and neither Ash nor Misty had the spirits to talk they drifted into silence.
Water by this time had seeped into the shelter in a great enough quantity to create little puddles around the cuddled trainers' ankles, waists, and shoulders, though there was little anyone could do to alleviate the conditions. Sunrise brought with it little reprieve, save the faint glow that pushed back the night's blindness. Having had no sleep, Ash and Misty sat got up begrudgingly without a word and packed up their meager shelter before moving on.
They travelled all the next day without stopping, as progress was slow enough that to stop at all would likely rob them of the rest of the day's journey. They ate as they walked, ignoring or coping with the numbness that had long since settled into their feet and hands and faces. Ash could hear the squishing of water in the bottoms of his boots, and the prickling sensations running through where he guessed his toes to be began to inflame his paranoia about trench foot setting in.
Luck just wasn't with the party. That night there was no suitable shelter to be found and again Ash and Misty were forced to break out miniature shovels and dig themselves a burrow. The ground though had nearly reached the point of saturation and both trainers found themselves, again, unable to sleep for the water which leaked in from all sides of the improvised shelter. Spending the entire night shivering and trying to still chattering teeth, neither Ash nor Misty exchanged a word, but silently thanked whatever powers that were for the other's presence.
Moderate relief arrived the next morning in the form of abating winds. The cold rain and tiny flecks of sleet still fell generously, but they were not driven by the blistering gales. By two in the afternoon of their third day out from Pewter, Ash and Misty could see the silhouette of a tall range of mountains cutting across the terrain in the distance. Mt. Moon was less of a single mountain, and more of a series of peaks that ran from the northwest to the southeast that bore no permanent passes or roads. "Mount Moon" was the name given to the largest and, paradoxically, most navigable peak that separated Route 3 from Route 4.
All around the base of the mountain were boulders the size of buildings, many of which bore caves and crevices more than large enough for the party to settle into. Ash and Misty selected one such natural cave that afforded them three walls and a roof and hurried in. As Ash struggled to get a small fire going, Misty dropped against the wall nearest the entrance and tried to keep watch with Pikachu. Not speaking, she petted the Pokémon behind the ears and slumped on the stone.
As a fire crackled to life, Ash sat before the flames and pulled off one boot as Misty got up and walked to sit next to him. Three days of waterlogged conditions had not been kind to Ash's feet, and his socks had been reduced to a semi-solid layer of stringy plaster between his toes and the boot.
"At least there's no frostbite," said Misty, pulling off her own boots and dumping out the water therein as Ash stretched out a little by the fire. "We could be a lot worse off."
"We could," Ash said sourly. As his feet warmed and the burning tickle of feeling returned he almost wished he could stay numb. "This sucks…" he muttered, rubbing his eyes. "We're not going to have any dry clothes, our boots are soaked, it's freezing, and we've still got a mountain to cross."
"Quit," Misty began to bark. She stopped herself, seeing the nearly defeated grimace on her partner's face. Even Viridian wasn't nearly this bad, she thought. "It will get better," she said as comfortingly as she could. Without thinking she put her hand over Ash's and gave his fingers a squeeze, smiling. "You and Professor Oak must have gone through worse than this."
Ash exhaled and looked up at the ceiling as Misty realized she'd taken his hand without thinking. She didn't mind though and Ash made no move to let go. "Not really," he said. "Most of the dangers Grandpa and I faced were wild Pokémon. Battling the elements is completely different."
"Yeah," said Misty looking down at the fire. "But, once we get to the other side, we can rest up in Cerulean."
Ash's face brightened a little and he sighed. "That'll be nice," he said, glancing over at her and squeezing her hand. "Maybe we should take the rest of the day off," he said, changing gears and looking over at the pile of dripping supplies, tossed up against one corner.
"We can dry out our things, get some of our strength back, and then tackle Mt. Moon tomorrow. Maybe the storm will have broken by then."
"It would be better to avoid as much night time on the mountain as possible," Misty agreed, nodding. She got up and brought their packs closer to the fire and immediately began laying out the contents in a semi-circle around the flames. "That sounds like a plan."
The party spent the rest of the afternoon making every effort to prepare for their journey the next day. Ash went outside and collected several fallen branches from the surrounding trees, and drying them by the fire. He then went on to add to the fire with the semi-dry wood, while Misty set out and rotated supplies, clothes, and food, attempting to dry everything as much as possible. Pikachu either napped by the fire or wandered from one end of the small cave to the other, looking for anything to hold its interest.
As the sun went down, Ash and Misty had dinner, eating a little more than a single meal's worth of rations. More than once Ash had tried to open Growlithe's pokeball, but each time, the Pokémon remained inside and the ball remained tightly closed. Misty reminded Ash that, depending on the Pokémon, natural evolution could be as quick as a few days, or take as long as a few weeks.
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The next morning, Ash woke first and realized that during the night, he and Misty had somehow migrated closer together. Despite having gone to sleep with several feet between them, as the early morning sunlight brought Ash back to consciousness, he carefully pulled his arm away from Misty and got up. He walked to the entrance of the cave, stretching and yawning. Choosing to sleep in body armor, he noted, was becoming as natural to him as sleeping at all. As was, it occurred to him, waking up next to Misty.
"Well look at that," he grinned, looking out of the cave and over the top of the sea of grass. During the night the weather had changed dramatically once again. The winter like storms of the previous few days had given way to cloudless skies and a crisp atmosphere. The ice and sleet had since melted and left all the world that Ash could see glimmering and clean.
Waking up a moment later, Misty got to her feet and stepped up behind Ash. "Wow," she said, looking out of the cave and to the north where Mt. Moon jutted up into the sky. "That's gorgeous." The early morning sunlight reflecting off the peaks of the mountain range glittered and made the edifices stand out like diamonds against the sky. The mist of a waterfall, beginning about a tenth of the way up the mountain, filled a basin with glimmering stars. "Shall we?"
Ash smiled, refreshed from a good night's sleep, and nodded.
Finishing their packing by eight and setting off immediately thereafter, the party set off for the base of the greatest peak of the range. Ash, having estimated they'd reach the first climbs of the mountain by nine, had missed his guess by a full hour. The mountain was so large that it had thrown all the surrounding terrain out of proportion. It wasn't until ten that the trainers and Pikachu began ascending the slopes of the mountain, finding a worn but discernable path up the face.
Chatting nonchalantly and joking, Ash and Misty passed the next several hours without complaint. The climbs were shallow at the beginning, making for easy hiking and along the way, Ash spotted several small Pokémon cautiously observing them from the bushes. Rattata and Pidgey glanced outside from their nests and let the trainers pass unhindered. Ash debated catching one or two, but elected to save supplies and energy for bigger targets. There will always be littler ones, he told himself.
It wasn't until four in the afternoon, after the party had stopped for lunch and since resumed their hike, that the terrain began to work against them. The path narrowed and the cliff faces on either side closed in, becoming sheer walls around the disappearing path. Locking out all but scattered sunlight, the path eventually vanished into a maze of thin tunnels in the rock that were all open to the sky above.
Keeping their sense of direction, Ash and Misty were forced on more than one occasion to walk in single file. I guess these are the capillaries of the mountain," Ash joked once after he and Misty had been walking silence for half an hour.
This would be the perfect place for an ambush, Ash fretted, unable to shake the feeling that they were being watched. Nevertheless, the only dangers the party encountered were the loose patches of rock, destabilized by the previous days' rain no doubt, that made for treacherous footing.
By seven, just in time to escape the blackness that was encasing the thin passages, Ash and Misty exited out onto a ledge running along one side of a massive crack in the mountain that opened up to the orange sky above and the setting sun to the west. Far below the trainers, more than a hundred feet down by the looks of it, a roaring river crashed among the rocks at the bottom of the ravine. It flowed down from the west, disappearing around bends in the east, and broke into several smaller but equally fast rivers that flowed off down branch ravines. The main body of the water however, spilled out over the sheer drop in the west.
"That must be the waterfall we saw earlier," said Ash.
Misty agreed. "I guess we've made better time than we guessed," she answered. "We must be three or four hundred feet higher than ground level by now," she said. "If we keep following this path east," she pointed to the narrow ledge winding along the cliff face, "I'll bet it will bring us to a pass that we can take north since all of the snowpack feeding the river should be on the peaks to the north."
"Reasonable," said Ash. "Lead on."
Misty, Pikachu atop her head now, took point and lead the way up the narrowing path, following the stone wall on her right. The slim footing and increasing incline began to play on Ash's nerves. More than once he caught himself poised to lash out and catch Misty should she slip and fall over the edge. As the party neared a bend in the ledge, following the river, the path narrowed to less than two feet wide at points.
I don't like this, thought Ash. Maybe we should turn back…
Rounding the bend, both trainers could see that the path continued on, level, while the river sloped upwards and closed the gap between itself and the ledge to maybe a dozen meters at the closest point. Light was beginning to fade and cool night winds were beginning to pick up. A gruesome choice now awaited the party… did they camp here on the ledge, risking the obvious dangers, or did they press on and brave the oncoming night in hopes of a safer shelter?
"I think we need to press on for as long as we can," said Ash. "That or we should turn back and look for another way."
"No," Misty responded. "We need to keep following the river. It's our best shot at a clear path. We need to keep going forward."
"I don't know," said Ash, looking over the edge at the darkening, rushing water. "We're walking into a bad situation."
"We'll be alright," said the girl. "This is still safer than trying to go under the mountain."
Ash couldn't argue that point, and so they kept moving. By the time the last glimpse of the sun was disappearing, Ash and Misty came to another bend in the ledge that took them to an even more narrow stretch of path that dipped and twisted off around to the north, ending in a stone face beside a small waterfall. "There," said Misty, pointing to the falls. Both she and Ash could make out that just over the short climb next to the hazy waterfall was a much wider path that seemed to run along a basin serving as the river's source. "That's where we need to go."
Ash sighed and tried to steel himself. Pikachu elected to glow, giving off light comparable to a lantern to ease the party's passage. More than once on the half-hour trek, one or both of the trainers slipped on the wet, loose stone, but managed to keep their balance. As they neared the little cliff face they had to climb, the ledge beneath Ash's left foot gave and he went down on one knee as his left foot seemed to tear a hole straight through the path. Misty whirled around and grabbed his hand to steady him, and Ash could look down and watch as the stone's his foot had sheered loosed seemed to hover in the air for a moment before splashing into the water below.
"Ash," Misty gasped. "You alright?"
"This is such a bad idea," he answered, looking at the face beside the waterfall a few meters ahead, looking over his shoulder. Already the path behind them was all but invisible. As soon as the sun went down, the party's line of sight was reduced to a few feet beyond Pikachu's glow. "The sudden freeze and thaw must have weakened the rock… but I guess it's too late to turn back."
Misty bit her lip. "You were probably right," she admitted.
"No point in worrying about it now," said Ash, squeezing past her and planting his back against the wall adjacent to the falls. From here the path was narrow enough and the falls close enough that Ash could have reached out and submerged his hand in the cascade of water. "If I give you a boost, you should be able to reach up and pull yourself up to the ledge," he said, cupping his hands.
Misty sized up the climb for a moment, then walked forward and put on hand on Ash's shoulder and one foot into his hands. "I'll give you a hand once I'm up," she answered.
"One, two," said Ash as both trainers readied themselves. "Three."
With a grunt and a shove, Ash lifted Misty over his head as quickly and smoothly as he could. He heard her hands slap against the rocky ledge above at the same instant he heard the ledge under his feet groan and crack. "Oh shit!" he gasped, turning and grabbing onto the stone face with one hand. With the other he pressed his palm against the sole of Misty's shoe and shoved again, giving her just the boost she needed to swing that leg up over the edge and grab a firm hold.
"Ash!" She yelled, turning to look. From the glow radiating out from a furiously chittering Pikachu, Misty could see the ledge beneath Ash breaking apart like saturated sandstone. Ash shouted in fear as the ground beneath his feet disintegrated and both legs were swept out from under him in a sudden flow of rock and slushy grime. On all fours, leaning over the edge to pointlessly reach out with one hand, Misty felt the ground beneath her hand begin to give and slide. She and Pikachu propelled themselves back reflexively away from the slide and shuffled back as a five foot section of the ledge crumbled and slid over the edge.
"Ash!" Misty screamed again, moving to the new ledge as soon as she regained her balance. "Ash!" her voice echoed off the walls of the black ravine, shrieking desperation evident. Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw that the path running above the river had vanished for as far as she could see, leaving nothing but a sheer cliff. Ash was nowhere to be seen.
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Rushing, freezing, pounding water slammed into Ash from every angle, splashing in his face, throwing him end over end and making even a small breath impossible. He could feel himself being propelled as breakneck speeds along the river, or under it as the case may have been. He was tumbling, slamming into rocks in his path, running up against the walls of the ravine as the water threw him along. Every attempt at breath seemed to bring just as much water as air into his lungs and he could feel his head becoming light even in the stark terror.
He tried to no avail to reach out for something, anything to grab onto. He felt a searing pain tear into his shoulder as he smashed against a jagged protrusion, then nothing. Suddenly he was weightless and floating. Falling, he realized as the water around him seemed to vaporize, carrying him with it over the edge of a waterfall.
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"No, no, no, no, no," Misty choked, tears rolling down her face unchecked. She still stared over the edge of the chasm, bent over on all fours and scanning the ravine for any signs of Ash. She dropped her forehead to the ground. "Stupid, why didn't I say to go back? Goddamn stupid, stupid."
Pikachu squeaked and chittered frantically, pacing along the edge of the plateau. His cheeks glowed brightly, throwing off just enough light to illuminate the surface of the water below, but nothing else. Misty hunkered there for more than an hour, watching wherever Pikachu lit up, hoping desperately, praying even, that she'd see some human figure clinging to a rock. Useless. Minutes rolled into hours and before she realized it, Misty's grip had failed her and she slapped to the ground, striking her chin on the mushy layer of grime covering the rocks. She didn't bother to get up or move. She could see Pikachu's faint glow out of the corner of her eye, still sitting on the edge and looking for Ash, and she cried, cried until she fell asleep on the cold rocks.
After a long time, the sky turned a shade of burnt orange and the faint outlines of the peaks lining the ravine appeared against that backdrop. Misty slowly regained consciousness, though she didn't open her eyes until later. It was too cold to move yet, she thought. At some point during the night, Pikachu had given up pacing on the ledge and begun instead pacing between Misty and the ledge. Misty sat up as the sky began to turn blue, and looked around to take
in her surroundings. Methodically she noted every feature of the terrain. Her eyes were glassy and cold as she turned to Pikachu.
"We need to keep going," she said, voice quiet and unwavering. The little Pokémon turned around and looked at Misty, twitching uncomfortably once as though he'd been confronted by a total stranger, before walking forward and waiting for her to act, though he made no move to get within grabbing distance of the trainer.
The plateau on which Misty and Pikachu found themselves was one half of a shore surrounding an enormous basin of water high on the mountain. This basin was fed by what looked like dozens of small rivers running out of caves in the surrounding cliffs, some of which tumbled in magnificent falls, or simply flowed calmly out of openings in the rock. Misty reached around her back, instantly making Pikachu take a step to the side. She didn't watch the Pokémon, but instead took one of the pokeballs from her belt and tossed it over the snapped out of the ball which returned to Misty's hand.
"We need to move north," said Misty in more of a sigh than a declaration. Starmie understood the command and spun around on its back atop the
water once or twice, before turning upright and floating over to Misty. Pikachu assumed that the trainer and Starmie had their bearings and followed cautiously as the truncated party took off. Misty followed Starmie as the Pokémon led her around the basin, knowing that Starmie's innate sense of direction was never wrong.
Stopping in front of a cave, from which a flow of water the size of a creek originated, Starmie turned to Misty and hovered above the ground. "You're sure this is true north?" Misty asked, looking into the cave. The morning light illuminated only enough that Misty could see a narrow shore winding beside the small creek. Starmie didn't move, the Pokémon was sure of its senses.
"Pikachu," said Misty, turning to the little Pokémon, who didn't back away this time as she spoke. "You need to resist the temptation to light things up down there. Even if it gets pitch black we need to disturb as little as possible. I don't need to warn you about the Zubat?"
Pikachu chittered an acknowledgement, then jumped up into Misty's offered hand, uncomfortable though he was.
"Good," said the trainer. "Let's go."
Misty held Pikachu close against her chest, and took hold of one of Starmie's many arms. The party had walked less than a minute in the cave before nearly all light vanished, and the winding tunnel, leading steeply upwards, then down, then up again, blotted out all light. Soon the only light she could see at all, was the faintest red glow emitted by Starmie's red orb which the Pokémon used to sense its surroundings underwater and in complete darkness.
Steeling herself against claustrophobia as her foot struck water in the black, Misty swallowed hard. She distracted herself as Starmie led on, by pondering a number of different things, none of which were even remotely related to her lost companion, and all of which were notably boring. Pikachu is probably hoping, thought Misty, that if we explorelong enough we'll find- she pushed away the thought as instinctively as one would bat away a troublesome fly, and continued on.
After an hour's walk, Misty had waded into water that was up to her waist, and Starmie stopped. Without asking a verbal question, Misty reached out in front of Starmie, blindly, and touched a solid wall almost immediately. Reaching out to either side, all she felt was empty air. Starmie hovered for a moment, indecisive, and shifting from left to right every few moments.
Starmie turned around, and began leading Misty back, leaving Misty to guess that they'd reached a dead end. When the water began to deepen however, and Starmie began to make subtle twists and turns, it quickly became apparent that the cave was branching off into a network of tunnels. Another hour passed and the water was up to Misty's elbows, leaving Pikachu to sit atop her head. One more time Starmie stopped and Misty reached out, brushing walls in front of, and on either side of her. She felt ahead with one foot and noticed that the water suddenly deepened only a step ahead of her.
A tunnel? Misty guessed. An underwater tunnel? "No way," she said in a hushed whisper. "Not until we know how far to the other side."
Starmie dropped below the water level without hesitation, leaving Misty alone in total darkness. She waited for several seconds, not sure whether or not Starmie would be able to grasp the concept of a human having to hold its breath underwater. Before she had enough time to fret though, Starmie returned, slipping up and out of the water, announced only by a quiet 'plip' that made the trainer jump.
"Well?" she asked.
Starmie made no move to turn or lead her back, so Misty could only assume that the Pokémon had found another tunnel on the other side of this one.
"You're absolutely certain?" she pressed, the hair bristling on the back of her neck. Again, Starmie made no move to leave. "Great," the trainer muttered, wrapping her arms around the Pokémon and whispering to Pikachu to relax and take a deep breath.
SC
The first sound was a dull, thudding pulse, very rhythmic and steady, if quiet. It was somehow comforting, and warm, though why was unclear. Over the course of a long time, listening to the pulse began to wake something up, and realization slowly dawned on Ash, that he was aware of himself, if nothing else. He was alive, he realized, the pulsing was his heart pushing blood through his body. He could feel nothing else though. The world to him was blackness and a uniform numbness though something, he wasn't sure what, made him want to push through and feel something, anything.
He remembered something, a single thought, a memory that he couldn't make out, but strained to recall. As he floated in between waking and unconsciousness, he pushed harder and harder to remember the thought but it kept eluding him. Pursuing the memory brought with it a pain that came on very suddenly and smacked down on his mind from every angle, but he pushed harder and tortured his will to remember. An image of someone, Misty he thought, holding Pikachu, both wrapped in a warm wreathe of sunlight. But where had he seen that? Ah, he realized, consciousness coming on more fully now, accompanied by the realization that he ached and hurt all over. Viridian, right after we got out of the forest.
Light made Ash squint, and he slowly opened his eyes to a clear blue sky overhead, though he instantly closed them again, squinting in pain. His whole body was screaming murder. His back hurt most of all, and the backs of his arms, laying out on either side of him, palms up to the sky. He groaned, almost wishing he hadn't come back from the brink, and then something cold, freezing and wet, but soft, shoved itself in his face.
"Ow, ow, ow," he groaned. "What?" He opened one eye to see the large, orange head pull away to get a better look at him. Two eyes with liquid amber irises, seemingly glowing with an inner light, stared down at him and hot panting breath washed over his face. "Who?" he asked, opening the other eye and looking over the big, huge even, orange frame, "Growlithe?"
The canine barked once, a regal and full sound, then whined, sitting up to his full height and seemingly towering over Ash. A thick crème mane wrapped around the Pokémon's head and hung down to its front paws while a huge tail the same color billowed out behind him like a white flame. Not Growlithe, thought Ash, Arcanine… how…?
Arcanine pawed at the ground and stood up again, looking more fantastic than real, and walked in a circle around Ash, whining very quietly before laying down and curling around Ash. Ash lay there for what felt like hours and hours, gradually regaining some control of his arms and legs. He flexed his fingers and balled them into a fist though it pained him to do so. Instantly Arcanine was up on his feet and alert, giving Ash his utmost attention. Several minutes later, Ash groaned and rolled onto his side. He had no illusions of standing, though Arcanine understood. The big Pokémon knelt down beside Ash and put one shoulder on the ground. Straining, arms threatening to give out, Ash reached over Arcanine's back and
grabbed hold of the fur with one hand. Simultaneously he lifted one leg over Arcanine's flank.
When he was sure Ash had as good a grip as possible, Arcanine stood up, lifting Ash off the ground. Ash took a moment and steadied his grip, dropping his pounding forehead against the back of Arcanine's neck and screwing his eyes closed. It was going to take all the strength he could muster just to hold on. Ash gripped the fur of his Pokémon's shoulder as tightly as he could as Arcanine took a single step, testing his master's hold. Ash remained steady, and so Arcanine began to walk, slowly.
Ash kept his eyes closed and tried to ignore the aching, screaming pain that crushed down on him like an ocean of scalding water. Instead he focused on the thudding heartbeat of the Pokémon beneath him, listening and feeling the unearthly warmth. As Arcanine carried the trainer, Ash began to wonder if it was true that an Arcanine had an internal fire.
As the minutes crept by, and Arcanine slowly bore his master, Ash opened his eyes and turned his head to look out at the world. The light stung his eyes, but he was determined to at least get a feel for what was going on. He saw a large river, presumably up in the mountains, and a shore of grey sand and rock. For the first time, now that he was focusing, he heard the sound of a waterfall and guessed it was the one he had fallen from. Turning his head when he felt stronger, he looked back to get a glimpse of the falls.
Wow, he thought, seeing how far the water had to fall before it crashed to the river below. The falls must have been more than two hundred feet tall, he thought, turning his head and again resting iton Arcanine's shoulder. There is no way I should be alive… he reflected. The impact with the water below should have turned him to mush, he should have drowned, and rescue should have been impossibly far away. And how did Arcanine get out of his pokeball? For that matter how did he evolve so fast? Ash pushed the questions out of his head when they began to give him a headache. Maybe I'll figure it out later, he thought. For now though, Ash was simply thankful to whatever providence had saved him.