Eternal Instant of Darkness: Cahpter IV: Crashing Waves
#4 of Eternal Instant of Darkness
After their first mission it's time for some town life. Lex, Arsen and Layla writing their report for the guild and the police and Azay learning to write and read. A bit of relaxing time and quite an enjoyable night of stories and legends.
Well. Over two years. I have no excuse, but still I've been really stuck thinking on how to make the ending of this chapter. But I finally got it done. To those of you who still hope and read this story, first: I'm sorry for taking so bloody long to write this and post it, and second: leave a review and tell me what you think of the chapter ^^ It'd be really appreciated if you would since this chapter is a bit packed.
Chapter IV
Crashing waves
It had started as a nice day, but as time went by, clouds had covered the sky, however, it didn't look as if it was going to rain at all, even then the air got a bit colder, not that much to actually bother anyone. They walked calmly, chit chatting about this and that as they walked through the residential area.
"Now tha' I thin' 'bout it, Arsen. How ya do a repor' for tha Guild?" Lex asked the Vulpix, who looked at him.
"It's easy, you just have to write down everything that we found during a mission, what has happened, but of course there's not need for much details." The Vulpix answered calmly.
"If you want we can help you with it." Layla offered. "We too have to write a report about the mission as well." She added with a smile.
"Tha's great. Thanks."
Before they could keep talking, two cubs got right in front of them, they were a Goomy with blue coloration instead of the usual purple, yet keeping the green checks; and a white, ice type Sandshrew. They approached the group calling "Mr. Blueflare! Mr. Blueflare!" and Arthur smiled at them. "Can you tell us a story, please?" The Sandshrew asked, excited, which made the Ninetales chuckle warmly.
"Paul! Lani! Don't bother Mr. Blueflare, can't you see he's with his family?" An ice type Sandslash came and scolded them, making the two kids lower their heads and apologize. The adult Pokémon sighed, she was a female and ended up smiling. "I'm sorry Arthur, they are just so excited for tonight's Storytelling." She said to him with a smile.
"Well, right now I can't tell you any stories, but I promise you'll hear all you want later, ok?" He said to the pups with a smile, managing to cheer them up.
"Will you tell the Five Heroes story again?" Lani, the Goomy, said with a big smile.
Arthur chuckled. "Hmm. Well I'm not sure, there will be a lot of storytellers that will want to tell their stories too." He said to them.
"Please! Mr. Blueflare!" The Goomy insisted.
Arthur just couldn't help but chuckle. "Fine I'll try to find the time for it." He answered to them, his smile coming back to him. Both kids jumped in joy and went with their mother telling about how great that story was.
Azay wasn't paying attention to the conversation but he listened something that caught his attention, however, when he was about to ask the adult fire type about it, someone crashed into him and both fell to the floor. "Ay! I'm sorry!" Said a voice, male and young. Azay sat up and looked to see a Zorua with pitch black fur and the mane on his neck, the tip of his head fur and the patches of color of his face where white, besides that, he had heterochromia, with one eye being cobalt blue and the other a vibrant orange. The Zorua approached and tried to help Azay up. "I'm deeply sorry, really. I'm new here and wasn't looking where I was going." He apologized as he helped Azay up.
"Just... try to pay more attention to where you are going, ok?" Azay said, his tone sounding more angry than he intended as he saw that some things had fallen out of his treasure bag when he fell. "Either way it's nothing." He added, kneeling to start to pick up his things.
"Lemme, help, please." The Zorua said and pushed the supplies towards the green eyed Riolu and into his bag. "I promise I'll be more careful. Thanks for not yelling at me." He said with a smile.
"Whatever, boy." the Riolu answered, dismissing it as nothing. "Just pay attention, ok?" He added and the other nodded and bid them all good bye.
"Did'cha haf'ta be like tha'?" Lex asked him. "'tis was jus' an accident." He added.
This earned him a confused glance from Azay. "What?"
"You were a little bit too firm with the kid. It seemed as if you were going to scold him at any second." Layla said.
"That's quite right." Arthur added and Arsen just nodded.
Azay looked at them all and sighed. "Come on! I didn't even yell at him." He said as they started walking again.
Meanwhile, unknown to them, down the path of the residential area, they were being watched by someone that smirked as they walked away.
When they arrived at the Library, Arthur went back to the desk, while Layla, Arsen and Lex went to the work area to get their reports done, and lastly, Azay looked for Noemi. He found her with some kits, teaching them how to read. And she saw him and smiled at him. The Riolu waited for her to be done with her lesson and that the kits were gone before he went with the Silver Umbreon, who smiled at him. "Welcome. I'm glad you could find the time to come, Azay." She said to him with a smile.
"Uhm... Thank you so much for helping me with this, really." He said, slightly nervous and with his ears lowered before she started to get down to business with him.
"Don't mention it, Azay. So let's start!" She said cheerily. She sure loved to teach.
And with that said, she started her work and started teaching him. He found out it wasn't that hard to learn to read as she taught him the alphabet and the sound of the letters.
There wasn't much work to do. One of the perks of small towns was that, since everyone knew everyone, crime was almost non-existent and if there was some, outsiders were to blame for it. However, it's mostly calm all the time, to the point of leaving the authorities of the place to deal with disagreements on a few different things. However this wasn't the job of a certain Growlithe. It was a male, pretty average mostly, in fur color and even stature. However, the black stripes on his body reach to his face, in a way that they even go around his eyes to his ceram muzzle, and he has yellow eyes.
Pretty usual boring day at work it was. He was just going through some reports on how the morning has gone. There wasn't much, some arguments at the market that almost ended in fights if no one had stepped up to avoid it; some reports of lost Pokémon, the which has already been sent to the Explorer's Guild, and some reports from some of his mates that had gone for work at the Guild and come back that morning. It was sad reading through them, as most of them were the easiest jobs one could get, mostly only handled to new additions to the guild as their first mission. There was one that explained how they had to go to Drenched Bluff to recover some Spoink's pearl. And the amount of detail on how the mission was carried by the group of two was clear was just to fill up more on the report.
In the end the Growlithe sighed. "Man! One would wish that something exciting happened for once!" He thought out loud. "I mean... I like this peace but sometimes it can get so boring, not even jokes make me laugh!" He kept on talking.
"Well. You can always be an explorer yourself." Came another voice, making the fire dog give a jump and get his face away from the reports.
"Wah!?" He looked around until he saw a bipedal Umbreon standing at the other side of his desk. "Oh! Dust!" He let out with an annoyed sigh. "I was just talking to myself, that's all. Besides if we all become explorers then who will be Sheriff and actually do the job?"
The Umbreon Pokemorph just laughed at this. He stood around 1'90m tall, had most of his body uncovered, showing off his dark blue fur, golden rings and, on his sides, he had the pattern of a Raikou on them, it also glowed, just like the rings, his only clothing were a pair of white wolf's fur shorts that reached down to his knees. He had deep blue eyes and his whole fur was painted from ears to toe with white paintings that symbolize he was part of a tribe but had no rank in it since he left it. The intricate pattern didn't draw the attention anywhere, but it also avoided covering any of the glowing natural marks on his body. "Anyways, got a letter for you." he said as he reached into his satchel and handed the Growlithe said letter. "And a few more for some around so I'll be in town for a few hours, delivering." He said with a big smile.
"Thanks, dude. The usual?" The fire dog asked as he started to look through his bag to find his purse and pull it out to pay for the delivery.
"Yeah, but don't worry, it's already paid. The one that wanted you to have this paid in advance. I think my reputation starts preceding me." The bipedal male said, boasting a bit.
"Heh, perhaps. You never know." He picked up the letter, but he didn't even have time to ask before someone went into the sheriff's office.
"Help! I've been robbed!" It was an Ampharos, a pretty average one, with a blue ball at the end of the tail and deep brown eyes. "A thief went into my shop and stole jewels carved out from evolutionary stones!" He was yelling now. Growlithe hearing this, quickly came around his desk.
"Jhon! Calm down and-" He tried to calm down the distressed electric type, but it only got him an angry look and some sparks out of the body of the electric type.
"You want me to calm down!? How can you tell me that when I just said I've been robbed of some precious gems!?" And after those words he went on about how important they were to his business, even reaching the point of saying he'd have to close the shop for good for losing them.
This made the Growlithe only get more nervous, almost panicking. "Ok. Ok. But please, I need you to tell me if you saw this thief." He said.
"What's going on, Zabor?" Yet another voice came from the other side of the room. It was the Sheriff, a two meters tall Blaziken with brown eyes, sky blue feathers where they're normally red; and white feathers where they're normally yellow. She came out of her office and approached the distressed Pokémon. "I've heard enough, John. You say someone robbed you?" She asked, looking at him.
"Yes! And if I don't get those gems back Imma have to close! I paid a lot to get those evolutionary stones! You know how expensive they are!?" He said, she narrowed her brown eyes at him, but continued the questions.
"Did you see who it was?" She asked him.
"I just saw a Riolu I have never seen before." He shrugged. "Surely must have been that new brat that hangs around with the pirate Shinx."
Her gaze was fixed on him as she stood silent for a bit, before turning to her Growlithe subordinate. "Okay, John. We'll ask this Riolu about the jewels. Do you have any leads as to where he might have run away?"
"Not to interrupt, Sheriff Sarah, but reports from Wigglytuff's Explorer's Guild say that these two, a Riolu and a Shinx by the names of Azay and Alexandros respectively, have joined them recently as apprentices." Zabor informs her.
"Right. That makes it easier. We'll go to the guild and wait for him there." She nodded. "Zabor, you're coming with me this time. And John, you are also coming with us, just in case you see this Riolu and turns out you just thought it was the one." The Ampharos growled but even then he nodded to her. She set her second in command Magnezone to take care of the office while she was out and the three came out and made their way to the guild.
Far away. Across the seas, in a port city. The news about the shipwreck suffered by The Windshear near the coast of Sinnoh finally reached the people of those shores. Not good news indeed, as The Crimson and his crew were known to be one of the best at their work, to know that a storm had managed to take them down had the city of sailors mourning that whole day. The only good news that came with this were those of the two survivors that had made a full recovery. A Riolu and a Shinx, safe in the other region. While for a lot of Pokémon this might be something to let out a relieved sigh, for a certain one this only made it tighten her grip on the newspaper before slamming it down, spilling the Leppa smoothie it was eating. It was a Hakamo-o, and a female one at that. Her face was scrunched up in anger as she looked at the newspaper as if trying to make it burn with her look alone.
A Dusknoir, male and mostly average, sat in front of her, on the same table. He picked up the newspaper and read through the news, before letting out a chuckle. "I see your plan backfired... And he's still very much alive." Said the Dusknoir. "What do you plan on doing now, Yul?"
"Fuck off, Dusknoir! He's my target!" She said, growling at him but trying to keep it low since they weren't the only ones at the caffé.
"A target that seems that not even the seas can kill." He teased. "You know it's not my decision, if the Lord orders it, I will hunt him down myself and get rid of this pest. We have to deal with this quickly before-" But he was interrupted once more.
"Do you think I don't know!?" She snapped, attracting some attention to herself, more so than the attention her scales have attracted already, as they were different from the average, Hakamo-o and their evolution line normally have yellow and red scales besides the silver and grey ones, but hers were orange and blue instead.
"The faster we deal with this crazy Pokémon the faster we'll get rid of all the scourge back home!" She grumbled, back to talking in a low voice.
"Fine. You've failed for months on end, so this will be your last chance. I guess there's no need to tell you what will happen if you fail again." Dusknoir smirked as he stood from the table, left a small purse of poké on the table and floated out of the café, leaving the Hakamo-o all to herself.
She growled again, her temper almost made her flip the table over in rage. In the end she stood up, left some money and went out of the café as well. She started to walk through the busy streets of the city. Looking around at all the Pokémon that were around her, oblivious to their fate.
As she walked, she saw various Pokémon carrying crates from here to there, she saw some taking care of their homes, keeping them tidy. She stepped aside as a carriage pulled by a Rapidash and a Blitzle passed by with a Frogadier sitting on the front and a few other Pokémon on the back of said carriage. 'Poor idiots. They better enjoy the time they have left.' She thought and smirked as she kept walking. At one point however, she was stopped as she felt something bouncing on her leg. She looked down and saw a ball near her left leg. She growled and was about to stomp on it and get rid of it. She needed some venting and badly, but a voice stopped her. "Excuse me, miss?" Said a young voice and she shifted her angry face from the ball to the voice, she found a young Jangmo-o standing in front of her, the pipsqueak was trembling in fright but kept its ground even through her glare and her harsh answer.
"What!?" She snarled, fangs bared but seeing it didn't even flinch, her face went away from anger, but she hid her surprise.
"Could you... pass the ball, please?" It was a female, she noticed as she asked this and now truly paid attention to the Jangmo-o. For a moment, Yul didn't move at all, her golden gaze on the little female. In the end she huffed and walked, hitting the ball with her tail towards the girl, who caught it with ease and smiled at her. "Thank you!" She said, making the older Hakamo-o look at her, and she saw that smile before the little one went away to keep playing with her friends.
Yul shook her head after a bit and huffed to then continue walking down the streets towards the docks.
"You are doing great, Azay. Take a break for today. You just need to keep practicing, but working too much would make your wrist hurt. Also, I have something for you." Noemi, the Umbreon teacher, said as she looked to her table and used her psychic powers to float a book towards them. The silver glow that surrounded the book faded as she stopped using her psychics the moment he held it with his paws. "I thought that if you were to write a journal it would help you practice and improve your writing skills over time." She said to him. "But you need to read as well. For that I want you to come every day and read something with the other kits. They also need to know that there are older Pokémon that haven't learned so they feel less pressured. They think everyone that's older than them knows and that is stressful for some of them." She asked him. "You can keep the feather by the way, you're going to need it to write." She added with a smile, and he looked at the thing he's been using all afternoon to write. It was a long Pidgeot feather, probably from the head feathers, and it had attached a little ink bottle, the feather and the little tank were strapped to a metalic handler that ended in a diamond shaped tip and was stabbed into the cap of the ink bottle to slowly drain out the ink.
Azay was taken aback by this, but even then he smiled at her, his tail wagging furiously without him noticing as he bowed slightly. "Thank you, teacher." He said.
"Call me Noemi, or Noe if you want. And you are welcome." She smiled back at him before he turned and went towards the other three. Lex, Arsen and Layla were absorbed in their work. How did quadruped Pokémon manage to write down half a paper roll of report was a mystery for a short time, as he saw Lyla take the feather from Arsen's paw and also with the paper and she started to write down herself while her brother looked at her attonished, yet he could rest his paw as Azay watched the Eevee writing, the sight of her paw looked weird to say the least, two digits on a side of the handler and one at the other keeping it balanced as she moved her paw like a blur, writing down her part. Lex was pretty much the same, all three of them concentrated on it.
At least, until Arsen rose his eyes from the report with two different paw writings and spotted him. Without saying anything, the Vulpix got off his cushion and walked towards him, his face looked like he would fall asleep any time now. "Hey, Azay. How was it?" And his voice sounded tired as well.
"I'm done for today. Noemi says I just got to practice." He answered.
"That's good. We still got a bit more of work to do but we are almost done." He said to him looking at the rapidly writing duo on the table. Azay saw Lex tapping the back of the ink bottle of his feather a bit. "He's running out of ink." Arsen said and looked around. But hearing this, the Riolu was already approaching and offered the Shinx his feather. The Electric type accepted it, discarding the empty one in a bottle with another bunch of empty feathers and got to keep writing, not without letting out a quick. "Thank'cha." Azay could only smile at this as he looked how the other was so concentrated that he didn't even notice it was him who gave him the feather.
Azay decided to let him be and went back with Arsen. "I gotta say. For his accent, Lex does write quite well and stylized." The Vulpix commented.
The blue jackal looked at him, curious. "What do you mean?"
"Not a mistake, or perhaps some. I can't really tell since I'm no scrivener after all. But he's got a very pretty style to his writing." He explained.
Azay was now confused for another reason. "Scri... what?" The blue jackal said slowly, his face twisting in confusion.
"I mean that I'm not an expert writer." The quadruped said it another way, which his friend understood better.
"Well then I think I'll see ya all later then." Azay said and turned. "Make sure Lex doesn't forget that feather, it's mine." He said with a smile.
"Where ya going?" Arsen asked.
"Explore around. Maybe back to the guild, after." He answered and with a nod from the other, and a reminder that that night was Storytelling Night, he walked to the door and out of the library and into town.
Azay walked all around, exploring the town. If he was going to be living there he better get to know the place. He went back to the residential area. There weren't many places to investigate so he was done with that area quickly. Then he moved to the market area. All the houses there had stands in front of them with Pokémon screaming offers to the top of their lungs while there were a lot of Pokémon going around, checking and buying things. Azay even walked across Duskull's bank. The ghost type was there handling purses of Poké or hiding them somewhere as he disappeared to either store the money away or to bring the purses he gave. It was interesting to say the least, and even if he had a quite busy job he seemed to be having fun either way.
After this, the Riolu kept on walking. He found a storage house run by a female Kangaskhan. An Electivire was helping fellow guildmates on their training. The Riolu waved at them when they waved at him from afar. He even found a shop, the which had a Xatu at the front. It was hard to know what it was doing as its eyes were lost forwards towards... somewhere only that Pokémon knew. In the end, Azay decided to keep exploring. Once he got to the end of the marketplace he found a path that kept going, away from the market and going out of town even.
The Riolu, curious, decided to walk that path. It was worn out, surely because of how much it was used. It looked strange for him, more so when he found a sign besides the path that read: "To Marowak's Dojo" The Riolu stood looking at it for a moment, but then it dawned on him. It wouldn't be the smartest idea to train near town... unless they want something to happen to it.
Even then, Azay walked down the path until he reached the dojo, it was close to a clif. This town seemed to be on top of a cliff, but either way, the building was a few good ways away from the ledge. Given the craters and how barren the ground was in front of the dojo and towards the cliff, it was clear it was external training grounds.
"Hello." A voice called to him. "You came to train as well?" Azay turned to the voice to find a purple Marowak looking at him, holding a big bone.
The Riolu shook his head. "Sorry. I'm just exploring." He said calmly.
"New to Town, then?" The Ghost and Fire type smiled at him. "In that case: Welcome to Marowak's Dojo. Here you can practice new moves or whatever you want. However, as much as I don't like to do it, you'll have to pay. Training dummies don't grow on the trees after all." He informed.
Azay nodded. "Then I'll keep this place in mind, I guess." He said calmly. "Gotta go now."
"Have a good day!" The Marowak said as Azay started to walk back to town. The next place he found was following a signal that read "To: Sharpedo Bluff". He walked down the path and reached the ledge of the bluff, and he looked down to the seas. It didn't look that much, just a place to come to watch the sea. 'Hmf... Why is this place called Sharpedo Bluff?' He wondered as he looked around. 'Maybe because here you can see the Sharpedo jumping on the sea at some time?' He wondered. Anyways, after a bit, he decided to go back to the guild. Maybe the others were already back. However, before he started to walk back, he heard a sound that called his attention. It sounded like water crashing into something, it sounded like those times of peace at the Windshear, which were few and very appreciated by everyone... before someone started a sea shanty of course. With a chuckle, Azay started to walk back.
It took him a lot less time to reach the crossroads for obvious reasons, and took a few sips of water from the fount to the side of the stairway towards the guild. After that he was about to head up, but instead looked down the path that went to the beach. The sound of the waves still in his ears. In the end, he went down the path.
When he arrived at the beach he looked at the sea again. By this point, the sun was starting to settle, the sky starting to get that red tint of twilight. Azay looked at it as he went into the beach and approached the ledge of the water, before he stood and looked at the sea. The blue slowly changed to fiery orange as well, matching the sky above as well as the sun slowly went down.
The Riolu stood still, until he felt the water hitting his legs. He looked down and observed the liquid moving around his paws as they sank down into the sand. He felt the freshness of the water, how cold it was, the water felt quite good to his paws after all the walking he did in the last couple hours. When the water retreated, he followed it with his sight, until it went back to the sea and he saw the waves crashing towards the shore. He stood there, just looking at this, and this time, he centered all his attention on the sound. His ears perked up and facing the ocean, allowing for better hearing of the sound of the water crashing down on itself as the waves reached land.
At the same time there was the feeling of the cold water on his legs. He felt himself relaxing. It was so calm, so peaceful. Azay ended up closing his eyes, wanting to concentrate on the sound and the feelings. He stood like that, like a statue, in the middle of the beach. Listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, and feeling the water on his legs. There were more things tho, the fresh wind that came from the seas and the familiar scent of salt that it carried. All those things made for quite a relaxing melody that had him in a relaxing trance.
Time went by without him noticing. The Crabby even had already gone back to their homes after the usual blowing of bubbles for them to fly across the beach reflecting the sunlight. When Azay opened his eyes again, he was surprised to find himself with a starry sky, the crescent moon glowing as it rose, and the Sun finishing its descent over the horizon. It was then when Azay noticed he had a big smile on his face. The Riolu then took his feet out of the holes in the sand where they had been buried by the water, and let it wash once more over them to get rid of the sand on his fur, before he turned and walked back to the path and towards the Cross Roads. He ended up with more sand on his feet but he didn't care.
While the Riolu was enjoying his time at the beach, his friends were waiting for him at the guild. They had agree to go that night to the Storytelling Night and the hour was almost on them.
"Wher' cou'd 'e be now?" Lex asked out loud as he paced around, looking at the top of the ladder of the exit floor of the place.
"Lex. Calm down, I'm sure he just got caught up in his exploration and will be back before we go out. Layla tried to calm the Shinx down, but he just kept pacing to and fro.
They just kept waiting for a time, and while at it, a Blaziken approached them. "Excuse me." She called, Layla and Arsen recognized her instantly.
"Hi Sheriff Moll." Arsen greeted her. "Is there something wrong?" The Vulpix asked calmly.
"Well. Me and officer Zabor just wanted to ask a few questions to Azay, but it seems he's not around right now, so I hope you don't mind that we ask you?" She said calmly.
The three looked at each other, worry sipping into their faces as they heard this. "Is he in any trouble?" Layla was the one to ask.
"We are the ones making the questions here, kid!" Snapped the Ampharos behind her. "Now where is that thieving bastard friend of yours!?" He screamed at them, attracting quite the attention from Pokémon that were already getting out of the place to go enjoy the night.
"John! I'm gonna have to ask you to behave unless you want me to send you home without your gems!" Moll told the Ampharos with a severe glance to the electric type, who growled but backed off.
"Wha' does tha' idiot mean!?" Lex asked now, getting annoyed that his friend was called a thief by someone that they hadn't even met.
"He's John, the local jewelry owner. He's been robbed this morning and thinks that your friend is the culprit." The Growlithe officer, Zabor, spoke up, explaining the situation.
"Say tha' again!?" Lex almost pounced on the Growlithe but held back enough to just walk up to his face, looking angry. "'e's been wit'us tha whole day! an' 'tis mornin' we wen' on our firs' sailin'! So don' ya dare accuse ma crewmate o' bein' a pirate!"
"Please, Alexan-" Zabor tried to take control of the situation, but was interrupted again by the crackling electricity on the Shinx's body at the name he was using.
"Tha's Lex, 'n' only Lex, ya 'ear, sweet water's mutt!?" the Shinx growled, almost pushing the fire dog. he was worried and he was angry, not a good mix to keep in control.
"Lex, calm down or you gonna get in trouble with the Sheriff." Came Arsen's voice, the Vulpix coming to his friend and looking him in the eyes. The Vulpix cutting the Shinx off when he tried to speak. "We'll answer the officer's questions and come clean with this, okay? There's no need to get in trouble." He said, trying to calm down the electric feline.
Lex stopped for a bit and looked at them all, before he backed off and sat down, breathing deep and trying to calm himself down, huffing as he looked away. "Fine." He said.
"Okay then. So. After this morning's job, has Azay been with you the whole time?" The Growlithe asked.
"Yeah. We went to eat with our father and then went to the library to write our reports while Azay went to learn to read and write." Spoke Lyla this time.
John just scoffed at these words. "Analphabet. Just fitting for a thief." He commented.
Lex growled at him again. "Sav' yer bloody opinions fer ol' Davi', ya stinky bilge rat." He said to the other electric type.
"You two calm your sparks or we'll put you two in a cell at the barracks so you can fix your differences in private!" The Growlithe snapped at the two of them before breathing deep. "So after his classes, he went off on his own, since you three are here and he's not, right?" He asked then, deciding to ask Arsen and Layla, who were the more cooperative of the trio. "Did he say where he'll go?" He asked after that.
"Well he said he was gonna explore town and that we'll meet here before going out to the storytelling." Arsen answered this time, since he was the last to speak with the Riolu before he went off. "I mean, he's new to town, so I guess he wanted to get to know the place."
"And find ways to escape and places to hide treasure." Snarked John out loud.
"'kay! Tha's 'nough ya fuckin' stinky sac o' rotten tuna!" Lex snapped, baring his fangs and ready to tackle the Ampharos, who looked at him and also got ready for a fight.
"Bring it on, ya broken words!" He said back.
Moll stomped in between them. "Enough!" She yelled. "John. You've done enough, go home and stay there. I had you for someone that didn't like to pick up fights, guess I was wrong." She said. He was about to protest but she didn't let him. "I don't want excuses! Go home, now!". And with that, the Ampharos growled, went up the ladder and got out of the guild, while speaking under his breath about how stupid and innefficient the authorithies were. Once he was away she turned to the three her officer was questioning. "I'm sorry for the scene he's made. I swear he's not like this usually." She said.
Lex on his side was panting, Layla and Arsen having managed to stop him and held him back before he exploded further. At least it hasn't gone down into a fight between the two electric types.
"I guess that'll be enough questions." Zabor said as he stood up. "You three are free to go enjoy the Storytelling, maybe your friend is already there since it's already night time." He said as he looked through the window.
"Oh fuck! is this hour already?" Arsen let out. "Let's go. We'll look for Azay at the town's plaza." He said as he headed up the ladder as well and towards the exit.
"Come on, Lex. I'm sure Azay's okay." She said to him, the Shinx looking at her and nodding, before the both of them followed on the Vulpix's steps.
Once outside, the three started to head down the stairs to the cross roads. From the other side, Azay was coming up from the beach, leg fur covered in sand and looking slightly damp still so he must have been at the beach. Lex was the first one to go meet with the Riolu. "Wher'cha been?" he asked the blue jackal once they were close enough. Azay simply scratched the back of his head as he looked at them.
"We were starting to get worried, here." Spoke Layla, deciding that for now it was best they let the issue with the questioning out of the picture with the Riolu so they could at least enjoy the night.
"Sorry I got caught up down at the beach with the sound of the waves and I guess I kinda fell asleep standing." He chuckled as he apologized. "So! We're not too late to go to the storytelling, right?" He asked them.
Arsen nodded. "Yeah if we hurry we might catch up before it's dad's turn to tell his story." he said with a big smile.
"Yeah! Le's go 'n' forge' 'bout tha' bilge rat 'f an Ampharos." Lex said, leaving Azay to tilt his head in confusion.
"We'll explain later." Layla laughed a bit. "Let's go!" And with that, she was off with Lex. Azay and Arsen not taking much time to follow behind them towards the town's plaza.
The night went just fine for the four friends, they got to hear a lot of stories, each more far fetched than the last, funny since one of the storytellers was a Farfetch'd, one whose story spoke about one pokémon that meddled in a fight between two elementals and absorbed their power when the creatures were put down. Of course it was all made up, no one on their right mind would dare pit themselves against one elemental, let alone two. Also, there were some that asked what are elementals, and the bird Pokémon just answered that they were just made up creatures to be used on stories like his, which washed all credibility of his story off of it for those who had never seen one of those creatures personally, which was most of the town, the rumours about elementals being thought as just made up stories to spice up conversation.
Finally by the end of the night, at almost midnight with the two moons of the world at their top ascension, two crescent moons, one white, the other pale blue, shining down on the world, it was Arthur Blueflare's turn to tell his story.
"Wait. Where's Arsen?" Azay asked as he looked around. "He's gonna miss his father's story." He said.
Layla giggled. "Don't worry, we've heard this story so many times we know it to heart." She said as she dismissed the Riolu's worries. "You two just pay attention and enjoy!" She smiled.
Azay and Lex looked at each other and shrugged, deciding to obey the Eevee. Once he was sure that he got everyone's attention, Arthur cleared his throat, and opened his mouth. However, instead of speaking, he let out a small torrent of blue flames onto the stage before him. The fire burned for a bit, before it shaped and spread in a line in front of everyone present, and that's when the Ninetales started his story, and as he spoke, the flames shifted and showed the scenes he spoke of.
Some centuries ago, our region was just like today. Prosper and peaceful. The Pokémon went about their lives in tribes and packs, it was a time when still few wanted to make settlements like those of the ruins of ancient times. However, in this time, a catastrophe loomed over the world. Everyone knows that the world has its power, like all of us, just that it allows said power to roam freely on its surface instead of within, such is the reason that Mystery Dungeons exist. In the time of this story, a wound manifested in the world, and it affected one of its powers. Which started to sip out. This power was the power of Time. At first, no one noticed, but as time continued on, more and more power was lost from the world, so much was lost that five areas of this region, the one that's closest to the power of time, ended up frozen in an never ending second. When he noticed this, Dialga, god of time, sought out a way to fix the issue. He came with the solution that the wound shall be covered, and thus, using a fraction of his own power, he created five artifacts to store, and give back the time to the areas that had lost it, and that would also cover the wound through which time was bleeding out of our world. However, he couldn't leave his place as he still had to watch over the rest of the world to make sure there wouldn't be any more frozen areas. Thus he called upon five Pokémon from across the region. The five heed his call and meet up with the god, who trusted them with the fiver artifacts. The artifacts, which housed the power of time infused in them by dialga, had the shape of gears, thus the heroes called them the Time Gears.
After their meeting, and knowing where they had to go plant the artifacts, the five journeyed together across the region. They traveled through caves, across lakes, underground and across ruins. One by one, their objectives were fulfilled, until the five Gears were placed at the five areas that had lost the power of time to flow through them. Thus, the Time Crisis was averted, and the catastrophe avoided.
Arthur stopped the story there, the flames still raging as they lost the shape of the scene he just mentioned.
"What happened to the heroes?" Asked the voice of a cub all of a sudden.
"Yeah! did they make it back home?" Another asked.
"They sure did! They had just saved the world!" Spoke a third.
Arthur chuckled as he heard this and of course he would gladly answer. "Truth is, no one knows what happened to the Heroes of Time, as they vanished once the disaster was avoided." He said. "Their names and species used to be known but with time those details have been lost as well. But I'm sure they didn't have any trouble getting back home to their peoples" He said, just wanting to leave the story with a happy ending for the cubs.
After the story was done, the fire slowly died down until it rose in a ball and exploded in blue sparkles. a certain Vulpix appeared at that moment flipping mid air before dropping back down on the stage, both him and his father bowing to everyone before retreating out of the stage. Layla standing and quickly going to meet them. Lex was about to follow but he noticed that Azay seemed to be stuck in place, so he just pushed the Riolu a bit to get him out of his thoughts. "Ya got stunned by tha' flashy endin'? C'mon le's meet up wi' everyone." He chuckled.
The Riolu smiled sheepishly and nodded before the both of them followed Layla to the backstage.
"You two were fantastic!" She was saying to her father and brother as Team Windshear reached them."
"Tha' was a flashy way to pu' ou' tha fire." Lex smirked at Arsen, who just chuckled.
"Well is what I can do with my a bility and bit of psychic to make myself levitate, at least I don't fuck that one up." He laughed. "Also it makes for a good spectacle for everyone. Didn't you notice anyone said a word while Dad told his tory?" He commented proudly.
It was true, the other story tellers ahd the usual pranksters screaming "boring" or fake yawning during their stories, but there hadn't been a peep during Arthur's.
"You two had it thought over from the start, right?" Azay accused, both father and son smiling conspicuously. "And here I was worrying you would miss the storytelling." He chuckled as he said this last thing.
"It's nice to tell stories to the town but there will always be someone that wants more than to hear an old Pokémon tell a story they've heard a million times." Arthur said. "So it's up to storytellers to spice things up one way or another to keep the audience entertained and silent." The old Ninetales laughed a bit. "So, shall we go have some dinner before calling it a night and go to bed?" He asked.
Of course, the four young Pokémon nodded, and the five headed towards Arthur's home, where he had already prepared various meat and potatoes dishes and a berry salad for company. He had prepared the dinner knowing at least his children wouldn't say no to dine with him, and hoped their friends wouldn't either, and they had not. Keeping the food warm with heated up rocks. Dinner was accompanied by some chit chat about the story he had told at the plaza, but there weren't much more details that could be shared that the Ninetales remembered, so it was reduced to the details he had shared. After dinner it was already too late and everyone was too tired to go anywhere else, and so, they decided that they'd sleep at the house, the four young Pokémon sharing the sibling's room for the night. It didn't take them that long to fall asleep. One of them wondering how he could be as lucky as he was.
Wooooh! That was a long read! But hey! it was good right? ^^ as you can see there's a lot of introduction's here. Makes one excited for what might come next, eh? heh I can't promise anything but I really hope I have another chapter ready within this decade, or at least within this year ^^; Anyways! yeah I'll try to not take so bloody long to come up with another chapter so you guys don't have to read the whole thing every time I post another chapter. For now it was light since there's only three chapters before this heh.
As you can see I didn't put up music on this chapter. as i've noticed it can kind of be a mood killer and take people out of the story so yeah heh. I'll leave that part to you from now on, I might still put up music if I really feel the need to "try" and help the mood for those who like to read a scene with some soundtrack, but it won't be as invasive as I made it in previous chapters heh.
Well that's all from my side! Hope you liked it! Byyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee