Chapter 6: The Feel of the Start
The memories of Lumiose slipped into Ceailean’s dreams once more.
He heard a familiar voice reverberate from silence, “Sure kid! Tell me where you last saw him!” Back again, he was in the devastated streets of Lumiose. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a pillar of water surging from the top of Lumiose tower. He looked to it in awe and was almost entranced at the spectacle.
“Hey!” shouted the trainer. He grabbed Ceailean by the shoulder and turned him around, “Kid! Focus! Come on, tell me where he is.” Ceailean was still too shaken to speak, so all he did was point down a street. The trainer did a quick sweep of the area, seeing if there were any large groups of people around. “Alright kid, stay close, show me the way.” He ushered Ceailean in front of him. “Weavile, Let’s go!” It dropped down from a nearby building and ran between the trainer and Ceailean.
Ceailean was still shaking but he still made his way through the uneven ground. He weaved through the cracked ground and the red vines that plagued the very streets. Ceailean turned the corner and stopped in his tracks. The trainer caught up and saw what Ceailean was seeing. A large building had been knocked over and the entire structure was blocking the way.
“Is that where we have to go?” The trainer looked down to Ceailean. He nodded with his gaze unwavering from the road. “Then let’s go.” The trainer took the lead as he made his way to the collapsed structure. Ceailean shuffled close behind and observed the city as he walked along. The sky had a hellish hue of red, the atmosphere was eerily quiet, rubble and abandoned cars were scattered amongst the street, and there wasn’t a soul in sight of the usually bustling and boisterous city.
Having arrived at the building, they saw that the glass was still intact on their level and red vines constricted in and out of the structure. They could hear the creaking and groaning of the concrete and steel while the vines audibly pulsated as if blood was flowing through them.
The trainer waved back to Ceailean and said, “Stand back kid.” He obliged. The trainer then punches the window, sending glass shards all over the ground. Weavile jumped in first to scout the interior. After looking for a moment, he gave it’s trainer an approving nod and continued on.
Before proceeding, the trainer crouched down and told Ceailean, “Look kid, if we go any farther it will be difficult to leave the city quickly, are you 100% sure you want to keep going?” Ceailean nodded after a moment. “Okay, then I will need you to do whatever I say on a dime, ya hear. When I say hide, you hide. If I say run, you run. No hesitation, understand?” Ceailean nodded again. “Okay, stay behind me.” They stepped up into the building and walked along the sideways hallway carefully. The constant crunching of glass gave the trainer a realization of the situation they were in. The trainer had stopped walking but Ceailean, still stricken with fear, kept going.
“Stop!”, shouted the trainer, grabbing Ceailean by the collar of his shirt. He looked down to see that he was one footstep away from falling into ground that had collapsed down about 15-20 feet. “We need to get higher. Weavile, find us a way up.” Weavile called back from up ahead to affirm his order. The trainer let go and Ceailean fell back into the ground. He winced in pain and found out he had cut his hand on some glass.
“Oh, let me take care of that.” The trainer carefully picked up a shard of glass and cut the sleeve of his sweater. He wrapped the cloth around Ceailean's hand as he grunted in pain. It turned slightly red upon its application. “It’s not much but it should help.” Suddenly, knocking came from the roof. Weavile called from up above to signify that it was him. “We don’t have time to find the way up, Weavile, use metal claw on the ground.” An explosion followed soon after as the roof collapsed ahead of them.
“Okay kid, we’re going up.” The trainer picked up Ceailean from the ground and lifted him up through the hole in the roof. Weavile took over and helped him the rest of the way through. The trainer jumped up and let himself through. “Weavile, make a path straight ahead.” Weavile’s claw then gained a silver aura and it charged at the wall straight ahead, destroying several walls in a straight path. As the excavation ensued, they both felt the rumbling building testing their balance.
Ceailean grabbed the trainer by the clothes to support himself. They walked hastily through the makeshift pathway until they came across the shattered glass of the other side.
“Good, alright, I’ll lower you down and-” The trainer was cut off as they heard shambling coming from behind. “Weavile.” It nodded in understanding and left to discover the source of the noise. It came back shortly after urgently calling for them. “What is it?” The trainer followed with urgency. Ceailean hesitated to follow his lead, but managed to make his way to where they were. They approached a more disarrayed part of the building where they could see a couple floors above them. Weavile then pointed out something in the rubble. Underneath a large steel beam was a Fletchinder, desperately calling out for help.
“We’ve gotta help it out, are you good at climbing kid?” Ceailean looked to Fletchinder in the perilous situation and gained a surge of determination.
“I-I can try!” he managed to mutter.
The trainer, realizing that this was the first time Ceailean talked to him, smiled and said, “Good, glad I can look to you when people and pokemon need help.” He looked at the destroyed floors up above him. Splintered wood was hanging by threads, electricity was sparking from exposed wires, water was flowing down from the upper floors, and dangling ceiling lights flickered as they swung around. The trainer and Ceailean made their way through many platforms and obstacles, helping each other along the way. Eventually, they made it to where the Fletchinder was, and it wasn’t looking good. Its wing had gotten caught under the steel beam and looked visibly broken. The beam itself looked like it had torn through the walls before resting in that position, it looked ready to fall. Fletchinder looked to them for help.
“Weavile, use metal claw.” Weavile attempted to destroy the beam, but its claw only managed to scratch it slightly. Fletchinder continued to look at them, hoping they could think of something. The trainer crouched down and said to it, “Okay, I need you to bear with me for a moment.” He pet its head in assurance. “Weavile, use icy wind on that beam.” Weavile grasped the beam firmly with both hands and blew its icy breath on to it. They watched as the beam slowly grew white and crystallized. The breath from Fletchinder became visible from the sheer cold. Ceailean began to smile and became hopeful that this could work.
All the sudden, a red light shone through the cracks of the building behind them. Ceailean took notice and watched as its intensity grew and suddenly disappeared followed by a huge explosion. The building shook violently and Ceailean was thrown to the ground. The trainer was shifted into the wall and Weavile had paused.
“What was that?” said the trainer. The building was still rumbling and various pieces of rubble began to fall around them. “Weavile, hurry!” It then cooled the steel at a faster rate. They both watched with intensity as the building around them became more unstable by the minute. After a few more large tremors, the trainer said, “We’re out of time, use metal claw!” Weavile then jumped back and lunged at the beam. It was only able to break off a small chunk. “Keep trying!” Weavile attacked again, this time getting through half of the steel beam. Fletchinder began to struggle out from under the beam. Weavile became angry and used hone claws, a red aura appearing after it did so. It used metal claw one more time and snapped the beam in half. The half that was on top Fletchinder fell through the floor and slid off its wing. It was now free, but it couldn’t fly.
“Weavile, grab it we’re getting out of here!” The destruction of the steel beam caused a chain reaction which resulted in the rapid collapse of the structure. Weavile picked up the Fletchinder and Ceailean got up from the ground followed behind the trainer. “Hurry, be quick!” They ran fast through what was left of the hallway and saw the street up ahead. But then, the floor broke away from under the trainer and he fell through. Ceailean and Weavile skidded to a halt but the floor collapse spread and dropped them too. Weavile held Fletchinder and braced itself to use itself as a cushion while Ceailean fell on his back through the drywall.
Ceailean woke up with a cold sweat and sat straight up on his bed. The feeling of falling stuck with him as he breathed heavily trying to get a grasp on reality. The nightmare had always been there, but never have they been so clear as if he were reliving it. He put his hands on his face and fell back onto his pillow, sighing out of stress. He then threw his covers off and swiftly removed himself from his bed. He made his way straight down the stairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a cup, filled it with tap water, and proceeded to down the whole thing in a couple seconds. Proceeding to calm himself down, he started to look around the kitchen and noticed a note on the fridge.
It read as follows,
Hey Ceailean, I had to wake up early for a few interviews around town today. Be sure to watch over Deerling for me while I'm out.
Love,
Mom
Ceailean was not surprised to see this, his mom was always going around town these days. As his breathing shallowed, Deerling poked its head around the counter curiously.
“Hey Deerling.” greeted Ceailean in a tired manner. Walking over to the living room, he pet Deerling and jumped over the back of the couch. He turned on the TV and noticed the laptop on the side of the couch. Picking it up, he thought of messaging Marie, needing someone to talk to. Upon opening the chatroom, he saw there were already a few messages from Marie from a couple of minutes ago. They were just several requests for a talk, they seemed urgent. Ceailean began to type away.
Dusker16: Hey, C hearin you loud and clear
Nums>02: Oh good your here
Dusker16: Yeah, what did you need to talk about. Also it’s you’re*
Nums>02: I had a little disagreement with my dad last night, so it may complicate some things, also I don't care >-<
Dusker16: What was the disagreement about?
Nums>02: Thats not important all you need to know is that I may not be able to go to Lumiose
Dusker16: Doesn't really seem like the most important thing
Nums>02: It is I swear I really want to go to Lumiose with you
Dusker16: Does it matter that much to you? Could you also punctuate correctly, it’s hard to read your messages.
Nums>02: I dont have time I have to vent also YES it means a lot its not often that I get to leave town
Dusker16:
Nums>02: C! Do you even care if I go or not
Dusker16: lol, of course I do, I would like for you to come along, we just need to figure out what’s preventing you from going.
Nums>02: My dad said he won’t let me go
Dusker16: as in he won’t give you money?
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Nums>02: as in he won’t even let me leave my room
Dusker16: well that’s not good, I don’t have an answer for that
Nums>02: could you save me from my fortress of solitude
Dusker16: You know I would never cross someone like your father
Nums>02: :( well in any case, I’ll try to think about a way to convince my dad to let me go.
Ceailean was in the middle of typing his next response when Marie messaged again
Nums>02: sry gotta go dad coming see yu
He leaned back into the couch upon reading that message, thinking about how lonely it could be to go to Lumiose alone. Deerling was watching the cartoons on the TV but didn’t seem very interested as it was curled up upon the couch. Thinking it was time to get out of the house, Ceailean smiled and asked, “Deerling, wanna go to the forest?”
It raised its head in earnest and nodded, “Deer!”
“Okay, just let me get dressed real quick.” Ceailean went back upstairs and got dressed. Afterwards, he had noticed Deerling already waiting by the door as he came down the stairs. Upon opening the door, Deerling ran outside and began jumping and playing in the snow. Ceailean walked straight ahead to the gate, but Deerling’s nose started twitching and it started sniffing around. It’s nose led it to a small trash can next to the house that was filled with a new layer of snow. Deerling sniffed it curiously before Ceailean called out, “Come on, let's get going.” It then decided to simply ignore the trash can and followed Ceailean out of the gate.
Across the street was a heavily wooded frozen forest. It lacked any features other than leafless trees and the snow that covered them and the ground. Regardless, Ceailean walked through the forest as if there was a clear path. Deerling followed behind in the snow trail that was created. They weaved through the featureless woods with ease until they came across a clearing. The sun shone upon the snow, creating a white lake of smooth terrain that radiated a bright white atmosphere. Deerling excitedly pranced around the clearing and climbed on top of a snow-covered boulder. It looked to the sky and outstretched it’s head while closing its eyes, embracing the cold air and the relaxing ambiance of its surroundings. Then, jumping down from the boulder, it approached Ceailean with a face of determination.
“You ready?” asked Ceailean. Deerling gave a decisive nod and turned to face a particular tree. The tree was quite a bit larger than its neighbors and was covered in scars.
“Okay then, use camouflage.” Deerling tensed up as an icy white aura flowed around its body, blowing a small cloud of snow across the surface of the ground upon its activation. Deerling then got into an aggressive pose.
“Now, use double kick!” shouted Ceailean. Deerling charged ahead and twirled around to hit the tree with both of its back hooves. A loud crack is heard from the impact and snow blew back from the tree. But still, it remained as if undisturbed.
“Jump back and use feint attack!” Deerling jumped back and closed in again in an evasive motion. It hits the tree again with its head with largely the same results.
“Use double kick again!” Deerling’s hooves clack against the wood. “Now use leech seed!” Deerling shifted back and shot seeds out its mouth. They landed near the base of the tree and instantly sprouted vines that grasp and cling all around its trunk. “Feint attack!” Deerling charged again in an zig zagging fashion.
This went on for a little while. Enough time had passed the sun now hung directly above them in the clearing. Deerling was panting and its head was down to the ground, snow specks coated its brown fur. Ceailean could see it was getting tired, so a random encounter with a wild pokemon would be unfavorable.
“Alright Deerling, I think we should call it, let's go home.” He turned around and went down the path they came from, assuming Deerling would follow. But after a few steps, he noticed that Deerling had stayed put. He went back to see it still eyeing the tree and panting. “Deerling?” It then gritted it’s teeth and raised its head. A green flash emanated from Deerling that forced Ceailean to cover his eyes with his arm. He quickly looked back to see a green ball had appeared in front of Deerling's mouth. It then launched it forward and it collided with the tree, creating an explosion accompanied by a large smoke cloud. Ceailean watched in amazement as wood chips flew into the air and snow fell from the trees from all around.
As the dust settled, Ceailean asked, “Whoa, what was that Deerling!” It looked back at him with a delighted expression and lowered to the ground in exhaustion. He ran up to it to make sure it was okay. “Was that what I think it was, did you just learn energy ball?” Deerling looked up to him and gave a nod. Ceailean then gave it a quick hug and rubbed its head. “That’s so cool, you just learned energy ball.”
Deerling gave a tired ‘yay’ of sorts and rested upon the snow. Ceailean looked back to the tree and noticed a small crater had formed from the ball. Not enough to severely threaten its structure, but more than what they’ve been able to do in the last six months.
“You did good Deerling, let’s-” Ceailean felt around for Deerling’s pokeball, but couldn’t find it. He rapidly patted his hands upon his clothes, making sure it wasn’t anywhere else. “Um, can you walk?” Deerling tried raising its head, but it just fell back down to the ground. “I guess not, okay, here we go.” Ceailean scooped up Deerling up from the snow, clearly straining from the weight. One step at a time, they made their way to the house. Through great effort, they made their way back to the street and noticed that Ceailean’s mom was walking down the yard.
Upon seeing this, Deerling wriggles out of Ceailean’s arms and walks the rest of the way back. Ceailean was surprised about this and said out of breath, “-coulda walked back.” Deerling looked back at him, smiled, and stuck its tongue out at him. They both walked up behind Ceailean’s Mom.
She called up the stairs, “Ceailean, come down here, I have something for you.”
“I’m right here.” said Ceailean from behind. Deerling walked past both of them to lay on the couch. His mom turned around and looked slightly confused.
“Oh hey, there’s something we have to talk about.” Ceailean felt as though he did something bad. “Your friends told me what you were planning to do. Are you sure about it?”
“About what?”
“You know, going to Lumiose.”
“Oh”
His mom put her hand on his arm, “Listen, I want you to know that I’ll support you if you go. I just want to know if you think you can handle going alone.”
“I’m not going alone, I hope.”
“You hope huh? Well since you are, I’ll give you something to help you.” She walked over to the pantry in the kitchen. “By the way, do you still have the money I gave you yesterday.”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just wondering.” She pulled out a can of peanuts from the pantry. She opened it up and pulled a roll of cash.
“Mom.” said Ceailean, feeling undeserving.
She held out to him, “Here, I want you to take it.”
“Are you sure, shouldn’t you have it?”
‘No, it's okay. When my little boy wants to go on a Pokémon journey, I want to make sure that he never has to worry about money and how to spend it.”
“But didn’t you plan on paying back-”
“She’s a nice person, I’m sure she will understand. Please take it.”
“But-” said Ceailean, out of arguments. He sighed and reluctantly took the roll of cash from his mom's hand.
“Now I did a little research for you, the train will leave tonight at 10:45, so I suggest you get upstairs and pack whatever you need.”
“Oh, yeah, right.” Ceailean made his way upstairs and packed.
The day dragged on as he waited for the time to leave. The town once again fell into the night. Lights shone from windows and chimneys left wispy trails of smoke in the air. All under the blue light of the moon. Ceailean made his hourly routine of making sure that he isn’t missing anything. He also observed the amount of money he had now accumulated, he felt terrible at the fact that he had way more money than he needed to ride the train and then some. Maybe he shouldn’t have bet at all. During the time waiting, he tried to get in touch with Marie again, but with no response. The time was 9:20 and Ceailean wanted to leave early as the train station was a long walk. He made his way downstairs and found his mom and Deerling watching late night shows.
“Ceailean, come here.” said his mom with outstretched arms. He shuffled into the obvious bear trap of a hug his mom gave. “I’m gonna miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too, but hopefully I’ll be back pretty soon.” Ceailean’s voice strained a little from the hug.
His mom released her grasp and asked, “Oh, are you gonna challenge Wulfric?”
“I’m not sure yet.” said Ceailean, scratching his head.
His mom brushed the hair away from Ceailean’s face, “If you ever need help, I’ll be here for you. Just promise me you’ll call once in a while.”
Ceailean smiled, “I promise.” Deerling walked up beside his mom and looked at him sadly. “Hey, you were the best pokemon anyone could ever ask for. Keep my mom company for me okay, and when I get back, I promise you’ll have new friends.” Deerling got teary eyed and nodded to him. Ceailean made his way out the door and down the yard.
Once he crossed the gate, his mom shouted, “Bye Ceailean! Best of wishes to you and your journey!” Deerling said the same in poke speak.
Ceailean put two fingers over his head and flicked them. “I’ll see yalls.”
Walking off to the train station, he had quite the unusual encounter. Conveniently, June happened to be in a basketball court near where he was walking.
“I’m sayin that it has been bothering me ever since yesterday.” Ceailean could recognize the voice from behind the sheet metal fence, but seeing as no one else responded, he must have been on the phone. “I didn’t know anything about it, you don’t honestly think-” June paused.
“No I was pretty far, why does that matter?”
“Ground zero?”
“I think you’re right, maybe I shouldn’t have-”
That was the last Ceailean was able to hear before walking out of earshot. It didn’t seem too important for him to know anyway.
With the train station in sight, Ceailean walked a bit faster, as he didn’t have anything to check the time with. He walked up the stairs to the platform towards the ticket vendor. The lights were dim and the place didn’t seem very active. Upon closer inspection, he saw the ticket guy was asleep inside the vendor. He knocked on the glass to get his attention.
“Hmm, where you going mate.” said the ticket guy groggily.
“To Lumiose.” answered Ceailean.
“Lumiose eh, they got the best coffee I tell ya. If you’ve neva been, I suggest you try out their cafes. Ere’ ” The ticket guy slipped Ceailean a ticket.
“I haven’t paid yet.”
“Nah, it don’t mattah, bound to be the crew's last paycheck anyway. Jus go on ahead mate.”
Ceailean held his ticket and looked with concern to the ticket guy who went back to sleeping. He went through the rotary gates and stood upon the snow covered station. He sat on a bench until the light was visible moving above the tracks. The chugging of a steam engine deafened the area as snow was pushed aside from the plow as it moved forward. It continued on as numerous empty cargo cars followed it. It slowed down to reveal that only the last two cars were passenger cars. The train came to a stop and Ceailean boarded the very back car.
Feeling tired, he plopped down on the nearest seat and rested his head upon the cold glass. He stared at his reflection and thought about what he could do on his journey. He could have his own Pokémon, battle and make friends, or finally find out what he could do in the future. If anything though, he was hoping to not go at it alone.
The train remained motionless for 35 minutes, and by the end of it Ceailean had lost hope of Marie ever showing up. The train whistle blew, and one by one, the cars began to move forward. Ceailean watched as they crawled along the station slowly gaining speed, but something caught his attention. In the rotary gate was a girl with curly blonde hair rushing her way through. Ceailean leaped to his feet and opened his window.
“Marie?” She looked up looking exhausted. Determined though, she ran up the station and lumped onto the back deck of the passenger car. Ceailean got up to open the door for her, but upon doing so saw that she had overshot it and was teetering on the edge of the other side. Acting fast, he grabbed her by the shirt just as she grabbed the railing with one of her hands. Ceailean tugged and pulled her into the car, both of them collapsing on the floor.
He sat himself up and said, “What were you thinking!”
Marie wheezed and panted through her explanation, “Finally...convinced...last minute.”
“Did you run, why didn’t just drive?”
“Oh...you know...dad needed the driver...business stuff.”
Ceailean laughed, “Well, you’re here, that’s what counts right.”
Marie closed her eyes and smiled, laying on the floor with her limbs outstretched still panting, but relieved to have made it.