Following the woman back to her camp, I was able to catch a glimpse of what a properly funded trainer’s camp looked like.

The camp consisted of a large tent, about the size of a popup awning, except with walls on the sides and a large tarp covering the floor. The thing that surprised me most was a large drum of water.

It turns out that if you have enough money, you are able to buy backpacks that use pokeball technology to be way bigger on the inside. Becuase of this, for most trainer what they can carry ultimately come down to what they can afford.

“How are you able to afford this,” I start, “are you a sponsored trainer?”

Liz laughs before explaining, “I’m only actually a trainer in name, I’m actually an archeologist and this is all from a research grant provided by university.”

After some more small talk, we both decide that we should wait till tomorrow before we head to the ruins.

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It turns out that not even well funded trainers can avoid getting sand everywhere.

Awakening from some of the best sleep I’ve had in a few days thanks to a borrowed blanket, I make a small meal for myself and Rufflet before we head out for the ruins with Liz.

Liz, clad in her tan archeology outfit, and I, clad in a shirt that is closer in shade to matching liz’s at this point, quickly make it to the ruins in record time.

“So what exactly do you expect to find here, havnt most of the ruins already been explored?” I ask liz.

“While it might be true that most of ruins have been explore, none of the previous groups have had my expertise!” Liz exclaims smugly.

“Your expertise being…”

“Local deities and folklore!”

Confused, I ask, “And how exactly is that different from the previous groups?”

She looks at me like I’m slow, finally she explains with a great deal of tiredness, “Previous groups were only looking for connections with the Dragon of Truth, and they were only able to find loose connections at best. Meanwhile I’m more interested in the ruins' significance to the local ancients that used to live here.”

“Ancients?” I ask as from my knowledge the games never really went into details about this.

“Before being wiped out by the early settlers of Unova, a great ancient civilization used to live right here in this desert!” Liz explains, he excitement on the topic showing through her tired facade,

“Although most evidence of their civilization has been wiped out, these ruins still stand as evidence of their presence!”

“And what do the local deities and folklore have to do with this?” I ask.

“My theory is that instead of worshiping the Dragons of Truth and Ideals like current civilization, rather they worshiped a Deity with connections to the sun.”

“Oh, so like Volcarona.” I state plainly.

She stare at me with an incredulous look, “So somehow you’re aware of Volcarona’s mythos and ties to the sun, something that only a few scholars in this field are aware of, but you don’t know about the ancient civilization that is taught in nearly every middle school in Unova?”

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Panicking, I backtrack, “Uh… I was really interested in the Pokemon after I saw Alder’s so I did some research”, I say Lying on the spot.

Too annoyed to deal with this, she moves on as we approach the entrance of the ruins. Moving her hand to her whip where there’s a pokeball I failed to notice before she calls out “Watchog, light it up”

Standing where the ball lands is a brown marsupial standing on two legs. Clad around its body are brightly glowing yellow stripes, reminiscent to a safety vest.

“This is my partner, Watchog, he’ll help light up the ruins for us, and his hearing will also let us know of anything that might be nearby.”

“Oh cool, so kinda like a walking flashlight.“ I muse out loud earning me a glare from the glowing meerkat.

After some time wandering the ruins, we eventually reach a dead end that has Liz zooming past me to my surprise, “Check out these engravings!” Liz states excitedly.

“If I’m interpreting these correctly, these etchings are definitive proof that the Ancients were worshiping a deity with ties to the sun, possibly Volcorona!”

“What exactly does it say?” I ask.

“Ummm… one second let me try to figure out how to translate this into english.” Liz explains, pausing for a few moments.

“Ok, it should say something along the lines of ‘Come those of times distant to our own who desire to pillage our tombs, the watcher of the sun shall judge your heart’s purpose.’”

As Liz finishes the translation, the sands beneath us begin to shift.

“WHATS HAPPENING!” I try to yell over the loud rumbles.

“I DON’T KNOW, IT DOESN’T EVEN MAKE SENSE THAT SAYING THAT WOULD EVEN TRIGGER SOMETHING, IT'S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT LANGUAGE” Liz says just before she gets buried beneath the sinking sands.

I’m quick to follow as my head is quickly submersed as well, soon after however, we fall onto a small pile of sand below.

“An undiscovered part of the ruins!”

Liz begins to go into detail about what this could mean for her research before Watchog makes a small noise getting her attention. Almost cartoonishly, it gets on all fours before pointing one of its limbs down the hallway.

“What’s it doing?”

“When It does that it means it can hear something ahead.” As she explains, we hear a loud roar from up ahead.

“We should go check that out” Liz says

"Hold on, you really think that we should go running towards a sound like that with a Rufflet and a Watchog?" Watchog shoots me another dirty look that is starting to become iconic for him.

"History might be being made right now, can you really just sit here and know?!" Liz exclaims rushing past me towards the noise. Not wanting her to get in trouble, I follow.

----------------------

Peering around the bend in the hallway we find a pair of men guarding some sort of entrance.

“I just hope that Boss hurries up. I just want to get this over with and sell that fiery bug to the highest bidder”

“They must be talking about Volcarona,” Liz whispers, “We can’t let them do that!”

“You distract them, I’ll go try to stop their ‘Boss’” I plan

“Alright” Liz runs past the intersection drawing the guard’s attention

“HEY YOU CAN’T BE HERE”, The guards yell after briefly before they leave to chase her.

Entering the passage, I find myself in a large spectator area overlooking an arena. The walls were lined with elaborate carvings in the tan, weathered stone and the floor of the arena was littered with red sand.

In this arena we see a man with Red hair clad pulled back into a pony tail in green clothes Battling a Volcarona.

The exhaustion on the bug is evident, heaving with every flap of its wings.

“YOU WILL BE MINE BUG!” The man yells as his Hydreigon rushes past the man.

“Finish it.” The man orders.

Each of the Dragon’s mouths begin to glow as power begins to build, Volcarona, not to be outdone, leans back in a great breath.

The dragon unleashed three dragon pulses fusing into one powerful beam as they flew. Volcarona matches it, Unleashing a stream of Fire meeting the beam in the center.

This contest of strength continues for a moment before the fire begins to be pushed back.