Climbing up the slope of the valley took us four hours altogether. By the end of it, we were all tired, sweaty and utterly annoyed that we hadn’t decided on the easier, but longer, path, but after a few moments to catch our breath, that annoyance quickly vanished.
While we weren’t on the highest ridge, or the most prominent, the one we were on was high enough to give us an amazing view. Looking to the east, the entire horizon was dominated by the Coronal Mountains, with Mount Coronet distinctly visible to our south-east, the sun’s light turning it into a breathtaking spectacle. When looking to the west, we could glimpse the ocean between the other ridges and lower mountains, even some small patches of Eterna Forest were visible, though not a lot.
“Let’s take a break for a bit,” I told the others, taking a bit of distance. While I liked them, this wasn’t a moment I wanted to share with them. Instead, I reached for my belt, pulling out the Pokéballs of Charm and Vio, intent on sharing the moment with them. They were my precious partners and it was only thanks to them that I could even have that moment. For a moment, I considered calling out Su as well, but decided against it, the surly feline likely wouldn’t appreciate the view anyway.
Two flashes of red and the two of them looked around, momentarily searching for the danger I had called them out for, before briefly looking at me.
“Hey, you two,” I patted Vio’s head, giving Charm’s shoulder a squeeze. “No fight, no danger, just the view,” I added, nodding towards the eastern mountains, sitting down on a rock, letting my legs dangle down the slope.
Vio moved to my front, pushing my legs apart and leaning against my thigh. At the same time, Charm walked behind me, placing his claws around me and leaning on my back, his maw resting on my shoulder. Both of them made a bit of noise, their expressions so different and yet, the joy was apparent in Vio’s soft chirps and Charm’s deep growls.
“Well, I guess we are taking a break,” Claire chuckled nearby, respecting my need for distance as she called out Twiggy, hopping onto his shell.
“Are we sure calling out Pokémon is wise?” Cliff asked, sounding a little worried. He was most likely right, the presence of our partners potentially attracted the attention of wild, stronger Pokémon, quite possibly strong enough to defeat our partner and force us to flee. Up here, the terrain was just as dangerous as any Pokémon we might face. And yet, I felt my move was absolutely justified.
“Wise?” I asked, not bothering to look back at him, instead putting my arms around Vio, holding her close, “Maybe not, but what good is it to wander the wilds with our partners, if we cannot enjoy the time with them?”
“Everything’s going to be fine,” Lucas decided, taking a seat himself.
For a few minutes, we all simply looked into the distance, only occasionally pointing out some interesting or amusing thing we saw. It might be a cloud, shaped like some sort of Pokémon or Object, it might be some natural formation in the distance and at one point, Lucas pointed out what he was convinced was the shrine on Mount Coronet. Whether he was right was impossible to say, the distance was simply too far, but he was convinced.
“We’ll need to look for water soon;” I reminded the others, realising that the canteen I had filled in the valley was already more than half empty. Finding water was always difficult, but here in the mountains, it was even more so.
“We can take a risk,” Claire decided, taking out another Pokéball, “Myna, I need you,” she called, “Can you look for a spring? Something where we can find some water?” she asked, getting an affirmative sounding chirp as Myna took to the air.
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“Hopefully she’ll find something,” I muttered, while Lucas called out Snuggles, asking her to accomplish the same task.
“Eh, up here, they’ll have an easy time,” Cliff said and looking around, I had to agree. There were no trees blocking their sight, only a few shrubs and tall grasses growing between the dust and rocks. But at the same time, the sparse vegetation likely meant that there was almost no water around, or there would be more.
“We’ll need to move on,” I told my partners, giving Vio another squeeze. Just as I was about to call the two of them back, Charm raised a claw, as if asking me to wait and stared into the distance, into the northeast, towards the northern Coronal Mountains. His previously happy noises suddenly changed, their cadence one I had only heard from him once - When we had faced Giratina, right after my memories began. While parts of that night were blurry, those cries as Charm hid behind me were deeply engraved into my memory. My beloved partner was afraid.
Following his line of sight, I was unable to spot what he was looking at, but I trusted my partner’s senses. Looking down at Vio, I realised that she was hiding behind my leg, but given that it was almost her default position, I hadn’t quite noticed.
“We need to move!” I called out, my words filled with urgency. I had no idea what was coming, only a feeling that we shouldn’t be where we were.
“What?” Lucas asked, standing up and looking at Charm, realising that my partner was spellbound, staring into the distance, “What are you talking about?” he asked, but even as he asked, he was putting on his backpack, getting ready to bolt, just as I was.
Similarly, Claire had hopped off Twiggy’s shell, his Pokéball already in hand.
“Don’t know,” I admitted, “Charm, Vio, come back,” I added, using their Pokéballs to make sure they were safe, “Just that we should move,” I added, turning to walk away. There was no need to run, running would only tire us out quickly, and without a visible danger, moving a little slower was better, allowing us to put more distance between us and whatever might be there in the long run. Slow and steady would win the race, until we actually knew what we were running from.
No more words were said as we moved, each of us focusing on the simple, yet important, task to set one foot in front of the other, aware that we might be in danger at any moment. Vigilance spiked in each of us but no matter how vigilant we were, none of us noticed the danger until Claire suddenly stopped.
“There’s something,” Claire called out, squatting down and placing a hand on the ground, her face twisted into a frown.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, stopping as well.
“No idea,” she admitted, rising back up, “The ground is vibrating, just a little,” she explained, her face pale, despite our previous exertion. Her words made my heartbeat quicken and my breath caught, just a little. Without knowing how far the Pokémon causing the vibrations was away, it was impossible to gauge its strength, but just knowing that it was strong enough to shake the earth made me tremble, and not in excitement.
“Shit,” Lucas summed the situation up nicely and while we didn’t start to run, there was a new urgency in our steps as we continued to move.
There was nothing to hide behind, nothing that might help us, nothing but walking as fast as we could.
After maybe half an hour of quickly walking, Claire stopped again, squatting down once more. Just as I was about to ask what was going on, a rumbling noise came to my ears, strangely distant but strong enough to shake my teeth. Now, even I could feel the vibration in the ground, not strong enough to knock me off my feet, but incredibly scary.
“Over there,” Lucas called, pointing to the northeast. At first, I wasn’t quite sure what he was pointing at but after a moment, I noticed a cloud of dust rising in the distance. There was no way to really tell the distance, the location itself was hidden behind the next mountain ridge, but the rising cloud made me realise that we had gone where we shouldn’t have just yet.
Just as fear was taking root in my heart, Myna returned, chirping triumphantly and landing on Claire’s shoulder.
“I think she found something,” Claire grinned, the unrelated, good news helping to lift our spirits. “Let’s follow her,” she suggested, getting nods in turn. We needed to move in that direction anyway and we needed water. Hopefully, whatever had caused the earth to shake was far away and stayed there.