I awoke several days later in a hospital bed, my left arm heavily bandaged but, from what I could see and feel, miraculously still intact. I poked it with my opposite hand a couple times and felt nothing besides the pressure of my fingers. I started to pick at the edge of the bandage before being startled by a Chancey and Nurse Joy standing in the doorway.
"Good, you're finally awake," said Nurse Joy as she stood in the doorway with several charts in her hand. Whether she knew that I would be waking at that moment or if she just happened to be passing by, I'll never know. She turned to the Chancey at her side and said, "Chance chan chan Chancey Chancey," and the Chancey took off down the hallway, a pink blur. Understanding Chancey has never been one of the languages I've been good at, but from what I picked up, it roughly translated to "The child is awake, get the Fire King."
"What happened after The Choosing Ceremony?" I asked as I struggled to sit up. Though physically I felt fine, the toll of not having eaten for several days made it extremely hard to move. After several attempts to raise myself, I finally managed to brace my back against the wall into a sitting position. "Will our clan still have a Champion this year?"
I heard Nurse Joy giggle. "Chance chan," she started before realizing her mistake. "Sorry about that, I'm so used to only having Chancey to converse with. What I meant to say is that nothing is going to stop the Inferno Clan from entering a champion. The Fire King has already punished Emberwilde for his actions."
I let out a short laugh. "A punishment, huh. I'd like to see that," I said, thinking about the shame he brought upon our clan, about how he sought to embarrass me in front of the clan, but mostly I thought of my bandaged arm that I should've lost in the fire.
"If you want proof, just look to your right," I heard Nurse Joy say as the sound of her footsteps took her further down the hallway.
Turning to my right, I saw a small nightstand with my clothes (freshly washed and folded), and, sitting on the pile of clothes, was a pokeball, black and gray. My pokeball, still intact and shining with the afternoon sun pouring through the window. As if sensing my gaze, the Pokeball gave a slight shake. Emberwilde.
Just an hour later, the Fire King walked through the door, ducking down under the door frame. He stood silent and still, ignoring my growling stomach as I pulled myself off of the bed and onto the cold, linoleum floor, freezing my bare feet until I pulled myself to my full height. Then, I dropped to my knees and lowered my head. "Greetings Fire King of the Inferno Clan," I said with my eyes still focused upon the floor.
The giant Charizard returned my nod. In Charizard, he spoke, "Our Clan expresses deepest sympathies for the harm that has befallen you and the ordeal one of my own Lords has put you through. I have spoken with Lord Emberwilde about the spectacle he made at the Choosing Ceremony and received his assurance that there will be no further incidents like the one we witnessed that day, especially upon your journeys together."
I shivered slightly when the Fire King said "spoken" as the word, in Charizard, can also mean something akin to "settle the matter," typically with force (they were Charizard after all). For his embarrassing display, there was a good chance the Fire King may have used claws and talons as much as words to reprimand the other rogue Charizard.
The Fire King continued. "Nurse Chancey has informed me that besides the weakness you might be feeling from your hospitalization, you have made a full recovery. May I request that you begin Emberwilde's journey as soon as possible as the other clans' champions have already begun." And with that, the Charizard made his way out of the room.
I waited a full fifteen minutes on the floor after the Fire King had exited until I pulled myself to my feet. With Emberwilde's pokeball clutched in my still-bandaged hand, I made my way out of the hospital. Despite being scorched by flames, my arm still felt relatively alright, though I'd still yet to peel away the bandages to see the real damage underneath. Once I got home, I grabbed my still packed bag (I planned to win, after all) and headed toward the coast. In the past years, there's always been a crowd of people to see off the three Champions, but due to the events of the Inferno Clan's ceremony, the only thing awaiting me was an already sun-faded sign wishing the Champions luck on their journeys. Looking across the ocean, I could barely make out the land on the other side - the edge of Kanto and the start of Emberwilde's journey. I looked around the empty harbor. But first I needed to figure out how to get there. Seeing the sun starting it's descent, it would be dark soon and the last thing I wanted was to return to the village so quickly after heading out.
I pulled Emberwilde's pokeball from my hip belt and expanded it to its full size. After all, it was his fault that we were in this mess, why shouldn't he help us out? Still, I hesitated, staring at the black obsidian gleaming off the light of the setting sun. Normally, I would never even dream of asking any Charizard, much less one given the title of Lord by the Fire King, if I could ride on it's back, but these were desperate times. Finally, I placed the pokeball carefully on the ground and backed away. In Charizard, I called upon Emberwilde. "Char char. Chaaar. Charizard!"
The pokeball opened and, in a flash of light, Emberwilde appeared, standing at full height. "Char," he said as he looked me over, an ant disturbing his slumber. For a fraction of a second, I saw his expression soften. Following his eyes, I found them focused on my still bandaged arm. As much as I wanted to shove it in his face, to ask him what he was thinking, if it was all worth it, No, now was not the time as we had a much bigger problem in front of us.
"What?" Emberwilde repeated as his eyes narrowed once more. From his nose, wisps of smoke began to rise.
"Umm," I stuttered as I tried to ask. Luckily, at that moment, a Lapras broke the surface close to the docks. The black markings covering the right half of its shell marked it as one of ours, a member of the Inferno Clan and subject of the Fire King. I breathed out a sigh of relief, perhaps I wouldn't have to ask Emberwilde the unthinkable if this Lapras could transport us instead.
I waved and called to the Lapras to get it's attention. "Laaaapraaas!" I shouted, leaving Emberwilde a few feet behind as I made my way to the dock. "Hello, I was wondering if you would assist me in my journey?" I said in Lapras once I'd gotten the Lapras's attention. "I am to bear Emberwilde, our clan's champion, across the ocean and into Kanto. I was wondering if you may assist me in my quest?" I smiled, knowing that there was no way a subject of the Fire King would turn down a request to assist one of the Fire King's own Lords.
The Lapras refused. Shaking its head, it explained loud enough for Emberwilde to hear as well, "No one will ferry Emberwilde across the ocean. He must make the quest on his own. For his actions at the Choosing Ceremony, he has disgraced himself and the clan. Only by redeeming himself will he again be a recognized member of the Inferno Clan." With that, the Lapras fired a very weak water gun as Emberwilde's chest, not much of an attack, but very much an insult. To me, he spoke, "I'm sorry, Young Bearer, but this is the way of the clan. I'm sure you will understand." With that, the Lapras ducked under the water and was gone. And, as much as I didn't want to, I did understand.
I turned to find Emberwilde gone, returned back to his pokeball. I walked back to the spot I'd placed it only to find an old fisherman, Emberwilde's pokeball in hand. "Looks like you're in a bit of a pickle," he said with a chuckle as he handed me the pokeball, "Any way I can help out?"
"Yeah, just a slight inconvenience but I'll figure it out," I said as I took the pokeball and placed it back on my hip. I turned to face the water, the night beginning to settle in. "If you've got a boat to get us out of here tonight, that would be a lifesaver," I added as I turned back from the water and started up the path to the village.
The old man chuckled and grabbed me by my bandaged arm. "Curious," I heard him mutter before shouting, "Well, you're in luck because I just so happen to have a boat!" He began pulling me toward the far end of the dock. "She might not be the fastest but she's got enough to get you there and back. Plus I've been sailing these waters all my life, doing it in the dark won't be a problem."
We got to the far end of the dock to find a small fishing boat tied up. It didn't look like it could float in a bathtub, much less the ocean, but at this point I'd take anything. "Are you sure about this?" I asked as the old man jumped into the boat and began preparations for take-off. "Isn't anyone from the Inferno Clan forbidden from helping Emberwilde."
I heard laughter, "Oh, don't you worry about that." The old man poked his head out from the boat, a smile on his face. "Although this is a pretty dangerous request, perhaps I should get something out of it as well."
I frowned, "Sorry, sir, but I don't have any money to pay you, nor anything of value to trade," I said as I felt my spirits begin to drop. Even if I were to come back tomorrow,
though I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find any help to get me across the water.
The old man motioned for me to get into the boat. "Oh, don't you worry about that," he said with a smile, "I think I've figured out a way for the two of you to repay me. A small favor shouldn't be too difficult for a Lord of the Inferno Clan." As I got into the boat, he explained the deal he'd just thought of. "You see, your presence in the Kanto region is valuable enough to me. I have some business out there that might require your assistance. Plus, the Kanto region is full of exotic things that we just don't have here in the Tartarus Isles. Perhaps you could assist me, when I call on you, of course?" Without a way to refuse that would still allow us passage across the ocean, I reluctantly agreed and handed him my Pokegear to enter his contact info. "Well, now that we've got that taken care of, let's get you two across the ocean." And with that, we were off to Kanto.
I was actually working on another story when I realized that, if you were following this story (which, as I say about all my stories, you really should find something better to do), that for almost 4 months, its been on a cliffhanger on what the fuck happened to the main character's arm. So, I've been splitting my time between this one, the other one, and Destiny 2. This is probably one of the reasons it has a rushed feeling to it. I feel like I should've spent more
time on it, especially with descriptions and even with some of the
dialogue, but I've also been sick recently so most of this has been
written at night, half-asleep or whatever I can put together during my
lunch break. It still annoys me that certain sections are just huge chunks of dialogue. I'm still not sure why, but having characters just standing around and talking annoys me, but obviously, how else would things get explained? And it's something that happens in the real world (it's exactly what happens everytime I leave the theater). I think I just need to work on breaking up those chunks with bits of action (at least no one stands perfectly still all the time). One stupid thing, I originally wrote the first-half as if the character was bed-ridden in the hospital bed (a hard time standing for the Fire King, and even just sitting up to talk with Nurse Joy). Still not sure why as the only thing injured was an arm and I took care of stating that it was relatively okay very early. And yes, I do have something planned for what's under the bandages, if you're interested (it's not that interesting). And yes, I also realize that the character is sounding much less like the 10 year old kid s/he is supposed to be (I still haven't determined if it's a boy or a girl). Hopefully I'll also get the next part done sometime next month as this seems to be something I'm going to continue on for a while at least.
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