CHAPTER 2- The Day Before The Trip

Flashback

10years earlier

"Are you really going to be leaving soon?" A girl with unruly purple hair and a newborn axew timidly poking out from within its tresses. "I heard from the elder that you’d be going to visit Ecruteak to learn about the stories belonging to the Tin Tower."

I was sighing to myself about how easily she found me out. "Yes, Iris, I’m going to travel to Ecruteak with my mentor Drasna in order to hopefully learn more about the legendary Ho-oh and our region's three legendary beasts, Entei, Raikou, and Suicune." Iris has been a friend of mine for years now, and both of us recently had our abilities acknowledged and were chosen by two dragon masters: Drasna, who said she’s from Celestic in Sinnoh, and Drayden, who is from Unova.

"I know it’s something that you have chosen to do, but are you certain you wish to become a lorekeeper?" I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors of what happened to keeper Aster at the Sky Pillar in Hoennh a few months back." She was right. Just last year, we received a missive from the Draconic Clan in Hoennh informing us of the death of their lorekeeper and the disappearance of their lord, Rayquaza.

"I know you don’t want me to go off like this, Iris, but it’s something I want to do and a role I’ve chosen, and besides, it’s not like I’ll be undertaking the role anytime soon; I won’t be able to until I’m recognized as a dragon master and go on my own pilgrimage, so I’ve still got a few years to learn all I can!" It was true, despite what happened in Hoennh. Johto has been remarkably calm lately, what with the downfall of the evil organization Team Rocket two years ago by a boy from Pallet Town, Professor Oak, and their friend, and then again in Johto by Lance and a girl named Kris.

"Fine, but you better toughen up while you’re gone or else I’ll leave you in the dust, you hear me!" This girl. Where does she find all that energy and the desire to be so competitive? I actually fooled myself into thinking that after getting an apprenticeship under a master, she would calm down a little. I couldn’t have been any more wrong if I tried.

"You don’t have to worry about me and Dratini getting stronger. She may be young now, but I know she’ll be a real heavy hitter in the future!" I give her my most teasing grin while stroking the scarf that happens to actually be said dragon. She always does this when she wants to nap, and to be quite honest, it’s too adorable for me to get her to stop.

"Tiiiiiini," she cries in reply to my statement, and she snuggles into the crook of my neck more.

"See? Even she agrees with me!" I chuckle at how familiar the scene has become as of late. The four of us really are quite close, along with another girl named Shannon in the Valley of Dragons. "Besides, it’s not a permanent goodbye. Whenever we finish and go on our pilgrimage, we can come back here at any time or even travel to the other person, so don’t be so sad. It’s not a farewell but merely a see you later!"

"You know you hang around the elder too much; you speak like an old woman sometimes." She makes such a verbal jab, much to my chagrin.

"STOP SAYING THAT ALREADY, DON'T YOU THINK I'M NOT ALREADY SELF-CONCIOUS OF IT?" I shout indignantly before her, and she freezes and then falls into comfortable laughter. "Friends to the end?" I extend my pinky to her as she wraps hers in mine.

"Friends forever, obviously!" We hug one last time as I leave the valley gates with Drasna to head on to Ecruteak. Nervousness and anticipation mix into a potent sensation as I take my first steps towards my goal.

FLASHBACK END

As my eyes slowly flutter open, I’m awoken to the sight of my terrible bed hair, Dratini and Gible gently slumbering next to me, and the fresh morning light filtering through the window of my room.

Deciding to get a start on my day, I groggily rummage through my bag to find my brush and work on taming the mess that could give a Tangela a run for its money while recalling my dream from last night.

"Hmm, I haven’t dreamed of the dragon valley in a bit of time. I wonder if Shannon has taken any steps toward becoming a Pokémon breeder yet. The Pokémon there are definitely stronger there than most other places, but with someone to properly monitor their health and diets, something tells me Dragon Valley will end up on a higher ranking in the ranger's estimated danger ranking." Despite being called the dragon valley," not every Pokémon that calls it home is a dragon; it’s merely called that because when the valley was discovered, it was by our ancestors from Unova who were looking for an isolated space to raise them, and over the centuries, they established the dragon valley to protect the dratini there.

However, it is not like we have completely forgotten our roots, as in the village center are statues dedicated to Reshiram and Zekrom, the yin and yang dragons of Unova. Although having such a cultural mix of Johtonian and Unovan traditions, you could say they were something of a mix of two regions in one isolated area.

After finally calming my hair and mulling over the past and home, I begin my morning with some light stretches and getting out food for my two little gluttons. Both of which just so conveniently wake up as I finish preparing their food and happily begin dining.

"Goodness, if any other person attempted to feed you two, I’m afraid you’d eat them out of house and home." I sigh exasperatedly, thinking just how, for such small Pokémon, they can really get an appetite. "It doesn’t help that due to your natures, you both need specific diets in order to help you properly grow without stunting your potential."

Dragons, due to how powerful they can become by nature, start out pretty weak to compensate. Take Dratini for an example. Even though one day she’ll become a powerful dragonite and begin to truly show why she’s considered a pseudo-legendary, they actually begin most of their lives at the bottom of lakes, scavenging for anything that falls to the bottom or whatever poor water type happens to catch their eye. Typically a krabby or corphish.

This, coupled with their highly volatile nature, makes dragon-types highly coveted but also an extreme exercise in both patience and dedication, as well as being a species that you need a certification to let out within cities. Though you can let your Pokémon out in cities, some of them are just too powerful to roam outside of special designated parks such as Salamance or Gyarados.

After we finish our breakfast, I inform Dratini and Gible of our plans for the day and prepare to set out with the two trainers to Vaniville. First on the list of priorities is a tent and some rations. While there are inns scattered around the region, you’d be silly to think that there is just one conveniently in the middle of nowhere, and while not often, Kalos does get a decent amount of rainfall throughout the year, so being caught without shelter of some sort will basically be asking to succumb to hyperthermia or illnesses.

Then, once we get food and shelter out of the way, we have to think about medicine and such. While it’s true you can find berries in the wild to give your Pokémon, processed medicine is just better at getting your Pokémon back in shape, although the effect can’t be said to be the same if used on humans.

Lastly, you have to think about survival equipment. It may sound silly to most, but most people completely take for granted the conveniences of living in a city compared to going into the wild for an extended period of time. You need to worry about warmth, food, and protective measures like repellents and the like for camps. While a lot of these can be circumvented with Pokémon, depending on what partners you catch, you can potentially end up in a difficult situation. For example, you wouldn’t use a finneon to cut down a tree or start a fire, and if there’s no water source around, the poor dear wouldn’t even be able to be safely let out of their pokeball without potentially becoming a hungry bird Pokémon’s next meal.

After confirming our itinerary with the two and getting nods of agreement, we leave the room, making sure to lock the door, and head out. As we make our way out to the busy street, I look for the directory to see which area would be most appropriate to find a store that suits my needs for camping gear and non-perishable food stuff, as medicine can actually be bought with any Pokémon center thanks to the joint partnership between the two to make centers also double as general goods stores.

"I’m a bit surprised how long that all took to finish. It wasn’t an expensive trip by any means; the problem relies on the fact of how far away the stores were from each other; the camp provisions were on almost the opposite side of the city, for arceus sake." I ranted more to myself than to anyone in particular. It took about five hours to get everything on my list, and I have to say I fully understand why the city has a taxi service now. It’s just far too big to worry about hauling everything from one side to the other.

"It doesn’t help that I’m still drawing stares and eliciting surprised gasps from the locals either. I even ran into one of those supposed furisode trainers who was surprised to see my style of dress, saying that typically you see them on trainers in Laverre, and with me having no connection with the town, I thought I merely admired the style." I was starting to become more familiar with their particular aesthetic, and to some extent I can see where they draw that conclusion from, but their style of dress draws upon the phantasm that fairy types evoke while mine draws from the rich history of the Johto region. "Needless to say, I’m becoming more and more interested in how two different regions have a similar garb but are known for two diametrically inclined typings?"

It’s no secret that the dragon type is weak to fairy-type attacks; however, something interesting that they have in common is that both types don’t particularly deal well with steel-types. Due to the rigidity and stalwart defense of the dragon type, moves aren’t very effective against them, and due to the frailty of the fairy type, they actually take super-effective damage from them.

"I know it was a pretty old myth in the past, but I do remember an old folklore story in Blackthorn about a time when man and Pokémon fought in a war long ago that spoke of fairies having been weak to cold steel and said steel even being a repellent to some dragon species." Is it possible that those folktales had more truth in them than I’d initially suspected? Shelving the idea for later, should I find a public library or such, I make my way back to my room to drop off my luggage before stepping out once more to return to the cafe I stopped at on my first day in the city.

After placing my order with the waitress, I pull out my phone to browse any news where I happen to see a holocast being made by Malva warning everyone of the increased activity of Beedrill in the Santalune Forest. While beedrill on their own are typically a threat, when large colonies of them are angered, they jump up drastically in terms of threat level due to any one colony being anywhere in size from 10 to 30 at most.

Their poison is also fairly fast-acting, and they love to shoot poison stings in rapid succession, nevermind if you were run through by their stinger. Shuddering at the thought of someone unfortunate to suffer such a fate, although that wasn’t the only threat, it was the most prominent for new trainers, who typically resided in the deeper parts of forests to avoid humans. I’ll need to keep that in mind for the others when we meet tomorrow in order to make sure everyone is on the same page. Sure, the Ranger Corps has been patrolling the routes lately to keep any major dangers away, but that doesn’t make the possibility of something going wrong an absolute zero.

After finishing our meal, I decide to pay Professor Sycamore one last visit before he has to meet me and my temporary travel companions at the gate leading to Route 4. Stepping into the lobby and heading to the elevator, I’m surprised at the door opening up, revealing a tall man with red hair styled in a fashion similar to a Pyroar’s mane wearing a black suit with a fur collar and red accents with a red undershirt.

"Ah, I’m sorry. Please excuse me. I was unaware someone would be inside." I speak after moving off to the side to allow the man past me, only to find the reason for my visit standing right beside him.

"It is quite alright, young lady. I had just finished my business with Professor Sycamore and was about to head out as I've got some other matters to take care of." On first glance, the man seems fairly amicable, and I’d even say rather charismatic, but for some reason I can’t help but feel and think, "This man is on a collision course to ruin." He hasn’t done anything but bring a sense of unease to me. " But where are my manners? My name is Lysandre, and I run a cafe in the middle of the city, just off the main road to the tower. Do stop by sometime." The now-named Lysandre proffers

"Thank you for your gracious invitation." Should time find me after my tasks from Professor Sycamore are done and I am back, perhaps I shall do just that if I’m in the area." I return in kind. Truthfully, I’m not sure what has caused my unease so much, but I think it would be wise to limit my interactions with this man until I can more thoroughly gauge him.

As he nods and sets off, I redirect my attention back to the professor, as I realized I’d never actually asked who to look out for by the gate tomorrow, which caused him to become embarrassed at his mistake in not providing me with that kind of information in our meeting yesterday.

"It appears you’re correct in that I’d forgotten that, so please allow me to rectify that mistake now. You’ll be looking for two boys by the names of Trevor and Tierno. Both of them are pretty easy to identify, as Trevor has orange hair and often wears his holocaster around his neck. He is also rather studious and has a dream to complete his Pokédex. while Tierno is a tall boy who has a love for dancing and is more excited about finding partners to perfect his dance routine with. They will both be waiting for you at the gate just besides the PR studio, and both already have Pokémon of their own, so there’s no need to worry on that front. However, neither one has a vast amount of battling experience, but for such a short trip, it’s all that’s truly required."

It appears as though a portion of my worries have been alleviated. If I’d been tasked with bringing Pokémon to people without Pokémon with me, the journey would have taken longer than I’d initially planned, but I must say I wasn’t expecting the second description for Tierno. Someone with a passion for dancing Honestly, it makes me think he’d fit in well as a dance instructor for the Ecruteak Dance Theater if he chose to continue that route, and Trevor’s desire to complete the Pokédex is so very reminiscent of Crystal, who was the first trainer recognized by Professor Elm to have completed their regional dex and later go on to become their assistant.

Getting out of my thoughts, I thank the professor and begin to head back for the night, as the visit had been much longer than I’d anticipated, seeing the setting sun paint the sky in a vivid and beautiful hue of pinks, oranges, and blue. After having returned to my room and set out my Pokémon’s food, I decide it’s a good idea to fill mom in on what’s happened so far. I think about pulling out my phone and dialing home.

"Hello? Saya, is that you? I hope that you’ve been doing well and didn’t get lost along the way!" I’m immediately greeted by my overly worried mother, who, if you saw her at this moment, totally wouldn’t be believed to be the dragon specialist of this region's elite 4.

I never knew my birth mother because she passed away during childbirth, but from what I was able to get from others and the elder, I’m related to Lance and Clair, both of whom became like older siblings to me when I was younger, and we still keep in touch. As a matter of fact, it was actually Clair who gave me Dratini’s egg way back. She said, "It’ll make us closer if we have a Pokémon in common and can raise them well." I wouldn’t learn until later that my dratini was actually the daughter of her dragonite. Finding out that news, I immediately called her and started bawling my eyes out that she thought of me so much. How embarrassing.

"Yes, mom, I’m fine! I got in yesterday and have already met up with the professor. He asked me to head to Vaniville town with two other trainers named Trevor and Tierno to deliver some starter Pokémon to some new trainers." I quickly explain myself before she can continue her grilling of me.

"Oh, so that’s what the favor was about? I thought he was going to ask you for help with his fieldwork, but I didn’t expect him to ask you to help out with a task like that. Have you already found out when you need to leave? After successfully avoiding any further tirades about my personal well-being, I let her know all the current information I have and my preparations. "Well, it seems you've got everything well and in order, but do be careful of the deeper parts of the forest; surely you’ve already heard about the increasing beedrill incidents."

Sometimes it’s almost funny how alike we can be in situations like this. Despite her being so strong, she is admittedly to a fault a very caring person and will go out of her way to help people, to the point where I wouldn’t be surprised if she said she wanted to be a Nurse Joy when she was younger, but when she gets into a battle or I put myself in danger, she can turn into a Salamence with an intimidation that can put the actual Pokémon to shame.

"Yes, I saw the holocast this evening after I stopped at a cafe, and I already went to the professor to make sure my companions had their own pokemon that they could use if a situation occurred." That was the honest truth. While meeting that man was far outside my expectations for the day, I really did need to make sure I had my information sorted out just in case. "That’s all I really had to say. I just wanted to let you know because I’ll be heading out tomorrow morning."

"Alright, I’ll let you off this time, but be sure to call me every now and then. Also, give Dratini and Gible a kiss for me and tell them I said hi! Love you!" Mom has always been a bit overly doting at times, but she never tried to dictate my life, which I’ve been grateful for, so after saying our goodnights to each other, we finally ended our call.

Sighing as I lay on the bed after getting changed, I think of my meeting tomorrow and trip to Vaniville as I slowly drift off to sleep, not before feeling Dratini and Gible both hop on the bed and curl up next to me. Tomorrow is the day, huh?

Lorekeeper_Mystique

Hi everyone! so i'd like to say first of all if you've even gotten this far down that i'm grateful for you all reading and giving my story a try. There are still a couple things i want to iron out but as i plan out more of how i want the story to go i'm actually finding it easier to keep up a word count xD
ideally i wanted to make each chapter at the minimum 2k words but i'm curious would shorter but more frequent chapters be better or would longer one be more up to stuff. i personally want to do longer chapters cause i'm impatient and want to enjoy stories as long as i can lol but let me know!