Fresh air never felt so good, Cassie thought as she wandered lazily down Route 206 with Orion at her side, enjoying the faint bit of breeze that was blowing along the road. The little canine was still all but pinned to her hip after what happened the day before, and a part of Cassie really couldn’t blame him no matter how many times she insisted she was okay. Her throat was still a little sore, but her chest pain was much better now after the overnight stay in Eterna Memorial, and she’d felt well enough to travel again after a good breakfast to give her back the energy she’d been lacking. They had been traveling for a few hours now, taking their time as she and Kaitlyn made their way down the winding curves of Cycling Road with their small entourage of team members, and the sun was high in the sky now and beating down on the shade-less environs without remorse. Even with Sinnoh’s generally mild early spring climate, being out in the sun with no cover for a few hours was still enough to make Cassie long for a nice bit of shade and make a mental note to buy some sunscreen when they finally hit Oreburgh.
They finally decided to stop for lunch around one o'clock, the legs of humans and Pokemon alike in need of a bit of rest from all the walking. Kaitlyn had set up a makeshift campsite at the bottom of the route with practiced ease, settling in against a small grove of trees to provide shade, and she had started up a campfire with Orion’s help while Cassie and Astrid helped prepare the food for cooking. It was then that Cassie finally got to take a look at how Kaitlyn’s more unusual Pokemon ate.
She watched as Kaitlyn extracted a cylindrical container from her backpack, topped off with what looked like a solar panel and featuring two coiled wires connected to the top and strapped to the sides. Her Magnemite floated over with happy, mechanical tones emanating from it as it saw the device, following Kaitlyn as she set it up in a sunny patch of space nearby. The Steel-type trainer explained that the machine was just a solar-powered generator as she connected the wires, ending in small flexible patches, to the screws in Tera's front almost like one would a pair of jumper cables. Magnemite, she explained, fed on electricity instead of any kind of organic food like most Pokemon, and this was a simple way to make sure she always had a supply of ‘food’ on hand. The hum of the small generator filled Cassie’s ears a moment later, and she saw a few errant sparks emit from Tera as it happily started to drain power from the machine's battery for its meal.
By comparison, her Onix was much simpler, though it surprised Cassie when the massive creature burrowed into the ground and disappeared in a cloud of dust and upturned earth. Onix could eat normal food like any Pokemon, but the sheer amount that it required usually made it impractical for most trainers. Instead, Ivan often just tunneled through the earth in search of large boulders and other minerals to eat, something which would also aid his eventual evolution into a Steelix on top of eliminating a potentially astronomical food cost for Kaitlyn.
With most of Kaitlyn's team taken care of for the moment, the two girls returned their attention to preparing food for themselves, Astrid, and Cassie's team. Cassie found herself surprised to see how swiftly Kaitlyn was able to pull everything together for their meals, and in no time at all she had whipped up a variety of things for the group. A large steak and what looked like green onions for Astrid, a stir-fried meat and vegetable blend for Orion, and what seemed to be something akin to a fried rice dish for the two of them made their way off the campfire one after another, filling the air with delectable aromas. Paulos was the only one without a cooked meal, instead having a large bowl of berries and mixed nuts from Cassie’s bag that she had prepared.
“Where did you learn to make this?” Cassie asked between mouthfuls of food, listening to the smacking noises coming from beside her as Orion dug into his own food eagerly.
“Mom's from Johto,” Kaitlyn replied, gulping down another spoonful of her own bowl. “She taught me and Kayley a lot of the local dishes she learned when we were growing up.”
That got Cassie's attention. She’d naturally assumed that Kaitlyn’s parents were Sinnoh natives as well. “Johto? Which city is she from?” Cassie asked, food momentarily forgotten in her curiosity.
“Olivine. She used to work out at the port for one of the shipping companies before she met dad and moved out here.”
“Is your dad from Sinnoh?”
“Yeah - he works out at a steel yard in Canalave,” Kaitlyn replied. “Might visit him if he's there when we get there. He works one of those weird schedules - three weeks on, one off.”
“No wonder you wanted to be a Steel-type trainer,” Cassie laughed. “You’ve been practically surrounded by them since you were born.” Jasmine of Olivine and Byron of Canalave were both Steel-type Gym Leaders, and if her dad also worked in steel manufacturing, she’d definitely grown up with enough influences around her from childhood that some of it had to rub off.
“Guess you could say that,” she chuckled, shoveling another spoonful of hot rice into her mouth.
“So, where’d Kayley get the Dragon Tamer thing from?” Cassie continued, tilting her head curiously. “With the way you talk about her, I figured she’d take more after Whitney than Clair.”
That caused Kaitlyn to pause for a moment before her eyes widened in realization, and she choked down the rice in her mouth before it could choke her in return. “Oh, Arceus...you saw the video, didn’t you?”
“The one with her using a Garchomp on a gym trainer?” Cassie snickered. “Yeah, I saw it. What’s the story behind that one?”
“I’m not even going into that,” Kaitlyn said, sighing. “You can ask her yourself sometime - she loves to talk about it.”
Cassie grinned, obligingly dropping the topic so as not to annoy her friend too much as the two of them went back to eating in relative silence, trying to finish off their meals while they were still hot. The rice quickly vanished from their bowls, giving them both a much needed pick-me-up after hours of walking.
“Hey, Kaitlyn?” Cassie started, reaching down and beginning to pet Orion, who'd dropped his head into her lap as he laid down on the grass to relax. “Why did you become a Pokemon trainer?”
That wasn't a question she'd thought about very often, the taller blond mused. She'd started a few years ago, but she hadn't even attempted the conference circuit until last year. Getting a Pokemon just seemed natural, a good way to have a constant companion, teach her to be responsible, any number of reasons. She wanted to be the most notable Steel-type specialist now, of course, but that was a dream that had come later on, long after she'd caught Astrid and begun the trainer's life.
“I don't know,” she finally answered honestly, shrugging a little. “I didn’t catch Astrid until I was fifteen. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do with my life - I'm still not a hundred percent sure, really. Traveling seemed like it’d be as good a way as any to try and figure it out, I guess.”
The answer surprised Cassie more than she thought. Kaitlyn had always seemed to be on top of things ever since Cassie had met her, and to hear her admit the uncertainty was definitely a shock.
“What about you?” Kaitlyn asked, flipping the question back onto Cassie. “What made you want to start?”
“Just...the idea of a journey,” Cassie said instantly, no hesitation in her voice at all unlike her friend. “I always wanted to be a trainer, running around with my own team to take on the world, you know? It all seemed so exciting, like hanging out with a group of my best friends all the time and seeing new sights.” She grinned, ruffling Orion's head fur and earning a jokingly annoyed look from the Fire-type.
“Does it live up to the hype?”
“Except for caves,” Cassie replied, causing Kaitlyn to chuckle.
“At least you're still enjoying yourself, even after that,” she said, glancing over to see Tera and Astrid seemingly engaged in conversation. “By the way, I forwarded you an email from Kayley with some Poketubers you could watch for care stuff.”
“I saw that,” Cassie said with a nod. “I spent some time yesterday getting through some of my video backlog. It's been getting a bit out of hand...”
“Down the Bunnelby hole, huh?” Kaitlyn teased, laughing at the defeated look that crossed Cassie’s face. “Trainer life is like that. It's like taking twenty different classes all at once, and everything just keeps changing as soon as you think you're making progress.”
“I feel like I'm never going to get through it all...every time I finish one video, I've got three more in its place because I started wondering about different things in what I just watched. There's just so much interesting stuff to see!”
Kaitlyn just nodded. She definitely sympathized with her friend - she had felt much the same when she first started studying and practicing in her first weeks of being a trainer. There was always something new to see, theories to read, Pokemon to learn about, and places to go. In a way, it was the most expansive form of academia to exist, given how many different things trainer life encompassed and often forced someone to learn, practice, or experience as a part of their travels. Cooking, grooming, and proper training and exercise were paramount for practically any trainer, and that wasn’t even getting into some of the more esoteric skills that trainers often needed in order to take care of certain types of Pokemon.
“What’s been your favorite thing to learn about so far?”
Cassie stopped, looking up at the tree canopy and scrunching up her face as she pondered the question. It felt impossible to pick just one thing, really. Videos about Type Energy were neat, care tips were always a fun watch because of how many different Pokemon she usually saw in them, battle videos were full of action and interesting strategies...
“Probably all the grooming and care video stuff, honestly,” she answered after a long stretch of thought. “I really like seeing how different it can be to take care of different Pokemon, even if they’re the same type.”
“You might like PokeDiscovery,” Kaitlyn suggested, nodding as she spoke. “It's all about studying Pokemon in the wild, like a nature documentary. They do episodes weekly on Poketube about different Pokemon, habitats, things like that.”
Cassie blinked, wondering how she could've missed the idea of looking for something so obvious, then groaned. “I’m never getting through my backlog if I start watching that,” she laughed. “Should I just try to be a researcher instead of doing the gym challenge?”
Kaitlyn laughed, shrugging in lieu of answering the joking question. “Hey, maybe we'll see if Professor Rowan will consider letting you do an internship at the lab after the season's over. Couldn't hurt to ask if you're that interested, right?”
“Is that really an option?”
Cassie's face had morphed instantly into a look of intense curiosity that Kaitlyn hadn't entirely expected, and she answered quickly with a nod of her head.
“Yeah. Professor Rowan gets applications for internships year-round, even if not many of them actually get approved. He only has so many spots that he can fill each year, but he usually tries to space them throughout the year instead of choosing all of them near the start. If you Zoogle the lab’s website, you should be able to find the application form there.”
“I'll have to do that,” she said, distractedly fishing for her phone to make a note to remind herself as Orion got up and wandered away to explore the clearing. “So, did you have any plans on how you're going to track down a Skarmory?”
“More or less,” Kaitlyn shrugged. “Route 207 has a lot of branching side paths leading into the hills, and I’m hoping that if we detour down a few of them we might catch a glimpse of some. I don’t think they’d be nesting just yet, but they might be hunting in the area on the way through.” She pulled out her phone, taking a minute to browse before turning it to show Cassie a satellite view of the area from above. The sloping, rocky crags of the foothills were easily visible as a stark contrast to the greenery before the beginning of 207, greenery which tapered off near-completely as the surrounding mountainous terrain closed in around it like a river’s end.
“There’s an entrance to the caves within the Coronet range near where the route starts, by the way,” Kaitlyn added, pointing it out roughly with her finger on the screen. “If you ever want to hunt Rock or Steel-types, that would be a good place to start, and it’s not too far from Oreburgh. The main passage through the mountain there leads out towards Hearthome City - it’s well-traveled and maintained by the League, since it’s a major throughway for trainers.”
“How much does the League actually maintain in Sinnoh?” Cassie asked, suddenly wondering how expansive the League’s scope really was to include things like mountain passages. It seemed like everything she could think of had the League’s fingerprints on it somewhere, whether it was directly maintained or run by them or just influenced by their simple existence.
“Honestly, just about everything, really,” Kaitlyn replied. “At least, all the things most trainers would think of. Pokemon Centers and Poke Marts, obviously, but then you have all the major numbered routes, the gyms, Suzuran Island...”
“Suzuran Island?” Cassie interrupted, not recognizing the name. “What’s that?”
“That’s the island where the conference is held every year. It’s where the Pokemon League Headquarters and the conference stadium are - it’s basically the seat of government for the region, in a way.” Kaitlyn thought for a moment, trying to remember what else was maintained by the Sinnoh League. “Oh yeah, there’s also all the city contest halls and the one out at Lake Valor,” she added after a few seconds thought.
Cassie had forgotten all about the idea of Pokemon Contests, having seen them as less interesting than the normal gameplay while playing the games they’d appeared in. She’d dabbled a little in them just to see what they were like, but she honestly wasn’t the biggest fan. She’d seen a few things online advertising them, though, and they certainly looked different than the simplistic version they were in the games. The thought had crossed her mind once or twice of buying a ticket and at least watching one whenever she passed through a city hosting some.
Her mind drifted back to something she’d had a passing thought about a while back, still trying to process the sheer scope of the League’s responsibilities. “What about the Battle Frontier? Is that part of the League too?”
“Surprisingly, the Battle Frontier isn’t one of the things the League handles. It’s an organization all its own that offers more specialized challenges than the normal League Circuit, so they come up with all their funding on their own. There’s a lot of rich backers for the place all around the world, though. They’ve got facilities in a few of the major regions now, actually, and I’m pretty sure I heard some rumors a year or two ago about putting one in Unova next.”
Cassie simply nodded, digesting all the information as best she could. She had a dozen other questions about just how the League maintained all of that, but she decided to put those aside for the time being. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to drag you off-topic like that. You were talking about the side paths on Route 207, right?”
“It’s fine,” Kaitlyn said, a small grin creeping back onto her face. “And yeah, I was. I figured we could spend a day looking through a few of them to see if we can catch sight of any Skarmory flocks. They’ve been pretty common for the last week or two from what I’ve seen online, and I might be able to catch the attention of some of them to see if they want a battle.”
A series of musical metallic tones emanated from nearby as Tera wandered back over, apparently done with its ‘meal,’ and Kaitlyn chuckled as she looked over at the Magnemite. “Unless Astrid’s figured out how to fly when I wasn’t looking, yes, I’m talking about getting your help,” she told the Electric-type. The answering tones of Tera’s odd laughter were easily recognizable as such, and Cassie found herself slightly baffled as to how Kaitlyn ever learned to understand or interpret the Pokemon’s odd speech. Probably some sort of translation or interpretation from Astrid, she guessed.
“I could see if Paulos could help if you want,” Cassie offered. “I’m sure he’d be able to get their attention.”
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“Actually, I might take you up on that offer,” Kaitlyn said after a few moments of consideration. “I doubt they’d see Paulos as any kind of a threat like they might with Tera.”
That made sense, Cassie thought. Skarmory were still weak to Electric moves with their Flying typing, but Paulos’ comparatively small form and typing would hardly be a threat to even a juvenile member of the Steel-type species. Kaitlyn flipped the phone in her hand back around again to show Cassie the satellite map, this time with a closer view of the area near where the route numbers changed over.
“So, the main path keeps going south towards Oreburgh, but there are a couple paths branching off into the foothills to the west like I mentioned a few minutes ago. I figure we can take one of the less-traveled paths up and search around a bit. Plus,” she added with a grin, “you can get some training in against Rock-types for your fight with Roark later.”
Orion barked loudly from nearby, trotting up to Cassie happily and bopping her shoulder in a playful headbutt. “Got excited about training, huh?” Cassie laughed, ruffling the dog’s head and causing him to whine as he shook himself out from under her hand. She switched to stroking him along the back instead, and he instantly slid down to the ground on his belly, enjoying the smooth movements as she turned her attention back to Kaitlyn. “We’re gonna have a hard fight coming up when we get to Oreburgh, you know...”
Orion’s body didn’t move, but his fluffy tail wagged with excitement. Cassie was glad to see him eager and raring to go instead of whimpering and hesitant like he had been the first time they’d battled.
“It’s...a little before two,” Kaitlyn said, standing and stretching before starting to pack up the assorted bits of campsite that they’d pulled out to cook and relax. “Want to get back on the road, or want to do some training first? We probably won’t need to set up camp for the evening until about seven or so.”
Orion’s ears perked up at the word ‘training,’ and Cassie laughed as she realized which one her Pokemon had already chosen. “Looks like training,” she giggled, looking around to see if she could figure out where Paulos had gotten off to. He probably hadn’t gotten into too much trouble with Astrid and the others around, she reasoned. “Ready to start training up for Roark, Orion? This one’s going to be rough.”
The puppy barked eagerly, shifting himself out from under Cassie’s hand and drawing himself back up to his full height proudly. Kaitlyn couldn’t help but smile - this was what she was used to seeing a Growlithe act like. There was a reason that police used them as guard dogs and canine companions, after all. Brave, trustworthy, and unwaveringly loyal...a well-trained Growlithe or Arcanine would follow its trainer to the ends of the earth without a second thought.
“Training it is, then. I’ll get Astrid and the others, and we’ll take an hour or so before we get back on the road. That’ll leave us about four hours to travel before we bed down for the night.” She shoved the last of the cooking gear back into her Silph pack before wiping her hands off on the grass and standing up again, also glancing around to see where the rest of her team had wandered off to. “It’s nice out here under the stars at night - I think you’re really gonna like it.”
Cynthia made no secret of the fact that she loved being the Sinnoh Champion. She’d strived for the position for years, training day and night with her team to be the strongest that they could until they finally climbed the figurative mountain one fateful day and immortalized themselves in the annals of regional history. At the present moment, however, she would have gladly traded it all away for the aspirin she’d taken for her headache to kick in just a little faster. Sadly, neither the headache nor her ever-growing list of problems to solve seemed as if they were going to be disappearing anytime soon.
Team Galactic was proving themselves to be an annoyingly troublesome thorn in the region’s proverbial side. She’d gone on Wednesday to Jubilife City as she’d planned and met with the mayor, and she was very glad she’d been quick to do so. Cid had informed her of the rapid uptick in petty crimes that he had noticed being reported by the Jubilife Police over the past few weeks, and she’d spent the afternoon and most of the next morning in meetings with Cid, local higher-ups within the police department, and the heads of the local League Trainer detachment stationed in Jubilife to try and come up with a plan of attack to curb the growing problems. That, in and of itself, had come with its own host of problems - first and foremost among them the simple issue of manpower.
Regional Leagues typically employed strong trainers to work for the League government as a whole, stationed in major cities across the region to assist with problems that may be overwhelming for local emergency authorities and law enforcement or to assist groups such as the Rangers when needed. To even qualify for the position, a trainer had to have either participated in a league circuit within the past three years in which they acquired six badges or more, or take a test administered by the Pokemon League Trainer Authority in order to prove that they and their team possessed the level of skill needed. Many trainers preferred the allure and prestige that came with the potential for a championship victory, but still others opted for the relative job security and steady income of the League-provided positions. The problem was that with so many cities to go around, their candidate pools were often stretched thin. Typically, a League’s trainer complement for a given city was based on population, and larger cities could have three dozen or more skilled trainers on staff at any one time. Even accounting for just the eight cities that held gyms for trainers to visit, that already encompassed nearly two hundred trainers that the Sinnoh League employed for the purpose. Combine that with the need to try and maintain certain numbers of trainers of varying skill levels, and staffing could get complex quickly.
Cynthia had needed to pull more trainers from nearby smaller cities and towns to help cover the potential workload - nightly patrols, administrative work, investigations, the works. She reasoned that the changes would be enough to suffice for the time being, though she still hoped she wasn’t unduly hindering other local towns in the process. It all felt like a careful chess game, moving pieces around on the board as best she could to try and defend her figurative king. Eventually, they’d figured out something that seemed like it would work at least decently well before she departed to move on to the next order of business - the port over at Canalave.
That problem, unfortunately, wasn’t one that could simply be solved by League officials being relocated temporarily. Port inspectors went through rigorous training for their jobs, and there simply weren’t enough of them to be everywhere at once in a timely fashion, which left blind spots for criminals to exploit. Redirecting local law enforcement to help out would just make any problems in the city itself worse, so that avenue was also likely out. She spent all of Thursday well into the evening mulling the problem over before being forced to accept that there simply might not be a proper solution just yet. Without enough inspectors, the situation wouldn’t improve, and the inspectors’ training was essential and wasn’t something to rush. She chatted with Byron about the problem to no avail, and eventually left Canalave early Friday morning with no real answer to the issues and a bad taste in her mouth as a result. She hated being unable to solve problems, even with all the might and authority of her Champion position.
She’d spent Friday working on more mundane issues, things like League financials and issues related to the first month of the circuit, before finally relaxing some in the evening to make sure she didn’t burn herself out from all the week’s stressors. It had given her some much-needed time to herself, as well as a chance to properly think back on the conversation she’d had with Gardenia late Tuesday night. A hand rose to massage her temple as the thoughts returned to the fore of her mind, to a problem that might or might not be much of one at all.
Gardenia’s talk with Anabel hadn’t been about Eterna and Team Galactic after all, something which she’d silently thanked Arceus for right before being hit with an even more concerning bit of news. Instead, it had concerned the young amnesiac woman that the Pokemon Center nurse had helped around a month ago. Cynthia hadn’t thought it of much concern at the time, but after a bit of time spent studying her and an offhand comment that Cynthia herself had made, Gardenia had started to have suspicions that only one person she knew could weigh in on - Anabel Kimura, an agent with the International Police. Gardenia still wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but Anabel had strong suspicions following their conversation that much like herself, Gardenia’s new arrival in Eterna City was one of the exceptionally rare people known as Fallers.
Cynthia had never even heard of the term ‘Faller’ until some time after she’d become the Champion, as there simply wasn’t much information on the unusual phenomenon to go on or study. Anabel herself was one of the most prominent and well-known examples - at least, in certain circles - of the oddity. Fallers were, as labeled by the International Police, humans that had passed through a space-time phenomenon known as an Ultra Wormhole. These anomalies had the capability to displace someone through space and time, shifting them between dimensions through means still as of yet unknown to modern science. While Fallers themselves weren’t dangerous, issues had arisen in the past where strange extradimensional beings called Ultra Beasts had attacked Fallers, seemingly seeking them out in the hopes of finding a way to return to their own home dimension after being similarly displaced. Anabel herself had encountered such things in the Alola region, and almost all of the International Police’s knowledge on the topic came from her firsthand experiences.
Cynthia’s blood had chilled when the dots connected during Gardenia’s conversation with her. Did that mean that the Sinnoh region might find itself under attack somehow from these extradimensional beasts? She started to call for League forces to shadow the girl out of an abundance of caution, only for Gardenia to offer to do it herself. That discussion had lasted for more than a few minutes, with Cynthia’s desire for the region’s safety clashing with Gardenia’s sense of duty as the girl fell under her city’s purview, in a sense. Eventually, Cynthia relented, conceding to the wishes of the Eterna Gym Leader after she promised to keep the Champion informed about anything that happened which seemed unusual, no matter how small. That was how she’d found out the girl had nearly been killed this morning while assisting a Ranger in Wayward Cave after an encounter gone wrong. Fortunately, quick action by the Ranger’s Pokemon had kept her from serious harm, but it was still worrying.
“Cynth?”
A voice suddenly cut into Cynthia’s thoughts from the door, and she looked back up from the papers she was studying to find Candice standing there with a folder in hand. “I got that report you wanted,” she said, stepping over and handing it to the Champion. “Something wrong?”
“A few somethings, honestly,” Cynthia sighed, rubbing at her temple again. “This headache being the most annoying one at the moment.”
“You should get some rest if you’re not feeling well,” Candice suggested, folding her arms as she sat down opposite the blond. Cynthia shook her head gingerly, trying not to agitate the throbbing in her skull any more than necessary.
“The aspirin should kick in soon...probably,” she said, grumbling a little more than she intended. Candice was one of the Gym Leaders who was closest to her as a friend, and while she felt comfortable around all eight of the Leaders, Candice got to see her acting outside of her normal business-first Champion persona most often given how much the Ice-type specialist helped her out with mundanities at the League. Candice just sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to win that argument with Cynthia anytime soon. Her Champion was a workaholic most of the time, and she didn’t think that would ever change.
“Want me to get you anything else?” she asked instead, abandoning the idea of getting Cynthia to take a break as a lost cause for the moment.
“I think I’m okay,” the Champion said, putting aside the stack of papers in her hand and grabbing the report out of the file Candice had brought. “Thanks again for the help. You don’t have a class tonight, right?”
“Not tonight. Next one’s tomorrow at seven - I’ve actually got a challenge tomorrow, too. First one I’ve seen this week, but it’s only a second badge match.”
“Someone from Veilstone?”
Candice nodded. “Maylene told me he was coming when she lost to him a few weeks back. I’m surprised he didn’t wait for the thaw to finish, but he looks like he made it here okay. I’ll probably start seeing a lot more people in a week or two, since 216 is pretty passable now.”
The season was definitely getting into full swing now, Cynthia thought. By the end of the month, every gym would likely be seeing their normal levels of traffic with challenge schedules filling and wait times increasing for matches. That meant more expenses, more reports, more everything that came with the position. She was glad that the circuit was popular and the region prosperous, but she couldn’t deny that all the work left her dreadfully exhausted some days. She really ought to bother the League board about hiring a proper assistant one of these days, she mused, instead of trying to handle everything with just the support of the Leaders and Elite Four.
A gentle ‘ping’ from her phone caused her to look down, poking the screen to wake it before pressing a finger to the text alert. Eyes scanned over the message for a few seconds before she gave another deep sigh, a frown crossing her face as she clicked the phone back to sleep mode.
“Something wrong?”
“That was Roark - the police just arrested a few more Galactic members over in Oreburgh. He didn’t say what for, but...”
She put down the papers in her hand, the pain in her temples finally starting to ease some as the aspirin did its work. “That group is becoming a real nuisance, and they’re doing so quickly at that. What are they after, anyway?” She was just thinking out loud, but Candice shrugged anyway.
“No idea. I haven’t seen any of them in Snowpoint, but I’d be surprised if I had this time of year. Should I get some of the League Trainers to go out there for a week or two to help out?”
Cynthia shook her head lightly. “No, you’ll likely need them to keep watch over things now that Snowpoint will soon be seeing more traffic. I’ve already arranged to have a number of League Trainers sent to Jubilife, so I may redirect a few of them to Oreburgh if it’s needed.”
“If you need it, just let me know,” Candice said, conceding the point. “You should get something to eat, too. You’ve been at it for hours now without a break.”
That was also true, Cynthia realized as she glanced back at her phone to check the time. She’d been powering through reports and spreadsheets all afternoon with Candice’s help, and hadn’t paid much attention to how long she’d been going through it all. She nodded, slipping her phone into a pants pocket as she stood from the desk and walked towards the door with Candice smoothly falling into step beside her. “The cafeteria should still be open,” she told the Snowpoint Leader with a smile as she pushed the door open. “You should get something too before you head back.”
“That sounds good,” Candice agreed, stepping out and down the hall after her Champion before taking a few quick steps to catch up again. “And promise me that you’re not gonna overwork yourself tonight...again.” Cynthia could hear the annoyed frown in Candice’s voice even without looking over to see it. “If you need some help, bug Volkner to come in for a little while - he’s probably just fiddling with some project or other in the city, and he can put that down long enough to help.”
Cynthia laughed, knowing that her friend was probably right on the money with that. “Okay, fine, I promise. You’re almost as bad as my grandmother, you know.”
“Nice to see someone else keeps you from working yourself to death, too.”
Moonlight drifted down over the placid lake, gentle and pure as snow in the dark hours of the night. Cassie didn’t feel the faint chill of the air or the cold of the ground as she walked barefoot, transfixed by the water in front of her that reflected the light like a brilliant mirror. She felt relaxed, more at peace out here in the wilds than she had ever felt in her life. No animals around her, no Pokemon cries breaking the silence...it was bliss, heavenly peace here on earth. The water’s translucent glow was almost radiant, pristine blue speckled and dyed with ribbons of cascading lavender across the gently rippling surface.
This place was tranquility, solitude and safety and a dozen other things that made her feel warm and protected in an invisible embrace. She could see little around her, yet she felt as if she knew everything, understood the soil and water and trees as if they were extensions of her own flesh and blood branching off in a thousand directions. She saw the things around her much as she saw herself, watched herself walk along the shore from afar even as she saw through her own eyes, an overlapping mesh of sight and sound from near and far that made her feel as if she was everywhere at once and yet nowhere at all.
Orion...she wondered where Orion was, but it felt like it didn’t matter, like nothing mattered except this moment in the here and now. This spot where her existence was, where her mind drifted and soul wandered in the darkness, where her heart sang with a thousand melodies beneath a shimmering curtain of sky. Like a comforting blanket, she snuggled deeply into the feeling, traipsing along the water’s edge with sure and easy steps as she strolled through the tree-ringed clearing. The orb overhead was bright and full, shining down iridescent hues that glimmered like diamonds and shifted colors with every glance. She was lost in the moment, the world around her ephemeral and mattering just as little as anything else except this moment, the present, right now. Trees wavered in the breeze, soundless guardians swaying to and fro under the starlight, and she almost believed she could see a dark form flying through the sky as she gazed up at the moon from far, far below.
She wanted to be there, with the moon and the stars. Out of reach of the world, out of sight, out of mind. Where will and emotion and knowledge soared and danced throughout the waves high above alongside the veil of the night sky. She needed -
- to wake up.
Cassie’s eyes snapped open as she started awake, a momentary surge of vertigo she felt from coming out of the dream so suddenly fading in a flicker of motion and awareness. Groping around as her eyes struggled to adjust to the near-total darkness, she finally found her phone beside her and clicked it once to check the time, squinting into the harsh electronic light. ‘5:38’ stared back at her in blocky script, and she shut it off again before starting to wiggle herself out of her sleeping bag.
“What was that all about...” she groggily muttered to herself, fumbling for the zipper of the tent and tugging it open to let in the cool air of the night as she stepped out. She shivered in the sudden chill as her body protested the sudden change in temperature, bare feet crushing grass and leaves underfoot as she walked into the moonlit dark to gaze up at the sky.
A full moon, she noticed. Just like in the dream.
It almost felt like the sky was sending a message to her, a whisper of long-forgotten wisdom encoded in a shroud of sleep. It had felt vividly and eerily real, almost more so than the forest that was around her now. Her senses felt muted, like everything was just a bit further away than normal, more distant in reality from her. She questioned herself for an instant, wondering if this was simply another part to the strange play in her mind before she spotted Kaitlyn’s tent nearby in the small clearing. The sight of something tangible and real that wasn’t simply part of the landscape banished any of the lingering doubts that she was truly awake with a sigh of relief as she slowly walked back to her tent, feeling the dew wetting her feet as she moved. The strange feeling of her senses being stretched gradually faded as she walked back, snapping back to herself in a sudden moment of clarity as she reached her fabric shelter. She sat down heavily inside, glancing over in a moment of worry that she would wake up Orion and Paulos, but the two Pokemon were sleeping soundly. Neither one so much as twitched from the sound and movement, and she took a few slow, deep breaths to calm herself as she zipped the flap closed again.
“It was just a dream,” she whispered unsurely to herself, still superstitiously believing that the odd dream somehow meant something more. Dreams had power, her grandmother had always said. Echoes of the present, visions of the past, warnings of the future. She never put much stock in the old stories she’d been told growing up, but somehow...this made it seem all a bit less like fables and a bit more like fact. She sighed as she realized she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep this morning; she knew her body was too awake now to bother returning to rest at this point. A hand reached for her phone once again as she sat back down on the sleeping bag, clicking it on once more and quickly browsing back to one of the many articles she’d been reading the day before during breaks to try and get something productive out of the morning.