Chapter 1: In Boiling Water
by dust_scoutMy initial guess was correct. The voice came from a giant, white, and bird-like creature; they even had a hint of pseudo dragon within their physical traits. (Yep, that was Lugia, without a doubt.) The voice sounded male, so most likely she-, I mean he was currently male. Either way, I was as good as sunk.
Legendaries, according to the common folk, have their own specialties. That was the definition most would use to differentiate us from others. It was more than just that though; our lives, including the habitats we live in, revolved around these specialties. We were strictly forbidden to interfere in the affairs of domains not designated as a part of our own. So for instance, land-based legendaries are not to tread in areas of the ocean depths unless they were on a special assignment, which was rare. My case was no different, just me being here was a taboo in of itself. This rule was to prevent further imbalance during a potential time of crisis in one area. If such a case happened, the system would allow an exception for a nearby legendary to assist. That was why “…unless absolutely necessary” was written on the fine print of everyone’s contracts. Times like that were bound to happen; unfortunately, this was not one of those times.
Lugia flew over to my position and landed, shaking my footing in the process. “Zeraora! Do you have any idea what you’ve done up there?” Lugia roared.
There were still too many thoughts running through my head at the time, thus I only stuttered, “I uh-”
“It’s not his fault!” The youngling interrupted, “H-he just fell into water after accidentally getting hit in the head, by my foot!”
That was an awful excuse of a lie. But something else occupied Lugia’s attention. “Stop stop stop. You went to the surface?!?” Lugia asked sternly.
“Y-Yeah,” the little one replied, flinching as she did so. “We ran into each other during the storm and well…I couldn’t just leave him there.”
Lugia took a long breath with clear irritation and then calmly asked me, “Is this true?”
The young one was lying, but I didn’t want to state the truth for my sake, not at her expense. No, not want, every fiber of my being compelled me not to. I wasn’t sure why though. (More accurately, I didn’t know why the feeling was intense.) Nevertheless, I replied, “Yes. It was an accident that knocked me out. It was just a happenstance. In fact, if it weren’t for her, I would be…in another dimension by now.”
“You mean dead, right?” the youngling interjected.
“Same difference,” I said. (“How could I have known it was safe to say that?”)
I was certain that I helped fill the holes in the youngling’s story (despite some doubts). Who was going to believe I got a bad headache just by her talking to me for the first time. Luckily, Lugia couldn’t read my mind, even if he wanted to.
The guardian sighed, hanging down his wings for a brief moment. “How about we have a word in private?” he proposed.
I nodded in agreement; with one look at the surroundings, I noticed a plethora of water type pokemon, most of which were not fish-like, staring at us in a mix of confusion and curiosity. There was no way we could discuss legendary matters in a public space after all.
Lugia saw me shivering, so (in an almost apathetic manner) he proceeded to dry my fur by blowing a somewhat strong gust of wind with his wings. It barely worked; my fur was still damp and the wind made me feel even more cold.
Lugia then turned to his offspring, “And I’ll have a word with you later. Head to back to the house until I get back from…talking with him.” The guardian glared at me as he said that last part. There was no way I could reason my way out of this.
With that said, the guardian escorted me from the docks. As I looked back, I saw the youngling wearing a relieved expression (maybe because Lugia bought the story).
The guardian parted the incoming crowd; one look was all they needed to know what was up. It was clear that Lugia was well-known around here. It didn’t make any sense at all, not from what I was told by my contract. So why was Lugia associating with these folks? Those thoughts plagued my mind as we made our way through the streets.
Soon after starting our trek through the city, I pondered about a couple of things. First and foremost, was that young one’s behavior. The lie was one thing, but the fact that she even went to the surface at all was something else entirely (almost unheard of). Normally from what I heard, younglings tend to stay where they were born until they’re adolescents, which is about 5 to 6 myth-years in the case of a Lugia. This one was far too young to be wandering on her own; furthermore, it sounded like she had a history of doing that, based on Lugia’s reactions anyways.
The second thing that bothered me was the headache, which had ebbed away now. This headache showed images from my dreams. Up to this point, I only vaguely remembered them. Now, I started remembering them far more clearly, almost fondly. I’ve always been able to bury the thoughts of these dreams before, but not anymore. I couldn’t stop thinking about them. It felt obsessive in a disturbing way. Did that youngling do something to me, or was it some kind of effect from indulging in my darkened desires? I shuddered at the thought.
I quickly shook my head in order to dismiss it. I searched my surroundings for something else to think about. A question crossed my mind, (“Why is there air down here?”). One would think that everything would be underwater. Maybe the air was for Water-Types that can walk on land or something? Honestly, it was hard to tell and I wasn’t about to complain about it.
I noticed that most of the buildings weren’t too tall, and were rounded in shape. This street Lugia and I were strolling through was fairly spacious. Many of the buildings on each side had a seashell-like pattern and texture. The streets themselves didn’t have that semi-smooth texture like the dock. In fact, if it weren’t for the weird sky, I probably would have mistaken it for a land-based town. The ground had a sandy texture, perhaps as a means to prevent one from slipping. Even stranger was the presence of plant-life on the sides of the road. Sure, the plants had their seaside quirks, but the presence of land-based plants alone definitely made me a little unsettled. It made me wonder what kind of seaside wonderland I got dragged into.
The plants then made me think about the fact that I felt a breeze here. Down here, it should have been impossible. Maybe it was something I didn’t understand yet. Soon, my thoughts were interrupted by a flash of yellow. I stopped my pace and looked around the area. Nothing. Nothing, but the confused faces of passing water pokemon.
I casually scratched my head in a puzzled state when Lugia shouted to me, “Zeraora!” This noise snapped me out of my stupor and I immediately continued to follow Lugia.
In time, with my fur now decently dry, we eventually arrived at our destination. It was the tallest building in the entire city; it could even be seen from the docks. It was a tower that resembled a massive hourglass, only the connecting ends weren’t paper-thin. In some ways, the tower resembled two finely cut diamonds glued together with glistening gold and then encased in a silver frame. Each large part of the tower also wore a net of slim, tiny blackened edges that permeated throughout the entire outer structure, which seemed to sport a silver-blue aesthetic.
Near the top of the tower was a large, round object embedded into the wall with two long, blade-like apparatuses protruding from the center. Another side of the tower had a similar object as well. I could only assume that all four sides had this object for the purpose of symmetry. As Lugia and I made our way into the courtyard of this area, I noticed that there were at least two other paths that lead to the tower’s equally-vast base. Each path also seemed to uniformly branch into each other, creating quite a convenient structure for access. (It was probably a pain to keep secure though.) Off the sides of each path were large patches of meadow grass with several trees and fountains scattered about (also in an eerily uniform fashion).
Seeing all this made me want to appreciate the arrangement of this land, but at the same time, the empty cleanliness felt off. If it wasn’t for the need to keep walking, I probably would have thought more about it.
Nevertheless, the two of us made our way to an entrance at the tower’s hard stone base. Stationed on the wall was a set of translucent glass doors that towered over Lugia, probably double his height. There were also some panels of stone walls, at least on the corners. Otherwise, most of the wall, especially near the doors, consisted of similar glass to the doorways.
Lugia urged me to head inside with a gesture of his right wing.
Entering the tower’s lobby, I saw the other three entrances from where I was. (One could assume they were equally as large considering the symmetrical feeling of this place.) At the corners were waiting areas with seats of varying sizes. The center of the room had several large desks facing each entrance, it reminded me of a shop keeper’s desk used to separate a customer from the merchant. Finally, at the diagonals adjacent to each entrance ran massive staircases rising to the next floor. Gazing upward from the entrance, the hollow inside was filled with a large network of winding stairs expanding toward a hardly visible ceiling.
Suddenly, my feet lost the ground. My body began glowing with a light-blue aura. I guessed it was telekinesis and sure enough, Lugia’s eyes were glowing with a blue light.
“Going up.” Lugia stated before taking off with me in tow. We rose up about 10 floors before finally landing near a large door in front of us.
Lugia guided me into the room. It had a large hay bed as well as a rather gargantuan desk paired with a stool only something large could sit on. There were also small windows near the top of the room that provided natural light, or as natural as this town allowed.
I stood near the desk as Lugia closed the door softly.
Lugia remained near the entrance and began speaking, “On the subject of my offspring’s behavior, she’s been a bit of a problem child ever since she learned to swim, always trying to explore. I guess I’m due for an apology to Virizion, but that’s beside the point. What is important now is in regards to your little storm a while ago.”
Hearing him say this made me grit my teeth.
Lugia shook his head and sighed, “As if the constant natural disasters on the Air Continent weren’t bad enough already, here you are making a ruckus out of the ocean. What happened?”
I took a deep breath to compose myself before replying. “Look, not everyone can be Arceus. I just-”
“Made a mistake? You sure did, and now the ocean currents here are out of control!” Lugia interjected.
I winced upon hearing the harsh tone.
Lugia then began to pace about the room. “For your information, I wasn’t sure what was going on with that storm today. One thing I do know for certain is that it wasn’t planned to last this long.”
I spoke out, “Okay, I made the storm last longer than it was supposed to thanks to the accident. It’s not like it’s going to make too much of a disaster.”
Lugia promptly turned to me with a nasty look of disgust at that moment. Strike one.
He then elaborated, “Maybe, if it were on land. The ocean-bound storms on the other hand, can mess around with ocean currents. Surely, the other storm-makers would have told you that.”
(“Oh!…That’s what I was forgetting”) I thought, (“The one time I decided to mentally doze off during a Zapdos ramble was when he mentioned an important tip like that…grreeeaaaat“).
I started to move toward the entrance. “All right, I made a mistake. I’ll just get going now before-”
Lugia blocked the door. “No no, where do you think you’re going?”
I readily replied, nearly stuttering initially. “O-Out of your domain. I don’t belong here. Just being here is against all of our contracts. So if I swim up-”
Lugia, wearing an irritated look in his eyes, aggressively nudged me back with his left wing. “You’re right, you don’t belong here. But I have some bad news for you, young man. I don’t care how good of a swimmer you call yourself. The currents here are more or less merciless to anyone that isn’t an efficient swimmer. You’re lucky that the currents just so happened to work in favor of the town’s direction, otherwise my child might not have made it in time.”
Remembering the young one’s size, I could see how swimming while carrying my limp body would prove difficult, especially without observable psychic abilities. If the currents were against her, I would probably be getting my regrets stamped in the afterlife right now. Furthermore, taking my chances in the currents would have been risky.
Lugia then told me, “You see? Since your storm rattled the currents, they became rougher than ever. Normally, I would probably call a Wailord over to give you a ride, but with the currents the way they are,” Lugia’s calm demeanor then descends into a frown he growls through, “I’m afraid to say that you’re just stuck here.”
I started to feel the gravity of the situation. With no way out on my own and no access to the surface, preventing the current spread of natural disasters from the Air Continent had officially become harder than ever for Tornadus and Thundurus, especially with Zapdos out cold.
I winced and breathed a long, long sigh before raising my paws. “….OK. Fine…I can sit here for a while, but h-how long though?”
Lugia, with visible reluctance, replied, “…I dunno.”
Needless to say, that reply sent a small shock of disbelief down my system. I snapped, “WHAT?!? What do you mean you don’t know?!? You’re the freaking guardian of the sea! How in Kyorge’s name do you not know?!?”
Lugia winced before interjecting, “Don’t blame me! You’re the imbecile who made the currents go all loopy! Seriously, there’s no discernible pattern to them. It’s going to take at least a week to figure out what I’m dealing with here before fixing the problem.”
I grasped my head. “Wha- A week?!? This is the real deal! We can’t just-“
“Quiet!” Lugia spat back in his echo voice.
The shout was enough to freeze me mid-sentence.
Once Lugia caught my attention, he continued. “Don’t you remember the lessons you were taught? The problems us guardians deal with are far from simple. I don’t care about those privileges and watching eyes the higher-ups give you. The real deal does not give any form of care of privilege. Do I make myself clear?”
Hearing this, I took some breaths to get a grip on my nerves. As harshly worded as it was, Lugia had a point. So I nodded a couple of times. “W-Well, what do I do?” I asked, “I have never been in this situation before. The Air Continent needs me up there to prevent the disasters from spreading further to other parts of the world.”
Lugia followed suit in calming down with breaths. (He was probably panicking on the inside as well.) Finally, still with uncertainty on his face, Lugia calmly spoke up, “I don’t know. I’m in just as much trouble as you are, but all I can ask of you now is to wait calmly.”
I could only imagine this was his way of trying whatever it took to calm me down (being aware of…well, the “other situation” as some call it). It didn’t work in helping my nerves settle. Just as quickly as it came, the vulnerable look disappears, replaced by his usual public persona.
He then began giving me orders as if he knows what he’s talking about (I can bet some Poké he didn’t), “Don’t make trouble here and for goodness sake do not do anything stupid like making electrical discharges, please. It’s hard enough with the young one.”
Lugia opened the door before gesturing me out of the room.
We exited the tower, this time using the entrance below Lugia’s office.
“This path leads to the eastern side of town,” the guardian stated, pointing a wing toward the gate, “The folks there are a lot more friendly to those similar to you. They have an inn and everything.”
(“Wait, ‘those similar to me?’ What the heck?”). “Hold up,” I said, “what do you mean by that?”
The giant bird straightened up and sighed. (He probably rolled his eyes too.) He then stooped back down and replied, “Hmm?…did you expect only Water Types to live here?” He shook his head after saying that. Before giving me a chance to answer, the guardian continued. “Understandable, but no, there is a rather large portion of the population that’s not of the Water-Type. Though if I were to talk about it now, we’d be here for hours.” I got his reasoning for that last statement as confusing as all of this was. The more time we wasted here, the longer it would take for the guardian to fix my mistake.
“Just go to the main street’s inn on the left. Once there, tell the innkeeper Milotic that I sent you and she’ll know what to do from there,” Lugia instructed. After saying this, he turned around and entered a ready stance for flight toward the western side of town.
As this happened, I recalled Lugia’s attitude and how different he, err rather she acted when I last saw her. Most folks would call the lot of us legendaries ‘genderless.’ That’s not really the truth unless we’re talking about some super deity like Dialga. There are some lengedaries that have a defined gender, like Latios and Latias being male and female respectively. As for others like myself, I would say we’re both. The differences from each other come down to preference. All one would really need to know is that some like myself preferred to stay male and others preferred to remain female. Lugia was one such legendary that preferred the female gender (That’s what memory led me to believe anyways).
Even though it was a long time ago and I was young, I remembered Lugia being a much more caring individual, almost motherly. Seeing her-…him now, the sight of it all left a sickening feeling. This recollection compelled me to halt the guardian’s preparation.
“Wait!” I called to Lugia.
The guardian turned his head in acknowledgment, pausing for a moment.
Seeing this, I hesitantly asked, “What changed? You used to be so nice. What happened?”
My question made Lugia’s face grimace. It was clearly something of a touchy subject. The guardian then made a cold and honest reply, “You of all pokemon should already know the answer to that question or rather should have known.”
The reply instantly made me regret asking. (Of course it would be that subject. What else would it be? If only I could tell you.) I gritted my teeth in frown and looked downward in shame.
Lugia sighed before forcing himself to tell me, “…Just take of yourself, okay?”
I didn’t bother looking back up, I heard Lugia’s takeoff and felt an intense gust of air from it. By the time I glanced back toward where Lugia was, he was gone. There was only displaced grass on the ground. I was left alone with nothing but my given instructions.
Now alone, I decided to calm my nerves by exploring a little. I stared at the tower and walked along the rightward path. Checking the roof, I easily concluded that the architecture theming was maintained. Round objects with arm-like apparatuses on the wall, just like the other two sides. I did, however, notice something was different; on both of these objects, the longer arm of the apparatuses seems to have moved slightly. I couldn’t tell if it was my eyes tricking me or what though.
Once I came back around to the east side, I concluded that these devices were synchronized in some way because the other sides had similar changes. An unexpected thought popped into my mind, (“Yeah, it’s a clock tower alright.”). My eyes widened after processing the idea. (“Wait, clock tower? Where did that come from?”). Reluctantly, I decided that I should clear my head and relax somewhere.
After a short bit of searching, I found a fairly secluded spot near the south eastern corner of the yard. Oddly enough, it was a bit dissimilar to the other corners. There were more bushes and shrubbery accompanying a standard bench found in the other areas. Hanging over the area was a massive tree placed near the corner wall. It must have lived at least several myth-years at this point; it stood high above the courtyard walls, maybe twice their height. Though trimmed, the branches extended outward in a manner far opposite of the tower’s theming; there was no discernible pattern that stood as symmetrical. Sure, it seemed petty to make everything symmetrical, but this tree was far taller than the others (perhaps the oldest one). Every other corner tree was considerably shorter and was well-groomed. This one was clearly special.
I decided to take a closer look at it. It was then I noticed a small metal plate embedded in the trunk. Gazing at the plate’s Modern Print Rune engraving, my nerves were set off once again.
Resting here in memory are the wishes made by Glimmer, the third of her line. Let her wishes be granted by the next generation, wishes for a peaceful world free from the lies forged from a ruined past.
I groaned in disgust seeing the words, seeing the name shown. (“Peaceful world…as if.”) I then begrudgingly sat at the bench that lied across from the memorial. I growled furiously into my paws in frustration, reflecting on this whole situation. (“This mess could have been avoided, but no, I just had to indulge in those dreams of mine.”)
Thinking about the dreams at that moment was a big mistake; I clutched my head as more images began to invade my mind, causing my vision to white out.
When my vision came back, I was greeted with the sight of a forest. I noticed myself moving without any input, it became apparent that one of my dreams was playing out again. Despite it being a recognizable dream, it was never this clear before.
It was raining and I sensed that I was searching for some kind of shelter; it could be home. After a few moments, a yelp could be heard from the left direction. The image briefly turned static before clearing back into a new scene. The new picture showed an injured and exhausted Shinx; it looked very young too.
The young, timid voice of a boy quietly sounded out in muttering, “Hey…what are you doing out here?” The voice never came from any exterior direction, but rather from a formerly inward direction, almost from the mouth. As the words were stated, I quickly realized the perspective of this dream; I was seeing this bizarre world from this boy’s eyes, whatever he was anyways. It didn’t make any sense, who was this boy? Why was I seeing this from someone else’s perspective?
The boy reached out to this Shinx with his bald hand, eventually touching them. Noticing this, the kitten sent a small spark that shocks the boy briefly. The sparks were weak; The poor pokemon was definitely in a severely weakened state because it fell unconscious after their attempted attack.
The boy, though terrified at first, couldn’t help, but feel sorry for the little one. He didn’t give up and tried to pick up the kitten. This time, no shock came. Now holding the little one, boy began moving back to the path.
As he did so, he made occasional glances at the Shinx. It was clear he was having a hard time holding onto the little one. I could only assume that the boy was quite young and lacking in strength. His walking pace was also quite slow.
With each occasional glance, an intrusive feeling of regret and sorrow built itself up within me until the whole image became unbearable to watch. I began to resist watching a moment longer, causing the image to blur itself into static and eventually back to darkness.
There was silence for a minute before I opened my eyes again. I was back to reality (albeit staring at the ground). I dropped my hands down on top of my knees and sighed. (“What am I going to do? I’m unfamiliar with this town and I can’t even leave at all. What are the others going to do when they find out? The Air Continent’s going to be neglected at this rate. I just had to go and make the job my own NOW, out of ALL of the possible moments of timing. And then there’s that youngling…just how?”)
As I thought this a familiar voice crashed the train of thought, “Uhh, are you okay?”
I gritted my teeth. (“Speak of the devil…”). Loosening my expression, I slowly looked up to find the Lugia offspring standing in front of me, with a caring empathy in her eyes.
“Umm, are you…crying?” the youngling asked.
The question surprised me. I touched my face to find it wet with tears. I didn’t remember crying during that daydreaming episode. “Oh! Uhh I guess I did.” I said dismissively as I rubbed away the leftover tears. “But not anymore.”
After calming myself a little, I asked her, “Sooo…wasn’t Lugia going to talk with you or something?”
“What? Pops?” the youngling replied. “Ehh, he did already, but that was like an hour ago.”
“Huh?” I blurted. Looking around, I noticed that the town lighting dimmed a little, now sporting an orange sunset look. (“Huh, I guess a lot of time passes when daydreaming.”)
Noticing my confusion, the youngling said to me, “Oh right, you don’t know much about this place at the moment, do you…” She then raised her wings in a courier-like manner, “Welcome to Silspring, one of many towns in the world that are under the sea. This one in particular is the most isolated of them all…literally. As for the lighting, it changes based on what the daylight’s like up at the surface, according to Pops. Either way, it’s one way we can tell time down here.” After saying this, the little one strolled over to my left, gesturing for me to come along.
After we left the corner area, the offspring pointed one of her wings upward toward the tower. “The other way, at least here, is the Hourglass Tower. See those round-looking objects up there? It tells us what time it is. The base circle displays every part of the day, while the arms point to what time it is on the surface. The short arm tells what part of the day, and the long arm shows how long until the next part. The time right now is around Half-Dusk since both arms are pointing at the right orange section.”
I peered at the apparatuses once more and sure enough, the arms were now pointing in the stated directions of the base. Looking at it now, I noticed that each section of the base has distinct coloration representing each time of day; both arms were on an orange sector representing Dusk. One other example I also noticed was the bottom sector that had a dark-blue coloration with a moon printed at the bottom of the base; one could only imagine it being the Midnight Sector. The information was a lot to digest, but the youngling’s explanation made sense to me. (“It’s a sundial, only sideways and includes every part of the day on it.”).
“It’s a lot of complicated stuff and I did the non-nerdy version. So, any questions?” the youngling asked.
I looked back at the youngling and decided at that moment to ask more questions now while I had the chance. “So, what brought you to where I was again? Because I got confused when I first saw you.”
“Hmmm? I could have swore I told you before,” replied the youngling.
I shook my head. “Uh, no. Not really” Why would she assume that after I collapsed from a headache she inflicted?
Realizing this, the young lady turned away in embarrassment. “Oh. right…I guess I didn’t,” she admitted. The response was rather strange…I would have thought she would be more adamant about it. She then shook her head before pouting, “Wait a second! Of course I did, old man! Did you seriously forget?!?”
(“Ah, I spoke too soon.”) I calmly explained to her, “I think you did, but I was a bit too busy having my head split open by the sound of your voice.”
The little one turned away while still glaring at me, “Well, it’s not now, Gramps.”
I sighed. “Look, I don’t get it either. Also, eleven myth-years is not that old for me…or any legendary for that matter. Besides, I’m barely an adult.” I then pointed at her “And how old are you? Three by the looks of it?”
The youngling scoffed upon hearing my questions, “What?!? I’m forty-two darn it! I’m hardly a kid anymore!”
“Oh, my mistake. So you’re four Myth-Years,” I corrected myself, shrugging in an apathetic fashion. “That would make you eleven in terms of the common. Yeah, that’s still kid material.”
The little one was beginning to fume to a boiling point.
I decided it was best to steer the topic in a different direction at that point. It was time for a little acting. “Alright, I’ll admit that I have been a bit forgetful today, so could you remind me a little?”
The sudden question broke the little one out of her temper, catching her off guard. She then backed off and started pondering to herself.
After a short while, she finally answered. “Okay…you’re right, fighting over something like this is just going to waste our limited time. I suppose I can tell you real quick since you were nice about it.”
I could tell she was holding something back, but it didn’t seem like resentment at all though. It was more like anxiety. For what though, I could not imagine.
The youngling began telling her tale. “In short, Pops and his goons had me contained here as usual. So I escaped and explored a bit. Unlike the other times though, I swam up higher than usual, that’s when I heard an unusual song coming from the surface. As I continued to rise, I noticed the ocean ceiling and broke through. That’s when I found you dancing and…I think you know the rest at this point. The End.”
The youngling’s story had a vagueness to it I should have expected. I should have known that a child’s story might not be the best source for serious information, but at the same time, I think I have a general idea now of how she found me in the first place…(bad luck). Either way, that’s strike two for me.
So, I sighed before saying, “I should have known that was the story.” I followed up with another necessary question. “Do you have a nickname you go by?”
The youngling pondered a bit before replying, “Hmm…nope, unless you count ‘Five’ as one.”
“Five?” I repeated in bewilderment.
The youngling elaborated, “Like the number. Pops said something about a bunch of rules or something?”
I realized she was talking about the contract number. Ever since we started to document our history, legendary pokemon began to reference predecessors by counting numbers. I was branded with the number four, making me the fourth Zeraora in recorded history. So this Lugia offspring is the fifth err soon-to-be fifth in her line (she was way too young to be under contract yet). I was stunned. I had a nickname, a pretty weird nickname, but it certainly beats being called by a number. In all honesty, I didn’t take someone like Lugia as being lazy when it came to names.
I cautiously asked, “They seriously just call you by your number?”
“No, no, only the real big jerks call me that,” she answered, “Not even someone as mean as Pops calls me that. Pops just says young one because…well…I don’t really know.”
I felt bad. I couldn’t let this lack of a name slide. “Okay, how about a new nickname then?” I proposed.
“Like what?” the little one asked as she tilted her head. “I’m not great with names. Could you do it?”
“Uh nickname. Right, name…” I muttered. I thought about several ideas. Finally, a certain word came to mind. I wish I thought more about it before getting down on one knee and asking, “How about Balena?”
In an instant, the youngling showed clear disgust and murderous intent at the name. In the next, I felt the powerful, stinging pain of the strikeout on my left cheek; it was from the offspring’s right wing in the vague form of a somehow super-effective Steel Wing. I believe both the slap and the accompanying scream could have been heard across the entire town at that moment. Oh wait, that scream was the high-pitched yelp I let loose in the third instant.
“OOOWWWWCH!!!!”
I laid flat on the ground, with the entire left side of my face burning with unbearable pain. “O-Okay…n-not that one,” I groaned weakly.
“Any other bright ideas, mister?” the little one asked with an annoyed growl.
I slowly got up, trying to think of something else. (“Okay, try to think of something that won’t end in me getting another slappening.”) I began to mutter to myself, “So she’s a Lugia, so maybe…Lu-”
“Lu what?” the youngling asked, hearing the muttering.
I was caught off-guard, so I looked around in a panic for anything that could serve as inspiration. Yet nothing clever came to mind. So I slowly fessed up, “…See-”
“Lu…see?” the puzzled offspring asked, once again interuppeting.
Relief came over me. (“Lusea”). It was a fine name and it wouldn’t cause too much suspicion. Plus, it seemed creative enough. With enthusiasm, I said to her, “Yep Lusea. Surely, it’s something you can have as a name…for the time being at least.”
The youngling shrugged, “True, it beats Five.”
I grabbed a nearby piece of rock to use for chalk and went over to the stone wall. As I wrote the name, I elaborated, “Well, your name will be Lugia, plus you’re going to be in the sea. So, why not Lusea.”
The youngling looked at the name with curiosity. “Spelled with C and Y apparently?” she commented.
My eyes widened and peered at what I wrote. I spelled it as “Lucy.” If there was such a thing as a fourth strike, I was pretty sure got it just then.
Before I could scratch it out and correct it, the youngling stopped me, “Hold it. I kind of get the pun you’re trying to tell, at least with this, it’s not obvious. Besides, I’ve always liked this spelling of it anyways.”
I turned to the youngling with a skeptically raised brow. (“Always?”) I thought, (“You’ve only seen it for a moment at best”).
Nevertheless, the little one clapped her wings together enthusiastically. “Got that? I’m Lucy now,” she proudly declared.
There was nothing I could do anymore, she liked her new nickname way too much. Better to not cause more trouble than necessary over something so minor and temporary.
“Now then Ze-, You! What do I call you?” Lucy asked, pointing at me suddenly.
I was taken aback by the sudden shift in her last statement or question, but nevertheless, the answer didn’t require much thought. “Zeraora, or just Zera if that’s easier,” I said to her.
Lucy skipped toward the eastern path with a little glee, “Okay Zera, glad to meet you. For real this time.” She then stopped as if remembering something. She turned to me and asked, “Why don’t you stay at my place?”
Anxiety shot through my system upon hearing the question. (“Wha- When did-“)
I was about to argue, but she continued before I had a chance to. “Look, I know Pops wanted you to stay at Milotic’s, but I think it would be better for you to come with me.”
Though she didn’t say it, I could probably see why it could be better but…
I shook my head, “No no, I was given explicit instruction.”
Lucy sighed, putting her wings behind her back as if playing innocent, “Well, it’s too bad that I already had Miloltic agree with the idea and cancel the plan then.”
“You did what?” I blurted.
Lucy gave a smirk and placed the edge of her wings on her hips in a superhero-like pose, “Come on, Pops is never there and won’t be for a week…I think. Don’t worry, “Mr. Hero” is also there. Just play along and you’ll be just fine…I hope.”
Before I could refute more, Lucy ran out of the gate. With no other options, I decided to accept her forced offer and jog after her in pursuit.
Fragment of Knowledge:
The Cornerstone Oak :
This 30 myth-year old tree was planted in Silspring by a town heroine known as Glimmer. After she tragically lost her life during the Rift Calamity Incident, the tree has since served as a memorial for the courageous fighter. Though some attempt to warrant a reason to tear down the oak, Lugia (the fourth) actively, and fiercely, opposes this course of action.
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