> Well then..head to the southern entrance of the cave with the "unassuming hole"
> Yes go the the unassuming hole quickly, if times of the essence use less caution and move quickly and if there's some really dangerous creature blast it with the hand gun and move on, we need to find our 'Pokemon' quickly.
The Unassuming Hole leads into a short, twisty and incredibly slippery tunnel that snakes downwards into the rock before emerging in one of the colossal underground caverns so typical of the Johto region. Smaller caves, ravines and hills are scattered across its surface like so many boils and acne scars; quite why all caves in Johto seem to consist of a maze within a large empty space is beyond you, and beyond the world's geologists, too.
There are also large, treacherous-looking expanses of black water here and there – but no sign of Pokémon or animal life. This is puzzling; as a cave, this place ought to be crawling with Zubat, but there's not much sign of, well, anything at all here.
A distant booming noise, like a vast meaty hammer hitting concrete, comes to your ears.
Well, all right then.
Perhaps there is some life here.
You shake yourself from your stupor and start searching. Almost immediately, you find the Bad Egg caught behind a large rock – entirely intact. In fact, it seems to have warped the rocks out of shape around it. You wonder whether or not you were right to worry about whether it might die.
Never mind about that. With it safely stowed away (God knows how; it's a little vague with eggs) you resume the search.
Very soon you find a shard of wet glass.
You pause.
It's lying in a little trickle of water that looks like it might well have run down from the Unassuming Hole; you follow the rivulet with your eyes and find another shard, a little further on.
Time to move.
You half-climb, half-slide down the edge of the rocky ledge you're standing on and find a pool of water below; there are several more shards of glass here, and the rubber seal of the jar.
Beads of sweat appear on your brow, but you tell yourself that you won't think anything until you find proof.
You keep going. Down past a few more rocks, into a shallow ditch that runs between two hillocks of stone. There's a heart-stopping moment when you lose sight of the stream – and then you find it again, trickling across wet rock off to your left, into a little hole in the wall where it drains away between two stones, and where a six-foot column of roaring green fire is happily consuming the piles of seaweed that have been washed up here.
Othodox! cries Vesta happily as you approach – and there's something odd about her voice. It sounds... better punctuated, or something. Othodox, I'm big!
You stare.
"Uh... yeah," you say, wondering whether you shouldn't have let her out of the jar before. "So I see."
I was worried, she says, spitting out a fat, popping spark. You were gone and I didn't know where you were.
"I was worried about you too," you reply. "I was looking for you."
I knew you would, she tells you loyally. I waited.
"You did," you say happily, as it finally clicks that you're both safe, and that the panic is at last over.
Thank God.
No, actually, don't thank him – thank Tabiti. A lot.
Othodox's Devotion has improved!
Othodox is a Knight of the Sacred Fire!