"Care to tell me what that was all about?"Lanhua asked, struggling to keep up with Joresh Ja as he power-walked toward his house. He didn't say a word until they reached it, simply shooting a sharp look at Lanhua that shut her up quickly enough. When they reach his house he simply holds the door open for her and closes it when she's passed through. "Man of many words, is he?"Lanhua muttered under her breath.
She looked around, the house was nice enough, if not a bit too clean. It was big, seemed too big for a man to live alone. Her father would have fully approved of the living room. There was simply a mat to kneel on, a table in the middle of it, and a few bare necessities. It didn't exactly scream cosy. Joresh motioned for her to sit down and she knelt in front of the table, continuing to look around the room. There was also a shelf lined with Pokéballs, of which Lanhua wondered if they were empty or if they contained Pokémon. "The mark,"Joresh interrupted her from her scrutiny of his house. "How did you get it?"
"I-I don't know,"Lanhua began. But she did know. Sort of knew. "I had a dream. I don't remember too much of it,"Well, she did, she remembered every detail, she just chose not to remember. It was too... crazy. "Something about a beautiful white Pokémon,"she admitted. "I woke up with this on my wrist."
"Your guardian, it is calling you."Joresh showed his own wrist with an identical mark as Lanhua's burned into it. "I understand how that is. I, too, had a dream some nights ago, telling me to prepare. This must have been what it meant, to prepare you."He looked at her with a frown, silent a moment. At the same time Lanhua's patience was depleting. What was he talking about, he had to be mad! "I don't really know who you are, but you don't look ready."he said at last, looking her straight in the eyes.
Lanhua blinked, but said nothing. Just let the man rant, nod nicely and head off back to Maddy, Lanhua told herself. We can have a big laugh about it later, about what a whacko this town's pride and joy is. Joresh continued after it was clear that Lanhua wasn't going to say anything. "You have to honor your Arcanian ancestry and follow the call. But you won't go anywhere until you've proven to me that you're ready-"
Lanhua stood up immediately. "No, this is absurd!"She brushed her hair behind her ear, a sign of frustration, and folder her arms protectively. "I won't go along with this lunacy, I'm fine with listening, nodding politely, and being on my way. But I won't let you send me on some fool's mission, send me off to save the world or whatever, you're mad!"
"You have no say in this,"Joresh Ja said with a voice of authority. "This is beyond you, Yi Lanhua, and beyond your own selfish desires. There are powers at work here neither you or I understand. You would never be my choice either, but yet you have been chosen and you have a duty to your Arcanian decent."
"I'm not even proud of my Arcanian decent"Lanhua protested, giving the last words a nasty ring. She didn't want this, she just wanted to go home, go back to day to day life, worry only about school and look forward to her shoots. To not being send on fool's errands or getting marked by some nameless deity she didn't even know about. "Someone else can bring honor to their ancestry, I'm leaving,"she turned around to walk away but Joresh grabbed her arm.
He stared at her intently for a moment, then turned around her arm to expose her mark and laying a hand over it. "This is your duty Lanhua, you have been chosen and it is not something in your power to undo. This might be the only thing the world will ever require of you."
Lanhua looked away. "Fine," She sighed deeply and dramatically. "But if anything goes amiss, I will turn right back."Lanhua didn't quite know what she decided to do it, selflessness never having been her strongest suit. But it felt like, like she had to. It really felt like there was little choice. Joresh Ja showed the smallest smile of triumph, before growing serious once more.
Joresh looked out the window, nodding towards the far shore. "Down at the docks by the shore, there is a big ship from the east that came in just the other day. It carried explorers that had been meddling with things in the Arca Islands in the sea to the east. They had to make a stop here because they said something was wrong with their ship. Some believe they are cursed, but I know better... They have picked up some freepassagers. Pokémon from the islands. The Arca Islands are sacred to us, but the eastern explorers do not care..." He stood up and walked to the shelf of Pokéballs Lanhua had been wondering about earlier and picked one up, an ordinary-looking one you saw around, red and white. "Head down to the docks and find one of these pokémon. They are probably either roaming the shores, hiding in the storage huts or making mischief on board the ship. If you tell the sailors I sent you, you'll be allowed on board. Bring one of those pokémon back to me here, somehow."
He handed her both this one, as well as another. From the shift in weight between the two, even if it's ever so slightly, Lanhua could guess that the other one was empty. "I will loan you one of my young but trustworthy pokémon. If you can get it to trust you, and manage to bring back one of the pokémon at the docks before the end of the day... then I believe you are ready." Joresh said with finality, nodding towards the door, and Lanhua gladly walked away from him. Just this one thing, she thought. I will do just this one thing, and then I will stop this nonsense. But even to herself it sounded untrue.
* * *
Lanhua stared up at the ship. It looked gorgeous, or at least to her it did. Most of all, it looked foreign, and wonderfully so. It was starch-white with crew bustling about on the deck. As she approached the small bridge that connected it to the shore she was stopped by a foreign sailor, this one having a kind of red hair that Lanhua had only ever seen in magazines. However, contrary to the magazines, he wasn't goodlooking at all. It was curly and all messy, and his face was fully of angry spots. "Miss, you can't go any further."
"Joresh Ja sent me," Lanhua responded, as she'd been told.
"Oh, well that certainly changes things, just be quick about it won't you? We're having some difficulties with the ship, but they're being mended as quickly as we can, and we don't want any stowaway now do we?"He nodded her past and Lanhua quickly walked onto the boat, wanting to get away from the strange man and his spotted face.
The boat seemed quite busy, and Lanhua didn't have any idea where to start. Good thing that she didn't have to decide it, the one she was looking for came to her. Just around the corner of the main part of the ship a pair of curious eyes was looking at her, although she wasn't looking at the eyes. Instead Lanhua was looking at the beautiful teal leaves on its head- or ears as she just noticed. They seemed to gleam even brighter in the sun and the creature blinked slowly. And then it was gone.
"Oh," Lanhua muttered as in a trance. It had been so beautiful! At that moment only one thing went through her mind: I want it. She pressed the button on the Pokéball Joresh had given her and out came a strange half-blue monkey with closed eyes and a goofy smile. "Oh aren't you... interesting," Lanhua muttered, but the monkey just continued smiling.
"Excuse me miss?"A skinny sailor boy came around the opposite corner as the shiny creature she'd just seen. He had dark hair and eyes, like an Arcanian, but his face was still obviously foreign. "Have you seen a Leafeon around? It's been giving us lots of trouble."
"A what?" Lanhua asked, blinking. Pokémon class had never been her best.
"Oh, it's a sort of fox, but with shiny blue-greenish leaves and big brown eyes, about yeh high,"he held his hand to the approximate height of the creature she'd just seen.
"Yes!"She said excitedly, "Just around the corner just there! I'm going to catch it."She looked absently at the empty Pokéball in her other hand, she hadn't thought about this Leafeon being the Pokémon Joresh had sent her for, but now it felt like it couldn't be any different. And even if it were, she'd just catch this one anyway. It was so gorgeous! "Will you help me find it?"She asked the boy, she could always use some help.
"Absolutely, you'd be doing us a great help by getting rid of it! Well, us crew at least, not the fancy boffins, but that can't be helped,"The boy said distracted, before shaking his head as if remembering this wouldn't make sense to Lanhua. "Leafeons like the sun, so it would be logical for it to be hiding somewhere on the front deck, if you saw it run to that direction just now."
"Then front deck it is,"Lanhua started toward to front of the ship, finding that 'front deck' was actually a rather large space with lots of ropes and equipment lying about, it really could be hiding anywhere. She squinted against the sun, trying to see some of the pretty coloured leaves she'd seen.
"Why don't you let your Panpour help?"the boy suggested, poking at the monkey, who was giggling in return.
"Who? Oh right, that," Lanhua said distractedly. "Pan... pour it was? Could you find the Leafeon for me?"Panpour nodded with a smile before climbing one of the tall poles on the ship and peering down. "How can it see with its eyes like that?"Lanhua nodded.
"Beats me," the boy responded. Sure enough though the Panpour let out an excited cry, pointing towards a bunch of curled-up ropes. Both Lanhua and the boy ran foreward and found the Leafeon nestled between the ropes, sunbathing and looking up at them cheekily.
"Right, Panpour, attack," Lanhua ordered, and the Panpour just stared at her like she was nuts. "Just, you know, do what you do," she continued, making a little 'shoo' gesture with her hands.
"It's a water type, those usually know Water Beam," the boy provided, trying to be helpful. Panpour heard the command and responded accordingly, sending a spray of water towards the sunbathing Leafeon. The latter sputtered as it was thrown out of its little nest, and looked quite annoyed by the ordeal. It bristled its leaves, braced itself, and jumped forward with a blur. There was white energy all around it as it smashed into the Panpour, sending it into one of the masts.
"Oh, Panpour, do the Water thing again," Lanhua said carelessly and Panpour sent another spray of water towards Leafeon. The latter jumped out of the way though, and sped towards Panpour again, this time in a similar, but bit slower way. "Oh, jump aside!" Lanhua offered and the Panpour dodged the attack.
"It probably knows scratch too," another sailor yelled from aside, and Lanhua looked up startled, she hadn't noticed him. In fact, there were a bunch of crewmembers gathered to watch the battle. Lanhua felt a sense of pride, liking the attention. Meanwhile Panpour heard the name of its attack and scratched at the Leafeon it had just narrowly avoided.
Leafeon, after receiving some painful scratches, quickly used the attack it had first used to speed towards the other side of the front deck, licking at its hurt side. "Panpour, go up to it and use scratch again!" Lanhua ordered, feeling a rush of excitement from the battle, and from being watched. The Leafeon didn't quite like this idea though, and with more white light it ran up to Panpour and closed the distance within a fraction of a second, sending the monkey flying.
"Oh, that was an Aerial Ace if ever there was one," a woman wearing a cook's apparel commented. "Doesn't your monkey know Leer too? I think I've seen one of them battle before."Again Panpour's ears flicked at the command it knew and it stood up, hurt but still able, staring Leafeon right in the eyes. The latter shivered, than shook its head. Gearing up for another Aerial Ace move.
"Damned if I am, I know your Panpour has another move, I just can't think of it," the boy murmered, racking his brain for the answer. Meanwhile Leafeon tackled the monkey again with deadly speed, throwing it towards the crowd of watchers. One of the sailors reached out and caught it, however, reducing the damage it would have received from crashing to the ground.
"Here you go," he said, putting the Panpour down. "Off you go, you can do it mate."The Panpour puffed up its chest, feeding off the compliments. Other crewmembers also joined in, offering encouragements to the little water monkey as he moved to face off against the Leafeon again.
The pretty Leafeon jumped into another Quick Attack towards Panpour, but Lanhua was quick enough to ask him to dodge. Even while its been visibly hurt the Panpour jumped aside in time, and just at that moment the sailor boy remembered.
"Lick! That was it, Lick!" obediently Panpour licked Leafeon with it's tongue, who had a look of disgust and surprise in its eyes. It shivered, front legs collapsing, and continued shivering.
"Now girl!"the cook yelled at Lanhua. "Throw your Pokéball while it's still Paralyzed!"
"Right," Lanhua muttered, throwing the Pokéball at the temporarily downed Leafeon. The ball swallowed up the creature and began rolling on the floor, and the entire audience on the front deck held its breath.
