Tournament of the Snow Post 1 (Xander)
“Yan!”
“Yeah I know Scouter, we are almost there,” I told my Yanmega partner. She did loops in the air and I laughed. She was excited because we were in a new region, a new region she had never been to before. She had been very excited when she met some of the pokemon that inhabited this region of Unova.
Personally, I never really heard of it. Unova was a region that only recently opened itself up to the rest world, so not many new about it yet.
When I first docked in Nuvema Town, people kept staring at me. They kept pointing, commenting on how strange Scouter was. I didn’t like that very much and snapped back at them in a whole long lecture about looking down on someone else’s pokemon. No one in Nuvema town was willing to approach me, besides Professor Juniper.
Why was I in Unova? I was invited to participate in the Tournament of the Snow. It was something that was held yearly in different regions and this year it was going to be held in the newly opened up region, Unova. Specifically, it was going to be held in a remote island near Castelia City, to where I was headed now. From Nuvema Town, I was walking to my destination. Why? From Nuvema Town, there were no other faster modes of transportation that were available in Nuvema Town that went to Castelia City.
I wish I had captured a Trapinch so I could fly my way there when it evolved into a Flygon.
I was forced to navigate through a desert. I had gone the wrong way three times and all those times I ended up near some ruins. I did explore for a little while, but I quickly left to find my way again. Scouter disliked being in the desert, so I had to coop her up into her pokeball, which she disliked as well. She liked being free and able to fly around, it was just in her nature. I finally made it out of the desert about an hour ago and I was still walking on the long bridge that led to Castelia. From there, I would go to the pokemon center and take a short break before heading out again.
“Yan!” The dragon fly cried, flying back to me. Her wing was pointing just ahead.
Well hello Castelia City.
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Castelia City was filled with many buildings. These buildings were so tall that they reached way up into the sky. Just a little bit higher they could pierce clouds. There were tall buildings in Lilycove for sure, it was a bit city just like this one, but Castelia was way bigger. People were rushing about along the streets, business papers flying through the wind, and many uses of “Excuse me” passed from one person to the other as they were either trying to get to the nearest beverage shop or just trying to get to work. Lilycove wasn’t this bustling, even during the busiest hours of the day. The only time I would think it would be this crowded would be when contests were being held. The Pokemon Center was the hardest place to find. They looked very different from the ones in Hoenn for one thing, but in this bustling city and being pushed around by the people running from one place to another just made looking for the place harder. I had managed to find the Pokemon Center after a while. They needed to put the place in a more secluded place. How did people even managed to get here without ever being shoved into the concrete?
I really didn’t want to go out again.
I was sitting in front of the computer now. I was looking through some things and at the moment I was sifting through my email. My pokemon were out and about in the Pokemon Center. Bo, my Dusclops, was chatting with Julia, my Milotic. Joker, my Breloom, was attempting to cause havoc and maybe swipe some purses and wallets with Timothy, my Kecleon, who just followed him. Scouter was doing her best to try to foil Joker’s attempt to cause mischief and Donny, my Heracross, was just sitting beside me as I sifted through my emails. He was the loner of the group and I felt sorry for him. I swore to myself I would find him a companion, but I haven’t done such a thing yet. I would eventually, I’ll find a pokemon once I back track back to Fortree.
Looking through emails was depressing. I lost contact with many people this way. Many people I would meet would just disappear. Another person and I would just exchange a few emails before he or she disappeared. I think it’s me. Maybe my old self is shining through those emails? Was I just boring? Did they think I was a horrible friend?
My eyes lit up as I saw one name that always made my day. His name was Remy. He always seemed to find the time to reply back and he didn’t disappear without a good reason. He was a trainer like I was, doing a badge run of his own. We had met one day in Falarbour Town and we just hit it off. My heart flies just by thinking about him and then falls because I remember that he was into women.
He was still a good friend though and he was the only one I would trade emails back and forth with.
I scanned his email, my eyes not willing to skip a word. I laughed at some of his misadventures and disasters. He would often put a joke or two that would make me burst out laughing even harder than I already was. This email I notice that there were some inside jokes littered everywhere which made me smile in nostalgia. I typed a long reply back, talking about my journey to Castelia, what Castelia was like, and replied to some of the questions he asked and reactions to his tales. After reading it over, I pressed the send button and then logged out of my account for someone else to go.
I looked around for my pokemon, making sure I could find them all so I could return them back to their pokeballs. However, I decided to make one switch. Donny was the easiest to find because he was just beside me and Julia and Bo were easy to find as they hadn’t moved for a long time and they were still chatting. I returned them into their balls and went off to find Joker and Timothy, who were much harder to find because they were out and about causing mischief, but once they were inside; Scouter took a roost on top of my straw hat.
I petted her dragonfly body with one of my hands. Her wings fluttered in response, which made me chuckle. I walked to one of the visual phones that were available and punched in my father’s number. It took a few seconds, but his blue eyes stared back at my brown ones.
He ran his hands through his black hair, his aged face lighting up a little, “Hey Xander, is there something you need?”
“Yeah, can you send Pillow over?” I asked, “I am going to use her during the preliminaries. If you don’t mind, do you want to watch over my Dusclops, Bo, for a bit?”
“Yeah I don’t mind,” He smiled, “just let me go get her.”
His face disappeared from the screen. There were screams that echoed, crashing sounds that played, and a lot of shuffling of feet, but my father seemed to make it back okay.
“Pillow doesn’t like you that much does she?” I asked.
“No she doesn’t,” He sighed, “Anyways, I am going to send it through.”
I grabbed Bo’s pokeball from my straw hat and showed it to him, “Yeah, I’ll do the same.”
I walked over to the pokeball transfer machine and placed it on the circular mount after I finished punching in my father’s number. The machine began to beep and the pokeball glowed for a little before disappearing. The machine shook and gurgled and soon another pokeball was shot through the pipe.
There was a screen next to the machine that displayed the pokemon that was just transferred. I looked at it and pressed yes before going back to my seat.
“Thanks Dad,” I smiled, “Don’t forget to watch me on t.v. okay?”
He laughed, “I won’t forget.”
We hung up after that and I walked out of the Pokemon Center to meet the bustling crowd.
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Harmony Isle was beautiful. Snow fell gently from the sky, covering the trees, the grass, and the ground with a light drizzle of a white sparkly blanket. When I breathed, I could see my breath and it was so tranquil. The stadium was more amazing though. It was very tall with lights attached around the building and large statues of ice pokemon surrounded the auditorium like building.
It was just breath taking.
I was already inside the building waiting for the man to scan the pokeballs of the pokemon I was going to use. I had to return Scouter into her ball so she could be scanned as well, which she didn’t seem too happy about, but she understood nonetheless.
The man turned to me with the tray that held Pillow’s, Joker’s, and Scouter’s balls inside the tray’s sockets, “Here are your pokemon Mr. Xander. We hope you have fun at this tournament and I really hope you come here and travel some day.”
I gave him my thanks and took the pokeballs from the tray. I placed Pillow’s and Joker’s pokeballs on my hat and released Scouter from her spherical prison, before placing attaching the contraption to my head. Scouter flew around and did flips before landing on top of my straw hat. After she landed I headed for the battlefield.
There was already a crowd around the battle field. On a raised platform was Nick Clause. He was a very plump and old man. He patted his stomach that just emphasized how plump he was. He was wearing the traditional Clause costume. He probably wasn’t the real Santa Clause; however, I did doubt it a bit because his name was actually Nick Clause.
"Welcome all!" Nick Clause's voice boomed over the crowd that gathered around the battle field. "Welcome to Harmony Isle, home of the Tournament of Snow, 2011!" he hollered out, the crowd was cheering in excitement and joy. I clapped, "I hope you're all excited as I am, because we have a wide array of talented trainers gathered here today!" Clapping sounded once more, “Now, let's start the day off with the Preliminary battles! You lose your battle, you're out of the tournament, but if you win," he paused to step aside, revealing a man carrying a beautiful box made of ice, “You may get the chance to be crowned Holiday Hero!" he finished, taking out a crown from its cage. According to the website, it was crafted completely out of ice by one of the finest craftsmen of Unova. That wasn’t saying much to me, but it probably say a lot to these Unovians.
"This is, of course, if you manage to beat the five year reigning champion, Reyna!" he announced. A woman appeared as the applause sounded once more. She looked to be about in her twenties. She walked with grace as she took the microphone from Nick Clause. A Hedreigon flew beside her, its three heads glaring at the massive crowd that formed around its master. The girl laughed and patted the hydra.
"Thank you Nick," Reyna spoke out. "It's an honor to be with you all for another year, and I am sure that this year will be even more exciting than years previous!" she paused and on cue the crowd cheered. I wasn’t really sure what to do, but I just clapped along. If she were Brendan, the kid pretending to be an albino, who was currently Hoenn’s champion, I would scream, “And now, let the Tournament of Snow begin!"
A statue of an Articuno flew over head. Blue sparkles lit the arena. Ice danced lighting the whole stadium. It was beautiful and this was also a sign. The tournament was going to commence.
There was a huge line by Nick Clause as he was handing out paper to everyone. When I made it to the front, he studied me carefully before handing me a folded piece of brown paper. I looked at it and unfolded it and read it as I got out of line. I looked around for the field I was assigned to and a man wearing an elf costume was holding a sign that corresponded with my folded piece of paper. He directed me to my side of the field and I waited for my opponent to show up.