Sorry for taking so long to finish this chapter. It's not particularly exciting but it does have some stuff in it that'll be interesting.
Chapter 5
The lack of life was very unnerving to me. Soren didn't seem bothered, though, so I acted as though I wasn't either. Dawn insisted on being carried. I assumed it was because she was tired or something but a light at the edge of my mind told me it was because she wanted to protect me. Although I tried not to think about it, I still didn't think Dawn could do much in a battle. Soul or not, she was still a Rattata.
Fortunately I didn't have to worry about battling because there were just as many wild Pokemon around as the forest as there were people. In other words, there were none. This was probably due to the fact that the food source for the Pokemon had been poisoned, too. I still couldn't understand why anyone would do such a horrible thing and I felt very bitter towards the Greens.
After a while of walking through unchanging forest scenery, Soren attempted to make conversation. "So, what's your world like?"
I considered the question. "Well," I began slowly, frowning, "it's a lot like this one. Beaches and trees, boats, water, war, pushy political leaders."
Soren laughed at my last comment. "They can be a bit annoying," he admitted, grinning.
"A bit?" I said incredulously. "Do you know they refused to let me go back to my own world so I could reassure my parents that I hadn't been kidnapped and murdered? A kid doesn't just vanish from school, something has to make them vanish and my mom's paranoid enough without anything actually happening."
Soren shook his head. "I feel sorry for you and for them. They're going to be worrying for a long time and I'm sure it's going to be horrible for them."
I laughed dryly. "The Interregional Alliance seems to think this whole journey will be over in a matter of days."
He looked back at me, one eyebrow raised. "Do you believe them?"
"I'd like to," I said, sighing and looking down at the Pokemon in my arms.
'I would too,' she said, her ears twitching in an agitated fashion, 'but neither of us are stupid. We know that this is going to take a long time. Alyssa Clear confirmed that.'
I nodded. "Yes, she did. Do you think they'll keep their word about letting me go back after a week?"
'No.'
"I don't either." I looked up and caught Soren's puzzled gaze. Oh yeah, he couldn't understand Dawn. To him it sounded like a bunch of squeaks or something. To me it sounded like regular talking, which was weird because Dawn was a mouse. Still, this world was different from mine and Dawn was the embodiment of my soul.
We continued on in silence. I wondered vaguely about what things would be like once we left this area. There would be people, hopefully friendly, and maybe Pokemon. I couldn't wait to come across wild Pokemon. I didn't know if they were anything like what I thought, but that didn't matter. Dawn hadn't been expected, but she looked pretty much like what I associated with Rattata. Much more realistic, but still what I recognized.
Time passed, trees passed, and the day passed with no change in scenery. All around us there was forest. The trees were in full bloom and the undergrowth was hard to walk through. In some places there were vines with sharp thorns growing all over them and they hurt when walked into. Very soon I had several scratches on my arms and I rather regretted taking my jacket off. Obviously it was for more than warmth.
Still, I was used to forest. I often went hiking in the woods behind my house, though I preferred to walk along the bed of the creek so as to avoid all the undergrowth. My main concern then was spiders and ticks but they didn't exist in this world, as far I knew anyway. I wanted to ask Soren but I didn't want to reveal further ignorance.
I looked up and saw the brilliant blue of the sky glimmering through the canopy of trees above me. This place was so much like home, but it was also different. I couldn't place the difference. Perhaps it was the lack of birds chirping in the trees or the rustle of small animals skittering through the bushes. Maybe it was just the knowledge of where I was or maybe it was the Rattata clutched in my arms and the brown haired boy walking in front of me.
At last the trees began to thin and I could see a path ahead of us. "This leads to a place called Azalea Town. Ever heard of it?"
I smiled. "Yeah. It's the place with the Slowpoke's Well and Kurt the ball maker, right?"
Soren turned his head and raised an eyebrow at me. "Once it was. Kurt, I've heard of him. He was very famous in his day, which ended many years ago. The Slowpoke Well, well, it was a celebrated relic of the town but the actual well was removed and the whole thing was turned into the Azalea Military Base."
I turned my head away from him and looked at Dawn. The little Rattata's eyes held the same emotion I felt. Sadness. I really had no idea what the Slowpoke Well had been like, but just the fact that it had been important and now it was gone was enough. "Why did they use a town relic as a military base? Couldn't they find a less...less important place?"
Soren shook his head, turning his eyes back to the path. "It was the perfect location. It was underground and already had a path and passageways carved into it. It was a popular tourist attraction."
"Ok, I guess that makes sense. But why did they have to remove the well?"
Soren smiled, but it was a strange smile. Satisfied, perhaps, with something else mixed in. "The people of Azalea didn't like their relic being turned into a military base. Some tried to stop it and their efforts led to a riot. In all the confusion and fighting the well was destroyed. After that people stopped fighting and accepted the change. Not like they had much choice."
It really was terrible. War led to destruction, but so did fighting war. How in the world was I going to stop it?
'Don't fret so much, Faye. Fate chose you, remember? You'll find a way.'
I smiled at her. "Thanks Dawn." For some reason it seemed natural that Dawn could understand what I was thinking. It made sense, but I didn't need to think about it. I didn't even wonder how she knew, I just accepted it.
~~~~
Azalea was nothing like I had pictured it. I had imagined a pleasant little town with old fashioned houses and kind people. It certainly wasn't that.
Houses were the first thing that came into view. Long, winding rows of them. Red brick and grey stone mostly. There were a few wooden houses scattered about, but the majority was made of sturdier material. I couldn't help wondering if this was because of the war or if it had always been this way. I didn't ask Soren.
Beyond the houses was the town. Building after building, some eight stories high. The main part of town lay a little ways away from the suburban area and it looked like it was suffering from hard times. The place was pretty nice, but many of the buildings looked worn. Several of the shops had "Closed" signs over the doors and many more were just empty.
Soren didn't speak as we made our way through the streets and neither did I. I just looked around, amazed at what I saw. There were lots of people walking around. They seemed to be suffering just as much as the buildings. A lot of people wore clothes that looked second hand, much like my own.
This made me think and I muttered a question to Soren. "Up to this point I thought the worn out look of my clothes was just style."
He grinned at me, guessing what my question would be. "It's not. It's so you'll blend in. People, particularly traveling trainers, which are rare enough these days, don't have brand new clothes with fancy embroidery. Clothes aren't much more expensive than before, but this area is having financial problems. Not all places are like Azalea. It's just because of Grein Beach Resort, the town that was poisoned. They offered a lot of business because they're so close to Azalea but that can't happen anymore."
I shook my head. "This is crazy. People shouldn't…" I paused, looking at a woman with bright red hair who was glaring at me as though I had committed some horrible crime. She folded her arms and intensified her glare to the point where I couldn't help demanding, "What?"
She scoffed and scowled at me. "I don't know you," she said testily, her hazel eyes burning with suspicion.
"And I don't know you. Glad we've got that straightened out. Now, why are you looking at me like that?" I could hear Dawn groan inwardly. Apparently the mind reading thing worked both ways. Soren merely shook his head but didn't interfere.
The woman let out a sort of hiss that was rather creepy. "I bet you're one of the Greens, aren't you? Don't try to play dumb with me, I can see through your disguise."
What disguise? I wasn't wearing a dress, like her, but that didn't really mean I was in disguise. I was about to mention this when I man with black hair and dark purple eyes laid a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Let her be, Matilda. Can't you see the girl has a Pokemon with her? And she's wearing a trainer's belt. It's obvious that she's not one of the Greens."
This sparked my interest. Why did having a Pokemon or being a trainer make it impossible for me to be a Green? Were they against Pokemon or something?
"It's probably a trick," the woman spat, continuing her glaring.
I was quickly becoming irritated but felt a mental nudge not to do anything stupid. I could have sworn I heard Dawn's high voice warning me, but I spoke anyway. "I'm not a Green, never have been. Stop being a-" there was another nudge at my mind and I switched from my usual choice of words to a more polite version, "judgmental just because I'm a stranger."
Soren stepped in at this point and gave me a pat on the shoulder. "You'll have to forgive Judith, ma-am. She's from Kanto, like myself, and hasn't learned her manners yet."
I scowled at him but Dawn grinned mousishly. Serves you right for stirring up trouble.
Shut up, she was asking for it.
She was just worried. There's a war going on. It's natural for people to be suspicious of strangers.
That's no reason to look at me like I'm the spawn of the devil or something.
Dawn rolled her red eyes. I admit she wasn't being very nice or very fair, but you can't go talking that way to complete strangers. There's no point in making enemies.
All right, all right, I get your point.
"Something the matter?" Soren's voice cut through my preoccupied thoughts and I suddenly realized I'd been having an argument with Dawn inside my own head. Either that or I was arguing with myself. The irritated look on Dawn's pointed face proved this second option false.
"Not at all," I said cheerfully, smiling up at Soren and the woman called Matilda. "I'm terribly sorry for my coarse behavior, ma-am. I'm just a bit tired and hungry from my travels."
The man who had reprimanded Matilda earlier smiled at me. "It's understandable. I've heard that Kanto is worse off than Johto, though I don't think it makes much difference. Personally if I were you I'd leave this continent and head for Fiore. It's supposedly the most peaceful nation of the Fifteen Powers at the moment." He raised a hand and laughed. "But I've gotten off track. There's a nice hotel not too far from here. I'm sure they have a room. They have a restaurant there as well."
My stomach yowled with pleasure at the word "restaurant" and I was immediately keen on the idea of going to the hotel. "Thank you very much, sir. We'll go there at once!"
The man waved his hand airily. "Don't mention it, young lady. And please, my name is Charles."
"Hmph," said Matilda, turning and stalking off. I could hear her muttering as she went but couldn't make out the words. I was sure they weren't nice.
~~~~
Soren didn't think going to the hotel was a good idea. "They're going to charge us both our arms and legs as well as your Rattata to get a room and decent food. Not many travelers in a time of war which means very little business."
I had to admit he had a point. Fortunately we were able to find a cozy little café called "Locho's Latte" which looked like it was well kept.
After we had sat down and been greeted by a waitress who gave us menus and asked us what we wanted to drink, I voiced a couple of questions to Soren. "Why did you call me Judith earlier? Couldn't you have just used my real name?"
"Judith is my mom's name. First thing that came to mind. And no, I couldn't have used your real name." He paused as the waitress returned with two cokes and a bowl of some kind of juice for Dawn then bustled off to tend to another customer. "Though it's doubtful anyone knows about you yet, word is sure to get out. It's a well known fact that the harder you try to keep something a secret, the more it's going to spread."
"Good point," I said, taking a drink from my glass. It tasted like ordinary coke, but with a hint of something else I couldn't put my finger on. Maybe lime. "This area seems to be against the Greens so that must mean they're with the Whites. It sounds really stupid to be calling the two armies by colors."
'No kidding.'
"Shut up, Dawn."
'You should be a little nicer to me. I could be a very big pest, what with being your soul and all.'
I chose to ignore this but to keep the information in mind. There was no doubt that being able to read each other's thoughts or whatever we could do would be a very annoying thing if used for mischief. "Anyway, from what that woman said, the Greens have something against Pokemon. Could that be why they're at war?"
"More than likely," said Soren with a sigh. He had been watching with partial amusement, partial confusion as Dawn and I had argued with each other. He considered for a moment, stirring his drink with his straw, then asked, "Can you really understand her?" He nodded to Dawn.
"Yeah. Is it really that odd?"
'Of course it is. I'm a mouse. You couldn't understand mice in your world, could you?'
She certainly had a point.
Soren nodded and shrugged at the same time. "For most people it is. There are some who learn to understand their Pokemon's words. Most trainers do, in fact, if they spend enough time with their Pokemon. Like I said back in the forest, I'm starting to understand mine. But the way you two are talking it's as if she's speaking perfect Brogue."
I stared at him in confusion then looked down at Dawn who shrugged. "What's Brogue?"
Soren stared at me, his mouth partially open in amazement. "Come on. You can't tell me you don't know what Brogue is. You're speaking it."
"Err, no. I'm speaking English."
"English?"
'I think the difference between your world and his are starting to show themselves.'
"No kidding." I looked up at Soren who seemed to have reached the same conclusion as Dawn. "In my world, the language we're speaking is called English. After England, a country in Europe."
Soren shrugged at this and said simply, "Brogue is what we call it here. It's the most common form of language and I think it means language." He grinned but didn't say whatever was on his mind because the waitress came back to take our order.
"I'll have the Double Burger and potato strips, please."
"Double Burger and potato strips," said the woman, scribbling on a notepad she was carrying. "And what about you and your little Rattata?"
I glanced at my menu and suppressed a gulp. "Umm, theee," I was looking for shrimp but it seemed unlikely that I'd find it here so I tried the next best thing, "seafood platter." Surely there'd be at least one thing in that mix that would be good.
The waitress scribbled down my order then smiled at Dawn.
'Corn kernels,' the little mouse said simply.
I repeated the order to the waitress who continued to smile as she wrote down the final order and hurried off.
"It must be hard, having everything you've known suddenly become different."
I shrugged and stirred my drink with my straw, thinking. Things weren't too hard at the moment. I had felt ignorant a couple of time, that was natural, but things were similar to what I knew so I was sure things would turn out all right. "Things aren't so different, just the animals and a couple of other things that I should have expected."
"Animals. Hmm, that's what you call the Pokemon in your world, right?"
"I guess you could put it that way. It's not so different with them, either. I mean, we don't battle animals or keep them in Pokeballs, but we do have some as pets. And there are preserves and zoos and parks and such." I stopped, allowing my mind to wander back to the zoo I had visited a few years previously. It had been fun and I had gotten to see a white peacock which was more beautiful than the ones with color, in my opinion at least.
"What kind of animals do you keep as pets?"
"Cats, dogs, birds, gerbils, fish, rabbits, horses, sometimes other, more wild animals like squirrels and chipmunks-" I broke off, grinning at the half confused, half interested look on Soren's face. "They're not all that dissimilar from Pokemon. Cats look like Meowth without the gold charm on their heads; dogs look like Growlithe, gerbils…maybe like Pichu." I didn't bother going into detail because the waitress came back with our food.
"Anything else I can get you, dears?" She asked as she placed a bowl of corn kernels on the floor in front of Dawn.
"No thanks," said Soren, picking up something that looked almost exactly like a french-fry but flatter and wider and taking a bite out of it.
The waitress nodded and bustled off to tend to another customer.
I looked down at the plate of food in front of me and suppressed a gulp. I wasn't picky about trying new things, and many of the things on my plate looked similar to regular seafood back home, but there was no knowing what it was going to taste like. I knew Soren was grinning at me over the top of his hamburger, or whatever it was called in this world. I couldn't blame him. It had to seem extremely funny.
At last I braved a slice of grilled fish and instantly choked. Fish always looked better than it tasted and this was no exception. "What was that?" I asked, spitting out the bit of fish into a napkin.
Soren's mouth was twitching and I knew he was fighting hard not to laugh. "Remoraid, I think. It's usually considered to be quite good."
"That's nice," I said grumpily, eying an odd red thing next to the Remoraid. Again it looked pretty good, but I was much more cautious in taking a bite this time. The taste wasn't too bad, but it was rubbery and not the most pleasant sensation.
"I see you're more prone to the Octillery."
I quickly spat that out too. I didn't care how it tasted, it was octopus and I had always found it amazing anyone could eat that. "Ok, no more guessing games. Tell me what all this stuff is before I eat it."
There was a gagging noise mixed with squeaks coming from below the table. I looked down and saw Dawn rolling around on the floor, choking on a bit of corn but still unable to stop laughing. I bumped her with my foot in irritation but only succeeded in dislodging the kernel from her throat and making her laugh harder.
Soren decided to be sympathetic and agreed to tell me the name of the thing I was about to put in my mouth. "That's a bit of Tentacool, a very acquired taste, those are roasted Magikarp scales, very tasty, and that's breaded Corphish."
I went for the breaded Corphish. I wouldn't have guessed it was anything like shrimp because it was cut into strips like Soren's French-fry things but it was and I ate all of it. I completely ignored the Tentacool. No power on this Earth, or any other, would make me eat it. I did try the Magikarp scales though, and they were quite good.
I took longer to finish eating than Soren or Dawn but I didn't care. The waitress came back and we declined the offer of desert, mainly because I was worried about what we'd get if I asked for a hot fudge sundae. Soren reached into his pocket and withdrew a wallet. I would have gladly helped with the bill but I didn't have any money that I knew of.
'Try the wallet you got from the Alliance. Maybe they added some money.'
"Oh yeah." I reached into my backpack and fished around until I found the wallet. Inside I found some odd looking bills and in the change pocket I found some equally odd coins. I had always had a thing for foreign money and this currency was no different.
"Don't bother," said Soren, glancing at the wallet in my hand. "That's for emergencies. Michel gave me enough to keep us going for a while."
"All right," I replied absently, examining one of the coins. The face imprinted on it was that of an old man with neatly combed hair, an unusually small nose, and sharp eyes.
"That's Henry Urick, the founder of the Silver Conference. It's rumored that he saved a Lugia and in return the beast gave him a scale from its wing. The scale had great powers and gave any creature that held it the power to sense storms. When Urick created the Johto region's annual trainer league, he named it after the scale. Thus, the Silver Conference."
I found this very interesting but didn't voice any questions. Instead I put the coin back in the wallet and the wallet back into my backpack. I looked down at Dawn who was picking a piece of corn out of her teeth. She paused to glance up at me.
There are many things in this world that are different from ours. However, you shouldn't stick your nose too deeply into most of them. Stick to what you've been set to do.
I frowned at her. How can I do that when there's so much around here that interests me? Besides, I don't have the faintest clue how to end a war. Maybe learning about the history of this region and the things in it would help.
She shrugged and spat the kernel into the almost empty bowl in front of her. Maybe it would, but don't rely on it. If you want to get home before the end of the year then you need to concentrate on the important things, even if they're not as interesting.
"Ready to go?" asked Soren, putting his wallet back in his pocket and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Yep," I said cheerfully, doing the same and stretching as I stood. "Where to?"
"That's your call. I'd advise not choosing to go to the next town, at least not by foot. We'll take a bus. We crossed through the woods to get here because no buses travel to Grein Beach but we don't have to do that. Trainers do because it's part of their way of life, but these days it's safer to go by vehicle."
I couldn't argue with this. "All right." I considered. "Goldenrod City isn't too far from here, is it?"
He laughed. "It's quite far, actually. But we can still go there if you want."
I did want to and Soren said we could catch the next bus we saw. "We should do some shopping first. Get some snacks and a book or two. It'll be a long journey."
I thought this was a perfectly good idea and allowed him to lead the way out of the café.
