NOVEL WEB Chapter 3 - Weeping Mountain
Chapter 3 – Weeping Mountain
It has been a year since I’ve started working part time at the gym, Numsy and I were not allowed to partake in battles, but we have learned much from our seniors at the gym. Mr. Moore was impressed by my work ethic, so he promised to sponsor me when I received my trainer’s license at age ten. A sponsorship generally entails some stipend for food expenses and paid lodging when a Pokémon Center was not available or had run out of rooms. Additionally, when a trainer exceeded their carry limit any extra Pokémon were sent to a stabling facility usually maintained by said sponsor. In this case all my extra Pokémon would reside at the Lavaridge gym. Which was great for any trainer that intended to specialize in fire type Pokémon but otherwise it was fairly limiting. The active volcano and the heat tend to be hazardous condition for any water types or grass types, and generally was unpleasant for most other types of Pokémon. Starting out I wasn’t really planning to specialize in any type but my time at the gym sort of made me a deft hand at handling fire types. I figured since most elite level trainers tended to specialize in one particular typing, they must be on to something.
Today was one of the more somber days in our Household. Yearly my grandpa made the trip to Mt. Pyre to pay respects and grieve his old partner Arcanine. He kept his trips a secret from my sister just telling her he was out on a weeklong berry run, but this time he allowed me to come with him. The old grave keeper couple that lived at the top of the mountain were friends of his and since they had a granddaughter that lived with them my grandpa thought it was a good idea to bring me along.
Normally I would refuse to ever go near any gravesites in my old life ghost stories gave me the heebie jeebies. Now in this world where ghosts are a factually proven existences all the more reason not to go one will find many tales of trainers getting dragged into the spirit world by wild ghost Pokémon. There were two reasons for me to go regardless of how I felt. Firstly I didn’t want to disappoint my Grandpa, he took care of me and my sister when we got left at his doorstep and for that I am still very much grateful. I could tell he wanted some male bonding time and reminiscence over his old partner with me. Secondly Mr. Moore told me there are a skulk of Vulpix that live on the mountain in fact that’s where he caught his own Ninetales whom is on his elite team. After a year of saving my allowance, I finally had enough to afford a poke ball and, since Numsy lived at the gym Grandpa and Grandma won’t mind sticking to their old promise.
“Are you ready to go Egon?”
“Yes Grandpa. How are we getting there? I am pretty sure walking from Mt. Pyre and back takes longer than a week.”
“For older folk like me teleportation services are made available by the league association. We’ll go to the Pokémon center and pay for the services of a baltoy. It won’t be enough to take us all the way there, but at Mauville city there will be a stronger psychic type Pokémon who can get us directly to the foot of the mountain.”
We made our way to the Pokemon center and after my grandpa showed his senior citizen card nurse Joy took out a poké ball from under her in short order releasing the baltoy whom floated over the countertop. Afterwards my grandpa took out the money to pay for this service and, was handed the baltoy’s poké ball. His payment was the equivalent to 10 years of my allowance. I knew he was being a cheapskate with my allowance! I should’ve figured it out manning the counter to their store every morning.
“We at the league association know you had many options to choose from and, we thank you for choosing us.”
“Okay Egon just hold onto one of baltoy’s arms and we’ll be in Mauville before you know it.”
I tentatively hold onto the baltoy’s arm the surprisingly gritty texture feeling rather comfortable to hold on to.
“Baltoy Toy!”
I blinked and the surroundings looked different than before we were still inside a Pokémon center but a far larger one with way more people inside it. Grandpa and I joined the line in front of the counter.
“You see Egon psychic type Pokémon like these can be rented out for their ability to use the move called Teleport. For the move to be used the Pokémon must be familiar with their intended destination. Usually this means places where they spent a lot of time in.”
We finally made it to the front of the line and my grandpa handed over the poké ball with the baltoy in it to the nurse joy at the counter.
“Thank you”
“So how are we going to get from here to Mt. Pyre?”
“Well usually we’d have to travel the rest of the way there on foot but, my friends have sent out their old Xatu to teleport us the rest of the way.”
We made our way outside of the Pokémon center building and just like my grandpa anticipated a Xatu was perched on top of the center’s roof. My grandpa made a series of handgestures toward the Pokémon, and both seem to arrive at a mutual agreement.
“Okay Xatu is going to perch on your shoulder and teleport us to the base of the mountain. My old friends live at the top, so we’ll still have to walk all the way.”
“How come Xatu won’t bring us to the top directly grandpa?”
“Tradition they say the journey to the peak helps young trainers self-reflect.”
At those words the bird Pokémon landed on top of my left shoulder and held out its wing for Grandpa to hold onto. And just like last time the surroundings suddenly shifted where previously we were standing in the bustling streets of Mauville city now we found ourselves standing in front of a massive mountain.
“Xatu Xa”
The bird looked pretty wiped out after having to teleport the both of us all the way over here. Feeling generous I fished out a lava cookie out of my pocket crushed it into small pieces and extended my open hand to Xatu. The Pokémon looked at my offering for a while but eventually decided to indulge me by pecking from my hand.
“Good, isn’t it? it’s my grandma’s secret recipe.”
“Thank you for the offering human.”
!? Suddenly hearing a voice in my head, I made a very unmanly sound but, quickly realized the origin of this telepathic message.
“Hey that’s pretty awesome I forgot psychic types could do that. Can you also read my mind? Like say I have a number in my head between one and a hundred...”
“Only for more cookies.”
I fish out another lava cookie out of my travel bag.
“twenty-seven”
“Rad you’re a very cool Pokémon Xatu.”
“I know”
“Ahem Egon my boy stop being distracted by Xatu we have a mountain to climb. Now you’ll notice the stalls here sell specialty items specifically for pilgrims that come here to bury their partners`. ”
“Outside the mountain they have stalls filled with incense, soothe bells, talismans and any number of items to placate the lingering spirits that make this mountain their home. Now before we go see my old friends, I am going to visit my partner’s grave in the meantime go look for an item that you like if Xatu says you’ve been good I’ll pay half the price.”
Not needing to be reminded twice me and Xatu make our way to the various stalls while grandpa left to visit his old Arcanine’s grave. I looked over the various stalls recognizing some items from the games. One stall sold all sorts of incense another sold talismans and all sorts of miscellaneous items I walked up to the latter. I went over the stall’s displayed inventory and was kind of surprised seeing all the variety. They had dusk stones, spell tags, ring targets and something I would recognize as a reaper cloth. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how they got a hold of that last item. Sadly, I wasn’t a ghost type trainer so none of these items were all that useful to me.
“Excuse me do you have any items in stock that wards off wild ghost type Pokémon? I have to climb up the mountain later with my grandpa to visit some old friends.“
“Well, hello there young man and in fact yes we do have such items this cleanse tag will make ghost type Pokémon subconsciously ignore you but it will fail to work in front of particularly determined or powerful ghost types in any case we are not responsible for any injuries or deaths.“
Hearing that sales pitch from the seller didn’t do much for my confidence in the quality of her products. In any case grandpa will pay half it should still be worth it.
“How much?”
“1000 Poké dollars ”
“Do you give discounts to young aspiring trainers like me? If this tag works for us, I’ll refer any trainers working with ghost types to your stall.”
"No not really, we just say that last part to avoid arguments from people that are haunted by a powerful entity and hope that our tags can solve the issue. Kid if a ghost is specifically targeting you, I recommend seeking out an expert spirit channeler. However, we do let kids pick out a souvenir from our gift basket."
The saleswoman pulls out a woven basket from under her stall and showed me its contents. Inside I could spot signed wooden plaques, keychains, rage candy bars, a mega stone and teacups with Mt. Pyre slogans on them. ……..!
“Excuse me miss but where did you find that funny looking rock with the swirly pattern?”
“Oh that? I found it buried near the graves on the summit during one of our guided tours for new visitors.”
“Okay! I’ll take that rock along with the cleanse tag. And do you also sell those rage candy bars separately?”
After concluding my transaction, I walked away with the cleanse tag a shiny new mega stone and a box filled with rage candy bars. I felt bad for the proprietor so I bought as many candy bars as my strap on wallet would carry. Hopefully grandpa will reimburse me on the cleanse tag purchase because as of now I was flat out broke.
“Human I sensed your sudden excitement when looking at that rock. What makes it so special? ”
“Oh this? It is called a mega stone when certain Pokémon species hold this rock while their trainers carry one complementing keystone a state of temporary evolution is unlocked. It will be a while until this becomes common knowledge.”
“You speak the truth what an interesting human you are.”
“Thanks buddy you are interesting too. Hey, can you tell me what kind of Pokémon live on this mountain?”
“Seeing as you have shared your knowledge with me freely, I shall do the same human. ”
Sometime later*
According to what Xatu told me the mountain holds two kinds of ghost-type Pokémon barring any that trainers bring in themselves. Those of the duskull and shuppet line are endemic. You can also find wingulls and vulpix that make their home on the mountain’s adret. The mountain’s spirituality also attracts a few psychic-types. Chimecho like to hang themselves on the human-built shrines and meditite seek further training by honing themselves in the low oxygen environment of the summit. I currently do not know what type of megastone this is but logically it should either be a Medichamite or a Banettite given its place of origin. Not one of the Pokémon I was planning to catch but maybe I can trade the stone away to someone who has one of those Pokémon.
Grandpa eventually came back and gave me half the cost of that cleanse tag.
“A wise purchase one of the most common ways for young trainers to expire is being led around the nose by a mischievous ghost getting lost and eventually running out of supplies. Great thinking grandson. Those rage candy bars are your grandmother’s favourite. When we get back make sure to share some of those with her."
“Grandpa are we going to meet those friends of yours now?”
“Yes, Xatu can show us the quickest way to the summit. Don’t worry about any ghost type Pokémon Xatu here can handle any ghost that comes our way.”
We started to make our way up top and as we did so I spotted all sorts of people visiting the gravesites. Mediums, Channelers, younger people in all black reading out depressingly bad poetry their Pokémon seemed to like it though. All the people you would think specialize in ghost types. We went completely unmolested not a single wild ghost in sight If that was due to the cleanse tag, I kept safe in my satchel or the presence of Xatu I don’t know.
In the meantime, I kept my eyes out for any wild vulpix. Xatu assured me that you could only spot them outside on the mountain slope, but I wasn’t taking any chances. The atmosphere wasn’t as sombre as I thought perhaps because the existence of souls wasn’t in question. Dead people and Pokémon sometimes turn into ghost types, and you regularly hear about souls coming back out of the spirit world to settle unfinished business maybe that’s why the afterlife industry is booming here.
Sadly for me, we didn’t come across any Vulpix but we did make it to the summit relatively safely. The peak of the mountain was enshrouded by a thick fog, so it was actually hard to see further then a couple of feet in front of you. Xatu had no such issues though.
“My task is done I will leave you two with my master as I return to my roost and slumber.”
Me and grandpa waved Xatu off as he flew off to do his own thing.
This blasted bird still acting all formal and distinguished if I ever catch a psychic type, I’d rather have a fun-loving adventurous one.
“Ralph my old pal you’ve made it! And I see you’ve brought your grandson with you as well.”
Ralph? No wait that’s grandpa, I got so used to thinking of him as grandpa I forgot he had a first name.
The man finally got close enough that I could see him through the fog. He was accompanied by an old lady and a teen girl with flowers in her hair.
They all looked tanned and dressed lightly so I guess it got warm on the summit.`
“We have much to catch up on. Let us go drink some tea and let the young ones get acquainted.”
The old people departed the scene with my grandpa and left their granddaughter behind. How am I supposed to entertain a teenage girl? The girl in question looked about two to three years older than me she kind of looked familiar to me.
“Hello squirt, the name’s Phoebe.”
“My name is Egon nice to meet you as well.”
I fish out a poke ball from my satchel and release my friend inside.
“And this is my partner Numsy.”
“Ohh what a cutie!”
“Okay, I’ll introduce you to my partner as well.”
Her shadow which seemed unnatural because there was little sunlight coming through suddenly started spasming erratically and out floated a little cloaked figure wearing a grim reaper mask.
“Duskull Dusk!”
“That’s pretty cool this is my first time seeing a ghost-type Pokémon.”
Phoebe and Duskull seemed kind of disappointed that they couldn’t get a scare out of me but quickly got over it.
“So, you’re one of those hard to prank types huh? Don’t worry at the end of this week we’ll turn you into a believer. What do you want to do?”
Believer in what? Now that I had a better look at her she kind of resembles that ghost type specialist elite four member of the games. It was common knowledge that ghost type trainers were of the eccentric variety.
“Nothing much, I want to explore the sunlit side of the mountain. I heard from Xatu that’s where you can find wild vulpix you don’t have to come along, if that sounds too dangerous to you.”
“We’ll catch our second partner on this mountain Numsy!”
“Num!”
This year Numsy made great strides in his training aside from dig he also learned mud bomb and our secret special weapon for catching vulpix Yawn attack. Master Quagsire started teaching us this move only after we made a promise to take over half his workload. Usually, the master utilizes this technique to put to sleep customers who suffer from insomnia. This move is what the sand bath owner used to get an edge on her business competition. In regard to his fire type moves we had the knowledge but not the strength of body to perform those yet. The lavaridge gym training made it pretty clear that the only method to perform those moves was having Numsy gain enough battle experience which we were not allowed to do because I haven’t earned my trainer’s license yet.
“Sounds like fun! I know this mountain the best and if I am with you the wild Pokémon that live here will leave you alone for the most part. I have one condition though. Duskull noticed you are carrying one of those cleanse tags the stall lady sells we would like you to leave that item behind because it messes with his perception.”
“Only if I get prank immunity while were looking for vulpix. I don’t want to get jump scared while on a steep ledge or something.”
“Phooey spoilsport”