Dead Walking
Because of the VBulletin update, let's play a game of "find the song link!" It's in there somewhere...
“We can’t go on like this!” Prometheus roared above the howling winds. Cold rain lashed Cole’s face, and he shivered as the frigid air crept along his exposed skin. Halcyon tumbled through the air, screeching and cawing.
“The only positive here,” Cole growled to Athena, “is there is no way in hell Jasper would follow us into this.”
The tempest would have put a certain dread wizard to shame. The winds seemed to come from three directions at once, shoving Prometheus all over the sky. Visibility was almost zero; they could barely make out Cirrus and Halcyon not fifty feet away. Noir was an occasional darker blot on the black clouds. The rain was bitter cold. Cole’s hair clung to his forehead in wet, limp tangles. Athena’s fur was matted, and water cascaded down her now-smooth back.
“Land?” Joan screamed over the roar of the gale.
Magnus shouted something back, but the wind stole his words, sending them spiraling away, forever unheeded. Instead, he gesticulated wildly, and made his meaning clear enough.
Get to the ground below.
The three flying types dove, their wings folded into their sides. The wind howled louder in Cole’s ears as the mountainous earth rushed up to meet them. “Clearing!” Athena shouted over the wind.
Prometheus nodded, seeing where she was pointing. He angled his descent, while Cirrus and Halcyon followed close behind. Prometheus snapped his wings out, creating just enough drag to help him land. Yet even then, he stumbled for several yards, almost to the far tree line. The Charizard had torn up large clumps of sodden earth in his rapid stop, and he cradled his head in his claws, reeling from whiplash. Cole slid from his back, and leaned against his partner. “We did it. We’re okay.”
Joan and Cirrus fell with a little more grace, the Altaria’s light form allowing for an easier descent. The blue dragon was exhausted, and slumped to the ground. Halcyon was not as lucky.
The Pidgeot plummeted and, unable to spread his wings and stop his descent, he crashed into the tall evergreen trees. Oberon, acting quickly, had leapt from his pokéball, grabbed Magnus from the bird’s back and darted to the ground. Halcyon let out a feeble cry, and thin rivulets of blood trickled through his sodden feathers. Athena bounded to the flying type’s side with a burst of telekinetic energy.
“I think his wing is broken,” Athena called down. “And Halcyon says he can’t breathe very well.”
Cole dug through his back. “Fractured ribs, then. Or perhaps those are broken as well.” He pulled out a Sitrus Berry and a small vial of Heal Powder. Using a pocketknife, he cut a small cavity in the fruit, and shook in a little powder. “Athena, come take this up to him.”
The Victini quickly returned to Halcyon’s side, and helped the bird swallow the bitter mixture. Cole turned to Magnus. “The berry should take some of the edge off the pain, and the powder will boost his metabolism and other natural processes, allowing Halcyon to recover from the surface wounds faster. I think you can return him to his pokéball, but don’t call him out again until we can get him to a pokemon center.”
Magnus nodded, and returned the wounded Pidgeot. Joan glanced around. “Where are we?”
The old man clenched his fist around Halcyon’s capsule. “The Silver Foothills. See, look, you can see the mountain through the clouds.”
As a flash of lightning blazed across the sky, Cole could indeed make out the giant mass of Mount Silver in the distance.
Athena glanced around. “Noir? Noir!” The Victini looked around frantically. “Where’s Noir?”
“We lost him in the storm. Noir doesn’t have wings; the wind won’t affect him as much. Once he sees we’re missing, he’ll probably fly back to Cerulean Cave.” The Firebrand turned to his companions. “We don’t have time to waste. If we find a sheltered, defensible area, we’ll make camp. But I think it’s best if we continue on tonight.”
Magnus leaned against his walking stick. “Normally, I would disagree, given the weather and terrain. But Jasper… Cole, that man is a fanatic. He won’t stop until he kills you, or you kill him.”
“Or,” Cole growled, shrugging his pack back on. “I get beyond his reach. And the only way to do that is by getting to the Gate.”
***
They followed a faint trail left by a somewhat annual migration of Stantler. Fortunately, it angled south, and for a time that night, they escaped the worst of the squall. By morning, the rain had slowed to a mere drizzle. The scent of wet earth permeated the air, and wet leaves carpeted the ground.
The rocky cliffs narrowed ahead, before opening to Silver Valley, and a lush forest. They found the league-sanctioned path, which was blissfully clear of obstructions. For a time, Masamune and Maeve trotted beside them, relishing in the damp mountain air. Feste and Caliban crouched on Magnus’s shoulders, while Eris drifted a foot behind Joan. Were it not for the tragedy of Halcyon, the setting might even have been described as pleasant.
Around midmorning, when the group of weary travelers was ready to collapse,
they heard the sound of a harp in the distance. Suddenly invigorated, they raced forward, the haunting sound giving them strength.
They came upon a man sitting on a stump, just off the trail where it curved sharply to the right. A Dusknoir drifted to one side, while an Espeon and Umbreon reclined at his feet. A Chandelure hovered over his head, swaying in time to the soft, beautiful song the man played. He partially concealed his harp behind his long dark cloak. His voice had a strange quality to it, neither young nor old, tenor nor bass. A wide-brimmed hat pulled low obscured most of his features. All Cole could deduce was he was scarily gaunt.
“What’s a miracle, if life itself is not? Who am I to praise its worth with a hymn? I may stumble over words that I forgot, just as life itself slowly begins.” He strummed his harp for a moment, a beautiful, melancholy sound. “Sing me a song for the mountains to move. Sing me an anthem; sing me the anthem of life.
“I am skeptical, I like my glass of wine. I don’t know your name, or what I am to do. One day you’ll wonder why I read between the lines, and you will sing for me, the way I sing for you.” He raised his head ever so slightly, his slim mouth touched with the ghost of a smile. “Sing me a song for the ocean to part. Sing me an anthem, sing me an anthem. Sing me the anthem of life!”
His fingers delicately plucked the strings, and his voice became much softer. “And so another page is turned. I pray I understand what’s happening. But if anything… I do know this. I’ll be the best I can…
“Sing me a song! Let the angels rejoice! Sing me an anthem of life! Sing me an anthem, sing me an anthem, ooh, sing me an anthem… of life.”
His song finished, he rose to greet them. “Did you like it? A small thing, to be sure, but beautiful in its own right.” He extended his hand. “A pleasure to meet you. My name is…” He trailed off, and furrowed his brow. “I think it will suffice to call me Necro.”
“Strange name,” Joan remarked.
“I’m a strange man. What brings you all out here?”
“We’re just travelers,” Cole said, wary of this ‘Necro’. “Some of our pokemon are hurt. Is the center nearby?” He had come out here only once before, and knew that a pokemon center was nestled in at the base of the mountain.
Necro shrugged. “About three miles. But I can get you there. Hang on a moment.” He took out three pokeballs, and returned his Chandelure, Dusknoir and Umbreon. Then, Necro rubbed a hand through his Espeon’s fur. “Equi, Teleport.”
Cole felt a strange sense of vertigo, as the scenery seemed to slip away. The world seemed to turn into a vast expanse of white. When color and form began to return to the landscape, he found himself in front of a large log cabin, with a cliff face before him.
Necro showed them in, and smiled at the nurse behind the desk. She glanced up from an entertainment magazine and raised an eyebrow. “I thought you said you were gone until sunset.”
“I met these travelers on the road,” the bard explained. “Apparently, they have a hurt pokemon or two.”
The nurse nodded brusquely and tossed her magazine aside. “You’re lucky I’m here. Because hardly anyone uses this center, I’m only up on the weekends. All right, how many are hurt?”
Joan glanced at her male companions. “Well, all of them should be looked at…”
Cole folded his arms. “We’ll deal with the priority cases first. Halcyon, Prometheus, Cirrus, and Maximus too, he needs to have his wounds looked at again.”
They passed their pokeballs to the nurse, and she strode off to the operating room. Joan and Magnus called out some of their smaller pokemon, and went off to find some food. Cole sent Maeve and Athena with them, while Masamune, Scathatch and Thor went outside to ‘look around’. When the Firebrand glanced out the window, he saw that they were rigidly staring at the sky and trail. Keeping watch.
Cole and Necro sat down on a pair of comfortable looking couches in the lounge area. The bard raised an eyebrow and glanced at Cole expectantly. “
Well?”
“Well what?”
“Why are you so far out here? What were you doing flying in that storm last night? What’s with all the healing scars on your hands? Or, you know what? How about we just start with your name.”
“I’m Cole.”
“Isn’t that a nice start? What about your friends?”
“The man is Magnus, the woman is Joan.” Cole assumed he could trust this man. He had selflessly helped them, and seemed to bear no ill will. And besides, it wasn’t like the Omega War, where anyone at all could be an enemy in disguise. Necro the bard, despite his rather strange name, didn’t seem that bizarre, and certainly not the kind Jasper would have recruited to his Brigands.
“We’re out here… looking for something. And hiding from someone. The storm was the best cover we could think of.”
“What are you looking for?”
“A… place.”
“That was clear.”
Cole ran a hand through his hair. “Believe me, if I told you what it really was, you’d think I was insane.”
Necro threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, believe me; I’ve been accused of that more than enough times. Try me.”
So, with a deep breath, Cole explained their quest, Gates and all. Necro sat with rapt attention, only speaking when he was unclear on a specific point. When all was finished, Necro leaned back and folded his arms. The sun was much lower in the sky, and Oberon, Sander and Tesla had taken over the watch.
“So… Joan’s the Chosen Warrior of Arceus, eh? And that was you who did all that at the Power Plant? I saw that on the news, they said it was a gas leak.”
“The news lied.”
“Well, obviously, if I’m to believe you.”
“
I’m not lying!”
“I didn’t say you were.” Necro strummed a chord on his harp. “It’s just a lot to take in. Now that I think about it, you do look a lot like the pictures of the Firebrand I’ve seen, on TV and in magazines and newspapers.
“Anyway, you think this next Gate is one Mount Silver somewhere? I’ve never heard of anything like them. Well, best you get there quickly if the tale you tell is true.”
Cole nodded. “As soon as Halcyon is safe to travel, we’ll look for it.”
Necro rested a hand on his chin. “But what about Red? From what I hear about what happened in the war, you probably won’t want to cross paths with him again.”
“We’ll just have to avoi—”
Cole bent double, his hands on his temples. A white flash pierced his mind, and he saw a small rocky field completely covered in snow. Winds howled around him, and the remains of an ancient temple stood at the other end of the expanse. A lone dark figure stood atop the ruins, unmoving and silent.
“Dammit.” At Necro’s quizzical glance, the Firebrand shrugged. “Arceus’s Gift. A vision of where the next Gate will be. And, just my luck, it’s on the summit. Where Red is.”
Some time later, Joan and Magnus joined them. The nurse had been seeing to their pokemon in groups the entire day. When she emerged from the operating room, Magnus glanced over his shoulder.
“Halcyon?”
“The Pidgeot?” She shrugged. “He’ll pull through. That fall broke his wing in four places, broke two ribs and cracked three more. Flying types tend to have very small bone density, so they are more fragile than other types. However, this also means that they recover faster. I think in a few months, he’ll be as good as ever.
“There was, however, one complication. One of the shattered ribs pierced a lung. The surgery to correct it is relatively straightforward, and I have already performed it. He is recovering now, but it’s not safe to move him just yet. And even after that, he shouldn’t tax himself for fear that more issues will come up. Will you be able to stay here at least a week to keep him under observation?”
Magnus chewed his lip, and Joan glanced at Cole. “If Jasper tried to follow us through the storm, odds are he hit the same complications we did. And if he didn’t, well, it’s still raging in the mountain passes. He’ll have a hard time of it.”
Cole laid his hand over Magnus. “I want Halcyon to be well as much as you do. We can wait. I think we could all use the rest.”
***
Scathatch glanced at the cloud-capped peak of Mount Silver. “The snows don’t look like they’re going to stop.”
“It’s the time of year,” Cole said. “Here in the mountains, autumn is wet, and it’s so cold that the rains turn instantly to snow. We’ll have to slog through it.”
“Ugh. Keep me in my pokéball, thank you.” The Zoroark flickered as she cycled through several illusions of various pokemon. “Though I love him dearly, I can never quite understand why Masamune loves tramping through the cold.”
“If it weren’t for Prometheus being a walking hot water bottle,” Cole laughed, “I don’t think I could do it either.”
“Walking hot water bottle, my left foreclaw!” Prometheus growled indignantly. “Glad to know where I stand with you, Firebrand!”
“Oh, you’re more than just that! You’re also a convenient pillow.”
“At least you’re a step up from Masamune,” Thor chuckled. “He’s just a wet blanket.”
Magnus and Halcyon walked by, the Pidgeot walking awkwardly on his thin legs. He fluttered his wings, but Magnus hissed at him. “No, you mustn’t move them any more than you have to!”
Halcyon chirped something back, and Magnus ran a hand through his feathers. “I think it’s about time we left, Cole. We’ve been here too long already. The nurse says Halcyon is cleared to travel again, and we’ve all rested. We can start as early as… well, today.”
Joan and Necro came out of the center, and the young woman glanced at Cole. “He wants to come with us.”
Necro nodded. “These Gates are intriguing. I want to see one with my own eyes.”
Macbeth and Oberon emerged just after the two humans, carrying the groups’ packs. The trainers took their baggage, and with a word of thanks to the center’s nurse, set off down the rocky mountain trail. Necro drew out his harp and began to play a lilting song.
“Raise me up, up through the ashes. Make me king, king of all I see…”
Notes time. Okay, first off. This chapter is a whole hell of a lot better than last week's. For sure. Anyway, onto important stuff. Necro, for those of you who care to know, is a character from the Blazing Heart saga, the first book of which was recently published and can be purchased on Amazon via a link in my signature.
Also, I was recently recruited to join an upstart writing forum. If you haven't read Sin yet, because the sheer volume has daunted you, I've started to re-serialize it on
Fiction Master, so now is a great time to jump in.