The Path of Destiny
Chapter 44 - The Start of the Mountain Journey

As the group traveled and got ever closer to reaching the mountain, Snowcrystal began to notice that it felt colder. It was a welcome feeling to her, but she could tell that a few of the others were a bit unnerved by it, and Thunder was constantly shivering. She knew the cold winds were coming from the direction of the mountain, and wondered if the cold had something to do with Articuno, or whether the mountain was just naturally that way. The massive stone monolith ahead of them loomed ever closer, and Snowcrystal hoped that they would reach it by the end of the day.

“There’s a stream over that way,” Alex called from up ahead. The floatzel stood and pointed, the wind whipping through her fur. “It’ll take a little while to get there, but there should be lots of prey…”

“It’s too far out of our way,” Wildflame replied crossly, narrowing her eyes against the wind. “We need to get to the mountain by sundown.”

“Well, all right, if that’s what you want,” Alex answered with a shrug before bounding on ahead again.

Snowcrystal had to admit that she agreed with Wildflame, but if prey was going to be scarce…maybe Alex was right.

“So uh, Snowcrystal?”

Snowcrystal turned in surprise, realizing that it was Spark speaking from up ahead. The jolteon looked worried about something. He paused to let the others move on ahead and allow Snowcrystal to catch up with him. “What?” she asked him, confused.

“Well, I was thinking,” he began, “when we find Articuno and you go back…where should the rest of us go?”

“Oh…” Snowcrystal whispered. She had been so distracted by the thought of finally reaching Articuno that she hadn’t been thinking about that much. She knew that while the thought of never seeing any of these pokémon again was painful, there was no way they could live by her mountain home. It was not a suitable habitat for any of them. “Well, maybe you could stay around here,” she suggested reluctantly. “I mean, it seems like a good place…”

Spark shook his head. “No,” he replied firmly. “I wouldn’t want to stay here. Maybe some of the others would want to stay, but I don’t. You see, I’m beginning to think I’m not cut out to be a wild pokémon.”

“Why do you say that?” Snowcrystal asked, a bit surprised.

“This whole wild life…it just seems unnatural to me,” the jolteon whispered back as the two of them began following the others again slowly. “Stormblade told me I would love it, but I just don’t. I’m not meant to be a wild pokémon.”

“So you think you would be happier with a trainer?”

“Maybe…” Spark sighed.

“Well,” Snowcrystal began, thinking back to what she had seen the day before, “I’d miss you, but if that’s what you really want, maybe we could find that trainer who caught Stormblade, and…and you could join her?”

Spark shook his head. “I didn’t say I wanted to go with just any old trainer…” he muttered.

Snowcrystal wasn’t sure what else to say, and simply fell silent.

“I miss Justin,” Spark admitted suddenly. “If anything…I’d want to go with a trainer who was like him.” He paused for a moment. “But at the same time, I don’t want to leave the group until I have to. Do you think…do you think that when we head back to your mountain, that you could leave me at the city? I’m sure there are lots of trainers willing to adopt a jolteon…I could find one…”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Maybe…” came Spark’s uncertain reply.

“You don’t have to decide now,” she told him. Some part of her still strongly wished that he’d change his mind, even though she knew that in the end it really couldn’t affect her. Spark would have to find somewhere to live and it couldn’t be near her mountain. She sighed. “You still have a lot of time to think about it.”

“Yeah,” Spark replied in a distracted sort of voice. “Yeah, I do…” He increased his pace a bit, walking at normal speed and distancing himself from Snowcrystal once again.

The growlithe watched him go, hoping that Spark would be able to choose the right thing for him when the time finally came. She hoped that somehow, everything would work out right for all of them, though whether or not it did…how would she know, if she was to return home with Articuno and leave some of the others behind?

-ooo-

Katie’s persian materialized in a flash of bright red light, blinking in confusion and looking up at her trainer with a puzzled expression upon realizing that not only was there no opponent to fight, but there was a strange pokémon scent she couldn’t identify. The most noticeable smell besides the scent of the pokémon itself was that of sickness and foul-smelling wounds, and when she turned around to look at the source of the odor, she was surprised to see that there was a strange scyther lying on the grass nearby, one that she could tell was badly wounded. The bandages weren’t enough to hide all the wounds covering his body, and something about the way they looked and smelled deeply unnerved her. She had been to many pokémon centers. She had seen bad injuries from wild pokémon or accidents in battle. But nothing like this. This was…different, somehow. Wrong. Unnatural. She turned to her trainer in astonishment.

“Look, Persian,” Katie told the pokémon, reaching down to rest her hand on the catlike creature’s head. “I want you to go and see if you can catch something, all right? Scyther was a wild pokémon; he’s probably only used to eating fresh meat, and well, you know we’re running low on pokémon food.”

Persian just stared blankly at her trainer. This was one of those times she wished there wasn’t a language barrier between herself and the humans. One thing was for sure; she certainly didn’t like the idea of being responsible for feeding another injured pokémon. She had already had enough of that with Pidgeot. She glanced around, wondering if Justin was nearby, but she didn’t see him.

“I guess I should explain things more, huh?” Katie sighed.

“Yes, I think you should,” Persian muttered with annoyance, her fur bristling. Even if Katie couldn’t understand her words, she was sure the meaning was clear enough.

“Okay, well,” Katie began, glancing over at the injured pokémon. “This is our newest member of the team, Scyther.”

Persian glanced over at the bug type again. Scyther gave no reaction at all; he was still in the same position she had first seen him in, lying down and staring blankly off into the distance at nothing in particular. Even with his injuries aside, he wasn’t very impressive. He was larger than Persian remembered the scyther she had battled to be, but much too thin and weak looking to be strong. Whatever Katie meant by ‘member of the team,’ he certainly wasn’t going to be helping them fight.

“He was Justin’s pokémon when he was a trainer, but I found him like that…and I couldn’t just leave him there. You’ll help him and share your food, won’t you?” Katie asked.

Persian looked into her trainer’s eyes. Katie had always had this odd thing about helping wild pokémon. The feline pokémon had watched her care for several injured or sick pokémon she had found in the wild over her four years of being a trainer. However, she’d never seen Katie try taking care of something like a scyther, let alone one this far gone. “All right, I suppose,” Persian sighed reluctantly, nodding because she knew there was no way for the human to understand her words. “But you’d better make this worth it once we get back to a city or town,” she muttered under her breath.

Katie smiled and gave her pokémon a quick hug. “Thanks,” she told the normal type, running her hand across Persian’s head again.

The catlike pokémon purred, then stood up and began walking in the direction of some nearby trees, the cool wind coming from the direction of the mountain ruffling her fur. If it made her trainer happy and got her some sort of reward, she wouldn’t mind tossing a few scraps to the injured pokémon. At least it would keep it from dying...probably, she thought, and Katie wouldn’t be so distraught over having one of her ‘patients’ pass away. Even if Persian herself was rather indifferent to the other pokémon on Katie’s team, she didn’t want to have to go through that again. Catching the scent of pidgeotto on the breeze, Persian pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and bounded forward, hoping for a good hunt.

Katie watched her pokémon go with a feeling of regret. She would have liked to have Persian or one of the others around when she finally told Justin that she had used up the last space in her current party, and she had decided that time was going to be now.

She looked over at Scyther, who was as still as ever. She hesitated a moment before going to find Justin; she wasn’t sure if leaving an injured pokémon all alone was really a good idea. Then again, adult scyther had no predators, so she didn’t think he’d be in any danger. She waited a moment longer before turning away and walking back to where her companion was resting with their supplies.

“Guess what, Justin?” she said cheerfully as she reached the small area where they had stopped to rest. “I found more growlithe tracks. They’re still headed toward that mountain.” She had, in fact, found more tracks, and she figured – or at least hoped – that the news would make Justin a bit happier.

Only, Justin didn’t look happier. “We still don’t know if it’s the white growlithe,” he mumbled in a dull voice.

“Uh…well…” Katie paused for a moment. She decided that lingering on the growlithe subject wasn’t a good idea and would probably only make things worse. Might as well get straight to the point. “I…I caught another pokémon.”

Justin’s eyes went wide and he leaped to his feet, his face lit up in a smile. “You mean you’ve caught it?” he asked. “You’ve caught the white one?” His face fell when he saw Katie’s expression. “You mean it wasn’t the white one? What was it? A normal growlithe? Because, well, I don’t know, maybe that’s a clue…maybe the white one belongs to a group of normal growlithe, and-”

“I caught a scyther.”

“You…what?” Justin’s expression changed from a look of disappointment to a look of horror. He suddenly looked extremely pale. “But…but why…I thought you said you were going to wait to catch more pokémon until-”

“Well, this one was injured,” Katie sighed, forcing herself to go on. “I couldn’t just leave it there…a second time.”

“A second…what?”

“I found the scyther I helped the rangers bring to the pokémon center.” She didn’t bother mentioning that the scyther had been Justin’s. Her friend would realize that clearly enough.

Justin looked completely stunned. “What? What are you talking about?” he cried, looking furious. “You’re lying! That scyther’s dead. Blown up into a thousand pieces. You honestly don’t think it could have survived that blast, do you? It’s dead. DEAD!”

“No it’s not,” Katie replied. “It’s…it’s alive. Maybe Team Rocket had something to do with it, I don’t know. And I’m not sure how it got here, but I know it’s the same one. It said so on my pokédex…” She reached for the pokégear to show him, but he wasn’t listening.

“Why on earth would you catch any old scyther you found around here?” Justin cried. “Did you forget that scyther are dangerous? And that we were supposed to be trying to capture the growlithe?”

“Forget?” Katie replied. “Of course not! But I couldn’t just leave an injured pokémon all alone! What about those shinx we found that were injured by poachers? You wouldn’t have wanted me to leave them there.”

“That was different!” Justin retorted.

“Look, just let me show you the scyther,” Katie told him. “You’ll understand why I need to help it.”

“Don’t let it out of the poké ball!” Justin looked horribly alarmed at the thought.

“It’s already out,” she told him, pointing to where she had just walked from. “It can’t hurt you, you know…” Without waiting for a response, she began walking toward where Scyther was, Justin following her slowly and rather stiffly, still seeming in shock about the whole thing. Katie wasn’t even entirely sure he really believed her.

“You can’t keep a dangerous pokémon like that when Pidgeot’s injured!” Justin was saying. “If Pidgeot’s killed, we’ll have to get back to the city on foot! And what if it hurts one of us? I don’t even have pokémon!”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll keep one of my pokémon out to protect you from harm,” Katie told him, wishing he’d calm down. She supposed there was no use trying to explain to him that Scyther was too weak to stand, let alone attack anyone.

Justin didn’t speak again until they reached the place where Scyther lay. Immediately, both former trainer and pokémon froze. For the first time, Katie saw Scyther look someone straight in the eyes...and that person was Justin. And Katie knew in that moment that any doubts Justin had about this being his scyther were gone. It was clearly the same one they had stumbled across before, and it was giving Justin a look of pure hatred.

Justin wrenched his gaze away from the scyther and slowly turned to her. His voice was oddly calm, which unnerved her. “Why would you do this?” he asked. “I told you that pokémon was dangerous…I told you what it did to that girl, and what it did to me! Why did you capture it?”

“Because…I couldn’t just leave it there…I had to help…it would have died…”

“It doesn’t deserve to live.”

“Justin, it’s a pokémon. A pokémon that was used to being wild. It may not have known that what it was doing was wrong!”

“It was a trained pokémon. It knew perfectly well that killing humans was the worst thing it could do.”

“But…” Katie wasn’t sure what else to say. Justin did have a point, she realized. “I know,” she sighed. “But that doesn’t mean he can’t change. And with those injuries, I think he’s been through far more than what he deserved…he seemed calm enough around me. I don’t think he’s the same violent pokémon he used to be.”

“It’s a scyther! They don’t change. Violent is just the way they are! And that one is more dangerous than usual.” He gave Katie a glare that made her cringe. “Get…rid…of…it…now…”

Katie was about to respond when a meowing sound reached her ears. She turned to see Persian returning, holding a pidgeotto in her mouth. The normal type walked over to Scyther and set the prey down beside him, looking to her trainer for approval.

“What is she doing?” Justin cried, staring at Persian until he suddenly understood. “You sent your persian to kill pokémon for that thing?”

“Well, yes,” Katie replied. “Persian needs to hunt, and Scyther wouldn’t eat the pokémon food I-”

“If it didn't eat the food you offered, it was the stupid thing's own fault!” Justin screamed. “Why waste life on something that's practically dying?”

“Justin, Persian needs to hunt for herself anyway…do you want us to run out of pokémon food? I don't see any harm in Persian sharing...” Her voice was faltering now, barely above a whisper.

“Then why don’t you let Persian just share the food with the other pokémon?” Justin growled. “You know, the ones who still have a chance to survive?” He walked over to where Persian was standing, and the catlike pokémon shied away and walked over to Katie, startled to see Justin like this. “I suggest you chuck that poké ball into the lake and get rid of it once and for all!” Justin shouted.

“I’m not going to do that,” Katie said firmly. “I’m not going to get rid of him…I won’t let an injured pokémon suffer.”

Justin gave her a look of absolute loathing. “Well then don’t blame me when you or your pokémon get hurt!” he growled. He then turned around and sped off in the other direction, toward their makeshift camp. Katie looked at Persian, who seemed just as shocked as she was. She knew that the normal type was very fond of Justin.

“Follow him, okay?” she asked, and her pokémon briefly rubbed her head against her leg before bounding off in the direction Justin had left.

Now standing alone, Katie couldn’t help but wonder if Justin was right. But then again, the scyther had been perfectly calm around her. But it had still looked at Justin so angrily…

Whatever the reason, she thought, she had decided to help this pokémon, and that was what she was going to do. He’d already suffered more than enough for what he'd done. Maybe being shown kindness would make Scyther a better pokémon after all.

Or at least, she hoped it would.

-ooo-

Nighttime had fallen upon the traveling group, and they had at last reached the foot of the mountain. It was surprisingly cold, and many of the pokémon found it difficult to sleep. Snowcrystal was one of them, but in her case, it was not because of the cold.

The small growlithe kept looking up at the mountain. It reminded her so much of her home, and she could only wonder what was happening to the other growlithe back in her own territory. Had the houndour driven them out by now? Or did she still have time? There probably wasn’t much use worrying, she thought. No matter what, she had to try and help them. She couldn’t lose hope…not now that she was so close…

Surprisingly, she managed to drift off into sleep. In her dreams, she was running around near the base of the mountain, which in the dream was the mountain where her tribe lived, trying to stop Blazefang from firing a Shadowflare attack at the peak and melting the ice…

She woke with a start in the misty light of early dawn. The other pokémon were still asleep; from the looks of it, she was the only one awake. It suddenly struck her that it was foolish of them not to have taken turns keeping watch during the night, and it was a mistake she intended to fix later on. They had been lucky that night, but there was no telling what sort of dangers could be waiting for them on the steep mountain slopes.

After a moment, Spark began to stir. The jolteon opened his eyes and sat up groggily, looking around him. “Hi Snowcrystal,” he said tiredly, and she was relieved to see that he sounded much more like his normal self.

Nearby, Alex also stirred, and in a few moments she had opened her eyes and bounded to her feet, calling, “Wake up, everyone! Today’s the day we get to meet a legendary!”

“Don’t sound so sure,” Blazefang grumbled as he sat up slowly, scratching his ear with a hind paw.

Snowcrystal didn’t pay much attention to Blazefang; she was pretty much used to his negative attitude by now. The others were all getting up and whispering about the mountain journey to come…all except one. Thunder was still asleep.

“Thunder!” Snowcrystal called to the scyther, unwilling to get any closer to her in case she was in a bad mood. “Wake up! It’s time to go!”

Thunder lifted her head quicker than Snowcrystal expected – it actually startled her a bit – and stared at her with what looked like a mixture of surprise and loathing. Snowcrystal flinched, but tried to keep her voice steady as she addressed the scyther. “We need to get going,” she told the bug type as nicely as she could. “We’re going to start climbing the mountain.”

Thunder just stared at her a moment before standing up and turning away, her gazed fixed on the mountain. From where she stood, it seemed to Snowcrystal like Thunder was shivering violently, though she couldn’t be sure. She was half wondering if she should mention something to Nightshade when a voice from behind startled her.

“Er…Snowcrystal…can I talk to you?”

She turned around to see Blazefang standing there, looking anxious and worried, his paws fidgeting in the dry grass. If that wasn’t surprising enough, the look in his eyes certainly was. He looked frightened, wary, and from the way he was acting, it looked like whatever he wanted to talk about was important, and it wasn’t going to be easy for him either.

“Why do you want to talk to me?” she couldn’t help blurting out before thinking.

Blazefang didn’t seem to feel like answering directly. “It needs to be you,” he growled, though his growl sounded more worried than aggressive. “You’re the leader of this group. The others follow you. Now come on, we need to talk…”

Snowcrystal glanced at the rest of the group. They were all still talking to one another in quiet whispers, or in Alex’s case, loud yells. She turned and followed Blazefang reluctantly, feeling slightly confused that he had referred to her as a ‘leader.’ She had certainly never felt like one, least of all now when her goal was in sight and she didn’t need to lead anyone anywhere, and after which their group would likely split up. She was jolted away from her confused thoughts when Blazefang stopped and looked at her expectantly. She wondered what she was supposed to say, and merely asked in an impatient manner, “Okay, what is it?”

“When we were in the cave,” Blazefang said quickly, still sounding nervous. “That weavile…Shade…said that the ice Forbidden Attack…Deathfreeze…was used by an ice type pokémon a season ago. Think about when Articuno left, Snowcrystal. I think…it could have been him.”

Snowcrystal had been expecting something along the lines of Blazefang wanting to tell her that he was ready to leave the group and go off on his own, or even to try and get her to ask the others to leave him alone, but this completely threw her off. She had to take a moment and repeat what he had said in her mind before the words started to make sense.

“It…it could have been any other ice type, right?” she replied, her voice shaking much more than she would have liked it to. Although the others had mentioned Shade’s words about Deathfreeze, the thought had never occurred to her before.

“I don’t know,” Blazefang replied, flinching. “Shade wouldn’t mention the pokémon’s species…but he said that it took many pokémon to stop him and control him…because he’d gone insane. If he…”

“Wouldn’t we have seen destruction from Deathfreeze around here if he had?” Snowcrystal asked, still trying to tell herself that Blazefang was only making a wild shot in the dark with his theory.

“Not really,” said Blazefang, almost reluctantly. “The pokémon had to take him far away, using sleep-inducing attacks every time he showed signs of unleashing the Forbidden Attack. For all we know, the place they took him could be here. And Alex said that several pokémon told her that he lives up there-”

“I still don’t think we should assume something like that,” Snowcrystal retorted, interrupting him. “Darkfang saw Articuno…I highly doubt he was captive at the time…”

“Snowcrystal,” Blazefang interrupted, his eyes serious, “about the whole ‘going up the mountain to find him’ thing. Rethink this. Darkfang may have seen Articuno before it happened…or before he was stopped. I know it sounds crazy, but everything fits. Why else would he leave us so suddenly, with no explanation?”

Snowcrystal didn’t reply. Lingering doubts about the success of her mission were building in the back of her mind. They couldn’t stop now, not when they were so close. And even if Blazefang was right, Articuno was of no harm to them if he was being guarded, was he? They had to try. And what if Blazefang was only saying such a thing to keep her away from Articuno? To help his own tribe?

Still, she thought, the others deserved to know the risk, if there was any to begin with. As crazy as it sounded, she knew she should probably tell everyone about Blazefang’s theory before they left. Even if there was the slightest chance that Articuno might possess Deathfreeze, the others deserved to know. Snowcrystal became vaguely aware that Blazefang was still standing there, and told him firmly, “I won’t turn back, but I will tell the others. Don’t accept it as fact, though. I for one am certainly not going to.” She gave him a suspicious glance before heading back to the group, leaving Blazefang looking helpless.

-ooo-

“Articuno…with Deathfreeze?” Spark cried as Snowcrystal finished speaking, his eyes wide. “Nuh-uh. No way. Legendaries are smarter than that! They’re, well…legendary!”

“Weren’t the legendaries the cause of the Forbidden Attacks, according to legend?” Rosie asked.

“In some versions, yes,” Spark replied with an air of importance, “but not in the one I was commonly told. In that one, they were just ordinary species of pokémon…ones with powers…”

“Regardless, would a legendary really not take a hint when some freaky stone starts giving him powers?” Rosie retorted.

“I think Blazefang could be right…” Redclaw spoke up hesitantly, but then added, “but he could be wrong…”

“Huh…a legendary with Deathfreeze?” Alex cried in a cheerful manner. “Well, that certainly puts an edge on things, right?”

“We don’t need you around anymore,” Rosie growled at her. “This isn’t exactly any of your business.” To her annoyance, Alex didn’t seem to notice or care that she had even spoken.

“I think Blazefang just wants us to stay away so he can find Articuno for himself,” Thunder spoke up. Everyone stared at her in silence; Blazefang looked horrified. “Not that it’s any concern to me,” she added, “but you probably have no Forbidden Attack to worry about. Might as well throw the traitor,” she glanced at Blazefang, “out and just get on with your original plan.”

Rosie’s fur stood on end as she turned to glare at Blazefang. “That makes a surprising lot of sense,” she snarled. “You were pretty darn stupid to believe that we’d just give up after all that!”

“Well, worrying about it won’t do much good,” Nightshade told the others, standing up and placing himself between Blazefang and Rosie. “Like Snowcrystal said, we should still be prepared even if the chance is small. And the ice type with the attack is apparently guarded. There’s little risk of a Forbidden Attack being used, and whatever happens, at least we will know where Articuno is and hopefully why he had left…” He cast a glance at Blazefang, who seemed like he had already accepted Articuno having Deathfreeze as fact.

“Who cares?” Thunder growled. “Let’s just find the damn bird and be done with it.”

“It’s not like you have to come,” Spark muttered, turning his head to glare at the scyther. “Stay behind if you like.”

Thunder opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again, letting out a hiss of annoyance instead. Spark gave her a smug smirk; he knew as well as anyone else that Thunder couldn’t hunt well even without being injured. She depended entirely on the group for food.

However, Snowcrystal wasn’t sure that dragging her up a mountain in that condition was a good idea either, though neither was leaving her alone when she thought about it.

“Let’s get going then,” Redclaw sighed, standing up. If anything, he looked like he wanted to start walking now to stop a fight from breaking out; Rosie looked ready to rip Blazefang’s fur off and Thunder was giving Spark a glare that looked as though she wanted to kill him.

As the others all stood up and watched Redclaw expectantly, Snowcrystal wondered if there was really a chance that Blazefang’s speculation could be right. The others seemed skeptical enough to believe it was mere coincidence that the ice type had found the Forbidden Attack at around the same time Articuno left. However, even though Snowcrystal felt she should think the same…a small, lingering doubt at the back of her mind told her that the events were too much of a coincidence. And Blazefang had been right in that everything did seem to fit.

As she followed the others, she forced herself to try and think of other things instead and wait to find out for herself, but the thought still lingered. What if Articuno really had gone insane?

What would she do then?

To be continued...