Chapter Eleven: Voyage Gone Awry
(from now on the title will Quest
of the Sea God)
Last time, things were pretty boring, cept for the beginning. Blah blah blah
last time. I'm going to stop doing this last time thing.
Now we would return to Cinnabar. Harold was going to answer our
questions, or we would blow the lid of his little "Ancient" Gym. He didn't
even have ancient Pokémon. Just that horrible Charcanine.
Charcanine was a problem. I barely defeated it last time, and according
to Harold, it was a runt! All the training we were doing probably helped, but
there was still no way we could face one of those things head on. We'd have
to catch Harold before he could call out his Pokémon.
"Ready to go," Lucy said, looking at me.
"Yah, all set."
We had rented a full grown, domesticated Lapras for the trip, and we
could return it to the company's Cinnabar outlet once we got there. The
Lapras had been specially bread so that it would be easier to ride, it even
came with seats made to attach to Lapras's shell. That still didn't ease
Tony's fear of falling off. I loved the way my comment about sharks only
attacking when they see a frightened animal turned his face green.
He strapped in tight, and called Mach out to sit beside him, so he could
cache one of us if we fell off. I wasn't worried. We'd had a Lapras back home
that we used to take out fishing. So I sat in front, like I would be guiding
Lapras or something. The truth was, she knew the way well, and would be
navigating herself. But I liked to show off that I was an experienced Lapras
rider. I was hoping it would impress Lucy.
I had been doing that a lot. Showing off. Lucy noticed occasionally, but
she was playing hard to get. She was gorgeous, intelligent, every thing I
liked in a girl. I thought she was interested in me, but she seemed to like
playing games. That was fine with me. Every game has an end, after all. She
took a seat next to her brother, reclining and looking up toward the clear
blue sky, not fastening herself in and taking delight in her brother's worry..
I gave Lapras a tap and she started off with a slight lurch. At this Tony
looked around with fright, as if he thought there was another cause for this,
like pirate cannon fire. After he convinced himself that there was no
immediate danger present, he settled down and looked forward, already
impatient for the voyage to end.
We continued on for an hour, every fifteen minutes Tony would ask to see
the GPS map to check our progress. Now, though, it looked like he was ready
to take a nap. Suddenly, he jerked his head upright, asking me if I heard
anything.
"Aah," I muttered, dismissing his comment.
"Wait," Lucy said, "I hear it too."
I listened carefully, and sure enough, I heard a buzzing sound, and it
was getting louder. Lapras slowed to a halt, and we all stiffened, listening
as if our lives depended on it. As Lapras began to slowly spin and the
whirlpool form around us, I saw something, moving in sync with the whirlpool,
as if sustaining it rather than caught in it. So as we began to spin slowly
down into the pool, all I could thing about was how far the Harold's Ancients
must extend.
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