Pokemon Ascendance: Origins of Holon

28

Olivia smiled as she walked towards Elsie. "Congratulations. You've successfully passed all three trials and the grand trial. Looks like you're all set to continue to the next island."

"Yeah but I'm not ready to go yet." Elsie replied. "I have to wait for my Rockruff to come back." she then took a quick glance at the Kahuna's Lycanroc. "How long does it usually take for a Rockruff to evolve into a Lycanroc when they go off on their own?"

"I'd say about a few days but it really depends on the pokemon itself." Olivia explained. "I guess that's why you wanted to go into the ruins. To find a way to make sure that it would be alright on its own, right?"

Elsie nodded, which caused Olivia to give her a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry too much. I'm sure that you'll see your Rockruff very soon. In fact, I wouldn't be too surprised if he was somewhere here right now wanting to know how your battle went."

Hearing that made her feel a bit better. Elsie nodded, smiling a little. "Thanks. But I still think I'll search for him tomorrow. I guess I just want to try to see for myself if he's okay."

...........

The next morning, Elsie got up early. The first thing that she saw being the Rockium-Z that Olivia had gifted to her. She sighed and held it in her hand.

'This will be the first thing that I show Skye when I find him... or when he comes back.'

Not wasting any more time, the trial-goer got up and began preparing for her search for her Rockruff... or Lycanroc... whichever one Skye was at this point. She really couldn't be sure. She just wanted her partner okay.

When she was about to leave, Lucien ran to her, pawing at her feet. Confused, she looked down at her Growlithe.

"What is it buddy?"

In response, Lucien began sniffing the ground. Not long after he trotted ahead, then looked back at his trainer.

"Is... is Skye's scent still lingering around and you picked up on it?"

Lucien nodded and Elsie smiled. "Good boy. Now let's go find our friend."

With that, their search for Skye officially began. As Lucien led the way, Elsie called out the Rockruff's name, hoping that if he heard her, then maybe he would show himself. Seemed that aside from searching, hoping was the only thing that she could do in this situation.

Skye's lingering scent eventually brought them to what looked like a Mantine Surfing Spot.

'Did he think that he would pass by through here? Doesn't look like there's any place for training... unless one of the Mantine agreed to battle him for some odd reason.'

She was about to continue but soon stopped when she heard a cry. It was definitely from a pokemon, but it wasn't her Skye. Elsie looked around, assuming that it was one of the Mantine and whoever their caretakers were sure to rush to its need any minute now. But the Mantine seemed just as confused, looking around to where they heard the cry as well. And there didn't seem to be anyone around to investigate.

'I can't just ignore a cry like that... looks like my search for Skye will just have to be paused for just a little bit.'

Elsie then turned her direction to where she heard the cry. It led her to what looked like a small cave in the shallow end of the water. Taking a deep breath, she took a step into the water, Prism and Sapphire following not too far behind. Lucien and Ico stayed on the shore for a bit before Ico picked up Lucien and followed as well, making sure that the Growlithe didn't have to get wet.

Once in the cave, Elsie looked around.

"Hello?" she called out. "I... I'm not here to hurt you I promise. I want to help."

She heard the cry again and continued to follow. At the very end, she saw the pokemon responsible for making the crying; a Milotic.

Elsie stood there in disbelief for a moment. 'A Milotic... what's a pokemon like that doing here?'

The Milotic then stared at Elsie with wide eyes. Sensing its fear, the girl immediately put her hands up in surrender.

"I'm not here to hurt you, I promise." she assured it. "Will you let me come closer?"

Though tense, the Milotic made no attempt to make sure that Elsie stayed away. Trying to see if the pokemon trusted her enough, Elsie took a slow step forward. So far no attacks were thrown her way.

"See? I-I'm here to help. Just let me come closer."

Soon the distance between them shortened to the point where she could reach out and touch the Milotic. When that close, Elsie quickly noticed what was wrong. The Milotic's tail was damaged.

"Poor thing. You can't swim in that condition. You're practically stuck in this little cave."

Elsie then began to rummage through her bag, pulling out a potion. She then showed it to the wild Milotic.

"I'm gonna spray this on your tail okay? It's going to sting a little but it'll make it feel a bit better."

The Milotic seemed to have understood, bringing its injured tail closer to Elsie and taking a deep breath, almost as if it was bracing itself for the stinging sensation. Elsie slowly knelt down and aimed the spray bottle towards the wound.

"I'll spray on the count of three. One... two... three!"

She quickly sprayed the potion and the Milotic winced, whining a little before quickly settling down. The wound seemed to have been less irritated, but was still very noticeable.

"Looks like one potion wasn't enough. Let's see if I have something else to heal it."

"There's no need for all that."

Caught off guard, Elsie gasped and turned around to see who had said that. There she saw a group of people, all of them in all white outfits.

"We from the Aether Foundation have had reports of an injured Milotic hiding around here." one of the people had explained. "We're here to bring it to get some proper treatment for its injuries."

"It's nice to know that there are nice trainers like you who are willing to take time out of their day to help out a pokemon." another praised. "But I promise you that the Milotic is in good hands with us. In fact, once it has settled down in Aether Paradise, we can bring you there to check up on Milotic here."

"Oh uh..." Elsie took a glance at the Milotic. It seemed to have had the same reaction when one of these Aether Foundation workers approached it, assuring that it would be taken care of. Seeing that the pokemon wasn't freaking out when they came near, she figured that these people actually did want to help. "O-Okay then... but only if you promise to let me see Milotic when it's better."

"Don't worry, just meet us at the Grand Hano Resort when you're ready to come see Milotic and we'll bring you to see it."

Elsie watched as the group of people, slowly carried off the Milotic, hoping that it got the treatment that it needed.