Pokemon Ascendance: Origins of Holon

49

Elsie blinked in confusion at what just happened.

'Did... Sapphire just use Flamethrower on that Scizor a moment ago?'

Sapphire flew over to Elsie, nuzzling her cheek. Her trainer couldn't help but giggle a little before returning some of the affection.

"That was certainly a surprise. Where did you learn how to use Flamethrower?"

Sapphire gestured to Lucien's pokeball.

"Oh. So he taught you. At least you have a move to deal with ice-type pokemon now."

"Drakeon."

The little conversation was cut short when Prism walked over to the totem pole. Elsie and Sapphire soon joined the Drakeon's side, studying the Z-Crystal that the totem Kommo-o was guarding.

'I'm guessing this is a Z-Crystal for dragon types since we already have one for fighting types.' Elsie thought as she took the crystal in her hand. It was then that Lillie and Hau came running to her side.

"Congratulations. You've just earned yourself a Dragonium-Z." Lillie said.

"Who knew that there was a trial here without a captain," Hau commented. "Usually trial captains play a part in training the totem pokemon. Looks like the three of you had fun battling seeing that none of you stopped smiling since the battle began."

Elsie let out a nervous laugh. "I guess that happens when old memories kinda come to mind while you're battling."

"I was wondering what was going on up here. Not every day that someone comes to this area."

Elsie peered over Lillie and Hau's shoulders to see someone walking towards them. A girl with long hair and covered in paint on various parts of her body.

"Hey, Mina." Hau greeted with his usual grin. "Long time no see. Looking for inspiration for another painting of yours?"

"Elsie, this is Mina. The trial captain of Poni Island." Lillie explained.

'I guess she's the only captain here considering how little Poni Island seems to have.' Elsie thought. 'Though I can't try to guess what pokemon type she specializes in. Judging by all the paint it'd be safe to assume that her partner would be a Smeargle but I've already dealt with a normal-type trial.'

"So, you're the one that Lillie's been helping out throughout your trial," Mina said, turning her attention to Elsie. "You're Elsie right?"

She nodded. "Yes. It's nice to meet you, Captain Mina."

To her surprise and confusion, Mina had walked over and placed something in Elsie's hand. Looking at it, the item seemed to be a flower petal of some sort.

"W-What's this?" she asked.

"What you'll be collecting from the other trial captains of Alola," Mina said. "Usually you have to battle for it but considering that I saw you take down the Totem Kommo-o, I already know that you're a strong trainer. Once you've collected all the flower petals, come back to Poni Island and we'll summon the Totem Pokemon."

"So I'm revisiting all the islands from before?" Elsie asked.

"Yep. It's what Lillie's been doing while you were just starting out on your island challenge." Hau said.

'Well... that makes a lot more sense why she never seemed to be that much in a rush even though she said she was still doing her trials.' Elsie thought. 'She's just been finishing up this trial at the same time I was completing the other trials.'

"I guess I better make preparations to go back to Melemele Island then."

"Yeah, we can all go together. Let's go!"

Before anyone could react, Hau ran off. Lillie sighed and shook her head before running after him.

"I-I guess that's my cue to try and catch up to them." Elsie sighed before glancing over at Mina. "I'll be back soon. It was nice meeting you."

"Good luck trial-goer"

As Elsie began running in an attempt to catch up to her friends, Sapphire and Prism flew next to her. She couldn't help but notice the mischievous glints in their eyes as they looked at each other.

"What are you two plotting?"

Before she knew it, Sapphire flew under Elsie's legs, causing her to stumble and fall. Luckily Elsie had a soft landing which just so happened to be her Altaria's back. She didn't have time to fully process what was going on until both Sapphire and Prism began flying down at a fast speed.

"You're trying to make this a race or something?" Elsie asked her pokemon who grinned and nodded. Elsie couldn't help but laugh as she held onto her Altaria. "You could've given me a better warning if you wanted to do this."

The three of them descended from Vast Poni Canyon. At this point, there was no doubt in Elsie's mind that they had already passed Lillie and Hau by a large margin. Matter of fact, she was pretty sure that she could have her team healed at the Pokemon Center and they would still be climbing down. Elsie assumed that they just wanted to outspeed Hau in some way... despite no one agreeing to race down the canyon.

Sapphire safely landed in front of the Pokemon Center, allowing Elsie to climb down.

"Well, that was fun.... despite the little heart attack you two gave me."

The two dragon types grinned as they entered the center. As Elsie gave her team to Nurse Joy in order for them to be healed, she couldn't help but think about the trial at hand. Her last trial.

'The last trial that I'll be doing revolves around revisiting the islands that I got the other Z Crystals.' she thought. 'I'll be going back to where my journey first started. And then I'll go back to Holon to make a league there. I'm... both excited and nervous about all this.'

There was so much that she wanted to share with all of her friends back home. But she supposed she would have to find a way to explain the change in eye color without scaring anyone too much. Though it would be really hard to do that.

'Then there's also looking into the mystery of the former guardians of Holon.' Elsie reminded herself. 'I guess I can try to find a way to look into that sometime after the league stuff is established. There's so much stuff to do.'

After mentally going through everything that she wanted to do, Elsie pondered if journeys really end at some point.