Ash's Story (Part 5: Modern Sinnoh)

Chapter 51: Falling Stars

After we parted ways with Scott again, Route 210 felt quieter than before, but not easier. The fog behind us had thinned after Defog, and the mountain path ahead rose in rough shelves of stone, wet grass, and old bridges that looked as if they had been waiting for travelers longer than I had been alive.

Lillie kept the Old Charm wrapped safely in her bag, checking it whenever the path grew rough. Cynthia had trusted us to deliver it to her grandmother in Celestic Town, and that made every muddy slope feel more important than it looked.

I kept one hand near Roselia's Poké Ball while Pikachu rode on my shoulder. Roselia had been restless since we entered the upper route. She kept asking to walk beside us, and every time we passed another patch of mountain flowers, she slowed down like something beneath the soil was calling to her.

Lillie noticed it too, because she watched Roselia's flowers with a gentle smile. "She has been looking for something since morning."

Roselia's meaning came through softly, sweet but determined. "There is a light under the roots. It is not sunlight. It is waiting."

Daniel adjusted his glasses and studied the slope above us. "That sounds like either mineral resonance or a place where evolutionary energy gathered naturally. I mean that as a real possibility, not as a cold explanation."

Tox crouched near Roselia and checked the thorny leaves on her arms without grabbing her. "No swelling, no poison leakage, no stress tremor. She is not sick. She is responding to something."

The path narrowed after that, and we had to move single file along a rocky shelf. I had crossed worse water and cliffs in Johto and Hoenn, but Sinnoh had a way of making every old route feel like it was testing whether travelers paid attention.

Gladion watched the drop beside us. "This place explains why Wilma does not get many visitors."

Dawn hugged Piplup closer while Ponyta stepped carefully behind her. "If the next town is past this, Celestic Town really is protected by the mountains."

Before I could answer, a huge burst of light shot into the sky from beyond the ridge. It broke apart above us like a shower of blue-white stones, and the falling sparks hammered an empty practice field until dust rolled over the path.

Dawn grabbed Piplup and pulled him close. "What was that?"

An old woman's voice called from the field beyond the ridge. "Altaria, steady your breath. Draco Meteor is not just a power. A falling star still needs direction."

We climbed toward the field and found a grandma standing beside an Altaria whose cloud wings trembled with effort. The field around them was full of smoking craters. The woman turned toward us, calm even though the ground looked like a battlefield.

"My name is Wilma," she said, leaning on her staff. "This old place is where I tutor Dragon-type Pokémon in Draco Meteor. Visitors are rare, but polite ones are welcome."

I bowed quickly, because I could not stop staring at the broken field. "I'm Ash. This is Lillie, Dawn, Gladion, Daniel, and Tox. That move was amazing."

Wilma smiled at Altaria. "Amazing is only the surface. Draco Meteor asks a Dragon-type to release great power, but if the heart is scattered, the stars scatter too."

Altaria lowered her head to greet us, and Roselia stepped closer to the edge of the field. For a second, Roselia's flowers glowed faintly in the dust, as if the falling energy had shaken the hidden light she sensed.

Pikachu's ears twitched. From the dirt beside the field, a blue fin sliced through the ground like it was water. A small Dragon Pokémon burst up, opened his mouth, and lunged straight at my head.