pokemon adventure

chapter fifty Three

Chapter 53

The Dragon's Den, Blackthorn Gym

And Wynaut

Ash and the gang were on the way to Blackthorn City, where Ash could earn his last gym badge for the Johto League. Along the way they had run into some adventures. First they ran into a fire pokemon trainer named Egan, who loved fire pokemon very much, and he had a Flareon and a Magcargo. Next they came across a mysterious lake that electric pokemon always gathered to, and in the process they met a wild Zapdos, and the gang swore to never tell anyone about this. And last of all they encountered the icy path, which was a very long icy cave filled with lots of ice pokemon. But now they were getting near to Blackthorn City.

Just then they saw a Dratini sleeping on the ground next to a lake. "Hey what is it doing there all by itself?" asked Ash. Just then a Gyarados popped out of the lake and fired a hydro pump attack at them. "Hey what did you do that for?" commanded Ash. A blue haired woman came up and answered Ash's question. "I apologize for that, my Gyarados protects my Dratini whenever there are strangers about" she said, and returned Gyarados to its pokeball. Ash understood and introduced himself to the woman. Tomo, Misty and Brock introduced themselves as well. The woman introduced herself as Clair, the gym leader of the gym in Blackthorn City. When Ash heard that Clair was the gym leader, he asked if he could challenge her to a gym battle. "I gladly accept your challenge Ash," said Claire "but I have to perform an important ritual today, before I can accept any gym challengers first". "What important ritual is that?" asked Brock. "I can answer that question," said a voice behind them.

The voice belonged to an old man and he was carrying a green rucksack on his back. "My name is Kaburagi," said the man "and I'm Clair's assistant at the gym". Kaburagi explained that Clair had to take the old dragon fang to the dragon's den. He showed them a very old dragon fang from his rucksack. "Hey I read one time that a dragon fang can power up dragon type moves'' said Ash. "That is correct," said Kaburagi "and this old dragon fang is a priceless treasure to the Blackthorn Gym''. He explained that the old dragon fang had been in the Blackthorn Gym ever since the first gym leader. "It's a tradition that the gym leader of Blackthorn Gym takes this old dragon fang to the shrine that's in the dragon's den, and performs a special ritual there". The gang was fascinated by this. Just then Ash asked Clair if they could watch the ritual. "Yeah could we?" asked Misty "it sounds exciting to watch". Clair and Kaburagi saw nothing wrong with that and allowed the gang to join them.

So Clair and Kaburagi led the gang the way to the dragon's den. The dragon's den was located just outside Blackthorn City. Along the way Clair revealed that Lance of the elite four was her cousin, which made the gang very surprised indeed, and the gang told Clair about their meeting with Lance outside Mahogany Town. Soon they reached a lake, and the entrance to the dragon's den was on the other side of the lake, in the cliffs. Clair sent out her Gyarados and everyone got onto its back to cross the lake and into the dragon's den.

The dragon's den was a very dark cave. Ash sent out Lanturn to light up the way. The other problem was there were some whirlpools in the dragon's den. Misty sent out her Staryu to deal with the whirlpools with whirlpool attack. Soon they were getting near the shrine, which stood in the middle of the dragon's den. "I take it Lance has been here as well right Clair?" asked Ash. "That's correct Ash," said Clair "all dragon type trainers come here to pray for all the dragon type trainers of the past to guide them on their quests. So both Lance and I have prayed here to have our quests, being great dragon type trainers, be successful". "I see," said Ash.

Finally they reached the shrine of the dragon's den. Suddenly three old men ran out of the shrine; they were the priests of the shrine. "Oh Clair we are glad you are here" one of them said. "Has something happened?" asked Clair. One of the priests explained that they were getting the shrine ready for Clair's ritual, but then a thief broke into the shrine and stole all the dragon fangs from the master of the dragon clan. "Oh my!" gasped Kaburagi. "I'm glad that this thief hadn't stolen the old dragon fang". "Is the master okay?" asked Clair. "Oh he's alright," answered one of the priests "he's just in a bit of a shock from the attack". Clair ran into the shrine to see if the master was okay and Kaburagi and the gang followed.