1. Ash's Story (Part 10: Galar)

Chapter 92: Carrot Seeds

The mayor's house looked quiet when we reached it, with snow gathered along the roof and no smoke rising as strongly as before. I knocked, waited, and listened to the wind slide between the houses instead of footsteps.

One of the elderly women from the fields noticed us standing there and lifted one mittened hand. "The mayor is not home at the moment. He went to have a look at the fields in the Giant's Bed."

Her friend nodded beside her. "If you are in a hurry to find him, head that way. The fields are northwest of the village. Go through Frostpoint Field and keep to the right."

"Thank you," Alice said, bowing lightly.

Elena tucked her notebook under her arm. "Then we do not waste time. If the mayor knows anything about the steeds, we need him before the trail goes cold."

Pikachu shifted on my shoulder and looked past the village roofs toward the open snow, cheeks faintly sparking in the cold, "The answer is not in the warm house yet. It is standing where the land failed."

I touched Pikachu's paw with one finger. "Then we go where the land is hurting."

The women exchanged a curious look, but they did not ask what Pikachu had meant. Maybe they thought I was talking to myself. In a village that had forgotten its own king and queen, that almost felt easier to believe.

We left Freezington behind and followed the path toward Frostpoint Field. The snow deepened outside the village, soft at the top and hard underneath, so every few steps carried the small risk of sinking too far.

Alice kept one hand near her scarf, watching the horizon. "It is beautiful here, but it feels lonely."

"Like the whole tundra is waiting for someone to remember it," I said.

Elena wrote even while walking, her handwriting steadier than mine would have been in this wind. "Freezington memory state: legend preserved as tale, warning, souvenir, and song. Belief almost gone. Land condition poor. Mayor inspecting fields."

"That sounds like expedition chief work," Alice said.

Elena gave her a tired smile. "Do not encourage Uncle Peony."

We crossed a rise, and the shape of ancient ruins appeared in the distance. Stone doors sat half-buried in snow, marked with dots that looked too deliberate to be decoration. The air around them felt still, as if the wind had decided not to touch them.

Elena stopped with her boots planted in the snow. "Regi temples."

I followed her gaze. The doors looked like they were sleeping with one eye open. "Peony's clue mentioned dot-faced giants."

"It did," Elena said, voice careful. "But the mayor comes first. If we start opening every ruin we pass, we will lose the purpose of this trip before we find the next truly important clue."

Alice nodded. "The temples can wait until we understand them."

I remembered the Max Lair's strange paths and the way the Crown Tundra hid danger under wonder. This place was not like a stadium, where lights announced every challenge. Here, a wrong turn could wake an ancient door, step into a hungry storm, or mistake an old grief for an enemy.

Pikachu leaned forward, tail lowered with quiet warning, "Stone giants sleep best when no one knocks without knowing why."

"Agreed," I said. "We leave them alone for now."

The path curved between frozen shrubs and stones half-hidden beneath the snow. Every so often, the wind cleared enough for Freezington to vanish behind us completely, leaving only the white ground, distant ruins, and our footprints to prove we had come from somewhere warm.