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

Chapter 96: Legendary Wings

We left the locked giants behind, but the last Legendary Clue did not wait long before pulling at Elena's curiosity. We were still near the Giant's Foot when I saw her checking the folder again, one gloved thumb resting on the final folded paper.

"What does the third clue say?" I asked. "Can we look at it before Peony invents another title for it?"

Elena cleared her throat, trying to sound official while the wind tugged at her scarf. "When the sun reaches its zenith, it shines directly down upon a great tree with leaves that seem to burn. It is there that the legendary wings come to roost."

Alice looked toward the south, where the land dipped away. "The great tree we saw before near Ballimere Lake. That has to be the one, right?"

"It has to be," I said. "A tree with burning leaves is not something the Crown Tundra can hide twice."

Pikachu sat on my shoulder and watched the distant slopes, ears twitching toward the open sky, "The giants slept behind doors, but wings do not wait behind walls."

"Then we will need to move faster," I said, adjusting my gloves before the cold could bite deeper.

Elena folded the clue and slipped it into her folder. "After Calyrex and the Regis, I almost miss doors. At least doors stay in one place until Uncle Peony makes them sound worse."

Alice smiled. "Legendary wings probably do not stay anywhere just because we ask nicely."

We started toward Ballimere Lake, leaving the Giant's Foot behind. The land still carried Calyrex's restored life, but the Crown Tundra remained wild, with snow, grass, stone, and old secrets pressed close together in every direction.

The walk toward the lake gave Elena enough time to organize the clue into the same careful structure she had used for Calyrex and the giants. She marked the sun, the tree, and the wings as separate points, then circled the word "roost" three times.

"Roost means they gather there, not that they live there," she said. "If they scatter, we may be chasing them across more than the Crown Tundra."

Alice looked at the sky, where clouds moved quickly over the peaks. "Then we should remember their directions the moment we see them."

That sounded obvious until I remembered how fast Legendary Pokémon could disappear when they wanted to. The Dyna Tree was a meeting place, not a cage, and if the clue was true, we were walking toward the one moment before the whole expedition broke into motion.

Ballimere Lake opened wide beneath the great tree, and the first thing we noticed was not the tree at all. Fossil Pokémon moved across the land and water like pieces of ancient time wandering into the present.

Alice stopped near the lake's edge, eyes bright despite the cold. "Cradily, Tyrantrum, and Armaldo are here too? The Crown Tundra really does keep collecting impossible neighbors."

I looked across the shore, where a Relicanth moved slowly through the water. "That is almost every fossil line except the Sinnoh ones. Even Relicanth looks like it belongs here somehow."

Elena watched an Armaldo step around the roots. "The Crown Tundra makes the past feel less buried than it should be. It is not only preserving fossils. It is letting them walk through the current world."

The great tree rose beyond them, enormous and bright, its leaves red and orange like fire caught in branches. It did not burn, but the color made the whole place feel lit from within, as if autumn had chosen one tree and refused to leave.

Elena tilted her head all the way back. "This sure is a big tree, and that may be the least useful note I have written today."

"I think even Peony would call that accurate," Alice said, smiling as she looked up.