1.Ash's Story (Part 2: Johto)

Chapter 72: Rainbow Light

Leaving Goldenrod should have felt simple after everything we had finished there. Instead, every time my bag shifted, I remembered the Silver Wing and Rainbow Wing resting inside.

Pikachu stayed on my shoulder while Espeon padded beside me. Togetic floated near Lillie, close enough to watch the special Egg case she carried against her chest. The city slowly disappeared behind the bends in the road.

Lillie glanced back once. "It feels strange leaving Goldenrod after everything that happened there."

"It does," I said. "But Clair is still waiting in Blackthorn."

East checked the road ahead. "We head toward Mahogany first, then Route 44. Ice Path comes after that."

Kris adjusted her notes while Ethan stretched both arms over his head. Reisa walked near the back, watching the shallow ditches beside the road.

Before we left Goldenrod, one of Mom's officers brought bad news. Jessie, James, and Meowth had escaped during prisoner transfer amid the remaining evacuation traffic.

Ethan had groaned when he heard. "Of course they did."

Now Pikachu sniffed a cracked channel beside the road and tapped the dry mud with one paw. "Water used to run here. I can still smell it in the stones."

I looked toward Reisa. "Pikachu says this channel used to carry water."

Reisa slowed beside it. "That explains the smooth stones. Something changed upstream."

Espeon's ears turned toward the hills. "There is water somewhere ahead, but it sounds faint. I can barely hear it under the ground."

Lillie looked toward the rising land. "Espeon can hear water ahead."

The farther we walked, the drier the old channels became. Tree stumps covered parts of the lower slope, and exposed roots twisted through pale soil where a thicker forest must once have held the hillside together.

A mountain rose beyond the road. It should have sounded alive with streams, but the only noise came from wind moving through the remaining trees.

A man sat beside the empty riverbed with a canvas propped before him. A paintbrush rested behind one ear, while boxes of crayons covered the ground around him in almost every color I could name.

He stared toward the mountain instead of drawing.

Lillie approached carefully. "Excuse me. Are you waiting for something?"

The man jumped, then laughed at himself. "Travelers! Forgive me. I am Gan Gogh. I have spent twenty-four years trying to capture one impossible sight, and today I may miss it for the third time."

Ethan looked at the mountain. "What sight?"

"The Rainbow Lights," Gan Gogh said. "They appear here only once every twelve years. The first time I saw them, seven crayons were not enough. Twelve years later, twelve crayons were not enough. This time I brought two hundred fifty-one."

Kris stared at the boxes. "That may be too many."

Gan Gogh sighed. "I have considered that possibility."

He pointed toward the dry channel. "The lights come from Remoraid Mountain. Water rises through an old underground spring, and the Remoraid gather near the upper lake. Their Water Gun and Ice Beam build an ice pillar. When sunrise and mist meet the melting ice, the whole mountain shines."

Reisa looked at the empty channel. "But the water is not reaching the lower river."

"No," Gan Gogh said. "The old forest was cut back when people built around these ruins. The channels became unstable. This cycle should already have started, but the stream has barely returned."