The Price of Fame

3:

Yes.... Brycen thought as he dreamed. Childhood was so blissful compared to now... He sighed, recalling the memories....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Snow blew gently on the mountain that night. It was dark due to being a new moon; completely dark, save for several twinkling stars and the glow of villagers' torches. It was December 21st, the longest night of the year. This night, also marked the celebration of the Iccirrus Village's children having completed all schooling and training. Along with the celebration, these children would then be assigned a partner with whom they would complete tasks around the mountain.

It was here, on this mountain, that a small boy with pale blue hair, stood with his parents among his peers and their families. Brycen, having turned thirteen the month before, had just finished his training of three years. Training began at age ten, and ended at thirteen. Now, it was his turn to learn of his partner. Suddenly his name was called first by the village elder. As he walked slowly towards the elder and his partner, Cubchoo, his young mind raced with who it might be.

Will it be Lumi, the healer's daughter- that girl with lilac hair? Or maybe it'll be Shaun, who loves snowboarding! Hey, maybe it'll be Corey; she's a family friend. Or possibly Glade, he's cool! Could it be Frost, with her dark green hair? I hope not, she absolutely terrifies me....

The boy gently bowed and knelt before the village elder. "Brycen, you've now come of age to have your partner selected," the elder states before continuing on with the rest of the ceremony. Brycen's mind began to wander again. He didn't realize the elder was beginning the final lines, "Brycen Hachiku, based on your training, the council has decided to pair you with-"

.... But at least being assigned with her would be better than-

"Nieva Serra!" The man seemed to bellow, saturating Brycen's mind.

No!

A tall girl his age walked briskly towards them, her stark white hair falling behind her in long pigtails, her blue eyes bright, and her expression bored. As she approached them, she too bowed respectfully to the elder, and knelt as well.

"With that," the elder announced, "I now declare Brycen Hachiku and Nieva Serra, partners." After that, the villagers parted and allowed the two to leave the center area. They stayed to listen as the other assignments were made. All of the others had been paired together, except for Lumi- she would continue training under her parents to become the next Healer. After the ceremony though, everyone else had left, leaving only Brycen and Nieva standing in the cold silent air.

Trying to start a conversation, Brycen started, "so...."

"Don't pretend to be nice to me!" She hissed, causing the blue haired boy to flinch. "We were never friends, and just because we're partners, doesn't mean we are!" She turned away sharply, her boots gripping the snow harshly.

"Nieva, please," Brycen attempted to call to her. She stopped, her eyes cold as the snow her name meant.

"Look, Hachiku," she growled, using his surname, "we are partners, and that's it. I'm only putting up with you until this partnership is over." With that, she turned and kept walking, not looking back once.

Brycen sighed to himself, and looked up to the sky. "I tried..." Once it was clear that only snow and stars were listening, he lowered his head and returned to his home within the village. He had never understood how just one girl could be filled with so much unspoken anger.

In actuality, he knew very little about the white haired girl; only that her parents had perished in an accident while she was a young child. After their death, she hardly grieved and pushed away any attempts of sympathy from the other villagers. The one exception had been that she accepted the Healers' offer to let her live with their family. Other than that though, Nieva refused help from anyone and any sympathy.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The next morning was the first day Brycen and Nieva were to begin working together. This was met with difficulty due to Nieva's refusal to even talk to Brycen, and Brycen's stubbornness to listen to who he thought was a "bossy girl". This made even simple tasks nearly impossible.

By day two, the other kids their age noticed. By day five, the other villagers saw that the partnership wasn't working at all, and made complaints to the village elder. However, the elder simply showed the villagers a simple smile and said, "children will be children. Leave them be." With that, he waved them off.

A month after the arrangement though, it was obvious that something had to change. A heavier snowfall than usual had caused the Healer's roof to collapse over their home. Brycen and Nieva were asked to come help with the repairs since the other kids were already ordered with other tasks, and Lumi had been acutely injured during the collapse. Most likely though, Nieva wouldn't have wanted the others to be the ones to repair her home. Brycen called out Cubchoo to help, while Nieva called to her Dewgong. Without even talking to each other, each began working with their Pokemon on opposite sides or the house. Of course, this failed, as Cubchoo was unable to lift much weight, and Dewgong only had fins with which to handle materials, which left only Brycen and Nieva to do the work manually.

Finally, the elder, who had been watching, knew they wouldn't change unless he stepped in. After calling older villagers to finish the job, he marched up to the two children, and grasped both roughly by the backs of their heavy robes and began dragging them away from their work.

"Elder?!" Brycen asked. Nieva said nothing, but flailed against the older man. The elder sighed.

"I'm going to tech you two how to work together peacefully." He pulled the two behind him until he finally brought them back to a large cabin that served as a training center and school, and pulled them into a small, dimly lit room. The elder released the children and stood them side by side. He then called out his Glalie. "My friend," he started. "Ice beam!" He commanded firmly. The brilliant blue beam shot out and struck their small wrists, binding them together. Brycen immediately began struggling against the ice.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Nieva argued, struggling as well. However, as she jerked one direction, Brycen struggled in the opposite, causing the two to crash together. The elder chuckled.

"You'll have to work together to get out of this." He then turned to leave them to their struggle, but stopped and came back. "I'll be back in two hours." His expression became serious. "I expect you two to get your act together by then. Don't disappoint me," he stated lowly before finally leaving.