Aurora

Skating

Time passes, and before I know it it's early summer and I'm visiting Ash at the border every day. I've always been good at keeping secrets, and it's somewhat exhilarating having a secret friend. I don't think what we're doing is illegal, because we're not in each other's territory, and I've never heard of a rule that said we couldn't be friends with other Clans. Still, something stops me from telling Brook about Ash. Two days after we met a second time, she asked why I was suddenly acting so happy. I replied that watching her push Jet down the hill had put me in a perpetually good mood. Being Brook, she believed it, looking pleased with herself.

After thrashing Jet in training for the tenth time in a row, I happily walk over to the cold side of the valley to one of the perpetually frozen ponds in the same valley as the training grounds. Brook and I decided this morning that we were going to meet here to skate around on the ice for the few hours until her training begins.

Sure enough, there she is waiting for me.

"Hi!" She calls out. I smile and run over to her. We step onto the ice together, Brook somewhat shakily. We push off and I glide gracefully out near the middle of the pond. Brook, on the other hand, falls almost immediately and comes skidding over to where I wait for her, grinning sheepishly. She's never had quite the same way with the ice that I do. I can't remember ever falling down on ice, not even as a newborn. Smiling slightly, I offer her my tail to hold onto with her mouth, which she accepts, and we glide around a few times, with me guiding her.

We spend a little while skating, and when we're tired we find a cold spring to poke around in. The river that flows through our camp drops off as a waterfall at the slope that leads to the valley (where Tide gives her speeches) and splits off into a bunch of tiny streams once it reaches the bottom. One side of these are cold (even in the summer), and the other side are always warm (even in the winter). They were enchanted this way so that both types in AquaClan can enjoy them. Brook doesn't seem to mind cold water as much anymore, so we splash through the shallows looking for little shells and pretty stones.

"Are you excited?" She asks abruptly.

My blood goes cold. Has she found out about my meetings with Ash? "What?" I say.

She gives me a funny look. "Your evolution ceremony," she clarifies. "It's tomorrow."

Excitement and relief fight for control of me. I'd completely forgotten about my evolution ceremony!

In the four Clans, there is a tradition that when an Eevee turns two years old, they are presented with a stone to evolve into an Eon of one of the two types in the Clan they belong to.

There's no question of what I'll be evolving into. Every part of my personality points towards Glaceon, like my father. Brook's birthday is one week after mine, so she'll be evolving soon too.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. You're invited!" I say hurriedly.

She smiles. "I would never have guessed."

We walk for a little while longer, talking about evolution. Eventually, Brook has to leave for training, and I take the ten minute hike to the border to meet Ash.

He's already waiting in the river when I arrive. As I draw closer, his eyes move to my paws.

"Is that ice on your paws?!" He asks incredulously. I look down and realize he's right. I shrug.

He shudders. "I don't know how you stand it."

As we play in the river and then settle down and talk, I notice he looks troubled.

"Are you okay?" I ask gently. He jumps.

"Oh, I'm fine," he says quickly. "I'm just nervous about my evolution ceremony tomorrow."

My eyes widen. "Your birthday's tomorrow? So is mine!"

He seems to forget his doubts over the interesting fact that we share a birthday.

I have my second evolution discussion of the day over the next few minutes.

"I wish we could have our ceremonies together," I say sadly.

He nods. "Me too. But that would be illegal."

"Not if we did it here," I say stubbornly.

He snorts. "I can imagine that conversation. 'Oh, sorry mother, I'm going to go have my ceremony in the river with a friend from another Clan.'"

I laugh. Looking up, I notice that the sun is starting to set.

"I need to get home or my mother will worry," I say. He laughs.

"See you tomorrow," he says, "and good luck with your ceremony."

I smile. "You too."

Excited for my ceremony, I bound off to my camp with more enthusiasm than I would normally show at the end of a meeting with Ash.

Okay, so I had absolutely no idea what to name this chapter, because it's just sort of a "floof" chapter. Anyway, the next chapter will be a much more interesting one!