Whisper

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

104 hours remaining

(Cilan's POV)

We were on the move again after an hours rest. We had been going for seven hours now, running on only last night's dinner and at most, a half-hour of sleep. We've been making good time though. We have already passed through the burnt forest and we even made it safely through the Litwick forest. Now we were just trudging through a field toward Striaton.

I looked to my right. Iris was barely able to keep her eyes open, while Henry was sleeping like a log on Haxorus's back. Haxorus wasn't looking to hot either.

I looked to my left. Simisage and Simisear were both trudging and Chili had a look of determination in his eyes but could barely put one foot in front of the other.

I slowly came to a stop. I glanced at the sun's placement. A little past noon. I fleetingly thought about making lunch before dismissing it.

"Cilan?" I looked over to find Iris stumbling towards me.

"We need rest." My voice came out weaker than I would have liked. Iris smiled. "We will rest in Striaton, sweetie. Look, we're almost there." Iris said sweetly.

I sighed. "I really hoped we would have found them on the road, before they reached the City." Iris's face became extremely sad. "I know, I did too."

I looked up toward the city. From here I could just make out the tops of a few buildings. Hate, rage, and fear all jumbled in my heart in a fiery rush. "Our babies are somewhere in there. But we will find them, and I won't let anything in that wretched city stop me."

Iris gently grabbed ahold of my arm and kissed me on the cheek. "Neither will I."

I nodded and we began walking again, catching up with everyone. We were walking up the steps to the city when a man with wild, choppy, jet black hair ran past us. I turned to watch him. He stopped suddenly and came back to us.

"Have any of you seen my daughter? She's about '4"6, orange hair with a ponytail, black beanie, bright blue eyes, possibly with a Pikachu?!" The man sped the words out so fast that it took my tired mind a moment to wrap itself around this information.

"N-no...I don't believe I did." I answered. "Neither did I." said Iris. Chili shrugged. "Sorry, nothing."

The man sighed. "Are you travelers?"

This question surprised me. "Uh, yeah, kind of..." The man gave me a card. "My wife runs a Hotel; it's cheap and extremely well maintenanced. You should stay there, it's in the Dreamyard. Now I have to go find my daughter." With that the man was off, disappearing as quickly as he had appeared.

I looked down at the card. 'Viridian Vacancy' was the name of the hotel. 'Located in the Dreamyard' it read. Iris read it over my shoulder. I looked at her. "What do you think?"

Iris rubbed her eyes and yawned. "Why not?"

I nodded and we entered Striaton City. We returned our Pokémon to their Pokeballs, so as not to draw any unwanted attention, and we stayed to the sidewalk.

We moved quickly, Henry wheezing as he tried with everything he had to keep up. All of us successfully made it to the Dreamyard. We stumbled, half asleep, trying to find this hotel. I sighed heavily, my limbs feeling like dead weights.'

My foot caught on a stone and I tumbled into some abandoned metal panels. A loud Pokémon screech erupted from behind the panels and a small Munna zipped out from behind them and into the nearby forest.

"Did I hurt the poor thing? I didn't mean too." I mumbled, struggling to stand. Iris nodded. "I'm sure it's fine. We probably just startled it."

We continued on, looking for this darn hotel. I stopped by some random rock pillar and yawned. "Where is this place?" I wondered. I was incredibly tired and so was the rest of my group. In fact, I think Henry just fell asleep standing up. Suddenly, the thought occurred to me. Chili should know where this place is.