Pokémon Chronicles 零 (ZERO)

Episode 19: Something behind the scenes

I didn't feel too accomplished at first, but it eventually settled into mind that we now had two out of six amulets. It was now safe to confidently say that we were well on our way through the shining warrior journey. Because of that, I was fully expecting everything to get far harder than it had been so far. With two out of three of the Bestia Trio after us for whatever reason, there was no telling how much harder things were going to get.

Once we left the Limestone Cave, we learnt that the knights had abandoned the area while we were there, so we didn't waste time in heading on our way back to Cerulean Village. Our boat had been left at the bottom of the waterfall on the way here, and so we now had a bothersome climbing task to take care of – we spent an obnoxious amount of time trying our hardest not to go tumbling down the side of the cliff the Limestone Cave was built on. Lucca and Megan had mentally switched places in this ordeal, where Megan tackled the task the most eagerly, whilst Lucca freaked out at the slightest sound of a rock chipping off. And I thought I would have a hard time, what with not having fingers and all. Mimia had to carry me and Lucca most of the way.

Soon enough, the challenge was over and we were back to walking through the wide open space towards Cerulean Village, just as we had planned. It had long gone midday and the sun looked like it wasn't going to take long before it set, so we kept things quiet and hurried in hopes of reaching there before dark. Or rather, I was quiet, content with how simple walking was right now. Lucca and Mimia were leading the way as always, but that also meant that the Stufful was the first to take notice of something wrong.

"Hmm? Mimia?" Lucca spoke up. I had my arms tucked behind my head quite lazily, and even Mimia's endless barking wasn't bothering me to remove them. "Fire? You can smell pretty far... but I don't see anything."

"Don't look at me. No flamethrowers today," Megan excused, raising her hands. Mimia growled at us and then took off, speeding us up to my dismay. I didn't complain about it and trotted after them, intentionally lagging behind to keep concentrating on my thoughts.

For someone who had just failed to find their parents after being so sure she would meet them, Brine was surprisingly quiet. She was either handling the difficulty well or was so bothered by it that she couldn't speak. Either way, she hadn't said a word besides the necessary since we left the Limestone Cave, keeping to herself like me. Only she was at least a few steps away from us while we walked, where I occasionally spotted her playing with her scarf.

Watching her now, I was brought back to reality by her sudden fall to all fours in order to run appropriately. The view ahead yielded a disquieting discovery, that a bundle of structures that I was sure was Cerulean Village was lighting up the sky thanks to a huge fire raging within.

"What's going on?" Megan cried, running on all fours as well.

"Save that for when we get there! We need to help pokemon first!" Lucca replied.

"A better question is why is there a fire?" I inputted, trying to overtake them. "I'm hoping that this is just some petty accident that got out of hand... but something's telling me that it's much worse..."

We got there when we got out of breath, and unfortunately found the situation to look as bad as I felt it would be. Most of the buildings, the inn included, had already fallen apart into unsalvageable states, whilst the flames themselves continued to linger and ate away at what few flammable things were around. The grass that the village sat on had already gone as well, transformed into hot, charred earth instead.

"... Everyone! We all have ways of putting out fires. Split up, and find survivors!" Lucca ordered quickly.

"Split up? Are you serious? Now's the time it's best we don't-"