A Pokemon Tale, Part III: Chasing Shadows

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Tropical Winter

 

Seafoam Islands

            Red was beginning to doubt his decision almost immediately, and if he could hear Blue over the roar of the waves and the thunder she would let him know that she was already doubting the decision.  The storm that raged in the waters off of the coast of the Seafoam Islands was fierce.  Rain seemed to soak him all the way to his bones, and at times Red thought he was underwater because of the torrential downpour. 

            Red sat on Lapras with his hands wrapped around the blue Pokémon’s long neck.  Luckily he had his hat which helped to keep the rain out of his eyes.  Unluckily, it almost blew off of his head a number of times as Lapras plunged full speed ahead through the waves and sheets of rain towards the two mountain peaks that loomed ahead. 

            So close, yet so far, Red thought.  He knew they were the Seafoam Islands, which was really one island that launched two mountain peaks out of the sea divided by a river between them that gave the appearance of two.  Red marveled at the speed at which Lapras was able to trudge through the storm.  So this is an Elite Four Pokémon’s power, he thought.  He knew this was only the tip of the iceberg.  Lapras isn’t even battling another Pokémon.  If it can power through this storm without fear, I wonder what it could do in a fight.  Red smiled and he realized that he made the correct decision to steer into the storm around the Seafoam Islands.

            If he was to become the Champion at the upcoming Pokémon League Tournament, he would have to face at least one member of the Elite Four sooner or later in battle.  Had he not turned Lapras towards the Islands, he would have continued to train his Pokémon in his own relatively comfortable way.  Now he knew he would have to pick up the pace.

            Red turned his head to check on Blue.  “HOW ARE YOU DOING?” he asked her. 

            Blue looked up, she had her hands on the raised bumps on Lapras’s shell and her feet pushing against two more.  She looked like she was jockeying a race horse.  She must have heard him, because she mouthed back some words, but the waves and the thunder were too loud for Red to hear her.

            “WHAT?” he yelled.  Blue pointed back ahead and mouthed some more words before she screamed.  Red turned to find the biggest wave he had ever seen or imagined rolling up out of the ocean right in front of Lapras.  Lorelei’s powerful Pokémon let out a cry as if to let the two young Trainers know to “hold on.”

            Red was taken aback when he hugged Lapras’s large neck and Lapras began to pick up speed.  Going uphill (or, up-wave rather) the sheer horsepower Lapras possessed surely rivaled even some speed boat engines.  Lapras used the wave as a ramp and Red opened his eyes to find the waves falling beneath him.  We must be fifty feet in the air. Red could hear Blue’s screams but when he glanced up at Lapras’s face, he could tell the Pokémon was confident and determined that it would make it through the storm alright.

            Finally, after what seemed to Red an eternity, he began to feel Lapras start to descend out of the air.  The thrill made his stomach drop.  As they were falling, the rain stopped suddenly and the sky lightened up a little bit.  Red dared to look down to see how they would land.  The waves were gone.  In their place was a vast sheet of broken ice stretching the rest of the way towards the Seafoam Islands. 

            We’re gonna crash. We’re gonna crash.  Red braced for impact and felt Lapras rear its head and front body up so to land on its rear.  Red felt a little thump and Blue surely felt a little more than that.  Other than knowing they had hit the ice, nothing much had changed, although Red could feel that they were now traveling even faster.  He looked and saw that Lapras’s flippers were a blue blur as they pushed across the ice sheet with deliberation.  Red pulled out his Pokedex to learn more about Elite Four Lorelei’s awesome Pokémon.