Invisible by Marvech93

Chapter 9:The Ghost of Mount Silver

Okay, here's the chapter to make up for not updating last week. please be sure to comment your opinions and enjoy!!!!!!!!!!! (this is one of my favorite chapters btw ☺)

Chapter 9: The Ghost of Mount Silver

Ethan slipped on a patch of ice hidden under the thick snow for what seemed like the thousandth time today. The raven-haired ten year old had been working the difficult path up Mount Silver for almost three days now. The inhospitable, barren landscape around him would have been really easy to get lost in but his objective was clear; he wanted to reach the top. As long as he went up, he couldn't lose his way. At least, that's what he thought. It seemed so simple. It should have been, but it wasn't. The moutain was unbelievably disorienting. The snow, the sky; everything around him was white. It was near impossible to distinguish the ground from the horizon.

What am I doing here, the young boy wondered yet again, pulling his coat tighter around himself, shivering like a snorunt, his redened nose dripping with snot.

For sure, scaling the infamous moutain had been the ultimate test of will. For Johto trainers like himself, it was like a rite of passage. You really couldn't call yourself the greatest if you hadn't made it to the litteral top of the world. The physically exhausting climb was just a fraction of the challenge. Trainers who attempted the trial had to deal with the constant attacks from wild pokémon and other trainers. The weather would get more and more extreme the higher you'd get in altitude.

For the moment being, though, Ethan's path was pretty lonely, which he decided to interpret as a good sign, for the sake of his sanity. It meant he was far ahead of where most of the other trainers would give up; and closer to his goal.

The recently crowned champion of the Johto League wouldn't have attempted the climb right after winning his title had it not been for a strange rumor that had drawn his attention to the moutain.

The rumor had started circulating about three years ago. It had spread fast amongst the trainer network in Johto and had eventually found its way to Ethan's ears. The rumors were about a ghost that lived on the very top of the moutain, hiding away in a cave and occasionally appeared when a strong enough trainer found his or her way to him. It was not a ghost-type pokémon, they said. It took the form of a human; a young boy who never spoke. The ghost-boy apparently had an unbeatable team of pokémon at his disposal and none of the few trainers who claimed to have seen him had ever come close to beating him.

Naturally, the mysterious tale had sparked many speculations and legends as to the origin of the specter. Some said it was a trainer who had attempted the treacherous climb and had fallen to his death, spending his afterlife haunting the summit, hoping for his body to be found and returned to his family. Or a scarier version said that he was actually looking for a body to possess... Another common theory was that he was waiting for a trainer to finally come and beat him so he could finally move on to the next life, something no one had managed to do so far.

It was as much the desire to prove himself as a powerful trainer as his morbid curiosity that lead Ethan to want to find the top and see for himself if the ghost really existed. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but he was slightly supersticious and he frequently looked over his shoulder to see it there was anyone watching him from afar as he climbed.

The wind started to pick up, nearly knocking him off balance several times. The young trainer was now standing in two feet of snow and it was near impossible to climb any further. Plus, he was exhausted and hungry. Now would be a good time to take a break and set up camp, Ethan decided.

It was dark when Ethan reached the summit of Mount Silver in the middle of a snowstorm. The visibility was horrible. Everything around him was a gray blur and the cold was biting him to the bone. He was so uncomfortable, he couldn't truly appreciate the fact that he had reached his goal. Ethan's charcoal eyes ran across the landscape. He could see nothing. There was no audible sound except for the howl of the wind. The young trainer hugged himself tightly to try and keep warm.