Pokemon Heroes: Sinnoh Saga [Book 1]

Chapter 70: The Aura Tribe of Iron Island

"The Aura Tribe. That's what the inhabitants of Iron Island had. Supposedly they had come to Iron Island, long, long before the Sinnoh tribes had been banished from Mt. Coronet. They had left the mountain of their own volition and settled down on the iron and ore rich island. They mined the island for their iron and metals, and eventually, when they contacted the mainland Sinnoh culture, they started trading their ore and iron goods for profit. To this day they still maintain their own mines and trade them with the mainland. Captain Wendill, our friendly ferry master, was responsible for transporting most of the ore and metal from the island to the mainland. But they held another secret—on the surface they were a simple, mining, smithing folk. But once they let you past their front gates, you soon learned they kept a monopoly over something else on that island."

They stood on the island, wind blowing in their hair. It was silent.

No one was there with them, as the captain of the ferry left them, and the supplies by the dock, as always, and disappeared shortly after.

He warned the group that the Tribesmen would not appear before those they deemed unworthy. Seeing as no one had shown up to claim the supplies the captain had dropped off, the group assumed they had been deemed "unworthy."

With a collective sigh, they made their way up the steep cliffsides. Rolling hills, high mountains, sheer cliff face, and windswept highlands with exposed shale formations and columns of basalt.

The wind battered the group as the waves battered the shore of the island.

Rumbling beneath their feat seemed to indicate the location of a mine or settlement beneath their feet.

"Somehow this place is more depressing than it was when Rowan and I came here decades ago," muttered Aurelio, the wind not affecting him.

The group stopped in a narrow valley between two tall peaks of sheer cliff side.

"We could bunker down here," noted Jeremy, "The wind doesn't hit here as hard."

"Too exposed," noted Sam, "And there's too big of a risk of rocks coming down and crushing us."

"Should we look for a cave?" asked Alyssandra.

Aurelio shook his head. "Don't go poking your heads into places you don't need to be on Iron Island. Especially caves. Sure, way to piss off the locals."

"That's a no go," replied Sam, "Locals."

Niya nodded as she realized Sam had a point.

"Let's push forward," continued Sam.

Everyone nodded, keeping silent as the wind blew around them, messing their hair up and blowing their clothes about.

They continued their trek inwards, no idea where they were going, or why. Then, Sam froze.

Something in his mind, though he was not sure what, alerted him to the presence of others around him.

"Someone's here," he whispered to his friends.

Aurelio rumbled a bit. "About time you noticed."

"You weren't going to tell me?" he asked under his breath.

"We've been spotted," Sam heard someone state from just ahead, behind a rock. The voice sounded old, weathered.

"How?" asked a second voice, younger than the first, but still older than Sam was.

"The one up front," said the first voice, as the body it was attached to stepped out from behind the boulder, "He can sense us...him and the other by him. The old man."