- Blessed by Divinity -

A Child's Blindness

The week following the battle with Wulfric, and the vision of the Great Pokemon War, it became increasingly difficult to maintain my focus on training for the upcoming Pokemon League. Courtesy of the Snowbelle gym leader, I found out that the tournament would be held in Lumiose City, as it had been in previous years.

However, the league wasn't to start for close to three weeks now, giving my pokemon and I plenty of time to hone our battling technique as we prepared for the tournament. We had decided to take our time on our way back to the region's capital, taking advantage of the free time we had been granted.

But, the constant training was not enough to clear my mind of what I had been exposed to. I couldn't help but feel an invisible, unrelenting pressure mounting on my shoulders. My pokemon began to work overtime to ensure that any of their weaknesses would be catered for.

Around a week had passed since we had left Snowbelle, now just arriving at the big city. There were plenty of open spaces and other areas where my pokemon and I could continue training. As we stepped through the south east gate, my eyes fell on a familiar group of people stood only a few feet ahead. They all seemed to sense our presences, everyone turning in our direction.

"Hey Aaron!"

The soft voice called out to me, enticing me further through the main gate. I approached to group of four, everyone sure to greet me as I returned the greetings.

My eyes quickly darted around the group, noting that Trevor's appearance had changed significantly. Not the small framed boy of the past, the ginger haired boy now looked physically stronger. His body shape matched that of mine or Calem's. Also, the boy's hair was now much tidier, tucked neatly behind his ears, his face now in full view.

In a similar light, Tierno seemed to have worked off his excess weight, now looking much slimmer. I guessed that their travels had changed them both, quite literally.

"Here for the league?"

I nodded at the ginger boy's question, causing him to smile. I turned to my left, seeing Elaine and Shauna both stood patiently waiting for something.

The brunette didn't look much different to the last time we met but I could tell her skills as a pokemon trainer had improved greatly, just by the aura she was giving off.

In the same way, a smiling Elaine gave off the impression that she had completed the task she set out to do. Her smile stretched a lot further now, reaching the ends of her cheeks. I felt something well up in my stomach but I put that aside, happy that my close friend had let go of the unfortunate past.

"Then how about we battle Aaron? I've been looking forward to this, my pokemon and I have trained hard so that we could one day take on the gym challenge."

Instantly, I nodded, accepting Trevor's battle. Something like this was sure to help clear my mind of whatever has been running through it.

A few minutes later, the five of us had made our way to one of the parks. Elaine opted to stand in as referee, with my opponent and I stood at opposite ends of a battlefield.

"Aerodactyl, let's show Aaron how strong we've become."

Emerging from his pokeball, a grey scaled pokemon flew above the field. The underside of his vast wings coloured purple, his long tail lifted just above the ground.

"Dragonite, I'm counting on you."

From her pokeball, the orange scaled winged dragon pokemon was released. Her small wings kept her easily above ground, both pokemon staring each other down, not backing down from the fight.