Pokemon Rangers: Frozen Fury

Chapter 37: Ravine Spirit

Trying to update more and more! I wanna be done with my fabulous project which is my story here :)
Smoochum kisses to all of you. Enjoy.

Chapter 37

Grace

Articuno flew through the frigid air, circling the large castle. We didn't land, instead the great bird screeched and dipped to her right.

Something was wrong.

Articuno accelerated, turning her tail. Away from the castle. My stomach gripped in confusion and frustration. We couldn't save Pichu now? What if they were hurting her? Pichu's cries echoed in my thoughts.

Articuno screeched again, shattering the voices.

Maybe one other thing had to be done before this quest could be started.

But what did this mythical bird have in mind?

Ken

Arcanine landed surely into the opposite wall of the ravine, catching the impact as skillful as a Persian.

I gasped, nearly flying off of him.

How far was that drop? My head spun as Arcanine scrabbled onto a too smooth surface. Frozen water. Ice.

Using heated claws, Arcanine had his bearings, trekking across this long frozen river.

We were okay. No one was on our tail any more.

"Arrrrrr..." Arcanine shook his head and slowed into a steady paced trot.

"G-good job Arcanine." Would they have guessed we fell into this ravine?

Arcanine had ten minutes to take a breather before the ice began to shake.

My brave mount tensed. He had not expected anything to go wrong as much as I did.

And there was no escape this time.

I swiveled my head, seeing shapes in the far distance of the river. They bounced up and down.

Empoleon had sniffed us out. They were breaking the river.

Arcanine began a panicked run. All the while, the deadly crackling of ice that was all too familiar was in my ear.

"Biiii..." Celebi whimpered, clearly scared.

"Arrrccc!" In his frenzied run, Arcanine skidded to a halt. Ahead were more shapes.

Under Arcanine's paws, the ice cracked.

"Arcanine!" The big canine backed up, whining in cold terror.

"Forward, boy! Come on!" The ice began inwardly shattering in a web pattern, right at his paws.

"Caaaaaannnniiine!" Past his worry, he obeyed, backing up then taking a tremendous leap forward. We had no other choice, and I wasn't sure if going back would be any good.

"Aarrr! Ar!" Arcanine ran on, and stopped short without a second notice.

"Cele! Biiii..." If Arcanine slid anymore, he would've ended up in a cold swirling mass of water. The river here was newly broken, freshly cut and deadly. We were trapped, and the sound of ice thumping spoke of unwanted guests on their way.

The walls were too sheer to climb. The water too treacherous, too cold for even a non fire type to swim through.

Frost Bite couldn't have Celebi however. No matter what, I needed to keep her safe.

I comfortably sat Celebi on Arcanine.

"Arrr?" Arcanine cocked his head, worried about me as I leaned out a few feet. Images of Grace being taken away on a floating hunk of ice clouded my thoughts, giving me an idea.