Gold- A Pokémon Story

Chapter Twenty Six: Ice Caves and a Gym Craze

After my battle was over, I claimed my badge and TM and Silver went in for his turn at the gym.

Silver's newly evolved Ninetales was able to give him an early two Pokémon lead against Pryce and while it was defeated by his Dewgong, Crobat managed to get a lot of damage in and Croconaw was able to beat Dewgong and score Silver the win.

What's more, after this victory Croconaw started to evolve once again. His entire body grew in size and his arms became slender and shot outward.

Feraligatr's spikes were much larger than Croconaw's and it was overall a much more menacing Pokémon.

Silver was now shorter than his partner Pokémon and threw his arms around its neck. "You did it Feraligatr! You're fully evolved!" He cheered.

Pryce clapped lightly and gave Silver his rewards for winning. "You two have wonderfully strong bonds with your Pokémon. I look forward to seeing what you both become."

We thanked him and left the Pokémon Gym. While we handed our Pokémon off to the nurse to have them healed I noticed Silver only handed over five Poké Balls.

"Hey Silver," I said to my friend. "How come you never use Unown in battle?"

Silver thought about the question for a bit. "Well, he doesn't really have any attacks other than one. And I don't think he even likes battling that much."

"I guess that makes sense." I decided to change the subject. "It's pretty cool that you have a Feraligatr now!"

Silver nodded. "Mhm! I was wondering when he'd evolve and it was so cool when he did! But you have a Quagsire now! That's so crazy!"

He was right. I had been given Wooper on my sixth birthday and ever since that day Wooper had always been by my side, no matter how lazy he was.

Wooper wasn't much for battling but I had always dreamed of setting off with him anyway. And now, he had become so much stronger and even evolved. It was almost scary.

We retrieved our Pokémon and set off, leaving the town just as it became the afternoon. We walked east down Route 44.

There were a few trainers on the path but it was overall uneventful. After a bit of walking, we arrived at the Ice Path's entrance.

Cold air blew out of the passageway and I shivered upon feeling the drastic temperature change.

In recent years, trainers had undergone the process to make traversing the Ice Path much easier. Still, it would be a very cold trek.

We made our way into the frozen cave and I immediately felt a blast of cold air. The interior of the cave was mostly coated with ice. The floor was slippery and the walls didn't offer much use as support.

A few Ice Type Pokémon slid around on the patches of ice, seemingly enjoying themselves in the frosty cavern.

Silver and I didn't waste any time trying to get through the path. We did what we could to avoid the slick, icy floors but eventually, we had no choice but to walk across them.

We precariously maneuvered through most of the cavern as we became increasingly colder. I really wish I had brought warmer clothes. I said to myself while I shivered.

The terrain had been changed enough so that we only had to walk a little farther before we would reach the path to the exit but it still felt like a grueling experience.

Thankfully, it wasn't long until we neared the exit. I saw the light shining into the cave from the exit and began to hurry over to it. I didn't see any ice in the way so I started to run.