First Faith

Chapter 4: Reluctance

A reporter's voice spouted off, "This is Mari, coming to you live from above Mt. Prye where rock shifting on an enormous scale has been happening this morning. Geologists have said the likelihood of this event occurring was almost impossible. Rockslides have occurred on connecting mountains simultaneously. Fortunately, no one has been hurt by this activity, though a lot of the sacred graves on Mt. Pyre have been destroyed, not to mention that most of the routes in the area have been blocked off-"

I put down my fork, "Dawn, where are we again?"

"Fiducia Town."

"And we're near Mt. Pyre?"

"Yeah... it's really mountainous here. We're in a valley."

I closed my eyes, wondering why I was so annoyed by this, "So, in other words, we're most likely stuck here because of all the danger from rockslides all of a sudden?"

Dawn looked at me warily and nodded, "I mean, it's not that big of a deal though. It's not like we have any place to be."

I leaned back in my chair. No, we didn't have any place to be. No, I couldn't really leave anyway considering Salamence was injured. But still, the events from the past two days seemed very suspicious. I was good at calculating things and situations like this weren't adding up, "I don't like being stuck somewhere for so many reasons."

"Why do you think of it as being stuck? I mean, just because you can't go somewhere doesn't mean you're stuck, right?" Dawn asked.

I considered that, "If a person doesn't have options, I don't see how they're free to do what they would like."

Dawn stared at her mug and smiled.

"What?"

"Oh, I just find that funny." Dawn answered, "Because you're free to have whatever kind of attitude you want about the situation you're in, but you're acting like you don't have the freedom to do even that."

I opened my mouth, not even sure how to reply. It didn't seem to matter as I noticed John round the corner of the cafeteria, spotting me instantly despite my mental reaction of wanting to hide. A warm smile spread on his face as he hurried over to see us.

"Hey, you two. How's your Salamence?" John asked.

"He's doing well, though he won't be particularly useful anytime soon." I stated.

"Paul!"

I glanced at Dawn's aghast expression before continuing, "I really am glad he didn't sustain any other injuries."

"Of course you are." John replied, "I'm so thankful I could help you out yesterday. I'm sure he was in a lot of pain."

I nodded, hoping that would suffice for another thank you, "Would you like to see him, or are you busy?"

I was hoping he was busy. I didn't have any actual inclination to talk to this man, but he had helped Salamence and myself. That was reason enough not to turn the cold shoulder.

"Yeah, I'd like to give him some company for a bit." John continued smiling. I wondered how someone could possibly smile that much. Or offer to help for no reason. Something about him seemed very off compared to the rest of humanity, or at least the people I'd met.

But really, I was the one more out of tune with the world.

Dawn and I cleaned up our table and began guiding John. On the way to Salamence's room, Dawn and John talked about common every day topics such as the weather, where they were from, and how their mornings had been. I tuned them out, wondering how Salamence had spent the night, hoping he hadn't begun moping. This would be a difficult few weeks.