Destiny [Pokémon]

❥ chapter V

Meanwhile, you had already begun to mull over what your mom had said, your eyes focused on the iridescent feather in your hands.

Perhaps Ho-Oh appearing before you really was a sign of some sorts, a sign for you to become a Pokémon Trainer sooner than you had planned. This was the only (kind of) logical explanation you currently had. You were the only person who had been able to see it, after all—not to mention the fact that the Legendary Pokémon had even approached you. It had unmistakeably wanted you, and only you, to see it. And maybe ... it losing a feather hadn't just been a coincidence, but on purpose too.

But that gave rise to the following question: Why the hell did the universe—or who- or whatever—send you such a flashy sign, just to get you to leave your hometown and start travelling across the region? What was the meaning behind that? Couldn't it at least have been a little less ... overwhelming? Something that didn't leave you wondering why this was happening to you of all people all of a sudden, that didn't cause you headaches trying to understand all this?

Speaking of headaches ...

"Stupid Ho-Oh giving me stupid headaches," you muttered to yourself, soothingly kneading your temples which were throbbing dully with slight pain. All this thinking and pondering would, in the end, lead to nothing. It wouldn't solve anything.

But then again, what would? Talking to other people about this would be in vain; they most likely were just as clueless about this strange happening as you were, and who knew if they would even believe you in the first place! You didn't want to end up being called weird because you claimed to have seen Ho-Oh when no one else had.

Shaking your head to free yourself of these vexatious and headache-inducing thoughts, you put the multi-coloured feather behind your ear and finally took off your jacket and shoes too. It had been about time; you had been standing about unmovingly and losing yourself in your fruitless musings for far too long to your liking.

Right now, you could do nothing but make an effort to not think about this matter anymore and hope that it would either fade into oblivion or solve itself eventually. You really had no other choice. Hence, to enact your plan and take your mind off things, you decided to help your mom out in the kitchen, leaning into said room and spotting her preparing—to your delightful surprise—your favourite dish. Its smell alone was mouth-watering ... "Do you need some help?" you asked.

Without pausing in her skillful movements, your mom averted her eyes from her work and craned her neck to look at you standing in the doorway. She gave you a warm smile. "Sure, if you want to, sweetie. Thanks."

The evening went by uneventful and pleasantly calm—unlike the rest of your hectic and very busy day working at your family's clinic. With your helping hand, dinner was prepared quickly, and by the time you were all seated at the dining table, your stomach was growling and your mouth was watering non-stop. (You would probably never get enough of your favourite dish.) After you had helped your dad doing the dishes, you flopped down on the couch in the living room to watch TV with your parents until it was time for them to go to bed.

Just like any other ordinary clinic, theirs was open the whole week too, including Sundays—which was tomorrow. Therefore, they had to go to bed early to get enough sleep. You, on the other hand, could stay up and sleep longer than them because you would stay at home tomorrow to study for school like every other Sunday. After all, you were first and foremost a high schooler, not a nurse.

Besides, you were helping out at your parents' small clinic purely by choice, and that was why you were free to come and go whenever you wanted to—though you spent as much as time as possible there—on condition that you had completed the day's homework. In addition, you of course also frequently met up with your friends from school, and that left you with a few hours two or three times a week to work at the clinic.

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Around midnight, about two hours after you had wished your parents a good night with hugs and kisses and retired to your room—two hours spent lounging on your bed and surfing the web on your laptop—you got ready for bed as well, brushing your teeth and changing into your comfy pyjamas. You placed Ho-Oh's feather on your nightstand next to your bedside. Then, you turned off the lights in your room before snuggling comfortably under the covers with your favourite Pokémon plush toy.

Unsurprisingly—but unfortunately nonetheless—your wish for sleep was not granted. Of course, this profound experience of coming face to face with a Legendary Pokémon and its effects left their mark on you, and all you did was toss and turn in bed as you tried to fall asleep.

In the silence of the night, your mind wandered off back to the encounter with Ho-Oh and just wouldn't shut up. Not even the sound of the waves coming through the open window could lull you to sleep like it usually did when you lay awake in bed the night before an important test or the likes. As much as you desperately tried to fall asleep, you simply could not do it—aside from a few times when you dozed off, but only for a couple of seconds, and then you woke up again, bothered by your restless mind, worried by the odd things going on, troubled by a racking headache.

Eventually, you were fed up with just about everything. The incessant tossing and turning, the pointless ruminations—you couldn't take it anymore. You had to do something about this.

Throwing the covers aside, you crawled out of bed and snuck out of your room, careful not to wake your parents up. After groping your way down the stairs in the dark, you headed for the moonlit kitchen where you prepared a hot milk with honey and cinnamon. Whenever you hadn't been able to sleep as a child, your mom had used to prepare this hot drink for you, and it had never failed to have the desired effect: You had calmed down and soon been sound asleep. You hoped it would work this time as well.

With the pleasantly warm mug in your hand, you tiptoed back upstairs into your room and gently pushed the door closed behind you. You set the mug down on the bedside table, next to Ho-Oh's feather, and sat down cross-legged on your bed, snuggling down into the covers before you reached out to take the mug.

As you sat there, silently nipping at the hot milk while staring blankly at the play of light and shadow on the floor in front of the window, a lump of questions was preying on your mind, cluttering and clogging it. Most of them—who would have thought—revolved around the unknown meaning behind today's incident. You still didn't know why Ho-Oh had appeared and why you were the only person who had seen it. Was your mom right and this really was the cue for you to set off for your own Pokémon journey like many teenagers did? But why? Did Ho-Oh really appear and put on a breath-taking show just to tell you that?

You wished you could just attach no importance whatsoever to that encounter, but you knew better than that. When a Legendary Pokémon was involved, it had to mean something—if only you knew what exactly that was! Right now, you would kill to find that out, just so your brain would finally shut up.

"I wish someone could tell me what's going on ..." you muttered, placing the now empty mug on the bedside table. A warm feeling, emanating from your stomach, spread through your entire body as you laid back down under the covers and made yourself as comfortable as could be with a plethora of questions lingering in the back of your mind.

All this thinking, all this wondering made your mind a tangled mess. You could only assume, and nothing seemed to add up. You were in dire need of sleep, yet you were being kept awake by an endless string of questions none of which you had an answer to, with a careering train of thought that just wouldn't come to a halt. It was sheer torment.

After a while, you ceased moving—you had started to toss and turn again—and instead stared up at your room's ceiling illuminated by moonlight filtering through the blinds, lying on your back, your favourite Pokémon plush toy tightly locked in your arms.

Before the soothing effect of the hot milk finally kicked in and fatigue overpowered you—you didn't know how much time had passed, maybe a few minutes, maybe an hour—your last thoughts were directed toward your mom's words. While contemplating whether you should follow her suggestion of leaving Hydrus Village, your home, where you had been born, in order to travel the region with its many cities and towns and villages and other places beyond your ken, you were enveloped in sleep's sweet embrace.

All your thoughts and worries dissipated as you drifted off to sleep.