Two Days Later
Dawn and I were nearing Hearthome City, having made good time on our journey. We were able to navigate through Mount Coronet easily, thanks to Dawn's knowledge of the area.
The more time I spent with Dawn, the more I appreciated having a good rival. My pokemon and I were able to train at their maximum potential and so could Dawn's team. As our pokemon spent more time with each other, the chemistry between everyone was tangible.
We had just exited through the other side of Mount Coronet, our destination visible in the distance. Dragonite was giving Dreepy flight lessons above us in the skies, with Ninetails and Dawn's Clefable walking beside us.
"Hey Dawn, why weren't you at the Champion's Tournament a couple years back? Aren't you the official Champion of the region?"
The blunette heard my words but remained silent for a moment. She turned back to me, a half smile on her face as she replied, "I'm not cut out for all that official Champion business. Besides, no one gets passed the Elite Four so I'm never needed there. I prefer to keep going with my journey."
I found myself agreeing with Dawn as she spoke her mind. Even though I was the official Kalos Champion, Diantha handled the business side of everything. In exchange, I protected the region from the outside and was able to continue my journey.
There was another trainer I had met that fitted a similar description to me. He was the official Champion of two regions but Lance stood in his place while the infamous trainer continued his training on Mount Silver.
"Red was at the Champion's Tournament, you could've have been there too."
Dawn paused for a moment, her eyes flickering for a moment. She looked up, a fire lit in her eyes. "Red? He was there? Well that's something." Her lips had spread into a smile and I saw my own emotions mirrored on her face.
"I didn't think he'd leave his training. Guess you were worth his time. Hmm, now that I think about it, you'd make a good pair. ...and maybe a good couple."
"What the- Dawn, what-" I found myself speechless at the blunette's sudden change of tone. I had been caught completely off guard by such a left field comment that I found myself hiding my laugh. Dawn couldn't know I found that funny, she'd hold it over me for the rest of my life.
"Oh wait, I forgot, you've got a girlfriend. How boring." The blunette continued on, exaggerating the sarcasm in her voice. Her lips were curved into a wide smile as she kept poking fun at me.
"Wow, you're really asking for it." I turned back to face the blunette as she had fallen a few steps behind. An expression I hadn't seen for a while was delicately painted on her face. Dawn's eyes were filled with confidence and I immediately knew what she was up to.
I rolled my eyes, turning back to the front as we finally arrived at the city gate. We were careful as we approached, remembering that Roark warned us about the cities on this side of the mountain. Supposedly, Hearthome City was safe but we couldn't take any chances.
As we entered the city, nothing caught our attention for being suspicious. The city's residents were enjoying the day under the sun. Dawn had her connections everywhere around the region so she split up from me to get the details for the next mission.
Dragonite, Dreepy and I were casually walking around the city and as we passed the pokemon center, a particular building had caught my attention. It had multiple tall spires, the building made from weathered cobbled stone bricks. I could see a few through the stained glass windows on the building's side and as I entered through the large oak doors, I felt a like I recognised where I was.
The two pokemon had joined me by my side and as we stepped onto the thin red carpet. There were rows of wooden pews on either side of the lofty room. An elderly man was crouched was standing at the end of the room, wearing a familiar white robe. As I studied him further, I recognised the gold threaded archaic patterns which instantly caused my eyes to flare up.
None of the people in the room seemed to notice except for the older man. He looked up quickly, our eyes meeting for a moment. In that split second, my eyes automatically read the man's aura. I couldn't learn his name in that short time window but one name stood out, making it impossible to not read.
Alpha.
I cautiously approached the man, the two dragon pokemon slightly behind me. Instead of waiting for me to come closer, the older man turned away, walking into one of the side rooms. Naturally, I followed him and as he closed the door behind my pokemon and I, I could clearly recognise the patterns in the man's robe.
"It's been a while since I've met one so gifted with their aura."
"Yeah, I get that a lot." I paused for a moment, looking around the smaller room. "This building... It wasn't always part of this city, was it?"
The older man appeared shocked that I knew that but the moment I walked into the building, I knew that it had something different about it. "Yes, originally this building was a part of the Sinjoh Ruins. But Arceus moved this building here, to Sinnoh, in a time of great disorder. Now, people come here to celebrate the Alpha pokemon for blessing us with the pokemon world."
Slowly, the man approached me, our eyes locked. "Young man, my people are from a time where the Alpha was worshipped. His Presence flows through his people and I can see that His Greatness flows through you. The remnants of a distant past flow through some of the people here, in this region and all over the world."
He closed his eyes, placing a thumb on my forehead which took my by surprise. Dragonite and Dreepy remained quiet, no doubt fascinated by what they were seeing. I felt my eyes naturally close, a sudden jolt of energy coursing through my body. The sensation only lasted for a brief moment before I had to open my eyes.
As I sheepishly opened my eyes, I noticed that the old man was no longer standing in front of me. I quickly scanned the room but there were no signs of him, in fact, I couldn't even trace the man's aura. He had disappeared into thin air.
Confused, I turned toward the two dragon pokemon. They both had blank expressions on their faces, speechless at what they had just seen. I took a moment to refocus myself and once I concluded that the man had just vanished, the three of us left the foreign building.
"Hey Aaron, I've been looking all over for you." Dawn had turned the corner the moment we left the foreign building, our paths crossing at the right time. As she approached me, I noticed something different about her aura. None of the other people in the foreign building had provoked this reaction and as I looked closer, I noticed that our aura's shone with a similar colour.
Dawn was now dragging me by the hand through the streets of Hearthome City as I lost myself reading everyone's auras. Every person I passed had a faint light blue aura, barely noticeable at first. Whenever I looked back at Dawn, I could see that her aura glowed a bright gold, the same colour as mine.
As far as I knew, Dawn didn't have the same ability I had, where I could see the memories of people I connected with. So, even though we had a similar aura frequency, we still had our differences.
"Finally, we're here. You really are a load to drag around." The blunette quickly turned to me as she knocked on a star studded door. I was so oblivious to everything around me, that I hadn't noticed we had entered the main contest hall. Dawn had snuck her way past the press, dragging me along, making her way to this door.
"Une minute s'il vous plait."
The familiar accent caught my attention. A few moments later and the door swung open, a moderately tall woman, wearing lavender heels, her deep purple hair tied back. She was wearing a sparkling royal purple dress that hung from below her shoulders, past her ankles. She was adjusting her diamond studded earrings, holding her thin sleek white gloves in her other hand.
"Aaron, uh, this is Fantina, the gym leader of Hearthome City and one of the world's best contest performers. I'll leave you to it. Good luck with your performance!"
With that, Dawn rushed off, leaving me with a woman I had just met. I rolled my eyes, making sure to get even with her later. Fantina was stifling her laughter, half covering her mouth with the tips of her fingers.
"I guess you didn't know what Dawn dragged you into." I simply shook my head, clearly confused with everything that had just happened within the last few hours or so.
"You're a Kalosian, performing is in your blood. You'll be a natural." Fantina extended her hand, which I carefully took, unsure what I was getting myself involved in. She invited me into the room, saying that we needed a moment to prepare, even though I needed more than that.
I half cursed Dawn for making me deal with her problems, but I'd get back at her another day.