The next few days passed in a similar fashion. I would wake up early every day, have my breakfast, try my best to focus in class and take relevant notes beside my small doodles of Umbreon, then went out to the battlefield to train my team. I knew Umbreon had a lot of work to do if she were to be fit to fight when she was only at a level 19. She struggled to keep up with the others as she had almost half their experience. I could tell she was anxious about letting me down and not being as powerful as the rest of the team, but I kept assuring her she was doing amazing work. Penny often dropped in to see how we were doing and analyzed her levels and move set. She was able to learn Confuse Ray pretty early into the training, as it was only a level 20 move. I didn't think it would be too useful as it only confused the target, and even then, there was only a 33 percent chance it would miss their attack. Additionally, if somehow it worked and the titan hurt itself, I could guarantee it would barely leave a mark on its own health. I wasn't sure if the dominant ghost-type move would still be super effective if it didn't do anything. I didn't tell Umbreon any of this, obviously, but I did start to worry when Friday came. Everyone had gone up at least four levels. I was aiming to have everyone in their 30's, but when I woke up that Friday morning, I had a nervous suspicion that we weren't ready.
I chose not to keep my phone silent, only at a vibrate, in a weird hope that one of my friends had found a stash of the expensive level candies somewhere in the shrubs. Before my last class was over, my phone lit up dimly with my brightness settings at its lowest. I saw Arven's name pop up along with his text message beneath reading:
Asado Desert. Are you ready?
I swallowed. I was afraid I wasn't, but I knew that time was valuable. We still had no idea if the effects of the Herba Mystica would wear off. I hadn't noticed any regression in Koraidon, but I wanted to get him and Mabosstiff back to full health as soon as possible in case something happened. I didn't know what could possibly happen, but my anxiety was beginning to creep in.
I looked up at the teacher who had her back turned to us, writing something on the board. I took this moment to quickly send a reply:
I'll see you there
When class was dismissed, I brushed over my belt to make sure I had everyone. I counted five several times as I made my way downstairs to the entrance of the building before letting Koraidon out. He let me adjust myself on his back before standing up straight. "I really do wish you could fight, buddy," I told him. "I could imagine how strong you really are behind your impairments, whatever happened to you." Koraidon sighed, and I rubbed his snout. "Don't worry, we have two more titans to defeat, and you'll be back to feeling young and healthy." I pulled up the map Arven had texted me with an X at his location and showed Koraidon where to go.
He ran down the stairs, nimbly avoiding everyone in his path, and leapt over the high walls of Mesagoza to start his descent towards the desert. Koraidon remembered the way there, having been there before to find Numel, so he ran and flew more confidently and erratically over the hills and down to the West Province. I held on tight to his whisker reigns and his slim waist as he jumped into the sky and crashed to the ground before rebounding back up. He seemed excited. Every time we were in the air, he threw out his head feathers as if feeling the wind. I could tell he liked being in the air, and it gave me further proof to believe that he was once able to fly. I didn't know how, but if Pokémon like gyarados could do it, I was sure there was a way.
When we arrived at the sandy biome, it was a little windier than when we were there last. Koraidon allowed me to stay on as we walked around, looking for the other Naranja Academy student. His legs were a lot stronger and had no problem traversing the collapsing sand. I zoomed into the picture of my phone to figure out where we needed to go. The red X seemed to be in the middle of the desert at a clearing. I wasn't sure how large the desert was, so I commanded Koraidon to walk straight into it. I had to shield my face as the dusty wind swirled around us, but I still kept a lookout.
Koraidon smelled him before I saw him. He began to run over to the pillar of stone Arven was sheltering himself behind and immediately prodded at his backpack with his nose. I jumped off.
"Do you ever feed that thing?" He asked, pushing Koraidon's invasive muzzle away from his things.
I tapped the side of the Pokémon's round stomach. "A lot. I don't get where he has a stomach to put it all."
Arven put his hands on his hips as he observed Koraidon. "I do wish I had him back right now. It was hard getting here with the wind."
I shrugged. "I could've picked you up if you needed me to." I began to sweat. Why did I say that? I could barely contain my cool whenever he touched me. I imagined his arms around my waist as I steered Koraidon around the landscape, holding me even tighter when Koraidon leapt at a near-vertical angle into the air. I forced myself to relax as I felt a smile pushing its way onto my face.
"I don't think I'd trust that thing around me," he scowled at Koraidon, "but...." His gaze softened, looking at me now. "I'd trust you to keep me safe." Tingles. I felt myself stiffen as his words made their way into my brain. Now that I accepted that I liked him, I didn't know what to do. I finally knew what that feeling was, but I couldn't do anything about it. It was beginning to feel painful in my gut fighting it back. I felt the only way to stop the hurt was to tell him my own secret, but I was even more afraid of being rejected and left behind. All I could do was stuff my feelings back inside and hope I never had to explain them. After all, it was so much better to keep quiet if it meant finishing this quest and feeling worth something more than what my mom would always tell me.
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Don't...
...Let her get to you. I remembered. It brought me back to my own thoughts. I was able to drown her out. "Have you found the titan?" I asked, now able to separate my thoughts and delusions.
He seemed a bit disappointed that I didn't seem to react, or maybe I was just imagining things, but he walked out from behind the pillar and pointed somewhere in the distance. "He's by a rock wall over there. I think that's where he's keeping the Herba Mystica, but let me tell you something." He came back, close to me by the wind breaking shelter. "I don't think it's a donphan. I've seen it. It has massive tusks and red spines and..." he gestured with his hands. "Things on its claws. You would know. Does donphan evolve?"
I blinked. "It shouldn't. Do you think it's a new final evolution we've never heard about?"
Arven took out his book and turned to a bookmarked page. "My mom knew about it, but why didn't she tell anyone?"
I remembered my deduction, but I didn't want to make my comparison obvious. "Is it dangerous where your mom worked?" Arven tensed, and I got anxious that I said something wrong. Why did I think that was a good idea?
"I've... been there a few times," he stammered, tracing his finger over the book in thought. He slumped down onto the sand and sat there for a moment. "I, uh, told you about how I went all the way down there to get this." I nodded. I saw his hands shaking. Should I hold them? My stomach swirled thinking about the idea. I remembered how he held mine when I was stuck in my own head. I tried to clear my head to rid myself of the aching feelings and went to graze his hand on top of the book. He looked at it for a second before taking a shallow breath and adjusting his fingers to intertwine with mine, his gentle grip warming the spaces between my digits. I felt myself blushing and saw through my peripherals that Arven had a tiny smile on his face. I focused on my breathing to calm myself in case he happened to turn his attention to my nervous features. "There's Pokémon down there, really strong ones," he explained. "There's some I've never seen before, but all of them were illustrated in this book. My mom knew about them, but never told anyone. Maybe because they're dangerous, and that's why I'm a little nervous about this titan."
He paused again, and I began to carefully stroke the back of his hand with my thumb, allowing him to gather his thoughts. "I think this titan is from down there." He kept mentioning 'down there'. His mom worked 'down there'. I couldn't figure it out. Was she underground? Were we all walking above an intricate cave system?
"Where's 'down there'?" I asked him, and he shrunk inside his clothing. He tightened his grip around my fingers before letting go and standing up.
"I think we should defeat this thing before it destroys anything," he said, avoiding looking at me and watching the creature from the edge of the pillar. It was clearly a sensitive subject I may have to piece together on my own.
I released Umbreon and she let out an excited cry. "I'm ready. Are you?"
Arven took a ball from his belt and nodded. "There's no point sneaking up on it if we could barely walk through the sand."
I puffed up my chest. "Then let's get going and give it everything we got." We both began to stumble our way over to the beast, marching with knees high in the air. Umbreon easily skipped around the sand with her skinny legs and led the way. The strange donphan titan turned to us and angrily roared a declaration of battle. "You got this, Umbreon! We trained all week for this." Arven threw out his duel grass-fire scovillain who also easily traversed the sand.
Umbreon got to the titan first. "Umbreon, Bite!" Umbreon lunged into the air and bit the titan on the leg with a strong chomp, but the titan didn't seem phased. In fact, it seemed to not notice anything had attacked it. He flung Umbreon crashing into the sand.
Arven gaped. "Dark-type moves barely did a thing to it!"
I froze. "But... donphan is a ground-type Pokémon. They're not strong against dark-type moves!" The titan slammed a giant tusk into Umbreon and sent her flying into a pillar. She wobbled to her feet, nearing a faint.
"Brick Block?" Arven gasped. "But that's a—"
I swallowed, "Fighting-type move." Arven looked at me in terror. "This titan is a duel ground-fighting type." I found Umbreon who was struggling to walk, desperately trying to keep herself awake. "It's super effective against dark-types." I ran over to Umbreon who began to tremble as she noticed me. I knelt down and pet her head. I glanced behind me and saw Arven trying to cover me with his team. Umbreon's red eyes were huge, pupils contracted in fear. I felt guilty. I knew Umbreon was afraid to be left behind, but I wanted her to fight anyway. Why didn't I wait to let her fight someone I knew she was strong against. I clenched my fist and took her ball out and she flinched. "This isn't your fault," I assured her. "I let you down." I called her back into her ball and joined Arven's side.
"How strong is this thing?" He complained.
I ran through who would be the best choice to fight the titan. Ground-types were weak to water, grass, and ice-type moves. Would Quaxwell work? Fighting-types were weak to flying, psychic, and fairy-type moves, none of which I had. I decided Quaxwell was my only option. "Let's go, Quaxwell!" The Practicing Pokémon leapt out of his ball and spun around, prepared for an order. "Aqua Cutter, now!" I commanded. Quaxwell shot out a sharp blast of water at the titan and it reeled backwards.
"At least that did something," Arven commented. "Scovillain, Razor Leaf!" The Pokémon threw out grassy blades which barely inconvenienced the titan.
I felt myself breathing heavier. I wasn't sure if we were going to win this one. "I'm going to try something." I released Lycanroc. Rock-type Pokémon like him were weak to both fighting and ground-type moves, but Lycanroc was my strongest member, and all I wanted was to land one hit on the titan. "Before it strikes, Quick Attack!" Lycanroc shot out faster than I could blink and pounded his entire body into the titan's side. It was hit hard, and lost its balance a little, but it retaliated with a critical Earthquake which shook everyone in the clearing but flung Lycanroc at my feet. He immediately fainted and I took him back.
Arven regained his balance and called his fainted scovillain into its ball. "That was stupid... but I think you really lowered its health down." He took out his cloyster which had the water and ice-type advantage and took a hit at it.
Suddenly I remembered Umbreon's new move. Even though it would only work a third of the time, it could still buy us some moves. I let out Umbreon and she dizzily shrunk to the ground. "Umbreon, I need you to focus. You're going to switch the battle to be in our favor if you land this." I scratched her chin to let her know I was still with her. "I want you to use Confuse Ray." Umbreon nodded and turned towards the titan and stood her ground, trying her best to steady herself. She shut her eyes and let out a transparent beam from the yellow ring on her forehead.
Arven was surprised. "What is she doing?" I pointed at the titan who was now wobbling side to side on its huge legs.
I patted Umbreon on her haunches. "You did great, but I don't want to hurt you anymore than I have." I put her back into her ball to rest.
The titan attempted to run at Arven's cloyster, but ended up slamming its tusks into the rock wall beside it, crumbling it into a hidden cave. "That must be where the spices are!" Arven pointed out.
"Don't get ahead of yourself. We're not done yet."
Arven hit the titan with an Icicle Crash. Umbreon was able to hit the titan with a ghost-type move even though she was a pure dark-type. Quaxwell was at least a level 28 last time I had checked. That meant.... "Flying-type moves are super effective," I thought aloud. "Quaxwell, Air Slash!" Quaxwell threw out his arms and the air visibly separated in a thunderous roar and it cut the titan with a loud explosion. The titan tumbled into its side and disappeared into the sand.
I bent over at the knees in relief and exhaustion. The entire battle was terrifying. Lycanroc fainted, Umbreon was near fainted, Arven's scovillian fainted, and Quaxwell was shaken beside me. He forced his way back into his shelter. I stretched back up and held my hands to my face and sighed deeply. The last titan had to be stronger, and now I was terrified because if I had barely made it through this titan, there was no way I'd be able to beat the next one.
I felt an arm behind me and a sturdy hand grab the small of my waist. I flinched and stared at him. "Let's get inside. It's too windy to be out here," Arven said with his oddly calm, deep voice. I let my right arm fall over into his shoulders as he guided me towards the cave as the wind picked up. With my left hand, I felt my own side and slid it down until I touched Arven's fingers that were holding onto me. In a state of bewilderment and exhaustion, I felt no doubts entwining our fingers together. I couldn't see his face, as I was squinting against the dust, but I could feel his pulse quicken around his neck.
I was finally able to hear myself and see clearly in the shelter of the cave, the hidden Herba Mystica lighting up the room with a faint yellow glow. Arven and I stood at the entrance for a moment, holding each other at the side, taking in what was almost the ending of our adventure before letting go and setting up the customary picnic and bonfire scene, Arven with the food and me with the comfort.