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Woo-hoo! 900 reads! I love you guy(s)!!
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It was an awkward walk back to the fort, at best. First of all, Eros was carrying Alice back the whole time, something he felt somewhat weird doing while he knew Alice was actually a human; That, and the fact that Feraligatr gave him the stare of death the whole time, protective of Alice as much as Sicily was protective of Eros. That wasn't just it, though. Everybody also felt some kind of resentment or fear of Xerxes, since she had initiated the odd kind of nightmare for all of them, completely justifiably. Xerxes herself was staring at Eros, for he was the only one to traverse that illusory bridge the other way and enter her mind, something that she felt almost violated her right to privacy.
Eros and his Pokemon certainly didn't trust Feraligatr, although there was no way Eros would refuse to keep them safe for the time being; Unfortunately, this earned the slightest bit of contempt from his Pokemon. His decision didn't bear any consequences for the time being, something that Eros could only pray remain true. On the other hand, he had other matters to attend to: The divining Druid had just announced to him that he knew the location of Xerxes' father.
Eros walked into one of the normal barracks, the iron-framed bed holding not only a lone Druid but also a set of tarot cards, some that didn't seem to come from any earthen materials. The Druid didn't bother to reach for the cards; Rather, he simply stood in front of Eros as he explained what he divined. "Headmaster, I have finally divined the location of the Pokemon you were searching for."
"And?" Eros was eager to find out who this mystery creature was.
"He lives in Kalos, on the west of the region. I tried to request a species, but no matter which ones I asked, I never got a positive read. All I know is that it certainly isn't a Sneasel or Weavile, nor any ice type Pokemon. Unfortunately, my seer does not know every single detail, nor were they especially cooperative."
"Unova? That's damn far, ain't it?" If a journey required him to travel that far, it may be out of his means to take Xerxes there, even if he were flying. Morono, which is pretty much Australia if you couldn't figure it out, was on the other side of the world.
"Well, there are a few ships near Ashport headed there, although that isn't really cheap. There are also a few ships docked and abandoned by both the humans and the Pokemon, but I doubt they'd be happy if you took it, and I doubt even more that anybody here could man one. That's all I got."
Eros was frustrated at this, not having means to any of those options. He didn't want to break it to Xerxes, but he didn't have a choice. He has to. "Well, thanks anyways."
"Oh, and one more thing. You had a special message that I couldn't really make sense of. It went, verbatim, 'The songbirds silver and gold, answers untold till their song hold.' The last part didn't make sense, but I'd watch out for songbirds and alike."
"I... Alright. I'll remember that." Eros, a tad paranoid on forgetting the statement, rehearsed it all night, not having any means to write it down. The rest of his night was spend practicing his magic alone and repeating that line over and over, considering how he'd break it to Xerxes.
The next morning was quite hectic. As Eros had it, the last round of the competition would be a Contest Spectacular, something that everybody found both amusing and worked to choose one of the four last contestants. Of course, the only place that they could do it was in Ashport, and since there were some battle tournaments going on this time of year, the concert hall was more than open to the public. The instructors were initially fighting over who would stay and oversee the students who didn't come to see the event, but since everybody was content on going, everybody agreed to up and leave for the day. Of course, the gate would have to be locked, but even if somebody broke in, there wouldn't be much to steal that wasn't available in the surrounding area besides bread.
Normally, a trip spent walking all the way to Ashport would take nearly a week, but the Druids decided to pool in what insignificant money they had and rented a bus, although a few students had their own means to fly to the area, either by Pokemon or by their own flight. Of course, they had to deal with appearing as suspicious individuals, something remedied easily by telling whoever asked to fuck off. I mean, really, with all those evil organization grunts roaming the world, do they even care anymore?
The trip to Ashport was short, as they arrived by early noontime. Soon, the thirty or so students were able make their ways to the auditorium, not receiving the slightest glance from the witch hunters. After all, these weren't any exceptionally looking people, as they all appeared as various unrelated crowds of children and adults, blending in easily with the rest of the crowd. That is, except for Eros...
"Xerxes, I need to tell you something." Eros let his three Pokemon out to walk, allowing him to discuss the matter with Xerxes inauspiciously.
"What is it?" Xerxes was wider-eyed than normal, knowing by heart that this was about her father.
"He..." Eros made sure to whisper to Xerxes, as he didn't want to make it look like there was an actual conversation going on, which would blow his cover. "We found out the location of... Him."
Xerxes shouted, "That's great!" However, as she drew the attention of the witch hunters around her, she lowered her voice to normal, repeating, "That's great."
"But he's pretty far from here, and I'm not sure we can reach him."
"Oh, that's alright! Where is he? I can travel pretty far."
"He's in Kalos." He looked at Xerxes' face, seeing that she didn't know where that was. "On the other side of earth."
"Oh..." Xerxes looked down to her feet, not knowing what to do now. She didn't seem to lose hope yet, but she was going to soon, it seemed. Eros looked away, as he had no idea how to help her. How could he? The means were beyond him...
Unfortunately, drawing more attention to himself, Sicily was whining like a spoiled little brat in front of one of the stores that lined the streets. She pressed her stupid little face against the window, looking in and repeatedly calling Eros' name in the hopes of him coming over. Surprisingly, she held a small cloth pouch in her hands, something that he didn't realize until now. Eros tried to walk past her and urge her to follow along, but she simply ignored him until he gave in and asked, "What?"
Sicily turned away from the window, one which protected the unexceptionally dressed mannequins behind. "I want stuff!"
"What do you mean?" Eros looked over her shoulder, seeing the store bore nothing more than simple clothes, nothing that he suspected to appeal to Pokemon. "They only sell clothes here."
"I know! I want one!"
Eros, frustrated by this sudden... Immaturity, as he would have it, signed and replied, "No, Sicily. Clothes are for people. I don't even have any money." Speaking of which, where were his students getting their money...?
"It's okay, I have my own money!" Sicily jingled her little bag, the small jingling of coin revealing a considerable sum of Poke.
"What...? You have money? Really?"
"Yep!" Sicily was practically jumping up and down now, exited to do whatever she was going to do.
"Well... Tell you what. You can go in there with me and-"
"No! I want to go alone! It's a surprise!" Sicily was jumping about and even rounding up Xerxes, who played along despite the news. "I want to go in alone. With Xerxes. So not alone, I guess."
"Fine. Go. I'll be outside." Eros, not understanding what she could possibly want and in a bad mood, simply leaned against the doorway as the two Pokemon rushed in on their own. Eros, not having anything to do for a good ten minutes, simply looked at the surrounding stores, enjoying the television displays in the closest one. It seems, as from the new channel, that people have known about the invasion from the day they landed, and somehow they were surprised when the armies actually started killing each other, acting as if they never heard of a murderous army. It was sickening just to hear these things, but he couldn't help it at all. At least, not yet.
"Eeeeeeeeeeeros!" Sicily ran up behind Eros and jumped upon his back, nearly causing him to collapse.
"Hey! Get off!"
"Okay!" Sicily jumped down, allowing Eros to turn and notice the odd pink shirt Sicily now wore. The shirt was unremarkable save the Pokeball symbol over the left chest, a casual yet girly shirt that Eros was surprised didn't look too bad on her. The shirt even fit nicely around her waist and was only slightly shorter than her arms, the only problem being the baggy chest area. "Like it?"
"Well... This is unexpected. Ya got a shirt for yourself? Not too bad."
"Yeah." Sicily smiled profusely for a few moments before Xerxes popped up behind her, her white claws wrapped around the handles of the plastic bag she held. "Oh, wait, take off your old sweater and close your eyes!"
"Why?"
"Just do it!" Complying unquestioningly, Eros looked down upon his old, ugly red sweater. The monstrosity was tattered and worn all over, now dyed brown with months worth of dirt. The thing barely even stood on his shoulders any more, since it was torn from various attacks and weeds from the forest in which he traveled. Of course, it was still very personal to him...
"Did you get me a sweater?"
"What? N-no, shut up!" Sicily motioned for Eros to hurry up, so he frantically pulled the old red sweater off and dropped it to the ground, not exactly worried about getting it dirtier. Sicily unsatisfied with this, Eros also closed his eyes and awaited for whatever she wanted to do. He heard her fly about him, her claws rapidly tugging his arms up in a fashion that allowed some cloth veil to cover his arms and head. His eyes still closed, he felt one last tight tug from Sicily before she flew back in front of him and she commanded, "Open your eyes!"
Eros did as he told and found that he did indeed receive a sweater. It was a bit large for him, but it certainly was much more comfortable and warming than his last one, having been brand new. It was completely black, save for three thick diagonal lines on the bottom that ended in stars, some odd brand symbol he knew very little of. "Oh, you got me a sweater..."
"W-what's wrong? Is there anything wrong with it?" Sicily was jittery once more, with Xerxes behind her and seemingly just as unsettled. "I told you he wouldn't like black! You dark types are obsessed with dark stuff! Purple would've been much more fitting, or maybe a classy beige-"
"No, I like it. It's just..."
"Just what?"
"Well..." Eros wrapped his arms around Sicily and Xerxes, the two unsuspecting of this gesture. "It's great. I like it."
Sicily, about to comment once more, saw he was genuinely enjoying his present and simply embraced him back, enjoying this moment between trainer and Pokemon. Of course, this did not last indefinitely, as Dusk urged them to hurry up and head to the Contest Spectacular.
And so they did. As Eros walked in, he found the place to be nearly deserted, weren't it for the number of Druids about. The receptionist was already guiding people in, allowing the people to take their pick of seats as the place was empty save a few custodians sweeping about. The area was grand, a place Eros couldn't have afforded to visit before. Rows and rows of seats easily capable of holding thousands of people sat lined up one against another, hosting twenty people at most, as well as quite a few Pokemon; However, Eros did recognize a bar-like stand at the side, one that has a man and a woman standing who he could've sworn he'd seen before...
Eros walked up to the bar, finding the two familiar figures to be Hank and Cerci, the two enjoying a peaceful time on one of the bar stools. No man stood behind the counter, as there wouldn't have been one for a private and tiny event like this; Rather, there was a lone television, one which seemed to be displaying the show life to compensate for the poor view of the stage. Eros sat next to Cerci, staring her down intently as she actively ignored him for at least a minute, staring down and writing inside a newspaper with a deadly glare.
The silence was shattered as she said, "What's a six letter word for a common Pokemon? It has two 'o's in it."
"Uh, I don't know." Eros was expecting a warmer welcome, but then again, Cerci.
"Oh, wait, it's Bidoof. I'm stupid, aren't I." Cerci ignored Eros again, forcing him to sit next to Hank instead.
As he took his seat, Hank moved a book out of sight but ended up dropping it on the ground. He attempted to fumble for it but ended up falling out of his chair, prompting Eros to pick it up for him; As it turned out, however, the book was on parenting, as the title had it. "Uh. Hank?"
"Oh, ya had to ruin the surprise, didn't you...?" Hank pushed himself back up, resting himself on the barstool and collecting the book from Eros. "Well, I bet you know what this implies."
"You... And Cerci... Did it? Like, she wanted-"
"Shut up." Cerci commanded this with a voice much to defensive and aggressive to even be hers. "I'm not proud."
Hank smiled. "She acts like this, but she's actually a bit delighted. Of course, she wouldn't want to look girly or anything, right? Going to be a rough nine months."
"More like eighteen years." Cerci spoke once more. "Doctors were suspicious, but I told them I'm just divergent. That gave them a good laugh. I also told them I'm twenty five, so that's the story. With their genetic analysis and all, they said it'd be a she. We're naming here Rosie."
Eros responded, "Rosie? Why?"
"It means something to me. I got a rose back at the other academy, which was the first thing I enchanted. It didn't welt for a year, but something else did. I never really grew tired of roses. I even named you after one."
"You did?"
"Yeah. Eros is just rose with the E in the front."
Hank giggled and said, "Hehe. Well then, Pepe Rosie, how's it going?"
Eros, not too fond of his new nickname, answered coolly, "It's going fine. We're just having a private competition here. You know, like the ones you said they do this time of year."
Hank nodded and said, "Yeah, I like to sometimes just rehearse alone this time of year. Ain't nobody to worry about. Hey, wait a minute... Do these students have any idea what they're doing?"
Eros, a bit confused, said, "It can't be that hard-"
"No, no, no! I'm not letting a bunch of unprofessional twits go up there and embarrass themselves! This is an art, Rosie! Do you even know what that means?!"
Eros shook his head, prompting Hank to march up behind stage and start shouting commands and lessons at the four Druids, those receiving a brief, lesser-quality lesson from the volunteer there. Soon he heard everybody suddenly silent as some murmuring came from backstage. Sicily nonchalantly approached silently, curious and without anything to occupy her time. Eros turned to Cerci, who explained, "He's been having a rough time at work. You know, with the baby and stuff. Ugh, it just makes me sick..."
Eros wasn't sure what Cerci wanted, but she was implying something. "So, the fort is doing well. Small talk. Weather."
Cerci turned and looked over Eros, looking over his attire again and again until she suddenly spoke, "You got a new sweater." She was amused, although she still had her condescending look about her.
"Uh, yeah. Sicily got it for me."
"Hm. You know what? Look at the garments I'm wearing." Eros looked to see that Cerci wore the same black garments as the mages, a rough and sturdy looking piece of cloth to be sure; However, the black cloth was tighter and didn't flow, rather acting more as a jump-suit. Her hood covered her shoulders nicely, the green cloth a distinctive garment for sure; And, at her side, she still carried her wooden staff. "This black cloth is exceptionally sturdy. It won't stop anything like bullets or crowbars, but it's pretty hard to scratch and get dirty. The staff is also pretty good at enchanting powers. I can make you a set if you want."
Eros, about to respond, was interrupted by Sicily, who retorted, "I just bought him a sweater! He doesn't need your stupid little magical robes!"
In a heavy sarcastic accent and with a wink to Eros, Cerci replied, "Okay then, Sicily."
"Don't!"
With another wink, Cerci repeated, "Okay then, Sicily."
"I mean it!" Sicily frowned and joined the crowd again, this time leaving the two alone to chat.
Looked to the screen as it started to show the four Druidic contestants out on stage, three girls with a Shinx, Bulbasaur and Riolu, while a single boy had a Machop. Really, a Machop? He watched as the four came up in order, each Pokemon dressed up in ways according to their personalities. If Eros guesses right, only Hank would've though to teach them that, a reason that he's still in this job. This didn't stop Eros from resuming the conversation, however.
"Well, we found out the location of Xerxes' father."
"Did you really?" This was said almost apathetically, since Cerci's eyes were affixed to the television.
"Yep. He's in Kalos."
"Really? That's going to be quite the journey, then."
"I can't make it, though, and now I feel bad..."
"Don't worry. At least you tried." It barely seemed as if Cerci was listening.
"So... You and Hank working out well?"
"Yeah. It's actually pretty weird what he gets into, so that's fun."
Eros could feel a sort of disconnect here, so he left for the main seating while he left Cerci to herself. It was already the next round, as the contestants were baking happily with their Pokemon; That is, they would be, although it looks like something shook them up beforehand, the forced smiled on the contestants matching the genuine ones of the oblivious Pokemon. About fifteen minutes later the round ended, with the girl with the Bulbasaur in the lead by at least five seventeenths; And, in turn, the stage dimmed while the contestants retreated back, a stern shouting from Hank drawing in a cameraman or two.
About ten minutes later, the boy with the Machop came out, doing something along the lines of a move-showing-off stage of the competition. Eros was paying good attention to the boy until he noticed Hank take his seat next to him, the boy in quite a pleased state. Eros decided to ask, "Why are you so happy?"
Hank smiled and replied snidely, "Glad you asked, Rosie. One of the stage managers behind the stage saw me shouting at the four lucky contestants, and right before she kicked me out this man who was exceptionally wealthy loved the whole thing where I tore into the poor assholes of your students. They want to make that a show, and I wouldn't hate the extra money. Or the chance to get payed for yelling at people."
"Oh, that's... Nice."
Hank gave a hearty laugh before continuing, "You know, Pepe, ever since we were lil' kids, you always seemed to be lucky. Like a four leaf clover."
"..."
"And I know you and Xerxes want to go look for that Pokemon in Kalos, and," as Hank continued in a more satirical voice, "the story about how you couldn't afford it just wrenched my heard and made me cry. So, and only because we are friends and whatnot, I'd like to offer you a trip up to Kalos."
"R-really?" Eros was amazed at this sudden change of luck, the opportunity to fulfill the dream that Xerxes had of meeting her father... "Thank you, Hank. You don't know how much it means to Xerxes."
"Hey, don't mention it. Now, I hope these useless imbeciles had the slightest bit of comprehension of what I been sayin, because if they don't..."