"So, Star left?"
I nodded, feeling slightly empty inside. Star was so far away, even our telepathic connection has been broken.
"I'm sorry for your loss." He murmured. For the first time ever, he actually sounded sincere. Almost as though he knew what this parting meant to me.
"Don't be. Me and Star chose this together." I replied, petting Winter as we walked deeper into the forest.
We fell silent for a moment, listening to the sounds of the forest.
"I... I want to give you this, actually." Felix handed over a card. Accepting his gift, I took a look at it, realizing that it was a racer's pass. A pass that would allow me to join an official race.
"You know, being with you the past few weeks gave me the impression that you'll make a pretty neat racer. So, I thought I'll invite you to one."
I just blinked.
"Of course, you're still a peasant." He continued, ruining the moment.
Well, Felix will be Felix.
I looked down at the card, wondering what I should do with it. It was a key to being a racer, an actual full-fledged one. With this card, my childhood dreams could come true.
However, it just didn't feel right.
"There's a race down at Glowiridge, you coming?"
I turned around to face him, realizing that he was actually being serious about whatever he had said. But still... I didn't feel like joining. Not anymore.
"No thanks." I finally replied. He gave me a confused look, just as I suspected.
"Why not?" Topaz asked. He was confused as well, not understanding why I didn't want to compete.
"I just don't feel like joining a race, now that Star's gone." I explained, pocketing the card. "Maybe I'll join one someday, but for now, I think I'll do something else."
"So, what are you going to do, Emily?" Felix asked, making me surprised that he had called me by my actual name.
"I think I'll be a professor, and go on a quest to return all the Pokémon Team Alchama stole." I replied, remembering the larvaeine Scalemental that they had stolen. It may have been freed, however the rest of the stolen spiritmals were still waiting to be returned to their trainers.
"I see. If you change your mind, feel free to join one." He replied, walking away. "I'll see you around, Emily."
I just watched him leave, wondering when we would next meet.
With that, I turned around, heading back towards Windsteed.
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And with that, we end off the first book in the Spiritmal series. Hopefully, I'll be able to get it out by the end of the year. See you all in the next book!