Advent of Woe

Mt. Pyre, Three Years Ago

     I was just back here, paying my respects to my parents. Regina stood off to my side quietly, wishing for their souls continued peace. Argentum had learned of the story, but at the time was not with me. The Larvitar, which at Regina's behest I had named Discord, was off fighting the local ghosts,  and Argentum was supervising.

Amazing, I had thought, that I had come so far from where I had begun. That  with two Pokemon, I had enough talent to not only crush every Gym leader, but the entirety of the Hoenn League. Having battled nearly every day for most of her life, it is no surprise Regina was able to anticipate almost every tactic they had tried to use, and respond with devastating, crushing force. They spoke of infractions and illegal moves, but then, so did all sore losers, trying to find some way to cheat me out of victory. I won. They lost. Simple as that. And to think I may never have come this far if it weren't for the fact they were no longer a part of the living world. But, still, one question had plagued me. 'What now?' I was the best. There was no where else to go, besides maybe this Frontier I had heard of. Such trivial things were what I thought about, when of course, life decided to throw a wrench into my plans.

Regina whirled around with tension and on guard. I immediately did the same, knowing what this meant.

"Show yourself. You've no hope of hiding from me. Make this easy." I had smugly suggested. There was a long silence. Regina and I stared down the path to where we were when, after what had seemed to be an eternity, of course, something happened. A Blissey jumped out from behind a headstone and waddled forward and tripped.

"BLISS-ey!" It had cried.  Regina had already translated it to, 'Joyjoy!'. For the sake of simplicity, all further dialogue from Pokemon will be translated, unless significant. Returning to the main story, a small girl ran out and hugged the Blissey. Well, perhaps 'girl' wasn't the right word. Or maybe it was. Before I go any farther, it is imperative I describe her. This story is her epitaph, after all.

She looked about my age, maybe a little younger. She was very thin, I could tell she hadn't eaten in a while. Her pink hair was stringy and dead, her lime green sweater was mud-stained, as were her jeans, yet despite how sick and dead she looked, her blue eye's shone with life. She may have looked like a corpse on the outside, but on the inside, she was a star, brilliantly filled with light and life. I put my arm out in front of Regina, silently telling her it was okay, when the young woman staggered up to me.

"I... did you lose someone you care about, too?" She inquired, with concerned eyes. I nodded. Though it had been six years, their deaths were still an open wound. The girl coughed and took another shaky step forward. "I-I see.... I-I'm still trying to move on from my sister's...." I didn't need to hear any more.

"I'm sincerely sorry for your loss, Miss." I sympathized as I bowed.

She stammered in response, "O-Oh no, i-it's fine, Jacob. After what happened to you, I think my problems-"

That's right... I realized. I had become something of a small legend.

"No. We all have hardships. Now, if you'll excuse me..." I pardoned myself as I began to walk away, but the Blissey stopped me, spun me around and I ended up walking back towards the girl, who, while giggling, looked at me sternly.

"What? You don't even ask for a name?"

I sighed, exasperated, and I indulged her. "Very well, miss. What is your-"

"Elityria!" She interrupted, with a happy smile. I gave a slight grin.

"That's a good name. Now, if you'll please excuse me, I'm going to go now." I said, a bit more forcefully, uncomfortable spending so much time alone with a girl. I snapped, to call Argentum and by extension, Discord. Once more, I turned around to leave, walked a small ways when-

"WAIT!!!" Elityria shouted. I was stopped dead and whirled around to face her. She screeched at me, "You think you can just walk away when someones talking to you, huh? I-" Having quite enough of this, I cut her off.

"Well, yes, I do actually." Now, you have to understand, this was the longest conversation I'd had with a person in six years. I had no idea how rude I was being. But Elityria did, and intended to inform me of that. She stormed up to me.

"Well you can't! It's rude! Now!" She looked so silly, stomping and pointing. At first I almost wanted to make fun of her. Later, these very same quirky tendencies would send my heart aflutter. "Let me finish! You don't even know where to go now, do you? You've beaten the League. You're the best. Nothing more to do, is that what you think?

I admit I was very surprised, but I suppose I shouldn't have been considering I would say that to anyone who would listen. She saw my look of shock, smirked,  grabbed my hand and slapped a red device into it. I looked at it quizzically.

"Well now-" She coughed a little, and went on, "Now you have something. You're going to be my bodyguard!"

My face undoubtedly looked more confused, as she continued still, "And we're going to go everywhere and see every Pokemon in Hoenn. Unless you think it's too tough for you" She smugly smirked. She had put the challenge to me, and I couldn't say no to it. Not without a reason, anyways, which is what I tried to find.

"Thanks, but why do you need a bodyguard?" I questioned, in an attempt to wiggle out. You could almost hear fate giggling at this futile attempt to get out of this. Elityria looked down, sort of hurt.

"....Because I can't fight.... Joy'd only good at healing. I-I haven't been able to get even a mile away from Lilycove my whole life...." She told me. That's what changed my mind. If I could use my skill to help other people, wasn't I obligated to do so?

So when she stumbled, I caught her, and told Elityria, "Fine. You've got yourself a deal. We'll see everything. But first..." I began, looking her over, noticing her shabby clothes and hearing her growling stomach, "Let's go get you something new to wear and something to eat. When you travel with me, breaks are few and far between. So enjoy them when you can." I informed her, smiling slightly. Her face went from horrified, to confused, to pure, undiluted euphoria. I can say, to this day, I have never seen a face that made me feel so.... full of worth, meaningful, as that smile. She nodded hastily and with vigor and we turned around and began walking back.

"LARVAAAAA!" Argentum had finally managed to shuffle Discord over to us. He was clearly annoyed with the hours old Larvitar.

"Theory. Today is the beginning of a long series of painful days." He answered in that cold, metallic, calculating voice he had. I just laughed in response and kept walking. Regina eyed Elityria with distrust, and increased her pace to keep up with me. A few minutes into the walk, I looked back to make sure I was still being followed, when I saw tears streaming down her face. Perhaps, because for the first time in years, she had been given permission to cry.

And like the coward I am, I pretended not to notice. She's fine, I thought. No need to be the gentleman and make sure she was alright.