The roars of the Steelix chased after us long after we’d outdistanced the giant Pokémon. I clung onto Ducky doing my best to minimise my contact with her Pidgeot. At least, I’d improved enough to tolerate the touch, even if it took all my self-control not to freeze and tumble off. Worse was the nagging thought that Ampharos was still hurt. I didn’t know how badly. I didn’t think she was too hurt, the clash had been short, and she was tough enough to brush off the fall, but it worried me I didn’t get the chance to check and make sure.

  “You all right, there?” asked Ducky. I nodded, a gesture she felt rather than saw, due to me being, as aforementioned, pressed against her back.

  “You’re doing great. We’re landing in a minute. Just need to make sure to get out of Steelix’s territory.”

  True to her word, we touched down not long after to regroup. The first thing I did once standing on the just-a-little-solid ground was take out Ampharos and have Comfey continue her treatment. With more time and less danger, I saw that despite my worst anxieties, Ampharos was indeed, alright, and only needed a little patch-up. Comfey also provided healing for the rest of the Pokémon there, in particular, Joey’s Starmie, who at some point had taken a nasty hit. After that, we went back to leaning over the map.

  “We’re about here, now,” said Ducky, pointing to a spot that looked like any other to me. “And we encountered Steelix here. If we assume it was close to the centre of its territory, we should avoid roughly this area.”

  She drew a rough circle indicating the danger zone.

  “Why?” asked Joey, a sulky frown on his face. “We could take him easy. He wasn’t winning that battle.”

  “Maybe not, but it’s a waste of time and energy for no benefit,” said Elaine.

  “It’s not no benefit. Knocking out Steelix would boost morale. Specifically, mine,” he replied.

  We ignored him as was fitting and returned to planning our search. Shortly after, Ducky hopped back on Crest, and it was back to scaling the mountain.

  We spent the rest of the day without any other major incident. We found a number of new tunnels which Elaine had Sableye explore, but no sign or shrine of Landorus. By the time the sun was going down, we were at the summit of Mount Anvil staring down the black throat of yet another cave.

  “This wasn’t here last time I was here,” said Ducky.

  “Doesn’t mean much,” said Elaine. Ducky shrugged.

  We were all hungry and tired by this stage and unlike the other entrances we’d come across, this cave was a vertical drop into nothingness. As tempting as it was to continue exploring, in the end, we decided it was best to rest and continue in the morning. We had to report to the rangers anyway, if we didn’t get back in time, we’d cause them to worry.

  We weren’t the first back to the Ranger’s Office. We were the second. The team waiting there were slightly relieved by our arrival, but the missing eight rangers, including the captain, weighed heavily on their nerves.

  “Ranger Harvey, is it?” said Ducky, approaching the team leader.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said the ranger.

  “Have you any news from the other teams?”

  “Nothing good, ma’am,” he said. “We received a radio transmission from Ellie’s team, that’s the other above ground team, that they’d encountered a suspicious man, but the transmission got cut off, and when we arrived at the place where they were, there was signs of a battle and a broken radio. We searched but were unable to find anything else. As for the captain, I’ve had no news from him or his team, but I am less worried for them. They all have teams well suited for underground exploration, and the captain’s Excadrill alone will ensure no cave ins can harm them. Any number of complications might have delayed them, but trust me when I say, they’re in their element.”

  “I see. And has there been any progress on the search?”

  “Nothing significant. We came across four caves that warrant further investigation, but that’s all.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Same with us. We’ve marked places on the map we might need to revisit, and also, a Steelix has taken up residence in this area, but like you say, no significant progress.”

  “I’ll inform the captain if he comes back tonight. You can all get some rest. We’ll meet up tomorrow morning and see where we go from there, depending on if anyone else returns.”

  With that, we retreated to the Pokémon Centre, had a decent meal, and I wasted no more time in turning in for the night. While I wasn’t a stranger to physical exertion, all this mountain climbing was new to me. It was hard on the body, and our purpose meant my mind wasn’t any less strained. Thankfully, I had no problems falling asleep.

  The next day, I woke up refreshed and ready to face whatever was thrown at me. Pumping myself up, I all but leapt out of bed and made my way to the lobby. Elaine and Meloetta were already up, but hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we went to get some together.

  “Ducky’s up too,” said Elaine. “But she’s gone on her morning flight, or something. That woman scares me sometimes.”

  “Agreed,” I said. “And Joey?”

  “Still in his room, as far as I know.”

  “Of course.”

  As we ate and fed our Pokémon, my gaze drifted to Meloetta. She hadn’t helped in any of our fights the day before, preferring to remain aloof and detached. I pitied her situation, especially now that it was almost certain Killian was on the mountain, but her attitude was seriously beginning to annoy me. We were, after all, trying to help her, but she was doing nothing for us. Elaine was more empathetic. She said, when I broached the topic, that calming the Forces of Nature was more for us than for Meloetta, and we were just providing some basic protection from Killian. Basically, she didn’t have an obligation to help us more than she was, and fighting probably went against her anyway.

  Joey turned up halfway through breakfast and Ducky joined us as we were finishing. She looked like she’d gotten all her daily exercise already, and as usual, was in painfully high spirits.

  Outside the Ranger’s Office again, we were met with more negative news. Or rather, there was no more news, good or bad, and eight rangers were still missing.

  “So, what do you plan on doing?” asked Elaine.

  “Continue with the mission, Champion,” said Harvey. “And expand the search to include the missing rangers. Ellie’s team, I mean. I’ve considered asking for backup for Trent as well, but as I said yesterday, he is the greatest underground ranger we have. If he’s against something even he can’t deal with, then we don’t have the people capable of helping right now. That is unless you’d be willing to go?”

  “It might be best I do. The search is only going so well, and the likelihood is Landorus is in the caves somewhere. I wanted to avoid them, if possible, but it looks like that’s not really an option anymore.”

  “I also want to check out the cave at the summit, though,” said Ducky. “I’ve a good feeling about that one.

  “I think it’s more important to find Ranger Trent first, though,” I said.

  “True, how about we split up?” said Ducky.

  “No,” said Elaine immediately. “I don’t like that.”

  “Come on, it’ll be a waste of a day if we go into the mines and find nothing, especially if it turns out Trent doesn’t need our help.”

  “Still, I don’t like the idea of you going alone,” said Elaine.

  “I won’t. I’ll take Calla, you can take Joey. The two will only fight if they’re together anyway.”

  The suggestion was met with general distaste, but Ducky ploughed on before we could raise objections.

  “We’ll cover more ground like this, and if you’re thinking of danger, Starmie will be able to Teleport two people out if necessary. For now, that’s their limit. As for Calla and me, with Crest and Down we’ll be more than capable of escaping whatever we need to run from. We might have less firepower, but more mobility this way.”

  It took more convincing, but Ducky had a clear vision for a plan of action that was hard to argue against. Elaine took the longest to agree, partly, I suspected, because she felt responsible for me, thinking that she had dragged me into this, which was altogether untrue and her concern unnecessary. When I started siding with Ducky, she relented. Which was how I found myself sitting on Down, alone, trying to keep from shaking.

  “If you want, we can ride together,” said Ducky. Elaine and Joey had already headed to the mines leaving us alone.

  “No, I’m good,” I said, willing myself to believe it.

  “Thought so, you’ll be fine.”

  “You thought so?”

  “You were a little tense yesterday, I thought flying alone would be good for you. And you don’t have to worry, Down is the gentlest creature when she wants to be, and even if you jump off, she’ll catch you before you hit the ground.”

  “Is this the real reason you wanted me to go with you?”

  “Every reason is a real reason,” said Ducky. “It’ll be good for Joey to spend time with Elaine too, he needs to learn how to act around people without me or Espurr or his parents telling him what to do. It doesn’t mean Starmie isn’t a solid escape plan for where they're going.”

  I nodded and buried my fingers deeper into the feathers, softer than any blanket I’d ever had. If it wasn’t so hard to control my body, I might have even begun to enjoy the sensation.

  “If it gets too much, Down will land and we’ll figure things out, okay?”

  “Okay, I’m ready.”

  “Good, then follow me.”

  She climbed onto Crest and took off. Moments later, Down flapped her wings and we flew.