On the way back to their tent; Alex looked to a piece of paper. He took it and read what it was written.
“You found something?” Zack asked.
“It’s a challenge; it says: ‘Look beneath the rocks in Ywaru Canyon. A juicier history awaits for those brave enough to seek it. For those valiant challengers: do not let your endurance falter, even in an uphill battle. Numbing death will find you from the walls. Water has long left these time-worn caverns; do not neglect to bring your own. Ancient cobalt regalia from a forgotten era will be your reward. Godspeed to those who risk their lives and goodwill to those who do not’; it also included a map of its location” Alex said.
“Mmm, what do you want to do?” Jack asked.
“I’m going there, alone”
“You sure?” Zack asked.
“Yeah; once in a while, I test my abilities in those kinds of places; it’s something I agreed with Farius when I finished my training with the katanas”
“That’s explains why you weren’t in the base those days” Jack pointed.
“Yep, it’s like a constant trial; something with I can evaluate my strong and weak points”
“Well, you have the opportunity; I was going with Jack, Ryan and the others to talk with Vander about my past with Kapon; you better watch your step; I can imagine that it will be a lot of traps, puzzles and enemies down there; and you have to be really creative of finding your way through them on your own” Zack warned.
“If that is the case, you don’t mind if I accompany you?” Jaina offered.
“I’m not sure, why do you want to come?” Alex asked.
“I want to talk with you about some things in private and you’ll definitely need help there; two heads thinks more than one”
Alex thought for a while and said: “Okay, I let you”
“That settles it; good luck, both of you” Zack said.
“See you later”
Alex picked up his gear and Jaina, her book and the group bag with bandages, medicine and a bottle of water; and headed to the ruins. They took some time to reach the place. They found an entrance at the base of a giant rock formation, but it was sealed by a big rock gate.
“I don’t think we can break it, considering it could have a great thickness” Alex said.
“There has to be a way to open it, we have to look the gate and the surroundings to find the mechanism” Jaina suggested.
They looked for at least five minutes without finding anything. Then, Alex found near the gate a small rock with a strange image. When he tried to pick it, the rock got stuck. He looked more carefully and found that it was a cover of something inside. With his claws, he opened it and saw a lever; he moved it and the gate started to open.
“Now we can get in” He said.
Once inside, Jaina asked Alex: “How is your relationship with Nya?”
That question caught him off guard “G-good, I guess; why that question?”
She smiled. “Because I think it’s something happening between both of you”
“I-I don’t think so; we’re just friends, that’s all”
“From the outside, yes; but in your minds, it’s something else”
“Y-you got the wrong idea, Nya is not interested in what you’re thinking”
“I think she does, as well as you; maybe you didn’t see it, but Nya followed with your eyes when you’re on sight as far as I remember; and her eyes showed the same interest as yours”
“L-let’s keep going”
“Alright, but we’re not done yet”
They reached a big hallway, no enemies inside for the looks of it; only rectangular pillars that didn’t touch the roof and connected by some tables. They moved carefully, watching every step. Then Jaina used Protect, making a bubble for both of them. Arrows clashed with the shield and fell to the ground.
“I guess we found the first traps” Jaina said.
Alex used his aura to determine the location of the holes. “The trap covers the entire hallway; there is also a pit in the middle and spikes before and after of it”
“That means we cannot go through there, unless we want to die”
“There has to be a way to cross it”
Jaina paid attention of the pillars near them and examined. She found some strange holes in one of them. When she looked up, she saw that the disposition was similar to a stair.
“There is a way; we need to climb this pillar and use the tables to get to the other side”
“You need help of climbing this thing?”
“Yes, I don’t think I’m able to do it”
“Okay, hop on my back”
With Jaina on his back, Alex started to climb the pillar. At some parts he lost his grip and almost falls, but he managed to keep his balance. Once they reached the top, Jaina hopped down and they took another look to see if there were more traps.
“I don’t see any traps up here, I think we can move” Alex said.
They moved from one pillar to the other, avoiding the traps on the ground. At the third fourth parts of the way, they heard a wood cracking.
“That doesn’t sound good” Alex said.
“We need to move fast, the tables are going to break” Jaina said.
They crossed the rest of the hallway, while the tables were breaking apart beneath them. When they reached the last pillar, it started to shake. With Jaina on his back again, he descended as fast as he could and jumped to the entrance when it was still half way. They got away and the pillar collapsed. They coughed for the dust and when it settled, just a part of it was covered with rocks.
“*Pant* At least it didn’t block the entrance” Alex said.
“Yeah, *pant* let’s continue” Jaina said.
They reached a big room. The entrance was closed and there were two small pillars near it. They approached to them and saw slots on them.
“We need some kind of keys to open this door” Alex said.
“But there are no other paths and the room is empty” Jaina said.
They looked for any hidden door or any clue on the walls that could help them. After fifteen minutes, they decided to stop and take a break, sitting near one of the pillars.
“This is getting harder” Alex said.
“No kidding; it was a long time since I had a challenge of this class” Jaina mentioned.
“I wonder how big this place is”
“We’ll find out; and that reminds me…”
Alex groaned. “Not again”
“Yes again; Alex you don’t have to deny it; maybe for the rest you could hide it, but not from me, because I took care of Nya and her siblings when she was a child and I know how she behaves; at the start it’s true what you’re saying, but as the time passes, she was getting attached to you”
“Why me? It’s not like I’m an interesting guy and she has a responsibility”
“Because you were the only one who make her out from her shell”
“What do you mean?”
“Your journey to destroy the artifact, taking the responsibility of you and your teammates, the missions you did together, all of it was started to make her feel alive again”
“Alive? I don’t get it”
“When she made the oath of the sorceress, she devoted herself to not be distracted by anything and anyone, concentrating in the sole purpose of following her destiny and because of that, she was turning into a emotionless Pokémon, losing her identity; …and that hurted me; the happy little girl I raised was disappearing; I tried to reason with her, take her to other places when she was free, but it was no use; she simply let her inner fire die out; I didn’t know what to do”
“I… I didn’t know that… I thought she was doing her job, not that she…” He stopped.
She took a moment of silence before continue. “But you came, with two of the most wanted bandits of the entire country; she didn’t believe that they were helping you when she caught and interrogated the three of you; you managed to convince her to let them be with you, with the condition of letting her and her teammates join you”
“I still remember it; she was so tensed the first days; she was waiting that something bad happens”
“Even with that, she put faith in your decision”
“Yeah”
“You travelled all over the kingdom and beyond, helping Rexxar to recover his legitimate crown; pulling crazy plans to take out criminal bosses like Kapon from the towns they’re controlling in the neighbor nations, inciting rebellions against them; rescuing people; all of it and more in nine months that took you destroy the artifact; when you got back, she told me that she never expected to experience so many things and you were the first Pokémon she ever cared outside from her family; the reason I’m telling you this is because for her, you’re really special; and you feel the same thing to her”
“*Sigh* Well, you got me”
She placed a paw on his right shoulder. “You don’t know how happy I was to see her smiling again, to have new friends, to live; you broke the shell of her sense of duty; I never said it to you, but… thank you, for getting her back” And she hugged him with some tears on her eyes.
He hugged her back “I’m glad I did it; I never know that part of her life; I just blindly assumed that she was like that for her training or something like that”
Both of them returned to their places. “Because she never realized it; when I left the country three years ago, she knew it not long ago, but she didn’t want to talk about it; she didn’t get over it and it’s still hurting her”
‘With all she gone through, I can understand it; if the opportunity presents, I’ll talk to her’ He thought.
“Well, let’s keep searching; there has to be a way to open this thing”
Alex was about to stand up, when he saw pictograms in both of the pillars. He didn’t understand what they were meaning.
“Jaina, do you know what this means?”
She looked closely to them. “Yeah, it’s written in an ancient language; let me see…; …; …; if I’m not mistaken, it says: ‘To open this door, the pillars must be awoken before the gems are in place’”
“Pillars must be awoken” Alex examined the pillars. He started to knock the pictograms to see if there is an irregularity on them. One of them sounded hollow. He pressed it and a hidden passage on the left appeared.
“The keys must be in those hidden rooms” Then she did the same thing as Alex in the other pillar and opened the other passage.
“Now we have to retrieve them”
“Let’s be careful from here on, I have the feeling that we’ll have to fight for them”
“Your suspicion is correct, I feel some Pokémon up ahead and I don’t think they’ll give us a happy welcome”
They took the first one that opened. Relying on the aura, Alex scanned for any other traps. So far, nothing; but what he worries him is that some of them just disappeared from his detection. A strange sound made them stop. Alex pulled out his Katanas and charged them with electricity and Jaina hardened her tail. In an instant, they repelled a group of five Durants falling to them, but there were much more to come. They attacked using Flash cannon, forcing them to dodge and hold their position. Alex charged and launched Aura spheres, while Jaina made an ark with her paw, making appear a lot of black spheres while she was chanting a spell with her book; then she launched Dark pulses in the direction of the Durants. A great part of them fainted, while the rest fled to their tunnels. Both of them panted from the exhaustion.
“I *Pant* lost the count*Pant* of how many we defeated” Alex said.
“*Pant* we better take the key now, before *Pant* they come back in greater numbers” Jaina suggested.
At the end of the corridor, they found a pedestal with a white gem on it; Alex took it and brought it back to the room and placing it in its pillar. Once in the slot; the hidden passage closed.
“At least we don’t have to worry about them” Alex said.
They took the other path; no enemies and traps on this one, but that made them more nervous. They reach a small room that appeared to be an arena. There were more pictograms on the roof.
“It says: ‘the test of strength will determine if you’re worthy of receiving the gem, fight well warriors’” Jaina translated.
“Why it won’t surprise me?” Alex asked to himself.
A big Rampardos appeared from the ground and roared to them. It used Dig to get beneath the surface. With his aura, Alex could predict its movements. When he was about to reach them, they got out from there. Once the Rampardos was out, Alex used Aura sphere on it. The hit let it stunned and Jaina took the chance and hit it with Iron tail. When it recovered, it launched against her, using Demolition. She used Protect and held the Rampardos at bay, but the constant hits were breaking the protection. Alex used Extreme speed with the katanas to distract the Rampardos, while Jaina got away; but by doing that, it hit him, launching him to the wall. He crashed and fell to the ground. ‘Okay, that was a bad idea’ Alex thought in the middle of the pain.
“Alex!” Jaina screamed.
“I’m fine; I can still move” He said with difficulty, while he was standing up.
The Rampardos launched a Flamethrower against Alex, but Jaina positioned in front of him and used Protect once again.
“Alex, we need to end this fight” Jaina said.
“I got it” Alex said.
He used Psychic and grabbed the Rampardos. Then he made him crash with the walls and attracted to them. Jaina chanted another spell and with her front paws covered in a pink energy; she used Play rough, knocking out the Rampardos. She looked back to Alex.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I think” He answered
“Just in case, let me check”
With another spell, she examined Alex if he has some broken bones or an internal hemorrhage.
“At least everything is alright; that hit you took scared me” She said.
“You’re not the only one, I can assure you that” He looked to the Rampardos. “There is a bag hanging in one of its horns”
Jaina approached to it and took the bag. She went back to Alex and opened. There was a blue gem inside.
“Now we have the other key” Alex said.
“Do you want to rest?” Jaina asked.
“Not near the Rampardos”
They went back to the main room and took another break. Then, Alex put the blue gem in the other pillar. The hidden passage of the Rampardos was sealed and the door in front opened.
After a while, they reached a circular cavern with a pool of water in the center, six statues of bisharps with steel on their heads and arms near the walls, five pedestals of different heights surrounding it and one clay pot. It was a dead end.
“This is odd; the paper said the water was long gone, but it’s a pool filled with it” Alex pointed.
“If I remember well a few things from the other ruins, this water cannot be used; it’s forbidden” Jaina explained.
“You think is sacred or cursed?”
“Possible, in both cases, those who picked without permission, never got out alive”
“Good thing we brought our own; I don’t see any pictograms in here”
“Let’s check the room, just in case”
They looked in all the room to find what they’re going to do for this puzzle. After some minutes of wandering, they stopped.
“Okay, now I’m lost; how are going to solve this thing?” Alex asked.
“I’m not really sure; we have no clues for this one; the only thing I can think is put the water in the clay pot and place it in one of the pedestals” Jaina said and filled with the water the clay pot.
“I thought of that, too; but why five of them? And why they have different heights?”
“You’re right; there has to be a trick”
“We’ll take the risk?”
“I see no other option for now; let’s place it in the tallest first”
Once the clay pot was placed, the pedestal started to shine. Then the statues started to move and surrounded them. Alex and Jaina prepared for combat.
“I thought I was done with moving statues” Alex commented.
“How many times have you encountered them?” Jaina asked.
“Three; all of them with Farius when we were exploring similar abandoned temples; he was also getting sick of them”
“Next time, give him a list of the ancient temples and ruins he don’t have to visit; his interest of the past is going to bury him”
“That was a joke?”
“Mmmmaaayybbbeeeee”
“Aha”
One of the statues attacked them, using Slash. Alex blocked the hit and counterattacked with only his katanas. He managed to cut one arm, but two of the statues began the assault, using Metal claw with the blades on the arms. He rolled back and blocked the incoming attacks. Meanwhile, Jaina kept her distance from the other three and attacked them with Dark pulses. Two of them fell while the other resisted. She charged at it and cut the statue in half with enhanced Iron tail with an enchantment. Alex took out one of the two attackers and retreated to Jaina’s position. Excluding the statue without an arm, all the others clashed their arms, using Metal sound. Alex and Jaina covered their ears.
“Ah, mierda!” Alex said.
With their paws still in their ears, the statues moved again to attack. Jaina made another protection to hold them off. With the four statues attacking, the protection weakened faster. Alex kept his katanas and when they broke the shield, he went ahead, grabbed one of them and threw it to the others. All of them fell. Not wanting them to recover, Alex and Jaina finished them.
“Welp, that wasn’t the pedestal” Alex said.
“Yeah; by the way, it’s been a long time since you spoke hinolish and a lot more you used insults” Jaina commented.
“Had to happen sometime”
“You still remember it?”
“¿Cómo que no lo voy a recordar? Yo me crié con el” He used his native language.
“Good; I thought with all the time you were using our language, you lost the other”
“It’s like the combat techniques; it’s only a matter to remember them”
“That’s right”
“We’ll try another one?”
“Let’s place it in that one”
Jaina placed the clay pot in the third biggest and like the previous; it started to glow. Then from the ground, yellow spots started to appear and launched Flamethrowers. They had to run in all the directions, just to avoid them. When Jaina jumped crossing the pool, she saw pictograms at the bottom of it with the light of the fires. She jumped four more times to make sure she remembers what it was seeing. Once the flamethrowers were gone, after three infernal minutes, they sat to catch some air.
“Alex, I saw pictograms at the bottom of the pool” Jaina said.
“You did? What it says?” Alex asked.
“’You have to give the water to who needs it most and he’ll show you the way’”
Alex looked carefully the pedestals and analyzed the attacks. The tallest of them awoke the statues that were the most difficult challenge; then it was the flamethrowers with the third biggest and there were evadable.
“I think I have an idea of how to solve this puzzle” Alex said.
“What do you have in mind?” Jaina asked.
“The tallest pedestal made those statues to attack us and they were really problematic; then, with the other pedestal we were in trouble but it was easier”
“Okay, but what does that mean?”
“The tallest pedestal is the strongest of them, the other is regular, so that means…”
“The smallest pedestal is the one that we need to place the clay pot, because it represents the weakest”
“Exactly”
Alex took out the clay pot and placed it in the smallest. It began to shine and opened a hidden passage in front of them. They passed through it and arrived to some kind of storage. It has a closet, three furniture with drawers and ledges with books.
“Do you sense anything?” Jaina asked.
“Nothing; no hostiles and traps; I guess we made it” Alex said.
“Just half of the way; we have to cross it all the way back to exit the ruins; then we can say we made it”
“*Sigh* No es broma; and the worst thing, you’re right”
“For now, let’s see what we can find”
Jaina picked some of the books and read them. For what she was able to translate, it contains history of some ancient legends and civilizations. She decided to take note of them in her book, just in case the past wanted to show up in their time. In the meantime, Alex looked into the closet and found a coat with a strange symbol on them.
“Jaina, do you know what this could be?” Alex asked, showing the coat.
“Mmm, in this book says this was a temple for the legendary Pokémon Azelf; that’s the reason of that symbol” She answered.
“Like the few ones we still have for other legendary Pokemon?”
“Correct; all the people who lived here must had to wear clothes with the same design in sign of adoration”
“But if that is the case, where are their rooms? I cannot imagine this is all of it”
“It’s possible that they are well hidden; just seeing the hidden entrances we had to open, I don’t think they want anyone else to disturb them; in this part mentions the challenge we’re doing now”
“What?”
“It was a rite of entry; this room is where their sages waited for the chosen ones; the trials were a little more aggressive than we had to face and there were more of them; if one of the chosen managed to pass, the sages included it in their inner circle”
“So this is what is left for them”
“That’s right”
“Now I wonder who knows of this place, because I think the paper I found were intentionally dropped to us”
“Let’s hope whoever it was, it did it with good intentions”
“Well, do you want it?”
“Mmm, okay”
Alex put the coat on her and buttoned the two buttons of the neck.
“It feels good, I guess this was for a four leg Pokémon of my size” Jaina said.
“I’ll take a look on the furniture and then we can get out” Alex said.
The first two of them contained only dust and rusty tools. In the third one, he found two sword handlers and a necklace with a medallion of the same symbol of Azelf and put them in his vest’s pockets. After Jaina finished with the books, they headed back. They passed through the room of the pool and the keys without problems; but when they reached the hallway, with the traps dismantled due the shaking, they had to evade Energy balls coming at them. They saw a lot of Durants, blocking the way; more of them appeared from the ground behind of Alex and Jaina.
“We’re trapped!” Alex shouted.
“We’re not going to be able to take all of them out; they’ll finish us in a matter of seconds” Jaina said.
“Diablos, we were so close”
They took battle stances with Alex facing the exit and Jaina, the entrance. She used Protection once more and the nearest Durants hit it with X-scissors and the rest with Flash cannons and Energy balls. When they destroyed the protection and were about to reach the team, columns of fire appeared, taking out all the incoming Durants and dispersing the rest in confusion. Then Alex and Jaina saw Flamethrowers coming from the pillar they climbed. For the distance they couldn’t identify who was helping them, but with the distraction and support it provided, they were able to defeat the Durants.
When the fight was over, the stranger descended and they approached to the Pokemon who saved them. It was wearing a grey coat, covering the head and the body. Alex felt a familiar presence in the stranger.
“Thanks for the help” Jaina said.
No response.
“Uh… who are you?” Alex asked. “Your aura is similar to a friend I know”
The stranger ran to the exit. Alex and Jaina looked to each other and ran too, trying to follow it; but when they got out from the ruins, it simply disappeared. They looked around to check for any tracks, but there were none. They decided to head back to the camp, but in less than ten steps, the stranger jumped from his hiding at the top of the entrance, headed to them running and surrounded Jaina with its arms so fast that Alex and Jaina only managed to look at it. Both of them went cold. Slowly, Jaina took out the cover of the head and saw the face of a braixen with turquoise eyes and longer fur on the head and the ears. Her eyes covered with tears.
“N-Nya?” Jaina asked.
“Aunt Jenny, it’s been so long” Nya answered with a smile and tears in her eyes.
They hugged to each other while they were crying. Alex smiled and decided to stand back; for him, the mission of the Shadow foxes finished with a happy ending. After a while they looked at each other while their paws were still holding the other’s arms.
“I missed you so much” Nya said.
“There wasn’t a day I didn’t thought about you; I never expected you to come here” Jaina said.
“It was a little surprise I had in mind”
“And now you have long fur on your head and your ears?”
“Many things can happen in three years; as you see I have it tied up on the back and the ears”
“Yeah, and it’s the same in two months” Jaina said and looked to Alex.
Nya looked to him and stood up. Alex approached to her.
“Farius and Max told us you were on a mission, but they didn’t know where; I never imagined you travelling to this place” Alex said.
“Actually, they knew it; I asked them to not tell you about my destination; so if by chance you contact them, they’ll keep that information from you” Nya explained.
“Heh, fair enough; it’s good to see you again”
She hugged Alex and he did the same.
“Thank you; for finding her” Nya said.
“We promised you that we’ll find Jaina no matter what” Alex said.
“I know; and I’m grateful for that”
They stood in front of each other.
“Now you’re a little taller than me; and you don’t have spikes? That means you learned Psychic naturally” She deduced.
“Sep, Zack taught me the basics; it helped me a lot” Alex said.
“I heard he evolved, too; against a criminal group”
“He had a score to settle with them; he really wanted them to suffer this time”
“But he’s okay now?”
“Yes; he finished what he started and moved on with his life”
“Good to hear it”
“Oh, that reminds me”
Alex pulled out the necklace from the pocket.
“I found it at that ruins and… well… em…” He said a little embarrassed.
“Oh… thanks” Nya said and started to blush.
Alex helped her in putting the necklace. ‘What did I said to you, Alex? You can’t deny it’ Jaina thought while she was smiling.
“It looks pretty on you” Jaina recognized
“Thanks” Nya said.
“We should get back to the camp; it’s getting late now and I’m a little tired of all the action” Alex suggested.
“Me too, the trip from Tabira to Ywaru Canyon was longer than I expected”
“Then let’s go; I want to see the faces of Zack and Jack when they’ll see you” Jaina said.
“By the way Alex, I talked to a fortune teller when I was in Tabira looking for you; she said that someone will be joining your team on the way”
“Her name is Curry?” Alex asked.
“Yes”
“Okay” ‘Bueno, who of the three will be officially in the tabiran team?’ He thought.
