The League
Story by UmiTheUmbreon on SoFurry
#27 of Cassidy's Journey
A month had gone by since Cassidy received her final badge; she'd taken that time to train each of her pokémon to the greatest extent and hosted sparring sessions now and again.
Today was when Cassidy would finally travel to the Pokémon League and test her team against the Elite Four at eighteen.
She was in her room looking for an outfit to wear while strong sunlight flared and permeated its walls. Cassidy ended up choosing the getup she'd worn when fighting Shalour's gym.
Fenny and Garna sat at the dining room table while she prepared.
'Do you feel ready this time around?' Garna asked.
'More than last time. I mean, I'm still nervous... but I think I have a better chance,' Fenny replied while leaning back against the chair.
'Tea? It may help,' Garna offered.
'Eh, sure, I'll try it.' He watched Garna set her mug down and get up to prepare the same drink for him.
He waited a few minutes before Garna returned and set a mug in front of him.
'It's wacan. One of our sweetest.'
'Thank you.' Fenny sniffed the hot steam rising from the drink.
'Tell me what you think.' Garna sat across from him.
He blew it and let the flavor sit before taking a few sips. 'Okay, so I do like it.'
'More than your coffee?' Garna smirked subtly.
'Well…'
'I'm kidding, dear. You won't offend me. Anywho, how's your relationship with Cassidy?' She held her hands and rested them on the table.
'She keeps me motivated, and I think I do the same for her… and it wouldn't be without you.'
Garna placed her palm over her chest and eyed him with a faint flush on her cheeks.
'Can I hug you?'
'Of course.'
So, Fenny left his chair, went to her, and embraced her; she did the same. It was mutually heartfelt, full of warmth and gratification. He held it for several moments before letting go and standing back.
'That's what friends are for, correct?' Garna grinned, as did Fenny.
Cassidy exited her room, with all four of her pokémon eyeing her from where they'd been waiting. Añu was on the couch snacking on a puff, and Violet sat on his pokébed while grooming her paws, running her foreleg over her ear. She stopped with that paw raised to devote attention to her trainer.
"This is our last and most substantial battle. It is what we've worked toward, and you all deserve it so much. I would be nowhere without you four; I don't doubt any of you because I know you are all ready for it…" her voice drifted.
'If anyone is ready, it's you, Cassidy.'
Cassidy squinted and raised her hand, pressing her index and middle finger to her temple. She looked ahead with her eyes dilated a fraction. That hadn't sounded like Fenny. She smiled while wiping her glossy eyes.
Garna had been by Cassidy's side before her parents passed, playing a major role in Cassidy finding her passion as a pre-teen and when she first delved into battling. Cassidy hadn't heard her voice in so long.
Because of the ditch she had been in while tunneled on gyms, she hadn't revisited it. It was something she felt awful about, just as she had when neglecting Fenny. It seemed the telepathic knot hadn't died after being tied.
Thirty minutes later, under a gentle afternoon sun, Cassidy was on her way after having stopped at the Center's Poké Mart to buy potions and max revives for Victory Road. She strolled down Route 21, nearing the trial. She tried enjoying its fertile grass and trees rustling against the wind while sauntering the dirt trail.
Fenny lagged, which she eventually looked behind her at.
"Sorry. I am just preparing." Cassidy slowed to walk beside him.
'I figured. Do you feel okay?'
"I'm grateful I have this chance. I couldn't imagine being here as ready as I feel without you."
'I just helped you see what you needed.'
Cassidy stuck her hand out beside her.
They held hand and paw while exiting the route, approaching what would be a tough road to the League.
"Victory Road's prologue," Cassidy said. Before she and Fenny was an old, tall gray building with a wide entrance with flights of stairs inside.
She entered and eyed the tiled, outdated stone floor and walls with carved-out panes for windows. Bright sunlight shone through their holes and illuminated the interior.
'I guess they never remodeled…' Fenny walked up the steps while looking around and nearly bumped into Cassidy after reaching the top. 'How old is this place?'
She was turned right, staring ahead at a lengthy dark corridor adorned with colorful hanging banners on the walls displaying all eight badges one had to earn in Kalos. A purple-haired male trainer dressed in black blocked her path, who Cassidy approached.
"Welcome. This gate is the entrance to Victory Road. Only Pokémon trainers who've collected all eight badges may pass! May I see yours?"
Cassidy unzipped her pouch and pushed aside her packed waters and supplies. She took her case out and opened it to present her collection to him. She'd polished her badges last week, so they glinted.
He scanned them and nodded once. "Hm, you seem to have all eight! You may go. Good luck to you." He stepped aside.
"Ta (Thanks)." She closed and slipped her case back into her bag, ambling down the dim hallway with Fenny, their footsteps rebounding off the walls.
Cassidy saw a large door made of stone ahead; the closer they got, she could make out the imprint of a large pokéball carved at the top of the door. Under it, in two vertical rows, were all eight gym badges.
'What's that?' Several feet before the door was a circle emitting bright white light on the floor.
"I am guessing I have to stand on it." Cassidy did after they arrived at the end of the corridor, and a vibrant glow faded in on each badge to its corresponding color, one by one.
'I think it's reading your badges.' Fenny grinned and stepped beside her to watch.
After all badges were aglow for several moments, the pokéball at the top spun, and the door opened to a pitch-black room. A deep rumble echoed; emerging from the darkness was a long flight of stairs building themselves up to Victory Road's path, granting access. She took a silent, deep breath, then glanced at him. "Ready?"
Fenny nodded. 'Kinda… You?'
She started forward. "Think so." A cloudless, pristine blue sky was above, which she watched while standing before the stairs, then climbed them with Fenny behind.
Greeting them at the top of the flight was Victory Road's outset. Before them lay grassy terrain, full trees and bushes with flowers off to both sides, and multiple stone stairs leading to a dark cavern entrance.
Fenny followed her up the steps while doing the same.
Cassidy stood at the top of the steps while gentle breezes rushed past, eyeing the huge cave's entrance encompassed by a rocky mountain ahead. She saw its bulky walls flickering, lighted by fire. "Do you want t–"
'I want to walk with you.' Fenny completed.
Cassidy's lips curled into a subtle grin. She looked at him. "Bien."
Without dithering, they entered the cave with two torches on both sides of them placed in holders on the walls and two more far ahead.
"I should have bought some repel."
'I'll be your repel. No charge.'
"Heh, I know." She shivered while traversing the empty cavern. The environment was chilly and silent, but it wasn't Snowbelle, so she wasn't complaining. If it weren't for the occasional torches, it would be pitch black as well. The air was moist, stale, and smelled of the earth.
Fenny stuck by her and would watch for any wild pokémon during their walk. He took a left at the end of the rocky corridor in around a minute, leading to another. 'Reminds me of the woods we went through, except darker... and colder.'
"At least it is not a maze."
A few miles in, after passing another trainer and taking a sharp left, they saw an exit.
'That can't be the end…' Fenny stared a mile ahead at harsh, direct sunlight breaking through the cavern's entrance.
"Not even close, but it'll be a break." Cassidy walked at a brisker pace toward the exit keeping two more torches. It was a break she needed after the ensuing claustrophobia of being encompassed by such narrow paths.
Greeting them outside was sun, grassland, and stone walls scattered across it from old ruins.
'I think we're elevated,' Fenny said as they walked, passing a teen girl sitting in the grass and eating a sandwich with her raichu. She had an open backpack beside her.
When they reached a stone bridge built over a running waterfall's flowing stream leading to a lake almost a hundred feet below, that was confirmed.
Cassidy stepped onto it and walked to the center, leaning over its edge and gazing south while the ambiant waterfall ran behind them and showered them in light mist.
The bridge commanded a prospect of a long grassy field far below that spanned miles. To the far west was an ocean that met it. The sun brought it a vivid touch, layering the verdant stretch in rich warmth.
Fenny stood beside her, his tail swaying. 'This is the best view I've seen.' He sniffed the fresh, faint watery mist in the air.
Sunshine drowned the field that had to host nothing but the most perfect sunsets; the waterfall complemented it.
'It's like a canvas. Imagine walking it.'
"It's nice." She gazed at the unmarred land and saw the occasional flock of wingull fly across the sky in the distance.
Cassidy stood with him for several minutes to take in the sun's rays and let Fenny admire the field, but they had somewhere. Even the trainer they'd passed back in the caves had passed them. "We've gotta get going."
'Right.' Once off the bridge, Fenny kept his eyes on the view over the cliff's edge.
"Back into the caves." Cassidy saw its uninviting entrance ahead.
'Can't be worse than the last one.'
They traveled down the vacant path toward the next trial, taking in what refreshing air they could before reaching the cavern in minutes.
She entered without stopping this time, thrust into the familiar stale, cool air, although they were forced to halt upon walking past its torches. "...Want to repeat that?"
The ground ended just ahead, replaced with many gapped, thin, tall rock platforms extending to the far left and right. One had to hop across them to get to the other side of the cavern, which required balance and careful judgment. One slip-up would result in a long fall onto solid ground.
'I was trying to be positive…' He eyed the obstacle course in front of them and saw the other trainer over halfway across.
"Follow me." Cassidy approached the edge, held her breath, primed herself, then hopped across and landed on the first rounded platform with her boots beside each other.
She did the same for the next, her body edging to the right upon landing. Cassidy tried her best not to, but she looked at the consuming darkness below before back at Fenny. "Your go."
Fenny approached next and looked down at the potential fall.
"Keep your eyes on me and where you want to land."
He judged the distance before hopping to the rock on Cassidy's left. He resisted the strong urge to look down and stared at her instead.
"It wouldn't hurt to up our pace." She looked ahead and counted fourteen more platforms until they'd reach the other side. Without much judgment, she hopped to the next, then turned and watched Fenny again.
His eyes were upon the next rock at first but started to shift below again.
"Hey."
Fenny looked back up, his breaths tight.
Cassidy pointed to her eyes. "Ici (Here)."
He swallowed, crouching and looking at the platform before jumping the distance. Fenny gasped as his hind paw slipped upon landing, but it wasn't noticeable, especially in such dim lighting.
With caution and a few semi-questionable landings from both, they successfully made their way across the abyss in around ten minutes.
"Last one." The platform was farther from the cavern floor than the others. She ground her boots, bent her knees, and jumped with a huff, landing on the other side and catching her balance with another step forward. Cassidy turned.
Fenny inhaled, held it, and hopped forward sloppier than intended as his paw had slipped off the platform. He landed on the ground but on its edge. His heels hung off. "Braii!" Fenny couldn't catch his balance, resulting in him slowly falling backward. 'C-Cassi–' he reached for the air with wide eyes.
He stopped abruptly.
Cassidy stood at the edge of the terrain, leaned over with a firm grip on his arm, and pulled him upright with a soft grunt.
He caught his stammered breath shortly and looked back at what would have been a nasty fall. 'Th-Thank you,' Fenny said.
Cassidy broke a grin. "You okay?"
He nodded, glancing back once more.
She released his arm and turned to a flight of stairs ahead. "Good. We are not through yet."
