XXVI

Now, I will let it be known right here and now that I am not friends with Theutes Whalki, Guardian of the Fire Palace. This is why.

I was busy over the course of that week, filling my commitments. I came home and had a bit of a private celebration there with my parents. I visited Syoro Yarapren, my schoolteacher, and as I said earlier, he died the next day. So, his funeral took up the morning of that Undine’s Day, and I left that afternoon for Kakkara, with somewhat rushed preparations for my flying visit to Yoshiville.

Theutes was waiting for me at the other end and showed me the way to the Fire Palace, avoiding the fields of quicksand pits filled with Spider Legs monsters. As we walked there and made our way through the twisting corridors of the giant Fire Palace, he came across to me as a jovial, jocular sort of person. How right I would be.

We sat down and had dinner in his dining room. Our conversation drifted to that of my trip to Yamauchi.

“Well,” I said, after swallowing some cockatrice imported all the way from Mandala, “I was in Yoshiville for a few years while I did my Doctorate–”

“But you’re going there to see a real estate agent so that you can live there, yes?” he asked, his exaggerated concern apparent. “Or is it an investment property you’re after?”

“I intend to live there,” I answered. “I mean, I’ll be amongst my own kind.”

“But weren’t you born here?”

“Hatched here, yes,” I corrected him, for the fourth time that evening.

“Well, you ride a happy medium of sorts.”

I quickly swallowed another bite of the cockatrice. “Oh, yes. But, given my experience, I’d prefer to be where I…I feel I have some real roots. My family came from Yoshiville, originally.”

“But all of your friends and your friends’ friends are here.”

“My aunt lives in Yoshiville, though. I boarded with her while I was at university. Besides…I’m the Guardian of the Cyan Arc. All I have to do is keep it with me at all times, day and night. Doesn’t matter where I am.” I gently patted my hip where it sat in its belt and swallowed another bite of cockatrice. “This is good,” I said, pointing to it.

“It is. Have some more,” he urged, and smiled.

That smile is something that makes me shudder to this day.

I nodded and continued. After a little while, my chewing began to slow.

“It does matter where you are, Cyan Arc,” he told me as my eyes began to droop. “It doe–”

Next thing I knew, there was the cry of birds and the definite smell of salt and the feel of wetness. The sun baked down from overhead, and as I looked around me, I noticed that I was on a raft, my company a sign with a piece of now soppy paper with “Ha ha!” written on it.

No, I am not making this up. I had fallen prey to one of Theutes’ more elaborate practical “jokes”. There went my appointment with the real estate agent.

It was a few hours before I made landfall on the little cay of Sea Mare Island, the mythical resting spot of an ancient giant turtle. Fortunately, a little town has been going on the island for some time, so I had some company; unfortunately, they had access to television and knew who I was. And with no possible place to get away from them, I had to enjoy their company and incessant questioning for the next few days; they felt more like months. A supply ship arrived after a little while and I hitched a ride for Tasnica. My time on the island was probably the biggest event there since the Mana Knight, two centuries before.

I immediately checked the Interworldnet as soon as I found a café, and saw that the property had been snapped up. Sighing, I checked out some more properties. “Look at this great buy!” an ad for a house was at the side of one page. It was in Yoshibane, on South Yoshi Island; away from Yoshiville where I wanted to be, but as I read its description and saw all of its features, my Yoshiville dream disappeared. Then, I saw it was an auction. I checked my watches and received a fright by how soon it was going to be. I had to have that house!

I ran to the Cannon Travel agent – alright, I grabbed some Tasnican takeaway along the way – and paid double to be put ahead in the queue. I was blasted to Matango, and paid quadruple to be put ahead in the warp queue. I didn’t care about the Inspection machine, nor Heratu’s Syndrome: I actually ran down the warp pipe.

Lamenting Yamauchi’s lack of Cannon Travel after I awoke, I waited as patiently as I could for the flight to Yoshiville, with a connection to Yoshibane. A few hours later, I landed, boarded the next flight, landed, hopped in a taxi and gave the driver the address.

“You seem to be in an awful hurry, but I don’t know where that is,” he mused, looking in a street directory.

“Neither do I, never been to Yoshibane before,” I answered.

He looked at me as if I was mad. Then he found the street and drove me there. I paid him and got out just as the auction was beginning. Thank the Elementals and thank the Gods and Goddesses I was no later. I won, and that’s where I live today.

Living on Yamauchi away from my duties and family on Fa’Diel does provide occasional discomfort and annoyance. With the way the two orbits of the planets are, holidays on Fa’Diel occur at seemingly random times with each passing year. Sometimes I have a hatchday once every three or four years. Once I missed the anniversary of the flood and for that I’ve never forgiven myself.

However, residing on a different planet does not excuse me from my duties as a Guardian. The Assembly is held at the Mana Tree itself – I remember being in awe the first time my laid my eyes upon it. So, given holidays and Assemblies, I tend to take them as an opportunity to do any business upon Fa’Diel that I need to or want to do, so as to save the effects of travelling through the warp. Whenever I’m there, I stock up on those items the people of Fa’Diel take for granted, like Round Drops, Puipui Grass and particularly Cups of Wishes that the Yamauchians do not have.

It was early in my time as a Guardian that I realised, as Shero had alluded to, that protecting the Cyan Arc had become my occupation. It is not the easiest of jobs to do at times, but it’s not the most exciting. If you want plenty of free time, become a Guardian of a mystical Fa’Dieli weapon. All you have to do ninety-nine percent of the time is to keep it with you.

Given the amount of free time that I now had, and realising that I was now blessed with longevity, I knew that I needed something to do, lest I lose my sanity from the boredom. Time is both a blessing and a curse, when you’re suddenly given many years to live. Knowing this, some other Guardians have created and run businesses on Fa’Diel, while others further their education, and others undertake scientific and magical research.

With the nature of my occupation being that of protection, and my wanderlust, I decided that one of the first time-filling exercises I would undertake was that of furthering my spellcasting. Shero and Lumina had trained me up in many of their spells, but I knew that the powers of Light and Holiness alone could not always save me. So, I turned to Nase (the first thing he did was chide me for falling for Theutes’ “joke”) and trained in the spells of Undine. It was mainly to improve my skill in the Cure Water spell, so that I could heal myself and others should something awful occur, but Nase suggested that I take the whole package since Undine is one of my inherent strengths and train myself in the other Ice and Water spells. I took up residence in the Water Palace for that little while, and the two of us had a great time sharing each other’s company once more.

Once we decided that I was good enough in Undine (but I’ll never be as good as he is), Nase suggested that I give Dryad a try, since one of the spells a Palace Guardian must know is Dryad’s Wall spell, that which deflects magical attacks. So, I journeyed across the water to the coral reefs on the roof of the Lost Continent, where the archaeologists digging out the Underground City reside in the Tree Palace with its Guardian, Arol Jelam, a young Tasnican man. He was happy to take me in for the time I wanted to learn the spells of his Elemental; in my time there, I even was able to meet Dryad Herself, though her shyness got in the way of any conversations.

Trained up in that repertoire of magic spells, I returned to Yoshibane for a while, since I needed to take care of my house and supervise the renovations I wanted done to it. There was some shopping I needed to do on the way there, and as I roamed around through the shops, I noticed a pair of black thongs with sea-green straps that were designed to be “virtually indestructible”. Apart from any formal dealings I may have, that pair is what I wear on my feet.

Back home, and with my renovations in place, I took to seriously writing music for a while. Some of my work has been published on Fa’Diel, since I write for their instruments and I am not entirely familiar with Yamauchian ones. Given the amount of time I have, though, this will probably change.

Another freedom that suddenly appeared as part of my occupation was that of my wanderlust. There is a joy in roaming the land, surviving on what you’ve taken with you or on what you find, and sleeping under the stars. Of course, I could not wander more than my feet could take me, but that would change one day.

I guess part of my wanderlust has always been the faint hope that I would stumble across Ark somewhere. Maybe he was on Yamauchi and could not return home to Fa’Diel, I figured. Though my life had changed with my finding the Cyan Arc, my brother continued to haunt me. Daily prayers for his safety, and many shed tears filled my life. It was for this reason that on my next return to Fa’Diel, I visited the dwarves. It was the journey through the caves to their village that was the first time I threw the Boomerang as a weapon, to put to rest some Blats that were threatening me.

I was able to get in touch with some of the elders, and I enquired after my brother. It was with much sadness that they gave me no reports of him; the caverns south of Kippo were not connected to their own. However, their hospitality cheered me up.

I returned home to my music. As time wore on, transport to and from the Fa’Diel warp was growing more and more hassling very quickly, with Guardian Assemblies and holidays and the like. However, I would have the answer to that after I took the trip I had always wanted to do ever since I first heard about the place.

As soon as a long hiatus in holidays and Assembly dates cropped up, I booked a flight for Toad Town and caught the ferry to Vermillion City, in Kanto. I would have my Pokémon.