Fiery Lands and Stormy Seas (Pokemon Watty Award Winner 2014)

Chapter 4

CARSON

 

            Prince Carson Brightflame awoke to the warm breeze that drifted in through the window of his high tower where he slept.  Today was the day he finally got to become a man, his father, the King of Mt. Chimney Kingdom, had said. 

            Carson slipped on the tight leather clothes and gloves his older brother had bought him down at the market.  The ten-year-old Prince looked out of his stone tower window on Lavaridge Town below.  The morning sun had not yet swept over the volcano’s steep slope, but the town was already bustling with morning workers. 

            Carson was looking out at the vast blue sky towards the south, thankful that the Brightflame’s castle rested on this side of Mt. Chimney, the immense Volcano of the Hoenn region.  His brother Prince Brandon said the northern side of the mountain was covered in ash for leagues upon leagues stretching far into the unknown northern sea. He heard a little cheeping voice on the balcony, and smiled as he greeted his Spirit Pokémon who liked to sleep outside his tower room. 

            Torchic was a small, cute, and orange Fire type Pokémon that had hatched almost at the same time Carson was born.  “Let’s go, Pyro,” he said excitedly as he tickled the little Pokémon under the wing.  “Father will be waiting for us! We get to hear of his great plans!”

            Together, they excitedly bounded down the winding stairs of the tower made of thick black stone. When they reached the bottom, Carson proudly picked up Torchic and set the little Pokémon on his shoulder.  They crossed the courtyard made of the same black stone as the youngest Prince of the Mt. Chimney Kingdom gazed up in awe at the towering volcano smoking heavily today. 

            Carson smiled and waved at all he passed.  All the men of his father’s court were friendly towards him and Torchic.  He could sit for hours in the blacksmiths’ forges watching them create the swords that Lavaridge town was famous for.  Carson and Torchic would watch in awe as they hammered away with their hardened arms and create beautiful, yet strong and deadly weapons. 

            Carson finally arrived at his father’s chambers, this was where he was summoned to meet today.  “I wish mother was here to see me today,” he told his little Spirit Partner.  Carson’s mother was from the Sand family of the Mirage Desert.  Sadly, she had died in a sudden sickness after a vacation to meteor falls when Torchic’s egg had just hatched.  She would have loved to see how big and strong Carson was now that he was ten and learning to be a man.

            He walked in proudly, for this was the highest of councils in all of Mt. Chimney, and only three other men were there in the room with young Carson.  The first man flashed an approving smile at the boy.  Carson smiled back at his older brother, Brandon Brightflame, a man of twenty five years.  Torchic went to stand attentively at Brandon’s sprit partner, Combusken’s, side. 

            The second man Carson had never known to smile in his entire life.  This man was named Miguel Starfall, and he was about ten to fifteen years older than Carson’s brother.  His large blue Salamence, a Dragon-type Pokémon lay lazily in the shadows beyond the light coming in the window.  Miguel Starfall was the Chief of Meteor Falls, the giant mountain with a magnificent waterfall and city carved inside the walls of the cavern itself.  Chief Starfall was his father, the King’s, closest advisor and general over the military. 

            The final man in pitch black armor stood up and clapped his hands once in approval, a Blaziken stood arms crossed behind him.  “My son! A fine day indeed to join in our discussions.  Sit, observe, and listen for one day you will be in the same position as Chief Starfall over our grand armies.” Carlos Brightflame was as muscular as the blacksmiths that worked in the forges, yet his short beard was streaked with grey and his head was bald, save for the black stone crown of rock fashioned from the lavas of Mt. Chimney itself.