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

Chapter 5

SARAH

 

            Manectric kept a slow, leisurely pace so as to stay with the group of travelers.  Sarah Spark hated slow and steady.  The escort back home to Mauville City consisted mainly of her father, Marcus, who was always talking with Prince Chris and his companions, all astride on Doduo, about the wonders of Mauville.  Prince Chris, however, seemed to take more delight with his two friends, the guard-in-training and the fisherman’s kid. 

            Sarah often wandered ahead, and King Spark often sent a couple of Mauville Guards to attend her.  For her safety, he had said.  Sarah and her Manectric reluctantly agreed. 

            “They’re safer with me than I am with them,” she said of her royal guard to her Spirit Pokémon under her breath. 

            The young Princess of Mauville sat sure of herself on Manectric, her hands free of any reigns and instead she held her bow.  She had had it since she turned thirteen, four years ago.  Her father had commissioned new bows to be made every now and then, but Sarah would never part with it. 

            Where most girls in Hoenn would learn how to curtsy and appear pretty for the men of court, Sarah spend time at the archery ranges with Manectric.  Strong-willed Princess Spark occasionally glanced back at her father along the winding trails and bridges that connected Slateport and Mauville directly. 

            The sky was as blue as Prince Chris Marsh’s eyes, which despite the spirited conversation her father was apparently having with him seemed to be glaring deep into Sarah every time she checked.

            Sarah was a princess, she had seen looks of admiration and hope to catch her eye before.  No, this fish-boy is judging me.  His Spirit Pokémon was no less fishy, always stopping to jump into a stream and swim whenever the opportunity presented itself.

            “Don’t bother to look, girl,” she said to her Manectric.  “There will be plenty of time to look at him, if what my father wants comes to pass.”  At first, she abhorred the idea of getting married on her father’s whim.  When she did her studies, however, her love of her own kingdom, tribal Chiefs, and people led her to consider her father’s offer.  There was no more valuable ally than Slateport, even after the Great War.  It was Slateport and the support that the Great Family Marsh could bring her people she was marrying, Prince Chris was just a means to the end.

            Manectric gave out a little growl, as if she was talking back to her Spirit Human.  Sarah chuckled, she understood in her gut.  “There will be no problem as long as he leaves me alone to do what I want.”

            She looked back at her potential husband to be.  This time, he was badgering his serious friend, the guard in training.  He and his other friend were laughing making jests with one another.  She noticed how the three Spirit Pokémon seemed just as fast as friends as their partners.  Marrill, Marshtomp, and Wingull, though never far from their partners, had a special friendship of their own. 

            Sarah studied the bright white smile and tanned skin of Prince Chris Marsh.  Why couldn’t he wear traveling clothes?  Show off.  The Prince of Slateport was wearing traditional Slateport gear, tight aquatic shorts, with leather straps that held a short metal sword with a sea shell encrusted handle.  A strap that crossed diagonally from his fiercely toned chest and belly held in place a long spear with a wicked, jagged harpoon head on the end.  The blue cloth he would have draped across his body was tied about one of the Doduo’s heads as if it was a scarf.