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

Chapter 17

SARAH

 

            It was a sad night that evening.  A silent night.  The funeral pyres burned in the palace’s courtyard, all fifty of the Mauville city watch that had died protecting the walls.  The Brightflames have taken these men.  Even in our victory the fires consume their bodies.  Tradition is tradition, but we should have buried these men.  She didn’t know the name of each and every man who had died that day, but she remembered some of them by face. 

            Manectric sat sadly at her side in stark contrast to her father’s Manectric, who stared straight into the fires unblinking.  Princess Sarah Spark watched King Marcus walk to each and every burning corpse.  Each particular soldier had family present- mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, cousins, and friends- and her father knew each of the soldier’s names.  I hope he doesn’t have to do this for me should I fail in my mission.

            Volbeat and Illumise buzzed through the sky, their tails glittering in the crescent-moonlight almost as if they were the bright spirits of the brave men ascending to join the countless others in the night sky. As she gazed at the stars that shone through the smoke, she wondered if any of them now belonged to Lily, her future husband’s little sister.  Life is so fragile.

 She inhaled a deep breath.  This could be the last night she ever saw the bug-Pokémon do their dance of love in the night sky over her home.  Tonight, she was going with Apollo Love to rescue Swampert.

            She wasn’t scared, Sarah Spark was never scared.  She had all the copper-tipped arrows she could ever want, as well as a newly-smelted lightweight suit of armor that fit her slim young woman’s body perfectly.  She wore it under a plan cloak that was the color of rock and dirt, so as to blend in with Mt. Chimney Kingdom’s terrain. 

            She looked over in the far corner of the courtyard.  Apart from the other fires of Mauville’s soldiers, she knew that Chris had brought the body of Ryan to be burned this night as well.  Hector’s head was hung in silence and sadness, Wingull perched on his shoulder.

            “He died a soldier’s death,” Chris said without looking at her as she approached.  “He protected the innocent, and defended his king.  He deserves a soldier’s rights tonight.”

            Ryan’s body was pale and seemingly smaller now that the life had gone out from him.  His funeral pyre was built by hand by Chris himself, not on a raised stone platform like the other soldiers. He looked like a sleeping child to Sarah.  Manectric circled over to the other side of the crude pile of sticks that were aflame. Manectric bowed its head at the round shape wrapped in linens.

            Marrill, she knew.  The Pokémon felt just as people did, and possibly worse. 

            Chris smiled and continued talking, no tears in his eye.  “Do you remember, Hector, when Ryan Bonded with Marrill?”

            Hector wiped a tear away.  “I remember what he told me.”

            Sarah stood silently and respectfully, listening. 

            “He was twelve.  Ryan was even big and strong for his age back then.  He found a little Azurill backed into a corner with two Carvanha.  Nasty fish, a school of them can skin a man to the bone.

            “I was with him when Swampert was still Mudkip.  I told him not to jump in to protect Azurill. If he really cared about the Pokémon, Mudkip would try its best to defend the little blue thing.  He didn’t listen.  He took my spear and jumped in, skewered the one Carvanha while the other one swam out to sea.  Nasty fish to eat, too.”