“I came as soon as I heard.”
Blaine perked up. That was a voice he had not heard for some time. But what good was it to hear it now? He shook his head and continued to sit with his legs crossed.
“Have you had anything to eat? Perhaps I could brew us some Celadon tea,” Iroh said. He knelt down beside the gym leader. He wanted to reach out and comfort the man but he knew it wasn’t time yet.
“Go away. How can you come to me now, when everything is gone?” Blaine growled. “If you had come two weeks ago this wouldn’t have even happened.”
“Blaine. What happened to Cinnabar is no one’s fault. It is certainly not your fault. I hope you understand that these things-”
“I don’t want any of your platitudes!” Blaine stood up, gripping a pokeball. “Ask a question for once in your life, old man!”
“I ask a lot of questions. How far did the eruption reach? Was anyone hurt? Is my friend okay? I came to be here for you.”
“Can it! Go, Arcanine!” Blaine threw the ball and out came the legendary pokemon. “Use Fire Blast!” Blaine shouted. Arcanine looked at who he was directed to attack and was startled that it was a human. Normally he wouldn’t follow this order, but he recognized Iroh and knew he could take it. Solemnly, he carried out the attack.
Iroh took hold of the five-pronged flame and redirected it into the air. Carefully, he took three bursts of flame and fired them towards the dog.
“Dodge, then use Extreme Speed!” Arcanine followed Blaine’s command as best he could; he dodged two of the flame bursts but took some damage from the third. Using speed unseen with the naked eye, Arcanine tried to knock Iroh to the ground.
Iroh wasn’t sure which direction Arcanine would come from. He put his arms up at the last second to defend from the assault. On impact, Iroh felt a shiver go down from his limbs to his feet, but his stance proved effective and he was not knocked over. He took Arcanine by the shoulders and wrestled with the beast. Perhaps because Arcanine knew that he could overpower Iroh if he really wanted to, the Pokemon went along with it and let himself be pushed to the ground.
“Arcanine! Get back up and-”
“That’s enough, Blaine. I know you’re frustrated, but outbursts like this will not calm the passionate storm inside of you. It will only stir up stronger waves,” Iroh said. He laughed as Arcanine gave him a few good licks. They both got up to their feet. “Let’s come away from here. The other residents are taking shelter in Vermillion City. My ship can have us there before sundown.”
The diffusion of the battle took the air out of Blaine’s sails. His shoulders fell and he returned Arcanine to the pokeball. “I’m not ready to go back to them yet. There might still be documentation in the mansion I can find. And I need to be able to accept challenges from trainers.”
Iroh took a deep breath and exhaled a fiery puff. “Blaine. Your loyalty to your duties is admirable. It reminds me of someone else close to me. But he must learn as you must that loyalty can bleed into stubbornness if motivated by the wrong reasons.”
Blaine digested that thought for a minute. “You think I’m wrong to grieve over this piece of rock I called home? I am allowed to mourn and process in my own reclusive ways just as you did yours.”
This took Iroh aback. Maybe he should have expected this comparison but that did not make it easy to have his own losses brought up as he comforted another’s. He shook his head. “Perhaps I deserved that. But you bring up a good point. Let’s process this the same way I did.”
“And what was that?”
“Leave one fiery island for another.”
Blaine was surprised that Iroh sailed all the way from the Fire Nation alone. It was a compact ship, barely bigger than a sail boat. But it had an engine that was powered with fire bending. As long as the retired general kept enough food to keep himself fueled, the trip could be made efficiently.
Now, the two of them sat next to each other as they hopped over to Seafoam Islands. Blaine agreed to come mostly out of curiosity. What kind of treatment or therapy would Iroh try to repeat?
“I still can’t believe you’re taking me to the foot of the volcano itself!” Blaine shouted over the waves.
“Trauma comes from many places, and the roads toward healing go in many directions. Sometimes those roads bring you back to the source, especially if that source is already close to home. Healing from trauma comes not from running away from physical objects, but understanding spiritual blocks,” Iroh said. He added more fuel to the fire.
“Well,” Blaine thought. He leaned back and looked up at the sky. He abandoned the thought and said instead, “Thank you for coming, Iroh.” His friend nodded, and the two just enjoyed the ride for a while.
The scene at Seafoam Islands was one of destruction, worse than even Cinnabar Island. Blaine adjusted his shades at the sight. He felt a cavernous pit in his stomach. He tried to say something, but no words came out.
Iroh helped his friend off the ship. He had seen his fair share of volcanoes at every stage of eruption, but the islands lay dormant over the peaceful Kanto region for some time. It was not something the world around it was prepared for.
“The… the pokemon. There’ll be Pokemon inside the caves,” Blaine said. He picked up his feet to start, then his need to protect took over. Iroh followed close behind.
Together, they dug out one of the cave entrances and all kinds of wildlife burst out in gratitude. Blaine was relieved to see groups of Zubat, Psyduck and Slowpoke head to the skies and waters. “Good thing we came when we did. These guys have been trapped inside for days.”
“Blaine, quickly!” Iroh cried. Blaine turned around and saw Iroh kneeling down to nurse several ice Pokemon that looked terrible. What really made his jaw drop was that there was a woman in the middle of the pile. Iroh held her and she coughed.
“Water,” she managed. Blaine gave her some fresh from his bag.
“Blaine, we need to get her away from here quickly.”
“First, lady, tell me what you were doing here. You were here when the island erupted, weren’t you?” Blaine saw four pokeballs on the trainer’s belt. His mind raced trying to put things together.
“I was trying to catch…” She tried to explain, but was interrupted. A terrible shriek pierced the sky. All three of them looked up to see it flying straight at them at incredible speeds.
“It’s Articuno!” Iroh shouted. He picked up the girl and made for the boat.
“We can’t escape in that!” Blaine said. He sent out Ninetales and Magmar and told them to fire back against Articuno’s frigid assault. While they defended, Blaine went up to the girl and said, “You idiot! You disturbed Articuno? Enough to make it flee?”
Iroh thought out loud, “Its icy influence must have kept the volcano dormant for all these years. Blaine, don’t scold her. This would have happened eventually.”
“I don’t have time!” Blaine shot back. Resuming the battle, Blaine instructed Magmar to throw Ninetales into the air. “Use Will-o-wisp!” It was a long shot, but Ninetales managed to burn the creature, just in time to lower the damage of its Sky Attack. Ninetales hit the ground hard but recovered well.
Articuno cried out again, but paused, unsure if it should continue with the damage it had already taken. Iroh could see that it had old wounds in addition to new ones.
“Articuno!” Blaine called. “We are very sorry to disturb you. It’s not easy to have your home wrenched away from you when it was peaceful for so long. I’m afraid,” he paused, “That you’ve done the same thing to my home in your outburst.”
There was a silence as the three humans looked up at the incredible bird as it seemed to float in the air by pulsing its wings. It studied them, its eyes cautious. And then eventually, it turned and flew southward.
“Goodbye, Articuno. May you return to your home someday,” Blaine said under his breath.
“I’m surprised, Blaine,” Iroh said. “You had every opportunity to lash out and you decided on peace?”
“Oh, shut up. You always have to spell everything out. Of course I wasn’t going to defeat Articuno, what do you think I am, some kind of monster?” Blaine returned his Pokemon to their pokeballs.
“Or a dumb trainer,” The girl said. “I’m truly sorry for everything. I didn’t know… I couldn’t have…”
“It’s… all right, Kid. Well, it doesn’t feel like it but we’ve got all four limbs and no burns which is how I prefer to end my days.”
“As do I!” Iroh laughed. “Well, Blaine, what do you think about heading to Vermillion and getting this girl - I’m sorry, what was your name?”
“Anna.”
“Getting Anna some medical attention?”
Blaine looked out at the Seafoam Islands, how rough it looked still, formed by the fires of a volcano. He took a breath and asked, “Iroh, here’s a riddle for you. Where do you step down to step up and go in to go all out?”
Iroh mulled it over and stepped away from Anna to stand by Blaine. He said, “Do enlighten me.”
“My new gym. And there’s lots to do to get it ready for trainers.”
Iroh smiled and sighed. “You work so hard. You should retire, like me. Receiving guests instead of challengers is so much more relaxing.”
“I could never slow down. Besides, who would I spend my time with?”
“My door is always open.” They embraced, and Iroh gave Blaine a squeeze. “I’ll send word to your gym trainers. I don’t want you out here all alone like this, that would just be leaving you how I found you.”
“Yes, yes. Take care, old friend.”
Iroh was making preparations for his boat to take off again. He was about to offer rations to Anna when she started talking first.
“It looked like you guys mean a lot to each other.”
“Another friend of mine once said that all old people know each other. Sometimes I think this is true only because there are few of us left. Blaine is one of those rare souls whose heart burns as much as mine.”
“How did the two of you meet?”
Iroh’s eyes lit up. “Now that is a story I love to share. I’ll tell you on the way there.”
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