Heart of Gold

Azalea Town was our next stop. It was farther away than our trek from Cherrygrove to Violet, so we packed extra things. Luca and I split Falkner's prize money. I bought practical things, like tampons, sunscreen, and some canned food. Luca came back with a giant bag of trail mix and a pocketknife.

"Quit judging me," he said.

The scenery grew mountainous as we left Violet City, and rough redwood trees surged up from the earth around us. The grass was so thick around our feet it felt like we trudged through water. Ulric, Buddy, and Cupid cavorted through the weeds. I was worried they'd get lost but Luca told me they could hear us. "Look at that!" Luca said. He pointed to a sign that read RUINS OF ALPH.

"We have to see it!" I clutched Luca's arm. "I read about this in history class!"

Luca groaned. "I didn't men take a detour; we haven't got all year. Can't we visit it when we go back?"

"It'll just be an hour, I promise."

I dragged him through the gatepost to the ruins. They opened up in a craggy, sun-baked rock formation with a small hut to the side that said RESEARCH CENTER on the wall. The place looked touristy, and even had a gift shop, but no one was around. We let ourselves into the research center. An excited scientist, or rather, bored-of-nobody-visiting scientist, swept us away. "Are you here for the free tour?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. He took us through the ruins.

"These ruins were once ancient structures built 1,500 years ago, but we don't know by whom," he said and gestured to the square clay buildings. They were built with four walls, like someone's home. "It's very recent compared to most anthropological findings, but we haven't found a single record of this place. There are no stories, no folktales, no evidence at all what this place was built for. At the research center we spend hours dating rocks and artifacts, and we think it might have been some kind of sacred chamber."

"For what?" I said. Luca looked bored.

"For pokemon, we think," he said. "There are letters on the walls we think are the key to understanding it. Next, we will look inside one of the structures. As you can see here, they're in the shape of boxes, so we know these are human-made. If you want, we have a puzzle in the first chamber you can solve."

"I would love to!" I said. Luca's eyes probed the back of my head. I didn't understand how he could be bored already; it hadn't even been ten minutes yet. "Why don't you pull out your camera?" I said to him. "Can we take photos here?"

"Only in the first chamber," the scientist said. He led us in a square entrance to one of the ruins. "Watch your step, please don't touch the walls, and I'll give you some gloves to handle the puzzle. They might be small since the puzzle is mainly used to entertain little kids."

The walls were made of grey stone and had black etchings of what looked like the Latin alphabet. The letters looked like they had eyes. Luca retrieved his camera and took pictures without the flash. In the middle of the room sat what looked like an altar, which consisted of two pillars on the side and one wide one in back with a concave middle. The scientist gave me a pair of plastic gloves.

"Go ahead and solve it," the scientist said. I walked into the pseudo-altar. There was a large broken tablet inside. The puzzle was filled out for the most part, and it looked like a kabuto, a fossilized pokemon. I took the pieces of the tablet and placed them inside the altar. "In order to keep educating youth like you, our team collects donations from those who visit us," the scientist said. "If you'd like to donate after the tour-"

I placed the last slab inside. Before I heard the rest of what the scientist said, the entire picture flashed blue, an enormous rumble rattled the room, and the ground disappeared from beneath my feet.