Heart of Gold

Luca and I headed toward Violet City the next day. The travel uphill was tedious and gave me as much of a workout as my pokemon. Like most roads between smaller cities, they didn't exist in a neat pattern. The road we took curved around fir and evergreens, tall grass, and a craggy mountain overhead. Luca took pictures as we went. He even filmed some training sessions I did with my pokemon when we took breaks.

Violet City appeared to us in a sweet-smelling haze. "You know, my parents almost enrolled me in the trainer's school here," I said.

"You? A trainer? I can't see that ever happening." Luca, of course, was sarcastic. He snapped a shot of a house we passed by. They had a dark purple, sloping roof and wooden screen doors. Ledyba hummed in the trees above us.

"Yeah, I was one chance away from becoming an elite student of pokemon," I said. "New Bark Town needed a pokemon groomer, so that's why Dad moved here."

"I thought it was because your mom wanted you to become a historian."

"That too." She'd heard that pokemon schools didn't focus on other subjects as much. As we passed by the academy, I had a lingering twinge of thought: Are my pokemon will be good enough for the gym? I may have had lab experience and more pokemon knowledge than other people my age, but people that came out of pokemon schools applied to be gym leaders and even went on league challenges like me. They were elite.

It couldn't hurt to train more. We'd battled a couple trainers on the road, and while Ulric excelled, Cupid was a little shaky, but young town kids weren't gym trainers. Cupid needed to work on her fire-breathing some more, since she relied on her physical attacks too much. From studying houndour, they were special attackers, not physical ones, and it'd be best to start early with special attacks.

"You see that tower over there?" Luca said.

I followed his pointed finger. A massive, three-tiered tower loomed in the distance. It sat on a small island in the pond across the town. Pidgey sat on the gutters and flapped away when the tower tilted. "It's Sprout Tower," I said. "We watched a documentary on it in the fifth grade."

"I remember. Something about having juukouzou to protect it from earthquakes, like a swaying bellsprout. I was going to say we can train there. The monks let you battle them and give you sage advice."

"That's perfect!" I told Ulric and Cupid to heel and they rushed to my side. "Are you two ready to battle?"

Ulric bleated, and Cupid barked. I took that as a yes, and Luca and I headed to Sprout Tower.

---

The inside was built with rope and flexible wood to help the tower balance. It was unnerving at first to feel the creaks and bumps, but soon, Luca and I adjusted. All the monks wore robes, had shiny bald heads, and sent out bellsprout to fight. The typing helped the timid Cupid get an upper hand, while challenged Ulric to fighting harder. "How much father up is the top?" Luca asked a monk.

"Here, there, the same thing," she told him with a smile.

"Must be some Buddhist saying," Luca said to me.

Another monk told us that all beings coexisted with each other, so I figured they meant that "here" and "there" coexisted, depending on where one looked, here and there were the same, but I didn't get a chance to tell Luca. A loud bang! at the top startled us. We climbed the stairs and halted, stunned, at the top.

A familiar, red-haired boy stood at the top floor with the head monk. He'd returned his pokemon, but the aftermath of the battle remained. The monk's bellsprout lay knocked out on the wooden floor with white sap oozing from its stem. "You won, but you battle too harshly," the monk said. "You treat your pokemon like they are weapons."

Vincent grunted in reply and turned. When he saw us, a wry grin broke out on his face. "Well, look who it is," he said.

The rage that had been encased inside of me when the girls bullied me unleashed. It was like a volcano. White hot magma spewed from my core. "You little twit!" I spat. "Hand over the pokemon you stole!"

"Astrid." Luca's hand found my arm. Vincent merely rolled his sleeves up and palmed one of his pokeballs. The monk noticed this and stepped forward.

"I won't have meaningless violence in this tower," he said. His voice was soft, but it was so strong it jarred me through my spine. "You, boy, you must leave. You have finished the challenge."

Vincent was stunned only for a moment. "Whatever," he said. He pushed past us with the stride of a persian, and his shoulder bumped mine. I could've hissed. Luca kept his hand firm on my arm and didn't let go until Vincent was all the way downstairs.

"You say he stole a pokemon?" the monk said.

I nodded. Luca let out his held breath. "I will have someone alert the authorities," the monk said. "As for now, didn't you come for a test? It will be a pleasure to serve you. Let us begin."