Exploring Cinnabar and meditation surprises

During one of the breaks they took from figuring out the riddles as well as training, Vali and Steven explored Cinnabar a bit more thoroughly than they had before. Despite only being able to use one arm, she was able to take good pictures with the help of Elrond who was mostly doing it to improve his finer control over his psychic abilities. One of the fun things about Cinnabar was the board walk which was full of fun activities for both people and pokemon to participate in. While riding any of the rides was out of questions save for the Ferris Wheel because of her arm, she still had a lot of fun visiting the board walk and discovered that funnel cake tasted really good.

They also traveled around the Volcano of Cinnabar mostly for Vali to get a look at the Magmar and other fire-types that saw this place as their home. She spent most of the trip dictating to Steven various observations and the like while taking photos with the help of Elrond. None of the Magmar paid them any mind, they were more interested in fighting each other than dealing with any humans. She was pleasantly surprised to find a few Magby running around, but made no move to catch one since their mother's were nearby. Some of the Magby wandered close to the humans wanting to investigate the odd beings under the watchful eyes of their mothers, she made sure none of her pokemon threatened them and ended up returning Empress to her pokeball when the Bagon attempted to attack one of the Magby that got too close. She made a mental note to speak to Empress later on about attacking curious wild pokemon without being provoked. Other than a near-miss thanks to Empress, they were able to end the day unscathed with quite a bit of notes for her to look over and add to before sending them to Professor Oak.

Vali found Cinnabar calming despite it's lack of forests and the large amount of tourists running around. With each breath she took, the stress that had gone unnoticed seemed to dissipate and a sense of peace seemed to fall over her. It was somewhat alarming, but the fire-type master-in-training couldn't really bring herself to care too much. When she decided to meditate during one of her trips into the foothills of the volcano, she dropped her shields feeling as if the reason was just beyond them.

Vali assured Elrond that everything would be just fine before settling into her meditation. She slipped within her mind easily and slowly began to take down her shields. It was as her last shield fell that everything snapped into perfect clarity and she understood what was going on. Cinnabar island's very heart was connected to the living fire within the planets core. She could feel her inner flame pulse with the heart beat of the planet. A connection formed and suddenly she could sense where every fire-type on the island was. Touching the connections gave her a view of their life, she could see into their very hearts.

A small Magby evolving into a powerful Magmar who despised that which would take away his kin...

A Vulpix that dreamed of becoming a beautiful Ninetails like her mother...

An Arcanine looking proudly at his mate and their newborn pups...

It took more mental strength and will than Vali was willing to admit for her to withdraw from the connection. She built up her shields feeling just a bit cold and felt Elrond's mental presence the moment she began to feel the temptation to drop them again. When she had them up at full strength, she opened her eyes and jolted backwards at the sight of diffrent fire-types surrounding her. All of her pokemon were keeping them back, they were tossing looks of concern towards her. Elrond helped her up as she asked, "What are they all doing here?"

"They felt your call," Elrond answered her.

Vali shook her head in confusion, "What call? I didn't call anyone. I just..."

Elrond looked into her memories before shaking his head, "Not intentionally, but you did call them."

Vali wondered how that happened, but supposed it had been the connection that she'd felt form earlier. She looked at the gather fire-types and told them with a sheepish smile, "I apologize for calling you all. I honestly didn't mean to. I was only trying to figure out why I felt so at peace here on the island. Please forgive me and return to your homes."

It took a few minutes before all save for a single Magmar left. The Magmar grunted and pointed at Vali. Elrond translated as the fire-type master-in-training looked at the fire-type in confusion, "She says that you owe her a fight for wasting valuable time."

"You want to battle me?" Vali asked earning a nod from the Magmar, "Which one of my pokemon would you like to fight?" Magmar shook her head and pointed at Vali earning a wide-eyed look, "Magmar, I can't fight you. I'm not a pokemon and don't have any real fighting experience. Not to mention, my arm is kind of busted right now,"

Magmar narrowed her eyes before letting out a grumble and snort. Elrond translated as her pokemon closed ranks around her, "Only a foolish young one wouldn't wait until after their training before sending out a call."

"What training?" Vali asked with a frown as Balto settled beside her.

Elrond translated as Magmar rolled her eyes, "The lord of Flames training thing. Granted, I am not translating what she said exactly because she's been quite rude, but that sums it up."

"Magmar, I'm not suppose to train with the Lord of Flames for another year or two," Vali explained while wondering what exactly Magmar had said.

Magmar eyed her before grunting and walking away. Elrond translated that the fire-type disappeared into the foothills, "She will be waiting for when you finish your training."

"Dear Arceus, what exactly is this training going to entail if she's expecting us to fight?" Vali reached up to rub at her forehead, "Let's just get back to the Pokemon Center, Steven is probably wondering where we are. How long was I out?"

"Four hours or close to it," Elrond offered up as he helped pack her things up.

"This is going to be interesting to explain," Vali had only meant to stay out there for two hours max.

Vali would need to call Professor Oak about this little bit of information though she had wonder how the Magmar knew about that stuff or why she called her a young one. She doubted that she'd get the answer to the former anytime soon, but the later confused her quite a bit. As far as she knew, Magmar had one of the shortest life-spans out of fire-types and that was mostly due to their battle hungry attitudes. The oldest documented Magmar was one of Blaine's and it was only alive because of being a trainers pokemon. Very few Magmar even among trainer pokemon lived longer than ten years, they lived longer if they'd been able to evolve into a Magmortar. Did that mean the Magmar had been a trainers pokemon or one of the few that had managed to live a long time?