Amour in Galar form

38. Castle

For the next two days, it rained more or less. When the group went to sleep, they heard the rain crackling on the roofs of the tents, and when they woke up in the morning, it still crackled in them. During the day, on the other hand, it crackled either to the Aura shield made by Ash and/or Lucario, which served as their umbrella, or paused only to show depressing gray clouds. If they had to choose, they would have chosen rain.

They continued to walk on the same plain they had battled against Team Rocket. Fortunately, they hadn't seen a glimpse of them during those two days, and Ash in particular was pleased with that. Glimwood Tangle had also left far behind and now in front of them rippled (literally) just an open grass plain.

When wandering among wet hay during those two days, the group didn't speak much. They each walked mainly in their own thoughts, thinking of thoughts like maybe the sun might show tomorrow or would beans be for food (food was running low) They stopped a few times a day to eat quick meals (still those beans), and then continued their journey in that depressing early fall weather that Galar served them.

But the quietest of them all was Lucario. He had sulked since Greninja had won the bet and been allowed to take Braixen to date. And Greninja had done it right away. However, he had never told what they had done or where they had gone, and that both annoyed and infuriated Lucario. Admittedly, what seemed even more annoying was that when they returned, there had been a smug grin on Greninja's face and Braixen had giggled at him, holding his hand.

So, because of these things, Lucario had spent even more time alone somewhere, and communicated mostly by grunting. Nor was it helped that Serena's Kirlia had taken up her task to tease Lucario about Braixen and it only made Lucario even gloomier.

So it was no wonder that when something more special finally appeared in front of them in that gray weather, the group was very excited.

****

"Ash, is that...?"

"Yeah, that's what it looks like"

The foursome stood on top of a hill, looking at the view in front of them. The rain had stopped a moment ago, but the gray clouds still in the sky indicated that it could start again soon. But the likelihood of rain was not the thing that interested them. No, it was something much more interesting and rose right in front of them.

In front of them rose a large, rocky castle. One that was usually only in fairy tales and movies about knights in shining armor and maidens in towers. But that castle rose in front of them, and it really wasn't some movie set piece.

They stood there for a moment until Gou said, "Well, are we going to take a closer look?" The others nodded and then they set out to run quickly down the slope towards that special landmark.

As they got closer, they slowed down a bit, but at no point did they stop. They also found that the castle was not in very good condition; its walls grew with moss and one of its towers had collapsed. Reaching right at its foot, they stopped to look at the castle heads tilted.

"Why is it placed alone in the middle of the plain?" Serena thought for a moment and touched the castle wall with her hand. It was cold and wet and a rocky and lonely raindrop rolled from the moss bump on her hand. She pulled her hand away and continue, "I mean, weren't there usually other housed around these castles?"

"Maybe there used to be a village here, but it's gone a long time ago," Chloe suggested. She swept one damp hair curl out of her eyes and looked at the castle thoughtfully. "Or this was just some kind of watchtower"