Frost on Dragon Wings

The Falinks of Wrath

It's not everyday that the person you were sitting across from is not only your aunt's co-worker but also well-known for being the strongest gym leader and for having a large following on the internet. Noelle is not one to keep up on internet famous people or even have any social media other than a YouFame account but only to watch her favorite creators. Now that she thought of it, Raihan was mentioned a few times by multiple content creators. They never mentioned that he was this cute-- Well, maybe one of them did but Noelle has that person on as background noise while she tried to put out a fire that she accidently started in her kitchen back home. All she was trying to do is bake PokePuffs---

"Um...Hello?", Raihan called out in a sing-song tone and waving a hand close to her face, trying to get Noelle's attention.

---Oh yeah, she's still on the train. She really needs to stop spacing out. "OH! Um, sorry about that, was lost in thought--- I mean, I was paying attention, I just, uh, was thinking about....well...", Noelle's sentence trails off into mumbling, completely unsure about how to save this conversation. Raihan chuckled nervously as he leaned back into the seat, "Anyway, we're almost to Hammerlocke and Melony is probably at the station waiting for us.". Oh, grand. I'm gonna have an earful for not taking the potential death hazard they call 'flying taxis'. Literally, all it takes is for those big Pokemon to have one bad day and then release the car and everyone in it. How is that even considered safe?!

The train slows to a stop at Hammerlocke Station, the doors open and everyone starts to stand up and leave for their destinations, the people who were glaring at Noelle half an hour ago started to rush towards Raihan and Noelle and stood between the two, as if they're prying his attention away from her to them. "Oh my gosh, Raihan! I love you! You're so amazing!", their praised have started to overlap one another as Raihan tries to give them all the attention they were wanting while also trying to get off the train before the other passengers start to get on. He manages to get off along with his fans and an exhausted Noelle, just then she heard a familiar voice call out to her from inside the building. She turns to see that it was Gordie, instead of Melony? Huh. Raihan, meanwhile, manages to convince his fans to let him talk to his co-worker's niece and then they leave after calling out that they'll wait for him at the stadium. Noelle can't help but giggle at how Raihan sighed as if he was a little bit overwhelmed and once he turned around to greet who he thought was Melony turn out to be Gordie instead, "Huh, I guess your mom got caught up with work at the last minute?"

The rock-type gym leader groaned a bit and nodded, "Normally I would be at my stadium right now but apparently someone decided to not go on a flying taxi and get stuck on a train." Oh boy. Gordie then turned to Noelle, not really looking happy about having to pick up his reckless, acrophobic cousin from the train station in another city, "You're lucky Hammerlocke is right in the center of Galar AND that Circhester happens to be close by, otherwise, it would've taken you days to get to the stadium, on foot." Gordie looked back at Raihan with a small smile, "Thanks for keeping her company, man." Raihan smiled back at Gordie and nodded, "Anytime! I gotta run now. And Noelle, I hope to see you again, soon.", the dragon tamer winked at her, causing her face to turn red, and walked out of the station.

Gordie tapped on Noelle's shoulder since she's staring at the doorway that Raihan left through and that made her jump a bit, "Noelle, we gotta go. You can ask for his phone number later." Noelle squinted her eyes and pouted at his remark and he just gave her a mischievous grin before turning towards the door. Noelle sighed and followed her cousin out into Hammerlocke and onto Route 7.

Now Noelle is seriously cursing herself for having a phobia of heights. Route 8 is an absolute nightmare to go through with all the Pokemon wondering about, jumping at her, nearly giving her a heart attack while Gordie waited for her to climb up every ladder that, for some reason, couldn't be replaced with stairs instead. Her arms are sore, there's sand in her hair AND eyes, she's sweating, it's getting dark out because of how long of a walk it was and she's just so tired to the point where she's swaying back and forth from all the climbing, dodging and running from Pokemon she had to do.

And all because she couldn't handle 135 feet (0.0411 kilometers) in a car carried by a flying-type Pokemon that she forgot the name of and couldn't be bothered to look it up at the moment.

"Come on, you Slowpoke! We're almost there!", Gordie called out, chuckling a bit at Noelle's expense while having to help her out here and there. Noelle was panting heavily by the time she reached the tunnel, with Gordie leaning against the arch. She faceplanted into the stone arch and slid down to the ground, her face still pressed against the stone and her face now hurts from the rough texture gliding against her face. This is a clue to Gordie that she couldn't get up due to exhaustion. He sighed and picked her up into a fireman's carry, then proceeded through the tunnel. A sudden blast of cold air hits Noelle's sweaty skin, that is when she realizes that Galar's weather is more unpredictable than a magic 8 ball.

They finally made it to Circhester, granted via being carried by your cousin who, understandably, would much rather be at his gym getting gym leader work done than babysit his cousin who was spoiled by all the cars and trains of Lykke and not many of the roads are covered in grass. Regardless, considering that it's now dark out, that means that Noelle can't start her training today and they have to go straight to Melony's place to get Noelle settled in. With Gordie and Melony having a bit of a strained relationship at the moment, Gordie puts Noelle down by the doorstep and rung the doorbell. He waved at Noelle before he speed walked away from the house.

Before Noelle could attempt to lift herself off the ground, her aunt opened the door, possibly expecting her niece to have her crap together and not be on the ground looking like she just fought the sandstorm and the sandstorm won but then Melony looked down and found her niece on the ground looking like she just fought the sandstorm and the sandstorm won. "Oh, dear. You look awfully tired. Here, let me help.", she spoke a bit softly, if a bit stern. Melony always has that type of air with her, gentle but also merciless, very much like a mother would be. Melony dragged Noelle into the house and onto the couch to get her out of the cold before turning around to shut the front door.

"Thank you, Aunt Melony.", Noelle said and Melony nodded at her before walking over to the couch. "I'm gonna go take a shower real quick.", Noelle stated. "Take as much time as you need but when you're done you and I need to talk." The ex-gym leader agreed before stumbling her way to the nearest bathroom, her hands groping the walls to use as a crutch of sorts. Half an hour later, Noelle comes out of the bathroom in nightwear that Melony provided for her in the bathroom. As she approached the kitchen, she noticed Melony was sitting in one of the chairs with a cup of tea in her hands and a steaming cup of tea across from her that is supposed to be Noelle's. She walked in nervously, normally Melony would be all smiles and happy that she finally gets to see her niece from out of region but today she didn't seem like she was happy about the events that transpired today. Noelle sat across from her aunt and waited for her to speak. "Noelle, sweetie, I don't know what has been happening to you lately but it's getting out of hand. First, you decided to abandon a family tradition by giving up your gym leader title, you left Lykke without telling your almost anyone but me and Gordie, and now you're hoping onto trains without any thought on where you're going. At least, with a flying taxi, you could get here on time, on location and, most importantly, safe. You're lucky that Gordie wasn't too busy and that Raihan was on that train, otherwise you could've gone missing or even killed!", Melony looked as if she was about to tear up, thinking of all the horrifying things that could've happened to Noelle had Raihan not bump into her. Noelle noticed this and felt worse than she already did about her decision. "I...I'm afraid of heights."

There was a pause before Melony placed her head into her right hand as if she's facepalming and spoke, "That's right.", she looked up at her niece with a sheepish smile, "I keep forgetting about that."