The 'Chu Brothers: A New World

Chapter 14: Winter Wonderland

Chapter 14: Winter Wonderland

1/2/20

6:05 pm

Beach

I was hitting the sand out of frustration... That's how low I got.

My mind was still taking in the fact that Abby was either stuck in Charred Chambers or off somewhere with this kidnapper. To make matters worse, Cord got possessed by the Darkness, attacked Chris—which I don't know how he survived—and teleported off to who knows where.

Maybe I could have done better with Abby. Maybe I could've ignored her warning and tried to fight this Pokémon. Maybe I could've dodge the Tackle she used on me. Maybe I could've...

I don't know anymore.

I finally got tired of kicking sand, so I decided to sit down and listen to the waves. It sent me calming vibes—even though I didn't really use it for anything. Breath in... Breath out... Breath in...

"Hi there, Lucas," a voice stated, making my ears perk up.

I turned to my right to stare at a female Riolu. Her appearance was different from any other one since her feminine parts showed—for example, she had blue hair drooping all the way to her middle back.

Anyway, after glancing at the Riolu, I faced back into the beach. "Hi Lira," I said while doing a faint simile.

You probably just heard what I said and replayed this a few times. So how do I know who Lira is?

The answer is... Complicated. To put it simply, our team needed a place to stay until we had enough credits to make our own house. We asked along the guild, and Cord eventually found Team Crusade—Lira's team. As it turned out, her teammate Ri, who is also a Riolu, used to live in Sharpedo Bluff before he met Lira. After a few minutes of debating, stupidity, and whatnot, we ended up agreeing on them letting us stay at the Bluff as long as we didn't touch anything; because we felt generous, we promised to repay the team Pokécoins with some interest.

"I saw you pretty frustrated a few moments ago. Is something wrong?"

I hesitated slightly to talk about it, but an eventual sigh came out of my mouth. "Two of my teammates have gone missing. One I had no absolute control over, but if I had done one thing differently, I could have saved her..." A soft whimper came out to me, making my ears unconsciously curl like a dog.

"...Okay, it sounds like you need a little cheering up." Lira sat down right next to me. "I might know the perfect song for it." The Riolu started to hum a few notes, ones that I knew very familiar with. I couldn't put my paw on it though.

"Sleigh bells ring, are you listening?

"In the lane, snow is glistening."

Wait a second. Is that Winter Wonderland? That doesn't make any sense; it's a human song she's singing for crying out loud!

"A beautiful sight,

"We're happy tonight,

"Walking in a winter wonderland.

"Gone away is the Swablu

"Here to stay is a Pidgey.

"It sings a great song,

"As we go along,

"Walking in a winter wonderland.

"In the meadow, we can build a snowman.