Moltres and Xen

With Moltres present, the humans and pokemon seemed to go just a bit insane with celebrating it 'blessing the tournament'. Vali struggled to focus on enjoying the festival with everyone when her mind and eyes kept wandering back to where she knew Moltres was. She remembered the legendaries' crimson amber eyes seemed to bore into the crowd search for something. She wondered what it had been looking for let alone doing in the Indigo Plateau. She pulled her eyes away from the stadium as Steven touched her shoulder, "Vali? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Vali looked at him with a sheepish smile, "Just a bit distracted,"

"Moltres?" Steven asked her with his eyes going to the stadium.

Vali nodded slowly, "Just the fact its here, the legendary I really want to meet one day is that close."

"Nothing else?" Steven asked her with a slight frown, "You were a bit spaced out this morning,"

"I'll explain later," Vali glanced around them and Steven nodded in understanding, "So I'm a bit distracted is all,"

Shadow-traveling was the ghost-type way of teleporting and even more unpleasant for humans especially inexperienced ones, it doubled when the shadow-travel was unexpected. Vali's soul felt like it'd half left her body and been twisted while being dipped in nitrogen. This all involved not being able to breath, it wasn't a fun way to travel nor one she'd be using even if Litwick showed potential to use it unless there was an emergency. This coupled with being kidnapped after returning to her room in the Cottage made it even worse, she cursed her luck even while struggling uselessly to breath.

Whatever pokemon kidnapped her left the shadowy ether into a place that felt like Cinnabar's Volcano, Vali was released as Fawkes' feather and her inner flame pulsed. She dropped to the ground almost bonelessly struggling to catch her breath as a voice she didn't think she'd hear again for awhile spoke, "Oh dear, I forgot how shadow-travel tends to effect those unused to it and unaligned to ghost-types. My apologies, Vali."

Vali regained her ability to breath and looked up to find Xen. His features were rather odd lit up by a fire coming from somewhere she couldn't see at the moment, "Xen, is every time we see each other going to involve me being kidnapped?"

"Hopefully not," Xen looked a bit sheepish, "I was summoned to bring you here,"

Vali did not like this, "Why?"

Xen gestured somewhere towards to the side and Vali turned her head to see Moltres nesting in the torch above staring down at her.

Vali stared up at Moltres in a silent state of shock struggling to figure out if this was some kind of bizarre dream. The feeling of Fawkes feather pulsing wildly against her chest and the almost restless shifting of her inner flame pushing underneath her skin towards the legendary. The almost longing feeling that seemed to echo through her inner flame was startling. Xen spoke breaking through her shock, "This is of course not one of the true Moltres, merely one of the secondary version of them running around."

"Wait there are two true Moltres?" Vali asked latching onto something that would help keep her from totally freaking out over the fact a legendary was actually sitting not even a few feet from her.

Xen nodded giving her a look of understanding, "Same with the other members of the trio, you'll learn more later though it mostly deals with a balance kind of thing."

"Right," Vali looked at him slowly, "So why bring me here?"

"Since you're a fire-bearer, Moltres along with a lot of other fire-based legendaries are interested in you," Xen waved a hand at the Legendary with a sigh and shake of his head, "This young one just happened to be impatient," The legend let out a low shriek and gave Xen a glare earning an unimpressed look, "Don't give me that look, you are an impatient young one. I was there when you hatched, Flare. I was there when you first stared learning how to fly. Don't try to act all high and mighty with me, brat,"

Vali's shock at Xen's words double as Moltres' head dipped a bit and the legendary actually looked a bit sulky, it turned its head away for a moment. Vali burst out, "Wait! What?!"

"Legendaries hatch from eggs just like any other pokemon," Xen said as the two turned back to her, "I've seen a few hatch though not many since Legends don't have the highest birth rates. Flare's the youngest of the bunch being only 25 years old,"

Which only made more questions form within her mind begging to be answered, Vali looked up at the Moltres, Flare, as she asked, "So this one wanted to meet me?"

"That and there is a specific human she's hoping to find," Xen smirked lightly, "One that managed to catch her attention. Not as a bearer, but as a partner,"

"Partner?" Vali thought of her own pokemon family and gazed up at Flare, "Is there something unique about having a Legendary as a partner?"

Xen's smirk widened into a pleased grin as Flare the Moltres' eyes gleamed a bit, "Indeed. You could say that humans blessed with legends as partners are those destined to rule just as we bearers are destined to guide those we come across," Xen shoved his hands into his pockets, "Partners are gifted as we are though separately and I've never met one meaning I can't really say just how exactly it works. All I know is that their marked by their partners at some point during life. I do know that there are supposedly three partners this time around one for each legendary bird. One of the Zapdos marked his and I'd have guessed you had it not been for the fact you're a bearer."

Meaning you're only able to be a Partner or a Bearer never both, Vali was actually thankful even if she did have to wonder what kind of legend would be her partner. Pushing that thought away, she asked, "So what all does that mean?"

"For now, it doesn't mean anything," Xen lost his smile and turned serious, "But once the Chosen One begins his journey and the newest age of chaos begins, everyone will be needed. The bearers will be needed to do their job in guiding those they can. The Partners will need to fight against the shadows and get things ready for when the Chosen One is ready for the final fight whenever that is,"

Vali's stomach dropped and she felt like someone had run their cold fingers down her spine at those words. A war was coming from Xen's words and there wasn't anything they could do to stop it. And even if some part of her balked at the thought of participating in it, she knew that there would be a need for her to fight. To protect both her pokemon and everyone they cared for, she'd do it. The resolve that thought filled her with seemed to settle her inner flames just a bit. She stood up a bit straighter which both the older beings in the room seemed to notice, "So that means we'll need to do a ton of training, right? Well that was the plan anyway, I'm the one who'll be training the Chosen One eventually once he or she reveals them-self, right?"

"Right," Xen eyed her with his lips slowly peeling back to revel a slow smile, "Not going to shout in denial about war?"

"The world I came from wasn't nice and my dreams haven't been that nice either," Vali looked back at Xen with a tired look, "My lucks made my journey pretty interesting letting me see a lot of things and nearly die a few times. Denying the bad stuff because of something as stupid as fear when I could be training and doing whatever I can possibly do to ensure my everyone I care for survives is something I'm never going to do, I refuse to do that to my pokemon family when they need me at my best,"

Xen offered her a light smile before turning his head, "Well, Flare? Did she pass?"

Flare the Moltres eyed Vali silently before dipping her beak in a nod.