Chapter 063

Alex was pondering over what he had heard from the old man.

Apparently, the village had an artifact that belonged to the Frog King. The only deacrptionhe could glean was that it was green and yellow, with a sky blue crystal for a pendant. Dragonite along with another unknown Pokemon demanded it from the Frog King. Met with refusal, they went to the mountain of Royal Heirs nearby and had them descend the mountain and besiege the village. While the Frog King and the rest of the Poliwag line mobilezed to defend, Dargonite and the unknown Pokemon sneaked into the village and took the Frog King's necklacee and fled. Enraged, the Frog King launched a pursuit. Neither of the three Pokemon was even seen again.

Alex suspected the whole Tales of Dragonite book by John Wikerbush was based off this segment from the Frog King's Village.

The old man swore he saw the Dragonite and the unknown Pokemon himself, while the Royal Heirs bit were stories he was told by other villagers. He gave a rough description of the unknown Pokemon.

"A black and brown ball that looked like a face, with green and red wings sprouting on either side and a tail of the same colour" recalled Alex.

Alex aske around more about each of the topics, using Potions and Pokeballs as a bribe. He got no additional information, except the approximate location of the supposed mountain of Royal Heirs and the place people of the village would harvest Water Stones. He was able to confirm most of the old man's story, as in he found no errors in his version of events. The necklace was remembered by some villagers as described by their parents, as was the unknown Pokemon. The Frog King was also never seen after the war with Dragonite.

After trying some more, Alex concluded that there was nothing else to learn in the village. He decided to go exploring. He could check out the mountain of Royal Heirs and then try hunting for Water Stones.

He walked upstream for a few hours.

According to the villagers, there was a waterfall a distance away. But instead of being a sudden drop, this waterfall fell at a 45 degree angle off a sloping cliff. This made the water have a high speed as it rushed south. Items collected by the river above the waterfall, Water Stones and Pokemon eggs among others, would also be rushing downstream along with the water after they fell of the waterfall. But the portion of the river a couple of hours upstream of the village had jutting rocks at the bottom. These would stop some of the rushing items in the river. The villagers coun't use Pokemon to dive in and fetch such items, as the water was too fast for the weaker Pokemon that existed here to handle. But sometimes, due to shifting sand, shallow pools of water will be created beside the river, and the items could end up here too. The village was built on one such lake created by the river. Villagers would visit such shallow pools to try their luck at getting an item.

Alex decided to visit the shallow pools close to what he assumed was the mountain of Royal Heirs to try his luck. He was unsure when the Professor would be back, but he thought it would be later that evening.

He had traded one of his spare Pokeballs for a long, thin, but strong and hollow reed, that would allow him a passage for air three or four meters underwater. He first decided to search for the mountain of Royal Heirs, and later go treasure hunting in the shallow pools.

He had to search for a while, but finally found the supposed mountain of Royal Heirs matching the description by the villagers. It was a pitch black hill with irregular brown rocks scattered all around it. Why it was ever called a mountain was baffling to Alex.

He decided to walk up and around the hill, just to check if anything else of significance could be found. Except for a large amount of the brownish rocks that looked incompatible with the surroundings, he found nothing else. He finally concluded that there was nothing of interest on the hill. He decided it was time to go and visit one of the shallow ponds.

As he was leaving, he took one last look at a relatively larger rock. He frowned, thinking of something while leaving.

After walking a few minutes, he suddenly remembered, and looked back at the hill in shock.

He then shook his head, took one last deep long look at the hill, and left.