Slowking?

The festival started once the clock struck 8:00 PM, Orla, Mollie, and Murdock decided to come and join the festivities but Ludlow and the hidden Dot chose to stay on the ship.

The festival started and it was fun and all but Friede was a little confused. Ash said that he came here to look for information on whatever was happening, but it looked like Ash just came for the festival.

There was a Gyarados puppet that acted and danced like a Chinese Dragon in a Chinese New Year celebration. There are also ceremonial dances, and plenty of food, speaking of which

Once the food came out and the dancers and parades started marching, everyone was enjoying themselves, Murdock in particular went to speak with the cooks to exchange some recipes.

Although Friede was enjoying himself he still preferred to find information, so he was leaning on a pillar watching.

That is until Ash walked up to him holding out a glass of Juice, "Hey Friede! Come on enjoy the festival!"

Friede took the cup and was about to say something when Ash leaned in, "The mountain on the north of the island, that's where you want to go, but it's also 'forbidden' for tourists to go there, so I'll distract them."

Friede nodded and put on a smile, "Yeah alright Ash! This festival is just waiting for us, let's have some fun!"

They went back to the party and since Ash was the center of attention he started 'bragging' about what kind of trainer he was, all to give Friede a chance to slip out of the party.

After Ash saw Friede leave he toned down the bragging and went back to sitting with everyone he knew at the table, where they mainly kept enjoying the food.

Well, Roy was anyway, Orla and Mollie were more wondering how this had anything to do with what Ash said and also where Friede was, and Liko was more or less being silent as she looked down and hugged Sprigatito.

Ash noticed Orla and Mollie looking around so he quickly wrote something on his phone and put on a smile, "Hey guys! Check out these cool photos I snagged!"

Ash held out his phone but instead of pictures, there was a message in notes.

'Play along, Friede went to go check the runes I talked about earlier, but it is closed off to the public so act natural.'

They nodded but Roy and Liko didn't notice it, but also they were much less worried about Friede since they didn't know him like Orla and Mollie did so there was no real problem.

As they go back to enjoying the festival and Ash finally eats something without Pikachu smothering it in Ketchup, although speaking of Pikachu, he has been more or less quiet since they arrived here,

Pikachu was getting a bad feeling that something was going to happen, and actually, he was right, but Ash didn't say anything at the moment.

A ocarina was heard as everyone goes quiet. Melody appeared on stage and began to play a ocarina made from a shell and performed a dance, as she now wore a white dress instead of her old outfit.

As everyone was watching Roy looked up, his mouth still full of food, "Hm? Isn't that the girl we met on the beach?"

"You met her?" Mollie asked with Orla listening in as well since they weren't there.

"Yeah, her name is Melody…" Liko said as she watched the dance performance.

Orla nodded, "Melody huh, she's pretty good with that thing,"

After a few moments the music stopped, there was a wave of applause from everyone, and then Melody rushed toward Ash and fell to her knees dramatically near Ash's feet.

"Hear ye all! From the trio of islands, ancient spheres shall you take. For between life and death, all the difference you'll make. Oh, chosen one, you must climb to the shrine to right what is wrong, and the world will be healed by the guardian's song." Melody said in an overdramatic damsel in distress tone.

Ash nodded as everyone listened intently, "So basically I gotta go get some spheres from the nearby islands and bring it back here, got it."

Melody smiled and plopped herself in a nearby empty chair, "Now you're getting it, and it won't be very hard, Ash. Not for you. And besides, almost all the chosen ones come back alive."

Carol called out from another table, "Melody! *sigh* she means in the legend, the chosen one comes back alive,"

Melody smiled and waved off her sister, "But yeah, basically just go get some glass balls from Fire Island. One from Ice Island. And one from Lightning Island.

"And you bring them to the shrine back here at the top of the mountain." she said as she got up doing a little spin, "And then, I celebrate by playing this song."

She played the music of the ocarina again, "And then it's over, oh, chosen one." she said with a bow

Roy was visibly more excited than Ash even though this didn't involve him, "That's so cool! Does Ash have to wear a cool costume, like the hero from Legends!"

Melody waved and put on a cheeky smile, "Nope, he comes as he is now, besides he looks perfect to me, certainly the best-looking chosen one I've ever seen,"

As she was saying this Liko was unconsciously hugging Sprigatito harder, to the point where she was struggling trying to get out.

Ash chuckled, "So oh great Festival Maiden, what do I, the great hero get for completing such a daring adventure?" he said smiling

Melody laughed back, "Well if you want I can give you another kiss."

"Tempting, I might take you up on that," Ash said laughing seeing everyone's reaction, "Well I suppose I should start then,"

Melody tried to push him back down on the chair, "Oh, there's no hurry. You have all day tomorrow. Tonight's just for the party. Stay, have some fun,"

But Ash waved her off, "Nah, it's fine, it should only take me an hour probably," Ash said stretching his arms, "Maybe a little more,"

"Err, are you sure?" Melody asked, "I mean it is getting dark so shouldn't you want to relax,"

Ash shook his head and put on a smile, "Nah, you chose to have me as the Hero didn't you, so I should take responsibility," he said completely knowing what that sounded like.

And for once that made Melody stay silent for a minute, only broken by Maren laughing, "I like the way you think, if you aren't taking your ship I'll be glad to take you,"

As waved his hand, "It's fine, I've got my own way, it'll be faster like this,"

Ash whistled into the sea and for a moment nothing happened when suddenly a red Gyarados shot his head out of the water and was floating next to the nearby cliff they were on.

Ash hopped on and Pickchu was snapped out of his trace to run after and jump on Ash, "I'll be back, try not to miss me too much."

As they watched Ash fly back down into the water with Gyarados, they sighed thinking that nothing bad would happen, but they didn't notice that if only for a bit the waves started getting stronger.

—-

Friede and Captain Pikachu walked up the mountain, there was a sign telling him that this was off limits but thankfully due to the festival no one was standing guard or anything like that so he had free rein to go up.

As they arrived at the top they saw a weird-looking stone monument, and looking in the center there was a weird pedestal and some writing that he didn't quite understand.

Friede walked up and pulled out his phone checking through the translators he had but none of them matched the writing on the stone tablet.

Friede couldn't help but mumble, "What is this, and what does it say,"

But then a voice called out to him, "It is the legend,"

Friede looked back in surprise and Captain Pikachu jumped up ready to protect him, but instead of seeing a person they saw a Pokemon, a Slowking.

Friede and Captain Pikachu looked around trying to find the source of the voice but Slowking opened his mouth again, "You know that's quite rude,"

Friede and Captain Pikachu blinked twice and had to wipe their eyes to make sure they weren't seeing things, "You can talk…"

"And you can see, congratulations," Slowking said sarcastically as he looked back into the sky, seeing that it was starting to rain.