Chapter 5: Meteor Falls

"Whoa," Dawn exclaimed as we neared the entrance. "It's huge."

"What'd you expect?" I asked dryly. "It's a mountain."

"Let's go!" Dawn ignored my tone and began running to the giant hole that looked more like a monster's mouth than a cave's entrance.

I caught up to Dawn and reluctantly grabbed her wrist, spinning her around to face me. I let go of her wrist quickly, feeling awkward for getting so near and a tinge of fright at how alarmingly fragile she felt.

"What?" She looked at me curiously.

"I was serious when I said someone had died here before." I stared into her eyes until she blinked and looked away.

"I thought you were just trying to scare me."

"What have I told you, Dawn? I don't lie." I took a deep breath. "Years ago, Team Magma and Team Aqua almost caused the mountain to collapse. They battled inside it over a meteorite, or so I've heard, and since then people have tried to avoid Meteor Falls as if the mountain is cursed."

"And you believe that?" 

"I don't believe in curses, but I do believe that doesn't give us any reason to be less careful." I looked at her again. "When you're in here, do exactly what I say when I say it. If you don't and something bad happens to you, it is not my fault and I will not take any blame or feel guilty about whatever stupid thing you do. Do you understand?"

Dawn's eyes looked fearful, but she nodded.

"Do I have your word, Dawn?" This was the first time I'd ever used her name sincerely. I may not like her in the slightest, but that didn't mean I wanted her to not be prepared for what we may find in the cave.

"Yes," her voice was strong. 

"Ok, let's go in." I placed my hand at the entrance of the mouth, looking over my shoulder for one last glimpse at the sun before stepping inside the dimly lit cave.

"It's pretty well lit for a cave," Dawn observed. "Where's the light coming from? There aren't any lanterns..."

"You haven't seen anything yet," I grunted, climbing up an eight foot tall boulder. It looked like it had fallen from the high ceiling, blocking the path I knew we needed to take to get to the main chamber. I reached the top and tried to steady my breath. "We need to go farther in."

"Um, Paul?" 

"What?" Of course, there was already a problem.

"A little help?" Dawn pointed at the boulder and smiled sheepishly.

I sighed and held a hand down. She scrambled up a couple feet as best as she could and grabbed my hand. I hauled her up. It was a good thing she really did have chicken limbs- it would have made this a whole lot harder if she weighed more.

"Thanks." She panted as she scrambled to the top of the boulder.

I was about to ask why she was breathing heavier than I was considering I had done seventy five percent of the work, but held my tongue and dropped off the boulder on the other side, trying to focus.

"Paul?"

"What?"I looked back up to see her dangling her legs over the boulder, unable to jump by herself. "You know, you really need to learn how to do things by yourself. You're, what, twelve?"

"I'm seventeen, thank you very much."

"You don't act like it. And besides, you're really short."

"Hey!"

"Just jump already."

Yet again, I helped her get down and I regretted, yet again, my decision to allow her to come along.

Fortunately, the rest of the way to the main chamber was clear of obstacles. Dawn almost screamed with a combination of awe and fright at every encounter with a wild Pokemon before taking out her droning Pokedex. At each instance I resisted hitting my forehead against the cave wall, which was hard to do when she kept stating such obvious things like, "Lunatone are shaped like the moon and Solrock are shaped like the sun!"

The farther we went in, the brighter it got. Less Pokemon occupied the bright spaces during the day- most were sleeping. It made me wish Dawn was also nocturnal and unconscious right now.

"Why is it so bright?" Dawn kept asking out loud.

I just shook my head and continued forward. She finally stopped asking after a couple of minutes, figuring for once that she would see for herself.

After an hour of hiking, we came to the main chamber deep inside Meteor Falls.

"This is amazing!" 

"Sh," I hushed her. "Don't speak loudly. We don't want a cave in or for wild Pokemon to attack us."

"Right." She nodded, then whispered, "I can't believe this."

I looked around- we were in a huge area, most of it covered by a small lake being filled by a roaring waterfall. A thousand feet up was a gaping hole in the mountain, shining light in, showing the walls and floor of the rocky cave to be a stunning yellow color, unlike the normal grey or brown.

Meteorites were scattered around everywhere, most of them grey and dull looking. However, the ones that were in the range of the light sparkled, sending out enough glittering light to fill the entire room.

"There are a lot of stalagmites and stalactites in here." Dawn put her hand on a stalagmite.

"Wow. She knows English." I smiled darkly. If anything she'd done so far in the past day, her saying those words had impressed me more than anything.

"I just don't know the difference between the two," Dawn admitted, sounding embarrassed.

I sighed, no longer very impressed. "Stalagmites are the ones on the ground. Stalactites form by rain water dripping down inorganic material, such as this limestone. The water then drips down, forming a mound which becomes a stalagmite, meaning stalagmites and stalactites usually grow in pairs."

"How'd you know that?" Dawn's eyes widened.

"I read," I said simply. "Now remember the difference and if I say, 'Careful of the stalactite' and one pierces through your skull, well, I warned you."

Dawn stared at me for a full minute before moving onto her next question.

"Why do they shine like that?" Dawn asked, peering at one of the meteorites, which was cradled tightly in the solid limestone. She touched it gently.

"They contain minerals and gems from outer space. It's said that they first got here by entering the hole above us, although there are rumors that Clefairy landed here and brought the meteorites from their home."

"And what do you think?" 

"I think I don't care where they're from and I want to go get my Bagon."

Dawn smiled. "I thought you'd say that."

I frowned, disliking the pleasure she got from guessing my desires. "Let's go."

"How are we going to climb that?" Dawn looked up at the waterfall. "It doesn't look like there's any way up except to fly."

The waterfall was not connected to the cave's wall, making the actual waterfall nonclimbable. Still, I had a plan.

"I'm going up first to make sure it's safe up there. You stay here and when I give the ok, fly up on your Togekiss," I ordered.

I threw a Poke Ball into the air. Torterra came out, gazing at the waterfall in awe.

"Torterra, use a small Frenzy Plant. I only need one long vine to get to the top, got it?" I explained. "And make sure you don't cause too much damage to the cavern- we don't want the ceiling to fall on us."

Torterra nodded and raised his front feet off the floor, stomping down as gently as possible. A dead, thorny vine grew from the floor, breaking away the rocky floor as it climbed the side of the waterfall, leading to the bank on the upper level.

"That was resourceful," Dawn complimented.

I ignored her and began climbing up.

"Be careful!" she warned me. As if I didn't know that myself.

The waterfall was about fifty feet tall. I took my time, knowing that rushing could prove fatal. I used the thorns as foot and hand rungs, pausing every couple feet to breathe and reassess how much farther I had to climb.

Dawn was quiet for once, which I was glad for. I didn't need her big mouth to screw up my concentration. Even so, three quarters of the way up I cut my upper arm on a thorn. My sweaty hands slipped slightly, but I clutched tightly to the thorns, refusing to check the damage done to my arm until I was safely at the top.

I ignored the stinging in my arm and began to ascend further up the vine. After what seemed like an hour, I made it to the top of the waterfall. The wide bank to the side of the waterfall was large enough for Dawn and Togekiss to stand comfortably next to me, which I was glad for. All I needed was for a huge white wing to cause me to fall to my death.

From below I signaled Dawn that I made it ok and fished Torterra's Poke Ball from my bag, returning him. I stared at the Poke Ball. "Thanks, Torterra. You really helped me out. There was no way I was riding a Pokemon with the word 'kiss' in its name up here."

With that, I stowed his Poke Ball and stood up just in time to see Dawn's Togekiss flying elegantly upwards. Dawn sat perched carefully by her Pokemon's neck, looking afraid of the large drop underneath her. For a couple seconds her eyes were closed as if it would help her cope with her apparent fear of heights.

Weakling.

Togekiss landed lightly next to me, humming happily. Dawn slid off clumsily and gasped. "Watch out!"

She bumped into me and I took a step backward, inches from the edge of the bank and a fifty foot suicidal drop. Grabbing Dawn to help her regain her balance, I stepped away from the edge and move us both farther away from certain death.

"Watch what you're doing!" I snarled at her once we were out of harm's way. "Do you want to get us killed?"

"No, it was an accident-" Dawn sounded tearful. Her body was still shaking.

"It doesn't matter if it's an accident or not. Dead is dead." 

I heard her sniff, but refused to apologize. Her deep blue eyes, which were now filled with tears, weren't going to soften me up at all. I was strong.

"Let's go," I said, lifting my bag up.

"What's that?" Dawn asked suddenly.

"What? Did you see something shiny?" I sighed.

"No, your arm!" Dawn grabbed my arm and I hissed at her as I realized how much the small amount of pressure she was putting on it stung. "It's all bloody!"

"Yeah, well, I cut it on a thorn on my way up," I answered, trying to make her let go.

"Paul, that's going to be infected if I don't wrap it-"

"I don't want your help!" I yelled at her. "I don't even want you here! You're a stupid girl who's not talented or smart enough to survive on your own. You almost got me killed!"

Instantly, the cave was full of my echoes and I felt that walls shake around me. The words "don't", "stupid", and "killed" seemed to repeat the most and I tried to forget them, to ignore Dawn's tearful gaze as she stared at me in horror as the ground shook. I was ignoring my own rules- being quiet in the cave so it didn't collapse on us.

I sighed angrily. "Fine, fix my bloody arm."

Dawn gave me a reproachful look, hoping I wouldn't yell anymore at her for being an idiot no doubt, before rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a first aid kit. "Sit down."

Moving to the cave's wall, farthest from the river leading to the waterfall and a couple yards from the cliff where I'd almost fallen off, I sat down. Dawn sat in front of me. "You have to take off your jacket so I can get to your wound better."

I removed it, my face smooth as my nerves screamed in agony as the fabric moved across the cut and the air hit the fresh surface.

Dawn lifted up the sleeve of my shirt far enough that she could work on bandaging me up. I pretended to have little interest as I watched her work, selecting a cloth from her kit and delicately mopping up the blood around my arm to get a better idea of what kind of cut she was dealing with.

"Wow, this is pretty deep," she observed. "How'd you climb up the vine with this injury?"

I shrugged.

Dawn scrutinized the cut again. "You're lucky, it may be kind of deep, but it's not wide or deep enough to need stitches."

"Are you telling me you know how to stitch someone's skin together?" I raised an eyebrow.

"No. Which is why you're lucky you don't need them," she replied. "However, I am an expert at the average first aid stuff like this."

Not feeling any better by her supposed soothing statement, I continued to watch her like a Braviary, determined to stop her from poisoning me on 'accident'. I really didn't put it past her.

"This may sting a little."

"What might-" I winced, almost pulling my arm out of her grasp as I swore. "What'd you do!?"

"I sanitized your cut." She held up a cotton ball. "Rubbing alcohol works wonders."

I glared at her. "Just hurry up and finish."

With that, she got out a strip of gauze and tied up my wound. Thinking that she couldn't mess that up at all, I rested my head against the back of the cave wall and allowed myself to rest.

Five minutes later she said cheerfully, "Ok, all done."

I opened my eyes to find a huge pink ribbon-looking thing squeezing my bicep. My voice was acidic, "What is this?"

"Bandages. I only had pink-"

"Why the hell would you think I'd rather have a pink dressed up wound than one that was still dripping blood everywhere?" I asked icily.

"God, you're such a jerk!" Dawn pushed my chest before standing up. "If it weren't for me, that cut would have gotten infected. I offered to fly you up here in the first place, but no, you had to be a man and do it yourself."

I opened my mouth to retort but she cut me off, "No! You don't get to say anything. And if you don't like that bandage, then freaking take it off. If it gets infected or hurts or your whole arm falls off, don't blame me. If I were you, I'd just put your stupid jacket back on so no one would even see that you were wearing pink. And why should you care anyway? For starters, we're the only one in this stupid cave, no one's going to see your bandage! And why do you care if you are wearing pink? You have PURPLE hair! And you call ME an idiot!"

I opened my mouth again, but I couldn't think up a retort. Instead, I threw on my jacket, grimacing as I realized she was absolutely right about not being able to see any sign of pink.

Dawn was facing the river, arms crossed, Piplup in hand, his head hanging over her shoulder. The blubbery Pokemon's eyes were smugly on me and if I wasn't so astonished by Dawn's rant, I'd feel like giving him the finger.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and looked up, wondering "Why me???" before sighing and saying quickly, "Sorry for my rudeness, Dawn."

She turned around, her mouth quirked down as if she didn't believe me. "You mean it?"

"Dawn." My hands were clenched into tight fists. "As I keep telling you, I do not lie. I tell the truth even if it hurts."

And oh, did this truth hurt.

Her eyes smiled at me and I wondered why she so easily put things behind her. "Ok. Well, let's get going then."