Chapter Text
Between a Mountain and a Glacier
Chapter 1
A man and a woman stood near the center of town where the Corvinknight Taxi’s dropped off and picked up, a young girl standing close by to them. It was easy enough to guess that they were a family judging by the girl’s evenly distributed trace between the two of them. The man, dark mahogany hair, and striking blue eyes with tanned skin from working long days in the sunlight looked impatiently as a silver watch of his wrist.
“Your friend is late,” he spat at the woman causing her to flinch slightly.
“I’m sure she will be here soon,” the woman attempted to reassure to no avail.
The girl looked between her parents, they had only just moved to the city and she already knew the first night in the house would be spent with yelling and screaming. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be a noise complaint. If there was that meant police. When there was police they liked to ask questions. The girl didn’t like answering questions, she was always scared to answer them wrong and make her father upset.
As her parents continued to bicker softly to each other—only being hushed due to the public setting—the girl looked down at her shoes. Her grandmother had insisted on making her dress up to meet with her mother’s old friend, though she couldn’t understand why. Was her mom’s friend a big deal? She still didn’t understand why, even if they were, that she had to wear a dress for the occasion. A dress meant she couldn’t play in the snow. And she really wanted to play in the snow. She never got to visit the snowy area of the region in Unova and now she would get to live in the snowy region. If there were any good hills nearby maybe her father would take her skiing like the one time they went to Snowpoint City in Sinnoh.
“So sorry I’m late,” a voice called out to the family making all of them stand at attention. The girl looked at the woman in awe. She was beautiful with long blonde hair and a warm looking fur hat on. She wore some kind of jersey with an icicle looking logo on it. Her blue eyes assessed the family with a warm smile on her face. “The photoshoot ran late which made me late to pick up Sierra from the sitters since Gordie went off to play with his pokemon today.”
The little girl in the woman’s arms must have been Sierra. She looked young. Barley old enough to be not considered a baby anymore yet she seemed unbothered by the chilling air of the city—bundled up in her winter coat and sleeping soundly against her mother’s chest where she was cradled.
“Melony it’s been too long!” The girl’s mother cooed as she stepped forward to hug the woman. The woman, Melony, returned the hug with as much enthusiasm as she could manage out of a one-armed hug.
“It really has been Alane,” Melony said back to the woman with a smile. “You rarely call and now you have moved to my city, we have so much to catch up on.”
She paused to let out a hearty laugh before her eyes focused on the girl who had ventured closer to her mother. She didn’t quite hide behind Alane but she didn’t come darting forward either. Her frosty silver eyes studying Melony behind a fringe of caramel-colored bangs. Her coloring looked like Alane from her skin tone to her hair and eyes, but the shape of her face and nose were all her father.
Alane caught her old friend staring before blushing a little. “I’m sorry,” she said with a bashful smile. “I still haven’t introduced you properly to my family. You remember my husband Jarred.”
Melony did remember meeting him at the wedding. He had told her she was brave for wearing a fitted dress with her figure. She didn’t like him that much. They gave each other a curt nod in acknowledgment and nothing more.
“And this is our daughter Taiga. Taiga this is Ms. Melony she’s a dear friend of mine from when I was a kid.” Alane introduced her daughter to Melony. Melony leaned over a little to extend a hand to the girl.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you Taiga. You are just the cutest little girl aren’t you?” Taiga took Melony’s hand and gave it a firm shake. She certainly wasn’t shy but she seemed rather quiet.
“What’s that uniform you’re wearing?” Taiga asked suddenly taking a look at Melony’s gym uniform with inquisitive eyes.
“Well it’s my uniform for the Gym I’m the leader of here in Circhester,” Melony answered simply, bouncing Sierra a little bit to readjust her. The girl nodded her head, not asking any more though Melody could tell she wanted to. Her eyes were lit up making the silver look less like frost and more like liquid mercury. Yet she didn’t ask, likely to be polite as a conversation in the cold would be tedious after a time. Melony couldn’t help but feel a little sad. The girl seemed far too young to be so polite.
“How old are you Taiga?”
“I’m eight,” Taiga answered in a clear voice.
“My you are just around the same age as Gordie then.”
“Whose Gordie?” Taiga asked cocking her head to the side. Alane giggled a little at her daughter’s openness. It wasn’t like her to take such a shine to strangers but Taiga was also a curious one.
“Gordie is my son, he’s ten and just got his first pokemon. So he decided to do some training just outside of town.”
“I have a pokemon too!” Taiga suddenly exclaimed enthusiastically. Without any need for prompting she pulled out a luxury ball and opened it, revealing an Eevee. Taiga picked it up and the pokemon barked happily in her arms. “This is Eevee, she was a birthday present from my granny! Dad can I please go train with her, please?”
Taiga looked back with pleading eyes at her father. His face was too neutral for Taiga to read but Melony could tell he felt put on the spot. He really didn’t want his daughter running off somewhere when he was yet to be familiar with the city, but he also didn’t want to look overbearing to the only friend they had in town so far.
“Fine, but you better be back in town by sundown. And be at Bob’s Your Uncle for dinner. Do you hear me little girl?” Taiga beamed at him nodding enthusiastically, pointing to the restaurant so to confirm she knew where the building was.
“I’ll be there! Come on Eevee,” she said with a giggle and the two went bolting off in the direction that Melony had pointed to earlier when she said her son was training.
“They grow up so fast,” Alane lamented and Melony chuckled.
“Don’t I know it.”
Gordie had been training with him Rolycoly in the wild for a bit now. It was a special one his mom had gotten him that would be able to gigantamax once it was fully evolved. She had picked Rolycoly because she felt he was still a little too young for a Lapris and he seemed fond enough of rock-types.
Actually he had loved rock types. He even had a bunch of books on different rock types from different regions. Melony hoped he would grow out of it when he became old enough to take over the gym but so far there was no sign of that happening. So, instead, she humored him and let him train his rock types.
“Rolycoly use Smack Down!” Gordie called out and the little black coal pokemon followed its trainer’s command and used Smack Down on a nearby rock. Gordie cheered as the pokemon finally smashed the smaller bolder. “We did it!”
Both he and his pokemon celebrated for a moment, but it was short-lived. Mostly due to the sudden scream Gordie heard coming from a sloap nearby.
“Incoming!” Was the only sound of warning he got before something crashed into him. Letting out a bit of a grunt he fell back into the cold snow that surrounded the area. He blinked is blue-eyes for a moment before they focused on a girl. She seemed to be a little younger than him and she was sitting on his chest, blinking at him with silver eyes. An Eevee barked from a nearby snowbank enthusiastically before bounding over to the two where they sat.
“Sorry, I couldn’t figure out how to stop.” She stated simply as she got up off of him, clearing her dress of any snow that clung to it. He didn’t know how she wasn’t freezing in the knee-length apparel with black tights. She wore a jacket but it was unzipped, yet she seemed completely comfortable. Her hair, which looked like it was braided back had started to come undone. Yet she seemed completely unbothered and unphased. He blushed a little bit, he had never spent this much time with a girl before.
Gordie tried to say something, to reprimand her for not looking where she was going or to ask if she was alright or what she was doing out there, but nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, his mouth opens and closes like some kind of Wishiwashi.
“You’re pretty soft to land on,” the girl stated again with a little tact. Stating it as if she was just saying the sky was blue or it was Tuesday. He blushed at the statement, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. He let his platinum blonde hair fall in front of his face, hoping it would obscure it.
“Hey, you wanna have a pokemon battle?” The girl asked suddenly and he blinked looking up at her.
“You don’t even know me,” was all he managed to squeak out.
“Is that a no?” She asked with a pout. “If introductions are an issue, my name is Taiga. I just moved here. What’s your name.”
“Gordie,” he said and it barely came out as a whisper. He couldn’t even find himself looking at her as he stood up despite them being roughly the same height.
“Gordie?” Taiga asked as if she was trying to remember it. Then her whole face lit up as it came to her. “Oh, you’re mom’s friend’s son!”
Gordie had no idea what she was talking about and went with it anyway. It was possible the girl’s mom knew his. His mom knew a lot of people.
“Now you have to battle me! Please? I never get to battle. Granny always thought it was crude for a lady to have pokemon battles!” She was practically begging and he just nodded his head. Anything to get her to stop talking. She cheered and began bouncing around. It kind of reminded him of the Darumaka he saw in his mother’s gym.
The two of them started to battle and at first, it was going well. Then at some point, the two children and their pokemon just started playing tag instead. They giggled and ran around the route, throwing snowballs at each other and laughing.
“I like you Gordie.” Taiga stated with a smile as the sun began to sink low. “Let’s be friends ok?” Gordie only nodded shyly.
…
Taiga woke up with a start. She felt warm, despite the cool interior of her cabin. Rubbing her face she thought back on the dream. Fuck, how long had it been? Twelve years? If she was eight then and twenty-two now then it must have been. It felt like forever.
“Why the hell was I dreaming about that?” Taiga muttered to herself before falling back onto her bed. She tried to close her eyes in a vain attempt to go back asleep but she had accidentally woken up Glaceon in the process and the blue eeveelution was now kneading at her side, begging for breakfast.
“Alright, I’m up,” Taiga groaned before getting out of bed. She was only in her underwear to sleep, but she knew that now she was out from her toasty covers she would need her PJ’s and quickly put on her slippers, fluffy sweats, and a sweater before heading out to the kitchen.
The rest of her pokemon were already up by the time she had even started brewing her morning tea. She had always been more of a night person so she wasn’t really surprised. Glaceon waited patiently near her food dish while the rest were either playing in the snow outside of lounging in the living room.
As Taiga mentally took roll call she could see her Alolan-Ninetales sprawled on the couch and watched the other’s play outside. Her Galarian Darmanitan was chasing her Arorus though the snow. She giggled to herself but did note that one was missing. Curiously, she peeked up at the porch over-head and smiled. Sure enough, there was her Frosmoth asleep in the rafters of the wooden overhead. Much like herself, that particular pokemon was nocturnal.
Opening the sliding doors she got on a chair and gently pulled down the sleeping moth pokemon and smiled. “Come on everyone, time for breakfast!” She called, waking up Frosmoth in the process causing the mon to sleepily crawl from her arms and up to her head.
Taiga giggled as everyone came running, she opened her bag of Ice-type pokemon food and quickly began to fill everyone’s bowls. Accept for Frostmoth and Auroras. Instead, the two of them received carefully selected berries to better fit their diet. Taiga could feel a few drops of Oran berry juice drop of her head from Frosmoth’s sloppy eating. She didn’t mind though. She would just take a shower and clean up. No use crying over it.
Suddenly there was a shrill ring to her Rotom phone.
“Incoming call from Professor Kukui! Accept or Decline?” The automated voice asked her as it quickly found it’s way to float in front of her face. She would never get used to Rotom’s being in everyday tech like this. She was sure some ghost-type scientist was likely writing a paper about the unethical farming of Rotom’s to make this possible, but that was something to look into later.
“Accept,” Taiga said and the screen flashed to show a tanned and toned professor, who as usual, seemed allergic to shirts.
“Kukui,” Taiga started with a stern voice as she sipped at her finally ready cup of tea. “What did I say about calling me before the hour of the PM?” He rolled his eyes at the way she was talking. He knew very well she was awake and functional by this time usually despite her nocturnal habits. She just didn’t like talking to people before noon. However, he didn’t have the time to entertain her strangely antisocial behaviors today.
“I have someone who wants a meeting with you today and I was wondering if you could be at the league in an hour?”
“You know I don’t do interviews outside of scheduled press conferences,” Taiga said stating it as if that was the answer. She half expected him to laugh and say something about how he knew but just figured he would ask anyway. But that didn’t happen.
“This isn’t a reporter,” was all he stated. Taiga’s eyebrows knit together with confusion. It wasn’t a reported that was trying to dig into the Alola Leauge’s personal life? Someone actually wanted to visit with her? She didn’t know who it could be. Anyone from the league that wanted to speak with her had her phone number or would just show up at her doorstep if they felt like braving Mt. Lanakila that is. And her mother would just show up on her doorstep. She supposed it could be her father or grandmother but she hadn’t spoken to them since the Unova incident. “Then who the hell is it?”
“She says her name is Melony. She’s with the Galar region as a gym leader. She says she has a proposal for you.” Taiga’s chest tightened at the name. Not because of who specifically but because of who she reminded Taiga of.
How many years had it been since she had spoken to either Melony or Gordie? Going on six now? Did she want to talk to Melony? She had nothing personal against the woman, she taught her everything she needed to know about ice-types. But at the same time, there were so many memories tied to her. But something else burned in Taiga. Curiosity. Why after six years was Melony trying to get in contact with her now?
“Taiga, you there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here,” Taiga answered the professor—not focusing on the phone. “I’ll meet with her.”
“Alright, I’ll tell her. I’ll see you at the league in about an hour.” Taiga simply nodded her head before she hung up the phone.
Taiga got ready for the meeting in a blur. Her mind a million miles away and thinking of a million different possibilities. Six years ago, Gordie and Melony battled it out for the right to change the typing of the Circhester Gym. Gordie losing had caused huge strain between the two family members even today. Taiga had paused her rundown to flinch at the memory. The fall out between the two was worse then even the media had gotten wind of. It had also been the catalyst for Gordie and Taiga not speaking despite being so close for so long.
Four years ago, Gordie rose up and was granted to write to split the gym with Melony. Resulting in gym typing changing every year between Shield Years and Sword Years much like the Stow-on-Side gym. It was a rocky start for the two family members working together but they managed to work with the compromise. Last year, the region received a new Champion—a fifteen-year-old girl named Gloria, taking down the reigning champion of Ten-Years Leon.
All of this was plastered over various magazine covers for battlers. Most of them ending up in the Leauge Lounge, not that most of the league members read them. Maybe Moon sometimes she would see the young-first champion reading them. Mostly they were used for coasters by Guzma—who had taken over for Hala after being both an Elite Four member and Kahuna became too much with the league's rise in popularity. Taiga herself had taken over after she was recommended by Wolfric from Kalos where she had been working as a gym trainer to replace Olivia who felt the same strain.
Molayne (having taken over for Acerola) would usually read tech magazines and Kahili always had her nose in the golf stuff. So it was a wonder they even bothered to have the subscription in the first place.
If Taiga was feeling sentimental she would sometimes pull up various exhibition matches from the Galar region and relive various memories. She had traveled with or battled just about every gym leader that was currently on the roster. Or at least she had. She saw on the latest issue of League Monthly that apparently both Piers and Opal had found replacements for their gyms. Good, maybe Opal could stop harassing her gym challengers then.
Before Taiga knew it, she was dressed in her jeans and blue turtle-neck and standing outside of the conference door the receptionist had directed her to. She gripped her belt that had her purse and pokemon out of nerves. As if sensing her discomfort Glaceon nudged her leg in an attempt to comfort her which made Taiga smile.
“Your right, I should just get it over with,” Taiga said with a smile. Then she opened the door.
It almost felt anticlimactic, seeing the simple table where both Kukui and Melony sat—chatting over what smelled like Tapu Cocoa. Melony looked good. Her hair had gained a streak of silver over the years but she still looked as cheerful and healthy as Taiga remembered. The older woman paused mid-laugh to look at her and then a wide smile spread across her face.
“Oh, Taiga is that you? You look so beautiful!” And with that Melony rose from her chair and strode over to Taiga giving her a big Bewear hug. She smelled like Mint and Vanilla. She smelled like her childhood. She smelled like Circhester—her home.
“You cut your hair, it looks nice,” Melony noted as she took a step back and Taiga touched her bobbed hair. It had grown darker with age, now being more brown then the caramel it was as a child, but that could also be due to the lack of time she spent in the sun despite living in such a tropical region. She had almost forgotten Melony had never seen her with her hair cut since it had been so long since she started keeping it short.
There was also an underlying thought and sting to the words. Mostly that it meant Melony wasn’t keeping tabs on her like Taiga was her and Gordie, but she quickly shook it off. It wasn’t like Alola was a well-established region. She had interviews but rarely did she have her photo featured anywhere. Alola wasn’t one for the fanfare like Galar was, trying to keep things traditional and homey instead.
Melony touched her cheek slightly and had a slightly worried expression. “Are you eating alright dear. You look a little pale and thin.”
Kukui snickered at that one and Taiga shot him a glare. He always teased her about her slender frame despite the amount she ate. “Yes, I’m eating fine.”
“That’s good to hear,” Melony said with a sigh.
“What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be prepping the Circhester gym?” With Gordie? She didn’t say the rest. She couldn’t. She wouldn’t.
“Always so straight forward, even when you were little.” Melony reminisced as she ventured back over to her chair and took a seat. Taiga followed suit, sitting across from the Ice Gym Leader. “I’ll cut to the chase then. I have a set of triplets and I’m not getting any younger. I want you to take over as the Ice-Type Gym Leader for Circhester.”
Taiga blinked. What?
“I don’t know if you know this Melony, but I’m already an Elite Four member here. I can’t just drop everything and become a gym leader for a different league.” Melony clicked her tongue in disapproval at Taiga’s words.
“Of course I know, you think I don’t read up on what my favorite student has been up to since she moved?”
“Then why are you asking? Just let Gordie take over the gym full time.” Taiga was too bewildered to bother caring that she let it slip that she herself kept up on the Galar region. If questioned she would say it was for work nothing more. But she also knew no one really cared if she kept tabs on them other then her pride.
Melony gave a glare at the idea Taiga proposed. Taiga knew what that glare meant. “Over my dead body” Melony often had used that glare when she and Gordie were children and getting into wild trouble and schemes. Taiga let out a huff. She had forgotten Melony was just as prideful as she was.
“Why not have Sierra take over, or one of the gym workers you trained?”
“I trained you too, and Sierra has no interest in pokemon battling. She would rather try and work as a clothing designer.” The slight huff to Melony’s statement told Taiga she didn’t really approve of that choice but at least it seemed she was taking it better than Gordie’s choice to specialize in rock types.
“If you are worried about the Elite Four, Plumeria specializes in poison types and offered to come on under Guzma and Lusumine’s recommendation.” That wasn’t fair of Kukui. It made Taiga feel like they wanted her out of Alola. She wouldn’t be surprised. She wasn’t the easiest person to get along with and she knew it. She knew what the locals said about her. That she was cold-hearted and blunt. Excuse her for just being honest.
“I can’t force your hand,” Melony stated. “But I’m tired. Your mother isn’t getting any younger. And I know you. You are a reliable and dependable young woman who would be an excellent teacher and role model to the children and trainers in Circhester. I know Gordie would much prefer working with you instead of me.” Taiga flinched at that one. She highly doubted that.
“What do you know? Your life is perfect!” His words still stung her to this day. Not from the harshness, but from the lack of truth. She had thought he knew her better than that. But she guessed not.
“You don’t play fair, dragging my mom into this,” Taiga countered doing her best to compose herself. She wasn’t upset. Something that surprised Kukui but only made Melony smile. She understood Taiga, as someone with the nickname “Icey Professional” how could she not?
“I never said I did.”
Taiga let out a puff of air and put her hands to her face before dragging them down. “Fine. Fine. I’ll become the new Circhester gym leader.”
“Excellent!” Melony exclaimed with a smile. “I’ll need you to fly out tomorrow, there is a lot of prep work since it’s the Shield year. I’ll go ahead and pay for the movers to pack and ship out your things to Galar.”
Taiga didn’t bother to protest Melony. She was off on a whirlwind and there was no stopping her. Besides, it was less for Taiga to think about. She could manage that. It would give her more time to mentally prepare for going home.
She just really hoped she didn’t regret it.