Master of the Birds

Chapter 2 - sneaking adventure

they had been on the island for almost a week and Ash hed been careful not to test his mother with her rules, unfortunatly for him that meant that he wasn't allowed to follow the pokemon he caught glimpses of or go and explore the jungles because it was to dangerous according to his mother.

Ash sighed as he looked up at the volcano at the center of the island, he knew that they were set to go home in two days and he hadn't explored the island even a little bitsince he had arrived and if he didn't do anything then he would head home with out having seen a single new pokemon.

a flicker in the dark caught Ash's attention as he focused on the base of the volcano that he could see thru the tree tops, it looked like a small cave with a fire going deep inside it. turning to look across the dark campsite to the tents that held his mother and professor Oak, Ash sat there for a few moments wondering if the adventure would be worth his mothers wrath when he returned but the thought of returning to the small town of pallet with out even having tried to look for anything himself quickly pushed him into action.

quickly changing into his cloths Ash wrote a note telling his mother that he had gone to explore the island before he made his way out of their camp as he began his walk to the base of the volcano. 

it took a fe hours of walking to make it to the volcanos base and even thou he wanted to turn back and head to sleep Ash knew this was his last chance and he wasn't about to waist it simply because he was tired.

Ash could still see the feint light that was coming from one of the few caves on the side of the volcano, the smae cave that had caught his attention back at the camp. he began climbing the moment he reached the side of the volcano, he tried to climb as quickly as he could in order to reach the entrance that had motivated hi m to defy his mother.

it took another few hours for him to climb up to the cave entrance, by the time Ash reached it he was covered in cuts and scrapes from the rocks he had climbed and the sky was getting brighter letting Ash know that the sun was going to raise soon.

looking out over the vast jungle that held his sleeping mother within them Ash wondered for a moment if she was up already or if she still slept peacefully in her tent unaware of where he was and what he was about to do, Ash shook his head and turned back to the cave entrance.

walking deeper into the cave Ash looked around at all of the pokemon that were peacefully going about their business as if he wasn't even there and Ash was glad for that as he didn't want to cause them any trouble after all he was only there to see them, it would be another six years before Ash could become a pokemon trainer.

Ash sighed as he felt the air around him heat up the deeper into the cave he got but still he continued on, it almost felt as if he was being lead thru the caves by whatever laid at its center. 

entering the last section of the cave Ash could feel how hot the cave was as he had stopped seeing the usual cave pokemon such as zubat and sandshrew leaving only the few fire types such as magmar to wander the caves with him as they were resistant to the heat.

walking even deeper into what he thought had to be the deepest section of the cavern he stopped to stare in shook as he had come up to the edge of a massive lava pool with a large stone island set in the middle but what truly caught his attention was the raised stone alter that sat at its centre. 

Ash looked down at the molten magma that moved lazily in the pit before looking back at the alter where he could make out the slight shine of something sitting on the raised stone, Ash moved back a few steps as he thought about whither he should try and get across.

turning his head to look along the edge of the lava ash saw a bridge raising over the molten stone a few feet away from him, taking the chance Ash rushed over to the bridge and carefully made his way across.

a few minutes later Ash was walking up to the stone shrine he had seen and found that the shiny object that had caught his attention was a red orb that was maybe the size of his fist. gently picking up the orb ash was brought to his knees as he heard something scream, it was so loud ash tried to cover his ears but the noise still came thru.

suddenly the voice stopped and a massive amount of heat appeared before him.

looking up Ash stared in shock as a massive bird like pokemon flew down at him, Ash was ready to scream until he realised that the fire bird had landed in front of him and instead of attacking him the pokemon was just standing there watching him.

gathering his courage Ash looked further up to met the powerful pokemon's eye and was instantly drawn into the ancient gaze filled with knowledge and power, it felt as if the ancient pokemon was looking into his very soul and for a minutes ash wondered what it was looking for. a sudden warmth encased him and the next thing he knew was pain as if his chest had been set on fire, the pain ceased after a few moments allowing ash to think properly again as he quickly pulled down his shirt to see a flame like pattern burned into his skin just as he realised that the red gem he had been holding was gone.

"worry not child, the mark will not harm you but instead will allow you to understand me" ash startled as the powerful voice washed over him much like the scream from before but instead of hurting him ash was able to understand what the voice was saying.

"w-who are you?" ash asked cautiously as he looked up at the massive bird Pokémon, he knew that this Pokémon was more powerful than anything he had ever encountered before.

"do not worry my chosen you have no need to fear me, as for you question, I am Moltres the legendary bird of fire" Moltres said as he spread his wings and suddenly lava burst from the pit as the heat in the cavern increased, ash was startled to find that even though he knew he should be sweating and struggling because of the heat he wasn't feeling any hotter than he could handle. Moltres lowered it's wings as the lava followed once more returning to the pit that surrounded them, ash stared at the bird for a moment before he worked up the courage to approach the legendary.

"what did you mean when you called me your chosen?" ash asked quietly not really knowing what was going on, Moltres lowered his head to look at ash and seemed to be smiling as if trying to reassure the child.

"what that means child is that I have looked into your soul and mind, in doing so I have found you to be a kind soul who will do much good for the world and the pokemon that chose to follow you, you see pokemon as friends. a truly unique concept for the children of todays world, as my chosen I give you my blessing so you will be able to bond with your fire type friends and will not have to fear being hurt by their flames"