Master of the Birds

Chapter 5

ash smiled happily as he hugged zapdos unconsciously making the feelings of warmth and acceptance grow even stronger inside of the legendary, zapdos sagged a little as he allowed himslelf to truly relax for the first time in centuries. over head the storms that surrounded the islands began to dissipate as zapdos stood once more at his full highet, finally taking notice of his surroundings ash was surprised and curious to see a large number of electric type pokemon that had gathered at the sides of the peak to see what was going on.

"thank you brother, for sharing this" zapdos said as he turned to moltress who nodded in acknowledgment, they both knew that moltress could have kept the child to himself but had chosen instead to bring him to zapdos. the legendary of fire had known that there was a good chance the child would accept his brother as well and had chosen to give Zapdos the opportunity to bask in the feeling of being complete.

"you realise that it is only fair that we give Articuno the same chance as well, right?" Moltres said causing Zapdos to nod in resignation, he may not like their youngest brother much but even he was not so selfish as to deny their brother the chance to feel complete once more.

"ash come here for a moment" Moltres called out gaining the child's attention from where he had been watching the wild Pokémon who had gone back to playing and relaxing having found nothing wrong with the legendary bird.

"is something wrong Moltres?" ash asked unknowingly sending confusion and concern thru the bond that connected him to the ancient birds letting them feel his concern for them.

"nothing is wrong child, but there is one other that we would like you to meet" Zapdos said as he lowered himself to the ground so ash could climb onto his back, the child nodded in excitement and climbed onto the legendaries back as he looked forward to meeting another new friend.

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the flight didn't feel nearly as long to ash as the flight to meet Zapdos had been but it was still tough to hang onto Zapdos feathers as he fought against the wind, Zapdos feathers were softer than they looked as the sharp looking feathers were all covered in a soft and fluffy doun while the static that zapdos produced caused the feathers to stick to him slightly.

once again ash heard the strange lullaby though the song was much clearer now than it had been on his first flight over the ocean, as the soothing melody continued to play in his mind ash was once again put to sleep by the hauntingly beautiful music.

when ash woke up it was to a frigid breeze as he shivered slightly on Zapdos back, as if sencing his discomfort with the cold temperature moltress flew closer and zapdos puffed up his feathers to they would cover him better. looking a head of them ash saw that they were approaching an ice covered island that looked more like a glacier that was floating on the water, as they approached a beautiful blue pokemon flew from the island and met with them over the ocean.

the blue bird was smaller than moltress and zapdos but just as powerful though the pokemon seemed to be incredibly angry when it saw them, the bird cried out with a deafinging screetch and ash was forced to cover his ears so he could block out as much of the noise as possible unless he wanted to go deaf but even after the sound had stopped ash's poor ears were still ringing from the sound.

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"what are you two doing here? together no less! are you trying to get us in trouble again!" moltress sighed in exhasperation with his younger brothers accusation while he and zapdos could feel the pain that their brothers voice had caused the child with them.

"we will explain everything on your island articuno, but know that we are not here to try and cause trouble in fact we are here to help you" Articuno puffed up in indignation as if thinking that they had thought he needed their protection because he was the smallest and youngest of them all, hoping to cut off his brothers rant before it came Zapdos was quick to intervein.

"we know that the formation of your crystal has left you with the feeling of an empty whole deep inside you, it did the same to us. we were prepared to live with this emptiness until today, a human child stumbled into Moltres shrine and held his crystal. incredibly enough the child was able to subconsciously accept the crystal and it merged with him, the child did the same thing at my island and was able to merge with my crystals well. he made us feel complete Articuno, we brought him here hoping that he could help you as well"

Articuno stared at them in complete shock and numb silence until he noticed the child sitting on Zapdos back looking at him in innocent wonder and while he could tell that his voice had pained the child, the boy wasn't looking at him with fear or hate. the emptiness within him seemed to ache at the thought of being whole once more, even if it was just a feeling as long as it took away the emptiness that he had been struggling with.

articuno silently turned and flew back to his cave knowing that moltress and zapdos would follow him with the child on their back, settiling into the cavern that held his shrine articuno stood back and watched as zapdos allowed the young child to climb off his back.

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ash stared at the ice cave they had landed in ahd saw another piller like shrine just like the ones on the last two islands and sitting in the center of it was an icy blue crystal. ash had been able to hear one side of the pokemon's conversation, somehow he had been able to help moltress and zapdos feel better by taking the stones from their islands and now they wanted him to help their other brother. taking a chance to glance at the blue bird they had called articuno ash felt really bad for it, he could see that while zapdos and moltres were happy and bursting with life while articuno was distant and miserable almost as if he was empty. 

looking over at the shrine ash slowly walked toward it and picked up the crystal in his hands, he didn't really know how he had helped zapdos and moltres but he wanted to help articuno as well. once more pain flared to life in his hands before dieing down but this time an icy frost like pattern had been burned into his right hand. 

"incredible" 

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articuno couldn't help it as the world slipped from his lips at what was happening in front of him and the feelings that were running thru him. he had long since given up hope of ever feeling complete again and he was sure that the child would reject him if he had already merged with the crystals of his brothers, he would have understood if the power would have been to much for the young boy. almost as if he had sensed the ice Pokémon's thoughts the child had turned to him and given him a determined look as if swearing that he would succeed.

and the child had done it, he held Articuno's crystal and almost immediately the crystal had melted to join with his brothers beneath the child's skin. the next moment Articuno was bombarded by the intense desire to help and the fierce protectiveness that was radiating from the child, he wanted to protect his new friend and help him feel better no matter what it took. staring down at the small child articuno lowered his head so he could give the child a hug.

"thank you" articuno whispered like the wind on a frozen breeze. ash smiled as he reached his arms around Articuno and hugged the ice pokemon to comfort him, releacing the hug ash gave out a huge yawn as his eyes began to feel heavy and he felt himself beguin to sag. moltress quickly manuvored ash onto his back as all three of the legendaries could feel how tired he had become.

"he truly is a special child, isn't he" Zapdos said as he watched ash fall asleep while snuggling into the warm feathers on moltres back.

"he is but we will have to return him to the humans, he has a mother searching for him and I have no doubt that he would become upset if we forced him to leave her behind. we will always be there for him though, always" Moltres said while articuno and zapdos nodded in agreement. soon enough all three legendary birds were flying out over the ocean as they returned to moltress island and the family of their little human child.