SARAH

            It had been two weeks since they set out from Mauville.  The host of around a hundred made their camp at a crossroads.  To the north and west was the Jagged Pass and Lavaridge Town, the Shadow of Mt. Chimney visible even in the black of night.  To the north and east was the Mirage Desert, the outline of where all the vegetation stopped could be seen. 

            They had been camping the whole time, and Sarah Spark watched and waited for her betrothed to come home every day.  Chris should be back by now, she thought. The letter from the Forrests said that Swampert wasn’t in Starfall’s clutches anymore.

            Surely Chris Marsh knew about the Forrests invitation.  The Princess of Fortree, Susan Forrest, was going to marry Chief Specter of Mt. Pyre in just under two weeks.  If Chris and Sarah were going to make it to that wedding, he would have to be back today.  Going to this wedding was important, Sarah knew. Solomon Forrest, the Prince to be King, wanted to discuss terms of alliance with the Marshes and Sparks.

            Sarah thought back to what her father said. “Don’t be disappointed,” he had told her. It was likely that Swampert, Chris’s Spirit Pokémon, had endured some kind of mental or physical torture at the hand of Starfall. “That kind of pain could bleed through to its Spirit Human.”

            It made no difference, Sarah Spark would love Chris Marsh until the day she died. The way he garnered support for Mauville, and the way he led the charge out of the broken wall to send the Mt. Chimney forces into a retreat humbled her to no end.  He’s just like one of the brave warriors in all the stories. I know he’ll be back soon.

There she stood, hopeful on Manectric, as she looked out towards the north road.  Her father had taken to resting in his tent, but Sarah Spark kept watch all day.  She was about to turn in for the night when Manectric let out a noise.  Sarah looked up to find two shapes stumbling out of the brush.

            “I told you!” came a familiar voice. Sarah drew an arrow for protection, then relaxed as she saw Hector’s familiar face come glimmer in the light of a nearby campfire.

            Her heart leapt in her throat as she glimpsed the second figure.  For half a second, she saw Chris, but then her eyes told the truth, and she raised her bow and arrow again at the stranger and his Combusken.

            “Put that down, girl!” the stranger said with his hands up. “I’m no enemy of yours!”

            “Sarah! Listen to him!” Hector pleaded.

            Sarah scowled. “You’re the Brightflame Prince!” she said. “You’re the one that invaded Mauville!” She drew the arrow back even tighter, aiming for the point between the man’s eyes.

            He rolled his eyes in disgust. “Must everything be explained to you stupid people?”

            Manectric growled at the Combusken, and Sarah would have released the arrow if Hector hadn’t have spoken up.

            “Brandon, let me talk to her about it.” He said calmly, as if trying to keep the piece.

            “What?” said Brandon, as if he didn’t care an arrow was being pointed right at his eye. “So when she finds out what happened she can kill me anyway?”

            “She’s not going to kill you.”

            What are they talking about? What happened?

            “Hector,” Sarah said, as calm as she could try to be, “you went missing the day Chris left to rescue Swampert. What happened? Why have you returned without him? Where are all the others?” Perhaps Chris is negotiating a peace with Starfall as we speak.

            Hector’s voice began to waver. “Put the bow down, Sarah. Brandon Brightflame is no enemy of yours. He saved my life.”

            She looked in Hector’s eye and could see the truth. She lowered her bow and put the arrow back into the quiver on Manectric’s side.

            “Chris…” Hector began, his voice grew shaky. Sarah’s heart dropped in her throat, and a terrible empty feeling began to fill her. “Chris is dead, Sarah,” he said as a tear streamed down his cheek.

            Sarah fainted.

            She woke up in her father’s tent, the biggest one in the center of the host.  Also inside the tent was her father, two of her father’s guards, Hector, and Brandon Brightflame in the center of them all.  Candlelight flickered, and Sarah saw that the rightful King of Lavaridge and Combusken were bound on his knees by rope. Manectric lightly licked her arm as she sat up off of the cushions.  Her father noticed her immediately.

            “Good, you’re awake,” he growled. 

            He’s angry, Sarah sensed. There were few times she had seen the jolly Marcus Spark angry. 

            “Did this one hit you?” Her father’s Manectric kept a watchful eye on the Combusken. 

            “No,” she said rubbing her head. “I had a horrible dream.”

            “It wasn’t a dream, Princess,” Brandon said. “Your gallant King Marsh is dead.”

            “I’ll have no more out of you,” said Marcus Spark firmly, and Brandon shut his mouth.  Hector had his head down, though he wasn’t bound like Brandon was.  “It wasn’t a dream, my love,” her father said as she stood up and gingerly walked to take a seat by him. “Hector says so too. Chris is dead.”

            She collapsed in her father’s arms and cried.  Sarah didn’t care that Hector was there, or her father’s guards, or even Brandon who was once her enemy. She had been a strong young woman all her life, and now she felt broken. “What… What happened?” she managed to say in between sobs.

            Brandon was about to open his mouth, but stopped when Hector put a hand on his shoulder. “No, I’ll tell her,” he said.  “After Brandon and I escaped from Lavaridge, we ran into Chris, who was alone and looking for Swampert. We found the Pokémon eventually… or it found us. The Pokémon had scars and it was skinny.”

            “The beast was tortured, make no mistake. Its sanity was long gone,” said Brandon. “Starfall’s not one for the rules of war or captivity. Before he overthrew my father he threatened to have Salamence-”

            “Enough,” Sarah’s father grumbled one last time at Brandon.  Sarah wiped a tear away and guessed he had heard this part before. She doubted she wanted to hear any more about Starfall.

            “I don’t care about Starfall,” she said. “What happened to Chris?”

            Hector’s voice got shaky, like it did when he was scared.  “I should have stopped him. Even I could tell that there was something wrong with Swampert… He almost got close enough to touch Swampert and then…” Hector took a deep breath. “The moonlight reflected off of Chris’s spear and it spooked it or something.  There was no saving Chris after that. Swampert flew into a rage and-”

            “It skewered him with his own spear,” finished Brandon with a voice a little over a whisper. 

            This time, Marcus had had enough. He stood up and punched Brandon in the face. The Prince of Lavaridge buckled over, unable to break his fall. Combusken growled in response to that, but her father’s Manectric silenced the Spirit Pokémon with but a look and a spark of its yellow mane. 

            Sarah’s mind wandered far and away. She tried to imagine if Chris was finally in a better place, if he had met his sister, Lily, or his mother if she wasn’t still alive. 

            “I’m sending you two back to Slateport,” said Marcus finally.  We’re going home, Sarah, I’m sorry. Chris isn’t coming back.” He stood over Brandon Brightflame on the ground.  “You, boy, are going to answer for your crimes against Slateport, and for the young guard, Ryan, that you slaughtered. Consider yourself lucky that I don’t punish you myself for leading forces against my own city.”

            “Answer to who?” asked Brandon. “The Marshes are all dead.” Sarah winced at his words, and she felt the rage building in her father. 

            “Apollo Love,” he growled. “Chris Marsh named his uncle Apollo his heir until such time that he had a child… and it just so happened that my daughter married King Marsh before he left and faced his doom.”

            For a second, Sarah felt her face react in confusion. I didn’t get to marry him yet, she thought. Then she realized her father was lying.  Marcus looked at her apologetically and turned back to Brandon.

            “And she will be having Chris’s child soon. You’d best hope that the child grows into his power and pardons you for all your crimes. Guards! Take these two back to Mauville ahead of us. I want them on a ship to Slateport by tomorrow evening.”

            The guards bowed their heads and escorted Hector and Brandon out of the tent.  Hector shot her a look, and Sarah knew that his heart was broken with her.

            He lost his last friend, she thought as she sat back down, trying to comprehend the situation. And I lost a husband-to-be. No, nobody can know that we were never truly married.

            “It’s for the best, Sarah,” her father said as he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s the best for Mauville, and for Slateport.”

            She had to play along, to pretend that she had already married Chris for the sake of the alliance her father had sought and prayed for.

            She had to pretend that she was carrying the heir to the Slateport Kingdom in her belly.