Chapter 79: The Same Kind in the Valley
"Roar!"
The mother Kangaskhan pointed to a deeper area of the Silver Mountain Range and gestured. When Ryū understood what she said, his eyes widened in shock.
Her colony often fought with another in the central area—a colony of his own kind. It was from these battles that the Kangaskhan had learned to use Ice-type moves against them.
'There's a Dragonite colony in the center of Mt. Silver?!'
The shock in Ryū's heart was beyond words. He had always assumed the Dragonite line lived on isolated islands in the ocean, as the Pokédex suggested. He never imagined he could find them here.
"...I want to go to the center of the Silver Mountain Range to take a look," Ryū said after a moment's hesitation. "Can I trouble you to lead the way?" He wanted to see this Dragonite colony for himself, and he knew he would need a bodyguard to survive the journey.
"Roar!" The Kangaskhan, feeling guilty, agreed without hesitation.
"Scyther!"
"Zubat!"
His friends cried out, wanting to join him, but Ryū stopped them. "No, you guys stay here. I'll go by myself."
He and the Kangaskhan left immediately. Along the way, he learned much more about the mountain's central area. While the outer sections had hundreds of territories, the central area had only six major overlords: three on land, two in the sky, and one underground.
The three on land were the Kangaskhan, the Rhydon, and the Dragonite colonies.
The overlords of the sky were split between day and night. The day was ruled by either the Pidgeot or the Fearow colonies, while the night belonged exclusively to the Crobat colony.
But the underground overlord was the most terrifying. A solitary Pokémon that ruled an underground territory larger than the mountain range itself. From the Kangaskhan's description, Ryū deduced that this Pokémon was... a Tyranitar. The Godzilla of the Pokémon world.
He felt he would likely never meet this creature, so he focused his questions on the Dragonite and Crobat colonies. The latter might be related to his Zubat, though it was unlikely.
As they traveled, Ryū witnessed firsthand the power of the Pokémon in this region. He saw a 3-meter-tall Sandslash shatter a Nidoking's horn with a single claw, a 4.7-meter-tall Machamp wielding a massive tree as a weapon, and—most terrifying of all—a sleeping Steelix that was nearly 27 meters long. Seeing that, Ryū felt like an earthworm looking at a python.
'I really underestimated the terror of this central area.'
He and his team of Scyther would be like sheep in a tiger's den here. No wonder Mt. Silver was the most difficult area in the games and the future base of the Pokémon Alliance. The mountain was filled with natural guardians.
They set off in the morning and walked until the afternoon. Finally, as the sun began to set, the Kangaskhan stopped. She pointed to a small hill in front of them. Crossing it would lead to the Dragonite territory. She could go no further and had to return to her own colony. She also told Ryū that if the Dragonite didn't welcome him, he could find her family in the forest to the south.
"Are we there?"
Ryū watched the Kangaskhan leave, then cautiously flew to the top of the hill. The sight on the other side made his eyes light up. Below was a large, peaceful valley plain with a winding river. The entire valley was surrounded by hills, like city walls blocking out all danger. A few small Dratini were rolling happily on the grass.
Who could imagine that such a paradise existed in the heart of the dangerous Silver Mountain Range? The hills looked artificial; the Dragonite must have built this sanctuary themselves.
He carefully observed the colony. There were at least seven or eight Dragonite, and the combined number of Dragonair and Dratini was over 40. In the current era, this was an astonishing number for a pseudo-legendary Pokémon. They grew so slowly that without the protection of elders, few survived to adulthood. Ryū had been fighting every day for a year and was still far from evolving. Wild Dratini, growing naturally at the bottom of a river, would take an eternity.