“Ruari, what the heck are you doing?”  Ruari peered over the towers of poker chips she had made on the card table at Sora.
 “Arranging my chips,” she explained.  “See how it’s kind of zigzag-ey?”
 “Uh, yeah,” Sora said, sweatdropping.  She looked across the medium-sized cabin of the boat (this time they had paid their fare, so no need to worry about stowing away) to find Aoife holding a nugget of Pokechow in her hand.
 “Okay, Ytram, jump!”  The firey frog Pokemon obeyed, snatching the morsel right from under Aoife’s nose.  “Good job!”
 “That Pokemon’s not going to do you much good on Cinnabar Island,” Ferio reminded her.  “The gym there is, last I heard, a fire-type gym.  Ytram wouldn’t do too well against the gym leader, especially since it’s fairly new and you haven’t gotten time to train it much.”
 “I know,” Aoife said.  “Which is why I’m training it now.  All right, Ytram?”  She held up a piece of paper and waved it in front of the frog like a matador.  “Show me your Ember!”
 Ytram puffed out a small flame from its mouth, which quickly burned the paper—and part of Aoife’s hand.  “Yow!  Uh, we need to work on that a little more, Ytram…”
 The frog croaked apologetically.  Chu-Chu, who was watching from Aidan’s shoulder in the corner, sighed impatiently.  “Chaaa.”
 “Aif, I think Chu-Chu is jealous,” Aidan said.  “It doesn’t seem to like Ytram very much.”
 “Sorry, Chu-Chu,” Aoife said, going over and scratching Chu-Chu underneath its chin.  “But I have this new Pokemon so I might be paying a little more attention to it, okay?  This is a really special Pokemon and—”
 “Pika!” Chu-Chu interrupted.  “Pikachu, pika pika!”
 “Yes, you’re special too,” Aoife said.  “But I have to raise my Pokemon equally.  You know that.”
 “Pii,” Chu-Chu said, resigning.  Ytram made an almost mocking croak.  “Pikachu!  Pi, pika cha!”
 “Okay, I’ll start with…2,” Petra said, tossing a few chips into the pile in the middle of the card table.
 “I will…” Ruari considered her move, carefully removing a few chips from her towers.  “I’ll match your 2 and add one.”
 Sora grinned across the table at Ruari.  “I’ll match your three and ADD three.”
 Petra looked cautious.  “She’s up to something,” she warned Ruari, throwing down her cards.  “I’m out.”
 “Me too,” Ruari agreed, laying out her hand…three of a kind.
 “Oh well,” Sora said, showing them her hand…four of a kind.
 “Oh, you suck,” Ruari complained.
 “Yeah, well,” Sora said, collecting everyone’s cards and shuffling them.  “Life is not fair.”  “I should know that firsthand, what with Aidan and Ferio.”
 Sora finished dealing out the cards, and held up her hand, shielding it from the other players.  “Ruari, you start.”
 “Wait a minute, wait a minute!”  Ruari meticulously arranged her cards by suit, in descending order.  “I have to arrange my cards first.  Someone else can start.”
 Petra sighed, then took it upon herself to start the game.  “Okay, I’ll—whoooooa!”  Suddenly the boat pitched to the side, sending all the occupants of the room—and the girls’ card game—to one side of the room, where they crashed into the wall.
 “Oh noooooo!” Ruari cried, seeing her scattered chips and cards.  “Now we don’t know which chips are which and who had what cards and how many and…ohh, my chip towers have collapsed!”
 “It’s okay, Ruari,” Sora said consolingly.  “We can start a new game.  How would you like that?”
 Ruari sniffled.  “That might be all right.”

***

 The group debarked on Cinnabar Island amidst a hoard of tourists.  “Hey, what gives?” Aoife muttered, seeing the sea of sunglasses-clad heads that populated the island.  “No one ever told me this was a tourist trap.”
 “Hey, don’t look at me,” Sora said.  “I didn’t know.”
 “Oh yeah, guess I forgot to mention that,” Ferio said.  “Yep.  Cinnabar is a really big tourist town.  Sure, there are labs, but that’s all the non-touristy you’re gonna get.  And the gym, of course, if it’s been rebuilt.”
 “Why didn’t you tell me?” Aoife growled.  “We could have skipped this island and gone straight back to Pallet Town!”  She stomped her foot, on the verge of having a fit right there in the middle of the tourist-infested street.  “Darnit, if you had TOLD me I could be at home with my parents now!”
 “And your brother,” Petra reminded her, but Aoife paid no attention to her.
 “Sorry,” Ferio said, shrugging and sounding anything but.  “I thought you could use a trip here.  You might learn something…and this goes for all of you, you know,” she added, with specific looks at Aidan, Ruari, and Petra.
 “And what do you mean,” Aoife said, still seething, “if the gym has been rebuilt?  Did it get torn down or something?”
 “There was a disaster here some time ago,” Ferio said.  “I’m not sure exactly what happened, but the gym was destroyed, basically.  Guess Blaine had to rebuild it…if he’s out of the hospital yet.”
 “THE HOSPITAL?” Aoife shrieked.  “Ferio!  You should tell me these things!”
 “I tell you what I feel you’re worthy of knowing, when you’re worthy of knowing it.”
 Aoife almost facefaulted into the road.  “But still!  The hospital!  Why is this Blaine guy in the hospital?  He’s the gym leader, right?”
 “Was the gym leader,” a voice said.  The source of the voice appeared to be a little old man on the side of the road.  “Sorry, dudes, I just happened to overhear.”
 “I don’t mind,” Aoife said.  “At least SOMEBODY is telling me something.  Well, go on, what about the gym?”
 “Well, my name is Cloud,” the old man said.  “Blaine had a terrible accident—just terrible!—and he entrusted me with the gym.”
 “What happened to Blaine?” Aidan asked.
 Cloud shrugged.  “Dunno.  Something to do with his Rhyhorn…guess it fell on him or something…concussion, amnesia…don’t like to talk about it.”
 “So you’re the gym leader now, right?” Aoife said.  “So you know where the gym is, and you can battle with me and give me the badge?”
 “I can indeed,” Cloud said.  “That is…if I think you’re ready for it.”
 This time, Aoife actually did facefault.  “Oh, no, another Ferio!”
 “I leave you with this riddle, children,” Cloud said.  “Find a creature for me that lives on this island.  It’s very big and VERY grumpy, but luckily for us it’s usually asleep.”
 “A creature?” Aoife said.  “Like…a Pokemon?”
 “Let me know when you find it!”  And with that, Cloud suddenly…just disappeared.
 “Where’d he go?” Sora asked.
 “It almost looked like he went that way,” Ruari said, pointing upwards.  “Like he jumped over our heads.  But he couldn’t have…could he?”
 Aoife was still pondering Cloud’s riddle.  “A sleeping creature…big, not very nice…guys!”  She snapped her fingers.  “I’ve got it!  It’s a SNORLAX!”
 “But Aoife,” Aidan pointed out, “I don’t think any Snorlax live on this island, and besides…he said it’s a mean creature.  Snorlax are usually pretty tame, and they don’t attack…unless you try to steal their food.”
 “Maybe,” Aoife said.  “Or maybe this is the one Snorlax on the island, and maybe it’s grumpy for a reason, like it doesn’t have any food.”
 “That might be stretching it a little,” Ferio said.
 “Huh?” Sora noticed the pensive expression on her cousin’s face.  “Ferio.  You know the answer to the riddle, don’t you?”
 Ferio smiled secretively.  “I have a hunch…I just don’t feel like telling you yet.  I think Aoife should figure this out for herself.”
 For the third time since they had arrived on Cinnabar, Aoife facefaulted.  “Feriooooo!”
 Ferio shrugged, but now Aoife was interested in something else.  “Guys, look what I found on the ground.”
 Petra studied the business card Aoife held in her hand.  “The Big Riddle Inn,” she read.  “Cloud must have dropped it.”
 “Good, someplace to stay tonight,” Aoife said, as the group huddled around Petra to read the card.  “All these tourists here…bound to be crowded.  Well?  Any directions or anything?”
 Petra scrunched up her face in confusion.  “There are directions…but they’re weird ones.”
 “Lemme see,” Aoife said, snatching the card away from Petra.  “I found it first.”  She scanned the card, then threw it back to the ground where she had found it.  “Another stupid riddle!  Honestly, do all the people on this island talk in code to confuse the tourists, or WHAT?”
 This time it was Aidan who picked up the card and read the directions to the inn.  “It says…’You can’t see or hear me, but I’m there.  I eventually consume everything…including you.  Find me, and you’ll find the Big Riddle Inn.’  What kind of directions are those?”
 “I know!” Aoife said triumphantly.  “It’s God!  See, ‘cause you can’t see or hear God, but it’s still there anyway.”
 “But God doesn’t consume anything,” Sora mused.  “I mean, if you believe in that stuff.  And if you had to find God, it’d be impossible to get to the inn.”
 “Maybe it’s next to a church,” Aidan suggested.
 “I didn’t know Cinnabar had a church,” Petra said.
 “It doesn’t,” Ruari said.  “Not when I lived here, at least.  Unless they’ve built one since I left, which I doubt.”
 “I give up,” Aoife said, stomping off.  “These riddles are giving me a serious headache here.  I need to go get something to eat, maybe rest before I go to the gym.  Screw the Big Riddle Inn, we can find somewhere else, right, guys?”

***

 Wrong.
 3:30 PM, and still no lunch and no place to stay for the six travelers.  And still no answer to either of Cloud’s riddles.
 “This is getting ridiculous,” Petra grumbled.  “We have to find someplace to stay!  I mean, they can’t all have no vacancies, can they?”
 “Judging from the number of tourists we’ve seen,” Ferio said, “they can.”
 “Can we at least get something to eat?” Aoife said.  “I barely had any breakfast and no lunch yet, either.”
 “We’ll try,” Sora said, “but they might all be too crowded.”
 The nearest restaurant to their current location was a Taco Bell (who knew they had Taco Bells in Kanto?), and although the line was atrociously long, Aoife still insisted they wait.  “It’s worth it when you’re starving,” she said, “and I definitely am.”
 As they were waiting in line, with Sora debating whether to get a Chalupa or nachos and Aoife singing the “My Chalupa” song, Ruari suddenly remembered something.
 “Hey…Aidan?  You still have that card?” she asked.
 “Yeah, why?” Aidan said.
 “Can I see it for a minute?”
 “Sure.”  Aidan handed Ruari the card, and suddenly her face lit up, eyes widening and mouth falling involuntarily open.
 “Hey, I recognize this riddle…” Ruari said.  “I know where the inn is!”  She grabbed Petra’s hand and ran out the door.  “Come on, guys!”  The others followed Ruari as fast as they could, wondering what she had in mind.

(Who's that Pokemon?  It's Ytram!)

 “Mind telling us where you’re going, Ruari?” Ferio asked as they ran down the streets of Cinnabar Island.
 “The Hobbit,” Ruari gasped, breathless from running.  “Clock tower…I saw…on the hill…”
 “Er, what’s she talking about?” Aoife asked.
 “Your guess is as good as mine,” Petra shrugged.
 Ruari led them on a winding path up the hill, finally stopping and dropping to her knees in front of an unmarked building with a large clock tower on the roof.  “Is this the clock tower you were talking about?” Petra asked.
 Ruari nodded, but didn’t say anything until she caught her breath.  “I saw it when we debarked.  I think this might be…”
 “Hello there, children of the sun!”  The door of the building with the clock swung open, and out stepped Cloud.  “I see you found your way to the inn.  Did you figure out the riddle?”
 “Ruari led us up here,” Sora said, as Cloud ushered them inside.  “She figured it out, but she hasn’t told us yet.”
 “I was going to, though,” Ruari said.  “You see, uh, Mr. Cloud, I recognized that riddle that was on your card.  Something you can’t see or hear, eventually destroys everything…that was in The Hobbit.”
 “Er…come again?” Aoife asked.
 “It’s a book,” Ruari said.  “In the book, Bilbo had to solve three riddles that Gollum gave him…isn’t that right?  And the last one sounded something like the riddle you gave us, Cloud.  The answer was ‘time.’”
 “Ohh, I get it,” Aidan said.  “Time, the clock tower…okay, that makes sense.  But how did you know it was this clock tower?  There must be more than one on the island.”
 “Yeah, but this is the biggest one,” Ruari said.  “We visited this on a field trip in 3rd grade…I had no idea it was an inn, though.”
 “Excellent deduction, young lady,” Cloud said.
 “Yeah, but only one thing,” Ruari said.  “I haven’t figured out your other one yet, the one about the sleeping creature.”
 “How about all of you kids sleep on that one,” Cloud suggested.  “For solving the riddle, I’ll take off half the price of your rooms here tonight.  How’s that?”
 “That would be great!” Aoife said.  “All the other hotels are booked full tonight…do you happen to serve dinner here, too?  The restaurants were real crowded too.”
 “But of course,” Cloud said.  “We have a hot springs in back of the hotel too…might wanna check that out.  You may need to chill out there before your gym battle.”  Cloud started upstairs, to get them keys to their rooms.  “Don’t worry, dudes, you’ll find the gym eventually.  Remember the sleeping creature!”

***

 “Okay, how is this going to work?”  The six, along with Chu-Chu, surveyed the hot spring critically.  It was divided into a men’s side and a women’s side, and for good reason too: all six were wearing only towels, which they would shed once they got into the water.
 “Yeah, where’s Petra going to be?” Aoife pondered.  “She can’t be on the girl’s side, because she’d enjoy that a little _too_ much, and she can’t be on the guy’s side because Aidan will be there…”
 “But I’m not a man!” Petra protested.  “And come on, you guys are all my friends.  I won’t try anything, I promise.”
 “Uh-huh, right,” Ferio said, disbelieving.  “We’re all your friends…except Ruari, of course.  And me—you did hit on me when we first met.  And Sora, you flirted with her too.”
 “But she can’t be on my side!” Aidan said, blushing furiously at the thought of sharing a hot spring…with a GIRL.
 “Maybe we could put up another fence?” Sora joked.
 “Guys, I swear on the Boulder Badge,” Petra said, “I won’t do anything weird if I get to be on the girls’ side.  I swear.  By my badge, my gym, my…”
 “Okay, Petra, we get the picture,” Aoife said.  “Come on, we better get in now.  I’m getting cold standing around.”
 The girls slipped into the water on their side somewhat nervously…except for Aoife, who climbed up onto the rocks (almost high enough for Aidan to see from his side) and catapulted in, splashing water up onto the side of the spring.
 “Aoife, settle down,” Ferio said, annoyed, piling her hair into a towel so as not to get it wet.
 “Settle down, settle down,” Aoife mocked.  “You sound like my teacher, Ferio.”
 “And what exactly are YOU doing, Ro?” Sora said, watching Ruari swim along the fence, looking for a hole.
 “I was just thinking,” Ruari said.  “Won’t Aidan be lonely over there by himself?”
 “If you’re so worried about Aidan, why don’t you go over there and ‘keep him company’?” Petra griped.  Hearing this from his side of the fence, Aidan blushed again.  The water temperature and the girls’ comments were enough to redden his normally pale complexion almost permanently.
 “Hey, I didn’t mean it that way,” Ruari said.  “I’m not really interested in guys anymore…trust me, Saph.  You’re a tough act to follow.”
 Embarrassed, Petra sank into the water.  “Ruari, please…”
 “Besides,” Sora broke in, lowering her voice.  “I’M the one who’s interested in Aidan, so it would be me who would rather…er, keep him company, if you know what I mean.” 
She prayed that Aidan hadn’t heard her, and he hadn’t—he had ducked underwater just enough so that his ears were submerged and thus, he didn’t have to listen to the girls.  They were embarrassing him enough by just being there, anyway.
“SCHNORRRRRRR…” came a loud snoring/bellowing sound.  Even Aidan heard it, through the water.
 “Okay, who’s snoring?” Aoife demanded, looking around.  “They’re disturbing my pre-battle preparation!”
 “D’you think it’s Aidan?” Sora asked, looking suddenly frantic and worried.  “If he fell asleep, he might fall in the water and drown!”
 “Aidan doesn’t snore, though,” Aoife said.  “At least, I’ve never heard him.”
 “It’s not me,” Aidan called, from his side.  “It sounds like it’s coming from the bushes.”
 Aoife jumped up and leaped out of the spring, forgetting about her non-clothed state.  “It’s the sleeping creature, you guys!  It’s the—“
 “Hoooold it,” Petra said, lunging over and grabbing Aoife by the ankle.  “It’s coming from Aidan’s side, and you are NOT going over there without at least putting on a towel.  None of us are, either.”
 “Okay, fine, I’ll go inside and get dressed,” Aoife said, draping a towel around herself and trudging inside, the rest of the group in tow.
 

Author's Notes
I like this episode lots, guys.  I had wanted to do a poker scene for a while, just to have Ruari apply her weird compulsions to the game.  And I loved the hot springs scene too...heh.  Aidan is such a prude it's almost endearing...and then on the other hand you have Ruari, who's so...well, sometimes she shares a little *too* much information.  As for Cloud?  You remember Wake Up Snorlax, and the hippie guy with the Pokeflute?  That's Cloud...and yes, he's probably very old.  Must be some sort of herbal alternative medicine...thing.  The time riddle I really did snatch from the Hobbit, but the other one I made up.  And I called it (the area where the Indigo League is, I mean) Kanto because I like that name better than calling it "the Indigo League", because that suggests the Pokemon league, not the location.  And it's not the Indigo Islands, like I said in the Ohtori Story, because Indigo is part of the mainland with Johto too.

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