[attr="class","juliaw"]

"It's okay! The League has a plan already, and it's totally going to work!" Julia's voice bordered on manic as she spoke. The plan had to work. Thinking about what would happen if it didn't wasn't an option. Though maybe that was why Shalin was willing to do this. It never hurt to have a backup plan, after all.

[break][break]"What happened?" Julia asked when Shalin screamed. She approached the door and gently touched it with the back of her hand. "Ow, jeez, that's hot!" she exclaimed, shaking her hand out.

[break][break]She looked at the Pokémon that Shalin released. It looked like a larger, fluffier white Stantler, and it apparently had telepathy. "Sure! Is that one of the Pokémon from those distortions?" Julia had never seen a Wyrdeer herself, but a few pictures of them had been floating around.

[break][break]Julia stepped to the side of the door as Prance telekinetically opened it. "Wait!" Julia called at the same time as Prance's telepathic warning. Too late—Shalin was already peeking inside. Even from where she stood, Julia could feel the waves of intense heat emanating from the room. Even Momo looked a bit uncomfortable. Without concern for her own safety, Julia peered around the doorframe to look inside.

[break][break]Holy heck, that was a room full of magma.

[break][break]"Get out of there!" Julia called. Luckily, Shalin did just that, gasping for breath. Julia pulled her head away from the door and followed Shalin to safety. She heard Prance's telepathic chiding and the regal tone behind it. Pokémon-to-human communication wasn't one-to-one, even with telepathy, but the message about the unbearable heat was pretty clear.

[break][break]"You okay?" Julia asked. She glanced back at the open door. "Who the heck puts a lava room in a castle? Maybe we should close that door for now so it doesn't get too hot down here. Oh, and if you feel a hot doorknob again, be really careful opening the door." That was something she'd learned during fire safety training. She never could have imagined it applying to a room flooded with magma.

[break][break]Once Shalin had recovered, the party made their way up the staircase to the north door. There were flashes of purple light, and three Braixen appeared! Shalin didn't need to ask for a hand twice; in fact, she didn't even need to ask once.

[break][break]"Momo, defend!" Julia called. The Simisear leaped forward and stood between Shalin and the Braixen, hooting and jumping up and down on all fours. The Braixen's Will-O-Wisps fizzled in his fur. "Now use Rock Tomb!" Momo raised his arms up into the air. Silver sparkles formed above his palms and began to expand into several large lumps. They solidified, creating several rocks outlined in silver energy. Momo made a throwing motion with his hands, and the rocks flew forward, falling around the Braixen.