When Julian returned back to the inn he found Daisy do her usual reading books about grooming and design.
Daisy noticed Julian arriving and smiled
Daisy "Did you win?"
Julian took out the Heat Badge and showed it to her.
Daisy "So you won, great, I also finished preparing for my Breeder's exam"
Julian "You look confident"
Daisy "Yes, after this exam I will become an official breeder and I will also get my breeder license"
Daisy was very excited about this exam as her dream of being a breeder was finally coming true.
Julian "So where is this exam held?"
Daisy "Fallorbor Town"
Julian "I see, we can leave today if you want, my work is over here"
Daisy wondered for a while and decided what to do.
Daisy "Let's leave tomorrow, I want to enjoy the hot springs one last time"
Julian "Ok, I will be looking around the city, I have busy all these days training that I didn't even see what this town has"
Daisy "I will also come with you"
Daisy tagged along with Julian and they looked around the town.
Next day Julian woke up early and got ready to leave, Daisy also soon followed him and got ready, after bidding farewell to the Innkeeper they drove away.
After they left Lavaridge town Julian decided to go through Route 11 instead of the new road which connected Lavaridge town and Fallorbor town as he heard that Route 11 had many pokemons even though it and the area beyond it are only Desert and nothing else.
What he heard was indeed true he saw many pokemons even though he was riding his car, he mostly saw Sandshrew and Trapinch, it was their hunting ground and due to the environment, they thrived here.
As he was riding he suddenly felt the wind speeding up.
Julian "This is bad, a sandstorm might arrive"
Daisy "Are you sure, from what I know this time of the month doesn't have any sandstorm assurance in Route 11"
Julian "I don't know, even I thought there won't be any sandstorm but to be safe we should stop here and see what happens"
Daisy "Ok"
Julian parked his car at the side of the sandy road and started to set up the camp, after setting it up Julian decide to look around.
Julian "Daisy stay here, I will go and look around"
Daisy nodded her head and went in the camp, Julian decided to leave behind one of his pokemon so that it could protect Daisy if something happens, he finally decided to leave behind Kabutops.
Julian then left the camping area and entered the desert, he noticed the wind was growing stronger as time passed.
He was indeed right after an hour roaming around the desert he was in the middle of a sandstorm, pokemon which thrived in these kinds of environment came out of their hind out, most of them were Sandshrew and Sanslash, Trapinchs had made pits everywhere as they waited for their pray to
get trapped in them, Julian avoided these pits and walked carefully around them, as he decided to head back to the camp he noticed a faint outline of a tower in front of him.
Julian 'What is that? I didn't see it there before'
Julian was surprised seeing this faint outline of a tower which just appeared out of nowhere, he approached it quickly as he thought it might disappear any moment. When he arrived near the outline he saw a tall tower made of sand.
Julian 'A tower?'
Julian went near the tower and touched it, it was indeed a solid object.
Julian 'How come a solid object that too so big appear out of nowhere, is it one of those mysterious places'
Julian started to go through all the folklore and old stories he read about Hoenn and soon he found his answer.
Julian "Could this be the Mirage Tower?" Julian exclaimed.
Legends said that a tower would mysteriously appear out of nowhere in front of people sometimes but once they enter and come out it disappears again, the folklore also specified that people always found something intriguing inside this tower but will it be useful to them or not was up to their own fate.
Julian 'Why do I feel like I am getting into something or the other without any reason or context, am I being controlled?'
(Author "Hoho, wait right there Julian no breaking the fourth wall, get back to what you were doing")
Julian "Hmm? What was I thinking, well it doesn't matter, let's check what's inside this tower"
Julian walked inside the tower to find a single huge pillar supporting the whole architecture, its thickness was half the side of the tower itself, he walked around the pillar and saw only sand and stones nothing else, he noticed a steep slope on one corner of the tower, he approached the slope and looked up to see an opening.
Normal people couldn't climb this sandy steep slope without the help of an external item, Julian didn't need any, he just jumped up and landed on the second floor, he looked around and saw the same thing as he saw on the first floor, sand, and stones nothing else, there was another steep slope, this time he also noticed some movements under the ground only to realize that it is a Trapinch, he soon found out that the entire second floor is occupied by Trapinchs, he once again jumped through the hole on the top and entered the third floor, this floor was again the same only sand, rocks and a bunch of Trapinch waiting to bite down on anything that falls in their pit.
Julian "There are a lot of Trapinch in this desert, they must have climbed up the tower after noticing its appearance, too bad most of them get stuck in this form and never get a chance to fly"
Julian's Trapinch was lucky that he found Julian or without proper training and care, Trapinch's would never grow and once they got mature without evolving they lost their chance to evolve any further, it was not just Trapinch, any pokemon that doesn't evolve before turning mature will be stuck onto their from and never get to evolve, seeing so many Trapinch Julian wondered if even half of them would be given to good trainers there would be so many Flygons.
Julian once again noticed an opening on the top, he jumped and found himself on the fourth floor, he looked around as saw that things were different now, there was no pillar sticking out in the middle instead there is an altar made of sand.
Julian climbed up the altar and noticed two stones which had a weird shape on them.
Julian "Fossils!"
Julian exclaimed as he saw the two fossils in front of him.
Julian "If I am right they must be the root and claw fossils"
Julian got excited and picked up both at once and kept it in his pouch, suddenly the whole tower started to rumble and the next moment it came crashing down burring everything inside with it, Julian was also buried inside but he got out from the thick sand, ordinary people would have been buried alive down there, he looked around and saw that everything was fine, there was no sandstorm and the place he was standing didn't even look like something came crashing down here, it was as if nothing happened at all.
Julian "Well that was weird but I at least found two fossils"
Julian took out the two fossils and smiled looking at them, he then headed back to the campsite.
What he didn't know that Julian had completely destroyed the Mirage tower, he was only supposed to pick one but he picked both at the same time and caused it to collapse.
Support me on pat_reon