Brave Warrior (Ch.11)

[MistyRocks]

Well, this is something I've been toying with the idea for while... But I'm only actually just starting to write it, I'm working on the first few chapters like, cuz I would appreciate feedback of sorts.

Anyway, if anyone reads then lemme know what you think. Sorry if it's not that well written but I've only just started writing again after about a year.

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Prologue

The sun had been in the sky for less than two hours before the first person had come walking up the empty road. The village was quiet, almost as though nobody lived there at all and anybody who didn’t know the region would wonder why every year there was a sort of pilgrimage to this tiny place.

By the lake, sitting on the rocks, was a girl and a little dog-like pokémon. Tegan had been there since before the sun had come up, just sitting and waiting for the first people to arrive. She nodded as the first person walked past her and watched them walk up a small dirt path to the laboratory. Then she smiled, knowing they’d have a long wait ahead of them before it would open.

It was tradition for her every year to sit by the lake and watch the trainers gather, then help the professor as he rounded up and handed out the pokémon, which was always a sad time for her. Tegan had worked as aide to the professor since she’d turned twelve and hadn’t undertaken a pokémon journey herself, and every year she helped him raise and take care of the pokémon which would be given to trainers to begin their journeys.

After five years she was starting to grow a little restless. Tegan had lived in the same tiny village and had the same job all that time and part of her was dying for any sort of adventure. Her father and the professor had tried to convince her time and again to go on a pokémon journey and though she’d told them she felt too mature to go on one, the real reason was her mother.

When Tegan was five, her mother, Jay, had decided take up her old passion of pokémon training and start the journey that began in their village. Before settling down to raise a family, Tegan’s mother had been one of the highest ranked trainers in the world. Her father had also been a skilled trainer a long time ago, but had given it up after losing his favourite pokémon in a tragic accident.

Jay never made it far on her journey; she never even made it out of the village. She demolished the local gym leader in their battle, didn’t even give her a chance, but when she stopped in the pokémon centre there was a horrible accident.

Thugs burst in just as Jay had left her pokémon in to be looked over. They demanded every pokémon in the place, which was quite a few considering it was the day that all the beginning trainers had received their pokémon.

Even after receiving the pokémon the thugs weren’t pleased with the chaos they’d caused. While backing out the door, one threw an explosive devise in amongst the crowd. They barred the doors and escaped. Everyone in the building was killed.

Since then Ave Village had been even quieter than before, only four families continued to live there and they had never rebuilt the pokémon centre. And Tegan never pursued her adoration of pokémon even though her father had given her a pokémon as a present when she’d turned fifteen and she hadn’t spent a day parted from it.

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Yeah, that was just the prologue purely for a bit of background. Chapter 1's done but I haven't proof-read it properly yet (when I'm in front of the computer I tend to just keep typing, I have to force myself to go back over what I wrote ^^;;; )

Oh and BBP, can you edit the titles here?

[Evil Figment]

Sure we can. Who do you think experimented with the whole thing and told the TPMers how to do it? *grins*

As for the rest, the fact that you haven't written in a while is apparent enough - there's something about the writing, it seems stilted at time, as if you had trouble finding the proper flow. Of course, that's to be expected when one starts writing again after a while.

That said, good start ; and the trademark darker/more mature approach of yours is plenty apparent already.

*grins* I'll be waiting for more.

[MistyRocks]

Hey BBP, thanks for the lil vote of confidence. When I was writing the prologue I was forcing myself to do it cuz I hate starting fics, but I really wanted to write this, I knew I'd enjoy it once I got going. The past two days I've stayed up to ungodly hours thanks to this thing.

Oh, and Tyger's back in action here, which is great. So there'll be a little more activity. That being said, people are more active here than over on TPM...

Anyway, I'll update. Bear in mind, I'm still getting into the flow tho, once I've gotten used to writing again I'm gonna edit the prologue and the first couple of chapters to hopefully get them to flow better...

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Chapter 1

“Tegan! Tegan, can you come up here a minute?” Professor Cedar called out through the front door of his laboratory. He was preparing to open the lab to the trainers and begin giving out the pokémon. Although he always began preparing for this day as early as possible he was never anywhere near as organized as he hoped he would be, especially when Tegan decided to go say goodbye to her favourite pokémon, she could take all day saying goodbye to just one.

Professor Cedar began organizing the pokéballs into different piles according to different types of pokémon. Every now and then he glanced out his window at the gathering crowd of trainers and sighed when he thought of how much work he had ahead of him. Even if he didn’t have to give a pokéball to every trainer who showed up, he at least had to register them which was simple enough but time consuming.

Opening the door again, Professor Cedar yelled, “Tegan! Where the… ahem,” he paused when he saw how young some of the kids standing around were. “Tegan, get up here now, I need you!”

“Hey Professor, when does the lab open?” the boy at the top of the line asked. The other kids started shuffling behind him and mumbling things like, “yeah, when do we get our pokémon?” and, “how come you’re not ready yet?”

Professor Cedar gave the boy a withering look and closed the door in his face. A few minutes after going back to work, the door opened and Tegan walked in looking a little flushed, a growlithe at her heel. She patted Professor Cedar on the shoulder and gave him a friendly grin, then wandered over to the computer to start working.

“You took your time,” the professor observed, giving her a sideways glance.

“Seriously, it’s like stupidly packed out there. Me and Ty had to shove our way past the people. We’re lucky we moved all the water pokémon up from the lake yesterday, there’s no way we’d be able to go back and forth collecting them through that crowd,” Tegan muttered as she fiddled with the computer.

“That reminds me, how’s Romy doing?” the professor asked, referring to the last water pokémon left in the lake, a little sick dratini.

Romy, the ill dratini, had been found by Tegan while she’d been walking in the hills that towered over the village. Those hills had been rumoured to house dratinis, along with other pokémon which were so rare no one in the village could identify them, but the hills were incredibly rugged at the best of times and totally impassable at the worst so no one had investigated much up there.

Tegan had stumbled across Romy while she’d been walking along some of the lower, easier paths. Romy was lying at the edge of the path in a bush but Tyler, Tegan’s growlithe, sniffed her out. She was unconscious, with what looked like bite wounds in her side. After looking around for while to see where the little dratini could have come from, Tegan eventually picked her up and carried to the laboratory for Professor Cedar to look at her.

“Eh, she’s fine. She’s lookin’ real lively. I was explaining what today’s all about and why all the other water pokémon had gone up the lab and I think she’s kinda jealous,” Tegan laughed. She furrowed her eyebrows the turned away from the computer screen. “How come Romy’s on the list of pokémon that you’re giving away?”

With an embarrassed smile, Professor Cedar turned to face Tegan. “Well now, you see it’s an interesting situation,” he began, clearing his throat. “I’ve been talking with this established trainer who’s an old friend and I was telling him about you and Romy and he expressed some interest in her. As he’s not a beginning trainer he doesn’t actually need any pokémon to start this league with, but the thought of adding a dratini to his team excited him. He doesn’t mind that she’s not quite in full health because I explained to him that it’s just a matter of weeks before she’ll be in perfect condition.”

Tegan raised an eyebrow. “So you’re giving Romy to some guy?”

“Now Tegan, it’s not just “some guy”, you’ll see. It’s not like you want her anyway. You already stated many times that you don’t want to take part in the pokémon league,” Professor Cedar reminded her.

Tegan shrugged and turned back to the computer. “Just would’ve been nice if you let me know you were giving her away.”

The professor gave her a concerned look when she turned her back. “Her trainer isn’t arriving until later this afternoon to collect her, after the crowds have died down. So you’ll get a chance to get to know him and then you’ll see she’s going to be fine with him.” Clearing his throat, he changed the subject, “now I think it would probably be a good idea if we start rounding up the pokémon. Take the pokéballs for the grass types and go collect them.”

“Yes sir,” Tegan mumbled. She stuffed her pockets full of pokéballs, picking them up randomly from the table and ruining Professor Cedar’s organizing, then she strolled out the back door to start collecting the pokémon.

Sitting on the fence and pointing pokéballs randomly at the grass type pokémon, Tegan turned to Ty for counsel. “Do you think I’m just being stubborn now?” She didn’t elaborate; the growlithe knew what she meant. But he just sat by the fence, his tongue lolling out and his eyes flicking between her and the pokémon. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” she muttered with a heavy sigh.

When the grass pokémon were all in their pokéballs, Tegan left them into the lab, collected the pokéballs for the water types and took them out of their makeshift pond, then did the same with the fire type pokémon. Eventually the pokémon were ready for the trainers, and Professor Cedar had the computer ready to start registering the trainers when they came through the door.

“Prof, I’ve got a question,” Tegan said as she sat up on a table.

“Fire away,” the professor replied as he went to let the first trainer in.

“How come professors always give water, grass and fire type pokémon to trainers?” Tegan asked, kicking her legs and looking at the ceiling thoughtfully.

“Tradition? Conformity? I don’t know, Tegan. It’s just always been like that. I’m sure there’s some weird reason behind it. I just happen to like those types myself, so it works out alright,” Professor Cedar replied with a shrug, and then he flung the laboratory’s main doors open, almost smacking the boy at the head of the queue in the face. “Alright trainers, this way! Tegan, you hand out the pokéballs, I’ll handle the computer.”

With a sigh, Tegan took her place behind the piles of pokéballs. When the first beginning trainer came up to her, she asked them what type they wanted, handed them and pokéball and pointed them towards the professor. She had no idea how many times she’d have to repeat the routine, but she was bored of it already.

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After the dullest, most tiring day Tegan had experienced in a year, the last trainer finally left Professor Cedar’s laboratory and the doors were closed. Tegan slumped on a chair and yawned, so bored that her head ached.

“Remind me to get a better job,” Tegan told Ty as she scratched his head.

Professor Cedar looked up from the computer as he finished up. “What was that, Tegan?”

“Nothing,” Tegan responded dismissively. “So, when’s your pal getting her to take away Romy?” she asked as she petted Ty, ruffling his ears and tickling his belly.

“Soon enough. Let’s go down to the lake to put Romy in a pokéball and while we’re down there we can watch Erin battling some of the new trainers,” Professor Cedar suggested as he pocketed a pokéball and headed for the door.

Tegan sighed but followed him. They walked down the short path which lead from the lab to the lake and sat down on the rocks beside the water. On the far side of the lake there was a battling area which the local gym leader used. There was a gym in the village, but the gym leader preferred the field because her pokémon were grass types and the gym wasn’t suitably kitted out for them.

Across the water the Ave gym leader, Erin, was fighting it out with a trainer on the field. Usually, the more established trainers took on the gym leader over the first few days while the beginning trainers battled amongst themselves and took on wild pokémon. The beginning trainers obviously couldn’t build their pokémon to a standard that would rival the more experienced, but Erin kept pokémon of different levels so that even the beginning trainers had a chance when they faced her.

The challenging trainer had a pidgeotto flying above the battlefield. He was practically hopping up and down, shouting encouragement to his pokémon. In comparison, Erin stood calmly on her side of the field, a weepinbell stood near her, seeming to be as focused as its trainer.

“Wing attack, now!” the trainer barked at its pokémon, which turned and dived at its opponent.

Erin stood and watched, biding her time. “Stun spore!” she cried when the bird pokémon was too close to make an escape. The weepinbell sprayed its paralysing spores, covering the pidgeotto.

Tegan and Professor Cedar watched from their comfortable position on the bank of the lake as the challenger’s pokémon fell from the air. When it hit the ground, Professor Cedar produced the pokéball from his pocket and pointed it at Romy.

“Hey! Just you hold on a minute!” Tegan growled, stepping in front of the pokéball. “Gonna tear us apart so soon, eh? Least give me a chance to say goodbye to her!” With that, she turned her back on Professor Cedar and knelt down to Romy.

The little dratini was up on the rocks, by the human’s feet. She looked up at Tegan as she knelt down and squirmed her way towards her. Tegan gathered the little pokémon in her arms and picked her up, the dratini snuggling against her. Professor Cedar just stood by and waited.

“Ah, Tegan, Romy, here he comes!”

Tegan, Romy and the ever-present Ty, looked up together. Coming up the only path which led away from the town was a young man. He was tall, very well built and rugged. He had the look of someone who’d been out exploring the world for years on end. Before he’d reached the group, Tegan let out a gasp of recognition.

“Kovu.”

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Ok, tedious and slow at the best of times... but I'm very slowly building up momentum...

[MistyRocks]

I'm bored, someone come talk to me... I should be studying for my exams, but it turns out that's even more boring then sitting around staring at a computer screen...

While I'm here,

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Chapter 2

The word had been barely spoken above a whisper, but he had read it on her lips and it brought a smile out on his face, his silver eyes shimmering. He joined the group and dropped an old, battered rucksack on the ground, pokéballs rattling together in it. All eyes were on him, and he seemed to enjoy it, as he swept a hand through his shaggy two-tone, black and brown hair, and hunkered down next to Tegan.

“So you remember?” Kovu said with a quiet laugh.

Tegan cleared her throat and brushed her hair out of her eyes. She felt absurdly paranoid with Kovu’s eyes on her. “Of course I remember you,” she said with a nervous laugh, half smiling.

He looked so different since the last time she’d seen him, but he was definitely Kovu. The unforgettable spark of mischief in his eyes was still there but it was accompanied with a sense of composure and self confidence which was humbling. It definitely wasn’t the Kovu which had left the small village so many years before.

Kovu reached out and ruffled Tegan’s hair. “So you cut it! You always said you wanted to be a boy when we were kids, so you’re finally living out your dream?” he teased, laughing as his handed was batted away.

“No! Still a jerk then, yeah?” Tegan replied with a cheeky smile, relaxing around her old friend. “I’ve been working in the laboratory. It’s easier to have short hair when you’re working with pokémon.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Who cares about my hair, what the hell are you doing back here anyway?”

“Well, after we moved away I became a trainer, T!” Kovu exclaimed, jumping up. Arms outstretched, he turned around. “I mean, look at me! You think I could become such a scruff living the high life?!” He dropped back to the ground with a laugh. “Man, it’s the life. I mean, just me and my pokémon travelling. Only each other for company, battling the wilderness… Do you’ve any idea what the sky looks like in the middle of the night when you’re lying on your back in the mountains? I’m good too. I’m not the best trainer there ever was, but I could be.”

Tegan rolled her eyes. “Always had such a big ego…” She pushed him off balance playfully, then a seriously look came over her face. “Is it really that great?”

Kovu nodded enthusiastically. “Oh you wouldn’t believe it! Though, you gotta have a sense of adventure… I don’t know if you’re tough enough for it.” He gave her a sneaky sideways glance and a grin. “You always were chicken.”

“Eh, what was that?” she replied indignantly. “You know you were never braver than me.”

A mischievous smile appeared on Kovu’s face. “Oh, yeah? I remember a certain girl who couldn’t keep up with me when we went up the mountain that time…” He looked across the lake and appeared to pay attention to the pokémon battle which was still going on, the challenger was making a comeback.

Thumping him on the shoulder, Tegan growled, “that was ‘cause I was smaller than you. It wasn’t fair! How was I meant to keep up? I can’t believe you’re bringing that up. That was years ago!”

“Six, to be exact,” Kovu reminded her. “Anyway, I bet things haven’t changed, I bet you couldn’t keep up.”

Tegan rolled her eyes. “You’re forgetting that those stupid hills are really rough, we’re not going to get far anyway, and there’s no way you’ll get farther than me,” she informed him, with a confident smile. “And you can’t use your pokémon.”

With a cheer, Kovu leapt to his feet. “Ha ha, I’ll take it you accept my challenge!” he cried triumphantly. He took Romy from Tegan’s arms and placed her back in the lake. “I’ll take her when we get back. Now, let’s get going!”

Tegan climbed to her feet, looking about for Professor Cedar. He’d wandered away while they were talking, leaving them to get reacquainted, although he more than likely hadn’t expected them to go on some competitive climb up an impassable hill. Calling Ty to her side, from where he was running up and down the water’s edge playing with Romy, Tegan set off after Kovu who was marching ahead, towards the hills.

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Next to Ave Village, there was a group of hills. While they weren’t too high, they were jagged and rough, very unpleasant for walking. Few people wasted their time trying to walk through them, although the occasional trainer ventured up them in search of rare pokémon which supposedly made the hills their home. The trainers which explored the hills never told anyone what was up there, so people just speculated, not too concerned either way.

From below the hills were beautiful. They were covered in vegetation; plants sprouted even from the rocks. Along the top of the hills grew huge trees which could have been hiding anything, and they probably were considering the strange sounds which rang occasionally across the village.

The three of them, Tegan, Kovu and Ty, followed the overgrown path nonchalantly. At times they had to beat their way through shrubs but they kept a steady pace. They didn’t talk until they took their first break when the path was starting to get difficult.

“How have you been?” Kovu asked with a concerned tone to his voice.

Looking out of the corner of her eye at him, Tegan smirked. “Fine Kovu, just fine. Why do you ask?”

“’Cause, I wanna know,” he replied, playfully nudging her, “what the hell you’re still doing in this place… We were friend since we were babies! I thought I knew you better than anyone, and what I thought was that you’d be out of this place as soon as you could. So what’re you still doing here? I gotta know.”

Tegan smiled and shrugged. “I grew up Kovu, that’s what happened. I just grew up.”

“Bullshit! Complete bullshit T, and you know it.” He gave her a long look then sat back and assumed a more respectful tone. “Your mom?”

“Shut up and mind your business!” Tegan snapped at him, getting to her feet.

Kovu stuck out his foot and tripped her up, watching her crash to the ground with a yawn. “Don’t act hard with me. We talked about it when we were kids, I don’t get why you’re closing up on me now.” When Tegan just glared at him, he rolled his eyes. “Fine, be as damn well stubborn as you please but we’re not moving ‘til you talk to me.”

Grumbling to herself, Tegan sat up and looked at him. “It was different then. You were there for me,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “After you left it was just me and Dad… We’re happy though. We do okay.”

“Man, I’m gonna need a shovel with all the shit that’s coming outta you.”

“Ew, shut up Kovu. Don’t be gross.” She sighed and ran her hand over her short bleach-blonde hair. “Okay, so I’ll never get out of this place, so I’ll never get to kick your ass in a pokémon league, and so I’ll never get to see the world… I can live with that.”

“Your dad, huh? You don’t want to leave him alone, which is understandable. Actually, it’s kinda admirable that you’d give up your happiness for him,” Kovu said with a respectful nod.

Tegan gave him a filthy look. “Stop analysing me, you idiot.” She climbed to her feet. “Let’s keep walking.” And she strode off ahead.

Kovu was quickly by her side and they restarted their trek up the hill. Competing against each other, especially with Tegan still annoyed with Kovu, they kept walking longer than they would have alone, although it was in silence. When the path disappeared into rocks and plant life, the three of them, Ty included, scrambled over, through and around the obstacles. Before they knew it, for the first time for anyone of them, they stood on top of the hill.

“Whoa…” Tegan gasped when she realised she couldn’t go any higher, unless she was to climb one of the nearby trees.

“Farthest you got after all this time?” Kovu asked as he wandered off amongst the trees.

Tegan followed slowly behind him. “Yeah, it’s not like I tried though.”

They trolled through the trees silently for a while, looking around them. Neither of them wanted to say but they were a little uneasy. It was starting to get dark out and they didn’t know the area. The shadows under the trees seemed to move unnaturally. Leaves rustled, twigs snapped and there was an eerie feeling of being watched.

Clearing her throat, Tegan turned to Kovu. “We should probably head back now; otherwise we’ll be stuck up here all night.”

“You’re scared,” Kovu replied with a laugh and walked away from her.

“I’m being sensible, you idiot. I’m not letting you get me stranded up here.” She walked after him and grabbed his jumper, tugging him down to her level. Then she whispered fiercely in his ear, “We don’t know what the hell is up here.”

“Coward.” Kovu shook her off and kept going.

“Do you’ve any flying type pokémon?” Tegan asked as she followed, looking around her carefully.

“Though you said I couldn’t use my pokémon,” he reminded her with a sly smile.

Grumbling Tegan caught up with him and they walked together, exploring the wooded hill. Kovu looked about him with interest, while Tegan glanced around nervously. It wasn’t long before Tegan felt justified for her nerves.

A branch broke behind them. They stopped dead and turned painstakingly slowly towards the sound. Something started growling and they paused.

“I am so gonna kill you for this,” Tegan whispered at Kovu, shooting him a filthy look.

When Kovu saw what stood behind them, he burst out laughing. “Oh man, it’s harmless!”

Tegan looked and sighed with relief. A pokémon which couldn’t even be described as dog-like, it was more like puppy, stood growling at them. Ty growled back at it just as aggressively. It was grey with a black face, paws and belly. Its tail was fluffed up in what was meant to be an intimidating gesture, but Tegan only found it adorable.

Producing his pokédex, Kovu declared, “It’s a poochyena. Cute or what?” He shuffled about in his rucksack and pulled out a pokéball. “Well, I don’t have one of these yet so I may as well catch it!”

Grabbing the pokéball from his hand, Tegan gave him a withering look. “You can’t put something that cute in a pokéball. Gimme that.” She put the ball in her pocket. “Besides, if you’ve learnt anything about pokémon, you know poochyena evolves into mightyena, which you probably don’t want to bump into in the middle of the night, especially if you annoyed it by taking its baby.”

“Screw that,” Kovu replied dismissively. He took another pokéball out of his rucksack and tossed it at the little pokémon before Tegan could take it off him.

“This is not going to end well.”


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dum dee dum... well, that entertained me for a lil while...

[Evil Figment]

Still pretty good, though I note some repetitive passage (ie, explaining again about the hill and rare pokémon in chapter 2, when you covered that in chapter 1 (regardign where Romy had been found). The style is still a bit stilted ; though it's improving.

Also on the repetition thing, try to vary your word selection, ie, "On the far side of the lake there was a battling area which the local gym leader used. There was a gym in the village, but the gym leader preferred the field because her pokémon were grass types and the gym wasn’t suitably kitted out for them." ; "but she prefered the field becasuse her pokémon were grass types...(etc)"

[Barb]

Your best bet for avoiding repetition is to become friends with your thesaurus. It works for me, anyway. And I like the story so far, but as Dami pointed out, it's a bit slow. However, once you get into the flow of the plot and how the characters react, it should pick up.

[MistyRocks]

Damian - Eep, yeah you're right. Damn repetition. I despise it soooo much, but I can't seem to prevent it. I've the week off now coming up to my exams so hopefully I'll have some time to edit that stuff. I wouldn've done that earlier only I've been busy with the last week of college and such. Thanks for reading and pointing the repetition out.

Barb - Thanks for reading. I'm hoping it won't stay so slow, I'll admit the pace will probably vary a lil throughout, I don't like a story to go too fast or it can seem more like a summary than anything... I do try and use my thesaurus, but I forget about it quite a bit ^^;;;

Right-o, I'm hoping this is improving slightly as I go along...

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Chapter 3

The little poochyena yelped louder than either of them had expected when it was hit with the pokéball. The pokéball broke open and sucked the pokémon inside, dropping to the ground. It barely shook; the poochyena obviously wasn’t very strong. Kovu retrieved the pokéball and dropped it into his rucksack.

“Let’s get moving,” Tegan ordered, grabbing hold of his sleeve and dragging him away.

Ty paused for a moment, sniffing at the spot where the poochyena had been. His ears perked up and he looked at a clump of bushes which were moving slightly. He could hear a low, throaty growl coming from the shadows and when he turned to look after Tegan and Kovu, Ty realised they couldn’t hear it. Barking for attention, he ran after them but they barely noticed him.

They’d been walking around for awhile, exploring, before Tegan spoke again. “Kovu… I don’t suppose you remember which way we came…” she mumbled, looking to him hopefully.

Scratching his head and laughing, Kovu paused for a moment and looked about. “Well, the thing about that is… well… no. No. I can’t say that I know where we are…” He saw Tegan’s eye twitch and put up his hands in front of her. “Now, hold on! That’s not to say I can’t find the way back.”

“Fuck sake, Kovu! You’re back one bloody day and you’ve got me in trouble already!” Tegan roared at him, arms in the air, gesturing wildly. “Is this why you came back? To screw around? My life might not be the most exciting or fulfilling but damn it, Kovu, it’s steady and safe and secure… One day with you and I’m lost and you’ve analysed my life and tried to make me feel like it’s not good enough. So, just ‘cause you’re some hot shot pokémon trainer and you spend your days exploring and you’ve seen and done so much, that means you know everything? What? Does it?” Tegan glared at him while Kovu just stood looking shocked. “You started this, you jerk! You wanted to get into this big deep talk earlier, so come on, big man, talk!”

Kovu opened his mouth but nothing came out. He stood dumbstruck, blinking stupidly, just looking at Tegan. Eventually, she just gave him and dirty look and turned to walk away.

“Wait!” Kovu grabbed hold of her jumper and pulled her back. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like that…”

“Like what Kovu? Go on, say it.”

“Like… your life wasn’t good enough.” He rubbed his eyes as struggled for words. “But, and I don’t mean any offence when I say this, but I gotta say that to be honest, it’s not good enough. Hold on and don’t yell yet. What I mean is, it’s not good enough for you. I always expected bigger and better things for you. I thought you’d really make something of yourself. The truth is I always was kinda scared that I’d be in your shadow if you ever decided to try it as a trainer…” He trailed off and stood silently, judging her mood.

Tegan just watched him with a guarded look, her arms folded across her chest, jaw set stubbornly. It took her a moment before she responded, and when she did it was with a tone that was a confused mix of anger and pleasure. “Do you… you’re not…” She shifted uncomfortably. “Are you just saying that?”

“No! No, god no!” Kovu insisted. “I’m serious T, I always thought you’d do it and you’d do it well. Everything we did when we were kids, even though I was bigger than you, you tried so damn hard. I’ve never met anyone as sure of themselves as you… or at least you were… And I don’t know why you changed since I’ve been gone but I think the saddest thing I heard in my life was when I called the Prof. up and he told me you were still here.”

“Things changed Kovu… You have any idea what it’s like being a kid growing up in a village with about twenty people? Any idea what it’s like knowing your father have no one to come home to if you’re not home? Man, it’s hard. Forgive me for not rising to your expectations.” Tegan began to get defensive again. “And don’t think we get into some deep talk about my emotional problems and all of a sudden I’m cured. It doesn’t work like that.” She sighed heavily and turned away, then turned back all of a sudden. “I could have used you. It would have been nice to have someone around.”

Kovu returned to his shocked look, blinking repeatedly. Abandonment issues, he noted. Moving very slowly, in case she lashed out at him, he put an arm around her shoulders and started her walking again. Ty barked at them but he shushed the growlithe. “So should I use my pokémon and get us out of here?”

Perking up at this, Tegan gave him a sheepish smile. “I forgot you had them. Do you have flying type pokémon with you?

“Yeah, two actually, a scyther and a noctowl. A noctowl should be pretty useful in the dark. Tegan?” He looked up from where he was rustling through his rucksack when he realised she’d vanished from his side. She’d turned back and was staring into the darkness.

“Don’t make any noise Kovu,” Tegan warned. She started walking backwards, dragging Kovu when she passed him. “When I tell you to run, run. Okay?”

An eyebrow raised in mild confusion, Kovu just nodded. He began to realise what was wrong when he heard Ty growling protectively into the shadows. They were being followed. Before he could even feel scared Tegan was telling him to run, and tugging him along into the darkness.

They twisted through the trees, ducking overhanging branches and hopping over rocks and plants. They held onto each other, terrified that they were running practically blind in the darkness. Kovu could barely collect his thoughts and had no idea what they were going to do; he just followed Tegan’s lead. All of a sudden she gripped his arm hard and pulled him off to the right with all her strength.

“Sit down and shut up,” Tegan ordered, pushing Kovu to the ground.

Looking around him, Kovu realised she’d pulled him into a cave he hadn’t even noticed. It was pitch black inside so he couldn’t tell how big it was. He had a horrible feeling it was bigger than he hoped and full of things he really didn’t want to see. This thought kept him low to the ground and pressed back into the rock behind him.

“Just stay as small and silent as possible and they’ll pass us,” Tegan whispered to him and she squeezed herself into as small a shape as she could beside him. There were a few minutes of dead silence before she realised Ty was creeping out of the cave. On her hands and knees, Tegan crawled after him hissing, “Ty! Ty, come back here now! Heel Ty, damn it!”

They all froze like statues when shadows passed the cave, even Ty stopped in his tracks. Whatever was going by outside, there was more than one and they moved almost silently. The three in the cave even held their breath to keep from making a sound.

Ty began to show his discomfort first, trembling because he was so close to mouth of the cave, he looked like he was either going to run or fall over. However, it was Kovu who broke the silence. As hard as he tried, -he even covered his face with his hands -he couldn’t stop himself from sneezing.

“You have no idea how dead you are for all of this…” Tegan groaned as she backed passed him into the darkness, away from the mouth of the cave.

“How come you always gotta sneeze at the worst times?” Kovu commented to himself before his hand dived into his rucksack and he pulled three pokéballs from it.

The shadows outside the cave stopped and they could tell from them that the creatures had changed direction and were approaching.

“Noctowl, Vulpix and Scyther, go!” Kovu cried as he tossed his pokéballs to the ground.

The pokémon materialised next to each other, in front of Tegan, Kovu and Ty, so block them from the creatures that were outside. Each pokémon let out a battle cry, then stood awaiting orders, ready to fight.

For awhile there was nothing, the creatures outside appeared to have disappeared but in reality they had come too close for their shadows to be any help in showing where they were. All the group could do was wait. Then they came.

With a howl, the first mightyena pounced from the darkness and tackled Kovu’s vulpix to the ground. As the two pokémon rolled on the ground, going for each other’s throats, the rest of the wolf-like, wild creatures attacked, hurling themselves on the defending pokémon.

“How many of them are there?” Kovu asked, watching in horror as his pokémon were assaulted. “Ember Vulpix, ember! Oh, and what type are good against mightyena?”

“They’re dark type, so use your scyther. Bug types are good against ‘em…” Tegan advised him. “And I’d say there are five, more than you have anyway… Don’t you have any other pokémon with you?”

“Use your agility, Scyther! You’re faster than that! Use slash! Slash!” Kovu ordered. “Peck Noctowl! Peck like your life depends on it!” He looked back at Tegan for a moment, “I don’t have anymore pokémon with me, besides the poochyena. I just brought along a couple for this league so I’d catch more pokémon and wouldn’t be tempted to stick with my regular team… Can’t you use Ty?”

Tegan looked at the growlithe who stood by her side, barking enthusiastically at the fighting. “We’ve… never battled before.”

“Now would be a good time to start!” Kovu told. Seeing his vulpix being bashed about viciously, he lost control of himself for moment and jumped in to defend her. He tore the mightyena who was on top of his pokémon off and flung it back into the group. Another came up from behind him before he could react and sunk its teeth into Kovu’s forearm, bringing the young man to his knees.

“Ty, get in there! Bite, go for the throat!” Tegan ordered her faithful pet.

The growlithe sprang from her side before she’d even finished talking and was in among the brawl, dodging and diving, with a speed he’d never exhibited before. Sidestepping around to behind the mightyena who was hooked onto Kovu, Ty leapt onto it and took hold of its ear. The pokémon yelped in pain before falling from Kovu and turning to the growlithe.

“Move, now Ty! Don’t let it get you!” Tegan barked. Dropping to her knees she started collecting stones from the ground which she threw at the attackers.

Kovu, now free, backed away to a safer distance, bringing his vulpix with him. The pokémon was still conscious, but a little worse for wear. “My vulpix is out, I can't put him through anymore of that. Does Ty know any fire attacks?" He turned back to his pokémon. "Fury cutter, Scyther!"

"Scy-ther!" the pokémon called as it leapt at the nearest mightyena, its scythes slashing wildly. The bug pokémon caught its opponent in the face; the blow sent it crashing to the ground with a howl. However when the triumphant scyther turned to take on its next rival, a mightyena pounced and they both fell to the ground in a heap.

Tegan groaned. To Kovu she ordered, "Get your pokémon out of the way and I'll see what Ty can do." At the same time she called to Ty, "get your flamethrower reader!"

"Move guys, move! Get back here," Kovu called them. His pokémon obeyed immediately and returned to his side, the scyther tossing off the dark pokémon which tried to pin it to the ground.

"Alright Ty, now!” Tegan roared, her growlithe instantly opening its mouth and releasing a huge spiral of flames which engulfed the group of mightyena.

The dark pokémon all howled in pain and anger, but the fire attack did the job and drove them away, out of the cave. Tegan, Kovu and their pokémon watched them go, then collapsed on the ground with sighs of relief.

“Well, that was fun…” Tegan grumbled sarcastically. She petted Ty and thanked him for doing a good job.

Kovu grinned and pulled a pokéball out of his rucksack. “And all over this little guy, eh? Ha, those crazy pokémon…” But Tegan turned to him and gave him a warning look so he shut up.

“Let’s get some light in here,” Tegan thought aloud as she searched around on the ground for something to use as a torch. Eventually she found a large-ish stick and got Ty to use his ember attack to light it.

Kovu returned his pokémon as he climbed to his feet, then with the aid of Tegan’s makeshift torch began to look around. The cave was far larger than they had expected. Towards the back in narrowed and seemed to become a tunnel.

A look passed between the pair when they saw the tunnel. Immediately they started towards it, Tegan leading the way with her torch and Ty bounding along happily, taking up the rear.

[MistyRocks]

Dum dee dum dum dum...

Today's been very dull. Does anyone know anything about psychology? I'm soo not looking forward to my exams...

Here's what I've been doing instead of studying ^^;;

------

Chapter 4

Their footsteps echoed in the darkness around them. Tegan’s torch only lit a few feet in front so the trio had no idea what was ahead. The teenagers had to continuously check around for Ty as well, he kept disappearing in the dark, but the patter of his paws told them he was still around.

“How long have we been walking?” Kovu asked. He was curious but the question came out sounding like he was moaning.

Tegan kept walking, ignoring him. As she peered into the darkness ahead, she noticed the tunnel start to widen around her. She stopped short and Kovu and Ty crashed into her. When they climbed back to their feet the three of them looked around in amazement.

The tunnel had opened into a huge cavern, which had only a hole high in the top of it which let light in. The walls sparkled with what looked like crystals. Directly underneath the opening in the roof was a large pool of water, the source of which seemed to be a spring that ran from the rocky wall of the cave. There was movement in the water.

Walking to the waters edge, Tegan got to her knees and peered in. There were unnatural ripples and occasionally a bubble or two rose to the top of the water. In the darkness below the water, shadows moved here and there.

“What do you think is down there?” Kovu asked. He was standing beside her, looking into the water as well.

Meanwhile, Ty was exploring by himself. He trotted around the cavern sniffing the ground here and there, wondering at the interesting smells. Even while distracted by his own adventure, he listened for Tegan’s voice so he knew she was still nearby. However, while he was distracted sniffing at particularly interesting stone, he heard another noise. There was the sound of small footsteps.

Confused, the growlithe looked around for anyone else in the cave. The footsteps kept starting when he walked and stopping when he did. Scared, he ran over to Tegan and hid beside her.

“What’s gotten into you Ty?” Tegan asked, rubbing his head. She looked up from the water, turning her attention to her growlithe. Pulling on his ear playfully, she tried to calm him. “He looks kind of shaken up, don’t you think?”

Kovu put a hand on the growlithe and ruffled his fur. “Ah, he’ll be fine… Unless he heard something we didn’t. Maybe the mightyena are back.” He climbed to his feet and turned to look at the tunnel. Thanks to the growlithe’s nerves, Kovu was starting to get wound up as well.

Tegan sighed. “Really, you two are over-reacting.”

There was a splash in the water behind them and the trio turned to look. Unfortunately, whatever had disturbed the water had vanished before they caught a glimpse. This set Tegan off on a rant about making her miss getting a look at the creature, which she directed at Kovu instead of Ty. However, she was interrupted by a noise in the corner.

Staring into the darkness, they tried to see what was there. “Do you think I should take out my pokémon?” Kovu whispered to Tegan, edging closer to her nervously.

“Hush, if it was dangerous it would have got us while our backs were turned,” Tegan reasoned. “Hey,” she called into the darkness, “why don’t you come out here? We’re not gonna hurt you.”

“Bone?” something in the darkness responded in a small, timid voice.

“Bone? What kind of response is that?” Kovu said, raising an eyebrow. It took a moment for it to click. “A cubone! Brilliant! I haven’t got one of those yet.”

Tegan turned to him with a venomous glare. “I’ve had just about enough of mister hot-shot pokémon trainer. You forgot already what happened with the mightyena? Just keep your stupid pokéballs to yourself and don’t get me in anymore trouble!”

Kovu argued back and while the pair fought, from the shadows came the little cubone. Kovu had been right. It ignored the two people and went straight to Ty, waving the bone in its hand in a friendly manner, although the growlithe didn’t know what to make of it.

The cubone and Ty sat at the edge of the water in a relaxed silence, occasionally saying something, as they waited for the other two to stop arguing. Tegan and Kovu didn’t stop arguing until there was a large splash in the pool, which stopped them mid-sentence.

Joining Ty and the cubone by the water’s edge was a dragon-type pokémon that Tegan instantly recognized. “So this is where Romy originated from…” she said with wonder.

“No way, dratini live in this cavern!” Kovu exclaimed in disbelief.

It took the pair a moment to register that Ty had made a friend. Tegan couldn’t help but laugh when she saw how the little ground-type pokémon was sitting next to the growlithe like they’d always been together. It gave her an idea though.

Kneeling down beside the cubone, Tegan tried to talk to it in her friendliest voice. “Hey little guy, don’t be scared. I was wondering if you knew how to get back to the village. If you could help us out that would be great.”

The cubone tilted its head and looked intently at her for a moment. Eventually, he got up and started walking back towards the tunnel. Ty followed along beside him, seeming to trust him.

“Alright guys, lets go. I think he’s going to lead us out,” Tegan said as she followed the pokémon.

Kovu moaned, hesitating at the side of the water. “But I want to catch a dratini.”

“Romy’s waiting for you back in the lake, in case you don’t remember. Or is she not good enough for you?” Tegan asked sarcastically.

“Yeah, she’s fine, but it would be so cool to bring one back from up here. Professor Cedar would be really impressed that I… I mean, we found this place.” Kovu continued mumbling to himself as he followed behind but Tegan just ignored him.

The cubone turned out to be quite helpful to the trio. He walked along, swinging his bone contentedly beside Ty, leading them down an overgrown, but relatively safe path. For a solitary pokémon he was quite willing to help.

As she walked along behind the pokémon, occasionally glancing up and the night sky, Tegan wondered how the cubone had come to be all alone up in the hills. They were solitary creatures, but cubones weren’t even known to live in the region, let alone around the village. Ignoring that, this one was particularly friendly, at least with other pokémon and seemed to be looking for companionship.

Not all her thoughts were caught up with the pokémon however. During most of their long journey down the rugged path, Tegan thought about Kovu. He’d come back out of nowhere, self confident and grown up, perhaps not mature. What surprised her most was the feeling of resentment she held against him for not being around when she wanted him, for leaving her behind.

When they had been younger, Tegan and Kovu had always been in competition even though they were best friends. They always tried to out do each other in everything. The plan had been that when they grew up they would both become pokémon trainers because whichever won at that would definitely be the most skilled. But that was before Tegan had grown up and the reality of her mother’s death had really sunk in.

Of course Kovu had grown up and proved that he could do it. Tegan saw the happiness in him and envied it.

“Hey, that pokémon sure knows his stuff!” Kovu interrupted her from her thoughts as he laid a hand on her shoulder. He was grinning from ear to ear and looking ahead.

They had reached the bottom of the rocky path and ahead through the tall grass was the village. Lights were on in windows and fires burned next to tents that were pitched by the battlefield. There were still a few beginning trainers out battling their pokémon, and the lab looked to be busy as Professor Cedar took on the job of a nurse in a pokémon centre.

There was a squeak from in front of them as a rattata leapt into their path. It bared its front teeth viciously at the group.

Tegan grinned at the little rat like pokémon, then turned to the cubone and gave him an encouraging smile. “Go on, Cubone, why not try a bone club on it?”

With a surprising display of athleticism, the cubone ran at the rattata, his little legs pumping, twirling the bone high above his head. He came at the other pokémon from the side and, leaping in the air, brought his bone down hard on its skull.

The rattata looked at the group in surprise at what had just happened, then collapsed to the ground. The cubone trotted back over to Tegan and looked up at her as if to ask, “was that alright?”

Tegan gave him a big grin. “That was awesome! Did you see the look on its face?”

Kovu stood by looking at the ground type pokémon curiously. “I think it used to belong to a trainer. No way was it that good from wandering around in the wild…”

“Think he was abandoned?” Tegan asked, a touch of concern in her voice.

“Maybe. Probably just released, some people do that.” Kovu shrugged. “Either way, you’re probably going to adopt him now,” he said with a chuckle. “Between him and Ty you sure do have some good pokémon to start off with…” He watched Tegan for a moment as she considered this, then turned away. “Well, I’m gonna head over to where those trainers are camping out and see if anyone’s up for a battle.”

“Wait,” Tegan stopped him. “You know you can crash on my couch tonight if you want. Just come by when you’re finished practising.”

Kovu turned back to her and grinned. “Thanks T.” Then he headed off in search of a battle.

------

I don't think I've ever included a cubone in any of my fics, ever. Which is odd cuz they're sooo cool.

[Barb]

And the promised action begins. I enjoyed the scene between Tegan and Kovu and the bit of Tegan's backstory. And the Pokemon battle was well done. I know you really do need to study, but update regularly, please. ;)

[Evil Figment]

Psychology. *Shudders*. Had to take a class or two of that at one point ; barely passed one, failed the other. I decided it just wasn't a topic for me after that, and moved on to other, better things.

The story is moving on nicely ; the writign style is also improving. One thing, at one point you wrote "leave" for "live" (known to leave in the region).

Interesting to see the dratini lake ; that cave sure sounded like a wonderful place.

[MistyRocks]

Barb - I dunno if I can keep the promised action going in every chapter, but it should be regular enough. If it's anything like the first trainer fic I wrote there should be plenty of it. Thanks for reading, and I'll try to update regularly (who am I kidding about studying really?)

Damian - Psychology isn't for me either! but I only took it for the year out of curiousity.
I'll go back and fix that stupid mistake... I hate those spelling errors cuz even spellcheck doesn't pick them up...

[Timarelay]

Why is everyone writing pokemon fics again? ^^ I didn't think I'd ever read another one of these. But anyway, tis good. I like it. A little rough around the edges but I think that's already been addressed in more detail. Try to delve a little more into Tegan's thoughts though. Sometimes her reactions seem to come out of nowhere when I woul assumed she would've been brooding first, but we don't see the brooding.

I also read it a little quickly too, though.

But I like it. The dynamic between Kovu and Tegan is cool. I'll keep reading this ^_^ At least, when I remember to stop by I will.

[Evil Figment]

Actually Tim-tim, MR and I were wondering the same things last night. The conversation went more or less like this.

Me : "Most of the others have left."
Her : "I suppose they grew up."
Me : "What do you think that make of us two? :D"

[MistyRocks]

Tima! omg!!! *tackles* I haven't spoken to you in like... I dunno a few days??? but that's not real talking cuz it's an LJ. Thanks for reading btw! yar, it's quite bad ^^ but um, it's just for fun! I don't have the time to write anything serious at the moment, stupid exams...

stop by to talk, you don't have to read. Dami won't care if this thread just sorta turns into chat, ahem... I think he'd be used to that from me from TPM ^^;;;

lol@ D, actually yeah we were talkin earlier. he says last night, but it was midday here, and 6:30am his time so techinically today. Everyone else grew up and moved on I guess... maybe we're the only ones left with imaginations ;p

[Evil Figment]

Oh, we're being insulting to all the others, are we? :-D.

But yeah, I don't midn the threads devolvin to chattiness, either here or in the Ambition's Debt thread or, well, anywhere else. It's only occasions to make friends, or renew old friendships!

And for the records anytime just before the last time I slept is "last night".

So there.

[MistyRocks]

my point was that it wasn't technically night, it was morning... there's a difference ^_^

[Evil Figment]

Technicalities, schmecnicalities...

[MistyRocks]

*pokes him* oi, spamming up me thread mate! I'll have none o' that here!

(j/k)

[Evil Figment]

HAH! I'm the head admin! It's only spam if I *say* it's spam, so it's not spam!

Your post, on the other hand...

MWAHAHAHAHA *Power abuse*

(j/k)

[MistyRocks]

*poke*

Oh yeah? You don't scare me, mr admin man!

*keeps poking*

Watcha gonna do, eh? eh?

[Evil Figment]

Hey, stop stealing the trademark canadian line, you silly irish!

I'll have you know my country has trademarked "Eh"!

[MistyRocks]

Is that right, eh? lol

watcha gonna do about it, eh?

*pokes*

I gotta use it, Irish people don't have any interesting words like that. Any slang words we come up with usually refer to being drunk o.0

[Evil Figment]

Awwww, that has got to suck :(.

Also, go discuss in the AD topic! I've asked a question there, and I want answers :-P

[MistyRocks]

hmm.. I'm not good an answering questions, but I like "discussing" so I'll be right there...

First, since it could be the last time I update in... god knows how long!

------

Chapter 5

Groggily Tegan climbed out of her bed, then she tripped over the bone the cubone had left beside her bed and landed on the floor. It was mid-morning and she’d slept late than she had meant to. Her plan had been to wake up early so Kovu could battle the gym leader and set off on his journey with the rest of the day ahead of him.

Ty and the cubone were sleeping on a pile of cushions in the corner of Tegan’s room. The growlithe had been generous enough to share his bed with his new friend. They were out cold, even Tegan’s fall had disturbed their rest.

“Come on guys, get up! We gotta go say goodbye to Kovu,” Tegan told them as she went about getting ready for the day.

The pokémon slowly woke up, yawning and stretching, and followed Tegan downstairs when she was ready.

“Hey Kovu, you up yet?” Tegan called when she reached the bottom of the stairs. There was no response. Assuming he was still asleep, she went into the living room but all she found was the vacant couch. The blanket Tegan’d given him was folded neatly.

“Morning honey,” Tegan’s father, Ruairí, greeted her when she entered the kitchen, where he sat at the table with a cup of coffee and the newspaper.

“Hey, where’s Kovu?” She asked, sitting down next to him.

A concerned look crossed Ruairí’s face. “Well, he went already this morning. He left something for you though. Over on the counter.”

Getting up and going over to the kitchen counter, Tegan stayed silent. She couldn’t find the words to express how she was feeling. She barely even knew what she was feeling. It was like her stomach had just dropped and her throat had closed up.

There was a little box on the table with a note on top of it. She picked up the note and read it.

T,
I’m sorry I didn’t wait. I couldn’t. It just felt like it was easier to leave now, than have to say goodbye to you again. Sorry, that doesn’t make much sense. It’s hard to explain.
I left you something to make up for last night and getting you in trouble. I really hope you like it! And I hope you use it. For what it’s worth, if you do decide to train pokémon, and you will one day, I think you’d be the best,
Kovu

Tegan stared at the note, reading it and rereading it. Eventually, she folded it and put it in her pocket, then she opened the box. Inside it sat a pokéball.

Taking the pokéball out of the box, Tegan tossed it to the floor. From the red glow that came out of the pokéball formed a little dog-like pokémon, it was the poochyena from the night before. She just stared at it, still completely speechless, while Ty and the cubone checked out the new pokémon.

“That was nice of him,” Ruairí commented, breaking the silence. He came over to his daughter’s side and knelt down to greet the poochyena. “What are you going to do with him?” he asked, trying to keep a nonchalant tone.

Ruairí has always hoped his daughter would become a pokémon trainer one day. It had been his dream to be a pokémon master when he had been younger. Unfortunately for him, his dream had been cut short by a group known as Team Rocket. They did everything from kidnap his pokémon to eventually cause the death of his best friend, Herakles, his arcanine.

After his loss, Ruairí stopped battling pokémon. He settled down in the out of the way village and eventually married his childhood friend, Jay. With his wife he bred growlithe, his favourite type of pokémon, and never spoke of his days of pokémon training. Tegan only heard bits and pieces from Professor Cedar, but had never gotten the full story. However, Ruairí spoke often, and fondly, about his wife’s days as a pokémon trainer.

While Ruairí was working a regular nine to five job, Jay continued on battling pokémon. She made her way through various different leagues, taking on every challenge which came her way, and gained a respectable reputation amongst the advanced trainers. Unfortunately she never became a pokémon master, always coming up against trainers with near legendary status when she was so close.

Jay’s passion had always been pokémon, and the crowds that came to watch her battles loved the emotion she poured into them. It was the same kind of energy she had in her general life. She had hoped to continue on training even after her marriage, but that passion of hers resulted in her pregnancy with Tegan which prevented her from doing much of anything.

Having always been a bit of a free spirit, Jay was driven mad from staying put in the same, quiet village for years on end. She loved her family and showered both Tegan and Ruairí with affection, barely letting Tegan leave her arms, but a feeling of claustrophobia began to creep up on her less than a year after Tegan had been born and it led to her becoming extremely depressed. Jay eventually decided to undertake another pokémon journey. Even though being separated from her daughter would be hard for her, the depression that had come over her was only getting worse the longer she spent in her humdrum life.

Unfortunately for all of them, Jay never made it out of the village. After her death, Ruairí became even more withdrawn. He became detached from his daughter and hired a nanny to take care of her while he lay in bed most days and sat in front of the television on others. Ruairí lost interest in everything and withdrew from life. It took him over a year to start crawling back to reality, and that was only after a stern talk from Professor Sam Cedar who reminded him that his daughter was still alive.

Tegan had lost her mother and father, and there was no one around to explain why to her. The loneliness that surrounded her was distressing. She felt like she’d been enveloped in a world where everything was quiet and all she could hear at night were her father’s sobs. Even after Ruairí started to behave more like normal, he was never quite the same, never quite as affectionate. The only person who stayed consistent with Tegan throughout the whole experience was Kovu, and eventually he left too.

“I… I don’t know. What do you think I should do with him?” Tegan asked, throwing around the thoughts of finally taking up the challenge of pokémon training.

Ruairí let out a sigh, more in preparation than anything else. “Honey,” he began, then left a small pause to prepare her as well. “You know how I feel, Tegan. Sam and I have spoken to you plenty of times about this. I think it would be good for you. Character building.”

Sitting down heavily at the table, Tegan just watched the pokémon playing on the floor. The poochyena seemed to have a mischievous streak. It had stolen the cubone’s bone and was running back and forth, with the enraged ground pokémon chasing after it. Ty just sat by and watched, his tongue lolling from his mouth. It was almost like he was grinning at their antics.

“But what about you?” she finally asked.

Ruairí smiled and patted her shoulder. “I’ll be just fine. I’m a grown man!”

“I know, dad. I just don’t want to leave you by yourself,” Tegan said with a small smile.

Clearing his throat, Ruairí looked a little embarrassed. “There… there’s something I really have to tell you. Please, please don’t overreact. Just listen to me. Okay?”

Tensing up, Tegan replied through clenched teeth. “What?”

It took him a few moments to collect his thoughts and when he spoke, it was barely audible. “I’ve been seeing someone lately, Tegan. Now, don’t get upset, let me finish! It’s not serious, honey, and I don’t know if it ever will be... But you need to know that you’re still the most important thing in the world to me.”

The storm clouds collected on Tegan’s face. “What the hell?! What about mum? Huh? You’ve just completely forgotten about her? I can’t believe you!” She jumped off her seat and turned away from him, grumbling under her breath.

Her father got to his feet and went over to her. “Jay… it’s been years, Tegan. Over a decade. It’s just natural.”

Turning back to him, her face still dark, all she said was, “I’m going on a pokémon journey.” Then she marched from the room, Ty, the cubone and the poochyena following behind her.

Ruairí just watched her go, then sat back at the table and rested his face in his hands.

-------

Not very action filled but not every chapter can be...

[Evil Figment]

RUAIRI!

I thought this might be a sequel to Xi back in chapter 1, for some reason. Glad to see I was right :-D.

[MistyRocks]

lol, yeah ^_^

Unfortunately Ruairí ain't quite the same as he used to be... And I dunno exactly how much I'm gonna let him feature just yet.

[tyger]

THe good ole days of Xi League. I wonder if this league is called the XI league as well. Your style is definitely smoothing out since the first chapters. I can't say much more of what hasn't been said already. I'm quite stupid and tired.

[MistyRocks]

hey Tyger *waves*

Nah, this is a different league, Ruairí sorta moved out of his old area after all the uh, "excitement" ahem from his adventures. But I'm still destroying his life ^^ He's not even a main character and I already killed off his wife ^_^

[Timarelay]

Whee I'm back ^_^ Interesting story turn. Set-up/presentation of the background info could use a little work. Still also need work on making character reactions seem less sudden and out of nowhere. Otherwise, good. I like it.

It seems I have been sucked into hanging around here again. Damn you three.

[MistyRocks]

*pounces on Tima* YAY!!! Don't you DARE go anywhere!

Thanks for reading btw... as you can see just about EVERYTHING needs a little work... ahem...

[Evil Figment]

Yay! T has been sucked into hanging around here! :-D.

[Barb]

The black hole of fanfic claims more victims. =D

And the last chapter was pretty good. But I would've liked to have known how Jay died.

[Evil Figment]

Chapter 1, right in the first few paragraphs.

She died when bandits raided the Ave pokémon center, and after stealing the pokémon, bombed teh center after locking lots of people (Jay included) in.

[MistyRocks]

Barb - thanks for reading. Jay's death is at the beginning. She got killed in the pokémon centre raid.

Damian - wow, someone has been reading and paying attention... Quite right too, stupid thugs murdered her. Poor Jay, I really liked her! She was great back in the day...

[MistyRocks]

call this spam if you will

OH! MY! GOD! I had no f*cking clue that Disney were making the Chronicles of Narnia into movies! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe isn't out til dec 9th and I believe that's usa, dunno when we'll get it over here, but I'm already so overly excited that I might die from having to wait so long...

[Barb]

It is spam. But it's literature-related. I just got the complete 7-volume set of Lewis's books from a book club I belong to. I'm psyched about seeing the movie.

[Evil Figment]

Spam shpam.

Spamming up fic topic, as long as the authors don't mind and what you say is still meaningful (ie, posting random asortments fo letters and numbers is too much), is legit in my book :-P

[MistyRocks]

woo! I like your style!

Had to spam somewhere, so so so so so excited! the Chronicles of Narnia are my all time favourite fantasy stories... 7 months til I get to see the lion the witch and the wardrobe... 7 months...

[Evil Figment]

*still waiting for the Good Omens movie, personally*

[tyger]

*still waiting for the Good Omens movie, personally*

there's a good omens movie in the making? =0

[Evil Figment]

Rumors of one, more like.

[Barb]

For all the CS Lewis fans in here: http//:www.narniaweb.com/

Spoilers, trailers, screenshots, and other stuff. Looks to be an incredible film.

[tyger]

For all the CS Lewis fans in here: http//:www.narniaweb.com/

Spoilers, trailers, screenshots, and other stuff. Looks to be an incredible film.

I've never read anythingby Lewis except the screwtape letters. I must read more!!!

[MistyRocks]

o.0 this is what you're people doing? chatting about movies in my thread? lol! you guys are great!

Ah, I checked out that website bout the movie a lil while ago, it's brilliant! Got me really hyped up for the movie! Only... what? 7months to go?

Oh yeah and I've nothing to update with cuz I have been quite busy... But my exams are over tomorrow so on thursday I'll be back to writing! Woo! Tho I really need a job...

[Barb]

http://www.smartreaderrewards.com

Book club I belong to. Has the complete "Chronicles" set in paperback, all 7 volumes.

[MistyRocks]

Finally FINALLY, I'm updating. My god, I get distracted so easily it's unreal. And I lost my writing mojo so what i did write was bollox.... I deleted so much it's unreal!

But soon I get to have my fun with the randomness and the yay! and such and eventually there'll be the typical murderness and the death and people get sad and I get my kicks with the carnage... eh, yeah. ahem...

anyway, now to give this topic a massive kick and shove it back up to the first page!

Wooo! *Updates!*

Chapter 6

Tegan walked with her shoulders squared, her chin up and her jaw set. She’d got hold of a belt which pokéballs could be attached to and had two clipped onto it, Ty was walking at her side. She approached the laboratory, her face emotionless.

Pushing open the front doors, Tegan stepped in and found Professor Cedar busy typing on his computer. “I need to register as a trainer.” She stood next to him, looking at him expectantly, with no more explanation.

“Ahem… Well, Tegan, that… Right, just give me a minute.” Professor Cedar turned back to his computer and began to type again, entering Tegan’s information to the trainer register. When he was done he printed off her trainer card, then routed around in the drawer of his desk. “I think you’ll need one of these as well,” he said, handing her a pokédex. “To record your encounters with pokémon.”

Tegan shoved the pokédex and trainer card in her pocket, then mumbled a ‘thanks’ and turned to leave. Professor Cedar stopped her by clearing his throat meaningfully. “What?” Tegan asked, turning back to him.

“I was just wondering… what brought this on?” He asked, careful not to sound too nosey.

With a sigh, she slumped against the counter. “I dunno… Maybe it was seeing how happy Kovu is since he started training… how happy it made him. Maybe it was seeing how happy he is without me. And maybe it’s because even my father doesn’t need me anymore, he’s got someone else now.” She put her hands to her face and made a noise somewhere between a groan and a growl. “So, I’m gonna go do something I wanna do. That’s how it is.”

“This is your form of protest, huh? You think everyone’s abandoning you so you’re going to run away?” Professor Cedar asked her boldly. He’d known her for years at this stage and he’d always had a vague idea that she was afraid of being abandoned. This fear of abandonment gave her a horrible temper which she used to push people away; it was almost as though she thought if she pushed people away from her, then no one would ever get close enough that it would matter when they left.

“Don’t go psycho-analyzing me! You’re a pokémon professor, that doesn’t mean you know anything about people…” Tegan stormed out the door, letting it slam behind her as if to make her point.

From the lab, Tegan crossed the tiny village to the pokémon gym. She didn’t really have a set plan, but was going by her gut. If she beat the gym leader she’d have her first badge and be free to start her pokémon journey, although she still wasn’t sure if she was going to train pokémon because she wanted to or out of spite for her father.

When she reached the doors of the gym she shoved them open aggressively and called out, “Erin, I’m here to challenge you!” in the most dramatic voice she could muster. Then she waited.

There wasn’t an answer, and after Tegan had been standing in the doorway of the gym for about five minutes she began to get a little doubtful about whether or not the gym leader was in. Meanwhile, Ty had trotted off to investigate the bushes next to the gym. Tegan cleared her throat uncomfortably. Then she scratched her arm. Eventually, in a timid voice, she called into the darkness of the gym, “Hello?”

Ty was still sniffing in the bushes. He’d caught the scent of something interesting and was rooting around with his nose. When he found the source of the smell he decided to pull in out to show it to Tegan, so he caught hold of one of the thing’s vines and tugged. It didn’t budge at first, so Ty stuck his heels in and pulled the way dogs do when they’re playing tug of war and they lean all their weight back and wriggle their bodies around to try to throw off their opponent’s balance. Eventually the thing came unstuck and Ty flew backwards, his prize sailing through the air.

“Ty, what the hell?” Tegan turned around to see her growlithe topple over backwards, and what appeared to be a grass pokémon land not too far from him. “Crap Ty, I think that’s a tangela! Watch out for its vines!”

The tangela bounced to its feet and glared at Ty, as the growlithe righted himself. All of a sudden two vines shot out from the grass pokémon’s body and flew at Tegan’s pokémon. The growlithe ducked and dodged away from its opponent’s attacks. He was doing really well avoiding the whipping vines but as he began to tire, the tangela changed tactic and caught hold of Ty and began to constrict him.

Tegan clenched her fist, annoyed that the grass type was beating her fire type when Ty should have had the advantage. “Ty! Use ember!” Tegan ordered.

The growlithe, still struggling to wriggle free from its enemy’s attack, spat embers at the grass type. Immediately, the tangela’s vines dropped from around Ty and it started running around in circles to try and put out the small flames from the fire type’s attack.

Out of nowhere, a woman came running to the tangela’s aide. “Oh no! What happened to you?” the woman cried as she frantically patted out the smouldering patches on the tangela with her bare hands.

“It attacked my growlithe. Sorry if we hurt it, but it was the only way I could get it to let go of Ty,” Tegan explained, pretty sheepishly.

The woman stood and faced Tegan. She didn’t look happy. “Tegan, right? What’re you doing here anyway?” The tangela trotted off back to the bushes where Ty had found it.

The uncertain air left Tegan and her face set with determination. “Erin, I came to challenge you to a pokémon battle!” She did her best impression of the pokémon trainers she’d seen battling on television.

Erin gave her a doubtful look. “So, you’re finally training, huh? Your father must be pleased.” She watched Tegan twitch at the mention of her father. “Anyway, you decided you’d become a pokémon trainer so you came over here and started a fight with the first of my pokémon that you could find? Didn’t even try looking for me?”

“I tried! But when I was waiting in the doorway- uh, after I called for you- Ty went sniffing in the bushes and I think he pulled your tangela out. I’m sorry, he’s just a little curious, that’s all!” Tegan paused, then realised Erin had ignored her question. “So, what about this battle?”

Now Erin raised an eyebrow. She looked a little amused. “Hold on! You came to challenge me and you can’t even control your growlithe enough to prevent it wandering off on you? A little in over your head or what?”

“God damn it, battle me already! Forget criticizing me! I didn’t come here to talk to you, duh… You gonna battle me or what?” Tegan demanded. She set her jaw and glared at Erin.

“Quiet. Snapping at me won’t get you anywhere. You challenge me? Fine. Two on two battle. Follow me to the battlefield.” Erin turned from Tegan and walked to the grass battlefield that belonged to the village.

They took up their positions on the battlefield and each reached for a pokéball from their belts. Ty was by Tegan’s side, but she was saving him as back up, knowing Erin used grass pokémon and he should have the type advantage. There was a pause as each lay a hand on their pokéball, then Erin yelled, “GO!”

Tegan threw her cubone’s pokéball onto the battlefield. The ball cracked open and the ground pokémon popped out. The pokémon let out a battle-cry and waved its bone above its head, showing off its battling skill.

From Erin’s pokéball exploded another tangela. Only this one seemed a little bigger than the one that Ty had fought with less than fifteen minutes previously. Instead of showing off any fancy moves, Erin’s tangela merely stood in the centre of the battlefield and watched the cubone.

“A ground type? You know I train grass pokémon, why the newbie mistake?” Erin shouted across the field to Tegan, mocking her. “Alright tangela, vine whip!”

“’Cause I only have three pokémon and I didn’t want to send Ty in too early…” Tegan mumbled to herself under her breath, feeling dejected by the insult. She shook it off though when she heard Erin’s order to the tangela. “Cubone, beat the vines off with your bone club!”

At first the cubone did an unexpected rolling-dive out of the way of the vines, surprising even Tegan with his agility. The grass type wasn’t that easily defeated. After a moment’s pause, its vines returned to viciously beat at Tegan’s pokémon. With lightning speed the cubone knocked the vines away with his bone every time, until the tangela caught him from behind and tripped him up.

“Come on, get up! Cubone, you can do it!” Tegan yelled encouragement at her pokémon. She was slowly beginning to realise how unprepared she was for the match. Years of working in a pokémon lab was nothing compared to years of experience as a gym leader, and she felt totally inadequate up against Erin. Tegan may have known dozens upon dozens of breeds of pokémon, how to match up types of pokémon in battle and even the different moves many pokémon could use, but it wasn’t the same as hands on experience.

Luckily for Tegan, her cubone did have some experience and a definite fighting spirit. While he was down the tangela got a good few smacks in, but at the next opportunity the cubone was crawling back to his feet. Of his own free will, the cubone charged at his opponent. The little ground pokémon lowered his head and crashed right into the tangela. The skull which covered his face connected with the grass pokémon’s head with a sickening thud and both pokémon bounced backwards.

Unfortunately, the cubone seemed more dazed from the attack than Erin’s pokémon and was a bit wobbly getting to his feet. The tangela on the other had got back up almost immediately.

“Screw this,” Tegan grumbled to herself. She took out her pokéball and pointed it at the cubone. “Return!” Then she turned to Ty, who’d been barking along excitedly the entire time, and pointed to the battlefield. “Get in there Ty and show her what you can do!”

Even thought her tangela was still up and about, when Ty stepped onto the field Erin returned her pokémon to its pokéball. From her belt she pulled another ball and with confident smirk tossed it onto the battlefield. The pokéball burst open revealing another grass type, but this one was a meganium, something Tegan had never seen in real life before.

“Damn it, that’s kinda impressive…” Tegan mumbled. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed. “I dunno if I know how to deal with something like that,” she said to herself. “It’s big, so it’s gotta be slower than Ty…”

Erin watched Tegan as she appeared to be talking to herself, although she was too far away to hear what her opponent was saying. After a few moments she grew bored of this and focused on her pokémon. “Meganium, razor leaf!”

“Ember, Ty!” Tegan retaliated.

Meganium swung its neck and fired several leaves from the flower area just above its shoulders. These shot cross the battlefield in the direction of the growlithe. Just before the razor-sharp leaves struck Ty, he spewed a barrage of embers at them, turning his opponents attack to charcoal.

“Now Ty, use your agility and let’s wear this guy out!” Tegan ordered, and immediately her pokémon was charging around the field, diving back and forth in front of the grass pokémon. “Mix it up a bit with a few ember attacks!”

As Ty raced around and around, the meganium became more and more distressed. It tried to keep up with the growlithe, but the smaller pokémon had the advantage and the grass type just couldn’t turn as fast. The agility coupled with the ember attacks that Ty was shooting at his opponents feet, meant that eventually the big grass type pokémon was driven mad with frustration.

“Meganium, calm down!” Erin yelled as her pokémon shook its long neck back and forth, trying to bash Ty with his head. It soon became apparent that the grass type wasn’t going to listen to its trainer commands. “Meganium, focus! Just calm down! Use your poisonpowder! Your poisonpowder! No no! Not a body slam!” Erin yelled as her pokémon raised itself up onto its back legs and came crashing to the ground, trying to catch its opponent underneath it. Eventually, with a grunt of anger, Erin pulled a pokéball from her belt and pointed it at her meganium. The big grass type was returned to its pokéball.

With a cheer, Tegan ran to Ty and hoisted him up to give him a hug. “Well done, you crazy bastard! Just as well you spend most of your day racing around in circles in the backyard.” She crossed the battlefield to Erin, her growlithe still in her arms.

“You got lucky. Not every gym leader will be as easy to beat, you know that?” Erin told her, grim after her defeat. She hand her a badge that resembled a pink flower. “I guess you earned that. And for Christ sake, go catch some more pokémon so you don’t have to worry about type disadvantage again!” With that, Erin turned and walked away.

Tegan watched her go. “Not even a ‘well done’? Or a ‘good luck’? No, no, I get a ‘you got lucky’… Thanks a bunch,” she grumbled to herself. She placed Ty back on the ground. “Well buddy, I guess that’s that. Sort of an anti-climax if you think about it… no fanfare or nothing… Ah well, let’s go home and pack. I suppose I should probably talk to dad as well…”

[Evil Figment]

Battles are always hard to write, aren't they? I think they're my worst headache these days. I just CAN'T abide writing the whole "shouting order after order after order" things battles have going.

That said, your writing style is definitely settling back in - this one flows quite well, even though it's a battle.

[MistyRocks]

Woot! Thanks! I wasn't pleased with this chapter... it struck me as very... bland. Must get her out of stupid tiny village and find adventure with the craziness and the danger and such...

[Blackjack Palazzo]

I have a hard time with battles too...which is probably why I try to skip them if at all possible in my fics.

You did a good job with this. I like Erin's personality a whole lot...although if she has a typical GL/type name pun, it's going completely over my head.

[Barb]

I liked Tegan's personality in this chapter: angry at the world and at herself. Very headstrong, especially when she challenged Erin. She's begining to grow on me. The battle scene was well written, as the other reviewers have noted.

[Timarelay]

Hrm. Good chapter. Not really much else to say. Everything's been said. And it's a pretty short chapter anyway ^^ Personally, I'm waiting for death ^__^ Nothing spices up a fic quite like it.

[MistyRocks]

oooh positive replies ^^;; who would've thunk it...

Blackjack - I don't do the gymleader/type name pun yoke... I don't think I have the wit for it!

Barb - wow, thanks! I tried... I'm still kinda working on Tegan's personality. I'm always slow with character development.

Tima - I'm kinda waitin on the death myself ^^;; ahem... I'll see what I can do to pick up the pace on that!

[MistyRocks]

I wonder if a year is considered a long time between updating a fic, or if it's acceptable nowadays since no one seems to be writing very much...

actually, i'm just mostly amused that i found this at all...

without further ado:

----------------

Chapter 7

On the walk back to her house, Tegan turned the badge over in her hand, staring at it. She thought of all the badges her parents had collected which sat in two small chests in their attic, along with trophies and sashes. Her father only had a small collection of league badges, from his short career as a trainer, but far more rosettes and trophies from breeding and exhibiting his growlithe.

Jay’s collection of league prizes was far larger. She had gym badges from all over regions like Kanto, Johto, Xi and so many others that Tegan couldn’t even imagine travelling so far. Her badges now sat in the small, dust-covered chest in the attic with various newspaper clippings and photographs from her battles, long blocked from memory by all but Tegan.

After her mother’s death, unknown to Ruairí, as a child Tegan crawled out of her bed in the middle of most nights to sit in the attic with the reminders of her mother. She looked through the vast record of her mother’s successes and dreamt of one day living up to the hopes she knew her mother had always had for her future.

However, time wore on and Tegan grew older and let doubt settle in her mind. Whether it was really because she didn’t want to leave her father alone or because she was secretly afraid of meeting the same fate as her mother, even Tegan wasn’t sure. As much as she hoped it wasn’t the selfish reason, she knew as much as the next person just how dangerous pokémon training was. And as she got older, she came up with new reasons to tell herself why she shouldn’t train pokémon.

Now though, here she was with her first badge. That hadn’t been so hard. Erin had made it clear that the battle wasn’t intended to be a hard one, of course. The thing which troubled Tegan was not the battling; it was actually leaving the village she’d spent her entire life in.

She pushed open the back door slowly and stepped into the kitchen, looking around for signs of her father. The coast was clear, so she silently slipped upstairs to her room and began throwing her clothes into her backpack.

“If you want anything, Ty, now would be a good time to grab it,” Tegan mumbled to her growlithe as she pulled an ancient denim jacket from the back of her closet. “God, I haven’t seen that thing in ages… Well, it might get cold out there.”

From under her bed, Tegan pulled a tightly rolled sleeping bag that she used quite a bit when staying overnight in the laboratory if she needed to keep an eye on a pokémon. She tied it to her bag which was stuffed with clothes and took a look around her room to see if there was anything left worth taking.

From her bedside table, she picked up an old photo of her mother and father from before she was born and stuffed it in her bag, then left. She raided the refrigerator as she passed through the kitchen, then made a sneaky departure from the village, making straight for the overgrown areas instead of the path.


They trudged through the overgrowth for over an hour. Tegan dripped with sweat from the hard work of pushing through the bushes and stepping over logs and rocks. Ty walked with little grunts as he hopped through the wild grass. It didn’t help either of them that it was such a humid day. Eventually they sat and rested.

Ty lay opposite Tegan, staring at her as he panted.

“What? What’s wrong now?” Tegan asked. She felt uncomfortable under the growlithe’s gaze.

Ty continued to stare at her. He didn’t even blink, just panted.

“Is this about dad? C’mon Ty, I’ll give him a call when we get to the next town. It’s not like I’m avoiding him. You know he probably doesn’t even care…” Tegan grumbled. She turned away from Ty and stared at her feet, then up at the sky. It really was warm and sticky out, almost like the air was sweating. Which was funny, she mused, since the sky above was covered by thick grey clouds.

As if it were a movie, a streak of lightning tore through the clouds followed by an ear-splitting thunderclap. The clouds opened and rain bucketed down upon the pair, soaking them instantly.

“Are you bloody kidding me?!” Tegan cried above the roar of the beating rain. She jumped to her feet and spun in circles, searching for cover. Close to the main path were three large trees. She’d been avoiding the path, but she had no choice now.

She dashed towards the trees, Ty several metres ahead of her already. With her jacket up over head to protect from the rain, she could barely see in front of her. Running full tilt towards the shelter, when she looked up she didn’t have time to stop and collided with someone else using the same trees for protection. Both of them collapsed in a heap.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Tegan exclaimed, blushing with embarrassment. She climbed to her feet, and manhandled the other person to a standing position as well.

It seemed the other person had been using the same technique to protect themselves from the rain when looking for shelter and that had caused the collision. They pulled their jumper off their head, revealing themselves as a girl.

The girl laughed sheepishly. “It was as much my fault as it was yours…” She gave Tegan a shy smile, then looked at her feet.

Tegan laughed loudly. “Yeah, I mean, who would’ve thought there’d be two dumbasses running around in the rain with their jumpers over their faces?! What’re the odds!” She took a long look at the girl, and tried to suss her out.

The other girl was a trainer, made obvious by the pokéball belt around her waist. She was dressed much the same as Tegan, in jeans and trainers, though she was wearing a jumper and Tegan was wearing her jacket. Her hair was as light as Tegan’s was dark, her hair caught up in a ponytail. She had a kind face that Tegan liked immediately. She looked to be about the same age as well.

“So… you’re a trainer, eh?” Tegan cringed inwardly at the stupidity of her own question.

The girl smiled at her before answering, “yeah. This is my third league. I’ve been competing all my life… I’m Kelsey, by the way.”

“Aw, hey, duh yeah! Should’ve asked that first, huh? I’m Tegan. Nice to meet you,” Tegan replied. In her head she was slapping herself on the forehead.

They paused. And paused. And the pause felt like it was never going to end. They stood in silence, facing each other but looking around, at trees, at the rain, at the grass, at everything but each other. When their eyes met every once and awhile they exchanged smiles for a moment before looking at their feet again. The rain kept them trapped however.

Eventually, Tegan cleared her throat, then blushed when Kelsey’s eyes fell on her. She shrugged and sat down at the base of one of the trees. “Might as well get comfortable, you know? We could be trapped here for a while.”

Kelsey looked at the ground next to Tegan and seemed to think about this for a moment. Eventually she sat down and glanced at Tegan out of the corner of her eye. “So… you’re competing in the league too?”

Tegan sighed and shrugged. She looked at her hands intently. “Well, I guess so…”

“You guess so? Is… something wrong?” Her voice was hushed, as if she was afraid to ask.

“Oh, yeah. Uh, everything’s just great,” Tegan replied with smile. “I just started though, so I’m not like, sure if I’m gonna keep it up, you know?”

Kelsey looked surprised. “You only just started? Wow… I went to pokémon schools right from when I was five. My parents always wanted me to be a trainer. I haven’t been home since I started competing in leagues… I haven’t won a league yet, and we don’t tolerate second best in my family.”

It was Tegan’s turn to look shocked. “Wait, so you can’t go home ‘til you win a league?”

“Oh no! It’s not like that! My parents never said I couldn’t go home, but if I did before I won something, then they’d be really disappointed in me… I don’t want to make them disappointed, you know?”

Tegan looked at her for a moment. She couldn’t understand how the girl sitting next to her could be a disappointment. She hadn’t been home in years, competing in various leagues to please her family. How could parents be disappointed by a daughter like that? She was ambitious, loyal, driven, nice, and good-looking- “Good looking?” Tegan mumbled aloud, in confusion. She coughed and blushed when she realised she’d said it allowed, but Kelsey didn’t seem to notice, or at least was acting like she didn’t.

The rain began to ease as the two girls watched in silence, Tegan blushing fiercely but trying to hide it. Kelsey climbed to her feet. “So… I guess you’re travelling to the next town, huh?” She looked at Tegan expectantly.

“Rooark? Eh, yeah I am,” Tegan replied as she climbed to her feet.

“You want some company? I mean, we could help each other train and stuff…” Kelsey shrugged nonchalantly.

Tegan laughed a little. “Oh yeah, trainers should battle each other to get stronger! I keep forgetting that…”

“You… wanna battle now?”

Tegan looked at her for a moment. “Uh, I guess so. But go easy on me ‘cause my pokémon aren’t trained.”

“Sure thing.” With that Kelsey whipped a pokéball from her belt and tossed it to the ground. “Go Mareep!”

Tegan waited for her opponent’s pokémon to appear, then pointed and laughed. “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen! Man, I didn’t think people actually used those things to battle with!” She had to lean on Kelsey, she was laughing so hard at the pokémon. The mareep looked pretty insulted.

Kelsey gave Tegan a withering look, although she couldn’t help but smile. She playfully pushed Tegan away. “Go stand over there and call out your pokémon,” she told her, shaking her head as Tegan gave her a cheeky grin.

“Okay, okay! Just ‘cause your pokémon’s a ball of wool… Anyway, go Pooch!” Tegan threw her pokéball to the ground. The poochyena appeared, then looked around it for a moment, not quite sure what was going on.

“Thundershock, mareep!” Kelsey ordered, pointing at the opponent.

“Thundershock, are you kidding me?! Run away, Pooch! Get away from that ball of wool!” Tegan cried urgently. She was jumping up and down, calling to her pokémon. Poochyena didn’t seem to know what was going on, having never been in a battle before. Luckily, when it saw the electricity flying from the mareep, it seemed to realise it was a bad idea to stick around.

The poochyena ran out of range of the mareep’s attack, then stood, confused, staring at Tegan. “Tackle, Pooch!” It looked at the mareep, then at Tegan, then back at the mareep. If it could have shrugged, it would have. Then the little pokémon charged the electric sheep.

Kelsey almost felt sorry for the poochyena. Almost. She waited until it was back within range and then, “thundershock, mareep!”

Electric currents shot from Kelsey’s pokémon and enveloped the poochyena. The little canine type pokémon collapsed to the ground, unable to battle.

“Ah crap… That wasn’t very exciting,” Tegan mumbled. She returned her pokémon to its pokéball and sighed. “Well, I still think your pokémon looks stupid… but I guess it’s not so bad.”

Kelsey smiled a little smugly. “Yeah… and that’s my worst pokémon. It wasn’t your pokémon’s fault, or your own. It just obviously hasn’t ever battled before, right? It needs to build up its defence and stuff.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

Kelsey couldn’t resist,” did you actually win that badge on your jacket though?”

“HEY!” Tegan yelled indignantly.

“I’m kidding, I swear!” Kelsey replied with a grin. She elbowed Tegan playfully. “I’m sure you’ll get better…”

Tegan went to make a smart comment in return, but she got caught by Kelsey’s eyes and immediately forgot what was on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she cleared her throat and looked at the road. “So, we should probably get moving, huh?”

Kelsey looked away as well. “Yeah, I guess we should.” She started walking along the road, Tegan at her side.

[MistyRocks]

Chapter 8

As the pair walked on towards Rooark the number of trainers hanging around the edge of the road grew. Time and time again they were drawn into battles against trainers of varying strength. Occasionally bets were made to the outcome of the battle.

“Most trainers have no other way of making money,” Kelsey explained to Tegan who wasn’t familiar with the custom. “If you think about it, they’re out travelling for months on end. Some never even take a break from training, going from league to league. The prize money is alright if you win a proper competition, and if you win a league the money’s fantastic. But when you’re living day after day on the road, staying in pokémon centres and buying potions and pokéballs, where do you think the money comes from? Not everyone has parents to pay their way…”

“Oh… yeah…” Tegan mumbled thoughtfully. It suddenly dawned on her that she hadn’t considered the expense of travelling. “Do you battle for money? Or do your parents give you money?”

Kelsey seemed distracted by a battle going on nearby. “Um, no… I don’t really talk to them too much. I make all my money from battling. Sometimes selling pokémon I’ve caught.”

“Really? Is there much money in that?” Tegan asked, surprised.

Kelsey laughed as though the idea of money was ridiculous. “No! It’s ridiculous. Most of the time it’s not worth it. I mean, if you can find a rare pokémon, sure. And fully evolved, strong pokémon can make you some money. But if you’ve spent a lot of time with a pokémon and worked with it hard enough to make it strong, then you’ll probably have too much of a connection with it to be able to part with it.”

“You collect rare pokémon and sell them on?” Tegan was suddenly interested, a plan starting to grow in her mind.

Kelsey looked at the excited twinkle in Tegan’s eye and was a little nervous to ask what she was thinking. “Eh, maybe… Do I want to ask why?”

“How do you feel about dratini?”

“Dratini? Yeah, they’re brilliant to sell on. Especially if you evolve them. There’s something about dragon type pokémon that trainers absolutely love, don’t ask me why,” Kelsey said with a shrug.

“Have you got any flying type pokémon?”

Kelsey pulled out a pokéball and threw it to the ground. “Sure, Charizard,” she said as the pokémon appeared.

Tegan’s jaw dropped as the big dragon-like pokémon grumbled at her. “What the… Wow, I LOVE those things! Where’d you get it?”

“Was my first pokémon when I started off in Kanto,” Kelsey replied with a shrug as she petted her faithful pokémon.

“You’re from Kanto? Man, you’re so far from home.” Tegan looked at Kelsey with a sort of awe. She chewed her lip for a moment, then quietly asked, “are you lonely?”

Kelsey was quiet for a few moments, so quiet that Tegan thought she wasn’t going to answer and was almost going to change the subject. “I don’t have much to go home for…” Kelsey finally replied. And that was that.

Clearing her throat, Tegan turned back to the charizard, in the back of her mind wondering what Kelsey meant. Perhaps she had been personal enough for one day with the girl she’d only just met. “So, do you think this guy could fly us back to Ave? More specifically, the hills above Ave?” she asked with a grin.

“Sure. We’re not too big for him, I don’t think.”


“It’s got to be around here somewhere…” Tegan mumbled to herself as she trudged through the wild vegetation atop the hills that overlooked Ave Village.

Kelsey exchanged looks with Ty as they followed the clueless explorer. “I’m pretty sure you’re leading us in circles.”

It hadn’t taken long for the charizard to drop them on top of a hill. Hours later, as the sun was threatening to creep behind the horizon, Tegan was still searching for the cave she had dragged Kovu into the day before.

“Well, it was dark… and I was running… Get off my back!” Tegan grumbled at her.

There was a howl from behind them. The three whipped around and came face to face with the snarling, growling group of mightyena. Ty leapt in front of the girls and bared his teeth. The hair on his back stood on end as he tried to face down the group of attackers.

“Bloody hell, not this again…” Tegan rolled her eyes and sighed.

Kelsey gripped Tegan’s waist and half-hid behind her. She reached for a pokéball, then looked at Tegan. “Should I throw it?” she whispered into Tegan’s ear.

Tegan shivered as Kelsey’s breath tickled her neck. She glanced at the arm around her waist and couldn’t restrain a frustrated, if rather confused, growl. She pulled herself together though, and put out an arm to lower Kelsey’s hand and guide her backwards. “Ty will keep them back for a moment. They’ve got to remember what he did to them yesterday. He can’t take them all on though, but if we get enough of a head start we might be able to get away.”

“But if I call out Charizard then he can help fight them off,” Kelsey suggested.

“We’re not looking to fight, we’re looking to escape. We don’t know how many there are here, we could be fighting for ages,” Tegan pointed out.

“Yeah, but we’re looking for that cave, remember? We can’t run away or we’ll never find it,” Kelsey shot back.

“Do you really think this is the right time to argue about this?” Tegan hissed at her. She turned to give her a stern look, but when she turned her head her nose brushed Kelsey’s and all she could do was stare at Kelsey with an embarrassed smile. She could feel the blood thumping right to her face. “Wow, you’re, uh, pretty close, huh…”

Kelsey smiled back, her gaze moving back and forth between Tegan’s eyes and mouth. “Yeah… I guess I am…”

The mighyena pounced. Ty let out a howl of his own and jumped at the leader of the group. Both girls whipped around and yelled in panic.

“HOLY CRAP! RUN!” Tegan roared, she turned on her heel and took off, dragging Kelsey by her sleeve.

For the second time in as many days, Tegan was running in fear across the dangerously overgrown hills that overlooked her village. Ty had taken the cue and was practically on their heels as they tore through the bushes. As they were running Tegan had a sudden flash from the day before and suddenly realised she was running through the same area she had before. There, up ahead to her right, was the cave she’d ducked into with Kovu.

“Quick, in here!” Tegan cried, jerking Kelsey into the cave after her.

The trio dived into the cave, and Tegan led them towards the back, searching for the tunnel again. The cave was pitch black the deeper they went in, the contrast with the sun setting outside made it even harder to see. As Tegan hit the back wall of the cave, she felt around to find the tunnel which had obviously been enveloped in the darkness but it was nowhere and the mightyena were creeping in through the mouth of the cave.

“You got us stuck in a cave with no way to escape?” Kelsey looked at Tegan as if she had three heads.

“Now would be a fantastic time to release that charizard of yours.” Tegan looked at Kelsey, her eyes wide with fear. She turned to Ty, “alright boy, I think it’s time for some of that crazy action you showed off yesterday.” She pointed to the approaching pokémon. “Flamethrower!”

Ty turned on his opponents and puffed out his chest as he sucked in a huge breath of air. He opened his mouth and out blazed a spiral of huge, glowing flames that enfolded the pack of mightyena.

“Go, Charizard!” Kelsey released her pokémon, who bellowed when he saw the fight. “Use Slash!”

As Ty’s attack eased off, the charizard jumped into the group of his dazed enemies and tore wildly at them with his claws. Ty was in beside him in an instant, pouncing onto their opponents. Tegan couldn’t help but laugh when he bit onto the top of a mightyena’s head and couldn’t seem to pull himself off, his jaw was stretched so tight.

Tegan pulled a pokéball from her belt and looked at it thoughtfully for a moment. Finally, she dropped it to the ground where it popped open. The poochyena stood at her feet, looking around. Immediately, the mightyena froze, even though Ty and the charizard kept bashing away at them.

“Ty! Come back here. Heel, Ty,” Tegan called to her pokémon, who obeyed despite being confused by being suddenly called off in the middle of a fight. She turned to Kelsey. “Return your pokémon.”

As the charizard returned to his pokéball, poochyena trotted toward the group of pokémon which had just been attacking the trainers. The trio seemed to be forgotten almost instantly. It was greeted enthusiastically by all the mightyena and Tegan couldn’t help but smile at how it immediately curled up next to the feet of one of them.

“Aw… They just wanted their baby back! I thought it seemed particularly weak,” Tegan mused. She grinned at Kelsey who was looking at the poochyena as if she hadn’t seen anything cuter in her life.

A mightyena’s head snapped up. It looked at the trio with a beady, menacing eye.

Tegan’s face dropped. “Oh for the love of…” She edged up against the back wall. Or tried to anyway. “Where’d the wall go?”

She peered into the thick black behind her, unable to make out anything. Grabbing hold of her companion, she started to edge backwards in the darkness, slowly so the mightyena would hopefully not notice their retreat. Eventually, they managed to edge back so far that they could no longer see the wild pokémon. There was light behind them instead.

They stood in silence and looked around the cave. It was filled with a silver-blue light. The moon hung above the hole in the roof of the cave and the shine bounced off the crystal covered wall, illuminating the cave. Of course, Tegan was the first to break the silence.

“So, was it worth all that or what?” Tegan asked with a grin. She wandered to the edge of the pool of water and looked into its darkness.

Kelsey just rolled her eyes and followed her. “This is where dratini live, huh?” She looked at her surroundings, seemingly impressed. “You know, there are lots of rumours about dratini and where they come from and stuff. Some people say there’s this island in the middle of nowhere that only dratini live on… Some people say they live underwater, or in lagoons in mystical far off places. Funny to think you’ve got some pretty much living in your back garden, huh?”

“Maybe it could be all those places. I mean, who says there’s so few of them that they all live in this tiny colony somewhere?” As she talked, Tegan sat down at the edge of the pool and looked into the deep, deep water in front of her.

“Come on! How many dratini do you see on a regular basis, huh?” Kelsey scoffed as she sat down next to her.

Tegan shook her head. “Yeah, but you know what people are like. They see some pokémon that looks all dragon-like and mysterious, that just happens to be very shy and they romanticise the whole thing…”

“Can you blame them for romanticising them if they live in a place like this?” Kelsey asked as she pointedly looked at the cave around them.

Both of them sat quietly, looking around. After a few moments of quiet, the water rippled about ten feet away from them. Both trainers turned in shock and squinted into the darkness. As they watched, the water moved again, and two small ears broke the surface, followed by two eyes. The creature stared at them intently for a little while before inching its way forward. All the girls could do was sit still, almost like they were in a trance. Even Ty was quiet.

“Well, there you go…” Tegan whispered, barely moving her lips.

Kelsey shushed her. She was close to exploding from staying so quiet. As the trio watch, the dratini swam off to their left and crawled up onto the edge of the pool. There it sat, just looking at the little group as if it did this everyday. Out of the water it was surprisingly larger than they had realised before.

“So, are you gonna catch it or what?”

Kelsey hushed her again, this time with a glare. The dratini perked up at the exchange.

“See? It’s just interested in what’s going on,” Tegan pointed out. “You know, it’s probably bored. If you threw a pokéball it would probably just climb right in. I mean, there’s not much to do here for a young dratini, all alone up in the mountains.”

“Are you kidding me with your chatter?” Kelsey’s jaw just dropped in disbelief at Tegan. “Here’s a rare pokémon sitting a few metres away and you’re just talking. I mean, seriously! You’re going to scare him off if you keep rambling on like that.”

Both trainers turned around when they heard a splash. The dratini was gone.

Tegan chuckled nervously. “I guess I wasn’t the one who scared it off…”

Just as Kelsey turned to tell Tegan off, the water directly in front of them exploded. The girls dived backwards, holding onto each other for dear life. They shrunk back in fear from the water’s edge and looked up to see a dragonair hovering over them. It looked very annoyed.

“Hey I didn’t know they could fly! Man, those yokes are pretty long, aren’t they?” Tegan looked appreciatively up at the pokémon above them. “Do you think that’s the dratini’s mom?” She looked at Kelsey who was giving her another of those disbelieving looks. “What?!”

“We’re about to die and you’re practically telling a story!”

Tegan rolled her eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic!”

“Dramatic?! There’s a dragonair floating above us and you’re saying I’m dramatic? Tell me Tegan, how is this not a dramatic situation?”

“I’m just saying, we could probably be in more trouble.”

“Oh ye-“

The dragonair opened its mouth and let out a cry, then it dived at them. They both screamed. Tegan shoved Kelsey in one direction as she rolled the other. The dragonair crashed into the ground but was back up in a second.

“I thought dragonair were meant to be gentle?” Kelsey shouted across to Tegan as she backed away from the attacker. “How come this one wants to kill us?”

Tegan sighed. “I don’t know… How come everything’s trying to kill me lately? Have you noticed that? Like, that’s the second time in two days that same pack of mightyena have tried to kill me! It’s getting ridiculous. Although, who would’ve thought I’d spend so much time up in these hills!”

“What’s up with that?”

“I don’t know… Maybe it’s some major sign that this whole journey is a really bad idea, you know? It probably is. I mean, I’m probably not gonna get one good thing out of it…” Tegan sighed heavily, the tone in her voice was depressed.

“Well…” Kelsey smiled at her. “You made a friend, right?”

As Tegan was about to respond, the dragonair cried out again. “Oh yeah. Quick! Call out your charizard! He can probably take it,” Tegan called as the pokémon darted in her direction. “Quick, Ty, Ember!”

The growlithe, who’d been watching the whole thing in confusion, immediately jumped at the dragonair, spitting embers at it. The dragon-like pokémon turned on its short attacker and caught him up, wrapping its body around him.

“Call out your charizard, Kelsey! Ty’s in trouble!” Tegan called again. She leapt into the fight and started pound away at the creature that had her faithful friend in a vice like attack.

“Just hold on a second…” Kelsey replied. The dratini was back on the edge of the pool, watching the struggle, and she was trying to sneak up on it.

“Oh for the love of…” Tegan grumbled. She jumped atop the dragonair and tried to wrestle Ty free. However, it flicked its tail and she was thrown backwards through the air.

She landed with a hard smack on the ground. Almost instantly, Kelsey’s charizard was slashing away at the dragonair, who dropped Ty and dove back into the water. Before the creature could come back for a second go and before Tegan realised what was going on, Kelsey had pull her and Ty on to her charizard’s back and they were making a hasty retreat through the top of the cave.

“Hey… you saved us,” Tegan mumbled groggily when she realised what was going on.

“Shush, you hit your head pretty hard. Just relax until we get to a pokémon centre.”

Clouds gathered hurriedly in the night sky. They were thick, heavy, almost black clouds that blotted out every scrap of light from the moon. As they drew together, the sky rumbled with thunder loud enough Tegan thought she could feel her teeth shaking, thunder that sounded as if the clouds were so heavy they could barely stay in the sky. Lightning tore through the clouds. It ripped the air apart and blew a tree to splinters not too far from where they were flying.

“You ever hear the story about how dragonair can control the weather?” Tegan asked shakily as she turned to look behind them.

“Yeah…”

“Well, that’s one I definitely believe in now!” She pointed back.

In the sky above the cave they had just left, a shape floated. Except it wasn’t the dragonair that had just attacked them because Tegan was fairly sure dragonair didn’t have wings. In fact, as far as she knew dragonair didn’t have limbs either. Actually, if she didn’t know any better, she’d say that the creature, which was flying at them at an incredible speed, was a… dragonite.

“Holy crap… Do you think you can piss a pokémon off so much that it’ll evolve just out of pu