Lillie sighs in exhaustion, closing the door to her room. Her room is tiny, but very clean and orderly, as she had very little to bring with her. She crumples onto her bed face first, groaning.

"What a long day..." she mumbles into her pillow.

The doctors are exhausting to deal with. So many questions!

Lillie rolls over onto her back, looking up at the ceiling.

"The sooner we can meet Mr. Bill, the better..." she thinks. "Mother needs help as soon as possible."

Lillie stretches herself up, moving into a cross-legged position.

"Well...what should I do now?" she wonders aloud. Just as she considers resuming the book she had been reading (The Complete Guide for Novice Trainers, by Leif Green), the phone in her pocket vibrates.

"Well that's convenient timing," she says, pulling the phone out of her pocket and swiping to check the new notification.

"Let's see...um...one new email. From...MidnightSun16?"

Lillie opens the email and leans back against the wall.

Hello, Lillie! I know I said I would write you a letter, but I never actually got your address, so...email it is. Hope it doesn't come off as too impersonal.

You know, back on the night of the festival, when you told me you were leaving the next day...I wasn't really surprised. I could tell you were anxious about something, I just wasn't sure what. I was relieved, really, because I thought you were thinking of something else.

Thank you, by the way. For telling me. I'm sure it would have been easier to just wait for the next day.

So how is Cerulean treating you? I never visited it myself, but I heard that it was a really great place to live. Very clean. There's a lot of water Pokemon around there...you should definitely visit their gym, if you haven't already. Now that I think about it, gyms and trials are pretty different, aren't they? They both exist to provide a challenge for aspiring trainers, right? But gyms are permanent. You can go to any gym anytime, and get a reasonable challenge. But trials happen only once, and are wildly different from each other. They aren't necessarily designed to offer a fair challenge, but that's part of the deal, I suppose. Each one was unique and very memorable.

Anyway...

In regards to my own adventures...well, I got my first challenger! It was Hau, surprise surprise. I won, but it didn't seem to get to him all that much. I don't know how he stays so positive all the time. I would tell him I'm a little jealous of that ridiculous optimism, but it might come off as condescending...

I've also been working with a certain group (wink) to track down and secure the UB's. They're ridiculously strong, we've had a couple close calls. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It's...complicated. Just looking at these things feels so incredibly...off. You know? We're still not sure if they're really even Pokemon. Just because they fit in a thing that looks like a Pokeball doesn't make them a Pokemon. But they didn't ask to come here. They just want to go home...and they'll resort to any means to do that.

Blech. Enough about that.

Oh! By the way. Miss Wicke sends her regards, and says she is very proud of you. Your brother is working on rescuing all the Pokemon in your mother's 'collection' (but you probably already knew that). I think he's going to challenge me once he finishes that. My team is pretty excited for that!

Anyway...I hope you're doing alright. I'm sure you're going to be fine, but please don't hesitate to call on us if you ever need us! Nebby and I are always there for you. Speaking of Nebby...she misses you quite a lot. We get along very well, and she's a great member of the team, but...you'll always be her true partner. I hope you'll feel confident enough to one day test yourself against her in the same way you had me do.

Good luck, Lillie! Hope to hear from you soon.

Your friend,

Sun

PS. Check the attachment

Lillie notices the small icon of a photograph on the top of the email. She opens the file, and a picture loads.

It's of Sun and Nebby! Sun has one arm wrapped around Nebby's wing while giving a peace sign with the other. It's hard to tell the emotions of Lunala from a picture, but she's sure that Nebby is very happy.

Lillie smiles and saves the picture to her phone's memory. She moves to close the email, but notices one more line...

PPS. You might want to delay giving Hau your address...because as soon as you do, you're going to be buried under a mountain of sweets.

I wrote this on a whim after finishing Pokemon Moon, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I think they really knocked it out of the park with this one.

Anyway, feedback is always welcome, so please give me your thoughts! I always read all my comments and reviews. Also, if you enjoyed this story, you might like my other Pokemon Sun/Moon story, Conquering the Canyon. It's another one off - about twice as long as this one, but it's of a similar lighthearted vein.

Thanks for reading!

-Spiner