Xander scurried through the long, dark green grass in the damp swamp he called home. Well, he used to call home. A machamp had found its way into his living space. Whatever had angered it provoked the intent of murder in its mind. Thus, Xander was running. Unfortunately, Xander's short legs couldn't carry him anywhere near as fast as the machamp's long, muscular legs. There was only one course of action Xander could take right now.
Xander jumped into the water, his blue body making an excellent camouflage with the dark, murky color of the swamp water. Xander began swimming right as the machamp put its foot down in the spot he was previously, narrowly avoiding being stepped on.
The machamp jumped farther into the water, waving its four down trying to capture the mudkip that had eluded its grasp. It cried out in anger, the sound heard throughout the entire forest. He angrily stomped out of the water, leaving the scene and deciding it would probably be better to find another Pokémon to let his anger out on.
Xander peeked his head out of the water wearing a smirk on his face. This was the kind of thing he lived for. "That stupid machamp couldn't catch a slowpoke. Heh, even if the slowpoke let it catch him," he chuckled. Xander slowly made his way to the edge of the water, a little caution still evident on his face despite the big grin plastered over it. He stepped out of the water, his blue fins glistening in the little sunlight that could find its way through the labyrinth of branches overhead.
Xander turned his head to his place of residence, smile dropping as he saw its condition. His little, err, 'battle' didn't go over very well with the living conditions of his swamp. He sighed, I'd be lucky if I can even find my way through this place anymore, he thought. His swamp was surrounded by a dense forest. A large pond was in the middle, right in front of the only cave in the surrounding area. He used to live in that cave, but after that near death experience, he wasn't so sure anymore. Previously, his swamp was spotless, aside from the obvious dirt and mud. Now, trees were torn down and there were puddles of dirty water everywhere. He couldn't even see the entrance to his cave anymore!
He yawned, still tired from the rude awakening the machamp gave him. "Well, I guess its time to ditch this place. Maybe I can find an unoccupied cave by the ocean!" He said hopefully. And with that he began his trek. He never looked back once, but despite the fact that he'll most likely never see his home ever again, he was still in high spirits.
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YAWN...
Amethyst had just woken up from her slumber, and after a few minutes of rolling around in her hay bed she was finally able to wake up. Her light brown and white fur was a mess. She yawned, still a little tired. Her family had just sent her off to live on her own the day before and she was fairly happy about it. She was always the most social out of everyone in her family, but she still liked her privacy. Privacy was something her first home could not provide.
Her cave consisted of a medium sized chest and a hay bed. Her cave was in a rather large clearing. The clearing was surrounded trees, both tall and short. A small lake was in the middle in front of two fairly small caves. The sun cast its rays down onto the light green leaves and grass, creating a homey feel.
Amethyst walked out of her home: a small cave her parents had found for her a few days prior. She approached the small lake in front of her house and looked at her reflection. She frowned when she saw her disorganized and matted fur. She climbed into the clear, pristine water to wash the sleep off of her body and was pleasantly surprised by how warm it was. She sighed in contentment as the warm water worked out the aches in her muscles. She could tell today was going to be a good day.
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Xander had been wandering for a couple hours now, humming a wonderful song as he walked through the thick forest. He chuckled as all the forest Pokémon gave him annoyed glares.
Xander came across a clearing, sighing in relief as he left all the stares of the Pokémon behind. There were a few occupied caves scattered around the outer edges of the field. There was a crystal clear lake with a few young Pokémon playing in the clear water. The closest cave housed a family of four eevees, an espeon, and an umbreon.
Xander approached the family, hoping to get information on his current location. "Hi, there," Xander said as he approached the older looking espeon.
The espeon turned her head in Xander's direction and smiled. "Hello!" the espeon responded cheerily. The umbreon heard the commotion and walked over, a quizzical look on his face.
"I was hoping to get some information on the location?" Xander asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Sure thing. Goldenrod City is just a couple miles east from here and Azalea Town is just south a few more miles." The umbreon replied.
Xander blinked slowly, Wow, who knew you could travel so far in just a few hours. I was west of the Lake of Rage, just a while ago! Xander thought with a smug look.
"Thanks. My name is Xander, by the way."
"My name is Chloe," the espeon said waving, as Xander walked away.
"My name's Jeffrey," the umbreon said with a nod.
Xander nodded to Chloe and Jeffrey in reply. He started walking towards Goldenrod City, passing through the bright green bushes that separated the clearing from the forest.
As Xander was making his way through the underbrush, his stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn't eaten anything since last night. Spotting a bush of oran berries, Xander decided to take a short food break. After his belly was full he grabbed a few extra and continued his journey to find a new home.
Ughh. I've walked so far and I haven't found one empty cave. Maybe I'll have to make a burrow . Or maybe I'll find that beach home I wanted. No, that's just wishful thinking. Besides, all of the caves near the beach are probably full of Pokémon anyway. Maybe, I—"AGGGHHHH!"
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Amethyst was out looking for a late lunch. It was never easy to find pecha berries, her favorite meal, around this part of Johto. Amethyst was merrily walking towards a pecha berry bush she saw out of the corner of her eyes, when she heard something: " AGGGHHHH!"
She regretfully looked back at the pecha berry and sighed. "This better be worth it..." She muttered under her breath, before turning and running towards the voice.
Dodging trees and bushes, she finally found the source of the noise. Looking down the tall cliff she was on top of with a bemused expression on her face, what she found on the cliff made her heart skip a beat. A mudkip was dangling off a branch on the side of a cliff. "Uh, hey, um, hang on I'll get help!" She yelled worriedly. All she heard in response was a grunt as she turned and ran the opposite direction. My parents are too far away... come to think of it I don't remember seeing anyone on my way here. I'll get the emergency survival kit my dad gave me!
She rapidly entered her cave and hurriedly looked through her chest, throwing everything that wasn't the kit behind her. Where is it, where is it, where is it... Aha! She grabbed the handle of the wooden box and opened the kit. She looked among all of the items her father had placed in it, and finding some rope, she grabbed it and scurried out of her cave, only tripping over her paws once. She approached the cliff the mudkip was currently hanging for his life on. Amethyst tied one end of the rope to a tree using her mouth. "Hey, I got some rope! Catch!"
The mudkip saw the rope and grabbed onto it with his mouth while his four legs hung onto the branch. He let go of the branch, hitting the side of the cliff once before climbing up. He climbed the rope swiftly, pulling himself up onto the edge of the cliff. The mudkip was panting violently. Amethyst was staring wide eyed at the mudkip. "That was... amazing! That was the most exciting thing I've ever done in my life!" Amethyst exclaimed, bouncing up and down with a grin.
"T-that wasn't amazing! That was exhilarating!" The mudkip exclaimed.
"This is great! That was the most exciting thing I've ever done!" Amethyst announced, laughing the whole time.
"Really? That's easily in my top ten, I suppose." Xander stated smugly.
"You do stuff like this all the time?!"
"Actually, yes. I live for adventure. Especially the death-defying type." He stated, looking down at the cliff with a grin.
"Oooohhh! Maybe I'll stick with you; go on adventures, have fun! It'll be great!" She announced with joy.
Xander's eyes widened at that. "What?! No!"
"Yeah!"
"No!"
"Yeah!"
" I adventure alone. You'll just get in the way." Xander waved a leg at her. " Besides, do you really want to risk your life like this on a daily basis."
"Yes! That's the whole reason I want to come! It'll add some excitement into my life." Amethyst put on a look that said she wasn't going to relent.
Xander's eye twitched. "You know what, never mind. I don't want your life to be my responsibility. I'll just walk away." Xander said, getting quite annoyed.
Amethyst followed with a skip in her step as he walked away. Xander glared at her and picked up his pace. Amethyst followed, unfazed, with the same skip in her step. Xander stopped. Amethyst just bounced around Xander, her eyes closed and a big smile on her face.
Xander sighed. "Fine. But I don't even have a place to live, and—"
"I know where you could live! There's an empty cave next to my house! You can stay there!"
Xander stared at her, dumbfounded. He shook his head and sighed.
"Okay, you win," Xander said, sitting down and rubbing his temples. "But don't blame me when you start internally bleeding."
"Oooooh, dangerous... Of course! This'll be so fun! I can't wait to go on adventures and do dangerous things, and—"
Xander tuned her out. After a few minutes of her still talking, Xander decided to take action.
"We can battle really big Pokémon, and we can go camping every day, and we can—"
Xander cut her off. "Just show me the cave."
"You got it, Xander!"
Amethyst led Xander through the forest, babbling about how thrilling her future will be. Eventually, they made it to Amethyst's large clearing. "Well, this is where I live!" She said gesturing towards the her cave. "And that is where you will stay!" She pointed towards the slightly smaller cave with her paw. She led him to the small cave that was thirty feet to the right of her slightly larger cave.
"This is it," Amethyst said, calming down from her outburst ", heh, sorry about my energy. It happens sometimes. I just got so excited. I don't know what came over me," She said, smiling sheepishly.
"Eh, it's fine. This cave will make up for it, I suppose. Yes, this cave is very nice," Xander stated, looking at the small lake in front of the two caves.
"Well, I'll leave you to it, then," said Amethyst, walking towards her own cave.
Xander looked into his own cave and noticed a large hay bed. Wow, two near death experiences in one day. I guess it really wears you out, he thought, yawning, I think I'll go to bed now. I'll need the rest to deal with Amethyst's drive for adventure tomorrow.
Chuckling, Xander went over and laid in his bed. He yawned one final time before falling aslee—
"Xander! Xander, Xander, Xander!" Amethyst yelled, peeking into the cave.
"What!"
"What are you doing? You can't go to sleep yet! It's only four o'clock! What happened to "living for adventure?""
"I almost fell to my death not thirty minutes ago. Give me a break." Xander said with half lidded eyes.
"Pfffft. Come on, you have to do something. We can plan for our adventure tomorrow! I thought of something amazing!" Amethyst said, shaking up and down with a big grin.
"Calm down, Amethyst! We can plan for our— wait, tomorrow?!" Xander exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Of course! It's not like you have anything better to do anyway, right?"
"Well, no, but... Err, fine! But nothing big!"
"Okay! My amazing plan was to invade the menacing bandit's dry lands in the west."
"Amethyst?"
"Yes?"
"Keep it small."
She pouted. "How about a treasure hunt, then?"
"A treasure hunt? Do you actually have a map that leads to treasure?" Xander asked incredulously.
"Yep! Found it under a bunch of junk next to Goldenrod." She stated proudly. "Never had a chance to use it until now."
"Okay, then... Well I guess we're going on a treasure hunt..." He sighed.
"We're gonna be rich, Xander! Just imagine all the possibilities!" She said, waving her paw in a straight line towards the sky.
"Oh joy... Can I go to sleep now?"
"What about the day after tomorrow? Or the day after that?!"
"You don't need to plan everything out in one day." Xander stared at her with a blank look.
"Oh, fine. You don't need to put a damper on all my fun, Xander."
"Then who will? You need limits somewhere."
"Pshhhh. Limits are for boring people like you. What we really need is fun."
There's no arguing with this one, Xander thought, keeping up his blank stare. "I'm going to bed." He turned around, heading towards his bed.
"Goodnight, Xander. Don't let the bedbugs bite!"
"Don't let the bedbugs bite?" He murmured. "Wait, do you have bedbugs here?"
"Nope, I just got rid of them last night!" Amethyst said with a smile.
Xander looked at her, mouth agape. Amethyst just waved and walked away, leaving him to his own thoughts. What is wrong with her? Was she always like this? He thought. He walked over to his hay bed and laid down in it, being careful to check for any of the aforementioned bedbugs. He yawned and closed his eyes, falling asleep in minutes.
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Amethyst sighed. I need teach that guy to have fun every once in a while. I mean, adventures? What's more fun than that? Heh, no wonder he only works alone. No one wants to be around a person like that for long. She thought as she walked back over to the area she found the pecha berry bush. Nearing the bush, she found the pecha berry bush was undisturbed in her absence. She grabbed one with her teeth and ate it with a smile.
Even though Xander was such a party pooper, she still felt the next few days were going to be the best ones in her life. As she ate her dinner, everything that has happened in the past hour hit her and she felt tired almost immediately. I just saved a mudkip's life. She thought with a smile. Yeah, if this sort of thing happens everyday, I think I could get used to Xander.
She swallowed her last pecha berry and made her way back to her clearing. She walked through the bushes that separated the forest and her living area. Her first day in her own and she's already had more fun than with her family. She giggled at the fact that her parents probably wouldn't approve of her running around going on adventures with a mudkip she just met not an hour ago. She entered the warm lake and let the water work out all the stress of the day. She closed her eyes and sighed. Maybe I should go asleep early, too. I should rest for our treasure hunt.
She stepped out of the lake and made her way to her cave. She opened her chest and picked out one of the only things not thrown against the wall on the other side of the cave. It was a piece of paper. The paper had the word "menu" at the top and had an elaborate design of lines all leading to an X in the middle. Yeah, this will definitely be fun. I wonder what's in the chest at the X, though. Hmmmm...
Amethyst carefully placed the "map" back into her chest and closed the lid. She made her way to her bed and laid down in the hay. She closed her eyes with a smile and quickly fell asleep.