Prologue. So, where shall we go next?
Dawn looked out of her window, at the landscape of Johto flashing by, a blurred world of green and brown. The train was moving fast and the dark-blue-haired coordinator's heard was pounding at an equal speed – after Harley (Harley of all people!) had won the Johto Grand Festival, she, May, and Drew had decided to leave this region and travel elsewhere.
What exactly this 'elsewhere' was had not yet been said, but she knew that wherever they'd go, it would be amazing. With her friends by her side and her Pokémon who had become some kind of family to her, nothing could go wrong!
„So," May asked from beside her, pulling Dawn out of her thoughts, „where shall we go next?"
Drew, who was sitting on the other side, blew a strand of green hair out of his face and smiled just the tiniest bit. „I'd like Kalos."
„Kalos?" The one region Dawn hadn't thought of. But it did seem like a nice idea, to be honest – she had no idea what Kalos was about (except the very good food May always mentioned when they were eating, which could get a little annoying), but at least it was something new. Her traveling companions had already seen Kanto, Johto and Hoenn, May had been in Sinnoh for a while and in Unova there were no contests. Dawn herself would have liked Kanto too, but Ash had told her so much about it, it didn't even feel like she had never been there anymore.
May actually squealed a little. „Kalos! I like that idea!" She turned her head away and almost hit Dawn with her wide brown hair, probably a dreamy expression in her sapphire blue eyes. „They have amazing food! And it's a really beautiful place! Oh, I'd love to see the Prism Tower with my own eyes..."
„I'm fine with that," Dawn added quietly, a little overwhelmed by May's outbreak. „Kalos sounds nice."
„Piplup!" the blue penguin sitting on her hair – she had gotten so used to that that she had almost forgotten her Piplup was there – agreed. Or at least she thought it agreed, you could never be sure with that Pokémon.
Drew nodded. „It's settled, then?"
„Definitely!" May called a little louder than she had to, the fast head swap towards the green haired boy causing her hair to hit Dawn for real this time. She didn't even notice and her friend didn't bother to say something; experience had shown it didn't help. „And let's just be clear – this time, I'm not going to lose to you" - she pointed towards Drew - „or you" - Dawn - „or anyone, especially not Harley! Geez, who would've imagined he'd beat me in the finale... Seriously!"
Dawn giggled and pulled on her pink scarf, fastening it. „Sorry, but in the next finale, I'll be the one crushing you!"
„You go ahead and argue, everyone knows that in the end, the only Kalos Top Coordinator of us is called Drew Skyden." There it was again, the arrogant tone Dawn was used to when talking to her and especially May's rival. She didn't bother to hide the half amused, half angry spark in her glacier blue eyes.
„Oh, come on, nobody believes that except you."
„I bet you won't even reach the second round!" May added grinning.
The three went on and on like this the entire train ride long, but a serious fight was something different. Actually, all of them seemed to be happy about going to Kalos – what would await them there?
„Serena? Are you coming?"
„Ah, sure!"
She adjusted the pink canotier that she had placed on her voluminous dirty blonde hair and waved to where Ash, Clemont and Bonnie were standing. Her cheeks heated up as she saw the black-haired Pokémon trainer smiling that familiar confident smile at her, the one she loved so much.
Serena was ready to face whatever Kalos held in storage for her as long as he was with her. Sure, she also liked Clemont and especially Bonnie, who was like a little, very blonde sister to her, but her heart belonged to Ash Ketchum – someone who was completely oblivious to the feelings she had for him. Seriously, she didn't really make it a secret that she liked him a little more than her usual friends, and even Bonnie, the youngest member of the group she travelled with, had found out. Was Ash just childish or blind?
Whatever reason he had, it didn't stop him from being the childhood crush that had eventually transformed into something bigger. Maybe it was stupid of Serena to hold on to that fantasy he had been when they were children and he had helped her like a knight in shining armor, but she didn't care. Those feelings had helped her make the decision to even start a journey in the first place, so they couldn't be all bad, right?
„Fen!" her Fennekin, the fire fennek she had chosen as her very first pokémon, walking next to her called, with an impatient look on its face, as if it wanted to tell her: 'Stop daydreaming and just go!'
„Right," Serena answered out loud and ran towards her friends.
The group was headed towards Anistar City, where Ash could win his seventh badge and get one step closer to his goal of being the champion of the Kalos league, and Serena knew there'd also be a Pofflé Making Contest in which she'd participate. It was not exactly what she had in mind when she started her journey, but her rival and somehow friend, Millefeui De Lacorte, would take part too and Serena was happy knowing that she had a talent for baking the Pokémon sweets. Still, she had no idea what she'd do after Ash would have won the league (and she was 100% sure he could do it, after all he and his Pokémon were not only a great team, but also very strong). Maybe she'd start collecting badges too? Or open up a little Pofflé shop in Lumiose City – after Ash would have found out he was in love with her, of course?
At the moment it was just nice to have friends around and see Kalos with its many facettes. And she didn't exactly want to think of something as serious as her future – she was 15, after all, and important decisions seemed so far away still.
„Let's go!" Bonnie said to her friends as Serena reached the group – Arceus, how long had it took her to walk that little distance? She really needed to stop thinking about so many things so much! - and petted her Dedenne, the tiny electric mouse living in her yellow purse. „I wanna see the famous Anistar sundial!"
„Calm down, Bonnie." Clemont smiled at his sister. „We'll see it soon enough."
But Ash was already far ahead of them, calling out something that sounded like „yeah, but the sooner, the better!" He had always been like that.
Some things never change, Serena thought with a sigh. But that was just one of the things she liked about him.