"I don't
understand, why?" "I'm sorry, I don't understand
either. But I have to." Light surrounded her, she was floating,
gently, serenely, up into the sky... Sadness gripped at her heart
and, although she no longer had a body, she felt tears. The
Cyndaquil on the ground put a paw into the air, reaching for her.
"Rataki! No! Please don't leave!" He was crying. There
were more shouts, voices of other Pokemon calling her name. They
began to fade as she drifted higher. The group of Pokemon grew
smaller and smaller, but she could still make out the tiny figure
that was the Cyndaquil, that was her friend. She tried to reach for
him, the nonexistent tears filling her soul. "Ridge…"
Rataki opened her eyes. She sat up, stretching, then allowed her hands to fall into her lap as she thought about the dream. She had had it so many times before that she knew it by heart. Of course, she'd only have needed to have it once to remember it. Unlike most dreams, which became hazy upon awakening, this one stayed fresh, nipping at her mind and forcing her to think for long periods at a time.
She wished she knew what it meant. Normally she dismissed her dreams, but these days she took them more seriously, at least that one, anyway. She didn't know why. Things were still quite confusing in her life. There were lots of things she had yet to figure out and this dream was one of them, though it was much lower on the list than other things.
It had been only a week since she had woken up in the middle of that forest. Such a small amount of time that, before the strange events, she wouldn't have noticed unless something big happened. Well, this was certainly something big. She was still incredibly confused about things. Who wouldn't be? Apart from suddenly waking up in the middle of a forest with no idea how she had gotten there, she had discovered that there was a huge gap in her memory. Two months were missing from her life.
When she had first seen the date on her Pokegear she was sure it was broken. She would have taken it to a shop and had it looked at if she hadn't checked three newspapers and watched the news and gotten the same date.
On top of being completely freaked out, she had been scolded by several people: her mother, Professor Elm, and her friend Mia for a start. She could still hear their voices, particularly her mother's.
"Two months! Two months, Rataki! Do you know how worried I've been? Why on earth didn't you call? I know you're busy with your journey but you can't just ignore me. I worry about you. It's dangerous traveling all on your own. I know you have your Pokemon with you but they won't be any good if you get hit by a car or fall off a cliff or something."
She couldn't be irritated with her mother. She knew she was only angry because she had been scared. She had also found it impossible to tell her the true reason she hadn't called. For one thing, she had no idea what she had been doing, for another, telling her mother that she had no memories of the past two months would first get her into trouble as a bad joke, then forced to go to a psychiatric hospital to have her head examined. She could, however, be irritated at Mia. Her friend worried, of course, but her reaction had been rather uncalled for.
"How could you do that to your best friend?! I've been worried sick! What's your Pokegear for? If you want to end our friendship just say so, but don't just sever contact like that!"
Typical Mia, but plenty of motivation to hang up on her. She would have if she hadn't known this was how her friend always acted when she was scared, or relieved after being scared. Some people had an odd way of expressing feelings.
Professor Elm had just given her one of his extremely long-winded lectures. He had included everything from considering others' feelings to a guide on how to avoid being kidnapped and having her Pokemon stolen.
Her Pokemon. They were the only ones she had told about her dilemma. This was no trouble at all as, according to them, they had slept for two months. The only difference between their predicament and hers was that they at least knew what they had been doing for the past two months. They didn't know why they knew, but they knew. She, on the other hand, didn't have the faintest clue. For all she knew she had hit her head and spent the last two months wandering around the forest babbling to herself.
Rataki sighed and flopped back in her bed. Why did this have to happen to her? Two months of training wasted, two months of traveling wasted, and her chance to enter and place in the Silver Conference, if not all together ruined, bashed into pieces.
That must have been one of the reasons everyone had been so worried. She had been working towards the Silver Conference for ages, and now she had no chance of winning, and hardly any of even entering. It was due to start later that month and she was two badges short. Two badges would have been easy to get in two months, but a week and a half was crazy. And then she had to register and show up.
She was going to try though. She was due to battle the leader of the Blackthorn Gym that day. After that she planned to get directions to the nearest town with a gym, no matter what kind of reputation it had, and borrow a Teleport Pokemon to get her there. It would cost most of the money she had with her, but she had plenty of savings at home.
"Even then it might not be enough time to get the badges. And if I do I won't have any time to train. And registering will be a problem too. I'll have to register by phone which I really, really didn't want to do, and then I have to teleport to the Silver Conference. I had so wanted to make my way there the trainers' way: walking, or at least flying. And I had wanted to register in person. There's just no feeling of accomplishment in the way I have to do things."
A soft sigh escaped her lips and she allowed her mind to wander back to the dream. Sadness welled up in her as she remembered the pain on the Cyndaquil's face. She hated to see Pokemon suffering, but there was something more to this feeling. Something she couldn't place. The sadness was deep heartache, not the kind caused by seeing others suffer.
'Have that dream again?' asked a soft voice from below her. A gentle glow lit up the room as a Dragonair uncurled next to the bed and lifted herself gracefully into the air.
"Yeah, I wish I knew what it meant."
'It probably doesn't mean anything,' said the Dragonair in a tongue only understandable by her trainer.
"I know, it's just…it feels so…so different. Every time I think of the Cyndaquil's face I feel sad. It doesn't make sense. Well, nothing makes much sense at the moment."
'Don't think about it. Dreams are to be dwelled on only by psychics and psychic types. You are neither, so your dream is simply one that occurs often. It is of no importance.'
"You're probably right." Rataki yawned and rolled over, her back to the Dragonair. "You should go back to sleep. We have a gym battle later and neither of us want to be tired."
'I agree.' The light flickered out as the snake-like dragon lowered herself to the floor and curled up.
Rataki sighed heavily and closed her eyes. Sleep took her quickly and soon the dream started up again.
Her body felt so light, she had no body. She was glowing,
rising into the air as the Pokemon below called her name. "Rataki!
No! Please don't leave!" He reached for her, tears spilling out
of his eyes. "Ridge…"
A tear fell out of the human's eye, sliding down her face until it landed softly on the pillow. "Ridge…"