Forgotten the taste and smell
Of the world that she's left behind

It had been my job to clean out the old abandoned closet. I didn't want to have to be the one to do it, but my sisters were currently touring the world, yet again. As I reached into the pile of junk at the bottom of the closet, I pulled out an old wooden box that I didn't recognize. It was all dusty and worn, so I picked it up and blew away the dust that had settled on the top. When I opened it, I found that it held tiles looked like they had letters written on each one. I dumped the tiled letters onto the floor in front of me. Pulling from the pile the letters I needed, I spelled my name. MISTY. The tiled letters that spelled out my name looked ancient to me, representing an alphabet that I had trouble deciphering at first. As I pulled more and more letters out, combining them to make words, it all started to come back to me. I slowly began to remember which letter was which, no longer needing the reference guide provided in the box. Before I knew it, I had words spelled out in front of me like a crossword puzzle, overlapping with each other to create new words.

Even though I had created many words, I still had tiles left over that didn't quite fit with anything I had put down. As I glanced over the words I did have, I noticed that there was an open S that I could add tiles before or after to create a word. Flicking my eyes over the letters still remaining, a lonely H caught my eye. I knew I needed at least one more letter to create a pretty good word, so, I closed my eyes and picked one at random. An A. Grabbing the S from where I had placed it before, I set it next to the other two letters. With them all in a line as SAH, I began mixing them around, trying to come up with a word I could use. HAS. Nah, I needed something better. AHS. I don't think a word to exclaim fright was best. SHA. I don't even think that was a word. ASH. Not only was it the remains of a fire or a type of tree. But it was also a name. His name.

Go figure, out of all the words I could have come up with, it had to be his name. Staring at the name that I had to try to block out of my mind, I started thinking about him and how it had been a while since I had last heard from him, let alone seen him. I think he was in Sinnoh now, probably lost in some forest because he had taken what he thought was a shortcut. He was with Brock, though, so he wouldn't be lost forever. Man how I missed them. I wish you were here, I told the tiles as I felt a tear slip down my cheek, splashing onto the S.

Suddenly, the tiles flashed a deep blue. Well that was weird, I thought to myself. Having enough of going down memory lane, I wiped my eyes and swept up the tiles, putting them back in the box where they belonged. Setting them aside to take to my room later, I moved on to the rest of the closet.

XXX

"Look guys!" I exclaimed to the group behind me as I pointed over a hill. "There it is, Cerulean City."

"Finally!" Dawn cheered.

"Last one there's a rotten egg!" I called over my shoulder as I sprinted off in the direction of Cerulean City. It had been too long since I was here last. More specifically, though, too long since I had seen my best friend.

"ASH!"

XXX

After what seemed like hours of cleaning that dirty, old closet, I finally finished. I was all sweaty and covered in dirt and cleaning supplies, while piles of bags sat beside me, indicating what I planned to keep and what I planned to get rid of. Grabbing the bag of stuff I wanted to keep, I headed toward my room when I heard the doorbell ring.

Throwing the bag down at my feet, I walked the short distance to the front door, my footsteps echoing on the wooden floor. As I got closer to the door, I heard raindrops hitting the sidewalk outside. I guess in my cleaning spree, I hadn't heard the rain start up. Thankfully, I wasn't still holding the bag because I would have dropped it as my hands flew up to cover my mouth.

"Ash?" I gasped.

There he was, standing on my doorstep, muddy and soaking wet, an equally drenched Pikachu on his shoulder. He looked just the same as I had remembered him, except he had traded in his old hat and clothes for some new ones. His brown eyes stared at me, but there was something different about them that I hadn't noticed before. I know it sounded weird for me to say that his eyes looked different but, instead of the glint of happiness they always showed, they had an eerie glow to them.

"Hey, Mist," he greeted me. Even his voice seemed slightly different, but maybe, it was because he was much older now. "I've missed you."


So, there's chapter one. I'll take this time to warn you now that updates for this story will be very slow at first since I probably won't get much of a chance to work on it until the end of June. I will try my best to get a few more chapters to read while you wait. In the meantime, fill free to tell me what you think.