When Elijah woke to to his alarm in the morning that was strange. It buzzed, loud and shrill, but he let it go for a while as he stared at the ceiling. Then, limbs still heavy from sleep he switched off the alarm and checked his phone. No missed calls.

For the past month his fiance had been off in the Alola region, apparently criminal activity was flaring up there. As a reporter, Cyrus couldn't just let that slide and so off to Alola he'd flown. It was a little less than a twelve hour difference between Alola and Hoenn so every evening before he went to bed, Cyrus would call Elijah to wake him up. But today it hadn't happened.

Elijah brushed it off, Cyrus was probably just busy. Things could get hectic, one missed phone call didn't mean a thing.

By evening, it wasn't just one missed phone call. There were no texts, no messages, no calls from the hotel room. Nothing.

The next morning there wasn't a call either.

With his gut telling him something was wrong, Elijah called the hotel.

"The Sunshine Inn!" answered a chipper voice on the other end.

"Hello," said Elijah, "I'm calling about one of your guests. He's my fiance and I was worried about him. Cyril Ryle, he's in room 3."

"No," said the voice, "I'm afraid he left two days ago and just hasn't been back. I shouldn't worry though, Alola is very safe."

"Oh," said Elijah, "thank you."

After he ended the call, he went and threw up in the toilet. Half a world away and his fiance was missing, half a world away and the front desk at the hotel said 'Alola was very safe'. Half a world away, Elijah could do nothing. After he realized that, there was only one option.

He called work and told them he was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. They didn't like it, but he only worked part time, and there was no way he could give them two weeks notice for this. Then he called his aunt, told her he was coming to visit to 'see the sights' and booked a plane ticket.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the plane ride was uneventful. Terrified of flying, Elijah did his best to sleep through most of the trip. He managed it in fits and starts, aided by the chatter of the old man in the seat next to him, who was dying to tell Elijah all about his grandchildren, his pokemon, and why Alola was the absolute best place to raise children. By the time the plane landed, Elijah's legs were cramped, his stomach was upset and he was of the firm opinion that he would be taking a boat back to Hoenn, even if it took him three months.

As he disembarked, his aunt ran across the pavement to greet him. She swept him into a hug, only coming up to his chest and then stepped back.

"Look at you!" she said, "I never thought I'd see you in an airport."

Elijah smiled ruefully, "Well, Auntie, I'm full of surprises."

She laughed at that, with a smile so wide it caused her eyes to almost disappear. "I'm happy to hear that! But you must be hungry, come you can tell me all about your planned visit in the car once we get your bags."

In the cramped car, that smelled like cigarette smoke, Elijah told his aunt he planned to visit every part of Alola he could get to.

"I just don't want to miss anything," he said.

His aunt, deftly swerving around a man riding a tauros said, "what a wonderful idea! I can't wait to see the pokemon you brought with you. When you were just a tyke we thought you never would become a trainer."

That was true enough, Elijah had never had a knack for pokemon. He liked them well enough, but he didn't see the need to travel around beating the stuffing out of other people for fun. He'd beaten a few people for money when he was younger, but you didn't need a pokemon to do that.

"I still haven't," he admitted, "I guess I didn't think of that."

His aunt shook her head as they drove through lush tropical vegetation and by strange pokemon Elijah had never seen. "Well, you're not going to make much headway like that."

She slapped the steering wheel with her palm as if she had an epiphany. "You're a little old, but there's something around here called the island trial. Most youngsters do it when they get old enough to travel on their own. Gets you to places you could never be otherwise. Perhaps you could try that, I don't think there's an official age limit so it shouldn't be a problem."

Elijah opened his mouth to protest and then close it again. She was right, even if he was twenty seven it was never too late to learn. Besides, island folk were supposed to be famous for their hospitality. Instead, he said, somewhat lamely, "I wouldn't know where to begin."

His aunt sucked her teeth, and turned sharply into the driveway before throwing the car in park. "You let me worry about that. We're going to get you fed, and then you're going to go to bed. It's late here, and you can't be exploring if your body thinks it's half a world away."

There was really no arguing with his aunt, so Elijah got out of the car, brought his bags in, and set about clearing out the fridge. It was an impossible task, empty margarine containers were stuffed with left overs, even the freezer was bursting at the seams, and every time he thought he was finished, his aunt brought over another place. Dirty rice, curried goat, green beans and jerk chicken. Soup with some unidentifiable Alolan vegetables, fruit that he better eat before it went off and cups and cups of tea.

By the time he managed to persuade his aunt that yes, he'd eaten enough, and no he wasn't just being polite, and he was certain he couldn't manage another thing, Elijah felt like a snorlax after it'd woken up. And much like a snorlax just after it had woken up, when he was done eating Elijah waddled to bed. He didn't even have the energy to check his phone before he slipped into a deep dreamless sleep, but when he woke up, there were still no missed calls.