Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, well, not the companies (Nintendo, Gamefreak, 4Kids) that produced it, though, I wish I did…
Albatross (It's kinda an odd ghost story)
"Oh…"
"…No"
Two simultaneous screams shattered the dialogue or more specifically, Brock and Misty woke up…
Normally, Ash was a heavy sleeper, but something jolted him awake, or just urged him to mumble, "Pipe down…"
Misty's eyes went wide
Brock's eyes went wide
Both woke up and stared at each other in quiet embarrassment.
"Umm, Brock, uh, good morning, uh, I'll go get some firewood, uh, bye!" she dashed off the campsite, taking Togepi and dragging her sleeping bag with her.
Brock was about to say the same thing, but stopped. He wasn't exactly into running after her, or anything, especially not being her boyfriend or cooking for her, or… Well, he always liked cooking.
In a long period of thought, Brock was suddenly startled by a heavy sleeper.
"What was that about?" Ash murmured.
"What was what about? I didn't dream of anything or brocolli or…" Brock gulped.
"Broccolli?" Ash laughed, "You've been cooking too much."
"Um, yeah, um…" Brock turned to the campsite's stove.
It'd been a week (at least) after the Pokemon League. Ash had lost to Richie on a "technicality", or more specifically because of Charizard and they were on their journey again. Somehow, they'd stumbled into a suspiciously blue forest, covered with flowers and tree leaves of the same midnight blue color one'd see on a crayon. But they'd ignored the fact as they entered, and they'd been stuck there four days since.
"Where's Misty?" Ash yawned as he woke Pikachu up. Receiving a little thunder shock from Pikachu, his eyes widened in alertness as he looked around.
"M…Misty?" Brock chattered, "I…she…went to get some firewood."
"Huh?" Ash paused, "You sure? I mean, it's morning and all. Shouldn't we trail outta here?"
Looking around the blue forest, Ash breathed, "This place is kinda creepy, don't ya' think?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
In an otherwise quiet, blue forest rushed a red-haired girl to a river stream. Holding Togepi in one arm and reaching down for some water with the other, she felt groggy and ugh. Splashing her face with cold water to wake up, she ended up splashing water everywhere, particularly onto the sleeping Pokemon in her right arm.
Togepi, who was slightly startled awake, cryed instantly.
"Oh, Togepi, I'm sorry," Misty apologized.
Misty was mystified. She'd gone back and forth to the river plenty of times, even the morning before, after waking up from that horribly repeated dream. Having dreamt it the first time, she shrugged it off, though not 2 easily. The second, annoying and repetitive. The third one in a row, that morning, scared her like crazy.
She didn't even like Brock! Not like a boyfriend, that was, she was more of a friend to him, like she was to Ash, disregarding the bicycle he owed her.
Turning back in the direction of the campsite, Misty carried Togepi back part of the way. It was ten minutes later, though, that something seemed amiss.
"That's funny," she looked at the vast area of blue forest, "the campsite should've been around here."
Togepi seemed to tense slightly.
"Ash! Pikachu, where are you?" Misty called out a few times, before calling out, "Brock!"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Brock could've sworn he heard Misty. Turning to Ash, he noted, "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Ash sighed, in a strangely tired manner.
"Ash? Ash?" Brock noticed his dark-haired friend fall back asleep. He signaled Pikachu to wake him up with a little static electricity, but Pikachu seemed to tire.
It was minutes later, and plenty of open pokeballs of sleeping Pokemon later that he got the picture.
Something was definitely wrong
While worried of leaving a sleeping bunch of pokemon and especially Ash, Brock realized if Misty was awake enough to shout for him, he'd better have answered. "Misty?"
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Brock?" she shouted and paced closer to the voice with Togepi.
Hearing the voice come closer as it shouted back "Misty, where are you?" Misty took a quick look at the Pokemon she was holding and sighed. Togepi was heavily sleeping. Strange.
"Over hear!" she shouted, while walking towards Brock's voice.
It was after awhile that the two met, concern in their eyes.
"Brock!" Misty shouted, then blushed in embarrassment. Being only three or so feet away from her, he heard her.
Recovering in a few seconds later, Brock noted, "Togepi's sleeping. Ash too, and all the Pokemon back at the campsite."
In a worry, Misty looked around them, staring into the blue forest in puzzlement. "Brock, where's the campsite?"
Brock smiled a sec. Don't worry, I left small trail of white sugar right here," he pointed to the ground, which was in actuality filled with dirt and no trace of sugar.
From Misty's stare towards the barren dirt, Brock looked down and gasped, "Uh oh."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
"Great!" a sarcastic mouth wailed, "Ash and the Pokemon are in an unconscious slumber, and we're lost!"
Misty suddenly realized, that besides Togepi, she was lost with Brock. "Sorry, I…I guess I'm just scared."
Brock shook his head, "It's okay." Smiling, he paused then chuckled, "At least we're not being chased by ghost pokemon!"
Misty meekly smiled, suddenly daunted with a slight fear of what Brock noted. Eyeing the surrounding blue forest around, she saw an old flash of light beam from the forest behind Brock.
"Aaaaaaaaah!" she screamed and nearly fell over.
Kept from doing so by Brock, Misty chattered through her teeth, "Did you see that?"
Turning around to see what she was pointing at, he merely saw the forest. "Um, are you feeling okay?"
A mallet swung over his head. "Of course I am! Besides being scared, lost, and annoyed by you!"
But she sighed, maybe thinking Brock was right. She was probably just nervous about the forest. When she looked at Brock though, in apology, she noticed an odd expression form on Brock's face.
"Gh. Gh…Ghost!" he exclaimed, looking to the back of Misty.
Grabbing by her free arm, he ran and pulled her along with him. Whatever kind of odd being was in that forest area, he wouldn't be overcome by it.
And behind them, the ghostly figure, more like the shadow sighed, "Why's this always got to be so hard?!"
It floated in the air, in the direction of the boy, the girl, and the Togepi.
Minutes later, after running quite a distance across the forest, Brock and Misty stopped, catching their breath.
"Is it gone?" Misty clutched her sleeping Togepi as Brock looked around in response.
"I…I think so," he calmed down, then asked when looking around, "It's just so weird. The forest seems exactly the same here as when I saw the ghost."
Nodding slowly, Misty sighed, "We're definitely lost." Looking in the direction they'd been running towards before, she saw the slightest movement of a shadow, but shrugging it off, she walked in towards Brock noting, "we should move on."
Nodding, Brock walked alongside Misty in silence for an hour or so. The scenery still unchanging, it somehow disgruntled and worried both travelers. Both stopping and sitting around for a few minutes, a few words were exchanged. Then the topic came up.
"By chance," Brock sighed, "when you ran off from camp this morning…" He paused. –There was no way she could've dreamed the same thing he had the past three nights, or was there?-
"…" Misty replied at first, then replied, "I'm sorry. It's just that…this weird dream's been, kinda bothering me, in a way…"
Brock twitched and asked, "Three in a row?"
"Yep." Misty then paused, before gasping, "How'd you know?"
A few minutes after discussing the odd dream, which somehow noted them being stuck in a forest at its beginning, they both sighed in relief. It was just a dream to them.
The ghost that'd been left behind an hour ago muttered in frustration, "Arrgh! I've gotta make a map of this place someday," then it laughed, "Haha! I keep forgetting…" Blinking, the ghost was instantly transported in front of the boy and girl it'd been tracking earlier.
"Boo!"
In an instant, they both ran from the ghost, until it shouted back to them, "Wait!"
Not being heeded, the ghost blinked again and was right in front of the two and noted, "Ya' know, after awhile, that does get annoying," if it could frown , it would've then. "You do wanna get outta here, right?"
Frightened and looking at each other first, they nodded to the shadow.
"All right, then, the thing is," the ghost sighed, "All I want from you is to grant you two a wish."
"A…"
"…Wish?"
Brock and Misty were puzzled, but shrugged and noted their approvals.
"Then it's agreed! Well, in accordance to the rule that 'a dream is a wish waitin' to happen," the ghost smiled, "Here it is!"
"Oh…"
"…No."
And both shouted until…they woke.
Normally, Ash was a heavy sleeper, but something jolted him awake, or just urged him to mumble, "Pipe down…"
Both looking at Ash quizzically, then to each other, they were stunned. Everything the ghost said in the dream…Did that mean that dream was coming true?
Both eyes went wide as Misty and Brock stared at each other, and the weirdest way…Misty quickly responded.
"Umm, Brock, uh, good morning, uh, I'll go get some firewood, uh, bye!" she dashed off the campsite, taking Togepi and dragging her sleeping bag with her.
From afar in the blue forest, a ghost smiled.