Chapter 2: Visit to Hoenn


The rest of that day had passed and it was now morning, but Ash hadn't slept too well that night. He had a nightmare about his father dying and the Kanto kingdom being burnt to crisps. He quickly rose from his bed, with his forehead drenched in cool sweat.

He wiped the sweat off his head with the back of his hand and threw on one of his tunics. Today, he had decided he was going to visit the Hoenn Kingdom since it was known to be very peaceful with very little war. But, he had to find his mother for her permission first.

He had begun his search for his mother, but was unable locate her. So…he decided to ask one of the servants instead.

"Excuse me, but do you know where my mother is?"

The servant bowed respectively. "Your Highness. She is currently in the dining room."

Ash gave a simple nod in thanks. "Thank you."

The raven haired boy quickly walked to the dining room where he found his mother eating some freshly picked fruit and white bread.

"Hello, mother," Ash greeted as he took a seat across from her.

"Good morning, Ash. Sleep well?"

Ash lied. He had to; otherwise he knew his mom would over worry. "Yes, mom, but I ask for permission to do something first."

Delia swallowed a piece of her bread. "Oh? And what will that be?"

"I want to take a short visit to Hoenn. It is very peaceful, so I wanted to see it for myself."

Delia seemed a bit hesitant, but responded. "Ok son. I grant you permission. When shall I expect your return?"

"I will be back in a few hours. Not long at all."

Delia slowly nodded her head. "Ok, Ash. But please be careful."

Ash grinned at his mother's overprotective behavior. "Of course. Nobody knows that I'm prince in the other kingdoms, so I should be fine," He said, taking her into a tight embrace.

Delia quickly kissed the side of her son's face. "Goodbye Ash."

Ash broke away from the hug.

"I'll be seeing you later, mother," He said, getting up from his seat and walking out of the castle.

As he stepped out of the castle, he called out for his companion. "Charizard!"

In an instant, the fire dragon flew straight to Ash, awaiting for his master's command.

"Charizard…We're going to Hoenn."


(Hoenn Kingdom)

May Maple was currently in her room sleeping peacefully. Her quiet slumber was abruptly disturbed as some of the bright rays of the sun pierced the curtains and hovered over her angelic face. She fluttered her eyes open and groggily got up from the bed. After she had gone through with her normal morning routine. Bathing, dressing into another dress, and then heading to her father.

"Mother…Father?" May said, gaining attention of both her parents.

"Yes, sweetheart?" Caroline spoke up.

Norman however, remained silent, waiting for what his daughter had to tell them.

"I'm going to be taking a walk around the kingdom with Dawn, alright?"

Norman and Caroline exchanged a glance to each other.

"Alright then. Be careful out there. In the meantime, we will be preparing the rooms for the Johto prince," said Norman.

May nodded and took her cue to leave.

"May!"

"Morning Dawn!"

The two girls hugged each other tightly. "Ready to go for our walk?"

Dawn smiled. "Of course. Let's go!"

The two walked side by side and left the castle to walk around the peaceful kingdom of Hoenn.


Meanwhile…Ash had been riding on Charizard for the past hour. The raven haired boy was looking at what was ahead, but was unable, since clouds had been fogging his vision. After a minute or two, the clouds started to slowly clear up, revealing a huge kingdom before him. Ash was surprised. Just by judging the kingdom's looks, he could tell that it was indeed very peaceful and humungous. Much larger than the Kanto kingdom for sure.

"Charizard, land here!"

Charizard began to lower itself and slowly landed into an open grassy field.

"Thank you for assisting me Charizard, but I'm afraid you cannot go in with me. The people of Hoenn would go berserk if they saw you, so I want you to stay here. You can fly into the skies, but just don't get caught," The prince lectured.

Charizard eagerly nodded his head, with a smile evident on his face.

The fire dragon then flew high into the skies to enjoy a nice morning fly.

Ash grinned to himself and walked over to the gates, which was built to guard the Hoenn kingdom from any intruders.

As he neared, a knight stopped him.

"Halt! Who goes there?"

"I'm from the Kanto kingdom. I mean no harm to Hoenn as I'm just here for a visit."

The knight nodded. "Very well."

The gate slowly opened allowing a wide entrance for Ash to step through.

After making his entrance, the gate slowly closed behind him making a loud creaking sound.

The boy looked around and saw many interesting things. There were food stands, shops, and anything else you would normally find in a kingdom. But what caught Ash's attention was a huge crowd forming a circle in the center of the kingdom. Ash tried to look at what was so intriguing to the audience, but to no avail. He stepped closer to the crowd and began to hear the distinct sounds of swords being clashed. Peeping through a gap in the crowd, he saw two knights fighting with swords. Apparently, people were betting on who the winner of the matches would be and most betted on one man in particular. This was Sir Thomas, a thirty year old man, known best for his skills of wielding a sword. One thing about Thomas though, was that he was arrogant. Not as arrogant as Drew LaRousse, but tended to be overconfident. He was wearing a standard knight's armor and a sword currently in his two hands swinging it at another knight skillfully.

With one more oblique strike to the helmet…Thomas had won again. Many cheers could be heard as Thomas withdrew his sword and took a bow to the audience.

The other knight had stood up and walked away in shame.

"Any others willing to duel me? Huh? Anyone?" Thomas called out.

Nobody said anything. Even if they were a fan of Thomas' sword skills, they had no guts to go head on head with him. Many had tried to beat him, but none had actually succeeded.

"I am."

Everyone who was huddled in the circle had turned to look back at the teen prince. A majority of the girls had drooled over his looks, while the men and boys all sent him amused looks. Even Thomas took a glance at the Kanto prince and scoffed. "You really expect me to face a kid? You'll just be wasting my time and yours."

"So? I'm still willing to fight you," Ash countered.

Thomas just shook his head. "Not worth my time. Now run along kid. You wouldn't want yourself slashed by my sword and run along to your mother, now would you?"

The crowd had watched intently at the conversation between the two.

Ash was starting to become annoyed with the knight's attitude, so he took the only route he could think of. Taunting him. "What's the matter? Afraid to fight a kid?"

Once the opportunity of a fight would occur, the audience began to cheer. "Fight! Fight! Fight Fight! Fight! Fight!"

Thomas shrugged his shoulders. "You asked for it kid."

Ash smirked and stepped on an opposite side to Thomas.

The two withdrew their swords from their hips and got into their own battle stances.

Thomas began to get cocky. "Your move."

With one swift movement, Ash sweeped Thomas off of his feet with the blade of his sword, catching him off guard.

Ash quickly stepped up to Thomas and pointed the tip of sword at his neck. "Weren't expecting that, were ya?"

Thomas growled. This wasn't any other opponent he had ever fought before.


Dawn and May had been in the Hoenn Kingdom browsing in the shops. For a while, they had been looking at different dresses and admiring the different types of beautiful jewelry.

"Hey Dawn? What do you think of this dress?" May asked her friend, holding up a dress against her slender figure.

"Oh, that's a pretty dress!"

May giggled. "Hee hee! I thought so too!"

Dawn was just about to show May another cute outfit she had found, until something caught her eye.

"Hey May? What do you think is going on over there?" She asked, pointing to a huge crowd of people.

May turned around and looked in the direction Dawn was gesturing to and sure enough…there was a crowd of people. May was also curious of what was going on. "Hmm…I have no idea. Shall we go check it out?"

"Yeah, let's go!"

May and Dawn quickly left the store and headed in the direction of the waves of people.

Like Ash, the two girls were blocked from seeing what had been happening, but heard faint noises of swords clashing and armor being hit.

The two girls pushed past a couple of people and got a clear view. In their sight were two men dueling. One they instantly recognized as Thomas, but the other young man they had never seen before.

May was instantly beginning to stare at the young raven haired boy, who was dodging sword strikes swiftly.

Dawn, however took notice of this and smirked.

From Thomas' prospective, this was one of the hardest fights that he's had in a while. The boy was too fast for him. Thomas was not a fast guy. Being well toned and carrying a heavier weight, he was able to land devastating blows, but speed…was just not his thing. He viciously started spinning his sword in all directions attempting to land a hit on Ash.

Ash dodged each strike by doing a combo of back handsprings, dodging each of them flawlessly.

After landing the last flip, Ash grabbed onto his sword and slashed it straight down at Thomas, who blocked it with an upper block. The two were pushing their swords in the opposite directions hoping for dominance. Ash took his time and kneed the knight in the stomach, causing him to release his sword and fall to his knees. The boy lowered the tip of the sword once again at the man's neck.

"Guess this is my win."

Thomas sighed; his ego had been totally shattered, losing to a kid. "Lad, I must admit that you are skillful at wielding the sword and I accept defeat."

Ash grinned and withdrew the sword into its sheath. As he did so, everyone clapped and cheered for the boy's victory against one of the most skillful knights in the Hoenn Kingdom. Being much younger than the man added just that more of a surprise to his victory, which made the audience even more excited.

In the middle of the crowd, May smiled at the raven haired boy around her age.

"May? Are you done staring at him?" Dawn teased her friend, tugging on her sleeve for her attention.

May quickly blushed. "Was I staring?"

Dawn nodded with a playful smirk. "Uh huh."

"Oh my… But he sure is handsome though," The princess thought to herself.

Dawn grabbed onto May's wrist. "Come on! Let's go meet the guy!"

May broke free from her grasp and began to blush, while rubbing her foot into the ground nervously. "Dawn! B-But!"

"What? Are you nervous to meet him?"

May nodded. "Yes I am a bit nervous."

Dawn laughed. "It will be alright. I promise!"

The princess was then helplessly dragged again by her friend. Each inch closer they got to the young boy, May's heart started to beat faster.


"So what's your name?" Thomas asked curiously.

"The name's Ash, yours?"

Thomas, completely oblivious that Ash was a prince continued the conversation. "Thomas."

Ash held out his hand for a handshake. "Pleasure to meet you, Thomas."

Thomas smirked and retuned the handshake. "The pleasure is all mine, Ash. But do tell me. How did you learn to fight like that? It was beyond remarkable if I were to say."

"Many years of training I guess. I've been taught by the finest of knights in my kingdom, so I suppose that was how I've learned," Ash shrugged.

Thomas opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the giggling coming from a group of 5 girls around Ash's age. Each of them were whispering things to each other, which Ash managed to hear some of the conversation like: "He's so handsome!" or "He'll become my future husband!"

The two guys glanced at the girls, who were once again giggling once Ash made eye contact with one of them.

"Eh, I see you're already quite the ladies' man here already!" Thomas roared with laughter.

Ash blushed in embarrassment, but it didn't help as two more girls began approaching them. One with long brunette hair and the other with blue hair. Ash did a double take as the girls were coming closer to him. One girl in particular made his heart drop. The brunette girl. She was the most beautiful being he had ever laid eyes upon!

Ash began to stare wide eyed at the princess who was approaching him, something Thomas took notice of and smirked.

"Hello! Allow us to introduce ourselves. I'm Dawn Berlitz and this is May Maple. We've came to recognize your remarkable skills as a swordsman," Dawn announced.

May just stood next to Dawn and looked towards the direction of the ground in shyness. Dawn gently nudged the princess forward.

"Oh! Excuse me, I'm May Maple!" She said, reaching her hand out for a handshake.

Ash blushed and shook hands with the girl. As their hands came in contact with each other, both felt a cold shiver run down their backs.

"Pleasure, I'm Ash Ketchum."

From behind, Ash could see another duel occurring. Right ahead of where he previously fought, there were two men shooting at each other with bows and arrows. Ash felt a surge of terror as he saw several arrows flying in the direction of the princess.

May seemed confused as to why Ash suddenly spaced out. "W-What are you looking at?"

She said no more as she was pushed out of the way.

She shut her eyes from the hard impact of the ground. After opening her eyes, she looked up and saw several arrows sticking out of Ash's body. She gasped. He had saved her. Thomas had an amused expression on his face, while Dawn was inwardly smirking.

Ash winced from the pain and shut one eye. "I'm ok."

May stood wide eyed. "Come on! Let us bring you to the castle! It's dangerous to leave those arrows lodged in your body!"

Ash refused to take the offer. "No it's alright. I'm sure I can manage without it."

"Nonsense come with us!" Dawn chimed in.

Ash paused for a minute. "Alright."

May turned to Thomas. "Sir Thomas, can you please take us to the castle?"

"Of course your Highness."

With that, they all began to hurry to the Hoenn castle.

"Is everything all set?" Norman asked one of his servants.

"Yes, your Majesty. The guest room is ready for the prince."

Norman nodded. "Thank you."

"Father! Father!"

The king looked up and saw a group of four. His daughter, Sir Thomas, Dawn, and someone he hadn't recognized. He was guessing he passed out since his eyes were closed shut. However, something about him seemed all too familiar.

As they got closer, Norman saw that the young boy had a total of 6 arrows lodged deep into his body. 2 in his leg, 3 in his abdomen, and 1 in his upper body.

"Oh my! What's happened?" Caroline asked worriedly. She ran up to the boy and began to examine him.

Norman continued to examine the boy himself…that was when his mouth dropped all the way to the cobblestone floor. This boy…he's the prince of Kanto.


After hours of being passed out from the excruciating pain, Ash's eyes fluttered open. He turned to his side and saw it was dark out. He gasped. He had been out much longer than he had intended to. His mother must be worried.

He quickly got out of bed when he felt a sharp pain. He looked down and saw he was shirtless with many bandages neatly wrapped around a number of wounds.

This was all so confusing for him. He hadn't remembered much since he awoke. The only thing that came up in his mind was that brunette girl. My…how beautiful she was. The boy had never seen anything as gorgeous as her. He stood frozen in place as he began to daydream…

"Ash?"

He looked up and saw it was Norman.

Ash was nervous; Norman had an emotionless face as he continued to look at Ash.

"Um…may I help you?"

"You're the Prince of Kanto..."

Ash was terrified. His mother had told him everything of his past. But what made him fear was the fact that he was caught with the Princess of Hoenn. Their relationship was strictly forbidden.

He gulped. "How did you know?"

"Your father. You have that same resemblance and besides…the tunic you had worn here is one only a prince would wear. I spoke with one of the gate patrol knights and they had said they let in a young boy from not around here, so I guessed you had to be from Kanto."

Ash sighed. "If it is your duty to kill me…then you may do so now."

Norman shook his head. "That's not what I came to speak to you about."

Ash raised an eyebrow. "Then what else would you have to say?"

"I'm here to thank you for protecting my daughter."

The young prince was still very confused. "But what about my forbidden relationship with your daughter?"

"That was only an agreement between the Kanto and Johto kingdoms. You saved my daughter, which was a brave thing for you to do, so I am wishing for the agreement to be dropped, so you can protect her."

Ash nodded. "But wouldn't you think the Johto Kingdom would still unallow that?"

"I'm still not sure, that is why I've just sent a message to Johto telling them of the incident and if they could allow you to at least protect her."

"But why me? Certainly there are others better than I who can protect her?"

"No my boy. I see great potential in you, and my gut is telling me that you are worthy enough to protect her, so that is the reason I am choosing you for this."

"Wow…I don't know what to say."

Norman chuckled. "No need my boy. Please come down and join us for dinner. Our treat to you."

"Oh I would be honored your Majesty, but I'm afraid I have to turn down your offer. I'm late in returning to Kanto, so my mother must be dearly worried about me."

"I see…then I shall send a message to the queen of Kanto to notify her that you are in safe hands with us. Now come on. Join us for dinner." He smiled.

Ash returned the smile. "I'll be right there."

The two men walked to the dining room, while Norman supported Ash so he could stand. After a minutes' walk, they were greeted with the fresh aroma of all kinds of foods.

Upon arrival, they had seen the Maple family eating around a long rectangle shaped table. On that table were various types of food. Bread, fruits, meet, pies, and many more. Sitting at the table were Caroline, May, and Max Maple. In case you're wondering, Max is May's younger brother and the prince of Hoenn. He is currently a few years younger than May, so he still isn't old enough to rule the kingdom. The three family members looked up and saw Norman supporting Ash by allowing him to lean on his shoulder.

As they neared, Norman sat himself at the front of the table, whilst Ash sat directly across from May. He looked up at May and sent her a quick smile before looking away. May instantly turned red, looking down, while playing nervously with her dress.

Once everything around the table had been set, the family dug into the food.


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