The Princess and the Kennel Boy Part 2

"Do you think he's still alive, Lugia?"

"Of course he is, Azelf, he's snoring like a Snorlax. I wonder where he came from; his clothes are so strange."

Ash thought he was dreaming, but he had the distinct feeling of being watched while he slept. He rolled over, and instead of his familiar, comfortable sleeping bag, he found that he was lying on a bed of hay and straw.

"Ye Highnesses, can I offer ye some tea while ye wait for the lad to awaken? I'm afraid it's not very good, but I do have cream and sugar that'll ease the taste."

"Thank you very much, Master Raichu, you may. Come along, Azelf, he's not going anywhere. Leave the boy alone and have some tea. He'll be fine."

"Very well, Lugia…" The voices faded away, along with accompanying footsteps. Ash dozed a little more, until he heard faint barking. Then he yawned, stretched, and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He looked around and rubbed them again. He was certainly not in the spare room in Roselia's house anymore.

He appeared to be in some kind of kennel. Large, roomy wooden cages with iron bars lined the walls, the bars facing a broad dirt aisle. He stood, brushed off the hay and straw that had attached to him, and examined the nearest cage. The lock was extremely old fashioned, just two pieces of metal with a hole in them and a small, thick iron bar that went through the holes. The bars were set in a frame on hinges, like a door. Ash touched one of the bars, and his fingertip came away covered in soot.

"Fire?" He whispered. The kennels did look a little singed around the edges, and some spots looked newer than others, as if they had been rebuilt relatively recently.

"Pika pi?" Asked Pikachu, stretching and shaking out his fur before bounding up to Ash.

"Well, Pikachu, any idea where we are?" Ash asked, scratching the little yellow pokemon behind the ears.

"Pika," said Pikachu, looking around, his liquid brown eyes bright and interested. Ash picked him up, and Pikachu ran up the boy's arm and settled on his shoulder. The duo went outside, and both their jaws dropped.

"Whoa," breathed Ash.

"Pika!" Exclaimed Pikachu.

A huge stone castle loomed intimidatingly in front of them. Ash had to crane his neck until he was looking almost straight up to be able to see the top of the highest tower. Red, yellow, and green flags flew from the tops of the towers, and banners of the same colors hung from nearly every window Ash could see. In his peripheral vision, he noticed a high stone wall surrounding the castle, and enclosing the area he was in. A huge grassy paddock was off to his left, and to his right, further away, a fence enclosed a very large area of the same hard packed dirt Ash was standing on. In the dirt paddock, several hurdles of different colors, sizes, and shapes stood about in no apparent pattern that Ash could see. Several large trees were scattered around in the grassy paddock, and Ash could hear barking coming from the same area. Curious, Ash wandered to over and leaned on the fence.

He soon saw what was making such a loud racket: the paddock was filled with Growlithe, and two of them had gotten into a fight. At first Ash just watched, trying to figure out what the problem was. The younger and smaller Growlithe and the bigger and obviously older Growlithe were just barking at each other and trying to scare the other off with Leer Attack. Ash didn't see any real danger, so he didn't do anything to break them up, figuring that they'd eventually get tired and calm down.

Suddenly, Little Growlithe launched himself at Big Growlithe, jaws open for a Bite attack. Soon the two were flat out brawling while the rest of the pack watched and egged them on with barks.

Ash knew he had to do something immediately, one of those pokemon were going to get hurt pretty badly if they weren't stopped, and quick. He climbed over the fence and ran towards the large group.

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt to break them up," he ordered. Pikachu leaped from his shoulder and sent a sizable bolt of electricity at the two fighting pokemon, giving them and anyone close to them a nice zapping. The two fighters collapsed, while the rest of the Growlithe fled. The two dog-like pokemon immediately got back up and began growling at each other.

"Enough!" Commanded Ash, seizing each pokemon by the scruff of the neck and pulling them apart. Then he saw the problem.

"Is this what you two were fighting about?" He asked, holding up a large rawhide bone. Both Growlithe barked happily and lunged at him, both trying to get to the bone.

"Stop it!" Ash said sharply, holding out a hand. Surprised, the Growlithe obeyed, standing in front of him with tails wagging.

"Sit," Ash said, hiding the bone behind his back. The two pokemon planted their rumps on the ground, looking up at Ash expectantly.

"Stay," he ordered. He threw the bone into the air; the Growlithe watched it hungrily, but didn't move.

"Pikachu, use Iron Tail!" Ash cried. Pikachu jumped up and sliced the bone in half with his glowing white tail. Ash caught the two halves of the bone, and held one in each hand.

"Big Growlithe, this one's for you!" He said, throwing the half of the bone in his right hand to the right. Big Growlithe was off like an orange, black, and brown rocket, chasing the bone without a backward glance. Little Growlithe whined, eyeing the half of the bone in Ash's left hand.

"Go get it, little guy," Ash told the impatient young pokemon, smiling and tossing the other half of the bone to the left. Little Growlithe barked happily and scampered away.

"Great job, Pikachu," Ash said, flashing Pikachu a thumbs up sign and grinning at his friend.

"Pika pikachu," Pikachu said happily, running up Ash's leg and arm to his shoulder.

"That was incredible!" Cried a familiar voice. Turning, Ash saw that he'd had an audience. A boy and a girl, both about his age, and a large man were standing on the other side of the paddock fence. The boy's expression was of open admiration, the girl's was of pure awe, but the man was glaring at him, looking like an angry Raichu with his orange and white clothes and thick orange mane and beard.

Gulping, Ash went to the fence and climbed over. "What was incredible?" He asked, blinking as he took in the strange clothes the people were wearing.

"What you did with those Growlithe," the boy answered, meeting Ash's dark eyes with his own navy blue ones. His clothes looked like something Ash would look at in a museum: a white shirt with long sleeves under a navy blue sleeveless tunic, and white pants tucked into white boots. A white belt encircled his waist. Even the boy's hair was white, cut short with broad steaks of navy blue on each side of his head above his ears.

He looks kind of like Lugia, Ash thought off handedly.

"You commanded those pokemon like you'd raised them from eggs," the girl said, her gold eyes dancing. She was wearing a short dress in a pastel sky blue, tied with a sash around her slim waist, and pants of the same color tucked into brown ankle boots. Her hair was short, barely coming below her ears, and was a few shades darker blue than her dress. Through her bangs, Ash could see a small red stone on her forehead

"They listened to you better than they listen to Master Raichu here," the girl continued, gesturing to the large, intimidating man beside her. He wore a bright orange long sleeved shirt under a white sleeveless tunic, tied around the waist with a black cloth belt. His pants were the same shade of orange as his shirt, and were tucked into a pair of tall dark gray boots. On his hands were a pair of thick dark gray gloves that looked like they'd seen more of their fair share of teeth and claw action. He studied Ash with dark eyes, taking in his strange clothes.

"Ye not from 'round here, are ye?" He said suspiciously.

"No, sir, I'm not," Ash said quickly, not doubting for a moment the severity of his situation. "I'm from Kanto. I was traveling with some friends and we stopped for the night at this old lady's house, and when I woke up I was here." He paused, looking around. "Would one of you mind telling me where "here" is?" He asked.

"You mean you don't know where you are?" The girl asked incredulously. She and the boy goggled at Ash, and Master Raichu's eyes narrowed even further.

Ash shrugged helplessly. "Not a clue," he said.