I grew more and more cautious with each step in the dense forest. It wasn't uncommon for the screech of a large bird pokemon to call out from above as it hunted for bugs, or whatever else was unfortunate enough to be sensed by the flying menace. Whenever I heard a bird's call, I would dive into the brush without thinking twice. By the end of the first hour of travel, I was cut in many places, and thoroughly uncomfortable. The grass began to itch where brambles had cut me, and whenever I saw a stray weedle, I began to fall to my knees in hope that a swarm of beedrill was not just around the corner. Every so often, I would see a human trudge through the grasses carelessly, and I would envy them. The difficulty of my journey stemmed from my own, rational fear. Another hour into the journey and my steps became a burden. Every time that I heard anything slightly out of the ordinary, I would panic, but that was just the start. By this time, several parts of my body were clean of fur, and sticky with warm blood from trips in the thicker parts of grass, and my own intentional dives into shrubs.

I contemplated giving up, and turning back every time that I tripped, but I had to prove to myself that what Oak had spent my childhood teaching me, would not go to waste. He taught me how to survive, and I would prove to him that I was strong. I would prove that to the world. Then my mind would trail back to the question of what world, this one, or the one that I would visit after making a careless mistake, and finding myself in an unavoidable situation, or worse, dead and in the stomach of a much more dangerous pokemon than I had ever encountered before I even knew what had hit me. The thought had me terrified. Certainly that would be better than being eaten alive though. The thought of being eaten alive had kept me awake at night when I was younger.

Once I reached the third hour, I began taking frequent rests, and stopped myself from passing out on several occasions. I could not afford to pass out. Then again, backtracking for three hours, or continuing on for many more almost sounded less appealing than death itself. It was night by the time that I made as much progress as I had in the first hour of traversing the forest.

As I had expected, I was greeted by the now familiar foggy, grey world. I noticed that I looked similar to how I had looked when I finally went to sleep for the night. My fur now existed mostly in small patches, and my body was covered with an ocean of cuts and bruises. Something seemed off though, there was no voice or cloaked human to greet me.

"Good evening, Lulu," the man quickly stepped out of the swirling fog, then tsked,"are you alright?"

"Who are you?" I asked loudly,"and what do you want with me."

"Who I am does not matter, Lulu," the man kneeled down to look at me closely,"what matters is that I know who you truly are, and who makes up the rest of your family.

"They're dead," I replied quietly,"or I would already know who they are, Oak had a heart to make me believe that they were out there, but I know better by now, the only thing that is in the world is hardship and terror."

"That is a sad outlook on life," the man continued looking over me,"I hope that your usually cheerful self has not just adopted this depressing belief now."

"Hold on," I stepped back,"how do you know that I am usually happy."

"I've been watching you since you were very young."

"That's creepy."

"I understand, but excuse me for the fact that you intrigue me."

"I intrigue you, for the fact that I can speak, I presume."

"That assumption is not far off, but other things about you puzzle me as well. Not many pokemon, even with the power to speak, could pass in human school while multiple years ahead."

"Then I take it, I am no normal pokemon."

"What did Oak tell you about your lineage?"

"He seems to sense something dangerous about you, and for that I refuse to reveal such information."

"Then I won't tell you who your parents are," the man quietly slunk back into the fog,"unless of course, you want to know."

"He told me," I took this bait,"that I am more than a human or a pokemon, and yet I am neither one of them in full."

The man approached me, and when I saw his face this time, he seemed to have lit up,"I will meet you in person shortly, Lulu, and then, I will reveal the identity of your parents."

I noticed my body fading and cursed the fact that this man did not tell me before I left this mysterious dream world.

When I woke up, I noticed a weedle carefully looking over me. It seemed to be scanning me in some way or another. I stayed quiet and still until the weedle approached me, then I shocked it, and it fell to the ground feinted. If a hive of beedrill find a knocked out weedle, then whoever dared attack their offspring would be their next target, and knowing how violent they are, they would probably kill me without thinking twice. I gulped, sad for what I was about to do, and as I was about to stab the weedle with my pokedex, I heard a bird pokemon overhead, and instinctually dove off to the side. When I got back to the knocked out weedle, I prepared to attack once again, but chose to hold back. I am no murderer. With that thought in my mind, I quickly fled the scene, and ran right into a clearing that held the ruin of a massive black castle. Torn banners hung downwards, and the few that were mostly intact depicted the letter S.

Something about the place captivated me, and I simply looked at it for a long time, admiring its massive size, even in ruin. Before I could turn and leave, a cloaked human seemed to appear before me. As they grew closer to me, the warmth of the world around me seemed to simply disappear, and I was left shivering.

"Do you know what this place is," a voice came from the cloaked figure, but I was unable to react in any way, I was frozen by the immense power of whatever stood before me,"It is called the castle of the unlit night. A crucial battle in the war ten years ago was fought right here, it just so happened to be the base of operations for those who fought against Kanto."

I remained frozen despite the fact that I tried to respond,"Who are you?"

"I did promise you something," the cloaked man looked over me,"but now I find myself without the information that you seek. That is because I dropped it on the floor beside me, it is on the note, goodbye, Lulu, good luck on your journey."

Once the man walked away, and disappeared back into the treeline, I looked down and saw a piece of paper reading,"Fratricide lead to this scenario," I cursed my luck, unable to decipher the cryptic note, and began walking again. Eventually, I came into another clearing. In this clearing, I saw Ash, the girl who he had stolen a bike from, and a pikachu.

I walked over to Ash quietly,"Hello, Ash!" I wasn't worried about drawing attention to my power of speech near Ash, and his acquaintance.

"Hi, Lulu," he smiled as he looked down at me,"Have you met my pikachu?"

The pikachu walked over to me, and we looked each other over,"Pika!" It exclaimed meaninglessly as it noticed the amount of damage that I had taken.

Ash then looked over to see what had his pikachu so noticeably alarmed,"Are you alright?"

"Glad you noticed," I chuckled,"this forest is a total nightmare, there are dangerous pokemon everywhere."

"There are awesome ones, ripe for the catch as well!" Ash smiled,"Have you seen my pidgeotto?"

"No, and no thank you," I stepped back.

"Who's that?" the girl finally looked over to see me talking to Ash.

"She was a schoolmate of mine," Ash nodded to the girl,"a really nice person to be around too."

The girl walked over, then also noticed how I had been harmed,"Oh my, that looks like it hurts!"

"This forest," I repeated myself frustratedly is a nightmare!"

"Yeah," the girl set her bag on the ground, and grabbed a small blue bottle,"there are too many bugs!"

"Too many birds," I voiced my opinion.

"And bike-thieves!" the girl grumbled.

"I told you I'd replace it!" Ash yelled.

"I'm Misty," the girl's tone changes as she held the bottle up to me, and pressed down on a handle connected to it. This action caused a liquid to spray all over my body. It stung for a few seconds, but it wasn't long before I noticed that many of my injuries had closed up, and my fur returned to my body.

"Thank you," I looked at Misty,"Do you know where Pewter City is?"

"Pewter City should be just down that trail," Misty pointed to a trail leading north,"only another mile or so, but as an old friend of Ash, you must know how absolutely horrid his sense of direction is."

"He got himself out of a pickle in the woods a few times, his obsession with capturing pokemon always confused me."

"His intelligence is what puzzles me,"Misty whispered,"Now you'd best be on your way," Misty lead me onwards, and with her advice I wound up on a rocky trail shortly after I left. A sign was in place as a warning of the trail ahead being very steep. With that knowledge, I began slowly climbing down the trail, when I saw an ekans wrapped around a rock. It seemed to be asleep, or at least idle in one way or another, but that did not make it any easier for me to carefully move by it.

When I was very young, I had been playing in Professor Oak's yard when a wild ekans had managed to mix itself in with a group of Oak's ekans and attacked me. I was poisoned by it, and it began wrapping around me. While I was hardly conscious, I managed to use an electric attack for the first time, but only shocked myself making the situation worse. I wouldn't have escaped if my close friend, Joe, another pichu at the time rushed in and attacked the ekans. While his attack did little to the monstrous pokemon, it distracted it into dropping me, and chasing after Joe in a total rage. Joe lead it back it a group of Raichu, and the ekans wasn't seen in Oak's yard, or anywhere for that matter, again. The memory stuck with me though, and made it near impossible to do anything near any pokemon that even reminded me of ekans. This ekans totally ignored me though, but my careful route to avoid it was very awkward, and caused me to trip, and uncomfortably roll down the path until I could regain my bearings, and stop myself. Needless to say, my recently healed injuries were quickly replaced.

When I finally made it to the bottom of the steep path, Pewter City was in sight, and I chose to rest against a rock. Surprisingly, the rock began moving once I started to lean on it, and grabbed me with four arms. It then turned me around, and looked me over.

"Would you like a muffin?" The graveller asked quietly.

"I'm good," I smiled as I turned around in the graveller's arms,"thank you."

"It wasn't meant as a question!" The graveller suddenly seemed angry, as she used one of her four arms to grab a muffin from a pouch on her side, and forced it into my arms,"They're delicious, and I would greatly appreciate it if you would try one."

"No thank you," I remained calm,"I am sure your muffins are delicious, but I'm simply not hungry."

The graveller now seemed genuinely offended, and stuffed a muffin in my mouth. It tasted delightful, and I wound up eating the entire thing very quickly,"That was amazing!" I beamed at the graveller.

"I knew you'd like it," she smiled as she released me,"It's my own recipe!"

"It is wonderful," I continued smiling as I made my way towards the city ahead,"my only suggestion is to not be violent with people who don't want your muffins."

"I'll take that into consideration!" the graveller said with a friendly tone,"Good luck in the city!"

"Thank you!" I replied, noticing the sun still high in the sky, signalling midday. The rest of the trek to the Pewter City Pokemon Center was uneventful, and quite nice. When I made it inside, I was greeted by a friendly nurse who gave me a special healing ointment, and a room to rest for the night without me even having to speak in English.

I didn't fall asleep until much later, but just resting was nice after the horrible experience provided by the Viridian Forest. When I did fall asleep, I was not surprised to see the foggy grey world all around me.