Me: Hey guys, we're back with some more Thunder and Ice!

Thunder: I know you guys are gonna love this chapter!

Shard: Yeah, and I'm in it, yay!

Thunder: It's been long enough, but it was fun being in the spotlight.

Shard: Well it's my turn today stage hog. *smiles*

Nascha: I'm here too!

Shard: No spoilers *pushes Nascha out*

Me: Well these intros are long enough as they are so let's just continue the story.

Shard: Shadow doesn't own any Pokémon.

Thunder: Can someone answer my question from earlier, who DOES own Pokémon?

Shard: Hehe, NOPE!

Shard's POV

I padded down a foreign trail in what appeared to be the center of a forest. It wasn't Sugarcane, I was sure of that. I felt my legs tremble and my breaths grew deeper with each step I took in the unfamiliar place. I noticed several laid-back Pokémon by their dens and burrows, confusion dotting my eyes. How did I get here?

Then a Pokémon appeared in the distance, walking in the opposite direction on the trail, but he stopped. "Are you lost?" he asked. It was an umbreon. I shook my head shyly, lying. Like I'd tell a stranger what was going on in my life.

He didn't leave yet, unfortunately. "Sugarcane forest is straight ahead, you'll be there in no time at all." The umbreon trotted along the path in the other direction. How did he know where I wanted to go? I turned around to see the Pokémon again, but he was gone… how? Everything seemed very strange; I just wanted to get back to Sugarcane forest, so I walked a little faster.

My eyes opened and the first thing I saw was rock. I sat up in the straw and clarified I was back in my den. The sun was rising from behind the mountains in the distance, signaling the beginning of another day. It was just a dream, a weird, confusing dream. I stood up on my straw bed, and stretched a bit, my eyes still adjusting to the light. I took small steps off my bed and peered around the room.

I saw everything was still in it's usual place, untouched. There were some logs in the back of the cave in the shadows. My pile of berries was hidden in a caved in hole of a boulder near the cave mouth, and my pile of straw was in a neat careful pile beside what I rouged up in my sleep. I padded over to the boulder containing my berries willingly, hunger gnawing at my stomach. A Sitrus berry would have been perfect. I reached in and pawed out one, and it rolled out of the rock and landed inches in front of my blue paws. I picked it up with my jaws and walked over to my straw bed.

I bit into the delicious berry immediately, then finished it off within a few chomps. Newfound energy coursed through me, forcing an energetic smile to my face. I couldn't wait to get to my friends' homes, to see what they had planned. Hopefully they would remember that it was my birthday.

I walked out into the dim light of the early dawn. I stepped onto a thin layer of fresh powdery snow, from last nights weather. Spring was coming soon, and when it ended, it would stop snowing up there in the Frosty Hills. Gazing up I detected a noctowl and three baby hoothoot hovering through the forest, most likely to their nest. The noctowl flew very slowly while the hoothoot flew clumsily in the air in a line behind her. I could recognize that noctowl anywhere with her nestlings.

"Good morning Nascha! Long time no see!" I greeted through the cold breeze. She noticed my call, and she signaled her nestlings to land. Nascha descended fast onto a tree branch. The others did it a little slowly, but with no problems. The brown bird Pokémon showed a bright grin on her beak.

"Hi Shard, it's been about a few weeks now, hasn't it? Sorry, I've been busy with the hatchlings, teaching them how to fly while Taipa gathers some food and branches for the nest. It's harder than it looks," Nascha cawed. I didn't really blame her, since she was nocturnal and I wasn't. Normally Pokémon who were and weren't night dwellers weren't even familiar with each other, rarely a few of them being acquaintances.

"Well they seem to be doing a great job on their landing!" I remarked. Her three kids smiled at the recognition.

"Yes, you know teaching them to fly would be stupid unless they knew how to land!" We laughed lightly but it ended as soon as it started.

"Oh yeah Shard, happy birthday, hope you have a great day!" she squawked.

My smile grew wider. "You remembered!"

"Like I would forget, I was even going to come over when it started to get dark today. I'll never forget that time when the eggs fell out of the nest and you caught them before they hit the ground!"

I instantly notice the shade of pink coming to my face. "It was nothing, really."

"No, to me, it was a miracle! If my babies died, I just wouldn't know where I would be now."

I laughed nervously, shuffling my paws in the snow. "Well let's ignore the bad stuff, so how's Taipa doing?"

She seemed to lighten up. "Great, he just loves playing with the kids and telling jokes, he's the best husband a bird could ever have!"

"Great, well, I'll be go-" I started, hearing the word 'husband'. I knew what Nascha was going to squawk when it came to romance.

"Talking about that, have you found anyone special in your life yet?" Nascha interrupted. The color on my cheeks deepened in color.

"No, no, no, not yet, at least, anyway," I responded, a little jittery.

"Well, I'll leave now; you seem to be as red as a Cheri Berry." I stared at the ground nervously, a sheepish grin stuck on my face. Her hatchlings seemed to yawn in exhaustion and shivering a bit in the cold; they were ready to retreat to their nest.

Nascha flew into the breezy air and waited for her nestlings to do the same thing. "Also come over later to the nest and we'll give you your birthday present, preferably tonight!" I waved my tail as they departed, the beating of brown wings fluttering off into the forest depths. I waited till the last flash of a feathery brown vanished before I let myself relax, the pink slowly leaving my face.

Nascha was a nice noctowl, and her husband, Taipa, was a pretty cool Pokémon. It was nice to see her again. My current task snapped back to me of what I was going to do in the first place. I was going to head over to Star's den and see if we could've hanged out, and find out what she done for my birthday. If Nascha remembered, Star would definitely not forget. Not to mention I'd stop to see Skylar, Petal, and Lily so we could hang out in our usual group; maybe go to the assembly at Cedar Square starting later and talk on the way there.

I pounced through the piles of snow with joy flooding my body, not wanting to wait to get over to Star's den. Frost flew into the air as I leapt into a pile of powdery, soft snow. Playing in the snow never got old, even though I was years old for doing that.

The forest was very silent that early in the morning. Most Pokémon of the forest were still sleeping while the nocturnal ones headed back to their homes. As I passed by a few pine trees, I jumped into another pile of luscious snow as if it was a leaf pile from autumn, sending more of the fluffy substance into the air. A bunch of it including some hardened snow flew into one of the trees, a blue bird-like Pokémon shot out of them, startled. I recalled it being a swellow. I didn't know why it would be resting at such a high elevation, but it really wasn't my business, like I really cared at all.

A few minutes later after padding through the snow, I trotted from white to green, soft grass settling under my paws. Memory served me the location of Star's den was so I started padding along the greenery in the western direction. With my best friend's quarters were mapped into my brain with a couple landmarks to help guide me, I picked up my pace towards where Star's den should've been. I saw a tree stump to my left about one or two minutes later, I was close. I saw a claw mark left on some pine tree's trunk, another landmark, telling me I was closer. About one or two more minutes later, I was standing nervously at the side of Star's den.

I timidly knocked my paw on the side of the den, lightly. I waited and there was no answer. I was about to head back, thinking it was no use in knocking again, and looking inside would be rude, when surprisingly a black furry head popped out. It was so sudden; I made a weak squeal in surprise and jumped back. I hated it when that zorua always pulled tricks like that.

"Hi Shard! You look well!" she teased. I just made an annoyed face at her.

"Oh come on, I hate your pranks Star," I said dryly. She laughed and came out of the den.

"So what's up?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you could come over later today, maybe we can go to Cedar Square for the assembly together, or go to Psyduck Pond."

"Uh…" she looked around nervously. "I can't, I have to… to…" She paused briefly. "...to... uh... go... go jump… go jump off a cliff!" she finally answered, sweat beading down her neck. That must have been a new record for the worst excuse ever. I opened my muzzle to ask a question, but before I could utter a sound she turned away and ran off into the opposite direction quickly. I mentally face pawed at her stupid excuse, not giving an effort into running after her. If I did run and catch up, she wouldn't say anything and say some really crazy things. Soon she disappeared behind the thicket of trees, out of sight. She was hiding something, she had to be, but what was it? Why out of all the days would she make an excuse to leave after how important it was to me? That birthday was important for a Pokemon at that age.

Thinking about a question with no answers would be a worthless use of time. Even though it hurt to think Star made an excuse to get away on my birthday. Possibly if I headed out to Skylar's tree next, she would probably know. I started to run to the southern direction, going past several aspen trees. A few minutes later, the aspen turned into flowering dogwood trees. I heard a few of the birds chirping, already up and ready for the new day. I walked a while till I stopped at one dogwood full of several chirping bird Pokémon. It had Skylar's scent, so I knew this was the tree she was staying at.

"Skylar!" I weakly yelled up through the tree. The chirps seemed to die down, but not completely. "Skylar, it's me, Shard!" I yelled up louder. The continuous talk of the Pokémon seemed to get a little quieter from that. About ten or fifteen seconds later, a tan feathered bird with a rainbow-like mane Pokémon flew out of the dogwood tree. That was Skylar, the pidgeotto alright. She zoomed down at a fast speed, and then opened her wings at the right moment to make a quick stop, and she landed on the ground with quite ease.

"Hi Skylar, see your wings are as good as ever," I mentioned.

"Oh yeah, they're doing great! I already had a sky battle and it was a blast! These wings are as good as new after the accident! Of course, they would probably would be broken still if it wasn't for you." I started to blush in embarrassment again.

"Oh, it was nothing; I just like helping friends-"

"Nothing?!" she interrupted. "That wasn't more than just anything, but you saved my life! I am forever grateful to you for that! When I was battling Falcon that staraptor in an epic sky battle by a cliff, and he accidently broke one of my wings, and I was sprawling out of the sky, and Falcon was just too exhausted from being on the brink of fainting that he couldn't dive down and save me, and just before I fell over the side of the cliff and landed in the ocean below, you ran out of the stands and caught me by my good wing! I nearly plummeted into the ocean Shard; you cannot say that that was nothing!" I felt my face grow hot and I forced myself to look away.

"Man, I hate water! When my wings get wet, I just can't fly and it feels so weird and nasty…" she continued, going into a constant chatter about how she feared water and hated it, even though she had to drink it every day.

"So anyway… why are you here again?" Skylar asked, finally done talking. My face didn't feel hot anymore, so I looked back up at Skylar. I tried to hide my tired frown of her constant chatter. Momentarily I had forgotten the real reason I was there, but it quickly snapped back to me.

"I was just wondering if we could hang out, maybe go-" I was interrupted again before I could finish.

"Hang out?!" she exclaimed. "I-I can't! So sorry… but I have a… a… another… another sky battle! Yeah, another sky battle this afternoon!"

"But I was suggesting we could go to the assembly this morning together."

"Uh… well, I… I have two sky battles! Yeah, a rematch with… with Falcon this morning! Since we couldn't finish it about two months ago, we ordered a rematch!" Skylar continued to lie.

"I'm sorry…" Skylar apologized. "I… I got to go now. Rematch starts like… like right now!" She flew up into the sky, out of reach, and soon she was out of sight.

Skylar too?! Why was she lying as well? Why did Star and Skylar both lie to me on my birthday? This day was very important to me, I was finally sixteen! I would think with how smart Skylar was, she could have made up a better excuse, but still, why would they both want to stay away from me? Did I do something wrong? Well, maybe Petal and Lily would know why. Lily was supposed to be sleeping over at Petal's den last night for some sort of sleep over, but I felt like there was some other reason. So that meant I would just head over to Petal's den. It'd be easy to spot, since she had a bunch of flowers around the outsider of her den. I started to run, but felt tired after already running over to Star's and Skylar's places. I started to walk in the north-western direction. My tongue lolled out of my mouth in exhaustion. I hadn't realized how tired I was till then.

As I walked, I realized which area I was in. I didn't want to encounter her today, out of all the days. My fur trembled at the thought of her. I picked up the pace as I started to walk past a small group of dens with carvings engraved in the rock walls. Not now… please have her not be here. I lowered my head and tried to sneak past the back of the group of dens. I tried to be as quiet as I could. I was only staring down at the ground the whole time. As I walked slowly, I bumped into something. I looked up fearfully, shivering, and then saw her, jumping back in fear and made a pathetic squeal.

It was her, a Pokémon about twice my size. Her shadowy black mane was full of zapping electricity. She had piercing yellow eyes that sent a shiver down your spine. Her smudgy black fur stuck up to make her more intimidating and look bigger than normal. She was said to be one of the most popular Pokémon of the forest. She humiliated several Pokémon and most Pokémon are fooled to think that she was nice, but not me. I knew that this Pokémon had a heart of darkness. This luxray… she just made me shiver and freak out, making me yap out weak squeals in fear instead of actually being able to talk. When I looked up at her, I shrunk back, trying to get close to the ground instinctively. Ruby was nothing but pure evil and bad news.

"Hello… runt!" she roared, her voice screechy and terrifying. I trembled more in fear, wishing that she didn't always push my shyness.

"I… I…" I stammered, but then my attempt of talking turned into a worthless, pitying squeal. I looked down in embarrassment. She laughed at my worthlessness.

"Hahaha! You still can't even say more than a pitying squeal to me! How pathetic… it really is fun to torment you! You still think you can sneak by my territory? I could smell you from a mile away and even see you through my den walls with my special eyes… birthday girl! " She knew it was my birthday?! Oh no, now what's she going to do to me…?

"Consider this a birthday present runt! I'll give you ten seconds to get out of my tribe's territory, and I won't maul you into pieces." She taunted, leaning in till we were face to face, her muzzle only an inch away from mine. I closed my eyes, not wanting to look into her piercing, dead eyes.

"One…" she started. I could barely manage to open one eye, to see she was snarling, showing her deadly, dagger-like fangs. I jumped back in surprise and horror, her breathe having a revolting scent. "Two… three…" she continued to torment. I nearly screamed. I sprawled into a dash clumsily, and then tripped only a few feet away from her.

"Four… FIVE…" she yelled after me, her counting now turning into deafening roars. I quickly got back up and started to go into a full-out run, holding in tears with as much strength I could. I tripped again, about ten or fifteen yards away.

"SIX… SEVEN…" she continued, her roars of hatred getting louder. I couldn't help it anymore, and I started crying. Warm tears edged down my face in sorrow. I got back up with my remaining strength and dignity, and ran as far as I could.

"EIGHT! NINE!" she continued, forcing more tears to run down my face. I soon passed a tree, a tree that helped mark the border of her tribe territory. I panted heavily from the fright, tears still running down my face. I collapsed onto the ground in exhaustion and sorrow, tears falling onto the grass. I heard her roaring laugh from her tribe dens. Her laugh of triumph… the laugh I heard so many times in the past, as I am always cowering and just run like a coward… well I'll face it, I am a coward. Sometimes she just beats me brutally, and I'm unable to fight back. This was the worst… birthday… ever.

I shoved the depressing thoughts away. It was barely morning, the sun almost fully above the mountains in the distance, I was sure this day was going to get better. Hopefully Petal and Lily would understand what was going on here. I continued running north-west, forgetting about the pain Ruby always put me through.

I ran and ran, wanting to get there as fast as possible to make this day better. I ran past some dens that I didn't really care about, and soon I was in front of a den with vivid flowers surrounding the edges of the den. I smelt traces of Lily and Petal, new scents. They were around here somewhere. I looked into the den shyly, thinking it was partly rude. I saw two straw beds, Petal's own berry storage inside a rock, and remains of a fire in the middle of the den; that meant they made a pit fire. I saw some other stuff, but no signs of Petal or Lily.

I called out their names timidly. "Petal, Lily? Are you here?" My voice sounded a bit raspy.

A voice called out. "Oh thank goodness, is that you Shard?" It sounded like Lily. It seemed to come from around the den. I peered around the corner and saw Lily and Petal. Petal had her leaf bobbing on her head, as a normal leafeon would have. Lily still had her clean gray fur and pretty hazel eyes, still looking like a normal minccino, except she had a pink bow on her right ear.

Petal had her paws over her ears, a troubled look in her amber eyes. "Thank goodness your hear Shard," Lily said in her usual royal accent, her gray tail slowly moving back and forth. "Petal and I have been arguing over this all morning, can you come over and help us?" I tilted my head in confusion.

"Uh… okay?" I answered.

"Splendid!" she replied. "Come over here, by this flower." I walked over next to Lily, with Petal still with her brown paws covering her leaf-like ears.

"Look at this flower," she ordered, pointing at one of the flowers with her gray paw. It was bright silver, it truly looked fascinating. The petals glimmered in the sun light it seemed, and it seemed to be like a little perfect flower.

"Wow, it looks gorgeous," I admitted.

"Yes indeed," Lily started with her usual royal accent. "And I thought that Petal should dig around its roots and take it out of the ground, then put it in some sort of pot, but she won't listen to me!"

"It's just a flower!" Petal yelled, standing up in anger.

"It's a unique one-of-a-kind flower that will be trampled if it's left out here!" Lily turned around to face Petal in the eye.

"Like anyone will run over the flower!" Petal countered.

"It can happen!" Lily whined.

"The flower should be left outside where it can get proper sunlight and grow like other flowers should!" I watched them argue in disbelief. All of this fighting just over a flower, even though I found it to be quite unique.

"Shard, who do you think is right?!" Lily demanded. I snapped out of my train of thought. "Is it me or Petal?!"

"Yeah, is it Lily or me?!" I felt shocked, being the one to make the decision. I was always a character on the sidelines, watching everyone make the decision… but now?

It certainly was a hard choice. If I went with Lily's idea, we could keep the flower from being ruined at all, but then Petal would have to take it outside for proper sunlight. If Petal just left it outside the whole time in some sort of pot, there wouldn't really be much difference from leaving it in the ground. If I went with Petal's idea, then it would have to grow like all the other flowers, the natural, right way. It would blossom nicely and shine in the sunlight each day.

"I… I think that Petal has the right idea," I finally answered. Petal smiled, knowing that she was right. Lily jaw dropped in disbelief.

"W-W-Why, why is Petal right and I aren't S-Shard?" Lily stammered.

"Easy. If we put the flower inside, then it will have to be taken out every day for sunlight. If we just leave it outside, then it won't really be any different than leaving it in the ground."

"We can always get a heating lamp!" Lily argued.

"Lily, seriously, we are Pokémon. We don't have heating lamps or any of the advanced technology like humans have. It would be challenging to make a pot for the plant itself! We aren't humans."

"I… I know," Lily admitted. "It's just, I haven't gotten fully used to forest life yet…" she looked down at the ground in sorrow.

"I know Lily; it must have been hard to have lost your trainer. Especially since you were always pampered in a rich mansion, and never had to fight."

"Yeah, it feels a bit weird not to have a dress on," Lily mentioned. I kind of cowered when she said that, talking about Pokémon wearing dresses seemed… awkward.

"Well you can at least wear accessories," I stated, trying to cheer her up.

"Shard, why is your fur stained with tears?" Lily asked, worried. I have totally forgotten about Ruby by then.

"Ruby…" I said solemnly.

"Ruby, that jerk, always being mean to you," Lily stated.

"I agree. That girl is bad news. I just frankly think she's jealous of you Shard, since you look so pretty," Petal mentioned.

"And how dare she do this on your birthday!" Lily yelled. Hey, they remembered today was my birthday!

"Oh yeah guys, I was wondering if we could hang out later today, maybe go to the assembly together!"

Petal and Lily looked at each other, as if they were… uncertain? "I… I can't!" Lily yelled. "I got to… uh… goes and start working on a project!" Lily then ran away on all fours, and Lily hates running on all four paws. Lily was making an excuse to get away as well… why were they doing this?

"I can hang out!" Petal chimed in. Good, at least Petal wasn't trying to do that to.

"Petal, I have to ask you something."

"What?"

"I've been over to Star's and Skylar's, and they both made excuses to get away like Lily had. Do you know what's going on?" Petal seemed to be taken back at the question, as if she didn't want to answer it.

"Uh… I have… I have no idea." I could tell Petal was lying, since she was trying to avoid my stare.

"Petal, why are you lying, why on my birthday out of all the days?" I felt so sad at that moment, having my entire best friends lie to me on my birthday, and I also got bullied by Ruby while at it.

"I-I'm sorry Shard. I can't tell you why, it's a secret that you can't know about."

"Even on my birthday, my sixteenth birthday?" Petal starred at the ground in guilt. I sighed.

"Fine, let's just head over to the assembly, it should be starting soon," I stated. Petal didn't say a word as we walked side by side toward Cedar Square.

I was torn inside. They were keeping a secret from me, my best friends. Hopefully as the day went on, something will reveal.

Author's Note: Hey guys, its Shadow Snivy again with another Author's note! Slightly a cliffhanger, but there are already so many other chapters up so you can just click that little button that says 'Next' or something like that, and read what the secret is! So characters introduced... Nascha, Shard, Star, Lily, Petal, and Skylar. Huh, that's actually a lot, but like I said Nascha probably won't reappear, but it's possible she'd make an occasional appearance. I'll remind you that she's a noctowl if that time comes, so you guys don't have to strain to remember which Pokémon she is if she comes back. Oh well, thanks for reading!