Nathan stood at the edge of Sharpedo Bluff, looking out over the ocean. The first signs of dawn were now appearing as the sun began to rise over the horizon. The Lucario was engrossed in his own thoughts whilst he stood above the team's base. His thoughts however were mainly of the arrival of the other Lucario. He wondered where she came from, who she was and why she was there; none of these questions he could answer.
Just then, Phillip emerged from the stairs of the base and spotted Nathan.
"Good morning," Phillip yawned wearily.
"How is she?" Nathan turned to face Phillip.
"Our guest? She's still sleeping soundly." He noticed a troubled look on Nathan's face, "What's wrong? You seem worried."
"It's just… the feelings that I felt coming from her were like nothing I'd ever sensed before."
Phillip looked puzzled, "From what I could see she was just really scared."
"No, it was so much more than that. There was confusion, pure fear and a feeling of sheer terror hanging over her mind." Nathan shivered, "I couldn't have imagined such things."
"Well whatever has happened to her we need to get to know her first. You never know, she might be a great help to the team."
"She does look rather good doesn't she?"
"Falling for her already, Nathan?" Phillip grinned mischievously.
"H-hey that's not what I meant," Nathan tried to explain, "I meant that she fared well in that battle we had."
"Whatever, let's go back down and check on her, shall we?"
Therefore, the two of them descended back down the stairs into the opening in the cliff. They arrived to see that their unexpected resident was still sleeping soundly. She hardly stirred as Nathan walked up beside the bed and looked down at her.
"Thanks again for giving up your bed for her Phillip; she looks like she rested well."
"According to what you said the girl deserves a good rest. Speaking of, she should be waking up around now.
Just as Phillip finished speaking, the sleeping Lucario shuffled on the bed slightly. Slowly, she opened her eyes, hazily awakening from her long sleep. She then managed to swing her legs over the edge of the bed before finally gaining awareness of her surroundings. Suddenly, she stood up and immediately backed away from Nathan.
"Wh-who are you?" she shakily demanded.
"We're the ones who rescued you," Nathan replied calmly whilst holding his distance, "don't you remember?"
"Rescued m-me?" the girl stuttered, desperately trying to arrange the thoughts in her head. There was a tense silence as she thought about what was happening.
"Please try to remember," Nathan begged.
"Okay," she muttered hesitantly, "I believe you."
"Thank you," Nathan walked up to her, "my name's Nathan and this guy here is my partner Phillip."
"Um, my name's Amelia… I think."
"That's a nice name," Phillip said with a smile.
"Th-thank you," Amelia said, bringing her paw to her ears. "Hey, wait a second, my ribbon, where is it?" she started to panic.
"You mean this?" Phillip picked up a small pink ribbon that was placed beside him and brought it over to her. She quickly grabbed it and placed it back between her ears before calming down.
"Is it important to you?" Nathan asked.
"Yes... but I'm not sure why."
"Well you're full of mysteries aren't you?" Phillip stated, "But for now we should just introduce you to everyone and get you settled down."
And so, Phillip and Nathan led a very apprehensive Amelia out of their base. However, as soon as she saw the magnificent dawn Amelia stopped in amazement to look.
"All I had known since I woke up was darkness. This light… it's beautiful." She had a sparkle in her eyes similar to that of Nathan's.
Nathan watched her stare at the sunrise, slowly beginning to understand the girl that they had only met yesterday. She was a Lucario, just like him, but she was slightly shorter and her figure was slightly different. She also wore a small pink bow on her head which was of a strange importance to her.
After she had finished, they continued on into treasure town. Amelia marvelled at all the sounds and sights of the bustling town. Pokemon busily went about their business as they walked down the long street. Phillip and Nathan decided to stop off at Kangaskhan Storage first, where Kangaskhan herself was standing.
"Well what have we here? Another Lucario?" the stall owner inquired.
Amelia, never having seen such a large pokemon before coupled with Kangaskhan's rather forward way of speaking, was shocked and immediately hid behind Nathan. In doing so she accidentally brushed her paw against his tail, prompting a strange reaction from him as he flinched in a weird way.
"Please don't touch my tail," Nathan asked Amelia, "it's quite… sensitive." He then regained his composure, "Anyway, there's no need to hide, Kangaskhan is really friendly."
Amelia came out from behind Nathan, "I-I'm sorry, it's just I'm not used to pokemon speaking and I'm still getting used to this world," she admitted shyly.
"No need to worry dear," Kangaskhan smiled, "do you two need to store anything today?"
"Just this TM," Phillip handed it over.
"Wow, the TM for 'psychic', that's rare!
"Yeah, we really get lucky with finding treasure like this. It kinda makes you wonder who's leaving these things in dungeons."
"Well good luck on your next mission. Oh yes, how did that exploration of the Fated Plains go? Did you find any treasure?" Kangaskhan asked them.
"Erm, how do I put this? The treasure we found is standing right beside me," Phillip looked at Amelia.
"Well that's the first time I've heard of a pokemon being a treasure of a dungeon," Kangaskhan laughed, "well good luck with your treasure, Nathan."
"Huh? What?" Nathan said, rather confused by her statement.
The three of them then left the stall and moved on. Although first, Phillip asked Amelia a question.
"Back there you said you weren't used to pokemon speaking, is that true?"
Amelia looked down, "When I arrived, one of the only things I thought I knew was that I was a human named Amelia. As I quickly found out this isn't the case."
Nathan was shocked, "Phillip also used to be a human; maybe the thing that happed to you was similar to what happened to him!"
"Maybe so," Phillip agreed, "but let's discuss this when we return home."
Their next stop was at the Kecleon shop. The three of them walked up to the store and then the brothers greeted them.
"Welcome Team Serenity," the one on the left began.
"How may we help you today?" the one on the right added.
"Let's see," Phillip turned to Nathan, who shrugged, "we're not looking for anything in particular. So, what gummies do you have today?"
"We have two orange gummies and one purple," the green Kecleon replied.
"Well, I suppose we could give Amelia the orange ones," Phillip thought out loud, "okay then, we'll take the two orange gummies." Phillip decided, handing 1,600 poké to them.
Amelia meanwhile was looking in awe at all the goods on display. She admired the sparkling golden ribbon on display whilst also noticing the various keys up for sale. However she snapped out of her daze when Phillip starting speaking to her.
"Try one of these," Phillip held out the gummies, "since you're a Lucario like Nathan you should really enjoy these."
Amelia hesitantly picked up the gummi. She inspected the little orange object for a few seconds before she decided to eat it. She placed it in her mouth swallowed it after a few bites from her sharp teeth. A huge smile then emerged on her face.
"These are amazing!" she exclaimed.
"I'm glad you like it, you can have the other one later," Nathan told her.
"Thank you," Amelia smiled again.
"Well I think we need to be moving on," Phillip reminded the two Lucarios.
"One more thing," the green Kecleon said.
"Did you manage to deal with that monster in the Fated Plains?" his brother asked.
Amelia, upon realising who they were referring to, stopped smiling. Her ears drooped a little as she thought about what she had done and about the fact that she had just been called a 'monster'. Nathan on the other hand instantly acted on their comment, standing in front of Amelia as if protecting her.
"I'll let you two know that your 'monster' is this beautiful young lady right here," Nathan said with a noticeable tone of anger.
"Oh dear, we're terribly sorry," the Kecleon brothers apologised.
An awkward silence followed, only to be broken when Phillip decided to speak again.
"As I said, we need to move on," Phillip repeated.
Therefore the three of them left the stall and starting heading towards Spinda's Café. On the way, Amelia turned to Nathan to tell him something.
"Thank you for saying that back there."
"No problem," Nathan replied, "those guys had no right to call anyone a monster, especially you."
"That's not what I… never mind," Amelia said softly.
It wasn't long before they entered the homely café underneath the crossroads. Phillip quickly located Garchomp, a close friend of the team they had met a long time ago. He approached her and started to talk.
"Hi Garchomp, how are you?"
"Good thanks; my jaw's healed so I should be able to help with any missions you have now. Speaking of missions how did your last one go?"
"Pretty well actually, it was a complete success."
"That's good," Garchomp turned to Amelia, "and who do we have here?"
"This is Amelia," Nathan introduced Amelia to Garchomp.
"Ah, Nathan, I see you finally got yourself a gir…"
"W-wait a second Garchomp," Nathan interrupted quickly, "can I speak to you over there for a second?"
He took the female Garchomp away from the others and started whispering hurriedly.
"She isn't my girlfriend!" Nathan explained.
"Really?" Garchomp looked surprised
"No, we just found her on that mission we just went on."
"Oh, it's just that you two looked so good together."
"Um… well…" he hesitated, "well we're not, so please don't say anything about it okay?"
"Fine, but you have my blessing if you choose to go after her." Garchomp winked at him.
"Since when do I need your blessing?" Nathan rolled his eyes.
The two of them returned to Amelia and Phillip, who had now started talking to some of the team's other acquaintances. They then stayed there for most of the day, happily conversing with all their friends whilst introducing Amelia to everyone. By the time they finished, Amelia had made more new friends than she could remember and wished that she could spend more time with them, but as the night drew closer she also became tired. So her and the two from Team Serenity left and returned to the room in the side of the cliff.
By the time they arrived, the stars were shining down from the sky. The brisk gale of the night silently rushed through the room as they entered, leaving a crisp air in its wake.
"There's a third bed now!" Amelia noted as she entered the room.
"I managed to get someone from the guild to give us an extra bed, so we all get one now," Phillip told her.
"Although before we go to sleep, we should discuss Amelia's memories, if you're not too tired of course," Nathan looked at Amelia yawning.
"Well, I should really tell you all I know now, so let's get this done now," Amelia sat down on her bed as the others did the same, her tail slowly swaying from side to side. She took a deep breath and started speaking:
"When I woke up, all of my memories had disappeared. At first, I thought I was a human, but that turned out not to be true," she sighed, "one thing I could be sure of was that my name was Amelia, and that I had to survive. The only other thing I knew was that I had to make sure my bow was safe, other than that, I didn't know what to do until you guys came along. That's all I know for now, I just can't remember anything else."
"This is strange," Nathan muttered, "you say you used to be a human and that you have some reason for protecting both that bow and your life. The only other time a human has arrived here was when Phillip appeared."
"Were you really a human?" Amelia was taken aback.
"Yes, I came here with a partner as a human, but I was made a pokemon and had my memories wiped." Phillip explained.
"Unfortunately, we don't know of any reason why another human would come here. Nor do we have any clue about why you were turned into a pokemon. Maybe we should leave this until tomorrow." Nathan suggested.
The three of them agreed to think about it another time. The sky was now pitch black, the moon gleaming brightly among the many stars. Amelia had no problem falling asleep on her new bed, instantly losing consciousness as she closed her eyes. The girl lay there peacefully as the others rested.
Later on in the night, Phillip briefly awoke, but he noticed that Nathan was not in his bed. He sleepily ventured up the stairs to find him, and surely enough the Lucario was yet again at the edge of the cliff, looking over the waves of the ocean.
"Still thinking, right?" Phillip yawned.
"There's still so much we don't know about her. Today, you could say we learned a great deal, but for some reason I feel there's something more to her." Nathan responded.
"What do you mean?"
Nathan turned to his companion, "I get a strange feeling about her, like she's the centre of another mystery. Though at the same time, she also seems to only be an innocent girl, it just doesn't add up."
"Speaking of Amelia, wasn't it a bit strange for you to lose your cool like that? Those Kecleon brothers didn't know what hit them!" Phillip asked.
"I…" Nathan paused to think, "I couldn't stand her being called a monster like that. She was just so crestfallen, the feelings that I felt from her…" his voice drifted off into the distance.
"Well then I guess it's our job to be with her and find out the truth behind her appearance."
"Right!"
The two partners exchanged a knowing look. They now had a new mission, a new task and a duty toward this mysterious girl. This would be the beginning of their greatest journey yet, even if they didn't know it themselves.
And so, the two of them went back down the stairs to where Amelia was still sleeping soundly. Phillip quickly fell asleep again, exhausted from the day's events. Nathan on the other hand sat there for a while, observing Amelia's serene smile as she continued dreaming. She was almost motionless except from the light movement of her breathing and her tail waving ever so slightly.
This was the girl that would change his life forever.