As I slept, I had the most unusual and abstract dream. I saw a set of piercing red eyes illuminating in a dark room. Then, the eyes faded away from the image, and a set of chilling blue eyes took its place. Those eyes faded, and all I could hear was the faint sound of sinister chuckling.

I woke up the moment that I felt something slapping me across the face. My eyes shot open faster than an Eevee using Agility. I sat myself up, and, still half-asleep and with my eyes cringing with pain, rubbed my bright red cheek. "A-are you okay?" a worried, feminine voice asked. "One of your pokemon just popped out of its pokeballs, which rolled out of your bag a few seconds ago, and used Wake-Up Slap on you."

I opened my eyes fully and saw my Froslass, Delilah-who was crossing her arms as she usually did-and a girl who was about a year or two younger than me. She had shoulder-legnth, blond hair with bangs that rested above her eyebrows, and she had crystal blue eyes. Her skin was pale, and she was wearing an aqua-colored, spaghetti-strap sundress that went down to just above her knees. She kept eyeing my Froslass as if she had never seen one before.

"I'm fine," I assured her. "Delilah does that every so often."

"The Wake-Up Slap thing or the jumping-out-of-her-pokeball-randomly thing?"

"Both."

She then thought of something. Shyly, she asked, "Not to sound like a stalker or anything, but are you from Unova? I've never seen one of these Pokemon before..."

The girl closely examined Delilah. My pokemon didn't like it one bit, so, as usual, she snapped. "Back up, blondie!" my Froslass barked.

The girl backed up. She was shocked by the fact that Delilah talked, but I surely wasn't. "She talks?" cried the girl.

"Yeah," I admitted. "She's not isupposed/i to, but she does."

"What," Delilah intervened, "you expect me to go around chanting 'Froslass! Froslass!' every day of my life? Nah-uh. Delilah knows how to talk. Delilah is going to talk. You got a problem with-"

I dug my face into the palm of my hand. "Okay, Delilah, I get it. You give me this rant every three days," I groaned. "Just shut up already."

I saw my Froslass' Pokeball on the floor. I grabbed it and pointed it at Delilah, causing a red beam of light to transport her inside of the object. "I'm sorry about my Froslass," I apologized to the girl. "She never really learned how to control her temper. I mean, my family was used to her sassy attitude, but this is our first time away from home. We're from Sinnoh, not Unova."

She cocked her head to the side. "Sinnoh?" the girl asked. "I've never heard of that region. Do all Pokemon there talk?"

I laughed. "No. Only Delilah."

She extended her hand out to me. "Hi, I'm August. I'm from Unova, but I'm a trainer from Nacrene City. I stopped here to heal my Pokemon before I set out again for my hometown."

My eyes lit up the moment that she said the name "Nacrene City." I remembered about Juniper's request. I extended my arm out to her as well, and we shook hands. After that, I asked August without hesitation, "Nacrene City? I need to stop there to have this item checked out by some lady named Lenora."

I dug through my bag in search of the black sphere, but it wasn't there. I began to breathe heavily, thinking in panic, I knew that letting Juniper entrust me with something seemingly important was a bad idea! I lose EVERYTHING!

August noticed my worry. She then seemed to remember something. She ran over to a nearby table and grabbed something from a backpack that I assumed was hers. She brought the item back to me and said, "This also rolled out of your backpack before. Luckily, the only two items that I noticed had fallen out were your Froslass' Pokeball and this black sphere. Is this the item that you were talking about?"

I nodded my head. "Yes," I confirmed. "Professor Juniper of Numeva Town has asked me to explore Unova to compile research about Zekrom and Reshiram, and she gave me this sphere thinking that it might aid me in my research. She also gave me a Pokedex to fill, but that's right now a secondary quest to me. I'm focusing on my research first and the Pokedex second."

August handed me the item, and I put it in my bag. "Wow," she said in awe, "that's so interesting! I have a Pokedex, too, but I got mine from my father. It was a fourteenth birthday gift. He wanted me to go and see the world, and so he did."

I smiled. "That's sweet. My dad's only wish for me was to not get a boyfriend."

August giggled. "My dad would probably get along with your dad swimmingly. So, you never told me your name."

"I'm Cecilia," I introduced myself. "I'm from Snowpoint City in Sinnoh, and my sister's the town's gym leader."

"Related to a gym leader?" she mused. "That's gotta be exciting!"

"I guess you could put it that way."

We then changed topics again. August said to me, "I can guide you to Nacrene if you'd like, Cecilia. If we leave now, then we might be able to cross the Skyarrow Bridge-or at least most of it-by nightfall."

"Sounds great!" I agreed. "Let's go!"

Together, my first Unovan friend and I ran out of the doors of the Castelia City Pokemon Center. Even though I wanted to stay in Castelia longer, I knew that my research was supposed to come before leisure.

Besides, I kept feeling like someone was following me. I wanted to get as far away from that place as soon as possible.