Chapter Four:
Ryder awoke, feeling refreshed, and ready for the day, for the first time in the first six weeks, mainly because it was the first Saturday that he would be able to relax.
It was already about noon, as Ryder got out of bed, not to wake his little Eevee, who was still asleep at the foot of his bed, curled up in a little ball, grabbed his clothes, and went to shower.
When he was finished, he put on a pair of shorts, but left his shirt on the counter.
It's a lazy day, Ryder thought. I just want to relax.
He walked downstairs, hair still wet, and into the kitchen.
"Hey mom," he said. "What's for breakfast?"
Ryder looked up, and saw Elizabeth and the professor, sitting with his parents at the kitchen table.
He stopped.
Elizabeth was staring at Ryder, blushing, but the professor didn't seem fazed.
"Well good morning", the professor said.
"Morning professor," Ryder replied. "Morning Elizabeth".
Elizabeth shook her head and looked back up at Ryder's face, clearing her throat, "Uhm, good morning".
Ryder flashed a quick smile, and John sniggered.
"that's quite an interesting tattoo", The professor said, looking at the Seviper on Ryder's arm.
Ryder nodded, "thanks, I used to be really into reptilian pokemon", he said. "I know a lot about them".
"I can imagine that you don't see many reptilian pokemon around here".
Ryder shook his head.
Elizabeth stood up.
"Hey Ryder, let's go train for a little bit!"
Ryder smiled.
"Alright let me just finish getting dressed and I'll be right outside".
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, and took another quick glance at Ryder's torso before turning, grabbing her jacket, and walking out the back door.
Ryder ran back up the stairs, grabbed a black shirt, as Eevee perked up his ears, and jumped off the bed, and Ryder took off again towards the door, Eevee quickly in toe.
As he walked back through the kitchen, grabbed his jacket and was almost out the door, when his father stopped him.
"Hey, I got you something in town this morning".
Ryder turned around, and saw John, holding a black pokeball, with red stripes, that had gold outline. A luxury ball.
"Dad..." Ryder sighed. "These are expensive".
John nodded.
"I'm not going to let your Eevee just walk around freely, he needs somewhere safe, if you travel."
He handed the pokeball to Ryder, who quickly turned, and threw it at Eevee.
It bounced off Eevee, before pulling him into the ball.
It wiggled for a few seconds, while the button shone red, before dinging and coming to rest.
Ryder picked up the ball, and put it in his pocket.
"Thanks dad".
John nodded again, and Ryder walked out the door, as John and the professor resumed talking. Ryder had a slight feeling that the topic of their conversation was about him.
He dismissed the thought, and went out into the pens, where Elizabeth, her Eevee and Spook were waiting for him.
"So what's the plan?" Elizabeth asked him.
Ryder thought for a moment.
"Well we could head out into the forest for a little while, and look for some Sneasels if you'd like"
Elizabeth smiled. "Sounds like a plan".
Ryder unclasped his pokeball from its chain, and pulled the other one out of his pocket. He expanded them, and threw them up in the air.
"Come on out guys!" He shouted.
After the flash of light, Swinub and Eevee were out and sniffing around in the grass, which had a light soft layer of snow on top.
They walked into the tree line, and soon the house disappeared behind the massive trees, and the sun disappeared above the canopy.
They walked in silence for a while, pausing for quick moments, while Ryder examined pokemon footprints, trying to track a Sneasel.
He noticed a large amount of Glaceon prints, which worried Ryder, because they normally wouldn't be this close to the ranch. It was almost as if something was pushing them out of their territory.
I wonder if it has something to do with the pokemon we saw yesterday, Ryder thought.
"So how do we know when were on the trail of a Sneasel?" Elizabeth asked, as they walked along.
Ryder looked around, then walked to a nearby tree, that had deep gouges taken out of it.
"You see these scratches here?" Ryder asked.
She nodded.
"These are from the Sneasels climbing up the trees".
"Why do they climb"?
"They steal the eggs from the Braviary's that nest high in the trees".
Elizabeth wrinkled her nose.
"Ewe," she said.
Ryder shrugged.
"I don't eat eggs personally, but I guess you can't knock it until you try it Elizabeth".
Elizabeth turned and looked at Ryder.
"Lizy", she said. "My friends call me Lizy".
Ryder smiled at her, and they continued walking.
It wasn't long before Ryder could see a male and female Sneasel, in a clearing, cracking and eating a large Braviary egg.
Ryder looked at Lizy.
"Alright you and your pokemon take the female, and we'll take the male".
She nodded silently, and they began to creep towards them.
"Swinub!" Ryder shouted. "Use Mist to blind them!"
Swinub snorted, and a thick mist descended from the clouds, and into the clearing, blinding the Sneasels.
Ryder smiled, and him and his pokemon walked calmly into the mist, disappearing almost instantly, as the Sneasels snarled in the fog furiously.
Lizy stayed at the edge, hesitant.
"Come on in Lizy!" Ryder yelled.
Lizy looked at Spook, who had a smile on his face, ready to explore the deep fog, and she stepped in.
Elizabeth couldn't see a single thing in the fog, not even her outstretched hand, as she tried to feel her away around.
Spook stayed beside her, also blinded, and she couldn't even see her Eevee, or the ground for that matter.
The snarls of the Sneasels were loud, and seemed very close, she even thought she heard their running feet right next to them.
"Ryder?" She called out.
No response.
"Anyone?"
Still nothing.
She felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise, and suddenly saw a dark figure out of the corner of her right eye, and she spun to face it, but it had already vanished.
"Ryder!" She yelled. "Stop! Your scaring me!"
That's when Lizy noticed the sounds of the Sneasels had stopped, and an eerie silence had fallen over the clearing.
She spun around, and directly in front of her was the Sneasel.
It was the male, and was staring directly at her, claws at its sides.
She took a step back, and it matched her, stepping forwards.
She opened her mouth to scream, but like a bolt of lightning, it charged, letting out a high pitched screech.
The next thing she knew, Lizy was on the ground, Ryder covering her, and the Sneasel had been taken down by Swinub.
"Careful sunshine," Ryder said, "Have to watch your back out here".
He smiled and jumped back up, just in time for the Sneasel to get to its feet, ready to battle.
Lizy got to her feet flustered.
"Spook!" She yelled, "Come and battle"!
Spook appeared from the fog, revved up, and ready to battle, right as the second Sneasel sped into the clearing, to help its friend.
Ryder and Lizy turned and faced the Sneasels, Swinub standing next to Ryder, and Spook floating ominously next to Lizy.
There was a brief moment as the two teams just stared at each other, trying to size each other up, or find a weakness, before the Sneasels jumped towards them, claws flashing.
"Swinub! Use Mudbomb!" Ryder yelled, and Swinub, dug into the ground for a brief moment, before launching a ball of mud at the lead Sneasel, knocking it off balance and sending it crashing to the ground.
"Spook! Nightshade!"
The air around the second Sneasel went dark, and it started to flail violently around, before breaking through again.
The battle went on for a long time, the Sneasels slashing at Spook and Swinub, while the dodged and countered them.
Eventually, the pokemon began to grow tired, and the Sneasels seemed to have lost their energy to battle before melting back into the mist, and disappearing into the forest.
Ryder returned his Swinub to its pokeball, and Spook hung close to the ground, tired from the battle, as the mist had finally begun to fade away.
"Well that was a fun one". Ryder said, as he began to walk back towards the house.
"What the heck Ryder!" Lizy shouted, "That mist could have gotten me killed!"
Ryder shrugged, "I'm sorry, I figured it would be a good way to sneak up on them, but granted it did not go as well as I had hoped".
"Obviously".
That's when Ryder noticed that there were still two pokemon missing. The Eevees were nowhere to be found.
"Where are the Eevees?" He asked.
Elizabeth looked around, worried, noticing that they were gone as well.
"Eevee?" She yelled.
They searched around the clearing for a while, and Ryder feared that they could be in trouble.
As if on cue, the pair came running out of the forest, playing and happy as could be, seemingly oblivious to the battle that had just gone on.
"Don't you guys go running off on us again" Lizy said sternly, before turning and walking towards the house.
Ryder watched her for a second, before returning his Eevee back to its pokeball and following behind her.
As they walked in silence, Ryder thought of all the things that he could have done differently to make the battle go smoother, and to not make Lizy angry. He always did this sort of thing after a battle, trying to tweak his strategies and make him a better trainer.
When they reached the house, the professor was standing in the backyard, on his pokegear, talking to someone on the phone.
As they approached, he hung up, and walked towards them.
"That was professor Ariel, from the Aviation department at the University of Apollox," he said. "He thinks that the bird we saw might have been one of the three legendary birds".
Ryder's eyes went wide.
The three legendary birds, Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno, were pokemon myths that went back as far as humanity had worked with pokemon.
But they were all supposed to be in the Kanto regions, guarding their respective islands, the fact that one would appear here, was strange and slightly unnerving.
"Did he say why a legendary bird one come all the way to Cataria?" Ryder asked.
The professor shook his head.
"Anyways," the professor said. "How was the day?"
Apparently it was already time for dinner.
Lizy shrugged. "We just went for a walk".
Ryder looked at her, then just nodded.
"Alright, well we had better get back to the hotel then Lizy, we have a lot of packing to do".
Ryder tilted his head, "You guys are leaving already?"
"No, were going out for a few days to go and check out the Glaceons in the wild".
"Oh alright," Ryder responded, he didn't want Lizy to leave yet, he had never had quite a connection with someone as he had with her.
Lizy walked up to Ryder and have him a long warm hug. Ryder's heart skipped a beat. He had never felt this way about anyone ever, and had no idea why.
"I had fun today", she said letting go of him.
He smiled. "Me too".
With that she turned and walked towards the road with her father.
Ryder watched her until she was out of sight, and then walked to the house, and up to his room, pulling his mobile pokemon centre from underneath his bed.
It was a small box with only enough room to fit six pokeballs at once. It was red with a white trim, and a start/stop button on the side.
Ryder plugged in his pokeballs and slid it back under the bed, before heading back downstairs to eat with his family.
His parents and Amanda were already sitting at the table, ready to eat.
There was a ham, with mashed potatoes, with milk to drink.
Ryder sat in "his" spot, at the end of the table across from his father, and they began to eat.
"So the professor thinks that you and Elizabeth seem to have a real connection", John said, watching Ryder.
Ryder smiled.
"She's awesome, and she can hold her own in a pokemon battle too".
Ryder went on to explain the day, teaching her to track, and to battle wild Sneasels. Which reminded him about the Glaceon tracks.
"Hey dad, have you seen a lot of Glaceon around the ranch lately?" He asked.
John shrugged.
"I can hear the howling at night sometimes, and the Piloswine seem to be on edge a lot more lately, but I haven't seen any myself lately".
"I saw one!" Amanda chimed in.
"Oh is that right?" John said smiling. "Where was that?"
Amanda smiled.
"I saw one on my way to school yesterday!" She said excitedly, "It was standing at the trees by the road, just watching me!"
Ryder laughed. Amanda had never seen a Glaceon up close before, only far away in the tree line by the ranch, and from her window.
"What did it look like?"
"It was like a big dog, black and white, with a really cool looking horn!"
Ryder stopped smiling and became confused.
Glaceon aren't usually that colour, he thought. And they defiantly do not have a horn.
He looked at his father, who was deep in thought, and frozen like a statue, he was also very pale.
"Dad?" Ryder asked.
John quickly rolled back in his wheelchair, and heading towards the door, not even grabbing his coat.
"I have to run into town for a few hours, I'll be late". He said, and was gone.
Ryder looked at his mother, who was also very pale, and then she got up, and began to clean up the table. Amanda still had a big smile on her face and continued to eat.
There's something not right here... He thought. My parents know something about this pokemon.
He cleaned up his plate before heading upstairs to check his ice pokemon, fire pokemon and dragon pokemon books, but after hours of looking, he turned up nothing, and eventually decided to go to sleep.