Chapter 4 – Viridian Forest: The First Obstacle

We soared through the blue clear sky, swishing through big puffy white clouds over tens of thousands of feet high above the ground, it was horrible. "Gary...Gary...GARY!" I screamed as I tightened my grip around him,

"WHAT?!" He yelled back,

"I'M GETTING AIR SICK," I cried,

"HOW?!"

"YOU KNOW I WAS NEVER GOOD WITH BIRDS!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU GET ON? AND CHARIZARD ISN'T A BIRD! ...HE'S A DRAGON SLASH LIZARD," he screamed back,

"OH BE QUIET! LAND NOW UNLESS YOU WANT MY PUKE IN YOUR FACE," I threatened,

"Oh for the love of- Charizard let's land before it becomes puke fest of the year," I heard Gary say to Charizard as we started to quickly descend. Once we had touched ground, I jumped off immediately and refrained myself from throwing up, "Never good with birds...pssh!" Gary sneered whilst he petted Charizard,

"Hey, you know what happens, don't make me remind you," I replied as I finally pulled myself together, "Where are we?" As I examined my surroundings more closely, we were lost in deep and dark woodlands,

"We're in the Viridian Forest," Gary answered as Charizard returned to his pokéball,

"Why'd you send Charizard back?"

"Were you hoping we would start flying up again?" Gary sarcastically remarked, "Anyways, Charizard needs his rest,"

"Then how are we going to get out of here?" I asked as I put my hand on my hip. Through my years of exploration, it was known to me that the Viridian Forest was a native maze where pokédex holders get easily lost inside. Some don't even find their way out.

"Come on, I know the way out of here," Gary said as he started bushwhacking some shrubs; creating a path,

"Wait for me!" I called as I followed Gary. We had spent a few hours trekking through thick bushes, although it felt as though we were just walking around in circles. But Gary's confidence reassured me. However I suddenly noticed something. Whilst we were exploring, we had passed this intriguing tree that had a stripy trunk, so I decided to mark a little triangle on it. After a few minutes later, we passed the same tree with a little triangle indented on it. I looked at Gary, who was still "certain" he knew the exit, "Gary...are you sure you know your way?"

"Definitely," he quickly replied as I sensed slight urgency in his tone,

"Gary. Don't lie. We've passed this area twice," I stated as I stopped walking and folded my arms. Gary didn't answer me but continued to break briers, "You don't know the way out, do you?" This time it was him that stopped in his tracks, I even saw a slight shudder run up his spine,

"W-Well..." he stammered,

"We've been mindlessly walking around for hours, haven't we?!" I angrily exclaimed,

"Well, maybe not hours," he scoffed. I sighed in frustration and rubbed my face. I sat on a nearby rock and massaged my temples, wondering what our next plan of action should be. I peered up at Gary who was crouched down plucking some weeds. We were still lost. I figured that if Gary couldn't lead, perhaps I could. I walked back to the marked tree and scouted around, there were no signs of light or open space. I thought that if we continued going one way, we would surely end up out of the forest, however even that would take at least a day or so and night was approaching. It wasn't good enough. I knew I understood a lot more on jungle survival than to come to that conclusion. After running through thoughts in my brain, I remembered that the exit of the Viridian Forest was north-west. I tapped on my PokéWatch and initiated the HPS (Holographic Pokédex System), "It's not exactly time for capturing pokémon," Gary smugly said as he raised an eyebrow,

"It's not exactly the time to be making jokes, now is it?" I retorted as I continued scrolling through the utilities until I found the compass. Wondering why we didn't think of using it before amazed me. I started heading towards the appropriate direction and signaled Gary to follow, "Come along Christopher Columbus, let's get out of here,"

"Oh look at whose making the jokes now."

For the next few minutes we were swiftly going through a vaguely built path, when all of a sudden we heard a girl's scream for help, "What was that?" I asked as I looked around us,

"Well, obviously, it's a scream from a cat," Gary snidely answered as I gave him a look,

"Oh ha-ha, hilarious. Someone needs help, let's go,"

"Why? We need to get out of here,"

"We always have time to do that, whoever screamed might not even live to see tomorrow," I said as I grabbed his wrist and started running towards the direction from where the scream came from. We were bulldozing through trees and shrubs until we came to a large clearing. We saw a young girl who had long bright blonde hair that was tied up in a ponytail, brown eyes and pale skin. She wore a long black turtle neck shirt, a short yellow dress with green stitching on top, black tights and brown leather knee-high boots,

"Please! Please help me!" She pleaded to us as she was being cornered by a bunch of G-soldiers who were equipped with Houndooms, "Get away from me!" I took out my pokéball and out popped Jiggly while Gary took out his Scizor,

"Jiggle, use double-edge, aim for their collars!"

"Metal claw all of their collars, Scizor!" We both said as we got our own weapons and ran into battle. I dashed towards the girl in distress and came to her aid, while Gary took out most of the soldiers surrounding her. I pelted a few more arrows and made sure the girl was alright,

"Are you okay?" I asked as I bent down in front of her,

"Y-Yes, I'm fine, but is he?" She asked as she pointed towards Gary. A gang of soldiers were toppling over him, but he was holding his stance together well,

"He'll be fine, "I reassured as Gary let out a large shout and pushed all the soldiers off of him, "But you have to get out of here, it's not-" just before I could finish my sentence, a G-soldier had come running towards me. I heard his footsteps, turned round and shot three arrows into his chest, "-safe..."

"You're probably right," she murmured as she got up,

"Stay behind those bushes until everything's calmed down," I said as I gave her a little push and resumed to fighting. Jiggly and Scizor had managed to take out a lot of the collars so the field was covered with unconscious Houndooms. Two soldiers came running my way, one with a sword and the other with twin knives. The latter one threw both her knives at me but I bent backwards and let the knives fly straight across me. When I pulled myself back forward, the other soldier swung his sword down at me, but I fended it off with my bow. I pushed the soldier back and used that momentum to jump up and perform a backwards flip, whilst I fired two arrows at the G-soldiers. But there wasn't a moment to relax, as soon as I landed back down, several other soldiers came at me with vicious attacks. Soon Gary and I were back to back,

"Tired?" He teased,

"Not at all," I replied, as it was obvious both of us were out of breath,

"Pretty imprecise aims there,"
"At least I wasn't the one who was being crushed,"

"Whatever, I'm on 22," he stated as I shot an arrow at a soldier behind Gary,

"23," I responded as I raised an eyebrow and gave him a cheeky smile. A few minutes later, we managed to take down most of the G-soldiers, assuming the rest ran away, "Hey! It's safe now! You can come out!" The little girl popped her head from the top of the trees and jumped down,

"Thank you guys so much," she said as she clasped her hands together and began bowing down repeatedly. Both of us chuckled slightly and scratched the back of our heads,

"It's no problem, why were they attacking you anyways?" I inquired,

"They were trying to take away my pokémon but I refused, so they started to attack me and I screamed. Then you two came to my rescue and I don't know how I can tahnk you! If there's anything I can do, please tell me," she answered as she began to bow again,

"Ha ha ha, it's really nothing! You don't need to bow so many times," I laughed as Gary smirked behind me, "Although, we would love to take you up on that offer,"

"What is it?" The girl eagerly asked. I crept over to her, put one arm around her shoulder and said,

"Got any extra pokédollars on ya?"

"Sorry but all the dollars I have are back at my home," she stammered,

"Pfft, that's no fun. Where's home?" I asked as I walked back to Gary who gave me "really?" face. I shrugged in return and stuck my tongue out,

"Not too far from here," she answered with a smile. A bulb burned brightly in my head. I clapped my hands together and turned round to face her,

"That's brilliant! Y'know, I just thought of how you could pay us back," I hinted with a playful tone,

"What? What is it?"

"To be honest, we were actually on our way to Viridian City but we got lost and now that it's almost dark, we need somewhere to stay, do you happen to know a place?" I said,

"Hm..." she pondered as I was hoping she would take the hint, "Oh! Why don't you guys stay at my home?"

"Oh, no...we couldn't possibly intrude," I insisted,

"Please! I insist! I insist! I mean, after all, both of you saved my life. This is the least I could do, I can even take you through the forest to Viridian City tomorrow!" She persuaded,

"Oh...well...if you really insist," I replied with a grin. I honestly didn't enjoy playing around with naïve girls like herself, but it was just an old habit popping out. I heard Gary give a sigh in the background and I cocked my head towards him with a death stare.

Soon, after walking through a few more bushes, we reached a quaint little house. It was a good, old fashioned cottage, gleaming with coziness. "This is my home, sorry if it isn't much," she excused as we entered through the door. The interior was just as cozy as the exterior. Gary and I followed the girl through her house, "My name is Amarillo del Bosque Verde, but you can call me Yellow,"

"So, Yellow…" I said as I observed her comfy living room, "can we, um, can we see the house?"

"Oh yes! Follow me!" She said as she signaled us to come over, "this is the kitchen right here, next to the living room. The bathroom is just down the hall to the right, and there's a study room right opposite. Upstairs are where all the bedrooms are and another bathroom, why don't we go up?"

"Yes! Let's!" I eagerly exclaimed, but then I realized how rash I was being and stepped behind Yellow, "I mean, after you of course," Gary gave a grunt which led me to give him another deadly stare,

"Alright then, let's go!" Yellow cheerfully said as she led us up the stairs, "right here is my room, over here is the bathroom and here's the guest room!" When she opened the door, the guest room was an adequately large room, with hard wooden flooring- just like the rest of the house- white walls, two wooden framed glass windows, an oak closet, a furry rug in the middle of the room and a double bed,

"Well this looks absolutely brilliant," I complimented as I waited for Yellow to continue the tour, "so where's the other guest room?"

"I'm sorry?" Yellow said in confusion as she tilted her head in confusion,

"Don't you have another guest room?" I rephrased,

"This…is the only one I have,"

"W-W-Wait, does this mean we're going to have to sleep in the same bed?" I whined as I pointed to Gary,

"Aren't you two together?" Yellow responded as we shook our heads, "Oh! I'm so sorry! I thought you two were a couple, both of you just seemed so close," Yellow started to frantically bow down multiple times whilst apologizing,

"Leaf, calm down, it's fine," Gary cooly said as he went into the room and slumped onto the bed,

"A-Are you sure? I could give you my room, I'll sleep on the couch," Yellow offered. Just as I was about to take it, Gary swiftly grumbled,

"It's perfect," he closed his eyes, put his arms behind his head and begun to try to sleep. I sighed. At that moment I knew Gary was right, and so I gave up trying to demand any more. I gave a sincere smile at Yellow and nodded my head in agreement,

"It is perfect," I quietly whispered. Yellow smiled back and slowly closed the door. I put my bow and arrow down against the dresser, then placed my hands on my hips,

"So," I sighed again, "how are we join to do this?" Gary slowly opened one eye and looked at me. He got up from the bed, took a pillow and a sheet and placed them on the floor and continued his slumber. I felt quite guilty, "Gary come on, I can't let you do that,"

"Just go to bed," he murmured. I gave a shy smile. He was the same old chivalrous Gary. Just then, Yellow popped her head in,

"Oh, um, I'm, um, I'm sorry to interrupt but, I prepared a hot bath. So if one of you want to take it now…" she explained as she signaled towards the bathroom. I gazed at the dozed off Gary and replied,

"I think Gary's going to pass, he's just a little sleepy. I'll take it though, you went through all that trouble anyways,"

"It was no problem! I also have a pair of pajamas for you to wear, that is if you want it,"

"That sounds lovely." Soon I found myself feeling absolutely relaxed after a nice warm bath. I dressed into Yellow's white tank top with blue shorts afterwards. Once I finished thanking Yellow and wished her a good night, I slipped back into the guest room. I quickly snuggled into bed and fell asleep.

A bloody corpse lay on the black ground in front of me. He was reaching out to me, with his hairy hand covered in crimson red. "Leaf…" he moaned as he crawled closer. Suddenly Houndooms started to creep from the darkness, frothing at the mouth. Those blood shot eyes, it frightened me to the core. I screamed, I screamed as loud as I could for help- for anyone. "Leaf…come out of the closet…help me…" the corpse said as I realized who it was. I reached my back, expecting to grab my bow and arrow, but there was nothing there. Suddenly one of the Houndooms pounced forward. It's large sharp white teeth sandwiching my face.

I woke up in a cold sweat with my heart pounding like a thousand drums. My throat felt dry and rough. I could feel dried up tears on my face. Just then, I felt two hands wrap around my waist, a chin resting on my shoulder, and a soft whisper,

"Sh…it's alright, you're fine. You're fine."

"Breakfast time!" I heard a voice yell. As I started to wake up, I could hear little footsteps getting louder. Suddenly the door swung open, the abrupt noise made my body sit up, "Morning! It's- oh!" My vision was still a little hazy. I rubbed my eyes and saw yellow by the door with her hands clasped on her mouth. She had a surprised yet embarrassed look. I felt a slight weight on the bed and as I looked to my right, Gary was there!

"AHHHHHHH!" I screamed as I fell off the side of the bed whilst backing away. Gary's eyes shot open and he quickly sat up, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING- WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN MY BED?!"

"For heaven's sake, it's early in the morning, quit your yapping," Gary drearily replied as he scratched the back of his head,

"I-I'm sorry!" Yellow said as she gave a little bow while her cheeks turned a little pink, "u-um, breakfast is ready. It's in the kitchen. On the table. Downstairs. Just come down, when you're um, ready," she stuttered and quickly left the room. I stayed on the ground, still shocked, and stared at Gary who was still scratching his hair,

"Are you just going to sit there and stare at me?" He sarcastically remarked as he sat on the edge of the bed, "and in case you're still wondering, I didn't do anything,"

"T-Then why were you in my bed?" I questioned as I slowly stood up. He looked at me with an are-you-serious face and sighed,

"Just forget it, I'm going to go have breakfast, see you downstairs," he groaned and left the room. Flushed and embarrassed, I calmed myself down and started to change into my regular clothing. After folding Yellow's pajamas away, I headed for the kitchen. When I walked down the hallway, I could see Yellow sitting opposite Gary with a cup of hot chocolate in her hand whilst Gary was stuffing his face with cereal. I awkwardly joined them at the table,

"Oh! You're here!" Yellow greeted as she got up from her seat, "what do you want for breakfast? I have oran berry cereal, milk, aprijuice, puffins, honey bread, what are you feeling?"

"Just a glass of milk is good for me, thank you," I replied as Yellow nodded her head and checked out her fridge,

"Looks like I've run out of Moomoo milk, I'll be right back," she said as she went out the back of the house. An awkward silence slipped in between Gary and I. We happened to catch each other's gaze and quickly looked away. However this didn't stop Gary from munching on his oran berries. I took another look at him: pieces of oran berries were decorated on his cheeks and he was having a difficult time trying to bite the honey bread, I couldn't contain my laughter. He was just like a little kid. But in the midst of my laughter, a small and embarrassing snort came out. This time he was laughing at me, but since we knew both of us were being so silly, we just laughed with each other. When we calmed down, I told him,

"Hey, I'm sorry. I should of had more father in you,"

"Nah, I wouldn't blame you. If I saw a guy by my side in the morning, I'd freak out too," I giggled,

"Ha ha ha, this is why I love you, no matter what happens between us, we manage to get back on good terms in no time,"

"Ha ha ha, I'm sorry, did I just hear you say you 'loved' me?" Gary pointed out as I suddenly realized it myself. Before I could say anything I was saved by Yellow's return,

"Oh! Yellow! Look! It's Yellow! You're back!" I nervously exclaimed,

"Here's some Moomoo milk," she said as she handed me a bottle,

"Thanks Yellow," I replied as I took a sip,

"Careful there Moomoo, don't snort on your own milk," Gary teased,

"You watch yourself too Snorlax, you're being attacked by swarms of oran berries on your face," I retorted as all three of us laughed.

After eating a fulfilling breakfast, we set off back into the woods. Gary and I followed Yellow through the thick forest until we finally came to a clearing, "We're here!" Yellow announced as she pushed away some shrubs. In front of us was a large entrance to a very cramped and urban city,

"Thanks Yellow," Gary said as he grabbed my hand and started to run towards the city, "we're kind of in a rush so see you next time!" I looked back and waved goodbye to Yellow. She waved back and gave the most heartwarming smile I've ever seen. It made me feel quite mean just ditching her like this.

"Pick up the pace Slowbro,"

"Shut up," I replied as we plunged into the big city.