-Chapter 4: Pika Preserve
Part 1: Snowed in

I awoke to find that the light in the cave we had stopped in was a filtered white blue. Looking around, I realized that this was because snow was completely covering the entrance. at the foot of the snow wall, there was the Vaporeon. I went over to him to make sure he was OK.
"Uhhh... I tried to make sure... you didn't get buried... Need... Sleep..." he moaned out.
"You should rest for a while. Ya did good, thanks for that."
"So... much... Snow..." He mumbled as he fell asleep.
It was getting cold, so I gathered up the wood we had grabbed last night and lit a fire. I moved everybody around near the fire, and pretty soon people started to stir. One by one, everyone but Vaporeon woke. People quickly noticed that we were snowed in, but I managed to keep panic from breaking out, with some help from Sierra.
"Everybody calm down! We'll just have to dig our way out, that's all." Sierra yelled, the cave's echo making it a deep roar. "Panicking will do us no good!"
"Step One" I yelled "Is to calm down, and figure out our course of action."
"Hey, why is Vaporeon still sleeping through all this?" Cheepo asked.
"He was up all night trying to make sure the snow didn't fill up the cave and bury us." I said.
Nobody knew how to respond to this, but everyone calmed down and gathered around the fire, trying to make plans. "We need to find out how deep the snow is." Rovesun said, and everybody agreed, including Cheepo one I relayed it to him.
"Meaning somebody needs to dig a tunnel to the top of the snow." Lucario said.
I volunteered for the duty, and jumped up, grabbing the snow about halfway up the entrance. I dug in, trying to dig upwards. It seemed I had barely got started when I broke the top. looking behind me, I noticed that the very top of the entrance was barely above the snow. I dug a bit down, far enough to stick my head in, and said "Hey! The snow is just to the top of the cave!" Hearing people rejoicing, I started to dig down and create a larger passageway out. In about 5 minutes, I had created a hole large enough to get through easily. at this point, Lucario cut in.
"I'll take over for a little while if you want." He said. I was more than happy to let him work for a while, because I was starting to lose felling in my paws from all the digging in snow. I moved out of his his way, heading back to the fire.
"Thanks for the help" I said, knowing that he already knew that I was thankful for a break.
It was later, and everybody had helped with digging at least a little. During this time, Cheepo had managed to find gloves and hats for everyone, even cutting apart and resewing a pair of gloves to make something for Pichu to wear. The tunnel had been widened and cleared, and was now a large ramp of packed down snow that was easy to get up and down on. "We better get going, We lost a few hours of progress in digging ourselves out." Cheepo pulled out pairs of snowshoes from his pack as he said this. "Everybody put these on. Were's lucky I anticipated getting trapped in snow. Now, let's go head out." We all strapped on snowshoes, and started trekking to find the end of the cliff. "By my map" Cheepo said "The Pika Preserve is at the top of this cliff."
We had been going for most of the day when we saw the point where the cliff met the ground appear from over the horizon. We all looked up, and noticed that the top of the cliff was a lot closer than it had been back at the cave. We all knew that we were going to just get tired out from running, so we just kept our pace going slowly towards the end of the cliff. once we rounded the cliff, we noticed that the Pika Preserve was already within eyesight. When we saw this, we all had a reason to rush, so we rushed forward, trying to get there sooner. I carried Pichu, who was carrying Vaporeon in his ball, and was at the lead of the group. The snow was already dug out around the door, and we all rushed in, tired from our mad dash to get here.

Part 2: Dance

We had all rested for a few days since arriving at the preserve, and had made quite a recovery from nearly getting frozen solid. Pichu was getting acclimated to living in the preserve, and Cheepo's superiors were extremely surprised by how fast he had gotten to the preserve, especially considering the unexpected snowstorm, so he was getting some vacation time while they were figuring things out. I awoke this morning with little on my mind, and noticed that Sierra was already up.
"Finally up, huh? I was expecting you to be up a lot sooner. It's nearly one, so we better get going if we are going to make it to that thing." Right then I remembered the events of last night.
"Dance lessons? Maybe you two should go."
"Sounds fun. What do you think Joltie?"
"I agree. Let's try to make sure and go."
It had been Cheepo's idea. We needed to get going, so I grabbed some leftover food from what Cheepo had made last night for dinner and quickly ate it.
"Sorry for sleeping late." I said through a mouthful of food.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, and it's fine. There's still about half an hour before it starts, so we can leave in a few minutes and still be a bit early."
I finished my food, and we left for the presentation hall. When we got there, we saw Cheepo sitting outside.
"They haven't opened up quite yet. Want a peppermint?"
We both accepted, trying to savor the minty flavor. "These taste a bit sour." Sierra commented "Did you make these yourself?"
"Yeah, I accidentally spilled a bit of lemon in them when I was making them."
"They're good, you should try adding other flavors to them." I said.
"Maybe some orange, or try mixing in a few oran berries." Sierra said.
Right then the doors opened and a guy told us that the class would be starting soon.
"You two go in, It's cold out here." Cheepo said. "I'll go home and try messing with some other flavors."
"OK, you better have some good ones when we come back." Sierra said.
We went in, and found that they already had a dance floor set out.
"Over here, there's somewhere to sit over here." The instructor motioned for us to sit on a carpet set up at one end of the room. "You two have become pretty popular around here, and after all, it's not every day you come across one talking Pokémon, let alone two." He said no more on the subject, just waiting for other people to show up. soon, a lot of people showed up, with plenty of Pokémon, too.
"OK, let's start. If you are a 4-legged Pokémon, please try to stand on 2 legs. If you do not have any legs or otherwise cannot stand on 2 legs, then try to find a position that will work and is comfortable for you." The instructor said. "Let's start off with a slow dance. Everybody find a partner and follow my lead!" It went on like this for a while, and sometimes I would grasp the technique first and help Sierra, sometimes she would get it first, and sometimes we both just fumbled around until someone helped us. At the end, as the instructor was about to let us out, he said "Remember, there's a Christmas Eve Dance 2 through 5!" I noted to myself to ask Cheepo what Christmas was when I got back, and Sierra and I started back home.
"That was fun." Sierra said on the way back.
"Yeah, maybe we should go to that dance thing that was mentioned." I replied.
"One thing I still don't understand, though."
"What's that?"
"What is this holiday, Christmas, all about?"
"I was planning on asking Cheepo that when we got back." I said, and left it at that.
When we got back, the first thing we said to Cheepo was:
"What is Christmas?"
"Well..." Cheepo said. "Christmas is a day of giving, where you give presents to family and friends. And supposedly at 12:00 midnight the start of Christmas day, a man named Santa Claus in a flying sleigh goes around the world and delivers presents to everybody in the world."
"He sound like a nice guy, someone who I'd like to meet very much." I said.
"He's supposed to come down chimneys when he leaves presents." Cheepo continued.
"How could on man possibly go around the world that fast, and carry enough presents to give to everybody in the world?" Sierra said, a tone of wonder in her voice.
"Speaking of Santa, we should get a Christmas tree or he'll have nowhere to leave our presents when he comes." Cheepo said.
"Let's do that first thing tomorrow, then." I said. "Anyway, how did the mints turn out?"
"Here, try this one. Careful, it's hot."
"How bad could it be?" I said, popping it into my mouth. It was extremely spicy, and felt like someone had used flamethrower on my tongue. I spat it out, and it stuck to the wall and started to dissolve the plaster. "Jeez, what did you use to flavor that, Essence of Tomato Berry?"
"Good guess, that is what I used. I guess a whole cup was a bit much. Anyway, on to this. This is the only other on I'm worried about. It's my own special blend, and uses about 15 different fruits and vegetables. Go on, try one."
Sierra was brave enough to try this one, and she quickly grabbed one, took it out of the wrapping Cheepo had made, and stuck it into her mouth.
"Hey, this tastes really good! Joltie, you have to try one!"
I grabbed one, quickly unwrapped it, and popped it in my mouth. "Hmm... good. tastes sort of salty and sour."
"Really? Mine tastes sweet and a bit spicy."
"Yeah, I didn't mix the spices evenly or cook them completely uniformly, so each one should taste different." Cheepo said.
"Nice idea, but I think we should head to bed. It's getting pretty late." I said.
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Sierra said.

Part 3: Oh Christmas Tree
We had gotten a wondrous tree, that fit just perfectly in the living room of the house we were living in. It had been the last on left, and we found it behind a old truck someone had left. we cut it down, carried it back to our house, and decorated it with tinsel and candy canes. "Hmmm. Pretty good, huh?" Cheepo had said when we were all done.
"Yeah" I agreed. "What do you think Sierra?"
"I think that it needs a bit more tinsel right..." She grabbed a pawful of tinsel and placed it onto the tree. "Here. Now it looks perfect."
"Hey! Doesn't that ball start at 2?" It's already 1:50!"
"Huh? Last I checked it was only 9:00!" I said. "We're gonna be late!"
"Don't go rushing off just yet! Look outside."
I looked out the window. the snow was so deep, I couldn't see our door. "Looks like one of those weird storms I heard this area gets at wintertime sometimes." Cheepo commented. "There was a report of strange weather patterns on the news yesterday."
"Looks like the ball is cancelled" I said. "And I was really hoping to get to go, too. Guess if we want to dance, we'll just have to do it right here."
"Yeah..." Sierra started to say, but then music started coming out of nowhere, music perfect for dancing to. Before we knew it we were dancing the night away, and pretty soon we were fast asleep on the living room couch together.
"Awww, how sweet. good thing I grabbed that CD yesterday."

I was waken, still half asleep, by a pitter patter of what sounded like Stantler hooves on the roof, and a loud, joyous laugh echoing down the chimney. I heard the plop of a cloth bag landing, and soon after it came a little old man with bright red cheeks and a nose like a cherry. Smoke encircled his head, emanating from a corncob pipe he gripped in his teeth. For a little old man, he was spry as could be, for he jumped right up right next to the tree and started laying down presents just as fast as could be. As soon as he finished he rushed to the chimney, and I knew he had many more stops, but I couldn't help but say "Wait!" As this cry came from me, he turned round his head.
"What are you wishing to know from me, Old Saint Nick?" he whispered.
"I just wanted to know, why do you wander to and fro, handing out presents to people where ever you go?"
"For peace on earth, and goodwill towards men and Pokemon. But now I must go, for I have many more stops on this trip." and with that, he scampered up the chimney, and to his team gave a whistle. "On Dancer, on Dasher, On Comet and Cupid, On Prancer, on Vixen, on Donner and Blitzen!" And I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, And to all a good night!"

Part 4: A Berry Merry Christmas
I awoke to find that the present were stacked under the tree and all the ones I remembered from last night were just as I remembered them. I looked at them, and found that all there was for me was a card and a small box. I woke Sierra and she was surprised to see all the presents under the tree. I decided to keep my story of St. Nick to myself, and we decided to wait until the others woke to start opening presents. It wan't long before everyone else woke and started to come out for food, and saw the tree and all the presents beneath it. Once everybody was out, Cheepo organised the presents into piles of what each person got, and handed on to each person, opening one himself too. I started with the small box, which turned out to be a pair of glasses. I put them on, and found that I could see details previously unknown to me. Sierra noticed me and commented "Wow! You look so sophisticated with those on!"
Cheepo's present was a box of rare berries that he immediately took to the kitchen and started a pot of water boiling. "I know what I'm going to do with these." he said, and then returned to check who else had opened theirs. Nobody got anything else special, but then Cheepo passed out the other half of the presents. I opened the card and found it said "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas -Kringle".
Lucario got an King's rock, Vaporeon a Rare Candy, Rovesun ate her present, a block of cheese, I didn't see what Avie got, and Sierra got a necklace with a heart on it. After everyone opened their presents and cleaned up I noticed that there was still a present under the tree. "Hey! What about that one?" I said pointing to it.
"Huh. Guess I musta missed it. Hmm, that's strange. It's labeled 'Everyone'".
"I'll open it!" Both me and Sierra said at the same time. We decided to open it together, and started to open it. I removed the wrapping paper, and Sierra cut the tape. we both opened up the box together and found that the present was an egg. with it there was a note saying simply "Justin". as we picked up the egg it started to glow, and hatched as soon as we set it down. It was a Riolu.
"Mama! Papa!" it yelled, thinking us its parents.
"Awww, how cute." Sierra said. I shared those sentiments.
"I cute!" he said.
"Clever, too." I said. "And it looks like it falls on us to raise him, at least until he learns to fend for himself."
"I'll learn! I will!"
"Let's get something to eat, and find out what this little guy likes."
"Fooooooooood!"

Part 5: Justin
As it turned out, he liked everything. Even the Tamato Candies Cheepo made. Nobody saw where he picked it up, but Justin somehow found a Magikarp doll with everstone eyes, which he dragged around and would not let go of. "Magi no go!" he would yell, crying until someone gave him some food.
"Hey! Check the batteries on the Comm!" Justin yelled, interrupting my thoughts.
"Huh?" Cheepo said, checking his watch. "Hey! The batteries are dead! How did you know that?"
"Beep" Justin said.
"You heard it beep?"
"Yup. Beep."
"Well, I guess I should go and get new batteries. Be back in a minute."
Justin jumped up, yelling "Buh Bye!" as loud as he could.
It wasn't until then that I realized that Justin had been speaking Human this whole time. I guess I had just become so used to hearing myself and Sierra use it that I forgot most Pokemon can't.
We continued to teach Justin about things, and pretty soon Cheepo got back.
The first thing he said was "Sorry about the lack of notice, but we're leaving. I got a call about my next mission on the way back here, and it is quite interesting."

End of Chapter