Chapter Seven: Hidden Stories
The trainers walked up another flight of stairs with Pikachu, Piplup, Axew, and Sage just ahead of them.
"The library isn't far," Zaela said. "But we need to hurry. It closes at midnight."
"That leaves us only twenty minutes," Buddy responded.
"That's barely any time!" Ruth cried.
"Barely any if it takes you twenty minutes to walk down this hallway," Kaylee said, motioning at the hallway before them.
Sage let out a laugh and continued to walk with the other three Pokémon. Then Zaela suddenly became very aware that she was walking close to a door on the left side of the hall.
"Sage!" she began. "Get away from that -!"
Before she could finish, the door closest to Sage swung open and hit her so hard that she froze for a second before falling over, dazed.
"Door!" Zaela squeaked.
Another Lucario came out of the door and shut it as soon as he saw who he'd accidentally hit.
"Sage!" he cried, rushing to help her up. "Are you all right?!"
"Isn't that the Lucario that beat me?" May asked.
"Yeah," Dawn answered. "That's Orion."
"Oh, I'm fine," Sage said, her eyes closed as she was rubbing her forehead and letting Orion help her sit up. "I'm not really hurt -!"
She opened her eyes and saw who was there.
"Orion!" she cried, blushing. "I'm - I'm j-just fine! Really, I am!"
"I think somebody has a crush!" Ruth whispered to those around her.
Orion helped Sage to her feet. Zaela twitched, and Ash could tell what was about to happen again. The door swung open and hit Orion, knocking him and Sage over with a cry.
"Orion?" a boy called, coming through the door. "Are you still over here?"
"Kodi!" Orion growled, getting up. "Why must you always make things worse?!"
Kodi's face flushed with anger.
"I don't always make things worse!" he protested. "Sometimes, it's you who -!"
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Orion barked, storming off.
"Ah! Wait! Orion!" Kodi cried, running after his Lucario. "Does it help to say I'm sorry?!"
Sage slowly rose to her feet, still blushing wildly.
"Wait!" Buddy said after a moment. "Zaela, I thought you said Sage couldn't lie! She said she didn't have anyone on her mind a while ago!"
Sage whirled around.
"First of all," she began, "I can't lie well. And I - I wasn't thinking about Orion then!"
"So you do like him!" Misty teased.
Sage blushed even more.
"Well - actually, I," she stuttered.
"That's her problem," Zaela said. "She's so shy around males of her own species and around her age. That's why she hasn't got a mate yet."
"But it's the only way to achieve my greatest dream," Sage said. "I've always wanted to become a mother. Not just to foster other young ones, but also to raise my own offspring."
"In my opinion, it's the greatest thing you could ever do," Zaela said.
Sage gave Zaela a shy smile.
"Fifteen minutes!" Ruth cried.
"Come on!" Buddy said, pointing at the door at the other end of the hall. "The library's right there!"
The trainers hurried to and through the door. They entered a large room with a high ceiling, each wall filled with books of every kind.
"Excuse me," an elderly woman at a desk to the right said, "the library will close at midnight."
"Don't worry," Zaela told her, "we won't be long!"
She and her siblings led their friends to a smaller room on the other side of the library. On one wall of that room was a bookshelf and on the other side was a sofa with two side tables on each side. Zaela took four slightly worn books from the bookshelf and handed them out.
"These are my journals!" she said. "The first one was from when I was in Kanto, the second from Johto, the third from Hoenn, and the fourth from Sinnoh!"
"When were you in all of those regions?" Max asked, opening the Hoenn journal.
"For two years," Zaela said coyly, "from ages ten to twelve. I was at each region for around six months."
"How were you able to do that?" Cilan asked.
"Because of Grandpa Silas, of course!" Zaela answered. "He always seems to know when to send us on our little adventures!"
"These are really good drawings!" Brock said. "It's like they were actually taken by a camera!"
"That would by my good ol' photographic memory," Zaela said. "And Mom taught us all how to be really great artists!"
"And you can guess that Zaela was the quickest learner," Buddy said.
"This was Tonbo's egg?" Misty asked, holding up the picture in the Kanto journal.
"Yep," Zaela replied. "I'll never forget what gave me my first Pokémon!"
"I found another egg!" Dawn said, holding up the Sinnoh journal.
Zaela took a look at the picture. It was an egg with a black top and a blue bottom, separated by a zigzag line.
"That would be the egg Sage hatched from!" she said.
"Wow," Ash said, looking at the picture. "I've never seen a Riolu egg."
Dawn turned a few more pages in the journal.
"What's this?" she asked. "It isn't finished!"
She showed Zaela the page. Zaela's face turned pale and Sage, behind her, seemed to freeze with fright.
Everyone else looked at the drawing. It seemed to be two-thirds of an egg. As far as the drawing was, it looked like a plum-colored egg with small red jewels sticking out every now and then around the bottom.
"So what is it?" May asked.
"It's... uh," Zaela began, still quite pale. "I guess I never finished that drawing! It's - I'll -!"
"It's time to lock up, children," the librarian called.
"I'll tell you about it later!" Zaela said quickly. "Right now, we gotta go!"
The four books were soon put back in their places and the trainers left the library.
"So what was the drawing?" Ash asked.
"C-can we please drop the subject?" Zaela asked. "It's kind of hard to explain."
The trainers fell silent.
"Why don't we head up another level?" Sage asked. "There are some people here that I'm sure you'd like to meet!"
"Why not?" Zaela said with a smile. "There's Dr. Rainer and his family! They're really nice people!"
"But Greg isn't here!" Buddy said. "He's over in Bronzerth on business!"
"Oh, well," Zaela said. "I guess you guys will meet him when you come back. He's quite a character."
"And Zaela socked him right in the face when he tried to kiss her!" Kaylee laughed.
"He was asking for it," Zaela pouted. "No one's allowed to just walk up and kiss me unless they're one of my parents or grandparents!"
"What about Aunt LeAnne?" Buddy asked.
"Including siblings of the people I previously mentioned," Zaela huffed. "You know what I'm talking about!"
Buddy started laughing, but stopped as soon as Zaela began to give him a noogie.
Somewhere on the next floor, a door creaked open to a dark, empty room. Jessie, James, and Meowth peered in.
"Nothin'!" Meowth cried. "Ain't there anything good in this here castle?"
"Well, we can't sneak past those guards!" Jessie said. "They caught us five times already!"
"There is one more door," James said.
He walked over to open the last door. The three of them were petrified with fright. A Houndoom and Mightyena! Both angry and snapping at them!
"Waaaaaah!" Meowth cried. "Let's get outta here!"
Team Rocket raced to the stairs, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. The Houndoom and Mightyena looked around. They expected someone different, but they weren't anywhere nearby. They looked away from the place Team Rocket had just run off. There was a Lucario walking past, down the other hall! They growled and raced after the Lucario, who happened to be Orion. He looked at them in time to jump, making them slide under and past him.
"This can't be good," Orion said.
He ran in the direction he came, the dogs nipping at his heels.
Not too far away, the group of trainers walked up the staircase as two people, one dressed in a Carnivine tux and the other in a pink Frillish gown, and a Meowth dashed down the stairs.
"What could they be running from?" Kaylee asked.
"Maybe someone's just playing tricks, just like last year," Buddy said.
The four Pokémon reached the top of the stairs before their trainers.
"Piiiiiiii!" came a cry.
Pikachu turned toward the source of the cry and immediately fell lovestruck. Another Pikachu leapt at him, causing the two to tumble a short ways down the hall. By the time the others got to where the two Pikachu were, the mice were rubbing cheeks, sending off small sparks.
"Topaz!" Zaela said. "I was wondering where you were!"
The Pikachu stopped just long enough for Topaz to wave at Zaela, and then they continued to rub cheeks.
"Aren't they just cute together?" Dawn asked.
One of her Pokémon suddenly came out of its Poké Ball.
"Buneary!" the rabbit cried, at first happy to see Pikachu.
Then she grew devastated as she saw what was happening. She fell over, still as a stone.
"Bun..." she squeaked.
Pikachu and Topaz looked at her with deep concern.
"Oh," Dawn said. "I forgot about that. Buneary, return!"
Buneary returned to her Poké Ball without argument.
"That was... painful," Sage said.
They continued to walk on, the two Pikachu walking next to each other, completely quiet and solemn. They all stopped however, when another Lucario charged into the hall.
"Orion?!" Sage said, blushing heavily.
"I'd start running if I were you!" Orion told her.
He dodged a Hyper Beam as his attackers came into view.
"Houndoom and Mightyena!" Zaela cried. "Not here! Not now!"
I can hear a thunderclap when Buneary first sees Pikachu with Topaz.
