Hey guys! Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 8

The sun rose calmly in the sky as the morning arrived in Smashville. In a near by ally, Hazel slept, curled up in a ball in an empty tipped over trash can. As the sunlight shone on her fur, she shifted and lifted her head, stifling a yawn. She rose to her paws and stretched. I have to tell Link everything. She said to herself, remembering her promise yesterday. Hazel then walked out of the ally, looked both ways down the sidewalk to see if it's clear of humans, and trotted in the direction of the Granny's house.

(Page Break)

The sun's rays shone through the window in Link's room, shining down on him, making his light brown raichu fur glow gold. Link shifted and lifted his head and opened his bright blue eyes, waking from his sleep. He yawned and rose to his paws, only to flinch as sharp pain went through his stomach. Almost all day yesterday, the Granny had done nothing but feed him. He wasn't used to all of the food, so his stomach ached a whole lot. Shaking it off, Link hopped over the rail of the crib and jumped to the ground. He trotted out of the room, only to be stopped by the Granny.

"Good morning Cesar." She said with a warm smile. "I got breakfast ready for you." She then picked him up and carried him to the kitchen. Link groaned inwardly. After yesterday, the last thing he wanted to do was to eat. The Granny placed him in a chair at the table and put his plate, which was, yet again, filled with food. Link looked at the plate with a little bit of disgust.

"Now, eat up! Grandma is going to check the mail." And with that, the Granny left the kitchen. Once she was out of sight, Link lifted his plate, carried it over to the trash can, and dumped all of his breakfast in it. He then put his plate and back on the table and bounded away. He needed some fresh air, so he climbed through the little dog door and entered the backyard.

Once he was outside, Link scampered up to a tree, circled in a spot, and lay down in the shade. He rested his head on his paws and closed his eyes, letting out a comforting sigh as the nice breeze sweep through his fur. He rested like that for a while until he heard something whispering to him.

"Psst! Link!" Link perked his ears and looked around at the sound of the voice. He scanned the yard until he saw a cream colored head looking over the fence at him. It was a ninetales, but, he recognized this ninetales.

"Hazel?" Link said, getting up and bounded over to the fence where the ninetales was peering over. When he arrive, he looked up at her. "What're you doing here?" Hazel looked at him, worry and urgency shone in her red eyes.

"Link," She said. "I need to tell you something very important!" Link nodded and urged her to go on. "The lady you're currently living with is insane! She is nuts! You need to leave her!" Link looked up at her in confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked, tilting his head. "She's really nice! She cares for me and loves me! The only slight problem I have with her is she feeds me way too much-"

"And that's why she's crazy!" Hazel interrupted. "Her old raichu, Cesar, belonged to her years ago. But since she kept overfeeding him, he couldn't take it anymore and ran away. Ever since then, she goes out into town and searches for him all day until the sun sets. And when the next day comes, she goes and does the same thing over and over and over again! The only time she stops is when she finds some random stray raichu and thinks it's Cesar. She takes the raichu home, feeds them too much, and then they run away as well, and the process repeats. That's why she took you! Because you're a raichu and she's gonna keep on feeding you until you decide to leave. You're still you're normal weight, so I suggest you leave now before she causes you to have help problems!"

Link looked up at Haze in surprise. He knew she was missing a raichu and he ran away for a reason he didn't even know, and now he does. He has to admit, he agrees with Hazel. He's not liking her feeding him too much, and he's sure not going to like it if she keeps doing it. He has to leave, but he still has one problem, though.

"What you're saying makes sense, Hazel." Link said to her. "And I understand the problems if I do stay, but if I leave, where would I go? I have no where else to live!"

"That's the next thing I wanna talk to you about." Hazel said with sternness. "You need to leave this crazy lady and return to your friends!" Link's eyes widen and her looked at her with surprise. How did she know he ran away from Smash Mansion? He then narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know how you knew about that, but I won't go back to where I used to live. They don't care about me, that's why I ran away in the first place!" He said with a hint of anger. Hazel narrowed her eyes at him.

"Yes they do care about you!" She said to him. "They're looking for you! They miss you and they want you to come home!"

Link scoffed. "Yeah right. If you think that me running away and leaving my friends is wrong, that doesn't mean that what you think they're feeling is correct." He said and turned his back on her. Now Hazel was getting annoyed. She growled and blew a Flame Thrower at the fence, causing Link to jump in surprise. A burned hole was left and Hazel poked her head through it looked at him.

"Follow me." She demanded. "I need you to see the truth." Link hesitated at first, but when she gave him a warning snarl, he hastily jumped through the hole. Hazel then bounded away and Link reluctantly followed her. He needs to open his eyes and understand what he's left! Hazel said to herself.

(Page Break)

The two left the forest and had arrived at the edge of the yard of the Smash Mansion. Link looked up at the mansion that loomed in front of them. He felt a pang of longing to be at this place with his friends again, but he quickly shook it away. Hazel then turned to him.

"C'mon!" She said and ran up the yard toward the mansion with Link following her from behind. When they arrived at the front, they both bounded to the side. Hazel quickly found a window. She stood on her hind legs and put her front paws on sill, looking inside. Link did the same. What he saw inside made him stare on in surprise. They were looking in the mansion's living room. All the smashers were gathered there. Though Mario and the other group went to the town to hang up flyers in Smashville the other chapter, the rest had went to different places to put up flyers as well.

They all stood in the living room, glancing at each other with worry. Mario was pacing. By the look on his face, Link guessed many thoughts were rushing through his head.

"It's been nearly an entire day since we put up those flyers." Link heard Mario say from inside. "And yet no one has even bother to call and say that they've seen Link! Where could he be?"

"It's possible that no one has seen him." Marth said.

"And if Link hasn't returned yet, then he hasn't seen them either." Pikachu added. "Where ever he is."

"He's probably not even in the Smash Mansion's general area anymore." Ike put in. "For all we know, he could've returned to Hyrule or went to one of the Pokémon regions or he's been eaten by another pokemon or died of hunger! Who knows!" When the totodile said those words, Zelda flinched and lowered her gaze to the ground. Peach noticed this and glared at Ike.

"Don't say things like that!" She snapped. "You're not helping!"

"We have no idea where he is." Sheik said. "We'll never know where to look."

"We'll probably never see him again." Luigi mumbled. Mario turned to face them to say something, but he stopped himself. They were right, they didn't know where Link was and where to find him. They may just never see him again. Ever. Mario sighed in defeat and sat down.

"I don't want to agree with you guys, but I have no choice but to." He said. "We should just give up. It's hopeless." Zelda snapped her head up and looked Mario straight in the eye.

"We can't give up! We won't give up!" She said. "He's out there somewhere! We may not know where, but he is! We just need to keep trying and look! We-"

"Zelda!" Samus said, interrupting the espeon. "Just give it up! It's hopeless! We'll never find him."

"But...but..." Zelda then stopped and lowered her head. "I want to see him again." She whispered. Peach gave her a comforting hug as the others just stayed silent. Mario sighed.

"Then it's settled." He said. "We'll just stop." Silence spread over the living room as they all departed from the room. The only ones that remained was Mario, Peach, and Zelda.

Link watched the entire thing in disbelief. Then, a new feeling swept over him as he realized what he's left behind. Regret. He watched the remainder of his friends in the living room. Mario's expression was full of defeat, Peach's was pity and sadness, and Zelda's, it made Link's heart ache. Zelda's was full of hurt and heartbreak. Link drooped his ears and lowered his gaze to the ground. Hazel just watched the whole thing in silence and pity to see his friends so upset to have him gone.

"Wow, I..." Link said, finally speaking. "I didn't think they'd miss me." Hazel turned her head and looked at him.

"Didn't think they'd miss you?!" She said in disbelief. "Link, they're your friends! They cared for you and you just left them! What made you think they wouldn't miss you?!" Link looked up at her and turned away.

"I, I left because I annoyed them and made them angry." He admitted. "Just by how they've treated me when I did things to them, I thought they'd didn't want me around, so I left."

Hazel couldn't believe what he said. "If that isn't the stupidest reason to run away from home, then I don't know what is!" She said. "No offense, but that is no reason to just leave everything! Friends constantly get angry at each other all the time! They would've forgiven you later afterward, but instead you left them and broke every single heart in that mansion, especially that espeon's!" When she mentioned Zelda, Link flinched. Hazel continued. "They spent all they're time to look for you because they did care about you. So they're not the one's who are in the wrong in this situation, it's you! Think it over, and understand what you need to do, but if I were you, I'd return to them. I hope you do the same thing."

Link looked at her. She was right. All of them were upset because he's gone, and it was his fault for running away. Link was about to say something, but before he could, the sound of the Granny's voice sounded near by.

"Cesar? Where are you?" Link and Hazel looked in the direction of her voice and saw her at the end of the Smash Mansion's yard. They stared in disbelief.

"Speak of Giratina." Hazel muttered.

"How in the name of Farore did she follow us here?" Link asked in exasperation.

"I told you she was insane." But before any of them could take action, the Granny immediately saw them and ran to them.

"Cesar! There you are!" She then scooped up Link in her arms, completely ignoring the fact that there was a ninetales standing right there in front of them. "I told you not to run away like that anymore!" She scolded as Link struggled in her arms to get out. "Now come on. Let's head home." She started walk away. Link struggled more, but it was no avail. He looked back at Hazel who was looking after them in shock, unsure of what to do.

"Hazel! Help!" He called to her.

"Don't worry! I'll think of something then get you!" She called after him. Link nodded his head in understanding. I hope that's soon.

Well, it looks like Link finally has seen sense and realized that the Granny is completely crazy! Plus, he's finally realize that he was wrong about the other smasher and that they miss him dearly. Now he has to rely on Hazel to think of a plan to help escape the crazy lady. Well, this ends the chapter. The next one should be the last one of the entire story. Thank you for reading! See ya!