Man, being a hero was so boring sometimes.
Anthony fell asleep and stayed that way for most of the flight, as Storm kept a lookout for signs of Sarah, but she'd lost them by traversing into the many, many forested areas surrounding Viridian.
They landed at one of the Pokemon centers to the north, but no one had seen Sarah there. Figuring they must've gone the wrong direction (rather than assuming he'd outsped her by flight), Anthony ordered Blaze to go south instead. But Pallet Town turned up empty, too, and they glumly returned home. Anthony kept vigil by his bedroom window until dawn, waiting to see signs of Sarah or her parents returning. By then he fell asleep again, and the toils of travel kept him asleep 'til noon.
He woke to the sounds of his grandmother gossiping with the nurse that came to visit, and a tapping on his window. He looked up to see a Pidgey on the outside windowsill, pecking at the glass.
Pidgey weren't rare around here, but its behavior was strange. He opened the window and it flew circles around him, chirping in a panic, when he finally realized it must be the Samson's.
"Piera?" he said. It landed on the sill again and ruffled up its feathers.
"Do you know where Sarah is?" he asked excitedly. It cooed affirmatively.
He ran downstairs, informed his grandmother he was taking Storm out for a fly, and proceeded to follow Piera through the air.
She led him to straight east to his confusion, over the deep, untamed wilds between there and Celadon. But soon his confusion turned to alarm when he saw the telltale smoke and glow of a wildfire. "Oh no!" he exclaimed, steering Storm toward the blaze.
They arrived to see flocks of Pelippers had been sent to douse the flames. A police officer mounted on a Fearow circled the area high above. Anthony directed his Charizard up to meet her.
"What are you doing here, kid?" she said from behind her surgical mask and safety goggles. "You didn't start this fire, did you?"
"No!" he said quickly. "I'm looking for a friend! She went missing the other night, and her Pidgey led me here!"
"We haven't found any bodies- anybody here," the officer said. "What's her name?"
"Sarah Samson. I think her parents are missing, too, because they haven't come back all day!"
"Hey, that name's familiar... Wait, from Viridian, right? An Aggron knocked down their house?"
"Part of it... Did you find her? Is she okay?"
"I haven't seen her, but she filed a report yesterday. She was up at the Pokemon center between Viridian and Pewter, but she disappeared again and hasn't been heard from since. Do you have any more information?"
He tried desperately to remember something important, but nothing came. "No... sorry."
"Well, don't hang around here, there's too much smoke." She looked over his Charizard, apparently decided he'd be all right otherwise with it, and said no more.
Great, a dead end. Anthony sighed and looked over to shout, "Stupid bird!" but noticed the Pidgey making a beeline for the ground. Curious, and cautiously hopeful, he followed her down.
She landed on a low plateau among the husks of trees, and cooed at the dirt. Anthony hopped off of Storm and approached.
Hoof prints! Fresh hoof prints, in the dust!
He followed them eagerly, kicking up ash, and noticed a set of human foot prints! Small, bare feet in the dirt! Those must be Sarah's!
But then something strange. The human prints stopped at one point, and pointed back around where they came... but then they didn't go anywhere else. The hoof prints led up pretty close, but no way close enough for Sarah to have gotten on whatever it was. So... what happened?
"I don't get it," Anthony said aloud with a frown, looking around and hoping not to find any piles of ash and human bones. Luckily, there were no such remains. Only the hoof prints forming a returning path.
"I guess I have no other options," he said, remounting the Charizard. "Storm... follow those hoof prints."