Author's Note:

Sorry for the slightly late upload. I've been helping my friends build unorthodox VGC teams capable of having winning ratings battle records.

If you like the story so far and haven't reviewed the last chapter, be sure to do so right now, before you even read the rest of these author notes! More reviews mean more chapters, and I'm not afraid to prove it!

While perhaps not the most artistic chapter in the world, this was definitely one of my favorite chapters to write. Let me know whether or not this chapter made you laugh. It's not stand-up comedy, but I feel the humor sits well in this story. I'll let you be the judge, so enjoy the 12th chapter of Moon on the Water!

Today is 7/18/2015 and this chapter is 3900+ words.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just dream it.


Chapter 12: In Meadows Green

"Strange," Trent mumbled to himself as he trotted past Kat's favorite hideout. She wasn't there. Could she really have been with Aubrey? Trent decided that now would be the perfect time to see Tara again. She may know more about the situation and he still had questions about the Zach kid she had mentioned yesterday before the ceremony. He stared at the empty overhang and slowly gazed upwards across the rocky formation littered with moss. At the top of the cliff he noticed a shaggy willow tree that loomed its leafy vines over the cliff's edge. Next to it was a towering sitrus tree. Its branches floated and swayed over the water rocking decorative ornaments composed of the tree's rich fruit. Sitrus berries were a very rare meal in the valley. The trees were unclimbable due to the ariados that lived in them; not that the ariados weren't friendly to the tribe, but they preferred to not have their homes invaded. The berries were also hard to knock down as they were fragile and would break apart if hit by any attack.

Trent had a plan though, which he summarized out loud, "Cliff, vine, lunch, dock." Without a second thought, he dashed up the cliff from the rear and eyed out which vine would best get him close to the berries. He observed the tops of the willow tree, searching for a reachable vine that would take him to the low-looming sitrus branch hanging over the water. After a quick two seconds of searching, he found the perfect vine for the task ahead. He then took several steps back, and with determination sprang forward and latched onto the willow vine. He began to taste the scent of the sitrus as the vine lifted him closer and closer to his target.

CRACK!

"Oh Shit!"

He was ten feet short of the dock and plummeting towards the water. He braced himself knowing that the water would sting and drain his energy.

The sting of water never came. Instead, much to his surprise, he collided with something…hard. He looked up.

"Drake?"

"Hell yeah! Man! That was one crazy stunt you tried to pull there!"

"Well thanks for catching me," said Trent, sighing in relief. "I wasn't sure if I would have survived.

"No probs. Dude," Drake responded with a glance back over his shoulder. "Hey, your voice sounds familiar." He craned his neck as far as he could to get a better view at his new passenger. "Wait a sec. You're Trent!" He swung his head around and slapped the water with his fin. "Hell I would have never guessed you would be a flareon. You sure sport the look well though. So where ya headed?"

"I was actually planning on visiting you guys, after a quick lunch that didn't quite happen," Trent answered while adjusting himself into an upright position.

"No kiddin! So how did the ceremony go? Kieren alright?" Drake asked before shooting two quick bursts of water at the sitrus branches above him, successfully shaking off several sitrus berries.

"Heck if only he'd known it would go so smoothly!" Trent paused upon realizing what Drake had managed effortlessly. He glanced over at the berries before giving Drake an amused stare. Drake responded with a smart grin. "Anyways," he continued, "I thought you might be able to tell me who that Zach kid was."

"Ya mean the guy my mom referred Kieren to?" Drake asked while passing a berry to the flareon.

"Yea. Him."

"He's an eevee expert. Plain and Simple," Drake boasted while rocking about in the water. "He knows how to get the best out of them. It's been a family trait for as long as the tribe's existed. His father even told Celestia to be a jolteon and look at her now."

"Wow! Celestia?" Trent asked

"That's right! It's an alpha tradition, Boran being the exception of course."

Trent looked out towards the rest of the lake, wondering how Kieren was doing. He mumbled loud enough for Drake to hear, "Well as long as Kieren knows what he's doing, then I guess there's nothing really to worry about."


"What are we doing, Melody?" Kieren asked as they walked into a wooden building on the edge of town.

"You'll see," said Melody mischievously while approaching the counter inside. The interior was decorated with several stools and tables as well as a few racks of various apparels which possessed a unique character to them. "Hello," Melody greeted to the man behind the counter. He had a similar build to Tommy from the stone shop, but his hair was lighter in color and he possessed bulkier shoulders. Melody reached into her satchel and pulled out some pieces of paper which she then placed on the countertop in front of the man.

"Hello Melody," the man responded. He then took a glance over at Kieren. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Kieren," Melody answered gleefully. "I'm taking him on a tour through the city and thought it might be fun to try this with him."

"So this is your first time. Huh?" the man asked with his gruff voice. Melody nodded.

"Well we're trying to introduce the game to pokemon, and we invented a new type of club for you four leggers to use." The man said with a smile. "Be right back." He disappeared through a doorway off to the side. Before Kieren could ask Melody what was going on, the man returned holding two large bags. "Here we go," he said as he hoisted the bags onto the counter. Most clubs have a sharp angle where the shaft and the head meet," said the man as he rubbed his hand on the inside corner of a club, "however, for you four leggers the joint is much straighter. You swing the club around in a circle and then hit the ball with the head," the man explained while twirling about in a circle for demonstration. "Quite clever, isn't it?"

Kieren tilted his head slightly as he watched the man's antics with curiosity. "Who thinks of this stuff?" he wondered.

"Thank you so much," said Melody, excitedly. "We'll give it a try."

"The sprinklers just finished running, so the grass may be a little wet. Oh, and feel free to try one of the carts. If you don't like it, just leave it and somebody else will use it."

"Thanks," said Melody eagerly. She grabbed one of the bags the man brought out, brimming with energy from ear to ear.

Kieren grabbed the other bag, hoping this game would make more sense once they started.

"The tees and golf balls are in the zipper pouches, and the carts are to the left," the man shouted as they exited through the entryway.

Kieren and Melody walked around the left edge of the building hiding from them what existed behind. The first thing Kieren noticed was a lot of grass trimmed in funky patterns of stripes and circles. Flags waved in seemingly random locations in these meadows. Streams connected the various ponds that were scattered throughout, while brown dashes freckled the hills. Kieren turned to his right and saw something he for once felt he had seen before. Sitting right in front of him were dozens of those super-transporter things Melody had rode in yesterday.

"So that's where she got this crazy idea from," he thought. Melody was standing there, her tails fanned in excitement. She turned to him.

"Ready Kieren? This is going to be fun!"


Back at the lake in Eon Valley, a loud voice stirred a motionless flareon atop a slumbering lapras.

"Hey Trent!" the voice hollered, causing the Flareon to look up.

"Andy?" Trent asked drowsily, slowly lifting his head. Drake yawned, waking to the noise.

"Hey Drake, is that you?" Connor shouted with his high-pitched eevee voice.

"Yea, that's me," Drake answered wearily while stretching out his neck in a smooth, lethargic motion.

"Have either of you seen Kat anywhere?" Andy asked with his deeper, matured voice.

"Nah! We were out, dude!" Drake answered, swaying his head, bringing to life his trademark personality.

"She wasn't with Aubrey?" Trent asked with a concerning voice, now recalling his previous mission before sleep took hold of him.

"She was, but she had already left when we got there," Paige answered while contorting her face to emphasize her disappointment. Trent dismounted Drake who had now brought himself up next to the dock where the others were standing.

"Kat was with Aubrey?" Drake asked baffled as he floated alongside the dock towards shore.

"Did Aubrey tell you why?" Trent asked the trio, ignoring Drake's question.

"She wouldn't say," Andy answered. "She said we'd have to ask Kat herself."

Trent turned to Drake. "Do you have any idea?"

Drake shook his head. "I'm as puzzled as you are, Trent"

"So where would Kat be now?" Connor asked, growing impatient on the shoreline where the group had migrated. Much to his surprise he was answered by a large splash in the lake.

"I'm right here!" said Kat as she emerged from the water near the cliff and shook her fur. Everyone watched her in shock, not expecting her to suddenly appear from the water.

"Well hey," Drake called, being the quickest to process what had just happened. "Heard you were with Aubrey. What for?"

"It's none of your business really," Kat sassed, turning away, "but since you asked it's because ninetails are very learned creatures."

"Hah! That's even more pathetic than Kieren thinking he can be a leader," mocked Samantha with her edgy sass voice as she surfaced from the depths of the lake, her new trademark habit.

"Explanation please?" Trent demanded; his voice revealing his annoyance.

"Easy!" Samantha replied unfazed to Trent's harsh tone, "Learned creatures are losers!"

Drake turned to face her. He bent his neck downward close to her face and narrowed his eyes, revealing hints of anger beginning to boil, yet restrained by the maturity his eyes now seemed to possess. "You got something against learned creatures?" he asked in a dark, threatening, but collected tone. Samantha's face paled to ice.

"Uh…no," she said nervously before darting off across the lake, whipping her tail against the surface to escape the shelled beast.

"That's what I thought!" Drake roared with his signature cool, earning laughs from the eevee and flareon that stood around him.

"Well I'm off to take a nap," said Kat. "See you all later." With a twist of her head she trotted off back into her cove underneath the cliff and out of sight.

"Well something just crossed my mind, and I would like to study it more myself," said Drake. "Catch ya next time." Without wasting a second he dove down into the water and disappeared from sight.

"Trent, you mind if we talk some more?" Andy asked upon Drake's disappearance with a trace of seriousness in his voice.

"Sure," Trent answered as the two began to make stride, Connor and Paige trailing behind.


"Can't you stop this thing?" Kieren screamed while clasping his nails sharply into the tough material, barely able to hold on as the rush of air yanked on his fur and tried to shake him from his grasp. How he managed to be clinging to the rooftop of a golf cart would have been anyone's guess, but there was only one thing on his mind: This mini-transporter-thingy needed to stop! ASAP!

"I let go of the pedal but it isn't slowing down!" cried a panicking Melody from below.

"What happens if you tap it again?" Kieren shouted against the noise of the motor.

"I'll try it!" Melody answered desperately. She tapped on the pedal again, causing the cart to lunge forward again nearly throwing Kieren airborne. Upon the shock of the sudden speed-up and Kieren's frantic screams Melody began to swerve the vehicle, tossing Kieren's body back and forth behind his front paws.

"Melody!" Kieren cried, "Look Out for that pit!"

Melody spun the wheel sharply to the left, attempting to avoid the giant gap in the ground ahead of them. Suddenly, she began to feel the cart rising in the air, before everything hit.

Kieren was the first to get up and shake off the impact. He now stood on the other side of the pit after tumbling to a halt in the grass. He looked up to see the vehicle - the same vehicle whose ceiling he had just been riding on after being flung from his seat next to Melody - laying on its side in the pit, which Kieren now realized was maybe only two or three feet deep and filled with sand. He approached the crash site to ensure Melody was alright. Before he arrived, however, she popped her head out of the pit.

Kieren couldn't help but crack up in laughter when he saw Melody. Her face and belly were caked with sand saturated by the sprinkler system that had been running minutes before. Melody simply stood there, paralyzed with embarrassment.

"Ready to ditch that thing?" Kieren joked.

"Yea," Melody answered without hesitantion as she turned towards a nearby pond. Kieren watched amused as she finicked about in the water awkwardly trying to figure out how to rinse herself.

"I can tell you don't do this very often," Kieren told her with a laugh as he waded into the water and slapped his tail on the surface, effectively splashing Melody in the face.

"Being this dirty is quite a rare experience for me," she huffed, wiping her face against her tails. "Normally a flame wash or a tail wipe does the trick." Her face blushed as Kieren chuckled some more. "Hey! This isn't the worst mess I've been in!"

"Really?" Kieren asked, tossing water at her underbelly removing the last bits of sand. The two turned back towards land.

"Yep, although I was still really young at the time," said Melody now beginning to maintain control over her embarrassment.

"Well what happened?" Kieren asked, quite excited to hear one of the vulpix's rare adventures.

"Well… my family was invited to some kind of business party or something," Melody began as the two of them hopped out of the pond. "We were up on the third floor in some large room. I had decided to wander around and explore the area like I usually did at these events, so as I was sniffing one of the plants, I caught a little human girl's attention. She was maybe seven or eight."

"And how old were you?" Kieren asked as he grabbed his bag from the sideways vehicle.

"I was six," Melody answered with steady recollection.

"Was the girl nice?" Kieren asked.

"She was very nice; in fact I still visit her periodically. She works at a pastry shop on the other side of town."

"So what happened next?"

"Well, she decided to give me a taste of the various snacks. Again, something that usually happened at these sort of events," Melody explained. "Then we decided to play around a little bit. She and her friends made a game out of chasing me around and trying to catch me in their arms. Eventually the little girl caught me and picked me up. She then carried me around and showed me all the decorations and such as well as introduced me to all her friends again."

"What was the girl's name?"

"Lexi. Why? Do you know her?" Melody asked a bit surprised.

"Nope," Kieren answered defiantly. "Keep going."

"Well, Lexi's mother is really overprotective, so while Lexi was carrying me around, her mom walked in with a huge party cake."

"How huge?" Kieren asked turning towards her.

"Bigger than me."

"Dang." Kieren blinked trying to picture such a size.

"Yea…she could barely walk with the thing, especially in her fancy outfit."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Well as soon as she saw me in Lexi's arms, she FREAKED, which caused her to trip on her heels and dump the cake all over us, which then freaked me out because I had no idea what the heck happened."

"I'll bet," said Kieren in agreement. "So what did you do?"

"Well, I was scared so badly I went running wildly across the room and out the patio door."

"Instincts kicked in, huh?" Kieren related to his friend between her pauses.

"Uh huh. I ended up dashing off the ledge of the patio and broke two of my tails on the ground below.

Kieren cringed upon the picture in his head, but then smiled. "Is that how you ended up at the Pokemon Center?" he conjectured.

"Perhaps," Melody admitted with a blush, causing Kieren to chuckle. Melody shied away.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You gave me a really good idea for the Lunar Festival," Kieren exclaimed.

"Really? What's that?" Melody asked with a new curious tone of voice.

"Cake drop roulette!" Kieren chirped. Melody shook her head at the ridiculousness of the idea. "You have to admit, it would be quite a sight," Kieren argued. "So how do we play this game thing?"

"Well…How about you just watch me do it and then try it," Melody suggested, unsure how she would explain everything to Kieren when she was trying it for the first time herself.

She grabbed a tee, stuck it in the ground, and balanced a ball on top. She then bit into the softened material on one end of a club, raised it in the air so that the metal end hovered just over the ground's surface, spun about in a circle and, with a loud 'CRACK', sent the ball soaring off into the distance. The ball landed several hundred feet away on the right side of the striped super-short grass.

Kieren then tried to mimic her actions, placing his ball on the tee, grabbing a similar club from his own bag, swinging it around, and hearing a crack as his club made contact with the ball. The ball went flying, although his veered to the left side of the striped grass a little farther than Melody's ball.

"Not bad," Kieren said to himself, satisfied. This was MUCH better than the mini-super-transporter-thingy ride.

Two holes later, Kieren began to believe he finally understood this game, and he wasn't doing too badly either, at least in his opinion. It was surprisingly a rather relaxing activity. The trees were green and fresh. White clouds drew various abstract figures in the sky. Even the grass with its bizarre dark and light stripes felt peaceful and serene.

Melody wasn't feeling the same way though. At first Kieren presumed that she was still upset about the golf cart. After all, it was her dream to learn to drive the world's super-transporter-things and she probably wasn't expecting such a steep learning curve. However, there was something else bothering her. She kept glancing over at him, squinting, as if trying to read his mind. Kieren ignored it for several minutes as he focused on the scenery around him and the relaxing game that he was beginning to admire, but he began to grow curiously more aware of Melodies inquisitive behavior.

"Kieren?" Melody finally spoke, breaking the stretch of silence that had previously flourished between them.

"Huh?" Kieren turned, wondering what had caught Melody's fascination.

"Who was your grandfather?" Melody queried.

"Wha…Why do you ask?" Kieren staggered. The sudden out-of-the-blue question that had somehow managed to plague Melody's mind had taken him aback.

"Celestia told me you have your grandfather's blood in you. What does that mean?" Melody asked shyly.

"I don't know…" Kieren paused as he tried to recall his grandfather. "My grandfather left when I was little. I hardly knew him, other than the fact that he was a flareon."

"Oh," said Melody with a trace of guilt in her voice as she felt she may have encountered another uneasy topic. Kieren however was trying to interpret what Celestia meant, assuming what Melody said was true.

"My grandfather's blood…" he said to himself. "Huh. The only time I really remembered about his personality was right before he left. He came up to me that day and was like 'I'm takin' an offer as part ev de elite four. Dey're really gonna teach me some real battlin' skills. I see a hole in dis tribe 'nd I need te learn how te fillit.'"

"A hole? What hole?" Melody interrupted.

"He never said," Kieren answered, watching his ball role across the grass to later disappear with a 'cling.' "Speaking of holes, what is the parahole-thingy for this hole?" he asked, laughing at his own word conventions.

Melody pulled out a sheet. "Umm… This is…" She glanced up at the flagpole in front of her. "5."

"Hey, I tailowed it," Kieren cheered.

"Tailowed?" Melody asked blankfaced.

"What, you never seen a tailow?" Kieren asked, turning back. Melody shook her head. "Oh yea that's right. Your family always leaves for your whatchamacallit vacation-thing that week," Kieren recalled.

"What week?" Melody asked, blinking several times.

"The migration games. A bunch of migrating pokemon travel through the reserve and our tribe always spends a week to host a bunch of games while everyone is together. One of the teams is a flock of tailow. Man do they have some insane enthusiasm. Heh. It was one of those weeks that my grandfather left," Kieren recalled. Melody watched with interest as Kieren attempted to mimic his grandfather again. " 'You be good now, Kieren. Don't let anyone tell ya you can't whatever. Yer a Bluestripe. You can do more dan your father will ever dream.' I remember he turned around and laughed as he headed off, saying, 'Hehe. And at de rate yer father's learnin', dat may be an understatement.' …I kinda always hoped he's right."

"Wow, Kieren. I can't imagine what kind of family line you come from." Melody exclaimed, wonder spread across her face.

"What do you mean?" Kieren asked, not comprehending her sudden awe.

"Well it seems obvious that before your father your family was teeming with strong leaders, like Celestia, or even greater!" Melody sang. Kieren paused upon hearing the words.

"Yea. I wish I knew what forms they all picked," Kieren responded disenchantedly.

"That reminds me," Melody perked, "there was something else I wanted to ask you."

"What would that be?" Kieren asked.

"Celestia warned me before the ceremony that you have your grandfather's blood, which meant that unlike your father you probably wouldn't have made your decision in time for the ceremony." Melody paused in contemplation. "Not to offend you, but I always thought that taking too long always resulted in trouble."

"Did Celestia tell you her story?" asked Kieren despondently.

"No. Did she have trouble with the decision too?" Melody asked, shocked.

"Uh huh," Kieren nodded, "She told us that during the ceremony, and my guess is that she also went to this Zach person or maybe the warden or someone from that family. There must be some connection."

"You mean there must be a reason why the warden is the warden of the land of your tribe? I think you might be on to something" Melody suggested.

Kieren nodded as he took a shot at his ball and watched it bounce off a pathway with a click and land on the really short grass, or the "green" as Melody called it. He found it quite amusing, yet it was satisfying at the same time. As he reached for his bag, Melody spoke again, oblivious to Kieren's bizarre accomplishment.

"Wait, so does that mean that you're following the tradition of your alpha ancestors?"

"It's possible," Kieren said with a shrug, but the more he thought about it, the more he wondered: Had he been on the path to becoming an alpha this whole time?


Author's Note: If you like the story and want more sooner, all you got to do is leave a simple review. Otherwise PM me and I'll give you a step by step guide on how to erase the history of these last 12 chapters so that you aren't reminded you browsed here the next time you start typing in your browser's URL bar. PM me if you have questions about anything I might know. (Check my profile page. I try to make it as readable as this story.) You can also PM me to read and review your story. Enjoy the summer, and stay safe! ~Dreaming I'm Latios