Chapter 26

"I guess we should get to sleep again... It's still not morning..." I suggested as I picked Natascha up.

"But... What if we're attacked again...?" She said nervously.

"Sheesh how do normal Pokémon live in these conditions...?" I said annoyed.

"Well generally normal Pokémon avoid Everstone Forest..." She looked up and smirked at me.

"True... Hm..." I began to think back to my battle which seemed to be getting blurrier as time went on.

"I know!" I said placing Natascha on the ground.

"Darius...?" She asked nervously, looking up at me.

"Don't worry, leave it to me..." I walked a little and then stopped in a slightly open area and smiled in delight.

"Perfect!" I began to brush all of the stray leaves and branches, on the forest floor, to the side of the circle. Natascha just watched me as I felt my excitement grew. For some reason, every time I think about using my moves I felt excited and impatient to use them, it was really fun using my powers. As I had cleared all of the debris I stood in the middle of the circle and finally Natascha couldn't hold in her curiosity any longer.

"Ok Darius, what are you doing?" She said standing next to me in the middle.

"...Watch!" I said simply. I charged my electricity instantly, for some reason there was no need to charge it. I channeled my energy through my arms and outstretch them. Bolts flung from my arms with magnificent grace, dancing around our surroundings. The debris around us began to catch alight and I began to turn on the spot so the fire would spread around us. It worked and fire quickly raged all around us, completely surrounding us.

"This is your idea of keeping us safe...?" Natascha said in disbelief.

"It's fine, nothing will be able to get to us and once we've awoken in the morning it should have died down..." She still looked at me unsure. The fire raging around us had already started to die down so as to make it seem less hazardous and it stopped spitting for the most part.

"...Ok..." She said still slightly unsure. I knew the forest fire shouldn't spread too much, there wasn't enough to keep it going and there were little trees surrounding us.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you from the scary flames, and it's not like we can put them out now anyway..." I looked down at Natascha who gave me a short scowl. She then lay down directly in the middle, there was still several meters before you got to the flames every side so It's not like they'll be able to creep up to us during the night. I then lay down and she changed me, so I wrapped around her.

"You know if one hair on my body gets singed, I'll kill you... right?" She said in a serious tone, thank goodness I could tell when she was kidding, otherwise I might have actually been scared.

"I know darling..." I smiled to myself. She curled into a ball and I lay down in front of her and wrapped around her so that my tail went around to her back and my head wrapped around hers and rest on her neck.

"Night... Darius..." She whispered gently. I lifted my head slightly and kissed her on the head.

"Night, my love..." I heard her purr for a second obviously signaling that she enjoyed the attention. I curled up slightly tighter in response to her enjoyment. It was unbelievable how much I loved her, a few days ago I would never have dreamed of this. To think that only about a week ago Natascha was still just one of my Pokémon... I slowly fell asleep, still curled up around my mate and, for once, I felt completely happy, it was just me, my mate and no one could hurt us.

I woke up the next morning still curled around my mate and, as I had hoped, the fire had died down, But I did feel kind of bad for destroying all the surrounding forest but it doesn't look like the fire spread too far. Just a few meters out from where it started, well where I started it.

"Hmmmm..." I noticed Natascha begining to mummble.

"Natascha..." I whispered as I kissed her on the head again.

"Mmm, darius?" She said as her eyes began to flicker.

"Yeah...?" I asked gently.

"Where'd the forest go...?" I looked behind me to see that the forest was a lot further back and obviously because I was lying in front of her she could see over me.

"Uhh... It kind of got burnt..."

"Huh?" She acted as if she had forgotten last night.

"You know, the lightening... That made the fire..."

"There was lightening last night..."

"What the...! But it was...?" Suddenly I saw Natascha smirk slightly.

"Oh, funny..." I said sarcastically which just made her burst out laughing. I was glad she had forgiven me for trapping us in a ring of fire last night. I then remembered something slightly odd last night, when making the fire, that I didn't have to charge up the electricity.

"Hey Natascha...?" I said as we both got up.

"Yeah?"

"Can you ever use electric type moves without charging it up first...?" I asked, she seemed a pretty unfazed by the question.

"Yeah, if you've used a lot of electric based moves recently, then your body is already ready to create more... Lightening..."

"Oh..." I said out of interest. "Hey is there anything else I should know about electric moves...?" I said out of curiostity.

"Not that I can think of, except that it can obiously travel down water so be carefull when taking a shower!" She said laughing slightly.

"Talking of a shower, I haven't had one in how many days?" I tried to think back but I hadn't actually had one since learning about Natascha's secret.

"Wow yeah... As long as you stay a Pokémon for most of the time you shouldn't smell too bad, fur helps block the smell..." I just accepted it and didn't bother to ask how, or why.

"So shall we get going...?" Suddenly my stomach rumbled.

"Hah, hungry?" Natascha replied.

"Starving, but the hotels only a little further..."

"So what are you waiting for then?" She said happily standing up straight obviously waiting for me to turn her into a human again.

"Ok... Wait a sec... Where did we leave your clothes...?" Suddenly her eyes widened, "Crap!" She then suddenly ran in the direction of where we were sleeping firstly and I quickly followed her. She stopped in front of her dirt ridden clothes but didn't seem too bothered, definitely not a normal girl.

"Few... Hmm..." Suddenly she turned to see the path I had created when I used 'Lightening Force Palm' on the first Ursering. We both peered round to see no sign of the Pokémon.

"Few..." I sighed with releaf. I didn't honestly want to kill him, but if he had hurt Natascha I definitely would have.

"Well come on then!" She said pointing to her clothes on the floor.

"Alright, alright... bossy..." I mummbled under my breath which caused her to scowl but I quickly changed her before she could argue with me. She quickly put her clothes on, not bothered by me who turned slightly as I didn't really want to see her completely naked, even though I had once or twice before, still felt a little perverted.

"You done yet!" I called.

"Yeah, lets quickly get your clothes and the bag and then we'll be off..." Just the thought of being in a five star hotel, with lots and lots of food really got my mouth watering. She walked over a little way and began picking up my clothes one by one and putting them into the bag. When she picked up my underwear she couldn't help but stretch them a couple of times around the waist and then giggle which made me sigh. She was definitely still a child... But I guess she never really got a chance to properly grow up since she was a Pokémon for so many years.

"So are we ready now...?" I asked about to walk in the directing of our hopefully awaiting friends.

"Yup!" She quickly rushed to my side and then began to walk beside me.

"I doubt they have changed much... Not in that time..." Natascha said, thankfully sparking off a conversation finally.

"Yeah, I'm sure there still all strange and fun in there own particular ways..." That got me thinking back to Amy and when I was ill by that stupid mushroom, when she kissed me. As I carried on thinking I felt guilt fester inside me and the urge to admit this to Natascha was great but I couldn't, what would she do to Amy, probably what she tried to do to Crystal except she might not miss.

"Wow... Isn't it beautiful...?" She looked up and the trees began to fan out into blossoming cheri trees.

"Wow..." I said in awe. The sun was already a fair way up, but it was still a bit dull. As we got closer we began to see the city and I felt myself getting excited.

"Come on Natascha, I know the way from here, it's not too far!" I jumped into a run and before we knew it we were out of the forest and into the village. We both looked at each other and smiled as we sped off. We only met a couple people as we ran towards the hotel, but that was to be expected at this time in the morning. Suddenly As we were running something in my mind changed and I had the urge to brake. I stopped and skidded to a halt looking around for something, I wasn't sure what.

"Huh, what's wrong?" Natascha said stopping beside me.

"Joe...?" I said slowly. Directly to our right lay a small tent with two sleeping bags hanging outside the tent door.

"Huh...?" She said confused.

"That smells like... Joe... and Bre..." I said sniffing the air while looking straight towards the tent.

"But... How...?" I continued sniffing the air and recognised another scent, dang it was useful being a Jolteon.

"Giles...?" I said confused.

"Why the heck are they all out here?" We both watched in amazement as the tent began to stir and three people came out. They didn't notice us as they came out.

"Ugh!" Suddenly their scent became really strong, and it smelt bad. Their hair was a mess, their clothes were dirty and they did not look happy. Suddenly Bre turned round and her face became surprise stricken.

"Darius!"