"Can't we make the rest of the way tonight?" I asked nervously. We had reached the forest around Snowpoint. I didn't want to spend the night in it, since last time that happened… Well, bad things happened.

"Look. The Abomasnow, even if it's here, will not attack us. Fargo and Des will both be sleeping out, won't they? And we have Konstantin the watch-ghost. We have a bigger chance of killing ourselves getting lost on this Route at night than with a rogue Abomasnow." Nick could not console me, however. We dug ourselves into the snow below us to get out of the wind, and it was so much like last time that I couldn't help but start to hyperventilate.

Des licked the top of my head and I instinctively turned to him, breathing in the warm scent of his thick fur. I buried my fingers in the fur around his neck and tried to stop shaking. I knew it was not from the cold. We were literally digging ourselves into a hole again, and any moment, the Abomasnow would come roaring through the wall Nick was standing by and go on a rampage and probably kill us all.

"Dus," Konstantin soothed, floating through the wall nearest us.

"Cam," Des added.

I didn't get any sleep that night. Literally. I don't think you know the meaning of the word 'cranky' until you met me the morning after that. I usually didn't do well without sleep as it was, and that was without the cold weather and stress of Route 217 added in.

Fargo ended up carrying me, and at some point, I dozed off with my face in his mane. Just barely, but I still closed my eyes, and when I reopened them, we were walking into Snowpoint. We hadn't been attacked by the Abomasnow. We hadn't even seen it. I breathed a sigh of immense relief and slid off of Fargo, thanking him for the ride with a hug and scratch behind the ears. Arcanine were nice Pokemon, and he seemed pretty energetic and playful. He still acted like a puppy, though he was as tall as I was.

"Was that so bad?" Nick asked lightly. I didn't reply.

-.-.-

"I remember you," Candice said immediately, pointing at Nick. He looked away and tried to shield his face from her view, but it had been too late. She'd noticed, and she'd pounced. Literally. I hadn't known Candice was so young, honestly, especially as I watched her flounce over and throw her arms around Nick. "Look at how much you've grown! And you're not crying this time!"

I snorted into my hand. "He was crying?"

"You did not have to bring that up," Nick groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Now I'm never going to be a good role model ever again. Why did you have to bring that up?"

Candice just grinned, and with her arm still around his shoulders, turned to me. "Aw, is Nicky being a good older trainer to all of the itty bitty trainers? That's so cute."

"Cut it out, Candice," he muttered, trying to get out from her grasp.

Grin sharpening slightly, she kept hold and turned her attention back to him. "Hey, you're not allowed to talk to me that way until you're either a Gym leader yourself or have beaten the Champion. And you've done neither, so it's leader Candice to you."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Sure, fine. Listen, we just need a quick battle for this one, not me."

"You're not here for a rematch? Aw, and I was kind of excited, too." I was unused to a Gym leader acting so familiar, so young, so… normal. True, the leaders were getting more and more casual with me, but I think a large part of that was the fact that I had Nick with me. And he was pretty famous, having challenged the Elite Four a couple times now. Candice seemed a bit like Hanna, though. She was friendly, pretty, and not afraid to speak her mind. "Are you at least going to watch?"

"I don't know, I still don't like it in here--"

"Perfect! In that case, see you two on the other side of the Gym!" she chirped, letting go of him while simultaneously sliding backwards. I noticed then that most of floor of the Gym was ice, save small patches of rough snow and large snowballs.

"Waaaaaiiiiit, you're really going to make us get all the way over there? I already did that once--!" Nick exclaimed as she skated away from us. She laughed and ignored him.

I looked around the Gym curiously. This didn't seem too bad. And Des had gotten a real workout on Route 217, so maybe this wouldn't be too hard of a battle after all. Not to mention the fact that Carlita had an advantage, too, and I could always technically ask Konstantin for help.

First, of course, I had to get to the other side of the Gym.

It took about an hour of skating, slipping, sliding, falling, cursing, pain, and battling Gym trainers before we made it up to Candice. She was laughing at us when we did. "You left a smear! A smear! That's a new one!" On one of the slopes, we had tried to push a snowball down. Instead, I went down, hit my nose, and left a bloody trail down two flights of ice.

"I could sue you."

"Gym leaders are not responsible for any injuries sustained in their Gym," she recited immediately, calming down to a wide smile. "Do you want to battle now, or wait until we clean that up a bit?"

"Now," I spat, fed up with waiting for another badge. I was on a roll--no pun intended--and wanted to get out of this Gym. It was worse than the moving platforms. In fact, it was possible it was my least favorite Gym ever.

"Testy," she giggled.

The Gym battle with Candice was much like the one with Byron. Des and Carlita were an unstoppable force and decimated her ice Pokemon. The one who really stole the show, though, was Ike. I had allowed him out for a bit of the battle with her Snover, since he was faster than it and had learned an electric move after Byron's fight. He often zapped me, Nick, Carlita, Konstantin, or even Fargo on occasion (Des and Chase were both immune, and Vasudeva Teleported away). I figured he'd enjoy zapping an opponent for once.

Well, he hadn't taken down the Snover, but he had managed to tick it off. Des took it out with an Ember (Flamethrower would've been overkill). And, immediately after, Ike had evolved.

I hadn't been expecting it. I really should have, since he was due one at any time. Then again, I hadn't seen any of my team's evolutions coming (even with Nick not-so-subtly hinting at Des'). Maybe I was a bad trainer… But I was also excited. Ike was finally catching up, and now he was bigger to boot! He had an electric attack, he had some weight to throw around, he had bigger teeth and claws, and he was just overall stronger. Only one evolution left, and while that one would still be far away, at least he could hold his own in a fight now.

It didn't even occur to me that I now had a bigger monster to deal with.

"Good job!" Candice had cheered, breaking me out of my joy. She was honestly cheering, though, pumping her fists in the air and jumping around excitedly. "Oh, it's been so long since I've seen an evolution in a battle! Good job, little Shinx-Luxio!"

I really, truly understood what Nick had said then. Gym leaders really did take it as a personal victory to see new, younger trainers succeed. She really was proud of both me and Ike.

I knew I shouldn't have, but at that moment, I wondered what she had thought of the Abomasnow attack.

Candice handed over her badge and TM with a hug. I was a bit surprised by this. Parental figure to trainers or not, it wasn't like I'd ever been hugged by a Gym leader before. I only had two left. Crasher Wake was technically in the lower Gyms, so maybe he wouldn't act so… weird. Volkner, though… Well, we'd have to cross that bridge when we came to it.

"Victory dinner now!" Candice exclaimed, grabbing Nick and sliding down to the bottom of the Gym, taking us with her. We ended up more or less in a heap at the bottom, but she was still as cheery as ever. I found it slightly ironic that the ice Gym leader was so warm, but more weird that she was apparently going to dinner with us.

"Um…"

"Candice…"

"Come on, I know a great little place!"

Okay, getting hugged was not nearly as weird as getting food from a Gym leader. It was a little less weird, however, when it turned out that she wasn't focusing her attention solely on me. She mostly chatted with Nick. "So, how have you been doing? I heard you challenged the Champion awhile ago… But then you dropped off of the radar. What happened?"

"I got fed up. Higher-ups are so… I don't know. I don't know how you do it, though," he replied casually, gesturing with his fork.

"You're already doing it. We do it for the newbies." She chuckled and nodded towards me. I averted my eyes and continued eating, perfectly content to let them talk and not drag me into the conversation. My face was still sore from the ice slip and slide, and I was still trying to digest the fact that I had six badges. Six. Seventy-five percent of badges. Only two more to go. Two. Crasher Wake and Volkner… I wasn't sure which was a scarier prospect, though.

"I guess I can see that--oh! My brother started training a couple of months ago, so if he ever comes up here, don't you dare go easy on him, okay?" Nick brightened and leaned forward. Candice and I noticed the change immediately.

"You have a brother?" we chorused.

"Yeah, a little brother. He turned ten, and I sent my parents a male Nidoran to give him as a starter. I'm trying to sneak him a Spearow, too, but my parents aren't too keen on that idea. I hope he catches a second Pokemon early on…" He sighed, setting his chin in his hand and looking out the frost-covered window.

I was unused to seeing Nick so… brotherly. Or even protective, in a half-joking sort of way. Hadn't he once said I remind him of his brother? Maybe that's why he decided to put up with me for so long…

"Anyway, he'll be an awesome trainer here in a year or two. Watch out for him. I can't wait until he gets that thing to a Nidoking and starts stomping opponents right and left!" Okay, now he was just gushing.

"What about you and that Garchomp of yours? The only thing that can stand up properly to that anymore is Cynthia's," Candice pointed out wryly.

"I've also been at this for a couple more years than most," he replied in an even tone. He seemed to regain his composure, at any rate. "Anyway, until my brother catches up, I'm training this one up. A pet project of mine until I either run into my brother or finally beat Cynthia."

Candice paid for our meal and hugged us both again goodbye. She wanted us to stay longer, but as a pretty nasty-looking snowstorm was moving in in a couple days, we wanted to get out. I didn't want to get snowed in again. She gave Nick her number and got his in exchange, which amazed me a bit (he was cool enough to get a Gym leader's number, seriously) and told him she'd keep an eye out for his brother, though she doubted that he'd be up in Snowpoint anytime soon.

Much to my dismay, we had to walk back to civilization. I wasn't looking forward to the trip, but at least, if we avoided the Abomasnow this time, I would never ever have to come back and potentially face it. Due to a lack of sleep, I did manage to fall asleep when we were far enough from the forest to camp.

I wound up in the white world. The Froslass hovered in front of me, looking serious and as cold as ever. I grimaced. "…What did I do now?"

You're not helping, she replied in a monotone.

Since I was just stalling, waiting for Konstantin to check in and find us here, I sat down in front of her and crossed my legs in front of me. "How am I supposed to? I've asked everyone I come across if they're your trainer. Well, not directly, but still. I'm getting answers and those answers are no. …You're going to have to give me something more to go on if you want to speed up the process of finding him."

Froslass sighed and sat down gingerly. She didn't say anything, though.

I waited for her to speak, but after a very long, very awkward silence, it was obvious that she wasn't going to.

Humans are stupid, she said just as I opened my mouth to break the silence.

I exhaled the breath. "Only sometimes."

Most of the time you are.

"What do you propose I do, then? I don't see you doing much," I muttered.

I--

Cue Konstantin and his watchdog intrusion into my dream. This had happened every single time the Froslass had tried to get to me, and I was starting to get used to it. They usually would argue now for awhile, and then one of them would do something to jolt me out of my dream--and sleep. I leaned back and waited for the inevitable.

Instead, Konstantin asked in a very calm voice, "Where are you?"

I don't see why I have to tell you.

"Comrade, tell me where you are. I saw something outside and I am wondering if it's you or not," he repeated firmly.

I felt cold, and for once, it wasn't the Froslass' doing. I sat bolt upright and looked at the Duskull.

The Froslass cut me off. I'm not close enough for you to have noticed me. If it's the Abomasnow, I will take care of it.

She vanished. Konstantin turned back to me, placed a hand on either of my shoulders, and said, "…Remember the warning, comrade."

Then I woke up.