Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon
Day 12 - (In the afternoon of January 4, 2020.)
"Hmm, so I guess Rayquaza, Kyogre, and Groudon are the cause for this whole chaos." Lia pouts, adjusting her finger to her chin.
"I'm not sure. But it could be. Who are they again?" Sounding clueless, Gabriel scratches his head, unsure what Lia meant or neither those pokemon were.
"Y-you, were you there at that new years event back in Cyiii?" Lia cocks her head.
Gabriel's face squints for a moment, trying to remember if he was there, but he was unsure. "Hmm. I don't know, but maybe?" By the moment he said that, something clicks on him realizing that his amnesia got him again. "Wait, I still remember back when I entered the new years event. Why was I acting like I don't know anything?" He facepalms, firmly rubbing his head in disappointment. "Man, I wonder where Amarie is. Hope she's still alive."
"Who's Amarie?" Lia rolls her eyes up.
Gabriel narrows his eyes, pausing for a moment and trying to remember what she exactly was. "I think... she was the girl who owned Jirachi, I don't know." He mutters as he shrugs in an unsure manner.
"Hmm. If you don't know then..." Lia cuts herself for a moment not knowing what to say next; she was a bit flustered by delving her mind a bit too deep. Then, it clicked on her, eyes a bit wide open, briefly. "Oh, now I remember too. It's just that, my mind was so cloudy a few days ago..." She facepalms.
"Yeah, Arceus, I wonder where Amarie and her Jirachi, and those... mysterious guys gone to, you know those guys... who kidnapped both of them." Gabriel scratches his head.
"Umm, didn't they vanish to thin air? Because I heard someone said it back then. I saw it in my own eyes, but I'm not really sure."
"Yeah, They sure did vanish, I think. Hmm, I just couldn't remember right, ugh." Gabriel facepalms again, trying to massage his spongy confuzzled brain back to its normal state. "T-those shadow looking guys... They kidnapped Amarie and Jirachi. I'm highly sure they are responsible for causing this destruction in the first place..." He stoops his head low as his mind absently indulges itself to the old Cyiii days. "Man, I seriously want to get back to my home region."
"Yeah, me too... Too bad almost the whole region was washed up by the tsunami." Lia mutters, resting her eyes looking at the surface in disappointment.
"Maybe those guys might be still around there, in that region." Gabriel rubs his chin trying to think of something, but he was unsure about his speculation. "But, I just don't know, maybe we're too far away from that. I don't even know how far is this region compared to here." He shrugs cluelessly.
"Yeah... That's too bad sadly; no way to find them."
"I guess I should come up with a plan but... I guess I can't." Gabriel sighs.
"What kind of plan?" Lia cocks her head.
Somewhat pressured by the question, Gabriel vacantly stares at the floor, trying to come up with a clever thought, but his mind was too scatterbrained to formulate anything, so it indulges itself back to the good ol' memories. "I-I, I just can't think... M-my best friend died, even my parents. The rest of my whole family and relatives, missing I guess, but they're too far away from here so I can't tell." Gabriel lets out a deeper collective sigh, unable to feel deeply for the losses he endured but the confusion and fear haunting his mind. "I don't even know what to do at this point." He stoops in disappointment, resting his arms loosely below his hips.
"I get what you're feeling. I know it's tough." Lia sniffs her nose as Gabriel's feelings shared to her, even though he didn't know it. She lifts her head, thinking about the future as worry creases up her forehead. "I'm guessing this year is gonna be harsh... I really hope my brother's okay, but I don't want to get lost if I look for him. So I guess, I'll just... stick with you for a while."
"I understand, I got lost more than twice, even more than that, I don't know. I can't even remember my parents' names." Gabriel mutters.
"Twice? Tsk. You can't imagine how many times I got lost. I can't even remember any directions I go to."
"I wonder how you can get back on track, even if you're lost. Is it uh, trial and error?" Gabriel scratches his head.
"Nah, mostly my pokemon helps me, if not I wait for someone to help me. But if there's no one around, I just try to find my way out of there."
"I see." Gabriel nods. "Man, we should go to that city."
"What um, city?" Lia narrows her eyes.
"You know the city that the nurse told us?"
"Um, what are you talking about? Which city do you want to go to?"
"Never mind, just follow me."
They exit the lobby, allowing the calm lukewarm air to refresh the duo. Gabriel felt clueless as he nervously looks around his surroundings as usual. Buildings widely sprawl a distance of a field separate from each other spreading to his line of sight. They head towards the right although hesitantly, they were a bit unsure what direction they were actually taking.
"So the east, and to the north... Hope this isn't the wrong direction." Gabriel lets out a long nervous sigh, trying to ease himself out.
Lia plants a few steps back and glances at a sign right beside them, almost as if they were about to miss it. "Nah, you're in the right track." She confirms, seeing that the sign indicates east.
"Phew." Gabriel sighs in relief as his tense relaxes into assured confidence. They continue to head towards the east. Few blocks later, it finally curves to the north, just mid-quarter a mile away from the exit. "So, I guess this is the north route."
"Mhm." She nods, followed with a speck concern to where Gabriel's heading to. "Wait, so where is this going exactly?"
"The city."
"I know, but which city though."
Gabriel rubs his forehead firm, trying to remember what city name it was, but fries his brain during that process. "I think I forgot; I have no idea, but the nurse said there should be a sign saying the name."
"Oh, but... why are you going to the city for?"
"Uhm, I don't know? Just to feel safe?" Sounding not so confident, Gabriel shrugs, feeling clueless to why he uttered that.
Lia glances away for a second, letting out a subtle laughter as she twitches a smirk side-look, seeing his reasons quite well off his character. "Safe?" She squints an eye as she stared at him in a smug manner.
"Yeah, why?" Gabriel questions as he stops on his tracks, wondering what's wrong to traveling at a city just to feel "safe."
"Hmm, well... Nothing's really safe no matter where you go, even if you're in the most secure place, you know Gabriel?" Trying to sound soft as possible, she casually nods disapprovingly and beams a subtle smirk of hidden laughter that teased his stupidity, making her tone of message quite mocking and a bit stern instead, even though it's unintentional.
Gabriel sighs. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's a dumb decision, I know. Maybe I should stay in this place for now." He sighs again, realizing his reasoning was clueless. He turns away from the route and walks a few steps back, but something penetrates his mind, suddenly delving himself to the part back to the day Lia lost her Drifloon. Just when that memory became discernible to him, he started to remember his real reason why he wanted to go to that city. "Wait, wait. I have an idea... Remember when that day you lost your Drifloon, and I tried to uhm... What's that word again...? Bond? With that Staraptor so that we could... use him as a travel companion in the future. But... as Rick told me, that would be stealing at this point, but I don't know, since the owner of that pokemon was missing."
"Oh umm, yeah? I still remember, but why do you keep mentioning Rick?" She narrows her eyes.
"Well, he was my... best friend."
"Yeah, I understand that." Lia nods, adjusting her head low as her memories between Drifloon came to her. "I still miss Drifloon, though... He still never came back." Her lips curl down in sadness, looking far at the distance with yearning eyes.
"I feel you Lia." Gabriel mutters, trying not to sound monotone as possible. He casually pats her to the back, although he actually didn't feel anything due to the recent injury to his head, sadly.
"For some reason I always wanted to see Chris or Rick how they look like. But something keeps telling me that you're just imagining things." She blurts out, rubbing her nose.
"Why do you think like that? You don't need to see how my friends exactly look like." Gabriel tilts his head and creases down an eyebrow.
Lia's face starts to flush, briefly hesitantly looking away from Gabriel realizing her message was rude. "Just, forget it, I didn't mean to say that." She shrugs in an awkward manner and rests her arms down. "I still need to look out for Drifloon. I hope he's not that far away, I just miss him." She sighs.
Gabriel stands there for a few seconds, furrowing his forehead as he tries to formulate a plan on his head. "Hmm, actually, I think we should just forget on focusing on the Drifloon. I don't think that he's not important anyway, I mean, he might be completely lost, sorry Lia." He mutters in an unconfident yet straightforward manner, shortly regretting what he just said.
"But, but how can you say that? I thought you said there was still hope." A surge of confusion creases Lia's forehead, wondering why Gabriel changed his mind. "You know, Drifloon was one of my first pokemon I caught back when I was starting out..."
"Well... I mean, there must be some pokemon center nearby there, I think that's the real reason why I wanted to go to that city..." Gabriel absently scratches his head in a subtle manner.
"Pokemon center? I really doubt there's one available. Last time I checked around in this town they were still closed. And umm, didn't the nurse said that your pokemon are healed? Why do you have to check in a pokemon center anyway?" Lia rolls up her eyes.
"No. That's not what I meant. I mean... I wanted to, to uh... What was that again?" Interrupting himself, Gabriel kept scratching his head, trying to reorganize his thoughts as he sighs irritably.
"What?" Lia arches down her brow.
Gabriel tries to remember what was his true motive as to why he wanted to go to the pokemon center, but once again, ends up straining his mind. "Ugh, I can't remember..." He sighs as he grimaces in slight mental pain.
"Trade?"
Then, it hits him, that word sends his head recoiling as if he's mind blown, now knowing his true purpose why he wanted to go a pokemon center. "Oh, y-yeah, yeah you got it. I, I think it's because I wanted to trade some of my pokemon to get a bird pokemon. If, if you know what I mean. That's what I was trying to talk about." He sighs in relief, but followed by a surge of unsureness, he felt quite nervous of what pokemon should he give away to earn that certain bird.
"A bird? I mean, yeah sure." Lia nods.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there's a pokemon center in the city."
"But all of them are still closed; the town is still damaged."
"Ugh, I said in the city, not here." He exclaims, but in a stifled tone of voice, trying not to show his irritability. "There must be one available... I mean, you wanted to see your brother right? You know, get some kind of bird to, travel to that region as soon as possible so that we can waste much less time just looking for one." He adds, sounding awkward and unconfident to his plan.
"Umm, why not just look for one? I mean, birds are easy to spot."
"No, I feel searching in the wild forest is too risky for me." Sounding nervous, Gabriel shifts his foot forward.
"How is that risky? We could just stay near town. Come on, you know that you can also find them on cities, towns or whatever, just have to use your eyes." Lia rolls up her eyes.
"Well, still, I don't wanna end up getting injured again, by a bird or something. But the thing is, we need to look for someone who has a uh... bird there, to trade, I guess that's the only worrying thing. But at least it's... safe."
"Well, at least you're trying to help me on getting back to my brother. You... you're so, nice... Thank you for sticking with me, even when you act a bit stupid sometimes." She blushes, briefly turning her head away from Gabriel as she chuckles awkwardly.
"What? I'm not stupid!" Gabriel snaps, pursing a lip as his body tenses up in red . He took that little remark of hers quite seriously.
Lia chuckles louder, seeing Gabriel falling for that little remark. "I know you aren't; I'm just teasing you." She smirks in a cheeky manner.
"Yeah yeah..." Gabriel sighs and lazily sways his head, brushing off his tense. "And for Drifloon, forgive me, for sounding that harsh." He mutters, looking at Lia with easing eyebrows rising skyward.
Just when Gabriel mentions one of her pokemon out of nowhere, her mind dives right back into the memories of Drifloon. Still under pressure with the yearning concerns, she couldn't help but shed a tear. "No, it's okay, you don't have to feel sorry." Lia mutters in a trembling voice, starting to realize something as she thought deeper of her Drifloon, afraid that she'll never see him again.
"Huh?" Gabriel stares at Lia, confused.
"Maybe he could be forever lost, but it's so hard to accept and... move on. I feel really bad for Drifloon; h-he, he'll miss me so much." She reluctantly agrees on leaving the hunt for Drifloon alone, but her connection between them felt so tight, she couldn't completely agree with Gabriel's speculation aforementioned above, but she had to face that merely undeniable truth.
"I feel you... Don't worry about it, someday, he will come back to you without you even expecting it." Gabriel pats Lia in the back, trying to cheer her up.
"Thanks Gabriel..." She looks directly at Gabriel at the eye as she sheds another tear.
"Yeah, no problem..." Gabriel, just by the thought of being on Lia's shoes, a vague memory suddenly penetrates his mind. Getting a slight grasp of it, the memory felt so relatable to the point that he couldn't recall the exact piece precisely. "I think I felt it before too. I kind of remember, losing something, but I can't remember what it is..." Gabriel mutters in a monotone voice. He felt a bit sad, not being able to remember he'd lost, during his journeys.
"Whatever it is, I'm glad that I'm not alone." Lia smiles mildly as that emotion quickly begins to ease.
"Same, but I guess we have to move on, let's go before the sun sets."
They continue walking the route, just a few steps in, yet again, something clicks on Gabriel, a reminder convincing whether his friends are still alive or dead. "I still wonder... Whether Rick and Chris truly had died or not, maybe it was just a dream. But Chris... I hope he's still not missing." He questions, shortly losing his motivation of going to their destination as he thought deeper of it. "I just don't know what to do, keep finding Chris and Rick or go to that city." He mutters, stooping his head down as he becomes trapped in his own two decisions.
"I mean umm, it's just a dream right? Maybe we should leave those two alone, they'll eventually find their way back to you, just like what you just said when we talked about Drifloon. Why not just forget it and continue heading on?" Sounding hesitant as Lia said that, she delivers her message in the softest tone possible despite the message sounding stern.
"But they are real people... Rick was my best friend, and he died on that building, but I'm not sure if he's still alive or not because of that dream I experienced... And Chris, I don't know for him, but let's... assume he's safe." Stooping with a subtle crestfallen look that furrowed his face, Gabriel rests his eyes looking at the surface. He still felt worried about the safety of his friends, despite seeing one of his friends crushed into death in front of his naked eyes. It still haunts him to this day while thinking about it.
"Mhm, yeah, I understand..." Lia nods.
"I-I think, you'll start to believe once you see them around, but I guess that's never happening anymore." Gabriel sniffs his clear nose in disappointment. He slowly adjusts his head up, looking far at the distance he's heading to. "Well, I guess, let's continue heading to that city, I need to know more of this place. Maybe Chris, or Rick would eventually find me in the future." He finally makes his decision, promising on his mind not to change it.
"Same, you head first." Lia agrees.
Trying to remember the directions the nurse provided, they continue heading to the narrow route. Walking in an approximately ten blocks further, the surroundings were quiet, and buildings were still in a heavy wreck along with the occasional groups of debris resting on the side of the pavements. Watching every further step, the pavements slowly transition into dirt paths that can barely be seen by the tall grass. Everything around them is full of sprawling trees at this point.
"Wait, are we lost?" Sounding surprised, Gabriel stops on his tracks.
"Nah, we're in the right track. We should keep moving." Lia shrugs and continue moving further, although confusion starts to rise upon them convincing them they've already lost track without knowing it. Shortly, Lia sees a gray faint curving line at the distance encompassing her whole sight but was concealed by the fog, putting her into brief confusion. "Oh, wait, I see something." She squints her eyes, but couldn't tell what exactly what it is.
To Gabriel's eyes, it seems to be a wall encircling the whole area. As he plants a step closer, he sees a huge gap on the middle of it. "That must be the exit!" Gabriel eagerly concludes, heaving a collective relieving sigh in confidence as he saw that gate clearly in front of him.
"Oh, nice, I thought we got lost." Letting out a long easing breath, Lia casually flicks her sweat off her forehead.
"Same here." By the moment Gabriel sighed, a red beam fires a distance off his belt, sending an excited pokemon out as it bursts its flames out. Gabriel's jaw drops as he felt confused at first, but he instantly recognized that familiar pokemon as excitement surges up his spine. "Q-Quilava!" He pounces in delight, scurrying to his Quilava and knowing he's perfectly okay.
"Qui!" Quilava yelps in an eager tone and scurries up to Gabriel's shoulder.
"Aw, I missed you... Glad you're okay." Gabriel caresses Quilava on the back as he wraps him tightly with his arms. He sighs pleasantly.
"Qui, qui." Quilava nods.
"I'm sorry about what happened back then." Gabriel stoops his head down and looks at Quilava with a slightly downcast face, feeling the pain that Quilava had suffered long back then.
"Quilava really likes you huh? I wish all of my pokemon were like that." Lia glares at Gabriel with slight envy creasing her brow.
"Same, doesn't everyone though?" Gabriel tilts his head and shrugs. The moment he said that, he realizes he forgot a thing as something clicks on his mind, sending his head recoiling in shock. "Man, I forgot to buy potions!" He exclaims, feeling guilty after, but shortly realizes that he's heading to the pokemon center. "Pfft, nah, it's no big deal. The pokemon center has those anyways." He mutters to himself, casually brushing it off.
Finally arriving to the gate, they exit the town as they continue heading to the north, they are welcomed by a huge field of smooth grasslands extending football fields at the front along with quiet breezing winds. Hills were spread in sporadic distances across their sight, giving out a fresh view to the eye. Few hundred steps later, the trail finally forks into two directions, left and right.
"Okay, so this is the hills... So head to the west. Hmm, west?" Another episode of confusion creases his eyebrows tightly as Gabriel freezes at the middle of the fork, not knowing what direction what "west" is.
"That way, you goof face." Glancing to a sign obscured by the tall grass patches, Lia points to the left as she twitches another cheeky smirk.
"Oh, yeah." Gabriel mutters awkwardly. His stomach starts to rumble in sudden sharp pain the moment he said that. "Aw man, I'm so hungry... I forgot to eat." He bends slightly hunched, grasping his stomach.
"Don't you have food in your bag, or you forgot to buy them again?" Lia rolls her eyes.
"Oh wait never mind, I think I bought some food right when I left that building, don't worry. And, I thought I felt full before, odd." Heaving a quick bursting sigh of ease, Gabriel shrugs and whips out a few energy bars from his pocket. "Eh, no worries, guess I'll just get some more once we arrive in the pokemon center. At least food is cheap there." He shrugs again.
"Hmm, your stomach is kinda weird... I guess the stupid author forgot to write that part." Lia sighs.
"Who's author? What part?" Gabriel mutters in sheer confusion as he just stared at her vacantly for a good five seconds.
"Pfft." Lia bursts out a stifling cackle. "Forget about it; that randomly came up to my head." She shrugs.
They head to the west, curving around the hillsides as they see rushing creeks to the other side. The strangest thing they notice is that everything seems to be quiet, but they didn't question regardless, for now. Passing the hills, the trail forks into three paths, riddling the two for several seconds.
"Okay, so... This is the end. Continue heading to the north." Gabriel mutters to himself in growing worry, afraid that they may find themselves lost and in danger at the same time. Concerned for their safety, he starts to tremble for a bit despite the surroundings looking perfectly safe and his Quilava guarding on his side on his shoulder. "Is it just me or am I feeling unsafe here?"
"Umm, I think we're fine here, no dangers so far, don't worry."
"Thanks. Quilava just look out for dangers lurking by, okay?" Gabriel heaves out an anxious sigh.
"Qui." Quilava nods affirmatively.
Lia gazes at Gabriel, making a little observation on him calculating the directions with risk. "It's amazing that you remember all of this. I still can't remember a single part of direction after five minutes..." She utters out of envy.
"It's quite simple actually." Gabriel shrugs, trying to brush his anxiety off. Yet, the strangest thing to him is that he still remembers certain stuff, yet forgets some certain stuff. Although knowing that it's perfectly normal to the human mind, he feels that experience quite differently. "Man, even though I've been in a three day coma, how can I still remember things yet forget certain things?" He adds, questioning himself mentally.
"Sure it's simple, but somehow my mind always loses it when it comes to directions. Like, how?" Lia tilts her head and squints another jealous eye at Gabriel.
"It just comes naturally. Maybe genes, I guess?" Just when he said that, he stumbles over a sign that reads direction heading east, and the curving trail only heads that way. Gabriel felt suspicious and a little bit off. He approaches the sign one step and squints an eye closer, the sign leads to an old private village instead. "Wait a second... The sign says, we're heading to east? And it's heading to elsewhere? A-are we lost or didn't he forgot to mention that?!" Recoiling in shock, his eyes and heart drop as he vacantly, yet intensely stares at that sign, freezing in that position in a spiking fright.
"O-oh no! Please not again. You must be joking, right?" Lia starts to get nervous as well.
"Qui?" Quilava yelps as he darts his head between Gabriel and Lia, having no clue of the situation.
"Arceus, I think we've took the wrong direction. Rgh, why am I so stupid... I-I thought... this was the right direction. We're supposed to be heading north, I'm so confused." Gabriel sighs under intense fluster.
"It's too bad my navigator's still broken so we can't find our way out... I guess the batteries are still working but..." Lia interrupts herself with a nervous sigh. She pulls out her navigator and presses all the buttons in a jittering manner in a desperate attempt to make it work.
"We better head back..." Gabriel attempts to memorize where they have came from as he turns back his steps curving back to the hills.
"Right."
They trot their way back to the hills. Few hundred steps later, they are instead, welcomed by a compact section of trees and bushes blocking the path. Looking at the sides, the hills were significantly farther away from them than they expected, not only that, but they also looked entirely different as they glanced closer.
"Wait, it's all trees? I swear I saw those hills before. These look different, don't tell me I'm imagining stuff!" Gabriel recoils, freaking out.
"Umm, I think you've been taking the wrong path just when you exited town." Despite sounding so casual, Lia darts a short nervous side-look glance at Gabriel.
"I hope that's not the case." Gabriel bursts out a quick breath. "Q-quilava, do you remember what path we took?"
Quilava stares at Gabriel several seconds in visible confusion. "Q... q-qui?" He yelps cluelessly, not knowing what gesture he should use to communicate back.
"Never mind, thanks Quilava." Gabriel heaves a disappointed sigh and scratches his chin, trying to remember the original path he took, but he's not really confident and sure on remembering where he came from. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I don't remember taking this path. I swear I thought this was the right direction. Ugh, anyway, let's try to find our way back."
They try backtracking their steps and trot a few more blocks. As the surroundings gradually get clearer, they are met with a forking trail of two, with completely different looking curves instead, which was never seen before in between those hillsides.
"Oh crap there are two trails ahead of us?" Gabriel gasps, trying to remember whether he went through one of the paths or not. Anxiety builds up as he nervously grits his teeth. "Lia, do you remember what path we've came from?"
"I think... I think we came from that trail on the left." Despite sounding so unsure, she confidently points to the left part of the trail.
Gabriel sighs. "Hope we're not taking the wrong direction again, since when did these trails split?" He scratches his head.
"Umm, remember when we went past this part? Could've payed more attention." Pointing around that area where the trail forks, Lia shrugs and twitches a subtle smug smirk indirectly at Gabriel, despite being pressured by the nervousness.
"I'm not sure. B-but I hope we're in the right track." They head on the left path. Fifteen minutes of trotting half a mile, it leads to a grassland instead, to which Gabriel sees it as unfamiliar despite the greeneries looking the same thing. "Oh, it's just a grassland, is this even the right path?" Looking with wider eyes as he pays attention of the details, he realizes that this is the same grasslands that they've passed before. "Wait! This is the area that we just passed. I thought I was just." He cuts himself with a slight nervous cackle.
Lia chuckles, knowing that she's in the right. "Haha Gabriel, you thought this was the wrong direction. At least we got back on track." She heaves out a long relieving sigh, smiling as she continues to chuckle.
"Hopefully." With growing confidence, Gabriel eagerly nods as he continues on, but is met with a surge of unsureness. "Man, where are we going exactly, forwards or backwards." He questions, asking for assurance to where they're heading despite seeing the hills right there on the distance. He tries to get a glance closer, but the summit was obscured by the trees, convincing him that he's on another angle of his location.
"Forwards, I'm pretty sure." She points to the direction to the front they're currently heading.
Proceeding to head further, the trail curves again. That seemed usual for the two. It curves more to the left heading away from the hills further they go. Then, few blocks later, the trail slowly starts to angle down in a steep slope, filled with overgrown roots and thin waterways crossing a part of the trail, something they've never walked through before.
"Oh, what is this? Since when did this trail go downhill?"
"Umm..."
"I think, w-we are lost again. Where do we go? Do you think we're truly in track?" Gabriel facepalms to his forehead firmly, trying to map the directions he'd walked through. Overthinking, his head starts to feel numb and overwhelmed.
Lia's lips curl down in nervous disappointment. "I-I'm sorry, I just can't remember exactly what path we've came from. I-I'm so dumb." Her eyes dropping, She stoops down in shame and sighs, afraid that Gabriel will blame her for her misleading directions. Hope began to spiral down, convincing them that they're further lost. "This is why you shouldn't rely on me when it comes to directions."
"It's fine. We'll have to find our way back again." Gabriel rubs his chin, trying to remember the original path he took. His amnesia starts to kick him again, even though it already started far before he realized. "But how can we even go back... if I keep forgetting things!" He exclaims in a flustered manner, almost as if he's already about to snap. "I hope this is not forever, ugh."
Lia heaves out a deep breath. She seemed disappointed as well. "Guess we need to keep calm." She lowers her voice.
"Yeah. The scariest thing is, no one will rescue us anyway if we're lost, right Quilava?"
"Qui." Quilava yelps.
"Ugh, so do we keep going forward or go back?"
"Err, you decide, I don't want to be the one spoon feeding you with more wrong directions."
"Meh, we'll just go forward to see what it takes." Gabriel heaves a quick collective sigh, unsure to what that part leads to but continues heading on anyway.
As curiosity pushes them further into what's there, they steadily trek their way down on the rocky terrain, gripping on every tree they see of reach as they cautiously climb down a flight of steep staircases of cracked pebble. Finally passing the most strenuous part, they see a shallow creek standing near along with smooth rock terrain further on their way. Knowing that they're aware venturing further to the unknown, they proceed to continue anyway, wading their steps and tip-toeing the protruding rocks. They finally pass the creek, only to find a steep rocky cliffside blocking their way. And that concludes, that's the dead end.
Gabriel sighs, hitting a firm facepalm on his head. "Aw crap... This is a dead end, now what are we supposed to do. Return back?" He sighs, suddenly finding himself trapped in a whole pool of half-thought out decisions.
"Yeah... This is a big waste of time; we should've kept track of our original path."
"How are we even supposed to keep track when we have no navigator to help us?" Gabriel shrugs cluelessly, pressing his fingers against his forehead as he grimaces. "Auuughh... We should've gotten us a guide."
"Like, what guide?" Lia cocks her head as her eyes absently drift away from Gabriel, seeing a vague glimpse of an old cottage on the side of the rocky terrain, hidden by the bushes just a few meters away from her. "Oh wait, umm. There's a house behind us hidden in the bushes. Maybe we could ask someone some help."
Gabriel darts a glance behind, but he sees nothing but bushes." "Really? I don't see it." He narrows his eyes.
"You see that light?" Lia points to a dim looking light illuminating from inside the window.
"Ooh, yes, that means someone must be there. Good idea Lia." Gabriel nods and confidently agrees. But was a bit unsure of knocking in that door in spite of the confidence. "But, but wait, do you really want to do this? What if a pokemon pops up from that door?" He questions in an absurd tone, concerned of their safety.
"Umm, are you out of your mind? Why would a pokemon do that?" Lia smirks, laughing subtly at the unexpected yet ridiculous question Gabriel asked.
"Nah, I'm just questioning. Why, what are you entering the house for?" Sounding clueless, Gabriel asks the question again as if he forgot to ask it in the first place.
"Because I just want to get out of whatever this place as possible, don't you too?" Lia rolls her eyes, seeing the speechless Gabriel squinting his eyebrows trying to reorganize his thoughts. "I mean, it's not like I'm just gonna mindlessly umm, enter that house. I'm just gonna ask what are the right directions to go to, that's all." Lia adds with a casual shrug.
"Mhm, just making sure." Gabriel sighs.
With careful steps, they approach the house entrance and glance at the windows. Just to make sure someone's in, they peep through the peephole.
"Okay, so do we knock?" Gabriel mutters, staring at the door with intense eyes.
"You go ahead." Lia casually gestures her arm.
"Nah, actually you go first, you spotted that house before I did." Gabriel shrugs, brushing off his tense.
Lia purses her lips and glares at Gabriel. "Why? Are you a coward or what?" Sounding irritated, she crosses her arms and furrows down an eyebrow.
Gabriel grits his teeth, intimidated by Lia's sassy attitude. "No, I, I just w-"
"Just kidding, hehe." Lia cuts off Gabriel, loosening up her angry looking attitude with a cackling smirk.
As that little joke she played registers on his mind, Gabriel sighs in a slightly pissed off manner. "Sometimes you're really tricky to talk to..." By the moment he said that, something suddenly rustles loud and violent on the distance, putting him into a slight concern. "Wait, do you hear something?" He questions.
"What, I don't hear anything." Lia squints a brow, looking confused as she looks around her surroundings. Then, a small Teddiursa jumps out from the bush and yelps a cry. He looked clueless and timid, judging by its creasing worried eyes.
Gabriel darts his eyes at the Teddiursa and drops his jaw in shock. "A Teddiursa?" He gazes over that small figure as that reminded him of a terrible memory back in that barn; he experienced it, but he could barely remember the person owning the Teddiursa, but was still strongly convinced that this was someone's pokemon. Perhaps this Teddiursa had gone to a long journey to reunite with a complete stranger? He wonders.
"Oooh, a Teddiursa, so cute..." Lia smiles fawningly, squealing from the cuteness as she eagerly plants a step nearer to the Teddiursa. "Would you like to join us in our journey?" She raises her voice high pitched and twitches a smile, staring at the Teddiursa with melting eyes of delight as she starts to grip on her pokeball.
Teddiursa yelps out a high-pitched cry and gingerly plants a step back, intimidated by the obsessive Lia as his eyes start to flood with mildly tears.
"Don't approach it, please!" Gabriel exclaims in building fear and frantically waves his warning palms, staring at Lia and Teddiursa with eyes widened with fright as his mind also delves on those similar traumatic flashbacks back when he's lost on the snowy forest.
"Why not?" Lia darts an eye at the frightened Gabriel, seeing him rapidly heaving in panic. He was scared spitless for a second. "I mean, who gets afraid over a harmless critter?" She squints her eyes, confused as to why Gabriel's scared over a cute-looking pokemon.
"T-there could be a-" Gabriel sputters in sheer nervousness, shortly interrupted as he felt that sudden yet slight rumble on his feet. His eyes absently catches a glimpse of another bush rustling and immediately snaps focus on it.
"Q-quii." Quilava trembles as his emotions starts to synchronize with Gabriel's feelings.
"Don't worry Quilava... Stay calm." Gabriel utters out, but they both didn't follow their own word, feeling as if their feelings already overpowered them.
Gabriel and Lia both plant a few steps back. Then, an Ursaring wiggles itself out of the bush as it stands on the Teddiursa's side. It stands on its fours, slamming its arms on the ground as it growls a threatening cry.
Lia gasps, petrified as she began to hyperventilate in fear, realizing that she became distracted by Teddiursa's cute appearance and by ignoring Gabriel's warnings. "Uhh... Oh gosh, this isn't good" She mutters in a quivering tone. Ursaring plants a step nearer to their reach, sending their hearts pounding into sheer fear. "Ursaring! No!" She exclaims, gripping her pokeball and yells "Cinccino, help!" but her fingers trembles with the anxiety as she fumbles the pokeball off her grip, further terrifying her for a split second until a laser travels on the side of her eye, sending Cinccino out.
The ground rumbles again as another Ursaring pops out from another bush from the right. Two Ursarings quickly team up and confront the petrified duo.
"Oh Arceus, what do we do now?!"