Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Louis regained consciousness. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked from side to side. He realized he was all alone and that nobody was in the main room of the temple.
'Hey, where is everybody?' he thought.
He found his feet, got up off the floor and went for a stroll out of the room. Before doing so, Louis felt something dangling on his neck. He gazed down and saw a shiny, blue pendant. Louis wasn't sure why he had a pendant now.
While looking in the different rooms, he noticed that a majority of the tribespeople were asleep. He noticed an open window nearby and looked outside expecting to see a bright, hot sun. Only to be met with a cold gaze of the moon in the night sky.
"Wha-...how long was I out?" he blurted.
Suddenly, from outside, three deep, mischievous voices met Louis' ears.
'What the heck?' he thought.
A sense of vigilance flowed through Louis' body, and he walked out to the moonlit outdoors. As he did so, the three voices formed into laughter. Believing that the voices were coming from a group of thieves, Louis knelt down and picked up a long, thick stick at his feet. He proceeded to hold it like a baseball bat and moved closer to the voices. However, as he got closer, the voices fell silent. Louis stopped in his tracks. He looked from side to side to see if anyone was in sight, but then...
"Hmm, nice pendant," a voice said.
"Thanks," replied Louis.
He immediately froze in place, knowing that someone, or something, was behind him. Louis slowly turned around and was met face to face with...a Haunter. The boy gasped loudly, dropped the stick and fell backwards on the cold ground, landing on his backside. The Haunter was joined by a Gastly and Gengar, where all three of them laughed at Louis as he slowly backed away from them.
"Never seen this one before," said Gastly.
"Hehehehehe, a fresh target," added Gengar.
Louis quickly stopped retreating and blinked twice in confusion and amazement. Was he still dreaming, or did those Pokémon actually talk?
'What the?' he thought.
Louis stuck one of his fingers in his right ear and tried cleaning it out.
"Let's have some fun with this one, shall we?" suggested Haunter.
The three Ghost Pokémon approached Louis. Then, the boy put his right hand in front of the three Pokémon in an attempt to stop them.
"Whoa whoa, wait a second," halted Louis. "...did...did you three just talk?"
The three Pokémon stopped with a mixture of surprise and confusion. They looked at each other briefly and then looked back to Louis.
"...you can understand what we're saying?" asked Haunter.
Louis scratched his head.
"Uh...yeah?" he replied.
The Gengar became visibly shocked, and exchanged nervous glances with its companions.
"Wait! But how?!" it questioned.
Before answering, a peculiar thought crossed Louis' mind. A mischievous one to be precise. He decided to play around with these Pokémon.
"Maybe you're not the only ghosts around here," he sinisterly said.
"Huh?!" exclaimed the three Pokémon.
Louis slowly crept up to the ghost Pokémon with an evil grin developing on his face. He leaned in closer to them, and...
"Boo," he said
The ghostly trio of Pokémon began to panic. In a hurry, all three of them ran from Louis. He laughed at the Pokémon as they bolted. The boy stopped to regain his composure and began to think. If he could hear those Pokémon talk, would other Pokémon be talking as well?
Louis looked up to see a horde of Zubats flying in the sky, and to his surprise, he could hear them talk as well. He glanced over to the bushes, close to the temple, and witnessed a pair of Rattatas conversing with each other. The boy smiled in amazement.
'This is incredible,' he thought. 'All the Pokémon are speaking human language!'
Louis thought he must still be dreaming if Pokémon could talk. He pinched himself to see if he was actually awake, and...he was. Louis couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"You're awake," a voice said.
The startled boy turned around, suspecting it to be another Pokémon, but it was only Taki approaching the boy.
"Oh hey, Taki," he greeted.
Taki was relieved that Louis was ok, especially with how he fell earlier. As she got closer, Taki saw a surprised expression on his face.
"Are you ok?" she asked. "You look like you just saw a ghost."
"Technically, I did," replied Louis. "I saw a Gastly, Haunter and Gengar just now."
Immediately after, Taki groaned.
"Those three?" she grumbled. "Why won't they leave us alone?"
Louis, still surprised, grew curious. This mustn't have been the first time they came to this temple and tried to cause mischief.
"You're familiar with them?" questioned the boy.
Taki sighed.
"Unfortunately…" she replied. "They're always looking to cause mischief around here. It's been getting really annoying."
After a brief moment, Louis shrugged in reply, understanding what Taki was getting at. But Louis wasn't really interested in that, he needed to tell Taki what had happened.
"That's not the only thing though," added Louis.
"Huh?" said Taki, curiously.
"When I encountered those Pokémon, I could actually hear them talk!" explained Louis.
"In fact, I could hear some other Pokémon talk as well," he continued.
At that moment, Taki's eyes widened in surprise.
"No way!" she exclaimed. "You too?!"
"Yeah, I-..." paused Louis.
He looked at Taki with a confused expression on his face.
"Wait, ...'too'?" he questioned.
"Y-yes" stammered Taki.
Taki looked all around her to make sure it was just her and Louis outside. Thankfully, no one else was present, so Taki could explain to Louis what she's talking about. She signaled him to come closer and leaned in close to his ear.
"Between you and me, this tribe has a uniqueness to it," whispered Taki.
"The thing is, the tribespeople here can all talk to Pokémon. It's our special quirk," she explained.
Louis' eyes widened in amazement. Was what Taki saying true? Could everyone in her tribe talk to Pokémon? Louis needed to be sure.
"So...you're actually being serious here?" he questioned.
"Louis, this is not something I would lie about," answered Taki.
Their conversation was, however, interrupted by a strange, purple glow from beneath the duo. They peered downwards, to see a small, oddly shaped object at their feet.
"What's this thing?" said Louis.
Taki knelt down, picked up the item and inspected it. This object looked as if though it had broken off another object, like a vase or a crystal. Unfortunately, Taki couldn't really tell what exactly it was.
"I'm not sure," she replied. "I may need to show this to Chief Tanaka."
"Good idea," said Louis.
At that moment, both Taki and Louis heard the sound of an argument coming from the forest. Curious to see what was going on, both of them walked towards the commotion. It turned out that the arguing was coming from a pair of Sandshrews.
"Well, I bet I can dig faster than you!" proclaimed the first Sandshrew.
"Can not!" replied the second Sandshrew.
– "Can too!"
The Sandshrews continued going back and forth as Louis and Taki observed. The boy then sat down on a nearby rock.
"Here's a bright idea…" he called.
The two Sandshrews stopped arguing and turned their heads to Louis.
"...how about you two have a race and see who can dig over to me the fastest," continued Louis. "Whoever makes it first is the winner."
The Sandshrews looked at Louis with intrigued expressions displayed on their faces. They quickly turned their gazes to each other.
"Did he just understand us?" questioned the first Sandshrew
"I don't know," answered the second Sandshrew.
They stared, intrigued at Louis to see if he had really understood them. The boy nodded at the two Pokémon, confirming their thoughts. Both Pokémon were dumbfounded that a human could understand them now. After a brief pause, the Sandshrews start to dig down. They both dug to the required depth at the exact same time. Louis then spoke to Taki as they watched.
"They're totally gonna finish at the same time," he said.
Immediately after, two short, rumbling hills of dirt hurtle towards Louis and Taki. Then, simultaneously, the two Sandshrews pop up out of the ground. They turned to each other in an attempt to gloat about their victory. However, they then noticed one another and looked surprised.
"See?" said Louis. "You're both just as fast as each other. There's no debate in that,"
The first Sandshrew, however, was not ready to admit that it wasn't as good as it thought.
"Yeah, well...I'm still stronger," it proclaimed.
Louis leaned in closer to the first Sandshrew with a smirk on his face.
"If you were, you would've gotten here faster," he said.
This left the first Sandshrew in stunned silence. The second Sandshrew couldn't help but giggle at its buddy. It then pointed out that it didn't matter if they're faster or not, both of them are still Pokémon. The first Sandshrew smiled and agreed with the other. They both high-fived each other and dug underground once again, with the small rumbling hills travelling in the opposite direction. Louis smiled as he and Taki watched them leave.
"That was quick," said Taki.
– "What was? The Sandshrews?"
"No. You being so calm about being able to talk to Pokémon," answered Taki "I expected it would've taken you at least a week to wrap your head around the whole thing."
"Well, there's one thing my mom has taught me," said Louis. "And that is to 'expect the unexpected'."
Taki nodded in agreement at Louis' response.
"Very wise of your mother," complimented Taki.
Louis smiled. He looked up to the moon and began to think about what had happened to him today. At that moment, he remembered how he promised his mother that he would be home before bedtime.
"The moon's up," pointed out Louis. "I gotta get home."
Taki noticed how worried Louis was getting now. She realised that his parents may be worried sick about Louis.
"I'll come with you," said Taki. "I can help explain to your parents why you were out for a while."
Louis' eyes shift to Taki, looking at her with curiosity and surprise.
"You don't mind?" he asked.
"Not at all," replied Taki. "Besides, I do owe you for before."
Louis then shared a heartfelt smile with Taki. She did have a point about how he saved her Totodile, and if it wasn't for that, none of this would've ever happened. Louis got up off the rock.
"Thanks, Taki," he said.
Both Louis and Taki made their way back to Louis' hometown. It would be an understatement for Louis to say that this was just an ordinary day. Nothing would be the same in Louis' life after today. He began wondering how he would explain all this to his parents. But for now, he was more focused on getting back home.
"What a day, huh?" said Louis.
– "Yeah. What a day."
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