Chapter #3

I was awaken the next morning by the smell of McDonald's Egg Muffins and the sounds of all our pokemon running around the room and shouting loudly. I lifted myself up from the bed and stretched out my stiff arms. I looked over to the main table of the room to see Mason and Victoria handing Andy and Carol one Egg Muffin each. They even gave one to each of our pokemon. It seemed like they had McDonald's a lot, since we had it the previous day.

I got up from the bed and sleepily stumbled over to the table. Victoria looked at me and smiled, "It's about time you woke up. It's past 9am, and we normally get up at 7am. We let you sleep in because you're new though." She laughed and handed me one of the Egg Muffins. I accepted it and sat down on one of the chairs surrounding the table and ate.


"Rai!" Raichu squealed as it looked out the window of Mason's car. It seemed to be enjoying the view as we drove down the roads on a large mountain. The girls explained to me that they went there often, because there were so few people there. It was a good place to relax and fly around a bit. They could never do that out in the city.

As I looked out the window at the huge body of water in the distance, I began to wonder what my mother was doing. I missed her so much, and I was worried about her. I knew that my dad could end up finding out she lied about me getting adopted and report her to an Anti-Rukonian group. The thought scared me, so I shook it off.

During the entire ride, Carol slept and Victoria sat in the front seat with Mason. I was stuck sitting beside Andy—whom I was a bit nervous to be around. She seemed to not like me much, so I decided not to say anything to her—just in case she would decide to cut my life span in half.

"We're almost there." Mason said as we began to drive down a dirt road.

The car's bumping soon woke up Carol. She rubbed her tired eyes and yawned. She then looked over to me, "Are we almost there?" she asked.

Andy replied before I was given the chance, "Yeah, Carol. We'll be there in no time. Do you want me or Victoria to help you train Lapras today?" she asked. Victoria looked back at us from the front seat.

"I think Victoria. You helped me last time, so it's only fair to let Victoria help me today. You can help Seadra learn to fly. Umm Is that okay with you two?" Carol asked nervously as she fiddled with the long strands of her hair.

Andy blinked and looked over to me. The look she gave me was like that you would give after being told to watch over a baby in its terrible two's. She sighed and nodded, "Fine" I was a bit discouraged by her reaction so I turned away from her and looked out the window. We were driving down a rough dirt road in the middle of a forest—I could see several trees. Raichu yawned and curled into a ball on my lap—Eevee was in its pokeball.

I could barely see the lake out in the distance behind the trees. It reminded me of my mom's favorite pokemon, Seadra. I missed her so much.

A few minutes passed and the car stopped. Andy grabbed my shoulder and dragged me out of the car and Raichu followed. Once out, I could see trees surrounding a huge field where Mason had parked. To my right, was the rocky beach of the huge lake. The view was spectacular and it took my breath away. Raichu stood beside me and inhaled the sweet scent of the fresh forest air and sighed happily.

I looked over to Victoria as she threw out her pokeball. It spun through the air and opened, releasing a Sunflora. It had a wonderful smile on its face and danced around the grass field. Andy then took her two pokeballs and threw them out, revealing her Sandslash and Ninetales. Her fire pokemon swayed its tails around while her Sandslash made quick swipes with its claws in the air. Meanwhile, Carol ran over to the lake and threw her pokeball into the water. A second later, a Lapras surfaced and splashed around.

I looked down at my belt to see Eevee's pokeball. I pulled it off and tossed it into the air—it opened and out came my cute little Eevee. It didn't waste any time and soon was running around the field, just having a good time. As Raichu watched, it seemed to get all caught up and was soon chasing after Eevee in a game of tag.

I sat down in the grass and admired the view. I figured we were going to be there all day, since getting there took atleast an hour and Mason had some sandwiches packed with him. I watched as he finally got out of the car and lean up against it and put on a pair of black sunglasses. He had his arms crossed, which seemed to flex his muscles.

"Come on, don't waste any time." Andy said from behind. I spun around to find her kneeling down behind me, resting her arms on her knees. "If you're gonna learn to fly, you can't waste your time staring at Mason."

I blushed, it occurred to me that I was looking at Mason for more than a few moments—it was more like five minutes. "I wasn't staring at him Um I was just admiring the trees behind him!" I forced each word out of my mouth with a struggle.

For the first time I had ever seen, Andy laughed and slapped my back. "Real funny there, Seadra." She smiled at me and got up. She closed her eyes tightly and seemed to be struggling when her wings erupted from her back and spread out. It didn't seem to hurt her at all. "Come on, Seadra, get your wings out and let's fly."

I gulped nervously and forced myself to get up. Once I did, I did what Victoria had told me to do the previous day in order to spread my wings. I pushed from my back and soon, I felt the same pain I felt before when I first spread my wings. Fortunately, this time the ripping and tearing feeling wasn't as bad—which was a relief.

Andy smiled, "Okay, now you gotta learn how to control them properly. Try flapping them." It was odd, I thought she was going to be all rough with me, but she was actually being very gentle and kind. I guess she understood that this was my first try and there wasn't much she could expect from me.

The previous day, I found moving my wings no different than moving your arms and legs around. I began to flap them, but not very fast or hard. I figured if I did, I could start flying and I was a bit nervous about it, since I didn't know how to land and I didn't feel much like having Andy yell at me.

"Okay, Seadra, that's a good start. It seems you have good control over your wings, which is a good sign—not everyone can control them well. Carol found it very difficult at first." Andy smiled at me and spread her wings out as far as they could. "Now, to take wing, the best way to do it is with one strong flap with your wings. Make sure they push a lot of air down when you do it. Once you're in the air, everything will come by naturally. If you've ever pretended to be a bird as a child, this will be easy."

I nodded. When I was very young, I always wished I could fly like a bird. I would jump off my parent's bed, flapping my arms like nuts. I remembered the one time when I was convinced I flew for a split second. I took a deep breath and spread my wings out. I then angled them so when I flapped, the air would push me up. With one strong flap of my wings, I felt myself raising in the air. I knew if I stopped flapping, I would end up falling, so I flapped more and more. It didn't take long before I was atleast 10 feet above the ground. Unfortunately, I think my wings were too weak, because they began to get sore and I was getting tired. The worst part was, I didn't know how to land.

Andy noticed the problem as I struggled to stay in the air. I was scared of trying to land, so I did the only thing I could—stay there. With one strong flap of her wings, she was at my height and grabbed me by my waist. I held onto her arms as she slowly began to descend to the ground. I was relieved she helped me when she did, because I knew my wings were about to give.

Once on the ground, I fell to my knees and sighed. "I'm sorry, Andy. I got tired and my wings were hurting" I hopped she wouldn't get mad.

Andy kneeled down beside me and put one of her hands onto my shoulder, "Don't worry about it. Your wings aren't strong enough yet. You have to make them stronger by just flapping them, but not flying. Got it?" I nodded. "Okay then, when you get your strength back, just flap. We have all day and I'm sure you'll be able to fly some and be able to land by then."

I looked up at her. It amazed me how she managed to get 10 feet above the ground with one flap of her wings, while it took me several flaps and by then, I was too tired to stay there. "Andy, when will my wings get strong enough like yours? You got so high with just one flap."

Andy sat down beside me, holding herself up with her hands on the grass. She looked up to the clouds in the sky and smiled. "It varies. Some people learn really fast, but some don't. Carol still has difficulties sometimes. Victoria can fly without any problems though. She's the best flyer of us all. Carol couldn't even get into the air at her first try. You had a good start, so don't worry about it so much." It was then Andy's beautiful Ninetales ran over to us and nuzzled up to her side. Andy laughed, "Ninetales, go back and play with Seadra's Raichu and Eevee, okay?"

Her Ninetales seemed a bit disappointed with that, but it didn't protest. I noticed Raichu and Eevee were still running around the field, they seemed to be having fun. Andy's Ninetales then ran off after them and tackled Eevee. They were all laughing and being friendly to each other.

For the rest of the day, Andy worked hard to teach me to fly. Unfortunately, I could never spend much time in the air. The most I got was five minutes. I learnt that landing was actually very easy. All I had to do was get my wings in the same position as when I took off and let myself glide down to the ground.

As the sun began to set, making the sky a beautiful orange color, we all stopped our training to relax and eat our dinners. Victoria and Carol spent the day training Sunflora, Lapras, Sandslash, Ninetales, Raichu and Eevee. Meanwhile, Mason spent his time reading a book and walking through the woods. I found it odd that he didn't do much with the other girls much, but I never mentioned it.

As we ate our dinner, which ended up being hot dogs cooked over a small fire made by Ninetales, we all talked about our pokemon. Victoria explained that her Sunflora was at a very high level, or it knew Solar Beam. Meanwhile, Carol's Lapras was taught many different attacks such as Thunderbolt, Psychic, Ice Beam, Bubble Beam and Mist. I thought it was so cool that Lapras were able to use so many different types of attacks. Unfortunately, her Lapras was still quite young and didn't always like to battle. Andy's Sandslash knew all the basic attacks of ground-type pokemon, and her Ninetales knew really powerful fire attacks such as Fire Blast. They all seemed surprised that Raichu knew Thunder, and Eevee knew Take Down, but I didn't.

After finishing off our hot dogs, we all decided to relax a bit before going back to our small home in the city. Victoria and Carol sat together, leaning against the car. Carol soon fell asleep and it was a cute sight, watching her sleep leaning against Victoria. They truly did look like sisters when they were like that. Meanwhile, Mason sat beside the fire, poking the burning wood with a stick—he seemed to be deep in thought. We had most of our pokemon in their pokeballs, except for my Raichu and Andy's Ninetales.

I lay down in the grass by the fire with Raichu cuddled up close to me. I put my arm around it and stroked its soft, silky fur. I closed my eyes and sighed. I guessed living as a Rukonian like that wouldn't be so bad after all. Of course, it was a bit early to tell though.

Suddenly, Raichu's ears perked up. It's head shot up and it looked around, "Chu?" It asked as it hopped out of my arms and looked out to the distance where a large bush was.

I lifted myself up and wondered what was wrong. "Raichu? What is it?" I asked concerned. Raichu pointed out to the bush ahead and suddenly; a huge herd of Taurus came charging out in a rage. I jumped up and started screaming. "Andy! Victoria! Carol! Mason! Taurus ahead!" I shouted. Carol woke up instantly and they all got onto their feet.

What they did didn't surprise me much; they all spread their wings and with one strong flap, were high above the ground. I quickly pushed my wings out, which still hurt like hell, and started to flap them. I picked Raichu up just as I began to fly up above the ground. Unfortunately, my wings were still sore from my lessons that day and I didn't think I could stay up there very long.

When I saw Mason get out of the car, Victoria swooped down and picked him up by his arms and lifted him up away from the Taurus as they approached us. When they charged by, the car was hit several times by their horns, causing huge dents. Andy held onto me just in case my wings would give, but she was already holding her Ninetales.

My wings soon began to get tired, and the herd of Taurus was so huge, they were still passing by. It was a stampede! I didn't notice it at first, but I was slowly beginning to descend to the ground. When I did notice it, I wasn't even given a chance to react, for a Taurus struck my foot and dragged me down into the huge herd. I screamed out loud and Raichu cried out for help. I could hear Victoria, Carol, Andy and Mason all shouting for me, but they couldn't help me.

I was on my hands and knees, if I got up, a Taurus would hit my gut. I made sure to stay on my hands and knees. Unfortunately, I still had to worry about being trampled. After having my wings stomped on several times, I pulled them back. I couldn't see Raichu so I was on my own. I had to dodge each hoof as they came storming by. The sound of their running through the grass was like an earthquake.

I thought it would never end, and I feared I would soon be tramped and killed when Raichu ran to my side and used its Thunderbolt on all the surrounding Taurus. It startled them and they all stayed atleast two feet away from all sides. I took the opportunity and picked up Raichu, spread my wings and flew up high to where the others were. They all looked at me with an expression of disbelief and pride. I managed to stay in the air long enough until the stampede ended. I landed properly but soon found my wings were damaged when they got stomped on. I surprised the girls by being able to fly with injured wings, but I didn't think much of it.

Mason's car didn't get damaged too badly. It had several large dents on one side and that was it. We all got in and drove back to the city. I was exhausted from everything that day and fell asleep even before Carol did along with Raichu cuddled close to me.