The dream returned that night, but I did not welcome it. I tried to resist it, to avoid playing by its rules by remaining still in the field and not moving one way or another. I found that I could not do so, for if I did nothing, I would be gradually carried in the same direction that the ghostly Pokemon were walking, away from the chasm and across the plains. I dreaded what lay there more than anything else in the world, so sooner or later I would have to make a dash for the canyon and for the opportunity offered by the flimsy rope bridge. I never made it to the other side of the bridge, not once. On other nights, the dream had let me be after one iteration, but on that night it returned again and again, pummeling me without mercy until I lost track of the times. I awoke in a cold sweat with Courtney shaking me.

"Ponyta! Ponyta! Wake up. What's wrong?"

I blinked, reality rushing back at me. The nightmare landscape had dissolved to the four walls of our room at the Pokemon Center. Like the others we had seen, this Pokemon center had its Trainer rooms and related services located underground, although it did so to preserve the park's aesthetics rather than out of pure lack of surface space. Unlike them, it had been built relatively recently and was designed with generous allowances for the projected number of Trainers. No common sleeping areas were needed here-- in fact, even with the vast number of Trainers who circulated the park, only two-thirds of the rooms had been full when we had arrived.

Courtney was looking at me with concern etched on her face. I tried to remember what had been happening. It wasn't hard, of course. The nightmare never did me even the mild courtesy of allowing me to forget it once I awoke. It was always there, drifting around the edges of my consciousness.

((I was having a nightmare,)) I told her. That much was certainly true, and it was easy to say, even though I felt for some reason as though I could not possibly share the details of the dream with anybody.

"You were making horrible noises. And then you wouldn't wake up right away. I was worried." For a moment, it looked as though a tear was forming in Courtney's eye, but it never gained sufficient mass to escape.

Courtney was worried about me. I couldn't have that. It wouldn't do for her to be concerned with my problems. I tried to feign what seemed to me like nonchalance. ((I'll be okay now. Don't worry about me.))

"If you say so." She didn't look convinced.

The clock on the nightstand declared the time to be just after ten in the morning, but I gathered that Courtney had just woken up herself. Perhaps I had woken her up. I tried not to think about that possibility. At any rate, she seemed not to want to sleep any longer, and I decided that I was too hungry to go back to sleep. So after Courtney had taken her shower and gotten dressed, we headed out of the bowels of the underground complex to the lobby, searching for something to eat.

The previous night, we had passed the entrance to a restaurant that was built into the Center complex. It had been closed. Now, in the morning, the doors stood open, and we walked inside and located a table. This being a Pokemon Center, the seating accommodations were designed with Pokemon as well as humans in mind. Most of the tables had spaces for Pokemon that were so large as to not be able to use the seats, and the seats themselves were fully adjustable. Signs declared that more specialized accommodations, as for some Water Pokemon, were available upon request. We made ourselves comfortable.

It was only after we had sat down that a rather obvious problem occurred to me. ((Are you sure we can afford to eat here? Food at restaurants isn't free, I don't think.)) Courtney had exhausted most of her meager finances earlier on the trip, I knew, and I wasn't aware of any additional infusion of cash in the past day or two.

"This restaurant is part of the Pokemon Center, so it's free to members of the Peninsula League." Courtney was sitting across from me, her fingers steepled and elbows resting on the table. "In other words, order something expensive."

I gave an expression that was the equivalent of a frown. ((We're not members of the Peninsula League.))

Courtney gave a thin smile as she produced a small card from her bag and held it up for me to see. I didn't bother to read the fine print, but I recognized it for what it was. "We are now."

I considered this surprising development. So that was what Courtney had been up to last night while I was off with Snap-- at least, I didn't see any other time when she could have managed to sign up without my noticing. In the short run, it meant free food if nothing else. In the long run… ((Why exactly did you decide to join the League?)) I asked carefully, not wanting to give her any ideas but aware that the subject would need to be broached at some point.

She shrugged. "You get a lot of free stuff at various places. What other reason is there?"

((Aren't you supposed to, you know, fight battles when you're in the League?)) I spoke at the further risk of putting ideas in Courtney's head, but if she was thinking of anything, it was best I find out sooner rather than later.

Courtney laughed. "I suppose that's the idea, but I wasn't planning on it. It's not like they're going to send anybody around to check on us, is it?" After a few moments of silence had followed that question, her face fell and she laid her hands on the table. "More than that… I'm worried about attracting too much attention. I haven't seen or heard of that Langley person since Crossroads, but… he or someone else might still be around here."

The arrival of the waitress saved me from having to respond to that statement. We ordered our food and ate it in silence. Afterward, Courtney asked what I wanted to do that day. I decided that honesty was the best policy, and answered that I wanted to go looking for Snap. This desire was evidently not unexpected, because Courtney smiled and gave her consent without argument. "You'd probably like to be alone, and I've been wanting to take a walk around the Gardens. Shall we agree to meet back in the room when we're done?"

That sounded fine to me.

I had been able to catch glimpses of the outdoors as we passed through the lobby, and to a lesser extent while we were in the restaurant, but I didn't realize just how gorgeous of a day it was until I trotted through the doors and into the brilliant sunshine. There were no clouds to be seen in the sky, and coming from the relative darkness of the Center, it seemed to me as though every exposed surface positively glittered in the light. The temperature hung at a perfect point, neither too cold or too hot. The breeze was perfect, breaking the stillness but not creating a chill. Everything was perfect.

There was Snap, right where he had said he'd be. He was sitting on the ground a short distance away in the shade created by the overhang of the roof. At the sound of my hooves on the concrete, his ears pricked upright and his head jerked in my direction. Seeing who I was, he excitedly stood up and shook himself off, standing there as I walked closer to him.

((Ponyta! How are you? Did you sleep well?))

I considered telling him about my nightmare, then decided against it. I didn't want to worry him needlessly. There was nothing he could do about it anyway. ((Yes,)) I answered, still trying to decide if that was a lie or not. ((How about you?))

He shrugged. ((Well enough. So what do you want to do today?))

I blinked. Beyond meeting up with him, I hadn't bothered to make any plans or even think of ideas. Finding Snap had seemed like an end in itself. ((Um, I don't know,)) I answered rather lamely. ((Have any ideas?))

It was Snap's turn to act awkward. ((I don't know either,)) he admitted at last. ((We could go on a walk, I suppose. Try to find something.))

It was a better idea than anything I could come up with on such short notice. To be honest, I would have accepted just about any suggestion. Being with a friend automatically turned the mundane into the special. Ashley had shown me that just talking with someone you liked could be far more enjoyable than doing anything else alone, and now this was something even better. To be in such close proximity to an Electric-type Pokemon, the very thing I had secretly longed to be, was nothing short of thrilling. I was quite happy simply to walk with Snap.

There was only one question left. ((Which way do we go?))

((Does it matter?))

***

Night had fallen by the time we completed our tour of the Gardens. It turned out that what I had seen-- mostly, the road that came from the south and led to the center-- comprised only a small portion of the expansive park. Merely exploring all the areas took us several hours, but when we at last found ourselves nearing the Pokemon Center again, I realized that not only had I been oblivious to the passage of time, I had also failed to remember most of what we had seen along the way. The conversation had drowned out everything else to my mind.

I glanced at the great clock tower in the center of the commons, the time reference for those in the Gardens without watches or other timepieces of their own. Its massive dial, illuminated by powerful floodlights after sunset, told me that the time was well after ten o'clock. A glance through the windows of the Center at the smaller clock mounted above the front desk confirmed this. We had stopped near the front doors. Snap made no move to go closer, and I wondered strangely if he and his elusive trainer were staying at the Center at all. Around us, the activity continued as it had the previous night, the sunlight replaced by the equally brilliant but much harsher system of artificial lights.

((I'm not quite ready to go back in,)) I said after a few moments of silence. I had no idea where Courtney was. She had been on the same journey that we ended up on, so if she hadn't already arrived back, she probably would be soon. Something made me wary of being there when she returned.

((Neither am I,)) Snap replied.

((So what do we do?))

Snap apparently had an answer ready. He turned and trotted softly away, beckoning me to follow. I did so. It quickly became apparent that he was leading me to the same hiding spot he'd revealed the previous night. I didn't mind at all-- if there was one thing that sounded good to me after the long day, it was to get away from the masses of people and Pokemon. To be alone, or nearly so.

The trip seemed to take longer than it had the previous night, and I idly wondered if the strange clearing had moved or been somehow swallowed back up into the forest, but at last Snap stopped and I could feel that the vegetation had drawn back on all sides. That was the only clue I had that we had reached our destination, for I could see almost nothing. If the day had been abnormally bright, the night was equally dark. Even the lights of the city street on the other side of the fence, which I made out with little difficulty once I started looking for them, seemed somehow muted.

We were alone. For a long minute, the only sounds were the heavy noise of my breathing, and, once the din of the commons faded from my ears, the quieter sounds of Snap moving in the dark. ((It's a nice place,)) I said at last, if only because it seemed like the silence was screaming to be broken.

There was no answer for a few moments. When one came, it was not really an answer at all. ((I was wondering if I could kiss you.))

There it was. I marveled at the elegant simplicity of the request-- stated so clearly, and in a voice far more stable than anything I would have been able to muster with a matter of such weight. What was I supposed to answer? What do you say when the universe drops an unexpected gift in your lap?

My voice didn't answer, my body did. Rather, my mind couldn't quite figure out what to do, and entrusted the decision to my instinct, which fortunately made the right choice. I could barely see Snap in the darkness, but barely seeing is not the same as not seeing. He was beautiful. I slowly lowered my head until my muzzle hovered inches from his, halting there, unwilling to press on any further. I took a deep breath, something I had forgotten to do in the past several seconds, and my nostrils drank in the rich scent of the Jolteon, a smell that I could only describe as delicious. In the dark, I could now feel his hot breath as well as hear it, such a short distance away, likewise unmoving.

What had possessed him, to bring me here and make this request-- or, as I now saw it, this offer? Was the concept as unthinkable for him as it was for me? Something occurred to me dimly, that perhaps not all types of Pokemon possessed the same condescending attitude toward other types as Fire Pokemon did. Perhaps he saw me as his equal, or even his superior.

At the heart of it was my own identity. Was I Fire? Was I Electric? Both? Neither? Who did I want to be? Did it really matter?

I became aware that he was moving closer to me. I met his movement, and at last I tasted him. The taste was nothing short of magnificent. In a very odd way, he tasted exactly like he smelled. It was the first time I had ever kissed, but somehow I could not imagine a Fire Pokemon tasting anything like this.

We pulled apart. No commentary was exchanged on the event itself. Later we might talk about it, but for then, it seemed as though questioning the moment might cause it to burst like a soap bubble. Instead, the first spoken words were Snap's, coming in a voice quite different from his usual one. ((You're quite a bit larger than me.))

((You're quite a bit smaller than me.))

((We'll work something out.)) There was no need to specify exactly what would be worked out. Perhaps neither of us really knew. It did not matter.

The second kiss was much longer and even sweeter, if such a thing were possible. It drowned, at least for the moment, all the fears and anxieties I'd felt since childhood, transforming them into a glorious sense of excitement and discovery. With it came a feeling that was all but alien to me, the feeling of being able to let myself go, that everything would be all right, that I was safe now. I succumbed to it, letting it carry me where it would.