Chapter 11-Journey to Dark Wood

Chapter 11-Journey to Dark Wood

"Yes" Vincent hissed under his breath as they passed through the main doors. "We did it. We tricked them"

"Yeah, that was great guys" Meowth said. "You almost had me fooled for a minute. I can't believe they fell for it"

"Come to think of it" Brock said slowly. "They did look pretty out of it"

"He injects them with some sort of weak tranquiller," Damon told them. "He does it so that they just do what they're told to do and don't ask any questions. He can't afford to have his cover blown so he takes heavy precautions when he's around. Most of them are just like human robots. If you ask me, it's a rotten life"

"Yeah, I bet it is" Brock agreed. "So how are we going to get to this temple place then?"

"Don't panic. We're riding, that's how," Damon told him. "Tauros, Ponyta, I choose you"

"Two pokemon, and six people" Ash said slowly. "We need at least one more. But I have no pokemon that we could ride"

"I have Onix" Brock suggested. Damon shook his head. "Too big" he pointed out. "They'd see us coming a mile off. I think I'd better use Pidgeot, but he's a difficult one to handle. Ash, Brock, can you take Tauros? He's the easiest of the three. Just sit on him and let him do the work. It'll be okay. Vincent, I think I'd better take Ponyta, then Jessie and Meowth can come on with me. Will you and Gary take Pidgeot? If you keep low, he won't cause you any trouble. Just keep up with us, okay?"

"Okay, sure" Vincent agreed. "Come on Gary. You'll have to hold on to me, otherwise you might fall off. Pidgeot is a very difficult pokemon to handle"

Five minutes later, they were heading north towards the mountains. Sol-leks was running along beside Ponyta, and Damon checked continuously to make sure he wasn't getting too tired. Pidgeot was flying just above them, and for once he was behaving himself. Tauros wasn't far in front of them and whenever he began to play up, Damon just called out an order and Tauros would settle down again. It was a pretty easy journey, apart from when Pidgeot flew upside down and Vincent and Gary almost fell off. Luckily, Vincent's psychic powers were strong enough to keep them on. Gary just clung onto Vincent, his face pale, not saying a word. Occasionally, Vincent would turn around and ask him if he was okay. All he got was a nod.

By the time they reached the bottom of the mountains, it was almost too dark to see. As everyone sat down, all of them exhausted after the day's journey, Vincent and Damon made a campfire and they all had something to eat. Then slowly, they all began to drop off to sleep. Jessie and Meowth fell asleep first, followed by Gary. Brock and Ash stayed awake a little while longer, but they too soon fell asleep. When he was sure that everyone else was asleep, Vincent took off his cloak and put it over Gary, brushing his cheek slightly as he did.

"You really care about that kid, don't you?" Damon said quietly, staring into the dancing flames of the campfire. "I can see it in your eyes"

"How's your leg?" Vincent asked, making a desperate effort to change the subject. Damon smiled at him. "It's fine, thanks," he said. "Now answer my question"

"Yeah, I care about him" Vincent said slowly, sitting back next to Damon. "He's a strange guy, on the outside he acts like a jerk, plain and simple. But when he's like this, you can see just how vulnerable he really is. I've only known him for a few days, but in that time I've come to feel very protective of him"

"Yeah, I know what you mean" Damon agreed, poking the dying campfire with a stick. "How do you really feel about him anyway? You can trust me, I promise"

"Damon…I kissed him" Vincent said slowly. Damon sat there, just nodding occasionally as Vincent recounted the events from the night before.

"So then" he said, when Vincent had finished talking. "Gary likes you. If you hadn't liked him, you wouldn't have kissed him. So what's the problem? Do you not like him in that way? Or, is it something else?"

"I like him Damon" Vincent said quietly. "Or maybe I more than like him. But he's so young and his feelings could very well change in time. People will not approve of our relationship and I don't want to drag Gary into a relationship like that if his feelings are going to change. It'll just hurt him and it'll hurt me"

"I can see your point. So what are you going to do?"

"When we stop Jack and get the others back home, I might stay here for a while. Maybe have a journey of my own, collect some more badges, stuff like that. I never really had the chance to do that before"

"No" Damon looked thoughtful. "Vince" he said after a minute. "Did you really mean what you said earlier, you know about not hating me? Because I was just wondering if I could tag along on your journey. I'd understand if you'd rather I didn't, but it would be a good chance for us to spend some time together"

"Of course you can come with me. I'd love that. But right now, I guess we had better get some sleep. Going over those mountains tomorrow is going to be hard"

"Sure thing" Damon agreed. "I'll take first watch. You get some sleep."

"That's fine" Vincent agreed. Then he did something, which shocked himself and Damon. He lent over and hugged his brother.

The next morning, they were all up bright and early. After eating the last of their food, Vincent decided that it was time to leave. Again, Damon brought out his three pokemon and they set off. Like the day before, they spoke very little and just focused on the journey. Vincent and Gary had it easier, as they could just fly, but they stayed just ahead of the others, ready to warn them if there seemed to be any danger. It was a long tiring journey for Ponyta and Tauros and after nearly three hours, Damon called his pokemon to halt.

"It's going to take forever to get over these mountains," he pointed out. "There's a village on the other side, so I think there must be a tunnel through. If we continue like this, my pokemon will be dead before we get to the other side. I can't risk it. Vince, if we search this side, can you fly over and see if you can spot anything?"

"No problem" Vincent positioned himself comfortable on the large bird pokemon, then ordered it into the air. Gary, sitting behind him, tightened his grip on Vincent's waist in terror.

Damon watched them as they flew high over the top of the mountains. "I hope they don't get shot down or anything" he muttered to himself, then noticed the others looking worried. "Relax," he told them. "I was just thinking aloud that's all. The chances of anything happening are small"

"It's alright, we believe you" Ash said slowly, sliding of the Tauros. "Now what are we looking for? An entrance of some kind, right?"

"Yeah, maybe if we spilt up we'll find it quicker" Damon suggested. "If Ash and Brock search one part of the mountain, me Jessie and Meowth can take the other part. Got that? Okay let's go. And scream loudly if anything does happen"

"Alright then" Brock nodded and dragged Ash off to begin their search. "The quicker we find this entrance, the quicker we can get to Misty"

Meanwhile, Gary and Vincent had been flying around for a while, but they couldn't see any way through. They could just make out the village in the distance and finally Vincent urged Pidgeot to fly down to the ground. As they didn't have Pidgeot's pokeball, they couldn't go very far, but they were in luck. A young man had stumbled out of the village and was heading for their direction.

"You strangers" he said pointing at them. "Strangers bad people. You not welcome here"

"Fine then" Vincent held up his hands and backed away. "I just wanted to know, is there a way through the mountains?"

"Mountains" the man looked at Vincent and Gary for a moment. "You must walk through big funny coloured rock," he said finally. "Bad things in cave. People go in, but don't come out. It bad place. You go now, we don't want strangers here"

"I…" Vincent began, but the man had already disappeared. "I think the strangers everyone keeps talking about are Jack and Clive," he said to Gary. "So I guess we had better go back and find a big funny coloured rock to walk through. There must be a secret switch or something"

"Vincent…" Gary touched his arm. "About the other night…"

"There's nothing to say Gary" Vincent said wearily. "We can't change what happened. I'm only trying to think of the solution, which is best for both of us. Please try to understand" He turned back to Pidgeot, not noticing the hurt expression on Gary's face. "Come on" he said quietly. "We'd better go back to the others. They'll be worried"

By the time Vincent and Gary got back, the others had given up and were sitting under a tree, out of the sun. As they landed, Damon called back Pidgeot and turned to his brother.

"We couldn't find anything," he told him. "We searched as hard as we could, but there's no visible entrance"

"No" Vincent said shaking his head. "It's hidden behind a big, funny coloured rock. Did you see any strange rocks?"

"Yeah" Brock said slowly. "Me and Ash found one, but it didn't do anything, so we assumed that it was nothing"

"Come on then" Vincent gave a small sigh as he began walking. "You better take me back to this rock"

Ten minutes later, they were s standing in front of the light brown rock. Vincent stood in front of it, staring at it with his eyes narrowed as he thought hard. "You must walk through big funny coloured rock," he said slowly to himself. "I wonder…"

"We looked all around here," Ash told him. "There's no switches or anything to move it"

"No, there isn't" Vincent said suddenly, startling them all. "And I know why not. Watch"

Before Damon or the others could stop him, he stepped forward towards the rock, holding out his hand. As they all watched in amazement, Vincent's hand disappeared into the rock.

"An illusion" Damon whispered. "I can't believe I never thought of that"

"But I don't understand" Jessie said, as Vincent stepped thought the rock and completely disappeared from sight. "How did he…?"

"That rock has been there for years and years," Damon said slowly. "I guess it was put there by the native people of this island to stop people getting through the mountain. To people like you, it looks like there's a rock there and it doesn't occur to you that you may be able to step through it. Vincent is psychic and I suppose he could sense that something wasn't quite right. I can sort of, but I couldn't have guess what"

"Guys, you coming or what?" Vincent stuck his head out of the rock, making them all jump. "It's dark in here, but I'll get Sol-leks to use Ember and light the way. Hurry, we're running out of time"

"But…" Ash started to say. Vincent grabbed him and pulled him thought the rock. Gary and Brock followed, with Jessie and Damon just behind.

They found themselves in pitch darkness. The 'illusion' blocked off any light from the outside. Also it felt very damp and they all shivered, except Vincent and Damon who still wore their cloaks.

"Sol-leks, use Ember and light up this place a bit," Vincent ordered. As the area around them was lit up, they all glanced around them. There was a long tunnel, which seemed to lead in a long way. The walls were made of rock and, in some places, were very damp. Listening hard, they could hear scurring noises in the distance. "Pokemon" Vincent whispered. "I bet there's a lot around here"

"Probably" his brother agreed. "It might be a good idea if you and Sol-leks go first. Sol-leks could warn us if anything was coming and we could prepare ourselves"

"Fine. Gary, I want you with me. Come here"

"Okay, I'm coming" As Gary went over to Vincent, the older boy could see that he was cold. "Here Gary" he said, unfastening his cloak. "Put this on. It is very cold in here and it could well get colder. This will keep you warm"

"Thanks" Gary slowly took the black cloak and fastened it. Damon glanced at Jessie. "Will you take mine?" he asked. "It's very warm and you must be awfully cold in that outfit"

"What wrong with my…?" Jessie started to say, then changed her mind. "Thank you" she said as he handed her the cloak. "Thank you very much"

"Alright then, if we're ready let's go" Vincent said. "Me, Gary and Sol-leks will go at the front, Ash and Brock you stay in the middle and Jessie, Damon and Meowth come last. Be very, very quiet. Got that?"

He looked round at them and they all nodded. "Fine" he continued. "Follow me"