The next day in class, Tina seemed to be filled with a whole new life. Even the most boring lectures were a welcome experience, and she couldn't keep herself from grinning. Now, she still couldn't help but stare out at the forests in full bloom, but it was only because their beauty warranted admiration. {I still wanna be out there… But I'll have plenty of time for that after class.}

The day was slow until sixth hour, when her teacher announced a special treat. Standing, she called the First-years to attention and said with a smile, "Will everyone please take out their books and open them to page 57?" The entire class let out a synchronized groan of annoyance, then tugged out their red and white textbooks. The teacher grinned again, "And leave them on your desks while you line up at the door."

Smiles and laughs ran through the class as they gladly pulled on their jackets and lined up at the door, no grin wider than Tina's. {Outside!} She tried to get a grip on herself as she took her place at the end of the line. {I'm acting like such a little kid…} She fought back a laugh as they stepped out of the shadowed school hallway into the bright, untainted sunlight. {…But I don't care! I'm outside!}

________________________

Tina yawned and stretched. {Just how long is this walk going to last?} She'd been expecting a trail through the woods, not a bike path around it, and would actually have preferred bookwork to this taunting. The breeze blew her hair back gently, teasing her, it seemed.

"Now, stay on the trail!" the teacher reminded her students. At the end of the line, Tina grumbled to herself as she yawned again.

Just then, slightly ahead of her on the track, she spotted a shaded trail, hardly a footpath but still slightly distinguishable, and she bit her lip. As she neared the shaded way, something in the back of her mind seemed to scream, This is your trail. TAKE IT!

She slowed her pace to drop back behind the rest of the students as she sent her idea to Taja. {There's our escape route!} She held her breath as she stepped off the bike trail, walking away from the group slowly and quietly, so they wouldn't notice her disappearance. As soon as the parade of students was out of earshot, she jumped into the air, shouting for the joy of her freedom.

"I did it!" she cried. "I actually did it; I escaped!" With that, she left even the hardly worn foot trail and headed deeper into the woods, running as fast as she could and breathing the cool, free air. "Nobody can tell me where to go now!"

{I don't think we were supposed to do that…} Taja sent to her friend. {Don't you think we'll get in trouble?}

"Well, she said not to leave the trail, and we didn't." A small, satisfied grin crossed her face. "We just took a different one than everyone else!"

There was no turning back now. Tina had taken the first steps toward freedom, and they were coming easier and easier as she breathed the free air. Then, off in the distance from behind a curtain of trees, she heard the clear song of falling water. She dashed toward the music, entranced by the melody.

She burst into the clearing and was almost immediately rendered breathless. Never before had she seen anything of such beauty, even the Tundra Falls. There, on the outskirts of the field, pouring down from the high rock wall of the bordering cliffs, was a crystal clear waterfall. It billowed down in a ribbon of blue and green into a round silver pool, its feet shrouded in the mist, then followed a babbling azure stream downhill and away from her.

Here, the birds were singing in a perfect harmony with the cascade. Everything seemed in perfect balance and nothing could ever be out of place. There could be no evil here. Suddenly, upon a large stone landing in the center of the lake, there came an aqua-colored shimmer that was similar to water, but different. A new kind of song mingled itself with the birds and stream. Light and graceful, but also powerful, yet sad, somehow; ageless, it sounded. {What could be making such lovely music?}

Taja tugged at Tina's pant leg and motioned with her eyes to the stone, where there now lay a creature of unparalleled elegance. It appeared to be some sort of dog, as sleek as a hunter, but sophisticated as royalty and just as cold. It was a perfect blue, with white diamonds running up its hind legs and a flowing amethyst mane. Upon its head, there was a tall, crown-like crest, and all its form shone in the sun like water itself, and seemed to glow with its own power.

Tina stood in awe, staring at the creature, almost hypnotized by it. Before she had a chance to snap herself out of her daze, it spotted her and swiftly, nimbly bounded away into the forest, disappearing in the shadows.

It took the stunned girl a moment to remember how to speak, sitting down on the ground. "That… That was Suicune," she said to herself as she laid back and stared up through the trees at the sky. Taja snuggled beside her, just as amazed as she was. Tina drew a deep breath and sighed. "Wow… And I got to see it!"

She continued musing to herself about its majesty for longer than she could tell. The crest, the mane, the song… That was Suicune. Before she knew it, the sun had fallen, and it must have been late afternoon, at least four o' clock. She committed the place to memory and made a note of every detail of the day before she stood, slinging her backpack on and took to the trails back towards the school, walking as slowly as humanly possible.

The sky had grown darker and early evening had come when Tina emerged from the woods, still laughing and humming Suicune's song. Nothing, it would seem, could've dampened her spirits at that moment... Not even Tyler, it would seem…

"I told you!" he sneered, pointing at Tina and nudging Jean with his elbow. "I told you she was still in there!" He turned his attention to her with a cocky grin, "Get lost, freak?"

She just kept grinning and walking past him, as if she didn't even notice him. At the door to her dorm building, however, there awaited another surprise.

"Lose sight of the group, Ms. Oak?" Madame Ferne inquired, seeming to be fishing for a specific answer. "Or did you simply lose interest in our walk?"

The student looked down at her sneakers, knowing that she was indeed very caught. "No, ma'am, I chose to leave the path…" She raised her eyes to look into her teacher's. "…I wanted to take a different one."

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Tyler, that smug smirk on his face, the one that made he just want to slap him sometimes. It was quickly replaced by an open-mouthed gape with a sudden word from the teacher, "Congratulations!"

The exclamation took Tina by surprise just as much as it had Tyler. "C-congratulations?" she stammered, puzzled. "What did I do?"

It was Madame Ferne's turn to smile, not a sly grin, but a warm one. "You left the trail." Tina tilted her head to one side, trying to understand just what was meant. "You didn't follow the path laid before you," she explained, placing a hand on her shoulder and opening the dorm door, "you showed the promise of a true trainer and dared to make your own. It's that attitude that will set you apart and make you a true champion."