Hmm. Wow. Short chapter, mucho schoolwork, and massive headache. There's more interesting notes and whatnot after the chapter. I was going to torture you all some more and wait until Friday to update, but Melani's all...UPDATE...and...stuff. Wow that's a lot of periods.

Onto chapter. AHHH. –falls over-

~Chapter Twenty-Nine~

I wondered how the heck I was going to find a guy dressed completely in black in a forest in the middle of the night, but luckily Kitsune had his Psychic senses tuned in, and we found Darrell in this little clearing about eight feet in diameter.

"Darrell!" I cried softly, flinging my arms around him again. He looked mildly surprised, but responded by pulling me closer towards him.

"I really missed you while you were away," I whispered. "I'm so happy to see you."

"I figured," he said, and I thought I detected a smirk in his answer.

We pulled apart a little, but still held on to each other. "So did you really travel across the Hoenn waters just to get here?" I asked.

He nodded. "I couldn't really stand the thought of never seeing you again...so I figured, why not just not see you for a month instead of never again?"

I was speechless. He really had come all this way just...just to be with me...

"And I've heard stories of Dragon Pokemon being around here."

My happy lovey-dovey fantasy world was smashed to pieces. Okay. . .so being with me was part of the reason he had come. But I could handle that, as long as he wanted to see me at all. Just being with him now made me realize how much I had really missed him in the month of his absence. . .and how much I really loved him.

We both decided to sit down, and Darrell fanned out his coat so I wouldn't have to sit on the dirt. This caused me to be sitting extremely close to him, and I can't say that I minded. I leaned my head on his chest and his fingers were in my hair as we talked and stared up at the starless sky, with Kitsune running around somewhere.

Darrell chucked out Umbreon's Pokeball, and the two Eevee evolutions ran off into the forest playing tag or something. I wasn't paying attention to them at the moment.

"So..." I started, wanting to ask him something, but I had to really work up the courage. "Do you have any idea why Mom called you...called you..."

Try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to say that name. Why was I so afraid of saying it? It was just a name for crying out loud.

"...That name," I finally finished.

He shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea who this Anthony could be."

I winced, but Darrell didn't notice. "As far as I know, there's no one called Anthony in my family. Then again, I haven't talked to my parents in so long, it's possible there is," he shrugged. "Does your mother have some kind of grudge against this guy?"

It was my turn to shrug. "I have no clue. She never tells me anything. Neither does my dad."

We were both silent, and I thought about what Darrell had just said...'I haven't talked to my parents in so long...'  And I had a sudden urge to ask him about his life prior to leaving home, something I never really thought about.

"Say Darrell..."

"Hmm?"

"Why did you leave your parents in the first place? I mean, you were so young and all..."

He sighed, but after that, was silent for so long, I thought he might've fallen asleep or something. "Darrell?"

He sighed again, and looked up even higher at the sky. "I left because they wanted me to become something I knew I could never be."

I looked up too, but not at the sky; at Darrell. He looked more serious than ever as he continued: "My mother and father were both called Hunter, even before they were married. As far as I knew, they had no idea why they even married---Hunter is not a common surname, and it was possible they might be related but they did so anyway.

"When I was really young, my father brought home something, and being the child that I was, I begged to see it. It was a Pidgey---only it had been speared, right through its heart."

I gasped, but Darrell spoke on: "I was completely disgusted, but somewhat intrigued. A part of me thought that would actually be interesting, spearing Pokemon for the pure fun of it. When I was seven, though, I learned the truth." He paused before continued, and I realized this was incredibly hard for him to tell.

"I learned that being a Hunter was a literal thing: You hunted Pokemon."

I gasped again. "Wha. . .what?"

"Not in the way another type of 'Pokemon hunter' would hunt them---I mean, they just use nets or Pokeballs or something...but a Hunter by blood would actually have to kill them."

"But...why?"

"Apparently, all humans who come from the Hunter lineage believe that Pokemon are secondary creatures, and that humans are the superior beings. I once heard my father saying we would destroy all unneeded Pokemon---common ones, I guess---and only the 'superior humans' and 'superior Pokemon' would be dominant.

"So when I learned the truth, I just left. I couldn't take it. Shortly after, I found my Pokeballs and got myself an Eevee, which became Umbreon, and then Absol a few years ago."

"That's...awful," I whispered. "How could people even think like that? It's...inhuman."

"Why do you think I left?" he said coldly.

I wrapped my arms around his waist. "I'm sorry," I said. "I know...that's your family I'm talking about. I just...can't believe it." I paused. "Anyway, thanks for telling me."

"You don't mind?"

"No," I said---even though a small part of me nagged that, in fact, I did mind. But why?

"Superior Pokemon..." I said. "What kind of Pokemon would be superior? Not one is the all-time strongest, or so I've heard."

"The Legendary Pokemon, I guess," he shrugged. "Lugia, Articuno, Moltres, Zapdos, Mew, Suicune..." he listed.

I nodded in agreement before he added, "And Dragon Pokemon."

I stopped nodding. "Dragon types? Why them?"

Darrell looked a bit uncomfortable for some reason. "My father was telling me, a long time ago, that Dragon Pokemon are the most superior of all. After all, they can learn almost any type of attack, and they fool you with their pretty looks."

I was also starting to feel uncomfortable. "So is that why you want to find a Dragon Pokemon?" I asked. "Because you want it to rule the world or whatever with you?"

Darrell stopped staring at the sky and stared at me instead, for a full minute. "Tell me Lindsey Tamer," he said in...that voice, the one that was so unlike his own. "Why do you care about Dragon Pokemon so much?"

I didn't answer right away. "Da…Darrell?" I stuttered.

That voice wasn't his. And as I looked at him more...those eyes weren't his. Sure they were dull but not...completely lost of any shine. "Darrell?" I whispered again.

He blinked, and his eyes were normal again. "Yeah?"

"N...nothing," I replied slowly. What the heck had that been?

He suddenly looked up again at that starless sky, and I started to stand up. "I should go," I said, still majorly weirded out at what had just happened. "Uh, Steve and, um, Ivy are coming over tomorrow for...stuff."

Darrell stood up in one sweep and helped me the rest of the way up. "Okay," he said. "I'll be back here tomorrow...actually, I guess I'll just stay back here. No sense in going anywhere else."

"Yeah, I guess."

He leaned down and kissed me goodnight. Though I usually love being with Darrell, those eyes really freaked me out and I couldn't wait to go home.

"Well...goodnight," I said when the kiss was over. I called Kitsune back, and we ran through the forest and back to the house. Kit easily Teleported back to my room, but I climbed up the side of the house, grumbling the whole time and wondering how the heck Steve did it practically every day.

~*~*~

Because he's one of the heroes, that's why :P

OKAY! Wow...reviews and such. –jumps up and down like a schoolgirl- YIPPIE! A PERFECT EXCUSE NOT TO DO HOMEWORK!

Karania Avalon~ Wahahaha, continue I shall. Heh, sorry if I'm being a buttmonkey on AIM or whatever. 'Ooo' and 'w00t' are big words for me ^.^;;

Opaltiger~ Wow! Thanks for all the reviews! ^_^ Ha, I saw the amount and was all, "WOAH! Did I get THAT many new readers or something?" Ha, wishful thinking...anyway, thanks for reviewing you silent reader you :P In answer to your question for the review for Chapter Sixteen, I think it would be just having a similar idea. Robin Ryan has something like the Dragon Den (a Flareon Cave) in her fic, Melani: Flareon Tamer, so if you do something like that, it wouldn't be copying. If you do something EXACTLY like it though, I will get mad. ~_^ Though you wouldn't do that now, would you?

Oh yeah, and I prefer Dragonairs. They are seksi, no? ^.~ -hands you gummy things-

Rose~ Eh heh...let me tell you something, at the rate I'm going she's not going to end up in the Den for quite some time...so go Dificil. You is smart. Which is more than I can say for myself at the moment. X_X

Zero_Chan~ O_O...wow. Should I be flattered? ;D And –gasp- how dare Lurk find my 'interesting' and 'absolutely-incredibly-spectacular' ficanoid less interesting than Ruby?! That's it, he's off the understudies for Steve.

Steve: HEY!

Ha...just kidding. ^.~

Steve: About what?

...

-cough- Anyway...wow my brain hurts. Um, I shall update Friday! I have a feeling all of you...well, most of you, anyway...are going to reeeeally like the next chapter...bwahahaha...