Chapter 12

Robin's Journey

"aawwn" I yawned, opening my eyes, to stare right into a pair of amber ones. I blinked and Beowulf cocked his head. Satisfied I was awake he jumped off my bed and sat down on the floor. I sat up and almost hit my head on the top bunk, which Raven was sleeping on, with Murkrow perched on the side bar. I looked over at Beowulf who ruffed slightly at me.

"I suppose you want breakfast." I told him. He grinned at me and licked his lips.

"Do you even realize what time it is?" I asked him gruffly. I check my pokegear and glared at Beowulf.

"It's five-thirty in the morning!" Beowulf whimpered plaintively and stared at me with big amber eyes.

"dour houn hou" he whimpered.

"I KNOW your not starving so don't even try it." I told him sharply. He continued to stare at me sadly and I sighed.

"I guess by the time I get up, take a shower, put my clothes on, brush my hair, and get the gear together, it will be time for breakfast." I said to him. He wagged his tail as I got up and got my bathroom things. I looked up at Raven and Murkrow who were still sleeping.

"why didn't you wake them up?" I grumbled to Beowulf who only grinned at me. Grumbling, I went into the bathroom and began the process of waking myself up.
 

I walked out of the bathroom feeling awake and refreshed. Murkrow came down and perched on my shoulder.

"good morning"  I said to her, "I suppose you also want your breakfast like this greedy guy?" I asked her smiling as I pointed to Beowulf. Beowulf smiled and Murkrow nodded. I looked up at Raven who was still asleep.

" tsk tsk. How dare Raven sleep while pokemon are in need of food." I said to them. I looked at Murkrow, "We should wake him up!"

Murkrow cackled quietly at my evil smile. I climbed up the ladder and Murkrow perched on the side of the bed.

"First let's try to wake him gently" I told Murkrow. Nudging Raven, I whispered, "Raven…Wake up."

His only response was to mumble something incoherent and turn over. Murkrow alit upon my shoulder again and squawked, "Murk urk kro" and indicated that she would try to wake him up.

"Be my guest" I told her and she hopped off my shoulder and fluttered right by his ear. She put her beak real close to his ear and let out a VERY loud,

"SQUAWK!"

Raven jumped about three feet in the air, fell off the bed, and landed on the floor. Hard. Murkrow and I laughed as Beowulf peered at him to see if he was alive.

"I guess there's always the direct approach" I said getting down. Raven groaned.

"That was a very mean thing to do" he said looking up at me.

"It wasn't my idea" I said in my defense, "it was your hungry little bird" He glared at Murkrow as she perched on his shoulder.

 "I'm sure you had nothing to do with it" he said to me.

 I grinned at him, "nothing at all." Murkrow nibbled on his ear and crooned. Raven sighed and scratched her beak.

" Can you wait until after I take a shower for your breakfast?" he asked her. She nodded. Raven got up and started to get his stuff. Groaning and mumbling he went into the bathroom.

I looked at the two pokemon and said, "while were waiting for him, I'll start breakfast."

The room we were in that Nurse Joy had provided us in the Pokemon Center, had a small kitchen. I cooked up some food for the four of us, since the rest of our pokemon were with Nurse Joy. Raven came out of the bathroom just as I finished. I put down the food for the pokemon, then handed Raven a bowl of grits.

"thanks" he said as we sat down to eat our breakfast.

"So we're going to Azalea Town?" Raven asked as we ate.

"That's the closest town with a gym." I replied, "so that also means were going through that forest too."

"and catch a totodile right?" Raven asked me, trying to cheer me up. I was still nervous about going through a forest that would be as dark as night.

I smiled at him, "Right!"

Raven, Murkrow, and I finished our breakfast, but of course, Beowulf was still eating his.

"I'll clear up the dishes if you could get the pokemon." Raven offered.

"Alright. I'll meet you downstairs" I said. Then I looked at Beowulf. "Are you coming?" Beowulf glanced up from his bowl, then went back to eating.

"Guess not." I said with a lopsided grin. I went out of our room and down to the hospital part of the center.

"Hello Robin" Nurse Joy greeted me. "Are you ready to pick up your pokemon?"

I smiled at her and replied "Can I please have both Raven's and mine?"

"of course!" she said and went into the back room, then she reappeared with Raven's and my pokeballs.

"Thank you Nurse Joy" I said as she handed me the pokeballs.

"It was my pleasure." She replied, "your pokemon are really well behaved. They were no trouble at all."

"I'm glad they were good" I said smiling. I went over and sat down on a couch to wait for Raven and the pokemon. I didn't have to wait long. Soon after I had sat down, Raven came down with Murkrow on his shoulder and Beowulf besides him.

"Ready to go?" he asked handing me my backpack.

"yep" I said giving him his pokeballs. He clipped them on his belt and we were out the door.

It wasn't long until we were out of the city and on the path leading to the woods. We could see them just ahead. There was a building in front of the entrance. Raven opened the door and we went inside. There was a guard behind a desk messing with a laptop.

He looked up and asked "are you going into the Midnight Woods?" I nodded and he reached beside him. He handed me a folded paper.

"you'll need this." He said, "it's a map. You'll get lost very quickly without it."

"thank you" I replied and gave the map to Raven.

"be careful in these woods." The guard warned us.

"some weird things have been going on"

"like what?" Raven asked as he put the map in his pocket.

"I don't know. Just weird things." The guard said "some people are claiming the woods are haunted. Some say that the mythical pokemon that watches over these woods has turned on it." The guard shook his head and sighed "I don't believe it though. Just peoples imaginations running" Raven and I glanced at each other, me nervous, his amused.

"I think we'll be fine" Raven said, "our pokemon can see in the dark" and he gestured at Murkrow and Beowulf, "and Robin has a Mareep"

The guard smiled, " you came prepared then! Good. You can go now." He waved at the other door, then looked back at his laptop. Raven shrugged and we went through the doors.

It was called Midnight Forest for a good reason. It was as black as night, although it was only seven in the morning. Looking up, all you could see was leaves. Not a speck of sky or sun. I put me hand on Beowulf's ruff. I knew that both he and Murkrow could see just fine. All dark pokemon can see in the dark.

"now would be a good time to call out Bo" Raven reminded me. I reached for her pokeball and let her out.

"Maaareeep!" she said rubbing her cheek on my leg.

I stroked her wool then asked "Bo, could you light up your tail so we can see were we are going?"

Bo nodded and her tail started to glow a steady yellow, lighting up the area around us like a lamp would. From what I could see, there appeared to be a path.

I pointed it out and Raven said "it does look like some sort of path." He took out the map and nodded. "Looks like if we follow this path and don't get lost, we'll be out of here by tomorrow"

"Just watch us get lost" I muttered as we started walking. Bo was in between Raven and me. Murkrow perched on Raven's left shoulder and Beowulf walked on my right.

Twenty minutes later, we were lost. Here's the situation. I was glaring at Raven who was avoiding looking at me by pretending to study the map. Murkrow was looking apologetic. Bo was sitting against me with a worried look and Beowulf was lying on his side trying to look bored.

"What happened to the path!?" I asked Raven angrily.

"Ummmm, it was here a minute ago…" he said, still not looking at me.

"Great!" I muttered.

"We can't be that lost" Raven said. That wasn't very reassuring.

"We weren't supposed to get lost." I snapped. Beowulf lifted his head and cocked an ear. Bo also turned her head along with Murkrow.

"What is it?" I asked turning away from Raven to face Beowulf. Murkrow flew off Raven's shoulder and started to head toward some trees. Beowulf followed her.

"wait a sec!" I called. Splitting up was not a good idea. Bo and I ran in the direction Murkrow and Beowulf were going, Raven bringing up the rear. Murkrow was perched on a tree branch watching something that was being blocked by bushes. Beowulf had his head poked in them.

"Do you hear that?" Raven asked me.

"It sounds like singing, but it's a little off key" I replied.

We parted the bushes a little and to my surprise, we saw a group of Totodiles! There was a small pond in a slight clearing in the trees. In the middle of the pond was a rock that two Totodiles were dancing on. The one that was slightly in front of the other had front teeth that came down on his lower lip and looked like fangs. The other was dancing a little behind him. In the pond were about five other Totodiles. They were swimming around the rock, diving under, then jumping up. On the shore were about four more all doing a slightly different dance.

Each totodile was singing "Toto toto DIIILE, Toto toto DIILE!" in a slightly off key voice. I giggle slightly. The totodiles looked so happy. The Totodile with the fangs looked up in our direction.

"he sees us!" Raven whispered. The totodile jumped off his rock swam to shore then came up to our bush. The other Totodiles stopped dancing and singing and looked at us.

"Umm Hi" I said hesitantly, waving a little. The fanged Totodile cocked his head at us then grinned. Showing all his teeth.

"Totodile!" he said happily and grabbed my hand. Beowulf started to growl but stopped when he led me to a grassy spot.  He beckoned to Raven and the rest then bowed.

"To dile ot to ile dile!" he said and pointed to his fangs then to himself. I caught on.

" We are very pleased to meet you Fang" I said.

"I'm Robin, this is Raven, Murkrow, and Beowulf." Fang danced around us then turned to the rest of the Totodiles.

"TOTODILE!" he shouted.

"TOTODILE!" the rest replied and they started to dance again. Then Fang winked at us, went back to his rock and they all started to dance and sing, but now they were showing off. They started doing flips and turns that I had to laugh and clap at.

I took out my Pokedex and it said "Totodile the energetic pokemon. The only thing they love more than dancing is to have an audience to watch them." 

The dancing and singing lasted for about an hour. When they had finished, the totodiles bowed to us then went to go do random other activities. Fang came over to us, with the Totodile that had danced behind him, tagging along.

"Toto dile dil to" he said to Beowulf. Beowulf turned to me and gestured to the other totodile, then flicked a piece of dirt.

"His name is Flick?" I asked and the other Totodile smiled and nodded.

"They look like brothers" Raven observed.

"Dile!" Fang and Flick exclaimed happily.

"I guess they are" I said laughing.

Suddenly Murkrow screeched and the other totodiles roared in surprise as a giant steel net fell from the treetops onto them. I looked up and saw what looked like a metal Fearow flying around in the treetops. Bo whimpered and crept behind me. Fang and Flick rushed over to the net, only to have the metal Fearow drop a smaller one on them! 

I spun around when I heard laughing behind me. There were the two boys who had hurt Bo.

"What do you think your doing?!?" I shouted at them. One of the boys had a bandage from when Beowulf had bitten him.

He smirked and said "we're going to take all these totodiles and sell them to the highest bidder." The other boy had a remote in his hand. He pushed a button and the metal Fearow swooped down and picked up the nets with the totodiles in them.

"No you won't!" Raven shouted and Murkrow flew up and started to attack the metal fearow.

"You too Falcon!" I cried and released her to go and attack it too.

"Stop that!" the boy with the bandage said and threw out a pokeball. Out came a Hitmonchan. The other boy released a Hitmonlee. "Go Bayleef!" Raven shouted.

"Bay!"

"Bo go!" I yelled.

Bo thundershocked the Hitmonchan and Bayleef razor leafed the Hitmonlee. Neither of the fighting pokemon were well trained though and they both fainted. Suddenly we heard a cracking sound. Murkrow and Falcon had gotten the Metal Fearow to release  the net with all the totodiles in it by attacking that foot. Now the totodiles were falling out!

"NO!" the boys cried and one started to make a grab for the remote. Beowulf grabbed it and crunched it in his jaws before the boy could get it.

"Bayleef vine whip!" Raven yelled in desperation as the totodiles fell. Bayleef let loose four vines and caught four of the Totodiles. Two more were caught by Murkrow and Falcon. The other three Raven caught

"We still have two of the totodiles!" The boy with the bandage sneered.

"Not for long!" I shouted.

"Beowulf Ember!" Beowulf shot out flames that melted the other foot. Now Fang and Flick were falling! Beowulf and I both jumped up and I caught Fang while Flick landed on Beowulf's back. I fell to the floor, still clutching Fang and Beowulf landed with Flick clutching him. The boys had run and the Fearow had crashed some where in the forest. 
 

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I looked down at Fang who was hugging me.

"Your welcome" I told him, "you should go check on your friends"

He sprang up and, with Flick, he went over to the group of totodiles. Bo and Beowulf nuzzled me and Falcon perched on my shoulder, looking worn out. I didn't even bother to get up. Raven, Murkrow, and Bayleef came over.

 Raven sat down next to me and asked "are you okay?"

I smiled at him. "I'm fine. I just can't believe those same boys were trying to take all these totodiles."

"Same boys?" Raven asked confused.

"those were the ones that were with Bo" I explained.

"when we get out of this forest, we will have to tell the police." Raven pointed out.

I groaned and said "if we get out of this forest! We're still lost!"

Raven also groaned and we both flopped down on our backs. A blue snout stuck itself in my face and I sat up. The totodiles had surrounded us. As one they started to dance around us and sing "toto diile, toto diile" I smiled and Fang came up to me. He pointed to my pokeballs them pointed to himself.

"You want me to capture you?" I asked him in amazement.

"Dile!" he said happily and did a peace symbol.

 "are you sure?" I said hesitantly. He jumped in my lap and hugged me, and I took that as a yes.

"alright then!" I said and I captured him. The other totodiles and Flick exclaimed

"DILE!" happily as I let out Fang again. Then they all started to dance again. To my surprise and amusement Beowulf, Bo, Falcon, Murkrow, and Bayleef joined them.

Raven grabbed my hand, "come on!" he said and we started to dance too.

A while later we were at the exit of the forest. Flick had been kind enough to show us a short cut out of the forest. I was feeling good. I now had four pokemon, three of them in their pokeballs, and we were out of that forest! The first stop in Azalea town was the police station where we told Officer Jenny about every thing that happened in the forest. She promised that she would do her best to find and arrest those boys. Then we went to the Pokemon Center where we let our pokemon get rejuvenated. Raven and I sat on a couch at the pokemon center and discussed what to do next, while we waited for our pokemon.

Phew! I'm exhausted. It's almost 11 :30 and I haven't even eaten yet! I'm off to refuel. See ya next time!