It took me a while to compose myself. All the emotions I'd saved up along the journey so far were finally being released, so it was hard to stop. I sat on the steps down from the conjoined bathroom, letting everything pour out. After some time, Riolu and Dusty gave up trying to comfort me and just let all my feelings come out naturally. They awkwardly stood behind me with their backs turned, occasionally checking to see if I was done.
Finally, after some time, as I felt the last of the tears drip down my cheeks, I took a deep breath. The sobbing was unstoppable, but I still spoke anyway.
"G-guys… I-I'm sorry for… All this crying." They turned towards me with uncertain looks on their faces. "I… I don't think I'm f-fit to travel any… anymore today. L-Look. I know you g-guys are tired… So, don't worry about m-me… I'll get… Over this. Please, f-find somewhere to r-rest…" Riolu and Dusty looked at each other before coming over and picking me up off the step. Dusty grabbed me by my arms and Riolu hoisted my feet above his head.
"Wh-where are you taking me?" I asked as they carried me up through the upstairs hallway and into the master bedroom. They then softly placed me atop the bare mattress and stepped away. "Oh… I see. You guys are t-taking care of me now, huh?" The two of them couldn't help but smile at my response. Seeing their kindness stopped my sobbing and cleared my mind a bit. With a sniffle, I added,
"Thank you. Both of you. I… I need to sleep. Feel free to look around the house for supplies and food… But please get some rest soon too. Don't overdo it." They nodded and walked out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind them. I listened in as they headed down the stairs, quietly conversing with each other.
As soon as they were out of earshot, I rolled over and stared at the ceiling, letting out an annoyed sigh. I was embarrassed that I'd let all my grief and sadness out right in front of my partners, but what was done was done. What I really needed to do was to focus on the road ahead, but the thoughts of my missing family and all the what-if questions from before continued to cloud my thinking. I eventually gave up trying to suppress them and shut my eyes, letting my mind wander until the exhaustion set in and I passed out.
Hours later, I woke up with an even stiffer neck in the last of the daylight. Outside, I could hear the wind whipping against the house, causing the foundation to creak. Slowly sitting up, I pulled my PokéNav out of my pocket and turned on the display. The blinding light paralyzed me for a second before I came to and saw the clock read "7:54 PM."
As my mind came to, the troubling thoughts reentered, and I felt depressed once again. But at the same time, my stomach growled, and the bad thoughts were replaced with me realizing how hungry I was.
Struggling to get out of bed, I heard a noise from the back corner of the room and shined my PokéNav display in that direction. I found Dusty lying on the hardwood floor facing the wall, sound asleep. Atop the dresser next to him, Riolu slept upon an old sweater. I smiled knowing they chose to sleep next to me and not in another room. Delicately tiptoeing towards the door, I opened it and stepped out as quietly as possible; I almost tripped up when I saw what was at my feet outside.
All kinds of unopened drinks and foods lay in a semicircle at my feet, carefully placed. My smile grew bigger and I could feel my cheeks get warm. Gently closing the door, I scooped up as much as I could carry and took it down the hall to somewhere away from where Dusty and Riolu were sleeping.
As I wolfed down all the stale snacks and sipped on all the sugary drinks to my heart's content on the step down in the den, I looked out at the room I'd once cherished. It probably wasn't the most ideal place to eat with all the dust but trying to go down either one of the old staircases would be too noisy.
Even though everything was gone, I still felt a heartfelt connection to the space somehow. Sure, it was sad that all the things that gave the room character were gone, but that's just how life works sometimes.
"People get older, things change, and nothing is ever the same," I mumbled with a mouth full of rice cake, trying to psyche myself up. But as the tears began to return, I realized that I might not be ready to face that reality. My family and friends had been taken away from me, as well as everything else that made me the way I was. What was the point of fighting if I had nothing to stand for?
Finishing the last of the food, I took a deep breath to calm down but ended up coughing on the stale, dust filled air. I needed to get away from it all. A walk would probably help, I thought to myself. Standing up, I gently kicked an empty soda can off the step and turned around, stepping back up into the conjoined bathroom.
Just past there was my cousin Peter's old room. Peter and his brother Mickey were my aunt and uncles' children, both at least ten years older than myself. They moved off to Arizona looking for job opportunities when I was young, so I never really saw them too much. Their rooms were always the same though because my aunt would take care of them while they were away.
The door to Peter's room was wide open, so I peeked my head inside to take a longer look at what was left. Surprisingly, everything was left almost exactly how I remembered it.
Like many of the other rooms in the house, Peter's bedroom also had weird architecture. There was this sort of greenhouse room in the back of the room with glass doors leading inside; it was small, had plenty of windows, and was always cold. Unfortunately, all the windows were boarded off and the room lost its interesting nature.
My nostalgia was beginning to cloud my mind, so I took a peek in his closet to find a bunch of button-down shirts; Peter's favorites. I revolted when the intense musty smell hit me, almost as if no one had opened the closet in years.
Walking out of Peter's room, I shined my light onto the crawl space door, which was adjacent to the three-step staircase that led up the hallway to the master bedroom. My relatives always called it a crawl space, even though the room was quite large and had plenty of room to stand. It was more of an upstairs storage room than anything, holding most of my relatives' extra things inside. I hadn't been in there since I was a kid, when my aunt took me inside to look at some old family keepsakes. Suddenly, I got a curious feeling and an urge to explore the crawl space. Why not? I haven't been inside in years…
I crept over to the door and twisted the knob, pulling it back. It stuck for a second before opening, instantly filling the room with a not-as-potent musty scent. The crawl space was pitch black, and I could hardly make out the insides with just the light from outside. The PokéNav's flashlight easily revealed a long, narrow room lined with rows of odds and ends, a lot of it piled up on top of itself to the ceiling and some overflowing inside storage containers. Large pieces of old furniture adorned the outsides room as well. I shrugged and stepped inside, not fully shutting the door behind me.
Shining my phone all around the room, it caught on the surrounding objects, casting all kinds of shadows along the floors and walls. As I glanced at all the keepsakes, I found a bunch of things I'd never seen before, although much of it was old clothing and furniture. Weaving around all the stuff, I eventually made my way to the back of the attic to find a single wardrobe against the wall. Strangely, it was tilted in one direction and almost felt like a draft was coming from under it. I scanned the old piece of furniture over and shuffled around it to the side to find the answer. Just behind, a hidden staircase loomed, moonlight flowing in from the top.
Surprised to make such a discovery there, I carefully squeezed through the small crack between the wall so I didn't cause too much noise, and slowly headed up the staircase. Fortunately, the stairs were built into the wood of the house, so they didn't creak under my weight. As soon as my head crested the top, my eyes filled with wonder.
I was standing in the steeple at the top of the house! I was suddenly filled with joy, finally inside the room I'd always wanted to go into. The walls were painted the same color as the exterior of the house and the panoramic windows extended out from the sides, going almost all the way to the top. Past that, the wood above the windows curved upwards into a single point at the apex. The window parallel to the street on a metal hinge was ajar, letting in a cool breeze. Cobwebs in the window frames and in the corners of the tall steeple danced in the cool wind.
Looking outside, I noticed the clouds from this morning had melted away and a nearly full moon lit up the skies; stars twinkled brightly around it without the normal light pollution. From up there, I could see the entire neighborhood and even into parts of town a couple blocks away, all the lightless structures wrapped in a natural, milky moonlight. Scanning the area, my eyes caught on a moving figure about two streets down. Based on its swollen body structure, it had to be a Buzzwole roaming the area. I ducked down at first, but then realized there was no way it would be able to see me from that distance in the dark. Even so, as it fluttered out of sight behind a brick apartment building, I still sighed a breath of relief.
In the middle of the room was a leather lounge chair that looked like it had seen better days, with a small, rickety end table next to it; the outsides of the space were littered with empty beer bottles. Walking up behind the furniture, I noticed there was some kind of wooden object face down atop the end table.
Upon closer inspection, I found it to be a toppled over picture frame, surrounded by broken glass. I put my PokéNav into my pocket with the flashlight still on before carefully picking the frame up. Flipping it over, I noticed how old the photograph was, as the paper was yellowing, and the background looked out of focus. The picture was in front of a familiar looking house, where two people stood side by side, smiling. To their left was a sign that read "Sold,"; one woman and one man.
As soon as I recognized my aunt and uncles' faces, something shot through me. Tears began to well in my eyes again, but I stopped them this time. I wasn't going to let my emotions control me anymore. What had happened was sad, but I needed to let everything go if I wanted to function. Yet, my mind still raced as I told myself this, while the what-if questions began to bounce around again. What if I don't save the world? What if Necrozma or the Ultra Beasts find me? What if I end up losing Dusty and Riolu? What if I let everyone down? What if–
As the questions multiplied, I began to feel worse and worse. Suddenly the wind picked up and pulled the picture from behind the broken glass and upwards into the air, causing it to float towards the window. I tried to grab for it, but it was just out of reach. The picture of my aunt and uncle flew out of the window and glided with the breeze. It passed by the moon creating a brief silhouette, and then out of view behind the roof.
I could feel something welling in my throat as tears began to form again when I focused my attention across the street. On top of the roof of another house, a shadowy figure stood. Wiping my eyes and leaning forward, I squinted to get a better look. It was lanky, on all fours, and seemed to have a long, somewhat spiky tail. My heart started to race; it didn't seem to be an Ultra Beast, but was it a friend or a foe?
Just then, the figure turned its head towards me, and I saw two green eyes glowing in the dark, like when you see a nocturnal animal at night. Surprised, I took a step back. Then, without hesitation, the figure leaped into the air and out of my sight. Rushing back to the window, I swiftly looked around, trying to find where it had gone. Then to my side, I suddenly heard a loud thump. I whipped around and saw the figure up close in the window behind me.
"Woah!" I yelped, taking my flashlight out of my pocket and blinding both of us. When I regained my composure, I recognized the creature standing just outside the window. It was a large black cat of some kind, spotted with yellow dots and some red around its eyes. In front of me, a Liepard stood.
The Liepard began to walk around the steeple, heading for the open window. It kept its eyes on me the whole time, the gleaming pupils boring into my soul. Instead of running away to get help or closing the window, I stood frozen. I used up all my willpower letting my emotions out earlier, and I was still too tired to bolt.
There was plenty of space for the Liepard to come in behind the window, so it reached its left paw in first and then its right paw. I backed up until my back was against the opposite window, nearly tripping on the chair and stumbling over the beer bottles. The slender cat fit its body through in no time and was now standing before me.
"Uh…" I said quietly, at a loss for words. It continued to approach me, its eyes never leaving mine for a moment. My heart raced even faster and I felt a nervous sweat forming on my forehead. Once it was within arm's length, I closed my eyes, expecting an attack. Strangely, I felt the Liepard's soft paw on my leg.
"Lie, Lie." It said in a surprisingly high-pitched voice that kind of reminded me of a cat's meow. Slowly reopening my eyes, Liepard was laying down at my feet, pointing to its neck with a free paw. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be wearing a crudely made chain-link necklace with a Poké Ball connected in the middle. Placing the flashlight on one of the chair's arms to supply me with a supple amount of light to see, but not enough to blind the Liepard again, I bent down to eye level with the oversized cat.
"Oh... You want me to have this?" I asked. Liepard nodded yes, still staring at me with a blank expression. Seeing as it didn't have any immediate malicious intentions, I calmed down and untensed my muscles. Reaching for the necklace, Liepard lifted its head up so I could easily retrieve it; I pulled it off and held the Poké Ball in my hand, letting the chain dangle. Oddly enough, the Poké Ball felt a little heavier than usual, as if there was something inside. Pressing the middle button of the Ball, the device opened, revealing a folded piece of loose-leaf paper with my name on the outside. "A letter...?"
I pulled out the note and slipped the necklace back onto Liepard. I walked around the big cat and sat down on the chair, holding the flashlight in my other hand to see the writing. The letter looked hastily done, the handwriting done in messy blue ink with all uppercase letters. It was then that I realized there was only one person I knew who wrote that way. This… This is from my mother! What does she have to say?! I thought before immediately unraveling the folded paper and flipping to the other side.
DEAR LUKAS,
HOW IS YOUR ADVENTURE GOING? I HEARD FROM A POKÉMON NAMED UXIE THAT YOU WERE CHOSEN TO SAVE THE POKÉMON WORLD. AS MUCH AS I WAS SAD TO SEE YOU GONE, I KNOW THAT YOU'LL BE IN SAFE HANDS. THINGS HAVEN'T BEEN THE BEST SINCE YOU LEFT, BUT I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT I'M DOING JUST FINE BACK HOME. A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO, MONSTERS FLEW DOWN FROM THE SKY AND ATTACKED OUR TOWN. MANY PEOPLE WERE TAKEN AWAY BY THEM, BUT I WAS SAFE WITH BLASTY AND ZABU. YOU WERE RIGHT, POKÉMON REALLY ARE SOMETHING ELSE! CURRENTLY, WE'RE HUNKERED DOWN IN THE BASEMENT OF THE TOWN LIBRARY WITH A COUPLE OF OTHER SURVIVORS – WE'RE DOING EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING WE CAN TO HELP OUT. I WROTE THIS LETTER BECAUSE I WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW THAT YOU MAKE YOUR MOMMA PROUD. SAVE THE WORLD FOR ME, CHAMP. WE'RE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU BACK HOME! I LOVE YOU VERY MUCH! I'M SENDING ZABU TO DELIVER THIS LETTER… SHE'S MISSED YOU GREATLY SINCE YOU LEFT! TAKE CARE OF HER FOR ME!
XOXO, -MOMMA
Reading my mother's genuine signature over and over again, I felt like I was going to explode. This was by far the best news I'd heard in a while! Knowing that Uxie had heard my request in the forest a couple days ago and that my mom was doing okay was extremely reassuring.
At that moment, I felt the strange sense of determination rekindle inside me, as a wave of confidence washed over my body. For the first time in forever, I felt hope. And although the fates of my father, my relatives, and my friends back home were still uncertain, I knew they had to be counting on me (wherever they were). So, what if I wasn't the best candidate to save the Pokémon world? My partners and I were the only ones who could do something about it. Even with the weight of two worlds weighing down on my shoulders, I clenched my fist and slipped the letter into my shorts pocket with a smile.
I looked down to Zabu who turned her gaze back to me for the moment.
"Zabu… I'm sorry I didn't know it was you at first… But it is good to see you again. I guess that means you're coming with us to Kinzua Valley now, right?" She nodded yes, and briskly looked off to the side again, staring out the window once more. "Good, we'll take all the help we can get. I bet Dusty and Riolu will be more than relieved to have another friend around! But before we head back down, I, uh... Need to spend a little more time up here."
After a couple more needed moments of silence and fresh air, I headed back down into the attic. Zabu followed right behind, observing the clutter of the storage as we trudged through. When we emerged from the crawl space, Dusty and Riolu were waiting in the hallway next to the door, both preparing attacks.
"Oh!" I replied at first, surprised to see them up. Once they realized it was just me, they calmed down and stopped. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you guys... I just needed a walk, so I went upstairs to the steeple room for a while." They looked relieved that I was unharmed and didn't have to fight at all.
Just then, Zabu emerged from behind me and came out into the hallway; both Riolu and Dusty jumped a foot when they noticed her.
"Oh, yeah. Riolu and Dusty, this is Zabu. You remember her from back at my mom's house, right Riolu?" They looked as confused as ever. "Let me explain... While I was up there, Zabu came to me with a letter from my mom. She sent Zabu here to help us out on the journey ahead." Although I thought I'd cleared everything up, Riolu and Dusty still wore apprehensive looks as they studied her.
"Hey, don't worry you guys; I'm sure Zabu will become a great new member of our team. Now come on, let's get some more rest before we head out tomorrow." Riolu and Dusty paused briefly before reluctantly turning around. That… Wasn't the reaction I was hoping for. I hope everyone can get along soon, I thought as we headed back towards the bedroom as a group. In front of us, Dusty and Riolu quietly conversed with each other, but Zabu's claws scratching on the hardwood floors drowned out their voices for me.
As soon as we were all back inside the master bedroom, Dusty and Riolu went back to their sleeping spots from before, eyeing Zabu as she came out from behind me.
"Goodnight, Dusty and Riolu. Oh, and Zabu–" I turned to see her pounce up onto the bed and sprawl out on top of it, taking up almost all the space except for a small spot on the front right corner. Closing her eyes, she let out a tired yawn and stretched out. Riolu and Dusty looked visibly taken aback, to which I nervously shrugged off.
I walked around to the other side of the bed and tapped on her shoulder.
"Hey, Zabu. That's my spot you're in... Could you move?" Zabu opened one eye and stared at me and then closed it again. Knowing it would be a losing battle trying to get her to move over, I sighed and laid down on the small amount of bed that was left, my legs almost fully off the side.
"Goodnight, everybody," I said quietly, turning off the PokéNav's flashlight and slipping it into my pocket. There was no response back from any of my partners. Right… I guess I'll attempt to get some more sleep… It probably won't work, but I'll be a mess in the morning if I don't at least try…
I rolled over as much as I could and closed my eyes, trying to think of some kind of story to aid. My mother and her letter suddenly popped into my head again and I turned my attention to the moonlight creeping in from behind the boarded-up windows. Mom… I'll make everything right again… I promise.
I felt a fuzzy, warm feeling run through me right then, as if she'd assured me that she was doing fine. That was all I needed to feel better, and I zonked out with a cheesy grin on my face.
I woke up the next morning, almost fully pushed off the bed; I don't know how I ever got to sleep in such an incredibly uncomfortable position. Zabu was still lying next to me, sound asleep. As I contorted my body to stand up, still struggling to move with all the cramps and aches, it seemed that Riolu and Dusty were missing. Pushing away from the bed, I walked to the door, which was slightly ajar. In the hallway, the morning light was just starting to come in through the windows.
"Riolu? Dusty?" I called out quietly. There was no response, so I headed towards the den. As I reached the conjoined bathroom, I heard shuffling from down in the kitchen. Curiously, I headed down the stairs, making lots of noise as I took each step.
Walking past the coat area, I found Dusty and Riolu packing up food. Riolu was in the refrigerator picking it clean, tossing anything not useful towards Dusty, who happily ate it up. Once they noticed I was watching, they stopped and smiled at me.
"Good morning, you two," I said, a grin forming on my face. "You guys are really ahead on things, huh?" They nodded and resumed their rummaging through the fridge. "Well, thank you. We should probably head out as soon as possible." As Riolu tossed out the last of the salvageable things inside, he shut the door and began to pack everything into a backpack, Dusty helping him put things inside while crunching loudly.
They're helping each other! Does this mean they're finally becoming friends, I happily asked myself. Just then, I could hear the scratching of Zabu's claws coming down the back stairs; we all stopped and turned our attention toward the noise. As Zabu's lanky character emerged into view, everything went quiet and awkward. Trying to build bridges, I replied,
"H-hey Zabu. Good morning. Did you sleep well?" She ignored me and walked past, weaving around Dusty and Riolu. As she passed by, she grabbed a water bottle from the opened backpack in her mouth and headed for the other room.
"Rio!" Riolu called after her, presumably in an attempt to get her to put it back. But Zabu continued to pay no attention and walked out of sight towards the living room. Riolu and Dusty turned to me both with unpleasant looks, telling me they weren't very happy with my decision to bring Zabu along with us. With the pressure on me I replied,
"S-she's just used to being pampered. I'm sure in no time at all she'll learn to act properly just like you two." Riolu and Dusty exchanged glances.
"Well… I'm going to get ready to go. I need a shower badly, so I'll go see if there's still water. Afterwards, we should look around the house to try to find some heavier clothing and any other supplies that we can use in the colder weather. I'm sure my aunt and uncle wouldn't care if we used their stuff." I kept the statement at that and headed back upstairs, leaving them to continue packing.
To my surprise, I found that the taps and the shower worked fine, but of course no electricity meant no hot water. Getting cleaned up as quickly as possible, we all quickly reconvened in the kitchen before heading straight up to the attic. With Zabu around, it was still as quiet and awkward as before, although she didn't seem to care about it very much.
Eventually coming to the attic door, I opened it without hesitation, letting out the musty smell once more. During the daytime, lots of natural light lit up the crawl space from grates on the side of the house, so there was no need for the use of my flashlight.
"Alright, let's look around. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff in here for everyone," I said, stepping up into the room and over to the side of the doorway. Riolu and Dusty walked past me, curiously gazing around the room. Zabu stayed outside to groom herself.
As we walked up and down the rows of clutter, I managed to find some pretty good-quality clothing. There was an old pair of gray cargo pants in one of the storage containers, just my size. I also found a seemingly brand new light blue colored t-shirt and a very warm black winter jacket. The shirt and jacket were actually a size lower than myself, so I was worried at first that they wouldn't fit. But as I tried them on, they slipped on perfectly; I guess all the walking and not eating trimmed me down a size. Of course, the right jacket sleeve was a little messed up because of the size of my Mega Bracelet, but seeing as it fit well otherwise, I wasn't going to put it back and find something else. There were also a pair of black ankle boots that looked a little beat up sitting near the back wardrobe which didn't fit me exactly, but I took them anyway.
Right after I'd slipped into the new pair of boots, there was a crash from across the room, causing me to jump a foot. I pushed in between all the clutter to reach the end row where an old dresser had fallen to the floor. A couple misplaced hats and scarves were scattered around the face-down piece of furniture. To the right, Riolu looked extremely frightened and seemed to have a scarf draped over his free arm. Dusty was just behind us and peeked over to see if everything was alright. "Are you okay, Riolu?" I asked him, bending down to his eye level.
"R-Ri..." he replied, still a bit spooked.
"What's that you have there?" I asked, pointing to the scarf. Riolu immediately calmed down and held it out for me to check it out. I could tell the scarf was extremely soft just by looking at it, and it seemed to be made out of cotton; it was a dark blue with occasional light green splotches scattered around it.
"Wow, that looks really comfy. Here, let me put it on for you." Riolu turned around and I slipped the scarf around his neck, loosely tying it in the back. The scarf faced the floor in the front in a folded triangle shape and really looked good on him.
"Rio! Rio!" Riolu cried, smiling at his scarf. I giggled at his joy.
"I'm glad you like it, Riolu." Just then, I looked up to see Dusty waiting just behind the toppled wardrobe with a large red and white polka dot bow tie on. It seemed chintzy, almost like a gag prop, but it somehow looked good on him. I guess the size of Dusty and the bowtie matched up perfectly. He had it positioned a couple inches under his mouth and looked happy too. "Oh, I like that bow tie, Dusty. It looks nice on you." I said with a smile.
"Gar…?" I guess Dusty wasn't expecting that answer from me. "Honestly, it does. Red really matches you." I coaxed again, not being able to contain my giggling this time. "Garb, Gar!" Dusty said, with an open mouth smile, realizing I was sincere.
I then hopped over the overturned piece of furniture to head over to Zabu who was still skulking in the back. It perked its left ear up and turned to me as I approached.
"Are you going to get anything, Zabu?" Zabu rolled its eyes and turned away from me, walking towards another aisle of the huge crawl space. Seeing that response from her told me we were far apart, and I needed to do something quick to fix our relationship. So, I quickly followed after her. "Zabu, are you sure that you don't want anything? How about we get you a warm scarf or something instead of that necklace?" I reached for the chains around Zabu's neck, but as soon as I tugged on it, she whipped around and tried to scratch me.
"Lie!" She yelped, a warning cry. I stumbled backwards by the sudden movement, just dodging the sharp claws. I landed hard on the floor though, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
"Rio!" I heard from around the corner as Riolu dashed to my aid. "Ri-Ri?" he asked, looking worried.
"It's alright, I'm fine…" I said before sitting up and rubbing my head. Riolu helped me stand up, as Dusty came in from behind to see what was happening. Back on my feet, I quickly brushed myself off before looking off towards Zabu, who was in the corner watching me get up.
"Lie, Liepard…" It growled, still sounding cross.
"Okay, okay... You can keep the necklace," I replied apprehensively, as another awkward silence spread throughout the room. Before she was turned into a Pokémon, Zabu always liked my mother more than me because of how nice she always was to her. However, when I was a kid, I used to chase Zabu all around the house and torment her on a daily basis, as I didn't know any better. Of course, I still felt guilty about everything I did, but I assumed Zabu still had some hidden grudges towards me from that point in time too.
"...Well, we should get going," I said, breaking the silence. Come on guys. Zabu." I headed towards the door, my Pokémon single file behind me. As Dusty and Riolu passed by Zabu, they exchanged angered looks with her. Zabu paid no attention and continued to groom herself while she lurked from behind.
After a little more packing, we headed towards the front foyer and quickly checked outside through the gaps in the windows to see if the coast was clear. Then Dusty pushed away the furniture blocking the doors and we all saddled up with our new gear.
Dusty got a large, heavy brown duffle bag that he strung over his head and onto his back, as well as the cooler which he carried with his right tendril. He had the heaviest things like a tent, some other camping supplies, and first aid. I got the generic black backpack filled with all the non-perishable foods and some extra clothes I'd found lying around. Riolu got a small tan handbag that he'd thrown over his shoulder, which was filled mostly with just other useful odds and ends. That was all the supplies we could find, so Zabu got off lucky and didn't have to carry anything.
With the barricade out of the way, we all stared out the window of the front door at the cloudy weather and empty streets. There was a pause as all of us realized that we would be leaving Hornell and starting our journey again. It felt nice to finally leave all my emotions behind, but at the same time I knew how much more we had to travel. I felt the weight of my task pile up on top of me again and sighed.
"I guess this is it guys. It's time to head out." We all hesitated again, no one ready to go yet. "Wait, hold on– one last thing." I turned around and yelped up the stairs, "Thank you Aunt Janice and Uncle Mike! Oh, and Mickey and Peter, too! For the supplies, the food, and the place to stay. I know you're not here… But wherever you are, thank you!" There was no reply back, but I felt a little better getting that off my chest.
I then opened the door, holding it open for my Pokémon. Waiting for everyone to step out of the house, I made sure not to look back. The three of them walked past me and began heading down the stairs. I wanted to close the door behind me and follow after them, but my flaring emotions caused me to falter. Leaving my aunt and uncles' home reminded me too much of my own.
"Ri?" Riolu's voice brought me back to reality. My partners were all stopped on the paved path to the sidewalk staring right at me.
Remember who's rooting for you, I told myself before taking a deep breath and silencing out any bad thoughts. Putting my hand over my front coat pocket where I'd placed my mom's letter, I slammed the door, burst into a jog down the stairs, and dashed out onto the sidewalk. I looked back at the house out of the corner of my eye and saw it disappear behind the trees and other houses as we rushed away. Riolu, Dusty, and Zabu all trailed behind me, trying to keep up with my sudden change of speed. I faced forwards and headed back down the street we'd come into town on while brushing away the last of my tears.