With apparently nothing to do, I sighed and settled down, sitting on a (thankfully Zubat dropping-free) section of the floor not filled with debris. I sat down with my back against the wall, setting my backpack beside me. Now that adrenaline was keeping my senses fired and wide awake, I was itching to explore the caves but decided against it. I knew better than to move when help was coming. I whipped out my phone and sighed. Of course, no signal. I really could not wait to get a Pokedex. It has all the functions of the phone and then some. It wasn't like the old models, which were chunky, ugly and a dull red. The Pokedex nowadays were slim, compact and stylish, with a choice of colour, first come, first serve. And needless to say, it has much better signal, even down in the caves. The phone does provide comfort though for now; and luckily I downloaded The Abyss Surrounds Us the night before.

As I was reaching the exciting part, something kicked my bruised ankle. My first response was to glare, until I heard a thump and a short 'Bay!' Frowning, I shined the light from my phone into the direction of the dark lump now sprawled at my feet. I was immediately rewarded with a scaly reptilian face with big triangular eyes staring back at me. And holy shit the creature was beautiful. Glossy dark blue scales lined the entire length of its body. Its underbelly had soft yellow colouring. Three thin and smooth grey ridges protruded out, starting from the forehead and ending at the apex of its head. It shied back from the suddenly glare of the phone's screen, hissing and baring its fangs. I recognized it as a Bagon, a species of dragon. I was totally not prepared to encounter a fierce top of the chain predator in the caves and froze, realizing my mistake. I slowly placed my phone on the ground next to me, so the phone screen was now not shining directly into the reptile's eyes but still providing enough light for me to see. I placed my hand up in a placating gesture and slowly moved backwards, even though I couldn't possibly move very much back. The hard and rough wall dig almost painfully into my back. Suddenly, the reptile angled its yellow circular ear to the direction he came from. He stared into the gloom before snapping his head back to me, his face unmistakably painted a picture of fear and panic. In a few seconds, I could hear it too; a rumbling sound came from the gloom. Without thinking, I reached forward and grabbed the Bagon, which earn me a painful bite to my arm. Ignoring the pain, and the Bagon clamped onto my arm, claws digging into my flesh, I tried my best to wrestle the reptile while picking up my backpack, ready to run.

The source of the rumbling became clear as a Graveler and two Geodudes step into view. Each step the Graveler took shook the cavern, letting out a sound like stones grinding against each other, which I supposed was true, seeing how the Graveler was made entirely out of rock. In the low light of the phone, the Graveler and its two Geodude minions looked downright menacing. At this point, I felt Bagon released my forearm. I dropped my backpack and picked up the water bottle – it was clearly too late to run. As I shined lights in the direction of the three intruders, I saw the Bagon dart behind the backpack out of the corner of my eye. I wasn't sure how the Bagon thought that that will be a good hiding spot but I guess it's better than nothing. As with Bagon, the three rock Pokemon apparently did not like sudden light shining into their eyes as well hissing and growling. The Graveler grunted at me, which really sounded like rocked grinding against each other, making me grit my teeth against the sound.

'I don't understand what you're saying. But stay away! I have water.' I called out, shaking my water bottle.

In retrospect, the entire situation was not my brightest moment – from trying to help a reptile which clearly can run faster than me to hoping to fend off three gigantic rock Pokemon with only a 1.5 liter bottle. But the Graveler only showed frustration, gesturing wildly with its four arms and continue to make the ear splitting sound. After a few moments of blank looks from me, the Graveler huffed and threw up all four of its arms. The three Pokemon then continued on their path in the tunnel.

'You can come out now, they're gone.' After what I hoped was enough time, I said in the direction of the backpack. The reptile peered out from behind my bag. It crawled on fours towards me. I stilled, not entirely sure whether to run or hit it with my water bottle. But after a moment, it nuzzled me. I cannot lie and say I was not thrilled to have a dragon voluntarily touching me without intention of harm. But I gently nudged it. 'Go on, go. They're gone now, run while you can.'

The reptile paid me no heed. Instead, it reached out and rapped sharply on the water bottle.

'Oh yeah sure.'

I went back to where I was sitting and opened my water bottle, holding it out to the reptile. It waddled almost comically on two legs towards me. As it was drinking, I had time to examine the Bagon in greater detail. I noted how short the ridges were on his forehead. I read that the grey ridges on Bagons usually covered their necks. Curious, I reached out and touched its head. The reptile stiffened at the contact, but after a few moments, it relaxed and let me stroke it. I marveled at how soft the ridges were. 'Huh, I thought that Bagon had extremely hard head. Oh! You're just a baby!' At my realization, the Bagon gave a short cry of 'Bay!'. It seemed to be done with the water and was currently nosing at my backpack. 'You're so big for a baby though. You are almost at my hip! Your parents must be huge. I wonder where your mother is.' At the point, Bagon had found one of my chocolate bar and was happily showing it off to me when it turned downright despondent at my comment. I was ready to snatch the chocolate bar back. It was my favourite! But it gave me the puppy eyes and I did not have the heart to take the chocolate from it. 'Come, I'll help you open it.' The Bagon sat on its hunches and didn't move, now attempting to claw the package open. Apparently, it can understand words like 'baby' and 'mother' but fail to recognize more. I gestured for the chocolate bar it was clutching in its hands. The Bagon bared its fangs and hugged the chocolate bar. Exasperated, I grabbed the chocolate bar from it. I guess I was extremely lucky the Bagon was just a baby, an older one would have been way more territorial, even with the food it had just stolen. As it is, the reptile flew at me in a blur of blue. I had to endure another round of wrestling with the reptile while trying to open the chocolate bar. Sighing, I pulled the reptile away from my body, set it down and gave it the open chocolate bar. The Bagon settled down immediately as the bar was back in its possession.

As it was enjoying the treat, the Bagon stiffened again, angling its ears the same way as before. He fled into the shadows, hiding behind my backpack and a ton of debris, half-eaten chocolate bar on the floor. Just as I was picking up the chocolate bar, I heard footsteps echoing from the direction the Graveler had went. 2 men in black step into view, one bulky and had a scar across his cheek, stretching his face into a permanent sneer. The other was thin as a stick, looking like a small child beside Scarface.

'Heyya kid what are you doing in this tunnel?' Stickman asked in a reedy voice.

'I got caught in the explosion, and sort of fell into this tunnel.' I looked at them suspiciously. 'What are you doing here?'

Stickman and Scarface exchanged a look. 'Hey look, this cave is not safe for a little girl like you, why don't we walk you out?' So they were going to ignore my question then.

At this point, I felt a sharp pain on my ankle, the good one, and it was all I could do to not make a face. Apparently the Bagon had sneaked towards me and pierced my leg with one of its claws. Ignoring the Bagon, I replied 'I think I'll stay here, my friends have already contacted our teacher and I'm pretty sure she is coming right about now.' A bluff, as I did not know how long Ms. Morgan is going to take. But my words had the intended effect. At the word teacher, the two men had identical looks of panic, and exchange another look. Totally not suspicious at all.

'Alright then, we'll leave you to it. Just uh... stay safe?' Stickman said, both of them backpedaling and turning to walk away. Just as they were about to be out of sight, Scarface turned. 'Hey, you wouldn't have happen to see a Bagon about this big would ya? Blue lizard dinosaur thing?' I frowned and shook my head. The two men shrugged and moved on. As they drift out of earshot, I caught snippets of their conversation.

'Didn't know there were kids here.'

'Boss not gonna be happy'

'… already has a Salamence…'

'Hey little guy, you ok?' I crouched down and offered the chocolate bar to the Bagon now poking its head out from behind my bag. It gave a short whine as it took the chocolate bar.

I sighed and sat down to wait for rescue, hoping it will come soon and I will not have to face the weird men again. After a while, the Bagon climbed into my lap and settled in there, choosing to snooze with its snout resting on my tummy.