When Serena woke up in the morning, she didn't realize for a moment where she was. Then she realized she was lying in her tent and she slowly got up to sit down.
The sleeping bag was on her as a blanket, and her bag was where she had left it the day before, leaning against the wall of the tent. The door was closed and everything seemed to be fine. Still, Serena was bothered by something.
She had had a strange dream. Ash and she had been in a beautiful meadow where Ash had taken her. The meadow had had carnations and bellflowers and they had been watching the stars. Everything had been so perfect. But.. then why had it felt so real?
Suddenly Serena felt something heavy on her hair. She put her hands on the weight and felt her ribbon run a little out of place. She was just correcting its position when she also felt something else under her fingers and she detached it from her hair.
It was a white carnation. It looked a bit afflicted, but still beautiful and it still smelled delicate. Serena stared at it as it rested on her palm and only one thing could fit in her mind.
It hadn't been a dream. They had really gone to a meadow full of carnations and bellflowers and watched the stars. Ash had actually taken her there. Then Serena remembered something else.
She had fallen asleep in the meadow. And since she was here now, someone had to carry her here. And that someone had probably been Ash.
Serena blushed a little at the thought that Ash had carried her to her tent. And then she blushed a little more, for she imagined how Ash had probably carried her in a bridal style. I wish I had been awake then, she thought and then she looked at the carnation ob her hand and then tied it back to her hair, with her red silk ribbon.
Serena got up and stretched her arms a little. She changed her day clothes and took her bag against the wall of the tent.
Time to go eat, she thought and stepped out of the tent to the new morning.
"Morning, Sere!" Ash greeted her at their portable camping table and Serena stared at him from the door of her tent. Sere? When had Ash started calling her that?
"Sere?" she said questioningly and Ash nodded and grinned. "Yeah. I thought it would be a good nickname for you. Don't you like it?" Ash asked, a little nervous.
"Of course I like it, but I couldn't wait for you to come up with a nickname for me," Serena explained and blushed. Ash smiled in relief and Gou and Pikachu snickered a little distance away.
Serena glared at them with her cheeks a little red and Gou, trying to keep his voice flat, said, "I'm going to get some water." He left and as he passed past Serena, he grinned at her knowingly.
Serena sat across from Ash and huffed. Ash looked at her and suddenly noticed a white carnation in Serena's hair.
"Oh, you still have that carnation," he said, pointing to the white flower and Serena startled a little and took her hand over the flower.
"Yeah, I thought it was pretty and goes well with my ribbon," she explained with a smile. "It won't stay good for long, but it's still pretty."
"Yeah, and it suits you well," Ash said and Serena noticed the tinge of pink on his cheeks.
"T-thank you, Ash," she stammered and Pikachu thought of possible ways to break Ash's density.
They ate a quick breakfast with their Pokemon and then packed their tents, bags and everything else before they set out to continue their journey.
An hour later:
A dense spruce forest surrounds them on all sides as they walked towards their destination. From Serena, the forest was too reminiscent of where they had met Hop and she just wanted to get out of the forest quickly.
Suddenly, she noticed something pink in the corner of her eye that seemed to flash between the trees. "What was that?" she said aloud and stared at the place where she assumed the pink thing was.
"What?" Ash asked with interest and Pikachu listened with his ears to hear any voices.
"I thought I saw something pink. Here," Serena explained, pointing to where she thought it was.
Ash squinted and stared at the place Serena was pointing, trying to see something other than a spruce trunk and two small mushrooms. But then he shook his head and said, "I don't see anything."
"Me neither," Gou said, and Serena stared at the point for a moment until she shrugged and said, "Maybe I imagined it. Come on, let's move on."
"Yeah," said Ash and they set off again.
They stopped to eat lunch in a small area surrounded by spruces. The trees were shaded so that sunlight could not filter through their branches and therefore the opening was quite dim. (Admittedly, the sky was cloudy gray anyway, so it didn't matter much)
Serena had just put Pokemon food on Yamper's bowl when she could see a pink glimpse in the corner of her eye again. She quickly turned her head in that direction and at the same time dropped the Yamper's bowl on the ground so that all the food spread on the grass.
"Oh, sorry Yamper," she said apologetically when Yamper barked at her angrily. Serena quickly refilled the bowl and then gave it to Yamper, who immediately reconciled as the bowl came in front of its face. Serena, instead, took a jar of orange juice in her hand and opened it.
Serena remained distracted staring into the surrounding forest, not noticing that the orange juice she was pouring into her glass began to threatengly spill into her arms. And so it was that Serena managed to drain the juices into her dress, and topple her juice jar, glass and dinner plate.
"Oh no!" she exclaimed and looked at the visible mess in front of her. Ash, who had put food on his Pokemon in front of their faces, turned to look when he heard the exclamation and saw the mess, asked, "Serena, what happened?"
"The mess happened," Serena replied angrily, sitting down on a portable camping table's chair, without even bothering to clean up her mess. Instead, she stared irritably in front of her and leaned on her fists, the juice dripping happily onto her dress.
Ash realized that Serena wasn't all right now. "Are you okay?" he asked a little worried and Serena huffed annoyed. "How does it look like?" she asked and her Pokemon looked at her a little worried.
"You're bothered by something," Ash said, sitting across from Serena, ignoring the mess in front of him. "Do you want to tell me what?"
"I see delusions," Serena stated, and Ash was frightened if Serena had somehow accidentally managed to taste the mushrooms that grew next to the trees. But then Serena continued and Ash realized the mushrooms had nothing to do with Serena. (Hopefully)
"For I was seeing again the pink glimpse I saw then when we came here," Serena explained, glancing again at the forest. "The problem here is that... What is that?!"
Serena noticed some small and pink standing next to a tree. Noticing that Serena had noticed it, the creature ran away and Serena got up and exclaimed, "Hey! Don't go!"
She started running after the creature and her Pokemon immediately followed her.
"Serena, where are you going?!" Ash exclaimed, but Serena had already disappeared among the spruces, so Ash rushed after her and Pikachu, Lucario and Greninja followed him immediately. Only Corviknight was left happy to eat his food.
Gou had been picking berries for their lunch. Scorbunny walked beside him and held a few berries in his arms. The catch was weak and Gou was annoyed. And when he finally returned to camp, he didn't see Ash and Serena anywhere, and it annoyed him even more.
The camp was empty, or at least almost empty, as Corviknight was still happy to eat his food. There was a mess at the table, Pokemon food was scattered on the grass, and the Pokemon food bowls had been left in half.
"Great," Gou grunted when he saw this and dropped his small berry catch on the ground. "Scorbunny, let's clean up this mess and then let's go find those two idiots."
"Bunny," said Scorbunny and then they went to work, Corviknight staring quietly beside.
Serena slid between the spruces and followed a pink creature that ran surprisingly fast, even though it had very short legs. It's had to be one of Galaria's Pokemon, Serena thought as she jumped over a fallen tree trunk.
Her Pokemon followed her a short distance away and was followed by Ash with Lucario, Greninja and Pikachu. He was annoyed that he hadn't figured out how to explore the area by Aura, and Lucario's reproaches echoed all the time in his mind.
The creature led Serena forward and she wondered where it would lead her. As she pondered this, the terrain began to change gradually. The trees thinned and the soil began to rise and turn into bare rock. And suddenly, there was a cave in front of her.
The creature ran straight there and Serena followed without hesitation. The dark and cramped caves were none of her favorite places, but the curiosity about what the Pokemon who led her wanted was greater.
She ran into the cave and darkness immediately surrounded her. "Braixen, could you light your torch?" she asked her Pokemon who had come next to her and this one nodded and lit the stick in her tail as a torch.
Its fire created shadows on the bare walls of the cave and revealed a pink Pokemon standing against a large stone that had led Serena here.
It was small and had short stout legs. At the end of it was a party hat-looking thing with a light blue ball at the tip and curly, light blue hair that seemed to cover its eyes. "What exactly are you?" Serena thought and took out her Rotom and used it to scan the Pokemon:
"Hatenna, Calm Pokemon and Psychic-type. If this Pokémon senses a strong emotion, it will run away as fast as it can. It prefers areas without people."
"Well that explains a lot," Serena thought, looking at the Hatenna in front of her. It seemed to glare at Serena, though her eyes were not visible.
"Why did you follow me?" Serena asked it and Pokemon nodded at Serena's Pokemon standing around her. Serena realized what it meant.
"Do you want to come with me?" she asked and Hatenna nodded. Serena looked at it in amazement. "Why?" she asked, a little amazed at the sudden request. Hatenna shrugged.
"All right," Serena said, picking up one Pokeball. She threw it towards the Psychic-type Pokemon, but this dodged the ball and Serena stared at it.
"Aha. Now I understand. You want to battle with me," she said realizing the matter and Hatenna nodded. "All right. Pancam, you can battle with her."
"Pan cham cham," Pancham said and settled in front of Serena, opposite Hatenna. Seeing who it had gotten against it, Hatenna did not hesitate, but threw a very strong-looking Psybeam towards Pancham.
"Dodge it and do a Dark Pulse!" Serena exclaimed and Pancham dodged Hatenna's movement, which hit a nearby wall and caused an explosion. Pancham then threw a Dark Pulse towards Hatenna and Hatenna dodged it by jumping to the side and then set off to run deeper into the cave.
"Use Stone Edge!" Serena instructed Pancham and this one nodded and slapped his hands on the ground. As a result, many blue-glowing stone cliffs protruded from the ground and one of them hit the running Hatenna.
"Tenna!" Hatenna exclaimed and fell to the ground. Serena saw her opportunity come and threw the Pokeball towards it.
Hatenna disappeared into the ball and then the ball was left to swing to the ground. Serena waited with her fingers crossed for the outcome and when the ball clicked, announcing that Hatenna had been successfully caught, she jumped in the air and exclaimed, "Yes!"
Serena went to the ball and picked it up from the ground. She held it in her hand for a moment, smiling wide until she pointed it at the ground, and let Hatenna back out.
"Tenna!" Hatenna said happily and Serena smiled at it. "Welcome to the squad, Hatenna," she said, then pointed to the Pokemon crowd standing behind Hatenna. Hatenna turned to look at what Serena showed and Serena said, "Hatenna, here are my Pokemon Braixen, Sylveon, Pancham, and Yamper. And you, here is Hatenna, the newest member of our gang."
The Pokemon greeted Hatenna with a cheerful exclamation and Hatenna stepped up to them. Braixen, still holding her branch in her hand, waved it as she raised her hand to greet her and the fire burning in the branch created interesting shadows on the cave walls.
Serena smiled at her Pokemon as they individually introduced themselves to Hatenna and walked over to them. She squatted to the ground and scratched Yamper from behind his ear while watching her Pokemon.
Suddenly, outside the cave, heard, "Hey! Serena!" and Serena looked up. She saw Ash running with his Pokemon towards them and Ash waved at her.
"Hey A..," Serena began, but her sentence broke when Hatenna also noticed that Ash was approaching and before Serena had time to do anything, sent Psybeam towards the boy.
"Hatenna, no!" Serena screamed and Ash stopped when he noticed Psybeam approaching. It would have been bad for him if Lucario had not been vigilant and repelled Psybeam with his Aura bone. Hatenna looked at this confused and said questioningly, "Tenna?"
"Hatenna, Ash is not an enemy, he is my friend!" Serena said in shock to her Pokemon, who looked at her questioningly and then seemed to realize what she had done. Her cheeks turned red and she looked embarrassed.
"Huh, it would have gone badly," Ash said and walked over to Serena. Lucario walked beside him like a bodyguard and looked with his gaze at the culprit that almost caused the death of his trainer.
Serena got up and was relieved that nothing had happened to Ash. Instead, Hatenna, seeing Ash coming to them, whimpered and hid behind Serena's feet. Lucario saw this and quickly realized she had made that Psybeam. It growled at Hatenna and Hatenna pressed tighter against Serena's legs.
"Lucario, what now?" Ash asked when he noticed the Pokemon's growl and shifted his gaze toward what Lucario looked like. He noticed something small and pink peeking scared behind Serena's feet and he said, "What is that?"
"She's Hatenna," Serena said, taking the little Pokemon in her arms. It refused to look at Ash and Serena sighed. "She seemed to think of you as an enemy and therefore made Psybeam towards you"
"Oh," Ash said, staring at Hatenna in Serena's lap. "Hey Hatenna. I'm Ash and here are my Pokémon Pikachu, Lucario and Greninja"
Hatenna carefully turned her gaze to them. Ash's Pokemon greeted Hatenna in their own way, Pikachu exclaimed happily and Greninja raised his hand in greeting. Or they greet. Lucario, on the other hand, just growled and Hatenna whimpered and turned her face away again towards Serena's lap.
"Hatenna seems to be afraid of Lucario," Serena said, and Ash looked at the Aura Pokemon.
"Don't be so scary," he said foolishly to Lucario and this stared at his trainer. "Really, Master? Are you really saying that?" it asked through Aura and Ash said, "Yep."
Suddenly he noticed something blue in his field of vision and quickly went deeper into the cave. "Ash, what now?" Serena asked and followed Ash, Hatenna in her arms and the Pokemon on her heels.
"I found something," Ash said, taking the blue thing he found in his hand. It was pretty much where Serena had grabbed Hatenna and Ash quickly realized what it was.
"Serena, your blue ribbon," he said, turning toward the girl. "It was in the ground"
"What?" Serena said and quickly took her hand to the place of her dress where the blue ribbon usually was. But now her hand couldn't find it and she said, "I guess it dropped when I caught Hatenna. Thanks for finding it, Ash."
Ash grinned and handed the ribbon to Serena. Serena took it with a smile in her hand and many things happened after that.
The roof of the cave had never been the strongest stone of all. It had become brittle over the years after being consumed by water, various Pokemon attacks, and many other things. However, Pancham's Stone Edge and the resulting vibration were the last straw and the roof terminated its contract.
Ash and Serena felt a vibration under their feet and then a small stone dripped between them. They turned their gaze toward the roof and saw many, large cracks in it. And then it collapsed.
Serena screamed and Ash felt something pull him away. Then everything happened very quickly and suddenly the air was full of dust, stone and darkness and Serena felt something warm run down her forehead.
She lay on the ground and got up carefully to sit. Rock dust hovered around her and her forehead hurt. Hatenna whimpered in her lap and on her left lay Pikachu and Greninja and on her right were Yamper, Sylveon and Pancham.
They got up slowly and Serena was relieved that they were okay. She rubbed her sore forehead with her hand and felt something liquid in her hand.
She stopped and slowly took her hand in front of her eyes and noticed that her hand was quite red with blood. "Oh, great," she thought and then she felt something touching her cheek.
She turned and saw Sylveon look at her anxiously and stroking her cheek with her feeler. Pancham climbed into her arms and Yamper barked worriedly. Serena smiled at them.
"No worries, guys," she said. "I'm okay. Or my forehead seems to bleed, but it does not matter now"
The Pokemon seemed relieved to hear that their trainer had not been fatally injured. Serena was also relieved that nothing had happened to the Pokemon, but she was still bothered by something.
And then she realized what. "Where's Braixen?" she suddenly asked with concern, for she did not see the fox-like Pokemon anywhere. And then she heard Pikachu say anxiously, "Pikapi?" and she realized what else was also wrong.
"Ash?" she asked and stood up, Hatenna still in her arms. "Ash, where are you?"
No reply. Serena walked with her Pokemon to Pikachu and Greninja and coughed a little because of the dust in the air. "Pikapi?" asked Pikachu hopefully, but Serena shook her head.
"I don't know where he is," she said and Pikachu's expression dropped. "Pikapi.." he said quietly and Serena coughed again.
"Ninja!" Greninja suddenly exclaimed and pointed in front of him. "What now, Greninja?" Serena asked and looked in the direction Greninja was pointing. And then she saw it.
In front of her rose a wall that stretched to the rest of the roof, consisting of stone. It blocked the way forward and Serena suddenly realized where Ash, Braixen and apparently Lucario were too.
"Ash, no!" she exclaimed, dropped Hatenna and rushed to the wall. She forged it with her hands, but it made no change to it, only scratches formed on her fists. She then tried to clear the stones out of her way, but they had settled so tightly that they did not move.
Serena stepped back and shouted, "Ash! Can you hear me!?" She didn't get an answer and she shouted louder, "Ash! ASH! ASH, ANSWER TO ME!"
And then, to her immense relief, she heard a muffled, "Serena?"
When Ash woke up, he saw only darkness around him. He tried to see in front of him by spreading his eyes very large, but still saw nothing.
Suddenly a fire lit up next to him and he was able to see the fox-like face in its light. "Braixen?" he said and Braixen nodded and waved her branch, which had been lit by fire, in a wide arc, and in light of it, Ash was able to better distinguish the space in which he was.
Dust and other rubbish seemed to float around him. He himself sat on the ground on a cold stone floor and there seemed to be some kind of stone wall in front of him. "What happened?" he said. "Where are my Pokemon?"
Just as he got it said, a blue glow lit up next to him and he heard Lucario's voice in his head, "The roof collapsed, Master."
"What?!" Ash exclaimed and heard Lucario coming to him and Braixen in the dark. "Yes. I just and just got you pulled out from under it. Otherwise, it would have been gone badly."
Ash nodded, though neither of the Pokemon saw it, and suddenly asked, "Where's Pikachu? Or Greninja? Or... Serena!"
He realized the girl wasn't there. Ash got up quickly and Lucario said, "They're on the other side."
"On the other side what?" Ash asked impatiently and saw Lucario pointing with his blue cane towards the wall. "Oh. On the other side of that"
He went to the wall and Braixen lit it with her torch. "How do you know they're over there?" Ash asked and Lucario grunted. "Aura," he said. "I feel their Aura from there"
Ash nodded and stared at the wall in front of him. It looked like one that wouldn't collapse easily and he tried to whack it with his fists. Nothing happened. How do we get it off? Ash thought and then, he heard someone shouting his name.
The cry came from the other side. Ash pressed his ear against the stone of the wall and listened. Then the cry sounded louder and now it said, "Ash! Ash, answer me!"
"Serena?" Ash said loud and on the other side of the wall Serena was very relieved.
Serena was very relieved to hear Ash's voice. "Ash, are you okay?!" she shouted to her ear against the wall, and on the other side of the wall, Ash replied, "Yeah. What about you?"
"My forehead bleed, but otherwise I'm okay," Serena answered and Ash eased greatly when he heard that Serena was more or less okay.
"Are Pikachu and Greninja there?" he asked and Serena nodded until she realized Ash hadn't seen it, of course. "Yeah. They are. And they're okay."
"Okay. Oh yeah, Braixen is here by the way. She's fine, don't worry," Ash replied and Serena was relieved to hear that Braixen was okay. "And Lucario is here too. We're all okay, the only problem is we can't get to that side."
Serena didn't like what she heard. "What do we do now?" she asked and on the other side of the wall, Lucario got the idea.
"We could go deeper into the cave and see if there were any routes out there," he explained to Ash. "That way we could get out. And if they can't be found, we'll go back here and break that wall somehow otherwise."
"Good idea," Ash said, explaining the idea to Serena as well. Serena agreed. "We're waiting here," she said, and then Ash, Lucario, and Braixen went deeper into the cave.
They walked in silent darkness and Braixen's torch flame was the only light visible in the cave. The floor of the cave was uneven and full of rocks and Ash was many times close to the crash. That's when Lucario snatched him back up from his shirt collar and muttered, "Watch out a little, Master."
A wide variety of thoughts swirled in Ash's mind as he crawled forward half-blind. Some of them were about whether they would ever get out, some again about Pikachu and Greninja. But most concerned Serena.
Ash didn't get her out of his mind. He would have liked to see Serena's blue eyes and see her pretty smile, which she smiled when she was happy. Ash loved what Serena looked like when she was happy. The way her blue eyes sparkled beautifully and how her cheeks blushed a little as she got excited about something and it made Ash hope they would find out quickly.
He was so deep in his thoughts that he had to fall on a rock again. Lucario pulled him up from his shirt collar again and said, "This is the tenth time you're going to fall. You'd focus a little, Master."
"Sorry, Lucario," Ash said apologetically. "I was just in my thoughts. I was thinking.."
"Let me guess. You thought of that girl again," Lucario said and there was a teasing tone in his voice.
"She has a name, Lucario and it's Serena. And yes, I thought of her," Ash said, a little indignant and then sighed. "I just don't really know why"
Lucario didn't believe what he heard. "For Arceus sake, Master!" he exclaimed and Ash stared in the direction he expected Lucario to be. "You've traveled with her for almost a month, and you still haven't realized anything at all! You're hopeless, Master!"
Ash was angry and said a little indignantly, "Thank you very much. If any consolation, I traveled with Serena in Kalos for at least half a year, and I didn't seem to realize anything at all then."
Lucario stared in his direction and his head gradually began to get a headache due to the conversation. "Listen, Master. Do you remember when I said it all depends on one word? One small, four-letter word. Say you've figured out what that word is."
Lucario hoped and prayed that Ash would answer, "Yes," but in his mind, he knew it wasn't the right answer. So, when Ash said, "No," Lucario could feel how his hopes for breaking the density of Ash died with his last brain cells.
"Yes, I have thought about it, but I do not invent a solution," Ash thought and Lucario wanted to take the stone from the ground, and cut off as Ash's density with it. "Serena could know, she's good at stuff like this."
Lucario made up his mind to laugh hysterically when he heard it. How ironic it would have been! He would have gladly wanted to see it. But no. The Master would have to invent the word himself and therefore Lucario remained silent.
"You just have to come up with it yourself," he said calmly, while his hopes for it waned strongly. "And then everything will be solved"
"Yeah, you're probably right," Ash said cheerfully and Lucario wondered if the density was an inherited variety.
They walked for another moment in the dark until Braixen suddenly stopped and Ash was to run into her. "What now, Braixen?" he asked Serena's Pokemon when he saw this staring in front of her and illuminating the road better with her torch.
"Braixen brai," Braixen said and Lucario translated it to Ash, "She says she felt the draft from the front. And that means.."
"That there is a way out here somewhere," Ash concluded the sentence, trying to see more in front of him than Braixen's fire illuminated. "Come on, let's continue the journey. The exit is definitely close."
They set off again, and after a short distance, the floor of the cave began to rise. At the same time, the rocks and irregularities were reduced and Ash's moving was much easier.
As they walked forward, Ash began to see the light in front of him. It grew bigger as they moved forward and at the same time, Ash felt a light airflow on his skin every now and then. They were clearly close to the exit.
Suddenly the amount of light increased greatly and Ash, whose eyes were not used to it, blinked his eyes blinded. As his eyes gradually got used to the light, he noticed them stopped in front of a large and bright cave.
They realized they had been going through a dark tunnel all the time and now in front of them was what the tunnel had led to. There was an opening in the roof of the cave flooded with light and cool air and small streams flowed here and there.
But what caught their attention the most was what rested in the middle of the cave in a low pool of water. Seeing it, Ash gasped and Braixen covered her mouth with her hands.
In front of them lay a twisted Dragonair and it was clearly injured.