When Serena woke up in the morning, she didn't remember for a moment where she was. Then she happened to turn to her side, saw Ash sleeping soundly in bed next to her bed, and her mouth turned to smile as she remembered what had happened yesterday.
Serena turned back on her back and stared at the white roof of the Pokemon Center. It was very quiet, only the peaceful breathing of the sleepers in the room was heard. It made Serena feel calm and she got up to sit on her bed.
She glanced at the clock at the bedside table next to her bed and saw it look showed 5.30 am. She wondered what had made her wake up so early, but came up with nothing. She suppressed the yawn and threw the blanket off her. She could very well wake up now, she wouldn't get back sleep anymore.
She got up from her bed and felt a slightly rough carpet of the room under her bare toes. She shivered a little as the room was pretty cool and wrapped her arms around her to warm herself. Luckily, she was carrying a slightly thicker cardigan that would go with a dressing gown.
Putting it on, Serena happened to glance at the room's window, which was right next to Ash's bed. She saw between the curtains how the sun began to rise behind the rocky mountains that were a lot in Stow-on-Side, and one golden ray also filtered through a slit in the curtains into an otherwise dim room. It lit up the dust particles floating in the air and made a beautiful golden stripe on the carpet.
Serena stepped to the window and move the curtains in front of it a little. The first rays of the morning sun hit her hands and they felt comfortable warm against her cold hands. She saw from the window how a few Rookidee flew past the room's window and she smiled. The day would be beautiful.
Serena closed the curtain and retreated from the window. She turned around and looked at the room they had stayed in. It wasn't the biggest, but neither was the smallest, but it was enough for them and their Pokemon.
Serena watched her two sleeping friends and knew they wouldn't wake up for at least a couple more hours. She watched as Ash snore in his sleep on his back and his right hand hung over the edge of the bed. The left was above his head. The blanket had slipped almost completely off him and Serena wondered how he hadn't gotten cold. Pikachu slept curled at the end of his bed, and every now and then it muttered in his sleep and changed position, yawning.
Serena smiled and then turned her gaze to Gou, whose bed was opposite Ash's bed. Unlike Ash, Gou lay on his stomach and his left hand hung over the edge of the bed. He was still wearing the blanket, even though it was starting to slide away. Scorbunny slept on his back and waved the air in his feet at his sleep at times. Eevee and Skwovet slept at the end of his bed and Skwovet had made a blanket of Eevee's bushy tail for himself.
Serena shook her head slightly at them and then silently stepped across the room to its door. She had no reason to just stay in this room to sit and wait for the others to wake up, so she decided to go see what the sunrise would look like from the front door. And on top of that, she wanted to see what the Pokemon Center would look like so early in the morning.
She opened the door of the room silently and slipped out of the room. She closed the door just as silently behind her and then set out to walk along a dim corridor with green plants and floral arrangements-paintings on the edges of the corridor.
She felt the carpet in the hallway tickle her bare feet as she navigated toward the main lobby. The silence around her was very deep and the only sound she heard was her own, quiet footsteps as well as the faint hum of the air conditioning. Was this the way the Pokemon Center was while everyone was sleeping?
Serena arrived in the main lobby and found it to be just as quiet and dim as the hallway. It was a little more bright though, as more light flowed in through the large windows in the lobby and illuminated the dust particles floating in the air.
Serena yawned and stepped into the middle of the lobby. The carpeted floor in the hallway changed to a hard tile floor that felt cold against Serena's toes and Serena wished she had figured out to put her morning slippers on her feet. However, she could no longer turn to pick them up, so she just decided to get used to the coolness of the floor.
She stepped right into the center of the lobby and watched the Pokemon Center's silence. Not even Nurse Joy had woken up yet and Serena thought it was kind of weird to see the lobby without her.
Suddenly Serena noticed movement in the corner of her eye and turned to see what had caused it. To her surprise, she saw Sonia sleep soundly on one of the couches, a thick book on her face and Yamper curled up on her stomach. There was a small mess around her again, books and papers were all around her on the couch. Her laptop had been left on the coffee table and a colorful screensaver flashed on its screen.
Serena suppressed the giggle and shifted her gaze away from the sleeping Sonia. She guessed Sonia had worked very late and eventually fell asleep on the couch. The books around Sonia said she had again tried to translate runes into modern language. It made Serena remember yesterday again and she smiled.
She left Sonia to sleep on the couch and walked quietly to the door. She opened it silently and then stepped over the threshold into the cool morning of Stow-on-Side.
Serena stepped barefoot on the gravel path leading to the Pokemon Center door and felt the gravel sting against her soles. At the same time, she wrapped her cardigan tightly around her, as it was cool outside and she was freezing a little. On the other hand, the coolness of the air was refreshing and made her wake up properly.
She stopped and then closed her eyes and turned her gaze to the rising sun. She let its golden rays warm her face and wondered when was the last time she had seen the sunrise. They were not seen as often as sunsets.
"Early bird, or..?" suddenly there was a sound behind her, and Serena's eyes burst open. She turned to see who had spoken and saw Sonia standing in the doorway with her hands in a gust, her hair tangled and some paper in her hand. She leaned on her shoulder against the door frame and the heart decorations in her hair shone in the morning sun.
Serena smiled a little and said, "No, I just woke up early and wanted to come and watch the sunrise." Then she turned back to the sun and heard Sonia stepping beside her.
"Yeah, it is beautiful," she heard Sonia say as she stopped next to her. Serena nodded, but said nothing. Then she heard Sonia yawning and saying, "I shouldn't have stayed up so late. I have to finish my translation, and it won't work if I fall asleep in the middle of work."
"Yeah," said Serena, watching the sun rise into the sky behind the mountains. Then Sonia remembered something else, for she took out a piece of paper in her hand and said, "Speaking of runes, I want to give you this before you go on your journey again. You can put it on your locket."
She handed the paper to Serena and this one accepted it a little confused. She opened the paper wrapped in a roll and saw that a small rune was drawn on it. "What does it mean?" Serena asked with interest and Sonia smirked.
"It means 'ash,'" she said, and saw Serena blush a little. She smiled and continued, "I thought this way you could always keep Ash close to your heart. I know, clever, right? So, what do you say?"
"You sneaky fox," Serena said, smirking, but hugged Sonia nonetheless and whispered, "Cleverly indeed, thank you."
Then she disengaged from the hug and glanced at the sun. "I think I'll go see if anyone else has woken up yet," she said and set out to step back toward the Pokemon Center's door, holding a piece of paper in her hand and Sonia stayed to look after her.
"Yeah, me too," she then muttered to herself and went back inside as well. "And at the same time, I can continue my translation work"
When Serena had arrived in their room, she was not surprised that none of the boys had woken up yet. And instead of trying to wake them up, she sat down on her bed and took her rose quartz necklace from her bedside table, where she had put it in the evening.
She had opened the locket and noticed that it contained two places for a photograph, for example. She had smiled and folded the rune image given by Sonia smaller. She had then placed the folded piece of paper in one of the frames and then closed the locket.
She had then clenched the heart tightly into her fist and glanced at Ash, sleeping in the bed next to her bed. She had smiled and then she had lifted the necklace into the air and watched as the silver and rose quartz had glistened in the sunlight.
She had been looking at it for a while until she had finally put the jewelry back around her neck. She had felt that weight around her neck and thought the jewelry really had to be genuine silver.
After doing so, she had stood up and stretched out her arms. Then she had taken her bag and brought out one of her Pokeballs. She had watched it with a smile and then squeezed it firmly into her fist. It would be time for a little practice.
But first, she would change her clothes.
When Serena returned a couple of hours later, she found Ash, Gou and Pokemon awakened and clearly ready to continue their journey. They had just set up their backpacks ready and Serena sat down on her bed waiting for them to get it done.
Soon they were ready and then they all went out to eat something for breakfast before heading towards Ballonlea. As they passed the lobby, Serena noticed that Sonia had gathered her chaos away from the couches, and she smiled as she remembered the rune given by Sonia. Sonia really was witty.
After eating breakfast, they handed the keys to their room back to Nurse Joy and then said goodbye to Sonia and Melissa, who had also come to say goodbye to them. By the time they finally said goodbye, the trio had stepped out the door and set out to continue their journey to Ballonlea and Ash's fifth Gym Match.
Three days later:
Ash, Serena, Gou and Pokemon walked along the foggy and pretty dark forest. The mist swirled around them, and the spruce trees growing in the woods shaded the path they walked along. And Serena didn't really like it.
They had now traveled for three days towards Ballonlea and during that time the landscape had changed quite a bit. The rocky and dry desert-like landscapes of Stow-on-Side had turned into a dense and moist spruce forest and the happy sunshine again into a gray cloud mass.
Another thing had also changed. Now that Ash and Serena were finally together, Serena no longer had to hide her feelings from others and awkward situations arose fewer. But they didn't run out completely.
One example was a short time after they left Stow-on-Side. Lucario, pleased that his dense Master had finally realized his feelings for Serena, Lucario decided that now was a good time to began to teach Ash the more demanding use of the Aura and especially how to make the protective shield from Aura.
Learning went from Ash with varying degrees of success, yes, he managed to easily make small Aura balls, and even use them, but making a shield didn't really want to go smoothly. Lucario said the reason was that Ash wasn't ready yet, but Gou reported that Ash was just lazy and didn't bother to learn.
Ash avenged Gou's remark using a trick he had learned a short time ago. He focused and then raised his right hand a little up and applied force to Gou. And soon Gou found himself hovering a little above the ground.
"Hey, get me down, I'm not a Flying-type Pokemon!" he shouted as he hovered in the air and Ash grinned with satisfaction. Lucario smirked at this and said, "Great Master, I'm sure that trick will be useful to some certain situations.."
"What do you mean?" Ash asked, but Lucario just grinned mischievously, And as he deliberately extended the Aura Conversation to others, the passing Serena blushed bright red when she realized what Lucario meant and Ash was confused to wonder what Lucario had really meant by his sentence.
But back to the present:
"Guys, I don't like this forest, it's too dark and foggy and scary and..," Serena said, squeezing her blue ribbon, slowing her steps a little. She had begun to get enough of the misty and dark forests and hoped they would have traveled to some different area, such as a flower meadow.
"Hey, don't worry," Ash said, also slowing down so that he was now walking next to Serena. He took the girl reassuringly by the hand and said, "As long as we're together, nothing can hurt us. And Pikachu is ready to send Thunderbolt to anyone trying to attack us, right, buddy?"
"Pika!" said Pikachu resolutely from Ash's shoulder and Serena smiled slightly. Seeing her smile made Ash smile too and think that there was something good in this miserable place.
"I don't know, Ash. Those shadows don't look very nice and who knows what's lurking in the middle of that fog," Gou then said, blinking to his side and Ash's smile evaporated. "And who knows what.."
"All right, all right, I already realized," Ash sighed and picked up his two Pokeballs. He threw them in the air and Lucario and Greninja appeared in front of him.
"You two can now act as our bodyguards," Ash informed the confused-looking Pokemon and these nodded.
"Good idea," Serena said, also picking up one of her Pokeballs. She threw it in the air and soon a fox-like Pokemon appeared in front of her. "Braixen, you get to keep company with these 'bodyguards' and at the same time, your torch can illuminate our path again. Is it okay?"
"Braixen!" said Braixen with a smile and lit her torch. Then she turned with a smile to Greninja and Lucario and settled between them.
They glanced at each other and each gave the other a certain, warning look. Then Ash, who wanted to get moving again, said, "Shall we continue? We still have a long way to go," and the others nodded and set off again.
They continued to walk in silence, Braixen's torch illuminating their path again and Greninja and Lucario glaring at each other. Serena held Ash tightly by the hand and Gou, who was the first to walk, led them through the mist and shadows.
But suddenly he stopped abruptly and Ash and Serena were to crash into him. "What now?" Ash asked and Serena also looked confused.
Gou stared tightly in front of him and then said, "Do you feel that the fog in front of you is somehow thicker than before?" He pointed in front of him and Ash, Serena and the Pokemon looked up.
"Yeah... you might be right," Ash said slowly and started stepping forward. But he didn't have time to go far, because then he felt someone put his hand on his shoulder and heard Lucario's voice inside his head, "Don't go any further. I think I know what's over there."
Then he suddenly took a small rock from the ground and threw it into the swirling mist in front of them and Ash looked at him a little confused. Then Lucario waited a moment and suddenly they all heard a splash from afar.
"As I guessed. Water. And very much. That's why the fog is denser," Lucario explained, and Ash huffed, "Well, how do we continue now if there's a lake in front of us? Swimming?"
"No, but this," Serena said, moving a little so that the object behind her was revealed. It was a brown, simple wooden boat, but it looked intact and big enough to support them all. "I found this boat moment ago. What do you say?"
"It's great!" exclaimed Ash and Serena smiled happily. Ash then stepped over to the boat and Serena and looked at the boat. "Now we just have to get it in the water."
It was easier said than done. It all took their help, but eventually, they were able to tow the boat right to the water's edge. Then they climbed it aboard until they realized the next problem.
"How do we get moving? There are no oars here," said Gou, who was sitting in the middle of the boat, but Ash grinned and picked up one of his Pokeballs.
"Who needs oars when we have someone who can push a boat," he said and then threw the Pokeball into the air. "And Dragonite, you get to help us with that"
An orange dragon Pokemon appeared in front of them in the air and looked a little confused. Then it spotted Ash and her mouth spread into a wide smile, which disappeared just as quickly as she noticed that annoying girl sitting near her Ash. Very near.
"Dragonite, would you be so kind as to push the boat? Otherwise, we won't be able to move," said Ash and Dragonite nodded. It would do whatever her Ash would ask for, and this was an easy task.
She flew to the stern of the boat and then began to push the boat forward. The boat jerked off and then set off glide silently in the fog, with Dragonite acting as its engine.
"Do you think that there's a little creepy here?" Serena asked after some time after the boat had glided silently in the fog pushed by the Dragonite, and the fog had gotten their clothes wet.
"Maybe a little," replied Ash, and Gou nodded. From Ash's shoulder Pikachu also said "Pikaa.." and the silence descended on the boat again, illuminated by the Braixen torch and broken only by the occasional grunts of Greninja and Lucario.
Gou then broke the silence by saying, "Did you hear? There was a sound from there" and pointing somewhere in the middle of the fog.
"I didn't hear anything," Ash said and Pikachu shook his head as well. "Neither I did. Are you sure you didn't imagine it?" Serena asked, but Gou shook his head.
"No, I'm sure I heard something," he said stubbornly, and put his hand in a gust. He stared at Ash and Serena sitting in front of him and then huffed, "You don't believe me, right?"
Ash and Serena looked at each other and then Ash said cautiously, "Yeah... maybe you heard an echo from somewhere far away"
"Yeah, or it was Siren," Serena said suddenly and Ash turned to look at him in amazement.
"What?" he asked and Serena repeated, "Siren. My mother told me about them sometimes when I was little. They are mythical creatures that attracted sailors with their beautiful song and thus caused shipwrecks."
"Doesn't sound very nice," said Ash, but Gou just snorted and said, "They're mythical creatures, they don't really exist. Besides, the sound I heard wasn't anything beautiful, but rather mournful. So, the siren didn't sing it"
"Well, I guess then ," Serena sighed and then the silence descended on the boat again.
The silence lasted for about 10 minutes, until Serena suddenly noticed that the fog began to dissipate and the ground in front of them appeared.
"Hey, look!" she exclaimed and pointed in front of her. Ash and Gou looked and they both smiled when they saw the thing Serena pointed out. "Land ahoy!"
"I wonder what is waiting for us there?" thought Gou and Ash grinned at him. "Soon it will be seen," he said, scratching Pikachu behind his ear.
It didn't take long after that that they felt the bow of the boat slam into the shore and stop. Ash immediately rushed to the bow, making the boat wave, and tried to look out for what was visible on the opposite shore.
"Forest..." he muttered and glanced at his surroundings. "But less fog... actually, very much less..."
And just as he got it said, he heard Serena say from behind him, "Ash? Look," and he turned to see what Serena wanted him to see.
He saw that the fog that had completely covered the lake was now beginning to evaporate and the shiny surface of the lake to emerge. As the fog receded, he also noticed that the lake was indeed quite large and the beach from which they had departed was no longer visible.
"Well, at least we know now which direction to go," Ash stated and jumped down from the boat, assisted by Dragonite. Gou followed him, also assisted by the Dragonite, and said, "Yeah. Ash, should we camp for the night here? It's going to be dark soon, and I don't think it's wise to go into the woods in the dark."
"Yeah, good idea," Ash said, nodding and Pikachu on his shoulder nodded as well. "And besides, we have.."
But his sentence was abruptly interrupted, for then there was a big splash behind him and he quickly turned to see what had caused it.
To his surprise, he saw Serena sitting in shallow water with a water lily leaf on her head and spitting water. Dragonite hovered beside her, smiling somehow smugly and Serena glared at it.
"Serena, what happened?" Ash asked, rushing to the girl, and this one got up, squeezing the water from her clothes and glaring at Dragonite.
"Your dragon decided not to help me," she snorted, creating to the Dragonite murderous look, which it dodged by turning its head away. "I was just getting out of the boat, and I held out my hand to the Dragonite to help me out of it. Instead, it pushed the boat so that I swayed and fell on my face in the water."
Ash stared at Serena, who straightened her dress and then looked at Dragonite. "Is it true?" he asked, but Dragonite just shrugged.
Serena hmphed and said angrily, "You know, I feel like that dragon has something against me." She created another gloomy look at the Dragonite and hmphed again. "Here, take this. I need dry clothes," she finally huffed, pushing the water lily leaf into Ash's arms and then marching toward the camp that Gou had just set up.
"Oh, sure," Ash said, scratching his head and watching his girlfriend march forward and finally left, sighing, himself towards the camp.
Dragonite, on the other hand, did not sigh, but grinned smugly. She 1 - annoying girl 0. The girl soon realized that Ash would be better left to her.
As Dragonite flew happily towards the camp, Greninja helped Braixen out of the boat. Braixen smiled kindly at him, holding Greninja by the hand and Lucario, still sitting in the boat, gritted his teeth. That damn frog dared to touch his Braixen!
Lucario jumped out of the boat furiously and hit a very muddy and dirty spot out of the water. And he had thought his mood couldn't drop any further! Gritting his teeth, he set out to march toward the camp, and muddy water splashed on his feet. Braixen and Greninja viewed his going with very different faces; Braixen a little worried and Greninja smiling smugly.
They finally got the camp set up and by then it was almost dark. A few stars were already visible in the sky, and clouds quietly flew in front of the moon, which would soon become full. They did something to eat and soon it was time to go to bed.
That's when Gou decided to pull one more trick into the air. He watched as Ash had just set up their tent when a very brilliant thought came to his mind.
"What if we swapped?" he said suddenly and Ash and Serena, who had just brushed Braixen's fur, turned to look at him in wonder.
"What do you mean?" asked Ash and Gou grinned and explained, "I mean tents. I'd take a smaller one, the one where Serena usually sleeps, and you two would get that bigger one."
"What!?" said Serena and almost dropped the brush. She felt the red spread on her cheeks as she thought of Ash and her sleeping in the same tent and Braixen giggled at her.
"Yeah, you are a couple now, so there should be no obstacle to that," Gou said, a little teasing and Ash, who had also blushed a little, stammered, "I.. but.."
"Great, it's then decided. I'll move my stuff right away so you can settle into your tent," Gou said cheerfully and winking to others, he took his backpack and left Ash and Serena to wonder what would come of this.
After a while, Ash, Serena, and Gou had completed their new tent arrangements and were ready to sleep. Serena was still a little blushed from sleeping with Ash in the same tent, but then she decided that if she had been able to kiss Ash there in the cave, she would be able to do this too. So, after a while, she found herself lying next to Ash and wondering why they hadn't done this before.
"Good night, Serena," Ash whispered and turned to his side. He was just closing his eyes when he felt something soft touch his cheek and he heard Serena say quietly, "Good night, Ash."
Ash smiled and touched the cheek on which Serena had pressed her kiss. He felt Serena settle down next to him to sleep and he felt Pikachu curl up on the ball next to his feet. He smiled and yawned and then felt himself slowly slip to sleep...
Ash walked in the fog. He was in his nightwear and he wondered how he had gotten there. "Umm.. hello, is there anybody?" he tried to shout, but it felt like the fog would have absorbed all the sounds into itself.
Besides, he saw nothing else, heard nothing, and didn't really feel anything. The fog was not cold or hot, it was just gray matter hovering and swirling around him. He saw nothing through it and he wondered if he could ever get out of there.
Ash wrapped his arms around his body and blinked around him. He had not seen any other living beings in the fog and he wondered if he was the only one alive.
Suddenly he noticed a movement in the corner of his eye, and he turned to see what had caused it. However, he saw nothing but a shady character with something very familiar, and as he marveled at it, the character turned and set off to run away.
"Hey, don't go!" Ash exclaimed and went after the shadowy figure. As he ran, he noticed how the mist slowly began to evaporate and soon disappeared completely.
Now he found himself standing on the same waterfront where he, Serena, and Gou had camped. Now, however, there were no tents or traces of others in the open, but only a lake glistening dark and calm at night and the reeds standing still.
Ash had time to look at his new environment until he noticed movement in the corner of his eye again. He turned in the direction of the movement again and now he noticed someone wearing a pink wedding dress style dress standing near the water's edge. He felt that person was somehow very familiar to him, but since this was a back to him, he couldn't see the person's face, so he wasn't sure.
"Umm... hello?" Ash said a little hesitantly and the person moved. Ash saw her slowly turn around and seeing her face, Ash gasped.
"Hey, Ash," the person said and smiled. Her blue eyes twinkled in the sky in the light of a glorious moon and her honey-blond hair seemed to shine almost golden. She was wearing a pink, wedding dress-like dress and a blue silk ribbon wrapped around her neck. She had a veil on her head and she had crossed her hands in her lap.
Ash stared at her and said in amazement, "Serena?" He watched as Serena nodded silently and with a slightly sad smile. "Why are you here? What place is this? And why are you wearing a wedding dress?"
However, Serena didn't answer anything to Ash's questions, but instead she held out her hand and said quietly, "Ash... come..."
"Where?" Ash asked, but still stepped toward the silent Serena standing by the water's edge. However, Serena still didn't answer anything, just stood quietly with her hand outstretched and looked at Ash with a slightly sad smile and blue eyes twinkling.
Ash reached out to Serena and held out his hand to grab Serena's outstretched hand. But instead of grasping it, his hand went straight through Serena's outstretched hand as if the hand had been mere air. Ash's eyes widened in amazement as he saw it and he looked at Serena's sad face in amazement and a little scared.
"Serena... are you... are you... are you a ghost?" he asked, a little stuttering, and Serena lowered her hand. She shook her head and said in a quiet voice, "No."
"Why... how... then how did my hand go straight through you?" Ash still asked in amazement. However, Serena answered nothing but stepped back, standing on the dark shore water of the lake.
"I'm not a ghost, but I'm not alive either," she said, stepping again one step back on the dark water and Ash stared at her. "I'm not a spirit, but a human neither"
"Then what are you?" Ash asked as he watched as Serena stepped silently on the water away from him. He tried to follow her, but found that the water was just plain water for him, so he could not walk on it.
"I'm something that you need to remember when the right time comes," Serena said cryptically and looked into the distance somewhere.
Ash didn't understand anything. "What do I need to remember and when?" he asked, but Serena did not answer. Instead, she lowered her gaze to Ash and smiled sadly.
"Goodbye, Ash Ketchum," she said and a sudden start to the wind waved her hair and dress. She looked at Ash one last time with her blue eyes and then she was gone.
"Wait! Don't go!" Ash exclaimed and tried to go after Serena. However, his bare toes only encountered cold water and he stopped. He tried to see where Serena had gone, but it was hard as the landscape had again begun to be covered in that gray mist.
It obscured the view of the waterfront and pulled Ash back into its embrace. Ash tried to see in front of him, but saw nothing but endless gray. Then suddenly he heard someone say quietly, "Time to wake up, Ash," and then he felt the earth betray under him and plunge him into endless darkness.
Ash woke up shouting and startled. He got up to sit and realized he was in his own tent. It was just a dream, he told himself. A strange dream that never really happened.
"Ash? Is everything all right?" he heard Serena's worried and somewhat sleepy voice beside him. "You just shouted. Is something wrong?"
"No, I just saw a very strange dream," Ash explained and Serena got up to sit better. Ash stared at the opposite wall of the tent and continued, "There was you, but there wasn't. And then you disappeared and everything went gray. And you said something weird, but I can't remember what..."
He fell silent as he thought about his dream and then felt Serena wrap her arms around him. "Shh... it was just a dream, it wasn't true," she said comfortably, hugging Ash tightly. Ash smiled a little.
"Though it really felt real," he muttered and placed his hand on Serena's hand. Serena smiled, but then yawned.
"Come on, let's go back to sleep, I'm tired," she said and Ash nodded. They went to sleep again and fell asleep very quickly. And this time Ash slept without any more strange dreams.
"You know, Scorbunny, this place isn't bad now that all that fog is gone," Gou told Scorbunny as they walked along the lakeshore, and Scorbunny nodded and said happily, "Bunny!"
They had just woken up and decided to come to the beach to refresh their thoughts. Ash and Serena had not yet woken up, and Gou had not bothered to wake them up. "Let the love birds sleep," he had said mischievously to Scorbunny and this one had grinned.
The morning sun had just risen and its light made the dark water of the lake sparkle. A few Swanna landed in the middle of it to eat and their white feathers shone in the sunlight. The gray cloud mass was disappeared and the fog cover had disappeared with it as well. The day seemed to be sunny again and it suited for Gou perfectly.
Gou smiled at Scorbunny and then stopped. He looked at the calm surface of the lake and then got a good idea. He picked up a small, smooth, flat stone from the ground and felt it in his hand. The shape was good, as was the size. But was he still able to..?
He placed the stone right in his hand and then threw it towards the lake. The stone hit the surface of the lake and then bounced off it five times. Gou smiled contentedly. It was a long time since he had last played ducks and drakes, but the skill was apparently still there.
He looked at the Scorbunny standing next to him, who had watched the recent performance with mouth open in amazement, and grinned at him. "Make it better," he said to his rabbit-like Pokemon and this one closed his mouth and nodded resolutely.
It also took a small stone from the ground, making sure it was almost similar as Gou's. Then he measured the lake and its surface on his gaze and finally threw a stone towards the lake.
To its chagrin, however, the stone did not bounce off the surface of the lake like the Gou's stone, but sank beneath the surface. Scorbunny looked disappointed and Gou laughed.
"It takes practice to succeed," he said and Scorbunny huffed irritably. And he would succeed here! It picked up a new stone from the ground, without bothering to check it this time, and then threw it towards the lake as well.
But like the previous one, that stone just sank under the surface without making a single bounce. However, Scorbunny did not give up, but took a handful of small stones in his paws and began to cannon them towards the lake.
None of them, of course, bounced or even slid along the surface of the lake and Scorbunny began to irritate. It trampled its feet against the ground, irritated, until suddenly the most ingenious idea in world history came to its head.
It took another stone from the ground and Gou laughed. "One more time?" he asked, but Scorbunny answered nothing. Instead, it just grinned, threw a stone in the air in front of him, and kicked it with his foot.
And it worked. The stone went forward like a cannonball and glided across the lake with a firetail. It reached the opposite shore, hit one of those many spruces, and made it tilt. That, in turn, caused many Flying-type Pokemon to take off, and soon they heard a stumble that occurred when that spruce tree fell to the ground.
Scorbunny examined his front paws, supposedly modest, and said, "Scor bun bun," as if to say, "That's a challenge for you." Gou whistled quietly and for a long time and said, "Not bad. But next time you can add a little more speed."
Scorbunny looked at him sharply, but Gou just laughed. "It was a joke. But really, it was so cool, if you practiced it a little more, it would be good..."
But his sentence was broken, for just then he heard some kind of complaint from the nearby. He immediately recognized it as the complaint he had heard yesterday in the boat and he turned his gaze in the direction of the sound. It was heard from a nearby forest and sounded like some kind of Pokemon.
Gou listened to it for a moment and suddenly realized that the complaint sounded just like cries for help. His eyes widened. There was some Pokemon in trouble! He should help it!
Without thinking any more, he set off to run in the direction of the sound and Scorbunny hurried after him, shouting, "Bun scor scor!" The just woken up Ash saw Gou disappear into the woods and some instinct told him to follow him.
Gou ran through the woods, dodging the branches and trees in front of him. He headed toward the sound he heard and Scorbunny followed after him, huffing and puffing. It didn't like running and wondered where his trainer was in such a hurry.
Gou, on the other hand, thought of something completely different. He wondered what Pokemon voice he had heard and what might be the trouble. Hopefully nothing serious, he thought as he dodged a slightly larger tree and continued towards the sound.
He soon noticed that the forest began to thin out and the amount of light to increase. He slowed down a bit and knew he was close.
And soon the trees ran out completely and Gou noticed that he had come to a pretty big opening. It was lined with trees, but in the middle of it was a large pond whose water apparently came from the lake. But the pond was not the thing that caught Gou's attention. No, it was something completely different.
Namely, in the middle of the opening was a ring of Houndours that seemed to growl at some small and blue Pokemon. The blue Pokemon seemed to freeze in horror into place, and the leader of the Houndours, the big and malicious-looking Houndoom, approached it menacingly and laughed viciously.
"Hey! Leave that Pokemon alone!" Gou shouted at them angrily. Houndours and Houndoom stopped growling and turned to look at Gou, and Gou said to Scorbunny, who had just been drawn to a little breath, "Scorbunny, use that trick you just did on the stone."
Scorbunny nodded and took a small stone from the ground. It kicked it with its foot towards the malicious-looking leader Houndoom of the Houndours, and the stone got again firetail.
The stone hit Houndoom's forehead and it howled. Houndours glanced at their leader, then at each other, and then they turned to Gou and Scorbunny again and growled menacingly.
Gou swallowed. His plan didn't go exactly as he planned had planned. If he even had any plan. He saw the leader-Houndoom appear from behind the Houndours in his head with a burnt bump and it looked very angry. And when Gou looked more closely, surprisingly familiar.
His eyes widened in amazement. No... it cannot be. Was that really the same Houndoom and its herd that had driven him and Pikachu behind then in the first fog forest? But those eyes were the same and that vicious look could not be forgotten.
Gou found himself glued into place just like that little blue Pokemon, and watched in horror as Houndoom approached him. Scorbunny had done exactly the same and the situation did not look very good.
But suddenly Houndoom stopped growling and stopped. It turned its gaze somewhere completely elsewhere and Gou looked at it a little confused. His confusion only increased when Houndoom grunted something to its herd and they all left to run quickly out of the square.
Gou blinked his eyes and then remembered the little blue Pokemon that the Houndours had been bullying. He suddenly regained his ability to move and then hurried to the little Pokemon, who, still stiff with horror, shivered and looked scared.
Gou rushed to it with Scorbunny on his heels and as he got closer he slowed down. He didn't want to scare this little Pokemon, which looked very scary, and sudden movements were the last thing he wanted to accomplish.
He knelt in front of the Pokemon and said quietly, "Hi" The Pokemon looked startling very much and then blinked around looking for the source of the sound. Then it spotted Gou and seemed startled so much that it started to become invisible.
"Hey, don't disappear!" Gou exclaimed as he saw the Pokemon evaporate in front of his eyes. He had not been able to expect anything like that. "You don't have to be afraid of me, I'm not going to do you any harm to you"
The Pokemon stopped disappearing and then gradually began to return to sight. It watched Gou and Scorbunny intently all the time and Gou looked at Scorbunny sharply so as not to do anything suddenly.
The Pokemon had now fully reappeared and Gou curiously brought up his Rotom. "What Pokemon are you?" he muttered and then scanned Pokemon with his Rotom:
"Sobble, Water Lizard Pokemon and Water-type. When it gets wet, its skin changes color, and this Pokemon becomes invisible as if it were camouflaged"
"So, you're Sobble. Nice to meet you, I'm Gou, and that's Scorbunny," said Gou, introducing himself and his fire rabbit, who at that very moment scratched his nose and stared in front of him. "He may look a little simple, but he's really a very interesting guy."
Sobble nodded slowly and Gou smiled. He started to like this Pokemon. Maybe they could become friends. "Listen Sobble. Would you like... what was that?"
Gou's sentence suddenly changed to a completely different one, as he had heard something. Scorbunny, who had kicked pebbles into that pond, blinked around him and then Sobble raised his finger in the air and pointed at something behind Gou, saying in fear: "Sob... sob... sobble!"
"What now, Sobble?" Gou asked and quickly turned around. What he saw led him to hope that the Houndours would have been his support at that moment.
Gyarados had risen from the pond. Huge, blue and angry Gyarados. It stared at the three little creatures in front of it and it growled.
Gyarados had been comfortably nap in its favorite pond when suddenly a group of Houndours had appeared in the square and started making noise.
Gyarados had still put up with it and was just trying to keep up his dreams. But then that boy had appeared in the square, and he had shouted something in a very loud voice. Too loud for Gyarados.
But even this Gyarados could have been tolerated. It could have wait that the boy to have faded and then resumed his dreams. But no. Then, after a while, it had felt how rocks began to rain on its head, and it no longer intended to tolerate it.
So, it had risen up from its pond and was now staring at its distractions. It growled and for once decided to do the job properly. Yeah, that's what it would do. One decent Hyper Beam would make clear of those annoying distractions.
It took a breath and then it spat its move towards those distractors. Gou didn't have time to defend himself, the only thing he could do was throw himself in front of Sobble and Scorbunny and hope the end was as painless as possible.
But then he heard someone shout, "NO, YOU DON'T DO THAT!" and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ash running out of the woods and towards him.
And throw himself in front of the Gyarados' Hyper Beam.