The sun of that day was beginning to fade away.
Ash pedaled his bike slowly. Tiredness overwhelmed him. His legs were so tired he believed he could barely stand.
Overhead, a group of Pidgeys flew across Kanto's late-afternoon orange sky in the opposite direction from where he had come.
On the side of the road on Route 1, it was possible to hear the sound of wild Pokémon hiding within the areas where the grass grew to the top.
He decided to stop.
"Clefairyyyyy Clefairyyyyy Clefairyyyy," Luna hummed in her Pokémon language from inside the bicycle basket.
"Why did you stop?," she spoke through the psychic link.
"I'm very tired, I need to rest."
"How lame."
"Very easy to say that because you're not the one doing all the work!", he replied angrily.
Ash parked his bike beside a tree. He took his portable tent out of his backpack and set it up. When he finished, he climbed into a tree and broke some branches.
He returned to the ground holding some sticks.
The Clefairy rested under the shadow of the tree.
I need to lit a fire.
He gathered up some fallen leaves and arranged them in a heap. He picked up the sticks and started rubbing them. When the sun had been exchanged for the moon in the sky, after numerous failed attempts, he had finally managed to start the fire.
The fire crackled, spewing smoke and warming Ash's body from the cold night winds.
"That's it," he said relaxing at the edge of the fire as he finally managed to finish everything.
Ash went inside the tent, opened his backpack, and took out the jar of butter cookies he had brought from home. He sat down again by the fire and began to eat them.
"Do you want?," he spoke with his mouth full to the Clefairy relaxing beside the tree.
"No, I'm fed up from eating berries," Luna replied.
"There's more for me then."
Ash took another cookie and chewed it.
When he finished, he put the jar back into his backpack. There were still a few more that he would leave to eat over the next few days.
He took the photo out of his pocket and looked at it better in the light provided by the fire.
He was riding on his father's back. He smiled as he used Giovanni's ears as if they were the saddle of a Tauros. They were in a place he had never seen in his life. There were trees and, what appeared to be, a lake.
Giovanni. He memorized it. It had been years without even knowing his name and now it even seemed strange to call him that way.
"What are you looking at?," asked Clefairy.
Ash put away the photo.
"My father," replied Ash. Curiosity hit him. "Do you have a father?," he asked Luna.
"Of course I do! Or do you think I was born of a breeder!?"
"Hey, but Pokemons don't hatch on eggs or something like that?", he said ironically.
She turned red.
"Of course I did... But that's not what I meant."
Luna looked up towards the moon.
"Me and my family used to live there," she pointed up.
Ash looked at the big gray ball in the darkness of the sky.
"On the Moon!?," he exclaimed in surprise.
That was new to him.
"Yes, we lived in a colony on the moon. Me, a Clefairy, my mom and dad Clefabes and my little brother Cleffa. Until…until…"
Ash noticed that Luna was reluctant to continue. "Until what?"
"I'd rather not talk about it," her expression turned grim. "Now I'm here on earth. And I have business to take care of," she said with determination.
Ash yawned, sleepy.
She's hiding something from me. He suspected something but didn't have enough energy to formulate it in his mind.
"Time for bed," he warned.
The two of them went inside the tent and lay under the eiderdown above the soft grass.
Ash was drooling a great deal of saliva when he suddenly woke up. He heard a strange sound being emitted from outside the tent.
Steps?
He looked at Clefairy lying beside him. She snored with her eyes closed.
From outside the tent, shadows were casted. Things moved around.
Ash left the tent and went outside to investigate where the sound was coming from.
The fire had already been extinguished. It was still dark and far from dawn, so he supposed it would still be sometime away from dawn.
He looked around.
Nothing.
When he turned to go back inside the tent, he saw something move out of the corner of his eye.
A group of five Rattatas were running towards the undergrowth and, on top of them, they're carrying his backpack.
"MY BACKPACK!," he yelled desperately.
But it was too late.
The Rattatas entered the tall grass, disappearing from his sight.