Ash rocked Luna from side to side until she woke up.
"What the..."She was sleepy.
"WAKE UP! THEY STOLE MY BACKPACK."
The Pokémon turned to the side and closed its eyes. "And what do I have to do with it?"
Ash was incredulous at the unwillingness of the Clefairy who was still lying.
"So what? Aside from the fact that all my stuff was in there, nothing," he replied wryly.
The Pokémon was still lying down, not paying attention to what he was saying.
Ash had to think of something to motivate her. His Pokédex, Poké Balls, potions, the map and the cookie jar he had brought from home were in the bag. He couldn't lose everything, otherwise the money he had spent to get all the items would be thrown away.
He had an idea.
"If you don't want it all right... But if I can't get my map back I might not be able to get to Mount Moon anytime soon..."
Luna opened one of her eyes. Ash knew he had managed to draw attention to himself.
"Maybe it will take days...months...years before we can get there without some sort of coordinate," Ash tried to persuade her.
Luna rubbed her eyes with her hand. She sighed in surrender.
"Alright, just because I really need to get to Mount Moon as soon as possible."
Ash smiled.
The two left the tent. The Clefairy floated through the air and landed on his shoulders. "Take me where these Rattatas are, I'll make sure to teach them a lesson," she said with a dark undertone.
The body hair on Ash's arms stood up.
It was the first time he had seen that side of Luna and he wasn't sure if he was enjoying it.
He put the worries out of his mind and ran towards the beginning of the area where the forest expanded into a large dense forest. He stopped on it.
He stared into the darkness that followed through the tall grass.
"Why did you stop?," asked Luna.
Ash took a deep breath.
"I'm taking courage to enter... It's the first time I enter an area of wild Pokémon," he explained. "If you knew the stories I heard in Pallet you'd be scared too."
There was a story that always ran in Palletian imagination which always appeared in his mind when it came to wild Pokemon.
Once, a little child had ended up getting lost at the town's Magikarps market and disappeared. His mother, desperate, started knocking from door to door, begging for help or any kind of news about her little boy's whereabouts.
"I'm sorry Roseana, I don't have any clue as to where Quinzinho might be," said Delia when being interrogated at her door by the woman. Ash was beside her, hugging his pokedoll.
Despite being just a child he knew by the look of the woman that she was going through a very painful time.
The entire population, moved by the woman's despair and determination to find her son again, organized a search team made up of city residents. Together, men, women, children, even Professor Oak, departed around for days, looking for any sign.
At the end of the fifth day search they found him. The body was already decomposing. His eyes had been pierced, his arms and legs torn apart by pokémon bites.
The mother, upon discovering what had happened, had been seen by the local doctor after a mental breakdown. The day after her son's funeral she was found in her bathroom. Her wrists were bloody and the bath water had turned red. Officer Jenny had found the blades near the bathroom floor.
On top of the sink was a letter.
"It was all my fault, if it wasn't for my lack of care and attention none of this would have happened. I have no desire to live in a world where Quinzinho is not alive, so today I will be leaving. I hope he accepts my forgiveness when we meet again in the other world."
"No need to worry, I will protect you." Luna woke him from the dreaminess.
Ash smiled.
It was true. He was no longer a child. He had graduated from Pokémon school and could not be afraid, otherwise, all his efforts to start his journey would have been for nothing.
I'm a Pokémon Trainer!
Ash gained a dose of confidence. Then he ran through the tall grass, disappearing into the darkness.
He felt something touch his back.
His heart sped up. So much so that he wondered if he would end up throwing up.
When he turned around, he saw it was just a stalk of a long plant. His heartbeats calmed down.
"Clefairyyy Clefairyyy Clefairyyy," the Clefairy hummed on his shoulder.
Ash strained his vision trying to see through the darkness.
"I can't see anything," he complained to himself as he listened to the sound wild Pokemons were making around him.
Luna stopped humming.
"Do you want a little help?", she said through the psychic link.
"A help would be nice," he replied.
Suddenly, Luna began to emit a flash of light from her body, illuminating the place.
Ash was shocked.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew how to use Flash before?" He was furious. If he had known the fact sooner they wouldn't be walking blindly.
"You didn't ask." She laughed.
"By the way, I don't even know which moves you know," he said, finally realizing the fact. A trainer needed to know what moves his Pokemon knew, otherwise, he wouldn't be able to command them in a battle.
Luna was suddenly extremely interested in the topic.
Ash nearly tripped over a rock on the ground, however, managed to recover himself before falling.
"Of course. Moonblast, this was the most recent one I learned. Mega Punch, this one I inherited from my parents...", Luna said as Ash paid attention to the path he was taking.
He heard the sound of something. He gave Luna a "shiiii" and tried to hear better.
"... Metronome, every Clefairy who presides itself knows it." Luna interrupted the mental chatter. "But I haven't even told them all yet," she complained.
Ash focused his hearing.
"Ratta Ratta," he heard the rumble coming from somewhere.
It must be them.
He walked on his tiptoe, trying not to make a noise.
When he got to the source of the sound, he opened the thicket with the help of his hands and saw.
The five Rattatas were rummaging through his backpack. One of them was trying to open his cookie jar without success. In the middle of them there was a huge Raticate.
Must be the leader, Ash supposed. I have to be careful, otherwise they're quite likely to run away again.
Or worse, attacking him.
Ash made a move to kneel on the ground when, suddenly, the Clefairy flew off his shoulders and landed near the Pokemon, revealing her identity.
"Clef Clef!", growled the pokemon.
There was only one expression that would describe the feeling that made Ash's blood boil with rage at that moment.
"Are you fucking kidding me!," he exclaimed.