A month passed since Aly received her latest gym badge. Her Pokémon worked hard in the battle, so she decided they needed a break.
As she and Totodile walked down the path, they turned their heads and saw an open field below, extending far ahead. The gentle breeze made the grass dance, giving them almost a shine under the sun. There were barely any flowers, but a couple of oak trees filled the outer gaps. However, in the center of the field, there laid a big, crystal-clear lake that had a single giant tree in the center. Only a tiny patch of land surrounded the tree, with part of the ground merging with the water. Aly wasn't sure if it was expected, especially if the said tree was on a small patch of earth that was floating perfectly still.
A small sign stood on the top of their hill, which Aly and Totodile approached. "~Serenity Lake; it is known for its peaceful waters and mysterious balanced tree! The tree's origin is unknown, but rumors say that those who ventured to the sacred tree disappeared from the earth, never to be seen again! Visitors, take caution! ~"
"Wow, I bet we could even have a picnic for lunch," She suggested as she stretched her arms and legs, tired from the long walk they made on their last visit.
Totodile nodded in agreement. He was a little tired of walking as well.
"Race you to the bottom, Totodile?" She asked her companion with a mischievous look.
Not verbally answering her, Totodile sighed and used his tiny blue legs to jump down the hill. He landed gracefully and glanced back up at his trainer with a smug.
Aly huffed a breath in annoyance. "Cheater!" She called to him, which only made him shrug. She took a few steps back and made one giant leap off the ground. When she came down from the air, she successfully planted her feet on the ground, but gravity got the best of her, and she fell flat on her face.
Seeing her dirt-covered and scrunched-up face, Totodile laughed, not caring if she was glaring daggers from her teal eyes at him. "How about you shut your jaw up?" She mumbled as she used her hands to wipe her face.
Once that was taken care of, Aly reached into her bag and released all of her Pokémon from their Pokéballs. "Time to take a break!" The three red Pokéballs and a pink one opened up, and all of her Pokémon landed on the ground with smiles. "Guys, we found this lake here and thought we should all have lunch. But before that, we can go play in the water. What do you say? Good idea?" She smiled when they all nodded.
As everyone waited, Aly came out from one of the tree trunks on the side of the field and was in her bathing suit. She mentally thanked her mother for forgetting to pack it for her trip. It was a bright yellow short-sleeved swimming shirt with white shorts (that stopped high above her knees) with a beautiful yellow flower emblem on the right side. Undoing her pigtails, she let her short red hair down.
She walked up to the water and placed her foot into the water to see how the temperature was. It was not too hot or too cold. Perfectly warm, to her delight. "The water's fine, guys! Come on in!" She called to her Pokémon.
They all led out joyous cries and ran into the water. Totodile jumped in with a cannonball (Snickering when he drenched Aly with the giant splash), Ekans slithered into the deep water, and Pidgeotto flew high above the waters, landing on a flat smooth boulder near the shore.
Togepi waddled in, but Aly stopped him and picked him up. "Guess what, Togepi? This is the perfect time to teach you all about swimming." She said with a smile, and her eyes closed. He was confused at first, but he led out one of his cute bubbly laughs anyway.
As everyone played, Aly turned and saw her Vulpix sitting on the grassy shore near the water. 'Uh oh, I forgot that Vulpix is a Fire Type. She must hate water.' She thought to herself, feeling guilty for forgetting something like that. "Vulpix, I'm sorry. Do you want us to come out and do something else?" She asked her Fox Pokémon. Vulpix smiled off the offer. She didn't like water, but she wanted everyone to have fun. She didn't want to be the reason everyone had to stop playing. She shook her head in response and saw Aly's frown deepen in concern. "Okay, but don't worry; we'll be out soon, and we can eat lunch together," Aly reassured her. Then, she turned her attention to her Egg Pokémon, flailing his arms to stay afloat.
This seemed to soothe everyone, except for Totodile. Before, he was gleefully swimming under the cool water and doing tricks above it. He stopped when he heard Aly's comment about Vulpix not joining them. Usually, if he was in the water, he would be in there for hours without a care. However, seeing Vulpix not having fun affected him. They have known each other for a while now. She was a great friend, super-nice, amazing in battles, and deeply beautiful. True, he was still attracted to the Fox Pokémon, but when Ekans and he came to terms about letting Vulpix choose, she wanted to be friends first. Because of her, Totodile and Ekans became more mature and better friends (That didn't mean they didn't throw in fights once in a while).
So, with that in mind, Totodile swam back to dry land and walked over to Aly's backpack. Vulpix watched in confusion when she saw him come out, but then she was surprised when she saw a beach ball in his hand. She had forgotten one time, while Aly was in this little town by the ocean, she bought supplies at a small shop. Not just supplies, but some toys for the Pokémon, including the beach ball.
Totodile, with the ball in his tiny blue hand, walked until he was in front of Vulpix. She stared at him with wide eyes until she felt something at her paws. She looked down and gasped silently when she saw the beach ball at her feet. She looked back up and saw his toothy smile, which made her smile back. He was offering to play with her and keep her company. The Fire Pokémon used her head to roll the beach ball back towards him. This was repeated by Totodile, then Vulpix, and it became a game of catch.
As they played, Aly looked over (with Togepi in her hands) and smiled at the scene. She smiled at Totodile's act of kindness, but when she saw the look on Ekans face, her lips formed a frown. It was obvious what it meant to Ekans; it was the look of a heartbroken soul.
He could see that Vulpix was more comfortable with Totodile. She probably saw him only as a friend and considered Totodile as more than that.
"Hey, Ekans!" Ekans snapped out of his melancholy daze and turned to his trainer, who was smiling. "We're about to play Marco-Polo! Want to join?" She asked.
Ekans figured out the offer and smiled, joining the group in their fun game.
Back with Vulpix and Totodile, when the ball came a little faster to him than earlier, Totodile commented to Vulpix, "Good roll, Vulpix, but I bet you can't beat this one!"
"Oh yeah!?" Vulpix answered back with a mischievous voice and took a few jumps back. Then, her body flashed in an outlined glow of white, and she launched herself at lightning speed towards the ball.
Totodile's eyes grew wide when he realized what would happen next when the Quick Attack made contact with the ball. "Wait, Vulpix!" He warned.
Once Vulpix's body made contact with the plastic ball, it was sent flying above the Pokémon's head and sent far through the lake. It didn't last long in the air, though, as it began to descend and landed on the small patch of land that held the big mysterious tree. Seeing how many miles the ball traveled, Totodile and Vulpix frowned with sweat drops on their heads.
"Huh? Was that the beach ball?" Aly looked at the two Pokémon on the land and began to figure out what happened, told by the embarrassed looks on their faces. "Don't worry, guys, I'll get it!" Aly began to say, but she was cut off when Totodile yelled back at her, pointing to himself as he spoke. "Are you sure about that Totodile?" She asked, knowing he was telling her he would go and get the ball himself.
Totodile nodded with his hands on his hips and a puffed-out chest.
Vulpix suddenly placed a paw on his shoulder, telling him that she should go get the ball since she was the one who sent it there. Totodile warned her about the water, but she suggested she go with him. He was about to protest against it, but then she gave the Jaw Pokémon that look that said, 'Please let me help. He couldn't say no to that face.
Totodile splashed in the water, with his stomach facing down and his back facing up. Vulpix nodded and then carefully walked on Totodile's back. She was surpassingly lighter than he expected.
It took a few minutes, but they made it to the small land. Vulpix hopped off Totodile's back and jumped out of the water. The land was only big enough for about four average humans, but the tree was as big as a city skyscraper. The leaves danced with the wind in perfect harmony, and the dark brown bark was a sign that this tree was in excellent health.
"Are you sure this is a good idea, Totodile? Because I remember the warning on the sign about this tree. The whole 'Those who go near the tree disappear' thing kind of scares me." Vulpix warned her blue friend.
"Vulpix, those kinds of stories are just imaginary. If anything does happen, I promise I'll protect you." Totodile said without thinking and not turning to Vulpix. Hearing those words coming from him caused Vulpix to blush a little. Something caught Totodile's red eyes. "Vulpix, look at this."
Vulpix obeyed and followed him until they were in front of the tree. It revealed a dark hollow hole within the center.
Totodile and Vulpix looked down to find the bottom of their missing beach ball, but all they could see was darkness. "I bet it fell down there. Come on, Totodile. Let's just leave it and go back to Aly." Vulpix sadly told Totodile, dreading the thought of ending their fun game of catch.
"Okay. When we get back, you and I can just-"
The ground beneath them suddenly faded from their touch, and the two Pokémon were sent tumbling down the dark hollow tree hole. As soon as they fell in and disappeared from the spot, the ground that was gone began to regenerate, and the hole closed up, shutting the victims inside for good.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Totodile and Vulpix screamed as they fell through the never-ending darkness of the tree.
They didn't know how long they fell, but to their relief, they saw a small dot of light at the bottom of their falling space. Then, they made it inside the morning, which turned out to be a clear blue sky with puffy white clouds. They wished that something would save them from this strange fall.
Totodile managed to open his ruby eyes, and he gaped when he saw the ground becoming larger. He realized if they do make contact with the earth...
He would keep his word, even if it meant getting hurt or worse.
Totodile shook out of his shocked state and leaned his body towards her, placing his arms and legs together. When he finally reached her, he wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her towards his tiny chest.
Vulpix realized what her friend was trying to do and wanted to stop him, but the ground was coming quickly into view. She closed her brown eyes in fear, pushing her face into Totodile's chest.
Strangely, the pain never came.
Feeling something that was not the ground, Totodile and Vulpix opened their eyes. They gasped when they saw that they landed on what appeared to be fluffy cream-colored cotton.
"Good job on using Cotton Spore, Mareep. It was very clever, yup yup." A goofy masculine voice said with pride.
'Am I hearing voices?' Totodile asked in his head.
"Down here, silly!" This voice was different, sweet, and feminine-like.
Totodile and Vulpix, still clinging to each other, looked down and saw that there were two Pokémon. The first was a small Pokémon, about a few inches smaller than Vulpix. He stood on all fours and had brown fur. On his head were two small oval-shaped ears and three brown tuffs on his cheeks. They recognized it as a Bidoof.
The other Pokémon was a few inches taller than Bidoof. She had pink fur on the top part of her stump-like body, and the under part of her body had a cream-colored coat. Her face was also cream-colored, but it was a form of a crescent moon, and the rest of her head was covered in pink. They recognized her as a Skitty. "You know, there are other ways to travel than hurdling yourselves out of the sky." Skitty commented with a smile.
"Yup, yup, you two could've seriously hurt yourselves." Bidoof agreed. "Golly, good thing Mareep called for us when she saw you too."
They thought we meant to fall from the sky!? "That's not what happened! We lost our beach ball, looked for it, and fell through this tree. We're not stupid!" Totodile yelled at the Pokémon as he stood on the cotton cushion.
"ACK!" He heard Vulpix yell loudly, jumping out of her friend's arms. "Totodile! Say that again!" She gasped when she heard herself speak and covered her mouth with her paws.
"Why?" Totodile asked, but then he realized something and covered his mouth too. Then, they turned to each other with shocked faces and opened their mouths.
"We're talking just like Aly!"