Chapter 57

With a dull thud, the unconscious body of an Aipom landed at Mark's feet. It was followed by Cherry, landing lightly behind it. She grinned proudly up at her trainer like a cat showing off its latest kill to its master. But after a few more seconds, the Aipom blinked awake and scampered back into the woods.

"How many was that?" Mark asked. Cherry had been chasing Aipom for three hours, but their progress felt slow.

"Fourteen," Cherry panted, examining her newest scrapes and bruises. Her dress was streaked and spotted with dirt, as well as a large number of minor cuts, though none were bleeding. Her bright red hair had quite a few twigs tangled in it as well, but she didn't mind.

Chasing Aipom was actually very exhilarating for her. They were quick little imps, more apt to run than to try and fight the Charmander-girl. Not that she could blame them; they didn't stand a chance against her in a straightforward battle. Even though she was still very inexperienced, she was at least thrice as powerful. So far, Cherry only needed to use a single potion to recover from the damage they had done.

Battling them was simple enough, but finding and catching them was another matter. The Power Anklet that Aurum had given her slowed her down considerably. The first three or four Aipom had been the worst. But as she caught more and more the anklet began to weigh her down less and less.

"Guess you're getting quicker," Mark complimented Cherry. The little Charmander-girl grinned happily, swishing her flaming tail.

"Two more about a hundred yards to the left," Katana spoke up, gesturing towards the sounds of more Aipom. She had been sent with them to scout and Mark was extremely grateful for it. Even for a human Pokémon, the young Weavile-woman had amazing hearing. Without her, Cherry more than likely would have only caught half of the number of Aipom that she had.

Cherry was off like a shot, grinning maniacally as she darted through the trees after her quarry.

Mark watched her go, wondering about her progress. Aurum's speed training called for fifty defeated Aipom. They were almost a third of the way done, which was remarkable considering how rare Aipom were. At their current rate, Cherry would be finished before the day was over. If he understood effort training correctly, that would mean that Cherry would have been successfully trained to be as fast as she could possibly be. After that, Mark wasn't sure what Aurum would recommend. Charmander used a wide variety of attacks and a Pokémon's defense was always important, but which would he favor?

Ultimately, the decision fell to Mark to make the choice about how to raise Cherry. Shinobi was his greatest concern. Lily's human Ninjask was fast and a strong attacker, but like most Ninjask, he was a little short on defense. Perhaps the best way to beat him would be for Cherry to exploit that weakness.

But something else bothered Mark. Before they had started chasing Aipom, Cherry had already grown much stronger from fighting Nails. Strong enough for her to learn Smokescreen and Dragon Rage. Ten more Aipom had given her the chance to learn Scary Face, but Mark had her immediately discard the ability. There were more important things for a Charmander to do in battle than use Scary Face.

With all of that experience, shouldn't she have evolved by now? Granted, she was becoming stronger all the time, but to the best of Mark's memory, she should have changed into a Charmeleon. Sadly, there hadn't been the slightest hint of it. It was starting to look as though human Pokémon couldn't evolve a second time.

Maybe he was asking for too much, but Cherry's potential would be very limited if she couldn't evolve. Charmander wasn't necessarily a bad Pokémon, but there was no denying that Charmeleon and Charizard were stronger.

Mark closed his eyes to push the thought away. Cherry had plenty of time to grow stronger. Maybe there were more rules for human Pokémon than what he knew about. One thing he knew for certain, though. He wasn't going to tell Cherry about his suspicions.

The two of them had already become much closer since Cherry's training began. All of the fear and anger that had been bottled up inside of her was being released. Before, she had shown little affection towards anyone and even readily fought with Mark. But after just a few hours of training, she was smiling more and was proud to show off her new strength.

Mark started to feel more comfortable with her, as well. He still didn't know whether he was an older brother, a father, or whatever to Cherry, but at least he could be her trainer. That much he knew how to do.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU LITTLE BASTARD!" Cherry shouted angrily, the leaves rustling as she chased after Aipom number sixteen. Mark raced after her, Katana close behind.

Cherry fought to keep this one in sight. She passed one or two more, but after this one had the nerve to daze her with Fake Out, its fate was sealed. The damned thing was quicker than the others, swinging through the trees on not one, but two tails.

Wait…two tails? Dammit, it was an Ambipom.

But it was too late for Cherry to second-guess herself. The slippery bastard had pissed her off and now she wanted to rip its head off. She wouldn't, but, Aurum didn't say anything about making sure the Aipom lived…

That made her smirk to herself again, but damn he was quick. With the weight of the Power Anklet slowing her down, Cherry could barely keep up with him. She swung from tree to tree, never stopping and never looking down. The monkey could corner better than her, though. It used one of its tails as an anchor as it arced around the outside of its tree. Cherry could do something similar, raking the tree with her claws in the process, but the maneuver inevitably lengthened the Ambipom's lead by an extra yard or two as she struggled to regain her balance.

She didn't know how long she chased him. They were going deeper into the woods, towards Arceus knew what. If Aurum had said she could use Ember, she would've had the little jerk by now.

But then she remembered something else.

Grinning even wider, she performed the tight spiral of Dragon Dance in mid-air. It wasn't long before the distance between herself and the Ambipom started to close. She almost had it.

It looked back only once, squeaking in alarm to see the Charmander-girl just two branches behind her.

"GOTCHA!" Cherry shouted in delight, vaulting forward and tackling the thing. The two tumbled to the ground, landing with a crash onto the forest floor twenty feet below. The girl landed on top of the Pokémon, which squirmed out from underneath her, still trying to escape. Cherry flexed her hand, transforming her fingers into razor-sharp claws. She raked a Scratch across the side of the Ambipom, making it flip end over end into the air. It landed on the ground with a dismayed squeak before falling unconscious.

"SIXTEEN!" Cherry screamed at it, grinning from ear to ear. She panted wildly, but as a fire-type she never needed to sweat. She had never been so proud of herself.

When she looked up, she realized that they were not alone.

The thicket they had crashed into was ringed with Aipom. She counted nine, but more kept appearing. Another two Ambipom were among them, stepping forward to shield the smaller Aipom.

She had crashed into a nest. A whole nest of Aipom! She could double her catch right here and now. If they fought, the odds would be stacked against her, even with her human form.

But there was no question of that when they all started hissing and jeering at her. Always such hatred, such mistrust of the part human Pokémon. Even on an island like this one where the human Pokémon were everywhere.

Well, no matter. Cherry wouldn't have time to chase them down one by one, anyway.

"Well, come on, then!" she shouted at the Aipom around her. They let out a screeching battle cry and began to race towards her. Cherry lifted her head and sprayed a Smokescreen, covering the clearing before she set to work.

The lonely silence of Palkia's Woods was suddenly shattered when Maple caught the sound of an enormous fight. Just a few hundred yards off to her right, she could hear the screeching Aipom and…whose voice was that? She strained her ears and recognized Cherry, swearing and crying out in pain.

Maple dashed off towards the fighting, forgetting her own worries. She bounded through the woods, ignoring the sneers and frightened squeaks from the forest Pokémon as she ran. Her little sister was in trouble.

She burst through a make-shift wall of dried and broken twigs to see Cherry surrounded by Aipom. There were five around her, swiping at her and waving their tails as they taunted her, dividing her attention. Nine more lay unconscious around the thicket, but the Charmander-girl was running out of energy. Her cheek was bleeding and she was out of breath, moving much too slowly.

One leapt at her, trying to reach her face, but Cherry batted it away with a Scratch. The next one was quicker, however, and three small cuts appeared across Cherry's forehead, trickling blood down her face.

But then Maple was next to her, scattering the monkeys with a few swipes of her tail turned into a Leaf Blade. The Aipom fought to the very last, bravely facing the two girls, though there were only two left standing. They came at Maple at the same time, but Maple sent a single Leaf Blade through both of them, defeating the last of the clan.

One by one, the Aipom and Ambipom began to rise back to their feet. Cursing in their squeaky language, they gathered together to search for a new nesting ground. As they fled, Cherry slumped down onto the ground.

"Cherry! Cherry!" Maple lifted the girl's face, checking her wounds, "how do you feel? Can you hear me?"

"Assholes," Cherry muttered. She spat blood onto the ground next to her, "thank you, Maple."

"Where's Mark?" Maple asked, checking the area, but their trainer was nowhere in sight.

Cherry shook her head, flopping back and forth. She wiped the blood off of her forehead to keep it from trickling into her eyes.

"Okay, come on," Maple bent down to lift Cherry off the ground. The girl was surprisingly light and Maple could carry her easily, supporting her around her shoulders and knees, while her bleeding head rested against Maple's shoulder. "Let's go find him," Maple soothed the girl as she closed her eyes to sleep against her.

She didn't have to walk far before Mark and Katana were racing up to meet her. Gently, she set Cherry on the ground and Katana lifted a potion to the girl's lips.

Maple bit her lip as she looked over at Mark, "hi," she called nervously.

"Hi," Mark returned with a quick nod, but his attention was focused on Cherry.

Once the potion bottle was empty, the scratches on her face closed up and she blinked awake.

"Twenty-four," she grinned at Mark, "and three Ambipom."

"Good job," Mark grinned as he knelt beside her and smoothed out her red hair, "how 'bout we take a break?"

"Okay," Cherry smiled weakly, "I'm kinda sleepy, now."

"Take a nap, then," Mark nodded, "we have plenty of time."

"Good…" Cherry closed her eyes and tucked her tail behind her legs.

"Where are we?" Mark asked Katana, staring around the woods. He recognized none of it.

"I'm not sure," Katana admitted, "normally the forest doesn't let anyone in this far."

"You mean…you haven't seen the whole thing?" Mark had assumed she had. Palkia's Woods was quite the anomaly. It seemed to go on forever, though it couldn't have been more than a dozen miles across. Most places had just a few types of Pokémon dominating the entire area, but within Palkia's Woods the main groups were not clearly defined. It was rare to see Rattata and Bidoof wandering the same area. Was there really enough room for both?

Still, Aurum and his human Pokémon spent most of their time here. If they didn't know where Palkia's Woods ended, who did?

"EdgeoftheEarth says he knows a path to get to the mountain," Katana shrugged, "but he was most likely looking for just that, at the time."

"I don't understand," Mark shook his head.

"If you're seeking something specific, Palkia's Woods will show it to you," Katana explained, "that is, if it finds you worthy. Most often, we'll find one or two areas, but not how they connect to each other."

"So…how do we get back to Aurum?" Mark asked, "Just wish for it?"

"Something like that," Katana nodded, "Palkia's Woods doesn't necessarily have a beginning and end."

"Hmm…" Mark thought about that. Palkia controlled space. If it was influencing the woods, then perhaps it wasn't outrageous to say that it controlled where intruders could and could not go. But at the same time, the woods could cover a small area, but still seem infinite. Palkia's Woods. Every time Mark thought about it, it made his mind run circles around itself.

"Well, anyway," Mark dismissed the idea and tried to move on, "could you go tell Aurum how we're doing?"

"Certainly," Katana nodded, before vanishing into the trees.

When she had gone, Maple realized that she was alone with Mark.

He bent back down to look at Cherry. The girl had been through a lot in her short life, but he was grateful that she was starting to feel happy again.

"Umm…Mark?" Maple's nervous voice made him look up, "can I…can I talk to you for a second?"

"Sure, what is it?" he asked.

"Well…I saw Suicune," she bit her lip, trying to think of the words she needed to say what worried her.

"You did?!" Mark was on his feet at once, "what did it say? Did it tell you anything about what it wants? Did it say anything about that weird gold ring?"

"Well, uhh…" Maple took an involuntary step back. She hadn't thought to ask Suicune any questions. The gold ring? He must've meant the cloud over top of Mount Totetsu two nights ago. She hadn't even thought that had anything to do with Suicune…

"Well, no…" she had to admit. Everything about her meeting with Suicune was already a vague memory. How could she be so stupid? Of course Mark would want to know that if they met Suicune again! They had missed a big opportunity…she felt awful.

"Okay…" Mark nodded, "so, what did it say?"

"It just…" why was it so hard to say anything? "It told me about Jirachi…"

"Alright…" Mark nodded again and waited for her to continue.

"Umm…Mark?"

"Yeah?"

"Why didn't you tell me about Suicune?"

Mark couldn't believe the look of hurt in her eyes.

"Why…?" Mark searched himself for an answer. Why hadn't he? It was important, crucial even. Suicune had told him the origin of all human Pokémon. And he didn't tell Maple any of it?

"I…" he rubbed his chin as he thought, "I guess, I just…got distracted," it was the only answer that made sense, "there was a lot happening, right then. You were training, we were…separated and the first match was coming up. Team Deus happened and…"

"Okay," Maple nodded, "I thought so…"

"I'm sorry, Maple," Mark apologized, "I know it meant a lot to you to know about the legend."

"It's okay," Maple shrugged, "I mean…I know now, right? That's…what's important."

"You're not mad, are you?" Mark asked tentatively.

"No," Maple smiled as she shook her head, "no, I'm okay."

"Okay, good," Mark smiled back, "we have a lot of work to do. And not a lot of time to do it in."

"Oh, right…" Maple nodded, "the fight with Lily…"

"Right," Mark continued, "Today's the last day for Round One. That means there's only three more days until we fight Lily."

"Three days…"

"Right, not a lot of time," he shrugged, "but we can do it, I'm sure. If we can just get Cherry to be a bit stronger, she'll be a huge help…"

"Right…"

Maple let him go on, but something felt unfinished. Something she had expected to happen, but it hadn't. And now the moment was gone, the pain forgotten as quickly as it had come. What was missing? What had she wanted? Then she remembered.

Before Lily and Eric, before Cherry, before Team Deus, before Lionel, they had held hands and hugged each other. But it hadn't happened again, since.

Mark had apologized, but he didn't want to touch her.

AN: the more I write about Palkia's Woods, the more I like it. In fact, I want to tell you a quick little side note that most likely won't come up in the main story. Remember how Maple ended up at Mount Dialga for no apparent reason last chapter? Well, she's been thinking an awful lot about how things used to be between her and Mark. Could one say that the woods sent her to the one place where she might be able to turn back time? ;)

Thanks much for reading!