Difference and Acceptance
It's been a few weeks since Luna joined the pack. She had gotten used to being in the pack now, and even though the other riolu still didn't like her, John, Mick, and Sabrina are Luna's new friends. And the adult lucario don't mind her being around. Luna has been wanting to practice flying, but Roxas doesn't want her to get hurt.
Luna runs through the grass, flapping her wings and jumping occasionally. After a final jump, she manages to stay hovering in the air for a little bit before falling, landing on her stomach. Are you ok, Luna?" asks Roxas as he runs over and helps her up. "yes, daddy" says Luna, brushing dirt off her knees and rubbing at the grass stains. "you really shouldn't be trying to fly yet, Luna" he said, "your wings are still too small." Luna sighs. "But, daddy. I know I can do it! I just need to keep trying!" Roxas shakes his head. "No, sweetie" he says, "I don't want you getting hurt." Emerald comes over. "He's right Luna, you should wait until your wings are bigger." Luna sighs again. "ok, Momma." Luna goes to find Lucas.
Sighing and kicking a small rock she keeps her head down as she walks, occasionally looking around for Lucas. Watching the riolu that still don't like her playing together, she just shakes her head, wondering if they'll ever be nice to her. Lucas sees her from where he's sitting on the hill and comes down to meet her. "Hey Luna, why the long face?" Luna looks at him and says, "I was trying to fly today, and I fell, and my daddy helped me up and told me I shouldn't try until my wings get bigger, I told him I knew I could if I kept trying, but he doesn't want me to get hurt. My momma wants me to wait too." Lucas just nods. "well, Roxas and Emerald are just afraid you'll get hurt, they are kinda protective." Then he looks at her knees, noticing the grass stains. "Is that how you got the grass stains on your knees?" Luna looks down and nods. "yeah, but they'll come off soon, hopefully the other riolu won't laugh at me."
Lucas stands there, thinking for a minute, then grabs Luna's paw. "Come on," says Lucas, motioning for her to follow, "lets go to the river, you can wash the stains off there." They walk to the edge of the meadow into the forest along the edge. Mysterious eyes watch them everywhere, Luna swears she saw a houndoom somewhere out there, but shudders and keeps going. Some pidgey fly by, a few starly mixed in. Soon they reach the river. Lucas jumps in, soaking Luna. Luna shakes herself dry before glaring at Lucas and beginning to wash the grass stains off her knees, and then getting in the water herself. She got back at Lucas by splashing him, he laughed and splashed her back. "I have an idea," Lucas said, "let's play Marco Polo!" Luna giggles and closes her eyes. "Marco!" she says. Hearing Lucas say "Polo!" somewhere, she starts towards where she heard him. Lucas giggled and moved. "Marco!" Luna yelled again. "Polo!" Lucas says. Luna gets closer, and before Lucas can get away, Luna tags him. "aw, you got me!" said Lucas, pushing her.
Lucas closed his eyes and heard Luna moving away a little before he yelled, "Marco!" Luna yelled "Polo!" and Lucas moved towards where he heard her yell, then said "Marco!" again. "Polo!" Luna said again and Lucas managed to tag her. Luna just pushed him playfully and ran as best as she could in the water away from him. They got out of the water and shook themselves to dry off, and walked through the forest back to the meadow. When they got back though, they suddenly remembered, Luna had forgotten to tell Emerald and Roxas where she was going, and Lucas forgot to tell his parents where he was going. They saw their parents on the hill, looking worried, Dimitrius was there as well. As they got closer they heard Dimitrius speaking. "I'm sorry, I looked everywhere for them and couldn't find them." Emerald's eyes filled with tears and Russell held Maria as she sobbed.
*something tells me we are in BIG trouble* Luna thought as they got closer. Russell saw them approaching and said: "where have you two been?! you've had us worried sick!" "I-I'm sorry, dad. Luna came to see me, and she had grass stains on her knees, so I took her to the river and she cleaned the stains away and we played in the river for awhile...when we came back, we remembered we had forgotten to tell you where we went. I'm sorry dad!" Luna just burst into tears after seeing Roxas angry with her. "we were scared you had been taken by the houndoom pack! Your grounded for 2 weeks, you will stay here, and won't go to see Luna. Lucas just looked down at his feet, "I understand, dad." Roxas grabbed Luna's paw and took her and Emerald home. When they got home, Luna just looked up at Roxas with tears running down her face. Roxas got down to her level, "I was worried you were hurt, or worse! you should have told me where you went!" Then he hugged her tight, and said "you are also grounded for two weeks, until then you can't see Lucas, you'll only stay here, or where I can see you." Luna just nodded, hugged Emerald, and said, "I'm sorry, momma," then went and sat and watched the other riolu play together.
After two weeks, Luna and Lucas weren't grounded anymore. Luna decided to be by herself, and went and climbed a tree and sat on one of the branches, tail swishing lazily. As she sat there she watched what was going on, two lucario, probably teenagers, were mock battling, some young riolu were playing tag, and a small group of riolu were huddled together and laughing about something. A small group of riolu approached, they were Luna's friends. One of the riolu, named John, looked up and said, "hey, there's Luna!" John's brother Mick spoke next, "Yo, Luna! where ya been?" Luna looked down. "Hey, Mick, sorry I haven't been around, I was grounded." The third riolu, a shy girl riolu named Sabrina, said: "well...It's nice to see you again..." John yelled up to Luna, "come on down and let's play!" Luna climbed down and smiled at her friends.
"So why were you grounded?" asks John as they walked along. "Me and Lucas went to the river without telling our parents first, I had grass stains on my knees so I washed them off and then we played in the river for awhile. Of course the pack leader was angry after he saw us return, we were grounded for 2 weeks and couldn't see each other." Mick snickered about the part where Luna said she had grass stains on her knees and Sabrina elbowed his arm. "Ow! hey what was that for?" Mick said while rubbing his arm. "Hey guys, wanna see something cool?" John asked as he brought something out that he had been hiding. "what is it?" asked Luna as she poked it. "It's a yo-yo, I guess one of those weird trainer kids dropped it, not sure how you use one though," he said.
Luna poked it one more time and shrugged, "whatever, it's still cool." John nodded and put the yo-yo down on the grass. Mick flopped down onto the ground, "so what should we do?" he asked. Sabrina suggested hide and seek, Mick was chosen to be the seeker, and everyone hid. John hid in a bush, Luna behind a tree, and Sabrina in another bush. Mick found his brother first, then they both looked and found Sabrina, and then they found Luna. Then, Mick wanted to play tag, so they ran around, chasing each other and getting tagged. Soon they got tired and collapsed on the ground, laughing. Soon the sun was setting and it was time to go home. John scooped up his yo-yo and he and Mick went home after saying goodbye. Sabrina and Luna said goodbye to each other and parted ways.
Roxas saw Luna come back. "welcome back, Luna. what did you do today?" "I played with John, Mick and Sabrina today, John showed us a yo-yo he had found and we played hide and seek and tag." "Sounds like you had fun," said Emerald. She came over and ruffled the fur on Luna's head with her paw, causing Luna to giggle. Then, Roxas started tickling her causing Luna to laugh even more. As the sun went down they managed to stop laughing and Luna yawned. "I guess its bedtime," said Roxas, trying not to yawn, "we should get some sleep." With Emerald and Roxas on either side of her, Luna went to sleep.