I glance towards the sound of a twig snapping. I let out a silent sigh of relief when I notice it's my own footsteps causing it. I have always been paranoid in the woods; there were so many places to hide someone, or something for that matter, that I never really trusted them. I relished when Black spoke of them, the word sent a chill up my spine.

I remember that day that Black brought Bianca and Cheren home…

"Gold! I'm home!" Black called out as he entered through the door, bouncing in and waving to me. I waved back smiling. I was going to tell Black to close the door, which he left open, when two figures walked in.

There were two: a girl and a boy.

"Hello Mr. Gold!" The girl chirped. Waving her hands and smiling in an energetic fashion.

"Good afternoon." The boy added, shortly after the girl had spoken.

"Gold, this is Bianca and Cheren. They are my new friends." Black said introducing me to them.

"It's nice to see Black has some friends." I said smiling. Black hopped over to the kitchen counter leaving the two standing awkwardly there. "Don't just stand there you two! Come on in and eat, if you wouldn't mind staying for dinner." I said, taking up for Black in making his friends feel welcomed.

The glanced at each other at first, questions shooting back and forth between their eyes, before they closed the door and came to join us.

We had dinner and they stayed for a bit to talk, and that's when they said it.

"Me and Cheren were heading out into the woods tomorrow." Bianca said. "And we wanted to know if you could come, Black?" She asked.

Black was about to speak but I broke in. "I'm sorry but he can't. Black has lessons tomorrow."

"But Gold! We almost never have lessons on Saturdays…" Black whined.

True tomorrow is Saturday, and it's true we normally don't have lessons on Saturdays, and I knew that their reasons for heading out into the woods were sincere, though childish, I did not want Black out there. "That's true, but there are some things that are best observed on Saturdays."

Black didn't argue and to this day, has never asked to go again.

Now here we were, in the woods looking for who-knows-what. Anything could happen, and we'd be so far from help…

The forest were dangerous, they are always dangerous, will always be dangerous.

Of course you could argue that my stepping on and snapping every twig and branch in existence was not helping. It's not that I was doing it on purpose, I just could not help it. I was too nervous to focus on where to place my feet.

As we came to a clearing, Pringles, who we were following, much to my disdain, stopped.

The clearing was full of wildflowers, and had some berry bushes scattered about here and there. It looked relatively untouched by human hands…

"I have a special task for you two." Pringles said, smiling.

I eyed his suspiciously. "What?" I asked, making sure to show how much I disliked this.

"Well, actually we can all take part. Okay, you see this clearing?" Pringles asked, motioning to it. Both Black and I nodded. "We're going to have a contest to see who can collect the most useful stuff. You two can even work together if you want. I'll go to that side and you two stay over here, okay?"

"Alright then, Black and I will stay over here and you'll go over there, unless you want to give up now and declare us the winners." I said, smirking at Pringles.

Pringles laughed, which I frowned at. "You two know what you should look for?"

Of course I did, what did I look like standing out in the middle of the woods not knowing what to do? I'm not afraid of the woods; I just realize that they are dangerous.

I waved him away; I was getting a bit tired of hearing his voice. Pringles walked away, much to my enjoyment, to the other side of the clearing.

"Black," The brunette turned to face me. His face looked a bit confused, a lot like when I try to teach him mathematics. "Do you know what we're looking for?" Black shook his head absentmindedly. I doubt he had really thought about the subject.

"Alright," I said, glancing around for myself. I noticed a tuft of fuzzy, grass type of plant. I grasped a small bit of it and pulled it from the ground. Then I held it out to Black. Black eyed it curiously, and I'm sure he has never seen it before. "Black, this is wheat. You can use it to make bread, so it's perfectly edible."

Black continued to look at the plant in my hands. He then focused his attention on me. "Wheat?" He asked, quietly. I nodded. Black finally nodded, and set about collecting some.

I looked over across the meadow to where Pringles was, where he was staring at a patch of black fuzzy looking flowers suspiciously. I decided to ignore him and to help Black collect some wheat.

After we had collected enough of the golden grain, I went to go check up on how Pringles was holding out. He was done looking at the flowers but he had a crazy assortment to the stuff he had collected.

"What'd you get?" I asked nonchalantly. I looked over at his pile, which was devoid of anything of general use. We had him beat, and it made me feel good to know it.

Pringles turned to me and smiled, which caught me off guard. Why was he smiling, did he find something more than the crap he had stacked up? Or was he simply bluffing? "I found some sweet apple trees in the forest." I guess I was right, he did find something more.

I thought about this for a moment. The fact was, he didn't have any apples on him, so it could mean one of two things. "Did you get any of them?"

"Ah… no," He said, as his smile faltered. "Unfortunately I'm too heavy, I was hoping that someone skinny and limber like you could come and help me."

I eyed him suspiciously. I don't like Pringles very much, he snores for one, and then he has all these weird habits. I sighed. "I'll get Black." I turned and yelled for him, and he came over to us.

"Yeah, Gold?" Black asked, as he walked over.

"Pringles found an apple tree. Come on," I said, motioning to Pringles, "Lead the way."

Pringles slowly got up from where he was sitting and stretched, before inhaling and exhaling. "Alright, it's this way." Pringles pointed, walking off in the direction himself. We followed him a short distance to the woods before we came to the aforementioned apple tree. Black walked closer to the tree to get a better look.

I looked at the tree, it was nothing special, and I am pretty sure that Pringles could have climbed it himself. "So you're telling me you couldn't reach that?" I ask somewhat sarcastically. I glanced over to him, pointing at the lowest branch, which was not very far from the top of Black's head.

"You don't understand, I tried that branch, but I felt it breaking before I even got on it really well." Pringles scratched the back of his neck, "I just weigh too much."

I could very simply scale the tree, but I wasn't in the mood to climb it or show Pringles I could climb it. I looked over at Black, who was staring up at the apples in awe.

I walked over to him. "Black do you want an apple?" I asked kindly. He turned face me and quickly nodded. "Alright, hold still." I tell him, picking him up and placing him on his shoulders where he could easily get to the apples.

Pringles walked over when he noticed what I was doing. "Couldn't just climb the tree, huh?"

I shook my head. "Nope, this is more -ugh- fun." I forced out, struggling a bit to hold up Black.

"Is he heavy?" Pringles asked, smiling.

"No, not really, just not used to pick him up, is all; I haven't done it in a while…"

Pringles turned his attention to Black. "Ah, Black, pass some down here so we have some to take back." Black happily obliged, and after 50 or so apples, we decided that that was enough.

"So I think it's about time we start headed back. It's getting kind of late." Pringles said, putting the last of the apples in his knapsack. Leaving one out for Black, he heaved the bag onto his shoulders and adjusted it. "I'm ready whenever you are."

"Alright, then. I'm ready to go." I let out a yawn, and then looked at the sky, which was becoming darker. We should really get going. We were about to start on our way when we heard footsteps. I froze in place. I wonder if I made the right choice letting Black come out here…

The innkeeper walked through the thicket. I let out a sigh of relief; I thought it was something else…

"Hello, you three!" I was worried you had gotten lost, so I came to find you." She said, brushing her apron free of leaves and other debris.

"How did you find us then?" Pringles wondered.

"Oh, the path back there is torn up, it was pretty clear something had gone through there. Almost like someone was rolling their way around, with all the flatten bushes and things."

Pringles shot me a look. "Yeah… rolled…" He then turned back to the innkeeper. "We were just making our way back actually."

"Ah, then it is good I found you all." She said, turning and walking back down the way she came, "Let's walk together."

The inn keeper and Black picked up a conversation about the best types of pie and ice cream. I could always talk to Pringles. I glanced over at him, he was bouncing a ball back and forth in-between his hands.

"What's that?" I asked, slightly interested.

"What this?" Pringles held up the ball. It was dark and reflected light weirdly, almost as if it was tinted. "It is mail capsule, back in the day they use to put mail in these and shoot it out of a catapult. My grandfather gave me this one."

I eyed him curiously. "No seriously. What is it?"

Pringles stopped walking. "I am serious. You never heard of mail catapults?" I shook my head. "Um, well… they're basically catapults but slightly larger than normal. I think the castle has the last one. They're really dangerous, and sort of impractical."

"I can only imagine why."

"They are useful though, it could deliver a letter to the sun." Pringles joked, laughing a bit.

I laughed also. "I would like to see that."

"That's what this dark tint is from, going to the sun and back." Pringles frowned. "So what about you? Got any interesting trinkets you carry around with you?"

I thought about it. "Not really like you, unless you count Black." I said, motioning to the boy in question.

"I guess you're right, Black's no trinket."

I settled into my bed, thinking faintly of the sweet apple pie we had for dessert. It was warm and rich, which reminded me of home. It also made me tired, and I thought of sleeping in the lovely embrace of the blankets.

As I was beginning to drift off there was a quiet knock on the door. I assumed automatically who it was. Only one person I knew who had courteous enough to knock gently. I sighed before getting up and opening the door. Black was standing there in his pajamas.

"What are you going to read me today?" He asked, asking but halfheartedly. I knew if I told him I wasn't going to read him anything he would just accept it and go to bed, but I was going to read anyway, why not read to him?

I went back to my nightstand to retrieved my book and my reading glasses, then I returned to Black who was waiting by the door. "In your room," I told him. Black lead the way, walking slightly slower than usual. He stopped in front of his room.

He opened the door, turned on the light, and went to go lie in bed. I pulled up a chair along side it so I had somewhere to sit while I read to him. I put on my glasses as I opened the book.

"Chapter 4," I began. "The mysteries of the heart." I read a few lines to make sure that this wasn't about anything to strange. "One of the greatest mysteries of life is the human heart. Ancient Unovians even believed that was where thoughts came from. So they preserved it in favor of the brain, placing it in special jars to keep them safe. Now we know that the brain is the center of thought, but that is besides the point."

I paused to turn the page. "The heart is just as important as the brain though. As a symbol of love, bravery and courage, it stands as one of the most used tropes in human history. From valentine's day cards to medical directories, hearts are everywhere.

The heart is actually a very specialized muscle, strengthened by years of doing it's job of pumping blood, never ceasing. Some people see this as a metaphor that love is everywhere and that it never stops working, just like the heart. It is capable to live without a heart though, many have show this and made this fact ever present..."

I flipped the page and adjusted my glasses. "Love is seen as the embodiment of ever person's cares and concerns for one another, regardless of how one person views another, even if they despise said person, you can still use love to describe the situation. For example, if you would hate for a person's day to go badly, you could say 'I would love to see your day go wonderfully.'" I paused as I heard Black's light snoozing. I let out a yawn myself, and decided that I should at least finish the page. "Situations where this could..." I stopped myself from yawning. "...valuable are everywhere." I let out a yawn. "you could convince your boss... that... you..." I let my eyelids fall as I drifted to sleep.

I was awoken by light rapping on the door-frame. I got up and stretched. "How long have you been there?" I asked. If he was watching me, I wanted to know for how long.

"Maybe, ten-twenty minutes." He pretended like it was nothing. What was he doing anyway, waiting for me? "So... you coming to bed?" I guess so. I nodded, collected my things and turned out the lights, before heading back to my bedroom. Pringles had gone back without me, but I didn't really care, I just wanted to go back to sleep.

He was sitting in bed pretending not to be waiting for me. I walked around to my side and put my book and glasses back in the nightstand. I tried to ignore the fact that he was obviously waiting for me as climbed into bed.

"What did you read to him?" Pringles asked, as I was about to turn out my lamp.

"Just a book on philosophy."

"Oh, well goodnight."

"Goodnight."

And he finally settled in and went to sleep.

One of the problems with having Gold read a book about philosophy? I have to come up with it all myself, and you wonder if people actually care, considering you just spent the last thirty minutes theory-crafting for a book that technically doesn't exist or never will.I honestly want to know if people care to 'hear' Gold read. If you want to know about this 'book' Gold is reading and why it has a paragraph on one page, think about it like this. One paragraph represents a page, and I imagine Gold would get through four pages before Black fell asleep.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed and please review, Thank you!

~ Ph. Acidity