Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

Chapter 2

Trouble in Midnight woods Grovyle vs. Dusknoir Part 1

"Man I hate going over this hill."
"Yeah, Dark hill has always been a bother…Especially with all the ghost and dark type Pokémon roaming around. But this is the only route back to our campsite…" The two of them had been walking for awhile; Jasmine had to admit the walk back to their home seemed to take even longer than the actual walk to the Hidden Land. Although this time Jasmine had her brother with her, or rather trailing behind her.

"Can't you use one of your orbs, Jasmine?" Walter seemed beside himself in exhaustion.

"No I don't have an orb to help us with laziness…" Jasmine said sarcastically, though she was growing a little tired herself.

"Very funny, by the way where did you get those orbs anyway, Jasmine?" Walter asked, Jasmine could tell by the sound in his voice that he was getting a little suspicious of her and her wide variety of items that he couldn't identify nor remember getting for her.

"That's my little secret Walter… Just be glad I have them." She loved being able to sneak around and hoard her own supplies without Walter's supervision, usually Walter would always go with her to places, seeing as he didn't want her to go by herself. It was after all, a very dangerous world they lived in, it was never a good idea to go exploring by yourself, especially when one had no way to defend oneself.

Finally the two of them neared the entrance of their home, an alcove located on a secluded side of a mountain, a perfect place for two young humans to live without having too much disturbances by wild Pokémon. As they approached it Jasmine could already smell the burning firewood of the campfire and was looking forward to sitting by it and warming up her hands.

"All right, finally we're back!" Walter said, enthusiastic as they both entered the small clearing.
"Phew, home sweet home!"
"We should get dinner ready…Jasmine can you do me a favor?" Walter asked, all too sweetly.

"Sure what is it?" Just the tone in Walter's voice was making her uneasy, usually when he took this tone he had some work for her to do, hard work too, and she wasn't really in the mood.

"Well we used up the last bit of our supplies a little while ago, can I get you to go to the woods and gather up some sitrus berries and apples?"

"Fine…" 'So much for warming up at the fire, figures…"

"Oh wait… Here take this for protection." Walter handed her an intricately designed sword, Jasmine's eyes widened. The sword itself was like a work of art, it had small silvery decorations on it that appeared to be carved into the hilt. The blade was long, thick, and very sharp to the touch; it looked like it could slash through trees without too much difficulty. Although upon closer inspection it seemed quite familiar. Jasmine looked closer at the sword's design, to her surprise it was something she had seen before. "This can't be…" She whispered aloud a little startled.

"Yes this is our mother's gladius, it's been kind of weird around here lately so you can't be too careful."

"weirder than normal?" Jasmine teased, she couldn't help but say that, it has always been like this for as long as she could remember.

"Yes…"

"All right I'll take it." Despite the tone in Jasmine's voice she seemed rather happy to have been given such a beautiful weapon to defend herself with, especially since this sword had originally belonged to her mother. She was also happy that Walter was letting her use it, it made her feel more responsible.

She took the blade and sheath from Walter and then turned and started walking to the clearing's exit.

"Be careful!" Walter called out to her.

"Don't worry!"

XXxxXX

Jasmine slowly made her way through to the deepest part of the woods. Mid night woods like the name suggests was completely dark with only a few specks of light seeping through the trees, but despite that the woods weren't really all that dangerous.

'Man of course the fruits in this forest are way in the back!' Jasmine thought to herself, clearly tired from all the walking she had done. The Midnight woods wasn't too far from their home but since she didn't get a chance to rest from her previous trip to the Hidden Land she found herself growing increasingly exhausted.

"Maybe I should take a quick break." She said out loud, though unbeknownst to her there seemed to be someone nearby.

"What? What is this?" A voice shouted out from around a corner. This made Jasmine gasp as she jumped up from where she had been sitting, quickly tightening her grip on her sword.

"W-Who's there?" She shouted then ran around the corner.

"Waaa!" A grovyle screamed startled by Jasmine's sudden appearance. The grovyle seemed to be ensnared by what appeared to be a foothold trap, it looked painful.

"W-What do you want? Stay away from me!" The grovyle cried out in pain, and seemingly embarrassment.

"W-Wait a minute…" Jasmine let go of her sword and walked slowly over to the entrapped Pokémon.

"I said stay away from me you human!" The grovyle shouted again.

"It's alright I won't hurt you." Jasmine said gently as she tried to step closer.

"Ack!" The grovyle yelped in pain, the trap was piercing his leg and was going deeper as he moved, the sight of it made Jasmine wince, she quickened her pace in order to help him.

"Your badly injured let me help you!" She said, trying to remain calm as to not further excite him.

"Like the likes of you would care! Get back I said! Don't take a step closer…" Grovyle was ready to defend himself, though the trap he was in was quickly taking a toll on him.

"Grovyle… Please I mean you no harm, I give you my word!" Jasmine pleaded as she got closer to the grovyle, worry slowly etching its way onto her face. When she noticed him calm down, she stood in front of him and began examining the trap.

"Hold still Grovyle… I'll help you." She said in a gentle voice, as she slowly pulled at the trap gradually lessening its grip until it came off. "There…"

Grovyle was breathing heavily, though he was very relieved. "T-Thank you…" He said tiredly.

"You poor thing… Are you alright?"

"Y-Yes… Ouch!" Grovyle gripped his leg in pain, he had a scar that took up about half his leg, it was swelling up and bleeding.

"Here… Jasmine pulled out some ointment and bandages from her bag. "This ointment might sting a little but it will help get rid of the pain."
She poured some on her hands and began gently massaging it onto Grovyle's leg then she bandaged it.

"There does that feel better?"

Grovyle seemed to be slightly confused by Jasmine's sudden act of kindness; it just seemed so unusual, usually humans and Pokémon tried to live separate lives from each other, never bothering to help each other out. Even other Pokémon wouldn't give a second thought if they were to see someone in need, and if they did they would do it for a price or something, not just out of the blue.
"Um… Why did you help me? You don't even know me." Grovyle uttered out curiously.

"Well… I couldn't just leave you as you were; I hate to see others suffer." She answered, bluntly.

"I… See it's very rare to see one with a compassionate heart, in this world of darkness everyone usually fends for themselves... But I thank you." He said with a slight smile. "By the way what is your name, miss?"

"Jasmine" She answered.

"Thank you Jasmine... But please excuse me; I'm kind of in a hurry." He got up from the ground and started walking.

"Oh… Well um be careful on that leg!" Despite the fact he was already up and walking she couldn't help but be a little worried about it.

A hint of red appeared on Grovyle's face "Uh… Yeah don't worry about me… Thanks again!" With that he sped off fairly fast, picking up speed as he went, it was almost like he didn't have an injury.

'Wow he's really fast for being injured.' Jasmine thought to herself as she got up herself and started off, she still had to hurry up and find the fruit for their dinner.

End Chapter