Chapter Two:
BEEP BEEP!
My alarm went off at 7am, which I had set if for so I could get ready. My pokemon were still sound asleep so, I didn't open the vanilla coloured blinds to see the morning sun yet. Instead I went into the bathroom to take a shower and start my morning.
I finished the shower, and wrapped a towel around me, then begun to blow dry my hair. I took my time so I would look presentable if we go see people today, which I was hoping we would go back to the ranch so I can get some research done, and see Ryder...
I Finished drying, then straightened my hair, allowing it to flown halfway down my back, and my bangs to cover the left side of face, and entire forehead. I started to do my makeup, the way I wore it probably made me look a little creepy to some, but I liked it. I gave myself a generous amount of liquid eye liner on the top eye lid, that slightly winged out, then applied a small line of pencil liner to my water line on the bottom eye lid. Once I had that perfect, I added a thick amount of mascara, and a small touch of grey eye shadow to my lid, and a hint of blush to my cheek bone.
I walked into my room, with just a towel on (no one was up yet so it didn't matter). I rummaged through my dresser and found an outfit to wear. I decided on charcoal grey skinny jeans, that I held up with my silver and black foe-Arbok scale belt. For a top I wore my purple slightly translucent, button up blouse with my corset underneath. I looked over at my pokebelt, which was bright pink with silver accents, and decided to put it on later.
Once dressed, I made my way to the kitchen, were I begun preparing French toast for the pokemon, Dad and myself. As they cooked I walked over to my father's bedroom door.
"Dad are you going to wake up soon, we are burning daylight. And I made French toast!" I said while knocking
"Yea... Be out in five." He grumbled sleepily
I walked back to the kitchen to flip the French toast then go wake up Spook and Snowy.
"Come-on lady and gentleman! It's time to wake your little booties up! Oh, and I have French toast made!" I exclaimed walking into the bedroom.
Spook perked up and flew out of bed as soon as the words "French toast" left my lips. However Snowy was much more slow to react, as she peeked out one eye then yawned and stretched. As she slowly hopped out of her bed, Spook waited by the door impatiently.
Once everyone was up, and sitting around the dining room table, I set plates and silverware out along with butter, powdered sugar and syrup. Then put the plate, that was filled with a heaping amount of French toast, into the middle of the table. Spook licked his lips, as I passed him two pieces, Snowy just sat looking confused at the food. I placed a single French toast slice onto her plate, she sniffed it then licked it once done analyzing her eyes went wide and she dug into her food, Dad and I laughed as she scarfed it down, then looked at the rest as if she wanted more. So I put one more slice onto her plate, then grabbed my own and covered them with syrup. Dad neatly cut up his food, then poured syrup onto it. Spook didn't like syrup so I powdered his with the sugar and let him dig into it also.
Once breakfast was finished I grabbed everyone's dirty plated and rinsed then off, then placed them to the side of the sink to do them later. Dad cleared the table off then went to get ready.
"Spook, Snowy, you want to go outside and train?"
They nodded.
"Snowy I don't know your moves, so please feel free to try them out on Spook. With you being Normal type, your moves probably won't even affect him.. Is that ok with you Spook?"
He smiled and then prepared for a fight. Snowy jumped up and tried tackling Spook, but just like Swinub went right through him. She looked disappointed but then tried a Quick attack, which still didn't work. I could see her start to get frustrated, Then opened her mouth wide and bite down on with a purplish black glow. Bite was a Dark type move, so it was super affective against Spook. As she bit down, Spook went flying through the air slightly, then looked at her with weaker eyes this time. Snowy stood up and puffed up he chest as if she was victorious.
"Alright good job Snowy and Spook, are those your only moves little one?" I looked at Snowy
Snowy then used Charm on Spook. Spook looked infatuated by her for a few seconds, then realized that he was becoming more venerable to her attacks.
"Ok, that enough. I don't need either of you to be weak or faint today. We have a big day ahead of us."
They nodded in agreement.
"Ok Spook, I'm going to put you back into your pokeball so you can heal."
Once inside I walked to my pokebelt and pulled his pokeball off of it, I then enlarged the ball and opened it allowing Spook to be scooped up by the red glow from the ball.
"Snowy I'm going to paint your pokeball tonight, but for now we will just use a regular one, is that ok?" With her nodding approval I threw a pokeball at her (gently of course). I waited for the light twitching of the ball to subside, then put both pokeballs onto my portable healer.
"Hey Dad will you be ready to go in ten?"
"Yea should be."
"Ok."
I waited in my room drawing up designs for Snowy's pokeball.
"Ready!" My Dad called from what sounded like the kitchen.
"Spook come-on out! Snowy you too!" I exclaimed pulling the pokeballs off of the healer.
We met up with my Dad in the kitchen.
"So what are we doing today?" I asked
"We are going back to the ranch. You can go off and study Ice pokemon, I'm going to be discussing... stuff with Mr. Reigns."
"Um, ok." I said, I assumed that his 'discussing' would be about the strange pokemon that flew over us yesterday, or the costs of Snowy and accessibility to the ranch pokemon.
I grabbed my bag and pokebelt, then slipped into my coat as did my father. It was yet again another long walk, but the sights were so beautiful I could walk this walk everyday and always be amazed. The snowy was just melting a little bit as the sun shun down onto it. I could heard bird pokemon in the distance, and rustling of the town. We arrived there about 15 minutes after we left.
My Dad knocked on the door lightly a couple times until Mrs. Reigns answered with a smile.
"Come in, please." She said softly
We walked into the kitchen and sat down at the cherry wood table set.
"Are we disturbing breakfast, I know we are quite early..."I asked
"No no dear, it's fine. We are just having a late start to the morning." Mrs. Reigns replied politely
"Oh, ok."
I could hear a shower running up stairs, and then it shut off. I listened, there were footsteps and then a little rustling.
"So, any news?" My Dad asked John
"No not yet. We will talk soon." He replied hinting towards having privacy
"Hey mom, what's for breakfast?" Ryder said coming down the stairs
I looked over to great him but was caught a little of guard. He was standing there at the bottom of the stair case, Only in cargo shorts. I knew I was staring but could really help it. I didn't see yesterday, but he had a really muscular build hiding under his T-shirt perfectly carved abs and pecks that led to his arms. Today I noticed he had a Seviper tattoo that curved downward on his arm. His hair was wet and flipping out in some spots. All around, he was an amazing sight. I realized that my face was very hot at this point, so I shook my head to shake myself back to reality.
"Well good morning Ryder." Dad said
"Morning professor. Morning Elizabeth."
I looked back at him, "Uhm, good morning." I could hear my voice... I sounded really slow for a moment.
Ryder flashed me a breath taking smile, and I could hear his dad snickering.
"That's quite an interesting tattoo." Dad noticed
"Thanks, I used to be really into reptilian pokemon," He said nodding, "I know a lot about them".
"I can image you don't see many reptilian pokemon around here."
He shook his head. I decided I wanted to just be alone with him for a bit and do some research as well... I figured training would help get him away, and just with myself and our pokemon.
"Hey Ryder, let's go train for a little bit!" I exclaimed
"Alright let me just finish getting dressed and I'll be right outside." He said smiling
I looked Ryder up and down one last time then grabbed my coat and walked out.
I went to the pens in the back and aloud Spook to play with Snowy for a bit, then I joined in, playing fetch and such. Ryder came out and walked over to us a few minutes later.
"So what's the plan?" I asked
"Well we could head out into the forest for a little while and look for Sneasels if you'd like?"
"Sounds like a plan!" I smiled at him, looking back into his sky blue eyes that glistened in the sunlight.
Ryder grabbed both of his pokeballs, and unclasped them as he did such he yelled,
"Come-on out guys!"
As the red light came out of the opening pokeballs so did Swinub and Eevee. They sniffed the snow kissed grass for a moment then seemed ready to explore. We walked to the tree line behind the house, and soon everything behind us vanished behind the icy pine.
The forest was beautiful, it reminded me of the forest we backed onto at our house, but still so different. Most of the trees were ice and snow cover pine, that looked to house bird pokemon, there were gaps between the trees that allowed us to peek around them and look further into the forest. There were a bunch of different paw print and pokemon tracks in the snow, scattered all over the woods.
Ryder and I walked in silence for a while until I broke it.
"So how do we know we are on the trail of a Sneasel?" I asked.
He walked over to a large, nearby, pine tree. And examined the gouges that were carved into it.
"You see the scratched here?"
I nodded.
"These are from Sneasel climbing up the trees."
"Why do they climb?"
"They steal the eggs from the Braviary's that nest high in the trees."
"Ewe." I said scrunching my nose
"I don't eat eggs personally, but I guess you can't knock it until you try it Elizabeth." He said with a shrug
"Lizy, My friends call me Lizy." I said looking right at him, then smiled.
He smiled back and we continued walking deeper into the forest. We came to an edge of a clearing in the forest. I could see two Sneasel cracking open large eggs and eating them as they went.
Ryder looked at me, and once again I could only focus on his beautiful eyes.
"You and your pokemon take the female, and we'll take the male." He whispered
I nodded in agreement. We crept towards the pokemon silently.
"Swinub, use Mist to blind them!" Ryder yelled.
A slow mist crept down from the sky, as Swinub snorted, and blinded the Sneasels.
Ryder smiled at Swinub, then he walked into the mist and disappeared. I stayed out of that for a minute, and bit afraid of what may have jumped in there when we couldn't see.
"Come on in Lizy!" I could hear Ryder edging me on.
I looked to Spook, who seemed all too eager to adventure into the mist. I stepped into the fog, and once in I stretched my hand out trying to feel my way around, but it was no use, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, but I knew Spook and Snowy were nearby. I could hear snarling from the Sneasels as I blindly walked further into the mist.
"Ryder?" I called
No response
"Anyone!" I said a little more franticly this time
I was really scared, this wasn't like being in Spooks Night shade, I was used to that and Night shade was a move that normally stayed closer to the ground and all around its target with a small radius. This, cover the entire clearing, and was every way I looked. Suddenly I seen a black shadowy figure out of the corner of my eye.
"Ryder!" I yelled, "Stop, your scaring me!"
I noticed that as I was yelling, it got very quiet, I spun around, and was taken aback by what I saw. It was the male Sneasel standing there, claws at its side looking me dead in the eye. I stepped back, but then it came a step towards me. I was really scared, I opened my mouth to scream for help, but before I could let our the tinniest peep, Sneasel charged.
I shut my eyes and hit the ground, but to my surprise when I opened them, Ryder was standing between me and the Sneasel. Swinub had taken the Sneasel down.
"Be careful, sunshine." He said with a smile. "You have to watch your back out here."
"Spook, come battle!" I yelled getting to my feet
I turned and face the Sneasels with Ryder to my right, and Spook on my left. Swinub was standing beside Ryder, ready to battle. Spook floated beside me, with a huge grin on his face, revved up and ready. We stood there staring back at each other for a moment and then the Sneasels charged.
"Swinub, Mud bomb!" Ryder yelled
"Spook, Night shade!"
The Sneasel become cloaked in a purple haze, as it squealed and shook violently, Spook appeared in the purple just as the pokemon broke free.
The battle lasted a very long time, and I laughed as most of the Sneasels attacks did nothing against Spook (like tackle) I could hear Ryder and his pokemon fighting against the Sneasel also.
Spook started to grow tired and so did the Sneasel it looked like. At once the Sneasels backed off into the mist and disappeared without a sound.
I heard Ryder return Swinub to his pokeball, as I looked at Spook who was lazily floating just feet above the ground.
"Well that was a fun one." Ryder said walking back the way we came
"What the heck Ryder! That mist could've gotten me killed!" I yelled getting all flustered
"I'm sorry", He said shrugging, "I figured it would be a good way to sneak up on them. But granted it did not work as well as I hoped."
"Obviously." I stated
"Were are the Eevees?" He noticed
I looked all round us, I couldn't see prints, or them in sight. I got a little worried due to the amount on print we seen earlier of other pokemon in this maze.
"Snowy?" I yelled out
We looked around trying to find them, but when we couldn't within the clearing, Ryder gave me a look that made me frightful for Snowy's location and well being.
We waited a few moments both with worried looks on our faces, until I could hear little cracking underneath something feet. A moment later, both Eevee's came from the darkening forests abyss.
"Don't you guys go running off on us again." I said, I noticed I sounded like my mother when I did something wrong
I started to walk back, retrieving both Snowy, and Spook to their balls until I could get them healed.
It was a quite walk back because I really didn't want to talk to Ryder, I was mad at him still. Also I was taking in the beautiful forest once more.
I could start to see the old red brick house, and wooden plank barn come into sight now. As we walked closer I could see my father talking on his poke-gear to someone.
He started to walk towards us and we met in the middle distance.
"That was professor Ariel, from the Aviation department at the University of Apollox. She thinks the bird we saw might of been one of the three legendary birds." He said, smiling a bit, but wary at the same time.
I smiled widely, a legendary pokemon! If I could see it up close, I would be one of the luckiest people in all of Cataria, maybe my Dad planned on tracking it...
I could see out the corner of my eye, Ryder smiling at the thought too.
"Did he say why a legendary bird would come all of the way to Cataria?" Ryder asked
But my dad shook his head. I worried now, a legendary bird's purpose (says legend of course, which had been proven in the past to be true.) was to protect something sacred, or meaningful to the world, it could mean that something bad could be coming to Cataria and it wants to protect us.
"Anyways, How was the day?" Dad asked
"We just went for a walk." I shrugged, thinking in the back of my mind how angry I was about the day.
I didn't look at Ryder but I could feel his eyes on me for a moment as my Dad watched him.
"Alright, well we better get back to the hotel then Lizy, we have a lot of packing to do."
"You guys are leaving already?" Ryder asked sounding a little down
"No, were going out for a few days to go check out Glaceon in the wild."
"Alright." He sounded even more sad this time.
I felt bad because I know it wasn't his fault today, so I walked to him, and gave him a long hug before saying.
"I had fun today."
"Me too." He said as I let go of him
Me and Dad turned to the road and begun walking home. Once at the road he finally spoke, probably waiting until Ryder could no long hear us.
"So what really happened today?"
"Well, Ryder and I went Sneasel hunting to help train our pokemon. But he had Swinub use Mist and it blinded us, he almost got me hurt by a Sneasel, who I could not see. But he ended up saving me from it, and we continued the battle. We won, but I'm still kind of mad at him for doing that."
"Oh..." Dad said unhappily. "Well, at least you got out safe, I'm not saying what he did was ok by any means. But sometimes things don't work out as planned. I'm sure he didn't intend on things to go so wrong."
"That's true, but still, I'm a little hurt that he did that."
"Understandable. How did Spook do against Ice pokemon?"
"Very well, the Sneasel didn't know that normal attacks wouldn't work against his, so most of the time Sneasel went right through Spook and just hurt itself in the crash landing on the other side."
"Ha, that's funny. Ghost pokemon are so cool that way."
"Mmhm. How was your day though?"
"Good, I talked with John, he told me the best places to track Glaceon. He also told me to visit the library in town to look for different pokemon in the area, along with their prints."
"Awesome, and good plan."
"So do you want to be my little partner here, and start on finding the pokemon in the area that's marked on this map?" He handed me the map, which I took and examined for a moment.
"Sure Dad seems easy enough."
"Where are Spook and Snowy?"
"In their pokeballs, they were pretty tired after the battle so, I gave them a break from walking/floating."
"Good plan, so will you be researching alone then?"
"Yea probably. I'm going to put them on my healer before I leave."
"Do you want to eat before you go?"
"No I'm not hungry, if you want eat without me, if not, I can pick something up on the way home."
"I'll probably order pizza or something and order extra for you so you can warm it up when you get back."
"Ok. Well, here, you take Spook and Snowy, put them on my healer for me. It's under my bed. I'll be home in no time Dad."
I said handing him my pokeballs, because we were already at the town.
"Ok, see you soon. I'll be home."
I walked away from him as he kept walking toward the motel. I headed to the library to figure out the pokemon in the area marked.
I looked up at the huge building in front of me. It was made of grey brick and had two stone Articuno pillars on either side of the entry way.
I walked through the beautiful glass French doors and looked around for the front desk. The place was amazing, a lot bigger on the inside then it looked. To my right was a small seating and lounge area, with a couple computers set up, directly in front of me was the massive columns of books held in what appeared to be oak book cases, to my left was the front desk, made of the same wood as the shelving with a glass top and a single computer off to the side. Behind the desk sat a older lady, with soft wrinkles and silk grey hair held up in a bun. She wore a dark blue blazer with a white blouse underneath.
I walked to the desk,
"Excuse me, I'm looking for pokemon around this region", I pointed to the spot on the map that was highlighted.
"Sure, what exactly are you looking for?" she asked politely with a very soft voice.
"Well, pokemon known in this area, and there prints, along with behaviors."
"Ok, follow me deary."
She got up from her rolling hair and walked to a far left isle. As she went down it she examined the spine of the books among the shelves. Suddenly she stopped about three quarters down the isle and swiftly pulled a thick book off the middle shelve.
"Here we are, just what you are looking for, 'Galicia's Inhabitants'. She said with a smile, handing the book to me.
'"Thank you." I said, gently taking the book from her.
"If you need me, I'll be at the front desk" She said turning to walk back to the desk.
I continued down the isle until I reached the path at the end, I turned left and found the lounge area. I looked the book up and down, it had a dark leather cover, with blue stitching and the title looked to be branded into the leather with a white paint of some kind. I opened the front cover and began to read the index, the decided, I have time I can read the whole book within a few days.
"Can I take this book out?" I asked reaching the front desk again.
"Do you have a library card?"
"Not in this town..."
"Oh where are you from?"
"Shadowvale, my father and I are visiting to do research for my pokeball designs, and his work." I explained.
"Oh, what does your father do?"
"He is a professor, Professor Diotte, if you've ever heard of him."
"Oh how interesting, and no, unfortunately my times of staying in the now have long past!" She exclaimed.
We both laughed for a few at her comment the she stared to speak again once we slowed down on laughing.
"Well for you, please take the book, return it within the next two weeks, I'll be here." She said.
"Oh well thanks so much! I will be sure to return it!"
"I never forget a face." She sounded threatening almost.
I put the book under my arm and begun to walk out.