Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or associated characters, only characters of my own invention.
Chapter 2 – Ignorance Was Bliss
'Where exactly are we going?' the brown eyed, blue haired girl asked curiously.
'That doesn't concern you,' replied the boy she was walking along next to in an expressionless tone, his gaze not leaving the slightly overgrown forested path down which they were walking.
Once the third busiest route between New Bark and Cherrygrove, over the last year or so traffic along this road had all but completely ceased due to the constant hijacking by bandits, with trucks and other vehicles choosing to take the other, much more open routes through the fields and plains slightly to the south.
'The hell it doesn't concern me?' came the irritated response from the girl.
The boy closed his eyes slightly, as if to block out her presence. The girl annoyed him for a number of reasons, probably too many to list on a regular sheet of paper, but he had resigned himself to putting up with her until the inevitable point at which she became discouraged and gave up on the ridiculous notion that had somehow worked its way into her head.
'You will not still be with me when I reach my destination. Therefore it doesn't concern you,' the boy replied evenly, still not looking back.
Although it might have seemed quite rude, the reason for his indifference couldn't be put down completely to that. As much as he hated to admit it, the girl was actually extremely good looking and, although a lot more serious than most guys his age, he was still a boy and therefore far from immune to feminine charm. The clothes the girl was wearing did nothing to help, if her skirt was any shorter there'd be no point wearing it in the first place. It was for this reason that the boy was refusing to look at her, he had an important mission to carry out and he wasn't about to let himself get distracted.
'Yeah, well you're wrong about that,' the girl said fiercely.
She was quickly realising that almost everything this boy did immediately got on her nerves. He was way too arrogant, and seemed to think that he was right about everything. Which obviously he wasn't. In fact, if it wasn't for the fact that the girl was so determined to prove him wrong, she probably would have already left. As it was, she wasn't going to stop following him until he took back everything he'd said.
'So where are we going?' she asked again, not about to give up.
'Like I said, it doesn't concern you,' replied the boy, unable to keep the annoyance out of his voice.
The girl glared at the side of his head. Everything would be so much easier if he would just give her a straight answer. 'Why are we going wherever we're going?' she asked, changing tactics.
'That's classified,' replied the boy.
'My arse it is!' She was getting seriously annoyed now. Why couldn't he just give her a straight answer for once instead of being a stuck up loser?
The boy ignored her further, looking instead to the sky. It was beginning to darken as the sun slowly drifted below the trees to the west. Deciding it was time to stop for the evening, the boy scanned the forest for a suitable tree, sliding his backpack from his shoulders and depositing it at its base.
'We're camping here tonight are we?' inquired the girl, still trying to generate some sort of conversation.
Her efforts were to be in vain, however. 'Yeah, I am, not that it concerns you.'
Resisting with difficulty the urge to slap the boy across the face, she slung her bag down next to his and stalked off to sit on a nearby log, trying to make her annoyance as obvious as possible.
Leaving the girl to sulk to herself, the boy busied himself with creating a fire and cooking, deciding silently on making two pasta meals. He didn't want her to get the false impression that he was a complete bastard. Having finished, he took his share and walked a short distance away, staring at the setting sun as he ate.
Hearing the boy walk off, she turned and wandered over to fire to cook something for herself, pleasantly surprised when she noticed the leftover pasta. Maybe the boy wasn't so bad after all, she thought, deciding to cut him a bit of slack as she wandered back to the log, releasing Clarity her Mareep from her Pokeball as she went.
'You poor thing,' she said sadly, looking down at her Pokémon.
Although the little sheep seemed to have regained the most of its energy, its once beautiful fleece was dirty and dusty. As she offered the Mareep some of her pasta, the girl tried to bat off as much of the dirt and the dust she could with her hands.
'Sorry Clarity, but you're going to need a proper bath and brush sometime before you can look your best again.' The Mareep bleated, obviously not bothered by the state of its wool, and happily accepted some more pasta from its trainer.
'Don't let it eat too much of that, you'll make it sick.'
The girl looked up to see that the boy had returned, and was busying himself with setting up a tent.
'Thanks for the food,' she said, trying to sound grateful while at the same time suddenly resenting the fact that he had got so easily around the anger and annoyance that she had been feeling towards him only five minutes before.
'You're welcome,' the boy replied expressionlessly, erecting the tent in a fashion that suggested he had done it thousands of times before.
'So can you tell me where it is we're going now?' asked the girl, injecting tenderness into her voice to make it slightly pleading and vulnerable, yet not annoyingly so.
The boy shook his head, picking up a mallet and hammering in a tent peg. The series of chinks from the clash of metal on metal carried clearly through the silent forest.
'Why the hell not?' the girl asked angrily, annoyance and frustration at the boy quickly flooding back through her.
'I'm on a top secret mission; I can't tell you where I'm going,' said the boy matter-of-factly, moving to hammer in the next peg.
'Oh really? And what kind of mission might this be?' asked the girl, her tone full of scepticism as she crossed her legs.
'Like I said before, it's top secret and classified.'
The girl glared at him. He was without a doubt the most insolent boy she had ever met. 'At least tell me your name,' she said.
'My name doesn't concern you,' said the boy, moving around behind the tent to hammer in more pegs.
The girl leapt to her feet and actually stamped the ground in frustration. She was about to start yelling at the boy when suddenly there was a harsh whisper from behind.
'Don't move.'
She leapt in shock at the voice, and was about to whirl around and start shouting at whoever it was when she saw the blade of a silver knife at her throat and froze in terror.
'Wh-wh-what do you want?' she asked, the words catching in her throat.
'Everything you've got,' said the rough voice of a man, probably in his thirties. 'Hey, you! Come out here with your hands up or the girl dies!' he called towards the tent.
The boy stepped out from behind the tent with his hands raised, his face impassive.
'Excellent,' grinned the man. 'Carl, Matthew, grab all their possessions.'
There was a silence as nothing happened. 'Hey, guys? Hurry it up!' the man shouted in annoyance.
Still eyeing the knife and trying to stop herself from hyperventilating, the girl noticed something flying in from the left, and gasped as the unconscious body of a man landed at her feet. Several seconds of shocked silence later another body flew out from the encroaching darkness, bouncing off the first.
'What did you do?' the man demanded, looking at the boy with as much terror as the girl was looking at the knife and dragging her back with him.
'Did you really think you could get away with this so easily?' the boy asked, taking a few steps forward as he placed his hands in his pocket, casually strolling towards the man.
'I heard you coming from a long way away, and released my Pokémon when I knew you weren't paying attention,' he explained in a slightly bored voice.
'Pokémon?' gulped the man. He heard a soft whoosh and looked to his right, too late do anything.
The girl shrieked as there was the sound of a heavy thud behind her and the man was sent crashing into a tree, his knife jerking from his grip and landing on the ground out of his reach.
'Dragooo,' roared the Dragonite, stomping the man's hand into the ground as he went to let out a Pokémon of his own.
As the man yelled out in pain and tried desperately to free his hand from underneath the foot of the Dragonite, the boy walked nonchalantly up to him, confiscating his Pokeballs. The boy then walked out of the girl's line of sight, returning thirty seconds later with a coil of thick rope, obviously intended to tie the pair in the first place after their belongings had been taken.
'Dragonite, go tie them up somewhere,' he ordered, tossing the rope to his Pokémon before walking back to the tent and knocking in another peg as though nothing had happened.
The Dragonite gave the man whose hand upon he was still standing and quick jab to the temple, knocking him unconscious before picking him up along with the other two men and taking off into the sky, disappearing from sight.
The girl sat back down on the log, feeling faint. Two attacks in one day; she wasn't sure how much more she could take. Of course, this was exactly what the boy had warned her about. She wondered to herself now how she had been so naive to set off on the journey. It was too late to turn back now though.
'You might want to help your Mareep,' said the boy slightly coldly.
The girl jumped, awakening from her reverie to see him looking at her, having finished putting up the tent. She looked around and let out a cry of despair as she noticed Clarity tied to a nearby tree.
'I'm so sorry,' she apologized to her Mareep as she dashed over to the tree and tugged at the rope, trying to untie it. 'I can't get it undone,' she despaired, tugging desperately at the tight knot. The boy watched her struggle, before wandering away.
'Why don't you help?' the girl demanded loudly and angrily, tears spilling from her eyes as she desperately pulled at the rope. The events of the day, first nearly being violated and then having a knife held to her throat had made her extremely vulnerable emotionally, and she found that she was unable to hold back her feelings.
'Why are you such a jerk? Why do you care about nobody but yourself? Why are you so cold? Grow a heart damnit!' she yelled, the tears now pouring from her eyes as she slammed the ground with her fist.
Silence followed her outburst, and the only noise that could be heard was the sound of the girl sobbing miserably. Then suddenly she sensed his presence next to her, and looked up to see him holding the knife that had been dropped by the man. The boy walked around behind the tree and silently cut the rope, releasing Clarity into the arms of the girl, who hugged her Pokémon in relief, spilling fresh tears.
'Thanks,' she said, looking guiltily at the ground.
'I'm sorry for saying that stuff...' she muttered awkwardly.
'Whatever,' said the boy indifferently. 'By the way, what's your name again?'
'Tirrielle,' she replied quietly, surprised. It was the first question she could recall him asking her. 'And yours?'
'It doesn't concern you,' said the boy, walking back over to the tent.
In spite of herself, Tirrielle couldn't help smiling slightly.
Author Note: Just a clarification about the mention of multiple routes between New Bark and Cherrygrove, for the purpose of this story the regions of Pokémon: Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh; are seen as continents rather than islands as traditional. Therefore everything exists on a slightly grander scale, with the main towns/cities named in the games becoming major centres.