So, we meet once more, readers...

Sorry 'bout the delay. I had some writers block and not much inspiration (which are pretty mcuh the same thing), so... yeah. Consequently, this chapter is really short, breaking any previous records with mere 2,700 words (approximately).

As short and uneventful as it is, I like it. It's light, quick and easy to read. Plus, I like the ending. But you won't figure out until later, willya?

Less than Legends, More than Myths

Chapter 12: A Sea of Shimmering Shivers

As darkness fell over the Hoenn region, the group of travelers set up camp in a clearing in the middle of the woods that bordered Route 104. Jake and Brendan were covered in something that was hopefully mud, Sara's knees and hands were dirty, and May was mostly clean, but covered in small cuts and scrapes. They all sat around the campfire, with a seven Pokémon around them.

Most of the Pokémon did not seem very happy. They had been forced to set up camp on their own as a punishment for recent events, and they were now grumbling between themselves about it. Coincidentally, their trainers were talking about the same thing at the same time.

"On top of a tree. Of a tree!" May shouted, angry. "How the hell did Torchic get up there? She doesn't even have arms!"

"Personally, I'm more worried about how Mudkip and Wingull managed to get stuck inside a fist-sized hole, fainted." Brendan said. "How they even fitted inside it is way beyond me."

"I wonder how Ralts got hit in the head like that…" Sara whispered, looking over at her only Pokémon with a worried expression on her face. The Ralts' face and horn was comically covered in bandages. "I looks like she fell or something, but…"

"You guys have now officially crossed the line from 'Merely weird' to 'What the hell?'. Congratulations." Jake said, bowing. "It takes a long time and arduous training to achieve that."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Brendan shot back. "I want to see your Pokémon get into a fist-sized hole, climb a tree without having arms or mysteriously develop bruises on their heads!"

"Ha! That's where you're wrong, my dear friend!" Jake laughed. "If you remember the things your father oh-so kindly taught you, you should recall that Seedot are known to hang on trees, absorbing moisture and such. Do you see any arms in my Seedot?"

"Humn…" Brendan replied, blinking in surprise. "Damn, didn't see that coming."

"They never do. Now, if you excuse me, I must catch some shut-eye. We lost a lot of time today, and we'll have to hurry on to catch up."

With those words, Jake got up, did an over-dramatic bow, and left towards his sleeping bag. He was fast asleep in seconds, with Scorch and Seedot nearby. May puffed a bit at his exit, then turned to Sara and whispered something at the girl's ear. The two giggled a bit.

"What?" Brendan asked them, curious.

"Never mind. Girl stuff." May answered dismissively. "You wouldn't be interested in the least… dude." She winked at Sara, and the two giggled a bit more.

"What? Seriously, answer me!"

"It's getting late. Go to sleep, Breny." Sara said. Everyone looked at her, surprised by the use of the nickname. Realizing the intimacy she had used, Sara blushed and looked at the ground. Brendan rolled his eyes.

"Girls…" he muttered, sighing. "Can't live without them, dead man with 'em."

--XXXXX--

The group was up and running before the break of dawn. Literally. Apparently, they had slept near a Poochyena territory, and had barely managed to escape from a group of enraged Mightyena with their lives. But, after twenty minutes of desperate running, they succeeded, and it saved them a good time on the road.

As good as it was for their travel, it certainly was bad for their mood. Waking up before dawn to run away from raving wolves is not the way one would like to wake up. Everyone (but specially Brendan and May) was grumpy. After merely an hour of walking, May did a huge scene in order to convince the others to stop and rest, which ended in a forty-five minute pause and an early breakfast before resuming the long walk.

It was almost noon before the group once more stopped. They were tired from their rude awakening and from the countless battles they had on the road against passing trainers (most of which they won), so there was little objection. May, as usual, offered to cook lunch. Lately, she had been honing her culinary skills, and her cooking was actually good. Even Brendan accepted (after a long, heated, intense and somewhat random argument) to taste the food, but as the boy had to preserve a minimum of dignity, he didn't eat much. Jake and Sara ate happily, while May barely touched her food until she was absolutely sure the others liked it. Strangely, even with the late start, she was the first to finish by a mile.

After their feet were rested, their bellies were filled and Brendan had finished chatting about his dream of building the Chatot Utopia, the four travelers began to… well, travel. It was not long after dawn when they reached the first interesting point of the day.

It all happened when Brendan, checking something on Jake's map after the bigger boy had thrown it on the ground and sworn never to ever set his gaze upon it again, had smiled mischievously and began to run ahead.

"Brendan! What the hell!?" May shouted, running after him.

"You'll see soon enough!" Brendan replied, speeding up slightly. "And you can thank me then!"

"Hey! Wait for us!" Sara called, running ahead as well.

"People… They get worse by the passing day." Jake muttered, jogging along as well.

After some good six minutes and forty-nine seconds of running, Brendan finally stopped, panting heavily. He was now in the middle of a road that was nearly identical to where they had begun. The boy shot a confused glance around, checked something on the map, and shot another confused glance around.

"Bren… dan!" May shouted, enraged, as soon as she reached the boy. She doubled over, hands on her knees, in order to catch her breath. "What… the… hell!?"

"We were supposed to have reached it by now…" Brendan muttered to himself, confused, as he once more looked at the map. The boy proceeded to turn it around countless times, but that didn't help at the least. "Weird…"

"Brendan!" May shouted again, now mostly recovered. And angry. "Care to explain why you… just broke into a run like… that, to lead us… here!?"

"Humn…" Brendan gulped, scared for his life. "I thought… the map… blargh…"

The girl slowly, threateningly, approached him, cracking her knuckles. "Is that all you have to say… in your defense?"

"But… but… map… blargh…"

"Urgh! You're just so… annoying!" May shouted, raising her fist. She considered hitting him on the face, but she quickly dismissed the idea. She did not want to go through that road again. So, instead, she punched Brendan on the arm. And hard.

"Ow!" the boy screamed, grabbing his arm in an over-exaggerated way. "My arm! You broke my arm! Ahh!"

"Suck it up, big baby!"

"You're mean!" Brendan shouted with a baby voice, sniffing. "I want my mommy!" After those words were said, the boy's jaw tightened and it's owner became immediately serious. He shook his head, then turned back to the path and resumed walking without a word.

May stood still, surprised by the sudden change. She remembered Brendan, on the day they first met, saying his mother had gone away, but just maybe that meant…

"I'll have to ask Jake later today…" the girl thought, looking worriedly at Brendan's distancing back. "He's bound to know something about this. I wish I could ask Brendan directly, but he's obviously not comfortable talking about it…"

The girl shook her head and raced after Brendan. For some reason, she had the weird feeling that she was forgetting something, but she shook it away. It was probably just a random feeling.

--XXXXX--

"I… can't… run… anymore!" Sara shouted, panting heavily and letting herself fall to the ground. She landed on her behind with a soft 'Thump', the laid down in order to waste as little energy as possible. "How… can… you… guys… still… run?"

"No offense, but we're all older than you." Jake noted, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "C'mon. If we stay here and rest, we'll never find those two again."

"It's a straight road!" Sara shot back, sitting up. "How difficult… can it be… to find them again?"

"Knowing Brendan, I'm willing to bet he's lost right now. And knowing May, I'm willing to bet he's in pain."

"...Well, can't argue with that, huh?"

"Ready now?"

"Yeah." Sara said as she got up. "Let's go."

The two resumed their jogging down the road.

--XXXXX--

"Au. Au. Au. Au. Au."

"Stop it!"

"Au. Au. Au. Au. Au."

"I'm warning you!"

"Au. Au. Au."

"BRENDAN!"

Brendan and May were still walking down the road, oblivious to the fact that half of the group was missing. Currently, May was walking ahead, with Brendan behind her. The boy was still clutching his arm like if it was broken, even though it was quite obvious that it wasn't. For every step he took, the boy let out an 'Au', more to annoy May than anything else. And it was clearly working, although if that was a good thing was not so clear.

"Au. Au. Au. Au." Brendan continued, albeit at a (much) lower tone.

"I swear to Mew, if you don't stop that right this instant, I will grind each and every one of your bones to dust!" May threatened, fighting the appealing urge to actually to that right there and then. "And I'm not kidding!"

"See? That just took away any credibility you had." Brendan shot back. "Do you see any villains in the movies saying 'And I'm not kidding' after their threats? No! Because that just ruins everything."

"Brendan…" May growled, ready to pummel the boy to a bloody pulp. "You have three seconds to run."

"What are you gonna do, huh?"

"One…"

"What? I'm serious, May. I'm worried."

"Two…"

"Please don't hurt me!"

"THREE!"

"AHH!"

May lunged at Brendan, but the boy managed to turn around and burst into running right on time to escape her grasp. The girl wasn't about to give up just yet, though, and began to hunt the boy down the road they had just came from.

They had been running for no more than a minute when they reached an abrupt turn. Brendan, still being alive and consequently ahead, turned first, vanishing from May's sight for a second. The girl heard him scream just as she turned the corner herself. Unable to stop on such a short notice, the girl collided with a hard object, sending both tumbling down several feet.

May felt rather than saw someone rush to her side and lay her down in the grass. It took a few moments for the girl to recover enough to look around, but when she did, she promptly sat up. A wave of dizziness and slight nausea washed over her, making her regret her decision. She tried to focus on her surroundings, and soon enough things became clearer.

Sara was by her side, a worried expression on her side. Behind her, Brendan was helping Jake to his feet. The boy (Jake) seemed to be as dizzy as May. It took a moment for May's brain to put the pieces together and realize she had, quite literally, run into Jake.

"May! You okay?" Sara asked her, worried. "That was a pretty nasty hit…"

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine." May answered, still dizzy. To Jake, she shouted, "HEY! What's the big idea!?"

"Excuse me?" Jake shot back, incredulous. "You're the one that rammed into me!"

"Hmph…" the red-clad girl buffed, crossing her arms.

"Urgh…" Jake groaned, getting back up. It took him a moment to recover his balance, but he eventually succeeded. "Brendan, care to explain why did you take off like that?"

"I blame your stupid map!" Brendan replied, shaking the said object in the older boy's face. "It says here we were supposed to have reached the sea about twenty minutes ago!"

"I know. Why do you thing I threw it on the ground to begin with? It's a useless map."

"Then why don't you buy a new one!?"

"Guys!" Sara screamed, interrupting the argument. The boys looked at her, then at each other, then puffed, then looked away. May rolled her eyes.

"C'mon." the red-clad girl said, now (mostly) recovered. "Let's keep on moving. We're bound to reach the sea soon enough, right?"

Brendan shot the girl a weird look. "Since when did you became so… rational? And while we're at it, since when are you ever right?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Uhm… nothing?"

"Let's just go…"

The girl walked away towards the corner on which she had oh-so tragically run into Jake without looking back. Brendan quickly followed her, leaving Jake and Sara once more alone. The girl shot the boy an unsure look, to which the latter replied with a shrug and followed the two.

And so, the group began their newest journey towards the sea.

--XXXXX--

The boy stood on the huge mountain, surrounded on all sides by sea. He looked no older than seventeen, powerfully built, with short, spiky blond hair. He was dressed in white cloth pants and long-sleeved shirt with designs weaved in golden thread, completed with golden finger-less gloves and a golden cloak that would have put the richest king to shame.

As he looked over the edge of the cliff he was standing nearby, his face broke into a smile. By his side stood a majestic Absol, his white fur sparkling under the bright sun. The boy looked at his loyal friend with his eyes, one clear blue and another golden. The creature looked back at him, both sharing more words with that look than men said on a lifetime.

They were back.

I really like that ending. You guys won't find out who the mystery guy was until much later into the story, but it was nice putting him here. I wanted to make him seem like a handsome, kind, rich, gold-obsessed freak. How did it go?

So, now I must bid you farewell. Until chapter 13 (don't wait up)!

Gotta Go With The Flow!
BlackShadowKnight