All righty, here we go. Chapter fourteen! I'm actually surprised I've kept this going for so long. O.o Normally, it would've died out of my mind, about, probably, thirteen chapters ago. XD

…CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Deeper Than It Seems

Solay led them back down the tree. They met up with everyone else at the bottom, outside of the tree. Sunflora and the others immediately rushed up, worried, wondering what had taken them so long. Carefully, Solay explained what had happened, but Treecko noticed she kept Cacturne's offer to herself. She also left out the part where she snapped, and just said that she'd beaten him.

Shadow and Mudkip also kept quiet on it, exchanging glances. Treecko knew they were going to talk to her in the morning. But, in the meantime, it was time to head back and sleep the day off. Too many things happened within a short time span. Treecko just wanted to lie down and sleep for a year or two. As Solay saw he was tiring, she knelt.

"Get on."

He stared at her, then shook his head. "No, it's okay."

She gave him a look. "Get on. You'll fall asleep anyway."

He reluctantly clambered onto her back, and she started walking again. He felt like an idiot for not walking by himself like everyone else, and just mostly stared at Solay's ear. Before long, though, he was out like a light.

…

The sunlight poked at his eyes and woke him up. Treecko groaned and rolled over, sitting up, blinking blearily. Mudkip lay not far from, curled up, fast asleep. Solay and Shadow were nowhere to be seen, so he assumed they were outside. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Treecko went out, looking around.

Not many others were up yet. Bidoof was chatting with Sunflora, and Chatot was standing by himself. Solay and Shadow were off to the side, deep in conversation. Treecko went over to them.

"…leads me to believe that their leader must be either a ghost-, psychic-, or a dark-type," she was saying. "After all, the, let's say, minions we've encountered have all been ghost-, psychic-, and dark-types."

Shadow nodded. "Yeah, that could be, but you can't discount the fact that he could be any other type and he's just toying with us."

She shrugged. "Yeah, but by what his underlings said, he doesn't sound like the kind who would lie, even to his enemies." She blinked as Treecko approached. "Good morning."

"Morning," he replied. "What are we talking about?"

"We're discussing the nature of the bad guy's head honcho," Shadow replied. "We're fairly sure what we're dealing with, but there's always the possibility."

He nodded. "True. Hey, that reminds me…I had a weird dream last night."

"What was it about?" Solay asked, sounding curious.

Treecko made a face. "Um…I don't really remember. I just know it was rather…odd. Sorry."

"It's fine," Shadow assured him. "If you remember anything, let us know."

The rest of the conversation was interrupted by a sleepy Mudkip, who stumbled over to join them, but kept yawning and didn't really seem to be listening. Shortly after, breakfast was served, and then they all gathered to discuss what to do next.

"I say we go back to the tree," Sunflora suggested. "Now that we're all rested up, we can take a better look around."

"I second that," Solay added. "I think we should go back and give it another careful twice-over. We might have missed something in the dark last night."

The plan was agreed to, and they all set off deep into the forest again. They split into their groups and walked along, each a little distance away from each other, not really traveling as a whole group. Solay and Shadow were ahead of Mudkip and Treecko, but they weren't all that far behind.

When they reached the tree, Treecko helped Mudkip over, and Solay and Shadow simply jumped. Solay nearly didn't make it, and Shadow had to grab her hand quickly and haul her up. Wigglytuff and the others managed to go around, with Chatot just fluttering overhead smugly.

"Thanks, Shadow," Solay muttered, but then the dizziness struck. She swayed on her feet and Shadow had to steady her. She shut her eyes and watched the vision in her head for a few seconds. When she opened them, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"What did you see?" he asked.

"It's all right, it was an event from the past," she said. "It was Waterfall Cave. Come on, let's go." She jumped down, startling Bidoof. She apologized quickly, and led everyone inside. Sunflora, Bidoof, and Corphish tagged along, then split off, going their own way as Treecko, Solay, and Shadow kept climbing. When the reached the other fork, they stopped.

"Let's split up again," Shadow suggested. "Treecko and I can go left, and you and Mudkip can go right."

"Sounds fine by me," Solay said, so they bid farewell and set off.

The paths were basically the same, but about two thirds of the way up, it widened and had a small pool of water. Mudkip stopped to get a drink.

"Careful, it might be deeper than it seems," Solay said.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, uh huh. It's just a puddle of water." Mudkip dipped her head, but then her footing slipped and she toppled headfirst into the water.

Solay knew this. This was her vision from before, the one where Mudkip… Without hesitation, Solay leaped into the water. She churned at the water with her paws, trying to make herself swim down while her instincts and her body were screaming at her to go up. She was a Vulpix, after all, and Vulpix's usually don't like water. It took her a good three seconds to be able to see.

Mudkip had fallen to the bottom of the pool and got her tail lodged under a rock. She was trying in vain to pull herself free, but had no luck. Solay knew, that even if Mudkip was a water-type, she couldn't hold her breath forever. Longer than she could, yes, but not forever. She scrambled down and pushed at the rock. It barely moved, so she moved backwards a few paces and rammed into it.

The impact jarred her teeth and knocked the rest of the air right out of her lungs, but Mudkip came free. She quickly swam under Solay and pushed her to the surface. As the both broke the water's edge, Solay started flailing again, trying to swim. Mudkip pushed her to the bank, where they both hauled themselves out and lay there, gasping. Well, Solay was acting more like a Magikarp out of water than Mudkip was, but the point was taken.

"Whoa…" Mudkip breathed. "Was that what you saw in your vision? The Dimensional Scream?"

Solay nodded. "Yeah…that was it… It's a good thing we changed it."

"Pfft, yeah!" Mudkip nodded energetically. "You were super ultra mega cool down there, being a fire-type and all, ya know."

"Thanks." After catching her breath, they both started climbing, laughing about it. Treecko and Shadow were already there, wandering around, checking every inch of the place. When Shadow saw they were both sopping wet, he came dashing over.

"Oh gosh, what happened to you?"

They exchanged a glance. "Well…" Solay stated. "It goes like this…" So she explained.

…

Ugh. - This turned out rather slow too. I'm going to try really hard to get a good chapter in here soon. I really want to start the big reveal of who the boss is. xD