Chapter 15: Something In The Water

Pandabot: Alright, here we go again. After a pretty significant writing drought, we're back again with another chapter. This is a really slow chapter, nothing particularly exciting happens, but it's something I really wanted to deal with while the opportunity was there. I feel like it's come together pretty well so please leave a review and let me know what you think. Your reviews help more than you probably realise

The sun beat down, creating a haze of heat that covered the rocky ground, warping the air. The grey rocks, flat pieces of slate piled upon one another, reflected the solar energies so the ground stayed cool under the paws of the Quilava that leapt up from a lower level. The fire-type surveyed the area, turning back to watch the pair of humans trudging along the seemingly endless slate wilderness, Bayleef bouncing along at their side.

"Quil, quil!". JT shook his head at the insistent cry from his pokemon, laughing quietly to himself as a bead of sweat rolled down his temple. To his left, Lyra laughed as well, brushing her hair away from her face,

"He seems to be enjoying himself" she commented. The drumming of feet reached their ears as Blitz came speeding back, bouncing easily over the slate; he jumped around the walking threesome, drawing Bayleef into a game of tag. The pair of pokemon leapt away, the grass-type attempting to wrap Blitz up in her reaching vines.

Hot and tired as they were, Lyra and JT had no choice to laugh, the pokemon's energetic game too funny to ignore. The pair walked in companionable silence as their pokemon played around them; Lyra was the one who finally spoke,

"Hey JT?"

"Yeah?". The girl rubbed her arm in embarassment, looking away for a second,

"Remember how in Violet you said you'd help me train?". It actually took JT a couple of seconds to remember the throwaway comment; after all, it had been followed by kidnap and a real adventure.

"Yeah...I guess here's perfect, huh?". There was a long silence as the pair continued walking; again it was Lyra who spoke first,

"We need to find a place to stay first. Priorities" she said with a sigh, shoving her hands into her pockets. JT watched her for a long moment, trudging along despondently with her head down. Suddenly, in a rush of movement, he flung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer casually, suprised to find that he was a little taller than her now, apparently he'd grown a little.

"Judging by the amount of food in these packs, it looks like we're gonna be here for a few weeks. We'll have time" he reassured her, squeezing her shoulders. Lyra dropped her head onto his shoulder,

"Thanks JT."

Bayleef and Blitz had been out of sight for a few minutes, hidden by the dips and rises of the slate plains. JT frowned, it wasn't like his Quilava to spend so long away from him at a time; he noticed Lyra seemed worried too.

"Don't worry, Lyra. They can handle themselves."

Lyra merely gave a low hum, concentrating on searching the slate for the missing pokemon. Suddenly, Blitz's cry echoed over the slate, sending the pair into a run, chasing the source of his voice. As they ran, pounding footsteps racing ahead of them, JT unclipped Zero's pokeball from his belt. The pair slid to a stop at the top of a small cliff, breathless.

"Wow..."

The pair looked out over the breathtaking view; a clear blue lake hidden from the world by the land around it; the cleanest water that either had ever seen. Down below, Blitz raced away from Bayleef who was chasing him around the shores of the lake, flicking water at him. Lyra finally regained her ability to speak, a slow smile gracing her features,

"Its...beautiful" she whispered. Looking around, she eyed a ramp of sorts, leading down into the valley. She raced away towards it, crying for JT to follow her. The teen stood still, transfixed by the lake below, eyes staring glassily at the water.

By the time he had torn his eyes from the blue water, Lyra had already made it below, greeting her Bayleef joyously and throwing her arms around its neck. He watched as Blitz came round and joined Lyra and Bayleef, butting the girl's leg playfully.

He joined the group after a couple of minutes of unsure descent. His Quilava bounced over and danced around his legs before racing away to join Lyra's Bayleef in yet another game. JT joined Lyra, taking a seat beside her on the small pebbles that surrounded the lake. Lyra was fidgeting at her shoelaces at a languorous pace. She broke the calm silence,

"Its been ages since we washed" she said blissfully. JT gave her an inscrutiable look as she pulled her shoes off,

"You enjoy that then."

Lyra stopped and looked at him in surprise,

"You're not coming in?"

JT shook his head firmly,

"Na. I can live without a wash for a while longer."

Lyra sent him a mock glare, tugging her socks off and draping them over her shoes,

"Well I don't really wanna live with that" she teased. JT just shook his head, still looking away from her,

"I'm not going in there," he insisted sharply. "Just drop it!"

Lyra frowned at him for a second,

"Alright, no need to bite my head off" she snapped, a little hurt at the sudden attack. JT sighed, finally meeting Lyra's gaze apologetically,

"Sorry. I guess I'm a little tired."

Lyra smiled then began to pull her shirt off, leaning forward to yank it over her head. JT panicked, shuffling away rapidly,

"Woah, woah! What're you doing?" he cried, throwing his hands up in a surrendering motion. Lyra paused in her movement,

"What? I'm hardly gonna swim in my clothes am I?" she cried sarcastically, exposing her bra. He quickly turned away, granting the girl a semblence of privacy (though she seemed happy without it). He heard her shirt drop to the ground as he kept his eyes trained firmly in the opposite direction.

She crunched across the pebbles to the shore, stopping before the cool water and removing her jeans clumsily, throwing them to her side. She quickly waded in, groaning happily as the water cooled her down.

Her involuntary groan drew JT's eyes over, jumping guiltily at the sight of his childhood friend dressed in her underwear, half-submerged in water. He was reminded of the models on the TV - he gave himself a mental slap for thinking of his friend like that.

No, she's Lyra. Just Lyra, he reminded himself, forcing his thoughts away from that dangerous brand of thinking. Nevertheless, he was struggling to tear his eyes away from her as she relaxed blissfully in the water. Eventually, feeling his eyes on her, Lyra turned in the water.

"Are you seriously ogling me?"

JT tore his eyes from her, turning bright red as he refused to answer. Lyra sank lower into the water, hiding her torso from view as she considered the problem. On one level she was a little flattered at the attention, but it was pretty embarrassing all the same, having him stare at her like that.

She washed as best she could, wiping the grime from her skin before making for the shallows and grabbing her jeans from the shoreline. There she ran into a problem: they had no towels with which she could dry herself. She either had to put her jeans on now and put up with the discomfort for a while, or sit in her current state of dress until she dried.

If only Alex had provided them with more clothes, it wouldn't be such a problem, but she only had one set of clothes and she wasn't happy with the idea of having to sit around in wet clothes for hours. She sighed as the realisation hit.

JT heard Lyra approaching and, assuming that she had redressed herself, glanced over to see her approaching him in nothing but her bra and panties. However, a second later, his eyes were drawn to her right leg.

On the inside of her leg, stretching from the top of her thigh down to just below her knee, was a raised area of flesh, discoloured and dead. His eyes widened in shock, a look that Lyra could hardly miss.

There was a long silence as JT met Lyra's gaze, all of his teenage thoughts now forgotten. The teenage girl looked away as she reached him and sat down, using her folded jeans as a cushion. She wrapped her arms around her knees, hugging them close to her chest as she stared at the water.

JT hesitated, reaching out with a comforting arm and then pulling back uncertainly,

"Lyra, I..." he stopped, unsure of what to say.

The teenage girl hugged her legs tighter, seeming to shrink into herself as she answered in a low voice,

"I know. It's horrible." There was another long pause as JT digested the sight. He spoke again, hesitantly,

"How did...I mean..."

Lyra glanced sideways at him,

"How did I get it?"

JT nodded silently at her question. She shrugged, trying to play it off casually,

"It was just a stupid accident. I was riding a Ponyta and something spooked it. I came off, it freaked out and I got a burn," she gave another forced shrug, "It could happen to anyone." JT reached out again, this time gently laying a gloved hand on her shoulder,

"But it didn't, it happened to you" he said softly. Lyra shook her head after a long moment, raising her head from her knees,

"Look JT, it's nice that you care and all, but I don't wanna talk about it. Can we just drop it?"

JT withdrew his hand and studied her for a second before shrugging and turning his head to the water,

"Ok."

There was a long silence as the pair of trainers contemplated the water before JT broke the silence again,

"You know it doesn't bother me, right?" Lyra gave a small smile, resting her head on his shoulder again,

"I know."

Blitz, who had settled himself in for a nap on an amazingly warm area of gravel, raised his head and watched the pair as Lyra rested her head on his trainer's shoulder. He was confused as to what that meant: were they mates now or merely friends like he and Bayleef?

He let his head rest again, mulling over the complicated world of humans for a while. One of the many things that perplexed him was the need to give each other so many different ways to address each other. It became ridiculous sometimes but humans seemed to have a natural grasp on the dynamic involved; how he had no idea.

Bayleef came plodding across to his spot, tired from their games, and hovered awkwardly around him. He flicked his head at her in an unmistakeable gesture of sit down and began to think about his grass-type friend.

She had grown a lot since he had first met her, thrown together in an outside pen at Professor Elm's lab. Back then he had thought her cowardly, always hiding behind him when the Professor came near, but she had eventually gotten used to the bespectacled man.

The most obvious evidence of her growth had been her courage fighting the Houndoom. Blitz was no saint, he knew he was the hero of that piece and took immense pride in the fact, but he had been pleasantly suprised by Bayleef. She had a type disadvantage but she hadn't even hesitated; she had even been quite good against the hunters.

Blitz snorted, glancing over at the humans to see that they had begun to speak again. He could still beat her in a battle. His thoughts cut short as he spied the marks on Lyra's leg, the same kind of marks that he had once given Professor Elm though Lyra's were more widespread. For a moment, he considered how a pokemon (for it must have been a pokemon) had marked her so. A Flame Wheel perhaps, or an Ember? He shook his head, all of this was distracting from his nap.

And his nap was the most important thing in the world right now.