Rachel's POV
A glare of light interrupted my sleep, waking me up. Slowly I got on my four paws. Remembering my surroundings, I realized I was in a caved-in rock shelter, protecting us from the bitter cold and snow. Shadow had brought us here last night, around dusk, to rest comfortably. Slowly and carefully I exited the rock without waking Shadow and Zeke, and stretched my limbs in the snow. That may have been the best sleep I've had for weeks. For a while, I've been knocked out instead of actual sleeping. Right now, it was dawn, the sun barely rising. Instead of waking Zeke and Shadow up, I decided to let them sleep, since they were probably exhausted.
The sun started to slowly rise, so I sat down in the snow, and I watched it rise till it rose a bit in the sky. Soon, it was too bright to stare at and I was forced to look away. I'm glad I had my comfy red scarf, since it helped keep me warm in this unusual snowy weather. A little while later, it seemed like it was late enough, and since they two snivy's were still sleeping, I thought I should wake them up. Walking over to the rock shelter slowly, my paws a bit numb from the snow, I first used my forepaws to shake Zeke. He was cradling that muddy round stone of his in his arms. I shook his body, telling him to wake up softly. He woke up with a yawn, and he slowly sat up, and then stretched his arms.
"It's morning," Zeke said, pointing out the obvious.
"Oh really," I said sarcastically. "I thought it was evening. Now hurry up, we need to get moving." As Zeke got up with his stone, he had to move away from Shadow, and when he did that, Shadow moved around in his sleep. For a minute, I thought he was going to wake up, but I was wrong. Zeke walked out of the rock and into the snow, and whined about Shadow sleeping. Agreeing with Zeke, and not really liking all this peacefulness, I woke up Shadow, but in a funnier way.
I walked up to Shadow, seeing him in his tranquil sleeping state. Then I smacked his head with my numb paw, hard. "Wake up!" I screamed, and Shadow bolted awake. He screamed, startled and alert. Zeke and I both laughed.
"Rachel, what the heck was that for?!" Shadow screamed, agitated. I swear I could see a vein popping out of his forehead.
"Meh," I responded, then snickered a bit. Shadow still seemed infuriated, but not as much. "Come on Shadow, we need to get moving to the next city. It took us about a day to get here, so who knows how long it'll take to get to the next city."
Shadow seemed a bit nervous. "Well, we just got here, and we aren't really in a rush," Shadow considered.
"Sorry Shadow, but the sooner we leave, the better," I explained. "Now come on. If we hang out here in the cold too much, we'll catch a cold or frostbite."
"Rachel, don't you know what time of the year it is?" Shadow asked. Confused, I tilted my head to the side.
"What are you talking about?" I questioned.
"I've seen calendars on the way here. I saw a huge decorated pine tree in the town square. There are colorful lights on the warehouses and there's snowy weather. People have special goods like cookies and brownies all over in their houses. Rachel, don't you see, it's nearly Christmas!" My eyes grew wide in surprise. Of course, that explains a lot. It's still pretty weird how it's snowing in this part of Unova.
"How much longer till it is Christmas?" I asked.
"About two weeks," Shadow answered. I groaned in frustration. Did Shadow want to stay here for two weeks for Christmas?
"Shadow, are you saying you want to stay here for two weeks?" I asked, rage starting to build up inside of me. He answered with a single nod.
"Dude, we are not staying here for two weeks. Maybe we can stay here for a week at the most, but not two weeks." Shadow hung his head in misery. I had no idea why he was so bummed, but he certainly was depressed. I sighed, realizing I was starting to control everyone on this trip. Shadow was supposed to be leading this trip, but I was starting to take charge.
"Sorry Shadow, I realized that you're actually the one who's the leader of this journey. You should be the one calling the shots.
"Yes!" Shadow screamed in success. I groaned, knowing that we were stuck here for two weeks. I seriously needed to get to my destination, which is on the way to White Forest. I still was keeping it a secret from Shadow and Zeke. What an inconveniencing delay…
1 ½ weeks later…
Zeke and I sat outside the entrance of the warehouse café, Shadow somewhere inside trying to get us something to eat. I sighed, looking up at the sky in frustration. We had been here for about one and a half weeks, and it has been torture for the last few days. Giving it a second thought, maybe I shouldn't have let Shadow take charge again. Maybe the reason I took charge in the first place was because we were getting nowhere fast.
"Rachel, why are we still here in Nacrene City?" Zeke blurted out, disturbing the silence in the air.
"Shadow wants us to stay till the end of Christmas. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if we stayed here till New Year's," I mumbled. Shivering, I looked over at Zeke, wanting to chat with him about this.
"You know, I think we should confront Shadow in an intervention, and convince him to continue this journey," I explained. Zeke nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, the sooner we get to White Forest, the sooner I get to make some new friends," Zeke agreed. Zeke had that round stone in his arms, cradling it.
"Great, because we've been sleeping in that rock shelter for way too long, and my back is killing me," I yapped, stretching a bit to help get that irritating cramp out of my spine.
Suddenly, the doors to the warehouse café slowly opened and Shadow walked out, three Soda Pops in his hands. "Hey guys, look what I got!" He opened two of the Soda Pops, giving one directly to Zeke and then he placed one on the deck in front of me. Shadow had the biggest smile on his face, and it was the happiest I've seen him since… ever. Well then again we haven't been traveling together for that long. Anyways, it pained me that I had to ruin his fun, but it was the right thing.
"Uh, Shadow, we need to talk," I just blurted out. Shadow had barely just opened his own Soda Pop, and he quickly took a sip. I continued. "We have been here for a long time, and Zeke and I have discussed it, and we think we should get back on the journey." Shadow's joyful state immediately transformed into one of surprise, shock, and depression.
"We should really continue, since we've been here way too long, and it's better for all of us," Zeke finished. Shadow still hasn't said a word, his expression filled with gloom.
"Shadow, are you okay?" I asked, starting to be a bit worried. He still didn't reply, staring at the floorboards.
Shockingly, Shadow knocked over his Soda Pop, the liquid seeping through the floorboard cracks. Then with a bit of a hiss, he jumped off the deck with a flip, and started to run off into the snowy forest. I was stunned on the spot, wondering what had taken over Shadow. He started to fade off in the distance, getting farther away from us. Then I snapped back to reality when I realized Zeke was screaming in my face.
"Hurry! We have to catch up with him!" Zeke yelled, and then he jumped on my back. "Mush!"
I didn't move. "I'm not going to move if you treat me like a mutt," I growled.
"Hehe, sorry," he apologized. "Can you run after him now?" he asked, Shadow almost completely out of sight.
"Of course," I snickered, before I sprinted after him, Zeke hanging on to my fur tightly so he wouldn't fall off. Shadow took a direct right, heading onto a path toward Pinwheel Forest. I could barely see Shadow, running with long strides towards the forest. I quickened my pace, nearly knocking Zeke off my back. Snow was flung in my dust as we continued on this hot pursuit.
Unfortunately, Shadow looked behind himself, noticing us chasing after him. He looked rather shocked to see us so close, about ten meters away. I guess I would've been shocked as well, with my amazing speed. Shadow then veered off the path, taking a left into the forest. He jumped up on a white fence that bordered this path, and then front-flipped onto a tree branch. I skidded to a stop, now in the location of where Shadow was just standing. Shadow's figure blended in with the darkness within the trees, only detectable by his movement.
"He's getting away!" Zeke shouted, using his black, scaly hand to point at Shadow's barely noticeable figure among the trees. Thinking fast, I took three steps back, then bolted forward and flew over the fence, now standing on some moist dirt, which was blanketed with pine needles. It was easy to detect that Zeke had a difficult time holding on to me during that jump.
"Zeke, follow Shadow from the trees!" I ordered. "I'll see if I can smell his scent from down here!" Zeke had no objections, and so he jumped on one of the frosty tree trunks, and slowly climbed to a sturdy branch. While he did his part, I lowered my head and walked around cautiously, sniffing the area. The snow was scattered with several footprints, too hard to see which one was Shadow's print. I could smell faint traces of some patrat, and there was a scent from a lillipup that strayed off. Also, I could smell a few tympole who appeared to have played in this area. It was a miracle that I could pick up these scents with this layer of snow in the area.
I could also smell Shadow's scent, and it wasn't that clear on the ground, but it wasn't like I could climb trees. I took in another good whiff of Shadow's scent, before I could smell a small, weak scent trail.
"Zeke, I picked up his trail!" I informed him. Zeke had barely just made it to a branch, and he was ready to start jumping from tree to tree. I started to jog after Shadow, my nose still on the ground so I could still detect his scent. It was hard to decipher which one was Shadow's, since his scent trail was cluttered up with so many others. For a minute, I had to stop because I lost the trail, but we continued shortly after the brief break. Zeke used his vine whip to swing from tree to tree, quickly keeping up with me. We took several turns around trees, rocks, and bushes, and even crossed over abandoned railroad tracks to face more trees, trudging through the snow, before it had gotten complicated. Man, enough with the action. It was like something involved either wasting time or risking my life for a while.
After pawing through the tight area of the pine trees, the trail suddenly lead toward a huge open space within the forest. Puddles were everywhere, and the grass was covered with dewdrops. Immediately I skidded to a stop at the edge of the clearing. Zeke nearly swung off a tree and almost face-planted, but quickly caught onto a branch with his vine whip. My nose picked up hundreds of scents. Patrat, tympole, lillipup, pidove, timburr, throh, and many others mixed along with Shadow's scent. My eyes were wide with surprise. It will take forever to find Shadow's scent trail again!
"Rachel, is something wrong?" Zeke asked, slowly lowering himself on the ground with his vines.
"I lost the trail, and I doubt that I'll find it," I explained, searching around for Shadow frantically.
Zeke sighed. "Why would Shadow run off like that? He's causing a huge delay in our journey."
"I thought it was weird that he knew this place so well," I mentioned. "I mean, it's a bit strange, don't you think?" We both nodded, agreeing with each other. "Now, I think we should split up. Shadow may be acting strange, but he's trying to stay here in Nacrene City till Christmas, so he most likely won't leave the forest or city. I'll look around in the city, and you can survey the area in the forest. We can meet up at the Challenge rock if we found nothing." Zeke didn't argue at all with the plan, except for the fact he didn't know where the Challenge rock was at. I quickly gave a description of where it was.
I then noticed Zeke was still holding that round rock of his. "Dude, did you seriously carry that rock all the way out here?" I asked.
"Uh, well, you always wear that red scarf of yours all the time," Zeke argued. He folded his arms, an eyebrow raised.
"At least this helps me keep warm, but that rock is just an inconvenience," I countered. I gave him a smug look.
"Hey, it's not a rock, it's a stone," he hissed. I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever," I groaned. "Great then, well good luck on your part!" Quickly, I put my nose to the ground, finding the stale scent trail of Shadow. It was covered with the scent of Zeke and me, so that made the path a bit stronger, actually. I followed my strong scent trail back toward that path. Silently, I wished Zeke good luck one more time as I ventured through the pine trees, hoping we will find Shadow. After one and a half weeks of relaxing in this snowy wasteland, it was actually feeling better to me this way, with all this excitement.
Zeke's POV
Now alone in Pinwheel Forest, I didn't know where to start. I cradled the Stone of Darkness in my arms, relieved that Rachel and Shadow just thought it was a rock. Every direction seemed the same, except for the direction that had stairs, manmade. It was weird that stairs were all the way out here, and they seemed to lead up quite a bit. It seemed like a start, and at least it wasn't going through the trees, where I could easily get lost. I dashed up the stairs, actually a bit excited to see what was at the top.
At the top of the stairs there was a wide clearing. I saw several jagged rocks and some of the usual tall grass. This was a certain change in atmosphere compared to the rest of the forest. The thing that mainly stood out was this huge rigid, bristly boulder. The boulder was more than twice my size, making me a bit intimidated. Timidly, I stalked up to what I believed was the Challenge rock. It seemed to tower over me as I walked up to the ancient thing. A thin frosty layer of snow lied on top of it. It was petrifying, seeing this was the biggest rock I've seen in my life. I bet there could be others just like this, but it seemed a bit unnatural for it to be in the middle of a clearing.
Snapping out of it, I knew it was a bad idea to just stare transfixed at this boulder. There could be trainers out here, and they would love to get a new snivy for their Pokémon collection. I started to choose a random direction in the trees, and then started to walk east of the Challenge rock. Venturing off, I sighed, wondering how Rachel was going. In my opinion, I think Shadow headed back toward Nacrene City. It wasn't like there was a place out here that he would retreat to, and if there was, he probably would have showed us earlier in the week.
Walking through the trees, I looked around carefully and cautiously, looking for any movement that was black like Shadow. I saw a few pidove, tympole, and lots of patrat, but nothing related to Shadow. Still walking, I entered another clearing, but my surroundings looked familiar. After a minute of more thinking, I realized I was back in the clearing with the Challenge rock. I groaned in frustration. This was going to take forever!
Interrupting my frustrated thoughts, I thought I heard… crying? It seemed distant though, but it had to be close. Maybe some pidove broke its wing or something. Shrugging, I followed the sobbing sound, seeing it lead into the trees, north-eastern of the Challenge rock. I followed the noise silently, making sure I didn't make that deadly mistake of stepping on a branch. The only reason I followed the noise was because it was my only lead on where to find Shadow.
Fortunately, I avoided the disaster of making any sudden noise, still staring off into the foliage to find out where the sobbing came from. I had to be going in the right direction, because the crying sound grew louder with each step I took. Could that, could that be Shadow crying? Oh man, that would be hysterical!
I then noticed something, a huge hole in the ground. I nearly stepped into it, and I would've slipped and fell who-knows-where if I did. I sighed with relief, and starred down the hole. The crying, it came from in there. I nearly groaned in frustration, but that would probably make too much noise. Before I checked, I made sure that I was still holding the Stone of Darkness, and then took a second glance of the hole. It was intriguing, and I had to slide down there no matter what and to just get this over with, I took a step back, and then sped fast and jumped through the hole.
On the other side, it took me somewhere underground. I fell into a small room of some kind. Not alert of any of my surroundings, I sat up then coughed out some dirt, seeing that I face planted when I entered. This place was dark, and a bit spooky, but the scariest thing about the place was the crying sound, it was deafening. My ears were about to explode, and it even made my head feel dizzy. Whoever was crying did not hear me come in through, but at least I had some time to find out who was crying before I did anything.
Silently, I started to inch myself toward the loud crying sound. The sound barely altered as I got closer, but I could tell I was nearly by the Pokémon. Soon, a shadowy figure seemed to pop out of the darkness. The shape… a snivy's shape, it was Shadow! Hesitantly, I started to talk. "Shadow?" I whimpered, still a bit afraid.
The crying sound reduced to short sniffles immediately. The figure turned around to face me, my instincts now yelling at me to run. I held my ground, wanting to see if it was really Shadow.
"Z-Zeke," he stuttered. That voice, it had to be Shadow. "I'm sorry Zeke, I shouldn't have run away." Everything was still dark, which made me feel a bit awkward.
"Shadow, is there a light or something that you can switch on, because I can barely see a thing," I admitted. I couldn't tell what Shadow was doing, but I saw a bit of movement.
"You can't see in the darkness yet? I thought you'd gain that ability by now," he assumed. Suddenly, a small light flickered on somewhere over on the right side of the room. Looking over, I saw that Shadow had some sort of small device in his hands. Shadow was holding a sort of metal container which had an ember on top of it. It lit up the room dimly. The device must have been manmade.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's an item made by humans. It's called a lighter. I'm surprised it still works, actually. I'm pretty sure this is the same one from six years ago." He was muttering that last part to himself. The tension was killing me, what was this place?
"Shadow, can you exactly explain where we are?" I questioned, tapping my foot impatiently. Shadow didn't move for a second, just staring at the flame on the lighter as if he was hypnotized. A few moments later, he turned around, still holding that switch on the lighter. It seemed as if he had to hold that switch in order to keep the ember lit.
"This place… it's the place I lived, before I was kidnapped by humans."
Rachel's POV
I sighed with defeat, now aware that Shadow was nowhere in town. Hopefully Zeke found him, and was waiting for me at the Challenge rock. If he was, I knew I couldn't just leave him waiting there, so I quickly started to charge towards Pinwheel Forest. Instead of going on the normal path, I marched towards a fence, running alongside some train tracks. I charged straight towards the fence, and then jumped over it as if it was a hurdle. One of my hind paws hit the edge of fence in the middle of the jump, but I made it to the other side. I was now by those familiar train tracks I saw earlier today, saving myself a few minutes of running through the trees.
Next, I spotted a grouping of trees on my left. If I dashed straight through that, I would reach the stairs. Without a second thought, I already started to head through the pine trees, running swiftly. I could pick up a dull trail of when Zeke and I came through here, only for a second. A few minutes later, I reached the other side, my paws stained with snow and mud. To my left, I saw those manmade stairs covered with a light frost. My paws were already numb from trudging through this weather, and I still couldn't go inside a building or shelter yet. I couldn't believe I was starting to miss that cramped rock shelter.
I dashed up the stairs quickly, soon arriving at the top. I quickly located the Challenge rock which was about twice my size. Neither Zeke nor Shadow was there. I sighed, frustrated.
"Great," I muttered sarcastically to myself. "Now I have the honor to wait out in this wretched weather, freezing my tail off." I pawed over to that Challenge Rock, and once I was right next to it, I touched a part of it that wasn't covered with snow. Even without the snow it still felt freezing. Moving my paw off of it, I saw that I left an uneven snowy paw print. Sighing again, I had no other choice but to stand and try to keep as much snow off of me as possible.
A few minutes later, all I could hear was the piercing wind. If there was some other noise anywhere in this area, it was canceled out by the wind. It was weird that after one and a half weeks of no action, suddenly I was now on a search-and-rescue mission.
The howling wind stopped for a moment. Now all that remained was a still silence. Every Pokémon in the area must have been in their burrows and dens snugly warm.
Then something interrupted the temporary silence. Murmurs. They were definitely from Pokémon, and they sounded familiar. I could identify one of the voices as Zeke, I think, but I couldn't figure out the other one. The faint talking was interrupted by the howling wind. I hurried and recalled my thoughts, seeing that it came from somewhere in the eastern direction. Wanting to just get out of this cold sooner, I just dashed toward where I assumed the chatting came from. It leads into the trees.
Once I entered the trees, I tried to listen for the sounds again. I thought I heard it a second time, but if it really was them, their voices were blocked by this stupid wind. Was I just hallucinating this? I hoped not.
Then the wind was taking a small intermission. Immediately I heard Zeke's voice again, and I discovered the other voice was Shadow's, for sure. It came a bit north from here, so I quickly started to run in that direction, still in the trees. The wind already came back, unfortunately. At least I was narrowing down their positions.
Running, I saw a hole in the ground. It was some Pokémon's burrow. I was going too fast to just stop, so I jumped over the burrow, skidding to a stop on the other side. I turned around and walked up to the burrow entrance. I stared down it, seeing absolute darkness. Almost as if I commanded it to happen, a light flashed on from inside the burrow. Cautiously, I started to crawl down the burrow, hearing the voices of those two snivy's. I nearly slipped and slid through the entrance, but I unsheathed my claws and clung on. I didn't want to barge in just in case Shadow and Zeke weren't the only ones in there. Slowly I inched my way down, and soon I was on a flat surface, still in the entrance tunnel. The light inside was coming from a lighter, and I noticed that the only ones there were Shadow and Zeke. Although, who's burrow was this?
Shadow started to turn around to face Zeke. "This place… it's the place I lived, before I was kidnapped by humans," Shadow revealed. Oh wow, I sensed a story coming on.
Zeke looked stunned, unable to speak. Shadow didn't seem to notice and was about to start to talk again. "I'm guessing my parents moved to another burrow for the winter and spring, to hide from snow and flash floods. Either that or they abandoned this place."
Zeke pointed at the lighter. "Where did they get that lighter?" he asked.
Shadow didn't answer right away. It looked as if he was trying to remember it. Well I remember he said he's only been here a few weeks after he was born before he was trapped by the humans. "Well, I don't really know. Maybe they just found it somewhere in the forest. My parents didn't tell me many things. They mostly just zoned me out, calling me 'that snivy'. They didn't like me, at all. I sometimes wish that they were the kind of parents that would love you no matter what, but unfortunately they weren't." The light then flickered off after he finished. Then it slowly lit up again, flickering off a few times before it stayed.
"Sorry, I got a hand cramp," Shadow apologized. "Well anyways, I remembered that I was abandoned during a cold time. There wasn't any snow in this area, but I knew it was somewhere in December. I although didn't know what date it was, still being very young. Zeke, the reason I wanted to stay here until Christmas is because I convinced myself that I was abandoned on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure if I was or not, but I'm just rolling with it. I remember seeing colorful lights and a big tree hanged in the town square. I want to be able to stay here, at least till Christmas, because I want to know that I've been in my old home for at least one holiday. I don't know why man, I just don't know why I want to do this, but some reason ever since we've arrived here, I just wanted to stay here. Do you understand?"
Wow, this explained a lot. Like why Shadow knew this place so well, and how he was acting so strangely. Maybe we could stay till Christmas, just to get this off his conscious. After all, he let me tag along with their group.
"Whoa, Shadow, of course, if this is something you really want," Zeke said. "The only problem is that we have to convince Rachel as well, and you know how bossy she can get."
…
"Heh, yeah, I agree. Rachel nearly took over the whole trip once she joined," Shadow agreed.
…Really?
"Ahem," I interrupted, jumping out of the entrance to reveal myself. Zeke and Shadow looked startled once they saw me.
"Uh… Rachel? How long have you've been watching?" Zeke asked, sweat dropping.
"Ever since Shadow said that this was where he used to live," I replied, grinding my teeth together.
Shadow gulped. "So… heh, you just heard what we just said?" I just gave a solemn nod. Shadow and Zeke looked really nervous, and then they started to laugh. I tried my best, but I felt like laughing a bit as well. I couldn't help it and started to laugh and snickers like them. I tried to muffle my laughs with my paws, but it barely did anything.
Less than half a minute later, I was able to get my head together. Shadow and Zeke were still laughing; Shadow barely able to keep his finger on the lighter. If we were going to stay here, we needed a better source of light. Looking around the area, I saw some old straw beds and a rotten berry pile. There was nothing else, except if there was something not lit by the lighter. There were some shadows in the area, mostly in some faraway corners. Curiously, I stalked my way over to one of the corners, feeling around with my paws. In one corner I felt something with an irregular shape, very cold. I picked it up delicately by my muzzle, and then went back over to Shadow to see it in the light.
Seeing it in the dim light, it was just a piece of broken glass. A little disappointed, I let it fall to the floor. Well, if there was glass in a burrow, which seemed a bit unusual, there had to be something that it could've broken off of. Maybe somewhere else in the shadows was a broken lantern.
Looking closer at the glass, it seemed to have an interesting design, not being see-through. It had lines permanently sketched on it with varies of colors. It looked as if it belonged to a vase maybe. Oh man, Shadow's parents were some of those rare snobby Pokémon that are obsessed with human items. Just… strange.
I went back into the shadows. Looking over my shoulders, Shadow and Zeke were staring at me, wondering what I was doing. I shrugged it off, moving my paws around in the darkness. Around that same corner, I felt more pieces of the glass from what I assumed were a vase. I edged my way through the shadows before Shadow interrupted the awkward silence. "Um, Rachel? What are you doing?" he asked.
"Looking for something to… Ow!" I accidently stepped on a sharp piece of glass. It didn't get stuck in my paw pad, but it did hurt. It didn't seem to break skin. I continued to move around in the darkness looking like some sort of blind person.
"Rachel, I can see things in the dark. Do you. want me to tell you what's over there or are you going to keep scrounging around?" Shadow asked. I stopped moving, realizing that this was all in vain. I groaned, frustrated, then trudged out of the darkness.
"So, what do you see?"
"Well, a lot of broken glass from something, a few squished berries, and I think…" Shadow started to squint. "…a candle," he finished. Oh wow, perfect! At that point Shadow got another hand cramp and the area went pitch black. The light didn't flicker on till about ten seconds later, soon lighting up the small area of the room. Then I noticed that Shadow had the candle he was talking about in his hand. He probably fetched it while it was still dark. Shadow then used the small ember from the lighter and spread it onto the candle. The candle looked a bit worn out, but it didn't appear used, luckily. Shadow flipped the lid on the lighter and dropped it to the ground. He held the lit candle in his other hand.
"Phew, that feels better," Shadow sighed, stretching out his cramp hand. Zeke was starting to look at the straw beds while holding that stone of his. There were only two straw beds.
"Hey Shadow, this must be your parents old beds!" Zeke exclaimed. Shadow ignored him, done with talking about his parents. He then looked over in my direction.
"So… Rachel, since you heard about what I said earlier, can… can we stay till the end of Christmas?" Shadow asked, stuttering a bit. This was amazing. I never thought I would see Shadow in such a soft state, and now he was pleading for something from me.
"…Of course," I replied, nearly in a whisper. A faint smile appeared on Shadow's face. Smiling was a rare thing when it came to Shadow, which made it a bit worth it. Then a thought came to mind, how were we going to get food? For the last week and a half, we have been going to that café, but now it would take a lot of effort to go there at least twice a day from here. "So Shadow, is there any food close by?" I asked.
Shadow appeared to be thinking. I doubt there would be any berries still intact from this onslaught of snow, but if there was, it would be a miracle. "…Yes, but I don't think that it survived this snow," Shadow finally replied. "It's in a bush right outside the burrow, a few feet east."
I was going to go check, just in case, but Zeke beat me to the entrance. "I'll do it!" Zeke screamed as he crawled through the entrance. Soon he was gone, leaving me and Shadow alone. Shadow edged towards me.
"Rachel, I know you've sworn to me that you'd won't tell me the answer to this till we actually reach wherever you're trying to go, but can you please tell us where you're trying to go and why?" he questioned. Ugh, for the last time, I wasn't going to do this. I mean the reason is completely top secret till we reach the place… but maybe I can just tell them where it was. Maybe I'll just tell him the city.
"I'll tell you where it is, but you can't start talking about it with Zeke, and you can't bring it up once Zeke gets back, got it?" I growled. Shadow nodded in agreement.
"It's in… Nimbasa City," I mumbled, looking down at my paws. Shadow didn't say anything right away.
"Nimbasa City, you mean that place with all the entertainment places for humans?" Shadow asked, wanting to confirm what I was talking about. I gave a solemn nod. "Really, well that's not a good place for a wild Pokémon," he pointed out. "Why would you want to go there?" I wanted to shrink down and make myself as small as possible. Technically, Cilan had released me from his Poké ball and so I was a wild Pokémon, but actually… I still had a master. If Shadow found out my secret before we reach Nimbasa, who knows what regretful stuff he'd do. I couldn't tell him till we reach the city, where I'd leave them. If he found out the rest of the secret, I was so doomed.
"I said I wasn't going to tell you," I barked. Shadow opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly shut it. He decided to leave the topic behind. A few seconds after the awkward silence, Zeke barged in the room, slipping down the burrow entrance and then falling into the room. He landed on his back, protecting that stone of his in a secured grip.
"Anything?" Shadow questioned. Zeke just shook his head. We all sighed in frustration.
I then perked up, a sudden burst of energy reaching me. "Come on guys, this isn't the time for doubt. We can just get some extra food from that café place, and store any extras here. Also any scraps we find can be good food!" I exclaimed. The two snivy's started to perk up a bit, but not that much. "Guys, come on, I'm a master scrounger. I can always find a tray with uneaten food or a Styrofoam box containing leftovers!" I continued.
"Scrounger, what's a scrounger?" Zeke asked.
"It means finding things and keeping them for free, also known as stealing," growled Shadow.
I got close to Shadow and got my muzzle inches away from his. I snarled, showing my dagger-like teeth. "I don't steal Shadow!" I yelled. "I mean I scrounge around for things dropped by humans. Some people call it stealing, but since they throw it away, it's technically not theirs anymore."
Zeke blinked with surprise. "Throw away, do you mean you find things in the trash?!" the little snivy screamed.
"Hey, another man's trash is another man's treasure," I quoted. "Wild Pokémon do it all the time, and I usually did it whenever my master gave me crappy junk as food."
"You mean Cilan?" Shadow asked. I started to rub the back of my neck nervously.
"Um… yeah, sometimes he just gives me… leftovers from other people's food. Usually it is just really sucky food," I quickly covered up.
Shadow and Zeke seemed to buy it. "Gross, I would've gone for the people food! It's certainly better than eating out of the trash!" Zeke exclaimed, gagging.
I headed toward the burrow entrance. Now that I had a closer look, I was surprised that I could fit through the small tunnel. It looked too small for me to go through, but I guess I managed to squeeze through. "Come on guys, are we going to go find something to eat!" I yelled. Before Zeke would push me out of the way, I climbed into the burrow tunnel and crawled my way up, soon popping up at the top. I jumped out before one of those snivy's could tackle into me.
Soon prancing out in the snow piles, I realized the one thing that I regretted. I forgot to get the snow out of my scarf and I realized how numb my neck really was.
*A few days later, the morning after Christmas*
I woke up from a rigid wind that blew through the burrow entrance. Slowly I woke up in a daze, and then stretched a bit before I started to groom my fur. The fur on my face needed special grooming every day or else it would turn into a tangled mess. Looking around, I noticed that I made the mistake of sleeping right by the entrance, realizing how the wind had waked me up from inside this burrow. Shadow and Zeke were still asleep, Shadow wearing that torn up Christmas hat we found in the trash the other day. Zeke was cuddling with that sphere rock of his. Seriously, I didn't see why Zeke liked that stone so much, he was obsessed.
That was when realization hit me. It was morning, the day after Christmas. Shadow said we could leave now, and we'd lost enough time already. If we weren't so sidetracked by this, I would probably be in Nimbasa City by now. I ran over to Shadow and then slapped him really hard on the face, my claws unsheathed. Shadow nearly jumped up and straight into the ceiling from the impact. He also had a small bloody scratch from my claws. Oh, looks like I was too much in a rush to notice that my paws were unsheathed. Unsheathed claws help with traction on icy surfaces.
"Rachel, I'm bleeding!" Shadow screamed, waking up Zeke. Zeke may have heard the screams, but he curled up into a tighter ball and tried to go back to sleep.
"Oops, looks like I got carried away, but forget about that, we need to get through this forest now before this weather gets worst!" Before Shadow could respond, I ran up to Zeke and smacked his back with my paw, making sure my claws were sheathed before I hit him. Zeke started to whine, about to ask 'what was that for' but I already ran towards the tunnel. "Now hurry up, we need to get moving!" I didn't bother to look over my shoulders, knowing that they had to follow me.
About ten minutes later, we were back on the main path. The path lead into a different section of Pinwheel Forest, making me sure we were on the right track towards our next destination, Castelia City. Soon we would arrive at that bridge that lead over to that city, and we would be that much close to our destinations. Well, at least I learned something from this whole Christmas experience.
I was never going to let Shadow take charge for the rest of the time I'm with him.