Despite the fact that I was scared thirty minutes ago, I was no longer fearing the desert. It was actually in a word pretty. The dunes of sand and the light coming from Mauville City made for an awesome sight. There were also small odd shaped boulders sitting out of the ground that had odd looking pores towards one end of the rock. Oliver continued to snooze in my backpack, while I did all the work.

I was somewhat wondering why more people weren't out here. It was nice and cool and the darkness wasn't the kind of darkness under your bed that hides a monster. It was kind of a soothing darkness that seemed somewhat inviting. I could actually see the moon and hundreds of twinkling stars in the night sky. I was used to the heat and thick smog that Lavaridge Town packed into its small, little community. I was even considering lying down and taking a nap. That is until I heard light footsteps in the sand behind me.

I turned around, but I didn't see anything except a small orange stone sticking out of the ground, but I've seen those rocks before, so it was nothing to worry about. But just to be safe I pulled Oliver out of my backpack into my arms. He opened his eyes slowly looking at me, and did what I guess was a yawn. Even though Oliver wasn't much of a fighter, it still comforted me to know I had a Pokemon awake just in case. "Oliver you don't mind staying awake, do you?" He let out one of his little, birdie sighs in response. "Hey bud, don't give me that. I've been carrying you around for the majority of the day, and I'm going to be carrying you now, so the least you can do it stay awake." The little bird just ruffled his feathers in what I guess was a bird pout.

After an hour passed, I stopped to take a rest, but when I stopped, I heard the light footsteps again. I turned around and saw another one of those small orange rocks sitting in the sand. The only problem was that I hadn't passed one of those rocks in about forty minutes. So only there was only one reasonable explanation. The rock was following me.

I started walking again, but listened hard to the surrounding sounds. There they were. The footsteps had returned, but I was gonna catch the whatever-it-was in the act. I turned around abruptly. I caught the thing off guard, and it opened its mouth in surprise. I stared down the largest mouth I have ever seen complete with a full set of razor sharp teeth. The other odd thing was that the odd creature was way below my waist, yet possessed a head and a set of teeth, that Tyranitar couldn't even boast about. What happened next was surprising, appalling, and just my kind of bad luck.

The little, orange beast lunged, well at least tried to lunge, and somehow latched with its powerful jaws to my left shoe. I started to move, but the sudden movement caused it to bite even harder into my shoe, and it was now starting to break through the fabric of my shoes. I tried my best not to scream in terror, but my best wasn't good enough.

I let out a scream that I swear the residents of Mauville could have probably heard. What happened next not only scared me, but it also seemed to scare Oliver, and the wild beast. The cacti came along.

They moved slowly across the desert, but it seemed the second I screamed, every cactus in the desert came alive, and they were all headed in my direction. Apparently for the desert attaching an evil, walking bear trap on my shoe wasn't good enough. It also had to send out monster cacti after me, too. I was starting to think that Lucas might've said, "Don't go at night." That would've made more sense. So I did what most people would do. I ran.

Or at least I tried to. The little monster on my foot was pretty heavy for an ankle weight, and every time I moved, it tightened its grip even more on my foot. Oh Arceus what have I done to deserve this?

There was only one thing left to do. I immediately started flailing my leg in the air, which was pretty hard to do, thanks to the creature's weight, but I was hoping its weight would be its downfall. Eventually my shoe loosened and the weight of the orange fiend dragged it off my foot. As soon as my shoe was off, I tightened my grip on Oliver and got ready to run like the wind.

Unfortunately, standing directly in front of me was one of the cacti. It leveled its arms at me and let loose a barrage of white needle-like attacks. Immediately, I dropped to the ground narrowly dodging the sharp attacks. I looked behind me to see that the monster aspiring to be an ankle weight had long since hightailed it out of danger's way, so it left only this evil scarecrow looking cactus with Oliver and I.

Oliver squirmed his way out of my arms and took in a deep breath of air. I thought he was getting ready to attempt to leave me and take off into who knows where, but instead he unleashed little orbs of fire straight at the cactus creature. It was too slow to dodge the attack so it took it full force straight in the face. It brought its arms to its face to try and quell the burning, but I think the rubbing only made it worse, probably because of all the needles sticking out of its arms. With this fresh opportunity, I grabbed Oliver and started to book it out of there.

I heard a sound from behind me that sounded like something was forcing its way through the sand, but I was too busy running to really give a care. I passed several other of the demonic cacti while running, but there slow movements didn't really help them catch me. I ran and I ran. Mauville's lights were getting closer and close. This nightmare was about to end, it would only be a few—

Just then the orange bobble head looking demon jumped from behind me, latching onto my right shoe. I looked around me; it seemed that my view was cactus free for now. Now I had to deal with the beastie on the heel of my shoe trying to make a snack out of my feet.

It gnawed and started to dig deeper into my shoe. I lifted my foot and started shaking it hoping that my shoe would fall off again, but this time the brute bit with quite some force breaking all the way through the fabric of my shoe and digging into my skin with its bare teeth. Oliver was now shaking with intense fright in my arms, burrowing himself deep into my chest as if to get away from the current scene. There was only one thing to do. Fight back.

I somewhat gently tossed Oliver to the side then grabbed the flashlight from backpack and used all my strength to bring my foot up to a horizontal level. I then proceeded to try and hit the thing with my flashlight. The little devil just let go of my foot and I ended up hitting my already bleeding foot. I quickly glanced to behind, and Mauville was so close yet so far. I then turned my attention back towards the rogue Pokemon. It had turned its attention to Oliver and had its mouth wide open. This thing was about to try and make chicken strips out of my Torchic. That was not acceptable.

I tried to kick the thing, with my left foot of course, but that was the worst thing anyone could've done. It had a pretty hard shell, and hard shell on soft foot did little to the monster and a lot to me. Now both of my feet were in pain, and it had now diverted its attention back to me. This time with no shoes on my feet and cuts and bruises already on my feet that thing would surely break my foot easily. It opened its mouth preparing to lunge. Just then bright bolts of fire hit it knocking it to the side, and somewhat confusing it.

Oliver's beak was dripping with flames from the attack it used earlier to stop the cactus, and now it was just used to save my foot. Now with this we could finally get somewhere. I dug into my backpack and pulled out an umbrella this time. Things were actually starting to go right. I extended the umbrella to its full length without opening the actual umbrella part. Who said a Pokemon couldn't double battle with its trainer.

The thing's body started glowing light blue, and I could feel the sand underneath us moving. The sand started climbing up my body. I tried moving, but whenever I did the sand would just tighten on me and start spreading up my body even faster. Another Fire attack was launched from Oliver at the creature. This caused it to lose its focus and the sand around me loosened allowing me to get out. I then brought my umbrella down on our assaulter's head. Oh if PETP saw what I did today, they would have a fit.

Oliver unleashed another wave of fire towards the desert demon, but this time it just dug underground. This was our chance. This was our chance for freedom. In a flash, I dropped my umbrella and I picked up Oliver and started sprinting again. The pain in my feet were getting worse with each step I took, but the adrenaline rushing throughout my body permitted me to keep going despite the intense pain. Before I could make it out of the desert though, the big mouthed terror resurfaced right in front of the scenery change between the desert and the route leading to Mauville City. This thing really wanted us dead.

Oliver released his Fire attack once again. I could feel the warmth in his body as he shot the small fire orbs toward the burrowing menace. The heat was actually invigorating, but the orange creature didn't think so as it was burned on the left side of its back. I placed Oliver down again, and this time the fight between us and that, that monster, would be for keeps. The only long object I had with me was my belt and it would have to do for now. I took my belt off and whipped it around as if I was some experienced Pokemon tamer, like the ones I've seen on TV. The thing looked at me, which left it wide open for an attack from Oliver as my little Torchic managed to land another fiery hit on it. It then turned its head back to him, which I responded to with a lash of my belt. There was no way he could handle both of us.

Well that's what I thought until he vanished into thin air. I then felt a sharp pain in my right ankle. The thing had somehow moved behind me and was now biting hard into my ankle. Thankfully it couldn't get good enough positioning, or else it would've snapped right through my leg. Oliver moved surprisingly quick and started scratching its underside, which seemed to be very effective, because with each scratch, his grip weakened. Eventually he let go and he turned to face Oliver. He opened his mouth wide open and a ball of pure light started to form in his mouth. Whatever it was, I didn't like it.

Then Oliver did something unexpected. He opened his beak and released a full barrage of the fiery cinders into the walking torture device's mouth causing the small light ball to explode. This time it was the creature's turn to howl in pain, or more so make a clicking noise in pain.

This may have been a cheap shot, but I started to lash out on the biting animal hoping it would either run away or faint, but of course neither of the two happened. It more so got really pissed. This time its body grew a brilliant blue and the sand underneath me nearly engulfed me instantly. It was creeping up my face and would soon cover my mouth and nose making it impossible for me to breath. Oliver let loose a barrage of small burning attacks, but they didn't even faze the little cretin. It seemed to be fixed on killing me before the night was over.

"Oliver, do something!" I was yelling and frantic! I couldn't help but scream and freak out! I didn't care if it attracted those demon cactuses or whatever else lived in this cursed desert. Just then Oliver's eyes started to glow a demonic red. The look on his face changed from a helpless look to a sadistic smile. He released an immense amount of fire at the creature that engulfed its whole body. This was all too confusing. What was wrong with Oliver?

The sand around my body started to fall away and I was free once again. I watched as the wall of fire where the horrible monster once stood swayed around. Just then it sped out of the flames hitting Oliver directly. Oliver flew and skidded to a stop unconscious. It was just me and the desert demon.

It glared at me and tried walking towards me, but ultimately failed. It had used most of its energy fighting me and Oliver at the same time, and then finally enduring Oliver's powerful Fire type attack and lashing back with that attack. Its body then started glowing blue, and the familiar feel of cold sand climbing up my body returned, but this time it was much slower. There was only one last hope. I reached back into my backpack pulling out the Ultra Ball that my sister had given to me. Ultra Balls have tripled the catch rate of a normal Pokeball according to my dad. I would need all the help for this. I tossed the yellow and black ball right at the monster. It saw it coming. I don't know if it didn't have enough energy to move out of the way, or just thought that this night was too fun and it wanted plenty of nights like it in the future. Whatever the reason it didn't matter because the ball hit him right in the face and engulfed him completely.

The ball wobbled weakly. Once. Twice. Thrice. It then stopped wobbling and a little bing sound could be heard. I claim you as mine Demon of the Desert. I then picked up the Ultra Ball and then returned my knocked out Oliver to his own Pokeball. With all of that done, I started limping towards Mauville City.