Part 6

There was not much talking during the walk, and it kind of got on my nerves. He must not be much of a talker. Although I did get a little enjoyment out of just looking at his magnificent Charizard. You don't see those everyday. Of course I had Scylla. She wasn't a pokemon you saw everyday either. But still, I got bored easily. And then he broke the silence.

"So tell me, Ane." he said. "What are your likes and dislikes?"

"What do my likes and dislikes have to do with anything?"

"Well, if we are going to be traveling with each other, we might as well get to know one another, don't you think?" He did that silly smirk of his, and I sighed.

"I like pokemon. I hate talking about myself. Especially to guys…"

"Ooooh, so I guess I'm out of luck, huh?" he joked.

"You never had a chance to begin with." I replied.

"Ouch. Harsh." He said mock wincing.

"humph." I shrugged, turning my head to the side.

"Oh please. That's not good enough. You can do a lot better than that." he pressed.

"No." I said.

"Why do you have to be so stubborn?" he sighed as he rolled his eyes.

"Why do you have to be so persistent?" I glowered lightly. He stifled a laugh and I smiled. He nudged me lightly slightly on the side with his body.

"Lighten up a little." he said grinning.

"Why would I open up to a complete stranger?" I said. "I don't know a thing about you."

But he just laughed. "I'm an open book," he said. "You're the mysterious one."

"Right…"

"Doom and gloom." he said.

"What?"

"Doom and gloom. It's what you are. Don't you ever have fun?"

"Sure I do." I said.

"Oh yeah? What kind of fun?"

I thought about this for a while and found that I couldn't come up with many answers. It's true I didn't allow myself for much fun. Lately all me, Scylla and Thorn did was train, train again, and then train some more. Sometimes training did get fun, but… he was right. Even I had to admit that.

"That's what I thought." he said, grinning.

As we continued walking on the path, just then, there was a large clearing behind the trees from which we were about to pass. Behind these trees lay a pasture, and in this pasture, a lake; it sparkled as the sunlight hit it from above. It was still only midday. Just next to the lake was a giant oak tree and it flowed downhill to the shoreline. There was an old, long dock jutting out onto the sunstruck, glassy surface of the lake. I looked at Thunder and he flashed me a grin.

"You up for a swim?" He said, and yelled a goofy challenge about rotten eggs and sprinted towards the lake.

I instinctively took off behind him. I heard Thorn cry out after me to wait for him, but I was filled with a sudden rush of excitement, I could not stop. I raced down the grassy pasture and then a few yards of old, worn out dock, and when I got to the end of it, I flipped into the water. Just do it, right?

I smacked head first into the lake. A beautiful dive if I do say so myself. I came back up and saw that Thunder was grinning with self satisfaction in the middle of the lake.

"So who's a rotten egg, you rotten egg!"

"You had a head start," I called. "And you could have let me win."

He shrugged. "Winning is overrated."

"Wow this is great." I murmured.

"You bet!" he called.

The temperature of the water was just about perfect, and the sun was warm on my face and shoulders. At that same second, Scylla dove directly from above us into the lake making a magnificent splash going what seemed like a mile into the sky. I looked behind me and saw Charizard slowly lying down behind gigantic oak tree that was big enough to hid just about anything. Houndour was looking like he was up to something as he looked around him over and over again. Thorn was now testing the water way back at the dock and grumbling something under his breath. Magboy the Magby, walking slowly behind him, had a funny grin on his face. He lifted a foot and knocked Thorn over into the lake. He shrieked and for a second, he seemed to struggle to keep a float and I thought I had to go save him until he got the hang of it and soon joined us splashing about the water. Scylla resurfaced from the water and sprayed water on my face.

"Hey!" I called splashing water on her massive self.

"You should come down here, Master. It's wonderful!" She said.

Before I could say anything, she dove under again. Taking a deep breath, I dove under also and followed. Thorn, Thunder, and everyone else stayed on the surface. Under the water was mesmerizing. The lake was crystal blue, untouched by human presence. The light from above penetrated the water far under, and reached the bottom. You could see everything. It was breath taking, and I gasped in my mind at the beauty but kept in mind not to actually breathe in. Many water pokemon could be found under here, but mostly just Kanto pokemon. I missed Johto very much. The familiar roads, pokemon…everything! Every now and then I would resurface, take a breath, and go back down. Scylla could go on for a long time without taking a breath, and I envied her. We searched fields of huge tangled seaweed, the coral structures that went about the bottom of the lake, the caves in which lingered other water species and other things. Herds of Goldeens and Magicarps circled around, waving their hellos and goodbyes with their fins. After a good while, we went back up to the surface to find that everyone had gotten out, and decided to get out as well.

Gabite was looking at a now sleeping charzard curiously, and Scylla circled the skies around us as we laid under the shadow of the tree. Magboy sat close to Iggy with a look in his eyes that was strange to me, just as quiet as he was, but…where was that Houndour from before?

"Master Ignis, where's Hunter?" said Magboy standing up. By hunter I guessed he was talking about the houdour.

"Eh, I dunno," iggy just lay there, "he's probably just roaming around somewhere, maybe chasing around some other pokemon or getting in some extra training. You know how he loves doing stuff like that."

"Hmm…" Magboy lay back down next to him and curled up.

"C'mon Ane, let's go." he said to me as he started off away from Celadon and I, confused as a lost child, headed off after him.