Sorry about the wait. I had a nasty three-week+ writer's block.
If there are any mistakes I'd like to know.
The next morning Yellow smiled cheerfully. "Good morning. You look tired."
"You got hyper from the Flower. Could you do what I asked you, read the minds of the Pokemon? You did it last night but passed out afterwards."
Yellow stared at him, puzzled. "I don't remember anything from last night."
Great. At least the rain had stopped. Lance got up. "Let's go while we still can."
"Aren't you tired?"
"I'm not going to collapse from exhaustion and I can think clearly." He set Yellow's hat on her head. "If anyone asks you're a boy and your name is Kiiroko.*"
"….How tired are you?"
"I'm not." He took a few steps and stumbled a bit.
"Are you sure?"
"I'm fine, Kiiroko." He nearly tripped over a rock.
"Lance, just rest for an hour or two, alright?"
Lance shook his head. "Not while Team Rocket is after the Viridian Forest Guardian and have my Pokemon." He frowned. "Stop moving. All of you."
"Okay you need to rest." Yellow sent out her Butterfree. "I'll find out where we are and how much further we have to go while you do."
"You can do that while we go there."
Yellow tapped her Butterfree and nodded. The butterfly fluttered up to Lance and began flapping its wings quicker, spreading a fine silvery dust. Lance leaned against a wall for support and gave Yellow and irritated look before sliding down, falling asleep.
When Lance woke again he was outside in the shade of several trees not too far away from the cave. His cape was lying over him like a blanket. Chuchu sat nearby, still holding Shinx's Pokeball.
"Where is Yellow?"
Chuchu towards more trees with her tail.
"How long have I been out?"
Chuchu set her tail to her chin, her ears twitching. With her tail she drew four lines.
Lance sighed. He lost four more hours…. Chuchu drew two more lines. Six….
Because they lost so much time maybe he should just- he reached for Aerodactyl's Pokeball, finding it missing, along with the others… again. He'd done the same thing the night and afternoon the day before. He sat up, leaning against the tree. He watched as some baby Wooper and Poliwag played in a puddle. It was so strange how Pokemon that young found amusement in just about anything, where the more adult Pokemon would prefer faster moving water, like how the river was. One thing about Pokemon that spent a lot of time or lived in water was that they usually had more laidback thoughts, compared to the frantic thoughts of Pokemon that lived on land. As he watched the Pokemon he was quickly reminded that he wouldn't be able to sense their thoughts, something he would have liked.
He looked over at Chuchu, his eyes widening. The Pokemon had drawn many more lines and was running out of room, looking really confused and spinning around, trying to find more space. She collapsed, her eyes spinning. She still held Shinx's Pokeball. The Pokeball rocked and Shinx let itself out. It stared at the lines around it, at Chuchu, and shook its head. It glared at Lance before it trotted by another tree, curled up, and fell asleep.
With both Electric-types unresponsive, it grew increasingly lonely. Because Lance didn't usually visit this part of the Forest, the wild Pokemon avoided him, watching him from a distance until he looked at them, sending them running away.
What was happening to his Pokemon? They were probably worried about him. They did, after all, think it was their job to take care of him, especially Horsea and the female Dragonair. They'd always been there for him, and…right now…. He couldn't be there for them. Lance closed his eyes, calming his breathing. There were Water-types nearby, he could just- Nothingness came when he tried sensing the Pokemons' thoughts. He curled up on the ground, screaming "why?!" over and over.
He flinched when something touched his arm. He opened his eyes, seeing Chuchu. The Pikachu looked concerned and started to lick his face, gently patting his arm with one paw. Lance scratched the Pokemon behind the ears.
Yellow ran over, looking freaked out. "What's wrong?!"
"Nothing. Bad dream." He sat up.
Yellow looked around. "What happened?" All around her were little lines.
"Your Pikachu was counting."
Yellow gave a confused nod. "Just before we left I was teaching Chuchu how to count." Chuchu nodded.
"How long was I sleeping?"
"Maybe three or four hours. The Pokemon said that the laboratory is across and down the river a ways. It should take only a day and a half to get there."
"Good." Lance stood up. He hid the exhaustion from whatever he had just gone through.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Lance nodded. "It's happened before."
"Okay…" Yellow noticed Shinx. "Are you going to release it?"
"I only caught him so he wouldn't cause more trouble and to calm him down." He picked up the Pokeball that Chuchu had dropped. Shinx glared at him, and sung its tail to use Swift to cut his hand. It ran, caught the dropped Pokeball and ran towards the river, jumping from stone to stone across it. It leaped onto a passing tree branch then onto a larger stone, only to find there was nowhere else to jump and it was surrounded by rushing water. It looked around and saw another rock that was the closest. If it could just make that jump… It ignored Yellow's shouts for it to stay, leaped, and missed.
I'm not sure when the next chapter will be updated. I keep getting writer's block.
*Kiiroko roughly means "Little Yellow". Kiiro means yellow, and "ko" has meanings such as "little", "small", and "child."
One example some of you might recognize is Nyanko, which means "Little Meow." (Although he's nothing like Yellow….)