Hey look, a new chapter!
Sorry for the wait, like probably half-a-year wait, but here it is. Finally! I tend not to write when I have a creative block or it affects the flow of the story, which explains why this one took so long. Although, I wrote other fanfics and you may try to argue that I didn't have a block on those, I had a major block concerning which direction I wanted this specific story to go in. I hope you enjoy!
Also, shout out to RennyBanette for favoriting/following this story. You've helped me regain my inspiration and motivation for writing more chapters!
I still DO NOT and will never own Pokemon.
Ursaring, Teddiursa, Brock, Dawn, Ash, Paul, Pikachu and Piplup, finally all together now, walk the path to hopefully find their way back to camp.
Dawn sighed heavily, "How long have we been walking?"
"Not too long, Dawn." Brock told her. "I'm not entirely sure, but maybe around 30 minutes?"
"That must mean it's at least twelve or one thirty..." She allowed her shoulders to droop.
"Piplup..." Piplup wanted her to cheer up. He didn't like to see Dawn sad.
Brock lifted Piplup from his shoulders, only with one hand because he was still holding Teddiursa, and handed him to Dawn. "Nothing like the comfort of a Pokemon, right?"
"Piplup pip!" He jumped into her arms and hugged her tight.
"Aww~." She pulled him closer. "Thanks, Piplup. Thank you, too, Brock."
"Mhm." He smiled.
Ursaring stopped briefly to sniff the air then continued down a path leading to the right. When they reached the end there was a fence that read "No Trespassing" with footsteps leading behind it.
Dawn looked around. "Now where do we go?"
Ursaring sniffed the ground and began walking to the left. She had found Paul's scent and followed it until they met a small campsite at which they found Paul's bag, tent, and pokeballs.
Pikachu jumped down and began to look around. "Pi-ka pika..." There was a fire that looked like it had been burning for quite some time. "Chu?"
"This has to be Paul's camp... I haven't seen any other trainers around." Brock picked up Paul's backpack. "Let's take his stuff with us."
"Okay, I'll get the tent." Dawn let Piplup down from her arms and proceeded to take down it down. "Wow, this is really nice! And cute, too."
"How can a tent be cute...?" Brock asked, packing up the pokeballs. "It looks just like any other tent to me."
"It's so small, though. That's what makes it so cute~" Dawn then sighed. "But, I have to take it down now."
"We'll put it back up later, Dawn." Brock walked over to her. "Paul has to have somewhere to sleep when we get back to our camp."
"Mhm," She nodded. "I think he'll appreciate it." Dawn started off by taking a peg out of the ground. She thought it was strange since tents usually have multiple pegs to hammer into the ground. She gave it a light tug, but the rope attached to it retracted back and, in one swift motion, the tent folded itself into a cube a slightly smaller than Pikachu and Piplup. "Wow, that didn't take long at all."
"Maybe we should get one?" Brock chuckled. "Now, let's get going!" He said, as Pikachu got back into its original position on his head.
"Piplup, could you put out the fire please?" Dawn asked.
"Lup!" Piplup nodded, saluting to her. He then turned around and attacked the fire with a very weak bubble beam until it died down.
"Thanks Piplup." Dawn smiled.
"Come on you two!" Brock said, as he began walking. "We don't want to keep Ash and Paul out here for too long."
Piplup ran after him. Dawn had also begun to walk, but stopped. Her foot hit something and she looked around to figure out what it it was. Her eyes fell upon a small toy that looked, to her, like some kind of teddy bear. "Oh, what's this doing here?" She asked herself. Dawn picked up the bear and maneuvered her arm to flip it over. In the dim patch of moonlight that glew through the trees she strained her eyes to see the tag. The faded letters read "PAUL" in pink, or maybe magenta? Dawn also notice a strange code on the other side that read "TDRSA DOLL." "Hmm..," she said, "but what does it mean?"
"Come on, Dawn!" Brock called quietly. "Let's get going!"
"Oh-coming!" She hurried to catch up with the rest of the group, hiding the doll behind the tent she held.
"What took you so long?" he asked.
"Nothing," She stopped in front of Brock, " I was just making sure I didn't forget anything." Dawn looked up at him, "Let's go."
And, with that, they began to walk back to camp.
Dawn, Brock, and Ursaring past by a few more traps in the forest on the way. "We have to report these things to officer Jenny as soon as we reach Hearthrome City." She frowned. "Pokemon poaching is just awful..."
"We will, and I'll make sure of it!" Brock exclaimed in serious but determined tone. Dawn suddenly gasped excitedly. "Woah, what's the matter!?"
"Look," she pointed ahead, nearly dropping the tent in her hands, "it's our camp!" She rushed to greet the worried pokemon they had left hours ago, accepting their hugs and snuggles. They were all happy to see that Ash had returned safely, and also surprised that Paul, an Ursaring, and a Teddiursa had come too. "It's a long story, I haven't even heard all of it yet."
Brock was greeted as well. Pikachu jumped down from his head and wave with a cheerful "Pi-kaaa!." The pokemon were all curious about the Teddiursa Brock held. "She's alright. She's just resting you guys." The pokemon all made sounds of understanding and began to help set up a place to take care of Ash and Paul.
First, they needed a place to rest. Buizel and Pachirisu laid out sleeping bags, but only one because they only found Ash's. "Where's Paul's sleeping bag?" Dawn asked them. "I wonder if it was left behind..." The two pokemon shrugged. They wouldn't know. They weren't there.
"Brock?" She turned around.
"Yeah, Dawn?" Brock looked up from his bag. He had let Teddiursa rest on his sleeping bag while he looked for something to cook. They hadn't had anything to eat at all since they had to leave to look for Ash. "Do you need help with something?" He asked, noticing the confused expression on her face.
She let her eyes scan the campsite. "Did Paul have a sleeping bag...?"
"...uh" Brock stopped rummaging to think. "I actually don't know... Did you see one at his campsite?"
"No."
"What about when you stopped to pick something up...?" He stood up. "What was that?"
"Nothing..." Dawn thought about the bear doll she saw. "Well, at first I thought it was something, but it turned out to be nothing."
"Oh." Brock shrugged and then continued to go through his backpack. "Wait..." He stopped. "Did you check his bag?"
"Oh yeah," her fist hit her palm, "that's right!" Dawn walked over to Paul's bag which Brock had placed Paul beside him on Ursaring's back. "Here it i-!"
Brock ran over and covered her mouth. "SSSHhh-! You might wake them up." Ash's hands twitched slightly, but he remained asleep and snored softly like Paul. Dawn and Brock released a sigh of relief. It would be difficult to get them back to sleep if they had woken up.
"Sorry." She whispered. "I'm going to finish setting up." Brock gave her a short nod saying 'okay' and walked back to continue to search his bag for food. Dawn neatly placed the sleeping bag next to Ash's and then set up Paul's tent. "There." She sighed, satisfied with her work. "Finished."
Piplup loved the tent. "Pip..." He walked around it, gazing in admiration with eyes full of wonder. "Pip-piplup!"
"Its pretty neat, huh?" Dawn smiled. "Isn't it cute?"
"Pip!" He agreed. "Pip-pip piplup!" Piplup wanted to play in it and ran toward the entrance.
"Oh-!" Dawn started, catching him before Piplup went inside. "Sorry Piplup, but this is Paul's tent, not ours."
"Pip..." He whined, wanting to go inside. He just wanted to have a look around.
"How about you play in mine?"
Piplup nodded. "Pip pip." Dawn put him down and watched as he scampered off to play in her bright orange tent. A few other pokemon followed to join him.
"Found one!" Brock said to himself. Dawn turned around to face him. "Look." He held up a can of soup. "I knew I had one!"
Dawn laughed. "Why did it take so long to find it?"
"Well,... I was saving it for myself..." , he mumbled, "and... I lost it..." Dawn burst into more laughter, then struggled to contain herself as she apologized when he began to walk off to start cooking.
"I'll lead Ursaring to the sleeping bags." Dawn said, sighing away the laughter and wiping a tear from her eye. She walked over to Ursaring to find that both boys were still as she left them. Ash made an attempt to roll over, but instead lifted his arm. His arm landed on Paul's chest and Paul simply frowned and pushed it away. He soon got comfortable again, letting his hand twitch. "Aww~!" Dawn exclaimed softly. "They're so tired. Okay, Ursaring, can you follow me to the sleeping bags?"
Ursaring stood up slowly, being very careful not to let the boys fall off. "Ring." She gave Dawn a short nod and they walked closer to the place that Dawn had set up for them. When they had gotten close enough, Dawn said "Here's just fine," and they stopped.
Brock walked over after a few minutes thinking that they might have been waiting on him. "Sorry, I was tweaking the recipe a bit. I'll carry them to the sleeping bags. Could you go ahead and open them for me, Dawn?" Brock picked up Ash first and carried him over, while Dawn opened his sleeping bag. "Thanks Dawn." Brock put him down gently and took Paul's jacket off of him.
"You're welcome." Dawn threw the remaining half of sleeping bag over him and zipped it up partially. "There. Now for Paul."
"Yup." Brock gave Dawn the jacket and walked back to Ursaring to get him. Brock lifted Paul as carefully as he lifted Ash, if not, he was being even more careful; but, being even more careful wasn't careful enough. Paul had awoken to being carried bridal-style by Brock. Brock kept walking, "Hey there." He said looking down at a now wide awake Paul.
"What are you doing?" Paul blushed, he didn't like to be carried, and made an attempt to push away from him, "I can walk by myself!"
"Clearly." Brock said, making a gesture to his injured foot. He was unaffected by Paul's pushing.
Paul became angry at his remark. "Just put me down..." He said, folding his arms.
Brock scoffed, "Not until I reach your sleeping bag."
Paul sighed angrily, but then all of a sudden looked surprised. "My sleeping bag...?" He said to himself. Paul became angry once again. "You went into my bag!?"
"Well, you had to sleep somewhere." Brock shrugged.
"What's the problem?" Dawn looked up at them, she had just finished opening Paul's sleeping bag then stood up. "Are you alright?"
"No." Paul started. "Now stop touching my stuff y-!"
"He'll be fine." Brock cut in. He then place Paul down on his sleeping bag, laying a towel under his ankle so blood wouldn't seep into it. "There, you're down now." Paul rolled his eyes, his arms were still folded. "Now that we're at our campsite, I need to give you proper first-aid."
Paul glared at him in a hateful way. "..."
"No need to look like that." Brock laughed nervously, then smiled. "It'll be quick and easy, okay?"
"...?" Paul remained the same. He then turned to Ash and stared for a few moments before looking back. "Take care of him first."
Brock looked over at Ash and watched as his chest rose and fell with his labored breathing. Dawn also watched, Ash seemed to be sweating quite a lot due to his fever. Brock moved to the middle space between the sleeping bags and felt Ash's forehead. "Hmm... Ash's fever is very high... Dawn, can you get a wet cloth for Ash?"
"Sure thing!" Dawn ran over to her bag to get a cloth and asked Buizel to use water gun on it. Buizel made sure to weaken the water gun so it wouldn't hurt her. "Thanks Buizel." Dawn gave him a pat on the head.
"Bui Bui!" Buizel said, nuzzling her.
"Here it is Brock." Dawn went back to them, then knelt down and placed the cloth on Ash's forehead. "Do you have any kind of medicine to bring down his fever a little faster?"
Brock shook his head. "I checked already." he sighed. "Right now all I have is pokemon medicine."
"Well,... D-do you think he'll be okay?" Dawn turned to Ash. "I mean, he will be,... won't he?"
Brock laid a hand on her shoulder."He'll be just fine. This is Ash we're talking about. I'm sure a cold won't defeat the world's greatest pokemon master." He laughed.
"I guess you're right..." Dawn smiled. "I'll watch over him, though. Just to be sure."
"Okay, Dawn." Brock removed his hand. "Just to be sure."
She saluted him. "No need to worry!" Brock saluted back, then turned back to Paul. He looked completely disgusted.
"What...?" Brock asked, looking him over.
Paul scoffed and folded his arms."You two make me sick..."
"Oh...umm?" Brock looked to Dawn who shrugged, obviously just as confused as him about Paul's comment. He sighed, then faced Paul. "Well, will you let me take care of your injury now...?"
"...?" Paul only glared at him. It wasn't an evil, vicious glare, but it wasn't too kind either. Brock gave him a nervous smile. "Fine, whatever... Be careful."
"I will." Brock moved closer to Paul's injured foot and gently rolled up his pant leg. It had been soaked with blood. He saw Paul grimace at the sight through the corner of his eye. "The cut must be pretty deep to have bled that much..." he said quietly to himself. "Is it still very painful?" Brock asked, examining the cut. It had turned a shade of dark purple along the edges.
"Yeah..." Paul hesitated to look back after about a minute, but found that Brock hadn't even moved. 'What could he be looking at?' he thought, then began to panic a little.
Brock noticed that Paul had gone rigid and saw the worried look on his face. "Paul...?"
"...!" He was startled and brought from his train of thought.
"Heh,..." Brock laughed, "Sorry,... I was just checking to see what I'm up against." Paul let out a sigh of relief. "Did I really scare you?"
"...no" Paul lied. He voice shook a little as he spoke, almost as if he were shivering.
Brock stood. "Well, then. Let's start off by cleaning the wound, okay?" Paul nodded hesitantly, not sure if he was ready to endure the pain that would come of it. "Alright, I'll go get my first-aid kit." Brock walked across the camp to his bag leaving Dawn and Paul in awkward silence.
Paul closed his eyes and sighed, patiently waiting for him to come back.
Dawn leaned forward a little to see his face. "...Paul?"
"Hm?" he muttered, frowning.
She moved closer to him. "A-...are you alright?"
Paul became very annoyed with that question and clenched his fists. 'Why does everyone ask HIM that?' He thought. "Why do you ask?" He spoke in a threatening tone.
"N-no reason." Dawn cowered inwardly. "It's just..."
"It's just what?" He opened his eyes and gave her a cold stare.
"Um,..well." She looked away from him, avoiding his eyes. "It's just... Your silence is sometimes concerning. You could really scare someone like that, you know?"
Paul didn't understand how his silence could scare anyone. It never seemed to bother Reggie. But, he grew up with him and he probably learned to read Paul's actions. Now that he thought about it, Reggie could probably tell how Paul felt just by looking into his eyes, even with his normal cold expression. He also thought back to when Brock examined his ankle moments ago. Paul panicked when Brock hadn't said anything after what felt like forever. "..."
Dawn looked up to find that he was now looking down. She couldn't help but be concerned, but she didn't want to bother him. "...um."
"Sorry..." Paul sighed. "To worry you wasn't my intention."
Dawn was surprised. 'Did he just apologize?' she asked herself, not able to believe what she just heard. "Uh, i-it's fine."
Brock returned with the kit. "Are you both getting along?" He joked.
Paul just glared up at him wearily. "...?" He clearly didn't care much for his remark.
"..." Dawn looked up too, also ignoring Brock's question. She was still shocked that Paul had apologized.
"Haha, I guess so." Brock laughed. He then sat down in between them to tend to Paul, who went from pale to as white as a sheet when he saw Brock ready a cotton ball with alcohol. "Sorry, but I don't have any hydrogen peroxide, so I hope this is okay?"
"..." Paul stared at him, his eyes wide and horrified. Why alcohol? Why now? Paul kept thinking about how painful it would be once the alcohol touches his ankle wounds, and if he might make himself look like total idiot if front of Ash's friends. He trembled nervously.
"Um, Paul..?" Dawn waved her hand to get his attention. He noticed her and their eyes met for a brief moment before she became aware of the fear he felt. "Hang on a sec..." Dawn stood, "Brock, I think your soup may be burning-"
"What!?" Brock dropped the cotton ball and ran to the campfire where the soup cooked.
Dawn quickly ran to her tent, grabbed something, then knelt back down beside Paul. He asked what she was doing, but she shushed him. She sat back down and revealed the small bear doll that she found at Paul's campsite. Now that she could actually see it, Dawn understood that TDRSA meant Teddiursa. "Here. Is this yours?" She held it out for him to take.
Paul looked down at it, wondering how and where she got it. He never recalled having it with him. "Wh-... Where did you get this...?" He asked, gently taking it from her hands.
"I found it at your campsite on the ground." Dawn pointed to the doll's tag. "It has your name on it."
"I know..." Paul frowned at it, "but it shouldn't be here." He recalled leaving the toy at home, well throwing it angrily at Reggie before leaving on his journey. 'Has it been with me the whole time?'
Well? Whataya' think?
Is it good?
Again, sorry this took song long. I've revised and made edits to earlier chapters, because of grammar or spelling errors for those who want to re-read this.
Please review, and let me know if you find any errors.
