"Sarah, you're gonna drop it and hurt the poor Pokemon inside," she heard Felix say to her over the windswept grass, head buried deep in the earth and eyes turned sky ward as she tossed the PokeBall from one hand to another.

"Relax, Fee, it'll be fine," she grinned, winking at him and catching the Ball deftly in her right hand as she said it, throwing it up into the air with a quick twist.

It sailed higher than it should have, and for a moment, she lost track of its trajectory, watching it tumble a little too far left, when a hand shot out above her and grabbed it in mid air. She gave a sigh of relief, then followed the mysterious arm to look at its owner.

"Mrs. S!" Felix cried, getting up off the grass and rushing at her, stopping short of her, arms length, lest he show her too much affection. "Alrigh'?"

"Yes, Felix," she smiled at him, still clutching Sarah's Ball in her hand tightly. Sarah rose up to her, smiling at her with that wicked grin of hers.

"Hey, Siobhan," she said back, reaching her hand out to grab her possession, but Siobhan merely pulled her arm back and up, frowning at her.

"You know better than to play with PokeBalls like that, Sarah. Has everything I taught you been forgotten?"

"Yeah, sorry," she said half heartedly, lunging for the Ball again. "Can I have it back now?"

"What Pokemon's in here?"

"Uh..."

"Sarah."

"Gastly, I think."

"You think?" Sarah didn't have time to respond before Siobhan had opened the PokeBall, and a Lampent fell out.

"Really, Sarah, you must learn to know your Pokemon better," Siobhan said, turning her back and starting to walk back to the path they had walked before, Felix hot on her heels. Sarah looked down at the Lampent and shrugged at him as he looked back up at her and gave her a smile.

"Sorry, little guy," she whispered, and he floated up and levitated, level with her forehead, crooning slightly. She knew she was forgiven for now.

"Alright you two, are you ready to go off?"

"Yup!"

"Yeah."

Siobhan handed them both a back pack each and gave Felix a small key. "Bike's in the garage, this is the key to the lock it comes with for when you need to leave it somewhere chained up." She turned to look at Sarah as Felix went off to the garage, a noticeable skip in his step as the prospect of a long journey ahead of him with his sister settled in.

"You, look after him, OK? And look after yourself. And remember everything I taught you, and have fun out there, OK?"

Sarah nodded, smiling weakly at her foster mother as she patted her head lovingly. "Make me proud."

"We will."

They moved outside, finding Felix already mounted on the bike, grinning at her. "We can take turns pedalling, yeah?"

"Yeah, sure," she agreed, turning back to Siobhan before she got on behind her brother. "Can we say goodbye to yours before we go?"

At first, Siobhan looked a bit taken aback, but she simply smiled and nodded, moving inside quickly and coming back out with six perfectly polished PokeBalls, opening them one by one. The Articuno hovered close to her, surveying as the others slowly appeared. The Dragonite and Starly gravitated to Felix, cuddling up with him and nudging his palms for pettings. The Shiftry and Torterra moved to Sarah, and she laughed slightly as they tickled her hands with their leafy palms or tongues. The Sawsbuck pranced around the two of them – she was the youngest, still getting used to the area and always overly excited to be anywhere.

"Right, you, what Pokemon do you have with you?"

Sarah looked up at her and blanked for a second before she started to list. "Shuppet, Skarmory, Scizor, Gastly, Cobalion and, of course, Lampent."

"Good. Felix?"

"Misdreavous, Jigglypuff, Ditto, Furrey, Tauros and Eevee."

"Right. Take care of your sister, make sure she doesn't get in trouble."

"Hey!"

"Will do, Mrs. S."

"Right then, off you go, both of you! Get those Badges, come back safe," she crowed, pushing Sarah toward the bike. "Write me whenever you can, and come back when you get tired."

"Bye, Siobhan!" Sarah called as Felix kicked off, turning around to wave and watch her foster mother disappear in the distance.

"Sarah, stop looking back!" Felix yelled, grabbing her attention forward. "It's an adventure we're on!"

And for once, Sarah let herself feel like a little kid again.