Back again! I'm so sorry this took so damn long… I've been really busy, I keep getting distracted, or something happens that makes me lose motivation to do anything at all. It's been a rough few months, and my writing time has suffered – I'm so sorry, I really want to get back on track.

Chapter 8

Nathen was first to wake up the next morning, finding they were all still laid on the floor under their vast collection of inn-supplied and personal blankets, atop the similar collection of pillows. The TV was playing the same movie title page over and over again, the music upbeat and mildly irritating after the second or third time it played. The picture was bright, and it hurt his eyes as he sat up; at least, he tried to. Gemma lay beside him, clinging onto his arm and nuzzling him contently, making him smile.

The third thing he noticed was that the storm had passed over, for now at least. He could see dark clouds in the sky, too dark considering how much rain they had let out over the past twenty four hours, minimum. He was beginning to wonder if this storm was natural, and tried to turn the facts over in his head as he reached and turned the television off so the music could no longer pester his eardrums. With the music gone all he could hear was the soft breathing of the girls he laid besides and the soft echo of the chatter of the people outside the inn's window - the day had started, the town was buzzing (literally).

"Nateee...~?" Gemma whined softly, becoming semi-conscious as the boy's movement jostled her. He smiled softly, gently moving his arm from her grasp and ruffling her hair instead, making her whine more as she groggily opened her eyes. She flickered her eyelids up and down as she made efforts to fully wake up. "What tiiiiiime is it...?"

"It's about 12, Gem," Nathen chuckled, yawning once more himself as he stood up. Gemma whined yet again, holding her arms up to him and making grabby hands, pouting with her eyes half open.

"Gimme."

"Give you what?"

"Huggles."

"God you're cute." He knelt down, hugging her tightly around her waist, kissing her hair as she happily nuzzled against him, making a soft noise that sounded somewhat like a content dog getting a scratch. "I need to get dressed though Gem, we need to get moving up to Beebud town for your first contest by the end of the day, so you can register."

"I dun't wanna get dressed. Comfy." It was now the both of them realised that Gemma had taken one of his large t-shirts at some point during the night before - probably because she spilt ice-cream down her own nightshirt, which was sitting over the radiator after being washed in the bathroom sink. Both turned a little red, but nothing else was said before Holly's yawn broke the silence.

"Morning all," She greeted drowsily, shaking her long hair out as she stood up, "You getting changed in the bathroom Nathen?"

"Yeah, that's what I was about to do," Nathen nodded, ruffling Gemma's hair and causing her to pout again as he stood back up, grabbing his bag and heading to the bathroom, "Get dressed yourselves, girls. Knock the door when you're decent."

"Will do!" Gemma said happily, waking up now as she also forgot the momentary awkwardness of their private realisation. She bounced up to her feet, grabbing her clothing and promptly hiding under one of the many blankets whilst sitting on a bed to change her underclothes. Holly giggled, standing up and changing quickly.

Everyone was dressed within ten minutes and it only took about five to clean up their stuff and head out of their room. Nathen paid the inn landlord on their way out, leaving them with just enough of their allotted 'Berrybud City' money for breakfast (or would it be classed as lunch now?) of some kind, and to put a little money into their reserves. Gemma asked if they could go back to the pie place they went to the night before last, and despite both making comments about how it was hardly an appropriate Breakfast or even Lunch they agreed to it and headed straight for the cafe that sold them. They ate happily, sharing little pieces again, though Gemma was careful to avoid the spicy berry that Nathen had. Within another half hour they were on their way toward the city's exit.

"The path we have to head up to get to Beebud is called Cocoon Path, it's said to have at least one of every cocoon Pokémon in the world," Gemma explained, beaming as her explanation cut off Nathen before he even began to say his – read from the guide book he was holding, "If you need information on Monoko look to me, not the book," She stuck her tongue out as she said this. He chuckled lightly.

"I'll bear that in mind. So, every cocoon?" He replied. She smiled, nodding.

"Every single one has been documented at least once."

"That's a lot of bug types!" Holly said, looking at the two of them, "Like, loads of creepy crawly bug types."

"Shh, you'll hurt Maeve's feelings," Gemma teased, giggling, tapping her Luvbug's Poké Ball. Holly giggled, lightly hitting her friend's shoulder as they continued to walk. "Besides, it's not like they've very 'crawly' – they can barely move!" Gemma continued, grinning from ear to ear and continuing her teasing tone, resulting in Holly giving her a playful glare.

"Oh shush!"

"Either way," Nathen interjected with a chuckle, "It's not a long path, so we'll be able to get to Beebud before the end of the day – enough time to explore a little, find somewhere to stay, eat, the basics."

"And register for the contest!"

"That too," The boy smiled, ruffling her hair and making her pout at him, "We better do that first so we don't forget. Plus going to the Pokémon Centre is a good move anyway."

"Yay my first contest!" Gemma grinned, sticking her tongue out, "Holly, you doing this one too or are you gonna do later ones?" Holly put on a thinking face, tilting her head to the side.

"Um, I don't think so this time. As I'm only gonna do it part time I think I'll wait, if I get all the ribbons I need for the festival it'll be nice but it's not a big aim of mine," She answered, shrugging her shoulders and adjusting her bag as it became misplaced.

"Alright then, that's our aims for this town set out: The contest. Now just to get there; I see the path's start just up ahead, it should be about an hour's walk from there. Provided nothing else happens," Nathen said, jumping moments later as Gemma reached up and covered his mouth.

"Shhh! Don't say that you'll jinx it!" She exclaimed, half giggling as she jumped up onto his back again, making him grunt as he quickly moved his bag so she didn't get uncomfortable, "Woo! Heh, I love how you're so used to me doing this that you don't even question it."

"It's just one of the many things I've grown to like about you, cheeky," Nathen smiled, chuckling lightly and shaking his head with a playfully exaggerated sigh, holding her legs to support her. Gemma giggled, nuzzling the side of his head.

"We both know you love me really."

Cue the awkward silence.

Holly quickly took it upon herself to break the silence, pointing up ahead, "Look! Cocoons already!"

Both friends quickly looked up ahead of them also, spotting a pair of Hoenn cocoon Pokémon bouncing across the path a few metres ahead of them; Silcoon and Cascoon. They watched them for a moment, Gemma giggling.

"They look really silly, I don't know how they even bounce around like that," She grinned, nudging Nathen's side with her knee, "Goo! Let's keep moving!"

"I'm going I'm going," Nathen said, rolling his eyes chuckling and starting their walk again, Holly not far behind them as she mocked a sigh of relief to herself at ending the awkward moment – that she knew shouldn't have been so awkward. "Anyone going to keep a mental list of how many of the cocoons we see?"

"I will," Holly chuckled, grinning as she looked around, "Just to check if there really is one of every type, right?"

"Yep," Nathen replied, shifting Gemma up his back more. "Let's see if this path is all it's cracked up to be Pokémon wise." Gemma's legs wrapped tighter around her best friend, keeping her up without him having to shift her again, helped by her arms doing the same.

"Cocoon counting and then contest," She beamed, squeezing tighter for a moment, "Yay adventures!"

"I'm trying to figure out if that was sarcastic or not…" Holly said, giggling as she walked a few steps ahead of her two new friends, looking around her as she went, there being no sign of any other cocoons thus far.

They continued to walk, idly chatting to each other as Holly kept count of the cocoons that either she saw herself or the other two pointed out to her, listing them off whenever there was a new one. So far they'd seen: Silcoon and Cascoon; Metapod; Two types of Wormadam; and Swadloon and Whirlipede.

"Oo look! That looks like our Luvbug!" Gemma exclaimed, pointing at a Pokémon that was just off to the side of the path ahead of them. It was an upside down heart kind of shaped cocoon, pink in colour and with a deeper pink shaped face; trailing down each side were white dots, whilst on its back end it had a deeper pink stub, shaped like a heart. The Pokémon looked up, smiled and let out a small coo of 'luv' before hopping toward the group, nuzzling against Holly and Nathen's legs, "Aw, cute!"

"I'll grab my Pokédex," Nathen said, digging into his pocket and pulling the device out, aiming the camera at the Pokémon at their feet. It whirred for a moment and then spoke:

Lucoon, the Love Cocoon Pokémon, and the evolved form of Luvbug. Lucoon are most looked after by their parents during their time as a cocoon Pokémon, and thus many more of these Cocoons get to their next form.

"Oo! So, where are its parents then?" Gemma asked, looking around, "I haven't seen any fully grown bug Pokémon around her yet."

"Maybe they're in the forest or something, or it's one of the few that aren't looked after by its parents," Holly suggested, looking around, "There's other Monoko cocoons here too I think, scan the ones over there Nathen."

The first one Nathen raised the Pokédex to had a rather rounded shape, with a flattened base. It's dull, dark purple in colour with a black sharp shape around its face, eyes red and mouth in a permanent frown. It appeared to have slight circular indents all over its main body, which suddenly burst out into spikes when another identical Pokémon knocked into it unexpectedly, the majority of said spikes being black though there were a few red and one or two purple. Finally on the lower centre of its back it had a stinger, which on this Pokémon was red – but on the one that had knocked into it, black.

Chrystility, the Hostile Cocoon Pokémon, and the evolved form of Irritillar. Chrystility are not guarded by their parents as other cocoon Pokémon are, and have their spikes as a defence mechanism, protecting them from attacking Pokémon.

The second Pokémon was a simple rounded cocoon, hanging from a tree branch by a String Shot like substance, though another nearby was plopped on the floor with its bottom flattened out by the contact. It had a simple rounded face, white, with a main green body spare two black streaks down the sides, and one white streak down the back, leading to a small black stub; its eyes were a bright yellow, but looked completely lazy and unbothered.

Simpligroth, the Simple Cocoon Pokémon, and the evolved form of Naturillar. This Pokémon now has an excuse to do even less, and is thus more protected by its parents during its time as a cocoon, though the parents still leave them alone for periods of time.

"So those three are the Monoko cocoon Pokémon then, does Pokoh have any cocoon Pokémon?" Holly asked, kneeling down and petting the Lucoon as it let out more 'luuu' noises.

"Hm… I don't think so, actually… which is odd, almost all regions have them," Nathen chuckled, shifting Gemma again and carefully stepping over the cocoons at their feet so that he didn't hurt any of them, walking ahead a few more steps after also, "Uff, Gemma, I can't carry you any further for now."

"Aww! Fiiiiiine," Gemma said playfully, jumping down off his back and adjusting her bag. Nathen fixed his bag again and then took her hand instead, making her smile as Holly joined them again.

"So now there's just Kakuna, that I know of," Holly said, "If it's every region there may be Pokémon we don't know."

Sure enough as they continued to head up the path they saw Pokémon that their Dexes could not identify – they didn't have the right update to their databanks, so they must be from a region they had not been to or that wasn't as well-known as places such as Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh that were included on almost every Pokédex now. After a while they did spot some Kakuna, surrounded by Beedrill which had so far been the only fully evolved Pokémon on the route, which they quickly walked past so as not to annoy the irritable bees.

When they were safely away from the bees and starting to near the end of the path, Gemma began playing around, messing with the two and playing a few chasing games to pass the time when she suddenly felt really warm, even for her. She stumbled, making her friends jump and Nathen reach to catch her, though she managed to steady herself in the end. This, however, wasn't the end of it; without warning and without intending to Gemma suddenly shot off two fire attacks from her hands – small, but still big enough – which slammed into two trees.

Neither tree suffered any major damage, nothing on either seemed to have caught on fire, but something wasn't happy. From what must have been a nest underneath the trunk of one of the trees two of the Pokémon they had seen in Budbloom flew up – Spitreeze and Amorglide. The Spitreeze was clearly angry, buzzing its name in a harsh tone with its wings going at high speeds creating a horrid noise. The sharp stingers on the ends of its arms sharpened and glinted, and it was looking right at the group. It's stinger was red.

"Oh crap! Holly, grab Gemma and jump up he's coming at us!" Nathen exclaimed, charging up fire around his wrists as Holly jumped but nodded, grabbing onto Gemma's arm and holding tight.

"Gemma, hug me, Blaziken jump heights are scary as heck so just hold on tight," Holly said, holding her friend close as she did the same, bending her knees and then jumping just a little higher than the trees, making Gemma squeak. Nathen watched, about to attack the Spitreeze to stop any of them being hit by the Pokémon's poison type attacks when suddenly Spitreeze shot at the girls, knocking them hard and throwing them into the forest.

"Girls! Oh crap!" Nathen cursed, looking up at Spitreeze. The Pokémon hissed, aiming an attack at Nathen now. Nathen gritted his teeth, charging up the fire into balls around his hands and waiting, raising his hands as the Pokémon flew at him at high speed. He was still knocked back, but it wasn't anywhere near as far as the girls and this time Spitreeze had also sustained damage. "Ow… argh… my back…" The teen grunted, sitting up and arching backwards to click his back, glancing at Spitreeze who now appeared to be bother getting tended to by and being given a stern talking to by the Amorglide.

Where the nest had been located he could see the bushes rustling as a group of Luvbug and Lucoon hopped and crawled out of their home, looking up at the two adult Pokémon and nuzzling each other. It was then Nathen realised.

"So that Spitreeze and Amorglide are mates… it thought Gemma was purposely attacking it's family… odd, Spitreeze aren't meant to care about family… guess there's always the exception to the rule…" He muttered to himself, standing up, holding his hands up as a sign of surrender or peace when the Spitreeze glared, "My friend didn't mean to nearly hit your nest, she lost control for a moment – we didn't even know your nest was there!"

The Amorglide cooed at Nathen, then nudged her mate back to their nest. Whilst Nathen was relieved at the fact he was no longer under attack, he was focused on the fact his two friends had been knocked into the forest from a height, and could not only be anywhere but also be hurt.

"Damn I really did jinx it…"

~X~X~X~

Okay I'm sorry this is kinda short compared to normal, and it's also late, but I'm going on holiday for a week tomorrow so I won't have much time to write, and thus I really wanted to get a chapter up now I had an idea for what to do. So, here it is! :D I'm going to try keep on track now, promise! *let's watch this fail*

R&R!