Chapter 6: It's Like…a Quest, Man!

"MYAAA!" Skitty exclaimed, flipping in the air and whacking Mudkip across the forehead with her tail.

"I don't understand why I can't get it to glow like it did yesterday," Lyla said with her arms crossed. "We've been working out her tail all morning."

"Patience is virtue," Aiden replied as Mudkip drenched Skitty down from head to foot. He then turned to Aiden and Lyla, cheered happily and shot a Water Gun in their direction as well.

"Now that is enough of that!" Espeon exclaimed as she used Psychic to stop the attack in its tracks. "Why must you behave like such a little heathen?"

"Muuuuud," Mudkip said, sticking his tongue out at the Psychic Pokémon.

"Mudkip, return!" Lyla called and she returned him to his Pokéball.

"That's clever," Aiden said. Lyla turned her head to see what he was talking about and saw Skitty with her tail wrapped around a tree branch; she was pulling herself up and down with her tail.

"You must really want to learn this move, huh Skitty?" Lyla called out to her. Skitty paused for a moment to nod and continued.

"It's not always easy for Pokémon to learn new moves. You just have to keep working on it," Aiden said.

"Hopefully she'll have it down by her first contest. I could definitely use it…Oh wow, what does Eziray have?"

Eziray was fast approaching, with a wide grin on her face and her hands cupped around something.

"Lyla, you're the Hoenn native! What's this?" she asked excitedly, as she joined the other two trainers. She held out her hands to reveal a pair of mushrooms.

"I-I don't know. Don't eat them," Lyla answered.

"Aw, those are Tiny Mushrooms, man!" a voice said. They turned around to find a very tall man standing there. He had long, wavy blond hair that fell to his hips and appeared as if it had never been brushed out before. There was a brown headband wrapped around the top of his head to keep the hair out of his face and a peace sign medallion around his neck. His beard was surprisingly short, but at least he kept that maintained; it was nothing more than mere stubble. He was wearing a pair of cheap sunglasses, long brown pants, brown flip-flops and a tie-dyed t-shirt.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have just discovered the missing link…" Lyla trailed off as she lifted Skitty from the ground and held her in her arms. Skitty was very alarmed by the man and had come down from the tree almost immediately.

"Lyla, be nice!" Eziray said under breath.

"Well who invited the tree hugger?"

"Lyla!"

"Hey, it's cool man. I see how it is," the man said. "Anyway, these are good eatin' here. You should try one!"

"No thanks," Eziray said. "You can have them…"

"Right on! Thanks, man!" The hippie replied as he hastily popped the Tiny Mushrooms into his mouth.

"Don't…mention it…"

"Hey buddy, the sixties just called. They said –" Lyla began but Eziray jumped over and put her hand across Lyla's mouth.

"LYLA!"

Lyla burst out laughing and then walked over to the hippie with her hand held out.

"Sorry, I don't really mean it. I've got nothing against you. I'm a nature-lover myself. But just looking at you, I couldn't resist!"

"Right on!" he exclaimed, shaking her hand.

"My name's Lyla by the way!"

"Cool, man! You can just call me Free Bird. Welcome to my forest!"

"…Your forest?"

"Yeah, man! I built it with, like…my own two hands!" he exclaimed as he held up his hands and then paused for a moment to stare at them as if he had never seen them before.

"Excuse me? Um, I'm confused. Better yet, you're confused. Eat a few too many Tiny Mushrooms there, dude?"

"Let's go," Aiden said, taking Lyla by the arm and leading her away.

"Oh, come on guys! He's harmless!" Eziray exclaimed as the two retreated quickly and Espeon followed after. "Sorry about my friends. They apparently don't have any manners today. My name's Eziray! Are you a trainer?"

"Trainer? No. I say let the Pokémon be free, man. I like, live here…among the Pokémon and stuff…man…"

"So I suppose you don't really want to be talking to me then, huh? I'm a trainer myself."

"Naw, it's cool man. You're, like, following your dreams and stuff. Right?"

"Yep! I'm going to be the Pokémon League Champion of Hoenn someday!"

"Right on!" he exclaimed, taking a seat in the dirt. Eziray joined him, leaving a little space in between them, mostly because he didn't smell too great. "I have a dream too, but it's not that huge."

"Oh? What's that?"

"Well when I was a kid, I lived in Petalburg City and my granddaddy always told me stories about a garden, man."

"A garden?"

"Yeah, somewhere in Petalburg Forest, it's a beautiful place filled with green grass and berry bushes and a small lake and all the Tiny Mushrooms you could eat, man! Sounds like heaven, right? Well that's not even like the best part! It's, like, a sanctuary to Wurmple and their family and stuff, man. Dustox and Beautifly go there to breed, Silcoon and Cascoon go there to evolve, and Wurmple are hatched there!"

"Sounds beautiful!"

"And like, totally peaceful and stuff, man! But everyone said it was just some myth created to explain why no one ever saw these events take place naturally in Petalburg Forest. I don't know about you, but I believe in it man. I believe in it, and I will find it someday! I swore that ten years ago…when I was ten. That's why I live here."

"Well then!" Eziray exclaimed, standing up. "Today's your lucky day because I'm not doing anything, and I'm willing to help you find this Wurmple Garden!"

"Right on, man! But I don't think it's gonna happen. Did you not just hear me say I've been searching for, like, ten years? How do you expect to find it in one day?"

"Dude! Of course you're not gonna find it if you try to search every nook and cranny of this place! It's a huge forest and there are so many places where it could be!"

"Well how do you expect to find it?"

"By being a little resourceful!" she exclaimed, looking around. "Like this! Excuse me! Excuse me! Hi, yes! Do you happen to know where the Wurmple Garden is?"

There was a Tailow perched on the branch and as he began to speak, Eziray sent out Gracie to translate. Gracie listened attentively to what the Tailow had to say and then it flew away. Gracie looked up at her trainer and frowned.

"He said he has no idea…"

"Really? He was talking for a long time, what else did he have to say?"

"Well, um…he said that even he knows it's a children's fable and that you're very foolish to be pursuing this dream. He says to just give up or you'll get lost in the forest somewhere and no one will ever find you…"

"He's lyin' man! I know it's here and he knows it too. They wanna hide it from us, man. BUT YE AINT FOOLIN' ME!" Free Bird shouted, shaking his fist in the air where the Tailow had been.

"Maybe we'd have better luck asking a Wurmple where it was born!" Gracie suggested.

"Good idea, Gracie!" Eziray exclaimed. "Come on, Free Bird! Let's go find a Wurmple."

Back at the camp, Lyla happened to be applying a small bandage to a wound on a Wurmple's head. Its eyes were welling with tears and she was trying to be as gentle as possible. Mudkip was sitting next to her, pouting. He had a rather large bump on his head because his trainer had wacked him over the head with one of her steel-toed boots.

"There you go, Wurmple. I'm really sorry about that, and Mudkip is too! Right, Mudkip?"

"Muuuuuuud," he sulked. The little water Pokémon turned his head away, basically ignoring his trainer.

"MUDKIP! APOLOGIZE!" she ordered as she gritted her teeth. He simply rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at the Bug Pokémon, so Lyla grabbed him and shook him violently.

"The forest Pokémon are not your target practice. This poor Wurmple was just climbing a tree and minding its own business. You had no right to do that so apologize now!"

"Take it easy!" Aiden said as he laughed hysterically. "He's only being himself!"

"You should not encourage him, Aiden," Espeon muttered.

"Are you hungry, Wurmple?" Lyla asked, holding out a handful of Oran Berries. It sniffed them for a moment and then began to devour them happily.

"Wuuuurr!" it cried out happily.

"Aww, you're so cute!" she exclaimed, holding it up in the air, before bringing it in to cuddle it.

"Mudkip…" Mudkip said, still pouting.

"What do you mean we're not keeping it? Did I even mention anything about catching it? That's not even your decision anyway!"

"Kip."

"And if I wanted to catch it, I would use Skitty to battle it then."

"Kip," he complained curtly.

"What's with your attitude anyway? You're acting like a spoiled little –"

Mudkip turned his head and blasted her in the face with Water Gun, before she could finish.

"Mud. Kip," he harrumphed triumphantly.

"Mudkip, return…"

Lyla called the trouble-maker back to his ball and stroked the Wurmple's head.

"Don't worry. I think you've been through enough trauma today. I'm not going to try to catch you no matter how cute you are!"

"Incoming," Aiden said.

"A WURMPLE!" Free Bird shouted, running towards Lyla with his arms outstretched. The Wurmple screamed and sped up a nearby tree to hide and glare angrily at the strange man. Lyla put her hands on her hips.

"What the hell, man?" she asked, glaring up at him as he stopped next to her.

"I have a question for it," Free Bird said, bending forward to pant for a moment.

"Free Bird, that's not going to accomplish anything!" Eziray exclaimed emerging from some trees with Gracie. "Go ahead, Gracie."

"Right! Um, excuse me Wurmple? I'm sorry to have bothered you but we were just wondering if you remember where you were born. We've heard stories about a beautiful garden in this forest somewhere and we would really like to see it! We won't disturb anything and we won't tell anyone else where it is, I promise! We know it's special to you…"

"WURM-PLE!" it shouted angrily, eyes welling with tears again.

"I know you're upset and I'm really sorry for that!"

"WURM WURM WURM. PUL!" it shouted.

"He says that there is no garden and even if there was and even if it was the nice girl who had asked, he would never tell any human or their Pokémon where the garden was, no matter if they have good intentions or not. He also said that any other Wurmple, Silcoon, Cascoon, Beautifuly or Dustox would say the same. Sorry guys, but I think they're sworn to secrecy! Yup!" Gracie said, nodding.

"Thanks anyway, Gracie," Eziray said, calling Gracie back to her ball.

"A beautiful garden?" Lyla asked, standing up. The Wurmple slinked back down the tree and rushed to her so he could be petted some more. She picked him up and rubbed her face against his. "Oh please tell us where it is, Wurmple! I would love to see it! Just for a few minutes, I promise!"

"Wur-wur," it said happily as she caressed it.

"'I can't, I can't, REALLY I can't,'" Espeon translated.

"Pleeeeeease?" Lyla begged, kissing him on the forehead. His eyes bulged out, shaped like hearts and he began to ramble on.

"'Okay, it exists! North, north! Go north!'" Espeon translated as the Wurmple nuzzled Lyla over and over again.

"Shameless flirt," Eziray said, crossing her arms. "He's worse than you, Aiden."

"Shut up," Aiden muttered.

"Thank you, Wurmple!" Lyla exclaimed, kissing him on the forehead a bunch of times before setting him on a tree branch. "You take care of yourself now! Byeeee."

"I can't believe you just seduced a Pokémon," Eziray teased as everyone followed Lyla.

"I did nothing of the sort!" she exclaimed angrily.

"Whatever you say!" Eziray taunted with a giggle as she passed Lyla to lead the group. Everyone was pretty quiet for a while until Lyla finally decided to break the silence.

"So what exactly are we looking for?" she asked as they hiked along through the forest.

"A beautiful garden with berry bushes and green grass and a lake and Wurmple, Silcoon, Cascoon, Beautifly, and Dustox!" Eziray described.

"A…lake?" Aiden asked as he fiddled with the PokéNav.

"Yep!"

"Well then. That might be the key to finding this place."

"Why do you say that?"

"Well think about it. It could be man-made which is unlikely considering the fact that no one seems to know where this place is. It could have started off as a giant trench that eventually filled with rainwater, but again, unlikely. The precipitation in this area is too low, according to Lyla's PokéNav. So, the way I see it, there are two likely explanations. One, there's an underground spring. Two, there's a river somewhere that leads to it. Hopefully there's a river because –"

"Then we can just follow the river until we get to the garden!" Lyla exclaimed.

"Exactly."

"Come to think of it, I do know of a stream that flows through the forest. It's, like, deep in the forest, pretty far from the road, so most people don't know about it. Aw man! Are you telling me I could have found the garden years ago when I found the stream? Gnarly, man!" Free Bird said.

"Why don't you take us to that stream?" Aiden asked.

Free Bird nodded and led them off into the forest. They hiked along for about an hour, listening to Free Bird and Eziray's back-and-forth ramblings. They had to climb over dead trees, bust their way through thick brush, and even fight off wild Pokémon from time-to-time. Eventually, Aiden and Lyla began to believe that Free Bird was out of his mind but then they finally found the small river; it was about fifteen feet wide, bigger than they had imagined it to be.

"Here it is!" Free Bird exclaimed.

"We can see that," Lyla said, examining the river.

"Baby, come on out!" Eziray exclaimed, throwing her Dratini's ball up over the river. The ball opened in mid-air and the Dratini was released into the water. "Haven't been swimming in a while, have you?"

"EEE!" Baby cheered, swimming around in circles happily.

"Listen, can you swim down as far as you can and tell us how long we'll be walking?"

Dratini nodded and disappeared for about twenty minutes and then popped her head out of the water finally and murmured something to her trainer.

"She says it's not too far, everybody, come on!"

They ran along the bank of the river and the current became faster and faster until Dratini had to stop or else she would be washed away. Then she pointed her head straight and the trainers noticed that the river flowed right into a group of enormous and sturdy trees that were tightly packed together.

"A dead end," Eziray said with a disappointed sigh as Mudkip went ahead and popped out of his ball without permission once again.

"Not necessarily," Aiden said.

"Are you blind?" Eziray asked dramatically pointing at the mass of giant trees.

"Ez. Listen. Sometimes it's possible for rivers to flow underground temporarily due to changes in the terrain and the gradient of the land. In other words, that river could disappear underneath those trees and then spit right into that lake we were talking about. It looks like there's a bunch of trees clumped together if you look deeper into the forest. They're not as big as these ones, where the river supposedly ends, but it looks like they're all forming a barrier. Doesn't it? If there was a clearing behind them, it would definitely be inaccessible to humans. I mean Wurmple, Silcoon, and Cascoon would have no trouble slipping in through the cracks, and Beautiful and Dustox can just fly in and out, but us? The only way in for us is via this river. However, there are a few risks. One, I could be wrong. The river could just end here. If that's the case, we would be crushed to a pulp against those trees if we got caught in the current. Two, I could be right but the underground river might be too narrow and we could get stuck and drown. Three, we could flow right in smoothly, but there may not be any way to get back out. If you ask me, it's not worth the risk and there ain't no way in hell I'm diving into that river…"

"Agreed," the girls said in unison.

"Bummer, man!" Free Bird said, sliding down and taking a seat on the ground.

"Well at least you know where the garden is now!" Lyla exclaimed optimistically. He simply sighed and stared into the river. Mudkip cocked his head and walked over to the river's edge, stared at his reflection for a moment, sniffed the air in the direction of the large trees, and jumped in.

"MUUUUUUUDKIIIP!" he cheered excitedly as the current carried him towards the trees.

"Mudkip!" Lyla screamed, ripping off her boots and hat and jumping in after him.

"LYLA!" Aiden and Eziray called after her.

"Espeon, hold this," Aiden said, slinging his guitar over her back and diving into the river to rescue Lyla.

"I thought you said there was no way in hell you would dive into that river!" Eziray called after him. Everyone was quiet for a few moments after the two trainers and Mudkip disappeared under the water. At the rate the current was going, they should have smashed into the trees by then, but they didn't. They just disappeared.

"Might I make a suggestion?" Espeon asked as Eziray scanned the water for her friends.

"Not now, Espeon. Baby, return!" Eziray said, calling Baby back and leaping into the water herself. Espeon sighed.

"You do not have to do that, child…"

"Wait for me, man!" Free Bird exclaimed, cannon balling into the water and splashing Skitty and Espeon.

"Come along, Skitty," Espeon began, "Grab Lyla's boots. I have a better idea. Worry not, now. They will be alright. I would be able to sense if Aiden was in danger."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the tree wall…

"MUDKIP!" Mudkip exclaimed, popping his head up through the water on the other side of the trees. He looked around excitedly and sure enough, he was swimming in the middle of a tiny lake.

"Mudkip, I'm going to kill you!" Lyla said, popping up at the same time as Aiden. His arms were wrapped around her because he had tried to save her but the current was much too strong for him so he had been unable to get her back out of the river. As he let go, Lyla began to swim over to her mischievous little Water Pokémon but then noticed her surroundings and paused to stare in awe at them.

"AIDEN YOU WERE RIGHT!" Eziray shouted out happily as she and Free Bird popped up as well.

As they all treaded water in the crystal clear lake, they gazed around, mystified. The sky was a mixture of oranges and pinks, as the sun was going down, but it was still light enough to see the lush green grass that was filled with brightly colored wildflowers, the Tiny Mushrooms scattered about, and the berry bushes bordering the densely packed trees that surrounded the area. Wurmple played joyously in the grass, Silcoon and Cascoon rested peacefully in the trees, and Dustox and Beautifly fluttered about the air, humming beautiful songs to one another. As they scanned the area, they noticed Espeon lying amongst the flowers with Aiden's guitar still on her back, Lyla's boots and hat sitting next to her and Skitty standing beside them.

"Hey how did you two get in?" Lyla asked, cocking her head.

"As I was trying to tell Eziray, there is an easier way in and out of this garden. I call it teleportation," Espeon said, lifting her head and flicking her tail.

"MUD-KIIIIP!" Mudkip exclaimed happily, stating that this way had been much more fun.

"You twit," Espeon said arrogantly, laying her head back down on the ground. Mudkip squeezed his eyes shut tightly and stuck his tongue out at the Psychic-type as Lyla made her way to him and knocked him over the head with one of her fists.

"You're lucky we weren't killed. What's the matter with you?" she demanded.

"Mud! Mud! Mud!" he whined.

"Oh come on, I didn't hit you that hard," she said as he continued to complain. She finally gave in, wrapped her arms around him, and hugged him close.

"Check this place out!" Eziray exclaimed as she swam towards the shore. The others followed and they all climbed out but were promptly bounded up by a rapid fire of String Shots from all of the Wurmple, Silcoon, Cascoon, Dustox, and Beautifly who were apparently very angry with the trespassers.

"Well this is certainly inconvenient," Lyla said as she tried to wiggle free.

"Hey, man! We're not here to, like, disturb you all. We just wanted to admire your garden! We'll leave now if you want!" Free Bird reasoned but the Bug Pokémon weren't even fazed by it.

"And whose idea was it to visit this garden? Cuz, if you ask me they should be eaten first," Lyla said.

"They're not gonna eat us!" Eziray declared confidently but thought for a moment and frowned. "Are they?"

"Please don't be angry! It's been my dream to see your garden practically my whole life! We're sorry!" Free Bird pleaded. The Dustox and Beautifly mulled over his words for a moment but couldn't find it in their hearts to forgive him, so they reared back for an attack.

"Well, the good news is that they're probably going to blast us out of the forest and the walk to Rustboro will be shortened, right? YAY!" Lyla exclaimed. But her enthusiasm quickly faded as she realized that she couldn't fool herself; there was no bright side to this situation. Besides, knowing their luck, she figured they would be blasted back towards Petalburg rather than Rustboro. "I don't wanna die!"

Everyone prepared themselves to be blown away as they shut their eyes and turned their heads away but several moments passed and the attack didn't come so they looked back up to find a Wurmple blocking the path of any potential attacks. The Flying-Bug Pokémon held their fire and listened as the Wurmple voiced its opinion. It seemed to relax the angered Pokémon and it was obvious that they no longer had any intention of harming the trainers. The Wurmple turned and Lyla's face lit up as soon as she noticed the bandage on its head.

"Hey isn't that the Wurmple from before?" Eziray asked.

"Mhm!" Lyla exclaimed with an enthusiastic nod.

"Wur-Wurm," the Wurmple said, turning to the trainers. It began to ramble on about something and Espeon stood.

"He says that we need to evacuate the premises before the sun arises in the morning. If not, his parents will not hesitate to annihilate any of us trespassers. He recommended gathering some of the wood from that pile of debris over there and tying them all together with vines from some of the trees around here to build a raft, but I can of course use Teleport and –"

"Wait, Espeon. Build a raft? Why would we build a raft? It's not like we can just sail back the way we came…" Lyla reasoned. Espeon sighed and turned her head to her right. The lake narrowed towards the end of the area and Espeon explained that a river flowed out of the area but there was a waterfall immediately after they exited the garden, which explains why no one could enter that way. She went on to say that the river flowed on, out of Petalburg Woods, continued on past Rinshin Town and eventually dumped into the ocean. Eziray smiled.

"Rinshin Town? I thought the next stop was Rustboro City! Lyla, the PokéNav! What does it say? Is there a gym there?" she asked. Lyla took out the device and took a look at the map. She touched the screen a few times and frowned.

"No gym. It's just a small town on the way to Rustboro City. Do you guys want to stop anyway?" she asked.

"Well whatever you decide, I can take you there," Espeon reminded. Lyla frowned and looked up at Aiden.

"Aiden? Don't you think it would be fun to go river-rafting?" she asked innocently.

"MYA!" Skitty hissed in objection as Mudkip cheered out excitedly.

"Do you want to?" he asked. Lyla smiled and clasped her hands together.

"Please, please, please?" she begged.

"No, no, one thousand times, no," Espeon said. "We've had enough adventure for one day, don't you think?"

"Hey, you heard the lady, Espeon," Aiden began, "If river-rafting's what she wants, it's what she's gonna get, okay? I think it sounds fun too, and Eziray, well…Eziray thinks everything is fun, so I say we do it!"

Espeon was obviously offended and looked away angrily, but Aiden smiled and made his way to the pile of debris as the Bug-types dispersed, still keeping a sharp eye on the intruders. Lyla skipped along behind him and they both lifted some logs from the pile.

"Yea, you guys take care of the logs, and we'll take care of the ropes! Charo let's go!" Eziray exclaimed, sending out her Charmander. "Use Metal Claw on those vines!"

Charo nodded and dashed over to the trees, using Metal Claw to cut down as many vines as he could. Eziray gathered them and carried them over to Aiden and Lyla who were arranging logs on the ground. Free Bird had been kneeling beside the water ever since the Bug Pokémon decided to leave them alone. Lyla looked up at him angrily as Aiden began tying logs together.

"Hey, Free Bird, since we helped you get here, could you please help us leave?" she asked.

"Huh? Oh. Sorry. Yeah, man, I'll help. But I'm not going with you…"

"What? Why not? These Bug Pokémon want to be left in peace."

"I know that. But maybe I can warm up to them a bit, you know? If it doesn't work, I'll find a way out. Don't worry about me, man. I'll be okay," he explained as he assisted Aiden.

The construction of the raft took less than fifteen minutes and they carefully pushed it into the lake together once it was finished.

"Hey man, the Pokémon said we could stay the night. Are you leaving already?" Free Bird asked gloomily.

"Yeah," Aiden replied. "We obviously aren't wanted here so we don't want to overstay our welcome."

"Besides," Eziray added, "just getting a chance to see this beautiful garden is more than I hoped for when we started!"

"Yeah man! I guess your right!" Free Bird exclaimed with a laugh.

"Well, Free Bird, it was nice meeting you, but we really outta be going now!" Lyla exclaimed as she put on her boots and her hat and hopped aboard.

"I don't think it's going to be that easy, Lyla…" Aiden trailed off, staring at the lake with a frustrated expression.

"What?" she asked, sitting down.

"There's no current. How is the raft supposed to move? There's a little wind but we didn't build a sail…"

"Well, then Baby can just push the raft towards the waterfall!" Eziray suggested, pulling out a Pokéball but Mudkip objected.

"No, Mudkip!" Lyla scolded as Aiden and Eziray called back their Pokémon and loaded onto the raft. Skitty frowned and was very reluctant to join them.

"Myaaaa…" she cried.

"See, Mudkip? Skitty's scared! We need Baby to do it because she'll be gentler, so stop pouting!" Lyla reasoned.

"MUD!" he replied angrily, running and leaping into the water. He didn't come back up so Lyla shrugged.

"Fine then. Throw a tantrum. We'll just leave without you," she said calmly as Eziray sent out Baby. They waited a few moments and Mudkip was still hiding underwater so they decided to press on, knowing that Mudkip would follow. They bid farewell to Free Bird and the Bug Pokémon once more and pushed off from the embankment. As they neared the waterfall, Lyla blew a kiss to the Wurmple with the bandage on its head and it blushed for a moment before gasping with shock. Lyla frowned and looked behind her to see what he it was so alarmed about. Mudkip was fast-approaching.

"Oh no…" Aiden trailed off.

"Mudkip, N-"

Before Lyla could finish, Mudkip leapt out of the water and slammed into the side of the raft, sending it flying. He had somehow succeeded to cling onto it and cheered out with joy as the raft flew clear over the waterfall. Lyla held onto Skitty tightly for a moment as they seemed to pause for a moment in mid-air before falling straight down with a large splash. The current was strong at the bottom so they were immediately being washed down the river at an extremely fast pace. It was a rough ride but they were lucky to not flip over. Mudkip enjoyed every second of it as everyone else screamed for their dear lives. He especially loved the part when the raft began to rotate as washed down the river. The river took them out of the forest where the it widened and the current slowed down quite a bit.

"Mudkip, I'm going to kill you," Lyla said slowly, trying to catch her breath.

"Baby?" Eziray said, looking around. The Dratini popped her head out of the water and cried out happily because it was all over. She had been following the raft closely, dodging rocks and such, so she was pretty startled as well. Eziray smiled and returned her to her ball. They drifted along for a while until they saw a town in the distance, on their right.

"Here's our stop!" Eziray exclaimed. Mudkip hopped into the water and gently pushed them towards them shore.

"Oh, now you choose to behave…" Lyla muttered. Mudkip climbed up onto the embankment and the others stepped off the raft. It was dark now and the trainers were completely exhausted so they headed straight to Pokémon Center because there wasn't a hotel. Their Pokémon slept in one room where Nurse Joy fed them and checked for injuries while the trainers headed into their room and went straight to bed.

Later that night, a woman made her way through the town. If anyone had been around to see her, she would have seemed very shady. Her entire body was covered: sexy black high heels, dark black sunglasses, a purple beret, and a light grey trench coat covering everything else. Her light brown hair was the only thing that wasn't completely covered up. It was long, shiny and very beautiful; she obviously took great care of it. A Girafarig walked along by her side. As they passed the Pokémon Center, it stopped and looked into the building through the glass doors. Its eyes began to glow blue and the woman stopped and looked at a poster that was stuck to the door.

"This contest is for rookies, Girafarig…" she said, examining the poster. It was an advertisement for an unofficial Pokémon Contest that would be taking place the next day there in Rinshin Town. The Girafarig shook its head and the woman cocked hers. "I see…Come along…"

The woman continued on and the Girafarig hesitated for a moment before following after the woman.

"It appears that Girafarig has found someone interesting. Perhaps we will have some tough competition this year. Or could something else have caught her attention? Either way...I feel somewhat eager to meet this person. How strange," the woman thought to herself as they exited the town, heading towards Rustboro City.

Meanwhile, inside, all three trainers gasped simultaneously, as if something that had been starring into their souls had suddenly left.

Author Notes:

Sorry I haven't updated in a while! I've been busy. Chapter 7 is about ready so it'll be up in a week! It just needs beta checking now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. It was certainly fun to write. Be sure to read and review!