"A...priestess?!" Both Neal and Leon exclaimed as soon as they heard the Bronzongs' proclamation, looking at the Natu in front of them with surprise.

Anya sighed and opened her mouth to speak, but one of the Bronzongs interrupted her. "Yes, that's right. She's the vassal of Xerneas and the Tree of Life, and, as such, can access the limitless power of the great god of life!"

The Bronzongs turned to each other and the other one said, "Well, as soon as she completes her training, that is. Just like every one of her incarnations before her."

Leon glared at the Natu, who appeared embarrassed by this whole thing. "Why didn't you tell us you were the priestess?!"

Natu looked down at the ground. "I can't help being what I am..." A tinge of sadness crept through her voice, and suddenly Leon found it harder to stay mad at her, though he did try, keeping his mouth turned into a disapproving frown.

The Bronzongs turned back towards Neal and Leon. "Regardless, we thank you two for protecting Priestess Anya. We had come to Treasure Town to discuss business with the local guildmaster, but our dear priestess had wandered off on her own."

One of them chuckled, though neither of them made any indications of humor. "Indeed, the priestess tends to have a careless attitude, and often does silly things such as this. And just as we've warned her, trouble followed her. Isn't that right?"

The Natu scoffed and cocked her head away. The Bronzongs simultaneously sighed, and they said, "Well, the important thing is that you're safe, Priestess. That's all that matters."

The Bronzongs turned up to Leon and Neal. "If it would be fine with you two, we would like you to come with us to the guild. We want to introduce the heroes who rescued our dear Priestess to Guildmaster Wigglytuff, and sing our praises of you."

Priestess Anya simply rolled her eyes.

Leon's heart skipped a beat. "You mean...we're going to see...Guildmaster Wigglytuff?"

The Bronzongs nodded. "The very same."

Leon's eyes literally shone with excitement. This could be my chance, he thought to himself, I could finally be an explorer, just like my mom!

Neal locked eyes with Leon, and they both knew what their answer would be. They turned to the guardians and said, "Okay."

Despite their emotionless faces, Neal and Leon could tell that the Bronzong were beaming at the children. "Very well. Come along, then! We have no time to spare!" The two Pokémon swung around in sync, and tey floated off down the path, with the priestess in between them at all times. Neal and Leon turned to each other, the grins wide on both of their faces, and they charged off after them.

Once they arrived in town, a wave of excitement spread through the Pokémon in town. It quickly became a kind of parade, with many of the townsfolk lining up on the streets, led by the two Bronzong, as well as a Gallade and a Gardevoir who had met them in town, who introduced themselves as Nero and Perona, and apparently served as Anya's advisors, followed closely by Anya herself, then Leon and Neal, and finally another pair of Bronzong.

While Leon smiled and waved at the crowd, Neal looked around at the local Pokémon, and seeing their eyes trained on him made him feel extremely self-conscious and nervous. Anya looked behind her and saw the Sneasel looking this way and that and ducked away from the lead Bronzong to talk to him.

"Hello, my brave warrior!" Anya started with a great amount of formality. Leon noticed her and backed off with a look of disgust on his face, leaving Neal alone to deal with her.

Neal saw her and smiled weakly. "Hello, um, Your Grace?"

The Natu rolled her eyes. "Please, just call me Anya. I hate it when people get all formal on me just because I'm the priestess."

"Really? I mean, that's a pretty big honor, being the actual priestess of Xerneas!"

Anya sighed. "Sure, you could say that. But, I didn't come over here to talk about myself. I wanted to know how you were doing."

"What?!" Neal exclaimed, earning a stern look from Anya, before he quietly added, "I mean, why would you care about how I feel? You're, like, way more important than me."

Anya scoffed. "That doesn't mean anything." Her beak then upturned into a sly smile. "And besides, I must ensure the well-being of my new champions."

Neal's eyes popped open. "Wait, what?!"

"Halt!" The Bronzong exclaimed, causing the entire company to come to a stop in the middle of Treasure Square. By now, this had garnered a large crowd in the confined area, consisting of nearly everyone in town. Perona came close to Anya and whispered something into her ear. The Natu nodded and made her way to the front of the entourage and, facing the bulk of the crowd, began to speak.

"Good day to you all. I am known as Anya, though you may know me as the priestess of the Temple of Xerneas." After a wave of excited whispers moved through the crowd, Anya continued, "I'm sure you may be wondering what is happening here, but we assure you that it was simply supposed to be a routine visit to the Wigglytuff Guild.

"However, we were attacked by a band of ruffians, and I was separated from my guards. I was almost captured as well, if not for the bravery of these two valiant warriors who came to my rescue." She gestured to Leon and Neal, who respectfully nodded back, though Neal was sweating like crazy.

More whispers broke through the crowd. "A Dark type saved her?" "But I thought Dark types were evil!" "Isn't that Leonidas' boy?" "Did I leave the oven on?" "Merchants aren't supposed to battle, are they?"

Leon leaned in next to Neal. "Wow, they are blowing this way out of proportion, don't you think?"

"Well, she could be-" He was cut off a loud call coming from within the crowd.

"Leon!" The crowd parted to reveal an older purple Kecleon with a red stripe across his belly, Leon's father.

All signs of excitement flew out the window for Leon as he saw his father marching up to him. "Oh, man. Why now?" he murmured to himself.

As the elder Kecleon approached, two of the four Bronzong moved to block his way. "Halt! State your name and your business."

"My name is Leonidas, and I'm here for my boy," the Kecleon stated with command. The Bronzong looked between the two of them, before floating off to the side to allow Leonidas to pass.

"Dad, I can explain..." Leon began, but his father held up his hand, silencing him.

"Leon, what are you doing here? Why am I hearing that you were fighting someone?" Leonidas crossed his arms, tapping his foot on the ground while he waited for a good answer.

"I-I bumped into Anya in town. And, th-these two Pokémon were chasing after her. So, Neal and I went off and-"

Leonidas silenced Leon again. "That's enough. I've heard...enough." Leonidas stood there, thinking for a minute, before you said, "Leon, go back to the house."

"Wh-What?! B-But, Dad-"

"Now, son. Obey your father."

Leon stared at the ground, not budging. "This is because of Mom, isn't it?"

"What?" Leonidas' eyebrows furled, glaring at the younger Pokémon.

"You just don't want me doing any of this stuff because Mom disappeared. No, because she died!"

The elder Kecleon growled. "Leon, you're grounded for a month. Go home, now!"

"And now you won't let me do anything because you're too scared I'll be just like her, don't you?!"

"LEON!" Leonidas screamed at the top of his lungs. "GO HOME, NOW!"

"I HATE YOU!" Leon screamed back, tears forming in his eyes, before he charged off in the direction of his house, shoving past the various members of the crowd.

Leonidas' eyes trailed Leon, watching him go to the door of their home and rush in, slamming the door, before he sighed and turned to Anya. "Please, forgive him, Lady Anya. I'll make sure he's dealt with accordingly."

Anya said nothing, staring sadly off after the little Kecleon. Nero intervened and said, "Thank you, Leonidas. I'm sure the priestess would tell you that you may deal with him as you see fit."

Leonidas bowed respectfully to the priestess, before he himself walked back to his house. After a quick discussion, the group decided to make their way to the Wigglytuff Guild without any further delay.

As the procession proceeded, Anya walked back up to Neal again. "What was that about?"

The Sneasel sighed. "It's a long story."

"We have some time." Anya said hopefully. But, seeing Neal's downtrodden face caused her to reconsider. "Can I at least hear the abridged version?"

Neal sighed again. "Do you know about Kiera the Kecleon?"

Anya shook her head, and Perona came close. "I have. She was a very famous explorer that was almost as big of a legend as Team Impossible is now. This was so because she turned her back on the Kecleon Shop and became a solo explorer. She made many great discoveries in her time, and she even attained Diamond Rank, all on her own."

"Wow! That's incredible! What happened to her?"

Neal's eyes darkened just slightly. "One day, she just disappeared without a trace. There were many rescue teams sent out to find her, but after a week without a single clue, they gave her up for dead. Wigglytuff even visited Leon's dad personally to tell him the bad news." Neal looked up and stared at the sky. "It was raining then, if I remember right. He ran away from his house and found me to tell me what happened. I had never seen Leon cry more than he did then when he heard his mom was dead."

He turned to the Natu. "He keeps saying that he'll find her, when he becomes an explorer himself. But, his dad is really scared that he'll die like his mother, which is why he keeps him on such a tight leash and never gives him the chance to become an explorer. In fact, today was the first time he'd been in a real battle with other Pokémon."

Perona nodded. "Yes, well, I've seen it happen before, especially when it concerns someone's death. I'm certain Leonidas is just trying to do his best to protect his son. However, whether or not it's really the correct thing to do is dependant on what his son wants. I could feel a lot of built up frustration within him, and he could be holding him back."

Anya stayed silent, simply processing the story that was just told to her. A loud cough broke her from her thoughts and she turned to Nero. "We're here, Lady Anya."

She looked around and saw that they were at the bottom of the steps heading towards the guild. Though, when they got there, or how long they'd been paused there was a mystery to her.

"Heh," she chuckled lightly. "You really know how to tell a good story, er..."

"Neal. It's Neal."

"Right." She glanced up towards the building above her before she said, "So, shall we be on our way?"

Neal smiled lightly and shook his head. "Not without Leon. If we go to the guild, I wanna be together with him when we do it. I'm sure he'd say the same thing if I wasn't here either."

Anya nodded. "Fine. But, I won't ever forget what you did for me, my brave warrior." She leaned over and pecked Neal on the cheek with a kiss, which caused him to stagger in place. The Bronzong then surrounded her and they proceeded up the stairs towards the guild.

Neal stared wide-eyed at the procession moving up the stairs, rubbing a clawed hand over his cheek. He smiled at himself, before he remembered what Leon was going through.

"I've never seen Leon break like that with his dad. I hope he'll be alright." With one last longing look at the guild, Neal decided to walk off back to his own home, where he hope he could sort all of the jumbled feelings he had.

And after about four months, I finally get this published! I'm really interested in this now, considering the fact that I made so much tension in the story, what with the argument between Leon and Leonidas (I will soon edit into the previous chapters to include both Leonidas and Kiera, since I finally came up with some detailed names for those two rather than just "Mom and Dad") and that kiss Anya gave Neal. What does it all mean? I dunno.

Anyway, I wanted to explain something to everyone. I know I've been taking a while with this story in particular, and I have several reasons why. First off, lack of inspiration. I actually started writing this a while ago, but it felt wrong so I took a break to figure out what was wrong. I rewrote the second part of the chapter, and it suddenly worked.

Two, prioritizing. Not only was I trying to work harder on stories like Pokémon Resurrection or Five Nights of Truth or Dare at Freddy's than this, but life constantly got in the way of me writing this. It also doesn't help that I got Pokémon Moon on Christmas, and nobody who has played that game could blame me for getting sucked into the intense story. (Which also reminded me that I never got to play any Gen V game, or X/Y, and that made me sad.) Though, this did allow me to allow Gen VII Pokémon into the story as well, so there's that.

Finally, there's the fact that I'm working on not one, but two stories with this. It's stressing to write one story, but when I have to do two at the same time, it gets exhausting. In truth, I've been considering killing one of these PMD stories (probably Pursuit), since that would allow me to get them out that much faster. (I'll actually explain why Pursuit is a little harder to write then Escape in my other story, so check it out for details.) But, I had planned on a whole bunch of stuff for both stories, and I really don't wanna kill either of them. I'd actually like your opinions on this, because this is important for how the stories will pan out, because there's a reason why it's taking place on two fronts, which I won't say until I get to that point.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. Thanks to everyone for keeping up with my story so far, and hopefully, I won't let my other, albeit bigger stories get in the way. Oh, and please vote in my brand new poll! See, I wanna know which of my stories is the most popular, and hence, should be updated more. I've already had several votes in it, and they're kind of pointing to the two stories I've already pointed out, with this one on the side. So, please vote and let your voice be heard! (By me. ;-P )

So, until next time, stay tuned to find out what happens next!