Ray's POV

What, was the fruit of the wilds not good enough for the tastes of a princess? Although, I wasn't one to judge, I had as distinguished tastes as anyone. Even now, the raw seafood I ate clung to my tongue and churned in my stomach, but I wasn't about to let her see that.

"If a fruit tastes that bad, and it's brightly colored, it's probably poisonous." I said, quoting a tidbit of knowledge I learned from the library about the flora of this world. It was amazing, some of the things that people did with plants. It was medicine, it was food… clothing, weapons, you could use a plant for all sorts of things, if you knew what it was.

"Then maybe it's better I don't eat, huh? It sure would be awful if I starved, huh? I'm sure you would hate that." She said sarcastically. She thought I wanted her to die? I could understand why she thought that, with how I had been acting ever since I got here, but I really did not want her to die, if only for the reason that if she was dead, the way back home would be closed forever. I also just didn't really wish death on anyone, but she could think what she wanted. I wasn't going to correct her, she wouldn't change her opinion. She was very stubborn, as far as I could tell, and so was I, honestly. We should not have been put together.

"Hungry, princess?" A voice said. What was that? Who was that? I looked towards the voice. It sounded like a young adult male, and in fact, it was. There was a human with strange clothing, well, clothing different than the people around the palace wore, anyways. He was mounted on a Flygon, who was more or less the same size as me. The two of them had landed on the ground, and the human was holding out a small bag.

I was immediately suspicious. Who was this guy? He had a strange aura of danger, but he was smiling and seemed at ease. It was an unsettling contradiction. He was not dressed at all like any other human I had ever seen, and yet he knew she was the princess. I couldn't have her dying. Then again, there wasn't a whole lot I could do to protect her until she got stronger herself. But I guessed I still had speed on my side. We could run away, fly away. I was ready to go if things went south. I had eaten… badly, but I had eaten.

"And you are?" She said, putting on this air, this façade of fancy official royalty. No doubt this act was drilled into her for official ceremonies or hearings or just talking to citizens in general. King Mewtwo had given me the same sort of drill. It was some sort of defense mechanism. I could understand that.

"Strider." He said cooly. "And you are princess Emerald, pleasure to make your acquaintance." He said, tipping a cap he had on.

"The pleasure's mine." Emerald replied, again in that sort of forced royal façade. Then she narrowed her eyes. "How do you know me? You look nothing like anyone in my kingdom."

"The castle ground waterfall thing? Nah. But I'm definitely part of the kingdom, princess, and I'm here to take you home."

"How are you out here, and what's with your clothes?" Emerald asked. She was clearly baffled. This was… a very strange man, indeed. No matter how smoothly and soothingly he talked, he set off alarms in my head. He was trouble. Come to take her home. To do that, he would have to know that she had run away, and considering the fact that we had just run away yesterday, and the only people who would know we ran were the people who were chasing us. There hadn't been enough time for anyone else to find out. This guy had to be with them, then.

"Does any of that really matter? I know y'all are powerless. You can come with me, all nice and pretty-like, or you can make this hard for yourself." He narrowed his eyes, looking over Emerald as one might look at a plaything. What was he planning to do, exactly?

"You're with that real dark court, in the catacombs." I said.

"Uh, nah, I ain't one of them. They're giving a reward for you, though. Usually I'd put on some sorta routine to avoid having a big fight, but, ya know, you aren't much of a fight, little lady. Gonna be even with you, you aren't really worth the effort it would take to deceive ya. So, which way will it be? Easy or hard?" Strider said. If she was taken back she would likely be killed, and then I would never get back to my world, to my life. We stared at each other, the tension in the air very high… and then it broke.

"I'm kiddin ya, I'm kiddin ya. I ain't gonna turn you in, girly." He broke into laughter, and so did his Flygon. They must have found the looks on our faces from having been tricked particularly amusing, because they couldn't stop laughing for a little while. I wasn't entirely sure it was a trick, though. My trust for him immediately shot even further down. Emerald, I wasn't sure what she was thinking, but she laughed to, perhaps from the sudden breaking of so much nervous tension. Who could know? I hoped she didn't suddenly trust him. After a minute or so of laughter, Strider sobered enough to speak.

"The rest ain't a trick, though. They really are lookin for ya, and there's a bounty on your head." Strider reached into a pocket and produced a piece of crumpled paper. He unfolded it, revealing an image of Emerald and myself, along with the word "REWARD" and a number with quite a few zeros. . Emerald grabbed it from out of his hands and stared at it hard, in utter disbelief. Then she suddenly threw it on the ground.

"No, screw this! You've got to be kidding me?!" She stomped on the wanted poster, too. The shock must have broken her royal presenting demeanor. Now she was acting more like herself. That meant her defense was down, a bit, but mine would not be. Who was to say this was not the lie. It was perfect, he would gain her trust and lead her to an ambush or attack her himself in a moment of weakness. He would deliver her over to her clearly cult family and their dark king master, or whatever, and Mr. weird clothes over here would pocket the cash, leaving me stranded here forever. And that was only the best case scenario, worst would be that they dragged me into this with her and tried to kill me too. Well, it would make sense if they did, to be honest. I also saw them… and I helped Emerald escape. Well, maybe I could strike some kind of deal to at least save myself.

"Nope. Not kidding you. There are hundreds of these all over the kingdom, and probably even beyond. Word spreads quick when the king wants something done, you know?" He said, picking up the wanted poster off the ground and lightly dusting it off. "You two should be glad you found me before anyone else.

"Excuse me, do you, for some reason, think we trust you just because you said you aren't actually going to capture me? Because I don't." Well, at least Emerald wasn't entirely stupid about these things, even if she had been isolated in her castle most of her life.

"Girly, please. If I so much as had one ounce of respect for the king, you would be gone. Just cause I ain't gonna kidnap you or kill you, doesn't mean I'm a good person. I definitely ain't no upstanding citizen. I'm probably one of the only people who would let you go free. Any good citizen is gonna try to take you down or at least turn you in." Strider pocketed the wanted poster, apparently satisfied that it was now clean.

"You look like the type of guy who likes adventure and danger, and to stick it to authority. Want to come with us?" Emerald asked. That was… a change of gears. First she wanted nothing to do with him, no she was inviting him along. Well, I supposed it made sense. E was strong, or at least looked strong, and she was weak, and if he was the only person not against her, she probably wanted at least some allies.

"Yeah, but being around you would be bad luck for me, girly. You're gonna have armies after you, from the looks of it. They really have something against you. If they found me with you, it's just be the cherry on top. I'm not putting myself in a situation like that without proper… compensation."

"You wanna be paid? Fine, I'm a princess. I can get money."

"How? You're estranged from home and nothing on you looks particularly valuable." He replied.

"I'll find a way." Emerald said, her voice determined and resolute. Something about her voice must have reached him, because his face changed. Instead of looking all condescendingly, he looked more solemn, like he had more respect. But this guy, according to his own words, I thought, that we could not possibly pay him and so were out of luck, not worth his time except to be a quick laugh, a play thing.

"Alright, little girly. I'll take you up on that." His Flygon, whose name we did not know, gave him a confused look and nudged him. He looked back and connected with the Flygon, looking in his eyes. Apparently, they had quite the strong bond, if they were able to communicate like that with only a glance. I had no doubts a Pokemon and a human's bond could run that deep, I just didn't care to stick around long enough for me to feel that connected to Emerald. However, I would have loved to be that connected with Mel. It was only a brief moment that their eyes met, but they seemed to communicate much, because now the Flygon stopped fidgeting. Did they really believe they would get the money, or were they coming along purely for entertainment value, and didn't care as much about the danger and likeliness of being caught as he originally conveyed.

"Good, then I've hired you as my bodyguard." Emerald said.

"Yep. So where to, my lady?" Strider asked. They didn't seem to be paying much attention to me, and neither was the Flygon. I could honestly do just about anything right now, and nobody would even pay attention. For some odd reason, I felt a pang of jealousy. I didn't care about attention though, so why? Maybe this… this situation reminded me of something in the back of my mind. I couldn't articulate it.

"Well, for starters, somewhere with food would be nice." Emerald said. As she did, my mind was pulled back into the realm of reality, dragged back by my stomach, which growled hungrily. I had the seafood, sure, so I was not as hungry as she was, and her stomach growled louder as if to prove exactly that. The mouthful of small sea creatures and plants were not enough to sustain me, though. If he had food, I would more than happily take it… as long as he ate it first.

Perhaps I was a bit paranoid. Consider it a side effect of being groomed as the heir to a throne. I was trained in many skills and graces, yes, but also in survival skills from assassination attempts. There would always be those who might try to get rid of the king for whatever reasons. I had to be ready… and so now, all I could think of was how many ways this guy could trap and kill Emerald and myself. The thought pattern was a bit suffocating, but it made things safer. I didn't know how the world really looked to her, but something told me the world was actually a way more dangerous place than it was seen through the eyes of this child, who had been isolated in her royalty for years, never really knowing the plight of the citizen. Never really having had to watch her back.

"Ah yes, food, I nearly forgot." He said, and with a slick smile, he pulled out a small burlap sack he had been hiding on his person.

"You have some, first." I said, before things went any further. Strider frowned for a moment, as if he wasn't sure exactly why I was saying that. He was putting on an ignorant air, so he didn't give away immediately to Emerald that I had caught him red handed. Then the realization of what I meant seemed to dawn on him, and he nodded and smiled again.

"Sure, mister. I'd love to have a little, myself, fight off the hunger, a bit." He took a big ol' handful of what turned out to be dried fruits and nuts out of the bag, then stuffed them in his mouth, making a big show of it that he was, in fact, chewing and swallowing the food, and it was not poisonous. I knew that was for my sake. Well, I waited a moment, and still the food did nothing to him. As the seconds ticked on, the likelihood of the food being a trap became less and less. To be honest… I was surprised. Unless he had some sort of way around this failsafe, he really wasn't trying to take advantage of a rogue princess with a large bounty on her head. Well, I guessed if anyone were to help a rouge, it would be another rouge.

"Satisfied?" Strider asked, tilting his head slightly. I nodded. I was indeed satisfied. I still wasn't one hundred percent sure about this, but I would never be one hundred percent sure of this. However, we did both have a hundred percent chance of dying if we suddenly just decided not to eat.

"For now." I said, conceding my position on this specific instance, but not backing down on the overall situation.

"Good." Strider smiled, and put down the bag. "Take what you want. There's a town further inland where we can restock, rest up, wash up." His eyes lingered on the two of us for a moment, before he added. "The two of you are going to need a disguise if you want to step anywhere near civilization without getting caught. So, you should start working on that." Strider said, then took another handful of nuts and fruits from the back and munched. How exactly were we supposed to disguise ourselves? Sure, she could change her appearance and not many people would know who she was, but if I wanted to fit in, I would have to disguise not just my identity, but my entire species, since my kind were exceedingly rare here. If they saw a Rayquaza, they would likely know it was us. And something told me this guy wasn't about to help us come up with disguises, as he was now lounging on the beach, leaning up against his Flygon.

"Come talk to me when you're ready to go." And with that, he tipped his cap over his face and fell asleep.

Have an awesome day!