"Ok, we'll move. But you'll ride on my salamence!" Leo told me or more like ordered me. He would probably refuse to let me walk and to avoid getting into an argument, I agreed to this proposal. He took out his salamence and help me stand up and sit on it. He walked ahead with Salamence following him with me on its back.
Hours later, we met up with Lucas and Will at astream. They ran up to us and greeted Leo first. Mightyena tackled me and I hugged my pokemon, glad that he was safe after all. Then Lucas noticed my wounds.
"Italia, are you ok?!" He asked. I nodded to assure that I was fine but before I could say anything else, Leo told him everything about how I saved him. "Italia you could've been killed!? Will half exclaimed, half yelled at me. "It was nothing," I said, defending myself but he rolled his eyes as if he didn't believe me. I guess that's what friends do, care for each other.
We stood together at the stream for a few minutes and then it rained. It was raining heavily. "Let's go find shelter!" Leo exclaimed. The guys ran ahead with Salamence following and carrying me. We found a small cave at the foothills of the Mountain a short distance from the stream and entered it. It was small but big enough for the four of us.
Leo returned in his salamence and told me to sit down. Then Will threw out a rapidash and it made a campfire for us. Then rapidash was returned in by Will.
Leo told the other guys everything, about Darkrai and Daniel and how the dark raiders revived but when he told about the dream, Lucas stood up, shocked. "You had a dream calling you to mt. coronet?!" He asked excitedly. "Yeah," I answered, confused at why he was so happy. "Do you know what that means!? You've been chosen as a guardian!" he announced.
"WHAT!" I practically yelled. Leo and Will looked shocked too. They were both staring at Lucas. "That's exactly what happened to the ex-guardians. They were called to Mt. coronet via dream!" Lucas said. "Well, that's settled. We have a guardian among us!" Leo said, smiling. "Now we just have one more reason to go up that mountain!" Will chimed in and Lucas and I smiled. "It seems we can't go out for now. So, let's just sit and chat for a while," Lucas suggested. It seemed like a great idea. It was time to know each other better.
"How did you and Lucas meet?" I asked Leo. "That, is a very long and funny story actually," he smiled and looked up to recall.
Leo's point of view:
"It happened when we were 10," I began. "Me and Lucas were both participants of the Pokémon battle tournament Benjamin level from our school. We went to the same school but I had never known him before."
Flashback:-
"Big day today Leo!" I told myself as I entered the tournament building into the participant's hall and watched other trainers patting their Pokémon and talking to them. This was the Pokémon brawl. You can only use one Pokémon throughout the whole tournament and best Pokémon wins.
Shinx (Luxio five years ago) who was standing at my foot, barked and barked, eager to battle. "Not today Shinx," I answered. "Today, Bagon (the commonly mentioned salamence 5 years ago) will battle!" he looked down and whimpered but I patted him and told him that he was my special partner and one day, he will battle.
I watched a brown haired kid walking into the hall and he sat down on a bench with his tailow (swellow 5 years ago) sitting on his shoulder. I watched a girl enter the hall too. She had pink hair tied up in a ponytail and she wore a bright pink dress with pink heeled shoes. The brown haired guy watched her and smiled but she walked up to me.
"Hey!" she said cheerfully. "Yeah hey," I answered, backing off. "I am Circe! And this is my partner Espeon!" she said. Her voice was kind of squeaky and Espeon, stood at her heels didn't move. "Leo," I told her my name. "So, you think you can win?" she asked excitedly. "I am sure I'll win!" I answered. "Maybe not today! So you wanna like hang out after tournaments!" she said, jumping for excitement. "No thanks, I'll pass," I replied and to avoid her, I walked away from there. I sat on the bench. I turned to the right to see the brown haired guy staring angrily at me. "I'm Lucas," he said, glaring at me. "Leo," I answered, confused at why Lucas would be so mad at me. I didn't even talk to him yet. "That girl likes you," Lucas said. "Yeah, whatever," I replied. I wasn't interested in girls. In fact, I hated that girl especially.
Many hours later….
It was the final battle and it was me against Lucas. He still had that frown on his face. "I'll win this and show you that Circe is mine!" Lucas yelled at me. That girl had been following me all day and Lucas had been secretly noticing. "Yeah, whatever, just battle!" I yelled back. I only cared to win the tournament.
"Bagon, use brick break!" I told him, pointing to Lucas's arcanine and he went head first into the fight. Arcanine counted with a flamethrower and then bagon used his dragon claw. Arcanine was cut in the head but he growled and then tried to tackle bagon but this had no serious effect on bagon's hard armor. The fight seemed to drone on. But Bagon finally ended the fight with a Rock smash.
Lucas looked down in desperation and everyone cheered me on. The fight was fabulous. I walked over to Lucas who returned in his arcanine and then looked at me. I gave him my hand. "But you won the girl," he said sorrowfully. "It was never about the girl. Look, I don't like girls! I can hardly even make friends with them!" I told him. "But they all seem to like you!" Lucas said, shocked at my taste. "I don't care. I never had a girlfriend and never intend to!" I smiled at him. He took my hand and stood up. The crowd cheered and I looked up. It was a tough day for bagon. He went through 5 battles without rest and alone. He deserved a treat. "Wanna hang out with me and bagon?" I asked. "We're going for coffee!" Lucas nodded and then after accepting my cup, we had out coffee and became best of friends.
Flashback over:-
"And that is how it happened!" I ended. "Whatever Leo said is absolutely true!" Lucas added. "So you've been friends since then!" Italia said and I nodded at her and smiled. It felt good to have her around now that I knew the better her. I was actually starting to like her. "So you really never want a girlfriend?" Italia asked. "Deep inside, I do. But girls are so giggly and only want me for my look. I never found a girl who was perfect one for me. That's why I never asked anyone out." I answered her.
"What about you Will? What about your past?" Lucas asked, turning to the kid. "Not a good memory," he answered, not looking any of us in the eye. 'Come on, sharing it with us will help," I urged. This guy had hidden more than any of us and I wasn't giving up easy. "Who's Natasha?" Lucas brought up the question. I guess they talked about her when we were separated.
"Natasha was a friend," Will answered. The said her name like she meant more than just a friend. "So, tell us about her," Italia urged. He listened to her.
Will's point of view:
"It was back at the castle," I began. "I was 6 at the age. The other guys were older than me so I couldn't play with them. I had Pokémon battles with them but nothing more. Then there was Natasha. She was my age. She was the daughter of the princess Miamora of Florasia Kingdom (one of the 17 kingdoms). We met and became fast friends. We grew up together. I used to tease her a lot. I called her Tash"
Flashback:-
"Hey, Will, give it back!" Natasha yelled to me while I ran away with her blue ribbon trailing behind me. She used to tie it in her hair to make a small bun and leave the rest of her hair flowing behind her.
"Catch me first!" I yelled back. "Starly! Help me out!" she sent out her pokemon and it flew high. Starly caught hold of the ribbon from one edge and flew high to pull it out of grasp. My grasp was too strong and he pulled me high into the sky. Starly kept flying forward.
"Tash, help me!" I yelled to her when I looked down. She was laughing her head off. "I'm serious Tash!" I said and clung to the ribbon.
"Starly, drop him!" Natasha managed to say between her laugh. As soon as Starly let go, I fell fast down and into the giant fountain. Natasha caught up and when she saw me, she laughed even more.
"Help me up would ya?" I said. She gave me her hand to help me out but I pulled her instead and she splashed into the cool water of the fountain next to me. A few seconds later, she came up and panted for breath then looked at me and we laughed.
Flashback's over
"What she looked like?" Lucas asked me. "She had curly golden hair that flowed all the way down her waist. She wore the blue ribbon in her hair and wore the pink silk gown decorated with roses like her mother." I described her. "I liked her!" I added. It was the honest truth. Natasha was my childhood sweetheart.
"Aww, Will has a sweetheart!" Lucas urged. "Had a sweetheart," I said gloomily. Italia gave Lucas a sharp glare and he shut up. "What happened to her?" Leo asked. "It happened one morning," I began. "We were 9 years old at the time. We had just finished a pokemon battle.
Flashback:-
"That was a great battle!" I said, rushing up to Natasha. "Yeah," she answered, rather exhausted. "Tash, you ok?" I asked. She dropped to the ground and fainted. "TASH!" I exclaimed, bending down to help her.
Many hours later:-
I had been waiting outside Natasha's room for a long time. The doctor and his mother and my father were in the room with her. Then the door flanged open and Princess Miamora ran out and down the corridor, tearing flooding though her eyes. I saw my father follow her.
I went in and ask the doctor what was going on. He asked me whether I knew Natasha and I told him that she was my best friend. "Sorry young prince. She had a heart failure and died." He said in a whisper. "No, Tash, NO!" I said, tears brimming up my eyes. I sat beside her bed and cried over her corpse. I wished it was all a dream. I wanted to wake up but I knew that was impossible. I had lost my only friend.
Flashback's over:-
"I'm so sorry Will," Italia said, as she came closer and wiped my tears. I had been crying without noticing. "No, Leo's right. It helps to share," I said, wiping my tears and smiled. "Besides, Tash wouldn't want me to cry. She would want me to be happy. And I have you guys now." I said. Although I missed Natasha, I knew that I had to move on and I had done it a long time ago.
The rain was heavier than ever, more like a storm. "We should get some rest," Leo suggested and everyone nodded. We went to sleep after that.
Leo's point of view:
Some time around in the middle of the night, I found myself waking up from my sleep by the thunder lashing outside. As my view adjusted, I noticed that there were only three of us instead of four. Damn it! That Italia had ran away while we were asleep. She had planned to abandon us.
Had she really? If you're reading this and want me to continue, please review.