The stars in the sky danced happily and the moon waned but only a little bit. The fire crackled and tried to reach the sky. It licked the air and embers bounced off its fiery arms.
Greninja was on the ground for once, lying on the other side of the fire, staring up at the sky with me. I lay on my bright green sleeping bag, enjoying the quiet the night had to offer. I offered him a sleeping bag but he refused to take it. We were quiet for hours, just watching the sky. Finally, Greninja spoke up, his tone was questioning.
I looked over at him. "You want to know more about Oaky?"
He nodded.
"Well, he was…mischievous to say the least. He used to get us into all sorts of trouble. But I didn't mind one bit. I would've followed him anywhere no matter how dangerous." I stood and plucked a leaf from the lowest hanging branch and sat down on my sleeping bag. "And I taught him some music with a leaf. And he was brave…much braver than I was. If I had been braver then I would've tried to save him and we wouldn't have been separated." In my minds eye I could see his frog-like hand reach out to me but it was met with nothing but a terrified scream. I shook my head and lay down as Greninja asked yet another question. "The song? Well okay." I pressed the leaf to my lips and blew softly, playing the sad and slow music, the song that had become bitter the past years.
When I was done I saw that Greninja was soundly asleep. My lips broke out into a wide smile. "Good night," I whispered.
He turned over in his sleep. I rolled on my left side, so my back face toward Greninja and the fire, and closed my eyes, allowing myself to be pulled into the arms of sleep.
I rolled up the sleeping bag after breakfast while Greninja lounged by a tree. "Oh hey, Greninja, I've been meaning to ask why you and Scizor took off so quickly a few days ago."
Greninja looked at the grey sky, the thunder rolled in the distance as if warning us to find shelter quickly. He was deep in thought and then seemed to nod at one of his thoughts. I waited patiently with the rolled sleeping bag in my lap until he chatted away. They both sensed something amiss and wanted to investigate but what they found were injured pokemon. They said another pokemon attacked them, a dragon with three heads.
"Sounds like a Heydreigon," I strapped the sleeping to my backpack. "Heydreigon is a dragon pokemon that will challenge anything that moves." I followed Greninja through the forest.
Snapping sounds stopped me in my place. It sounded like a twig followed by a whimpering sound. The whimpering was close by. Even Greninja stopped to listen to the sound and actually looked at me for directions. I was surprised. Without directly giving orders I followed the sound, barely hearing Greninja follow me through the shadows of the trees.
"Use Ember, Torchic!" I heard a young trainer command. He had all of the appearance of someone native to Alola very light brown hair that the sun kissed blonde streaks into, and he had bright blue eyes, and very tan skin. Treecko had burns across his body and he was backed up to the edge of a cliff. I could only imagine the drop below and what lay in wait. The torchic this trainer commanded looked remorseful. "Don't give me that look! Unless you want to end up like Treecko."
Torchic shook its head and used ember on the treecko that could barely stand up. Treecko was hit and sustained even more burns. It whimpered and its body shook but it still stood up and attempted to plead with Torchic.
"One more time should keep him down." The trainer commanded.
Torchic's spirit looked broken completely.
I couldn't stand there anymore. "Greninja, water shuriken against the ember attack!"
Shortly after Torchic spit out the embers Greninja's water shuriken came from the tree next to me and he jumped in front of treecko. The trainer turned around to me. "What's the big idea?"
"What do you mean? That treecko is obviously injured, you should've stopped!"
"So? Why does that concern you? It's my treecko and my torchic. If Treecko hadn't lost for the third time in a row then I wouldn't be doing this. He had one job-"
"Yeah, his job is to help you in battle! To be your friend! Your treecko is weak because you are weak! And now you've backed it against the edge of a cliff."
The trainer looked at Torchic and pointed at me. "Ember," he said simply.
Greninja went to move in front of me but I held up a hand and took the ember at full force. It burned my skin and caught the edge of my shirt. Gengar forced himself out of his pokeball and stood in front of me, on guard.
"Gengar, get out of the way! Help Greninja protect Treecko."
"You're a lousy trainer." The trainer huffed. "You must be if you never fight with your pokemon."
Anger burned my chest and I looked at Gengar. "Second thought, use shadow ball. We'll show him how weak we are."
Gengar was more than happy to but the Treecko that Greninja was protecting stood out in front of the shadow ball. It went over the edge.
"No! Treecko!" I ran to the edge. I could see his tiny hand clutching to the side of the cliff for his life and just as I got close enough to grab him he slipped. I could see Oaky, instead of treecko, falling off the edge. It all happened like a dream in slow motion and without hesitation I jumped off the cliff, held out my hands until I caught treecko, and folded him into my chest. "Scizor, help me out." I called without reaching for the pokeball but it opened nonetheless. From the top of a tree, Scizor caught my shirt with its claw but it ripped and I fell on my butt.
Scizor jumped to the ground and apologized.
"It's okay, Scizor. You did what you needed to do, which was protecting us from the fall. A little one won't hurt." Treecko was unconscious in my arms. "Quick, let's find shelter for now and get this treecko healed. He won't make it to the pokemon center if we try to run straight for it" As if the whether was waiting for a cue the rain started to pour out of nowhere. Scizor was able to quickly find a big tree with a hollow big enough to fit a small human. I had to bend only a little to fit inside.
I put down my backpack. "Scizor, get out my sleeping bag and then the burn heals." I laid Treecko on the sleeping bag once Scizor rolled it out and sprayed the burns with the orange liquid. After that I wrapped the burns in bandages. On the scratches I applied ointments and potions.
Some Zigzagoon and Bunnelby started to trickle in for shelter from the rain. They watched while I worked on Treecko's wounds. When I was done a Kirlia got my attention. In her arms was a very hurt ralts. She put him next to me and backed up before I could reach out to touch her. On her head was a cut. She wasn't the only one injured; as I looked around the hollow I saw a lot of the pokemon were pretty beat up.
I gave Scizor a handful of Oren berries. "Pass these around and get their stories. Find out why they're all hurt," I whispered and then sprayed the potion on the ralt's wounds and laid him next to Treecko. When I turned there were more pokemon presenting their young to me. They all wanted me to heal their children.
I helped a pack of lucario's riolus, some plusle and minun, and a scraggy. Each pokemon I healed I put on the sleeping bag and when it became full I set them against my backpack. Treecko started to wake up when I was gathering ralts in my arms. It had woken and it looked like it felt much better. I set it down and allowed it to run around, showing the other pokemon how great it felt. All of the pokemon greeted it and they yelled in their own version of a cheer.
"Treecko, how are you feeling?" I asked as I extended a hand to help him sit up. He rolled over on his side. "You could've just said you wanted to lay down."
Scizor was making things feel cramped with all the pokemon now but I asked him, "Did they tell you anything?" He informed me that the pokemon were attacked by the same pokemon Greninja described to me this morning. I thanked him and called him back into his pokeball.
The lucario outside held up huge leaves to use as umbrellas. From which tree they came off of I didn't know. Everyone ate the berries happily, though.
I looked at Kirlia and crawled closer with the ointment. "Hey, let me see the cut on your head." I reached out my hand but Kirlia pulled away with a wail, startling the other pokemon. Ralts quickly calmed her down by chatting happily. Reluctantly, Kirlia bowed to offer me the top of her head. "It'll sting, okay?" I applied the ointment with a cotton ball but she held herself against the pain. After the ointment I wrapped it with a bandage. "There, all done."
Kirlia felt the top of her head and happily thanked me and bowed again.
The rain stopped. No sooner did it stop did the pokemon trickle out as their young awoke. I packed up my things and looked at Treecko. "How are you feeling?" I asked again.
Treecko didn't answer still.
"We won't leave until you're ready to go, then." I crawled to the mouth of the hollow and hugged my knees to my chest.
Treecko muttered something under his breath.
"What?"
Treecko repeated himself.
"Well you don't have to come with me but I'm not letting you go back to your trainer either."
Treecko was quiet for a moment and then chatted a question.
"You're right, you aren't my pokemon and not my responsibility but…no pokemon should suffer like you and Torchic. So I'm gonna make sure I get away Torchic too. I would like for you to come with me to save Torchic but…if you'd rather live like a wild pokemon I'm sure Decidueye can find you a treecko herd to mingle with for a while."
He was quiet for a long while I think he was staring at the inside of the tree. Finally, he asked another question.
"You know, I didn't think of failing so…I'll tell you plan B when we cross that bridge." I looked outside for any sign of Greninja or Gengar. Something bumped against me. Treecko had silently rolled up my sleeping bag and was handing it to me. I smiled and attached it to my backpack.
The rain soaked everything in a refreshing way. The pokemon all seemed so energized by it.
Treecko kept a distance much like how Greninja liked to, in the trees. I released Decidueye from his pokeball and asked that he scout ahead in search for Greninja and Gengar. I couldn't have traveled that far from them.
After an hour of walking Decidueye came back to me, shortly behind him were Greninja and Gengar but no sign of the trainer. I frowned. "Where did he go?" I asked them.
Gengar explained that shortly after my fall he left with his Torchic but left with them Treecko's pokeball. It made me angry, so angry that I turned toward a tree and kicked it. How could someone be so…so cruel?
Everyone stared at me. I grabbed the pokeball and threw it at the tree, screaming with all of my frustration. The pokeball opened to show me its empty mouth, nothing but mechanics painted in silver inside. Decidueye put his wings around me, as if to shield me from the prying eyes of the other pokemon.
I took a deep breath and when I exhaled it came out at once, like a puff. I took another one and drew out the exhale this time. "I'm fine now," I whispered and picked up the pokeball, and approached Treecko, who crouched like he was going to run. Instead, I extended the ball toward him. "Here you go. This is yours."
Treecko didn't move.
"You don't have to stay with me. I told you that. The pokeball will automatically release you into the wild but…I can't keep it with me either. So, will you take it or do I have to throw it again?"
Treecko jumped out of the tree, at first I thought he would jump into my arms but instead he pounded my hand with his tail, forcing me to drop the ball and jump back. It felt like a hammer hit my hand! "What was that for?" I demanded.
Treecko scolded me for not keeping my promise and for abandoning Torchic. I opened my mouth to scold back but he went on to say that he wanted to rescue Torchic and for that to happen he needed to become stronger.
"So, are you saying you're accepting my offer?" I rubbed my hand as he nodded. "Then why not say so?" I called him into his pokeball.
Gengar patted my leg as if to remind me he was there. "Hey, Gengar, thank you for staying with Greninja." I pat his head. It chatted sadly. "What is it? Hey, you did great. Don't worry about Treecko, okay? He was just trying to protect his friend."
He still didn't feel any better about it. I called him back into his pokeball and turned to Decidueye and called him into the pokeball as well.