"Violet..." A voice drifts through the air. Is this real? Who is that?

"Violet..." It repeats and I slowly open my eyes, but it didn't help; the room was completely black. There was nothing. Is this real?

"Violet...are you awake? Wake up, Vi."

"I'm awake," I reply, squinting my eyes, trying to see something. Anything. "Did I fall asleep? Why is so dark?"

Chance chuckles softly," Yes, you feel asleep an its dark, well... because you fell asleep and slept... for a really long time."

"Oh," I whisper bashfully," Why did you wake me up?"

"Jack is here with Theresa. It's time to go, it'll almost be sunup and when need to start making some ground. We've lost a lot of time."

I could now see his outline sitting in front of me and the cave was coming into focus.

"You mean we're leaving now?! Like right now?"

"Yes, now. Jack is getting more on edge the longer we stay. It's best to leave before anything happens" he stands and moves toward the mouth of the cave.

"Too late," I mutter under my breath. I stand up and stretch, once again forgetting that I had a cast. When will I ever get used to this? Stupid thing.

I limped out of the cave into the dark morning. Even though the sun was about to come up, the stars were shining brilliantly. They twinkled above the tree line bringing promise and hope to a new and stress free day. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, Today is gonna suck.

"VIOLET! VIOLET! OH MY GOSH, VIOLET!,"Theresa bellowed while dashing over to me, picking me into the air inside of a monstrous hug.

"Violet, I'm so sorry..," she whispered into my ear, her voice sounded as if she was about to cry.

"Theresa. It's so good to see you! I'm so glad your safe," I hugged her back as best I could, but it was hard we she had me off the ground.

She lowered me and started to cry silently, her shoulders shaking viciously. "I'm so sorry, Violet. I have no idea how we all got separated. I was so scared when didn't see you in front of me anymore. Like a coward, I ran for shelter instead of finding you. I'm so sorry, can you ever forgive me?," she looked up at me. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying and her face was tear streaked.

"Hey, it's not your fault. Seriously, it's no one's fault. These things happen, everyone is safe and there was no harm done," I smile at her reassuringly.

"Then why do you have a cast," she whispers, so softly I barely heard her.

"Oh, this," I lift my casted leg," This is nothing. Just some minor damage, it had nothing to do with the night we were separated," Besides the cast, I'm fine. And Chance just got into a disagreement with a... a local pokemon. I mean, accidents happen, right?"

She sniffles," I guess so..."

What do I say now? Shit. I'm never the one who has to fill the awkward void, Theresa does that. Uhm... god, this is hard.

"So, the boys found you?"

"She lifted her head again,"Yeah, they found me."

"Good. I'm glad you weren't out there all alone. These woods are not a friendly place," I winked," Now, no more sad, crying, depressing Theresa. I need happy, bubbly Theresa, okay?"

She nods her head and sniffles one last time," I hate being such an emotional person," she grunts.

I laugh," Don't we all!"

We walk over to the boys who are fixing up the packs and doing an inventory check before we fall out into the wilderness.

"Shit," I say to myself.

"What?," Theresa overhears me.

"I, I just remembered that I dropped my pack the night of the storm. It had all my stuff in it."

"Oh," she replied with big blue eyes, " I'm sorry, but it's not that bad. We can manage without it," she perks up and smiles.

"Yeah, your right. At least now I don't have to carry a backpack," I snort.

"It's not like you would have anyways," she said casually.

"What?," I was confused.

"Well.. I mean, look at yourself. You have a cast on for crying out loud. No one would have made you carry the bag," she replied like I was a complete idiot.

"Oh."

I didn't even think about it like that. This cast may come in handy... or it could just slow us all down tremendously. I wonder how long it will take to heal?

"Hey Chance," I call out still thinking.

"Yeah," he said in the same tone, still focused on the luggage.

"How will we know when my leg is better? Or even when to take the cast off? Or how to take the cast off?," I asked looking down at the scuffed up linen wrapped on my leg.

Chance furrowed his brow," I don't know. I didn't think about that," he confessed, digging into his pack.

"And what about your neck," I added, "How will we know when it's all better?," I looked up.

"I'm not worried about it, it's just a sprain. But you..." He stopped digging and came over to me. Now her was clearly concerned," You have a broken leg. That's serious," he crouched down to look at my leg.

"It's not that serious," I said trying to sound like it wasn't really a big deal. He glanced up at me, knowing I was trying to down play our situation. "Okay! fine! It might be a little serious," I admit.

"Maybe," Theresa butts in," you'll just know. You know? Like, we'll all be walking and you'll just go 'hey I think my leg is better'."

Slowly Chance and I both turned to face her, she was smiling, but then when she saw us looking at her she got self-conscious. "What," she asked, oblivious to how ignorant her previous statement was.

"Nothing, " I reply smirking to myself. I turn to Chance," I think we need to know this. It is kind of important."

"It is just kind of important.. not like a really big deal. I don't think we should worry to much about it. I mean, is a broken leg even considered an injury," he asked in his fake curious voice.

"Shut up," I smiled at him and he returned it. I missed this, jsts joking around and being happy. I scoffed at myself, Not like we've had many of these moments.

His toothy grin made my heart skip a beat and my stomach release some butterflies. He was till just a sweet little Growlithe. He hasn't changed at all. Why should he have? He doesn't know. Shit, I still have to tell him. This will be shitty, but it shouldn't be all bad. I mean, I didn't do anything to evoke Nokto's affections. If anything, It should have repelled him. I was a royal bitch.

"Uhmm... hey, Chance," I cleared my throat. "We should probably talk. It's about Nokto, and I-.."

Chance cut me off before I could finish," I can't believe I forgot about him! That's perfect! We can just go ask him about your leg, right? I mean, he'll know when it should heal by. Good idea. I'll go tell Jack we need to make a slight detour and then we'll be on our way. I'm glad we remembered this before we got too far away," he smiled and then gave me a quick kiss before bounding off to tell Jack about the dely.

Shit. Shit. Shit! This is just getting worse the longer I prolong it! Shit! What do I do know? I can't tell him before we get there because... well what if he flips out? But even worse, WHAT IF NOKTO TELLS HIM?!