Chapter Forty Nine – Morning Freshness
Alexa pushed open one of Castelite's many windows and leaned her head outside, resting her palms on the window sill beneath her, as she breathed in the fresh and crispy morning air and felt the very slight breeze blowing against her face. She opened her eyes as she breathed out and looked across at the horizon in front of her; the sky was crystal clear and the shining sun looked as warm as it felt. She kept the window open as she ventured away from the window sill and further into the hotel room, still carrying the joyous smile on her face. Hayden and Lily sat on the sofa, reading the morning's newspaper and a novel respectively, while Keenan sorted his belt bag and its contents using the coffee table in front of his parents for support. Iara couldn't help but watch Alexa as she cheerfully entered her bedroom, only to return seconds later with her Safari Ball backpack; Hayden looked up at Alexa as she crouched on the floor just near Keenan and sorted the contents of both her backpack and her belt bag – she seemed to be shifting her items from her belt bag to her backpack. Hayden couldn't help but laugh at how sunny she was, as he heard her humming a little tune to herself.
"You're in an awfully good mood this morning, Lexie."
"And with good reason," Alexa grinned as she briefly looked inside her koban wallet to check how much cash she had inside; her eyes widened very slightly as she realised she still hardly spent the grand she received for the coin she found in Undella Bay's Abyssal Ruins. Nevertheless, she shrugged it off and placed the wallet in the pocket of her denim shorts. "Xavier's well on his way to a full recovery, everybody's picking themselves up after Adelina's onslaught – and don't get me started on yesterday's outing," she added with a laugh as she touched the Gracidea flower clip on the right hand side of her head; it was merely clipped in place as a decoration, as her bangs hung freely on either side of her head. "What's not to be happy about?"
"It's good to see you as optimistic as you are, honey," Lily said kindly, ironically keeping her eyes glued to her novel.
"Thanks," Alexa said as her smile gradually weakened. "I, uh..." Keenan looked down at her with concern.
"Alex..."
"I still feel bad about it, okay? I know I told you about Sinnoh because Adelina threatened to do so herself – what little she knew about it, at least – but that doesn't mean I should have kept it from you for as long as I did...I'm sorry..." Hayden lowered his paper as he looked solemnly at Alexa.
"Don't dwell on it."
"Hm?" Alexa looked up at him curiously.
"What's done is done; if you continue to dwell on it, it'll continue to eat away at you like it has been for the last three years."
"But-"
"He's right, Alexa," Lily said as she finally shifted her focus on her daughter. "And maybe now that you've opened up to us about the whole thing, you can start to lay it all to rest and move on properly." Alexa, starting to feel cheerful again, smiled gently at her supportive parents.
"And you know you can talk to us about anything that's bothering you, Sinnoh included," Hayden added kindly. "By the way, when are you two heading off to Entree Forest?"
"Well-" All of a sudden, Alexa's Xtransceiver began to ring with an uplifting xylophone jingle. She raised her arm to look at the incoming call, only to huff with a tiny smirk as she saw that Keith was calling her. She accepted the communication and Keith's sunny grin appeared on the centre screen seconds later. "I thought I was supposed to call you as we agreed," she said teasingly. Hayden and Lily chuckled to themselves; they knew exactly who she was talking to.
"I couldn't help it, I'm just really excited about this," Keith said eagerly.
"Just don't tell me you didn't sleep a wink last night," Alexa sniggered.
"I did, but I woke up at six in the morning," Keith said excitedly. "I know we agreed to meet at the Entree Forest, but I don't know where in the forest to meet you." Keenan joined in the conversation, looking at his sister's Xtransceiver from over her shoulder.
"Remember that tree Dad mentioned? We could meet there."
"In the very middle of the forest?"
"Yeah, that's the place," Alexa smiled. "Good idea, Keenan," she praised as she briefly glanced up at him. Keenan beamed. "You okay with that?"
"Sounds ideal; it's as good a place as any and Robbie can get a drink afterwards," Keith said happily. "What time?" Keenan quickly looked at his Xtransceiver for the time.
"It's twenty past eight at the moment."
"And it shouldn't take Robbie more than half an hour to get to the middle of Entree Forest if he gallops, so it should be about nine o'clock by the time we meet up if we leave after we hang up," Alexa mused. "Sound good to you, Keith?"
"Sure, I'm down with that," Keith nodded. "I'll see you then!" With that, Keith cut off his communication. Keenan chuckled as Alexa hung up her end of the call.
"Not too keen, then?"
"Hey, I know how he feels; I was excited about today I was barely able to get to sleep last night!" Alexa laughed as she finished her packing; with all of her desired items in her backpack, she began to place her five Poké Balls on her pink Poké Ball belt; four of her five Poké Balls were encased in Seal capsules and had a seal on top of them – Ryder's Poké Ball had a seal that looked like a rainbow star on top, Jollie's Poké Ball had a pink heart-shaped seal on it, Layla's had a seal that resembled a yellow petal and Kayla's had a yellow lightning bolt seal on it. With all of her Poké Balls secured to her belt, Alexa fastened it around her waist and stood up properly, shifting her now closed backpack onto her back. "Ready?"
"Yep!"
"Poreon!"
"Let's go, then!" Alexa and Keenan began to make their way out of the hotel room.
"See you later!" Alexa and Keenan said harmoniously to their relatively amused parents before leaving the room completely.
"It really is nice to see them looking so chipper," Lily said with delight.
"Not sure why Keith was, though," Hayden said as he carelessly closed his newspaper. "Not sure if it's the idea of training Ava or spending time with Lexie."
"Well, I like to think it's the latter, if only because of how she reacted when she saw how her clips looked on her," Lily said blissfully. Hayden smiled warmly as he shuffled closer to her, carefully wrapping an arm around her shoulders.
"Me too; I think yesterday was a great day for her – she was definitely happier than she's ever been since we got here." Lily smiled, almost slyly, at Hayden.
"Same to you, Tiger." Hayden chuckled.
"Anyway...what do you want to do while the kids are out?" he asked with interest. Lily leaned closer to Hayden and rested her head on his shoulder, smiling lovingly.
"Whatever you want to do; I don't mind."
"That reminds me, I still need to send Phoenix back to Samphire Island for a proper rest," Alexa said quickly as she and Keenan exited the hotel building, moving to one side of the doors to allow other people to venture in and out without obstructing their paths. "I can use that opportunity to get another Pokémon or two to take his place. ...maybe Pteros..."
"What are you going to do about Xavier?" Keenan asked with slight worry.
"Urgh, I still need to get a new Poké Ball for him...!" Alexa groaned as she slapped her hand on her forehead. "Why do I keep forgetting that...?"
"Are you okay?" Alexa smiled kindly at Keenan as Zane, with Troy sitting on his back, landed in front of them, despite neither Keenan nor Alexa noticing his arrival.
"Not a headache to be felt, don't worry," she said reassuringly.
"Good to know," Troy said as he walked over to Alexa. She and Keenan, despite caught off guard by his spontaneous visit, smiled happily at their eldest cousin.
"Hey, Troy! What brings you here?"
"Zane saw you leaving the hotel, so I thought we'd stop and say hi along the way," Troy explained with a weakened smile. Alexa nodded solemnly.
"You're taking Perri and Michael to see Xavier." Troy chuckled as he nodded.
"Astute as ever; nobody can say your head's a mess at this point. Anyway, I was thinking...if you're not doing anything else, Lex, we could visit him together?" Alexa raised an intrigued eyebrow.
"But we're already planning to meet Keith in the middle of Entree Forest," Keenan said in careful protest. "We're hoping to train up Ava a little bit."
"Oh, he finally asked you for help with that, huh?" Troy asked cheekily.
"Y-Yeah, yesterday," Alexa said nervously. "But I really should visit Xavier..."
"You can do it later if you want to," Troy said generously.
"I could, but I'd rather Phoenix visit Xavier once more before I call Grandpa and-"
"I don't think you'd be getting hold of Grandpa," Troy said shyly. Keenan huffed a small laugh.
"He's holding the Daycare Centre for you, isn't he?"
"Yeah...now I owe him one," Troy laughed feebly. "But don't worry about it; he left Skywing and Merton in charge!"
"That's all well and good, but-"
"Go ahead and see Xavier," Keenan said cheerfully. Alexa looked down at him in confusion. "We have all day to get Ava's training started! I'll make your excuses to Keith if he's already at the Entree Forest pond." Alexa crouched and pulled Keenan into a gentle hug, which he was more than happy to return.
"Aw, thanks, Keenan! I'll try not to take too long, okay?"
"I'll call if anything comes up," Keenan said quietly as he and Alexa released their embrace. Alexa turned her attention to Troy.
"Okay, I'm ready for my detour."
"Archeops Express is raring to go," Troy said teasingly as he offered his hand to Alexa.
"ARRRRR!" Zane roared merrily as Troy helped Alexa climb onto his back. As Troy himself mounted on Zane's back, sitting in front of Alexa, Keenan took a Poké Ball, released his Rapidash from it and quickly mounted onto her back; Iara almost slid down Keenan's torso to sit comfortably in front of him.
"Like I said, I'll try not to be too long," Alexa said to Keenan. "But can you apologise to Keith for this if he's there like he might be?"
"I think he'd understand your decision to visit a hospitalised Pokémon, Alex," Keenan laughed. "But, yeah, leave it to me and I'll meet you at the forest."
"Thanks, Keenan," Alexa said appreciatively. "I'll send your best wishes to Xavier."
"Sure!"
"All right, then! Zane, let's go!"
"ARRRRRR!"
"C'mon, Darcy, to Entree Forest!" Darcy neighed excitedly as she began to gallop gracefully towards the city's northern exit. At the exact same time, Zane soared into the sky; Alexa wrapped her arms around Troy's torso to prevent herself from slipping off of the Archeops' back. After the two Pokémon departed from the hotel, a Beautifly slowly flew out of the tree directly opposite the building and flew out of the city in the opposite direction, seemingly sniggering to itself.
Hailey walked along Route 3 with a smile as bright as the sun shining above her, with Peggy, Daphne and Daniel walking slightly in front of her. Both Daniel and Daphne were attired in their Academy uniforms, which seemed to put a sunny smile on Daphne's face, while Peggy sat on Piper's back as she walked next to Daphne, humming a gentle melody to herself.
"I'm really glad your suspension's over now," Daphne said joyfully. "It feels weird for it to end before the weekend, but-"
"No, it's fine," Daniel said indifferently. "If nothing else, the work I'll need to catch up on will allow my mind to wander away from recent happenings."
"Every cloud has a silver lining, huh?" Peggy, however, suddenly scowled.
"I dunno..." The twins looked at the young child in confusion. Hailey, meanwhile, was looking around the beautiful scenery around her as she walked; she was almost in too good of a mood.
"What do you mean, Pegs?" Daphne wondered.
"They've got that nasty pizza bread thing for lunch today," Peggy answered. Daniel groaned with mild revulsion.
"The pizza baguettes...I thought we'd seen the last of those vile abominations..."
"You'd think they'd be removed from the cafeteria menu after Roscoe caught food poisoning from one months ago," Daphne said in bafflement.
"Personally, they should have been removed after their first day," Daniel said crabbily as he pushed his glasses further up his face. "The baguette bases were horribly soggy."
"I had a crunchy one once," Daphne said quickly as the group started to approach the Daycare Centre. "I think it was overcooked..." Hailey spontaneously looked into the Daycare paddock and suddenly stopped in her tracks; the man she saw checking over the newborn Piplup and Glameow in the company of their Purugly mother was most definitely not Troy like she was originally expecting.
"Dad?!" Piper and the twins stopped and looked back at Hailey as Ian stood up and turned to face her. While Piper, Daniel and Daphne walked back to Hailey in bewilderment, Ian laughed as he walked over to the fence. Peggy, however, smiled with sheer delight as Ian drew closer.
"Grandpa!"
"Hey, pumpkin, it's good to see you again," Ian said nicely as he petted Peggy's head. Noticing Piper's new form, Ian gave her a gentle petting of her own. "Congratulations on evolving, Piper."
"Ti-ruuuuuh!" Piper cooed happily.
"What are you doing here, Grandpa?" Daniel asked curiously.
"That's what I wanna know," Hailey added, still baffled by his presence.
"Troy asked me to cover for him while he's taking Perri and Michael to see Xavier in Mistralton," Ian explained calmly.
"How did you-"
"Alexa filled me in," Ian said seriously as he looked towards Hailey. To even Daniel's surprise, Ian started to show his concern. "Are you all right, Hailey? Alexa mentioned how you've been having problems with Adelina."
"I'm all right, Dad," Hailey said kindly. "Right now, I have much more important things on my mind than her!"
"She's re-entering the Nimbasa Contest!" Daphne said gleefully. Ian smiled at Daphne.
"Is that right?"
"And it's Brie's turn to kick up a storm!" Hailey said enthusiastically. "What's more, I'm considering buying a new dress for my comeback!" Ian returned his attention to Hailey.
"What would you do with the one you wore last time?" he asked, smiling with amusement.
"I already donated it to charity; in hindsight, I didn't like how part of the skirt looked longer than the rest of it," Hailey said sheepishly.
"At any rate, it sounds like a good idea to me," Ian nodded. "Maybe you could do something new with your hair as well."
"Aw, but I like how Mum splits one ponytail into two!" Daphne playfully pouted.
"I still don't know how she does that," Daniel said quietly to himself.
"It IS a bit of a hassle, I have to admit," Hailey said aloud as she felt the unusual ponytail at the top of her head. "Thanks for the idea, Dad, I'll definitely look into that; maybe I can get a coloured highlight or something – blue, maybe?" Ian laughed.
"Whatever you feel like, honey." He looked down at Peggy. "What have you been doing with Piper while you're at school?"
"I leave her here with Troy and he trains her with Zane," Peggy answered. "But they're not here, so..."
"Leave her with me; I'm sure AJ can do something for her."
"Are you sure, Dad?" Hailey asked reluctantly. "I mean, you've already got your hands full with the Daycare, so-"
"Everything's under control, Hailey, don't worry about a thing," Ian winked. "If I couldn't handle it, I wouldn't have offered."
"He's got a point, Mum," Daniel said in agreement.
"If you say so," Hailey sniggered.
"Thank you so much, Grandpa!" Peggy said gratefully.
"Ti-ruuuh, ti-ruuuuuuh!" Piper flapped her cotton-y wings excitedly.
Robbie galloped through the luscious forest with Keith sitting on his back and Reese sitting on his head with Ava, both holding onto his antlers to keep themselves from falling off of him. Keith, Ava and Reese looked around at the scenery around them, almost breath-taken by the tranquillity of what they were seeing; beams of sunlight penetrated the small gaps in the tree canopy overhead, giving the grass they landed on the illusion that they were glowing. Eventually, Robbie saw the clearing ahead of him, with nothing but a very large oak tree in the middle of a pool of water – the very middle of the forest. As soon as Robbie made his way onto the clearing from the forest path, Darcy galloped into the clearing from the path opposite him, prompting the two equines to gradually slow down and meet up with one another in front of the tree. Keith and Keenan noticed their timing and laughed.
"Glad you made it when you did," Keenan chuckled.
"Maybe we should ride together sometime," Keith proposed, partly teasingly as he and Keenan dismounted their steeds.
"I'd like that," Keenan said happily as he looked at his Xtransceiver. "Ten to nine...we're still kind of early," he said quietly as Iara jumped from Darcy's back to Keenan's shoulder, allowing the Rapidash to take a drink from the pond with Robbie after Keith helped Reese and Ava off of his head.
"I couldn't help it, I just got excited. That and I think Robbie was faster than usual because of how sunny it is; y'know, because his ability's Chlorophyll," Keith presumed as he placed Reese and Ava on the grass. Reese tapped Ava's shoulder and invited her to play with him for a little while, to which Ava accepted and began to playfully chase the Buizel around the clearing, both Pokémon running on all fours. "Where's Alexa?"
"She went to visit Xavier with Troy; he stopped by and invited her to join him," Keenan explained. "She said she apologises, but I'm still not entirely sure if she should for visiting Xavier."
"It's okay, I understand," Keith nodded acceptingly. Keenan sighed with relief.
"I knew you would. Thanks."
"Don't sweat it," Keith said casually as he slipped his red and black rucksack off of his back and raided its main compartment. Keenan watched curiously as Keith pulled out two milkshake bottles, one banana and one strawberry; Keith tossed the strawberry milkshake to Keenan, who barely managed to catch it. "Kinda surprised I got here with time to spare, though, considering I did a bit of supplies shopping before we left Driftveil."
"Thanks, Keith," Keenan said appreciatively as he immediately opened his gifted beverage. Keith looked around the forest clearing as he opened his milkshake bottle.
"I can see why you chose this place; it's beautiful."
"We should have more peace here as well; not many people visit the Entree Forest, which is why it's so well-preserved," Keenan explained as he took a sip from his bottle; he held the bottle lid in front of Iara, allowing her to lick what little milkshake failed to escape it.
"Any reason why this place isn't so frequently visited?" Keith wondered. "I mean, I saw a map of the region and it looks like this place takes up the majority of the entire region!"
"It does, but I don't know why Entree Forest isn't as popular as White Forest...it's hardly even mentioned in the history books," Keenan said quietly as he, too, looked around the forest. "I guess it's because not many people know that this is a forest they can access whenever they like."
"Well, it looks like a great place to train Ava, so I don't have a problem with how obscure it is," Keith smiled as he drank his milkshake. Keenan looked at Keith awkwardly, as if he was nervous about what he was about to say next.
"...thank you, Keith." Keith glanced at the shy boy in confusion.
"What for?"
"For looking after my sister after my Dad's outburst." Keith was alarmed at first to hear such a thing from Keenan all of a sudden, but a warm and loving smile made its way onto his face as he remembered that evening in question; he recalled feeling safe and secure in Alexa's arms as she soothed his sorrows, as he had done for her several times prior – the more he thought about her gentle touch, the more relaxed he felt. "She's really lucky to have you."
"The feeling's mutual," Keith said sincerely. "But...I think she looked after me that night." Keenan blinked; he was suddenly curious.
Xavier lay on his hospital bed with a mirror standing next to his bedside. He looked at it with pleasure as a magenta wave of energy swiftly ran from his head to his feet, changing his form from his normal Zoroark self to that of his human guise, though his head retained its bandages. Xavier smirked as another wave of magenta energy ran from his forehead to the back of his head, making his black and red hair miraculously appear on his head. Pleased with himself, Xavier then proceeded to jump forms; first he made himself appear as Troy, then as Professor Hastings, then as his Ninetales father...he even transformed into Adelina for a fleeting moment.
"I don't think so, darling," Xavier said snobbishly to himself, purposely imitating Adelina's voice very poorly. He chuckled to himself in his normal voice as he shifted his form to Alexa's.
"ZORRR!" Before Xavier could switch forms again, Perri and Michael practically burst into the room and almost literally flung themselves into a hug with their hospitalised son. Xavier, retaining Alexa's form, wrapped his arm around both of his parents.
"Hey, Mum, hey, Dad! It's really great to see you!" Xavier said happily, perfectly replicating Alexa's voice just as Troy and the real Alexa made their way into the room, Ryder walking alongside Alexa with Jollie in his arms. Ryder, seeing the form Xavier was in, laughed.
"Hey, Alex, I didn't know you had a twin!" he joked. Jollie sniggered as Xavier quickly resumed his normal Zoroark form.
"I don't," Alexa sniggered.
"My, I'm popular this morning," Xavier teased. "I can feel the love!" he playfully exclaimed as he slightly tightened his grip on his parents, fully embracing their hugs.
"You ARE loved, silly," Troy laughed. Perri and Michael finally released their son from their cuddle as he looked over at Alexa with a kind smile.
"So, how's it going?"
To be continued...