Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage
Chapter 7: Ilex Forest
Aaron's Point of View:
"Damn! We lost those two…"A young man sighed angrily as he watched Gwyn and that Silver Vilmos guy (who I guess was actual name was Tristan) run off into the forest and out of their reach. He then turned back to me. "Well, at least we got this guy. Let's take him back to the base." I pulled against the young man as he dragged me, but I couldn't break free of his grip, nor his vines. He was a changeling who turned his hands and arms into vines that for the most part kept its shape except his fingers that were wrapped around my body I struggled as much as I could, but I couldn't escape. His hair that I barely saw from under his hat was dark and light shades of caribbean blue. His eyes from his changing were a red in color and his teeth seemed to be a bit longer and sharper then they normally should have been. "Stop struggling, I'll get a statement from you once we hit the station."
I spat at him and it landed on his chin. He wiped it away with his other arm as he continued to drag me off. Apparently my action didn't aggravate his, nor got him to release me like I'd hoped. Ignoring his request, I kept pulling at him in hopes of escaping. My pokemon were taken from me to prevent them from causing an "unnecessary accident" as this guy apparently called it. They'd tried to escape from their pokeballs a time or two to try and help me out, but this guy, on his own, was able to detain them and put them back inside.
Once we got to the police station on the other side of town away from where Gwyn and Tristan left, the police left the guy with me and simply went back to their posts while I was alone with him, but I guess that was okay by them since he was so powerful and apparently respected by them. He sat me down in a mid-tone grey interrogation room where he finally released me and had it locked from the outside. While he could probably get out at any time, I was trapped, and he was in there with me.
"Alright kid, let's start out from the beginning," the young man spoke as he released his changeling form and turned apparently back to normal. His hair turned to a dark brown and his eyes were also about the same hue of color, if not, richer. He was wearing a set of light blue jean shorts and a black shirt under a thin, red, long sleeve jacket. On his head was a familiar looking hat that was red and white with a pokeball symbol on the front. "Explain why you were hurting that girl?"
"I wasn't trying to hurt her… Mr. Vilmos." The man blinked questioningly at my answer and Vincent Vilmos sighed.
"Then explain what happened, and drop the 'Mr.', its just Vince."
"Okay then Vince…" I then explained to him in my own words what happened over the past couple days where Gwyn had lied to me twice, not only about keeping that thief's card and not turning it in, but also about not telling me that Team Rocket was after all of us. I also told him of the attack in the Slowpoke Well where Gwyn had gone off on her own to deal with them.
Vince listened all the while and took in what I said to heart. I could see some of the memories coming up from the back of his mind as he listened. They clouded over from time to time and his hands clenched and un-clenched on rare occasion, or maybe more then I actually saw, I wasn't exactly paying as much attention while I was getting all this off my chest.
When I finally had said all I needed to, Vince sighed and leaned his chin on his folded hands before him on the table. "So… that's your statement?"
"Yes sir, I never meant to hurt her, but I felt hurt by the fact that she lied to me, twice." I lowered my head to look at my hands.
He sighed and stood up before he walked over to the mirror glass that was behind him and made a couple signs with his hands before turning back to me. "Alright kid, you'll stay with me for the night."
"What?" I looked back up at him in surprise, jumping out of my seat as he put a calm hand on my shoulder.
"Relax, you and your pokemon are going to stay with me and my pokemon for the night so you can cool off some steam and think about what happened tonight. We'll talk in the morning again before we go find your friend. It's too late now in the night, it'd be a waste to try and find her here." He then threw his arm over my shoulders and led me out of the interrogation room. "So relax, freaking out doesn't seem to be helping you, nor did it tonight."
Gwyn's Point of View:
I finally started to feel myself coming to as I was quite warm compared to normal. I cracked open my eyes and noticed I was somewhere in the middle of the forest, it was quite thick, even the sun had a hard time popping through the trees, so it was almost as if it was twilight in here. The trees were so thick, it would be almost impossible to move anywhere in a straight line, there was also no path clearly visible to travel on in this forest.
How could I be so far from it? The last thing I remembered was Violet catching me after Aaron flipped out over what I told Tristan…
My eyes blinked wide awake and I sat up where I was. I was in a sleeping bag with a black cloak over the top of it to help gather as much heat as possible. I pushed them back and looked to my side to see a small fire going beside me, giving off quite a bit of the warmth I was feeling. As soon as I turned away from it, I felt the icy chill of the winter. I shivered in the sudden change in temperature.
"Rhu…" The noise caught me by surprise and I turned and gasped at the large number of powerful pokemon around me. The first I recognized as the fire dragon called charizard, but this one had a different coloration then a normal one did. It had amethyst eyes and a large body and tummy compared to its nearly skin on bone arms, legs and head. It skin was colored a grayish purple with a lighter shade of that color on its stomach. On its large wings on its back, the under sides of them were a bright maroon color and a fire blazed furiously on the end of its tail.
"I recognize you!" She was situated near my body, possibly to keep me warm while I rested last night. I raised my hand up to rub the side of her cheek and she let me. "You're Amethyst, Violet Vilmos' first and strongest pokemon-"
"Scizor sciz!" My head turned and a flash of dark red blasted past me to argue with the fire beast. It was a large bug pokemon that also had black on it in certain places like under its collar and a part of its abdomen that was almost lowered dangerously close to the ground. It defiantly was a female, that was for sure. It had three flat ended spikes on its head and bright liquid golden eyes and a pair of rapidly buzzing wings. It was the bug and steel type pokemon known as scizor.
"And you're Ruby!" I nearly gushed as I looked over the radiant, yet furious bug type that ignored me while she fought with the Amethyst. "Oh my Lugia, is this really happening?"
"Kya!" I turned my head next to the last of the two pokemon, the one that had cried out sat furthest from the fire, but near a little nest that apparently had been constructed of grass, twigs and leaves which had my egg, its blanket, Cynder, Shocker, Amber and Chalcedony all inside it. The large bird pokemon itself was a light sapphire blue color that glowed when the light hit its wings and feathers. Its down was a powder blue color and her beak and legs were all a darker blue. Its eyes were a strawberry red and river long, flowing feathers were at the base of its body that seemed to dance whenever the wind would pick up, its entire body sparkling as the ice upon its feathers caught the light of the sun or fire.
"Sapphire the rare legendary bird of ice! An articuno!" I gasped and looked to the last of them. It was a large and playful pale yellow-tan dragon pokemon that had a set of large blue eyes and two little pieces of, I guess it was an antenna, on its head compared to the scales on its body. It was nearly as big body wise as my arm-span with a set of small wings that somehow carried it in the air and its claws and toe claws were long and sharp. But the pokemon in general looked playful and kept bouncing around to see what was going on with everyone, much like a child would do.
"Zircon… the dragon pokemon… a dragonite…"
"I'm glad you seem to know my team." I whipped my head around and all fighting and movement seemed to stop when Violet walked into the camp. She smiled when she saw me. "It's good to see you awake Gwyn, you gave me a bit of a scare last night when I heard shouting on the edge of town and then you practically slammed yourself and your egg into the front of me. You'd best say your thanks to Chalcedony for stopping you mid step or else that egg wouldn't be in one piece."
I nodded and quickly turned to the dark type. "You have no idea how grateful I am for you doing that for me Chalcedony, I'm in your debt, thank you." The dark type pokemon muttered a bit to itself, but nodded to me before it quickly jumped up on Violet's shoulder and took its place behind her neck, but he didn't go to sleep, which surprised me.
"So you wanna tell me what exactly happened?" She asked as she took a seat by her two pokemon that still seemed to be fighting. "Ruby! Amethyst! Cool it!" Both pokemon snapped their mouths' shut and listened to the human before they both took a seat by the fire and relaxed a bit while Violet looked intently at me, waiting for me to start. Her dragon pokemon quickly slipped over to her and laid down his head for her to stroke while she waited and listened.
"Well, it started when I woke up from the hospital yesterday…" I then dived into the story of all my troubles and pain from yesterday with Aaron and our fights. I told her of how I encountered Tristan as well and what I'd told him that Aaron had then, later on, heard me telling the young man that I wanted to trust me. Violet listened intently, her mind seemed to be at ease and yet wild with thoughts and memories while she listened to every detail, and would ask me to elaborate if something was not described enough for her.
"So in total essence," she began while her dragon type flapped its wings happily as well as twitched its leg when she scratched and rubbed under his chin. "Your best friend flipped out at you because he's a bit overprotective just your safety and tends to freak out most of the time, whether it be good or bad, the freak out or the situation."
"Something along those lines." I shrugged at her. "I knew it wouldn't be a good idea to tell him since he always tends to over react to most things, it's part of his energetic nature. Like he gets excited really easily or he gets worried easily if I'm not around." I rubbed the back of my head as I sighed, confused like. "I still have no idea why."
"I'm sure you'll figure it out." She laughed as she turned to her still snuggling pokemon in her arms. "You're just a snuggle pokemon, aren't you Zircon?"
"Raoo!" His entire head practically took up the entire size of her chest as he snuggled into it and finally rested when he'd found the spot comfy enough that he wanted.
"You goof," Violet laughed at him softly before she kissed his forehead. "But you're my goof."
"Does he do that often?" I questioned her.
"Oh yes he does, with all of us actually." She chuckled. "Zircon's the youngest of all my pokemon, he's only about three or four years old and has been the baby of the family. He still calls us either 'brother' or 'sissy' before our name and cuddles with whoever is available. I still remember back when I first rescued him back when he was a dratini. Oh I loved those huge, beady onyx eyes. I think he loved it too when he was little since he got to literally put himself down my shirt to gather all the warmth I had and lay his head on my breast for a pillow." She shook her head with a grin. "I mean, he still does it now, so not much has changed, and I don't mean trying to get under my clothes, just laying his head on my chest, he says it's his favorite place to sleep. But since he's such a child at heart, I couldn't believe it even if I tried to think he meant it in a sexual or perverted way."
"…wow…" There was not much else I could say while being in the middle of the close bond this woman had with all her pokemon, no matter the gender, type, size or age, she loved them all with all her heart and they meant the world to her, as she did to them. It almost looked to me that Zircon, her huge dragon pokemon that was nearly four times her size, still acted like a baby to her and I think treated her like mom more than a sister.
"Oh, hey Gwyn?" I looked back over at the woman in question. "How long have you had that egg of yours now?"
"Um…" I had to think about that for a moment. I tapped a finger to my chin. "I think something along the lines of a couple weeks, and I have no idea how long Mr. Pokѐmon had it before that before I brought it to Professor Elm's lab and then his assistant brought it to me."
"Well Hon, you better keep a better eye on that egg now, in the middle of the night while you were out, we felt the egg move for a few minutes-"
"What!" I nearly screeched and rushed over to my egg. My pokemon jumped out of my way as I felt over it and listened to it and looked for any cracks. It was still solid and had no breaches to the shell. I could still feel heat from it and could heart a faint beating from inside from its heart. I sighed as I picked it up and held it in my arms.
"As much as I love you as an egg right now little pokemon, I wish you would hatch already. You wouldn't believe how scary it is to carry you around and be afraid that you're not alive or something." I gasped suddenly after that when I felt a small amount of moving inside the egg.
"You know Hon," Violet called over to me. "Sometimes eggs tend to hatch faster when they hear the voice of their mother, or who they believe to be their mother. Depending on how much they move can determine how soon they may hatch, but like no pokemon is the same, no egg is the same. Yours just suddenly got active, and I mean active. It wouldn't surprise me if it'd be only a short time left before the egg hatched." She scratched the head of Zircon and he whined as she moved out from under him before he left the spot and cuddled next with Amethyst and Ruby, who somehow put aside their differences to care for the young pokemon. She sat down next to me and looked over the egg, listening to it as she tapped her finger on its shell gently. "Say something to it."
"But what should I say?"
"Say what's on your mind. Say what matters to you right now. Tell it about your life." I blinked a few times at her while she continued to feel about the egg for life as it had gone still.
"Okay…" I walked over across from her and felt over the smoothness of the egg's surface. "Things have been really tough lately little egg, I've been trying to help this boy out that hasn't been doing too well, even when I met him for the first time, and then I've been fighting with my best friend, it hasn't made these past couple days very fun… but I think it'll be better by the time that you hatch, or at least, I hope it does by that point."
Violet blinked in surprise as the egg suddenly shook violently in her hands and she quickly handed it over to me. It was shaking so violently that it was moving in my hands as I tried to keep it steady. Then, almost as soon as it started, the egg quieted right down and was still once again in my arms. I checked for a heartbeat and heard one, confirming it was okay.
"Wow, I've never seen an egg shake like that and then not hatch, but I still think it may hatch soon, so be very careful with it." I nodded to her and pulled the egg against my chest, closing it in the warmth of my jacket.
"So what do you plan to do now Violet? Surely you aren't staying here in the Ilex Forest?" The woman I questioned merely shrugged her shoulders and smoothed out the feathers on her ice pokemon. Shocker and Cynder came over to my side and climbed up onto my shoulders to hang onto.
"It's up to you Hon, I can get you out of this forest, or we can wait here a little while, but I got a feeling that you should try to make things up with Aaron. I pretty sure he'll be better off when you see him next."
"How do you know that?"
"He's with my brother, the police and Vince came last night when they heard Aaron's shouting and thought he was attacking you. They should have kept him over night and I think my brother can set him straight and hopefully calm him down. I'm sure Vince and him will be coming through the forest soon and try to find you or meet up with you in the next city. And I'm sure he'll be in a better state of mind too."
"Are you sure? It's only been a night… I think." I looked up to the tree line and I still couldn't tell what time of day it was.
"It's only nine in the morning Gwyn," Violet yawned as she took a seat next to her ice type and leaned into her icy feathers. "You fell asleep somewhere around eleven to midnight when you almost crashed into me. Still, as I said, it's your choice what to do, so," she raised her eye brow at me. "What do you want to do?"
"Are you sure Aaron will be calmed down by the time we reach the end of the forest?"
"Positive Hon, I have a lot of faith in my brother and my boyfriend."
I nodded slowly. "Then… I think we should go." I kept nodding to myself to keep convincing myself about my answer. "While I'm still not happy about the events that happened yesterday, I should make things up with him so we can heal up those wounds in our friendship. In a way… he was right that I should have told him, but I still think I was right for not telling him so soon or else he would've really freaked out and probably told me to hide in police witness protection or something like that."
Violet nodded herself while her signature grin settled on her face. "Well, if you're positive Hon, we can start heading over to the other end of the Ilex Forest after breakfast. I'm sure everyone's hungry, so while you slept, I gathered some berries and some leftovers I had from yesterday for us all to eat." She pulled out a large dish somehow out of her small side bag and pulled out a few baskets from near the trees. "You have got to try my mother's recipe for pasta salad, it's to die for."
I looked at her for a moment before I saw all of her pokemon crowding around her, trying to get a bite of the food that she'd brought out. Apparently, they must have loved that food…
"Alright! All of you calm down!" Her pokemon backed away from her, but all sat around her waiting, happily for the food that she had. She sighed as she stood. "Guests first you guys, you can fight over what's left after Gwyn and her pokemon have had some." All of her pokemon sighed in disappointment before they sulked.
I waved off her offer nervously. "Oh don't worry about us Violet; I can just eat the berries."
"Still, I think you should have some." She pulled out another bowl and set some of the pasta salad in it before she handed it to me, making sure it was plenty full. "This way all your team can have a taste, and if you don't like it, then my pokemon will eat it. They pretty much will eat anything…" she looked over at her pokemon with an evil sort of glint in her eye and all her pokemon nervously and quickly turned away from the young woman. The only one who dared stay around Violet was Chalcedony who was still on her shoulder and being lazy once again, but his eyes were intently fixed on her bowl of food.
"Well… thank you Violet." I grabbed a set of forks I had in my bag and grabbed a clean one before I took some of the pasta that was covered in parsley, a type of salad dressing, cheese and pepperoni and put it into my mouth, grabbing one of the mini tomato berries in it and setting it with the rest of the food and eating it up. I chewed it around a few times and my two pokemon gave it a shot, grabbing a small bit on their small paws to try.
My eyes widened at the intense, yet amazing flavor of the item before me. I looked back up at Violet. "Oh my Lugia! This is amazing!"
"I know right?" Violet set the bowl down, after taking a handful of it herself, and kept her fingers attached to the end while her pokemon had all turned around and were intently looking at the giant bowl.
"Three…" she gently let go and started to back away. Chalcedony stood up on her back shoulders and leapt down onto the ground, his tail strait up and ready to leap toward the food. Amber was in a similar position as her tail swung around in the air.
"Two…" Zircon and Sapphire both had their wings partly spread, ready to take off at any moment and dive into that bowl. I chewed more of what she'd given me as I watched this spectacle.
"One…" Amethyst and Ruby seemed the most hyped up about this. I could tell the determinedness in their faces. They were the major competitors on the team, while I still believed they loved the food, I think it was more for them to challenge each other rather then get the food.
"Go!" Violet jumped back even further from the large batch of pokemon she had that all leapt at the bowl at the same time, clawing and biting their way toward the food, or in Amethyst and Ruby's case, just plain fighting.
I blinked my eyes as a dust cloud emerged from all the tumbling and my pokemon and I finished up our food before we had a few of the many berries that Violet had gathered for us. The woman herself actually took a seat next to me and grinned at the fight.
"Does this normally happen?" The woman looked over at her, her grin never faulting.
"Only every time I have or make my mother's pasta salad." She laughed as she watched them. "So I try not to make it too often, but they always get me to make more."
As she calmed herself, I giggled a bit myself at her crazy team of pokemon. I suddenly blinked though when I saw a small structure behind them. It seemed to be a little shrine to some pokemon. It was tiny and made of wood and stone, with a small cute looking carving in the opening of the doors.
"Hey Violet?" The woman in turned looked over at me with a mago berry in her mouth that she was nibbling on. "Do you know anything about that shrine over there a bit of a ways into the woods?"
"You can see that from here? Honestly girl, you got some set of perception on you." She gapped at me as she quickly chewed and swallowed her berry. "It's the only shrine in this forest, it's dedicated to a pokemon that sometimes will show up here, and its nickname that many in your region know is 'the voice of the forest'." She paused for a moment and sighed as she looked out in that direction with a soft smile. "The pokemon is known as Celebi, it has the ability to time travel and is a grass and psychic type pokemon."
"How is it that you know all this stuff about my region, even though I've lived here all my life?"
"Easy Hon, I've traveled and learned along my journey, plus, it's been three years since I came here, and you can learn a lot in that amount of time." Her pokemon quit their fighting and relaxed as the contents of the bowl was gone and they then moved onto the berries. "You were young and kept inside your town where you could only learn about things there. Don't worry though," she patted my back and rubbed it a bit. "As you continue on, you'll learn more about your region, just like I have."
"Oh, okay."
"Alright then!" She quickly got to her feat and started to pick up a few things that were scattered about. "After breakfast we're all moving, so clean up when you're done!" Her other pokemon nodded while they ate and as quickly as they had started, they finished and began cleaning as the woman had asked of them.
I wonder how Aaron's doing…and Tristan? I hope things weren't too bad on them…
Tristan's Point of View:
My pokemon and I ate quietly in the forest as we gathered our strength to tread on and hopefully make it to the end of the forest before the sun started to set. I'd traveled all night to get so close to the exit and avoid those others as they kept catching up with me. The girl, Gwyn, had shocked me the most of them how she'd taken on some of Team Rocket and managed to get them to leave their operation. To add to it, she kept my trainer card and never gave it away, except back to me. It confused me so much…
What does this girl what from me? Is she an enemy or a friend?
Aaron's Point of View:
After having breakfast with Vince and spending the night over at the station with him and my pokemon (which had been thankfully given back to me that night) we headed out short after to start heading to the other side of the Ilex Forest to try and find Gwyn. During that time on our walk, Vince had planned to talk to me. About what exactly, I could only guess at.
"Alright kid, so let's get going." We stood before the building that was the real entrance to the forest and put you on an easy path to the end, but Gwyn had ended up taking a detour along the side of it and most likely managed to end up anywhere in the forest. But Vince didn't seem to be worried.
"So what exactly did you want to talk about to me Vince?" I questioned the young man as we made out way through the forest, looking for any signs of Gwyn or her team, or even Tristan if we got lucky.
Tristan in turn, sighed and put a hand on my shoulder. "Kid… Aaron… I think you really, and I mean really, need to think over your actions that you took yesterday toward your friend. How you reacted when you found out, why she did this, I think she had a good reason to do it."
"What?" I turned back at him, shocked. "She had no right to hold that information from me! She also kept information from the police! She told a thief everything that she shouldn't have! He stole pokemon! He's even stolen a pokedex from her and yet she still is helping him! She fought off Team Rocket by herself-"
"Calm down!" I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder and it prevented me from lashing out. I growled and huffed at him, but nothing made the guy budge as I tried to move. "Have you even thought about what she's been going through? What she's been thinking about that would be in the best interest of everyone?"
"What?"
"Just listen to me for a second and go along with what I'm telling you." He sighed and dragged me forward on the path as he thought about what to say. "Okay, let's try it this way, we'll start with Team Rocket." His grip loosened a bit and I moved out of it the first change I got, but the man was patient with me and watched and waited. "Team Rocket was attacking and harming a town, hurting innocent lives of human and pokemon, yes?"
"Yeah…"
"And were any police around to subdue them? Or throw them out of town?"
"No… in fact… the town was almost empty…"
"Exactly, Team Rocket had heard I was in town while they were setting up their little 'project' and decided to send us out of our way to help out on another Team Rocket case while they quietly worked. We didn't even know anything about them until we got home and some of the locals questioned where we were. If you and your friend hadn't come to town when you did, all those pokemon and that girl easily could have been taken to their base or killed." Vince sighed as he continued to walk along the path, me following after him. "If it wasn't for you brave friend for going into that, none of them would have been saved, and then there'd be all that regret over you and your friend's shoulders for doing nothing."
"But Gywn got hurt!"
"Yes, she did, I will agree to you that she should have been a bit more careful, but sometimes, you have to just let people do as they want and wish to get to where you want, and that sometimes calls for some casualties. Take my sister for example. In the beginning, Team Rocket attacked her nearly on a daily basis since the first day she was a trainer. For the longest of time, it was just her and us that battled them, and us against an entire organization, while a shocking feature, wasn't always easy. Countless times she put herself and her pokemon in harms way to protect the many others in the world that needed help. She really didn't want to involve others, but at some points, she had too when things just got to the point where she was in over her head or when she would emotionally break down and she needed the help." He gave me a strong look out of the corner of his eye. "Do you think her helping others was wrong? My sister?
"No, Violet helped out her entire region, your entire region, by defeating them and defying them…"
"And what about your friend Gwyn? Was she wrong to help others?"
"No…"
He smiled softly. "Now we're getting somewhere." A peak of sunlight burst through the trees above and shined down on us. "Now let's talk about the secrets she kept from you, why do you think she did it?"
"I don't know, but it sure pissed me off when she did," I muttered with a hiss under my breath.
He shook his head, still smiling. "I'm sure." He closed his eyes for a moment before looking up at the tree line that looked much like twilight. "I believe she didn't tell you for the right reasons, and it was a good decision on her part to do so. Ask me why."
"Why did she do that?" I snorted at him angrily; sure of myself that he couldn't change my mind.
His faced turned down as he looked woe-like at the ground. "What did you do when you got angry with her?"
"I got mad, so?"
He stopped me with a hand on my chest. "But what did you do when you got mad?"
"I yelled at her…" I blinked a few times as I turned my head away. What was he trying to get out of me?
"Would you like me to demonstrate exactly what you did to her last night, your best friend?"
I looked up at him in surprise before I was thrusted back into a tree and both my arms were held down, I could feel him holding me down with a lot of force, but the look in his eye never changed. It was dark, it was as if he was mad, like insane mad. I fearfully looked up at him; waiting for him to strike me when he let me go and I released a breath apparently I'd been holding and dropped to the ground.
"That's what you did to your best friend. Due to your energetic and over reactive nature, you almost hit your best friend out of pure rage." Vince shook his head. "I think Gwyn was right in not telling you, based on your actions from last night. But what do you think?"
"Th-that's … that's how I treated her?" I could hardly hear the words as they came out of my mouth and my body shook in fear from his previous attack.
"Yes, I saw the same fear in her face when you had a hold of her last night, I damn well hope that girl's alright, and you better as well for your own sake."
"Oh my Ho-oh… how could I do that?" Tears welded in my eyes as my body shook and rocked itself on the ground; I couldn't control what I was doing. Is that what Vince was referring too?
"Yeah, I'm sorry to say it kid, but yeah, you did, though I think it might not have been as extreme as I was to you, but you, being the best friend, left a lasting mark."
"I'm an idiot!" I shoved my hand into my hair, shoving off my favorite hat and sobbing on the ground, overwhelming emotions poured from my heart to every inch of my body.
"You may have been, but Gwyn wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this." I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up at Vince as he pulled me to my feet. "Now we have one last thing to go over, and we have just enough walking time to do so."
"What's that?" I managed to whip the tears from my eyes and watch him again as we got going again.
"That, kid, would be the subject of her and that boy you seem to hate so much." Vince looked over at me. "Who is he exactly? I might know him thought the police data base."
"Uh… we honestly don't know who he is, but I think Gwyn does to a certain degree. She's been talking apparently with some woman named Violet, who I think is your sister-"
"My sister?" Vince turned around wildly toward me and halted us in our tracks. "She's seen my sister?" He had a hold of my shoulders while he shook me for answers.
"I'm not sure, but I think so, you'd have to ask her to find out." I pushed away his hands. "Anyway, where exactly were we?"
"Oh, uh… sorry about that," Vince pulled away and rubbed the back of his head. "Uh… oh! We were talking about that young boy that Gwyn's been helping out and keeping information from the police on, while I really don't blame her for doing so…"
"Why is that?"
He sighed. "Somehow, Team Rocket's been able to hack our system a time or two and I believe we have a spy or two in our ranks."
"Maybe she picked up on that after that guy stole from the lab and her!" I exclaimed as we got back to walking. "She was making a few faces as she explained what happened to the police, maybe she figured it out then."
"We'll have to see who was there then and keep an eye on that person." Vince muttered as a finger of his tapped his chin. "So now talk to me about this kid. He got a name?"
"Uh, yeah, he's got a first name and a fake name. His fake name that was written on his card was 'Silver Vilmos', but the real name of his is Tristan." Vince's eyes went wide and he turned to me.
"Tristan?" He questioned me. "Tristan Agustino?"
"Wait! That kid is Tristan Agustino? The abused son of Team Rocket?" My eyes nearly bulged out of my head. That was the Tristan kid we've been seeing? No wonder he's the way he is if that's really him!
"I'm fairly positive it's him if my sister's involved herself as much as you've said, especially if she's told Gwyn about him." Aaron sighed. "It's all my fault that the kid's still out there… if I hadn't mentioned the orphanage, he probably wouldn't have run away…"
"You didn't know that," I told him. "You were no older then me when you said that, how could you have known?"
He snorted a laugh. "You know kid; you can be pretty smart when you want to be." He shook his head. "Anyway, I think now you see what went wrong last night," he paused as he gazed ahead to the forest ending where a large patch of a sunset could be seen. "What do you plan to do?"
"Apologize first of all to her and pray to Lugia that she'll forgive me." I sighed. "And then I need to learn how to control my emotions better, if I hadn't been so much of an over-dramatic idiot, this never would've happened."
"Maybe, but all things happen for a reason Aaron, and I think this needed to happen." Vince pointed up ahead. "And I think I see your friend now. Looks like she's been waiting on us, we'd better not do that in the future, it's not polite to keep a lady waiting." He rubbed the back of his head and grimaced. "I learned that the hard way from my sister…"
I looked up ahead of us and watched as a large white bolder came into sight at the end of the forest. In the setting sunlight sat Gwyn at the top of it, both her pokemon resting in her lap and her egg in her arms. She was already glancing this way and looked tense, like she thought another fight would come from me.
I shook my head and ran toward her, shaking my head and tears flowing all the way.
Gwyn's Point of View:
Violet led me all the way to the end of the forest to where a large pure white bolder was and she used her changeling abilities to set me atop of it. She got me situated where just incase under the slightest change that Aaron was still mad at me, he couldn't hurt me from the high climb atop the bolder.
"Now I'll keep in touch with you Hon, you better tell me when things clear up with you and your best friend." She called out her dragon pokemon to give him a stretch of his wings for once instead of being inside his pokeball. "I should be up on route thirty-six for the next day or so if you need me at all, and if you don't see me right off the bat, you know how to reach me."
"Thanks Violet, for everything." The woman nodded and gave me a quick hug before she grabbed onto her dragon pokemon and flew away from the bolder.
"Later Hon!" She reduced her abilities and became a normal human once more before Zircon cried out and flew off and high up into the sky, where she was only a tiny black dot to my eye.
I sighed as I sat there by myself. Shocker and Cynder quietly sat themselves in my lap and curled up while I held onto my egg and sighed as I looked off toward the forest. A beautiful sunset was setting over as the bright ball of light sunk below toward the tops of the trees and turned to a vibrant, darkish orangey red color. It was nice and warm on my jacket and skin, but the night's cooling air was starting to settle in. I hope I don't have to wait for Aaron after dark. It's getting cold out here.
I huddled closer around my egg with the blanket to keep it and myself warm. The wind was starting to gust up, it was a sure sign that winter would soon be here, and that would not be pretty. Its not that I don't like the snow season, it's always beautiful, but it's extremely cold, we always seem to get mountains worth of snow and below freezing temperatures. I'll need to get myself a set of winter gear soon enough while I travel, or at least a warmer jacket to put over this one…
I suddenly heard movement from down the trail, my head whipped to see two figures emerging from the same forest I'd just emerged from a short while ago. Those figures soon turned out to be males and just as soon as I picked up on that, I noticed that it was Aaron with what I guessed was Violet's brother Vince, a tall young man that was much taller then she was, dark brown hair and his normal get up that he wore all year round, being a changeling prevented you from having to worry about temperature too much useless you were submerged in extreme heat or cold for long periods of time.
I sat nervously on the bolder as I watched them approach, Aaron especially. Violet may have assured me that he would be fine, but I was still hesitant. I suddenly saw that Aaron saw me and he bolted forward with what I saw to be tears in his eyes. He had to be over it then, he just had to!
Against my probably better judgment, I carefully slid down off the side of the large bolder and waited there for him. I handed my egg to Cynder and Shocker just incase, but I was surprised when he shouted my name in pure fear and worry and captured me in a monstrous hug.
"Gwyn!" He sobbed into my hair and shoulder. "I'm so so so so so so so sorry!" He pulled back his face to show me his broken figure. "I don't know if you can ever forgive me for not believing in you, agreeing with you, fighting with you, nearly attacking you-"
"Aaron, stop." He continued to breathe heavily and hiccup, but he silenced himself. I shook my head. "I'm at fault too, I should have told you about Tristan, Violet and Team Rocket."
"But you didn't with good reason!"
"Aaron…" I sighed before and idea hit me. "Wait, how about this? We both say we're sorry and keep no more secrets from each other, and try to watch our emotions and tempers in the future."
He wiped his face on his sleeve and nodded. "I can live with that." He crushed me into another hug and I gasped for breath.
"If I can interrupt," I turned my head to see the young man next to us that forced Aaron to loosen his grip on me. "Its getting a bit chilly and you two will both come down with a cold if you don't get to the city. I'll lead you kids over there."
He began to walk ahead and Aaron grabbed my hand to pull me with him. My pokemon thankfully brought my egg and it was an easy walk until Cynder and Shocker cried out behind me. I turned and pulled my arm from Aaron's to see that my egg was shaking madly on the ground.
"My egg's hatching!"
Witch's Note:
Oh boy, if that wasn't an emotional chapter, then I don't know what is! It was a lot of fun to write this though, and now we have another old character come back, just like Violet! We now have Vince! Isn't it grand? And apparently he's grown up a bit over the past three years!
But what happens next? Gwyn's egg is going to hatch and I have yet to tell you what happens! Oh well, I guess you guy'll just have to wait on the edges of your seats to find out next time when I update again! See you next week with another chapter and TWO new pokemon for Gwyn! Yeah, you heard me! TWO! And please don't forget to send me your wonderful Questions and Reviews or PMs! I love to hear what you have to say!
Love you all and see you next week!
Halloween Witch