'CARA! Are you still there?' After what seemed like an eternity, Mari's voice drifted from above. Excited, I leaped up. 'Yes! I'm here!' The Bagon gave a panicked yelp and glared at me for waking it up from its nap.

'Hey Cara, I am going to drop a rope down.' Ms Morgan called. 'We'll secure it on our end when you are ready.'

True to her words, a rope dropped from above and I set about tying it around me just like in our wilderness class back in school. It was probably at this point when Bagon realized I was going to leave when he crawled up my pants, giving me another puppy eye look.

'Hey little guy, I need to go now. Stay safe ok?' I reached out for another stroke on its soft ridges. The Bagon stubbornly clung on to me. 'You can't come with me, Bagon. We are not allowed to bring Pokemon back. Even if I'm going to try to sneak you back, you can't even fit in my bag.' I gestured to my bag as I speak. But the Bagon took it as an invitation and promptly scurried to my bag, somehow managing to squeeze its entire body into my bag, while its head poking out and a goofy smile on its face. I started to doubt all the literature I have ever read about dragons. All of them said they were fierce creatures not to be trifled with, but here I am with an imp with serious attachment issues.

'Hey Cara, are you coming up now?' I groaned. Seriously, I don't know how Ms. Morgan expect us to ignore the puppy eye look.

I lifted the Bagon out of my bag and sat it on the floor, noticing the fact that it had another of my chocolate bars in its hands. Wondering how it even got it, I sighed and open it for the little blue dinosaur. 'Stay here ok, I will come back for you when I'm a trainer.'

As I was climbing up halfway, I turned for one last look at the Bagon, only to find it gone. I wondered if I had imagine the whole attachment thing. Maybe it just wanted my chocolate. I couldn't but help feel a twinge of sadness as I rejoined the class.

The brightness stunned me. I didn't even realize the entire night had gone and it was now morning. A Machoke peered at me, surrounded by my tentmates, Ms Morgan and a sandy hair boy. It seemed to have been the one anchoring me as I climbed up from the darkness. The others quickly filled me in on situation. Apparently, the Pokemon League was notified of the explosion at Meteor Falls. HSF (Hoenn Specialized Forces) were dispatched to deal with the situation. HEARTs were recruited to help by finding and transporting injured trainers, or clearing rubble. True enough, I saw a Graveler (Ugh) carrying a trainer with a broken leg out of the cave. A waiting Alakazam teleported the trainer away (presumably to the hospital). There were only a few HSFs around though, all tapping on the link device in their ear. The rest of the HSFs were probably underground.

'Thanks,' I told the Machoke and the sandy hair boy beside it.

'No problem, Panda is willing to help, right?' the sandy hair boy nudged its companion. Panda the Machoke grunted. I almost choked at the nickname but managed to not show it. 'I'm Finnick, see ya around!' He said with a grin.

Ms. Morgan then herded us back to our camping site, where the entire cohort was disappointed that they didn't get to explore the caves. We were to take the bus back to the school and head home, the trip cancelled. We got a thorough fussing and nagging from Ms. Morgan though, which I promptly tuned out.

'…There were Pokemon poachers! You should've been more careful!'

'Poachers?' I snapped back to attention.

'Yes, were you not listening?' Ms. Morgan gave me a teacher's death glare, reserved only for the moment right before she threw a marker into a student's mouth whenever they dared to sleep in her class. 'They were trying to catch some rare Pokemon. Bah! Stupid boys. As if bringing down a mountain is going to help them.'

'Wait, I saw…' I was about to recount my experience when I was rudely interrupted.

'Why does she only think boys are stupid? Girls are stupider' The cohort troublemaker, Axel, whom I'm pretty sure no one liked, commented.

'I heard that!' Ms. Morgan stomped over to berate him, thankfully forgetting about us.

'Gee, I hope Ms. Morgan whack him.' Kelsie said. 'HE is stupid. Remember the time Ms. Morgan took out Titan to teach him a lesson about tormenting bird Pokemon?'

I did, a smirk forming on my face as I recalled Ms. Morgan's majesty Braviary knocking Axel off his feet with a nonchalant sweep of its wing. We all looked at the scene, eager to witness something similar, when Mari gave a muffled screech of surprise. We turned to look at her, to find her freaking out and trying to get a very familiar blue reptile out of her hair. Luckily, Ms. Morgan was occupied with walloping Axel and failed to notice the scene. Kelly walked over and pulled the offending creature off Mari's head (again). The Bagon, upon realizing it had landed on the wrong person, struggled out of Kelly's grip. Kelly gave a muffled shriek and promptly let go of the dragon, who launch itself at me, which was a feat, considering the fact that it was not very coordinated.

'Did you follow me all the way from the cave?' I demanded. The Bagon, who at first look very pleased with itself, gave me a blank look. 'Did you just try to scare me by jumping on me?' More blank looks 'How did you even land on Mari? She's like not even beside me.' More blank looks. I sighed.

'You met a Bagon in the cave?' Kelsie screeched. 'And you survived?!'

'Shh not so loud!' I sneaked a glance at Ms Morgan, who is now grabbing Axel by the scruff of his neck. I then look back at the Bagon, who had taken up a defensive position and now snarling at my friends. I stroke its head, attempting to calm it while I quickly recounted the events to my friends.

'Wow. You met the poachers?' Kelly asked.

'What are you going to do about the Bagon?' Mari asked at the same time, nodding at the reptile, her fingers unconsciously straying to her hair. I did not know what to do either, staring at the Bagon. 'It seemed attached to you. Why don't you bring it home?'

Bring it home? I can't say it didn't occur to me. I knelt down, now facing Bagon eye to eye. 'Do you want to be my partner? We will go on an adventure and train to be the very best.' More blank looks. 'Pokemon battles?' Another blank look. I brought out my phone and found a video of the recent showcase match between Elite Four trainer Chester Hayes and current Champion Iona Rivera. I forwarded it to the section where Chester's Infernape was up against Iona's Salamence. The Bagon seemed enamored by the Salamence, tapping the screen excitedly whenever the dragon appeared, giving me a quizzical look. I honestly did not understand it, but I took that as a yes.

Thankfully, Mari provided the solution of sneaking Bagon out with her duffel bag, fitting the rest of her stuff with mine. Honestly, I was not surprised Mari had space in her bag, given that she forgot to bring basically everything. Bagon, on the other hand, was content to stay in the bag, even without the promise of chocolate; as long as I was carrying the bag that is. So I ended up lugging Mari's duffel along with my own bag all the way back home.


TREBOR.E : I have PMed you!