In which the authors use ADHD as an excuse when they forgot the exposition. It will not be the last time.
Juliana had heard Nemona warn her about the cliff being unstable as she went "just to the edge to take a better look." However, she didn't process that Nemona had warned her about the cliff until it was too late. She moved to take a step back, but the ground had already crumbled, and it wasn't long before she was falling down and heading straight for -
The Rotom in her pocket zipped into action, providing handlebars for her owner to grab onto to slow the fall.
"It's...a new upgrade," she explained as they floated down.
Juliana laughed nervously. "Not complaining," she promised. "It's actually kind of fun when I'm safer."
"Please don't do this for fun. I'm not meant to carry things as heavy as you."
"Hey, I'm barely a hundred pounds!"
"And I fit in your pocket!"
"Ok, good point."
The girl's feet touched the ground, and Rotom returned to her pocket. Juliana looked around, noticing that the Houndour had gone.
The dragon was still laying there, however, and she got closer. It looked up at her, making a soft growling sound that she wasn't sure was a threat. It sniffed, and what little hostility there was melted away and the growls were replaced with curious sounds.
"Hi," she said, unable to think of anything else. "Um, I'm Juliana. Nemona and Florian are back there." The dragon blinked, continuing to sniff. Juliana tilted her head to one side. "Are you hungry? Is that it? My mom made me a sandwich -"
The dragon's tail thumped against the sand like a dog, even as it chirped like a housecat that had just been petted awake. Juliana laughed.
"Ok, you can have the sandwich. I'm not sure how long it'll take to get to the school, but I'm sure I can find a food stand."
She dug in her bag and picked out the sandwich that Sofia had given her. As soon as she held it out to the creature, it snapped it up in its jaws.
"Careful not to take my hand off!" she complained, but the dragon had already chomped it down and gotten to its feet. Juliana stared at it. "You just ate the whole sandwich in one bite. You need to learn to chew, pal."
"I don't believe it," Florian said from the railing where he and Nemona were watching. "She actually befriended a real, living dinosaur! Now what am I going to do for my Treasure Hunt? She'll come riding in on that thing like it's a Cyclizar, and I'll have to be all, 'Oh, hey, I found a rock!' Ms. Raifort's going to fail me!"
His distraction came when the dragon changed form, Juliana's shout catching his attention.
Juliana wasn't completely surprised that it happened. She'd heard of Pokémon doing that, but she hadn't seen it in action before. As it stood on its back legs, a bunch of feathers on its head that did not exactly match the feather-like scales on the rest of its body, Juliana wondered if her mother's sandwiches were magical.
Then she wondered if Sofia could make a few magic sandwiches to get her daughter a boyfriend.
"Hey!" she heard Florian call as he, too, took a Rotom phone down the cliff. "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine!" Juliana waved the hand that had held the sandwich. "Just gave it a sandwich. I think it trusts me."
The dragon snorted and started off toward a cave as soon as Florian approached. Juliana blinked after it.
"Bye, then," she said, and turned to head back up. The dragon stopped, making an annoyed sound as it did so, and turned its head, tilting it.
"It wants you to follow it," Florian translated.
"Um, no thank you. It might have gotten a taste for flesh, and I really don't want to die at thirteen."
The dragon's tail slapped the sand impatiently. The boy pushed her forward.
"I've got my mom's Vivillon," he said, as if he believed a Vivillon could do much damage to a dragon. It wasn't even Fairy-type. "Let's go."
She didn't take her eyes off the dragon. "Can he come too?" she asked the dragon, pointing at Florian. It hummed, but then it nodded. "Ok, then. I've got a team of four, you've got Vivillon -"
"And my own Pokémon," he said insistently.
"Right. We should be able to chase off a bunch of Houndour that live so close to a small village."
She hoped she was right.
The cave was beautiful. Juliana's thought process shut down entirely as she stared, mouth open, at the wonderful scenery.
She went to remove her backpack and pull out the sketchbook she was 99% sure she'd packed, but the boy and the dragon both objected to it. She did not draw the scenery.
Probably best. I do more cartoony drawings than landscape art. Though I am pretty good at costume sketches...
The kids followed the dragon deeper and deeper into the cave, every so often getting distracted by a particularly shiny or sharp rock. Even Florian's attention span wasn't that great, as he wandered away from the other two on three separate occasions, muttering to himself about dinosaurs and pyrite and "showing them all."
Each time, the dragon pulled him back in, and Juliana decided that the ramblings weren't worth paying attention to.
Nemona, however, was worth paying attention to.
"Are you guys ok?" she called down from her spot. They could see daylight behind her, meaning that there was an exit. "Don't you know it's dangerous out here?"
"I've heard," Florian called back. "I've got Lloyd and Vivillon. The dragon seems capable of fighting monsters."
"Monsters?" Juliana perked up at that. "You mean there are legends of monsters living around here?"
"Somewhere in the area," the boy confirmed, but he was cut off by Nemona.
"Juliana! Did you catch that thing yet?"
"Uh...no?" She reached for an empty ball. "Was I supposed to?"
The dragon made an impatient noise. Florian translated again.
"It sounds like it doesn't want us to stay and chat."
"Fine with me," Juliana agreed, and followed once more, alternating between watching the dragon and wondering about the monsters.
The closest thing they found were some Houndour, but a roar from the monster on their side scared them off. Then they came back with reinforcements.
"Don't they know that this thing can kick their butts?" Juliana complained as they were surrounded. "They can't eat it, it's still alive!"
"Maybe someone has something else they're after," Nemona suggested. "Hang on, I'll get one of my Pokémon to -"
A loud snarl distracted them all, and the Houndoom that made the sound stepped up. Juliana swallowed.
"Ok," she said slowly, "maybe that is capable of killing us."
Florian had a different plan. "Vivillon! Let's battle!"
The bug burst from the ball, doing a little spin in the air. Juliana frowned.
"Um. I may not have been battling long, Florian, but isn't Houndoom a fully-evolved Fire-type?"
"It's also a Dark-type, and Bug beats Dark in type matchups." He nodded to Vivillon. "Use Bug Buzz!"
That wasn't the greatest Bug-type move. Still, Vivillon trusted her trainer's son enough to attempt it, hitting Houndoom right in the face. Unfortunately, it seemed the pair were equal in battle level, and one Fire Fang took her down.
"We're doomed," said Florian as he called her back to the ball. "I don't suppose your team of four has anything strong enough for that?"
"Nope," was the quiet response. "I have a Hoppip, Lechonk, and Tarountula. My best choice is a level 7 Quaxly. Do you have anything on you to use as an offering?"
"I made a peanut butter sandwich for lunch," he said, "but I don't think one sandwich is gonna cut it."
Luckily for him, it seemed it would. The dragon slammed its tail into the Houndoom, before tucking a child under each arm and leaping up. Juliana tried not to squirm away, and her efforts were rewarded when she was gently placed down on the ground.
Then the magic of Sofia's sandwich wore off, and it returned to its original form, laying on the ground. It looked up at Florian expectantly. The boy sighed.
"You want my sandwich, too, don't you?" A pleased chirp. "Ok, fine, since you saved my life. But don't think that this is going to be a regular occurrence!"
He dug in his bag until he found the slightly squished sandwich. The dragon immediately rolled to its feet and chomped it right out of his hands before he could take it out of the plastic bag.
"Dude!" Florian complained. "Don't you know that plastic's bad for you?"
The dragon spit the empty bag onto the ground and chirped. Florian groaned.
"That was...very impressive."
"It really is," said Nemona, and reached out to pet the dragon. It sniffed at her, and steadily grew more disappointed. "Sorry, I don't have a sandwich on me. Maybe next time."
The dragon made an irritated sound.
"Well, we're close enough to the lighthouse," Nemona continued, to Juliana's confusion.
"I don't remember you talking about a lighthouse."
"That's because you were busy catching Pokémon." She didn't seem to care. "Come on, Juliana! I want to show you our school!"
Well, it couldn't be too far away if they could see it from around here. She agreed to follow, Florian and the mysterious red dragon going too.