Chapter 2:
The Mystery in the Fog
Location: Postwick
Frantic banging on the front door woke me up. I immediately presumed it to be Hop so I grudgingly poked my head out the window to see him. He looked worried.
"This is not good!" he said.
"What could possibly make you want to wake me up like this?" I asked.
"The Wooloo from yesterday," he called up. "It… got through the fence!"
Hop pointed to the fence blocking Slumbering Weald: it was now broken.
"Oh no," I said, coming to my senses. "I'll be right down."
I got changed and had breakfast as quickly as I can. I stood with Hop just outside the forbidden forest.
"What do we do?" Hop asked. "We can't go in there. We could get lost and even if we found our way out, I'm not dealing with Mum when she is angry."
"Get your brother," I said.
"We can't," Hop replied. "Two reasons. One, this is his time off before the opening ceremony. Cut him some slack. Secondly, he's rubbish, or I guess Trubbish, with directions. When he was younger, he went on an exchange camping trip to the Eterna Forest and got so lost that a helicopter had to find him. Even today, he is terrible with maps. Is there anyone else who could go in?"
I looked into the forest. "We'll have to risk it."
"You're having a laugh!" Hop shouted. "Us? Go in there?"
"If we don't go in then Wooloo might not come out. It's a risk, but we'll have to take it."
Hop sighed. "But if you get us in trouble and blow our chances at an endorsement, then it's your fault. Got it?"
That seemed fair. "Okay, enough dilly dallying! We have a Wooloo to save!"
Location: Slumbering Weald
The forest had a very thick fog layering the ground and drifting in the air. Thankfully, the path ahead was easily noticeable.
"It's… weirdly beautiful," I said.
"We still shouldn't be here," Hop said through gritted teeth. "Let's just find Wooloo and get out of here so we can face our parents as soon as possible."
We walked forward and into some tall grass. We had our own Pokémon now, so we felt safer to go through. And good thing to, because I quickly stumbled across a Pokémon. It was yellow and purple with large-clear eyes that looked like nerdy glasses.
Blipbug (サッチムシ)
#010
Bug Type
Larva Pokémon
1'04" (0.4 m)
17.6 lbs (8 kg)
A constant collector of information, this Pokémon is very smart. Very strong is what it isn't.
"Go Scorbunny!" I shouted. "Use Ember!" Scorbunny shot a flame at Blipbug for Super Effective damage. Blipbug barely survived. Then, Blipbug fired some green bullets at Scorbunny for minimal damage.
"That's Struggle Bug!" Hop said. "It can lower Sp. Attack!"
And he was right; Scorbunny's Special Attack fell. But it didn't matter; we had this. "Scorbunny, Ember again!" Scorbunny fired one last flame at Blipbug, knocking it out.
"How did that feel?" Hop asked.
"It felt great!" I said. "My first wild Pokémon battle!"
"It won't be our only one," Hop said. "In fact, I'll go next!" Hop ran into some tall grass, and he came across a wild Pokémon himself. It was brown with a long-bushy tail and puffy cheeks.
Skwovet (ホシガリス)
#024
Normal Type
Cheeky Pokémon
1'00" (0.3 m)
5.5 lbs (2.5 kg)
It eats berries nonstop – a habit that has made it more resilient than it looks. It'll show up on farms, searching for yet more berries.
"Grookey, go!" Hop shouted, sending out his partner. "Use Branch Poke!" Grookey took the stick from its head and jabbed Skwovet with it. Skwovet came back with a Tackle, ramming its body into Grookey. Grookey was fine though. "Use another Branch Poke!" Grookey jabbed Skwovet again, sealing the deal.
"Nice job Grookey!" Hop said, as Grookey climbed onto his shoulders. "We need to get a move on."
Through the forest we went. It's amazing the kinds of Pokémon there were. In the holes in the trees, the Hoothoot snored.
Hoothoot (ホーホー)
#019
Normal/Flying Type
Own Pokémon
2'04" (0.7 m)
46.7 lbs (21.2 kg)
It begins to hoot at the same time every day. Some trainers use them in place in clocks.
In the ground, Grubbin popped their heads out of the holes that they had burrowed.
Grubbin (アゴジムシ)
#016
Bug Type
Larva Pokémon
1'04" (0.4 m)
9.7 lbs (4.4 kg)
It's natural enemies, like Rookiedee, may flee rather than risk getting caught in its large mandibles that can snap thick tree branches.
"It's weird," Hop said. "Why are people not allowed to visit such a mysterious place?"
"Because it's mysterious?" I asked. "This is a Galar Heritage site after all. But that's barely a reason."
As we continued walking, the fog really started to pick up. "Uh-oh," Hop said. "If this gets too thick, it will be harder to leave."
We decided to stop and assess the situation. We just so happened to come to a halt at a stone bridge. "Look at this," I said. "This can't be new. People haven't been allowed to come in here for centuries. Could Wooloo have gone across it?"
Just then, Hop touched my shoulder. "Look at those."
I squinted my eyes to see two figures coming from the fog. Both were quadruped. One was blue with a red streak going from one end to the other. The other had predominantly red fur all over it.
"What are those things?" Hop asked. I tried scanning them.
Pokémon unrecognised.
Please try again some other time.
"It can't pick it up."
"Well, whatever the case I think they're about to strike!" Hop said.
"I've got the red one!" I spoke. "You get the blue one!"
"WHAT?!" Hop said.
"WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" I shouted.
Gloria and Hop Vs. Mysterious Beings
Both Pokémon made a howling sound.
"Okay Scorbunny, Ember!" Scorbunny kicked a flame at the red Pokémon, but it did nothing.
"What?" Hop asked. "Maybe this is a new Type immune to Fire. Well, let's try Branch Poke!" Grookey poked the blue Pokémon with its branch. It also did zero damage.
"What's happening?" I asked. "Let's try another move. Use Tackle!" Scorbunny charged forwards, but it went right through. "What?"
To make matters worse, the fog was getting thicker. The Pokémon we were fighting were getting harder and harder to see.
"Gloria!" Hop shouted.
I felt around, but I felt no Hop. I started running in… whatever direction I thought would work. "Hop!" I shouted. "Hop where are you!" I closed my eyes and yelled. "HOP!"
"Hey!" I felt a hand on my shoulder. When I opened my eyes, the fog had mostly dissipated. I looked around to see Leon calming me down.
"Leon!" I asked. "What are you doing here?"
"Some neighbours saw you went in so I went to come and find you. Whatever could have made you go in there? Everyone has been worried. You know the rules; access to Slumbering Weald is forbidden."
"We were looking for Wooloo," I asked. Honestly, in all the commotion, I had completely forgot that was our main goal.
Leon stepped to one side to see the poor Wooloo, shaking for fear. "I think it's learned its lesson."
"Gloria!" We heard Hop in the distance. Scorbunny and Grookey were with him, so he ran over. "And Lee to? Why are you here?"
"To look for you," he said. "Now I think we should get out of this place and talk to your parents. They already know what's going on."
I was really scared already. I imagined the scenarios.
Fantasy #1: WHAT THE HECK DID YOU THINK YOU WERE THINKING? THAT'S IT! YOU CAN KISS THE GALAR GYM CHALLENGE GOODBYE AND YOU ARE GROUNDED UNTIL YOU'RE DYING BREATH!
Fantasy #2: Actually, no. That was the only situation I could think of.
Location: Postwick
Upon returning, we saw my Mum, Hop's Father and Wedgehurst's Officer Jenny. There were multiple police cars outside and yellow tape across where the gate would usually be.
"Gloria Sophie Smith!" Mum said, running over to hug me. "What were you thinking?"
"I expect an answer to," said Hop's Father.
"You know better than to go into the Slumbering Weald," Officer Jenny said. "People have not been allowed to go in there for centuries."
"Well," I said. "We also know better than to let a Pokémon get lost."
"Yeah," Hop said. "The stupid Wooloo who likes to use Tackle things? It broke the gate and went into the Slumbering Weald, so we went to rescue it."
"So," Mum said. "You were doing it to rescue a Pokémon." She turned to Hop. "Why did you not get your brother to do it? He's the strongest Trainer in Galar. He's more capable than you. I get it, you're Trainers now. But you should leave stuff like this to the professionals."
"We wanted you to have a break," Hop replied. "You're so busy doing cool Champion stuff and meeting fans that we wanted you to have some down time."
Leon knelt down and put his arm on Hop's shoulder. "Hop. Being a Champion is busy, but it also means that I need to take the call to duty, no matter how little free time I have. And losing my sibling? That would be a big deal. If you had just told me about Wooloo, I could have made an exception to Officer Jenny to let me in to Slumbering Weald to rescue it. On the other hand, it takes a lot of courage to do what you did. I believe this has brought you closer to getting your endorsement to the Gym challenge."
"Really?" we both said.
"Yes!" Leon said. "Just one more challenge. Meet me at the Magnolia Laboratory tomorrow. Then we will discuss what's going on."
I looked on my phone. "But 253 of the slots have been filled."
"Then I'll be in contact with Chairman Rose immediately to put two spots on hold for you if you can make it of course. See you tomorrow!" With that, Leon walked off.
"We better take you home to," Hop's Father said to Wooloo. "You coming to Hop?"
"Well," Hop said. "We want to tell you about-"
I gave Hop a small nudge, then shook my head. Hop agreed that it should be our little secret.
"Tell us about what?" Mum asked.
"About this… weird headache I've got. It's been a long day I need a rest."
"Erm… me to," I said. "See you tomorrow Hop!"
Something was going on in there, but it wasn't the right time to tell anyone about it…