✔️Pokemon: Beastly Hunter (Leaf x Gary) (leafgreenshipping)

Episode 10: Red's Entries

Since Gary's mysterious actions, Leaf hadn't talked with him for a while. Gary must have noticed Leaf's action because, after a few days, he just left and didn't return for a few days. Leaf wasn't alarmed at first, since Gary always disappears off a few days a month. Gary never told her why, so she never asked.

During the few days alone in the dark cottage, Leaf's daily routine was to wake up, cook a light meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, read a book, and sleep at night. She didn't bother to take down the dark blinds Gary put up. Her days were quiet and peaceful, almost too quiet that sometimes made Leaf bored and felt as if she was back in the village, where she only hid in her cottage and only went out to get food.

Like any normal day, Leaf cooked a light mushroom pottage from the mushrooms she and Gary collected before his disappearance. She placed the warm bowl on the table and began slowly eating it while looking through the book and the glowing mirror right next to her on the table.

"Good thing that we collect all this food together. If no, I would have starved to death," Leaf muttered under her breath. "What is he doing out there anyway?"

Leaf finished the pottage and washed the dishes before going back to her seat to continue reading her mother's entry in the book. Unlike the entries of the rest of the book, each word was written with care and hope. The entries continued until after Leaf was born and it ended with the day before her disappearance.

"What about the prince that made my mother go so far?" Leaf wondered as she began to read the writing of her young mother.

My grandmother handed me this book on my sixteenth birthday, telling me to study it wisely and to use it wisely. I never understand what it means. I remembered reading one and then it was buried under my piles of books until I met him. That is when I remembered the book's existence.

That was the first few lines of her mother's entry. Leaf can imagine her mother writing carefully and patiently at night, with a lit candle on her desk while she works.

The prince was unlike anyone I had ever met. Like any prince that I read in books, he is handsome, tall, and arrogant. Despite his cold attitude, I can't help but feel that the prince is lonely and depressed. I can't imagine anyone living in such a big mansion alone in the middle of the forest, hidden in the trees.

The old abandoned mansion suddenly showed up in Leaf's mind when she read that the prince lived in the mansion in the forest. Curious, Leaf continued to read more about her mother's interaction with the prince, including how the prince fell in love and had a child. Red continued to write about her research and how she had Leaf after her marriage.

Ever since I got married, it was hard to meet up with the prince and the lady. I can still occasionally visit them on my day to meet my mother on the other side of the forest. But now that my daughter was born, it is harder to leave the house. My husband also grew especially suspicious at my overnight stays and his action toward me and the rest of the villagers. I slowly began to not understand him.

Leaf vaguely remembered her father wouldn't allow Leaf to leave the house without their supervision or permission. Leaf was especially not allowed to go near the forest or go with her mother to anywhere outside of the village stalls. She was only allowed at home, where her parents were, or at a friend's house who her father approves of.

That was the end of Red's entry because nothing else was written after that.

This entry only made Leaf more confused about the disappearance of her mother. In her memory, her mother went missing when she was around ten. Since then, her father had also left, and Leaf was left all alone in their little house, taking care of herself and fending herself. She never knew what happened, besides the villager's rumor about her being a monster because it is in my blood.

Leaf was so immersed in her mother's entries that she skipped lunch and almost forgot her dinner. She sighed and stretched. She placed the book on the table and stood up. She went to the drawer to grab a candle to light up for her to start preparing for dinner.

As she pulled out the drawer, she heard the light sounds of footsteps close to the cottage. She stopped and listened closely, in case she was mistaken. Leaf was born with enhanced hearing and smell, so she can hear even the slightest noise far away. Before she would shake it off, she heard the howls of the wolves and the barks of dogs that never exist near the area. Leaf didn't bother to stop and think as she quickly and quietly closed the drawer and went to the hiding space Gary showed her earlier with her coat, the mirror, the book, and the rose.

Leaf stayed in the hiding space quietly and without moving for the fear that someone or something is really around the area. Although Gary was mysterious, he never walked that quietly around the house before, and most definitely never used a dog for hunting. Soon, there were knocking on the cottage door as dogs barked and growled at the door. The knocks only became louder as no one answered. It was almost as if someone was trying to tear down the door. Leaf can hear two people by the door.

"What are you doing to my house?" a new voice asked, walking from the forest to the front door where the rest of the people were.

"We are wondering who is living here since it is in the middle of nowhere. Who are you? Where are you from?" one of the men asked.

"I lived here in this forest. I was born and raised here. Don't tell me that you are planning to break down my house, do you?" the new voice replied sarcastically.

"Why do you live in this forest?" the second man asked.

"I was born here. How am I supposed to know?" the new voice said

"Have you seen anything weird around here?" one of the men asked as if he was asking for directions.

"No? If I did, I would not continue to stay here," the new guy responded.

The three men talked to each other more about the cottage, the beast near here, and the winter night before the two men left the site with the dogs. Leaf sat still as she heard the door unlocking and a set of steps walked in, followed by another that came from the forest. Sweat began to cover Leaf's palms and back as she gathered her things and slowly made way down the secret tunnel. She slowly began to move when she heard a noise, directed at her.

"Hey, come out. I know you are here," the voice said.

..........
Hello, everyone! I hope you enjoy this chapter! The adventure is going to begin real soon. What do you think happened to Leaf's mother and father? What happened with Gary? Who are the two new characters? we will figure out more later in the book.

Please consider voting, comment, and share this story if you like it so far! Thank you so much!