Pokemon: A Trainer's Story

Chapter 10: Stay On the Forest Path Guys!

Melody and Gold stepped out of the tunnel and stopped, looking onward at the path and forest that lay ahead. The forest was glistening in the light of the setting sun, snow that had fallen a couple days prior added shine to the scene. They gasped, enjoying the sight of this beautiful piece of nature.

"It's absolutely gorgeous!" Melody exclaimed. "I had forgotten just how wonderful this place is. I played here all the time when I was little. Back then there wasn't the stupid rule of having to have Azalea town's bug badge to come in here."
"I thought you lived in Kanto?" Gold stated.
"Oh yeah, I do. I was born in Johto though. Why do you think I had to start my journey here?" Melody replied. "Well anyways let's get walking. We gotta be careful around this area though."
"Why? Is it because of that old myth about the spirit of the forest that some times takes travelers away on a journey through time?" Gold asked trying to have his question sound a bit spooky.
"Eh... no. It's because the pokémon here love to jump out of the trees and attack you straight on for no given reason."
"Oh."

A few hours passed as the two walked. About an hour of their trip through the forest was dedicated to helping a lumberjack and his apprentice catch their two runaway farfetched. By this point, the moon had just risen into full view above them, illuminating their path.
"Hey Mel, I know this is going to sound like a dumb idea, but do you think we could stop and set up camp somewhere?" Gold asked, sleepiness guiding his voice.
"There isn't really anywhere to settle down, but I'm sure Ember can burn away some of the snow to make a place," Melody replied, her voice matching Gold's in sleepiness.
"Ember is pretty small though. I'll get Exbo to do that for her," Gold stated, reaching onto his belt and pulling out a pokéball, releasing his Typhlosion, Exbo. Gold looked at the area surrounding them, looking for a good place to set. Finally deciding on a secluded spot underneath a nearby willow tree, Gold gave the command, "Exbo, use flamethrower under that tree to melt away the snow." Within a few seconds the snow was melted away, leaving a bare, slightly scorched area under the chosen tree. "Good job. Guess it's time for you to go back into your pokéball buddy"
"Wait! Why don't we both let out our pokémon so we can all huddle together to keep warm? We can set up a fire too to help add to the heat." Melody suggested.
"You know that does sound like a good idea," the dark haired trainer agreed, grabbing the rest of the pokéballs from his belt and letting out the rest of his team. Melody walked over to the new campsite, sat down, and began to dig through her bag, letting out her last four pokémon from their balls. Soon the two trainers and ten companions had settled down for the evening. The group huddled up together a little ways from the fire in the back of their campsite. The trainers were settled smack in the middle, the smaller pokémon flush against them, and the largest on the outside blocking the wind.
"So Gold, tell me more about that myth you mentioned earlier," Melody requested, laying on her side and propping her head up on one arm.
"I thought you would have heard of it by now!"
"I've only ever heard bits and pieces of it before."
"Wow. Ok then, so this is how the myth goes. A small pokémon is said watch over these woods that's able to travel through time at will. Some say it has taken unsuspecting trainers with it on a journey through the ages, never to return. It's also said that if you here a strange high pitched whine from nowhere it's the spirit coming back to this time period and the sound is the move they use to time travel. If you hear the sound you have to freeze in place so you aren't swept away with the time warp. A shrine lies in the heart of the forest dedicated to this forest spirit and also acts as a memorial to those lost here,"
"Wow that's an amazing tale. Kinda spooky too. I love myths and legends" Melody exclaimed letting out a little giggle followed by a not so little yawn. "I think I'm gonna try to get some shut eye now. Thanks for the story Gold, see you in the morning" Melody added, rolling over and pulling her sleeping partner Ember closer to her.
"Night." Gold replied, inching himself a bit closer to Melody and passing out.
----The pokémon's pov----
Wolfen awoke with a start. A strange sound had woken him up about an hour after they had all fallen asleep. The sound was not a high pitched whine like the one from the story that big oaf trainer described to his nice trainer, but more like singing. Sitting up he peered through the low braches of the willow tree, looking out to the forest beyond to find the sound's source. He twitched his nose, trying to catch a scent of anything that could lead him to the sound, with no luck. He stood up, shaking some frost that had begun to shake off the frost that had managed to accumulate on his pelt and walked over to his closest neighbor, nudging them with his paw. "Yen! Poochyen? (Hey! Do you hear that?) He asked.
"Sentret? (hear what?)" asked Okojo groggily.
"Poochy (the singing)"
Okojo pricked her ears, listening closely to the world outside the branches of the weeping willow. "Sen! Sentret! Tret sentret? (Oh! I do! What is that?)" She replied a bit confused.
"Poochyena. Chyen poochyen. (I'm not sure. Let's wake the others.)"
Ember was sleeping soundly in the grasp her trainer, having a wonderful dream about battling strong enemies. The dream and the cyndaquil's sleep were disturbed by the sound of some of her teammates chattering. "Cyndaaa (what's going on?)" Ember groaned, sitting up.
"Sentret seeen! (We're investigating a noise!)" Okojo piped.
"Mareep mare mare. (We're going to go search for it's source.)" Amy included.
"Cyndaa. Cyndaquil quil cynda. (That's dumb. You need to stay here or you're gonna get hurt.)" Ember replied crossly.
"Poochy? Poochyena! (Who put you in charge? You can't stop us!)" Wolfen replied, sticking his nose in the air and carefully maneuvering around the sleeping bodies to the edge of the camp. He waited for Okojo to catch up before the two headed off on their own.
"Reep, maaare, eep! (Besides, we'll be fine, don't worry!)" Amy added, hurrying along to catch up with Wolfen and Okojo, her tail illuminating the trio's path. Ember let out another groan before scurrying after them, igniting the flames on her back to light her way once she was away from the tree branches.
The four walked silently through the forest, away from the designated path. Wolfen was second in line but taking the leadership role, his nose still searching for a scent. Amy was in front, lighting the way with the ball of her tail. Okojo was third, using her keen sense of hearing to keep track of the singing. And Ember trudged behind, unhappy to be away from her trainer. A little while passed before they found a trace of whst they were looking for. At long last, they located the sound's source coming from an odd pokémon. When the pokémon realize it had been spotted, it fled. The four, unwilling to let it escape, chased after it.
---trainers pov---
Melody felt herself being nudged and groaned. "I don't wanna get up it's too earlyyy" she whined.
"Cater! Caterpiie! (Melody! Get up!)" Buttercup pleaded, nudging his trainer more. Melody sat up and looked down at her Caterpie, still half asleep.
"What's wrong?" she asked rubbing one of her sleepy eyes absent mindlessly.
"Caterpiiiie! (The others are gone!)"
"What?" Melody asked. After whipping her head around a couple time it finally set in. "SHIIT! GOLD, GOLD WAKE UP!" Melody shouted, shaking Gold by his shoulder.
"Aaah. Stop shouting! I'm sleeping!" Gold complained, curling into a ball, squeezing his eyes closed, and covering his ears.
"DON'T CARE. GET UP YOU FUCKING SNORLAX WE'VE GOT A SITUATION HERE!" Melody shouted, her shaking turning violent.
"What kind of situation could be causing you to shout before sunrise?" Gold asked, not moving or opening his eyes.
"HOW ABOUT MOST OF MY TEAM BEING MISSING??" Melody exclaimed furiously.
"...What?" questioned Gold, finally sitting up and opening his eyes. A quick survey of the camp confirmed what he heard the golden haired trainer say was correct."Where could they have gone?"
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW? I WAS ASLEEP!"
"Melody you need to do all of us a favor, and calm down."
"I AM CALM!"
"No. You're panicking. You need calm"
"CALM? FUCK CALM! MY POKEMON ARE MISSING! THEY ARE LIKE MY FAMILY, MY CHILDREN. WOULD YOU BE CALM IF SOME OF YOUR KIDS WENT MISSING IN THE FOREST AT NIGHT?" Melody screamed.
"No you're right. But panicking won't solve anything. So instead of arguing let's go find them. Ok? Just stop yelling first and we'll go."
Melody let out a small sigh "Okay. No more yelling, see?"
"Good. Thank you."
"Now Gold, Buttercup, Shadow Demon, let's g-"
"Hold on a sec, we don't even know where to begin looking. Plus we have no light!" Gold interrupted.
"Typhlo. Phlosion typhlo (Actually you do. I can light the way.)" Exbo informed.
"Oh duh. Exbo's a Typhlosion! So he's basically the fully evolved form of Ember which means he's a fire type. Alright Exbo you can light the way." Melody said.
"Caterpiie cater (lets try following their footprints)" Buttercup suggested.
"Good idea. Alright no more time to waste let's get moving."
Buttercup jumped to the ready, hopping onto his trainer's shoulder, wrapped in the scarf Ember left behind. Gold and Melody stood up and gathered their things. Everyone was ready to begin the search, even Gold's pokemon were going to help. Well, most were ready.
"Shadow Demon! I said get up, we have to go!" Melody piped at her Gengar.
"Gen gengar. Gengar gen gaar genn. (You guys go. I'll stay here in case they return.)" Shadow Demon deadpanned, not moving or opening his eyes.
"Grr one day you're gonna listen to me!" Melody growled. "But do what you want, I guess it's a good idea anyways. We'll be back soon."
"Emberrr! Okojooo! Wolfeeeen! Amyyyy!" Melody called, her hands cupped around her mouth to heighten the sound of her calls.
"Shh. Wait. Do you hear that?" Gold asked putting and arm in front of his companion and freezing. Everyone in the search party froze in place and listened. The singing had started up again but another sound could be heard with it.
"It's them. IT'S THEM!" Melody exclaimed, breaking the silence. She pushed Gold's arm out of the way and began to run towards the sound, Buttercup still sitting on her shoulder trying not to fall off. The others hurried along after her, trying to keep up. After a little bit of running Melody slid to a halt in the snow, the others doing the same a few feet away.
"Whoa" the golden haired trainer gasped as she viewed the scene in front of her. All four of her pokémon were there safe and sound. The small group surrounded something in a diamond shape, each keeping the thing in the center. "Is that a... pokémon?" Melody whispered, pulling her bag around to her front. She shuffled through its contents before finally finding her pokédex. Holding it out to the thing in front of her the pokédex said, "Froslass, the Snow Land Pokémon and an evolved form of Snorunt. It freezes its opponents to temperatures nearly minus sixty degrees."
"A Froslass? Those aren't native to Johto!" Melody said, putting away her pokdéx. "All of you, back off! Leave the Froslass be." she demanded. All four of the missing pokémon obeyed, walking over to their trainer, except for Ember who practically tackled Melody to get on her unoccupied shoulder. "I missed you guys. Why would you all run off to chase this poor Froslass?"
"Cyndaquil! (I tried to stop them!)" Ember defended.
"Poochyenaa (We needed to find that singing)" added Wolfen.
Melody sighed, "Still you shouldn't have run off. Please never do that again, I was so worried about you guys. Oh and Froslass, I'm sorry for my pokémon chasing you."
"Froslass (It's alright)" the Froslass replied, dipping her head slightly in appreciation of the apology. With that she turned away, beginning to sing again as she headed off, disappearing a few feet away.
"You know there's a lore that says Froslass are the spirits of women who were lost in the woods looking for their missing children and inevitably went missing themselves," Gold said, walking up to Melody.
"How do you know all these stories, Gold?"
"When you travel you hear a lot of tales and stories."
"You really have been traveling a while, haven't you?"
"Yeah. I like traveling. Staying in the same place and with the same people for long is boring so I tend not to stay around too long."
"Oh... Gold?"
"What?"
"Are... you going to be leaving soon? Like on your own?"
Gold shrugged, "I don't know yet. We're coming up to Goldenrod City so we'll see when we get there. "
"Oh, arlight..."
"Why do you ask, Mel?"
"No reason... just curious."
"Okay. Anyways, we better get moving. The sun's going to rise soon and it might take a minute to find the path again."
"Right. Let's get going then."
"And you have to go back and grab your Gengar too."
"Oh shit, Shadow Demon! I almost forgot about him. Wait here for me I'll run back and get him," Melody screeched as she headed back the way they came, slipping a bit as she ran through the snow all the way to their campsite.

Melody took a little longer than she would have liked with fetching her Gengar; having to argue with him until she could get him to go inside his pokéball and have him stay in there. As soon as the little quarrel was ended and the golden haired trainer had packed up the remaining bits of the camp, she was able to run back and catch up with the group, who had decided to find their way back to the path without her to save time. When the group reunited, they headed off, passing by the shrine of the Spirit of the forest along the way. The two trainers paused a moment in front of it, paying tribute to the beautifully lit shrine before continuing on their way to the end of the path. At the end waited a tunnel that would lead the trainers out to their next destination, Goldenrod City.