Pokémon: Shining Sun

Lillie: Chapter 9

The bridge swayed, the wood creaking beneath my feet. I almost lost my balance, my grip tightening on the rope despite the threads cutting into my palms. My legs were shaking, not helped by the spearows' attacks on Nebby periodically jolting the bridge, causing the whole thing to move under me.

I spared a glance downward. A mistake, of course. The sheer height gave me such vertigo that I almost gagged. My heart was beating so fast that it left me lightheaded.

"Nebby!" I called uselessly. I tried to take another step towards him, but couldn't bring myself to move. Every part of me was shaking, and I could barely stand. I felt something drip down my right hand, but I couldn't tell whether it was sweating or if the deteriorated rope had drawn blood.

My breathing was quick and heavy, my legs refused to move forward any more. Why am I such a coward? Why am I so damn useless?

A figure sprinted past me, slamming their feet across the old boards like they had absolute confidence the bridge would hold. A hat flew off of their head, landing right next to me. I stumbled back as the bridge shook from the sudden movement across it. Quickly grabbing the hat before it fell between the boards, I stepped back onto the solid ground. The hat was a black cap, with two blue blue stripes on the under-brim and a stylized pokéball right in the center of the crown.

I looked back up. The person was a boy, with messy black hair. He got to the center of the bridge, where Nebby was being attacked, and started to swat at the spearows, bending down and picking up Nebby. The Spearows screeched and pecked at him as well, but he swatted at them with one hand, trying to walk over the bridge while holding Nebby. The bridge shuttered beneath him, and he fell to his knees, curling up to protect Nebby from the vicious birds.

I saw Nebby start to glow, and panic set into my chest. "Nebby, DON'T!!"

Nebby exploded with energy, completely shattering the bridge.

The two started to plummet towards the river below, the boy holding tightly onto Nebby. Just before they hit the river, a crack of thunder resounded through the air, and a bolt of lightning shot down to the boy and Nebby, followed a second later by a gust of wind blowing my hair back. Another second later and the bolt of lightening shot over next to me, leaving the boy on the ground, Nebby cradled in his arms. The energy faded just enough for me to make out the form of Tapu Koko before he tossed something next to the boy and shot off again.

The boy and I stared after the island guardian for a second, in awe. My mind quickly snapped back to reality and I ran over to the two of them. "Are you ok?!" I asked, panicked.

He looked back down to me. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said, breathlessly. Nebby hopped out of his arms, floating over to me.

"What were you thinking, Nebby?! How many times do I have to tell you to stay with me?" I sighed. "Get back in the bag," I said, opening my bag and placing it on the ground.

I took a couple of steps towards the boy. "Are you sure you're ok?"

He pushed himself up, brushing himself off. "Yeah. I've fallen out of plenty of trees."

"I'm not sure that's quite comparable..." I held his cap out to him.

He took it, tousling his hair a bit before fitting it on his head. "Really, I'm fine."

"Thank goodness," I said. "I'm so sorry."

He waved me off, his eyes trailing down to my hand. "Ah, you're bleeding." I looked down at my right hand to see that he was right. The rotted threads had cut into my palm, and blood was trickling down my fingers.