A Journey of a Lifetime

What a Childhood

*Ash is seven years old in this chapter. Latias is the same age as Ash and is about the same size as Ash. I forgot to mention that Ash was five years old when both he and Latias met*

The sun was shining, and its summer heat was warming the world. The gentle breeze brings equilibrium among those who are hot. The waters are fresh and cool. That was typical of the spring season. And that was a fact if you asked the locals in the Kanto region.

With a break from school, many children are already on vacation or just being kids. But that's not different from Ash. Seven-year-old Ash Ketchum was breathing heavily as he hopped over a log.

One of those days, Ash partook in a challenge that he brought upon himself. It was a harmless one, as usual for a young boy his age. He also had someone else with him to partake in this challenge. It was a good old challenge of Hide n Seek, but Ash had already ditched his hiding spot.

She was always good at finding him.

But now, he was running, not to beat the challenge at this point. And now that Ash was suffering the consequence of his actions, Ash was blaming himself in his mind. But he quickly shut his inner thoughts away. She could find him quicker through his panicked thinking. The only option now was for Ash to quickly climb the nearest tree and pray to Arceus. 

Suddenly, a tree branch snapped to his right, drawing the boys' attention.

The cause of the noise was a little girl, barely taller than Ash. She had auburn hair, golden eyes that Ash was familiar with, and a simple green dress with a white skirt. But that didn't matter as the girl gave a toothy grin and a wave before disappearing.

Ash yelped as he hopped off the tree and ran again. This cycle is repeated a few times before Ash slid underneath a log, catching his breath in a daze. But like all times, he finally thought that he was in the clear. 

Until an invisible blur tackled him to the ground. 

With a grunt, Ash landed on his back when an invisible weight revealed itself to be none other than Latias. What was once the auburn-haired girl was now a red dragon that Ash had saved a few years ago. She let out a giggle as she hugged Ash in her proclaimed victory in their game. Tired from running, Ash laid his head down in defeat to recover his breath. 

These past few years had been a blur, but not an ounce of those times have been wasted. Each day, they would create new memories together. Each day, a new adventure to be explored. First was the house Ash had lived in. Now was the nearby world to be explored. And they've done it together. 

The first day of Latias becoming part of the Ketchum family was mostly spent with Ash fawning at the then-baby Latias. Then, the next few days consisted of Delia and Ash showing Latias their house, a nice little tour. By the end of the year, she was around the same size as Ash. Both were still very young and had many more years to grow. 

By the end of the year, Latias showed strange behaviors with her moving independently. She always wanted to go to a high ground, like the fridge or ceiling. This worried Delia, leading her to call Prof. Oak. It didn't take long to find a solution after some testing, and a week later, Professor Oak had a Pokémon to help Latias. That Pokémon was an Alakazam. 

During Latias' initial tests, Professor Oak spent some time reading and searching for more about her type. Luckily, he found an old research book about Latias and her species. When tests were done, he found that nothing was wrong with her physically. He continued to read about her species before making the surprising discovery that not only Latias is a dragon type but a psychic type as well. 

It didn't take long for Oak to come up with a solution, that is, to bring an Alakazam and teach Latias about her psychic abilities, hoping that would help. That proved to be the case, much to the family's relief.