PoKéMoN CHRONICLES Written by LonelyChampion

Thunder and Ice

Few things are as special as a good friendship between two people. It's part of human nature to form bonds and connections with those around us, and in one trainer's case, he was an expert in the subject matter.

Ash Ketchum had a wide variety of friends, from coordinators to performers and inventors, and gym leaders. He befriended a wide variety of people. Nearly everyone that he met influenced him in some way.

Be it the strategies he schemed up with Dawn or the experience and wisdom he gained from Brock, and Ash received help from many of his friends.

Ash also helped some of his friends along the way, be it helping Serena and May to find their footing in the world of pokemon, encouraging Goh to open up and befriend more people, or simply sharing his positive attitude with others. Ash was a beloved friend to many.

However, there is a saying. "It takes years to build trust and relationships and one moment to destroy them."

This is a story where that saying will apply.

—-

The wind was freezing. Not like Ash expected a place called the "Crown Tundra" to be warm or whatever, but it was still absurdly cold. He had visited Snowbelle City and Snowpoint City in the past. However, this was a level above. The air was thin from the elevation, the wind was moving fast, and the snow was blowing into his eyes.

Despite all of that, Ash was in an incredible mood.

Not only was he recently promoted to the Master 8 tournament, but he also reunited with his old friend Lillie. She had finally reached her goal of reuniting with her dad, and after an emotional few hours, the newly reunited family left and decided to head home to Alola.

Ash, being the Alola region champion, decided to tag along. Goh and Chloe also joined in, wanting to see Alola again and for the first time, respectively.

It was a decently long walk back to the boat, but Ash was enjoying catching up with Lillie.

"So, Lillie, where exactly have you guys visited on your search?" Ash asked

"Oh, not as crazy as you'd have expected, just some islands around Unova called the Declore Islands, and then some islands around the Kanto region called the Orange and Sevii islands, and then we went to some islands around Hoenn called mirage isles,"

"I've been to the Declore and Orange Islands but haven't heard about any supposed mirage isles."

"Well, we lost our boat once, but that was because Gladion forgot to lay an anchor," Lilie laughed, remembering how angry her mother was

Ash smiled; it was great to see Lillie this happy.

She was always one of the people who Ash had fond memories of helping. She had such amazing growth as a trainer while he was in Alola; she went from being utterly afraid of touching pokemon to giving her brother a somewhat decent battle in the league.

Ash was proud of her, and while he wouldn't admit this to anyone, he was somewhat sad he didn't get to see her while he was in Alola earlier this year.

She always was the girl to who he felt like he had the best time talking to.

While his other companions could always make him happy, when he talked with Lillie, he always felt like he was smiling.

And sometimes, for whatever reason, he could feel the tinges of his cheeks warming up whenever she laughed.

"So Ash, I hear you're in the Master's Eight now!" Lillie said excitedly

Ash's face lit up, happy his friend was keeping up with his progress towards his current goal.