Sky's the limit

Chapter 13

You may realize this chapter isn't as good as the others, and for that I apologize. I don't really know why, though ._.

Gina squinted through the fog, seeing only the silhouettes of the trees around her. She and Soren had been walking through the forest for a while now, and she was growing increasingly bored with doing so. "Soren, do you know where we're going?" she asked her partner.

She got no response. She turned to the side, only to see nothing but the surrounding trees. "Soren?" she called. "Where did you go?"

"Gina?" a voice called back.

Gina felt her heart leap. "Soren? Is that you?"

"Yes! Where are you?"

"Over here!"

"That doesn't really help much, you know!"

"Hold on! I'll come find you!" Gina raced ahead, hoping no wild Pokemon would see her. She felt her paws whizzing over the grass, as though she were barely touching it. Her head swung back and forth wildly as she moved, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of her partner.

Gina thought she heard rushing water sound up ahead, but ignored it. Right now, her only focus was finding Soren. "Soren?" she yelled again. "Where are you?!"

Her question was quickly answered as she ran into another Pokemon, sending her sprawling on her back. Dazed, she shook her head and blinked several times, trying to focus on who she ran into.

"Gina? Are you okay?" She felt hands grip her shoulders to steady her.

"Soren! Thank Arceus!" Gina's tail gave a wag. "You scared me! I didn't know where you were."

Soren shrugged. "I didn't know where I was either. One minute we were together, the next we're separated by this stupid fog." He folded his arms across his chest. "Hope Chatot was right and there's a way of lifting it."

"Yeah, really." Gina looked around. There was no one else with them; all that surrounded them were trees and fog. "So what now? It's so hard to see..."

"I heard something that sounded like some kind of waterfall up ahead," he mentioned. "Maybe we could check that out?"

"Oh yeah!" Gina strained her ears forward. Even now there was the faint noise of running water "I heard that too! Follow me!" She took the lead and walked in the direction of the sound. Sure enough, it became louder and clearer the farther they walked.

Eventually, streams of water rushing down into large puddles could be faintly seen through the fog. Gina stared at the streams with amazement. "This is so cool! I wonder where it's coming from!"

"Hey hey! Over here!"

Gina jumped at the sound of someone's voice. A dark shape came rushing toward them. Squinting, Gina saw that it was Corphish. "You're here too, Corphish?"

He nodded. "I've been here for a while. I've actually been waiting for another guild member to show up, hey hey!"

"Did you figure out a way to clear up the fog?" Soren asked. "Or did you find Fogbound Lake?" Soren's questions filled Gina with excitement and anticipation. Could Corphish have found some clues?

Corphish let out a disappointed sigh. "No, unfortunately. It's been so foggy here I can't see a thing."

"Aww... That's too bad," Gina said, her ears drooping. "I was hoping you found something."

"But I did find something that's sort of interesting." Corphish scuttled off, leaving Soren and Gina to follow him. An enormous shape soon came into view through the fog. As they approached the shape, Gina noticed that it was a stone statue, possibly one of a Pokemon. One side of it was pushed farther into the ground, making it tilt. It had glaring eyes and fang-filled jaws. Large claws protruded from its hands, and strangely enough it had a gaping hole in its chest.