MissiNg (Pokémon)

Goodbye, Virbank, and Another Gym

I woke up to the sight of burnt logs.

Getting up and stretching, I looked over at N and awed in cuteness. Spark was cuddled up next to N who was cuddling her like a little boy. Realizing that I had left my Pokémon out of their Poké balls, I counted them. Spark was sleeping with N, Aqua was sleeping in N's hat, Gnaws was surveying the area (being the good Patrat he is) Cestian was leaning against a tree, watching over everyone, Thief was sleeping by my Bag, and Slick was curled up on the end of my sleeping bag.

I looked over at Gnaws, and remembered what I had to do.

Stretching once more, I maneuvered my Bag  out of Thief's grip, returned Gnaws, and looked at Cestian.

"Keep them out of trouble while I'm gone," I said to the Riolu, and he nodded as if he understood me.

I headed back to Floccesy Town, where I headed into the Pokémon Center and got a room so I could shower and change. After I had done that, I headed to the PC and retrieved Swish and Oblivious.

I walked out into the cool morning air, and ran back to our campsite, though I veered to the left when I saw N's dormant figure, and dashed into the bushes.

I walked for a while, until I found the perfect spot for what I was going to do. It was a nice little clearing, the piles of leaves evenly carpeted the ground, and it was circled by different types of berry trees.

I stood in the middle of the clearing, and pulled two Poké balls out of my bag; Gnaws and Swish's.

"Come on out guys," I said, throwing the two Poké balls into the air. Gnaws and Swish appeared before me, Gnaws scouting the area as soon as he appeared and Swish standing there drowsily. "You're free to go, I'm releasing you. I know I'm probably not going to use you guys, and I don't want to leave you two in a PC box for the rest of your lives. So run along." I stared down into their innocent eyes and wondered if they truly understood me. Gnaws looked up at my eyes, and before I could look into his, he dashed away, while Swish looked up at me and murmured a small "Audi..." before dashing off after Gnaws. I stood there, holding the two open Poké balls in hand, staring after the two Pokémon.

"What are you doing?"

I started at the voice, dropping the Poké balls in my hand. Now they can't come back even if they want to. I turn around to see N standing behind me.

"Oh, I knew I wasn't going to use them any more, and I didn't want to leave them in a PC box for the rest of their lives, so I released them." I looked at N's face, trying to figure out what he was thinking, when he pat my head. That's not weird at all.

"I'm glad you did that. I hate trainers who treat Pokémon like toys, tossing them aside in PC boxes, pretending that they don't care. Pokémon share this world with us, and yet, some trainers feel they are so much more superior." I could tell N really loved Pokémon, just by the way he talked. I didn't want to talk about this much longer, So I changed the subject.

"N, what about the campsite?" I looked at his face, expecting to see him face-palming, but he continued to look calm, like always.

"Don't worry, I asked Cestian to watch over it for us, and he said he could handle it." I looked at him oddly. Was he hearing voices in his head?

"He told you that..."

"Yes. I never told you, but I can understand Pokémon. I can speak to them and they can speak to me."

"We better get back to camp, you can't be sure Cestian can hold his own for so long." He nodded, and we ran back to our campsite, where everything was normal; Cestian was still leaning against a tree, Slick was snickering as he put wildflowers in Spark's wool, who was simply snacking on them, and Thief was chasing Aqua around.