Fury and Confusion (A Pokemon Fanfiction)

Chapter Eleven

"Time to wake up!" Ilima shouted, the ringing of metal against wood flooding the room. Lillie's eyes shot open, a ghostly black face pressing against hers.

Lillie screamed, recoiling away from the thing dangling in the air in front of her. It lunged and she bolted – shouting the whole way, of course – rushing past Ilima and Acerola standing in the doorway. Feet stomped on the hardwood floors after her and Lillie spun, pressing her back against the opposite wall of the living room.

"It's okay," Acerola slowed, "Lillie, it's okay."

A Ghastly hovered through the air behind its trainer, the pokemon's eyes open wide, its expression mimicking Acerola's. Lillie shivered as she stared at the thing, her breathing beginning to slow. Hau leaned around the doorway, curiously observing the commotion. Finally, Lillie breathed out, feeling the heat on her face from embarrassment. She shot a dirty look at Acerola.

"You're having too much fun with me," she complained. Acerola beamed, spinning about on one foot.

Two hours later they set out from the house, stomachs full with Ilima's cooking and Acerola apologizing endlessly, though not necessarily genuinely, for letting the Ghastly spook her. They trekked through Route Two, this time further south down the coast instead of immediately into the mountain forests. It was an hour of walking before Acerola finally stopped them.

"So!" Acerola turned about, the jacket tied around her waist flaring about around her. Lillie stopped, recoiling in surprise from the suddenness of it. The morning was starting to lighten its hold over Route Two. Gentle winds blew through vast yellow fields of pampas grass, and Lillie couldn't help but notice their hiking trail had started to vanish.

"So?" Lillie echoed the older girl, glancing about herself. Yesterday's misadventure happened deep in the forest, but that didn't mean something dangerous like a Toucannon wasn't lying in wait somewhere close by.

"So..." Acerola's brow furrowed in confusion, staring down at the ground with her hand gently pressed against her chin. The girl stood there for a while, the calls of the Pikipek growing louder by the minute as the early hours began to fade.

Lillie rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, yawning for good measure. They'd returned home from the exhausting trip yesterday late in the day, her whole body sore from the fight with the wild Toucannon. When Acerola relayed the story to Ilima the man seemed surprised but not overly so – as if he expected such a thing from Acerola.

"Your partner from years ago," Lillie asked as Acerola stared at the ground. The trainer perked up, cocking her head. "It was Ilima, right?"

"Right!" Acerola nodded. For a moment Acerola looked away, before grinning back at her pupil. "The both of us set out together, actually, though we didn't finish at the same time."

"How come?" Lillie observed her surroundings. The path had suddenly dropped away, the forest stretching about not too far away. It was oddly familiar...

"I, uh, I finished first," Acerola's voice suddenly shifted to a quieter tone. "Here, let's check out this area." She gestured to the forest in front of them.

It was only growing more familiar. Lillie stared at the underbrush around her with a sudden gnawing suspicion, her hand gripping on Koa's pokeball. Acerola led the way, yammering on about something to do with her past trials.

"I had a SUPER hard time with the first trial," Acerola's voice seemed oddly distant. "Normal types, you know? My only pokemon was Sandy, my Sandyghast–" Lillie smirked at that; the girl's nicknames were all truncations of the species name, "–and even though he and I were like, super close and all, he couldn't even hit the trial captain's pokemon."