Gen

Chapter Eight

The next day was warmer and rainy. It was a murky, gray kind of day with freezing rain and clouds filling the sky. Everyone seemed grumpy, and the beautiful snow had started to melt into a gray slush.

In training, I was in the middle of a battle when I was flown way back into the forest surrounding camp. I’d never been back there, it was sort of an unspoken rule that no one should ever go into the woods. I didn’t even know what it was called.

As I trudged back through the trees, even the mood of the forest life seemed dreary. The endless chirp of bugs seemed sad and filled with dismay. No furry animals scampered around on the ground. But something else made me stop and stare. Something completely unnatural. Something so insane I didn’t believe my eyes at first.

Right in front of me was an inch wide line that curved in across the ground that probably went in a circle in the forest all the way around camp. The line affected everything that filled it, including the trees. Everything in the line was black and white.

How is that even possible? How does something become black and white? It actually looked painted, maybe that was it. But more importantly, if it wasn’t painted, was it safe to cross? As an experiment, I tossed a rock onto the line. The rock wasn’t affected, because it was already gray. But the trees looked fine, so I hesitantly reached my paw out over the line and gasped as it turned gray. Slowly I crossed the line, watching as my fur turned gray and then purple again. But the atmosphere as I was inside the line felt evil, like something was chasing me or trying to get me. This phenomenon was so… strange.

I decided to keep that encounter a secret, though it burned inside me all night.

The next day Summer, Pen, Georgia and I were walking along the lake when Pen said something said something sarcastic to Summer. Summer gasped and lightly shoved her, but the shove made her lose her balance and fall into the lake. Summer immediately jumped and transformed into Squirtle in midair before diving into the water. A few moments later, two round blue heads popped up over the water.

“Pen! You transformed!” I shouted, jumping for joy.

“Yay for you,” Georgia commented. I started doing a happy dance and she just looked at me like, What the heck is wrong with you?

Summer and Pen swam to shore in their Squirtle and Piplup forms before changing back to normal.

“Whoa, that was so cool,” Pen stated.

That night while we were all talking to each other, Meadow brought up the subject of how much time we were here.

“I can’t believe you guys have been here for a week already,” she said.

“Really? It feels longer,” Georgia commented. I thought so too. At first, everything happened so quickly, and now I’m here and I feel like I’ve known these girls forever.

The next two weeks flew by, and as time progressed, all of us got closer. We were getting stronger and more in sync with our Pokemon abilities. But one question was bothering me:

What were we training for?

<><><><><><><><><><><>

That is a good question, Emerald. What are you training for?