To Wrap My Life in Leaves~Pokémon Watty Awards2014 1st Place Short Story Winner~

Chapter 6: Three Days

"Serphisaaa, Serphisaaaa, Serphi-i-i-isaaaaa!"

I grunted as Sketchy's voice woke me up. Last night was one of those nights where sleep was pure ecstasy, and I just wanted to keep sleeping forever.

"Can't a dying Pokémon get some sleep here?" I questioned jokingly. In response, she smacked me with her tail.

"You can sleep when you're dead, so come on and get up! Even Aqua's already up!" Now that remark surprised me. Aqua was never up before me, unless I went to sleep way, way, waaay after she had. But sure enough, I opened my eyes to see Aqua sitting quietly on the steps.

"Alright, if Aqua's already up, then this is big. And by big, I mean big."

"You could say that," Aqua replied from the steps, "if you consider us taking over your day, big, then yes, it is 'big'." For some reason, I had mixed feelings about this 'taking over my day' thing.

"And that would entail...?" I asked skeptically, moving my hands in the 'continue' motion.

"You will do what ever activity we have planned," She replied.

"That means starting now!" Sketchy commanded as she hooked her tail onto mine and dragged me across the ground after Aqua.

"Hey, just because I'm dying, doesn't mean I can't walk!"

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 First stop: Hot Spring.

Not the most exciting place, but it was nice that we were here. Though if you asked me, we should have gone here last. But, my day had been 'taken over', so I just had to deal with it without giving my input.

"Here we are," Aqua said, gesturing with her tail to the pond of steaming water. I stood there, trying to decide whether to enjoy this, or just to acknowledge how typical this was for Aqua. When ever we had even just a little extra time after a mission, she would always suggest going to the hot spring, trying hard to suppress her excitement. In the end, I decided to have fun with it when Sketchy dove in, as ungracefully and Sketchy-like as possible. To my side, Aqua was walking in slowly, clearly trying to hide her excitement.

"Go," I told her, "unleash your inner Sketchy." With out hesitation, she jumped into the water and joined Sketchy in a splash fight. Shrugging, I ran in and joined the fight, which was more like a full on war. And as a greeting to this war, Aqua point-blank Water Gunned me in the face. Feeling I'd have a better time facing Sketchy in this 'war', I turned to her, only to get multiple waves crash into me because of her Double Slap across the water.

"Okay, not fair!" I exclaimed as they now began to gang up on me. "One, I'm dying, two, I have no Moves that will help me here, unlike you two-"

"Three, no one cares!" They replied together, hitting me with their watery attacks as Torkoal screamed in annoyance, signalling that we had just got ourselves banned from Hot Spring for a while.

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Next stop: Happy Outlook.

We laughed as we made our way to our next destination, the memory as fresh in our mind as the spring water that still clung to us.

"So, where are we headed to next?" I asked once I sobered from laughing.

"Happy, Happy, Happy Outlook!" Sketchy exclaimed, an extra bounce (or more exuberant bounce, I should say) in her step. I simply rolled my eyes, wondering where Sketchy kept her extra tanks of energy. Finally, we came up to the entrance of the dungeon, where the one and only Wes was standing.

"Figures that you guys got kicked out of Hot Spring. Am I right, or am I right?" he said, letting out a puff of laughter.

"For your information, we decided to leave early," I replied, denying the truth.

"You were kicked out."

"Yeah, we were." He laughed.

"Well, at least my prediction was true, and I didn't have to wait here for forever. And since we're all here now, Sketchy, lead the way!" At Wes's command, Sketchy dashed ahead of us, shouting 'Happy, happy, happy!' as she went. But instead of annoying the hostile Pokémon with her shouts, she instead made them celebrate as if they were happy we were here, rather than becoming annoyed by our presence. Going along with it, we followed her, going to do what ever Sketchys do.

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Third stop: Shimmer Hill.

By the time we left Happy Outlook, we were all grinning like idiots (except for Wes, who didn't even have lips, the lucky butt); Turns out the reason they named it Happy Outlook was because if you stayed at the end of the dungeon too long, you'd become uncontrollably happy, thus the reason we were unable to speak from our smiles.

"Next stop is my decision, and we are going to..." --Pause, for dramatic effect-- "Marine Resort!"

"No," I said once he said the name. "We are not going to that Arceus-forbidden pit ever again.

"But you have to do whatever we planned, without input, if I remembered correctly?" He teased, poking me with the end of his wing. "But don't worry, we're not going to Marine Resort. We are really going to..."

"Enough with the dramatic pauses!"

"Alright, alright, we're going to Shimmer hill." Finally, something I would enjoy.

"Well, if you're going to Shimmer Hill, then I might as well stay behind. I would only faint early on," Aqua responded.

"Yeah, and I'll stay with Aqua to keep her company. Meet you back at the clubhouse, Serphisa!" Sketchy added, before bounding off after Aqua.

"Ready?" Wes asked, gesturing towards the Dungeon entrance.

"Ready," I answered, leading the two of us in.

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Wes and I had made it to the top a little after sunset. The Dungeon was a little harder than expected, but we held up well because of Wes's Flying Type attacks. We had to eat Oran Berries a few times, but over all, I had a good time. Exhausted, we sat at the peak, leaning against each other and looking out at the stars.

"I had a good time today," I said, and I meant it. Even though we didn't go to some places I would have preferred, I still had fun with my teammates and Wes.

"Good," he replied, handing me a Grass Gummi, which I accepted gratefully, "I hoped you'd like being here."

"But I'm the most grateful that I came with you and Aqua and Sketchy," I said, taking a bite out of the Gummi before fishing a Sky Gummi out of my Adventure Bag for Wes.

"Yeah." He sighed. "Two more days, huh?"

"Yeah, two more days," I confirmed, my eyes watering up just a little. I was glad Wes didn't notice.