Two Hundred and Ten

Concert

Third Person's POV

"We should stop here for the night," Ash suggests while pointing to a flat spot near a small lake.

"Okay," Dawn mumbles and sets her backpack against a tree. She sits down against it while petting Shinx's fur, trying to calm her nerves.

Meanwhile Ash sets up his tent and begins to get some sort of campsite worked up. Dawn watches him do all the work with no complaints, and he doesn't seem to mind either.

"Dawn can you come help me with this?" Ash calls over to her while trying to unfold the tripod over a fire pit Gible dug out for the trainer.

Dawn looks up and nods. She hurries over and helps him carefully put it in place. "Gible we need some more dirt under this leg," Dawn says to the Pokémon and lifts it up so he can push some under it.

"Gib," He shakes his head and turns away.

Ash gives them a curious look, "Gible can you do what Dawn asked?"

The dragon type nods and evens out the ground so the grill is straight enough to cook on. Dawn glares at the Pokémon and Ash shakes his head amusingly. "Get along you two," He chuckles and gets back to setting up a table that has a bench with it.

Dawn forgets everything with Gible to look at him. She's keeping a Pokémon a secret from him for no reason, took his Pokétch and Pokédex, and he's been nothing but nice to her. Every thought comes back to the same question, why is she being like this?

"I'm gonna go get some firewood," Ash states and heads out to find some trees that have dry lumber under them.

"Wait!" Dawn calls out. "I have a Pokémon that can do that for us, and probably at a faster rate."

She brings out Starly's pokeball and tosses it into the air to let him out. The small grey and white Pokémon flies out and enjoys the fresh breeze rustling his feathers. Then he sees Gible and swoops down to make fun of him.

Gible tries to bite the bite-sized Pokémon but his lack of wings isn't helping. "I think you need to grow wings," Dawn jokes and the ground type lunges at her.

She steps out of the way quickly before asking, "How about you two have a little competition to settle this? Whoever finds the most firewood wins."

The two Pokémon stare at each other before running/flying off. "That works," Ash shrugs and walks back. He finds Brock's handbook and sets it out on the table to read.

Dawn goes beside him with her arms leaning against the table for support. "What do you feel like?" Ash asks. "We have a lot of food so I think we can make a lot of the recipes. Also good job catching a Starly."

"Oh thanks," Dawn mumbles and Ash looks over worryingly.

"What's the matter?" He asks.

"Nothing I'm fine," Dawn dismisses him.

Ash shrugs and gets back to looking through meals. Then he remembers an important lesson of his mother's. "You can talk to me y'know," Ash smiles at her but she's still looking down.

"That's the problem," Dawn says frustrated and sits down on the bench for support. "I've been a terrible travelling partner and you're still being a perfect one."

"My mom says I'm perfect but I think she lies about that so I don't know," Ash tries to cheer her up. "But I do know that you're not a terrible travelling partner, maybe a slow walker but that's fine."

"Ash," Dawn tries to hold in a giggle. "This is what I mean. I'm a problem."

"Are you sure?" Ash asks and steps away with a big smile. "Because I don't know many problems as talented as you."