Lost and Found

In His Memory

Third Person's POV

The dust still hasn't settled.

The moist air keeps it hanging in the air, almost as everything is happening in slow motion. Which it very well may be.

Hilda still lays there.

Tears run down her cheeks like the Tohjo waterfalls. Leaving traceable paths through the dust that's decided to rest in her pale face. Paler than usual may I add.

The tunnel, or what's left of it, is only a few metres away from the brunette. It's dark entrance and sand covering up what may lie inside.

But she can't even face it.

There's nothing inside that tunnel that she wants to see. Hilda fought herself for so long over the boy, and she got so close...

So close to see him blown up inside a tunnel.

Hilda stops wiping away the tears, knowing that it's not helping anyways. She reaches her pocket and pulls out a charm.

Ash gave her a present before they fought.

Just thinking off it causes even more water to rush out of her eyes. Her white t-shirt becomes spotted with faded grey marks filled with dust and water.

She fumbles with the silver item in her hands.

Her fingers trace the thin edges that travel in the shape of he H. Her fingertips brushing over the engravings of everything they overcame during their journey.

Picking their starter Pokémon, his first gym battle, where she figured out her passion of research, their first Pokémon captures, and everything else that they did. Together.

Ash left one spot open on it.

He wouldn't tell her what it was for but she had a pretty good guess... A Pokémon League trophy. The prize he sought after for basically his whole life, while repeatedly saying that it was going to be theirs.

Not his.

Not only his Pokémon's.

Theirs.

Hilda looks at the silver charm one last time before sliding in back in her shorts pocket. She sits up and brushes off her face. The tears wiping away some of the dust.

Her eyes may be a little bloodshot but they're filled with determination now. And that can get you anywhere sometimes.

Hilda jumps up, slings her gym bag back over her shoulders, and heads towards the tunnel. She charges right through the remaining flying bits of sand. "Excadrill!" Hilda throws out a pokeball.

The Pokémon who is commonly worked with in mines, pops out. His drill like head and gleaming silver claws poke out of the darkness. His brown and red fur only enhancing that.

"Think you can help me move that," Hilda motions to the pile of rocks, bricks, and whatever else decided to bust loose.

The ground and steel type dives right in and starts to move a few of the larger pieces. Hilda kneels down and moves sand and small rocks directly in the middle of where the tunnel entrance should be.

Her throat is dry and dehydrated from the dust and crying but she doesn't stop. She could be digging to find two motionless bodies. But for some reason that doesn't seem like a possibility right now.

The Relic Passage was very old and sandstone is brittle so Hilda could be down there digging for hours. But it's not like she can't leave.