- Blessed by Divinity -

A Haunting Experience

The journey to Coumarine went smoothly. We trained as much as we had fun to relax on our journey earning us a comprehensive victory over gym leader Ramos and his grass types. Just as Dratini and I stepped out of the gym, analysing the badge we had earned for our hard work.

"That's four out of eight. We'll have them all if we don't let up now."

The dragon type nodded in agreement, excited that she could battle against a gym leader seeing as the last opportunity she had was all the way back in Santalune against Viola.

Sure enough, the victory over Ramos lead the gym leader to comment on how well we were training and that there was something special he saw in me that he had only ever seen once before.

I was unsure what he meant but his encouraging words only spurred us on further, fueling our desire to win more.

"Well if it isn't you again Aaron."

The mention of my name caused me to look up and see who was there. Quickly, I spotted a familiar young girl stood only a few feet ahead of me. Her light blonde hair was well kept and her lilac and lavender coloured dress suited her perfectly. I looked up to her face, our eyes meeting for more than a second before she turned away to break contact.

"Hey Elaine, we haven't seen each other since back in Lumiose nearly a month ago."

The light blonde nodded, clearly happy to be reunited once again. "Remember what you said just as you left?"

In fact I did remember. Those words were stuck in my head for days and I promised myself that I would stick to them. I looked up from my thoughts and nodded in response.

"Well I've just won my first princess key so I'm well on the way to the top and from what it looks like, you're doing really well too!"

I looked down briefly to the gym badge in my hand before adding it to the case of gym badges. To me, I could see that our hard work was already paying dividends as we were both on our way to the top.

"It's getting kind of late, should we head to a pokemon center?"

Quickly, I scanned the area noting that Elaine was correct. The over head lights were turned on and the night stars filled the sky above.

"Yeah, we should get going."

---

As we collected the keys to our rooms, a shrill voice caused us to abruptly turn to the entrance of the pokemon center. A middle aged woman forced herself through the doors with a look of absolute terror.

"Please! I need help! My poor boy! He's been taken!"

Nurse Joy tried her best to remain calm in this situation, reminding the woman to take deep breathes and to pace her sentences. Elaine and I made our way over the counter to see what the fuss was about.

"A pokemon took my poor boy! He's out there on his own!"

Elaine and I exchanged brief looks before what seemed like a telepathic agreement.

"Don't worry ma'am, we're pokemon trainers, we can bring back your son."

I detected a hint of confidence from the light blonde's words. She was determined to help the woman out and I, as a pokemon trainer, was inclined to help as well.

"If you could tell us where you were last with your son, that would be helpful."

The woman had calmed down greatly since she set foot in the pokecenter. She informed us that her and her son were taking their usual nightly walk on their way home near to an abandoned house when he was snatched by a pokemon from the shadows.