Pokémon PrismGold

Chapter Ten: "Nothing I Wouldn't Give"

Sean couldn't remember falling asleep. He could only remember feeling warm. After shivering for so many hours, it had felt so good to have his body warm up enough to relax. He felt comfortable. Then Pryce kicked his foot, jarring Sean awake as he stated out. "Morning, boys. Ready to go?" Sean groggily let his eyes adjust to the soft light in the cave. It had to be really early because he could feel the chill still in the air. He started to lay back down to sleep, when he realized who he was sleeping with. Jerking upright, he blushed with embarrassment. Had he slept on Mark's chest all night? Noticing Mark's jacket was over him, he tugged it off and staggered to his feet. Pryce flashed him a smirk, smugly stating out. "See? I knew you two could get along." Sean threw the Instinct leather jacket at Mark's chest roughly, defensively uttering out. "Shut up! Nothing happened!" The jacket hit Mark hard enough to wake him with a grunting start. Moving away from Mark, Sean glared at Pryce and tried to change the subject by snapping out. "What are you smirking about? Let's get a move on!"

Pryce kept his smirk as he reached out to help Mark up onto his feet. Mark adjusted his jacket, slipping it back on with a loud yawn as he stretched his arms out. The Dragonites all rose up on all fours, stretching out their limbs in turn with loud yawns of their own. Pryce walked to a Dragonite to pet its neck. Sean removed his hat to fix his hair, sneaking a look at Mark. Would he be as smug as Pryce was over seeing them together? Mark adjusted his own clothes, his hand rubbing his side where he had been laying on him. Mark didn't act like it had meant anything. Relief filled Sean, but he couldn't stop his cheeks from burning. Just before he was going to look away, Mark finally looked in his direction and winked at him with a beautiful smile. Sean's heart fell to the pit of his stomach, causing him to avert his eyes quickly. Closing his eyes, Sean shook his head subtly and cursed internally. He took it back. He was an ass. Pryce led his Dragonite to the edge of the water, telling them confidently. "Anyone want to go first?" To avoid further embarrassment, Sean reached out for the reins.

Pryce gave Sean the reins and Sean turned his hat around. The Dragonite bent down on all fours, but Sean just jumped into the water on his own. The Dragonite gently crawled into the water, staying close enough that Sean could wrap his arms around its neck. Taking a deep breath, Sean dived and the Dragonite followed him. While the water was brighter, he still couldn't see with all the salt water. He had no choice but to rely on Dragonite. Sliding onto his back, he held on as Dragonite swam through the water faster than he could. Finding a tunnel, Dragonite dived deeper into it. As certain fish got too close, Dragonite would snap at them to scare them off. Sean had never been very good at holding his breath. His lungs began burning halfway through the underwater tunnel. After exiting the tunnel, Dragonite spread his leathery wings in the water to swim faster for the surface. Breaching the surface, Sean gasped for air as he laid over Dragonite's back. Dragonite glanced around the open area, before swimming slowly to the edge. Coughing, Sean slid off Dragonite to climb out of the water and sat on the shore a minute.

Wringing out his shirt, he mumbled out to Dragonite. "I hate being wet..." Dragonite snorted water from its nose, staying in the water as it listened. Sean examined this new portion of the cave, shaking his head as he said. "Great. No tracks... and about... six tunnels to try... Just great." Sighing, Sean waved the Dragonite away, telling it coolly. "You can go get the others now." Dragonite let out a small moaning call, before sinking seamlessly back below the water. Staggering to his feet, Sean slowly started inspecting the entrances of the tunnels. There were some tracks present, that were heading away from the tunnels. He wasn't very good at telling what pokemon they had come from though because there were so many overlapping tracks, but the tracks were small in general. Moving to the next tunnel, he froze after hearing a soft fluttering noise. Staring deep into the dark tunnel, he saw what looked to be the outline of some Zubats hanging from the ceiling. Taking a slow step backward, a hand dropped on his shoulder and he clapped his hands over his mouth to keep himself from yelling. Jumping away from the hand, he whirled around to see Nate.