Unity

Chapter 5

Gloria slowly blinked open her eyes. She let out a loud groan and grabbed her head the second she sat up straight on her knees. Where was she? What happened? She looked around carefully. She was in a dark cave, luckily there was a torch on the floor. Beside her was laying Zamazenta. It's tail and head protectively curled up around her legs. Luxio was standing in front of her. Sparks were coming from its body and his hairs were all spiked up.

"G... Gloria? You're awake! I-it's me! Cane!" the boy stuttered nervously.

He crawled a little bit closer to her with big eyes. Luxio roared and protectively jumped in front of the two people. Gloria got closer to the guy despite the wariness of her Pokémon. She reached out to touch his hand. Her eyes were gazing upon his face in confusion. She finally recognized him! It was Cane, the guy she met at the cafe earlier when she was sharing a tea with Hop earlier!

"What happened? Why are you here?" She questioned him with a worried face.

She removed her hand away from his hand to see that it was covered in blood. "You're bleeding!" She said in a alarmed voice.

"Y... Yea... My arm-" The red haired boy was cut off by Gloria pulling her shredded grey parka over her head.

The boy turned beet red and nervously crawled backwards a little in surprise. Gloria grabbed his hand once again to stretch out his arm. With her mouth and free hand she stretched out a sleeve from her parka and twisted it above the wound on his lower arm to ease the bleeding. Zamazenta stood up too. It's ears were laying flat in its neck. He was watching the strange boy closely, not trusting him a bit.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked her nervously.

"Saving yer arm obviously!" She responded sternly.

She backed away and glanced around the cave one more time. She pressed her hands against her forehead, trying to recall what happened earlier.

"Ah, I'm glad you're awake too! I was sheltering from the rain. Suddenly there was a big explosion, so I went to look. I saw you nearly being crushed by falling debris! I quickly got you out of there, but my arm got hurt while protecting you. Your Pokémon here refused to leave your side either." the ginger boy explained to her.

Gloria looked at his face with big eyes. He saved her life... She felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach, like an unbearable thankfulness.

" Y... You saved my life... " She stammered softly.

Cane shook his head and crawled a little bit closer. He was smiling sweetly at her, although his face was all bruised up and covered in dirt.

"It's only natural, shield hero! You saved the whole Galar region, it's the least I could do."

Gloria's lips started to curl up into a sweet smile. It wasn't just me. She thought to herself. But what he said earlier, about the sudden explosion. It was almost as if someone did this on purpose! She shouldn't have strayed away from Victor, than none of this would've happened! She tilted her head curiously to the side and stared at Cane's beaten-up face.

"What brings you in this cave though?" She asked him softly.

Cane grinned and pulled a book out of his bag. It was a leather book, it looked very worn out!

"I'm researching certain stones, actually! In other regions special powers like Mega Evolution or Z-moves seems to be related to certain stones... So perhaps there also was some kind of rock related to the Dynamax phenomenon." he proudly explained.

Gloria quickly looked at his wrist. He wasn't wearing a dynamax wristband, although he used to be a gym challenger alongside her. She wanted to tell him about the wishing stones, but was interrupted by Zamazenta standing up. The tall Pokémon stretched out its body and squinted his eyes at the ginger boy before sitting down next to Luxio, in front of Gloria. The brunette girl giggled and sat back up on her knees to pet him on his head.