Chapter 6: Lost And Found

Surprisingly, I was able to sleep in that morning without being awoken abruptly by Mira or Pyro. I figured we could use the extra rest before hitting the road again. We were still several days travel from the lab and there wouldn't be another town along the way, so I definitely was going to get as much as I could out of our stay here at the center.

After a leisurely breakfast, we finally made it out onto the open road by late morning. Once again, the weather was perfect, not too hot or cool. And even though this region didn't have a hot tropical climate, I had yet to see something other than cloudless sunshine. Pyro decided to walk outside of his ball with us, now that his larger build made it easier to run around. Mira rode with me, flopped out lazily atop my head admiring the scenery as we walked. Trees sprung up around us as the path veered off from the adjacent grasslands into the woods.

Every now and then, we would run across some wild pokémon: a furret scurrying across the path or maybe a pidgey chirping in the nearby trees. Mostly, they just minded their own business; unlike the games I used to play, we weren't in any danger whatsoever as long as we stuck to the dirt route. The few bold pokémon that did end up challenging us to a battle were quickly defeated by Pyro, most with only one or two volleys of ember. Needless to say, there wasn't much in the woods here that could put up a good fight. Despite this, Pyro had managed to produce a vivid flamethrower a few times, but try as he might, he couldn't repeat his feat intentionally. I guess we would have to keep working on that, or wait until he naturally developed the skill with age.

- - -

In the early afternoon, we reached a point where the path narrowed sharply, and the trees increased dramatically in size and density. The canopy overhead closed up what patches of sky tried to peek through, letting only a few tiny beams of dusty sunlight drift down through the leaves and light up the darker undergrowth. The path twisted deeper into the forest, the dense growth obstructing our view to a mere dozen or so yards. In the middle of the path stood a signpost, a clear warning to travelers.

Plumera Forest Limit

Distance to Exit: 15 km

Warning: Be wary of any poison-types ahead, Antidotes or Pecha berries required. Not for inexperienced travelers, at least 1 Gym Badge recommended.

Proceed at your own risk.

Below was a large map, depicting a maze-like web of paths that wandered the area seemingly without direction. There weren't any landmarks I could tell on the map, but if the forest stayed this dense, I wouldn't be able to see them anyways. Not one of those goddamn unnavigable forests. It seemed like they always sprung up in the games when you were least prepared. I paused, evaluating our next move. Good thing I had thought to buy status healers at the pokémart, including an antidote, so that wouldn't be a problem. My only concern was the warning about having gym badges. But how dangerous could it be? We hadn't seen any highly aggressive pokémon so far today, and Pyro would have an edge against any bug and poison types we might encounter. Plus, we would hopefully be out the other side before we set up camp for the night. I looked to Mira and Pyro for their opinions.

"The sign says the forest is more dangerous than the main road. You two think we can make it through?" Of course, Pyro stood on his hind legs, head ablaze and posed his usual 'I can take on anything'. As for Mira, I could feel her holding onto me more tightly, wary of the path forward. "Eevee..." she murmured, burying her head in my hair.

I patted her reassuringly, and began walking. "Don't worry, we'll be just fine."

- - -

And, we were lost. Apparently, looking at a map isn't the most helpful if you're going by memory alone. This place had more twists and turns, forks and dead ends than Viridian forest. Particularly dead ends. I looked up at the only bit of sky I could see above us. We still had maybe an hour of daylight left, I was beginning to worry if we could find our way out before complete darkness fell. Traveling by night was out of the question; with the forest so thick, it'd be practically pitch-black, even with Pyro providing a source of light. Even now it was already getting quite dim, not a single ray of sunshine able to make it through the treetops.

Not to mention the numerous attacks by angry bug-types, with frequent appearances of Weedle and Spinarak. Luckily, Pyro was usually quick to scare them off with a bit of fire, so no one was hurt... yet. But they were much more aggressive than I anticipated. Who knew what would become of us after nightfall? The forest was beginning to awaken, replacing the previous silence with sporadic jarring calls echoing through the trees, or creepy scuttling in the undergrowth. In general, we were all a bit on edge, with good reason.



For the umpteenth time, we stumbled onto another wide path, I could have sworn we'd passed before. As I had grown to suspect, we were definitely walking in circles. Ahead of us, the trail branched in several directions, each looking identical to all the other forks we'd encountered. Sighing, I threw up my hands in resignation.

"Alright, I'm out of ideas. You two got any?"

Pyro shrugged unhelpfully, while Mira gave me an I told you so look, retaining her nervous grip on me as she peered worrisomely at the deep shadows of the surrounding trees. "Ah well, let's try..." I twirled my finger around blindly, "that way." Just as we started walking, I heard a nearby cry off in the trees. Usually, this meant that some aggressive pokémon was about to jump out of the bushes, and so Pyro took a fighting stance in the direction of the sound.

The bushes bordering the path started rustling, something quickly approaching us on foot.

A white blur streaked out of the thicket, stumbled forward and immediately plowed straight into Pyro, knocking them both to the ground with a confused crash.

"Quill!" Pyro angrily untangled himself and shoved the newcomer to the side as he scrambled back up. At this point I realized that the pokémon in question was a tired and beat up Flaaffy. It's tail was glowing a faint blue, casting an eerie light on our surroundings as it got back up. After quick glance at us three, Flaaffy dashed around to hide behind me, quivering and shying away from the opposite side of the path. A wavering "Flaaa" accompanied, its gaze, clearly afraid of something.

Hmm, this feels familiar...

Another dissonant commotion, then a few dark silhouettes emerged from the branches the trees above us, landing with a soft thump in the shadows. A pair of dim yellow eyes appeared, followed by a low growl. Step by step, the figure emerged, sporting bright green flowing leaves and a deep red underbelly. Standing upright, the Grovyle barked out a single order and motioned at us with a claw, presumably for us to step out of the way. Behind him, I could barely make out several inky forms lurking in the shadows, too hidden to accurately discern.

Smoke began trickling out of Pyro's growling mouth as he faced off against our foe, ready to defend. Even Mira gave a soft growl from on top of my head.

I looked down at Flaaffy, who was still shaking in fear. It appeared much more seriously hurt than last time, with several deep cuts and numerous bruises. To my concern, it also look dangerously fatigued, as if it has been hunted restlessly for the past few days. As much as I wanted to stand and fight, with each passing second more shadows in the forest materialized into foes: a few nidoran stepped out of the bushes, a treecko jumped over onto a tree branch, a sizable black snake pokémon that I didn't recognize coiled up at the base of the tree, with more undoubtedly on the way. Unlike last time, we were not only outnumbered but also undeniably outmatched.

I whispered at Flaaffy out of the corner of my mouth, "Whatever you do, don't shock me."

And to Pyro, "I know you want to fight, but I need you to use Smokescreen and run for it." I received a reluctant nod as he too came to grips with the situation. "Right... NOW!"

With a swift scoop I picked up Flaaffy, hoisting it into my arms and made a beeline down the first path I could see. Grovyle and company let out some muffled and confused shrieks as they were enveloped in a dense black cloud, courtesy of Pyro. Pyro then followed my lead and together we raced down the trail, trying to put as much distance as possible between us and them. As I expected, it only bought us a few seconds as I heard the bawls of our pursuers as they tried to reorganize. Hopefully it would at least take them a few minutes to figure out in which direction we had fled.

We probably ran at least half a mile through half a dozen forks. I figured that now was as good a time as any to jump off the path and find a good spot to hide; if they were still chasing maybe they'd miss us. After searching the nearby undergrowth, we finally decided on a concealed hollow in a rather large tree. Quickly, we hid inside and waited silently, hoping to god that we had lost them. Pyro had extinguished his flames so the glow wouldn't give us away in the growing darkness of the forest. With baited breath, I heard the chorus of pursuing calls grow, steadily getting closer along the path, then to my relief passing us without notice.

We waited quietly for a few more minutes until I was sure that we were totally alone. At this point, the Flaaffy in my arms began fidgeting uncomfortably, so I lay it down on the ground gently. It merely sat there, resting with its eyes closed, several bloody cuts and bruises dotting its rosy-pink skin.

"You're badly hurt, will you let me help?" I figured it'd be better to ask first, considering its reaction last time.

Flaaffy opened an eye and stared at me and Pyro, considered my plea through a pained grimace. Slowly, it nodded once, then closed its eyes once more. Now that we were in no immediate danger, Pyro provided some light and I examined Flaaffy and its wounds. This Flaaffy was female, and from what I could tell from the pokédex, overexhausted and faint from loss of blood. Not to mention the rather severe battle wounds she had acquired. Most was taken care of by a few bottles of potion, but I only had enough to go over the most serious injuries. Finishing with a few wrapped bandages, she appeared to be in pretty good shape, merely in need of a lot of rest. I sat back, admiring my work.

Suddenly Pyro let out a shrill, "Lava, quilava!" The flame on his head brightened considerably as he looked around the hollow frantically, poking his nose everywhere searching for something.

I waved my hands, "No no no, dim that down, we don't want to risk being seen."

He glanced back at me, a look of dread in his eyes, and he nudged a pokéball out my pack. It wasn't one of the spare ones, this was Mira's... MIRA! Amid all the chaos of our escape, it wasn't until now that I noticed that she was nowhere to be found. And if she wasn't here, that meant she was alone... out there in the dangerous forest.

Making sure that Flaaffy was safely hidden in our little nook, Pyro and I raced back to the path and retraced our steps carefully, looking for any signs of Mira. From the looks of our surroundings we had only about half an hour until complete darkness, but the dense forest had already grown incredibly dark, Pyro's light piercing the darkness for only a few feet.



Desperately, we searched everywhere we could, both up and down the path as well as down several of the forks we had passed on our way. Unfortunately, to both our dismay, our efforts turned out fruitless. By now evening had passed, and the nocturnal forest was beginning to absorb all ambient light. We just barely managed to find our way back to the hollow tree.

Pyro whined as we returned, wanting to keep up the search. However, even with his help lighting the way, I couldn't see a thing in the lightless underbrush. Wearily, I began setting up camp.

"There's nothing more we can do tonight, I can barely see a thing." Pyro's whines sharply increased, alarmed that I could leave Mira out there, alone and vulnerable. I sighed, giving him a comforting pat on the head.

"I know you're worried to death, so am I, but I need you here at camp, for both of our protection." I gestured to myself and Flaaffy, who was still sleeping peacefully in the corner. "We'll start again first thing in the morning, and I promise you, we'll find her."

-  -  -  -  -  -  -

We had been wandering around in these woods for hours now, and I was beginning to think we were lost. I mean, why would you even want to enter such a creepy place? I could see right from the start that it would be a bad idea, with the darkness and gloomy feeling that I felt everywhere. At least I had Pyro and Mark to keep me company; with them, I tried to assure myself nothing bad was going to happen. We slowly came to a stop, as Mark looked around at the surrounding trees. Even though I grew up in a forest, all the trees in this gloomy place looked identical.

"Alright, I'm out of ideas. You two got any?"

I looked down at his face from my perch. Didn't I tell you this was a bad idea? It didn't matter now, the forest was growing darker and we definitely weren't leaving any time soon.

A rustle in the brush nearby, and out of nowhere a whitish-pink blur flew out of the bushes and tumbled right into Pyro. To my surprise, I saw the Flaaffy from a few days ago untangle herself from Pyro, then stumble over behind Mark to hide. From what, I wonder? I didn't have to wait long before a dark shape landed from the trees and pair of scary yellow eyes appeared. Slowly, the menacing Grovyle emerged from the shadows.

"Out of my way," he growled, gesturing with his razor sharp claws.

More shadows lurked behind him, but I hoped that Pyro would be able to scare them all off with some of his amazing fire. I really wished that I could be as good at battling as he was, but after what happened last time I didn't know if I could ever be that great.

I must've not been paying attention to what Mark was whispering, because all of a sudden he picked up Flaaffy and started running down the path, leaving a black cloud of smoke in our wake. I didn't expect such sudden action, and had trouble clinging to Mark's head as he sprinted down the trail, jumping over roots and rocks and hills. With each passing moment, my paws slipped further and further. I called out for him to slow down, but to no avail.

I just couldn't hold on.

With a small cry, I was flung off into the abyss of darkness, tumbling and rolling down a steep hill before gradually coming to a stop. The sounds of Mark running faded as I, dazed, slowly got up to my feet and started climbing back up the hill.

"No, don't leave me behind!" I cried out, hoping that Pyro or Mark could still hear me.

Just as I cleared the top of the hill and scrambled back onto the path, I heard some voices approaching, and they certainly weren't friendly. Cautiously, I hid in the roots of a large tree as a large group of shadowy pokémon ran past on the trail.

"Come on, they went this way!"

"Are you sure? Grovyle will have our head if we lose them!"

"You dimwit, they must have stuck to the path, the forest is too thick for a large human to get very far."

The voices passed without noticing me, fading into the distance further down the trail. I waited a minute or two to make sure they were gone before I left my hiding spot and ran down the trail. I needed to catch up to Pyro and Mark before nightfall, so that... I didn't even want to think about what might happen if I didn't find them.

I passed by a few forks in the road, picking whichever I thought Mark was most likely to pick. However, after about ten minutes of running the path practically faded into the surrounding brush. Exhausted, I persistently continued weaving in and out of the rocks and roots. The woods were really dark now, and every now and then I would hear a pokémon call in the distance, making me jump and hide in the nearby brush, in case any powerful angry pokémon happened to walk by. Even with my good night vision, I could barely see in the moonless shade. My hopes of finding them were starting to dissolve.

My frantic pace slowed to a crawl and tears began welling in my eyes. What am I going to do? There's no way I'm going to find Pyro in this forest.

I rounded a boulder and noticed a tiny orange glow in the distant trees. My heart leapt at this and I rushed towards it. It has to be Pyro! The light grew brighter as I approached, streaming from a small cleared area in the woods. Tears of joy streaming down my face, I rushed straight into the heart of the clearing.

And ran smack into a bright green body.

Tripping, we both tumbled towards the source of the light, myself ending up resting head-first in the dirt. A loud cry, "Fire, fire!!!" and a moment later I felt a series of twisting vines wrap themselves around my legs and tail, lifting me upside down in the air. I found myself face-to-face with a rather angry Chikorita, the dark green leaf on her head singed and smoking. A growl emanated from her; apparently I had knocked her into what I now realized was a campfire glowing in the center of the glade. I began struggling to free myself of the firm vines holding me in place.

"Hey, lay it off, Chikorita" A large shadow walked up behind me, and Chikorita reluctantly released the vines and plopped me back on the ground. I turned and bared my fangs, trying to look as ferocious as possible. Whatever I stumbled into, I wasn't going down without a fight.

A pair of hands picked me up, and I instinctively lashed out with my claws, resisting any attempts to contain me again.

"Woah, just calm down!"

I flashed a look at my captor, and realized that it was another human, not some hostile pokémon that roamed this nightmarish forest. I reluctantly quelled my fighting, but still fidgeted anxiously as the female trainer placed me gently in her lap.

"Let's see, what's a little Eevee doing all alone in the middle of Plumera forest?" She inquired.

I knew she couldn't understand me, but I answered anyways, "I got separated from my friend and trainer." No response, as I expected. She continued to brush my fur, which felt pretty nice and calming. Anything to get my mind off being lost in that godforsaken forest.

"Help in translation, guys?" She asked.

I turned and noticed for the first time a Vaporeon staring at me from the corner of the camp. He slowly got up and lazily walked over to us, then fished out a small pokéball from the trainer's bag. He plopped it down next to me on her lap, then laid back down to rest.

The trainer looked at the ball, then at me, "So I guess you're not a wild Eevee, then?" I shook my head, my ears laid back thinking of Pyro and Mark. They were probably out there looking for me, too.

"Got separated from your trainer?" A silent nod.

She smiled reassuringly, "Well, you can stay with us for the night, then we'll see about finding that trainer of yours in the morning." A pause, as she thought for a moment. "You know, Eevee aren't too common a pokémon in general, I wonder..." Her words drifted off, but I didn't care as long as she kept scratching my back so nicely.

"Oh, I almost forgot to introduce us." She gestured to Vaporeon, "This is Kai, and I suspect that you've already met Chikorita before." I took a closer look at the green plant-like pokémon. Could it be...? She was starting to look a lot like the Chikorita I had faced in battle previously. The more I examined her, the more sure of it I was.

Seeing my reaction, the trainer laughed, "I'm Ashley, and I guess that settles it, tomorrow we're looking for a feisty Quilava and a rather naïve trainer."