I was EXHAUSTED! My Zangoose, Neo, and I had been walking for hours. I really should have taken a bit larger lunch break earlier on but the map made Oldale look so close. Stupid cartographers. I guess I just didn't want to annoy Neo, who seemed to be enjoying himself rather well on this walk. He, unlike me, was doing fine. Other than a random trainer battle against a bug collector with a Wurmple he hadn't seen much action today.

Nevertheless, I knew when it was time to take a rest and, as I looked up, the sun setting in the west only confirmed my exhaustion. I decided to pick a clearing to set up camp for the night.

"Hey Neo, *Huff*Huff* wait up!" I called out to my Zangoose who had begun to pull ahead again.

"Zan?" He had a questioning look so I explained myself to him.

"I think it's time we call it quits for the day and find a spot to set up camp. It's getting late, and we don't want to be cooking dinner and setting up a tent in the dark.

He nodded in agreement. I could tell he wanted to keep going, but he saw the sense in my request.

"Hey Neo, why don't you get wood for a fire, I'll get the tent set up and when you get back, I can start making our dinner." He agreed and set out to find some wood. I really liked Neo's attitude about this arrangement. I had heard some nasty rumors about some starter Pokémon being unruly to their trainers and was worried he would be like that, but he seemed quite tame, even if he didn't talk much. It might also help that he nearly fainted from pleasure when he tasted what I made him for lunch. Meh, who cares? As long as he was obedient I couldn't have been happier.

I decided I had been standing about way too much and began setting up our tent. It was fairly large for the size of pack that I had, but I wanted something nice, and a tarp just would not cut it for me.

I began setting up the tent, being careful to read the instructions and match up the poles to their respective color coded pairs, when I thought I heard the bushes rustle. I set down what I was doing and cautiously made my way over to where I had heard the sound. I was more than just a little worried, and all the sudden wished Neo was here, silently cursing myself for not just going to get the wood with him. I had heard all of the stories of wild Pokémon attacks, and none of them were pretty.

The bushes rustled again and a medium sized white and black Pokémon ran out and rushed away from the camp site. That's when I really got worried. That was an Absol. Everyone knew what an Absol meant. It was said that if you saw an Absol most likely disaster was sure to follow. This really got me nervous so I hurried back to my tent and set to put it up with renewed vigor, worried that I might be out in the open when the disaster struck, if indeed it did.

Shortly after the tent was put up, Neo returned with an armful of logs ranging from large branches on the bottom to small kindling on the top. "Thanks Neo, I really appreciate your help," I said, ruffling the fur on top of his head.

"Goose, zangoose zan," he replied, putting one claw behind his head as if to say it was nothing and accidently dropping a big log on my foot in the process.

"AHHHH!" I screamed out, which surprised Zangoose even more than when he first dropped the log on me, causing him to drop the rest in the rush to rush to help me. Of course that just meant the rest of the wood fell. On the same foot. Ouch.

After that incident was over and the pain had subsided to a small throb, I decided to make the fire I had gone through so much pain for, and yes I mean 'I' who actually experienced physical pain, not Neo who just carried the logs. After I had set up a small stone pit and arranged the logs like a teepee, I placed the kindling right where it was touching the logs but still exposed to enough air that it would burn, just like my dad had shown me all those times we went camping together. I then reached into my pack and pulled out a box of matches and struck one on a rough rock to light the kindling.

Meanwhile, Neo, ever so helpful, was digging through my pack for the food supplies. I knew why he really was doing that so I told him to get out of my pack, and that it would taste much better once it was cooked. He grudgingly agreed and decided to help me set up the stew pot instead.

Once I had the pot hanging over the now blazing fire and filled with the ingredients necessary (which almost didn't happen thanks to Neo, I think you know what I mean) I lay back next to my new partner and looked up at the stars.

"They're beautiful aren't they," I marveled, almost to myself.

"Zan," He agreed, in a half-asleep voice.

"Don't worry Neo, the stew will be done soon and then we can get to bed."

He nodded appreciatively, and then suddenly jerked his head up.

A loud siren wail echoed in the distance, which I registered as the cry of an Absol and quickly jumped to my feet. It was bad enough to see one, but once you heard one it meant the threat was imminent.

All of the sudden, a huge dark mass charged at me. I was frozen in fear; luckily Neo came to my rescue and tackled me out of the way just in time. When I got up, dazed and confused, I saw Neo fighting a giant snakelike Pokémon with a black body, a golden head, and red eyes and fangs. I pulled out my pokedex shakily, still a little stunned and pressed the scan button. It analyzed what was in front of me and a picture appeared on the screen.

"Seviper, the Poison Fang Pokémon. This brutish Pokémon will usually attempt to attack with its venomous fangs, and then, with its opponent distracted, will lash out with its equally toxic tail."

Ok, so I had to watch out for the tail and the fangs, how hard could it be?

Zangoose was currently grappling with Seviper so I took the opportunity to take control of this battle. "Zangoose, quick back off." Zangoose jumped back fast, causing the Seviper to fall forward a little, but, thanks to its long body, it didn't fall all the way and instead started charging Neo.

"Alright Neo, use quick attack to get behind it, and then use crush claw!" Neo quickly obeyed, rushing in behind the Seviper, practically flying on his vapor trail, all the while charging its claw into a crackling mass of energy. "Good, hit it with all you've got," I yelled excitedly.

"GOOOOSSSEEE!!!!" Neo yelled as he swept his claw down on the startled Seviper. Unfortunately this Seviper was fast and blocked his claw with a poison tail attack. It then proceeded to rush in with a bite attack.

"Dodge it Neo," I shouted frantically, and watched as Neo narrowly avoided the attack by sliding under the enraged Seviper's jaw, clipping his ear on one of its fangs. I knew that with that poison damage Zangoose would start to slow up, which wasn't good since speed was his main weapon, so I called in a desperate move. I knew he wasn't very good at this from his earlier battle with a Wurmple but we had to try. "Neo, Iron Tail!" I shouted, hoping against hope that this would work. His tail flickered a little, and then began to glow as he jumped and swung it towards the Seviper. The Seviper blocked with its tail but luckily the iron tail was much stronger and sent the Seviper flying with a startled cry. It slammed right into a tree and fainted.

Knowing what could happen once it woke up; I pulled out a pokeball and chucked it. It was then that Zangoose jumped up and sliced the ball in half! "What the hell Neo! Whatcha do that for?" I scolded. Zangoose refused to look at me and watched as the Seviper slithered away. "Was it something I said?" I asked almost pleadingly, hoping to get an answer, or at least an excuse. "Come on, I'll give you some stew if you tell me." No response. "Fine but if you want to talk about it, I'll be waiting by the fire." And with that I promptly got up and went to dole out some stew into two bowls, already breaking my word that he would only get some once he talked.

I decided to see what my pokedex had to say about this to see if it could shed some light onto why my Zangoose hadn't wanted me to catch that Seviper.

I opened up my pokedex and did a search on Zangoose Seviper relationships.

"Zangoose and Seviper are mortal enemies, each having the ability to sense when the other is nearby. It is believed that their races constantly feud due to the fact that a main part of a wild Zangoose's diet consists of Seviper eggs. When these two fight it can last for days as they can counter each other blow for blow because of Zangoose's dazzling speed and Seviper's very poisonous sword like tail."

Well that explained a lot. I had almost forced two Pokémon who were mortal enemies from birth to become allies. Yikes...

Around that time Zangoose's stomach overpowered his pride and he decided to come and join me with the bowl of stew I had set out for him.

It was obvious he wasn't going to say anything so I decided to start out. "I'm really sorry Neo," I said with a genuine tone of apology in my voice. Neo just looked at my questioningly. "I screwed up; I really should have known you and Seviper were mortal enemies. Instead I just rushed into things and tried to catch it." I then pointed to the Pokedex, to show him I had looked it up, then looked down with shame.

When I looked away, the strangest thing started to happen. Neo actually spoke! I don't mean the cutesy poke tongue where they just repeat syllables of their names over and over again, I mean he actually spoke human! It was halting and a little shaky at first, like he was trying to think of what to say, but I could tell he was really trying.

"I... understand why you did it... You didn't know what you were doing. I shouldn't have treated you so harshly after you had done that. I'm the one who should be apologizing."

I was speechless. He looked over to me when he was done speaking to find me with my mouth open in astonishment.

"What is it Chris?" He asked innocently.

"You can speak!?" I practically screamed, but held back so as not to scare him.

"A little, why?" he asked curiously. "Can't all Pokémon?"

"Not that I know of. Only a rare few can, and even those can only speak very little." I told him, getting over my initial shock.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know." He started to stutter but I quickly silenced him.

"It's alright, really, I was just surprised, that's all. I'm really glad you understand why I did what I did by the way, thanks."

"You're welcome; now, can I have some seconds, please?" He asked with a little bit of a whine in his voice.

"Of course," I said with a laugh.

I could tell this was going to be the beginning of an interesting relationship.Chapter End Notes:Well, how'd I do? Please leave a response in the comments section. All reviews are appreciated. Oh, and if anyone read this and was wondering where the ending went I just got it posted after some technical difficulties