Chapter 2 - Moonlit Departure

alph2AlphChapter 2: Moonlit DepartureThe rest of the day had passed rather uneventfully. Squirt and Celffa had successfully bought a basket of peaches from the other farm, and brought them back home. The family had eaten the ripe and delicious fruits for lunch, and then Squirt had gone out for her clay-making lessons. Dinner was a creamed-corn soup with fresh bread and apple juice. Cleffa, Squirt, and Munch had helped wash the dishes in the well, then hurried off to bed.Squirt sat up in her hammock, and looked around her dark room. She couldn’t sleep, something was tugging at the back of her mind. She was certainly tired, but it was preventing her from sleeping, wouldn’t let her. If was as if something literally was keeping her from sleeping, like a spell. But she knew very well what she had to do.The problem was, she didn’t WANT to do it.She looked over at Zeni, who also seemed to be having the same problem.“Zeeeenniiii.”{Myah?}“What should I do?”{About...?}“The dream told me I had to go tonight...” Squirt explained with a sigh. “And, judging by what we overheard when we were watching that Great Priestess thing.....”{You aren’t the only one?} Zeni suggested, rolling over on his stomach and turning to look at Squirt.She nodded. “Yeah...”The Squirtle’s mouth curved upwards into an excited grin. {Weeeeell then... Who are we to argue with dreams?}Squirt looked at him as if he was insane. “You’re crazy. I couldn’t leave even if I wanted to!”{Yes you could.}“.. Fine, maybe I could leave if I wanted to. But I DON’T.”{Buuuut...This is probably much bigger than it seems! It could be a fantastic, magical quest, with fancy... stuff.} Zeni smirked, fantasizing.“.... Well, but..! ....” Squirt bit her lip and turned on her side, thinking for a moment.{Weeeeell? You wouldn’t be alone. I’d go with you. And so would all the other people who had dreamed this.}Squirt winced mentally, and sat up, swinging her legs over the side of her hammock. She hated it when her Pokemon was right..! Especially since said Pokemon was a mischievous little troublemaker.Zeni was filled with excitement. Yay, an adventure! the tiny turtle pokemon cheerfully gathered up things that he deemed worthy enough to come. A carved seashell on a leather band and one of his blankets. That was all.Squirt, on the other hand, had tied two changed of clothes, a small clay bowl, a a blanket and her pillow inside another blanket, then had to untie it to put in Zeni’s stuff.“Okay.... Are you POSITIVE you want to do this?” Squirt turned to Zeni, hoping he’d say no.{Yup!} “.. Great. Well... onward, I guess.”Squirt shoved the pack through the window, then jumped through after it, catching Zeni as he followed. She retied it around her waist, so the bundle was like...A really big fanny-pack. Squirt sighed, still not sure of this. As she neared the exit of the town, however, she could see something up ahead.It was bright white and vivid red.The figure spun around at Squirt and Zeni’s footsteps, and her mouth turned into a smirk.Squirt half-waved, half saluted at her. “... Hey.”Latias looked calm and collected in the moonlight. Probably all that time around fancy people had done that.“HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!”Squirt’s eyes widened. Holy Miltank, this was unexpected.Latias came bounding over, a small pack tied on a stick which was slung over her shoulder. “HI! You had the dream too? I’m Latias, who’re you? Isn’t it nice out? I guess this is good weather for spring! Hahah! I wonder if there are any others, hm? Hee, for so late at night, I’m hyper!”Squirt stood still for a moment, comprehending the questions.“Uhm... Hi! And, uh, yeah, dream-thing. I think. I know you’re Latias, that’s sort of hard to miss. Uhh, I’m Squirtle, call me Squirt, and this is Zeni, and, um... Yes, it’s nice out... Yes, it’s good weather for spring... and yes. Yes, you are /exceedingly/ hyper for this time of night.” Squirt answered, stifling a tired yawn. Zeni sweatdropped up at Latias, and responded with a simple, {Hiya?}“Awwwww!” Latias squealed, picking up Zeni and hugging him. “You’re so lucky to have a Pokemon, Squirt! As Great Priestess,” Latias answered dramatically, stressing the ‘Great Priestess’ part, “I get no Pokemon friend! Waah! Oh well. That’ll change in this journey, I hope!” She exclaimed peppily, putting a confused Zeni down.“Hey, hey, lookit! Two people are up ahead!”Squirt and Latias turned in the direction of the voices. A figure appeared from the darkness of the night.He was a tall, hotheaded looking boy with short silver hair. The bangs were up into three spikes, and his eyes were icy, cold blue. A Snorunt hurried after him. {Wait for meeee, Yuki!} The pokemon called after his trainer, who stared down at him. “... whatever. Wara, go... mingle with their pokemon, or something.” {Suit yourself.} The Snorunt, Wara, waddled over to Zeni and began to converse with him as his irritable trainer leaned against a tree, arms crossed, waiting for the others to catch up.A girl came scurrying over. Her long purple hair was let down, and her ruby eyes observed Squirt and Latias. A fluffy yellow pokemon skip-hopped behind her. “Okay...... Uhh... so we have that hyper girl from that farm, and the Great Priestess? Joy... Can’t forget Mr. Sunshine over there.” The girl ‘hmph’ed and crossed her arms, nodding her head to the silver-haired boy. Squirtle sweatdropped, and raised a finger. “Ahhh.... who are you two?”The purple-haired girl stared at Squirt like she was an idiot. “Mareep. and Happy-go-lucky over there is Yuki. He said Snorunt was far too weird a name, so he used part of the... some-language name for it. I forget. And who might you be?” Mareep turned to Squirt, already knowing Latias’s name. Of course, there wasn’t a person in Alph who didn’t know.“Um.. well, I’m Squirtle, but call me Squirt... and my Pokemon is Zeni!” Squirt announced cheerfully, then sweatdropped at Mareep’s piercing stare. “Righto... Well, I guess there are... what, two more of us? Yeah... That seems right. Then we go.” Mareep nodded sagely.“LAAAAAAATIIIIIIIIAAAAAS~” A loud cry filled the air, and the four winced that they might be caught. A boy came running over to where they stood, stopping near Latias. His hair was blue and naturally very spiky. He wore a headband made of dark blue wraps. “Helloooo, Latias! Remember that dream you were talking about? I had it tooo! I didn’t want to say anything in front of my dad, though, he’d spaz.” The boy explained. This made /perfect/ sense to him. Latias sighed, hand in forehead. “Articuno, stop talking.” “Buuuuut-” “Pleeaaase?” “Fiiine.” “GOOD.” Squirt racked her brain for a moment, then smirked triumphantly. “Articuno? Then you’re the cheif’s son?” “Yup!”“Figures.” Yuki snorted, obviously not thrilled by the way this group was turning out. Mareep counted on her fingers for a second. “Soooo... ... In my dream, the blob told me that our last member would be gained somewhere on our journey. .. Any idea where we’re going?” Squirt looked surprised. “Really, mine said to go to Olivine. It didn’t say anything about finding another member.” Latias spoke up cheerfully. “Mine said that we’d have all sorts of trials to overcome on the journey, and to be prepared!” Articuno folded his arms and nodded sagely. “Mr. Blob told me that our Pokemon would instinctively know the way there!” Yuki looked up at the group. “... Move quickly, and don’t stay in one place too long.”Mareep thought for a moment before slamming her fist into an open palm in realization. “I see! The creature told us each something different and important, too make sure that all of us came: if any one of us didn’t, we wouldn’t know what to be doing.” Squirt nodded in agreement. “Yes.. And judging by what Yuki said, we shouldn’t stay here too long. Let’s hurry up and go.”And with that, the five humans- Squirt, Latias, Articuno, Yuki, and Mareep- and their three Pokemon took off into the dark forest, lit only by the moon’s silvery glow.

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