Chapter 3 - Pressing Forward

alph3AlphChapter 3: Pressing ForwardDawn had begun to spread its warm light through the forest, reaching even the smallest nooks and crannies of the region. Somewhere, little children were waking up to their mothers’ soft voice. Somewhere, Pidgeys were chirping merrily to greet the morning.This was not one of those ‘somewhere’s.“SERIOUSLY, THOUGH. I really really really wanna stop and sleep.” Latias moaned loudly, stumbling through the woods after the others, who were equally zombie-like. Squirt, Mareep, and Yuki were carrying their Pokemon, who had fallen asleep.Squirt yawned. “I wouldn’t mind either... It’s been, what, 24 hours now since we last slept?” Mareep nodded, too tired to bother arguing.Articuno whined and clung to Latias. “Sleep is good, I want sleep. NOW. LATIAS, YOU’RE GREAT PRIESTESS~! MAKE US STOP AND SLEEP.”Latias turned to Yuki and opened her mouth to issue a command, but the boy spoke first. “No. We have to keep moving, we’re in dangerous area. See over there?” He pointed off at a cliff in the near distance. “Just below there is the trade route. No doubt there are guards from both sides watching there.” He remarked, using a free hand to brush aside a branch and ducked under it. However, he didn’t anticipate what would happen upon letting go.“Ow!” Squirt yelped as the branch thwapped her on the forehead, sending her falling down. It wasn’t long before she began to cry. “UWAAN~ I’m so tired, please, PLEASE can’t we stop as sleep? Sniff, sob...” Yuki sighed and put a hand on his forehead. “Fine...” The rest of the group broke out into tired smiles and curled up together to sleep. Squirt fished out the blankets from her and Zeni’s packs, and Latias and Mareep unpacked a blanket each as well. Wara, Squirt, Zeni, Latias, Articuno, Mareep and her pokemon, named Piima, were all huddled together under the blankets. Within moments, they were deep asleep.Yuki, however, remained awake. He sat on a rock next to the sleeping group, keeping guard. He didn’t want to admit, though, that with his blurred, tired senses, guarding was pretty much useless. Oh well: in his opinion, a sucky guard was better than no guard at all. Even if said guard’s head kept drooping tiredly...~*~“KEEEYAAAAH!! MOOOOOOOM~!” A shrill and panicked cry rang through the stone halls. A woman with short blonde hair came running frantically through the door to where Cleffa was kneeling in horror. “Cleffa, what is it!?” “Mom, Mom, Squirt’s gone! She’s gone, mom, she’s not here!” “WHAT!?” The older woman grabbed her freaking out daughter by the shoulders and stared at her blankly.Meanwhile, an older woman shrieked out and fell over. “Mareep, where’s Mareep!? Oh, no.. If your mother was alive, she’d never forgive me! No! No, Mareep, where did you go!?” A younger man, about 20, poked his head around the door curiously. “Hm? What’s the matter, Grandma?” “Oh, Electrike, your sister!” The man jumped out fro behind the door, eyes wide. “What? What happened to Mareep!?” “She’s gone, I can’t find her!” Electrike quickly ran over and tore through Mareep’s room frantically, before finding what he was looking for; a letter. He read it aloud, voice quivering. “ ’Dear Grandmother, Dear Brother... I must go. I had a vivid dream last night. A white figure appeared to me and told me that I had to go and stop this war. If you’re reading this.. I’ve already left. I’m sorry if I made you worry. I’m sure that, up in heaven, Mom knows that it’s not your fault. She would have wanted me to go. ... I’m sorry. - Mareep.’ ”Loud warning drums pounded through the cobblestone town square of Alph, and an enourmous amount of inhabitants were gathered around. The chief stood up on a makeshift stage, and his powerful voice boomed out to the audience. “Quiet, quiet! I have recieved three reports of missing children since this morning. My son is also missing. However, Electrike supplied us with a note from one of the missing children, Mareep. The Great Priestess spoke to me of a mysterious dream she had, telling her to journey and save us all. This is very similar to what Mareep had written in her letter.”I strongly believe that this is the cause of the missing children. Latias, Articuno, Mareep, Squirtle, and Yuki have all dissappeared last night. We assure you that this is the best; dreams have not lied to us before, especially as a phenomenon as big as this. I am sure that they are all fine wherever they currently are. This does not mean we should lessen on our efforts to defeat the Ecruteak; instead, we should strengthen it.”As the chief stepped down and walked off with his advisors and guards, the crowd dispersed and began chattering away again excitedly about this event.~*~||Your home knows of your departure. They are worried.|| Yeah, sure. No one was ever worried about her, personally. They were just trying to keep the ‘Great Priestess’ from harm, because, of course, SHE was the one the entire tribe depended on. They never cared about her personal desires, just what they wanted for her; what they thought was best. ||Do not look down on those who protect you. You have a lot to learn about those around you. You are not on this quest just to save Alph. You must save yourself from your burden, as well...|| What? What was that supposed to mean? Before she could ask the question burning in her mind, the silvery shape opened its mouth to speak. ||Wake...||~*~Latias was brought back abruptly from the realms of sleep by a loud bark. “... Up!” Yuki finished his sentance as he looked over he shoulder at the stirring group. In front of him were three armored men carrying heavy spears. Five Poochyena stood in front of them, growling fiercely. Yuki hissed out an explanation to the stunned group behind him. “I told you sleeping was a bad idea... If we had kept going, they wouldn’t have found us.”Squirt quickly jumped up and picked up Zeni, clutching her friend, who clung to her as well. “Y-yuki, who’re they..?” The silver haired boy took a step back as the guards advanced. “Ecruteak guards. I told you this place would be heavily guarded...”One of the guard turned slightly, issuing orders to the other two. “You, go back and report on this. You, sieze the priestess.” The first guard ran back into the forest, and the second raised his spear and charged forward at Latias, who shrieked. “Hiyaah! I’ll save you, my Latias~!” Articuno blocked the attack with a branch that had fallen from one of the trees previously.Mareep was just now awaking, and she took one glance at the scenery before turning slowly to Yuki and remarking calmly, “What did you do now?”The icy boy didn’t respond, as he was running through the forest after the first guard.:Squiiirt, c’mon! We have to help!: Zeni looked up and tugged on Squirt’s shirt. The girl bit her lip and nodded slowly. “All right.. Let’s go!”The two jumped forward, in front of what appeared to be the higher-ranked guard and his two Poochyena. “... Z-zeni! Bubble!” The turtle took a deep breath and blew out a powerful stream of bubbles which struck one of the Poochyenas. The bubbles popped all over it, stinging its eyes. It howled in pain and took off blindly into the woods.Meanwhile, Wara (Yuki’s snorunt) had frozen the feet and hands of the guard that had tried to attack Latias to the ground. Mareep’s Piima had thundershocked the Poochyenas, and the three Pokemon now lay swirly-eyes alongside their immobile owner.Squirt turned her attention back to her own battle. The remaining Poochyena launched forward for a powerful tackle; it sent Zeni flying backwards into a tree. :Owooww.. That was very.. Not-fun.: The turtle complained as he stood up and dusted his front off, regaining his battle composure. “Bubble, Zeni!” The Squirtle nodded, hearing his trainer’s command. He took a deep breath and unleashed another flurry of bubbles toward the Poochyena. The dog-like pokemon stumbled, but quickly recovered. “Tackle!” With a loud bark, the Poochyena jumped forward, pinning Zeni to the ground. It growled a threat as it was about to end the battle with a scratch, but is was stopped by a beam of ice.Wara stood behind a surprised Squirt, grinning and hopskipping. :Aw yeah, I’m cool. No pun intended, though!:The commanding guard cursed under his breath and began to retreat into the woods, but a thunder wave from Piima stopped him in his tracks.Mareep walked proudly over to Squirt, patting her on the back. “Well, we did it!”Squirt smiled and picked Zeni up. “Yeah, you guys did great!”Latias and Articuno sweatdropped. “You see, this is why it seriously sucks to NOT have pokemon... You don’t really get to do anything.” Articuno explained. Latias raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh? You did a pretty good job protecting me when that guard tried to take me...” Articuno grinned widely at the compliment, rubbing the back of his neck and chuckling.Squirt walked over and rubbed Wara’s head. “You did great too, Wara! Where did your trainer go?” :Yuki went off after that man who left to go tell the others.:Mareep bit her lip. “What? That idiot...”Squirt tilted her head to the side worriedly. “But... he didn’t have Wara to protect himself... And as far as I know, he didn’t get much sleep, if any...” She stood up quickly, picking up Wara. Zeni climbed up on to her shoulder. “Oh, we really need to go find him!”Latias nodded as she packed up the blankets. “I wouldn’t be too worried, though. I heard the Chief say that Yuki is in our military.”Mareep looked surprised. “Really? I didn’t know that...”Articuno nodded, proud that this was a subject he was knowledgeable on. “Yup, yup. He’s a spy, so that’s why he doesn’t really talk about it much..”Squirt looked suprised for a moment, but blinked it off. “... R-really..?” “Mmhm!” Articuno replied cheerfully.Latias slung the backpacks over her shoulder. “Well, whatever. We should still probably find him anyway. It’s not really a good idea to be seperated in this forest... I’ve heard bad things about it. Plus, the Ecruteak will realize their guards are missing, soon.”Wara wiggled anxiously in Squirt’s arms, smirking. :Let’s goo, let’s go!:The girl sweatdropped and nodded. “Er... Yes...”Piima looked up, her fluffy fur shading her eyes mysteriously. Electricity crackled through her woolen coat. :.... We should move forward.: Zeni stared at the mareep and shivered, clinging to Squirt’s shoulder. :Let’s go before Piima kills us.:Zeni leapt off of Squirt’s shoulder and marched into the trees, Piima trotting sullenly after him. Squirt, Mareep, Latias, and Articuno stared at the Pokemon and sweatdropped, then ran to follow them.

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