I wake up, eat another round of pancakes, and get ready to leave again. Rune is licking the syrup off of his fur, and Pich is preening herself. I make a mental note not to let Rune near pancakes ever again. His entire flank is matted in sticky but sweet liquid, and he's smiling at me viciously. I give him a silencing glare, and he looks slightly amused back at me.

"Mom, heading out again! Thanks for the pancakes!" I yell, the words sticking in my throat. This woman is not my mother. I clench my fists slightly, as if I can make the deep, terrified part of me stop moaning in pain with every word, and then realize I'm blue in the face. I turn around and leave, my tiny team behind me.

We walk the familiar road, Rune padding along and Pich sitting on my head. "Can we flash again?" she chirps excitedly.

"Only if we really need to. It's not a casual thing. If someone sees my eyes glowing gold, they're going to freak out."

"So, your old owner. What were her bonds like?"

"We were all one in spirit. I could sense when someone was feeling down, feel their pain, their joy. There's an old saying in Johto- 'With a friend, you laugh twice for happy times and cry half for sad ones.' I think... it was like that with us. Life was six times better with them."

"Do you miss them?"

"I'd do anything to get home."

Pich looks satisfied with this and curls up deeper in my hair, which is probably now a bird's nest, quite literally, but I don't feel like combing it out. I see a small store selling potions and another selling Poke Balls, and spend most of my money on them.

I'm about to leave, to get back on the route and our journey (as it is already ten in the morning), when I hear the tinkle of store bells and someone shouting- "GRAND OPENING! GET YOUR CLOTHING HERE! 50% OFF!"

I walk out half an hour later with a very bored Rune and Pich sitting in a nice white fedora on my head.

"Did you really have to take so long? You must have tried on half the store and you only bought that hat."

"It's a girl thing." I tell him, as if this explains everything, and he glowers at me, unamused. I pat him on the head.

We walk past where we were yesterday, and see Shauna (I hope that's her name) and Bronze waiting for us at the entrance to the forest.

"Nice hat." Bronze says with a smile. "Enjoying the journey?"

I give him another glare, but my heart melts when I look into his eyes. He's smiling, his copper eyes just as beautiful as the day I met him. So carefree, but with that inner strength that I've seen burst from him in every battle. I can read him like a book- he's struggling already. He wants to fight, to burn everything here alive. Whatever connection I had to Ashley, his must have been much, much stronger.

He looks at me for a long time, and I hear him mouth 'help me'. "Well, Lilly, this is my team. Shruikan, Pyro, come on out!" A Froakie with almost dragonlike qualities and a small Fletchling with puffy feathers come out, both looking eager.

"I just have my little Chespin!" Shauna says happily.

Dear Arceus, that girl is going to die.

"So, shall we?" I say, and walk into the trees. It's huge- an enormous maze of forest. Tall grass rustles all around us. This is Santalune Forest.

I see the grass closest to me and instinctively clutch a Pokeball. As soon as the Pokemon leaps out of it I throw it as hard as possible, and I hear a click. I send out my new captive.

It's a Panpour, one I recognize from long nights of scouring the Pokedex with Dill and Bronze. "Yikes, did you have to throw it so hard?" He says, stumbling backwards a bit, clutching his head.

"Sorry." I say guiltily.

He shakes it off. "My name's Geyser. So you're my new master." He looks me up and down with his squinty eyes, and says finally, "I don't get it."

I spend most of the day grinding, until I see Shauna almost get her Chespin killed by fighting an overpowered Scatterbug. "GO RUNE! USE EMBER!"

Rune runs forth and flames the thing, standing defensively over the Chespin and snarling.

Shauna hugs me, crying, and then picks up her Chespin.

The rest of the day goes something like this.

Shauna: Let me help you!

Me: I'm good.

Shauna: I can massage your back!

Me: No thanks.

Shauna: I can heal your Pokemon!

Me: They're on full health.

Shauna: I can give you a hug!

Me: No homo.

Very little grinding was done that day. That, and I didn't get to talk to Bronze. Naturally, my Pokemon got bored of sitting around with Shauna breathing down my shoulder and went off to do their own thing. Pich tried to explain everything to Geyser, which didn't go very well, and Rune just sharpened sticks into extremely painful thorns and then left them wherever someone would probably step on them.

Finally, it was too late to continue, but unfortunately we were stuck out in the middle of the forest alone with no sleeping bags. Bronze was in charge of lighting the fire, but he just looked at the sticks dully, obviously wishing he could set them all ablaze, so Rune did it for him.

The other Pokemon went foraging. The end result was some worms and bugs from Pich and Pyro, Shruikan up on a log because "dragons are too important to forage", and Geyser brought back some actual berries. I was in charge of setting up some place to sleep, so after about an hour I found an old campsite. Unfortunately, all the stuff was in a locked wooden shed. Fortunately, I have a fire breathing fox. The stuff was, although slightly scorched, in good condition. We slept under the stars that night- Rune on my right, Pich on my head, and Geyser on my left.

Maybe journeying won't be so bad after all.