The two once traversed the arid Route 4, this time to get to the other side. The dusty wind blew in their faces.

"Why aren't we just flying places?" asked Ira. "Surely you have some flying pokemon right?!"

Elron spat some dust out of his mouth. "If I did that, then you wouldn't get the full experience! See over there?" He pointed to a forest off in the distance. "Just beyond that is Nimbasa City. You can make it that far can't you?"

Ira groaned. "I guess, but my feet hurt."

"You'll get used to it."

They walked uneventfully until they reached the safety of the tree line, after which Ira fell to her knees.

"So tired. So dirty."

"Really?" Elron wiggled his toes in his boots. "I don't feel tired at all. Then again, I've been doing this for a long time." He looked at the sun, then at his outdated pokegear. "You sure you can't make it to Nimbasa?"

"I'm sure."

"Guess you're too tired to hold onto a Salamence to fly there then," he teased.

"Wait!" she interjected. Her eyes lit up. "I'm sure I could handle that! It's my legs that are tired, not my arms!"

He laughed. "Maybe after you earn your first badge, but until then you'll have to walk. You need to earn your wings. Come on, we need to get a little further in before we can set up camp."

She reluctantly forced herself up and walked sluggishly after him. Being a trainer is a lot more work than I expected.

This is only the first day, thought Elron. I hope she gets used to this quickly because this is supposed to be one of the easier days.

True to his word, Elron only made her walk a little further before putting down their bags. "This looks like a good enough place!"

It was a small grassland area that was only a tiny hole in the packed forestry. In a few years it would probably start filling up with trees, and this little clearing would cease to exist. For now, however, it would make a nice campsite.

Elron pulled his sleeping bag out of his backpack and rolled it out on the ground. "I'll start working on a campfire early then I guess."

"Wait," said Ira, confused. "Where's the tent?" She imagined the two of them sleeping in a tent together up until this point, but there was no such housing in sight.

"Who needs tents on nights like this?" Elron said, pointing to the blatantly day sky.

She ignored the time of day. "What if it rains tonight?! Won't we get soaked?!"

He observed the sky for a few seconds. Clouds were indeed rolling over the horizon. "Na, it won't rain tonight. Those clouds aren't ready to pour out on us just yet."

"What are you, a weatherman?"

"You'll be one too eventually. Well, a weather-woman I suppose."

She didn't seem too convinced, but gave it a rest and decided to give herself a rest too. She rolled out her sleeping bag a few feet away from Elron's. She yawned and tucked herself into it.

"Let's gather some firewood. I'll show you which ones to use," he said. He surveyed the area for some loose twigs and branches, then refocused on Ira.

She was already passed out in her sleeping bag, tired from all the walking they did that day.

I guess I'll let her sleep then.

-----

Ira stirred in her sleep, not used to the cold night breeze rolling over her cheeks. The strange sensation gradually pulled her from sleep, and she opened her eyes. The darkness of the night did not yield to any stars, and only a small sliver of moonlight peered through the cracks in the clouds.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The fire had long since died down, and there was only the faintest glow in the deepest depths of the ash pile. She noticed that Elron was not in his sleeping bag.

In a slight panic, she threw her bag off of herself and got on her feet.

Did he leave me?! She scanned the area, confused and disoriented. He wouldn't just leave me like this out in the open would he?! She looked as hard as she could, but she couldn't see Elron anywhere. Maybe he just went to relieve himself or something, she thought hopefully. I'll just sit tight for a few minutes and see if he comes back.

She sat down on the slippery silky fabric of the sleeping bag and patiently waited. Several minutes passed, but Elron was nowhere in sight. Ira got restless and got back up. She didn't know where to go, but she knew she had to go somewhere. The solution she came up with was to go a certain distance away from her spot and walk around her current location in a circle. The idea was good, but in practice in would be a little bit of a risk.

She separated herself a safe distance from their campsite, and then started walking in a slight curve. As she got further and further from the campsite, her heart started pounding more and more. If she got lost here she would be alone in the woods for an indefinite amount of time, and she wasn't the best at directions, so she didn't trust herself to find her way back to a city.

As she walked, she heard the sound of slowly flowing water, and eventually came to the source. There was Elron, laying beside the stream and gazing at the sky.

"What are you doing?" asked Ira. She tried to act like she wasn't shook up by finding him here instead of the campsite, and she took a seat next to him.

"Looking at the sky," he answered. "For some reason, these days I wake up at about one or two in the morning and have made it a habit to just watch the sky for a little bit. Sorry if I worried you by disappearing."

"It's nothing," she lied. "But what is there to look at? The stars aren't out tonight."

"Not every night is a starry night, and not every day is a shining day. We just have to make due with what we get and cherish it." Elron sat up. "Well, that's my philosophy anyways. Travelling alone for so long does weird things to you, such as making you all philosophical." He laughed a little, then looked back up at the sky.

Ira looked up as well. It surely wasn't a magnificent sight, but something about how the clouds swirled silently in the sky seemed enchanting now. The various hues of grey stirred and flowed across the canvas of the sky like they were painted there. The blue of the moon was struggling to find its way through the mess, and only occasionally broke through for a moment before being drowned out again.

"Hey," said Ira. "Will you tell me what happened?"

A little shocked, Elron looked at her. "What?"

"Well, I mean, we'll be travelling together now, right? It might be good to know a little about each other. I guess you don't have to though..."

"I guess you're right." He sighed. "I'll tell you, but you need to tell me about yourself in return."

"That's fair," she agreed.

"Alright. Well, guess here goes nothing."

He took a deep breath, and closed his eyes as he exhaled.

"I used to be quite the shut-in. I would hardly do a thing, except when my mother made me go and fend for myself for a meal. Then, one day, my childhood crush came back home looking for a new travel partner. We were eighteen years old then. You see, she hadn't done so well on her pokemon journey, only getting four gym badges, but she hadn't given up yet. Well, that's when I met Aaron and started my journey with her.

"Thus we travelled, battled, and climbed our way up the ladder, earning badge after badge by supporting each other. There was also quite a bit of shenanigans that occurred back then, but the bottom line is that it was fun. Before I knew it, it had turned from an innocent crush into something more than that."

Ira shifted uneasily in the grass.

"Well, eventually we managed to get past the eighth gym, and I... I proposed."

She gasped. This was even more personal than she expected. Ira didn't think that she wanted to hear any more, however she couldn't stop listening.

"She said yes, but that's when everything went downhill. I was so naive, so weak, I couldn't do anything. We took a trip for a job that I had at the time. Didn't think much of it at the time, though now I realize how many warning signs there were. We ended up getting mixed up in some business with a few legendary pokemon, and she... she..."

The pupils in Ira's eyes contracted sharply. Elron clenched his fists together and gritted his teeth.

"She died."

They got quiet. The sound of the pokemon of the night, the running of the water, and the gentle caressing of the wind passed through the air. Moments passed with Elron not wanting to say anything, and Ira not knowing what to say.

Finally, Ira tried her best shot. "What was her name?"

Elron let a smile creep out across his lips. "Flora."

"That's a pretty name."

"Well, so is 'Ira.'" He didn't think much of his statement, but it slightly overwhelmed the girl. "Your turn."

"Um, well, I don't have anything as... interesting as that." She pulled her knees to her torso and hid her face in them. "I never got along with my parents that well, so I ended up escaping to my grandmother's house a lot. Even when I was only a few years old, when I was scolded for not living up to my parent's expectations, she would always be right there for me.

"When all the other kids went off on their pokemon journeys, I stayed behind and studied. It's what my parents wanted, but it also let me keep seeing my grandma. In the end, I never did experience what everyone else did. I got into a nice school in Unova and was shipped away one day, ready to make it 'big' in the world of business. Everyone else was finding new homes and jobs, and were settling in, but I was alone in an unfamiliar environment. Worst of all, I wasn't meeting everyone's expectations in my job either.

"One day when I was out, struggling to convince the world of my worth, I met Lyne. He seemed to understand me, and didn't need any convincing. He always saw me as a special person. Truth is, I do regret leaving him behind a little. And so suddenly. I know he'll be fine though."

"Lyne seems to be an important person to you."

"He is. I just hope that he gets out of that lab sometime soon."

They sat quietly, then Elron yawned.

"Guess it's time to go back to sleep," he said, standing up. He extended his hand out to Ira to help her up.

She nodded and took his hand, and he helped pull her up.

They walked back under the swaying of the trees and the light precipitation of the moon's light.

Ira's stomach growled, and she blushed. "Oh right, I didn't eat dinner. Do you have something that I could eat?"

Elron snickered. "Yeah, I do. Try and eat your dinner before crashing in your sleeping bag next time though."