FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

New chapter is here! Get ready to laugh, cry, get angry, smile, and smoke some cat nip! Well, maybe not the last one, you might look as high as those cats are on the bags. Seriously, I went to the pet store today and I busted out laughing when I saw those bags. Me, my niece, and nephew were cracking all kinds of jokes! Lol! Anyway, for those looking for TEC, I sort of slacked on it this month because I was having fun, so won't be posting that for a couple weeks. That's not to say that writting these chapters aren't fun, it's just that family bonding and learning to skateboard is a little more fun by at least 3 points. So before I go rambling, I'm going to tell you that Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated.

**********8**********

The first thing to register in her mind was the comfort of what she believes to be a bed and a slight headache. She didn't open her eyes or move until she fully regained her senses. The first to come back was her sense of smell. The air smelled a little too... Clean, so she assumed that she was in a hospital or at least a pokémon center. Now that that was out of the way, the next was to figure out how she got there. Thinking on the most recent memory she could make sense of, she tried to piece together what happened to her and how she got to wherever she was. She remembers flying to Viridian City and stopping for a break in the forest, that much was clear. The next thing remembers is getting in a fight with a scizor. The details of the exchange were mostly a blur, but she definitely remembers the feeling of the bugs' insides and its blood on her claws. That was enough evidence to convince her that she had won, but the rest was too scrambled to make much sense of. For some reason, a sitrus berry came to her mind.

Deciding to put it out of her mind for now, she figured that her energy could be spent getting out of wherever she was. Miu opened her eyes, squinting slightly at the light. She found herself in a mostly white room with a small chair and bed-side table on her right. She was alone there was a large window on the other side of the room, which was perfect because the dragon could slip out unnoticed. The only problem was that she didn't have anywhere to go, seeing as the mission she set out on was borderline pointless. Still, it didn't mean there wasn't a chance she couldn't find her child.

Miu sat up slowly to get a feel of how much her body has healed while she was out. Other than a headache and some soreness in her legs, she felt fine; and she could move her wings without feeling pain. "At least I'll be able to fly again," she thought. She pulled her legs around, hopped off the bed, and made her way to the window. It was just large enough for her to squeeze through. She unlocked it and pulled it open, feeling the fresh air blow across her face. Just as she was about to leap through, she suddenly found herself unable to move. "What the hell?!" she exclaimed, trying her hardest to move even an inch.

"It's nice to see you're up and about. Surely you could spare a few seconds to say 'hi'," said a familiar voice, which caused Miu to feel her heart drop.

"I'm sorry. I had to tell him," the second voice said telepathically. The dragon ceased her struggling, knowing there was no possible way she could escape. The gardevoir released her psychic hold, sensing the reluctance to run away in the dragon.

"What are you doing here?" Miu asked.

"I should be saying the same thing," Chad replied. "What did you think you could accomplish by storming out on your own like that? You had no idea who you were looking for, no clue as to how you were going to go about retrieving your daughter if you found her, and you dragged us along with you. If you had waited just a couple hours for me to get up and get the information I needed, we could've been out there finding her instead of waiting in a damn pokémon center because you lost decided to throw a fit!"

"Master, please," Cosmo pleaded, trying to get him to ease up on his scolding.

"Oh no, she needs to hear this." He walked up and stood behind the dragon, feeling pissed beyond anything else. "You caused a fire in the middle of the forest! The police are all over my ass because of it! I was about to be charged with arson if I didn't convince them I was nowhere near the place and that I didn't tell you to do it! You might as well have just gone on a rampage and gotten yourself shot! Then you wouldn't have to worry about finding either of your children again because you'll be dead. If or when I do manage to get them back, I'll have to explain to them why they can't see mommy anymore! Is that what you want?!" He heard her mumble something once he stopped. "What'd you say?"

"I said... What would you have me do?" Miu asked. There was an obvious sadness in her voice and she shuttered as she tried to keep herself composed. "I... have to get them back. I can't stand not knowing where they are. You don't know how it feels... to lose the flesh and blood you gave life to. If you did... then you wouldn't be standing there saying those things..." There was no use hiding her tears anymore. Her voice was breaking, she visibly shuttered with every breath she took, trying to hold everything in and the sniffling was uncontrollable. "You don't know what I'm going through... And you'll never know because... You don't care about me or the kids... and you never will."

"Look at me." Miu didn't respond to him. "I said to look at me, dammit!" The dragon flinched a little and reluctantly turned to face her trainer. The anger he felt was clearly visible, but even more than that was something else she hadn't seen in a long time. "I'm only going to tell you this once: don't you ever run out on me again. You could've been killed out there. If you want things back to the way they were, you're going to have to work with me and trust the fact that I know what the fuck I'm doing. Everything's gone to Hell and it's my fault; I know that, but we can't do anything without gathering information first. I know where we can start looking for both your children." Chad saw Miu's puffy red eyes light up a bit. "But we can't go anywhere until you're fully healed."

"I feel fine. We can go righ-"

"Being unconscious is not the same thing as being asleep. Get back in bed and get some rest. We'll be back to check on you later."

Miu slowly nodded and made her way back to her bed, feeling only slightly better than before. Once she was comfortable, she watched both her trainer and friend leave the room. Although she didn't fully believe that Chad knew that much more than she did, the way he looked when he said it may have rekindled some of the faith she lost in him. It's been far too long since she's seen that side of him. "Still... If he messes up this time, I just hope I don't end up killing him."

Outside the room, Chad had his back against the wall with his arms crossed in front of him. He was agitated that things had to come to this and felt extremely exhausted, both mentally and physically. He missed a couple nights of sleep chasing Miu on his charizard and spent at least ten hours yesterday answering questions from the police and Nurse Joy. Just standing in the hallway tired him out.

"This is not my week," he sighed.

"It hasn't been easy on anyone lately, master," Cosmo said as she gently placed her hands on his shoulders. "Perhaps a rest in your room will help ease your mind."

"As much as I want to, I can't right now. I need your help in finding out where that kid lives. I'm sure if I just ask the nurse, it'll just make me look suspicious and I can't afford to mess this up." Chad sighed, letting his arms fall and the gardevoir hold him closer.

"I'll assist you, but I must insist that you rest first. You're not the best person to be around when you're...agitated. It won't do anyone any good if you can't keep a cool head." She chose her words carefully so that she doesn't upset him. Chad thought over her suggestion for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"I guess you're right; people do have a way of pushing the right buttons when I'm pissed or whatever. Do me a favor and wake me up in a couple hours. Also-"

"I'll be sure to look after her too and, just for next time, try not to get too upset with her. She's already lost everything and believe it or not, you're her only anchor to sanity. Please go easy on her." Cosmo stepped away from him to allow him to leave. She watched her trainer push himself off the wall and slowly make his way up to his room.

*****8*****

It had been two days since Chris and Alice began their trek toward Cerulean City. During that time, they had trained a little, more so to get Jari to start listening to Alice. She didn't want what happened last time to happen again, so she asked Chris if they could battle against Lani, since he saw her as a rival. Needless to say, things didn't get any better. It wasn't until they got Kaden to watch over their battles did the cubone listen to one or two of her commands. She grew frustrated with him and almost felt like sending her wartortle out to teach him a lesson, but thought better of it. She figured that maybe she had to earn his respect if she had a chance for him to listen to her.

It was well into the afternoon and the group was standing at the foot of Mt. Moon, more or less away from the commonly traveled route. The route Alice led them to was an outside path that went straight through the mountain. The only obstacle she mentioned was a section of the path went inside and it was completely dark.

"So, this is it?" Chris asked.

"Yep; not so bad is it?" Alice replied.

"No; not really. I was kind of expecting worse, like high cliffs and old rope bridges hanging over deep canyons." Alice laughed at him.

"Well, I can't promise we'll run into that yet, but it does get kind of rough. Let's get going. The sooner we start moving, the sooner we can get to Cerulean City." That being said, the group started walking on the rocky shortcut to the next town.

"Hey, have you been around here?" Tora asked Aaron in a low voice. As much as she wanted to trust the human girl leading them, she was unsure about this whole thing.

"I can't say that I have," the espeon replied as he surveyed their surroundings. "I've been around this mountain dozens of times, but I haven't explores every inch of it."

"Well that's reassuring," she sighed, to which she received playful bump.

"Don't worry. From what I've seen of this place, there's nothing to worry about... Other than some light tremors here and there from some of the gravelers and onix fighting inside, but that's nothing to fret about." Tora relaxed a little after hearing that and focused on just following alongside her friend and their guide through the rocky terrain of Mt. Moon.

A few hours passed by and Chris and Tora were getting pretty winded. Most of their journey so far had them walking a steady climb uphill, which was something they weren't used to. Add the heat of the afternoon sun, and anyone could say that they were almost baking in the heat. Aaron apparently had no problems, seeing as he was used to it, and Alice had been through once before. Chris was sweating bullets and Tora was exhausted by the time they had reached a sort of plateau where they could rest.

"Man... are we there yet?" Chris panted as he fell flat on his butt.

"Not even close," Alice said as she took off her backpack and sat next to him. "We're only a little ways before the halfway point. We still need to climb a little more before we get to the tunnel. It's a straight shot from there and the best part is that it all goes downhill! We'll be on the other side by nightfall!" Even though he felt relieved that they were close to peaking their upwards climb, he didn't really have enough energy to say anything back.

Tora collapsed on the ground, panting heavily and really thirsty. Aaron sat down in front of her. "Tired?" he asked jokingly. The chu lifted her head and gave him with a 'what do you think?' look.

"How can you not be tired after all that walking?" she asked.

"Just because I can fly doesn't mean I don't enjoy a good walk. I walk long distances sometimes when I'm traveling just to enjoy the scenery more. When you do it long enough, you just get used to it. It comes with getting old," he laughed. Tora giggled a little for a bit before remembering that he was much older than her; at least four times her age. It made her wonder about what he did in all that time he lived his life.

"You should tell me about those adventures of yours sometime."

"Oh? Anything specific?" Tora shook her head.

"Not really; surprise me."

Seeing that at least two members of the group were too tired to move anytime soon, Alice released all her pokémon and got started on making lunch. Chris followed suit, releasing Lani and Kaden from their balls and helping out with lunch. Within a few minutes, everyone was doing their own thing while waiting for the food. Tora was listening to one of Aaron's stories, Lani was chatting with Kishan and Fang, April was staying close to Alice, and Jari was battling against Kaden. Their fight didn't last long, due to the blue beetle disarming the brown dinosaur and hitting him with his own weapon again. This left Kaden to join Tora in story-time, on the assumption that Jari would be too tired to do anything that would get him in trouble. Unfortunately, he was wrong in assuming that.

A couple minutes after their battle, Jari got up and separated himself from the group in search for a new challenge. His disappearance went unnoticed by nearly everyone. April was keeping an eye on everyone from a distance and saw Jari walk away from everyone after his battle. She tried to alert her trainer to it, but Alice told her that she was busy at the moment. Looking at Chris, she saw that he was busy as well and figured that he didn't want to be bothered either. Everyone was busy doing something and she would feel bad if she interrupted their good time to accompany her to follow Jari. The flaafy knew that Alice was having trouble with him and she didn't want her to get frustrated with another one of his stunts, so she gathered up with little courage she had and began to follow the brown dinosaur.

April was scared of being all alone, but she kept telling herself that she'll be back with the others as soon as she retrieved Jari. She had been following him for a few minutes now and it didn't seem like he'd stop for anything yet. "We're getting pretty far away from the others," she thought worriedly. "I hope we don't get lost... And can make it back... What if we get eaten?! Oh no, I can't do this alone! What was I thinking?!" The ground suddenly began to shake violently. April lost her footing and screamed as she fell flat on her face. The tremors stopped after a few seconds. April got back up to her feet once she was sure it was safe to walk again. Glancing around, she realized that she lost sight of Jari. "Where did he go?" The flaafy started to panic and ran around the next corner in hopes of catching sight of the cubone. Her wish was granted, but not in the way she hoped.

As soon as she rounded the corner, she was tackled to the ground and had a bone pointed at her face. "Hey, why are you following me?!" Jari shouted before realizing he was pointing his weapon at a very frightened sheep. "Oh, it's just you, weakling. What do you want?" He withdrew his bone from her face, allowing her to shakily get back onto her feet.

"W-we...um, have to get back t-to... our trainer befo-"

"No way!" he shouted. "I'm looking for someone to fight with and I'm not going back until I find a legendary pokémon to beat down or someone worthy!" He turned and started to walk away.

"W-Wait!" The ground started shaking violently again, but it was much stronger this time. April fell down again, but Jari kept walking as if the ground wasn't shaking at all. An onix suddenly burst out the ground a few yards in front of them, roaring loudly and looking extremely angry. Their differences showed again when April froze up in fear, while the cubone got excited and charged forward.

"Prepare to be destroyed, you stone abomination!" Jari shouted as he leapt into the air ready to strike his new foe. The onix barely turned his head around in time to see the cubone hit him with his Bone club. The onix roared again, not in pain, but in irritation. He rapidly rotated different segments of his body and summoned a sandstorm. The force of it managed to push Jari back all the way to where April was. Of course he wasn't hurt by it one bit. "Quit kicking up dirt and fight and fight like a man!"

"J-Jari, we have t-to get out of here!" April screamed.

"What; why?!"

"Please, I d-don't want t-to be here! I'm s-s-scared!" The cubone growled in irritation. He had never met anyone so scared of anything in his life. Before he had a chance to respond, the onix slammed his tail extremely hard on the ground, causing the ground shake and tear apart with small fissures that were creeping toward the smaller pokémon. Neither Jari nor April could get their footing and everything under them was collapsing. As if things couldn't get any worse, the giant rock snake was charging at them. Jari saw it coming and looked the sheep next to him.

"Get up!" He shouted. Unfortunately, the flaafy didn't hear him over all the noise and her whimpering. He sighed and quickly looked around for a way out of this deadly situation. He glanced over the side of the mountain and saw a small line of blue at the bottom of a huge drop. "Crap," Rather than thinking his idea through, he grabbed April's paw and pulled her with him as he jumped down the cliff-side. The sheep was already scared, but now she was absolutely terrified. She screamed at the top of her lungs as they fell, wind whipping passed their faces. "Hey, shut up!" Jari shouted, getting tired of her screaming in his ear. He could've sworn he'd go deaf if she kept it up. Tightening his grip on her paw and his bone, he jabbed his weapon on the cliff-face. The first strike was unsuccessful, but he managed to stick it in the second time, considerably slowing down their decent as they fell. The bottom was still fast approaching and the cubone could now confirm that there was in fact a river at the bottom, a fast moving one at that.

"Make sure you don't land on your face!" he shouted just before he swung her forward slightly, just enough so that she'll land in the water. Apparently she didn't hear him and started screaming and flailing about when he let go. Jari followed soon after her and they both made a big splash in the raging river. April surfaced a few moments later gasping for air and trying to keep her head above water. She frantically looked around for any sign of land and the cubone, but didn't see any sign of either. The sheep was tossed around roughly in water for what felt like hours before she was greeted with a horrible sight; a waterfall. Naturally, she panicked and fruitlessly tried to swim against the current. Eventually, April found herself falling backwards down a two-hundred foot waterfall. Before she even hit the water below, she fainted.

*****8*****

April awoke sometime later feeling groggy and sore all over her body. Opening her eyes, she saw that she wasn't in the river anymore, but under the shade of trees. It was still bright out, so she assumed that she wasn't passed out for very long. She slowly sat up to take a better look at her surroundings. It seemed like she was in the middle of a forest; trees and bushes were everywhere, which confused the pink sheep because she should at least see the mountain she was on. The realization of her situation suddenly hit her all at once. She was all alone in unfamiliar territory without her trainer or even her best friend at her side. The one pokémon she did know was with her was nowhere to be seen. She had nowhere to go, had no idea where to start looking for her trainer and friends, and no clue as to what to do next. Her fear from being isolated overwhelmed her and she started crying into her paws, but not for too long. There was some rustling in the bushes that startled her.

"W-who's t-there?" she squeaked, sharply turning to face the source of the disturbance.

"Who wants to know?" someone asked back, sounding male. April was hesitant to answer back, but did anyway, if only to find out the identity of a possible enemy.

"I-I do."

"Who are you?"

"S-stop it, I asked f-first!"

"Alright, alright; don't get your fur in a knot," the voice said. A quagsire emerged from the bushes with a big, goofy smile and somewhat blank expression on his face. "I've never seen one of your kind around here before. You lost or something?" April sighed in relief for him not being a more threatening pokémon, but kept her guard up nonetheless.

"Y-yes, I am. Why d-do you want t-to know?"

"No reason really, but since you are lost, why don't you come with me back to my place and we can figure out where you need to go from there?"

April was a little shocked at his proposal and almost couldn't believe she heard. On one hand, she could stay somewhere safe for a bit and find out where she was with a possibly friendly pokémon. On the other hand, she could refuse and try to find her way around herself, possibly ending up more lost than she already was. The latter somehow seemed more frightening to her than being with an unfamiliar pokémon. She figured that at least she'll have some company with her. As if to tilt her decision, her stomach growled very audibly, reminding her that she hadn't eaten lunch and alerting the dopey pokémon to her situation. "I've got some food too, since you're hungry. My place is not very far from here and I would feel bad if I let a lost female starve to death in the middle of nowhere." The pink sheep thought about it a little more before accepting the offer and followed the quagsire back to his home.

The trip didn't take that long, just like he said. His den was located near the edge of a lake and it wasn't very big, or at least the entrance wasn't. She found out that most of it was underground and led to a big chamber with a pool of water at the far end. She assumed that that was another entrance to his home, since he was a water pokémon and needed to keep his body moist. There was a small pile of berries and fish sitting along a wall that made her stomach growl.

"Go ahead and eat as much as you want. I don't eat that much anyway," he said. April, even though she was very hungry at this point, slowly made her way to the pile and picked up an oran berry. She took small bites at first, but quickly started taking larger bites. She finished it rather quickly and moved on to the next one. "Gee, you were really hungry, huh?" the quagsire laughed, making April feel extremely self-conscious about her eating. "Hey, it's cool. Don't stop eating cuz of me. Anyway, I've got something I gotta do. When I get back, you can tell your story and I'll help you get to where you need to be again."

"Y-you're leaving?" April asked worriedly.

"Just for a little bit. I'll be back before you know it." With that being said, the quagsire jumped into the pool of water, leaving the sheep alone.

April felt nervous from being alone again, but felt a little better knowing that her new friend was coming back. Although 'friend' might be a strong word to use, she thought that he was at least a nice guy for helping her out. Finishing the berry she had in her paws, she moved onto the next one, eventually filling her belly and almost finishing the entire pile. She let out a satisfied sigh as she smiled and leaned back onto the wall.

"That was good," she thought. April looked around the underground chamber she was in and wondered if the quagsire was coming back anytime soon. It had been at least half an hour since he's left and she was starting to get worried that he might not be coming back to help her. The pink sheep got up and went over to the pool of water to quench her thirst. As she was drinking, she heard some shuffling behind her and thought it was the quagsire again, but she was dead wrong.

"What the hell?!" came a loud, booming voice full of anger. April squeaked and quickly turned around to see an angry sandslash coming toward her. "Who the hell do you think you are coming into my home and eating my food?!"

"I-I'm s-sorry," she stuttered, not able to keep the fear from her voice.

"You're sorry?! 'Sorry' isn't going to give me my food back!"

"I d-didn't know this was y-your home." By now, the sandslash was in her face and had her backed up against the wall cowering and shaking in fear.

"Who's home did you think it was?!" April couldn't for the life of her bring herself to utter anything beyond low muttering and extremely stuttered speech, which was quickly wearing out the already low tolerance of the sandslash. "You've got to the count of three to tell what you're doing here before things start getting physical." He emphasized his point by holding his claws up to chest. "One..." April started tearing up at her inability to say comprehendible. "Two..." He pressed his claw harder against her, which got her to start bawling. "Thr-"

"Hey, weakling, is this where you've been hiding?!" came a shout that sounded almost too good to be true to the frightened sheep.

"J-Jari?" April thought. Both pokémon looked at the entrance to see a cubone walking toward them while spinning his bone in his paws.

"I leave you alone for a little bit and you wonder off into a hole in the ground? I swear; you have no manners at all."

"You know her?" the sandslash asked. Jari seemingly ignored the question by pushing the sandslash's claw away from April's chest and grabbing her paw to stand her up. April never thought that she would be so happy to see the egotistical, conceited cubone in her life.

"Anyway, I'll teach you some manners once we're out of this stupid hole in the ground. Let's go."

"Hey, I'm not done her! She ate my food an-"

"Look, unworthy creature of the ground," the cubone said, pointing his weapon at the sandslash. "I don't care about your personal problems and you shouldn't talk to me like I'm on your level. I'm leagues above you and right now, you should be kissing the ground I walk on."

"What?!"

"J-Jari... Y-you really shouldn't-"

"Have you not heard of me? I will be known as The Destroyer of Legends, thus taking my rightful place as the greatest warrior who has ever, and will ever, live! Even the so-called 'mighty' Arceus himself will be powerless at my power. " The sandslash couldn't help but stare in bewilderment at him.

"Are... Are you insane?" he asked, not believing what he was hearing.

"Far from it! Now, if you'll excuse us, we have people to see and places to be. Keep an eye out for legendary pokémon falling from the sky." He turned and started walking out the underground chamber with April right behind him, leaving a flabbergasted sandslash alone in his home.

A few moments later, the quagsire returned through the underwater entrance. He looked around for a moment and saw only the back of the desert mouse. "Hey, what happened to that pink girl? And what are you doing in my home?" The large porcupine's ears flicked at his question and turned around in anger at the realization as to what may have happened while he was out.

"For the last time, this is not your home! You're at the other side of the lake!" The blue pokémon took a closer look around.

"Oh, I guess that would explain how those berries magically appeared," he said, as if it were some kind of mystery. "Well, thanks again neighbor." with that said, the quagsire dove back into the water, while the sandslash plopped down in quiet reflection.

*****8*****

Jari and April had been walking for at least an hour now and things have been relatively quiet. The sheep had no idea where they were going, but didn't speak her worries because she didn't have any suggestions to give. There were a few times when she wondered what her trainer and friends were doing right now. There was no doubt in her mind that they had noticed that both of them were missing by now and were currently looking for them. Other than that, she was thinking on what the cubone said earlier about leaving her alone before she wondered off with the quagsire. It didn't make much sense to her because she doesn't remember him being anywhere around her when they fell into the river. She wanted to ask him what happened to him in the river and what happened while she was passed out.

"Um... Jari?" she said fiddling with her paws.

"Yeah, what?" he said not looking back at her.

"I was wondering... Um..."

"What?"

"It's about earlier... When you said you left me..."

"What about it?"

"What happened before that?"

"I pulled you out the river," he simply stated.

"But... I didn't see you-"

"Of course you didn't see me; you were too busy napping." April sighed a little, partly because he cut her off and the rest because that wasn't the answer she was looking for.

"T-that's not... what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Jari stopped walking and turned to face her, which wasn't at all what she really expected him to do. If anything, she expected him to keep acting like he couldn't care less about her. Again, she found herself at a loss for words and stood there fiddling with her paws. "Look, you either say something or just keep quiet," Jari said, running out of patience for the timid sheep. Ever since he'd been captured, he had noticed that she took her time to say everything, like she was afraid to talk. It made him wonder why she did, seeing as he was so open and didn't care about what others had to say about him. An idea suddenly struck him.

"Hey, say what you meant right now or else I'll hit you! You got four seconds, go!" April stared wide-eyed at him as he held up his weapon and began counting. "One!" She started panicking again as the incident with the sandslash replayed in her mind, only this time it was with Jari. "Two!" She glanced at his weapon and started shaking. "Three!" The cubone tightened his grip on his bone and raised it above his head. April had tears forming in her eyes. She had no idea why he wanted to hit her just to get her to say something. She was more than sure that getting hit by his bone would hurt a lot and fell back on her rump in an attempt to get away from him. "Four!"

"Stop!" April shrieked as she closed her eyes tightly and covered herself as best she could. A few seconds passed and there was nothing; no hit, no bump, not even a tap. Still, she was too afraid to open her eyes.

"Finally," Jari said. "That's the first thing I've heard you say without stuttering or something all day. Anyway, you can open your eyes now. I'm not going to hit you."

"You're not?" She slowly opened her eyes and relaxed her body, seeing that what he was saying was true. The cubone had his weapon lowered to his side and was just staring at her.

"No; why would I do that? It wouldn't benefit me in the slightest to beat on a weakling such as you, especially if you're a girl. I'm better than that." The flaafy wasn't sure whether to be thankful for not hitting her or insulted at his remark, so she stayed quiet. "Anyway, I'm feeling generous right now and I know how to solve your problem."

"E-excuse me?" she asked, not really sure what he meant.

"That right there; that stuttering you're doing! I'm gonna cure you of it and those long pauses of yours too. It's in my awesomeness to do so." April fiddled with her paws.

"But... K-Kishan is-"

"That guy?! Has he been trying to help you?" April nodded. "How long has this been gong on?"

"I'm... not sure. At least... a f-few months?"

"For real?! And you're still talking like that? Jeez, he's useless."

"He's n-not useless!" she shouted, taking offense to the insult of her friend. Jari was surprised by her sudden outburst and stared at her slightly in awe. It took April a few seconds to realize that she raised her voice and quickly reverted back to her usual self. "I-I'm s-sorry... I didn't m-mean-"

"Oh, you do have some backbone," Jari said with a slight laugh. "You'll get plenty more of that when I'm not with you. Let's get going while I still have an idea of what I want to do with you." Jari started walking off at a quick pace while twirling his bone.

"W-where are we going?" April asked as she quickly got up and followed the cubone.

"Somewhere to... to beef... you up-Achoo!" he sneezed.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. It's just a sneeze."

April followed Jari for nearly an hour, amazed that he was still stuck on trying to find a perfect place to help 'beef her up'. She asked a few times where they were going, but all she received was an 'I'll know when I see it' from the energetic dinosaur every time. There was an occasional sneeze from him every now and then. She thought nothing of it at first, but it was happening more than it really should. Still, the sheep didn't say anything about it, positive that if she did ask about it, her question would be shrugged off again. She soon started hearing sounds of rushing water nearby and the trees were thinning out the closer they got to the source. Eventually, they crossed the last line of trees and stopped in front of, what the flaafy couldn't believe; a mountain and, possibly just as good, a waterfall only about twenty yards from where they were standing. A part of her wanted to hug the cubone for at least getting them back to Mt. Moon, while another part was rejoicing at the possibility of seeing her friends and trainer again.

"Hey, weakling, get over here," Jari called out to her. "I found the perfect place to get the job done." April walked over to the cubone, who was standing in front of a large entrance to either a cavern or a path inside. She looked between him and the entrance.

"We're n-not... going in there... right?" she asked.

"Nope, you're going to do exactly what I do by screaming in there."

"W... what?"

"Just do what I do and say what I say, got it?"

"I-I don't know..."

"Do it or else I swear I might really hit you this time!" he shouted, making April jump and nod in agreement. He wasn't really going to do it of course, but as long as the threat was there, he figured that she'll do what he says. "Alright, now raise your arms as high you can." April obeyed and lifted her arms as high as she could. Next, Jari jumped up and down, the flaafy following his example. This was followed by doing a bunch of ridicules things from standing on one leg to slamming their tails on the ground. It ended by them striking a herculean pose for a few seconds.

"Now it's time for the big stuff," he said as he relaxed his body from the pose. "You ready for it?" Seeing as she didn't feel she really has a choice in the matter, April just nodded. However, that wasn't good enough for the cubone. "I want to hear a clear answer out of you. Say 'I'm ready for this'!" His voice echoed in the entrance in front of them.

"I-I'm... ready for t-this," she said just below her normal speaking voice.

"Louder!"

"I-I'm ready for this." Her voice had a bit of an echo that time, but it wasn't loud enough to meet Jari's standards.

"Why the heck are you so afraid to talk?" The question caught the flaafy off guard. It wasn't that she's never been asked that before, a few times by Kishan and even more by Fang, it's just that she's never had an answer for it. She's always been extremely timid around others and it just seemed normal to allow others to talk over her while she just faded into the background, invisible to anyone who didn't know her.

"I... I don't know," she answered albeit hesitantly. "I've... always b-been quiet..."

"Really? Just from your lame excuse of an answer, I already know what your problem," Jari said with conviction, which made April raise a brow at him. "You're just a scared little wimp with absolutely no confidence. You're afraid of what others think about you, so you stay quiet and let everyone speak for you. You think you suck at fighting, so you avoid it as much as you can so you don't get hurt and let your so-called 'trainer' and friends down. You run away from all your problems and prefer to sit and cry about it until someone comes along to tell you that everything is going to be alright. You're nothing but a baby that needs to grow up and quit letting others walk all over you. Nothing's going to change for you if all you do is keep your mouth shut and do nothing!"

April stood there with her paws clenched tight at her sides and biting her lip, trying to hold back the tears that wanted escape her eyes. She wanted to run away and cry under a tree somewhere, but she knew that would only prove his point. No matter how much she didn't like it and wish that it wasn't true, he was right. She was nothing but a coward, scared of everything in front of her, even if it was nothing but her timid mind playing tricks on her. It hurt her even more that someone she's barely known for a week could say all those things and is completely right about her. It made her wonder if her friends thought the same thing about her, especially Kishan. He's been with her the longest and acted as a guardian around her. She's seen the looks and hears the small sighs he makes when she fails to at least make herself known around new pokémon. It suddenly made sense to her that he was probably at his wits end trying to get her to be more social. It made her feel even worse now that she thought herself a burden on everyone.

"So... y-you think I'm... useless," she whimpered. "I'm n-nothing but a... waste of space, right? I'm j-just a lost cause...with n-no hope of...getting stronger..."

"Weren't you listening at all? I didn't say any of that," Jari said with irritation. "I said you were baby and that you needed to grow up. And you're not a lost cause because I'm willing to give you that push off the cliff of self-consciousness and fear, into the river of awesome recklessness and bravery."

"...You already p-pushed off a cliff today..." Even though she was completely serious, Jari couldn't help but laugh at her statement. It took April a moment to find the humor in her remark, but she ended up giggling as well.

"I didn't think you could ever make a joke, but we're getting off track. You still need to finish step three of my training."

"S-Step three? What were the f-first two steps?"

"Step one was warming up with exercises, step two was getting you to stand there and listen to my honest opinion about you. If you couldn't get passed that, then you can never move onto the next and final step. For step three," He turned toward the large entrance. "YOU'RE GOING TO SHOUT EVERYTHING I SAY AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!!!"

The echo he made was loud enough to go on for at least five seconds before it started fading away. Despite everything that's been said, April found herself a little excited about the next step. She took everything Jari said about her to heart and used it to help motivate her into doing her best. She wanted to change herself for the better by being more open and not being afraid of every little thing her mind could dream up. She took a deep breath and stood closer to Jari, facing the same way he was.

"Okay, I'm ready," she said.

"I'll start you off easy. I am awesome!" he shouted. April took a deep breath and thought about what she was going to say so that she could say it loud and clear.

"I a-am awesome."

"Louder!"

"I a-am awesome!"

"AS LOUD AS YOU CAN!"

"I AM AWESOME!"

"I CAN DO ANYTHING!"

"I CAN DO ANYTHNG!"

"I'M THE BEST THERE EVER WAS..."

"I'M THE BEST THERE EVER WAS..."

"AND EVER SHALL BE!"

"AND EVER SHALL BE!"

"NOTHING CAN STOP ME!"

"NOTHING CAN STOP ME!"

"Cool, I'm proud of you."

"COOL, I'M PROUD OF YOU!"

"No, you can stop now."

"NO, YOU CAN ST-...oh..." April felt her face heat up a little in embarrassment, but she still felt a slight rush still flowing through her. She couldn't put into words how good she felt saying those things. She could actually believe the words she was saying as they were coming out.

"That feel good?" Jari asked as he lightly punched her arm.

"Yes, it did," she said excitedly. "I feel like I can do anything now. And look, I'm not stuttering anymore or making long pauses to think about what I want to say! It's all just coming out now! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" April couldn't help but hug the brown dinosaur. Jari, although knowing that she was grateful for gaining a bit of confidence from him, thought that she was overdoing it by hugging him. Still, he let continue for a few seconds before separating himself from her, thinking it uncool to do such a thing for too long, or at all.

"Alright, alright! Just remember what I told you and you'll be talking like me in no time." He looked up for a moment. "We should go inside to crash for the night."

April looked up in the sky, noticing that it was starting to get dark out. The sky had turned orange and it would no doubt be getting dark soon. With the sun setting on the other side of the mountain, they had less daylight to enjoy. She glanced at their supposed refuge for the night and couldn't help feeling a bit nervous about it.

"Are you sure that's not someone's home?" she asked.

"Nope, but I don't care. We're sleeping here and there's nothing they can do about it." Jari started walking inside. April sighed and followed behind him. She lit up her tail, since there wasn't that much light inside. It turned out that they were walking on a path that led into the mountain, given that the light she provided didn't come in contact with a wall ahead of them. Fortunately, they didn't have to walk very far to find a suitable place to rest. Just two minutes of walking led them to discovering a decent-sized cavern to their right.

They walked in the middle of the chamber and looked around what they had to work with. It seemed abandoned and was more or less just a single, large room with enough space for the both of them to sleep comfortably. "I guess this place is as good as any for this," Jari said. April barely registered what his words before she saw him collapse on the ground next to her out the corner of her eye.

"Jari?!" she exclaimed. Almost immediately, she was on her knees trying to coax the dinosaur back up. "Jari?! Jari, p-please get up! T-This isn't f-funny!" She rolled him over onto his back and put a paw under his neck. It took no more than half a second for the alarms in her head to start blaring. "No, you c-can't be sick! You were j-just fine!" April's mind went into overdrive trying to think of how this could've happened. As far as she could tell, he wasn't acting any differently than usual. There weren't even any signs of his declining health, unless...

"The sneezes," she finally concluded. It was the only thing that was out of place the entire day. Just the sheer amount of them should have told her that something was wrong and that she should have taken more action in preventing this exact situation from happening. Still, April didn't know the first thing about how to treat an illness, which only left her with very few options. She quickly decided on the most rational one she could think of, ran out of their shelter and back outside. She had no idea where she was going, but she was going to find some way of making sure that Jari didn't suffer.

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