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Soul link

The friendship and the promise

Jake POV

I woke up to the pristine sound of the chirping Pidgey in the forest and the familiar darkness in the moments before dawn. Stretching myself after a night spent on the rather uncomfortable forest ground, I immediately felt that something was amiss. Turning on my headlamp, I realized that Lily was no longer here. A little worried and quite confused, I got up and out of the tent, but still could not spot her.

"LIIILYYY" I shouted, and as response I heard a laugh over me. I looked up, only to see Lily sitting on a tree branch, laughing in amusement over my suddenly burst of panic. "Lily, don't do that again, I was scared." I told her.

"Sorry for that, it is just that I like to see the sunrise." She said.

"You too?" I asked while climbing up the same tree.

"Do you like to watch it?" She answered my question with another one.

"Yes, I admire it every day. It makes me feel that even if I am far from home, my family is by my side." I confessed.

"That's really poetic, Jake." She said, looking at me.

"Thanks Lily. Hey, look that!" I said, pointing with a finger to the horizon. The rays of light from the unrisen sun were already shrouding the clouded sky in an orange hue, and when she turned, the sun started to rise, albeit with a twist: the usually orange sunrise had a strange golden glow. "I have never seen a golden sun rise." I was surprised to see that she was quite confused at that.

"Never? But it's like this every day!" The little Pokémon stared curiously at me.

"Then how?" I asked, but before she could open her mouth I discovered the answer, "The link! Now I can see the world your way!" I told her, smiling.

"Maybe that's true, but it doesn't matter." She said, wrapping her little arms around my waist. I hugged her with my right arm and picked a ripe apple with my left hand from a nearby branch. Just before devouring it, I paused and looked at Lily.

"Take it, you must be hungry." She looked at the apple before taking it without hesitation, munching on it while I petted her.

"I'll have my breakfast and after that I need to brush my teeth, you can come with me if you want." I said as she finished up the fruit. Climbing down the tree, I jumped to the ground before going back into the tent. Rummaging my bag in an attempt to find something other than biscuits and canned food, I managed to find mom's prepared meal, which I happily wolfed down. After finishing, I looked for the toothbrush, and found that Howard has prepared two of them. Chuckling, I climbed out of the tent to find Lily waiting for me.

"Here, take this." I gave one of the toothbrushes.

"What is this?" She asked, inspecting it curiously.

"That is a toothbrush, and it is used to clean the teeth." I answered.

"The teeth has to be cleaned?" She asked, quite surprised this time.

"Well, humans usually do it to avoid getting the getting bad breath or oral diseases." I explained.

"Oh...Can you teach me how to do that?" She asked.

"Sure, why not?" I told her. She seemed happy when I taught her how to brush her teeth beside the small stream that we managed to find near the clearing. Strangely, I felt that happiness as it was my very own. After brushing our teeth, I told her that I was going to get dressed and to not enter the tent. Changing into another set of trekking outfit, I secured my sable on my belt, cleaned up the clearing, packed the tent and we were headed towards Sandgem Town.

"Where are we going?" Lily broke the silence as we made our way through the small path.

"We are going to Sandgem Town; I need to get a Pokédex there to be registered as a trainer." I cleared the matter.

"A Pokédex, what is that?" She was quite interested; it appears now that she is rather curious about the unknown.

"The Pokédex is a device that works like an encyclopedia of Pokémon, and a trainer can save his data in it and get registered." I told her. She nodded, though I could sense her confusion over my less-than-satisfactory explanation and curiosity over the various other objects I was carrying. We walked for a while as I told her more about myself until a Shinx appeared from behind some bushes and growled us. Freezing in our tracks, we turned to look at it.

After a short stand-off, I asked Lily, "Hey, do you want to fight?" She turned her head and nodded.

"If you think you can beat me, you're crazy." The Shinx took a more aggressive stance.

"We don't think we can beat you, we KNOW we can." I said firmly.

"Can you understand what I am saying?" The wild Pokémon asked, a little bewildered but still not losing its focus.

"Yes I can but that doesn't matter; you wanted a fight and you will get it!" I said, feeling the adrenaline flowing through my veins.

"Well, let's begin." He said, sprinting and aiming a full body tackle at Lily.

"Use Teleport!" I ordered, and she teleported away from the attack just in time. "Now use Confusion and blow him off!" An epileptic ray shone from her, and the next thing I knew the Shinx has crashed into a tree, lying unconscious at the base. "Yes! You did it Lily, you won!" I said, hugging her.

"I can hardly believe it!" She said, hugging me back in joy. Looking at her, I continued, "Believe it or not, you did it great."

She smiled and we headed again to Sandgem Town, but we were so elated that without knowing it, we were already in front of Prof. Serbal's lab. Pressing the doorbell, I waited a few moments before the Pokémon Professor appeared.

"So you are Jake Coen? Glad to meet you." The professor greeted, offering a hand.

"Glad to meet you too, Professor, but how did you know I was coming here?" I asked, taking the handshake.

He just smiled, "I've already received two calls about that. Well, I think this is what you want." He took the Pokédex from his pocket.

"Thanks Professor. These things sure have become smaller." I said while inspecting the sleek device.

"You have your father to thank for the improved design. Good luck." He concluded before going back into his lab.

I stood there silently for a while, before jumping and shouting to the sky a loud 'YES!' Lily started to dance as well and I felt the happiness from her wrapping my own. We went to the route 202 in our excited state and on the way, I saved my info in the Pokédex. It was too late to get to Jubilife, however, and we decided to set up camp at a clearing off a small path. I was putting the sleeping bag on the floor when I felt a fear that was not mine, so I supposed it was Lily who was bothered. She was outside the tent, sitting on the ground and watching the stars, so I took a place next to her, "Are you ok?"

"Yes, I'm alright." She said, still looking upwards.

"No, you are not. You can't lie to me, I can feel it through our link." I pressed, and she lowered her head.

"Can you promise something?" She asked.

"What is it?" I urged.

"Promise that you will never leave me." I was shocked by the very fact that she thought that I could do such a thing. I wanted to reply, but I somehow couldn't so I stood up and kneeled in front of her, leaning forward while looking straight into her eyes.

"I promise, by my life, that I will never leave you, Lily."

The Chinese have a proverb that says: 'A promise is worth a thousand ounces of gold'. However, as will I soon discover, a thousand ounces of gold is but feeble compared to the weight of my promise that fateful night.

Romeo: Well, that's it for this chapter, hope you liked it.

Danny: And for the next chapter, we will be telling the story from Lily's perspective.

Xellan: Please also remember to leave some reviews! We are open to suggestions.

Danny: Until then...

All: Bye readers!