Chapter 4: Into The Woods

After a few days of monitoring and confirming that neither of the Pokemon had aggressive personalities, Carolina finally allowed the children to leave the lab with them. And the first thing the pair did with their Pokemon was bring them around the town.

Celestic Town was small and would be more fitting to call it a village so there was not much for the pair to show the Pokemon. There were only about 20 homes there with a quarter of those being occupied by those who worked for Carolina.

After showing them the homes around town and the general store, the pair brought the Pokemon to the shrine in the middle of town. After offering a quick prayer, they made their way into the ruins but not before giving their Pokemon a warning.

"Gabby. You have to be really careful in here and not fall over. Granny says that the paintings on the wall are really important," warned Cynthia

"That's right. That also means running around recklessly, Fenris. Don't try to crash into any of the walls," Xander said to his Pokemon

The duo had spent an entire day together coming up with names for the pair of Pokemon. Cynthia was originally going to name her Pokemon Gibby but when she found out it was a girl and remembered it would eventually evolve, she changed it to Gabby.

Xander named his Pokemon Fenris after an old myth that Carolina had told him when they were younger about a powerful Dragon Pokemon that wreaked havoc across Sinnoh almost a hundred years prior. Xander thought this name sounded perfect, especially after he read about Bagon's evolution.

When they walked into the cave, the 4 were immediately greeted by the dimly lit cavern that only had a few torches. The kids could barely see the columns that held up the small, ancient temple.

"This wall tells the story of the 3 lake guardians. Each of them is supposed to be in one of the major lakes around Sinnoh but no one is really sure since they haven't been seen," Xander began explaining to the two Pokemon as he pretended to be a scholar

"That's true but it also doesn't mean that they are fake. Plenty of the Legendary Pokemon have only been seen once or twice," Cynthia added on

Once they were done in the ruins, Xander and Cynthia led their Pokemon to the nearby woods. They wanted to give their Pokemon a chance to explore. They felt bad because the two had been cooped up ever since they were born so they wanted to allow them to explore their natural environment.

The 'woods' were just a small set of trees that didn't have many Pokemon in them. Although a larger forest was close, few Pokemon would venture between the two due to the abundance of food in the forest, while the woods had very little food.

But as they were walking through the woods, Xander and Cynthia could hear the growls and yelping of Pokemon.

"Go tell Granny/Grandma Carolina that some Pokemon are in danger! I'm going to go check on them," the kids yelled to each other at the same time while rushing toward the noise.

Neither of them stopped to listen or pay attention to the other as they both ran ahead toward where they heard the sound of fighting. It wasn't until they arrived at the location that they noticed each other.

"I told you to go tell Grandma Carolina/Granny!"

The duo glared at each other for a moment before turning toward the scene in front of them. They would deal with each other later.

Three Mightyenas were surrounding two small, cub-like Pokemon. The larger Pokemon were teasing the smaller ones as they took small nips at them. It was obvious that they were just torturing their prey before they ate them.

Seeing that the fight was unfair and the bigger Pokemon were bullying the smaller ones, Xander and Cynthia jumped into action. Both of them grabbed the largest stick they could find near them before picking up a few rocks.

Once they gathered their supplies, the pair looked at each other and nodded. They then began to throw rocks at the Mightyena.

Being caught off guard due to the heavy scent of blood filling their nose and them enjoying their prey, the Pokemon did not notice other people had arrived until the first two rocks hit one of them. The second round of rocks hit them again but after that, the Mightyena were no longer caught off guard and dodged the attacks.

Seeing the 3 Pokemon coming toward them, Cynthia and Xander picked up their sticks as they got ready to fight. But before the Pokemon got near them, both of their Pokemon had made a move.

Fenris rushed forward, jumping through the air and slamming his incredibly hard head against the flank of one of the Mightyena. Gabby's eyes began to glow before a small tornado of sand surrounded the feet of the other two Mightyena.

Cynthia and Xander were surprised that their Pokemon had helped them. Although they had given them nicknames and called them their Pokemon, since the pair had not caught them yet, they thought the Pokemon would not help them.

Feeling inspired because of their Pokemon, Xander, and Cynthia charged forward with their sticks and began swinging on the Mightyena. Whenever it got dangerous, the pair's Pokemon would save by either using [Tackle] to knock one of the Pokemon off balance or [Ember] to cause the other Pokemon to flinch.

The two cubs that were being attacked were surprised that they had been saved. And when they saw the others fighting their opponents, neither one wanted to sit on the side.

The blue cub ran over and used [Quick Attack] to hit one of the Mightyena from behind which made it not notice Cynthia's stick attack.

The white cub began working with Xander and Fenris as it used [Scratch] whenever Fenris was taking a break from using [Ember].

The fight lasted a few minutes and the Mightyena were able to give the others several wounds. But after not finishing them off for so long, the Mightyena ran off and went back toward the forest they were originally from.

Xander and Cynthia immediately collapsed to the ground from exhaustion and pain. Neither had anything more than a scratch from falling before so getting into a fight with a real Pokemon was so much different.

"Ouch. Grandma Carolina is going to scold us when we get back," Xander complained

[Pokemon Trainer Cynthia has flinched due to {Picturing Grandma's Rage}]

Cynthia snapped out of it and tried to comfort herself

"Maybe she will go easy on us since we saved two Pokemon. Oh yeah, where are..." Cynthia trailed off before she noticed that the cubs were still there.

The blue cub was barely able to stand up even with Gible's and the white cub's help. While Xander and Cynthia had taken all the blows after they arrived, the pair of Pokemon was still injured from before.

"Xander! We need to get back to the town. This blue one is very injured! And this white one also isn't doing very good."

The two Pokemon had been running from the Mightyena for several hours so it was only natural that they were injured. If not for the blue Pokemon's [Endure] they would not have lasted so long.

"Right!" Xander replied before running over and picking up the white cub. Cynthia picked up the blue cub before the both of them began running outside the woods. It took them 10 minutes but they were finally able to get to the lab.

"Granny! Grandma Carolina!" the duo shouted when they got to the doors of the lab