Chapter 7: The Cave

The day went by slowly as they headed for the mountain that led to Cardo City. Dave was thankful that Mindy had stopped him from leaving the day before. Even if he had walked for the whole night, he would not have reached Cardo any time soon.

Mindy had her head down and followed at a slow pace as he tried hard not to get too far ahead, which seemed to let her down a little. The only one who seemed in a good mood was Eevee as it trotted ahead of them while letting out a hum.

"Hey Mindy, do you know how to get through that mountain up ahead?" he asked as he wiped the sweat off his head.

"Of course I know. I live there, did you forget?" said the girl in a strident tone and kept on walking.

It didn't look like she was going to tell him how to get there. In turn, Dave chose to keep his mouth shut and not bother her.

They had lunch leaning against some dry trees on the side of the road, and Mindy prepared the food for her Charmander and Dave's Eevee Pokemon in silence.

With their bellies full again and their body fully rested, the group continued on their way. Mindy had said, in one of her rare comments while they ate, that the best option for them would be to spend the night at the mountain.

And so the whole day went on. By late afternoon, they arrived at the foot of the mountain. Looking at the steep slope, Dave was hoping the brunette would know of a way to get to the other side of the mountain without having to scale it.

To Dave's relief, she knew.

"The entrance must be here somewhere," Mindy murmured, looking around.

"Entrance?" Dave asked.

"I'm looking for the entrance to a cave that I had found when I was exploring with Chamander," she began.

"It would take us a day to make it to the other side of the mountain on the main route if we didn't get lost in all the twists and turns. If we use the cave I discovered, we can get to the other side of the mountain in half the time."

Dave wasn't too keen on the thought of entering a cave that nobody else was using. Since it was shorter, there was certainly a reason it wasn't the main route, but he chose to believe the girl because she had spent two months here.

They walked for a few minutes at a leisurely pace, heading south, and after a while Mindy seemed to find what she was looking for.

"I found it! Now we only need fire, she said, releasing her Charmander. "Lead the way, Charmander."

"Char!" The fire-type Pokemon let out a roar and entered the cave, followed by Mindy.

"Come on Eevee, let's follow them," Dave said, realising that his friend was reluctant to enter the cave.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she knows what she's doing. I hope." But he kept that last part to himself.

Charmander led the way, using its tail as a torch as the group followed closely.

The cave was narrow and stuffy, and the heat from Charmander made it even worse.

It soon became very dark and the faint flame that guided them was the only source of light in the place. After what seemed like hours, they decided to stop at a place with a little more space where everyone could lie down, even if it was cramped.

They settled down and ate a little, and soon Mindy put her Charmander away, leaving everyone in total darkness.

"Good night," she said. "I'm going to set my watch to wake us up in a few hours."

And with that everyone went to sleep, Mindy on one side and Dave and Eevee on the opposite side, hugging each other to keep warm.

Some time later, Dave was awakened by Eevee. Getting up, he saw that Charmander was out of its pokeball again and Mindy was packing her things. The cave was as dark as before, and Dave was still exhausted.

"Let's go," Mindy told him. "I want to sleep at my grandfather's house tonight."

And so they resumed their trek. The heat was greater now and Dave would have given anything to leave this suffocating place soon.

Walking a little further, they reached a fork in the cave. One path went straight ahead and the other turned right, heading north.

"Uh," Mindy said, casting a confused glance at Charmander, who also shook its head at her. "I don't recall there being two passages here."

"We're lost, aren't we?" Dave asked tiredly, slouched against a rock.

"Eevee..." Eevee lowered its ears.

"This doesn't make sense, I know this is the right way. I've been to the other side before." she mumbled to herself.

Suddenly, they heard a strange noise coming from ahead. Charmander directed his tail towards the place where the sound came from and saw a Sandshrew, coming out of the ground.

"A Sandshrew! This is my chance! Dave got up excitedly. "Let's go Eevee!"

"Wait a minute, you're not thinking about fighting here, are you?" Mindy said hurriedly. "This is a waste of time and it's dangerous!"

But Dave wasn't listening anymore. He was focused on the Sandshrew.

"Eevee use Headbutt now!"

Eevee dashed in and landed the attack squarely in the chest of the unsuspecting ground-type Pokemon. Sandshrew was thrown back several metres and fell out of Dave's line of sight into the darkness.

"Damn! It's gone!"

"I already said this is useless," Mindy told him. To her surprise however, Dave gave chase to the Sandshrew and he soon disappeared from view. However, Eevee stayed behind, showing more sense than its trainer.

"Ee—vee!" It called out to its trainer.

A moment later, Dave's voice was heard from the darkness.

"Eevee? Eevee! Where are you? There you are! Wait a second! Ahh!"

And then all they could hear was a loud thud followed by the sound of something rolling on the ground. Dave's voice screamed on and on until there was only an echo, at which point it stopped.

Mindy couldn't believe what was happening. As if getting lost wasn't bad enough, Dave chose to run off into a dark passage by himself without any light.

What an idiot, she thought with a curse under her breath.

"Eevee! Eevee!" Eevee was in a state of panic as it dragged Mindy towards the passage where Dave had just disappeared.

"Relax, Eevee. We're going to look for him, let me just get my backpack ok?" Mindy told it.

She then took her backpack, getting ready to leave. As she was about to start searching for Dave, she realised that he had left his belongings behind. His back was open with his clothing, sleeping bag, gears strewn across the floor.

The fact that Dave didn't even have a flashlight at all was even more amazing than the mess. Before the three of them set out to find Dave, they wasted a few minutes packing his things. Soon, they headed into the passage that Dave went into with Mindy lugging two backpacks on her back.

A little ahead of the fork, they noticed that the ground began to slope downwards, and soon they were on a very steep slope where they had to balance themselves in order not to slip and fall.

After a dangerous descent, they reached where the ground was level and Mindy started calling for Dave. "DAVE! DAVE! WHERE ARE YOU?"

All of a sudden, there was a peculiar buzzing noise and the sound of something flapping its wings. Not just one, but many. What was worse was that the noise was getting louder, meaning whatever was causing it were coming towards them.

"Get down!" Mindy said, throwing herself on the ground and covering her head with her hands. The Pokemon did the same, just in time for a flock of Zubats to fly past them.

"Phew, that was close," Mindy sighed.

They continued to move forward slowly without making any sound for fear of attracting more Zubats in their way.