Hear the Ocean

Ch. 7 Remember That Time I Got Blown Up, THEN Sucker Punched?

I quickly tried to come up with an on the fly cover up. Then I realized if I spoke any more, that wouldn't help. So, I resorted to putting on the most innocently curious face I could muster.

Forget blowing up or getting clawed to half to death. THAT was the most painful thing I've done yet.

I even threw in a little, "Ve?" Just to be safe.

She shook her head. "Dad's probably right. Maybe I SHOULD get more sleep."

In my head I let out a sigh so massive it undid all of Ed's progress getting over to us. In real life, I remained quiet.

As it was, Ed had finally caught up. He heaved in and out louder and faster than a steam engine. "Th...thanks for...for...whew!"

As we kept going I fell in line with Riolu. "Kind of weird being in this place," I said, thinking about the familiar planes, small cliffs, and pond of the route that used to be right next to my house. I caught myself, and tried to cover it up. "You know, since I was unconscious. Last time I was here."

Riolu said nothing.

"Yeah..."

Pretty soon we had reached the entrance to the lake. Maylene cautioned us to stay back a little, as she took Riolu forward to investigate.

Ed plopped himself down on the ground and breathed heavily. As he sucked half the oxygen out of the trees around us, I walked up next to him. "I swear when we get done with all of this, I'm buying you a complete cardio workout set. You need it, man."

Ed wheezed.

I yawned and began waiting. After a little bit, I absentmindedly began licking my paw. It took me a few seconds, but upon noticing it, I froze, and subtly put my paw back on the ground.

Soon, Maylene's footsteps thudded towards us again. I looked up as she rushed to a stop in front of us, only giving us a "Come on!" before turning and diving into the forest again.

I began rushing forward to keep up with her. After a minute, we reached a deeper part of the forest a short distance from the shore of the lake. It was surprisingly dark. I couldn't see or hear any Pokemon, which, given the size of my ears, made me a little worried.

I took a few steps forward. "Ve?" I was starting to speak Pokemon without thinking about if I needed to. Not sure if that was a good or a bad thing.

I took a few more cautious steps. Then I stepped on a twig.

"OW!" I yelped, grabbing my paw falling to the ground. "Ow. Ow."

"I KNEW it!" The all too excited voice of Maylene sounded in my ears. I rolled over a little and looked up to see her standing over me. "I KNEW you could talk."

"Uh..."

"That is AWESOME!" She grabbed me and spun me around in the air, before setting me down again.

"Owowowowow." I mumbled as my feet met the floor once more.

"Oh get over it. It was just a stick."

"For the record, that stick was quite pointy."

"You're coming with me. Then you are gonna explain everything to me. Sparing no details."

"Great..."

"He's even sarcastic!" She squealed.

---

We stepped quietly over and around the flopping Magikarp. The bottom of the lake had been almost completely dried, so that only a few stray puddles existed. Maylene frowned. "This is awful. We have to help these Magikarp."

"Well, what do you want us to do?" Ed asked, having finally regained his breath.

"Hmm..." She mumbled, before leaning down and whispering into the ear of her Riolu. It stood up, turned to me, and before I knew it, had sucker punched me in the gut.

Well, not actually like Sucker Punch, but...you get the idea.

I immediately hurled. Which I was accustomed to, but not necessarily welcoming of it. Thankfully, this time it was water. Maybe because I hadn't eaten anything recently?

Two magikarp flopped their incredibly worthless bodies over to the newly formed puddle and rested there.

"Whoop de freakin- GLORK!" I began before hurling up another batch of water. I gagged out, "Cut it out!" before spewing out a little more.

"Sorry." Maylene replied.

"You could have just TOLD me to spew water." I groaned.

"I can't stand the lack of action." She shrugged.

Suddenly, the skies became heavily clouded, and it began to rain. And that is a major understatement. I mean it dumped buckets.

I gotta admit I was enjoying it. The feeling of the natural water against my body was sending happy shivers up my spine.

Ed didn't look quite as joyful.

"I don't suppose you used Rain Dance? Maylene wondered.

"Certainly not intentionally." I replied, somewhat busy rolling in a puddle.

She tapped her chin for a little bit, before her face lit up. "Crasher Wake! He must have showed up to refill the lake."

"Great. Now don't you think you ought to get out of here before you drown in a quickly reforming lake?"

We made our way up to the edge of where the shore used to be. I was feeling incredibly chipper as we began to walk back.

Once outside the forest, the rain lessened significantly. The sun could be seen through a few breaks in the clouds, reflecting off of dew drops sitting on the leaves of trees. The whole area seemed magical.

That was probably the rain speaking.

Maylene stretched. "Well, I suppose I had better get back to my gym. Are you two going on, then?"

Ed nodded. "I suppose we are."

"Well then, good luck, you two. By the way, if you're headed West, I suggest going that way, towards the beach."

The word beach unusually perked me up. I don't know why, but I really wanted to go there.

This just kept getting weirder by the second.