A New Dream

Do I Deserve to be a Trainer?: Dawn's POV

Paul headed for the forest as soon as we returned back from our hike up Melemele Trail and I was glad because my knees were starting to throb with pain. There was no way I was going to let him know, though; he already thought I was weak, and I didn't need to prove him right by complaining. Hau offered to keep me company at the house, but I convinced him I would be fine and I sighed with relief as the front door closed behind him.

"Pip piplup," Piplup peeped up at me while patting my knee.

As I glanced down I could see a small red stain beginning to spread. Sighing again I walked stiffly over to the bathroom and took down the bandages and healing ointment that Mrs, Jun had left on top of the bathroom cabinet for me. Piplup waddled after me, peeping with concern as I sat on the side of the tub and stretched my leg out in front of me.

"No need to worry, Piplup. It's just a cut," I said with a bright smile and Piplup sat dejectedly on the floor between my feet. 

For someone who claims to be a trainer you don't seem to take care of yourself very well, I heard Paul say in my mind and I gritted my teeth in annoyance. Reaching down I began to unwind the bandage that Mrs. Jun had redone just this morning. I got hurt because I was helping a pokemon in danger. That's what pokemon trainers are supposed to do! I snapped back to the imaginary Paul in my head as I tugged ruthlessly on the bandage that was covering my right leg.

Piplup stood up and examined my legs, which to be honest looked way better than they should have after less than a day. The smaller cuts were almost completely healed and only the largest cuts where rocks had become embedded in my knee were bleeding now. Taking a deep breath Piplup blew out a single, small bubble of water and it burst over my knee, showering it with a light spray of water and making the blood run down my leg in small rivulets. 

I used a small part of the bandage that hadn't gotten dirty in our hike to wipe off the blood and then applied more of Mrs. Jun's healing ointment. Once that was done I wrapped up my knee in two layers of gauzy bandage, but left the rest of my leg alone since the cuts and scrapes had already scabbed over. As I put the medical supplies back a feeling of heavy exhaustion settled over me and I rubbed my eyes.

"I think I'm going to take a quick nap," I said to Piplup who perked up and smiled, wrapping the end of his flipper around my hand and pulling me towards the door.

"What? Do you want to tuck me in?" I asked with a smile. 

Piplup grinned, tapping his chest with one of his flippers in a 'leave it to me' gesture. Laughing I let Piplup feel like he was dragging me towards the guest room and it took all my self-control to lie still as Piplup wrestled with the blanket, doing his best to move the large thing over me. When he finally succeeded he sat down and stroked my arm underneath the blanket, peeping his version of a song in a soft voice to try and sing me to sleep. Love and affection bubbled up in my throat, making it difficult to swallow. Closing my eyes I listened to Piplup's wordless song and felt myself soon drifting to sleep.

******

I didn't wake up until Mrs. Jun came home several hours later with bags full of groceries, but I felt refreshed and my knee had stopped hurting so I was glad I decided to take a nap. When I told Mrs. Jun about Hau taking us to meet Litten she got a dangerous glint in her eyes and when Hau came in she pounced, scolding him for taking me on such a long hike when I got injured just yesterday. I tried to interject that I went because I wanted to, but Mrs. Jun didn't pay me any mind as she continued to lecture her son.

"And don't you let me catch you being so insensitive again. You hear me, young man?" she asked with an evil glint in her eyes and Hau looked appropriately terrified.