A New Dream

New Friends: Dawn's POV

A huge flock of zubats flew from the ceiling and began to dive bomb Piplup and I as we were leaving Verdant Cave after defeating the Totem Gumshoos. I squeaked in fright and ducked down, covering my head with my arms as I yelled, "Piplup, use Blizzard!"

Piplup, who had been panicking slightly, snapped out of it and did as I asked, whipping up a powerful blizzard attack and sending it up into the flock of attacking zubats. The zubats screeched with pain and fear and I breathed a sigh of relief as they all streamed away from us, flying down some of the shoot-off cave tunnels and out of sight.

"Phew. Well done, Piplup," I said, getting shakily to my feet as Piplup panted a little bit. 

The battle against Gumshoos had taken a lot of Piplup's energy, but with a combination of Whirlpool and Drill Peck we had finally been able to beat both the Gumshoos and the yungoos it had called in to help. Reaching down I picked up Piplup, cuddling him against me in gratitude and I noticed happily that my shoulder bruise only felt a little uncomfortable.

Piplup settled into my arms contentedly as we walked out of the cave and into the bright sunshine. A large part of me wanted to go into the blocked-off area of the island and start looking for new pokemon, but Piplup deserved rest after his battle so I turned towards the PokeCenter. 

Mrs. Jun had insisted that I stay one more day after the Showdown to make 100% sure that I was on the mend, but I had felt a sense of relief when I finally set out for Verdant Cave and Ilima's trial. Piplup and I battled several pokemon on the way, but whenever it came time to throw the pokeball something just hadn't felt right and I let the pokemon slink away.

"I can't wait to find the perfect pokemon to help us with our Showdown dance," I said happily and Piplup tiredly chirped in agreement. 

I left Piplup with Nurse Joy and was about to turn away from the counter when she stopped me.

"You are Dawn Berlitz, right?" she asked me with a happy smile and I nodded.

"That's right," I agreed. She asked me to wait as she ducked under the counter, rummaging for a moment before pulling out a thin square box.

"This package just came for you," she explained, sliding the box towards me and I took it curiously.

"Thank you very much!" 

She nodded and whisked through the door that led to the examination tables with Piplup's Pokeball. I took the box with me up to the room that I had been staying in for the past three days. As I opened my door I couldn't help but look over at the door of the room where Paul stayed last night and a complicated wave of emotions flowed through me. 

I don't think I will ever understand that boy, I thought with frustration. I admitted that I had a short fuse when it came to my temper, but there was only so far someone could push before anyone would blow up at them, right?

Sighing I shook my head and pushed Paul from my mind as I laid the box on my bed and opened it excitedly. As I lifted the lid an awe-struck gasp escaped me as I looked at the beautiful outfit laying in the box. Reverently I reach down and lifted the fabric, surprised when only half of the outfit came out. Swiftly I laid both pieces out on the bed and clapped my hands excitedly.

The top was an off-white color that would leave my stomach bare with large strands of muted gold fabric that weaved around each other and created off-the-shoulder sleeves. At the bottom of the top, a beautiful band of muted gold hugged the fabric around my empire waistline. Two small pieces of the white fabric draped from the empire waistline and were meant to be crossed into an x across my stomach and then hook onto the skirt; which was incredible. The top of the skirt had a large band of bunched fabric tied in a simple knot of the same off-white colored fabric but there were small bands of shimmering gold weaving through the fabric as it flowed down to nearly floor length in the back, but the front was just a simple white mini skirt that would hit me in the middle of my upper leg.