Chapter 9: Search
My dreams were a bit less haunting during that nap and my full night's sleep. Dawn slept close, a peaceful presence every time I'd stir, assuring me that all was well, though mostly I was so far gone that I wouldn't wake if a Pokemon battle started in the room. I woke up once during the night, breathing fast after a memory slipped into my dreams.
It seems like you smile the most around things you consider to be dead and scary. The words echoed in my head. I'd hugged myself to Dawn, who didn't wake, and forced myself to stop thinking about ghosts, memories or Pokemon. I fell back to sleep, nothing else disturbing my slumber.
Without opening my eyes, I knew it was pretty late in the morning by the time I felt fully awake. I stretched partially, moving my head closer to where Dawn was situated. I heard her adjust her own head and leaned forward a bit, placing my lips on her forehead.
It took me less than a second to realize my lips were not touching human skin.
My eyes shot open to discover that I was kissing what looked like a dark blue cantaloupe. I abruptly pushed away, my eyes honing in on Piplup and his gigantic head, his eyes wide as he stared at me in absolute fear.
I didn't even know what to say. He was frozen in terror and I was frozen in disgust. We kept staring at each other, breathing fast, my hands practically aching to push him out of the bed and onto the floor. My voice wanted to yell at him. My eyes desired to burn holes through him.
"Not a word to Dawn." I said with malice, "Get out of my bed."
"P'lup" Piplup squeaked, rolling so quickly that he fell onto the tiled floor. I heard his feet skid as he scrambled towards the door.
I rolled over so I was on my back and put a hand over my eyes. Never again would I ever kiss that stupid penguin. I brushed my other arm against my mouth and got out of bed, wondering where Dawn was.
I found Dawn talking to Salamence in his special room. He seemed pouty. Really, I hadn't visited him at all yesterday except after my night for a few minutes. I'm sure he wasn't happy with me.
"Hey," I put my hand on his stomach, rubbing it tenderly where I knew it'd be comforting. I could hear him fighting back contentment as I continued, "I'm sorry for not visiting you yesterday. It was a bad day. I didn't sleep well."
Salamence looked at me suspiciously, then at Dawn.
"Told you." She said.
He then gave me a worried look.
I snorted, "Don't act as if I'm too weak to handle it. I'm fine. How are you?"
His snort was much more impressive considering black wisps came from his nostrils.
"Hey, Salamence. Guess where we're going today." Dawn said in a sing-song voice, "The church!"
Why? He seemed to ask me with his expression.
"Paul tells me he met this little girl there who kept talking to him about feelings." Dawn continued.
Salamence grinned toothily. I rolled my eyes. At least that was so amusing that no one would guess that we battled. I didn't want to explain that.
"Yeah. And we're going to go meet her." Dawn finished.
My Dragon Pokemon's tail and head drooped as a pouting growl escaped him.
"You can't move, how am I supposed to take you along?" Of course he'd want to come.
"I'm sure you'll be good enough to come pretty soon, Salamence." Dawn reassured him.
"Yes, the girl did say she would be here at least for a week." I remembered. Anything to keep Salamence from missing meeting her. I'd actually be interested in her reading his aura, though I knew he was only interested at meeting a child. He had a soft spot for little ones that I didn't share.
"See? We'll try to get you to meet her before she leaves."
Salamence let out another grumble, but seemed accepting of our proposal.
"Alright, well we better get going. I'm so excited!" Dawn said gleefully, kissing Salamence's cheek before skipping out of the room.
I remembered my Piplup blunder this morning and shuddered, following her out to get our bags.
"Where do you think she is?" Dawn whispered to me as we got to the top of the hill.
I shrugged, my eyes scanning the garden. I didn't see her and I remembered how much I'd rather not go searching the rest of the church grounds for her. The only good thing was that Piplup seemed very keen on not spending anytime around me and had opted to keep Salamence company. Not that Salamence would want the company of a pudgy penguin, but at least he wasn't here to make meeting the odd little girl even more annoying.
"Hey strangers." We looked up for the source of the voice, noticing for the first time that John was on the roof, waving at us.
"Hey John!" Dawn waved back, "What are you doing up there?"
"Just checking the condition of the roof. We keep patching it up and I'm hoping it'll hold." John explained, "Have you ever been in the middle of a service and had water fall right in the middle of your head? It really wakes you up."
Dawn laughed, "Sounds like God was trying to wake you up."
"Yeah, I bet." John grinned, "Let me come down really fast."
I raised my eyebrows at how casually Dawn seemed to bring up God around him and wondered exactly how much she would talk about God if I wasn't around and what that really meant. John descended down a ladder that I hadn't noticed before and jogged over to us, his normal smile plastered on his face.
"Hey, have you seen a little girl around here? Paul met her yesterday and I really want to meet her."
"Oh, you mean Demi? Bless her, she's a little angel." John looked around and wiped his forehead, "Oh, that's right. She went into the forest right next to here to play hide and seek with her Pokemon."
"I'm sure she's very good at it." I commented, remembering that she could sense aura.
"She's a smart one, isn't she?" John nodded, "Alright, is there anything else you need?"
"No, that's all. We'll talk to you later when you're less busy." Dawn promised.
"Sure thing." John said.
We walked towards the small forest by the church. I felt much more at home among the trees.
"She shouldn't be too hard to find." Dawn said, looking around, "Should we call her name?"
"Hi, Paul." I heard from behind me.
Startled, I turned around. I hadn't even heard her approach. I looked Demi up and down, noticing she was grinning and wearing a blind fold.
"Oh my gosh," Dawn exclaimed, "How are you not running into things with that on?"
Demi cocked her head to the side, "Oh, I know who you are. It's nice to meet you, Dawn."
Demi extended her hand towards Dawn. Dawn gave me a freaked out look that asked a million questions about Demi's behavior.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm scaring you." Demi removed her blindfold and looked at Dawn with concern, "Don't worry, everything's ok. I'm just really good at knowing where everything is and how people are feeling. Paul didn't tell you that."
It wasn't a question. I'd just met her the day before, but it was creepy how much she knew. The only thing distracting me from that were Dawn's reactions.
"Um, no he didn't."
"You should explain it to her." I told Demi.
Demi told Dawn the exact story she'd told me. Dawn clutched my hand tightly when her heart broke for the little girl.
"I'm so sorry to hear that."
"It's ok. It's all God's plan." Demi said, but blinked in surprise and added, "Not that He wants people dying. It's just that the world isn't how it's supposed to be and accidents happen. But it's all ok."
Even Dawn was speechless while I tried to clear my thoughts.
Demi turned to me, "Hey, you came back. I told you that you would."
"Only to let you meet Dawn." I defended myself, hoping the conversation would become less awkward.
"Sure. Well, I think Riley is probably wondering why I stopped seeking him." Dawn sighed and looked up. Her face broke out into a smile, "Never mind, he's coming now. Riley!"
Within seconds, her Riolu bounded from a tree, jumping into Demi's outstretched arms. The two hugged and laughed. I heard Dawn let out an "awe" at their reunion and I had to hide a smile, not even knowing why I felt like smiling.
"Well, now that we're all together, let's go talk to John!" Demi announced, marching through the forest.
"Um, is there a reason we need to?" Dawn asked, cringing, "And exactly what kind of thoughts can you hear?"
"Well, I can tell he's done with the roof. And I'm hungry and he makes good sandwiches and he's really nice." Demi explained, "And I can read pretty much all thoughts but I try not to. And I don't know why you're so scared because your thoughts are all really good and you seem like a really happy person who knows God kinda."
"What do you mean kinda?" Dawn asked worriedly.
"Oh, there's John!" Demi waved and began running ahead of us.
"What did she mean kinda?" Dawn asked me.
"Do I look like a God expert to you?" I asked.
"Right." Dawn said, "Well, I see what you mean about her being different."
"I think I kind of like her." I surprised myself into saying.
Dawn smiled at me, "Good. You should learn more about her."
I nodded, then saw Demi frantically motioning for us to hurry. We continued towards the church, which didn't seem quite as horrible as it did two days ago.
Hey Readers!
Another chapter :) And awesome funny Piplup moment. That little guy...
I hope you enjoyed it! I feel like I'm going to keep this message short and sweet compared to my last one :P
Pokemon Question of the Day: Where is your favorite place to catch Pokemon? (I'm thinking beach, ocean/river, forest, weird abandoned building, etc.)
As always, thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments :)
God bless!
-Flips