Air flew up past me as I fell. I landed hard and sprained my ankle. I cried at the pain, but no one was coming. I was alone.
...
I shook my head to clear the memory of my 9-year old self as I fell. Suddenly, I landed in cold water with a splash.
I shivered and the cold kept me going. I saw Grunt B a couple feet away from me, unconsience. I grabbed him and swam forward to where I saw dry land. I hauled Grunt B onto the stone surface and climbed out of the water.
Grunt B awoke and began coughing up water. I looked around to see we were in a dark, barely lit cavern. The only light came from above from Verdant Cavern.
I looked to my left and saw the other grunt in the darkness with Nebby circling him.
Upon seeing me, Nebby cried, "PEW!" And floated towards me.
I rubbed her squishy head and turned to Grunt B who had stopped coughing up water. "Are you okay?"
"Ye-*cough-yeah." He said, coughing.
The other grunt walked up to us. "Where are we homie?"
I glared at him. "I ain't your homie."
He backed up. "Sorry hom- yo."
I looked around again, noticing Nebby gave off some light. Besides that and the faint light from Verdant Cavern, we were in the dark.
...
I limped across a stone tunnel. I couldn't see and I could hear sounds from up ahead. I could only hope it was friendly.
Suddenly a huge roar filled the tunnel. I tried to run back the way I came, but I banged my hurt ankle against the stone wall next to me.
I collapsed, howling in pain, hoping that whatever was coming would kill me as painless as possible.
...
I had taken off my backpack and had begun rifling through the stuff Alex had got me, Hau, and Robert at the mall. I pulled out a flashlight and flicked it on. The light illuminated the darkness and I settled the beam on a dark opening 30 feet away.
I motioned for the grunts to follow me as Nebby and I went over to the opening in the wall. "Hey Skull Boys. C'mon. I'm getting us out of here."
They followed, but one of them complained behind me. "Who put you in charge yo?"
I turned to face them. "Because I can keep my cool in situations like this."
Grunt A shook his head at me. "We're cool yo. No boo gonna scare ya homies."
I shut off the flashlight. "Boo."
They both screamed like little girls.
"I rest my case." I said turning the light back on and set off down the tunnel opening. "Oh, and your rhyming sucks."
They followed me, grumbling, and Nebby floated along happily next to me. After about two hours of wandering, I heard a trickle of water.
I broke into a run. "C'mon!"
We ran for another minute, then emerged in another cavern. However, instead of a mini lake like in the other cavern, there was a slow moving river that flowed down another tunnel.
"This is beautiful." I said in awe.
"There's something in the river." Grunt B said nervously
I sighed and and went to the river's edge and saw several fish Pokemon. Their bodies appeared to be made of rock.
"Relicanth." I breathed.
"What's a Relicanth?" Grunt A asked while Nebby curiously studied the water.
"It's a Water/Rock type that has said to be one of the oldest living species of Pokemon that exists. Finding them here is an incredibly rare find. People are saying they're going extinct."
The grunts looked at the swimming Relicanths. "We could make good money off on them!"
I gave them a hard glare. "No! If you two even think about using them for other purposes than good, I will leave both of you down here to rot."
They held up their hands. "We're good bro."
I nodded and stared at the water illuminated only by the flashlight and Nebby, who was dabbing at the water, making ripples. The ripples from the Relicanths and Nebby sent my thoughts back to the past.
...
I had closed my eyes and felt something lift me up. It carried me off somewhere, but I kept my eyes firmly shut. After what felt like an eternity, I was set down. I opened my eyes and saw an Ursaring towering over me.
It grunted and lumbered off to the corner of the stone room I appeared to be in. Ursaring came back with a hollowed stone with water in it. The Hibernator Pokemon set it down next to me on the stone floor. I looked at the water cautiously, but gulped it down.
I tried to stand, but my sprained ankle prevented the action. I groaned in pain and settled for just sitting. I looked at Ursaring who had laid down facing away from me.
"Thank you." I whispered.
"No Zeno," a voice said behind me. "Thank you."
I turned to see my coach standing there. He grinned and Ursaring roared. Two Houndooms appeared out of the shadows and fired twin Flamethrowers at Ursaring.
I tried to stand. "Stop it!"
A cloth was pressed to my face and I began to feel faint. As darkness overwhelmed me, the last thing I heard was Ursaring roaring in pain and my coach laughing.
...
A Relicanth rippled the water and my thoughts cleared. I stood and waded into the water.
"What are you doin yo?" Grunt A asked.
"Going upriver," I answered hearing very faint noises up ahead where the water disappeared. "I think I hear Wingulls."
Nebby floated above the water next to my head and followed me. Having no other light source, the grunts followed me as well.
After several minutes, the water began to warm.
I smiled, the Wingull noises louder. "Not far now."
We hurried along and ended up in a small cavern that led to a cave exit.
We ran out into the dark Alolan night and saw we were on a beach. By the looks of it, it was pretty secluded.
I looked up and saw a mountain looming over us.
"Is that Ten Carat Hill!?" I said dumbfounded that we got all the way here.
The grunts nodded and I noticed a opening in the mountain. I walked over to it and saw a narrow path that led to a clearing of sorts.
Grunt B came over. "What'd you find Z?"
He looked into the opening and called out to Grunt A, "Hey A, isn't that the Farthest Hollow?"
Grunt A walked over and nodded. "We still made it yo, bro."
They bumped knuckles and I asked, "Made it for what?"
Grunt B looked at me. "Our bro undercover heard there was something going down in the Farthest Hollow yo."
"And that is..." I prompted.
"Team Radiance yo." A said. "Our mission is to mess up their plans and do it ourselves."
"Okay then," I said. "Once we're in there, follow my lead and don't cause any trouble or I'll make you two regret it."
They nodded and we went into the narrow path with Nebby bobbing along behind us.
This chapter is a bit early, but since it's a shorter one, I uploaded it early. But now we got some of Zeno's past told and more shall come. Till next update which will take longer than this. Toodles.