Going forward and beyond {Path of the Aura Ranger: Book I}

II Piplup's P.O.V

Jessie ended up winning the Solaceon Town Contest, we... let's just say that Dawn was not able to get on stage. Not that I blame her, neither was I. We were not ready yet. Luckily, the people in charge of the contest understood. Luckily, Zoey and Ash were there for my trainer. Their support was very important for Dawn. Even her mom called to assure her that there's no shame in taking her time to heal and recover. Even Kenny cooled down and was kind to her.

"I'm sorry guys, I'm a mess." Dawn laughed, watery, as she hugged me tightly.

We were all at Jessie and James' hotel room, having lunch. When I mean all, I meant: Ash, Pikachu-senpai, Meowth, James, Jessie, Kenny, Glameow, Zoey, Riley, and Lucario-senpai. The contest finished yesterday and everyone decided to stay another day in town to be there for Dawn.

"Have you ever thought of learning self-defense?" Jessie spoke up, completely ignoring Dawn's words. She was being kind in her own Jessie way, trying to have her focus on something else. "The first time on a mission... in my previous job, I was terrified. For a long time, I did not go back to the field, it was only when I decided to learn how to fight and defend myself that I was able to go back." We all turned to look at Jessie stunned. "Right now you are afraid to stand on a stage because you know that you won't be able to defend yourself. But if you can, maybe that will help you regain the courage that was stolen from you that day."

"That's a great idea," Ash said slowly, clearly still in shock.

"Why are you saying it like that!?" Jessie breathed flames.

"I would love to give you classes," Ash continued.

"Don't ignore me, twerp!" Jessie shouted.

"With Ash and I, you'll be ready in no time." Riley continued with a kind smile, blushing slightly when he said: 'Ash and I'.

"Before that why don't we take a detour to the Alola Festival?" Kenny jumped into the conversation, clearly not liking that Dawn's attention was somewhere else.

He can be such a kid, I sighed internally.

"What's that?" Dawn asked the question we all had.

"Alola is a tropical region made up of four islands, it's nearby Unova," Zoey replied. "But this is the first time I've heard of an Alola Festival in Sinnoh."

"Sinnoh has various festivals to educate about the culture of different regions. The most popular is the Johto Festival, later down the season. But there's a small town nearby Solaceon Town that does an annual festival to educate and celebrate Alola culture." Kenny answered. "It's something that only started a few years ago, so not many know about it yet. But I've heard it's pretty good. We can all go there and take a break, enjoying the festival."

"Alola is beautiful, James took me there for our honeymoon," Jessie commented, sighing dreamily.

James smiled, wrapping his arm around Jessie and cuddling her close to him. He turned to us and said: "We each captured a Pokemon, they are quite rare and have Pokemon that are only found there. It would be nice to visit it."

"Kenny," Dawn smiled softly at Kenny, whose face burned red. "Thank you."

So, like that, it was decided that we would attend the Alola Festival. I was happy because it gave us a distraction not to think about our failure at Solaceon Town and gave Dawn a reason to smile excitedly. But, of course, traveling with Ash can never be that simple. We ended up being dragged into Mountain Hut Maid Café by Jessie, while the fresh Miltank milk was delicious, we ended up being dragged to help train Autumn's new Miltank. Luckily, it ended up in a good outcome and us getting a lot of free Miltank milk.