To Bloom Again

Chapter 15: Swift as wind

Currently camping near a river on route 119 on a very bright and sunny afternoon, Marina makes little veggie wraps as a snack for her and her pokemon to eat after a very busy morning of training to prepare for the next gym battle.

Not only that, it was a full day of evolutions, too: Sheldon evolved into Vibrava after a battle with a hex maniac, Karen evolved into Sceptile after she attacked a group of wild Linoone, and Kiki evolved into Delcatty after mindlessly playing around with nearby rocks and touched a moon stone without realizing it.

Grace however, was the only one who hasn't transformed yet, but Marina wasn't worried about it. She's too busy chopping assorted veggies and slathering vegan ranch onto thin tortillas while listening to the cascade of water falling into a plunge pool filled with rocks. It's very relaxing.

"All done!" Marina shouts as she throws her pokeballs into the air above her, faking a big grin as if nothing is bothering her. She gives her pokemon the snack, and while they chat about new brand new forms, Marina stays remotely silent while she finishes her wrap, then crawls back into the tent. The pokemon did take note of Marina's odd behavior, but brushed it off as 'she must be exhausted. Let's leave her alone for a little while' and played in the water.

But that wasn't the case. Instead of taking a nap, Marina took out her badge case and gave it a glance.

"One more, one more," She whispered under her breath, a hot tear rolling down her cheek, "Just one more until I see him again."

Marina immediately puts it away, curls up inside her sleeping bag and starts bawling.

Was she thinking about Mikey? And how close she's getting to him now that she has one more badge to get in order to see him again?

This dream to see her brother, eat delicious his food and to receive the biggest, warmest, most compassionate hug from him again is getting closer and closer to reality and once Marina gets passed Winona in Fortree city and gets the other routes ahead, she'll get the reunion that her poor little heart has been begging for years.

But for now, she decides to take a quick power nap.

Meanwhile, the pokemon were swimming and splashing water in each other's direction for the next hour, not having a care in the world at this very moment.

That is until Grace felt something swimming past her knees. "Huh?"

Then the rest of them did too and they all checked the water in search of what it was.

"Oh my." said Sheldon

"What the hell?" yelled Karen, who's already getting annoyed, "Who goes there?"

"Please show yourself." Demanded Grace.

Then, a few minutes later, a feebas gracefully jumps out of the water before landing back in the water, hanging onto a nearby rock.

It was campy and flamboyant like Wallace and Hugo, but a lot less so than them."Sorry about that. I was swimming upstream until I got hit by that kirlia's feet. That's when I noticed you guys."

"Don't worry about it. It happens." says Grace, gently smiling at the fish pokemon to reassure it that it wasn't its fault for bumping into her, "It must have been the stream."

Karen takes note of the feebas unique purplish color, "Hey, you look a lot different than the feebas I've seen before."

The feebas replies, "I guess I must be a special one, huh." It looks down. "Too bad no trainer wants me."

That last part intrigued Sheldon, "You mean no trainer wants to catch you?"

"Unfortunately so. I apparently scare off a lot of trainers due to my personality. I even got called homophobic slurs by this group of edgy teenagers."