Snuff and Rain were avid fans of the practice of rolling around in beds of clover. It was one of their very favorite things in the world to do. Clover felt really good against skin and fur-- cool and natural and altogether exhilarating. The two had made a habit of doing this whenever they finished a workout, and this time was no different. They were on route 32, having just finished a workout before the final leg of their journey home to Azalea, and a patch of clover near the water was calling their name.
"Oh yea!" Rain sighed, splaying out in the dark green clover, "This is just what I needed." Snuff rolled his eyes, but dove right in as well, his giant paws flipping upward and flopping about as he dug his back into the fresh clover.
They were both in mid-roll when the call hit them. They both jerked involuntarily, and Rain let out a little shriek as Snuff fell to his side, momentarily stunned. When the instant had passed, Rain turned to face Snuff with wonder in her eyes.
"What was that?" she said quietly, not really expecting an audible answer from her mute companion, "You felt that too right?"
Snuff nodded, his horns ripping up clumps of clover beneath him. His eyes were almost as wide as Rain's, and his tongue darted out quickly to run over his muzzle. With a whine, he began to sit up. Rain followed, picking clover from her hair and attempting to asses the situation as best she could.
"There's no mistaking what that was," she thought aloud, looking first at Snuff, then at the sky, "someone in the Walkie-Talkie Zone needs our help, and fast. The question is," with this she looked back at Snuff with a worried expression, "who? And more importantly, should we help them?"
But as soon as she'd said the words, Rain knew they needed to help whoever-- or whatever-- it was that needed their aid. If they'd been desperate enough to send out a signal, then it was she and Snuff's responsibility to help.
"Snuff," she said, slowly standing before continuing, "we have to go to this Mirage Island. You agree right?"
The houndoom jumped to it's feet, giving a quick nod and a, "doom!"
"Alright then!" Rain cried, suddenly excited, "No time like the present." This was their chance to help someone, and she was more than up for it. She grabbed up her bag, brushing the last of the clover off her butt. Snuff shook himself and came up next to Rain, his head lowering, then raising again to bring her hand up with it. They stood there a moment, looking rather epic, before Rain realized a rather important flaw in their plan.
"Uh, Snuff... do you know how to get to Mirage Island?"
Rain knew about Mirage Island from old stories-- who hadn't heard of the magical island as a child?-- but her knowledge of the geography of the world was rather stunted, and if ever she'd been asked to point out Hoenn on a map, she would have been just as likely to point to Sinnoh. After talking it over (well, Rain talking, Snuff simply giving her a nod here or there) the duo decided to go ask Rain's dad about where to go.
They were close to home, and while the idea of leaving so soon after getting there was upsetting, Rain and Snuff were eager to get to whoever it was that had sent out this call; it continued to tickle the back of their minds long after the initial insemination into their thoughts. It was about two hours of power walking before they'd reached Azalea, and the sun was long gone behind the rolling hills and trees of the forests. Rain's dad was happy to see them, but a bit depressed to hear they had urgent business in Hoenn, more specifically at Mirage Island.
"But couldn't you stay for just tonight? It's already dark! And your mother won't be home until the day after tomorrow."
"No Dad," Rain said, just as sad to have to go as her father was to see them leave, "I just need directions, and we can head out."
Rain's dad was disheartened, but willingly revealed to the two that he truly had no idea how to get to Hoenn from where they currently stood. However, after some polite pleading, and a bit of an over-zealous emotional tantrum of sorts from Rain, he revealed that by rather good coincidence, a new family had moved in down the road during Rain's travels. It turned out they owned a kadabra, and Rain's dad reluctantly told her that they'd offered to Transport him anywhere he may need to go in a pinch. While he was sure they hadn't really meant out-of-region Transport, he was willing to go ask, if it would calm Rain down.
They'd gone together, and the family had informed them they'd be happy to offer their services to Rain, as Rain's father had been very kind in helping them to settle in when they'd first come to town. However, their son was out with the kadabra, having had business in Goldenrod, and he would not be returning until the next day.
With a grin, Rain's father dragged her home, stuffing delicious smelling food in front of her and forcing her to talk of their travels. He oohed and aahed over her badges, and was thrilled to see Snuff had evolved into such a handsome houndoom. It was a good three or four hours before he allowed Rain and Snuff to drag themselves off to bed.
It was odd being in a bed, as opposed to in a sleeping bag, or just in the grass. Snuff curled up at the end, dozing off almost immediately and growling passively in his sleep. Rain lay awake for a bit, staring at the ceiling and wondering how all this time they'd never met another human in the wasteland that was the Walkie-Talkie Zone. Now that she thought about it, they'd never really met danger of any sort in the Zone either. What was it that could be so bad, someone would send out some sort of signal like they'd felt earlier that day?
The next day passed rather slowly, with Rain's father forcing her to eat a home-cooked breakfast and stay around the house until lunch. Rain took the remaining time to take a hot bath, and even managed to scrub Snuff off a little before he ran off-- water was not something he tolerated, even from Rain. He did however, sit outside the bathroom door and howl along with her as she sang a rather rousing rendition of Whispering Spearows, a song she and Snuff had made up whilst walking through the Ilex forest, over a year ago. Her dress was hanging out to dry, having been thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned, and her muscles were relaxing in the wonderfully warm tub. She was definitely glad to be home.
But the nagging sensation of the call still pulled at the two. Rain found it rather annoying that she and Snuff were sitting around doing nothing, when someone could be hurt. She couldn't effectively relay this to her father though, as that would have entailed revealing the Walkie-Talkie Zone to him-- something she and Snuff had decided long ago would not be a good idea. So it was a rather tense lunch the family sat down to, with Rain and Snuff eager to dash off to the neighbors. They scarfed down their food before running off to get their things together. Rain bid farewell to her father with sad eyes. Hopefully, she'd be back to see him again. The thought struck her rather bluntly, but she realized they could just as likely be killed out in Hoenn than return home to Azalea.
She hugged her father all at once and clung to him tightly for a long time. He seemed surprised, but didn't argue. She didn't pull back until she had composed herself. With another, "I love you," and a, "Please tell mom I love her too," Rain and Snuff made their way to the neighbors. The boy had just returned, and Rain was happy to see that the kadabra was a rather old fellow, experienced, and more than capable of Transporting them the long distance to Hoenn.
"You'll be arriving," the woman told her, "in Pacifidlog Town. That's the town closest to Mirage Island. But you know honey, the Island isn't always there."
"We know," Rain had said confidently, "But we have something we need to do there. We'll get there, don't worry about us."
The woman smiled, then turned to the kadabra and gave the orders, telling him to Transpost the two, then return home. It had nodded, grunting politely, then turned to Snuff and Rain with a serious look. It's eyes narrowed; the kadabra swung it's arms outward, then moved them in a clockwise fashion. The star in the center of it's head glowed a deep red, then gold, which spread throughout the golden body, then found it's way to Snuff and Rain, creeping slowly across the ground. The light crept up the two, and into their surroundings, until everything was a deep gold.
The light was all consuming, and rather painful to look at-- Rain and Snuff had to close their eyes. They could hear a deep chanting, but other than that, nothing seemed to be happening. The chant slowed, then stopped, and Rain risked opening an eye.
"Whoa!" she yelped, surprised. Around them, people moved purposefully. They were in the lobby of a small Pokecenter. Beside Rain, Snuff repeated the action, whuffing in response to the change. In front of them, the kadabra seemed to look at them, as if confirming this was the right place. Rain glanced around for a moment, saw a sign labeled, "Pacifidlog Town Pokecenter," turned, and nodded at the kadabra with a smile. "Thank you," she said aloud, and the kadabra returned her nod, before beginning the Transport again, and dissipating from sight in an instant.
Rain wandered outside. There was water everywhere! And the buildings were on platforms above it.
"This is amazing," she said, with a gasp, to Snuff. He merely grunted by her side; who on Earth would want to live on top of water? In his opinion, humans could be very odd sometimes.
"But Snuff," Rain said after a moment, "how are we going to get to the island?" Snuff cocked his dark head, one horn coming up to tap Rain's hand. That was a good question. It wasn't like he could swim. No, swimming was most definitely not an option. And right now, there wasn't any island he could see. Even if they could swim, which they most definitely were not going to do, they had no where to swim to.
"Maybe," Rain considered, looking a bit uneasy at the thought, "we should go into the Walkie-Talkie Zone." Snuff looked up at her, licking his muzzle thoughtfully. It did make a little sense. He nodded slowly, then more deliberately.
"Okay then," Rain said, heading towards an alley, "Let's sing about how happy we were to see dad."
The song started that way, but ended up as how sad they were to have left, and how uncertain they were about the future. Rain always disliked it when this happened. With tears streaming down their faces, they felt the prickling sensation, and looked around to find the buildings and people almost gone from view. It took a moment to see, but through the buildings, Rain spotted a rather sturdy looking rowboat.
"See that?" she asked Snuff. He nodded, a habit of those typically unable to articulate, before speaking.
"Yep," he hummed, his voice smooth and musical, a mannerism that stuck in his thoughts from his constant musical transactions with Rain, "that there is a boat. And it doesn't look like it belongs here." He turned his head up to look Rain in the eyes, "Rain, maybe this is a bad idea. Maybe this is none of our business."
Rain looked away towards the boat and nodded, but didn't reply, instead stepping out of the alley and walking in the direction of the boat. It was a short walk, and after a moment they both hopped in the vessel. The island was visible, far off, and Rain could see now that rowing was going to take forever.
"I'm going to confess to you Snuff, that I am having second thoughts too..." she trailed off, before beginning to row, "But someone needs our help, and we aren't the type to ignore something like that. Besides, doesn't the idea of meeting someone else who knows more about this world seem cool to you?" She was rowing now, and it seemed it might not take as long as she originally thought. The island already seemed much closer.
"I suppose," Snuff grumbled, "but I can't help thinking this may be a very bad idea."
Of course, neither of them could ever have denied the nagging pull of the call. Both knew that if ever they had been the type of people who did indeed ignore calls for help, even then they would not have been able to ignore this. All this talk about giving up was foolishness-- they were both desperate to reach whoever had sent out that call, and both of them knew it.
With that they lapsed into silence, save Rain's breathing, which was picking up speed by the minute. She had to take several breaks to save her arms, and during these she would also catch her breath. Snuff stayed alert the entire time, his eyes darting back and forth between the town and the island, until finally the town slipped out of view, and he simply had only the island to stare at. It was a long time, but not as long as Rain had initially thought, before they reached the island. Rain's arms were on fire, but they were here, and with a final heave, they washed onto the sandy shore of the island.
"Ugh!" Rain cried, flopping herself out of the boat and onto the sand, "Never again Snuffles! Never again!"
Snuff rolled his eyes, hopping out of the boat. What a little drama queen. He gave her a few minutes to recover. Looking around the island, he saw trees, and water, and that was about it. No other people, no "trouble"... Rain was rolling in the sand now.
"Cut it out," he said, "Pull yourself together woman, someone here needs our help, remember?"
"Oh yea," she mumbled into the sand. She pushed herself up, still whining from her arms, and surveyed the area. There didn't seem to be anyone here. Snuff sniffed the air, and all at once stiffened, causing Rain to stiffen as well. There was someone here! Someone else who had a houndoom too!
Snuff took off towards the scent, with Rain following behind. He kept in sight of her, but went his own speed. The faster he found this danger, the faster he could keep it from hurting Rain. What could this danger be? It could be anyone-- or thing for that matter! Dozens of images were running through Snuff's head.
So he was a bit surprised when he rounded the clump of trees, to see a somewhat pretty blonde and her male houndoom walking up the shore. He stopped to let Rain catch up to him. They decided together in an instant that they should make themselves known-- they were most definitely not evil (though the houndoom did look a bit dangerous).
"Hey!" Rain called out, waving.
"Doom!" Snuff bellowed, jumping.