My Dragon

My Hatred

My Love

My World

"*Creeeeaaaak*, *sproing!*, *-Whhhish-*, *--Sscckkkhhh--*, *Ck-ck-ck-ck*"

An arrow was shot through a small mammal that caught Ash’s eye.

"I caught dinner," said Ash to nobody in particular.

He looked to Pikachu and pointed at where the arrow stood up and he trotted over to bring it back.

Pikachu first sniffed what ever the furry creature was to make sure it didn’t seem toxic, then dragged it back to the clearing.

"Pika pika pika…" Pikachu said through gritted teeth and brought the strange deer-like animal to Misty who was sitting with Togepi at the riverbank.

"Thanks, Pikachu," she said and took the animal from Pikachu.

"TogE! TogE! Pi!" said Togepi and jumped up and down.

"Not now, Togepi. You have to help me with this," said Misty.

Misty started gathering sticks with Togepi picking up small little twigs that didn’t matter.

"Are we going to have this thing boiled or dry?" she asked Ash.

"Dry I suppose; I don’t feel like fidgeting with the spell for metal pots," he replied.

"Some ‘Master Wizard’ you turned out to be, Ash Ketchum. I thought you became half thunder sprite," she said while picking up another stick.

"Well, some water sprite you turned out to be, you can’t predict the future except in dreams that you can remember clearly," shot back Ash.

Misty made half a frown and half a twisted smile and continued picking up twigs. She bunched them up in a campfire position and called to Ash, "Well, you better remember how to start a fire spell."

Ash’s bow faded away as he threw it and then he walked to Misty.

While Ash chanted some strange words, Misty pulled out the arrow shot through the animal and it faded out of her hands, but the blood that was dripping on it splashed onto her thigh.

"Ewww…" she said and a chill ran up her spine from the still warm blood.

She took a nearby sharp rock and began tearing the animal apart into pieces.

"Now I really want to become a vegetarian," said Ash as he stared at the animal being shredded.

"And before we were tired of fruit," Misty muttered.

She set down the rock which had done half the work of cutting big pieces of the meat, now she used her hands to rip it apart into smaller, more edible, pieces. While doing this, she noticed a bone that was split in half around the spinal cord.

"Ash, next time try and shoot it in the head, unless you want to find a broken bone in what you’re eating," she said, pulling most of it out.

"So that was the crunching noise I heard," he said.

Misty sighed and said to him, "Are you going to help me or what? I’m not your wife."

"I don’t know, I was thinking you could when we get older," he said teasingly, but started to help her rip the pieces of meat apart.

At hearing this, Misty blushed deeply, "Don’t flatter yourself."

They continued shredding the meat until each piece was small enough to be eaten in one or two bites. Each of then took two reasonably strong sticks and pushed it through some pieces of meat.

"Ash, you forgot to start the fire," Misty told him.

"What, I thought I just started it a minute ago… or did I say the wrong thing?" he wondered to himself and a sweat drop formed by Misty.

"…Now I remember!" exclaimed Ash and he placed his hands over the twigs. "De-"

Though right before he could finish the spell there was a red flash that shot through the whole island for a millisecond and the twigs lit up with a powerful flame.

"Hey, I didn’t even have to say the words!" said Ash.

"Ash, I think it lit up for another reason…" said Misty in a scared tone and she stood up.

"Huh?" wondered Ash and felt something drop down right next to him.

He slowly turned his head reluctantly until out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bit of molten lava.

There was a moment of silence before both of them shouted simultaneously:

"IT’S RAINING!!!"

"PIIIIIIIKAAAAA!!!"

"TOGEEEEEEE!!!"

Then thousands of little drops of lava began dropping from the sky, lighting up the island with red luminance.

They tried their best to get out of the way of any drops of lava pouring down as if aiming for him. They darted to the river and jumped in. Misty’s legs shifted form into a long, slender, dark blue tail and fin, Togepi grew fins around its body and their gills started flapping with water running out as they breathed.

The lava dropped into river, but quickly cooled in it and drifted to the surface.

"Mm! Mm! Mm!" Ash cried out, pointing to his neck which was held by his other hand.

‘He needs air!’ Misty exclaimed in her head and swam closer to him.

"Ash, don’t think I’m kissing you!" Misty said to him, with a slight echo in her voice, and he nodded.

She pressed her mouth against his and blew into his lungs. This was a very unusual and slightly uncomfortable way for Ash to be breathing and he squirmed a little. This caused her to almost let go of Ash so she whipped her long tail around his legs and waist, and she gave him a look saying, "Hold still, I’m trying to save your life here."

He settled down a little letting Misty be his lungs.

Pikachu and Togepi, were also forced to do the same, and Pikachu especially was reluctant to give in for the sake of his life.

Misty almost smiled at the scene but had to keep her attention on keeping Ash alive under water while it rained. With them in the middle of the river, Misty needed to use the fin of her tail to keep them up, and her fin soon became tired of flapping up and down.

She pulled her face just a little away, trying to tell him, "Hold your breath for a second, okay?"

She gave him one last deep breath then let go. She quickly looked for a place reasonable to sit and saw a flat rock around the side.

"Swim here," she echoed out to him. She then closed her eyes and concentrated on Togepi, "<You two, Togepi. I don’t want you lost up there.>"

"<Okay, Mommy!>" a child’s giggling voice replied in her head and it swam to her with Pikachu, who had a embarrassed look on his face.

Misty grabbed Ash’s hand and helped him swim quicker to the flat stone. She was about to press her mouth on Ash’s but just then there was a huge rumble coming from the bottom floor.

Ash, in reaction, was about to gasp all the water in so Misty quickly saved him and he ended up gasping all her air in and she could feel most of her air being sucked out of her lungs.

From the corner of their eye they saw something swimming up.

‘Could it be?’ wondered Misty as the figure looked strangely familiar.

Yes. It was the dragon she saw about a week ago! It quickly began swimming up with its scales glistening and shining through the dark water.

Its red eye saw Ash and Misty and it turned its head around with something on its mind other then saying "hi".

Though when it saw Misty the dragon’s pupil narrowed like a cat’s and then softened up. The dragon snorted a few warm air bubbles out.

A man’s duo voice rumbled out with one being lower then the other, "FOLLOW ME AND STAY UNDER MY WING," the masculine voice boomed out with deep breaths heard.

Ash, of course, didn’t want to, but Misty trusted him and wrapped her arms around Ash, forcing him to go.

Pikachu and Togepi had no choice of leaving their trainer/parent (for Togepi) and swam behind.

The dragon kept his wings aloft while he kicked his way out of the river. He burst out with water splashing everywhere and sometimes being evaporated from the lava that still rained so it made "hissing" noises. The black lumps of lava spurted out as well, landing everywhere in the dead forest.

Ash, Misty, Pikachu, and Togepi popped their head out of the dark water. They looked up at the magnificent creature in awe as he looked down at them half with a look saying "you’re pitiful", but the other saying "I must help you", though the loyal look was more to Misty than Ash.

The lava rained on him, but slid off from the thick coating of scales and he didn’t feel a thing except for some tickles.

"I know you!" shouted Misty, swinging her tail frantically in fear, "You’re the dragon that- that…"

"I AM THE GUARDIAN DRAGON OF THE RAGING WATERS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR POWER… MISTRESS KASUMI," the duo-voice boomed out and he bowed his head, straightening his wings, but still shielded them, and stood up with pride.

"Mistress Kasumi?" repeated Misty, "But my name is…"

"YOU’RE FRIENDS CALL YOU ‘MISTY’ FOR A REASON I DO NOT KNOW, BUT AS YOUR GUARDIAN I MUST ADDRESS YOU BY YOUR REAL NAME," he said with his head turning up.

"My real name?" she wondered.

About at this time, Ash was in pure shock, staring at Misty with wide eyes.

"What’s going on?" he asked.

She only shook her head as an ‘I don’t know.’

All of a sudden, there was a clap of thunder and lighting in the sky and the rain began to stop. There was a hint of green in the sky and then a flash of celadon. Through the dark clouds there was a figure flying over head.

They all looked up, except the water dragon. The figure flew downward getting a more distinct shape of a dragon.

"Hey… I think I know…" Ash mumbled out, but a second later the dragon disappeared in a flash of lightning and in another flash on the river bank it reappeared before their eyes.

Its wings fluttered a little before it settled and folded behind its back.

"I MANAGED TO STOP THE RAIN," a female duo voice with the lower tone sounding like a man’s boomed out. She ignored Misty and looked directly to Ash. "LORD SATOSHI! I KNEW YOU WOULD BE WHERE KASUMI WAS."

"Lord Satoshi?" he repeated in the same manner of Misty. "Hey, aren’t you the dragon that threw me that crystal?"

"YES, LORD SATOSHI. YOU MUST KEEP IT IN YOUR HEART FOR IT IS THE SOURCE OF YOUR POWER. I AM THE GUARDIAN OF THE GREAT ROLLING THUNDERS AND ELECRICITY," she boomed out enthusiastically.

Ash and Misty looked at each other.

"Lord Satoshi?" she repeated.

"Mistress Kasumi?" he said.

"What?" they both asked in unison.

"If you two are the guardians of these elements, then how are you also guardians of us?" asked Misty.

The green female laughed a little, putting on a large grin with her rows sharp teeth showing.

"IS IT THAT HARD TO UNDERSTAND? YOU ARE THESE ELEMENTS," she said.

"Huh?" wondered Ash, who was still confused.

"YOU ARE THE RULERS OF THEM. WE ARE THE GAURDIANS OF YOU," said the water dragon.

‘No way- this cannot be happening,’ both Ash and Misty thought to themselves.

"Is this all you’ve come to tell us?" asked Ash.

The two dragons sweat dropped. "YES."

Ash and Misty (and Pikachu and Togepi) both swam out of the water. Ash wrung his clothes dry and dumped the water out of his boots.

Misty twisted her matted hair and water drizzled into the lake. She picked up Togepi and sat next to Ash on the ground, not minding the fact her pants were still a tad wet and the dirt would probably stick to it when she stood up.

"You know, with so much strange stuff happening, it almost seems normal for the time being," said Misty.

"Yeah, until you realize what’s really happening and you feel like you’re going to faint at what you’ve just done," said Ash.

And it was true. You’d think that with so much of this weird stuff they’d be dead out of shock, but with so much of it, they almost seemed to… enjoy it- as long as they were together and it never caused harm.

They both laughed a little and their dragons watched attentively.

"THEY LOOK NICE TOGETHER," whispered the thunder dragon.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY’RE SO YOUNG, BUT SO CAPABLE OF HANDLING THINGS?" he whispered back.

"I ENVY THEM," she whispered and sighed.

He rumbled a laugh a little bit and spoke, "EVERY DRAGON HAS HIS DAY."

"OR HER," she finished and they both laughed a little.

Two pairs of eyes glowed red in a bush. A glow of disgust…

"Pika?" said Pikachu, twitching his ears a little.

"What is it, Pikachu?" asked Ash.

"Pi," he waved his head towards a bush and it rustled a little.

"Huh?" they all wondered and looked towards the bush.

It rustled again and the dragons snorted out warm air, ready to toss away what or who was in there.

"Maybe Ukem is back?" wondered Misty.

"No, it can’t be- but he did saw he was going to be back," said Ash.

There was a third rustle in the bushes before something popped out.

They sighed in relief that it wasn’t Ukem, but it was an exceptionally large black rabbit that tried pouncing at Ash.

At this, Misty got ready to toss a force field of ice at it, but seeing his dragon was on top of it, she stepped away instead.

She drew a small breath of electricity at the rabbit and it sizzled into toast rabbit.

"Dinner is now served," said Misty, staring at the electrified hare in a tone of being in a trance.

"Yeah, let’s eat," said Ash in the same tone, then became serious, "Okay, snap out of it, snap out of it." (That just came from Charmander the Stray Pokemon. "Yeah, it’s a Joy-full world… Okay, snap out of it, snap out of it!")

"Umm… are we going to eat it?" asked Misty.

"I’m hungry enough to eat a Gyarados, so yes… I guess," replied Ash.

"LORD SATOSHI, WOULD YOU BE AS SO KIND TO TELL ME WHAT A ‘GYARADOS’ IS?" asked his dragon.

"Ehh, well, it’s really big... and really strong... umm…" he couldn’t think of the right words to describe it.

"Ash, maybe you’re pokedex," said Misty.

"Oh yeah!" He pulled it out, and flipped it open.

"Zzzz-t-t-t…ck-ck-ck zzzzzz…zzzztt…" it just clicked and made static noises.

"Waaah! I forgot- it’s not working!" he exclaimed.

"IT’S OKAY," she said, "I DON’T NEED TO KNOW."

"If you say so…" he mumbled.

"MISTRESS KASUMI," said Misty’s dragon and she looked up at him, "DID YOU BY CHANSE SAY ‘UKEM’, OR DID MY EARS DECIEVE ME?"

"Yes, he once captured me," she replied.

He got an annoyed look on his face and snorted out hot air.

"Do you know him?" wondered Misty.

"YES, HE IS A SKILLED WIZARD FOR BLACK MAGIC AND PLAGUES," he replied.

"Black magic?" repeated Ash, thinking about his own power of sorcery.

"SIR, YOU REPRESENT GRAY MAGIC," his dragon said.

"Gray magic?" he repeated.

"Is there an echo in here?" muttered Misty.

"NEITHER BLACK OR WHITE," she said and chuckled a little, "SO YOUNG AND FULL OF QUESTIONS."

"YOU SHOULDN’T BE TALKING, YOU’RE ONLY TWENTY THOUSAND YEARS OLD," the water dragon told her.

"WELL, YES, I’D SUPPOSE," she said, flushing lightly.

That night, the smell of roasted hare was looming around them, and they slept soundly in the curls of their dragons’ tails wrapped around them both.

A figure faded in, draped in a black cloak. Out of the darkness of the hood it wore was a mask. Ukem.

"You have caused enough trouble, now face my wrath through a plague of hatred, Satoshi!" Ukem hissed and his eyes glowed black light.

"Hear me, god of darkness, unleash your power to ban this island of love!" he raised his arms and thunder clapped from above him, "Ustanyed… Plague of evil scorpion!"

It looked like black snakes poured out of him, dropping onto the ground, hissing and opening their jaws, slithering in all directions. They covered the entire clearing, smaller snakes went through every little nook and cranny and crack of tree or stone, while incredibly large snakes half the size of one of the dragons would crawl into the river and vast lands on the island. Still they emitted from Ukem and still they stretched their way across the island.

From over head the island started becoming pure black and gradually covering the island and even pouring into the ocean a little ways.

Then everything stood still for a second before the snakes started sinking into everything, disappearing into wherever they had gotten to. A last glimmer shone over the island, indicating the plague was done.

Ukem gave a last look at his enemies before fading out.

The sky lit up from black to scarlet and clouds started to appear more clearly, this meaning it was morning.

Misty cracked open an eye, seeing Ash as the first person she saw. Her eyes narrowed menacingly and her nose wrinkled at this site.

"Ewe! Get off me, you sack of Tauros dung!" screamed Misty and slapped him so hard he woke up.

Ash shook his head, and noticed Misty was next to him- her body touching his even.

"Ichk! Don’t sleep by me!" he exclaimed in disgust.

"I didn’t come next to you, you slept next to me! Now get off!" she ranted.

The screaming caused the dragons to wake up and seeing they had been near each other the night their eyes slit and they snorted out warm air, and unraveled their tails, causing Ash and Misty to drop down but land on their feet still fighting.

"I don’t even know why I let you follow me!" shouted Ash.

"What about the fact it’s your fault we’re on this island!?" she shouted back.

"My fault?! It’s your fault we got here!"

"No way, it’s yours!"

"If you hadn’t wandered off-"

"If you hadn’t been so dense!" she cut him off.

"I’m not dense!"

"Of course you are! You were dense ever since the day you were born!"

"Well you’re so unattractive I’d die before kissing you!"

"You go do that!"

Ash and Misty weren’t the only ones fighting, for Pikachu and Togepi were with them as well.

"Pika! Pika!" Pikachu yelped in pain as Togepi slapped it continuously on the electric sacks of its cheeks.

"TogE! TogE!" screeched Togepi and it was whacked by Pikachu’s tail with a little electricity too.

Both dragons growled and rammed each other’s heads continuously and tackling them every chance they got.

Ukem faded in, watching the fights going on and heard Ash and Misty’s quarrelling out of most of them.

"<Settle it by a duel to the death,>" a voice said in both their heads, although it was just Ukem’s hypnotizing.

"Yeah!" both said and jumped backwards keeping their eyes on each other.

Both held their hands by either side of their waists, relatively apart. Blue light formed in a circle in between Misty’s hands and her scales hardened and stuck out more for protection; and Ash powered up with lighting meaning he was about to say an attack.

He opened his mouth to say the attack but took a look at Misty before setting his hands down and saying instead, "I- I can’t." Though he was a little surprised at this.

"What? This isn’t right," hissed Ukem.

"Why not?!" shouted Misty, "Are you two chicken to hit a girl?!"

"No, it’s because I…" he looked a little puzzled at what he was going to say, "… because I love you…?" He wondered of what was going on with the words he spoke, tilting his head.

Then his face showed he realized something and he agreed with his mysterious words.

"Yes, I can’t fight you because I love you! I love you, Misty; more then anybody!" he shouted at her as if that were the attack.

Misty stopped her ferocious glare at him and her hands dropped down with the blue aurora fading into mist. She looked at the ground giving a second of deep thought and looked up at him.

"I… I love you too, Ash," she said and repeated this to make sure of herself. "I love you, Ashy-boy!" she called out.

"What?! No! This cannot be! This is not supposed to happen- the plague is unstoppable!!!" cried out Ukem as Ash quickly raced to Misty.

They both kissed, emitting a light aura of white and ice blue.

The aura turned to a more solid form and where the snakes had settled in, they popped out and withered like a worm right after it rained and the sun came out.

Ukem watched in horror as the island started turning back to its old self again. When the island was fully covered in the glowing white and blue cream it was soaked into the island.

Ash and Misty broke the kiss as the spell stopped. Their dragons and pokemon both collapsed from fighting each other, leaving only Ash, Misty, and Ukem there since they had not fought at all except for spitting words.

Ukem growled, giving Misty and Ash’s attention. They grunted a "hm" and narrowed their eyes.

"You get out of this, woman," Ukem spat at Misty.

"She’s got every right to fight you!" protested Ash.

"And what a fight you’ll be getting- YAH!" she blasted out a beam of water and ice at him, but he mumbled something under his breath and shot it back at Misty, sending her flying backwards.

Ash gasped and was about to run over to her but that would put both of them in danger and become vulnerable to Ukem, so he stayed his ground.

"Well see if you can shoot back this!" Ash pointed his hands and arms at Ukem and shouted out, "Deynatsu… Dragon rage!"

Electricity shot out of his arms and hands and aimed for Ukem. It took the form of a dragon quickly and hit him in the stomach, sending him up a ways into the sky but he quickly teleported back.

"Ustanyed… Scorpion fury!" Ukem aimed his hands and arms at Ash and two giant snakes hurled at him, forming into one snake then hit Ash and he was blown away and hit the ground next to Misty, who just woke up to find him landing in front of her eyes.

"Ash," she said, nudging him a little and he slowly opened his eyes.

"Oh- Misty!" he exclaimed and stood up, remembering what just happened a second ago.

He bolted over to Ukem.

"DEYNATSU…" started Ash.

"USTANYED…" started Ukem at the same time.

"DRAGON RAGE!"

"SCORPION FURY!"

The two attacks jolted out at the same time. A dragon and a snake both with their jaws open and throwing themselves at each other.

As the two horrific monsters met it exploded and soon there was a beam of ivory electricity with a beam of blackness shooting at each other frequently becoming longer and shorter.

Misty ran up next to Ash, seeing the black beam was almost going to hit him.

"Hope this works…" she muttered and shot her hands out.

A shield of ice spread through and was curved. The two ends pointed more to Ukem so his own power was bounced off and back at him, while Ash’s power slid off shooting into the sky or disappearing in the ground.

Ukem was flown off but teleported back as he did before and turned his attention to Misty.

"Little girl, you’re becoming quite a pest!" he rumbled.

"Ustanyed… Scorpion fury!" he shouted and the snake hit her back again.

"That’s it!" said Ash.

"Deynatsu… Dragon rage!" he bolted out the electric dragon that rammed Ukem back a little.

"Ustanyed scorpion fury!" he said quickly and Ash was hit by the snake and his feet were dug into the ground half a centimeter.

"Deynatsu Dragon rage!" he yelled and Ukem was hit, raising up in the air more and more as he was hit.

These shouts were bellowed out through the forests as flashes of black light and ivory were shot back and forth constantly.

"Got to… get up," Misty mumbled as she strained herself pulling herself up and she walked to Ash, who was getting hit by bites of the dark scorpion.

"Ash, we can’t do this alone," she said.

He blasted out another dragon and watched as Ukem was still undefeated.

"You’re right- AAAHHH!" he yelped and a more powerful snake was shot at him and he fell down with his legs popping up from the ground.

"I have the power of darkness through my veins- I can never be defeated!"

"And darkness always fails!" shot back Misty.

She shot out a beam of ice and water at him, and looked to Ash.

"Deynatsu… Circular dragon rage!" yelled Ash and a dragon was shot out of his arms and wrapped around Misty’s ice/water beam.

Water conducts electricity and as the dragon touched it, it mixed in more and Ukem was blasted powerfully away.

Ash and Misty both sighed, and leaned on each other. They didn’t notice a large snake being hurled at them and by the time they saw it, it was too late.

They were shot back and hit against their dragons. The thunder dragon was the first to wake up and saw the two kids shivering slightly and whimpering in pain.

Misty’s guardian woke up second, seeing the same. They both stood up, narrowing their eyes until they were barely visible.

"Foolish beasts," Ukem rumbled.

"I THINK SIZE MIGHT MATTER AT THIS POINT, UKEM," hissed Misty’s guardian and raised one of his hands, then plunged him down into the ground.

"I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS WHILE I HAD THE CHANCE," said Ash’s dragon and she plowed him up with her claw.

She snapped her jaws onto his legs and blood splashed out and onto the ground. She tossed him up a ways and the water dragon slashed him into two halves with the sharp point of his tail.

"I GUESS BODILY ATTACKS REALLY DID WORK," he said, kicking dirt over the dead body so it would not be seen by Ash and Misty, or their pokemon at that.

Misty dived into the river with her long tail forming over her legs. Her fin splashed water onto Ash and he woke up.

"Wake up, Ashy-boy," she called out to him.

He felt his dragon’s tip of her tail wrap around him with small bits of fur around the end tickled his neck.

"Ashy-boy?" he repeated in a mumble and Misty laughed a little.

"YOU WOULD NOT WAKE UP, LORD SATOSHI," his guardian said softly.

"Wake up from what…?" then he remembered and shot his head back and forth, "Aah! Ukem! Where is he?!"

"Dead," replied Misty, "And don’t look at the body or you’ll throw up."

"Wasn’t planning to," he replied as the thunder dragon’s tail unraveled from around him and Pikachu jumped into his arms.

"Pika!" he said in joy.

"Hey, Pikachu," said Ash, patting Pikachu’s head.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of light from the horizon of far away mountains to the East.

"Hey, what’s that?" wondered Misty.

They all looked to where there was a stroke of bright light from behind the mountains.

A large circular object rose up, shining over then. They had to squint since the darkness had filled them and their eyes weren’t used to it.

"What is that?" wondered Ash.

"IT’S THE SUN," his dragon replied cheerfully.

The brightness filled up the island. The sky’s color inverted to a light blue and the clouds turned white and puffy instead of dark and spread out.

Green, healthy leafs sprang out of the trees and some had blossoms along with it; if it didn’t have blossoms, it had fruit.

Grass and wild flowers sprouted out of the ground and underneath the dragons and Ash’s feet.

The river Misty was in turned perfectly clear and blue, and schools of fish swam about jumping in and out of the water.

Ash’s guardian, the thunder dragon, turned a lighter shade of green and her wings blew out more majestically. Misty’s water dragon turned from the grayish blue color to a light icy blue color and a small aurora surrounded him.

Misty’s fin and tail turned to a pale icy blue color as well, and her fin became even larger then before, billowing out like a goldeen. Her tightly fitted black top shimmered to white and loosened up to a waterproof silk and she covered it blushing and smiling sheepishly from this.

Ash, who was grinning about the whole thing changed as well. His lightning scars burst out with electricity, his top turned more to a metallic color as well as his pants, and his boots shimmered more out of the sunlight.

"Pika!" said Pikachu as a ring of electricity burst out from him and his fur ruffled in joy.

"TogE!" chirped Togepi and it looked as if water surrounded him in a bubble and his shell- err, torso hardened more.

"So there’s actually a sun?" asked Misty as she got out of the water and the same material as her new top formed for loose pants and legs.

"YES," replied her dragon, "IT ONLY COMES EVERY FIVE MONTHS, THEN WHEN THE SUN SETS IT’LL BE BACK TO DARKNESS."

"We should enjoy it while we can," she said to Ash.

He nodded and glanced to her. "Real cute outfit, Misty," he said jokingly with a small laugh.

She covered her top with her arms in a cross-position and blushed.

"Don’t look at it too long," she said, turning her head to the side and looking down at the ground.

Ash kissed her on the cheek and she let her arms down a little with an wry smile.

The background sounds of "Pika pika!" and "TogEpi! TogE!" filled Ash and Misty’s ears as they laid down on the soft, warm grass, looking up into the blue sky.

"I never thought I’d see daylight again…" murmured Misty.

"I never thought I’d see plants again…" said Ash in the same suit.

"I never thought I’d see fish…" said Misty, turning her back to Ash and looking at the river with fresh water running in it.

She turned around and saw Ash looking up at the sky. She ran her fingers through his slightly long hair, shining in the warm sun, even if it was matted in dirt.

"Is it really so amusing?" he asked.

"Maybe if it were curly and green… or bald and painted gold," she replied.

He looked at her deceivingly. "You must be kidding."

"Yes, I am," she said with a smile and kissed his forehead.

"Maybe I really should change my hair…"

"No, I like it this way. It’s all spiky and cool," she said while poking the tips of his hair that stuck out at the side.

"That’s the way you like hair?" his eyes trailing over to her.

"Just yours," she replied, stroking her fingers through his hair again.

There was a slight pause of them savoring the moment before Misty broke the silence.

"Will we ever get off this island?" she asked.

"I don’t know… I never even thought about it… I was too busy thinking about getting back to you," Ash clamped his mouth at what he said and when he took her hand off he gasped. "Do you think our love is interrupting what’s important of just keeping us alive?" he asked worriedly.

"No! I mean, well, yes, but we can fix that. Well, what I’m trying to say is that it has interrupted it, but now that we’re reminded of it we should try and get back right away!"

Ash hugged Misty and didn’t let go. "Not right away. Not at this very second," he pleaded.

Misty hugged him back. "Of course not," she replied, "Tomorrow; today is too good of a day to leave."

Ash hummed out a sigh. "But didn’t the dragons say something about us being the electric and water elements on this island?"

"I think they’d do a much better job then we’d ever do," said Misty. "What good are we, anyway? If we were so powerful, we wouldn’t need guardians, would we?" she inquired.

"I guess you’re right."

Misty leaned her head forward and hooked her chin on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

‘Geeze, Misty’s hugging me way too tight,’ it sounded as if Ash’s voice wandered into her mind.

"Sorry," she said.

"Huh? For what?" asked Ash.

"For hugging you too tight," she said, loosening her grip.

"How would you know if you were hugging me too tight or not?"

"Did you say I was hugging you too tight?"

"No," he said and put on a suspicious face.

"I must be hearing things, then," she said.

"Oh."

‘I wonder what Pikachu’s doing right now…’ Ash’s voiced popped in her head again and now her own thought came to her:

‘I can read Ash’s mind.’

Misty moved her head down a little so her head rested on Ash’s chest.

‘Misty’s hair as gotten darker… we haven’t really taken much of a bath for quite a while,’ Ash’s thought went to her head.

She frowned at this, but he did have a point; they didn’t bathe in a long time since a few weeks or months ago.

"Let’s take a quick dip in the river," she said.

"I don’t have my swimming drunks," he replied.

"Then take everything off except your shorts. We both need a bath."

"Everything but my shorts? In front of you?"

"So what? You did it before, like at your crazy attempt to swim to the North Pole," she reasoned.

"Yeah well… in front of the dragons?"

"They won’t mind. Come on- go behind a tree if you want, or do I have to take your clothes off myself?"

"Do I have to?"

"You want to take a bath, don’t you? At least now’s a good time: while the water is actually clear."

"Oh… alright," he said with a soft moan.

Misty sat up so he could stand up and strip himself of everything but his shorts. She glanced at him and smiled.

"You’re kind of scrawny, really," she said, patting his back a little but kept her hand on at the third time.

"Hey…" he said and Misty laughed a little.

"WHAT ARE THOSE TWO UP TO," wondered Ash’s dragon as the two kids passed by them, and she noticed Ash was only in his underwear.

"WHATEVER IT IS, YOUR MASTER HAS THE SHORT END OF THE STICK," he replied.

"YOU DON’T SAY."

Misty jumped into the water with her legs forming into her new pale blue fin. Ash walked out to the edge of the river, unsure of weather to go in or not.

"Come on you big scaredy-cat, you still have your shorts on," said Misty and she swam over to him.

Misty pulled his feet and he tripped onto his bottom, then dragged into the water.

"Water’s cold!" said Ash with his arms wrapped around himself and staying afloat by kicking his feet.

"You’ll get used to it," said Misty, who began tilting her head down to let the fresh water carry the dirt off her hair.

Misty was amazed when she saw so much dirt flowing out from her hair, and it became a few shades lighter. She saw some more of the spread dirt flowing past her, which came from Ash.

She turned her head, seeing him furiously wash his face.

"Scrub your face any more and those scars are going to come off," she said.

"Mm," replied Ash, who then stopped.

Misty dunked herself under water, looking at what could be seen now.

"Oh wow!" she exclaimed.

Rays of sunlight beamed through the water, giving an enchanted affect. Coral was scattered about on rocks and the bottom of the river. Fish were teamed up with each other; some were in such a big school it looked like one giant sparkling blob swirling about.

"It’s a rare day, and my pokemon haven’t been out because of such constant darkness…" said Misty. She took two pokeballs from her belt and enlarged them.

Misty could see Ash’s legs and feet dangling from the surface and smirked. She threw the two pokeballs being Staryu and Starmie.

Ash looked down at his reflection, seeing his hair wet and drooping down. He then saw what looked like two starfish combined and it was surfacing under him.

The next thing he knew, he was sitting on the top of Starmie.

"Hey, what the-!" he yelped in surprise, then saw Misty pop up, clinging to Staryu.

No later did Goldeen and Psyduck emerge (horsea was given away, remember?).

"Had to let them out sometime or they’d get claustrophobic," she said.

"I see!" he said with half a yelp as Starmie swam underwater and he dropped more into the water.

Misty leaned on the bank of the river like it was a jacuzzi and turned her head over to Ash, who was looking at the horizon several feet away from her.

‘I wonder if this will gradually die, or happen suddenly…’ he wondered.

‘Ash’s mind isn’t too active,’ Misty thought to herself and shrugged.

She swam over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist from behind.

‘Misty!’ the word shouted from Ash’s mind to hers.

Misty settled her chin on his shoulder and kissed him on the cheek.

"See? You shouldn’t be nervous about being in your shorts," she said with a chuckle.

"Waahhhh… well," he said nervously.

"But I think we’ve been in the water enough," she said as a suggestion and let go of Ash.

"Alright, you guys, back inside your pokeballs!" said Misty and she returned all her pokemon.

They both got out of the river. Misty stayed by the bank to wring the water out of her hair that now shown in her lighter shade.

The sun was beginning to set and it was almost twilight. Ash and Misty both looked at the dim, red sun.

"This is a time I will remember," murmured Misty before taking a huge bit out of a large fruit she picked off a tree with Ash.

And there they were. In the same tree they usually hung around on the counterpart island.

"We’ll have to get off this tree soon," said Ash.

"Why is that? The sun isn’t near being completely down yet," inquired Misty.

"Because my dragon is waging her tail."

Misty took a moment to look behind her and saw the thunder dragon’s tail swishing around, gradually getting nearer to their tree.

"She acts just like you," Misty teased.

"Is that good or bad?"

"That’s bad."

"Hey…"

Misty laughed a little and tried to turn it into a cough, but she breathed at the wrong time and really did cough.

"I -eh- couldn’t help myself," she said in a sheepish tone but fixed her own words. "I’m too used to fighting with you to stop, Ashy-boy."

"Ashy-boy? What kind of name is that, anyway?" he asked.

Misty smiled a little. "My pet name for you."

"Great choice," he said under his breath.

They felt a breeze from the left of them, and saw it was actually the thunder dragon’s tail swishing about, almost hitting their tree.

"Time to get off," said Ash.

They jumped off, landing on their feet (Don’t forget their physical training!), and walked to a nearby hill.

They looked at the sun, it was starting to set, but the sight was beautiful. Streaked across the blue sky were pink and purple, blue and green, orange and yellow, every color of the rainbow, brushed across the horizon.

They both watched as the sun began to set and dim down even more. Once the sun disappeared from the horizon, the sky turned scarlet and it immediately became night.

"There goes the sky," said Misty.

Soon the river nearby turned back to it’s black, slimy color and fish that had been it immediately died from breathing the intoxicating air underwater, and with their bodies being so small, it got to them quicker.

"There goes the river," added Ash.

"The forest," said Misty as the trees then became frail and leafs shriveled up, not to mention the grass disappearing from under them.

Black light coated Togepi and Pikachu’s bodies and their skin and/or fur became darker without the happy glow.

"Pikachu!" exclaimed Ash.

"Togepi!" exclaimed Misty at the same time and they both picked up their pokemon.

Soon their clothes became back to the original selves. Misty’s was back in her tight, black clothing and the sparkle faded from Ash’s clothes and went back to a rough fabric.

They two set back to their guardians who were back to themselves as well.

"I BELIEVE THAT WASN’T THE BEST SUNSET YOU’VE EVER SEEN," inquired the water dragon.

They nodded.

‘Nice while it lasted, though…’ Ash said in his mind.

"At least it was pretty right before it set," said Misty, partly basing this on agreement with Ash’s thoughts.

‘Why is it like she’s reading my mind all the time?’ Ash thought and Misty got a worried expression on her face.

The dark scarlet of the twilight soon turned to pitch black with a new moon. They stayed close together since their eyes didn’t adjust to the great darkness. Pikachu emitted small sparks to light up the place surrounding a little.

Ash, Misty, and their pokemon huddled together and leaned against the two tails of the dragons wrapped around each other in a spiral.

Ash’s eyes were still shot open, and Misty kept waking up from sensing this.

"Ash, try to go to sleep," she said softly.

"I- I- I can’t… I feel like somebody’s watching us," he whispered.

Misty rolled her eyes to her right, seeing nothing except the silhouettes of the forest surrounding them.

"There’s nothing there," she stated, still in a soft tone.

Ash’s eyes were still open, staring at the deep forest; his eyes went even deeper, trying to focus on one particular space.

It seemed as if the clearing suddenly became darker and the forest became lighter, and he could then see better.

Misty twitched and opened her eyes again, then decided to join Ash with the stare.

They both looked at a very large tree that almost reached the clouds, but it was dying like all the rest. Twigs and branches gnarled their way into the trunk, and the trunk gnarled into the roots, and the roots were dug into the soil firmly, and the soil reached over to Ash and Misty, and they stared back at the twigs and branches.

"What do you think is there?" asked Misty.

There was a small pause, and for a moment, Misty thought Ash would answer, but he spoke up.

"A person."

"A person?" repeated Misty.

"No… three people… two people… five, four…"

"Make up your mind."

"I can’t tell," he said, "but I have the feeling either some people or a person is watching us."

"Mm," was Misty’s only reply.

They stared a few more minutes and Misty gave up. She gave a small tug on Ash’s shirt and said, "I’m going to try and go to sleep. Don’t go and wake me up."

Ash felt a pair of hands and wrists twine around his right arm and the side of a head right below his shoulder. Though he kept his steady glare at the tree, waiting for something to happen at the exact location he was staring at.

His eyes went deeper into the second to lowest branch, right where it connected to the trunk and stared at it without blinking. He magnified his vision, looking closer at the branch:

Closer… closer… closer… closer… closer…

"*Shhooom*!"

There! A blur caught his vision and he became even more alert.

"*Shhooom*!"

The sky.

"*Shhooom*!"

Another tree.

"*Shhooom*! *Shhooom*! *Shhooom*!"

Two others in the black clouds and another from behind the dragon’s tails.

"Pika?"

The voice startled Ash for a second before he realized Pikachu had been sensing these small black blurs around them.

"Misty," Ash nudged her with his free arm and she twitched a little. "Misty, wake up."

"Mmmm… Ash I told you not to wake me up…" she said clutching his right arm tighter as a pillow.

"No, Misty, wait don’t"- but she fell asleep again.

He then saw a sparkle from somewhere among the dark trees. He looked closer and saw it was an arrow. He gasped and the arrow was shot.

"Misty watch out!!!" he called out and pushed Misty onto the ground.

She shot her eyes open with a moan from the pain of her fall. Her eyesight cleared and she saw Ash looking down at her. Then at the arrow that bounced off the water dragon’s tail and onto the ground, broken from the hard scales it was shot onto. She made a face of anger and her nose wrinkled.

"Ash what do you think you’re doing with that arrow?!" she demanded.

"It wasn’t me! It came from over there!" he pointed to the forest and Misty turned her head to in between a couple of trees. Nothing was there.

"Ash, there isn’t anything there. Where did that arrow come"- but she was a interrupted by an arrow hurtling right next to her and it hit her dragon’s tail again and fell to the ground.

"-from," she finished.

They turned their heads to the arrow that was only held together by a thread of bark and the rest was broken in half.

They heard a shrill laughing coming from the tall tree Ash had been staring at before and saw a black blur. It stopped and in the place of the blur was a tree sprite.

They could tell it was a young woman with the high ponytail and the skirt she wore, along with other accessories.

"Hey, she looks exactly like…" began Ash.

"…Shaharazad!" finished Misty.

There were a few more black blurs around them where Ash had taken glimpses of them.

Sprites of different elements all looking like their counterpart on the other island.

"Lila…" murmured Misty as she looked at the woman in the sky.

"Mary and John…" said Ash in the same suit.

"Christine…"

"Neia…"

"Kyle… *Blach*"

"This is not good," said Ash.

Laughter screeched out of the sprite counterparts, eyes glowing with whatever element they were with. They all either teleported, jumped, or walked over to Ash, Misty, their Pokemon, and their dragons who were right now still asleep.

It seemed as if they were in a puddle of sprites surrounding them, creeping ever so closer.