Morning came early with golden rays as the large cinnabar orb rose into the sky, its light gently removing the darkness that once was a docced night. Small nimbus clouds from the previous day's storm dwindled in the eastern sky, their varying shades of violet and fuchsia tainting the sky with a mysterious look. But that look did not matter- it was a morning, and a beautiful one at that, because as the sun grew higher into the sky, so more lovely did the clouds add to its atmosphere. Shining droplets of rain sparkled from the tips of the tall grass in the yard of a pokémon adventurer. Their shine casted miniature rainbows across nearby walls of paneling and wood, while water that flowed through the culvert rippled imaginary light waves across the old rusty pipe. The morning call of a pidgey tweeted its gentle pausing notes, which hung in the air for a time, leaving a satisfying meaning. The morning had begun. As the sun climbed higher into the sky, it gained more courage and power to light up more and more, in such a way it was able to climb through windows of an old yellow house. The house had been there for many years, and was said to have been over a hundred years old, its first owner having been a farmer with an immense house of incredible size. But as time wore on, the house was split, and so the house was now in two pieces, one less than a quarter of a mile from the other, and while one was yellow, the other was white. Neither owners of their houses knew the original colour or design of the house, nor were sure how their houses had been connected at one point, but both assuming ownership of their "half" of the house. The sun crept up through the second story now, and quietly slipped through the first room- the room of Aimée, a friendly and caring person with a witty personality. As she slept, her pet- a black and white barn cat meowth named Shadow, awoke with a yawn, licking his lips and lightly blinking his hooded eyes a few times, unsure of what to do. He sat there for some time, and then began to groom himself with a paw, not noticing the clever sunlight passing through his sleeping quarters and through the doorway, into the hallway, and into the next room, where our adventure begins... The Legend of The Mysterious Southern Island Saturday, May 27 "Achoo!" Ellissa the Eevee sneezed as a beam of light tickled her nose. She groaned, and stretched her paws across the head of her trainer, a boy named Ben Red. Ben or Red- it didn't matter which. Both names actually went together when Ben got his Pokémon Trainer's license about two years back or so, and had kept it since. The teenager was sleeping now, his mouth wide open and arms spread over his head, next to the Eevee. Ellissa, or Ellis as she liked to be called, gave a whine, "Owww~... That really got my nose... I think I got a booboo now..." she said, rubbing her nose gently. The boy drew a deep breath in his sleep, giving a sigh, followed by pressured breathing noises as he stretched, waking up from his slumber. The Eevee took advantage of her situation, and called out to Ben Red, (...now moving to 1st person, because that's me- Ben Red! :D) "Be~n, I think I hurt my nose... It really hurts..." I gave a sigh, looking over at Ellis through half-opened eyes, "What's the problem? Hurt your nose?" "Yes..." Ellis said, toying with her little black snout. "It gave a tickle when I woke up, and I did this thing that... Whoosh! It made all my breath go out, and hurt my nose! ...And now it really hurts... What did I do to it?" Answering Ellis's questions were sometimes a riddle to me early in the morning, but I still managed to recognize her problems, my mind filled with its intelligence during my dreams. I smiled, laughing weakly, "Aw, Ellis. You sneezed, that's all." "...I sneezed? Wha-what... what does that mean, Ben?" I sighed, rolling my eyes, "It's what happens when your nose tickles, and makes you whoosh all your breath out, hurting your nose." Ellis blinked, looking down at her paws, where she noticed she accidentally had a little "friend from her nose" hanging. She wrinkled her nose, wiping it on the side of the bed, and whined, "I'm hungry..." I sighed again, putting my hands behind my back, "I am too... I guess it's time we got up and went to get some breakfast, eh?" "Yeah..." Ellis said a bit enthusiastically as she curled up around my hair. I'd grown my hair out for about 2 1/2 months, so it had grown pretty long, but warm and comfortable. But it was such a problem sometimes to clean it, me being used to having to wash short hair, and not long bangs and trying to avoid the "mullet" look. My hair was about a medium brown, and had grown about long enough to cover my ears, and the waviness of it failing to a straight look, rather than small curls at the ends, which I usually had. We both lay there for a while, both silent while we looked around our room like we'd never seen it before. I began to tap my feet in a unanimous manner, sometimes tapping the left more than the right, or vice versa. I didn't know how my mind managed to do it, but my brain kept a biological memory of how many times my right foot tapped, and how many my left foot tapped, and how many more times my left foot needed to tap to match that of the right, and so forth. I continued to gaze around the room when my eyes fell upon that of my brother's bed, Lucas, or "Sen," as I'd often called him. Sen's bed lay empty, him having gone to a LANing party the night before, taking his computer, monitor, mouse, key board, and discs to his friend's house, about 6 miles away. I moved my lips in a quirky position, feeling the prick of my whisker chin hairs rub against my lip. It had a semi-sweet feeling to it- a feeling that felt good to do, like a habit. But I rarely stayed in one spot doing one thing, as I had been doing- looking around the room, tapping my feet, looking at my brother's bed, and scratching my chin. I counted how many things I had done that day, but messed up, counting again and again, each time messing up. 'The heck with it, I thought, and just left it with 12 things I'd done since I woke up that morning. I sighed. Sighing was one thing, however, I never seemed to cease on doing- it was like a reaction that I performed when I was bored, tired, or just for the "heck of it." I sighed, though, and got up, messing up my eevee's hair as I sat on the edge of my bed. "Well, I'm going to go get some breakfast. Coming along?" "Oh, um... Yes!" Ellis said, followed by a dainty jump onto my shoulder as I stood up, stretching again before heading downstairs. I walked into the kitchen, opening up the cupboard next to the stove, and pulled out a red bowl. Blue was my favorite colour, but when it came to food bowls, I really liked a powerful red-coloured bowl for my cereal or snack. It was a must-have thing that one usually gets in the mornings. I closed the cupboard, and opened up the drawer at my waist, revealing the silverware drawer. I took a spoon, replacing it because it was a soupspoon, and picked up another, but it had a small handle on it. Thus continued my search for a spoon until I found one- a small soupspoon usually used for coffee or soup, it being a "soup" spoon and all, with a thicker handle I liked the grip of. I closed the silverware drawer, and walked to the other end of the kitchen, opening a higher cabinet door to see the cereal bought for my family my mom got at the supermarket. "Let's see..." I said, scanning the available foods, "Cherrios, Life, Reeses Puffs, Raisin Bran Crunch, Raisin Bran, and Quaker Instant Oatmeal... Huh... Anything sound good to you, Ellis?" "Ummmm..." Ellis thought out loud, looking at all the boxes of cereal before climbing up on top of my head, her right hind foot on my nose, and the left in my left eye. "Let's see... Well, they don't look very different to me..." She replied honestly, blinking at the cereal. I snorted softly, picking her off of my head and into my arms, cradling her like I did with most small pets. Eevees are a small brand of fox and dog breed pets, a brown coat with small round heads, long ears like that of a rabbit, a white mane like that of a collie dog, small body like that of a cat, but the tail of a fox. A little of everything rolled into one small convenient package, or my favorite bundle of joy. Eevees stood at about a foot in height, and weighed approximately 10 to 20 pounds. Rare as they may be, they are great fun to come across, each one having its own separate personality and different variations among the tips of their tails. "That's because they're all in boxes, you silly goof!" "A silly goof...?" Ellis blinked, "I thought you said I was a girl..." I laughed softly, scratching behind her ears as I pulled out Reeses Puffs and Raisin Bran Crunch, "Oh you are, Ellis. Believe me, you are." Ellis blinked, and then gave a whine, "That makes my head hurt. I think too hard." I laughed again, setting the boxes on the table, and Ellis as well. "Okay Ellis," I said, "I want you to pick the cereal with the most attractive box, and we'll eat that for breakfast." "...Attractive...?" Ellis replied, looking vacantly at the two boxes, "Does that mean the best one, Ben?" I nodded, "Which ever one looks the best in your opinion, Ellis. Choose!" Ellis turned her head back to the two boxes, putting on her thinking face as she tried to think hard. She studied the two boxes carefully, noticing the box art on both of them, checking behind the boxes, and even making an attempt to look on top of them before one fell over. Whump! Ellis backed away, blinking wide-eyed at the fallen box. "I never knew it was so light!" She remarked. I picked up the box, setting it upright, and Ellis poked at the Reeses Puffs with a paw gently. "Let's have this one." She said. I nodded, "Good choice! I'll get the milk, and you stay here, okay?" Ellis nodded, "Uh-huh!" I walked over to the refrigerator, opening it to take out the two-percent milk that Mom bought in gallon jugs, there being 6 of us in the family. I returned, setting the milk down, and poured the cereal to the rim, and held my hand over the bowl as I poured milk in, trying to keep the cereal from flooding out. After it reached its maximum height, I replaced the milk cap, and put away the milk, eating my cereal with Ellis. Ellis ate cereal in a very interesting way. While most pokémon would assume to rather eat Poké-Chow or regular dog, cat, or other animal food, Ellis ate from my bowl or plate with me. She would simply lean in close, grabbing a Reeses Puff with her teeth, and crunch it in her mouth like a cat did with its Cat Food. We both ate in a still silence, both still waking up from our long sleep. The previous night had been dark, cold, and rainy, so both Ellis and I went to bed early, preferring to wake up on a better day than to stay up all night. That, and Ellis was afraid of lightning storms, especially when the thunder boomed. I ate my cereal; looking at the morning paper my Father must have left out before he'd left to go do a job elsewhere for somebody or off working or having fun. I was reading the comics, while Ellis admired the cereal box, trying to figure out what the letters of the alphabet meant, and trying to figure out a maze on the back. She squinted, leaning in closer to the box before her nose bumped the box, knocking it over. The top of the box had been opened, and the cereal spilled from inside the box on to the floor, where the box followed in its crash. "Uh-oh...!" Ellis warned. I sighed as I reached to the ground and began to pick up the mess Ellis made, "Ellis, Ellis, Ellis..." I muttered. "M'sorry..." Ellis said softly, her ears drooping as she dropped her head. I sighed again, "Don't worry about it. At least it isn't a big mess. There wasn't much in it, anyway..." "Yeah..." Ellis said, turning her head away as she walked across the table, stepping over magazines and sticky-pads. She bumped a glass vase, which tipped and fell, spilling water and the three flowers in it over. "Uh-Oh...!" She warned again. "Oh, what did you do this time?" I said, finishing off the retrieval of the cereal, and moving on to my next task of fixing the vase. "I bumped it, and it fell..." Ellis confessed. I shook my head, "A bit clumsy today, are we?" "I didn't mean to do it. It was a... an. accidentistallyla..." "You mean 'accident'?" I smiled as I set the vase upright, leaving the water to dry or whatever. It didn't really matter if it was cleaned up or not. If it was left out, it would probably dry, or soak into something and make itself disappear. ...Like the many various things in this house. Where was everybody? What, was everybody off at some funeral or wedding, and hadn't I been awake? I looked up at the calendar, checking the date. It was Friday, meaning Dad was off working at Sadler Motors, Mom was probably out having coffee with her girl-friends, Aimée didn't have to be up for another hour or so for college, and Krista was probably at a friend's house. I noticed Ellis sitting on her rump, looking down at something quietly on the other side of the table. Curious, I asked her, "Ellis, what are you doing?" "Huh...?" She said, turning towards me. "Oh. Hi, Ben!" "Yeah... Hi." I smiled. Ellis looked around with her eyes before continuing on, "Umm... I found this really weird thing over here, and I don't know what it is..." "What weird thing?" I asked, taking another bite of Reeses Puffs as I got out of my seat for the first time that morning. I walked over to where she was, looking down at a piece of paper that was old and stained with some sort of liquid. Coffee maybe? Ellis pawed at it with one of her front paws, "That thing... I don't know what it is..." I picked up the paper, actually a sort of brown-paper bag package with three One-Cent stamps in the corner of an older design of a pokéball. Below was written in very curly cursive writing, hardly legible for my eyes, addressed to somebody of the name "'Jack' Grady..." I blinked, "Jack Grady? That's my grandpa!" I said to Ellis. "Your grandpa...?" Ellis questioned. I paid no attention to her, and continued studying the thin package, more in an envelope form with a thin brass paper-holder on the back. I studied the package carefully before making a very broad statement, "This envelope is old..." I said. "...Does that mean it's going to die soon?" Ellis asked. I nearly burst out laughing, and smiled at her, "No, Ellis. It just means that this package has been around for a long time, and. what the-?" I paused to notice some sort of an old ticket fall out of the package, and slip towards the ground in a head-over-heels motion before hitting the ground. I kneeled over, picking it up, "What's this...?" "It looks like an old ticket..." Ellis remarked. I read the ticket, with strong black ink writing on one side. It read in big bold letters centered in the middle of the ticket, "Southern Island, 120W, 26S, Sail For Destination to Stern Docks in Southern Colony, G.B". I blinked at it, checking it again and again, reading the text around it several times in confusion, "Southern Island...? Where's that?" "It sounds like a scary place to me, Ben..." Ellis shivered. "Nah. It sounds like a place far off in the Pacifilog Ocean..." I said, checking it over for a date. "This thing's got to be at eighty years old... It's written in old-fashioned letters..." "Ben, why not look at what's inside?" Ellis asked. I stood there for a moment, studying the ticket before nodding, "Right. Let's see what's inside..." x x x "You mean there actually is such a place!?" I exclaimed at my father. My dad nodded, looking off at the envelope, which lay on the table, "Yup. If I'm not certain, it was your grandpa Maurice who sent that to us. He always had a knack for finding things like that..." "But, it says it's to Grampa Grady. Wouldn't it have been him that found it?" "Look," my father pointed at the upper-left corner of the envelope, marked with the return address of "Maurice C." as the sender. I blinked in awe at it, baffled and surprised. "Southern Island used to be a place far of the coast from South America." My father explained. "It was around the wave of imperialism that Great Britain, Russia, and the United States were involved in. Southern Island belonged to Russia at first, but was lost to Great Britain after a fierce Naval War. Having lost, Russia gave up Southern Island as payment to Great Britain, ceding it to them." "But... why do we have a ticket for a Great Britain colony, then?" My dad placed his arms around the back of his neck, and stretched, giving a yawn, "I dunno. I don't really care all that much. It's not a very special place, anyway... Just a long forgotten paradise that lies out in the middle of nowhere." "In the middle of nowhere?!" I said, surprised at this. "Well, obviously it wasn't easy to find the island when it's moving all the time!" My dad explained. My eyes lit up at the thought of it. "...A moving island...?" My dad yawned again, picking up the ticket and taking it with him into my parent's room, "Well, I'm going to take a nap now. Guess I'm tired out from all the day's work." I smiled, "You work too hard." "Yeah, well it's something I can't help but do." My dad said, closing the door to his room. I stood there with Ellis napping on the cushioned seat next to me, unsure of what I was doing, standing there, and probably looking dumb. I shook my head, and looked at the envelope. "...A moving island..." I said to myself as I opened up the envelope, checking its contents. Inside was a photo of a wharf where an old ship was docked. It was dated "1923" in the corner, and was amazingly clear for a photo taken so long ago. I set it down on the table, sitting on the cushion next to Ellis, gently picking her up and setting her on my lap as I checked the next item in the packet. Next was an old paper of somewhat, containing printed text in an old font style. It seemed like it had been done on a typewriter, as it probably had been. I tried to read it, but soon became bored of it, talk about governments, money, land, and nation name-calling, and found other things better to look at, like another photo. The photo depicted men dressed in uniform all standing in rank before the camera with serious looks on their faces. Not really glaring or angry or anything, but just sober and blank, like they knew they had to pause for the camera, or get a lecture from their officer, and the officer doing it to show discipline. I shrugged it off, and then flipped through a few pages before something wrinkled near the end of the packet. "Huh...? What's this wrinkled object?" I said, pulling out an old wrinkled piece of paper. Written on it were words, again written in cursive, and hard to read. "...facing west... although to the north is... Be sure to check... the stars in November... Omastar's trench..." I blinked, and tried again and again to decipher it. It was still illegible, and I got frustrated reading it. Taking it in hand, I placed Ellis back on the cushion, opening the door to my parent's room to wake up my dad. "Dad. Dad...? Dad!" My dad breathed deeply, moving in his sleep much like my brother before he waked up. He opened his eyes, muttering in half English, "What's the matter, and what do you want?" "Dad, who sent this to Grampa Grady?" My dad lay there for a while, yawning again before shrugging, "I don't know. It was mailed to your grandpa because the man didn't know your Grampa Maurice's address." "Then why does it say it's from Grampa Coullard? This isn't his writing!" My dad shrugged again, "I don't know. Why don't you call him up and ask him? He'd love to hear from you." Yeah. I'm sure he would. But he'd probably be working or out doing something, and too busy to listen to me babble on about some ticket found in an ancient envelope! Nonetheless, I did pick up the phone, and gave my Grampa Grady a call. My Grandma Ione picked up the phone, talking in her usual southern-nicked accent, "Y'ello?" "Hi. Grandma? It's me, Ben." "Oh, why hello, Ben! It's great to hear from you!" She sounded so enthusiastic about it. I gave a half smile, nodding on my end, "Yeah... It is. Um, is Grampa Grady home right now?" "...Is who?" Hearing problems. Sometimes my grandparents didn't always hear what I said, and so it was a typical scenario where you had to speak up. "Is Grampa Grady home right now, Grandma?" "Oh, why yes he is. He just got back from shoveling some sawdust. Here. ~Jack! Jack! Come here, Jack! ...It's Ben! Ben! ...Yeah! Well, I'm not getting the phone for you- you come on in and get it yourself!" Not too long after I heard this on the other end, my Grampa Grady picked up. "Yeah? Hello?" "Hello. Grampa? This is Ben." "Who?" "Ben. This is Ben." I repeated, accenting my voice so that he could hear. "Oh... Oh, hello Ben." He said, and nothing more... ...Until I spoke again. "Hey, um... Did you ever happen to receive an enveloped package from somebody named Maurice C.?" "Isn't that your other grandfather?" Grandpa Grady stated. I nodded, "Yes, Yes. I know, but did you ever get a package from him, at any point? Like a yellowish-brown envelope?" My Grandfather kept quiet for a moment, as if he was thinking. I could hear his raspy breathing from my end, and knew that he had a hard time breathing because he smoked for a great period of time during his life. "Um..." he thought out loud, "I may have. Christmas cards or something..." "What about in an envelope?" I blushed visibly on my end- ...an envelope? Duh! Every letter comes in one! Acting quickly, I added, "A tan one?" "Um... Not that I can remember. Why?" "Well, I mean..." I said, dropping his question, "like... Umm... It's got photos of men in army suits..." "In what?" "Army suits... Well, I mean... They're in uniform, and they're standing in this exotic place of some sort... And there's this ticket to a place called "Southern Island..." There was an abrupt silence on his end, now. He thought quietly, and then asked aloud, "Southern Island? Where's that?" "It's somewhere off the coast of South America." I explained. "I'm guessing it's not too far off from Easter Island. Have you been there before, Grampa?" "Um... No, not that I can think of..." "Do you know of anybody that's been there?" I persisted. "No. No, I haven't. I haven't even heard of the place. Where did you get this ticket?" "I found it in the tannish-coloured envelope I have here." "Well, I don't know what to tell you. Your dad might know more than me." I sighed, giving a reluctant pose to Ellissa, who was peeping into the envelope. She noticed me, and lowered her ears, as if I was going to shout at her to get off the table, and backed away from the envelope. I reached forward, and began to pet her head softly. She stopped, and smiled, enjoying the massage I gave her. "Yeah... He kind of told me about it. He told me to call you because you might know who sent it..." Again, a short silence on his end before he replied, "Well, if you can bring it over here, I'll have Grandma look at it. She'd know what it is better than I would." "Okay!" I said, a bit happier that I might learn more about the mysterious island. "I'll ride my bike out there tomorrow, okay?" "What's he want, Jack?" My grandmother's voice was heard in the background. "Um... Ben wants to know if he can stop by tomorrow so you can look at an envelope." "It has Southern Island on it!" I shouted. I don't think that he heard me because he was talking to my Grandma. ...Oh well, I thought. On the other end, Grandma and Grandpa finished their little discussion, and Grampa responded, "Yeah, you can come over right now." "Right now?" I said. "Tell him he can come over right now, Jack." Grandma's voice echoed in the background. "I did, Ma," Grampa's voice replied. "Alright," I said, tickling under Ellis's chin as I unwound the cord around my fingers, "I'll be over there sooner than a slowpoke can make it!" "Okay. Alright, I'll see you then, Ben." "Okay. Bye!" I said, hanging up the phone. Ellis looked at me, excitedly, "So he knew about the Southern Island ticket?" I shook my head, still with a determined smile on my face, "I'm not so sure he knows about it, but if any, my Grandma will know a few things about it." Ellis smiled, "Isn't it great to have Grandma's? They're so helpful!" I smiled, leering dangerously at her, "Yeah... But don't take that as a fact- I'm sure many Grandpas out there are just as helpful as Grandmas!" Ellis blinked for a moment, a brief silence following my statement, "Ben? What is a grandma or grandpa anyway?" I picked her up so that she faced me- face to face, "Well Ellis, let's just say they're my parents' parents." This confused Ellis even more than before. Her eyebrows lifted a notch as she looked at me with her big brown eyes, "Parents' parents? What are those?" I sighed, "My Dad's mom and dad, and my Mom's mom and dad." "You mean, they're both the same person?" "Yes." I said absentmindedly, "...No- wait. No- aaack! Ellis, now you're confusing me!" "M'sorry... I guess I ask too many questions..." Ellis said, her ears drooping again. I shook my head, lifting them back up, "Aw, no... You just don't know when to stop, that's all." Ellis blushed, "Be~en!" X X X Thursday, June 15 The sun came again with its glowing warmth into my room, and I was nearly prepared to leave. Preparations had been made, and I was ready to make my journey to Detroit, MI, where a plane would fly me to an airport near Easter Island, where I was to take a boat to the mysterious island. Connections had been made, and preparations confirmed- I was due at the harbour by early July, but preferably in June. Without a ride or form of transportation, I was to make my journey on foot, but I didn't care. It didn't really matter- I'd been to the Elite Four, and that was... well, in a secure location. (Pokémon Trainers or Masters who know where the location of the Indigo Plateau are forbidden to reveal its location to other trainers, due to security.)... But that was a long ways off! ...And I'd been to New York City, and battled with the famous lightning American who'd battled in wars like Operation Desert Shield/Storm Lt. Surge, and traveled to the casino city of Las Vegas, a.k.a Celadon City and faced off with the lovely lady Erika, though I never won, I fought anyway. But all these places---- even to Saffron (Tokyo) City! So, ride or no ride, I could still make it to Detroit, with time to spare! As I got out of the bathroom, however, I stopped, and gave an aggravated sigh- that was right- I'd let all my pokémon go, having to go on with my life. I cursed myself as I stubbed my small toe against the filing cabinet in the kitchen, sitting in a chair at the table to check on my toe. It wasn't a major scrape- just all pain and no show. I picked at the toenail, removing the loosely grown fiend from its grip on the toe's skin, and threw it under the table, hoping it to rot away and become nothing. I sat there, though, and thought all about them, their faces returning to me now, and a sad memory of all three of them... Penny..., Synthia..., Carman... I wondered where they went after I sent them all away. . . "Hey-ya, Ben! How's it going, huh? Little depressed? Don't worry. Stressed out? That's o- kay! I'll fix you up in a jiffy!" I turned away from the voice, tired and sad, "No, it's just that..." I stopped, and spun around to face one of the few surviving creatures of South America----- "MEW!" I shouted loudly, surprised by her presence. She winced, then wiggled her right ear, "You still got a loud yell, Ben! How are things with you and Ellis, hm?" "Oh, they're going great...! Come here, Ellis!" I said, looking around for Ellis, still surprised that Mew had come back to visit me. Since I gave back the pokéflute Mew had given me, I hadn't seen her for a long time. She had given me the flute to use in times of danger or for "minor" assistance, as she put it. Ellis came around the corner of the living room to appear at my feet, "Yes, Ben?" "Ellis, look up! Somebody's here to see us!" "...To see us...?" Ellis said, looking up above her little head. Her eyes nearly popped out of socket, and her jaw dropped as she gazed in amazement at the ancient pokémon. "M-m-m-m-m-m- m-m-m-mew!!" She stuttered badly. Mew giggled, spinning in place as a bit of blush appeared below her eyes, "Hello, Ellis. I bet you two were both missing me while I was gone." "Oh, I really missed you- honestly I did!" Ellis said in a sincere way, nodding truthfully at Mew. I nodded as well, "...Mew, you don't know what it's been like without you. We need you back!" "...Like I said, you both missed me." She winked, tossing a few sparkles into the air as she did a somersault. She appeared right next to me, and pinched my cheek, "...Hadn't your silly trainer here listened to me, you both would have seen me everyday, with that flute I'd given him. ...Well, at least more often, anyway." "Mew, please give Ben back the flute- please! I don't want to miss you anymore! ...Is missing bad?" Mew lowered herself to Ellis's level, laying on her side, "Well, put it this way, girl. When you miss somebody, you wish you were able to see them again, or be with them again. It's like a feeling of being "with", and not "without". Do you see what I mean?" Ellis blinked, nodding slowly, "I think I see what you mean..." Ellis said. "Good. In that case, let's throw out all that stuff that happened earlier, and get back to what it was a year or so ago!" Mew said, creating confettii from thin air and tossing it around. "Yay!!" Ellis shouted happily, "Now I can see Penny again!" "Oh, you betcha! I know right where she lives, so you can go see her!" Mew winked. Ellis gasped, then turned to me, "Ben! She can get Penny back here for us!" "...And I can get that feisty feline back here with Lover Boy, too..." Mew winked dangerously, pointing to me. Ellis gave a slight growl, "I don't like that Synthia- she's mean to me!" She stopped, though, then smiled again, "But with Penny around, Synthia ceases to exist!" Mew giggled, "And I know just where Carman is! Finally, we can all get back together again!" "Yaaaaaay!!" Ellis cheered, "This'll be so much fun! Won't it, Ben? ...Ben?" I shook my head, facing away from the two. Mew hovered near me and Ellis walked over, jumping on to the chair, then to the table to see my face. "What's wrong, Ben? Won't you be happy to see them again?" Mew questioned. "Yeah, like Penny and Synthia? I'm sure they'll all be happy to see you again..." "To see me again!?" I said, raising my voice a bit, my eyes visibly watery, "You think they'd be happy to see me again after what I've done? I threw them out of my house, Ellis! I told them to get out of my life! They hate me now, Ellis, and I know they'd have nothing to do with me! You probably hated me at that time too, because I was going to send you out into the world, but I didn't, figuring it was going to be a wasted life of some sort..." Ellis and Mew kept quiet as they watched me cry, looking at each other. I was happy that Ellis didn't understand, though, as it would have hurt her little heart to know what I meant by a "wasted life". "They probably all hate me now... They all hate me- I know it. If they even see me again, I'm afraid of what will happen. Penny will have me taken out of her castle, and Synthia would scratch up my face. ...And Carman-" I stopped, crying heavily at the thought of my first pokémon- the Charmander that was in so many photos- that same Charmander that grew up to speak English, and that became my best friend. ...The one who refused to leave my side, and I let them down... Ellis walked over to me, talking in a shaky voice, "M'sorry, Ben. I just couldn't... I mean, I couldn't say that..." "I just couldn't..." Those words echoed my mind when I held Ellis near on that last day, that day I exiled every last one of them, my pokémon. I couldn't bear the thought of them any longer, and cringed visibly in front of Mew and Ellis. "I love you, Ben..." Ellis said softly, nudging my forehead. "Rare as they may be, they are great fun to come across, each one having its own separate personality and different variations among the tips of their tails." These words repeated themselves to me, and I was lost for words. I clutched Ellis with an extended hand, and held her near, "I love you too, Ellis..."