Chapter 8 "We really should have set off earlier!" complained Misty as they realised they wouldn't make the soft beds that were avaliable in Viridian City. "Well, I'll set up the tents if you sort out the food." she said stifling a yawn, lowering her bag and pokemon to the ground before stretching. "I'm not doing the cooking! You do it!" argued Ash. "What! you're the one who's been travelling, surely you've found out how to cook!" "You're the one who's been at home, feeding yourself and your pokemon!" This left Misty at a point when for once, she was speechless and growled "Fine! But you can get the water as well!" she began the hunt for firewood while thinking of what she could make from their supplies. With a sigh, Ash motioned for Pikachu to follow as they looked for a nearby stream. "I don't know Pikachu, why do Misty and I always end up fighting?" "Pika pikachu" he replied with a shrug, sniffing the air for any water before moving off down a small forest track. "It's not as if I try to start a fight with her. Maybe we just fight cos she doesn't really like me..." he mused, beginning to feel a little depressed. The day hadn't been a peaceful as he was accostomed to and was already beginning to feel apprehensive about the up comming few months with just him and Misty. Spinning round, Pikachu stated, "Pika pika chu pikachu pi pika! Pikachupi pi pika pi chu pichu pi pika chu pi pika pika pikachu! Pi pika pikachu pichu chu, pika pichu pika pichuchu" (Don't even start thinking like that! She came all the way from her Gym just to see you battle! If she doesn't like you, I'll evolve next week!) Electricity started sparking from his cheeks, emphasising his point. "Thanks buddy." he rufully smiled back at his confident pokemon before following him down the path. Suddenly, the trees on either side, melted away to reveal a spectacular sight. He had found a large lake, secluded from view by the trees of the forest. A waterfall gushed down into the lake, causing a rainbow to form as the light from the dying sun filtered through tiny droplets of water at the bottom of the lake. The spectacular sight took Ash's breath away as he and Pikachu beheld the sight. Without saying a word to Pikachu, Ash turned back, racing to the base camp where Misty was about to start the fire for their meal. "Well, where's the water?" she asked when Ash appeared, breathless, with no Pikachu and no water. "You...you...have to come...see this!!" he panted, getting his stuff together. "What is it?" asked Misty, beginning to panic. "Has something happened to Pikachu?" "Pika!" the little rodent appeared from the path, his little paws crossed over his chest, a look of hopelessness on his face as he observed his trainer. "Come on Misty! Quickly!" he urged her down the path by the hand. "Alright, alright!" she replied, hurrying after him, beginning to get grumpy. "Oh..." she lost her breath when she beheld the spectacular waterfall and lake, the rainbow was barely visable before it dissappeared as the sun dipped below the trees. "It's beautiful..." 'Just like you...' Ash thought to himself before walking forwards to dump his stuff next to the lake, tripping and falling head over heels and into the water with a spash, reappearing to be seen sitting down, spitting water out of his mouth. "Well done clutz!" giggled Misty as she gracefully strolled over, deposited her belongings before extending her hand to Ash who took it. While helping him up, she slipped on some mud and went crashing into the water, alongside Ash. It only took them one look at each other before the both burst out laughing and struggled out of the water. "I'll get the firewood." volenteered Ash, taking off his hat and jumper to try over a tree branch and venturing off into the woods again. Laughing gently to herself, Misty began to get the saucepan, noodles and vegetables out from their pack. Turning to the lake to fill the saucepan with water, she saw Pikachu who was watching her intently. "What?" she asked. "Piiiiiiiiika." he said. "Sure it's "nothing"!" she watched the little pokemon carefully as he sat there with a strange look on his face before Ash came back, his arms full of wood. Half an hour later, Ash, Misty and Pikachu were seated around the fire, a bowl of noodles each, covered in ketchup as far as Pikachu's helping was concerned. After taking one bite each, even Ash decided it was unpaletable, resulting in a tube of biscuits for supper instead. "You know, I think we should ask Brock to come...just so we can eat!" laughed Ash, the others agreeing before turning in for bed in their individual tents. Before Ash drifted off to sleep he found himself thinking, 'Maybe this trip won't be as bad as I thought...' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was still quite early when Misty awoke the next morning, emerging from her tent in a swimming costume and a towel. Stretching she walked to the lake, removing her towel and lowering herself into the water with a shiver. In order to warm herself up, she began swimming to the other side of the lake before swinging round towards the waterfall where a dark shape bagan to appear. Now knowing what this was, she reached for the Staryu's ball who she'd brought with her, quietly releasing it and instructed it to swim quietly up to the shape and blast whatever it was out of the water. She watched with baited breath as Staryu dissappeared under the water. Silently, she watched the shape, running through her head what it could be... WOOSH! The shape was blasted into the air as Staryu used it's water gun from beneath. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" "Ash?" she questioned, looking over at the tents to see nothing...turning to where the shape had landed, she saw that it was... "Misty!!! What are you doing!" "I'm so sorry Ash! I didn't know what it was in the waterfall!" she apologised, swimming as fast as she could to the unhappy boy. "What were you doing there anyway?" "I was practising meditating. I wanted to check out how strong the waterfall was before risking my pokemon." Snorting Misty replied, "You? Meditating? Ha Ha, that's a laugh! Come on, what were you REALLY doing? and another thing...What are you doing up at this time? Usually I have to get Pikachu to shock you at least twice before you even stir!" "Meditating is great for concentration. My pokemon and I practised it when on the beach at Dewford Town before my re-match for the knuckle badge. And it seems that after all those years of you waking me up early with Pikachu, I get up earlier anyway!" He smiled before swimming back over to the waterfall and releasing Grovyle, Cawphish and Swellow to join him and Pikachu under the waterfall and motioning to Misty to join him. Taking a seat on a rock next to Ash, she closed her eyes and concentrated on remaining upright under the force of the water cascading onto her sholders. It didn't take long for her to have to leave the waterfall, unused to such an extreme. Seeing that Ash and his pokemon had remained under the water, she decided to go back to camp to change and begin making some breakfast. It only took a few minutes to warm up some pancakes. Sending Staryu to fetch Ash, she released her other pokemon to have a play in the water, leaving Politoed in charge of Azurill. "Errr Psyduck, maybe you should just stay on shore!" she said, handing a pancake to the pokemon in the hopes of keeping out of trouble. "Still can't swim?" said Ash as he and his pokemon pulled themselves out of the water before stretching along with his pokemon, relieving their cramped muscles. "Yeah, I've been trying, to teach it, but with no luck." Turning from Psyduck, she saw Ash reaching for his towel to dry off and had to hide her face as a blush began to appear as her eyes caught sight of a body that was definatly more toned than she remembered. "Um...there are some pancakes over there." guesturing to the plate before dissappearing into her tent to pack her bags, only emerging once Ash was dressed. Before beginning to take down her tent, she saw Pikachu, sitting on Gyarados's head, licking katchup from his paws, watching her with a creepy little smile on his face. "What?" she asked. "Piiiiiiiiiiika!" he replied, hopping in the lake to wash off. "There is something up with Pikachu..." she voiced aloud, returning her pokemon, causing Pikachu to fall from Gyaragos's head as the pokemon dissappeared. Earning Misty an angry, wet Pikachu glare. "You're telling me...come on, if we get going now and make good time, we can be at Pewter City before tomorrow evening. Then we can at least get Brock to make us some dinner!" Sholdering her bag and checking their camp once more for any stray items, Misty picked up Azurill and headed down the path back to the road behind Ash. "Yeah, but that still means camping in Viridian Forest tonight!" she shuddered at the thought of all the bug pokemon residing in those woods. "Aww come on Misty, not still scared of the bugs are we?" teased Ash, earning a bonk on the head from the trusty mallet of Misty. They arrived in Viridian City shortly before lunch, deciding to stock up on more, easy to prepare foods and then entered the forest. "AYEEEEEEEEEEE!" sqeeled Misty as a Parras scuttled over her foot. "I HATE THIS PLACE!" "Come on Misty, they're not going to hurt you...but they will! RUN!" Over Misty's sholder, Ash had spotted the swarm of Beedrill that resided in the forest. Grabbing Misty by the arm he dragged her along behind him, running blindly through the forrest. "Quick in here!" a small wood cabin hove into view. The group ran straight in, barricading the door behind them. "Hey, weren't you ever taught it's rude to just barge into someone's home?!?" Turning, they discovered the owner of the voice to be a stocky boy, roughly the same age as Ash wearing a strange helmet, a red, blue and black horizontally striped plate of armour covered his torso while a blue skirt of plates, with yellow binding at the bottom and a pair of sandals completed the outfit. Drawing his sword, he advanced. "I'll teach you to barge into someone's home!" As he moved in to the light, Ash was able to reconise the cabin owner. "Samurai?" The boy froze where he was. "How do you know my name?" "It's me Ash, we battled a few years ago when I had just started training." "You're going to have to be more specific then that. I have battled many trainers in my time." He brought his sword in front of his face, holding it vertical along the line of his nose, closing his eyes. "Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." The boy snapped his eyes open at the mention of Pallet Town. "I battled with my Pigeotto and Metapod against your Pinsir and Metapod..." he stopped when laughter came from behind him. Turning Misty struggled to control her laughter explaining, "I'm sorry...ha ha ha...it's just you were so pathetic when you started!!" and with that she collapsed in a heap next to Pikachu who was in a similar state. Returning his attention to the Samurai, he found he was similarly incapacitated with laughter. "I.. I remember you now! That was the easiest victory I ever had! ha ha ha..." Realising there was nothing he could do, Ash slumped down in a corner, glaring at the trio. Azurill, not understanding why everyone was laughing, bounced on her tail to Ash and into his lap, immediately having the desired effect of cheering Ash up. Content to play with Azurill, he ignored the others. An idea came to him and whispered in Azurill what to do. Azurill turned to Misty, Pikachu and the Samurai before taking a deep breath and shooting a water gun at the trio. This time it was Ash who couldn't stop laughing as they sat up, soaking wet to glare at the hysterical Ash and Azurill. "Alright, alright, you've made you're point!" said Samurai. "Now, are you here for that re-match?" Controlling his mirth when hearing of a battle, Ash stood up to accept his challenge and asking Misty to be the referree, deciding on a one on one battle. "Alright, let's see if you've got any stronger, Venonat, GO!" "Veno venonat!" said the pokemon as it appeared. "Go, Swellow!" "Swe-e-low!" The bird pokemon shriked, stretching his wings. "What, what is that?!?!" cried Samurai, having never travelled to Hoenn before. "Swellow, the swallow pokemon." said Ash's pokedex as he brought it out to scan Swellow for the Samurai. "A Swellow dives upon prey from far above. It never misses it's targets. It takes to the skies in search of lands with a warm climate." "Swellow, Arial Ace!" and the battle commenced. "Double Team!" illusions of Venonat appeared, causing Swellow's attack to miss. "Stun Spore!" "Dodge it!" flapping his wings, Swellow evaded the spores before using Double Team himself. "Now dive down through all the clones!" With no where left to run once all the clones of Venonat had gone, Swellow scored a direct hit, sending the bug flying through the air and finishing it off with a peck attack. "Great battle Venonat, now return." he smiled fondly at his pokemon. "Thank you for an amazing battle. You've become much stronger. Exactly what have you accomplished since out paths last crossed?" For the next hour, Ash told the Samurai about his adventures in Kanto, Johto and Hoenn until Misty noticed the time, urging them to move forwards. After saying goodbye to the Samurai, and promising to meet again for another battle, Ash, Misty, Pikachu and Azurill continued down the road to Pewter City.