Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon. If I did…ah…that would be nice… However (back to reality now!), I do own Kalty, Bitira, Diniel, Flamefur, Azu, Twister, and Diniel’s oddish.

Author’s note: Again, this is my first pokémon fanfic. In fact, it’s my first true fanfic at all! I love writing about Kalty and I hope you like reading about her. If you’re curious as to whether or not she’s a witch or something, you’ll find out later. Diniel is a main character in case you don’t figure it out. Please make sure you R + R!

__________________Chapter 2____________________

The day was going quite well for Diniel. He had caught a new pokémon and won all of the matches that he was in today. As he skipped along the dirt path he whistled a song that was now very popular. Although the sun was shining brightly, there was a slight chill to the air that clearly said that winter was coming. The winds ruffled Diniel’s hair and made the pokéballs on his belt rattle softly. Diniel shouted out cheerfully, letting some of his blond hair drizzle over his forehead. He opened and closed his eyes, letting his pale emerald eyes flash in the sunlight. He began to move his head from side to side while singing the song noisily.

Diniel then left the small, worn-down path that was usually traveled by pokémon trainers like himself and went off into the forest that loomed off to his side. He stopped when he reached the edge of the trees and brought out an inactivated pokéball. The boy tapped the button that was in the center of the ball and then held out his arm to let his pokémon out.

“Come on out, Flamefur.” He said loudly, seeming not to care that someone might hear him. A tiny beam of red light shot out of the pokéball, slowly shaping out a small animal that resembled a ferret. In the world of pokémon, it was known as a furret. When its form was completely visible, the furret shook its head, jumped onto Diniel’s head and tugged on the boy’s hair, and said, “Furret!”

“Silly boy, I brought you out to help, not pull my hair!” Diniel said frantically as Flamefur curled around the boy’s neck, wrapping his tail carefully around the shoulders that he sat on. He still yanked Diniel’s hair playfully, and he squeaked every time he did. Diniel finally grabbed the furret off of his shoulders and held the pokémon out in front of him where he could look into his eyes.

“Stop it,” he commanded, staring into Flamefur’s eyes. “I’m serious. There have been recent reports about people seeing a mysterious thing believed to be a pokémon in this very forest, and I’m going to need your help. I need you to keep your eye out for danger while I explore a bit.” The furret nodded in acknowledgement and gave Diniel a wink.

“Fuur-ret.” The furret began to nod his head vigorously, only with a little more enthusiasm then one would expect. Diniel cuffed his furret with the back of his hand lightly and laughed.

Diniel began walking straight into the shady area under the trees, meanwhile letting Flamefur crawl up his arm and curl around his neck once more, this being the pokémon’s favorite place to be. Diniel let the warmth from the fur touching him soak into his body. He tightened the jacket that he wore so that the strong breeze that was blowing would not chill him.

As he walked further into the forest, the feeling that someone was watching him grew. Flamefur bristled and he started to hiss every time they got near the shadows created by the trees. Finally, when Diniel felt he could take it now more, he shouted out into the open, “What do you want?” but his request was only rewarded by silence.

Flamefur jumped off of Diniel’s shoulder and gave out a piercing shriek. Still no answers came to reply to the furret’s challenge. Flamefur shrieked again and Diniel almost shrieked himself from the pain of hearing such a high-pitched noise.

Diniel looked into a bush off to his right, thinking he had seen movement in that direction out of the corner of his eye. Slowly, a vulpix walked out, holding its head high and taking careful steps toward Diniel and his pokémon. Diniel grinned and said to Flamefur, “I’m going to catch it! You just watch me!” He pulled out a pokéball from the small pack that he carried with him and took off one of the ones on his belt.

“Go, Azu!” Diniel cried, releasing an Azumarill, a water pokémon, “Bubblebeam that vulpix, and be quick!” Azu obeyed immediately and shot a multitude of bubbles at the vulpix at a astonishing speed. The vulpix seemed not to notice, but at the last second jumped out of the way.

Diniel was getting frustrated that his Azumarill was not hitting his target. He realized that he needed to trick this pokémon if he were to catch it. And besides, he thought to himself, I could definitely use a pokémon that strong. Azu was still aiming bubbles at the vulpix but the round packages of water never reached the vulpix before it scampered away again.

“Confuse it, Azu!” Diniel yelled at the passing blue mouse-like pokémon. Azu use its double team attack, making all of the images shoot bubbles at vulpix. The real Azu came up from behind the confused vulpix and blasted a water gun attack right down its back. The vulpix screamed in fury and turned around to hurl an attack at the Azumarill. Azu launched another painful water gun attack at the vulpix’s face, causing the fire pokémon to stumble and fall onto the ground. Diniel quickly threw the empty pokéball at the vulpix, but before the ball even got near the fallen creature, a rock that seemingly came out of nowhere hit it and send it flying back towards Diniel. The ball rolled on the ground in front of the boy’s feet.

Diniel looked around to see who had thrown the stone and what he saw almost made him cry. There, a few feet away from him, crouched a girl. She was sitting like a cat waiting to run off at a moment’s notice. Her black hair was tangled, torn, and a complete mess. In her hair were leaves, thorns, twigs and dirt. Her clothes were totally filthy, and her body was thin, as if she hadn’t eaten in days. Her amber eyes widened in fear when she looked at Diniel. She stared at him for a moment, and then ran away.

“Wait, come back!” Diniel exclaimed in desperation. He looked back at Azu and the vulpix, and saw that Azu was trying very hard to keep the vulpix from running away. “Azu, return.” he recalled his pokémon and watched the vulpix hurry after the girl. He picked up his empty pokéball and put it back inside his pack. Diniel called Flamefur to him and once having his furret on his shoulders, followed the girl.

He ran hard but knew he was losing ground fast. If he didn’t hurry, he would lose sight of her. He pulled a pokéball from his belt and threw it far ahead of him so when it released the pokémon inside of it, he would be right next to it.

The pokéball opened and two huge wings flapped in the sunlight. A very large bird appeared and cawed anxiously when seeing Diniel running towards it. It was Diniel’s pidgeot, Twister. Twister spread her wings and lowered her back, making it easier for Diniel to leap upon her back. Once having Diniel climb onto her feathered body, Twister flapped her wings and took to the air. It was then that the boy gave Twister instructions.

“Now, Twister, I want you to fly just above the trees so that I can search,” he said, more asking her if she could do so instead of just demanding her to do what he wanted, “I’m trying to follow a girl who has black hair and looks really exhausted. But I still need you to fly fast because she’s running.” The pidgeot complied with a chirp.

“I wonder who she is?” Diniel asked Flamefur, stroking the furret’s tail thoughtfully, “I mean, there haven’t been any news reports on a missing person for…I don’t even know how long.” Flamefur nodded, begging Diniel to continue. “I wonder why she’s running away from me? And she is terribly skinny. She doesn’t look healthy, Flamefur.” Flamefur growled softly, nipping Diniel’s ears reassuringly and Twister trilled a few notes. Diniel held on to Twister’s feathers and searched the ground below him while thinking deeply. He just had to bring her back to the Pokémon Center, but how? She obviously didn’t want to come near him. Diniel puzzled over this while still looking through the trees. Twister let out a triumphant, yet quiet, squawk when all three of them saw the girl and vulpix running beneath them.

Twister dropped slowly and silently, flying lower to the ground so that her passengers would get even closer to their quarry. Diniel wanted to shout with joy when he realized that luck was with him today. The girl and vulpix were unknowingly headed straight for a dead end, and Diniel knew that if he could corner them there, he could manage to bring her to the nearest Pokémon Center. Twister dropped to the ground to let Diniel and Flamefur off.

The girl and the vulpix turned around when they reached the dead end, and when they saw the pidgeot, furret, and boy coming straight towards them, one became furious and the other became terribly frightened. The girl covered her mouth with her hands and began backing away toward the large rock wall the was keeping her from escaping, Diniel and his pokémon blocking the only exit. He jumped off of Twister and began walking slowly towards the two.

Diniel could see that he was scaring her, so he said softly, “I’m not going to hurt you, I promise. Please come with me to the Pokémon Center,” He tried to be less threatening by extending his arms out towards her, trying to show her he had nothing to hurt her with, but when she looked at Flamefur and Twister fearfully, he knew that he wouldn’t get her to come with him without a struggle. “I want to help you.”

He sighed and gave the girl one last look before setting Flamefur on the ground. He gazed at her sadly and finally said after a long silence, “Will your vulpix attack if I try coming near you?” The vulpix snarled to this question and the girl squeaked, “Yes.”

The boy sighed again as he ordered Twister to battle. “Twister, fight that vulpix, but only giving me just the right amount of time to get the girl. Distract it.” He said all of this quietly so the ones who were trapped couldn’t hear. Twister chirped softly, showing him that she felt his guilt. With a flap she landed next to the vulpix. The challenged pokémon trotted over to met Twister with a low, rumbling growl.

“Bit, no!” the girl screamed without thinking. The vulpix flicked her eyes in the girl’s direction but made no move to listen to her. Diniel bit his lip and ordered Twister to attack.

“Twister, whirlwind! Pin it against the wall!” Twister began rapidly beating her wings against the air, until she did it so fast a huge twirling funnel of wind was created. With one final flap she hurled it at the vulpix who in turn heaved a ball of flame at the pidgeot. Twister sped up into the sky, dodging the flame easily. However, the fight with Azu had already taken a toll on the vulpix and it was unable to evade the whirlwind that was five times its size. It dug claws into the ground but it couldn’t hold on for long. A second later the vulpix was thrown heavily onto the rock wall. It gave out a moan as the girl screamed again and began crying. Before Diniel could give out more instruction to Twister, the girl pulled the pokéball off of the necklace that was around her neck, activated it, and recalled the vulpix. Once having no one to protect her, she cowered against the wall and stared at Diniel with complete fright.

Diniel was still frowning at what he had to do, but he knew what had to be done. He looked at the girl sorrowfully, seeing the whites of her eyes clearly. Her chest was heaving up and down as she breathed in distress. Her hair was sticking to her skin because of all the sweat that poured down the sides of her head. Diniel couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.

She began screaming uncontrollably. Diniel hung his head as he picked a pokéball off of his belt. “Come on out.” he said grievously as an oddish appeared. It yawned slowly and waited for Diniel to say something. “Sleep powder,” he said dolefully. The oddish walked up to the girl but did nothing when she began to shriek, “Please don’t! I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything, please! Leave me be!” Diniel’s oddish stopped and looked at Diniel expectantly. Diniel did not look up. “Sleep powder,” he said again.

The oddish obeyed, spraying pink particles over the girl’s head. She sobbed even more loudly and looked around for another escape but there was none, and she knew it. Twister went to one side of her to block the right escape route and Flamefur barred the other one. Within minutes the girl’s eyes began to droop. Diniel did not watch as her body fell to the ground. She was knocked out.

Diniel went over to her and poked her cheek just to make sure. He called Twister to him and sighed. Twister lowered her body as low as she could so he could heave the body onto her back. Both humans groaned simultaneously. Flamefur leapt onto Diniel’s shoulders as the boy returned the oddish. Diniel climbed onto his pidgeot’s back as he heard a slight tinkling that came from a key chain on the girl’s pack. As Twister took to the air, Diniel read from the name spelled out in bright purple letters aloud. “Kalty.”

To Be Continued…

What’s going to happen to Kalty? Why does Diniel think that he can just take her away like that?

Please R + R! ~Fablex