Author's Note: Yay! I'm back from writer's block! Sorry for the writer's block, but more is here! Enjoy!

Chapter 3: Morning Sun

"Hey! Wait up you guys!" I called out to Abby as she and Hikaru ran ahead of me.

I couldn't have been that slow of a Pokemon. I'm an Umbreon for crying out loud. They're supposed to have better speed than a Bayleef that's for sure. Maybe I was just out of shape or something. I followed them through the woods as we made our way to the Orre Forest. I couldn't believe it. I was going to be there, in Orre Forest, any time now. All I had to do was worry about losing my patience. Unfortunately, there were many Pokemon that kept on getting in our way because we were apparently going through their territories, but they were just going to have to deal with it.

Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore. I ran at full speed past Abby and Hikaru hoping that it wasn't that much farther till we reached the forest. Just as I was reaching the exit of Orre Woods, I felt something grab wrap around and grab onto my legs. I tripped and fell straight onto my stomach. Abby and Hikaru laughed behind me. I got up and shook the dirt off of me. So, they think that's funny, huh? I'll get them back someday. I looked down and saw Abby's vines at my feet. She must've wanted me to slow down or she just wanted to tease me about my impatient nature.

"What gives?" I asked.

"First of all, slow down. And second of all, we thought it'd be nice to have an introductory chat while we continue our way." Abby answered as she caught up to me.

"Besides, we have plenty of time. Enjoy the breeze." Hikaru sighed.

"I can enjoy it in the forest."

"Well, for starters, we'd also like point out that just because it's paradise at Orre Forest doesn't mean it's the safest place."

"What do you mean?" I sat down getting interested now.

"For example," Abby started. "The Pokemon residents of Orre Forest are very territorial. Meaning that if you wander onto someone else's territory, prepare to either get into a very big cat fight, a loud argument, or get chased away."

"But, Taka can take care of that if it becomes a big issue." Hikaru added in.

"Who's Taka?" I asked him.

"He's also known as 'Lucario the Wise'. He's very wise and helps people solve problems. If he needs guidance, he'll turn to Celebi, the voice of the forest. So, he's pretty much like one of those guys who live in these huge buildings and get on their hands and knees and pray."

"A priest?" I guessed.

"Exactly." Abby nodded in reply.

"Well, then it can't be too dangerous to live there, can it?"

"I'm not saying that it's very dangerous, I'm just saying that you better be cautious."

"Right. Now, can we please go?" I asked getting up.

"Hikaru, time to go home." Abby said running ahead of me.

Hikaru and Abby went up to the exit of the woods and showed me what was outside. I gazed at the beautiful sights that I saw. There were trees, streams, caves, burrows, and I could even see a waterfall in the distance. This place was amazing. It was the kind of place that I had always seen in my dreams. My lips curved into a large smile as I dashed away from the woods through the forest. I was actually running on the bright, green grass of my dream home. My family sure was missing out on one of the greatest places I've ever seen on the planet.

I looked around at all of the Pokemon that lived here. Pachirisu and Pidgey were living in the trees. Sandshrew and Aron were living underground. Larger Pokemon such as Ninetales and Houndoom were living in larger homes like caves, plains, and burrows. One of the first things I was hoping to do was get to know a bunch of other Pokemon and make some friends with the residents here, but then I realized that if I didn't find a home sooner or later then the next Pokemon walking in could take it before me.

I decided to try starting off near the woods and then working my way in. So far, it wasn't going well at all. When Abby and Hikaru said that Pokemon were territorial, they weren't kidding at all. I nearly got killed just for asking a Manectric if she knew where the nearest vacant cave was. Apparently, she thought I was going after her little Electrike babies. Then, I got chased away by a mother Donphan and then a Gyarados tried to swallow me whole when I approached the lake he lived in. Well, actually I should've known about the Gyarados having a tantrum issue.

I sighed as I sat in the middle of the plains. Well, now that I'm here, I have no place to live in. This may be my dream home, but I'd at least like a place to sleep in, but everything seems to be occupied. Looks like I was going to have to sleep in the middle of everything. It was going to be awkward since I wouldn't have a cave to cover my head during the rain and snowfall. My stomach started growling. That also reminded me that I would have no place to store food for the winter considering that's when food is very scarce. Just as I was about to give up, I heard a voice.

"Hey you!" A voice called from above me. "You look like you're in trouble!" I looked up and saw a Swellow soaring above me. He swooped down right past me and landed on a rock that I was sitting near. "You okay, bud?"

"Yeah, kinda."

"What's up with that look on your face?" He asked.

"Well, I came a long way here hoping that I would live here in peace, but as it turns out, I don't have a home. I can't even find a home to live in."

"A home? No problem! Come with me!" The Swellow started rising into the sky again. "By the way, what do they call you?"

"I'm Lune."

"Name's Avis. Come on, I'll find you a home."

"Really? You will?"

I laughed as I followed Avis as he flew all the way through the plains. It appeared that the home that he was talking about was going to be up on a huge hill, which would actually be nice since I wouldn't have to worry about hearing a whole bunch of noises in the evenings and early mornings while I'm sleeping there. After walking up the large hill I gasped at what I saw. It was indeed a beautiful cave. I walked in and checked it out. It wasn't as dark as I had expected caves to be.

"What do you think?" Avis asked walking in.

"It's beautiful. Thank you so much."

"My pleasure." He then gasped while looking at me. "You have a really bad mark on your forehead."

"Oh, this?" I realized he was talking about my scratch. "It's nothing, really."

"It looks deep and fresh. You should have Nurse Joy take a look at it." With that, Avis flew off. A few minutes later, he came back with a Chansey that had a little white cap on her head with a red cross on the front of it. "Here's the patient, Nurse Joy."

"Alright Lune, let me take a look at that." Joy said as she eyed my scratch carefully. "It's nothing serious, but it will leave a scar."

"Okay, thanks." I thanked her before she put a little medicine on it.

"This is from Hayden's tree. She and her group of Heracross are really good at making medicine. They suck up the sap from the tree and then mix it with different vitamins and minerals from herbs and plants. This medicine will make sure that your scar doesn't get infected. The Bug-type Pokemon tend to carry viruses that make other Pokemon sick and can cause infections to any cuts or sores. Oh, and if it stings or starts throbbing, go soak your head in the river. Other than that, you should be all set. If you need me, I'll be at the stone temple across the river."

"I will. And I'll be sure to look for you if me or any of my friends are hurt." With that, Joy left my new home leaving Avis and I alone. He perched on top of a rock inside of the cave.

"Well, I'm not telling you to do this today, but tomorrow, you should start looking."

"For what?" I asked.

"Duh! It's Spring! That means it's mating season for the Pokemon of Orre Forest. If you don't want to be alone, then you'd better start searching for your soul mate before all of the good ones are taken." Avis informed me. That's right, mating season was in Spring.

"Well, I don't know right now." I said walking out of my cave to get some fresh air. "I actually don't want to find a mate just because it's mating season. I want the perfect mate. She'll come along someday. When the time is right, I'll find her."

"Good luck with that." Avis said before flying off.

I was pretty tired from the long journey from my original home to the forest. Plus, it was getting late. The sky was darkening and the stars were starting to come out. I yawned showing my exhaustion. That's when I decided that maybe I should get some sleep. Besides, I have kind of a big day tomorrow. I was going to have to go around the place and get used to my surroundings. Plus, I think I might take Avis' advice somehow. I don't want to necessarily search for a soul mate, but if I see a female nearby, I'll see how the chemistry is and if it doesn't work, well, then it doesn't work out. Thinking about the day I had tomorrow, I went into my cave and fell asleep.

Morning already? I thought to myself. I had slept so much last night, that I didn't even want to get up that morning. The only thing that did get me up was that my stomach was growling. Looks like it was time for me to fetch my breakfast. Unfortunately, I didn't know any good spots to hunt, so I figured that I would go see Hikaru and Abby and see what they suggest. While struggling, I stood up on all fours and stretched myself out. I was pretty dusty from sleeping on hard ground all night, so I shook myself out before walking out of the cave to greet the morning.

I had realized while walking down the hill that my cave was located on, that I didn't know where Abby and Hikaru lived, so it looked like I was going to have to find this out for myself. I figured that this would be a good time to ask any female Eevee evolutions where the best hunting spots are. That'd give me a chance to see if she's the right one for me or not. Right now, I couldn't see that many, but that's just probably because of my location. Boy, this was going to take a while just to find myself something to eat.

Ever since I left the cave, a half an hour passed by and no luck. I probably saw only two female Eevee evolutions and they were both taken already. On the other hand, I did find some good looking prey, but I wasn't able to catch them because either they'd escape or someone else would catch them first. I decided to take a break from all of this hunting. There was a lake nearby me, so I planted myself on the ground and started to drink the icy cold water.

Strangely, I thought I noticed something while I was drinking. It didn't seem like a something, actually. It was more of a someone. I thought I saw the reflection of a Pokemon. Not just any Pokemon, but a female Eevee evolution. The ripples I made with my drinking made it hard to see who she was. She seemed in a hurry though, because she just suddenly ran off somewhere else when I stopped drinking to get a better look at her reflection. I looked up from the water to see if I could get a better look of her, but no one was there by the time I made contact. I just shrugged it off before I walked off.

"Hey Lune!" Hikaru called from up ahead.

"Hikaru!" I ran up to him. "It's a good thing you're here. I need a good place to hunt, but I don't know the place very well, so you think you could help me?"

"Dream on, desperado."

"What?"

"Kidding! Of course I will. But here's a tip, stay out of the meadow. There isn't much to hunt there since that's where humans like to catch Pokemon. So, focus here. Did you try open fields?" Hikaru asked as we started walking through the place.

"Not really."

"Try there. It's pretty open, so there aren't many places for Pokemon to hide there, really. Or, an even easier way would be to catch fish from the lakes and rivers. Even if a lot of the Pokemon here eat fish, there are loads of fish. Heck, they reproduce like every day. So, just stick with those areas out there."

I was able to hear what Hikaru was saying, it's just a matter of whether I was paying attention or not. The truth was, I wasn't paying any attention. I saw the same girl that I saw in the lake's reflection. She was running really quickly. I wondered why. She looked like it was something very urgent and important. I still couldn't exactly tell what Pokemon she was, but she was a very bright purple color. So, she must've been an Espeon. I've never seen that many Espeon in my lifetime. The only ones I've seen were my grandmother and my cousin, he was a shiny Espeon. To be quite honest, I thought she looked quite attractive.

"Lune!" Hikaru yelled in my ear.

"Huh?"

"Were you listening?"

"Yeah."

"Well, there you go! There's nothing much to it now. Just find your food now."

Hikaru took off afterwards leaving me to hunt alone. I sighed as I put my nose to work to try and sniff out some prey. It wasn't working out very well. I wasn't getting anything. The only thing I could sniff was the morning dew from the grass. However, something triggered my senses like crazy. It was a sweet scent. It wasn't anything I've ever sniffed before. I wanted to follow it, so I followed my instincts. I took off following the scent. It led me through some woods and would probably take me out to the meadow where there wasn't any prey, but I didn't think that I was going to end up catching anything by following this scent.

When I finished sprinting through the woods, I came across a valley. The valley was huge. Especially the cliffs. They must've been at least 100 feet tall. I walked around gazing at the amazing sights. My attention was focused when I noticed something. It was the same girl that I had been seeing all morning long. The one whose reflection was in the lake, and who I saw running through the fields not too long ago. She was an Espeon without a doubt. She was standing at the edge of a cliff. I gasped at how close she was to falling. What was she thinking? She could get hurt. I had to do something. I jogged over to where she was and spoke up before anything else could happen.

"Hey! Stand back a few steps!" I called out to her. She turned her head to me slightly until I could see the corner of her eyes.

"Why should I?" The girl snapped back. Damn, she certainly had an attitude.

"Because, you'll get hurt." I walked closer to her.

"Just go away and leave me alone!" She yelled angrily.

"Look, I could be wrong, but it looks like you're going to jump off this cliff and I'm not going to back off and let you do that."

"Then I'll make you move!" The red gem on her forehead began to glow. It looked like she was getting a Psybeam attack ready.

"Well, that'd be wasting your energy since Psychic attacks are useless against my type."

"Then just buzz off and let me be!"

"I'm telling you, if you jump off that cliff, the we're both gonna go down."

"What do you mean?" She asked questioningly.

"If you jump off, then I'll have to jump in order to save you." I answered. She was silent.

"Just turn around and walk back. You'll feel much better."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Just trust me." I said softly.

The girl, who was facing away from me moved her paws back a bit. She stood up and turned her attention in my direction. When she turned around to walk towards me, her back paw suddenly slipped off the edge of the cliff and she went falling. I gasped as I saw her dangling from the cliff holding on for her life. She panicked as I trotted over to where she was hanging from. I told her to calm down, but it wasn't working. I leaned myself over the cliff to grab her, but as I did, her paws slipped and started to fall freely. Luckily, I was able to grab her by the back of her neck. It was hard to hang onto her since she was about my size, but I was able to pull it off. I pulled her up and over until she was on flat land again.

She was lying down on the ground panting with fear. I was sitting right above her panting myself at the thought of her actually falling all the way down to the bottom. She looked up and I looked down. We made eye contact for the first time. There she was, the most beautiful creature I had ever seen, right at my feet looking into my eyes with her eyes that were shiny like diamonds. I could've sworn that I started blushing because I could see that she was blushing too. We stared at each other for a minute. The girl then stood up and started backing away from me.

"I'm sorry. I have to go." She took off running back into the woods. I didn't bother to follow her since I felt that she had a rough enough time with the cliff incident.

"Hey, Lune!" I looked up to the sky and saw Avis flying down towards me. "How has your morning been?"

"Awkward." I answered sitting down.

"Find any good places to hunt, yet?"

"Not quite." I sighed. "Avis, how much of the forest's population do you know?"

"Quite a good chunk of it. My family and I have been living in this forest for three generations and other Pokemon know me really well because of it."

"Well, listen. Do you know who that Espeon is?" I pointed my head in the direction she ran.

"The one that just took off running?" Avis asked. I nodded. "Her name is Solana. She isn't seen with others that often. The only Pokemon she has for a friend is an Illumise named Lucy."

"Why?"

"She's had a rough life. Her childhood was rough and so is her current young adulthood. Poor creature. She's got such a great personality and would seem like the type that would love to be with everybody."

"I guess she's just insecure. I was insecure when I was a child because of how badly my old man treated me. She's afraid of getting hurt."

"Probably." Avis agreed. "Why are you asking about her?"

"Well…I…uh…" I struggled to say what I needed to say.

"I see. You must be in love with her?"

"I wouldn't call it love. I haven't really met her. I'm just interested in her."

"Well, it's great that you're interested…" Avis began as he flew on top of a rock in front of me. "…but whatever you do, don't fall in love with her."

"Why not?"

"It's not my place to say. But, if you are interested in getting to know her, then you have to show her that you're not a bad guy."

"Sounds great, but how do I do that? For some reason, Solana was trying to jump off of a cliff and I saved her life. Isn't that good enough." I asked.

"Anybody can save a life, but betray that same life later. If you need help, go ask for advice from Taka."

"You mean, 'Lucario the Wise'? That Taka?"

"Yep." Avis flew through the woods and I chased after him hoping that he was going to show me where Taka lived. My Swellow friend perched on a stump just right outside the woods and pointed his beak towards a stone temple. "That's where he lives."

"I thought that's where Nurse Joy lived?"

"It is. They both live there. Joy lives in the bottom temple and Taka lives in the upper temple. He feels that living on the upper temple will give him a stronger connection with Celebi if he needs guidance. Plus, Joy is closer to the medicines if she needs to give some to another Pokemon."

"Okay, I'll go see him right now." I thanked Avis.

"I wouldn't waste your time." I stopped in my tracks giving him a questioning look. "He's not usually there during the day. Taka is usually out and about during daylight hours. He does counseling and goes around blessing the other Pokemon. However, he's always in the temple during twilight and nighttime hours. He stays there in case a Pokemon comes to the temple late at night requesting prayer. You should go see him tonight. He always welcomes visitors."

"Okay, I will, and thanks a lot." I thanked him again.

"Good luck, kid." Avis wished me luck before flying off again.

I returned to my home realizing that I still hadn't had breakfast yet. So, I went back to my hunting while I waited for the sun to go down for my visit with Taka.

Author's Note: Again, sorry for the writer's block! I hope you enjoyed this and please leave a review! I enjoy hearing feedback!