I stepped back and admired the beautiful landscape around me. The air seemed to be light and cleared than normal.

It had now been three months since I left my family to explore the world. I've overcame my fair deal of hardship and trials like obnoxious trainers, Team Rocket and Fyre.

Fyre was one of my best friends - at first.

Let's just say he's a "player".

And once I found out - I may or may not have shared every secret he has on every social media network possible.

So I kinda ran away from the city I lived in and hid in the mountains like a little coward.

Hehe I'm so smart. /s

Anyway's, life seems like it's turning up right now. I've made a new, solitary life away from everyone.

I've not trusted anyone since Fyre. I just don't think that you can trust anyone. Friends will betray you, trainers will try to catch you and if you're in my family, dealing with around 40 kids doesn't leave much time for me.

Oh well.

At least the sky looks really nice, all light blue with hints of pink around the edges. Beautiful.

The mountain rock, the cool air and the swift winds all relax me. I'm pretty chill right now. Sometimes I get lonely af but otherwise I'm good.

Today I decide to take a long walk along the jagged edges of the mountains. It's close to the city and makes me feel really happy. I really like seeing all the icicles and snow everywhere. It makes me feel at home.

I bound from rock to rock until I reach the summit of the mountain. I can see everything from up here. The wind feels like it's starting to pick up, so I decide to go back down to my cave.

By the time I'm down the mountain, it's full-on snowing. The wind is blowing my ears backwards and I'm actually kind of cold.

I run back to my cave, sheltered away from the harsh storms of life and the wilderness. (Deep.) if I had WiFi and wasn't hiding from everyone I would take a picture of the storm and write that as the caption.

I look outside, staring into the now dark sky. Snow is flying around everywhere. I would normally light some firewood for warmth but I feel like going to sleep right now.

Oh well. Today was a good day, I guess.

I curl up in my straw bed and close my eyes.

I can't fall asleep, though. I think about Fyre, and how I shouldn't have been so mean to him (even if he was cheating on me). I think about my family and wonder if they miss me. I think about every trainer who tried to catch me and think about how stupid they are. I think about my Snapchat and think about what new filters there might be. Since I've been gone for three months, that means I've missed like twelve Throwback Thursdays.

I hear a small crunching noise from outside. I've heard this sound too much to not recognize it. Someone's outside. And that someone's probably a human with hiking boots on. And I'm cornered in this cave. I quickly start thinking of escape plans to avoid being caught.


 But this trainer doesn't look like he's in any shape to catch any Pokémon. I hear him chattering his teeth and breathing hard.

"H-he-help... Can anyone hear m-me?" he calls quietly and desperately.

I debate helping him. It might be a trick. In fact, I know it's a trick. No hiker or trainer would be so dumb to be in a blizzard without a tent.

He calls again. "Help..."

Suddenly, I'm filled with regret, hope and sorrow. I realize that I'm really sorry for everything I did. I regret running out on Fyre like that and being a jerk. I regret running out on my family without a goodbye. And I regret missing all of those Throwback Thursdays.

I get up and sigh. I pad out of my cave and into the storm.

"Where are you?" I call. "Do you have a signal flare?"

"I'm over here..." he yells. "Can you hear me?"

I race over. The trainer's huddled in a corner near a rock.

"Alright, follow me. I have a warm shelter you can stay in for the night."

He looks up. "Wait, you're a Pokémon?"

"Just hurry up!" I race back to the shelter.

***

He collapses when he reaches the shelter. I'm guessing that's bad. I quickly light the firewood I have and boil some tea.

i drink some. Mmm... I really love tea. It just makes me feel really warm and happy inside. It's a feeling I haven't felt in a while.

I decide to go to sleep and ignore all of my thoughts. I'll face them in the morning.

***

I wake up when the sun's already high in the sky. I yawn. The snow's really piled-up but I can easily traverse it.

The trainer's slumped over on my bed. His brown, jagged bangs fell across his face, and he's drooling a little. His red hat fell of his head and onto the ground, and his white t-shirt and blue jeans are still wet from the snow. He looks like he won't be waking up for a while, so I might as well check what he has in his bag.

Three bags of Doritos, a laptop, a phone (at 12%), an empty Snickers bar, some assorted wrappers, a Band-aid and a power pack.

My phone has been out of battery for about two and a half months. I'm not sure if it still works. I pull the power pack out of the bag and start charging my phone.

When it's done, I unplug it and open it. I don't have a wireless connection, but I know a place that does.

I run over to a mountain lodge and hide behind a tree. I know the wireless password from when I snuck in and stole their food. It was on the side of their router.

I open my phone. (3534 new notifications) Great. I start by checking my Snapchat. Friends out doing things. I've gotten quite a few snaps telling me how much of a jerk I am, but some telling me that they miss me and want to come back.

I brush away a tear and check my messages. Fyre wrote 108 times since I left. Some of his messages were angry, but some of them were begging me to come back. The last message he sent to me was 3 days ago.

"I love you Glace. I was really wrong;.. I'm still waiting for you 🕒 🕓 Plz come back 😢 😢 😢 😢"

I sigh. I check some other things out, then check Fyre's Snapchat. It's been deleted.

I never knew Fyre could give up something that meant so much to him. He seriously spent years of his life getting his score up to 200k. And he just deleted it?

I wipe away a few more tears and return back to the cave. I've got a patient to deal with.

***


The trainer's awake when I get back. I make some tea for him and relax.

Some of the color returned to his face, but he still looks exhausted and tired.

I give him some of the food I have. I only have some bread, potatoes and salad (which I stole from the lodge). I think the owners of the lodge realized that I come there a lot, because they left out food on the windowsill with the window I normally go through unlocked. Or not and they're just really dumb.

The trainer smiles and after eating the meager meal I scrapped up, falls asleep again.

I've had a lot of experience with babysitting. Having 39 siblings tends to teach you about it. I wonder if my parents or siblings miss me. I guess I can check their texts, but I don't want to right now.

It's around four o' clock right now, and I'm exhausted for some reason. I decide to go to bed.

I slept deeper than ever since i left, curled up on the floor, giving into the black void in my mind and falling asleep.

***

The brown-haired trainer is already up by the time I am. It looks like most of the color returned to his face, but he still looks a little pale. He already helped himself to more of my salad. Thank Arceus for that lodge with all that food, or I might have not been able to live up here.

"Well, I see you're comfortable," I said.

"Yeah," he said through a mouthful of salad. "I am. This cave is really comfortable."

He turned more serious for a second. "But really. Thank you so much for rescuing me from the blizzard and for taking care of me. I don't think I would've survived without you."

"You're welcome," I told him. "Sorry, I borrowed your power pack and sort of used all of it up."

"That's OK," he said. "It's the least I can do for you."

We eat in silence for a little.

"My name is Zac, by the way," he says. "What's yours?"

"Glace," I respond. "We were allowed to choose our own names after we evolved and I wasn't feeling very creative that day."

Zac laughs. "I'm named after a high school crush my mom had. My dad wasn't too thrilled when he found that out."

I laugh too. "What were you doing in the mountains by the way?"


"Well, I was hiking and exploring like normal. I didn't check the weather so I really wasn't prepared. I thought I was going to sleep under the stars, but I guess the blizzard had other plans."

"Ha, nice." I said. "Do you often hike?"

"Yeah, sort of," he replied. "I normally only hike when I feel sad, lonely or distant though. This time it was because I broke up with my girlfriend, so..."

"Oh," I said. "I used to live in the city but I ended up leaving over a boyfriend."

"How did that work out?" Zac asked.

"OK, I guess," I said. "I kind of told all of his secrets to everyone via social media."

"Oh," Zac said. "Was he mad?"

"Kind of, I think..." I said. "He kind of deserved it though. Or not really. I don't know."

"My girlfriend broke up with me for someone better," he said. "I guess I'm not good enough."

We both sat in silence for a little while.

"Do you want to join my team?" Zac asked. "I think we'd be a really good team together."

I sat there stunned. "You want me to be captured by you?"

"I just think we'd be a good team together," he said. "And I'm not controlling you. We can work together as a partnership."

I sat there, thinking. And not just about his proposition. About everything, about all my past regrets and how broken-hearted I was when I found out Fyre was cheating on me.

I vowed that day to never trust anyone again. That people or Pokémon alike can't be trusted.

But Zac... maybe he's alright. Maybe he'll treat me well. Maybe he'll help heal my broken heart.

I take a deep breath. "Sure."

Zac looks relieved and happy. "Great."

He pulls out an empty Poké Ball. I instinctively back away and my ears point up.

"It's OK," Zac says. "When the light comes out, just relax and give in. OK?"

I nod. Zac throws the Poké Ball. The light surrounds my body and I force myself to relax my tense muscles and to breathe.

The Poké Ball surrounding me feels claustrophobic and I feel the urge to fight back and to break out.

Just give in, I hear Zac's voice saying.

Just give in.

Just give in.

I unclench my muscles, surrender myself to the light and smile.

Click. A sound I once thought of as my loss of freedom now frees me, from the past, from Fyre and everything that hurt me before.

This is a new beginning for me, and I'm ready.

Fin

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Let me know if you want more of Glace in the comment section!! Thank you so much for reading my story <3