Act Three

Auralie smiled and thanked the man again as he left. She was super hungry but she needed to gather the berries she had dropped when the elderly gentleman had startled her. As she and the rest of the pokemon went and gathered what was left of the berries she could only think of Honchkrow and Kenji, hoping the two would not fight.

As Honchkrow sat the packaged steaks beside Kenji and listened to the question she made it a point to ignore him. She did not like the new trainer and was not going to act like she did. She quickly then flew in the direction from which se came to join her fellow pokemon and her trainer.

Kenji stared at Honchcrow, pondering at it's attitude towards him.

"Hey Auralie, where'd you get these steaks? Didja kill 'em yourself?" said Kenji, Jokingly, as Auralie came back to join him.

Auralie grinned and thought back to the man in the woods and shook her head at Kenji. "No some nice elderly man gave them to me while I was getting berries." She told him as she sat all the berries into the basket she had at the camp site. She then looked at her partner as she flew to a tree and looked at Auralie with an interested gaze.

Kenji started making dinner with the fruits and meat. "Hey, uh Auralie, your Honchcrow keeps giving me the evil eye. I think it wants to Peck my eyes out". Kenji said.

Auralie could only grin at his statement, she knew that Honchkrow and Roserade did not take to kindly to strangers. She then called Honchkrow over to her and started to stroke it's hat like feathers. "No she is only trying to look out for me. She has never taken to strangers well." She told her travel companion.

"Well alright. As long as they don't hurt me." Said Kenji, eying Honchcrow carefully.

Kenji immediately started cooking dinner. He made some kind of fruit casserole using the berries and fried steaks with custom herbs and spices he gathered. Then he finished. "Dig in." He said.

As Auralie started eating she immediately loved the flavor and consumed her portion of the meal quickly. She set out bowls of food for her pokemon as well. She had learned a recipe from her grandfather for pokefood and always kept some on her travels. All her pokemon began to dig in and much happily. "You shouldn't worry about Honchkrow too much. She is just looking out for me. But you should let your pokemon out so that they can eat." She told him as she smiled at all her pokemon. She then looked at him and grinned, "Your food was delicious as well. Thank you."

"Uhh, you're-welcome..." Kenji said nervously. He let his Pokemon out, and they started eating. "This is actually my first time cooking." said Kenji.

"You done wonderful. I am really looking forward to getting to Celadon City soon. I want to challenge Erika so bad." Auralie told him getting all excited just thinking about it. She was ready for her first gym battle. "What do you think she is like?" She asked Kenji as she watched her pokemon eat in silence.

"I'm sure she's nice." said Kenji.

Then he lay back, and looked into the stars. "Wow...what beautiful stars out tonight." he said.

Auralie looked up and gazed at the millions of tiny dots that was shining brilliantly. She sighed thinking that this was perfect sitting here with her pokemon and a friend underneath the stars and preparing for her first gym battle. "Kenji do you think that I can possibly win this battle. I mean Erika is a Gym Leader. She has tons of experience, and I am just a trainer." She asked him worrying about her upcoming battle.

"Of course you will. I know you will...I believe in you..." said Kenji.

"I mean, you're dream is to become a Master Trainer, right?" said Kenji.

"Yeah, I want to battle Cynthia eventually." Auralie said thinking of a time when she seen the champion battle. She watched the stars with interest as Honchkrow settled in beside her. She was very excited about tomorrow and could not wait till then

"You know, it's times like this...I wonder where Lure is now..." said Kenji. He had what looked like a sad/worried look on his face.

Auralie knew how he felt. She wondered where her parents are. She began to think about what they were doing sometimes, or even if they were still alive. "Yeah I know how you feel." She told him still looking at the stars. Honchkrow let out a caw and she wondered what had her upset.

"Auralie...do you have any family? Anyone to, you know, care for you, and think about you? Do you have anyone at all?" said Kenji, with interest.

Auralie only smiled sadly and shook her head, "No I lost all my family." She could not even remember her parents. She began to think back to her earliest memory, it was of the brutal attack from the bike gang that had come through town one night.

"Well...my parents died years ago. But I was raised by a man named Lure Dalton. He was a Pokemon Ranger. He taught me everything about life. About Pokemon. He taught me the recipe for our dinner..." he patted his sword. "He gave me this sword. We spent years living in a treehouse. He inspired me to become a Pokemon trainer..." he said.

"But he never told me much about my real parents. I only one thing though...I have a sister...but I've never met her. I've got know idea where she is though." he said, with the worried look again.

Auralie then felt compelled to tell him some about her past. "The earliest I can remember is a night that I got attacked. I was out playing with Honchkrow, then a Murkrow, and I ran into some people that were new to the town. I had never seen them before and Murkrow was really interested so we decided to go and get a little closer. We apparently got too close. They seen us and they were not happy," she sighed as she told the story," They beat me and Murkrow. My memory is so bad now that I can't remember anything before that." Honchkrow cawed as if remembering the event. This caused Auralie to shudder.

Kenji looked interested. "Wait...who...what happened-...don't stop there, please tell me more!" he said, getting up looking shocked.

Auralie nodded and continued, "No one knows who they were or why they were in town. I was found in the street knocked unconscious. I stayed in the hospital foe two weeks. After that they never found the people who attacked me. " She cuddled with Honchkrow feeling upset over the memory.

"That's terrible...just...terrible..." said Kenji. He went over to her, an sat very close to her. "I'm so sorry that happened...that's just sick, attacking a little girl...in cold blood...what kind of mad world is this..." he said. He hugged her, and cuddled her from the back. He had sadness in his voice, and tears flooding his eyes in empathy.

"But I promise you...I will never let anyone hurt you like that. Ever. Nobody mistreats a lady infront of me." Kenji said.

"Thank you that is very nice of you." Auralie said as began to drift off to sleep. She could see visions of her upcoming battle playing out. She sighed pleasantly as she drifted off. Meanwhile Honchkrow was eyeing Kenji carefully, making sure that he did not get too close. She still did not trust the boy.

Kenji rubbed her head as she fell asleep. He didn't care about Honchcrow watching him. Then, he bent over and kissed her head. "Goodnight Auralie." he whispered. For the first time in many years, he shed tears that fell onto her hair.

Then he moved away and layed on his back to gaze at the stars, trying to drift himself. Then, he looked at the corner of his eye and saw Honchrow still hovering over him, not looking too happy.

With Kenji's retreat Honchkrow move between the two so that Kenji's line of sight to Auralie was blocked. She did not like the fact that he was so close to her trainer. She did not trust him yet. She then huddled up next to Auralie and drifted into a peaceful sleep.