Journey Through Galar

Slumbering Weald

Hey, so my parents told me that I would be moving. Sure, the date is sorta far away, but my dad is leaving sooner. We were stressing out.

I don't own Pokémon

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Doing

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The moment she entered the Slumbering Weald, Mira was taken aback at the surroundings. It was so foggy, she could barely see the silhouettes of the trees around her.

"That Wooloo... Where do you think it went off to?" Hop muttered, looking around. He turned to Mira. "The fog is really coming on thick now... If we don't find that Pokémon soon, this might be trouble." They continued on, making sure to stay close so as to not lose each other in the fog. There were some wild Pokémon attacks, but Ace and Hop's Grookey easily took care of them.

"WOOOooooooo!" A ghostly howl ran through the forest.

"Did you hear that?" Hop questioned urgently. "Was that a Pokémon crying out, you think?"

"It might be! Do you think Wooloo would be okay?" Mira replied with her own question.

"I don't know, but we should hurry up!" Hop said.

Together, they rushed forward faster than before, when they heard the same howl as before. Mira stopped at the sound, while Hop had no such hesitation.

"Come on, Mira! That Wooloo might be in real trouble!" Hop shouted, running forward.

"R-right." Mira nodded, immediately following him so they wouldn't get separated, returning Ace as well.

The fog got thicker and thicker the further they went into the forest. "This is mad... I can't even see my own hand in front of my face! I think I get now why this place is off-limits..." Hop muttered.

"It's like someone's trying to prevent us from going in..." Mira murmured.

Suddenly, a silhouette appeared in the fog. Mira could barely see a flash of blue and some red.

"What in the-?!" Hop yelped.

"Lrrroooaaarrrd!!!" It howled. The same howls they had heard before. Suddenly, Mira felt the urge to take out Ace's Pokéball. She resisted, but suddenly, Ace came out on his own. Hop tried to let Grookey out to help Mira, but Grookey didn't come out, the Pokéball only wriggled and struggled.

Mira saw no way out of this except for a battle. "Ace! Use Tackle!" Ace ran forward, but he just passed through the Pokémon. The mysterious Pokémon stared intently at Mira, making her feel a little uncomfortable.

"Wha-?! The move has no effect on it?!" Hop cried out.

"Maybe it's a ghost type?" Mira asked uncertainly. "Use Ember than!" The move also passed through the Pokémon, the image of it rippling. The Pokémon howled, and the fog thickened, making it even harder to see anything.

"Mira! I can't see anything! You OK?!" Hop shouted.

"Yeah!" Mira yelled back. Maybe the Pokémon has the ability Wonder Guard? She wondered. It wasn't likely, since it was Shedinja's signature ability, but she never saw anything about the Pokémon in front of her. If it does have Wonder Guard, then Status Moves will affect it. "Ace, use Growl!" However, Growl didn't work either.

The Pokémon roared, and the fog thickened even further to the point that Mira couldn't see anything. "Ace?" She called. She didn't get any reply. "Ace, return!" She could only hope that Ace had gone inside, and wasn't somewhere else in the forest.

"I can't see anything!" Hop's voice seemed to fade, eventually blending in with the sounds of the forest.

"Uwaaaaaah!" Mira heard the howl, but didn't think much of it. She felt wobbly, and collapsed on the ground, her vision fading to black.

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 Slowly, Mira opened her eyes, shaking the grogginess out of her head. She groaned, her eyes fluttering and about to close. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hop doing the same thing.

"Hop! Mira!" A voice shouted out. Mira turned around, noting that the fog wasn't as thick as before, so she could easily see that Leon was the one who had called for them.

"Wha-? Lee? How'd you manage to find your way here? You're pants with directions, you always get lost." Hop questioned.

"Oh, that's nice to hear from the little brother who had me worried sick! I've been waiting ages from you too, and you never showed! Of course I came looking for the both of you!" Leon scolded.

"Wait, where's the Wooloo?! We were trying to rescue that Wooloo!" Hop said, looking around.

Leon's face softened, showing a happy Wooloo rolling into a disgruntled Charizard. "Meh!" Wooloo cried.

"The little chap's just fine. Though all of you had fainted by the time I found you here." Leon answered. "You know this place is out of bound... But it took courage to come in here all the same. And I can understand well enough why you did it. You did good, Hop, Mira!"

"And at least that Wooloo's all right... Yeah, Mira?" Hop said with a huge smile. "I thought we'd had it when that weird fog started rolling in and that mad Pokémon attacked... But at least it wasn't all for nothing!"

Leon immediately whirled around, facing Hop. "Attacked by some mad Pokémon? What are you talking about, Hop?"

"It seemed loads stronger than any Pokémon I've ever seen. And it just had this sort of presence... Our moves didn't even touch it. I mean, really-- they seemed to pass right through it!" Hop said, trying to explain.

Leon hummed. "Your moves passed right through it? So the fearsome Pokémon they say in the Slumbering Weald... Are they actually illusions or something?" He asked thoughtfully. "Get strong enough and maybe the two of you could be the ones to reveal the truth someday." He advised. "For now, let's simply get out of this place. You'll be all right now that I'm here with you!"

Hop turned to Mira, his arms waving excitedly. "Even if we did get an earful from Lee... what an experience! This'll make a pretty fine first page in the tale of my legend!"

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves..." Mira said, nudging him teasingly. "You haven't even beaten me!"

The reminder didn't even faze Hop. "Well, I'm just gonna keep on trying! C'mon, let's go!" He said, racing out of the woods after Leon, with Mira hot on his trail.

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Short chappie. Whatev. Sorry for the long wait. Assuming your reading this. And if I sound grumpy, it's cuz we're having a test next week and it's the most evil test of all. See you next time?

Edit, 3/22/2021

Yay, I made it longer! Still short though.

1021 words