Pokémon: The Mysterious Region (book 1)

Chapter 14: An Unwelcomed Guest

We all stared in shock at the newest arrival. Finally, when I decided to go and see if she was alright, Xera held out her hand. "Don't."

She crept close to the girl, keeping an eye on the hole in the cliff wall. After deciding it was safe, she knelt next to the girl. She turned her over and instantly recoiled.

"What?" Ven asked coming closer, then sucked in a deep breath. Cera and I came over as well, empty grave and Eric forgotten. 

The white haired girl's bangs had slid to the side of her face, revealing a tattoo of sorts of her forehead. It didn't looked etched in nor burned, more like just imprinted. I knelt next to her and stared at the curved moon symbol. It had a faint shine to it, which was shocking on its own.

"Is she..." Cera didn't finish, but Xera nodded, getting to her feet. "Yeah, she is."

"Who is she?" I asked, then looked at her wounds. None were serious, then I noticed a cut on her forehead. 

"Look at this," I said, pointing at the wound. "I think she needs medical help."

"No," Xera said simply, turning away.

I stood. "And why not? She's injured."

Xera whirled to face me, anger burning in her eyes. I winced, but surprisingly I kept my ground.

"She's lucky I'm leaving her here," Xera said, trying to maintain her fury. "I have half a mind to kill her here and now."

"Xera," Cera said cautiously. "Now isn't a-"

She broke off after her sister gave her a harsh glare, then turned back to me. "This girl is the Jungle Tribe's enemy. A demon worshiper, her and her whole tribe."

"That's no excuse to just kill her or just leave her to die," I said, still surprised I wasn't backing down.

Xera looked about ready to throttle me when Cera cut back in. "Hey, how about we put it to a vote. All for bringing her back for Meda to heal?"

I raised my hand, trying to ignore the hateful glare coming from Xera. Cera raised her hand as well and Ven looked torn for a moment, before raising his hand. Xera glared at the lot of us and turned to stalk back to the huge vine, Grovyle right behind her.

"Fine then," she said as she walked away. "But you three can carry her."

As she left, a Pokemon erupted from the sand. It was a Nidoqueen. She eyes us warily before scooping up the white haired girl. I looked at Cera and Ven and they just shrugged. Nidoqueen huffed at us and appeared to be waiting.

"I guess that's her Pokemon," I said, getting to my feet. I walked back over to the grave and picked up my spear. I wouldn't forget about the grave.

I tightened my grip on my spear. I would get the answer from Eric, no matter what.

"Come on," Cera called back to me and I nodded. I jogged to catch up to them and walked alongside the Nidoqueen. I studied the girl in her arms. She was quite pretty, even with being all bruised up. Her face was a little strained from what I assumed was from the pain. 

I reached out my hand to brush away her bangs to get a better look at her head wound, but the Nidoqueen. I retracted my hand quickly, but said, "Hey, I'm just trying to look at the wound."

By now we had started to climb up the huge thick vine that led up to the top of the cliff. The vine itself was easy to walk up, but I was still too scared to look over the side, so I was trying to distract myself by also checking on the girl.

Nidoqueen glared at me before giving me a small nod. I reached out my hand again, Nidoqueen still glaring, and brushed away her bangs. Her wound wasn't that big, just a couple centimeter cut, but I heard that head wounds tended to be worse than they looked. I also noticed the curved moon symbol and I traced it with my finger.