Kanto's Pride

Chapter 20

Anabel's eyes shot open. She was lying on her dorm bed. She momentarily closed her eyes to reminisce what had happened. She tried to get up but immediately felt pain in her newly bandaged forehead.

"Don't push yourself."

A concerned and calm voice said as Anabel looked relief when Ash came to her side, with a bowl of soup in his hand.

He placed it on the side and sat on the edge of her bed.

"How are you feeling?" he asked calmly.

"I ----"

"Espi? Espeon!" Before she could say anything, an Espeon jumped to the bed and started licking her face, happy to see her trainer awake.

"Hey stop," Anabel giggled, "I am fine Espeon. Sorry for making you worried," she apologised as the Sun pokemon nuzzled against her. Anabel started petting her before she asked.

"What happened?"

Ash looked a bit tensed.

"Well, one of the hunters hit you on the head, resulting that injury," he said gesturing towards her head.

"Thankfully, I was able to.... stop  him before he could hit you again," he said choosing his words carefully. He thought telling her that he killed the man right on the spot wouldn’t be a wise thing to do.

Anabel frowned a bit but didn’t say anything.

"Sooo... yeah, I told my Gardevoir to teleport us here. Then she used Heal Pulse on your head while I did some bandaging and stuff. Now here we are," he concluded.

Anabel was grateful but still decided to ask something.

"Why didn’t you take me to a hospital instead?"

Ash considered. "The hospital was far from the place we were, which was impossible to teleport. An injury like that should be treated right away. So I did what my conscious told me to do. And besides...."

Anabel looked at him.

"It’s my fault you got hurt, so I am sorry," Ash muttered, completely surprising the girl.

"Hey don't apologise Ash. I should thank you instead for taking care of me. You couldn’t have anticipated what was going to happen,right?" she said reassuringly and thankfully, considering the reason Ash apologised to her for.

Ash smiled and chuckled, "I guess not."

Anabel smiled. "There, keep smiling like that. It looks cute on you," she said and immediately regretted it. Ash turned red and looked away with a fake cough.

"I-I mean i-it lo-looks great, yeah that's it," the Salon Maiden tried to correct her previous sentence.

"Ye-yeah thanks," Ash muttered. He then noticed the soup and changed the topic immediately.

"Hey you should drink it before it gets cold," Ash said as Anabel glanced to her side. She grabbed it and took a sip of the tasty soup.

"You made this Ash? Wow," she said with an impressed look.

"Honestly, I doubted if you could even boil a pot of water," she further added with a giggle.

"That's rude," Ash pouted as Pikachu and Espeon laughed at the statement.

Ash then took a glance at the clock. It was quarter past 7 already.

"Take some rest Anabel. I will check up on you later," that being said the trainer got up from the bed and started to leave.