bloogum

After a good meal of Seaking, first meal I had had since Glacier was captured, I flew back to the box building. I flew in through the window and landed in the big room. The Pikachu were still there, but Jack seemed long gone. I landed beside the cluster of yellow and brown bodies, who then swarmed around me, asking questions about Glacier.

"He's still alive, but he's unconscious. The Chansey said he'll be awake by the end of the week." I looked reassuringly at them, hoping to convince them he would be okay. It worked. Up went a whoop of joy and they started cheering. It took a while to quieten them down, but eventually, I had the attention of every pair of beady eyes in the room.

"You probably all remember I told you I would let you free yesterday. Well, an Articuno always keeps its promises. Are there any other Pokémon here? If you shocked Jack as hard as Glacier, he probably won't be back for a while."

"There are lots more Pokémon in another room," shrilled Squeak, "follow us!"

The group of Pikachu bounded off in a big yellow mob, and I couldn't help giggling at their bouncing little tails, sticking straight up in the air. They led me through another long corridor and into a room with a shelf filled with those little balls. If each one contained a Pokémon, it would definitely take me all week to save them all.

"Here they are!" said Squeak, "We'll help you release them all, but we should take the Pokéballs outside first, it'll be easier to get them out."

Each Pikachu grabbed a ball and I carried the rest in my wings. I followed all the Pikachu outside, where each of them poked the ball they were holding and out popped Pokémon of all kinds. Most of them I had never seen before, but there was a Jynx and a few Seel, the Dewgong Glacier and I had battled in the mountains, a Goldeen and two Seaking. The others, except the ones we had battled and a few others, were completely unknown to me. Most of the balls I had didn't have anything, so I figured they were for the Pikachu.

In the group there were two huge snakes, one made from rock, the other bright blue with a big gaping mouth. I saw a small ball thing with a huge red flower on its head, a pink ball thing with big round eyes and pointy ears. He had horse-like creatures with fire-tails, Pokémon that looked like rocks. Jack also had a few Zubat and Golbat; I had seen them in the mountain caves. The list went on.

"Okay!" yelled Shocker over the racket, "Everyone, get into groups of where you came from." Indicating areas, he called out, "Forest here, mountains here, sea here, river here, caves here, volcano here and grasslands here." He then told one of the other Pikachu to go and grab seven bags from the building, who then scurried off to get them.

All the Pokémon mingled around, forming groups, but the fish couldn't move, so other Pokémon from their areas carried them. I was very tempted to eat some of the Goldeen, but I knew if I did, none of them would trust me. Finally, when all the groups were assembled, Shocker spoke again.

"Everyone, this is Snowfall. She's going to set us free..." a great roar went up from the crowd, and I could feel myself blushing under my feathers. "All right, all right, all right. Now the idea is, that she obviously can't carry us all, so you'll have to go by Pokéball," [groan,] "hey, you'll be free after this. So, we'll stick your balls in bags, get to the place you came from and release you all there, sound okay?" another roar, and it was settled.

While we were putting everyone in their balls, I noticed that the Jynx was all on her own; the Seel and Dewgong had decided to go with the sea crew. It was no ordinary Jynx though. She had her hair tied back in a tight tail, very different to any Jynx I had ever seen. She was also a fair bit skinnier than your average Jynx.

"How would you feel about coming with me?" I said to her, "I'm on a journey to find my egg; it got stolen, so I could take you back to the mountains with me then. Sound good?"

The Jynx thought a bit, then smiled and nodded. "Sure thing. The mountains can wait a few weeks longer!"

"Cool! But you'll have to stay in your ball 'til everyone's dropped off. These balls alone will be heavy to carry, let alone a Jynx."

"Yeah, that'll be fine. Oh, name's Shelly by the way. Seeya then!" said the Jynx, as she was transformed into red light and disappeared once more into the ball.

Only Shocker was left, to guide me to each of the areas. I gripped each bag tightly in my claws and Shocker leapt on my back.

"First stop, the sea!" cried the Pikachu, pointing dramatically in what was hopefully the direction of the sea.

The course we took seemed to follow the general direction of the river, only a more direct route. We flew all day, gliding over two towns before I finally saw the sea. I had never seen the sea in my life. I gasped in amazement.

It was a massive expanse of water, extending further than I could see, which is pretty far, being an Articuno. The deep blue water was glittering, reflecting the bright light of the sun, far above our heads. The place where this uncontrolled water met the land was an almost white strip of land.

"Wow!" I breathed.

"Never seen the sea before, eh?" grinned Shocker.

"Never. This is amazing!"

We glided down onto the white strip of land. It felt kind of like snow, only it was so hot I felt my toes would burn. I flapped up again and landed on the wetter snow-like stuff.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Sand," came the reply.

"Oh. Could you bring the bags over here? I'm not used to sand. It's too hot!"

"Here here! Too hot for me to!" he said, grabbing the bags and waddling quickly down the sand to the water's edge. He emptied the bag of Pokéballs containing Pokémon from the sea and eleven balls came tumbling, making little indents in the sand. In these balls were two Seel, the Dewgong, the huge blue snake, which still managed to frighten me, a Lapras, two Goldeen, a Seaking and three Horsea.

"Any you don't know?" asked Shocker.

"Yeah, the big guy. He won't eat me, will he?" I answered.

"Nuh, Gyarados only eat seaweed."

"Oh good. Seeya everyone! Hope you don't get caught again!"

"Thanks a lot Snowfall! Never would have made it without you! Bye!" cried the fishy Pokémon, and splashed off into the water they came from.

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