After a half hour's climb, I stopped to rest and looked down.

Madlyn still didn’t move; she didn’t move an inch after night fell.

I called Amanda this time.

“Hey, do you know if Madlyn has any Phobia?” I asked not giving her time to speak.

“No!” she said confidently.

“What’s going on?”

“Nothing! She just hurt her leg and was taking rest for a long time,” I said, still feeling something was amiss.

“Oh! Maybe she is eating. Don’t worry her Dex will send notifications to the organisers if she gets hurt even if the Wild elites don’t notice it and that is a very big if,” Amanda said.

I disconnected her call after that.

‘She isn’t moving for quite an amount of time, it can’t be a food break,’ I thought looking at Madlyn’s stationery light with conflicting emotions.

I dialled her number one more time.

She picked up this time.

“Hey! Had your fill?” I asked probing her.

“What..Yes, yes,” she replied her breathing a mess.

‘Something is wrong.’

“Listen! Leaving a competition due to unfortunate accidents in no way indicates your potential. If the pain is too much to bear, high enough that you can’t even move, the best decision is to leave. It shows you can make tough decisions, not letting your emotions cloud your judgement,” I said, indirectly encouraging her to quit and cringing inwardly.

Her breathing stabilised as I spoke, but I could still hear her exhausted breathing.

“It's not like that,” Madlyn spoke quietly, her voice barely audible like she was hiding from something.

“What?” I asked confused.

“It’s not about pain,” she snapped at me and shouted, her voice quivering.

‘Well, I tried to be a good friend,’ I thought and was going to end the call, as there was nothing I could do when Madlyn spoke again.

“I am sorry.”

“Please don’t end the call,” she said between light sobs.

‘What’s with me and making girls cry,’ I thought facepalming as I heard her sobs.

‘She doesn’t leave me with much of a choice!’ I thought and started making my way towards her, ignoring how close to the top I was.

“Hmm! Tell me, how did you acquire your Squirtle?” I asked trying to keep her mind occupied, hopefully away from whatever was making her cry.

I asked about everything from her parents, friends, school her favourite Pokemon and more.

We slowly ran out of things to speak, as I was evasive about my background.

As I was thinking of more topics to discuss, her breathing started to become erratic making me blurt out the first topic on my mind.

“You know my grandpa told me a story about four specialist clans living on a huge island. Supposedly a legendary Pokemon kept a balance between the water, earth, fire and flying clans. But that all changed when the Fire Natio*cough* clan attacked…”

I went through the whole anime making it relatable to the Pokemon world as I climbed down.

‘Finally,’ I thought looking at Madlyn who was hugging the cliff, standing on a small, protruded rock, eyes shut, nodding to my story.

“Hey! Maddy,” I called out ending the call.

She flinched before opening her eyes to look at me.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“No..Nothing,” she said her body shaking with fear.

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, I wisely stopped myself from cracking some jokes and spoke.

“Okay! Concentrate on my voice,” I ordered, doing my best to imitate my- I know what I am doing voice.

“Now slowly start climbing,” I said after her shaking stopped.

She slowly looked up only to see the pervading darkness clinging to the cliff and her body started to shake again.

‘Is she afraid of darkness?’

“Hey! I am here,” I shouted snapping out of her stupor.

“Cet give Madlyn a kiss,” I ordered, making my energetic tagalong lick all over Madlyn’s hair, as she was facing the cliff, without any delay.

“I am here. We are both climbing this cliff, concentrate on only 1 meter above your head,” I said making her slowly start her climb.

I followed her telling her stories about, how a legendary Pokemon looked after a lazy kid helping him in his life, how there was supposed to be a huge treasure of a pirate hidden somewhere.

Just when I was about to introduce a certain playboy billionaire to Madlyn, we reached the top.

“Hoo! We did it,” I shouted peering down the cliff, whistling at the height we were in.

‘I did it. Friends are supposed to help each other, right?’ I thought over all the novels I read and nodded.

‘Hmm, I did a good job. I would be glad to have a friend like me.’ As some other nonsense was going through my mind, my glow stick flickered.

Madlyn jumped at that and hugged me before starting to bawl like a kid.

Suddenly, it started drizzling making me carry her into a nearby cave.

I sat down on a rock, with Madlyn still clutching to me. I was feeling too awkward and the feeling doubled down with my hands hanging in the air immobile with uncertainty.

Not knowing what to do, I patted her head, hoping she would calm down.

Still feeling weird and not wanting to move too much, I gently started to pat her back with my other hand on her head, hoping she would calm down.

‘Too much! This is too much,’ I thought looking at the koala bear clinging to me.

The strain from the climbing earnestly began to set in, and just when I thought a cramp might interrupt me, Madlyn calmed down.

Silence pervaded in our cave and before Cet could interrupt it, I waved him to guard our entrance.

He was going to get treats after this, generally, whenever he follows my orders, he starts licking me until he gets treats.

But the little bugger most likely understood this wasn’t the right time for his rewards of checking the cave and following my commands when climbing the cliff.

I gave the strangely mature Zubat a look as he hung on the cave entrance, disappearing into darkness, while suddenly Madlyn moved.

With a hand around me, she rested her face on my shoulder after wiping her face with a Hankey, don’t ask me where it came from.

In the dank silence of our cave, her sudden movement made me notice the warmth she was emitting.

One of my hands was resting on her cheek due to her movement, her warm breath tickled my neck making me realise I had a beautiful girl in my arms.

Feeling self-conscious, I lifted my chin off her head, noticing where it was for the first time.

Deciding to let her notice our intimate position, I softly spoke.

“What happened back there? It seemed like you were afraid of darkness, but I feel that’s not it.”

Madlyn didn’t reply for a second, making me feel awkward.

‘I should have avoided this topic, right?’ But before I could second guess myself, she spoke.

“My father used to take me diving when I was little,” she said breathing softly, her breath touching my neck.

It was hard to concentrate with the tingling sensations I was experiencing from her breath.

“One evening, when we were heading back home, my father’s Dewgong came out of the ocean looking excited. My father took me to dive again, this time I clung to him as he swam, afraid of the dark, just like every kid at that age.”

“The Dewgong took us to an underwater cliff with an opening and swam around it excitedly. My father released his recently evolved Kingdra to guard me and went into the cave.”

“Something happened, giving rise to waves which carried me away from the cave my father was in,”

“I was stranded in the deep sea, creatures covered by darkness swirled outside my glow-stick range, making me feel cornered.”

She clutched me tightly before continuing.

“I was so very afraid, I didn’t know that the Kingdra was fighting off some wild Pokemon disturbed by the sudden currents, just outside the light.”

Her breath started to become erratic again before she took deep breaks and spoke.

“I felt so alone and afraid. Not knowing, which was up, which was down, trapped by the darkness and a circling monster.”

“I tried to move but got thrown back to the same place by the currents- I think Kingdra was trying to keep me away from its battle,” she spoke her breath hitching.

“I didn’t know back then. I clutched the cliff and waited for my father. He came for me after 10 minutes, but those were the longest 10 minutes in my life,” she spoke taking deep breaths.

“When I started climbing this cliff, me getting afraid of the dark was the furthest thing on my mind. I didn’t even consider that I would be afraid of climbing the cliff in darkness, my earlier trauma faded away from my mind, it was multiple years back after all.”

“But when the darkness covered the cliff, I couldn’t move. I stubbornly tried to but I couldn’t move,” she said starting to sob again.

“It’s okay, it over now. You were very brave to not call my help when I first called you.”

“You are courageous,” I said patting her back.

‘What am I supposed to do? come on my anime knowledge help me,’ I thought cursing at my incomplete anime knowledge.

Madlyn lifted her chin on my shoulder and looked up at me, her eyes wet with tears.

“Thank you for coming back for me,” she said staring at me.

“Huh!” A weird sound came out of my mouth at the proximity of her face to mine.

Her sapphire eyes glinted, entrancing me, inviting me to get lost in them.

We stared into each other’s eyes, the heavy downpour outside our cave muffling us from the outside world.

Madlyn’s plump rosy lips attracted my attention away from her deep blue eyes.

Madlyn’s invitingly parted her lips, seeing me glance at them.