For some reason, I was just really happy. James and Meowth said it was the mountain air. Maybe.
Or maybe not.
Anyhow, we stumbled out of the car, stretching our muscles after sitting still so long. We looked around the small parking lot, bewildered.
"Let's just walk until we see a sign or something," James suggested. I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, that's intelligent," I joked. "What if there is no sign? Then we'll get so lost we'll never get out, and we'll wander around in these woods forever!" James looked shocked, and I giggled at him, prompting Meowth to burst out with uncontrolled laughter.
We all laughed for a few minutes, as some passers-by stared oddly at us. We eventually got ourselves sufficiently under control, and began heading in the same direction we saw most people going, to the dismay of those people.
Somehow, we managed to reach the bottom of the trail. There were two directions we could take- the Beginners' Trail and the Advanced Trail.
"Which one do we take?" James asked, looking nervously at me.
"We ain't no beginners," Meowth scoffed haughtily, causing the hikers entering the Beginners' Trail to blush and walk a little faster. "We walk constantly! Let's take da Advanced Trail, we can handle it!!"
"Fine with me," I agreed. James blinked at Meowth and I, who were staring expectantly at him, then relented with a sigh.
"Okay," he muttered. "But if you two have to carry me down the mountain, remember this wasn't my idea!"
We walked happily up the path at first. The mountains were just as pretty when you were on them, but they had a completely different atmosphere. There was a kind of majestic distantness I'd felt when I saw the mountains from afar. Now, on the path climbing the actual mountain, it felt... real; you could actually touch the scenery, and breathe the air, see the sun's rays filtering through the trees. There were streams along the path as well; sometimes the trail was above the stream, on a wide ledge, and in some places the trail took us alongside the stream.
Meowth skipped along in the front, with James and I trailing him side by side. The part of the path that we were on was right beside a rushing stream.
"I've heard these streams are really cold," I said with an air of curiosity. I stepped off the trail and moved closer to the water's edge. The water was bubbling along, over and around large, smooth grey rocks.
"Careful, Jess," James warned me. "Don't fall in!"
"I won't," I smirked. "I have the grace of a cat Pokemon!" Meowth glared at me, sensing the underlying scorn in my comment. I shot him a grin, and he smiled back. I hadn't meant anything by it, and he knew it.
My partners joined me at the edge of the stream. I laughed and leaped to a flat rock embedded in the stream bed. On one foot I teetered back and forth, until I jumped to the next rock, further into the stream, much to James' dismay.
"Jessi! You're going to fall and get hurt!" he protested, stepping carefully to the first rock.
"Da rocks are slippery, Jess," Meowth warned. "Even I'd have trouble walkin' on dose!" James nodded fiercely in agreement.
"Oh, come on," I laughed. "I won't-" I was cut off in mid-sentence as my feet slid out from under me. Well, whaddya know? The rock was slippery. By some twist of fate, I fell right into James' arms.
I swear I didn't mean to do it.
James caught me reflexively, though wide-eyed. My weight threw him backwards onto the shore, inches from a shocked Meowth. We blinked in unison, then stared at each other for a moment.
"Uh, I... um..." we stammered at the same time. "Er, I didn't... it was... an accident...!"
A sound from beside me drew my attention away from my embarrassment- somewhat, anyway. Meowth lay on his back, rolling to and fro and hissing wildly in laughter.
"Are... are youse two... okay?" he snickered, gasping between words. "Oh, dat was slick, Jess... too perfect..."
"Shut up! Just... shut up, Meowth!" I yelled, blushing furiously and scrambling off James, who was still rather stunned. He looked almost disappointed that I was moving. Which I tried to ignore.
Meowth pressed his ears back in fear. "Uh, Jessi, why don't ya calm down? I... uh... didn't mean it!" he offered. I took a step forward, smiling evilly and forcing him into moving backwards.
"Jessi, leave Meowth alone. It wasn't his fault that you fell." I looked behind me, surprised. James never told me what to do. It was odd. He didn't even seem nervous about standing up to me. I must have knocked the sense out of him when I fell... but still. It was nice to hear him trying to speak forcefully for a change. Maybe it was just a kind of contact high, but I decided to listen to him.
"All right," I sighed, pretending to be annoyed just for the sake of keeping tradition. James and Meowth looked equally surprised and relieved. Hmph. How mean do they think I am?
"Uh... uh... Come on, let's go!" James called after a pause. "We can't just stand around all day!" He laughed and started running down the path, the way we'd been heading. I grinned and leaped after him, as Meowth yelped for us to wait up.
"Mwahahaha!!!" I giggled insanely. "Catch me if you can!"
We'd been running for quite a distance. By now we'd made it about halfway up the mountain, and the path was getting more and more difficult. We had to jump over fallen trees and climb around jutting rocks constantly. I had slowed to a jog, James walked at a moderate pace and sprinted occasionally, and Meowth hobbled far behind us.
"Hey, Meowth, you're gonna get lost if you stray too far!" James panted, concerned.
"Somebody carry me!" he whined.
James and I looked at each other, sharing a smirk. "Well, Meowth," I began innocently, "you're the one who wanted to go on the Advanced Trail, remember?"
"Aww, guys!!" Meowth moaned. "Puh-leeeze??" He went into his 'look at me, I'm a cute helpless kitten' routine. Of course, I'm immune to that. But I can't say the same for my partner...
"Oh fine, Meowth. Jump on my shoulder," James said finally. Meowth's eyes sparkled and he leapt up onto James' shoulder as he stood still, waiting.
"Does dis mean I get ta hold onto your hair, Jimmy?" he joked. James glared at him as best he could while the cat Pokemon was standing on his shoulders. "Hey, hey, I was just kiddin'," Meowth said defensively. "Don't do nothin' violent, now."
"Throw Meowth into the next stream we come to, James!!" I cheered. James laughed and grabbed Meowth's feet so that the little cat Pokemon couldn't jump off. Then he began running along the trail, with Meowth yowling the whole way. I couldn't really blame the little cat Pokemon- with every step James took, it seemed he would go flying and land on the sharp rocks embedded in the trail.
I ran after, jumping from rock to rock and giggling. It had been... well... a long time since we'd been able to have real fun, without worrying about Pikachu or the twerps. It felt really good.
James was getting far ahead of me. "He's pretty fast," I panted. I was about to call out to him, when suddenly he and Meowth disappeared from the path completely, yelping in unison. I stopped in my tracks, breathing hard.
"James? Meowth?" I finally ventured to call out, taking a step forward. I began to tremble when they didn't answer. Where could they possibly have gone?
"Jess?" I heard James' weak voice from somewhere beyond where he and Meowth had vanished. I gasped and moved forward carefully. Craning my neck, I saw how my partners were able to disappear so suddenly. The path curved sharply at a point, and on the outside was a steep drop.
Carefully I drew closer to the edge of the trail. As I looked down, I realized that James was clinging for dear life to a tree root sticking out of the soil a few feet below me. "Oh my god," I gasped. My legs felt weak and I fell to my knees to avoid tumbling over the cliff.
"Meowth fell," James said fearfully. "He... he couldn't hold on..."
"Shh," I prompted, trying to sound unworried. "I'll pull you up, and then we'll look for Meowth." I leaned forward a little and stretched my arm down so that James could reach my hand. Trembling and breathing hard, he released one hand's grip from the root and slowly reached up and closed his fingers around my wrist. I did the same, getting a tight grip- we were too high up to risk slipping.
Inch by inch, I strained my muscles and pulled James back up onto the path. Once he was safely resting beside me, I exhaled, only then realizing that I'd been holding my breath.
James looked up at me, his eyes huge with fear. "Meowth... we have to find him!! Jessi, what if he... what if he didn't..."
I put a shaking hand on my partner's shoulder and stared seriously at his face. He breathed hard for a moment, simply staring back at me; suddenly he seemed to deflate, leaning forward and crumpling into my arms as if he couldn't keep upright by himself any longer.
"I killed him," James whimpered. "I know I did. I should've held on..." I felt his warm tears fall on my shoulder, and I instinctively began to rub his back comfortingly.
"It's okay," I said, in an uncharacteristically gentle tone, though I was fighting tears myself. "It'll be okay."
We sat there together, huddling in each other's arms, for only a few minutes, although they felt like hours. Neither of us trusted ourselves to stand and go search for Meowth until we had calmed down quite a bit. Meowth, even if we didn't show it- at this thought I frowned inwardly- was the best friend James and I had in the world.
To my surprise, James was the first to stand up. He looked determined despite the tears still running down his face. Holding out a hand to help me up, he shot me a rather lopsided grin. "Thanks," he said, as he pulled me to my feet. He didn't specify what he was thanking me for, but I knew. I always know.
We gazed over the edge of the cliff. Broken branches traced Meowth's haphazard descent down the side of the mountain. James and I glanced at each other nervously. How would we get down to find him? And when we did... would he be alright?
