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CHAPTER 8: THE CUBONE DOJO___________

When we woke up, we were all inside our cave-house on the cliff.
“Oooooooooooooooooooh.” I groaned. “Was that a dream?”
“That depends.” said Ken, “Kinichi is that Charmeleon we fought the other day, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“How are we going to get her to talk to us?”
“Let’s try to meet with her again.”
“Is that really going to work?”
“We don’t know until we try.”
“I think we should find out why she wouldn’t join in the first place.” said Chimchar. “Then we can figure out a way to convince her to join.”
“I think we won’t to get anywhere worrying about it right now.” I said.
“How could you say that?!” asked Ken surprised.
“Thinking about this now can give us the advantage for later when we’re faced with the issue!” said Chimchar.
“If we worry about it now, then it’ll only get in the way of our job as an exploration team.” I countered with confidence. “Besides, Ken you know how stubborn she can be. We need to find another way than to convince her.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ken.
“I was thinking about something like a gamble or bet.” I proposed.
“How would we go about that?” asked Chimchar.
“Haha!!!” I laughed. “I didn’t really mean it! I was just joking! I think that before we go on any exploration, we train somewhere. Do you know somewhere Chimchar?”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuhhh….” Said Chimchar. “Yeah. The Cubone Dojo in the eastern part of town. A few days there and we should be twice as good as we are now.”
“Great! Then lets go!” I said with excitement. When we arrived at the dojo, it was only a tent. “Are you sure this is that good of a dojo?” I asked.
“The best.” Chimchar said as-a-matter-of-factly. We went through and we saw a lone cubone meditating in the middle of the cramped tent. Without even opening his eyes, he asked us: “Who enters? State your name!”
“Chimchar!”
Ken and I were confused. We didn’t know how to respond. If we told Cubone our human names, will he scoff at us or look at us crazy?
“I’m Umbreon.”
I decided to follow suit. “I’m Piplup.”
He finally opened his eyes to look at me and Ken. He had an interested look in his eyes. He stood up and walked over to us and studied us carefully. He put his hand on Ken’s forehead and froze there for what seemed like forever. He seemed to be really concentrating. He separated himself from Ken and did the same to me. When he was done, he spoke with confidence. “You two are not normal pokemon. I can feel the foreign in your aura. I don’t know where you came from, but I would be happy to see how you fare in my training grounds.”
Ken and I were amazed at how could just tell that we were not from here and at how calm he was being about it. Since he already knew half of it, I decided to tell him the other half. “You’re right. Were not from here. Actually, Umbreon and I are human. If you can believe that.”
This really caught Cubone’s attention. “Really? Do humans come with any special names you would like me to refer to you as?”
“Yes, in fact. My name is Saori and Umbreon is Ken.”
“Well then.” Said Cubone. “This will be the first time that my dojo has ever taught humans. I look forward to seeing how my dungeons fare against one of your kind.” He pressed a button that was under the dirt-floor of the tent and an elevator-type contraption rose in front of us. “Now, step onto here and you will live in this dungeon for a few days. There are plenty of places for shelter and it is always supplied with fresh food. Happy training.”
We stepped onto the elevator and it took us down deep into the ground. It finally stopped and we saw a whole bunch of different environments. Spread out so long we couldn’t even see it all. We heard Cubone’s voice booming all throughout the dungeon. “Your objective is to go though the clearly marked trail and face all of the conditions of all of the elements of the world. Meanwhile, there will be tons of pokemon for you to train against. Don’t worry about hurting them, they are highly trained specialists with tons of ability. Good luck on your quest!”
We took the first steps onto the path and the ground beneath us crumbled and disappeared. Chimchar, being the one in back, was able to grab onto the edge of the whole and tried to grab for me and Ken but missed and he watched us fall deeper and deeper. Using Kens glowing circles, we could see the ground below us. I used bubble to try to soften the ground and turn it into mud. All I did was make a small ditch where we were about to land. After we landed, we saw that the only way to go was through the cave entrance ahead of us. Ken’s circles provided light as we made our way through the cave and we eventually saw a fork. There was a sign that read: You must now separate these two ways.
I looked at Ken with frightened eyes. I didn’t want to leave his side. If I explored alone, I would stand no chance against anything that came my way.
“Don’t worry.” Said Ken. “You’ll be fine. If you get into any trouble you can’t handle, scream and I’ll break through the wall to save you.” I looked at Ken and saw him in a new light. I never quite noticed this side of him before. “I’ll always protect you from anything if it costs me my life.”
I hugged his leg (that’s all I can reach) and said “Thank you.” I saw him blush out of the corner of my eye. He took a sigh and lowered his head to hug me back.