The Clefable Cave

After a long walk up the staircase mountain trail, Cass, Kaumi, and Dark arrived near the peak. Cass turned back to the others. "It looks like the stairs end here," she said, pointing at the dirt before her. "Do we keep going, Dark?"

Dark looked at her map. There was a thin line running up the side of Mt Narshe that she guessed was the staircase. There was a black �X� printed a little to the east of them. "To the left."

Cass turned again and led them along the side of the mountain. There was a narrow dirt trail that they followed. Kaumi looked down. A look of fear crossed his face, and he jumped back, putting his arms around Dark. She sweatdropped with surprise.

"Do you mind..?"

"See how far up we are?" Kaumi asked ignoring the situation. "If one of us falls, we�re gone!"

Dark looked down unafraid, then back to Kaumi. "It�s not that far," she said in a cold tone. "Let go of me." Kaumi noticed that he had grabbed her, then turned back around with embarrassment.

"Er, sorry�" They kept going until Cass held out an arm to the side to stop them as she herself halted abruptly.

Kaumi leaned to see ahead of her. "What?"

Dark was getting tired of all this. She impatiently huffed. No one seemed to notice.

"It�s a cave," Cass whispered, "There�s something moving inside!"

Dark and Kaumi edged up closer to Cass to see over her. Sure enough, inside the dark, damp cave, something was moving. Not just a little, but a lot. Maybe there was a group of something in there?

Kaumi leaned a little too far and pushed Cass over into the entrance of the cave. "OW! Kaumi!!" Whatever had been inside had gotten frightened and had run off deeper into the cave. Cass was lying on the ground with Kaumi nervously standing by her.

"Can I help you up..?" She slapped his offering hand away. Dark pushed on one of his shoulders from behind and made him turn around. "What?"

She slapped him across the face. Narrowing her eyes, she spoke even more coldly than before. "That was stupid. Damn it! If we miss what we came here for because of YOU, I swear to God I�ll throw you off this mountain!"

Kaumi still stood with his reddening cheek turned and looked hurt. His emotions had been shattered by the blow. Here were these two new people he had wanted to call friends, and they were treating him like an animal! They wouldn�t let him go anywhere without a watchful eye and they hurt him for his mistakes�they didn�t trust him either. They still thought he was a part of the Shadow Gang.

Cass had gotten up and was moving inside the cave cautiously. Dark followed, leaving Kaumi outside on the path by himself. He didn�t bother to follow them

Cass clicked on a flashlight she had retrieved from her bag. "Where�d Kaumi go?"

"I don�t care where he�s at. You know it was a mistake to bring him with us."

"He is pretty cute though, and just your height, Dark," she said cattily.

"�" Dark was at a loss for words. She didn�t like him at all. At first he had looked cool, that was true, but he turned out to be arrogant and ditzy.

"There�s something up there, Dark." A scuttling noise echoed through the cave. A dim light glinted off in the distance as the girls moved in. The light turned to them, and Cass saw a familiar face. The voice she knew as well.

"Who�s there?"

"Professor Utsugi! It�s me, Cass Silvers and my cousin, Shiki Dark! It�s been a while."

The small cave room grew brighter, and Dark noticed the man had a lantern. "Ah, Miss Silvers. How is your Oddish fairing?"

"It�s evolved into Gloom. I love it so much, thanks for asking." She smiled.

Dark cut in. "Professor, what�re you doing in here?"

"I was about to ask the same, but I shall speak first. I came to this legendary mountain to study how Clefairy and Clefable live in this�erm�diverse environment."

Dark�s eye widened. "So they are here."

Cass ignored her and questioned him further. "How did you know that this place existed?"

"It�s a scientific phenomena, this land. Every pokemon researcher in the world would give anything to see this. I�ve known about it for quite a while, and so I bet that is how you knew of this place."

"Yeah, that�s right�I heard you talking about Lake Kefka one time�" Cass snapped her fingers. "Well, have you seen any Clefable?"

"Oh yes. They were outside moments ago frolicking and dancing in the entrance, but something must have frightened them and they dashed right past me into the cave."

"Kaumi," Dark muttered with annoyance.

"Thank you. We�ve come here to�uh�capture one�"

"It would be a great addition to your team, I assure you. The Clefable here are remarkable."

"How so?"

"They have Ground type abilities�I have no idea how they learned them, I suppose it is from living here."

Dark walked past the two. Cass finished her conversation and tagged behind, but then found that she had lost her cousin. She walked back to Prof. Utsugi so she could wait for her. She wasn�t worried; Dark could handle just about any situation.

Meanwhile, Dark wandered into a great room illuminated by several glowing rocks on the walls. She heard a scuttling noise, and turned to see she was surrounded by several very unhappy eyes.