FicWad

Chapter 13: The Wife and Kids

Author's note: Thanks for all of the encouraging reviews. There are two versions of this chapter, one with a 'sploded pichu, and one without. I hated writing this version, just because it seemed so trite, but this one allows the story to continue with only this one chapter of angst and official "real like" stuff as opposed to the other one. I'm still not happy about the dialog in palaces. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

~~~

"Anything, Freckles?" Joanna asked, trying not to sound nervous as her kecleon faded into view.

She was, for now, the commanding officer of this mission, and a blasted forest was hampering her! She had grown up in Fortree City for Rayquaza's sake! She shouldn't be getting stumped by a forest.

"Calm down, Jo," Jack put in behind her. "Rangers aren't known for their amazingly quick response rate."

"They're also not known for lagging like this, and I don't want to be the one getting us that reputation!" Joanna snapped.

Jack sighed, Joanna was an amazing battler, and could take command in a snap, but she hated being judged, which made her loose all nerve. Of course, that was exactly what the entire two years in Kanto would be: one big judgment trial.

"We've done the best we could!" Rusty protested. "Not twenty minutes after Professor Oak contacted us on the radio we're in the Viridian forest, which takes most people a week to travel through. We have tens of miles to search! Those kids can't have gone very far in, Freckles will find them, don't worry."

The world suddenly became one of extreme light and shadow. Joanna glanced at the sky visible through the foliage squinting against the bright sustained flash of electricity.

"Go, Finder!" She tossed the premier ball and vaulted onto the back of the massive Arcanine as he appeared. Jack pulled Rusty along with him as he jumped after his commander.

"Well, at least we know where to find them," he said pragmatically.

"Extreme speed. Burn anything that gets in the way!" Joanna instructed, crouching low over the stripped back.

~ ~ ~

Bolt screamed in pain as power coursed through his small fluffy body. Lightning resistant fur was burning away in the center of the prolonged lightning bolt. This pain needed to stop! It needed to change! Through the film of agony and light he could see the pikachu smirking to itself as it leeched power from the thunderbolt, bolstering its reserves, as it watched the younger rodent curl up in a ball of pain.

Adam yelled in horror, a wordless sound of terror and fear. Bolt was his starter, and he wouldn't be in this mess if Adam hadn't ordered him into it. And then Adam was running into the burning light. All sense had deserted him. He just had to keep Bolt alive and in one piece.

His skin blistered, and he felt the charge go through him making all the muscles throb, and overloading the delicate miracle of biology that was the human body. It took less than a second for him to hit the ground near Bolt's twitching form.

Bolt gazed at his trainer through a haze of suffering. Big Human was hurt, and it was his stupid fault! He had to change this, he had to! He had to take the pain from his trainer. The childish pokemon pulled at the terrible crackling power. It was torching his skin, but now he sucked it through that thin membrane, making it fill him.

The burned little body rose, glowing, as the lightning drained into it. Bolt trembled, holding in the power. The pain had become so bad that he couldn't feel it anymore. Everything was numb, but he was full of /light/. Sparks tore into the ground as the young pichu moved. The pikachu, sensing the massive build up in electrical energy, backed up in fear.

Bolt could feel something building inside him. But he had a choice. Let the power go, or use it. The light brightened, and he felt his muscles restoring themselves, as his body built newer better shock breakers inside himself, feeing off the electrical energy he stored.

A howl rose in the distance, and something russet burst from the trees and crashed into the clearing. Bolt ignored it concentrating on his foe.

"Piiiiiiiii/ka/!" the glowing pokemon screamed, zooming into the opposing pikachu with a lightning charged quick attack.

The older electric type was knocked into a tree as the arcanine skidded to a halt, and a female human jumped down.

"Chansey!" a flash of light appeared, and died, and then a big round pink thing was running over to Adam.

Bolt looked around, as two male humans walked over to the older male that the arcanine was menacing. Bolt shivered, as adrenaline, and extra electricity suddenly checked out of the hotel of his body without paying. The small discharge in every direction was fairly harmless though, and this knowledge relaxed Bolt enough to topple forward. He was just going to sleep right now.

~ ~ ~

Mel tripped and fell over another log, her foot caught in a tangle of ferns. However, she pushed herself up on stinging hands and ran forward until she came into the demolished campsite the poacher had set up. Lapis stumbled out of the undergrowth after her, Chrono floating along behind.

She looked around wildly. Matt was sitting with Tirith, talking to the ranger, Jack, who Mel had met at the pokemon center yesterday. Rusty was standing over a scruffy man, whose arms were tied behind his back, saying something while an arcanine sat guard. The eldest ranger was standing next to a chansey, as the egg pokemon wrapped bandages around an unmoving form on the ground.

The commotion that Mel had made getting out of the forest drew the female ranger's attention, and Joanna walked over to her.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" the ranger asked in a no nonsense tone of voice.

"Wash-Melamine Brown," Mel answered nervously. "I was told that the emergency signal on Adam's pokedex had been activated."

"Adam? Big guy, has a pikachu?" Joanna questioned.

"Er, yes, only no. Bolt's just a pichu," Mel replied, looking distressed, "what's going on?"

"Spot evolution, then," Joanna muttered. "Look, your friend ran into a poacher. We got a call from Professor Oak telling us that one of his pokedexes was blinking a distress signal in the Viridian Forest. Your friend got crisped by a thunderbolt from the looks of things. My chansey is healing him right now, in fact. Don't worry he'll be fine," Joanna put a hand on the smaller girl's shoulder as Mel took a step forward, shock and fear on her features. "Now, I need to know what happened from the moment that you set foot in this forest."

Mel looked up at Joanna wide-eyed. Adam was hurt and she was supposed to tell stories?! The expression in the young woman's eyes was firm and commanding. Mel swallowed, and then began retelling the day's events, from the pikachu attack, and the pidgeotto flock to the stealing of Matt's weedle, to her discovery of the weedle's pokeball, and the ensuing battle, and finally she got up to the point where she had burst into the poacher's camp site.

"You have the weedle?" Joanna asked.

Mel nodded, breathing out, something that had tightened inside of her was easing slightly.

"Good. We'll take that and Freckles and your squirtle and go and find that Pikachu. Luckily this guy was an amateur and only had two pokemon," Joanna said crisply, beginning to walk back the way that Mel had come.

The crashing path that Mel had made was easy to follow, and they reached the spot with the bound pikachu far too quickly in Mel's mind. However, this was only to be expected, as her mind was back in the clearing with the vague shape that she had seen of Adam and all sorts of horrors that her imagination could visit upon him.

"Right," Joanna strode over, and tapped a strange green ball to the pikachu's head. "Thank you, Miss Brown. We can go back and arrange a campsite for you and your friends."

"What?" Mel looked around bewildered.

"Your friend, the one who was shocked, shouldn't try to walk around for at least four days, and you'll have to take it slow. We'll have to find you three a permanent place to set up, and teach you about fresh water, and such. Luckily you're not too far from Viridian, so one of you can always run back and get more supplies. I'll be sending Chansey down to get pain medication, anyway."

"But, but," Mel stumbled, and then trotted to catch up with Joanna, who was already walking away. She felt there was something wrong with this arrangement. Shouldn't Adam be going to a hospital? They had said he had been /crisped/.

"Look," Joanna thrust her hands into her coat pockets, correctly judging the concern. "Your friend is going to be terrified of the idea of battling after this, most likely. He won't be able to train properly. He's not that badly hurt. Just skin burns, and advanced paralysis. He can completely heal from all that within four weeks, and he can be well enough to keep going in five days.

"But we take him to a hospital and he'll probably give up on ever being a trainer. He'll go to some tech school, and start up a normal life without once coming out of the protective shell he will have built around himself.

"I've seen this happen with rangers. If they are forced back onto the metaphorical rapidash they're fine. If you take them to some white washed room smelling of disinfectant and isolation they can't bring themselves to go back," Joanna sighed. "It's a mental game that their head plays with them. Once you can prove to him that battling isn't going to nearly kill him or his pokemon everything will work out properly."

Mel didn't understand what Joanna was saying, not even all the words made sense, let alone the context, but she just nodded and went along with it anyway. Arguing didn't seem sensible at a time like this. Lapis trudged along beside her in his stoic fashion, and didn't say anything to contradict the ranger.

When they got back to the former poacher's camp, Mel was made to sit down next to Matt, while the rangers quickly packed away the poacher's belongings, labeling, and cataloguing each one. Joanna's chansey bustled around Adam, while Rusty kept watch over the handcuffed and bound poacher. Jack was no where to be seen, but from what Joanna had said, Mel guessed that he was trying to find a new camp site for all of them to move to.

Matt was completely silent, just holding Tirith, and staring at the ground. Mel looked longingly over her shoulder, but Joanna was too busy talking on her cell phone to chat with, and Rusty shouldn't be distracted. Mel sighed internally. She would have liked to talk to someone about all the confusion and confusing-ness. All in all, Mel felt pretty miserable.

It didn't even matter that the drizzle that had been plaguing them the whole day seemed to have abated. Mel felt drizzly inside, and this was something she had never experienced, and didn't particularly want to.

Joanna clicked her phone shut, and came over to the duo. She sat down on a log across from Mel and Matt and sighed. "All right, the Viridian police are going to be coming here, and asking you some questions. Basically you'll have to tell then what you told us. It's nothing really, but they want their records straightened, and the Viridian gym leader will want to know things, apparently. Don't know why. Anyway, you'll have to stay put until they're finished with you. Think that you can do that? Hey, bulba-boy," Joanna snaked her fingers out, and tilted Matt's chin up so that he was no longer staring at the ground. "Look at me when I'm talking to you. Do you think you can handle this?"

"Yeah," Matt yanked his chin away, and glared at the ground again.

"Yes, ma'am," Mel said quickly, trying to draw Joanna's attention away from Matt. "What's so strange about the gym leader wanting a report, ma'am? Viridian Forest is considered to be under his jurisdiction. He'll have to judge the case when the poacher comes up before him."

Joanna looked at Mel. "Really? So your gym leaders double as arbiters here? We don't do it like that in Hoenn."

"Arbi-whats?" Mel looked confused. "Gym leaders always deal with all pokemon related crimes. Kanto's split up into," she thought for a moment back to her classes with Professor Oak, "sixteen districts, and each district has a Judge and a Gym Leader. The judge deals with human related crimes, and the gym leader with pokemon related crimes. When they are intertwined both sit in on the case, and rule on it. Each district is usually defined as the areas around each town, although a few districts just contain one gym, and a collection of smaller family villages. Have I got it right?" Mel looked at Matt. He shrugged. He'd never really listened to half of the classes he'd attended.

"Really?" Joanna's tone grew more interested, bordering on the cynical. "That's very interesting. In Hoenn, the pokemon league and the legal system are not quite so close. We just have arbiters who decide things for a certain district. Bah," she rose in a fluid movement, and stalked over to the chansey. "How is he, Chansey?"

The borrowed pokemon looked at Joanna and clapped her flippers together to indicate that the human boy would be fine. "Chan chan."

"That's a relief. I'm sure the pokemon center wants you back as soon as possible. If I give you to Finder can you get the proper pain medication?"

The pink pokemon clapped her flippers again, and added, in case the human didn't understand: "Chan chan."

"Finder, come here," Joanna called.

The giant arcanine rose from his guard position, and trotted over. Joanna returned the chansey, and handed the pokeball to the arcanine. Finder bit down on the ball, and then dashed back through the trail he had blazed only half an hour ago.

Mel watched him go, feeling too numb to be amazed. Joanna and Finder barely had to exchange words and he understood what was asked of him. Did all trainers get that good, or was it only rangers in particular?

"They're pretty amazing," she muttered to herself.

"Yeah." Mel jumped, and looked at Matt. He had put Tirith down, and was watching Joanna as she stood over the poacher with Rusty. He looked over at Mel, and then down to the ground, scowling. "Adam shouldn't have confronted that guy. He can't handle battle situations."

"Huh?" Mel asked.

"He froze up. I've noticed that he lets his pokemon do most of the battling for him. He likes pokemon, but he shouldn't battle with them. Not intense battles at any rate. He doesn't know what to do." Matt kicked angrily at the ground. "If Adam wasn't so weak and stupid he wouldn't be lying there like a dead body!"

Mel leaned back, her eyes wide in comparison to Matt's intense, scrunched face. "Matt, he couldn't help it. He probably had his reasons."

"His reasons. His reasons! He's an idiot who can't handle himself, those are his reasons!" Matt scrubbed at an eyelid, his voice a low vehement hiss. "If you'd have been there you would have taken charge of the battle. That poacher was an idiot, and he only got this far because Adam was a bigger one. You and Lapis would have figured something out."

Mel would have felt more pleased by the words if Matt hadn't seemed to throw them in her face like dirt. "It's not my fault that we were-," she began to protest.

"No, it's not your fault," Matt agreed. "You were too far away. You didn't run into the clearing, and then haul your pokemon away like a coward just so she wouldn't be stolen. You would have made us pull together and be a team." He picked up a rock and flung it harshly at the nearest tree.

Mel didn't know what to say. However, seeing as talking had only made Matt even more angry she decided to pay attention to Lapis the way Matt was keeping track of Tirith. After all, it was better to clam up, than provide a big target for ammunition.

Mel bent to provide close turtle shell inspection. The few thundershock strikes had left blackened portions on the red plates, and when she ran a finger over them Lapis replied with an indignant "Squitle!"

"All right," she sighed. "I won't continue."

She straightened up, and something red and white fell from her lap. She picked up the pokeball, and quickly turned. "Oh, I forgot, here's your weedle."

Matt looked at her confused, as she held out the pokeball.

"I found your weedle," Mel repeated. "Perhaps you'd like it back?"

Matt took the pokeball, his face twitching strangely. Then he began to snort with laughter. One look at Melamine's highly confused face made it impossible to stop the giggles, and he began to laugh outright.

"What's so funny?" Mel protested.

"Nothing," Matt tried to suppress the expression in his face once again, and released the weedle.

"What?!" Mel asked.

"Nothing, Wash Pot," this only made him begin to chuckle again.

"I'll brain you with my pokedex!" the girl warned, and Chrono, keeping a respectful distance away, looked up with a surprised: "Steady on!"

"Nothing, I was just thinking," Matt stared at the weedle and finally managed to get his laughter under control, "about what Alex would have said. "That weedle isn't an 'it,' he's a he. And you're an idiot girl not for knowing the difference." Mew, I could almost hear him, and it was just so funny. You can remember all the stupid classes that we've had, but you can't tell pokemon's genders apart, and can't throw pokeballs, and you sit back like a lump half the time, pretending to be as dumb as a post."

"Oh thanks," Mel said in exasperation. "I do not pretend to be as dumb as a post, and if anyone is lump-like, it's you. I don't think I've heard you say more than two sentences each day until now. And at least I can name my pokemon."

Matt stuck out his tongue. "The only one you own."

"Oh yeah? What's that weedle's name then?"

"Um," Matt looked at a loss for words, and then smirked. "Disaster. Because that's what today has been."

"Weedle," the bug pokemon muttered. Lapis and Tirith nodded in cynical agreement.

Mel laughed light heartedly, feeling still a little nervy but better. They began to talk, something Mel would never have thought possible for the normally taciturn Matt to do. It was easy enough, small talk, mainly about comparing Disaster with Tirith, and reading pokedex data. They even managed to forget about Adam for a short while, until someone came, and tapped Mel on the shoulder. She looked up to see the concerned face of Rusty.

"'Scuse me, but the policemen are here. They'll be asking the two of you some questions."

Just behind him two large men were muttering to one another, looking uncomfortable and out of place in their uniforms. Mel heard a whispered: "Sheesh, last time I was out here it was to take the wife and kids camping--,"

Somehow, the comment seemed to ruin the forest.

The questions took forever. First they questioned Mel, and then they questioned Matt, and then they questioned both of the children together. The light had become slanted and golden by the time the questions were done, and the two natives of Pallet felt alternately wrung out and confused.

Finally however, the older policeman nodded, and the younger said, "Thank you for answering these. I've taken all of your information down, as evidence, you understand? You two are witnesses to a crime. We'd like it if you stayed here in Viridian or went home until the trial happens, but we've been informed that you two would prefer to continue with your training journeys. However, you two should talk to your parents first. We're going to subpoena you for the trial, but that might be in two years or so."

"What? Why?" Mel asked, suddenly on the verge of tears. "We know he did it!"

The younger officer, who had taken his wife and kids to this spot for vacation, smiled reassuringly at the little girl. "There are other cases that the Gym Leader and Judge have to hear Miss Brown. We need to gather more stable evidence. I doubt that you're the first people he's tried to steal from, and others need to have their say. These things happen, all right? But first, you need to call your parents, and your friend --," he paused and consulted his notebook, "Mr. Goin's parents."

"Use my phone," his elderly partner handed over a battered cell phone that didn't even have a video chip. "We'll wait."

Mel turned to offer the phone to Matt first, but he was staring at the ground again, and obviously didn't see her, as he made no move to take it. Mel breathed out for a minute, and then dialed her home phone number, hoping that either Mom or Ora would pick up. She didn't want to explain this stuff to Katherine.

"Hello, this is Cynthia Brown speaking," her mother's calm controlled voice came over the phone, with only the slightest crackle of static, thanks to the trees branching overhead.

"Hi, Mom?"

"Hello? Who is this, Melamine, or Katherine?" one of Mrs. Brown's pet peeves was people who didn't announce who they were over the phone. For some reason this common place annoyance made Mel laugh in shaky relief. "It's Melamine, Mom. Look --,"

"Melamine! Sorry I missed you yesterday, sweetie! Why didn't you call from Viridian?"

"Sorry, Mom, it was late, and I kinda forgot," Mel shook her head, although her mother couldn't see. "But, Mom--,"

"Didn't your father tell you to call when you reached a town? The phones in the Pokemon Centers are free, you know. Never mind. Has the egg hatched yet?" Mel's mother ploughed on, without listening to her daughter after her question was answered. "You know you need to keep it warm. Luckily, the species I picked for you is very hardy, but it's always hard to tell what will happen on a journey."

"No, Mom, but I have something to tell you, all right?" Mel finally managed to say, almost trembling from worry about her mother's reaction to this. Part of her wanted her mother to order her to come home instantly, and forget about training.

"Okay, darling, I'm listening," her mother's voice was a reassuring verbal hug at the other end of the receiver.

"Well, I'm in the Viridian Forest right now, and, well, I'm traveling with Matt Drakan and Adam Goin, right? And Adam ran into a-a," she looked at the officers helplessly, and the elder of the two whispered "poacher" for her, "poacher and something happened, and he was hit by a stray electric attack. He's all right, but it'll take him a week or two to get up and about, and I just wanted you to know that, and could you give me Adam's phone number? The policemen say his parents will want to know."

Mel sniffed wetly into the silence from the phone. Then her mother said: "Honey? Melamine? You're all right, aren't you?"

"Yeah. I'm fine. Well, I fell over some logs. I'm not good at forests."

There was a small laugh from the Pallet Town end of life. "All right. Do you want to come home, dear?"

"Not really," Mel lied. "I mean, if you want me to-but I haven't even begun to train, really."

"All right, dear. I'm not going to stop you from enjoying your journey. I'll be calling Adam's parents. Are you certain he'll be okay?" Mrs. Brown asked.

"Yeah. There's a chansey here, and she's cured almost everything," Mel said.

"Okay then, be strong, all right? I'll talk to Adam's parents. They might want him to come home, understand? And I'm calling your father, he will meet you in Pewter with a cell phone, and you're to call every day, understand? Every day. I don't care if you're tired, or there's no reception unless you walk for a mile, you will call us. How long before you're in Pewter?"

"Well, Adam won't be able to walk for a week, and it's about four more days until we get out of the forest, so a week and five days, maybe?" Mel told her mother after some mental calculation.

"Hmm. Do you have E-mail?" Cynthia didn't sound as if she liked the sound of what Mel had just said.

Over by the returned Finder, watching Joanna administer medicine from a carrying case with interest, Chrono nodded emphatically, and pointed at the pokedex strapped to Mel's pack.

"Well, I can e-mail Professor Oak, I think."

"You had better do that regularly, then," her mother told her sternly, before adding, "I will talk to him, as well as Adam's parents. And-Mathew Drakan is there with you, you say? I can talk to his father as well. Don't worry, everything is going to be fine. Can you give me to the policemen, now? I'd like to talk to them."

Mel breathed out gratefully. "Yes, Mom." She handed the phone back to the gray-haired policeman. "My mother wants to talk to you. Oh, and say your name," she whispered.

The old man grinned, and took the phone. "Sergeant Morrison, here."

Mel turned to Matt, the knot in her stomach easing slightly. "Mom said she'd talk to your dad."

Matt shrugged. "Good, I guess. When can we go?"

"As soon as the policeman tells you that you can go," the three rangers melted out of the background right behind the two kids, and Jack nodded at both of them. "We've set up a camp site for you three. Finder will move your friend there, and I can show you around."

Mel looked anxiously at the younger policeman, who raised an eyebrow. "Is it by that stream and the plum tree?"

Jack nodded. "Yes, fresh water and food never did anyone harm."

"I know the place. We went camping there last summer. It's a regular spot for families. There is plenty of firewood, and the basic amenities. Why don't you take them there? If we need to know anything else we know where to find you."

Jack nodded, and the little group set off down a path heading west of the clearing. Mel was amazed that Jack had been able to find the small dirt track in the tangled undergrowth of trees and ferns. It made her also realize that there had been a path leading from the clearing in a different direction, as she pictured the place in her head. Were these paths all over the forest? She could have saved herself a lot of falling down if she had realized it sooner.

The path began to climb steadily, although the trees thinned out a bit, until they reached the crest of a grassy hill. A dark green tent was already set up, the leaf symbol of the rangers imprinted on its side in white. "That'll be for Adam and Matt," Jack told the two trainers as they looked at it. "You, Miss Mel, will have to set up your own tent. There's an outhouse up the path a little ways. Just down the hill over there," he pointed to the right, "is a plum tree. They're a little under ripe, but it you run out of food you could try them. To the left is a stream. Don't get soap in it. There's a non-toxic shampoo in the med kit the chansey made up for your friend, use that and do it down stream," he walked the pair over to the shallow stream and scooped up some of the clear water. "Don't drink from here unless you've boiled it first, I mean it. It's fresh water, and good, but you never know what it might contain. Have you got food?"

"I've got some cans of soup and ravioli," Mel volunteered as Matt shrugged.

Jack sighed. "You'll need more. One of you is going to have to walk back to Viridian to get it in two or three days. And someone needs to be with Adam at all times. It'd be better if there were four of you, but bring extra pokemon along, when you go to Viridian, I suppose. I'd also like it if the person who isn't watching your friend trains his pokemon for him. You might as well get stronger if you can. That pikachu should be ready to get up and move in two or three days, but don't force him to use electric attacks unless he's ready. The chansey checked him out as okay, just exhausted, but you never know."

He led them back up the hill to see Joanna coming out of the tent, dusting her hands off in the manner of someone who has just done a good job. "Well, come on you two," she said, catching sight of the beleaguered trainers drowning in information. "Let's set up that second tent."

Several pegs, ropes, tangles of ropes, and an exasperated look at the instruction booklet later, Mel copied Joanna as the older teen flopped onto the grass. "Whatever happened to "this is your tent pole, and a couple of rocks, get to it"?" Joanna asked Jack.

The young man shrugged, grinning. "Everything's gotten technical these days. At least you got it up."

"Amen to that," Joanna rose slowly. "We've got to get going. We'll try to check in on you every other day or so, but we never know when another job will pop up." She sauntered over to the tent, and returned her arcanine, as Rusty and Jack followed her.

Mel looked at the setting sun through the leaves of the plum tree, as Matt poked the red bubble-shaped tent experimentally.

"You think we should make dinner?" Mel asked.

"Rusty set up the fire pit, while you were arguing with the tent," Matt shrugged. "Have you got any matches?"

"In the small outer pocket next to the incubator," Mel replied, moving to get up tiredly. Right now she envied Adam, lying sleeping in the large green tent.

Chrono, who had been looking through Mel's pack after having found the instruction manual for the tent, held them up. "Here they are."

Matt swiped them and stalked off to the charred area of grass and ring of stones that denoted the fire pit. Striking a match from the box on a stone he held it to the dried moss that they had used as tinder, and waited for it to catch. Mel walked over to Chrono, and hunted through her pack for a can of ravioli, and her set of collapsible cooking gear.

She tossed the can towards Matt (it missed its mark by a yard and he had to pick it up with rolled eyes), as she brought out the small blue bag with all the clever little camping stuff. "I'll get the tripod out and then heat the can up, okay?" she said to Matt, who paused mid-inaudible grumble.

"Wash Pot? That's not how you cook it."

"Huh? But it's gotta be. You take the ravioli heat up the can, open the can, and then eat it," Mel said, using deductive reasoning about the cooking process.

"There's a pan involved for a start. You heat up the can and it's likely to explode. Don't you ever cook at home?" Matt asked, as he walked over and lifted the blue bag of cooking utensils from her hands.

"No," Mel looked at the ground. "Ora and Mom do most of the cooking. I didn't know you knew how to cook."

Matt shrugged, as he found a miniature cork screw with an old fashioned can opener at the other end within the contents of the bag, and a nested set of pans with long plastic handles. "I know how to heat things up. I thought girls learned how to do that sort of stuff when they were five."

"I didn't."

Lapis and Tirith, who had gone off to the stream together, returned, and Lapis, annoyed at the ashamed tone in Mel's voice, began an angry diatribe at Matt. Tirith promptly bit the squirtle on the tail, and Mel and Matt had to dive to separate them. By the time the scuffle ended it was almost fully dark, and Matt quickly opened the can, and poured the contents into the largest pan, and set it over the fire to heat.

Mel found two plates in the welter of her supplies, and together they spooned down the tomato sauce with the occasional piece of pasta submerged under it. Mel put her plate aside, and looked up at the stars, framed all around with branches twisting up into the heavens. Lapis was beside her, everything tucked neatly into his shell. Tirith and Matt were across the way, Matt trying to tempt Disaster with a bit of half eaten ravioli, and Tirith sleeping as well, having gone to be when the sun went down. The fire crackled, throwing up a shower of sparks into the air.

Mel breathed out into the late summer night. This was really quite nice.