Tommy didn’t remember climbing down from the island’s summit or entering the cave to return back to his campsite. By the time he came to his senses he realized he was sitting around the fire and was preparing breakfast. Neither Ashley nor Nessa had exited their tents yet but that was fine with him because it gave him some time to himself to ponder his already wild morning. He saw Zach patrolling the cave, visiting various campsites and checking in on the students. He was sure that Zach would treat him differently but as his chaperone walked over to their campsite, he said hello with a perfectly cheery smile. Tommy didn’t know if that was due to the fact that other students could be watching them or if Zach truly didn’t care about last night but he would put money on it being the first reason. He hoped that he would not end up alone with Zach at any point in time for the duration of their trip.

Tommy had some mushrooms going in the pan again and was slicing some of the sausage that he had brought from home when Nessa emerged from her tent.

“Good morning,” she greeted sleepily. She rubbed her eyes as she made her way over to where he was sitting, so Tommy took a moment to glance at her while her eyes were closed.

His thoughts were a mess this morning as he thought back to last night. He noticed that in the places where Ashley had been soft, Nessa was strong and muscled. Her stomach was packed with muscle and her arms and legs were strong; she wasn’t as ‘well-endowed’ as Ashley but she was just as beautiful in her own way. She finished stretching and lowered her hands so Tommy quickly glanced at the food he was working on. He chastised himself silently for staring at her inappropriately and felt his face flush. He hoped she didn’t notice as she took a seat on the log next to him.

“You feel hot,” she said, placing her hand on his forehead. That only caused his face to get hotter. “Let me put some sunscreen on you today before we go outside, so you don’t aggravate your sunburn.”

He avoided looking into her blue eyes, “I would appreciate that, thank you.”

“How did you sleep?” Nessa smiled.

“I had difficulty sleeping,” he admitted to her. He had returned his gaze to chopping sausage so his face didn’t betray him. “Bit of a bad dream actually. Did you hear me? Hopefully I didn’t wake you.”

“No, I’m a pretty heavy sleeper,” Nessa told him and he exhaled in relief. “Plus with everything we went through yesterday I was pretty exhausted.”

“Yeah you did great in all of the challenges,” He smiled at her. “You must be sore everywhere from all of the physical exertion.”

Nessa opened her mouth to say something but frowned over at Ashley who had just climbed out of her tent wearing a blue and white bikini for the day's events.

“You should wear a shirt,” Nessa told her. “So your burn doesn’t worsen.”

Nah, I’ll be okay,” Ashley said. She whimpered as she sat down on the log next to Tommy and Nessa. “My burn isn’t that bad.”

“You should really listen to her,” Tommy said to her. “Nessa is your friend; she’s just looking out for you.”

“Okay, Tommy,” she smiled brightly. “If you think I should.”

She retreated into her tent to grab a shirt and Nessa looked at him with an eyebrow raised. He stared intently at the food in the pan as he pulled it off the fire and distributed it onto their plates. Ashley came out wearing the t-shirt that she had been wearing when she entered his tent last night so he quickly busied himself shoveling the sausage and mushroom breakfast into his mouth.

“I’ll do the dishes this morning,'' he said, grabbing all of the dirty plates the second everyone finished eating and rushing out to the ocean. He hurried along because he didn’t want to run into Zach out here alone and because the day's events would probably be starting soon. When he returned, he deposited the dishes and ran into his tent to pull on a swimsuit. He emerged to see the two girls waiting for him, Nessa holding the bottle of sunscreen.

“We already put some on each other,” She said. She squeezed some in her hand then passed the bottle to him. She started putting it on his back before he could say anything so he just looked straight ahead.

“Thanks, I can get everywhere else,” he told her, starting on his chest and arms once she was done with his back. “Let’s head outside, it looks like everyone else is.”

They found Zach standing on the beach, shirt off and arms folded across his chest. He had a massive scar above his heart where it looked like he had been pierced by something sharp. He was looking directly at Tommy who suddenly found his mouth to be very dry.

“Good morning everyone!” Zach beamed. “Let’s go ahead and walk through the rules of our first event of the day.”

The quiet chattering and murmuring of the students slowly died out as everyone waited for Zach to begin.

“Our first event of the day will be a scavenger hunt!” He said excitedly. “Each of you will travel around the island and search for gold coins that I hid last night. They aren’t real gold of course and have no real value. There are 500 in total that I have hidden all around the island. They could be underwater, buried under your feet in the sand, or even in the cave. There are some on the first floor of the cave but none on any of the lower levels. Additionally, none are hidden in the room where we are camping so do not go digging through other students belongings or you will be disqualified. I have pouches here that you will tie around your waists and deposit the coins into as you find them. The pouches can be stolen by members of other teams so be sure to guard your coins.”

“Yesterday you were not allowed the use of a Pokémon,” Zach continued. “That has now changed. For this first event everyone will be allowed to use one Pokémon only, I will give you five minutes to strategize with your team before I start the game so if you have more than one Pokémon you don’t need to make your decision right away. Pokémon are not allowed to attack other Pokémon as that is not the purpose of this game, finding the golden coins is. You may use your Pokémon to do anything except attack another Pokémon or of course a trainer. If I catch anyone using their Pokémon to attack someone else your team will be disqualified and any coins collected will be removed from the game.”

“Whoever has the most coins collected at the end of the three hour game will win first place and three points for their team,” Zach said. “Second place will win two points, and third place one point. Are there any questions for me before we begin?”

“How far out in the water are the coins hidden?” One boy asked.

Zach nodded his head, “Good question. They are hidden in the water all around the island but not further than the buoys you swam around yesterday. Any other questions?”

When no one else said anything Zach handed out empty pouches to each student and told the groups to split up around the island. He would be starting the game in 5 minutes.

“Okay I’m using Shellder, and Tommy will be using Solosis,” Nessa said. “Who are you going to use Ashley?”

Ashley chewed her bottom lip, “I know who I should use…”

Nessa nodded her head in agreement, “Forget your nonexistent fight with Max, he will reveal his other Pokémon soon enough as well. We need to win this event today.”

“You’re right,” she sighed, agreeing with Nessa reluctantly. “I’ll use Gible, she can easily dig through the sand on the beach and bring in loads of coins for us.”

The three of them heard a bell and the game began. They called out their respective Pokémon and since they were already on the beach Ashley had Gible begin digging back and forth through the sand.

“Stick together so we can defend our pouches,” Tommy said. Solosis bounced up and down eagerly in his hands.

Some students rushed into the cave while many others began to swim out into the ocean, diving for coins alongside their Pokémon. Tommy was eyeing a group of three boys casting glances their way, the same three boys they had run into by the cave pond yesterday. Ultimately the boys turned and left, deciding now was not the best time to make a move.

Gible easily swam through the sand like a fish through water. Sometimes you would see her little fin cresting the sand while other times she was completely submerged in the ground. Either way, every so often Gible would toss a few coins to Ashley who placed all the coins in her pouch. In no time at all Gible had dug up over thirty coins for their group. She came up out of the ground panting and waddled over to Ashley who knelt down and patted her Pokémon encouragingly.

“Gible needs a break so where should we go next?” Ashley asked as she rubbed her hand over the purple dragon’s rough skin. Tommy smiled as Gible stuck her tongue out, her leg thumping as Ashley scratched back and forth.

“Let’s head around to the back of the island and let Shellder take a crack at diving,” Nessa suggested when no one offered a better idea. “I’ll swim with him too and see how many coins we can find.”

After another 30 minutes spent in the water Nessa and Shellder managed to get 40 coins that Nessa stored in her pouch.

“What do you think we should do with our coins?” Nessa asked breathlessly. She had collapsed on the beach after treading water for the past 30 minutes. “Should we spread them out or give them all to one person? We’ve got 70 amongst the three of us so I think people are going to go for steals soon.”

“Whatever we decide, let’s do it quickly,” Ashley said. She pointed to three different teams and a hodgepodge of rental Pokémon that were beginning to make their way over towards their group. “How are we possibly going to hold everyone off for two more hours?”

“Give me all of the coins,” Tommy said. “I’ll lead them away. Nessa is too tired to move and you can’t swim Ashley.”

The two girls looked like they were going to protest but Tommy held open his pouch in plain view of the approaching teams.

“Hurry, we’re wasting time,” Tommy urged. “I won’t be able to get away if we wait much longer.”

The girls emptied their pouches into Tommy’s and he took off across the sand, the 9 other students and their Pokémon quickly scrambling after him. He reached the base of the rocky island and began the familiar climb, Solosis riding on his shoulder as he clawed his way over the rocks and small boulders. A few of the boys started to gain ground on Tommy as he climbed, their smaller forms making them more agile than his stocky frame. He was about halfway to the top of the island when he heard someone right behind him. He glanced over his shoulder to see a boy grinning as he extended his hand at the pouch hanging on Tommy’s waist.

“Solosis, Protect!” Tommy yelled. A small blue barrier appeared around the coin pouch knocking the boy’s hand back and startling him. He lost his footing and tumbled back down the rocks a couple of meters. The other two boys in his group rushed to their companion yelling for Zach.

“Zach!” They screamed. He swooped out of the air on his Pidgeot and landed next to everyone. “That was a foul! Disqualify him!”

“It wasn’t a foul,” Zach replied to the trio of boys. “I was very specific with my wording. I said Pokémon were free to do anything except attack, Mr. Hartford did not use his Pokémon to attack anyone.”

He and Pidgeot flew away to go observe other portions of the battlefield while the two boys furiously collected their friend and began to climb again.

Tommy hadn’t stopped climbing the entire time and had put considerable distance between himself and everyone else as he got closer to the top. He took a moment to catch his breath at the summit, hardly believing that he could get away from so many people and Pokémon. Luckily his pursuers all had rental Pokémon and none of them had felt confident issuing any orders, not knowing what was considered an attack and what wasn’t. Eventually the other 9 students spread out in a semicircle to cut off his escape route back to the beach.

“We’ve got you now, you bastard!” He heard someone snarl as the students crested the island and ringed him in.

“Don’t be too sure!” Tommy shouted back to them. He turned and began to slide down the backside of the mountain, towards the waiting ocean below.

“Hold your breath buddy!” He yelled to Solosis. After sliding halfway down, he leapt from the side of the mountain and dove into the ocean below, clutching Solosis to his chest. He kicked for the surface and gasped for air, placing Solosis on the top of his head. He grinned at the 9 other students he left staring dumbstruck at the top of the island as he began to paddle back to the southern end of the beach where Nessa and Ashley were flagging him down.

“After him!” He heard the kids on the mountain say. Some began their descent towards the water the same way Tommy did while the less brave began to pick their way slowly down the mountain. He had forced them to waste enough time though and made it back to the beach where Nessa and Ashley were waiting for him.

“How much time did I waste?” He asked them hopefully.

“30 more minutes,” Nessa said. “That was brilliant by the way!”

“Yeah, but it won’t work again,” Tommy sighed. He looked around and saw that none of the students had given up, they were all still chasing him.

“All we have left then is the tunnels,” Ashley said. She shivered even though the sun was shining high overhead. “I’m not looking forward to an hour and a half in there.”

“Come on,” He said, looking over his shoulder at the other students. “We need a head start.”

They hustled across the beach, Pokémon in tow, and entered the cave, making their way to the room with the pond in it after a 10 min walk through winding tunnels. Tommy was a bit shaken up, he didn’t want to come back here again unless he had to. Now they were going to venture deeper into the cave. The tunnels quickly became dark, there were very few fluorescent fungi this deep, and Tommy had to walk extremely slowly, groping blindly in front of him with one hand while the other ran along the slick walls. Nessa and Ashley each had a hand on his back and followed him as he turned left, right, and left again. He got lost after the first few turns and soon began to panic, not sure how they were going to make it back.

After wandering for a while, Solosis started bouncing up and down frantically on Tommy’s shoulder, gurgling into his ear; he felt a surge of fear imparted into his mind by his partner.

“Let’s stop,” Tommy whispered, it felt wrong to speak in anything louder. He had broken out in a cold sweat and wasn’t keen on going too much further, now that Solosis was trilling incessantly. “I don’t hear voices following us anymore, anyway.”

They came to a halt in the pitch black, ears strained for any sound in the deafening silence.

“I can’t see anything,” Ashley whispered, an edge of panic in her voice as she clenched the back of Tommy’s shirt even harder. “I can’t even see my hand directly in front of my face.”

“Wait a second,” Nessa said softly. “Our PokéNavs, they have flashlights on the end.”

The three of them fumbled around with the gear on their wrists, trying to get their flashlights operational so they could see in the inky blackness.

“It’s so hard to think straight in these challenges. What should normally be common sense isn’t,” Ashley grumbled, a beam of light flared to life from the end of her PokéNav and Tommy and Nessa got theirs working shortly after.

A cursory scan of the place showed that they had stepped out from the tunnels and entered another room. Tommy offered a silent thanks to Solosis in the form of a head rub because as he shone his flashlight around he saw a chasm that bisected the room in half, opening just 5 paces from where he stopped. There was a rickety looking wooden bridge that spanned the wide chasm and appeared to be the only way across, the chasm was far too large to leap. He carefully walked to the edge and peered down, his flashlight cut through the darkness but wasn’t anywhere near powerful enough to reach the bottom.

“I think this is the last room on the first floor,” Nessa whispered. Her flashlight illuminated the far wall where a tunnel could be seen sloping downwards further into the complex. “Should we turn around and go back? Do you think the other students gave up?”

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Ashley muttered. She had backtracked to the tunnel entrance where the echo of faint voices could now be heard.

“I still have the coins,” Tommy said, holding the money pouch. “I’ll go across the bridge and when I make it across you two cut it, trapping me over there. Then no other students can follow me and I’ll just wait out the last hour over there.”

“And how will you get back across exactly?” Nessa asked, Tommy smiling at the genuine concern in her voice.

“Just get Zach once the challenge is over,” Tommy shrugged. “I haven’t broken any rules, I’ll still be on the first floor. He can bring me back across with Pidgeot.”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea Tommy,” Nessa said. “Just look at that bridge. It looks completely unusable.”

He shone his light onto the bridge, if it could still be called that. Many of the ropes holding the bridge intact were frayed in places and there were missing planks; what planks remained were old and rotting and didn’t look safe to step across.

“At least let one of us go,” Ashley said. “That thing looks like it can barely support either mine or Nessa’s weight, let alone yours.”

“Absolutely not,” Tommy said. The voices were getting louder now so he made his way over to the bridge. “There’s no way I’ll let either of you two be the ones to go across.”

He stepped his foot onto the first plank that creaked eerily but supported his weight, before anyone could protest further. Solosis was still riding on his shoulder and Tommy felt a bit better knowing that he wasn’t going to cross alone. He crept his way slowly across the bridge, in some places the bridge was missing two or even three planks and he tried his best not to jostle the bridge too much as he stepped across the open air. He was almost across when one of the planks he stepped on shattered under his weight. He lost his balance and slipped, hanging onto the rope as he dangled above the chasm.

“Tommy!” Nessa and Ashley screamed, voices echoing throughout the cavern.

He looked up at them just as the rope snapped and he and Solosis plummeted down into the bowels of the Earth.

Tommy feared his descent would be a straight free fall, but the chasm was twisted and gnarled so his momentum was halted by a collision with a wall every few meters. He did his best to cradle Solosis in his arms, trying to shield the little Pokémon from any strong impacts, hoping Solosis didn’t get crushed under his body. He fell for a long time, getting a new bruise on his back or one of his arms every time he hit a wall, but luckily centuries of damp conditions and rain had eroded away any sharp and dangerous rock formations, leaving the walls and floor that he was colliding with smooth and wet. He collided for a final time with the wall and tumbled down a chute which deposited him in an underground lake with a colossal splash. When Tommy surfaced he lay on his back floating for a while, trying to get his bearings and assess the damage his body had sustained. After the first few impacts, Tommy noticed that Solosis had been using Protect on him, preventing Tommy from sustaining any serious damage when he collided with the walls. The little guy was unconscious now and he hoped that it was only from overexerting himself to protect his trainer so Tommy recalled him to his Pokéball where he could rest for a while.

With Solosis gone Tommy panicked, his flashlight had stopped working as he fell and now he was truly alone at the bottom of this massive underground complex. He thought about waiting for Zach but decided it would be prudent to do something productive and work his own way out if he could; who knows how long it would take for Zach to find him, if he could even find him at all. Tommy forced that thought away, there must be a way out of this place and he would find it.

There were clusters of fluorescent fungi that lined the walls of the cave as there had been in the pond room, providing dim light and allowing Tommy to see to the edges of the room. The walls were completely smooth and there were only two things of note that stood out in this circular grotto, a large waterfall up against one wall, and a small beachhead diametrically opposed to it. Tommy swam towards the beach but found quickly that he could stand, the water only came up to his knees. He waded his way over to the shore and that was when terror truly set in. It appeared that there was no exit tunnel that led out of the room. He ran up to the wall, hoping it was a trick of the poor lighting, but he ran his hands all along the wall, as high and as low as he could reach, and found no exit. His next thought was to try to locate the shaft he had fallen through, but even if he found it, which he doubted he could, how could he climb back up it’s slick surface? There was no way out of this room.

Tommy collapsed onto his knees, clawing at the ground. He felt terror’s icy grip clutch his heart and settle into his stomach. What had he been thinking of trying to cross that bridge? They were playing a stupid game, he should have just surrendered the coins and then tried to steal some from another group. He should have buried them in the sand outside, or left them hidden underwater until the time limit had run out. There had been so many options laid before him that he had been too blind to see and now he was stuck in this room with an unconscious Pokémon and no way out. Tears formed in his eyes as he thought of his mother and father, his little sister, his friends; would he ever see them again?

“Help me!” He screamed at the top of his lungs. His voice echoed off the walls futilely and returned right back to him. He wiped his eyes and forced himself to stand. There must be some way out of this place, how had it not completely flooded by now? Surely if a waterfall was pumping water into this room then it would have been submerged unless the water had some place to escape to. An underwater tunnel out to the ocean? Into another room? Anywhere was better than here so he stood up with new resolve and began to walk back towards the water.

He paused.

In his efforts to locate the exit and his subsequent panic from not finding one, Tommy hadn’t noticed that there was a strange collection of rocks, the only thing of note on this small beach. They were smooth and flat, stacked high one atop the other in an unnatural shape; a cairn. There were no other rocks anywhere in this room so they must have been brought from somewhere else and arranged here, but who would go to all of that trouble?

Strange.

He walked up to the little pile of rocks and studied it. At first he thought the rocks had been placed haphazardly but now that he looked at it from up close he could see that they were arranged in a certain way. They were shaped crudely in the form of a great bird who had its wings out proudly as if cutting through a storm. Tommy extended his hand; the rocks were beautiful, entrancing even, and he felt compelled to reach forward and run his hand along them. The tips of his fingers came to rest upon the cairn.

Ten millennia I have waited patiently for you, little one.