There was no path for them to follow. They had to just blunder through the forest underbrush and try to avoid the wickeder-looking thorns. They’d been at it for a while, and James had the sinking sensation that they hadn’t gained much ground at all. He was absolutely exhausted, especially since having completely wasted himself getting to the convention in the first place. He was sure he didn’t have the strength to leave it, too. But Tengu showed no intentions of slowing down.
        James had been walking alone, fully focused on the task of putting one foot in front of the other, when Faith, tagging faithfully behind Tengu, tripped with a little shriek over a fallen branch. Without thinking about it, James reached out and caught her before she fell.
        Faith looked up at him and blushed. “Oh! Thanks… er.” She looked down, trying to remember his name. “Oh! James.” She smiled apologetically.
        He shrugged as best as his exhausted muscles could allow. He felt obliged to respond -- you know, like with a “No problem,” or “My pleasure,” -- but he had neither the resolve nor the extra strength to move his lips. So he just blinked at her,
        Faith gave him another grateful look and ran up to catch up with Tengu.
        James heaved a weary sigh and continued walking.
        To his right, a tall young man was picking his way carefully around fallen branches and thorn-bushes. It was the same person James had noticed at the psychic section, though he hadn’t yet had the opportunity to speak to him. He had ginger-colored hair and looked to be the same age as James. He looked lost in thought at the moment, or maybe he was just a pensive sort of guy. After all, there wasn’t much to think about when all you can see is dark leaves and bark. And thorns. You couldn’t forget about the thorns.
        “Yo, Jim!”
        James turned automatically. As he did, a thorn caught him on the leg, between where his shorts ended and his boots began, and he winced.
        “Shee-it! Bet that hurt, don’t it?” Nell laughed and clapped a hand on his back. “What up, boy-ee? Huh. You look a hot mess.”
        James smiled despite himself. “I guess I’m just pretty tired.”
        She rolled her eyes. “Sho’ nuff! This off the wall. It ain’t right, makin’ us walk all this much.” She glanced to her right. “’Ey!” She brightened. “K-Dawg!”
        The tall young man looked up. “Oh.” His voice was low and soft. “Hi, Nell.”
        Nell motioned for him to come over. He stepped towards them obediently. “K-Dawg here’s my dawg!” She held out her hand for him to high-five.
        He didn’t, rather extending his hand towards James. “Hi. I’m Caleb.”
        James took it, stepping around a tree stump as he did. “I’m James.”
        Nell punched Caleb in the arm. “Yeah! K-Dawg here got the Alakazam amulet. That makes him awe-toe-mah-tik-lee coo’…. ya know. Us being all tizight on the evolution deal an’ all dat. Ho’d on.” She looked quizzically at James. “You ne’er told me what amulet you got.” She fixed him with a steely glare.
        He blinked. “Um.” He hesitated, and, on a whim, considered what Jessie would say in this situation. “Well… you never asked.”
        “I’m askin’ now, ain’t I?!” She shook her head. “Shit.”
        James sighed. There was no getting around it. “It’s… Mew.”
        Caleb’s eyebrows rose just a little, but Nell stopped dead. “Mew?” she asked incredulously.
        “Yeah.” He felt very awkward, like a display in a museum. Already he was uncomfortable with the attention he got because of his amulet, and he’d only had it for one night. He himself hadn’t ever heard much about Mew, only snatches of gossip about it in the Team Rocket headquarters coffee lounge. But even that small selection of rumors was enough to make even him a little afraid of himself. His shoulders sank. If people kept treating him like he was-
        “Well den, what the fuck is Mew? It one a’them new Pokémon, or whatever?” Nell frowned. “Shit. Take me a good damn year to mem’rize the first hunned-an’-fitty, and now they’s bustin’ out with all them Johto muthafuckas!” The girl shook her head. “Piss me off…”
        James blinked again. He wasn’t quite yet familiar with that sort of reaction…
        “No, Nell,” Caleb began patiently. “Mew’s the most powerful Pokémon in the world.” He paused. “Tell the truth, there’s a growing controversy about that particular fact. But it is widely accepted that Mew-”
        “Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Nell snapped her fingers. “I get the picture. You need to learn shut yo’ mouth, K-Dawg, fo’ I dump yo’ ass as a homie.” She stopped. “’Sides, I thought that what’s-it-name… Mewtwo. I thought it wa’ tha best.”
        “It is,” Tengu called faintly from the front. “Walk faster.”
        Nell glowered. “Man, I know that boy ain’t talking to me.” She shoved her hands into her pockets furiously. After a minute of sulking, she looked up at Caleb. “Hey, K-Dawg. How much longer you think we gonna have to walk?”
        Caleb shrugged. “I don’t know.” He gave it a moment’s thought. “I guess… well, think about how long it took to get here.”
        Nell’s nose wrinkled in disgust. “Fuck, man, too long. I thought I was ‘bout ta die, shee-it, I was so tired. I had to walk hella far.” She looked to the side. “Well, I did hitch a few rides,” she admitted. “But still, that’s mo’ walkin’ than evah needs to been done by me.”
        “Right.” Caleb nodded. “I’m guessing this time’ll take longer than that.”
        “What?! Fuck, naw!” Nell ran forward. “Yo! Hey, whatever yo name is! Tengu!” The young man looked back at her. Nell took a few long strides to catch up with him. “This ain’t cool, man,” she said, jabbing a finger at his chest. “I done too much walkin’ in the past twenty-fo’ hours alone, dawg! I don’t need to do no mo’.”
        “Mm-hmm. So how do you suggest we get to where we’re going?” He watched her with barely-contained disdain.
        She shrugged. “Shit, I ‘unno. Call somebody, hitch a ride o’sumpin.”
        Tengu covered a laugh with a cough, and walked faster.
        Nell slowed down. “Hey! I know you ain’t ignorin’ me!” she warned his back. There was a pause. “Don’t be ignorin’ me!”
        There was no reply.
        She frowned and cupped her hands around her mouth. “Motherf-!”
        “Nell!” Caleb called out sharply.
        She scowled, but returned to the young man’s side, muttering obscenities under her breath.
        James sighed and went back to concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.

- - -

        It had been the same thing for hours and hours and hours.
        She’d read about it before somewhere, she remembered. Maybe it had been in one of her friend’s glamour magazines, in an article boasting of the benefits of exercise. Something like that. She’d heard of it before, the little burst of adrenaline commonly known as a runner’s high that is experienced when a body is pushed past the its highest standard level of activity.
        She wondered where her runner’s high was. She’d been running for a long long time. She could really have used the extra endorphins right about then. She was very tired… so tired she couldn’t put words to it.
        As she thought this, she was running, through brush and briar and low-hanging tree branches, to a place she didn’t even know existed. The only information she had on the location’s authenticity was that of the word of a crazed spirit inhabiting the ivory stone that she wore around her neck.
        It was about that time that she stopped thinking about pretty much everything. In an insane sort of way, she was trying to conserve energy.

- - -
        
        It was a large expanse of forest. There was room enough within it to contain all sorts of people.
        In another part of its wide green stretch, a stray branch caught a different girl on the cheek, before she left it behind in a tornado of uprooted grass and dust and rustling leaves. Still, no matter how much distance she put between it and her, the offending branch had still left a nice neat red line across her cheek, as a memento of sorts.
         She didn’t even notice.
        All she could see was green rushing past on all sides. All she could hear was a rhythmic muted beat of diamond hooves against lush grass. All she could feel was an overwhelming exhilaration that was a result of the intoxicating combination of excitement, fatigue, and an overstimulated sensory system.
        She’d never ridden a horse before. Neither had many of the people with whom she was currently tearing through the forest.
        Considering that fact, they were all doing marvelously well.
        She’d been very nervous earlier, having been confronted with the situation that she had been. She’d trooped along with her fellow fire-types, unsure of just exactly who was leading whom, through a stretch of forest before coming upon what was essentially a pasture. They’d lined up along the fence, on the other side of which dozens of equine fireballs blazed around and around in wide looping circles. It had been particularly nerve-wracking for the humans. Unfortunately, the Ponytas had sensed, perhaps even smelled, the fear fanning around the clustered group of people, and had gotten even more riled up than they had been before. Which, of course, did nothing but scare the already petrified humans. Which, of course, got the horses even more riled up. And so on, and so on, and it was all becoming a horrible cycle when suddenly Misty had found herself at the front of the line and a strong pair of hands had lifted her easily and placed her on the back of a fretfully waiting Ponyta. And before she’d even had the chance to grab onto the flaming mane for safety, the same hand had whapped the horse hard on the backside, and it had shot off through the open corral and into the forest, via a wide path that seemed to stretch through the trees forever.
        The Ponyta’s fire didn’t burn because the person with the Ponyta amulet, a brassy girl named Natalie whom Misty had found to be a generally likable person, had been forced to enter the pasture earlier and speak to the horses. Natalie, never having encountered the particular species of Pokémon before, had been just as panicky as the rest of her companions – hell, she was in the same goddamn paddock as the things; she was ten times more panicky than her companions – but, unexpectedly, her very presence seemed to soothe the frazzled nerves of the horses assembled there. She’d informed them shakily, hardly trusting that the animals understood, that they were to act as transportation for the people here tonight. Despite her misgivings, the horses had yet to generate uncomfortable heat for anyone so far, and in fact, the warmth her steed was generating Misty found to be quite cozy.
        The steady beat of the hooves and the warmth that ebbed from her mount lulled her into a deep sense of contentment, a state so very close to complete unconsciousness that, if not for the adrenaline that sparked through her veins, she probably would’ve fallen off of the horse. In fact, even if she did fall off the horse, her exhaustion had escalated to the point where she probably wouldn’t have even noticed.
        But there was no point in worrying about falling asleep at the reins because the neck-breaking sprint through the trees was the most exciting and stimulating thing that had ever happened to Misty, and, even as she knew it could possibly continue on for hours and hours, as she hunched over the neck of her streamlined steed, she would have been content to go on forever.
. . .