Maya's POV

"You're welcome," Riley says, smiling. We go a little deeper into the forest, looking for any sign of wild Pokemon. Riley even lets Fennekin out of her Pokeball to help look.

After a while, I look over at Riley. Her face is pale, and she looks like she's about to fall asleep on her feet. Farkle sees, too.

"Riles?" I ask her. She doesn't reply. I wave my hand in front of her face. "Earth to Riley, Earth to Riley. . ."

She seems to come back to life. "Wha?" she says, looking around.

"You zoned out for a moment. Are you okay?" Farkle asks.

Riley nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine. . ."

I raise an eyebrow. "You sure? You look tired."

"I said I'm fine," she snaps.

She's definitely not fine. This isn't like her. I put my hands on my hips. "You're not fine, Riles," I tell her. "You're lying."

"If I'm lying, may lightning fall from the sky and strike that patch of grass!" Riley says, pointing towards a patch of grass.

"But it's a sunny day!" Farkle protests, looking up. I fallow his gaze. Past the trees, the sky is completely blue. From what I can see, there's not a cloud in the sky.

Riley smirks. Wait- Riley. . . Smirking? She's not fine.

The patch of grass that Riley had pointed to starts to rustle. Something small and yellow hops out.

"PIKAAACHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" It squeals. A bolt of lightning comes from it, striking none other than the patch of grass. I look over at Riley, who has a look of pure shock on her face. The Pikachu looks up at her and hops on top of her, struggling to climb on her shoulder. His tiny feet end up kicking her.

Riley falls to the ground, shoving the Pikachu off of her.

"Riley!" I crouch down next to her. She clutches her stomach, down where the Beedrill had stung her.

"Poison Jabs!" she cries. "Poison Jabs!"

I look up at Farkle. His face looks grave. And something that had never occurred to me pops into my head. Is there a chance that Riley never fully recovered from the poison?

I don't have time to think about that right now. I try to pick her up. I have to get her back to Satalune City. Farkle helps me. Together, we start to head towards the city.

"Wait," I say, stopping. "Which way do we go?"

Farkle's eyes widen. "I-I-I don't know!"

"What do you mean you don't know? How do you not know! You're the one who led us into this forest! You have to know!"

Keep it together, Maya, I tell myself. Riley's counting on me; freaking out right now won't do us any good. I take a deep breath.

"Maya, we're lost. Everything looks the same! I have no idea where we are!"

He's joking, right? He has to be joking. But. . . Farkle cares about Riley as much as I do. He knows that if he's joking, I'm going to kill him. Which can mean only one thing. He's not kidding.

We're lost in Satalune Forest.

Hah, ha! Cliffhanger! I know it was kind of short, but my mother's rushing me off the computer. Sorry!