That's right, they are still in the forest. The main rhythm of group is traveling in between the forest.
After leaving the deeper parts of Petalburg Woods, the forest here became much brighter, and there were many beautiful flowers blooming along the roadside.
Although Ash only used his power over Aura to sense the route around him, since May thought it would be more interesting to take the path with flowers on the other side than the one in the map, Ash too was willing to take a look because he sensed something he wanted.
So, it took Max some time but he discovered that they were actually lost, "It's all because of you, May. We are lost now! I said that road should go to the right, but you kept saying that we should go to the left. That's why this all happened!"
"But it seemed more interesting back then, and there were a lot of lovely flowers blooming on the roadside!" May is someone who is a huge fan of accidental romance. "Besides, aren't you the one holding the PokéNav?"
"That's because we are outside the signal..." Before Max could finish speaking, his mouth was shut up by Ash's hand, "Ash, why did you do that to me?!"
Ash didn't answer him, but his whole body flashed with blue light, and then he said with a smile, "Because I found the thing I sensed earlier, it something very interesting so be quiet!"
He led his group forward, looking at Max who was quite aggrieved, Brock patiently explained, "Max, if you follow the route, you will miss a lot of things along the way! And Ash also has his mysterious Aura Powers to guide us, so we will never truly get lost! The reason we even came here was because Ash wanted to see what was happening."
Max finally seemed to understand Ash's intentions and nodded. He knew one thing now, and that is that Ash was a very powerful Trainer, so all he needs to do is shut up and learn his techniques!
However, he looked at the PokéNav in his hand with no signal found in any nearby areas, "Then is the PokéNav dad gave me useless?"
"No, we only know where the starting point and the end point are by looking at the map, but the way to go in the middle is determined by our feet and the genaral direction we will be taking! Ash's Aura Sense is only there to make sure that we don't get in some real trouble." Brock feels that he has been speaking very poetically recently.
Sure enough, before taking a few steps, the group noticed a figure flashing across the treetops in quick successions.
"That's a Treecko!" Max instantly recognized the Pokémon in front of him at the first glance, and soon a group of other Treecko's appeared in front of them, staring at them with their big adorable yellow eyes, all very curious about their new visitors.
This is one of the three Royal Starters of the Hoenn Region. The Grass-type member of the trio, and it is also one of the Pokémon's that Ash 100% wants to obtain during his travels because he likes them. In simple words, Ash wants to catch all the three members of the Royal Starters in each Region as much as possible along with some other Pokémon's from there.
Ash had just discovered their presence when they were walking and hurriedly brought everyone over before they could hide.
The Treeckos looked at them from the trees for a while, and then ran towards the depths of the forest. They were in a hurry, as if they were moving from here, which they probably were.
"Let's go follow them!" Ash quickly led his group to chase after the Treecko Tribe.
"Ash, wait a minute!"
Ash took the lead and was so fast that Brock, Max and May could only struggle to follow behind. Relying on his power over Aura, Ash was able to follow the Treecko Tribes figure to a giant tree.
"Pikachu!"
Pikachu exclaimed, and Ash nodded to what his friend just said, "It's truly a magnificent tree, but it looks like it's about to die!"
Suddenly, a branch was shot over and pierced the ground before Ash's feet. Ash and Pikachu looked up and saw a sturdy looking Treecko sitting on one of the branches of the giant tree, with an angry expression. Holding a branch in his mouth, his eyes were very sharp!
"Looks like that Treecko is the original one I had caught!" When he saw this Treecko, Ash's eyes lit up. He could feel that it was an excellent fit for him!
He also briefly knew that this was the Treecko the original Ash had caught.
He immediately took out a Poké Ball and said, "Treecko, I challenge you to a battle!"
The Treecko glanced at Ash and Pikachu, suddenly jumped up, and jumped back and forth on the branches of the giant tree, getting faster and faster with each leap.
It fell towards Pikachu at an alarming speed, and then shot the branches towards Pikachu.
Pikachu was easily able to did the 'slow' attack, and saw the Treecko land smoothly before them, and its thick tail suddenly waved towards Pikachu.
Ash chuckled, "That's what I like, Iron Tail!"
Pikachu's long tail shimmered with a metalic luster. Pikachu used his low powered tail against Treecko's tail and knocked it away like it was nothing.
"It's your turn ti battle, Dratini!"
Ash threw out Dratini's Poké Ball, and Pikachu also returned to Ash's side, "Treecko, this is going to be your opponent!"
This Treecko was hit by Pikachu and landed on the giant tree. He was obviously injured, but he refused to admit defeat at all!
Facing the much stronger Dratini, it was not timid at all. It sprang up again at an astonishing speed. When it got close, its big tail swung over again.
However, Dratini seemed to have teleported away from there in an instant, his figure suddenly disappeared, and then appeared behind Treecko like a ghost. He then kept wagging his tail!
Dratini's speed was much faster than the Pikachu he fought before because it used Extreme Speed and Pikachu never went all out. Treecko's big eyes widened even more by seeing his speed.
He quickly adjusted his body posture, landed on the ground, and then looked at the giant tree again.
"ASH!" Brock and the others finally caught up with him, only to find that Ash had already begun his battle in order to catch that Treecko!
"Treecko, let's do the final blow!" Both of Ash's Pokémon have left a deep impression on Treecko, and his once proud speed has been repeatedly crushed in front of them liek it was nothing impressive!
However, Treecko jumped up and returned to the tree.
"Ah, it ran away!" Max suddenly felt pity, obviously he was almost defeated and was about to be captured!
Ash looked up at the Treecko. He seemed to understand what it was thinking. It still had its mission to complete and couldn't leave with him yet!
At this time, several of the other Treeckos they first saw appeared around the giant tree. They seemed to be trying to persuade the younger one, pointing at the giant tree and then at Ash.
But the Treecko glanced at Ash, shook his head, turned around and left.
The other Treeckos have accepted the fact that the giant tree will wither and are preparing to move their entire tribe away from here for a better future, but this much younger Treecko refuses to give up on saving his home.
"Brock, you take May and Max to make ancamp first, I'll be back soon enough!" Having Brock around to help really saved Ash a lot of thought and work. He can take care of his things and eliminate also help a lot in his actions.
Brock is pretty much good at everything other than getting a girlfriend.
"Alright then!"
Ash followed the Treecko and saw it taking a big leaf, a handful of water from a stream not far away, and dragging it to under the giant tree.
It was watering the giant tree, hoping that it will flourish again one day.
However, in fact, both Ash and this Treecko knew deep down very well that there was no way to save this tree from dying.
But his little figure kept dragging water from the stream to water the giant tree over and over again. Even though it knew it was useless, it stayed up all night doing it.
It's hard to imagine how many days and nights it continued to act like this before Ash got to him.
Ash did not stop it, but instead sent his Dratini and Taillow to water the giant tree with him. "Treecko, do you know the process of how a tree growth?"
Treecko didn't stop what he was doing, but looked at Ash with his very curious eyes.
"Trees grow from seeds, grow into trees, then bloom, bear fruit, and give birth to seeds. After the seeds fall to the ground, they sprout and grow into other trees!"
Ash pointed to the surrounding forest, "Didn't you notice? The surrounding forest, they are all grown from the seeds of this big tree!"
Treecko stopped and turned to look at the surrounding forest.
"Although it is withering away now, it has actually become an entire forest that supports the whole ecosystem here!" Ash finished his words and the sun began to rise.
Just under the rising sun, the entire giant tree split from the middle. Treecko felt anxious, but made no move to stop it. Then a yellow-green jade-like seed burst out from the split center of the giant trees and landed in the ground.
"That is a Miracle Seed!" Ash picked it up and handed it into Treecko's hands. "This is its last gift to you. To thank you for everything you have done for it!"
Treecko held the Miracle Seed tightly in his hand and stretched out his other hand towards Ash.
Ash smiled softly and stretched out his unused Poké Ball.
He had captured his Treecko!