A flash of lightning painted the whole cabin white. Togepi tucked his head, his hands and his feet inside his shell. "Count with me," said Ash. "One… two… three…" BOOOM! Three: the storm was very close.
Another flash. "One… two…" counted a tiny voice inside the shell. BOOOM! Ash pulled the pillow over his ears. "Nobody can sleep like this," he said. Sparks jumped from Pikachu's cheeks: he knew how to thunder, too. He opened the door and went out into the rain.
Pikachu climbed the hill, splashing through every puddle. At the top there was no enormous storm. There was just one cloud, small and dark, so low that it brushed the grass.
"Go and thunder somewhere else!" shouted Pikachu, and he let go his biggest bolt. The cloud gave a jump and opened two round eyes. "Oh!" she said. "I was almost asleep." And she thundered louder than ever: BOOOOOM!
"That isn't thunder," said the cloud. "Those are yawns. My name is Nimba, and I can't fall asleep unless somebody counts with me." Pikachu knew that noise. His cheeks thundered too, when he could hardly keep his eyes open.
Pikachu sat down in the wet grass and put his sparks away. "One…" he said, very slowly. "Two…" One of Nimba's eyes closed. "Three…" Boom, went Nimba, softly, like a door far away.
Pikachu counted again, slower still. One… two… three… Nimba went soft and pale gray, and her rain thinned to a fine thread. She wasn't yawning anymore. Pikachu tiptoed down the hill.
In the cabin, Ash was asleep and Togepi was asleep. Pikachu lay down, but his cheeks went zip, zap, and the wall lit up and went dark. There was a tiny storm inside the cabin, and it was him.
A shell moved. Out came two feet, then two hands, then a head with five points. Togepi walked over to Pikachu and put a hand on his cheek. "One…" said Togepi. "Two…"
Before three, Pikachu was already asleep. Togepi snuggled up beside him, with his head well out. Far away, over the hill, Nimba went boom. Nobody counted it.
