Chapter 1 – A Light Summer Drizzle
Rain let out a small yawn as she opened her big green eyes, deciding to lie in bed for a while longer, not yet having the energy to actually get up. She listened to the soft drizzle outside as she removed some of her long brown hair from her face, smiling a little. She liked these summer showers, they were refreshing and everything looked so beautiful after the rain. The grass always looked greener and the mixed scent of rain and flowers were one of her favorites. The smell of water had always been one of her favorites, no matter if it was the salty ocean smell or the scent of a summer day after the rain, she loved them all. She could actually smell it in the air if there was a chance of rain, which some people dismissed as being silly because they stated rain didn't have a smell.
Her alarm clock suddenly started ringing and she was surprised that she had actually woken up before the alarm forced her to. Most people would probably find it weird that a fifteen year old girl set an alarm to ring at ten 'o clock during the summer vacations, but Rain wanted to be sure that she woke up at a reasonable hour so she didn't sleep the whole day away. She turned the alarm off and sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes a little. Suddenly she heard a small pop and she felt something lying at the end of her bed, moving. She opened her eyes to look at whatever might have appeared on her bed, guessing that it would be her younger brother Sean. What was at the end of her bed however, was not a seven year old brat with black shaggy hair, green eyes and freckles, wearing a pair of TMNT pajamas. No, what was at the end of her bed was something completely different and surprisingly enough, scarier than him, it was a large orange fish flopping about at the end of her bed. She stared at it in horror for a short while and then jumped out of her bed letting out a loud scream.
"Surprise!" a man, somewhere in his mid forties called out, leaning against the door post to Rain's bedroom and smiling. The man in question was Rain's father, Dave. He must've had a day off from work today as he was still home, wearing his gray pajama pants and he had neither shaved nor showered yet as his chin was stubbly and his black hair, though it was graying every here and there, was messy. Rain glared at the tall figure of her father and then at the, flapping... fish… thing at the end of her bed.
"What the hell is that?" she questioned her father, straightening out her cream colored night gown a little, still a bit creeped-out by the thing that she guessed was some sort of fish. But why the hell would her father leave a fish in her bed! Surely he would know that it wouldn't be a surprise she'd appreciate at all!
"Language…" Dave reminded her, looking at the flopping fish in his daughter's bed as well. "It's a pokémon, a rare one at that!" he said, smiling a large smile at his daughter. "I bought it from a man in the harbor, a real bargain I tell you, just 500Y!" he stated happily looking back at his daughter. "I just thought that it would be a nice gift for you honey, I'm sorry if I scared you" He added and smiled warmly yet apologetically to his daughter before walking over to the end of the bed and admiring the Pokémon that laid there flapping about. Rain just stood there, her small mouth half open as if she was about to say something, but she couldn't find the words. This whole morning was so totally weird!
"Why are you looking so shocked?" Her father asked, chuckling a little at his daughter's dumbfounded expression. "You have been nagging me and your mother forever about setting out on your own pokémon journey and we think that you are mature enough to do that now" he continued, picking up a completely white ball with a black stripe in the middle, a small white button emerging from the black stripe. He threw the ball at the flapping creature on Rain's bed, causing it to open up. The Pokémon exploded in a white light and was sucked into the ball, which then closed up again and returned to Dave's hand.
Her father chuckled a little and juggled the ball in his hand as he walked over to his daughter, holding the ball out to her. "Look at it like a late birthday gift from me and your mother" he said as his daughter looked up at him, looking a bit baffled. Rain smiled and nodded, taking the ball from him carefully, like it would break if handled too roughly.
"Thanks dad" she mumbled, staring at the ball in her hands. "What kind of pokémon is this anyways?" She asked, not knowing much about pokémon at all. This was one of the reasons to why she had wanted to go on the journey in the first place, to learn more about these creatures.
Her father scratched his head a little, his eyes suddenly widening as he remembered something. "Oh that's right... I forgot!" He exclaimed, snapping his fingers a little as he ran out of the room.
Rain blinked a little, looking confused as her father ran out the small bed room with dark blue walls to then come back a short while afterwards.
"Here you go" Her father mused, handing her something that looked a lot like her brother's hand held game, only it had something that looked like a camera on the top.
"What is it?" Rain asked as she took the red game thing and looked at it, not really knowing how a game would help her out.
"It's a pokédex" her father explained pressing a button on the front, causing it to open up like a book. "It's kind of like a computerized encyclopedia that contains data of all known pokémon" he continued, pressing on another button that started it up. "Bring your pokémon out and then point the pokédex at it... like you point the remote at the TV when you want to change the channel" He explained, trying to keep it as simple as possible, knowing that Rain wasn't all that good when it came to technology. He remembered that she once had troubles with getting the DVD started and she actually had to ask which way the disk was supposed to be facing when putting it in.
Rain nodded a little, throwing the pokéball on the ground, guessing that would bring her pokémon out since throwing it at the pokémon seemed to call it into the ball. The ball opened, a white light escaping it before it closed up again and returning to Rain's hand. The light formed to the silhouette of the flapping orange colored fish and then it was there, flapping about on Rain's bedroom floor. Rain swallowed a little and then pointed the pokédex at the creature, hoping that it would work.
The pokédex played a small tune and a text appeared on the screen.
"NEW DATA ADDED – TOUCH SCREEN TO VIEW" it said, a small light on the top right of the red machine blinking.
Rain touched the screen, as the machine had told her to and hoped that it would work. As she touched it, the screen went white and then a picture of her pokémon appeared with a text beside it.
"#129 – MAGIKARP" she read, touching the picture to see if she would receive further information. She yelped a little and almost dropped the machine as it started to speak in a computerized voice. Computer voices seriously freaked her out, and she had not been prepared for this machine to start speaking.
"MAGIKARP, a fish POKéMON that can be found in most waters. MAGIKARP is a pathetic excuse for a POKéMON that is only capable of flopping and splashing. This behavior prompted scientists to undertake research into it."
They stood in silence for a while, just staring at the magikarp flapping about very tragically on the floor, gasping "KARP!" every now and then. Rain looked up at her father, her face emotionless.
"I... I think I have to sit down for a second" Her father mumbled, staring bluntly at the space in front of him as he sat down on his daughter's bed. The sight was a bit amusing, a grown man sitting on a bed with blue sheets with flowers on them.
Rain stood there in silence, looking at her dad and feeling sorry for him. He had spent 500Y on a gift for his daughter, to then find out that what he thought was a rare pokémon turned out to be as common and pretty much as useful as dust. She brushed her brown hair out of her eyes and smiled, walking over to the flapping magikarp and picked it up, sitting next to her father. "It's okay dad" She said, having some troubles with holding on to the Magikarp as it kept flapping about very franticly in her arms. "I don't care if people find this pokémon useless, I kind of like it... in a sad and pathetic kind of way" she added, giggling a little, being relieved that the magikarp seemed to be more relaxed after a while, only panting a little instead of flapping.
"Really?" her father asked, smiling weakly at his daughter. He knew that she probably just said that to cheer him up, but somehow it was working.
Rain nodded and smiled and then sent magikarp back into its pokéball. "Yeah, but now I must ask you to leave my room so I can get myself dressed" She said and cocked an eyebrow at her father, with a smile on her face. Her father laughed a little and got up from the bed, walking out of Rain's room and closed the door behind him.
Rain sighed a little and looked into the mirror hanging between the two windows in her room. She brushed her long brown hair a little before she put it up in two thick pony-tails on each side of her head, reaching just below her breasts. She hummed a little as she walked over to her wardrobe, standing in the corner of her room just next to the desk. Her room was quite small, but she still liked it. It felt cozy, and the dark blue wall papers that covered the walls reminded her of a storming ocean at night. She burrowed her toes in the fluffy white carpet that covered her whole bedroom floor, liking how it tickled her feet. When she was younger she used to sit on the floor and pretend that she was sitting on a fluffy white cloud. She giggled a little at the memory and started to go through her clothes, picking some shirts out and looking at them before hanging them back again. She always had a hard time to decide what to wear, no matter the occasion.
After a while of taking out and hanging clothes back in she decided to go with a plain cream colored tank top, a pair of black leggings and a short draped gray jeans skirt. She pulled on a short cut jeans jacket over the tank top, looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, being pleased with her choice.
She quickly made her bed and placed her tan shoulder bag on top of it, deciding that she would pack before going down for breakfast. She packed two changes of clothes, a rain coat, tooth paste and a toothbrush, a bunch of socks and underwear, a map, a bikini, an extra set of shoes, a pair of gloves and a hat if it would get cold. She tried to come up with anything else she might need, but realized she wouldn't be able to get much more in her bag if she wanted to be able to close it. She weighed the bag in her arms before she flung it up on her shoulder and walked downstairs to eat some breakfast.
She dropped the bag on the floor before walking into the kitchen, finding her brother sitting there munching on some toast. She ruffled the boy's hair as she walked past him, smiling a little as she heard him grunt and fighting her hand away from him. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and prepared two sandwiches before sitting down by the table next to her brother.
They sat in silence for a while, just eating, until her brother finally decided to break it.
"You leaving today?" he asked, turning to his sister, putting the toast back into his mouth.
Rain smiled a little and looked at her brother and then out the kitchen window, squinting a little as the sun hit her eyes. "Yes" she mumbled, drinking some of her juice.
Her brother looked down at the wooden dining table and smacked a little as he swallowed down some toast with milk. "Okay" he said very bluntly, as if her going away for a longer while was something as ordinary as a light summer drizzle.