A/N: As i say in my profile this is the first time im writing anything outside of schoolprojects, so go easy on me!
I chose pokemon because I used to love it and I still have a fondness for it. The story is set in the earlier generations of pokemon seeing as those are the once I've seen the most of and feel the most comfortable writing about. I'm going to try and keep it as accurate as possible with the facts from the show but i might slip up at times, don't hesitate to call me out on it. Or on anything really seeing as im here to improve as a writer!
I also have to thank CaptainGrake on here for pushing me to actually write and helping me when i asked for it. So go read her stuff too!
"Look at that view, it's been so long, and still I never grow tired of it." The old man thought, looking out over the valley, the sun setting just beyond the small village at the edge of the forest bathing him and the entire cliff in warm orange light.
"I've been here too long, maybe it's time to travel again, maybe I shou.." His thoughts were interrupted by a soft nudging in his side, and he turned around to see squirtle stood there with a tray of food and drink and an impatient look on his face.
"Squirtle squirtle."
"I'm sorry friend; did I miss you calling for dinner again?" The old man said and chuckled as he took the tray off of him. "My hearing isn't quite what it used to be huh?" He scratched Squirtle in the place he liked, just above the shell and he made a satisfied sound. "Forgive me?"
"Squir- squirtle" He sounded happier now, and curled up by the old man's feet watching the sunset.
The old man turned his attention to the tray (the food smelled delicious) and as he started eating he noticed the small cup with pills on the tray. "Foolish thoughts of adventure" He thought, "I'm too old, I can barely get out of bed without help. I'm no young adventurer anymore"
After dinner he just sat and enjoyed the evening and when the light started fading the old man nudged the sleeping pokemon, and asked for his cane. Squirtle took the tray and carrying it above his head ran inside to start preparing for the night. When the old man got inside he looked at the busy squirtle with fondness and said: "Oh squirtle, what would I ever do without you? I'm so grateful to you, leaving your friends and family to care for me, I don't know how I'll ever repay you" The old man had tears in his eyes, squirtle walked up to him and patted his hand. You could see the affection in his eyes," I'm not doing this because I have to", they seemed to say, "you took care of me in the past, let me take care of you now." The old man smiled, and wiped away the tears from the corners of his eyes, "Well then, time for bed I guess" he said, his heart a little lighter. He went the corner where the bed was and with some help from squirtle changed into his pyjamas and laid down. He stayed awake for a little while watching squirtle busy himself with dishes and washing up, but soon his eyelids felt heavy and he fell asleep. He woke up briefly as squirtle crawled into the bed and went to sleep by his feet.
The next morning the old man woke up to the smell of bacon and smiled as he sat up and saw his blue friend busy in the kitchen. "Bacon for breakfast again?", the old man called out with a twinkle in his eye and squirtle jumped and turned around, clearly he hadn't thought the old man would wake up so early. Squirtle stuck his tongue out towards him and brought the tray with bacon, eggs and toast to the bed. Then went back and got his own bowl of food and sat on the old man's legs in bed and looked up at him. He always waited for the old man to start eating, he had never figured out why that was, but it didn't bother him. The old man took a big bite out of the toast and said, with food still in his mouth: "Isn't it time for a new delivery sometime soon? It's been about a month now hasn't it?"
Squirtle just looked at him thoughtfully and then after carefully placing his bowl of food next to the old man's feet and jumped down to go get the calendar. "Squirtle, squirtle" he said as he reached it and checked the date, then looked at the old man who was still watching him and gave him an exasperated look. He waggled back to the bed with the calendar while muttering under his breath and pointed at tomorrow's date. It was circled with red marker and said: "Supply delivery, have food and fire extinguisher ready". "OH tomorrow? I told you it was soon! Would you mind acting as a fire extinguisher again?" He asked and laughed at the look squirtle gave him. It was an old joke between the two, squirtle had more than once helped him fight fires in the past. How he missed the good old days. The ability to go wherever he wanted to, travel with his friends. If only he hadn't been so obsessed with getting better, beating everyone, maybe he'd still have all his old friends left. "Better not go there" he thought as he felt his mood growing darker. "Hey squirtle, let's go for a walk, it looks like the nice weather is here to stay for a while."
The morning air felt really fresh, that's another thing he loved about living so high up, the air was almost always free of pollution. The pokemon in this area all knew him, so when he entered the forest a few approached him to see if he had anything for them, he just laughed and told them they were welcome to tag along if they wanted to. When they noticed he wasn't going to give them any treats right away most of the pokemon went back into the trees, only a caterpie and oddish stayed. The caterpie crawled to the old man's foot and made an excited sound, bouncing up and down. "What's the matter little guy? You want to be carried?" the old man said with a grin on his face "Well hop on then!" he bent down and let it crawl up his arm onto his shoulder. He then scratched it on the head and it closed its eyes, "you like that?" he chuckled. All these years and still pokemon could warm his heart like nothing else. "How about you oddish? You coming too?" Oddish looked up with a big smile and nodded, then went to stand next to squirtle. Squirtle seemed to have gotten infected by the good mood around him and playfully sprayed oddish with some water, and then started laughing.
Everyone happy and laughing they continued their walk deeper into the forest.
They reached the meadow after half an hour of walking, and even though he tried to hide it the old man was exhausted, squirtle and oddish ran ahead and put down a blanket and took out drinks and food for everyone. When the old man reached the blanket he sat down and grabbed his chest, the caterpie had already jumped down to the food so the only one who noticed was squirtle. "I'm fine friend, I just need some food and I will be up and about again," he said as he noticed squirtle's concerned look.
"So what did you bring for me to eat? No wait, let me guess?" He said and closed his eyes, pretending to concentrate real hard. "Is it bacon?" He winked, trying to distract both squirtle and himself of his chest pains. Squirtle threw him something wrapped in tinfoil and he almost managed to catch it but fumbled it at the last second which prompted laughing from everyone there, even some in the tall grass next to them. "Hey who's there? Come on out, we've got plenty of food to share!" said the old man while curiously peering at the grass. Slowly a bellsprout made its way out of the grass; it seemed shy, probably not used to being around humans. Squirtle slowly pushed a bowl of pokemon food towards bellsprout who cautiously went up to it and took a bite. It let out a squeal of delight and looked up; its eyes glowing and everyone started laughing again.
His chest pains subsided gradually as he sat watching the pokemon play with each other after lunch. The pain had been getting worse lately, he knew squirtle worried about him so he tried not showing it but it was getting harder every time it happened. "I have lived a full life," he thought, "maybe it's time for the next adventure, see what happens after, I only wish I could see the old gang again one time, it's been so long." Caterpie interrupted him by jumping up on his back, bouncing and letting out several high pitched sounds, it seemed really happy. The old man chuckled. "You want to play don't you? I wish I could, but I'm too old to run around and play", caterpie looked at him and cocked it's like it didn't understand what he was saying, "I guess it can't understand the limitations of an aging human" He scratched it's head, "how about you go play with the others instead, we'll probably be leaving soon, so have fun while you can!"
The walk back was taxing on the old man, he hadn't quite recovered from earlier, oddish and caterpie who didn't know him very well continued playing and laughing oblivious to the old man's pains, but squirtle who had known him most of his life and was more attuned to his thoughts and feelings hovered around him, not doing anything or causing a fuss because he knew the old man was too proud to accept help from him in situations like this. It took them just under an hour to get to the edge of the forest, and even though they had kept the pace really slow the old man's breath was laboured, the other two pokemon had begun noticing that something was wrong and their happy playful mood had evaporated. They said their goodbyes and looked worriedly at squirtle who did his best to give them a reassuring smile even though he was equally worried inside.
The old man, usually very attentive to what was going on around him didn't notice the pokemons exchange, his mind was occupied by the returning pain in his chest reminding him of his old age and declining strength with every heartbeat.
They made it to the house later than they had originally planned, and the old man immediately slumped down on his bed and closed his eyes. He felt the bed shake as squirtle climbed in and stood next to him. He didn't even have to open his eyes to see the look on his face, "Honestly squirtle, you worry too much, I just need some rest and I'll be fit as a fiddle, now how about you fix me some tea?" He said and forced a smile, squirtle didn't look convinced but still turned around and headed for the kitchen corner. The old man let the smile fall and only focused on breathing, in and out. It usually helped. He needed to go see the doctor again soon; maybe he could catch a ride into town tomorrow. He smiled; he always looked forward to delivery days. Tomorrow was going to be a good day.
When he woke up his entire body ached, and just getting out of bed took effort. Squirtle helped him get dressed and walked him outside to sit in his chair. He started to massage his muscles while squirtle went inside and started to work on breakfast. At least the pain in his chest was gone now. Suddenly, he heard shuffling in the grass behind him and a low screeching sound. He smiled when he turned around and saw where it came from. "Hello there caterpie, here to join us for breakfast?", he said while reaching down, cringing when his muscles protest but still letting caterpie climb up his arm. "Hey squirtle, we've got company!" he shouted and held up caterpie so squirtle could see when he peeked out the door. He let off a happy "Squir!" and popped back inside to continue cooking.
The old man sat there absentmindedly scratching caterpies head while waiting for food, the smells wafting out of the kitchen helping him relax. His mind started to wander, "I wonder how everyone is doing – it's been so long. Do they all remember me? Would they even want to meet me? It would be great to see all of them again before the end." He wasn't really afraid of dying, he was more afraid of leaving this world carrying this sadness within him, he wanted to be with friends once more.
Squirtle had really outdone himself this morning, maybe he felt guilty for having fun yesterday when the old man was hurting. He wished he could get him to stop worrying so much. The food he had brought for the old man was a probably most of what they had left. Steaming hot porridge with bacon bits in it and honey drizzled over the top, a plate with French toast sprinkled with powdered sugar and small breakfast sausages next to it. He looked over to squirtle and said: "Thank you old friend." He smiled and reached over to pat his head, squirtle leaning into his hand, before putting two plates of pokemon food on ground and lifting his arms to help caterpie down. The old man watched caterpie dig into his food with the kind of youthful energy young pokemon and humans both share when they're young.
After breakfast squirtle dozed off next to the chair as he so often did after meals. Caterpie sluggishly crawled up into the old man's lap, curled into a ball and made a content sound. The old man didn't mind, he was feeling better now when he had gotten some warm food into his stomach. He was comfortable, happy sitting there sipping his tea. Listening to the wind, the sounds of nature the soft sighs of the sleeping pokemon.
At some point he must have dozed off himself because he was woken up by a rhythmic booming sound. It was faint but growing louder, he smiled – he'd know this sound anywhere. He nudged caterpie awake and put him on his shoulder; squirtle was already awake and had run into the house. The old men looked at the still groggy caterpie and said: "hey wake up; I want to introduce you to one of my oldest friends." Just after he said that a loud roar was heard and something huge and orange dropped out of the sky. He was diving down hard, always the show-off. When he was nearing the ground he spread his wings and with a load snap they caught the wind and he slowed down enough for him to land with only a soft thump.
Caterpie had crawled back and hidden itself on the old man's back so only its head was showing over the shoulder. He looked at his old companion, at first glance you'd think he was the same pokemon he was all that time ago, but if you looked closer you could the crinkles around his eyes.
"Charizard, how are you buddy?" he said as he walked up to him, he could feel caterpie shivering; he must never have seen any pokemon that big before. Charizard roars again in response to the question. "Whoa charizard, easy, caterpie is afraid, hey caterpie why don't you say hi?" Caterpie furiously shook his head then buried it in the old man's shoulder. Charizard chuckled but the lines in his face smoothed out as he calmed down and reached out to caterpie. He started emitting a low calming grumble from his throat, almost like a purr, to seem non-threatening. Caterpie slowly crawled over the old man's shoulder and with him urging it on climbed up on charizards hand. It was noticeably nervous about the whole thing but relaxed when it noticed that charizard didn't want to hurt it. They heard something from the house and saw squirtle rolling the cart out with a big bowl of water. "Hey charizard," the old man said and motioned to the big dragon to come closer, "I have something I want to discuss with you later, when squirtle isn't around. Do you think we can talk somewhere later?" Charizard looked at him seriously, and nodded, he could sense that this was important. When he looked up again every trace of seriousness was gone, instead replaced mischievous glee. He fired off a small concentrated burst of fire so it hit a patch of dry grass next to squirtle; who did not look amused as he sprayed it with water. Everyone else, including caterpie who must have gotten over his fear of charizard now, started laughing at the expression squirtle was giving charizard, soon squirtle joined them in laughter. It was always good meeting old friends.
Later that night, with the sun setting the old man went up to charizard, sitting close to the edge of the cliff enjoying the warm light washing over him. The old man sat down on charizards tail and for a minute he just let himself be bathed in the heat of the fire at the end of the tail. He looked up to see charizard looking at him, an impatient look on his face. The old man took a deep shuddering breath and started talking "Okay, I know you're wondering what it is I'm hiding from squirtle. I shouldn't be going behind his back, but he worries a lot and as it turns out he has a right to worry. I'm sick charizard, very sick, I had a doctor come visit me last month when squirtle was in town and he told me my heart is failing. He couldn't tell me exactly how much longer I had to live but he was sure I wouldn't be alive after the end of this year, and that was with treatment. They'd want me to spend almost all the time I have left in the hospital, I just, I couldn't do that. I've lived most of my life either wandering the world or out in the open here. I couldn't spend the rest of my life hooked up to machines in some small room at the hospital… I just couldn't!" He had his head in his hands fighting the burning sensation in his eyes, it was the first time he'd actually talked about this out loud and it hit him hard. He felt a nudge on the side of his head and hot air tousling his hair and when he opened his eyes and looked up he saw charizard's face close, giving off a low "charr" reverberating with sadness. The old man took a deep breath to steady himself and continued, "I've kept in touch with you all these years, and with squirtle, but there are still so many friends from our old travels I haven't met in too long, I want to make sure they all had nice lives, that I made the right decisions. I don't want to pass away without knowing. So what I'm asking is; will you take me? Will you take me on one final adventure? I know squirtle will argue but if you'll agree he'll come around too. What do you say?" Charizard looked at him as he thought it over carefully, but the old man knew he'd won him over when he saw that old mischievous sparkle enter his eyes. He lifted his head and roared as he shot a big jet of fire into the sky. The old man had to shield his face from the intense heat but under his hand his face was cracked into a smile.
When he walked back into the house he found squirtle sitting at the table waiting for him, he must have noticed that something was going on because he wasn't looking happy. "Now before you start arguing, me and charizard have already decided and there's nothing you can do or say that will make me change my mind" He stared defiantly at squirtle who just raised an eyebrow and looked back and he realised he hadn't actually told him what they were planning. He sighed and sat down opposite to squirtle at the table, "I want to go see everyone again, it's been too long, I know it's going to be hard on me, but I can take it I promise, and we won't be gone for very long, we'll be back before you know it." He felt bad about lying, but if he told squirtle he wasn't planning on coming back there would be no convincing him.
Squirtle just sighed again and started walking around the house gathering things, "you're not going to argue or fight me on this?" the old man said incredulously and squirtle just rolled his eyes as if saying "why bother fighting, you won't listen to me anyway", then continued walking around the house, the old man walked up to and kneeled next to him and pulled him into a tight embrace, " thank you old friend, you coming along means the world to me. " he said, his eyes tearing up again.
The next morning the old man walked out with a big bundle in his arms and when he got closer to charizard he motioned to it and said: "hey, big guy, remember this? We used it a lot all those years ago." He held it up for the dragon to see, what at first looked like just a tangled piece of rope was actually a fairly rudimentary harness that a friend made them when they were both younger. He hadn't used it since he moved up to the cliff and wasn't sure if it would still fit. Charizard looked confused for a while before he recognized it but when he did he got a sparkle in his eye, remembering soaring through the skies with a hooting young man on his back. He excitedly put his arms out, the old man struggling to get everything in place but when he had finally managed it, he took a step back. There were straps running under charizard's belly and loops for his arms. On either side of his shoulder's there were secure leg and hand holds. It looked really uncomfortable but the rhythm of charizard's calm flying together with the warmth radiated by the fire in his core would make for a very pleasant flight regardless.
By the time the sun had reached its peak they were all ready, squirtle had packed as much of their food and supplies as he could fit in the bags that went on the harness, one big bag strapped to his lower back and several smaller ones strapped to his belly. The old man stood looking at him once again familiarising himself with the harness and the weight of supplies. Squirtle was strapping himself in on charizard's back, everything was done, and all that was left was saying goodbye. He called up to the pokemon and said he'd only be a minute as he walked towards the house.
He had spent such a large portion of his life in this house, it was home, but when he looked back he couldn't remember much about it, most of the time had just been spent in a state of being, of mourning. Not really living his life to its full extent, he felt a twinge of regret looking back and sighed, he had been just the old man for so long; it had become his entire identity. He grabbed an envelope from the inside pocket of his jacket and placed it on the table. In it was a letter describing what he wanted done with his house and assets. He knew officer Jenny would be at the house eventually after he didn't return; she'd find the envelope and hopefully take care of it for him. After one final look around him he walked out the door. It was finally time to let go of the old man, it was time to be Ash again, it was time to be an adventurer again.