Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy my first chapter. Apologies if it is hard to read, I am still learning 's editing system. Large spaces to break up scenes are apparently a big no-no.
This is my first time writing in a long while, so any advice is appreciated. Upcoming chapters will probably be shorter.
The art used for this story was drawn by me, of my character. Please do not reuse it.
Chapter One
At the very edge of Pallet's northern town limit, along the dusty road to Viridian, there was a large sign that had been placed the year prior. It had a red arrow pointing at the road and read, "To be truly great, every hero must take their first step." Below this phrase was a small advert for Professor Oak's lab, a famous resource in town for new pokemon trainers. Standing at the edge of town, and taking the sign very seriously, was Ameena.
She had been standing there for about a minute already, allowing herself to enjoy the refreshing breeze through her long hair, the warm sun on her face, and the last moments of the life she was leaving behind. No more parents. No more little brother. No more school, homework, chores, obligations – just freedom and pokemon.
Ameena took in a deep breath of air and opened her eyes to look out over the verdant meadows that awaited her. She felt a rush of adrenaline that implored her to move, and, at long last, she took her first step outside of Pallet Town. She grinned from ear to ear and stepped again, then again, her movements almost robotic, until she broke out into a run, then a dancing skip, then spins and jumps and giggles and shouts of "Yes! Yes! Yippee!"
The joys of Ameena's new life felt limitless, and she couldn't resist dancing wildly all over the road until a stray thought of her pokemon stopped her in her tracks. A wave of guilt washed over her body and left butterflies in her stomach. She heaved a deep sigh, caught her breath, and continued along the road at an easy pace. She pulled the only occupied pokeball she had from her belt and held it out in her hand, staring at it anxiously.
"A million other kids would eat their hats for a chance with you," she said, as if the pokemon inside could hear her. "How did you end up with me?"
She knew the literal answer to that, of course. The day before, Ameena's extended family came to her parents' house to celebrate her new adventure. She received a lot of useful presents from her aunts and uncles: a Pokedex, a backpack, some higher-catch-rate pokeballs, and even a few pairs of specialty socks designed for extended travel. Her grandparents wanted to be the ones to present her with her first pokemon, as it was considered a great honor in many families to give a fledgling trainer the one pokemon that they would form their strongest bond with. They had saved up for months just to give her an eevee.
It was no secret that eevees were widely sought after for being cute and popular with people of all ages, which says nothing of their wide variety of possible evolutions, something which no other known pokemon possessed. Due to their incredibly high demand, most eevees that were available at specialty pokemon shops had been bred as domestic pets for generations, and were weaker than their already rather peaceful cousins that lived out in the wild.
"You're cute, but... How can I ever be a great trainer with such a frail pokemon? How can I catch another without the strength to fight them? What do I do if they can fly, or shoot fire from ten feet away?"
Ameena stopped on the road, sighing. "I shouldn't be doing this. Come on out, Eevee."
Eevee bounced eagerly from the opened ball, chirping with glee when he saw his owner. The small, brown fox stretched and began rubbing himself against her legs, letting out soft coos of "vee" that melted her heart.
"You still need a name," she said to him, grinning weakly. "Thought of anything you like?"
He opened his mouth as if to reply, but stopped and flicked his ears around at the sound of scuffling nearby. Both he and Ameena turned to see a handful of pidgeys pecking at the ground about twenty feet away for food. Two of them seemed to be more interested in playing with each other than anything else; they hopped and danced around one another, occasionally kicking up sand with their wings and making a ruckus. Ameena dipped down low to the ground next to Eevee, doing her best to hide with him behind the tall grass. She pulled off her backpack, set it quietly on the ground, and slowly opened the zipper.
"This is our chance," she whispered to him, pulling an empty pokeball from her bag. "Have you ever battled before?"
The nervous look on his face was more than enough answer. Ameena's stomach churned, and she felt rather stupid for not trying to get any practice in before their first real fight.
"That's okay," she said, more to herself than to him. "They're still pretty small and not very powerful, I think. Let's just – let's just watch them for a minute. See that one on the far left? He's moving further away from the flock."
It was lucky that the little bird was wandering, as she really hadn't expected to come up with anything at all for them to do. Eevee's eyes were transfixed with great determination on the straggler. Ameena smiled.
"That's right. You've got him in your sights. Sneak closer as quietly as you can; I'm going to stay back here so I don't startle them. When you're ready, pounce on his back and make sure you pin one of his wings so he can't fly away."
Eevee took a few steady steps forward, his gaze unbroken. Ameena noticed that his instinctive abilities in laying low and hunting his prey seemed to be in okay shape, judging by how the pidgeys looked unaware of his approach. He was still clearly new to this, though, as he was moving very slowly and she couldn't help but grow irritable with him after a few minutes had passed. Her legs hurt from crouching still on her toes for so long, and she was sweating bullets. A impatient chant of Come on. Come on. Hurry up! echoed in her head.
Just when Ameena felt her legs couldn't take any more, she saw Eevee bounce out of the grass onto the pidgey that had wandered furthest from the group. His tiny legs had the little bird's right wing pinned to the ground, and the pidgey flapped its free wing, squawking and bouncing in an attempt to free itself. Eevee tried to be careful not to be pecked, but couldn't manage to balance the act of keeping his target pinned and avoiding its sharp beak at the same time. This awkward scene caused the rest of the pidgeys to scatter momentarily, but they quickly turned as a group to join the scene again, fluttering and squawking in the air above the two contenders.
A horrifying chain of events unfurled when the struggling pidgey managed a good peck on Eevee's flank; the little fox wailed in pain and backed away, stepping off the wing of his prey. As soon as it was free, the tiny bird charged, flapping his wings rapidly to bounce in the air just above the ground, and clawed with his talons at Eevee's face. This was the perfect opening for the flock: they swooped down and began pecking, scratching, and pulling at him wherever they could.
Ameena fumbled to sprint onto the scene, but her legs were like jelly from fear and pain, and she tripped and fell into the grass. The birds were startled by her graceless landing and they broke away from the bloodied fox in a panic. She pulled herself to her hands and knees and Eevee, noticing he was free, bolted towards her and took refuge underneath her body without a sound. Not knowing what else to do, Ameena huddled down over the terrified pokemon and covered her head, fearing the worst.
Another attack never came. The pidgey that Eevee had pounced on could still fly without much trouble, and the flock chose instead to fly into the treeline just visible to the east.
Ameena didn't move. She trembled uncontrollably, and with great effort, whispered between hiccups and sobs, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Eevee..."
Things were quiet at first. Ameena had to put quite a lot of effort into not crying again, though she didn't stop to think what holding back her emotions would accomplish – she simply felt it was the thing to do at the time. They had taken refuge under the shade of a nearby tree, convinced that the normally-timid pidgeys would likely not come back to pick another fight.
Ameena sprayed the last of her only healing potion onto Eevee's wounds and cleaned him up with one of her spare shirts. After a while, she broke the silence between them.
"You're not missing much fur," she said. She shoved her bloodied shirt back into her bag carelessly and pulled out her hairbrush next. She ran it over his fur carefully so as not to scrape any of his wounds. Eevee was sitting on his haunches, his tail facing his trainer, and had yet to move or make eye contact the entire time. He did not respond.
"Eevee," she said softly, "are you – are you mad at me?"
He turned and they finally locked eyes; Eevee's solemn expression broke the girl's heart and her eyes welled with tears. He made a small sound and turned away to look at the ground. Ameena had trouble with this answer, so she pressed further.
"Are you disappointed with yourself?"
Eevee flinched at this, his eyes shutting and his head tilting down and away. This was something she definitely understood. Ameena stuck out her hand and pet his head carefully.
"Listen – don't worry about it," she said. "It was foolish of me to send you into a group like that for your first fight. I should have at least taken the time to practice with you a bit, you know?" She could tell he wasn't convinced, so she continued as best as she could. "You know, see how fast you are, and how hard you can hit a target. And biting, and scratching. Stuff like that."
Eevee's body loosened a bit at this. Ameena felt relieved, though not very much. She was still not entirely convinced that things could have gone much better even with practice; in her mind, the tiny fox was just too small and weak to handle much at all, let alone anything that could fly or bring numbers – or both, in this case. Her train of thought disintegrated when she felt Eevee gently pressing his head into her palm, encouraging her to continue petting him. She smiled at this.
"Oh! So, I think I have a name for you," She said quickly, eager to change the subject. "I mean, if you like it. How about August?"
Eevee's ears perked and he let out a loud, high-pitched "vee!" of approval as he grinned and swept his tail.
Ameena wondered if he actually liked the name or was just happy to be off the previous subject.
After a short lunch, Ameena made quick work of packing up and setting off at a brisk pace that August struggled to keep up with. At first, Ameena liked the thought of giving him a good workout like this (though she didn't say as much), but it didn't take her long to realize that it wasn't fair to leave him huffing at her heels, especially injured, so she picked him up and he eagerly took in the sights and occasionally nuzzled her shoulder affectionately with his chilly, wet nose.
The sights were, indeed, something worth taking in. The further north they went, the more trees they saw, and the trees were always Ameena's favorite part of staring out the window of her parents' car on their shopping trips into Viridian. They were always very tall, overgrown, and very brightly green, and if she peered so intently that her nose pressed on the window, she could make out the occasional bug or bird pokemon thriving in the branches.
Ameena made sure not to point out any of the pokemon she saw in the trees this time, particularly the birds. The very thought of trying to battle with August ever again left a lump in her throat and chills on her spine. She didn't know what she was going to do to catch her next pokemon, and she didn't like thinking about it, either. All she knew was that she had to get to the Pokemon Center in Viridian as soon as possible so that August could get some proper care and they could start practicing.
It soon became evident that they were not going to make it to Viridian before nightfall. Ameena had never walked so much in her life, let alone with such a heavy backpack, and she was eager to take breaks often. As soon as she gulped down the last bit of water in her primary canteen, she knew she had to stop for the night.
She had practiced setting up her tent the day before, so she didn't have too much trouble with it this time around. The spot she had chosen was perfect: the long branches of the tree she had parked under provided great coverage from the sun for the rest of the evening, and it allowed her to roll out her blue sleeping bag in the grass next to the tent and lay on it to admire the sky, and, soon, the stars.
Starting a fire, on the other hand, proved to be quite a lot of trouble. Ameena and August spent some time foraging for dried sticks and leaves to use, but they didn't find much. She also found it hard to light the sad pile of twigs they had managed to gather, and only gave up after going through half of her only matchbook.
"It's summer anyways," she said to August as she flicked her final attempt into the tiny stack of tinder. "How cold can it get at night? I've got my sleeping bag and you've got all that fur."
August squeaked a cheerful reply that made her smile. She laid down on her sleeping bag and stared through the leaves into the sky.
"Our first day didn't go as I expected," she confessed. "I thought we'd make it to Viridian in no time. I thought I'd have caught half a dozen pokemon by now. I thought I would be winning battles left and right..." Her smile faded and her eyes looked distant. August frowned and did not say anything.
After a few moments, Ameena very suddenly snapped out of her daze and changed the subject as quickly as she could. "Hey, want to check out my new Pokedex together?"
August looked eager to do so. Ameena crawled over to her backpack, pulled the Pokedex from one of the front pockets, and laid on her stomach over her sleeping bag again, leaning on her elbows. August sat as close as he could to her, eagerly nuzzling her arm and then looking over the Pokedex with her.
It was the latest model, shiny and classic red, with a simple, sleek design that was a bit big for Ameena's hand. Inside, it hid a small screen and a simple series of buttons, along with a clear sleeve that she had slid her official trainer card into. She fired up the screen and started flipping through the entries on different pokemon in their region.
"Look at the pincers on that thing!" she said, looking in awe at the entry for parasect. August had stretched over her forearm to get a better view; he seemed to be just as fascinated by the pictures as she was. When they got to the entry for vulpix, Ameena giggled and said, "I bet you'd get along great with a cutie like that!" What captivated her more, though, was the additional picture of a vulpix spewing flames ten times its own size.
The two chatted together for a long time on all the different pokemon they saw, until finally Ameena pulled up the search bar and went straight to the entry on eevees.
"Check out these cool evolutions," she said, pulling up the visual list of the seven known branches of eevee evolution. "You could be any one of these one day! What do you think? Which do you like best?"
August stared at each one with great intensity, considering his options carefully, before using his paw on the directional pad to move the cursor over jolteon.
"Jolteon?" she asked, uncertain. August looked up at her and squeaked with excitement.
"Well, they're known for their speed, so there's that," she said carefully. "But, well, they're not very strong. They don't take a hit very well and their abilities are pretty limited. Many pokemon are even immune to their special attacks! They just don't fight well." August looked downtrodden, so Ameena quickly went on.
"But, well, just check out umbreon! They may not look like much, but they're very well known for being strong and durable. They're also really sleek, so they're not too slow, either. They can pack a punch with special attacks from afar, but they can hold their own in close combat, too!"
The fire that August saw in Ameena's eyes would have kept them warm all night. He felt uncertain, but still gave his trainer's suggestion the most enthusiastic reaction he could muster.
"I knew you'd agree!" she said happily, hugging him close. "Just you wait, August, you're going to be big and strong one day!"
A couple of the raw spots on his skin stung from being squeezed by his trainer, but it was still the warmest and most gratifying bit of affection he had ever experienced, so he chirped and squealed happily, eager to be held forever.