It's time.
It's time to meet my new partner. It's time to wake up. And begin my journey.
The professor prods me. I'm already awake though. Excited. Ready to leave the town. I would no longer have to see my older friends leave. Now I would join them. In the wild and the rest of Johto.
He leads me along. The hallway is empty today. No excited trainers, except for one, of course. I catch a glimpse of the world outside.
Clouds. Rain. I love it.
She's already there. Waiting for me. My new partner. Excited. Determined. Maybe a little scared. I tell her that it's okay. I don't think she understood.
We're shoved outside in the rain. Professor has seen too many first days to be nice anymore. To him, we're just one in thousands.
Just leave him alone in his studies and don't fail.
My partner doesn't care. She forgets her fear of leaving home and dives headfirst into route whatever. I follow.
000
In my dreams, we win the first wild battle. I do it courageously as anyone would expect of a starter. The pidgey faints. I get hugged by my partner. Happily ever after.
That's in my dreams.
Reality. Cruel reality.
We're halfway in route whatever. The first night was quiet, no wild pokemon bothering us. Our shared excitement wears off. Morning comes. And it's still raining, which I love.
I'm quiet. I watch her sleep. They say people look younger when they sleep, but she looks older. Tired. My partner and the rest of them need more sleep than I do.
A rustle demands my attention. There's no sunrise to see, as the clouds cover it all up. But I can hear it. I slink through the bushes to find-
The wild has teeth. And this is it. Hideous yellow eyes glow.
I yell to wake my partner. She opens her eyes halfway, but doesn't understand. Humans and pokemon usually don't understand each other's languages. This is no exception.
The over-leveled scary creature from not-this-route wanders over. I'm not brave and amazing like I should be. I'm scared. Really scared.
Panic turns the gray sky yellow, like its eyes. I slash at its hind legs. Nothing happens. I growl. Nothing happens.
I can't see. I can't think.
What happened next was hazy. I think I wanted it to be hazy. So I won't remember. I don't want to remember. The creature mocks at my attempt to kill it and springs towards her. She screams. I'm too scared to try to protect her. It's way bigger than both of us. The rain keeps falling. I close my eyes.
When I open my eyes, it's gone. It must've bit me, because I'm bleeding.
Nothing compared to her, though.
So I drag her. The mud slows us down. Blood everywhere. I don't like rain anymore.
I hope she's not dead already.
000
"It's not your fault, you know."
I just stand there, looking away from the blissey's comforting gaze.
From the pokemon center's window, I can see the gym. Floods of trainers waiting outside for their first badge. Birds circling around its domed roof.
It's where we should be. Should be.
Five days. In five days, my partner was attacked. I dragged her to Cherrygrove. Not enough medical care there. They brought us to Violet. Tall tower. Sad paints.
Now I am in the overheated waiting room. People look at me strangely. I don't care.
I wait for my partner. It should be the other way around. I was a coward.
The Nurse Joy is anything but joy when she comes for me. She's silent. I try to speak, but I break off and cry. But she won't understand me anyways.
She says something to the blissey. The blissey translates for me. When she talks, her voice is flat, matter-of-fact.
"Your trainer's gone."