Hello, TheGutsyWolf here and I'm finally back from the grave with a new and improved story for you all. Updates will be slow for the moment since I'm not going to have much access to the internet over the next week or so, due to work and the fact that I'm going on a short vacation soon.
But, nevertheless, since I've had this chapter ready for a while now I've decided to repost today as a little teaser of what's to come, so here it is.
Posted: 02/02/19 | Word count: 2,895
Chapter One: The Late Arrival
I'm late. I'm late. I'm so very, very late. That's what she chants as she runs through the quiet streets of Pallet Town, looking like a lunatic as runs through narrow side streets, vaulting herself over walls and weaving herself in between and past slow-walking pedestrians as she makes her way through the town.
It's not long before she reaches a set of stone steps which lead up along a steep hill and towards her desired location. She wastes no time taking the steps two at a time as she starts the long climb up the hill, her brown leather satchel bouncing vigorously beside her.
In her haste to get up the steps, she loses her footing on one of the steps and to her immediate horror nearly ends up tumbling backwards down the hill. But, by some stroke of dumb luck, she manages to somehow right herself before she starts to tumble backwards. She slows her pace a little after that for the fear that she won't be as lucky next time as she takes a few quick moments to catch her breath. Before she restarts her ascent up the hill.
It doesn't take her long to climb the rest of the way up the hill, her thighs throbbing in protest when she finally comes to a stop at the top of the hill. She lets herself rest a few seconds as she rubs the stiffness out of her thighs and let herself catch her breath, while she stares out across the town and surrounding farmland below.
She has to remind her self that she's not there to enjoy the view as she sets herself off running again, following the neatly bricked road until she reaches the elegant building which sits overlooking the town below. She slows her pace as she nears the building, which she's only ever seen I passing glances from the bottom of the hill or more commonly on the TV.
It's a place that she has only ever heard of in passing, and one which she has never had the good fortune to step inside of. But, that's not to say she doesn't know all about its polished tiled floors, top of the range equipment and machinery which costs thousands if not millions of dollars, as well as, it's expansive library rumoured to have the rarest of rare books about all sorts of topics from pokemon to plants.
She doesn't get the chance to step inside the building today either since she's spotted before she even makes to the entrance, by a lone figure who stands watering some nearby flowers as three pokemon a wartortle, a psyduck, and an energetic politoed mill around soft jets of water spraying out of their mouths as they two water some nearby flowerbeds and rosebushes.
"Ah, Miss Kobayashi." Greets the man with a friendly smile as the three pokemon around him gaze at her watchfully for a few seconds. Before turning to continue what had previously been doing. "I see you have finally arrived. I was starting to think you had maybe gotten lost on you're way here."
"I'm sorry I'm late Professor." She palms the back of her neck sheepishly as the professor bends to set his watering can down beside him. "But an escaped group of tauros where blocking most of the roads leading into town so I had to take the long way here."
The professor just nods at her, smiling amusedly as he chuckles softly to himself. "Ah, yes. I've been hearing all about that herd of tauros from my assistants this morning, seems like that they've been causing quite the ruckus."
She nods in agreement, remembering how distressed the local police force had been this morning, as they tried and failed to corral the herd of mischievous tauros away from the town and stop them from causing trouble, like the last time they escaped and ended up demolishing someone's car.
"My grandmother said to tell you that she has gotten everything you asked for." She says, rifling through her satchel, searching for the brown packaged parcel and it's accompanying letter both of which she hands to the professor. "She also told me to tell you to give her more than a weeks notice the next time you ask her for a favour."
The professor laughs, tucking the letter into his signature white lab coat. "Thank you, Hanako." Replies the professor. "Please be sure to thank your grandmother for me when you get home. The parcel you've just delivered is going to go a long way in helping me expand my current line of research and for that, I am very grateful."
Hanako nods and has to bite her tongue to stop herself from asking what she's just delivered. "I'll be sure to tell her."
The professor gives her a friendly wave goodbye as she retraces her steps back down the path she came from. "Okay." She says adjusting her bag to a more comfortable position on her shoulder. "One delivery down, only sixteen more to go."
"You really don't have to keep thanking me, sir." Confesses Hanako, holding up her hands in front of her in a shy attempt to protest the man, who continues to shower her in praise.
"Nonsense." He shakes his head vigorously at her. "Without that medicine, you just delivered my poor Psyduck would still be suffering from one of those dreadful headaches she's plagued with."
She sighs, knowing full well that Mr Tanaka isn't going to let her leave without thanking her at least a dozen or so more times, she wishes he wouldn't. But, it's something she's had to become accustomed to over the years since she's never been able to avoid the praise and gratitude customers insist on showering her with.
She sometimes feels the inescapable urge to tell them to stop clawing it's way up the back of her throat, it' her grandmother that they should be truly grateful towards, she is after all the one who works hard cultivate and prepare the plants that eventually become the medicine which her clients are in dire need of, while her only job is to help make sure it gets delivered to the correct customer and that's rarely, if ever difficult to do even with an escaped herd of tauros on the loose.
"Just make sure she gets two doses of her medicine a day, the first dose in the morning and the second at night before she goes to sleep. My grandmother also recommends that your psyduck has something to eat before she's given her medicine." She explains, lowering her hands as the man continues to smile at her.
"Thank you." Repeats the man. "I'll be sure to do just that, don't you worry." Hanako nods once in response to the man and says a brief but friendly goodbye to Mr Tanaka as she crosses his name off of her list.
"Finally," Says Hanako with a sigh, rereading through the list of names and addresses as she gives it one final look over to make sure she hasn't missed anyone. She hasn't, and like always every one of her deliveries scheduled for the day has been delivered and rightfully crossed off.
She tucks her list back into her pants pocket as she sets off home for the day, thankful that Mr Tanaka happens to live on the outskirts of the town, since that means she might make it home at a reasonable time tonight.
She yawns as she makes her way down the narrow and deserted road. The cracked grey pavement turning into coarse dry dirt below her as the cosy cottages that she passes slowly become more sparsely situated from one another. Until, they eventually fade into the distance behind her, and the only things that's left is the dusty dirt road in front of her and the vast fenced farmland to either side of her.
Heading up the country road that rests on the rural outskirts of Pallet Town, Hanako finds herself more than a little bit relieved to see that the escaped herd of tauros from earlier have all been rounded up, and herded back into their pasture. Although, she does find herself feeling more than a little bit perturbed when the largest member of the herd, who she assumes must be the herd's leader, glares at her forebodingly from where it's stood across the field.
Warning her silently not to stray too close to the herd or fence with separates them or else. She takes a few steps away from the fence as a precaution as the tauros continues to silently stare her down from across the field, grinding its hooves loudly into the ground, kicking up a small of cloud dirt as it does so.
Hanako doesn't dare make any sudden movements or lock eyes with the tauros as she continues to walk up the road. She may not be the brightest of light bulbs, but that does mean she' dumb enough to play chicken with a dominant tauros, especially not one that could very easily trample or gore her to death in a matter of seconds with its horns.
She continues travelling up the road cautiously, making sure not to step too close to the fence or turn to look behind her when she continues to feel the burning gaze of the tauros searing a hole through her head. Until she eventually spots the beaten up old wooden sign which points in the direction which she knows to be Route One.
She pays the sign no attention as she passes it by, heading through the overgrown grass as she heads in the direction of home, only stopping to briefly watch as a small mischief of ratttata and raticate forage and play amongst themselves by the edge of a nearby stream, while a small flock of pidgey fly harmoniously above them in search of a somewhere safe to settle down for the night.
The setting sun casts a dull amber hue across the sky as the slowly approaching darkness of light contorts and bends the remaining strands of light, scattering the amber hue of the sun with vibrant splashes of blue and purple which twist to merge with the extensive landscape in front of her, as the colours of the sky choke out the last few depleting rays of the sun.
She turns her head away from the sky, as she, unfortunately, hasn't got time to waste on staring at the scenery of the route in front of her, no matter how beautiful it may be. Since, she's only got an hour or so to get herself home, since her grandmother likely to scold her if she's late for dinner a third time this week. Thankfully, however, it isn't long before the glowing silhouette of the Viridian City worms it's way into her view.
She makes her way towards it, the uneven dirt road turning slowly back to concrete as she snakes her way further into the city, passing by a few familiar dimly lit stores, as well as, a smiling young mother who laughs sweetly at her child as he races with a floating magnemite which hovers above the child's head, she assumes it must belong to the child's mother since she's the one carrying a pokeball.
She continues on her way through the wide open streets of Viridian City, until she finds herself following the road that will lead her further towards the more rural edge of the City, as well as Route Two. Continuing to navigate herself down the road, Hanako eventually starts passing fewer and fewer people as she makes her way home, the smoothly paved roads of the city being replaced once again by uneven dirt and stone.
It doesn't take her long after that to reach her home, the shops bell rings above her as she lets herself in through the front entrance where she spots her grandmother behind the counter standing and patiently listening to a large dishevelled man, who slumps against the counter with his head in his hands as he quietly sobs out details about his sick poliwag. Her grandmother raises a bushy white eyebrow at her as she quietly walks into the back of the shop, giving her grandmother a shrug in response.
Her grandmother continues to watch her from the corner of her eye as she continues to write down notes about the man's poliwag into her notebook, the man continuing to sob and stutter as she does so.
She toes off her shoes as she removes her coat and satchel, hanging them on a free coat hook as she heads into walks into the kitchen, grabbing herself a glass from out of one of the nearby cupboards and filling it with water. Before leaning against one of the kitchen counters as she sips from the glass casually, a pot of something tasty smelling bubbling and churning beside her on the stove as she does so.
She makes short work of the glass of water, placing it in the sink beside her as she pushes herself off of the counter and turning in the direction of the stairs so she can head upstairs to her room. However, before she can even lift a foot to step towards the stairs a soft tip-tapping on the wooden back door of the kitchen echoes through the kitchen, interrupting her.
She yawns and slowly walks towards the back door, the tapping on the door growing louder and more impatient which each step she takes.
"I'm coming, I'm coming." She shouts as she unlatches the door. "Keep your bloody feathers on, sheesh."
She unlocks the door, swinging it open to reveal the short brown figure of her grandmother's noctowl, who gives her an ill-tempered squawk of annoyance as it trots itself into the kitchen. Before he turns his large piercing red eyes towards her in frustration as he cranes his neck downwards to peck at his harness lightly.
"Yeah, yeah. You want it off I know" She waves her hands dismissively towards stern owl pokemon, walking towards him as he stands watching her impatiently as she bends down to unfasten and remove his harness and it's attaching bag.
Noctowl turns it's head to the side away from her as she unbuckles and loosens the straps that are interlinked under his feathers. "You're surprisingly more crabby today than usual." Said Hanako, receiving a squawk of annoyance from the pokemon as she fiddles with one of the more trickier straps. "What happened? A wild Beedrill sting you in the butt while you were flying over Viridian Forest."
Noctowl turns to glare at her for the comment, rewarding her with a few well-placed pecks to her arms and hand. "Grumpy old bird." Yells Hanako as she attempts to swat him away with her hands to no avail. "I was only joking."
Noctowl replies with a few angry sounding shrinks and squawks as he flaps his large brown wings at her angrily, using them to knock her off balance and send her tumbling ungracefully to the floor before he swoops down to peck at her.
The two continue to brawl with one another, with Hanako doing her best to swat him away with her arms, while Noctowl caws and claws at her his sharp talons digging into her leg. Until, she manages to get t enough leverage to push herself up off of the floor and grabbing one of his legs, yanking him from the air as she pins him to the floor. This, however, does stop the overgrown pidgey from continuing to peck at her wherever he can as they roll and squirm with one another of the cold kitchen floor, knocking over a chair as they do so.
"Hanako. Noctowl." Roars her grandmother as she storms into the kitchen. "What in the world are you two doing? Stop it at once."
"He started it." Shouts Hanako as she continues to wrestle with the noctowl on the floor as he in turn kicks and squawks in annoyance at her.
Her grandmother scowls at them as she marches across the small kitchen towards them. "I don't care which one of you started it." Yells her grandmother, yanking them both up and off of the floor by the scruffs of their necks. "If you two don't stop this nonsense right now I promise you I'll personally put an end to this foolish squabbling myself."
Both Hanako and Noctowl grumble at each other in response as her grandmother continues to keep hold of them as she scowls angrily at them, while she waits to see if they have indeed decided to quit fighting with one another, only letting them both go when she's certain neither one of them is going to restart the fight.
"You room." She says, pointing at her granddaughter and ushering her upstairs. Her noctowl letting out an amused hoot at the command that sounds almost like a snicker as she turns to sulk up the stairs, only to receive a sharp whack on the head. "And don't think you're getting off scot-free mister I saw how you were trying to peck at her face." Her grandmother continues with her scolding of her noctowl as Hanako walks up the stair, at least now she will finally be able to change out of her clothes.
Hi, me again. Just wanted to say a big, big thank you to everyone who has reviewed, followed, and favourited this story. I was initially going to scrap this story and give up trying to write a pokemon centred fic. But, thanks to all the support I've received I decided to dust off my writing cap and attempt once again to write a somewhat plausible story about a girl and her pokemon.
Thanks again, TheGutsyWolf.
P.S. I might be able to post another chapter tomorrow before I set off on my holiday, It will only be short. But, I'll try to have it ready before then, cheers.