Cherrygrove's Winter Knights
…
- I'm not a Trainer
The sleepy, chilly, and otherwise entirely-ordinary Wednesday began on a less-than-sunny note. Aubrey, age thirteen and three months, two weeks and two days, opened the door to her family's barren refrigerator, closed it, and opened it again, hoping desperately for something delicious to appear. There was food in the fridge per se, but nothing actually edible from a human perspective. Aubrey closed the fridge door for a distressing third time, just before the Pokemon food started to look appetizing.
Aubrey's mother and father ran the Pokemon Day Care, which they had opened outside of New Bark Town in response to its recent popularity. Of course, Mom and Dad wound up spending most of their recent paychecks on said Pokemon chow in order to keep the business going. It was fairly obvious that Aubrey's parents had expected their business to only be a minor success; when their profits soared as several high-level trainers left their Pokemon for weeks at a time, Aubrey's parents found themselves at a loss for words.
A town has one trainer that conquers the Pokemon League and goes to Kanto, and suddenly it's the must-see culture center in the nation. Who knew?
It was a loss for words and, as Aubrey quickly caught on, a loss of free time. Her parents found themselves working at the Day Care Center all day and often long into the night; if they did come home, they would be up again before sunrise to start the day all over again. Still, since it was winter vacation, Aubrey didn't mind being left to her own devices. Spending her free time alone was better than spending it in the Day Care with her parents; the last time she submitted to that, she was forced the front desk for eight hours a day. Midway through the ordeal, Aubrey was certain that she'd died and gone to Purgatory.
With a hungry hand, Aubrey dug into the 'in case of emergencies' jar on the kitchen countertop. Having no human food in the house definitely constituted and emergency. She found just enough money to buy breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the day; she could as her parents for grocery money and make a full shopping trip tomorrow. Aubrey didn't mind having to go out on her own; part of running a Day Care was having to be familiar with the routes that trainers frequented. Cherrygrove City was a good hour walk away, and while New Bark Town was only barely closer, the tourist trap stores would drain her wallet dry. Aubrey knew herself; resisting a used bookstore or a hip outdoor mall was impossible in the Aubrey playbook.
Wearing the white parka her father had given her two winters ago and the blue scarf her grandmother made when she visited last spring, Aubrey set out in search of breakfast. She locked the door behind her, clutched her emergency dollar bills in her gloved fist, and trudged down the snowy path in her older sister's hand-me-down boots.
Thankfully, Aubrey was born and raised in this often-snowy part of the Johto region. The winter wonderland of her backyard had warmed her spirits on more than one occasion. She knew the roads by heart, come rain or snow or flawless shine. Aubrey walked along the edges of the paved roads, arms out on either side to balance. It was easy enough to keep herself steady in the more temperate seasons, but in wintertime, when she could easily be mistaken for a snowman due to her parka jacket, balance was no easy feat.
After a burst of icy wind from seemingly every direction at once, Aubrey fell from the road's edge, catching herself gracefully and swinging her arms merrily. A mahogany curl spilled out from her stocking cap, but so long as it didn't start to collect melting water, she didn't mind.
She didn't mind this entire morning, when she got down to thinking about it. Sure, her stomach was in a mood, but Aubrey had cleaned both hers and her father's plate the previous night anyway. If she were honest with herself, then she would realize that this was an excuse to get out of the house and enjoy the fleeting weeks of winter before spring melted it away for another year.
In fact, Aubrey was so caught up in enjoying the blinding white sheets of snow that she didn't notice her company until halfway into the journey.
In the Chikorita's defense, it hadn't done much to warrant any attention. It had simply woken up in the dry patch of grass that it collapsed in the night before, shook off the snow from the leaf atop its head, and glimpsed a young girl walking with her arms stretched out all funny-like just up the road. And the Chikorita, with nothing else to do, followed along. The girl didn't seem to notice anyway.
That is, until a rude boy with a backwards hat, a stubbly face, and a college sweater all but announced the Chikorita's presence via loudspeaker.
"My name's Lincoln," the boy said with overflowing confidence, "and I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!"
Aubrey paused and looked around, wondering to whom this college-aged boy was talking to.
"Do you see anybody else here?" Lincoln shouted briskly. There was no need to be rude; the two of them were standing barely ten feet apart. Aubrey had seen the older boy coming down the road a long time ago, but thought nothing of it. She instantly regretted that decision. "I want a battle, right here and right now!"
Her voice wanted to shout back in self-defense. One of the few things Aubrey genuinely hated was being yelled at. Instead, Aubrey gathered her words and spoke calmly and clearly. "I'm sorry, but not a Trainer," she admitted. "I don't have my own Pokemon…and I don't even have a Trainers' License."
Lincoln seemed to back off once the statement registered. A boy or girl had to be at least fifteen years old to qualify for a Trainers' License in the Johto region. And from the way she wore her clothes without any kind of care for looking womanly, right down to the childish strand of hair covering her face haphazardly, the girl standing in Lincoln's way looked positively middle-school. Only one thing didn't check out. Lincoln pointed a long, almost-adult finger to just past Aubrey's shoulder.
"You're not a Trainer, eh?" Lincoln said slowly, "then how do you explain that?"
Aubrey followed the finger in the air, tracing the path with her large hazel eyes, until she turned around and landed straight on her present company.
The Chikorita simply stared at her with an unmoving expression.
Aubrey had never seen a Chikorita up-close before. Her cousin had bred Bulbasaurs and Turtwigs when she was younger, and Aubrey's parents often baby-sat Bayleef and Meganiums from A-Class Trainers, but nobody had ever come through the Day Care with a starter Pokemon. From what Aubrey had read about them, the starter Pokemon were incredibly rare finds. Even with the advent of Breeding, starters were only handed out once a year because of how long their eggs took to hatch.
So, Aubrey wondered as she saw her first Chikorita, what was this one doing out by itself?
"Well?" Lincoln had taken to shouting again. "Is that one yours? Or what?"
Aubrey thought fast. She had never actually been friends with a Trainer, and the kids from school that left to become 'the very best' never returned, so if her father's words were biased, she had nothing to judge them against. However, if people like this Lincoln boy were representative of the rest of the Trainers in the world, then she knew to trust her father's advice. She slipped straight into action.
"You mean this Chikorita? It's mine," Aubrey knelt down and scooped up the Chikorita with her chubby arms. "Just for the day, I mean."
"But you just said you weren't a Trainer," Lincoln said dubiously.
"Oh, I'm definitely not. My parents run the Day Care half a mile from here," Aubrey told the rehearsed half-truth. "I'm taking this Chikorita on a walk."
When Lincoln's hard, black eyes appeared unconvinced, Aubrey added, "You're welcome to join us if you want. We're just headed into Cherrygrove City for lunch."
There was a tense pause as Lincoln tightened his grip on his backpack strap and pursed his thin lips. Aubrey thanked her lucky stars that the Pokemon in her arms was one of the calm ones; if this Chikorita were the kind to cry out and kick at strangers, there would be no way that she could sell Lincoln her phony story.
Lincoln shifted his weight between his feet as he locked eyes with Aubrey, and then with the Chikorita. If the girl were lying, then he was passing up a chance to catch a rare starter Pokemon, which was something virtually unheard of in any region. But if he wound up just harming a child and stealing a Day Care's Pokemon, Lincoln's license would be gone like the wind.
The older Trainer counted his losses and exhaled uncaringly. "Whatever," he groaned. "Put that thing in a ball, will you? It's bloody freezing out here. That Pokemon looks like it could get all kinds of sick."
And with that, Lincoln passed Aubrey and continued on his fastidious way. Aubrey held onto the Chikorita tight as she listened for the boy's footsteps to fade away into the distance, then invariably turn down the road to New Bark Town, and finally grow silent altogether.
Aubrey knelt back down onto the road; Chikorita slowly crawled from her arms. It shivered as its tiny feet touched the frozen ground.
"You're lucky you didn't make much noise back there," Aubrey said cheerily. "If that boy thought you weren't mine, then he might have captured you, and trust me, you wouldn't have wanted that."
It was a paradox: Aubrey's family ran a Day Care for Trainers while simultaneously despising the act of Pokemon battling. Her parents were able to rationalize their decision by saying that the world will continue to treat Pokemon like weapons with or without their opinions. However, if their family can offer those Pokemon at least one day of respite from their ill-fated experiences, they will have done a good deed in the grand scheme of things. That's what Aubrey's parents believed, anyway. Aubrey herself had never given it much thought.
That wasn't the matter at hand, anyway. As Aubrey stared into the Chikorita, and it back at her, she realized that she was suddenly in a bit of a mess.
What was she going to do with it?
If she let the Chikorita go, then it might get caught by a Trainer like that annoying Lincoln. Since the Chikorita was a starter Pokemon, the obvious and expected move was to march it to New Bark Town…but wouldn't it meet the same fate there, just with some other Trainer?
Aubrey tried to think harder, but her stomach roared at her with unrelenting fury. When in doubt, the best option was typically to let the world do its thing. Odds are, this Chikorita was just temporarily lost from whatever group it traveled with. If Aubrey wandered away, then the Chikorita would simply find its way back to where it came from. No harm, no foul. She had saved it from Lincoln, and now her work was done.
"I've gotta go now, little fella!" Aubrey waved her gloved hand. "I'll see you around sometime, okay?"
The Chikorita just stared at her, uncomprehending. The moment ended as Aubrey stood back up, brushed off the snow from her calves, and started walking along the road. If she didn't get a sandwich in her system soon, her stomach would start chewing at itself. She put one foot in front of the other and kept on moving.
She soon stopped, barely a few feet from where she began.
Aubrey was far from stupid; she knew what this was. She'd turn around and find that Chikorita still there, shivering in the cold, and she'd feel compelled to take it along with her. She'd hang out with it for the entire day, come home and ask to keep it, then get rejected by her parents and forced to take it to New Bark Town where, sad as it sounded, the Chikorita belonged. It would just be one heartbreaking, day-long memory that would likely haunt her when she looked back on childhood from old age.
But even knowing this, Aubrey couldn't stop herself from turning around and seeing the Chikorita, its brown eyes beaming and its whole body shivering feverishly. Sure, the innocent Pokemon might find its way back home. It might also, you know, freeze to death.
Aubrey rolled her eyes and walked back to the small green Pokemon, stroking the leaf on its head before picking it up in her arms again. The Chikorita seemed to love the warm embrace; a small grin formed on its small, infant-like face.
"Don't get too comfy," Aubrey chided. "I'm going into town anyway, so I'll just drop you off at the Pokemon Center. They can get you cleaned up and find out where you belong. Does that sound good to you?"
The Chikorita curled up and buried itself in Aubrey's chest. She couldn't be sure if the response was a compliant yawn or a satisfied nod.
Either way, Aubrey had made up her mind. She was taking this freezing Chikorita into town, and that was that. At most, they'd be spending a few hours in each other's silent company. When she thought about it that way, it sounded incredibly pleasant. Aubrey tucked the mahogany lock of hair back into her stocking cap and pressed onward.
A/N: Hello, true believers! Thanks for reading, review if you can, and stick around if you'd like. I've got the next chapter coming shortly, and I'm really excited to work on this story.