CHAPTER ONE
Of sunsets and new friends
"Hey uncle Eric, tell us a story!"
"You wanna hear a story? What kind of story?"
"How about the story of how you became the Champion of the pokemon league? You promised us last time that we would get to hear it!"
"Oh yes that is a good story indeed. Now where to start? Well I guess I'll tell you how I met Sam. I was, hmm, I think I was twelve years old back then, in 6th grade with no idea on what I wanted to do afterwards."
#
I wasn't having a good day. To be fair most of my days at school weren't particularly great. Dennis and the rest of his motley crew saw to that. Apparently being somewhat good at math and the smallest in the class was as good a reason as any to be made a target. But this time the idiots really went overboard.
"Please Dennis stop, this really isn't funny anymore! We're not supposed to be in the forest it's dange.." THUMP One of Dennis' goons had buried his fist in my stomach. The guy holding my arms behind my back - I could dimly remember that his name was Dick - snickered as I doubled over, heaving for air.
"Oh is the little pipsqueak scawed of the fowest?" drawled Dennis in a mocking baby voice. "See Eric this is just a little test. All you have to do is find your way out of the forest on your own. But knowing you, you'll probably just be crying, like the baby you are."
Four of them had ganged up on me and pushed and pulled me into the forest next to our school. Certainly much deeper than the teachers had allowed to go and most definitely way further than I was comfortable with.
After some rummaging in his pockets Dennis procured a pokeball. Dick whistled. "Where'd you get that Dennis?" He asked curiously.
"Nicked it from dad before he went to work." Dennis grinned mischievously. "Alright Haunter come out to play" he said, casually tossing the ball at his feet. The fist size orb split in half and in a flash of white its denizen materialized. The floating purple form of the pokemon didn't exactly make me feel any better. "Haunter use confuse ray!"
A bright light formed before my eyes, bright enough to make me dizzy. I heard the distinctive sound of a pokemon being recalled, before being shoved to the ground. After that I could only hear the laughter of my bullies and their hastened footsteps as they abandoned me in the forest. With the sparks still dancing before my eyes I had little choice other than lay there and hope it would stop sooner rather than later.
Eventually the effect of confuse ray faded away and I was able to get up and get my bearings. It was already starting to get dark and I had no idea where I was. Swallowing hard I worked my brain for a solution to my predicament. Sticking around in the forest for too long could be very dangerous. While most of the pokemon at the edges of the forest were benevolent, there were some nasty critters to be found deeper in. I had to get moving sooner rather than later. I couldn't really come up with anything better than picking the direction where I thought Dennis and his group had headed and go in that direction.
After having wandered around aimlessly in the forest and my third encounter with a Beedrill I was just about ready to give up. I had escaped all the Beedrill thus far by legging it as fast as possible in a zig-zag, but now I was exhausted and it was really getting dark. Sobbing I curled myself up into a miserable little pile of self pity.
Feeling a light tugging at one of my sleeves I startled and looked up. And I froze. Right there before me was an Abra. But that wasn't it. Don't get me wrong they were fairly rare and even more shy. But what had me chilled to the bones, was that the Abra was staring back at me. It was actually awake. "Abra" the small pokemon cried and stretched out one of its hands. Fighting back my tears I slowly and carefully reached out. Something about those eyes seemed to be able to see into my thoughts. Suddenly I felt a lot calmer and with a small pop we blinked out of existence.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting but it surely wasn't that. The sudden change in environment threw me for a loop, but the calming presence of the Abra kept me from going back to crying on the floor. I looked around to get a bearing on my surroundings. First thing I noted was that we were in a cave, and the last rays of sunlight made their way through the entrance. Well calling it a cave might have been a little generous. It was more of a hole on the mountainside below us Greng forest spread out. The cave was filled with stalactites and stalagmites and the constant splish splish of the water droplets. The sun was setting just between Kahau mountain and Saljau peak, colouring the sky and the snowy mountains in gold and orange. The droplets clinging to the stalactites glimmered like stars in the setting sun.
"Wow!" I realized that I had been holding my breath since we arrived. "This is amazing. Do you live here?" I looked to my left where the Abra was gently floating, still holding my hand. The answer was a little nod and affirmative thought through our mind link. "It's absolutely beautiful!" Stunned as I was I didn't really see anything else to do other than soak in the moment. How could anything bad happen in a world that held such beauty?
After the sun disappeared behind the horizon I was brought back into reality by the fact that I was still stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I glanced down at the Abra still holding on to my left hand. "Hey can you bring me home with your teleport?" The small pokemon looked up to me tilting its head "Ab?". Trying to answer its question by thinking of home as hard as possible I shut my eyes. After once again receiving a telepathic confirmation the now familiar feeling overcame me and Abra whisked us away.
#
Mom wasn't happy. Well that wasn't quite correct. She was ecstatic to see me tumbling in through the front door. However, she wasn't thrilled about my new companion, but seeing as I clearly wasn't in the mood to give him up right now she didn't press the issue. First order of business was to call up dad and tell him that I'd turned up. After that she wanted to know what had happened.
I started recounting how after school Dennis and his friends had cornered me and pushed me into the forest. How I ran from the Beedril and how Abra found me and brought me back. Somewhere halfway through my story mom pushed a cup of hot chocolate into my hands from which I happily sipped. Being done with my retelling of the last few hours mom sighed. "Alright sweety let's get you to bed, we'll sort all of this out tomorrow, ok?"
I sleepily nodded until a question bubbled to the forefront of my mind. "What happens with Abra?"
Mom furrowed her eyebrows. Sighing she said "I suppose he can stay for the night, if he wants." Judging by the nod the small yellow pokemon gave it seemed to be fine with that. "Alright off to your room then." Pushing myself off the chair I got up heading for my room. After quickly throwing on my pajamas I threw myself into my bed. Abra seemed content with floating next me and as I drifted off into sleep he prodded at my thoughts. Through the hazy connection shot one crystal clear thought. Friend.
Luckily the next day was a Saturday since I really wasn't too buzzed to be going to school. I used the morning to spend time with my new friend. Mom was out but dad was around and he handed me a box with pokemon food.
"Don't let mom see that." he winked at me "You know how she acts when I bring my job home."
"Thanks dad." I grinned. Being the son of a pokemon breeder had its perks. Getting to know Sam - that's what he's name sounded like when he thought it at me - proved a little difficult. Dad said that Abras spend 18 hours a day sleeping. Sam didn't really seem that much different except that his eyes were now closed, and the stream of consciousness coming through his telepathy seemed a little less coherent. He certainly was less talkative than yesterday, but he seemed to be happy about the food dad had gotten me.
Sam didn't take very kindly to the TV though, when I switched it on he seemed to get spooked and instantly teleported behind the couch. Generally he seemed quite skittish, any too sudden movement triggered him to teleport away. Dad mentioned that was to be expected, apparently sleeping Abras did that as a reflex for self defense, and judging by the fact that Sam came gently floating back after checking in on me by telepathy, it didn't seem like he was holding grudges. After some trial and error it seemed he was drawn to dad's chess board and I spent the rest of the morning trying to teach him the game. It went a lot better than I had expected, and by the time mom came back for lunch we were happily sitting - or in Sam's case floating - at the board and playing each other.
The rest of the weekend went by in a hurry. Dad got me a pokeball for Sam, although most of the time I kept him outside of it. Sam also seemed to get better with words, so when we communicated I didn't exclusively have to try and parse the stream of emotions, pictures and impressions, although it was still mostly that. As I was lying in bed on sunday evening, all I could think about though, was that tomorrow I had to go back to school, and I wouldn't be allowed to bring Sam with me. I didn't know at that point that school would hold some new surprises for me tomorrow.
#
"Alright class let's settle in!" Ms Everill clapped her hands for attention. "Lisa sit down! Alright everyone, I want you all to welcome our new student. She'll tell you a little something about herself."
Standing next to her was a girl with shoulder long mouse brown hair. She was wearing glasses and had a good few freckles in her face. With a smile she waved at us. "Hey everyone my name is Eleonora, but most people just call me Elly. Me and my parents moved here from Latinia City. In my free time I like to dance. Uhm yeah. That's about it." She awkwardly looked around the room.
"Very nice, you can go find yourself an unoccupied seat, then we'll start with math for today." The last remark elicited groans all around.
Elly picked up her bag and strolled over to the empty seat next to me. "This one's free yes?" she asked pointing at the chair.
"Uhm, yeah of course." I answered stumbling over my own tongue. "My name's Eric, nice to meet you." One rather awkward hand shake later Elly started unpacking. Meanwhile, Ms Everill moved to make true on her threat and started scribbling numbers on the blackboard.
It didn't take long until Dennis took to one of his favorite pastimes during math: pelting me with rolled up scraps of paper. Having long learned my lesson that stoic ignorance was the best course of action in this scenario, I kept on solving the problem that was staring down at us from the blackboard. "What the?" came a surprised yelp from Dennis. At this point I couldn't resist turning around.
When I did, I understood his sentiment fully. The paper pellets meant for me where floating in the air and had taken to poking Dennis in the face. Math was the last thing on most of the students' minds now. A big part of them were trying not to laugh, generally with very little success. Elly especially was having a hard time keeping herself on her chair.
"Miss Eleonora, you should know that pokemon are not allowed on the school grounds." Ms Everill had shifted her attention from helping Oliver with the math problem to the commotion in our corner of the classroom. "But seeing as this is your first day here and we are about to take a break anyway, why don't you introduce us to your friend?" She was clearly trying to look stern, but the smile on her face did her no favors.
Elly clearly caught off guard was turning red like a tomato. "Uh yeah of course!" Apparently having found her courage, she started digging in her bag. After some wordless coaxing she procured a small white pokemon with something that looked like a light blue hat and 2 orange horns poking out of it. Under quite some oos and aas she gently set it on the table. "This is Tess, my Ralts. She's my dancing partner." They did a synchronized little twirl. "And I'm afraid she's a bit of a prankster, so sorry about that." She smiled apologetically at Dennis. At that moment the bell rang.
"Alright class, let's take a break. We'll continue in 15 minutes." Ms Everill called with a clap.
Hey everyone, so this is the first chapter of my story, thanks for reading it. English isn't my native language, so even though I double and triple checked everything, I'm sure some things fell through the cracks. So I'd love any and all feedback that goes toward making my writing better.
