Alix awoke to the cry of her Honchkrow, who was just now getting tired as a nocturnal pokemon. Alix stretched her bones in awkward positions before remembering what today was. It was her little sisters tenth birthday. It was customary for the oldest sibling to arrive at the celebration with a present in the form of a pokemon. Of coarse, her sister Halie had decided not to get a pokemon from the town professor, and instead wanted a traditional birthday.
Alix put great care in to selecting the pokemon for young Halie. As the oldest child in the family Alix had already sought a starter for her younger brother, Ryan, on his tenth birthday. However, Halie was much more difficult the Ryan had been, because Ryan had always hinted at what pokemon he wanted as his starter. When asking Halie what she wanted Halie replied "I want to be unique, and so I need a pokemon to stand out." Alix spent a long time in the deep jungles of kento to find a scyther for Ryan, and wasn't sure how she could find another rare pokemon for her sister without even knowing what she wanted.
Another factor that proved troublesome was that Halie was Alixs' step sister. Ryan and Alix had always accepted her as a sister, but Alix had known Ryan his whole life before choosing his pokemon, and had only known Halie for three short years. Picking out Halies' dream pokemon would be hard, but just as Alix was beginning to lose hope on her quest, Alix made a discovery. While searching in the whirl Island Alix and her Gyarados were sucked in to a whirlpool, as they flew out they discovered an island of pink pokemon.
After working on the 'preserve' for two months, and getting to know the protectors of the island Alix was permitted to catch a single pokemon from the island. Alix had to follow strict rules, promising not to tell anyone what she saw or where she had found the pokemon. Even Halie was not allowed to know the location of her pokemons' home island under any circumstances.
Honchkrow flew beside Alix as they headed towards her fathers rural house. In normal circumstances Alix would have her gyarados fly her to her dads house, but today she was trying to sneak up on the birthday girl. She made it to her bedroom window, slid it open and pulled herself in. she reflected on her many midnight outings through this window for training and after-curfew battles. Motioning to Honchkrow to be quite she flopped on to her bed awaiting her below the windowsill. Honchkrow flew in behind her and perched on the chair back by Alixs' desk as she had done sense she was a young murkrow.
Slowly sliding the window shut, Alix set her backpack on the bed and turned to the door, where she saw a shadow cast through the bottom crack. She knew it meant her fathers ninetails, Kita, had noticed her arrival, but judging from the the voices mingling in the front room, Alix assumed no one else had noticed what Kita had. Walking to the door Alix cracked it open just far enough for Kita to squeeze in, then she released her Umbreon from his poke ball, knowing Kita couldn't wait to see her old friend.
Kita and Umby nuzzled one another, then Kita greeted Honchkrow, who cooed softly and flapped a wing. After taking a quick look at herself in the mirror, Alix set off through the door, and down the hallway. Honchkrow fluttered to Alixs' shoulder, Kita and Umby loyally trotted behind as they headed to the crowd of voices growing louder in the front room.