A New Trainer Appears!
It was not long past midnight, a time when most children his age were sleeping peacefully, resting in their beds with the quilt pulled up to their chin and their long eyelashes painted to their cheeks. In this sleep they did nothing more than dream, dream of the future, of the person they would become, of the friends they would meet and of the destiny they would achieve.
In this sense Allan was different, unusual, an anomaly, unique, for his footsteps resounded carefully through the empty streets as he hurried quickly to his destination.
The sky was a thick blanket of darkness spattered with bright stars that twinkled benignly at those below, their greatness a secret only they knew. The street was lined with identical houses, small little houses with red roofs and small square windows, at this very hour those windows were empty, forbidding and cold, allowing one to see out but not in. The trees rustled gently in the breeze, a breeze that tussled his hair and stung his eyes forcing tears to form, slowly the leaves gently drifted to the ground, like a mockery of snow. Today the world was silent, today not a single soul walked the streets, apart from him.
Entering the forest was strangely easy, after years and years of not being allowed near the formidable place, and he had tried, like any other kid in the town he had tried to sneak in only to be caught and told off but all of a sudden he had permission. Suddenly Allan realised that he wasn't all that eager to go in there anyway.
The trees were large, they towered above the houses like skyscrapers in the city, fierce orange eyes glared out silently from the branches, watching, just watching but it wasn't those creatures he feared.
His breath left his longs quickly only to return sharply, it caused a slight ache in his chest as he fought to breathe deeply, he wouldn't allow the panic to overtake him. Not today. He was ten now. A man. No matter how hard he fought against it, a slight trembling was present in his knees and the force at which they were knocking themselves together was almost painful. Tiny little half-moons carved themselves into his palms from his deathly grip; the knuckles were so tense the flow of blood had long since stopped turning his tanned skin the colour of freshly fallen snow.
His hair stood on ends and he fiercely chanted the mantra in his mind, 'It's because of the wind.' there was no reason for him to be scared. At ten years old, the world should not be the place that inhabits the monsters of his childish imagination but with every step, every breath and every sideways glance he swore that he saw them, waiting, watching. He knew, he knew that he had to stay strong or his father would be angry again and Allan had sworn, he had sworn to himself that now that he was ten he would make his father proud.
To the forest Allan was naught but a Digglet to a mountain, a Pidgey among the sky or a Poliwag to the ocean. He had never felt so insignificant before, however that was a lie, whenever his father's piercing gaze met his, every time he realised that he had failed to live up to the expectations of the man he was overcome with the sense of insignificance.
The boy was small for his age with untidy tawny hair that danced in his sharp blue eyes, hiding them from view, his skin was tanned from his many exploits around the town and his lips were permanently curled up into a smile betraying his joy until now. The small beam of light, by which he was travelling, was directed pointedly at the ground. The fear that it would accidentally catch on something he did not want to see was overwhelming and his chin almost touched his chest, his shoulders were hunched over and his pace was hurried.
His small hands were shaking so much that the torch quickly disappeared from his ground and landed on the floor with the sound that easily betrayed the breaking of metallic objects, that uneasy crunching noise.
For what seemed like hours all the air in his lungs completely left him, his body became rigged with fear, the panic was overwhelming as he struggled desperately to inhale.
"Allan." His father scolded darkly seemingly materializing out of the darkness, everything from his ebony coloured hair to his burnet clothing, his figure blended into the forests shadows and the boy clasped a hand over his mouth to contain the piercing scream that painstakingly tried to rip from his throat. "You're late."
The tawny-haired boy bent his head low in shame, staring at his shoes as he entered the clearing, fighting to keep his eyes from accidentally straying to the angry figure before him. His lips wordlessly moved attempting to summon sound but failing, his feet dragged on the floor crunching at the dying leaves.
His father directed him quickly because, even though it had been he who had awoken Allan in the middle of the night and arranged that they meet in the middle of the forest, he wasn't overjoyed at being awake at this hour. The hand landed on his shoulder directing him towards the nearest bush, the brunette man explained that there were Pokémon in there and that today he would catch one. The man quickly released his inexperienced Charmander, he explained that they were good against Grass Pokémon, the type that he would trying to catch.
The Oddish appeared, maybe it was an accident, or maybe it truly intended to be captured by him. It's small body was indigo with long green leaves blossoming from the top of its head, it had no arms and the tiny facial features were drawn into a happy smile. His father instructed him to tell Charmander to use 'Ember', instructed him to attack the creature, for the second time his whole world seemed to freeze, that little moment appeared to stretch on forever, never ending.
He was expected to fight the poor thing, to render it hurt, injured until it was unable to fight back against the grasp of the Pokéball, he wanted to cry, he wanted to let his tears flood down his face and reveal just how horrified he was by this prospect.
He refused. He was absolutely against committing such horrific acts of injustice against a living creature.
"Charmander use Ember." But the choice really wasn't his, Fire type Pokémon really were ideal for battling against Grass types, for almost immediately the small creature collapsed to the floor, its eyes closed, its body charred, with the small burns covering most of its body.
"Oh dear, it's fainted, we'll just have to find another one then." His father sighed with the appearance of somebody who expected to be out here for most of the day, maybe that's why he'd gotten Allan up as soon as his Birthday had started, because he really didn't expect him to catch a Pokémon.
But Allan didn't want to find another Pokémon, he didn't want to mercilessly hunt it down and force it to fight for him. Brushing away the tears that had appeared on his cheeks he darted forward, the ground was uneven, the distance between himself and the Pokémon wasn't that far but it seemed like an eternity before he grasped at the Oddish, pulling it into his arms and turning around to face his father with a defiant look.
"I'm going to the Pokécentre." The tawny-haired boy declared smoothly before turning on his heel and sprinting from his forest, the sense of fear disappeared completely, from this moment on he was a Trainer, a Trainer to this Oddish.