Chapter 1: shaky beginnings

It all began in an egg, not an extraordinary egg, but not an ordinary one either. It was a bright orange egg with a creamy yellow on both ends. The egg was smooth, and like most other eggs, oval in shape. This egg rested on a bed of straw with other eggs which were just like it. These eggs were on a dark shelf, which was in a warm room, which was a part of a small house, just outside Lavaridge Town, A small community which was in the shadow of the majestic Mt. Chimney.

All of a sudden, the egg started to move a little, an make noises. It was getting ready to hatch and be born into the world. It wobbles a bit, but what it doesn't know, is that it's wobbling too close to the edge of it's shelf, it wobbles closer to the edge until it tips over it. Fall, fall, fall, the egg was plummeting towards the bottom and then... THUD! It landed on a stool. It didn't break the egg, but a big crack had formed its way around the greater part of it's shell. The egg made a high pitched peeping noise. It was then heard by somebody...

A girl had entered the small warm, dark room, she had long flowing chestnut hair, with two flower-like hair clips on either side, and an emerald skirt, she had heard the distressed egg and went to it's aid. She knelt down to pick it up, curiously, she wore no footwear, but gold bands around her ankles with pokeballs attached to them. She picked up the egg and examined it.

"This isn't too good at all..."

She took it to another room, it was similar to the first, but it didn't have that many shelves. She carefully peeled of some loose egg shell. The shell revealed orange and yellow down. The little creature inside was breathing and was thankfully alive and well. She took the hatchling to yet another warm dark room, and kept it in a straw-laden pen. It struggled to break of the remaining shell. After that was taken care of, it fluffed up her feathers to reveal itself to the world. It was a torchic.

"where am I?" she thought to herself.

"what am I?" She looked around, she saw some other orange fluffy things, much like herself. She walked towards them, the ground was soft and stringy, how straw was supposed to feel. She noticed her feet for the first time, they were relatively big compared to her, each had three long bird toes in the front and one in the back. She stumbled her way to the others, the others were huddled with each other under a heat lamp, peeping amongst themselves. She approached them and piped up:

"Do you know where we are?"

The torchics stopped peeping. They looked puzzled at the new torchic for a few minutes. One the older ones tilted it's head to one side and said

"Tor? Tor-chic-chic-chic?" (("who are you? How can you talk like that?"))

The other torchics started to peep amongst themselves. The newcomer was then had even more questions

"What do they mean?, I talk how I talk..." She asked "What are you?"

(("We are Torchics, a kind of pokemon")) said one the torchics, they said it in their own tongue, she understood it, but couldn't speak it herself.

"Pokemon?... Am I a Torchic as well?" She questioned in what was referred to by pokemon as the "human language".

(("You don't talk like us, therefore you aren't a torchic... You're probably not even a pokemon! You're probably a nothing!")) Another torchic shouted meanly at now shivering chick.

(("Robbie! Don't be mean to her like that, she is a something... But I don't know what though")) said another one.

(("She's a freak that's what, a human talking freak!")) The other torchics chimed in (("freak! freak! freak! freak!")) Of course, being called a freak wasn't very nice at all... She couldn't help it if she didn't talk like them at all.

Robbie spoke up, (("we don't like freaks in our group, GO AWAY AND STAY AWAY")) and with that he used an ember attack right at the newcomer's face. The hot particles of ash went into the young torchic's eyes, she flinched at them, causing her to scream, and her eyes started to gloss over with tears. They started to stream down her face, soaking the down on her small wings, and dripping onto her toes and the straw laden ground of the pen. She tried to run away from the cruel torchics as far as possible but she slammed herself against the wall of the pen. This only caused the torchics to laugh even harder

(("not only is she a freak, she's a klutz as well!! Ah-hahahahaha!!!")) The other torchics were really causing a ruckus. But the laughing stopped when a door opened up.

"What's going on in here?" a man entered the small room and turned towards the pen with the torchics. This man had denim overalls and a plaid shirt, and orange hair which was similar in colour to the torchics. For this was the torchic's breeder, a man who was sanctioned by the pokemon league to breed torchics to be one of the three beginner pokemon that beginning trainers can choose to train with, when they start their pokemon journeys. He wasn't a dangerous man, but the young torchic did not know that so she hid herself under the straw in the darkest part of the pen. The man came closer and crouched down to the torchic's level, the other torchics seemed happy to see him.

"I guess you're all excited aren't you? Tomorrow, you'll get to meet your new trainers and go on a big adventure in the big wide world, maybe you will all become pokemon champions. I'd be excited as well, but you'll need to get some sleep so you can be ready for the big day you'll have. Good night torchic" With that, he walked out of the room, almost all the torchics had fallen asleep under the heat lamp. Except for the one under the hay in the far corner of the room. She had been weeping to herself.

"Why do they hate me? Because I don't talk like they do?" She wept to herself as she wiped away some of her tears with her torchic foot, because her wings were far too small to be much use as they are. "It's not fair... I'm just like them! I can't help it if I can't talk like them..." With her face, feathers and feet wet with tears, she cried herself to sleep under the cold straw.