Diclaimer: This is fan fiction. Everything that has to do with Pokémon doesn't belong to me. It belongs to Gamefreak and Nintendo.

Myla had wanted to be a Pokemon trainer as a child, but like most people had resigned to the fact that there simply wasn't enough money in Pokemon training. Instead of battling gym leaders Myla competed for acceptance to the most prestigious universities of her region. She'd decided she would study Pokemon Psychology at Dove University when she was old enough, because at least that way she could work with Pokemon. However by age 16 Myla was anxious to get on with her life and university didn't seem to be coming fast enough.

The village Myla grew up in lay on the outskirts of Red Mountain in the region of Clarik. It was called Flora and had a population of only 30 people. There had never been much for Myla to do growing up and she'd spent most of her spare time reading novels about great trainers and painting pictures of the landscape. She'd never met anyone her own age until she was ten when her mother brought her to the city of Ashe for her coming of age ceremony. In Ashe, Myla had felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of people, as well as the ease and confidence in which they strode alongside pokemon.

On the other hand the village of Flora had many wild pokemon surrounding it, but they were known to be quite vicious and Myla had no intention of meeting those pokemon. There were many disturbances in the village which were caused by the wild pokemon, and many of the villagers miltank and mareep would disappear in the night. They had built a wall surrounding the village to keep the wild pokemon out, and no villager crossed the wall alone.

So the city of Ashe had been a completely new experience for Myla. It caused the yearning for a pokemon companion to grow more deeply in her mind. She wanted to walk the city streets with all the different people and pokemon again, and challenge every trainer she met. However Myla had no hope of getting a pokemon. A permit was required in order to become a pokemon trainer and that meant Myla either needed years of schooling or the notice of a pokemon professor, neither of which were available to her.

Clarik was not a particularly dangerous country, but its geography and plant life could be a concern. With its steep cliffs, high humidity, multitude of poisonous plants and vicious pokemon, Clarik required that only skilled and certified trainers could travel alone.

Myla longed to travel the world. She would pray that the Gods would let her have a pokemon so that she too could win badges and ultimately, the Clarik Grande League.

She had met a wild pokemon. Once. Myla was alone looking after the neighbor's skitty, she'd been 14 years old at the time and was not easily scared off. She was the oldest and bravest of her five classmates and knew enough about the local pokemon to know which kinds were safe. So when absol appeared in the yard she decided to go out a see it closer. Myla had never seen an absol inside the village, but they were native to the area. Absols were omnivores and they only hunted small game, so they didn't intimidate Myla despite their fearsome spikes and blades. Myla felt an overwhelming curiosity to see the creature up close. Her Mom would not be happy if she knew Myla approached a wild pokemon without any sort of defence so Myla decided to keep the event a secret.

The absol stared at Myla as she slowly approached, one hand reaching out to pat it. It sniffed the air but didn't seem alarmed by Myla's proximity. Myla got close enough to see that this Absol was special. It was red and white, with ice blue eyes. Myla thought it was breathtaking, and was stunned by its beauty and calm attitude. Never in her life did Myla think that she would meet a shiny pokemon. The Absol brushed against her hand briefly before turning away and slowly walking towards the village's wall. When it was several meters away it turned to look at Myla. The absol motioned to the wall with its head as if for Myla to follow, but Myla's bravery suddenly dissipated. Myla watched it for a while longer, still in awe by the pale red of the Absol's horn and skin and the way the breeze had lifted each long white tendril of its hair. Eventually the Absol jumped in one fluid motion over the wall, and Myla hadn't seen it since. That had been two years ago, and Myla didn't expect that she'd ever get a chance like that again. Whenever she studied for an exam for school or fretted over getting into university, Myla would think back to that night and wonder what could have happened if she'd followed the shiny Absol into the wild.

Myla's Dad worked in a pokemart in Arrow town which was an hour's drive away. He'd gotten the job recently because the drought was killing their crops and their family needed the extra cash to get food. On a particularly hot day Myla's Dad asked if she would like to come to town with him because the pokemart was busy with trainers who were anxious to keep their pokemon hydrated and fed. Myla jumped at the chance to help out the trainers and if she was lucky, meet their pokemon.

The drive there seemed to take an eternity as Myla mulled over what could happen. She could meet all sorts of pokemon that weren't native to her area. Myla imagined marvelous scenarios where a pokemon professor would come to the Mart and somehow see that Myla had great potential and offer her a pokemon of her own.

"You alright there kid?" her Dad asked

Myla nodded. "Do you think I'll meet any trainer pokemon today?"

"Maybe, a few local trainers keep their pokemon outside of their pokeballs, maybe one of them will drop by today." They pulled into the parking lot and Myla exited the car and nervously followed her Dad. "Don't be disappointed if you don't meet any pokemon today, okay? Your Mom says you can come to work with me until the worst of this heat's over. There'll be more chances."

"Is she afraid you won't look after yourself?" Myla asked. Her dad said yes. He wasn't offended because it was a long running joke that Myla's mom, Mika was a touch over protective of her little family. Besides which Myla had always been sarcastic and her Dad didn't take anything she said too personally.

Myla's Dad showed her how to use the till in case he went on break, and she helped him set up the displays for the day. At about 7am the first visitor came in. It was an older gentleman with a long white beard and wide belly named Daryl who seemed to know Myla's Dad quite well. After chatting with her Dad for a bit Daryl turned to Myla. "So you must be Jack's daughter then? Your Dad's told me a lot about you. I'm the guy who got him the job"

"Nice to meet you, I'm Myla."

"Jack tells me you wanted to meet some Pokemon today."

"There aren't many people who own pokemon in Flora. I thought maybe there would be some pokemon here that I haven't seen before."

"You should meet my wife then, she's the owner of this joint. Barb has a bulbasaur, a real gentle one too. I'll tell her to drop by later if you'd like."

Myla brightened up. Bulbasaurs were not native to Clarik and she hadn't imagined that anyone in Arrow town would have one. "That would be great, thank you," Myla said.

Daryl nodded. "You make sure your Dad doesn't slack off," he said jokingly before informing them that he had to go to work.

After Daryl left Myla asked her Dad what Daryl's job was. "Oh Daryl owns a restaurant downtown, a pretty successful one at that. The Champion visited it once, years ago. Daryl and I grew up together in Ashe City." Myla's Dad looked wistfully at the door. "He always was the more successful one of us."

This surprised Myla a bit because Daryl with his white beard looked much older than her father who still had black hair and smooth skin.

There was a fairly steady flow of trainers coming in to get medicine and food for their pokemon until noon when most went to get lunch. Myla hadn't yet had the chance to ask any if she could meet their pokemon and anxiously awaited her chance. She was excited to meet bulbasaur but she wanted to meet other pokemon too. At 12:30 a young boy with long silver hair came into the shop. Myla's Dad was eating lunch in the break room and so it was just the two of them.

"Hey, I'm Alex," he said. "Are you new here?"

"Oh no, my Dad works here, he just asked me to help out today."

Alex smiled at Myla. He had a plain but attractive face with large brown eyes and a strong chin. He was slim but muscular and carried himself with a confidence that Myla never saw in the children of her village. It made her slightly nervous.

"So what's your name?"

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Myla. I don't meet new people very often," she said apologetically.

"Are you from one of those farming villages? My aunt lives in a village south of the Red Mountain. And I've been through many on my travels."

"Do you know Flora? That's where I'm from."

"Oh, I've never been there. But I know of it. You guys grow corn right?"

"Yeah, that's us." Myla smiled at him. Alex seemed friendly enough and Myla realized this was her chance to meet some new pokemon. "Hey this might be weird but… do you think I could see your pokemon?"

Alex beamed at her. "Of course, we love meeting new people. Come on out guys," he said. He pulled out two pokeballs from his pockets and two red rays of light shot out of them forming a Raichu and a Nidoking. "These are my best friends," Alex said. Nidoking was huge and nearly pushed over an entire display with his large tale when he was released. It had long formidable spikes and a horn and sharp claws. Raichu on the other hand was much cuter looking, but nevertheless quite fierce looking. It's light bolt shaped tail swooshed behind it and tiny spark came from it's yellow cheeks. Myla had to resist the temptation to pet the Raichu because it was a trainer's pokemon whom she'd only just met.

"Wow, you must be a really good trainer, they look really strong."

"Thanks, I appreciate that. We've worked hard to get where we are. What about you… do you have any pokemon?"

Myla shook her head and looked down. "I never got my license, I always loved pokemon though."

"Really? Well then I've got an idea. Are you adventurous at all? Because we need some help tracking down a pokemon that lives around Flora."

"Oh that sounds great," Myla said. "But I've actually only been in the wilderness a couple times, and that was with big groups. We're not supposed to leave my village alone."

"Huh, sounds pretty strict. I'm looking for a rare shiny pokemon that's been spotted around here. And I hear pretty girls are good luck." Alex smiled slyly at Myla, who grew bright red under the florescent store lights.

After taking a moment to compose herself, Myla said yes. She wasn't sure if this qualified as a date but it was the closest she'd ever been to being asked out and she wasn't sure how to react. Myla was the oldest student in her village's tiny classroom, none of the younger students would ever have dreamt of calling her pretty. It had never occurred to her that someone could be so casual about asking for a date. Her mom had always told her that a date was something you had once you'd been friends with the person for a while, but at the moment Myla didn't care.

"What pokemon are you looking for?" Myla asked, hoping to stop her mind from thinking about how someone had just found pretty. She'd always considered herself to be average at best, with brown, almond-shaped eyes, small lips and heart-shaped face.

"It's an Absol, a red one. It's extremely rare, the only other shiny Absol is owned by this pokemaniac in Kanto."

Myla couldn't believe her ears. Alex was looking for the same Absol she'd met years ago? It had to be, they were incredibly rare as Alex had said. "I've met that Absol before!" she blurted out.

Alex's eyes grew wide. "Are you certain? A shiny Absol? And you didn't catch it?"

"I wish I had. But I didn't have a pokeball, or a license… it was beautiful though, and I was able to touch it, it's not scared of people... I can understand why you're looking for it. I'd be happy to help you find it if you'd like."

His brown eyes appraised Myla. "Well that settles that then. It's a date. I'll pick you up tonight around seven. By then things should have slowed down enough around here… if you've never been out in the forest before it can be really scary, especially at night, so Raichu will stay with you if you're worried… he likes helping out the ladies." Raichu nodded and winked at Myla. "Nidoking and I will always be close though. We have to stay as a group… and you should make sure this is okay with your Dad. Let him know that I've got three badges already and I'll keep you safe."

It was difficult to speak because she was so excited. "This sounds awesome, see you at seven then?"

"Yeah, see you then. Anyway I got to get going I promised to battle someone at one. Oh and here's my number," Alex said as he scribble down his phone number on a slip of paper and passed it to Myla. Then he and his pokemon headed out, Raichu waved to Myla and Nidoking nodded his head at her. The day was going to be even better than she imagined. On top of meeting new pokemon she was going on her very first date. Her blood pounded through her veins in excitement. It took all her effort to convince herself that she hadn't imagined it.

Her Dad opened the back door and walked up to her. "That's Alex. I've seen him around before. If you're going to go out with him you better tell your mom first."

"You were listening to our conversation?"

"I never knew you met that absol before, Myla. That's amazing. Some of the town folk talk about it like it's an urban myth," he said and then sighed before continuing, "I wouldn't have been mad if you'd told me you know… pokemon are mysterious creatures, and rare ones like that only come to us for a reason. I'll keep this a secret from your Mom, so don't blow my cover. If she asks I'm going to say that Alex took you too see a film, okay?"

"Thank you, Dad."

Myla gulped and looked at the clock; the next six hours were going to be excruciatingly long.