"Riley! You've got post!" Rose's voice called up the stairs, prompting the eleven-year-old to put down her book. Post! Post was always exciting. She scampered down the stairs, still in her buneary-print pyjamas despite it almost being afternoon.

"Does it say who it's from?"

Rose looked at the parcel she'd just signed for, a decently sized box with air mail stamps plastered across it above the address: Carrus Town. "Looks like it's from Kanto," she replied as Riley arrived in the room. "Have you-"

"Jack post!" Riley bounded over to take the box to the kitchen and set it on the table, Rose following with a fond smile at her daughter's eagerness.

"You should be listening when she's speaking," Coco said, sat with her phone and a mug of coffee. Perry, the family's furret, was curled half on her lap, half hanging off. "And no, I don't think she has had breakfast yet."

Rose shook her head, placing a hand on the box. "Eat first, then open."

"Awww!" Riley whined, but shot over to grab a bowl of cereal nonetheless. As soon as she was sat eating, she pulled the box over, piping up through a spoonful of cornflakes. "'An I o'en i' while I ea'?"

"Keep talking with your mouth full and you won't get to open it 'til after lunch," Rose said wryly, ruffling the girl's unkempt brown hair. Riley quietened down at that and focussed on devouring the cereal as fast as possible, taking the bowl to the sink before tearing into the packaging. Inside the box was a lot of bubble wrap, and a letter on top. Riley glanced at the handwriting before opening it, her face lighting up as she read.

"It's! Uh… It's a thing! Jack made it!" Riley said excitedly, putting the letter aside to open out the bubble wrap. Coco rolled her eyes at the vague description, chuckling as she reached for the letter. "Perry, Perry, gimme your paw!"

The furret lazily opened its eyes, looking at the young girl questioningly. She held what looked like a tablet out. It was a thin grey slab, and at the bottom was a screen, dimly lit. "Put your paw on here?"

Perry sat up and sniffed at it before obliging. The screen display changed, stating it was scanning, before a few lines showed up.

Pokémon: Furret
Temperature: Normal
Average size
Status: Normal
Sex: Female
Seems: Content

"Cool! Jack's so good at making stuff," Riley said in wonder. Coco looked over and cleared her throat.

"Did you see the P.S. at the end?"

"What?"

"That's a no, then." Coco handed the letter back, and gave Rose a knowing look. She smiled widely in response.

Riley read the rest of the letter and gasped, diving into the box. She reached into it, carefully pulling out a tightly condensed wad of bubble wrap, scrambling to find the edge of the tape surrounding it to tear it off.

"He's a horrible tease, isn't he," Coco said, but she was beaming anticipatedly. She watched Riley struggle with the tape for a while, until Rose went to get a pair of scissors to help. Riley insisted on great care being taken while they cut through to the item inside – a poké ball, with a small tag taped to it. Riley tugged off the tag to read it.

Take good care of this one. I got him specially for you.

The young girl looked up excitedly at her mothers, as if waiting for permission.

"Go on, then," Rose said cheerfully.

Riley squealed as she pressed the button on the ball, letting out the pokémon contained within. The light flashed out and seemed to linger as Riley watched in wonder, sparkling around the pale orange puppy pokémon that appeared.

"A growlithe! Wow!" Riley knelt to look at the striped dog. He looked up with his ears perked, attentive.

"Wow indeed," Rose murmured, looking at Coco, whose gaze was turned down at the dog, one eyebrow cocked.

"He sure is something," she said.

"Oh!" Riley turned to grab the tablet-like object that had accompanied the creature. "Here, here! Put your paw on here! Oh, but you probably know if you were with Jack, right?"

The puppy nodded as it placed its paw obediently on it.

Pokémon: Growlithe
Temperature: Normal
Larger than usual
Status: Normal
Sex: Male
Seems: Curious

"Wow," Riley murmured again as the pokémon took back its paw. She stretched her hand out to let the puppy sniff it. "We can be friends, right?"

The growlithe looked up at her after getting her scent, and nuzzled her hand. She beamed. Perry slunk down from Coco's lap to investigate the newcomer, sniffing and walking around the young pup almost menacingly, though if the growlithe was intimidated he didn't show it. Coco swatted at her, and she backed off a little. She seemed satisfied though, letting out a purring noise as she hopped back onto Coco's lap. The woman scoffed and gently clipped the ferret's ear, drinking from her coffee mug. With all the commotion, a vaporeon padded softly into the room, greeting the canine. Snipe swished his watery tail as he appraised the growlithe, blinked once slowly, then took his leave again.

Riley marvelled at the dog a little longer before letting out a sharp gasp. "OH! Ohmygosh! So I have a Pokémon now! Does that mean I can go on a journey?"

"The penny dropped, huh?" Coco smiled as she set her mug down, and Rose took a seat on the other side of the table.

"We'll see," Rose said, offering her hand to the growlithe. "First let's just wait a while. You wouldn't to go off travelling with a stranger, would you? Get to know each other a little."

"On which note," Coco said as she sipped the coffee, "Are you gonna stick with Growlithe or give him a name of his own?"

"Oh! A name," Riley said thoughtfully. "Hmm…"

"What do you think?" Rose asked, looking down at the orange puppy. He looked up at her, then at Riley, and nodded.

"Cool! What name to use… I can suggest things and if you don't like them you can shake your head?"

The dog nodded at her, letting out a little huff of agreement.

"Umm…" She sat thoughtfully, and the room eventually fell silent for a few minutes - until Coco snickered.

"Any thoughts, Perry? Nice ones?"

The furret looked at the growlithe, and made a noise between a purr and a coo.

"Prew?" Riley echoed, humming at the puppy. He shook his head. "Yeah, it doesn't seem right…"

Perry shook her head and looked up at Coco meaningfully.

"You do have an idea? Huh," she mused, glancing at the letter on the table before reaching for it. "Oh, let's try that tablet thing? Jack called it… a StatRed?"

"I don't think it reads thoughts," Riley said, but offered it to the ferret regardless. The result was the same, except the Seems: Content was changed to Seems: Thoughtful. "Mmmm…"

The growlithe yawned, lying down. Rose got up and left the room, soon returning with paper and pen. "Come on up," she said while she wrote, and Perry sat up and hopped onto the table. Rose span the paper - upon which she'd written the alphabet – and passed it towards her. Perry had been taught human writing so she could communicate more easily, and had been more than happy to utilise readily over the years. The number of times she'd just spelled out "Treat" or "Hug" when she wanted some pampering was great, and Coco was usually glad to indulge. For now, Perry pointed to the R, the U, then B, and Y.

"Ruby?" Rose said. "Though that's more often a girl's name."

"But it does sound good, I think," Riley replied, looking to the growlithe for confirmation. He shook his head. "Maybe something similar?" The Pokémon blinked back at her. "Like… Ru… Roo… Rudy! What about Rudy?"

The puppy tilted its head, considering.

"It could be short for something!"

"It actually is short for Rudolph," Rose said. "Means something like 'famous wolf', I think." The canine perked up at that, nodding.

"Ooh! That sounds fancy! You like that?" Riley asked. The growlithe nodded again energetically. "Then it's decided! You're Rudy, short for Rudolph!"

(A/N: yooo! thanks for giving my story a gander! hope you enjoy it. I was inspired to write it after reading Burning Thunder (psst go read it it's just phenomenal) so big shout out to TheDogzLife, who is not only a magnificent writer but one of my best pals and a great person and all around Good Bean. I'm gonna try and update on a schedule and see how that goes. have a good day!)