Hailing Thunder
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P.S But the original characters belong to me!
CH. 2
Leaf and I watched the other two trainers disappear down the path going towards their own homes and once they were out of sight, I looked up and frowned. 'Maybe I shouldn't have decided to have the talk first thing in the morning…' The sun was barely at its peak in the sky. Had a lot of daylight to kill, 'Well let's see what the PokéDex has got to say about you.' I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the compact, using my thumb to maneuver the lip of the folding digital media, I heard it hum to life and I held it up to Leaf who in turned stared at it wide eyed.
"Chikorita. A sweet aroma gently wafts from the leaf on its head. It is docile and loves to soak up the sun's rays." I looked back down at Leaf as I folded the PokéDex and put it in my back pocket.
"I know a place where we can get lots of that." I put the little Pokémon down and waved, "Keep up!" We started to run back up the hill and I followed the same route back towards the house. At the top of the hill before heading down the other side I stopped when I heard Leaf make a strange noise.
"Kooooo-riiii." Sounded a lot like preeeee-tttyy, I looked down at he had stopped to look out over the hill. From here you could see the majority of the town. On my side of the hill it was mostly residential but here, you could see all the young kids running out of the school building. The market was a busy hum of bustling traders and buyers. You could see the coast and smell the ocean wind filling up your lungs. You could even see Giselle's ranch from here, rapidash were running and circling each other but from all the way over here it was a dance of flame that skimmed white backs. The farthest I have ever traveled away from home was to Cherrygrove City and that was because our market's owner was sick and ran out of supplies. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my cell phone,
"C'mere Leaf!" I looped an arm around him and pulled him close. Making sure to catch the glowing coast behind us I snapped a picture. Upon saving it, I put, 'My First Pokémon!'. I stood back up and started heading down the other side of the hill. I heard cooing off in the distance and saw Conner swamped with his fan girls and his little Totodile, Nami, turning heads with his wild water squirts. I shook my head and smiled down at Leaf who was absent mindedly walking on behind me.
"Nylaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" I turned around and saw Conner waving at me. I waved back but he wasn't going to get me closer to that pool of piranhas! I could feel the laser beams of doom exploding out of all the girls' heads! I gestured Leaf to follow me through my 'sneaky sneaky mom can't see me' path behind some of the larger houses. Apparently sneaky sneaky wasn't the way to go, I scooped up Leaf before he had a chance to stick out a yellow foot and slammed my back against the wall of the house I was hiding behind. Mom was outside talking to Ms. Alastar, neighborhood nagger. Probably put the evil seed in my mom's head about not letting me venture out on my own because her son is an awesome lawyer.
"I'm worried. If I keep telling her no if I suppress the need she'll grow angry with me. Maybe I should let her try it out and see if she really wants it?" 'That would be great mom!'
"Hardly Ms. Summer. If I let my son run off when every time he was experiencing a fleeting gesture, he would have never gotten to where he is now! The world is undisciplined, why do you think we are experiencing the racking up of Pokémon limits for hunting, and now we actually need to build homeless shelters! The fantasy of Pokémon needs to be controlled. You don't want to loose your precious daughter to a street corner begging for coins in another region?" I heard a heavy sigh, mother most likely. "I got an idea. My son should be in town tomorrow. Why don't we have them meet? Maybe instead of a Pokémon your child needs another kind of a drive? Love perhaps?" I heard Ms. Alastar 'kukukuku' and heard my mother agree. Was she crazy? I huffed and decided walking ten more blocks wouldn't bother me so much. I walked off down the alley and once I was in the clear I placed Leaf down and threw my hands in the air.
"Who does she think she is? Giving my mom all these insane ideas!" Leaf just made a confused face and I slumped my shoulders forward. I heard the rush of the water and smiled, a creek ran down from the mountain outside of town, past my house, and then met in the ocean. "Ta-da!" I gestured, looking for a nod of approval from my little Pokémon. His eyes got huge and raced in front of me and bounced over a few rocks and landed on a flat rock in the center, he rolled over on his back and used his leaf to shade his eyes.
"Chikoooo." He sighed. I smiled and once I reached the waters edge I rolled up my pant legs and set my shoes off to the side. Being careful about the slippery rocks, I wobbled over to the center of the creek and followed Leaf's example. Throwing my arm over my eyes to block the sun, the two of us laid there in silence, I felt like I wanted to talk to it. People say Pokémon can understand humans; some could even talk in our language and talking helped a bond. I shrugged.
"So Leaf…my name is Nyla Summer. I'm 16 and I was born and raised here, my favorite season is fall. The chill of the cold of the changing leaves are very pretty. The two you met in the lab are Giselle, she's a fire trainer, and Conner; he's a water trainer. Giselle is so pretty and graceful with Pokémon, I don't know what I've done to make her hate me but she despises me." Leaf made an angry noise and rubbed his head against my shoulder before he went back to sunbathing. "Conner is really nice. I didn't meet him until my father died…his dad and my dad was close friends apparently. Even Prof. Elm cried at the funeral. Conner kind of became part of family, taking care of any hard labor with the house, like when the roof started to leak everywhere. He was my friend and helped me through school by letting me cheat off his old homework because he graduated too." I started to feel funny talking to Leaf like this but his large ruby eyes were staring at me as he rolled over on his stomach. His leaf over my head, I threw my arm down and I rolled over on my stomach. I smiled and dipped my toes in the cold water. Folding my arms under my head I looked at Leaf. "You would have loved my dad Leaf. He was always happy and he knew everything! He has maps of world that he drew himself; he even made a journal of all the Pokémon he's seen on his journeys. He was obsessed with legendary Pokémon, more so Ho-oh. I love rainbows and dad said that Pokémon could make rainbows! Hehe…I miss dad…" I stopped. I could see my eyes get blurry and I sighed. It bad been five years since dad passed away. It still hurt. Like trying to fill your lungs with air but always missing that one breath. I put my head down and before I had a chance to cry, Leaf put a small yellow paw on my hand and I whimpered. "You would have loved him Leaf." I pulled Leaf closer and sniffed. I don't know how long we stayed like that but apparently I must have fallen asleep.
"Rita! Rita! RiiiiRita!" I heard Leaf squall. I pushed myself up immediately and looked around. One thing about the coast, storms can sneak up on you. Crap. I hate storms. I heard a massive rumble echo from the mountain and the crack of lightning. I especially hate lightning storms. In an instant it seemed to start pouring at once. All the little doom drops of water not missing a beat to soak us to the bone.
"Let's go Leaf! We got to get home!" The lightning cracked again and I dropped to my knees and covered my head. I was never scared of storms until dad died. Now though, just hearing thunder makes me nervous and I hate being in the house when there is a storm, having stupid nightmares as a child thinking the house would collapse and kill us like it did dad.
"Rita!" sounded so much like Nyla. He bumped me and I gulped, once the thunder faded I made an attempt to jump to the next rock. I made it safely when a loud cry made me think Leaf didn't. I turned around and sure enough, Leaf was clinging to the edge of the rock crying out. A clap of thunder over head sent to cover under my arms shutting my eyes. Leaf cried again. I peeked barely and saw it was desperately trying to climb the rock, I reached out my hand but I was just a little short, if I inched just a little closer….BOOOM! The lightning cracked so loud I felt the ground shake. Tears were burning down my cheek. Apparently being hunched over didn't help for the PokéDex either. It was already half exposed and when I stood up I heard it clatter to the ground. I looked down and saw it slide off the slick rock into the stream,
"No!" I cursed mentally a thousand times over and Leaf screamed at me again. He sounded tired. I heard the thunder getting louder but before the boom I made a dive and scooped up Leaf and curled up on the rock sheltering his small body as he huffed tiredly. I tried to move but the parade of lightning made me stop.
"Nyla! Nyla where are you?" 'Conner? Thank the gods.' "Nyla! Are you here?" Only he would know where I was at. This used to be our when I was growing up. I heard some splashes that differed from the stream and felt warm hands on my shoulders. "Kami, Nyla your mom and I were so worried. Come on, just hold Leaf and close your eyes. Sumi, Nami, get her shoes." I closed my eyes and as I stood up. I opened my eyes and saw Conner's face. He was looking up at the storm, he was drenched. How long had he been looking? His hands were tight over my ears so I wouldn't hear the thunder. I saw a flash and flinched, closing my eyes, he guided me out of the stream and down through the alley way that was a short cut to my house from the stream. I buried my face into Leaf and stifled my cries; the lightning storms have been so bad this year. Conner gripped my shoulders tightly, I opened my eyes. We were standing next to my house, "Hand me Leaf. You go inside, once you get to your room be ready outside the window and I'll get Leaf up to you ok?" I just nodded numbly.
"Leaf, be a good boy and go with Conner for a minute. Mom can't see you yet." Leaf just nodded at me sadly and I ran to the front door as fast as I could. Once I was inside I was bombarded my mom, she hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe. I felt so bad for yelling at her. I hugged her back just as tightly,
"Oh honey I was so worried. When the storm had started and you weren't home I was so worried. You're so good about being home at the sight of a dark cloud. Oh Kyla…" I sniffled and tried to hold back my tears.
"I'm sorry mom…." Hic, oh no… I sniffled one more time and I started to cry, "I love you mom, I'm sorry…I miss dad…"
"I know baby…run up stairs and take you a hot shower, I'll have dinner ready for you when you finish." I nodded and I ran up stairs as fast as I could. I owed Conner so much. I threw open my window and the rain was still pouring but the thunder had passed.
"Ready Kyla?" I nodded. I watched as he released Sumi and together Nami and Sumi made a small geyser of water underneath Leaf and shot him up to window level. I reached out and snatched him close to my chest. I mouthed a thank you and he waved and made off into the shadows on his way home. I closed the window and Leaf was shivering. Wrapping him up in a blanket I looked around the room, I wasn't very materialistic so I didn't exactly have a lot of hidden nook and crannies.
"Okay you have to be really quiet okay? I'll sneak you some food from dinner." I kissed Leaf on the forehead and safely tucked him away in my wastebasket next to the desk, I put a finger next to my lips gesturing him to be quiet one more time before I covered the top of the basket. Walking out of my room with some fresh clothes I heard mom yell from down stairs,
"Leave you clothes outside of the bathroom so I can put them in the washing machine!"
"Kay!"
Showers are the next best thing to orange sorbet ice cream in the world. I chuckled as I looked down at my wrist, I had a tattoo; mom about killed dad and me both that night. On his travels he said he met kimono girls with a beautiful crest on their obis and in turn they had it tattooed on the underside of their right wrist. It was a symbol of legends and when one accompanied dad home from a city far from here when his Pidgeot was sick, the kimono girl offered me a gift. She put her hand over my wrist and vwala! It didn't hurt but mom about killed me for letting a stranger give me something and about to kill dad because he just couldn't get over how cool it was. It was like a heart were the crests fanned out like feathers. So pretty… Once I changed into my PJ's. I made my way down stairs. But instead of seeing a plate of steaming food, I saw my mom sitting at the table with my cell phone flipped open in the middle of it. Shit.
"My. First. Pokemon? Pray tell that is someone else's creature in that picture."
"Mom! What are you doing going through my phone!" I squealed while trying to pick my stomach up off the floor.
"For your information it was in your wet pants and it happened to go off and it was Conner making sure you were home safe…now about this Pokemon?" I bit my lip in anger, why couldn't she just understand? I snatched my phone off the center of the table and the screen was damp but salvageable. On the screen, Leaf looked back at me smiling. I sighed, sitting down at the table I decided to get the yelling over with now instead of later. I need a clear conscious before setting out tomorrow.
"I went to Prof. Elm's today. I lied so I could get a Pokemon. Look I know it was wrong but I have to do this mom! I need this!"
"Need WHAT? To run around like a manner less hoodlum? Pokemon are not a fashion statement! Don't you see what this crazed passion has done to our family! Tore apart our family, tearing apart us?" Mother screamed- her face was redder than a cherry. I've never seen her this mad before.
"No mom! You are tearing apart what is left of our family! Quit trying to make me be someone I'm not! I can't just lead a normal life mom! Be-…" She cut me off midsentence with a look of pure rage,
"You will not talk to your mother that way. You are here by grounded and I swear to heaven and earth and Prof. Elm will take care of you 'first pokemon' first thing in the morning and that's final!"
"You can't take Leaf away from me and you won't! I can't live in this bubble anymore!" I cried. Tears of anger fell down my cheeks. We looked at each other in pain and anger. She was crying and so was I but one thing about a Summer woman. We are more stubborn than a Golem in a wedge.
"Then get out. Take your "Pokemon" and get out of this house. When you see the wrong in your ways and you're willing to obey me, follow my rules, and return your 'Leaf', you may come home." She smoothed out her apron and with one last intense look, she turned her back towards me and made off to the kitchen and from the sounds of it, started doing dishes. I began to shake, either it be from the heart break or still quaking from the anger, I stormed upstairs to my room. I threw out a duffle bag from my closet; I threw a random assortment of notebooks, pens, my secret Pokemon Trainer exclusive magazine I had been secretly getting for the last year, about 9 pairs of clothes and other random assortments. I looked around my room and looked at the family photo on my desk, I seethed at the smiling face of my mom but it was the only picture I had of dad and I threw it in the bag. The bag was still kind of empty but I figured I'd need the space. I looked at my dresser and saw a long pink ribbon that I had since a child. It was my first gift from dad, as a kid I always wore it as a bow on my head. Deciding I would need his strength, I tucked it into the front pocket of my PJs. I peeked into the trashcan and Leaf was curled up fast asleep. Keeping him in the wastebasket for now, I threw the duffle bag over my shoulder, phone and charger into my pocket and with both hands I carried Leaf. Once I was back down stairs I looked at moms back one last time,
"…sorry mom…I just can't." I whispered. It hurt so badly. Like I was starting to suffocate and my chest throbbed. This isn't how I wanted it to go. Sliding my sandals on my feet, since my tennis shoes were soaked, I took a deep breath and walked outside closing the door quietly behind me. Bye mom…
A/N
Once I get some reviews I have the next chapter ready! :D