Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon

Chapter Two: Zakurzonej Drodze

Huffing as she struggled up the dusty road, Fara cursed the midday sun. While it was only the middle of spring, the temperatures were well into the upper 80's. With the heat and heavy gear, she was well beyond ready for a break. However, that was easier said then done. She needed to get to the midway point before taking a break.

She was on a time limit and she didn't want to run the risk of being late to Professor Oak's lab. The Professor was an extremely busy and while he seemed to be a nice person Fara didn't want to set a bad impression by being late. So stopping more than once was probably a bad idea. Plus the sooner she got to Oak's the sooner she could get her spunky little Pidgey.

Shifting the weight of gear Fara kept walking the path while keeping a sharp eye out for the grove Nurse Joy said signaled the mid way point. Unlike other groves there was supposed to be a picnic table and faucet connected to an underground well. It was perfect spot to stop and refill her dwindling water supplies and relax her aching muscles.

While keeping watch for the grove Fara admired the peaceful scenery. Spring in the Kanto region was abundantly green and she could see a multitude of wildflowers everywhere. She had only seen a couple of pokemon so far though. Mostly Butterfree and Beedrill, that flew around the flowers. A couple of Pidgey had caught her eye, sitting in a trees shade, roosting to escape the heat. Other than that she didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Fifteen minutes of walking later found Fara cresting a hill and spotting her stopping point. It was a large clearing situated under a large maple tree with a metal picnic table. As she walked down the hill Fara could see a water pump on the other side of the clearing. The clearing was grass filled with an occasional bunch of flowers but empty otherwise. She sighed a little at that, some people to talk to would be nice. Her walk from Viridian had been almost too quiet. With the exception of a couple old farm vehicles passing through she hadn't seen any people.

It was the wrong time of year to see to many people traveling the Route. Most children's pokemon journey's usually started in September after the end of the Indigo League tournament. Fara had only started so early in the year because she had turned ten in January and wasn't getting one of the traditional starters most children received. Those pokemon usually hatched in the late spring time and were raised carefully so they would reach an appropriate level to protect their future trainers.

Seeing as she wasn't getting one of those pokemon, Fara had prepared to start her Journey early. Her pokemon would be ready despite it only being four weeks old. Those from the Pidgey line tended to develop faster then the original Kanto starters. A feature common in pokemon species easily preyed upon in their early months. It was a fact that Fara was happy to take advantage of. A pokemon that developed quicker would be easier to train to an appropriate protection level and evolve that much quicker. She was really looking forward to her Pidgey eventually becoming a Pidgeot. It would help tremendously with traveling if she could just fly.

At the end of that train of thought, Fara found herself at Routes One's midway rest stop. Unbuckling her gear, Fara dropped it on the picnic table before taking the time to stretch her aching muscles. After stretching she took off her dark brown hiking vest and rolled up her tan sleeves. Removing her lunch and water from the dark grey bag Fara began to eat Mrs. Packard's delicious lunch of rice, pickled veggies, and some chicken. Starving, Fara was quick to devour her meal and remaining water.

Thirty minutes late she was in the process of looking at her Kanto map and listening to the weather report on her small radio. Although she had looked at the weather report last evening Fara was trying to get in the habit of checking every time she had a long break. Adrian, an experienced trainer she had met a month ago, had warned her that late spring and early summer meant monsoon season. He had said the weather was unpredictable that time of year and could change in a few hours. Checking the reports as often as she could would help keep her prepared to take shelter. So far the weatherman had said that there was no sign of rain the area she was traveling.

Smiling she turned it off and continued perusing the map. She was trying to decide what she wanted to do. Being a trainer meant that it was her responsibility to get a disposable income for herself. Most trainers went the League or Contest route. By winning gyms or contests they were able to accumulate a moderate sum of cash outside of Pokemon battles to supplement their Journey's. Pokemon battles had very little profit for beginning trainers. You might get lucky with five or ten poke dollars until you had at least three pokemon who were moderately powerful, often having evolved at least once. After that the price of winning and losing went up.

The problem about this, for Fara, was she couldn't afford to lose any of her money. Her limited funds meant she had to find an alternate form of income. The only idea she could come up with was berry sales. Mr. Davies, the Aviary owner, regularly bought berries at Viridian's poke mart and she had found out that all poke marts were willing to buy berries off authorized trainers as long as they were in good condition. Typically, berries could sell from five to 30 poke dollars a piece, sometimes even 50, depending on type, rarity, and quality.

It seemed to be a good start with minimal risk to Fara. There were just rules that she had to follow according to International law. Berry season was strictly regulated in order to protect people, pokemon, and tree population. Taking too many Berries could upset the natural balance in creation of future trees. Pokemon in the wild were highly dependent on these trees for not only their livelihood but that of their offspring as well. Many species collected and stored berries for the harder months and others depended on certain vitamins for their own natural development. Taking too much could and had killed many wild pokemon.

This necessity also created territorial behaviors in many species. If a person was not careful enough they could enrage an entire group of pokemon in attacking. It was because of past incidents of trainer and pokemon population death that the regions had created regulations for Berry picking. The code varied between regions but Fara had made sure to memorize Kanto's.

1. You had to have a permit to pick and sell berries.

2. Picking, for more then survival purposes, was only allowed between April 15th and June 30th of each year.

3. A person was only allowed to pick five or less berries per a tree with the exception of rare varieties. Rare varieties, meaning there were only three or less trees per 5 square mile, within a 100 square mile area, could only have one per tree.

4. Sale of berries was limited to poke marts and berry farms.

5. Every berry picked required documentation written and photographic to verify vicinity of the berry trees.

These basic regulations insured many things. First limited permits and limited picking per a person prevented population decimation in trees and pokemon. The limited selling places also prevented the sale of potentially contaminated or poisonous fruit. While rare there had been instances of berries being contaminated and sold by third parties; resulting in pokemon and human illness and even death. Licensed buyers, poke marts and berry farms, prevented the sale of these items. Finally documentation had multiple purposes.

First it regulated unauthorized berry picking by giving the league evidence of where you picked the berries. They used this documentation to keep track of tree population, wild pokemon development, and environmental stability. They also used this information to help set up Ranger patrol routes. Rare trees usually attracted rare pokemon and this in turn attracted pokemon poachers. It also allowed Rangers to be in the vicinity if emergencies came up.

Any failure to follows the regulations could result in fines, permanent loss of pokemon and pokemon licenses, and jail time. Overall berry picking was very simple as long as you followed the rules.

Fara was currently trying to find the first place to pick. It was April 3rd, meaning she had to wait twelve days before she could start so she thought it best to head somewhere where there were some more profitable berries. She already had a permit that she had been approved for last month. It just wasn't effective until the 15th. This gave her 12 days to get her pokemon license, pokemon, and hike to a good location.

Given the time it was taking her to adjust to traveling so far she thought that she should probably stick to the Viridian Forest area because A: it was relatively close and B: she was semi-familiar with the area. It was a vast area that held a large quantity of bug pokemon. They were essential for the pollination of the forest many plant species and, if a person was patient enough to search the area, there were a good variety of berry trees to pick from. With the exception of bug trainers, most people took the shortest path through the forest on their way to Pewter city.

It also held promise on saving Fara money on supplies and supplementing her training. Her little Pidgey would be able to hunt bug types which not only save her money but contribute to his development. Avian pokemon like Pidgey were first and foremost predators. They needed special nutrients to promote their health a higher level then what store bought pokemon food would give. Hence why hunting and eating certain wild pokemon was necessary. Hunting would also help settle Pidgey's predatory instincts until Fara progressed in his training.

Viridian forest's pokemon also tended to match beginner trainers which would help in getting Pidgey trained to a higher skill level. Weaker pokemon also meant less serious injuries. That would allow her to start harnessing the field first aid skills Fara was taught at the trainer school. Being able to stabilize and/or heal a pokemon's injuries was an essential skill necessary to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and death. Plus she had always been interested in learning to live off the land. It seemed really cool. Smiling, she started to pack her bag. She wanted to get back on the road.

Another five hours of hot travel and Fara finally reached the edge of Pallet town. There was still about an hour of light left in the sky and, though exhausted, she felt extremely accomplished she had reached her destination with time to spare. Pallet town wasn't as small as she had imagined.

There seemed to be numerous farming fields as far as the eye could see. There were homes and farm houses dotted around the expanse connected by small roads networked throughout the valley. In the distance, crested on a hill, was a large building with an enormous windmill. It was lazily turning, glistening in the fading sunlight. Fara held back a squeal; it was Professor Oak's famous research lab.

Starting down a path, Fara carefully plodded down the dirt road. Oak's lab was only a mile and a half down the main stretch and it seemed to take very little time to reach it. As she got closer she could see a gate situated before the stone path that led to the lab. It was opened slightly and as she got closer she saw a large ball of orange, cream and black fur in the grass close to it. She stopped at the sight in awe. It was an Arcanine, the rare pseudo legendary revered throughout the Kanto Region.

While Growlith were commonly seen Arcanine were far less common. The fire stone necessary for Growlithe's evolution was hard to come by due to its necessity for multiple fire pokemon type's evolution and the difficulty in locating the stone. She had once herd that a fire stone could sell for as much as $10, 000 poke dollars or more depending on how many were in market.

Finding the elusive stone in the wild was said to be almost impossible due to lack of safe locations open to the public. Fire stones were generally found in the vicinity of hibernating or active volcanoes. They were also found near the extinct variety but several prominent clans had bought those few available territories in Kanto generations ago. They were usually the ones that sold the precious stones to the market and held the monopoly.

The stones found near active and hibernating volcanoes were extremely dangerous to search for. They tended to be located in lava tubes underground. Trainers who went searching in these tunnels could die due to volcanic gases and unexpected lava flows. This meant these areas were highly restricted to government and licensed personnel only. It was usually dumb luck when a trainer found one of these stones outside these areas. Fara's teacher at school had even said a person had a greater chance of winning the lottery than finding a random fire stone.

It wasn't only even the fire stone that was rare either. Evolution stones were a specialized quartz material that was said to be imbued with special elemental energies due to constant exposure. Fires stones came from volcanic regions, water stones could be found in ancient fresh water tributaries, and thunder stones in areas with powerful electric storms. The transition between quartz and evolutionary stone could take hundreds of years hence their rarity and thus the rarity of pokemon like Arcanine.

It was thus understandable for Fara to be stunned by the magnificent pokemon in front of her. To be fair, not all of her awe came from what this pokemon was but by what Pokemon League history had said what it had done. This Arcanine was one of Oak's original six, the six that had led him to become a Kanto Pokemon Champion. In fact, it was said that Oak's Arcanine had remained undefeated for fifteen years. A record that had not been matched since Oak's retirement; though they said the current Champion, Lance, was approaching the record with his Dragonite.

Shaking herself from the awed-induced stupor, Fara cleared her throat as she hesitantly approached the gate. At the sound, the large pokemon was on his feet and staring at her instantly. She stopped, swallowed, and took another deep breathe. Awe was turning into fear very quickly. Arcanine had looked large sitting down but standing he towered over Fara by at least two feet. With his muscular bulk and penetrating stare he froze her in her place. In what seemed forever but was probably just moments Fara and Arcanine stared at each other. Then, suddenly, the sound of another throat clearing made Fara jump. Looking past the Arcanine she saw an older gentleman, with grey hair and dark eyes. Wearing a large white lab coat, casual clothing, and a smile was the famous Professor Samuel Oak.