So. I am sorry that I haven't posted lately…. Haha, what an understatement. Good news is soon I should have more time. I feel like I've barely had time to sleep these past months. In November I finished the NanoWrimo challenge, and successfully wrote 50,000 words of my first novel, but I'm still only like a third of the way through my outline. I plan on finishing the first draft over the summer, because I kind of had to set it aside just recently. Then there's these art projects that I've been doing, I've entered a few contests on top of trying to build my portfolio, and then visiting colleges…. So yeah. I've had a very full junior year so far.

Here's the second chapter of the pokemon story, I'm going to keep all of the chapters around this same length. Is it a good length? I have more of the story written than I thought, so I should have the next two chapters up in a reasonable time. (I've been writing it in a notebook, nothing beats the feel of pen on paper)

Please comment! I don't care if it's a bad comment, I love criticism….. that sounds masochistic… but I do!

AD 1: Eterna Forest

We ran for two days. We scrounged the bushes for food, both meat and berries. The berries were just for me. Rup shared his kills, giving me some small birds, though I refused some of the zigzagoon he offered. I had success in starting a fire and roasted the birds when I was hungry.

Sometimes I felt bad, that Rup was working so hard and I only had a vague idea of which direction the next town was. I told myself that was all I felt bad about. I decided from then on, I wasn't going to think about my past. The first night we spent in the woods we slept in a clearing padded with dead leaves, side by side. I was glad he was here because he was both warm and incredibly good protection, so I wasn't scared. At least of Pokémon. I didn't know what awaited me once I found other humans, but I did know I would have to go to them. I couldn't live without real food for very long, because while I did find things and Rup tried hard to get more for me, it was never enough for my fifteen-year old body, and eventually I would need a tent or something to shelter me from rain and the growing cold.

At one point, when I could tell we weren't far from Rustboro City, (good time, considering Odale was over sixty miles away, and the farm was about a mile outside of that) I counted my money. I had P43173, which wasn't bad, considering, but it definitely would not go far, so I'd have to be careful. I also had no way of getting more, because I was pretty sure no one would hire a murdering farm girl with a deadly Pokémon. The fact that Growlithes are rare, even in the Joto region to which they are native, was bound to raise suspicion.

AD 3: Rustoboro City

Eventually we reached the developed area; the suburbs of Rustboro weren't that extravagant, but were filled still with more people than I had ever seen; even at the farmer's market in Odale. I stopped at a stream behind some of the houses and washed by face and changed into fresh clothes behind a bush. If people were on the lookout for me, they would be expecting me to look as if I had slept alone in the woods for the past two days. At least now, even if I looked a bit more travel-weary, I blended in with the stream of trainers constantly moving towards the main city. I walked loosely with a handful of them arriving, many whom, by the look and sound of them, were arriving for the first time. Some looked older (that was another thing- I was one of the oldest in the group) and carried heavier bags. They also had a full set of six poke balls one their belts, while the newer set had two or three. I was the only one without any poke balls, though I don't think anyone noticed. A couple others had a Pokémon walking alongside them, also.

I was fascinated in particular by a young man, maybe two years older than I, who had a pachirisu on top of his backpack. The squirrel Pokémon would hop from his shoulder to his head to inside one of his bag pockets and to his belt in a random order as the trainer talked to a younger trainer. I watched him out of the corner of my eye as we all walked. Many of the trainers around me had also started up their own conversations, but I didn't want any trouble so I just walked silently, Rup keeping close by my side. He had probably never been around so many people.

Suddenly I felt a tap on my shoulder and both Rup and I immediately tensed. I turned my head and saw it was a younger trainer who was smiling at me. He had six poke balls at his belt, but he was too young to have been very far, or so I thought. His smooth brow and bright green eyes seemed too innocent for him to have seen much of the world. I faked a welcoming smile.

"Hello, is this your first time to Rustboro?" he smiled back at me. I almost wanted to shield my eyes from the sunniness of his expression.

"Yeah," I smiled, kind of relieved I didn't have to lie or hide from him. He obviously didn't know anything about me, so how could he report me for murder? "I guess you caught me. You look at home here thought."

"Yes, actually my uncle owns a restaurant in the city proper, and my house was a few blocks from the park a while ago." He walked very confidently and I decided I liked him.

"So you're not trying to get as far away as possible? Or did you just come back for a visit?" I asked with a wry smile.

"Oh, well, I was just training my Pokémon. See, I have to be ready to beat Roxanne. That, and I was visiting a cousin in Petalburg. I'm Italian; I have family all over the place." He laughed.

"Who's Roxanne?" I asked, grinning. He had a contagious mood.

"The gym leader here in Rustboro. Oh, and I'm Toni. Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! Where are you from?" He held out his hand, and I panicked for a moment realizing I shouldn't use my real name.

"Alexa," I blurted, taking his hand and he shook it, beaming. "I'm from Odale."

"That's a lovely town. Very green, and friendly," he commented. "I see you're just starting out on your journey. Have you been given a pokedéx?"

I was shocked for a minute, realizing he thought I was a trainer. He looked at me and his smile faltered for a moment before I recovered. "Oh, uh, I just… No. I don't have a pokedex." He nodded.

"Then we should fix that once we get into the city! The gates are right around that corner. Of course, they're not really gates; it's just a huge dramatic wrought iron archway. Just to mark that you've officially gotten there, mostly for all the new trainers. Do you mind if we stop at my uncle's restaurant first? I've got to check in, and you'll like him. Sometimes I'll do deliveries for him if it's on the way. You'll like the city, too. There's always so much to do…" I just nodded and grinned and let him ramble on as we reached the gates and went in.

I was struck, first, by how big all the buildings were. They were really tall and I had to crane my neck to see the tops of some. Next was the noise. There were a lot of people all talking at once, at the store fronts, all over the wide sidewalks, and bicycles and carts whizzing and rattling past, sometimes making honking noises.

"It seems big, doesn't it? Well it won't once you get to Lilycove or Slateport. They're loads bigger. Especially Lilycove! That's the shopping center of the region right there! Here, my uncle's place is a few blocks down this way. What kind of Pokémon is that anyway? I've never seen one around here…" He turned a corner with me, looking at Rup curiously.

"He's uh… a growlithe. They're not native to Hoenn."

"Then how'd you catch him? Or did someone give him to you?" I looked into his face and decided it would be too suspicious if I told him the truth. I didn't know how Rup had gotten to Odale in the first place, how did I know he wasn't stolen?

"Uh, my dad gave him to me," I answered, deciding the lie would be easy to remember. I smiled slightly at the irony.

"Oh! That's cool! Your dad really wanted you to be a trainer, huh? He seems cool."

"He's dead." Toni looked stunned by my bluntness.

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, frowning genuinely.

"…And I should tell you something else," I continued. "I'm not a Pokémon trainer. I don't really want to be, either. I never really even considered it… thought of it."

"-Then what are you doing here?" Toni asked, not being unfriendly.

"The truth is that I ran away from home. When my dad died." I decided he wouldn't assume how literally I meant that.

"Oh, uhh… I'm sorry. Why? Can I help?"

I shook my head. "I don't want to talk about it. But… I do need money. Could you help me with a job or something?" I felt bad asking favors already, but before I could tell him to forget it, he was talking animatedly.

"Of course! My uncle will hire you! He's always in need of a little help around the restaurant, and he'll always help a fellow Pokémon lover in need! I can't guarantee it'll be the best pay, it is a restaurant, but that's up to you. People are scared to apply to a family-run place over others because they think it's gonna come down to them versus a cousin for the job and family first or hurt feelings and such… but yeah! Of course I'll help! I'll hook you up! And you look hungry so I'll get them to feed you too. Here, turn left now…"

I felt Toni grab my arm and steer me into an alley and away from the sidewalk. He made a 'shh' gesture at me by putting his finger to his lips.

"We're not allowed to battle in the city unless you're in a Gym, but in alleys no one cares about that." We walked in complete silence for a few minutes, me half a step behind Toni in the narrow alley. Then someone in a red and black striped vest stepped out in front of us. Toni's hand shot automatically to his belt.

"Ah shoot," Toni breathed, putting an arm out to stop me. I halted, my eyes going wide.

"What's up?" I asked, scared by how this woman was eyeing me.

"May I help you?" Toni asked cautiously.

"Yeah, squirts. You can give me your money," the woman growled, sweeping stringy dark hair out of her big glazed eyes. Her mouth twitched as we stared at her.

"Mighteyena, come out now," Toni mumbled, unlatching a poke ball from his belt. It began to glow red as the woman sneered.

"Ickle trainers, eh?" she snarled, and her thin arm shot for her pocket and quickly reemerged, tendons white through her sallow loose skin. It clicked open, glowing red also, and suddenly there were two Pokémon squished in between us in the narrow alleyway. Toni's was a large mighteyena, like I'd seen only occasionally in the Odale forest, his back coming as high as my waist. The other, the woman's was a one and a half foot tall cacnea. It seemed an odd choice of creature for a city-goer, but then, here I was, a farm girl with a growlithe. Besides, I realized, people come to cities from all over, there's probably more diversity here than towns like Odale.

"Mighteyena, bite!" Toni commanded, and he seemed like a totally different person than the happy child I'd met moments ago. His eyes looked flinty and sharp and his stance was tense and stable and he looked focused and… deadly? The woman smirked as the dark wolf-like Pokémon lunged in her direction.

"Pound," she hissed and the cacnea swung one of its arms and hit Mighteyena in the face, which veered it off course. Rup flinched at my feet.

"Mighteyena, tackle!" and the Pokémon lunged once again at the cactus. He hit it this time, and the cacnea staggered backward a few steps. Rup shuddered next to me and his hackles rose, but I was too scared to move.

Suddenly my eardrums were assaulted by Rup's roaring. He hopped briefly up on his hind legs as he roared. The woman's cacnea froze and then scrambled away towards his trainer, who had fled back into the shadowy doorway from whence she came, a stricken look on her face. The cacnea barely made it in the door before it slammed closed.

Toni looked at me, surprised, then Rup, and then blinked as Rup shut his mouth and the alley fell silent. "Well, that takes care of that," he smiled after a second. I looked at him, still shaking slightly. "C'mon, no one'll be messing with us now." He then grabbed my arm and pulled me into a jog with him.

We ran down the alley, and after a minute it opened into a wider path, with instead of just grimy brick walls as before, a fence here and there marking courtyards and small gardens. After another minute Toni stopped in front of one of these. Rup skidded to a stop to avoid barreling into us as Toni fished into his pocket and brought out a keychain. He selected a bronze key, tarnished in spots, and stuck it in the lock on the gate. I noticed he had a pewter poke ball locket and a painted wooden poocheyenas attached to the keychain as he twisted the lock open. He smiled as the gate swung inward and he beckoned me forward. "Ladies first," he said. I ducked my head in thanks and walked into the garden.