Chapter 3: A Reason to Leave

Light awoke to distant shouting; her thoughts disoriented as she untangled herself from her light summer blanket and shifted her blurry morning vision to read the alarm clock.

"Four o' five in the morning, who's awake at this hour?" she yawned as she rolled back over to peer out her second-story window, still blinking sleep from eyes as she made out a crowd gathered outside the pokémon lab across the street.

Eve stretched against the carpeted floor, her little tail straight in the air as she woke to her partner's movements, and then jumped onto the bed beside Light to see what had happened.

"Something must have happened, come on Eve…" she turned away from the window and dressed quickly, the little eevee dancing around her feet with impatience, before they both headed down the stairs to the front door.

The house was still quiet at this hour, the rest of the residents sleeping soundly as she slipped out the door with Eve. Across the street the crowd was thinning, people returning to their homes to catch up on lost sleep or prepare for the fast approaching workday.

Light wove through them on her way to the lab doors, Eve keeping close to her heels to avoid being stepped on as the crowd dispersed.

The door stood ajar as she finally approached it and pushed it open further to step inside, the old wood making a noisy scrapping sound along the tile floor.

"Professor?" she called out as her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit lab, a broken window pane high on the back wall catching her attention.

"Hello Light, good to see you again…and you to Eve…" the professor's voice drew her gaze towards him as Eve yipped happily and balanced on his knee for a petting.

Professor Techno Ginkgo was an aging man with wild grey hair and tired hazel eyes who spent most of his time studying the mysteries of the eeveelutions. His research was still inconclusive and widely ignored by his peers but he seemed to enjoy the work and the little fox pokémon.

Right now he was leaning against the research counter that ran along the back wall of the lab as he rubbed a hand along Eve's neck, a strange triangular stand a foot in front of him bearing two starter pokèballs. He shifted his gaze back to his visitor as Light moved further into the lab, forcing a small smile, "Have you thought any about that offer?"

"Um…" Light shook her head, her gaze skimming over the lab again for anything else out of place before returning to him, "What happened?"

"That stupid shadow thief everyone has been talking about, praising him like some local legend…" Professor Ginkgo shooed Eve down as he carefully stood up and offered her a murkrow feather, suppressing a growl as he shook his head, "He took my pupurn and some things I was working on…"

Light took the feather and ran her fingers along the edge; her eyes shifting back to the stand bearing the water and grass starters, "Wasn't he just in Kanto?"

"Aye but word travels slow to these distant waters, you know that…" the professor dropped into his old computer chair as he scanned the damage again, sighing now as the anger left him, "If you'd take that offer I'd like ya to keep an eye out for that pupurn, who knows how this boy treats his steals…"

"I…" Light shifted her gaze to the ground as Eve returned to her side and curled around her feet, one hand still fingering the murkrow feather as her soft brown eyes hardened with a sudden determination, "Alright, I want to go after him…"

A half hour later Light was back in her room packing for the coming journey, the grass starter nindow watching her every move while Eve sat by the door waiting. She turned to the little dinosaur as she finished, settling the bag against her back as she studied the new pokémon, "Guess you're with me now, how 'bout we call you Vine?"

The pokémon smiled and let out a chirp at that as he turned to join Eve by the door, his little tail wagging against the carpet.

"Hmm…" Light scanned the room one last time, nerves creeping back as she thought about the coming journey but she managed a smile as she slipped back downstairs with her two partners.

Sounds from the kitchen drew her attention as she peered in to see her mother making breakfast, the thick smells of sizzling bacon and fresh eggs filling the room.

"You're up early again dear, what happened across the street?" her mom asked as she turned from the skillet of eggs to mixing pancake batter, the normalcy of it calming after the mess at the lab.

"The shadow thief…" Light trailed off as she stepped into the kitchen, her partners on either side of her as she fiddled with the bag strap, "I…"

"Here? Wasn't he still far away?" her mom turned from the cooking for a moment, setting the bowl on the counter as a frown touched her lips, "And where are you off to?"

"I…I'm going after him, the prof wants me to check on the stolen pokémon…" she shifted her gaze down to Eve and Vine, uncertain under her mother's stare, "I'll start my journey just like you wanted…"

"Hmm…well, make sure you enjoy yourself out there." the words were quiet as her mother pulled something out of the counter drawer: an old silk scarf with a soothe bell tangled in the threads, "Take this with you, I carried it on my journey."

Light glanced back up as she accepted the gift, bending a moment to wrap it around Eve's neck before straightening to accept her mother's hug, "Thanks mom, you'll tell Joey when he gets up?"

"Of course, we'll be fine here…just remember where you come from, the city of origieon and normal types…" her mother smiled as she stepped back, surveying Light with a nod, "Go on now, Heiwa's a big region."

Light nodded, turning and slipping from the house before she could change her mind as her partners trotted beside her. As she stepped outside she scanned the street, few people were up at this hour and the journey to the base of the balance bridge took only a few minutes as she glanced at the origieon statue that watched over the normal city.

"Wish me luck…" she murmured to the three-tailed eeveelution as she left her little world behind for the wider Heiwa Region, the words inscribed on the base of the statue ringing in her thoughts again:

'The journey of life is ever-changing, on and on the road will go until it leads you home again…'