In the end, James did catch the oddish. He thought that if he was stuck with it anyway, he may as well give it a pokeball to hide it away when it got particularly annoying. His mood worsened when he found out his new pokemon was only level seven and knew only two moves. Well, three if you included cut, which he taught it after finding out the disappointing news. The oddish was also female- his first female pokemon.
James decided to use route thirty-four for some urgent training. Oddish was very eager, she put her new move to practise straight away; slicing the blades, of a nearby patch of grass, in half. Powerful, for a pokemon at such a low level.
There were plenty of trainers out here; enjoying the sunshine, training their pokemon against wild ones, battling other trainers and going through strategies. As soon as the two trainers set foot out of the humid forest and onto the, slightly cooler, route, they looked around in relief. No more greenery!
The first thing Kelsie noticed was the day-care centre, a tall building in the distance, embedded in shrubbery. She and James had read about its facilities in his brochure. It had boasted a glorious garden; huge and filled with many things to entertain all types of pokemon. This included: water features for water pokemon, rough terrain and boulders for rock or ground types to dig or build up their strength, long, luxurious grass and beautiful, exotic plants for grass and bug types, towering trees for flying types and much more. The pictures in the brochure took their breath away. The centre was run by an old Japanese couple called Akita and Yorito Tundra, their picture was slightly blurry, but they looked decent enough. The old man was pictured with a cane, and he was smiling; causing his crinkled eyes to shut. His wife was small and frail, barely reaching her husband's shoulders. Both had wispy silver hair, though Yorito's was more tufts behind his ears.
"Seems alright to me." Kelsie had commented. "You should leave your oddish there whilst we go challenge the gym leader. Might toughen her up a bit." James had agreed, but he wanted to do some training with her himself first. He needed plenty of training in getting along with her.
But challenging Whitney, the gym leader, wasn't the only thought on his mind. Goldenrod was home to a lot of wonderful things- the radio tower, a massive department store and a bike shop, to name a few. Oh, how he longed for a bike. It would make travelling so much easier on his poor feet. He had the image of him zooming along, spearow flying beside him, Rex charging after him and oddish in a little basket.
First things first, though. Both trainers were in desperate need of a shower or bath and their clothes needed washing too. Some decent rest would have been nice, not to mention some good, wholesome food. The trainers on route thirty-four would surely wait.
Oddish wouldn't.
James was in two minds to leave her in the day-care centre, there and then, and collect her later. The idea of spending more money than he had to didn't appeal to him, however.
"You go." He told Kelsie, with a sigh. "I'll join up with you later."
"You sure? I could stay with you, if you wanted." The tension between them, from the past few days, had completely eased off, thankfully. Though James was slightly annoyed that Kelsie had invited a total stranger to travel with them, without consulting him, he had gotten over it. Eventhough Kirralie was rather annoying, he figured it would be alright. Fun, even.
"Nah, I need to bond with her." James fixed his gaze on the little oddish, who was chasing a wild abra, becoming more and more enthused each time it teleported away and re-appeared somewhere else. James was sure that the abra was doing that just for amusement. "I'll see you at dinner, save me a seat." Kelsie promised to do so and headed off, towards the city. James watched her walk for a while, letting his oddish have her fun, and then called her over.
She proved to be pretty tough, taking down a fair few rattata and snubbull, mainly with her cut attack. Her absorb was pretty weak, barely making her opponents flinch. James wanted to work on that, but, from her previous experience, oddish had become deathly afraid of water. She squealed and wailed, shrilly and loudly, every time she even approached it, causing James to receive plenty of dark looks from nearby trainers. He mumbled apologies and scooped oddish up every time, transporting her to the other side of the path.
It took him a while to sum up the courage, but, eventually, he decided that challenging some trainers would be his best bet. If he was lucky, and that was doubtful, they would have some pokemon he could practise oddish's absorb on.
"Hey, you!" James ran towards a nearby boy who had a pokemon out, attacking wild pokemon. At first, he looked up, startled. His pokemon- a sandy-coloured shrew- looked up also. "Fancy a battle?"
"Alright." He fixed his cap, which was on backwards, squishing it down further and flattening his brown hair. He nodded at his pokemon and it rolled forwards. Oddish tried to imitate it, but didn't do so well. She ended up in a heap, but giggled happily, nonetheless. "Go Sandy! Scratch!" The pokemon leapt at oddish, its claws unfurled. They slashed the air, narrowly missing oddish, who had dodged to the side.
"Absorb!" James' luck had taken effect. The sandshrew's energy drained quickly, causing it to crash to the ground, due to its weakness. James punched the air in victory, oddish hopped up and down excitedly. "Yes! Well done oddish!"
"I do have more than one pokemon." The smile on James' face rapidly transformed into an embarrassed grin, nervousness devouring him.
Feeling much more refreshed after her shower, Kelsie dressed, snaffled some sandwiches from a nearby vendor, quickly ate, and then went to collect her pokemon from Nurse Joy. They had only needed a little rest and had spent the rest of their time waiting playing with the other pokemon. Kelsie had chosen to sleep later and go to bed early.
"So," She asked, not really expecting an answer. "What shall we do?" She wasn't really in the mood for training, she had decided to do that tomorrow. And she was sure that James would want to join her in having a wander about town. He had raved about the radio tower and had drivelled on, endlessly, about getting a bike.
So she decided to do what girls did best- shop.
Polly and Flaaffy's bows had been ripped to tatters whilst they had trekked through dozens and dozens of thickets and hedgerow, so Kelsie bought them new ones. Polly picked out a purple, velvet one. Kelsie preferred the silk. It looked better. Polly twirled round and round, trying to get a look at herself in the mirror, to admire her new accessory.
Flaaffy opted for a more striking option. She quite liked the rainbow-coloured ones and the metallic-coloured. Kelsie laughed at her enthusiasm. In the end, flaaffy left the department store with a bright, sparkly, rainbow-coloured bow, attached to the wool that rested on top of her head.
Kelsie didn't leave empty handed either. Most of her clothes were in the pokemon centre's washing machine, leaving her with some jeans and her colder weather clothes. It was because of that that she had bought herself some new ones. Any excuse.
"Aw, man!" Oddish had finally been taken down. After knocking out the trainer's first pokemon, she had gone on to defeat his rattata and deal some severe damage to his spearow. However, as the spearow was a higher level, though only just, thanks to oddish's previous training, and at a type advantage, it was able to successfully send oddish down for the count.
"Rex, you're up." The, rapidly growing, houndour appeared, snarling at the bird pokemon in front of him. The spearow looked unfazed, in fact, James was sure that, if spearow were able, it would snarl straight back.
"Use leer!" The spearow narrowed its eyes, leering at Rex. He whined and walked backwards, retreating from the bird.
"Don't be a baby!" James cried. "You know you can take him!" A few embers and a badly burnt wing proved James right. The next pokemon- another spearow- was just as easy. The young trainer forked over his money and sulked off.
James ran to the pokemon centre to heal his oddish and to give Rex and spearow a rest. He headed up to his room, to bathe and change, and collected his pokemon, half an hour later, to resume his training.
"How's it going?" Kelsie asked, startling James, several hours later.
"Yeah, it's… eventful."
"Bonding?" She could tell they were, James had more patience with the oddish than before. "I got her a gift." She produced another bow from behind her back and fitted it to the leaves on oddish's head. It was rather small, royal blue to compliment the colour of her body. Oddish was pleased, but James was disgusted. He would never, ever, understand why girls needed to accessorize.
However, he was stuck with a bow-wearing oddish. Every time he tried to remove it, oddish would perform her high-pitched wailing trick. James couldn't compete with that.
The next morning came quickly, as both trainers headed off to bed straight after dinner. The set off early, to cram in their sight-seeing, before filling the rest of the day with battling. That was their plan, anyway, and everyone knows how plans don't always go according to… well, plan.
Before they started, though, James posed the question of leaving oddish in the day-care centre, to help out her training. His other pokemon had been given a head start, after all, as he had began his journey with them. Kelsie seemed to think it was a good idea, but James was still unsure. He had a niggling feeling and he wasn't quite sure what it was.
It's probably just the fact that I'd be leaving her with strangers… He told himself. …That, and the fact that we'd all be having fun without her.
But, standing outside the aptly dubbed 'Pokemon Paradise' and staring at the Tundra's smiling faces, didn't make him feel any better.
