Now that we were back in Goldenrod City, I knew pretty well that Rosella probably would like to do some extra training before she challenged the gym leader here. Rosella and I walked into the Pokemon Center, and I waited as Rosella got her Pokemon healed. After her Pokemon were healed, a girl named Arina ran over to her and asked,
"Excuse me, by any chance do you have a Sentret?"
I replied, "As a matter of fact I do."
Then I asked her, "Why do you ask?"
Arina replied, "Well I was hoping that you would trade your Sentret for my Skarmory."
Lance's eyebrows jumped a good several inches and so did mine. I mean here was this girl offering me the rare steel-type Pokemon Skarmory, in exchange for a relatively common Sentret.
I knew that this was too good a trade to pass up, so I replied, "Okay Arina, I'll trade my Sentret for your Skarmory as you asked."
Arina exclaimed, "That's great!"
Then she asked, "Can we trade now?"
"Sure, why not." I replied.
I turned to Lance and said, "I'll be right back in a minute or two."
Lance didn't speak, but instead he nodded his head to acknowledge the fact that he had heard me. Arina and I went upstairs to the trade center, and we walked over to the trade area. When we got there I placed my poke ball containing Sentret in one of the grooved slots of the machine, and Arina did the same with her poke ball containing her Skarmory. When we were ready, we hit the trade button and the poke balls were sucked up into the machine. When they both came back down, I now owned a rare steel-type Pokemon, and Arina now had my old Sentret.
Before we went our separate ways, I told Arina, "Please take good care of Sentret. Sentret was the first Pokemon I ever caught."
Arina then replied, "Don't worry, I'll take good care of it."
"Okay, good." I replied.
After that we both went our separate ways. She sat down on a couch to rest, and I went back downstairs to meet back up with Lance like I told him I would. Back downstairs at the center I walked back over to Lance, and it was obvious to both of us that I had made a really good trade. Together Lance and I walked out of the Pokemon Center.
Once outside Lance turned to me "Rosella, that was a good trade that you made!" I praised.
Next I said, "I would like to tell you that steel-types have an advantage over every type of Pokemon except for fire-types.
Then I said, "Rosella, I think you should do some more training before you go to the gym because the leader here has some fairly powerful normal-type Pokemon."
Rosella replied, "Okay, that sounds like a good idea to me. I have two Pokemon I haven't had a chance to train much yet."
Lance asked, "Which two Pokemon?"
I answered, "I haven't had much time to train the Marill I got in a trade back in Azalea Town, and the Skarmory that I just got in a trade here."
"I see." Lance said.
Then he asked, "What are the names of the other different Pokemon you're carrying?"
I replied, "I'm carrying Togepi, Mareep, Vulpix, and Chikorita."
Then Lance said, "Wow, you have a pretty well-balanced team! Its good that you have several different types of Pokemon."
Then he said, "Let's train your Pokemon, Sweetheart."
So I let Mareep out of its poke ball and as soon as I did I let it out, it was surrounded by a white light because it was evolving. When it was finished evolving, Mareep had evolved into Flaaffy.
Lance then said, "Well, that was quick."
I was inclined to agree. I worked with Flaaffy for another ten minutes before I called it back and sent out another. I called out Marill and just as I had called it out, a wild Rattata ran into the path and faced Marill.
I thought "This is wonderful, I'll get Marill some experience and I might even get a new Pokemon in the process."
So I said "Marill, go get it."
Marill walked up to the Rattata, and waited for further instructions.
I said "Marill, use your water gun attack on it."
Marill blew water on Ratatta and weakened it a little bit. Then Rattata used its tail whip, which didn't do all that much except to lower Marill's defensive power.
Next I said, "Marill, use your roll-out attack."
Marill rolled over Ratatta and this time it was really weakened, so I threw my poke ball and caught Ratatta. After I had caught Rattata, its poke ball was transferred to my box in Bill's PC.
Because as the League rules state "No trainer may carry more than six Pokemon at a time," so Rattata was transferred to a place of safe keeping until I wanted to exchange one of my team members for it. Then Marill started glowing white, because it was evolving. When Marill had finished evolving, it had evolved into Azumarill. I worked with Azumarill for another ten minutes before I called it back and sent out another. I then sent out Chikorita, and I pulled a rubber ball out of one of the pockets of my backpack and I threw it to Chikorita and it used the leaf on the top of its head to hit the ball back to me. We kept doing this for another five minutes, and then Chikorita began to glow white and it began to evolve. When Chikorita was done evolving, it had become a Bayleaf. I continued playing ball with Bayleaf for another five minutes, before I recalled it and sent out another Pokemon in its place. Next I sent out Togepi, and I tossed the ball to Togepi and it used its headbutt attack to knock the ball back to me. Lance's mind started to wander, since he was just watching me. I kept working with Togepi like this with Togepi for another thirty minutes, and then Togepi started glowing! Lance snapped back to total attention, because he knew that Togepi was one of those Pokemon that evolve if they are extremely attached to their trainer's. He knew that, since he was the one who discovered it. Togepi glowed a purplish white color before it evolved into Togetic. Lance then walked over and took my hand, twirled me around a couple of times, and then he picked me up and swung me around like a sack of potatoes before he lightly kissed me on the cheek as he then set me down again. I couldn't believe that Lance, the Dragon Master, had actually kissed me. It came to me as a total blow-away because no one had ever kissed me before.
I finally snapped back to my new evolved Pokemon, Togetic, and said, "Oh, you're so cute! Come here Sweetie."
I stretched out my arms and Togetic flew into them. Since when it had evolved it had gained wings.
Lance then said, "Rosella, you should keep Togetic happy because if it isn't happy it will become dispirited, and that means that you should keep it with you always and not to trade it away to anyone."
I replied, "I would never trade Togetic, it's too cute and it was given to me as an egg from Prof. Elm as a gift, to hatch to get Togepi."
Lance smiled at me and said, "That's what I like about you, Rosella, you're not afraid to say exactly what you feel inside."
He went on and said, "When your heart and eyes align you look like a fairytale princess!"
Then I said and asked, "Oh gosh! Do I really?"
Lance laughed and then said, "You really do."
Then he said, "Rosella, close your eyes I have a surprise for you!"
I closed my eyes and Lance pulled something out of his pocket.
When he was ready, he said "Okay, you can open your eyes now."
I opened my eyes and resting in the palm of Lance's hand was a firestone. Lance knew that I might want to evolve Vulpix at one point, so he gave me a stone so that I could. Lance took the stone and put it in one of the side pockets of my bag. Then I recalled Togetic, and sent out Skarmory. I protected my ball using my psychic powers, so that Skarmory couldn't accidentally destroy my ball with its stiff, sharp wings. I tossed my ball to Skarmory and it flapped its wings to get the ball back to me. I worked with Skarmory for another thirty minutes, and then I called it back and sent out Vulpix. Vulpix pranced around to indicate to me that it was ready to play. So I threw my ball to Vulpix, and it caught it on the tip of its nose. Then it nudged it up into the air and smacked it with one of its paws to get it back to me. I played with Vulpix for about an hour, and then Vulpix learned Fire Blast.
Then Lance said, "Rosella, now is your best chance for you to evolve Vulpix. It has learned all of its fire attacks so I suggest that you should evolve it with the stone I gave you."
I thought that what Lance had said really made a lot of sense. So I pulled the stone out of one of the side pockets of my bag, and talked to Vulpix before I evolved it because I didn't want to evolve Vulpix if it was happier staying the way it already was.
I asked, "Vulpix, do you want to evolve or would you like to remain the way you are?"
Vulpix picked up one of its front paws and pointed to the firestone to tell me that it wanted to evolve. So I took the stone in my fingers and lightly touched Vulpix with it, and as soon as I did, Vulpix started glowing a creamish white color. When Vulpix was done evolving, it had evolved into a Ninetails.
After Vulpix had evolved into Ninetails Lance said, "Rosella, you need to be careful with this one because grabbing one of its many tails will result in a one thousand year curse."
I replied, "Then I'll have to be sure I don't grab one of its tails then."
Lance smiled at me for a second, before the wind picked up and wrapped his cape around the bottom of his legs and tripped him. Lance got back on his feet and began the process of regaining his dignity. I recalled my Ninetails and then I noticed that the sun was sinking low over the horizon.
So Lance said, "Rosella it's starting to get dark quick so let's go back to the Pokemon Center, and get a room for the night. Then tomorrow bright and early you can challenge the gym leader if you wish."
I was inclined to agree.
Then I said "Alright, that's a good idea."
So Lance and I walked back to the Pokemon Center and got a room to spend the night in. Once Lance and I were given a room we would share for the night, we walked down the hall to find it. When we found it Lance opened the door with the key he was given and he was given and we both went inside the room. Inside the room there were two beds that were laid side by side with a table set against the wall to separate the beds. Lance let me have the bed closest to the window and he took the bed that was closest to the wall. I took off my belt that held my poke balls and set it on the table. Next I pulled back the covers and crawled into bed, and fell asleep almost immediately. Lance was glad to see that I was sleeping, since he knew that I probably hadn't gotten much sleep in the jail at the Rocket's Headquarter, and that the sleep I had gotten was a pretty troubled one because who could sleep well when you were at the hands of your bitter enemies.
Lance thought, "Sleep well little one, you'll need all the sleep you can get for tomorrow."
One of Rosella's poke balls began to shake, so I walked over to the table where she had placed them and took the poke ball and let the Pokemon out of it. It turned out that Togetic wanted to sleep beside its trainer, so it flew over to her and lay down beside her and fell asleep. I knew that Rosella was a very special kind of trainer, and I was surprised to see that she and her Pokemon were learning to move as one. I was amazed at that!