Chapter 3: Freedom and friends at last

Darla the Torchic had been through plenty in her less then a day of being alive, her egg had almost been scrambled, she was rejected by her fellow torchics on the grounds that she talks like a human being instead of a regular pokemon, and she had a dream. This dream may have scared her, but also gave her a purpose in life. She didn't want to be a just a pokemon, she wanted to be a human being as well. Or at least make something of herself. Right now though, she needed to find a way out of this place.

After she was done crying, she walked over to a food trough on the far side of the pen. There was still some corn kernels left from the night before. She never had any food since she hatched, so Darla was famished. After finishing up what remained of the corn, she tried to figure out how she could escape from this dank pen.

Unknown to Darla, she was not really alone in the torchic pen room. There were four beady eyes who had watching her since she woke up. A pair of them belonged to a ratatta, and the other pair belonged to a spinarak. The two pokemon were good friends who have been living in the pen house for quite a long time without the farmer not knowing. They had been watching Darla, and they somewhat felt sorry for her. So they had decided to both come out of hiding and to help her out.

The rattata scurried down from the wooden rafters, it's nimble paws were quiet enough not make a sound but sure enough not to let it fall to the ground. He then squeezed himself through the wiring of the pen and buried himself in the straw and approached the Torchic. She didn't notice the rattata until it was right behind her. Darla turned around and when she saw the rattata:

"AAAAHHH!!!" Screamed the frightened Darla

"RAAAAAA!!!" Screamed the equality frightened rattata

"Who are you? What are you" asked Darla, her heart was racing really fast from her encounter with the purple rodent pokemon.

Ratta Ratatta! (("I was just about to ask you that")) the rattata answered. He had felt a little silly for scaring the pokemon he was going to help.

"Um... I'm Darla, nice to meet you" Darla said in a polite manner as she calmed down. She wasn't used to being around other pokemon.

(("hi, I'm Rattata... Darla? That's a little weird... You named yourself?")) the rattata replied a bit perplexed, but after wondering about that he got down to why he came in the first place. (("do you any help getting out?"))

"Oh... That would be very helpful, thank you! Do you know a way out of this pen?" Darla asked, she was quite happy to find that there were some friendly people in the world she could trust.

(("Oh yeah, I know this old barn like the back of my paws, I know a few ways out of this place...")) the rattata explained a number of different exit routes to get out of the pen, only most of them were too difficult to get through. The doorway was locked tight, but even if it were not, she was too small to reach the door handle. She looked at the window, she saw that it was completely open. This would be the perfect escape. The only problem was that this window was quite high. However, there were some boxes that were piled up. They could be like steps upward towards the window and freedom. It would be easy for a four-legged pokemon like rattata, but it would prove difficult for the two-legged torchic. Nevertheless, she would have to take that chance if she wanted to escape.

The first thing they did was to turn over the food trough, this made a good step up so they could get over the pen gate. Darla got help getting up by using Rattata as a step, she then pulled Rattata up by using her beak. The two pokemon then got up on top of the pen gate, Rattata jumped down pretty quickly, but Darla couldn't seem to follow.

(("What's the matter?")) Rattata asked impatiently as he waited for Darla to jump.

"I...I...I can't seem to m..m..m..move... I d..d..don't want to f..f..fall down..." Darla stammered as she looked at her Rattata friend down below, the drop was only two and a half feet, but to Darla, it seemed too high for her. She may have remembered falling and hitting the ground when she was still in her egg. Darla must now have a paralysing fear of heights, this would make climbing out the window a lot more difficult and a lot more scary for the young torchic.

(("oh... Um... Just wait right there, and when I tell you, close your eyes and jump, you won't get hurt, I promise!")) the Rattata quickly found a burlap sack that had corn inside, this would make a soft landing. He grabbed it with his overgrown incisors and dragged it directly over the petrified pokemon who tried to keep her balance on top of the gate by clutching the top with her feet.

(("Okay, jump when I say "now, okay Darla? NOW!"))

The chick pokemon closed her eyes, and she let go of the gate. She fell forward, and landed with a soft thud onto the sack. The kernels inside made a scratching sound inside the bag. Now that that was over it, now came the difficult bit. Climbing up to the small window, this would be hard because it was quite high up, the two pokemon would have to crane their heads upward to see it, and for a pokemon with a phobia for heights, this would be very hard.

"I don't think I can climb that high... I'll probably fall" Darla said this in a near whiny tone of voice. The rattata's patience was beginning to wear thin... Darla hadn't done anything but complain or cry over something, but then again, she was only a day old, so he had to bare with it.

(("well, all you need to do is to jump upward onto a higher box, it's easy")) Rattata tried to calm the nervous torchic as best he could.

The two pokemon climbed up the stacks of boxes, the rattata in front and Darla behind him. Climbing the boxes was very easy for the rattata because he's done this many times already, when living in a place where you are not wanted, it's best to know your way around the place and to find good hiding spots. Darla on the other hand was having this a little tougher, she never really climbed up much before now, and her fear of heights didn't help much, often she was tempted to look down, but she knew she wouldn't be able to move on up or worse, she could lose her balance and fall. So she gingerly reached her foot to a higher box, feeling for a secure hold with her toes. Then with her beak, she then grabbed the edge of the box and lifted herself up to it. Climbing would be a lot easier if her arms were not so small and near useless as they are now. So slowly, but steadily, the two climbed higher and higher to reach for the window to freedom.

They were almost up to the window, Darla reached and grabbed another box with her toes and started to hoist herself up, but the box slipped from her and tipped over. Darla started to scream for her life as she tipped over, lost her balance and started to plummet towards the floor. The corn sack was not there to break her fall this time. It was a very long drop to the bottom, probably an even longer drop then when she was still in her egg. Down, down, down she fell, until she didn't seem to fall anymore. From above the beams that made the roof shot out a strand of silk, it came down and caught the terrified torchic by the ankle. The strand was light enough so it couldn't be seen unless you looked close enough, but strong enough to catch and hang on to things which were heavy, like a pokemon. It was a spinarak web.

"Spin-Spinarak!" (("I got you, don't struggle. You might break it.")) The spinarak was struggling hard to hold the flailing torchic. He was watching Darla and the Rattata so if they got into any trouble, the he could help them anyway. He slowly moved along the beams which held up the roof slowly. He had to be careful that the thread did not break and Darla fall once again. He placed Darla right on the window sill, so Darla escape. There was only one more obstacle that remained in her way to freedom. getting down from the window. Luckily though, there was a stack of hay that was conveniently placed just outside the window, so all Darla did was to close her eyes, be brave, and to take that leap of faith. She landed with a soft landing and slid down the haystack.

She did it, she was finally free from that room. The outdoors seemed wonderful to her. The midday sun was shining brightly in the big blue sky that seemed to go on forever. The grass smelled sweet and the dew on them was making her torchic toes a little cold and wet, but she didn't mind at all, in fact she loved it. She absolutely loved being free, free from being inside a dark room and also from being forced to take orders from others. She was now her own pokemon, free to make her own decisions.

"Thank you so very much, I would have probably stayed inside that scary room forever if it wasn't for you!" The young torchic said in human with deep gratitude, it was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for her in her short life. She was overjoyed that the world was not a cruel and frightful place she thought it was. Tears of joy ran down from her face as she said good bye to the rattata and spinarak who saved her life, she was now determined to go out and to make her mark on the world and to make a name for herself. She was a pokemon with a special ability, and nothing was going to get in her way of achieving her goal to get a family of her own, and her own identity.