Chapter 7: Night in the city
Darla woke up to a drop of water falling on her head. She looked upward to find that the cardboard box she slept in had a leak in it. It must have become too weak to make a good shelter now. She got to her feet and ran out just before the soggy box caved in on itself. This had of course upset Darla because she now had to place to sleep, and it was getting dark. As the sun slowly went below the horizon, one by one the streetlights were turned on. They glowed brightly in the dark, attracting dozens of small insects, which in turn attracted some Venomoth and a few Dustox. The small torchic had been attracted to the city by these lights in the first place, but now that she's seen what they really are up close, they didn't seem that interesting.
Darla remembered something important. The newspaper she had before. She must have forgotten it in the cardboard box! It's probably just as soaked as the newspaper, but she did remember the name of the place. Only she didn't know where it was. Darla had no choice but to look for it in streets of Mauville. Just like the box, the concrete sidewalk was just as drenched from the shower they had, and everything was very damp. Even the air seemed to have a fine mist within the street, which was illuminated by the streetlights, creating an eerie and gloomy atmosphere.
The streets was no place for a small pokemon to be wandering around at this time of night. So Darla was extra careful. She was also careful not to step into any puddles along the way. Even with the streetlights on, the streets were still quite dark. She wandered around the city for over an hour, she noticed that the tall buildings were slowly being replaced by townhouses. As she was walking along the street, all of a sudden...
"HUEERU!!!, HUEERU!!!" A huge black pokemon jumped out of a bush in someone's front yard. It was a Houndoom, and it was very angry. It rushed straight for Darla. This of course terrified the small pokemon. Darla screamed very loudly and her heart beating like crazy. She ran away as fast as her legs could carry her.
The tiny torchic was incredibly fast for a pokemon her size. A few times, she flapped her tiny useless wings in a vain attempt to fly away like how most bird pokemon could. She tripped over herself, but she kept on running. She didn't even care that she fell into puddles, she had to get away from that scary pokemon as fast as she could. As she kept running, she ran into what appeared to be some sort of wire fence, not wanting to be eaten, she desperately tried to squeeze through it in a hole that was big enough for her. She didn't notice a sharp piece of wire that was sticking out. The sharp wire scratched her cheek, the cut started to bleed, but Darla was far too afraid of being attacked by the Houndoom to care. When she finally got through the wire fence, she heard the angry pokemon's barks growing fainter and fainter, Luckily the Houndoom was tied to a chain in the yard so it didn't get too far. Darla ran over ten blocks when she realized that the canine pokemon wasn't chasing her anymore.
Darla, having had the scare of a lifetime, finally stopped in the middle of what seemed to be a park. She didn't notice that it no one was there as she was incredibly run down and gasping for breath by the time she stopped to rest.
Her little body burned with fatigue, her bleeding cheek stung, her knees trembled, her feet were very sore, even her arms, which were not much use to her ached. She was so weak from running that she felt dizzy and light-headed. Her throat had become raw from screaming, which probably woke up most of the houses on the street. She didn't feel good at all. It didn't take much for the torchic to collapse onto the cold wet grass of the park. Darla didn't seem to mind being cooled down by the dew. It was very welcome after that horrid experience. Right then she passed out. On the grass within the quiet and deserted park.