Chapter 8: the pokemon center
"How is are little friend is doing?"
"Chan, Chansey!" ((Nurse Joy, I think she's waking up!))
It took a while, but Darla had finally gathered enough strength to open her eyes and gain conciseness. She had a look around, things were very different from what she remembered, she last remembered being outside in a park somewhere, she remembered running and fainting in the middle of it as well. Now it looked like she was inside a room somewhere. It was as big as the barn she was born in, but it was much brighter.
Darla looked around her, she was on a white bed of some sort, her head was resting on a soft marshmallow pillow. The air smelled of the lemony scent of floor cleaner as it wafted up from the linoleum floor. The walls were a soft yellow that had framed pictures of pokemon on them. To Darla's left, there was a table with a vase, inside the vase, there were flowers that reminded Darla of the fields she played in a few days before. There was also a window where the sunlight could stream through to make the room brighter. It would have a pleasant room to be in, had it not been for the strange equipment that she was wired up to. All along her body there were small wires that measured her vital signs and other stuff to show how well she was recovering. She also had a bandage on her cheek so the cut could heal. The scariest thing was what there was an IV tube with a needle that had been attached directly into her ankle. Darla had felt scared, but then she didn't need to be, because she was not alone in the room.
Standing besides Darla's bedside, was a woman and her pokemon. The woman had red, almost pinkish curly hair. She wore an nurse's outfit, complete with a nurse's hat on top. Her eyes shone with life and she had a small, but warm smile on her face. It was very easy to tell from her face that she was a kind and very caring person. Besides her was a Chansey, a pink and round pokemon, it also wore a nurse's hat. Darla somehow knew she wouldn't be in any danger with them in the room. The Chansey had also said that the woman's name was Nurse Joy.
"Well now, Torchic seems to be pulling through after all, that's good..." The nurse's voice was sweet and caring as she was. "...But now who does it belong to?"
Darla wanted to answer her, but then she thought that if she spoke a word in human, she probably would have been considered a freak. So Darla simply said nothing. It was weird. When most pokemon speak, they only speak their species' name, but somehow they can still get their point across, yet if Darla had said "Torchic" it would just saying the word "Torchic". She couldn't say what she really wanted to say, to pokemon or human, without being given weird looks or considered a freak.
"Don't worry, we'll find your trainer soon." Nurse Joy then carefully took the IV needle out of Darla's ankle. She winced as a small amount of blood oozed a bit from the hole left behind, but the chansey put a band aid on it. "There, can you move your toes well?" Darla didn't answer or say a thing. It was a little sore. "You'll be all right, but you need some more rest first." Nurse Joy said as she patted Darla with her soft gentle hands. The small torchic snuggled against her pillow and drifted of to sleep.
When all was settled, Nurse Joy and chansey quietly walked out of Darla's room and continued down the hall. The hall was much like Darla's room, cream coloured walls, framed pictures of pokemon and lemony scent. Nurse Joy was quite concerned with the injured pokemon. Firstly, it was found all alone and unconscious in the middle of a park and was taken to the pokemon center.
"It's terrible that someone would abandon a young pokemon like that... Who would do such an awful thing?" thought Nurse Joy as she went along the corridor that lead her to her front desk. Another thing that puzzled Nurse Joy was that this torchic was unusually quite, most pokemon would at least reply with some utterance of voice, like a growl or something. This torchic didn't make any sound whatsoever. She had a few hunches about this mysterious pokemon, but she couldn't be too sure unless found out more about it. Nurse Joy also wanted to find it's trainer, or find a new one for the poor pokemon.
It was a few days and Darla had recovered from her wounds, but Darla had decided not to make any sounds for fear of being considered a freak. Nurse Joy had decided to run some tests on Darla before letting anyone adopt it. She made physical measurements of it. Aside from having feet and toes that were more flexible, muscular and more dextrous then most other torchics, it was physically normal. Darla also had some psychological tests and Nurse Joy monitored the young torchic as it interacted with other pokemon. Darla was a little odd when other pokemon made attempts to be friends with her. It was put in a pen with trainer's pokemon who came to be healed and for check-ups at the pokemon center, many pokemon came to say hello and tried to talk to Darla, but she usually didn't notice until they approached her and made her play in their games. Even then she seemed reluctant to take an active part in some games.
Joy and other pokemon as well also noticed some eccentricities the torchic had. She had peculiar table manners, instead of pecking her food like how torchics usually do, she would use her toes to pick up individual pieces of food and pop it into her mouth. It was strange to watch, and she had been given the nickname "Fingertoes" by Nurse Joy and the local trainers of the mauville pokemon center. Darla didn't seem to mind at all, in fact, she liked it. Although it would have been nice if people called her Darla instead.
Living in the pokemon center was very nice, but she really wanted to be with a real family. Aside from Nurse Joy's chansey, she was the only pokemon who lived in the pokemon center, but she did have friends who visited and played with her, but it wasn't the same as a real family.