Chapter three

Blue stumbled through the thick underbrush, trying to find a place to stay for the night. It was a lot harder without his parents around, but he knew he would have to adjust.

A Noctowl hooted loudly behind him, startling him into rearing up. Suddenly, he heard a howl that sent shivers down his spine. He looked around wildly, and as his eyes adjusted to the twilight, saw a flash of darker color in the grass. Another flash approached him from a different side, and suddenly he knew that he was being hunted.

Another howl broke the silence, closer this time. He looked to his left just in time to get a good look at what was stalking him, and sweat beaded on his forehead. He had heard about Houndour killing lone Girafarig, but had never believed the stories until now.

He saw glittering eyes to his side, and forced his legs into action. The Girafarig leapt away just as the growling Houndour jumped for him. He shied as another pair of eyes appeared from the shadows. Suddenly, he felt a weight drop on his back, and a terrible pain shot through his haunches. Blue reared, and heard a yelp as his tail bit the Houndour, loosening its grip just enough to send it flying from his back.

The Houndour surrounded him now, red eyes flashing in the dim light. Blue bellowed and stomped his hooves, but they showed no sign of backing down. Suddenly, as if on some unseen signal, they converged on him. Another Houndour jumped on his back, and he screamed in pain as it sank its sharp teeth into his neck.

His legs buckled and he fell, struggling, to the ground. The rest of the Houndour jumped on him, snarling, and Blue closed his eyes, preparing for certain death.

'I'm sorry, mom' he thought. Suddenly a voice pierced the night.

"Ruby, get those Houndour off him!"

A blast of red light surrounded the Houndour, and the growling pack turned to face their new adversary.

Blue gasped as he saw the sparkling red Gyarados rearing magnificently above the pack, fighting to save him. Suddenly, he felt gentle hands stroking his flank. He feebly tried to struggle, but the unknown creatures hands were firm. Whatever it was leaned down to his ear and whispered to him.

"Don't worry, we're here to save you. Ruby will make short work of those Houndour, and Flame will carry you to a safe place. I'm Tessa, by the way."

"Blue..." replied Blue weakly.

"Don't try to speak, just rest now. I'll give you this to help with the pain." said Tessa, holding a Miracle Berry to Blue's nose.

Blue opened his mouth and took the berry, and suddenly felt the pain start to diminish. He tried to struggle up, but found that he was still too weak from the attack to stand.

Suddenly, claws lifted him up off the ground. Fear took hold of him, and he tried to bite the creature, but the reassuring hands stroked him once more, calming his fears. Blue felt the sensation of flying, but knew that a short flight was better than being eaten. He heard the Houndour pack yelping, and knew that the amazing red Gyarados had won.

"Ruby, return!" he heard as he drifted into unconsciousness.

Tessa looked worriedly at the Blue Girafarig. She knew that he was extremely lucky to be alive, if they hadn't come along and heard his screams... She shuddered at the thought. He still might not make it, but Flame was flying as fast as he could with two passengers, and the Pokemon Center was quite a distance away. If he did make it, though, she would ask him if he wanted to join their group.

Suddenly, she realized that he was a Shiny! She knew that she was very lucky to have seen even one in her lifetime, let alone capture it... but seeing two! She knew that it was still his choice if he wanted to join them, and she would go along with whatever he chose.

She took this chance to take a closer look at the Girafarig. She thought he had said that his name was Blue, but she would ask to make sure later. He was very young, not much older than two, she supposed. He had a powerful build, and she could tell that he would be a good fighter someday.

"The Pokemon Center's coming up!" shouted Flame above the roaring wind.

"Good, he needs to get there fast!"

"I can see the lights! Don't worry, I think we got those Houndour off him in time!"

"I hope so!"

Flame touched down at the entrance, and he and Tessa hurried inside. Nurse Joy was sitting at the counter, but she bolted up at the sight of them.

"What happened? We need to get him to the emergency, quick!" she turned around and opened the door to the back room, "Chansey, get a stretcher in here fast!"

Tessa tried to explain as she helped get the Girafarig on the stretcher.

"A pack of Houndour jumped him, we almost didn't get there in time. He's lucky to only have these injuries."

Nurse Joy listened to the story with a horrified look.

"If the Houndour are going so hungry that they have to attack a Girafarig, they're getting too numerous up in that route! You can wait in one of the spare rooms, and in the morning I'll tell you if he'll make it, okay?" the nurse said, handing a room key to Tessa.

Tessa nodded as Nurse Joy, the Chansey, and the stretcher with the Girafarig disappeared through the emergency room door. She turned too Flame, who was waiting expectantly.

"We get a room for the night. Nurse Joy will come in the morning and tell us how he's doing."

Flame nodded and they headed off to the back of the building. Tessa found their room, and she opened the door to find a huge, Charizard sized space waiting for them. Flame settled himself on a gigantic pillow in the corner, careful to keep his flaming tail well away from any cloth, and Tessa jumped in the bed.

"Good old Nurse Joy," she said "she must have been able to think about getting a big room for us, even when there was an emergency. We can thank her in the morning."

Flame nodded sleepily and dropped his head on his front legs. Soon he was snoring. Tessa smiled and settled down under the blankets, and despite how awake she was feeling, was asleep and snoring like Flame in a matter of minutes.

Blue awoke feeling groggy and disoriented. He was on some sort of padding, and his neck and haunches hurt every time he tried to move. The previous day's horrors hit him like a sledgehammer, and he groaned in anguish. Where was the mysterious creature that had saved him, and been so kind to him? He called out its name weakly.

"Hello, you're awake!" a high voice squeaked from behind him, "Do you need anything?"

"Who are you? Where's the thing that brought me here?"

"I'm Crissie the Chansey, and the girl who brought you here is sleeping in the guest quarters. She was really worried about you, but she finally gave in to exhaustion, the poor thing. She should be awake pretty soon though, and then she can come see you!"

"Where am I?"

"You're in the Mahogany Town Pokemon Center. That girl said Houndour attacked you up by the Lake of Rage! That's a long way, and her poor Charizard flew the whole distance with two passengers! You're really lucky! Not many humans care about Pokemon as much as that girl does..."

"What, a human! A human brought me here!" yelled Blue in terror.

"Settle down, settle down! What makes you so worried about humans?"

"Well, my parents told me that they capture you, and hurt you, and sell you for profit! They told me a number of things about humans, and I don't like any of them!"

"Well, I won't lie, some humans do those things." Crissie replied sadly, "But those humans, those are the bad cases, and they're usually arrested and not allowed to have any Pokemon if they get caught. This human though... this Tessa, she genuinely loves her Pokemon and would do anything for their well-being. You should have seen her Shiny Gyarados when she first caught him! He was so afraid because he'd gotten caught... but he loves that girl now, and he would die for her if she were in trouble."

"Wow..." mused Blue in wonder.

"Oh, and her Charizard, Flame. He was her first Pokemon, the one that carried you in. From what he tells me, they weren't even a day out on their first adventure and he was already a Charizard from a Charmander. They're very good people, and any Pokemon would be lucky to be caught by them."

"That sounds very different from what my parents told me."

"Well, I know these things. I was one of Tessa's Pokemon a long time ago, but she let me go to nursing school, and now I work here!"

"You mean... she'll let one of her Pokemon go if they wanted too, no forcing them to stay?"

"Yeah, if any one of her pokemon wanted to leave, they could. But they all love her so much, they haven't wanted to. It would be nice to go back to battling, but my true calling is being a nurse. Tessa knew that too, so she let me go."

"You're turning my entire perspective of humans upside down, do you know that?"

"Yup."

A faint sound of a ringing bell echoed through the corridors.

"Oh, I have to go!" squeaked Crissie, "I'll be back soon with your breakfast."

Blue watched her hop away, and lay his head down to muse about what she had just told him. He tried to remember all the evil things his parents had told him about humans, but his mind kept wandering back to the gentle stroke of Tessa's calming hand against his flank during the Houndour attack, and he sighed.

Tessa awoke refreshed and ready for anything. She looked over, and saw that Flame was already awake, and his face was only a foot away from her eyes.

"Yah!" she squeaked, jumping, "what are you doing, Flame, trying to scare me to death!?"

"I was trying to make you wake up without shaking you! Nurse Joy came in and told me that the Girafarig is doing great, and we can come see him if we like."

"Great!" said Tessa, sitting bolt upright.

Tessa jumped out of bed, grabbed her spare clothes, and hurriedly changed in the bathroom. She came back into the room and made up the bed, and she and Flame walked out into the hall.

The center was much busier by day, and there were many more people around. She saw the boy she had battled a few days ago sitting in the corner again, and what she overheard him saying horrified her.

"Hey, guys. I heard they have an un-owned Shiny in this place!" he whispered, "I don't know about you people, but as soon as that Shiny is released, I'm going to go capture it. And after I capture it, I'm going to raise it to a really high level and beat that cheating girl! If it doesn't do what I say, I'll beat it, and if that doesn't work... I'll sell it for a huge amount of money!"

Tessa looked in disgust at the boy, and she knew what she had to do. As she passed by his table, she kicked the leg out from under his chair. The boy yelped as he toppled, and when he looked up in anger to yell at whoever did it, he was surprised to find that no one was in sight.

Tessa and Flame giggled as they walked down the corridor, but Tessa knew that the danger to the Girafarig was not over. She would have to talk with him and convince him to either join them, or let them take him to a safe place.

They walked into the recovery room. Tessa looked all around, and soon saw him. He was lying down, and had stitches in jagged lines where the worst of the gashes had been. She walked over and gently ran her hand down his flank.

He stirred at the touch, and lifted his head to look at her.

"Tessa, is that who you are?" he asked faintly.

"Yeah, I'm really glad you're okay. We almost thought you wouldn't make it," she said softly.

"I'm okay. Did you ever own a Chansey named Crissie?"

"Yeah, she works here. Why?"

"I met her this morning, and she told me what a great human you were. I've thought about it, and I want you to capture me."

"What?" asked Tessa in surprise.

"I want you to capture me when I get out of here. You seem like you would be a great trainer, and you already have two Pokemon that you've trained well." he looked up at her pleadingly, "So will you? Please."

"I will." said Tessa, lovingly stroking his neck, "I want to make sure what your name is, though."

"My name is Blue."

"I thought so."

"Hey, Tessa?" said Flame.

"Yes, Flame?"

"We should warn him about that boy in the lobby, he might try something, and I want us to be prepared."

"Oh! Yeah, Blue, there's a rather misled boy in the lobby. He wants to capture and sell you for profit. We think he might try something while you're still here." said Tessa worriedly.

"What! This is exactly like what my parents told me would happen!"

"Don't worry, Flame and I will stay here every night until you're well again, then we can leave that awful boy behind us forever."

"Good, I'm counting on you guys. Hey, where's that red Gyarados you had? Is he a Shiny like me?"

"Yes, he's a Shiny. His name's Ruby."

"Can I see him?"

"He can't fit in this room, but you'll see him later, I promise."

"Good, I think I'll go to sleep now. Will you guys stay with me?"

"Yeah, we'll be here."

As Blue began to snore, Nurse Joy came in. She saw Tessa stroking Blue's flank and smiled.

"I see you've become friends. Do you want to stay here longer?"

"Yeah, I heard a rumor that a boy here might try to capture Blue before he's healed. I'm going to stay here with him until he's mended, and then he's agreed to come with me. I don't want anyone cruel to capture him."

"You're right!" said Nurse Joy, a horrified look on her face, "I'll put up extra security. Only the trainers who have pokemon in this room will be allowed in, and cameras will be on watch all the time. If you still want to stay in here though, you can."

"Yeah, we will." replied Tessa, "I promised him we wouldn't leave."

"Okay then, I'll bring some books in for you to pass the time."

"That would help, thank you."