Erin walked along a path in a dying forest, the trees few and far apart. "I don't even have a map," she was saying to herself. "How am I supposed to find my way around anywhere if I don't have a map to see where I'm going?" By talking to herself, Erin was attempting to push the thought of never receiving a pokemon far to the back of her mind. "I assume I'll get somewhere where I can either get a map or ask for directions if I simply follow this path," she continued. The trail was dusty and now her boots were as well. When she left the school, only Professor Chronal tried to help her. She now had some scrapings of food, a bedroll, and a little money that would, hopefully, suffice until she reached the next town.
Erin looked around at the forest once more and sighed. "This must have been beautiful once. Now everything is dying and the plants that do survive don't live as long or grow to be as big." She sighed again. "I wonder what it must have been like, to see a forest full of life in wonderful shades of green."
Unknown to Erin, she was being observed by a pair of manky cubs attempting to hide themselves in the sparse branches of a nearby tree. The young manky were as curious as any child would be and wanted to get a better look at Erin. "I wonder if all humans talk to themselves," said one. "I don't think so," said another. "Maybe this one's just crazy." "I wonder what would happen if we threw a rock at it," said the first." The second one made a shuffling noise as he became frightened. "No! You can't do that! Remember what mom said." Erin heard the noise and stopped talking to look behind her and spotted the dusty colored manky, who instantly froze.
Erin, too, was startled. "Oh my gosh! Wild pokemon! There's barely any pokemon ever seen in the wild anymore. Man, what would the professor say?" Erin's talking must have shocked the manky out of their trance, because then they hopped away through the trees. "Oh, please don't leave!" said Erin to no avail. "Darn it, I just wanted to look at them." Slightly disappointed that the manky left, but also cheered at simply seeing them, Erin set off again, only to stop an hour later to sit on a tree stump for lunch, careful to keep her rations small incase she had trouble reaching the next town. After she finished with a tiny and rather disappointing meal, Erin took out the pokedex that Professor Chronal had given her, wondering what lost bits of technology and information were stored in its tiny database. She pressed the blue button on the front that she assumed turned it on. Erin was right and was rewarded by the device opening somewhat like a book, only to have a translucent screen appear in front of her face, as well as a keyboard above its red base. "Whoa," she said, surprised and impressed. "It's the same concept as the computers at school." The Prof always could do amazing things with computers, she thought to herself. Erin tapped the screen that had appeared in front of her, as well as the keyboard. Both were solid, when before they had been no more than light.
"Wonder what it can do?" But before she was able press anything, Erin heard the muffled sounds of someone fighting, as well as angry yells, but they sounded strange somehow. Not knowing how to turn the pokedex off, Erin tried pressing the same blue button. The keyboard and screen disappeared and the pokedex shut itself. Stuffing the last cracker into her mouth, she carefully replaced the pokedex into her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and jogged in the direction of the noise. "I wonder what's happening." Continuing to jog, the forest flattened out into solid stone and she came upon a rock formation. Hearing the noise coming from behind the rocks, Erin crept as quietly around the rocks as she could to see what has going on. What she saw made her heart catch in her throat as she held her breath. In front of her were a combusken and a charmeleon, fighting each other. Erin gasped and looked on in silent wonder as the two dodged and attacked, each trying to outdo the other.
She looked on as the combusken took advantage of its ability to fly and leaped over the charmeleon attempting to catch it off guard from behind. But the charmeleon was quicker and had a better reaction time. It turned so its back faced Erin and lashed out with deadly precision at its opponent. Erin gasped again. The charmeleon's back was graced with jagged black stripes. She was sure that none of the pictures she had seen of a Char had those markings. The charmeleon's attack seemed to be too much for the combusken to handle, for it soon squawked and flew away awkwardly, leaving the charmeleon to catch his breath.
In the silence that followed, the charmeleon must have heard Erin's excited breathing, for it turned quickly, instantly taking on a defensive stance. Erin gave a small yelp, startled and slightly fearful that the charmeleon would turn its attack on her.
"A human," he growled. "I'm stronger than any weak lab-bread pokemon you might have gotten, and I won't simply waltz into a pokeball, so you might as well forget about it and leave.
Understanding now that the charmeleon would most likely not attack her if he didn't feel threatened, Erin attempted to make herself appear as threat to him. "I don't have a pokemon," she answered sadly. "I don't have any pokeballs either. You have to be a trainer before they give you any."
"You don't come from that school-thing a ways off?" the charmeleon asked, pointing in the direction of her academy.
"Well, yes, I do. But I don't have a pokemon because I was expelled for fighting."
"Fighting?" he said, at once interested in her explanations. "Why were you fighting?"
Erin continued to explain the reasons surrounding her expulsion.
The charmeleon looked down at the ground angrily, folding his arms across his chest. "Serves the polywhirl right for letting itself be pushed around by a human." Then a flicker of realization and understanding flashed across his orange face. "But she stood up for it," he said to himself. The he looked up at Erin, briefly meeting her eyes. "I have to go," he said, and then dashed into the forest.
"Wait!" Erin called after him. "Do you have to leave now?" But it was useless; the charmeleon was already lost in the underbrush. She sighed and looked in the last spot she had seen him, as if watching it would make the charmeleon appear once more. "Won't I see any pokemon for longer than a minute?" At this Erin retraced her steps back to the trail and continued on to where she hoped would be a town.
^_^ a/n – I hope everyone likes the story so far. Sorry that the first two chapters were so short: I was getting everything sorted out. I don't know if I need a disclaimer or not, but so many other authors do, I might as well. I do not own Pokemon…duh. I hope that much was obvious. Erin and Professor Chronal are mine though: I made them up on the spot, so no touchie. They be mine.
I think that's all. The story will get more interesting as the plot progresses; don't worry. I was just so sick of all the same kind of stories that I decided to do something about it: I wrote one of my own! All right, carry on and do whatever.