I was surprised when I saw Capkin town. It... well, it was really more like a city to be honest. It was HUGE! There were what looked like skyscrapers and streets... the whole shabang! The only major difference I could tell immediately was the colors weren't all grey and bland. Most of the buildings were made of rocks and wood, and a lot of them had bricks and concrete of various colors.
I had only been to a big city once back home. It was on a field trip to a museum or something. I was just happy to get out of the classroom to be honest! It was cool for sure, but I didn't really care that much. Actually, I never realized how much I didn't care for things back home until now. Next time I go to a city on earth, I'll pay more attention.
It was almost noon, and as we went to enter Capkin town, Sam turned to me.
"Eva, I think we should kind of sort out your fur a bit before we go in..." he said, eying my fur coat. "I don't want everyone to immediately see a feral and think bad about us..."
"Yeah, that makes sense." I said. He did have a point there, I'm sure I looked like a feral to the average Pokémon, I never really learned to properly groom this body! "But how do we do that?" I asked.
"I have an idea. You wait here, I'll be back soon!" He said before he jogged into the city.
I sat there and watched the city move. There were dog Pokémon like Growlithe, Houndoom, Lycanroc... and others like mice- Pikachu, Dedenne, and Marill, I think. There were a lot of Pokémon, and I could only point out a few because Sam had brought a book with Pokémon pictures in it. I since realized that I could not read in whatever Pokémon language they use, but Sam was helping me to recognize the different Pokémon in it. There were just SO MANY!
After waiting a while, Sam returned with something in his claws. He came over to me and presented me with a brush. "I watched some Pokémon at a grooming salon groom their fur and then bought a brush there." He said. "Now I can show you how they were doing it."
Sam showed me how they brushed their fur. They straightened it all out and mostly brushed it from front to back. I realized how similar this was to brushing my human hair, and I soon had it down quick. Sam was surprised that humans had fur on the tops of their heads, and I told him I would explain it more later.
After getting that all sorted out, we put the brush away and Sam warned me to not talk much so that I could blend in. I told him "that's what I do anyways, but sure." And we went in.
The city was kinda amazing. Everywhere I looked, there were Pokémon big and small, selling things, buying things, window shopping... and then there were salons, jewelry stores, markets full of produce... and some of the buildings were really tall. This got me thinking about how big I was now compared to when I was human. Maybe this was all normal size to me then? No, it couldn't be... I couldn't really tell to be honest.
Sam said that we should see about stocking up on supplies and getting a place to stay for the night. That way, we could be all ready to go to Rocket's cavern tomorrow or whatever it was called. Sam was slightly nervous about it though.
"Why are you so nervous?" I asked Sam.
"Well," he started sheepishly, looking down at the small money pouch he held in his hand. "We've only got about 126 poke left... that brush was about 25 poke, and I don't know how much the inns around here would cost, and I'm just hoping that we don't have to put down a deposit."
"Yeah..." I said, not knowing how money works here but understanding the trouble. "Maybe let's just buy what we'll need for sure, then find somewhere cheap?"
"Yeah."
We went to the marketplace to look for anything on sale. They had a ton of apples, and they were priced by size. We picked up a few apples for 12 poke. We also picked up a few oran and pecha berries too. We decided that was enough, and with 107 poke left, we started heading out to look for a hotel or a place to stay for the night. It was still bright out, probably around 3 or 4 in the afternoon I would guess, so we took our time.
We tried multiple places, but each one seemed to have either really high prices, or you'd have to put down a deposit first. It did make sense though, because I'm pretty sure in the human world we would have higher prices in more populated places, because we would get more money that way.
One place had referred us to a cheap inn on the far edge of town, so we were on our way there, when Sam stopped and froze in his steps. "What is it?" I asked Sam.
Sam walked over to an alley on the side of a store. I followed him. I tried to question Sam on what we were doing but he quieted me. He glanced around the corner. "Look." I followed his gaze to discover Rou heading out of the store!
Rou! The little owl who we helped yesterday! What was he doing here? I was about to say we should go confront him, when I heard a loud shriek! I looked back around the corner to have Rou plunge headfirst into my face!
We tumbled down the alley a few feet. "Eva!" Sam exclaimed. "Are you okay?!!"
"Okay as I'll ever be..." I groaned. I got up and investigated what had happened. Rou ran into me. Wait, where did Rou go? I looked around to find him hiding behind a garage can! "Rou! What are you doing?!"
"Yeah, what do ya think yer doin' 'ere?" A heavy gangster accent said behind us.
I slowly turned around to find Sam in shock, and a very menacing muscular Pokémon standing over us. I gulped in fear as I slowly processed the figure to be a Machoke. I tried to say something, but maybe it was the lighting or the pure intimidating form before me, because instead I just made a slight whimper.
"Say, I thought ya was jam when I first laid eyes on ya Rowlet." He said, with his eyes pointed directly at Rou. "Ya were stealin' from a good family friend of us. Now I 'ave da three of ya ta brin' back to da big shot."
Sam and I looked at each other in terror.
"Bag 'em."
A moment later, we found ourselves in what I assumed to be burlap sacks. How is it that the Pokémon world has mobs and gangsters? Now is probably not the time to question that. Pretty soon, after being carried for quite a while, we were finally sat down.
As the bags were pulled off of our eyes, I blinked profusely. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I saw that we were in a jail cell of sorts. Concrete stone walls and floor, with thick, iron bars separating us from the rest of the room. There was a couple large cushions in our cell, along with a few blankets. Our bags were nowhere to be seen.
I looked up at our captors who had pulled off our sacks. There was the Machoke, a Scraggy, a Weavile, and one I wasn't yet familiar with. It looked like a red alligator that had dark stripes down its body, with a white underbelly. It was black like a mask around its eyes. Sam later told me it was a Krookodile. Figures.
"So it seems ta me that you're in quite da picks 'ere." A voice from beyond the bars said. "Ya got yer friends in a jam too. Lil' birdie, why'd ya 'ave ta glaum from us?"
Rou suddenly piped up. "W-wh I- ...I ...w-w-was h-hungry?"
"Well that's too bad. Everyone's got ta eat. But why couldn't ya make an spitting livin' like everyone else?"
Rou went silent.
"Ya had ta nick from an associate of ours," the voice continued."'n now you'se in a fine mess of things."
"What about us?!!" I spat out. How are we part of all this? Why are we here?!!"
"Eva!" Sam whispered, trying to get me to be quiet.
"Say, it's very rude ta speak out of turn, doll. How 're ya fit into all 'dis, 'cause ya was workin' together with him, see?"
"But we weren't!" Sam interjected, noticing what I was saying. "We just saw him and we've met him before! And then he ran into us!"
"Oh, so ya got mixed in with da wrong crowd. Unfortunately you'se a witness ta our operations 'ere. We don't want ya peachin' us or pointin' no fingers. Give us a night 'n I'll decide what ta do with ya."
"Yeah, we don't want no snoopers around 'ere." One of the goons said. "We'd all be saps in stir if we got nailed!"
"Ricky," the voice in the darkness said. "Shadup."
The goons and the voice in the darkness left, and soon it was just Rou, Sam and I. I looked over at Sam. He was sitting by one of the large bland cushions and I could tell he was scared. I walked over to him.
"Hey Sam, you doing okay?"
"I-I-I g-guess." He said, with a sigh. "I was just so panicked! I mean, this is big stuff! How did we get mixed up in all this?"
"Well, you went to go see Rou and what he was doing here." I said, thinking back. I turned to look at the Rowlet. "What were you doing here?"
We turned to look at the bird to find him trembling. He wasn't cold it seemed, but it looked like he was terrified for his life! We looked at each other, then walked over to comfort him.
Sam put a hand on Rou's back. "Hey, are you okay?"
The bird looked up at Sam, eyes wet with tears, then looked back down to the ground. Sam glanced over at me.
I tried laying down next to Rou, my fur touching his ruffled feathers. "Rou, why were you so hungry?" I asked quietly.
"B-because I'm always hungry." He said with a sniffle. "I don't know why, but I always feel like I'm running on empty, and even though I try to eat as much as I can, the feeling never goes away."
I looked at Sam. He looked concerned too.
"But now-" the Rowlet's eyes grew wider as more tears seemed to want to flow. "Now, I'm- I'm gonna..."
"Woah, woah, whoa!! Nothing's gonna happen, okay?" I found myself saying. "You're gonna be fine and you're gonna find out why you always feel this way!"
He looked up at me with tear-stained eyes. "How?"
I hesitated. I didn't want to do this, I had enough on my mind! I still had to figure out how to get home! But I knew that this was the right thing to do.
"Because... we're gonna help you figure it out. We'll stick with you."
"Wha- really?!" Rou said with eyes wide.
"On one condition." I said, hoping I wouldn't regret this whole thing. "That you try not to get into any more trouble."
"Deal!" The Rowlet said happily. He snuggled up close to me. I looked over at Sam for him to give me an expression of 'I hope you know what you're doing' on his face. He then brought over the cushions and blankets so we could sleep.
As Sam drifted off to sleep and Rou cuddled next to me, I had a lot of thoughts. I basically now have my own team here! I guess I'm the leader? I've got Sam and Rou to worry about... I don't want to have all these sad feelings when I eventually go home. But at the same time, I'm happy to have these friends who I'm so close to. Having friends who are always with you and looking out for you is really nice.
How could someone curse their friends like Jake did? I don't know. But what I did know was that things would get harder tomorrow. What was going to happen with Rou? Would Sam and I be included in that punishment now? Would I ever get to the Rocket tunnel or see home again? Do people miss me? I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Gosh, this is gonna be a long night.