~ Chapter 1 ~

"It is said that what is meant to be, is already done. But that does not relieve us from the doing.

That is true when I look back on my life. I never wanted to be a Pokémon Trainer.

I was content living with my grandmother, in Twinleaf Town, spending free time with my two friends, Jeremy and Lyss, and not having a care in the world.

Eventually I would have taken over the family business and started running the Pokémon Ranches throughout all the regions, spending a few months of the year at each Ranch. That would have been a great life, but it is not the life I chose, or moreover, it was not the life that fate chose for me.

Everything changed the day I met that Starly in the woods down by Lake Verity."

Sam walked through the woods in the early morning. No one else was up yet, and he preferred it that way. It was quiet, and he could think much better without the noise of people; and as much as he wished his friends could join him, he also revelled in the alone time of the morning walk.

Sam loved Sinnoh in the early spring, it was quiet and peaceful, and it was warm—except in the north, where it always snowed.

He walked down the dirt road towards Lake Verity; he loved to go there in the mornings, he could sit by the water's edge and think, not about anything, just think. Sam had done this ever since he was a child, when his grandfather used to take him there. It was his grandfather's thinking spot as well, and after he had died, Sam made it his.

Sam had never known his parents, nor had he ever asked about them, he grew up with his grandparents—who had always taken care of him and made sure he could get the best opportunities—and they were just like parents to him. They acted like it, and they treated him like their son, and Sam was content with that.

The only thing Sam ever knew about his parents was that his father had left his mother before Sam was born, and that his mother died in childbirth, beyond that Sam never bothered asking more.

He had had a good life in Twinleaf Town, what more could he need? He had two great friends, a good family, and he wasn't exactly poor—his aunts and uncles all owned a share in the family business, along with his grandmother and him.

Sam sighed as he lay down in the green grass by the lake, he looked out across the vast expanse of water, and could see—in the distance—a small island in the middle.

Legend foretold of a Pokémon that lived inside of that island, the guardian of the lake. Sam, nor anyone else for that matter, had ever seen it.

Sam smiled as he imagined himself, as a Pokémon Trainer, discovering the Pokémon of the lake. It would be great if he could, but Sam didn't want to become a Pokémon Trainer—or at least, he couldn't. He needed to stay behind, and take care of his grandmother, as she was getting older; someone needed to watch her. Sam couldn't leave to go on a journey, not as long as his grandmother was alive.

Sam stood up and looked down into the lake to see if he could see any Magikarp, but he couldn't see anything except his own reflection.

Sam was a 16-year-old boy, and he had medium length, dark brown hair, dark eyes. He was tall for his age, at 5'9" and was never seen without his typical wear. His usual fair was a pair of beige, cargo pants and a black jacket he'd inherited from his grandfather, emblazoned with an orange Dragonite on the left breast. His white t-shirt peaked out from the half-zippered jacket. On his hands was a pair of black, fingerless gloves that had once belonged to his grandfather.

As Sam sat back with a sigh, hoping—for once in his life—that something interesting would happen.

Suddenly, as if an answer to his prayers, a Starly shot out of the nearby trees.

The startled Pokémon, as he ran out to the water's edge. Sam stood up in surprise and the Starly ran behind him, as if hiding from something. Sam looked down at the Starly, it looked wounded and scared, but it still had some energy in it.

The Pokémon cowered behind Sam, and stared towards the bush, Sam followed the path of Starly's gaze, and found two yellow eyes staring him from the trees.

"Who are you?" Sam asked the disembodied eyes. "What do you want with this Starly?"

A soft purring emanated from the bush, and slowly and sleekly, out walked a Glameow. Sam didn't need someone to explain to him what was going on, it was the stray Glameow from Twinleaf, and it was trying to use the Starly as a morning snack.

"Keep away you!" cried Sam, hoping it would be scared off. But the Glameow was persistent and kept coming closer and closer. At this rate Sam would either need to battle the Glameow, or fight it off himself, neither of which he could do unless he used the Starly to fight.

But the Starly was an uncaught Pokémon. Sam didn't get it in a battle, he didn't catch it in a Poké Ball, and he wasn't even a trainer. Yet he had no choice, if this Starly was going to survive, it needed to fight, and Sam would have to teach it how.

"Starly." said Sam. The Starly looked up at Sam hopefully. "Do you think you could fight with me, just this once? I know I'm not your trainer, or any kind of trainer at that, but I want to help you. Can you do this for me?"

The Starly nodded and happily flapped its wings.

Sam smiled and the Starly jumped out in front of Sam, facing down the Glameow. Its wings were tucked in close. It looked like it wanted to fly but seemed to be in pain every time it moved them. Something had happened to its wings, and that's why it couldn't just fly away from Glameow. This put Sam at a disadvantage.

Sam was ready to call out an attack, and then he realized…he had no idea which attacks Starly knew.

"Um, what attacks do you know exactly?" asked Sam.

The Starly simply looked up at him with a slow chirp.

The Glameow took the opportunity to attack, and pounced, trying to launch a Scratch attack.

"Dodge Starly!" Sam shouted hurriedly.

The Starly dodged, but just barely, and Sam, with little time on his hands decided to shout out the first attack that came to mind.

"Starly try a Tackle attack!" he said. "Full force!"

The Starly chirped and flapped its wings, and flying close to the ground, threw itself into Glameow, who bounced back a bit from impact.

The Glameow stood up, angrier than before, and at a low growl it charged at Starly again.

"Dodge!" said Sam, but it was too late, the Glameow had hit Starly with a Feint Attack.

Starly flew back and bounced a bit before coming to a halt on the ground,

"Starly!" said Sam with worry. "Are you, all right?"

The Starly tried to stand up, but fell over, and the Glameow moved in for the finishing blow.

"No, you don't!" shouted a deep, but unknown voice.

Sam looked up to see a rather tall man, with snow-white hair and a snow-white beard and moustache. He had a Poké Ball in one hand, and beside him was a Luxio,

"Go Luxio! Use Spark on the Glameow!" said the man with certain gruffness to his voice.

The Electric Pokémon let loose a large electric shock from its body that hit the Glameow and sent it flying back towards the forest.

The Glameow got up, and with terror in its eyes and ran away into the woods once more.

Sam looked up in awe at the man in the long, brown trench coat. The man looked down at Sam with seriousness.

"Are you all right, boy?" he asked.

Sam quickly found his voice and nodded. "Yeah, I am," he said. "But the Starly—"

"The Starly will be fine. Take it home and care for it, and it will recover." said the white-haired man. "May I ask your name?"

"I—my name?" asked Sam. "Well, I'm Sam, Sam Accardi. I'm from Twinleaf Town and I—"

"I didn't ask for your life story." said the man. "Are you a Pokémon Trainer?"

Sam shook his head no.

The white-haired man looked at Sam in surprise. "You're not?" he asked, as if he expected any other answer. "Interesting…have you ever been in a Pokémon battle? Or owned a Pokémon before?"

Sam again shook his head. "Never. Not officially. My grandfather used to teach me with his Pokémon, but they never belonged to me, and they were just training fights. I'd win a few times though."

The man nodded. "I see. Your grandfather was Aurelio Giovinazzo then?"

Sam grew suspicious. "Yes, but how did you—?"

The man cut Sam off again. "We are old friends." replied the man. "He and I go way back. Now, you'd best get home and get that Starly looked after. But I would like to ask you a favour before you go."

"Anything. You helped save Starly and I." Sam said sincerely.

The man smiled a sly grin.

Sam hadn't known him long, but the smile still surprised him.

"Good, I was hoping you would say that." said the old man. "I would like you to come to my Pokémon Research Lab in Sandgem Town. I will arrange to have a Fearow from the National Fearow Transportation Service meet you this afternoon. I know where you live, no need to tell me. It will be there around three, is that all right?"

Sam didn't know what to say, but he supposed he might as well say yes. This was an adventure, and he could use a little action. Besides this man knew his grandfather, so he had to be trustworthy.

Not to mention he just saved Sam and Starly, and he was being rather nice about it—gruff as he was.

Sam nodded. "Yes, that's fine."

The white-haired man returned his Luxio to its Poké Ball. "Very well." he said. "I will see you then."

With that, the man left, leaving Sam alone with the injured Starly.

Sam instantly picked up the Starly in his arms and examined it. Its wings were injured and couldn't fly, and it was badly scraped up from the Feint Attack. Sam instantly began running back to Twinleaf Town.

Sam sat at his kitchen table; the Starly lay on a blanket, with a bandage around its wing. It was fast asleep, but perfectly fine.

Sam sipped a cup of coffee and watched the Starly sleep.

His grandmother had helped him clean and bandage the wounds, and she was now out in the garden trying to get some herbs to heal the Pokémon faster. Sam chose to stay inside and watch the Starly, and he was doing so quietly and attentively, when suddenly two people burst through the front door.

The two people were a boy and a girl, and both greeted Sam with a smile.

The boy was a few inches taller than Sam, with straight, messy black hair that hung down in front of his dark brown eyes. His skin was tan like Sam's and just like Sam he wore black, fingerless gloves. The boy had a red and white ball cap, a red vest with an upturned white collar and white short sleeves, a black t-shirt that he wore beneath the vest, and a pair of blue jeans with a black belt.

The girl on the other hand, wore a blue and yellow off-the-shoulder dress, that flared out at the waist and went down to just above her knees. Her skin tone was slightly darker than Sam's, and her eyes were full and bright green, and pierced through Sam like a spear that seemed to read his feelings. Her hair was thick and layered and a light brown colour. It went down to her lower back in wavy strands that rolled like the fields south of Twinleaf Town. Her side-swept banks came down and hung down in front of the left side of her face.

As the boy took off his white running shoes, and the girl took off her knee-high leather boots, Sam smiled and greeted them back.

"Hey, Lyss, Jeremy." he said. "What brings you guys around?"

The boy, Jeremy, laughed. "Since when do we need an invitation?"

"Exactly!" added Lyss. "We just figured we'd drop by and pay you a visit. Your grandmother said you were in here. She told us all about the Starly, is the poor thing all right?"

Sam pointed to the Starly as they all sat around the table. "See for yourself. It's sleeping, but it seems to be fine for now."

"That's good." Jeremy said. "You did the right thing taking care of it. Trying to battle with it so you could protect it was genius. Too bad you didn't win."

"Yeah." said Sam. He shrugged. "It would be great if I did, but the Starly was already injured beforehand. I'm glad it lasted as long as it did. Now I have an appointment with some white-haired man in Sandgem Town."

"Whoa, whoa." sputtered Jeremy. "Hold up, did you say white haired man from Sandgem?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, he was tall, somewhat rough around the edges." explained Sam. "And he wore a brown trench coat. Why?"

Jeremy beamed with excitement. "I think you might have just met Professor Rowan. He's a Pokémon Professor who gives Trainers their starter Pokémon when they go out on their adventures…I wonder why he wants to see you?"

Sam shrugged. "Who knows? All he did was stop the Glameow and then ask to meet me later today. The Fearow from the NFTS should be here in an hour to get me and bring me to Sandgem."

Alyssandra smiled widely. "What if he wants to give you a starter Pokémon so you can go out on your own Pokémon adventure?" she asked. "That would be amazing! I would love to have my own! I'm so jealous of you right now."

Sam laughed. "Yeah, well I'll have to turn him down then. I can't go out on a Pokémon adventure; my grandmother needs my help here. I need to watch out for her while she's alive."

Jeremy shook his head. "It's a shame." he lectured. "I think you'd be a great Trainer, and we'd love to travel with you. Hey, I know! Can we go with you to Sandgem Town?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Why? Don't you think it would be rude to show up with guests?"

Jeremy waved his hand. "Not if you explain that we were curious and wanted to meet Professor Rowan too." responded Jeremy. "Because that's part of the reason I want to go with you."

"What's the other reason?" asked Alyssandra, with her head resting on her hands. "To meet girls?"

Jeremy turned red. "No!" he replied almost too quickly. "No that's not it at all. I want to pick out a starter Pokémon. Not to go on a trip with, but I would like to have a Pokémon companion of my own. Barney, my Persian, is getting old and doesn't like to leave the house anymore. I can't be going out to Lake Verity with him anymore."

Alyssandra smiled. "Aww, he's a cutie. I love him. But I know what you mean. I want a starter Pokémon too. I'd love to have a cuddly little Pokémon to snuggle up with at night."

Sam sighed. "Jeez, Lyss. It's a Pokémon not a teddy bear."

Alyssandra stuck her tongue out at him and crossed her arms. "Well, regardless," she continued. "Jeremy and I are going with you, Jeremy go call the NFTS and have them send two more Fearow for us."

Sam scratched his forehead. "Nothing I say is going to stop you guys from coming, is it?" Sam stood up, drained his coffee mug, and placed it in the sink.

Jeremy and Alyssandra smiled. "Nope!" they said in unison.

Sam sighed. "Very well. Come along. Just be polite, all right? I don't want to seem like my friends are only there because they want something out of it."

Jeremy laughed as he started dialling. "But that is why we're coming."

Everyone started laughing, and the laughter echoed throughout the kitchen.

Sam stood up and walked over to the table by the stairs. "I'll get my keys and start preparing for the trip there." he explained. "I want you guys to be ready too when the Fearow come."