I sit silently in the dark. I haven't slept all night, I've been too excited. Today is Wednesday, the day that the postal carrier is supposed to take us to the castle. Then I can finally ask the king what he thinks happened to the pokemon and I can finish this report.
I can hear Gold's snoring from the living room. He's extremely loud, but at least he's sleeping...
I glance over to my clock on the wall. It's 12 o'clock on the dot, so I have six more hours until Gold wakes up. Maybe I should go to sleep, this is supposed to be a long walk, I could use the rest… or, now that I think about it, could pack something that I would need. Gold always says that it is better to be safe than sorry, so I should probably do both.
I get up, empty everything from my shoulder bag, then I repack it with all the essentials before heading to bed.
"Gold, get up!" I yell into the aforementioned person's ear. Gold jumped and his breathing was strained.
He calmed down a bit when he noticed me. He let out a sigh before talking. "Black… I thought I told you not to do that…" Gold said, catching his breath. After a few moments of silence, Gold spoke again. "Ok, where's the fire?"
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't just go around waking people up for no reason." Gold stretched and stood up. "Please don't tell me you got me up for no reason. I was having a very good dream."
"Today is Wednesday." I told him simply.
Gold gave me a blank stare, then walked past me into the kitchen and got some milk. "I hope this doesn't become a daily thing with you." He replied shortly after.
"Today is a special Wednesday?"
"What are we going on a grand adventure?" I didn't answer and Gold sighed. "Dammit, me and my big mouth… So where are we going?"
"To the castle…?"
Gold straightened his back and stood silently for a moment. "Eh? Really, for that report thing, right?" I nodded. "I honestly forgot about that." Gold sighed and sat down. "So what's the plan?"
"Were supposed to meet the postal carrier in the square and he's taking us to the castle." I told Gold.
"Oh… Right, I forgot…" Gold sat quietly, slowly drinking his milk. "Is there anything we are going to need?" Gold asked, finishing his milk.
I simply shrugged.
Gold let out a sigh. "Alright… so are you sure how long this will take then?" I shrugged again. Gold slouched his shoulders. "Awesome, let's go meet this, as you say, 'postal carrier'"
"He should be standing in the square."
"Alright then, let's go."
Gold walks outside and onto the street and I follow him. Something seems a bit off about Gold. It could be he's just tired; Gold never really was a morning person…
We arrive in the square and Pringles, the postal carrier, comes to greet us.
"Ah, hello and good morning my privileged friends! How are you doing this morning, Gold, Black?"
"How do you know my name?" Gold asks, glowering and crossing his arms.
Pringles lowers his eyes. "I deliver your mail…" Gold uncrosses his arms. "Anyway, are you two ready to go?"
Gold slips his hand into his pocket. Satisfied with what he finds, he draws it out empty and nods. "Yep, we're ready."
"Alright then, let's go!" Pringles cheers, possibly waking up half the neighborhood if not more, and then starts walking to the edge of the city. "Well, have to leave out of the north gate, because, as you know, the castle is to the north of here. While we walk we can go over some simple rules of this trip,"
Gold and I both nod.
"Ok, One. Do not, I repeat do not eat anything without asking me first, ok?" I nod.
"So you're concerned that we're going to go into the woods and eat a random plant?" Pringles cringes at the remark, but Gold ignores it.
"Two, we only stop for necessary things. Water, sleep, food… you know those kinds of things. And, three… no going through my bag! There are many important letters and such in here!" Pringles says, holding his bag defensively.
"So…What's it like being a mailman?" Gold whispers.
Pringles takes a glance at Gold, judging his sincerity, but soon accepts it as true. "It's okay, fun living I guess, if you can take the low pay and long work days."
Gold just lets out a huff of breath.
"How's being a mentor?"
"Ok, mostly fun. Black is one of the better behaved children."
"Really?"
"Yeah, back at the training center, we call kids like him… well; we call them a few things, but that is beside the point. The point is that Black makes it very easy to take care of him." Gold pats me on the head and ruffles my hair.
"Oh, so Black is really easy to take care of?"
"Well, yeah. He doesn't give me any problems. He's not like the kids they teach us to work with at the center."
"Really, what are they like?" Pringles asks, kicking a rock.
"A really rowdy bunch; they liked to do all sorts of things you would never expect children to do." Gold paused. "Let's just say that they aren't very good examples of disciplined children…"
"So basically they didn't listen to anyone, and did whatever they wanted?" Gold nodded in response. "Huh." Pringles whispered.
Our little group fell silent, and we continued walking. Several hours passed and no words were spoken in-between us, when suddenly Pringles stopped walking.
He placed his hand over his eyes, trying to get a better view of something. "That wasn't here last time." He brought his arm back down to his side. "I think we should go check it out."
"Check what out?" Gold asked
Pringles pointed off to the side of the road. "You see that?" Gold turned in the direction Pringles was pointing, and shook his head. "That house through the trees?"
"Oh, I see it."
"I think we should go see who lives there."
"Do you know them?" Gold asked, glowering.
"No," Pringles said simply. "But I may have some mail for them."
"Then by all means, please do go check it out. Black and I will wait here."
Pringles eyed Gold carefully before taking off towards the house.
"Shouldn't we go with him?" I asked, my voice heavy from not using it. I quickly cleared it.
"Probably, then again, I think he knows what he's doing." Gold said without looking at me. He had his eyes trained on Pringles who was greeting a lady at the door. He was glaring now, but I couldn't tell why.
"HI!" We heard Pringles call out. "How are you doing today, miss?" They spoke for a minute and Pringles handed her a letter before running back.
"So you did have mail for her." It was more of a statement than a question.
Pringles nodded. "Great news," He spoke. "She runs an inn and says we can stay there."
"It's midday, shouldn't we keeping going?" Gold asked.
Pringles looked up at the sky. "Well, it is midday, but there's no reason to turn down a warm bed for the night," He brought his head down to look Gold in the eyes. "Is there?"
"Alright, we're following you. Well, stay at the inn."
A somewhat chapter, but none the less I hope you enjoyed!