Route 1 pretty much consisted of trees, grasses, and little ledges that I couldn't really seem to climb. Flare walked beside me and we took in the fresh air. (Flare would rather be walking next to me than in her pokeball) There was a rustling in a bush to our right, and Flare got into her battle stance. Would this be a kirlia? A dragonite? A girafferige?
Nope. Out popped a little creature that was brown and tan striped, with black rings around its eyes. Whatever this was, it was kinda cute… but I had no idea what the heck it was.
"ZigggggggZa!" it wailed, I swear I almost blew an eardrum. I pulled out my Pokedex and held it out towards the creature. Gosh it was so fluffy… I wanted to squish it.
"Aww, who's a cute little piece of dust?" I cooed.
"Zigzagoon, the small raccoon Pokemon, Zigzagoon are a pretty common species in Hoenn and love the forests. It walks in zigzag fashion. It is good at finding items in the grass and even in the ground. They are also like the bandits of Hoenn and they try to take anything you have, including this Poke-" At that moment, the Zigzagoon jumped up and hooked my Pokedex in its mouth. And then it ran; that raccoon was the fastest creature I had ever seen. Flare looked up at me; she was just as shocked as me. So Zigzagoons are bandits, huh? Well it looked like I was gonna be the cop then, and Flare was my bounty hunter.
"C'mon Bounty Hunter, we gotta go get my Pokedex!" I declared. Flare looked up at me, not moving. Her eyes looked… confused. "It's a figure of speech Flare!" And with that Flare and I raced after the Zigzagoon that had enough nerve to steal my Pokedex.
"Come back here you dustball!" I shouted. I could just see its little tail twitch into some other bushes. I almost tripped over the roots of the bush and stubbed my toe. I yelped out in pain, but kept running. Flare kept up faster with the Zigzagoon, and almost reached it before it made a sharp turn into some more bushes. Flare and I burst through at the same time, quick enough to watch as the Zigzagoon forked over my Pokedex to a boy who looked only about ten or eleven.
"Sherlock, whatcha bring this time?" the boy asked. To me he looked innocent, so far… "Woah, is this a Pokedex? This is awesome! I've always wanted one, you know Mom and Dad didn't have enough money to buy one." He giggled gleefully and it was only then he saw Flareon and me, covered in twigs and leaves, our hair and fur standing out on end.
"… Umm, can I help you?" The boy had a confused look on his face. I took a couple breaths after running for a good 5 minutes (you can tell I'm not in too good of shape) and gave the boy the best glare I could come up with. Flare joined in with me, and we must have looked pretty intimidating or something because the boy and zigzagoon both took a small step back, eyes a bit scared. The zigzagoon's ears and tail drooped. Served it right.
"Yeah," I shot out, "You can help me. That's my Pokedex your Zigzagoon stole from me. Thanks a lot, it's just what I wanted today." Okay maybe I could've been a little less sarcastic but I felt like every bug Pokemon in the area was now stuffed in my shirt. Flare gave a slight growl.
"What are you talking about? My Zigzagoon has the pick-up ability and it found this on the ground."
"You check the name in the Pokedex, Watson? Cuz Sherlock ain't doing too good of a job so far." I snarled. The boy paled, looked at his zigzagoon who cowered, and opened the Pokedex. He pressed the I.D. button.
"My name is Dexter, Pokedex 100221. I come from Professor Birch's lab. I belong to Arianna Hartlove from Little Root Town." A picture of me smiling sweetly popped up. The boy looked up at me trying to decide if I looked similar enough to the picture. I gave a sour smile. He sighed and walked towards me, holding out the Pokedex.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know Sherlock was gonna steal your Pokedex… Again, I'm so sorry, I'll get on his case right away." The boy whimpered. I frowned. Was this kid for real? Whatever. I took back my Pokedex, then Flare and I stalked off towards Oldale Town. "Just don't let this happen again." Sure, I may have been a bit harsh, but I was in no mood to be sidetracking. Plus he was a newbie… oh wait, I'm a newbie too.
We reached Oldale Town about an hour later. The reason we took so long was because along the way we battled wild Pokemon so Flare could get some extra experience. She was a bit tuckered out when we reached the Pokemon Center.
"Hi, how can I help you?" Nurse Joy asked. As she was talking her pink curls bounced up and down and she tilted her head to the side.
"I was just wondering if you could give Flare here a good check up. We've been battling wild Pokemon along the way." Nurse Joy nodded and I gave Flare and her pokeball to Joy. I sat on one of the pink couches near other trainers, but not close enough so they would try to put me in their conversation. I even stuck my head in my Pokedex for good measure. To be completely honest I was a bit nervous. I'd never seen so many trainers in one place. Of course I'd be saying that often because I've only really been in Little Root my whole life. So far only a couple spots had been filled in my Pokedex. I scrolled to the bottom. There were apparently 600 some Pokemon out there! Now that is a lot.
Unfortunately, my attempts to be ignored failed. Miserably. An older guy, maybe about seventeen, walked over from his center place on the couch and sat next to me. His green eyes slowly made his way over me, judging, whether or not his fluffy ginger hair would even speak to me. I narrowed my eyes. Newbie or not, I didn't deserved to be treated like this.
"What do you want?" I asked, wondering why he even came over here because he clearly had the best seat in the house with everyone crowding around him. Now everyone just stared us, wondering why the golden boy had suddenly come to a nobody like me. Their eyes widened even more when I asked my blunt question. I heard one girl near the center of his used-to-be spot whisper "Did she even know what she just said to him? Doesn't she know who he is?"
I snorted. I heard her gasp; looked like she knew she'd been caught. I turned back to Gingey. I frowned. He started a smirk, when Nurse Joy came to my rescue.
"Will the girl who owned the Flareon please pick her back up?" I stood quickly, but not too quickly, and made my way to the front desk.
"Thank you Nurse Joy… By the way, do you have any free rooms left?" I questioned.
"I'm afraid not," Nurse Joy frowned, "It seems a lot of kids started their training today so everything is booked. I know this isn't as nice, but if you like I can get you some pillows and blankets and you can sleep on one of the couches. Some kids are already staying down here for the night." I smiled and nodded. That sounded fine, as long as the Elitist patrol stayed out of my way. I was actually a bit scared of them. And that Ginger kid really threw me off. I retrieved Flare's pokeball and made my way to a couch farther away.
Then I realized I forgot to do something. I ran over to one of the video chat machines, and punched in the lab's number. I immediately got my dad. I held the phone to my ear.
"H-hello?" I heard his voice, a bit distant. Through the video part I saw the mess behind him. It seemed one of the Torchics got loose and was running around the lab. I saw the Professor prance around chasing after it. I cracked a smile as my dad turned to me.
"Ari! Ari! There you are! I've been worried sick all day!" he exclaimed. I checked the clock in the Center.
"Dad, I've only been gone like five hours," I deadpanned, "It's only about dinnertime. And it seems you guys have a situation."
"Ahh, yes, we do. But not to fear, we have it under control." I heard a vase smash on the floor. "At least I thought we had it under control." Dad corrected. I just rolled my eyes.
"Look, Dad, all you gotta do is calm down, stay quiet, relax, and slowly coax the Torchic to you, okay?" I gave a hard look for good measure. I turned around, noticing Nurse Joy calling for volunteers to help make dinner. "Okay, Dad I gotta go, it seems I'm needed by Nurse Joy… I'll call you as soon as I get to the next Pokemon Center." My dad gave me a thumbs up, a smile, and we both clicked the 'end call' button.
Helping make dinner wasn't too bad. The chanseys were there to help and everything went smoothly. I spent the time helping a newbie girl named Sara cut vegetables. We exchanged stories about our first day out on our journeys. It seems she had just left a city called Petalburg a few hours ago too. She explained city life was too busy for her and she just wanted to be with her Clafairy named Rosaline. I told her about my Pokedex mishap and she almost cut herself with the knife in her hand from laughing so hard.
By the time the spaghetti and meatballs, vegetables, and bread were all done, we had swapped pretty much our whole life stories. Sara found it fascinating that I lived next-door to Professor Birch. She said he was one of the most famous Pokemonologists. But unrelated to that topic, she said, upon me asking, she was already in a filled room, sharing it with 3 other people (I was a bit disappointed). But the whole time we were eating dinner and talking, I could feel the penetrating gaze from the ginger haired, green eyed boy.