Chapter 3: New…Everything
Hello again everyone, and happy holidays to everyone. Hope you all had a nice Christmas and New Years. Though I haven't gotten loads of reviews, I know that somebody has to be reading this, so I've decided to try and continue. Its not easy, so any ideas, comments, or healthy critisism is greatly appreciated. A lot of new characters are going to appear in this chapter, so bear with me and enjoy the third installment of When The Road Is Home.
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I ended up stumbling around in the darkness of early morning for quite some time, since my sense of direction was horribly lax. After some thought, I discovered that I had never really developed one, since I had never been outside the orphanage save for a few occasions, and even those were very few and very far between. So, when Whiteoak Town finally came into view, I was in a slightly worse state then I had been when I left the orphanage.
As I stood at the edge of the forest, overlooking the small town before me, I took a moment to wonder. Did anyone besides Catherine know that I was gone yet? And if they did, did they even care? After a few moments in that train of thought I decided that I didn't care either way; I had already said goodbye to the only person that mattered, and promptly let the subject drop as I headed down the hillside and into town.
Whiteoak Town was small, and most of its citizens made their living by farming. Everything important to a trainer in Whiteoak (the PokeMart, Pokemon Center, and restaurants)was just off the main road, and everyone would tell you so if you asked for directions. I had the feeling, from the second that I walked into town, that it was an 'everybody knows everybody' kind of place. So I found the towns Pokemon expert, Professor Rosewood according a local woman I had asked, and her house with ease.
The house itself resembled a log cabin, only ten times bigger then any log cabin I had ever seen; so it was more of a log mansion. I took some time to admire it before walking up the steps and on to the wrap-around porch and knocking on the door. An elderly women opening it, squinted at me for a few moments before putting on her glasses, which hung from a gold chain around her neck.
" Oh, hello dear. Are you here to see Mrs. Rosewood?" she asked, then showed me into the house at my nod.
The inside of the house had the log-cabin feel to it as well, but, just like the outside, only ten times bigger. Directly through the door there was the living room to the left, a fire place, currently lit, against the wall of that room, and a staircase and what looked like a study to the right. Further in I spied the kitchen, dining room and den. Everything was either wall to wall carpeting or hard wood, and I guessed from the look of the place that Professor Rosewood did very well for herself.
" Ah, I thought I heard someone come in. You're a trainer aren't you? Well then, I guess you're looking for a pokemon." Said a women as she caught sight of me, walking out of the kitchen.
She was a tall women with a kind face, large green eyes behind her glasses and long dark hair. She wore the 'uniform' of all pokemon experts, a white lab coat over a pair of khaki pants, a red shirt and a pair of sensible brown shoes. I gave her my name and she gave me hers, identifying herself as Professor Rosewood, as she led me through a door and up some stairs into her lab.
Her lab was one large room with wall to wall white tile flooring. It smelled very much of a doctors office, and felt like one to, though was filled with a lot more gadgets and machines that any doctors office could every have. In the middle of the room was a stand with places for 6 pokeballs arranged in a circle. Though only one space was occupied with a pokeball.
" All of the other trainers came by a few days ago, so it seems you're a bit late. Though I still have this one left, but he's a bit odd." Professor Rosewood said, picking up the only pokeball left.
" What do you mean 'odd'?" I asked, wondering what sort of oddity this pokemon had that caused no one to picked this pokemon as there own.
" I guess it's better to show you." She said, pressing the button on the front of the pokeball to enlarge it and released the pokemon.
A bright flash of light erupted from the open ball and came to rest on the floor, slowly taking form and fading away. The light revealed a small, brown, fox-like creature with long ears and a large, fluffy tail. The creature itself was very small, about the size of a large rabbit, with large blue eyes. Though the color of its eyes wasn't the thing that surprised me. With the pokemon out in the open, I could see what the professor had meant by it being odd. Normal Eevees had a large white ring of fur around their necks, and the tips of their tails were white as well. But instead of white, this Eevees fur-ring and tail-tip were both pure silver. It shook the stiffness out of itself, from nose to tail, before looking all the way up at me with those big eyes, seeming curious about who I was.
" That's what I meant when I said it was odd. I've never seen those colorings on an Eevee before. I guess all the trainers thought It was bad luck to start off with an 'odd' pokemon." The professor explained, looking down at the little pokemon with a puzzled expression, "It's in perfect health, it's just its markings that catch people off-guard."
"I'll take it." I said without a second thought, picking the Eevee up to get a closer look at him.
The main reason that I didn't bother to think about it more was simply because there was no other pokemon left, so Eevee was the only choice I had. If I didn't take that Eevee then and there, then I probably would never get another pokemon. Plus, what's a little weird markings when you though about it? I figured that it made the little guy unique.
"Are you sure?" the professor asked, wanting to make sure that I wasn't just eager to make a decision and had jumped the gun.
" Yeah, I'm sure." I said, "Besides, you said that it's in perfect health, so there's nothing really wrong with it."
So, a few minutes later, I emerged from Professor Rosewood's house, new Eevee in hand. There was just one problem with the happy little picture, Eevee seemed so grateful that I had chosen it as my pokemon that I wouldn't stop trying to thank me for it, in its own special way.
First it walked along beside me, staring, seemingly unblinking, up at me with gratitude, and that in itself was annoyed. Then, after I chose to ignore its stares it assumed that I didn't see it, so it began trying to get my attention by bumping its head into my leg a few times a minute, effectively making me slowly drift to the left as I walked, trying to get away from it. Then, after I had bumped into several trees along the path away from Professor Rosewoods house and stubbed my toe on a rock because of it's pestering, Eevee started making the noise, figuring that I couldn't possibly be deaf as well as blind.
After a time, I figured out that Eevee made this noise when it wanted to get my immediate attention, but I hadn't figured that out yet. The noise was a sort of high-pitched squeak, made once every few seconds. After only about two minutes of this, as we were walking down the path away from the professors house, I was at my breaking point. I crouched down right in the middle of the path so I was closer to the pokemon and pointed at it, to make sure it knew who I was talking to.
"Look, Silver," I said, the Eevee cocking its head to the side at the nickname I had come up with for it, " I know you're thankful, you don't have to remind me of it every five seconds!"
Silver, totally ignoring the fact that I was extremely annoyed with it, rubbed its head against my finger, making purring noises as it did. My anger effectively dissolved, which I was sure was it's plan all along, I stood and sighed. I just couldn't stay angry with the little guy (though I had been told at the lab that this Eevee particular was infact female). I continued down the path, back to town, my new little friend trotting along beside me.
Once back in town, both Silver and I took the time I hadn't before to look around. Silver seemed especially fascinated and I guessed that, like me, as far as she remembered she hadn't ever been outside Professor Rosewood's yard. I suppose it was bound to happen, since I wasn't watching where I was going, and I bumped into someone, hard. Or they bumped into me, since they were running. In any case, it left me flat on my backside on the ground, wondering what had happened. Before I could figure it out someone grabbed my wrist.
" Come on. If you don't hurry up they'll catch you too." The persons voice said, pulling me to my feet and dragging me behind him. Only now could I see that this person was a boy. I could tell he was older then me just from his height, but I guessed it wasn't by much. As be yanked me into an alley and against the wall behind him, I noticed that his hair was short and the color of blood, a deep red. He watched as several people, police in fact, ran past the alley ( I assumed they had been chasing him), keeping quiet and still. Once he was sure they were gone he turned to me, his skin pale and his eyes were a pale green.
" Wait a minute…" I said, finally having enough time to put 2 and 2 together, " You're a criminal! And you dragged me into this!"
" Yes, I did." He said with the tone that he was surprised I didn't realize it earlier.
Meanwhile, I was surprised that he didn't deny it.
" Why?" I asked, seeing now that his reason for it before was completely unfounded, since I wasn't the one under arrest.
He seemed puzzled then, more with himself then with me, and he took a moment to think.
" Because I felt I had to" He said in a defensive way, since we both knew his answer was very vague and not the least bit helpful.
Now I was confused and doubting his sanity. What kind of person 'just feels' that they need to involve and innocent person in a crime? And what kind of person actually does it? I glanced back as Eevee pulled herself up onto my shoulder, having hung on to the bottom of my shirt during our sprint.
" Look," he said, taking me silence for anger "I'm sorry I dragged you into this, but you can't tell anyone you saw me. Here, I'll give you this is you keep quiet."
He'd reached into his pack while he spoke and pulled out a glass ball, the size of an orange. The only problem was, this glass ball seemed to be filled with flames. Yet, when he handed it over for me to examine, the glass itself was cool as the fire twisted and twirled inside it. The ball itself glowed with light that didn't seem to come from the fire, and it suddenly made me think of my dream, the reason why I was in the city with Silver in the first place. I had a small epiphany then; this glass ball was one of those crystals that the voice has talked about, the ones that could save the world. But I wasn't sure if this boy knew that.
" Yeah, I'll keep quiet. Thanks." I said, putting the Crystal safely into my pack, carefully to keep my tone void of the shock I felt at literally being handed one of the Crystals, by a crook no less!
He nodded and was about to turn and walk away, but he stopped just before he hit the mouth of the alley and turned his head back towards me, looking over his shoulder.
" My names Ace. I figure I can tell you since you promised not to say anything." He said, his face turning serious, "And just so you know, I'm not a criminal because I want to be."
With that he left the alley, disappearing into the crowd and walking away, no hint that he was the criminal running from the law he just said he was. Just before he left I saw him shake his head, muttering something about how he himself didn't understand why he'd told me all of what he'd told me. And, to tell the truth, neither did I.
I stayed in the alley however, a but surprised by what had just happened, and very curious about this Ace guy, wondering what he meant by his parting words and weither of not he was indeed sane. I thought, at that time, that I'd never get the chance to ask him. I was wrong.