Chapter 14 – Counterbalanced
She couldn't remember a moment where Alex had looked happier.
In the single moment where Tauros sprinted past her, she could clearly see his delighted expression as he leaned forward on the back of his Pokémon.
Alex' hands were clawing into Tauros' manes, his legs held close to his Pokémon's sides and his body moving along with the bull's gallop.
With the wind going through his hair, and a grin on his face, he looked nothing like the skittish young man she had met behind Professor Juniper's lab.
In an almost scary speed, Tauros raced along Route 3, quickly disappearing out of sight as trainer and Pokémon followed the winding path.
Yena could still hear Tauros' hooves for a while, but eventually even that sound died away.
She looked down at Oshawott, who was happily following her, clearly enjoying the pleasant warmth of the sun.
As their eyes crossed, her Pokémon grinned. She smiled back at him, before turning her attention to Munna, hovering nearby.
The pink Pokémon hadn't left her side since they left Striaton City, but was acting almost as a compass, always looking in Alex' direction, even now that he was nowhere to be seen. Yena had a couple of theories about why Munna was so interested in Alex, and most of them involved Alex' intense nightmares.
"Munna… I have a question for you."
"Mu-Muuu…?"
"I want to try something…"
...
She heard Tauros and Alex before she saw them.
His hooves now treading on the ground much slower than before, Tauros came to a halt when he reached Yena.
Looking exhilarated, Alex let himself slide from the large Pokémon's back.
Scratching Tauros' coat as a reward, he grinned at Yena.
"I could do that for hours."
She smiled back at him, and handed over the black bag she'd been carrying for him.
"I would never dare to ride Tauros. He's lucky to have you as an owner, Alex."
"You think so?"
Alex looked flattered for a moment, before his expression changed.
"Oh, right. I saw Quinn ahead."
"You did?"
"Yeah, but he's no longer on the road itself.
He had to jump off to avoid Tauros' hooves."
Alex laughed when he saw Yena's expression.
"Oh, come on. I could've let Tauros hit the dude, but I didn't."
"Very gracious of you."
"I thought so, too."
...
With Zigzagoon and Oshawott playfully chasing eachother around their owners' feet, Alex and Yena reached two buildings standing on the side of the road.
As they approached, Quinn appeared from the smaller house on the right.
He waited for them to reach him, before he calmly stating at Alex:
"All of your Pokémon seem to be wild and dangerous.
It seems like those theories about Pokémon taking after their owners are legitimate."
Before Alex could respond to the insult, Yena frowned.
"Quinn…!"
Quinn's attention now went to the blond girl.
"Yena. I wanted to congratulate you on getting your first badge.
I wish I hadn't been so… distracted."
He glanced back at Alex, who was silently observing him at Yena's side.
Yena's reply was short.
"Thanks, Quinn. We'll be taking a break around here. Maybe you were just leaving?"
Quinn studied her face for a moment.
"I see. You want me to leave. You're still angry at me about yesterday, but not at Alex.
I hope that, if we meet again later, you'll know who you can really trust."
He gestured at the building behind him.
"This is the Pokémon Day Care, if you wanted to know.
I'm done with my business here."
Quinn's eyes snapped back at Alex when the messy-haired youth snorted, and mumbled something to himself.
"What did you say?"
Alex blinked innocently.
"Me? No, you wouldn't want to know.
I was taught that if I had nothing nice to say, I should not say anything at all.
So my opinion about you having someone else raise your Pokémon for you, does not really matter now."
Quinn's face turned red as he tried to suppress the urge to punch Alex again.
Yena stepped between them, grabbing Quinn's arm.
"I'm sorry, Quinn. I really wish the two of you got on better, but clearly that's not going to happen.
It's not good for any of us if we stay together. I'll be going to Castelia City with Alex, so maybe we can see eachother again there?"
Quinn sighed a couple of times, calming himself.
"Fine. Please stay in contact with Professor Juniper, so she knows you're okay.
I'll be doing the same, so I'll know when I can expect to see you in Castelia City. Take care."
Alex looked slightly triumphant as Quinn turned his back on them, walking along Route 3 with a steady pace.
Yena, on the other hand, looked quite upset. She breathed in shakily.
"I hate it when people fight."
...
"So which one do you think is Quinn's?"
They were leaning over the white fence around the Pokémon Day Care's yard, looking at the playing Pokémon, while they ate the sandwiches they had just prepared.
There was a wide variety of Pokémon species roaming around, carefully supervised by an elderly woman.
Yena studied the Pokémon.
"I have no idea. Probably one that can be caught around Nacrene City…
Do you know what kind of Pokémon he could've found there?"
"Hmmm… Maybe… a bug Pokémon from Pinwheel Forest?
I took the quickest route through there when I was on my way to Nuvema Town, so I didn't really pay attention, but I heard you can find all kinds of Pokémon there."
Interested, Yena leaned forward, trying to take a better look at the present Pokémon.
"Oh? Like which ones?"
Alex pointed out some Pokémon.
"Like that one, it's called Sewaddle. Or Petilil, right over there…
Or maybe he managed to catch a Venipede, I can see one under that bush on the left…"
The voice that suddenly sounded behind him, made them both jump.
"You seem to know a little bit about Pokémon, young one."
An old man with a friendly face was standing behind them.
He held up his hands as he laughed.
"Ho ho ho. I didn't mean to startle you."
Yena was quick to recover.
"That's okay, sir."
The man smiled.
"Isn't it great, looking at these Pokémon? I love doing that.
My wife and I take pride in taking the best of care for these creatures, raising them as if they were our own."
He turned his attention to Alex.
"Most people that pass through here, are still at the start of their journey."
He gestured at Zigzagoon, who was currently sticking his nose through a gap in the fence, sniffing at a Herdier on the other side.
"But you have an unusual Pokémon with you."
Yena could see how Alex grew suspicious.
"Why do you ask?"
The man was surprised by the hostile tone in Alex' voice.
"No worries, young man. I mean no harm. I was simply wondering if you're a collector of uncommon Pokémon.
Because if you are, I could have something really interesting for sale."
...
Yena's mouth fell open as they were led into the back of the Pokémon Day Care, and even Alex couldn't completely disguise his surprise.
Behind the main desk, there was a large room, with long shelves along the walls.
And most of them were filled with eggs, in all sizes.
The old man led them along the aisles, as he talked:
"When people leave their Pokémon at the Day Care, it sometimes happens that they lay an egg.
I often let the owner decide whether or not he wants to have the egg. Most Pokémon trainers will gladly accept one egg.
But what if their Pokémon has laid a complete nest of eggs?
In this scenario, most people choose to keep one, and let us take care of the rest."
With a wide sweep of his arm, he gestured at the shelves.
"And behold. We had so many eggs on our hands, and such large variety of them, that we started selling them to interested trainers."
He turned around to them, concentrating on Alex, more than Yena.
"Well…? What do you say?
Would you be interested in buying one of our eggs, and raising your own baby Pokémon from the very start?"
Alex, quite impressed with the number of eggs, took a moment to think it over.
Then he shook his head.
"No... Baby Pokémon… I don't have the patience for them.
They're fragile, and still need to learn the basics."
Yena had wandered on, studying the eggs with wide-open eyes.
She whispered, more to herself than the others:
"In every egg… There's a baby Pokémon…"
She looked back at the old man.
"What happens if an egg hatches, and no one has bought it?"
The man shrugged.
"Then we'll raise the Pokémon for a while, until it is strong enough to survive in the wild.
Then we'll release it. We like to think we give them a good and healthy start in life, and teach them to be friendly Pokémon."
There was an odd expression on Yena's face.
"Alex… I really want to raise a baby Pokémon."
"Really…?"
"Yes! Aren't you the one always telling me that I treat Oshawott like a baby?"
She hesitated.
"I think I could do it."
There was a short moment of silence.
"If someone can raise a friendly Pokémon, it'd be you, Yena."
"Thank you, Alex… That's a really nice thing to say."
Yena looked quite emotional, when she turned to the Day Care man.
"What does an egg cost, sir?"
The old man seemed pleased with the fact that he was going to sell an egg.
"That really depends, young lady. A common egg will have a low price.
And I have a couple of rare eggs, that will be on the expensive side.
How much money are you willing to spend?"
Yena opened her backpack, getting out her wallet.
"Let's see… I have just earned my first badge in Striaton City, along with 1680 Pokédollars, and I still had some spare money…
Altogether, I think I can spend around 1800 Pokédollars here."
The elderly man nodded.
"Very well. Then you can choose an egg from these shelves…"
He gestured at the nearest wall.
"The price range of these eggs is somewhere between 500 and 1500 Pokédollars.
I have some eggs that are around 1800 Pokédollars over here, if you insist on a Pokémon that is a little more uncommon."
With Alex at her side, and with a growing feeling of excitement, Yena looked at the eggs on the appointed shelves.
There were a lot of light brown ones, and Alex told her that they were probably Lillipup-eggs.
"You should really look at the more expensive eggs, Yena…"
He whispered as they walked past a row of purple eggs with yellow markings on them.
"You can catch a Purrloin almost anywhere in Unova… Look, over there…"
He pointed at some shelves against another wall.
"There are some strange-looking eggs over there…"
The eggs were unusual, to say the least.
They varied in shape, size and texture. Yena enjoyed running her finger along the eggs, sometimes giggling of excitement as she felt something move inside the shell.
Her eyes grew wide of amazement as she heard sounds coming from one of them.
"Alex, listen to this…"
But Alex was no longer standing at her side.
When she looked up, she could see him carefully placing his hand on a yellow and white egg.
As he noticed her watching him, he stepped aside, so she could feel it as well.
The surface of the egg was quite rough, almost as if it was covered by sand.
Yena could hear the excitement in his voice, as he told her:
"I think I know what Pokémon this is… But I've never actually seen one."
She smiled at her companion, happy about his enthusiasm.
"What would this egg cost, sir?"
She asked the elderly man standing behind them.
He had his answer ready.
"That one is above your budget, miss. It has a price of 3000 Pokédollars."
A moment of silence passed, as the duo looked back at the expensive egg.
Alex' hand was trailing the strange markings on top, when the Pokémon inside of it moved.
"I think…"
He started, pausing when the egg shook again.
"I think I should… help you buy this."
Yena blinked, completely surprised by the turn of events.
"Really, Alex…? Are you sure?"
"Yes. I still have my prize money from the gym as well, I could give you the 1200 Pokédollars that you're missing."
"You wanted to earn your own money so bad, Alex…"
"…I did. But I can spend it in any way I like, right?"
A beaming smile and a quick hug were his reward.
"Really, Alex? Oh, thank you!"
She ran her hand along the strange egg that was going to be hers.
"This will be fantastic."