Disclaimer: I do not, have never, and most likely will never own Pokemon in any way shape or form. This story is just for the personal enjoyment of those that read it and does not, nor ever will, receive any monetary support. Thank you.
So as it turns out Vulpix and I had gotten quite lost while I ran away from Ninetales. The forest is a big place and I wasn't exactly paying attention to where I was running in my panic to get away. We ended up just wandering around for a while until Vulpix smelled something. Taking off like a rocket he began to run ahead of me, pushing his way through bushes and shrubs to get to whatever he had found. Realizing that I couldn't leave him alone, I found him being bullied by a bunch of Weedle for god's sake, who knew what kind of trouble he could get into. I began to follow after him
He ended up not being very hard to follow. In his rush to get to whatever he had smelled he left quite the trail of destruction. I passed plenty of crushed flowers and bushes with holes in them as I chased him down.
Fortunately Vulpix didn't wander into any Pidgeot's territory, although that would have been the cherry on top that to really complete my awful first day as a trainer. Vulpix had instead found a bush of wild Oran Berries. Seeing that he was just trying to eat the berries I decided now would be a good chance for us to rest. Sitting down I took another swig of water and looked up at the canopy of leaves above us. I suppose that I should just be glad that Vulpix hadn't found and tried to eat anything poisonous.
He ended up not being very hard to follow. In his rush to get to whatever he had smelled he left quite the trail of destruction. I passed plenty of crushed flowers and bushes with holes in them as I chased him down.
Gazing at the shifting leaves I felt my eyes droop. Was this really still my first day as a trainer? It seemed like far to much had happened for it to still be the same day. I chuckle to myself. What a way to start. Chased by as swarm of Beedrill then escorted to a Ninetales by her cub that I had saved. Only to have that same Ninetales beat me and my starter into the ground and force me to take the cub with us on our journey. I might have wanted adventure, but i'm not sure I ever expected so much of it on my first day.
The wind whistled through the leaves on the low hanging branches and an idea it hit me. Why didn't I climb a tree? That was what I should have done as soon as I realized we were lost. Climbing to the top of a large tree would surely help be get a better lay of the land then just wandering around. Turning to Vulpix i began to explain my idea to him.
Only to find his red fur stained Oran Berry blue. I guess while I had been relaxing he had helped himself to the wild berry patch. Feeling my gaze Vulpix turned and gave a yip of excitement as he rushed over to me and dropped an Oran Berry next to me. I guess he didn't get to eat those very often.
Feeling a smile make its way onto my lips I took my water bottle and began to use the water to wash to berry juice out of Vulpix's fur. This cub was just to cute. Even after everything that Rattata and I had gone thought with its' mother less than an hour ago I couldn't hold it against him.
Feeling the water on his fur as I tried to clean him Vulpix started wiggling and struggling to escape my clutches. Slipping out of my hands he shook himself, spraying water everywhere and soaking my shirt. He quirked his head and flattened his ears before retreating to another tree to clean himself.
Feeling my newly soaked shirt stick to me in the humid weather I decided that Vulpix was perhaps not as cute as I had initially thought.
Setting down my pack I walked over to Vulpix and slowly placed my hand on his forehead. Beginning to scratch behind his ears I apologized for covering him in water and explained that I was just trying to help clean him up as well as my idea to get back on the path. As I talked I could feel him nuzzle into my hand, lifting his head he gave my hand a playful nip.
With a smile back on my face I ran my fingers through his fur one more time and told Vulpix to stay by the pack while I climbed. Watching him run over to a nearby sun beam and lay down I couldn't help but feel like he understood me.
Turning my attention to the nearby trees I began to look for pokemon nests and hives, wouldn't want to get halfway up a tree only to be met with an angry parent. I think i'd had enough of those for today. Walking a few meters through the forest I found a solid looking tree with low hanging branches and no visible pokemon. Perfect.
Grabbing onto one of the trees' low hanging branches I pulled myself up and onto the limb. Looking for another branch I spotted one to my left and tried to move to it. Slowly I moved one of my legs to the branch, testing to see if it would hold. The branch swayed slowly under the weight of my leg. No good, i'd have to try another one. Moving my leg to another branch I found that this one would hold my weight and slowly moved onto it, then I found a limb above me that would hold my weight and pulled myself onto that one. Rinse, repeat. I had been climbing trees so long that I barely even noticed the rest of the climb.
It was the wind that made me realize how high I was. Turning my attention from the tree I was desperately clutching I looked out and gasped at the view.
Saffron City was clearly visible and the sun was glinting off the thousands of windows that adorned Silph Co. Tower. The light reflecting off the tower spread out and illuminated the dark clouds closing in, making them a light show of muted blues, greens, and greys. I'd never seen anything like it and I couldn't take my eyes off it. Because those clouds were coming in fast, it was going to rain soon and I still didn't have a tent yet.
Groaning at my continued bad luck I looked away from the clouds, although they were closing in they weren't the current problem. Scanning the forest canopy bellow I managed to find a break in the treeline, It looked like while Vulpix and I hadn't been walking on the path we were still headed in the same direction and, judging from the size of Saffron City in the distance, we couldn't be more that an hour away. Hopefully that would be enough to avoid the rain.
Quickly working my way down the tree I ran over to my pack and found Vulpix ,who had apparently fallen asleep beside it. I didn't have time to wake up Vulpix, poor thing must have been tired after everything it had done today, so after slinging on my travel pack I simply picked him up and began to run. With the rain clouds closing in we didn't have much time.
Racing through the woods I skidded onto the path and continued down it to Saffron City. I suppose I could have continued on towards Saffron from where I was in the woods, but I didn't want to take that chance. If I encountered any pokemon in the woods i'd be done for, with both Rattata and Weedle out of commision my only option left would have been Vulpix. That was an option I didn't even want to consider for another few years. So I continued down the path instead.
Being a farm boy I had a lot of stamina and had spent plenty of time running; now every ounce of that stamina was being slowly drained as I trudged towards the ever growing city. Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out, keep a steady pace, don't stop for anything. My blood was pounding in my ears and I continued forward, cradling the slowly waking Vulpix cub in my arms.
As I approached the city I could feel my stamina slipping away, my sweat staining the straps of my pack, now feeling as though it was a boulder strapped to my back instead travel supplies and Vulpix was feeling like a fully grown Ninetales as opposed the the baby that it was.
Crossing the entrance to the city I slowed down and almost collapsed into a Pokemart, desperate to find a place to rest and it being the nearest building that I would be allowed entrance too.
I gasped for breath on the ground of the Pokemart, right next to the door and Vulpix leapt out of my aching arms. Now fully awake Vulpix circled back to me, sniffing me and making small barks. Slowly regaining my breath I just sat there and watched Vulpix, listening to the pitter patter of rain as it began to fall. Giving one more bark Vulpix turned and ran off into the Pokemart. I closed my eyes and groaned, now I had to find Vulpix.
Resting for just a few more minutes I finally regained my breath and started to get up. Only to see Vulpix return with a young women in tow.
Dressed in a standard blue Pokemart Polo she carried an air of confidence around her and a towel in her hand, her name tag read Ellie. Walking up to me Vulpix gave a yip and circled me with a happy nuzzel. The girl on the other hand simply handed me the towel.
"Hey there Stranger" she said with a slight accent "Let's get you cleaned up."
I accepted the towel and began to wipe the grim off of me.
"Thank you," pitter patter, pitter patter " is there anything I can do to repay you?" I asked, a tired smile making its way onto my face.
"Anything you can do for me?" she laughs "You're the customer, shouldn't I be asking you that? Although, between you and me, it would be great if you would buy something. Today's been real boring and I want to sell something on my last day here." there's a smile on her face now.
"Last day here?" I ask, a thought forming in my head "Are you a Journey Trainer as well?"
"Yep! I've been a trainer for about 5 months now, started in Cerulean City with a Horsea, what about you?" she asks as we begin to walk through the Pokemart.
My smile grows wider as we talk "It's actually my first day, I don't even have my Trainer's Licence yet."
"You don't even have your Trainer's Licence? Wow, talk about a newbie." she says, the playful teasing in her tone evident. "How about this, I'll give you the discount the Trainer's Licence gets you on Pokemart stuff anyway; you seem like a good guy and it's not like they can punish me for it, I already got my last check."
Arriving at the counter she goes to the register and rings up a Pokeball for me. "Woah, hold on there a second I can't ask you for this this" I say, panic slipping into my voice as I hear what she says.
Pitter patter, pitter patter, pitter patter
"Ah come on, my treat to a new trainer." she ignores my panic "besides, it looks like you need it" she motions to Vulpix who had followed us to the counter and was now sniffing a battle item rack not far away.
"Well yeah but-"
"Perfect. Here's your pokeball, that'll be 200"
Pulling the money out of my wallet I wince. Mom and Dad had given me some money to start my journey and buy supplies but I was definitely going to be to work a job for a little while before I could really start traveling. I just didn't have that much money and items like tents, camping supplies, and food could really rack up quite the bill. Buying this pokeball was going to leave me with just a little more money than was required to pay for my Trainer's Licence, probably just enough to pay for a hotel room.
Sighing I handed the girl, Ellie the money and got my new pokeball.
I call Vulpix over with a shout and he jults up, startled and stops sniffing the potions on the shelf. He runs over to me and I crouch down. I show him my new pokeball and explain that if Vulpix wants to stay with me and the rest of my team he's going to have to travel around in on of these. As I run my fingers through his fur I watch as Vulpix examines the sphere in my hand. He sniffed it and stared intently at it for a minute. I'm reminded of his mother after she beat us. Finally Vulpix touches his nose to the button on the ball and pushes it in.
The pokeball's red laser shorts out and envelopes Vulpix. It covered him for a second before both the laser and Vulpix seem to go flat and shoot back into the ball. The ball rocked back and forth for a minute before letting out a small jingle.
I'm glad that Vulpix is officially registered as a caught pokemon now. Before anyone could have thrown a pokeball and caught him right out of my arms. It might have been less than a day since he joined me but I already felt attached to him.
Standing back up I turn to Ellie. "Thank you for your help, really, it was very kind of you."
Ellie playfully punches my arm "You can thank me by giving me a battle some time. I might be leaving in a few days, but it sounds like your going to get a job here for a little while if that wince was anything to go by. When you do finally get out of this town come find me and introduce yourself Stranger." she says all of this with another laugh, I get the feeling that she laughs quite a bit.
"Yeah, I'll see you then." I reach out and shake her hand. It's a promise, one day we'll see each other again.
Waving goodbye to her I clip Vulpix's pokeball to my belt and head back to the front of the store. I can see through the glass sliding doors that the rain has really picked up now. I'll have to book it to the Pokemon Center.
Dashing out into the rain I use my pack as a makeshift umbrella by leaning forward and sliding the pack up my back until it covered my head. I make my way towards the Pokemon Center only a few buildings away. They had to be close to the town or city exit incase of an emergency where a pokemon was hurt in the field and couldn't be put into stasis.
As I approach the bright red building the glass doors opened, automatic doors where a godsend. Walking inside I straighten up and slide my pack back down. I walk up to the counter and the Nurse Joy stretches and yawns before looking at me, must have been a long day for her to.
"I'm here to register for my Trainer's License."
She gives me a radiant smile. "Oh that's so nice, I rarely get to register any new Career Trainers, usually the Joy with the morning shift gets to handle all of them."
"I got a bit delayed on my way here, ran into some trouble along the way. Can you also take a look at my pokemon, they're all a bit exhausted from the trip here and my Rattata was hurt in a fight with a Ninetales."
Her eyes widen and she perks up.
"Of course, that sounds like quite the story. I'll get right on it while you finish your registration paperwork." she pulls out a small pile of papers and passes it to me.
"I suppose that if you're registering to be a Career Trainer you already know this but it's part of procedure for me to be sure. As a Career Trainer your are required to take on a pseudonym to prevent anyone from using your real name to gain access to your pokemon or personal information such as family and current location"
"Nurse Joy; It's fine" there's a hint of excitement in my voice, this was it, this was where I would remake myself from that farm boy into a Pokemon Trainer.
"I'm just making sure you know what name you want. You wouldn't believe the number of trainers that come in and chose a name like Bill or Joey." she says all of this with a huff, her hands on her hips as she laments trainers past.
"I'm sure Nurse Joy. I've thought about this for a long time" I say, unable to hide my excitement from her "You can call me Oscar."
Arc 1: We're not out of the woods yet. - Complete