Chapter Three

Retrieval

A light kiss of something sweet tickled my nose first. I could almost see the wispy trail its scent left in the air, growing thicker up the path. I ran ahead of the other pokémon and the humans, ignoring their shocked calls for Sally to come back. I didn't care if they ran into more wildlings. The dull thing could battle them herself. Use her own gawky body to hurt them.

A rich undertone joined the lovely smell caressing my nose. No doubt it was the mouthwatering scent of earth, but with a saltiness joining it I had never experienced before. I pushed on harder. More notes joined the melodic trail. Peaks of citrus rested on my lips, competing with a spiced musk. I thought my head was in danger of exploding until I finally scampered past all the wilderness and onto grass tamed by humans.

Large bushy trees surrounded the human colony. I'd never seen any such as those before and, while they did catch my attention with their heights far above the roofs, they couldn't hold onto it for long. All the box buildings were flanked by fenced in flowers. I ran to the closest one and buried my face into the thick clusters of soft petals. They were so much more impressive than the plants I'd grown up around. They needn't concentrate on having rough survivor bodies. They weren't topped with an afterthought bud smaller than my paw and with more seeds than petals. These flowers were short, all sharing the sun and nutrients. Vibrant colors invaded my eyes nearly as much as all the empowering smells. I carefully wedged my front two paws into the patch of beauty. They easily squished down into the dark soil. It was softer than I thought could be possible. I thought about dipping my head down and stealing a quick taste of it, but was interrupted by a raggedy voice.

"Sally! You cannot take off like that!" I looked behind me and saw my trainer standing, paws clenched and shaking at her sides. She was louder than I thought she had the capacity for, face red. No longer was she hunkered down by her timid bug nature. "You're an untrained pokémon; you could have hurt somebody!"

My body betrayed me and began to quiver. I pulled myself away from the flowers and lowered down as close to the cut grass as I could.

Ivy and the male broke into the town and quickly caught up to her. Ivy stepped to her side and joined her in glaring down at me. The third human stopped a few feet behind them, bending over slightly and breathing with his mouth wide open. The marill and totodile were tucked between his sides and arms. "I know Professor Elm is all about letting pokémon walk beside their trainers, but ones like that ruin it for me," Ivy stated.

My trainer went from standing tall back into a slouch. "Sorry," she muttered. "I didn't know she'd run off."

"Did you," the male gasped. "Did you just call your dad Professor Elm?"

"I've decided that I will be calling him by name while on the road. Out here I'm a trainer like everyone else. I don't want anyone thinking that I have a leg up just because my father is a top researcher."

His eyes were watering slightly. He wheezed, "that's cool," and waited a few beats to say anything else. Eventually he stood up straight and spoke with the light attitude he'd been carrying. "As for Sally, I think she probably just got excited. Don't worry too much about it, Penn. She wouldn't hurt anyone." He flashed a smile at me, but it didn't make me want to separate from the ground.

My trainer's outburst at me ruined the rest of our visit in Cherrygrove. Not that they took much time to enjoy the wonderful place. Mostly they visited a building with a red roof, talking to a woman behind a large desk. Other pokémon were inside, some resting on the rows of chairs, others trotting behind their humans, but I waited at the doors with Totodile. There was a scent that burned my nose inside and the walls were too unnaturally bright, like at the lab. They weren't going to let us be alone, but the male convinced the females.

"What are they even doing in there?" I grumbled. I could see them through the glass doors. Every time I moved too close to get a better view, the doors would slide apart and startle me. "That's a female in there. Elm told them to get an egg from an old male."

Totodile, sitting with its back legs out in front, tilted his head and then continued to pull up single blades of grass.

"Maybe I should go look. Then I could tell you what's happening."

He didn't even look at me that time.

The slick floor was colder than the lab's. I hated the cold. Made my leaf wilt to the side. It flopped in and out of my field of vision while I stalked to the familiar humans. My trainer dug around in her front pants pockets while the other two were talking to the female behind the counter. "Alright now," she said in a pleasant tone. "I've registered the two of you as active trainers, so you won't be charged for any simple heals that can be completed here at the front desk." She motion to a large machine hulking behind her. There were six round pits behind glass on the otherwise uninteresting front. Off to the side of it were some buttons and one of those big stick things that humans pulled down. "Any more serious injuries—fractured bones, internal bleeding, infections—that will require the attention of a doctor have charges." Her cheerful tone grew dark for a moment. "But I will advise you not to let any battle get to that point."

"Of course not!" the male said. Ivy just flicked her eyes upwards and took a small rectangle of plastic that the worker handed her.

The female behind the counter smiled brightly and returned herself to pleasantness. "Well then, once you find your license I can get you all set up as well."

"Yeah," my trainer said quietly. Her face started to get red again, though I felt that it was for different reasons. "I've, um, got it somewhere."

"Check your jacket," the male helped. "You always lose stuff there."

She patted a pocket on her chest with one of her grasping paws. Cheeks getting brighter, she then pulled out a rectangle like the one Ivy had been given. I had stopped a couple of feet behind her, but I could still make out an image of a human on it.

"Penn, that thing is ancient! You haven't renewed your card at all?"

"I didn't think I had to." She handed it to the worker, keeping her gaze averted from everything but the floor.

"You don't have to," Ivy said. "But it'd be more helpful if there wasn't a picture of you from when you were ten on it. Rangers might not accept it."

"Oh."

"Don't worry about it," the happy-but-sometimes-scary woman said while sliding the card up and down on a machine. "The academy over in Violet city can set you with an updated license. Only takes a day or two, if I recall correctly."

Cyndaquil, who'd been sitting against Ivy's heeled boot, noticed me. He smirked and then stood up on his back legs, pawing at her legs. Ivy looked down and in a stern tone ordered, "down!"

When they finally left the building, we went straight to traveling north. We walked in mostly silence as we kept to Ivy's brisk pace. Passing by a lone house, I noticed a little tree by its door. Strange round fruit were growing on it. I wanted to investigate, but remembered my trainer's sudden volume. I kept to her heels.

The path was littered with small humans like the ones I'd seen run past the fence. Not like the ones I was following. Some had pokémon with them, mostly rattata and ledyba. Others were grouped around those ones, admiring their companions. Our humans never stopped to talk to any of them. They didn't even give the others a second look when passing by. A particularly short human with a hat barely rounder than its head stopped and pointed at us. "Look guys, those are the starters Elm gives! They must be really good." He started waddling in our direction and my trainer quietly growled for me to stay close to her. "They're really neat! Wanna battle?" His question was answered with a lack of response.

The day had been filled with unusual smells and the old man's house was no different. His was suffocating, dusted over windows begged to be opened. Our trainers had been escorted to a couch, while us pokémon were set down onto a patch of soft ground. The purple square pattern on it competed with several splotches of odd browns and oranges that I didn't think belonged. "Look at all his books! There's probably something about my family in one of them," Cyndaquil said to me, raising a paw at the boxes scattered over the floor. They were overflowing with books, bindings of the humans' silent language. The fire pokémon leaned forward, pushing his neck as far as it would go. It was obvious that he wanted to dig through them all, probably to prove that he really was from a line of important cyndaquil, but he didn't dare to leave the soft ground covering we'd been put upon.

"Can you tell what those funny lines mean?" I asked him, simply for something to do. The old man had gone into another room to retrieve the egg.

He didn't answer me at first. Finally, much quieter than he normally was, he said, "No. Sometimes the books have pictures though. I'd be able to recognize my great-uncle or anyone else from my family line."

We didn't say anything more.

Time moved slowly as the elderly human came back. The egg nearly outsized his bent body and I was afraid it would snap his twig arms. I felt bad for it, not being in a nest surrounded by others that would become its friends and families. My brother or sister had probably already hatched. Mother would have moved on, being smart enough to not dwell on things she could not fix. I hoped that she at least knew I had been brave to leave.

The humans talked for too long with the old male. He sat like a rock in a chair by himself, patiently telling story after story, while the three on the couch squirmed. His words bored me worse than Elm's. At least his face was fascinating. Rivers of wrinkles danced together in his skin, syncing their moves as his mouth flapped about.

When he'd finally said enough words to be happy, we were greeted by an electrifying sun as it started its descent for the day. The old male gave the egg to the young male, then weakly waved and hobbled back inside his home. The loud slam of the door shutting made me jump.

"What a waste of time!" Ivy said while stretching. "I thought he'd never shut up."

"He does have a lot of stories," the young male agreed.

"What a pain," she muttered. The tangy colors of the sky made her hair look like Cyndaquil's back. "You guys can take that thing back to the lab; I'm just going to head to Violet City now."

In her signature mumble, my trainer asked, "What?"

"There's no way I'll be able to keep my appointment at the gym tomorrow if I have to go all the way back home. I've gotta get there tonight."

"That's cool, I don't really mind starting a day behind," the male replied with his dopey smile. He shifted the egg around in his arms and took a step towards Ivy, making sure to carefully navigate around his water pokémon. "I'll stay in town with Penn tonight and then I can just meet you at the spot."

"What spot?"

Ivy flashed her teeth at him, eyes making a single flick towards my trainer. "That sounds great, Em." She crossed to the male and put her paws on his shoulders, making him readjust the egg again. In a coordinated motion, she stretched up and put her mouth onto his. A squeaky noise came from their pressed lips, making me feel strange for watching intently. I had yet to encounter this human custom. From the shamed turn away my trainer did, I assumed it had to do with mating. That or fighting. They didn't glare when they pulled back though. Their eyes had a glaze if anything.

"I'll miss ya," the male said quietly to Ivy, although all of us could hear it.

"Just don't take too long. If I don't see you after I get my badge, I can always head back and meet you."

Ivy turned around once more after she and Cyndaquil began to march away. "See you soon, Penelope," she called, only turning her head back. "Take good care of Emmett for me." My trainer bit on her lip and nodded. She tightened one of her paws again, like she had when she yelled at me.