Some place new!
Fletcher kept moving. No use in just staying in the mountains. A giant roar echoed around the mountains and I froze. I waited and waited for the echoes to stop and looked back. Maybe that was my mother. Maybe she realized I was gone and was angry. Maybe I shouldn't have left…
I pondered on whether or not to go back. If I went back now she might forgive me. Though I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. So, shrugging, I walked away.
With this thought a smile broke over my face. I was finally free! I could finally breathe and walk and maybe even run! There was nothing I couldn't do!
Then a feeling swelled up in my chest and seemed to burst out of my chest. It tickled my throat and brought tears to my eyes! What a joyous feeling! I couldn't help but seem to cry with this amazing feeling. Eventually, I had to stop this feeling because my sides and chest seem to hurt from it. Though my smile seemed to be plastered to my face.
With this feeling inside me I walked on.
Eventually I began to realize the mountains were getting smaller, more like rocky hills now, and there seemed to be weird looking green stalks rising from the earth. I paused to examine these small stalks. They seemed to tickle my feet a little and I smiled. Plucking one out of the earth I studied it. It was quite thin and looked rather… feeble. I tore it from top to bottom and it split easily. I smiled and studied it again. The center looked just like the outside of it. I didn't know what to call it but it looked easy on the eyes. Better than the dull, rocky mountains.
I then heard a sound. I froze and looked around, crouching low to the ground. I dimmed my tail fire and slowly approached the sound. The air seemed to be filled with this sound. It wasn't a bad sound, not really. More like a gentle swaying sound.
As I got closer to the sound, I noticed that there were the giant… things growing out of the earth. I didn't know what they were for I had never seen them in the mountains before. They had long, vertical looking brown shafts I guess. And one top there were these weirdly shaped stalks on them. They looked a little similar to the ones on the ground but shaped just a bit differently.
Also, surrounding the giant things was smaller…things. The smaller vertical brown shafts had the stalks scattered around them and had… berries! I knew what berries were because mother always seemed to be able to find them in the mountains. We had them with our breakfast.
Thinking back on breakfast reminded me that I never knew where the food came from. I never saw my mother leave our cave so where did all the food come from?
Moving closer to the calm, swaying sound I got more apprehensive. I didn't know what I was going to find but I hoped it wasn't anything bad.
Taking a deep breath, I went around the small vertical shaft and saw… a river!
Finally! I found some water! I rushed over to the river and gulped some water down. I hadn't had anything to drink since before dinner. My mother wouldn't let me approach the small little river in our cave unless she was there with me. She said she didn't want me to spoil the only water source we had. I smiled and looked up. My smile vanished immediately.
Right across the river there was another being. The other being looked about as tall as me and had a round shaped head. It had something that looked similar to a bowl attached to its back and a tail poking out of the bowl.
Not only that, but it looked shocked to see me too.
We stared at each other for quite some time. Finally, it spoke to me.
"Uh, hi."
I blinked in surprise. Then I ran. I had no idea what it was and the fact that it could speak terrified me. My mother told me that we were the only things on the earth that could speak. How wrong she was!
"Wait! Don't run!" I heard the thing yell to me. There was no way I was going to stop running.
At least, that's what I thought. As soon as I ran past the big vertical shaft I heard a whooshing sound and then I was pulled right into the air!
I felt a scream push past my lips as I fought to free myself.
The thing came running up to me, breathing hard.
"Whoa! Can you run fast!" it said with a smile. Then it look at me as I stared at it in terror. "Who are you?"
Finally, realizing that I couldn't get myself down I sighed. Gathering all my courage I said, "My name is Fletcher…"
It pondered over this. Then it said, "Are you a charmander?"
I looked at it in confusion. "How do you know that?" I asked it.
It laughed at me and said, "Well, you look like a charmander. So that's how I knew!"
I stared at it. "What was that noise you just made?"
It looked at me in confusion. "What? You mean my laugh?"
I looked down at the earth. "A laugh huh…is that what that noise is called?"
"You don't know what a laugh is?" it asked me in shock. I just shook my head.
"Well, I guess for starters I can let you down from there," the thing said to me. I smiled. It walked over to a small vertical shaft and pulled at something in it.
With a yelp, I fell to the earth. When I hit the earth, all the air seemed to flee my body and I lay there gasping for my breath.
"You okay?" it asked me as it held out its hand to me. I stared at the hand in confusion and pushed myself up. "Or not, whatever." It said with a smile.
"What?" I asked in as I brushed the dirt off my back.
"Well, I was trying to offer you a helping hand to get up."
"Oh, was that why you held your hand out to me?" I asked it.
"Do you not know anything?" it asked me once again in shock. Then I shook my head.
"What are you called?" I asked it.
"I'm a squirtle!" it said, "and you can call me Daimon." Daimon was smiling at me as he held his hand out to me.
I just stared at his hand and then smiled back.
He grunted a little and said, "you shake the hand."
"Oh." I said, feeling foolish. I took his hand and shook it. Then I asked, "Why do we… shake hands?"
He laughed and said, "it just means 'nice to meet you'. It also means that I want to be friends!"
"Friends?" I ask while tilting my head. I had never heard the phrase before.
With a sigh Daimon shook his head. "You got a to learn pal. Want to hang out with me for a while?"
I paused and looked back the way I came. No use in turning back now. I had made it this far already it would be pointless to turn back now. Smiling I looked at him and said, "Yeah sure. Sounds like a plan."