We had made it into Pewter City and, after that, the Pokémon centre, where we'd done our best to make the ick from the forest go away.

Due to my mum presuming a bit too much about what I already knew, I wasn't aware what the town was called before I reached a sign that said "Pweter City Ahead!" in large and somehow very irritating letters*.

Another thing I wish she'd told me, was that Viridian Forest would ruin a complete set of clothes. I had bathed and showered and scrubbed, but there were still patches of goo ingrained - very much ingrained - in my locks, and there was dirt between my toes and under my fingernails that wouldn't let go. I'd brushed for half an hour, but there was still a distressing scent hanging around.

Jolene had undergone the same treatment, but it still had a layer of grime covering its skin. Meanwhile, Beedrill had been put into a sickbed and had been bandaged a lot. While it was being repaired, it was stung with a needle by the hands of a nurse who thought it was having trouble with going to the bathroom, so it was currently locked up by the toilet in dread expectation. Occasional bangs came out, and I hoped they had nothing to do with its digestion.

We'd borrowed a tiny room in the Pokémon centre for the night, all five of us. Probably, we would have to borrow another bathroom as well. But still, except Caldera, we were spread out across various items of furniture in the bed section.

Mr. Squeak was less so than the rest of us, having instead made an attempt to be as unspread as it could. It was lying in my lap where I sat on the bed, watching Jolene testing out the springs on the foot end. And the Pidgey...

Naming it had been difficult. I owned a dictionary, and had managed to get it into my backpack as I left home. Words had been one of my interests ever since I saw some strange man with good hair on the telly say 'intricate'. I was five at the time, and had gone on to say 'intercats' so much that Mum'd tried to pull out her own hair.

So I'd wanted to give the Pidgey a long and hard-to-say name, perhaps to blunt the effect of its eyes, but for some reason 'obstreperous' was not an allowed name for a Pokémon.** I'd also found 'geanticline' under 'G', which didn't even have an understandable explanation***, but that didn't work, either, and I couldn't figure out why.

In the end, I had settled for 'Euphemism', which had caused Caldera a fit of giggles that had very nearly choked it. I had no idea why - it sounded like a nice enough word to me, if I could believe the entry for it in my book.

Euphemism was perched atop a lampshade, and was glaring out the window so fiercely I was surprised the glass hadn't shattered yet. A sudden snapping sound made me look extra hard for a crack, but it turned out to have come from the bathroom.

I really, really hoped it was nothing to do with Caldera's digestion.

"Don't worry," came its voice, "that wazzz juzzzt my leg... Oh, dear..."

Mr. Squeak had fallen asleep on my thigh. I gently put it aside and stroked its head, listening to faint, high-pitched snores coming from its nose.

My other Pokémon also seemed to be settling down - the newer, more slender form of Jolene, which the Pokédex had told me was a Charmeleon, was approaching its ball, where it slept every night so that its tail wouldn't inadvertently cause a fire. Euphemism was yawning, but tried to hide it; it seemed to be going to sleep on its feet.

I remembered that two days ago, I didn't have even the faintest wish to have any Pokémon. But now they were here, it felt soothing. It was still terrifying, and I hated the idea of being responsible for them, but... It was also a calm sensation. They were strange creatures, all of them, but they still followed me and that somehow became the important thing about it.

A pleasant sigh escaped me. It had been a long day, with the woods and all, but it was finally over - gently, I took the now resting Pidgey down and laid it at the foot of the bed, on an extra pillow there. Then, I sighed, and laid down, ready to doze the night away.

* A general rule is: Spelling mistakes on road signs are unfortunately common, but when they're made in the name of the place there is no hope.
** However, from what the dictionary said about the word, it would have fit.
*** This only made it more appealing, of course.