Yay I'm back! I kinda lied on the last chapter about how I was getting all of my stories to chapter 15... I got really bored doing that. This story is just the best and so much fun to write!
Chapter 16: Attack On Flowers
Saturday, February 22nd
Riley and I had each gotten ourselves a room at the Pokemon Center before it filled up, both signed up for the Contest, and were now eating lunch together at a cute, dainty little cafe in northern Floaroma Town.
"So have you come up with any ideas for the Performance round yet?" I nodded my head yes to Riley's question, continuing to chew the current bite of my salad that I was on.
"Yup! I just thought of it last night, and I was actually planning to practice today." Riley swallowed a bite of her BLT.
"Awesome! Mind if I come and watch?"
"Sure, it'd be nice to get some feedback from someone who's been in a lot of Contests before." Riley nodded her head, and we continued to eat, before splitting the bill and leaving.
It was a chilly day outside, and Jubilife News had predicted a cold spell coming up. There was supposed to be an unusually long and big snow storm coming up in a few days. All the better to stay in Floaroma Town for the next few days.
Riley and I continued on into the the northern flower meadows so she could watch me train. I felt bad that so many of the flowers might die because of the storm, but there wasn't anything to do about it.
"Alright, so let's see it Hikari!"
"Okay, but again, I haven't practiced at all yet, and I'm still not totally sure how this'll work out."
"Just get on with it girl!" I nodded, a bit nervous for Riley to watch my routine.
"Ruby!" I tossed up the fire type's Pokeball, and Ruby appeared in the flowers and few patches of snow. "Okay Ruby, use Agility to run as fast as you can, then jump up and use Stomp on the ground to propel yourself up into the air!" She obeyed me without question, jumping high into the air and using Stomp on the ground, hard, pushing Ruby even higher into the air.
"Now use a combination of Flame Wheel and Agility to fly around in the air!" In a ball of fire, Ruby sped one way, but that part didn't quite go as planned, and she had to drop after just one burst of speed in the air. I grimaced, but kept going anyways. "Alright, use Double Kick as hard as you when you hit the ground!" Ruby was doing a series of flips after she got out of Flame Wheel, and for a second I thought that she was going to break a leg hitting the ground. Thankfully though, she did not, instead landing on her back legs, pounding a good sized hole into the ground and kicking up some flowers. I jogged over to Ruby and congratulated her.
"Great job girl! That was really good for our first time trying out that routine!" I kneeled down and pet Ruby's muzzle gently.
"That was pretty good you guys." I looked up and smiled at Riley.
"Thanks."
"I do have a few notes though." I smiled again, feeling overly happy for whatever reason.
"Like what?"
"Well, I'm sure you noticed that the bit while Ruby was in the air, that needs to be worked on so she can stay up longer." I nodded my head knowingly. "And you also might want to consider trying to create some sort of symbol with her fire while she's flying around in the air."
"That's a great idea!"
"Thanks. Also, be careful when Ruby comes down to use Double Kick. You wouldn't want her to break something."
"Right. Thanks Riley." I stood erectly and shook hands with the red head. "Hey, is Trevion going to be here?"
"I think so. Why?"
"Well, I was thinking that maybe the three of us could train together. Maybe have like a triple battle of sorts." Riley pondered the idea for a moment, then smiled at me.
"Sounds like a plan. Well, I've better get going." Riley picked up her bag from where it'd been lying on the ground, her tight, high up, red, very short ponytail blowing as she went. "See ya around Hikari."
"You too Riley." For the next couple hours, Ruby and I tried to perfect our routine. Unfortunately, it wasn't perfect by six o'clock.
As I returned to the Pokemon Center, I carefully observed the gorgeous town, appreciating the quiet, alone time. The houses were small, dainty, and all of them had flower beds and boxes around them. I saw the cafe Riley and I had eaten at earlier. Surprisingly, I only saw one flower shop, a huge one too. It's name was was the Pick A Peck Of Flowers Shop, a pretty sucky name, but it looked interesting, so I went in to take a look. A blonde woman in an apron with gardening gloves on was inside, tending to some flowers. She looked up when the bell on the door sounded as I came inside, brushing her gloves off when she saw me.
"I'm sorry, but we're about to close ma'am. Is there anything I can get for you real quick?" I looked towards the woman, who was smiling with a tired expression in her eyes. She was young, with gray eyes and long, gorgeous hair.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just looking around." I smiled at her, before turning around to leave.
"Well, I suppose if you'll only be a minute."
"That's alright, I'll just come back another time."
"Okay, well if-"
"Feear!"
"Ahhh!" It happened instantly. A huge glass window suddenly shattered in the back of the store, and a shriek forced me to cover up my ears while the store lady screamed out of shock. Without even thinking about it, I instantly grabbed a Pokeball from off of my belt, not even sure of which Pokemon I was about to use against whatever the heck just happened.
It ended up being Electra, who I had stay by my side until we knew what was happening.
"What is that?!" The store clerk whispered to me, frightened out of her mind. Something was thrown across the room, and I quickly signalled to her to be quiet. Electra and I began crawling down one of the aisles of plant seeds and accessories. At the other side, we both peeked out heads around to try and get a look at whatever had destroyed the shop, which apparently was not a good idea. Almost immediately a strong Aerial Ace attack nearly took our heads off, and threw us backwards. The air was knocked out of my lungs, but I quickly regained my composure and shouted to Electra.
"Use Thunder Wave!" A wave of blue electricity emanated from Electra, and hit out attacker causing it to cry out in distress again. I then jumped out from behind my hiding place to face whatever it was.
"What the?!" It was a large bird Pokemon, one I didn't recognize, that had brown feathers, with a long neck and long beak. The Pokemon was obviously powerful, glaring at me with such ferociousness in it's gray eyes.
"Fe.. fea.. Fearow!" Suddenly the Pokemon broke free of it's paralysis, jumping up and flapping it's powerful wings.
"Spark Electra!" The Shinx missed, and the Pokemon knocked me down with one of it's large wings on it's way out, back through the window it had broken. I swore quietly.
"Oh. My. God!" I turned around and saw the blonde employee running her hands through her hair in that stressful manner, looking as if she would pull it all out. "Ms. Kimmerly is going to kill me!" I raised an eyebrow, but the woman looked too busy grieving over knocked over flowers and shattered glass to notice.
"Um, sorry about this." The blonde didn't look up, beginning to pick up some shards of glass.
"It-it's fine. If you hadn't been here, who knows what that Fearow would've done."
"That was a Fearow?" I looked out the window, but the Pokemon was out of sight.
"Yeah, looked like it anyways. Hey, would you actually mind staying here for a while, talking to the police, and more importantly, my boss?" I nodded, bending down to help the woman pick up the larger shards of glass and shattered pottery. It took about thirty minutes for the cops to arrive and do a report, and forty five minutes before the woman's, who's name I found out was Emily, boss showed up, and she actually turned out to be a very kind and understanding older woman. Though the woman begged me to stay and wait for some sort of gift to commend my bravery, I refused. It was already late and I was starving.
Back at the Pokemon Center, I was eating a late mac and cheese microwave dinner, while using the provided laptop in my room to surf the internet. I'd taken a shower, and my damp blue locks were up in a messy ponytail. Electra was purring asleep as I stroked her back in my lap, whilst I intently read the bright screen in the dark room, bringing my face unnecessarily close to the screen.
"Strange.." I mumbled to myself, continuing to scroll down the page of the website I was currently on. Probably the fifth Fearow info filled site I'd been to. Electra yawned, revealing her small but sharp teeth, and stretched out her front legs, only to curl back up into my lap. "I can't find anything about Fearow acting so aggressive, especially unprovoked. And they don't even live anywhere near here." I didn't even mind that no one else cared about why that Fearow had attacked the flower shop, I was so into my research.
"They are known to act somewhat aggressive, but there's always a reason... I mean, I'm pretty sure that that Fearow had no reason to hold a grudge big enough to cross an ocean for against a flower shop." I stopped with the strange hand motions I was making to rest my head in my right palm. Then, I blew a stray strand of navy blue hair out of my face, which was a pretty pointless act as it came right back into my face.
"I need chocolate." I whined, standing up to search through my belongings for any source of chocolate, whether it be in the form of a bar, cookies, or even a chocolate graham cracker, I really didn't care. I didn't find anything, so then left my room, and in the dark quiet of the night, made my way downstairs. No one was awake, and only a few lights had been left on. I thanked Arceus that no one was around to see me with my sloppy ponytail and baggy pajamas on before I began searching the cafeteria for any sign of the sweet, delicious candy. I ended up buying a dark chocolate bar from a vending machine, and headed back upstairs.
I wasn't tired, and didn't want to go to sleep, so I flopped down on my stomach, at the end of my bed and used the remote to switch on the TV. Taking a bite of my candy bar, I began scrolling through channels until I settled on Lake Placid, a cheesy SyFy movie about giant, badly animated crocodiles killing stupid people. It wasn't even scary, but I like to criticize and make fun of this kind of stuff, so whatever.
I hadn't been planning on sleeping that night, not wanting to invite the nightmares in, but it must've happened at some point because I woke up in a very uncomfortable position late the next morning. My neck hurt like heck, and the Syfy channel was playing a rerun of Ghost Hunters. I switched the television off and sat up, throwing my legs around the side of the bed and rubbing my neck. I sighed, then stood up to get dressed. I was really sick of winter, and wanted so badly to wear nothing but my dress outside, but it was still far too cold.I contemplated the idea of practicing our routine indoors, but I decided that it would be better to do it outside. After I'd gotten dressed, I let my hair out of the ponytail and gently brushed it through. I then placed two dull pink clips in and then my hat went on. Finally, I got my iPod, Pokeballs, small notebook, and wallet and put them in my coat pocket. I didn't yet put my pink coat on though, only draping it over my arm. I had yet to eat breakfast.
Breakfast was specially made porridge for Pokemon, and peach oatmeal for me. Then, I returned Mazey and Electra while Ruby and I left to find a quiet, secluded spot in order to train. For the next couple hours, in a forested area west of Floaroma, we practiced our routine. Mostly the landing and jumping up at the moment, saving the Flame Wheel bit for later. I was worried about our landing, if Ruby were to hurt herself, I'd be unable to compete with that guilt being carried with me. At some point, I put my earbuds in to help me concentrate and think. The music made me feel a lot better about my routine.
After eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch, I got out my small notebook and a pen and began sketching out ideas for the symbol Riley suggested to create with Flame Wheel. After crossing out yet another flower design that I hated, I sighed and dropped my notebook and pen to the ground, thankfully missing a nearby patch of snow.
"I want to make something that represents Floaroma Town, but it had to have something to do with the rest of my routine, and not be so, I don't know, girly, that it's just totally random. And any designs that I have liked so far would be nearly impossible to do in the air like that." I huffed, letting my arms fall into my lap. "Why did I ever think that doing this would be easy?" Ruby settled down next to me and I began to pet her muzzle. That is a very good question Hikari. I'd always thought that because the rest of my life had been so hard, that this whole trainer thing would be the first easy thing in my life. How wrong I was. But, I loved it. Being around any Pokemon comforted me, they were the only ones who understood me at all, even if it wasn't fully.
"I'm bored Ruby. Let's go visit that flower shop again, see how they're doing." I stood up hastily, picking up my items as I went and headed back towards the dainty town. Ruby followed, grabbing mouthfuls of various plants as we went. The shop was closed, but the front door was unlocked so I went in.
"Hello?"
"I'm so sorry, but we're currently closed for-" Emily came out from behind an aisle and smiled at me. I did so back. "Hikari! What are you doing here?"
"I was just bored, and thought I'd come and check up on you guys."
"Oh, well, we're just finishing up cleaning in the back before the window guys come to replace the window." I nodded, observing a gorgeous white lily, with bright streaks of a vibrant red running through the middle of the petals. "Would you like a little tour? I'm sure Ms. Kimmerly wouldn't mind at all!"
"I'd love one, but first I'll help you guys finish cleaning up."
"You don't have to do that Hikari, I mean, you basically saved the whole shop just last night!"
"It's fine Emily, it'd be rude not to help out." For the next ten minutes, I helped Emily, and another employee, apparently the daughter of the owner, Ms. Kimmerly, clean up some more glass, dirt, and shelves along with their fallen items. "So it just doesn't make any sense why that Fearow would attack us like that!" I'd also been ranting on about how that Fearow wouldn't have attacked the shop for no reason for the past ten minutes.
"All done! Now when the window guys show up, we'll be all ready! How about that tour now Hikari?" I looked to Emily, a blank expression on my face. I'd been distracted enough talking about the Fearow that I hadn't realized we were done cleaning up.
"Uh, sure." Emily taught me about the different kinds of flowers, showed me different potting accessories, and then brought me to the greenhouse in the back. It was filled with probably hundreds of different gorgeous flowers and other plants. Emily offered to give me a pot and some seeds so I could grow my own plant, but sadly, I had to reject the offer. You don't really have a place to keep growing plants while you're traveling the region.
"Thank you so much for showing me around Emily, the shop is beautiful!"
"Thank you Hikari."
"I mean, this whole town is just gorgeous! It's amazing how many flowers there are here."
"It really is. Hey, have you heard the story of how Floaroma Town came to be?"
"No, I didn't know that there was one, but I'd like to hear it." I was curious to know how the town of flora came to be.
"Well, it's only a story, but many people around here believe it to be true. It's told to children who live around here all the time, and it starts like any other kids' story. Once upon a time, a long time ago, Floaroma Town was nothing but a barren and desolate hill. There were no houses, and no Pokemon lived there. People began to plant flowers, in attempt to cheer up the bleak place, but the hill seemed doomed to dreariness. Nothing would grow, no matter what anyone did. Then, one day a beautiful woman made her way to the top of the hill, and, with a bouquet of Gracidea flowers in hand, expressed thanks for the blessing of nature. Immediately, the whole hill burst into bloom with flowers of every kind, but at the very top of the hill, were only Gracidea flowers. It's thought that with the woman's great gratitude, and the supposedly miracle Gracidea flowers, the Gratitude Pokemon was born, and that was the cause of the hill's sudden flowers. And that is how Floaroma Town was born." I smiled softly to myself, thinking of the joy this town must bring to people, especially that story. A drab, desolate place, miraculously bursting into bloom and becoming maybe the most beautiful place in all of Sinnoh.
"I love the story Emily." Emily reciprocated my smile.
"Everyone does."
I fell asleep that night thinking of what the Gratitude Pokemon looked like, and if it still resided here in Floaroma Town, frolicking through the dazzling meadows. The thoughts kept the nightmares away, for now anyways.
Sunday, February 23rd
Kind of a filler chapter, but that's okay. The whole Fearow thing will make sense in a chapter or two as well. Also, I had an awesome dream the other day. I was Hikari, and Shinji was my boyfriend, and he wrote a song for my choir to sing and we won a contest! Awesome!