Chapter 4- The First Steps

(I will title the chapters as the ideas come)

This chapter is going to be a little different as I came up with an idea on how to get Sophie's description into it. The first part is going to be from the point of view of Avon! I will indicate when the point of view shifts back to Sophie. Thank you for your patience. I now present to you awesome people the next chapter.

Finally! We are finally going on the journey we dreamed about! Dusk and Dawn are resting in their poke balls as Mommy and I take our first steps out of the ranch without having Big Brother Tristan or Mommy Chiaki or Daddy J with us. (Dusk is not a morning Pokémon and Dawn would be all over the place if she was out.) As we walk onto the path that leads to Driftveil City, I watch Mommy. Her pretty black hair, with hints of indigo, reaches her was as she stands. She is small for her age apparently; visitors to the ranch often mistook her for being around five years old instead of nearly ten that she was. Other visitors said that she looked like an adorable little pixie. I still don't get those comments. She has a slightly heart shape to her face, which seems to emphasize her amethyst eyes which showed so much emotion. Her skin which was lightly tanned from all the time she spent outside helping her parents out suited her. Her face shone with the excitement we both shared. I looked ahead as we reached the path proper, a training place for those from Driftveil that couldn't handle the cold in Cold Storage. There were three trainers on the path, one we knew from our trips into town, another we recognized as from town and a third unknown trainer.

*Change of point of view-Sophie*

As we progressed down the path I noticed that there was a trainer who was not from Driftveil. The boy was sauntering up the path, most likely heading towards the ranch. He is wearing dark jeans and tough black hiking boots with a white tank and a short sleeve denim jacket over it. The denim of the jacket was of a lighter shade than his jeans. With a sturdy back pack tossed over his shoulder and a belt to hold the usual six poke balls- though only three are filled- he is well equipped for a lengthy journey. He looks to be around twelve, meaning he's been on his journey for a while. I wonder what his journey is focusing on. He has short, spiky brown hair and vivid green eyes that seem to pierce though whatever he's looking at. He is about five feet tall and still growing. He's going to be tall. I can tell when he spots me by the way his eyes light up. He's a trainer who likes to battle then, probably aiming for the championship.

As he comes towards me, I start to get nervous and excited, feeling the emotions double because Avon is feeling them too.

"Hey kid, how about a battle?" His tone of voice says he doesn't expect me to be a challenge. This may be my first actual battle, but still! I glance over at the other two trainers on the path. The one I don't really know- I think his name is Charles- seems like he's about to step in, probably thinks it is unfair for a someone so obviously experienced to challenge a kid like me. Miss Joan- who is a sweet older lady that has often stopped by the ranch and who I often talk to when in town- stops him with a shake of the head and a small smile. She isn't going to deny me my first battle and she has seen me training for this journey. I can't help but wonder if she was here today to give me my first battle if there was no one else.

I glance down at Avon who is bouncing from paw to paw before returning my gaze to the boy. "Sure, but first what's your name?"

"Timothy."

"Saphronia. Shall we get started?"

He releases his first Pokémon, a Drillbur. Avon bounces forward into battle position. Drillbur used Fury Swipes, which Avon dodged and countered with the move Sand-Attack. Drillbur's accuracy weakened causing his Scratch attack to miss as well, while Avon's tackle hit home. With Dillbur's attacks constantly missing, Avon is able to land enough tackles to cause Drillbur to faint. With his first Pokémon out of commission, Timothy looks mildly impressed as he sends out his second Pokémon, a Yamask. I call Avon back and bring out Dusklace to experience her first battle. When both of the fresh Pokémon are in position Yamask attacks with an Astonish. It hits Dusk, but the damage is minimal. She counters with Pursuit and thanks to type advantage manages to knock Yamask out with one blow. Timothy is starting to take this battle more seriously as he calls forth his last Pokémon, a Cubchoo. I send Dawnlace out quickly before she breaks her poke ball in her excitement. As she bounces around in battle position, waiting for the Cubchoo to attack so that she can, I have to suppress a giggle. It would be rude. When the Cubchoo finally attacks with a Powder Snow, Dawn is so eager she attacks with Confusion almost before she has to dodge. The little Cobchoo is so confused by the attack for the next few rounds he helps Dawn out by attacking himself until he faints. Dawn dances over to me, extremely proud of how she did, as the fainted Pokémon automatically returns to the poke ball. I look at Timothy, who seems to be in shock. A slow clap brings him back to the present. He cringes then digs out the money he owes me for the battle. As he does, I look to see who is clapping. It's Miss Joan and Charles, both appearing very impressed.

"Here, this is your prize money." As I accept it he continues, "I gotta admit, when I challenged you I thought it would be an easy win." Timothy glances into the tree tops. "Guess I was getting to cocky. Thanks for showing me that."

"If you had had your regular team, I might not have won." I smile up at him, amused by the shocked look on his face. "I would be surprised if that was your regular team- the team you challenge Gyms with. You look to have been journeying for awhile, so I'm sure you have Pokémon that are higher levels than fifteen."

He shakes his head with an astonished smile, but before he can reply someone speaks up from behind me.

"What? You left for your journey an hour ago and you've already had you first battle, Sophie?"

"Tristan! What are you—you aren't—" I manage to splutter out before he interrupts me.

"No I am not following you. I got a call from the Gym leader Clay, he found an Egg, but with his job he just doesn't have time to take care of it. Since I forgot to give you something before you left, I thought I would try to catch up to you in town."

"Old man Clay found and Egg?"

"Trust you to latch on to that bit and completely ignore the fact that I have a gift for you. Here, it's a container for TMs, and yes I left the ones I gathered on my journey in there."

"Meaning every Tm and HM is in there?"

"Well, most of them anyway."

"Um, excuse me? Are you Tristan Stone? The previous champion?" Timothy inquires timidly.

"If you mean the guy who got totally whupped by Alder about ten years ago, then yeah. That's me."

"You're acting like holding the Championship for five straight years in a minor feat!" Timothy seems shocked by my brother's nonchalant attitude.

"Alder's been holding it for ten years now." I can't help but point out.

Silence reigns for a few moments before Tristan can't hold his laughter in any longer. "Were you heading to the ranch?" he manages to ask Timothy around his giggles.

"Oh! Um, yes. I had heard that you lived there and I wanted to ask you a few questions about your journey."

"Well, since I'm heading into town- where you need to go to revive your Pokémon, that was a nice battle by the way- why don't you interrogate me while we walk?"

Fifteen minutes of listening to my brother being questioned about his adventures later, we arrived in Driftveil. Miss Joan, who had walked back with us, wished me luck on my journey and went on her way. We stop by the PokéCenter to drop off the Pokémon to be healed, then Timothy and I tag along after my brother as he visits Clay. Timothy asking more questions and me just wanting to see the egg.

When we finally see the Gym, Clay is already waiting with the egg. Before we get even a step closer I hear a voice.

AHHHHHHH!

Clutching my head, I stumble causing Tristan to be by my side in an instant.

"Soph? What's wrong?"

"It's loud!"

"Soph? Can you hear this Egg?"

Timothy is looking at us like we're speaking gibberish, but at this point my head hurts so much I can barely nod. Tristan calls forth two of his Pokémon, his Darmanitan and his Lilligant. Lillgant takes the egg from Clay and sprinkles sleeping powder on the Egg and Darmanitan holds it to keep it warm.

"What's up with little Sophie?"

"Her head hurts. Well, we know what kind of Pokémon is in the egg."

"Oh?"

"An Eevee. A loud one at that."

"Huh. Guess I should be giving the Egg to Sophie then."

"Sophie do you want to take the egg? If it—"

"Actually, I don't think she liked Clay, and so she was screaming." I giggle.

Clay looks at me. "She a loud one, then?" At my nod he continues, "Probably going to evolve into a Jolteon then. Thunder hates ground." He smiles as I burst into laughter at his logic- which oddly worked.

"Um, what's going on?" Poor Timothy- no, he said to call him Tim- Tim seemed utterly lost.

Tristan carefully appraises Tim. "Can you keep a secret?" Tim, rather eager to please his idol, agrees immediantely so Tristan glances around to make sure we are alone and continues. "Sophie can understand Eevees. We don't know how or why but she can understand only Eevees. Please don't tell anyone."

As Tim nods, his mind is obviously racing trying to understand what he had just been told and I remember the conversation I had had almost a year ago with my family about whether or not to keep my ability secret, or at least not well known.

We had just returned from town, where Clay had discovered my ability when I had held a conversation with Avon for five minutes. My parents had explained to me that my ability was rather unheard of. Other people had abilities similar but usually it was just with psychic type Pokémon. Just being able to understand one species of Pokémon had never been documented before. So we had decided to keep mine secret until such a time that I would need to publicize it. After the talk, when I had gone to bed, I thought really hard about my ability. I wondered why I hadn't been able to use it before I met Avon and Dusklace. I had been around Flare for my whole life, so why couldn't I understand him previously? I still haven't come up with that answer. The next day I asked my family why they hadn't seemed too surprised about my ability. The answer for them was simple and immediate: I was still Sophie no matter what kind of ability I had. I had given everyone huge hugs and we just went on like normal, but I managed to love my family even more after that.

Now it was time to see how someone who had not known me since I was born reacted to my ability. Tristan's hand gently squeezed my shoulder as we waited for Tim to finish processing the information.

After a few more moments, Tim just shrugged his shoulders. "Okay, got it."

"Wait, that's it?" I am completely flabbergasted. I had been preparing myself for some kind of negative response and this is what happens?

"Eh, it's not like I can really understand what you just told me."

A slow grin grows on Clay's face. "You ain't to bad kid. Ain't too bad." And with that Clay turns around and returns to his Gym.

Tristan just shakes his head. "I was not expecting you to take it so well. Where are you two kids heading after Driftveil?"

"I'm thinking about flying back to Striation City and starting over. I got to cocky and I want to try again."

"Tristan you know I plan on making my way to Striation City to give a real start to my journey by getting the Gym badge."

Tristan gets a sly smile on his face. "So you are both heading to the same place."

After Tim and I glance at each other we reply in unison. "Yes."

"Is there anything stopping you from going together?"

Tim just gives a short no in response as I narrow my eyes. "Tristan you know that I want to do this journey on my own."

"Besides maybe giving her a lift to Striation City, would you help her out in any other way? Besides maybe travelling together, I mean?" Tristan asks Tim.

Tim cocks his head to the side and considers for a moment. "No, not really."

Tristan gives a full out grin at the response.

Wow! This chapter is super long! How did that happen? As always I hope you enjoy, please review, and any critique is awesome and welcome. If I battle you on any points you make, well… that's just how I am. But if you point something out, I will either try to remedy it or justify it. Sorry for any missed mistakes in the story. Again, as always, I HAVE NO CLUE WHAT I'M DOING!