Another thing they don't tell you about your Pokemon journey is that fifty percent of it will be just plain boring.

Drowzee and I walked for quite a while, and it wasn't like we could really talk; maybe he'd understand what I was saying, but he couldn't reply effectively. We couldn't find any other Pokemon to train against, and the landscape got really boring, seeing as it was nothing but grass. Also, it was hot (which was another thing that confused me, as it had been nighttime when I'd 'left home' and the sun was now in the middle of the sky), and I was getting progressively hungrier, and on top of everything we were still lost with no clear plan to get us back home.

So I tried thinking about the crazy people who had invaded my home, and the useless silver and gold poke ball they'd been after. I tried to deduce who they were, where they might have come from, but each theory I came up with sounded crazier than the last. I barely knew anything about them, so I couldn't come to any conclusions. The same thing was true of the green creature which wanted to be freed, which had (maybe) put me in such a strange place.

The only thing that all of that thinking managed to do was put me in a bad mood.

"I'm taking a break," I snapped, stopping as we reached a stray tree that looked like it had nothing left to live for. Drowzee, who had been lagging further and further behind as we walked, kept ambling forward slowly. I sat down on the ground with a drawn-out sigh, grabbing my notebook out of my coat's pocket. What I really wanted to do was make my dad's laptop magically appear and find some kind of wireless connection, since I was already suffering from electronic withdrawal (I had to wonder what kind of people would live in such an empty place, anyway. What if they only had dial-up?).

Drowzee eventually reached the tree, but he decided to stay standing, sniffing the air delicately. I tried to make a design for a telescope out of a single glass lens, bark, and a few twigs. It wasn't one of my most realistic ideas, but I played with it anyway because I really did want to see if the glimmer out there on the horizon was water. Needless to say, I couldn't get it to work.

We stayed there for some twenty minutes as I gave up on the telescope and started sketching randomly instead. I'm not good at creative art, but I love taking things that I see in real life and trying to put them on paper. My friends from school always said that I wasn't half bad at it. I actually managed to forget the situation for a while as I let my pen wander, lost in the pattern of careful tracing and shading.

That was when I heard someone scream.

Actually, it was more of a yell then a scream, and it sounded more angry than upset, but it was a sound that hadn't come from me or Drowzee all the same. I scrambled to my feet, looking off to the left, which was where the sound had come from. Human or Pokemon? I couldn't even tell.

"C'mon, Drowzee," I muttered, jogging off in the direction which I thought was correct. It was quite likely that I was getting myself into huge trouble, but trouble would be better than mind-numbing boredom by far. Besides, if I helped that person, maybe it would make me a hero or something. That sounded appealing.

Drowzee refused to run – he just shuffled along at a slightly-faster pace instead – but it turned out that the scream hadn't come from too far away, so it didn't matter. I knew we were in the right place immediately; there was a girl standing there, and we hadn't we seen any humans at all before. She was surrounded by a crowd of small pink and slightly-larger purple Pokemon, and all of them were growling at her. I recognized the small ones, since Snubbull are pretty common in Johto, and it seemed likely that the purple ones were their evolution, Granbull.

I couldn't see the girl standing in the middle of the crowd very clearly because she kept moving around, but I could tell that her straight hair was a chestnut brown and that she wearing a plain cotton shirt and skirt, both of which looked rough and homespun. She was making faces at the Pokemon, and they were all making faces right back, but she looked a little scared, I decided. Scared enough to need help.

The group hadn't noticed us, it seemed, but that wasn't going to last for long. I pushed Drowzee out in front of me, took a deep breath, and flew right into my first battle as a trainer. "Drowzee, use Psychic!" I shouted, like all of the cool trainers always did on the radio. The official attack strategy I'd chosen was a strong one, sure to succeed as an opening move.

He just turned his head around and gave me a look. In front of us, a bunch of the Snubbull had shuffled around to growl at us instead; the girl had whirled back to stare at me.

"Uh, don't you know Psychic?" I whispered, frowning at my Pokemon. He wiggled his trunk left and right quickly, so I wracked my brain for whatever other patterns I knew. "Um, uh, let's see. Try Tackling them? Hey, what's that look for? Okay – Confusion?" Another trunk shake. "Oh, come on, all the wild Drowzee know how to do a Confusion attack!"

By that point all of the wild Pokemon had noticed us, and two of the Granbull had started to charge at us, which was not a pretty picture. I squeaked, then stuttered "use D-Disable!".

Drowzee finally turned his head back around, blinking rapidly before opening his eyes wide. A series of blue rings shot out from in front of him, growing as they moved forward, and they surrounded the wild Pokemon. The two Granbull skidded to a halt, looking confused, and all of the Pokemon abruptly stopped growling. Finally, a strategy he actually knew.

At that point, I got a brilliant idea. "Now, Hypnosis!" I said more loudly, standing up straight again.

In front of me, Drowzee paused for a moment before slowly moving his hands back and forth. A thin blue wash of light soared out from him, one that slowly moved across the field to cover the Pokemon. Snubbull and Granbull fell left and right, each one of them snoring loudly as they hit the ground. I would've been ecstatic, but I was worried about how slowly the light seemed to move; some of the Pokemon had figured out what was going on, and they were waddling off to the side, trying to escape the effects of the attack.

That was when I realized that the girl had disappeared. I looked around franticly, then nearly jumped out of my skin when I realized that she was standing right next to me.

"Come," she hissed, wrinkling her nose and glaring at me. She was really freckled and had a bit of a blotchy complexion, but her eyes were the kind of brilliant green that catch your attention right away. She was also at least three inches taller than me, which I found annoying. On the other hand, she had escaped from the Snubbull somehow, so I decided to trust her for a minute or so.

She darted a few meters away, then turned and glared when she realized that I wasn't following. I grabbed Drowzee's arm and started to pull him towards her, hoping that he would keep up the attack, but the blue waves stopped as soon as I touched him. As the air started to clear, I saw that the Snubbull and Granbull who were still awake were all coming towards us, and they looked plenty mad.

"Run!" I screamed, my voice going up about two octaves. That time, Drowzee paid attention. We both ran frantically after the girl, who had started dashing into the distance again. I got winded pretty quickly, not being used to sprinting at all, but I didn't stop or look back until the girl finally came to a halt. I then put my hands on my knees and wheezed, head spinning, while she stomped towards me and stared me down. Next to me, Drowzee flopped down onto the ground, panting.

"… I do not believe it. You're far younger than me!" She sighed, running her fingers through her short hair. "Well, so be it. What is your name, Trainer?"

"Monroe," I managed to choke out between greedy gasps for air. I was rather busy with wondering whether training always involved that much running around. I'd already decided that if it did, I wouldn't be spending much time away from home after all.

"Mon-row? A strange name." She sniffed haughtily. "I am called Florence. Do you reside nearby, Trainer Monroe, or would you prefer lodgings for the night?"

Her odd way of speaking was starting to get to me, and I thought that she had no right to make fun of my name when hers was so old-fashioned, but I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. "Oh, a place to stay would be great. And, do you have food? I'm starving."

Her eyes slowly narrowed, and she crossed her arms over her chest with a little 'huff!' sound. "I will ask my village to provide for you. They will say you have-" she made a face- "saved my life, after all."

With that, she turned around and stalked off into the distance (again) with her head held high. Drowzee and I were left to run after her with half-uttered protests, while I still had to quietly wonder; if I had just saved her life, why was she so upset?

Then I realized that she could probably answer one of my most important questions, so I stopped abruptly, caught my breath, and yelled "Hey, wait! Can you tell us where we are?"

She paused for a very short moment, then turned and raised her eyebrows. When she spoke, her voice was condescending and sarcastic, like she couldn't believe that I could be such an idiot. Her words, however, were level, factual, not to be disputed – and entirely impossible.

"The plains of Goldenrod, of course."