Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 4: Bluebell.

Red has been travelling through Viridian Forest for almost a week, and he was really getting fed up with the variety, or lack there of, this place had to offer. Although he was happy for any kind of Pokemon battle he could take part in, after fighting bug catchers every day, all he hoped for was someone who didn't use bug type Pokemon.

It was getting dark and the exit to the forest still didn't seem any closer, so the boy decided to set up a camp. That meant, having his Pokemon help with gathering sticks and stones for creating a campfire, while he used the biggest leaves he could find to cover a net hung up between a couple trees, creating a roof for the night.

After everything was done, Charmander lit the sticks, Red took out a couple berries he gathered during the day and started to slowly roast them over the fire. He left them propped up on the sharpened sticks he stabbed them on, to take a bottle of water and pour it into a bowl for his Pokemon. He was getting worried because they didn't see any stream for quite some time and it also hasn't been raining, so their water supply was dwindling.

After finishing their meal, Red put a blanket and a pillow on a layer of leaves which he gathered under his net roof. He put out the, trying to use as little of the water as possible. After that, he took a second blanket, returned Charmander to his ball and covered himself and Eevee before going to sleep.

. . .

Loud barking and something hitting his chest over and over wasn't the best way for Red to wake up. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the one behind this commotion was none other than Eevee.

"What's going on, buddy?" Red asked after the dog jumped off from him, to give him a chance to get up.

He slowly rubbed his eyes and yawned, still trying to wake up. When he went out from under his impromptu roof, he noticed the reason for why the Pokemon interrupted his rest. Right in front of him, between the resting place and the extinguished campfire, there was a strange yellow flower that was not there when they went to sleep. Eevee must have noticed its strong smell and became alarmed.

"Huh. How did this thing grow so fast? Especially without any sunlight" the boy pondered.

He tried touching it gently with a stick but nothing happened. He walked out a little further to see if maybe somebody planted it there on purpose but he didn't notice anything. Finally, a sudden realization hit him. There was a possibility that the flower was a Pokemon that for some reason walked over there and planted itself in the ground.

Since it's been already a couple minutes since he woke up, Red didn't feel like going back to sleep, so he decided to check if he was right by using his Pokedex. He went back towards the backpack which also was under the net roof. Eevee, who was still observing the mysterious plant, noticed that the teenager stopped in his tracks. When he looked over at what Red was staring at, he saw that the blanket under which they previously slept, had a suspicious bulge, as if somebody was still sleeping there.

"Curiouser and curiouser." Red commented while rubbing his chin with an inquisitive look on his face.

"Welp, here goes nothing." he exclaimed while quickly pulling the blanket off from whatever was under it.

"Wha... What?!"

To Red's and Eevee's surprise, the one who was hiding under the blanket was a brown-haired girl, around Red's age, and wearing a set of pink plaid pajamas. Neither losing her cover nor Red's yell caused her to wake up.

"What is going on here? First, that weird plant. Now this... I'm not sure what to make of this, buddy." the boy commented, turning to his Pokemon.

Eevee turned his head an gave out a quick sound, indicating that he wanted to know what they were supposed to do in that situation.

"Well... I can't do anything, can I? Let's just wait until this girl wakes up and then we'll get our answers."

. . .

The nose of the girl moved ever so slightly, as she smelled the aroma of slowly roasting berries. She licked her lips as a reflex, before opening her eyes. She got up to a sitting position and stretched out her arms. With a still dazed look on her face she turned her head to the left and then to the right. She noticed that wherever she was, clearly wasn't her tent, but wasn't really worried since she got a good sleep. She quickly stood up and began doing more stretching while making quiet sounds which were supposed to get her pumped up during the exercise.

Finally, after about 2 minutes, she turned around to see where that enticing smell came from. Red, surprised to see that, almost choked on the berry he was hitting, because he didn't want the girl to know he was staring at her exercise. She went up to him and sat on a log he prepared beforehand, while he himself was sitting on a flat rock, covered with leaves as to avoid any strain to his buttocks.

The girl looked at the food with glee in her eyes and then at Red with a hopeful expression of a puppy who wanted to be told that he was a good dog. The boy just nodded his head, and the girl took one of the sticks with an almost done berry and proceeded to turn it around as to roast it more evenly.

Finally, she began eating it. Red caught himself staring again, but he couldn't help being entranced by the pure joy which emanated from her face as she was gently chewing each bite of the berry. He put one of his hand on his heart, as if that was supposed to stop the increased heartbeat. Even though many of his friends were girls, he never was interested in any of them, especially considering that couple years of gap where he was shunned by them. He felt that this was the most intimate moment he ever shared with a person of the opposite sex, although they weren't really doing anything.

He calmed down after the girl finished eating and stood up again. She looked around, as if searching for something. When she spotted whatever it was, she started walking away without a word.

"Wait!" Red yelled, finally in full control of his feelings and with a clear mind.

The girl turned around with a confused look on her face. Then a light bulb seemed to have lit up over her head as she hit the palm of one of her hands with the other one closed in a fist.

"Thank you for the meal." she said while bowing cordially.

"That's... That's not really what I meant" Red sighed as he was trying to gather his thoughts "Okay... Okay, okay. First of, what is your name? Seco..."

"Blue." the girl interrupted before he could finish.

"Oh... Oh. Really? Like two weeks ago I me..."

"Really."

Red made a short sound of annoyance before speaking again "Let me finish what I want to say before you answer, okay?"

To his surprise, the girl remained completely silent for around 20 seconds.

"Are... Are you okay?"

"Oh. I just wasn't sure if you were done talking." she answered with a clearly honest look in her eyes.

"That's... fair. Anyway, my name is Red. I just wanted to say that it's weird that we are both named after colors since I met a guy named Green some time ago."

"Is it weird? Maybe we just all have parents with weak imagination."

"Yes." Red answered dumbfounded "That's certainly a possibility. But, what's more important than that is why did you sneak into my camp at 4 o'clock?"

"Oh. That wasn't on purpose. You see, I have my own camp over there." she said while pointing somewhere far away.

Red squinted his eyes to notice what could be a blue tent, about 200 meters away.

"Man, you have good eyesight. But, since your camp is over there, what are you doing here?"

The girl went into deep thought "I remember setting up the camp, eating some of my cookies, drinking juice and going to sleep... Then I woke up in the middle of the night and noticed that Bell was missing so I started to look around for him. When I finally found him, I was too tired to go back, and that's when I noticed that he was right in front of some place with blankets and a pillow so I went to sleep. That's about all I can remember."

"I... I think that's all you need to remember. By "Bell" you mean that thing?" Red asked while pointing at the mysterious flower he found during the night.

"Oh! I was so hungry that I forgot completely that he was there. Hey, Beeell!"

The flower moved, revealing that the yellow part was its head, as its small eyes opened. It slowly managed to pull its roots up from the ground, as Red was passing it by to finally get to his Pokedex.

"Huh. A Bellsprout. Grass... no surprise there. Also poison... Hmm. Well... After you get changed..." Red turned to the girl with a small blush on his face "...you can come back to eat some more if you want."

"Oh. Thanks for the offer. I'll be glad to take you up on that. Bell must also be hungry."

"Vee!"

The trainers turned their heads to the campfire to notice Eevee using its paw to hit a Weedle which was trying to get away with one of Red's berries. But the bug wasn't alone. A group of four other Weedle's took the chance provided by their friend to steal the other berries.

"Hey! Get back here!" Red yelled while running after the thieves.

When the bugs noticed that they couldn't outrun him, they began giving out a cry for help. The boy heard a buzzing sound getting closer and closer, and finally an angry face of a Beedrill appeared right in front of him. He managed to dodge its drill and jump back to a safe distance.

"If that's how you want to play... Eevee, it's time to teach these bozos a lesson."

"Wait." Blue interrupted before the dog could answer his trainers call.

She and Bellsprout walked by Red, stopping a short distance from Beedrill.

"I wanna pay you back for not getting angry at me for sleeping in your camp and for giving me food. At the same time... please never use the word "bozos" again." she said, giving Red a glare during those last words.

"O... Okay. Yeah. The floor... or I guess, the ground is yours."

The leader of the bug Pokemon wasn't too patient. He seemed confused with the exchange between the trainers for a short while but he quickly went on the offensive again. He tried to hit Blue with a Twineedle, but Bell jumped in front and knocked the attack to the side, causing the bug to miss.

Beedrill shifted his attention to the Grass Pokemon. He tried to use Twineedle again, but Bellsprout jumped out of the way and after receiving a command from Blue, used Vine Whip to catch one of Beedrill's arms and slam him into a tree. This caused the bug to go into a frenzy. He tried to hit his foe with a Fury Attack but due to his slim and nimble body, Bellsprout managed to dodge every attack while walking backwards. When the last hit was about to land, the plant Pokemon waited a little longer before jumping out of the way. Beedrill tried to follow him, only to notice that his drill was stuck in the tree.

"Hey. That's actually a good tactic." Red commented.

"I see that you underestimated me." Blue responded while jokingly making a sulking face.

"Ah. Sorry." the boy blushed out of embarrassment.

"I'm just joking. It's time to end this anyway. Bell, use Sleep Powder."

A cloud of white spores created from the leaves of the flower Pokemon fell on Beedrill's face, putting him to sleep. Bellsprout took the opportunity and proceeded to use Vine Whip on his opponent. This caused the bug to finally get released from the tree, but also to be knocked out for real. The group of Weedle's looked with worry at their leader, but they still seemed eager to fight back. Bell looked back to his trainer, and after receiving a nod of approval, he used Growth to make himself look much larger. This scared the Bug Pokemon for good. After they ran away, Blue congratulated Bell on his victory.

"Thanks for helping me out." said Red.

"Well, now we're even."

"I wanted to ask you... where are you travelling to?"

"Oh. I'm planning to collect Gym badges so I'm on my way to Pewter City."

"Well, you'll be happy to know that it's also my destination."

"Why would I be happy to know that?"

"Aah... Well, you seemed to like the berries I made so you could eat more of them if we travelled together."

Blue jumped away while doing something akin to a martial arts fighting stance, with Bell trying to copy her.

"My mom warned me about going along with strangers. How do I know that you're not gonna do something nasty to me?"

Red blushed again, and yelled out with a cracking voice "I already had the opportunity to! I didn't do anything, did I?!"

"Hmm. Yeah. I guess I can trust you." Blue calmed down "Oookay. I'm gonna get changed in my tent and will be back in a couple minutes."

"Fine. Take your time."

"On the other hand, I'm a little disappointed." Blue whispered, again making that sulking face, as she walked away towards her camp.

Red scratched himself on the head, thinking about what he just got himself into, when he heard Eevee's panicked barking. The only berry still on a stick was beginning to burn up, so the boy frantically tried to save it from the fire.


I decided to not do the talking before the chapter part. Since I can't comment on the chapter without spoling it, there sometimes just isn't a lot to say, so it's better if I just write here.

So, Red got himself a travelling companion. I didn't really expect Blue to turn out in this way. I had some plans for her, but her character was more bland, making me rethink of why would she even travel with Red. If she was just there to cheer him on like sometimes is the case in these types of stories it would be no good. So I made her into this quirky girl who goes from 0 to a 100 as soon as she gets something to eat. I've been watching some Lucky Star and K-on clips on youtube so I feel like they were a sort of inspiration for her character.

Also, the chapter wasn't planned out in such a way. The original idea seemed too similar to the second chapter so I change everything. The only thing I was sure of, is that I wanted the Bellsprout and Beedrill fight in there. All the comedic and "romantic", if you can call it that, stuff just kinda happened. I don't really have a name for the next chapter. I have an idea, but I think it's too lame so I'm not even gonna mention it. But as a preview, I can say that the heroes are already gonna be in Pewter City at the beginning of the next chapter.