The next morning Kaleigh slowly woke up to a ray of sun coming in from the window and shined onto her face. She opened her eyes slightly before closing them and took a deep breath in as she rubbed her face into the pillow. She laid there for a second before she pushed herself up into a sitting position. It wasn't that often that she slept peacefully. She looked over at Monica's bed, and Kaleigh noticed it was empty. She got up and changed into her new clothes before leaving the bedroom.
"Morning Kaleigh!" Monica greeted as soon as Kaleigh went through the door. "M-Morning" Kaleigh greeted back. "Want anything to eat?" Monica asked as she walked to the kitchen. Kaleigh shook her head but realized Monica didn't notice. "No, I'm okay! I-I'm gonna get going!" Kaleigh called out while she headed to the door.
"Wait, Kaleigh." Kaleigh turned around after she got her shoes on. There Monica and her parents stood. Monica's mother held a backpack in her hands, holding it out to Kaleigh to take. The backpack was white with a black padded back and a pale blue pokeball that opened up an extra pocket, it had one brown strap too.
"We noticed that you were missing things for your journey. This was mine when I had travelled." Monica's father explained as Kaleigh looked at it and then at the three.
"We want you to have it, I added some pokemon food and snacks for you." Monica's mother stated with a warm voice. "And I put that book inside too!" Monica exclaimed.
"Thank you." Kaleigh gently took the backpack and slung the strap over her head and onto her back. Her hand rested on the strap for a moment, her eyes stared at it before she looked at the family.
"Why?" Was all she could get her voice to say. "We just wanted to help." Monica's mother smiled gently at the young girl as she crouched down to Kaleigh's level. "Come back whenever you want, okay?" Kaleigh gave a half smile as she nodded her head and with that, she waved and left the apartment.
Kaleigh made a quick stop at the Poke Mart to grab some potions and an antidote with the last of the money she had before she went to route 6 and she slowed to a stop. She lifted her head to look at the blue sky. Closing her eyes she smiled more feeling the sun and the wind on her. Taking a deep breath she slowly released it with the worries she had. She opened her eyes and pulled her hair back, using a lock of her hair to tie around the rest to hold it into a low ponytail.
As Kaleigh continued down the road out from the tree came a brown and white blur. She quickly pulled out Riolu's pokeball, holding onto it in case the pokemon attacked her. But as she got closer the pokemon seemed to cower away from her. Putting away the pokeball Kaleigh slowly moved closer and crouched down.
"Hey, are you-are you okay?" Kaleigh asked slowly reaching her hand out to it. The pokemon had two long brown ears and a bushy cream-colour collar as well as a bushy tail that had a cream-coloured tip that was rounded.
"Eevee!" It sharply cried batting Kaleigh's hand away. She rubbed her hand closing one eye in pain. Kaleigh looked up as she could faintly hear voices coming towards them.
"How could you let it get away!" "Just find it! It couldn't have gotten far."
Kaleigh looked back down at the little pokemon, it was now facing the direction Kaleigh had been heading, its body shaking. Kaleigh frowned as she pulled off her backpack, unzipped it and opened it for the creature.
"Here, you can hide inside." Kaleigh whispered making the pokemon jolt slightly before looking back and forth to Kaleigh and whoever was coming. The Eevee eventually hopped into the backpack and Kaleigh zipped it just enough and got it back on before taking a couple of steps.
"Hey!" She saw white blurs approaching her, narrowing her eyes she saw it was two men wearing lab coats. Her legs started to shake as they got closer, stopping close enough that made Kaleigh take a step back.
"Wh-what do you-you want?" Her voice was edgy as she spoke. "Have you seen a little Eevee down this road?" The one man questioned a little breathy as he was a bit overweight and panting heavily.
"No." Kaleigh denied, forcing her legs to move forward towards them. "I have somewhere to be." The other man then stepped into Kaleigh's path stopping her. "Do I know you? You look familiar…" Kaleigh's eyes moved to glare up at the man.
"No, you don't. Now move." Kaleigh demanded. This made the man a bit irritated as he said. "Child you need to learn some manners." He reached out to grab her shirt, but she turned her body out of the way and took a few steps away to put some distance between them. She could feel her heart racing inside her chest, which activated Riolu to come out of his pokeball.
"Riolu!" He shouted facing the threat. Kaleigh took a small breath to calm herself. "I think you could learn some more than me." Kaleigh countered crossing her arms over her chest. "Sir, we should continue the search." The bigger man stated placing a hand on the shoulder of the other. "Fine." Was the only answer given before the two walked around Kaleigh and went on.
Kaleigh started to walk once her path was clear, walking with Riolu for a while before feeling safe from the scientist. She pulled off the backpack and unzipped it to let the Eevee out. Poking its head out to look around Eevee slowly came out and looked up at Kaleigh.
"Ri?" Riolu tilted his head as he got closer to Eevee making it squeak and jump away. "Hey, hey it's okay. He won't hurt you." Kaleigh then reached into her backpack and pulled out the potion she bought. "C-Can I help you?" She asked while she held out her hand. Eevee looked at Kaleigh's hand before up at her face, full of worry for the pokemon.
Kaleigh frowned more as she saw Eevee still hesitant of her. She took a deep breath in and out before she put the potion down and looked around. She started to roll up her right sleeve, revealing the burns and scars along her arm.
"I was scared too… Humans and pokemon have hurt me… I won't hurt you, I only want to help." Kaleigh explained, her voice quiet and sympathetic as she held her arm to show Eevee before holding her hand back out to it. Eevee looked at the mangled arm then up at Kaleigh and took a could steps towards her slowly. Kaleigh smiled gently at it and picked up the potion and carefully sprayed Eevee's injuries.
When Kaleigh was finished Eevee moved around a little to find little to no pain. It looked up at Kaleigh and smiled at her hoping around. Kaleigh smiled back happy to see it was okay, she rolled back down her sleeve and stood up. Eevee then ran over to the tree line and looked back at Kaleigh who waved at it.
"You be careful now and stay safe." Kaleigh said before the Eevee then ran off. She then looked down at Riolu and returned him to his pokeball and continued down the road.
