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[welcome2silenc3-blog]

FireRedWedlocke - Ethan Pt.2

Part 2: Making Friends in the Forest

Route 1 was very familiar, the only land route out of my small town.

Clover and I walked into the grass, starting the long road to the first stop on our journey. I took a deep breath, clenching my backpack straps as we soon left Pallet town behind.

“Master?” Clover asked, looking up at me.

“You can just call me Ethan, Clover.” I said, rolling my eyes.

Clover seemed a little surprised, “Ok...master.”

I rolled my eyes again but understood his reluctance. Many pokemon were treated as tools or warriors, but not a lot of pokemon on a journey to the Pokemon League were treated totally as friends. We had almost reach Viridian City when we heard a quiet scream, followed by the squawking of birds.

“Did you hear that?” I asked Clover. He nodded in response as we ran over to the source of the noises, pushing through some small grass to see a small clearing where a rattata was being surrounded by three pidgeys, taking turns dive-bombing the poor creature who was curled up on the ground to protect itself.

“S-shes in danger,” Clover said, shaking a little.

“Let’s stop ‘em!” I said, running towards the group and waving my arms around in an attempt to scare them away. Clover followed closely behind, bringing out his vines and snapping them like a whip to get the bird’s attention. The pidgeys turned from their prey to face us, and will some yelling and vine whips we scared them off back into the woods.

The rattata uncurled itself, looking up at us with tears in her eyes “T-thank y-you...” she said, crying a little.

“What happened to you?” Clover said, face full of worry.

“I was trying to get an oran berry, but...they wanted it too.” She sighed, getting up slowly, her left front leg quivering. There were several red marks, some still bleeding, and as she tried to walk she collapsed.

Clover’s vines zoomed under her, catching her before she hit the dirt. I kneeled down, taking off my backpack and shuffling through it for a potion. “Hold on, this will make you feel better.” I grabbed her leg tentatively while Clover held her, spraying the wound and then wrapping it as she winced in silence.

“I’ve never seen such a kind trainer.” The rattata said, still held by Clover. “Most wouldn’t even stop to intervene.”

“We couldn’t just leave after hearing your scream,” Clover said, letting her down.

“What are your names?” She asked.

“I’m Ethan, and this is Clover. What’s yours?” I responded.

“I’m Mizune.” Mizune looked at Clover, who still seemed worried. “What’s wrong, Clover?” She asked.

“Are you going to be okay? If you want...you can join us, right?” Clover looked up at me.

I thought about it for a moment, and nodded “Yeah if you want to Mizune I would be glad to have you on the team.”

Mizune turned around and looked at the clearing and the nearby woods. “Yes...it’s been so lonely here and you two are very nice.” I leaned down and tapped her with a pokeball, catching Mizune. I then released her from the pokeball as we walked back to the main path, soon reaching Viridian City.

                                                ~1 Day Later~

We all spent the night at a Pokemon Center, and were soon onto Route 2 now with two more companions who...weren’t quite getting along.

Before we left town we stopped at the start of a path that would lead to the Pokemon League. Clover and Mizune wanted to take a look, but we were not prepared yet.

“One day,” I said, staring up at a large building peeking over the trees and rocky hills, “we are going to make my dad proud by becoming champions.” I grinned, a feeling of excited energy surging within me. As we were leaving the start of the route we ran into a spearow, who swooped at Clover since we were too close to its nest.

Clover dodged and a short fight broke out, and I managed to catch the spearow.

Her name is Vivian, and she is not happy about the situation. As we got onto Route 2 I released her for the first time and asked her some questions. Her name was Vivian, and that’s about all she would tell me.

“Just leave me alone.” Vivian glared at me, hopping a little farther ahead of us.

Mizune sighed, sitting on top of Clover as her leg still hurt. “I guess she doesn’t want to be friends with us.”

“Give her time!” A nasal voice said from above.

“Oh no...” Vivian said, stopping in her tracks.

We all looked up to see a pidgey circling us, landing down next to Vivian.

“What are you doing here?” Vivian asked, looking away from him.

“Well, I saw you get captured and wanted to come with you.” He looked at the rest of us, “My name is Aquilo and Vivi here is a real sweetheart.” Vivian responded with a swift wing slap.

“Aquilo, you want to be part of the team?” I asked.

“Yeah, Vivi and I have been watching these tough looking trainers walk up to the Pokemon League every few days. Ever since we were little we wanted to be as strong as them.” Aquilo grinned, wrapping a wing around Vivian and bringing her close. “We’ve always been good friends.”

“Well, nice to meet you Aquilo.” Clover said walking up to them, Vivian now arguing with Aquilo about something. But despite her vicious words, she seemed much happier. I looked ahead at our small team, that feeling of excitement growing bigger, and I laughed at the four of them as I quickly followed them into Viridian Forest.

The canopy was huge, sunlight filtered through the dense leaves. It was like a small maze, and bug pokemon were all over the place.

We were about halfway through, fighting other trainers and eventually ran into a caterpie. His name was Barry, and he was a strange one.

Barry was too small to be much of a fighter but seemed to be really interested in human culture. Over course of several months, he gathered books, scraps of newspaper, and anything he could find that had been lost in the forest. He loved literature and eagerly wanted to journey across Kanto and see all the places described in the newspaper clippings. He fell out of a tree and wriggled into my backpack, and I quickly took it off to see if it was going for my food, but I couldn’t find the caterpie anywhere.

Turns out he touched a pokeball and got himself captured.

“I just want to see the world!” Barry declared, excitedly wriggling about, crawling into my backpack and then peeking his head out of it, “Do you have any books?”

“No, sorry.” I said with a grin “You’re a strange little guy.”

As we all talked and got to know Barry, there was a rustling off in the bushes. We were nearly out of the forest, and I didn’t think much of it. I returned Barry, and as we started to walk a needle came flying out of the bush, piercing Aquilo’s right wing. Aquilo winced in pain, and I told Vivian to attack the enemy. Vivian was already in the bush, and flew into a fit of rage, beating up the Weedle.

I looked at the wound as Vivian returned, seeing a purple liquid seeping from the wound, and Aquilo was breathing heavy as he sweated.

“He’s poisoned!” I yelled, returning everyone who couldn’t run as fast as me and picked up Aquilo, sprinting forward on the path to Pewter City.

Happy moments can become nightmares in a split second, and Oak’s words echoed back to me.

“It is imperative to not let your guard down.”

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Next Time: Grief in Pewter City

[welcome2silenc3-blog]

FireRedWedlocke - Ethan Pt.1

Part 1: A New Journey(I)

I had always wanted to become a pokemon trainer. Today was going to be that special day, the day I finally got one of my own. I walked down the road towards professor Oak's lab, full of nervous energy. Soon enoguh I reached the lab, walking in through the front door. I nodded and waved to several scientists as I made my way to the back of the buidling, eventually coming to a small room where Oak stood looking out a window at the forest nearby.

Oak turned around hearing my footsteps, "Ah, Ethan." He said to me as I noticed a desk with three pokeballs sitting next to each other in a line. "It's finally time for you to leave Pallet Town and go on a journey of your own..." He waved his hand at the desk, "take your pick."

"GRAMPS!" a harsh voice shrieked, running down the hall and into the room; nearly running me over as he skid to a halt.

"Yes, Gary?" Professor Oak said with a smile.

"I'm going to pick my pokemon first!" Gary sneered.

"Well, looks like I got here first," I said walking over to the desk and picking up one of the pokeballs. Gary was arguing with Oak off to the left of me but I was intensely focused on this decision. "I choose...you!" I said, throwing out a pokeball

A cute  bulbasaur appeared on the desk in front of me, looking up at me with curiosity.

“What’s your name?” I asked him, leaning down to meet his eyes.

“Clover.” The bulbasaur replied before being pushed to the right by Gary so he could reach one of the pokeballs.

“Hey!” I shouted at him, “Don’t hurt Clover!”

“Heh, I guess he must be as weak as you to get hurt by that.” Gary smirked as he picked his pokemon

“Charmander!” He yelled, releasing him by the desk. “Care to fight, see if he really is that much of a weakling?”

I glared at Gary as Clover looked down from the desk at Charmander, a little uncomfortable at the Charmander’s serious expression.

“Charmander, use scratch.” Gary said nonchalantly.

The Charmander lunged at Clover, scratching the left side of his face. Clover reeled back, hurt, but still standing strong.

“Clover, let’s show this jerk what we’re made of!” I yelled. “Use tackle!” Bulbasaur launched himself off of the table and slammed into Charmander, knocking him back several feet.

“Tch.” Gary sneered again. “Charmander, keep it up until he’s cut into little pieces.” 

“Clover! Tackle him before he can get to you!” Clover nodded at me, breathing heavily. Out of the pokeball and into a battle so soon? Clover knew he had to impress his new master, but felt a little overwhelmed.

Luckily the match lasted a short time, the two pokemon trading blows until Charmander fell over onto the ground, tail slumped down beside him.

Proffesor Oak stepped towards the small Pokemon, nodding. “It seems Charmander has fainted.”

Gary glowered at me, returning his Charmander. “Next time I’m going to show you how tough I can be. No more going easy on you.”

“Sure.” I replied with a grin, crossing my arms “I’d like to see you try.”

Professor Oak was quiet as Gary left the lab, the door slamming as he stomped off. “That was well done, Ethan, but remember not to become arrogant. Arrogance leades to complacency...and in a journey like the one you will be attempting it is imperative to not let your guard down.”

Clover looked worried as I nodded. “I know, but we aren’t going to lose, right?” I squatted down and hugged the slightly distressed bulbasaur.

As we left, walking side by side, to my house neither of us knew the true pain that the long journey ahead would cause, that the heights of joy would be met with deep sorrow. But for now, we were still children entering a new world...

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Next Time: Part 2  - Making Friends in the Forest