A Natural Occurrence [Pokemon]

Chapter 2: There's a Catch

Chapter 2: There’s a Catch

 

Mmm. Chocolate milk. The best part of breakfast. The cereal I eat every morning turns the milk to chocolate if left long enough. And I always leave it long enough.

Spike grunted from beside me. I had completely forgotten about him. I swiped a can of pokéfood from the table and cracked it open, placing it on the floor for him. My Rhyhorn let out a happy chortle and dug into his breakfast. I watched him for a moment. He seemed to be determined to make the biggest mess possible.

“Oh, Spike,” my Mum groaned. “Every time.” She kneeled down and started wiping the crumbs off the floor as Spike ate. She stopped and glanced at my bowl of cereal. “Like trainer, like Pokémon, I suppose.”

I smiled, pretending to be hurt. “Like mother, like son.”

My Mum tilted her head and wagged a finger at me. “You watch it, kid. Remember who feeds you.” She turned back around, but before she could, I caught her smile.

There was a few moments devoid of chatter as I finished off my cereal, and then my Mum piped up again. “Did you think about what I told you yesterday?”                                         

“Yeah, a little,” I replied. “I do want to go on a journey, just . . . not yet.” 

“You’ve been saying that for the past four years, Hamish,” my Mum pointed out. Ouch. For most of my early childhood, I had dreamed of going on a journey around the region and becoming a Pokémon master, like most great people seemed to be doing these days. Problem was, I had had to wait til I was ten years old to actually, officially, become registered as a Pokémon trainer.

“I’m not trying to pressure you into it,” my Mum said, throwing up her hands like I was aiming a gun at her. “It’s just you used to seem so keen to do it. But now . . .”            

“I don’t really need to go anywhere anytime soon,” I said, more to myself than my mother. “Why would I, when it’s so much easier staying here with you and Dad?”    

Mum frowned. “Whatever you say . . .”

I frowned, too. I didn’t need this conversation right now. I took my last spoonful of cereal, and stalked out of the room. Spike’s whine followed me, probably enquiring as to what was wrong. I pulled out his pokéball and returned him to it.

                                                   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

After a stroll through the town and around the base of the surrounding mountains, I let Spike out of his pokéball. He immediately looked up at me with a concerned expression.

“You know how it is, Spike,” I said, rubbing the flat area just behind his horn. “We have a few moments of shining brilliance, but the rest . . .” Spike nodded, understanding. “And then everyone expects all of my moments to be brilliant, since that’s what Dad’s like.”

Spike looked at me for a second, then wandered over to the edge of the little ledge we were standing on. The ledge jutted out of the easy slope up the base of the mountain. Further up, it steepened, but down here, it was flat enough for entire groves of trees to grow. I came here often, to think, usually. Spike stared out over the surrounding fields and into the distance. He caught me looking, and pointed into the distance with his horn.

It took me a second to realize what he meant. “You think we should go on a journey?” The Rhyhorn nodded. “I guess . . . we could become stronger . . .”