Destiny [Pokémon]

❥ chapter III

Junia and you left the hospital room the two Ralts were sleeping in shortly afterwards to part ways and fulfill your duties as a nurse. You pushed the thoughts about your encounter with Ho-Oh to the back of your mind so as to be able to fully concentrate on your work and not get distracted with puzzling over the meaning of all this. The well-being of Pokémon was in your hands, and you couldn't allow yourself to slack off.

In fact, you were so preoccupied with work and taking care of the Pokémon brought to the clinic that you nearly forgot all about what had happened in the grove—until your shift was over, that was, and you were changing from your nurse uniform back into your normal clothes in the women's dressing room. While checking the uniform's pockets for any objects you might have put there during the day and neglected to dispose of or put back, like pens and leftover gauze, you almost pricked your finger on the feather's pointed shaft.

"Ow." You gently sucked on the fingertip to soothe the pain, using your other hand to pull the feather out of the pocket, careful not to damage it. Once again, you near-instantly began marvelling at its bright colours that glistened even in the artificial light of the ceiling lamps.

This was the very proof of Ho-Oh revealing itself before you.

You hadn't given any more thought to that ever since you had gone back to work after treating the pair of Ralts. But now that the memories came flooding back into your mind, you found yourself pondering over the meaning of this encounter once more. Assuming the tales about Ho-Oh were true and it really, truly, seriously had designated you as a "pure-hearted Trainer" ... Just what in the world did that mean?

Alas—or perhaps fortunately, since you felt the throb of an oncoming headache—your train of thoughts didn't get any farther than that, because a voice right next to your ear caused the train to derail abruptly.

"Everything alright? Did you hurt yourself?" Amelia, one of your fellow nurses whose night shift was about to start, was leaning in close to get a look at your finger which you still had in your mouth. Her bright blue eyes immediately landed on the feather in your hand. "Oh, what a pretty feather! Where'd you get that?"

"Oh, in the grove," you answered, wiping your index finger on your jeans. You definitely wouldn't tell Amelia the whole truth, hence you added, not missing a beat, "I saw it lying on the ground and just had to pick it up, you know?"

"I get you! It's far too beautiful to leave it lying on the ground. Man, I wish I'd find something so pretty by chance ..." Without so much as a by-your-leave, she took the feather from your hand and gently tucked it behind your ear, brushing a few errant strands of hair out of your face and then stepping back to look at you. "Looks really good on you!" she said with a nod of approval, contented with her handiwork. "Make sure you don't lose it. That'd be such a shame. You should glue it on a plastic headband so that you can wear it wherever you go!"

"I'll think about it." You smiled while inspecting yourself in the small mirror on the inside of your locker's door. Amelia was right, the feather really did suit you. With its colour-changing trait, it complemented both your hair and your eyes. "Thanks, Am."

"You're welcome!" She then glanced at the clock hanging on the wall above the door and quickly fixed her nurse uniform, flashing you a vibrant smile. "Well then, gotta go. See you soon, [Nickname]!"

"See you!" you called after your co-worker, but she had already dashed out the door in a whirlwind of blonde and white.

Considering that she was going to spend the next several hours here with two other nurses and one doctor to look after the few Pokémon that had to stay in the clinic overnight to get proper rest and/or medical treatment—like those two Ralts from Lucus Grove—she was surprisingly still full of vim and vigour.

Smiling to yourself about Amelia's zestful antics, you took your bag from the locker and slung its strap over your shoulder. Before exiting the room as well, you checked the other lockers to see if one of your female colleagues had forgotten something, but that wasn't the case. Thus, you left for the waiting room in the front of the small clinic.

Your mom, your dad, and you were always the last from the day shift to leave the clinic, making sure that the night shift personnel were, first off, completely present and, secondly, feeling well and fit for their work. After all, your parents were the founders of this clinic. It was their job as the chief physicians to ensure the well-being of not only their patients, but their subordinates as well.

In the waiting room, your parents were talking to the consultant of the night shift's team of nurses. Noticing your arrival, they waved you, both with loving smiles on their faces, and waited for you to walk over to them after they had finished their conversation with the consultant, who greeted you with a nod as he walked past you.

"Oh, what's that?" your dad immediately asked upon spotting the colourful feather behind your ear.

"A feather I found in the grove." You hesitated only for a split second, eyes briefly flickering, before you added, "Actually, there's something I want to tell you. Something ..." You paused, suddenly unsure—would they believe you?—and scratched your neck. "Something happened in the grove, but I'd rather tell you at home, when we're alone."

Your dad exchanged looks with your mom, and then they both simultaneously nodded in agreement. "Alright, honey. Let's go home then." He placed a hand on top of your head, affectionately ruffling your hair and eliciting a yelp of protest from you.

"Dad!" you exclaimed in a whiny voice. You shot him a reproachful look, but that only made him laugh. With a pout, you smoothed down your hair and readjusted the feather.

"Come on now, you two," your mom said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she tried not to laugh out loud. Though she couldn't help but let out an amused snicker at the banter of your dad and you. "You don't want to miss the ferry, do you?"

And so, the three of you headed home, leaving the clinic and walking down the streets of Hydra Town toward the ferry landing in the east harbor. But on the entire way there, you were immersed in your thoughts, brooding over your encounter with the Legendary Pokémon in the grove and trying to make sense of it all. To do so, you picked up your train of thought from earlier again: Ho-Oh declaring you as a "pure-hearted Trainer."

The problem with that was that you weren't even a Pokémon Trainer to begin with. You had never fought a Pokémon battle before, let alone caught a wild Pokémon on your own. You had only played and worked with them so far—and all those Pokémon had either been docile, wild ones, or belonged to other people. Hell, you had never even set foot on the mainland! You had been living on Hydrus Island your whole life, commuting between your home in Hydrus Village and your school and workplace in Hydra Town on the neighbour island nearly every day.

But it wasn't like you didn't want to become a Trainer either ... well, sort of, at least. It was pretty much a necessity to be a Pokémon Trainer to travel across the regions because of all the wild Pokémon that could possibly attack you wherever you went.

One of the very first things you had learned from both your parents and your teachers in preschool was that you should never ever walk into tall grass if you didn't have a Pokémon with you or at least weren't accompanied by someone who had one. And even with your special ability, some Pokémon just weren't open to reason and your attempts to placate them.

Anyways, the point was that, right now, you weren't a Pokémon Trainer, just a (mostly) normal high schooler and nurse helping out at her parents' clinic for Pokémon.

Meaning that the rumour about Ho-Oh showing itself only to a pure-hearted Trainer didn't apply to you, simple as that. And that was confusing you—very much so. Maybe the legends weren't true after all? However, you were still seemingly the only one who had seen the rainbow-coloured bird, and that surely had to mean something.