Pokémon Red (Book 2)

Breath of Dragonite

Lyra's POV

And there were we, finally coming out of the Ice Path. It was night time and we decided to stay at the Pokecenter. Red and Ethan went upstairs to their rooms. As for me, I went to the nearest gift shop I could find.

I entered a shop, filled with items ranging from kid's toys to antiques. I browsed the shelves for the most suitable gift for my cousin, Red. He was going to turn 11 the very next day.

And the gift had to be a special one, besides, you don't turn 11 every year.

"What are you looking for young lady?" Asked a man in an Australian accent. "I must be able to help you."

The man had a grey face mask on, the one that people may want to wear 6 years from now in a global pandemic. His eyes seemed very familiar to me, I had seen those eyes before, and I knew just the person whose eyes they were. But his hair were white, if only they were black...

"Miss?" He repeated. "How may I help?"

"I'm not sure what I want to buy." I said. "You see it's my brothers birthday tomorrow, he'll be eleven."

The smile smiled, of course I couldn't see his smile but his eyes and facial muscle movement told me so.

He then looked for something in his desk's drawers. The table had a name written on it - Robert Sbaraglia, which I assumed was the man's name.

He pulled out a small box from one of his table's drawers and placed it gently on the table. The wooden box seemed decades old.

The box had RGS written on it. The R was red in color, G was gold and the S was also in gold. The font for GS was different than that of R.

It was curious that the GS almost looked like the mark on the GS Ball and the R was somewhat like Team Rocket's logo. Or I could just be imagining things.

"Sir, what does the RGS mean?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Oh that, it's short for Robert gift shop." He said. "This shop is nearly 15 years old. I started off collecting antique items but then I just turned it into a normal gift shop." He walked to the window and looked outside. "Ah the old days, I remember there used to be a lot of chaos because of those Rockets in Kanto, which made me come here to Johto where it was so peaceful."

He opened the box. "Anyways, here is something you'd like to give your brother. I hope he's a trainer and this is something a trainer would want." He handed me a small stone-like device. "It's an experience share."

"A what?"

"An experience share, if held by a strong Pokemon, it will make other Pokemon in the party level up. It's something my uncle gave me, it can be used to level up the team faster." Said the shop owner.

I thought I would buy it for myself and give Red something else as a gift. But then, it'll be bad, I'm not that kind of a person.

"I was wondering if you had another?"

"I'm sorry." He said. "But it's one of a kind."

"How much for it?" I asked. "It must be expensive."

"Oh no, no." He said. "I won't be charging for this. You see it's something I had to hand someone, obviously. Well, I won't let you go like that would I?"