Rising Stones

Our Adventure Begins

It's a beautiful, sunny morning. Crazy how the weather is so perfect for this day. Today is going to be the best day of my life. It's my 10th birthday as well as my best friend Steven's. This is pretty much the best birthday ever. Steven and I are going to get our first Pokémon! We'll get to go out into the world and explore. We can beat gym leaders. Maybe someday we'll even get to challenge the Pokémon League...

"Lily, it's 7:30. Come get breakfast so you can be on time," my mom calls from the kitchen.

"Right, one second!" I respond.

I rush over to my dresser and hurriedly change into my clothes. They're orange, my favorite color-ok, second favorite. My favorite color is purple, because that's what color my hair is. I'll tell you the story of that later, but for now I need to get ready.

I run into the kitchen and grab a Pecha Berry muffin, stuffing it into my mouth.

"Be careful, Lily," my mom says. "You can't go on a journey if you've choked before you start."

"Ah now," I say struggling to keep the muffin from killing me.

Somehow I manage to eat it quickly and without dying. I grab my bag that I got as an early birthday gift from my dad. He's a scientist who works at the space center in Mossdeep. Since we live in Rustboro, he has to get up really early to ride a Swellow to work, and he gets home really late. Because of these scheduling obstacles, he gave me his present last night.

Slinging the bag over my shoulder, I hurry to the door. "Bye Mom!" I call. "I'll come back after I get my Pokémon, so I'll see you soon."

"Alright, just remember to be careful. Don't get into any trouble before you have a Pokémon to defend you."

I nod, and hurriedly run over to Steven's house.

I knock on the door, and his mom answers it.

"Oh, hello, Lily!" she says. "Come on in, Steven is just finishing some preperations."

"Thanks, Mrs. Stone!" I walk in and sit on their couch. As I wait, I look through my new bag and make sure that I put everything I need in.

Fold-up Mach bike? Check.
Potions? Check.
Pokénav? Check.

Since I'm just starting my Pokémon adventure, that's all I need for now.

Just then, Steven comes down the stairs. "Hi, Lily," he says. "Ready to head over to Professor Birch's lab?" he asks.

"Yup, let's go!"

"Bye, Mom, see you later," Steven says over his shoulder as we walk out.

We pull out our bikes and unfold them. I still can't understand how you can fold a bike up small enough to fit it in a bag, nor do I get how the same bike can be stable enough to be ridden when unfolded. Oh well, that's stuff to be understood by people like Steven's dad, who works at Devon. Devon is the company that manufactures pretty much every mechanical item in Hoenn. They design Pokéballs and stuff.

Oops, I got off track. That's a bad habit of mine. Anyway...

We pull out our bikes and unfold them.

"We'll be biking to Littleroot Town," I say while pulling out my Pokénav. I open up the map on it.

"We'll have to go through Petalburg Woods," Steven points out. "But since we're on the North side of it, we can take the shortcut by jumping the ledges."

I nod. "We have to go through a route, and then we'll get to Petalburg. There's a gym there, maybe we can challenge it once we get our Pokémon!"

Steven shook his head. "I doubt it. Pokémon gyms are challenges even for experienced trainers. We'll have to get used to battling before we step foot in a gym."

"Oh yeah," I say disappointedly. "Well, after Petalburg we have to go through another route. Oldale is at the end of that route."

"Yeah, then we just have to go through a short route and we'll be in Littleroot!"

"Awesome! Let's get going!"

"Let's do it!"

We straddle our bikes and pedal on our way.