Mels' Journey

Day Two- Winter Flames

Catching a Pokemon is surprisingly hard. I'm sure it's easier when you already have a Pokemon to start out with. Pidoves fly away if you get near them, deerlings are too fast to grab, and cubchoos are protected by their mama beartics. After chasing pokemon through the snow all morning, I sit down on a stump to rest. There's no point in chasing after these pokemon when I have no chance of catching them whatsoever. I guess I can ask some people in Mistralton if they could catch a pokemon for me, or even let me use their pokemon to catch one for myself.
I can see Mistralton up ahead when I smell smoke. I look up into the air to see clouds of smoke billowing through the air. They're coming from the west, so I start running in that direction to see what's going on. Almost immediately I spot flaming trees. A forest fire? But it's mid-winter. Closer to the trees it grows extremely hot and wet, for all the snow has melted into puddles.
Fire is dangerous, I should be turning back. But something about the immense difference between the cold snow and the hot fire fascinates me. The fact that there is fire in a snowy area makes the fire feel like its burning hotter. I stare in wonder at the burning trees, even though I can feel the essence of my parents screaming to run away, that I'll get hurt. In the middle of a ring of flaming trees sits a small pokemon I haven't seen before, breathing heavily. It has a small orange body and a tuft of fur on its head that resembles a flame. It is some kind of bird pokemon, with a beak and bird feet. It seems to be angry in some way, shooting flames at trees every few seconds. The trees are quite charred and sway in the wind.
"Hey!" I shout to it. "Be careful, those trees are going to fall!" I point to the trees, but the pokemon doesn't seem to understand me. A loud creaking noise causes us to both look to a tall pine tree that's starting to fall.
"Get out of the way!!" I shout, realizing the little bird is in line with the falling tree. It doesn't move, only stares at the tree. Its falling now, and without thinking, I start running towards the pokemon. I grab it as I run past, diving in hopes of missing the tree.
We land in a puddle as the tree collides with the ground. The main trunk misses us, but the needle-laced branches crash down around us. I push myself up through the thinner branches, the pokemon still in my arms. I'm scraped up, but not too badly injured overall. I look over the pokemon, and I'm relieved to see that I protected it from the branches of the tree.
It's raining now, or- no, it's not. A trainer and her duklett are standing on the edge of the line of flaming trees, and the duklett is spraying the trees with water. I hurry in that direction to avoid any other trees that might fall. The fires seem to all be put out now.
"Dude, control your pokemon!" The trainer girl says. "It could've burnt the whole forest down!"
"It's not mine!" I exclaim. "I was on my way to Mistralton when I saw smoke, so I came to see what was happening."
"And I assume this is a WILD torchic?" The trainer asks sarcastically.
"What do you mean? Of course it's wild!" I say.
"Torchic don't just live in the wild around here. Geez, won't even take responsibility for your own pokemon..."
Before I can respond, the trainer calls out a pellipper and jumps on it, flying away.
I stand there, not believing what just happened. Why wouldn't she believe me when I told her this wasn't my pokemon?
I look down at the pokemon. What did she call it again? Tortoise?
I set the bird down and scan it with the pokedex built in to my c-gear, a brand new feature.
"Torchic, the chick pokemon." The pokedex voice says. "Number 255 in the national pokedex. It has a flame inside it that always burns, causing it to be warm to the touch. It is found in the Hoenn region."
"Hoenn!?" I exclaim, looking down at the little pokemon. "How did you get here?"
The pokedex plays a short clip of the noise torchics make, and it cocks its head to the side. I read some information about it and when I get to the line that says its a fire type, I remember my parents words. Stay away from fire types.
"You should be more careful from now on, okay?" I tell Torchic. It blinks and makes a soft noise back that sounds like 'chikku chikku'.
I start walking and ignore the sound of small footsteps behind me. No fire types. My parents will kill me. Though, what better chance do I have to catch a pokemon? I could just catch this one and use it to catch others, then release it later. My parents don't have to know...
No, follow the rules. I keep walking, faster now. The footsteps increase in pace as we crunch through some snow. At the gates to Mistralton, I glance over my shoulder. Torchic is still happily following behind me, talking to itself, or maybe it's talking to me? It's cute chatter is slowly winning me over. I consult a map in the town and make my way to the pokemart, where I pick out some more pokeballs a and a few potions.
"Will that be all?" The clerk asks me.
"Yes, that's it." I say. The clerk hands me a paper bag with my items in it, then leans closer to me.
"I added a few extra treats for that adorable torchic you've got there." He says. My face turns red and I thank him before leaving the store. I sit down on a bench outside of the shop and Torchic hops up next to me. I look in the bag and find a few pokepuffs and gummis.
"I guess these are yours." I say. I hold out an orange pokepuff in the palm of my hand and Torchic instantly grabs it, swallowing it in one bite. It then looks at the other ones in my hand. I hold out a green one next, and it swallows it whole again.
"You must be pretty hungry." I say, giving it a gummi. It goes through all the treats from the shopkeeper, and looks up at me, expecting more.
"I can't tell if you're really hungry or you just like to eat." I say, laughing a little. I take off my backpack and dig through it, looking for the pokemon food my mom packed. I find some and put it in a little cup for Torchic to eat from.
"Now, leave me alone now, I can't have you following me." I say. "I'm not allowed to have fire-types."
I sneak away while Torchic is eating, and feel horrible for it. I wish I could keep such a cute little pokemon, but I already lost my dad's prized Turtwig. I don't want to do anything else that might make my parents more mad.
I check into a room in the small hotel-like section of the pokecenter that they provide for traveling trainers. It's only been two days, but it feels like I haven't showered in a month. I guess all the walking is taking my body a bit by shock. When I get out of the shower, I change into dry pajamas. Nurse joy has already brought me a small dinner, so I turn on the tv and eat in bed, in my pajamas.
I'm not really listening to the news, it's just background noise. I take a bite of rice and hear a noise from beneath me. I look at the floor just to see Torchic crawling out from beneath the bed.
"What are you doing!?" I exclaim. "I told you to go away!"
Torchic ignores me and jumps up onto the bed with me, snuggling up against me. It is very warm, like the pokedex said. This pokemon obviously wants to be with me for some reason.
"Fires in the winter!" The news reporter says. I look up from my food. The reporter is standing in front of what used to be a building.
"I'm here in Opelucid, where a house has been burnt to the ground! It appears to have been the arsonists, yet again!"
Arsonists? What do they mean, 'yet again'?
"We left to go shopping, and returned home to find this." A lady being interviewed says. "I can't believe that someone would burn down our house! What have we done to them?"
"At least our insurance covers everything. I don't know what we'd do without insurance." A man next to her says. He must be her husband.
My xtransceiver rings and I see a picture of my parents on the screen. I quickly shove Torchic under the covers and mute the tv.
"Hello!" I greet them cheerfully.
"Hello, Melody." My mom says. "Did you make it to Mistralton today?"
"Yeah, I'm here in the pokemon center now. I was just about to go to bed." I say.
"Your dad's already passed out." My mom says. She moves the camera to look at my dad, who's sprawled out across the couch. Me and my mom laugh together.
"Well, goodnight." I say.
"Goodnight, talk to you later."
Once I hang up I let Torchic out from under the covers. It makes a grumpy face and turns its cheek to me.
"Hey, I'm sorry." I say. "My parents can't know about you."
Torchic seems to understand and looks back up at me again, making its happy "Chikku chikku" noise. I give it a berry from my bag and get out of bed. I put on my slippers and walk out to the lobby of the pokemon center. Its pretty empty at this time of night. I walk over to the front counter.
"Hello, would you like me to heal your pokemon?" Nurse Joy asks. Torchic stands at my feet below the counter.
"No, I was just going to ask you some things, if that's okay."
"Yes, that's fine." She says with a smile.
"We'll I was going to ask about the arsonists." I say, motioning to the tv mounted close to the ceiling in the corner of the room. "They talked about the fire on tv like its already happened, but I haven't heard anything about it."
"Oh, there's a bad group of people with fire-type pokemon, they're going around burning down buildings and forests and things. It's starting to be quite a problem, and they can't catch who's doing it. They're all over Unova right now."
"Wow..." I say. If they were just in Opelucid... Could they be heading towards Iccarrus?
"Don't worry, they'll catch them soon. Crime never lasts too long here, we have a good police force."
I bend down to pick up Torchic, and set it on the counter.
"This Torchic was in the forest, burning trees when I found it. It was all by itself, and one of the burning trees almost fell on it, but I saved it. But then this other girl wasn't believing me when I told her I just found Torchic. She said I was just 'not taking responsibility for my actions' or something."
"There are a lot of people who suspect everyone who has a fire-type on their team." She explains. "But don't worry about them, they're just ignorant."
"Thank you so much for this info." I say. "Have a good night."
"You too." She says, waving goodbye.
No wonder that girl in the woods didn't believe me when I said I didn't set the trees on fire. I don't blame her, I would be suspicious too.
When I get back in bed Torchic cuddles up against me.
"You're not going to leave me alone, are you?" I ask. "But if you're going to be my pokemon, you'll need to have a pokeball."
I take out a fresh ball and expand it to its real size. Torchic jumps back and stumbles to the ground. It looks up and makes an angry noise, as if to growl at me.
"What's wrong?" I ask. I realized that Torchic is glaring at the pokeball, not me.
"You don't like pokeballs?" I ask. Torchic turns its head away with a sniff noise. I shrink the ball and put it back in my bag, and Torchic relaxes. It jumps back up onto the bed and sits in my lap.
"The trainer in the woods said that torchics don't like around here, and the pokedex said you come from Hoenn. Do you belong to someone else?"
Torchic shakes its head.
"Did you... Used to belong to someone?"
Torchic nods and looks proud of itself. I wonder if it didn't like its last trainer.
"Tomorrow we'll see how strong you are, we'll battle some wild pokemon on the way to Driftveil. But for now, we should sleep." I tell Torchic. I turn the tv off and pull the covers up. Torchic snuggles up against me, warming me up nicely. It's like a cuddly heated pillow that puts me to sleep right away.