I don't own Pokémon, don't @ me
Under the early evening sky, among tons of foliage, and bug types, were two new friends, walking among a dirt path. Attempting to find their way through the giant green labyrinth that Viridian Forest is. One, a short blonde kid, the other, a small green quadrupedal Pokémon.
By this point, June had long gotten rid of the bad headspace he was in earlier. He was calm, due to the long quiet walk he's been having. Yet at the same time, he was still a little scared and cautious. The sun was starting to set, the sky was a mix of navy blue, light blue, and orange; like earlier when he left town.
Crap, my legs are starting to hurt again, but I wanna keep going, I still wanna be first
As June wanted to push onward, at least until it got dark out, bulbasaur was having none of that, as she gave out a yawn, with her eyes half closed.
June looked down at bulbasaur.
"What is it? Are you tired?"
Bulbasaur stood there, with her eyes still half closed, with a closer look, she looked like she was about to collapse. A few seconds after June asked bulbasaur that question, bulbasaur's expression answered it for him. This raised up a dilemma for June. He wanted to keep walking, but bulbasaur is tired. Well, simple! He could just return it. WRONG! Remember, he still feels uneasy about Viridian Forest, and he wouldn't feel comfortable walking through there without a Pokémon by his side.
"Crap, she's pretty tired..."
"Maybe I could carry her?"
"Hmmm..."
"Crap, crap, cra-"
June was stuck, thinking about what the heck to do, until he saw someone else in the distance, running toward him.
"Hellooooo!" The person shouted out.
June wasn't as freaked out as much this time; he had dealt with enough people yelling for his attention. Even though June was a little freaked out. There was also the fear that he would have a bad experience with them. But alas, he stood still, waiting for the person to approach him.
This could be bad, maybe the person's a jerk....
The person in question, was a boy that had brown hair, was wearing a backwards blue cap, a yellow shirt with a white stripe, and blue shorts, complete with sneakers. He was also about a couple inches taller then June. After the boy approached June, from all that running, he would take a few breaths, before composing himself, and talking to June.
"Uh, excuse me? Have you seen a rattata anywhere? It's about yeh tall, blue skin, red eyes, all that..."
June went into his brain, and tried to think of a time where he saw a ratatta. And... He did!
"Uh yeah, I did see a ratatta earlier"
The other boy's face lit up with joy. "There was that rainstorm a little while ago, me and my bulbasaur..."
June took a quick look at bulbasaur, who was fast asleep...
"Um, uh... YEAH! We went under this big tree. I saw a ratatta there, eating a bunch of berries"
"Really! Oh my god! That's so cool, and I know what tree you're talking about too, see ya!"
As fast as June could say "see ya!" Back, the boy was already gone, running to that big tree, that he knew the location of.
Well, at least he wasn't a jerk, I hope he finds ratatta...
June returned bulbasaur, and decided that it's time to look for a place to settle down for the night. It didn't take that long, he looked around himself, and spotted a small, mostly clear spot behind a couple of trees, and a bunch of bushes. After successfully not being stabbed by the twigs, or having his shorts ripped by them, June sat down on the grassy, dirty ground. Even though sitting on the ground was fairly uncomfortable, it still felt good for him to finally sit down.
June sighed "Guess I'm sleeping here..." Truth be told, it was about time June settle down anyway. Bulbasaur wasn't the only one who was tired out. June himself was pretty fatigued, and hungry for that matter, after being out for over twelve hours, combined with what happened earlier.
It feels strange for June, sleeping out in the forest. No air conditioning, no sealing off from the elements, no TV, no nothing. The closest he can get to sleeping comfortable would be in a sleeping bag, on the ground. And the only technology he has, being a pokédex, and a small radio. It's another thing, among another things, that he'll have to get used to, when traveling.
June took the sleeping bag out of his backpack, and set it on the ground.
After climbing into the sleeping bag. He wouldn't quite fall asleep right away, it wasn't quite like sleeping on a couch, or even a bed. His back was flat on the ground, with the only separation between his back and the dirt, being a soft layer of nylon and polyester. It was pretty uncomfortable, for sure. Combine that with June's fear. He wanted to fall asleep, but too much was occupying his mind: the lack of comfort, the fear of the unknown, person or Pokémon.
June tried his hardest to fall asleep, but alas, he couldn't. At this point, the forest was complete pitch black, with June only being able to see the light of the stars, along with the moon. All he could hear, were the sounds of bug types squirming and normal types scurrying around. At one point, June zipped up the sleeping bag, and tried to fall asleep with it closed, but of course, it got to hot...
June decided to let bulbasaur out of her pokéball, just to feel safer, if he's gonna keep her out while walking, he'll also keep her out while sleeping, too. As bulbasaur was let out, she materialized into complete darkness... The bright light hurt June's eyes, and startled him. She looked around, being quite confused for a second, until June gave her a reassuring word.
"I'm right here, bulbasaur, I need to keep out, I'm kinda scared..."
Hearing June's voice immediately calmed down bulbasaur. As the quickly realized she was sitting on his belly. "Don't gotta go anywhere, I'm just trying to sleep..."
I just wanna fall asleep...
After an indeterminate amount of time, June was still not able to drift off to sleep, unlike bulbasaur. The really bad thing is that, as June tried to fall asleep, his mind would rush with more and more thoughts. Thoughts about wanting to fall asleep, thoughts about still wanting to be ahead of everyone. After struggling within his mind to try to stay up, he eventually gave up.
Whatever, I'll sleep when I sleep...
He wanted to turn on his radio, but he feared that would attract bad attention. He also had his pokédex, which he could use too endlessly learn about certain Pokémon, but that would be pretty boring for him, despite it being beneficial.
Ultimately, June decided to turn on his radio, but keep it at a really low volume. After nearly waking up bulbasaur, by putting her on the ground, he got out his radio, and had it right next to his ear. After flipping through a few stations, he settled on a 24/7 news station. One his dad often tuned in to.
Oh, I guess I'll listen to the news station, the one dad liste-... Ened to!?...
Ugh, stop, meh, bleh... Ach...
"Hello! You are listening to indigo tonight! The current time is 9 o'clock shar-" 9!? Jeeeez, it ain't been that long, ugh...
"...Tonight, We’ll be having a panel of political scientists and economists on in half an hour, to discuss...”
June really hated politics. Mostly due to the fact that he grew up with his father, mother, and brother constantly arguing about politics, he has a bad impression of the subject due to that. However, in order for June to properly fall asleep, he would need to listen to someone talk, music wouldn't achieve this, due to the possibility of being energized up by a song. So, he settled on the indigo tonight show, that he was very familiar with, despite his hatred of the subject matter.
Fortunately for June, this method would be a success, before he knew it, he was fast asleep.
…
June would open his eyes to be greeted by... Darkness. He felt less tired, though he didn't feel refreshed, by any means. Sleeping on the ground doesn't really grant him that.
It's still dark. What time is it? "3:57" June whispered to himself
After this, June ultimately stayed awake. He could not fall back asleep, even with the radio this time. Yet again, like when he left his house nearly a day ago, he was by himself, in the dark, with his thoughts. After a few more hours in the dark, with June's mind being all over the place; from fears about wild Pokémon attacking him to what aliens look like. June would eventually be saved, as the sun started to rise.
Minute by minute, the sky would get brighter and brighter, giving a giant sense of relief to June, no more darkness, no more fear of the unknown... For now. Even though June got enough sleep, and nothing really bad happened. That doesn't undermine how the night was. It was his first night out on his own. Needless to say, it was scary for him.
As things became more visible. June decided that it was a great idea to eat a bit, after barley eating anything the day before. The kind of food that June quickly shoved into his backpack the day before; was just stuff you would find in a convenience store; rice balls, a few bento meals wrapped in plastic, some berries, that's about it.
June had a temptation about having one of the bento boxes. He remembered his mom telling him those should be for dinner. He decided on a few rice balls, which he would try to make bulbasaur eat.
June handed of of the rice balls to bulbasaur. "It's just some food, bulbasaur, ya gotta eat something" June set the rice ball in front of bulbasaur, who stretched her head out a bit to sniff it. To mild success, bulbasaur ate it, which relieved June quite a bit.
…
The walking continues! Right when things got "safely bright" in June's mind, he would immediately set off. With a more than refreshed bulbasaur. The forest itself, surprisingly didn't have much going on, not as much as June thought it would at least. There would still be the occasional other random person walking by, and any random Pokémon, big and small, strong and weak.
However, something would come up to June's mind.
Hmm... Crap! What it we saw a Pokémon like raticate... Oh no, oh no, CRAP!
One of June's fears would officially materialize in his head, rather than just being some background ominous feeling, some vague fear. June picked up bulbasaur, who was a little heavy for him, yet still able to be carried for a while.
"We need to walk faster bulbasaur, we need to be ahead, we also need to run away from any bad pokémon, if not, you'd know what ya gotta do" Bulbasaur didn't object, she probably understood.
"Hey! Hey! You! Wait up!"
June looked back, and saw a familiar face. It was the kid from yesterday, the kid that was looking for his rattata.
"Oh, hey"
The kid, just like yesterday, ran up to June, taking a moment to breathe. "Thank you so much for telling me where ratatta was! I ran to the tree, and there she was! Fast asleep, probably been eating too much..."
"Oh, that's cool" June quietly said
"Sure is! I was pretty worried about her! And if it weren't for you, It would've been a long while 'till I found her"
"Uh yeah, you're welcome..."
"I wanna do something good for you, but I don't know what to do"
“it’s ok, ya don’t have to”
“C’mon, dude! There must be a favor that I could do for you”
“I’m good” June coldly stated
The boy frowned, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I'm sure”
“Well alright then, seeya later!”
The other boy began to walk off. June was yet again alone, with his thoughts. It dawned on him that having someone with him in this forest could be good. At least he’d be with someone, after all. But that option has its downsides; June wasn't really planning on travelling with someone, nor did he feel comfortable doing that. His first night in the forest was difficult for him....
Just like the morning he left home, June had to really think about hos two options, and fast. After about a minute, June called the boy.
“HEY!!”
The other boy perked up, and ran back to June, like he could read his mind. “I knew you needed something, so what do ya want?”
All June needed to do now was properly word out the question, without seeming strange, or even creepy. He isn't that good at communicating sometimes.
"Well, this place is kinda scary for me... And... Uh, well, uh, you..."
"Go on"
"Uh, well, I'm trying to get through this forest to get to Pewter city, and well..."
"I think I know! Do you wanna travelling buddy?"
"Yeah! Only for in the forest, is, uh, is that ok?"
"Sure, I know this forest like the back of my hand, I've been playing and doing stuff here since I was little"
"Thanks" said a relieved June.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's start walking!"
"Alright" said June.
"Oh, by the way, my name's Joey, what's your name?"
"My name's June"
"June huh? You gotta month for a name! I remember I met a girl named August in school one time; she was kind of a weirdo..." Joey was definitely the talkative type, unlike June, being the complete opposite of that. He was a bit annoying for him. Though June tried his best to not care about that, since he was nice enough to accompany him through the rest of the forest.
"I don't wanna brag, but you're real lucky you ran into me! Aren't ya?"
"Yeah, you do know your way around here"
"Yep" said a prideful Joey.
June had a pretty bad feeling about traveling with Joey, a part of him was happy that someone is willing to guide him through the forest, but another part of him really didn't want to be traveling with someone, even for a few days. After all, June grew up in a living situation where he didn't have much privacy to himself. He really hated the feeling of any alone time being interrupted. But he was willing to sacrifice that, if it means getting through Viridian forest as quickly as possible. I guess you could say June's fear of the forest overrode his other concern.
June and Joey would spend the rest of the day, talking, and when I mean them talking, I mean Joey doing 90% of the talking and June having short responses.
Only a few hours would pass, after a while of June and Joey bickering back and fourth about either walking faster or slowing down. June's legs would start to get tired, yet again. To the point where another break was required.
"Hmph, now you walk slower" said a flustered Joey
"Oh shut up, this is the first time I'm doing stuff like this" said a slightly aggravated June
"Well, the more you walk, the stronger your legs will get, don't forget to eat good stuff too"
"Yeah, I know"
During the short break, June would tell Joey about his goal for now, to reach Pewter and stay ahead of the others. "Hm, well, if you wanna stay ahead, ya gotta walk more..."
"I know, it's just, y'know, it hurts..."
"Well, ya gotta do it June, you're a trainer? Aren't ya?"
"Yeah..."
"And you're challenging gyms n stuff?"
"Yeah, I a- WAIT!"
June jumped up upon hearing the word "gym"
"Aw crap!"
"What?"
"I forgot to go to the gym in Viridian!"
"Oh jeez"
"Crap crap crap, how did I forget that..."
"It's ok June, there's another gym in Pewter" June's panic was halted by those words.
"Really?"
"Yeah! It's a rock gym, it's run by a guy named Brock! He's kind of a jerk, but he's strong!"
"Oh, he's a jerk?"
"Well, not a jerk, but he can be kinda mean sometimes"
"I don't wanna deal with that? What about the Viridian gym?"
"There used to be this old lady as the leader, but then she died, and she was replaced by a guy that's never there, and don't forget about staying ahead June!"
"Mmm, yeah, yeah you're right. I just... Don't like jerks, I don't like dealing... With jerks..."
June thought back to the first battle when he thought about dealing with "jerks" he thought of Ronald as a jerk, but in his mind, he started to realize that he was a jerk as well.
June went quiet when thinking about that. Joey and bulbasaur definitely noticed. Bulbasaur looked up at June... And Joey spoke up.
"What is it?"
"I don't know...."
...
There was once a planet, on that planet, was a nation, inside that nation, was a region, inside that region was a forest, inside that forest, were two boys and a Pokémon fast asleep on the side of a dirt path.
The night before, the kids, and the Pokémon had a long awkward silence after the sudden halting of their conversation. With that, all three eventually fell victim to tiredness, and fell asleep. It was now only a matter of time before they all woke up.
The first of the three to wake up was Bulbasaur. She stood up, and looked over at June, who had his back against a tree, curled up with his arms wrapped around his knees. She looked over at Joey, who layed down with his face in the dirt, his arms and legs stretched out.
Bulbasaur didn’t have any idea of waking them up. She sat down and really didn’t move. She thought that her trainer wouldn’t really like it very much if she went somewhere on her own. She even felt uncomfortable moving slightly without her trainer’s supervision. She briefly remembered something that happened way before she met June.
There she was, sitting down, with a bunch of other Pokémon in the middle of a field, being lectured by a Alakazam and a tall human wearing a lab coat about how to properly behave under a trainer’s supervision. One of the main things that was demonstrated was not to disobey the trainer. That pretty much stuck with Bulbasaur, thus why she is behaving like she is.
Though June may have not noticed it, Bulbasaur was very angry at him for not commanding him during that moment in the battle against Ronald and Raticate. It took a lot of courage for her to run over to June and tackle him in the leg, she was very angry and stressed due the situation, and having to make those decisions. When she was returned to her pokéball, like all Pokémon, they enter a dream-like state. She dreamed about tackling June in anger more, and him screaming back at her more. After she got healed at the Pokémon center, she felt better.
One other thing that Bulbasaur thought about was all the walking her and June have done. It’s a lot for her, and she doesn’t really like it. June doesn’t seem to realize that though, which is something that really aggravates her. It's not like she doesn't like walking, she just hates too much of it. Overall, her feelings are pretty mixed, she's glad that she's finally out traveling with a new trainer. However, she still feels a bit uneasy about June, she wants to make her trainer happy, but she also wants her trainer to make her happy.
All of this thinking was interrupted by the one and only June waking up. June took a second to boot up his mind, due to the exhaustion from yesterday. His eyes were half open, due to adjusting to the bright sun. He looked over at Bulbasaur. “Hey Bulbasaur” Bulbasaur walked over to him, and sat down closer to him.
June looked up at the morning sky. “Man, what time is it?” June pulled out the pokédex that had so far not been used.
On the top of the screen, showed the date, and time. Thu/4 – 3 – 97/10:10
Its already 10!? Jeez... June was instantly in a bad mood; he thought enough time was already wasted. It took June a second to really get his thoughts together... Until he went to try to wake up Joey. He really wanted to wake up Joey, yet he also thought that could be a bad idea. He sat near him for a little while, thinking about waking up Joey, but not quite doing it... Until he did.
June got a little closer to him and said “Joey!? Joey!? Wake up...” Joey woke up after a few more words... He wasn’t the happiest that June woke him up though.
“Why’d you wake me up?”
“We need to hit the road; I need to stay ahead of everyone”
Joey was more than annoyed that June woke him up, along with him being in a rush to already leave. “June can we just stay here for a moment?”
“Why!?” Said an agitated June
Joey shot back with a “Why do you think? I just woke up! Can I just sit-down for a moment?”
June let out a sigh, “You already had sleep time! Why can’t we just go!? I still need to be ahead of everyone!” June’s slightly agitated tone turned into angry tone.
“Why!? Are you in a race or something?”
“NO!! Let's just go already!!” June yelled
“Don’t yell at me June!! Calm the heck down!! We’ll leave when we leave!! Got that!?”
“JOEY!!!-” June’s next rage filled retort was stopped by Bulbasaur, who nudged him in the leg, wanting him to stop.
I will kick the crap out of you, Bulbasaur
June stood in silence, with his rage bubbling up like tea kettle.
“You know what!!” June yelled
“What!?” yelled Joey
“Screw the both of you!! I’ll get to Pewter all by myself, and I'll have beaten Brock when you two idiots get there!! So long!! June walked away. Bulbasaur followed June, despite how she felt about his behavior. She kept a distance from him.
“This is what I get for helping out someone...” Joey frowned. “I hate some people” Joey sat back down, he noticed that June’s backpack was still there. “Great! He forgot his backpack... Now I’m gonna have to find that jerk”
…
A couple hours later June would be sitting by a river, with his right hand, and right foot hurting due to taking his anger out on a tree. After his anger subsided, he sobbed for a little while. Now he finds himself staring at the flowing water of a river, with his mind all over the place. He still wanted to be mad at Joey for not immediately leaving like he wanted. Though he understood by now that how he reacted was pretty bad. June felt like having the ground swallow him up, and to stay underground forever.
Bulbasaur was sitting behind a tree a few feet away from the river, looking over at June. Still not pleased about how he acted...
June was also still really worried about being left behind, even though it possibly cost him the ability to get to Pewter quickly... and even making a new friend. You’re probably wondering why June is so keen on staying ahead of everyone, well, let's get into that.
You see, throughout June’s life, he always dealt with the feeling of being left behind. His academic performance is one example. June wasn’t the best in school, he would often find himself being left behind and stuck on certain subjects that most of his peers already understood. The biggest example would be math. Most kids around June’s age already know how to multiply and divide without a calculator, while June still struggles with adding big numbers in his head.
Another example would be his living situation. Though June’s family wasn’t the only family in Pallet town to struggle with money; far from that. June only payed attention to kids in school who had more than him. June would compare himself, his life, to those kids and their lives. When June first learned about how kids can start a Pokémon journey at the age of ten, he was psyched by that, he couldn’t wait.
All of this contributes to June’s low self-esteem, and so, he would feel more confident about himself if he was at least ahead of everybody. However, that does not justify his behavior from earlier. His low self-esteem, along with the kind of environment June grew up in, is the root of his bad behavior.
…
Joey and his rattata both scurried the forest, frantically looking for June. Even though Joey didn’t want to help June, especially after what June did to him, he still felt like doing that for him, at the very least.
“Where the heck is that jerk? He’s gotta be around here somewhere” As soon as Joey though out loud, rattata started to get his attention. “What is it? Rattata? Ya found something?”
Rattata led Joey to some footprints, which were clearly Bulbasaur’s. “Finally...” Joey sighed. Soon enough, Joey and rattata found Bulbasaur. Joey quietly put June’s backpack beside Bulbasaur and scurried off.
June was able to compose himself soon after and got up. He walked over to Bulbasaur, and sat down next to her. He took a deep breath, before he spoke.
“I’m sorry for being such a jerk... I was just really mad; I really want to be first... I don’t wanna drag behind... But I can’t be a jerk about it...”
Bulbasaur was thankful that June was calm (on the outside, at least), but she still wasn’t impressed about how he acted earlier, she had a background hum of uneasy-ness in her head. “I guess we should start walking now...” Upon hearing that, Bulbasaur shot June a dirty look.
“What!?” Bulbasaur took a while to try to show June what was wrong, after many attempts of trying and failing, she finally got the message through. June got the message, and tried to some up with a solution.
“Maybe I could just carry you, until you feel like walking again, ok?” Bulbasaur seemed ok with it, as June put on his backpack, and picked up Bulbasaur. June wasn’t exactly thrilled about carrying Bulbasaur, but if it meant keeping her out, and Bulbasaur not being mad at him... It was worth it.
As June walked onward, he was really under the weather about the fact that he lost the kid who was guiding him through the forest, and how he lashed out at him, in a similar fashion to how he lashed out at Ronald. Though June still believed that Joey was stupid, for not leaving earlier. He would spend the rest of his walk frustrated.
To be continued
