POKEMON RANCHER
CH. 11


Far off in the distance I could hear something banging. At first I thought I was back home, in bed, and my mom was trying to wake me up for breakfast. A smile crept across my lips as I thought of the breakfast she would have prepared for me. A large stack of her homemade pancakes with citrus berry jam. But when I opened my eyes I immediately regretted it, because the ceiling that I was looking at didn't have my Lugia poster on it.

I realized that their was a weight on my chest and when I looked down I could see both my Pokemon sleeping on my chest. A smirk appeared on the side of my face, then I turned and looked at the clock. It said 6:00 AM. I looked over to the curtain and saw that the sun wasn't even up yet. 'Now who in their right mind would be up at this hour?' As quietly and easily I snuck out of bead and made my way over to the door. Looking back I could see that both Crystal and Ruby were starting to wake up. When I opened the door their was a sleepy eyed nurse Joy.

"How can I help you this morning nurse Joy?" I said after a yawn.

"There is an officer Jenny here to see you." My eyes went wide as I remembered the previous nights incident. 'Oh man, she's probably here to arrest me.' Seeing my shock and worry the nurse just laughed. "She's here to take you to your job." I slowly closed my eyes and took a long sigh.

"Well that's a relief. For a second their I thought I was in trouble for something." She shook her head. "Well anyways could you tell her I will be down shortly." After giving me a quick nod she waved to me as she started walking down the hall. I turned around and closed the door behind me. Leaning against the door I took another long sigh, then looked over to the bed. Ruby was preening her feathers and Crystal was finishing a wide open mouthed yawn.

"Well since you are both up, I guess we should get ready to head out." They both turned to me and gave me a quick nod. It only took me about five or ten minutes to jump into the bathroom to wash my face, get into the cloths I had laid out last night, packed up everything else, and then move downstairs with my friends in their usual places. Once there in the main lobby I could see that there were only two people sitting down on some backless benches on either side of the room. One polishing a ball of some kind, while the other was reading a magazine.

So we made our way to the exit and saw an officer Jenny on her white motorbike talking to nurse Joy. As we walked up to the two of them their voices started to get softer and softer as if they knew I was coming and didn't want to be overheard. I stopped right next to them and they both turned to me.

"Good morning officer Jenny. I trust you had a pleasant nights sleep?" She gave me a pleasant smile then nodded.

"For the most part I did, until I was called out to a report of some disturbance last night." She gave me a harsh look. "You wouldn't know anything about that would you?" I took a quick step back then she leaned over on her bike. "Hmm?"

'Busted.' I dropped my head. It would be a stupid thing to lie to a person, but an even dumber thing to lie to a police officer. I lifted my head and thought 'Time to face the music.' "Yes officer Jenny, I know what caused that ruckus last night." A slow smile crept across her lips. "After you left, several of the other people who wanted to get that job you were offering last night got angry with me and started to pick a fight with me. I know that I probably could have handled that better, but when my Torchic, Ruby here." I pointed to the Pokemon on my pack. "Was thrown off me she got angry and lit a mans shirt on fire. I know that she was only trying to protect me, so." I lowered my head again. "If theirs anyone to blame for the incident last night, I should be the one to blame. Not her."

I could hear the officer get off her bike, then walk over to me. I was expecting to hear the clink of her handcuffs as she would probably pull them out to place on my wrists. I was surprised to realize that she only put her hand on my shoulder. Looking up I saw her start to laugh. After a second she stopped and looked me in the eye.

"I knew that I made the right choice when I hired you for this job."

"Mam?" She clapped me on the shoulder a few times.

"First you take responsibility for your actions, Secondly you are willing to take the blame for what your Pokemon did, thirdly you didn't lie to me about what happened last night, and finally I heard in order to protect your Pokemon you actually kicked a large Pokemon out a window that was going to attack your Pokemon from behind." She gave me a hardy smile.

"It was a Ratticate." She smiled to me and nodded. "Am I in trouble?" She shook her head.

"On no. This happens all the time when I offer someone a job here." I looked over to nurse Joy and she nodded. "It just so happens that the man that attacked you and your Pokemon, I've have arrested several times because he likes to start brawls. He's one of my regulars, who visit my jail." Turning back to officer Jenny she claps me on the shoulder once more.

"So what happens to the window that I broke and me now?" The officer looks up and nods to the clouds.

"The man that tried to have his Pokemon attack yours from behind will pay for the damaged window since it was his Pokemon, and you will come with me to your new job." She turned around and hopped onto her bike and started it up with a kick. With a lions roar it turned over and then it settled down to a gentle purr as it idled. Quickly turning to the nurse I thanked her for everything then made my way over. I was about to swing my leg over and sit behind her when I noticed the side car.

She looked back to me and then pointed to the sidecar. Giving her a sheepish grin, I quickly nodded and walked around the bike. Ruby and Crystal both moved into my arms. It took me a minute or two to finally get in and comfortable in the sidecar, but once I was in there I looked up at the officer to see that she was looking down at me. She smiled to me then offered me a helmet. After clipping it on I looked up at her to see that she had already had hers on and she was adjusting a pair of goggles into place. Once she was done she took a quick look down to me.

"It should take us an hour or two until we reach our destination. So just sit back and enjoy the ride". Giving her a quick nod she popped the engine into gear and we were off with a quick jerk.

We stayed on city streets for the better part of the ride, but eventually the buildings grew scare and opened onto a tree lined dirt road. Both Crystal and Ruby were looking through the glass that shielded us from the fast winds. Along the way they would talk to one another but I wasn't paying attention, because the trees were starting to become scarce. After another hour of traveling I could see the road disappear in front of us. Officer Jenny stopped her bike just before the road disappeared. I looked up at her and that she was starting to lift her goggles from her eyes and looked forward. Once I looked to where she was looking I could see the road continue downwards into a valley that ended at the sea. The valley was set up to look like a giant V, and we were at the middle point of it.

I could see that there were some homes near the water front, but the farther away you went away the nicer the homes. The homes or building near the waterfront were either made out of wood or sheets of metal. After looking at the buildings for a while I looked towards the water and could see that there were three piers, each one longer than the last.

"Well were almost there." She pointed towards the water front. "Do you see that building with the Lugia weathervane?" I looked down. At first I couldn't see the building but after searching for it a little bit I saw it. The building was about the third one back from the water front.

"Ya, I see it." She nodded

"That's where were heading to meet your boss and an old friend of mine." With that she placed her goggles back into place and we were off again. The road turned a little harsh the closer we got to the town. It got so rough I had to hold down Ruby and Crystal so that they wouldn't be bounced out of sidecar. She drove us down to the back of the building and parked her bike there. After taking her helmet and goggles off she stowed them in a side box on the bike. Crystal and Ruby jumped and slithered into their usual positions.

I would have to admit that getting out of the bike was about twice as difficult as getting in it, but I eventually was able to get out of it with some wiggling. Once I was out of the sidecar and back on the ground I stretched out my arms and legs, for they had gotten quite cramped from being in such a tight space for quite a long time.

"Well now that your done stretching lets go meet up with my old friend." She motioned me to follow her and I did.

"So what's this job that you have for me?" She stopped and while turning around she placed her right hand on her hip.

"My old friend delivers supplies to the neighboring islands." As she waved her other over the open sea. "Unfortunately he is getting along in years and can't perform his routes as quickly as he used to." I gave her a quick nod. "That's where you come in. He would like to take on an apprentice to his work and help with the work."

"Oh ok. Well I guess that's fine, but why did you choose me for this? There were several other people who were stronger than me." A slow smirk crossed her face.

"He will explain everything once we meet up with him inside." So she turned and started walking again.

The building was quite a bit larger than what I thought, but it looked in pretty good condition for being made out of wood and this close to the waterfront. Of course it did have quite a few water marks on the wood, probably from storms that blew in sometimes.

I guess living this close to the water, they'd probably have a special type of wax or water proffer to cover the wood to prevent it from eating away or damaged. For you see the wood looked like it was stained a dark brown color. Once we got to the front I could see several different signs, large glass balls which were probably used for Crabby traps, and a whole lot of fishing nets hanging all over the front. She didn't even stop as she walked right on over to the front and through the swinging old western swinging half doors. As I followed the doors swung towards me then back in. Pushing my way in I could see that the place wasn't that well lit.

It seemed that the only light was coming in was through the front door. Their was a bar on the left side that had several bottles on the glass shelf behind it, and there was a barkeep behind the bar cleaning out a glass with a clean rag. He looked like a friendly person, he was starting to show signs of baldness, a brown beard that was well trimmed, the apron he wore showed sign of a few uses, and finally he wore a green shirt to compliment his gentle green eyes.

The man gave me a slight nod then a jerk of the head that pointed towards his left. I followed his example and looked towards the back of the bar. There were only a couple of people in the bar at the time so it wasn't hard to see where officer Jenny had moved off to. She was sitting at a table in the back corner of the building. So nodding to the barkeep, I slowly made my way over to the table. When I got closer I noticed that their was another person sitting next to her.

Their was an elderly gentleman sitting there. The first thing I noticed was his hands on the table. They looked well callused or well used from a long time of hard labor. From his hands to the blue button up shirt he had a deep brown tan from spending a lot of time out in the sun. To accent his age he had large eye lines. This man obviously loved to be outdoors and on the water. He looked up to me and smiled.

"Well hello son." He said. "Officer Jenny has told me that you are here to help with my work."

"Um yes sir. And I would like to say thank you for this opportunity." He gave me a kind smile.

"Don't get ahead of yourself. I haven't given the job to you yet. But why don't we start with introductions. My name is Goren and I run a delivery service to the neighboring islands around here."

"Hello Goren my name's Dusty and it's a pleasure to meet you." He motioned for me to have a seat opposite to officer Jenny.

"Officer Jenny here has told me a few things about you, but I would like to hear how you came by such a rare Pokemon as that." He pointed to Crystal who was swishing her tail against my chest. I was about to tell him how I came by Crystal when I heard both Crystal and Ruby mew and chirp. I looked over to them and saw that Ruby was on top of Crystals head and both had their mouths open. Turning back to Goren he held up his hand to me then waved it.

When I looked over my left shoulder I saw the barkeep nod then disappear into the back.

"I guess it is close to lunch time." I turned around and Goren and he gave me another smile. As I told him how I came by not only Crystal but Ruby as well, the barkeep had brought over two bowls of Pokemon chow and three bottles of lemonade. I picked Ruby off my shoulder and set her on the ground and placed one of the bowls down in front of her. She dove right into the food and after a few bites she started to bounce around.

As for Crystal she slithered down my chest and then laid in my lap. Once she was comfortable I started to feed her by hand. After I had finished with my tale the man nodded to me.

"It seems that you really care about your Dratini there." I looked up to him and gave him a quick smile then tossed a piece of Pokemon chow up and Crystal jumped up and caught it in mid air. She landed neatly on my lap and started to chew it with a happy mewing sound. Just then I heard someone laugh and I saw that it was Jenny.

"Yes I care a great deal about my Pokemon. So can you tell me a little more about this job that I will be helping you with?" Just as he was about to tell me the barkeep came over and placed a plate full of sandwiches in the middle of the table.

"Ah just in time, I was starting to get hungry myself." As we dug into the sandwiches he started to tell me about the job. He said that trucks would bring in supplies to ship to the neighboring islands and then once they were loaded he would ship out and be gone for three to ten days depending on how much he had to deliver. As it turned out he was going to do some deliveries in two days and that he would be leaving early in the morning.

"Though I would like to know your battling style and I would also like to know if those are your only Pokemon." I stopped feeding Crystal and she looked up at me. I took a long slow sigh then shook my head.

"To tell you the truth, if I can avoid doing battles then I will." I reached down and rubbed Crystal's head. One of the mans eyebrows rose.

"You know I thought it was quite odd when you walked through that door. You look so young. Usually kids your age would be out on their Pokemon journey. So why aren't you?" The memories were getting ready to flow when Crystal let out a soft mew and then the memories receded. I looked down to see that she was curled up and had her mouth open in a wide yawn. Once she was done she lay her head down on my lap and closed her eyes. I looked up at Goren and he looked like he was patiently waiting for an answer.

"I'm sorry but that part is confidential."

"Well I guess that's ok. But what about capturing new Pokemon?" I simply shook my head. "So I guess your happy with the Pokemon that you have right now." With a quick nod he gave me a calculating look.

"Torchic." Just then my Torchic jumped up and landed next to Crystal on my lap. When she saw that Crystal was asleep she must have thought that that was a good idea and joined her in a quick nap. She lay down next to Crystal and closed her eyes.

"Well I see that we are running a little low on drinks so I'm going to go get another round." Jenny said to both of us.

"Oh I didn't realize that my drink was almost gone. Thanks Jenny." Goren said.

"Thanks officer Jenny". I said as well. Once she was gone Goren tapped the table. I turned to him and saw that he had a smirk on his face, which made his eyes twinkle a little.

"Now that she's gone I would like to ask you one last question before I make my decision if I'm going to hire you. Do you have any experience with making deliveries, and if so, for how long?"

"As a matter of a fact, yes. Before I became a Pokemon trainer I used to work in a warehouse back home. I believe I worked there for two or three years." He leaned back in his chair and scratched at his chin.

"Good. Ah welcome back Jenny." Turning around I realized that Jenny had returned with three more lemonades.

"So Goren, have you made your decision?" He looked at me for a minute and scratched his chin. He made a quick nod then turned to look at officer Jenny.

"I believe I have. Though I would like to know the reason why he doesn't battle with his Pokemon, especially when his Dratini and Torchic look like they both have a lot of experience". I look down to see both Crystal and Ruby were still sleep. "But other than that, I would like to take him out with me on a delivery run. At least to see how he fares on the open waters."

"REALLY!?" Both of them jumped when I said this, then they both started to laugh.

"Well he seems to be really eager to get started." Officer Jenny told Goren.

"Well Dusty, you seem eager enough to get started. The only problem is that we don't have a delivery until two days hence. I recommend that you spend the next few days looking around the town." I couldn't believe it. I now had a new job that was just like my old one.

Officer Jenny stood up and looked to me then turned to Goren. "Well now that that is all settled, I must be getting back." She turned to me and smiled. "You take care Dusty." She reached out and I shook her hand. Just then I heard both Crystal and Ruby wake up and smiled.

Things were definitely looking up for us.Chapter End Notes:Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended