POKEMON RANCHER
CH. 5


I reach into my pocket and pull out the slip of paper that professor Cent had given me just before we left his home. It looks like some sort of check list.

Make sure to only feed the Dratini proper Pokemon food.
Take care to keep her out of dry areas.
Change her bandages twice a day.
When it's time to sleep, place her in a wet area (Probably the tub).
Get comfortable, because by the way she acted when you weren't there. Well you get the idea.
I will be by in a few days to check up on how her healing is going.

It's quite obvious that the professor wants me to do a good job of taking care of this Dratini. So I reread the note several times to make sure that I wouldn't forget any of it. I take a quick glance down at her to realize that she had fallen sleep again. 'Well I guess she did have a very stressful day'. Just then the front door opens and there is my mother carrying some sort of large brown paper bag in her arms.

"I can't believe the price of Pidgey breasts has gone up so much." As it would seem, she went out and did some grocery shopping. "Now I just have to put these......DUSTY!" She drops the bag. I can hear several things smash together as I wince at the sound and hope those weren't eggs I heard breaking. "What are you doing home at this hour?"

I look down at the Dratini who as awoken probably from the sound and has a scared look on her face again. "Mom I would like to introduce you to Dratini. Dratini this is my mom."

"Oh my god Dusty, is that the Dratini you told me about yesterday." I nodded. "Oh, it's so adorable." So she clasped her hands together and started to walk on over to me, but when Dratini saw this she quickly started to shake then buried her head into my chest again. Mom stopped walking over to us and she looked at Dratini. "Dusty. What's wrong with that Dratini?"

I stroked her head for a moment until she stopped shaking. "I guess she is a little afraid of people. You should have seen what she did to Professor Cent when she woke up and I wasn't there." I laughed a little.

"What happened"? I smiled.

"Lets just say, he wont need to worry about taking a bath tonight." With that the two of us start to laugh as I guess she got the idea. So my mom picks up the bag and looks inside.

"Oh shoot."

"What's the matter mom?"

"It seems when I dropped this bag all the eggs cracked and are covering everything." So she took the bag into the kitchen and started to pull out egg covered items. So I picked up the Dratini and walked over to the kitchen.

"Is there anything you can salvage from the bag?" I look into the bag and she pulls out a dish towel and started to wipe off a bag of bread.

"Thankfully most of the groceries were in cans or smaller bags, but the fruits and vegetables are going to go bad really quick if I don't get them cleaned up." So she takes a few of the vegetables and starts to wash them. Just then Dratini starts to squirm around in my arms. I look down and see that she is looking towards the cutting board.

"I should have known." My mom turns around and looks at me.

"Known what?" I point to the bread that is sitting on the cutting board.

"My little friend here just spotted the bread that she loves so much. Mom would it be alright if I give her a few slices of the bread you made?" She nods to me.

"Sure, but your going to have to get some for IT yourself. My hands are kind of full at the moment."

"Thanks mom, but you know. This Dratini isn't an it, this Dratini is a she." I reached over and pulled out a knife from the block. "Unfortunately I'm going to need my other arm Dratini, if I'm going get you some of my moms bread." The Dratini looks up at me and nods. Then she does something I wasn't expecting. She slithered up my arm and wraps herself around my neck. "Comfy?" The Dratini nodded to me and rubbed against my cheek.

With that I took hold of the bread and stared to cut a few slices of the bread. The whole time I was cutting a few slices of it, Dratini would swish her tail against my chest. I cut three slices of the bread, then took them to the table and sat down. Dratini slid down my chest and right into my lap. "So do you want to eat it in balls like you did by the river?"

Dratini smiled and nodded to me. So with that I started to ball up the bread and started to finger feed them to Dratini. After the second piece I heard my mom laugh. I looked behind me and saw my mother standing there with her hand over her mouth as she was trying to hide her laugh. "So is that how the two of you met?" I nodded and told her how the two of met. Once Dratini had polished off the last slice of bread she rubbed into my hand.

"So is there anything I can do to help with dinner?" I nodded to the kitchen. She turned and looked to the kitchen.

"No I don't think so. Do you have any requests tonight though." I thought for a second.

"I guess some of your chicken soup for me, and some more of that bread for my little friend here." Dratini let out a happy cry. Mom laughed.

"You know if you keep feeding your friend there my bread, your going to spoil her." It was my turn to laugh.

"I guess just some Pokechow for her then." Dratini cried out a sad note. A couple hours later we were eating dinner. Chicken soup for me and mom, and Poke-chow for Dratini. Once the dishes were washed and dried, I picked up Dratini and placed her on my shoulders. She seemed a little unhappy, but I guess that was because she was a little upset that she didn't get more bread.

We headed upstairs and into the bathroom. Our bathroom is a lot like your average bathroom. Sink, bathtub, and a toilet. I reached into the tub and turned on the water. Once it was a little more than room temp, I placed the stopper in it and waited. "Now it's time for us to go to sleep Dratini." Dratini rubbed against my cheek and then slid down my arm and into the tub. Once she got in she quickly started to move around the rising water and stopped under the deepest part of the tub, right under the tap where it was warmest. When the tub got half way full, I turned it off and watched as she started to splash around.

"I guess that you really are happy to be back in the water again." She swam around for a little while longer then popped her head above the water and let out a harmonious cry. So I stood up and went over to the sink to brush my teeth. Once I was ready for bed I sat down against the wall next to the sink and pulled down a town and draped it over me. Right before I turned off the light I looked into the tub and could see that Dratini had settled under the water and seemed to be asleep. Small bubbles were leaking out of the corners of it's mouth.

So I reached above me and turned off the light. "Good night Dratini". I moved around a little to find the most comfortable position on that hard floor and went to sleep. I awoke some time in the night to find that not only did I have to move into a new position, but also their was something wet in my lap. 'Oh great. I just had a wet dream.' I looked down to find a wondrous sight.

Some time in the night, Dratini must have crawled out of the tub because now she was sleeping in my lap. This caused me to smirk and so I pulled out my arm from under the towel to scratch her behind her head fins. After a little while I placed my hand over it's neck and went back to sleep with a smile on my face.

The next day passed without to much excitement. In the morning I called into work telling them that I wouldn't be in for the next few days and I changed her bandages. Other than that, nothing really exciting happened. Wherever I went, Dratini followed. Though she liked to lay around my shoulders the whole time or would cry when I was out of her sight for to long. I didn't really understand why she liked it up there, but since I didn't see the harm I let her stay up there.

Finally after two or three days there came a knock at the door. I was up stairs in my room, looking up information on Dratini's from the computer that my mother had gotten me a couple years back. So I pushed away from my desk and stretched my arms over my head and prepared to get up when...

"Don't worry Dusty, I've got it". I stood up and looked out my window that was overlooking the front door to our house and saw something I didn't like. There standing right in front of the door was Professor Cent. He was dressed in his brown coat and he didn't look happy at all. I sat back down in my chair and looked over to the sleeping Dratini next to my computer. I reached over hand rubbed her behind her head fins.

Dratini was completely healed from her injuries and was now supposed to go back to the wild. After spending so much time with her, I don't think I could let her go. It was strange to think of how attached I was to this Pokemon, when I thought I was never going to get close to another Pokemon. I could hear voices coming from downstairs and knew that it was only a matter of time before I was called downstairs.

"Dusty. Could you come downstairs? Oh and bring your friend with you." Damn. I should have known that this day would come. I reached over and stared to rub Dratini again. After a moment she woke up and yawned.

"Sorry to wake you, but I need you to come with me". After she had finished another yawn she looked up to me and cocked her head to the side. I reached over and she slithered up my arm and wrapped around my neck again. Once she was comfortable and gave me a rub against my cheek, I stood up and went downstairs. Sitting in two sofas facing one another was Professor Cent and my mother. I walked down and sat in the chair next to my mother and looked over at the professor.

"Well good morning Dusty. How are the two of you doing today." He asked me. I looked up at Dratini and she rubbed against my cheek. Dratini had recovered from her injuries quite well.

"We are doing quite well professor. How about you?"

"No complaints, no complaints." He leaned forward and placed his head on his folded hands that were propped up on his legs. "You know why I'm here, right." I nodded. "So why don't you hand over that Dratini so I can see how she is doing." I reluctantly reached up and plucked her off my shoulders and placed her on the table between the two sofas. The professor leaned forward and was about to touch her when she let out a squeak and slithered back to me. She quickly jumped off the table and landed in my lap and started to shiver and burry herself in my lap.

"I guess she is still afraid of people that she doesn't know." I stroked her behind her fins again and she calmed down. "I need to do a check up to see if she is ready to return to the wild Dusty. So if you could place her back on the table again." Tears started to form in my eyes, as I knew what he would say right after he had finished his check up.

I slowly picked her up again and placed her on the table. This time when he tried to touch her and she would slither over to me again she met with a gentle hand on her head. She looked up and saw me looking down at her. "I know that this man looks a little scary Dratini, but you don't need to be afraid of him. All he wants to do is make sure that your healthy."

She looked up at me with pleading eyes, but nodded. The professor reached over and started to run his hand over her scales. I could see her visibly shake when he had his hand on her and it almost hurt me to see her shiver like that. After a few minutes he pulled his hand back and looked up to me. "It seems that you've done a fine job of taking care of this Dratini. Now comes the hard part." I nodded as I was prepared for the other news. "Since she has fully recovered from her injuries, it's time to return her to where she belongs."

I stood up and picked up Dratini. "No, I don't want her to go." The professor shook his head.

"Dusty, you don't have a choice. Your not a trainer, and you don't have a license to carry a Pokemon. So she must go back." I looked down at Dratini. I didn't want to lose the closest thing I had to a friend, and I was sure as hell not going to let someone come and take her away from me. So I sat down and looked down at Dratini. If it meant that I had to become a trainer to protect my new little friend, I was going to have to do it.

"Dratini." She looked up to me. "I don't want to lose you. And I don't want to be selfish." I looked over at Professor Cent then back at Dratini. "If you want, you can return to the river, or you can come with me and be my Pokemon. If you want to return to the river then slither over to the professor. But if you want to come along with me on a long journey." I picked her up and set her in the middle of the table. "Then slither back to me." She didn't even look at the professor as she slithered back into my lap. The professor stood up and reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a set of Pokeballs in one hand, and in the other a brand new Pokedex in the other.

"Congratulations Dusty. It seems that you have found yourself a great friend." I took the Pokedex and placed it in my pocket, then took the Pokeballs and placed them on the table. I picked one up and enlarged it.

"Dratini." She looked up at me. "This is you last chance." She looked up to see the enlarged Pokeball and she quickly darted forward and his the activator button. The ball popped open and sucked her in, in a bright red light. The ball closed and then pinged, signaling that the Pokemon had been caught without a fight. With that the memories of my father started to flow and I passed out.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