POKEMON RANCHER
CH. 6


I sat bolt upright screaming my fathers name out. After a good few minutes of screaming I started to calm down. I reached up and placed my right hand on my forehead to find that I had been sweating pretty badly. 'Man it's been a while since my last nightmare.' Then I realized that I was back in my room and in my bed. 'How did I get up here? The last thing I remember was Dratini catching herself in that Pokeball.'

I looked out my window that was on my left to see that it was night. I guess I must have slept through the rest of the day. I turned to my right I saw my Voltorb clock and it said that it was around five in the morning. Just then something rubbed against my chest causing me to nearly jumped right out of my skin. I looked down and saw that it was my Dratini. She let out a long low cry and rubbed against my chest.

"Thanks Dratini. I'm alright now." I reached over and rubbed her head. "I guess I should get up and get ready to leave." She shook my hand off and cocked her head at me. As if asking why did we have to leave, or something like that. "Well now that I'm a trainer, I can't stay at home anymore. I have to go out on my Pokemon journey like everyone else. Usually a journey like this will take many years." She lowered her head and let out a low cry. I reached over and started to rub her again. "Don't worry, your coming too." She looked up to me and let out a happy note.

With that I got out of bed and realized that I was only in my underwear. Not thinking anything about it I went over to my dresser and pulled out a shirt and a pair of pants. I looked over to the full length mirror that was next to the dresser and saw a very tall 17 year old boy with sandy colored hair in the body of an fairly well muscled form. "I guess all that time I spent in the warehouse really helped to put some muscles on my body." I quickly slipped into my pants and shirt and turned to see that Dratini was staring at me with wide eyes.

"What's the matter Dratini?" She shook herself then slithered over and off my bed. She made her way over to me and cried out. So I kneeled down and picked her up and placed her on my shoulders. For the next hour or two, I packed up a couple sets of cloths, my map, cooking supplies, and my camping equipment that my father had gotten me when I was six. After I had everything packed up there came a knock at the door.

"Dusty are you up yet?" It was my mother.

"Yes mom. I just finished packing up my backpack." I walked over and opened my bedroom door. My mother was dressed in her flowing yellow flower dress. I guess it was Saturday, since she would only wear that thing on the weekend. She looked me up and down then nodded her head.

"Alright it seems that you are all ready to go." I nodded. "Well why don't you set your pack near the door and come and have breakfast with me." So the three of us went downstairs. Mom went strait to the kitchen whjile I went and placed my pack next to the front door. When I turned around Dratini started to bounce on my shoulders and when I looked over to the table I could see why. My mom had placed a plate of Dratini's favorite bread on the table alongside a stack of pancakes for me.

Without any hesitation I quickly rushed over to the table and sat down. Dratini slithered down my arm and over to the stack of bread. "Wow mom did you bake all this stuff for the two of us?" She gave me an empty smile and nodded. I was about to take the first bite when I noticed her smile. "What's wrong mom? You don't look so happy this morning." She jumped up a little then slowly shook her head.

"It's just hard to think that my baby boy is finally leaving home after all these years. I was prepared to let you go when you were going to turn 10, but now it seems like your really going to leave." I could see the tears coming to her eyes. She reached into her dress and pulled out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes. A small smile appeared at the side of my mouth. I reached over and took her other hand.

"Don't worry mom, I'll come and visit you all the time. It's not like I'm going away forever you know." She nodded, then put her handkerchief back into her pocket.

"I know, it's just that....." She stopped when we heard a knock coming from the front door. "Now hurry up and eat your pancakes before they get cold. I'll get the door." I nodded and started digging into the stacks of pancakes. Dratini looked over to me and started to mew, so I would take a quick bite of my pancakes then ball up another piece of bread and feed it to her.

"Yes, come in professor. He's just finishing his breakfast." I didn't need to look up to see who was at the door. I guess the professor didn't believe that I was really going to eave just because the law said that I should. So I fed another ball to Dratini and polished off my last pancake.

"Well good morning Dusty. How are you doing this morning." I tossed a ball up to Dratini and she jumped up and caught it in the air and caught it in her mouth. "Neat trick, did you teach her that." I looked over to him and gave him the look of ignorance.

"No, I'm just playing with her." I reached over and rubbed her behind her head fins. So he walked over and sat down opposite me and he took a long sigh.

"I know that you really don't want to go out on this journey but there is no way around it."

"I know." I tossed another ball to Dratini then turned to him. "So what brings you over this early in the morning professor?" As if I didn't already know.

"I wanted to ask you what your plans are once you leave town." Dratini let out a happy tune and slithered over to me where she went back up my arm and wrapped around me neck.

"To tell you the truth professor. I really haven't given it much thought. But one thing is for sure."

"What's that." I rubbed Dratini's cheek and looked him right in the eye.

"I'm not going to take the battle route." He nodded.

"I thought that you might feel that way, so I did some checking and I think that I found the perfect place for you." He turned and reached into his coat and pulled out some sort of pamphlet. He placed it on the table and slid it over to me. "I know that you used to love to go out and hike a lot when you were younger. So here are a few places that I think you would like to visit." I reached over and took the paper and without looking at it I folded it and placed it in my back pocket.

"Thanks professor." I stood up and took our dishes to the sink and placed them in the soapy water. "Well if you would excuse us professor. Dratini and I need to be on our way." I know that I was being rude, but I didn't really care. I was now being forced to go out on my own and into a world that I didn't really know. Fortunately I had a good traveling companion and now I had a halfway decent destination. I went over to the door and picked up my pack. I gave my mom a quick kiss on the cheek and headed out. When I was a little ways out I looked over my shoulder and gave my mom a quick wave and she returned it.

How little I knew that that would be the last time I would see her for several years. As the two of us walked out of town I started to whistle a gentle tune of my favorite song and we continued to walk. I really didn't have any intention of going to this resort for certain trainers. My mind was totally blank. I didn't have any idea as to what I was going to do with my life now. So I just kept walking.

Eventually the sun got tired of staying up and slowly started to sink into the West. "Well Dratini I guess we should set up dinner for the night." She nodded to me. So we started to look around for a nice place to settle in for the night. After searching for a few minutes we found a nice clearing and a little bonus. Near the back of the clearing I could see that there is a small stream.

"Well this is looking really nice. What do you say we settle down here for the night." She looked over to me. "While I'm getting dinner ready you can go over to the stream over there and go swimming." She rubbed against my cheek then I lifted her off my shoulders and I set her on the ground. She slithered over to the waters edge and jumped then while in her hang time she let a happy squeal then splashed in the water. As she was happily splashing about I was pitching my tent and setting up dinner. I planned to have a nice soup that night, since it was my first night out.

About an hour later I had a pot softly bubbling over an open flame. "Alright Dratini, it's time to eat." I looked over to the stream and saw her slither out of the water and over to me. Using a ladle, I poured out a bowl for me and a doggy dish of soup for my friend. "Just be careful not to burn your tongue." Unfortunately she didn't hear me in time and tried to eat the hot soup. She let out a squeal and quickly backed off from the bowl. She quickly slithered over to the stream and started gulping down vast amounts of water.

I tried to fight off a laugh but wasn't able to. "Well I tried to warn you Dratini." Out of nowhere there came a shot of water that struck me right in the face. After wiping my face off I looked in the direction that the water had come from. Near the stream I saw Dratini snickering. An image of Professor Cent totally drenched popped into my mind. "Alright, I guess I deserved that. If you come blow on your soup Dratini it should cool down enough to eat." She shook her head and lay there.

"Alright, how about I blow on it then?" She cocked her head to the side then nodded after a moment. So she slithered over and I would spoon feed her once I had blown on it. Once we had polished off most of the soup I decided to clean everything up. I looked into the pot and realized that I had made to much and would have to do something with the rest. So I took the pot off the fire and picked up the bowls and walked over to the stream.

"Once we get these cleaned up, I guess we'll call it a night." I looked down at Dratini and she nodded up to me. Once we got to the stream she slithered in and started to swim about. When I was finished scrubbing out the bowls I saw the Dratini was about to surface. With a quick smile I quickly made a splash. When Dratini surfaced and looked over at me she got a face full of water. She quickly shook off the water and gave me a mischievous smile and shot a water gun attack at me. Just like last time, the water hit me right in the face. And with that it erupted into a full on water war. Eventually she started to duck under the water and pop up somewhere else and shoot me. A little later I was totally drenched. "Well since I'm totally drenched I guess I should get my cleaning supplies." So I jumped up and ran back to camp. I walked over to my tent and reached into it and into my pack to grab my bathroom supplies and trunks. I quickly pulled off the water logged cloths and set them on a rock near the fire to dry.

After jumping into my trunks I returned to he stream and jumped into the water. Almost immediately I regretted it since this water was mountain fed. I quickly resurfaced shivering. Dratini swam over to me and rubbed into my chest. "Man this water is freezing. Aren't you cold Dratini?" She shook her head then started to swim around me. "Well since I'm getting cleaned up, do you want me to clean you up too?" She nodded and we got cleaned up.

Once we were fully clean I picked Dratini up and placed her on my shoulders and picked up my bathroom supplies. We were both laughing along the way back when Dratini quickly went rigid and looked strait towards our camp. She was leaning forward as if she was trying to see something off in the distance. "What's wrong Dratini? Do you see something?" Just then she started to swish her tail on my chest and then I heard a rustling sound ahead.

I dropped low and started to make my way back to camp. Once I was just about there Dratini's tail started to swish even more. There is a bush right on the outskirts of the clearing, so I hid behind it and peeked through to see our campsite. There seemed to bee a large dust cloud coming from the fire pit. There was something in the coals of the fire and I guess kicking them around. If I had to make a guess, I would have to say that it was probably a fire type since the coals would still be pretty hot.

That's it. A fire type was looking for a warm place to sleep for the night. It was kicking around the fire pit to find the hottest coals and settle in for the night. I smiled and rubbed Dratini's cheek. "It's alright Dratini. That Pokemon just wants a warm bed for the night." So I stood up and walked into the clearing. Just as I entered the clearing the thing stopped kicking up the coals. The cloud of dust was starting to settle when I saw an orange ball of feathers run out of the pit and under a bush. It must have been a Torchic because the size of the Pokemon was very small and it didn't have a flame near it's backside.

I reached up and plucked Dratini off my neck and set her on the ground. I looked down at her and said "Why don't you just go into the tent and I will be in there once I get something done. Alright?" She let out a low long note then rubbed against my leg, then turned and slithered into my tent. Once she was in the tent I turned back to the fire and got an idea. I walked over to the fire pit and started to build up the fire again. It only took me a moment to get the fire going again. I smiled to myself thinking that the Torchic would love this new fire bed. So I reached up and plucked my dried pants and shirt off the rock where I had put them to dry and turned to the bush where the Torchic had vanished under.

"Just wait a minute before you go and jump into the fire, OK Torchic." I reached over and poured a bowl full of soup for it as well and then covered the pot and climbed into my tent. Dratini was curled up on the sleeping bag and looking up at me as I entered the tent. So I rubbed her behind her fins and jumped into my sleeping bag. "Do you want to sleep in your ball Dratini or would you like to sleep with me?" Turning to me she gave me a smile and slithered into the sleeping bag with me and rubbed against my chest. "Well I guess that answers that question. Goodnight Dratini." So we snuggled up and went to sleep.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