The Story Continues:

After releasing Jericho, I took Lily out to get to know her. Wandering through the grass, all manner of creatures ran up to greet us… each one was met with Lily, and as we worked, we grew closer. We even managed to catch yet another new friend, a Zigzagoon… not one of my favorites, but it was so sweet and fluffy, I couldn’t help but love it. I nicknamed her Panny, and she joined the group, placed right next to Lily’s ball.

I guessed… we could stay in Oldale for a while, train and practice with the abundant wild pokemon in the forest around my home. I wasn’t quite ready to wander too far anyway… I wanted to be sure my friends would be SAFE.

A few long days pass, my team is starting to work really well together, AND Panny picks up items she finds lying around. I knew having her would be a good idea. Plus she makes the most fluffy, comfortable pillow. Nurse Joy has stopped glaring at me whenever I come in. She seems to be… happy, that I let the Poochyena go, and that I seem to enjoy just staying with my pokemon. She kind of grumbles at me for using Panny as a pillow, though, something about the raccoon being too small for that kind of thing, but Panny doesn’t seem to mind.

A few more days and maybe I’ll feel safe leaving.

Another couple of days, and Panny managed to ferret an injured wingull out of a tree near the lake above Oldale. It was a lake, right? No, it was the ocean, wasn’t it… I could never remember, and looking at the maps just confused me. I wound up catching the bird, I named him Aaron, and we all took him to the pokecenter. I wasn’t really sure, whether I should have kept him, but at the same time, he seemed to rather like it in the pokeball… Maybe I could just let him stay in storage…

It was a curious decision, I had to admit that, picking to allow the little bird to stay instead of hide away in the storage capsules wherever the terminals kept them. He didn’t seem all too keen on the idea… I had a feeling it had something to do with how we’d found him. I’d not seen many wingull away from the water before. Maybe I was just… stalling, taking on a new pokemon I’d need to learn about, to keep from moving forward, but I DID need to learn about him, so stall I would, at least for a little bit.

A couple more days couldn’t hurt.

And then… it happened… In the quest to learn more about Aaron… we were attacked by a Zigzagoon. It seemed normal at first, but Aaron didn’t want to fight… he outright refused, trying to run, only to be pummeled by the raccoon, repeatedly. I tried to step in, but he was knocked out before I could. I was wrong… I should leave him in storage… no, I need to… at least for a little while… let him recover… I could bring him back out later… and hope… hope he forgave me for this.
Lily took care of the zigzagoon, wrapping it in silks so we could escape. I took them all to the pokemon center, I passed Joy the pokeball, and she frowned at me. “I’m SORRY!” She looked taken aback, and placed the pokeball onto an emergancy platform.

“We’ll take care of him… but he’ll need rest…”

“I know… I know…” I turned away, making my way back out of the center. I felt like shit, and I probably deserved it.