Chapter 1

“Happy birthday Rachel!” cried Jennifer, bringing out the cute little chocolate cake that she had baked from her picnic basket.

“But where are all the candles?” asked Mike, as he smiled with fake incredulity.

“Oh come on Mike,” said Gracie, shaking her head from her cross-legged position on the picnic blanket, “she’s turning 18, not 8 — I think we’re all a little past the “candles on the cake” phase, don’t you think?”

“Thanks guys,” said Rachel, blushing as she accepted the cake from Jennifer. “You all are too sweet, you know that?”

“Well, it’s the least we can do, you know,” said Jennifer, handing her a cake knife. “Now cut all that up and pass em’ around — and make sure you keep the biggest slice for yourself, ok?”

Rachel smiled and blushed some more as she sliced up pieces of her birthday cake for her friends. She was lucky to have friends like these — she really was. Jennifer had been kind enough to arrange a little birthday picnic this afternoon, and it was the perfect day to have one. A few puffy white clouds dotted an otherwise perfectly blue afternoon sky, and a light breeze was blowing in pleasantly from the East. They were picnicking on a bright green grassy knoll just outside of Hearthome City, and all of them were enjoying the cool freshness of the air. It was nice to get outside the city every so often — even though Hearthome wasn’t as hectic as a few other cities they could name, it was still quite busy, and the four friends were thoroughly enjoying the brief reprieve from their city schedules.

As she ate her birthday cake, Rachel looked around at her friends, smiling and feeling grateful. Jennifer, Mike, and Gracie were all just around her age, and they had been friends for years. All three of them had started their journeys as pokemon trainers from the age of 10, and by now, all of them had garnered quite an impressive collection of pokemon, many of whom had evolved into more advanced stages. Rachel glanced down at Jennifer’s satchel, which shook and lurched randomly from time to time — Rachel knew this was because the satchel contained Jennifer’s collection of pokeballs, which contained the pokemon she had successfully captured and made her own. Mike and Gracie also had their satchels close at hand, which also contained their pokeballs and the pokemon inside.

“You can’t force an evolution,” Jennifer was saying as she put a fork full of cake into her mouth. “You just have to keep fighting battles and challenging other trainers — the evolution will come with time, mark my words.”

“You’re right, Jen,” said Mike, nodding his head as he shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just hard sometime to not get too impatient, especially when almost every time I fight with him I feel like it’s going to be a losing battle.”

“Like Jen said, patience is the key,” put in Gracie. “Especially with a Squirtle, Mike, you can’t push it too hard — you have to gently encourage it along. Don’t worry; the evolution will happen eventually.”

“Yeah, I know, you two are right,” said Mike, sighing. “It’s just that I would've thought that he’d evolved into Wartortle by this point — I feel like he’s been stuck at level 14 for ages now.”

“Well, at least you have pokemon,” said Rachel quietly, trying not to sound too sad. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I just can’t seem to catch one — I’ve been trying for years and I have nothing to show for it.” Rachel was frustrated with herself as she spoke these words, and she bowed her head a little in sadness. She always loved to hear her friends talk about their pokemon, but it was impossible not to feel left out of the conversation, since she had no pokemon of her own to speak of. She hated coming off as the wet blanket loser who just didn’t have what it took to become a trainer, but the older she got, the more her age seemed to hit home her greatest fear — that she’d never, ever be able to catch and train a pokemon herself.

“Aww sweetie,” said Jennifer comfortingly, reaching over and squeezing her friend’s shoulder, “don’t be like that — you’ll catch one soon. I know you will!”

“Yeah, just like Mike, you’ve gotta be patient and give it time, Rachel,” said Gracie gently. “You can’t force it — you know, in a way, the pokemon choose you, and not the other way around, you know? That’s how it was with me and Lula.”

Rachel looked over at Gracie and made an effort to smile and nod her head, even though internally she was really quite jealous of Gracie. Lula was her Ivysaur, who was already at level 25 — before she knew it, Lula would be a fully-evolved Venusaur…and her Rachel was with no pokemon, not one, to speak of. She loved her friends, but she had to admit: it was hard sometimes hanging around such high achievers when she wasn’t anywhere close to their level of expertise. It was difficult not to feel inadequate.

But Rachel forced a smile and graciously ate her birthday cake and for the next hour or so was able to enjoy her time with her friends — they had thrown her this birthday picnic, after all. Not everyone was lucky enough to have such nice friends, even if they did make her feel inadequate from time to time.

Eventually, Jennifer, Mike, and Gracie had to pack up and leave. They all had to attend a tournament in the Super Contest Hall, where they would be pitting their pokemon against other trainers. Rachel had said that she wanted to come, but that she actually had some chores to do at home that would prevent her from going. In reality, she knew that she couldn’t bear to be around all these other pokemon trainers (many of whom were her age or younger), watching them battle their pokemon against each other, while she just watched from the sidelines. She knew it would make her feel bad.

Her friends all hugged her goodbye, wishing her happy birthday, and then set off away back into the city. Rachel watched them go, sighing, feeling a mixture of gratitude and sadness, camaraderie and loneliness. She fished her hand into her own satchel and took out an epty pokeball, examining it closely. Maybe her pokeballs were deficient or something…maybe they were broken? No, that couldn’t be it — she had bought new ones just last week. There was nothing wrong with her equipment; it was just her, pure and simple. She didn’t have what it took.

But no, she thought, Gracie was right. She had to be patient. She had to stay determined. She would catch one; it would happen. She just had to keep believing in herself. She clutched the pokeball fiercely in her hand and stuffed it back into her satchel, standing up determinedly as she walked towards the forest. Maybe she’d find a Bulbasaur in there…or perhaps even a Chikorita or Turtwig…even a Seedot would do at this point. She really didn’t care what kind of pokemon it was — she thought that maybe she’d prefer a grass pokemon to all the others, but in the back of her mind she knew that she only wanted a grass pokemon so that she could eventually beat Gracie at her own game. She had great ambitions of becoming the champion of Sinnoh, but she couldn’t help but feel the obvious disconnect between her huge and lofty ambitions and the reality of her inexperience as a trainer.

For the next few hours, Rachel wandered around in the forest, and although she was searching as carefully as she could, she wasn’t able to find any pokemon. In her frustration, and as a kind of nervous habit, she had begun picking the dark red berries that grew on the numerous fruit bushes in the forest, placing them in a container that she kept in her satchel. She had heard that some pokemon were attracted to the berries, and that you could entice them with the food. She had heard of some young trainers even managing to capture pokemon in this way. And Rachel figured that, well, if she wasn’t going to capture any pokemon, she may as well not waste her time and pick some berries in the process.

Although she didn’t realize it, Rachel cut a good figure as she was wandering around in the forest. She was quite tall for her age — she stood at a healthy 5’9, and sported perky and medium-sized B-cup breasts that had suddenly sprouted a couple years back. She moved lithely through the forest underbrush, weaving through the vines and bushes without too much difficulty. She had a tiny waist that enabled her to bob and weave her body effortlessly to the right and left, and behind her she had a cute little bubble butt that actually stuck out pretty far, moving up and down visibly with each step. Jennifer and Gracie were the more experienced trainers, that was for sure, but unbeknownst to Rachel, her two friends slightly envied the shape of her body.

But Rachel wasn’t thinking about these things — she was concentrated on finding herself a pokemon to capture. Her 18th birthday was really weighing on her heavily today, and as the afternoon wore on, she searched more and more desperately, picking berries all the while as she looked without success for her first pokemon. Eventually, she popped out on the edge of the forest and saw the sun beginning to dip below the hills in the distance — she felt her heart begin to sink just like the sun. It was pointless. Hours and hours of searching, and all she had to show for it was a tupperware container full of berries. And all the while, her friends had been battling in a pokemon tournament in the great Super Contest Hall. They were so far ahead of her that Rachel could hardly bear to even think about it. She bowed her head in sadness as she felt tears start to gather in the corners of her eyes. She’d never become a pokemon trainer…never…

A sudden rustle in the bushes on the edge of the forest made Rachel stop crying, and she snapped her head up in expectation, looking sharply towards where the sound had come from. One of the bushes at the forest’s edge was moving…Rachel felt her heart begin to quicken as she turned and approached the bush cautiously, hoping beyond hope that the bush was hiding a pokemon. She got closer and closer, until she was only about 10 feet away from the bush. Ever so carefully, she reached into her satchel and grasped one of her pokeballs, her fingers tightening around its smooth contours. She realized that her fingers were moist with expectant sweat.

The bush moved a little more, and then out popped a small creature — it resembled a small lizard, its body dark grey with four black feet. Rachel sharply inhaled her breath as she saw the orange-red line that went along its back and down its tail…the line split on its back into four shorter lines…at the base of its neck were two short flat spines, which gave the creature the appearance of wearing a bandana. It sat there, blinking at Rachel through its slit-pupil eyes which shone light purple in the late afternoon light. Rachel looked down, hardly believing her luck, at the creature’s four feet — each foot had four pointed toes. Rachel breathed in and out as carefully as she could, trying to will her heart to slow down — it was a pokemon — a salandit!

Rachel stood there, and the salandit sat there, for a solid minute or two, doing nothing but looking at each other. This was one of the last pokemon that Rachel expected to see around these parts; salandits were almost always found in arid environments, like around volcanos and places like that. She had not expected to find one in a bush on the outskirts of Eterna Forest, of all places!

After a minute or two, Rachel recovered herself and pulled out her pokeball. This was it — she wasn’t going to waste any more time — she was going to go for it! With a quick flourish she threw her pokeball at the sitting salandit. There was a blinding flash of white light, and the next moment her pokeball sat there on the ground, shaking. The salandit was nowhere to be seen. Rachel’s heart leapt up into her throat as she started to run over to her pokeball. She had done it! She had finally done it!! She had captured her first pokemon!!

But no sooner had she run halfway to her pokeball, the salandit suddenly popped out and scurried away, back into the forest.

“Nooo!” cried Rachel in agony, watching the salandit run away from her. “No, no, noooo! Please!! Please come back!!” But her cries were all for nothing, and the next moment the salandit had vanished into the underbrush. Rachel felt the tears quickly return to her eyes, and in her chest the heaves of despair started threatening to well up into a full-blown sob. But Rachel set her face straight. She was not going to cry — she was not going to give up. Not so easily. Not this time. She had been so close! And suddenly, she had an idea.

Reaching into her satchel again, she pulled out the tupperware container that was filled with the berries that she had picked earlier. She popped off the top and got out a handful of the fat, luscious, dark red berries, and held them out towards the underbrush where the salandit had vanished.

“Salandit!” she called out in as sweet a voice as she could muster. “Little salandit! Come back! I have some tasty berries that you’d love to eat! Come back salandit! Come back!”

Rachel kept at this idea for a few minutes, calling out to the salandit over and over, attempting a different variety of sweet voices, all the while trying to entice the little creature to come back. It didn’t really seem to be working…and Rachel was about to venture back into the forest in the direction it disappeared…when — yes!! There it was! Its cute little face had emerged from the underbrush! It was looking at her carefully, with its pretty slit little purple eyes, as if trying to decide if it could trust her.

“Come on little salandit!” called Rachel sweetly, trying to hide the excitement in her voice. “Come get these berries! These fat tasty berries I picked in the forest! They’re real tasty — I had a few myself — come on salandit, come on! Have some to eat!”

The salandit started to walk towards Rachel on its four legs, the red-orange stripe on its back shifting back and forth as it moved its body. Rachel watched it approach, feeling more and more eager with anticipation the closer it got. But she had to keep herself under control — she couldn’t lose her composure now. Her outstretched hand shook slightly as it held out the berries towards the approaching pokemon. As it got closer, Rachel saw that it was unusually small, even for a salandit. It couldn’t have been more than a foot and a half long — usually salandits were two feet or longer, but this one looked especially tiny. A tiny puff of purple gas issued from the salandit’s tail, and Rachel could begin to smell the stink of the pheromones that the little pokemon was giving off. Could it be…?? Rachel was dead-certain as the pokemon cautiously approached closer — this was a female! The males didn’t give off pheromones like the females did! Rachel grew even more excited at this discovery, since females were a lot rarer than males. But unlike most of the other salandits that she had heard of, this one’s pheromones seemed to emanate from its skin…through its sweat pores. Rachel wrinkled her nose a bit as it got closer and closer…it sure was stinky. But that was the last thing on her mind right now. It was less than three feet away now!

‘She’s perfect for me,’ Rachel thought exuberantly as she looked down at the tiny creature. ‘She’s so small and tentative…even a little afraid…she’s exactly the kind of pokemon a novice trainer like me should have!’ The salandit was now so close that Rachel knelt down, her hand outstretched, offering the salandit the berries. To her joy, the salandit walked up closer, extended its little lizard-like tongue in a kind of “taste test,” and then finally began eating the berries out of her hand.

“That’s it!” said Rachel as calmly as she could, her voice vibrating with thrilled energy, “that’s it! Nice little salandit…that’s right…” As the salandit ate the berries, cautiously bringing its eyes up every so often to watch her carefully, Rachel suddenly came up with a name.

“Susie,” she murmured quietly, looking lovingly into the slits of the little pokemon’s light purple eyes, “You’re Susie!” The pokemon blinked back at hearing Rachel give it a name, and it seemed to smile slightly, finishing off the handfull of berries. It opened its mouth and let out a surprisingly loud belch, which took Rachel by surprise as she started back a little, having to catch herself with one of her hands to keep from falling over.

“More,” came salandit’s little voice, its eyes fixed on Rachel. “More berries!”

“Oh!” said Rachel, positively melting with happiness, “of course! Of course! Here you go little Susie, here you go!” She reached into the tupperware container and hurriedly brought out another handful of berries for the new pokemon, presenting them to her with an open hand. “Here you go Susie — more berries!”

Susie came a little closer and started scarfing down this handful of berries even quicker than she had the first one. Rachel sat there crouched down on the ground, mesmerized by the pokemon’s little mouth as it ate and ate from her hand. The inside of Susie’s mouth began to take on a deep, almost blood-red appearance as it became stained by the berries’ dark juices. After this second handful of berries was all gone, Susie again opened her now-stained mouth and let lose another belch, this one even bigger than the first. Rachel staggered back a pace again in her crouched position, having no choice but to wrinkle her nose again as she inhaled the noxious fumes of the salandit’s burps. Susie sure was a stinky one, she thought, as she again noticed the additional fumes of purple gas that were emanating slightly from her skin. As the pokemon’s second burp mixed with the pheromones from her sweat glands and reached Rachel’s nose, she felt a slight burn on the inside of her nasal passageways, and her eyes watered a little in response. But Rachel blinked away the reaction and tried hard to ignore the stench in her nostrils. Here she was…so close to capturing her first pokemon…she was not going to let a little gas get in her way.

Eventually, Susie had eaten all of the berries that Rachel had picked, and had burped up such an array of noxious burps that Rachel was now beginning to feel a little dizzy from the putrid fumes. She was amazed that such a cute, tiny creature could produce such stinky belches, but once again, she refused to let herself be dissuaded by something as small and insignificant as some stinky burps. She reached over and picked up her pokeball from the ground and opened it, setting it beside Susie, who was now standing up on her hinds legs. Rachel had been right before — Susie was unusually small for a salandit. She only stood about a foot and a half off the ground. She was so small that the pokeball actually looked fairly big compared to her, sitting there open on the ground.

“Go on Susie,” said Rachel, beckoning the tiny pokemon toward the open pokeball, “Go on inside! Go on, go on Susie!” But Susie just stood there, looking fixedly at Rachel, unmoving. “Come on Susie,” Rachel coaxed again, with a little more insistence in her voice, “Go on inside the pokeball Susie — it’s your new home! You’re Rachel’s pokemon now — come on Susie, inside you go! I’ll feed you more berries later, Susie — I promise! Go on in — go in Susie!”

But the pokemon did not seem to want to go inside, and as the sun finally dipped below the distant hills on the horizon, Rachel was devastated when Susie suddenly turned her back, collapsed back onto her four legs, and walked away into the forest. Rachel desperately walked after her a few paces, but gave up once the salandit had once again disappeared into the same underbrush she had come from.

“Nooo,” said Rachel again in despair, as she felt the tears start to stream down her cheeks. She had been so, so very close this time! She had even gotten the pokemon to eat out of her hand! And yet still…still…she had not been able to capture it. Rachel hung her head as she turned back away from the forest and slunk home, crying softly to herself as she went. Gradually though, she felt herself gain control over her emotions, and in place of her despair, a fierce hope rose up. She was progressing — she was getting closer, not further, to her goal. Her persistence and dedication had been rewarded that day, even thought she hadn’t managed to capture Susie yet. She congratulated herself on having the bright idea to offer Susie the berries — apparently those stories that she had heard were true, about some pokemon being attracted to the berries. And that was probably it, after all — she had run out of berries, and that’s why Susie had run away back into the forest. If she had only picked more berries, then Susie would have stayed! That was it! That was the secret! By the time Rachel got home, her despair had evaporated, and in its place she felt a fiery and hopeful determination. She would go out to the forest again the next day…she would pick more berries…a lot more berries…and then she would go to the same exact spot she had first spotted Susie, and she would call for her.

Her plan worked. The very next day, she picked three whole tupperware containers full of the fat juicy berries, and staked out her position on the edge of the forest, right by the bush that Susie had appeared out of the previous day. After extending a handful of berries to the forest and calling Susie by name, the little pokemon poked its head out of the same bush, its purple eyes fixed hungrily on the berries in her hand. Rachel could not have been more thrilled as Susie walked up to her and began eating the berries, just like she had the day before. After an hour or so of eating, all the berries were gone once again, and Rachel was having to take deep breaths of fresh air as she gathered herself, reeling more from Susie’s stinky burps (which had increased a little in intensity). And once again, after the berries were gone, Susie refused to go into the open pokeball and disappeared into the forest. But this time, Rachel was not nearly so discouraged as she had been the first time. Her plan had worked — she just had to keep repeating it. Day after day, she came to the same spot, with more and more containers full of berries. She even started to bring poffins that she had made at home especially for Susie…and Susie always ate them all up, even though she still refused to go into the pokeball. As the days went by, Rachel noticed that Susie was developing a fat little belly from all the feeding. She didn’t really mind though — in fact, she thought the salandit’s belly was cute. And somewhere in her subconscious, Rachel felt a warm and pleasant kind of thrill when she looked at Susie’s plump little growing tummy. She had grown that way because she, Rachel, was feeding her. It was almost like she looked on Susie’s growing belly as a sign that the little pokemon was, ever so slowly, becoming hers.