As Matthew pulled himself to his feet, brushing off as much of the muck that was starting to cling to his clothes, he was suddenly aware of a shrieking sound coming from somewhere nearby. At first, he assumed that it was a bird Pokemon of come sort crying out from deeper within the forest, he shrugged it off and started to untangle a twig from his messy mop of hair. He sat, cross legged by the side of the path, with his eyes crossed, focusing on the twig that was dangling in his hair just in front of his forehead. Just as he was about to apply the final twist of the wrist to free the stick, he was aware of a running sound coming from down the path, he glanced up to see a girl around his age sprinting towards him, a fair distance down the path, clutching a Caterpie to her chest.
"Oh, hey! Look another trainer." He grinned towards Hope "Maybe she c-"
Matthew didn't finish his sentence as the girl dashed past him as if he wasn't even there a look of panic in her eyes. As she did, there was a small thud as a potion dropped out of her bag, dropping conveniently in front of Matthew.
"Hey! You dropped this!" He called out, but he had no idea whether or not the girl had heard him. Matthew pulled himself to his feet, still a little stiff all over from his recent tumble down the hill and placed his hands on his hips pensively. "I wonder what's got her all worked up, eh Hope?" He mumbled to his Pokemon. Hope looked up from the rock she had been perched on, and shrugged before returning to her natural meditative passive state. Matthew wandered out to the path and picked up the potion.
"On the one hand, I should probably return this to her, that Caterpie looked a little beaten up. She may need this." He mumbled to himself "But, on the other hand..." Matthew's eyes wandered to the area where the girl had come from "I wonder what she had been running from. That must have been her screaming, right?" He glanced down at Hope who was trying her best not to look intrigued as well.
It didn't take the two of them long to back-track down the path and find a Kakuna dangling from a tree branch looking an odd combination of dazed and confused.
"Poor thing." Matthew beamed "Must have been woken up by her screaming, so this must be where she found whatever scared her, huh?" Matthew perched himself on his tip-toes, craning his neck to see through the foliage and adjusting his glasses. He could make out the outline of something, he just couldn't quite make out what. The only thing he was sure of was that it was moving, which probably meant it was a wild Pokemon. No pokemon master makes it with just one Pokemon... Matthew's eyes lit up behind his glasses and if this thing scared that girl, then it must be strong! It'd be the perfect addition to my team. The grin widened and he could feel his heart pounding.
"Hope. Use force palm on the bush, see if you can scare out whatever is in there." He mumbled softly. Hope nodded and dived at the bush, striking with her palm and causing the bush to vibrate violently.
A singular Hoppip floated out of the line of the bushes, hovering gently above the path.
"You're joking me." Matthew practically laughed, eyebrow raised. Matthew was about to shrug and tell Hope to stand down, thinking that if they left now they still had a chance to catch up to the girl and return her potion, when there was a buzzing noise from deeper within the trees.
"That... That isn't a good noise." He mumbled, turning his head away from the hoppip and peering back into the treeline. He was met by a large black mass darting straight towards him. Matthew yelped, tumbling backwards as a rather agitated Beedrill emerged. From his position on the ground, Matthew could see atop the branch the Kakuna had been dangling from were a small cluster of Weedles. He must have agitated the mother Beedrill when he attacked the bush.
"Hope, we need to get out of here!" Matthew shouted, turning to find his Pokemon. Much to his dismay, Hope was already a few feet down the path, dashing away from the foe, having deemed it too strong for her to fight.
Matthew stood and watched as his Pokemon dashed along the path, the Beedrill hot in pursuit.
"Hope! Look out!" Matthew cried, but the words fell on deaf ears. Matthew watched, mouth dry, as the Beedrill dived onto the Mienfoo, striking it with one of it's sharp needle arms. The blow was stronger than Matthew assumed was possible, sending Hope sprawling across the dirt. The Beedrill wasn't even phased, rising into the air to ready itself for its next attack. Matthew tried to scream for Hope to get out of the way, knowing there was no way she would be able to take another blow of that magnitude, but his voice had vanished. The Beedrill began to dive. Matthew looked away, clenching his eyes shut and preparing himself for the pained screams of his Pokemon. He had failed her.
There was a thud, and then silence. At first, Matthew was worried about the lack of noise and eventually he managed to pry his eyes open and was shocked by what he saw. The Beedrill was sprawled across the path, a large Pidgeotto standing between it and Hope, wings spread. The two Pokemon glared at one another, Matthew got the feeling that this wasn't the first time the two of these Pokemon had tussled with one another. Eventually, the Beedrill broke the gaze, taking to the air and darting away into the trees.
"Th-thank you!" Matthew stammered to the bird Pokemon. The Pokemon shot Matthew a glare, a poisonous look of pure disappointment and disgust, before taking flight and disappearing into a nearby tree.
Within seconds of the Pokemon disappearing, Matthew sprinted to where his Pokemon was lying, short of breath in the grass.
"Hold on Hope, shit, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault." He fell to his knees next to his Pokemon and reached in to his jacket pocket where he had stashed the girl's potion, uncapping the spray and holding it close to Hope "This is going to sting like hell pal." He mumbled before pressing the button. Hope cried out from the pain but Matthew watched as relief as the spray healed up a couple of the scrapes on Hope's body. Once the spray was empty, Matthew took Hope in his arms and stood up. As he stood, he was suddenly aware of the Hoppip that had burst from the bush hovering near his head, he looked up at it. "Excuse me... Do you know your way out of this forest?" He asked desperately "My friend needs medical care. I would greatly appreciate it!" There was a moment of silence, and Matthew began to lose hope that the Pokemon had understood him, when the Pokemon made a definite nodding motion and started fluttering along the path. Matthew jogged closely behind it, holding the still wounded Mienfoo in his arms. In all of his life, Matthew had never felt this awful. He had already failed his Pokemon and he had barely begun his journey and to make matters worse, he had accidentally stolen from the girl in order to heal Hope, which just made him feel worse. Right now, he wasn't going to worry about that. He just needed to get out of the forest.
