A Champion in Disguise [PKMN Wattys 2015 2nd Place Miscellaneous Category]

Chapter 1

However, for the tenth time that day, I found myself staring at that small number 1 on the paper that I had tried to make some sort of masterpiece on, but failed miserably. What I did, like all the previous times was scribble and draw gibberish all over the paper. I then proceeded to crumple it into a ball, which was shaped more like an egg because of the uneven crinkles that were jutting from it. When I heard a sharply shilling, obnoxious ding from the oven downstairs I set the paper creation on my dark, wooden desk unlike the others that I had tried to throw into the bin, only to miss miserably.

When I had went down into my kitchen, I gazed at the stainless steel oven and got out my oven mitts, which were colored like blue, white, and brown similar to my strongest pokemon, frosslass. The mitts ironically, were the reason I got frosslass when she was simply a snowrunt.

The day I had gotten my snowrunt had been a rather dark one as dark clouds had covered everything and the smell of rain to come was ever present. This weather was rather unfamiliar to the citizens of Cerulean, as the ocean was colder there and did not make storms like the sea that was north of Pallet town which was warm and pleasant to swim in without a water suit.  However, it was clear that Pewter city got it's fair share of rain as Pallet town was directly to the south and there wasn't mountains to buffer storms coming in like there was for Cerulean. Additionally, Mt. Moon acted as a natural buffer from anything coming from the south-east. So, naturally 10 year old me, who left Cerulean and went to a new city for the first time ever, was rather confused at the weather that the city had.

I had already visited the museum with my starter pokemon, squirtle. However, we had already had a slight fallout, as the tiny blue turtle wanted to challenge the gym while I wanted to train some more. He of course argued and protested until I told him that we should split and that I would meet him at the pokemon center after some time. Hence, me walking around the city with nothing to do.

What finally caught my attention though, was a small, hastily set up traveling shop. The shop itself was simply a brown tent that looked like it had seen its better days. The cloth was ragged and thinned, and had holes that were covered by endless patchwork. The physical rusty metal supports of the tent looked like they were unstable and could snap at any second, rousing a feeling of my pity for the inhabitant of it. From the outside, the tent looked like it could hold a migrant who had fled a war of some sort, if you didn't notice the glints of something shiny on the inside.

As I had in fact noticed the glints of something inside, I decided to step into the tent. An old lady sat in a chair and I could feel her icicle blue eyes evaluating my presence. I was surprised that I even knew the color of her eyes, as I had only stolen a small gaze at her. Though, I only had two seconds looking at her, I could see her paled, wrinkled skin which looked as pure as snow as well as her hair that was gray like the storm clouds outside. Then there was her stare. Her eyes were like beautiful daggers that would watch your every move. Maybe she had been stolen from before.....?

None of that mattered though, when I looked at the treasures that were stored in the run down shop. It was all amazing, and I couldn't believe such beautiful things could be in such a place. The strange thing though, was that if I didn't look at the tent long enough to spot the glinting, I wouldn't have even thought to come in. It was almost like a test in a way. I guess that's why the cooking mittens that were casually shoved behind a blue and white porcelain vase from jhoto caught my eye.

As I moved closer to the mittens the woman seemed to notice this action and became increasingly perked up as I neared the Nordic-designed things. When I was directly in front of them she probed curiously, "Is there something here you like my dear?"

I looked at the cooking mitts to the lady's now sparkling blue eyes and responded, "Yes, please m'am, how much are these blue mittens?"

The old woman smiled, almost smirked, and announced, "You tell me dear, what do you think the mittens are worth. I shall give you them for the price you are willing to pay."