Pokemon World - The Lost Child

Lucryn: Day 39

*Picture above: ??? (Not telling ^_~)

(Day 39)

"Lucryn, wonderful, alright, now that everyone's here, let me explain your task." Professor Oliver happily says, gesturing for Lucryn to sit. Lucryn takes in the room before slowly walking over and seating himself beside Rye. Of the seven people in the office, Lucryn only knows the professor and Rye. The other four he's seen in passing, but never interacted with.

Professor Oliver gestures to the table where a beautiful egg is placed with a base fiery red color with yellow swirls going throughout it. Being near the egg you could feel the temperature increase, this egg clearly belonging to the fire type. Having done no research on pokemon eggs, Lucryn doesn't recognize the egg.

"Does anyone recognize this egg?" Professor Oliver asks.

A large man with a broadsword on his back responds. "It should be a Slugma egg."

"Correct Gerald, it is indeed a Slugma egg. This egg was found near a volcano by Lavaridge City and given to me for research purposes. Of course, I don't have enough time to handle caring for Slugma, so I came up with the wonderful idea of allowing all of you to care for Slugma. Should Slugma choose one of you to contract after hatching, then I will relinquish my ownership of Slugma to you in return you will add another year to your contract with me."

Lucryn notices how everyone's eyes light up, only Rye seems somewhat unfazed. Lucryn isn't very interested, he already has five pokemon to care for and train, adding another, a baby no less, is pointless if the price is an additional year of his freedom. He'd keep his freedom instead.

Rye leans over to Lucryn, lips brushing his ear. "Don't do it, I'll help you find a different pokemon so don't sign yourself up for an additional year here. You have to join my team, remember?"

Lucryn resists the urge to elbow Rye in the gut for the close contact. Turning his face, his eyes meet Rye's, blankly gazing into Rye's dark eyes, not noticing how Rye's cheeks redden, realizing how close they are. Rye awkwardly coughs, turning his face away from Lucryn.

Lucryn blinks, wondering what just happened. He was pretty sure Rye wouldn't stop until he's positive Lucryn wouldn't accept the professor's deal. Shrugging, he thinks nothing more on it.

"Now, if you are still interested please stay, the rest of you may leave." Professor Oliver states. Rye stands up, grasping Lucryn's sleeve and giving it a tug. Lucryn looks at the fingers pinching his shirt sleeve, feeling his mark warm up as some not so nice thoughts enter his mind. Rising, Lucryn roughly pulls his arm back, removing Rye's fingers.

Rye gives him a sad look, indicating for Lucryn to hurry and follow him out. Lucryn does follow Rye out, not because Rye asked, but because he truly has no interest in that egg. Aside from them, only a woman left, the other three remaining behind. "Good job, I promise to help you find a better pokemon than Slugma, so don't be sad."

Lucryn emotionlessly gazes at Rye, the woman who was on her way out looks over, having overheard the conversation between the two. 'Why do I feel like he's treating the cute kid like a dog he can coax with a bone? No wait, are pokemon so easy to find and contract? Perhaps finding them is easy, but getting them to agree to enter into a contract?!'

Shaking her head, the woman walks off, treating what she heard as fools boasting. Perhaps in a few years she'd look back on this day and realize just how wrong she had been.

"Come on, come on, let's go train. Torchic's nearing evolution and I want her to be as strong as she can before evolving." Lucryn looks at Rye in intrigue. 'Evolution huh.' If anything, Lucryn had only seen a pokemon un-evolve in the case of Gallade dropping back to Ralts. He had done some research on that and had found it to be a natural condition of contracting. All evolutions would be undone and the pokemon would start back at the beginning. Of course, the pokemon would still know most of the moves it had learned after evolving.