Ranger's Oath - Part One

Chapter 1: Hello, My Name is Failure

To top off the speech, the three of us did our little ranger poses. Solana swished her styler antenna through the air, Murph threw his up, spun around and caught it. (He would later recount the action as "the most coordinated thing he'd ever done.") And me? I tried to take my styler out of my holster and dropped it on the ground. In an attempt to make up for it, I picked it up, held it over my head and softly moaned, "Ta-da!"

And then, to my surprise, Solana laughed. It wasn't surprising that she laughed-it was supposed to be funny. But I was more taken aback that she had noticed me at all. I smiled back, happier than I had felt for a while. But that feeling disappeared when I glanced over to Spenser and saw his glare of disapproval.

"Trouble! There's trouble! It's a crisis! Help, help, help!" We turned to the door and saw Larry, a Ringtown resident, running in. I stifled the urge to roll my eyes. There was never any trouble in Ringtown. And hearing this coming from Larry, I knew that there was absolutely nothing to worry about.

Larry shoved Murph and me out of the way and ran right up to Spenser, babbling about how his Pokémon had run off into Lyra forest again. He pushed us so hard that I had to prevent myself from falling right on top of Solana-so instead I fell on the ground.

"Are you alright?" Solana asked, helping me up.

"Yeah, it's just Larry being Larry," I muttered. "His pokémon always runs away. I can only wonder why." Solana softly giggled again.

"This sounds like a perfect mission for Solana," Spenser said, turning to us. "Enter Lyra forest and capture Larry's escaped Pokémon. That's your first mission."

"Whoa, whoa, what?" Larry exclaimed. "Leader, you've got to be joking! Are you sure it's going to be okay asking this rookie to handle this mission?"

"There's nothing to be worried about. Solana is very talented," Spenser replied. He turned to Solana. "The Lyra forest is just outside Ringtown. I'll meet you there." He brushed past us and walked out the door. Once in Spenser's absence, Larry turned to Solana with a sneer.

"Well, isn't this just dandy," Larry scoffed. "I asked the leader because he's the most trustworthy ranger here. But look at this rookie. A less trustworthy face I've yet to see." And as he turned his back and walked out the door, he muttered, "Don't screw this up, girl."

Once Larry was gone, there was a beat of silence. I could feel Solana's uncertainty, so I spoke up.

"Don't let him get to you," I said cheerfully. "He can say some rotten things, but he never really means it. It's just Larry being Larry."

"Yeah! This will be easy for a great ranger like you!" Murph chimed in. "I can't count how many times I've had to go into the forest after his Pokémon." Solana looked at the both of us and smiled.

"Thanks, guys," she said. She started to walk out the door, so I wished her luck.

Oddly, I felt good. I thought I wasn't going to like this girl-I knew she was going to replace me. But when I met her, I realized that she's very nice, almost a little shy. Maybe it was because it had been so long since I had received kindness from someone other than Murph, but I had genuine hope that there was potential for a friendship. I was so happy that I couldn't help but run after her to see her first mission.

By the time I got there, Spenser was already briefing Solana on the mission. I stayed back with Larry and watched as Spenser went with Solana to look for the Pokémon. She collected a couple of wild Pokémon and took them back to Larry, who immediately scolded her for not catching the right one. She looked to me, using her eyes to plead for help. Just then I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A taillow was fluttering around in a bush-Larry's taillow. I gestured to it with a shake of the head, and she immediately went at it. She captured it without a problem and brought it back to Larry. He congratulated Solana on a job well done and left, fawning over his pokémon. Just a standard, run-of-the-mill chore.