A Journey Through Unova - A Pokémon FanFic

Chapter Eight - An Artistic City

"Imogen, I'm quite certain we're almost there," Ryan told me for the millionth time today. "The map never lies." I rolled my eyes and pushed my legs to keep walking.

It had been three days since Ryan and I had departed with Lucas and ever since then, Ryan had been stuffing a map in front of his face. We were doing fine, training, travelling, exploring, all those kind of things. But every morning I woke up to Ryan tracing his finger along a map. I'd thought he would have memorised it by now, considering he never stops looking at it.

"Snivy and I want to take a break!" I told him.

"But we're almost there. We can't stop now, no matter how much we want to." It was way past lunch, and I hadn't eaten anything. I managed to give Snivy some food without losing Ryan, but that's all she ate since we had left.

"When we get to the Pokémon Center, I'm relaxing and sleeping. I'll go for my badge tomorrow."

We continued, Ryan still following everything the map said, and I still, complaining about hunger and tiredness. If I knew where to go and wasn't afraid of being by myself, I'd have it my way.

"And ... we're here!" Ryan exclaimed several minutes later. I fell back from the shock, with Snivy sliding off my head and landing head-first into the dirt.

"Oh, Snivy!" I gasped, picking her up and patting her head. "I'm sorry!"

"Snivy!" She snapped, using Vine Whip on Ryan.

"Ouch! Stop! Imogen, get your Pokémon to stop! IMOGEN!" I giggled. Snivy stopped whipping Ryan and began resting in my arms.

"Why didn't you call her to stop?" Ryan asked. "I don't have Tepig burn you!"

"Because you deserved it, and fire is much worse than a few vines," I told him sharply. I walked in front of him and realised we were actually in Nacrene City.

"Oh, thank Arceus!" I exclaimed, looking around everywhere for a Pokémon Center. I noticed that this city was filled with train tracks – mostly abandoned by the looks of it – and a lot of artistic sculptures and buildings.

"Tepig!" Tepig grunted, noticing a painting on a building of all three starter Pokémon.

"Wow," I muttered breathlessly. "This place is beautiful."

"You got that right," Ryan said. "Hey, look!" He stopped in front of a park where many easels were standing. Some were occupied by people who looked like professional artists or just townspeople. Other were empty, waiting to be painted.

"Painters' Park," I informed him. I had read about it once in a magazine when I was waiting for my haircut in a salon.

"Snivy!" She exclaimed. I looked over to where she was pointing and saw a big building with a red painted 'P' on top of it.

"The Pokémon Center!" I exclaimed, running for it. It was noticeably much bigger than the one in Accumula Town and Striaton City, or the ones we came across while trying to get from one town to the next.

"Imogen, wait!" Ryan called behind me.

I ran inside and looked around. I gaped at all the amazing paintings and pictures on the wall. This place was swarming with new Pokémon too.

"Hello, may I help you?" A voice asked from the front. It was Nurse Joy.

"Hi, Nurse Joy," I said dreamily, still staring at the all the artworks. I focused my attention on her quickly, trying not to be rude. "Could I please have my three Pokémon checked up on?"

"Of course! Just pass them to me and they should be healed and in mint condition in no less than ten minutes." I took three out of the six Poké Balls off my belt and handed two of them over to Nurse Joy.