Finding Red

6

Red went silent after Crystal's announcement, probably due from processing, and so Crystal kept walking. The afternoon sun was hot and sticky, a giant press of discomfort on her. It melted away with the softy, steady crunch of her feet across dead grass and began to fade from golden orange to a deep royal blue. As the moon came out, Crystal noticed that her mouth was parched dry and the tranced state of exhaust began to hit her as she continued to walk. But the thought of stopping, of spending her first night in the woods, was too uncomfortable for her to handle. She began to sway.

"You should probably make camp for the night," Red suggested, speaking up for the first time in hours.

Crystal looked at the ghostly figure walking next to her. "So he finally speaks, eh?"

"Are you serious right now?" He asked Crystal.

She shrugged. "We both have issues, the only difference is that you chose to have yours, and well, I'm the one stuck with them."

"I'm serious though," he said, "What if I murdered someone, and like this was my punishment?"

Crystal and Nuria began to laugh, as her exhaustion lifted. "Now that's funny. You're way too much of a pansy to murder someone. You're all Growl and no Bite. So calm down, please."

Nuria's back flared up in laughter in to response the roast. "Cynda cyn!"

"Whatever, Miss 'I'm too scared to sleep in the woods'. Worried about a Caterpie messing up your hair?" He snapped back.

"Hey," she said. "It's not like I chose to be on a journey. So I don't think it's fair to judge me for wanting to sleep in comfort."

"And I didn't choose to have you as my keeper, so I don't think it's fair to be so snarky," he said.

"Cynda!" Nuria explained, hopping in front of Red as if to protest.

Crystal translated. "That was a sure, just so you know."

"I know," said Red.

The two fell back into silence because Crystal wanted to let him think. She too, truthfully, wanted to think. Somehow the last few hours had not been enough. Crystal had wondered if she'd been hit by Confusion or Psybeam, or if she were in the hospital after some wild Pokémon had attacked her with no remorse. That would make more sense than, well, this, and honestly, it probably would've been a more fitting beginning to her journey. But she knew this was real, and somehow she was going to deal with it.

What did she know about this photograph? She thought it came from Professor Elm before. Who else would have an interest in leaving something like that at her door? But she wasn't sure now. Crystal tried to think of something, anything, to give her a clue as to how it got to her door. Because clearly someone else knew about this. Someone else had to. How else would she have gotten it?

She had no clue if it was an enemy or a friend of Red, or even just an innocent bystander. She wondered if the person who wrote the photo wrote the text, and if there was a particular reason that she had ended up his keeper. The questions were a whirlpool, threatening to drown her. Why her? She asked herself. She didn't want to be a part of this.

"We should probably make a pact of some sort," she said. "To like, figure out how this is going to work, and what our next step is going to be. Otherwise we're just going to argue."

"I think our next step should be that we make camp for the night," said Red. "It's getting exhausting just watching you walk like that."

"Not happening," said Crystal, facing Nuria's back to stay focused on something constant and bright. "And by the way, before you ask, I refuse to become a trainer. So don't even try."

"Yet you own a Pokémon? How are you not a trainer?" Red asked.

Crystal shook her head. "Nuria is just here to protect me, since you know, the wild is dangerous."

"Honestly, you're dangerous, with that mindset. If you don't think being a trainer is about owning a Pokémon then what is it?" Red asked.

"Badge collecting like some kind of maniac, obsessing over the championship in the unhealthiest ways. Trainers are a bunch of idiots caught up in this system that encourages irresponsibility and bad values," she huffed.

"That mindset...I don't even know what to say," said Red. "Why?"

"It's none of your business," said Crystal, taking a deep breath in through her nostrils.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and looked up at the stars above. Crystal felt the tears come to her eyes as she kept walking. It was going to be fine. She was going to be fine. She wouldn't run into him on this journey because she wasn't a trainer, and had no business with him in the first place. She just had to focus on Red. Focus on Nuria in front of her. She just had to get IP for Clarks and Kent.

"I think," she said, her voice balancing on a knife's point, "we need to focus on getting your memory back. We can't know for sure what the rest of the conditions for freeing you are until we understand what in the world you've been doing for the last two years. After all, how do I even 'follow in your footsteps'? We can't."

"Probably," said Red looking at Nuria before returning his gaze to Crystal. "That seems like a fair course of action."

Crystal nodded. It was decided then. She had no clue how they were going to jog Red's memory, but it was going to be alright. They were going to figure it out. It wasn't like there was some kind of time deadline written into the contract. For now, though, they had to keep going. Even if she was exhausted, Crystal was dead set on making it to Cherrygrove City and she wasn't stopping until her feet collapsed underneath her.