Finding Red

13

Red turned out to be extremely helpful. He showed her how to find a safe place to camp, how to start cooking well over a campfire, and how to set up her sleeping bag for the night. To her surprise, camping was not bad. Red had instructed her to keep a fire on until she was to sleep and when she was tired, to sleep with Nuria for her warmth. She had the stars above her head, and somehow, after all the activity of the last few days it felt nice to have a moment to lay down without moving or worrying. All she had to do was look up at the twinkling lights.

"Somewhere there's names for the constellations," said Red, "but I don't know them."

Crystal looked over at the apparition of the battle-legend, fading with the dimming embers of campfire. "It's not that. I just am enjoying being off my feet. Thanks for helping me with all this."

"It's no problem," said the battle legend. "We're probably going to be stuck with each other for a while so we need to help each other the best we can. Besides, seeing you zombie-walk your way to Cherrygrove was kind of depressing."

She rolled her eyes. "I think it was pretty hard-core and brave, excuse you."

"You know, they say it's hard to tell the difference between bravery and idiocy," Red retorted.

She scoffed. "I would smack you right now if I could."

"But you can't, because guess what, my ghostly body won't let you," he laughed.

The two settled into a silence, getting ready for the night. Crystal continued to look up at the stars and hugged Nuria to her chest. The embers of the fire were dwindling, enough so that it was getting hard to see Red. She felt safe though, Nuria's body was warm and fuzzy, and the steady beat of her Pokémon's breath calmed her. She could feel the life coming from the rise and fall of Nuria's fragile ribcage. Part of her worried about hugging so tight onto her Pokémon, but Nuria seemed to enjoy it.

"Red?" she called out, as the embers faded into pitch black.

He chuckled, the sound of his voice reverberating through the dark. "Yes, Crystal?"

"What was your first night as a trainer like? You know, the first one you spent in the woods." Crystal asked.

"It was scary," he said, the honesty ringing true in his voice. "I blew through Viridian City on my first day, so I spent the night in the forest. Pikachu and I stayed up the entire night and fell asleep at dawn. We were terrified of getting poisoned by a bug Pokémon. We were just fine though; in fact, after that I never was afraid to sleep in the woods again."

"Really?" Crystal asked.

She figured he probably smiled in the dark. "Yeah, it turns out when you do something once it's not so hard to do it a second time. Now battles, those are an exception to that rule."

"Do you think you could ever want to quit battling Red?" Crystal asked.

He spoke in a surprised tone. "I don't know, actually. I mean, I haven't seen a skilled opponent in a long time, but the bond I have with my Pokémon prevents me from ever wanting to stop battling."

"I see," she said, not really understanding what to do with the answer. "You know, I wonder what even changes people about going on a journey."

"You'll find out," he said, chuckling a bit. "Just you wait until tomorrow."

Crystal thought about all of the possibilities she could come up with. Did Red want her to meditate? To walk with Nuria? Or would she learn to command her Pokémon? Her mind wandered to images of pointing and shouting for Nuria to create embers, like a general commanding the cavalry. Perhaps, they would just play. Maybe, well, she didn't know. Red was such a mysterious person. All she could do was imagine the possibilities of what was to come.