A Road Less Travelled

”How far away is this place?”

Damian’s voice pierced the still, hot air as he whined loudly. Not far away a creature let out a disgruntled squawk at the sound of the boy and flew out from a tree directly in front of him, startling Damian and causing him to tumble backwards and trip on the rough ground. With a smack he landed in a cloud of dust, and after glaring at the hind end of the Pokémon until it disappeared, let out a heavy sigh. Sure, coming to the Caspian region had sounded like a great idea to Damian at the time, and he had practically jumped from the bow of the ferry onto shore when they arrived. But he certainly hadn’t expected this. The dingy little port the boy arrived in was bad enough, but Damian had been trudging endlessly down the dirt path for what had seemed like hours and there was still nothing but grass and more grass and the occasional thicket of trees. At least if the path had led through a forest Damian would not have to deal with the constant glare of the sun, but whoever made the trail had decided in their lacking wisdom that setting fire to kids was the best way to start their Pokémon journey. For all Damian knew the whole thing was one great big sham, and already some wretched thieves were spending his ticket money while the boy himself slowly starved to death in the wilderness of some uninhabited island.

But Damian knew in his heart this was not true. Reaching into his pocket the boy pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it up, the flyer heavily creased from the same action being done many times on the ferry. The trainer Damian had met in Kanto had handed it to him before she left, telling the boy that it had directions for how to navigate the first area of the region. But the young boy cared little for what the flyer said. Instead he ran a finger across a large image printed on the flyer and studied it carefully as he had done every time before. It detailed the front of a small wooden cabin set in an open field of waving grass. In front of it stood an old man dressed in a long white coat and smiling up at him was a young girl. Beside her was a Bulbasaur, the grass Pokémon cheerfully tugging at her legs in eagerness to start their own journey together. A large wooden sign post framed them, with the name Gaia Ranch painted across its cracked surface in long, wavy white letters. Damian knew that was where all trainers in the region started, and where they received their first Pokémon. And there was no way anyone could fake the bright smile on the girls face.

A smile of his own tugged at the corners of Damian’s lips as he folded the flyer up once more and pocketed it. The fire he had felt on the ferry was rekindled, and with a grunt the boy climbed up onto his feet and brushed the dirt from his clothes. He stooped down and picked up his bag before continuing once more down the well-trodden trail through the grassland. Each footstep had a bounce to it now, and the sun felt warm and inviting on Damian’s face as he began to climb a steep hill. Soon he would be able to get his own Pokémon and begin his own journey, and no matter how far away the ranch was, nothing would stop Damian from getting there.

With a final heave the boy crested the top of the hill and stopped, his eyes widening in amazement. Ahead of him the hill slopped downward into a wide and flat grassland dotted with meadows of flowers. Vivid shades of orange and yellow and purple gleamed in the sunlight as a light breeze blew across the grassland, causing them to wave as if beckoning Damian. Thickets of leafy trees dotted the land, and as the boy watched he noticed the shadows of Pokémon lounging in the shade, and some of them even turned their eyes towards the hill for a moment to regard Damian before returning to their rest. But the boy’s eyes were centered solely on one object, a solitary wooden cabin resting at the edge of the field. A column of thin smoke rose up from the chimney into the azure sky, and Damian had looked at the flyer so many times he didn’t even need to pull it out to confirm his hopes; he had found it. Gripping his bag tightly the boy charged down the hill, nearly losing his footing several times but somehow managing in his excitement to keep his feet down as he ran passed the fields of flowers towards the cabin. He ran through a wooden fence enclosing the cabin and the boy paused just long enough to read the words painted brightly at the gate; Gaia Ranch.

Jumping quickly over a set of wooden steps, Damian climbed onto a weathered porch and paused at the door to catch his breath. After a few heaving gasps the boy reached for the handle and pulled open the door before stepping inside the cabin. Leaving the door open Damian took a few more steps inside and then dropped his bag to the side, his arms crossing as he studied the room he found himself in. Frowning slightly the boy couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed at what he saw. It was so, so simple. He knew the building was a log cabin, but he figured it was just an aesthetic appeal, and that his first stop on his grand journey wouldn’t actually be some decrypt cabin in the middle of nowhere. But everything the boy saw in front of him was, well, what you’d expect in a normal cabin, complete with the musty smell of smoke from the fire and the feeling that if you touched anything you’d catch a disease. The only thing that was missing from the whole scene was people, and as far as Damian knew the cabin was empty. The boy tapped his foot impatiently. ”Hey, is there anyone here! What kind of place makes people wait like this, huh? Damian shouted angrily into the cabin. He figured this was the right place since it was the only place, but still this wasn’t exactly the ideal way Damian imagined he would be starting his new life.