A Soul of Silver: The Johto tales

Chapter 4: Prologue to destiny

As I gave Veritas the egg Vinculum gave to me, he jumped back in surprise. "This... is an Egg, isn't it? It may be something I've never seen before...still, it's just an egg. Vince always has been fascinated by Eggs, after all..."

He took the Egg and looked all over it. "Well, since he gave it to us, we might as well find out what secret it holds. I'll keep it for a while to find out about the Egg."

"Another thing, professor. Your friend Mendacium gave me this thing called a Pokédex."

"What!?", he exclaimed. "He did? Then he sees your potential as a Trainer! I knew you'd be a bit different. Things will be fun!"

He glanced at Clara, who was just sitting on my back, being adorable as ever.

"Clara seems to like you a lot, so why don't you try  taking the Pokémon Gym challenge? If you manage to defeat all the Gym Leaders, you'll get to challenge the League Champion!"

My eyes widened along with my smile. Me, challenging the League Champion! That sounded awesome!

"Or not. Ha ha! Becoming a Champion isn't easy, but you can certainly challenge the Gym in Violet City, the town beyond Cherrygrove. Do your best, Sand!"

After that, I went outside again and looked down at Clara. "So, Clara? Are we gonna challenge those Gyms together?"

Clara looked at me and nodded happily. "Together, nothing can stop us, right?"

I nodded in response and picked up Clara in a hug. She even nuzzled my cheek shortly before I put her down again. I'd really grown attached to the little creature smiling at me. Sure, she was a bit naive, but still I enjoyed her company very much. We both went inside and Clara nearly shouted her greetings at 'mom'. At least, they were greetings to me. To mom, those words were just Clara's name, Cyndaquil.

"Hello there, Clara and Sand!" She looked at me with a worried face, yet her eyes told me she knew what I was going to say. "Is something the matter?"

With a nod, I began explaining. "Mom... I've been sent on a quest. It involves a big adventure with Clara and I don't know when I'll return. I'm leaving tomorrow morning. I just want you to know that no matter what happens, I'll try and stop by when I get the chance again."

Mom nodded. "Okay. But I will help too. How about I save some money you earn after a battle?"

"Sounds like a plan. Thanks, mom." It began to feel kinda natural to call her mom for some reason, even though she was just an NPC and not my actual mother. Either way, after that, I went upstairs to my room and went to bed. As I crawled under my blanket, I felt something rubbing against my chest. From under my blankets, Clara's head popped up, to which I lightly chuckled.

"Your mama's really nice, Sand.", she said with a slightly sad face. "I wish my mama used to be like that..."

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, "I wish my mama used to be like that"? What happened?"

Clara snuggled against me and nuzzled my arm. "Well, my mama disappeared when I was sleeping."

Slowly I sat up and hugged her. "Would you mind telling me a bit more about that?"

"Sure. Are you ready for my story?"

I nodded. This was one story I wouldn't enjoy hearing all that much.