“I’m sorry Candace, but we only have two pokemon left. If you want you could 
wait another week or so and by then we should have more pokemon.” Prof. Elm said 
sadly as I followed him down a hall in his laboratory.

“That’s okay. Could I just see what pokemon you have?” I asked, disappointed. 
Prof. Elm lead me into a room and over to a counter with two pokeballs on it.

“Sure. This one is Mudkip. It’s a water-type. It’s a great pokemon to start 
with. And this one is a Houndour. It’s a fire type and hard to train, 
sometimes.” He said, holding a notepad.

“I want Houndour.” I said, reaching for the pokeball with Houndour in it.

Prof. Elm eyed me curiously. “Are you sure. Well, I think that’s a good one for 
you. Right now it’s at level 5, and it knows Leer and Ember.” He told me a 
little bit more about Houndour and then handed me a pokedex and five pokeballs.

I left there a few minutes later and kissed Houndour’s pokeball.

“Go, Houndour!” I said, throwing the pokeball. A bright red light shone from it 
as a 2 foot, 24 pound dog stood. With black fur and white bones wrapped half-way 
around its back and around its legs, with a half-skull on its forehead. Houndour 
watched me as I approached it and petted it.

“Hey Houndour, I’m your new trainer, Candace. Do you want a nickname?” I asked. 
Houndour nodded and said, “Houndour!”

“Okay, I’ll call you...Cinder.” I said and Houndour seemed happier. I looked at 
Cinder and said, “Cinder, are you ready to start a journey with me? Are you 
ready to travel all around Johto?” Houndour howled and jumped up.

“Let’s go.” I said, walking down the road with Cinder by my side. It took a 
little while until I found a trainer, sitting under a tree.

“Hey!” The trainer called. He ran up to me and Houndour. He did a double take 
when he saw Cinder and backed off a little bit. “I’ve had some good luck this 
week so far, how about a quick battle to prove it.” He said, holding a pokeball.

“Alright. Go Cinder!” Cinder jumped out between the other trainer and I and 
growled. The other trainer threw his pokeball.

“Rattata, go!” A rattata appeared and glared at Cinder, who growled. I took out 
my pokedex and pointed it to Rattata. “Living wherever there is food available, 
Rattata scavenges for edibles all day.” I grinned.

“Cinder, Ember attack, now!” I shouted as flames shot out of Cinder’s mouth and 
hit Rattata. Rattata fell down but stood up again a few moments later.

“Rattata, Tackle it.” Rattata raced towards Cinder.

“Dodge it and use Ember!” I said. Cinder moved out of the way at the last second 
and more flames shot from its mouth. It burned rattata’s tail as rattata 
struggled to stand up. It tackled Cinder and actually hit it this time. Cinder 
didn’t seemed to be hurt and it used ember once more. This time, Rattata 
collapsed. The trainer called Rattata back and looked at me shocked.

“That was a good battle.” He said. I grinned.

“That was my first battle, too. Great job Cinder!” I bent down and Houndour ran 
towards me and into my arms. I congratulated Cinder more and we were on our way 
again.

Cinder and I walked some more, coming across a few rattatas and finally a 
pidgey. When I saw it I referred to my Pokedex. It told me a little stuff about 
it, before I had Cinder do it’s ember attack. The Pidgey could barely even take 
that and it almost collapsed.

“Pokeball, go.” I said, throwing an empty pokeball at pidgey. Pidgey disappeared 
into the pokeball as it shook and a red light flashed. After a few seconds the 
red light went out and I ran and scooped up the pokeball and hugged Cinder.

“We caught a pidgey! We caught a pidgey! We caught a pidgey!” I chanted, doing a 
victory dance as Cinder spun around in circles.

“It’s nice to see a trainer that gives credit to her pokemon.” Someone said. I 
stopped in my tracks and looked towards my right. There a boy sat on a rock with 
brown pants, tan skin and black hair. I stood, surprised to see him.

“Uh hi!” I said. Cinder watched him as he walked over.

“Hey, my name’s Brock and I think you’re really-” He introduced before a girl 
with short, red hair pulled him away by one ear. She smiled and walked up to me.

“Sorry about him, he’s always like that.” She apologized, holding a small 
pokemon halfway out of an egg it looked like.

“Oh, that’s alright.” I said, accepting her apology. “My name’s Candace.” I 
greeted her.

“Oh, yeah, I’m Misty.” She said.

“And I’m Ash Ketchum. Hi.” A boy with a pikachu said. Pikachu jumped down and 
started playing with Cinder.

“Hi. Oh, what a cute pikachu!” I exclaimed, bending down and petting Pikachu. It 
smiled and said, “Pika...”

“Hey, do you want to eat with us? I’ve made enough for everyone.” Brock said, 
cooking something over a fire. I looked at Ash.

“Wanna come? I can give you a few pointers, if you want on some random stuff.” 
Ash suggested. I smiled.

“Yeah, I’ll come. I think my Houndour’s hungry too though.” I said, looking down 
at Cinder. Ash laughed.

“Don’t worry, Brock’s got that covered. He makes pokemon food. And he’s a real 
good cook.” He said with a smile. He led me over to the other two who were 
talking about something.

“So Candace, how long have you been training?” Ash asked as we sat down around 
the fire. Brock pulled out a can of food in his backpack and gave it to Cinder, 
who slowly ate it. Pikachu was feasting too, on another can of food. I looked at 
my watch.

“Oh about ten hours now.” I replied. Misty giggled, and I looked at her 
questioningly.

“It’s just the way you said it.” She said, holding Togepi.

“Really, what level is your houndour?” Ash asked. I pulled out my pokedex. It 
said that Houndour is at level 8 and just learned ‘Roar’.

“Level 8.” I said, petting Cinder, who was now laying next to me. I closed the 
can of food it was eating. Brock looked up.

“You can keep it, I have plenty.” He said, pouring his soup he was making into a 
four bowls.

“Thanks, Brock. Ooh, I almost forgot, I have to say hi to pidgey.” I said, 
standing up and throwing the pokeball against a tree. My pidgey stood, watching 
me. “Pidgey.” It said. I walked up to it and held my arm out.

“Hi pidgey. How would you like to travel with us?” I asked. Pidgey flew onto my 
shoulder and called its name. “That’s good. Let’s go over here.” I said, walking 
back over to the other three. We all started eating Brock’s great soup and I had 
let pidgey eat some bread I had in my backpack.

“So, how old are you? If you just started you must be ten, but you look a lot 
older.” Brock pointed out. I smiled and nodded.

“I turned thirteen last week. I just haven’t been able to train any pokemon 
because I had to stay and help out. I was so...ready to go train, but I had to 
stay.” I said, looking into the fire as Brock watched me with understanding.

“That sounds like it was pretty much the same with me.” He said, petting 
houndour. I nodded and we kept talking about pokemon and other related things 
until about ten that night. Then we all climbed into our sleeping bags to go to 
sleep. I looked up at the stars, wondering what I had just gotten into. I 
wondered if I was going to be traveling with them from now on or if I was going 
to be traveling with just my pokemon. Each side had its pros and cons. But all I 
knew, the journey ahead was something that I would remember for the rest of my 
life.