David sat up in bed, his Vileplume snoring gently at his side. It was two 
weeks since he had returned home, and already he was preparing to leave. 
Beside his bed lay an open rucksack, containing several bottles of water, a 
Swiss Army Knife, a tubaware box packed with biscuits and sandwiches, a 
compass, a phone, several potions and repels, and a Smith & Wesson revolver. 
His laptop was resting on the bedcovers, the volume turned down so as not to 
wake Vileplume. On the screen, a newsreader gestured to a shot of dragons 
den, of a Dratini lunging towards a Kingdra. David stared at the Dratini. 
Even though the quality on his laptop wasn't brilliant, there was no 
mistaking the venom in the Dratini's eyes. And for some reason, David felt 
connected to her. Perhaps it was that he himself had been caught up in an 
assault caused by her, but he still felt a strange kinship between them. Over 
the past days, there had been more and more attacks, each more viscous than 
the last. And suddenly he knew, knew with more certainty than anything he had 
ever thought before, that he must find Dratini. He must stop the chaos 
unfolding. He must reason with the dragon. And so he had packed a rucksack, 
and was hoping to leave the next day. He was ready to fufill his destiny.
The next day, David checked his bag, had a quick shower, and went out into 
the garden to set off. He had left behind his Espeon to guard the house. He 
had chosen Espeon because, unlike a more suitable guard, like Aggron, Espeon 
could talk to him with telepathy. Saying goodbye to Espeon, he carefully 
placed a pokeball on a wide area of turf. A Staraptor burst from it, cawing 
loudly and flexing her powerful legs. David fussed over Staraptor for a 
while, before feeding her a poffin and fixing the harness on. With a bit of 
help from Espeon's kinesis, everything was loaded on, and David flew off into 
the sky. It was thrilling. He flew almost every day, but there was nothing 
quite like soaring off to adventure, completely carefree, filled with 
adreneline. After a few exilarating loop-the-loops, they soared above the 
clouds, so as not to get rained on, and David opened his guide. His small 
house was in Ecruteak, and he aimed to arrive in Mahogany by midday. To fly 
all the way to Blackthorn would be unthinkable. After several hours, they 
dipped down, and spiraled elegantly to land just outside Mount Mortar. David 
sat down at the grassy verge and had a picnic, he having some delicous 
homemade flapjack while Staraptor just gulped down the lake water. After the 
short meal, he made the small walk to Mahogany. Outside was a small poster on 
Mahogany's tradition of a history steeped in ninjitsu. Apparantly, they 
celebrated the ninjas stealth with a poster announcing their presence! At any 
rate, David healed his Staraptor, and although he was sorely tempted to visit 
the Lake of Rage, he left Mahogany and eyed up the distance to Ice Path. He 
could walk, but it would take several hours. Instead, he released another of 
the pokeballs on his belt, revealing a Tauros. Just as he was loading his 
Tauros with the gear, a trainer wearing some jeans and a sweatshirt featuring 
a red Gyarados approached him eagerly, his hand already going to the pokeball 
at his belt. David declined his invitation of a battle and, with great 
bravado, leapt on Tauros and sped off along the footpath, dust billowing out 
behind him. This was almost as fun as flying, and every so often, he would 
get Tauros to use a Zen Headbutt, just to see the blue slipstream that it 
left behind them. He was on his way.