Rose was standing outside of the large stone building deep in thought on what to do next. Brandon the informant of the Pewter City Gym told her that she needed to evolve her pokemon first, before taking on the gym leader Brock. He was the gym leader of Pewter City and he was known for his rock-hard willpower, many people respected and admired him. Her brother told her that Brock was one of the few truly professional pokemon trainers in Pewter City and he was a formidable opponent, not to be taken lightly. Rose felt tiny bit of confident knowing that grass had an advantage against rock pokemon. So Budew would probably fair well against the rock pokemon in Brock's gym after she evolved. Still she had no idea what to expect and a gym leader was no average pokemon trainer. Brock would probably have the weaknesses of his pokemon covered. Maybe she should just start with focusing on her own pokemon and make sure Budew would be able to evolve.
Budew shifted in her arms and Rose could tell she was getting restless. Sometimes she forgot how much she carried her pokemon around, it was hard not to do it. Budew had tiny legs and it was tough for her to keep up even if she walked extra slowly. So Rose figured it would be easier to carry her around, she was light as a feather and Budew always enjoyed being close to her. But like any grass pokemon she wanted to feel the earth beneath her feet once in a while. Rose kneeled down to the ground and Budew hopped out of her arms. She smiled and patted Budew's head, or rather the two vines that came together on top. Each vine had a colored dot, blue and red. When Budew evolved these dots would grow into two beautiful roses. That was something to look forward to.
"We'll just go for a little walk and see if we can find someone who wants to battle with us" Rose said cheerfully.
As they walked away from the gym Budew followed close behind and occasionally ran circles around her legs, so she had to stop in the middle of the street. When she looked down to see if it was alright, Budew just smiled happily. Maybe she was making sure Rose wouldn't forget about her due to her size. Budew was an easy pokemon to miss in the tall grass, but here on the streets of Pewter City that wasn't very likely to happen. Pewter City was a lot bigger than Pallet Town and it even made Rose a tad bit nervous. Budew spent most of her time in her family's garden so this was all new to her, she was probably just as nervous but excited at the same time.
"This city is really something else huh?" Rose began to say when she suddenly remembered something, stopping on her own accord, causing Budew to bump into her falling onto its back with a soft thud. It blinked a few times seeming to determine whether it was going to cry or not, but it got up from the ground without making much of a fuss.
"I promised to call Colton when we got here" She rolled her eyes and sighed, it was so typical of her to forget calling her brothers. I'm the worst sister ever. She thought mentally face palming herself. They wanted her to check in when she reached a new city, to make sure she arrive safely. If it were up to them they would be going with her on this adventure, but both of her brothers were close to challenging the elite four. Their Kanto adventure was nearly finished, she was just beginning. Rose opened up her messenger bag and started to search through it to find her phone. As usual everything inside was mixed up. She groaned, visibly annoyed and not looking forward to what was coming next. She put her bag on the ground and started taking out all of her things. A bottle of fresh spring water rolled out which her pokemon spotted immediately. Budew started to bounce around excitedly but failed to capture the attention of her trainer who after emptying nearly her entire bag had found her phone.
Rose dialed Colton's number and while she waited for him to pick up she was putting back all of her things with her free hand.
"This is Colton...." She heard the familial gruff voice of her oldest brother. It filled her with a sense of safety since he along with her other brother always watched over her.
"Hi....it's me, I got to Pewter City in one piece" Rose began with an amused giggle.
"That's awesome Rose!" Colton replied, she could hear from the way he said it he was both very proud and somewhat surprised.
"How's Budew doing?" He asked glad to know the tiny bulb had managed to keep his sister relatively safe, he didn't think she had it in her.
Rose looked down at her feet to see Budew trying to open the bottle of water with no success. She laughed and kneeled down to help her.
"She's doing good,.......I think the city and the bright sun are too much for her" Rose said still giggling a bit. She held her phone to her ear with her shoulder so she could uncap the bottle, pouring a small amount of water into the lid so Budew could drink.
"I'm trying to get her to evolve so I can challenge the gym leader"
"Yeah about that......" Colton began.
"I caught a pokemon for you to borrow just in case"
" He's really strong and very protective.......kind of like me" Colton laughed jokingly. He wanted to know his sister was safe and the best way to do that was to make sure she had a pokemon able to protect her. As much as his sister may favor grass pokemon they weren't the best fighters.
She laughed at her brothers joke.
"Oh alright.....thank you that's really nice" Rose said sounding a bit surprised. It was typical of her brothers to do something like this. He was worried she wouldn't be well protected without them around.
Out of the corner of her eye Rose could see someone approach her. A boy about her age and he was looking worse for wear, a beat expression on his face. Rose promised to call her brother soon and quickly hung up the phone. She was about to ask if he was okay when he began to tell her a confusing story. As he continued to explain what had happened to him she tried to retrace her steps in Viridian Forest.
Did she drop a potion? Obviously she had but she didn't even notice it. It sounded like her clumsiness had saved this guy's pokemon. She thanked her lucky stars she had dropped it when she did. And he was worried she would mind him using it? Ridiculous!
"Oh wow...." Was all that Rose could say at first. She didn't know where to start but the burning question whether or not his pokemon was alright weighed heavy on her mind.
"How is your pokemon doing now?" Rose asked, feeling incredibly sorry for the young pokemon trainer. She really wanted him to know it was no big deal and if she'd seen him in the forest she would have helped him out right away.
"It's no big deal really, I'm happy you used it to save your pokemon" "I mean that's what potions are for right?" She tried to relieve the tension a bit.
"I didn't even see you there in the forest, I helped out this Caterpie you see...." Rose began to explain.
"He was poisoned and I used some medicine to heal him but when I tried to release him back into the forest I got scared by a Kakuna" When she was retelling her story Rose suddenly realized how ridiculous she sounded. Running from a Kakuna which couldn't even chase her. A blush began to creep up on her cheeks, she felt kind of ashamed at her fear of something so measly.
"It just....kind of startled me and I.....ran"
She returned to look at the pokemon trainer in front of her.
"Are you okay?, you look kind of worse for wear...." She trailed off not really sure how to help him. She really wanted to do something for him, to make him feel better. Suddenly she had an idea, maybe a tasty sandwich would cheer him up. Food always helped out in any situation. She'd packed her bag full of food not knowing when she'd reach the next town. Her brothers could laugh all they wanted but she never left the house unprepared. Rose rummaged through her bag for a bit and fished out a grilled chicken sandwich.
"Would you like a sandwich, it's grilled chicken" She said smiling, holding up the sandwich to him.
Rose pointed to the bench she sat on earlier, when she was eating ice cream with Budew.
"We can sit there if you want, you can tell me all about what happened in the forest"