The unknown Pokemon stared at me with glowing red eyes. Curious, I pulled out my Pokedex.

"Kabuto, the Ancient Pokemon. Though this Pokemon is now to be extinct, it had a hard shell that protected its body and is believed to have been a powerful swimmer."

"That's strange," I commented. "But I guess ancient Pokemon do hatch from eggs."

"Kabuto," it said.

I put away my Pokedex and took out Kabuto's Pokeball from the conatiner. However, it got scared and it ran away.

"Kabuto, wait!" I called, running after it.

That Kabuto was surprisingly fast, crawling away from sight before I could get close.

Thanks for the morning run, I thought sarcastically.

I shook off the negative thoughts and focused on catching Kabuto before it gets injured - or worse, it gets everyone else injured.

I heard a crash and angry yelling from the shops in front. I ran even faster and found Kabuto crawling inside a light brown - somewhat like honey - bag.

"Kabuto, please stop!" I called, pausing to catch a breath.

"Is that your Pokemon?" someone - the shop owner perhaps - asked.

I could sense the person's barely contained anger in the person's voice.

I gulped. "Yes."

"You are going to pay for the damage your Pokemon caused!" the shop owner barked. "And I'll tell you this - it wouldn't be cheap."

I put my hand in my pocket, relieved to find my monthly allowance - from last month and the month before that - in there.

I fished out all my money I had on me and I reluctantly handed them to the shop owner.

Satisfied, the shop owner left me alone.

With a sigh, I dragged myself to where Kabuto was hiding. "Kabuto, don't be scared," I tried to calm it down.

Kabuto took a hesitant step towards me, but it shrunk back the moment it saw the people outside.

"It's okay, no one is going to hurt you," I reached out my hand to it.

Kabuto slowly moved towards me. It stiffened when I first touched its hard shell, but it relaxed, knowing I would not hurt it.

"Come on, let's head back, okay?" I said as gently as I could.

"Kabuto," the Ancient Pokemon seemed unwilling to leave.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Ka... buto," Kabuto closed its eyes.

"I guess I have to take the bag along with you," I sighed.

~~~~

My pocket feels a lot lighter now, I thought, feeling rather upset that my two months of savings were gone within an hour.

Kabuto was sound asleep, snuggled comfortably in the bag. When I returned to the Pokemon centre, I realised that Emily was not there.

I headed to the counter to collect my Pokeballs from Nurse Joy. "Your Pokemon are feeling just fine," she smiled as I collected my Pokeballs.

"Thank you," I said, about to go.

"Before you go," Nurse Joy said. "Someone named Emily told me to hand you this."

Nurse Joy gave me a note. I thanked her and opened up the small piece of paper to read the note.

"I am going to explore around Azalea Town with my Pokemon today. I probably won't be back until late afternoon. See you then!"

Perhaps I could take a little break and walk around Azalea Town some more too, I thought. Maybe I also could do some training with my Pokemon for the gym battle tomorrow.

"Spinarak, come on out!" I said.

"Spinarak," Spinarak looked around and turned to me, wondering why I sent it out.

"Let's explore together," I said. "I hope I could bond more with you this way."

"Spinarak!" it seemed quite happy with my decision.

We started off in a random direction. As we walked down a walkway, I spotted a few Slowpoke lying around.

I carefully stepped past them and I realised everyone else were doing the same.

Either they are very considerate or they worship the Slowpoke, I thought.

"Spinarak!" Spinarak jumped onto me when it heard something.

I was a bit startled by Spinarak's sudden reaction. Honestly, I never expected Spinarak to be so jumpy.

"Don't think so much, okay?" I said, facing the String Spit Pokemon. "You are safe here."

"Spinarak," Spinarak said, and something stired inside me, something that I haven't experienced for a long time.

"Let's go," I smiled, putting Spinarak down. "There's plenty of exploring to do."