Pokemon: Childhood Dreams

I woke with a yawn and looked over to Drako, snoozing on his pad in the corner. Naturally, all the housing in the compound were accommodating to charizard. Even though Drako is a little above nine feet tall, there are charizard in the Charicific Valley that reach around ten feet. The tallest is Grampa’s Elise at just shy of 11 feet. But Drako is still a juvenile and has some growing to do.

After getting up and doing our morning exercise, Drako and I headed for breakfast.

“Excited, kid?” Gramps asks. He had joined us today because today would be the day I set off on my journey. 15 years in this world, and I was finally going to set out. I had been preparing for this day since I learned to read in this world.

Obviously, one of my first questions in this world was if any meta knowledge I had from my old life would be useful. I scoured the internet for any information that would corroborate my meta knowledge and found that it was hit and miss. A lot of locations and events that I looked up matched up with what I knew, but there were a lot of things about this world that were different. The world itself is a lot bigger and more populated than depicted in the anime or games. There were also things like Blood Bonds and elixirs in this world which I had no idea about before.

Nevertheless, I was able to determine some things from my meta knowledge that rang true. While others could not be confirmed over the internet. Boy, am I glad I spent those hours in my past life compiling a bunch of pokemon knowledge for that forum about being isekai’d to the pokemon world.

“Kid?” Gramps repeated, snapping me from my thoughts.

“Of course I’m excited to finally be able to travel.” I said. Up until this point in my life I had only been to Violet city and the Charicific Valley. “I have a lot of plans.”

“Chaar!”

“Yep, all that flying training we’ve been doing is going to pay off.” I say to Drako. Recently, we’ve mainly been training Drako’s aerial mobility with some help from Elise. Unfortunately, you need a license to fly on a pokemon so I haven’t been able to ride Drako yet. To simulate my weight, I tied a rock to his back as he flew around.

“So, I guess that’s your first stop? Violet City to get a flying license?” Mom asked.

“Uh huh.” I say between mouthfuls.

After breakfast, I head to my room to make sure I packed everything. Being sponsored by the Charicific Valley, I received everything I could need for my journey. A tent, food, water, medicine and all that good stuff were neatly packed into my spatial backpack. I would also receive a stipend of $5 000 each month for expenses. Though it sounded like a lot, caring for a pokemon costs a lot of money in food and supplements. So I would have to supplement my income during my journey.

I joined Mom, Gramps and Drako outside and they led me to the entrance of the valley. Once we reached the gate Mom crushed me with a hug.

Once she let go she retrieved a pokeball from her purse and handed it to me. “I wanted you to have a special pokeball for Drako. Happy birthday!”

The pokeball she handed me was black with a stylized image of Drako on the top half. I could tell that the charizard was Drako due to the pattern on his forehead which looked like a star.

“Thanks, Mom.” I said as I moved to hug her again.

Gramps then came up to me and handed me five regular pokeballs and a saddle for Drako. The saddle was collapsible and automatically strapped onto Drako with the touch of a button.

I didn’t get a pokedex because those were outdated. When I was 14 I got a phone that was a model that could function as a pokedex using an app. My phone is a little old now, but had all the features I needed like solar panels for charging like a calculator. It could also hold a charge for around a week without sunlight.

“I also got you a gift.” He says as he hands me a TM. “You always need to be wary of the weaknesses of your pokemon and try to compensate for it. This TM contains brick break, which will help against rock types.”

“Thank you, Gramps.”

“Alright, off with you.” He says as he makes a shooing motion.

After one last hug with Mom, I turned to Drako with his pokeball in my hand. “Ready, buddy?”

“Char!” He replies in the affirmative and I tap him with the pokeball. He’s instantly caught and I release him. Previously, I didn’t need a pokeball as Drako could accompany me anywhere in the Charicific Valley.

With one last look at the picturesque valley, I start my journey towards Violet City.