Chapter 6: A Family Girl

"Eevee! Eevee! Are you okay?" Dave asked his partner who was lying badly hurt on the ground.

"Eevee..." It replied, softly.

"I'm sorry, Eevee. For bringing you into this and letting you get hurt. I'm truly sorry." He gently took the Pokemon in his arms while feeling a huge sense of guilt.

"Eevee..." It shook its head as if it was saying it was not his fault.

Suddenly, they heard a voice coming from behind.

"Come back, Charmander!"

A red beam, like the one he had seen before, struck the Charmander standing next to them and then disappeared. When Dave turned to face the source of the light, he could make out a person approaching—this time, it was a child and not an adult.

After taking a few more steps, a girl apparently younger than Dave stepped out of the shadows. She donned a red coat, dark trousers, and held a pokeball in her hand while sporting straight, dark hair pulled back in a long ponytail.

"Thank you for saving me!" Dave quickly got to his feet and bowed. "I can't express to you how thankful I am. My name is Dave Mick, by the way, from Grene City."

"You're welcome, Dave. You should be more careful next time," the girl said with a stern look. "You shouldn't go into battles you can't win. Not for you, but for your Pokemon. Doing so would be completely irresponsible."

Once again, Dave's face turned red. As if it wasn't enough from Peter, now even a little girl was treating him like a child. But this girl had just saved him, so he had to bite his tongue to keep cool.

"I know, but I wanted to get to Cardo City as soon as possible."

"Are you insane? You can't continue travelling tonight," the girl exclaimed, staring at the boy incredulously. "Even if you walk all night, you still won't get to Cardo by today, I'll tell you that much."

"But I have to take Eevee to the Pokemon Center now. It's the closest one from here." Dave started walking after putting his backpack on.

"Thanks for the help, but I have to leave now."

A few seconds passed and Dave was almost disappearing from the girl's field of vision who was still watching him intently. Her expression was conflicted, as though she were caught between doing something she didn't want to.

"Wait!" she shouted. "I can help you. Come with me to my house so I can take a look at your Eevee."

Dave turned around and gave her a suspicious-looking stare.

"Really? But you don't look like a nurse at all."

The girl walked up to him, extended her hand in a greeting gesture and said, "My name is Mindy Noah. I am the granddaughter of Professor Noah. I know how to do some basic first aid."

After a few minutes of walking off the road with the girl's Charmander clearing the way, Dave and Mindy arrived at a small log cabin. It wasn't very big and didn't look like it had more than two rooms from the outside.

"Is this your house? I thought you were supposed to live in a... you know, a bigger house?" Dave asked, hesitantly.

"I didn't say I lived with him; I just said I was his grandchild. My grandfather lives in Cardo," Mindy replied.

"Then why do you choose to live out here in the middle of nowhere by yourself?"

"I'm not alone. I have my Charmander to accompany me," the girl said in a firm tone that suggested she doesn't like to explain things much. "Besides, I don't really live here, I've only been in this hut for a few months. I'm going to leave in a couple of days."

"But why... " Dave began, but was cut off before he could finish.

"Look,, no more questions for now ok? I thought you were worried about your Eevee. Come on, give it to me," she said after they entered the cramped space of her house.

"Wha... Oh! Here!" he said, gently placing Eevee in her arms.

"Great! Please wait here for a while. I'll go take a look at your Eevee first." And with that, Mindy disappeared through the only door that existed in the room.

The house interior was no better than it appeared on the outside. There was no sofa or tv, just a few chairs and a small table. How did she manage to live here by herself?

Dave couldn't understand how anyone could spend months living in such a place. Why is she living in this hovel? Her grandfather is a Pokemon researcher; he can at least afford a much nicer place for her granddaughter.

A few minutes passed and Mindy still hadn't yet to come out. Dave was growing impatient and was starting to regret accepting the offer from the stranger.

'I should have taken Eevee to a Pokemon Center,' Dave thought, worried. 'Why is it taking so long?'

A few more hours passed before the door opened again as Dave quickly stood up.

"You and I are going to sleep here in the living room. Eevee is resting on my bed," Mindy told him.

"How is Eevee doing? Will it be alright?" Dave asked anxiously.

"Don't worry, it was only a bruise," she reassured him. "It's still all your fault. That Scyther could have done a lot more damage."

"Guess I have you to thank for that."

"You really do, and for taking care of your Pokemon too. You now owe me twice, boy," Mindy said, turning around and picking up her sleeping bag.

Upon hearing what she said Dave felt a mixture of anger and shame that made his face quite red. He couldn't control himself and had to answer her.

"Look, I'm very grateful for everything you have done. But just please stop treating me like a child. I bet I'm older than you!" he said in a somewhat louder voice than was necessary.

Mindy turned to him with her superior gaze, and spoke:

"I'll stop treating you like a child when you stop acting like one. I may only be eleven years old, but I'm the one who saved you on the road. I'm the one who took care of your Pokemon and it's under my roof that you'll sleep tonight."

Dave didn't know what to say when the girl threw a bunch of facts at him at once. Since he had no good response, he just said whatever came to his mind.

"I already thanked you for everything, but you helped me because you wanted to! I never asked for your help."

Mindy turned to Dave, feeling angry at the ingratitude of the boy she rescued. She looked directly at him for a few seconds, then shook her head and snorted.

"I'm too tired to argue with you now, okay? And we better not make too much noise so as not to wake Eevee. It needs to rest."

Dave, realising that he might have gone a bit overboard, lowered his head. "i'm sorry for my outburst."

"It's fine. Just go to sleep," murmured Mindy, lying down on her sleeping bag and rolling over onto her side.

And so they both went to sleep. The next day Dave woke up to the sound of Mindy's voice calling him.

"Hey! Wake up, sleepyhead! It's time to get up."

"What time is it now?" Dave yawned as he sat up and got out of his sleeping bag.

The girl was already up and preparing something at the only table behind him. Although he couldn't recognize what it was, Dave assumed it was something for breakfast. And he was right, in part.

"Time to get up and have breakfast. Won't you prepare anything for Eevee?"

"Relax, I just woke up," he said, yawning once more. "What are you preparing there Mindy? Can I have a taste?"

"Of course no! This is for Charmander. Can't you see it's Pokemon food? Mindy said with a bewildered expression on her face.

"Pokemon food? So, you know how to make them? Cool! Could you teach me?" Dave asked eagerly.

"But you just told me you were going to prepare Eevee's food! What were you going to give him?"

"I... Yeah... Well... I was going to share my food with him..." Dave said, rubbing the back of his head embarrassedly.

Mindy's expression was not one of surprise, as if she had anticipated the response from him, an inexperienced trainer.

"Never mind," she said, huffing. "I'll prepare something for it too."

"Really? Thank you so much!"

"I'm not doing this for you, but for Eevee," she told him. "So, where are you travelling Dave?"

"I'm going to Cardo. I want to meet your grandfather first. And then I'll decide from there."

Mindy couldn't believe what she heard.

'How could I be so stupid? He said he was going there yesterday!' she thought, enraged with herself. 'Why did I have to help? That's what you get for being nice Mindy, now you're going to have to put up with him.'

"So it looks like we're on the same road. I have to go home today," Mindy said with dismay.

"Home? I thought this was your home," Dave said, confused.

"No, it's not, I've already told you last night that I'm only staying here for a couple of months. This is just a testing period for me and Charmander," Mindy explained.

"I always wanted to go out and explore the world, but my mother thought I was too young. So, my grandfather talked her into letting me stay here for a while so I could show her I could take care of myself. But Mom didn't agree at first, so he lent me his Charmander to keep me company. Problem is, now he needs Charmander back." Mindy was looking disheartened now.

Dave, who was seated next to her, asked, "So you're going to have to return Charmander?"

"Yes," Mindy said in a quieter voice than usual. "He is one of Grandpa's starter Pokemon, and in a few days, he will be given to another trainer."

Just thinking about it brought tears to her eyes. She hid her face and turned her face away so Dave wouldn't see her crying. Seeing that, Dave didn't know what to do. He felt bad for her. He'd only known Eevee for a few days and already hated the idea of ​​parting with it. He couldn't imagine what she was going through right now.

"Hey Mindy, don't cry…" he said awkwardly.

"I'm not crying," she mumbled, still not showing her face. Her voice betrayed the lie she had just told.

"I..." Dave started. But she cut him off with a wave of her hand. She got up and went into the room that Eevee was resting in. When she moved, he could see that her eyes were red from crying.

"No need to feel sorry for me, OK? Now go pack your things. We'll be leaving in 15 minutes. I'll go feed Eevee first," Mindy said, slamming the door behind her.

And he did just that. A few minutes later, Dave, Mindy, and the recovered Eevee had left the cabin and were back on the road to Cardo.