25 Take off your clothes! (1/2)
After some time following the path indicated by the Pokedex Arthur finally found the entrance to the Green Garden.
It was located at the outer rings of the city while its actual entrance was hidden by conspicuous buildings. Honestly, without a guide like the Pokedex he might have never found this place otherwise.
He entered the garden and felt like being in a completely new world. Caterpies and weedles were hanging down some trees or eating at the leaves, the tall grass rustled and Arthur was sure to have seen something fluffy and purple moving in between the shades.
It was also only now that he realised how clean the air was and how peaceful the world could be.
It was a stark contrast to the busy hectic city life with lots of crowds and countless shops illuminating the streets at all times.
His PokeDex was blinking and making noises without stopping while informing him of various signals it picked up from the surroundings
[Attention Host! Higher density of Infinity Particles discovered beep! 93% chance of encountering caterpie! Beep.]
[Attention Host! Higher density of Infinity Particles discovered beep! 78% chance of encountering ! Beep.]
[Attention Host! Higher density of Infinity ...]
[... 47% chance of encountering ...]
Annoying, he should probably look up a function to deactivate the auto-search temporarily he thought.
He only wanted to meet Gary, but there wasn't a function for th...
”Ahhh!”, how could he forget! Didn't he exchange contact numbers with Gary? Shouldn't he be able to connect with him?
After a quick switch to the communication app of the PokeDex, his thoughts were confirmed. His request connected him with another person on the line:
”Hello? Arty? Is that you?”
”Yes, it's me!”
”Good to hear from you again! That was quite embarrassing, haha, hope nobody saw me :)”, Gary laughed and sent Arthur a smile emoticon.
Arthur didn't know how to respond and just replied:
”Probably not ...”, well they didn't see him but his clothes ... .
”So, where are you? I am already waiting for you here.”
”Yes, that's why I called, I just entered from the chimchar avenue, and all I see are trees, where should I go next, can you tell me?”
”Yeah, sure until you come across ...”
”Ok, good thanks, I will be there in a few minutes!”
After the call, Arthur quickly found the river and the bridge Gary mentioned to him. It was at a crossroad, and the left direction would lead him to where Gary was.
While crossing the bridge he suddenly heard a splashing sound in the water below him. He looked for the source of that noise but when he bent over the wooden fence he just found a ... Magicarp!
The situation was too strange for Arthur and he felt goosebumps rising on his back. He quickly turned around to get away as far as possible.
And just when he was sure of his safety he heard someone's whisper in the distance behind. It was a very quiet whisper, as if the person was far way yet he could understand every word spoken clearly and without faults:
”Don't despair young carp, it doesn't matter who you are or where you are from but who you want to be and where you want to go next!”
Goosebumps! His hair stood straight on his neck and his most inner core shook when the words reverberated in his head. He looked back absent-mindedly but ... there was no one there ...