She was excited. Finally, after so long without seeing him, he would come into her life again. This time, she was determined not to let him go.

The romantic feeling that had ensnared her as a young girl never faded. When he left the first time, she could do nothing less than dream of him every day. She would draw his picture in her notebook along with pictures of everything else she treasured. She had just enough skill to capture his smile, his kindness and confidence, and she would gaze at her image of him. That way, those features that attracted her to him would never fade from her mind. She would not let time rob her of that, no matter how long she had to wait.

And wait she did. As the days passed into months, the months into years, she never lost hope of one day meeting him again.

And meet they did.

And now this was the second time it happened. He wandered off again, longing to become stronger, wiser, better, and when he was ready, she would be ready for him too. But this time it would be different. This time, she could not bear to be left alone again. She was still young, but the passage of time would not let her remain so. This time, she would do whatever it took to keep him by her forever.

As she rode out of town towards the edge of the forest, she looked at her surroundings to find a familiar landmark. A tree, a rock, a stream. It would not be hard; she knew this place like the back of her hand, having spent so many hours and days learning its wonders and its secrets. Having found a tall, familiar tree, she knew it was not far from the place they agreed to meet. She dismounted from her Dodrio and walked the rest of the way through the fresh greenery that was Viridian.

She sat down, took off her large straw hat, and waited, idly listening to the pidgey squawk, the butterfree flutter and the rattata scurry. Her powers had increased with practice over the years, and she could sense what Pokémon could sense with little effort now.

And what she sensed added to her excitement. The Pokémon knew that someone was coming. Someone strong, confident, yet someone that exuded kindness and friendship towards their kind, one they could easily trust and not fear. Those feelings echoed her own, and she felt one with the Pokémon world in a way she had never felt before.

Moments later, she saw him, still dressed in his jeans and red jacket, thick locks of jet-black hair gushing out beneath his cap, striding towards the place where he had promised, straight towards her. Her heart leapt. This was it. This was the moment that would determine the path of the rest of her life.