bloogum

We walked in the doors of the Pokécentre, well, I hopped, Shelly walked, with my tail in her arms. The stun spore had just begun to ware off and my foot took up the familiar throbbing pain once more.

The Chansey I had seen a week earlier bounced over to us.

"Glacier's still unconscious, but he should be awake in two- Oh dear, your poor foot, oh, and your tail! What happened?"

Shelly answered for me, "Battle with a Moltres. Think you can do anything?"

"We'll try, I'll just get Nurse Joy," she said and hopped off to get the human in charge. It didn't take her long. The Chansey and Nurse Joy came through a door with a long white thing with wheels, like what they carried Glacier in on. They lifted me carefully onto it and wheeled me to the operating theatre.

Nurse Joy fitted a plastic thing with a hose over my beak and I suddenly felt very drowsy. My eyelids felt heavy, my limbs felt heavy, everything felt heavy.

"This mask will just put you to sleep while we operate on you," said Nurse Joy, "It's so it won't hurt when we heal your leg. You'll wake up by tomorrow mor..." and I drifted off into a very pleasant sleep.

I awoke the next morning with the throbbing back in my leg. I tried to sit up, but without success. I looked down to see what they had done to my leg. I reeled back at the sight. My dainty purple leg was now twenty times thicker and stark white. What had they done to it?

"Ah, you're awake." It was Shelly.

"What did they do to my leg? I thought they were going to heal it, why's it big and white?"

"Calm down! It's just a bandage. It's a big white thing they put around injured limbs. It stops your wounds getting infected while it heals. Don't worry, it's only temporary. The Chansey said it'll be off in a week, 'til then, looks like you're stuck here."

"What am I supposed to do? It's such a boring room."

"Don't worry, I've gotten a room here, I'll stay and keep you company, and when Glacier wakes up, I'll relay messages between you. Do you want me to tell him about the Moltres or will you?"

"If he asks, just tell him I had a battle with a Moltres and it burnt my leg, don't tell him about my tail, I'll tell him that bit," I said, "Would you mind going to get some pain killers or something? This is killing me!"

"Sure thing!" and she hopped off the seat and waddled out the room in that weird way Jynx walk.

I took the time to take in my surroundings. I'd be here for the week, why not? The room was completely white. White walls, white ceiling, white tiled floor, white door. There was a small chest of drawers next to me, with a round thing with squiggles on top of it. On the wall opposite me was a painting of the mountains where I lived, all blue and grey and white, the river snaking away up the middle, sticks of black trees dotted here and there. I could stare at that painting the whole time and think of home, where I'd much rather be. In the corner was a brown wooden chair where Shelly had been sitting.

Shelly and a Chansey reappeared with a small blue bottle and a spoon.

The Chansey poured some of the mixture inside onto the spoon and handed it to me.

"Here, take this. It should make you feel better," she said.

I let her pour some of the contents into my beak. It tasted awful. "Are you sure this will help me? It tastes awful."

The Chansey laughed and gave me the rest of the stuff. "You have no idea how many say that! I promise you, it'll help more than you know!" She put the lid back on the bottle and hopped out the door.

"I have an idea," I told Shelly, "I've got nothing to do while I'm here except sleep, but with this leg it's impossible. I was wondering if you could perhaps give me a kiss big enough to keep me asleep until my leg has healed."

She thought for a bit. "I can keep you asleep for a day, but not all week."

"Good enough!"

Shelly walked over to me and put her soft pink lips to my cheek. Almost instantly I fell asleep.

Nine | Eleven