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A young girl awakes in a small cottage. She first stretches before letting out a long yawn. She glances over at the cot belonging to her mother, not in the least surprised to find her guardian already gone.
The girl rises from her bed and moves to open a large chest at the foot of her cot. Inside the chest are the girl’s personal items, including her clothing. The girl quickly dresses herself, a long yellow dress. She doesn’t bother putting on her sandels, nor does she brush out her long black mane. Instead the girl rushes out of the back room of her cottage.
Delia, the girl’s mother, Sits at the table wrapping up a sandwich she has made. On the table sits a warm slice of bread soaked in butter. The girl wastes no time in heading towards the table and nearly stuffing her breakfast into her mouth whole.
“Scarlet! Take you time. Your not a boy, act like it!” Delia states harshly.
Scarlet huffs and eats her second slice of bread in a more lady like manner, although she fails to wipe her hand on something other than her dress. Delia sighs, getting up so she can run a brush through her daughters matted hair.
“Mom, Ouch! Come on! I want to go play with blue!” Scarlet cries out, eager for the torturous brushing to be done with.
“You know how I feel about you playing with the boy’s” Delia scolded.
Despite her mothers displeasement, Scarlet rushed out the small home as soon as her mother singled her hair was decent. Once Scarlet was gone, Delia looked down at the sandwich that her daughter failed to take with her. She almost found her self stating boys will be boys, before she stopped herself.
Scarlet was glad to be outdoors. Her bare feet ran a crossed the grass, her hair quickly getting tangled in the wind. When Scarlet passed the adults gave the 10 year old dirty looks, but the young girl hardly noticed. Instead she ran up to the cottage belonging to her only friend.
A young boy opened the door, knowing immediately who it was. Blue took one look at Scarlet and immediately let out a sigh of relieve.
“Thank Arceus, I thought you were someone else,” Blue said cracking a small smile.
“Are the other villagers picking on gramps again,” Scarlet asked bluntly.
Blue simply nodded. See, while scarlet was a wild and childish young girl, blue was the exact opposite. Blue often took care of his sister and grandfather, being the only one around who was able to do the task.
“Blue! I wanted you to come play!” Scarlet said, an attempt to lighten Blue’s mood.
“I can’t, I have to bring Gramps his breakfast, he spent all night in his lab again,” Blue said sadly.
Scarlet let out a loud whine, barley keeping herself from throwing an all out tantrum.
“sorry Scarlet…. Maybe next time,” although blue sounded unsure.
Scarlet huffed off, not knowing what she was supposed to do now. The young girl trudged around the village in a bit of a haze, barely realizing she now stood at the edge of the village. Scarlet had never been allowed outside the borders of the village, often told stories of the terrifying creature that lived in the wilderness.
Of course for an adventurous girl like scarlet, this only encouraged her. A quick skim of the area proved that no one was watching. Scarlet dove passed the border of the village and with a smile, she kept going.
The grass was tall, up to her knees tall. Of course this only made her fantasy more real. Scarlet dove through the grass, pretending to cut the blades with an explorer's machete.
“Scarlet!”
Scarlet instantly flinched, slowly turning around to face the one who had call out. The man named Samuel Oak came running towards the small girl, obviously worried for the child's safety.
“Scarlet! What are you doing out of the village! Don’t you know creatures can pop out of the tall grass!” Oak yelled.
As if Oak’s word had jinxed something, there came a rustle in the grass the didn’t come form either human. Oak froze and Scarlet eyes grew wide in excitement. What appeared in the grass was a small creature, almost up to Scarlet’s knee. The creature had Yellow fur all over its body, long pointed ears, and a zig zaging tail.
Scarlet instantly wanted to pet the small creature, Oak however had enough sense to do something. Before Scarlet could reach for the creature, a red light zoomed passed her hand, consuming the creature in its glow.
Scarlet fallowed the light back to Oak as it was consumed into the item the older man was holding. Once all the light had dissipated, Scarlet simply stared. In Oak’s hand was a small rune, a capture rune. Something Scarlet had never seen, and never thought she would.
Capture runes were stones inscribed with magic, able to capture and tame wild creatures. Only people who lived in large cities were able to get a hold of them.
“How did you…” Scarlet began but Oaks raised hand silenced her.
“We should get back to the village, I will tell you once we get to my lab,” Oak said in a serious tone.
Scarlet for once was left without words, simply nodding and following the man.
What oak called his lab was truly nothing more than another small cottage. Most of the villagers stayed away from the building, fearful that the elder was doing strange and sinful experiments. In reality, Oak simply studied the creatures found in the wild. In all seriousness, it was completely harmless.
Oak lead Scarlet into the building, drawing the attention of Blue the moment they stepped in.
“Gramps! Where were you? You didn’t show up for breakfast and then you weren’t in your lab!” Blue explained, the worry in his voice evident.
“Blue? What are you… Oh. Well, I suppose this should include you as well,” Oak said moving over to look through a chest.
Oak ruffled through his belongs searching for just the right thing. He couldn’t help but think that he may be rushing things, but he was about this age when the creatures first entered his life. He stood having finally found the capture rune.
“Scarlet, I want to give this to you,” Oak said handing the girl the rune.
Scarlet stared at the rune in the old man’s hands. She wanted so badly to snatch it from him, but she resisted.
“Give it to blue,” She ordered, firm for her age.
Both blue and Oak starred at her flabbergasted. They would have never expected that sort of reaction from the rash girl.
“Blue deserves a creature too…. Plus I want the yellow one!” Scarlet said, finally revealing her true motives.
“Very well scarlet. Blue this one is yours. Scarlet, this belongs to you,” Oak said handing both the children capture runes.
“But Gramps… how did you get these in the first place?” Blue asked.
“There was a time when I used take my studies of these creatures much more seriously. But now in my old age, I only had these two rune left. I want both of you to take these creatures and use them to learn about the outside world.”
“Who will look after you and Daisy?” Blue said, his voice quivering.
“I can get my mom to help!” Scarlet piped up.
“Blue, Thank you for taking care of me all this time. But it is time for you to go off and learn to take care of yourself,” Oak said to blue.
Blue hugged his grandfather tightly and scarlet soon found herself feeling awkward. Scarlet made her way outside, not sure what else to do. Once out side a red light shown from the rune in her hand. Once again the creature seemed to appear from nowhere.This time scarlet did not hesitate to pet the fuzzy thing.
“Hello Little guy…, girl?” Scarlet picked the creature up to check. “Girl! Okay! Hmm… You're yellow so… Sunny! That’ll be your name! Hi sunny I’m… I’m… Red.”
Scarlet wasn’t sure what possessed her to call herself that. Maybe it was the fact that everyone always looked at her oddly. Maybe it was that fact her mom had once let it slip that it would be easier to have a boy. Maybe it was that fact that Scarlet so often acted like a boy. But as far as Sunny knew… Scarlet was Red.
“Um… Sunny return!” Scarlet, or red Shouted. The creature reluctantly returned to the Rune.
Red made her way to Blue's home. Blue would most likely still be busy with Oak for some time yet and Daisy was the only one she could think of to help her.
“Um, what can I help you with Scarlet?” Daisy asked when she answered the door.
“I need you to cut my hair!” Red declared when she stepped inside.
“But? You have such pretty hair?” Daisy asked, the eight year old girl more than a little confused.
“Please Daisy. You’re the only one I can ask,” Red practically begged.
“Fine…” Daisy said, relenting to Red’s demands.
It took about twenty minutes to cut through Re’d long hair and another five to tidy up any chop[y parts. When Daisy was done, she couldn’t believe the difference.
“Now I just need to borrow some of Blue’s clothes!” Red said more to her self that to Daisy.
Red made her way through Blue’s trunk, searching through and bulling out a simple shirt and trousers. She didn’t bother being bashful about undressing in front of Daisy, eager to get into her new clothes.
When Red was done, The transformation was outstanding. It had gone from a wild inappropriate young girl named scarlet, to Red, a perfectly normal adventurous young boy.
“Scarlet you look like..” Daisy started.
“Red, My name is Red now,” The young Boy stated.
Daisy being only eight and not used to anything of this sort, simply nodded.
“Thank you Daisy,” Red said thanking the young girl.
Daisy waved goodbye to her brothers friend, make sure to hand him a map before he left.
Red made his way back to the border of the village. He couldn’t help but feel all lot of thing had changed since that morning but at the same time, nothing really changed at all. Still he stood at the beginning of the exit of the village.
A red light appeared and with it, Sunny. Sunny scampered up the boy’s shoulder, not thinking to deeply about the new clothing and hair cut.
“That’s right. I’m red now, and this time, I’m not alone!” Red said as he took his first step into the unknown.