Perhaps you should take it easy on your poor tauros, considering the battle you just put him through, but you hop on his back and set off through the forest. Tauros begins at a brisk trot, which is rather painful on your butt after awhile considering you're riding bareback, but gradually slows down to a lumbering walk. Still it's a nice day, and you're not in any particular hurry, so the gradual swaying of tauros's walk is soothing. The sun shining down is warm, and shines through the trees creating pleasant warm splotches scattered through the coolness of the forest. The deep thumping of your Pokémon's heavy hooves seems to mesh pleasantly with the constant background noise of the forest; the subtle humm of busy bug Pokémon, the tweets and twitters of bird Pokémon, and the soft swishing of the leaves around you. Yes, this truly was the kind of day people imagine when they talk about the perfect day to go outside. You've been working hard, having caught two Pokémon and won a battle in one day. You deserve some relaxing travel right? You stretch your arms and take a deep breath, closing your eyes to take in the peaceful sounds better and...

You're awoken by a concerned moo from tauros. Blinking you sit up, and realize suddenly it's dark. The sun hangs low in the sky and you see not blue sky through the leaves, but a dusky orange beginning to gain the purple tinge of night. Great, you were so relaxed you fell asleep, right on top of tauros's back. You're sore now from hours of sleeping on the lumpy back in such an odd position, and you drooled a bit into tauros's fur. Ew. You come to the sudden realization the tauros had walked all day, waiting for a command to stop or change directions from you that never came, and you now had absolutely no idea where you were. Frantic, you look around, trying to get your bearings as the failing light begins to turn the peaceful forest into a rather spooky one.

Taruos appears to have been at least smart enough to follow a path, although it's a dingy little underused trail that's barely more than a narrow strip of slightly more trampled than normal ground. Of course, what worries you more than where your tauros had stopped is what had caused it to stop. The path that it had been following drove deeper into the forest, but you couldn't see where it went because a strange mist hung over the path. It wasn't smoke but seemed... darker than regular mist. Not grey or white, but purplish, almost black. Some wisps of it already hung around you, and didn't seem to be doing you any harm but still, it was downright unsettling. It got much denser quite quickly, almost forming a wall cutting off the path from your sight. It was this that had caused tauros to stop. He was obviously nervous and didn't want to go in unless you told it to.

However, looking around you realize you can circumvent the dark mist. If you squint you can see that it's thinner a ways down on either side of you. Of course, that would require you to get off the path you're on, which would probably lead you back to a larger path or civilization right? Right?! I mean, it wasn't guaranteed but you had a better chance than if you went off the trail. You tauros looked tiered from walking all day as well, he probably wouldn't be much use in a battle if you ran into some wild Pokémon in the forest. Still... that mist...

So what do you do? Follow the trail into the mysterious mist? Or go off the trail and risk getting lost in the forest and extending your trip by several days?

So, you decided to finally say goodbye to your lovable mother and start on your journey with your brand new Starly, but are you truly ready to enjoy the wonders of the Pokémon world? This place is large, and the Pokémon aren’t going to go easy on you, especially if they are some of those big brutes like Ursaring, Charizard, or even those nasty Pichus.

Hey, don’t laugh, Pichus are some tough little buggers. They have teeth! And cute tails! And they can give your Starly a pretty bad shock if they wanted too, but you don’t care, do you? You just want to be on your way, going out into the world with your brand new backpack, clothes, and Poketech.

Wait, what?

You don’t have a Poketech? Didn’t your mom give it to you on your way out? It’s not even three minutes into your journey and you’ve already forgotten your Poketech? This doesn’t seem like a good start now does it? You think about turning back, but you hear someone call out your name, a familiar voice that sounds like a woman’s, but you can’t quite tell where it’s coming from until you feel a tap on your shoulder.

“Hey Sarah, what’s up?”

The girl was someone that you had met way back when, around the same age as you, and annoying as a bunch of Slowpoke trying to catch a Slugma. She starts going on about how she has just started her journey, how the mall will miss her, blah blah blah, and then she does something you don’t expect. She takes the Pokeball that was clipped to her belt, expands it, and then calls out a…

Wait for it…

A Pachirisu! The little electric squirrel Pokémon yawned when it popped out of the Pokebal. Then the Pachirisu took to squinting its eyes, making small sparks come out of the electric pockets on its cheeks. So, what do you do now? You’re in Millenia Town and you don’t have your Poketch and your pseudo-friend just…

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

The vibration in your pocket tells you something is in there. Your hand dives into your pocket and you find that you do have your Poketech, and your mom just sent you a message telling you that she knew that you would forget and that she is still going to be looking out for her. Predictable, but back to what’s important.

You’re in Millenia Town, you now have your Poketech, and a brand new Starly. What do you want to do? Do you battle? Do you turn down the offer? Or do you send a message back to your mom, thanking her like a good little child?

Tiffany

Level 5
35/35
100%

So, another day in Alternia, and what did you do? Headed to the beach, from the city. Yes, the beach - a place where anything could happen. Absolutely, anything. After all, it was near the sea - where giant Water Pokémon can jump out of, it's near the sprawling city - where lot's of thing can happen, and the sand is perfect for some hidden Pokémon to jump out from. Cloysters, perhaps patiently waiting for unwary passerby... when it would pounce on him/her, swallowing the person into its body...

Still, that doesn't stop hundreds of people from coming to the beach, sprawling around under the Sun, lying in relaxation - or perhaps building sand castles, swimming in the sea, or a myriad of other things.

Standing amongst all these people, some rather interesting things would catch your eye - to your right, there was a Slowpoke... apparently sunbathing all alone. In front of you, towards the sea, was possibly a strange scene - a Smeargle, massaging its female owner, a rather pretty female owner, in fact. As for the left of you, there was a Trainer, standing there all by himself. Interestingly, he had two Pokeballs in his hand, and was looking left and right. Could it be that he was searching for someone to battle with?

And of course, behind you is the sprawling city, where you just came from.

So, what do you want to do? Head to the Slowpoke? The woman and her Smeargle? The Trainer and his two Pokeballs? Head back to the city? Or perhaps, you want to continue exploring the beach, to see if there's anything else interesting?