Master of the Birds

chapter 8

the peaceful town of pallet woke with it's usual bustling noise as the sun rose higher in the sky, stores opened, people began their day, and the newest batch of Pokémon trainers were on their way to professor oak's for their first Pokémon. all of the trainers except for one.

ash ketchum had grown a lot in the last six years thou most of that growth had been in maturity instead of height as ash stood as one of the shortest people in his class but he didn't mind so much knowing that he had inherited his short stature from his mother while he had inherited his fathers coloring. over the years ash had trained and studied hard to learn all he could about the different Pokémon of the world thou he payed special attention to his three favorite types fire, ice, and lightning, the teen was determined to become a master of one if not all of the three types that his best friends represented.

at first professor oak had tried to persuade him not to go for all three as the professor hadn't believed that ash knew how difficult such a path would be as it was hard enough gaining one mastery let alone three. ash was determined however and extremely stubborn, when the professor had brought up his lack of knowledge about the three types thinking ash might back down or begin to doubt himself the boy who had been nine at the time had instead began begging him for lessons.

professor oak hadn't known what to make of the request at first but went along with the lessons thinking it would either help ash towards his goal or it would show the young child how difficult the path would be and cause him to rethink his plans, the more he learned however the more determined ash was to become a master of all three types.

one of the few people to support his dream right from the beginning had been Giovanni, ash hadn't known how to interact with his father at first and it was clear that the man had very little experience with children in any form. it was during one of the first few awkward visits that a challenger came by the gym and Giovanni allowed ash to watch from his balcony as he battled the challenger, seeing his father battle had been an incredible eye opener for ash about how complex a Pokémon battle could become and how powerful a Pokémon could be even if they had a type disadvantage.

from that moment on ash and his father had bonded over Pokémon training and battling as Giovanni taught ash everything he knew about raising and training Pokémon, the man himself had been surprised by how quickly ash took to his lessons and how adaptable he was in the mock battles that they had. 

when ash had told his father about his dream and the extra lessons he was getting from professor oak the boy had expected to get the same warnings of it being a hard path to follow that he had received from both his mother and professor oak but instead Giovanni had knelt down beside him and said 'it will be a tough road but nothing worth doing is easy, follow your dreams no matter how big they are and never let anyone tell you their impossible'.

his fathers unwavering support in his dream had helped to boost ash's own confidence in making his dream a reality and helped him to weather thru his years of schooling and extra lessons that Giovanni added to by helping to teach him things about Pokémon battles that the regular schooling didn't cover. while his father focused on Pokémon battles professor oak focused his lessons more on raising a Pokémon and the research he would need to learn how to do so he could gain his masteries.

ash learned at a young age that all masters are in some way researchers writing papers and documenting things about their Pokémon that they find interesting or unique, in order to be a recognised master a trainer needed to submit a number of research papers to a recognised professor that was willing to sponsor them and promote their work. ash was lucky in this regard as he had known professor oak for years and the old man was one of the most recognised researchers in the world and was the regional professor for the kanto region.