In the late hours of morning, soft light shone through the window shutters and cast the motel room in a dim golden glow. My tired mind registered the sound of other occupants going through their wake up routine, only barely muffled by the thin wooden walls. Somewhere nearby, the sound of water trickling and someone taking a shower; my teammate Lilliane and her Cleffa Stella freshening up after sleep, I assumed. Tapus, Lilliane…
Too much had happened yesterday.
Even sleep couldn’t calm my nerves. All of the previous day’s events replayed out in my mind: the trial, the talk, telling my friends of my worst fears, Hau and Lilliane opening up about their most hidden secrets– and what secrets!
Augh.
I hadn’t even left my bed that I promptly turned over, buried my head in my pillow and loudly groaned.
This was a lot for a fifteen year old girl– actually, heck that, this was way too much.
When I had first suggested being vulnerable to each other, I don’t think I expected anything like this. Whatever social practice I thought this was, this was born out of what little I understood of people from eavesdropping on popular girls at school. At worst, I thought, I’d hear about whatever hang-ups they’d have about the upcoming trial, or maybe issues at home with their siblings and whatnot– but this wasn’t anything like it. This was danger.
Wrapping my head around Lilliane’s situation was difficult. Difficult to believe in it, even. To discover that her mother had been doing unethical science and keeping pokemon against their will? To decide to go against her, only to back away at the last second? I was trembling just thinking about it. I couldn’t imagine the sort of control Lilliane had mustered thus far to keep herself together.
The girl had carried herself like a fortress: stable, pristine, smart, genuinely pretty, one that knew what to say and what to do. We had seen that inside the fortress resides a scared girl paralyzed with indecision and that had touched me on a deeper level than anything before.
While Lilliane’s problem had me spooked, Hau’s situation made me cross. Sure, the boy had been an all-around joy to be around - fun, strong, resourceful, sure, alright, maybe - but as he fled the scene the night before, a realization had come to me.
Hau was a few clowns short of a circus.
It wasn’t that Hau was that dumb– it was that Hau was frustrating. I rarely felt anger towards someone that was just trying to help, but Hau’s contribution often seemed to blow up in our faces. My teeth grit at the thought.
I found myself at a loss for how to act around him.
There was bravery, and then there was recklessness, and the guy seemed to carry both in spades– He’d set his personal goal to become Champion, and yet had challenged the Island Guardian before the Challenge had even begun! And he had put, what, his grandfather’s position on the line? Hello??
Augghh!!
…
Nonetheless, this was my team. I had to make do.
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Not far from the trial site itself, a number of buildings stood in a line perpendicular to the Route on one side and to the cliff-face facing the shore on the other. A center, hostels and a resort, shops for tourists and another for trainers, people of all ages going to and fro– a lot of them teenagers my age, Trial amulets dangling from their bags or their belt.
In the empty motel backyard away from prying ears, I told everything to my starter.
A freshly healed Petal the Oddish stared at me, incredulous, eyes bugging out. I had just finished telling them all of yesterday’s events with Oran Juice at my side providing occasional clarification.
My Grass-type blinked a few times, mouth agape. Their leaves started to move slowly, falteringly, in the motions I’d grown to associate with our sign language. Those motions suddenly sped up, then grew incomprehensible as they signed furiously and cried out in pokemon speech! They gave up on communication and just stomped and kicked, raising hell on the nearby foliage and thrashing the grass ground of the motel backyard indiscriminately.
“Petal! Hold on, slow down!” I raised my hands to placate my gesticulating starter, while OJ brayed and drilled away in surprise. “Petal you– you have to calm down. I can’t understand you if you sign too fast!”
The squat plant stopped and glared at the ground with fury like I had never seen before. Their composure maintained for only a second before they stomped the floor a few more times – and I watched the grass grow around them with each impact. With each stomp, a wave of glowing green pulsed and made buds and fronds push through the dirt and into the sky.
Petal stopped, then focused and stomped again, a fainter wave starting at the furthest grass and coalescing towards them at the center, grass withering and graying as the wave passed through.
They looked at the dying earth around them in annoyance, their anger spent. I leaned down and gently scooped them up into my lap, feeling them trying to pull away before they gave up and hid under the crook of my arm fully. The earth moved at my side and the tip of a scaly tail emerged as the spooked Oran Juice came out of his hiding spot.
“...I’m sorry, Petal. Did you get it out of your system?” A muffled ‘Odd-ish’ resounded from beneath my arms, and the pokemon faintly nodded. I cradled them– this was, after all, far past their usual waking hours, and even despite being fresh out of the pokemon center, they could barely stay awake in the day.
“You know… You don’t have to worry about it, Petal. Mad scientists and stupid promises to the island guardian– that’s their problem, not ours. We have to focus on the short term.”
Liar, I whispered to myself. This wasn’t what I really thought, but this was what my plant needed to hear right now. I wanted to help Lilliane, genuinely, and a part of myself wanted to give a hand to the Iki Town teen as well, despite my frustration with the boy. For now, though, we had another Trial attempt in a few days to focus on.
Petal emerged from my grasp and turned to look at me with a mix of confusion and… disappointment? Some form of anger, definitely, as the growing frown and pout on their face attested.
“Huh?”
My Oddish jumped off, landed, and dusted themself with their leaves. Then they turned to me and they– were they giving me the stink eye?
“Petal, did I say something wrong?”
They were, and it looked like I did. They grumbled and with sharp snapping motions, they signed at me: [We. Go. Train.]
“But you just left the center, shouldn’t we take it easy?” But off they were walking down the road south despite their tiredness, trudging along. I called out to them, but without stopping their march or turning to face me, they signed back: [We! Go! Train!]
Step, step, step. Petal stomped away. I let out a deep sigh. OJ slithered and I started to follow my little plant, until–
“-Wait!”
I whirled around in surprise. Just around the corner, Lilliane hurried in our direction, white boots making short strides across the grass.
She stopped a few steps away. I watched her dust her dress off and adjust her hat properly on her head. She still carried herself with the same poise that I had seen over the last few weeks, but there was something different, now. One arm hugged the other protectively. Her eyes looked furtively to the sides before we shared a look.
“Can I come with you?” she asked, anxiety clear on her features. Stella the Cleffa peeked out of Lilliane’s bag and looked at me expectantly.
“...Uh, yeah, of course,” I responded after a long pause, scratching my arm. I shared her nervousness, and felt the need to elaborate. “...You know. All that stuff we talked about yesterday– it doesn’t change anything. We’re still a team– we’re still friends. Is that okay?”
Genuine relief broke through her expression and her pained expression immediately morphed into a tentative smile. She relaxed, tense shoulders now falling slump at her sides and one hand landing gently on her starter’s head. Stella gave a happy cry as Lilliane walked up to me and oh– uh–
Confidently, she took my arm in her own. Her warm skin shifted against mine.
“Hau sent us a text,” she said. “And your Oddish has already taken their decision to follow, it seems. Should we go?”
I nodded, and she walked my stiff self down the path after my starter.
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When we’d first arrived at the Trial site, we really hadn’t taken the time to explore the area. ‘Book the trial, bing-bang-boom we win and head back’ Hau had said, but reality had turned out to make things a lot more complicated - and thus, we would be staying around for a few more days. Less of ‘bing-bang-boom’, more of a ‘fizzle-pop’.
This did give us a little bit of time, however. In a few days, we would be taking the Trial again, and so we had time to reflect on our mistakes and improve before then.
Retracing our steps south alongside the cliff lining the coast, away from the scragglier environment of Route 2 North, we beheld the influx of Trial-goers attempting the Challenge. Now that we were in the second to third week, in had come the crowd, and the Route was starting to get truly busy. Teens at every clearing, challenging each other, facing wild pokemon, talking amongst themselves, the cries of pokemon announcing their presence for miles around.
Tourists who had arrived on boat at the Verdant Cavern docks made their way down the Route nonchalantly, family and pokemon in tow. Not only tourists, but also regulars from Hau’oli, men and women in swimming shorts and wetsuits, carrying their surfboards under one arm or over the back.
We didn’t need a map for this, really, we just needed to follow the surfers.
Cresting over an incline, right down the cliff, there it was: a massive miles-long beach, sandbanks in the ocean, ebb and flow crashing upon the coast, and so many people and pokemon in the water. Men and women from all four islands, not just riding on their surfboards but also practicing Mantine surfing; a name that had become a bit of a misnomer nowadays, as far more Pokemon than Mantine were out in the water.
A trainer on an Lumineon followed by a school of Finneon, younger kids practicing on Poliwhirls slowly paddling on their backs, families and their Pokemon playing ball in the water, in the distance, a powerful trail of sea foam as someone was speeding away on their Sharpedo. Finally, we watched a great shoal of Mantines working in concert with instructors and regulars to teach younger surfers, coasting on the waves.
“Cleffa!”
Our attentions’ turned to Lilliane’s Cleffa, Stella, then to her outstretched hand pointing out toward the beach. At the edge of the water, crowd giving them a wide berth, there was–
“Is that Hau?” Lilliane blinked repeatedly, incredulous. “What is he doing?”
I squinted my eyes, focusing on the teen in the distance. “Uh, I think– I think he is, uhh…” …doing what, exactly?
From our viewpoint on top of the cliff, Hau was sitting criss-cross applesauce in the shallow water, on the threshold between land and sea, his Litten Loa standing at attention next to him. While the beach and ocean were normally this crowded, Hau and his starter had been given a wide berth by all and for good reason: facing him was the largest Mantine I had ever seen.
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A behemoth. Manta volans were large to begin with, but this one was a little longer than a car with a finspan twice as wide. Its long elongated body propped up onto the shore with its powerful pectoral fins like a giant leaning on the beach. Its frame casted a long shadow over Hau and his Litten.
“Is– Is he okay??” Panic overtook Lilliane and I, and we found ourselves rushing down the steps off the cliff and onto the beach.
“I don’t know! He– huff– never told me about anything about this–”
My pokemon attempted to make their way down the human-sized stairs just as quickly but weren’t faring well: Petal could only hop down one stair at a time, while Oran Juice started to slither then slipped and rolled into a ball that bounced and barrelled down the stairs until he crashed into the sand.
I grabbed the dazed snake under one arm, and recalled the struggling Petal with the other - then let my starter out at the foot of the stairs.
Lilliane and I ran through the beach, avoiding people laying down on their towels in the sun, seemingly nonplussed about the situation - and then I stopped.
The edge of the water stood a few dozen feet away. The ocean loomed like a divide in the world, here where it’s safe and stable, and over there where it’s cold and dark and spinning–
Vertigo took me and I fell on my butt. I scooted back a little bit more and shook my head to clear my mind of whatever state my stupid fears were putting me into. Augh!
I looked back up to see my Oddish checking up on me with concern on their features, their leaves wilting slightly from the scorching midday sun. Oran Juice, having fallen from my hold under my arm, wiggled to right himself up and slithered over. Other beach-goers who saw me make a fool of myself walked over to help, but I quickly gave them a sign that I was okay - no need to embarrass myself further!
I reached over with my hand, petted my worried pokemon and looked at Lilliane and Hau. The former had gone up to the boy, just to the edge of her water, her shoes and socks removed and held in one hand. She shouted over at him something I didn’t hear over the ambient sounds of the beach, and he responded with a smile and a wave of the hand.
Around us, families and regulars baking under the summer sun. A class of Hau’oli Elementary School children were getting their first swimming classes with a small shoal of Mantyke, under the supervision of a few teachers and a few Pelippers. Over there, an Aipom was chaperoning two toddlers and helping them make a sandcastle, their parents filming nearby. A few hundred feet away, other beach-goers giving them a wide berth, two trainers dueled it out on the beach; a Boldore against the other’s Slowbro. An Indeedee stood not far bored out of its mind, leaning back against the shimmering field protecting the onlookers from stray attacks.
My attention turned to the massive Mantine in the water.
Older Mantine sometimes grew additional antennae on their head or chin - this one had four, two long pairs hanging from the cheeks like whiskers. In the distance, I saw them bob, the older Mantine actually responding to something the Iki Town teen had said. Hau got up and waved the Mantine off, and it turned its broad frame nonchalantly back into the ocean, revealing a constellation of criss-crossed scars across its graying back.
Mouth agape, I watched the Mantine leave the shore and disappear under the waves.
Hau walked back, dripping shorts clinging to his skin and wet Litten in tow. His eyes widened as he noticed me, and he rushed over to give me a helping hand. “Whoa there cuz’, let’s get you away from the shore, alright?”
With a warm hand and a powerful heave of the shoulder, I found myself on my feet and before I could control myself, words poured out. “...What the flip was that?”
The boy’s eyes widened in surprise, and he stumbled back and stammered, “Wuh- what do you mean?”
My mind was a confusing mix of worry and frustration as I attempted to wrestle my thoughts into a correct phrase. Instead, I gestured vaguely into the direction the behemoth had turned to, sputtered and stammered, and just tried to end my incoherent noises. “...big Mantine?”
“Oh! Him!” Hau turned back to the water and smiled wistfully. “He’s cool! He’s like my second grandpa. Taught me how to surf since I was six.”
Lilliane turned up next to Hau, and stared at him incredulously. She held her shoes in one hand still, and wiped her feet on the dry sand to clean them off. “The Alpha Mantine taught you how to surf when you were six?”
“Yeah! Guess so!” With creases in the corner of his eyes, Hau’s grinning smile seemed heartfelt and genuine. “The surfers in the area call him something spooky like Old Ire,” he said while making quotation marks with his fingers and rolling his eyes. “But I swear he’s a real sweetie once you get to know him. Had a ton of good advice for Loa and I.”
The aforementioned Litten looked unusually cowed, her tail held slightly beneath her, putting on a brave front. When her name was mentioned, she straightened her back and nodded back at Hau, determination in her eyes.
“Hau, are you sure a Floette didn’t lean over your crib and bless you when you were a baby?”
“No idea what you mean. Anyway, alola, you five! Hope you had a good sleep, because we have a lot of training to catch up on!”
Hau must have caught the doubtful look Lilliane and I shared, because his pace of talking sped up, and he straightened up like he was about to conduct a presentation. “See, I’ve been thinking since last night, trying to figure out how we could improve on our plan considering our special circumstances. I think we’ve been looking at the Trial wrong.
“Last time we went at it like it’s a survival exercise. It’s not.” He snapped his fingers. “This is an escort mission.”
Silence ensued. The caws of squabbling Wingull and Pikipek broke it.
Not deterred in the slightest, he looked up something on his phone - oh, a Pokegear, banged-up older model like mine, neat - then started to follow the beach toward the northern side. “Come on! Walk with me.”
The two of us shrugged, and followed– until I noticed my exhausted nocturnal Grass-type start to pass out under the midday sun, a panicked Oran Juice at their side.
I sighed. This wasn’t the first time.
I scooped them up and bundled them close to my chest with a sash, then leaned over my straw hat to give them some shade. There. All better.
Then I noticed Lilliane looked at me with a clear amused smile and felt embarrassment color my face bright red. Without a word, she nodded toward the boy waiting close.
I shook my head. Hau wanted to bring us somewhere, and he had claimed that the trial was an escort mission- like in a video game? I couldn’t stand for it. Speeding up to catch up to him, I tried to make my point. “Um. You know, this is not the grand realization that you think this is, Hau.”
Lilliane came to his other side, hand raised. “I’m afraid I don’t follow. Am I the escortee in this instance?”
“Yes!” he shouted, pointing at her with both hands. “Miss président, we need to ensure your safe passage through Verdant Cavern. It is no easy task!”
“...It certainly is not.” The smile hadn’t left her face, and she couldn’t avoid the involuntary giggle that escaped her.
Still. Hau hadn’t convinced me yet. “What about the necklaces, though? I thought that was the point of the exercise?”
“That’s the spirit of it, yeah! But that’s not the goal. The goal isn’t to make it through the cave with all necklaces– it’s to make it through with at least one.”
Technically correct. “Huh. Okay. I suppose.”
“So. Miss président–” Hau started before Lilliane cut him off and corrected him.
“Madame la présidente.”
“Madame la présidente, your safety is très important. Last time we plundered that cave, we had to resort to violence, but no longer! Next time, we shall engage in a different type of battle: diplomacy.”
That? That got my attention.
“...You want to convince the Gumshoos to let us pass?”
Hau gave me a smile and a shrug of his shoulders. “That’s one way! Honestly, I was thinking we could try sneaking or making a distraction, but either way, the goal is to avoid the Yungoose pack outright. If you can’t beat ‘em, outrun ‘em, right?”
“I don’t know. That might be difficult,” I said as I put my fingers to my chin, losing myself in thought. “The spirit of the exercise is to confront Trial-goers to a hostile environment - the Gumshoos and Yungeese could just have a script they’re sticking to.”
Lilliane chimed in, “There are other Pokemon in that cave, aren’t there? Could they help?”
I opened my mouth to answer in the negative, until a thought came to me.
Just a week ago, I had a chance encounter with a certain lonely Dunsparce. This chance encounter led me to learn much about the social structures of the area around Route 2 and Verdant Cavern, and one fact about that conversation stood out: Verdant Cavern is home to a number of Yungoose packs, and all the other Pokemon around can’t stand the sight of them.
We weren’t going to help Pokemon dislodge the Yungoose packs anytime soon, but we could potentially make allies from mutual enemies.
“They… could help. Hm…” Selene, time to think.
Verdant Cavern is home to a bunch of Pokemon from different walks of life. Zubat and Diglett (the Alolan kind) are to be expected, and we encountered both last time. The former control the narrow air space within and profit from the growing vegetation, while the latter tills the rich mineral ground and tends to the smaller nooks and crannies.
River channels we found when we made our first incursion, though they were few and far between. I’d imagine that it would make good spawning ground for lesser Magikarp, and I remembered that Barboach and Psyduck have also been sighted around the area.
Of course, Verdant Cavern wouldn’t be verdant without its abundant flora– which mostly is the work of grass, fairy and bug-types of the neighboring Meadow: Cutiefly, Cottonee, Ledyba.
Finally, we have to take into account the Yungeese and the notorious, storied history they have with Rattata (the Alolan kind) over the past few years. Dad had once told me stories of rodent wars around the area - perhaps the humble Rattata could make for a staunch ally.
“That could… that could work,” I continued. “We will need bargaining chips, but that could work– food, rare berries, medicine, bits of metal we don’t need for the Diglett, maybe? I know the Ledyba would enjoy strong scents–”
Hau cut me off with an amused, incredulous expression. “Strong– strong scents? For the bugs?”
“Um. Yes.” I felt self-conscious all of a sudden. “Ledyba partially communicate with scents, and exotic or foreign scents are valuable to them.”
There was a scramble from Lilliane’s bag, and Lilliane’s Cleffa Stella looked at me intensely, something on her mind.
Hau grinned and snickered mischievously to an obvious crass joke, then seemed to remember in what company he was with. He gave off a fake cough and gathered his composure. “Ahem. Say, you think that Paldean spice mix could work?”
“Huh! If you got spice made from herbs from off the island, maybe. It’s worth a shot.”
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We walked and we talked, and the sounds of the nearby waves faded into background noise of the beach.
We didn’t have a plan, but we had directions, angles to attack this problem from. The Cavern was well documented and I was good at memorization, so that was my duty for the Trial. Ideally we would need a guide, but I’d make do before we could recruit a local resident.
“We’re here!” Hau pointed ahead with his thumb, and I gulped. Lilliane stiffened at my side.
Out in the sand, at one far end of the beach, dueling grounds had been set up. Four arenas had been dug into the sand, about two to three feet deep, like great rectangular basins. The walls of those pits had been smoothed to a near polished sheen, like a great cube had been pushed into the sand and the indent had kept this exact shape.
Trial-goers watched from the sidelines, many sitting on the edges with their legs hanging and kicking into the arena, daring each other not to pull away when elemental attacks strayed a little too close.
Inside, trainers and their mons faced one another one versus one.
A Machop struck powerfully against the coarse shell of a Corsola. The water-type withstood the blows, stubby coral legs digging furrows into the sand as it was pushed back - but with every blow, the ring of water floating around it did not falter, with every strike, its Hardening shell shone a little stronger, with every hit, the Machop’s knuckles painfully crashed against a wall.
In another arena, an aura of tension had captured the onlookers and participants. Two combatants stood at a distance, both panting with exhaustion. On one side, a Rattata (the Alolan variety), its whiskers drooping, fur damp and matted, chest heaving with deep breaths; on the other, a Grubbin, eyes unfocused, jaw jittery and mandibles faintly cracked. The Rattata faked a jump, and the Grubbin twitched, it charged a String Shot and the Rattata tensed.
Wait a minute, how did the sand stay up?
From my point of view, it was almost like the arenas were glass boxes pressed into the ground with beach sand pressing against the sides. And yet, I could see people clearly hanging off of the edge spectating the match - as the Rattata and Grubbin match came to a close, the losing trainer clearly heaved themself up and over the edge and away from the arena. How was this possible?
“So yeah, I know we’re planning for a distraction an’ all, but I figure we shouldn’t lax on training still; especially you and I!” Hau elbowed me slyly with an amused smile, then turned to Lilliane.
Though she kept herself with the usual poise, there was the faint trace of tension: feet a little too close together, knuckles white as she clutched the side of her bag, eyes closed. She took a deep breath and her neutral expression changed into a pout and a frown, staring daggers at the boy.
“Do not think that I am blind to what you’re doing, Hau.”
Hau gulped and pulled at the inside of his shirt. “Hey. Listen. I’m not trying to pull you into anything you don’t wanna do, here. That’s just for Selene and I.” His hands raised and he attempted a Mareepish smile.
Lilliane looked to the side, scathing glare sent in the distance. In the bag clutched to the girl’s side, Stella the Cleffa squirmed in her seat and cried out to her trainer in a surprisingly loud voice. Trainer and pokemon shared a look.
She looked away. Stella’s disappointment blew across us like a sudden chill across the beach.
Then that’s just how it is.