Chapter 10

Emerald leaned against the tree behind him as he checked the map on his PokeNav. The creek beside him provided pleasant background noise as he examined what the device displayed on the device. Beside him were Whismur and Loudred, that drank from the running water, occasionally startled by a Marill or Barboach that jumped through the surface.

The scenery in the mountains was more peaceful after the Verdanturf Tunnel had been closed up. Emerald retreated with his Pokemon to the safety of the Rustboro mountain range. He decided it was too dangerous to have them given medical treatment by the Pokemon Center as the nurses might find their wounds suspicious.

Before leaving, Emerald gave strict orders to the Rock and Ground Pokemon they freed to dispose of the bodies so no one could find them. Someone could look at the slash marks and dents in the trainers and Rock-types to find it consistent with a Grovyle’s Leaf Blade or a Fighting-types' physical attacks. They mostly had to rest their bodies from eating oran berries from the trees around them.

The mountain range still had its fair share of noise during the first month and a half that Emerald and his Pokemon lived there. The Verdanturf Tunnel had to be enclosed using the Rock-types’ elemental powers like those Pokemon constructed it—the growing rocks and encasement of stone sealed off the cave.

However, the constant rumbling beneath Emerald’s feet receded in less than two months. This change caused many species of Pokemon to return to the forested mountaintop that he initially didn’t see. Whismur and its evolution began to pop up while various Flying-types like Taillow and Swablu started to nest in the trees’ branches again.

Takim explained that the constant shifting beneath the ground drove off the wild Pokemon in fear. This movement was especially bad for the wild Whismur as they were sensitive to excessive noise. Their sharp hearing and ability to absorb noise pollution caused them to flee in fear as their ears would bleed from the noise beneath. However, with the cave finally sealed off by the freed Pokemon of Team Magma and the Rustboro Gym, normalcy returned to the mountains.

While the Rustboro mountains were a nice change of pace from the endless battles of the previous few weeks, the danger was increasing. With the returning peace of the hills came the arrival of dangerous predators. Poochyena and its evolution, Mighteyena, were becoming a more common sight, and a vulnerable human like Emerald had no defense against them.

But the worst was Linoone. Emerald could sleep in trees to avoid the Mightyena as they could not climb. But Linoone could scale trees and kill with a single slash of its claws. Last week he was almost killed by one that thought he would be easy prey. He only survived because Dangler, who slept in the same tree Emerald did, killed it with a Pin Missile. The Pineco was his only source of protection, with his three stronger Pokemon too weak to battle.

But what Emerald feared even more, was Swellow. He knew the Swallow Pokemon could easily pick him up and carry him off to feed. People in the Hoenn region had to be wary of it as Swellow was known to choose to eat humans. Emerald would constantly look into the sky, occasionally spotting one, and leave into the forest to avoid its sight.

And humans were not able to live in the wild like Pokemon were. The boy’s body was not used to a strictly vegetarian diet, as Emerald had little opportunity to capture meat. He was also scared of venturing near the creek to drink water as the surrounding Pokemon, also using it, would glance at him menacingly. While they would typically not attack, Emerald sometimes spent as many as three days dehydrated due to fear of angering the nearby Pokemon.

It also was very uncomfortable to sleep on a tree branch as opposed to a warm bed. Emerald had similar trouble on Route 116 when making a bed of moss and leaves. However, sleep could sometimes feel impossible, even on a particularly thick tree branch. Thankfully he met very few travelers in the passing months, as Emerald needed a Pokemon to throw into battle save for Dangler.

Emerald felt selfish for wanting his Pokemon to get healthy for no reason other than to defend him, but he had no defense as a human. Even the weakest Pokemon in the vicinity could eviscerate and outrun him. Nearly three months before, his three strongest Pokemon were utterly healthy again. Emerald had no spray medicine left and was too afraid of being questioned by the local authorities on the gym leader's disappearance and Rusturf Tunnel's sealing.

Typically wounds were not so severe that it would take this long to recover, but a fight with a gym leader was no ordinary fight. Every Pokemon of his that battled Roxanne had their Pokeballs blinking blue to indicate they were close to death. Leif had it a little easier as he could absorb the health of other Pokemon with Mega Drain, but he was too wounded to catch most Pokemon.

But Madelyn and Takim were the worst. Madelyn was not only a carnivore, so she had to have a constant supply of meat for her diet, but she also needed a large body of water. Even amphibious Water-types like Gyarados must be submerged for long times to recover. His PokeDex confirmed this.

Emerald brought prey killed by Dangler and oran berries to Madelyn for weeks. After the Gyarados’s wounds scabbed over, Emerald realized the creek on the mountain wasn’t deep enough to submerge her, so Emerald had to leave to find the pond on Route 116 for her to rest in. He could only hope she could see enough prey there to feast on without Madelyn being attacked. It was two months before she was able to recover fully.

His Hariyama’s body was even further broken than Madelyn’s. Both her arms seem to function no longer, her left arm just dead weight. Emerald feared that the limb would need to be removed, but Takim said it would just have to heal usually. Thankfully the Hariyama was just an herbivore, so she didn’t need anything to eat but berries and specific plants commonly found in the forest.

Emerald bandaged her arm that Leif pointed out with a particular herb that Leif pointed out to Emerald. Since he was able to heal quicker than Takim thanks to Mega Drain, the Grovyle ventured into the forest and gathered some. Stuffing some into a wound after wetting it promoted healing. When asked what kind of plant it was, Leif gave a strange answer.

“They are called Miracle Seeds,” he said. “They are the product of several Grass-types scattering their seeds along the ground. The plants eventually crossbred, producing an herb with immense healing and nutritious factors.”

“Wow,” Emerald said. “Do humans use them?”

“Of course,” Leif said. “Humans have been stealing them from the Pokemon forest for medical purposes. Since they can’t grow in cities because of several Grass-type generations cross-breeding different plants, humans deprive us of them for their selfish ends.”

The trainer felt bad after he said that. Emerald felt a strange guilt as, while he didn’t have the sensation of direct responsibility, he couldn’t escape from the idea he benefited from others’ suffering. That unique guilt was compounded over the last few months as Emerald began rethinking mankind’s morality.

From what Takim told me, the Rusturf Tunnel would have boosted Hoenn’s economy by a significant margin. He thought. Roxanne, who led the expedition said, bragged to her subordinates that she would be known as a hero for ages. Southwestern Hoenn has always been fairly segregated from the rest of the region due to the geographic barrier of the Rustboro mountain range.

As Emerald examined his PokeNav’s map, he found that the mountain range was long and reasonably wide.

The Rusturf Tunnel would give easy passage to the transportation of minerals and lumber to the rest of the region. He thought. Takim also said it would allow Rustboro’s growing population to travel to Mauville City. Leif’s home was also destroyed for timber as the Petalburg Woods would be regrown for its wood. The way I see it...every luxury I grew up with was produced at the exploitation of Pokemon and their habitat.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

That thought gave him a great deal of sadness. What if Emerald hadn’t agreed to challenge Roxanne and stop the construction of Rusturf Tunnel? Prosperity at the cost of exploitation would have occurred again, just as it did with Leif’s home.

The more he replayed the events of the last few months, the more he decided he’d rather everyone be poor than gain wealth at the cost of others. Emerald now understood why Leif agreed to help Takim. He wanted to prevent another Petalburg Woods disaster from occurring.

At first I thought Leif was acting out of evil desires. He thought. But is it an actual heroic desire? And is my desire to stay out of the battle a cowardly, evil wish?

He decided to push the matter out of his mind, the subject too dark to think about. Emerald was interested in finding a place where it would be safer for all of them. He was eyeing Mauville City, which wasn’t so far away that traveling there would be back-breaking.

But a different place caught his attention. Less than twenty miles away was a small town he had never heard of. This was odd to Emerald as he was familiar with at least the names of the cities in the vicinity he grew up in. Verdanturf Town was something he’d almost mistake for being in the Johto region rather than Hoenn. As he looked at the map, Emerald heard movement behind him to see Leif, Takim, and Madelyn nearing him. Upon Madelyn approaching him, the Pokemon drinking from the creek scattered.

“You said you wanted to see us this morning?” Takim asked.

“Yeah,” Emerald said. “I was thinking of heading to a certain locale east of us.”

“Why do we need to do that?” Leif asked. “We’ve recovered from our battle wounds, and the area’s wild Pokemon are weaker than us.”

The trainer sighed, knowing it would be awkward explaining his reasoning to the Grovyle. He thought he should be polite with his logic but knew Leif would press him harder. Emerald decided to speak tersely and demandingly to the Grovyle.

“Humans have different needs than Pokemon,” Emerald said. “I have to live in a house and can’t just live in the woods like a Grovyle can. The food here isn’t enough to stop me from getting hungry.”

“Well we can live here fine,” he said. “You’ll just have to adjust.”

“Not me,” Madelyn said. “There are few bodies of water in the immediate vicinity that are large enough to contain me. I’m sorry but as a Water Pokemon, I won’t be able to survive unless I keep dipping back in the pond repeatedly.”

“Well, let’s just go back to Route 116!” Leif said. “We could-”

“That’s out of the question,” Takim said. “Now that we’ve killed Roxanne we’ll be regarded as suspicious for being so close to what remains of Rusturf Tunnel after it was sealed up. The local authorities will put two and two together and find Emerald suspicious. The more we stay here the more likely we’ll be caught.”

“So where do we go then?” Leif asked angrily.

“There are two cities that we could possibly live in that are somewhat close by,” Emerald said. “I say we go check them out.”

“Agreed,” Takim said. “Human cities are generally safer than the wild. You don’t have to constantly fight off wild Pokemon just to stay alive.”

Everyone looked happy except the Grovyle. He merely leered at Emerald with that disappointed glare he often gave. He then shrugged in defeat, turning away to not look his trainer in the eye.

Upon arriving in Verdanturf, Emerald could see why he never heard of it before. It would be too harsh to say it was a ghost town but that wasn’t far from the truth. Entering the city, the young man looked around to find the town was not at all crowded like Rustboro of Petalburg City was.

Most of the buildings were made of worn brick and stone that looked like it was from four decades ago. Many of the buildings made from timber appeared to be rotting or caved in, blackened from mold. Emerald saw literally no buildings above two stories tall and most were narrow, the shops that lined the city streets fitted together with little space in between.

The streets themselves were not filthy but had a fair amount of dust while only sparse pedestrians dotted it. While cars were rare on the dirt paths he had traveled past few months, it was odd he saw so few driving by. There was a fully paved road stretching from Verdanturf through the wilderness and no cars entered the town. They only left.

Emerald was afraid that entering a city with three Pokemon behind him, especially a Gyarados slithering at his back, would cause immense panic. The trainer wanted to keep her in her PokeBall but Madelyn said that she had seen so little of the surface she longed to get as good a view of it as possible. While Madelyn did cause quite a few to be startled, there weren’t enough people to cause a stampede.

“I hope they don’t think I’m going to eat them,” Madelyn said.

Emerald found the few pedestrians venturing down the street were dressed in rather humble clothes. Emerald, who hailed from the industrious, large Petalburg City, never thought of his clothes as expensive until he saw those of Verdanturf. Most of them were homespun dressings that had obviously been sewed or patched up recently. Dresses worn by women had nothing even as decorative as frills and most men wore either overalls or plain white T-shirts. Even their clothes looked dusty.

“Weird,” Takim said. “Every human town I’ve visited had at least more to it than this place. Rustboro makes this place look miniscule.”

“I know,” Leif said. “I thought human civilization would look a little more...extravagant. From all the territory they’ve stolen from us I thought they’d have the decency to at least make something worth looking at.”

Emerald sighed in exasperation as he was glad there weren’t enough people to overhear the Grovyle. It was only Madelyn who was impressed with everything. She constantly looked around Verdanturf Town in bedazzlement, gasping at the sight of everything.

She scared Emerald when she slithered towards a shop to peer through the glass, scaring the customers inside. They raced to the back of the room while Madelyn examined the goods that were on sale. It was hard for a Gyarados to smile but she certainly did it well.

“Wow, guys!” she said. “Look at all this cool stuff! I didn’t know you humans could make anything this pretty!”

Emerald and Takim raced forward and grabbed her snake-like body, urging her to leave while Leif stood back and glared at everything around him.

“Look at that guys!” the Water and Dragon-type said. “It’s the stuff they make houses from! It’s-!”

“Madelyn you’re scaring them!” Takim said as the Hariyama using her large hands and immense strength to pull her back. “They don’t know you mean them no harm!”

“Yeah!” Emerald said. “They think you’re going to destroy their shop!”

“Oh but there’s so much!” Madelyn said. “Can I just take a peek inside, please?! I just want to know what they use that one thing for!”

Just as Emerald was regretting letting the Gyarados travel into town outside her PokeBall, he saw someone walk towards him.

“Aw, a trainer!” a woman said.

They turned to find a green haired young woman and boy behind Emerald. The woman wore a white button down shirt and looked to be in her mid-twenties while the boy who resembled her looked to be Emerald’s age. At the young man’s side was a Kirlia, a humanoid Pokemon with green hair fitted with red, rounded horns and looked like it wore a white dress. The woman looked very spry and jovial while her younger relative looked very shy, avoiding eye contact with Emerald.

“Welcome!” she said. “My name’s Wanda and this is my cousin, Wally! We live here in Verdanturf and are eager for more trainers like you to arrive! Tell us, is the Rusturf Tunnel completed yet?”

Emerald could feel his entire body clenched like a curled up fist. He glanced at Takim to see she was almost as nervous as he was. Madelyn looked rather disinterested, eyeing the shop to her right again.

The trainer then glanced at his Grovyle to see Leif glaring daggers at Wanda. He was glad neither her nor Wally were looking in Leif’s general direction or they’d be frightened he was ready to kill them. Emerald tried to think of what to say while beads of sweat dotted his forehead. He was just as desperate to act innocent as to keep Wanda’s attention away from Leif.

“Yeah,” he said. “Um...not...not yet-”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s a shame because my boyfriend lives in Rustboro.”

“Oh,” Emerald said. “I-I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Well,” Wanda said. “He’s not my boyfriend yet. I’m just waiting for him to make the first move. Long distance relationships are tough.”

“Um…” he said. “Well then…we were just passing through. As Pokemon trainers my team and I were looking for a place to settle down-”

“Wally’s a trainer!” Wanda said.

She then poked her cousin in the side, causing him to wince in surprise.

“Aren’t you Wally?” she said. “You’re a great one!”

She’s nice. Emerald thought. But nice like a child’s nice. She seems a bit naive and innocent. Takes a kind of person like that to greet some random passerby who strutted in.

“Don’t be so rough, Wanda,” the boy said. “You know I have a condition.”

“Um…” Emerald said. “So...is there any place we could...like...stay overnight?”

“Sure!” Wanda said. “You can stay at my place! I’ll whip you something up in the kitchen! I love to cook! And so does Wally! We have so few who enter Verdanturf with the intent of staying! Please, it’d be my treat.”

“That won’t be necessary, ma’am,” Takim said. “We’ve survived off of much less in our travels. Home cooked food is-”

“Definitely!” Emerald said enthusiastically.

“What?” the Hariyama asked. “You’re going to take advantage of her like that?”

“Free food and bed after sleeping in a tree for nearly three months,” he said. “I’m not passing up that opportunity.”

“Can I look inside the house?” Madelyn asked.