CHAPTER 40

On the afternoon of the seventh day, we were on the brink of reaching Eterna forest. It had taken longer than we wanted to because the closer we got, the more rough and uneven the terrain became. Over the course of the trip, I felt like my team had gotten much better, but I still wasn’t sure if it’d be enough for our venture into the maws of the forest. Frillish had mastered Poison Sting, which was weak but had a chance to poison his foes which could be deadly with Hex. Elekid was finally at a level where I’d consider him equal to the rest of the team, and I was trying to make him inject electric energy into his Swift attack, but progress was slow. Togetic, unfortunately, had learned most of her powerful moves, but she still had incredible potential. Psychic energy was like a muscle, so she kept training and improving Extrasensory and Ancient Power as much as she could while making sure to keep Fairy Wind up to par.

Denzel felt frustrated with his progress, but right now, I’d say Eevee was improving faster than Elekid was. He was starting to win more and more of their battles, and Denzel had taken Cecilia’s advice to heart since he was in the process of teaching Swift to Eevee, which would be a boon to their long-distance battling. Budew sometimes joined in training but listened to none of his commands, but Denzel was still incredibly happy with her. Meanwhile, Feebas could only come out when we were next to a pond or a river, which were sparse on this route. There was still no sign of any Buneary, but they lived in greater numbers in Eterna forest itself.

There was still awkwardness between Denzel, me, and Cecilia’s group. Justin was still the one we spoke to the most often, but being with him was sometimes irritating since he seemingly was raised in another century. Emilia was starting to be terrified, and would rarely speak, while Pauline and Louis put all of their energy into training with Cecilia and us. Tensions were high, especially when we finally reached the outpost at the forest’s entrance. There was a Ranger building, standing tall in its usual army green color palette, a Pokemon Center, albeit way smaller than the usual ones found in cities and towns. There were also a few buildings littered about, along with trainers walking about and filtering in and out of the Center.

The Center itself was bigger than it looked, but there was no specialized human wing. Nurse Joys took care of trainers and Pokemon here.

“Finally,” Emilia sighed. “Let’s get to the Center and rest.”

We all agreed. We were all exhausted, even if some showed it more than others, and finally sleeping in a soft, warm bed would do wonders. We were all assigned to different rooms, and some were on different floors, but Cecilia’s room was pretty close to mine.

“When should we meet again?” Denzel asked.

Louis tapped his chin. “How about one hour? Then we can grab lunch and talk strategy.”

Emilia sniffled. “Could we stay here for a bit? Three days at least?” She begged.

“We’ll see, Emi,” Louis said. “For now, let us rest.”

I glanced at Denzel, and we nodded at each other before making our way up the stairs. He entered my room and took off his shoes with a satisfied groan.

“Don’t sit on my bed before you shower,” I warned. “Which is what I’m going to do.”

“Fine,” He said. “I’m getting the jitters.”

“We all are, but it’s something every trainer has to go through. With our numbers and the amount of Pokemon we have, I’m sure we’ll make it,” I reassured him. We had all heard stories about the unfortunate souls that got lost in the forest, never to be seen again. I was terrified that it’d be one of us, but I had to push forward. “You should probably clean yourself up before we have to meet up, by the way.”

“Yeah, yeah, just let me relax for a second,” Denzel sighed. “Catch up with the forums and any news I might have missed on the way here.”

I nodded and stepped into the bathroom. I took off the bandage on my cheek and winced slightly at the pain. I stared at the cut. It had healed slightly, and it had formed into a crust, but it still hurt when I touched it. I took a warm shower before filling up the bath with cold water for Frillish, who thanked me by nodding his head up and down excitedly before jumping into the bath. After taking a deep breath and forcing myself to open the door, Denzel was gone. After some thinking, I decided to put on a fresh change of clothes and get to the lobby early.

“Get him to one of the Nurses, now!” I heard someone say.

Heads turned toward the entrance as a trainer was brought in on a stretcher. Half of his body was completely purple, and he was foaming at the mouth. Sharp, purple darts were sticking out of his arm. He was quickly carried behind the counter. I stood there with a grim look, my eyes following the young trainer, wondering if that fate was what awaited us.

“Grace,” I heard.

I turned and saw Pauline with her arms crossed, leaning against the wall. It took a few seconds for me to answer. I was still shaking from what I had seen. Would that trainer even live?

“P—Pauline, you’re already here.”

“I am observing. This is the third trainer that has been brought in by the rangers in thirty minutes. The first one was missing a hand, and the second was bleeding profusely from his gut.”

I clenched my fist. “That’s… that’s horrible.”

“It seems the rangers still patrol the forest’s entrance to save straggling trainers, at the very least,” She said. “But when we’re deeper in, we’ll be on our own.”

I frowned. Pauline wasn’t sounding like a scared person, as Emilia, or even Justin was sometimes. Hell, even I could tell Louis was getting more nervous the closer we got to Eterna forest. But her? I couldn’t figure her out.

“What do you think?” I asked.

“About?”

“About what happened to them?”

“Why ask such a question?” Pauline said, rolling her eyes.

“Because I’m interested.”

The redhead paused for a few seconds before answering. “Frankly, I don’t care,” She said dryly. “I’m more concerned about the people that matter to me than random trainers I don’t know anything about.”

“So seeing this doesn’t phase you at all?” I asked, clenching my teeth.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“No. Well, it does, but only when I imagine it happening to me, or my friends. Is that so wrong?” She asked with a slight smile.

Around us, trainers were calming down and going back to their usual routine. Some people gossiped and tried to find out more information about predators that lurked in the forest. Some tried forming groups with others that looked like they knew what they were doing and that had been on the Circuit in previous years, while others just looked dejected, and were probably considering giving up.

“You have no empathy for others,” I said. “I think that’s wrong.”

“Can we afford to care about every little thing?” Pauline asked me, twirling her hair. “There are thousands of events like these happening all over the world at all times. Do you grieve for each one?”

“No, but this is happening in front of your eyes,” I said forcefully. “I think it’s fucked not to even care.”

“You talk a lot, for someone who— ah, Cece!” Pauline said, immediately softening her expression.

“Hello, girls. I see you’re here early.”

“There’s just twenty minutes left. I was just passing the time with Grace, discussing moral quandaries. Did you speak to Louis?”

“Yes, he’s just calling his father to let him know we’re here,” Cecilia said. “You should all do the same before we go. Call your parents.”

“I will, after lunch. Speaking off, let’s get seats together,” She smiled.

I agreed, following the two girls toward the cafeteria. I was trying to find out what Pauline’s deal was. With her friends, she behaved normally, but she seemed to completely disregard others. I supposed maybe we were just built differently, and there was nothing I could do about it. Hell, maybe I had been in the wrong, pushing my morality onto her. We sat at a large table and waited for the rest of the group. These weren’t things to worry about right now. I needed to be completely focused on our task at hand: surviving the next leg of my journey.

“There they are,” I heard Justin say.

Justin and Emilia sat at the table, and Denzel followed suit two minutes later. We all grabbed lunch and got to discussing a plan.

“First thing’s first, how long will it take to make it through the forest,” I started. “I feel like that’s among the most important things to know.”

“I’ve read online that it entirely depends. Some people take a week, others are stuck there for a month. There isn’t an official path or direction to take, but there are checkpoints and markings that were set by rangers or previous trainers passing through.”

“A month?” Emilia trembled. “A month?!”

“Calm down, Emi,” Justin said, patting her back. Pauline grabbed her hand.

“What are these markings like? Do you know?” Cecilia asked.

“Yeah. Words, arrows, or warnings carved onto trees. Some of them tell us where to go, some warn about aggressive Pokemon being ahead, and stuff like that. They’ve been left there over generations, and most of them point toward the northeast.”

“Great, so there’s at least some kind of path to follow,” I said.

“We’ll have to sleep in shifts,” Louis said. “I’ll have a schedule ready for us whenever we leave. What are the Pokemon we have to watch out for?”

“I’ve heard many stories about Scyther lurking in the forest,” Justin said.

“They are apex predators, and forests are where they thrive,” Cecilia said with a slight smirk, which I found strange.

“There are Dustox there too,” He said. “Their poison is lethal, but that’s not all. There are Arbok, Beedrill colonies, Vileplume, Parasect, Ninjask, and hell, that’s not even counting the ghosts. All of the worst Pokemon you can think of will be there, I can send you guys a list to study up.”

“That would be wise,” Louis said with a dark look. “Next up, we should find out what the best configuration is regarding our Pokemon.”

“Configuration?” I asked.

“He means what Pokemon would be best to use,” Pauline clarified, rolling her eyes at me.

“Thank you, Pauline. It would be wise not to have all of our Pokemon out at once. That would attract too many unwanted eyes and stalkers in the forest, and some of our Pokemon don’t like each other very much. Plus, it would be better to keep some in their Pokeball in case others are irreparably wounded or need to rest. I believe our best option is to each have one Pokemon out at all times.”

“I have Charmeleon,” Pauline said.

“There are rules,” Denzel interjected. “You can only use fire moves if you’re one hundred percent sure you’re about to die, and even after that, they expect you to stop its flames with water types. Don’t forget the forest is also a protected natural park. The Rangers don’t want anyone to start a forest fire.”

“How aggravating,” She quickly said. “Then I suppose Gothita will do. Charmeleon will light our fires at night.”

“I’ll just be using Eevee, I guess,” Denzel said. "He's got a good sense of hearing."

“It… it pains me to say, but I have to use Prinplup. Gible will be useful in battle, but my starter tends to be more obedient.”

“A water type?” I asked.

“Gible is without a doubt the strongest Pokemon here,” He said. I ignored his boast. "But he knows this as well, so he is more resistant, but I’m afraid he might run off to fight something and bite off more than he can chew.”

I nodded at this surprising moment of clarity. He must have been really nervous to admit such a thing, but I was happy everyone was doing their best to make it through.

“I’ll use Growlithe,” Justin said. We stared at him confusedly. “Don’t look at me like I’m a pariah. Sandile is unfit for the forest’s environment, and Growlithe has plenty of non-fire moves to use. Plus, his sense of smell is excellent.”

“Very well,” Cecilia said. “I’ll use Deino.”

That was simple enough, no justification was needed. I thought about it for a second. Frillish was out of the question for now. There were too many Pokemon with grass type moves to threaten him, and they wouldn’t pull any punches. Wild Pokemon never held back in general, but here? I didn’t want to risk it. Togetic could fly, but in the forest’s environment, that might be a disadvantage. Pokemon could leap from trees and jump on her, and she wasn’t nimble enough to dodge the kind of predators that would be coming. I couldn’t help but imagine a terrifyingly fast Scyther just flying into her and cutting her apart before I even had the chance to recall her. That meant I’d have to use Elekid.

“I’ll use Elekid,” I said. I was unsure of my choice, and nervousness began to take hold of me. I was terrified I was going to make a mistake and lose someone, but no matter how much I thought about it, Elekid was the right choice.

“What about you, Emilia?” Louis asked.

“I—I don’t know. I don’t want to do this,” The girl shook.

“It’ll be okay, Emi,” Justin reassured her.

“No! It won’t!”

Justin looked at Louis and shook his head.

“Very well. Don’t worry too much about it, Pauline. We’ll figure something out. For the rest, we’ll be using that set of Pokemon, but of course, we’ll be able to swap them out whenever they get too tired, or wounded beyond what a potion can heal.”

“When are we leaving?” I asked, wanting to rip the band-aid off. “I think we should take a day or two off,” I continued, looking at Emilia.

“Yeah, I think so too,” Denzel added. “I’ll use the time to talk to trainers coming back from the forest to gather info and see if they have any useful tips.”

“Alright. I assume that means no training tonight?” Cecilia said.

“Yeah, sorry. To be honest, I think Eevee deserves a break. The rest will do him good.”

“Alright then, that’s it for the strategy meeting,” Louis said. “Let’s eat.”