CHAPTER 85

“Route 216?” I almost choked. I hadn’t even contemplated that we would end up there. “So we should get to Snowpoint, then?”

“No… this is a problem,” Denzel said. He placed a palm on his forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. “It takes a long time to get to Snowpoint from route 216 and 217, and we’re not even on the route yet. We don’t have enough supplies to last out there.”

I shivered, squinting as another gust of wind blew past us, and sniffled. Breathing in this dry cold air was deeply uncomfortable.

“The cold’s going to get worse as we travel and winter truly settles in, too,” Denzel continued. “Right now, it’s less cold than it was inside, but it’ll get colder.”

“We’re lucky we didn’t get here in February. That’s when surviving outside is impossible unless you really know what you’re doing,” I said.

“You’re right, but we still have to hurry either way,” Denzel agreed.

“We have fire types for the cold,” Chase said. “And we can hunt for food after we run out. Melt and boil snow for water, maybe? Some wild Pokemon here are bound to be edible.”

“Not me…” I started, shaking my head. “No.”

“Grace…” Cece said. “There’s no choice.”

“I won’t do it.”

“We’ve already had this conversation, let’s stop wasting time,” Chase said. “Here’s what we can do. Pastel, you’ll eat the remaining food while we eat whatever we find out there.”

I sighed. “Thank you.”

“That works,” Cece agreed.

“I said I respected your choice, but I’ve got to ask you,” he asked. “You do know that you’ve indirectly caused the death of many wild Pokemon, right? What do you think happens after you knock ‘em out? That they just wake up a few hours later and go about their day?”

I clenched a fist. “Do you think I don’t know that? I try my best to do good. That doesn’t mean everything I do meets that standard. Sometimes, the rubber has to meet the road and there isn’t any choice.”

“Alright,” Chase said after a pause. “Just wanted to see where you stood on things.”

“I’m not stupid. I’m just trying to get by with causing the least damage possible,” I said. “Now, let’s figure something out.”

“Wait,” Cece stopped me. “That still doesn’t solve the Pokemon food. They have to eat if they’re going to keep being out of their Pokeballs.”

Denzel nodded. “I was going to bring that up.”

“Deino and Fletchinder can eat whatever they kill in the wild,” Cece said. “So can Scyther, but I’m not planning on bringing him out any time before we at least get situated on a route. Slowpoke can only eat premade food, so he’ll have to eat what we have.”

“Good thinking, Obel,” Chase said. “Houndoom can do the same here, along with Zangoose. Ri can eat anything too.”

Denzel and I stared at each other awkwardly.

“Um… none of our Pokemon do that…” he said.

“I knew that already, and I didn’t expect you to change,” she replied with a nod. “But that’s still a lot of food we’re cutting out. Plus, Budew, Tangela, and Frillish don’t have to eat.”

“Okay, that should last us until Snowpoint,” I said. “Now, to find the route. Cece, can Fletchinder do it?”

“She’s never flown that far away before, but I suppose she could,” she answered, anxiously grabbing her flying type’s Pokeball and releasing her. Fletchinder happily spread her wings and flew around us, ecstatic to be out of Mount Coronet, causing Cece to smile softly. “Fletchinder darling, we’re out of the mountain, as you can see, but we’re still lost. I’m going to need you to find route 216 for us. Denzel, what should she look out for?”

“Just anywhere where the snow is less deep than this and looks like some sort of canyon— the route is nestled in between two ridges. Think route 205. Or alternatively, anywhere with a ranger outpost. There’s supposed to be one at the mountain’s entrance on route 216, and if we can get there, our worries about food can be put to rest, and we can get help and reception for our phones.”

Fletchinder nodded and flew off before taking one last look at us. The bird was probably anxious to be separated from us, but we’d stay put and wait for her. I would have liked to send another Pokemon with her, but nothing we had flew as fast as she could. In a few seconds, Fletchinder was already gone from view.

“That’s a fast one,” Chase said, raising an eyebrow. “Would be interesting to face with the new anti-flier techniques I’ve developed after my fight with Pastel.”

“Why are you even thinking about battling me still?” Cecilia frowned. “I still am not interested and will never be—”

“Let’s not fight, guys,” Denzel interjected. “Take it in for a second. Yeah, we’re still in a precarious situation, but we were stranded in Mount Coronet, and we lived. Not many trainers at our level can claim that.”

I nodded, breaking into a smile. Thinking back, the one thing Mount Coronet had taught me as a trainer was multitasking my team and fighting with all of them out at the same time, which was something I would have been incapable of doing before, like when we had to hold back the number of Pokemon we used in Eterna forest. I thought faster, responded better to threats, and my Pokemon were the same, able to often make the best decision independently in most situations, leaving me more time to think. I had no doubt the others were all thinking the same thing. I would even go as far and say I was ready for the third gym—

I caught myself. I couldn’t face the gyms for the time being, or at least until we reached civilization and found out what was going on back in Eterna. The battles were always recorded, and our location would inevitably get back to Cece’s father. I’d have to talk to Denzel and Cece about coming up with a plan of action tonight or maybe tomorrow to give them one night of rest.

Looking further around, it looked like we were on the slopes of the mountain still, albeit it didn’t look to be too high. I had no difficulty breathing, and I could see the terrain in front of us gradually slump.

“Route 216, huh?” Denzel said again. “I actually want to catch something here or on route 217, although honestly, I didn’t think I’d be getting here until I had seven badges.”

“Really?” I perked up. “Who is it? Wait, let me guess! Cece, help me out.”

“Looking at the other members of his team… maybe a Smoochum?” She said.

Denzel grimaced, and I broke into laughter.

“A Smoochum! That’s— that’s a good one,” I giggled.

“Hey, let’s not make fun of Pokemon’s appearance, alright! Grace, you’re not the type to do that!” Denzel said, shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, I just find its evolution really funny,” I said. “It wasn’t malicious.”

“So, was I right?” Cece asked, smiling to herself.

“No! No, you weren’t.”

“Okay, what about a… Snom?” I asked. “Their evolution’s beautiful. You only have that kind of Pokemon.”

“I do,” he said, clearly stopping himself from smiling. He had taken it as a compliment. “But wrong! Last guess before I just tell you.”

“Vanilite!” I yelled.

“Vanilite aren’t beautiful…” Cece crossed her arms.

“They totally are! You’re cuter, though.”

She started fanning her face with her hands and averted her gaze. I walked up to her and placed my hands around her waist.

“You like it when I call you cute?” I muttered.

“Who wouldn’t like the girl she loves to do so?” Cece replied, her breathing ragged. “You’re treading dangerous waters, Grace.”

I felt blood rush to my face. “Um, that sounds great to me, if that means what I think that means?” I asked.

“Guess the game’s over,” Denzel sighed. “I really liked it too, and you barely tried. I want a female Snorunt.”

I turned toward him.

“That turns into a Froslass, right? Lots of scary stories about that one,” I said.

“Lures men into a cave and turns them into ice statues, knocks on the doors of small villages at night to kidnap people that are never seen again, reincarnated women that die on the slopes of Mount Coronet,” Denzel listed. “Researched ‘em all. There’s probably a hint of truth to them, but I don’t really know how accurate those are. Doesn’t matter anyway, though, since I’m catching its pre-evolution.”

“Your way of catching Pokemon is deficient, Williams,” Chase said.

“Oh yeah? Why don’t you tell me why?” He replied, rising to the challenge.

I rolled my eyes and prepared to watch what would probably be turning into a verbal fight, because Chase was incapable of disagreeing with people in a nice way. He had to be right, and he wouldn’t entertain any other ideas.

“Planning your team to a T, that’s inefficient,” Chase clarified. “What if the Pokemon you catch is incompatible with you? Then you’ve got a team member that will hold everyone back.”

“There are workarounds,” Denzel said. “You can adapt the way you do things. You think too rigidly.”

“Hm,” he said. “That doesn’t work for me. I have a rigid training regiment, and if the Pokemon can’t keep up, then I wouldn’t catch them.”

My eyes widened slightly. That had been less aggressive than I expected.

“How do you even know if a Pokemon will be compatible with you before you catch them? You have to learn to know them, to befriend them. That takes months, at the very least,” Denzel countered.

“No, there’s one easy way to tell,” he said. “The way they behave in the wild.”

“Which is?”

“There has to be a fierceness— a drive to get stronger behind them that just jumps at me the moment I lay my eyes on ‘em. I don’t care if they’re weak so long as they can keep up. We were all weak once. I just need ambition. Take my Charjabug, for example. When I met him, he was just a weak Grubbin getting harassed by a pack of Spearow right out of Jubilife, but even though he had no chance to win, he fought. He’s a fighter. That’s what I look for.”

We all stared at him in silence for a few seconds. That had been surprisingly… deeper than I had anticipated. Maybe it was my bias, but I thought that he’d prioritize strength above all. In a way, he did, but he didn’t care what level the Pokemon he caught were at, which was unexpected.

“What? What is it?” He asked.

“Good job, Chase,” I said.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“What the fuck?”

“Okay, you have a point I guess,” Denzel conceded. “But I’ve seen the way you train. I work less rigidly than you, and I’m willing to adapt, so I don’t mind catching Pokemon that are hard to work with. My Budew used to hate my guts, and she did for a long time— it was my fault. But I worked hard to gain her trust, little by little.”

“I think that’s a waste of time. You could have caught another Budew and made more progress,” he said. “But fair enough. We’re different,” he finished with a shrug.

I took off my gloves and grabbed my Poketch to tell the time. It was a little past noon, and there was obviously no reception, but it was worth the try. Even calling rangers to let them know that we were stranded would have been a good move. I exhaled into my hands to warm them up.

“So how long will that Fletchinder take to come back?” Chase asked.

“That depends on how far we are from the route, but it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two, I would guess. We can’t be too far, and she’s fast, as you saw before,” Cecilia explained.

“Alright,” Chase said. “All that catching talk made me want to catch something, so I was thinking about dipping for a bit to see if anything caught my eye.”

“Absolutely not,” I said. “You’re the guy in the movies who separates from the main group and dies a horrible death.”

“No,” he said, his expression suddenly darkening. “I’m the one who’s left alone at the end.”

“Ahem,” Denzel said, breaking the silence. “We might as well settle down for now, then? Make a fire, and finally feel warm after so long. Fire type Pokemon aren’t as good as the real thing.”

“I didn’t grab my axe when we left,” I said. “I only have my knife.”

“Neither did I, but we have Pokemon. Can Zangoose do it?” Denzel asked.

“Yeah, she can cut up wood, alright,” he smiled.

Chase and Denzel went to gather wood while Cece and I stayed behind to watch our fire types melt the snow down to a manageable level so that we could sit down and place the logs correctly. Now that we were out of Mount Coronet, we’d be able to sleep in tents again as well, which would be crucial in protecting us from the wind, but we didn’t want to set them up just for two hours. Cece crossed her arms and anxiously glanced at the sky every few minutes.

“She’ll come back, don’t worry,” I said.

“She’s never been so far away. What if she gets attacked?”

“She’s part fire, so she’s resistant to ice, and she’s fast enough to dodge and run away,” I softly said.

“I can’t help but think… what if, you know? She was our only option since she’s the fastest, but I can’t help but be scared.”

“You seem close to her. Closer than your other Pokemon, at least. When did you get her?” I asked. I knew Fletching could be found on Sinnoh’s southern shores, but they were still incredibly rare in the region due to disliking the cold.

“I caught her in Sunyshore during the summer,” she said.

“You were in Sunyshore?” I exclaimed. “I thought you were in Jubilife before the Circuit started.”

“I was there in secret to get engaged with Louis… officially. She was the first Pokemon I caught after being given Deino, and we bonded instantly,” Cece sighed.

“I’m glad,” I said.

“Glad?”

“I’m glad that you’ve got Pokemon who love you, I mean. I’m not sure about Slowpoke— I can never tell with him, but even Deino seems to care for you.”

“Slowpoke appreciates me in his own way, but I’m not sure it can be defined as love,” Cece said. “Deino… Deino’s different as well. He respects me, and he thinks that I’m his key to getting stronger, but I wouldn’t call it love either.”

“Come on,” I said. “He clearly cares for you.”

“Perhaps,” she said.

“What about Scyther?” I asked in a not very smooth way. “Any progress?”

“Slightly, but he’ll probably be furious when I release him, and he realizes that so much time has passed. At least he doesn’t try to kill me that much anymore, albeit he definitely would strike me down if he had the chance.”

“Seems to me like you need to apologize and reset the whole relationship,” I said. “I know you value gaining a Pokemon’s respect through power and all, but it won’t work.”

“Chase’s words resonated with me, you know?” She said. “Wasting time.”

“Are you… thinking of releasing him? Because if you are—”

“No. It hasn’t come to that yet. I am thinking about all the time I wasted beating Scyther up, however. If I had him by my side, and he was at my other Pokemon’s level, then I’d be more prepared to stand up to Abel. His type counters Malamar perfectly.”

I nodded. “I’ll help you out.”

“No. I must do it alone.”

“What?” I frowned.

“You work too hard, Grace. You ask about my worries, but what about yours? How are you?”

I felt my legs shake. “You know what crushes me the most right now?” I asked. Cece shook her head. “The fact that our friends don’t know we’re alive. And Denzel and my parents.”

“I… I had been trying to keep that at the back of my mind,” she sighed, grabbing my hand. “We need to get to civilization as fast as possible to let them know.”

“I have to talk to you about your dad first,” I said. “Tonight. For example, is he the type to bug phones, or other devices?”

Cecilia sighed. “Yes… he is.”

“Then we have to figure another way. Through your brother, maybe? I’ll bring Denzel too, we have to work out our next steps.”

I leaned my head against her shoulder. Every time it looked like we were finally reaching the surface and that we were about to finally take that gasp of air, it turned out that we were even deeper than we thought. If we didn’t watch out, we would all drown.

Denzel and Chase came back with the wood, which had been neatly cut into logs by Zangoose, and stacked some of them up. Cecilia ordered Deino to light it up with Incinerate, but nothing happened. The wood wasn’t catching on fire.

“What the hell?” I said confusedly. “What’s going on?”

“Deino, try it again.”

The dragon did the same, using a stronger flame this time, and the wood still didn’t catch fire.

“Your dragon is defective,” Chase smiled.

“Wait!” Denzel exclaimed as he facepalmed. “The wood is wet. It’s soaked up snow for years. That’s why it won’t catch fire. We’re so fucking dumb.”

“Watch and learn, Williams,” Chase said. “Houndoom, light it up.”

The dark type snorted and used his own Incinerate, which was more powerful than Deino’s by a wide margin. The wood caught fire instantly, thanks to his unextinguishable flames. The smoke emanating from the fire was terrible, causing me to cough and fan the air around me.

“Better than nothing,” Denzel sighed as he took off his gloves and placed his hands close to the fire.

We waited around the fire, talking amongst ourselves. An hour and a half later, Fletchinder was back. She gently landed on Cecilia’s shoulder and squawked. She seemed unharmed— although her feathers were damp. That meant that it was snowing further ahead, and that the snow had melted on her. Cece breathed a sigh of relief and rubbed the flying type’s neck, and she let out a satisfied cry.

“I’m so glad you’re safe,” she smiled. “Did you find the route?”

Fletchinder let out a hoot and nodded.

“Great!” Denzel said. “Did you find the ranger building? Any building, actually?”

The fire type shook her head.

“Ah, we must be closer to route 217 than I thought, then,” Denzel sighed.

“Can you show us the way, darling?” Cecilia asked. Fletchinder extended her wings and took flight, circling above us.

“Okay, let’s get going,” Chase said.

It was only my second time off route, but it was easy to tell that wilderness reigned here. Walking through this knee-deep snow was exhausting, especially after the marathon we ran to escape from Mount Coronet. I had to recall Elekid and Tangela because they were simply too short to stand in the snow, and the others also recalled their shorter Pokemon, although Eevee and Riolu were perched on their trainers’ shoulders. The Pokemon here would be stronger overall than on the route, as Budew had been when Denzel caught her near Jubilife, but I was confident that we’d be able to take whatever nature would decide to throw our way. Now it was all about minimizing the damage our Pokemon took, and we’d be fine, just like in the cave.

Luckily, we were traveling downward, too, giving us an easier time. This part of Mount Coronet had more gentle inclines since it was far away from the mountain’s summit, where the terrain got really steep, so we wouldn’t have any problems getting off of the mountain.

I exhaled in awe at a humongous ice formation ahead of me. It was so large that it didn’t register as a living lifeform to my brain. an Avalugg was slowly trudging its way through the snow with a few Bergmite on its back. It moved incredibly slowly, and its eyes were protected by an encasing made of transparent ice. Houndoom began to growl, and Avalugg’s glacier-like body shifted, grinding and creaking loudly to threaten us.

“Stand down,” Chase said with a shaky breath. Houndoom sat, and we watched as Avalugg slowly passed ahead of us, knocking the sparse trees out of the way like twigs.

“Sometimes, I think I’m making a lot of progress, and then I see shit like that,” Denzel sighed. “Some things just aren’t meant to be fought.”

I nodded, my previous confidence having evaporated, and we continued on our way. We encountered a few Pokemon that gave us trouble, but they seemed less aggressive here than in Eterna Forest and Mount Coronet, so as long as we didn’t give them any trouble, they’d continue along with their day and we would as well, after a few awkward stares.

Not that there weren’t any problems.

“Ember,” Cece ordered.

“Burn it!” Chase yelled.

Houndoom and Fletchinder both sent out a stream of flames toward an aggressive Piloswine who had attacked us, but our fire type attacks seemed to have less effect than they should have on an ice type. Piloswine grunted, shaking off the pain and burns as some of its fur caught on fire. Sharp shards of ice materialized all around the ground type and flew toward us.

“Princess—”

I didn’t even have to finish my command. Togetic’s eyes lit up and stopped the first barrage of shards, but Piloswine had already summoned another one, and Chase and I had to dive to the side not to get hit. Frillish rushed in front of Togetic, taking the hit for her. The shards of ice tore through his body, but caused less damage than they would have since he had managed to use Acid Armor in the nick of time. It hadn’t been a perfect one, but it did the job.

“Riolu, now!”

“Eevee!”

Riolu and Eevee jumped up next to Piloswine. They had been hiding in the snow, slowly making their way to the ice type. Riolu’s palms glowed with an ethereal blue and slammed Piloswine’s side while Eevee Double Kicked it right in the muzzle. The ice type roared and the ground shook, but the two Pokemon were already gone, having hidden in the snow again. Houndoom spat out one last stream of hot white flames, and Piloswine finally went down.

“Grace! Are you alright?!” Cece asked, panicking as she hobbled toward me.

“I’m alright,” I choked. “I wasn’t hit.”

She sighed in relief and helped me up. I patted down the snow from my clothes.

“That was a tough one,” Chase said. “But Piloswine seems edible.”

“You try carrying a Piloswine while we travel,” Denzel rebuked him. “We can’t carry it. That means we’d have to stop. Plus… I know I said I’d eat wild Pokemon, but I don’t feel comfortable skinning anything.”

“I’ll handle the skinning. You don’t even know how to do it,” Chase said. “But you have a point. I don’t want to waste any time here.”

I stared at Frillish and grimaced. One of his tentacles was barely hanging by a thread, and an Ice Shard had tore through his face, leaving a gaping hole where his eye should be. Togetic was crying out to him and apologizing desperately, but he huffed and patted her head to tell her it was fine.

“Don’t worry, princess,” I told her gently. “Frillish knows it would have been worse it you got hit. That Piloswine was no joke.”

“Toge…”

“You feel guilty, still?” I asked, and she gave me a sad nod. I extended a hand and brought her head to my chest. “It wasn’t your fault. You tried your best, and you know I’ll never ask for more.”

I was trying my best not to tear up, but it killed me to see her like this. I was just starting to realize how much of a mental toll this was having on Togetic, but she still tried to pretend like everything was fine for me. I hugged her tightly, gently rubbing her back, and Frillish gave me a sage nod.

“I love you, princess,” I said softly. “I promise that we’ll get to a city soon. Here, why don’t you go back into your Pokeball and have a break? Your brother and I can handle the rest.”

“Ge! Getic!” She yelled.

“We’ll be fine,” I insisted. “I’ll use you if we need to. Just relax for a bit, okay?”

Togetic stared at me for a few seconds and nodded. I placed my forehead against hers and smiled as I recalled her.

“Sorry for the wait,” I said. “Let’s keep going.”

They nodded, and we began walking again. I had expected a mean comment from Chase, but he said nothing.

“That was very sweet of you,” Cecilia said. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve got to try my best,” I answered. “For her and the others. Frillish knows a bit more, but the rest of my Pokemon all look up to me for reassurance. If I start breaking down, they’ll do the same.”

“The worse is behind us, Grace. By this time next week, we’ll be at Snowpoint, and this’ll all look like a bad dream.”

“I hope so,” I sighed. “This might be a little bit nonsensical, but… Togetic and my other Pokemon… I see them as my kids, you know? Even Frillish, although I rely on him the most. I guess that’s a weird thing for a fifteen-year-old to say, but it’s the truth.”

“Every trainer has a different relationship with their Pokemon,” Cece said as she grabbed my hand. “Yours is special. You’re closer with yours than most trainers would be after years of owning their Pokemon.”

“I just want this to be over,” I honestly said. “Just being in a real room would probably make me break down. I’m tearing up just thinking about it, it’s so stupid.”

“Grace, there’s nothing stupid about any of your worries. We all think the same. We want to get to a city, and we will. Don’t ever think that something is too strange or silly to bring up to me, alright? I want you to rely on me as much as I’ve been relying on you.”

“Hmhm,” I sniffled. “Can I cry?”

“Yes.”

The dam broke.

Cece called out for the group to stop, embracing me and letting me cry into her arms. I had tried my best. I had been strong, holding myself together throughout our entire time in Mount Coronet, but I just couldn’t anymore. It was strange that the closer we got to civilization, the more discouraged and exhausted I felt when it should have been the opposite.

Still, at least I had people here with me to help.