“…ighton? Ms. Knighton?”

I woke with a start from where I had been dozing in one of the comfy chairs of the Oreburgh City Pokémon Center to find one of the nurses standing over me.

She wasn’t one of the Joy Clan, instead just being a regular Pokémon veterinarian clad in a pink and white nurses’ outfit.

“Ms. Knighton, your Pokémon are ready.”

I blinked a couple times, then scrambled out of my seat.

“Are they okay?”

The nurse smiled gently. “Your Pokémon are just fine. Your Eevee is doing well, her leg has been set and is healing up perfectly. It might be sore for a couple of days, and I suggest that she avoid strenuous activity for a week. One thing that did come up in her tests was that her zinc levels were a little low.”

“Zinc?”

“Yes, it’s not worryingly low, but I’d recommend she eat some more shellfish, or maybe some more vegetables like mushrooms or spinach. If nothing else, the Poké Mart in town sells zinc supplements for a reasonable price, so that would work too, but I’d recommend dietary changes first.”

I winced. We had only been eating fish and Berries for a while. I didn’t even want to know what my own health screen would say. I’d have to start diversifying our meals in the future.

“Well thanks. What about Zetian?”

“Your Combee? She’s doing just fine as well. Exhausted, but she didn’t take as many hits as your Eevee did. You said a Steelix was responsible?”

I nodded again. “Yeah, inside the Wayward Cave.”

The nurse frowned. “I haven’t heard of a wild Steelix being seen around here, so that’s very concerning. I’ll make sure Leader Roark knows about it so he can put out a warning to the other Trainers.”

“Okay.” The burst of energy from hearing the good news was already starting to wear off, and I hoped that the nurse would let me go back to sleep soon.

It had taken us an embarrassingly long time to get back to safety. Despite how it felt, the entire encounter with Steelix had been less than five minutes. Adrenaline did weird things to your body, especially your sense of time. Even after the fight was over, we had still been lost in the tunnels, and Zetian wasn’t comfortable with scouting ahead to try and find us a path back. It was unfortunate but understandable considering how weak she was to Rock-type Pokémon, and how much she disliked being underground in general.

When we finally managed to find our way back to the surface it was already night time, and we still had to walk all the way to Oreburgh City. My camp was closer, but both Venus and Zetian were hurt and I wanted to get them treated as soon as possible.

The walk back to Oreburgh had been even more exhausting and a little terrifying in the dark. Thankfully, Zetian had scared off a couple of the local Zubat population, even though she had barely been awake herself. We stumbled into the Pokémon Center a little after midnight, and after the Nurse had taken Zetian and Venus I passed out in the chair.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” The nurse asked, pulling me from my thoughts.

“Are my Pokémon going to need to be kept overnight?”

With a smile and a flourish, she pulled two Poké Balls out of her apron, handing them over to me. Despite the fact that they looked identical to every other standard Poké Ball out there, I instinctively knew that they were mine.

I clutched them to my chest like they were the most precious things in the world, and thanked her profusely.

But there was only one thing that I really, really wanted right now, and I looked up at the nurse with desperation in my eyes.

“Do you have a room where I can sleep?”

/^\

Thankfully, Pokémon Centers did in fact have rooms available for Trainers.

Normally you had to make a reservation, but because it was the middle of the night and a quiet day for the Center, I was allowed to crash there.

I was astounded to learn that all Pokémon Centers, including the reservable rooms, were subsidized by the government, and thus a stay in the equivalent of a hotel room was completely free. The wonders of a kind government. Sure, you had to be a registered Trainer to reserve a room and you could only stay a maximum of three days unless your Pokémon was in long-term care, but still.

Sleeping in an actual bed was perhaps one of the best experiences I’d had in the past couple of months. For once, I didn’t wake up with my back hurting from where I had slept on a tree root or a rock.

It was almost eleven o’clock in the morning by the time I managed to sit up in bed,hair sticking in every direction. I was in desperate need of a proper shower and some conditioner, as well as a laundromat. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to change out of my rubble-covered hiking gear in exchange for a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt before I had passed out, so at least I wasn’t totally uncomfortable.

Then the reality of what had happened pierced through the haze of the morning exhaustion, and I scrambled for my Poké Balls.

In a flash of light Venus appeared on my bed, blinking and yawning as she looked around in confusion.

She was fine. A weight that I hadn’t realized was there lifted off of my shoulders, and I let out a shuddering breath.

Venus, for her part, mewled happily and jumped into my arms, nuzzling her face against mine.

“Yes girl, I love you too.”

She started purring, and I laid back down with her in my arms, just enjoying the moment. After a good ten minutes of cuddling, she finally let me get up to use the restroom.

Zetian was released from her Ball when I got back to the bed, and although I had been reassured she was physically healthy, she looked exhausted.

She still buzzed and danced happily however, and I laughed at her mid-air antics.

“Yes, we’re alive!” I said, voice shaking a little. “Thanks for helping me back home.”

Zetian danced, dipping her body in a bow as she did so.

Venus mewled at Zetian, and she stopped mid-air before dancing even harder.

I smiled as my two Pokémon began talking to each other, and slipped off the bed while the two were busy.

“I’m going to go take a shower, so don’t break anything, okay?”

They barely spared me a glance, and I shuffled over to the small bathroom in the corner of the room.

It was barely big enough to fit a toilet, sink, and the shower itself, but that didn’t matter to me as long as the water was hot. I eagerly stripped and turned on the water, luxuriating in how quickly it was able to get up to temperature. The boiler for the Pokémon Center must have been incredibly impressive, considering I must have been in there for a good twenty minutes without it going cold.

Compared to the river baths I had been taking the last month while camping, the shower made me realize that hot water was another luxury I was never going to take for granted again.

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At some point during my shower Venus wandered in, and I fumbled for some of the generic shampoo left by the Pokémon Center to give her coat a good wash. Thankfully the Center had foreseen that Trainers would end up doing this, and the shampoo was safe for most Pokémon and humans.

Venus preened under my fingers as I clumsily lathered the soap into her fur, and clumps of dirt and stones quickly collected by the drain of the shower. The Pokémon Center had done their best to clean her up, but they had prioritized treating her wounds, not making her look Contest ready.

Once we were done, Venus shook her fur out and let me dry it out with another towel, before she made her way over to a section of the floor and curled up into a little ball, asleep in seconds.

“Just like a cat.” I whispered, as that was the only part of the entire room that had sunlight streaming in through the small window on the wall.

Zetian was slightly more complicated to groom. Unlike Venus, she did not like to get soaked, so instead I wetted a cloth with some water and gently rubbed her down, dislodging the pebbles and small rock shards that had gotten into the short hairs and the nooks and crannies of her exoskeleton. I made sure to leave her wings alone, though I did pay special attention to cleaning off her three faces, which she seemed to enjoy.

After Zetian was clean, she too decided to go back to sleep, although she went back into her Poké Ball. She liked spending time in there more than Venus did, and I wasn’t going to begrudge her for doing what made her feel most comfortable.

Once both of my Pokémon were asleep, I looked down at my hands. The grooming had helped keep them busy but now they were shaking again.

That Steelix could have killed us. Not just knocked us unconscious, not just injured us, killed us.

I felt like I should have been more distraught at that fact, but while the situation had been frightening, and I had been desperately afraid for my Pokémon, I hadn’t been terrified of the Steelix itself. It was just trying to protect its territory, and to fight off potential threats.

I had seen less humanity in the flat, shark-like eyes of Kane than I had in the Steelix’s.

At the same time…

“Okay.” I mumbled and wrapped my arms around myself. “Maybe I’m not that okay.”

/^\

Unfortunately, I could only stay at the Pokémon Center for so long and the nurse politely, but firmly, told us that we had to leave that afternoon since they had a Trainer with a reservation coming in.

It took longer than I would have liked to get back to my camp, and the sun was completely set by then. When I got closer to the camp there was a light flickering from just beyond the trees, and I could have sworn it was a campfire from the way the shadows danced. Venus cocked her head in confusion at the light, and I released Zetian as quietly as I could.

“Hey everybody,” I said softly. “Somebody’s at the camp, so let's keep an eye out just in case, okay?”

Zetian buzzed and took up position over my right shoulder, while Venus inched closer to my legs.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out from behind the trees, only to find a figure sitting on a log behind a lit campfire in the firepit I had made. What’s more, I recognized them, even though it took me a minute to recall their name.

“Ranger Kimura?”

The man looked up, shadows playing across his face from the flickering fire, and smiled.

“Ah, just the woman I was looking for. I hope you don’t mind if I made myself comfortable.”

“I… no, of course not.”

I had never really expected to see the man again, and having him start a fire at my campsite was something that had certainly never crossed my mind.

“Mind if we talk?”

Despite myself I groaned slightly as I sat down on one of the logs, much to my embarrassment. Venus curled into a ball between my feet, and Zetian flew up into the trees to perch on a branch.

“Long day yesterday?” He asked.

“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

Kimura chuckled. “Trust me, I’ve had some like you can’t even imagine. Don’t worry though, I’m not here to criticize you about what you did.”

I eyed him cautiously. “You heard about it?”

“Roark called me into his office and we had a long and heated conversation about the dangerous areas around his city and what he can do to ensure that nobody else gets hurt. He was… not happy that a rookie Trainer risked their lives and their Pokémon to try and find a rare ‘mon.”

I winced. I had been afraid of that. Roark had seemed a bit intense during our last meeting, especially about the whole “safety” thing.

“I had to talk him down so he wouldn’t come here himself.”

“That bad?”

“It wasn’t pretty.” Kimura sighed, leaning back and staring up at the stars while the fire snapped and popped, throwing a small cloud of sparks into the air.

“Roark is a good man, and a good Trainer, even if he is still young. But his life truly revolves around mining, where even the slightest mistake can have devastating consequences. Because of that, he tends to be much more cautious than most Gym Leaders, and especially most Trainers. It’s not a bad thing per se but… you know who his father is?”

I nodded. “Byron, the Gym Leader of Canalave City.”

“Exactly. With a man like that for a father, and having grown up in the mines, Roark never really took many risks. If something was too dangerous, he would rather retreat and attempt it again later, when he was more prepared.”

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

“It’s not. And he’s seen first-hand the dangers of Trainers wandering where they weren’t ready. No offense, but you were an outlier, the other results weren’t so pretty.”

“So you’re here to tell me that I did something wrong?” I asked with a sinking heart.

It wouldn’t be anything more than what I was telling myself anyways.

“Oh I think what you did was stupid.”

Venus growled, her ears folding back as she stared at the man.

“Don’t give me that.” He said nonplussed, poking the fire with a stick. “You were nowhere near strong enough to go down into those caves with Pokémon that were heavily disadvantaged to go up against the native Onix, let alone a Steelix.”

Kimura looked up, the fire dancing in his eyes as he smiled at me.

“But I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little impressed. Not many people decide to try and catch a Gible with just an Eevee and a Combee by their side. Don’t look so surprised, I would be a poor Ranger if I didn’t know what Pokémon are living around my city. All I’ll say on the subject is this; you lived to tell the tale this time, but the next time might not end so well. When you do decide to chase a rare Pokémon, make sure you’re ready to handle whatever comes your way.”

“I… Thank you.” I said. “I think.”

“Of course.”

“But, and I mean no offense here, is that the only reason you’re here today?”

“Ah.” Kimura smiled somewhat sadly. “Not quite. You see, I’ve been getting concerned about the Pokémon that have been showing up nearby, and your encounter has me even more worried.”

I furrowed my brow, trying to think of what could be so problematic. “Why’s that?”

Kimura turned to look in the general direction of the Wayward Cave.

“Do you know where Steelix are found?”

“Well, they have to evolve from an Onix with a Metal Coat, right?”

“Yes, that’s how it works with trained Onix. But evolution can happen in nature when they’re in a location with a lot of nearby iron ore, along with a high concentration of carbon in the environment. In Sinnoh that means either Victory Road or Iron Island.”

My frown deepened. “But isn’t that first option what Oreburgh is famous for? Iron ore with a lot of carbon?”

“Carbon? Yes, certainly. Oreburgh’s main export is coal, after all. But believe it or not, there’s barely any iron in the ground.”

“Really?”

He cracked a small smile at my surprise. “Really. The last time we have records of an Onix naturally evolving into a Steelix in the area immediately around Oreburgh is over fifty years ago.”

“So, could it just be possible that it was one of those natural evolutions?”

Kimura shrugged. “It’s possible, but there are other complications that make that possibility… unlikely. I would like to get any more information you can give me about your encounter to try and figure out what is going on.”

“I don’t know how much help I can give but…” I wracked my brain, trying to think of anything unusual the night before. “We were deeper than we’d ever gone before, one of the deepest tunnels I’ve seen. I thought that if Gible weren’t to be found anywhere above us, then maybe they would be further down. There were also barely any of the glowing gemstones to be found, it was a lot darker than normal.”

Kimura frowned, but jotted down what I could recall in a notebook he had pulled out from a jacket pocket.

“Okay, thank you.”

“Does any of that help?”

“I’m not sure; it’s too early to tell yet. But I think it certainly helps point us in the right direction. Are you going to be in town long?”

“I don’t know. I don’t think so though, I need to make some phone calls, plan a few things out. Besides, based on what you’re saying about Roark I don’t think we’re exactly welcome right now.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much about it, he’s young and you’re all still alive; he’ll get over it.”

“You keep saying that, how old is he anyways?”

“Twenty-one.”

My jaw dropped. “He’s younger than I am?”

Kimura laughed. “Get used to it. It seems like these days all of the young kids are becoming the powerhouses, us old folks are going to start losing our relevance pretty soon. Unfortunately I need to get back to the office, and you look like you need some sleep. If you think of anything else let me know, and the next time you’re in Oreburgh why don’t you stop by the Ranger office and I’ll catch you up on what we find? You never stopped in after we met last time.”

I winced. He had invited me to visit them, hadn't he? I had totally forgotten in my quest to find a Gible.

“Yeah, I’ll do that.”

“Great. Have a good night then.”

Kimura disappeared into the woods, and I stared after him for a long moment before deciding that the past couple of days had been entirely too long. I threw some water onto the fire, recalled both Zetian and Venus to get some more rest, and climbed into my tent to curl up in my sleeping bag.

I was asleep the second my head hit the pillow.