I had made a mistake.

It wasn’t a big, life altering mistake, but it was still incredibly embarrassing.

In Pokémon Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum, there was a man in the Floaroma flower meadows that gave you a bunch of honey when you talked to him, and showed how you could use it to catch Pokémon by slathering it onto special trees.

He was really nothing more than a glorified tutorial screen, but I was always a little curious about him. Where did he get so much honey? Why did he have a big tree right next to his house, specifically for catching Pokémon with honey?

My assumption had been that he must have a Vespiquen, or at least a bunch of Combee. The only way to get honey in the game was from beating wild Combee, or from using Combee’s Honey Gather ability.

I had obviously assumed that there was a Trainer near Floaroma Town, where I currently was, who had experience in training Combee.

My mistake was not in making this assumption, no, my error was in overestimating how easy it would be to find the man.

The sun was already beginning to set as we walked down the path towards the farmhouse a couple hundred yards away.

“Are you sure that this is the place?” Ted asked, obviously exhausted with the so-far fruitless search.

“I'm sure!” I said, with more enthusiasm than I actually felt.

We’d been to four different flower farms so far, and had struck out at each one. Nothing had quite lined up with what I remembered from the games, but I had a good feeling about this one.

The last farmer we had spoken to, a very confused older man, had told me that one of his neighbors had a few Combee as his companions, and had pointed us in the direction of the farm we were walking up to.

I hadn’t been hopeful on the walk over, but my spirits had lifted slightly when I saw the tree next to the farmhouse.

Calling it a tree didn’t manage to fully capture the grandeur of the sight, however.

The thing must have been at least a hundred feet tall, if not more, and was wide. Very wide. With a single look I knew it would have been impossible for me to wrap my arms around the trunk of the tree.

It resembled a redwood tree more than anything else, and there was probably enough lumber that could be extracted from it to make a small house.

With four failures under my belt, I had been getting fairly morose about the entire experience, and if this farmhouse hadn’t panned out, I had been planning on forgetting about the whole thing.

Luckily for me, my prayers were answered with the buzzing of wings as we approached the house.

In the dimming light of the evening, the yellow body of an unknown Combee was almost glowing against the dark sky.

Thankfully, Zetian was in her Ball, resting after a busy day of flying and gathering pollen from the local flowers, otherwise she would have very likely challenged the Combee to a fight for dominance or something.

This Combee didn’t have the little red marking on its bottom face - it was male.

It danced a little jig as it saw us, three faces looking curiously at us.

“Hi!” I said, waving my hand. “We’re here to talk to, uh, the Honey Man!”

I winced as Ted slowly looked over at me.

The Combee paused, all three faces scrunched up in thought, before it dipped up and down into something that was reminiscent of a nod.

It then turned and led us towards the door, which was nice, but not necessarily needed considering it was only a hundred or so feet away and easily within sight.

“The Honey Man?” Ted asked in an extremely unimpressed tone.

“I don’t actually know his name!” I hissed back.

He had never actually been given a name in the games, and the farmer whom we had talked to before hadn’t actually said the name of the Honey Man. He’d just said that “The farm up the way sells a lot of honey”.

“I can handle this.” I said with more confidence than I felt, and Ted shrugged.

We walked up to the door, and the Combee knocked for us.

Or knocked as best as a Combee can, which involved ramming its face into the wooden paneling a couple of times.

Ted and I both winced, and I reached out for the Combee.

“Oh, uh, I can knock for you?”

The Combee turned back to me, all three faces a little dazed, and did another midair nod. This one was notably more wobbly.

I reached out and knocked on the door myself.

“Yeah! I’m coming!” A voice called out, and a few moments later the door opened outwards, very nearly running into the Combee.

The man standing before us was absolutely average. Medium build, medium height, short dark brown hair, brown eyes, and a little bit of stubble but not enough for a full beard. He was wearing a blue and white plaid shirt and a pair of jeans, and was squinting at us all suspiciously until he saw the Combee staggering in mid-air.

“Oh, Hachi.” He said, shaking his head. “Did you try knocking on the door again?”

The Combee tried to nod.

“Do you remember what I told you about that?”

Hachi hesitated, all three faces confused.

“Not to. I asked you not to try knocking.”

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

The Honey Man looked over at Ted and I with an apologetic expression. “I’m sorry, this will be just a second.”

Turning back to the Combee, he gently picked the Pokémon out of the air, and turned Hachi over, checking for any wounds. Hachi seemed to almost fall asleep during the process, all six eyes fluttering.

“You got lucky this time.” He said. “Just don’t try and do that again, okay? You’ll seriously hurt yourself one of these days.”

Hachi gave a weak nod dance, and the Honey Man let him go.

“Now go back to your hive, it’s getting late.”

The Combee buzzed back up into the air, and was soon a disappearing speck in the distance.

“Sorry about that.” The man said, shaking his head again. “Hachi means well but… well he’s not the brightest Tadbulb in the pond, if you get my meaning.”

“Will he be alright?” I asked.

“He’ll be fine, just a little knock on the head. With some sleep he’ll be all better, and will probably forget this conversation happened in the first place. Again. Anyways, what can I do you for?”

“Uh, well,” I stumbled a bit over my words, not exactly sure what to say now. “I heard you have a lot of honey for sale, and I figured that meant you probably have a lot of Combee or Vespiquen-”

He held up his hand and frowned.

“I’m sorry, while I’m happy to sell some honey, it’d have to be tomorrow during regular business hours. And if you’re looking to buy a Combee or Vespiquen, I’m not selling.”

His eyes narrowed, and his expression turned markedly hostile.

“If you’re from Honey Farms, you can tell your bosses that I’m never going to sell my land to them. I don’t care what they offer, it’s not going to happen.”

“Woah, no not at all!” I said, holding my hands up. “It’s just, we’re both Lab Trainers and I have a Combee, and I was wondering if you had any tips on how to train her?”

His frown deepened, but this time it was clearly in confusion.

“Trainers?” He asked. “And… you have a Combee? I’m sorry, I’m not quite sure I understand. I’m not a Trainer, I’m just a Combee keeper.”

I wilted a little bit.

“But, surely you must have at least some advice? Even if it’s just feeding tips, or ways to keep them healthy? Or, how did you get your Combee to evolve into Vespiquen? Really any help at all would be super appreciated.”

The Honey Man stared at me blankly, then looked at Ted, who shrugged.

“I don’t need any help, I’ve already consulted a Bug-type expert for help with my Pokémon.”

He turned back to look at me, and I gave the Honey Man my best smile.

“Alright.” The man said, rubbing his forehead like he was warding off a headache. “I guess I can try to give you some tips?”

It was more of a question than I would like, but I’d take it!

“Great! What would you say-”

He cut me off again with a hand, and a small spark of annoyance lit inside me.

“Tomorrow. It’s getting late, and I need to think about this. Come back tomorrow and I’ll give you a few pointers.”

“Thank you again! We’ll be back!”

He nodded with the look of a man who wasn’t sure what he had just agreed to, and closed the door.

I smiled to myself as we walked back down the road.

We could probably get some rooms at the Pokémon Center in town, it didn’t seem too busy.

“So, Alina?” Ted asked about half-way to Floaroma Town.

“Yes?”

“I just wanted to point out that you never actually got the man’s name.”

/^\

Floaroma Town wasn’t like Oreburgh and Jubilife, since it was mostly focused on agriculture, and apparently someone along the way had decided that it wasn’t worth a full Pokémon Center. Without a Gym in the town, and a second-rate Contest Hall that only hosted a few Contests each season, the Center didn’t have enough funding to support any rooms for traveling Trainers.

Instead, the Pokémon Center had made a deal with a local motel, and we had been offered reduced rates on the rooms there.

It hadn’t been a particularly nice or fancy place to stay; really, it reminded me more of a Motel 6 than anything else, but it had been clean and the sheets freshly washed, which was good enough for me.

I didn’t tend to be a morning person, unlike Ted, but that morning I was practically buzzing like Zetian.

She had been incredibly eager once I had explained the fact that she would get some specialized training and wouldn’t stay in her ball while we were getting ready.

All three faces were lit up with anticipation for the entire walk back to the farm.

“Well, I guess I was wrong.” The Honey Man said as he squinted at Zetian and I. “You did come back, and you do have a Combee. I thought it was a dream.”

“Nope!” I chirped, as Zetian did a dance.

“Where’s the other one?”

“He’s running some errands.”

Apparently there were rumors of some rare Pokémon over by the Valley Windworks, drawn there by the wind turbines. Ted had made sure I had his number for when I was done with training, then took off.

“Hm.” The Honey Man grunted, staring at me for another minute.

Then he switched his gaze to Zetian, and a calculating look entered his eye.

“Mmhm.” He grunted again. “Let me think here.”

He closed his eyes and was silent for a while, long enough where I started to fidget a little uncomfortably.

“So do you have any tips?” I eventually blurted.

“Huh?” The Honey Man opened his eyes and blinked, looking around. “Oh, right. Sorry, I’m a little tired in the mornings. Do you drink coffee?”

I stared at him in disbelief.

Did he just fall asleep while standing up?

“Uh, yes, I do.”

“Great.” He stepped to the side. “Why don’t you come on in, there’s a pot brewing.”

He turned and walked into the house, leaving the door open behind him.

Zetian and I shared a look, but she was obviously too excited to be as skeptical as I was, and followed the man in. I shrugged, and stepped into the farmhouse.

It was actually very cute. The walls and all the furniture were all wooden and hadn’t been stained or painted, making it feel nice and cozy. Plenty of plants had been scattered around the room, ranging from flower pots to boxes with familiar looking herbs like thyme and basil mixed in with unfamiliar plants.

There was even a large succulent in the middle of the room, easily bigger than a basketball. It had two large pods growing out of it, along with a number of dark green spikes, and a yellow group of flowers growing out of the top.

It looked vaguely familiar, and I spent a long moment trying to figure out what kind of succulent it was.

I hadn’t been much of a plant person back on Earth, despite how much I liked how they looked. My most successful endeavor had been growing a lavender plant, but it had only lasted a single season before it died.

It was to my complete surprise when the dark spots that I had figured were just discolorations opened up, and a pair of eyes stared tiredly at me.

“Ah!”

I stumbled back, nearly falling down as I scrambled away from the Cacnea.

Zetian and the Honey Man both turned at the noise, and the little Combee buzzed over to put herself between me and the other Pokémon.

“Oh, sorry.” The Honey Man said, and stepped forwards to place a hand on the Cacnea’s head. “This is just Sarracia, she’s harmless.”

The Cacnea yawned, which seemed strange given that she was a plant, then closed her eyes, and within a few seconds was asleep again.

“She’s a silly one.” He said with a fond smile. “Sinnoh is a lot colder than Hoenn, so she sleeps most of the day. She’s happy though, and we still get out to exercise every now and again.”

I blinked at him. “Wait, are you from Hoenn?”

“Hm? Oh, heavens no. I was born and raised here in Floaroma Town, but I went to Hoenn for a year to study while in university. I met Sarracia there, and she wanted to come home with me, despite Dea and I telling her how cold it was and that she might be happier in Hoenn.”

He scratched the flower crown on his Cacnea’s head, and she let out a sound that was almost a purr.

“Dea?”

He held up a finger, and walked into the kitchen.

“Coffee first, then backstory.”

I paused, then shrugged.

Fair enough.