“I won! She lost! How is this fair?” Steven Stone III shouted at the cave. He was stuck in his small camp area, grumbling like a petulant child. Every time he tried to leave the camp and approach the cave, he was cut off by a growling Salamence.
Cashe and Lindon sat a small distance away. Lindon was watching Stone as he grumbled, but Cashe could not take his eyes off the cave in the side of the cliff. The sun had set almost an hour ago, and Emilia had still not emerged. If she was gone much longer they would have to camp in the clearing and that was not something Cashe wanted to do.
Cashe was just about to suggest they set up camp or check on her when Emilia’s figure emerged from the shadows of the cave. Whatever took her so long in there apparently was not a big deal, for even in the dim light of the evening, Cashe could see the satisfaction in her gait. He let out a breath of relief as she neared and appeared no less whole than when she entered the cave. He jumped to his feet as she approached, pulling Lindon up with him.
“Oh, someone looks happy to see me,” Emilia said, “Bored without me?”
“Worried,” Cashe said, glancing back at the cave, “Come on, let’s go.”
Emilia’s satisfied smile fell an inch, but she didn’t object, taking a second to secure her backpack as Cashe let Ivysaur, Hatenna, and Primeape out of their pokeballs so they could easily travel through the tall grass.
As soon as Emilia signaled she was ready, he pushed into the grassy area. Traversing the field was more difficult at night. He could barely see where he placed his feet and he got caught in a tangled mess of vegetation more than once as they pushed through the area. After a few minutes of marching, Emilia made her way to his side.
“Traveling through this at night sucks,” she said as the distant rustle of Ivysaur and Primeape fighting off nocturnal pokemon rattled through the grass, “We probably could have stayed in the clearing overnight.”
Cashe glanced at her. In the dark of the evening it was difficult to tell, but he was sure there was a question in her expression.
“I didn’t want to stay there any longer than I needed to,” Cashe said.
“You didn’t seem nervous on the way over,” Emilia observed.
Cashe frowned, “I didn’t expect Salamence to be so intimidating,” Cashe shivered as he remembered the cold look of calculation in the Salamence’s eyes, the graceful power in their every move.
“You were never in danger,” Emilia said, her voice gentle, “Salamence want to have their Bagon raised by trainers. They aren’t going to attack trainers out of nowhere. Besides, didn’t you tell me just a few days ago that this is the kind of thing we would have to get used to sooner rather than later?”
Cashe let out a strained laugh, “I didn’t know what I was talking about, clearly. I didn’t understand.” He shook his head, “I just realized that I haven’t been around a powerful pokemon before. With Pheromosa, I was passed out thanks to these,” Cashe tapped his head and the cast on his arm, “On the cruise, I wasn’t anywhere near that Gardevoir. The closest I have seen is that Golduck. I should have remembered, but I didn’t.”
Emilia nodded, “There is a presence around powerful pokemon. It can take getting used to, but you do get used to it. You just need some exposure.”
“They scared me,” Cashe admitted, “Those Salamence scared the crap out of me. That much power… They could do anything they wanted and there would be nothing we could do to stop it.”
“You didn’t need to be worried,” Emilia said, “They weren’t interested in you, remember. They didn’t look at you twice.”
“I didn’t say I was worried about me.”
Emilia bit her lip and furrowed her brow. She shook her head and smiled, giving Cashe a jab on his shoulder, “I’m a big girl, Cashe, I can take care of myself. I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”
“You?” Cashe half smiled, “I wasn’t worried about you. I thought they were going to tear Steven Stone apart. I didn’t want to be there when they did.”
“Ass.” Emilia snorted. She looked away, “And thanks.”
***
It took an hour, but they made their way out of tall grass and into the clear field that adjoined it. It was already dark, so they set up a quick camp, with Charmeleon coming out from his pokeball to start a fire and keep them warm. Emilia also took the opportunity to introduce them to her new Bagon.
“He is a bit aggressive,” Emilia warned as she took out her pokeball, “So keep a little bit back before I introduce him.”
She tossed out her pokeball, summoning her new dragon type pokemon. Bagon was small, standing only about two and a half feet tall, with a head that was much too large for his little body. He had the familiar blue hide of Salamence and a pair of stubby arms. Three, thick, gray, bone-like ridges covered his head and ran down his back, forming a strong layer of protection around his head and neck. He had a large, round snout and a pair of tiny tusks or teeth protruding from his mouth. He looked around the camp suspiciously as Emilia brought him out of the ball.
“Bagon,” Emilia said in a stern voice, “These are my friends. My family. This is Cashe and Lindon.” She gestured to them in turn, “Cashe, Lindon, meet Bagon.”
“Hello!” Lindon gave Bagon a cheery wave which the dragon pokemon eyed warily. Cashe nodded at the little dragon. Bagon was cute. It was hard to imagine Salamence started like this. Bagon turned away from them both, looking up at Emilia with expectation.
“No,” Emilia said, “Greet my friends. Don’t be rude.”
Bagon let out a low cry of protest but turned around, nodding his enormous head at them both, before turning back to Emilia. She shook her head at him, “No, socializing is part of being a trainer’s pokemon. You can’t just stay in your pokeball until it's time to battle.”
Bagon made a cry of complaint again, but waddled over to Charmeleon and sat on the ground beside him.
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“He doesn’t seem so bad,” Lindon said, watching the small dragon, “He’s just stubborn.”
“You should have seen him in the cave,” Emilia rolled her eyes, “That’s what took me so long to come out. He kept charging me and refusing to listen to his parents. I swear they were laughing at me, too. The entire time they seemed to be saying, ‘Well, he’s your problem now.’”
Cashe smiled and looked at their new companion. Hopefully Bagon wouldn’t give his pokemon any new ideas.
“I have a question,” Lindon said, looking away from Bagon and back at Emilia, “Why did those Salamence choose you?”
Emilia frowned at him over the fire, “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Lindon looked away, “you lost. Steven Stone beat you.”
“Did I?” Emilia said with a raised eyebrow, “I seem to be the one with a Bagon.”
“But you lost the battle,” Lindon insisted.
“Winning the battle wasn’t the point,” Emilia said, “Remember what I told you? I was proving my worth to those Salamence. I was showing them I was more worthy than Stonehead to raise a dragon.”
“How did losing show that, though?” Lindon said.
“Losing didn’t show that,” Cashe said, “It was everything else, right?” He looked to Emilia for confirmation.
“Exactly,” Emilia nodded, “Think about what happened there. Stonehead beat me, but he did it with a Metang-”
“Where did he even get a Metang?” Cashe said, “Aren’t they supposed to be super rare? Also, didn’t you tell us he was banned from Alola?”
“One question at a time,” Emilia said, holding up a finger to Cashe. She turned back to Lindon, “Stonehead used a Metang, a powerful line of pokemon,” Emilia explained, “But he beat Vullaby, who is barely trained. Those Salamence are powerful, they can tell when a battle should be one sided.”
“But yours wasn’t really one sided,” Lindon said with a small frown.
“Exactly,” Emilia said with a grin, “Even though I lost that actual battle, I succeeded in showing what kind of trainer I was. Which was the whole point in the first place. Even though Stonehead won the battle, he did it with a trained and powerful pokemon. That’s not impressive. That doesn't show that he’s a worthy trainer. All it shows is that he can use a strong pokemon to beat a weaker one. Practically everyone can do that.”
“So that’s also why you didn’t use Charmeleon,” Lindon said with a tone of realization, “It would have been too easy.”
“I think I might have been able to convince them if I beat up Metang with Omanyte,” Emilia shrugged, “But I didn’t want to risk it, so I went with what I felt had the best chance of convincing them.”
“His grandpa probably gave him that Metang,” Cashe said after Emilia finished her explanation, answering his own question.
“That’s what I think, too,” Lindon said, nodding in agreement, “Or someone else in the family. They are known for using Metagross.”
“Yeah, they didn’t seem to have that strong of a connection,” Emilia said, “Metang took way too long to come out of its confusion. He probably only got it recently.”
“That doesn’t answer the question of what he was doing here,” Cashe frowned.
“He was looking for a Bagon,” Emilia said, giving Cashe a teasing grin, “He told you that. Alola is one of the only places in the entire world where you can catch a Bagon in an area that you don’t need to get special permission to enter.”
“You know what I mean,” Cashe rolled his eyes, “You said your mom got him banned from a bunch or regions, I thought.”
“He’s banned from entering the circuits of those regions,” Emilia said, “He can’t participate in the gyms or any tournaments that are League organized in Alola, but he isn’t barred from traveling here.”
“He can’t be,” Lindon said, “People are allowed to travel wherever they want. It’s the law.”
“Except for special areas of most regions,” Cashe pointed out.
“That’s different,” Emilia said, “You can’t just go up to Mt Silver as a Third Circuit trainer because one territorial pokemon might kill you. But you can go to any city in Kanto or Johto. Freedom of movement is a basic human right. Freedom to get yourself killed is not.”
“So basically, what you’re saying is that we might run into him anywhere in Alola and we just have to deal with it?” Cashe sighed.
“We probably won't run into him once we are on more dangerous routes because he won’t be able to get permission to travel there,” Emilia said, “And he’s obviously still in his team building stage, otherwise he wouldn’t be here at all,” she pointed out, “There aren’t many other places in Alola where you can just walk up to rare and powerful pokemon. My guess is that he moves on to other regions shortly after he figures out those Salamence are never going to trust him with a Bagon.”
“Great,” Cashe said with a yawn, “At least we will probably never have to deal with him again.”
***
The next day they headed out early, traveling with the rising sun to the end of Route 3. A small, abandoned checkpoint and a sign were the only things that denoted the transition from Route 3 to Route 1, but as they marched on the area around them began to change.
Slowly, signs of human habitation began to show themselves. The cries of wild pokemon died down as they became more scared, the road transitioned from packed dirt to paved stone, and the brush of the wilderness all but disappeared. They soon came upon a fork in the road, one fork leading to Hau’oli City and the coast of the island while the other leading to Iki Town and the interior. They took the path to Iki Town, following the curve in the road as it pulled back towards the mountain. In the distance, Hau'oli City peaked over the horizon, awash with blinking lights as the city woke and people began their day.
The path curved again and the sight of the city was lost, the path steepening as they neared Iki Town. They passed through a final stretch of long grass, but were untroubled through it, Cashe, Emilia, and Lindon’s pokemon working together to keep any curious wild pokemon at bay. They had few encounters anyway - the area was much more traveled than Route 2 and most pokemon knew the rustling of grass was a sign of humans and stayed clear.
They came upon Iki Town before noon, the route falling away to be replaced with a paved road. Iki Town was on a small mountainside plateau, resting on a cliff that overlooked the route below. A set of stairs welcomed them into the town, at least one hundred steps on the large staircase, separating the homes of the town from the wilderness that lay at the town’s feet.
Cashe took the lead, eager to see what the town looked like in real life, his legs burning with the effort of the morning walk and the hike up the stairs. Climbing the final few steps, Cashe entered the town, stepping under a welcoming arch of wood that proudly proclaimed the town’s name.
The town itself was vibrant and full of life. A square filled with homes and businesses greeted him, even on the outskirts. They were made of light materials, wood and bamboo by the looks of it, and the streets were paved with flagstone. Pet pokemon roamed the small welcoming square, greeting familiar faces and strangers alike as people moved through the streets.
Cashe could see other trainers perusing the merchants and stores in the square, easily distinguishable from the townsfolk by their worn clothes, backpacks, and the tension in their shoulders. They were all here for the same reason he was. To challenge the gym.
In the distance, looming over the rest of the town, propped up on a second, elevated plateau, the object of their quest stood tall. The enormous curved roof of the gym was likely visible from everywhere in the town. It reminded Cashe of the college towns that existed in the USA. Small areas that popped up around large universities and colleges thanks to the ready employment and industry the students brought. Iki Town felt similar to him with the way the gym dominated the view of the town, even from its entrance.
“So this is it,” Emilia said as she made it to the top of the steps and reached Cashe’s side, “A month of travel, severe concussion, broken bones, an encounter with an Ultra Beast, Team Starlight, and even Stonehead. All to get here. Are you excited yet?”
*****