Since the heat had risen from unpleasant to unbearable in the interim, Tym and I lazed around in the stream while Bella tended to her garden. As I floated there, I contemplated the events of the day before.

In hindsight, I could sparsely believe how much had happened. I went from thinking that I had awoken on an island of monsters, to realizing that pokemon were real here, to befriending Bella and then Tym.

Though befriending might be the wrong term. It was more like Bella took me under her wing. Then she beat up Tym and through some function of the pokeball I still wasn’t sure about he listened to my orders and generally regarded my quite positively.

As I revisited my ‘negotiation’ with Bella, I had to stifle a wince. I had been incredibly self-centered and acted on questionable assumptions instead of listening to Jess’ expert opinion. That it had all worked out was no credit to me, but lucky happenstance.

Not much later, Bella interrupted my introspection and brought over a few of the berries for lunch. When she found us slacking instead of training in the shaded part of the river, she shook her head in mock consternation.

I could feel her amusement through our connection, no doubt a deliberate choice on her part. I was once again struck by how accommodating and helpful she continued to be. Tym, without the benefit of the connection radiated regret and I had to coax him out of the water to eat lunch instead of training right that instance.

In the meantime, Bella unfolded a blanket and a pair of towels on the shore. I heaved Tym onto one of them and then joined him on the other. Bella was already sitting cross-legged on the other half, a chipped ceramic bowl with the berries in front of her. After thanking her, I grabbed one for Tym and then picked out one for me.

I found that the sweet Pecha berries were fast becoming my favorite. Tym was more partial towards the bitter Rawst berries, while Bella kept to Oran Berries. After the meal, we took a quick dip to wash off the juices that had spilled on us during our meal. Bellies full and air thick and warm, there weren’t any better prerequisites for a quick nap afterwards.

When I had almost drifted off, a rhythmic popping jolted my sleep-addled mind out of its funk. I sat up in confusion and watched as Tym bombarded the trees near us with Bubble. The small trickle of energy from Bella that went to him through me dealt the death blow to any chance at sleep. The bleed-over alone was enough to make me want to do something.

Caught between the need to do something and the climate telling me to stay put, I turned to evaluating Tym’s progress. Fueled by Bella’s sheer endless reserves, I could see how far he had come. Both the number and strength of his bubbles had increased in just two training sessions and our trip.

On reflection, the amount of energy he had used that far probably represented what he could manage in a week or two. If he put every last scrap of it toward Bubble and nothing else.

Put into context like this, the kind of training acceleration Bella provided was a boon few fresh trainers had. His sheer joy at having the freedom to let loose took quite a while to cool down, but after a while even he got bored of blasting the vegetation.

“Alright buddy, wanna go and aim at some moving targets?”

Since I wasn’t sure how much of my speech he could pick up already, I accompanied my question with images of the jungle and Pidgeys drenched by Bubbles. Kanto’s most populous bird had long found its way onto the island and was easily the most common pokemon around.

For Tym and me, this outing would also be an opportunity to build a battle rapport. He now reacted to my commands every time, but if that still held true in the heat of combat remained to be seen. I also had a theory that if there was anything analogous to experience from the games, real combat would help us solidify our training.

Some minutes later we were ready to head out. As we stepped between the trees my mind exited the relaxation mode I had unintentionally slipped into. All the pokemon cries and sounds of battle registered vividly in my ears in a way they hadn’t when we had been swimming earlier.

The well-trodden earth formed a trail beneath my feet and was only occasionally obstructed by debris. It mostly followed the winding route of the river, and only diverged on especially pronounced bends. Instead of going to the sea, we followed it further inland where most of the adult pokemon lived.

Tym rested in his pokeball while Bella and I looked out for opponents. Since it was only the two of us for a little while, I thought about how to broach the topic I wanted to talk to Bella about. None of my mental attempts at a smooth entrance to the topic felt right, so I decided that maybe bluntness would once again serve me well.

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“So, I have been thinking, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I was a bit of an ass yesterday. Or, if not an ass, then at least too self-centered.”

Bella looked as if she might disagree with me, but nevertheless motioned me to continue.

“First of all, I have to thank you. I barged into your home, fainted on you, and then the first thing I ask is to call people to the island so that they can take me with them. You on the other hand healed me, fed me, shared your place to sleep, and allowed me to call Kanto without any complaint.

Then, after the call I just assumed you wanted to accompany me without asking for your opinion. After all of that you were then kind enough to not only gift me a pokeball to catch another team member, but you also helped find, catch, and train him.

Really, the more I think about it, the worse I feel about it. The least I could have done is thank you yesterday. I was just way too focused on myself and took all of your help for granted way too quickly. That is not the kind of person I want to be, and I promise you I’ll do better from now on.”

After getting my thoughts off my chest I felt much better, but also a bit awkward. It felt strange listing all of my failures of the previous day. Before I could look at Bella to see her reaction, I felt her arm on my shoulder and messages through our connection.

Reassurance. The image of a lost Lillipup that needed someone to take them in. A young boy with a mind forcibly wiped clean, but many impressions beneath its scoured surface. A desire to leave the island, where old pain and anguish lingered.

So I hadn’t been completely off the mark. She really did want to leave with me. It made sense with the way she had given me her pokeball to register, but it was good to have confirmation. We shared a few moments of companiable silence until the usual noises of the jungle were drowned out by a loud rustling.

We followed the noise away from the path and found a Pidgey rooting around in the underbrush. It was a rough-looking specimen with ruffled feathers that even had sticks and leaves stuck in between them. Its beak and feet were decorated with streaks of dried earth and blood.

I contemplated looking for an easier opponent, but finding a challenge for Tym was the point. I temporarily banished the previous conversation from my mind and released my second partner from his ball. Then I grabbed my pokedex and pressed the ‘RECORD’ button. Said function was an essential feature for any budding trainer, and I intended to study our fights after we got back.

“Bubble.”

I issued my first battle command and Tym obliged. The Pidgey hadn’t been idle though and launched itself into the air. Its drunken-wing style flight let it evade most of the bubbles, and the few that did hit weren’t much of an issue.

First note to self: for foes that can evade, the first Bubble should be spread out further.

“Echoed Voice. The Bubbles won’t hit at that range.”

While not at the speed of sound, the sound-based move was nevertheless much faster and had the added benefit of ramping up with use. The Pidgey’s own Gust didn’t do much, and when the second and third Echoed Voices landed it realized that it would lose a war of attrition.

It propelled itself forward with a mighty flap of its wings, which it then folded to divebomb Tym. The little tadpole evidently decided to take the attack head-on, as he made no move to dodge. I shouted at him to get out of the way and tried to send him the same command via our connection, but it was fruitless.

We had never trained verbal commands for dodging, a considerable oversight, and the ramping energy draw of Echoed Voice was taking up most of the connection. The result was something I could only describe as a critical hit.

Tym was by no means out of the fight, but he was struggling to gather enough air to keep Echoed Voice going. The Pidgey itself was also slightly disoriented and since it was now close enough, I called for Bubble instead.

Second note to self: basic directions outside of real moves were a necessity and had to be established before Tym’s next fight.

Somehow a stream of Bubbles was no problem, even when out of breath. His opponent never got a chance to close in on him again and soon slumped over in defeat. When it was clear that the Pidgey wouldn’t get up again I hurried over to Tym, who was basking in his success.

“Good job buddy! We’ll need to work on your dodging a bit, but other than that this was a great fight.”

Bella also chirped in delight and clapped. As her palms touched, a thick stream of healing energy emerged from her and washed over Tym, taking away his scrapes and bruises. We left the Pidgey where it was and continued on our journey.

Once we found a small clearing, I coached Tym on the spread-out Bubble and established dodging in the four cardinal directions. I’d have liked to get some more nuance in those rules but given the time constraints I believed it adequate.

The second Pidgey we found had little chance with our new tactics, as did the third. Both were also noticeably weaker than the first had been, so it was difficult to say if simple dodging would be enough against more savvy fighters.

The decision to train against real opponents instead of imagined ones really did make a difference. Considering the way he had fought before I caught him, he must have relied on sheer firepower and the youth of his opponents. There was no other explanation how he hadn’t learned to dodge that made sense to me, considering how much he liked to fight.

As we continued, the increasingly dense canopy and underbrush limited our field of view to only a few meters. That all changed when we encountered the next clearing.

A giant tree stood at its center, plunging most of the free space in shade. Nothing else could compete with the behemoth, be it for sunlight or nutrients. Only a few patches of grass were hardy enough to make use of the available space. That and the copious amount of moss and parasitic plants hijacking the tree’s nutrients.

Even more interesting than the tree were its inhabitants. There were Pidgey and Pidgeot of all kinds grabbing onto branches or pecking the dirt. Some had coats in the traditional brown, others tended towards grey, beige, and even hints of green.

The sheer volume of their chatter was deafening, though I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how none of it had been audible while we were walking in the jungle. It seemed we would have plenty of opponents for Tym.