As I made my way to Violet City, I rejoiced in the feeling of my body quickly running down the route. One thing I didn’t really emphasize is the impact Blood Bonds have on the trainer. Well, it’s sort of similar to the impact they have on pokemon. Humans’ bodies are strengthened all around and have an increased growth rate. Basically superhuman. I’d estimate that having four or five strong bonds would make you equivalent to Captain America.
Right now, I am sort of at the olympic athlete level. I would change between 20 minutes of running with a 10 minute walking break. Drako would fly over me every once in a while, checking in after his exploration of the area. I knew he wasn’t roaming far because I could sense his location with the bond. This route wasn’t very dangerous, but Drako would still be able to reach me if I needed help.
Soon, we made it to the outskirts of Violet City and I recalled Drako to his pokeball. Large pokemon weren’t allowed to be out of their pokeball in the city.
“Sorry buddy, just take a nap for now.”
“Charr.” He whined before being recalled.
I had already booked a test online that included a mandatory lesson beforehand which would take place in an hour. To pass the time until then I decided to visit a restaurant that served both pokemon and humans. But before that I made a quick stop at the Sprout Tower to pick up some items.
I chose to eat in the outdoor venue, since it was a nice day. Releasing Drako, I asked what he wanted to eat.
“Char! Charizard!”
Which I shouldn’t have bothered with since he chose to have steak as usual. I decided to get the same thing since it was a specialty of the restaurant.
The meat is not from pokemon, but is from normal animals that are kept on farms. There are still some in the wild, but they were usually in isolated areas where certain pokemon kept them as livestock.
When the food came out, there was a humongous steak for Drako with a standard one for me.
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As we ate, I looked at the pokemon of the other patrons. Most were at the first or second stage of evolution, but there was a nidoking and nidoqueen at one table with a bearded man. Those two looked powerful.
Even though Drako is large and powerful, he would probably lose to either of those pokemon. Drako is still young and inexperienced after all. That just means we have to keep working hard to surpass them.
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After eating, I returned Drako and made my way to the licensing centre. I quickly checked in and made my way out to the field where the lesson would take place.
The instructor was there in uniform with a large pidgeot standing beside her. There were also three other trainers with two smaller pidgeot and a fearow. Looking around the field I saw that there was an obstacle course set up with metal hoops and bars. Too bad that the obstacle course was only for the advanced flying class.
“You must be our fourth student, you can let out your flying pokemon and saddle them. We’re just waiting on one more.” The instructor said as I reached them.
I released Drako, which caused a bit of a stir with the other trainers, though the instructor was unphased because I had registered for the class with a charizard. I attached the saddle to Drako easily through the automatic nature of the saddle. Drako shook himself to make sure it was firmly attached.
“Cool charizard.” The trainer with the fearow said as he looked Drako up and down. I complimented the guy’s fearow as well, it looked to be well trained.
After a couple of minutes, the last trainer showed up and released a pidgeot of their own. Pidgeot were typically the pokemon most caught to serve as a flight pokemon.
“Alright, let’s get started. I’m instructor Lisa and I’ll be helping you to learn how to fly. First off, all of you get strapped into your saddles so I can make sure you’re secure.” The instructor said, then went around checking if everyone was strapped in correctly. She made some adjustments here and there, tightening straps.
“Okay, now that everyone’s strapped in we’ll be taking off one by one to fly a circle around the field.” She said as she strapped onto her own pidgeot.
One by one she helped the other trainer’s to fly around the field and giving them advice for a smooth flight.
Finally, it was my turn. “Let’s do this, Drako.”
“CHARR!” He bellowed as he flapped his wings taking flight. I smiled in exhilaration as the wind blew over me. Drako didn’t seem to be weighed down by me at all and started to fly around the field.
Lisa was hovering nearby and gave some pointers to make the ride more smooth, and her pidgeot seemed to converse with Drako and soon the wind buffeting me became a lot milder. It seems Drako was learning to use his flying energy as sort of a windshield.
Soon enough we were all in the air doing laps of the field, with Lisa occasionally giving advice to a trainer. We weren’t doing any maneuvers, just practicing a smooth flight and take offs and landings that Lisa would instruct us to do. The hour quickly passed and it was time for our test.
“Alright, it’s time for the practical test.” Lisa said. We all had already passed a written test which was required to attend this lesson. Basically like the rules of the road, but for flying.
“The test is simply to complete three laps of the field, taking off and landing with each lap. I will be judging your flight stability as well as the damage you do when taking off or landing.”
I wasn’t worried at all, and Drako proved himself by passing the test easily. All the other students were able to pass as well, it wasn’t really a hard test, just proving you and your pokemon's ability to fly safely.
I was issued my license and quickly made my way to one of the designated areas to take off and land in the city. It was time to go catch my second pokemon. It was time to head to the orange islands.