Jordan and Sudowoodo led the way to a nearby clearing where a battle could easily take place. I found that my stomach was churning unhappily, and my thoughts kept running in anxious circles. Some of how I felt must have slipped into my mental bond with my starter, because he patted my arm and sent me a renewed feeling of determination.

“I know you’re ready for this, Pausso,” I muttered to him, watching as Jordan and Sudowoodo briefly conferred on the other side of the field. “And I know you’re strong. It’s me I’m worried about; Jordan has way more experience than I do.”

Pausso snorted. G̶̡̓o̴̬͚͛ǫ̶̯̇͗d̶̫̘͠ ̷̡̈͜ ä̴̰̍t̴̻̫̆̊ ̶̫͓̈͗ ŝ̵̳̣t̶̞͉̅r̸̥͖̓͊a̵͙͖͝t̴̥͛͊e̵͇̯̊g̸̺̕ͅy̶̔ͅ, he thought to me firmly.

I winced and dug a persim berry out of my bag, then popped it into my mouth to chase the headache away. “Well, I suppose you’re confident enough for both of us,” I said wryly. He swatted at my side in reply, his ears twitching happily.

I looked around to see that Florence and Hoppip had settled down at the edge of the clearing to watch (Isaac had little interest in watching the battle, so he had already left to fetch water from a nearby stream). Jordan and Sudowoodo were apparently ready, because they both stood up straight and looked over at us. “Does a battle to forfeit work for you?” Jordan called across the field. “No need to go to knock-out if we’re traveling tomorrow.”

“Okay,” I called back, glancing nervously at Pausso. I had a better sense of his abilities after training for over a month, but would I be able to judge when he needed to stop? Well, maybe he could just tell me directly when he was ready to tap out.

Pausso and Sudowoodo both slowly approached the center of the field, watching each other warily. I glanced at Jordan. Would he make the first move? No – he just stood there with his arms crossed, smiling slightly.

I would take any advantage I could get. “Start with Hypnosis!”

Pausso waved his hands in a complicated pattern that we had determined produced the move more quickly. A wash of blue light came flying out towards Sudowoodo, and I crossed my fingers. If we could make him fall asleep, we might actually stand a chance.

Jordan tilted his head to the side. “Over and into Rock Throw,” he said calmly.

“Su!” Sudowoodo confirmed; then, just before the blue light hit him, he jumped high up into the air and somersaulted above the Hypnosis attack. As he fell he brought his limbs together and shot a few rocks towards Pausso in quick succession.

“Left,” I ordered quickly after seeing how the rocks were spreading. Pausso dodged to the left, but not fast enough to avoid the first rock, which thudded against his shoulder and made him wince. “Confusion!”

Pausso paused to focus on his psychic attack. Sudowoodo had been rushing towards my partner; now he skidded to a halt, growling as a purple aura surrounded his body.

“Try to shake it off, partner,” Jordan called, his eyes darting around the field. Then he pumped a fist into the air. “Rock Slide!”

Sudowoodo shook his head briskly, dispelling the purple glow. Then he raised his limbs high above his head and brought them down hard, crying out a loud “SUUUUUUUDOOOOOOO!”

I took a step backwards as dozens of rocks formed from pinpricks of energy in the sky above Pausso. As soon as the white glow of energy wore off, they started plummeting downwards. There was nowhere to dodge and no way to block them; all I could do was yell “Cover your head!” before the rocks hit.

The rockfall kicked up a spray of dust and dirt that filled the air, and I felt a sharp burst of pain through my mental bond with Pausso. I couldn’t see him through the mess. What if he had fainted already?

No – I had to believe in him. And this dust could be used to our advantage. “Disable!” I yelled.

For a few moments, nothing happened; Sudowoodo just paced back and forth as he waited for the dust to settle. Then a series of blue rings came flying out of the cloud and collided with the tree-like Pokemon, sending him staggering backwards.

“Not bad,” Jordan said with a small smile. “Rock Slide is one of our most powerful moves right now, so it’s smart of you to cut it off. We might have to try that. Partner, you know what to do!”

I frowned and tilted my head to the side. What did Jordan mean by that? I watched Sudowoodo warily, but he didn’t do anything interesting; he just briefly widened his eyes and stared at Pausso, who was now visible through the dust.

Well, if my opponent was just going to stand there and present a target, I wouldn’t complain. Pausso looked a more than a little worn down, but he was still standing and radiating confidence at me mentally, so we could keep going. “Confusion again!”

Pausso’s eyes glowed as he sent a burst of psychic energy towards Sudowoodo, and the tree bent forward with a high-pitched keen.

“Now!” Jordan said, leaning forward with fire in his eyes. “Disable!”

My eyes widened in surprise. Sudowoodo – a rock-type tree – could learn Disable?

Apparently he could, because the Pokemon shot his head back up and blue rings of light flew out of the horns on his head. Pausso was too surprised to dodge; the rings hit him right in the stomach, and the white light of his Confusion attack immediately disappeared from his eyes.

I gritted my teeth. Without Confusion, the only offensive moves we had were Headbutt and Pound. Both were normal attacks, so they wouldn’t do much damage against a rock Pokemon like Sudowoodo. But what other choice did we have?

“Switch to Headbutt,” I told Pausso, uncertainty creeping into my voice. He hesitated, then charged forward with his head down.

Jordan grinned. “Wait for it,” he told his Pokemon in an amused tone.

I shifted from foot to foot uneasily. Sudowoodo just stood there in a relaxed posture. He didn’t even try to dodge, even though Pausso’s head was becoming outlined with bright energy that would clearly do some damage. What were he and Jordan planning? Did they think Sudowoodo was hard enough that a Headbutt wouldn’t hurt at all?

I didn’t see the trap until Pausso was only a few feet away from his target. When the realization hit me I sucked in a breath to yell for Pausso to abort, but before I could, Jordan’s voice shot through the field. “Now, Sucker Punch!”

In the blink of an eye Sudowoodo had darted forward and surrounded his limbs with a dark aura. Before I could say a word, he snapped his arm out front in a vicious gut punch that sank into Pausso’s stomach. My Pokemon still managed to complete his attack, slamming his head into Sudowoodo’s body, but he then staggered backwards.

I bit the knuckle on my thumb as I tried to think quickly. The two Pokemon were at close quarters now; should Pausso fire off a Hypnosis while it was harder for Sudowoodo to dodge? Or would it be better to switch to fast Pound attacks, to keep up a strong offense?

Then I noticed something. The pain leaking through my bond with my starter had increased, and he was breathing in ragged gasps as he stood there in the field, his whole body shaking. In that second, I knew what I had to do.

“We forfeit,” I yelled across the field before Jordan could call out another attack. Pausso whirled his head around to stare at me; then he said “Zee” in a tired way and sat down hard on the ground.

I ran to the center of the field to check on my starter, worried about him now, but he just waggled an arm at me once I got there. J̷̳͌ǔ̴̟̯͋s̸̜̄͆t̸̬͋ ̵͖̼̚ t̵̲̍î̸̢̝r̵͎̈́͝e̴̯̩͠d̶̤̼͊, he thought as he breathed heavily.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

I looked up to find that the others were walking up to join us. Hoppip ran ahead of Florence and started talking animatedly at Sudowoodo and Pausso, waving the leaves on his head as he spoke. Jordan reached us next; he slapped Sudowoodo’s shoulder with an affectionate “Great work!”, then focused on me.

“Well done,” he said with a grin, holding out his hand. After a moment of surprise I reached out and returned the handshake. “The two of you are obviously still new at this, but Drowzee has a lot of guts, and you keep your head in battle. Using Disable from the dust cloud was smart – you can’t dodge when you can’t see where an attack’s coming from. You will do fine once you both get some more experience.”

“Thanks,” I replied, grinning back. Florence arrived at that point, and I turned to look at her. “Not bad, right?”

“Not terrible,” she allowed. “Trainer Jordan, that move Sudowoodo used – did he just learn Disable in the middle of the battle?”

“Good eye,” Jordan said. “That’s our special technique, Mimic. My partner can copy another majū’s move just by watching how they do it.” He put his arms up over his head and stretched. “It’s not perfect – he forgets the move pretty quickly. But it is useful for causing surprises in battle.”

“I’ll bet,” I muttered. If Pausso’s Confusion hadn’t been shut down, we would have been able to last a lot longer.

Jordan started to say more, but then he looked up at the sky. “The sun is truly setting now,” he pointed out. “Let’s go back to the camp and get settled in, we can talk more about the battle there. And I have some thoughts about how you and Drowzee might be able to improve your physical attacks…”

~

We ended up talking just outside of the cave for a long time, well after the sun set and the world fell into darkness. We hadn’t started a campfire; it was plenty warm already, since it was summer, so it didn’t seem worth the effort. But the moon still cast some ambient light, even though clouds were scattered throughout the sky. It was enough light for me to see Jordan as he discussed past battles, to see Florence as she posed infinite questions, and to see Isaac as he sat quietly off to the side, turning something over and over in his hands as he listened.

Eventually my fatigue from the day full of hiking overcame my desire for anything else, and I went back into the cave to try to sleep. Pausso noticed and left the conversation he’d been involved in with the other Pokemon, following me inside. I grinned and shook my head; he probably didn’t want to miss his dream-meal.

Sleeping outside among the rocks with a thin travel blanket and nothing else for comfort was exactly as difficult as it sounds. Maybe that was why I kept waking up during the night. I first jolted awake when the others came inside to go to sleep, then again when some wild Pokemon screeched out in the distance. Each time I grumbled and tried to resettle into a more comfortable position.

The third time I woke up, I had some hazy uneasiness from an unremembered (probably eaten) dream. I blinked blearily at the rest of the cave, then realized something. I could see Isaac curled up with his head on his pack nearby. Jordan and Sudowoodo were just barely visible, sprawled in a jumbled pile near the back of the cave where they had made a nest out of grasses and leaves. And I could see Hoppip nestled in a small travel blanket, dozing peacefully. But I couldn’t see Florence anywhere.

For a few minutes I just laid still, blinking drowsily. Surely she had just gone outside to use the bathroom. She’d be back at any moment. But when I dozed off for a few minutes and then blinked my eyes open again, she still wasn’t back.

I grumbled, sure, but I also got up to go see where she was. Pausso had been napping next to me; he briefly woke when I stood up and looked at me, blearily sending the idea of a question through our bond. I sent back the feeling of sleepiness that still lingered in my mind, and he closed his eyes after a moment to drift back to sleep.

It was colder outside the cave than I had expected. A breeze ran parallel to the cave entrance, and that woke me up completely. I grumbled as I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to chase away the chill. Then I paused and tilted my head to the side. Had I just heard something?

I stood still and tried to focus on the sounds of the wild. There were skittering sounds coming from the tall grass nearby; that would be wild Rattata out foraging for their food. Something flapped in the air above – a Hoothoot, probably, or a Zubat.

Thump.

My head swiveled slightly towards the left, in the direction of the faint sound which had come from further into the forest. That didn’t sound like a regular Pokemon.

My heart started hammering. Was there some kind of super-strong dangerous Pokemon out there in the night? Had it dragged Florence off for a midnight feast? No, I was being ridiculous. Surely she would have made a fuss if a Pokemon abducted her.

Still, I crept forward as quietly as I could, sneaking through the trees towards the sound. Again I heard that distinctive thump, and I adjusted my path slightly to angle directly towards it. My heart kept hammering frantically as I saw something moving up there between the trees, something that pulled a limb back and then darted it forward, releasing a projectile into the air.

Thump.

I frowned as I watched; then I relaxed and walked forward, not trying to keep my steps quiet anymore. I didn’t raise my voice too much, though, since there was no point in waking everyone else up. “Florence? What are you doing?”

Florence turned to me, her surprised look just barely visible in the moonlight. She held a poke ball in one hand, and our sack of prototype balls lay on the ground right next to her feet.

“Why are you awake?” she asked instead of answering my question. “Everyone else was asleep when I left.”

I yawned widely as I took the last few steps forward to join her. She had found a long and narrow clearing in the forest, and when I squinted I realized that you could just barely see the hillside with the cave through the trees. She hadn’t been as far away as I had thought. “I woke up and saw you weren’t there.” I then looked at her pointedly. “Again – what are you doing?”

She looked down and shrugged. “Practicing.”

“Practicing? What – wait.” I looked from the poke ball in her hand to a tree across the clearing. I could now see that several small objects, other poke balls, littered the ground around the tree. “You’re practicing throwing poke balls?”

“Someone has to,” she mumbled, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the ball she was holding hard.

I sighed. “Relax, Florence. I’m not trying to make fun of you.” She looked up again and blinked at me. “Practicing makes sense, at least until we figure out how to make the balls rotate so that they hit the right way. Though… why are you doing it in the middle of the night?”

Florence shrugged, though it looked like some of the tension left her body. “When else could I practice? We have been walking all day, and I did not want to miss any of Trainer Jordan’s advice.”

“I guess,” I said, wandering over to the scattering of balls under the tree. I frowned in puzzlement as I noticed that part of the tree looked funny. “Is this… chalk?”

“Yes.” Florence walked over to join me, then leaned down to pick up one of the poke balls from the ground. “I needed a way to tell whether the balls were hitting the tree at a good angle. So I make a circle of chalk on the trunk, then check to see where it rubs off on the balls.” She turned the ball around, then grimaced; the chalk had rubbed off close to the center band, but off to the side of the ball instead of right at the front. “It is still a work in progress.”

“It’s better than I could do,” I admitted freely. “Why didn’t you invite me? I could use the practice.”

“You were asleep,” she said dryly. I rolled my eyes at her. “Besides… I feel that it is my responsibility, how I can contribute to the group. You understand the theory behind how these poke balls work; Charity always has the best ideas about how to improve them; Isaac knows how to conduct experiments and analyze the data to tell us what we should focus on next. I just do what I can.” She looked away, crossing her arms tightly across her chest. “But when we were capturing majū, it made me feel like I could really help. Like this is what I can be good at.” Florence looked back at me, her eyes determined. “So I am going to practice and work hard to become the best possible capturer of majū, just like how I am practicing to become the best possible trainer. And if that means I lose some sleep, so be it.”

“Fair enough.” I yawned again; now that I knew that Florence was outside for her own reasons, not in any kind of trouble, sleepiness was catching up to me once more. “Maybe next time you can practice a bit earlier in the evening, though? And I’d still like to try too. In my time, catching majū is a big part of being a trainer, so I want to get better at it.”

Florence smiled at me then, a real, authentic smile. “I think I can do that.”

I stumbled my way back over to the cave and laid down next to Pausso again, huddling my back against his to try to steal some of his warmth. Within minutes I had fallen asleep.

Not that I stayed that way for long. I woke up several other times that night, to the sound of Pokemon moving around outside the cave, or Sudowoodo’s occasional snoring, or just because I was uncomfortable. One time I even woke up to realize that I was hungry, even though I had eaten plenty of trail food before going to bed.

Wait, no – I didn’t feel hungry. That feeling was coming through my bond with Pausso.

I glanced over at my starter. He sat huddled next to me, looking grumpy. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring over at where Florence now lay curled up next to Hoppip, deeply asleep. And his trunk was occasionally twitching and sniffing as he looked in her direction.

As soon as I realized what he was doing, I lightly smacked his arm. Pausso sat up straight with a jolt and turned to look at me, surprise radiating through our bond. “No eating other people’s dreams without their permission,” I told him in the quietest voice I could manage. “It’s rude.”

Pausso darted his eyes between me and Florence. Ḧ̶̲̀u̵͚͂ṅ̶̡ḡ̴͈r̶̺̕y̷̟̫̆, he thought. Luckily, the persim berry I had eaten before our battle was still working, so his words only caused a dull ache in my head.

“Then we’ll get you some actual food in the morning. You can wait.”

Now my starter narrowed his eyes in a glare. N̸͗͜ȯ̴̖͐t̶͉̞͑͘ ̸̤̕͜ t̵̗͍̄h̷̰̟͗ě̶̢͠ ̸̭̖̌ s̶̱̺͋͐a̶̟̎̚m̸̢̑̄e̶̜͗̍.

“Well, too bad. I’m not negotiating on this.” I sent a flare of determination through our bond and glared right back at him.

For a few moments we just stared at each other. Then Pausso snorted quietly and flicked his trunk up and down in a shallow yes.

It felt like the conversation wasn’t over, but I was too tired to push it much further. Instead, I let myself drift back off to sleep. And this time I managed to sleep soundly; I didn’t wake up again until the light of a new morning fell through the opening of the cave.