The girl’s name was Teresa, and she had already started working as an apprentice for the launderers of the city. That was how she had found our missing Pokemon – assuming she actually had found them.
“It was two days ago,” she explained as we walked over to wait in line for the well. “I was washing shirts in the river up above the city. I was supposed to stay with the others so we would all be in eyesight of the guard, but they kept teasing me about my hair.” She flushed and gestured at the curling black locks that tumbled over her head. I didn’t see why she was embarrassed. It was kind of pretty, actually, in a way that made me want to pet her head. I blinked and frowned a little; that was a weird thought. “So I took my load further upstream and worked by myself there. Ushi said I would regret it when I got carried off by a wild beast, but I thought I could just scream for help if anything happened.”
“We get it,” Florence said, sounding exasperated. “You were doing laundry by yourself. When did you see the majū?”
Teresa bit her lip and looked down, but after a moment’s pause she continued speaking. “Maybe ten minutes after I got there? I saw something on the other side of the river, further up the bank. A Growlithe. It had come out to drink.”
I exchanged a glance with Pausso, then looked back over to the girl. “What makes you think that was the missing Growlithe?”
“Because it wasn’t alone!” she said quickly. “It looked around and noticed me, and at first I thought it was going to run away, but then I was very still. And it turned around and barked at the bushes, and then a Nidoran followed it out!”
“… huh,” I replied. A Growlithe by itself wasn’t much, but a Growlithe and a Nidoran being spotted together when their two clans were warring just on the other side of the city? Now that was interesting.
Florence frowned and crossed her arms, tapping her fingers against her elbows. “Did you see anything or anyone else with them?”
Teresa blinked, then shook her head. “No, it was just the two majū.”
This clearly surprised Florence, as she stood up straight and stopped tapping her fingers. “Really? Nothing was guarding them? Or, maybe they had been tied to something back in the bushes?”
“No, not at all. They just looked like… well, ordinary majū.” Teresa shrugged slightly. “I only noticed because everyone has been talking about the battle out on the route, so I thought it strange that the two of them were together.”
It was our turn at the well, so I took a step forward to turn the crank and lower the bucket down into the water. As I worked, I ran through the facts in my head. I had honestly believed that one of the two clan leaders (probably the Nidoking) had lied and had actually kidnapped the other leader’s child. But if the two missing Pokemon were together, and without any kidnapper in sight – was it possible we had all gotten this situation completely wrong?
“We need to go talk to them,” I said decisively as I started bringing the bucket back up again, pulling harder now that it was full of water. “Teresa, can you show us where you saw them? Maybe we can camp out there until they come back again.”
The girl shook her head, which sent her curls flying wildly. “I cannot go outside by myself! It is dangerous out in the wild!”
“But you would not be by yourself,” Florence said in a dangerously patient tone. “You would be with us. Monroe and I are both trainers, so you would be perfectly safe.”
Teresa looked Florence up and down quickly and pursed her lips. Clearly she didn’t think much of our ability to protect anyone.
“Okay, okay,” I said hurriedly. I had gotten the bucket all the way up, so I grabbed it and rested it on the rim of the well. “What if you just showed us the way to the northern gate and gave us directions from there? That would be perfectly safe.”
She thought for a moment, then looked at me and nodded. “Yes, I think I can do that.” I noticed Florence rolling her eyes in an exaggerated manner in the background, and I had to stifle a laugh.
Florence and I filled up our water bottles, and we all took turns drinking water directly from the bucket. I grinned as I watched Florence’s Pokemon take their turns; Hoppip hovered in the air as he delicately cupped water in his hands and sprinkled it over his head, whereas Natu nearly fell into the water when she overbalanced after perching on the bucket’s rim. Florence eventually had to tilt the bucket on its side so the bird could reach the water with her stubby little beak.
From there we made our way up to the northern gate. Teresa explained as we walked that this gate was primarily used to access Lilac River, which ran parallel to the north side of the city. That meant that it wasn’t patrolled as heavily as the other gates, since it didn’t see as much traffic.
Fewer patrols didn’t mean no patrols, though. There was still a solider on duty in front of the entryway, a tall man who looked bored as he leaned against the giant doors.
Once we could see the gate up ahead, Teresa started getting fidgety. “I know this is important, but I am already late for my family’s meal,” she said apologetically. “So if you know where to go now…”
“We do not, though,” Florence pointed out. “You have not told us.”
“Oh! That is true.” Teresa blushed deeply, but she also started gesturing at the wall in front of us. “Well, once you leave the city, walk up to the river and turn left. Follow the southern bank for… maybe five minutes? A very tall maple tree grows right next to the water on the north side of the place where I stopped, I am sure you will see it.”
I nodded and smiled at her. “I think we can manage that. Thanks, Teresa!”
She bowed slightly in response, then turned around and scurried back in the direction we came from. Florence watched her go for a moment, frowning. Then she sighed and turned back around. “Well, shall we?”
I nodded and walked with her across the last street that stood between us and the gate. The guard continued lazing by the door as we walked up and didn’t react until we were right in front of him.
“What is it?” he asked in a dull tone.
“We need to get outside,” I explained. Florence nodded eagerly next to me.
The guard shifted his weight from one leg to another, still leaning on the door. After a long pause, he sighed. “So?”
I exchanged a look with Florence, then looked back up at the man. “… so can you let us through?”
“Not without orders,” he drawled.
Seriously? I felt my eyebrow twitch as I gestured towards Pausso. “As you can see, we are trainers. We need to go outside on official trainer business. Isn’t that good enough?”
The man looked lazily from Pausso to Hoppip floating in the air, then to Natu held in Florence’s hands. He shifted his weight again and looked back at me. “Got a signed order from Trainer Edwin?”
I took a deep breath through my nose and let it out again before speaking. “No, but –“
“Can’t let you through without orders.”
“We have orders!” Florence said suddenly. I glanced over at her and saw that she had opened her eyes wide and was trying to look as innocent as possible. “Trainer Edwin told us to come here. He must have forgotten to give us a paper.”
The guard let out a long, low hum and scratched his chin. “I can’t let people in without orders…”
“Maybe you cannot let people in,” Florence said quickly, “but surely it would be alright to let us out, especially since we do have orders. You can send a message to Trainer Edwin while we are outside. By the time we return, I am sure he will have sent the appropriate paper.”
As the guard looked up into the sky and contemplated this, I mouthed Seriously? at Florence. She grimaced and shrugged in reply. We both had to straighten our features out when the guard looked back down at us.
“… that makes sense,” he said after a prolonged moment. “You can go outside.”
I managed to keep a straight face while the man opened up one of the great doors, ushered our small group outside, and closed the door behind us again. I burst into a fit of giggles as soon as the door clanged shut, though.
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“Shut up!” Florence hissed, though it looked like she was holding back laughter too. “He will hear you!”
I did my best to hold back my laughter as we made our way forward and towards the river we could see up ahead. It only took maybe five minutes to cover the distance between the city and the water, and when we got there I could see that it wasn’t that impressive; it was pretty wide, yeah, but only a foot or two deep. I couldn’t even see any Pokemon swimming in it.
It was a good thing that the river was so shallow, because Florence wanted us to wade across it. “Why?” I asked when she brought up the idea. “If we want to watch the majū when they come out to drink, wouldn’t it make more sense to stay on this side?”
“I have a better idea than that,” Florence said with an excited grin. “I think we can go directly to the majū themselves.”
I frowned. “And how exactly do you intend to find them?”
Florence lifted up her hands and displayed the Pokemon she held in them proudly. “With Natu’s powers!”
I stared at her blankly. Next to me, Pausso snorted.
Apparently Florence took this as an invitation to keep going. “I noticed them during the game! She was always able to teleport away when anyone came close to tagging her, yes? Well, she even teleported when the person came from behind her. I think she can sense where people and majū are.”
I scratched my ear and nodded slowly. That did sound like the sort of thing psychics could probably do. That thought made me glance over at Pausso; could he learn how to do something like that?
“Well, Drowzee?” Florence asked eagerly as she turned towards my Pokemon as well. “Can you ask her if I’m right?”
This led to a short conversation between Pausso and Natu. At the end of it, my starter turned back to us and flicked his trunk up and down in a quick yes.
“Excellent,” Florence said with a giddy smile. “Let us try it out!”
So I made my way across the river with my boots held in one hand and my pants rolled up to my knees. At least the weather was still warm and sunny, which made splashing through the shallow waters more fun. I even laughed out loud when Hoppip decided to dive right down into the river and splash water all over Florence; she took it less well, returning the grass Pokemon to his ball in retaliation and grumbling as she brushed water off of her arms.
We reached the other side of the river with no complications and followed the bank towards the west, keeping an eye out for any wild Pokemon in the adjacent forest as we walked. It didn’t take very long to reach the place Teresa had described. There really was a huge maple tree that had grown right up next to the river, and the leaves were already a striking shade of red that made a beautiful contrast with the gray-blue of the riverbed and dark green of the forest.
Once we reached the tree, Florence put Natu down on the ground and started giving her instructions. “You should look for two majū who are on their own, not in a larger group,” she said, and Pausso echoed her with a quick translation. “They should be from two different species, too, a Growlithe and a Nidoran – assuming that makes a difference in what they feel like.”
Natu nodded her head-body, then turned so she was facing the trees and closed her eyes. After a moment, she said “Na” and started hopping forward, leading us into the forest.
“Here we go,” I muttered as we made our way into the greenery.
~
Natu could indeed sense other beings. Unfortunately, her ability wasn’t as fine-tuned as we might have wanted.
First she led us to a tree where a Caterpie and a Weedle were fighting over a slow dribble of sap that oozed from the tree’s trunk. Then she led us to a clearing where a Primeape and a Mankey sparred, and we had to sneak away before either Pokemon noticed us. Next was a Bellsprout couple who guarded a grassy nest of eggs; one of them extended a vine and whipped it about in the air menacingly until we backed off. Then there was a pair of strange Pokemon I didn’t recognize, squat little creatures who looked a bit like overgrown acorns, who happily hopped across the forest floor on some mission only they knew.
Luckily, none of these Pokemon (apart from the Bellsprout) seemed particularly mad about our presence. This was a wild area, yes, but it was close enough to Violet that the population was used to occasional intrusions. As long as we didn’t bother them, they didn’t bother us.
We eventually wandered into an empty clearing, and Florence signaled that we should take a break. I made sure to mark one of the trees nearby before I joined her in the sunlight. Florence and I had been leaving trail markings as we moved to ensure we wouldn’t get lost, just like how Smith had taught us several weeks ago in training. I smiled, remembering how he had grumbled that if we were going to insist on wandering into caves and forests in search of strange materials, we should make sure we’d be able to wander back out again.
“This is not working,” Florence said glumly as Pausso and I joined her in the clearing. I took the opportunity to sit down in the grass and watch Natu as the bird closed her eyes and attempted to find a new target. “There are just too many majū in the forest.”
“Maybe if we could narrow it down based on their types?” I suggested.
Florence and I both looked at Pausso. He dutifully translated the question for Natu, who responded with a brisk shake of her wings and a quiet cheep.
Ṫ̶ͅḫ̶̛å̶͚t̴̥̽ ̶͙̽ a̷̜͊d̵̛ͅv̴̟̑a̸̠̾n̸̟͊c̴̺͑e̵̻͝d̶͔̐ ̴̢̆t̶̘̐ë̵̥́c̴̨̿h̸̖͘n̷̥̄i̷̮͌q̷̩̓ư̵̗e̵̩͛.̶̻̆, Pausso thought to me. S̷̰̄h̶̞́e̷̟̊ ̷̪͒ ǹ̷̦ó̴͍t̸͕̓ ̴̦́ s̴̢̓t̷͎̓r̴̙͛ǒ̸͚n̷͚̓g̸͕̍ ̶̧̒ e̵̝͝n̷̯̕o̸̝̐u̶̫͝g̸̡̈h̶̯̎.̸̤̒
I translated the message for Florence, then hummed in thought as I looked at my starter. “Maybe she’s not strong enough by herself,” I allowed. “What if you helped her, though?”
Pausso blinked. M̵̗̌e̷̙̾?̷̫̾
“No, I’m talking to that Noctowl up in the tree. Of course you! You’re a psychic type, aren’t you?”
Pausso scratched the back of his head. N̵̫̐ē̷̱v̵̤͒e̵̖̒r̸̩͂ ̸̳̈́ s̴̳͐e̵͉͑n̷̰͊s̴̡̔e̷̯͂d̷͎̈́ ̵̟͝ t̸͓̾h̴̺̾a̷̫͌t̶͍̑ ̶̣͌ b̷̨͒e̶̮̔f̶̱́ö̷̬r̴̨̅ḙ̷̛.̴̝̀ ̵̧̄ N̵̦̚o̶̖͛ṭ̸́ ̷͜͠ ś̸̜u̵̳̔r̸̲͑e̶͖̊ ̶͉͠ w̴̰̿ȋ̷͉l̸͚̾l̷̖̊ ̴̣̀ w̸͕͑ỏ̵̘ŗ̴̀k̸̗̕.̵̙͑
“That’s no reason not to try,” I told him confidently. “Here, how about you and Natu try meditating together? That might help you connect, or something.”
That was how all four of us ended up in the usual meditation arrangement. We sat in the grass on four corners of an invisible diamond, with Natu directly across from Pausso and Florence directly across from me. Natu looked uncomfortable, which was understandable since she’d never done this before, but once Pausso explained what we were trying to do she decided to play along.
For a few minutes we were all quiet except for Florence’s steady chanting of when to breathe in and out. She wasn’t as good at interweaving words and breathing as Smith was, but she had gotten the hang of tracking time with practice. After a few minutes, she stopped speaking out loud entirely, but it didn’t matter. I had gotten into the rhythm by that point, and I was breathing in and out in a steady pattern that felt like it could go on forever.
In these moments of meditation, I was always especially aware of my bond with Pausso. Now I could feel that he still had some lingering pain around his shoulder, where he had been hurt before, though he was carefully pushing that pain towards the back of his mind and trying to ignore it. There was also a more gnawing, grumbling pain in his core, the pain of not having easy energy on hand to burn. That pain was layered with temptation, restraint, and other emotions that I couldn’t sort out on my own.
Then… it’s hard to describe these things of the mind in words. Then it was like I was suddenly aware of a small ball of geometric woven colors in bright reds and greens and yellows in front of me, except that I wasn’t the one who was aware, not really. It was Pausso who had sensed a new presence. I could feel it as he stretched his awareness out to touch the colors, to somehow hook himself into them. And I could feel it as he took his energy and surged it forwards, amplifying the colors of the geometric pattern tenfold.
For a split second, it was like I could see the whole forest outlined in brilliant light. Blindingly bright dots spotted the world, each dot a soul, and those dots were connected with shining strings. Somehow I could see all the world around me while at the same moment I saw the clearing right in front of my nose, even with my eyes shut. In that heartbeat of understanding I recognized the glowing strands that joined me to Pausso and to Florence, and I felt a pure, concentrated sense of happiness. I really was connected to Pausso now; he wasn’t just bound to his poke ball, he was bound to me as well.
Then Natu squawked in excitement, and the spell was broken.
“What?” Florence asked, slightly dazed at being forcefully dragged out of meditation, as Natu suddenly teleported across the clearing and slightly to the right. The little bird then turned around and started cheeping at us all in a bossy tone, like we had been sleeping on the job and she was going to make sure we all learned who was really in charge.
“She’s got it!” I yelled, making the Noctowl that had been sleeping high up in the trees hoot in annoyance. I was too excited to care. “Quick, follow her!”
We all scrambled to our feet and raced after Natu, who teleported ahead again as soon as she was sure that we could catch up. For a few minutes more we chased her that way, constantly running forward only to slightly change direction every time she hopped into the distance again. I barely even remembered to stop and mark the trees every so often, even though I knew we’d be lost without the carved signs.
Then, after several minutes of chaotic running, we half-fell into a small clearing that was shaded by the leaves of a giant sakura tree. A trio of smaller berry trees grew around the giant tree, and each had its own small crop of berries weighing down the branches; one grew chesto berries, another sitrus, and the third grew sets of small red berries that I didn’t recognize.
I only noticed that after the fact, though. My eyes were first drawn to the two Pokemon who lay curled up together at the base of the cherry blossom tree, peacefully sleeping in the grass.
We had found the missing Pokemon.