We reached Olivine by late morning the following day, and it was… about what I had expected, actually.
I had never been to Olivine back in my own time, but I knew it was Johto’s biggest port city and home to a famous lighthouse. Past-Olivine did not disappoint. The port was huge, with docks sprawling up and down the shores as far as the eye could see. It was so busy that we couldn’t just pick a spot to slide the ship in; we had to wait for one of the people who managed the docks to come meet us in a small rowboat so he could assign us a position.
The portly man made his way up the rope ladder that Aipom had rolled down, took a moment to blatantly stare at the range of Pokemon spread out across the ship, then tried to go straight to Henry. He made a face like he had smelled something rotten when Henry told him Zuri was in charge and turned him in the captain’s direction.
“Right,” the man said in a cold tone. Zuri looked him up and down, seemingly unimpressed, and the man sniffed in reply. “Well. Have you been here before? Yes? The usual rules apply. I will inspect your ship now and note your goods for sale. Before leaving you must go through another inspection and pay the dock tax on any goods purchased, and –“
“We are not here to trade,” Zuri said, sounding impatient. “We are simply picking up the correspondence bag for Cianwood. In and out, should take less than an hour. There is no need for an inspection.”
“Rules are rules,” the man said primly. “Besides, if we let every ship that just wanted to ‘come in and out’ pass by, there would be rampant smuggling. Not that you would know anything about that,” he added as he sneered at Zuri like he believed entirely the opposite was true.
I half-expected Zuri to get upset at the accusation, but she just shrugged and smiled sharply. “Of course not,” she agreed. “Well, go ahead and do your inspection, sir.”
I watched with some degree of boredom as the man looked over each of the containers in the lower deck and hold, asking Zuri and Sizhen what each barrel or chest held and requesting that random ones be opened so he could verify the contents. I did have a brief moment of concern when he frowned at the ‘passenger baggage’ and asked for the bag of poke balls to be opened, because what if he confiscated them? But no, he just peered at them closely before shrugging and letting Sizhen put the bag back in its place.
After half an hour or so the man finished checking the ship’s cargo. He then spent an additional five minutes wandering around the ship, poking and prodding different panels and floorboards as if he expected to find a hidden compartment. Zuri followed at a distance and smiled lazily the whole time, as if she was amused by his behavior.
Eventually he nodded and signed off on the ship. “You are in the triangle section, sixth berth from the left,” he said in a bored tone. Then he glanced casually at the ship’s flag, which was blowing directly out towards the open sea, and tutted. “Though you will need to wait until the wind changes, of course.”
“No need,” Zuri said. “You just get your boat out of the way. We will handle the rest.”
He looked somewhat puzzled by her statement, but he shrugged and climbed back down the rope ladder without commenting. Zuri waited until he had rowed a decent way out towards the docks; then she grinned from ear to ear.
“Ready to show them what we can do?” she asked Pelipper, who had perched on the railing next to her. He cawed and took off into the air to take up his usual position behind the sail. She turned to the crew and started bellowing out instructions to ‘bring her in nice and steady’, and I sat back to watch.
Pelipper was able to counteract the local winds with his Tailwind move, just as he’d done several other times on the voyage so far, and the crew took the ship in towards the docks. They angled towards a section that flew a large white flag with a vibrant orange triangle in the middle. As we got closer they slowed the ship by having Pelipper gradually decrease the force of his Tailwind until we were moving at a mere crawl. That left me plenty of time to watch what was happening out on the docks.
The more I watched, the more puzzled I got. At first the triangle dock was fairly calm apart from a bustle of activity around a ship on the far right side that appeared to be loading new cargo. Then two people wandered over and hung around the dock near our assigned berth. When Pausso joined me at the side of the ship to watch the shore one of them pointed directly at us. The other watcher ran off after that, then returned a few minutes later with a third person.
More and more people arrived as we drew closer to the shore. By the time the Relicanth eased her way into her berth the dock had amassed a crowd of a dozen people. Some were sailors, naturally, but there were also men and women in shopkeeper’s clothing and a tall woman wearing an apron with flour still on her cheek. I stared out at them uneasily, then made my way over to the stairs and whistled for Echo to come join us. If something was going to go down, I wanted our team to be fully prepared.
I made my way back over to the side to find that Florence, Charity, and Isaac were also staring at the crowds. Florence leaned down to talk quietly to her team, then discreetly recalled Skiploom and Natu to their poke balls, leaving just Snubbull out. The little Pokemon growled quietly as she stared between the railings out at the crowd of people.
I fidgeted with my hands, feeling nervous, but Pausso put a calming paw on my arm. I̵ ̸ d̵o̸ ̶ n̷o̴t̷ ̷ s̸e̸n̷s̷e̶ ̴ i̴l̸l̷ ̸ i̶n̷t̶e̷n̸t̴, he thought to me. I̶n̸s̸t̷e̶a̶d̴,̵ ̶ t̴h̵e̴r̶e̶ ̷ i̶s̶ ̵ e̶x̴c̴i̸t̷e̷m̶e̷n̵t̶.̸
Excitement? That didn’t make sense. The Relicanth was just one ship among dozens, the people here had no reason to treat it differently.
Aipom had come up to the side of the ship so she could jump over to the pier and start tying the ropes in place, but when she saw the crowd she hesitated. The crowd in turn briefly hushed, then erupted in even louder muttering than before. She turned to look over her shoulder and chattered at the rest of the crew, and Henry came over to join her. “Is there a problem?” he called over to the crowd.
The group hushed again for just a moment. Then one of the shopkeepers near the front spoke up. “Are you lot trainers?” he asked.
Henry raised his eyebrows and glanced over at me. I hesitated, then nodded slightly. We had no reason to lie.
“Some of our passengers are,” Henry replied. “What is it to you?”
“We need a trainer’s help,” the woman in an apron said in a smooth voice as she stepped forwards. “Are you willing?”
“Sure,” I called back automatically. Over the summer Smith had taught Florence and me that one of a trainer’s duties was to help the people in their town with any small Pokemon-related problems they had, and I’d grown to enjoy giving back to the community. It reminded me a bit of volunteering in the local Pokemon center with my mom. Olivine wasn’t our town, but it couldn’t hurt to help. “But, umm, can you let us get off the ship first?”
The woman smiled widely and then started waving the rest of the crowd backwards. “You heard the trainer! Back up, give them room.”
Once the people had backed away Aipom and the rest of the crew started the usual ritual of settling the ship into her new position. Henry paused his own work and came over to me with a slight frown on his face. “Remember,” he said, “we are only here for an hour, perhaps two. If we take too long we will not be able to reach Cianwood by tonight.”
“I know,” I replied, barely resisting the urge to roll my eyes. “We’ll be fast.”
Soon the ship was tied up and the crew members had slid a wooden walkway out to connect it to the pier. I made my way across with Pausso right behind me and Echo nestled in my hair. Stepping off the ship was weird; the dock was definitely stable, but it still felt like my body was swaying with the ship’s motion.
A few of the people in the crowd had left, but the woman in an apron and the shopkeeper who had spoken initially were still there. They both pounced on me as soon as I was off the ship.
“These Pidgey keep breaking into our bakery –“
“My fabrics are getting ripped to shreds, and that Meowth –“
“Woah, woah,” I said, holding my hands up as they both started talking at once. “You both have problems?”
The shopkeeper glared at the baker. “I spoke to them first,” he said in a challenging tone.
“That does not matter. Your stock is not being eaten every day.”
I sighed and glanced behind me at Florence and Snubbull, who had just gotten off of the ship. “We’ve got two cases. Split them up?”
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She looked between the two arguing people and nodded. Then she picked up Snubbull and held her up where the shopkeeper could see. “You have a Meowth problem?” she asked stoically.
I hid a smile as the shopkeeper floundered at being addressed by a preteen girl with an angry-looking bulldog. He wasn’t the first person who had seemed flabbergasted when Florence showed up to fix his Pokemon-related problem, and he probably wouldn’t be the last.
“C’mon,” I told the baker, “why don’t we walk as you tell me about your issue.”
She nodded and led me down the dock towards one of the wooden bridges that connected it to the town. “My name is Sofia, so you are aware. I run a bakery with my husband.”
“Monroe, with Drowzee and Zubat.” Echo squeaked happily, then took off from my shoulder to go investigate the new surroundings. Pausso grunted and waved his trunk in a short greeting. “You mentioned a Pidgey?”
“More than one,” the baker replied gruffly. “A whole flock seems to be involved. Last week one of the birds broke our window with an attack. Now the whole group invades the shop several times each day to steal our goods.”
That seemed oddly aggressive for Pidgey. “Have you tried covering up the window?”
“We nailed a piece of canvas over it, but they tore through that as well. Besides, we leave the window open all day in the summer and they never bothered us before.” She huffed. “Not only are they eating our stock, they also drive off our customers. No one wants to come in if they are worried a wild creature may swoop down on them at any moment.”
I frowned, feeling puzzled. Normally this kind of thing would be dealt with by the local trainers in the city, just like how I had helped deal with problems in Azalea. Why not go to one of them instead?
Before I could ask we crossed the bridge and entered Olivine proper. The city was loud and full of too many sights and smells to properly process. Vendors selling every kind of thing I could imagine patrolled the boardwalk, hawking their goods to sailors and locals alike. A wide variety of shops sprawled next to the boardwalk with buildings packed side-to-side. Occasional thin alleys appeared alongside the boardwalk that led deeper into the city. It felt like every other shop I saw catered to sailors. There were cafes that served hot, tasty food, practical stores that offered things like mending and haircuts, and many, many pubs. I was surprised to see that some of the pubs were already open and had people drinking the day away in them, even though it was barely noon.
Echo quickly returned from her exploration and clutched at my hair as she made the petulant chirping noise she usually used when there was too much going on. I quickly grabbed my hat and perched it over her, hoping that the cover would muffle some of the noise as well. At least Pausso didn’t seem bothered by all the hubbub. He just looked calmly from one spectacle to the next, taking in a darkened storefront watched over by a man covered in tattoos and a violinist playing a merry jig out on the street with equal measure.
Eventually we reached Sofia’s shop. It was nestled between a pub and a laundry house, but its bright yellow paint made it stand out from its surroundings. The name Boardwalk Bakery had been written in cheerfully bold letters on a sign above the door, with pictures of a puffy loaf of bread and a tart with vibrant blue berries bordering the words. Normally that sign would draw a person’s eye immediately, but the gaping, broken window that took up most of the wall next to the door was a little more eye-catching.
We entered the bakery to find Sofia’s husband standing guard before the counter with a broom in his hands. He seemed momentarily startled when he looked at me, but he relaxed into a smile when Pausso came into the store right afterwards. “So there was a trainer at the docks!” he said happily.
“More trouble, Felipe?” Sofia asked him with a pointed look at the broom.
“Just one this time,” he replied. “Made off with one of the scones a few minutes ago. Actually…” he narrowed his eyes as he peered out the window. “It is still out there! Little nuisance.”
I took a moment to breathe in deeply through my nose, appreciating the hearty smells of freshly-baked bread and savory pastries. After being at sea for over a week I would do almost anything for hot, fresh-cooked food. Then I looked out the window in the direction Felipe had pointed. Yes, there was a Pidgey on the ground on the opposite side of the boardwalk, pecking away at a large pastry.
I turned back to the couple. “You said they broke the window last week? Did you ever see the Pidgey around here before that?”
Sofia shook her head, but Felipe paused and thought. “Actually, yes. I have seen them lurking out in the back alley in the past. But they never acted aggressive before.”
Yeah, that made sense. I exchanged a quick look with Pausso, then nodded and turned to go outside. “Okay, I think we can handle this. Back in a sec.”
My team and I approached the Pidgey slowly, trying our best not to startle it away. The wild Pokemon stared at us suspiciously, but it didn’t try to fly off. It looked like the scone was too unwieldy for the bird to carry very far.
The Pidgey looked perfectly ordinary and was likely fairly weak, so we could probably knock it out with just one or two attacks if we wanted to. But that wasn’t usually the best way to go about things. Smith had taught me that most wild Pokemon who caused trouble in human society did so because of one of two things: a territory dispute or food. Territory was unlikely here, though if a flock had been hanging out in the alley it was possible they would try to claim ownership of the shop. But this was a bakery and they were stealing baked goods. Food was the obvious choice.
“Echo, you want to take this?” I asked quietly. She was a flying type, just like the Pidgey, so the bird might be less anxious around her.
She squeaked her agreement and crawled forward slightly so she could peek out from under my hat. The Pidgey looked startled at first when she chittered a greeting, but after a few moments the wild Pokemon tweeted its own response back.
They talked back and forth a few times, and I got the sense that Echo was introducing herself and us, explaining that we were visitors to the city. Then she asked why the Pidgey had stolen the scone.
The Pidgey eyed me warily before fluffing up its feathers and chirping its own response. Pausso twitched his ears as he translated for me. O̷l̴d̷ ̶ f̷o̷o̶d̸ ̶ s̶o̶u̸r̴c̶e̷ ̷ g̶o̶n̸e̶.̵ ̵ F̸l̷o̷c̴k̸ ̶ n̶e̵e̷d̸e̵d̸ ̴ t̴o̵ ̵ f̸i̵n̸d̶ ̸ n̷e̵w̶ ̴ f̸o̴o̵d̷.̸ ̸ T̴h̷i̴s̵ ̸ f̶o̶o̵d̸ ̸ e̶v̸e̵n̶ ̷ b̷e̸t̴t̷e̵r̶ ̵ t̸h̵a̶n̴ ̵ t̵h̸e̴ ̶ o̴l̸d̶ ̴ s̶o̴u̵r̴c̶e̴.
Yeah, that tracked with what I had expected. “Ask them where the old food came from,” I said to Echo under my breath.
Echo chirped the question, and the Pidgey motioned with a wing towards the bakery as it made its reply. B̶e̶h̷i̸n̴d̸ ̵ t̵h̷e̴ ̴ s̷t̷o̸r̶e̷, Pausso thought to me. Then he flicked an ear in thought. S̵h̷o̵u̸l̷d̷ ̵ w̵e̶ ̵ b̵r̴i̵b̶e̴ ̴ h̵i̵m̴?
“Yeah, that’s easiest. Go ahead, tell him… tell him he can have a whole loaf of bread if he comes and talks to the bakers with us.”
Fear and caution warred with hunger in the small bird’s eyes as Echo spoke. In the end, hunger won.
When the four of us re-entered the shop Felipe yelped and raised his broom defensively. I immediately put out my hands to calm him. “It’s okay! The Pidgey agreed to talk and not cause trouble as long as we give him a loaf of bread afterwards.”
Sofia spluttered. “A whole loaf? A single bird cannot even eat that much!”
“It’s not just for him,” I said, working on the same hunch that had led to my initial offer. Echo chirped in agreement, so I had gotten that right. “Listen, he says his flock used to get their food behind your shop. Did you put food out there before?”
A new comprehension lit up Felipe’s eyes. “In past weeks I left the stale bread out there for anyone who wanted it,” he said slowly. “But two weeks ago the bait shop offered to buy all our stale bread to sell to fishermen. I have not put anything out in the alley since then.”
Pausso quietly translated the man’s words for Pidgey, and the bird chirped indignantly at this news. “There you go,” I told the bakers. “They got used to getting food from you. When the food stopped, the flock got desperate and went after the source.”
Sofia’s eye twitched. “Knowing why they are thieves does not help. Can you not just battle them, make them go away?”
I shrugged. “We could do that and it would take care of the problem today. But they’re hungry and they know they can get food here. A different Pidgey will just come back tomorrow.”
Felipe sighed. “Must we return to giving them the stale bread? The money we are getting from the bait shop is not much, but every bit helps.”
I hummed and looked at the Pidgey thoughtfully. “Wild majū don’t really understand about stealing, at least from humans, but they understand deals. Drowzee, can you ask if the Pidgey flock can offer the bakers anything in exchange for their bread?”
Pausso communicated the question and the Pidgey fluttered his wings as he thought. We went through a few back-and-forths where he suggested trash from around the city, then seaweed; needless to say, the couple wasn’t interested in either of those options. Then the bird perked up. He moved to preen one wing, dislodged a downy feather that floated to the ground, then picked the feather up in his beak and held it in the air.
“Feathers,” I said, nodding. Then I turned to the two bakers. “If the flock gives you the feathers they shed, can you do something with that?”
Felipe looked stumped, but Sofia nodded slowly. “Sara from the weaver’s guild is always complaining about the price of stuffing. I am sure they would be willing to pay for feathers.”
“There you go,” I said with a grin. “Bread for feathers. Everyone wins.”
When we left the couple still seemed a little uncertain about the arrangement, though they had perked up when I pointed out that the flock would likely protect their bakery from other wild Pokemon now that they had arranged a formal deal with them. They even gave me a miniature berry pie fresh from the oven as a thank-you for solving their problem. I broke off parts for Pausso and Echo and munched on the rest contentedly as we made our way back to the ship. Really, that had gone about as well as these things ever did. The more we practiced negotiating with wild Pokemon, the better we got at it, and resolving a conflict in a way that benefited all parties always made me feel warm inside.
So I was feeling quite pleased with myself and my team as we crossed the bridge to the triangle dock. But that feeling was swept away quickly when I saw the dock proper. The pier in front of our ship was full of all sorts of people, and none of them looked particularly pleased.