We stayed at the broken-down farmhouse that night, sleeping in shifts. One person stayed awake at all times to help Esther tend to the injured farmer, with one Pokemon on alert outside the house each time just in case the monster came back. During my shift the herbal tea that Esther had brewed finally kicked in enough for Clara’s pain to be dulled, and Esther sent me off to find straight sticks to use in a makeshift splint. Luckily, I hadn’t needed to go far; the yuzu orchard was right outside, and Echo came along with me to keep me safe as I went looking for proper materials.

Helping Esther make the splint and bind Clara’s broken arm in it was not fun. Even though the tea had numbed her senses, the farmer still groaned in pain throughout the procedure. It didn’t help that I had to hold the sticks very still while Esther wound the bandages in place, which was nearly impossible for me to do since my hands were shaking from nerves. I had never been interested in medicine before, and I was even less interested now.

Morning dawned before I was ready. Isaac went over to the farmhouse where Zuri’s family lived to ask them for help, and an older man and woman who had to be the captain’s parents came over right away. As soon as they had gotten settled in, Esther waved us off, telling us to do what we had to.

We didn’t even need to prepare, not really. Isaac and Charity had already gathered provisions for our stakeout nights, and we were all dressed in sturdy, warm traveling clothing that would serve just fine on a hike. We were as prepared as we were going to get. Still, I would have liked an excuse to spend more time back at the town, making a plan with Sheng and Wei or just spending time with Tanaji and the rest of the Relicanth’s crew.

We made our way down the rest of the path until it turned off towards the last farmhouse. Then we had to pick our way across the rocky, uneven land that separated Cianwood from the mountain. Natu hopped at the head of the party alongside Isaac; he was following the directions that Esther had given us for getting up the mountain the other day, and Natu was there to sense when the monster was nearby. The rest of us followed in a loose cluster behind the two of them. I found myself often glancing behind us and to the sides as we walked. Sure, we were safe from the monster (for now), but we were still in a wild territory. Who knew what other kinds of angry Pokemon might turn up during our hike?

After a few minutes Florence fell back to walk next to me. “We should probably make a plan,” she told me in a low voice.

I nodded shortly and looked at the group ahead of us. “If it’s a rock type, it’ll be weak to grass and water,” I pointed out. “So Skiploom can take the lead, and maybe Oddish and Maisy can be support?”

“I think we should focus on conditions first,” she said. “If we can make the creature fall asleep we will be at a distinct advantage. Your team can help with that.”

That made sense. In a way, this situation wasn’t too different from the wild war in Violet. If we used Hypnosis and Supersonic to disorient the monster, it would hopefully be easier to catch.

“Skiploom can still be our main attacker if putting the majū to sleep does not work, and I have a plan for Natu as well,” Florence continued as she looked ahead at where the psychic bird was doing her usual teleport hops from one location to the next. “As for Snubbull, perhaps she should stay back with Charity and Isaac, to keep them safe. I do not think she would be able to do much against such a large majū, not with her current moves.”

“Sure, that makes sense.” I swung my arms back and forth idly, then looked sidelong at my friend. “So… are you sure we can actually take this thing down?”

“Of course we can,” she said confidently. Then she looked back at me and frowned. “Are you worried?”

“I mean, obviously,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Whatever this thing is, it’s killed multiple people, one of them literally last night. What if it hurts one of us?” Already I was fretting and trying to come up with plans for what I would do if Pausso or Echo were badly injured. Pausso was simple enough, I could just return him until we were back at the town. What about Echo? Carry her back to the town, or use one of the spare balls to capture her temporarily so that she could be transported safely? I still hadn’t decided if the safety offered by a poke ball was worth going against Echo’s wishes.

Florence’s enthusiasm dimmed a bit as she thought through the possibilities, though she still looked way too confident in my opinion. “I suppose you are right. This is dangerous. Still… I am glad we are finally going after the monster.”

“Why?” I asked. “I mean, I know we have to, but you seem so eager about it.”

She flushed a bit and looked down, keeping her eyes on the uneven terrain. “This is the sort of thing I have dreamed of my whole life,” she admitted. “Rescuing people in danger, saving whole villages from attacking majū… that sort of thing. Now, for the first time, I can help others the way I always wanted to. Perhaps it is in bad taste, but I am excited.” Then she hesitated before looking back up at me with a grimace. “Though thinking of how one of my team could be injured does make this feel more serious.”

“Not much we can do except come up with plans in advance,” I replied with a shrug. “Speaking of, we should figure out positions now so Hypnosis doesn’t hit your team too…”

We talked strategy that way until the ground started to slope upwards. Then I had to stop talking so I could focus more on the terrain. We were following a rough strip of ground that served as a natural path for the Pokemon of the mountain, so there wasn’t much undergrowth, but the ground was still really uneven. Plus there were a bunch of places where the ground sloped upward at a much steeper rate than I was used to. Probably the trickiest spot was a hill where a bunch of large rocks had collapsed and covered the side of the mountain’s face, forming a treacherous path up to a higher spot where the path resumed.

I ended up returning Pausso, since the rocks were too difficult for him to manage, and hefted myself on top of the largest rock at the base of the pile. From there I started picking my way up the rest of the stones, stepping with care since every movement ran the risk of dislodging other rocks. I started to feel less nervous after half a minute of climbing this way. Sure, it felt dangerous, but as long as I moved intentionally it was manageable.

Then I heard a rumbling of rocks underneath me and looked back down. Florence was just a few feet below me, but Isaac and Charity were much further down. Based on Isaac’s windmilling arms, he had just been sent back to the bottom after his initial attempt to climb up the rocks. “Perhaps send a rope down once you reach the top?” he called up to the two of us.

I gave him a thumbs up, then turned back to the mountain. I kept up my careful climb, and as I did so a slow grin crept its way across my face.

Yes, I was still worried about the monster, and yes, I still didn’t pick things up quite as quickly as Florence did. But six months ago I would never have been able to climb up this pile of rocks with so much confidence. I would have been stuck down there with Isaac and Charity, feeling out of place.

I really was making progress! It was just progress that moved slowly, at a pace that suited me.

We got to the top of that hill and I tied a rope from my bag around a tree with one of the knots Tanaji had taught me. It hung all the way down to the bottom, where the others were able to use it to make their way up the rocks. I ended up leaving it in place even after Isaac and Charity reached the top, since we would probably need it when we made our way back down.

After that climb, the walk got easier again. I released Pausso to walk next to me and the two of us helped each other up the steepest parts of the path while Echo scouted ahead. After a while I noticed that he was being a bit twitchy. Every so often he would turn suddenly to look in a particular direction, but when I looked the same way there wouldn’t be anything there.

On maybe the fifth or sixth time that that happened, I noticed something else. Pausso was feeling… excited?

“Okay, what’s got you so jumpy?” I asked as he turned back to focus on the path ahead of us again. I noticed as I spoke that his trunk had curled slightly the way it always did when he was feeling pleased about something.

I̷…̵ ̷ t̷h̴i̴n̵k̴ ̴ I̴ ̵ c̶a̸n̸ ̷ s̶e̷n̴s̴e̴ ̷ o̸t̷h̸e̵r̸s̶ ̴ n̶o̴w̵, he thought to me with a mixture of hesitance and pride. L̵i̴k̶e̵ ̵ N̵a̷t̷u̶ ̶ d̷o̶e̴s̶.

“Wait, really?” I blinked at him, then grinned. “That’s great!”

S̴t̷i̷l̴l̷ ̷ f̷u̸z̵z̴y̸, he added, b̸u̵t̷ ̶ s̴o̶m̸e̴o̷n̵e̸ ̴ w̴i̴l̴l̶ ̴ c̷o̴m̶e̴ ̶ –̴ ̴ t̸h̵e̵r̶e̴.

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He pointed forward and to the right side of the path, and I looked just in time to see a Dunsparce poke its head out of the bushes. The creature flicked a tongue out at us, tasting the air, then turned around and dove back into the bushes so it could slither away.

“Pausso, that’s so cool,” I told him, offering him a high-five. His ears twitched happily as he accepted and slapped his palm against mine. “When did you figure it out?”

T̵w̸o̶ ̸ n̷i̵g̴h̷t̵s̴ ̵ a̷g̴o̸,̵ ̶ m̴a̸y̵b̵e̷. He paused and waited as I pushed back a branch that had grown over the path so we could walk past it. F̴o̷c̷u̴s̷i̶n̶g̶ ̶ d̴u̸r̷i̵n̴g̴ ̶ t̴h̴e̸ ̴ n̵i̷g̷h̵t̵ ̴ w̸a̷t̷c̷h̷e̶s̸ ̸ h̶a̸s̵ ̷ h̴e̵l̸p̵e̷d̸.

I nodded, then paused as I realized something. That Dunsparce had come and looked at us… and then it had backed off. That hadn’t been how wild Pokemon had treated us in past travels. Come to think of it, I had only noticed a few wild Pokemon on the hike so far, and none of them had bothered us.

“Are there other Pokemon nearby?” I asked him, lowering my voice as I looked from side to side.

A̶ ̴ f̷e̷w̵, he thought back immediately. T̸h̸e̵y̸ ̶ h̶a̵v̵e̴ ̴ b̵e̸e̴n̵ ̵ a̵v̷o̴i̸d̷i̴n̶g̴ ̶ u̶s̴.

Huh. I supposed it was possible that they could tell we were strong, and we did have quite a big group with four humans and seven Pokemon altogether. But there had to be plenty of wild Pokemon out there that were stronger than us. Why hadn’t they taken offense at our presence?

I asked Pausso what he thought, and he crinkled his trunk in a puzzled way for a few seconds before brightening. S̷o̶m̶e̵o̵n̸e̶ ̶ u̴p̵ ̵ a̵h̴e̵a̸d̶, he told me. W̶e̴ ̷ c̸a̵n̵ ̶ a̸s̴k̸ ̶ t̶h̷e̸m̶.

I nodded in agreement and the two of us pushed forward to catch up with Natu, Isaac, and Florence, who were now walking at the head of the group. Just before we got there, Echo came flying from ahead of us and squeaked at me urgently.

“What –“ I let out a little ooph noise as she collided with my chest and dug her wingtips into the fabric of my cloak, still squeaking all the while. “Woah, woah! What’s wrong?”

“Bat, zuzu bah!” she chittered urgently as she pulled at my cloak with her wingtips. Next to me, Pausso’s ears went up straight.

S̴o̴m̷e̸o̷n̵e̵ ̶ h̸u̸r̷t̵ ̸ u̴p̴ ̵ a̸h̸e̸a̷d̸, he thought to me quickly. G̶o̷ ̷ n̵o̴w̷?

I felt a spike of anxiety surge through my chest, but I smothered the feeling. I knew that I needed to be responsible. “Yeah, let’s go,” I agreed. Echo pushed herself off of my chest and took off forward through the air, and Pausso and I went after her.

I heard Isaac exclaim in surprise as we pushed past him and started running up the path, and moments later Natu appeared in a zip of teleportation just ahead of me. A fast glance behind showed that Florence was running after us, though the rest of the group was still trailing in the back. Hopefully Skiploom and Snubbull could keep an eye on the others and keep them safe.

I broke through a fresh Spinarak web that had been strung between two trees, struggled my way up a steep incline of packed dirt, and then slowed down as the trail narrowed to a lip of ground only a few feet wide that hugged the side of the mountain. That path led forward perhaps a dozen feet before suddenly turning to the right, leading us into a little ravine.

I almost didn’t realize that the shape ahead of us was a Pokemon, at least not at first. It just looked like an unusual rock. But Natu and Pausso both made a beeline for it, and after a moment I recognized that red coloring and those white circles.

“It’s a Shuckle, she says it’s hurt,” I told Florence hurriedly as we raced up after our Pokemon. Echo had already landed next to the Shuckle’s shell and was squeaking at it in a reassuring tone. I crouched down next to the wild Pokemon and bit my lip. There were cracks running through the shell, and one part had broken off entirely. I could see the Shuckle’s body poking out underneath the missing part, and it looked like its yellow limbs were streaked with blood.

“Are they still breathing?” Florence asked in a hushed voice.

Pausso nodded his trunk in confirmation, then looked back up at me. S̸h̴e̴ ̷ s̷t̷i̸l̸l̶ ̷ a̷l̵i̶v̶e̵,̷ ̶ b̷u̵t̸ ̷ b̴a̸d̸l̸y̴ ̸ h̶u̶r̶t̶, he thought. Then his ears flicked and he looked back down. W̴a̵k̴i̷n̸g̸ ̵ u̶p̷ ̷ n̸o̸w̷.

Indeed, the body inside the shell was moving just a bit. After a moment a small yellow head appeared in one of the holes and peered out at us all through narrowed eyes. I sucked in a breath as I saw that the Shuckle had a giant gash on the top of her head that was still trickling blood into one of her eyes.

“Shuuu,” the Pokemon whimpered. She kept her head hidden within her shell, clearly not trusting us enough to come out entirely.

“It’s okay,” I said automatically, but Florence elbowed me and gave me a look. Right; the Shuckle wouldn’t be able to understand.

That was okay, because our Pokemon had already taken over. Echo kept talking quickly in her reassuring tone, and that seemed to put the Shuckle at ease. She slowly extended her head until it was a few inches out of her shell, then craned her neck around to look at Echo properly.

“Kle,” the little yellow Pokemon said. “Shuh shuh, kle.” Even talking that much seemed to exhaust her, as she slowly pulled her head back into her shell again and closed her eyes.

I felt a spike of concern from Pausso, and I immediately looked at him for a translation. A̷t̷t̸a̴c̶k̸e̸d̸ ̷ b̴y̵ ̷ t̷h̴e̴ ̷ o̶n̶e̸ ̴ u̸p̴ ̴ a̶b̸o̴v̸e̴, he said with a gesture towards the top of the ravine.

A shiver ran up my spine, especially when Natu focused on the top of the ravine and nodded her whole body in a silent answer to the question I hadn’t had time to ask.

“The monster hurt her,” I said out loud for Florence’s benefit. Behind us I heard a scuffing noise, and when I glanced backwards I saw that the rest of the group had finally caught up. “It’s right up there.”

I turned back around again and immediately raised my eyebrows. Florence must have heard what I’d said, but she wasn’t racing off already to confront the monster. Instead, she had pulled forward her satchel and was rummaging through it efficiently.

Then in one smooth movement she pulled out a spare poke ball, tapped it against Shuckle’s shell, and captured her.

Echo squeaked in surprise as the rock-type was sucked into the ball and out of sight. I jumped a bit too, then looked at Florence for an explanation.

“Well, she was injured, after all,” she said in a gruff tone as she looked at the ball in her hand. It shook just once before it went still. “Perhaps if we bring her back to Esther, she can help.”

I nodded and turned back towards Isaac and Charity to catch them up on the situation. As I talked Florence hurried over to Skiploom and Snubbull to check them both over. She finally looked suitably worried about our situation, but I didn’t press her about it.

It only took a minute of quiet discussion before we were all hurrying alongside the ravine wall, looking for a way up. And we found one soon enough. There was a place where the wall had crumbled naturally over time, and there were several ledges that we could use to make our way up to the top. I breathed faster than usual for the entire climb, and my heart was pounding due to more than just the elevation by the time I reached the last ledge.

As soon as I got there, I peered over the edge of the ridge. Then I sucked in a breath. A large clearing stood in front of us with a cliff that held a cave blocking the rear. I couldn’t see far into the cave, but that didn’t matter, because the Pokemon that stood in the clearing had to be our culprit. It was a Rhydon, that much was clear, but it was huge, much bigger than any Rhydon I’d ever heard of before. It had to be more than ten feet tall, easily. How could a wild Pokemon possibly get that big?

The Rhydon had been busy digging at something in the ground before, but now it paused. Abruptly it twisted around and looked out towards where we were, a low growl coming out of its throat. I ducked down below the ridge to hide just in time, but before I lost sight of the giant Pokemon I saw something that made my skin break out in goosebumps.

Red eyes, the injured farmer had said. Well, they weren’t just red in color. The Rhydon’s eyes glowed red, a piercing, blazing red like something out of a horror film. It had to be a sign. This was no normal Pokemon; this creature was truly the monster we had named it before.