If you added together the trips between cities, the expeditions for wild Pokemon battles and the time spent foraging, David had spent nearly a month and a half in the wilds of this world. It was a crash course in survival and he’d passed every test so far. Yet, for all that experience, he was not ready to face some situations.
Like the one in front of him.
Four tents waited in the shade of a lone tree. Three small sized ones in green, sky blue, and camo, and one larger in striped red and green. David called them ‘small’, yet compared to his own tent they felt like campervans. Each could have easily held two or even three people without needing to stack. The tents hid from view the fire whose smoke had drawn him here. This close to the source, the wind wasn’t still enough to leave the fumes rise unhindered. He could smell the wood they burned, which reminded him of citrus and pine, and meat roasting. The sounds of the inhabitants were carried with the wind. A disgruntled murmur was met with laughter.
This was not a White Pokeball convoy, nor a professional setup. These tents were set up by novices. The voices were young and needlessly loud in an unknown territory. Trainers. New trainers like him.
It was puzzling enough that David lingered, unsure of how to approach. He didn’t give much thought to turning around. It would have been easy to avoid the smoke column, or even now, retreat from the campsite, but he had a long week or two of hiking ahead, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity for information. So how to do it?
Nothing about the campsite was obviously unwelcoming or violent. He would need to present himself as the same.
The sound of gentle wingbeats above, quiet enough not to be heard by the voice at the fire, made David look down at his two pokeballs and consider. Friendly. Hiding nothing. The choice was obvious. He made a face at the upcoming complaints and signaled Cloudburst to come down with lots of waving, uncoordinated hand gestures.
She took her time coming down to land, likely expecting what he had planned. The confirmation made her turn away from him, but thankfully, not squawk in anger. David recalled her to her pokeball with only a little more cajoling and a whisper to be ready. It was perhaps unneeded — both the recall and whisper, but best to be careful. Two Pokemon out and ready read spoiling for a fight in his mind. So did a Pokemon hovering above everyone’s head unfortunately, and Cloudburst lost a lot of power and mobility on the ground. It was an easy choice in the end.
With a quick few whispers to Venonat — more for David to organize the plan in his mind than anything else — he approached.
“Hello,” He called.
“Ah!”
A thump from behind the tents made David wince, and lower his hand towards his belt.
The laughter that followed the thump was more pleasant. When it became less desperate, a head popped up from behind the tents.
“Hello-“ The man interrupted himself with a giggle. ”-back!”
He had navy hair in the same shade as a nice suit. His face was deeply tanned or olive skinned and the only way David could describe his features was long. Not that his head wasn’t normal sized or anything, just that it, his nose and eyes were all elongated instead of round.
“Mind if I come closer?”
The floating head turned to gauge his companion’s reactions. He looked straight down before facing David again, and a smile tweaked at his lips. “Do! All aboard.”
The groans from behind him signaled to David that the odd turn of phrase was a joke rather than a common phrase.
Feeling more confident that these people weren’t members of Team Rocket, or out to ambush him, and yet still out of his comfort zone, David walked forward again.
The rest of the campers appeared as he stepped around the tents. There were five of them, including floating head. Three women and two men. They all had those slightly long facial features, and given that three out of the five had blue hair, David felt comfortable enough to say they all shared a nationality – or was it city-ality here?
“Have they a name?” A woman with a lighter shade of blue hair asked, waving at his giant fuzzy bug. She was sitting down on the ground by the fire, leaning back against the legs of another woman in a chair.
David shook his head. “He doesn’t no.”
“But I’m sure you do,” Floating head, who did in fact have a body, chimed in with a teasing tone. He seemed to be the biggest of the group, with bulky arms, but then again, he was the only member of the group standing. “I’m Limu.”
“Coral,” the light blue-haired woman who’d been interested in Venonat said with a roll of her eyes.
“Enele!” The woman that Coral was leaning against waved with one hand. Her other was busy combing Coral’s hair. Enele’s hair was as ginger as a faded traffic cone.
A man sitting on the other side dipped a drink bottle towards David. He was smaller than Limu, and had a swimmer’s build. “Reed.”
“Arch,” the final woman grumbled, brushing a bit of dirt off her chair. She was the source of the thump then.
“David,” He said with a smile. “And this is Venonat.”
Venonat’s antennae twitched, doing as well under the attention of all five of them as David was. Only the five of them. Not one of them had a Pokemon out, which felt very foolish to him.
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The introduction of his Pokemon got a warm smile from Coral and Enele and a snort from Arch.
“What brings you to this neck of the woods?” Limu asked, moving to sit down on his own chair.
David was left standing just outside the circle around the fire. It was an awkward spot. “I’m coming from Fuchsia.” He shrugged. The destination was still up in the air. “Heading north.”
“Us too!” Coral said.
Enele shuddered behind her and combed through Coral’s blue hair with increased urgency. “Thank Arceus we’re out of that swamp. It was bad enough the first time.”
“It was worse the first time.” Arch interrupted with a grumble.
“No, we had hot showers waiting the first time,” Enele argued. “We’re weeks away from more now, and it was both wetter and less interesting the second time.”
“Still objectively worse the first time. The second time we were prepared.”
Reed caught David’s eyes and rolled his own. It wasn’t the first time the swimmer had listened to these complaints then.
“I think,” Limu began, cutting across Enele’s building rebuttal. “That we can all agree that it’s taurosshit we had to do it a second time more than anything. Route 17 should not be closed.”
There were agreeable murmurs all round, and another eye roll from Reed. Still, the distraction seemed to work and when Enele and Arch spoke again, it was to support the same argument.
“Total tauroshit,” Arch agreed.
“A conspiracy against Vermillion!” Enele complained, throwing her hands up and tugging at Coral’s hair in the process. At the “Ow!”, Enele’s eyes widened, and she was quick with flustered apologies.
The others started laughing, and David, too shocked at how quickly four out of the five had seemingly forgotten the stranger in their midst, said nothing.
Now blushing, Enele continued. “Cerulean was definitely holding back and waiting for the season to start. They know we take the same route for our gym challenges every year!”
“You think they’re holding out in negotiations to annoy new trainers on their journeys?” Reed asked with a hint of incredulity. It went unnoticed by Enele, but Arch, who was sitting beside him, punched him in the shoulder.
“Yes!” Enele nodded, fingers furiously combing hair now. “Now we have to go all the way back around we lose so much time. I think they did it for the advantage in the competitions and!-” She leaned forward. “-so we would travel to Vermillion for earlier badges. Think about it! Now we can’t go to Celadon, we might as well go that extra step to Vermillion on the way back. We’re at a disadvantage against either - same thing, right? They want all the money that comes from a Journey cutoff point.”
“Aren’t they asking for more money to help patrol?” Limu asked, dubious.
“Exactly, it’s about the money!”
Limu didn’t look any less dubious, but Enele was triumphant anyway.
It was all new to David, but it did tell him where these five were from, and likely why none of them had any Pokemon out. The clearing full of tents was far too dry for a water type, and that’s even if salt water Pokemon did well in freshwater. Cerulean city, home of the water gym, was on the seashore.
“You don’t know anything about the Route ahead?” Reed asked David, abruptly changing the conversation the first chance he had. He looked a little desperate, reminding David that sometimes it wasn’t too bad to be traveling alone. By the looks of things, he’d heard five times fewer complaints leaving Fuchsia — and he’d had a lot of complaints.
David shook his head. “No, I was hoping you would.”
“It’s not bog,” Arch snorted.
“Do you think we’ll make it back in time for the derby?” Reed nearly shouted, knowing where that comment was going after one failed conversation change already.
“Nope!” Limu said, taking a sip of his own drink.
“I hope we do,” Coral said sadly. “One of the sensational sisters is going to open it.”
“It better be Lily,” Enele muttered, ignoring the possibility that they wouldn’t be there. “She’s the best.”
“It’ll be her or Violet.” Arch said, twisting a strand of her blond hair between her fingers. “Daisy does nothing but patrol these days. No chance she’s there.”
“Either would be fine by me,” Limu said with a sly grin, looking between Reed and David. Arch had a punch waiting for him.
“What do you think of the derby?” Coral asked David, tilting her head and earning an admonishing slap from Enele behind her.
David raised his eyebrows and shrugged. “I’ve never been.” All the word conjured for him were those giant monster truck rallies. Demolition derbies. Somehow he doubted that translated well here — at least he hoped it didn’t.
It was the wrong thing to say. Coral and Enele launched into a shared spiel about the derbies, clearly practiced for tourists. From there, the conversation turned to favorite moments from previous years. From what he heard, the derby seemed to be a mix of performative art and complex battles and Moves in and under water.
After five minutes of talking, Limu and Arch noticed he was still standing and made some space. For the rest of the night, David didn’t get many words in, and when he did, it was often used to launch conversations he was swiftly left behind in. When he stepped away to put up his tent, and to feed and release Pidgey and Venonat, he did not hurry back.
-.-
The next morning, David woke when the sun turned his orange tent into a lampshade. He was the first to rise. After recalling the sleeping Venonat, it came time to decide what to do — wait for the others, or head off alone.
David packed quickly. While the five were nice, he hadn’t been easy friends with any of them, and didn’t know them well enough to sign up for weeks of traveling together.
A zip hissed while he was squashing his tent into the straps under his backpack. For a brief moment, a floating head popped out, inspecting warily before relaxing.
“You’re an early riser,” Limu said around a yawn, scratching his belly.
“Venonat’s nocturnal,” David replied and yawned back.
Limu took a seat by the long cold fire. Loud though they may have been, all five were experienced enough at camping to wet the fire before going to sleep. “You heading out then?”
David nodded. “I want to keep heading east for a bit, hit the coast before heading north.”
“Fair.” Limu stretched. “We’re going as the Fearow flies to Vermilion.” He made a face. “Rank depending, of course. There’s a lot we can cut out by cutting across the water.”
“I’ll have to look that up. I didn’t realize the ranks extended to the water.”
Limu grunted. “Don’t until you have a swimmer yourself.”
The conversation faltered at that.
“Best of luck.”
“See you about.”
-.-
David spent the rest of the day in a blissful silence broken only by Pokemon cries and shouted instructions. It was almost enough to make him regret the choice. Almost.
That night, he camped on the plains with the blunt scent of salt on the air. He woke up the next morning to loud squawking.