In the end, every day seemed to boil down to training. How much you could do, what you were going to do and what you wanted to get out of it. This was the mantra he now lived by. A lot of the training wasn't very interesting. Repetition, building muscle and Move memory. Even the magical energy Pokemon manipulated could grow boring if you saw it too often.
Today David didn’t start the training with the usual flying exercises.
Instead, he grabbed the Tackle popping stick and sat by Pidgey. She deflated a little but settled down in a roosting position and prepared a Tackle.
Exactly what David didn’t want.
But he didn’t change anything for the first five sets. It was enough time for Pidgey to get into the training. She was better at Tackle, forming the haze in seven seconds. It wasn’t a great improvement from her previous best of eight, but David suspected the fast improvements were over. One second wasn’t a lot when she started at twenty-three. At eight seconds however, one second represented a 10% change. He would need to shift his mindset from here on. Small numbers could be huge advances.
Before Pidgey could start the sixth set, David held a hand in front of her.
“One second.” He moved across the campsite. “Tackle then hop over here.”
Pidgey stared at him for a few seconds before the haze formed. Short hop by hop she made her way over. When she reached him, David lightly tapped her with the stick. The haze didn’t ‘pop’ as much as ‘putt’.
He stood and walked back across the campsite. It hadn’t been an issue with the recent battles but only because they'd worked around it. It could have gone badly if the fight against the Bellsprout wasn’t some kind of ritualized challenge. Even if Pidgey never used Tackle offensively in the future, she needed to be able to keep it going as she moved.
“Again.” He commanded.
David knew Pidgey was done with the training when she plopped down in a roosting position. The Tackles still weren’t as strong as the stationary version, and she regressed back to eight or nine seconds to form them. But there was progress.
The walk across the campsite wasn’t physically tiring for her. She wasn’t out of breath or trembling from effort, but it appeared to have some mental component. Pidgey tucked her head in close to her body and she sat still.
David gave her a gentle pat on the head and stood to scout out the woods. He needed to find a good spot for the next bit of training.
-.-
Pidgey followed him through the woods curiously.
When he arrived back at the campsite she had been peering into the woods looking for him. Not one complaint was raised when he tried to guide her out again with him.
David led the way for another minute before stopping at a gap in the trees. The spot he’d found wasn’t a clearing as much as a three meter area around a tree stump that nature had yet to reclaim. It was perfect for the training he had in mind. There was enough space for Pidgey to get into the sky, no berries or fragile equipment around and plenty of trees for David to hide behind.
He gestured at the stump. “You remember the swirls earlier? With Sandshrew?”
In the end he'd decided to go with the strange lavender swirls over the other possible Moves. There were a couple of reasons, but the main one was that swirls were a liability at present. The other Move she seemed to use instinctively with her eyes made him uncomfortable, but it didn’t carve lines into the ground or hurt other Pokemon. His desire for a ranged Flying type move and Pidgey's joy were enough to make it a clear priority.
Pidgey stared back at him.
“This thing.” David held his hands out and swung them down. When his hands touched his thighs, he relaxed them and began to twirl his index finger in the air. He traced lines in the sky as he moved his hands away. Crouched down, he drew a sharp line in the dirt with his right finger. ”The lavender swirly things.”
Pidgey hopped forward a step before turning to him and tilting her head.
“Ehm...” He held his hands out again but paused before he launched into the routine again. “You know what I’m asking you?”
She pecked forward.
“Huh.” Maybe his excuses to Terry had more behind them than he thought. But why wasn’t Pidgey trying it then? He examined his Pokemon. She wasn’t tired. She wasn’t making noise either, so she wasn’t hungry. That left...
“I know I said not to do it earlier, but that’s because we hadn’t practiced it. We were training with Sandshrew. You shouldn’t try new things around others.” David winced and backtracked. “It would be okay in battles against Sandshrew, but you have to be careful then too.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Pidgey took one more hop towards the stump. Then she turned to look at David again and tilted her head.
“Something wrong with the stump?” David asked, confused.
She squawked and hopped towards him quickly. Pidgey slowed when she was within a meter away and stopped within touching distance. With one talon she stretched forward and drew a line by David’s foot. Task complete she hopped back and tilted her head at David again.
“Me? What I'll be doing?” David asked.
Pidgey chirped.
David pointed at one of the thicker trees. “I’ll be hiding behind that.”
Pidgey hopped onto the stump.
Her first takeoff lacked the telltale lavender color. The second was more successful with the twists carving light lines on the earth. None reached David’s tree, but he resolved to stand further back anyway. The third and fourth attempts were as powerful as each other and stronger than the second. David called a halt here.
When he was certain Pidgey had heard and was watching him, David stepped out from behind the tree. “Can you try without flying? No launch?”
She shifted on the stump.
He kneeled down and waved his hands wide to send a small huff of wind forward. He kept his body steady.
Pidgey let out a hesitant chirp.
David retreated behind the tree.
There were no lavender swirls during her next few attempts. He wasn't dissuaded. It might slow the Move's progress but Pidgey couldn’t damage the environment every time she took off. Training this way might help her make this a distinct Move rather than an accident too.
Most of Pidgey’s trouble came from controlling her wings and the force generated from each swing. David hadn’t been lying to Terry when he said Pidgey used Flying type energy to take off. He hadn't been telling the whole truth either. Pidgey could launch into the air with a purely physical flap, but she wouldn't get very far. He hadn't realized just how high she seemed to get with her launches until he saw the energy less version. It was hard to tell her limit when she was above his head either way.
Pidgey learned to anchor herself in the wood after the second try. Progress sped up when David suggested she try to flap forward.
Her first few attempts at flapping forward were clumsy and hesitant. It wasn’t like she’d never moved her wings in that way before or smacked anything with them, but she wouldn’t do the motion with such force.
Seeing this hesitancy, David called another stop and stepped out to lead Pidgey through a series of stretches. Well, he tried to. He explained the idea to Pidgey, and she did somewhat follow his stretches or change her own when he did.
I will go down in history as the first person to teach a Pokemon yoga. David thought and smiled to himself.
He quickly forgot about it as he remembered Fighting type Pokemon and that he didn’t know how to do yoga himself.
When they returned to training, Pidgey’s movements were smoother. Attempt after attempt followed. They had no success. Pidgey began to tremble.
“Maybe we should stop for the night,” David called.
Pidgey let out an angry squawk and swung forward one last time. A single small thread of lavender spiraled forward and disappeared into the ground. She had done it.
“Woo!!” He shouted and stepped out. “Great job Pidgey!”
Pidgey sagged and settled into a roost. She was too tired to even puff herself up in victory.
David stepped forward and picked her up after a quick head pat. He carried her back to the campsite. That night she was too tired for anything beyond a few stories of his home.
-.-
The morning patrol went quickly.
There was no damage to the outer fence and the first patrol went off without any issue. David thought he was going to be able to give Pidgey a sleep in until he came across the two Spearow.
Pidgey hopped up from a roosting position after her release, tiredness evaporating as she caught sight of the two wild Pokemon. Between her shrill squawk and wing flapping and his shouting and arm waving, the two Pokemon shot off. Pidgey cawed after them a couple of times before settling back into a roost. She closed her eyes before making her usual ‘recall me’ chirps.
David told the story to a poker-faced Oliver over a porridge or gruel breakfast. The cereal had a caramel taste, but it seemed to be from the grain rather than any additives. Oliver quickly moved the conversation to the state of the barrier fence and David’s schedule. He had a job for David in the afternoon. Well, that or he wanted to avoid more stories from a new trainer.
Even so, Oliver passed David a rare Spelon berry for Pidgey as he left.
-.-
Sarah didn’t bring any snacks this morning, but everyone was in a good mood all the same. This mood continued all the way through the battles.
David fought Tulia first. The battle was short and ended in the same way his battle with Martin had. Tulia’s Bellsprout tried hard, but it was unable to get an edge over Pidgey’s natural advantages. The fact Pidgey had fought and won against a tougher Bellsprout before arriving in Celadon didn’t help Tulia's chances.
The training grounds were quieter on the third day of the season. Fewer trainers were out fighting and David could see why. The four locals were able to predict the fights between the four of them without any difficulty. Repeated battles against the same Pokemon, especially Pokemon with so few Moves, could only be so effective. At a certain point you were better off training by yourself.
He suggested adding more people to the training group when they reached that point themselves, but the others were oddly hesitant. Sarah explained this away with a comment on how people willing to agree to their training format were rare, but it left him suspicious. There had to be some trainers uninterested in cash battles.
Danny and he fought a disappointing match. Not because he lost, the battle was called a draw, but because it was very back and forth with no suspense or excitement. Pidgey rushed Bulbasaur before the Grass type could get a Growth off. From there it was back and forth between Tackle, Peck and Vine Whip. Pidgey prevented Bulbasaur from shifting the balance with a Growl or Growth. The battle stagnated. Bulbasaur hit harder but Pidgey defended well with Tackle and wasn’t all that affected by the type ineffective Vine Whip. Neither Danny nor David had any tricks left after two days of battling and watching each other.
The group finished up early and without a group training session. No one had any group exercises and everyone seemed to have something for their Pokemon to work on alone. Every match established a pecking order between the Pokemon and no one wanted to be at the bottom.
Back home David and Pidgey had a bit of time before Oliver came for the job.
“Training?” David asked the small bird.