“Ah ah aah,” David hissed, slowly pulling his right shoe off.
Pidgey let out a light shrill, hopping closer. She twitched worriedly, and ducked her head close to get a look at his foot.
Too close. Her eyes widened and her feathers bunched as she caught the whiff that was released by the now free foot and socks.
“Pii!” Cloudburst screamed, hopping back.
David scoffed. “Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s wash day.” He waved his hand at the stream behind them and pulled his socks off. He couldn’t help but scrunch his face up as another wave of smell hit him. All the battle, running and injury had not been good for hygiene.
“Ah,” David grunted again as he rolled his now exposed ankle. It was definitely sprained and a day of slow walking had not been good for it. A dark purple bruise was forming under his.. ankle bone? Ankle bump?
“Where’s google when you need it?” David complained.
Pidgey squawked at him, hopping about to get a good look as he moved his ankle but not making the mistake of getting too close again.
His ankle was definitely swelling too. He could nearly see the red, irritated skin expanding before his eyes.
“Fuck,” David said. He’d have to take it easy tomorrow. He should have done so today but he didn’t want to remain in that Geodude’s vicinity. It seemed to be a particularly spiteful Pokemon and he wouldn’t be surprised if it chased them down for round two.
Cloudburst let out another worried light shrill and David turned to her.
“Alright, I looked at my ankle. Now it’s your turn.”
She pulled her wings tight and looked around their campsite. A hop took her a little further away.
David sighed. “You agreed to a check up earlier. I know that Geodude hit you.”
Pidgey squawked but she did turn back to him. Now though she directed her gaze at his foot.. and his sock.
David picked up the sock and tossed it towards the stream. “There. And don’t complain too much - this is nothing compared to a Grimer.” He shuddered at both the memory and the smell that had lingered all that day. How anyone had kept their composure while speaking to him then, he didn’ know.
Pidgey reluctantly hopped closer as he rummaged through his backpack. He pulled out the last of the herbal poultice and their one potion.
“Where was it?” David muttered as Pidgey finally got close enough that he could get a good look.
She turned and David winced as he saw the matted blood on her left side.
“Christ Pidgey, you should have let me look at this earlier.“
She fluffed her wings and let out a loud chirp.
“Yeah, yeah. I get it. You were the big winner.” David grumbled, reaching forward and picking her up.
Cloudburst let out a surprised shrill, but didn’t struggle as David hobbled over to the stream. With the water he was able to wash away the dried blood and get a good look at her side. She had a few cuts, mostly light scrapes aside from the broken skin where the rock must have struck with a point. Most of the blood had come from the cracked shafts of feathers.
David carefully watched the now clean feathers, but the blood didn’t continue to drip. He sighed in relief. ‘How to wing it!’ had been clear. If there was a constant drip of blood from the broken feathers, he would have a problem. Even a small amount added up over time and birds were small enough that small amounts to a human were big for them. He patted Cloudburst's head, smoothing the feathers there down.
“I hope you knew that everything was fine and weren’t just guessing.”
Pidgey let out a slow squawk and turned her head away.
“Right, right,” David muttered and went back to his inspection. Pidgey let out a quiet shriek as he pressed against the skin around the wound. Bruising too then.
“We’re both resting for the next few days it seems.” David picked her up and hopped back to the backpack, something Pidgey found very amusing judging by her cawing. Once there he lathered her side with the poultice, likely using too much but it was the end of the tub anyway.
He held Pigey in place afterwards and turned her to face him. “Leave it there you hear? I don’t want to see you washing all that off or scraping it off a tree of the grass.”
Pidgey squirmed and David let her leave. She hopped away and he turned to the backpack and tent to be unpacked.
Later, as Pidgey dug into a Berry and he munched on some kind of puffed grain and salad, he considered the battle again.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“You did that thing again,” David said aloud finally.
Pidgey looked up from her Cheri berry.
“At the end,” David clarified. “When you hit Geodude, you did the same thing you did during the Tackle flight training.”
She looked at him blankly.
“You moved faster,” David mused. He’d been waiting for her to Tackle the Geodude, but she’d suddenly moved fast enough to take both him and the Geodude by surprise. It was funny, now that he’d seen it in action it kind of looked like Sarah’s Rattata when he used..
David shut that thought down quickly. Oliver’s words about the mental aspect of custom commands ringing through his head.
‘You cannot think of the original command’.
Maybe he could do something with this. There must be some word they could use instead of Qui-
Cheri berries. David looked around frantically for more things to focus on. Salad, greeny-red leaves with the small nuggets of grain, cream ovals split in half by black lines.
‘Shit,’ David thought. ‘This might be more difficult than I realised.’
-.-
Pidgey stiffened and David slowed.
“What is it?” He whispered, slowly walking closer to her. Not that he could move quickly. His ankle was still sore this morning. Pidgey too, was still a little sore but she was in much better shape. Especially considering she’d been hit by the equivalent of a cannon yesterday while he had just fallen over himself.
He was more than a little jealous of his Pokemon’s constitution.
Pidgey hopped forward, warily sensing something that David couldn’t. She let out a quiet, hesitant light shrill.
“Let’s skirt around it,” David said instantly. They were not in a good shape for a confrontation. Pidgey could fight, but it wasn’t worth the risk.
He began to do just that, heading right and towards the ridge. They’d been avoiding it all day, fearing more surly Geodudes, but the trees were starting to thin. The rockface might be the best spot to hide or create some distance between whatever Pidgey had sensed.
It was slow, tense going with David’s hobble and attempts to avoid making any noise by watching his steps, but it was progress.
“-then-Fr..-”
David slowed. Voices. More noise. Laughter too. He was still hesitant, but the fact it was people rather than a wild Pokemon made it a more complicated decision. It could be Team Rocket. It could be the Psychic Voyants. It could be the ‘wagon’ that Oliver was getting him a place on. It could be random strangers.
David bit his lip and looked at Pidgey. “We’ll take a look. Stay close.”
Silently cursing his ankle, he began to walk back the way he came. The chatter increased as he drew closer and the conversations became easier to make out. Thankfully they were nothing sinister, just gossip about people or cards and the tournament in Celadon. It was all friendly.
The trees thinned out more and David even saw a stump or two - a rare sight even with the number of woods he’d been walking through. It was bad news for David and Pidgey who were trying to remain hidden. It made the scouting side of their mission easier though.
The large metallic containers reflecting light made him think he’d stumbled on a White Pokeball convoy, but as more appeared he began to doubt that. There were far too many. Easily triple if not quadruple the amount in the convoy that Noah had led. The containers and their draw Pokemon, Rhyhorn and Tauros, were separated into distinct groups but the same didn’t hold for the people. They wandered around chatting, gathering around unlit campfires or wandering about. Some Pokemon wandered around too, but always with people.
“Stay close,” David said to Pidgey. “I think this is our destination.” He couldn’t see a bridge, but he couldn’t think of any other reason why so many people would gather in one place.
She let out a quiet chirp and hopped a little closer.
David got a few looks as he emerged from the woods and a few hands drifted towards pokeballs, but all relaxed once they’d gotten a good look at him. Some people even gestured at their own ankles when they’d caught his eye, but he waved them away thankful. It helped reinforce that this was, if not the bridge to Fuchsia, at least close to it.
David wandered the campsite, not sure what to look for or do, but planning on getting his bearings at the least. It was a hard task. With this number of people all moving around at once there was an element of chaos, but it was the Pokemon that really changed things. He’d seen groups of strange Pokemon before - the city parks where people had lunch was a good example, but here, out in the wild he now understood the difference.
There were Pokemon and there were Pokemon that battled.
Variety was everywhere. Scars and battle wounds littered powerful bodies capable of moving the elements with a thought. David was seeing more Pokemon, especially later evolutions than he’d ever seen before and more than he could ever name. Piggey cast a glare at a Graveler that David hoped wouldn’t notice. A Scyther stalked behind its trainer, wings buzzing lightly and barely visible. A massive crab, easily a metre across, scurried after a jogging woman. A wispy cloud of dark- wait was that a Snorlax?
David paused and Pidgey did a moment later. The large mural was painted onto the side of one of the containers off to the side. It wasn’t exactly a professionally done job, the round shape and simple colours didn’t do the monster justice, nor would the mammoth body fit on the side of the container, but it was still unmistakeable.
‘Had Oliver..? But he was so angry about.. It would be a good signal?‘
David found himself walking closer to the Snorlax. The mural was hastily drawn, some of the paint had run in sections. There wasn’t any text to go along with the picture either. Not that it needed it, surrounded by blank containers. The Snorlax stood out by itself.
“You the Pidgey trainer?”
David turned, abandoning the mural to see who had spoken. A weathered man stood at the side of the Snorlax container. His woolly clothes were grass stained and his hands dirty. As worn as his face was, there were lines down his cheeks from smiling.
It was an odd question to ask, especially considering that Pidgey was standing beside him and inspecting the man too. It was a question you’d ask if you were looking for someone in particular and you knew that they knew that you were looking for them.
David nodded, scanning the man’s face for any signs of duplicity. He didn’t expect anything to happen, not here with so many people and wagons around, but Oliver wasn’t the only one looking out for him. Nor the only one associated with the appearance of the Snorlax.
The man sighed and looked up at the sky.
“Arceus. Curse that old man,” He said before looking back at David. “You just lost me a bet. I didn’t expect you’d arrive for another day.”