David looked at the Tauros.
The Tauros looked at David.
Cloudburst stared at the Tauros.
The Tauros tossed its head and eyed her back.
The Pokemon’s eyes were oval-shaped and vertical, giving it a predator-like stare even though to David, it was, well, a cow. Long body, four legs and broad shoulders. Definitely a cow. Its two eyes were on the sides of its head, preventing it from looking directly ahead, something that was quite obvious as it shifted to try and keep both David and Pidgey in view.
Like its owner, the Tauros was weathered, but that meant a very different thing for a Pokemon than a human. The Tauros' trials showed in its horns and three circular head plates, which appeared to be metal rather than bone or keratin. Scratches littered the hard surfaces and some sections, the horns especially, were chipped. A slight glimmer from polished metal at the bottom of the lowest head plate - the one right between the Tauros’ eyes, made the damage all the more noticeable.
David looked at Pidgey.
Pidgey looked at David.
The Tauros snorted and pawed at the ground, tearing the earth beneath its hoof like paper. Its thick mane swayed with the movement, the long dark hair flopping against its side. Three tails rose in the air behind it.
David looked at the Tauros.
Pidgey looked at the Tauros.
“Okie dokie,” Aaron said, walking around the side of the container-like wagon. He went straight for some kind of hatch in the side of the wagon, ignoring David and the two Pokemon. “That’s all sorted then.”
Pidgey fluffed her wings and began to preen her feathers.
The Tauros dropped its tails and plodded towards Aaron.
David blinked. What had they been doing? He and the two Pokemon had settled into a weird, Mexican standoff-like stance after Aaron left, and for the life of him, David couldn’t figure out why. There was no good reason to be staring down a bull as tall as you were, and that wasn’t even considering that said bull was a Pokemon. A Pokemon capable of doing a lot worse than goring you with its horns.
The Tauros in question sidled up to where Aaron had buried his head in the wagon hatch and bopped his side with its head.
David winced. Even with Aaron’s thick woolly jumper that had to hurt.
“Oof.” Aaron wheezed. “Stop that Gleem. No bunting when I’m not ready.”
The Tauros, Gleem, bopped him once more on the ass, but more gently this time before plodding away. Gleem stopped at the side of the wagon, under the Snorlax mural and lay down. A few seconds later Aaron pulled himself out of the hatch with his prize. He held the oddly shaped metal tool up to his eyes, squinted at it before nodding his head. He crouched down by one of the wagon’s wheels.
“We’ll be crossing with the morning group tomorrow,” Aaron said absentmindedly as he stuck the tool into the wheel and began to fiddle with something. “We weren’t scheduled. I had us down for the day after tomorrow, but there’s usually space for one extra wagon and Gleem is always welcomed.”
“Great,” David said, a smile growing on his face. After Aaron’s initial poor reaction to losing his bet with Oliver, short self-introduction, and then hasty disappearance with a muttered “Organising” shouted back towards the wagon and them, David had suspected the worst. Given the number of wagons parked up in the area, the semi permanent campsites and the fact the bridge wasn’t even within sight yet, he had suspected that Pidgey and he would be here for longer than planned.
Aaron grunted and continued to fiddle with the wheel. Gleem, his Tauros remained in place under the mural. Its tails flicked back and forth, lightly lashing against its skin.
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“What’s with the Snorlax?” David asked. It had been a good sign, but.. surely there was a better way of signalling to David which wagon he was meant to meet up with.
Aaron harrumphed. “Branding. Some new thing was voted on by the Celadon Council. If your farm gets stuck with the Snorlax, you get to use Celadon Snorlax to market your goods for the year after.” He reached a hand up and patted the side of the wagon. “There’s a few Pechas in here, but the majority is from Oliver’s stock of rare berries. He seems to think they and the Snorlax will go well together.”
David smiled and looked at the wagon. He suspected this idea was more Jacob’s than Oliver’s. The grumpy old man hadn't liked even a mention of the Snorlax in his presence when David had left. Using the Pokemon to represent his precious berries would never have occurred to him.
It was nice to know that all the berries from the grove were being put to good use.
Aaron finished whatever he was doing to the wheel and with a clink closed some kind of access lid. With a grunt he stood and walked towards Gleem. “I can’t say I get it. It’s not like he drew a mark on the berries or anything.” He brushed the top of Gleem’s mane aside, revealing a patch of the shorter, tan hair. Hidden beneath the mane was a small patch of blond hair in the shape of a christmas tree. Gleem didn’t move even as Aaron stroked the blond tree absently. “But I guess that’s none of my business and not my problem.”
David stared at the patch of blond hair until Aaron let the mane fall back over it and moved to the next wheel. There was no way that was a birthmark or the Pokemon equivalent. It was too straight a shape for that. So was the hair dyed or.. branded.
Gleem rested comfortably by the wagon. The hulking creature outweighed David and Aaron together by hundreds of kilograms. It seemed comfortable around Aaron. It didn’t seem mistreated. So why the brand? Was it like a Pokemon tattoo or a mark of ownership?
Aaron tutted and pulled the oddly shaped tool out from the wheel. He held it up to his eyes and squinted before sighing. “I’ll be at this for a while. Why don’t you go find some wood for the fire.”
David looked down at his still sore ankle, and held back a grimace. “Sure.”
-.-
Early the next morning, after a long and fitful night’s sleep disturbed by loud bellows from all the Tauros and the trainers who weren’t moving out the next day, David was woken by Aaron shaking his tent. He packed up quickly and helped Aaron tie Gleem and three other newly released Tauros to the wagon as best he could.
It was still dark and David was yawning as the wagon came to a stop behind a few others. The unfamiliar three Tauros snorted and paced at the ground, tails waving. A click from Aaron and a grunt from Gleem quietened that down.
“Do you usually give lifts?” David asked as they waited, examining one of the larger stains on his cushion with distaste. He and Aaron were sitting on a bench at the front of the wagon where all the Tauros were tied.
Aarons shook his head. “No, it’s not allowed, but all passenger wagons are suspended. They have been for several months now. Haze and all that.” His eyes widened and he blinked and looked at David. “Your ankle is quite handy actually. Made all the paperwork easier. I’ll have to remember that for the future. It's easy to fake.”
David was still examining the stains and, now that Aaron was looking at him, following his gaze was easy.
“That’s Gleem’s old pillow,“ Aaron said with a chuckle. ”Feel free to sit on the bench without it, but I can’t recommend that. It’s going to be a long day.”
David grimaced and looked away from the cushion. “The passenger wagons were shut down because of the weather then?”
Aaron stared at him taken aback. “No you numpty. Haze with a capital h. Elite four Haze.”
David frowned. That rang a bell. A bell connected to Saffron unfortunately. Both Team Rocket and the Police had talked about a dead elite four member. “What does that have to do with-”
“Vermillion is responsible for patrolling the entire south coast.” Aaron began with a shake of his head, incredulous at David's ignorance. “After Haze’s death, that became too big a burden. Back then, just one of the man’s Pokemon alone could still the entire Sagami bay and all that lies beneath it. Now..” Aaron trailed off. This time his shake of the head wasn’t about David. “Haze’s daughters are doing their best, but they were barely able to manage the gym before he passed away. I’ve heard that most of his Pokemon have stayed around, but if all this mess is any sign they won’t be ordered about.”
“And that’s why Vermillion is trying to get the Electric specialists from Cerulean.” David finished, leaning back as all the pieces connected. This was what Oliver and Jacob were trying to teach Michael about.
“Yup.” Aaron looked suspiciously at David. “Not so clueless after all. Vermillion wants Cerulean Electric specialists to patrol the bridge to reduce their workload. Cerulean doesn’t want to do it for nothing. They have one of the smaller areas to patrol in Kanto - something they argue is needed because of the effort required to run the power plants. Both would be happy if Celadon took on the cost. No one is budging and the bridge has been backlogged for months. In Haze’s prime you could travel the bridge at any hour of the day. Now we’re stuck with narrow travel windows.”
One of the Tauros snorted and a series of echoey barks sounded from ahead of them.
Aaron groaned and set the reins down. He stood and stretched. “Someone’s upset the Rhyhorn. We won’t be moving for another half hour. Come, you can help me feed the Tauros. A bit of feed will stop them from getting uppity.”