Traveling wasn’t as interesting as I thought it would be, I realized. I sort of… already knew that. It was basically just a lot of walking, and if there was a forest or mountain, you’d take extra care. But I thought at least one thing would happen that was mildly exciting.
That’s probably because I was on one of the safest routes. Maybe once I got to ones that were less traveled. I’d get some excitement. That being said, did I even want that? Being attacked by a wild Pokémon would be absolutely horrifying…
Actually, there were only, like, Rattata and Pidgey on this route. So maybe not…
In any case, I’d been traveling for a few hours after I left Cherrygrove City. And nothing had happened, for better or for worse. Mostly, Sol and I were just talking aimlessly…
“Hey Sol, what’s your least favorite type?” I asked. It was one of the most basic questions to ask, up there with what’s your favorite type or color. I’d already asked the former and latter, to which the answers were psychic and green respectively.
Should’ve expected that. And in retrospect, I should've expected the answer to this question too.
“Ghosts,” Sol responded without hesitation. “Ghosts make me feel weak. I hate it.”
“You’ve been around ghosts?” I asked. From the information I’d been given. Sol was bred in Unova and lived in a daycare for a few years before being shipped to Johto specifically because my parents had asked. To be honest, my first thought was that breeding in general seemed kinda immoral, but I wasn’t actually sure how it worked, and that was a whole other can of beans…
My point is I didn’t think there was much of a chance to see ghost types. Considering how most weren’t common or friendly.
“There was a shuppet where I used to live,” Sol explained. “I hated that guy, too much of a prankster.”
“Huh… that’s interesting.”
“What about you?”
I thought for a second, but my answer hadn’t changed from the last time I thought about this topic. “Yeah, mine’s got to be ghost too. It’s just… something about them. And they’re kinda creepy, they’re the only types that like to set up weird areas and y’know… toy with people on the regular.”
I wondered if it was sort of typist for me to say that. But it was true, despite a lot of people also not liking dark types. Most of them were actually normal, whereas a lot of ghosts tended to live in secrecy, kill, injure, or toy with people and also set up domains where things didn’t make sense.
Ghosts weren’t normal. And Sol didn’t seem to disagree.
After some more silence, Sol did come up with something to say. “Have you had any experience with ghosts?”
“Yeah. There was this ghost running a fake scare house or something. I don’t remember it too well. Mel took me and it kinda freaked the hell out of me.” I shivered just trying to recount that experience.
“Maybe you’ve got phasmophobia, or maybe you’re just a wuss.”
I scoffed, “Shut up, Sol.”
I don’t think I have a fear of ghosts at least… I shook my head and asked Sol another question. We kept just… talking until we started to get hungry. It was time for lunch.
…
I kept walking for a while, thinking I’d find some area intended for eating. But it appeared that there might not be one, or I don’t know. In retrospect, it was kind of dumb. I didn’t really need an area to eat or anything, so I just walked off the path and slumped against a nearby tree.
There were a lot of trees on this route, but not enough for it to be considered a forest or anything. There were lots of clearings and flatlands one could use for setting up a camp. I took notice of this for later.
For now, though, I took off my backpack and set it on the floor. Sol joined me, floating lower towards the ground as he awaited sustenance. I groaned in frustration as I started to take downs out of my backpack to reach the food. I guess I should’ve put it near the top, but after trying to organize the backpack by way of priority the night prior, I’d gotten… pretty frustrated and confused. And I’d need most of the things in here often anyways, so I decided to fuck it.
It was coming back to bite me now, as I had to take my foldable tent, first aid kit, and multiple other items out. I reached the food then, taking out a squashed sandwich—still looked good—, and Sol’s mashed up berry mix and canned Pokémon food. We ate in mostly silence, since we had been talking basically the whole way here.
Not being able to talk with your Pokémon probably sucked, huh. Especially having to travel with no one being able to understand you. Unless you traveled with companions…
I was really grateful that my parents decided to give me Sol. Even if they failed to actually interact with me on almost every day of the year.
Oh shoot. I’d forgotten to give them a text before I left, didn’t I? And I wouldn’t be able to text them until I got to Violet City. Despite being one of the safest and most traveled routes, Route 30 didn’t actually have any internet access…
It was times like these where I wished this region was more like Galar. Almost every single one of those routes were completely safe—apart from those crazy wild areas, like what the heck?—and had internet access. Though maybe that was a byproduct of the gym challenge being the main source of entertainment…
I had finished my sandwich at this point, and only now realized my thoughts had gotten wildly off topic. I rose from my slumped position, waking up Sol from his… state of sleep? Or something, I don’t really know. He did that sometimes, stopped interacting with me and acted like he was asleep or something, though he was still floating.
“Sol, we still gotta train while we’re out here.” I said.
“Yeah, yeah, man, sometimes training is a hassle.”
I rolled my eyes, “Well, we’ve got to do it. Uh… for a warm up, try and levitate farther than usual while doing quick laps around those two trees,” I pointed at trees that were moderately far away from each other. “And keep refining a Reflect while you do it.”
Ryan had also informed me that multitasking regularly was a good way to increase a psychic Pokémon’s capabilities. So I was going to try to do that for a warm up, and maybe even work it into how we usually travel? That might be too hard on Sol, though…
And Sol clearly thought this was too, “This again? Can’t we just start practicing my moves already?”
“Nope.”
“Well, if I have to do this…”
And somehow I end up doing laps around the same set of trees. In all fairness, Ryan DID tell me that a trainer needs to stay in shape like his Pokémon. And I did need to get used to the weight of this backpack, but trying to run with it was just so tiring.
My legs felt like they’d shut down if I tried to run anymore by the end. I really needed to get into shape, I realized. Before Sol, most of my time comprised of being a shut-in, though I was only now realizing that.
Sol levitated laps around me, and then I had to take a break before starting Sol’s training. Fuck.
…
“Okay Sol, I think first we should try to get Rollout down.” I suggested. Sol agreed with me, it just made sense since the first gym was flying type. Thinking of the first gym reminded me that I needed to catch a second Pokémon…
Nevermind that now. Time to train.
“All right, just try and… roll, I suppose?”
Despite my vague instructions, Sol lowered himself to the floor. It was sort of weird seeing him just… on the floor, considering he floated everywhere. He tried to roll, but his body wasn’t exactly a perfect sphere, so… it didn’t really work. Sol couldn’t gain momentum, and after a while, he stopped.
“This isn’t working.” Sol pointed out, to which I agreed.
From my understanding, it was actually the rock type energy that actually propelled a Pokémon. That meant if we were to make any progress, Sol needed to train to make his psychic type energy rock instead, right?
“I think we need you to use rock type energy,” I suggested.
“I guess I should practice doing that before trying to actually learn Rollout.”
I thought for a second before pointing at that rock. “Go levitate on that, and like… try and meditate? I think I’ve got an idea.”
Sol did exactly as I said, levitating onto the rock and closing his eyes. I thought about how I wanted to do this before continuing.
“Okay, so, like… focus on your psychic type energy. Like, try and remember how it feels whenever you’re trying to do Confusion. And latch onto that…?”
There was no response from Sol, so I assumed he was trying to do what I said. But I couldn’t really tell. Through our bond, I could feel he was concentrating. But I couldn’t completely feel what he was doing. Our bond wasn’t that complex, so I waited a few moments before continuing.
“So that feeling of like, control you get with your psychic type energy. Feel the rock under you… how it feels. Like its texture, how hard and rough it is, try and emulate that with your psychic energy…”
Was this working? I wasn’t good at describing things, but Sol should be able to feel the rock anyways. He just wasn’t giving me any indication, he must be really focused.
A few more tense moments before Sol opened his eyes.
“It sort of worked.” He finally answered. “I could feel my own energy, but making it into rock type energy is a little more complicated. Felt like I was getting it, but… I dunno. I just couldn’t do it. I think I need a better mastery over my powers.”
“Damn,” I thought for a second, how could we perfect this? “I guess you should try meditating everyday to increase your psychic abilities. Most Solosis can learn Rollout even without the help of a human, so it shouldn’t be too hard…”
“Yeah, let’s do it again.”
“Hah. Now who’s eager to train?”
Sol groaned at me, “I like to train. But doing laps like that is annoying and tiring.”
“But necessary. And unfortunately, we have to get going. We’ll do some more training before we turn in for the night, but if we don’t get a move on, we’ll never get to Violet City.”
I turned back and headed towards the trail. That was an interesting experience, it sucks that we couldn’t learn Rollout right away, but hopefully we could get it done. What other moves could we learn before having to take on the gym…?
Shoot. I should’ve researched this before leaving, though maybe the Pokédex would tell me. Its functions did not rely on the internet, I’m pretty sure.
Thinking about preparing for the first gym made me think about catching a Pokémon. That was… uh, a topic. If I caught them too late, I wouldn’t have enough time to train them for the gym. I could always take the time to train them up, but slowing down my schedule would suck.
So I wanted to catch a Pokémon on this route, or the next, at least. I looked around towards the trees, which were getting a little more crowded. The path veered around a bit to avoid thickets, and sometimes it even split. Apparently all of the paths led to Violet City—actually, one led to someone’s house. Can you believe someone just… lives here?—so I would be fine.
In any case, I could see a few Hoothoot through the vegetation. They were sleeping, since they were mostly nocturnal. Evening had approached fast, but it wasn’t late enough for most to go hunting.
But I didn’t really want to disturb them… Argh. If I didn’t want to disturb the Pokémon, I’d have to find one that wanted to go with me. Sol could help with negotiations, but finding a Pokémon might be hard.
Back when the Pokémon League had wanted to make traveling safer, they drove most mons off route. Trainers could go slightly off the road to catch the weaker ones, but usually weren’t allowed to go any farther. So if I wanted a Pokémon, I’d need to veer off path for one.
This was gonna be harder than I thought.
“Sol, what kind of Pokémon would you want as a teammate?” I asked. Not that his answer would matter too much. I doubted I was going to be able to pick and choose what Pokémon I got.
“Uh… I don’t know. Preferably not a ghost type. Another psychic type would be pretty cool, actually. But if you’re actually looking to catch a Pokémon, then you probably won’t be able to get one of those…”
“I don’t really care. But a Pokémon that could do lots of physical damage might be best, considering I could set them up with Reflect, and they would balance out my only attack, which is special.”
I nod at his explanation. “You make a good point.”
Could I find a Pokemon like that? Yes, actually. Most of the Pokémon I could find here were mostly physical, Caterpie, Rattata, Pidgey, Hoothoot, Ledyba, Magikarp, Poliwag, Weedle, Zigzagoon even. Most of them were pretty common, too.
Further off route, there were rumored to be Shinx, Buizel, Finneon, Remoraid, a lot of Pokémon. But those types weren’t as well documented. So it would remain sound that I should try to capture a bunch in that first batch of Pokémon. Except Magikarp.
But that would have to come tomorrow. The sun had already started to set, and as I checked my pokegear. I realized I had been thinking for far longer than I thought. Perhaps it was time to set in for the night?
Setting up camp wasn’t too hard. After finding a clearing that was away from the path, but still close to it. It was easy, except for the tent, I had set it up before just to make sure I could do it. But it was still a pain in the ass to actually get it assembled again. Once it was actually standing- well, standing might be an overstatement. It was barely propped up, but it would work.
I hope it would, otherwise the amount of space it took up in the backpack would just be wasted. I’d gotten used to the weight of the backpack, but it did sort of slow my walking speed…
Anyways, I built a pit and gathered a bunch of sticks for a fire. Though darkness was starting to creep in at this point. It wasn’t completely dark, so I decided to hold off on the fire for now.
“Can we train now?” Solosis asked as soon as I was finished. “I think I can get the rock type energy thing working. I just need a few more tries.”
I agreed, since I said he would be able to later anyways. We found another rock for Sol to use, though I don't think he actually needed it. Sol then closed his eyes again, and I stared at him for a good amount of time.
I guess I should do something productive while he tries that, then…
What was there to do out here? Camp was already set up, and I didn’t want to use a fire to make anything actually appetizing.
I took out my Pokédex to see if my previous theory was correct. I clicked on the first Pokémon available, which was Bulbasaur. I was able to see all the information I could usually see…
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
That’s good. I searched for Solosis and glanced back at Sol, who was still in concentration. I wonder what he was thinking about.
Oh well.
…
Sol’s mind was blank, or as close to blank as he could get it. Meditation was a lot harder than he thought it was, even being a psychic type. This should be easy, though.
Focusing hard, Sol… looked inside of himself. He saw the psychic energy that possessed, that he could exert, and in turn, control parts of the world. Be it moving a rock into the air, or moving himself into the air.
He had control over… things. It was just something he could do. He couldn’t see… everything, or even anything, like what the world looked like under the veil of his psychic powers… Maybe once he was powerful enough…
Sol’s psychic powers were innate. But now he had to change that, he had to change his psychic powers into something else. Using his sensory skills, Sol felt the rock below him. It was medium sized, not that it mattered, but it was also rough, coarse, hard. Not attributes that his psychic powers usually shared…
But maybe he could mold his powers in the shape of it. He latched onto his psychic powers easily, and tried to… change it.
He had it! No… he couldn’t replicate the feeling of the rock. It was just… so hard to grab onto, to use, like he could with psychic energy. Why…?
He should be able to do this! Sol lamented silently over the fact that he couldn’t. It felt like it should come naturally. But it looked like it was going to take a little more practice. Disappointment. He opened his eyes.
…
Disappointment. I could tell before I looked back at Sol that he had been done meditating. And by this feeling of disappointment that was not my own. I could tell that things hadn’t gone any better.
“No luck, huh?” I asked still, just in case.
Sol shook his head—or technically, his whole body. “I just can’t fucking… Ugh. It’s harder than it looks.”
“Hey, I wasn’t gonna say anything. You’ll get it eventually.”
“Shut up…” Sol retorted, despite my assurance. Did I do something wrong? Or was he just frustrated? “How long has it been? It’s darker.”
“About a half hour.” I responded after taking a quick glance at my Pokedex. “You took longer than last time, we should eat and then head to bed.”
All agreed, and I dug through my backpack once again to retrieve food. After a pretty short dinner, I slipped into my sleeping bag. It was earlier than I usually went to sleep, but it was whatever. I didn’t feel like doing anything else.
I thought I might talk with Sol. But they seemed to be either already asleep, or doing that weird half sleep thing. The only thing to listen to was the sound of the forest.
It was quiet, at first. But I could hear the sounds of Hoothoot’s cooing. Leaves and grass rustling, it was kind of unsettling, hearing this. I wondered if a Pokémon was going to come into my tent while I sleeped. Hopefully not.
Eventually, the sounds of the forest relaxed me. I closed my eyes, and did not open them again until I was mostly rested.
----------------------------------------
Once I woke up, it was back to business as usual. We ate breakfast, which consisted of a breakfast sandwich for me and… more Pokémon food for Sol. Before we got going, we had to keep training. I picked a rock and a tree moderately far apart for both of us to run laps again.
Once I finished, I was in the same state as I was yesterday. I hope I'll get used to this sooner or later. Sol already seemed to have, though as I said, Pokemon adapt a lot quicker than us humans.
After that, Sol tried meditating again. He went for about fifteen minutes before I cut him off, not wanting us to waste time here without moving. Sol said he still couldn’t do it, but it was coming closer.
That was good to hear.
I had done some research on Sol and what we might need to improve. But I was thinking we should handle anything new towards Violet City. And I wanted to get a move on soon, couldn’t dawdle. For now, there were other things we could try…
I came to Sol with my idea, “Before we get to the gym, we should try to… master Confusion.”
Mastering a move could mean a lot of things. It usually meant that you could use the move in any type of way, very efficiently. With Confusion, psychic types were often able to make it appear anywhere on the battlefield. That would be very helpful, considering that birds flew. Sol could fly too, but unless he got really fast due to all his training, birds would always go faster.
So if we got this down, we could get the jump on them.
Sol agreed with me, and we tried doing that for like, half an hour or something. Sol’s Confusion had gotten stronger, I’d noticed. But it didn’t look like he’d gotten any better at using it. Oh, well. Maybe later?
“Look alive, preeetty sure something’s coming at us.” Sol pointed out, alerting me. He then floated towards a line of pushes that were bordering the trail. “Gonna pop out from those bushes. Oooh, it looks small. Nah. Do I have permission to blast this thing as soon as it comes out? I really want to test how strong I’ve gotten…”
“Uhh… no.” I deadpanned, slapping my forehead. In fairness, Sol really did have a tendency towards violence, though that may be because he hasn’t gotten into a battle in a few days. “I think I’m gonna try and capture it.”
Sol deflated as I started to dig into the punch slung on my shoulder. I kept a few pokeballs in there, since having to dig through my entire backpack to catch a Pokémon would suck.
“Well if it’s going so fast, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna have to blast it anyways.” Sol reasoned, still trying to justify violence.
“Whatever.” I said, brushing him off. I brought my pokeball up to my chest. Maybe I would need to attack it, though. I wanted to reason it, but a lot of wild Pokémon were prone to violence. If it saw me…
My attention turned to Sol, who I felt was getting a little worried. Before I could ask what was up, he told me.
“I think there might be more than one, actually… Maybe a dozen, maybe…”
Shit. I completely forgot about the actual Pokémon. And now Sol’s saying there’s a dozen? “What the fuck do you mean there’s a dozen?” I said, standing up, more alert now.
I tried to say something else, but Sol interjected through my mind. “Yeah, actually there might be more, but I’m not completely sure.”
Feeling more panicked by the second, I tried to tell Sol that we should probably fucking leave. But camp was still set up, I couldn't just ditch it, so I’d need to…
Argh.
I felt a tinge of pain from my bond. The first I’d ever felt, I couldn’t hear what Sol was saying. They’re close? Shit, wait—
Before I could form another thought, the nearby bushes started to rustle and the next second a rat-like Pokémon that was mostly purple with a white color on its stomach burst through them. Its teeth looked sort of oversized as they poked out, but that was not what I was focusing on right now.
The pain made it so I didn’t react immediately and it leapt right into me. Shit, it was aggressive, and despite being so small it sent me onto my back. I needed to do something about this-
“Sol, use Confu- Ow shit!”
The thing must have bitten me with its teeth because I felt instant pain through one of my arms. Then I saw another Rattata burst through the bushes, then another, and another…
Oh, this has spiraled out of hand. At least a few Rattata were on me and I was on the floor. I was bitten a few more times, and I couldn’t fucking think-
“Should I still use Confusion?”
“Yes! Get these things off me!” I screamed despite not meaning to, which agitated the Rattata even more. I looked to my side to see that a few other Rattata were on my backpack. Shit they were going to steal our food-
Oof. I saw the psychic rings before the force of the attack hit me in the stomach. It didn’t seem like I was fully hit by it, but my mind felt weird for a second…
Any tiny feet on me were now gone, which meant the Confusion had worked for the most part.
My vision still saw a lot of Rattata scampering around though. And Sol was there, launching a bunch of Confusions on them. My mind was scattered but eventually I was able to think again.
“Get them away from the backpack then Reflect to stop them from attacking!” I said, trying to push myself up. I felt a little dizzy though, probably an effect from the hypnotic waves of the Confusion. I managed to get a scan of the whole situation. There were too many Rattata.
A Confusion scared off the Rattata from my backpack, too. And I could hear a low buzzing sound in the background of my mind.
Was that a sign I was going to die? No, what the hell? I was being silly, my thoughts were all jumbled. I should not be panicking this much. What should I do next-?
I saw a thin white screen form between me and most of the Rattata. This one was larger than one I’d ever seen Sol do. Most of the Rattata seemed scared off, though they started to dissipate faster than I thought. I cleared my mind, needed to get the rest away.
“Confusion on the Rattata on the right.” I commanded, seeing that it was raring for a Quick Attack. These Rattata weren’t very strong, my body still hurt all over, but I was fairly sure that only a few spots really needed attention. We could drive them off.
“Can’t. This Reflect is wearing me out, should I drop it?”
That wasn’t good. Should he drop it? No, that was the only thing keeping the Rattata away, right? What should we do, then? I saw cracks form on the Reflect caused by the Rattata. This large Reflect must be harder to maintain.
The Rattata could easily overwhelm us if we were accessible to them. But I had to do something before the Reflect broke. I couldn’t freakin’ concentrate with this buzzing sound though. Did one of those Rattata hit my head or something?
The Reflect was almost broken, they were going to swarm us. What could we do…?
“Gen, what the fuck are we gonna do? You’re the trainer!” Sol desperately asked.
I tried to think, closing my eyes. We’d probably have to run away, or something. Maybe we should start running…
Amongst the battle cries of the Rattata—one of the many things interfering with my thinking—, I heard a panicked one, almost like a warning. I opened my eyes to see most of the remaining Rattatas scattering.
Relief instantly flooded my body. What had happened? I watched as they all fled into the trees on the other side of the path. Sol’s Reflect flickered out of existence, I guess it really took a lot out of him.
“I’m relieved,” Sol started saying, I could hear the exhaustion in his voice. Despite it being telepathic. “But why did they leave?”
I shrugged “Uh… dunno, I can’t think with all the buzzing in my head. Think they hit something in my brain. I should check my injuries…”
Before I could move towards our backpack, Sol piped up. “I can hear the buzzing too. And I can sense something, bigger than a Rattata.”
It only took me a few seconds to figure out what that Pokémon could be. Bigger than a Rattata and buzzing, definitely a Beedrill. Shiiit…
“We need to get out of here,” I said urgently. Unlike those Rattata, Beedrill were actually dangerous. Lots of cartoons like to downplay what they could actually do to just angry chasing, but meeting a real one could cause death.
Sol must have sensed my urgency, and acted quickly. “It’s coming from the same bushes, we should follow the Rattata.”
I was about to agree, but I thought about something else. “The Rattata were probably running from the Beedrill before they got distracted by us. So maybe the Beedrill’s following them. Follow me, let’s go somewhere else.”
And also the Beedrill was most likely to go in that direction anyways. But I didn’t say anything else so we could get away quicker. Beedrill wasn't supposed to be on the path. Sure, you could find Weedle and Kakuna easily, but Beedrill usually stayed further back.
I hurried a little further, backtracking a little heading leaving the path and heading southeast. Sol followed me, leaving no argument. He probably wanted to stay and fight though, I could pretty much feel it.
To be fair, we might be able to put up a fight. But a Beedrill would move with aggression and speed, maybe something we might be able to take advantage of. But it would also target me. So too much of a risk.
After heading a little bit off route, I stopped running and took a few deep breaths. Couldn’t go too far, and the Beedrill wasn’t going to just change directions directly towards me or anything.
I crouched behind a bush, peeking through. “Sol, can you tell me where it is?” I asked. If it did come towards me, I wanted to know immediately.
“Yeah, yeah…” Sol agreed, with a tinge of annoyance at the situation.
I strained my ears, and could only hear a faint buzz. It disappeared pretty quickly. Sol said that the Beedrill was on the path or so. Apparently he couldn’t tell exactly, his psychic powers weren’t that strong, but at this range, they should be accurate.
I waited, and then… waited some more. …This was quite boring, actually. My heart was starting to finally slow down from the first Rattata attack. Wherever my injuries were—felt like they were all over—, they started to feel sore.
In situations like these, I’d say I was gonna take a nap when this was all over. But it was still morning, I still needed to travel a day's worth. Fuck this.
“It’s gone. After the Rattata, I think. You were right, much as I hate to admit it.” Sol reported.
I sighed, “Shut up. Let’s wait a few more minutes before going back. I wanna make sure.”
…
I looked over our makeshift campsite with a sigh. It was a mess, a sizable hole had been poked through my tent, and my backpack was on its side with stuff falling out. And it was… moving?
“There’s a fucking Rattata in there!” I shouted, making a move towards it.
At the sound of my voice, it darted out and into the bushes, dodging a Confusion from Sol in the process. I am pretty sure it had food in its mouth. I rushed over towards my backpack to access any damage. There was some food missing, yup. I think some of the other Rattata might’ve contributed to that. And almost all of my stuff was falling out of it, if it wasn’t already on the ground.
Damn. I investigated my tent, mostly for poison. It was still usable even with the hole—though I might get a little rain—, but if it had poison, it might be detrimental. There wasn’t a drop that I could see, and Sol did the same. So after hastily cleaning mostly everything up. I dropped to the floor with a tired sigh.
“This sucks ass. Why did this happen to me?” I complained. These routes were supposed to be safe.
Sol helpfully chimed in, “Maybe the world just hates you.”
“Fuck off, Sol.”
“Probably could’ve gotten off lighter if you responded better,” he added.
I huffed. “Like you responded any better. You used Confusion on me!”
“You just said to get them off me. And I did exactly that.”
“So of course when I said that, I wanted you to hit me,” I shot back sarcastically. I shuffled around. The floor was a terrible resting place, but I’d already put my sleeping bag and tent away. “Besides, the Beedrill would’ve come through anyways.”
“Whatever.” After that, a moment of silence passed, Sol looking thoughtful before saying anything else. “Next time, I gotta be strong enough to beat any Pokémon that comes on the path.”
“There won’t be a next time…” I replied, before thinking. Oh, shoot. “Ugh, maybe on the later routes. Fighting dangerous, wild Pokémon would suck though. I should have just stayed home or something.”
“Get over it coward, let’s get moving again.”
I groaned, pushing myself off the ground in an effort to become mobile again. Eventually—though slowly—, I did get back on the road. But then I had to stop once I realized that the Beedrill might come back so I needed to issue an emergency report or whatever.
Basically you there was a Pokémon that was on a route it usually wasn’t on. You’d fill out a form and a ranger would come take care of it. Pokémon like Beedrill might be allowed on more dangerous or less used routes, but not here. People under 13 who didn’t have any Pokémon were allowed to travel these roads, so yeah…
Anyways, I filled out the form and it was sent towards the nearest ranger tower, or police station? I’m not sure how useful my tip would be, considering the Beedrill attacked a good while ago. But hopefully a ranger or top trainer would take care of it. Rangers weren’t as abundant here as in other regions, so top trainers were also hired to do that job.
While I was doing that, another trainer from Cherrygrove showed up! Honestly, I didn’t think I’d see one. But I guess I had been sitting still for quite awhile. They didn’t stick around after a hello, but I did warn them about what I’d encountered. After doing all of that, I went on my merry way once again.
“Hey, Sol. You know you’re sometimes kind of an asshole, right?” I said, just in case he didn’t know.
“But who’s the bigger asshole, huh?”
“It’s definitely you.”
----------------------------------------
Despite the unexpected hardship, we prevailed. We traveled as usual, stopping when it was time for lunch. The Rattata had eaten more of my food than I’d like. And I had to eat a bit less and also save leftovers for future meals, so that sucked.
Strangely, all of Sol’s food was completely untouched. Not that Sol really needed food, his life gel could sustain him for weeks before he felt tired. But still.
I decided not to add anything more to Sol’s training regiment. Maybe in the days following, but I was still pooped after the morning’s debacle. Everything proceeded normally after that, with no more incidents. Like an actual journey should.
We slept, and trained hard the next day. The scenery changed up quite frequently, and I checked the map. We’d made a decent bit of progress, but the Pokédex said I was moving slower than usual travelers—due to some… interruptions. But I was also pretty inexperienced.
So usually, I would be at Route 31 in a few days, and arrive at Violet City in about a week. But it looked like it was going to take a little bit longer than that, unfortunately.
While traveling I looked up Beedrill in the Pokédex. They were very territorial and aggressive, but Beedrill that had just evolved usually had no territory. So while finding one, they tended to attack anything they saw and chase it for long times. I assumed that had been the case with the Beedrill I’d encountered.
I also looked up other Pokémon this route. Information on them, where they were located, where I’d probably see them. I became a lot more aware of the Hoothoot that was just a stones’ throw away in the trees. Rattata scattering through the bushes right next to me, and Caterpie slowly making their way.
“Watch out for the ledge,” Sol warned me as we journeyed.
I looked off of my Pokédex and ahead on the path. I was actually sort of surprised that Sol warned me about that. The path ended on a ledge that went deeper until it emptied out into a pretty lake. It continued just after the lake, signifying that we should go around.
With another, more thorough look, I spotted Hoothoot and Pidgey in their nests, on top of trees. Magikarp and Remoraid swimming aimlessly through the glistening water, that was like sparkling unlike any lake back in Cherrygrove. Ledyba floated around while bugs like Caterpie, Weedle crawled.
Traveling was more interesting than I thought it would be.