Chapter 3: A Walk in the Woods
The days leading up to Daniel and Cal's departure passed quickly. Most mornings were spent exploring the wilds around Snowpoint with Drift. By the end of the week, the sandshrew had a good understanding of the English language and was responding to Daniel consistently. They had yet to battle any trainers, but they had battled a few wild pokemon, the most notable was a small snover that ventured out of the mountains. It was a close battle, but Drift managed to pull through.
Daniel also set aside an hour every morning to work with his sandshrew on mobility drills, mostly setting up obstacle courses constructed from firewood in his backyard. Drift wasn't as thrilled with these as he was battling, and he tended to knock over obstacles more often than he successfully cleared them.
In the afternoons, after Drift had eaten multiple bugs in the wild, Daniel would go to the gym and watch battles, oftentimes Cal joining him. He still wasn't sure what Andri Berg 'valued' as Cal put it, but he felt like he was learning a lot about battling through watching. Leader Berg was a fairly straightforward battler, staying away from tricks and gimmicks. Most of his challengers seemed to respect that and battled in kind. The few that tried to pull something on the Leader were put down quickly, much like the first challenger Daniel watched.
"Danny! You ready man?" Cal called out as Daniel walked up to the trainer outpost, where they had decided to meet. Daniel was excited, but Cal seemed to just have a level of enthusiasm that Daniel could never match. They stocked up on potions, pokeballs and other items they would need for an extended period of time out in the wild. Afterwards, they made their way to the northern exit of the city.
Once they were about a mile outside of Snowpoint, Cal stopped them. "Alright, we're far enough out, let's let out our teams. Start us off, Danny; it's probably better to introduce my team one at a time afterwards."
Drift appeared and a flash of red light before Daniel. The sandshrew looked curiously at Cal, but didn't get scared. "Drift, this is Cal," Daniel spoke up, "We're going to be traveling with him and his team for the next several weeks. He's about to release his team, so don't get scared, okay?" Drift grunted and moved to stand closer to Daniel's legs. Daniel held back a snort at the little sandshrew's timidity; at least he wasn't curled up into a ball.
Cal watched the interaction with a grin. "Nice to meet you, Drift. I'm gonna release my team one at a time. This is Sozin, my starter." He released a large, red pokemon behind him. Immediately, the air got warmer and the snow around the pokemon melted. The magmortar loomed over Cal, and raised a clawed, cannon-like hand in greeting.
"Bruno," he released a machamp. The four-armed muscled pokemon slammed its lower pair of firsts together.
"Delta." A staraptor with a large red plume of feathers gave a screech, before acting like it wasn't interested in Daniel or Drift. Cal just chuckled, "She acts all haughty, but she's never let me down."
"Next is April." A bouncing blue rabbit appeared. The azumarill bounced over to him and Drift hugged them both before hopping back to her trainer.
"Magneto, yeah I know, it's really original, but he actually gave a response when I suggested that as opposed to every other name I gave. He's technically genderless, but I always refer to him as a he." A magneton coalesced, floating emotionlessly beside its trainer.
"This is Snapper," he released a krokorok. The bipedal crocodile lived up to its name and clapped its jaws a couple times. "These are who I typically use in battles. 'Course the league lets trainers keep eight 'mons on hand after they have 6 badges, so I have a dartrix and a rhyhorn that I've been working with for the past couple months. So here are Nyra and Rook."
Cal released the aforementioned pokemon. The green owl gave Daniel and Drift a cursory glance before tucking her head under her wing. The rhyhorn gave a snort and pawed the snow beneath it but did nothing else. "Alright guys, this is Daniel and his starter Drift. He's a new trainer, so we're gonna show him the ropes a bit for the next couple weeks," Cal paused to let that sink in for everyone before continuing, "So, Delta found us a nice clearing at the foot of some mountains that we can set up base camp. It'll take us a couple days at least to get up there so we'll focus on traveling instead of training, but that's the plan for now. Everyone ready?" There was a cacophony of approving noises. Cal returned all his pokemon except for the bubbly azumarill and they set off.
"So why'd you decide to become a trainer?" It was mildly amusing that they had been spending some time with one another for a week, but Cal's question was still the first time either had expressed any interest in each other's inspirations.
"It goes deeper than this, but I think the main reason was that I want to explore."
"Could've been a field tech, though right? Wouldn't that line up with your church doctrine?"
"You know, my dad said the same thing almost verbatim," the two shared a laugh before Daniel continued, "As I said, it's more than just exploring. I want to compete too. And the thought of being told where I have to go doesn't thrill me. Being a field assistant isn't off the table, but it's not for me right now."
Cal was quiet for a minute before saying, "I'm glad that you have a back up." There was another pregnant pause as they walked through the snow. "Anyone can win the first two badges. If you can't, you don't deserve to be a trainer. To get the third and fourth is harder, but not much. The fifth badge is the biggest pinch point, as battles start to get a lot harder. It takes grit, skill, and honestly, some luck.
"I'm not saying that you can't do it, but it's hard and you really have to want it while also having the skill to back it up. 'Wanting to compete,'" Cal gave some finger quotes, "isn't good enough. There has to be more, something deeper."
"You only have six badges. How do you know you have what it takes?" Daniel heard the defensiveness in his tone, even though he knew his companion was right.
Cal snorted. "The short answer is that my full name is Cathal Sullivan."
Sullivan. That was a heavy name. The Sullivan's were an Elite dynasty in Sinnoh. For the nearly four hundred years, there had always been a Sullivan in the Elite Four. They owned a breeding range for fire type pokemon on Stark Island. As such, they almost always specialized in fire type pokemon.
"Wait, aren't you supposed to be a fire type trainer then?"
The older trainer gave a long and heavy sigh before answering, "That takes me to the long version of why I know I can make it. That hotshot trainer that snubbed me is my cousin, Devin Sullivan. I had Sozin for all of a couple hours and Devin showed up fresh off of beating the first Elite. Sozin wasn't obeying me, like any new pokemon, and Devin made this huge deal over me not being able to make it as a trainer or a Sullivan. As immature as it was, that hurt. Devin was my hero as a kid, and him telling me I wasn't good enough almost destroyed me. I finally got over it months later and pretty much had to completely re-catch Sozin. But since that day, I vowed that I would make it. But the idea of specializing in fire type pokemon was soured for me after Devin was a dick. Sozin will be the only fire type I train.
"I know I can make it because I have invested every fiber of my being into being a trainer. Into my team. Into this pursuit. And when I get there, I will be challenging Devin and I will be beating him into the dirt like the scum that he is." There was a fire and a passion to Cal's voice. It was intimidating, magnetic, and convincing.
"I believe you," Daniel responded after a few moments, his voice heavy with emotion. "What're you going to do after you beat him? Revenge seems kinda hollow."
"Yeah it is. And I'm not really sure. I know that I love my team. For now, that feels like enough. It'll take a while anyways. Devin has nearly a decade of training on me. He's about to take over for our grandfather as the Second Elite." The mood grew somber, only to be interrupted by April's happy squeaking.
"So first lesson," Cal began later that afternoon. They had spent the day traveling, their conversation much shallower than when they first started. They saw a couple pokemon while walking, though most of them avoided the open path they were on. The pair didn't stop for the ones they did see aside from the few bugs which Drift caught for food. "Where do we set up camp for the night?"
Daniel looked around. They were in the wilderness north of Snowpoint. Despite not being on a defined route, the path they were on was very spacious, nearly a quarter mile across. "We need some shelter from the elements. So I would say off this path, just inside the treeline."
"And he passes the first test!" Cal cheered. The pair, along with their pokemon turned to the northwest and made their way to the forest. It took them another half hour or so to reach the trees, and the sun was starting to set. "Second test, what's the first thing we do in setting up a camp?"
"Set a perimeter and set up our tents."
"Swing and a miss. This is where the survival class starts to fall a bit short. We need to scout the area. Make sure there's no wild pokemon in the immediate area and make sure that we aren't in an area where pokemon are super likely to come across us during the night. Once we're confident that this is a good spot, then we'll set our camp up."
Cal showed him different things to look for like broken limbs, water sources, and trails. Afterwards, they set up their tents under a tall pine tree. Cal released his team and they all set off doing different tasks. "Once we get to the clearing, I'll make sure you get practice on the basics of setting camp and hunting and stuff, but it's getting late and we really should get some food," Cal said. His machamp and magmortar were working on getting firewood and a fire set up. The krokorok was showing the rhyhorn how to set up a rock perimeter. Nyra, the dartrix, flew up into a tree where it acted as a lookout.
"What about Magneto and Delta?" Daniel asked about the magneton and staraptor, who flew off deeper into the forest.
"Hunting. Delta finds the pokemon, Magneto will take them down at once with a discharge. We'll have to go out afterwards and bring it back."
Daniel nodded and knelt down next to Drift. The little shrew looked exhausted after spending the whole day traveling. "How ya doing bud?" Drift grunted and rolled over, offering his belly to Daniel. Daniel chuckled and pet the soft fur. Ever since meeting with Leader Berg, the sandshrew had been more affectionate and trusting with Daniel. Drift would often present his stomach to Daniel, requesting a belly rub, especially when he was tired. "You're going to have to start really working on those mobility drills." The truth was that Daniel was pretty tired himself after a full day of walking.
"Yeah you need to run some drills too, noob," Cal called out from the other side of their small camp. Daniel mimed getting shot in the heart, but knew that the more experienced trainer had a point. "That'll be something we work on once we get to base camp. Being a trainer isn't all about directing your team. In the wild, you're a team. You have to be just as strong and flexible as your pokemon are."
"What about the trainer academies and sponsored trainers?"
Around a decade ago, larger corporations in Sinnoh created trainer academies. These were schools trainers could attend following survival class and learn how to be a competitive battler. From these trainer schools, some trainers became sponsored by the corporation to compete in tournaments.
Daniel meant for it to be a sarcastic and rhetorical question, though Cal responded seriously, "They aren't real trainers. All spoiled pricks if you ask me."
"Not real trainers?"
"No! They're just some rich kids who want to play trainer. They don't train with their teams, they train their pokemon as tools. Hell, I doubt they even train most of their pokemon personally. I know they don't catch their own pokemon."
"And how do you know? Obviously you aren't sponsored."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
"Stark Industries always tries to recruit my family and when they can't, they go after our friends. So I have a couple friends who are in an academy. Well, they used to be friends."
Daniel considered that as he stroked his pokemon's fur. Finally he said, "I mean I can't disagree, but that doesn't make them not trainers. I mean, they have to be somewhat successful or the corporations wouldn't bother sponsoring them."
"Ya know, I don't really think they make money off the results of the trainers," Cal responded hesitantly, "I think the trainers place just high enough in competitions and conferences to get exposure for the company. That brings in prospective trainers to the academy and current trainers want to buy the products. But sponsored trainers don't place high in the Lily of the Valley. They just can't keep up with trainers who have a bond with their team and pokemon who think for themselves in battle. They don't develop their own training habits and skills so they plateau."
Daniel nodded and let the conversation drop. They continued to set up camp until Delta and Magneto returned. He and Cal then went off with Bruno and Sozin, Cal's machamp and magmortar, to carry back a dozen furrets, which fed the pair and all the pokemon. The only members of Cal's team to not eat were Magneto and Rook, his rhyhorn. Daniel did have to give Drift some kibble to go with the cooked meat, as it wouldn't provide the nutrients the shrew needed.
The following day, they woke up early and traveled the whole day, only stopping for a quick meal at lunch. Cal spent the time traveling quizzing Daniel on different topics, providing explanations whenever Daniel didn't know something. The third day, they arrived at the clearing that Cal intended to use as their base camp. It was a large clearing about a mile into the forest and a mile from the foot of the mountains. On the far side of the clearing, a river poked out of the trees.
"Since we're staying here for a while, we want to be close to a body of water. It's still early, so we'll set up camp ourselves instead of my team doing the heavy lifting. Check out that side of the clearing, I'll check this side." Daniel nodded and moved along the right edge of the clearing, looking for signs of pokemon. Drift followed obediently behind him, occasionally blowing snowflakes at his trainer. To keep the sandshrew involved and to get him used to the process, Daniel had him check in the underbrush they passed just inside the treeline.
Once they had checked the area, they set up their tents before moving on to setting a perimeter. There, Cal had Rook raise rocks from the ground before having Daniel move the boulders to set the perimeter. It wouldn't stop a determined, aggressive pokemon, but it did provide the clear boundaries of the camp to curious pokemon, which was oftentimes enough to dissuade them from investigating.
"Alright, camp duties. You're in charge of chopping all the firewood," Cal said once the boundary was in place. "You need to get used to that and not rely on pokemon to do it. It has the added benefit of building muscle, you're welcome. Additionally, you'll be making and keeping the fire for the first few days. Once I'm sure you're capable, Sozin can take over. I'll take care of getting us water from the river. We will be hunting together. Tracking will be easier in the snow, but it's still a good skill. Hunting and trapping, too. That'll probably be every afternoon.
"We'll be training every morning and every night. Obviously, the morning session will be significantly harder. Every fifth day, we'll do a light calisthenics session in the morning before exploring the area. Towards the end of the trip, we might go every third or fourth day, but that's dependent on how you and Drift are doing training wise. Sound good?"
"Works for me. Are you intending on the exploration days to be when we try to catch pokemon?"
Cal nodded, "Yeah. The idea is for you and Drift to develop a decent bond and training schedule before you tack on another pokemon. That said, any ideas on your second?"
"I tried to catch a fighting type when I was looking for a starter. So a machop or meditite is probably the priority. I want to stay away from more ice types, though I wouldn't say no to a swinub. Other than that, a rhyhorn or some other rock type would be good."
"Seems easy enough. If we find any caves, we'll take a look for some rock types. Otherwise, we can keep an eye out for wandering machop and meditite. Any other goals you have for this trip?"
Daniel though for a moment, "Setting up mobility drills for Drift. That's what I need to focus on the most according to Berg. When he evolves, it becomes much harder to train flexibility and speed."
"That'll be what the morning training will focus on for Drift then. At night we can work on strength and move development," Cal stated. He settled on a rock along the perimeter before saying, "Alright, get us a fire going then take the rest of the afternoon off. We'll start in the morning."
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Cal was, to put it nicely, a slave driver. He somehow managed to supervise Daniel and Drift as well as his team concurrently. Daniel wasn't sure what exactly he had his team working on, but they were constantly doing different drills. Every once in a while, Cal would provide more direction to his team, though Daniel never heard what was said. When Cal wasn't yelling at Daniel or directing his team, the older man was doing pull ups from a tree branch, push ups in the snow, or some other exercise.
Daniel spent the morning running from the camp to river and back. It was only about a half of a mile lap, but running through the snow added a level of difficulty. After every other lap, he had the choice of chopping wood for fifteen minutes, doing push ups, or doing pull ups from the same branch Cal used. After every fourth lap, he took a break to drink water and direct Drift through drills for half an hour or so. He only threw up four times the first morning, something he was actually proud of considering he ran for a combined eight miles along with the other exercises.
Cal had Rook and Bruno, his rhyhorn and machamp, set up an obstacle course for Drift the night before. The rock course wouldn't allow Drift to knock over obstacles out of laziness, but forced him to move his way through properly. Daniel had the shrew run a lap to the river after every completion before doing the course again. During his breaks, Daniel would have Drift run through different stretches, oftentimes Daniel would push and prod until the sandshrew got into the correct form and would then hold his pokemon there for a minute.
After nearly five hours, Daniel and Drift collapsed at camp to the amusement of Cal and his team. "Good work, Danny. You too, Drift." Cal complimented as he provided them with clean, cool water, "You guys took that seriously. I'm proud."
"I want to die." Drift groaned in agreement to his trainer's sentiment before crawling over to his trainer for a belly rub. Cal just laughed.
"Tomorrow you'll switch it up and spend more time strength training than running. That way things will even out. Now get something light to eat, we've got to get dinner for tonight."
Tracking, hunting, and trapping were things that came much easier to Daniel as they were all things touched on in the survival class. Cal did show him a few styles of traps that he didn't know, and was able to help correct some bad form with his bow, but it felt much more like they were equals in this aspect of the trip.
The first day, they set out some traps that would hopefully make things easier in the future. Additionally, they managed to kill multiple hoothoot and a stantler. "A stantler should be enough to keep us fed through tomorrow, especially with the owls," Cal said as he released Bruno to help carry the stantler back to camp. "Lesson number fifty-two. How do trainers make money?"
"Through winning battles with other trainers and placing high in competitions. Occasionally, trainers can also get hired as a bodyguard or field tech or something along those lines," Daniel responded confidently.
"Not wrong, but not complete either. Battle winnings are capped at ten percent of the smallest purse. You have to find a trainer willing and able to battle at your level and then win to make that money. If you're good, then this is a net gain, but not really sustainable until you're able to place at a decent ranking in tournaments," Cal started, "The odd jobs pay well, but they're rare. You kinda have to be in the right place at the right time to get those. And most of the time they have a badge requirement or require a specific type of pokemon.
"So the scenario is that you just spent a couple months in the wild as a newer trainer without a bankroll. You stumbled into a small town like Snowpoint and you need food and medicine and you need to pay for your gym challenge. Let's just assume the pokemon center has an available room and you don't have to pay for that. Small town, not a lot of trainers, so you can't make a lot off of battles. What do you do?"
Daniel thought for a moment. Silence reigned until he finally conceded, "I'm not sure. Try to get an hourly job at a diner or something, I guess."
"Well, I guess that would work, but that's not what I'm looking for," Cal laughed, "It all starts out in the wild. You have to hunt in the wild. Be smart about what you hunt. Take this stantler for instance. We'll probably clean the bones because we need the energy out here, but what about the antlers or the pelt? We can't eat those. But we can definitely put it in a storage ball and sell it. Now you have the money to restock before going out again."
Cal paused before continuing, "What about the pokemon you catch? The League mandates how many pokemon can be on your person. Four for anyone with less than two badges, which then goes up to six. Once you have six badges you can keep eight and at eight badges you can keep ten, this is to help trainers keep a full team trained in case of emergency. But that doesn't stop us from catching more pokemon, as long as they are designated for trading or storage, then we're good. So that baby teddiursa that you just found wandering without its mother is perfect to sell to the outpost. It wouldn't make it in the wild without its mother anyways. Now you have money for food or that shiny new TM you wanted."
Daniel nodded but remained quiet as he thought about the answer Cal had given. He wasn't really sure about it, though he couldn't argue against it. When they got back to camp, Cal worked through cleaning and preserving their kills with him. They salted some of the stantler and hung it to dry to make jerky, but began cooking the rest with Cal's team on high alert.
After the food was done cooking and they all had eaten, Cal started up the second training session. The more experienced pokemon paired up and began sparring with one another, often changing partners before continuing. Cal focused much more on his team during this session. Commenting often and setting up different parameters and pairings for a fight.
Daniel took the time to work Drift on different moves. Thus far, he only really knew how to scratch and tackle enemy pokemon. So the first step was getting him to develop some control over ice type attacks. To do this, he directed the sandshrew to freeze rocks at the boundary of camp. Daniel didn't provide much direction here, allowing the pokemon to think for itself.
After an hour, the sandshrew still hadn't succeeded, so Daniel moved on to the next drill he wanted Drift to do. Here, he had Drift scratch the rock continually. He hoped to harden his claws to develop the metal claw attack. At the end of the night, the rock was scraped up, but Drift hadn't successfully performed the attack.
The next three days happened in much the same order as the first full day at base camp. Extensive training in the morning that would leave Daniel and Drift exhausted followed by hunting for food for the next day. They ended the night with a final training session to work on different moves.
By the end of the fourth day, Drift had managed to consistently produce a powder snow attack which consisted of him manipulating a wave of snow to crash into a target. It wasn't the strongest attack, but it was a starting place and Drift could develop other moves like icy wind and, eventually, blizzard from this basis. The sandshrew had yet to truly get metal claw down, though there was noticeable improvement. Each night, the gouges in the rock grew deeper.
"I said it the first day, but I'll say it again now. I'm proud of you two," Cal said as they set out from camp the morning of the fifth day. Cal had left Delta and April, his staraptor and azumarill, to watch over the camp, but had the rest of his team on hand with Magneto floating behind him. Drift was also out of the pokeball, keeping up much better with the trainers due to the mobility and speed exercises.
"It's all thanks to you," Daniel deflected. Yes, he and Drift worked hard, but he had no doubt that they wouldn't have had a quarter of the development they had without the more experienced trainer. "So what's the plan for today?"
"Well, I'm not sure if you noticed, but yesterday I sent Nyra off in the morning to look for a fighter for ya. She got back while we were training last night. Apparently there's a group of 'em a couple miles north of us. The plan is to have Snapper give us a blackout in case they're meditites so we can sneak up on them. Then, it'll be up to you to catch your second 'mon."
"That's awesome!" Daniel cheered. "So you think I'll be able to keep up with a second pokemon?"
"You'll do great. Might have to take a couple mornings to get it used to you, but it won't be too bad. Now, if it's a colony of meditite, you'll have to pick one out and we'll get Snapper to trap it with an anti-teleportation bubble. They can be skittish, so we'll only get one chance."
Daniel nodded and they remained quiet as they walked. Occasionally, they would come across a pokemon, but nothing interesting. Drift did catch a couple snom for food though. After about an hour or so, Cal released his krokorok and ordered it to create a small blackout around them. Another ten minutes passed and they came across a small clearing surrounded by a dense ring of trees. In the clearing was a group of a dozen meditite with two medicham. The group seemed to be working through a series of stretches that was being led by the evolved pokemon.
"Alright, make your decision and we'll have Snapper trap it." The crocodile pokemon gave a toothy grin.
Daniel watched the group for a couple minutes, looking for something that would distinguish a stronger meditite from the rest. When he found that he couldn't, he randomly picked one of the blue-bodied pokemon. "Snapper," he said to the krokorok, "I want to get the one towards the middle of the group. It's a shade darker than the others."
The krokorok nodded and dropped the blackout. As the psychic type pokemon realized the group was there, they began to teleport away. The one Daniel had specified remained in place though, trapped by the dark type.
"Alright Drift, hit it with a powder snow. Then follow up with a tackle," Daniel called out as he raced into the clearing with his starter a step ahead. A wave of snow rose up in front of the sandshrew and pummeled the fighting type pokéemon only to be quickly followed by Drift who tackled it.
The meditite took the hit and did a backwards roll to its feet. It thrust its palms forward, hitting Drift in the arm and his stomach, causing the shrew to screech in pain. "Keep your distance, powder snow again." Another wave of snow hit the meditite followed by two more. "Tackle it again then scratch until it submits!"
Drift ran forward before seeming to hit a force field. The sandshrew was raised a couple inches off the ground before being thrown a foot backwards. "Use powder snow to protect yourself." This time, Drift was successful in tackling the meditite. He sat atop the fighting type pokéemon and rained scratches on its body. At the last scratch, Daniel saw Drift's claw glow in a silvery light before scraping across the pokemon.
The meditite gave a cry in pain as Drift used metal claw once more. "Hold Drift!" Daniel called out as he primed a pokeball. Once he had a good angle, he threw the pokeball, hitting the meditite in the head. The pokemon disappeared into the ball. It shook once, then twice before the ball exploded open. When it appeared, the meditite rushed towards him, though it was quickly intercepted by a tackle from Drift. Another couple metal claws and Daniel threw a second pokeball. This time, the meditite stayed.
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