"I have to be off into Poni Canyon for my island challenge now, so you'll be staying in the Seafolk Village while I'm gone. If the people you're staying with are leaving port, just get them to talk to my old lady Hama and get you a different place to stay.", Hapu explained to me, even though I was in the room when Hama told her to figure the situation out. I could've predicted what would happen.
We were riding Hapu's Mudbray, Mahā, to the Seafolk Village from where I usually lived/squatted in the ruins and village just outside Poni Canyon. Her and Hama had an obligation to help me, since the two of them together were effectively holding up the position of kahuna on Poni Island. Apparently it's not a good look to have homeless orphans digging through trash around the corner from the kahuna's ranch. Shoving me off onto anyone who could handle the extra food cost was a local tradition at this point, not that I was complaining.
As we approached the Seafolk Village a few wild pokémon tried interrupting us, but Hapu's Trapinch, Tipi, would just dig a hole under them and trap them with a Sand Tomb. The whole way Hapu just stared forward, preoccupied with her island challenge. We got to the docks of the Seafolk Village, where a cavalcade of people living out of a cavalcade of boats stayed before sailing on to the next port. Mahā strolled down the wooden lane at the center of the village before reaching an awning, clearly built by more permanently minded people than had ever lived here, to serve as a town square.
Hapu pulled a whistle from her tiny yet worn work clothes and blew out a piercing trill from it. The people here put together and awake enough to hear it, and thus suited enough to taking care of me, slowly ambled into the square. Hapu, finally noticing a sailor she was decently familiar with, waved down an old man with vastly more salt than pepper in his scratchy beard. The sailor approached while the rest of the people made their decisions whether to sit on the benches here or back on their boats.
"Gerald, how's Moby?", Hapu sweet talked the man, Gerald. "Good, good.", Gerald said, "Lovin' these clear waters! Ol' Miser not so much." Hapu nodded her head and grabbed my shoulder, which given her short stature didn't give the impression she wanted. "This is Kau'i. Kau'i, this is Gerald." "Oh yeah?", I mumbled. She gripped my shoulder tighter. "Kau'i is an orphan, with me going on my island challenge she needs a place to stay for a while."
While Hapu and Gerald were busy hashing out the details, I just moved towards Gerald's boat, a rusty old fishing boat, and looked down in the water. An anchor hung on the rocks below, covered in seaweed. Magikarp meandered around the posts of the docks, somehow clueless to the entire village above them. Hapu called out to me. "Alright, Gerald'll be taking care of you while I'm doing my trials here on Poni Island. Once that time has passed there should be a family in our village returning from their visit to Melemele who can take care of you for the rest of the season." I nodded and grinned. Hapu grimaced.
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Gerald was among the more interesting of the people I'd stayed with. He was a fisherman from Galar, almost half the world away. The tales he told about his journeys were grueling and needlessly detailed, but full of things I hadn't ever heard of. The songs he sung were infectious like nothing I'd ever heard, I couldn't stop myself singing along in the choruses. His cooking wasn't the best, but it was worth it for everything I learned. After a week staying with him, I had picked up $1.62 in change and he had grown restless.
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"Ya ever gone fishin' at sea lass?", he prodded over breakfast one morning. "Kinda, only close to the island.", I replied, not thinking too deep about his question. "How much d'ya know about mannin' a ship like this'un?", he asked. Now I was curious. "What's this about?", I retorted. He chuckled. "With Moby and Miser with us, even you couldn't mess up a good fishin' trip; At least that's my suspicion. So tell me, what d'ya know about mannin' a ship like this'un?"
Knowing this would make for better food and maybe a bit of money, I showed what I knew, rather than risk going off topic with one of his stories if I explained directly. As he watched me, he hummed and scratched his chin through his beard. Finally, when I was done showing that I knew how to bait a hook and cast the rod, he looked satisfied. He turned, walked towards the helm of the ship, and suddenly shouted out "OH OL' MISER!" I jumped and turned around to watch Gerald as an anchor, covered in seaweed and bits of shipwreck, floated out of the water, chain and all, and grinned at me.
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Moby, the Wailord, swam in front of the little fishing boat, scaring off larger pokémon and drawing in smaller ones. Out in the ocean, the waves varied in size much greater than I was used to. For the first time I felt seasick. Gerald just sat in his patio chair with Miser, the Dhelmise, at his side waiting for a tug on the super rod bolted into the side of the ship. The skies were clear of cloud cover and the sun only made me feel more ill. Gerald waved me down, seeing me waver in front of my own super rod. "Lass, just go below deck if ya feel so rough. It tilts less down there anyways." I nodded meekly and stumbled down the stairs to rest in my hammock.
I was awoken when my hammock slapped me into the roof of the quarters. I fell out of the swinging cloth dazed and weary, the thunderous sound of crashing waves encompassing the ship around me. Moby let out a rumbling wail. The seriousness of the situation dawned on me as a crack sounded in the deck above me. I got to my feet and ran up and to the deck. As I opened the water tight door a pool rushed past my feet and I slid across the soaked deck floor before gripping a railing.
Moby was nowhere to be seen and Miser was faced with a Gyarados flying around the boat, dented in three spots along its serpentine body and conjuring a raging Hurricane from the storm around her. Miser whipped its chain in an Anchor Shot through the whipping wind into the Gyarados's midsection before being battered by her storm. Their wheel splintered shrapnel into the air as Gyarados built another Hurricane up. Miser stood stock still, seemingly letting the attack that would do them in approach, before grinning right at me and slipping down into shadow. The Gyarados flew in delighted circles as its enemy disappeared, eyeing the ship it would crash as I trembled and shook in the salt stirred air. Just as my small body buckled in fear, Miser launched up from Gyarados's shadow wreathed in a purple glow. Gyarados's eyes went wide as she was struck in the face with Miser's Phantom Force and she fell to the floor. Another crack resounded out of the old ship as Gerald cheered behind me.
"MISER YA BEAUTY! YOU'RE AS WILY AS THE DAY WE MET!" Gerald shouted from the top of his lungs around the dying winds. I stared in shock at the display as the sailor and his partner wrapped eachother in a sea soaked hug. I stared at the man who was presently my caretaker, at the massive serpent on the deck, and at my shaking hands. My presence of mind creeped back into me and I asked, "Do you know where we are?" Now it was Gerald's turn to stand still in shock. "I don't rightly know lass.", he said before stalking back to the helm he'd sheltered himself in during the fight with Gyarados to look at the GPS. I wandered over to the Gyarados, she was unconscious, mouth agape on top of the super rod I had been using. I looked out at the ocean and saw an island slowly shrinking on the horizon.