I understood why the Zubat line's ability to scout in pitch darkness was so discussed as I sent Kawami ahead yet again to check for wild pokémon we couldn't handle. After the first Roggenrola we ran into had nearly defeated both Kawami and Toma fighting together, necessitating a stop to lick our wounds, I didn't hesitate to use caution. Plus, with Golbat being natively abundant, Kawami blended into the crowd when separate from a trainer.
The report came in, an exit ahead on our right guarded by a slow-moving Boldore and more tunnel to the left. I sighed, picked myself and the egg back up, and began moving left. The tunnel continued on in a switchback route, getting tighter and tighter until I was crouching and walking almost entirely with my calves before I saw light. Getting closer, I carefully moved to not hit the egg with my knees as I emerged out of the cave system.
We were just above where we had entered, at the top of the steep slope below which the tree lay. As you got closer to the back of the canyon water grew more abundant, and the first signs of that were underfoot. A barely noticeable footpath was overgrown with plants barely clinging to life, leading across the canyon to another small opening in the opposite face. "Anything gonna pop out of the spooky tall grass at us?", I asked Kawami. Just then, a small Howl shouted from the grass.
"Confuse Ray first, think later!", I jumped. Kawami darted right toward the origin of the Howl, clearing the weeds to reveal a Rockruff standing defiantly against us intruding on her territory. As Kawami's eyes locked with the puppy pokémon's, the dog lunged uncaringly through the Confuse Ray to Bite her wing. Rockruff's Own Tempo had protected her from confusion, but Kawami's Inner Focus had protected her from flinching in turn.
Realizing the disadvantage we were at, I sent Toma out to join the fight. "Acid Spray and Hypnosis!", I ordered, plans flooding my brain with each beat of my heart like an infection. A Rock-Type move would destroy my Bug and Flying-Type teammates in the worst case, so disabling the opponent's ability to attack at all was our top priority. When Kawami dropped suddenly from the sky and onto her feet to catch the Rockruff's gaze, she was stiffly ignored as the Rockruff shifted her weight into a Sand Attack that caught the Spray of Acid before it ever reached its target.
"Catch her off guard, Whatever comes to mind!", I bargained. As Toma jumped to hang from Kawami and combine their efforts, the Rockruff did not waiver. The dirty dog stamped down, bringing a miniature version of the craggy landscape out of the ground and kicking it at my grouped up pokémon. Exactly what I feared came to pass, and the Rock Tomb made two pokémon faint with one stone.
As I hazily returned my friends to rest in their balls, the Rockruff did not continue attacking. Instead, she sauntered around me, yipping as if recounting every mistake I had made in the battle. "Oh screw you!", I spat. The wild mutt just stuck her tongue out at me. I went on down the path, bitter and agitated, but for some reason the wild thing followed behind me. I turned on it, "What is this? Some kind of game?!" Her head tilted in fake ignorance, and with no further response, I resigned myself to this fate.
On the other side of the dying grass was another cave. As I got close, my captor went ahead of me into the darkness. A tight chamber lay there, hidden from the harsh heat of the canyon, with a bore hole in one corner that seemed to have been carved out by a Carbink. The Rockruff just curled up on the sharp rocky floor, laying her chin down comfortably. I brought out the blanket I'd used before and joined the mischievous mutt, but it did nothing to cushion me.
"You did that all on purpose didn't you?", I interrogated the thing, now that we were apparently on speaking terms. She didn't respond. "You didn't use Rock Tomb or even Rock Throw first, you opened with Bite to extend the fight out. You challenged yourself with that move with the Sand Attack, then finished the fight once you were happy with yourself. You even Howled in the outset to guarantee an advantage!", I accused. She shifted her head towards me and shot a look of "Who, me? I'd never.", feigning ignorance like it wasn't just second nature but her fundamental being.
"Oh don't act cute, I bet you're sticking near me just to get more experience out of my team.", I added. She just laughed a yelping laugh and went back to lounging. 'At least I don't think she's trying to use me for my training method of working with the wild pokémon. A dog isn't smart enough to figure that out.', I thought as I sat back. There was nothing to do but wait for my team to get the proper rest, so I leaned against the mostly smooth wall and napped a while.
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I woke with a crick in my back, groaning in pain. 'This journey stuff is actually pretty rough. I wonder how all those kids in the lap of luxury deal with this stuff. Nothing for it I guess.', I thought. Getting up, I pulled a potion and some berries from my back and let Kawami and Toma out of their balls. Upon seeing her assailant, Kawami tried to fly at her and release her Frustration on the sly dog, only to find her wings non-operational. Toma just rotated his body to look at her and then at me, and upon finding no aggression toward the puppy, went up to introduce himself. The thing just chuckled and offered a paw to shake.
"Kawami, Rockruff. Rockruff, Kawami. And his name is Toma. Rockruff is using us for battle experience, so don't be surprised when she follows us around and picks a fight.", I said, formally introducing everyone to our predicament. With a hand signal, I motioned for Kawami to only tell me if a pokémon was spotted in a way Rockruff wouldn't understand going forward. It wasn't the first time I had needed to obfuscate orders from an opponent, and it wouldn't be the last.
I got my team fed and ready, and again faced with a tight spot, this time quite literally, I readied everything. Kawami and Toma returned to their balls, and my bags were placed in front of the bore hole, the egg now wrapped in the blanket snuggly in my arms. Rockruff watched with amusement from one eye as I began to push my stuff, my unborn companion, and myself up the tube of rock.
The rough surface grated my skin as I slowly shimmied forward on my forearms and calves. The egg pressed onto my head and the pitch dark drew my focus to all my other senses. The stink of sweat and heat of my breath caught between my face and my and the blanket, the sound of my clothes being ground open on the stone, the taste of spit and accumulated dust, the sore spot on my back agitated with each scrape against the tunnel. I felt like a parasite trying desperately to get swallowed, a flower ground under mortar and pestle into a fine powder dye, or perhaps a poisonous liquid spread across the dirt until it is diluted so thoroughly it may as well no longer exist.
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A bead of sweat slipped into my mouth, the salty taste jolting me back into focus as I heard my satchel bag tumble away into the wider cavern above. With newfound vigor, I pushed again, shoving the backpack out of the way and wrestling myself out of the claustrophobic liminal space while clutching the egg like an uptight woman with her pearls. Sprawled out on the floor of a pitch black cave, I released Kawami and mouthed, "Check for threats."
I heard a pitter-patter behind me and gave a venomous click of my tongue as the small Rockruff waltzed out of the tunnel without a scratch. Then she shook herself off, something Rockruffs don't normally do because of their affinity for rocks and sand in their fur, sending a wave of muck at me. My body ached as I turned on my flashlight to see her irritating puppy dog eyes.
When all was back in order, we continued through the cave to hopefully reach a normal route to the trial site. We made our way over the razor sharp floors and through mazes of gigantic floor-to-ceiling stalagmites for what I guessed was 4 hours. I had no way to know for sure since every watch I had stolen had been sold thereafter and every one I'd found in the trash or on the ground was already broken. The whole trip Kawami went ahead of us and back again as we kept moving, relaying her scouting information each time so we wouldn't be caught with our pants down in front of any wild pokémon, least of all Rockruff. I was unsure which direction we had gone in, only that we'd headed out.
Seeing the sun again, the cave mouth opened to the capital V Vast landscape once more. We found ourselves on just one shelf of the ever rising cliffs, overlooking the gnarled tree where the journey had kicked off. "WE COULD'VE JUST BUILT A WEB LADDER THAT WHOLE TIME!?", I gawked. Rockruff snickered as my baffled shout echoed back to us from the surrounding canyon walls. Searching the shelves, we found two more caves and no direct routes. The first was south above the entrance to the Vast Poni Canyon, on the eastern cliff-face where we came out. Across the sharp rock bridge I'd seen from below was the second cave. With nothing else to go off of, I guided us into the second cave, since it was closer to our destination on the northern edge of the canyon based on pure distance.
We walked down an unwavering path, splitting for small lengths and joining back up inconsequentially, worming its way down and to the left in a spiral. Before we could find an exit, the path was blocked by a large boulder that seemed to have rolled down the tunnel. Realizing something, I put my finger to my mouth for silence. Inspecting the small cracks between the boulder and sending the beam of my flashlight through them, I recognized exactly what I hoped not to see, the scratches in the floor and walls from Kawami's Frustration earlier in the day. We were on the other side of the boulder. I motioned a zipper closing my mouth, then began walking back up the path. Rockruff wasn't convinced, growling in disappointment, but I shushed her and uttered the only thing any of us would until returning to the outside, "Dugtrio."
We hurried to the first cave in the south, murmuring relief. This cave was not nearly as arduous to traverse, much like the one I had climbed into from the Carbink burrow, but more linear. A few hours into the night, we emerged on the other side unscathed and set up camp under a web awning just outside the cave which Toma had attached to a strange circular stone edifice.
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The next day came and we got going around noon, our sleep cycle shifted further into the evening by the rest we had needed after the encounter with the Dugtrio, the Roggenrola, and with Rockruff. We walked for a time before reaching a wooden bridge, which a murder of Murkrow were guarding ominously. "Hey! No need for hostility, we've got an offer for you!", I shouted to them, keeping my distance for the moment. The murder gathered in a circle on the bridge, chattering and squawking for a lingering minute. At first they seemed to actually be discussing the offer, but soon the laughter and bickering made clear they had gotten distracted.
"We'll help you train!", I shouted again, regrabbing their attention. One Murkrow, wanting to continue the casual conversation, smacked a younger Murkrow towards us, intending to hand the problem off to someone else. The young Murkrow stumbled slightly before hopping up into the air and fluttering to a stop at the end of the bridge. "Toma, you're the translator. Use your webs to communicate their side to me, like when we first met.", I delegated. Toma hopped to it, making an empty border of thick webs between the floor and wall, ready to fill in with representations of the Murkrow's requests.
"So, I should start by explaining the basic idea. I used to be a Team Skull grunt, so I'm used to training without us humans' fancy machines and medicine, right? I brought potions along with me, which can treat any injuries in a pinch. I suggest we all fight eachother in one-on-ones, one at a time to give everyone time to rest, no moves that would deal too much damage at once, and I'll call off a fight whenever it's about to go too far. I'll be issuing orders to my team most of the time, since they'll be fighting with me any time they're in a fight."
"Any suggestions?", I asked, opening the floor. The Murkrow squawked for a few moments, Toma drawing out a perfect picture of Rockruff followed by a question mark. "Oh Rockruff's not part of my team, but she's got a mean Rock Tomb that knocked out both of my friends at once. She's pretty much holding us hostage. We'll do fights against her, but it's up to you if you want to fight her.", I explained. Murkrow nodded, then chirped another question to which Toma began weaving frantically.
Under the previous question, an intricate painting-esque diorama of a Murkrow wearing a crown pointing a feather forward as other Murkrow streamed out in the direction of their feather was wrought out of the thin webs. "You want to order the other Murkrow around?", I asked, questioning my interpretation of the artwork. Toma had really outdone himself. The Murkrow nodded enthusiastically. "If you can show us how we can get to the trial site as fast as possible later, you've got a deal.", I stipulated. The Murkrow proffered their wing, and I shook it firmly.
We spent the day in skirmishes against the murder of Murkrows, coming at Kawami with Taunts, Foul Play, and Feint Attacks and assaulting Toma with Wing Attacks and endless Pursuit. Their Foul Play even secured a few brave birds victories against the imposing Rockruff, whereas my pokémon only secured one or two victories each. One thing was for sure, the young Murkrow who stood in as their "trainer" was having a blast. Still, the experience of getting trampled so thoroughly despite our over-preparedness compared to other trial-goers was very helpful.
As the sun began to set, Rockruff bouldered into another battle with a wide grin on her face. An elder Murkrow would be her opponent, so old that, had he been a trainer's pokémon, he would surely have used a dusk stone to evolve ages ago. The two circled eachother on the bridge battlefield, Gusts and Sand Attacks being exchanged as Rockruff slowly pushed her advantage. The Murkrow Tormented her over the repeated use of Sand Attack, and as she played out the moves for a Rock Throw in his direction, he slipped in for a Sucker Punch. Rockruff wasn't hit though, being shrouded instead in bright white light and crashing her rocky body into the Flying-Type in midair. The dark orange Lycanroc's Accelerock knocked the Murkrow away in a panicked tumble. "Stop! Lycanroc has won!", I called.
Lycanroc's mouth split with a grin of sharp triangular teeth, eyes glowing red as she turned away from the Murkrow and my group. She walked off the bridge on the opposite side, dug her Tough Claws into the ground, and leaped over the walls of stone onto the plateau's top. Her countenance was exactly that of the sunset itself. From her perapet, a clatterous, gravelly Howl ripped from her form, reverberating off of every wall of the Canyon to create a majestic Roar that sent the Murkrow scattering and my friends back into their balls. "Congratulations, Lycanroc!", I yelled to her. She returned an agreeable bark.