"That'll be on your permanent record Kau'i." Hapu exhaustedly scolded. I just let out a, "mhm", since she couldn't see me shrug behind her on her Mudbray. I had long since worn down Hapu's energy for pushing this sort of thing, regardless of how she felt about it. Given that she was still a kid, I'd say I deserved some kind of ribbon for that. Paina, Hapu's freshly caught Shellos, tried to keep up with the fast moving Mahā but required constant assistance from her Trapinch, Tipi, using his Dig to move them forward faster. This game of catch up led to an opening in Hapu's defensive line, and Mahā at several points used a Double Kick to send a wild pokémon away, flinging me and Hapu around on her back. It was an uncomfortable ride emotionally and physically.
When we arrived, I quickly slid down Mahā's side to rush away to my corner of the ruins. Before I could get away, Hapu ordered Tipi with a quick, "stop her", and I was harmlessly tripped by a Sand Tomb. She grabbed my shoulder, cutting short my second escape attempt, helped me up, and led me to the ranch house. Hapu unlocked the door with the keychain usually attached at her hip, and Hama called out, "Nanu? What are you doing here?"
As we walked into the kitchen, Hama turned around and looked both shocked and delighted to see us show up out of the blue. It was a look only a grandparent could pull off. "Hapu! Kau'i! Welcome back, I trust you've both been up to something dangerous?", Hama greeted. Hapu just motioned for me to sit at the dining table, which I did. Hama brought small snacks out for us and for Hapu's pokémon and she sat down as well. Again, Hama initiated. "So what is it this time?" Hapu sighed, "Kau'i broke into the recycling plant and was found by Nanu." "I climbed over the fence; That's trespassing, not breaking and entering.", I corrected. Hama frowned. Hapu was still frowning. "Well that seems straightforward, Hapu what about you?", Hama pressed. "Yeah Hapu, what about you?", I joked. Hapu waved a hand and my chair sank several inches into the floor. "I went into the Vast Poni Canyon and climbed the cliff face to get Mina to give me a trial. She made me build her an elevated platform to get a better angle of the landscape for her painting.", Hapu explained. Hama became aggravated. "You climbed a cliff face with your current team when you could've just waited for Mina to come down!? I thought we talked about these unnecessary risks.", Hama lectured. Hapu just lowered her head and gave me the evil-eye.
"I only came back because I got reception up there for a call from Nanu. He told me what happened with Kau'i and I came down as soon as I could.", Hapu explained. Hama had none of it, "Go to your room, you'll be staying a week here to learn to make better choices in the future.", Hama declared. Hapu's chair was pushed back without her input and she stomped to her room. I finished my snack, a pecha berry, in the silence and got up from the sunken chair to go to the guest room, but Hama interrupted me. "Whatever you dived in there for better have been worth it Kau'i. I'm only going soft on you because I know you wouldn't do something like that with no plan.", Hama said. She was wrong of course, but I appreciated the support regardless.
----------------------------------------
I'd snuck out that guest room window countless times, yet my excitement at finally being by myself with the opportunity of my pokéball made me sloppy and I scraped my elbow. Hapu saw me from her window and just rolled her eyes. I walked through the village, across the path leading into Poni Canyon, and off to the east side of town. Just against the rocky surface of the plateau around Poni Canyon, tucked away in the sparse jungle, was a corner of the ruins that characterized the Ancient Poni Path. It was my space.
Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!
I took out the rolled hammock from a pocket on my calf and strung it up between two of the trees growing out of the long forgotten foundation. It wouldn't serve when the weather got bad but the rest of the time it was an upgrade from my mat of stolen blankets and tarps. A canopy of leaves and tarps covered the sky; Before I laid back to think I removed the tarp above the hammock to stare up at the blue sky and the crescent moon. I threw the pokéball up into the air and let it fall back in my hands. As I did this, I looked around my humble abode. The floor was layered in guano, questing roots, dirt, and litter. The walls were etched with time, vines, mosses, and lichens and marked with graffiti from the rare delinquent that came before me for a brief visit.
As I began to lose interest and my eyes shifted again toward the sky, I was caught by the least appealing of the things in my hovel. The guano. The guano from the Zubats living nearby. My eyes locked onto the pokéball in my hands, and I was struck by how much this could change my life. No more hopping houses, no more stealing tarps from Hapu's ranch, no more staying in a batshit covered ruin! My ticket to a better life, like all those fancy city people had, was this slippery, stinky, scuffed pokéball and a trip to a disgusting cave.
----------------------------------------
Before dusk set in, I had gotten ready. I had equipped myself with the rotting trash berries I'd gotten in Malie City, a disposable poncho that was previously disposed of, a set of earmuffs for construction, and the pokéball. I left my hovel and followed the rock face west until I saw the marker I was looking for, what looked like a glacially flowing mass of guano scouring the rock wall. At that I began to climb, slipping on the patches of guano and struggling to find the strong handholds I was used to with fences and brick walls. I saw ahead of me the opening in the surface that the Zubats were living in. It took me much longer than I expected to reach it.
Just as I started to lift myself into the cave to convince a member of the ramshackle of Zubats to join me, the light of the sun got just a bit dimmer and, while nothing else stirred in the cave, something smacked into my face from inside. My foot slipped and I grabbed at the thing in my face. A Supersonic cry reverberated in my skull, bypassing the earmuffs I expected to protect me, and me and the Zubat fell from the cliff toward the ground some two and a half meters down. The Zubat flapped its wings wildly in my hands as we crashed into the underbrush.
The wind was knocked out of me and my grip slipped from the thin legs of the Zubat. I laid there in the bushes and ferns, heaving my tiny lungs out, and yet the Zubat didn't move away from me. It just hovered around me as its top lip quivered. 'Is it… regretful?'
I lifted myself and looked up at the Zubat. "You're sorry, right?", I asked. It bobbed up and down in confirmation. "If you're sorry, how about you join me? I'm gonna be a pokémon trainer! I'll help you get stronger." The Zubat only considered for a moment before wrapping itself around my head, making happy squeaks. I pulled the creature away from me, holding it still. "Aren't you supposed to think more about this? We just met, you don't know anything about me! I'm just some kid." The Zubat simply shook its head. It wanted to join me. I held out the greasy pokéball, and it practically rammed into the button of it, turning to red light in the air. The ball shook three times before settling in my hands.
----------------------------------------
I spent the whole night with Zubat at my place. We decided on a nickname for her, Kawami, I talked about what my life was like and what my plans were, and she ate almost all the berries I had regardless of if they were rotten. She loved the pecha berries just like me, sadly I didn't have too many, and left the aspear berries for last. She showed me the moves she knew as well, demonstrating a Supersonic that rattled my brain and an Astonish that could knock over glass bottles from two feet away. It wasn't the most impressive set of moves, but we had plenty of time to make them better and learn new ones. With dawn approaching, I called Kawami back to her pokéball and set off to sneak back into the guest room. When breakfast came, everyone would be greeting a guest they didn't know they had.